My All-Time Top 20 Video Games (Part 2)
Having already counted down from 20 to 16, it's time for positions 15 to 11.
Thank you for all of the comments to part 1, I didn't expect it to prompt such a reaction and I've enjoyed hearing your thoughts and memories. I hope that this continues through the remainder of the list and you're not too disappointed when I reach my top 5!!
15 - Sensible Soccer / Sensible World of Soccer (Amiga 500)
As a huge football fan, I could have written a list of my top 20 football games and Sensible Soccer is one of the most iconic football games of my generation. The sheer volume of teams and players available in SWOS made it hugely addictive and I remember playing with and managing Skonta Riga in the Latvian league in my quest for European glory. Considering the number of buttons available in football games now, it seems incredible to think that in this game, you could move, and kick. One button to do everything. But that didn't matter - the satisfaction from cutting inside and swerving the ball past a helpless goalkeeper never went away and you didn't feel the need to do a Simple Rainbow, Triple Elastico and Hocus Pocus on the way to goal (source). Just seeing these little pixelated players puts a smile on my face.
14 - Mortal Kombat (Master System)
Back, back, punch... "Get over here"...
If you know what ☝ is referring to then you played this game too much. (It's Scorpion's harpoon thing.) So much to love about this game and when selecting which video to add, I discovered that one of the characters was omitted from the Master System version. Well, they do say you learn something new every day. So I don't know who Kano is.
These were the days where if you didn't add some kind of "cheat" combo as the game was loading, then you weren't doing your gamers justice. The legendary "blood code" which let's face it, should've just been in the game anyway - what's Mortal Kombat without blood?
I loved this game - my favourite characters being Scorpion and Sub Zero (down, forward, punch) and remember how happy I was when I bought a gaming magazine and it told me all of the death moves. You wouldn't get that kind of joy now that Google makes everything too easy.
13 - Speedball II (Amiga 500)
Get ready...
I remember the game being a lot quicker than the video above - maybe I was just a bit slow as a child.
Create a team, power them up and then smash up your opponents. The main thing I remember about how to play this game was to run straight at your opponent, throw the ball to/at them and then smash them to get the ball back. I remember very little else other than how addictive and fun it was. I used to play this a lot against my brother (like most of the video games on this list) and it had a simplicity that modern video games don't seem to appreciate.
12 - Syndicate (Amiga 500)
If I hadn't done a bit of research when creating my shortlist, this is a game that I would have forgotten about and when remembered, kicked myself that it wasn't included (I remembered Road Rash whilst searching for the Mortal Kombat video and am disappointed in myself for forgetting it).
There's enough going on with this game to give it a bit of complexity without overcomplicating things. I like a click and shoot type of game and enjoyed the addition of research so that your cyborgs (or whatever they were) slowly got more bad ass as the missions got more difficult. I'm a little bit surprised that there hasn't been a 21st century reboot (given how much gets rehashed these days) but the original's available for free (on EA's origin) so one to revisit when the kids have grown up and left home.
11 - Lemmings (Amiga 500)
Let's go.
Where would a top 20 be without this classic? I've still got it on the Master System, but it's certainly a game that benefits from having a mouse.
Dig, dig, hole (as my toddler says), block, climb, explode, build, parachute - just 8 different types of Lemming but a huge number of possible solutions to any given problem. I've always enjoyed solving problems and I wonder if it's because I grew up with games like this.
15- 11 Summary
An old skool group of games to join the list and I wonder if they'd be as playable today as they were nearly 20 years ago. I see that Mortal Kombat's still going (Mortal Kombat 11 was released in 2019) and it'd be cool to see if the likes of Syndicate could get a reboot. Or if there's a modern day equivalent which isn't unnecessarily complicated...?
Here's the list at the half way point - what are your thoughts so far? Would you reorder any of them (or bin any of them off)?
11 - Lemmings (Amiga 500)
12 - Syndicate (Amiga 500)
13 - Speedball II (Amiga 500)
14 - Mortal Kombat (Master System)
15 - Sensible Soccer / Sensible World of Soccer (Amiga 500)
16 - Grand Theft Auto (PC)
17 - The Sims (PC)
18 - Double Dragon (Amiga 500)
19 - Space Invaders (Atari 2600)
20 - Treasure Island Dizzy (ZX Spectrum 48k)
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Mortal kombat was an absolute classic! I had the version with Kano. Hours upon hours of fun. Played it loads in the arcade before finally owning it on the Mega Drive.
Lemmings was another genius game. I'm thinking Worms is going to feature in the top 10 too.. I loved that game.
I was amazed to see Mortal Kombat still going. It must be 20 years since the original version was released.
Lemmings is the kind of game that could just keep expanding (Candy Crush style) - I'd love for them to give it a 21st Century reboot (if they haven't already done so).
Man your list really makes me wish I had an Amiga growing up. What a fantastic retro gaming system!
I was a little surprised by how many games I could list that I enjoyed playing. As I write these articles there's a large part of me that wants to either find a PC version (an emulator if I have to) or see if the old machine's kicking about somewhere (in my mum's loft). Then there's the other part of me that says "enjoy the nostalgia, you'll ruin that if you play them again". But Syndicate still looks like a game that I'd enjoy even today!
If I had to pick two games from that list, I guess it would be Lemmings and Double Dragon. I remember playing Double Dragon as an arcade game first, and then on C-64 :) Still sweet memories of mine!
I wonder when Bubble Bubble will show up on your list?! :)
I thought about Bubble Bobble - I used to play it with my sister on the Playstation. You'll just have to wait and see if I include it in the top 10. And will Candy Crush be there? A game we hate to love.
The mortal kombat of the master system I played it in an arcade that was near my house a long time ago when I was around 6 is one of the games that attracted me to the world of games, totally a classic the flagship ip midway.
I think Mortal Kombat was around at a similar time to Street Fighter II and it's tough to choose which I preferred. Both classic fighting games. And then we had Tekken. All excellent.
For me it depends on what you want to play since with Mortal Kombat you have access to fatalitys which are the unique mechanics of this title, with Street Fighter you have a more arcade experience and more oriented to your combos and Tekken gives you a similar arcade experience but with controls a little more polished obviously by the generation where it came out but if I agree with your opinion is difficult to choose one between 3 excellent games.
Excellent points. I'm surprised that my parents let me play Mortal Kombat!
The first time my mother saw me playing Mortal Kombat when I had a console at home, which was a Playstation 2 when I was 10, my mother took me to a psychologist, my father he laughed too much when I told him everything, he still does it today.
🤣🤣 That can't be true??
😂😂 it's totally true bro, it's one of the many things that has happened to me with games and my family.
I only played Mortal Kombat and GTA.
And it's not like I really owned any consoles or a pc.
I went to small game centers to waste all my money 😄 I had a couple of friends who had games too...
I used to love the arcades but rarely wasted much money in them. When I did, it was the racing games where the car seat moved around as you drove them. They were worth the expense!
We got none of that around... it's rare
🤕🤕
Yeah - I don't think arcades really exist any more - everybody has their own consoles now that are more powerful so spending a couple of quid playing a game you could buy for a few more is a little bit pointless.
Yeah... that's true though
But kids still do that over here, going to gaming centres to pay money to play. Most of them still can't afford. But yeah, it's gradually leaving the system
In Speedball what is the deal with the "doors" on the sides? A few times I saw a player throw it near the door and it just kind of hovered around for a bit.
Which bit do you mean? There's a "portal" type door which throws the ball to the other side of the court (I don't think you mean this one) and some kind of loop-the-loop type thing (which is what I think you're referring to). The loop-the-loop gets you points if it goes through something like 3 times in the same direction. I can't really remember - I remember playing it and beating (up) my brother 🙂
I think i am talking about the 2nd thing because the ball just seemed to float around. At first glance I thought that was the goal but unless I am mistaken this functions a lot like football / soccer over all.
That's right. There are a few ways to score points. In the goal at either end, the loop-the-loop thing and my personal favourite, destroying an opponent into smithereens.
I've just remembered Mutant League Football. I seem to like sport / fighting combination. One of my favourite bits of NHL games was starting a fight 😆
There was an American Football game I think called Cyberball where all of the players were robots that I enjoyed in the arcades. I think it was fun because in two player mode you and the guy you were against actually had your own screens. I know this isn't so unusual today but it was at the time.
I don't think I ever played that one - I never really played in arcades when I was younger, I guess my parents didn't really approve and didn't want us "wasting our money". I used to love the big machines with the racing games. I remember sitting in the cars when nobody else was playing, hoping that they'd forget they had some credits left!
I remember some rich kids at school playing Doom II (I think) together on different computers and being amazed by it. It's amazing what's taken for granted now.
I guess I should write part 3 soon, I hope I haven't lost my list 😆