1992's video games: Street Fighter II and Sonic are back, Wario arrives, and Carmen Sandiego is missing

 

Not much has changed for Street Fighter II: World Warrior. Well, the intro has changed just a little bit (something about the optics of the first version didn't sit right with the production team, if you care to compare this image with that of last week). My success rate stayed the same: playing as Dhalism and Chun Li, I made it to three victories with each before crashing to a halt.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is available on the Switch, so I played a few levels of that. The addition of Tails is fun, as I can't think of another game that featured the automatic switching in characters like this. Still, a few levels is enough for me.

I really enjoyed the first Super Mario Land for the Game Boy - it had terrific controls and some weird additions to Mario's power-ups (still waiting on those bouncy, superballs to make a return). The sequel, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is the top-selling game for the Game Boy, and it's definitely a return to more traditional form. The exploratory nature allows you to complete levels in an order of your own choosing, but in the end you have a showdown with the debuting Wario to complete the game.

I remember it being fun, but not difficult, and that held true as I worked through one of the worlds to just dip my toe back in.

This is another brand new experience for me. I know the title, of course, both as a game and as a show, but I've never played this number-one PC game until now. I mostly remember it being around at school and, while it is an enjoyable, funny game, I can't help but think that it hardly feels like a "number one" kind of game, and I think I know what happened.

First of all, I should specify that this is the "deluxe" version of the game originally released in 1985, so it already had a cache of recognizability. But with a port of Street Fighter II available on PC, for example, how is it that most gamers decided to go for Carmen Sandiego?

I would guess that they probably didn't. I'll bet these big sales numbers are thanks to schools and parents, who would have argued something like "Sure, you can play games on the computer, but it has to be something educational," which is just what every kid wants to hear.

Now, again, Carmen Sandiego is a fun game. It took me a couple of rounds to get all the steps in place for catching the criminals, but once I got the hang of the routine I was an unstoppable force of justice.