What was the best year for video games? Probably each person has their own answer and Masahiro Sakurai – director of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – he had his say on the matter. His favorite year is 1986the year of the arrival of many famous games, the publication of the NES in Europe and the year of the Konami Code.
This year in particular has seen the birth of series such as The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid and other franchises fundamental for the video game market including Castlevania and Kid Icarus. As Sakurai points out, many of the series featured in his latest video are present in some way or form in Smash.
Sakurai goes on to mention that the gaming market also began to expand around that time, with new technologies providing a “large increase in capacity” and “the hardware and software” who made “truly remarkable progress” during this era. Sakurai also briefly mentions the Pixar short “Luxo Jr.,” which led to “the dawn of computer graphics as a form of entertainment.”
The 1986 games mentioned by Masahiro Sakurai
Sakurai also mentions one list of specific games or items of such games that made history in that year:
- The Legend of Zelda
- Kunio-kun (River City)
- Dragon Quest
- Ganbare Goemon! (Mystical Ninja franchise)
- Valkyrie no Boken
- Metroid
- Bubble Bobble
- Castlevania
- RBI 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 Warriors
- Gradius
- Arkanoid
- Rygar
- Star Soldier
- Salamander (Life Force)
- Solomon’s Key
- OutRun
- Xevious (Hidden Character)
- Gradius (Konami Code)
- Atlantis no Nazo
- Taksehi no Chousenjou
Tags: Sakurai director Super Smash Bros favorite gaming year
