20 Severely Underrated 90s Video Games You Forgot You Loved
13. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - PSX, 1998
1998 marked the rise of the stealth game; Metal Gear Solid had just come out for consoles and Thief: The Dark Project snuck onto the PC, proving that 1st- and 3rd-person games didn't just have to revolve around murder. But preceding both of those franchise-spawning classics, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins came out earlier in the year to become the first 3D stealth game ever released. Ok, so maybe it's inaccurate to say that Tenchu didn't revolve around murder, bearing in mind the outrage caused by its graphic, squelchy depictions of katana-induced carnage, but the greatest satisfaction came from doing it all unnoticed. Tenchu heralded in a new dark, bloody and stealthy kind of gameplay that the world hadn't seen before. It actually sold very well in its time, and spawned a number of decent but not top-selling sequels. Its influence on the stealth genre just hasn't been acknowledged in light of Metal Gear Solid, which came out after it. Tenchu['s visceral, fast-paced gameplay still holds up to this day, and the stereotypical Japanese accents and soundbites are pure (mildly inappropriate) comedy gold.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
