Dreamcast 20 #13: Power Stone

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

Most fighting games tend to follow the same basic design: a one-on-one martial arts battle between two characters that follow along a one-dimensional plane. They move back and forth, with any two-dimensional side-step simply acting to re-align that linear plane. Fighting games that attempt more complex ranges of movement often struggle because they are more complicated to control. The first one that I ever played that successfully negotiated a fully three-dimensional range of movement was Power Stone, a Capcom fighter exclusively for Sega's arcade platform and the Dreamcast. It's a fantastic, frantic gem.

Dreamcast 20 #14: Skies of Arcadia

27 November 2018 marked the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games. This project's running behind, like much of this website, since we're at the actual anniversary and we're only up to game #14 in the countdown. Never mind - happy birthday to the Dreamcast.

No games console survives for long in Japan without some role-playing games (RPGs). Starting with Dragon Warriors and Final Fantasy on the Nintendo Famicom, they have always been a key part of a console's success - guaranteeing it hardware sales purely on the back of one or two key breakout titles. The Dreamcast didn't fare outrageously well when it came to RPGs, but it did manage a couple of highlights. One of them was definitely Skies of Arcadia.

Dreamcast 20 #15: Samba de Amigo

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

As I noted in an earlier review of Sega Bass Fishing 2, the Dreamcast was a console big on peripherals, with multiple titles making use of their own dedicated controllers. Samba de Amigo is another one. A charming rhythm action game, it's core appeal came in its own special extras: a pair of maracas.

Seriously, who doesn't want to play a smiling monkey shaking a pair of maracas in time with the music?

Dreamcast20 #16: Sonic Adventure

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

Sonic the Hedgehog is Sega' most famous and popular mascot character, so it's no surprise that one of the Dreamcast's first major releases would be a new Sonic videogame. Sonic Adventure was a bold attempt to advance the Sonic franchise in much the same way that Nintendo had transformed and updated Super Mario Bros with the 3D action-adventure title Super Mario 64. To be honest, Sega's attempt was only a partial success - but those bits that did succeed were a lot of fun to play.

Dreamcast20 #17: Sega Bass Fishing 2

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

I am not usually a fan of sports games, but in the case of Sega Bass Fishing and its sequel I found myself making a surprised exception. The first game was entertaining enough, but as is often the case the 2001 sequel added an impressive list of additional features that made it a richer and more appealing game. There was an expected tournament mode, but also a more relaxing free fishing mode that simply let the player go fishing in the location and style of their choice.

Dreamcast20 #18: Ikaruga

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

I am a huge fan of scrolling shoot-em-up games, in which the player controls a little spaceship shooting at a relentless swarm of enemy spaceships. I say this despite being absolutely terrible at playing them; once they get more frenzied than Galaga or Dragon Spirit (which swapped spaceships out for dragons), I am floundering. That aside, one of my absolute favourites is Ikaruga: an innovative shoot-em-up for arcades and the Dreamcast produced by the Japanese developer Treasure.

Dreamcast20 #19: Chu Chu Rocket

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

Some times the best videogames are the simple ones, and they often don't come simpler that puzzle games. Chu Chu Rocket. Conceptually it's pretty easy: there's a grid upon which a train of mice are walking in a straight direction. Also roaming the board are cats looking to eat the mice. The player can drop arrows onto the grid to change the direction of the mice and guide them into a rocket that allows them to safely escape. If they get on the rocket, the player wins. If they get eaten by cats, the player loses.

It's a simple enough concept, but it's all playing just a little too fast to handle. It rapidly becomes a frantic combination of strategy and twitch gaming as the player starts having to lay down paths in faster and faster ways and in more and more complex set-ups.

Dreamcast20 #20: Omikron: The Nomad Soul

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, Sega's final - and in my opinion the finest - home videogame console. Despite a range of excellent games, it simply failed to compete against Sony's PlayStation 2. To celebrate, The Angriest counts down its 20 best games.

In the alien city of Omikron, the player assumes the role of a police detective investigating a string of serial killings. When that detective is killed, however, the player begins a string of reincarnations from body to body while uncovering a supernatural war running out of sight for thousands of years.

Released in 2000 to decidedly mixed reviews, Omikron: The Nomad Soul was an adventure game with varied gameplay - some action, some puzzle-solving - with the original wrinkle of reincarnating the player's character as a different person each time they die. The universe created for the game is imaginative, and for 2000 it seemed like a pretty imaginative one.

An hour with Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010)

Reviewing videogames is often a challenge for me, because I absolutely suck at videogames and rarely finish one for months on end - if at all. It's a combination of incompetence and a short attention span, I guess. What if I just reviewed a bit of a videogame, though? What if I just spent an hour on it and then gave my thoughts on that? It seems a lot more feasible, and it's still going to give a solid critical impression - if a game has not grabbed you in 60 minutes, what are the odds of you playing further anyway?

Kirby's Epic Yarn is a 2010 platform game developed by HAL Laboratories and Good-Feel for Nintendo's Wii console. It features HAL's oddly enduring pink mascot Kirby, and is styled so that all of the characters look as if they have been made out lengths of colourful wool.

I describe Kirby as 'oddly enduring' because in all honesty I am not certain why the character has lasted as long as he has.

Lego The Lord of the Rings (2012)

So some years ago Lego started releasing construction toys based on the Star Wars films, and some years after that somebody had the bright idea of turning them into a videogame. Lego Star Wars was an unexpected delight, combining the appeal of both the science fiction movie franchise and the perennially popular Lego bricks into one package. Buoyed by success, the developer Traveller's Tales arguably went a little bit overboard, releasing such videogames as Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Harry Potter and Lego Marvel's The Avengers. To be honest there were only a certain number of trips to the well before the concept grew tired, and whatever number that was I am betting it was less than the number of Lego-branded games that have been released.

So in among all of these pop culture adaptations came Lego The Lord of the Rings, based on the three films directed by Peter Jackson. Like most of the Lego games it was released to multiple gaming platforms. I decided to sample the Nintendo 3DS version, since I have been enjoying using the console recently and had never tried a handheld version of a Lego game before.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007)

Following the adventures played out in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link and Tetra come across a ghost ship on the open ocean. Tetra boards the ship, which then vanishes. Link attempts to leap onto the ship at the last minute but fails; he wakes on an island and must begin the quest to track the ghost ship down and rescue Tetra.

The Phantom Hourglass is the fourteenth in Nintendo's long-running franchise of The Legend of Zelda videogames, and the first produced for their Nintendo DS handheld console. In broad terms it replicates the traditional story and gameplay of the Zelda franchise: Zelda (in this case a reincarnation named Tetra) has been kidnapped, and a young boy in green named Link must travel a fantasy kingdom and progress through a series of dungeons in order to rescue her.

N64:20 #1: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (1998)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

Some games are good, some are bad. Occasionally one comes along that is genuinely great, but even rarer still is the game that makes a real and lasting impact on your life. It creates fond memories of playing it, and discovering its world. It sticks in your mind for years after the fact. These are the games I treasure. They are generally either role-playing or adventure games: ones with a fictional world to explore, and characters to discover. They are games that require a significant investment of time, because they tell an actual story. They are not just fun to play, they have a real emotional effect.

There have been a bunch over the years for me. Secret of Mana. Shenmue. Red Dead Redemption. Harvest Moon. Of all of the games that have stuck with me over the years in this fashion, the best of them by a country mile is The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time.

N64:20 #2: Super Mario 64 (1996)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

Super Mario 64 was a launch title for the Nintendo 64, making its debut alongside the console itself on 23 June 1996. This was not an unexpected strategy: Nintendo had already found enormous success by launching their Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) with a Super Mario title alongside it. Super Mario 64 was a little different, however, since while Super Mario World marked a strong iterative improvement on earlier Mario titles, Super Mario 64 pretty much revolutionised an entire style of videogame.

N64:20 #3: GoldenEye 007 (1997)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

GoldenEye 007 is a remarkable game. For one thing it is a licensed title based on a feature film, and it does not suck. Even today, almost 20 years later, that is a rarity. For another thing it revolutionised the first-person shooter in multiple ways, making it not only a great game but a historically important one as well. Finally it was for many players - myself included - the best party game that the Nintendo 64 had. While four-player GoldenEye matches were generally an excuse for me to repeatedly get beaten by my much more talented friends, those matches remain some of my most fondly remembered gaming experiences. This is a legendary game.

N64:20 #4: Mario Kart 64 (1996)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

Mario Kart 64 was one of the key early titles for the Nintendo 64. It was released in late 1996 in Japan, and in the first half in 1997 in the rest of the world. It was a huge hit for Nintendo, shifting almost 10 million copies and becoming the console's second highest-selling game after Super Mario 64. I strongly suspect it was responsible for selling a lot of consoles by itself: it is a capable game for a solo player, but it came into its own with played with friends.

N64:20 #5: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

Nintendo's much-delayed The Legend of Zelda title The Ocarina of Time was a massive hit in 1998, selling 7.6 million copies worldwide and becoming pretty much the most universally acclaimed videogame of its year. Nintendo was keen to avoid another lengthy delay between sequels - there were seven years between A Link to the Past and Ocarina - and so rather than develop the next game from scratch, the graphics engine was re-used and a small team assembled to quickly produce an Ocarina sequel as quickly as possible. Thus Majora's Mask arrived only two years later, looking very much the same as its predecessor but with a new setting, an all-new story, and an original game mechanic that ensured it stood out very much on its own.

N64:20 #6: Space Station Silicon Valley (1998)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

In 1995 British game developer DMA Design signed a contract with distributor BMG Interactive to produce three videogames. One of these, the strategy game Tanktics, was fairly unsuccessful and sank without a trace. The second, Grand Theft Auto, sparked off one of the most successful videogame franchises of all time. The third was Space Station Silicon Valley which, like Tanktics, was a commercial failure. Unlike Tanktics, however, it was widely acclaimed by critics and has since become a strong cult favourite. There seems to be a special sub-set of Nintendo 64 players. They will start discussing their favourite games, one will mention Space Station Silicon Valley and the other player's eyes with just light up with delight - someone else who had the chance to play the game has been found.

N64:20 #7: Paper Mario (2000)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

One of the more surprising titles released for the Super Nintendo was the Nintendo/Squaresoft collaboration Super Mario RPG. It was an unexpected blend of the Super Mario Bros characters and the gameplay of a turn-based role-playing game (RPG). While Nintendo moved from the SNES to the Nintendo 64, Squaresoft did not. The developer jumped ship to produce videogames for the Sony PlayStation instead. As a follow-up to Super Mario RPG Nintendo teamed with second-party developer Intelligent Systems, who had produced the console's Fire Emblem franchise, which had been very popular in Japan.

N64:20 #8: Perfect Dark (2000)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

When Rare's first-person shooter GoldenEye 007 became an unexpected smash hit, the development studio fully expected to develop a second shooter based on the film sequel Tomorrow Never Dies. When Rare was outbid on the adaptation rights - and by a reportedly huge margin at that - the nascent sequel was taken back to the drawing board and redeveloped as an original science fiction game. That game was Perfect Dark.

N64:20 #9: Super Smash Bros (1999)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

When Nintendo announced that it was releasing a fighting game based around its various corporate characters it seemed a difficult announcement to believe. While fighting games had become a remarkably popular genre of videogame through such franchises as Street Fighter, Tekken and Virtua Fighter, that sort of game seemed fundamentally incompatible with the bright, child-friendly stable of Nintendo heroes include Mario and Luigi, Kirby and Pikachu. In typical Nintendo fashion, however, Super Smash Bros took the basic concept of the fighting game and then re-fashioned it into something distinctive, family-friendly and packed down to the bone with a charming Nintendo identity.