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This is a little unusual in the list, because it's a game I only discovered very recently. Sure, I was aware of its existence but I hadn't played it and never thought twice about it. I ended up trying it by default when playing around with a BBC emulator recently. I mean, when you've got a BBC emulator what do you play? Repton, Elite... and Exile.
After smacking myself 'upside the head' for a while for being ignorant of this amazing game all these years, I settled down to play it intensely and ended up favouring the Amiga version for its clarity of visuals (I spent an awfully long time stuck at the very beginning of the BBC version because I couldn't tell what anything was supposed to be). However, it remains a classic in all guises, and a genuinely amazing feat of programming and execution on the BBC.
Marrying the gravity gameplay to a sprawling, puzzle-based adventure game, Exile casts the player as an astronaut sent to a remote world to stop an insane genius from unleashing his deadly experiments on the galaxy and Earth. Arriving without equipment and low on power, you have to search for items and weapons to aid you, while fighting off the creations of the exiled madman.
The behaviour of the astronaut with regard to gravity, weather and physical interaction with other objects is so satisfying. The delicate controls beautifully responsive. It's an immense pleasure to just move around in the game, but there's a job to do. Exile can be a real head-scratcher, with some serious lateral thinking required, but it's also very accommodating to the player. You can't die in the game - you just return to your last 'remembered' position when you take too much damage (you can hold one position in memory at a time and teleport to it at will - a vital component of several puzzles).
Exile is a game that not only provides a compelling challenge and an attractive gameworld, but also has a particularly attractive feel to it. Something unique to videogames.
After many years of trying all kinds of squad-based strategy games I always come back to Laser Squad. To me it's simply never been beaten for immediacy, ease of interface and replayability. I actually have fun playing it, something that often seems lacking in other entries in the genre. There seems to be a line of complexity over which I lose interest, but Laser Squad hits it just right. I want to choose what equipment to take, and that's it. Straight into the action.
Even though there are only 6 missions they vary generously in objectives and environments, and as with any good strategy game they really come alive in multiplayer. Having said that, I never, ever tire of blowing apart the home of Sterner Regnix, or making my way cautiously through the Moonbase. Even against the computer Laser Squad is very entertaining and rewarding.
Julian Gollop has expanded his series in various directions, and Laser Squad is still going strong today, albeit in a substantially different arena. None of them have managed to top the purity of this classic.
A short while after the launch of the Playstation I sold my machine, having wrung all the entertainment I was ever going to get out of Tekken and Ridge Racer and having given up on anything appealing turning up anytime soon. I dropped out of gaming completely for a year or so until Final Fantasy VII turned up.
I don't even know what compelled me to buy another machine for it. I wasn't familiar with the series, I hadn't been reading game magazines so hadn't been exposed to the preview hype, but for some reason when it hit I just had to have it. Maybe Square put something in the water.
It seems I was ready to dive back into gaming, as I spent the next few months utterly obsessed and engrossed in the game. It remains one of only two 'traditional' Final Fantasies that I can happily go back and play (the other being in this list already). Whatever magic formula Square hit upon here, it worked. Technical limitations aside the story, characters, magic system, visuals and soundtrack were as perfect as could possibly be. The game had buckets of depth: time spent idling at the Gold Saucer, the convoluted and obsessional quest for a Gold Chocobo, defeating the optional Weapons, mastering Materia, and last but not least levelling your party above and way beyond the call of duty. I've still got a save file with characters that can win the game just by counterattacking.
I love the world of Final Fantasy VII. I used to play it every night then go to work the next day and tell a friend everything I'd done and the new places I'd seen. The game is so dear to me that even the random encounters don't bother me in the slightest. I think that first play through took me somewhere around 70 hours - much, much more than any game I'd previously played.
And that death? I didn't cry, but I was very surprised and impressed, and found a whole new level of respect for the game - that it would be willing to do that. I know SEGA had done it years before in Phantasy Star 2, but I never felt it as strongly as I did here. I had spent a significant amount of time levelling the character and following her story. I should have been angry at what might have felt like wasted time, but Square pitched that moment and its aftermath so surely that it became essential to the game, and I remember feeling nothing afterwards other than an intense desire to see it through to the end.
And the first thing I did after completing it? I started over again.
Forget the business about the value or otherwise of the game. Radiant Silvergun is a stone-cold classic of design and gameplay.
Taking advantage of every trick the Saturn has to offer, and pulling out a few that people thought it never could, Treasure crafted a masterpiece in the shoot 'em up genre. I didn't buy this blindly on the hype - even I'm not that daft, I downloaded a rip of it and tried it out on a modded PAL Saturn. A few hours with that slow, bordered version was enough to convince me I had to get hold of a genuine copy and a Japanese machine to play it on.
To me, Silvergun is like taking part in a big, dramatic story. It's peppered with dialogue and cutscenes - something that you tend not to see in shmups, and that lends it a quality of immersion seldom experienced. I'm not talking about The Zone here, I mean that particular feeling that what's going on in the game is actually happening. Hard to explain but there it is.
It's incredibly tough, but it's entirely possible given the effort. As with most shmups it mainly comes down to learning the patterns and best strategies to take on the bosses. And the bosses are glorious beasts - the game is essentially a boss rush with the business inbetween all about levelling your weapons and chaining for highscores. The music is essential to the experience, and the game wouldn't be half as thrilling without it.
Radiant Silvergun is one of those rare games that's almost as entertaining to watch as it is to play, because of that great sense of the dramatic. To play it though is a dream, whatever the cost.
I still think Capcom got their survival horror series bang-on with this installment. It's perfectly paced, atmospheric and genuinely scary. It offers great replay value and has a great schlocky plot.
I love this game so much I pretty much forced it on a friend who isn't a fan of scary movies or games, because I was so convinced the sheer quality of the game would compel him to play and love it too, and I was right. I had played Resident Evil but it never quite clicked with me the way 2 or 3 did. I found it a little too clumsy, a little too difficult and unforgiving. When the second one came out I bought it because of the hype and, well... it's placing here speaks for itself.
The visuals have a grimy roughness necessary to the limits of the platform but also perfect for the visual style of the game. I think it still looks tremendous. The music and effects totally draw you into the world. The constant wind blowing through the streets contrasted with the eerie silence of the police station, punctuated by that classic piano piece. The voice acting is a little on the stiff side, but it's leaps and bounds over the terrible effort on the first game. It's cheesy but fits perfectly with the B-movie atmosphere.
I used to be able to ace this game, I unlocked everything and was pretty much always able to get through the whole thing without using more than a couple of health herbs. That's how much I played it. I loved the fact that it's possible to learn it in that way. There's no randomness to trip you up and frustrate you.
The thing I like most about it is the pacing. It's spot-on. The early parts of the game are pretty quiet, punctuated with action moments but on the whole it's more of a sedate puzzler. Once you get out of the police station things ramp up a little, until the finale at the lab where you're toting all kinds of firepower and running against a clock. The whole A and B scenario is a valiant idea, but it's not quite executed perfectly (some things overlap inconsistently). Still, it adds a nice twist to the game and gives at least another reason to play though it again.
Ostensibly a space trading and combat game, but one with insane amounts of detail. Sundog is a game that's been bizarrely lost to the collective memory, but is every bit as classic as the finest entries in the genre.
The 'Zoomaction' system was a brilliant way of presenting the potentially complex facets of the game to the player. You never had to use anything other than the mouse. Clicking the mouse buttons took you down or up levels in the menus, and literally inside whatever vehicle or building you were in. You could walk around your ship for example and personally check on the engines or shields while in flight or even combat (racing to replace damaged shield batteries and engine parts during combat was hair-raising stuff).
There's also a pretty large RPG element. Your stats are determined at the start of the game by spending from a pool of points. Strength, Intelligence, Charisma etc. will affect your abilities in various areas in the game. You could be attacked on the street while walking to the bank, or have to persuade a character to give up some vital information. Yes, in this game you can not only land on planets, you can get out of your ship and into a car, and out of that and walk around. Be careful where you park though, or you may get a ticket! You even had to feed yourself and make sure you got enough sleep.
There is a strong storyline that develops during the course of the game, and following it will lead to an end screen (which is unusual in itself for such an open-ended genre). I never saw it though, because I always enjoyed bashing around the galaxy too much.
Metal Gear Solid thrilled me like nothing before when it first came out, and I still think it's the best one in the series. Subsequent games have added complexity in both gameplay and plot, but for me they've never recaptured the drama and excitement of this entry.
One of the rare occasions where I was genuinely eager to find out what would happen next in a game story, MGS had me playing solidly (no pun intended) until the finale, and not for a single moment was I bored or frustrated or disinterested. It's a greatest hits of action gaming, every area offering a new challenge. It's plainly obvious that Hideo Kojima and his team threw everything they had at the game. They had plenty of fun breaking the fourth wall, too, leading to some very inventive and memorable moments. The variety in the boss battles was great, from hand-to-hand combat to taking out a helicopter with missiles. Though it usually comes under criticism for its aspirations to a movie-like experience people tend to forget that it's packed full of gameplay of all kinds. I never felt short-changed at all.
The sense of place is outstanding, each environment packed with details. The whole thing hangs together beautifully as a consistent setting. Even the much-derided Codec conversations don't bother me here as they did in the immediate sequel because I was so invested in the story and characters, and they helped to make it feel like I was really a part of this adventure. Alongside the Resident Evil games it has one of the best ambient soundtracks I've heard as well. From a technical standpoint it still holds up remarkably well, and I do believe that it's particular style means that it will never look bad.
Reliance on the radar system can lessen the experience, and after a couple of plays I ditched that and moved onto the harder difficulties. It becomes almost a completely new game, and a much more satisfying one.
Cinematic in the very best sense, Metal Gear Solid remains a benchmark for action gaming that its sequels have so far struggled to equal.
SEGA's masterpiece on the Master System, Dragon's Trap is a near-perfect platform adventure that mixes in light RPG elements as the icing on the cake.
I had greatly enjoyed Wonderboy in Monster Land, but was always frustrated by its timer and hurried nature (understandable, given its arcade origins). Dragon's Trap got rid of the linear format and laid open a world to be explored at leisure. Here were a variety of wildly different environments, challenging the player in different ways and containing plenty of secrets. The stuff of great adventures.
But the real stroke of genius was in the decision to have Wonderboy cursed and transformed into various forms throughout the game. Each form having unique abilities that allowed the player to access the level specifically designed for it, for example Mouse Man being able to stick like a spider to a particular type of block, or Lion-Man being able to slash downwards with his sword, breaking blocks below him. This Metroid-like mixture of abilities gave the game a superb freshness throughout with new challenges, and offered plenty of scope for exploration as a new form gave access to previously inaccessible rooms or areas. These would usually hold some kind of item or cash reward for players savvy enough to find them.
Like Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES, Dragon's Trap really proved what could be done with the Master System in capable hands. It's bright and detailed, the enemies and different forms of Wonderboy superbly designed and full of character, and the areas are complemented by a range of great tunes, my favourite being the island music Side-Crawler's Dance.
It's an eternal source of sadness to me that SEGA didn't keep up the Wonderboy series and build on the promise of this classic. A couple more installments appeared on the Megadrive, but the character and even the style of game faded away. With the continued success and obvious popularity Metroid and Castlevania I can't help but think that SEGA let a really good thing go to waste.
A homebrewed hybrid of Gravitar, Oids and Thrust, Gravitron uses a similar glowing-vector style to Thrust Xtreme for its visuals, but is more varied in its environments and elements. In addition to tight caverns to navigate there are spacemen to rescue, reactors to destroy, boulders to clear out, enemy ships, forcefields and a variety of gun emplacements to tackle. It can get pretty intense, and luckily there's a password system that allows you to start over from any level you've previously reached.
Suffice to say I'm won over by the nature of the game itself and the visuals. This is like a game created with the sole intention of appealing to me, and it's a no-brainer for inclusion in my 100 favourites.
People tend to think I'm joking when I tell that I think Geometry Wars is the best game on the Xbox 360, but I'm completely serious. It's the game I bought a 360 to play, and it's one of the best pure highscore arcade games ever made.
Another rung on the evolutionary ladder from Robotron via Smash TV, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is a pure and simple arena shooter that gets progressively more manic until the player is overwhelmed. It's just a case of using skill and luck to last as long as possible.
Taking the most basic visual style - vector graphics - and putting the grunt of a machine like the 360 behind them naturally means that you can have some mindblowing effects without any loss of performance. GW is eye-candy at its most glorious, and it's always tempting to let the screen fill up with as much as possible just because it all looks so tasty.
The sound is a vital aspect, too. Every spawning enemy has a unique sound, and it's imperative that the player learns every one in order to immediately face whatever's coming next. Enemy behaviours, too, because things get pretty frantic with several types onscreen at once. Some coming directly for you, some avoiding your shots and moving away, some travelling in predetermined patterns. Threading your way through the tiniest space with dozens of enemies on your tail is heart-pounding stuff, and the game cleverly discourages the use of your limited smart bombs until it's absolutely necessary.
It's true that I love few things more than a good old highscore game, and I'm just glad that there are still a few people out there happy to make them.
Ys came along at a time when I was really at a low in gaming, and it pretty much single-handedly revitalised my passion for the old days - or at least it made me realise I was looking for my gaming fix in the wrong places.
My only previous experience with the series was a few hours with the Master System version when it first came out. Since then Falcom has done its level best to avoid releasing or promoting the series in Europe (at least in the US they got a few more installments). Being a fan of videogame music, it was that which brought me to the games themselves.
No strangers to reinventing and remaking their classics, Falcom have released Ys I and II on many formats, but their primary concern in Japan is the PC market (console versions are normally handed out to other developers). Ys I & II Complete is obviously a remake of the first two games in the series, and things are actually very similar to the original incarnations. They went with the overhead 2D look, and the structure and control of the game remains intact. That said, the visuals have naturally undergone a transformation, making the game one of the most visually attractive RPGs out there. I don't mean in terms of graphical extravagance though - this is very much in traditional bitmaps and sprites territory - I mean that there's a charm here that the vast majority of games lack.
The attention to little details is wonderful, from grass and trees blowing in the wind to the animations of characters and animals. The large-scale character portraits used in conversation are done in a classic Anime style and are very accomplished. This being an Ys game again the music is unequalled. Perhaps not as exhilarating as the score for Oath in Felghana, but it has a different, gentler style that fits the simpler gameplay.
And the gameplay is quite simple. There is no attack action - combat is carried out by simply bumping into opponents. There's a bit of skill involved in attacking from the side or back (in which case Adol takes no damage in return), but on the whole it's more about being well equipped enough to take on whatever is around. You'll swiftly find out if you've strayed too far from the path you're supposed to be on at any given point.
It's this combination of simple gameplay, lovingly-drawn graphics and wonderful music that sold me on Ys. I find the game infinitely replayable because it's so relaxed and fun to play (that's not to say it doesn't hold a challenge - boss battles are usually quite difficult and there are a number of difficulty modes to play on). It took me back to more enjoyable time and type of game, unburdened by complicated controls, time investment and the demands of modern systems.
Ultima VII is the very definition of deep. There's literally hundreds of hours of game in there, and beyond that a staggering number of pointless little things to waste time doing. It has a definite plot and an overarching quest, but there's no rush to complete it or move it along. It has the sensibilities of an online game almost, in its capacity for just being in the world and tinkering about.
There's a lot going on beneath the surface, too. The relationships between you and your companions, and they with each other. Your reputation and standing with the NPCs - Ultima VII was pioneering things that are still seen as revolutionary in contemporary games. I spoke earlier of Angband and its discarding of the extraneous content of RPGs. Ultima VII is where that content is exploited fully, and its welcome here. It's a game to truly lose yourself in, and so much fun can be had with it that it's always an enticing prospect.
This may all sound a bit heavy, but in fact Ultima VII is full of humour, in the conversations and interactions with other characters and the possibilities for mischief that the player freedom allows. Just thinking up new ways to be a nuisance can be fun. Alcohol is always a good source of entertainment, for starters.
When you're done with messing about though, Ultima VII provides a top-notch story and a massive quest that will take you far and wide. As an example of an epic, western-style RPG it's probably unbeatable.
Lucasarts' finest hour, and in my opinion the finest hour of the point and click adventure genre, period. Monkey Island 2 took everything that was great about the original and expanded it in all directions. Hand-painted locations scanned in and presented in gorgeous 256-colour VGA, the iMuse system providing an evocative, dynamic soundtrack, and of course all the favourite characters returning for another daft tale of pirates, romance and voodoo.
As in the first game, the main bulk of Monkey Island 2 set the player on a multi-threaded quest that could be completed in any order. This time locating and acquiring the four pieces of a map revealing the location of the fabled 'Big Whoop' treasure. A side order of kidnapping and another run-in with the fearsome pirate LeChuck was thrown in to round out Guybrush's woes.
Monkey Island 2 was the game that made me suddenly very aware of how attractive PC games were becoming. I remember reading the review in ACE magazine and comparing it later to the screenshots of the Amiga version. While still very nice, the 32 colours of the Amiga couldn't really compare to the lush palette of the PC. It would be years before I could actually play it on the PC however, and I contented myself with the 11-disc extravaganza on an A500 with a single disc drive.
So many great moments! Striking a match in the dark to find yourself in a room full of dynamite, then dropping the match... finding a telephone in the jungle and calling the Lucasarts game hint hotline... contaminating a bowl of soup with a live rat, then ordering the soup, seeing the chef fired and taking his job on the spot (then leaving the kitchen via the window, salary advance in hand). There's barely a duff moment or flat punchline in the whole game, and as a result it's relentlessly entertaining from opening to end credits.
I owned Final Fantasy Tactics for years before playing it properly. I just never seemed in the mood for it, and the slow pace of the opening always turned me off at a time when I was down on anything requiring more than twenty minutes to finish.
One day a couple of years ago I decided to sit down and give it a shot, and a love affair with strategy RPGs began. This is stat-obsession taken to new levels. The story and actual battles are almost secondary to the compulsion to max out a particular job or gain a specific combination of abilities. Indeed, I spent so much time in mid-game playing the same map over and over to learn Ninja skills that by the time I was finished I pretty much cakewalked the rest of the game.
That's short-changing the game a little though, because the battles are excellent and the story - while mangled somewhat by a truly awful translation - is compelling and surprising. I had some tremendously satisfying moments taking strategic gambles against the enemy and having them pay off in do-or-die situations. Despite the fairly cute visual style the story is pretty dark and sombre, and certainly more involving than the usual Final Fantasy fare (though to be fair FF Tactics is really a Tactics Ogre game dressed up in FF clothes - Square saw a potential for success in the genre and gobbled up Quest, the team that developed the Ogre Battle series).
It also has superb replay value by nature of its character roster and profession options. Playing through with nothing but Chemists is a popular challenge.
Absorbing Quest and its regular contributors meant that FF Tactics benefited from a score by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata. Their heavy orchestral style added immeasurably to the game's atmosphere, especially in the stunning battle themes.
A free-roaming shoot 'em up with great graphics, effects and music. Meaty explosions, varied levels, impressive bosses and great controls. What more could you want? I love Granada X to bits.
I bought this sight-unseen on import when it came out. Feeling a bit starved of quality new Megadrive games I'd usually take a chance on something out of the blue. I didn't have the luxury of checking opinion on the internet, magazines were often behind the times somewhat (and not guaranteed to cover everything anyway), and of course the backs of the boxes didn't help much when the text was in Japanese. The cover looked exciting though.
(I've just realised that this is probably how I ended up with Herzog Zwei as well...)
Anyways... the gamble paid off in spades. Granada X is my favourite Megadrive game by a long shot. You take control of a tank in an overhead-viewed level that scrolls freely in all directions. You have a standard rapid-fire cannon and a single powerful shot that forces you back with recoil. Along the way extra weapons can be picked up such as rockets and a curious metal cube that orbits you erratically and reflects your shots. A cool feature of it is that shooting it with the big shot causes it to spray bullets out in all directions for a few seconds.
Each level has a number of objectives to take out before moving to a particular area to confront the boss. On level one it's enemy tank bases, on level two it's the engines of a huge aircraft (be careful with the recoil here!), etc. The levels are varied and there are multiple paths, providing plenty of scope for hit-and-run tactics, and a generous timer gives you plenty of freedom to work your way around.
The music is especially excellent, being composed by Motoi Sakuraba - now one of the foremost VGM composers in Japan.
I always liked Batty more than Arkanoid. maybe because it was such a superb use of the Spectrum, maybe because it was free. All that matters is that it's my favourite 'bat and ball' game, and while I can't say I've exactly followed the genre closely in the intervening years, I can honestly say I've never felt the need to. Batty does everything I want out of an Arkanoid clone perfectly.
The controls are tight, the ball movement smooth and realistic. I tend to expect anything arcade-like on the Speccy to age terribly (and most of them have, to be fair), but not Batty. It even manages to be colourful in an attractive way - not an easy task for the machine.
There's really not much depth to go into in the realm of bat and ball games, suffice to say it's an addictive arcade staple that will probably never go out of style.
Elite in 2D is a facile way to describe the Escape Velocity series, but that doesn't do justice to the essential differences the perspective provides. The basic template of trading, combat, upgrading and mission-running is there, but the gameplay has a much more immediate, arcade-like feel to it. Space flight and combat are more akin to Asteroids, but there's more than enough depth here to satisfy any space game fan.
Despite the comparatively tiny graphics, EV Nova is quite beautiful. Each ship is modelled in 3D and fully lightsourced, and lasers, bullets, missiles and explosions are painstakingly drawn and animated. The player is free to just bash about on their own, but a strong plotline is provided that will lead to greater riches and dangers. There's even an option to play in 'Ironman' mode - meaning permanent death for a lost character. I don't think I could bear that in a game so demanding of time investment, but it's certainly an exciting prospect.
One thing I find about 3D space games is that the combat is often fudged. Taking the whole thing into 2D negates that problem while still providing the meat of a classic space trading / combat game. This was a hotly contested spot in the 100 - I had considered both Space Rangers 2 and Flatspace 2 for it, but EV Nova wins out over both. It's a little gem.
I remember buying Super Mario Bros. 3 specifically. The excitement of the time made it one of those crystal-clear memories. £40 for that yellow box, a fortune to me but worth every penny. I played it all night every night until I completed it, to the exclusion of doing anything else.
SMB3 is such a perfectly crafted platform game, an art that's been all but lost in the rush and domination of 3D. Going back to it is a joy every time. The joy of perfect jumps, of precise and finely-honed controls, of pixellated characters full of charm and humour. It's a technical marvel for the NES, solidly outperforming pretty much anything else on the system, and it hasn't aged a single day (there are a couple of instances of flicker, but that's as bad as it gets).
The world maps, suits offering different abilities, and mini-games added another great dimension to the series, but in the end the greatness came down to the levels themselves. Designed to perfection and brimming with secrets. Gaming at it's most appealing.
Perhaps the greatest of all the grand 3D 16-bit adventures, Damocles has a particular atmosphere that has stuck with me years after I first played it. There's something about the solitude of it... a last man on Earth vibe that's incredibly eerie and appealing at the same time. The completely deserted yet fully-functioning solar system is vast and invites exploration, however, a ticking clock is there to constantly remind the player that this place is doomed without their timely help.
It's design dictates that Damocles is a very open-ended game. Almost from the start you're able to go pretty much anywhere you want, so it's a case of thinking the puzzle through and assembling the means to avert disaster - and the game offers five different solutions, each with their own consequences and rewards. The ideal solution is to change the course of the comet Damocles, so as to save the planet Eris and leave the comet intact for study, but there are other options. There is even a rudimentary trading system in place, which has to be exploited for the player to gain access to some of the more vital items.
Damocles is no action game. There are no enemies and you don't even carry a weapon. Looked at in the most basic terms it's an inventory puzzle on a massive scale, but it's that sense of a solid, consistent, but ghostly environment that sticks in the mind and makes it a classic.
I have so many great memories of WoW that it's hard to know where to start, so rather than ramble on endlessly I'll just try to give an overall impression of why I love it so much.
One of my favourite aspects of any big game is the capacity for exploration. WoW is so rich, detailed and varied that it's a genuine pleasure to just... travel. Aside from the occasions where you change location dramatically (airships, teleportations, deaths, etc.) you never see a load screen. Each location blends seamlessly into the next, giving a solid feeling of a vast, living world. In my early days with the game I'd spend a great deal of time simply walking about, seeing where the road led. Oftentimes it led to a swift and painful death at the claws of something I had no right to be anywhere near, but on the flipside there's a sense of satisfaction from sneaking your way around a high-level area that's unmatched in terms of tension and excitement.
The realtime day/night cycle is essential to the immersion. I tend to play overnight, and I have particularly fond memories of one of my characters, questing solo through the small hours of the morning, occasionally glimpsing another night-owl player in the distance, and seeing the sun rise gradually ingame as it did outside my window. The ambient music and sound effects only add to the sense of place, and I can confidently say that no game has ever evoked such a feeling of being in another world entirely. The online aspect is of course a huge contributor to that - arriving in a town or city and seeing it teeming with activity.
I haven't even spoken of the gameplay itself yet. WoW tends to get a lot of unfair criticism for being little more than an online chatroom. I really don't see where this is coming from. It's among the most demanding, dynamic action games I've ever played. It's most emphatically not a simple case of standing in one spot and pressing attack. I never got too involved in the instances, but from what little I sampled I could see that there is a intense level of teamwork and strategic planning. Even on the overworld you have to be constantly aware of your position and surroundings.
Even the downtime stuff is fun. One of my favourite gaming things to do is to fish and cook in WoW. The relaxing nature of it is so appealing, and I'd often log in, wander to a lake or shore and simply fish for hours while chatting to other players.
On top of all this I have to mention that's it's a tremendously beautiful game. The artistic style is such that a lot can be wrung out of a very modestly-specced machine, and the use of colour in particular is excellent. Blizzard seem to have a gift for pinpointing exactly what appeals to the senses. It's a testament to the beauty and charm of the world that I sometimes renew my subscription just to wander around and see the sights again.
You may think that the inclusion of a game like Phantasy Star is pure nostalgia, and while it is the first console RPG I ever played the fact is that I have replayed it many times over the years, and the thing that keeps it fun and fresh is precisely its simplicity.
My Master System was languishing under a steady diet of Hang On and Astro Warrior, basically because I couldn't afford any more games for it, when a friend came to the rescue and lent me Phantasy Star. My abiding memory of it is playing literally all day, from the early morning to 4:30 pm, when I very reluctantly had to turn it off to go and do my paper round.
Of course it was very different to anything I'd played until then. There really wasn't any kind of comparable experience on the home computers, certainly nothing as pick-up-and-play as this. The sense of an epic story playing out on a planetary scale was incredibly new and exciting to me. I remember being stunned when I boarded the space rocket and ended up on a whole new planet.
The visuals have a very attractive, colourful and unique style which have aged far better than their contemporaries, and the Master System did a fine job of providing a memorable soundtrack. The 3D dungeons in particular were gobsmacking at the time, and still impress considering the hardware. There are random battles aplenty but they never bothered me then and actually still don't because the intro / outro to them is so minimal. A far cry from some modern games where every single encounter is accompanied by a lavish bunch of animations and victory screens.
At this point I'd probably be expected to say that Phantasy Star ignited a passion for Japanese RPGs, but in fact apart from the direct sequel on the Megadrive I didn't touch another 'traditional' console RPG until Final Fantasy VII, nearly 20 years later. I always loved Phantasy Star for the game it is rather than the genre it represents, and I think that's why I'll always have it as a favourite.
The only reason I'm not a big FPS fan is because they give me terrible motion sickness. That's the only reason you won't find Half-Life 2, or Deus Ex, or System Shock 2 in this list. I've tried them all and had enough of a taste to know they're something extremely special, but I couldn't justify including them without having had enough experience of them.
Halo is one that I was at least able to make my way through without unbearable side-effects. I knew I'd have trouble with it but I was hearing so much good about it that I had to try. In the end I enjoyed it so much it was well worth the times when I did overdo it a bit!
I didn't manage to complete it on Legendary, but I did it on Heroic and that was enough of a challenge to bring out the best in the game for me. I was thrilled that I had to play smart, use cover, flank the enemy, think constantly about my weapon choices. Simply charging into the fray was not an option (if it was I would have grown tired of Halo very quickly). It's packed with exciting set-pieces - the beach landing and later the rock-fuelled exit from the map room, that moment on Assault on the Control Room where you step out onto a snowy battlefield, sneaking up on slumbering grunts and scattering them in panic, running to grab a Banshee as the tune 'On a Pale Horse' kicks in, or the first time you see a three-way battle between robots, Flood and Covenant.... the list goes on.
I love the way the dynamic of the game changed from level to level. A lot of people hate the Library but I didn't find it a chore (though I did manage to get a little lost, mainly because I was by necessity playing it in small chunks). Even backtracking through previous areas was made fresh by new objectives, enemies and equipment. I have particularly fond memories of the section in 'Two Betrayals' where you're faced with a large snowfield, Covenant arrayed at the other end and a selection of weapon options... do I snipe the creatures from a safe distance? Take out the Wraiths with rockets? Sneak around the edge of the field and pick enemies off one by one? It's that kind of moment-to-moment decision-making that nailed the game as a classic and more than just another frantic FPS.
Again, the music is an integral part of the enjoyment. It's epic stuff, punctuated with action-movie moments and signature themes.
Thanks to my poor brain Halo isn't a game that gets much replay, but it made such an impression on me that I'll always consider it among the best gaming experiences I've ever had.
Valkyrie Profile was a game I came very late to, years after it debuted and years after I'd grown tired of console RPGs in general. 30-some hours of play later it had cemented its position in my all-time favourites.
It's so completely different to anything I'd played before in the genre, being more a platform adventure with a combat system akin to a beat 'em up. In fact the combat is so much fun this is the only RPG I'd played up to Final Fantasy XII where I would actively seek out every single battle I could. The overarching structure of the game is very unique too, with no world map as such to wander around, and an ever-ticking clock counting down to the end of the game. You might think that this puts an undue pressure on the player, but the nature of the game means that there's no wasted time, and the progression of it is such that power-levelling simply isn't necessary - your characters will grow naturally in abilities as the game goes on, and will be adequately prepared for the final challenge.
Really what stands out in Valkyrie Profile apart from the excellent combat system is the story and overall theme, and the luscious artwork. There's a superb attention to detail in everything... animations, character portraits, environments. The presentation is superlative on every level - even the voice acting is commendable, if a little melodramatic.
Special mention has to go to the simply stunning soundtrack. Motoi Sakuraba's battle themes are unsurpassed, possibly only equalled by Hitoshi Sakimoto's work on Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. It's the slower, more sombre pieces that give the game it's true weight though. Valkyrie Profile has a great sadness to it, and the pieces accompanying the scenes where characters meet their fate are hauntingly beautiful. It's this theme of destiny, fate, lives cut cruelly short and the impassive attitude of the gods that raises Valkyrie Profile way above the usual genre clichés.
IK+ is the best beat 'em up ever made, seriously.
OK, I guess it depends very much on what you want from your fighting games, but what I tend to want is fast, fun gameplay, simple controls that still offer a lot of options, a reason to actually play the single-player mode (which is why no other fighter gets near this in the list), and a solid multiplayer mode.
One of the perennial classics of 16-bit gaming, IK+ blew me away when I first loaded it up on the Atari ST. Countless hours were spent in winner-stays-on tournaments, and I played the single-player mode extensively (level 3 black belt, right here). I even love the mini games that are thrown in. The animation still looks great, the challenge compulsive and an 8-way joystick and a single fire button provides all the moves you could want.
There's such a fun sensibility to the game, from the little codes you can type in for various effects to the obvious kick programmer Archer Maclean got out of the presentation. It's effortlessly cool. The Amiga version takes the prize for the fantastic theme tune and nicer effects, but there's nothing in it in gameplay terms between the rival 16-bit computers.
Games as art... blah blah... whatever.
To me, Rez is simply a stunning arcade shooter. A perfect blending of visuals and sound. You can look at it in the context of evolution and synaesthesia, or you can obsess over getting 100% on all the totals and a perfect ending (which I've only ever achieved once in all the times I've played it).
It's a game to be played with the lights down low and the volume way, way up. It goes without saying that the wireframe and flat-shaded polygon visuals appeal to me. As far as I'm concerned this is the way games should look - the way I always imagined they would look when I was in awe watching films like Tron as a kid.
I'm tired of the debate that springs up whenever Rez is mentioned and the accusations of pretentiousness, and while I will concur that it does contain some transcendent moments and certainly has lofty themes I maintain that it's every inch a classic, supremely playable, toe-tapping, visually beautiful shooter regardless.
And the Dreamcast / Playstation 2 debate? I'll take a consistent, fast framerate over a slightly crisper audio any day.
I was first introduced to Angband - and Roguelikes in general - via ZangbandTK. Its mouse-driven, graphical presentation served as a less painful transition into this arcane but passionately-followed genre. Over time though I grew to prefer the pure ASCII version, though I can't quite put my finger on why. Perhaps it was because as I learned the game and the array of commands I preferred the immediacy of the keyboard.
In any case, Angband presented a revelation to me. It offers all the compulsive elements of an RPG (character-building, exploration, strategic combat, and an obsession with '+' bonuses on items), while cutting out all the bloated stuff that often comes with them. There's no overworld, no tiresome townspeople to wring information out of, no sappy love stories or contrived plotlines, no bosses to spend hours levelling for. Don't get me wrong - sometimes those things are welcome, but sometimes I just want to sit down and kill lots of monsters in a dungeon.
That's not to say there isn't depth here, no siree. Angband's couple of megabytes of code certainly aren't taken up with the graphics and sounds. The level of detail in everything that's bubbling below the surface is staggering. Behaviours of creatures, effects of items and spells, and the player's own chosen profession present an enormous range of possibilities and events. Add to this the fact that the dungeon levels are randomly generated every time you move up or down a level and you have a game you can essentially play forever.
It's hard to explain the appeal of Roguelikes to someone without them actually trying them - and even then it's going to be hit or miss whether they take to them. I was immediately smitten, as I stumbled into the genre at a time when I was really looking for something new. Funny that I found what I was looking for in one of the oldest games around.
It's hard to describe what it is about Super Sprint that feels so great, but there's something about the way the car controls that I just find wonderful. Finding an original arcade cabinet lurking somewhere was always a huge treat, with its set of steering wheels and pedals. Most of the time I had to content myself with the home computer versions though, but that was fine because they were pretty much spot-on (on the ST and Amiga at any rate). The controls also translated nicely to a keyboard, so while the thrill of spinning the wheel around and steeping on the gas was lost at least the feel of the car was intact.
The sequel - Championship Sprint - added a new dimension with upgrading the car between races and additional hazards and track features, but I've always kind of preferred the simplicity of the original.
I consider Delta to be the finest entry in Irem's classic series, indeed I obviously rate it among the greatest shmups of all time. It was fated to be overlooked somewhat, being exclusive to the Playstation meant it never got the arcade exposure it's famous predecessors did, and finding a home on a machine whose primary purpose seemed to be the delivery of true 3D games meant that it got pretty much ignored in the west.
There's a wonderfully scrappy, chaotic feel to Delta, partly through the Playstation's slightly wonky visuals and partly because of the sheer amount of stuff going on. That doesn't stop it being a very attractive game though - the multitudes of effects and superbly animated enemies are a treat. There are great touches such as the music changing to a muffled version as you head underwater on level 2, or the POV changing around sometimes to give a dramatic entrance to a level or enemy.
Naturally it's tough as old boots, but it does a lot to ease the pain of the player. For example you can't crash into scenery, and restart points are thoughtfully placed in order for you to quickly build up a decent offense. There is also a small selection of ships to choose from (foreshadowing R-Type Final's bewildering array), each with their own twist on the Force / Charge Shot. A chargeable smart-bomb type weapon rounds out the new additions.
Unfortunately Irem pushed the brand further with the mediocre Final, when Delta would have been a truly magnificent send-off for the series.
Thrust Xtreme is a perfect remake. Not only does it take the original game and iron out the creaky elements, it also adds extra levels and a level editor to boot. All this and it's completely free.
The wireframe vector graphics have been given a lovely glowing effect, and of course everything is a smooth as silk. The control of the ship is spot-on, everything from rotation speed to thrust power pitched perfectly. It's an absolute dream to play and proves beyond doubt that beauty can lie in simplicity.
As a game it's already a long-established classic of tight control and delicate maneouvres, each successive level a little more demanding than the last. Somehow it never frustrates though, and it invites repeat plays purely through its satisfying feel.
What's not to love about Puyo Puyo? This long-running series has appeared on many platforms and with many little tweaks here and there, and to be honest they're all pretty great but I've played the second one more than any.
I like the forward-planning element of it, which sets it apart from its obvious comparison, Tetris. In Puyo Puyo it's not enough to simply clear blobs off the screen. Because you're competing directly with an opponent it's vital that you plan ahead to unleash combos in order to drop trash blobs onto your opponent's stack. Of course they're trying to do the same to you. There's a clearly defined objective to it that makes it for me a little more enjoyable to play than Tetris - which basically amounts to hanging on until things become unplayable. Puyo Puyo is full of genuine character and amusing visuals, and who can deny the cuteness of those little blobs?
Freespace 2 is my 3D space combat game of choice, and it's serious stuff. There's a real weight to the whole affair, exemplified by the wonderfully-voiced mission briefings, and actually piloting the various spacecraft through the missions is a pretty demanding business.
Starting out as a rookie pilot transferred to a new squadron, the player becomes embroiled in a complex plot that plays over a number of intense combat missions. Events unfold before your eyes as part of the action, and dialogue crackles over the radio throughout. It's one of the most immersive game experiences out there.
In its basic form the game is very attractive and still holds up today, but with it being open-source now there is a very active modding community, and the whole game can be upgraded visually and aurally. The results are amazing and set it comfortably alongside any contemporary space game. I've never played any other space combat game with such a believable feel, especially when the action really hots up and you're amid dozens of swarming ships. It's true white-knuckle stuff.
A classic case of Nintendo doing something perfectly right first time and everyone since making futile attempts to top or even match it (including Nintendo themselves).
Stepping into this 3D world for the first time was a gobsmacking moment. So completely new and yet within minutes everything was second nature. I found myself adapting to the demands of this new gameplay environment without any trouble at all. The whole game seems to have been designed to minimise the kind of problems we still associate with 3D platformers to this day. I never found myself frustrated with the camera, or falling to my death because I couldn't tell which way I was facing.
The world of Super Mario 64 is rich and varied and filled with secrets, but they're the kind of secrets you'll instinctively uncover. Of course you're going to try to catch that rabbit running around the basement, and you're going to try firing yourself all over the levels with the cannons, just to see what's up at the places you can't climb to. You're going to dive down and explore the moat... Super Mario 64 rewards exploration, it knows the kind of things players will try and it almost invariably provides some reward for doing so. Every level branching off from the castle provides a new and different challenge and environment, but my favourites have to be the 'Bowser' levels - classic Super Mario platform gameplay sprung into 3D like a pop-up book. I dream of Nintendo making a new Mario game that consists entirely of levels like that.
Played today it's still completely solid, and its cartoony visuals help an awful lot in that. By keeping things visually simple it outlives the vast majority of games on the N64. Super Mario 64 is one of the fledgling 3D games that will always look good, no matter how much things move on.
Captain Blood draws you in with its plain weirdness and keeps you hooked by being a surprisingly deep and compelling adventure (and it's ultimately not as weird as you first think - it just has a very unique presentation).
The basic(!) premise of the game is that Captain Blood - a game designer working under a pseudonym - has been sucked into his own creation and split into 30 clones. He has to travel the galaxy searching for them before he deteriorates out of existence (he needs to reabsorb the clones to make himself complete again). Over the past 800 years he's managed to track down 25 of the clones and it's now up to the player to help him locate the last 5. To do this he has to make friendly contact with a number of alien individuals and learn the co-ordinates of the planets where he'll find them.
The most memorable and striking part of the game is the contact with the alien races. Communications are carried out through a series of icons which represent emotions, ideas, threats, requests, etc. and can be strung together to form basic sentences. In this way Blood can coerce the contacts into aiding him in his quest. As he deteriorates over time, Blood's onscreen hand (the player cursor) becomes more and more unstable.
I don't think I really appreciated it fully back when I first owned it for the ST - I just tended to enjoy the planetfall sequences and blow planets up, but over the years its appeal to me has grown enormously. There are some rather lavish hyperspace and planet-destruction effects, and my favourite part of all - piloting a probe down to the surface of a planet - is done in a fast wireframe fractal style.
Captain Blood is one of those games that just oozes atmosphere and completely pulls you in, but there's also plenty of game in there to get your teeth stuck into. Truly unique stuff.
Squaresoft's finest hour on the SNES, Secret of Mana is to me the perfect action RPG. Gorgeous visuals, a stunning soundtrack, a quick and intuitive menu system and best of all a fluid and dynamic combat system. It even has a multiplayer option for co-op gaming.
Secret of Mana kept me hooked for a good while back in the day. I believe it was the last game I bought new for the Super Nintendo, before moving on to the next generation. It was a beautiful swansong to a happy few years with the system. Square has since pillaged the Mana brand, and aside from the immediate sequel it's always been with disappointing results. It baffles me why they can't see what they did right with this one and go from there, but they seem determined to improve each new one into a failure.
At one point in time though everything clicked. Secret of Mana still stands aside the giants of 16-bit gaming, and rightly so.
I guess this would be the vote for Pokémon in general, seeing as they're all essentially the same game. However, up to now Blue is the only Pokémon game I'd played, and for several weeks after it came out I barely played anything else. I used to think that everyone only had one game of Pokémon in them, and Blue was mine. The subsequent versions have come and gone without registering any interest, but I think it was more me blocking out the fact that if I started into another it would consume me again. I'm currently finding that this is true with Diamond - my first new Pokémon experience since 2000.
What people tend to forget is that it's a fairly traditional JRPG, only with the Pokémon levelling up instead of the player character. The story is spare, but it's not important. What is important is the overwhelming compulsion to fill that Pokédex and capture every last creature in the game. The combat is actually quite a deep spin on rock, paper, scissors, and some of the set-piece battles take some serious strategy and forward-planning.
This became my RPG fix away from home. I walked to and from work with my eyes fixed on the screen, played it surreptitiously under my desk, handed it over to a friend when it came to the end of my lunch break and I was in the middle of a battle... yes, it's fair to say I was pretty addicted to Blue. And yes, I caught them all.
I would probably love Yoshi's Island if the game wasn't all that great, simply because it looks so luscious. I can't think of any game that beats it in terms of pure visual appeal. It's 16-bit artistry taken to the limit, from the design to the style to the animation.
Luckily it plays like a dream, is superbly structured and offers enough variety in the levels to hold the interest through to the end. It's also - in true Nintendo style - packed full of secret stuff and things to search for. It's very compulsive to go back into a level time and time again to get 100% on the stars, flowers and coins. In this instance though the collecting isn't tedious because the game is a joy to actually play.
Herzog Zwei is a weird one. I don't even recall how I ended up with it on the Megadrive, but it certainly doesn't seem like the sort of game I'd have sought out at the time. It must have been the first RTS game I played (indeed it's often touted as being one of the unsung pioneers of the genre). I didn't find it much of a one-player experience, but over one summer a friend and I discovered it together and played it to death, even taking days off school to engage in marathon sessions.
It's a fairly straightforward game of conquest, each player starting off in a particular main base on a map, with a number of unclaimed smaller bases between them. These bases have to be captured by producing enough troops to fill them and various weapons and support vehicles to defend them. The player has an active role on the battlefield controlling a jet plane / giant robot transformer which can carry these units into position or directly attack the enemy. The player has limited flight fuel which can be replenished by flying over a friendly base. Victory is won by capturing the enemy's main base.
The interface is simple and the action fast and furious. Because the game is played out on a comparatively small scale the back-and-forth is very intense, with key bases changing hands constantly until a crack in the tactics is exploited and an upper hand gained.
Along with Streetfighter 2, Herzog Zwei is probably my most-played competitive two-player game. It really does need a human opponent to bring out the best in it, but it deserves its unshakable place in my 100 just for that summer and for the promise of a worthy opponent in the future.
David Jones's Magic Knight adventures were all excellent, but the sci-fi theme of Knight Tyme appealed to me the most, and indeed it's the only one I ever completed. I even went so far as to create my own guidebook for it. I mapped all the locations, made a star chart with all the flight routes, compiled inventories and character profiles from everything within the game, and of course wrote out a full solution. My Knight Tyme guidebook is one of those classic childhood items lost to multiple house moves and clearouts, but it's a testament to this game's greatness that I've often pondered doing the whole thing over again.
The Windimation system of interaction was a stroke of genius which allowed the game to still have a limited set of controls, making it feel more like an arcade game than the fairly hardcore adventure it is. Even though the NPCs did little more than move from screen to screen it still felt like you were part of a busy, living environment. It's also a very visually attractive game, making good use of the Spectrum's limited palette with bold, cartoony environments and characters, but not trying to go overboard with detail.
The Cinemaware games always seemed to me to be a bit style over substance, with little actual game in among the gorgeous visuals. ICFtD changed all that. It's one of the most engrossing games I've ever played, and the sheer atmosphere is still unbeaten.
Any lover of 50s B-movies would get a kick out of this affectionate homage, and the pacing is perfect - from early initial sightings of giant ants being brushed aside by local authorities to a full-blown military operation to defend the town from invasion the plot builds steadily, becoming more desperate and perilous until the player ends up traveling deep into the ant lair itself to deliver the final blow.
Who could forget the 'escape from the hospital' mini-game? The player, wheelchair-bound, scooting along corridors under pursuit from determined staff. With the clock ticking down all the time you can't afford to lie in bed recuperating for days. Everything takes time in the game, and time is in short supply so everything needs to be planned carefully. After 15 days of game time the ants will directly attack the town, and if the player hasn't mustered up enough defences and the means to take the fight to the ant queen it's curtains for the locals.
There's not really much to say about Tetris, it's almost a default in 'best of' lists, but it really does deserve its place. The original black and white Game Boy version went everywhere with me when the machine first came out, and I even played it during classes towards the end of secondary school when neither the teachers or pupils cared any more (everyone treading water waiting for exams to start).
My vote goes to the later DX version for the Color though, simply for the highscore save. An absolutely essential addition in the days when elevated claims of best Tetris scores were plentiful.
I didn't expect to like Burnout 2 as much as I do. I'd played the first one quite a bit and thought it was a decent racing game, if a little frustrating with its collision detection, and when the second one came along I bought it more by default than anything, just another new game to try out. It turned out to be my favourite racing game of all time.
The last racing game I'd gotten thoroughly addicted to before Burnout 2 was Gran Turismo 2, three years earlier. I haven't since played a racer to completion, and even Burnout 2's own descendants have only diluted the formula.
What Burnout 2 did perfectly was pitch the skillful racing against the thrill of the crashes - something that's been completely lost in the traffic-barging focus of the fourth entry, and a hugely addictive crash mode that - while a little glitchy - was infinitely more fun than Burnout 3's join-the-dots effort. It may not have the visual panache of the latter two but it still looks mighty fine, handles beautifully, and provides a decent, escalating challenge to the player.
The Sims is a phenomenon that I willfully passed over for years, for no reason other than I just didn't think I'd be interested. In a bit of a gaming funk I tried The Sims 2 out of boredom, and became immediately captivated by it. There's more game here than I ever expected, for a start.
There's an immense satisfaction from taking your newly-created Sim - unable to perform simple tasks such as eating or using the bathroom without prompting - and gradually teaching them to fend for themselves and become successful in life and career. It becomes completely addictive to simply buy new clothes or furnishings for the house, and beyond that there's the capability to remodel the house itself, expanding it and adding new floors as your Sim earns the money to do so. Maybe it's the old-time RPG player in me that enjoys the 'levelling up' aspect, or the collector in me that loves decorating and furnishing the house.
It's silly, but there's something so appealing about watching your little digital character go through a range of emotions, interacting with other Sims, burning their dinner then glumly sitting down to eat the charred remains, looking with wonder through the telescope you just bought for them, and many more moments that keep the game compelling. My first Sim burned herself to death in a house fire and I was genuinely upset. I can't say that about many games at all.
Carrier Command is a realtime strategy / simulation hybrid. Set over an archipelago of 64 islands, two remotely-controlled unmanned carriers are competing to capture as many islands as they can, using them as resource and supply centres to further their ultimate goal of destroying the enemy. The player carrier is equipped with a roster of amphibious landing craft (Walrus) and fighter jets (Manta), as well as a powerful turret laser. Islands can be captured by a variety of means, but essentially a command centre has to be built which will then produce resources and defences for the island, and create another link in a supply chain essential to keeping the carrier operational.
The game plays like a kind of macro version of a modern RTS, with the player directly controlling the various forces at their disposal, and personally overseeing the capture of each island. The Walrus and Manta craft can be programmed to perform certain tasks and set to autopilot, but it's always best to go hands-on for the vital business. I love the satisfaction of building up the island network, organizing everything into a streamlined machine. The eventual confrontation with the superior enemy carrier is always a thrilling experience, whatever the outcome.
The control scheme for the game is very elegant, everything reduced to the essentials, and the visuals have a beautiful colourful simplicity. It's another grand 3D adventure from the glory days of 16-bit gaming.
If I could own one genuine arcade machine, I would choose Gravitar. You can keep your hydraulic cabinets and realistically rendered 3D worlds. Seriously, Gravitar represents to me the golden age of arcade gaming and when you add that to vector graphics and gravity gameplay... well, I'm in heaven.
The gameplay is what's become the staple of gravity games since: Limited fuel, delicate controls, enemies and gun emplacements to destroy and extra fuel to pick up. You start in a solar system, each planet representing a different level offering an increasing challenge based on the score available. The sun in the centre of the system will pull you inwards to destruction if you allow it. Destroying all the guns on a planet and escaping will cause the planet to explode and it's onto the next one.
Being a vector game the controls and visuals remain completely smooth and responsive. It's a lot faster paced than most gravity games, and very demanding in terms of available fuel. There's not much room for messing about! One of my favourite things about it is the way the levels scale into view and fill the screen, the gaming universe bursting into life from a single dot. On the planets themselves there's a great crash-zoom effect as you get closer to the ground. It's a simple thing but it really adds to the dynamism of the game.
This is a little unusual in the list, because it's a game I only discovered very recently. Sure, I was aware of its existence but I hadn't played it and never thought twice about it. I ended up trying it by default when playing around with a BBC emulator recently. I mean, when you've got a BBC emulator what do you play? Repton, Elite... and Exile.
