The director of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Masahiro Sakurai is back at it with a new “Grab Bag” video – this time discussing “the most amazing year for the gaming industry.” In his “personal opinion”, it is in 1986 – the year that marked the beginning of several big franchises, the arrival of the NES in Europe and the origin of the legendary Konami code.
This year saw the birth of series like The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid and various other key franchises like Castlevania and Kid Icarus. As Sakurai notes, many of the series in his latest video represent Smash in some way or form.
He goes on to mention how gaming also began to expand during this period – with new technologies providing “huge increases in capacity” and “hardware and software” making “truly remarkable advances” during this era. Sakurai briefly mentions Pixar’s short “Luxo Jr.” also, leading to “the dawn of CG as a form of entertainment”.
“The Year of the Legend” (1986), according to Masahiro Sakurai:
- The Legend of Zelda
- Kunio-kun (River Town)
- Dragon Quest
- Ganbare Goemon (Istical Ninja franchise)
- Valkira no Knjiga
- Metroid
- Bubble Bobble
- Castlevania
- RBI Baseball
- Little Icarus
- Super Mario Bros. Lost levels
- The mysterious castle of Murasame
- Ghosts and Goblins
- Fist of the Northman
- Žanac
- Alex Kidd in Wonderland
- TwinBee
- Ninja Hattori-kun
- Fantasy zone
- Relics
- Sliphead
- Daiva (stories 1-6)
- The mighty Bomb Jack
- Genji and Heiki clans
- Wonder Boy
- Hudson’s Island of Adventure
- Ikari warriors
- Step by step
- Arkanoid
- Back
- Star trooper
- salamander (life force)
- Solomon’s key
- OutRun
- Xevious (Hidden Character)
- Gradius (Konami code)
- Atlantis no Nazo
- Taksehi no Chousenjou
Phew, that’s quite a list! If this got you in the mood for retro gaming, you can always check out Nintendo’s classic library of NES and Famicom games via Switch Online.
What would you say was the most amazing year in video game history? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
