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Changing tastes

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I found a list on my Google Drive account, seemingly from 2008, which identifies itself as the “Best Games”. Obviously there have been a number of amazing games released since, but it’s interesting to see whether I still consider these to be near the peak of gaming. I’ll start with the list, and then below I’ll enter some thoughts.

  1. Phantasy Star Online
  2. Populous the Beginning
  3. Crazy Taxi
  4. Samba de Amigo
  5. Advance Wars Dual Strike
  6. Halo
  7. Advance Wars Dark Conflict
  8. Sonic 2
  9. Mario Kart DS
  10. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
  11. Mr Driller Drill Spirits
  12. Zelda: Wind Waker
  13. House of the Dead 2
  14. Puyo Pop
  15. Tubaruba
  16. Tetris DX
  17. GTA3
  18. Sonic
  19. Treasure Island Dizzy
  20. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
  21. Spindizzy
  22. Mario Kart Wii
  23. Geometry Wars Galaxies
  24. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
  25. Sonic CD
  26. Halo 3
  27. Zoo Keeper
  28. Populous
  29. Yoshi’s Island
  30. Super Mario Bros
  31. Yoshi’s Story
  32. Super Mario World
  33. Sega Bass Fishing
  34. Wii Sports

There’s nothing in this list that I’d consider a bad game. I’m surprised at the lack of 3D Mario, and there is some [at-the-time] recency bias there in terms of how high Advance Wars games are (and the fact the DS versions are the ones chosen). The CPC games are more nostalgia-driven than others – and why is Treasure Island Dizzy there instead of Fantasy World?

Phantasy Star Online is still magnificent, and I’ve played it recently via the Schthack servers. It is a shame that later versions of the game over-complicated it or required too much time investment. However, Populous the Beginning is a better game, and should be at the top.

Games that are too high? Crazy Taxi, Advance Wars Dark Conflict, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (the worst game on the list, probably), House of the Dead 2, Yoshi’s Story. Others should probably be further down but mainly because in the years since there have been so many more amazing games released. Some games have been completely superseded – Wii Sports Club and Switch Sports are better in every way, and Halo Anniversary (and the Master Chief Collection) include the original game in its entirety, plus more. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the ultimate in that series.

What would my top games list look like now? That’s a topic for another post …

Changing tastes

Posted on Written by

I found a list on my Google Drive account, seemingly from 2008, which identifies itself as the “Best Games”. Obviously there have been a number of amazing games released since, but it’s interesting to see whether I still consider these to be near the peak of gaming. I’ll start with the list, and then below I’ll enter some thoughts.

  1. Phantasy Star Online
  2. Populous the Beginning
  3. Crazy Taxi
  4. Samba de Amigo
  5. Advance Wars Dual Strike
  6. Halo
  7. Advance Wars Dark Conflict
  8. Sonic 2
  9. Mario Kart DS
  10. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
  11. Mr Driller Drill Spirits
  12. Zelda: Wind Waker
  13. House of the Dead 2
  14. Puyo Pop
  15. Tubaruba
  16. Tetris DX
  17. GTA3
  18. Sonic
  19. Treasure Island Dizzy
  20. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
  21. Spindizzy
  22. Mario Kart Wii
  23. Geometry Wars Galaxies
  24. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
  25. Sonic CD
  26. Halo 3
  27. Zoo Keeper
  28. Populous
  29. Yoshi’s Island
  30. Super Mario Bros
  31. Yoshi’s Story
  32. Super Mario World
  33. Sega Bass Fishing
  34. Wii Sports

There’s nothing in this list that I’d consider a bad game. I’m surprised at the lack of 3D Mario, and there is some [at-the-time] recency bias there in terms of how high Advance Wars games are (and the fact the DS versions are the ones chosen). The CPC games are more nostalgia-driven than others – and why is Treasure Island Dizzy there instead of Fantasy World?

Phantasy Star Online is still magnificent, and I’ve played it recently via the Schthack servers. It is a shame that later versions of the game over-complicated it or required too much time investment. However, Populous the Beginning is a better game, and should be at the top.

Games that are too high? Crazy Taxi, Advance Wars Dark Conflict, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (the worst game on the list, probably), House of the Dead 2, Yoshi’s Story. Others should probably be further down but mainly because in the years since there have been so many more amazing games released. Some games have been completely superseded – Wii Sports Club and Switch Sports are better in every way, and Halo Anniversary (and the Master Chief Collection) include the original game in its entirety, plus more. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the ultimate in that series.

What would my top games list look like now? That’s a topic for another post …

Prince of Persia: completed!

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Having completed level 10, I was expecting the difficulty to ramp up towards the end of the game. In fact, level 11 wasn’t that difficult, provided you didn’t take it too slowly. The first part of the level required a run along a long collapsing pathway in order to reach the end platform before it was too late; you had to run along this to avoid stepping on traps which closed the door to progress. After this it was fairly straightforward to the end of the level, after ascertaining where leaps of faith off the side of the screen were needed.

Level 12, on the other hand, took me an absolute age. The first part of the level (which, for some reason, is back int he dungeon) is set up with the need to climb up several screens, going back and forth across two pillars in the centre of a gap. This requires a number of perfect jumps and preparation by knocking down tiles to allow for a grab on a solid platform. As you get near the top you have to open a gate by climbing up a screen, and you see the shadow prince waiting for you. I died twice straight after this point, before I got up and around the corner to face him.

I was expecting the fight against the shadow prince to be tricky, but it defined my expectations. It took me an absolute age to figure out that he was mirroring my moves – luckily, as I was being overly cautious, he wasn’t striking out at me but instead just defending. I tried to drive him backwards, but that didn’t work. I pressed up to defend myself over and over, followed by a strike, but he just did the same and knocked health off me. And then I had an inspirational thought; I put my sword away.

So did he.

I gingerly walked towards him, expecting him to draw his sword at any moment, but he didn’t. Instead I eventually reached him, and we merged into one being. Very clever.

There were a lot of vertigo-inspiring sections in the last couple of levels.

That didn’t help with the fact that there was then nowhere to go – the path ended with a dead end. I slowly stepped to the edge to see if I could hang down and reach anything, but instead a path appeared in mid-air in front of me. I ran across this, half expecting it to collapse or disappear, and found myself at the end of the level; or rather, not the end of the level, but in the second part of level 12, with a relatively easy path to face Jaffar. While his was the most difficult sword fight so far, I managed to defeat him having lost only two health points.

And that was that. I went through the opened door, and ran down the corridor to find the princess. Everyone was happy, everyone1 lived happily ever after.

She could at least have made her bed.

  1. Other than those who were now dead. ↩︎

Grand Theft Auto Vice City: completed!

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It turns out that pootling around finishing up side missions was actually the right thing to do. I started by finishing up the taxi and ice cream van missions, unlocking the regular payments from them, then I headed for the golf club to see if there was anything more to do there. It turns out that there wasn’t, but I jumped in a boat and found myself on Prawn Island where there was a film studio in need of some tender care. Tender care through the production of tender movies, apparently, but fortunately Tommy Vercetti isn’t the sort of man to be directly involved in those – there’s no hot coffee here – and the missions associated with the film studio were altogether more entertaining and varied.

Two in particular stood out. First, I had to pilot a plane around the city, dropping leaflets advertising the new film along set routes. Second, I had to take a motorbike up in a lift and jump out an office block window in order to land on another building’s roof, and then follow a path of jumps and ramps around until I finally got to a spotlight – which I could again use to advertise. Why I couldn’t just fly there in a helicopter, I’ll never know, particularly because a later mission at the studio had me using one to follow someone to take blackmail photos.

I raised a lot of money through these side missions, so I went to buy the Malibu Club, and completed the missions there as well. Finishing those, and unlocking the earning potential of the venue, suddenly gave me a new marker on the map, next to the Vercetti mansion. So, naturally, I didn’t go there.

It’s always fun to set cars on fire, and then set the fire engine on fire when it comes to help. Fire.

I went and did some other stuff instead. I searched around for hidden packages, to limited success. I delivered pizzas, I robbed some stores, I managed to complete a course over the rooftops using a dirtbike, I went to the shooting range. And then I decided to try to finish the game.

It took me many attempts. The last mission sees you being betrayed by a good friend and meeting the city’s main crime lord, with many enemies attacking and trying to ambush you. The shotgun came in very useful as I chased Lance up the corridors to the roof. The mafia were trying to steal cash from the safe every time I left it, so my foray up to the roof was kept as brief as possible, although I had to progress slowly to avoid being shot by a seemingly endless supply of enemies. At last I killed Lance, after sniping him from a higher platform, and then returned to meet Sonny and kill him as well. Mr Extravagant Lawyer found me sitting on the stairs, and we walked out the front door to the sounds of the 80s.

On to San Andreas next? Maybe. I’ve never played it; I own it for Xbox and PS2 and Xbox 360 and Xbox One and PS4 and PC, but the setting has always put me off a bit. I like the mafia setting of III, and I like the 80s Miami setting of Vice City, but 90s rap culture has never captured my imagination. Maybe I’ll try it in a few months.

Prince of Persia: big guards on spikes

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With sufficient blocking of the guards’ attacks, and aggressive hits towards them, it’s possible to get most guards to back up over the edge of a pit, landing on spikes, or getting cut in half by the blades. Doing so take time, but it’s very satisfying. Serves them right for attacking me.

I’ve completed level 11 now, and am back up in the palace after my return to the dungeons. In keeping with the way the original game allowed for saves, I am trying to keep my time for each level down as much as possible, so theoretically the overall game time would not exceed an hour, but the ability to adjust times per level after the fact makes the game much more fun to play. It’s still not easy – and it’s definitely my skill level that’s at fault here, not the controls – and I frequently die towards the end of a stage by misjudging a jump or accidentally just running over a cliff.

One level in particular took me a very long time to complete. Level 7 really isn’t that difficult – you have to loop around to find a potion which allows you to jump down much further than usual – but there were some parts which I just really struggled with executing, particularly when there was a time limit of a gate closing. The full map of the level can be found here, but it’s no immediately obvious where there are difficulties.

That last guard wasn’t killed by the falling ceiling, but I was too occupied to take a screenshot once I fell down.

Anyway, the change in backgrounds is a relief, and the level design continues to be inventive. In level 11 there is one section where it seems you could simply climb up a ledge, but if you try to do so a guard would kill you before you had a chance to get your sword out. Instead there is a long convoluted route around so you can be on the passageway above, and then running to the left (across a floor that is collapsing as you run) means that you fall down at the other edge of the screen, giving you time to fight the guard.