An A-Z of great PlayStation Games - Part 3: G, H, and I.

Part three of this mini-series of blogs brings us to the letters G, H, and I. 

My PlayStation collection has grown slowly over years to well over 120 games and while I do, and in fact just did, call it a ‘collection’, every one of my games was bought to be played and kept because it was enjoyed.

With this in mind I'm allowing myself the caveat of honourable mentions - something I’ve always resisted before.

I’m splitting these up into bite-sized chunks of three or four at a time, so here's the latest batch.

As tempting as it is to go for the sequel, with it’s wireframe ‘fix’ for the original’s minuscule draw-distance, it’s the first G Police that I remember most fondly and is the game I’ve selected to represent ‘G’ - even in the face of twin behemoth franchises GTA and Gran Tourismo.

Set in a cyberpunk future, G-Police puts you in control of a hovering police craft that is as close as you can get to a helicopter without the encumberment of rotor blades - it’s power instead provided by a pair of huge thrusters.

Much like Future Cop LAPD this is a mission based shooter. You fly inside huge domed cities, taking on gangs, criminals, and terrorists and generally upholding the law with an enormous amount of firepower.

Despite controls that pre-date the dual-shock gamepad, buzzing between buildings in pursuit of the bad guy’s is a pure joy. The cities themselves are one of the true stars of G-Police, clearly Blade Runner inspired with every available surface covered in advertising and neon and consisting almost entirely of monolithic skyscrapers the only thing in the game better than the environment is the weapons you are given to protect it.

Guns and rockets are the most pedestrian armaments available, with heat seekers and cluster missiles providing a little more sophistication to the art of serving the public trust.

At the top end of your available arsenal are the incredible Hyper Velocity Missiles, one of my favourite weapons in any game, they crack through the air like thunder and inflict massive damage on the target.

Today, one of the best things things about G-Police and it’s sequel is that they were produced and sold in huge quantities, and are therefore available to buy for about a tenner the pair on eBay.

Gen 6 was a great time for what became known as ‘AA’ games, those releases that didn’t have big budgets or weren’t part of a vast franchise. But these existed long before they became so ubiquitous with the low development costs of the hyper-popular PS2. Budget games were the cornerstone of the home computer market in the eighties in Europe, and even on the relatively expensive (to develop for) SNES there were games that fit this mould and obviously they were fairly common on the PS1 as well.

The best of them have something that’s hard to quantify, and Hard Edge, a rather strange beat-em with Resident Evil stylings from SunSoft on the PS1, is absolutely an example of this.

‘Charming’ is probably the best way to describe this game (known as T.R.A.G. in the US), with it’s bulky anime style avatars moving around fairly realistic pre-rendered environments, multiple playable characters, and beat-em-up gameplay ill suited to its tank controls; it’s definitely far from perfect, but it has good ideas and a style all of its own.

Trying to mix exploration and puzzle solving with melee combat, with this type of presentation, is a gambit that doesn’t quite work, but the boss battles scattered throughout the game are it’s saving grace.

Built in the time honoured pattern-memorising mould these encounters are great fun and fairly inventive. Enough so that you’ll want to see the next one which, when you think about, is about as ‘retro’ a motivation as you could ever ask for!

Arcade Soccer is a genre that seems to have been largely lost along with the coin-op meccas we used to play them in, however, while it doesn’t exactly rub shoulders with Hat Trick Hero, Konami’s International Superstar Soccer Pro Evolution 2 was probably the last game in the series to not break it’s back aiming for ‘realism’.

As the ‘Superstar Soccer’ part of the name suggests, this series began with an even larger nod to the superpowered shots and over-the-top saves of yore; with each team having a star player who’s stats in a certain area would far surpass those of the other players.

ISS Pro Evo 2 moved away from this, but in its place were players whose abilities were far in excess of what you would expect from players of their value on the in-game transfer market.

Tijani Banangida, for example, is legendary in the game for offering blistering pace at a bargain basement price.

The gameplay was also a long way from a sports simulation, and although some of that can be put down to hardware limitations, there are design choices present, such as the default camera angle and ease of performing the few available tricks, that suggest lack of horsepower wasn’t the only reason this game didn’t appear to be aiming for sporting accuracy.

It’s ironic then, that the feeling of the game is more like real football than anything else of its age. The pace of the game is spot on, and smart, challenging AI ensure that this is a game that’s just as good to play alone as it is with friends.

For those who don’t enjoy a good soccer game, I’ll point you in the direction of Incredible Crisis, a uniquely bizarre mini-game collection that follows the adventures of a family trying to buy presents for their elderly matriarch's birthday. It’s brilliantly bonkers fun, and another great PS1 game that can still be picked up for a very reasonable price.

 

An A-Z of great PlayStation games - Part 2: D, E, and F.

Part two of this mini-series of blogs brings us to the letters D, E, and F.

My PlayStation collection has grown slowly over years to well over 120 games and while I do, and in fact just did, call it a ‘collection’, every one of my games was bought to be played and kept because it was enjoyed.

With this in mind I'm allowing myself the caveat of honourable mentions - something I’ve always resisted before.

I’m splitting these up into bite-sized chunks of three or four at a time, so here's the latest batch.

It's probably a good time to reiterate that I don't play RPGs, too. So as to mitigate disappointment when we get to 'F'...

Driver is the best game I’ve never finished, and with very good reason.

Imagine you’re eating an amazing meal, a meal that takes elements from other meals you love and combines them in a new and exciting way. This is an exceptional meal. But, as you pick the last morsel from the plate you find that, beneath it, is mouldy human toe.

That mouldy human toe is Drivers last level. A mission that takes all the speed, freedom and excitement from the levels leading up to it and replaces it with anger, frustration and a complete lack of fairness.

Where once you were pulling J-turns in Miami alleyways you now crawl nervously to every junction. Where previously you sailed over San Francisco hill tops, the finale has you creeping through the workaday streets of New York.

I was good at Driver. I know it’s pretty weird to say you excel at what is essentially a story based game, but the handling of the cars in Driver, particularly the one given to you in the first set of levels in Miami, felt extremely natural to me. 

They were designed that way of course, it’s part of the game’s appeal, but I really felt at one with the cars, and would spend hours in the free play mode taunting and evading the game’s police, and then hours more in the movie mode editing it into my own personal highlight reel.

I read fairly often, when this game is mentioned , that people found the parking garage level at the very start of the game almost unplayably difficult - and that performing the list of moves required in the 60 seconds of in-game time was impossible.

I played that level so often, and with such a fastidious desire for precision, that I was able to complete it in less than half that time. I still have the video, recorded ‘off-screen’ using an old phone, uploaded to Youtube.

And so, to have endured the drudgery and frustration of the last level of Driver was to risk sullying the experience I’d loved to that point. So I choose not to. And when I replay the game I simply don’t bother playing it at all. 

When I finally got around to buying a region modded PS1 a couple of years ago, Einhander was the first game I imported from Japan to play on it. Until this point I had always enjoyed the game when I’d tried it via emulation. The explainable alchemy of a physical disc and a CRT TV, however, has never been stronger for me than it was with this fantastic horizontally scrolling shooter from Square.

Much of the game’s appeal comes from the audio visual design, with it’s industrial techno soundtrack perfectly accompanying the polygonal depiction of post-apocalyptic cityscapes. 

But it’s the game’s ‘claw’ mechanic that really sets it apart, as it allows you to collect weapons dropped by defeated foes and add them to your arsenal and, adding a further level of depth, they fire differently depending on whether they are positioned above or below your craft.

Wielding, selecting, and positioning up to three weapons at a time is a genuine thrill, especially when it comes to ensuring you have the most effective load-out to defeat the game’s creative and enormous bosses.

For my money, Einhander is one of the very best horizontal shooters ever made. It’s a little shorter, and a little easier than many of its peers. But, honestly, I think that’s in its favour.

I’m a huge fan of both of the Fear Effect games, which will hopefully help you understand how great Future Cop L.A.P.D. is as I didn’t even consider selecting either of them for the letter F.

Despite a name that couldn’t be more bland, and box art that’s not much better, Future Cop is a fantastic mission based mech game that was originally conceived as part of the ‘Strike’ series and has a structure that never strays too far from that winning formula.

What is a nice diversion, though, is a secondary mode that can best be described as an arcade RTS. Precinct Assault pits you against a friend or AI as you send waves of tanks and helicopters at your enemy. The pace is much quicker than most games of its ilk, and to ensure things never get too cerebral, each player has a mech to directly control inside the walls of their own precinct.

So it’s two great games in one really, and they are so different from one another that it really does feel like you’re getting a double bang for your buck. On that note, actually, it’s worth noting that the game has recovered from an artificially inflated price from a few years ago and is now usually available for a reasonable amount, considering it’s quality.

See you next time for G, H. and I!

An A-Z of great PlayStation games - Part 1: A, B, and C.

Pretty much my favourite format of short form writing, the ‘A-Z’ - where I pick the single best game for a given console for each letter alphabet - usually means that games often overshadowed in more standard ‘listicles’ get a chance to shine.

The PlayStation is the earliest console that has been a constant in my collection since it was new. I’ve had games machines in my life going back to the mid eighties but would always sell, trade, or otherwise move on from them. 

However, I experienced so much regret soon after trading my Super Nintendo, that I resolved never to sell or trade a game or console I enjoyed ever again. So while it was technically the SNES that made me a 'collector', the PlayStation was the first game of that collection.

Which is all preamble to explain how hard it is going to be for me to pick just one game for each later for most of the alphabet with this machine. My collection has grown slowly over years to well over 120 games and while I do, and in fact just did, call it a ‘collection’, every one of my games was bought to be played and kept because it was enjoyed.

With this in mind I may mention one or two other games as I go. I’m basically opening myself up to the concept of honourable mentions - something I’ve always resisted before.

I’m going to split these up into easily digestible bite-sized chunks of three or four at a time, so let's begin, as is traditional in these matters, with the letter A, and continue on to C.

The Ace Combat series has grown into a sprawling, quasi-futuristic, melodramatic behemoth since the first game, renamed from Ace Combat to Air Combat in the west, was released 26 years ago. As you might imagine this first game is simpler and, while there is a plot, it is much more straightforward than those in the sequels, spin-offs, and it’s appearances in various other media.

There are fifteen or so real-world aircraft to choose from with performance more-or-less in line with what you’d expect from machines of their size and power but, fortunately, the attempts at realism end there.

Air Combat started out as Arcade game and, while the PlayStation version is not really a ‘port’ of its coin-op namesake, it very much keeps gameplay toward the fun and exciting end of the spectrum. I can’t remember if the missiles are infinite or so vast in number that they might as well be, but that should be indication enough that this is arcade action from start - via to death-defying canyon runs, high speed interceptions, and love-em-or-hate-em escort missions - to finish.

It has to be said that the first sequel adds a level of scale and polish to the original that should see it comfortably chosen to represent the series here, and it was a close run thing, but Air Combat includes a two player dog-fight mode that is brilliant in its simplicity and in which, with two decent pilots, battles can go on for a very long time time and take on a highly strategic structure.

Despite a direct sequel and many attempts over the years to create a ‘spiritual successor’, there has never been anything quite like the utter brilliance of Bushido Blade.

The developers, Light Weight, never made another game that even approached it’s quality, so Bushido Blade remains lightning in a bottle, a miraculous one-off who’s legacy has endured long after those of lesser polygon fighters has faded.

The game is most often celebrated for tense and brutal one-on-one battles that can be won with a single thrust or slice of your chosen weapon, and during which the tiniest mistake can leave you wounded, hobbled, or very very dead.

But beyond this headline there is a level of complexity and attention to detail that is often forgotten. Chief among which is the balance of characters when paired with one of the 8 weapons, each with it's own distinct characteristics and effects upon the combatants.

Often, pairing particular weapons and characters will open up new moves and combinations, but, additionally, making an poor selection can have negative effects.

I remember in particular that arming the young warrior Tatsumi with the enormous sledgehammer opened up a few moves particular to that combination - at least one of which ended with him falling under the weight of the weapon.

Another that sticks in my mind is the pairing of female fighter Mikado with the long Nodachi sword that resulted in an overhead swing that caused the character to stumble forward under the inertia.

Add to all this the ability to run away from fights, 2 endings for each character, link cable support, and the ‘Code of Bushido’; a set of rules of engagement, for which the punishment for conduct unbecoming a samurai was the immediate end of your game - and you have yourself a genuine, spectacular, one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

A two horse race here, with CT Special Forces just beating out idiosyncratic strategy RPG Carnage Heart for the honour of representing the letter C.

If Carnage Heart focused more on the strategy and less on the RPG we would probably have a different result here as it’s logic-gate programming of the mech-army is an absolute joy, but it spends a little too long on other elements for my tastes.

CT Special Forces, on the other hand, doesn’t waste a moment at any point during your play time with it.

On first appearances everything about the game screams cheap ‘Metal Slug’ knock-off; from the unknown developer to the obviously GBA port graphics, this is not a game that would leap from the shelf at anyone - nor, to be honest, does it fill one with inspiration when it first loads up. 

Real world pictures of military vehicles and stock marching music clashes with the cartoon character art from the very beginning and, once you start playing, you’ll find slow moving sprites and aiming that is limited to left, right, and straight up. 

As far the prerequisites for quality run and gun action goes, the first impressions are not exactly inspiring.

But as you ascend the first three level’s ‘Snowy Mountain’, the assumption that the straight upwards aiming is fairly limited is belied as it really comes into its own in the structure of the levels; as much you can progress in the usual style of this kind of game, it’s safer and more effective to clear a path from below before progressing upwards.

And more diversity from the run-and-gun norm is revealed the more you play. In the second level, for example, there is a great looking base-jump intermission whereby you must use the direction and altitude meters to know where and when to pull your chute. 

There’s also sniper sections, where you see only a small scope-view on a otherwise black screen and have to search for, and save, hostages. There’s even ‘Twin Cobra’ style vertical shooter levels in which you pilot a helicopter and attack air and ground targets.

All in all CT Special Forces is an unassuming gem which is highly recommended for any genre fan.

 

Choosing the Best Game for every 'Modern' Console I Own

 This is the final 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’ve been listing in chronological order of system release, indicated by the date in brackets.

I did 'Handheld' consoles last time, and which just leaves the consoles I own that have launched in the last twenty years or so; those falling into my loose 'Modern' bracket.

Sony PlayStation 2 (2000) - Killer7

Much like the 3DS, for such a popular machine with a vast library of games, the PS2 doesn't have that many truly exceptional titles. Ironically, when I look at my collection I end with the impossible task of choosing between R-Type final, Killer7, and SSX Tricky. You couldn't ask for a more diverse selection, or a harder decision. One of the great Horizontal shooters, one of the great, subversive, narrative games, or an action sports title with no rival? So it's Killer7. Has to be. An incredible achievement. A hugely intelligent, complex, and intriguing narrative combined with gameplay delivered with peerless style and individuality. There really is nothing else like it. If Suda51 hadn't go on to... well... we'll get to that in a bit... suffice to that for a few years Killer7 was my favourite game ever made.

Nintendo Game Cube (2001) - P.N.03

With a cursory shout out to the brilliant Doshin The Giant, and due respect given to the utterly masterful Metroid: Prime, when I glance at my meagre collection of thirteen Gamecube titles, it's P.N.03 that jumps out as the one I'm most likely to throw in the machine and play. It's failure both critically and commercially is testament to what happens when you make a game that looks like it should play a certain way, but doesn't.

This happens quite a lot with video games, the most high profile game to fall foul of this is probably Brutal Legend; a real time strategy that looks like it should be a beat-em-up - although there were dirty marketing tricks in play with that too.

P.N.03 is not a third person shooter. Yes the perspective is third person and you absolutely spend the majority of your time shooting stuff, but this is a game with for more in common with Galaga than with Gears of War.

The enemies attack, throughout the game, in waves and patterns that evoke classic games all the way back to the seventies - what could be more 'Space Invaders' than only being able to move sideways while shooting and using the environment as cover? But despite this, there are aspects that are modern, even ahead of their time, as it was specifically designed to be as much fun to watch as it was to play. With slick, clean environments, an attractive female lead, and fluid, stylish animations, we're this to be released today it would be the latest Twitch sensation for sure.

Microsoft Xbox (2001) - OutRun 2

Although it eventually made its way, in various versions, to various other hardware, the Xbox will always be the true home of OutRun 2. The original OutRun is the seminal arcade game. To me it is a peerless example of the videogame artform and an unbeatable behemoth of driving games. Many pseudo-sequels followed in it's wake; Turbo, Europa, and Battle were all pale imitations that never seemed to really get what OutRun was about. It took 30 years and the oversight of Yu Suzuki to bring the magic back to the OutRun brand, and with it came the best driving game of the 6th generation and the last 'new' game I ever played in an arcade.

Microsoft Xbox 360 - Bayonetta

For me, the seventh generation was when consoles stopped having a discernible personality - the technological conjunction with the PC market seemed to bring about an era far removed from the home and arcade born titles that I fell in love with in the 80's and 90's. It's not to say that there weren't good games - I own far more from this era than any other - but true greatness was rare on the 360 (and even more so on the PS3). But greatness is exactly what we were given with Bayonetta - for my money the greatest beat-em-up ever made. To say that Hideki Kamiya has never made a bad game is an understatement. This is man who directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami... all before Bayonetta was even a twinkle in his eye. And he even followed this up with The Wonderful 101, a game very nearly as good. Each of these games is brilliant, but where Devil May Cry defined a genre in gen 6, Bayonetta re-defined it in gen 7.

Nintendo Wii (2006) - No More Heroes

My collection of Wii software, which, you may remember doesn't feature any Mario, Zelda, or Donkey Kong games, numbers 129 titles. Almost exactly half of those are physical releases and - most importantly - all of which are at least good, and, at best, they're No More Heroes Such was my love for the earlier games in Goichi Suda's catalogue that I essentially paid £245.67 to play No More Heroes. This was the price, including shipping, that I picked up a secondhand Wii and a copy of the game for a couple of months after it's release. In the 15 years between the release of NHM and Travis Strikes Again on the Switch, Goichi Suda didn't direct a videogame. If you've played (and deciphered) No More Heroes this entirely makes sense. It's themes of the battle between what a creator wants to achieve and what the audience wants to play are incredibly bittersweet, and to have them so expertly conveyed into a game that was original, funny, clever, and a blast to play must have been exhausting. It was a sad sight to see 'Suda51' promoting games he didn't make by playing up to the 'wacky' character that the industries unimaginative press had bestowed upon him. If he'd never directed again though, it would have been ok. For me, No More Heroes is an incredible achievement, a complex, meta, arthouse masterpiece that challenges both your gaming skills and the way you think about games. Not just the best game on the Wii, but the best game ever made.

Sony Playstation 3 (2006) - Mirror's Edge

For all the flaws of PS360 era, it still managed to bring the world Mirror's Edge. This was a game that confounded a lot of players and as a result was a huge failure on release, with copies selling for single digits just a few weeks after launch. It's story was rote, it's style minimalist, the control's were complex, and it's first-person gameplay rarely featured firearms. It was a masterpiece. Expectation is the mother of disappointment, and marketing is the evil step-mother of expectation, and from that you'll gather my thoughts as to why the game was overlooked by so many in 2006. A fine reputation (and a far less than fine sequel) have followed over time, but Mirror's Edge will always be something of a curates egg, and all the better for it.

Nintendo Wii-U (2012) - MK8/Affordable Space Adventures

There are a lot of really good games on the Wii-U, I have about 30 in my collection with a pretty even split between physical and eShop - and I'm going to pick one from each, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Mario Kart 8. It's such an obvious choice from the boxed games. But's it's so incredible, and so incredibly popular, that there's little else I can really say about it. Secondly, it has been spruced up and re-released as the 30 million selling 'Deluxe' - so it doesn't really feel like a Wii-U game any more. But it's still a phenomenal return to form for the series after the abject Wii offering.
On digital, one of the last remaining Wii-U exclusives; Affordable Space Adventures.
The only game to make perfect use of the system's format - to that extent that is rendered un-portable. Affordable Space Adventures has you exploring an inhospitable world in a craft that has barely enough power and structural integrity to make it from one side of the screen to the other.
The ingenious gameplay has you cycling systems by manipulating sliders and other controls on the touchscreen, while piloting the craft on the TV. 
It's an original, brilliant, joyous experience but, unfortunately, one the likes of which we are unlikely to ever see again.

VR (2016) - Rez Infinite

Not really a system per se, but I've separated this out from the PC entry (back in the 'Retro' list) for three reasons. Firstly, I made that extra rule for the PC where I said I had to have a physical copy - and I don't think there are any VR games that come in that format. Secondly, I genuinely believe that VR can be the next true evolution of the video game medium, a medium that has stagnated now for 20 years or more. And, thirdly, I couldn't get through a list of best games without mentioning Rez.
Rez is in my five favourite games of all time. While it's natural home is doubtless the Dreamcast, I played it most on the PS2 and the Xbox Live Arcade. However, the Infinite version, which allows you to play the original in VR and adds a new, stunning, VR specific level, is the game at it's audio/visual very best.
And, in case you didn't know, Audio/visuals is at the core of this rhythm action rail shooter - an eclectic mix of industrial techno sounds, neon graphics, tight shooter gameplay, and zoomorphic design that are all woven together into a masterful whole.
The final level music is the best in any game, and the level 4 boss has to be seen, played, and beaten to understand what a work of genius it is.

Nintendo Switch (2017) - Astral Chain

I decided to include this in home consoles (rather than handhelds) as that's where I play it the most, and the game I've played the most on it has to be Platinum's incredible Astral Chain.
Ostensibly another of the company's beat-em-ups, Astral Chain adds exploration and some light puzzling to the mix, but the real hook is it's brilliant use of 'Legions', giant creatures, tethered, and bonded, to your character by the titular chain.
These enormous extensions of your player character (male or female can be chosen, with the other being integral to the story) add immeasurably to the complexity and the spectacle of combat.
There really is far too much going on in this game for me to summarise adequately, and to convey just how sensational this game is. It's far easier, on my brain and keyboard, to simply say that, after Bayonetta, this is Platinum's best game, just edging out Wonderful 101 for second place in their catalogue.

A rambling diatribe on retro gaming elitism

There’s a lot to be annoyed about in the world today - obviously - especially with the various types of mess we’re all living with in every country in the world.

But a particular, and specific annoyance in the retrogaming hobby/lifestyle/environment/zeitgeist, is the hive-mind attitude from an increasing number of the most vocal (and seemingly most affluent) participants that this is, or should be, an extremely expensive hobby/lifestyle/etc/etc.

It’s impossible not to notice an underlying, deeply unpleasant, atmosphere of elitism in many of the communities I visit. An attitude of ‘you’re not doing it right’ directed at anyone who doesn’t have their Neo Geo AES hooked up to a 20” PVM via OSSC. (I have no idea if that example makes sense, nor do I care.)

This is the kind of arms-race attitude that fought to keep PC gaming an exclusive club for decades, and it has gradually seeped into retro gaming's language and ecosystem almost undetected. 

The simple joy of rekindling one's nostalgia for Super Mario World, or re-experiencing the simple fun of games lost with the arcades, is being obfuscated by a collective need to quantify, update, and monetise every aspect of vintage computer entertainment.

It’s the kind of environment where you might expect the gateway drug of emulation to be met with the utmost scorn, but instead the self appointed guardians of retro (You can have that for your quiz team/band name, BTW) have positioned emulation behind a paywall of Retron 5s, Mega SGs, and (only the latest and most expensive) Everdrives. Any excited newcomer asking about the best controller to play retro games on their laptop is quickly overwhelmed with talks of latency, resolutions, and refresh rates.

If it wasn’t bad enough that forced exclusivity exists, it actually appears to be having it’s desired effect.

You can see it both in the way questions are asked and in the tone of the responses. You can see it in the photos of someones latest, expensive, haul and the other even more expensive stuff in the background - almost, but not quite, out of focus.

People don’t ask where they can find a cheap CRT, they ask if their $100 Trinitron is ‘good enough’. A joyous celebration of a bargain buy, or a long lost attic discovery, will be met with derision and disbelief, the underlying accusation that unless you can afford the inflated eBay prices for a barely average Sega Saturn game, then you aren’t worthy to own it.

Which brings me neatly to the event that triggered this rambling blog entry. 

There was someone on a Discord server I’ve been frequenting who stated, blankly, without malice, that “all the good Saturn games are 100+ dollars”. 

Why would they think this? Simply because it’s what the gatekeepers want them, you, and everyone else to think. 

These are the people who, when a collective question is asked, wouldn’t dream of recommending any of the dozens of fantastic, better even, Saturn games you could buy for the price of Burning Rangers. 

It’s this sub-group who don’t want you enjoying Sonic the Hedgehog for free when they’ve invested $200 in a Mega SG. The only way their post-purchase rationalisation can cope is by attacking the perceived difference in quality, by claiming they seek a ‘purer’ experience, and by attempting to undermine the simple pleasure of just playing old games by insinuating that someone with a secondhand NES Mini isn’t doing it right.

Now I just want to be clear that I’m not claiming to be some kind of saint who never judges anyone else's choices, nor am I saying that there aren’t benefits to some modern retro products, but the weaponised affluence I’m seeing increasingly around retro gaming communities is something else entirely.

Admission 1: I strongly believe that by downloading a thousand roms and picking one to play for five minutes before switching to another, then another, then another... your assessment of them will lack a psychological bond of choice, expectation, and - yes - sometimes investment that adds to the whole experience of a game.

But this is no less true of a pack of illegal roms than it is of someone with thousands in disposable income spending a tenth of that on a game they’ll probably never play.

Cost, value, and investment are relative terms. The kind of ‘bond’ I’m trying to describe between a player and a game can be gained through the investment of time, the effort of research, and the expectation of finding out for oneself if that game from your childhood holds up 20 years later.

Admission 2: I think games from the previous century should be played on a CRT television whenever possible. Pixels just look better with real scanlines and the colour depth offered by that massive, humming monstrosity wedged into the corner is really something lost to the ages.

But it’s not a prerequisite of fun. And it’s especially not necessary to find the most expensive, most instagrammable, most egregiously hyped PVM to enjoy a game of Super Mariokart with your kids.

When I say: "I think these games should be played on a CRT", I mean ANY CRT. I’m typing this in a room with 6 of the things, two of them were free, and the whole collection has been compiled for the total cash investment of £26. 

As someone born over 4 decades ago I’ll let you into a secret: The geometry has always been rubbish, the hum has always been loud, the picture has always flickered and no one ever cared about resolution or refresh rate or input lag when playing Tornado Low Level on their ZX Spectrum in 1984. 

It’s entirely possible to argue a convincing case that you’ll get a more enjoyable retro experience from a wonky Bush portable TV than from any professional quality display equipment. And beyond that, if you can’t find a tube telly or don’t have room for one, use an LCD - it’s better than nothing, and the filters some emulators have these days are great.

It comes down this: 

If you’re lucky enough, or have worked hard enough, to have the disposable income necessary to buy $400 RGB Scart cables and a professional monitor the size of a family car - and that’s genuinely what you want for your retro gaming experience - That’s cool. You don’t need anyone's approval or respect, you’re doing what you want to do the way you want to do it - and that’s a life lesson for everyone right there. But it’s your way, and nothing more than that.

This nonsense of idolising only the most expensive elements of this hobby has to change and we, the members of these communities, are the only people in a place to do that.

So the next time you see an excited new Dreamcast owner looking for game suggestions, mention the best ones first, not the most expensive.

When you come across a reddit picture of someone's game collection don’t immediately look for the over-priced ‘rare’ game they haven’t got, look for the ones you have in common and can have a conversation about.

And if you ever, ever, see someone being criticised for playing roms, or using composite cables, or playing on a flat screen TV, or any of that postering gibberish -  step into that conversation and ask what games they love? What happy memories do they have? What is it about retro games brings them joy?

Because this is the real value of games.

They bring us experiences and memories to savour forever, they engage with us in a different way to that of films and music - and that difference should be cherished.

Games exist to bring us pleasure. Sometimes that pleasure is tinged with fear, and sometimes it’s truly dark and doesn’t feel like pleasure at all. Sometimes the pleasure comes from intellectual stimulation, sometimes from mindless entertainment.

But whatever form it takes, this pleasure, this… fun… cannot be tempered by technology, and it must never be attributed to any scale of monetary investment.

The simplicity of Retro Games is joyous, they are heartbreaking, they are brilliant and they must never be withheld from those who measure value in the size of their smile, by those who measure it in the size of their wallet.

You better get the aspect ratio right though, or I will hunt you down!

Choosing the Best Game for each 'Handheld' Console I Own

This is the third 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’ve been listing in chronological order of system release, indicated by the date in brackets.

I did 'Retro' consoles last time, and since my oldest handheld is of a similar age, I thought now would be a good time to look at that section of my collection.

Nintendo Game Boy (1989) - Batman

It's Tetris, right? Is there another game that so perfectly encapsulates what the Game Boy was all about?
But, for the sake of saving me from trying to find something new to say about the best puzzle game ever made, I'll instead select Batman, one of several excellent tie-ins released across multiple platforms for the brilliant 1989 movie.
If it was just a great action platformer, that would be fine. If it was just a great action platformer with the occasional Batwing level, it would be great. But as its easily both of these things, and additionally has not only the best music on this system, but some of the catchiest music ever committed to any game cartridge... Then it becomes an absolute must-play.

Atari Lynx (1989) - California Games

The Atari Lynx is one of my favourite game systems. Although it lacked a big name franchise like Sonic or Mario to draw players in, it instead focused on brilliantly bringing hits from the arcade to it's tiny 16 colour LCD screen. Thanks to this, despite a pretty small library, it has one of the best quality-to-quantity ratios in the whole medium,
From the couple of dozen that I own, California Games may seem like the obvious choice for a favourite, but it's a game I own on 8 different systems and the Lynx version, despite missing half the events, is probably the one I've played most.
The C64 version will always be my most nostalgic, and I maintain it's better than all the other home versions, but the modernisation of the four events that made it to the Lynx just raises it a notch above the rest.

Sega Game Gear (1990) - Space Harrier

I'll keep this brief as there aren't a lot of games worth any sort of time on the Game Gear. If you don't already own one it should absolutely remain towards the bottom of your 'want list'.
With that said, I recently had cause to play every version of Space Harrier I own and, as terrible as the vast majority of the ports were, the Game Gear one was remarkably playable.
So, partly because I love the game so much, and partly because it really shouldn't work but it does - Space Harrier is the best game I own for the Game Gear. Worth noting too that the game looks far better in motion than in screenshots and, as far as I can tell, something about the undoubtedly crap screen actually hides some annoyances I've seen in emulation.

Nintendo Game Boy Color (1998) - Tomb Raider

There's something about the resolution of the GBC's screen, I think, that makes it just about perfect for great pixel art. As a result I have a lot of love for Nintendo's stop-gap handheld.
I also have a lot of love for the Tomb Raider franchise, so these two things coming together in a kind of 'Flashback-Lite' experience is the motherlode for me!
Simply titled Tomb Raider, with a sequel subtitled 'Curse of the Sword', this pair of 2D platform adventures render Lara into the most charming of sprites and drop her into levels built of all the usual jumping, climbing, lever pulling, and swinging elements you would expect from the series - or would have done before it was turned into a cookie cutter shooter around 2012 or so.
It's hand drawn animations aren't as smooth as the rotoscoping in their obvious inspiration, but they have a quality all their own that is reflected in the rest of the game.

Neo Geo Pocket Color (1999) - SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash

This was the first deck building game I ever played and I have not played a better one since. It certainly helps that, as a fighting game fan, I recognised the vast majority of characters, but that's only one small element.
The simplicity of the stats, the fantastic art style, and even the cheerful music all add something to the mix that comes together into one of the most addictive games I've ever played.

Game Boy Advance (2001) - TMNT

I'll fess up right away, for most of my GBA's life I've used a flash cart. So most of my favourite games for the system, the Metroids, Advance Wars, Racing Gears Advance, Wade Hixton's Counter-Punch... I don't actually 'own', so I can't really talk about here.
However, the GBA was a bit of a hotbed when it came to movie tie-ins, with several that are much better than they have any right to be and are not super expensive to pick up. The Nick Cage Ghost Rider movie spawned a wonderfully enjoyable action platformer, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Scorpion King vehicle had an action adventure game bordering on Metroid-vania levels of complexity, and, best of all, the TMNT brawler released in line with the 2002 CGI movie is outstanding, and probably the best console game ever produced under this license. A complex combo and juggling system puts it head and shoulders above many of the classics of the genre, and the large, beautifully drawn sprites show a high level of polish. Whether via emulator or original hardware, every brawler fan needs to play this one.

Nokia N-Gage (2003) - Pathway to Glory

Another system that's very new to my collection, my library of software currently consists of two ports (Tony Hawk and Tomb Raider) and two original games (Tom Clancy and Pathway to Glory.
Of these the latter is by far the most interesting. It's a turn based strategy set in World War II that was developed by Red Lynx, the studio who went on to create the brilliant Trials series of dirt bike games.
Pathway to Glory has nothing in common with Trials except, maybe, a very classy approach to game design. The sheer detail and depth of Pathway means that it is not only able to hold it's head high alongside the best TBS on handhelds (Advance Wars, obviously) but, like it's portable genre-mate, it also compares favourably to anything similar on any system.

Nintendo DS (2004) - Flower, Sun and Rain

Although originally released in Japan on the PS2, Flower, Sun and Rain was internationally released to a confused world on the DS.
It is an utterly unique blend of storytelling and puzzle solving that is so thick with impenetrable atmosphere that it simply has to be played to be understood.
As a kind of investigator stuck in a time loop, you play out vignettes one day at a time as a larger picture slowly comes into focus.
I wouldn't say this is a game for everybody, but for anyone, like me, who loves to be utterly baffled but entirely intrigued, it's pretty essential stuff. Good enough, even, for me to forgive the missing oxford comma in the title.

Sony PSP (2004) - Dead Head Fred

Poor PSP, I kind of hate you. A machine given to me for free and a collection of games built up two or three quid at a time from CEX. Most of the games are either barely passable or cut rate versions from more suitable hardware. So little of what this machine has to offer is of any kind of quality that it's hard for me to see how it was so popular or enjoyed such longevity.
These feelings are only exacerbated by it's best game, Dead Head Fred, being something of a hidden gem.
This is a game in which some fairly standard third person action adventuring is elevated through tight, noir inspired dialogue, a dark sense of humour, and a clever head-swapping mechanic that adds a light layer of strategy and puzzle solving.
It's not a perfect game. Loading screens are frequent, combat is mediocre, and the boxy feel to a lot of the levels dates it badly. However it has more personality and style than every other exclusive title for the machine combined, and there is enough innovation in the gameplay to keep you more than interested through to the end.

Nintendo 3DS (2011) - Steamworld Heist

This is a tough choice, the 3DS has so many ‘very good’ games but rather fewer that breach the ceiling into 'excellent' territory. Pocket Card Jockey looks and sounds like the worst kind of eShop spamware, but turns out to be a gloriously fun mashup of solitaire and stable management, OutRun 3D is a sublime remaster with stunning stereoscopic visuals, and EscapeVektor 3D finished off a brilliant Wiiware title that fuses aspects of arcade classics Qix and Pacman into a wonderful minimalist puzzle challenge. But as much as I'd like to give this to a system exclusive, I have to give it Steamworld Heist, a magnificent combination of real time richoetting shooting and turn based strategy that has exploded far beyond the confines of the 3DS since it's launch.

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.