Final Fantasy VII

You look like a bear wearing a marshmallow.

A long time ago, I was told to get Final Fantasy VII because it was just that good. What did I do? I got Final Fantasy VI because it came with a demo for Final Fantasy X, which was obviously the better purchase - a taste of the paste with a glimpse at the future too.

But if you've read that blog post, you'll know that already. It's finally time for Final Fantasy VII, which is - apparently - one of the greatest games ever made in the history of ever, so it's got some clout around these parts.

It's also got some Cloud too...

See what I did there?

Cloud. You play as a kid named Cloud. Is he even a kid? I don't know. They all look like kids.

Fallout

War. War never changes.

This 1001 list is full of memories, but the memory I have for Fallout is one where I was watching a friend play, and while it looked pretty good, I kinda wished I was playing something else instead. On a console, where games were meant to be played.

Fast forward ten or so years and I'm playing my first Fallout title, Fallout 3, or as many of us knew it, Oblivion With Guns. Bar the annoying bugs and freezes on the PlayStation 3, I enjoyed my time in the wasteland, as well as wherever the DLC would take me, and would go on to play Fallout: New Vegas too, enjoying it even more.

Add another decade and I'm sat here, having skipped over Fallout 4 entirely, ready to play the original Fallout and looking forward to it. How soon will I fall, like the nuclear bombs of the past?

Final Fantasy Tactics

"Have you ever heard of the Lion War?"

Previously, I dabbled in a game by the name of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, where Final Fantasy met Dungeons & Dragons and all was good - only it wasn't good because I found myself moving away from it, rather than towards it.

Final Fantasy Tactics is to Tactics Ogre what D&D 5th Edition is to Pathfinder: Easier for the newcomers. Developed by the same brains as those who worked on Tactics Ogre and steered in an easier but still tricky enough direction by those who knew the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy Tactics is a game I've been looking forward to playing for a while now.

The world of Ivalice is a world of war, and we are but knights in training looking for our place within it. And there might be something about a stone and some Zodiac signs. I really don't know. Time to dive in and find out.

Dungeon Keeper

It is payday.

Why do you always have to play the hero? Even playing a flawed hero is still playing the good guy on a quest to defeat the bad guys. Who wants to do that over and over again? Who, instead, wants to let their bad side free to dictate the way things go? Who wants to be a Dungeon Keeper?

Part real-time strategy, part simulation, Dungeon Keeper is all kinds of different. You play as an evil overlord whose Imp minions are mining out your dungeon so that you can fill it with nasties to protect yourselves from the inevitable visit from a hero hoping to prove himself.

Will you smartly scope out your surroundings and build on the strengths of your forces and the needs of the situation, or will you flail around like a useless imp?

Einhänder

Enemy threat removed by your heroic attempt.

What do we make? Role Playing Games! What shall we release? A 2.5D sidescrolling shooter!

The developers at Square probably didn't chant that as they were making Einhänder, but that's what players got in late 1997: an unexpected title from an unexpected developer on an unexpected system that unexpectedly made enough of an impression to warrant a spot on the 1001 list.

What's it all about? I have no idea. The name comes from German to mean 'one hand', and refers to your ship having one hand to pick stuff up with. Where we go from there is anyone's guess.

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube

Again?

The puzzle game is a genre that I tend to avoid, mostly because of the lack of a storyline. I enjoy racing and sports as genres, and while they don't have an explicit story (FIFA's The Journey being the exception, obviously), you can infer one from the events that take place - a racer must overcome his rival to take the gold, a team must score a certain number of goals in order to progress through a competition.

Puzzle games... not so much. The story here is that some little bloke (most likely a full-sized bloke who just happens to look little from this distance) finds himself suspended in an infinite black void and is tasked by choosing which of the coloured cubes that roll/stomp towards him will be saved, and which will be left to fall off the edge and tumble for eternity. Or something like that.

There's no story, really, but there is a task to accomplish, points to score and rules to learn, so let's get to it.

Why is it a sphere?

DoDonPachi

Dododododododo...Your mission starts now. Are you ready?

"Bullet hell.", begins the 1001 entry to DoDonPachi, assuming you know of the phrase already. The idea that a shoot 'em up can be so chaotic and manic that the best way to describe it would be 'like flying through bullet hell'.

The term, so I read, grew in popularity because 2D shooters had to do more and more in order to compete with the emerging 3D games that were getting all of the attention. How does a 2D shooter do more and more? If it's not highly detailed sprites and over-the-top effects, then it's highly detailed sprites and over-the-top effects applied to twenty enemies at once culminating in a monstrous boss battle that requires players to dodge hundreds, if not thousands of projectiles.

Bullet hell.

Let's find out how hellish DoDonPachi can get.

Beatmania

*wicki wicki*

Source // Gaming History

What's hip? What's hop? What is hip-hop? I don't know, and I don't even know if hip-hop is present in Beatmania, the arcade rhythm game that makes disc jockeys of us all.

Armed with five keyboard keys and a turntable for those all-important scratches, players will keep track of notes falling from the top of the screen before jabbing the right buttons at the right time for the best scores, and the greatest sounding tunes.

You know what a rhythm game is, you've already seen PaRappa the Rapper on this list. Let's wait for the drop to get this one going.

Blast Corps

Smashing.

Destroying things is fun. Destroying things in a variety of different ways is fun. Destroying things against the clock can be pretty fun, though it does depend on the time limit. Destroying things because the 'plot' involves clearing a path for a runaway nuclear missile launcher with a tendency to explode on contact with anything attached to the floor is... well, it's Blast Corps.

Dozers at the ready, because we're about to crash with a purpose.

Final Furlong

Work, you damn nag!

Source // YouTube

Home consoles are dominating the market. The arcades are turning into ghost towns. What do you do to get players back into the habit of pushing quarters into coin slots? You mould a plastic horse onto a rocker and have players exercise their way to victory.

Thus, horse racing simulator Final Furlong was born. Not just a racing game, oh no, but a simulator. No time to sit in the saddle here. Stand in the stirrups and whip like there's nae tomorrow...