Top 5 game companies?

[Leynos]

SEGA is a true pioneer and risk-taker of gaming in the most important and best era in gaming. 80s and 90s.  While they were poorly run on the business end. On the creative end, they were masters of the arcade. Pushed hardware to new heights and limits tho with caution to the wind and that attitude eventually cost them. They made many innovations at the time and before their time. In games and console hardware and of course arcades. There was never anyone like them. New IPs up the ass. Sure we know Sonic but also Ranger X. Flicky. Jet Set Radio. Knights. Panzer Dragoon.  Fantasy Zone. Space Harrier. Afterburner. Virtua Fighter. Virtual On. And an endless list of great games and creativity. Dreamcast changed my life and my fave console to this day. Saturn is my 3rd fave. I have countless memories of playing SEGA games in arcades.

Nintendo. Nintendo are the perfectors of craft. In the gaming world, they are the Renaissance-era sculptors and painters. Where SEGA was more Picasso or Andy Warhol of gaming. Expression. Wild ideas. Nintendo didn't make as many new IPs as its competitors. It does reinvent what it does have with carefully thought-out new mechanics in their games to go along with some new features of its hardware. Often working hand in hand. They take risks but calculated ones and are patient to wait until they feel is the right time to introduce it. SEGA as soon as they thought of it put it out the door. SNES is my second fave console of all time. Switch my 4th.

Falcom. The little company then could and still can. Not a very well-known name but they have been making RPGs long before Dragon Quest or even Final Fantasy was a glint of an idea. While DQ forever shifted the genre in Japan to more identified with turn-based battles. Falcom was making epic games with fast speedy action games. Dragon Slayer. Xanadu. Faxandu. Ys and more. Ys 1 is my favorite game of all time. I played many ports and versions of this game. I love it. I love the late 80s anime. Nothing gives me more chills than the intro of Ys 1 on the Turbografx16. Ys is now thriving when it was once struggling. Dragon Slayer fully transformed into the Trails series now turn-based and thriving. They don't have the budget of Square but their quality in gameplay and story telling matches Dragon Quest and Best Final Fantasy in the last 15 years.

Platinum Games. The group at Capcom named Clover worked on Resident Evil. Created Okami. Devil May Cry and Viewtiful joe created a studio in 2007. In my mind, they are the closest thing to modern-day Treasure. From Bayonetta. To the best SP TPS ever made in VanQuish. Licensed games like Transformers Devastation. Astral Chain. Wonderful 101. Madworld. Infinite Space RPG. Metal Gear Rising.  Even dabbling in Shmups like Sol Cresta. Their best games just feel like the proper evolution of 16-bit era games transformed to 3D. It makes me happy. While he was there my fave game creator Kamiya made countless contributions. While he may no longer be there and what PG's future is no one knows. They still have excellent talent leading new IPs like Astral Chain.

Treasure. A group of ex-Konami developers formed a new studio in the early 90s. They created some of the best games the 90s saw. From action games like Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes. They made a side-scrolling beat 'em up action classic. Guardian Heroes. Of course, they also made some of the best shmups ever. Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga. Oddball but amazing games like Mischief Makers or Silhouette Mirage. Last Crusader. And of course Sin n Punishment series.

I thought about putting in the 90s through PS2 era Konami as even my love of ZOE2. Policenauts or Snatchers. Or a Capcom who I still love despite the rough patch of the 7th gen. I prob love Capcom equally as some of these but I wanted to give a lesser known but not totally unknown devs a nod like Treasure or Falcom. If it was top 10 I'd include studios like Vanillaware and SNK.

Last edited by Leynos - on 27 November 2023