Some of the younglings out there probably don’t know much about gaming in 1987, but for those of us who were there, it was really a sweet year in gaming. It’s tough to pick out 10 awesome games from one particular year, but 1987 was real easy. I was ten years old at the time and owned most of the game systems available on the market. Back in early 1987, I was the only kid in the neighborhood with a Sega Master System and probably the only person who didn’t have a Nintendo Entertainment System. This worked out well for me because I could play Sega games any time I wanted and just go to any of my friends’ houses to play NES games. I eventually landed a NES at the end of that year in a trade that involved me giving up the Millenium Falcon and a 1985 Donruss Dwight Gooden rookie card for the console and a couple games. It turns out giving up the Millenium Falcon may have been a bad idea, but Dwight Gooden turned out to be a crack head, so the value of the card dwindled over the years.

With that said, my picks for the “Top Ten Video Games of 1987″ follow. These are selections from games I have played thoroughly. If an awesome game from 1987 didn’t make the list, it’s probably because I didn’t play it or because I didn’t think it was that awesome.

#10 Driller (PC)

Driller may be one of the most influential video games of all-time, even though it’s rarely mentioned these days. It was probably the first 3D game I ever played. It boasted free 360 degree movement within an open area. We can probably thank Driller for most of the FPS games that used the same technology. In Driller, your goal was to navigate an excavation probe across various regions of a moon, placing drilling rigs in the proper locations. You’re also attacked by security systems while you are trying to accomplish your mission. It sounds easy, but this game was a real bitch to beat. If you’ve never played it, it’s certainly worth checking out. While the game has lost some of it’s value over the years, it’s still not too bad.

#09 Dungeon Master (Atari ST)

Dungeon Master came on the scene during the formative years of “dungeon-style” games. Prior to Dungeon Master, my favorite RPG game was Wizardry, but DM took RPG games to a new level. The biggest difference between Dungeon Master and games like Wizardry was the fact that DM didn’t use traditional turn-based gameplay. Another aspect was that the game finally went away from the use of text commands to make things happen. In this game, you made things happen by directly interacting with objects through the use of mouse clicks. That sounds elementary these days, but it was a huge leap back then. It was also the first time I recall spells being difficult to use. In Dungeon Master, you had to combine elements to create spells. The days of spells just being there were about to come to an end for RPG gaming. While Dungeon Master was a beautiful game at the time, it probably wouldn’t be fun to play by today’s standards.

#08 Missile Defense 3D (SMS)

Missile Defense 3D is one of several reasons that the Sega light gun kicked Nintendo zapper ass. The games utilizing the light zapper on the Sega Master System were nearly all great games and this included Missile Defense 3D. The game also required the 3D glasses to play and it was one of the first true 3D shooting games I enjoyed. Missile Defense 3D may be the greatest 80s light gun games. It was challenging, fun, and the visuals were fantastic for the time.

#07 Street Fighter (Arcade)

Street Fighter was certainly a game I spent many quarters on. In the original arcade game, you could only play as Ken or Ryu. There were only 10 CPU opponents, but it was a challenging an interesting game. It was also the best fighting game in the arcades at the time. Street Fighter was also a frustrating game, considering a highly skilled player could win a round in a couple seconds. This game hasn’t really stood up to the test of time, but fortunately Street Fighter sequels continue to improve.

#06 Maniac Mansion (PC)

LucasArts really landed their video game work on the map with Maniac Mansion. This is the first game I ever played that had the possibility of multiple endings. In many ways, I thought of it as a digital “choose your own adventure”. The game also had multiple selectable characters with different abilities. That seems fairly standard these days, but was unheard of back then. If you love horror style B-movies from the 1980s, then this is the game for you.

#05 Double Dragon (Arcade)

Double Dragon was probably the first decent “beat-em-up” arcade game. Two-player cooperative gameplay was almost unheard of at the time in the genre, and the ability to use an enemy’s weapon against them was a neat first. The arcade version was challenging in parts, but was perhaps a little too easy once you played it a few times and learned the secrets. What I remember most fondly about the Double Dragon days was the feeling of accomplishment when you and a friend beat the game together. It was one of the first times I played an arcade game with a friend on my side instead of against them.

#04 Mega Man (NES)

This was certainly an obvious choice for the list. Mega Man was not only one of the best games of 1987, but probably one of the top 15 games ever on the NES. There’s certainly a reason they made so many sequels of this game. I really shouldn’t describe the game, because if you have not played it, you are just wrong.

#03 Head Over Heels (Commodore 64)

Head Over Heels was probably the first isometric game I ever played and one of the first games where you control more than one character in the game. The game had interesting gameplay, was challenging and offered over 300 rooms to explore and solve puzzles in. While the game wasn’t the best in the graphics department, the surreal atmosphere, odd story and level of fun made up for it. Although it’s seriously outdated, the game would still be considered fun today.

#02 R-Type (SMS/Arcade)

R-Type was what I’d call a “timeless” classic. Sidescrolling shooters have rarely come even close to the perfection that was R-Type. Beating R-Type was one of my proudest achievements in the late 1980s arcade scene. These days, gamers rely on easier games that you can always beat if you invest enough time. R-Type was unforgiving and the levels were tough. Some people try to claim that R-Type was poorly designed and too hard, but if it’s a game that can be beat, then I say the design was fine. R-Type really takes me back to a time in gaming where challenge and gameplay were what made a title great.

#01 The Legend of Zelda (NES)

If you didn’t think I’d include this in the list, then I guess you don’t know much about 1987. Most people credit titles in the Mario series as the greatest NES games, but The Legend of Zelda is what brought me on board with Nintendo. The internal battery for saving games was a major plus to Zelda. By this time, we were getting real tired of having to keep little notebooks with game codes just to get back to where you were in a title. The game was challenging, it took a long time to make it through the entire game, the story was great and it was simply one of the most memorable games ever created. The Legend of Zelda really became the forerunner in the console action-RPG genre. While some games tend to fade away with time, 21 years later Zelda is still an awesome game. Was it the greatest game of all-time? Perhaps not, but it certainly makes my top 25 all-time list.

Related Posts

• ‘7 Greatest Video Game Urban Legends’ Redux (1)
• Top Ten Video Games of 1988 (6)
• Top 100 Video Games of All-Time: #100 (0)
• E3: New ‘Resident Evil 5′ Trailer (0)
• ‘Chrono Trigger’ Headed To Nintendo DS (2)

written by Will Snizek on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 pm \\ tags: Arcade, D. The, Defense, didn, Double Dragon, Driller, Dungeon, Dungeon Master, Dwight Gooden, Fighter, game, gaming, Head Over Heels, Ken, Legend of Zelda, Maniac Mansion, master, Mega Man, Missile, Missile Defense 3D, R-Type, Sega, Street, Street-Fighter, time, video, year