Classic Video Games Bucket List

Sega polygons in 1992, with a button to switch camera mid-race; the board that led to Daytona.

A co-driver reading pace notes ahead of the corner, and an Impreza sideways through a Corsican forest.

Six characters, a killer whale and the Dreamcast's launch.

One car, one stage, no assists and a rally school to teach the handbrake; still patched by its community.

Shao Kahn, better fatalities and the arcade cabinet everyone crowded.

Link shrinks to the size of a Picori; Capcom's handheld Zelda.

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

Regions, terraforming and a traffic simulation people still argue with.

The PlayStation 2 launch showcase: licence tests, replay cameras and 150 cars running at sixty frames.

Mode 7 tracks, a feather to hop the wall and a ghost of your own best lap; the kart racer that started it.

Desert, forest and mountain, each surface changing how the car sits; the 1995 arcade cabinet with the wheel.

Square and Nintendo together in 1996, with Geno and a timed-hit system.

Mode 7 at three hundred kilometres an hour with no weapons and no second chances; the SNES launch racer.

The mod platform that ran online leagues for a decade because anyone could build a car for it.

The two halves that lock together into one long game; the peak of Genesis Sonic.

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

Branching paths and three companions; the best of the NES Castlevanias.

Jet packs, polar bears and the best of the original trilogy.

Bayview to drive around between garages, with outrun challenges started at a set of lights.

Geoff Crammond simulates the 1994 Formula One season down to the setup sheet and the tyre wear.

A motorbike race where you swing a chain at the rider alongside you and take his bike when he falls.

The arcade-perfect one, and the last before the series went online.

Build a track out of loops and corkscrews, then watch the replay of the crash from six cameras.

One track learned by heart and a drift held on the brake; the PlayStation launch game that loaded into RAM.

Jumps that clear a city block and shortcuts hidden off every corner; Atari Games in the arcade and on the N64.

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

Garrett against a mechanist cult; more thieving, less undead.

Cars with wheels taller than the body, so they keep going upside down; Psygnosis at the end of the PlayStation.

Fifty years of one manufacturer in an evolution mode that starts in 1950; the most careful game in the series.

An Italian answer to Sega Rally on a 486, running in software before anyone had a 3D card.