Metropolis Street Racer

It's not about how fast you drive...

There was only one racing series I was concerned with back in the day, exclusively appearing on the PlayStation consoles. Other racing titles were always second best. Other consoles weren't worth thinking about.

Metropolis Street Racer came out before Gran Turismo 3. It plonked players into fully three-dimensional cities before Grand Theft Auto III. It's got a damn near photorealistic London to drive through two years earlier than The Getaway - and, criminally if you ask me, The Getaway hasn't made it onto this 1001 list.

I am simply stunned by MSR, and I've not played it for a single second yet. I don't need a hype video for this one, but we're going to get one...

Let's hit the streets.

Space Channel 5

Grooooove-evening, SpaceCats!

A game about presenting the news could perhaps only have come out of Japan. That it uses rhythm-based mechanics as its core gameplay could only have come from a developer so loopy that I can't fathom how it got off the ground in the first place. Clearly, I'm no good at this 'knowing a good game when I see one' thing, but am I good at groovy news reporting in Space Channel 5?

Ulala's got a call about an alien invasion, and the only thing that can save the day is the delusions of a news reporter thinking she can save the day by dancing into the thick of it. Bonus points for originality, I suppose...

Seaman

"Come on, stay with me here..."

Source // The Wha!?, Emuparadise

It's a fish with a face. A disappointed, unamused human face. It's Seaman, the virtual pet for the Dreamcast so utterly bizarre that it has made its way onto a list of 1001 Must Play games, and I don't think it's for the gameplay.

This one is going to be different.

Shenmue

Did you see a black car?

When it was announced that Shenmue III would become an actual thing, rather than wishful thinking, I was unmoved. When peoples' minds were exploding at the thought of this story finally coming to completion, I wasn't fussed. When I learned of the first two games getting a remastered release, I thought 'ah, that'll be handy: Shenmue and Shenmue II are on the 1001 list.'

I didn't have a Dreamcast twenty years ago. I don't know anybody who did have a Dreamcast. I still don't know anybody who owns a Dreamcast. Anything groundbreaking and monumental to video game history that came out of the Dreamcast is unknown to me unless it would get ported since its release. Shenmue isn't strictly speaking an unknown to me, but what I know about it amounts to pub quiz trivia: It's set in this world, not a weird fantasy one or a distant sci-fi one, and it introduced quick time events as we know them.

Other than that, I know nothing about these titles. I don't know why people are losing their marbles over there being a third game. I should probably find out.