📼25 Games Every 90s Kid Played
If you grew up in the 1990s, your memory of games is probably a rental shop, a shared living room and a cartridge you had to blow on. This list is the shortlist of what everyone actually played, not a critical canon.
Each entry says where you can play it now — a lot of these are one subscription away rather than an eBay hunt.
The living-room staples
Super Mario World (1990)
- SNES
- Switch (NSO)
The game that came with the console for most families, and the one everybody could finish together. Secret exits kept it going for months.
Mario Kart 64 (1996)
- N64
- Switch (NSO Expansion)
Four controllers, Block Fort, and arguments that lasted into adulthood. Still the fastest way to a full room of players.
GoldenEye 007 (1997)
- N64
- Switch (NSO)
- Xbox
Split-screen deathmatch with the screen-watching rule everyone ignored. Its objective-based campaign was ahead of its time.
Pokémon Red & Blue (1996)
- Game Boy
- 3DS
Link cables, playground trades and a starter choice that felt permanent. The single biggest schoolyard game of the decade.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992)
- Genesis
- Switch
- PS5
- Xbox
- PC
Speed, spin dash and Tails as a permanent second player. The Genesis half of the playground argument.
Street Fighter II Turbo (1992)
- SNES
- Switch
- PS4
- Xbox
- PC
The reason your friend memorised a fireball motion before their times tables. Perfectly readable for a beginner even now.
Donkey Kong Country (1994)
- SNES
- Switch (NSO)
Pre-rendered graphics that looked impossible in 1994, and barrel levels that punished panic. Two-player tag-team was the default.
Crash Bandicoot (1996)
- PS1
- PS5
- Switch
- Xbox
- PC
The PlayStation's mascot and the source of a very specific memory of dying on a bridge. The remaster is faithful.
Tekken 3 (1998)
- PS1
The PS1 fighter everyone had, with a roster you learned by button-mashing. Short rounds made it perfect for passing a pad.
Super Smash Bros. (1999)
- N64
- Switch (NSO Expansion)
Nintendo characters knocking each other off a stage — instantly understandable, endlessly repeatable.
The ones you rented
Toy Story (SNES/Genesis) (1995)
- SNES
- Genesis
A licensed platformer far better than it needed to be, and far harder than a kid expected. Very much a weekend rental.
Aladdin (Genesis) (1993)
- Genesis
Virgin's version with sword combat and Disney animators on the sprite work. Beautiful and brutally difficult.
Earthworm Jim (1994)
- Genesis
- SNES
- PC
Cartoon slapstick with genuinely strange level design. The cow gag is core 90s memory.
NBA Jam (1993)
- Arcade
- SNES
- Genesis
Two-on-two, on fire, boomshakalaka. The most quotable sports game ever made.
Mortal Kombat II (1993)
- Arcade
- SNES
- Genesis
The forbidden one, with fatality codes copied off a magazine page. Its notoriety created the ESRB.
Tomb Raider (1996)
- PS1
- Switch
- PS5
- PC
Cavernous, lonely levels that felt genuinely dangerous to a ten-year-old. The remaster adds modern controls.
Sonic & Knuckles (1994)
- Genesis
- Switch
- PC
The lock-on cartridge that let you play as Knuckles in older games. A genuine hardware trick nobody has repeated.
Star Fox 64 (1997)
- N64
- Switch (NSO Expansion)
Do a barrel roll. Ninety minutes long and replayed dozens of times because of branching paths.
Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
- N64
- Xbox
- Switch (NSO)
The friendliest 3D platformer of the era, with worlds you could poke at for hours. The music is unshakeable.
Age of Empires II (1999)
- PC
The family PC game, played over LAN or against the AI for entire weekends. The Definitive Edition keeps it alive.
The handheld years
Tetris (Game Boy) (1989)
- Game Boy
- Switch
- Mobile
The pack-in that made the Game Boy universal, and the game most likely to still be in a drawer somewhere.
Pokémon Yellow (1998)
- Game Boy
- 3DS
Pikachu following you around was a small thing that mattered enormously. Kanto with the anime's cast.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993)
- Game Boy
- Switch
A dream island with a genuinely sad ending, on a monochrome screen. The Switch remake is excellent.
Super Mario Land 2 (1992)
- Game Boy
- 3DS
Six zones you could tackle in any order, and Wario's debut. Short enough for a car journey.
Donkey Kong (Game Boy, 1994) (1994)
- Game Boy
- 3DS
Starts as the arcade game, then turns into 97 puzzle stages. Wildly underrated.
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