#Anniversary
20 article(s)
Mega Man: Dual Override Marks Blue Bomber's 40th Anniversary in 2027
Capcom used Gamescom 2026 to unveil its vision for Mega Man: Dual Override, arriving in 2027. Director Shinya Ikuta and producers Shingo Izumi and Hiroyuki Minamitani fielded press questions at the Cologne show. What they revealed paints a project designed first and foremost as a franchise milestone — marking 40 years of Mega Man — rather than just another installment. That distinction is far from cosmetic.
Scott Pilgrim Turns 16: The Ubisoft Anomaly That Endures
On August 10, 2010, Ubisoft released a beat'em up adapted from a film based on a 2004 comic saturated with retro references. All the ingredients were there for a soulless commercial disaster. Sixteen years later, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game has outlasted most AAA releases from that same era. This paradox deserves examination: how did a third-degree derivative become one of the most respected releases of its generation?
Dead Rising Turns 20: The Game That Defined an Xbox Era
On August 8, 2006, Dead Rising launched in North America on Xbox 360. Two decades later, Capcom's game hasn't aged ideologically—it crystallizes what one console, one studio, and an entire era of action gaming aspired to be. This isn't nostalgia; it's an editorial fact: few games from that generation still own what they are so unapologetically.
Dead Cells at 8: The Strange Legacy of a Bordeaux Cooperative
On August 7, 2018, Motion Twin released Dead Cells in version 1.0 after a remarkable early access period. Eight years later, the Bordeaux roguelite remains a genre reference, cited alongside Hades and Risk of Rain 2 as a foundational pillar of a decade. But behind the finely-tuned game loop lies a question that has never truly been answered: how did a radically horizontal structure, without a project manager, produce one of the genre's most mechanically oppressive systems?
KOF '96 at 30: The Game That Reinvented 2D Fighting
Thirty years after its Neo-Geo debut, The King of Fighters '96 remains the understated linchpin of an entire generation of fighting games. Not the most celebrated, but arguably the most decisive: this episode broke from the rigid team structures inherited from Capcom's franchises, introduced a radical offensive gameplay system, and laid the groundwork for total crossover integration in 2D fighting. An anniversary worth examining beyond nostalgia.
StarCraft II at 16: The RTS Throne Remains Uncontested
On July 27, 2010, Blizzard launched StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty after a twelve-year absence from the franchise. Sixteen years later, no competitor has managed to dethrone it from the competitive RTS crown. It's not a question of nostalgia or lack of ambition from rival studios—it's a structural problem the industry still hasn't solved.
Sonic the Hedgehog at 35: How One Hedgehog Changed Everything
On July 26, 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog launched on Mega Drive and redefined what a platformer could be. Thirty-five years later, Sega's hedgehog remains a reference that transcends its original context. Not because of nostalgia, but because it established design principles the industry still grapples with, imitates, or challenges.
Pokémon GO at 10: The Game That Redefined Mobile Gaming
On July 22, 2016, Pokémon GO launched in Japan, completing a lightning-fast worldwide rollout that had already upended the West two weeks earlier. A decade later, Niantic's game remains a statistical anomaly in video game history: born from a 2014 Google Maps April Fool's joke, it has generated over one billion downloads and forced the entire industry to reconsider what "playing outdoors" could mean.
Limbo at 16: The Economic Lesson the Industry Never Learned
Sixteen years after its debut on Xbox Live Arcade, Limbo remains a comfortable anomaly in video game history: a title designed by a handful of people, with virtually no budget, no explicit narrative, that imposed its visual grammar on an entire generation of indie developers. The anniversary offers a chance to measure what this game truly changed — and to ask why its model remains so rarely imitated to completion.
Vandal Hearts II at 27: The Tactical RPG Nobody Wanted to Defend
On July 8, 1999, Konami released Vandal Hearts II on PlayStation, two years after an already demanding first installment. Twenty-seven years later, the game remains an anomaly in the tactical RPG landscape: more brutal, more experimental than Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, yet it has vanished from collective memory. This silence says something about what the industry chooses to celebrate—and what it prefers to forget.
Final Fantasy IX at 26: The Remake We're Still Waiting For
Released in 2000 on PlayStation, Final Fantasy IX turns 26 today in relative editorial silence. Square Enix remade VII, has begun tackling VIII, but the ninth installment remains without an official remake project. Yet it's one of the most beloved titles in the franchise. A paradox that says volumes about a publisher caught between commercial nostalgia and artistic integrity.
Samurai Shodown at 33: The Edge That Stands the Test of Time
In 1993, SNK unleashed Samurai Shodown in arcades and redefined what a fighting game could be with a single slash. While Capcom dominated with Street Fighter II and Midway provoked with Mortal Kombat, the Japanese studio played a different tune: slow, surgical, deadly. Thirty-three years later, the franchise remains a textbook case that the industry has never truly managed to replicate.