Buzz!: Quiz TV

Question number one...

Source // PlayStation

Who doesn't love a good quiz? Me. It's got to be a good quiz, mind you. None of this Mensa application rubbish, or intellectual nonsense that only strokes the quiz-masters ego, no. I like my quizzes to be sensible for the most part, and humourous for the rest.

Your first question then: What is Buzz!: Quiz TV?

Burnout Paradise

Oh, won't you please...

Source // Steam

It's fair to say I was never mad for the Burnout series. Enjoyable, but I wasn't desperate to own or play each and every title. When the series went open world, giving players the playground that was Paradise City in Burnout Paradise, it still wasn't a title that entered into my thoughts.

So far as I can tell, it wouldn't be until 2011 when I got it as part of the apology deal for the massive PSN outage, and even then, I was more interested in inFamous and whatever else I downloaded. But, eventually, at some point in time, I played Burnout Paradise for some six hours or so, and it wasn't bad at all.

When was that and what did I get up to? I've got no idea. It might as well never have happened, so let's consider this hectic street racer a fresh new title to sink my teeth into. Probably right into the dashboard, if it's a Burnout title...

Braid

Tock follows tick?

The two-dimensional platformer is a solid starting point for independent video game developers. It's a safe idea, as it's a genre that has been around since, effectively, the dawn of video gaming, and has been shown to work in a variety of situations.

When technology advanced enough to add a third dimension, platformers adapted well and spread out into yet more environments, challenging players to use what they've known for perhaps years already but in another axis of direction.

What if the third dimension that platformers found wasn't a dimension of space, but of time? It's not a question often asked, because the answer is Braid. Braid is what happens when 2D skips 3D and enters 4D.

Do you think you're ready for it?

Mario Kart Wii

Blue. Shell.

Source // Nintendo

At last, we have made it to the final Mario Kart title on the 1001 list, Mario Kart Wii. The series has been a bit hit and miss, highlights including DS and, obviously, Super Mario Kart, and the games have been a clear example of knowing what you're going to get.

New Nintendo console? New Mario Kart title. New controller gimmick? Better show the world how to use it. Grab your plastic steering wheel attachment and stick new batteries in your Wiimote, because we're about to go racing.

Again.

Bionic Commando Rearmed

"Get the heck out of here, you nerd!"

Jumping. Don't you just love to jump? It's so freeing. It's like flying. And video game jumps are often ridiculous and gravity-defying, which makes them all the more useful. But not all games have a jump, of course. Platformers do, though, don't they? I mean, you wouldn't want them to not have a jump, would you?

Apparently, some folks do, and those folks are fans of Bionic Commando Rearmed, a remake of an NES title from 1988, and a rather faithful one at that, based on a quick glance at some screenshots.

How does not jumping fly in 2008? We'll be doing a lot of climbing instead, right?

Battlefield: Bad Company

"Oh look. New guy's dead." "Already? I was just about to learn his name."

Source // EA

How do you bring the Battlefield experience to consoles? Eventually, I'd find out what I was missing in the form of Battlefield 3, my introduction to the series, but this was a smaller, limited version of the real deal. Player counts were capped and some maps shrunk in size, but when you don't know what you're missing all is good, right?

Case in point, perhaps, is Battlefield: Bad Company, a sort of spin-off game designed for consoles to give players a taste of Battlefield. Squad-based gameplay across vast expanses of land traversed on foot, in vehicles, or through the air, where seemingly everything can be blown up and reduced to rubble.

I've heard a lot of praise for its sequel, but have checked out neither title. I'm not even sure why I wasn't interested in it in the first place but would be devouring everything I could find regarding Battlefield 3 a few years later.

Let's see whether my console FPS history should have taken a different course.

Galcon

It's a numbers game.

Galactic battles between hundreds of ships can be presented to a gaming audience in many ways, most of which involve, well, space ships, unloading all kinds of futuristic weaponry through the void towards their target, but unless if you're in an epic EVE Online war, does any galactic battle feel galactic?

And even if you do find yourself in the thick of it in EVE, your computer may struggle to render the view at all. You didn't ask for a photo of a galactic battle, you want to experience one. Ships from multiple planets being flung at a target in, hopefully, overwhelming numbers, but in a readable way.

Enter the cold hard stats and triangular representation of ships in Galcon, a rapid-fire RTS that will not hesitate to fight back.

Critter Crunch

"Believe it or not, they really like being exploded!"

The 1001 list does group things together in the most unusual ways sometimes. First, we had an addictive mobile puzzler Bejeweled Twist. Then we had wildlife photography simulator Afrika. Now, somehow, the two are combined as we watch a wildlife documentary about the fascinating lives of critters in addictive mobile puzzler Critter Crunch.

Let's break that down a little.

Afrika

Bless the rains.

Source // PlayStation

The closest I've ever come to an African Safari is whatever the BBC Natural History Unit decides is worth sitting in the blistering heat for years on end with an HD camera to capture and preserve for Sir David Attenborough to narrate over.

Wildlife you've never heard of performing extraordinary feats of survival in some of the harshest conditions for life there is on this planet. Wildlife you have heard of, personified and made relatable. Wildlife, out in the wilderness, minding its own business while we marvel at it all.

From my computer desk, I can glance out of the window and see the wilderness of a weed-covered patio, the odd bird hopping around P2's elaborate feeder, now overgrown with neglect because it's bloody cold out there this time of year. I could never see one animal hunt another unless the cats get lucky. I can't see anything big or bouncy or goofy looking, unless, again, the odd fat cat wanders through.

What I need is a digital safari. A hunt where the only shooting you'll do is through your camera, and where the playground is an entire continent. I need Afrika.

Bejeweled Twist

What a twist!

About a year ago the 1001 list threw up the casual gem-matching monster that was Bejeweled 2, for which I didn't have a great many kind words. Addictive and tacky, effectively, but who am I to argue with the millions who played it on their phones or whatever.

How do you go about developing on that idea? What do you do to warrant the purchase of another tile-matching game involving coloured gems and explosions of points?

How about you put a little twist into things? How about Bejeweled Twist?