Classic Video Games Bucket List

EA rename their basketball line in 1994 and start counting; the first NBA Live, after the NBA Playoffs games.

Twelve missions a side on Draenor, with named heroes who stay dead if you lose them.

Three selectable fighting styles per character over a roster in the thirties; the last of the 2D Alphas.

Sega launch the series on the Dreamcast in 1999 against a franchise EA had owned for five years.

Norrath in 1999, where dying left your corpse and your gear where you fell and you had to walk back naked; still running.

Valve remake the Quake mod on the Half-Life engine in 1999, nine classes and concrete bases intact.

Rogue add turrets, tesla mines and a gravity well; the harder of the two Quake II packs.

Avalar, a talking guidebook and orbs earned from side quests; the sequel that added a reason to explore.

GDI against the Brotherhood of Nod over tiberium, briefed by actors on video; Westwood, 1995.

Roxas for the first hours, then Sora with drive forms; the combat that made the series worth defending.

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

Build your own party, then learn which world you have been walking around; the ending that ties the trilogy up.

The two-minute timer dropped for open parks where the pros skating beside you hand out the goals.

The series turns to polygons in 1997, with a weapon each fighter can draw, drop and lose.

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

Step off the board and walk, build your own skater and steal a car; the series turns into a story.

A hero with no arms or legs against a pirate occupation; the 3D platformer that made the leap cleanly.

The Conflux town of elementals, six campaigns and a random map generator worth more than any of them.

The same city seen by an adult magazine reporter, in the timeline Innocent Sin left behind.

Four more campaigns and a shelf of new artefacts bolted onto Heroes II by Cyberlore in 1997.

A lombax, a robot on his back and a catalogue of weapons to buy; Insomniac start the run in 2002.

A damage model that scratches the paint before it bends the panels, and a career that promotes you between championships.

RECS builds a fresh course out of a typed-in code, so the trilogy closes with a track generator.

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

The isometric 1993 original, the year EA bought the licence and the crowd was a single looping chant.

The 1995 original: four towns, a hero who carries an army between them and a week that ends when everyone has moved.

Occult SS experiments and the castle to escape again, this time on the Quake III engine.

The revert, so a vert line never has to end; Canada, Airport and a soundtrack led by Motorhead.

The other half of the linked pair, with a harp that moves Link between two eras of the same island.

The 1989 original: lay down three kinds of zone, watch the traffic, then send a monster through it.