Introduction Super Conflict is a turn-based military wargame developed by Manley & Associates and published by Vic Tokai, released in North America in March 1993 as the 16-bit successor to the earlier NES game Conflict. Play takes place on hex maps where each side fields infantry, armour, artillery, helicopters, aircraft and naval vessels, and every…
Introduction Koei brought the fourth entry in its long-running Romance of the Three Kingdoms series to the Super Famicom on 9 December 1994, with the North American release following in July 1995 as Wall of Fire. Players take command of a warlord in the collapsing Han empire and manage everything a province needs: farmland and…
Introduction Technosoft released Herzog Zwei for the Mega Drive in Japan in 1989, reaching the rest of the world the following year, and its historical importance is hard to overstate: it arrived three years before Dune II and is widely credited as the first true real-time strategy game. Rather than a mouse cursor, the player…
Introduction Intelligent Systems developed Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War for Nintendo, releasing it on the Super Famicom on 14 May 1996 under the direction of Shouzou Kaga. It is the fourth entry in the series and the strangest in structure: instead of many compact maps, it uses a handful of enormous ones, each…
Introduction Quest released Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the Super Famicom on 6 October 1995, with Yasumi Matsuno directing, designing and writing it. Battles play out on an isometric grid where elevation genuinely matters – archers gain range from high ground, spellcasters need line of sight, and a unit caught in a valley…
Introduction Bahamut Lagoon was developed and published by Square, released for the SNES in 1996 as a tactical RPG combining grid-based strategy battles with dragon-taming mechanics, released late in the console’s life just as Square was shifting its major RPG output toward the PlayStation. Players command a squad of soldiers each paired with a tamed…
Introduction Super Robot Wars 2 was developed and published by Banpresto, released for the Famicom in 1991 as the second entry in the long-running tactical RPG series that crosses over mecha anime franchises like Mobile Suit Gundam, Mazinger, and Getter Robo into a single strategic battle system. Players command a roster of iconic robots and…
Introduction ActRaiser was developed by Quintet and published by Enix, released for the SNES in 1990 as one of the console’s earliest showcase titles, splitting its gameplay between two distinct modes. In its action stages, players control a knight possessed by a benevolent god, fighting through side-scrolling levels against demonic forces in classic platformer combat….
Introduction Romance of the Three Kingdoms was developed and published by Koei, released for the NES in 1990 as a home console adaptation of the studio’s PC grand strategy series based on the classical Chinese novel of the same name. Players take control of one of many warlords during China’s Three Kingdoms period, managing cities,…
Introduction Langrisser was developed by NCS and Masaya, released for the Sega Genesis in 1991 as the first entry in a long-running tactical RPG series built around large-scale unit-based battles rather than individual character movement. Players command a general who leads squads of soldiers, knights, archers, and mages across grid-based battlefields, with each unit’s effectiveness…
Introduction Front Mission was developed by G-Craft and published by Square, released for the Super Famicom in Japan on February 24, 1995, as a tactical role-playing game built around squad-based battles fought using large piloted mechs called wanzers. Players command a customizable squad of wanzers across grid-based battle maps, with each unit’s individual body parts,…
Introduction Garou: Mark of the Wolves was developed and published by SNK, released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system in 1999 as a spiritual successor to the long-running Fatal Fury series, set roughly a decade after the events of Fatal Fury 3 with an almost entirely new cast of playable fighters. The game introduced…