S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

"Get out of here, Stalker."

As of 1986, 'Chernobyl' means only one thing, and it doesn't matter when you were born, you know what that thing is. The exclusion zone is still home to life but not quite as we know it, and the mysterious nature of an entire city being effectively frozen in time and swamped in radiation inevitably leads to other-worldly stories.

Video games are no stranger to the call of Chernobyl. We've already gone through the eery stillness in one of the greatest levels in video game history in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and now, sort of via a book and film, comes S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, an alternate reality first-person survival horror game set in a region where nothing is quite as it seems.

Do we have what it takes to survive?

The Darkness

"t̸h̶r̴o̵u̵g̶h̷ ̴y̶o̴u̸,̴ ̴i̶ ̶a̷m̴ ̶b̶o̸r̵n̵.̶"

Source // PlayStation

In the early days of the PlayStation 3, there were demos. Lots of demos. My first downloads from the PSN store were demos, and one of the first would have been (or certainly feels like it, anyway) The Darkness, a first-person shooter with a little bit of a horror twist, in the form of you playing a character possessed by the Darkness, and sprouting demonic eels out of your shoulders, hungry for hearts.

There's a bit to explain, I feel, so turn out the lights and we'll begin.

SingStar

Bo-re-me-for-the-las-tiiiiime

Source // PlayStation

When your mates kick you out of your Rock Band, fear not, Sony has your back, so long as you've got some microphones and/or a camera and a copy of SingStar, and a desire to have machines and code judge your warbling for all within sight of the TV to see.

I don't, of course. Neither the desire, nor the microphones, nor SingStar in any form, of which it's hard for me to pin down just what it is. It doesn't quite look like a standalone game, certainly not in its latest form. Looks like more of a service where you pick and choose what to 'sing along to' according to your own tastes.

I bet the moneymen love that. Let's find out what I'm missing, then.

Rock Band

Clackclackbashclackbashclackbash

Source // Nintendo

By 2007, Guitar Hero was, unquestionably, a rather large success. The sequel proved that, and the stage was set for the actual next step in rhythm-based gameplay: Multiplayer, with multiple instruments.

Guitars? Two flavours of those. Drums? Gotta have a bald guy at the back making a racket. Microphone? Well you don't expect this band to get anywhere without someone wailing about life's troubles, do you?

All I need know are three willing friends to gather around the TV, plastic peripherals in hand and... what's this? Oh, no, that's unfortunate. It's 2020, and there are no indoor household visits. What? Play in the garden? No can do, it's winter. It'd be a washout. Think about Glastonbury? Listen, I'm not playing Rock Band, alright?

Space Giraffe

It's not Tempest.

We've tried to play a couple of Tempest games for this 1001 list, but I don't know why I mention that because Space Giraffe is not Tempest. It even says so in-game, look:

So while it looks a little like Tempest and plays a little like Tempest, and may even sound a little like Tempest for all I can remember of Tempest, Space Giraffe is absolutely NOT Tempest.

What is it then?

Retro Game Challenge

Taking a step back to see how far we've come.

While I wasn't there at the dawn of home consoles, I'm old enough to remember a time where multiplayer gaming always took place in the same room, game magazines were always worth a read, and a game was played over and over and over because it was the only one you had available.

I'm glad those days are over, in some respects, but there's much to be said and remembered about those good old days, and Nintendo DS title Retro Game Challenge is here to show you what it was like. Scrambling over the carpet to get a new game from the shelf, your friend encouraging you to do better from the sidelines...

This was how it was, and how the Demon Arino will have it be until you complete his challenges.

Quadradius

3D Space Checkers on Crack

Does Chess need a bit of pep? Some abilities dropped onto the board to introduce new ways of playing, new strategies to master? If you think it does, you're not alone. There are untold numbers of Chess variants out there to spice things up. I up a couple of physical variants myself, and the 1001 list wants to take you back in time to the days of Flash and Quadradius.

Chrome and the Internet of 2020 have other ideas, however...

Portal

I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

When you impress the boss at Valve with a little puzzle game called Narbacula Drop, you get rewarded with a new job and the resources to make it truly shine. When Portal is completed a few years later, it's boxed up with a bunch of other Valve titles in The Orange Box as a side attraction for those who have finished Half-Life 2 or are frustrated by Team Fortress 2, where it somehow becomes the talking point of 2007.

The Cake is a Lie. Now you're thinking with Portals. The Weighted Companion Cube. Still Alive. You didn't have to even play Portal to know what these were, or how some of the lines to Still Alive go. This stuff was everywhere, as inescapable as GLaDOS would have you believe Aperture Science Labs were.

What do you mean "What's GLaDOS?"

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

"Teleporter cannons always make my sprockets tingle."

Source // PlayStation

I have just said that while I consider myself a Ratchet & Clank fan, I trailed off during the PlayStation 3 games. Perhaps I had seen it all before, or found entertainment elsewhere and had just moved on. Well, after playing Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction I can confirm that I didn't trail off during the PlayStation 3 games - I never touched them in the first place.

After finding great success on the PlayStation 2 and seeing some spin-offs hit the PlayStation Portable, the HD era came calling. Can you imagine what a Ratchet & Clank title would look like in HD? How Pixar-movie-like it might feel? Can you honestly say you weren't expecting what you saw when it was time to see what the future held?

Tools of Destruction kicks off the Future series, a not quite soft reboot, not quite next chapter in the adventures of Ratchet and Clank, and it makes sure to shower players will all the graphics.

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

Tiny enemies - Big, big trouble.

The PlayStation Portable, and I suppose the PlayStation Vita too, has quite the following amongst players who dove right into them and make sure to get their moneys-worth from a system that would never reach the heights of whatever Nintendo would put out.

While it didn't seem to catch on with a casual audience, those who had a PSP knew that was a beefy little machine capable of portable gaming the likes of which couldn't really be found anywhere else - not to this degree, at least. It was a tiny little PlayStation 2 in your big pocket. 

How do you show off its capabilities? How about by taking a much loved new IP and demonstrating that it can run on the PSP just like it could on the PS2. Sort of.

That IP was Ratchet & Clank, and the demonstration was Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Does it matter? Let's find out.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Challenge of the Warlords? Since when has that subtitle been there?

I wasn't lying when I said we're in a bit of a puzzly bit of the 1001 list, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Before we get there, though, comes a title that I absolutely did not expect to see get released on the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable before mobiles phones.

I could have sworn Puzzle Quest was exactly the kind of match-three drivel that came out with a bang when the iPhone hit, taking a simple game and applying the most generic of fantasy theming on the top, turning a puzzle game into a quest, and adventure to take a hero on.

I say drivel, I don't know if I mean that yet. I've not played it, but it sounds intriguing, turning a puzzle game into an RPG. The only similar gaming experience I can immediately bring to mind is some WWE game that did a similar thing to this. Well, identical thing to this, only a decade later (typical) and crammed full of adverts to spend money on it (again, typical).

Anyway, let's go on a quest, shall we?

Planet Puzzle League

Got your head screwed on straight, and your DS the right way up?

Has the Nintendo DS got enough puzzle games? No, according to Planet Puzzle League, a simple swipey match three block puzzler with competitive online multiplayer.

There's no real need for a big introduction here, really.

Peggle

Extreme Fever!

Source // Steam

Pachinko. It's quite the pastime for some folks, but it needs a little bit of a spruce up to get the rest of the world to pay attention. How about we fire ball bearings at a specific colour of pegs? Pegs that score tens of thousands of points? With levels that end with 'Ode to Joy' and rainbows?

You've got yourself a game. What's it called? Peggle.

Pac-Man Championship Edition

I think I've eaten the wrong pellet...

Source // Microsoft

When playing both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, I played a few versions scattered across home consoles and handhelds of the time, or thereabouts, with the obvious conclusion that you should obviously play some form of Pac-Man. Just... duh.

But all these decades later, the original designer, Toru Iwatani, has been brought back to create a reimagined Pac-Man, as though, the 1001 write up suggests, the Xox 360 was available to develop for in the 1980s.

And it's the only way to play Pac-Man, supposedly. It's Pac-Man Championship Edition.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

"Cor, what an astonishing village that was, Professor!"

We're in a bit of a puzzle section in the 1001 list here, but to prove that it's not all grids and numbers is Professor Layton and the Curious Village, another Nintendo DS puzzler staring the impressive intellect of Professor Layton and his cockney apprentice Luke.

I must admit to having no prior knowledge of the professor before hunting down a couple of his releases for this 1001 list and haven't bothered checking them out in the many years since. It's time to crack open this Nintendo DS and no doubt find the charger, for how else are we going to solve the many mysteries of St. Mystere?

Picross DS

It's a what now?

The 1001 entry for this next title points out that the very pencil and paper nature of the Nintendo DS's stylus and touch screen meant that classic puzzles from the analogue world could have a very feasible digital adaptation. Think Sudoku and Slitherlink, and then, it says, essentially, forget about them and think of Picross DS instead.

I have only ever come across this form of puzzle through watching YouTube solves of this kind of puzzle merged with Sudoku, which strikes me as fiendishly difficult and easily above my capabilities. But Picross DS isn't that diabolical. It's just drawing little pictures, as directed by a puzzle.

Pain

Shake the controller to charge up your Super Ooch...

Source // PlayStation

Underlying a great many video games is the Havok physics engine, without which everything would fall a bit flat. With it, though, characters and objects fall over, bounce off each other, break apart, explode, trigger chain reactions of somewhat predictable interactions with yet more objects... Can you make a game around that?

Of course you can. Throwing a ragdoll into an explosive crate or through a cinder block wall is the first thing you do to see what the Havok physics engine can offer your game, and it only takes one person to wonder what would happen if you made a giant slingshot to propel characters through an explosive environment ready to fall apart at a moments notice.

Here comes the Pain.

No More Heroes

"I know a lot of gamers out there don't have much patience"...

Source // PlayStation

What happens when you give Johnny Knoxville a battery-powered lightsaber and tell him he's the 11th highest ranked assassin in the world? You get No More Heroes, a bizarre, almost cartoony, action-adventure hack and slash that will see you doing a little waggling with your Wiimote as you carve through your opponents.

I picked up this game from a charity shop in Edinburgh, but the box is covered in Spanish, so I might be in for a rather European affair when I pop this into my Wii. I bet the batteries in this need charging, as well...

Mercury Meltdown Revolution

Formally known as Hyrdargyrum. Wait a minute, I've used that joke somewhere already...

Source // Nintendo

"Mercury Meltdown Revolution? Haven't we done that one?" I thought as I was reading the 1001 list. Blah blah, yada yada, "Revolution is essentially the same game with some additional levels, but it is also the definitive version thanks to the control afforded by the Wii's Remote."

Why the hell would you tell me I've got to play Mercury Meltdown if you're then going to say that it's Revolution that you've got to play. Revolution doesn't even have it's own Wikipedia entry. It's lumped into the Mercury Meltdown article, you know, what with it being essentially the same game.

Ooh, I'm irked. This'll be a quick one...

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

a.k.a. Corruption MP_03 Metroid Prime3, or whatever, according to the title screen.

Source // MobyGames

The Metroid Prime trilogy wouldn't be complete without a thir- what do you mean there's going to be a Metroid Prime 4?

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was, by most accounts I've read, crying out for a sequel to fix its problems. I didn't know it had any, other than the usual iffy controls that I wasn't used to - despite having played Metroid Prime where, for some reason, I felt like a kid again.

From what I saw in the first two games, I was interested. Perhaps not in the story or the characters, but in how the games felt to actually play. At some point, I'm sure I'd get back to them for a little more gaming, but now there's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and if I want to conclude the trilo- continue the story, then I'm going to have to strap on this Wiimote.

Ugh.

Odin Sphere

360 degrees! All the way around! What do you mean, 'depth'?

From one action RPG to another - but the similarities between Mass Effect and Odin Sphere pretty much end right there. This is not your typical action RPG, or it certainly isn't my typical idea of an action RPG. Two-dimensional side-scrolling artwork? Well, I mean, there's no reason it couldn't work, right?

I had no idea what Odin Sphere was when going into it, and after playing it for an hour and skimming the Wikipedia article, I still couldn't give you any hint as to what the story of this game is. It's a fantasy beat 'em up that dabbles in alchemy and fills its levels with colourful artwork.

If that poor description sounds interesting, then do read on.

Mass Effect

"Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun."

I like space, I like RPGs, you'd have thought that I'd like space RPG Mass Effect, the hot new thing from the minds behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Well, much like practically every other title from BioWare, I'm slow to get around to them all.

Thanks to an Xbox 360, then PC release long before ever coming close to the PlayStation 3, Mass Effect was something I heard about but never played, and when in a position to play it, I'd heard an awful lot about the trilogy's shortcomings, and once you know about them, you find a way to not play Mass Effect. But I've watched it, long ago. And the sequel. I can't remember if I watched a playthrough of Mass Effect 3, though.

The point is, I've had some interest in it all, just not enough to jump in personally. Now that I've forgotten all the details and overarching story, and the first game has come up on this 1001 list, maybe it's time to change that.