200 Games you must play (part 4 of 5)

Oh god, it's the run home. The last 50 of Hyper Magazine's extensive 200 Games You Must Play list. At the start of this I figured I'd be lucky enough to have worked my way through even a quarter of what was on offer and with 75% of the list chewed through so far, all I need is 5 more in the 'yes I've actually played that' column to cross that milestone.

Surely there'll be at least 5 in here I've hit the start button on?

Will the Saint's get a look in here?

Please?

(This is part 4 of the list. If you want to start at the very beginning as we explore 200 on down, just click here.)

151 DEAD RISING - Okay we're starting this final list on a highly entertaining note as I quite enjoyed Dead Rising and the opportunity to whip into the nearest shop, grab whatever was handy and then proceed to brain (pun intended) the nearest horde of shambling undead. While I'm not a big fan of 'You need Zombrex by this time' in the later series, this is still stupid amounts of fun especially when you're literally walking over an ocean of zombie. (46/200)

152 ROCKSTAR PRESENTS TABLE TENNIS - Rockstar make great games but I had no idea they ventured into the hideously exciting world of....table tennis. Watching this very long volley does make me appreciate the graphic work they put into it but it doesn't get me any more excited into playing it. Sorry Rockstar.

153 THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT - The problem with 'sneak around and try not to kill anyone' types of games like Thief here is that I know deep down, I will get bored eventually and proceed to try and kill everything. Which I'm currently doing as I replay Oblivion currently, sneaking but also sniping from bushes. Which is apparently a big no no in this game and likely to get you killed quick smart. Okay then, back to the stealthing.

154 THE LAST EXPRESS - A late 90's adventure set on the Orient Express that is full of lies, romance and murder. So Snowpiercer effectively, only it's not the end of the world outside and nobody freezes to death. 

Well they might, I haven't played it so I don't know..

155 GRAND PRIX LEGENDS - While it looks vaguely familiar, the timeline (1998) rules me out from actually playing it. I do love my driving games though...

156 MEGA MAN 2 - On paper I'd say no but a quick Googling (seriously, where would we all be without it?) and I recognized one of the screens which brought back memories of playing it on an Nintendo Entertainment Centre Demo Kiosk thing, more than likely at Myer in Melbourne. Another game tried, huzzah! (47/200)

157 RIDGE RACER TYPE 4 - Can confirm, have played. I also recall a demo level of it being on one of those CD's that came with the gaming magazines? Seriously, how good were they. Tones of demos, occasionally a whole game (not usually a good one though), trainers, mods, artwork, everything. I worked in a news agency for a while and loved the stuff you'd find on those cd's and DVDs. Now of course they're just a simple search away but before the internet, the pile of demo cd's grew by the month..

(Back the game itself, not sure if this should be on this list. I mean yes I played it but I don't remember it being a complete standout unless I'm forgetting something here...) (48/200)

158 UNDERTALE - Momentarily confusing this for the turn based old school RPG 'Under rail', this one has precious little to do with combat in rail tunnels. A shame that really..

159 MISSILE COMMAND - Coming into existence the same year I was born into the world, by the time I was aware of video games, pcs and controllers, this one was long gone. That and no other kid I knew at the time had a copy of it. 

160 DEFCON - I figured this would be just like Missile Command above, an 80's game that found fame and fortune by the time I was just five, possibly in chunky cartridge format. However that's not the case as it came out in the late 2000's and garnered plenty of praise for it's price and graphics as well as entertainment value. 

Still sounds like an 80's cartridge you'd find next to Frogger though, just saying.

161 THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT - I've mentioned so far in this gaming journey that once I finally upgraded my graphics card to something that wouldn't crap bricks as soon as I mentioned any mid range games, I needed something to test out my new Rx570. That list only had Skyrim (which I had played and loved and Witcher 3, which I had not tried.) I gave Witcher 3 the chance and wow, it's brilliant. Great story, great mechanics, open world, magic, crafting and a killer Netflix series to built. 

One of the best gaming decisions I ever made, hands down. 

I'm still going to buy Skyrim again though, why not have the best of both worlds? (49/200)

162 FALLOUT - A big shout out to Kain, a guy I worked with years ago. It's his fault I got sucked into the Fallout world. Shocked that I'd never tried any of the titles when we chatted about the greatest games ever, he furnished me with not only a copy of this one but also Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics. Then when I crawled out of Vault 101 in Fallout 3 to find my father, well the bug had really bitten then.

For the record, I preferred the second over the first, I enjoyed but never finished Tactics on its own merits and revisiting them both recently, would pick New Vegas over Fallout 3. 4 was okay.

Haven't tried Fallout 76 yet and given the amount of people pointing out the bugs when they release the latest edition of it, it may be some time before I do..

163 ARKANOID - I didn't recognize the name for some reason but hell yes have I played this block breaking, ball bouncing, paddle sliding fun fest. Quite a few variations of it too over the years. What a classic. (50/200)

164 HERZOG ZWEI - Strange name and I don't remember this Megadrive/Genesis game at all. It's also now on the Switch I believe.

165 LODE RUNNER - I recall the name (from way way way back when) and it stirred memories of the next edition of the game Hyper Lode Runner for Gameboy. However giving the title the 'unsure if I've played this' treatment via Google Image search, it doesn't look familiar. So I'm going to put this in the no category.

166 DRAGON QUEST 8 - I reckon there's a fair chance I've never played a single Dragon's Quest given I didn't even realize they were up to number 8 (and have probably continued far on from then.) 

167 MYTH 2: SOULBLIGHTER - Myth, not Myst. So not the pretty looking follow up to Myst then. Confusion is well and truly reigning supreme with some of these titles listed so far..

168 SILENT HILL 2 - I recall this being from the same era of chunky blocky characters sashaying around badly ala Resident Evil on PSX. And while I tried the first RE release, I missed on the Silence up on the Hill.

Haven't seen the movie either come to think of it..

169 SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS - Er no. But it did look good!

170 FAR CRY 2 - Gah. Just when I think 'Well this one might be one I've actually given a spin' somehow the sharper part of my mind jumps in to ruin things. Case in point where I've confused the Far Cry series with Just Cause. And you can guess which of these series I've actually played..

171 DEADLY PREMONITION - A paranormal activity spin off? Fraid not. It's an open world survival horror series set in a fictional rural American town. Which sounds like the premise for a pretty interesting Netflix series too while we're at it..

172 A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING - 'The game was intended as a polemical critique of Ronald Reagan's politics.'

There was obviously a market for something like that back in 1985..

173 PLANESCAPE: TORMENT - As much as the old folks like to wax lyrical about the Good Ole Days (and there's certainly enough in this list to take you back if you're in that boat) I for one and loving the fact that I don't have to swap over 4 cd's to install a game of this magnitude. Not when a service like Steam, Epic Games or GOG can do it for you with a couple of mouse clicks.  

What I'm also enjoying thoroughly about now is the fact that classics like Planescape Torment are now uber cheap and being revisited and updated/revised for modern systems. And will turn up in the occasional bundle for the price of a coffee and sandwich. Which is why I jumped at the chance to add it to my system again recently and it's just as good as I remember. A fascinating world, fantastic sidekicks and a starting hero that was so different to most if not all RPGs on the market at the time. What was not to love then and now? (51/200)

174 LEFT FOR DEAD 2 - I did have this for the Xbox 360 but I forget how it came to be in my collection. Picked up for not much at a garage sale? Found in a bargain bin? Magically spawned in my collection one afternoon? Regardless, it's a fun rapid paced zombie blaster though and highly enjoyable if all you want to do is spend an afternoon shooting up the undead. (52/200)

175 TRON 2.0 - I know the film was of my era (1982) but full confession, I've never seen it. Well not in full, I've probably passed part of it on a TV screen somewhere. Which means my interest in a Tron related game is...well...equally limited.

176 AGE OF EMPIRES 2: THE AGE OF KINGS - While it's been an age (pun intended) since I last played it, it's so easy to recall all the highlights of this classic. The priests and their weird conversion noises, the catapults and trebuchets, the devastating Hoplites and the cannon towers. And then the hordes of your army sweeping forth to destroying anything and everything in its path. Amazing. (53/200)

177 JET SET WILLY - The UK's best selling video game of 1984. Which I missed being 4 at the time and also living in a Australia. 

A tired Miner Willy has to tidy up all the items left around his house after a huge party. With this done, his housekeeper Maria will let him go to bed. Willy's mansion was bought with the wealth obtained from his adventures in Manic Miner, but much of it remains unexplored and it appears to be full of strange creatures, possibly a result of the previous (missing) owner's experiments. Willy must explore the enormous mansion and its grounds (including a beach and a yacht) to fully tidy up the house so he can get some much-needed sleep.

Maria should have let him sleep in the first place and then cleaning would be far easier!

178 ELITE - 80's space trading sim that kicked off one of the longest ever game franchises. Doesn't ring a bell for me though sadly.

179 WIZBALL - Was this inspired by Pinball Wizard? Er no. It's a late 80's shoot em up involving a wizard and a cat trying to regain stolen colors? The great news is, if that's the most appealing sentence you'll ever read all day then you can grab Wizball and try out this madness yourself thanks to it's abandonware status.

180 PANZER DRAGOON SAGA - Okay, my mind's hit a few speed bumps with this one. I vaguely recall the name from the late 80's/early 90's reading something about it in one of the PC mags of the time (such as Electronic Gaming Monthly) however further investigation tells me it's late 90s and one of the greatest games ever on the Sega Saturn.
And looking at screenshots, I know I definitely haven't played this one.

So what game was I thinking of then??

181 BORDERLANDS 2: TINY TINA'S ASSAULT ON DRAGON KEEP - This one is incredibly specific as it's a DLC adventure for an already vast game and if you haven't got the Game Of The Year version of Borderlands 2 or bought the bonus stuff for it, you may not even be aware of it. I have played all of sixty seconds of Tiny Tina's Assault due to one simply fact: My character at the time was so low level, he was getting wiped out by the first enemy (in this case Skeletons) that popped up. So I'm going to need a lot more levelling to even think of taking this on again.

But hey, at least I can say I played it. (54/200)

182 METAL GEAR SOLID - It helped revolutionize the stealth genre and you could also pretend to be a box! What's not to love about this series opener from 1998? Good choice Hyper! (55/200)

183 FINAL FANTASY 6 - I had one of them on the PSX (a possibly bootleg from Bali) and another on the PS2 and although I can't remember the numbers, they definitely weren't this Super Nintendo version that Hyper's raving about.

184 ICO - I've read why Hyper has included this one in their list, I've looked at the one and only picture in the magazine, I'm still not exactly sure what this 2001 PS2 game is actually about..

185 PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS - Inspired by the Battle Royale films and has made billions of dollars on mobile downloads alone. Whoever Playerunknown is (no wait, I looked his name is Brendan Greene) he's done exceptionally well for himself. 

186 PUZZLE BOBBLE - Once upon a time this game was so big, there were arcades in Russell Street Melbourne with lines of these arcade machines so everyone could get a spin (this and Street Fighter Turbo versions which were hilarious fun.) What a lot of people didn't know was that these particular arcades were also great places to meet local heroin dealers. Maybe they enjoyed playing Puzzle Bobble too? (56/200)

187 RAINBOW ISLANDS - Well you've got me there, how could I pass up a game with the word rainbow in it? Yet somehow I did...

188 TEMPEST 2000 - Terrible rave event you'd rather forget complete with some vitamin e's, thumping Prodigy and Phat pants? Actually it was a game for the Atari Jaguar.

Wait, the what?

Who in the hell owned an Atari Jaguar???? Again Hyper Magazine you're really make this painfully difficult to get anywhere close to completing this must play list when you put games like this in there. Because to buy a Jaguar to play this here in Australia, you're looking at around $400 AUD in 2021 prices. And that's just the console alone, god only knows what a copy of Tempest 2000 will set you back. 

Feel free to comment if you actually owned an Atari Jaguar back in the day - it's doubtful there were many of you.. 

189 COMMAND & CONQUER RED ALERT - Ha ha yes, this and Tiberian Sun. God this takes me back to high school days where everyone was mad about the C&C series and it was huge hit in internet cafes where for $10 an hour you could play this to your hearts content or use the internet to talk smack in various chat rooms. This was also the time I first saw an ad for Sausage Software which later led to.. (57/200)

190 INDIANA JONES & THE FATE OF ATLANTIS - Point and click Indy from 1992. While I haven't played this, I did give Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade a spin back in my Sega Master System days. Graphics weren't great (it was an early Sega game after all) but I don't recall it being hilariously awful..

191 SUPER STREET FIGHTER TURBO - Now this one is a tricky one because the magazine is referring to the version that had a turbo speed button. However the Super Street Fighter Turbo version that I and many old school arcade players probably remember more is the (possibly broken) turbo version where everything...well everything went sideways. You could change characters by hitting the start button. Fireballs would come out at turbo speed in multiples of three. You could walk on air at times and jump through the roof and pop up through the floor. It was completely bonkers.

Oh wait, someone else knows what I'm talking about! It's the modified 'Rainbow edition' and it's just as mental as I remember!  

So it's a yes to the turbo version and the loopy Rainbow edition! (58/200)

192 ULTIMA IV: QUEST OF THE AVATAR - Much to the chagrin of my brother at the time (sorry Guy) I played this a lot on the Sega Master System, effectively hogging the console for hours on end. So many orcs in the forest died by my hands. So many antidote potions were whipped up for when my party ventured into swamps. One of my first deep dives into the world of RPG games and first foray into the world of Lord British and his series. How I'd love this to be modernized again for 2021 times (there are those happy with the old graphics but I'm not one of them.) Great memories though. (59/200)

193 GOD HAND - Hardcore gaming mixed with comic relief. Sounds like a hoot but the furthest I ever got to this one was seeing the posters of the punk getting his face rearranged by one hell of a punch.

194 DIABLO II: LORD OF DESTRUCTION - A massive shout out to my old housemate Doc who had this on his PC and set up surround sound in the lounge so you could play Diablo 2 in the dark and get freaked out by the sound of everything racing towards you. Add in a cold can of Woodstock and Cola and off we went!

I loved it then, I still play it on occasion now. For me as good as the third looks and feels, there's just something magical about this one and with so many mods and unofficial add on's as well as a dedicated community, the love for D2 isn't about to wane anytime soon.

Especially now with Diablo 2 Resurrected coming out next month.. (60/200)

195 DARK SOULS - Haven't played it but am well aware of it's notorious difficult. From here on in anything labelled 'Dark Souls levels of Hard' means I'm probably not keen on trying it. 

196 FUGITIVE HUNTER: WAR ON TERROR - Funnily enough this one only make the list for the fact that it is one of the world's worst efforts in video gaming, unless you're a mad flag waving citizen of wherever with a rabid like intense hate for anything from the Middle East.

In which case you'll probably think it's brilliant.

I am very thankful I haven't played this then.. 

197 SIMCITY - My towns caught on fire a lot. The roads fell to pieces because I took from the roads budget. I had a train running from the town to the power plant and then the dump. Don't get me started when I used the FUNDS cheat and the place was wracked by earthquakes.

Brilliant at the time and went on to inspire so many others. Well done Sid Meier and the Sim Team! (61/200)

198 PITFALL! - Another of those arcade titles that would end up in various pubs across the country (see also: Galaga) and when mum and dad wanted some peace and a quiet drink, they'd throw us a couple of coins and off we'd go.. (62/200)

199 PORTAL 2 - Look, I admitted I hadn't played the first okay? Now you've made it worse by me revealing I wasn't aware there was even a second one out there...

200 WII SPORTS RESORT - The follow up to Wii Sports. Now you can throw Frisbee, do sword play and even take a canoe out for a spin. Thanks but I think I'll stick to the bowling in the first one..

So after deep diving into 200 games, I've surfaced again with a score of 61 out of 200 played or 30% of the list tried. However all of these game recollections have suddenly made me remember something involving this one: 

147. DEFENDER OF THE CROWN - I was all of 6 years old when this came on the scene and while I missed it back then, undoubtedly I have gone on to play many a game inspired by it..

It turns out I have played Defender of the Crown, thanks to a family friend in South Australia decades ago! Because I remember my brief try at jousting and managing to hit the poor oncoming horse with my jousting stick. Sorry horse :( But it does mean:

62 games out of 200 played! (31%)

How did you go? Let me know in a comment below!

But wait, there's more! There's a few games I'm very surprised did not make the cut. So up next, we explore the games that I felt should have deserved a spot in this must play list and those that could have come awfully close.