Shining Force
Sega Genesis (1992)
The Super Nintendo tends to get most of the recognition these days for being a powerhouse for role playing games in the 16-bit era, but the Sega Genesis had its share of very good RPGs as well. One of the first of these was Shining Force, which turned 30 years old yesterday.
Shining Force was released for the Mega Drive in Japan on March 20th, 1992. It didn't make it to the Genesis in the United States for over a year, but when it did, it made an immediate impact on gamers who grew up playing games like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy on the NES. Unlike the games I played prior to this, Shining Force is a tactical RPG. It's not my favorite genre, but this game in particular was a hell of a lot of fun and paved the way for many others of its kind to come to the United States, including Ogre Battle, Arc The Lad and Final Fantasy Tactics.
