The Best Year in Gaming: 1979 vs. 1996

Welcome back to our Best Year in Gaming March Madness bracket competition! Yesterday we looked at 1975 and 1997 in a very lopsided competition. Today we're looking at another potential blow-out, though the case for 1979 is stronger than I think a lot of people realize.

Result: 1997 beats 1975

Today we’re looking at 1979 vs. 1996.



 

VS.

  1996 was a very good year for games, though it's also a transition year - the Super NES and Genesis were on their last legs, while the Sony PlayStation was still establishing itself. So you have a year that lacks the amazing list of PSX and Saturn titles that say, 1997 had, and is just past the heyday of the 16-bit generation, albeit with some solid - and very underappreciated - final year titles but not the murderer's row of 1994 or 1995.

That's good news for 1979, a year which marks the apex of the golden age of arcades and the first year of full-color arcade games - titles like Galaxian and Space Invaders II revolutionized arcade games and changed what they could be, while all-timer vector classics like Asteroids and Lunar Lander dropped into arcades as well. Meanwhile the Atari 2600 was on its third wave of releases, bringing the action into homes. And 1979 has a very strong tabletop case with some stellar board games and the first winner of the Spiel des Jahres.

If you’re interested in voting on the outcome, head over to our Patreon and join our Discord server to vote. Otherwise, check back tomorrow for the winner and the next matchup in the Southeast Conference.

This article is part of a larger series on the best year in gaming. For more years, click this link. Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.