50. Deadly Creatures

(Wii, Rainbow Studios, 2009)
Do you know what people love? MASSIVE SPIDERS.
Sorry, did I say love? I meant "horrifyingly detest" Spiders probably place somewhere between used medical syringes and anthrax on the cuddle list of most humans. They are amongst Earth's most hated denizens. Mankind is foolish though, As one of nature's bravest, most agile and hardest working creatures, the spindly wonders do nothing but good for the world and are far more useful to humanity than you are.

THQ's Deadly Creatures is one of the most recent and most original games to make the list. The result of a dream by a developer at Rainbow Studios, Deadly Creatures tells the intertwining tale of a Tarantula and a Scorpion going about their business in a harsh desert, played against a background story of two men searching for buried civil war gold.
The player controls our two unlikely heroes alternately through the arid plains and grasslands. As they are animals doing their thing, there is no "objective" as such, you just scuttle through the 360 degree terrain, using your wits and survival instincts to overcome an array of attackers such as rats, spiders, bugs, mosquitoes and a deadly rattlesnake who chases our friends in a running battle throughout the game. What will happen when the protagonists meet and how will their existence affect the gold scavenger's plans?
The Wii is infamous for having a disgusting array of non-games, with Nintendo occasionally busting out a fan favourite sequel to keep the dedicated happy. Deadly Creatures is a true oddity for the console, with no direct objective, mute protagonists and the only plot coming from events taking place overhead, Creatures is like nothing else and comes across more an experiment or even an experience than it does a videogame. It's a mixed bag really, the Wii control system has so-so relevance as game could just as easily be controlled with analogue sticks and the boss fights generally come down to drawn out quicktime battles. On the plus side, the attempt to capture the microscopic landscape is done with great style and the animation on the critters themselves is wonderfully realistic and creepy. The combat is frankly surreal, with your levelled up character dishing out hilarious set-piece beatdown combos worthy of Jason Bourne, which is badly juxtaposed against the "real life" aspects of the game. The gold digging backstory is played with great aplomb by resident psychos Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton and there is genuine intrigue in how the Spider and Scorpion will become relevant in the humans adventure.

So the gameplay is just Ok, the controls generic and the visuals and sound are very good, but the real story here is the concept. In a world of yearly updates, generic sequels and embarrassing shovelware, Deadly Creatures is something truly original and one of those rare examples of a game where it's ability to scuttle up the charts is irrelevant.
Deadly Creatures was never going to turn the gaming world on it's head, it has no guns, no boobs, little dialogue and features some of the most feared animals that crawl the earth. Rainbow Studios can hold their heads high and proud that they devised something different and interesting and held it aloft as their labour of love.

Deadly creatures did fair in the reviews but was soon forgotten by the majority of gamers. It seems that, just like it's eight legged star, it is a misunderstood thing of beauty.

51. Def Jam: Fight For NY

(PS2/Xbox/Gamecube, AKI/EA Canada, 2004)
"INFORMER! YOU KNOW ME DADDY ME SNOW ME I GO BLAAAAAAME, A LICKY BOOMBOOM DOWN!"
Hip-hop based games generally fall into two categories, embarrassingly immature and embarrassingly un-cool (I also rate highly in both cases) Violent hip-hop games usually have painfully cliched scripts, stereotypical racist characters and a whole lotta faux "Ghetto" stylings.

Fortunately, Whilst guilty of some of the above crimes, Def Jam Fight For NY does it's very best to avoid "gritty realism" and instead presents an incredibly over-the-top fighter that takes brawling to a whole new level. A sequel to the earlier wrestler Def Jam: Vendetta, DJFFNY removes the ring and pinfalls but keeps the same engine and controls that AKI used for their incredibly popular N64 wrestling games. The game also adds a new selection of fighting styles plus the option to hybrid them into your own mixed martial art (A kickboxer who also does submission holds for example)
The players then take their urban warriors into a selection of very varied battlegrounds ranging from a bar and a nightclub to a power plant and penthouse office. For purists there are arenas featuring a ring and a steel cage. The battles are very fast and require a mastery of the controls and lightning reflexes. Weapons, environmental attacks and even the crowd themselves get involved in the wild, out of control brawls until only one man (or woman) is left standing.

The game has a huge roster of stars from Ice-T and Busta Rhymes to Ludacris and Flavor Flav, even Henry Rollins, Carmen Electra and the craggy faced Danny Trejo turn up to join in the throwdowns. There is a story mode where you take your own created fighter through a generic tale of betrayal and revenge, along the way utilizing a neat shopping section with a wide selection of clothing, jewellery and tattoos to make your homeboy as cookie cutter cool as you want him to be.
DJFFNY is an absolute joy to play, it's a deceptively deep, brutally violent, brilliantly imagined fighting game, with smooth controls and unbelievably absorbing sound and visuals, the models are beautifully designed and animated and the impact on the moves is better than any wrestling game I've ever played before or since with every smack, smash, kick, slam and bone break coming through loud and clear while accompanied by the roar of the crowd. DJFFNY is somehow the best wrestling game that isn't a wrestling game ever devised.
On paper, it should have be a quickly thrown together, fingers crossed, bog standard celebrity beat-em-up. By employing the fantastic minds of AKI Corporation, EA managed to create an immensely playable brawler with atmospheric style. This franchise should have been destined for next-gen greatness but, unfortunately, the redesigned Def Jam:ICON missed its target completely.

To ignore DJFFNY because of it's Hip-hop cliches and celebrity involvement is an understandable, but huge mistake to make. It's one of the smoothest, crunchiest and slickest scrappers ever released.
Word to your Mother.

52. Virtua Cop

(Arcade/Saturn/PC/PS2, AM R&D Department, 1995)
When a gang of heavily armed square faced criminals are planning to hold a weapons deal on the docks, what do you do? Well, If you're the Virtua City Police Department, you just send in two guys who are hanging around the station, don't worry, they supply them with kneepads. KNEEPADS. Gee, thanks.

Virtua Cop hit the arcades in the mid 90's as part of Sega's ground breaking "Virtua" series. Tackling various genres this series, though a little rough around the edges, would build the foundations of many Sega releases for years to come and would be an important selling point of their new Saturn console.
Virtua Cop has one or two players taking on the evil EVL corporation (not a typo) Arriving at three crime scenes, VCPD's finest Lego looking officers blast their way through the criminals whilst avoiding the comically voiced innocent civilians who, as usual, feel the need to leap into your line of fire as opposed to keeping their heads down "DON'T SHOOT ME!"
After taking down the EVL corp. The players must battle the syndicate's boss to finally free blocko-land from crime.

Virtua Cop redefined the lightgun shooter, using huge polygons, an auto targeting zoom effect and an innovative 3D rail route that took the players in and around the locations, a far cry from the usual fixed side scrolling camera and slide into view baddies. The enemy also reacted to the placing of the shots, from dropping his gun from his exploding hand to a John Woo style spin through the air. For a generation of lightgun users attuned to their victims falling backwards slightly and flickering, it was an exciting time indeed. Especially if you could get over the fact VC looked like Lethal Enforcers meets a Dire Strait's video.

Virtua Cop has its issues, the gangsters all look very similar and the game is only three stages long, but this is more due to the limits of the technology at the time than anything else. The soundtrack is cliched and cringe-inducing at points but, as a 90's Sega arcade, this is to be expected.
Virtua Cop was a ground-breaking title that would spawn a great second and not so great third sequel. The game is still incredibly satisfying to play and whilst the game's square faced, badly coloured characters might be hilarious to look at now, it cannot be denied that it was a critical turning point for the lightgun genre that, had AM R&D not evolved it right here, may not be around today...

...and a world without House Of The Dead is a world I would denounce.

53. The Chaos Engine

(Various Home, Bitmap Brothers, 1993, Alt title: Soldiers Of Fortune)
Gaming constantly changes, but doesn't. Graphics improve, effects improve, voice acting, music, controls, every aspect of the visuals, sounds and style of videogames changes and evolves. Just check out Wolfenstein then Modern Warfare or Rally X then Forza 3. Gaming itself, however, stays the same. To true gamers, the old school is just as playable as the new school, because a good game is a good game, regardless of how it looks or sounds. Gaming constantly changes, but doesn't.

The Chaos Engine is a product of its time. Made by small, dedicated development team The Bitmap Brothers, Chaos Engine is a top-down shooter set in a dark, grimy dystopian future. As the game's legendary intro tells us, scientists experimenting with time travel technology have caused a rip and plunged Britain into chaos, freeing dinosaurs and mutants and disrupting weather, flora and fauna. Whats more, the technology has become sentient has must be destroyed.
Enter six battle hardened mercenaries for hire. Attempting to take down the machine (and charge a small fortune while they're at it.)

The game is a REAL hardcore shooter, two of the six characters (two players or one player plus CPU) run and gun their way through four worlds of total warfare, taking on a barrage of vicious creatures and collecting keys, power-ups and gold which can be spent levelling up your characters and their weaponry. Clearing bilghty of all evil will bring you up against the machine itself in a final battle to return the country to it's former sanity. Chaos Engine is infamously very difficult and a real test of the skills of even the very best gamers. Completing it is an achievement in itself, completing it on one life makes you some kind of freak.
The game is at its best on the Amiga, which is unarguably its home and one of the format's trademark games. While still playable on consoles, it feels like it isn't best suited, "The Chaos Engine: McDonalds edition" if you will. It's almost as if the game is too underground for Nintendo or Sega's broader demograph. This opinion is semi-proven by the censorship of the game on such formats. Trying to give The Chaos Engine "wider appeal" is to miss the whole concept of the game itself.

It seems like The Chaos Engine is simply a classic game, but it runs much deeper than that. Regarding my first paragraph, The Chaos Engine represents everything that should make a game... a game. It has action, strategy, storytelling, character development and optional multiplayer. It is a test of skill, nerve and reflexes. It unashamedly puts the odds against you and demands that you rise to the challenge, it has an interesting world populated with artistic characters and is backed with perfectly matched music and sound. Most importantly, it represents the imagination, solid planning and unbridled passion of its core developers.

Gaming changes, but The Chaos Engine transcends those changes, being everything a game should be while keeping the control, graphics and concept to the bare essentials. It is a game that stands proud and unapologetic and The Bitmap Brothers deserve recognition for their hard work and commitment toward it.

The Chaos Engine isn't just a game. The Chaos Engine is gaming.

54. Dungeon Keeper 2

(PC, Bullfrog, 1999)
Moral ambiguity is a given in gaming these days, whether building a crime empire, deciding whether to barter or murder, or opening fire on a group of holidaymakers, It seems that being the bad guy is now always an option. In many games, it's the only option.

Many moons ago, Bullfrog and EA started the Dungeon Keeper series, real time strategy games with the player assuming the big collared cape and twirly moustache of a super-evil overlord and the minions and monsters that live within his lair. DK2 is a RTS and micro-management game, The player views his dungeon from above and must order his team of imps to dig out various rooms, mine for gold and decorate to make the lair attractive to a wide range of hellions who will reside there, going about their daily activities and defending the dungeon's heart from any brave warriors who may foolishly attempt to overthrow you and destroy your hardcore homestead.

DK2 has an abundance of features and a huge range of rooms and monsters to keep even the most feared warlord busy. The game's interface is simple enough for beginners but deep enough for the RTS veteran. A narrator, known as "The Mentor" will inform you of your progress and make you aware of any dangers or shortcomings your hell-hole may be suffering from. The Mentor is great, brilliantly voiced by Richard Ridings, he keeps you abreast of the situation but will also make observations on your gaming skills and, if you play too long, your social life. Epic battles can rage amongst the catacombs, between monsters and heroes or, if morale is low, between your residents themselves. Should the fighting get too out of hand, you may be able to summon the Horned Reaper, a feared warrior who storms into your dungeon, attacking all and sundry, used unwisely, he can do more harm than good.Dungeon Keeper 2 is one of my favourite strategy games, It's fun, innovative and is one of those games that makes hours pass in minutes. I bought the game on release day after I had just bought a new PC, so I was able to ramp all the settings up and enjoy the great colours, lighting effects and 3D models. Many weeks of late-night marathon sessions ensued. The game manages to capture classic evil whilst still being legitimately very funny. It's another example of how Bullfrog could seemingly do no wrong and a sad reminder of how their merger into EA UK and subsequent team split spelled the end of their near perfect track record.

Development of DK3 was stopped in 2000. Hopefully we haven't seen the end of this series, though things are looking very bleak for a sequel. A real shame, as whilst nearly all games today allow you be the nefarious evil-doer, none do it with the perfect blend of class, style, intelligence and humour as Dungeon Keeper.

55. Final Fight: Streetwise

(PS2/Xbox, Capcom Studio 8, 2006)
Ok, no clever lead in, no history lesson. It's Christmas time and there's good food waiting to be eaten. So I'm going to get straight down to the nitty gritty of this entry.

Final Fight: Streetwise is abysmal beyond human comprehension.

I'm sure you get the message that I like brawlers, God knows how many of them made it into the random draw for this list. But just because they are REALLY repetitive doesn't make them bad games. Not only are many of them representative of arcade gaming at the time, but some are iconic and have storied reputations in the history of videogames.
Final Fight is an obvious landmark, Capcom basically took the concept of strolling down the street whilst scrapping and made it fun and addictive, defining a genre and inspiring a host of clones.
But that's a story for another entry...

Final Fight: Streetwise is a god-awful attempt to bring the franchise up to date for the gamers of the time. FF:S is a game trying way, WAY too hard to be "cool" and "edgy" The game is crammed with music that was dated on release and dull, uninteresting characters that can't utter any dialogue without swearing. Though the game's content is "adult" the gameplay is more attuned for a five year old. I'll gladly admit that scrolling brawlers were never human chess at it's very finest, but most of those games came out around fifteen years before this. FF:S manages to take age-old gameplay and fails to add anything really new or eye-catching. Like Fighting Force before it, FF:S proves that this genre needs to be left in the past and any attempt to revive it, no matter what the franchise, will generally be foolish and unsuccessful.

Final Fight: Streetwise was almost immediately forgotten upon release. With boring gameplay, a never-was-cool nu-metal soundtrack, an unnecessarily "adult" storyline and all hopes of success resting on the fact that people may buy it because it's got a Mature rating, FF:S rapes all the classic, knockabout fun out of the original game. FF:S is a game made by uncool people who think they know about "Da kidz" This misguided attempt to be cutting edge ensures that the result truly is the videogame equivalent of Poochie.

"WIGGITY WIGGITY, WORD UP! ROCK ON PARTY!"
"Oooh, he's one outrageous duuude."
"He's totally in my face!"

56. Super Punch-Out!!

(SNES/Wii Virtual, Nintendo IRD, 1994)
This list so far has been lacking in Nintendo games, I don't hate the big N, I just have MASSIVE problems with the whole way they do business and market their products. Let's not go into that for the sake of fanboy raging. Let's instead focus on one of their fine games.

Super Punch-Out!! is so frickin hardcore it has TWO exclamation marks in it's title, it's like a boxing game designed by Homer Simpson. As Little Mac, the player must make their way through four circuits and defeat each circuit's champion. Essentially an update of the NES classic, SPO features no realism whatsoever, with the opposition being caricatures performing crazy, over-the-top combos.
The player must defeat the opponent in three minutes by knockout, don't be looking to be saved by the bell in this one. It's a question of studying your opponent and reading his tactics, then learning when best to strike to stun your living punching bag for a staggering flurry of hits. Patience, memory and timing are the keys required for this game, which plays unlike any other boxer but is a whole lotta fun to bash through.

SPO looks nice with large, colourful, cartoony graphics and it has a crisp and simple control system that must be mastered if you don't want to find yourself looking at the lights repeatedly. The opponents are a creative range of wacky stereotypes, amusing in both their animations and their fighting styles.
Easy to pick-up and hard to master, Super Punch-Out!! is an example of everything Nintendo used to concentrate their efforts on with each and every game: fun concepts, great characters, addictive gameplay, good balance, lastability and that all important "One more go" factor.

Nowadays, a true Nintendo fan is lucky if the same care and attention is paid to one game a year. I'm glad I'm not a fanboy of the big N, for these are dark times for gamers, with Nintendo seemingly leading the charge for shovelling crap onto your favourite console and calling it ice-cream.
But this isn't forever, the trend will peak (it may already have) the fog will lift and the developers will come crawling back to their faithful long term supporters. The glossy TV ad people will have deserted and the trendy posers will have all sold their DSi and copy of WiiFit. When this happens, Nintendo can go back to doing what they used to do best, releasing five-star games like there's no tomorrow.

Ant n' Dec can suck my dick.

57. Gals Panic

(Arcade, Kaneko, 1990)
Japan likes women. Lots. No problem with that, I do too, but Japan's attitude is often at best questionable and at worst sickening. I have visited stores in Shinjuku and watched rich businessmen honorably exchange business cards and bow to each before queuing up to buy torture mags. Shops sell videogames where you can rape schoolgirls and there are entire TV shows fixated on the panties of Jailbait. I know of few other countries that have signs in trains casually warning girls not to get molested. Ive seen enough of Japan with my own eyes, from their culture, TV, music scene, film and advertising to know that whilst the whole world, myself included, is guilty of exploiting women in some form, Japan is the heavyweight champion.

Anyone with a complete MAME set will be fully aware of girly based games, the full set is literally brimming with variants of Mahjong, Shogi, Pachinko and the like spiced up with some big titted anime girl cheering you on and crying if you don't continue. Gals Panic is a long running series that, despite it's simplicity, has a convoluted legacy.
Essentially clones of the awesome "Qix" the Gals Panic games have you controlling a small dot and venturing out onto a playing field, drawing a line around the silhouette of a girl in a suggestive pose, as you complete these lined sections, the picture is slowly uncovered. Various monsters, traps and blocks hinder your progress and power-ups for speed and shields can be collected. Once the picture is unveiled, you get to do it all again, this time the girl will be wearing less clothing. This continues until she's completely naked in all her square boobs glory.
Hilariously, if you take too long the background picture changes to a decidedly unsexy octopus or sheep (Well, unsexy unless you love octupi)
There are plenty of these games and at one point the series splits into two. As with many "classic updates" of games, the sequels get progressively louder and flashier, with better enemies, neon lines, explosions, flashy effects, new power-ups etc. For what is a very straightforward series the depth of change these games have gone through is astounding. There are versions based on real photos and versions with Hentai, some which have orgasm cries as you uncover sections, some which are censored and uncensored, bonus rounds, co-op play, the list goes on and on.

I think Qix is a great game, so I think the Gals Panic games are great, they often have cool music and are hopelessly addictive, like all classic arcades should be. There have been various games in the series since 1990 and many copycats too. It appears that as long as men find pretend women attractive, there will always be a bang up to date way to draw lines across their silhouetted poses in an effort to see some blocky areolas.
By that logic, this is a future-proof genre that will roll until the end of time.

58. Rapscallion

(Spectrum, Bug-Byte, 1984)
Rapscallion is one of the most surreal games Ive ever come across and was released for the Spectrum by budget company Bug-Byte software. In Rapscallion you play, well, "You" I guess. "You" are the owner of Hassle Castle, but Rapscallion the Rogue has stolen your crown and had you thrown into the dungeon, your own dungeon. What a dick.

Help is at hand, your friend the fairy princess (I didn't write this, guys) turns you into a bird that can turn into a fly that can turn into a ghost at the cost of a life.
Still with me? As this human/bird/ghost/fly hybrid you must traverse though a series of rooms laid out maze style and gather a selection of magical items that will allow you to confront Rapscallion and reclaim your place as the ruler of Hassle Castle. There are many perils and pitfalls, some which are harmful to you as a bird and some as a fly. However, something that could kill the fly might just speed the bird up or vice versa. You can change between the creatures willingly but if you are killed you become the ghost and must find a magic pixie to reincarnate you. If you get lost, magic crystals guide the way. You also have to aquire an invisible key, Oh, and you have to find three angry wizards and touch them while they're sleeping.

Oh, to be an 80's game developer

Rapscallion is the oldest of old school, with huge, blocky, teletext graphics and simple, bleepy, sound effects. The player whizzes through the various rooms avoiding a variety of spiders, frogs, cars, fish, riflemen and everything else the game's tripped out haze can throw at you. If you eventually defeat Rapscallion then you are presented with a title deed to the castle that you can add your name to, then you can save that title deed to a cassette to reload and view anytime.
Rapscallion is beyond review, it's more an oddity, something that should be played just so you can experience it. It's simple, straightforward, fast moving and is over before it's barely begun. Conceptually, it's the videogame equivalent of a Grimm brothers tale, it's simply imagination run wild.
One day, Gina Gershon's gonna break down outside my house, when I invite her in and load up my Rapscallion title deed, Boy, am I in for some well deserved lovin'

59. Kane And Lynch: Dead Men

(PS3/Xbox360/PC, IO Interactive, 2007)
This is a tale of screw-ups, greed, bitterness and redemption.
Not the plot, I'm referring to the development and fallout of the game itself. Eidos published Kane And Lynch: Dead Men in 2007 at the dawn of the new generation of consoles. With the Hitman team behind it, a Jesper Kyd soundtrack and plenty of hype, it seemed like a "cant miss" prospect.

It couldn't have missed more if that guy who threw his shoes at George Bush was aiming.

K&L tells the story of the two most unlikeable protagonists in videogame history: Kane, an ex-mercenary on his way to Death row and Lynch, a medicated psychopath who killed his wife and is capable of becoming a one man slaughterhouse at the drop of a hat. These two are forced together by fate and before they know it, K&L have their backs to wall in a tale of brutal violence they can't hope to survive.

You won't want them to either, Kane and Lynch, despite their interesting histories, are two of the most despicable men gamers have ever had the chance to control, Kane is a pathetic, back-stabbing loser who causes pain to anyone involved in his life whilst Lynch is straight up irredeemable. The game follows an uber-bleak storyline which involves the deaths of many innocents and an awful transition midway through the story where it attempts to get you to sympathize and "side" with the characters.

Now, K&L are STILL interesting characters to me, despite their reprehensibility. That still leaves another problem, the game stinks. The graphics were dated on release, the aiming is broken and features a hideous cover system that barely works. The storyline has huge plot holes and a cringe-inducing script, if you think saying "Fuck" is really cool, this is the game for you. The game has a co-op story mode but incredibly it's split-screen only. There is also a squad based ordering system but it isn't useful and the A.I is untrustworthy.
On the plus side, Jesper Kyd's soundtrack is very cool, the online "Fragile Alliance" mode is clever and original and some of the banter between K&L during play is amusing, especially if you order Lynch around too much.
At this point, I'd be willing to say that K&L was the unfortunate victim of bad timing, being developed just too early to be "next gen" but just too late to be "last gen" but the story doesn't end there. Jeff Gerstmann, then Gamespot reviewer was apparently fired for giving this game a scathing review. To churn out a broken game, then cause a man to lose his job because he rightly called you on it is bullshit. Fortunately, Gerstmann was picked up by the superior GiantBomb.com

My theory is; someone sat at a table and drew out a plan for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and that plan was awesome, but it got repeatedly watered down, chopped, changed, rewritten, re-edited resulting in a broken mess of the original idea. As of the writing, Kane And Lynch 2: Dog Days, is in development, though it goes against every bit of common sense in my being, I'm going to give the hateful duo a second chance, I'm convinced that this CAN work and maybe a new team, new engine, new controls and a new style can do just that.

It'll be 2010, too many great third person games are out. Looking at Gears Of War, Resident Evil etc, there's no excuse. If I.O can't make the sequel at least "pretty good" then they need to get out of the business. In a time where better studios have been forced to close their doors, I.O were lucky enough to get a new lease of life.
Now it's time to prove that they deserve it.

60. Cadillacs And Dinosaurs

(Arcade, Capcom, 1992)
This classic scrolling brawler is based on Mark Schultz awesome 80's comic "Xenozoic Tales" which became a animated series in the early 90's and then got the Capcom button basher treatment around the same time.

Xenozoic Tales followed the adventures of mechanic Jack Tenrec and the gorgeous Hannah Dundee in a post-apocalyptic world where Dinosaurs had returned to the earth. Some aspects of the storyline are reminiscent of the Fallout series, with the whole "Armageddon 50's chic" going on.
In the game, one to three players pick from the four characters available and rush headlong into fisticuffs with a gang of Mad Max style punks who are experimenting with Dinosaurs to find a way to harness their prehistoric power, possibly even making human/dino hybrids. Our heroes being the righteous sort of lot, plan to stop them, kind of like a post-apocalyptic PETA I guess.
Using the the same engine as their previous brawler Captain Commando, Capcom run their usual m.o of sticking the player in the middle of masses of badguys and bosses and letting them do their thing. The game has a big arsenal of weaponry and many firearms and explosives to hand, very occasionally, the pimped out Cadillac will pull alongside for backup. Attacking the dinosaurs turns them green, then they fight alongside you. What this says for animal abuse I'm not sure, maybe next time I see an animal, I'll punch it in the face, then it'll side with me, I'll let you know how that works out.
C&D captures its comic origins well, with a similar art style, bright pastel colours and the use of comic style sounds effects for explosions and gunfire, RATATATTAT! Similar effects would be employed in Capcom's later Punisher game. C&D also has one of the best "Continue?" sequences known to man. Capcom sure loved those brutal Game Over screens.

Like most games of this type, C&D is still fun to play with friends and a nice way to while away a half-hour if your having a MAME session. It sits in the middle of the early 90's scrolling brawler league table, not quite as deep as Alien Vs Predator but still entertaining all the same.
If you're into comics, I encourage you to check out Xenozoic Tales, I think it's a cool series and anyone who knows me well would know that if I had a Weird Science machine, a Hannah-alike would be the girl who steps out of it.

She sizzles my bacon.

61. Resident Evil 4

(Gamecube/Wii/PC/PS2, Capcom, 2005, JPN title: Biohazard 4)
I've got a lot to fit into this entry, so it's going to be compact, like corned beef.
I love the Resident Evil series, all of them. As is this case for so many gamers, the Resi series holds dear memories of late night marathon sessions, unintentionally hilarious dialogue and quite a few scares and surprises.
Sadly, very few games from the series made the draw for this list, fortunately, Resident Evil 4 did, good thing too, not only is it one of best in the series, it's one of the most important.

RE4 sees the player assuming the role of Leon Kennedy, possibly the only likeable pretty-boy hero in gaming history, as he ventures into a small European village on a mission to rescue the President's daughter Ashley who has been kidnapped by an evil cult. By the time his mission reaches its end, Leon and Ashley will have been forced to face rabid villagers, insane cultists, a deadly virus and some of the most terrifying creatures ever realised. Leon's judgement will also be tested as he meets familiar faces from the past.

Resident Evil 4 shatters the formula the previous games were built upon and throws completely new gameplay into the series, Capcom hammered this home by writing in the box blurb lines like "Forget survival horror" and "Forget everything you know about Resident Evil" a brave move indeed, but one that pays off.
Yes, you can respect the genre defining and groundbreaking that was built by Resi 1-3 but there comes a time when that style is dead. This was proven by Code: Veronica and the Cube remakes, although still good games by general standards, they clearly showed that the limits had been reached for pivoting on the spot, and auto aiming at snail-like zombies. The time HAD come for something new, doing the same thing over and over whilst only improving the graphics makes a franchise stagnate, no matter how popular it is, just ask Grand Theft Auto.
Resident Evil 4 has an over the shoulder camera and a heavy emphasis on combat, that's not to say it's Gears Of War, there is still plenty of exploration, puzzle solving, trap dodging, item hunting and sharp-shooting to be done.

The game reinvented its look, its style, its weapon upgrade and inventory system (which was absolute bliss to an OCD sufferer such as myself. Snugly fitting items together in a box? SOLD.) Capcom had the balls to put out a unique entry and say "This is how it is now, deal with it". The game is still scary, the rampaging villagers and hooded zealots can sneak up on you before you know it and some of the later biological monsters are creepy as hell. I really like the combat, the pin-point aiming, the panic-inducing reloads and the roundhouse kick/belly to belly suplex melee attacks.
Yes, I know that at no point do dogs jump through windows. Get over it.

Most importantly, the game still FEELS like Resident Evil, the story, script and characters are all as to be expected from the series, told though nicely presented cut-scenes. The herbs, elemental ammo rounds and written clues are all present and correct and whilst ammo is more liberal, in no way does that mean you can blast away indiscriminately.
To love something is to know it's weaknesses, the new camera has a blind side, the introduction of quicktime events is awkward and unwelcome and the game has a interminable jet-ski sequence which is totally trial and error, breaking the flow of the game's climax.

These are minor issues though, with this game, Capcom proved that despite the abundance of horror games available now, their baby can re-invent itself to stand tall. RE4 blends the old school with the new and was the perfect debut for the series new direction.
Today, the franchise is moving onward and is a guaranteed money maker for years to come. Resident Evil 4 is the most important game in the entire series, it represents the turning point where Capcom decided things had to change, and went all out to do just that, at the risk of turning off fans for good.

It was a worthwhile gamble, one that many other franchises need to take real soon before they find out the hard way that while something can work for a very long time, nothing lasts forever.

62. Terramex

(Various Home, Teque Software Ltd, 1987)
What. The hell.
Terramex, or to give it it's alternate title: Cosmic Relief: Prof. Renegade To The Rescue, is a surreal arcade adventure that was available on many home formats from the Amiga and Atari ST to the humble Spectrum and C64.
A meteorite is on a collision course with Earth, the only hope is getting to an elusive scientist, Professor Renegade, then helping him create a state of the art defence system (a giant pinball flipper) to prevent Armageddon. As the upcoming doomsday concerns all continents, The world sends forth is finest explorers to track down the Professors location and inform him of the situation.

The player picks from one of five massively racist stereotypes and proceeds to explore the desert, the clouds and a labyrinth of underground caverns screen by screen. Able to carry four items at a time, problem solving and pixel perfect jumping is the order of the day. Not only is the chosen explorer up against the clock, he also only has three lives with which to complete his expedition. Every one of those lives will be needed, as Terramex features a plethora of deadly creatures, Indiana Jones style booby traps, collapsing bridges and every other threat the terrain can throw at you but hey, all for a good cause right? RIGHT?

Terramex is a great action adventure, it has a very Monty Pythonesque sense of humour and comes across like a more twisted version of a Dizzy game. It's also rock-hard and unfortunately a lot of deaths may come from trial and error, requiring you to make sure you have the right items with you when you handle the situation next time around. Your three lives have to get you through the whole game, so every one of them is incredibly precious, to lose one because you are unprepared for the unknown is a little unfair. The game also came with a map and a guide to all the collectable items, perhaps to redress the balance a little.
Other than that though, Terramex is a cool game, with decent graphics and smooth animation. There's also a neat little tune that accompanies your adventures and the slapstick sense of humour helps move the game along nicely.

Terramex wasn't easy to come by, I hunted high and low on it's release and eventually I was able to pick it up from a car boot sale of all places. Despite it's questionable habit of throwing you curve-balls, Terramex's heart is in the right place, it's a challenging, action packed adventure and one of the few games which has the audacity to keep a smile on your face whilst it's kicking you in the balls.

Now get going, youve got a planet to save.

63. Police Trainer

(Arcade, P&P, 1996)
Whenever I sit at my computer and check the list to see whats next on the agenda, the result often leaves me perplexed. I see a game like Dragon's Lair and think "How do I sum up the history of laserdisc games in such a short space?" I come across WCW Backstage Assault and think "Do I deserve to live and have sexual relations after having contact with that game?" I try to summarise, in just a few blocks of text, the concept of the game and what it means to me in my own personal gaming history.
So usually, I find it tricky to put my feelings, whether good or bad, into words..

..but not today.

Police Trainer is a lightgun game from the mid-90s by P&P Marketing. The player takes part in a simulation of a simulation, aiming their gun at targets and figures that move toward them, with points given for speed and accuracy.

Just one problem, it's REALLY boring. Police Trainer is a slow moving, almost soundless game which produces no excitement whatsoever. The cheap feeling guns are inaccurate despite it being the key concept of the game. The figures, which look like those artist's drawing dolls, slide toward you, waving baseball bats in a comical manner. To it's credit the game features lots of different tests, but none of them get the pulse beating any faster than rigor mortis. Alongside ANY other game that puts a lightgun in your hand and sends you up against waves of zombies, gangsters, ninjas or bad FMV actors, Police Trainer is just slow, quiet, uninteresting and unsatisfying. The graphics are basic, dated and pull no response from the player. Shoot the targets, check your score, repeat.

Take a good look at the screenshot above, does it even remotely interest you or make you want to play? Now imagine you also have to pay for the privilege, NOW imagine House of the Dead is on its left and Time Crisis is on its right.
Police Trainer is simply dull, even if you're interested in accurate shooting there are far more entertaining games to test your sniper skills on. I walked away from Police Trainer with credits left in the machine, to date it's still the first and only time Ive ever done that.

I can't even get any bad comedy out of this write up. The game isn't even unintentionally funny. It only invokes the worst feeling any videogame can: apathy.

64. Rock Star Ate My Hamster

(Various Home, Codemasters, 1988)
DONT GET ME STARTED ON MUSIC.
Seriously, you'd be opening a hardcore can of worms. A self confessed stubborn mentalist, a simple conversation with me about bands will quickly become political warfare of it's highest order. Incredibly precious about the bands I like and brutally un-moving on the hundreds I don't, there probably isn't a single act I haven't built a half arsed psychological profile on. I'm not saying I'm not usually RIGHT, of course, just that it's rarely worth the bullet-point lecture I'll spew forth from every orifice on my body.

ANYWAY, Codemaster's Rock Star Ate My Hamster is a satirical look at the music industry and the questionable dealings that may be going on in order to get many gorgeous, talentless scrubs high in the charts. As ex-theatrical agent Cecil Pitt (and his hapless assistant Clive) The player must put together a band from the fifty or so stars on offer, then manage their equipment, practice sessions, gigs, publicity and, of course, temper tantrums and diva-esque demands.

"No, no, Fold the meat"
"But then if you keep folding it, it breaks up and everything has to be folded"

Once successful on the circuit, an album can be recorded and various singles released, the aim being to go gold four times within the year. All this while keeping an eye out for pirate companies, bogus charities and publicity stunts gone horribly wrong. Bankruptcy or loss of all your band members sees the team turfed out on the street.
Rockstar is a novel game, it has a cool concept and a nihilistic sense of humour, similar in style to classic British shows like The Young Ones. Rockstar is amusing to play but impossible to take seriously, not necessarily in a good way. The time limit given to achieve success is far too small, and the "management" aspects are shallow as hell, a lot relies on crossing your fingers and guessing, the charities, publicity stunts and character deaths are out of your control, other than picking a 50/50 option and hoping for the best. Chart success seems almost random, regardless of money spent, time of release, quality of video etc. The higher priced stars almost bankrupt you as soon as the game has begun and there is no real logic to aspects such as band chemistry, instrument quality, practice length, song titles and so on.

When released, Rock Star Ate My Hamster was a game like none other, funny, original and very, very British. You can play it today and still get a good laugh and a lot of fun from putting together your supergroup and sending them out on the road to nowhere. But, as a management game, it doesn't even have the basics required to be played as anything other than satire.

It's still more legit than The X Factor though.

65. Magical Drop III

(NeoGeo/Saturn/Playstation, Data East, 1997)
More jolly puzzle fun now as the third iteration of the Magical Drop series enters the list. Much like Puchi Carat, this anime puzzler is a split screen affair that requires fast thinking and careful planning.
The player runs a small clown across the bottom of the screen, pulling similarly coloured balloons off the board then firing them back on to connect long chains of the same colour. The balloons clog the screen incredibly quickly and the player must be fast on his feet and truly think two moves ahead in order to avoid being overrun.

As with many games of this type, the split screen mode features two players battling it out, transferring chains to each others board with the first player to become overrun losing the battle.
The player can pick from one of a mighty 24 avatars, all based on the tarot, these stylish anime characters lurk in the background, celebrating and deriding the ups and downs of their host's actions.
My favourites are Empress and Fortune... Noticing a trend yet?Like many games before it, Magical Drop is a simple puzzle battler that's as addictive as crack (just not nearly as bad for you) Solid practice will reward the player with strategies to help them through the challenge and story modes, which climb in difficulty very quickly. Many an afternoon can be wasted battling against friends and the game's infectious "Just one more go" syndrome should provide you years of enjoyment. It has for me anyway.

Great art and fun gameplay. Magical Drop III will have you jumping for joy...

..Indeed.

66. Cabal

(Arcade/Various Home, TAD, 1988)
War...HUH! What is it good for?
80's Arcades apparently. Many 10p eaters in the 80s/90s were based on the concept of one or two guys trapped behind enemy lines, fighting they're way through an entire army single handed. Usually armed with a machine gun and a handful of grenades, these one-man war machines would gun their way through an entire regiment of men and often several tanks and helicopters without batting an eye. USA! USA!

Cabal is a game that requires the fire button being held down. A lot. The players run back and forth across the bottom of the screen, relentlessly pumping lead into anything that moves in front of them. Wave after wave of infantry, grenadiers, jeeps, tanks, helicopters and even jet fighters charge headlong at the two warriors, whose first mistake was to show up to the jungle in red and blue jumpsuits. After a certain quota of kills has been made, everything explodes on cue, the music stops then, out of nowhere, this comedy tune kicks in as our heroes DANCE their way into the distance to perform another massacre. Without a shadow of a doubt its the most inappropriate mission complete sequence in game history, and its AWESOME.

After four screens, the player comes up against a boss vehicle, these must be taken down in one life, as a player's death results in the boss getting all it's energy back, a high pressure situation for sure. Once five missions are completed, the rainbow warriors can return home, well, actually they'll just start again from the beginning. That's old school.

Cabal is your standard arcade shooter, what could essentially be an Operation: Wolf clone is twisted by having an actual on-screen character to dodge and weave amongst the bullets slowly trailing toward him, the game also has destructible scenery, with all the buildings in an area satisfyingly crumbling to the ground under heavy fire. The player is one-shot, one-kill so great care and fast reflexes are required to avoid the hot steel rain incoming from all and sundry. The sound is super basic, with putt-putt machine guns and a repetitive beat instead of actual music.
Although the game is very straightforward and incredibly bare bones, it's still good fun, especially with another player. The onscreen carnage never stops and although the gameplay is simple, it still requires cat-like reflexes and even a bit of forward thinking.

Of course, if nothing else, THAT end of level song and dance routine is worth the price of admission alone. Cabal is tense and exciting, with brutal violence that builds to a comedy farce conclusion. Reminds me of something else...

67. Cybernator

(SNES/PS2/Wii Virtual, NCS Corporation, 1992, JPN title: "Assault Suits Valken")
I'm not really a mech suit guy, I like my fair share of Anime, but it's generally angry hitmen and sexy cartoon women that float my boat, whilst I'm aware of the popularity of giant robot suits, they're just not for me.

Back in the SNES days, I would play anything, regardless of it's content or quality, so I borrowed Cybernator from a schoolyard chum despite it's schmuppy, sci-fi, mech suit presentation, I also had a big Konami kick going on at the time as they rarely let me down when it came to the Super Nintendo. A sequel of sorts to 1990's Target Earth, Cybernator (or it's cooler Japanese name of Assault Suits Valken) is a sideways scrolling run and gun which follows the tour of duty of Jake, a young man piloting a huge mech battle suit. Working for "The Federation" Jake and his comrades in arms engage in combat against rival alliances in an intergalactic war over the few fossil fuels left in the universe. With many planets and cities already lying a smouldering mess, Jake must help prevent these fuels falling into the wrong hands whilst coming to terms with the violence he has been thrown into at such a young age

Yes. Yes it is.

The player controls Jake's mech suit which has eight directional fire and a selection of weaponry, as well as a shield and a dash attack. Good thing he's armed to the teeth, as Jake will be under constant attack from all directions by an onslaught of airborne weaponry, gun emplacements and a variety of opposing mechs. The levels are large in scale and there is usually several routes through to one of the game's mighty bosses. The controllers at The Federation radio Jake during play, updating him on his suit's status and offering advice to help him out in the warzone.

Cybernator is a great game, It's exciting, controls well, has great atmosphere and even squeezes in a story which has two endings depending on the player's actions on a certain mission. The sprites are all well detailed, despite their size and the game has some real smooth parallax scrolling. Top it off with cool explosive effects and a pumping soundtrack and Cybernator is very hard to dislike.
The game has both visuals and a style of gameplay that date well, making it as playable today as it was on it's release. With the huge amount of games pointlessly getting the HD remake overhaul at the moment, it seems a shame that games like Cybernator are unlikely to be picked up for the same treatment. It seems like one of the few games that would be well suited for it, especially seeing as the Western SNES release was censored and the PS2 remake was redundant. As such, it still feels like this game deserves a "Definitive" version.

68. Guardians Of The 'Hood

(Arcade, Atari, 1992)
As previously mentioned, I'm a huge fan of games where vigilantes decide it's time to walk through the city, punching men and women in the face as a quick solution to the crime problem, especially when there's a bound and gagged girl waiting to be rescued at the other end. If any game fits that bill, then sign me up and let's bring the beatdowns. In my world, happiness is finding a roast chicken in a barrel.

However, If you want me to save "Da HoOD!" Thanks, but I'd rather let it burn.
Guardians Of The 'Hood is a total shit sandwich of a game. Seriously, take a good look at the above screenshot again. Atari, apparently trying hard to wipe it's own credibility of the face of the earth, tortured gamers with what is essentially a scrolling beat 'em up version of Pit-Fighter. Picking one of four hopelessly un-cool characters, up to three friends (An oxymoron, If you enjoy this game you won't have any friends) can make their way through DA 'HOOD, beating up wave upon wave of the same four blocky digitised badguys, Palette swaps and all.

The game has that horrible Pit-Fighter engine which means everyone floats around bouncing off each other like they're made of rubber, punches and kicks flail through the air, randomly striking characters or ghosting straight through them, floored characters get pushed around the screen and every attack and fruity cartwheel evasion is nailed to two or three frames of animation.
It's like someone took the worst game engine ever, then devised a way to make you hate it even more. The game has droning music that sounds like a walkman when the batteries are running out.

After suffering through some of the longest levels ever farted onto a JAMMA board, our non-heroes come up against the imaginatively titled Big Boss. This is where you are hit with the game's big twist: Big Boss is ACTUALLY A WOMAN! This may have been shocking if it hadn't been for two things:
1. Big Boss looks like a woman
2. Big Boss is clearly a woman
Guardians of the 'hood is a grade 'A' turd. A button bashing mess, the awkward engine doesn't allow for strategy and the broken control system makes the game a total credit muncher, especially considering the ridiculously overpowered bosses. When you look at it's year of release, it's actually rage-inducing that Atari had the gall to attempt to con gamers out of they're hard earned tokens.
Well, people aren't always that stupid, and this game rightfully bombed. I hope everyone involved in it lost their jobs. No, actually, I hope they had to play their own abortion from beginning to end.

I'd encourage you to boot up an emulator and try all the games I post about here, but not this one, straight up, It'd give your PC computer syphilis.
If Guardians Of The Hood was a human, it'd be Gary Glitter. If it was a TV show, it'd be that episode of 8 Simple Rules where the Dad dies, If it was a videogame, it'd be Guardians Of The 'Hood.

Shame on you Atari. You are still unforgiven.

69. Aliens: The Computer Game

(Spectrum/C64/Amstrad, Software Studios, 1986)
"You always were an asshole Gorman."
James Cameron's Aliens is one of my favourite films and definitely my favourite of the series. As a kid, my Dad wouldn't let me watch films that were outside of my age range, Aliens was the first I got to see by sneaking round a friend's house and it's probably that feeling of "forbiddeness" that made it stick in my brain. After repeated viewings, I still cannot tire of that movie. Or Bill Paxton.

So, how stoked was I when I got my hands on a game for my beloved Spectrum. Released by retro all-stars Electric Dreams, Aliens attempted to capture the tension and action of the movie and covert that same style to the humble home systems of the time. Played in first person, the player switches between six of the film's characters as they scroll through the rooms of colony LV-426 trying to track down the Xenomorph Queen lurking deep within, The game plays in almost total silence, however, when a Xenomorph is encountered, the scanner beeps kick in, rising from a low octave to a high pitch, during this time, the player must scan the area for the creature and gun it down before it turns and charges the camera. If the player fails to act, the camera goes to static and the character is killed or cocooned. I always used to let Burke get killed straight away, what a dick. In fact, it surprising they made him a playable character. After fighting through the warriors, eggs, face huggers and cocoons the team eventually comes up against the Queen.

Aliens could be seen as an early example of survival horror, with limited ammo, a huge map to traverse and alien attacks that were legitimately scary, Aliens conjured up the same presence and tension gamers would later feel playing games such as Resident Evil and Dead Space. The fact it managed to be so creepy with the graphics and sound available at the time is a triumph for videogame design. The title theme is also one of my very favourite Spectrum tunes. Aliens has its faults, all the rooms are practically identical and, without a map to hand, players are destined to get lost in the labyrinthine colony. The game is fairly quiet and many rooms are passed through with no activity, this isn't necessarily a bad thing though, as it makes the jarring Xenomorph attacks far more heart-stopping. Hudson also isn't playable, which is unbelievable.
Film tie-in is good game shocker. Very few games based on films are any good, generally due to licensing costs and an inability to translate the screen action into gameplay. That is still very true even today, which makes the small miracle the developers achieved with Aliens all the more special. Good work guys.

True story. Back when I was a kid, I had a friend who came round and loved playing this game, he went straight out and bought it for his C64, but the version he got was the U.S edition, which is a totally different game. He was so gutted that he actually burst into tears when it loaded. I don't know where he is now, but I'm sure it scarred him for life. I bet all he plays now are fucking mini-game compilations.

70. Dragon's Lair

(Arcade/Various Home, Advanced Microcomputer Systems, 1983)
Dragon's Lair is one of my favourite videogames of all time.
Dragon's Lair is barely a videogame.
Trying to squeeze all my thoughts and pro-laserdisc arguments into a few blocks of text is impossible, but I'll endeavour.

Released as a Laserdisc arcade in 1983, Dragon's Lair was the result of hard work by animator Don Bluth and developer Rick Dyer. The game is basically hand drawn animated film telling the story of our hero, Dirk the Daring, as he attempts to rescue the gorgeous Princess Daphne from an evil Dragon (Ive never understood why Dragons kidnap princesses, What's in it for them? The possession of beauty or just for LoLs?)

Every few seconds the player has to make a move to prevent Dirk from dying, based on what unfolds on screen, it's hopelessly unfair, as the events offer little in the way of clues and the reaction time allowed is superhuman. The game basically becomes a memory quiz, where a successful player will just remember the moves needed and after many attempts will be able to move smoothly through the game purely on knowledge learned through trial and error. Dragon's Lair II is more forgiving, although it is faster paced it has clearer visuals cues and slightly more reaction time.

After making his way through various scenes of danger, Dirk comes up against the Dragon, saves the Princess and, it would appear, receives the promise of some hardcore action once they get back home.
Dragon's Lair is universally trounced by many gamers, claiming that the game has little to no interactivity and is questionably a game at all. These critics miss the point, Dragon's Lair is a masterpiece of design, an attempt made during gaming's golden era to try something new and different, possibly taking the business in a new direction. The fact is that upon release the game had incredible success, with gamers queuing up to play despite the game's higher price and insane level of unfairness. It was something never experienced before and, for the time at least, had people guessing at the direction their favourite hobby would be taking. Unfortunately, as historians know, that direction was downward, as the market crashed and put many companies out of business, shutting down arcades left, right and centre.
Dragon's Lair's art is beyond compare, Don Bluth and his studio created beautiful imagery that is arguably better than anything produced by any animation company at the time and makes most of today's animation look like the very worst fanart.
But, is Dragon's Lair a videogame? people will argue, it didn't have pixel graphics, computer produced sound or even "proper" control. However, it did provide excitement and thrills and required both concentration and hand to eye coordination of the player in order to get Dirk through to the bitter end.

More importantly, Dragon's Lair tried something different, it rolled the dice. Whilst it might not have come up double sixes, it invented a new style of game, got itself in the Smithsonian museum and was ported to almost EVERY SINGLE home format there has ever been.
I'm not here to argue over the game's playability, I'll be the very first to admit that it's one long "quicktime event" before the phrase was even coined. This blog's purpose is to write what these games mean to me and Dragon's Lair means a lot. It was one of the first arcades I ever played and it's legacy has followed me throughout my gaming life. With Blu-Ray, Nintendo DS and Iphone versions on the way, it's still being ported nearly thirty years after it's original release.
Don't hate Dragon's Lair, it was a brave attempt to try something completely different and whilst it only worked in the short term, it did it with style and flair. The game is iconic and should be remembered proudly as a part of videogame history.

71. Bucky O'Hare

(Nes, Konami, 1992)
"From another, dimension. Another time and space, a parallel universe is falling on its face. When out of, the chaos, who else could it be? but the animal adventurers from S.P.A.C.E. BUCKY! CAPTAIN BUCKY O'HARE! He goes where no ordinary rabbit would dare"
and so forth...

Bucky O'Hare And The Toad Wars was a short lived animated series in the early 90s, based on a series of comics. Bucky and his crew fought intergalactic battles against an empire of evil toads, led by a super computer called KOMPLEX. After a 13 episode run, the show disappeared.
Even though only around for a short time, the merchandise machine acted fast, with the action figures, bedsheets etc. hitting the stores almost simultaneously with the show's debut. After the Ninja Turtle's super success, Cartoon merchandise was the cash cow to milk during this period.

Two Bucky games were produced, an arcade brawler, similar in style to TMNT or The Simpsons and this platform romp for the Nes. Almost unashamedly, the game borrows heavily from Capcom's Megaman series in control, level design and action. The player takes ahem.."The funky fresh rabbit" through various planets to rescue his crew members from danger. Once rescued, the player can switch characters as and when they desire, utilizing each characters various weapons and abilities to overcome obstacles. Once re-assembled, the team head into the Toad mothership for the final confrontation.

Bucky O'Hare is a quality NES game. As a blatant Megaman clone, it suffers the peaks and pitfalls of that series, It has fast action and a nice variety of weapons and levels. However, it also suffers from Megaman's graphical glitches, slowdown and, of course, its insane level of difficulty, usually in the shape of pixel perfect jumps, ungenerous restart points and powerful bosses.

Bucky O'Hare falls into that NES classic platform canon, alongside games like Ducktales and Chip'n'Dale, but it most definitely plays more like Megaman than anything else. That's no drama, Megaman is a fine series. So if you're the masochistic type who likes their cutesy platformers painfully frustrating, hop on board the Righteous Indignation and blast your way through the anthropomorphic Aniverse.
Who knows where it might take you?

72. Gun.Smoke

(Arcade/Various Home, Capcom, 1985)
Its Gun.Smoke, not Gunsmoke. See the full stop?
Gun.Smoke is a classic vertically scrolling schmup from the good people at Capcom, I assume they're good, it's not like I've met them so don't hold me to that.
Gun.Smoke follows the adventure of Billy Bob, a bounty hunter with the world's biggest hat as he attempts to "round-up" (murder) a group of hardened criminals who are making the West, indeed, Wild.

Billy Bob walks forward in a automatically scrolling screen, gunning down generic enemies approaching him from all directions or firing at him from buildings and mountain tops. Armed with two guns, Billy can fire to the left, right, straight ahead or a combination of any two directions together, a technique that is to be mastered by players wishing to get anywhere in the game. Unfortunately, his guns appear to suffer some kind of malfunction which means the bullets drop out of the air a few feet out of the barrel, Nice one Billy. Power-ups and a galloping Horse can be picked up along the way to aid our hero in his suicide mission.
After making his way through the landscape, Billy comes up against one of the rootingist, tootingist (Ugh) cowboys in the state, each boss is armed with a trademark weapon and for some reason, even some ninja guy turns up.
I think Gun.Smoke is REALLY hard, I don't know if I just don't have what it takes, but I still haven't finished the game, despite playing it on and off for fifteen years. For me, Gun.Smoke is what I expect of any classic arcade game, it's simple, frantic and a hardcore challenge, the fact I'm still trying to finish it after so many years without either succeeding or giving up is a testament to both the game's difficulty and it's addictiveness.
Every gamer should have a small selection of vintage games that they are die-hard to, occasionally coming back for nostalgic fun and never tiring of it, no matter how many years have passed. For your humble host, Gun.Smoke is undeniably one of those games.

If only I could finish the damn thing.

73. Lupin III: The Shooting

(Arcade, Sega, 2001)
A lot of lightgun games made the draw into this list, which is fair enough as many of them are very popular and they are one of the few genres that still appear in what little arcades are left (especially here in Britain) The chances of this one appearing anywhere soon are unlikely, which is a tragedy of epic proportions.

I was lucky enough to spend some time in Tokyo in 2002. Of course, the first thing you should do when visiting an exotic land is seek out and enjoy the sites and local culture, or just go to the arcades. Wanna take a guess what I did?
Anyway, amongst the rows of Virtua Fighters and Dog walking simulators (No, really) I came across this gem of a shooter from Sega featuring my favourite manga/anime character, Lupin III. Gentleman thief Lupin has been the subject of many games in Japan and his exploits appear on various consoles including Nes, Snes, Saturn and PS2, sadly, none of these games were translated to the West, That's just the way things go.
Lupin games: 0, Dragonball games: 500,000

Lupin III: The Shooting runs on the GD-ROM technology that enabled Sega to port their arcades at great speed to the awesome Dreamcast console with virtually no loss in quality. Lupin The Shooting is not ground-breaking, it almost seems more like it was made for fan service than anything else, so as a hardcore Lupin fan I thought it was brilliant. One or two players take up the firearms of Lupin and his sharpshooting comrade, Jigen Daisuke and blast their way across the globe in some very varied missions, ranging from the usual "shoot bad guys" setup to missions where you have to use the gun to stop missiles, suck up gems with a vacuum and even drive a car (Don't ask)
As you fight through each level, various voices and samples cry out whilst cutaways and stills fly into shot. Each level is based on scenes either from the Lupin TV series or from his various films, its almost like watching a "classic clips" show, except with interactive violence. SOLD.
Lupin III: The Shooting is a another quality lightgun game from Sega, but oddly, with the attention to detail, various stills and clips, samples, missions based on episodes and use of original soundtrack, the game feels far more like it is a tribute to the characters and their universe than it is an actual game. For fans of Rupan Sansei, this game is mana from heaven, for everyone else, its just a good shooter.

This game never made it to Dreamcast, which is a real shame. However, DC emulation is really coming along and it seems likely that fans will only have to hang on a little longer and hopefully Lupin's fabled Walther P-38 will be in their hands.

(As with House of The Dead, there is a typing variant to this game which uses a keyboard)

74. Shadow Of Memories

(PS2/Xbox/PC/PSP, Konami, 2001, U.S title: "Shadow of Destiny")
Somebody wants Eike Kusch dead.
Maybe its his emo Green jacket, his sensitive ponytail or his freakishly long legs which, despite their roundhouse kick potential, do nothing to help when he is stabbed in the back and left to die on the streets of Lebensbaum, the quiet German village where he lives.
Eike awakens in a void where he meets a creepy, smooth talking Homunculus. Given the opportunity to change his fate, Eike receives a small time bending device called a digipad and is returned to the cafe he visited moments before his murder. Maybe this time, Eike can have a say in his future.

So begins Konami's Shadow of Memories, a complex and mysterious story in which Eike must use his time travelling ability to prevent various attempts on his life long enough to work out who wants him dead and why.
The game is built around paradoxes, Eike soon discovers that the slightest changes to his own past can have huge repercussions and he is soon up to his sky-high thighs in trouble.
No, seriously, his legs are REALLY long.

In third person, the player controls Eike as he runs back and forth through time, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home This can involve obvious fixes such as ensuring witnesses are around at the fatal hour or more obscure answers such as travelling back a hundred years to ensure a fountain is built or travelling back five years to replace a rope. Eike meets many characters along the way and realizes that attempting to change his own fate will inevitably change the fates of many other people.

Shadow of memories is a quiet, patient and lonely game, best played in long secluded sessions. The story has paradoxes that put Back to the future II to shame and much attention is needed if you are to follow the game through logically to one of it's multiple endings (which, depending on Eike's actions, change the outcome of many characters lives drastically)

The game looks very quaint. Its European setting oozes out of the screen, with the various time periods having relevant colour styles and architecture. The player models unfortunately haven't dated too well though. The voice acting is hit and miss depending on the character, but never bad enough to put you off playing. There is very little action in SoM, just lots of travelling, talking and lateral thinking. Eike is a likeable hero who really didn't ask for the hassles he has to deal with, he is a far cry from the selfish sulkers that front many story based games and genuinely seems to care about not wronging the people around him.

Shadow Of Memories is love-or-hate, It has an intriguing plot that demands concentration but most of the game consists of running back and forth and starting conversations. For some players, the fact there the game contains no "fire" button will be enough to send them running. The puzzling is cool and the game's attitude to the all important "What is life worth?" question is refreshing and thought provoking.
I remember buying SoM on a whim and playing it all night, my sister occasionally popping her head round the door and saying "You're STILL playing this? Its been hours!" That can only be a good review I think.

Shadow Of Memories is a game where the object is to salvage lives, not end them. It's not a theme that you'll come across too often and Konami must be commended for daring to use it.