Action Video Games Bucket List

Stilwater and a gang war played straight, two years before the series worked out it was a comedy.

Jason and Lucia across Leonida, the state Vice City sits in, due on 19 November 2026.

The Boss wakes up in a prison hospital and takes Stilwater back, with the whole story playable in co-op.

The Boss is President of the United States, then a prisoner in a simulated Steelport with superpowers.

The same tiny squads sent into space and back through history, with the graveyard on the hill still filling up.

Four campaigns that cross each other at set points; the furthest the series ever went towards action.

A reboot in the desert city of Santo Ileso, with a start-up gang run out of a converted church.

Costa Rica in 1974, a mother base to staff by kidnapping soldiers, and bosses built for two players.

The slide, Rush the robot dog and eight more masters, then the doc robot rematches.

A neon VHS 1980s with Michael Biehn narrating; the standalone joke that outlived the game around it.

Rico Rodriguez topples San Esperito by stepping off one moving car onto another, with a parachute that never packs away.

Richter Belmont, branching stages and Maria as a second character; the PC Engine game the West never got.

Three playable hunters, a demon tree through a British city and an arm you swap out for a rocket.

Solis, where a tornado crosses the map and lifts whatever Rico has not already blown up.

Medici, an unlimited supply of grappling tethers and a wingsuit you are not obliged to land.

Ezio in Constantinople as an old man, closing his own story and finally Altair.

47 leaves the asylum for Hong Kong and Budapest, with no saves and a garrotte; the series working itself out.

Dante against his brother up a tower, with four switchable combat styles; the template the genre still uses.

Getaway jobs in a 1970s San Francisco, behind a car-park tutorial that stopped thousands of people playing.

The 1986 original remade, plus an escape sequence without a suit.

El Dorado, a jungle island and the series finding its footing.

Venice, the Great Wall and a dagger in a dragon; Lara at her most confident.

Soul-stealing in 2035, and the GBA Metroidvania fans rate highest.