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1996 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Mario 64, Duke Nukem 3D, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Super Mario RPG, King's Field III, Virtua Fighter 3, along with new titles such as Blazing Heroes, NiGHTS into Dreams..., Crash Bandicoot, Pokémon Red/Green/Blue, Resident Evil, Dead or Alive, Quake and Tomb Raider.
The year's best-selling video game console worldwide was the PlayStation, while the best-selling consoles in Japan were the Game Boy and Sega Saturn. The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Super Mario 64, while highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Street Fighter Zero 2 (Street Fighter Alpha 2) and Virtua Fighter 2.
Eventsedit
- March – Swedish video game magazine "Super Power" changes name to Super Play.
- 15 July – Tom Kalinske announces he will leave his position as president for Sega of America on 1 October.[1]
- May 16–18 – The second annual E3 is held in Los Angeles, California, United States.[2]
- 7 September - Sega opens SegaWorld London as part of the London Trocadero in England. It is the first Sega World park to open outside of Japan.
- 1 October – Tom Kalinske resigns as president for Sega of America.[1]
- December 31 – Battle.net Classic is released.
Hardwareedit
- February 21 – Sega Model 3, an arcade system board considered to have the most technically impressive graphics at the time
- November 23 – Bandai's Tamagotchi virtual pet handheld
- Nintendo's Nintendo 64, the first true 64-bit home console
- Nintendo's Game Boy Pocket (GBP) handheld console (30% smaller version of the previous Game Boy handheld console)
- Sega's Net Link modem for the Sega Saturn home console
- SNK's Neo Geo CDZ (Japan only)
- Namco's Alpine Racer arcade game, including a new type of user interface
- The debut of Apple's Apple Pippin console (their only dedicated gaming console until the Apple Vision Pro)
Discontinuationedit
1996 saw a major shakeup in the crowded home console market, with the Virtual Boy, Atari Jaguar, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Sega CD, 32X, and CD-i all being discontinued.
Top-rated gamesedit
Game of the Year awardsedit
The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1996.
| Awards | Game of the Year | Platform(s) | Publisher | Genre | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Tribune | Super Mario 64 | Nintendo 64 | Nintendo | Platformer | [3] |
| Digitiser | [4] | ||||
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | [5] | ||||
| Game Informer | [6] | ||||
| Golden Joystick Awards | [7] | ||||
| Spotlight Awards | [8] | ||||
| CESA Awards | Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) | Sega Saturn | Sega | SRPG | [9][10] |
| GameFan Megawards | Tomb Raider | Multi-platform | Eidos | Action-adventure | [11] |
| Enemy Zero | Sega Saturn | Warp | Adventure | ||
| Gamest Awards | Street Fighter Zero 2 (Street Fighter Alpha 2) | Arcade (CP System II) | Capcom | Fighting | [12] |
| IAAPA Exhibit Awards | Tokyo Wars | Arcade (Namco Super System 22) |
Namco | Shooter | [13] |
| VSDA Awards | Donkey Kong Country 2 | Super NES | Nintendo | Platformer | [14] |
Critically acclaimed titlesedit
Metacritic and GameRankingsedit
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.