Civilization

One seed of civilization, thousands of years of history, and a single question that won't let you sleep: just one more turn. Civilization by the legendary game designer Sid Meier arrived on the Super Nintendo as well, bringing to the console one of the most influential strategic concepts of all time – building an empire from the first settlers all the way to conquering space.

The essence of the game is brilliantly simple and yet endlessly deep. You begin in prehistory with a single settler and gradually found cities, research technologies, build armies, conduct diplomacy, and compete with other nations for dominance over the world. You can achieve victory militarily, or through a scientific race for the colonization of space and reaching the star Alpha Centauri.

The console version had to adapt a computer game originally controlled by mouse and keyboard to the SNES controller, which meant simplifying the controls and interface. Despite these compromises, the game retained its addictive essence – that legendary "just one more turn" that can turn a late evening into the deep hours of morning. The depth of decision-making remained intact.

The original Civilization from 1991 laid the foundations of the entire 4X strategy genre (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and became one of the most acclaimed games in the history of the medium. Thanks to it, Sid Meier joined the ranks of the most significant creators, and the Civilization brand lives on to this day in the form of a line of sequels and remains one of the pillars of the strategy genre.

On a console that was the domain of action games and platformers, Civilization felt like an intruder from another world – slow, contemplative, addictive. That's precisely why its presence on the SNES is so remarkable: it proves that even a deep computer strategy managed to find its way onto the living-room television.

Why play: One of the most influential strategy titles in gaming history – if you want to understand the roots of the 4X genre and fall for that "just one more turn" feeling, start here.