Fifth Generation Video Games
In November 1993, Atari released the Atari Jaguar, a 64-bit gaming system which hadn't had much success because the players knew Sony and Sega would capture the market. One year later, in 1994–1995, Sega released the Sega Saturn and Sony made its debut to the video gaming scene with the PlayStation. Both consoles used 32-bit technology; the door was open for 3D games, though the Sega Saturn launch in the US started with a controversial advert launch which saw a PlayStation console being thrown out of a window of a tower block in an attempt to convince viewers that the Sega Saturn was much better than the PlayStation. Sony's PlayStation would become the world's most successful console in the 32/64-bit era, with only the PlayStation 2 topping this accolade at the beginning of the 21st century.
After many delays, Nintendo released its 64-bit console, the Nintendo 64 in 1996, selling more than 1.5 million units in only three months. The flagship title, Super Mario 64, became a defining title for 3D platformer games.
PaRappa the Rapper popularized rhythm, or music video games in Japan with its 1996 debut on the PlayStation. Subsequent music and dance games like beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution became ubiquitous attractions in Japanese arcades. While Parappa, DDR, and other games found a cult following when brought to North America, music games would not gain a wide audience in the market until the next decade.
Other milestone games of the era include Rare's Nintendo 64 title GoldenEye 007 (1997), which was critically acclaimed for bringing innovation as being the first major first-person shooter that was exclusive to a console, and for pioneering certain features that became staples of the genre, such as scopes, headshots, and objective-based missions, instead of one world like other contemporaries such as DOOM or Quake. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Nintendo's 3D debut for the The Legend of Zelda adventure game series, is often regarded as one of, if not almost "the" greatest game of all time by various critics, and featured innovations that would influence similar gaming for years to come.
The success of Metal Gear Solid (1998) for the PlayStation led to its creator/director Hideo Kojima to be included in the list of "Top 10 people to shape the world". With this much success, Metal Gear Solid was named as part of variety of top game lists, later becoming a high-selling series among Sony's platforms.
Nintendo's choice to use cartridges instead of CD-ROMs for the Nintendo 64, unique among the consoles of this period, proved to have negative consequences. In particular, SquareSoft, which had released all previous games in its Final Fantasy series for Nintendo consoles, now turned to the PlayStation; Final Fantasy VII (1997) was a huge success, establishing the popularity of role-playing games in the west and making the PlayStation the primary console for the genre.
By the end of this period, Sony had become a leader in the video game market. The Saturn was successful in Japan but a failure in North America, leaving Sega outside of the main competition.
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