This is for the games that raised the bar of gaming in terms of what it showed and how much your jaw dropped when you saw these games. Explain why you thought these games were so much better then anything else and how much your jaw dropped when you saw them. It's a personal thing, some games looked fantastic but are fairly weak when it comes to gameplay but if it pushed the limits further then anything else before it then don't be afraided to list it.
Anyway my Top Five...
1 - Daytona USA - Sega - Arcade (Jaw drop rating : On the floor)
It wasn't the first textured racing game (that went to Ridge Racer) but it probably was the best executed arcade racing game even to this day. The graphics were stunning, large textured mapped graphics, 40 textured mapped cars (note to developers : When doing a racing game remember to add lots of cars...), it moved sublimely even down to the polygon trees. The music was amazing (hey I love Blue Skies) and the handling and racing was first class. I spent over ?100 on one day on this in multiplayer mode in the trocadero when they have 8 machines linked up. It was gaming heaven.
2 - Drivers Eyes - Namco - Arcade (Jaw drop rating : Wooooh!)
Nowdays it looks a bit rubbish but a three screen 3D Racing game back in the early 90s was amazing compared to all the sprite based racers out there. Although it chugged along it was the closest thing you could get to racing in a real F1 car. During the following years there was a ding dong battle of F1 Racing games between Sega and Namco before F1 games became Passe and they went into street car racing... Anyway blast from the past, I remember it well, I just wish I could play it again.
3 - Virtua Fighter 3 - Sega - Arcade (Jaw drop rating : Oh baby)
I remember seeing the Aoi dance demostration and the Dural demo and thinking that realistic gaming is nearly here, sadly we are still waiting but Dead or Alive 3 and VF4 shows it's nearly here but not on this generation of consoles. I hope that VF5 comes out and blows gaming out of the water again (just like VF1, VF2, VF3 all did... VF4 is a great game but it didn't really set the world alight with it's technically abilities of the PS2 or Naomi boards..)
4 - Urusei Yatsura - Game Arts - Mega CD (Jaw drop rating : Oh wow, this is the best anime game ever (still think that today...))
When people think of the Mega CD people think of crappy FMV, crappy games with CD sound tracks and fairly poor games generally. This game (along with games like Popfulmail, Silpheed, Shadowrun, Lunar - Silver Star Story, Yumimimix and others) showed how the Mega CD could be used to great effect. It was a point and click like adventure game where you pressed a button to change what you wanted to do, pick up, talk, etc and you clicked an area or person you wanted to interact with. This game impressed me as one it had a serious amount of full screen (thats full screen) anime (thats drawn japanese animation, none of this grainy FMV here), there is just under an hours worth. Every character speaks with not a spot of text anywhere outside the menu screen and there are several easter eggs (including three playable games hidden within). Even if you don't speak a word of Japanese you couldn't fail to be impressed with this game, it really made the PC Engine CD-ROM look like a cheapy add on...
5 - Ridge Racer - Namco - Playstation (Jaw dropping rating : Wow, how they do that).
CEX, late 1994, Playstation in and it was this or VF on the Saturn. This won and people spent vast sums of money buying a Playstation (just under ?1000 or all their collection plus lots of money) and this (?100 or around 10 PC Engine games...). It shifted the goalposts of home gaming and brought arcade perfect gaming closer to home, it looked amazing, played amazing and amazingly loaded completely into the PSX memory...
There are several games like Knightlore, Ant Attack, 3D Monster Maze, Space Harrier, Out-Run that just miss the cut but I had to choose just 5...
So what are your top five.
Anyway my Top Five...
1 - Daytona USA - Sega - Arcade (Jaw drop rating : On the floor)
It wasn't the first textured racing game (that went to Ridge Racer) but it probably was the best executed arcade racing game even to this day. The graphics were stunning, large textured mapped graphics, 40 textured mapped cars (note to developers : When doing a racing game remember to add lots of cars...), it moved sublimely even down to the polygon trees. The music was amazing (hey I love Blue Skies) and the handling and racing was first class. I spent over ?100 on one day on this in multiplayer mode in the trocadero when they have 8 machines linked up. It was gaming heaven.
2 - Drivers Eyes - Namco - Arcade (Jaw drop rating : Wooooh!)
Nowdays it looks a bit rubbish but a three screen 3D Racing game back in the early 90s was amazing compared to all the sprite based racers out there. Although it chugged along it was the closest thing you could get to racing in a real F1 car. During the following years there was a ding dong battle of F1 Racing games between Sega and Namco before F1 games became Passe and they went into street car racing... Anyway blast from the past, I remember it well, I just wish I could play it again.
3 - Virtua Fighter 3 - Sega - Arcade (Jaw drop rating : Oh baby)
I remember seeing the Aoi dance demostration and the Dural demo and thinking that realistic gaming is nearly here, sadly we are still waiting but Dead or Alive 3 and VF4 shows it's nearly here but not on this generation of consoles. I hope that VF5 comes out and blows gaming out of the water again (just like VF1, VF2, VF3 all did... VF4 is a great game but it didn't really set the world alight with it's technically abilities of the PS2 or Naomi boards..)
4 - Urusei Yatsura - Game Arts - Mega CD (Jaw drop rating : Oh wow, this is the best anime game ever (still think that today...))
When people think of the Mega CD people think of crappy FMV, crappy games with CD sound tracks and fairly poor games generally. This game (along with games like Popfulmail, Silpheed, Shadowrun, Lunar - Silver Star Story, Yumimimix and others) showed how the Mega CD could be used to great effect. It was a point and click like adventure game where you pressed a button to change what you wanted to do, pick up, talk, etc and you clicked an area or person you wanted to interact with. This game impressed me as one it had a serious amount of full screen (thats full screen) anime (thats drawn japanese animation, none of this grainy FMV here), there is just under an hours worth. Every character speaks with not a spot of text anywhere outside the menu screen and there are several easter eggs (including three playable games hidden within). Even if you don't speak a word of Japanese you couldn't fail to be impressed with this game, it really made the PC Engine CD-ROM look like a cheapy add on...
5 - Ridge Racer - Namco - Playstation (Jaw dropping rating : Wow, how they do that).
CEX, late 1994, Playstation in and it was this or VF on the Saturn. This won and people spent vast sums of money buying a Playstation (just under ?1000 or all their collection plus lots of money) and this (?100 or around 10 PC Engine games...). It shifted the goalposts of home gaming and brought arcade perfect gaming closer to home, it looked amazing, played amazing and amazingly loaded completely into the PSX memory...
There are several games like Knightlore, Ant Attack, 3D Monster Maze, Space Harrier, Out-Run that just miss the cut but I had to choose just 5...
So what are your top five.
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