Gaming in 1996
Referring to the SNES as "on its last legs" in 1996 would be an error, though many agree this would begin the late cycle of the 16-bit console. With steep competition from Sega and Sony as the 90s draw closer to the 2000s, the SNES' time on top is looking to end. However, it still manage to release some heavy hitters, mainly in the RPG genre. Among the releases were
Earthbound 2,
Trials of Mana,
Final Fantasy Origins: IV-VI and the major hit.
The Legend of Zelda: War of Hyrule. A collaborative effort between Nintendo and Squaresoft, the story sees Link, a Hylian knight-in-training and the titular Princess Zelda traveling through the land and gathering forces to help them fight the invading forces of Ganon. The game was praised in part for creating a great cast of well-developed, fun to play characters (most notably allowing players to play as Dragomir from the Zelda films, getting to play as Zelda, the new warrior maiden version of Impa and the badass ninja Sheik) and expanding the world of Hyrule with new areas (such as the Zora Domain, Kokiri Forest, Gerudo Valley and most notably a revamped Death Mountain)
Plus, the boss fights against Millitron, Volvagia and Ganon are considered some of the best RPG boss fights.
Along with the RPGs, the Megaman franchise saw a lot of presence on the SNES-CD, with a port of
Megaman 8 (considered better than the PS1 version) and
Megaman X3. This marks the first and only time the Megaman Classic and X franchise would be on the SNES-CD together, with plans to move the X franchise on to the Ultra NES within the next year and keeping future classic games (Author's Note: Not sure if the classics will continue after 8, just setting aside in case you guys feel up to it.)
Other major releases included
Kirby Super Star,
Donkey Kong Country 3, Clock Tower and
Street Fighter Alpha 2.
Meanwhile, October 26, 1996 saw the release of the Ultra NES, Nintendo's new 64-bit console, which launched with
Ultra Pilotwings and their big release
Ultra Mario Bros. Along with that came
Killer Instinct Ultra,
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and
Ultra Mario Kart. On the fighting game scene,
Street Fighter is slowly settling into the Nintendo camp for the 2D side, with Nintendo's hope to court a 3D fighter in the form of Tecmo's
Dead or Alive, which was making waves in the arcades.
SEGA, meanwhile, was riding well on the Saturn and their first successful foray into film and wrapping up the fourth season of
Sonic & The Freedom Fighters on Fox, with plans for a fifth and final season coming in 1997. Strangely, the only place where Sonic hasn't been big in 1996 is in gaming with the only notable release that year being
Sonic 3D Blast. As a result, other games such as
NiGHTS into Dreams,
King of Fighters '96,
Star Ocean, Terranigma, Fighting Vipers,
Streets of Rage 4, Dragon Quest VI and
Tomb Raider carrying the load for the Saturn. Apart from
River City Renegades, SNK-Technos have secured a spot as SEGA's go-to for 2D fighters with the
King of FIghters franchise and
Virtua Fighter remains their 3D fighter.
Sony, meanwhile, began with a search for a mascot and while
Bubsy 3D failed to light the world on fire,
Crash Bandicoot gave them a platforming mascot to match Mario and Sonic.
Mortal Kombat Trilogy secured them a 2D fighting franchise and
Tekken 2 made them good money. Along with those, Sony courted the "mature" market with releases such as
Twisted Metal 2 and
Resident Evil. But with Square becoming more loyal to Nintendo (though that moneyhat is there... just sitting there...) and Enix jumping over to SEGA, Sony looked for a company to give them a hit RPG and found Atlus, bringing over a spin-off of the
Shin Megami Tensei franchise,
Persona.
Finally,
Pokemon Red and
Pokemon Blue were released for the Gameboy, becoming the killer app for the handheld.