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So, after much deliberation, thought, and trawling back through the memory banks away back to the dark and murky days of my childhood, I've managed to come up with my ten favourite computer / video games of all time. Of course, having only recently purchased a PS2 this list might well change considerably in the not-so-distant future, but this is the way things stand at the moment. And so, in reverse order, we have:-
++++++++++++++++++++
10: FLYING SHARK
Platform: Amstrad CPC464
I didn't own an Amstrad computer, my mate did, and many an hour was spent playing this seminal vertical-scroller. My all-time favourite type of game is the vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up; you know, 1942, SWIV, 1943, Dragon Spirit, Xenon etc, and in my opinion Flying Shark was the best of the lot. Nothing spectacular here, just a straight forward "fly around and kill the bad guys" type of thing. Quite a long and extensive game for its time, FS didn't suffer from the age-old problem of "invisible bullet syndrome" that plagued many a game in the mid-80s. A hideously addictive game that didn't get the credit it deserved.
9: HOSTILE ALL-TERRAIN ENCOUNTER (H.A.T.E.)
Platform: Spectrum
An unsung hero of the basic yet brilliant games machine that was the humble Speccy (I owned a +2). HATE was a diagonally-scrolling shoot-em-up (anyone sense a recurring theme here?) where in alternate levels you piloted a plane or a tank along a narrow strip of terrain, shooting all kinds of baddies in the process. It had a unique system of progressing through the 30 levels; you had to collect nuclear reactor cores along the way. You lost a core for every time you were hit, and the number of cores you carried into the next level was the number of lives you have there. After losing all your lives on any particular level, you would be sent back to the last level where you had some lives remaining to try again. This meant that one game of HATE could literally last for hours without you getting anywhere in particular, which made for a frustratingly addictive experience. If the concept of this game could be successfully transported onto one of the ultra-powerful consoles around today, then it would be responsible for the break-up of innumerable relationships nationwide. A belter.
8: The TEKKEN series
Platform: PlayStation
Again, I've never owned a PSone, but I've played the Tekken games so often on my friends' machines that I'm in a good position to comment on them. Starting with (the now dated) Tekken, this series of games took the one-on-one beat-em-up formula and breathed all kinds of new life into it. Foregoing complicated combos for simpler and more effective special moves, the Tekken games saw you fight against a mate or a computer until your thumbs were raw and your fingers refused to bend properly. With the introduction of special-move-via-shoulder-button in the second game, the Tekken games took on even more speed and mind-blowing agility so that your poor, over-worked brain would struggle to keep up with. I'm currently waiting for Tekken 4 to arrive on the PS2, and I'm getting more impatient by the second. Yoshimitsu is still just the coolest guy ever.......
7: FORSAKEN
Platform: N64
An absolute beauty this one, and a bargain to boot I got it for a tenner, and you can find it for the princely sum of 5 Scottish pounds in a games store near you these days. A first or third person shooter, Forsaken has you piloting a hoverbike around a deserted Earth fortress, shooting robot defence thingies as you go. Might not sound like much, but this game is utterly compelling and addictive you just can't stop going back to that ultra-hard level just to see what was around the next corner. The weapons created for this game are the best selection I've ever come across in computer gaming (and I include Doom and Quake in that statement), and the graphics are astounding. Perhaps a little too hard in places, but once you've got the cheat modes enabled, you're laughing. A quality blast.
6: PAC-MAN
Platform: Atari
I'm going back a bit now! Yes, it was basic, but at the time it was magic. Addictive beyond belief and just downright fun, the Atari console version of PacMan is still the best ever made with changing maps, smarter ghosts as you progressed, and that chinese-water-torture-like sound effect burrowing into your brain, you just couldn't get enough of it. Again, I never owned an Atari, but I played this game every chance I got when I was about 5 or 6 years old, and it retains a place in gaming folklore for all who first picked up a joystick to play it.
5: GOLDENEYE 007
Platform: N64
The best first-person shooter ever made for a console, Goldeneye was one of the earliest releases for the N64, and is still the best that I've played. Based quite tightly on the film of the same name, you play Jimmy Bond as he tries to stop 006 using the Goldeneye satellite for his own criminal purposes. No words I can write do the game justice the missions are well-created, the gameplay flawless, the sniper mode hilarious, the multi-player option the best created for the platform, the addictiveness being almost narcotic it's so high I could go on. You really didn't own a Nintendo 64 until you had Goldeneye in your games collection, and I certainly felt like a REAL gamesplayer once I owned it. A magnificent piece of licence-use by Rare.
4: The WIPEOUT series
Platform: PlayStaion/N64
The best driving games ever. I'm not a big fan of racing games it can get a bit monotonous driving around in circles. So when I saw the first WipeOut game on my mate Billy's PSone I was blown away. Fast beyond belief, smooth running, pretty to look at and with WEAPONS! The first edition of the game is now a bit dated, but at the time it was one of the first games that showed the capabilities of the PSone. When the sequel, WipeOut2097 was released, the upgrades were plentiful and spectacular. Your little anti-grav racer could now graze the sides of the track or a competitor without grinding to a halt, and as for the SPEED it was FRIGHTENING. I own Wip3out and WipeOut64 for the PS and the N64 (although I play Wip3out on my PS2), and these two games enhanced the franchise even further, if it was possible. Can't wait for WipeOut Fusion to come out for the PS2 a game of this quality on the most powerful console around is an enticing prospect.
3: R-TYPE
Platform: Spectrum
Another blast from the past, and the finest game ever made for a home computer (80s vintage, that is). In R-Type you piloted a little spaceship from left to right, blasting baddies as you went. Doesn't sound like much does it? Pretty formulaic, by the sound of things.
HELL NO!
It might not have been much to look at, but this game just had something about it that made it stick head and shoulders (in fact, down to it's nipples) above it's contemporaries. Insanely hard, maddeningly addictive, frighteningly rewarding, stupefyingly well-designed. Various re-makes have been attempted for newer consoles, but the best version of this game (even compared to the original arcade machine version) was on the Speccy. And to think, a year after it was released, you could buy it for Ł3.99!!!! Possibly the biggest bargain ever seen (until Forsaken became available for a blueser). This game was worth owning one of Sir Clive's beermats for all on it's own. Sublime gaming.
2: ALIENS VS PREDATOR
Platform: PC
The most terrifying game ever made, bar none. As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of the Alien films huge in fact. I'm an even bigger fan of the "expanded universe" of literature, comics and games that have been developed from the original storyline of the movies. So when I found this game resting quietly within my mates PC, I just HAD to fire it up and have a go.
And nearly shat myself.
Actually, it's 3 games in one, as you can play as a bug (alien), a Predator, or a Colonial Marine. While being one of the beasties is a fun way to play the game, the best is obviously if you play the hapless soldier who is desperately trying to avoid becoming bug food. The visuals in this game are deliberately dark, so you have to use an image intensifier for walking around except sometimes there are infra-red lights on in the corridors, and you have to revert to normal vision. Using flares. And your motion tracker. Which has started beeping.......
If you're a fan of the movies, you?ll love this. If you're not a fan of the movies, you'll love this. Either way, you will be scared S***LESS if you play as the marine. Superb.
And now (drum roll please), my favourite game of all-time. And you might be a wee bit surprised.....
1: SENSIBLE SOCCER
Platform: Sega MegaDrive
For being a football fanatic, I'm not a huge fan of football games they tend to be horrifically over-complicated, far too easy or far too hard in single-player mode, and just a bit dull. Not so with Sensi. Instead of going for the ultra-realistic style of FIFA or ISS, Sensi is best described as arcade football, with tiny little players running up and down the screen. Graphically the game is dismal compared with today's efforts, but the graphics were sacrificed for gameplay and controllability, which counts for a hell of a lot more in my book than pure eye-candy. You could edit the teams, make your own teams up, edit the strips, even change the colour of the players hair and take hours doing so without noticing. Some of the tournaments me and my muckers had playing this game got very intense, with much shouting, screaming of OFFSIDE, and eventual despair when I lost. Again. A quality game, the likes of which has yet to be surpassed in sheer enjoyment of playing.
So that's it then. A fairly eclectic bunch, but crackers all nonetheless.
Thanks for Reading, post your top 10 here if you want.
++++++++++++++++++++
10: FLYING SHARK
Platform: Amstrad CPC464
I didn't own an Amstrad computer, my mate did, and many an hour was spent playing this seminal vertical-scroller. My all-time favourite type of game is the vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up; you know, 1942, SWIV, 1943, Dragon Spirit, Xenon etc, and in my opinion Flying Shark was the best of the lot. Nothing spectacular here, just a straight forward "fly around and kill the bad guys" type of thing. Quite a long and extensive game for its time, FS didn't suffer from the age-old problem of "invisible bullet syndrome" that plagued many a game in the mid-80s. A hideously addictive game that didn't get the credit it deserved.
9: HOSTILE ALL-TERRAIN ENCOUNTER (H.A.T.E.)
Platform: Spectrum
An unsung hero of the basic yet brilliant games machine that was the humble Speccy (I owned a +2). HATE was a diagonally-scrolling shoot-em-up (anyone sense a recurring theme here?) where in alternate levels you piloted a plane or a tank along a narrow strip of terrain, shooting all kinds of baddies in the process. It had a unique system of progressing through the 30 levels; you had to collect nuclear reactor cores along the way. You lost a core for every time you were hit, and the number of cores you carried into the next level was the number of lives you have there. After losing all your lives on any particular level, you would be sent back to the last level where you had some lives remaining to try again. This meant that one game of HATE could literally last for hours without you getting anywhere in particular, which made for a frustratingly addictive experience. If the concept of this game could be successfully transported onto one of the ultra-powerful consoles around today, then it would be responsible for the break-up of innumerable relationships nationwide. A belter.
8: The TEKKEN series
Platform: PlayStation
Again, I've never owned a PSone, but I've played the Tekken games so often on my friends' machines that I'm in a good position to comment on them. Starting with (the now dated) Tekken, this series of games took the one-on-one beat-em-up formula and breathed all kinds of new life into it. Foregoing complicated combos for simpler and more effective special moves, the Tekken games saw you fight against a mate or a computer until your thumbs were raw and your fingers refused to bend properly. With the introduction of special-move-via-shoulder-button in the second game, the Tekken games took on even more speed and mind-blowing agility so that your poor, over-worked brain would struggle to keep up with. I'm currently waiting for Tekken 4 to arrive on the PS2, and I'm getting more impatient by the second. Yoshimitsu is still just the coolest guy ever.......
7: FORSAKEN
Platform: N64
An absolute beauty this one, and a bargain to boot I got it for a tenner, and you can find it for the princely sum of 5 Scottish pounds in a games store near you these days. A first or third person shooter, Forsaken has you piloting a hoverbike around a deserted Earth fortress, shooting robot defence thingies as you go. Might not sound like much, but this game is utterly compelling and addictive you just can't stop going back to that ultra-hard level just to see what was around the next corner. The weapons created for this game are the best selection I've ever come across in computer gaming (and I include Doom and Quake in that statement), and the graphics are astounding. Perhaps a little too hard in places, but once you've got the cheat modes enabled, you're laughing. A quality blast.
6: PAC-MAN
Platform: Atari
I'm going back a bit now! Yes, it was basic, but at the time it was magic. Addictive beyond belief and just downright fun, the Atari console version of PacMan is still the best ever made with changing maps, smarter ghosts as you progressed, and that chinese-water-torture-like sound effect burrowing into your brain, you just couldn't get enough of it. Again, I never owned an Atari, but I played this game every chance I got when I was about 5 or 6 years old, and it retains a place in gaming folklore for all who first picked up a joystick to play it.
5: GOLDENEYE 007
Platform: N64
The best first-person shooter ever made for a console, Goldeneye was one of the earliest releases for the N64, and is still the best that I've played. Based quite tightly on the film of the same name, you play Jimmy Bond as he tries to stop 006 using the Goldeneye satellite for his own criminal purposes. No words I can write do the game justice the missions are well-created, the gameplay flawless, the sniper mode hilarious, the multi-player option the best created for the platform, the addictiveness being almost narcotic it's so high I could go on. You really didn't own a Nintendo 64 until you had Goldeneye in your games collection, and I certainly felt like a REAL gamesplayer once I owned it. A magnificent piece of licence-use by Rare.
4: The WIPEOUT series
Platform: PlayStaion/N64
The best driving games ever. I'm not a big fan of racing games it can get a bit monotonous driving around in circles. So when I saw the first WipeOut game on my mate Billy's PSone I was blown away. Fast beyond belief, smooth running, pretty to look at and with WEAPONS! The first edition of the game is now a bit dated, but at the time it was one of the first games that showed the capabilities of the PSone. When the sequel, WipeOut2097 was released, the upgrades were plentiful and spectacular. Your little anti-grav racer could now graze the sides of the track or a competitor without grinding to a halt, and as for the SPEED it was FRIGHTENING. I own Wip3out and WipeOut64 for the PS and the N64 (although I play Wip3out on my PS2), and these two games enhanced the franchise even further, if it was possible. Can't wait for WipeOut Fusion to come out for the PS2 a game of this quality on the most powerful console around is an enticing prospect.
3: R-TYPE
Platform: Spectrum
Another blast from the past, and the finest game ever made for a home computer (80s vintage, that is). In R-Type you piloted a little spaceship from left to right, blasting baddies as you went. Doesn't sound like much does it? Pretty formulaic, by the sound of things.
HELL NO!
It might not have been much to look at, but this game just had something about it that made it stick head and shoulders (in fact, down to it's nipples) above it's contemporaries. Insanely hard, maddeningly addictive, frighteningly rewarding, stupefyingly well-designed. Various re-makes have been attempted for newer consoles, but the best version of this game (even compared to the original arcade machine version) was on the Speccy. And to think, a year after it was released, you could buy it for Ł3.99!!!! Possibly the biggest bargain ever seen (until Forsaken became available for a blueser). This game was worth owning one of Sir Clive's beermats for all on it's own. Sublime gaming.
2: ALIENS VS PREDATOR
Platform: PC
The most terrifying game ever made, bar none. As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of the Alien films huge in fact. I'm an even bigger fan of the "expanded universe" of literature, comics and games that have been developed from the original storyline of the movies. So when I found this game resting quietly within my mates PC, I just HAD to fire it up and have a go.
And nearly shat myself.
Actually, it's 3 games in one, as you can play as a bug (alien), a Predator, or a Colonial Marine. While being one of the beasties is a fun way to play the game, the best is obviously if you play the hapless soldier who is desperately trying to avoid becoming bug food. The visuals in this game are deliberately dark, so you have to use an image intensifier for walking around except sometimes there are infra-red lights on in the corridors, and you have to revert to normal vision. Using flares. And your motion tracker. Which has started beeping.......
If you're a fan of the movies, you?ll love this. If you're not a fan of the movies, you'll love this. Either way, you will be scared S***LESS if you play as the marine. Superb.
And now (drum roll please), my favourite game of all-time. And you might be a wee bit surprised.....
1: SENSIBLE SOCCER
Platform: Sega MegaDrive
For being a football fanatic, I'm not a huge fan of football games they tend to be horrifically over-complicated, far too easy or far too hard in single-player mode, and just a bit dull. Not so with Sensi. Instead of going for the ultra-realistic style of FIFA or ISS, Sensi is best described as arcade football, with tiny little players running up and down the screen. Graphically the game is dismal compared with today's efforts, but the graphics were sacrificed for gameplay and controllability, which counts for a hell of a lot more in my book than pure eye-candy. You could edit the teams, make your own teams up, edit the strips, even change the colour of the players hair and take hours doing so without noticing. Some of the tournaments me and my muckers had playing this game got very intense, with much shouting, screaming of OFFSIDE, and eventual despair when I lost. Again. A quality game, the likes of which has yet to be surpassed in sheer enjoyment of playing.
So that's it then. A fairly eclectic bunch, but crackers all nonetheless.
Thanks for Reading, post your top 10 here if you want.
Page:
Edgy wrote:
> kottonmouth wrote:
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film,
> you, James
> Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as taking
> hostages through
> jungles, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle
> against 006 in the
> infamous Cradle level.
I wasn't aware you led any
> hostages through the Jungle! A plane containing both Bond and Natalya crashes in
> the jungle, but that plane is only big enough for two people!
Did I write that? Jebus! I meant to say this:
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film, you, James Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as adventuring through a jungle, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle against 006 in the infamous Cradle level.
I must be drunk! :)
> kottonmouth wrote:
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film,
> you, James
> Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as taking
> hostages through
> jungles, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle
> against 006 in the
> infamous Cradle level.
I wasn't aware you led any
> hostages through the Jungle! A plane containing both Bond and Natalya crashes in
> the jungle, but that plane is only big enough for two people!
Did I write that? Jebus! I meant to say this:
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film, you, James Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as adventuring through a jungle, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle against 006 in the infamous Cradle level.
I must be drunk! :)
Ah:
10: GTA3
9: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
8: Resident Evil
7: Shadowman
6: Smash Brothers
5: Perfect Dark
4: Pokemon Silver
3: Conker's Bad Fur Day
2: Zelda Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask
1: Mario World/ Mario Advance 2
10: GTA3
9: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
8: Resident Evil
7: Shadowman
6: Smash Brothers
5: Perfect Dark
4: Pokemon Silver
3: Conker's Bad Fur Day
2: Zelda Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask
1: Mario World/ Mario Advance 2
kottonmouth wrote:
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film, you, James
> Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as taking hostages through
> jungles, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle against 006 in the
> infamous Cradle level.
I wasn't aware you led any hostages through the Jungle! A plane containing both Bond and Natalya crashes in the jungle, but that plane is only big enough for two people!
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film, you, James
> Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as taking hostages through
> jungles, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle against 006 in the
> infamous Cradle level.
I wasn't aware you led any hostages through the Jungle! A plane containing both Bond and Natalya crashes in the jungle, but that plane is only big enough for two people!
There have been so many great games, and I don't think I can put these in any particular order, but here they are: my Top Games on all formats.
Metal Gear Solid - When terrorists threaten to let loose Metal Gear Rex, a robot capable of destroying the entire world unless their demands are met, the academy send in Solid Snake, the best in his field of stealth. He must infiltrate and stop the terrorists releasing Metal Gear Rex.
Half Life - Its just another day on the job for Gordan Freeman - or is it? When an experiment goes awry, monsters are released left and right and the entire perception of time is lost. You must escape the science lab with your life, but to make it even more difficult, a military clean up squad have been sent in to destory anything that dare move.
Unreal Tournament - The year is 2033 and violence is running rampant, but a way has been thought up of containing the violence, into a sport. This sport is Unreal Tournament, a blood, sweat and tears-driven sport that involves mutilation and many dangerous weapons, with the soul purpose of killing.
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film, you, James Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as taking hostages through jungles, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle against 006 in the infamous Cradle level.
Perfect Dark - Made by Rare, the same developers of Goldeneye, this was long awaited and had high expectations. Joanna Dark must go through various levels, completing different missions.
I'll stop there, with my five top ones.
Metal Gear Solid - When terrorists threaten to let loose Metal Gear Rex, a robot capable of destroying the entire world unless their demands are met, the academy send in Solid Snake, the best in his field of stealth. He must infiltrate and stop the terrorists releasing Metal Gear Rex.
Half Life - Its just another day on the job for Gordan Freeman - or is it? When an experiment goes awry, monsters are released left and right and the entire perception of time is lost. You must escape the science lab with your life, but to make it even more difficult, a military clean up squad have been sent in to destory anything that dare move.
Unreal Tournament - The year is 2033 and violence is running rampant, but a way has been thought up of containing the violence, into a sport. This sport is Unreal Tournament, a blood, sweat and tears-driven sport that involves mutilation and many dangerous weapons, with the soul purpose of killing.
Goldeneye - Revolving around the storyline of the film, you, James Bond are sent in to do various missions, such as taking hostages through jungles, blowing up gas tanks and ending with a battle against 006 in the infamous Cradle level.
Perfect Dark - Made by Rare, the same developers of Goldeneye, this was long awaited and had high expectations. Joanna Dark must go through various levels, completing different missions.
I'll stop there, with my five top ones.
Well, here are my current top fifteen games of all time. There are so many more games I would have liked to have added, like Banjo Kazooie on the N64, and Finders Keepers on the ZX Spectrum, but I've narrowed it down to fifteen for now. Please note that with there being so many games I haven't played and the amount that are soon to be released, this is all subject to change.
15: Grannies Garden: Acorn BBC
I remember back in my early primary school days, I used to try and finish my school work as quickly as I could to be able to have a go on Grannies Garden on the BBC. It was a game where you were basically given a number of choices and had to choose the correct one to get that little bit further. You had to watch out for the evil witch and take advice from a blue raven. This game took two 5" Floppy disks, which is probably the same amount as a couple normal floppy disks. It was a brilliant game and it was what encouraged me to do well in school. The sound effects were basic and the graphics poor, but I can still remember the theme tune buzzing in my head, which generally played when you lost the game. It's a classic and it deserves to be in my top games list.
14: Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity: PC (Spectrum Holobyte)
A Final Unity was one of the earliest decent Star Trek games around. There were so many cheap Star Trek games which you can still get on those terrible quality SoftKey Game Empire disks, but this one stood out. It featured all the main characters voices from the show: Star Trek The Next Generation, and had a brilliant storyline. It was a point & click game which had you commanding up to four different officers, two of them you could choose were made up for the game, each with their own abilities. Worf was handy for tacticle issues, LaForge for engineering problems and Beverly Crusher for any medical emergencies. It stayed true to the series and was even made in the same format as the show. It started off with a prologue, then the beginning titles, then whilst you started the playable part it showed the title of the 'episode', "A Final Unity", at the top of the screen as if it were being aired on TV. It was a classic which had me playing for hours upon hours.
13: Sonic The Hedgehog: MegaDrive (Sega)
This was the first MegaDrive game I played. It was the game that rivaled Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo and was a fierce contender in the battle when console wars began. Sonic was faster, cooler and could knock out enemies by hitting them with his spikes. The lightning speed action required timing and skill, but it wasn't all fast perilous motion. Some of the time you needed to take things slowly and surely to get passed, like when standing on a moving platform floating on lava. Go too fast and you're toasted hedgehog! It also had some wierd minigames which were a way of getting the Chaos Emeralds but were frustrating as they rotated and were full of pinball-like springs which bounced you everywhere. It was cooler, brighter and had better sound than Super Mario World, but yet it wasn't the victor.
12: Super Mario Allstars Plus Super Mario World: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo)
This was the must have cartridge for any Super Nintendo owner. It featured all the Super Mario Brothers games, including the previusly unreleased in Europe game, The Lost Levels. It also had the newest addition to the Super Mario collection: Super Mario World. So what do we have? The most original platform game, a strange sequel which lets you play as any of the main four characters, but no sign of Bowser, another sequel which gives Mario the ability to turn into a raccoon, an extra game which you could say is an add-on to the original, and Super Mario World, a fresh new game based on all of the above. Ok, these games weren't as cool as the Sonic game on the competition console, but they were the more popular and deserve to go one better on my list of top games.
11: Kirby's Dream Land: Game Boy
This has to be one of the most easiest games ever to hit any system! It features a character called Kirby, who for some reason on later games turns pink, who sucks in things and blows them out at enemies. He can fly, swim, and has a fascination with food and stars. So why is it one of my favourites? It's original and it's fun to play that's why. It was only four levels long but they were full of bosses, obstacles and funny powerups like a microphone that would allow you to make a loud high pitched squeal that would make all enemies pop. It was the first game I played on the original Game Boy which didn't have microscopic characters (play Super Mario Land if you don't understand) and it had all the best elements of a platform game, as well as decent music for a Game Boy game to keep me entertained for longer than it should. Infact I could drain my betteries just on the game's soundtest feature!
10: Command & Conquer series: PC (Westwood Studios)
The Command & Conquer series is a must have set of games for the PC, full of non stop action and brilliant FMV sequences that tell the stories getting you on the edge of your seats. There have only been four main Command & Conquer games so far, each with atleast one add-on, and they cover two storylines so far. We've got the original one featuring a peace-keeping organisation funded by the United Nations called the Global Defense Initiative, who have to try and stop the Brotherhood Of Nod terrorist group from using the powers of a substance called Tiberium to take over the world. The Red-Alert series however follows a different approach. The games are similar but Red-Alert is more based on a new version of the cold war which according to the games started when a scientist meddled with time to try and get rid of the evil dictator, Adolf Hitler. The games are all point and clicks and basically go along the lines of: Build a base, train soldiers, build tanks then capture enemy's bases, however as you progress through the games the missions become more complex as you have to defend certain characters, stop nuclear weapons and infiltrate buildings. These games offer so much action that I can not wait for the new First Person Command & Conquer game to be released early this year!
9: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land: Game Boy (Nintendo)
Super Mario Land 3 doesn't feel like a Super Mario game, but it is. You play as Mario's evil brother Wario, who wans revenge for losing his castle to Mario in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. This game features the ability to use special helmets to improve Warios abilities to enable him to get further in the game. The one you start off with you can get by eating garlic, eat another and you'll get the Bull-helmet, which you can also get if you find in a level. The Jet-helmet allows you to fly in a straight line at the same altitude for a limited time so that you can avoid hitting obstacles. The final one is the dragons-helmet which allows you to spit fire from your head to kill enemies, it's the least useful but can be handy at times. Wario's platform adventure is more puzzle based than the previous Mario games but is suprisingly more fun to play. It's got a Super Mario World style level select system and is jam-packed full of hidden items, powerups and even levels! Definately one for any Game Boy owner (especially as it's Game Boy Advance compatable!)
8: Out Run: ZX Spectrum 128k +2 (Sega)
There isn't as much that I can say about this game as I could most the others. It's got a very simple playing mode which involves trying to beat the clock to finishing courses whilst racing along busy roads and highways and avoiding obstacles. It takes a while to load, but it's well worth it. Although the ZX Spectrum version is virtually monochrome, it's the only version I had bar the arcade version which I only had the chance to play once every few years before they removed the machine from Kiln Park's Arcade. It didn't have the most complex turning, but it was one of the first of it's kind, and it was cool! Especially for young adults dreaming of being in the movies, picking up a hot babe in your convertable, and driving at top speeds on hot and sunny roads. unlike most developers for the classic consoles, Sega thought of us poor Spectrum users who didn't have as good sound as Commodore and Amstrad users and gave us a music track on the other side of the tape with level one music which I had heard many a time in the arcades. This may not have been one of the best games ever, but it's certainly one of my favourites.
7: Pokémon Yellow: Game Boy (Nintendo, Hal Labratories, Game Freak)
How Nintendo managed to release games under the original "Game Boy" logo I do not know, especially when the Game Boy Color had been out for years. But this was Nintendo showing they could do it, release a game for all owners of Game Boy Systems to play which would soon become the most popular game ever! (Until Pokémon Gold and Silver came along that is) It was the Special Edition version of the orginal Pokémon Blue and Red games, and featured a storyline that followed closer to the cartoon series. You know how Pokmon plays right? You catch pokémon (or Pocket Monsters) in Pokéballs and train them to fight other pokémon in order to be able to compete in the Indigo league and become the Pokémon Master. It also allows you to connect to all previous version of the game and compete against your friends, but sadly you can not train that way. This version was also designed for use with the Nintendo 64 game, "Pokémon Stadium", which, when played with Pokémon Yellow stuck in the Transfer Pak, would let you play with Pikachu as well as using his voice instead of a stupid roar (as if a mouse could roar!) Anyway, to get the real magic of the game, you need to play it. It's a brilliant game, it's in full colour, and it'll keep you occupied for months!
6: Worms Series: PC (Team17, Microprose)
Ever been caught playing with pink wobbly things in public, and wondering why your friends look at you all wierd? Well now you can play with them in the comfort of your own home on your PC in many different versions of the game: Worms. There are many version of worms, including Addiction Pinball, which is as it's title suggests, addictive. The games are basically war games in which you control teams of worms against either computer teams, friends locally or on the net! You have to use different strategies to basically destroy the other team's worms using all sorts of crazy weapons like Holy Hand Grenades, and Salvation Army bombs. They've got a comdey element too. Have you ever heard worms speaking in a Yorkshire accent, speaking in scouse or even swearing at each other in a Scottish way? Well you have now! Worms games feature loads of different sound schemes which just make you want to laugh til you drop, including "whoopsie" which you just have to hear then associate with one of your associates. There's just so much you can do on these games, so many ways of playing too! I just can't wait to see what new stuff Worms Blast will bring us!
5: Goldeneye 007: N64 (Nintendo/Rareware)
Goldeneye was the game that revolutionised the way FPS games were made, blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before, you still don't believe it, but it's true! We wouldn't have the same kind of aiming features if it wasn't for the N64, it's 3D stick and it's trigger button! Anyhow, it's not just that that makes it such a good game! It's the fact that it has bloody good multiplayer action, as well as a million and one things you can do on single player. There's no jump option though, but that could be one of the reasons for it's success. Using "Jump" would mean to have to use up one of the buttons, ruining the perfect control methods, and forcing the game to turn into a platformer. The artificial intelligence isn't the best, but it's fun trying to kill the enemies in so many different ways, especially that one sat on the loo in the facility level. Again, as with most of the games in my list, there is an endless list of things you can do in the game, and that's what has made it last so long and has made it one of the biggest selling N64 games ever! Basically, if there's one word that could summarise the N64, it would be Goldeneye.
4: Super Mario Bros: Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Color (Nintendo)
This is the one that started it off. It wasn't the first for Mario, but it was the one that started off that certain type of platformer that allowed us to have so many different platform games. Based on Donkey Kong and Mario Bros it features Mario who has to try and save Princess Toadstool from the evil King Koopa: Bowser. It's basic level design and system of powerups inspired many a platformer that there are too many to list. But the game was fun, difficult, and worth the money for both the NES and Game Boy Color.
3: Grand Theft Auto 3: Playstation 2 (Rockstar)
Voted best game of 2001 but banned from Australia! What a contradiction! This game was banned due to the amount of ways you could make the blood drip out of innocent civilians, the ability to crush them under the wheels of most vehicles, and the ability to pick up prostitutes to give you some extra health. But that's why it's so good! You can do so much more than just follow the storylines! You can make the cops chase you through the streets to see how long you can go without getting caught, you can act as a vigilante by stealing a police vehicle and going after criminals, you can steal a taxi and take passengers to their destinations for a fare, you can rescue people in ambulances, put out fires in fire engines and so much more that you wont believe this game fits on one disk! It's full of non stop action, hilarious radio stations, and best of all, brilliant artificial intelligence to go with the beautifully animated characters. Ok, the game has it's flaws, but I can count them on one finger. There are so many missions to do, so many people to hurt, and so much money to be made, you'd be stupid not to own this title! I hope the PC conversion is just as good! Sadly, however, there isn't a multiplayer option. But just watching someone kick-ass on this game is enough to make you want to play! This game is good enough to get a Playstation 2 for!
2: Skies of Arcadia: Dreamcast (Sega)
This is one of the best 3D adventures ever to be released in my opinion! This two-disk game features one heck of a good storyline and brilliant action all the way through, whether you're beating up pirates or cannon-blasting the Gigas, you're never bored! The game is mixed with in-game graphic-FMV to make a wonderful link to what you're doing in the game and what's happening in the storyline. Topped with brilliant sound effects, top quality music, and lots of different characters each with their own personalities. This game was well thought out before it was made up, it's complex storyline could not have been invented overnight. The way the characters move, the level of interactivity in the game, the special attacks and the FMV sequences are just about enough to put this game into second place on my list. It's got everything you could want in a game, and a little more, and I promise you, if you get this game you wont put it down til you've completed it!
1: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo)
This is it, number one. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the third game in the ever continuing series, featuring a new Link, and new Zelda, and the same old Ganondorf trying to take the powers of the Triforce into his own hands. The Triforce gives the holder the power to create a land of his own, a second dimension where things happen from your imagination. If the holder is good, the new dimension will be ich and prosperous, if evil however, the land will be poisoned, dark and full of horrors. So I bet you can guess what happens, Ganon steals the Triforce, creates the Dark World and tries to get his minions to travel into the light world to take over Hyrule. Only Link can stop him of course, but first he must rescue Princess Zelda from the castle guards whom Ganon hypnotised to work for him. It was great in the old days, when games had storylines and were based on them, and not the other way round. Games were so much more interesting, complex, and fun to play. You had a reason to do things instead of just killing people, nicking their own weapons, and killing a monster. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is based on the first ever Zelda game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, following a similar storyline and using basically the same methods of control. However, the SNES has more buttons and so the game is so much easier to control and makes use of everything. It is full of challenging dungeons of which you have to puzzle your way though, each one concluded with a boss-enemy that gets tougher in each dungeon. As well as just having to complete the dungeons, you have to find many items to aid you through your quest, especially the Master Sword found in the lost woods. Again, in this game there is no multiplayer, but there's enough secrets and mini-games in this adventure to stop you even thinking of getting sociable! Even when you've completed the game, there are more challenges ahead. It's guaranteed you will have had a Game Over at least once, and it will tell you at the end if you have, can you complete it again without a Game Over? And can you find all the hidden secrets in this game? I doubt you can. You will be playing this game much longer than you will any other, it is probably the best game to own if you want one to last. It's my favourite, the best and I still play it now!
So there we have it, my current top 15. If you managed to read it all, why not have a go at some of them yourselves? You'll never really know how good these games are til you've played them. So go on, give them a try!
15: Grannies Garden: Acorn BBC
I remember back in my early primary school days, I used to try and finish my school work as quickly as I could to be able to have a go on Grannies Garden on the BBC. It was a game where you were basically given a number of choices and had to choose the correct one to get that little bit further. You had to watch out for the evil witch and take advice from a blue raven. This game took two 5" Floppy disks, which is probably the same amount as a couple normal floppy disks. It was a brilliant game and it was what encouraged me to do well in school. The sound effects were basic and the graphics poor, but I can still remember the theme tune buzzing in my head, which generally played when you lost the game. It's a classic and it deserves to be in my top games list.
14: Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity: PC (Spectrum Holobyte)
A Final Unity was one of the earliest decent Star Trek games around. There were so many cheap Star Trek games which you can still get on those terrible quality SoftKey Game Empire disks, but this one stood out. It featured all the main characters voices from the show: Star Trek The Next Generation, and had a brilliant storyline. It was a point & click game which had you commanding up to four different officers, two of them you could choose were made up for the game, each with their own abilities. Worf was handy for tacticle issues, LaForge for engineering problems and Beverly Crusher for any medical emergencies. It stayed true to the series and was even made in the same format as the show. It started off with a prologue, then the beginning titles, then whilst you started the playable part it showed the title of the 'episode', "A Final Unity", at the top of the screen as if it were being aired on TV. It was a classic which had me playing for hours upon hours.
13: Sonic The Hedgehog: MegaDrive (Sega)
This was the first MegaDrive game I played. It was the game that rivaled Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo and was a fierce contender in the battle when console wars began. Sonic was faster, cooler and could knock out enemies by hitting them with his spikes. The lightning speed action required timing and skill, but it wasn't all fast perilous motion. Some of the time you needed to take things slowly and surely to get passed, like when standing on a moving platform floating on lava. Go too fast and you're toasted hedgehog! It also had some wierd minigames which were a way of getting the Chaos Emeralds but were frustrating as they rotated and were full of pinball-like springs which bounced you everywhere. It was cooler, brighter and had better sound than Super Mario World, but yet it wasn't the victor.
12: Super Mario Allstars Plus Super Mario World: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo)
This was the must have cartridge for any Super Nintendo owner. It featured all the Super Mario Brothers games, including the previusly unreleased in Europe game, The Lost Levels. It also had the newest addition to the Super Mario collection: Super Mario World. So what do we have? The most original platform game, a strange sequel which lets you play as any of the main four characters, but no sign of Bowser, another sequel which gives Mario the ability to turn into a raccoon, an extra game which you could say is an add-on to the original, and Super Mario World, a fresh new game based on all of the above. Ok, these games weren't as cool as the Sonic game on the competition console, but they were the more popular and deserve to go one better on my list of top games.
11: Kirby's Dream Land: Game Boy
This has to be one of the most easiest games ever to hit any system! It features a character called Kirby, who for some reason on later games turns pink, who sucks in things and blows them out at enemies. He can fly, swim, and has a fascination with food and stars. So why is it one of my favourites? It's original and it's fun to play that's why. It was only four levels long but they were full of bosses, obstacles and funny powerups like a microphone that would allow you to make a loud high pitched squeal that would make all enemies pop. It was the first game I played on the original Game Boy which didn't have microscopic characters (play Super Mario Land if you don't understand) and it had all the best elements of a platform game, as well as decent music for a Game Boy game to keep me entertained for longer than it should. Infact I could drain my betteries just on the game's soundtest feature!
10: Command & Conquer series: PC (Westwood Studios)
The Command & Conquer series is a must have set of games for the PC, full of non stop action and brilliant FMV sequences that tell the stories getting you on the edge of your seats. There have only been four main Command & Conquer games so far, each with atleast one add-on, and they cover two storylines so far. We've got the original one featuring a peace-keeping organisation funded by the United Nations called the Global Defense Initiative, who have to try and stop the Brotherhood Of Nod terrorist group from using the powers of a substance called Tiberium to take over the world. The Red-Alert series however follows a different approach. The games are similar but Red-Alert is more based on a new version of the cold war which according to the games started when a scientist meddled with time to try and get rid of the evil dictator, Adolf Hitler. The games are all point and clicks and basically go along the lines of: Build a base, train soldiers, build tanks then capture enemy's bases, however as you progress through the games the missions become more complex as you have to defend certain characters, stop nuclear weapons and infiltrate buildings. These games offer so much action that I can not wait for the new First Person Command & Conquer game to be released early this year!
9: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land: Game Boy (Nintendo)
Super Mario Land 3 doesn't feel like a Super Mario game, but it is. You play as Mario's evil brother Wario, who wans revenge for losing his castle to Mario in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. This game features the ability to use special helmets to improve Warios abilities to enable him to get further in the game. The one you start off with you can get by eating garlic, eat another and you'll get the Bull-helmet, which you can also get if you find in a level. The Jet-helmet allows you to fly in a straight line at the same altitude for a limited time so that you can avoid hitting obstacles. The final one is the dragons-helmet which allows you to spit fire from your head to kill enemies, it's the least useful but can be handy at times. Wario's platform adventure is more puzzle based than the previous Mario games but is suprisingly more fun to play. It's got a Super Mario World style level select system and is jam-packed full of hidden items, powerups and even levels! Definately one for any Game Boy owner (especially as it's Game Boy Advance compatable!)
8: Out Run: ZX Spectrum 128k +2 (Sega)
There isn't as much that I can say about this game as I could most the others. It's got a very simple playing mode which involves trying to beat the clock to finishing courses whilst racing along busy roads and highways and avoiding obstacles. It takes a while to load, but it's well worth it. Although the ZX Spectrum version is virtually monochrome, it's the only version I had bar the arcade version which I only had the chance to play once every few years before they removed the machine from Kiln Park's Arcade. It didn't have the most complex turning, but it was one of the first of it's kind, and it was cool! Especially for young adults dreaming of being in the movies, picking up a hot babe in your convertable, and driving at top speeds on hot and sunny roads. unlike most developers for the classic consoles, Sega thought of us poor Spectrum users who didn't have as good sound as Commodore and Amstrad users and gave us a music track on the other side of the tape with level one music which I had heard many a time in the arcades. This may not have been one of the best games ever, but it's certainly one of my favourites.
7: Pokémon Yellow: Game Boy (Nintendo, Hal Labratories, Game Freak)
How Nintendo managed to release games under the original "Game Boy" logo I do not know, especially when the Game Boy Color had been out for years. But this was Nintendo showing they could do it, release a game for all owners of Game Boy Systems to play which would soon become the most popular game ever! (Until Pokémon Gold and Silver came along that is) It was the Special Edition version of the orginal Pokémon Blue and Red games, and featured a storyline that followed closer to the cartoon series. You know how Pokmon plays right? You catch pokémon (or Pocket Monsters) in Pokéballs and train them to fight other pokémon in order to be able to compete in the Indigo league and become the Pokémon Master. It also allows you to connect to all previous version of the game and compete against your friends, but sadly you can not train that way. This version was also designed for use with the Nintendo 64 game, "Pokémon Stadium", which, when played with Pokémon Yellow stuck in the Transfer Pak, would let you play with Pikachu as well as using his voice instead of a stupid roar (as if a mouse could roar!) Anyway, to get the real magic of the game, you need to play it. It's a brilliant game, it's in full colour, and it'll keep you occupied for months!
6: Worms Series: PC (Team17, Microprose)
Ever been caught playing with pink wobbly things in public, and wondering why your friends look at you all wierd? Well now you can play with them in the comfort of your own home on your PC in many different versions of the game: Worms. There are many version of worms, including Addiction Pinball, which is as it's title suggests, addictive. The games are basically war games in which you control teams of worms against either computer teams, friends locally or on the net! You have to use different strategies to basically destroy the other team's worms using all sorts of crazy weapons like Holy Hand Grenades, and Salvation Army bombs. They've got a comdey element too. Have you ever heard worms speaking in a Yorkshire accent, speaking in scouse or even swearing at each other in a Scottish way? Well you have now! Worms games feature loads of different sound schemes which just make you want to laugh til you drop, including "whoopsie" which you just have to hear then associate with one of your associates. There's just so much you can do on these games, so many ways of playing too! I just can't wait to see what new stuff Worms Blast will bring us!
5: Goldeneye 007: N64 (Nintendo/Rareware)
Goldeneye was the game that revolutionised the way FPS games were made, blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before, you still don't believe it, but it's true! We wouldn't have the same kind of aiming features if it wasn't for the N64, it's 3D stick and it's trigger button! Anyhow, it's not just that that makes it such a good game! It's the fact that it has bloody good multiplayer action, as well as a million and one things you can do on single player. There's no jump option though, but that could be one of the reasons for it's success. Using "Jump" would mean to have to use up one of the buttons, ruining the perfect control methods, and forcing the game to turn into a platformer. The artificial intelligence isn't the best, but it's fun trying to kill the enemies in so many different ways, especially that one sat on the loo in the facility level. Again, as with most of the games in my list, there is an endless list of things you can do in the game, and that's what has made it last so long and has made it one of the biggest selling N64 games ever! Basically, if there's one word that could summarise the N64, it would be Goldeneye.
4: Super Mario Bros: Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Color (Nintendo)
This is the one that started it off. It wasn't the first for Mario, but it was the one that started off that certain type of platformer that allowed us to have so many different platform games. Based on Donkey Kong and Mario Bros it features Mario who has to try and save Princess Toadstool from the evil King Koopa: Bowser. It's basic level design and system of powerups inspired many a platformer that there are too many to list. But the game was fun, difficult, and worth the money for both the NES and Game Boy Color.
3: Grand Theft Auto 3: Playstation 2 (Rockstar)
Voted best game of 2001 but banned from Australia! What a contradiction! This game was banned due to the amount of ways you could make the blood drip out of innocent civilians, the ability to crush them under the wheels of most vehicles, and the ability to pick up prostitutes to give you some extra health. But that's why it's so good! You can do so much more than just follow the storylines! You can make the cops chase you through the streets to see how long you can go without getting caught, you can act as a vigilante by stealing a police vehicle and going after criminals, you can steal a taxi and take passengers to their destinations for a fare, you can rescue people in ambulances, put out fires in fire engines and so much more that you wont believe this game fits on one disk! It's full of non stop action, hilarious radio stations, and best of all, brilliant artificial intelligence to go with the beautifully animated characters. Ok, the game has it's flaws, but I can count them on one finger. There are so many missions to do, so many people to hurt, and so much money to be made, you'd be stupid not to own this title! I hope the PC conversion is just as good! Sadly, however, there isn't a multiplayer option. But just watching someone kick-ass on this game is enough to make you want to play! This game is good enough to get a Playstation 2 for!
2: Skies of Arcadia: Dreamcast (Sega)
This is one of the best 3D adventures ever to be released in my opinion! This two-disk game features one heck of a good storyline and brilliant action all the way through, whether you're beating up pirates or cannon-blasting the Gigas, you're never bored! The game is mixed with in-game graphic-FMV to make a wonderful link to what you're doing in the game and what's happening in the storyline. Topped with brilliant sound effects, top quality music, and lots of different characters each with their own personalities. This game was well thought out before it was made up, it's complex storyline could not have been invented overnight. The way the characters move, the level of interactivity in the game, the special attacks and the FMV sequences are just about enough to put this game into second place on my list. It's got everything you could want in a game, and a little more, and I promise you, if you get this game you wont put it down til you've completed it!
1: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo)
This is it, number one. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the third game in the ever continuing series, featuring a new Link, and new Zelda, and the same old Ganondorf trying to take the powers of the Triforce into his own hands. The Triforce gives the holder the power to create a land of his own, a second dimension where things happen from your imagination. If the holder is good, the new dimension will be ich and prosperous, if evil however, the land will be poisoned, dark and full of horrors. So I bet you can guess what happens, Ganon steals the Triforce, creates the Dark World and tries to get his minions to travel into the light world to take over Hyrule. Only Link can stop him of course, but first he must rescue Princess Zelda from the castle guards whom Ganon hypnotised to work for him. It was great in the old days, when games had storylines and were based on them, and not the other way round. Games were so much more interesting, complex, and fun to play. You had a reason to do things instead of just killing people, nicking their own weapons, and killing a monster. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is based on the first ever Zelda game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, following a similar storyline and using basically the same methods of control. However, the SNES has more buttons and so the game is so much easier to control and makes use of everything. It is full of challenging dungeons of which you have to puzzle your way though, each one concluded with a boss-enemy that gets tougher in each dungeon. As well as just having to complete the dungeons, you have to find many items to aid you through your quest, especially the Master Sword found in the lost woods. Again, in this game there is no multiplayer, but there's enough secrets and mini-games in this adventure to stop you even thinking of getting sociable! Even when you've completed the game, there are more challenges ahead. It's guaranteed you will have had a Game Over at least once, and it will tell you at the end if you have, can you complete it again without a Game Over? And can you find all the hidden secrets in this game? I doubt you can. You will be playing this game much longer than you will any other, it is probably the best game to own if you want one to last. It's my favourite, the best and I still play it now!
So there we have it, my current top 15. If you managed to read it all, why not have a go at some of them yourselves? You'll never really know how good these games are til you've played them. So go on, give them a try!
Soild Snake wrote:
> spammer!
Um, I think you are mistaken.
He is putting his opinions across for everyone to read, you however are spamming with one word replies!
> spammer!
Um, I think you are mistaken.
He is putting his opinions across for everyone to read, you however are spamming with one word replies!
Hhmmm...you put Wipeout ahead of Goldeneye. Ok, now I know that you have bad taste in games
10: Settlers PC
9: Delta Force PC
8: Tomraider collection PC
7: Mario Tennis GBC
6: Sims Collection PC
5: Robot Wars PC
4: Zelda games GB, GBC, N64
3: C&C series PC
2: Pokemon games GB
1: Conker's Bad Fur Day!
9: Delta Force PC
8: Tomraider collection PC
7: Mario Tennis GBC
6: Sims Collection PC
5: Robot Wars PC
4: Zelda games GB, GBC, N64
3: C&C series PC
2: Pokemon games GB
1: Conker's Bad Fur Day!
are we meant to say are top ten games or just laugh at this kids rubbish taste in games.
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