François Taddei

1996 reshapes the business.

Valve, Firaxis, Red Storm & Black Isle are founded.

Big mergers follow: CUC buys Sierra, Davidson & Blizzard, Eidos buys Core Design, Infogrames buys Ocean, Midway buys Atari, 3DO buys New World Computing.

GameSpot and IGN launch, changing how games are covered.

PC gaming peaks in ’96: Sid Meier's Civilization II, Command & Conquer Red Alert, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars.

But the breakout star is Tomb Raider, proving Lara Croft is here to stay. It’s no surprise that two new titles were announced this year at The Game Awards.

1996 is tougher for Sega.

Saturn struggles vs PS1 and N64, Genesis and Game Gear are fading, but innovation continues.

Nights into Dreams debuts with an analog gamepad, alongside Guardian Heroes, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon II—and yes, Tomb Raider too.

Meanwhile Nintendo stays busy across 3 consoles.

SNES gets Super Mario RPG and DK Country 3.

Game Boy launches Pokémon in Japan.

Nintendo 64 arrives with Super Mario 64. Still on cartridges—bold move.

1996 changes the game.

Sony overtakes Nintendo with PlayStation. Crash Bandicoot becomes its mascot, while Resident Evil defines “survival horror”. 🧟

Notable hits on PS1: PaRappa the Rapper, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Soul Edge, Dead or Alive. 🥋

Tomb Raider, a multiplatform title, also thrives.

1986 on computers: Commodore rules with C64, C128 & Amiga, ahead of Apple and its Apple II & Mac, but IBM PC clones explode.

Some devs struggle—others adapt. Sierra shines with Space Quest I & King’s Quest III. Might & Magic and Starflight push RPGs and open exploration forward. 💻

1986 births future giants.

Bethesda, Ubisoft, and FromSoftware.

From Elder Scrolls to Fallout and Starfield, Rayman to Assassin's Creed and Far Cry or King's Field to Dark Souls and Elden Ring, the roots of modern legends were planted. 🌱

1986 arcades were on fire. 🔥

Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, 720°, Rampage, Out Run, Wonder Boy, Ikari Warriors, Rygar...

Power-ups, co-op, monsters, speed—pure coin-op magic. 🕹️

Sega launches the Master System in North America at CES Chicago in June 1986.

Packed with Hang-On, Safari Hunt and a light gun, it struggles against the NES.

Alex Kidd earns praise—but it’s no Mario. Sonic is still years away. 🦔

1986: the NES revives the industry.

Zelda. Metroid. Castlevania. Dragon Quest. All launched that year. Super Mario Bros. 2 too, but only in Japan. Kid Icarus also saw the light of the day at the end of the year.

40 years later, Nintendo is still defining games—and pop culture.

In 1976, Coleco upstaged Atari with the Telstar.
Built with the integrated circuit "Pong-in-a-chip".

That year also gave us the Fairchild Channel F.
First ROM cartridge-based console.
First microprocessor in a home system.
Designed by legend Jerry Lawson.
Modern consoles start here.

Arcades in ‘76 loved speed. 🏁

Road Race (aka Fonz), Night Driver, Stunt Cycle, F-1, Sprint 2, LeMans, Indy 4 all saw the light of the day.

But Death Race stole the spotlight—running over screaming gremlins and igniting one of gaming’s first violence controversies.

Apple turns 50 in 2026. 🍎

Founded by Jobs, Wozniak & Wayne.

Early success with Apple II and Mac.

Jobs out in 1985. Jobs back in 1997.

iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad. You know the rest.

Also in 1976: Breakout. Nolan Bushnell wanted a solo Pong. Al Acorn assigned the project to Steve Jobs, who reached to Steve Wozniak for help.

Woz designed an ultra-efficient circuit in just four nights. Atari shipped a simpler—but less elegant—version. The brick-breaking arcade game soared.🧱

Colossal Cave Adventure turns 50.

Built on a PDP-10 by William Crowther, it’s one of the first interactive fiction games—exploring caves, hunting treasure.

Played on teletype machines, expanded in 1977 by Don Woods, and shared via ARPANET, Adventure went viral before “viral” was a thing. 📠➡️🌐

🎮 New year, retro vibes. 1976. 1986. 1996.

Three years that shaped video games as we know them.

Which ones are turning 50, 40, or 30 in 2025?

Let’s rewind. ⏪

I ended the year with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It’s stunning so far, with beautiful worlds and a sublime soundtrack, blending choirs and synthesizers. I’m still unsure about the larger zones you can explore with the Vi-0-La bike, I’m giving myself time to form a more informed opinion.

While Call of Duty still takes most of my time, I enjoyed the pure catharsis of Doom: The Dark Ages even more. Its shield-and-parry system feels great, turning defense into offense and encouraging a more aggressive, resilient playstyle.

Donkey Kong Bananza shines with fully destructible environments and flexible ‘Bananza’ transformations. Smashing everything is fun, though the camera can struggle and repetition holds it back. Still, it’s one of the Switch 2’s stronger titles.

I finally picked up a Switch 2 for Nintendo’s exclusives. Mario Kart World didn’t surprise me—its open world feels more like a hub of tracks—but it delivers solid visual upgrades and the same accessible, family-friendly fun.

I also enjoyed Halls of Torment, a smart blend of survivor-like gameplay and the dark ’90s action RPG vibe of Diablo. Unlocking characters and gear fuels progression, and a good build turns runs into a spectacular enemy-clearing fireworks show.

Another addictive title was Ball X Pit, which reinvents brick-breaking with roguelite mechanics: monsters replace bricks, heroes replace the paddle, and upgradeable, fuseable projectiles replace balls. Unlock effects, manage a village between runs, and build ever-stronger setups.

Blue Prince impressed me with its Myst-like design, sending players through a shifting, labyrinthine mansion. Its deep environmental puzzles uncover a family story while blending card mechanics and roguelite progression—some puzzles even rekindled my love for math.

Games inspired by roguelite mechanics continued to proliferate in 2025, which is hardly surprising after the success of Hades, Balatro, and Vampire Survivors in recent years. I limit myself to three games of this genre per year, as they can easily become bottomless time sinks.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 charmed me the most, blending a touching family drama with a time loop to break. Set in a Belle Époque–inspired Paris, its tactical turn-based combat is a joy, elevated by a haunting score.

I then completed Avowed, a more traditional RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, in the vein of The Outer Worlds, where combat can involve swords, guns, or magic. While its narrative is fairly linear, I still enjoyed the universe, centered around investigating a supernatural blight.

I took great pleasure in completing Eternal Strands, developed by Yellow Brick Games, as I was intrigued by its premise. This action RPG won me over with its creative magic system, based on physics-driven experimentation, as well as its titan battles, which naturally evoke Shadow of the Colossus.

As a lifelong fan of role-playing games, but with far less free time than I used to have, I focused this year on three very different RPGs.

Keeper, Double Fine’s latest, is a visual feast inspired by Salvador Dalí—a surreal painting brought to life. Told without dialogue, it explores the bond between a living lighthouse and its bird companion. Short and easy, but undeniably charming and relaxing.

After loving It Takes Two in 2021, my partner and I eagerly awaited Split Fiction. While its villain is caricatured, heroines Mio and Zoey shine. We loved the varied sci-fi/fantasy visuals and constantly evolving co-op mechanics. Looking forward Out of Words, another coop game releasing in 2026.