The 1990s marked a very transformative time for video games. The 80s saw the rise of home gaming consoles, which led to more gamers leaving the arcade to play the newest video games at home. Therefore, the biggest releases of the next decade focused more on single player adventures that utilized the 3D capabilities of the newly released PlayStation and Nintendo 64. As such, the 90s gave birth to several beloved video game franchises.

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Many of these video games are still talked about today by fans, and a beloved game is normally reviewed well on release and successfully launched as a franchise. Also, some of the games from this era are likely to hold many nostalgic elements to the time they were released.

7 Spyro The Dragon

A New Platform Mascot For The PlayStation

• Metacritic User Score: 8.6

One of the biggest phenomena in the 90s video game scene was seeing every major console manufacturer trying to create the next big gaming mascot. Nintendo had found huge success with Mario, and Sega had Sonic the Hedgehog. However, the lines were a bit more blurred when it came to which character was meant to be the face of the PlayStation. Early signs pointed to Lara Croft from Tomb Raider being the console mascot, but a grown woman with guns did not provide the kid-friendly image the company was looking for. As such, the race to find the next mascot for Sony began.

While Crash Bandicoot had made a splash in 1996 as a new video game mascot to rival Mario, Spyro the Dragon came out two years later and had a similar impact. However, this edgy dragon embodied more of the 90s style than the orange marsupial. Spyro games were more about exploration, while Crash games were more difficult linear platforming challenges. Whenever one of the two mascots is mentioned, the name of the other is soon to follow.

6 Crash Bandicoot

The Mascot Sony Needed

• Metacritic User Score: 8.4

Crash Bandicoot is not too dissimilar to Spyro the Dragon. The character came to consoles in an era when Sony was looking for a colorful mascot for the PlayStation, and it appeared that Crash was exactly what the company were looking for. Naughty Dog used Crash Bandicoot as the protagonist for their first platforming game that aimed to bring their love of Looney Toons physics and humor to the gaming world. This first game was a success, and it spurred the developers on to release two more games in this series for the PS1.

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However, another reason why Crash Bandicoot is beloved is due to how versatile the character is. He stayed as a platforming character throughout most of the 90s and beyond, but he was also used as a character in many other types of racing and party games. One of the most popular of these is the Crash Team Racing game that was released in 1999. This level of versatility has kept Crash Bandicoot going for nearly three decades, and fans were ecstatic when his original trilogy received a remaster in 2018.

5 Tomb Raider

A 3D Action Heroine

• Metacritic User Score: 8.3

Video games as a passtime in the 90s were generally considered to be something that only boys spent time on. This stereotype was so widespread, in fact, that it came as a shock to many players when the protagonist of the first Metroid game was revealed to be female in 1986. Women make up a large portion of the population, though, and Sony saw their chance to appeal to this market when the first Tomb Raider was being developed.

This first game in the franchise was a huge success among all video game fans due to its iconic puzzle-solving and action-based gameplay. The fact that Lara Croft happened to be a feminist icon was just the icing on top. She was so successful as a 90s video game heroine that she's appeared in many more games and movies in the decades since.

4 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Bringing Extreme Sports To Life

• Metacritc User Score: 8.6

Extreme sports were a huge part of 90s culture. Young people loved watching some of these new sports being performed in a professional setting, and things like snowboarding, BMX riding, and skateboarding started to influence mainstream fashion and attitudes. The face of one of the biggest extreme sports of the decade, skateboarding, was Tony Hawk, which is why he was chosen to star in, and promote, his own series of video games based on his extreme sport of choice.

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At the time, a skateboarding video game was an unknown entity. Nowadays, though, a video game based on this sport is going to perform well and that is all thanks to the ideas established in the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game. This video game launched an entire genre of video games in the late 90s, with its collection of great ways to achieve a high score and its killer soundtrack. The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise may have disappeared in the last few years, but the genre it created is still a viable option for game developers in the modern era.

3 FIFA: Road To The World Cup 98

Soccer Fans Finally Got Their Due

• Platforms: PlayStation, Nintendo 64, SEGA Saturn, SEGA Genesis, Game Boy, PC
• Released: June 17, 1997
• Developer: EA Canada

The FIFA franchise was not the juggernaut it is today when it first started out in 1993. However, soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and so it made sense for video game developers to try and appeal to that market in the 1990s. The first handful of FIFA games were successful, but the series didn't hit its stride until FIFA: Road To The World Cup 98. This game was created in anticipation of the 1998 World Cup, and it birthed the FIFA formula that fans love today.

Since then, EA and FIFA have released an updated version of this game every year, which soccer fans have flocked to ever since. The notion of being able to take over a popular team and bring them glory is one that is yet to be replicated by any other soccer franchise, which is why FIFA has been a beloved franchise ever since the 1990s.

2 Sonic The Hedgehog

Sega Created A Gaming Legend

• Metacritic User Score: 8.0

If the 1980s were the decade of Nintendo's Mario, then the 1990s definitely belonged to Sonic the Hedgehog. SEGA released the first game in the Sonic series in 1991, and this super fast platforming game was nothing like anything players had ever experienced before. The developers took everything that was currently working for the Mario series, and turned things up to eleven so that the title character truly lived up to his name.

The first trilogy of Sonic games were an electrifying, fast, and frantic platforming experience with a cute and marketable main character, and plenty of friends that could make this world feel alive. As such, Sonic went on to appear in many other games throughout the decade, and the character even received his own animated series.

1 Pokemon Red And Blue

The Start Of One Of Gaming's Biggest Franchises

• Metacritic User Score: 8.6

There are few who lived in the 1990s that were unaffected by "Pokemania." The first Pokemon games were released in Japan in 96, and they inspired a bunch of TV shows, movies, and merchandise. That meant that the stage was set for when the franchise hit the US and the rest of the Western world, and the Pokemon company has become one of the most lucrative multimedia franchises in the world ever since.

Pokemon released its ninth generation of games in 2022, and the series is showing no signs of slowing in the future. Of course, none of this success would have been possible without the love the first games received in the 90s.

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