It's safe to say that I wasn't a fan of The Sims. I got bored of it very quickly, and while I could see the point in its existence, I couldn't see the point in me playing it for any length of time. It wasn't my thing.
Several Mario titles have caught my eye now, thanks to the 1001 list. There's no disputing how good this plumber is at platforming, but sometimes you want something more. You want a solid plot. You want an open world. You want to be able to explore.
We do, of course, have those types of Mario games too - Mario is a jack of all trades, really. But those titles didn't always sit well with me. The Paper Mario series, however...
After the success of the original comes the inevitable sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, a GameCube RPG that will have us teaming up to tackle the many obstacles en route to our goal, which probably involves a princess named Peach, let's face it.
I have to hand it to this rig. It's held up quite well over the years that I've had it. It was somewhere in the middle ground of performance when I bought it but continues to chug away at whatever I throw at it. Emulation can be a bit performance-intensive, but that's the nature of trying to mimic a PlayStation 2 with a PowerPC, or whatever it is I have under the bonnet.
Once again, it has helped me plough through another 50 games for The 601/1001 Milestone Awards, a largely pointless ceremony, but it's nice to remember how far we've come from time to time, isn't it?
Everything from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga to Ninja Gaiden is eligible to be remembered just a little bit more than usual, but first we have to get some of the games that barely register out of the way.
The Indifferent 5 are games that I can picture, and that's about it. This time around they are:
Well done, good job, stick around, or be on your merry way. Whatever, you know?
While they can do what they want, this next game should do only one thing: move along, out of 1001 list, because it just doesn't belong. It is, of course, the winner (loser?) of the What Was That 1 Even Put On The List For? award, and it's heading into familiar territory once more.
What Was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat Even Put On The List For?
Quick, we need to justify why readers should track down a comedy bongo drum controller! How many games used it? What? Two?! Ugh, you've got to be kidding me.
Yes, as well made as it may have been, bongos don't belong on a list twice, especially when you could instead go back to the early(ish) days of the Internet to find another game that grabbed all kinds of attention. You ask You Forgot What?! and the Interest responds Alien Hominid.
Side-scrolling Flash shooter Alien Hominid was the stand-out game on Newgrounds for a while, eventually seeing a release outside of the Internet, but apparently, that's not a good enough reason to be included in the 1001 list. I guess there weren't enough bongos in it.
What games do have enough bongos in them, and by 'bongos' I mean 'gameplay'? Well, I can find at least ten of them in this lot, which is handy, because there needs to be ten games in The Top 10. Quite a few contenders were teenage favourites, so the nostalgia goggles are working hard on this list, but I've at least tried to venture out of my comfort zone if only a little. What caught my eye?
10: Zoo Keeper, Success
An addicting little match three game that actually looks like a game, rather than a waste of time. Cute animals work better than gems, what can I say?
9: Def Jam: Fight for NY, AKI Corporation, EA Canada
Thug life lessons galore in this gritty rapper-scrapper. Still need to get the hang of the combat. So, the game, then. Still need to get the hang of the game.
8: Lumines, Q Entertainment
Still prefer the music found in the sequels, but the gameplay itself is more addicting than cubed cartoon animals, so it's higher on the list.
7: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare
I'm thinking this, and other stellar Star Wars titles, could be exactly what I need to remind myself that, a long time ago, Star Wars was actually worth something.
6: Halo 2, Bungie
Big, dumb, FPS game, innit? Sometimes that's all you want.
5: Far Cry, Crytek
Made me fight for every success, but kept me engaged to do so.
4: Half-Life 2, Valve
I still haven't completed it, but I still know an incredible game when I play one.
3: Counter-Strike: Source, Valve, Turtle Rock Studios
I still can't compete at a competent level, but I still know an incredible game when I play one.
2: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Grrrr, does so much right and so much wrong, yet still somehow manages to be this high on the list. What a thrill.
And that leaves only one more spot to fill, and it's twice in a row for a juggernaut of gaming. The number 1 is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The more I see it, the more I want to go back and play it. And not even successfully - I'd be happy just to mess around in its sandbox all over again.
But is it good enough to make The Topper Than That Top 10? What do you think? "Where does it rank?" is the real question. Scroll on, friends, scroll on.
10: Advance Wars, Intelligent Systems
Clinging on for dear life is the game I desperately want to see a tabletop version of, just so I can play it more often, with people.
9: Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, Game Freak
I don't know what my perfect Pokégame looks like, but until I do, this is a great placeholder.
8: Ratchet & Clank, Insomniac Games
Was I right in hearing rumours of a PlayStation 5 reboot? I hope so, but I hope not. There's something to be said about the time and place, as well as the games themselves. That's probably the reason the boys are still on this list.
7: Counter-Strike: Source, Valve, Turtle Rock Studios
I could play dedust2 or whatever it is for hours and not get bored. Imagine then having however many other maps to get lost in for weeks on end. If only I were good at it all...
6: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Bonkers but breathtaking. So much could be said, so much has been said, and so much will probably continue to get said about this flawed masterpiece.
5: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Rockstar North
It must mean only one thing - I've finally come around to San Andreas being the better game.
4: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rockstar North
Weeeeellll, for the time being, yes. It's getting harder to split the two, though.
1: Metal Gear Solid, Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
Stop having such good looking mechs.
And that's it for another wee trip down memory lane. The end of the list gets closer and closer, but it is still four hundred games away. That's a lot. I know some of them. Don't know just as many. What's going to start off the next batch of 50 titles before the next Milestone Awards? Another Mario game? How many of them are there?
When the 1001 write up to a game mentions how soul-crushingly hard it is, you can bet that I start to fill with dread. When the first paragraph goes on to say how many players got to the first boss fight and quit, never to return, my memory started to return. I've played Ninja Gaiden, haven't I?
I only played a demo of what would have been the PlayStation 3 port, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, where most of these screenshots come from, but a staggeringly tough boss fight at the end of the first level of a ninja game seems awfully familiar.
I've got the original Xbox release in hand, however, so let's put my memory to the test.
Among some circles (squared ones), the greatest wrestling game in video game history is WWF No Mercy. That didn't make the 1001 list, but developers AKI Corporation are represented by their rap-grappler, Def Jam: Fight for NY, the sequel to the perhaps unexpected hit, Def Jam Vendetta.
Rappers - and their lifestyles - are larger than life. What better way to portray their violent, street gang upbringings than by pitting famous figures against each other in a wrestling game full of audience interaction, improvised weaponry and a story mode that actually has a story - something no WWE game seems to get right to this day?
Let's hit the streets and hope the streets don't hit us back. Keep your eyes open for anyone you may recognise along the way.
When I first played Metroid Prime, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed playing it. It was cumbersome to control, and most things were conveyed in text, but I liked it. I've not played it since - it's on a very long list of games to get back to in no particular order - but it was one to look out for.
A couple of blinks later and it's time for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the sequel that brought multiplayer gaming to the series for the first time. That's a scary thought, knowing the control scheme...
Anyway, what does the single-player content do differently from the first game? Do we get some voicework this time around? Any new mechanics? How much detail can we get from scanning our surroundings? There's only one way to find out.
From one remake to another. From one remake I know about to one I don't. From one I care about to one I have no emotions for at all. Perhaps I'll view Metroid: Zero Mission in the same way Nintendo fans saw Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. And it's on the mighty Game Boy Advance, too, so it's looking positive. I'm hoping for good things here.
Remaking Samus Aran's original Nintendo Entertainment System outing, Zero Mission uses all the improvements the series has developed in the decades since to go back and reimagine a game that perhaps many players didn't get a chance to play.
Updated gameplay, graphics and even new story elements, Zero Mission sounds like a great title for someone like me.
You probably know that I'm quite a fan of Metal Gear Solid. I've played the games, I've bought into the spinoffs, I've read the graphic novels. But I draw the line at having the buy an entirely different console to play a remake in the form of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
Emerging onto the GameCube in 2004, this remake slapped Metal Gear Solid onto the bones of MGS2, allowing for a greater degree of control, updated mechanics, and graphics you could actually see. Look! These people have faces!
As great as MGS was, however, in 2004, I was playing Snake Eater on my console of choice, the PlayStation 2. I wasn't bothered about The Twin Snakes, mostly because it wasn't available to me. I was aware of it, and it's noticeable differences, but I was in no need to play it.
Did I miss out? Is this the game we've all been waiting for? It's finally time for me to find out.
The year is 2003. We've all thoroughly enjoyed Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, even if we have no idea what the heck was going on by the end of it. We didn't like Raiden very much, but the next generation gameplay more than made up for that.
How do you build on the success of the sequel? Where does the story go from there? The answers came at E3 that year, as the trailer for the next title was shown to an excited audience: Obviously, you take it right back to the Cold War in the 1960s, replacing the entire cast of characters in the process, and jazz it up with lots of spy film inspired cinematic camp. Kojima, you genius...
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a strange one, and it's often hailed as one of the best titles in the series. Does it still hold up a decade and a half later?
Dangerously addicting pick-up and play games. Why are there so many of them in this 1001 list? Handheld consoles are an obvious destination platform for the simpler games that can be understood in seconds, but when those games grab you and don't let go, the battery life of your handheld of choice will soon be stretched to its limits, as my PlayStation Portable was with Lumines.
To be more accurate, it was Lumines II that I played far too much of back then, but the games are damn near identical, having now played this original release. But what is that game, and why is it so addicting?
Years and years and years ago, this 1001 list said we must play Donkey Kong, a title that pits Jumpman against Donkey Kong in a series of platform puzzles and boss fights. Ten years after its release, Nintendo gave it a makeover for the Game Boy Advance, and finally got around to naming the main character, Mario, in Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
Mario's a versatile chap, isn't he? Why the gaming world has gotten behind the short, pudgy, moustachioed Italian plumber is anyone's guess, but they have, and he's everywhere. If he's not saving the Princess, he's racing against her, or, in Mario Power Tennis, smashing balls in her general direction.
Sometimes you just need to play a simple little game. No plot, minimal controls, straightforward premise. They can be found everywhere, I suppose, especially on mobile, but perhaps you're looking for a specific simple little game.
Maybe you want to race. But you don't want a lot of racing. Some racing. And perhaps you like silly action. Things blowing up. Fireballs. And your attention span is short, so you want a pick-up and play title.
It looks like you want Mashed, which will scratch all your peculiar itches as it combines Micro Machines style racing with a little bit of Carmageddon. Surely a winning combination.
