Japan Gaming Guide

60. Secret of Mana (SNES)

Another classic Squaresoft RPG.  Secret of Mana combined real time combat with Square’s traditional outstanding plotting, evocative graphics and great soundtrack.

59. NiGHTS (Saturn)

Sonic Team’s unique game of acrobatic aerial twists and high score seeking intensity has a fond place in many gamers hearts.  This is another game we’d love to see on Virtual Console..

58. Lemmings (Amiga)

One of the most original puzzle games ever released, Lemmings genius is to swap blocks and abstract shapes for living, walking creatures that can be given a limited range of tasks to help them survive each level.  A few choice speech samples gave injected a ton more charm, and the mass head exploding armageddon is perhaps the greatest quit function in video game history.

57. Project Gotham 3 (Xbox 360)

The next gen update of the urban racer is a hugely generous package, offering a huge range of tracks, cars and challenges.  Its the online implementation that really makes this game shine though.  Rather like Xbox live itself, PGR3 has so many little bits and pieces which just add up to make a great experience.

56. Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast)

Sonic’s first proper 3D outing was a rich, verdant gaming landscape managing to translate Sonic’s high speed abandon onto the Dreamcast.  A Tamagotchi style minigame was also included, allowing you to download your Chao onto your Virtual Memory Unit and take it for walks.

55. Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)

Three days to save the world may not sound like a lot, but when you can move through time its not such a drag.  Rather than expanding on the excellent ‘Ocarina of Time’, ‘Majora’s Mask’ compressed it and recrafted it into a darker, more intricate affair.  Character’s go through the same actions in each 3 day cycle, as Link gets to know the game he can use his prior knowledge of events to solve peoples problems and make them happy.  Playing this made us happy.

54. Halo (Xbox)

Bungie’s epic shooter does pretty much everything right.  At its core its a string of brilliantly designed set pieces, powered by AI that’s good enough to stop it feeling like a string of set pieces.  Its ability to reinvent itself and make new demands of the player through the game elevate it above the FPS crowd.

53. Elite (Spectrum)

Psychologists looking at false memory syndrome should really take a look at this game – players will reel of misty eyed tales of duels with alien mother ships, smuggling runs and all sorts of other things – much of which wasn’t really in the game at all.  Elite worked by making you imagine – a trick repeated to some extent by the Grand Theft Auto series.  What was in the game was enough to keep players flying round the galaxy, shooting space pirates and trading their way to elite status.

52. Rez (PS2)

Another defiantly innovative on-rails shooter, Rez’s core concept is ‘synesthesia’, the intergration of sight and sound.  The graphics and sound are interwoven, and both evolve into more complex forms as the game progresses.  The relatively simple gameplay actually allows the player to enjoy the ride more, even so, this is one of those game where you’ll notice twice as much if you watch someone else play it.  You can finish this in a couple of hours, but guaranteed you’ll come back for more.

51. Super Metroid (SNES)

Platform adventuring mixed with a stunning inventory of weapons and equipment – bombs, plasma beams, spin attacks. This is a beautiful piece of design – each new ability you gain opens up new areas for exploration, Zelda style, and the bosses and levels are crafted to make your progress as pleasurable as possible. The haunting sound track adds tremendously to the atmosphere – one of the few games to make effective use of silence.  This game has a haunting atmosphere that will encourage you to explore its many secrets.

70. Renegade (Spectrum)

This awesome 8-bit arcade conversion actually managed to portray genuinely painful looking attacks out of a few pixels and blobs of colour.  The knee in the groin move still makes us wince today.  Nobody who played this will ever forget Big Bertha.

69. Bust-a-move 2 (Playstation)

Accessible and deep, this charm filled puzzler stands out for its viciously competitive two player mode which turns the bubble popping action into a desperately intricate, badmouth inducing masterpiece.

68. Bangai-o (Dreamcast)

One of Treasure’s most memorable titles not least for its bizarre plot – the translators found the original Japanese developer’s placeholder text so funny that they kept it. Gameplay is frantic, explosive and suprisingly deep with a multitude of tiny sprites on screen – this is basically a twin stick shooter on a one stick joypad.  Special attacks are fuelled by nearby enemy bullets meaning you walk a dangerous tightrope between safety and peril at all times.  This game just begs to be re-released somewhere – it would be perfect on xbox live marketplace or virtual console.

67. R-Type (Arcade)

The archetypal side scrolling shooter looks a little dated now, but was fantastically ahead of its time at, er, the time.  Huge bosses inspired players to persevere in the face of its legendary difficulty level.

66. Populous II (Amiga)

Not quite the original God game, but this one was packed full of bad things to do to your little people.  Raising a volcano in the middle of enemy territory never got dull – and neither did the plagues, lightening bolts or earthquakes.

65. Warcraft II (PC)

Fantasy real time strategy with bags of character and original ideas.  This game really consolidated the formula which started with Dune II – and continues to this day.

64. Pokemon Red/Blue (Gameboy)

Astonishingly addictive for what is supposed to be a kids game – Nintendo showed how to create a lasting memorable world and advertise a whole range of merchandise at the same time.  This also weaned a generation of kids away from beat em ups which the whole video game industry should thank it for.

63. Jak N Daxter (Playstation 2)

This platformer gives you a lot to do, and makes pretty much all of it fun.  The game’s character and artistic charm bring it to life.

62. Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time (Gamecube)

The ability to slow down and reverse time transforms this platform adventure into an acrobatic playground – the freedom to die without fear giving you the opportunity to hurl yourself into danger without flinching.

61. Star Wars (Arcade)

‘The Force will be with you, always.’  Playing this game in the 80’s sent shivers down the spine of many an aspirational rebel pilot.

80. Cannon Fodder (Amiga)

War had never been so much fun.  Sensible Software’s wonderful take on warfare sees you leading a squad of troops through hostile territory – the game caused moral outrage in the U.K. despite it carrying a strong anti-war sentiment.  Your little troops all had names, and losing a man (a frequent occurance, particularly on the viciously hard later levels), meant a gravestone was added to the background of the menu screen.  The tiny graphics had bags of personality, and the novel gameplay still feels fresh today.

79. Panzer Dragoon Oorta (Xbox)

On paper the on-rails shoot-em-up sounds like the most restrictive game genre around – but this game shows what can be done when designers have such a tight hold over the players experience – this game never feels over simple or dull, just the opposite – the journey through smilebit’s universe always has something new round the corner – one of the best looking games available of its generation.

78. Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo)

Squaresoft’s classic had everything a Japanese RPG should have – an epic plot, bizarre characters, well balanced gameplay and a branching story that still makes our brains hurt just thinking about it.

77. Jason’s Gem (Spectrum)

Descend through caverns, then pass through a short platform section to find riches beyond your wildest dreams.  This game was a short, focussed action/adventure – a rarity in the days when game designers were often trying to defeat the player rather than engage them.

76. Black & White (PC)

Cast fire, rain and lightening from the sky, and then train a 30 foot cow to do the same.  Slap animals, burn villages and, er, clean up poop.  You know you want to.

75. F19 Stealth Fighter (Amiga/PC)

Flight sims generally fall into two categories: Realistic ones, which tend to be rendered  a little dull owing to the long range and distance of modern weaponry, or unrealistic ones, which are fun but lack depth.  F19 walked the masterful tightrope in between putting you into the cockpit of a stealth bomber – the empty sky suddenly became a maze of hostile radar signals that had to be avoided at all costs.

74. Outrun 2 (Xbox/Arcade)

Perfect pure arcade escapism – zoom around the world in the Ferrari of your choice, scream round corners, weave through traffic.  Takes all the elements of the classic original, gives them a lick if paint, and comes out with the best stress free racing game around.

73. Tomb Raider (Playstation)

With all the Lara Croft hype its easy to forget that the Tomb Raider franchise began life as an absolutely outstanding video game. The first game in the series offered a real feeling of exploration – and had a great balance of adventuring and combat. Fights would often start just when you least expected it – and who can forget the moment when, having just offed a few veloceraptors..  well the remake’s out next year so no spoilers.

72. Baldur’s Gate 2 (PC)

A massive, massive western style role playing game.  Hugely deep and complex and at the same time accessible, this game’s epic plot was offset by its good sense of humour and great characters including a barbarian with a space hamster.  Despite the game’s sprawling scale, developer Bioware managed to fill the game with detail, not one of the game’s many subplots feels like fluff or filler – and the game is compelling until the very end.

71. Space Channel 5 (Dreamcast, PS2)

Quirky rhythm action game.  Retro-futuristic heroine Ulala has to save the world – through dancing!  Shimmy and twist your way through space, taking on giant marshmallows and Michael Jackson along the way.

The countdown continues…

90. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (PC/Amiga)

The greatest text adventure in the history of the universe, if you don’t know what a text adventure is – try this.  If your boss doesn’t know what a text adventure is you can play it at work.

89. Gran Turismo (Playstation)

Before Gran Turismo most games had 5 or 6 cars and a few tracks.  This was the first game to give the player everything but the kitchen sink, hundreds of cars, and the right balance of realism and action.  The sequel added more bells and whistles than the aging playstation could cope with and ran like a pig, but the third game saw the series return to form.

88. Rainbow Islands (Arcade/Amiga)

A charismatic platform game – deceptively simple at first it comes to life when you start trying to collect the bonuses in the correct order to unlock the secrets.

87. Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)

Because police chases never get boring.

86. Metroid Prime (Gamecube)

Gloriously atmospheric adventure/shooter hybrid.  Another Super Nintendo classic rubbed with the 3d stick.

85. Ferrari Challenge (Dreamcast)

Pure high quality racing – in some ways Yu Suzuki’s game was too hardcore for its own good. As with stablemate Virtua Fighter 3tb, the player was presented with brilliantly realised environments  and perfectly tuned gameplay – but very little structure to the game.  Ferrari Challenge demanded perseverance – but it rewarded those faithful enough to stick with it.

84. Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis/Megadrive)

The sheer buzz of tearing through green hill zone even faster than the game could scroll was one of gaming’s great moments.  Sonic had a charisma and charm that outshone the occasionally clunky level design

83. Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox)

This has one of the best soundtracks of any game ever – the music fits so well with the gameplay and helps you suspend disbelief as you sink into the turbo charged roller blades of a faux-Tokyo cyber graffiti gang.

82. Star Raiders (Spectrum)

Saving games was fraught with peril in the 8-bit days.  It often involved tapes, which often didn’t load what was saved onto them.  Star Raiders let you save the galaxy in a single play session.  Fantastic.

81. Bomb Jack (Spectrum/Arcade)

Another game which only really showed its teeth once you started going for the tricky bonuses – in this case collecting all the onscreen bombs in order whilst avoiding the bad guys.  Simple, but compelling.

Its here – the top 100 video games of all time according to Japan Gaming Guide!  Starting today with 100-91, here goes..

100. Suikoden (Playstation)

Because we loved fleshing out our castle, and the way the game progressed from turn based combat through to massive battles.

99. Gunstar Heroes (Genesis/Megadrive)

Never before had shooting stuff required such cunning.

98. Crazy Taxi (PS2/Dreamcast)

Good clean fun.

97. Tetris (Various)

How does this game not get boring?  Don’t know, but we love it.

96. Motor GP 2: Online Challenge (Xbox)

A great racing game – and the menus bring back fond memories of the sinclair spectrum.

95. Pang (Amiga/Arcade)

Pop, pop, pop  till you drop.

94. IK+ (Spectrum)

No combos, no special moves, just punch, kick, skill and the ability to make your opponents trousers fall down.

93. Chase H.Q. (Arcade)

Do it for Nancy.

92. Zone of Enders (PS2)

A great little mech game.

91. Highway Encounter (Spectrum)

What other game allows you to be a gang of daleks?

The latest chart: