GrimGrimoire

Or should that be 'GRiMgRiMoiRe'?

Have you ever thought that what the Real-Time Strategy genre needed most was magical anime girls commanding elves and faeries through the corridors of an ancient castle that's also a magic school, with controls that, due to the nature of the PlayStation 2, result in stripping the 'real-time' part away?

If the answer is yes, I don't know what lead you to want that specifically, but I do know that you can find it in GrimGrimoire. New student Lillet Blan is about to find herself repeating a week of magical battles to uncover the truth about something or other. Probably something important to her, I guess?

I don't really know. I should just hop in and find out.

God Hand

"You can wax on, wax off all you like. I'm still kicking your ass."

I've been playing an awful lot of Yakuza 0 recently, and no matter how many fights you get into, it's always fun to just destroy your opponents. You don't just knock them out, you squash their face into parked cars and smack them around the head with baseball bats. Every hit is felt and they all seem to hurt quite a bit.

Take out all the boring Yakuza plot and you'd have God Hand, a game all about destroying your opponents with equally satisfying and wince-inducing assaults from your fists and feet. The beat 'em up just got brutal...

We ♥ Katamari

"Royal Rainbow!"

The absurdity returns to the 1001 list with We ♥ Katamari, the sticky ball roller that was such a surprise hit that even its designer had to question it all. Why was there so much love for such a strange little game? Can you even make a sequel to such a thing? Wouldn't it just dilute whatever the first one meant to people?

To give thanks to the fans, the Prince is back to give them what they want. More of the same, essentially.

Rogue Galaxy

"We don't look suspicious at all."

It's completely normal to not know a developers entire back catalogue of games. There is always the possibility of a quirky little release on the side or a game that gets rightly forgotten about. I've just learned that Jade Empire was a BioWare title, for instance, and I'm about to learn something about Level-5.

Here are their first four games. Dark Cloud, the RPG where you rebuild the world as you see fit (ideally in a way that pleases the townsfolk). Dark Chronicle, its cel-shaded sequel, worthy of the 1001 list. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, the cel-shaded RPG that brought the main Dragon Quest series to Europe, also on the 1001 list. Rogue Galaxy, the cel-shaded sci-fi action RPG that we're about to launch into on the 1001 list.

Of those four games, I've played three, enjoyed three. Finished none, but still. It's looking like I'm drawn towards Level-5 and their games. And then I found out Rogue Galaxy was basically Star Wars...

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns

What a manoeuvre!

There are games for the masses and there are games for the fans. In recent times, we've seen an example of that in racing, with GT Legends most definitely welcoming fans of the sport more than casual consumers. Now, we see what game accommodates fans of the world of professional wrestling.

We can all name a WWE game, even if we have to think back to our childhoods when it was known as the WWF. Casual games for casual consumers. Nah. If you want to prove you know wrasslin, you list off one of the many games in the Fire Pro Wrestling series. You name something like Fire Pro Wrestling Returns.

So I'm told by all the smarks.

Guitar Hero

CLACK! CLACK! CLACKLACKLACK!

After playing Frequency, I warned you all that I had no intention of tracking down a plastic guitar for the sake of authenticity when playing future rhythm games. After Amplitude, I questioned just how anybody could enjoy music and rhythm games when their favourite songs get butchered by misplaced inputs and poor timing.

And now we're finally here. Guitar Hero. Where hitting buttons at the right time isn't enough. You've got to stand up and rock as well.

Ugh.

Transformers

Robots in Disguise.

I missed the Transformers bubble on account of being born too late. That doesn't make much sense when you go and look up the various iterations of Transformers and learn that there were other bubbles I could have found myself in during my childhood. It's more accurate to say that I avoid Transformers because I've very little interest in colourful chunky robots that turn into cars and cassettes and whatever else they disguise themselves as.

I've not seen the films, I've not watched the cartoons, and I've definitely not played Transformers, the PlayStation 2 action title that is supposedly the one and only Transformers game worth playing - at the time of the 1001 list, at least.

Autobots assemble, or whatever the call is.

Gregory Horror Show

I'd make a good what now? Sacrifice? I see...

There are complete unknowns in this 1001 list, and then there is Gregory Horror Show, a PlayStation 2 game with cube-y looking rats running a creepy hotel. I read that it is based on a CGI anime series, which still gives me no clues as to what might go on in this game, though I suspect it's scary. Or maybe funny. Perhaps both.

So, with absolutely no idea what to expect, let's dive in.

R-Type Final

"The drifting specks of light soothe the darkness in my heart..."

You just can't keep the space shooter genre down, can you? There's not a console in the world without an entry, it seems. It must have its fans, as it keeps cropping up on this 1001 list time and again. But how does it fare on the PlayStation 2, in the form of R-Type Final?

This isn't the first R-Type game I've played, thanks to an earlier entry on the list, R-Type Delta. What has another generation of consoles allowed the developers to achieve? Where can you push the genre without compromising on the gameplay? Will this waffle end and the gaming begin already?

Yes. Yes, it will.

Mojib-Ribbon

( t x t )

Vib-Ribbon was odd but charming - so far as a pointy rabbit electronically shrieking in pain having walked into a spike trap could be charming.

Mojib-Ribbon, bringing rhythm-based weirdness to the PlayStation 2, is utterly impenetrable, yet is a must-play, according to this 1001 list. This'll be tricky then...

Flipnic

Ultimate Pinball?

Physics-based games of skill and patience can make for both great and frustrating times, but the introduction of video games has allowed creators to bend and tweak the rules of physics to their will. If you want something to run on walls, you can. If you want to give a character the ability to jump and then jump again in mid-air, you can. If you want to take pinball to the next level, physics be damned, you can.

Enter Flipnic, a pinball game that appears to be described as a game that isn't about pinball at all. How does that work?

Amplitude

Go, Baby, Go go.

Ugh, this again? What's so good about it that I've got to do it twice? Once you've seen one rhythm shooter thing, you've seen them all, right? What could Amplitude possibly add to the formula that Frequency laid down previously?

I suppose I'll have to have a look and find out.

The Mark of Kri

'The Mark of Kri-key!' more like...

What happens when you let a bunch of former 2D animators run wild with designs for an action-adventure game set in some kind of alternate world Polynesian jungle? Well, you get the lovely stylised characters from a Disney film, for a start, but that's not wild enough for this title...

How about we take those Disney-like heroes and caricatures and maybe turn one of them into, let's see, how about The Punisher?

Now that's The Mark of Kri. Don't let screenshots of this game fool you, it is not for kids. That mature rating is there for a reason, and I've no idea what that reason is. I don't ever remember seeing The Mark of Kri back in the day, so this will be my first graphic introduction to this beast.

Let's put that muscle to work.

Ratchet & Clank

"Please return your appendages to the steering mechanism, sir."

Source // Ratchet & Clank Wiki

I've spoken about this series often enough, and it's finally time to see Ratchet & Clank's first entry on the 1001 list. The PlayStation 2 is the place to be, 3D action platformers are everywhere, but why did I find myself gravitating towards Ratchet & Clank?

From the characters, to the settings, to the weaponry, Ratchet & Clank stood out. I like my humourous characters, I like my science fiction, and I like weapons that turn my enemies into chickens. What more could you ask for?

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

HOT CHICK WITH GUN BUSTS AMPHIBIOUS YUCKMOUTH!!!

Source // Moby Games

Like the master thief that he is, Sly Cooper ghosted past me like he was never there at all. I had only a passing awareness that he had a few games and no real interest in them. When it came to 3D action platformers on the PlayStation 2, two far more notable series got the limelight, those, of course, being Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter.

I was a Ratchet fan, there wasn't room in my mind for anything else in that genre, and it would be more than a decade until I saw what Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was about, thanks to this 1001 list.

Don your cap and equip your cane because we're about to retrieve what's rightfully ours - straight out from underneath the noses of a cast of colourful wrongdoers.

Shinobi

Not the first, second, or fourth Shinobi, the third one.

The last Shinobi title I played was on the NES, as part of this 1001 list. We've come a long way since then, but apparently, the title is iconic enough to stick around, and so it's time for the PlayStation 2 to have its Shinobi take our attention.

Sharpen up your sword and fish out your best scarf, because we're going to need to schwing our way through the undead before we run out of time.

Oh, and for those of you who need to be forewarned:

Smashing. Let's go going.

Suikoden III

"Is it so difficult for you to be a hero?"

The PlayStation 2 was probably my most used console, owing to it being the one gaming focus I had as a teenager. I bought and read competing magazines based on what was on the cover, or, as time went on, what playable demo was on the disc. Despite growing as a gamer with the platform, I don't ever recall seeing anything to do with Suikoden III.

I am vaguely aware of Suikoden as a weird sounding name of a video game series, and that's about it. I can guess it's Japanese, probably an RPG, so I can guess it's got hundreds of hours of stuff to get into, but that's all I can imagine.

I hope I won't need to read up on the first two games.

Disaster Report

"June. 2005."

A list of 1001 must-play video games is not a list of the absolute best video games, but a guide through the highlights and pivotal releases in gaming history. The first of a genre, the next big leap, the game-changer, the definition of what it means to be a first-person shooter, or survival horror, or a multiplayer racer.

After those entries, it's about games that have stories that are best told through interaction, with characters as fleshed out as those you'll find in film and television. It's about games that look unique or have soundtracks that defined a generation.

And then after all of that, when there's still a handful of gaps in the list, it's about putting in Disaster Report because nobody has bothered to take the disaster genre into videogaming.

I wonder why...

Kingdom Hearts

"A scattered memory like a far-off dream. A far-off dream like a scattered memory. I want to line the pieces up, yours and mine."

Back in the days of Final Fantasy in its prime, I wasn't too interested in Final Fantasy. Partial interest in the form of intrigue, perhaps. That interest has grown over the years, but not by much, even with the surprises this 1001 list has given me.

When the PlayStation 2 was going strong, and Square was on top of the RPG world, merging its universe with that of Disney in the form of Kingdom Hearts turned heads. An action RPG with Square characters interacting with Disney characters... it should work, right?

Final Fantasy isn't the only universe I've never had masses of interest in. To name another one that I don't really care about, I think I'll go with Disney.

I wonder how this will go.

Dark Chronicle

"I was so scared then, but in a way it was really, fun. I mean, every boring day had been just the same for me. But this, this was the beginning of a real adventure!"

Source // MobyGames

There are games on this 1001 list that, for whatever reason, fill me with a sense of dread. Most of the time it's a game or genre that I just can't be bothered to play, but I push through it and probably come out the other side a more knowledgeable, less judgemental person.

Then there's Dark Chronicle, a randomly generated dungeon crawling, village building, steampunk mech constructing RPG that just overwhelms me. How on Earth am I meant to tackle this game? Where do you begin with a story that takes 50 hours to finish, and for that to not be everything the game has to offer?

Well, the likes of Final Fantasy X takes that long to finish, but I started playing that without any moaning. Why does Dark Chronicle cause me to stop and think?