Why I Don’t Like the Zelda Games

Having looked through my list of my favourite video games of all time, some people might be surprised that none of the Zelda games made the list, particularly given my love of SNES games, and of RPGs. However, the Zelda games didn’t make my list simply because I don’t actually like the Zelda games that much! And here I’ll explain why.

First up, a confession. I’ve only ever played three of the Zelda games, and only one of those to completion. The one I played to completion was “A Link to the Past” on the SNES. The other two were “Link’s Awakening” on the GameBoy, and “Ocarina of Time” on the N64. Whilst there are many other games in the series, “A Link to the Past” and “Ocarina of Time” are usually highly acclaimed games – but not by me.

Whenever I play an RPG, I always like to know exactly what it is that I’m supposed to be doing next. You usually get to talk to characters in a village (or some other setting), and through that and other dialogue (e.g. in cutscenes) you know what location in the game’s world you’re supposed to go to next, and what it is that you’re supposed to do there. But with the Zelda games I just don’t get this. I find myself having to wander around, trying to guess what it is I’m supposed to be doing next. Maybe I’m missing something, but it was never clear to me what I was supposed to actually be doing.

Yes, I was once able to make it all the way through “A Link to the Past”, but this was only when I was using a walkthrough – a complete guide to the game that someone else had written. It was only through this that I was able to know what I was supposed to be doing next in the game.

Whilst I will often acquire walkthroughs and guides to RPGs, I usually only use these to help me to discover what hidden parts a game has, and I prefer not to use them to just complete the game at a first play through.

When I play an RPG for the first time, I like to be able to figure out what to do by myself, using only what is available within the game itself (e.g. talking to the non-player characters). But I just can’t do this with the Zelda games. The only way I can play them is with a walkthrough. That is why I don’t like the Zelda games, and why they don’t feature in my list of favourite video games.

Maybe you think differently and love the Zelda games. Maybe you know of a good Zelda game that can be completed without having to use a walkthrough. In which case, I’d be welcome to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Join me again next week when I’ll be doing one final video game related post, where I’ll be listing all of the video games I own. (Spoiler: The list is quite long...)

The Worst Video Game of All Time

Night Trap (Sega Mega CD – 1992)

Over recent months on this blog I’ve been talking about the video games which I think are great. But this week I’m going to talk about what I consider to be the worst video game of all time, Night Trap. There is just so much which is wrong with this game.

The premise is that five girls have mysteriously gone missing from a house. The house has a bizarre security system featuring hidden cameras and traps. You are put in control of these cameras and traps, as five more girls arrive at the house, including an undercover agent.

First off, this premise is utterly stupid! If girls had been mysteriously vanishing from a house only an idiot would go and send more girls in there. Also, with the hidden camera system, you can only view one camera at a time. Surely it would make sense to have all of the cameras monitored at the same time? But, nope, in Night Trap there’s just one guy put in charge of the cameras, and he can only look at one at a time.

Of course, this helps to set up the creepiest element of the game, and I’m not talking about the horror story aspect (which I’ll come to shortly). With teenage girls coming to a slumber party, you get to watch them through hidden cameras. At one point, this includes one girl, doing her hair, in the bathroom, just wearing a night dress...

Then there’s the actual gameplay itself. This involves you looking out for creatures called Augers, and activating traps to capture them. There’s an access code to activate the traps, and you have to listen out for conversations to see when the code changes. Again, this is dumb! The place is overrun with literally dozens of these Augers, and yet it’s left to just one guy to activate the traps to capture them!

Rather than watching the story unfold, to capture all of the Augers you have to break away from it in order to do so. So it’s not possible to see all of the story, and capture all of the Augers, in one play through.

It’s not necessary to capture all of the Augers in order to beat the game. However, if you don’t activate the traps at key moments, one of the girls gets killed, often by having her neck drilled for blood. The scene with the girl in the night dress became very controversial, because if you don’t trap the Augers at this point she gets killed in this manner.

The gameplay is rubbish and not particularly fun. The game loses all sense of logic at the end, where it’s revealed that the owners of the house are, in fact, vampires. But oh, how are we going to defeat them? They know about these traps in the house! Surely they won’t be dumb enough to go near them? No, wait, that’s exactly what they do...

The game uses Full Motion Video (FMV) throughout, and it was one of the first games to use FMV. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well in a game, and it just isn’t a fun game to play. This is made worse by the fact that the quality of the video on the original Sega Mega CD version of the game was very, very poor. And none of this is helped by the bad acting...

Overall, this game is just bad on every level. It looks bad, the story in the game is bad, the gameplay is bad, the logic of the game is bad. There is little to redeem this game, which is why I consider it to be the worst video game of all time.

Now, going back to those good video games, you may have spotted that at no point did I mention any of the Zelda games, which often feature in lists of good video games. Join me again next week when I’ll be explaining why they were absent from my list...

Other Great Video Games

Over the past ten weeks I've been going through a list of my top 10 favourite video games of all time. But there were many other great games which didn't make the top 10. And so here, in no particular order, is a quick run down of some other great video games that I like.

ActRaiser

From the same makers of Soul Blazer comes ActRaiser, which was released first. Part action platform levels, and part town building simulation levels, the game sees you take on the role of a god restoring the world.

Illusion of Gaia (a.k.a. Illusion of Time)

Another action RPG from the makers of Soul Blazer, which sees you take on the character of Will as he travels around the various ancient sites of the world.

Mystic Quest Legend (a.k.a. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest)

Described as an entry level RPG, this Final Fantasy game hasn't received much love over the years. Whilst it may be the runt of the Final Fantasy litter, it isn't a bad game! It was the first turn-based RPG game that I played, and whilst it took me a while to get used to this system, I now very much love turn-based RPGs...

All Those Other Final Fantasy Games

Whilst Final Fantasy VI made it into my top ten, many other games in the series are also great games. The series has gone downhill with the more recent games in the series, but the earlier games are all classics in their own right. My personal favourites, in addition to VI, are IV, V, VII, and VIII, and I is pretty good as well...

Breath of Fire

Another RPG, this one made by Capcom, but first published in the west by Squaresoft. A very involving game with a vast world to explore. Plus you get to turn into a dragon!

Chrono Trigger

An RPG which also involves time travel, made by Squaresoft. When this was first released it was described as a cross between Final Fantasy VI and Secret of Mana...

Super Mario RPG

Everyone's favourite Italian plumber gets his own RPG adventure, in this collaboration between Nintendo and Squaresoft. It's best to play through this game with a full walkthrough, to ensure that you don't miss any of the enjoyable hidden bits...

Vandal Hearts

An enjoyable strategy RPG from Konami for the PSOne.

Suikoden / Suikoden II

Also from Konami, and for the PSOne, were the first two games from the Suikoden series of turn-based RPG games, involving large detailed plots. The second game also made use of your saved file of the first game! (I got these games fairly cheap close to when they were first released, but they're now incredibly rare and hard to find...)

Gradius III

Famous side-scrolling shoot-em-up from Konami.

Parodius

A parody of Gradius, also by Konami.

Pop 'n' Twinbee

Another crazy shoot-em-up by Konami.

Axelay

A more serious shoot-em-up from Konami. This one is notable for having a mix of vertical scrolling and side scrolling levels.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja

I'm not even sure how to classify this one, also from Konami! It's a bit nuts...

Street Fighter II

I don't play beat-em-ups all that often, but I can always make time for the various versions of Street Fighter II from Capcom, one of the leading games of the genre. My favourite iteration would probably have to be Super Street Fighter II (and, erm, yes, Cammy may have something to do with this...).

Sim City

A game where you can build up a city from scratch - and then send in a monster to destroy it!

Mega-Lo-Mania

A game where you vie to become the god of a new world, through various ages in its history. Also teaches you how nuclear deterrents are intended to work ("We've nuked them!", "We've been nuked...").

Command and Conquer

I'm not overly fond of the main one-player mode of the Command and Conquer games. But the game is fun when you link two PSOne's together and play an epic battle against a second player!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Everyone loves this fast blue hedgehog from Sega. My favourite game from the series is Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Megadrive, which sees Sonic joined by Tails the fox...

Rock 'n' Roll Racing

A racing game where you get to blow up your opponents!

Outrun

A classic racing game, but one where you're only racing the clock, as you try to get to the next stage before the time runs out. The oldest game in my collection is a copy of this for the Sega Master System, dating from 1987 - I have friends who are younger than this game!

Gauntlet

Classic, seemingly never ending, dungeon game.

True Pinball

I've spent many hours playing (and mastering!) the Vikings table of this game for the PSOne.

Star Control II (a.k.a. The Ur Quan Masters)

A non-linear space exploration game where you have to make alliances with alien races in order to defeat the Ur Quan, who have enslaved the Earth...

And there you have it! Whilst this only a selection of the games that I have in my collection, these, along with those in my top 10 list, I feel is a pretty awesome set. If you're a gamer, are there any great games which you feel I've left out? (And before you say Zelda, I'll be coming to that in a couple of week's time...)

For the past few months I've been looking at great video games. Join me again next week when I'll be revealing what I consider to be the worst video game of all time...

My Number 1 Favourite Video Game of All Time

Soul Blazer (a.k.a. Soul Blader) (SNES – 1992)

(Warning: This blog post contains plot spoilers.)

When I started creating my list of my all time favourite video games, there was some shuffling of the list as I decided upon my top 10, and then the order of that top 10. There was never any doubt that Soul Blazer would be on the list, but it was a while before it emerged in the gold medal position. But it is a position which I feel it has truly deserved.

A key thing to remember about this list is that it is not a list of the ten best video games of all time, it is a list of my favourite video games. Whilst Soul Blazer is a very good game, I will concede that there are many other games out there which many other people would consider to be better games. But when it came to choosing my personal favourite video game, in the end, it simply had to be Soul Blazer.

The game itself is an action RPG game. The King has forced the inventor Dr Leo to create a machine which will allow him to summon the Lord of Evil, Deathtoll. The King does a deal with Deathtoll whereby the King will hand over living beings to Deathtoll in return for gold. The world is soon emptied of life. You are sent down by the Master to restore the world, releasing each individual soul one at a time, over six different areas.

It was not just people who were captured by Deathtoll, but plants and animals as well, and, once released, you’re able to communicate with them – trees, birds, dogs, even mermaids.

One of the humans captured was Dr Leo’s daughter, Lisa, who resides in the first zone of the game (Grass Valley). Early on in the game you obtain a dream rod, which allows you to see the dreams that sleeping people and creatures are having.

Whenever you release the leader of each zone (by winning a boss battle) you’re given a crystal, and once you have all of the crystals you can open up a path to the World of Evil, and take on Deathtoll himself.

Whilst Soul Blazer may not have an award winning plotline, it was fairly sophisticated for its era, with its moralistic tale of how greed and the misuse of technology can bring about evil.

I first played the game when I was about 11, and it was the first RPG that I ever played. I found myself immersed in the world of the game. And the game mechanics worked brilliantly for me. It was the first time that I’d ever encountered experience points, and a levelling up system. If a boss fight was too tricky, you could go and fight some weaker monsters, gain some more experience points, go up a level, and then try the boss again.

Whilst the game itself is fairly linear, you are able to go back to previously completed zones if you want to. This is necessary if you want to release every single creature as some of the monsters in the early part of the game can only be defeated with weapons you can’t acquire until later on in the game. This idea of going back to previously completed levels to do some extra bits was a new concept to me.

Once you complete the game, you’re rewarded with a lengthy ending, with the hero visiting the various parts of the world. Then there’s a section summing up the end of the game, and how Lisa now sees the world:

Just like her father changed impossible to possible, Lisa feels she will be happy if she believes.

This part of the ending is set at sunset, and there were times when I saw it myself, at sunset, on a long summer’s day...

Soul Blazer has always been enjoyable to play on the many replays that I’ve done of it. Although, for a long while, getting to reply it was hard. When I was 11 I didn’t own the game, a neighbour did, but I often borrowed it for long periods. The game was rare, and not officially available in Europe at the time, and so owning my own copy was beyond my meagre financial means at the time.

One time in my youth I came close to owning a copy. I saw a second hand copy for sale in a shop in Harrow (where I live). I didn’t have enough money with me at the time to buy it. But I had some other games at home which I could exchange for it. I went home to get them, and, about an hour later, I returned to the shop. But by then it had already been sold. That was the last time I ever saw a copy for sale in a shop.

Then, a couple of years later, I discovered emulators, which allow you to download and play console games on a computer. Soul Blazer was the first game I went for. I could now play it to my heart’s content!

But I still desired to have my own physical copy. Eventually, in 2001, whilst I was at Uni, and finally had a little money to my name, I discovered the joys of eBay. I found a copy of Soul Blazer on there. And, about a week (and £52) later, I finally had my own copy of Soul Blazer, a copy which still sits proudly on my shelf to this day. (Complete copies of Soul Blazer are getting rare on eBay now, and can sell for double what I paid for mine.)

Whilst Soul Blazer is not considered by many as being amongst the greatest games of all time, for me it is. For me it was many “firsts” – my first RPG, my first video game which told a (relatively) sophisticated story, my first video game where I felt immersed in the world of the story. Even the idea of an end credit sequence in a video game was new to me. Like many people who played the game when they will children in the early 90’s, I feel a lot of nostalgia for this game. It set me on the path of playing many other great video games over the years. But I feel that this game, a game of many firsts, will always be my favourite.

During this list of my favourite video games I’ve often spoken about the music contained within the games. Whilst Soul Blazer does have some good music within it, I just want to pick out one piece for this blog post. It features in the ending, but, from where it appears earlier on in the game, it’s generally known as Lisa’s Song. I’m always brought back to the nostalgic memories I have of this game when I hear it. Here’s a remixed version of the song:

So, there you have it. Thus concludes my list of my all time favourite video games. However, there are so many great games that didn’t make the top ten, that just missed out on the cut. Join me again next week when I’ll be doing a quick rundown of some of these games...

My 2nd Favourite Video Game of All Time

Final Fantasy VI (a.k.a. FFIII[US]) (SNES – 1994)

(Warning: This blog post contains some plot spoilers.)

When I drew up my list of my all time favourite video games, getting the top end of the list right was a little tricky. But, ultimately, the silver medal goes to Final Fantasy VI, which is a turn based RPG. When drawing up this list I had decided to only include one game from any series, and a Final Fantasy game was pretty much guaranteed to appear in the list. And with 14 games now released in the main series, you might have thought that picking just one of these would have been hard. But, for me, it was no contest. It had to be Final Fantasy VI.

When picking their favourite Final Fantasy game, many people will choose Final Fantasy VII, which was the first game in the series to appear on a PlayStation console. But, whilst I think that Final Fantasy VII is a good game, I will always consider Final Fantasy VI to be a better game.

I first played the game back when I was 16. It wasn’t officially released in Europe at the time, and so I had to buy an expensive American copy, and then exchange my English SNES for an American one, as (for complicated technical reasons which can’t be overcome with an adaptor) the game wouldn’t run properly on English machines.

The game was released on the SNES in America as Final Fantasy III, as it was only the third Final Fantasy game to have been released there. But in subsequent releases it has been released under its proper name of Final Fantasy VI.

The game is set in a world where magic was lost after a great war 1,000 years ago. The world has been rebuilt, but an evil empire is trying to regain magic once more. The game opens with the character Terra, who, for reasons unknown at the start of the game, possesses magic.

Travelling throughout the world, more and more characters join in the fight against the Empire. There are a total of 14 playable characters in the game – the most of any game in the main series – and most of them have their own subplots which play out throughout the game. The world is vast and in depth, with many different locations to explore, including Castle Figaro in the desert, a ghost train, mountain caves, and, of course, the Empire itself.

The game will also sometimes go in some quite unusual directions. At one point, for complicated reasons which I won’t go into here, you have to take part in an opera (“I’m a general, not some opera floozy!”), singing the right lines at the right point, and making sure you stand in the right place at the right time.

Eventually, our heroes confront the Empire, up on the Floating Continent, where the three Goddess statues are located. It is these statues which maintain the balance in the world. Then comes the big twist. One of the Empire’s henchmen, Kefka, who has become mad as a result of experiments conducted on him to try and obtain magic, kills the Emperor. He then deliberately moves the Goddess statues out of alignment, resulting in the end of the world...

At this point we’re only halfway through the game. In the second half, which takes place one year later, you have to find as many of our heroes as you can. They are scattered throughout a ruined world, with people living under Kefka’s tyranny and wrath, and without hope. This second half of the game is largely open, and you can choose which order you visit the various locations in, before you take on Kefka in his tower, where he is intent on destroying everything as a result of his rage...

Music plays a big part in the Final Fantasy games, where most of it is composed by Nobuo Uematsu, considered one of the greatest composers of video game music. Here’s the music from the opera scene again (“Aria de Mezzo Carattere”), but this time recorded with real instruments and a real singer, with Italian lyrics:

As ever, there are fan videos based around the music of this game which can be found on YouTube. Here’s Smooth McGroove with his acapella arrangement of the decisive battle theme:

And here’s Lara de Wit with her version of the Prelude theme, which features in most Final Fantasy games:

Here’s Lara again, this time accompanied by Zorsy, with their version of Terra’s theme, which is a key theme in the game:

(There’s an interesting story about Terra’s name. I’m not sure how true it is, but I’ll repeat it here anyway. In the original Japanese version of the game Terra was called Tina. In Japan “Tina” is seen as an unusual and exotic name, but not so in the West. It’s believed that the translator for the SNES version in America, Ted Woolsey, wanted to rename her with a name which would be seen as exotic. Looking out of his window, he saw the offices of a company called “Terra Communications”. And thus Tina became Terra...)

Finally, there have been various other treatments of the music. I have a couple of official CDs, entitled “Pray” and “Love Will Grow”, which take pieces of music from various Final Fantasy games, and turn them into songs with lyrics in various languages. Here’s Não Chora Menina, which is based on a piece of music from Final Fantasy VI:

Overall, Final Fantasy VI is a truly great game, with an in depth story line, detailed characters, and a battle system which works perfectly. If you only ever play one Final Fantasy game, make it this one. In my opinion, Final Fantasy VI is the greatest Final Fantasy game there ever has been, and, sadly, is the greatest Final Fantasy game there is ever likely to be...

So, there you have it. We’ve now had nine of my top ten video games of all time featured on this blog. Join me again next week when I unveil my favourite video game of all time. The game which I love more then all of the other games which I’ve played in nearly a quarter of a century. A game which marked a key point in the life of my young video game playing self. It’s a game that not many people have heard of, but those who have will remember it fondly. It will be a game which has truly earned the gold medal position on my list of my favourite video games of all time...

My 3rd Favourite Video Game of All Time

Secret of Mana (a.k.a. Seiken Densetsu 2 [The Legend of the Holy Sword 2]) (SNES – 1993)

Darkness sweeps the troubled land, as Mana's power fades...

People await a hero who will wield the sword...

Excalibur, Herald, Gigas...

The blade has had many names, for it has been celebrated in myths and legends throughout time.

But all of these speak to just one weapon: The Sword of Mana.

My list of my all time favourite video games now reaches the business end, and the game in the bronze medal position is Secret of Mana, which is a classic action RPG.

In Japan the game was released as Seiken Densetsu 2, which translates as The Legend of the Holy Sword 2. The game which preceded it, Seiken Densetsu, was a GameBoy game, which was released in North America as Final Fantasy Adventure (as with the original SaGa games, it was rebranded as a Final Fantasy game to help market it in America), and released in Europe as Mystic Quest (not to be confused with Mystic Quest Legend on the SNES, which is a completely different game!). And, to confuse matters further, it later got a remake on the GameBoy Advance as Sword of Mana.

But, it is the second game in the series, Secret of Mana, which is one of the best known games in the Mana series. The “Mana” name became so popular that later games in the series also carried the “Mana” branding, including in their original Japanese releases.

Using the power of Mana, a civilization had grown strong...

In time, Mana was used to create the ultimate weapon: the Mana Fortress...

This angered the gods. They sent their beasts to destroy the Fortress...

A violent war rocked the world, and Mana seemed to disappear...

Before all was lost, a hero with the Mana Sword smashed the Fortress...

Though the civilization had been destroyed, the world was peaceful again.

But time flows like a river... and history repeats...

The story of the game centres on a boy who recovers an ancient sword, which also releases evil forces into the world. He has to go and fight these forces, whilst trying to fully revive the sword by visiting the eight Mana Shrines. Along the way he is joined by a girl, and a sprite. The Empire is also trying to reach all of the Mana Shrines, but their plan is to revive the dreaded Mana Fortress in order to rule the world.

Protecting the world, in a secret location, is the great Mana Tree (a regular feature in the Mana series), and it is seen on the box art for the game. But, an interesting thing about this image, showing our three heroes by the Mana Tree, is that it’s not a scene which actually takes place within the game...

One innovative feature of the game is the ring menu system, where you can select the various options you need, a feature which I’ve only ever seen used in one other game, the vastly inferior Secret of Evermore.

The game is a very entertaining action RPG, with plenty to keep the player interested along the way. The world is immersive, and our heroes have to travel to all corners of it in order to achieve their quest (which at one point involves saving Father Christmas!). Lots of people who played video games in the early 90’s will have fond memories of this game, and there are people who have come to discover the SNES more recently who then find that they love this game.

The game has a very memorable soundtrack as well, and on YouTube there are many versions of the various pieces of music from the game. Here’s the Super Guitar Bros with their version of “The Color of the Summer Sky”:

Here’s Lara de Wit’s and Aivi Tran’s piano duet of “Into the Thick of It”:

And here’s Smooth McGroove’s acapella rendition of the same piece:

Finally, here’s an orchestrated version of the “Dark Star” theme, from late in the game, arranged by David Graey:

Join me again next week when I’ll be revealing my second favourite video game of all time, a game which could be described as a game of two halves...

My 4th Favourite Video Game of All Time

SaGa 2 (a.k.a. Final Fantasy Legend 2) (GameBoy – 1990)

My 4th favourite video game of all time is one that’s not hugely well known. It’s an RPG that was released on the GameBoy in the early 90’s, although I didn’t play it until its re-release in the late 90’s.

In the West the game was released as Final Fantasy Legend 2, although it’s not really a Final Fantasy game. It’s actually the second game in the SaGa series, which is a separate series to the Final Fantasy series. When it came to releasing the game in the West it was rebranded as a Final Fantasy game due to the popularity of Final Fantasy in the West, but it is firmly a SaGa game.

It’s been many years since I’ve played the game – I’ve only ever played through it once – and so I’ve largely forgotten most of the plot. But it still features highly on my list of favourite video games as I can still remember how the plot, and therefore the gameplay, was structured. And this was something different which I haven’t seen before or since in a video game.

I’ve likened this structure as being similar to that in the Chronicles of Narnia novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In that, the characters travel from place to place, and, as a reader, we never know what to expect at each location. Every location is different, and for me this made the story interesting and gave it energy. SaGa 2 is also like this.

The game is split into a number of worlds, which are all connected by a Celestial World. Only once you’ve completed a number of tasks in one world can you then move on to the next world. And, as with the locations in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, each of these worlds was different, and you just didn’t know what to expect next. When playing through the game it was always exciting when reaching a new world to see just what that new world was going to be like.

(I once employed a similar plot structure in my novel “The Eiffel Tower”, which saw my characters going to very different worlds and having to complete different tasks in each one...)

The first three SaGa games were all for the GameBoy, and I bought all three at the same time. SaGa 2 was by far the best of the three (SaGa 1 was OK, but SaGa 3 was a huge disappointment). Since then there have been SaGa games on the SNES, PSOne, and PS2, and I’ve only played two of the later games in the series (SaGa Frontier 2 on the PSOne, and a brief part of Unlimited SaGa on the PS2). But the later games just aren’t the same as the earlier ones – SaGa 2 really is a highlight of the series. They’re currently aren’t any further games planned for the series, but if Square Enix ever do go back to it, I hope they reflect the gameplay and plot structure of SaGa 2...

Join me again next week when I reveal my 3rd favourite video game of all time, a game which was also rebranded when it was released in the West, but where this rebranding caught on in Japan...

My 5th Favourite Video Game of All Time

Super Metroid (SNES – 1994)

The list of my all time favourite video games now enters the top 5 with a classic game which defies its genre. Super Metroid is the third game in the Metroid series, and, unlike many series of video games, there is a continuing story in the Metroid games, with the events of the first two games briefly recounted at the start of Super Metroid.

The basic premise is that, in the first game, Samus Aran took on the Space Pirates on planet Zebes, and succeeded in preventing them from using the Metroid creatures for evil. Throughout the game, and in the instructions and marketing material, no mention was made as to what gender Samus is. It was only right at the end of the game that it was revealed that she was a woman, something which was a big surprise for game players at the time.

In the second game, Samus went to the homeworld of the Metroids to wipe them out completely. She did so, apart from one larva, which she brought back so that it could be studied. Super Metroid starts with the Space Pirates attacking the research station where the Metroid is being held...

Samus then has no choice but to return to planet Zebes and take on the Space Pirates once more...

Super Metroid is nominally a platform game. However, in standard platform games, the player takes on each level one at a time, moving from the left to the right, getting pass the various obstacles that are in the way. But Super Metroid is different. The player is presented with a whole world to explore, and they can travel back and forth through it. It is through the collection of special items that players are able to reach new parts of the world. When I first played this came 20 years ago this was a new concept to me, and it made for an enjoyable gameplay experience.

The graphics were pretty good for the SNES era, but it’s the music which really helps the game. The whole game has a very cinematic feel to it, which was very unusual for games of the time. The music is very atmospheric, and helps to set the mood for all of the various areas in the game. Here’s Lara de Wit with her rendition of the Rocky Maridia theme:

The game keeps track of how much time you’ve spent playing the game. This results in a slight difference in the ending of the game – although this is just about how much of her armour Samus removes, which is a real shame. But the time keeping element encourages players to see just how fast they can get through the game. I can’t remember how long I took on my first attempt, but it was well over 10 hours. But on a speed run it can be completed in under an hour (although it normally takes me a couple of hours).

For me, Super Metroid is a prime example of excellent gameplay design, a unique game which has stood the test of time, and is still highly playable today.

Join me next week when I’ll be revealing my fourth favourite video game of all time. It’s a game which, whilst having nothing specifically to do with the Chronicles of Narnia, does have something which I feel is in common with the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and it is this “something” which helped to create another unique and memorable gaming experience...

My 6th Favourite Video Game of All Time

Super Bomberman 2 (SNES – 1994)

For my 6th favourite video game of all time, I’ve gone for Super Bomberman 2. One of a long series of games that spanned multiple platforms, I’ve chosen this particular entry as it’s the one that I’ve played the most.

The basic gameplay is simple. You control a character who can plant bombs, which kill enemies, and destroy obstacles, and you can collect power ups to increase the number of bombs you can lay, the strength of your bombs, and give you extra abilities, such as picking up a bomb and throwing it. The game has a one player story mode, which is OK, and fun to play in its own right. But the main draw to the Bomberman series is its multiplayer mode.

In the multiplayer mode the game is simple – blow up your opponents before they blow you up! And yet it is very addictive. Rounds are usually over quite quickly, and so, even if you were stupid enough to blow yourself up (something we’ve all done!), you’re playing again in the next round in no time.

And the game is just fun to play! For me, that is the most important aspect about any video game. If it isn’t fun to play, what’s the point?

I consider the Bomberman games to be the best multiplayer games ever. And even Super Bomberman 2, which is 20 years old, is still highly playable today. When I’ve had friends over in recent months to play games at my flat this is one of the games I’ve got out, and we’ve all had fun playing it. (And, not that I like to brag, but I’m pretty good at it...)

Join me again next week when we move into my top 5 favourite video games of all time, with a game which defies its supposed genre, and which I would consider to be a masterpiece of video game design...

My 7th Favourite Video Game of All Time

Super Mario Kart (SNES – 1992)

For my 7th favourite video game of all time, I’ve chosen the classic racing game, Super Mario Kart, which was released during the early years of the SNES.

It’s one of my favourite games simply because it’s just fun to play. What sets it apart from most standard racing games is that you don’t just have to try and get ahead of everyone else on the track, but you also have obstacles to avoid, and items you can pick up and use to try and hinder your opponent’s progress. There are also eight characters to choose from, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

This was the first game on the Mario Kart series, which is still going strong today. Whilst I’ve only played little bits from two of the later games in the series, they all keep the same basic gameplay premise of the original. And the original itself is still highly playable today, despite being over 20 years old.

There are also two player modes of the game, which are fun to play with friends, including a battle mode where you have to hit you opponent with items like shells three times to win.

The game has a rising difficultly, with the final track of the game being the notorious Rainbow Road, which has no barriers at the sides so you have to be careful not to fall off...

And here’s Smooth McGroove’s acapella rendition of the Rainbow Road theme:

So that’s my 7th favourite video game of all time. I’ve briefly commented on the two player modes of this game here. Sometimes it’s fun to play video games with friends. Join me next week, where I’ll be revealing my 6th favourite video game of all time, a game which I consider to be the best multiplayer game of them all...