Japan Gaming Guide

A monkey in a marble.  Fiendish mazes.  Bananas.  Minigames.

Excellent.

Der, dun, der, dun, der dun der dun der dun, psshhh.  Asteroids is one of the few true classic arcade games that can be played today without rapidly getting dull – there’s something endlessly satisfying about clearing those screens full of asteroids and racking up those UFO kills.  One of the most effective game soundtracks ever keeps the tension high.

Two teams battle it out in this legendary online FPS.  Playing this with a group of (non-cheating) friends is a truly great video game experience.

Take your group of misfit psychopaths and mould them into a team of, er, tougher misfit psychopaths.  Smash your way through the opposition and rack up the bonus points.  This violent futuresport game had something special – despite only being able to see a tiny portion of the pitch, smart characterisation and a few choice atmospheric touches meant the whole stadium, league and even world filtered into your imagination as you played.  Notable also as the only 16 bit game which is indisputably better in every respect than the games that followed in its footsteps.

Stealth shooter with bags of imagination and wit.  One minute your shooting, the next hiding.  Sneaking past a bunch of soldiers doing an exercise routing was one of the stranger highlights.

The Aztec underworld proves an inspired setting for this graphic adventure noir – quirky graphics, an awesome jazz soundtrack and puzzles that only LucasArts (and their offshoots) have ever managed to get just right.  And its a comedy.  A really good comedy.

This horror title moved away from the bloody gore of the Resident Evil series into darker, more psychological territory.  Genuinely unsettling in places, silent hill featured a string of excellent set pieces and puzzles, and achieved a unique atmosphere, partly through excellent design and partly by making the player think he was freely wandering round the town while actually keeping him on pretty tight rails.  Better in many respects than horror movies, this game is best experienced alone at night in a dark room.

Cinemaware’s finest hour was this wartime shoot em up, dripping with nostalgia and boys own fantasy, arial combat missions were done in 3d, bombing in top down 2d and straffing in pseudo 3d.  Recently re-released on GBA.

Wander round a huge world solving quests, slaying beasts or just looking at the stars and picking up flowers.  Oblivion is one of the most intricately crafted gameworlds ever created and one of the most compelling gaming experiences around.

Who wouldn’t want to guide an insane rabbit and laconic dog through a series of bizarre American tourist attractions?  One of the funniest games of all time, and one of the best.