Bushido Blade

Rematch!

A while back now, I saw International Karate + as worthy of a top ten inclusion. Its move set was deep and your timing had to be right as it'd be over for you in a single move if it wasn't. Fast forward to 1997 and Bushido Blade arrives into the 3D fighting scene with a similar philosophy.

Put simply, when you're fighting someone with a sword and you button mash like a maniac, you should be punished severely for a single mistake, just like in life. Bushido Blade aims to bring realistic sword fighting into gaming, complete with tense moments of studying your opponents stance and lighting quick fountains of blood that signal a clear winner.

I can't wait to get into this one.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

What is a Game?

Before diving into this 2D action-adventure RPG platformer beat 'em up racing game (without reading any manuals or control schemes, naturally), I checked out a couple of reviews from notable YouTubers and they began with words to the effect of "I haven't actually played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night until now".

It's quite common that someone will have missed out on a classic title when it was first released and only manages to play it years, perhaps even decades later. It's not so common for the game in question to be regarded as one of the greatest titles on a console over the course of its history to be missed by players.

Symphony of the Night has its reasons for being glossed over. It's flat and sprite-based despite charging ahead on the PlayStation, which was wowing the world with depth and an extra dimension. Its title harkens back to games of old, but new and unheard of heroes were front and centre in gamers minds instead.

It is a title that a lot of people know of and few appear to have played. Let's see what I, for one, have been missing out on.

Blade Runner

Give me a hard copy of that.

Games based on movies. They've got quite the stigma, haven't they? Notorious for being a swing and a miss in the vast majority of cases, it's a rarity to find one worth talking about in a positive light. On the overcast streets of a (now near) future Los Angeles are neon lights and signs of hope - hope that Blade Runner plays as good as it looks because it looks bloody fantastic.

Set parallel to the movie of the same name, Blade Runner follows Ray McCoy on the hunt for Replicants in a point-and-click adventure that weaves in and out of the plot from the movie, but still exists as separate from it.

Get your Voight-Kampff tests ready, because we're going to retire some Replicants.

Age of Empires

Food: 50

Described as Civilization meets Warcraft II, I was intrigued by Age of Empires. I like the idea of Civilization, even if I still haven't found an entry to that series that I quite like (though more are coming in the 1001 list, so here's hoping), and I spent a lot more time in front of Warcraft II than I ever thought I would, so Age of Empires should, I think, be a good game.

Good game or not, I'll probably be glued to the screen for a little while, due to the nature of the real-time strategy beast. Will my empire rise from its pathetic origins into something straight out of the history books? Will I rewrite those history books and tell my own tales? I've no idea until I fire it up.

Vectorman 2

Geronimo!

I don't know whether it's funny or not that a game can get sequels and still not be heard of. It probably isn't funny at all. The number of games that exist is far greater than the number of games I know to exist, and there are bound to be sequels amongst that number.

All of that is a long-winded way of saying that I have no idea who or what Vectorman 2 is.

Wipeout 2097

Missiles.

Ahh, Wipeout. wipE'out". Whatever. It seems like only yesterday we were smashing into walls and launching rockets wildly off target, all to the electronic beat of a 1990s nightclub. It was only a year after the release of that first game that players were treated to a sequel in the form of Wipeout 2097. WipEout 2097. wipE'out" 2º97. Whatever.

It's much the same, only better, so it's time to engage the thrust like there's no tomorrow and swoop right in.

Wave Race 64

Let the good games roll.

Racing games had been around for a long time by the mid-1990s. Cars and motorbikes, futuristic hovercraft, planes. What machine can we leap onto and trash around a circuit in pursuit of thrills that we haven't experienced yet?

Alright, it's not actually the first time we could jump aboard a boatercycle in a video game, but Wave Race 64 is a clear front-runner for the best time aboard a boatercycle. Colourful, arcadey, and sat atop water physics that will leave you suitably impressed, this game has singlehandedly demolished my childhood.

So thanks, Nintendo. Thanks a lot.

Super Mario 64

Just try me.

There aren't many titles that can claim to be one of the most revolutionary video games of all time, but bragging about it doesn't get you many friends, so Nintendo simply let the critics and consumers praise Super Mario 64 to the heavens and just sit back and bask in the glory.

I was not a Nintendo 64 kid. Somewhere in the mid to late 1990s I played GoldenEye at a friends house and have no real memories of the game, the console, or the house itself, but I did have a mesmerising ice cream float - my first ever, in fact, and I'm getting off topic.

I didn't have an N64 and was perfectly content with having a PlayStation instead, and so these monumental giants of video game history that have been developed by Nintendo have simply gone unplayed, even in the decades since their release.

Super Mario 64 is no exception, I've not played it. I've seen it. Maaaany many times. Slowly, quickly, very very quickly, very very glitchy. But I've not gotten my hands on a three-pronged controller to find out how it handles, and how it changed everything.

Limber up your larynx, because we're gonna get all 'Woo, whey, wah-hoo!' as we hunt down a bunch of stars in order to save Princess Peach.

Again.

Star Control 3

Daktaklakpak!

"Picking up roughly where the second game left off, you must lead an alliance in the fight against the Eternal Ones, a mysterious race who consume the energy of all sentient life every eon. To protect themselves from such a fate, the Precursors genetically modified themselves into six-legged cowlike creatures, but were trapped in this form when the robots they built to return them to their original form malfunctioned. Humans, in their quest to locate the legendary Precursors, have discovered this tasty beast and, unbeknown to them, are consuming their goal."

That sounds interesting, doesn't it? That's how the 1001 list sets up Star Control 3, a mish-mash of genres that form a space sim, I suppose, in the vein of Mass Effect, via Frontier: Elite II, only played through interfaces and menus.

It's going to need to be seen to be explained.

The House of the Dead 2

Our Emperor shall awaken soon...

Is there any better feeling than unloading round after round into an onrushing zombie horde, seeing heads explode into squelchy red chunks and bodies flopping to the floor? There probably are better feelings than that. Many, in fact. But once in a while, you just need to shoot some zombies, am I right?

The House of the Dead 2 allows you to do just that, taking you on a trip through zombie-infested Venice, tasking you and your fellow agents to solve the problem before it gets any worse.

Let's find out how well suited I am to a zombie outbreak...