white-zombie

It's gotta be SMB3

As far as I am concerned, if a game looks good, it looks good, even if the technology has been surpassed. When I first played Ridge Racer: R4 I was amazed by how good the graphics were, both cars and scenery, even if the way the game was put together was a bit naff (racing was fun, but the way the tournaments were staged was a pain). Super Castlevania 4 still looks great in my eyes, as does Zelda 3. Somewhat conversely, I think Starwing looks good, yet Stunt Race FX really shows its age. Gunstar Heroes/Quackshot: still very nice to look at. For what it's worth, I always thought Wipeout was ugly, and far too grey, though Wipeout 2097 still looks amazing today, thanks to the speed, detail, oh, and all that neon!

The reason I bought an N64, trading in my Playstation in the process, was for Ocarina of Time, I was most disappointed. Within about a year I wished I'd stuck with the Playstation. I've also played Gunstar Heroes for the first time recently, and it is very good, though I dunno if it would be in my top games. Replayed Streets of Rage 2 as well, and it's enjoyable, though harder than I remember it being!Unless I completed it on easy first time around

Oh, Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive was good also. I played Super Metroid and Actraiser via Snes9x and they were both very good. Does anyone know what the hell the name Actraiser means? For some reason, whilst I enjoyed Mario 64 and Metal Gear Solid, they didn't change my life. Ocarina of Time, I just couldn't get into.

Castlevania on the NES, the bosses were just insane, especially Death. Had a hard time beating it via emulator and saving after every time I hit him. Devil May Cry (PS2) is REALLY REALLY annoying me, as the last meeting with Nightmare keeps getting the better of me due to shitty camera angles and cheap shots, have come so close many times, but had to give up for fear of breaking the joypad. Super Probotector/Contra III on the SNES was a real pain, and again, that was defeated with an emulator. Managed to complete it though, which is more than I can say for my next choice. As someone already mentioned, Super Ghouls and Ghosts is insane. Again, via n emulator I barely get passed the first level before giving up.

As it says on the tin, discuss. Reading the post about the completion of the Zelda III: A Link tto he Past, I was gonna ask what everyone's favourite Zelda game was, but decided to ask this broader question instead. So here are my picks: 8 bit I didn't play much in the way of 8 bit games, but having played Super Mario Bros. 3 as part of Super Mario All-Stars, Im gonna go with that, for the NES. 16 bit Undoubtedly Zelda III (SNES). Special mention must go to Super Castlevania IV (SNES), Quackshot (MD/Genesis), and Starwing (SNES), however. 32/64 bit Probably Gran Turismo 1 & 2 on the PSone, but it could well be one of the following: Doom (PSone), i only ever played this version, and it blew me away, and creeped me out. Tekken 2/3, utterly brilliant. Silent Hill, so atmospheric and downright terrifying. Tomb Raider 2, I much preferred this to the original, as there weren't any "bang your head against the wall in frustration" puzzles.

Here's another: www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk

I feel that there should be some Sega consoles in the list, perhaps the Mega Drive/Genesis and the Dreamcast should be in here somewhere, but can't think of enough reason to!? Perhaps the Dreamcast for being the first 128-bit console, and being the first to offer online world wide online play (I think the SNES got there first in Japan with Satellaview?!), and for being, on paper, Sega's best console, and yet their last?

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of listing the PS2, but wasn't sure that it qualified, as I can't think of enough things that it did significantly differently/better, than what had gone before. Granted, there are many original games on the system, and it took the next step it terms of 3D graphics and interactivity, but I can't think of anything new that it did, really. It is the best selling console of all time, and it did have such games as the GTA series, Resident Evil 4, the Guitar Hero series, the Final Fantasy series, Shadow of the Colossus. However, whilst it had the Dual-Shock controllers with analogue sticks, the N64 got there the previous generation with the N64 (though Namco released the Neg-Con for PS1 before this), and it had an Ethernet port for Internet access, and a slot to expand with a HD drive, it could play DVDs out of the box, there isn't one single thing it does that shouts 'I did this way before anyone else'. Having said that, have I just completely lost my own argument with the list I made, above!?

Hi All, I see a lot of lists of the "best/most importand videogames", but not that much in relation to the "best/most important consoles". I've read one list recently, which I can't find at the moment, but nevertheless, I thought I'd ask you guys. Which consoles had a major impact on the way we look at videogames, and changed things for everything that followed. In no particular order, I'd say: NES After the videogame crash of the early 80's, I guess you could say it relaunched videogaming!? SNES Surely it has the highest concentration of quality games of any console (OK, perhaps not compared to the Neo-Geo, but when you're paying £200+ a cart, you expect a game to be good). In addition, Nintendo squeezed more and more out of this console as time went by. Who would have dreamed that you'd see games like Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Country, Doom and Starwing, when the console first launched. Playstation Not only the first console to break the 100,000,000 units marker, and in doing so truly bringing videogames to the masses, but the first console to really manage realistic 3D environments (surely you can't compare Atari Jaguar/3DO games to the likes of Ridge Racer?). It introduced original and often ground-breaking franchises such as Resident Evil, Tome Raider, Parappa the Rapper, Silent Hill, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid (ok, this harks back to the 80's, but it was the first MG game in 3D), Gran Turismo. In addition, it pretty much managed to outlive the N64 which was released like two-years after it. Also, given that it had practically zero first party software experience, the fact that it managed to host so many amazing games is a feat in itself. Wii It may be too early too tell, but I'm putting this in here purely for the fact that it shunned the numbers games that Sony and Microsoft were playing, as Nintendo knew they obviously couldn't win it, and instead did what they do best and went on to innovate, and introduced a new level of interaction in their games. Like Sony did with the PS1, it seems to have attracted interest from people who would not normally have been interested in playing videogames. What do you think?

Thanks for the response triverse, hopefully we'll get some more people agreeing with me, and some more input. In all honesty, Quackshot was my favourite MD game, period.

Of all games that can be considered 'retro', which are the ones still stand up to being played today. I'll list some of the games that I've experienced for the first time that I enjoyed, along with the ones that I played years ago, and came back to again, which I still though were awesome. Played for the first time: Actraiser (SNES) Super Metroid (SNES) Axelay (SNES) Super Empire Strikes Back (SNES) Gunstar Heroes (MD) Silent Hill (PS1) Resident Evil 2 (PS1) Gran Turismo 2 (PS1) Games which are still awesome Zelda III: A Link to the Past (SNES) Super Castlevania IV (SNES) Starwing (SNES) Super Marip Bros. 3 (SNES, via Super Mario Allstars) Quackshot (MD) Gran Turismo (PS1) Tekken 2 (PS1) Tekken 3 (PS1) Doom (PS1) Sonic 2 (MD, I think, though it's been a while) Streets of Rage 2 (MD, maybe!?)

Funny you should mention this, but this has been at the back of my mind for a while. When I had my SNES at Christmas '94, I was listening to Nirvana - Unplugged in New York. When I bought my N64, circa '96, I was listening to Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains. Dunno what I was listening to when I bought my Mega Drive or Playstation 1 though!?

Agreed, they'd be daft to do so, but I'd love it if they could find a niche in the market, on a large scale and fill it. For arguments sake, I still kinda yearn for arcade perfect conversions of yesterday's arcade games. Now that the home systems have caught up with with what's on offer in the arcade (correct me if I'm wrong, but surely one of the reasons that arcade games are no longer big business is the fact that the technology was not far enough ahead of what people could play at home), I'd love to see a situation similar to the mid-90's where Sega were releasing home conversions of their arcade hits, only that they were the exact same quality of the arcade-titles, just with perhaps a 6 month delay. Whilst the march of technology would mean that the arcade machines would obviously advance at a rate that would mean the console would be outshone after a couple of years, I think it's a nice idea. We can but dream.

I found Super Castlevania IV on the SNES to be very atmospheric, but not scary. Playing the PS1 Doom conversion was crap scary, as much due to the sound as anything, all low rumbles and screams, shrieks and animal cries in the background. I guess Resident Evil 2 was jumpy in parts. Agreed with regard to Silent Hill on PS1, I only played it last year, for the first time, and it's still the scarier than any game/film that I've ever experienced.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) I'm probably gonna get shot down for this, but I played Legend Zelda: Ocarina of Time for a few weeks, and just couldn't get into it. I was so enthralled by A Link to the Past that I bought an N64 mainly to play Ocarina, but I just couldn't really get anywhere, and gave up in the end. I really wanted to like it, but didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did A Link to the Past. I can't really think of any other games that have really appealed to me that I've never played tbh. Hi everyone btw, I'm new here