I vote for The Secret of Monkey Island! Which was also my personal favorite '90 game. 
It absolutely oozes personality and charm from its very first moments straight through to the end. More than any other really, this is the title that first got me into computer gaming.
Like I was saying on the '89 thread, when my parents finally caved and got me a Sega Genesis with Golden Axe for my eighth birthday in 1990, they started getting concerned about the terribly violent nature of the games I was into (
), so they tried to steer me toward computer gaming on the thinking that it was more educational just in general. Had that reputation. First game they got me was Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, which I actually wound up liking. (Evidently a lot of other people did too, as it was actually the best-selling game of the 1989 holiday season, apparently.) The Carmen Sandiego classics aren't entirely as fun for me nowadays, as the knowledge they imbue is kind of rudimentary at this point in life, but it was kind of a fun way for a kid to learn some basic facts about history and other topics back when. Other early, somewhat less memorable entries in my compulsory computer gaming library included Midnight Rescue and Number Munchers. (My dad at least had the decency to get me Gods the next year, but that was very much the exception to the rule.)
The Secret of Monkey Island though was special in its rich atmosphere, lack of basicness and pretention. I quickly came to love its world, characters, music, and sense of style. It made me laugh. A lot. And still does. 
The Carmen Sandiego franchise exempted, computer gaming at first felt kind of boring to me; like something my parents were just forcing me into. The Secret of Monkey Island though was the game that proved computer gaming could be just as fun as console gaming, if not more so. Simply a platform with perhaps different strengths.
I also can't pass up the opportunity to give F-Zero a shout-out because it was awesome and my favorite racing game on the Super NES and also of the whole era. 
An early effort to prove the power of the Super NES with its Mode 7 graphics, its futuristic ambience proved of instant appeal to a generation of gamers that included me when I finally got it a couple years after this.
I'm also gonna give a shout-out to the open-ended action-platformer platformer from this year, Clash at Demonhead, which, along with The Guardian Legend, is another top NES favorite of mine today. Since far too many people missed this little gem back in the day, here's Clash at Demonhead:
EDIT: Oop, actually Clash at Demonhead was originally released IN JAPAN in 1989, I just discovered. I did not know that. Had just gone with the American version's release date. *shrugs* Oh well, I'm leaving the shout-out here anyway.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 28 September 2023
