Somebody already mentioned Nintendo EAD, so I'm going to honor some third parties.
I'm going to nominate Capcom during the Classical era. Let'd look at some of the games they made during the 3rd and 4th gens:
- 1989 - Ducktales, Mega Man 2, Final Fight, Ghouls n Ghosts, Strider, UN Squadron
- 1990 - Gargoyle's Quest, Little Nemo, Mega Man 3, Darkwing Duck, Street Fighter 2010, Castle of Illusion
- 1991 - Several Mega Man titles, Street Fighter 2, Super Ghouls n Ghosts
- 1992 - Street Fighter 2 revisions
- 1993 - Aladdin, Final Fight 2, Mega Man X
- 1994 - Mega Man X2, Demon's Crest
That's over 20 notable hits in a period of six years, including a handful of what are considered some of the best or most influential games of all time.
I'm also going to nominate Konami during a similar era.
- 1986 - Castlevania, Twinbee, Gradius
- 1987 - Metal Gear
- 1988 - Contra
- 1989 - Castlevania 3
- 1990 - Super Contra, Metal Gear 2
- 1991 - Super Castlevania 4, Turtles in Time
Not quite as prolific IMO, but you still have quite a few groundbreaking games within a short period of time.
Squaresoft was largely limited to the RPG genre, but for a decade they practically defined the genre
- 1991 - Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy Adventure
- 1992 - Romancing Saga, Final Fantasy 5
- 1993 - Romancing Saga 2, Secret of Mana
- 1994 - Final Fantasy 6
- 1995 - Chrono Trigger, Front Mission, Secret of Evermore
- 1996 - Super Mario RPG
- 1997 - Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Tactics
- 1998 - Xenogears, Parasite Eve
- 1999 - Chrono Cross
- 2000 - Final Fantasy 9
- 2001 - Final Fantasy X
- 2002 - Kingdom Hearts
Basically, that's at least one classic JRPG every year.
I just noticed that those were all Japanese developers. Huh.
Love and tolerate.
