Time travel through four versions of every zone, and two soundtracks depending on where you bought it.
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.
Fifty-four levels of a motorbike on rubber suspension, collecting apples and touching the flower without landing on your head; one Hungarian programmer, and a time-attack scene still going.
The whip finally aims in eight directions; the 1991 remake of the first game and its high point on the SNES.
Samus sent to exterminate the Metroids on their home planet, on a Game Boy screen with no map.
Sega launch the series on the Dreamcast in 1999 against a franchise EA had owned for five years.
Top-down and unforgiving since 1997: die and you lose experience, skills and part of what you were carrying.
Rogue send you back to ancient Rome and forward again across two episodes; the second mission pack.
Norrath in 1999, where dying left your corpse and your gear where you fell and you had to walk back naked; still running.
Four players from four countries in one Dreamcast lobby in 2000, talking past the language barrier with a symbol chat.
The first of the series on the PlayStation, and the first squeezed onto a Game Boy.
Hand-painted 2D worlds and a difficulty curve that stopped a generation; Michel Ancel, 1995.
The 2007 build brought back by popular demand, where new content only ships if the players poll it through first.
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.
Hipnotic add three episodes, a Mjolnir that arcs lightning and a proximity mine launcher; the first mission pack.
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.
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.
The same tiny squads sent into space and back through history, with the graveyard on the hill still filling up.
EA rename their basketball line in 1994 and start counting; the first NBA Live, after the NBA Playoffs games.
Rogue add turrets, tesla mines and a gravity well; the harder of the two Quake II packs.
GDI against the Brotherhood of Nod over tiberium, briefed by actors on video; Westwood, 1995.
Fly for the Rebellion in 1993, managing shields and laser power by keyboard; the sim TIE Fighter answers.
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.
Race for pink slips: lose and the other driver drives your car home.
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