The Mega Drive entry: 1917 Europe, two playable hunters and a stage that walks up the leaning tower of Pisa.
Thirty-two hills and a World Cup, the whole flight steered with one mouse gesture; the DOS game every Polish computer ran through Malyszomania.
Time travel through four versions of every zone, and two soundtracks depending on where you bought it.
The whip finally aims in eight directions; the 1991 remake of the first game and its high point on the SNES.
Bounce a character up a tower that has no top, chaining multi-floor combos while the floors scroll faster; Swedish freeware from 2001 that lived on school computers.
Score a game, or write one chiptune track under the constraints of a real sound chip - three channels and a noise generator.
A cabinet with real buttons and a real stick, whether it holds an original board or a small computer running MAME.
Samus sent to exterminate the Metroids on their home planet, on a Game Boy screen with no map.
Norrath in 1999, where dying left your corpse and your gear where you fell and you had to walk back naked; still running.
Top-down and unforgiving since 1997: die and you lose experience, skills and part of what you were carrying.
Four players from four countries in one Dreamcast lobby in 2000, talking past the language barrier with a symbol chat.
Hand-painted 2D worlds and a difficulty curve that stopped a generation; Michel Ancel, 1995.
The same tiny squads sent into space and back through history, with the graveyard on the hill still filling up.
Sega launch the series on the Dreamcast in 1999 against a franchise EA had owned for five years.
Rogue send you back to ancient Rome and forward again across two episodes; the second mission pack.
The first of the series on the PlayStation, and the first squeezed onto a Game Boy.
Heihachi comes back and drops Kazuya into a volcano; the first Tekken people kept playing at home.
One button per limb, eight fighters and eight sub-bosses; Namco answer Virtua Fighter in 1994.
A prison ship crashes on Na Pali and the Skaarj hunt you out of it; the 1998 engine that ran for twenty years.
The 2007 build brought back by popular demand, where new content only ships if the players poll it through first.
Twelve missions a side on Draenor, with named heroes who stay dead if you lose them.
A monk, a hive of demon insects and two side dungeons; the 1997 expansion Blizzard did not make itself.
Rogue add turrets, tesla mines and a gravity well; the harder of the two Quake II packs.
EA rename their basketball line in 1994 and start counting; the first NBA Live, after the NBA Playoffs games.
Ryu tours ten fighters in 1987, on a cabinet whose two pressure pads read how hard you hit them.
Xatrix drop a second marine on Stroggos with an Ion Ripper and a Phalanx cannon.
Hipnotic add three episodes, a Mjolnir that arcs lightning and a proximity mine launcher; the first mission pack.
The 1995 original: four towns, a hero who carries an army between them and a week that ends when everyone has moved.
The slide, Rush the robot dog and eight more masters, then the doc robot rematches.
A hero with no arms or legs against a pirate occupation; the 3D platformer that made the leap cleanly.
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