System: Sega Saturn Release date: 1996 Dragon Force Saturn is the game that asked “what if a strategy game had absolutely enormous armies and let you watch them smash into each other like a medieval football riot?” Eight rival kingdoms scrap for control of the land of Legendra, and you pick one and try to…
System: Sega Saturn Release date: 1996 NiGHTS into Dreams on the Sega Saturn is the game that took flying and turned it into one of the most genuinely hypnotic feelings in gaming history. This NiGHTS into Dreams Saturn title has two children, Claris and Elliot, slip into a shared dreamworld called Nightopia, only to find…
System: Sega Saturn Release date: 1995 Panzer Dragoon on the Sega Saturn is the game that proved an on-rails shooter could feel like a genuine journey rather than a glorified shooting gallery. This Panzer Dragoon Saturn title puts you astride a dragon soaring through a ruined, ancient world, blasting enemies while a 360-degree lock-on reticle…
System: Sega Saturn Release date: 1995 Bug! on the Sega Saturn is the game Sega used to prove its new console could do mascot platforming just as confidently as anyone else’s, and the genuinely weird perspective it used to do it still stands out today. This Bug! Saturn title puts you in control of a…
System: 3DO Release date: 1995 Return Fire on the 3DO is the game that quietly convinced a small but devoted bunch of owners the system was worth keeping plugged in, long after most of the library had been forgotten. This Return Fire title drops you into a top-down vehicle combat sandbox where tanks, jeeps and…
System: Sony PlayStation Release date: 1998 Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation is the game that made stealth cool, made cutscenes feel like proper cinema, and made an entire generation genuinely afraid of a cardboard box. This Metal Gear Solid title from Konami dropped Solid Snake onto Shadow Moses Island with a simple brief -…
System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System Release date: 1994 Super Metroid on the SNES is the game that dropped you on a dead alien planet, handed you no map and no hand to hold, and somehow made you feel like the cleverest person alive for finding your own way through it. This Super Metroid title picks…
System: Sony PlayStation Release date: 1996 Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation is the game that gave Sony’s console its own mascot to plant firmly on the shop shelf next to Mario and Sonic. This Crash Bandicoot title from Naughty Dog took a genetically mutated marsupial with a bad haircut and a worse attitude, dropped him…
System: Nintendo 64 Release date: 1996 Mario Kart 64 on the Nintendo 64 is the game that turned four controllers and one console into a proper household war. This Mario Kart 64 title took everything brilliant about the SNES original and gave it a full jump into 3D, complete with genuinely varied tracks, a properly…
System: Nintendo Game Boy Release date: 1992 Kirby’s Dream Land on the Game Boy is the game that introduced the world to gaming’s most cheerful little pink puffball – and thirty years on, absolutely nobody has managed to make anything quite that likeable since. This Kirby’s Dream Land title arrived on a grey brick screen…