Tag Archives: influential

Resident Evil 2, PlayStation

Capcom‘s Resident Evil 2 really elevated the survival horror genre to great heights, way back in 1998 when it was first released.

Mostly because it was more gritty and serious than the first game, but also because it was a much more complex storyline in this one: with two different characters playing the same scenario, but from different perspectives (and provided on two different CD-ROMs). Effectively giving you two games in one. So you play one character on a ‘A’ game, and the other on a ‘B’ game, by loading your save in from having completed one half of the game.

And the actions of one character in the game have an effect on what the second character experiences in their game later.

This – in itself – is a dazzling feature, but there is so much more to Resident Evil 2 than that.

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Super Tennis, Super Nintendo

Still my favourite tennis game of all time. On any system.

Super Tennis on the SNES is so good; so much fun to bend shots around the net; such a good balance between cartoony-ness and realism, that it is always a joy to revisit.

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Super Mario World, Super Nintendo

Mario games may be looked down upon by some gamers as “for kids”, but this game proves otherwise.

Super Mario World (1990) may look and sound like a kid’s game on the surface, but – underneath the hood – the gameplay is for pros…

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Super Mario Sunshine, GameCube

Games-players will always argue among themselves about which is the greatest “retro” Mario game of all time.

For me it is a toss-up between Super Mario Sunshine (2002) and Super Mario World (1990) on the SNES.

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Tranz Am, ZX Spectrum

Set in a post-apocalypse USA (in the year 3472, no less), Tranz Am is an overhead racing game where the aim is to collect eight cups (The Great Cups of Ultimate), which have been randomly dispersed around the continent.

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Pssst, ZX Spectrum

Featuring a cute robot (called Robbie) whose job it is to keep the insects away from the plants.

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Cookie, ZX Spectrum

Another of Ultimate‘s early ZX Spectrum classics, Cookie – from 1983 – is a simple arcade-style action game where you are a little chef sprite shooting bags of flour at ingredients to knock them into a mixing bowl.

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The Sentinel, Amiga

Geoff Crammond‘s The Sentinel (aka The Sentry in North America) is a strange chess-like game where you have to sneak up on an overseeing watcher, who is perched high on a platform, overlooking the play area, and absorb him before he does the same to you.

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Bugaboo (The Flea), ZX Spectrum

A 1983 Spanish cult hit from Paco & Paco (aka Indescomp), Bugaboo is a simple platform game were you have to jump from ledge to ledge, to reach the hole at the top of the cave, and freedom.

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Chuckie Egg, ZX Spectrum

Released by A&F Software in 1983, Nigel Alderton‘s brilliant platform game, Chuckie Egg, lit up Spectrums around the world, with its cute graphics and precise, challenging gameplay. In fact: Chuckie Egg is so sweet and characterful that it still has the power to enchant gamers today.

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