With well over 40 years of home video game consoles and arcades covering an expansive history, almost everyone is going to have their own choices and reasoning for what they believed to be the peak of gaming — though there are some pretty common answers like 1985, 1998, 2007, and some may even argue as recently as 2022.
Super Smash Bros. and Kirby Creator Masahiro Sakurai recently released a new video on his Creating Games YouTube channel with the subject of what he believes to be the “most incredible year for the gaming industry.”
Funnily enough, Sakurai begins his new Grab Bag video with a Hadoken motion though the answer doesn’t have anything to do with Street Fighter.
The title immediately gives it away as 1986 for what he labels as the year of legend for gaming.
Well then what makes 1986 so very special in Sakurai’s eyes? A lot of it has to do with just how many iconic franchises were born over that 12-month period (in Japan at least), which are still relevant today almost 40 years later in most cases that he mentions.
There’s The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kunio-kun (River City), Dragon Quest, Castlevania, Bubble Bobble, Ganbare Goemon! (Mystical Ninja), Kid Icarus, Ikari Warriors and even more that left a mark on the industry.
It was the third year of the NES in Japan where developers had a better grasp of the console to branch out into new ideas as well as the year the Famicom Disk System released in Japan that opened the door to even more possibilities.
That was on top of the growing competition between consoles, PCs and arcades in the region too, which pretty much all had something interesting to offer.
This also led to games becoming more complex than ever before with programmers leaving hidden codes, secrets and Easter eggs for players to discover too.
Sakurai also points out that almost all of the iconic titles he mentions have been featured in Super Smash Bros. at one point or another, including music for Valkyrie no Bouken.
It’s also important to point out that Sakurai would have been 15–16 years old at this time, and if you think back on that point in your life, there’s a good chance that may be one of your favorite gaming eras too as part of your formative teenage years.
“The path we walk on was first carved out by our predecessors all those years ago,” said the veteran creator. “And now, we have to do our best to create a new path of our own.”
You can check out Sakurai’s short new video below to hear more about why he feels 1986 was so special.