Fieldrunners

Don't you want to try shooting back?

Source // Steam

You're not bored of tower defence games, are you? Fieldrunners hopes not, because it wants to keep you glued to that new iOS device of yours...

Fingers at the ready, now.

TrackMania DS

Hold forwa- wait, again?

What did I just say, TrackMania? I said, "I'd much prefer to watch this one than touch it again." Why do you and the 1001 list insist I play TrackMania DS as well, a condensed (for obvious reasons) version of the TrackMania we're familiar with?

Well, at least we know what we're heading into.

TrackMania: United Forever

Hold forward?

I like my racing games to involve racing, far more often than not. Doesn't really matter too much what surface I'm driving over, or whether I have access to weaponry to launch in the direction of my opponents, if a racing game involves racing, it's aight.

TrackMania: United Forever involves racing, but only against the clock, and the times recorded by the hundreds of thousands of players who are determined to push the incredibly simple controls to the limit - and beyond.

Forget what you think you know about how cars and physics work, and hold on tight.

Drop7

Drop it, you've played enough.

Let's talk about addicting mobile phone puzzle games, shall we?

Scanning the list of upcoming games for the 1001 list a month or so ago, I came across Drop7, a title I'd never heard of before. Described by the writeup as a sort of mix of Tetris and Sudoku, but is neither, I was intrigued, and luckily for me, it was still freely available on the Play Store to download and give it a go.

Many hours later, phone batteries were dying through overuse, TV programs needed to be rewound to see what was missed, and even P2 is playing it far too often. I actually had to uninstall it from my phone to make sure I stopped playing it, only to download it for my Chromebook and, now, for the BlueStacks Android emulator on PC.

This is a staggeringly addictive game. Let's see what has got me hooked.

Edge

a.k.a. Edgy

We're in a run of mobile games in the 1001 list as they keep coming, with the latest being a Marble Madness/Devil Dice looking puzzler by the name of Edge, or sometimes Edgy, thanks to a certain trademark owner.

In Edge, you pilot a cube around a level full of spatial challenges to negotiate and a giant void to avoid tumbling into, gobbling up style points for balancing like an absolute legend.

That won't make any sense until you've seen Edge in action, or better yet, play it.

Trism

Why would I need an accelerometer?

Source // MobyGames

It doesn't look like much, does it, but then you have to say that about all successful handheld puzzle games. Tetris. Bejeweled. Trism.

Emerging on the early iPhone, gravity-based match-three puzzler Trism was unlike anything else, completely changed the developer's life, and, like many puzzle games, will make your head grind to a halt.

Reset Generation

"Hey Hedgehog! Your groin is nice and soft, for kicking!"

Source // MobyGames

You have to wonder just how this 1001 list was created sometimes. One of the arguments against it was that it neglected handhelds, but I'm not so sure about that. I mean, here's a handheld title that also made it as a browser-based game, Reset Generation, an action-puzzler for your... Nokia N-Gage. Huh. Well, that's going to be a pain in the arse to find, isn't it?

Tomb Raider: Underworld

"I need Thor's belt to get his hammer, and I need the hammer to kill a God."

Source // MobyGames

After the reborn Legend, there was the remade Anniversary, celebrating the original Tomb Raider by polishing it up and showing it off in a modern action-adventure engine. To complete the trilogy, we would need Tomb Raider: Underworld, a grubby tale of extreme archaeology, with Lara just looking for her mum.

It's a sequel to Legend, first and foremost, so the sandwiching of Anniversary in the middle may be a little weird, but you'll manage. I know I did, nearly 10 years ago now. I was late to the party even then, grabbing The Tomb Raider Trilogy for the PlayStation 3, but made it through the story.

What is that story? Definitely going to need to jog my memory.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

"Only a true leader plunges into the dark woods of defeat and emerges into the light of victory."

Tom Clancy has his name attached to quite a few video games but were it not for this 1001 blog, I don't know if I'd have ever played very many of them. Splinter Cell was obviously a big hit, but I was more into Metal Gear, and the other series often came across as games that you'd like far more if you were the type of person who read a lot of Tom Clancy books.

There's nothing wrong with that - I guess you know what you're getting into - but the games were generally the kind where you need to be invested in that world and setting to enjoy what otherwise seemed to be a bit of a generic shooter of some description.

Will Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 show me the error of my ways? That Tom Clancy titles can be just as impressive as any other shooter, even without the Hollywood setpieces? Let's outfit and find out.

Valkyria Chronicles

"I'll do it. Even going to war, I'll do it."

As Street Fighter IV has recently shown, stylish graphics can be just as engaging as photo-realistic depictions, and one of the games that I've always been aware of for its style but haven't yet dipped a toe into to find anything out about it is Valkyria Chronicles.

One part watercolour memoir, one part tactical role-playing game, Valkyria Chronicles takes players through the Second Europan War as a band of brave peasants determined to prove that nobody is going to get trampled on without a fight.

All I know about it before playing is that it looks mighty interesting.