#7FavGames
I was really taken by this latest “series of 7" on Twitter. I need to explain each choice as it’s about the feels. So here goes:
- Satellite Warrior (Amstrad CPC 464). My fav game of all time because it combined buying & selling (#business) with designing & building fighting robots and taking over the universe. Pretty solid. I played this game for hours & hours 2-player with my neighbour, who was also my best friend. I was about 8 or 9. We also played Gauntlet (c64) for similar amounts of time.
- Battletoads (Mega Drive). My parents created a points system for me to ‘earn’ a Mega Drive. I got points by doing chores, so when the Mega Drive landed it was a big deal. My family was not rich and games were expensive (~£40) so I only ever owned a few games. I had to really do my research via Games Master magazine. I got Battletoads because it was supposed to be one of the hardest games ever. It probably is: I never completed it. It remains my nemesis. I loved the level design, the little touches & critically the sound of the game. I can still hear it now.
- SanFrancisco Rush 2049 (Dreamcast). I thought about nothing else during my undergrad final year. This game is huge. Unlike any ‘racer’ I ever played before, for example looking for & then crucially, working out how to get coins to unlock new cars. Multiplayer, this game is one of the best ever. It feels like a crime to omit Mario Kart (SNES), but “Rush” was special. High speed racing with shortcuts and switches, we all developed that “special super high level split vision” which I had only ever used in Goldeneye (N64), (hon mention, great game) before. Plus battle mode was frankly awesome, and even stunt mode gave us a gauntlet to run. Going into Kanye statement mode: I think this is the most underrated game of all time.
- Street Fighter 2 Turbo (SNES). I have played this game on pretty much every type of console it has been released on. It stems back to when I was hanging out in Gloucester Quasar Laser on a Saturday, I was about 12. And watching a super cool French guy (probably cool to me because he was in his early 20s), playing as Ken. He completed it. By the time Bison was flying through the air in slow mo, there were about 10 kids all round the machine watching in amazement/envy. I have played as Ken ever since. Hon mention to others in this genre I played obsessively like Fatal Fury, Tekken 2, Mortal Kombat but SF2 is a king amongst men.
- Dune (Amiga 1200). This game took over right when I was doing my GCSEs. I had a notepad with strategy scrawled out on it. It consumed me. It is the first game I really remember completing. It was also an odd time because my brother (about 8 years old) was frightened of some of the creepy imagery (like when you die in the desert) & also supposed to be revising, so I wasn’t technically allowed to play it. I had to do it late at night under the cover of darkness. I remember my father storming in trying to catch me playing Dune and not revising, even running his hand over the monitor to see if it was hot/static, but he never caught me. He knew something was going on & I think it really made him mad.
- Syndicate (Amiga 1200). There are so many good games from the Amiga days: Cannon Fodder, original Sim City, Theme Park, Worms, Lemmings… The list is long. All of them took up the same amount of time as Syndicate, but if it’s about the feels, I used to escape into the scifi world of Syndicate. I realised after a while that not only did I love the gameplay but also how the game looked. It had a style. A minimal cyber noir palette. Sound is a huge deal for me. The fact that it was minimal in that way too meant it was intense and had a lasting influence on me.
- Streets of Rage (1 & 2) (Mega Drive). The hotly contested last place in the top 7. I love this game so much that I still listen to the soundtrack now. It taught me how to share. I used to like playing this as Axl and my little brother as the skating kid. I’m welling up.
Here are some more hon mentions that were in the list at some point and got moved out.
- Tetris (Gameboy). I first got handed this as a kid on the school bus on the way back from cricket. I got pretty fixated with it quickly and eventually got my own version on other platforms even a crappy “tetris only” type game. I will never not want to play this and that's why it gets a mention.
- Jet Set Willy (c64 & amstrad cpc 464) has a special place in my heart along with fun memories of playing How to be a Complete Bastard (Spectrum zx) & Toejam & Earl (Mega Drive) because of humor & imagery. We would play these games as a group, when we didn’t even own 2 controllers. Remember that? One on keys, one with joystick? Or in this case one playing everyone else watching & laughing when your character got turned into a cooker or something. I know nothing about classical music but have heard ‘Moonlight Sonata’ more times than most. Hon hon mention: this just beats Fantastic Voyage (Amstrad). It was a tough decision.
- Counter Strike (PC). I played this game mainly the first year I went away from the fam, to university. I would play it to keep in contact with my little brother who was playing it all the time. I was crap at it really, and used to get booted regularly for having a dial up connection, but I got hooked on the online community style aspect of the game. I moved on to online poker afterwards & that kind of took over for me as my ‘video game of choice’. I guess it did for many.
- Chuckie Egg (BBC micro). And finally, I have this down as the game that started it all. I used to dream in the palette of purple, black and yellow. I played it one day on a big colour TV on wheels in front of the whole class. It changed my life.
This is retro by default, but I could do a top 7 whatever! Not a single PS game made it apart from a mention of Tekken 2, though I will forever love the Original top down Grand Theft Auto on PS1, I agonised over it but just missed the cut. No, I don’t want my old job back at the pizza parlour, I steal cars to order now…
