1990's Games - Spyro the Dragon

Spyro was released for the playstation in 1998 to great reviews. It was the first of a host of series featuring the popular character Spyro who still has games made featuring him; it made him one of the most recognizable playstation characters to date. It was one of the first full 3D platformers to be well received.

Gameplay leaves the player in control of the dragon Spyro, you start off with limited abilities that include jumping and an attack. You gain further abilities later in the game to either progress the story or to be purchased using Gems. The game progresses through home worlds which lead to different levels that require completion through different goals (such as unlocking dragons or getting a certain amount of gems). Players with their abilities can glide between ledges or run faster, or breathe fire.

The story is about a bad guy, Gnorc, being slighted in a dragon news report as not being much of a threat. He then takes matters into his own hands and castes a spell trapping all of the dragons in a spell that turns them to crystal. The only dragon who survives is Spyro due to his small size. He then has to travel between each world unleashing the dragons and saving them one by one.

The game is one that rewards players that explore each of the areas and unlock everything, finding every single piece of gem and killing all of the enemies. If the player completes everything, collects all the gems and rescues all of the dragons then an alternate ending of the game is shown.

The game is varied, fun and vibrant; the unlocking of abilities throughout the game rather than having all presented at the beginning gives the player extra options and enjoyment throughout the game, allowing them to enjoy it more. Going back to previous levels is possible with the new abilities to get to previous treasure you could not reach.

1990's Games - Oddworld: Abe's Odessey

Abe’s Oddysee is acclaimed as one of the best Platform games ever created for the Playstation, PC and Gameboy. Its unique setting, dark humour and twisted storyline draws people into an interactive world full of puzzles, hilarity and death defying moments. The purpose built game engine for the game was acclaimed for its lifelike AI and situations. The art and dark graphical concept only highlight the plot and characters.

Gameplay takes the form of controlling the Character Abe through his journey across the 2D platformer. The player, upon reaching the edge of one screen, is taken to a new screen meaning that each screen can take up and form their own little puzzles and feels as if each one is its own segregated level. The player can talk to other Mudokons (Abe’s race) and have them follow him in his escape, or aid him in doing things. He can roll, jump and pull levers. The game requires the player to think through the situations they’re presented with and the best way to get around them; one might require the player to stick to the shadows while another requires the player to move at the right time when the enemies back is turned.

The story is based upon Abe’s escape from the Rupture Farms meat processing plant in which he works after he overhears a conversation while performing his janitor duties. He learns that the new meat that the company plans on selling is actually Mudokon meat. Abe decides that he’s had enough and you’re to aid him in his escape, while attempting to save as many other Mudokon’s along the way.

The graphics and cut scenes especially are great for the game, the art style and design really draws you into the dark and grimy factory world the designers have created. The controls, while simple, allow a lot of freedom in the types of tasks required of the players that, though may be the same type of activity, the different situations make feel more dynamic as the story continues.

The interactivity of solving each puzzle to move forward, or the often hilarious conversations between other Mudokons that seem more funny as the game continues, has the player exploring the different options available and has them thinking about different ways of using their abilities to pass the different situations.

Overall the game has a fantastic story, amazing visuals and cut scenes and the dark humour only seems to add to the terribly dark setting that brings this game into the league of classics that has you wanting to play just a little bit more until the next checkpoint.

1990's Games - Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the hedgehog was one of the flagship games for the Sega Genesis released in 1991, the game singlehandedly propelled the video game system to the forerunner of systems at the time. It is the first instalment of a game series that is still continued today, which spans from the first 16bit game to 3D graphics and Xbox Kinect controls, including many spin-offs such as TV Series, Movies and other games including characters from the spin-offs.

The story of Sonic is a key part of the game and the reasons as to why the player is playing the game and the reason as to why Sonic is performing the actions he is. This is very different to earlier games and was one of its key selling points.

Early in the game the player is introduced to the main bad guy, Doctor Robotnik/Eggman who is attempting to capture the Chaos Emeralds and control the islands by enslaving the animal populace and turning them into robotic creatures. Sonic’s job is to stop the evil Eggman and free the creatures he has enslaved.

The player has a multiple of controls at their disposal which is different to the earlier games who offered limited choices. Sonic could move left and right, jump, duck and also spin. The player’s task was to get from one end of a “zone” (level) to the next while collecting as many rings as possible while also in the shortest amount of time. The player has to avoid traps such as spikes and water, along with the robotic creations of Eggman which the player can destroy by jumping on them. At the end of three levels the player would have to face Eggman in a boss type battle, once completed they’d move on to a different area (The first three levels are based around a forest, one set of three levels a technological area and so forth).

The game as a vey clear end game which includes the defeat of Doctor Eggman. While travelling through each of the levels it is possible to collect all the Chaos Emeralds for yourself; upon doing so you unlock super Sonic who is faster and harder to kill. While it is possible to reach the end of the game due to its length is is very hard to do so in one sitting, and due to the nature of the games in their early stages it was impossible to save your progress. It meant that you’d have to play the game for many hours straight to complete it; while hoping you don’t die and have to start all over again. This created a difficult game which pushed the player to do better and better each time they played.

Sonic was the start of one of the biggest and best selling game franchises to date, with over a dozen games, multiple characters and many different video game systems; sonic is a classic that as kept children entertained from the 1990s through to 2011.

1980's Games - Pacman

Pacman

Pac-Man was created by Namco and distributed by Midway in the US. The game is one of the highest grossing game of all time having grossed $2.5Billion in quarters by 1990. It has become one of the most famous games and is one of only three games on display at the Smithsonian in Washington DC (along with Pong and Dragon’s Lair). The game is so widely known and referenced in popular culture that the game created a spin-off TV series and a top 10 single.

Players control Pac-man through a maze using the directional controls while avoiding the many ghosts that haunt the maze, if hit by a ghost you lose a life and must respawn. The aim of the game is to eat all of the dots within the maze without dying to the ghosts, gaining points as you do. The game can be difficult in the sense of having to get all the dots in the quickest time possible while avoiding the ghosts and getting all of the bonus spawns of fruit. There are certain dots that, once eaten, cause the ghosts to turn blue so that Pac-Man and eat them; making it easier for the player to complete the level.

There is no true storyline for the game save the situations that the play finds themselves within; for example the maze, the dots and the ghosts. How Pac-Man ended up within the maze, why he must eat the dots and why the maze is haunted is very much left in the dark and the player really doesn’t have any idea.

While the enemies movements within the game appear very random the designer of Pac-Man is quoted as creating each colour ghost as having its own personality and routine of movements; which many players have used to their advantage in high-score listing.

The game has no true ending, least it was not designed to, however a software bug causes the game to crash after 255 levels. This occurs due to the level counter being stored within a single byte and once reaching 255 tries to roll over to 256 causing the game to draw other things erroneously, creating a bugged screen for the level which players cannot pass; this level is infamously knowing as the “Split-Screen” level.

Pac-Man is once again a legend among gaming history and holds its own place within history, sealed with its inclusion within the Smithsonian in Washington DC. There is even a well known gaming rumour that President Regan sent a letter to an eight year old boy for reaching over 6Million points.

1980's Games - Frogger

Frogger

Frogger was one of the very early arcade games developed by Konami and released worldwide by
Sega and Gremlin. The game is a key example of addictive early arcade games and was, at the time, one of the earliest examples of games running upon more than one CPU.

The game was centred on the story of helping a group of frogs cross many dangerous situations, roads and rivers, to get to the other side. You played the role of each frog guiding their every move and leap. Once one frog makes the other side and is safe you move on to guiding the next frog. Once all are safe across the other side you switch to a harder level and start all over again; gaining points.

There is no true end to the game apart from death for the player, until it becomes too hard for them to carry on and lose too many lives. The true goal, in the end, is the gaining of points for how many frogs you get safe and how. Each level is also timed so that if you do not complete the level in the set amount of time you lose. The scores you gained throughout the game were saved into a high score list and held bragging rights for gaining the most points thus holding a competitive edge against other players.

The story offered very little in the way of plot and backstory. The player is thrust straight into the situation of controlling the first frog and guiding them across the road and while there is not much in the form of aid, the aim of the game is rather clear.

Guiding the frog across the busy road by using the four directional keys, as you avoided cars and bicycles, was and still is a difficult task in itself. The game rewarded timing and forethought in action and consequences. Jumping straight away may move you forward one spot, but if you waited a few seconds longer you could have jumped three spots in rapid succession and made the other side in quicker time.

The game was hailed at the time for its novel concept in game play and setting. The idea of controlling a frog and helping it home was very new at the time and is very abstract compared to other games of the period. The game also sported a two player mode in which players took it in turns to guide frogs across the road and river.

The game truly is one of the classic early games which h many people remember as one of their first and favourite games. It has led to many clones and an unofficial sequel by Sega. While the story is very, very simple the game play and addictiveness of such a simple game is undeniable and can captivate a player as they strive to “beat their last attempt”.

1970's Arcade - Space Invaders

Space Invaders 

Space invaders is considered by many as the forerunner to all modern games due to its innovations and popularity. It took video games beyond the realm of mild enthusiasts and turned it not only into a major pass time buy also business. By 1982 in the US it had grossed over $2Billion in quarters and its release in Japan caused a temporary shortage of 100-yen coins due to its popularity.

The game was so advanced for the time that the developer Tomohiro Nishikado spent over a year developing and designing the game; not only this but he also had to create and design custom hardware since hardware in Japan at the time was too primitive to run the game. The game was so popular that it has been parodied and referenced in popular culture many times.

The game is very similar to other arcade games at the time in terms of storyline. The game drops you straight into the action of the game and while it is very clear the goals you’re never quite sure why or how it all ever begun or would end. The only suggestion to storyline comes from the title itself in which you understand aliens are invading.

You control a cannon at the bottom of the screen using left and right to control the horizontal placement of the cannon while a third button controls firing the cannon. Each moment of the game rows of aliens above slowly move along and down, the aim of the game is to use the cannon and destroy the rows of aliens. There are bonus points for destroying special aliens that scroll across the top of the screen that requiring aiming through the rows of aliens below them. You are able to hide within four areas from the aliens own attacks against you, however these hiding places become destroyed over time. You lose a life every time your cannon is hit by the aliens. 

The game respawns the alien wave once you have destroyed them all, each time you respawn the aliens they move faster meaning you have less time to destroy the aliens before they reach you and end the game.

Space Invaders is more than a classic, it is a legend amongst arcade games, the precursor to many modern games and is held in such high regard that its references within popular culture, its success and addictiveness will forever seal its memory within the chronicles of video games.