I don't know... but I cannot sleep and am feeling nostalgic right now. So I'll list my top 10 most memorable games I enjoyed before the Xbox 360 (The 360 is not old enough to be considered nostalgic).
10. Urban Reign (PS 2)Maybe not many of you know this title. It a beat-em-up game from Namco which plays very simple but very rewarding. Urban Reign is very simple indeed, you just play as one character and beat the hell out of other characters one by one, stage by stage, till the end. No variations, only one frickin' repetitive gameplay. Yet it is the game I played most on my PlayStation 2 along with Jet Li's Rise to Honor (which was almost the same thing, but weaker). Urban Reign is not easy though. The AI is really really HARD. However, it was not cheap or cheat. I still remember the first time I played it, I almost frustated after died 50 times on one stage which was not even the boss battle. And that was on EASY difficulty! But the more I played it, the more fluent I become. The easy difficulty comes out rather, well, easy. Now try this on hard.
9. CTR (PlayStation)CTR (Crash Team Racing) is a Mario-kart style gokart racing game spinoff of Crash Bandicoot franchise. I've never played any Crash Bandicoot game ever, but this game was hawt. I remember playing this with my highschool friends, with my brother's friends (which are a lot older than me), with my dad's employees, even once with one of the SO7 band member. I mean, this game was REAL FUN for ALL PEOPLE. It was easy but not that easy. Lots of cursing, laughs, taunts, and every other form of emotions were displayed when playing this. This is how a game should be. Entertainment.
8. SimCity 2000 (PC)This is an old old DOS (yes, you hear that right. DOS!) game for the x486 PC era. A relative just got back from the USA and brought along an ORIGINAL GAME CD-ROM which happened to be SimCity. I've never seen an original boxed software before. Everything here was pirated afaik. I don't understand actually (I was still on junior high or something, and I was not a PC gamer whatsoever) about the game, but I happened to be good at playing it. I enjoyed managing my simulated cities for hundred of in-game-years, and never, ever, lacked in-game-money. Everybody else I know can not play it better. For me it just plays naturally. I thought I was a natural born virtual mayor or something (at least until I played the more recent SimCity series or The Sims series which not a hint of goodness was shown by me, leave alone mastery). However, SimCity 2000 still has a place in my heart.
7. The Need For Speed (3DO)My brother brought home a second-hand Panasonic 3DO console one day. And gosh, it was before the PlayStation becoming a hit. CD-spinning-console-gaming was NEW those days. The 3DO itself gave many good memories actually... but the games were all that matters, right? The Need For Speed on 3DO is the most impressive game, at that time, that I can recall. The graphics were photo realistic! A very rare feat indeed. There were more than one car. And based on REAL LICENSED CARS! They even has dashboard view! Also, there were REAL LIFE videos for each of the cars (instead of rendered CGI FMVs)! Wow! Just wow! And that was not all... wait till you crash. The car will spin out and fly and roll over. Very neat stuffs here. In fact, there were police chases and everything that predates Hot Pursuit, let alone Most wanted. This was the BEST Need For Speed game EVAR! While it later was ported to PlayStation too (with 2 player split-screen race and customizable paint), it was not really big because PlayStation had Gran Turismo. I liked Road Rash too, which was also developed by the same Electronics Arts. However, it failed short under The Need For Speed because of unlicensed bikes and unrealistic gameplay.
6. Top Gear 2 (SNES)Another racing game that was very memorable for me. It was not photo-realistic or featured licensed cars or anything. In fact, it had only one car (albeit with more colors). However, Top Gear 2 on Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), was not light on fun factor. I still remember that the game can be played 2 players co-op. How many racing games you know that can be played this way? Right. The game is simple. One or two player will race with 20-something other racers in many many race tracks in 16 countries including 64 cities all over the world complete with weather effect! Winning the race will acquire money needed to UPGRADE the exhaust, engine, suspension, etc. Remember, this was the SNES! Upgrading your ride was SUPER DUPER AWESOME back then. The odd thing is everytime I win a race, I will start from the bottom position. If I were lost, I will start from the pole-position. Weird, huh? Also weird, changing paintjob to any color they provided was free. I was a little boy at that time, and I was really confused why we must pay a hefty amount of sums for getting a better engine but paintjob would cost nothing.
5. Crayon Shinchan Puzzle (3DO)I don't know the real title because it was Japanese. All the menus and everything was Japanese, but I can barely manage to navigate rather easily. That was because this game was just a simple puzzle game. Kinda like Tetris or Puzzle Fighter. The game featured characters from Crayon Shinchan manga. However, at that time, Crayon Shinchan was not popular in Indonesia (It was published, then, by the ill-fated Rajawali Grafitti) and was not yet aired on RCTI. In fact, I would have never heard of anything Shinchan years later when it was published (again) by Indorestu Pasific. Anyway, the game was really just a puzzle game, but it was fun nonetheless. Not because it was special or whatever, you can just get the approximate same fun playing Puzzle Fighter or Bust-A-Move or any other similar puzzle game; but because of the people I play with were getting fun, and I found it memorable. Hell, I'll say it again... this is how a game should be. Entertainment.
4. FIFA '99 (PlayStation)FIFA series is less favored by hardcore football (or soccer, if you happened to be in the New Worlds) than, say, Winning Eleven series. That was because FIFA games was kinda unrealistic and far from sport simulation. However, FIFA '99 on the PlayStation was notable for me. It was, afaik, the most UNREALISTIC YET DESCENT installment compared to the '98 (which was quite good but not good enough), and 2000 (which was waaay over-the-top it unplayable). In FIFA '99, the football stars can run like 100 m sprinter, while handle the ball perfectly, make a 360-turn, jump like a ballerina, then score a goal with a touch of gold. Sounds cheesy? A thing of beauty, if you asked me. And who will forget that Fat Boy Slim theme song anyway?
3. Gran Turismo 2 (PlayStation)No question asked. Gran Turismo 2 is the most prolific racing game ever made. It was the REAL DRIVING SIMULATION. I remember the hours and hours spent to pass the incredibly difficult driver license tests. I remember the hours and hours spent to earn money G by G. And I remember the hours and hours spent to insanely upgrade and TUNE a car to the most detailed configurations every gamer ever imagined. People learns about car engines, suspension, turbo, etc. from REAL books just to PLAY this game! Crazy! Only to finally frustrated and fall in the sin of Action Replay Card (or known as GameShark) to get 1,000,000 G in one click. Only to spent hours and hours again in collecting all of the cars featured in this game to fill TWO memory cards! Crazy shit! Gran Turismo 2 was the pinnacle of car customizing, upgrading and collecting game of all time. It was also fun actually on splitscreen 2-player racing. And the replays. The replays! Crazy fuck!
2. Tekken 3 (PlayStation)I still remember how I got this game. It was one day at school (I was in junior high), when I heard my friends talks about the new game in town. The successor of Tekken 2, obviously called Tekken 3. They talked about how this Hwoarang guy got some kicks. And how Eddy dude spins around and around. It sounded really interesting. After school, I walked to a nearby game store in Malioboro street before catching a bus to home, and bought Tekken 3. One of the most useful investment I ever made in this life (and any other previous lifes, in case if you belive in reincarnation). Tekken 3 rocked hard. Real hard. It was the most complex, intuitive, memory intensive, precise timing whore, fighting game yet still manage to be fun (I don't think playing Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter series is fun, or even exciting). Endless bouts had been fought in Tekken 3 with family members, friends, colleages, and what not. It even gave me new friends to play with! That was the most scratched PlayStation disc I ever had. In fact, it can not be played anymore now because of the wear and tear.
1. Super Street Fighter II (SNES)Well, i'm big on SNES. And I really fond of fighting games. In the good ol days, there was Street Fighter. Super Street Fighter II on SNES was, or maybe still is, the game I played most in my entire life. I still remember how I stay up day and night to practise shoryukens from left to right then back from right to left; how the thumb sores for the next few days; how me, my brother and my cousin kick each other asses for hundreds of rounds; how glad it feels after beating the 8 star level computer (which was pretty lame compared to the AI of SF III for instance); how crazy it was when friends were coming in to compete in an 8 player tournament mode. Super Street Fighter II is just unbeatable in every way. The fluid animation, the highly detailed characters, the colorful backgrounds, the catchy soundtracks, etc. etc. And it all continued in the Super Street Fighter II X the on 3DO. The ultimate SUPER bar! Oh, how super it was ^^
Labels: feeling nostalgic, games, list, top 10
