Indie

TOP TEN - November 2002

GRAND THEFT AUTO 3 (PS2) Like Dreamcast epic Shenmue gone bad, GTA3 is less a videogame than a virtual holiday, except unlike Shenmue it's a holiday somewhere you'd never want to go. The game structure is oddly reminiscent of Super Mario 64 - there ARE set things to do, but it's also just a giant adventure playground that you'll never tire of just messing around in. Sheer genius in 3D. PERFECT DARK (N64) I loathe mouse-and-keyboard control in FPS games more than you could ever possibly imagine, so it's a console-only genre for me, and Perfect Dark is the best it's ever got. Obviously had less impact than the mighty Goldeneye, so tends to be overlooked in favour of the Bond title, but it's a superior game in almost every measurable way. BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT GAME BOY ADVENTURE (Game Boy) We couldn't have a list without a platformer in it, and this spiritual descendant of the seminal Chuckie Egg is byte-for-byte the best of the breed. Squeezed into about 60K of code were 50 single screens of the most fiendish platforms ever, designed to be played at a lightning pace made possible by the gorgeous, flawless controls. The perfect Game Boy game. REBELSTAR (Spectrum) Released brand new at the difficult-to-believe price of Ł1.99, this incredible turn-based strategy game boasted a believable, coherent environment that wouldn't be bettered until Super Mario 64 and GTA3, giving you the opportunity to invent entire new games for yourself in the gameworld. Was resurrected in Email X-COM, the best online game of all time, which was then spitefully killed by Hasbro. Bastards. TEMPEST 2000 (Jaguar/Saturn/PC) Jeff Minter's unique approach to videogame creation is a hit-and-miss business. For every glorious Gridrunner++ there's a disastrous Defender 2000. But with T2K (as its friends call it), everything came together spectacularly in a sanity-destroyingly intense blasting frenzy that's also a beautiful and synergistic work of art. WIZKID (Amiga/Atari ST) Even something as abstract and bizarre as Tempest 2000, though, has to take a back seat weirdness-wise to the most overlooked gem in the Sensible Software back catalogue. A game which completely defies convenient description, Wizkid was a magnum opus of invention and irreverent humour that was just too much for the average gamer to take in. The average gamer is an idiot. 3D DEATHCHASE (Spectrum) It was pretty hard to leave all the Ridge Racer games out of this list, but for sheer white-knuckle need-for-speed thrills, this 9K eight-bit classic just nudges them aside. The only things n the whole game that can damage you in any way are trees, which, being trees, don't even move. Yet time and time again, like an idiot, you manage to smash into them. Breathtaking. PONG (PSone/PC) The absolute pinnacle of remakes. Most games which attempt to update old classics for the modern age fail miserably, capturing neither the essence of the original nor exciting and distinctive gameplay of their own, but Pong manages both with effortless ease. With nothing more than a bat and ball, you get about 40 radically different little mini-games, and every one's a joy. QIX (Arcade, Game Boy) Some games, on the other hand, get it so completely right first time that they simply can't be improved. There have been dozens of official and unofficial follow-ups to Qix, every one of them dreadful because they throw out the perfect risk-versus-reward balance that makes Qix perhaps the most addictive game ever. It's hard to accept you've just been beaten by an Etch-a-Sketch. BANGAI-O (Dreamcast/N64) This game's here representing not only itself, but also Robotron, Smash TV, Oids and the entire Treasure canon, from Gunner's Heaven to Radiant Silvergun. An insane, overwhelming shoot-'em-up where you could unleash up to 400 missiles at a time in dozens of intricate, clever and varied levels, it's simply the most entertaining shooting game of all time.