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.

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written by Will Snizek \\ 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

One of the greatest RPGs of all-time is finally headed to the Nintendo DS.  ’Chrono Trigger’ which is considered by many to be one of the best SNES titles is finally getting a remake.  We don’t know much yet, but we do know they are creating a new dungeon for it, cleaning up the graphics, adding a wireless play mode and the obvious dual-screen presentation.  I haven’t been truly excited about a DS game in a long time until now.  No official release date has been mentioned yet.  We’re hoping it’s later this year…

Via G4

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written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Chrono, date, DS One, Dungeon, game, haven, mode, Nintendo, play, presentation, release, RPGs, SNES, time, trigger, year

Most of us recall the first game we really got into on the PC.  My first was Wizardry, a simple (yet complex for the time) dungeon crawler published by Sir-Tech.  Although there were some similar games at the time, this would probably be what I considered the first true “dungeon crawl”.  You start the game in a podunk town and have to create a party of up to six characters from an assortment of races including humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits and gnomes.  This was also one of the first games where you could choose alignment which included good, neutral and evil.  You could also choose from four classes for each of your characters including fighter, mage, thief and priest.  Later in the game, you could also upgrade certain characters to elite classes.    

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written by Will Snizek \\ tags: assortment, character, crawl, crawler, Dungeon, game, Old, Party, PC.  My, podunk, School, series, Sir, Sir-Tech, time, town, Wizardry

The latest report by the NPD, which tracks video game sales in America, has come in and with it some interesting results.

One of the things speculated from last month’s sales numbers was that the console-selling boost GTA IV was supposed to provide Microsoft and Sony would happen this month, as Rockstar’s game arrived late in April.

This wasn’t so as the Xbox 360 and PS3 sold about the same this month, which lends some credibility to the prediction that the people who bought the game already had either system long beforehand. Wii, as its been doing since launch, reigns supreme…

Hardware Sales:

1. Wii - 675,100
2. DS - 452,600
3. PS3 - 208,700
4. Xbox 360 - 186,600
5. PSP - 182,300
6. PS2 - 132,700

For software sales, hit the break…

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written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: America, Dungeon, Explorers, Fanboy, Fodder, game, GTA, Hero III, Mario Kart, May, month, Mystery, Nintendo Wii, NPD, Pokémon, Report, software, Xbox