It All Started Here
What is mostly known now as an educational children’s show actually started out as this PC based game that was initially sold with an almanac as a tool for solving riddles, and copy protection purposes.
This 1984 movie spawned a PC only adventure title where you are tasked similarly with protecting Kingston Falls, and defeating Stripe and his mutated minions.
Released in 2015, this vehicular sports title has been adopted as a major esport with its own professional league, and is referenced as the only game that could conceivably break video games into the Olympics.
What is Rocket League?
This online multiplayer social deduction game was first released in 2018 to little fanfare, before becoming a massive hit in 2020 due to twitch streamers, and COVID, and introducing us to the idea of somebody being “suss.”
What is Among Us?
Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? This beverage behemoth changed the recipe to their main product in 1985, and incurred the wrath of the caffeine fiending populace, and was returned to its original, classic glory three months later.
Known as Demon World Village in Japan, this Capcom sensation was first released in arcades in 1985, and has been cited as one of the most difficult games of all time.
Released the same year as the hit Richard Donner namesake, this platformer tasks two characters from the film to navigate complex levels based on each main set piece, swapping between the two to solve puzzles and other problems.
What is The Goonies?
Originally a mash up between Square Enix and Disney, this action RPG pairs the main protagonist with Donald Duck and Goofy in the search for King Mickey, and spotlights the different worlds of the Disney and Final Fantasy franchises.
What is Kingdom Hearts?
Initially a crowd funded platformer inspired by games such as Mega Man and Castlevania, it has since spawned two spin-off titles, and multiple DLC’s starring the likes of King Knight, Specter Knight, and Plague Knight.
What is Shovel Knight
Selling the first cases of their eponymous Boston Lager in 1985, this brewery today is arguably the largest craft brewery in the United States, and has spawned other off shoot beverage companies such as Angry Orchard, Twisted Tea, and Truly Hard Seltzer.
After being initially developed as a Hudson Soft tech demo, the first full fledged game was released on the NES in Japan in 1985, and features a robot that navigates mazes and uses bombs to destroy rocks and enemies that block its path.
Based on the second film of three released in the eighties, this pop culture icon is tasked with completing the same three levels four times with increasing difficulty before advancing to the final boss, Mola Ram, who unceremoniously falls to his death off of a bridge and into a river.
Originally developed under the name Project Ego, this action RPG was a major release for the original XBOX, and features an unnamed character you can shape however you like, both physically and story wise, by the decisions and habitual tendencies you make.
This MMORPG was first released in 1999 and was the first of its kind to feature a 3D game engine, and continues to release new content to this day, despite the release of a sequel, and multiple other spin-off titles.
Going through a surprise recast five weeks into filming, this pop culture dynamo rocked the cinema in 1985, and became its highest grossing film, raking in $381 million.
This classic fantasy game uses traditional DnD party based mechanics for its dungeon crawling setup, and was first released as a four person arcade cabinet before ported to the NES in 1988.
You can’t blame this massive franchise of being modest, ever, as the release of film #14 in the long running UK based action series was accompanied by not one, but two PC games: one being an action platformer similar to the movie, and the second a text-based adventure title.
Needing a change of pace from their Sly Cooper franchise, Sucker Punch Studios developed this open world sandbox title where the main character develops electrical superpowers, and has to decide to be good or evil, and has gone on to spawn multiple sequels.
Dubbed a prime example of an “empathy game” this indie title released in 2013 has tugged the hearts strings of more than five million people by putting you in the role of a immigration inspector at a border checkpoint of a fictional country.
What is Papers Please?
With the technical term debuting in print for the first time in 1985, this annoying anomaly is now what we unaffectionately refer to as “Spam” and floods email inboxes daily.
Edging out Super Mario Bros. by 300 million dollars, and the next contender Hang-On by 150 million, this game was single-handedly the best-selling video game - arcade and at home - in 1985.