You changed me! (pt.1)

A stand out title that I still play today. Back when it was released it was summative of the creative tide of inspiration that was the next generation of its day on the Dreamcast.

The sheer scale of what Suzuki wanted to achieve in Shenmue still blows me away. Simply awesome. Stand out music composition and environment design. Yu Suzuki is a true visionary.

It's hard to sum up just how breathtaking this game was in it's day. Long before DVD games this title spanned 4 cds. The first of which notably given away as covermount by the Official Sega Saturn Magazine here in the UK! Everything about this game is epic. I also like the rail shooters like Zwei too - but this deserves mention here.

The BEST 2D multiplayer game ever. Crank this up today up to 10 players will be instantly addicted. It is appreciating with age too - thanks in part to Hudson for thrashing the IP into the ground with terrible "3d" remakes.

So much more than a precursor to metal gear. Despite never being released in the west this title holds it's own as a formiddable attempt at telling an epic story.

Yuzo Koshiro - you took video game audio to the next level, long before the advent of red book audio. The fruit of your labour - even on the Yamaha YM2612 on the megadrive blew me away and made me realised I wanted to write music for games when I grew up. Even if it's not your genre - his work on games such such as ROTS show what could be achieved even when you only had the ram for motifs.

Epic 2D beat-em-up with RPG elements. 6 Player via multitap. The most vibrant 2d side scroller fighter you could ever play. Has a great atmosphere - the kind you only get when you can feel the game has been a labour of love for the developers.

There are many other great RPG's on the Sega hardware - but this is the game that introduced me to them. Before PDS and the rest, this game was the first I wanted to play through again immediately to get one of the alternative endings. A captivating game, often overlooked today.

Just seeing this game running caused me to go out and buy an import unit. Took 2d visuals to the next level. Commands a justifiably high price tag on the electronic bay too.

My favorite DC shooter - great gameplay, with novel mechanics that turn difficulty settings on their head - quite literally! Play this today and people assume it's an xbox game! It looks that good.

I still own the cart for this for my old MVS cabinet. My favorite side scroller arcade title which just oozes simple addictive gameplay with some of the most detailed artwork of any game of the time. Still massive today.

Take any shoot em up, and turn it inside out. Serious? Techno / Metal music? None of the above! Even the PAL release has the highest WTF/per second rating for anyone playing this game for the first time. Great fun.

As embarrasing as it sounds, I love this game. Music, interactivity and gameplay don't get much more integrated than this, in fact I defy someone to play this game and not at least appreciate it on some level. Regardless of its presentation - it's a gem. And has been making cheerleader superheroes trendy for a lot longer than "Heroes" has!

It changed online war FPS forever, establishing a mould that many set out to break but never succeed. Yes there were earlier iterations, but none created such a wind of change.

Masato Nakamura - You defined a generation with your audio in these first two games. I doubt anyone on here cant recal some part of the Sonic audio design / music. There really was no game like this in 1991 - competitors looked bland and fell to the wayside.

The original port of the 1995 arcade title to SATURN was flawless. (Not PS2 or DC versions as stated) Everything was perfect - gameplay, audio - and even splitscreen with cinematic replays (one of the first titles to do this well) a great conversion which for 2 years was the best racer on any platform. Game Over Yeaaah!!