The Captain's Top 100 Games of All Time Part 3
Dec 07 '06 (Updated Jun 24 '08)
The Bottom Line Part Three of the oddest Top 100 Games list ever written(apparently)
Welcome to Part 3 of what has already been described as “the oddest Top 100 Games List” someone’s ever seen…
Games 51-80 await...
--------------------------------------------------
51. Jedi Academy (PC) LucasArts
Yeah so some people hated this game, but I really enjoyed it. Standard Star Wars plot involving you as a new recruit to the slightly camp Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy, the first one to actually build your own lightsaber without training, and quickly become embroiled in a plot that will lead to the destruction / salvation of the galaxy. Again. Where this game really scored was in great aesthetics and really fun gameplay. Don’t bother with this if you want intensive puzzle-solving etc, but for a really enjoyable romp with good level design and spectacular lightsaber duels (along with a cheesy but still enjoyable storyline), this is great.
--------------------------------------------------
52. LEGO Star Wars (PC)
This game deserves to be here despite a few problem areas because it’s one of the most fun (and funniest) two-player games ever made. Taking the Danish building blocks and fusing them with the Star Wars universe, this was a great co-operative action adventure with plenty of puzzle solving. An extra dimension was added with the “Free Play” mode, where you could swap characters throughout the game and access areas that were unreachable first time round. Loads of things to be unlocked so it was a long-term project to complete it in every sense. The sequel was more of the same, even improving in some areas – and of course being based on the original trilogy was an improvement in itself! :-D
UPDATE 24.06.08 - too late for this list but even better than the LEGO Star Wars games, LEGO Indiana Jones is a must for your gaming collection.
--------------------------------------------------
53. International Karate / International Karate (Atari ST)
This beat-‘em-up was just so playable and the moves looked cool, with great graphics for the time. A couple of mini-games were thrown in to mix things up a bit and the sequel, IK , had several extra gameplay options including variable difficulty and game speed that could be changed at any point during the game. Though the sequel was superior in some ways I still kind of preferred the first. One for all the wannabe karate kids out there!
--------------------------------------------------
54. Obsession (Atari STe) Unique Developments
I don’t suppose many people have heard of this one, it was one of the very few Atart STe games that really took advantage of that machines enhanced capabilities (it didn’t come out for the ST / STFM at all). Amiga owners might also remember it. A brilliant pinball game with great graphics, great music, and four very well designed tables. The only one I was really good at was the Baseball table – there was also a fishy adventure table, an X-files type table, and one based on the Dhakka race. One the STe, not only were the graphics extremely good, but it also used the blitter chip to get rid of those nasty black borders that blighted almost every ST game ever made! (It could be done on the standard ST but it hogged so much processor time that games were impossible.) The enhanced sound chip was put to good use too (the primitive Yamaha chip in the original ST could blast out some pretty good digitised music / effects, but again it hogged too much CPU time.) Technically impressive for the time but the gameplay matched the excellent aesthetics. There's a nice little tribute page to this game here: http://wet.atari.org/obsession/
--------------------------------------------------
55. Lemmings (Atari ST) Psygnosis / Team 17
Ah, really, what Top 100 list could miss this game out? Well quite a few but certainly not mine. You have a little tribe of Lemmings who are likely to just walk into death traps if you don’t save them. So using an interface that is close to genius you must assign some of your lemmings to be builders, diggers, parachutists, blockers, or whatever is needed to safely get as many of your Lemmings as possible to the exit. On each level you have to get a certain number to safety to proceed to the next. The difficulty level slowly progressed as you went on, maintaining the challenge but avoiding that this is impossible!! feeling – well, most of the time. After level 50 or so some of the level designs were truly fiendish. Most definitely a classic game in every sense of the word.
--------------------------------------------------
56. Worms (Playstation) / Worms Armageddon (PC) Team 17
The opposite to Lemmings, Team 17 took a similar concept – small creatures in a fight for survival – but this time your teams of little critters (worms, obviously) are trying to wipe each other out. There have been many incarnations of this came but for me “Worms Armageddon” is the best of them. Perhaps the ultimate multi-player game, though 8 people madly scrabbling to and from the keyboard for their turn is pretty manic! They also went 3D to pretty good effect.
--------------------------------------------------
57. Space Paws (Spectrum 2)
This amusing action-adventure on the good old Speccy was a fun game. You played a dog on a mission to… well I don’t remember actually, but I remember it was a good game! (Well you don’t really want a detailed explanation of every game do you?!?)
--------------------------------------------------
58. Starglider / Starglider 2 (Spectrum 2 / Atari ST)
These space exploration / combat games had a really good atmosphere and the Speccy version of the first was one of the first games I remember with decent sounding synthesised speech. The second featured some of the earliest solid 3D graphics that I remember, and a somewhat mad underground docking feature (made the docking in Elite seem extremely simple!)
--------------------------------------------------
59. Paperboy (Coin-op, Spectrum 2)
One of the best coin-op conversions ever on the Speccy, this game featured a paperboy, killer lawn mowers, bonuses for breaking windows (or maybe not breaking them), and assault courses for big bonus points. Pretty impressive graphics for its day too, but of course it was the gameplay that made this such a great game.
--------------------------------------------------
60. Double Dragon (Coin-op)
The granddaddy of the beat-em-up – when it was just supposed to be fun, not realistic with blood splattering everywhere. Ugh. What made this more fun was the ability to pick up and use various objects as weapons or to get past obstacles, climb ladders, etc etc. Cheesy, but still fun.
--------------------------------------------------
61. Midwinter (Atari ST) Microprose
One of the most ambitious games of its time, Midwinter gave the player a massive snowy 3D world to explore, various vehicles to ride, and a wide cast of playable characters, each with their own history and skills. Some may be able to recruit others, but some characters clash so you won’t want them to get too near each other… An absorbing and interesting game (even if there was a really quick and easy way to complete it if you knew how!).
--------------------------------------------------
62. Out of Order (Atari ST) - Hungry Software – Tim Furnish - Freeware
This game, joint top of my Top Ten Freeware Graphical Adventure Games list, is a game I wanted to include for three reasons. Firstly it’s a great game. I guess you saw that one coming… Secondly it’s a completely original adventure game, whereas many of the best freeware adventure games around are either remakes, fan games, or obviously inspired by commercial games. Thirdly, the game designer actually wrote his own game engine (SLUDGE) to make this game. All in all, well worth it’s place here in my top 100 games list. Get it here - http://outoforder.adventuredevelopers.com/page_download.html
--------------------------------------------------
63. Gauntlet 2 (Coin-op, Atari ST)
This multi-player game was great fun and games could last for hours, as you could jump back into the game when you’d died as long as one player was still alive. You could get a joystick extension that plugged into the printer port allowing for 4 players at once. Great dungeon-searching, monster-bashing fun, this game will always be remembered most for its sampled speech – “Blue Elf is about to die!”, “Green Valkyrie needs food, badly”, etc. The other great thing about this game was the IT monster – if it touched you, all the monsters headed straight for you, ignoring everything else. Of course, if you then touched another player, they became it. (This was best used on levels where player shots stun other players – you make them it and then stand back shooting them, and laugh as they get rounded on by every monster in the place unable to move. Or grumble as they do the same to you. Ah, friends, eh? What would we do without them?!?!)
--------------------------------------------------
64. Dynabusters (Atari STe) Shareware
One of the best multiplayer games of all time, I actually know someone who went out and bought an Atari ST purely so he could play this game. Pity for him he didn’t understand the difference between the ST and STe, he ended up with a computer that couldn’t run the game. Anyway, this is a Dynablasters clone (which in itself was a bomberman clone, but multiplayer), this one again was memorable in part for its hilarious sound effects, and imaginative power-ups (and power-downs!). I also want to mentioned the Czech freeware game Bombic, which is like most Czech freeware games heavily influenced by beer (I’m not kidding), but almost matches this game in insane, helpless laughter-inducing multiplayer action. Download it here - http://www.hippo.nipax.cz/bombic/download/bomb_full.zip- I promise you won’t regret it!
--------------------------------------------------
65. Mega Lo Mania (Atari ST) ?Sensible Software
The first game ever (I think) to use professional voice actors, this strategy game saw the player pitted against different opponents across many worlds, sometimes forming alliances (though somehow you never really felt comfortable accepting the puffy-sounding “Do you want to be on my team?” invitation from the yellow player, Oberon I think it was), as you grow your population, develop technologies, and wipe out the enemies. All to hear the ecstatic “We’ve Won!” speech sample. Simple interface but in-depth gameplay and very, very addictive.
--------------------------------------------------
66. Millenium 2.2 (Atari ST) ?Imageworks
With the earth a barren wasteland, one small colony on the moon is all that’s left of the human race. With better technology though you will be able to develop colonies on other planets and satellites, mining their mineral resources to further your cause, and perhaps even being able to terraform earth eventually. It appears however that there was more than one life-form in the solar system, so defending your colonies becomes a priority. Still one of the most totally absorbing exploration and resource management games ever made.
--------------------------------------------------
67. 1942 (Coin-op) Bally Midway
One of the earliest shoot-‘em-ups I really remember, this put you in command of a WWII plane fighting its way through the inevitable hoards of enemy planes. The arcade version was very playable and addictive, though the computer / console ports left quite a lot to be desired.
--------------------------------------------------
68. Civilisation (Atari ST) Sid Meiers – Microprose
This turn-based strategy game really pushed the 16-bits hard, giving you an absorbing, detailed work and technology system, along with an innovative diplomacy system for dealing with neighbouring powers. Trade technologies, send in spies, and other options not previously common in this sort of game gave it an extra depth. Spawned a series of similar games including a favourite of my sister’s, Colonisation. On the PC, Civilisation 3: Call To Power is an extremely complex and involving update of the original classic.
--------------------------------------------------
69. Jack the Nipper (Spectrum 2) Gremlin Graphics
Ever wanted to be a baby and wreak complete havoc in the adult world? Well, you got the opportunity in this flip-screen arcade adventure. A great little game for its time.
--------------------------------------------------
70. Skullduggery (Atari ST)
There are many Boulderdash / Dig-Dug clones out there, but few multiplayer ones. The single player game was very good in its own right but it was the split screen (unless the two players were close enough together, the it merged to a whole screen display) two-player mode where the game really came into its own. The two-player levels were different to the one-player ones, requiring co-ordinated co-operative play and some really devious level designs. One of the few games that my mum got addicted to!
--------------------------------------------------
71. Ice Climber (Nintendo Entertainment System) – I’ve not really played many games on this system, but this was one of them and certainly one of the best. The simple concept – climbing to the top of each level while staying alive – was enormous fun in 2-player mode despite some rather unforgiving collision detection. Add in killer seals and increasingly perplexing levels, and this was really addictive. The Game Boy Advance version didn’t really grab me much though.
--------------------------------------------------
72. Pac-Man (Coin-op, and every computer ever!)- ?Namco
How could any Top 100 Games list be without Pacman? This game has been endlessly emulated and replicated, but the elegant simplicity of the original makes it every bit as playable today as it was a couple of decades ago. Pac-Man has gone 3D, changed sex, and done all sorts of other things in his various forms over the years, but eating pills and evading the ghosts has remained the common theme in every game. The inspiration behind my short story Tradition Break.
--------------------------------------------------
73. Supercars (Atari ST) – Gremlin Graphics
The whacky humour and diverting gameplay makes this a game that remains in my memory. The basic game was fun – racing with an weapons twist – but negotiating the price down on your new car was always a fun thing to do, and scattered with Monty Python references. The sequel was a lot snazzier but lost some of the appeal of this first game.
--------------------------------------------------
74. Hectic (Commodore 16)
This Loderunner type game was great fun, dig holes, bash the monsters on the head, if you didn’t manage to do it in time and they got out of the whole they are angry and a lot faster. One of those one-screen platform games that was infinitely playable.
--------------------------------------------------
75. Winter Events (Commodore 16) ?Anco
I think this was the first ever multi-event sports game I ever played. Race downhill, do the slalom, the sky jump (very tough), bobsleigh – all nice games in themselves but put together and played between a group of friend it was a very memorable game. Of course, I usually won, which helped my personal enjoyment factor! :-D
--------------------------------------------------
76. Arkanoid (Coin-op, Atari ST)
One of the early Breakout clones and possibly the first to add power-ups, the elegant design and challenging levels kept me playing for a long time. It even had a storyline (though a very simple one!)
--------------------------------------------------
77. Turrican 1 & 2 (Atari ST) ?Electronic Arts
Nce graphics, an 8-way scrolling landscape and plentiful power ups made this one of the more memorable shoot-‘em-ups from the 16-bit era. Much remade on the freeware scene.
--------------------------------------------------
78. Switchblade 1 & 2 (Atari ST) ?Gremlin Graphics
As platform games go, this was one of the best of its era. Stylish presentation, intuitive gameplay, and a huge game world combined to make this one stand out from the crowd.
--------------------------------------------------
79. Dragon Ninja (Coin-op)
A beat-‘em-up that was extremely playable in the arcades and looked very good for the time. Pity I was never much good at it… but still remembering it fondly despite this must mean something.
--------------------------------------------------
80. Rick Dangerous 1 & 2 (Atari ST)
A platform game with quirky graphics and a strong puzzle element, Rick Dangerous was kind of like Indiana Jones without the sex appeal. Or something. Anyway, The game was great and the “Waaaah!” sample whenever you died will, I absolutely guarantee, be remembered by anyone who ever played this game.
--------------------------------------------------
Only the last 20 games left to write about…
--------------------------------------------------
Top 100 Games Part One
Top 100 Games Part Two
Top 100 Games Part Four
See also: My Top Ten Freeware Adventure Games (September 2007 Edition)
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.