Choosing the Best Game for each 'Retro' System I Own

This is the second part of a four part mini-series where I'm answering a question I wasn't actually asked...

For each of my 26 home consoles and computers, and 10 handhelds, which is my favourite game?

I’ve decided to break this down into 4 sections as, even with just a brief paragraph for each, 36 is a lot of games to read about in one hit.

Those sections will be as follows:

Vintage - Consoles and computers launched in the 70’s and 80’s. 

Retro - Hardware released in the 90’s. 

Handhelds - Any primarily portable console with its own, built in screen. No age restriction.

Modern - Machines that came out in the 21st century.

I’ll be listing in chronological order of system release, indicated by the date in brackets.

I did Vintage last time out so today we have the 'Retro' selection...

Sega Mega Drive (1988) - Gunstar Heroes

Well that’s embarrassing! I’m absolutely stunned that the Mega Drive was launched originally in the late eighties and, by my own vague definition, should have appeared on the Vintage list. In my defence, it would be insanity to separate Sega’s 16 bit machine from it’s big Nintendo rival, and since The SNES didn’t launch until late 1990, in these paragraphs at least, the grudge match can continue! Without ever consciously making the decision, I've noticed that I tend to baulk at paying more than about £45 for a videogame. I don't know why this number or when it started (I often paid £60+ for SNES games in the 90s) but it's definitely a personal ceiling that's crept into my buying habits over the years. Luckily, in PAL regions there is a compilation cartridge for the Mega Drive called the 'Classic Collection' that is regularly available for about thirty quid boxed.
This compilation includes Alex Kid in the Enchanted Castle, Flicky, Altered Beast, and - the best game I own for the system - Gunstar Heroes. There's little new I can add to the mountain of praise lavished upon this action platforming masterpiece from the geniuses at Treasure, suffice to say that everything positive that you've heard is definitely true, and anything negative you've heard is undoubtedly false.

SNES (1990) - Flashback

There's been a few times during the compilation of these blog entries when I've had to check my collection, or wrack my brain, to think of what the best game might be for a particular system - this was fundamentally not the case with Flashback.
This is a game I used to play endlessly; I would check the clock and if I had a forty five minute window until dinner, or until someone was visiting, or I was going out... I would drop in Flashback and play it from start to finish, embracing the presentation and trying to make it look as much like a movie as possible as I made my way through it's story. Every step was taken to look stylish, every jump timed to maximise dramatic effect and, obviously, no damage was ever incurred.
I played Flashback like a YouTube superstar before YouTube, or basically the internet as we now know it, even existed.

Sega Mega CD (1991) - Battlecorps

As this console is the newest addition to my collection (about two weeks old at time of writing) I've not had the opportunity to play anything beyond the seven games that came bundled from the seller. I've been surprised at how much fun can be had with Road Avenger, and pleased by the removal of the appalling music from Prince of Persia, but the only game to bring me new, unironic, pleasure - and quite a lot of it - has been Battlecorps. This first-person mech shooter from Tomb Raider devs Core Design uses huge amounts of sprite scaling, and if that doesn't excite you then I'm afraid we can't be friends. There's some FMV, high quality music, and plenty of speech to make sure that all of the Mega-CD boxes are ticked - but it's fluid, weighty, explosive gameplay that has ensured this is my most played game on this system so far.

Commodore Amiga 600 (1992) - Cannon Fodder

Not a system I played much back-in-the-day (outside of a few bouts of Lemmings and the horrific, and hilarious, Street Fighter II port) but coming to the Amiga in later life has allowed me to truly appreciate the genius of Cannon Fodder on a system built for this kind of experience. I'm not a PC gamer in any way. I have a PC, and a bulging Steam (and Epic, and Uplay, and Origin, and GoG, and Itch...) account, but if I can't play with a controller then I won't play at all. Which just makes it all the more of an achievement that Cannon Fodder is one of my favourite games, and that this is the best versions of it - although the sheer audacity of the Game Boy Color version must always be respected.
Cannon Fodder is more than a war game, more than a real-time strategy, and more than it's infamous theme song. It's the first game that ever induced an emotional reaction from me at the loss of a character, and the first time I remember a fun video game making a serious point.

Atari Jaguar (1993) - Iron Soldier

The unfortunate and maligned Jaguar may represent (to most) the very definition of slim pickings when it comes to great games, but from the 4 titles I own 3 are absolute must plays, not just for the system, but for any fan of interesting games. Tempest 2000 is the obvious choice, and Aliens vs Predator would be many people's go-to option, but for me it's all about Iron Soldier. The genius of this lovely looking lo-poly mech shooter comes from its use of the Jaguar's idiosyncratic controller. As was the case with so many games on this system, there’s a lot going on. But in Iron Soldier each button maps and corresponds to a weapon mounted to individual parts of the giant robot avatar and, while this is initially a lot to get your head around, it soon becomes second nature and ends up being about the only example of a Jaguar game with a slick, intuitive interface.

Sega Saturn (1994) - Virtua Racing

My Sega Saturn collection is as much subject to the imaginary £45 spend ceiling as any other system so, as you would expect, a lot of the hardware's most infamous games have not made it to my shelves. Nevertheless, I have a collection built from games I love and the top dog of them all is Virtua Racing. I'm a huge fan of the low polygon style in any game, but Virtua Racing fuses it to a game for which I have a lot of nostalgia, a game which still plays beautifully, and one which is compatible with the Saturn's brilliant driving wheel - a peripheral that elevates so many of the machines games from decent to exceptional. The whole experience reeks of the arcades at a time when I would most frequently visit them. Not that Mr Pool or Stanley Thurstons in Bedford ever had anything as exotic as this, but sneaking out of the Victoria and Albert Museum on school trips and making a bee-line for the Trocadero would always end up in the seat of a Virtua Racing cabinet.

Sony PlayStation (1994) - Tomb Raider

Beaten to the store shelves by the Saturn by a mere 2 weeks, this is the machine that saw me move from someone who plays games to someone who also collects them as it was during the lifetime of the PS1 that I realised I often regretted trading in games and resolved to never do it again. As such, it is the oldest console for which I have a sizeable collection; 125 games in total including several of my favourite games of all time. I find it almost impossible to choose between the likes of Bushido Blade, Driver, Silent Bomber, Resident Evil 2, Einhander, and so many others - But then I remember it's where I first played Tomb Raider. In over the 30 or more years I've been playing games, there are very few that I can remember my first experience with.
I do remember seeing Way of the Exploding Fist on a friends Spectrum long before I got one, and I remember being introduced to Double Dragon at a grimy local arcade by my mate Jack, but there are very few of the thousands of games I've played for which I have clear recollection of 'the first time'. But I vividly remember my mate Dave bringing his copy of the Tomb Raider demo to my house where I watched agog as he performed the acrobatic moves and demonstrated the complexities and independence of each action. The moment in the first stage when the music kicks in is one of favourite things in gaming. The T-Rex is a jump scare masterpiece. The puzzle platforming has never been bested, and, my god, is Lara Croft ever the coolest character ever rendered into about seventeen polygons.

Nintendo 64 (1996) - Rocket: Robot on Wheels

If there's any console in history that gets more respect than it deserves, then it is without doubt the N64. A tiny library of mostly terrible games bolstered mainly by those 1st party franchises that I don't like and a multiplayer shooter that has aged with as much grace as a pint of milk in greenhouse. So thank heaven for Rocket: Robot on Wheels, an early example of a 3D open world in which physics based puzzles were to be solved. Developed by Sucker Punch long before the brilliant Sly Cooper series and even longer before the oh-so-7th-gen Infamous games, Rocket is nonetheless one of more slept on games for the N64.

PC - The Reap (1997)

Just to be clear - I fundamentally disagree with the popular assertion that digital games are somehow not to be considered part of one's collection. Yes, they should be counted differently, or separately, or... something... but to suggest that games like Ape Out, Shadow Complex, Proteus, and the vast swathes of other digital-only releases are somehow 'lesser' than a boxed game - potentially even one of poorer quality - is utter nonsense. However, in order to facilitate easier selection from my nearly 500 PC games, I'm going to limit myself only to the games I have discs of; totalling 11. Furthermore, at least half of those are racing game hand-me-downs that I've yet to try, so I'm left with a mere handful to choose from - luckily one of those is The Reap - a very PC style horizontal/isometric shmup. I first played this as part of my game-a-day blog that I used to keep myself sane while furloughed during lockdown v1. so, to quote myself:
"The Reap offers what are described as '3D modelled worlds and rendered graphics' that give an astonishing sense of depth and detail embellished by a liberal helping of, [in 1997], state of the art effects. The manual states that you play the role of a mercenary, clearing planet Earth of human life before they can discover that their whole existence is that of universal lab rats. No one plays a shmup for the plot, but there's no denying that's a pretty cool twist on the usual genre tropes."

Sega Dreamcast (1999) - Jet Set Radio

My god, where to start?! The arcade joy of Crazy Taxi, the stunning (to this day) visuals of Soul Calibur, the multiplayer madness of Power Stone 2, the unparalleled melancholic atmosphere of Shenmue, the hardcore heaven of Bangai-O, or the infectiously upbeat Space Channel 5... No... for me it's all about Beat, Gum, Professor K, and the rest. 

Say it with me: Jet Set Radioooooooo! 

I don't think there has ever been an experience that 'felt' more counter-culture in games history. From the eclectic soundtrack to the cell shaded graphics, the graffiti gameplay to the 'stick it to the man' storyline, everything about JSR is just slightly skewed outside the norm. In a good flow there's no better feeling than skating around Tokyo-to, tagging, grinding, and traversing while evading the ever so slightly overzealous police and listening to the incredible tunes (unless you were in the USA and had to tolerate Rob Zombie). One of my top five games on any system, there are undoubted moments of jank - but it just means you have to get better at it to appreciate the true brilliance of this game when at it's fluid best.