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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.
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.
