Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai is back at it with a new “Grab Bag” video – this time discussing the “most incredible year for the game industry”. In his own “personal opinion”, it’s 1986 – a year that marked the beginning of multiple major franchises, the arrival of the NES in Europe, and the origin of the legendary Konami code.
This particular 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 feature in some way or form in Smash.
He goes on to mention how games also began to expand during this period – with new technologies providing a “big capacity boost” and “hardware and software” both making “truly remarkable progress” during this era. Sakurai briefly mentions the Pixar short “Luxo Jr.” as well, which led to “the dawn of CG as a form of entertainment”.
“The Year of Legend” (1986), according to Masahiro Sakurai:
- The Legend of Zelda
- Kunio-kun (River City)
- Dragon Quest
- Ganbare Goemon! (Mystical Ninja franchise)
- Valkyrie no Boken
- Metroid
- Bubble Bobble
- Castlevania
- R.B.I Baseball
- Kid Icarus
- Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels
- The Mysterious Murasame Castle
- Ghosts ‘n Goblins
- Fist of the North Star
- Zanac
- Alex Kidd in Miracle World
- TwinBee
- Ninja Hattori-kun
- Fantasy Zone
- Relics
- Slipheed
- Daiva (Story 1-6)
- Mighty Bomb Jack
- The Genji and the Heiki Clans
- Wonder Boy
- Hudson’s Adventure Island
- Ikari Warrios
- Gradius
- Arkanoid
- Rygar
- Star Soldier
- Salamander (Life Force)
- Solomon’s Key
- OutRun
- Xevious (Hidden Character)
- Gradius (Konami Code)
- Atlantis no Nazo
- Taksehi no Chousenjou
Phew, that’s quite the list! If this has got you in the mood for some retro gaming, you can always check out Nintendo’s classic library of NES and Famicom games via the Switch Online service.
What would you say is the most incredible year in the history of video games? Leave your own thoughts in the comments section.