Steve Bowden - 100 Computer Games to Play Before You Die

ONE HUNDRED IS a very small number. A tiny number, even, in the grand scheme of things. So just how do you go about condensing as wide-reaching an industry as the video-game trade into 100 game examples? With great difficulty.

Trying to narrow down the thousands upon thousands of games throughout the years to just 100 picks to play before you shuffle off this mortal coil depends largely on how you approach your selection. Do you choose the most important games through time the firsts, as it were or simply the best ones? The most popular titles or the under-appreciated experiences?

Balance is the key. This book is a mixture of all the above because theres no single definition good enough to satisfy all cases. Picking the 100 best games from history is going to result in multiple entries from a few long-running series such as the Mario titles and The Legend of Zelda. That would make for one dull read, which is why the entries that follow conform to a one-per-series rule unless said series has a few radically different gaming experiences living under the naming umbrella.

Listing only the groundbreaking titles, meanwhile, would mean including games which have no place in todays world. The truth is you dont need to play ancient titles like OXO, Tennis for Two or Spacewar! to gain a deeper appreciation for the industry. You can learn all you need to learn by watching them in action on YouTube. By and large, games are getting better every year. Not because of prettier graphics, but because large development teams and increasingly powerful hardware consistently deliver experiences never before possible. The games we play are wholly dependent on the hardware they run on, and, though there are plenty of standout exceptions ahead, better computers and consoles generally make for better games.

With that in mind, Im delighted to present a list of classics and modern hits, compiled to give any new gamer an exciting peek at the ever-evolving interactive entertainment industry. From the dependable greats to the quirky niche projects, these are the games you need to play before you die. And after the last one is finished there are thousands more gaming gems waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. The world of games is wide. It would be a shame to stop at 100.

Luckily, theres never been a better time to jump back into some of the older classics. Unlike movies and music, gamings dependence on hardware is total. When the hardware is replaced, so too are the games and, outside of illegal emulations, the majority of titles are forever lost to time. But the current generation has seen a retro revival of sorts, and ancient classics are being reworked and re-released on newer consoles. Sadly, there are still a few titles in this collection that will prove tough to track down, but the task would have been doubly hard just a few years ago prior to the launch of the Virtual Console, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade services.

So, whether youre about to embark on your first gaming adventures or youre a long-time gamer looking to revisit past conquests or discover new experiences, I wish you many happy gaming months ahead. Thank you for taking this journey with me. I hope you find what youre looking for.

Steve Bowden

Computer games are often ported to different platforms, but these ports can often be a bit iffy. I have endeavoured to suggest the best platform on which to play each game. In the event that the UK release date differed from the worldwide release date, the latter is indicated in brackets.

A TYPICAL DAY in Animal Crossing involves reading and replying to the mail, checking the town noticeboard for any new announcements, digging up some dinosaur fossils and donating them to the museum, stockpiling some wild fruit, a spot of fishing, perusing the local store to see what rare items they have in stock, running a few errands for the neighbours and grabbing a coffee from the caf for a chinwag with the waiter. A little work, a lot of play and ample opportunities for a quiet stroll: life in Animal Crossing sure is relaxing.

Wild World isnt a game about high scores or scoring goals or killing enemies. Its about living a day-to-day life, and in particular its about companionship. Socialising with others be they real friends over an internet connection or computer-controlled replacements takes precedence. There is no aim in Animal Crossing other than to have a good time, and if you can make a few friends along the way so much the better.

Earning bigger houses and landscaping your town to turn it into a paradise is a by-product of life in Animal Crossing. When you arrive in the hamlet, you have barely a bell (the games currency) in your pocket, but store owner Tom Nook gives you a home, a job and a uniform, the latter two to pay off the loan for the former. Its not long before youre planting flowers and pulling up weeds and bumping into all the residents.

The game randomly chooses a handful of animals to move into your town from a giant pool of potential neighbours. Sending them gifts, regularly visiting them for talks and contributing to the towns upkeep ensures that they stay happy; ignoring them tends to nark them off. Happy residents usually stay put, unhappy ones soon pack up their bits and move off to another town never to be seen again especially heartbreaking if its a resident you get on with and have tried to make feel welcome.

Because everybodys game is a completely different town filled with different animals, you can visit friends homes over the internet for new sights. The only way to buy certain items and find tropical fruit is by trading with other players, and, while you make those swaps, the game makes some of its own too. Days, weeks or months down the line its quite feasible that an ex-resident of a friends town will move to yours and vice versa, and in each instance theyll chat about memories of their life in the other game.

Its a wild world but it also feels like a real one. Clock and calendar synchronisation means life in Animal Crossing runs parallel to our own. During the day its either bright or rainy and the townsfolk are up; at night it grows dark and everybody goes to bed. In spring the town blossoms, in summer its tropical, in autumn the leaves begin to fall and in winter it snows.

Fishing and bug catching are two fun ways to pass the time, and both are entirely dependent on the clock. Bugs and creatures come out at certain times of the day on specific months. Anybody with aspirations of catching and donating them all to the museums living exhibitions needs to play the game regularly for at least a year, and even then at all times of the day, to stand a fair chance.

Every Saturday night the singing dog KK Slider visits the caf to play a song. Paying a visit unlocks the tune for your homes jukebox. Every Sunday Joan visits the town to sell some turnips. The game has a mini turnip stock market and the price fluctuates on a daily basis. It pays to buy cheap and sell high to make an easy wodge of bells. The veg spoils after a week, so its imperative to sell at the right time which could mean visiting a friends game to do so.

Fishing tournaments, bug hunts, acorn festivals, birthday celebrations, flea markets, firework nights and random visits from a cat with no face (who needs you to draw one on)