Somersault past robots, search furniture, "another visitor; stay a while, stay forever".
Harvest spice, build a base, click and drag; the game that defined the real-time strategy.
Two brothers punch their way across the city for one kidnapped girlfriend.
Split-screen racing through fog, night and desert; the Amiga two-player staple.
A boy in a football helmet with a pogo stick; the smooth scrolling that started id.
The Genesis Sonic made by fans, officially; the best Sonic since 1994.
An 8-bit knight with a shovel; the retro platformer done right.
The Nokia 3310 game everyone played in 1999.
Dogfights against the Kilrathi and a branching campaign; Chris Roberts in 1990.
Left click, right click, guess on the last square; the Windows game of every office.
Fly for the Empire; the best space combat sim, from 1994.
Sixteen levels under Tristram's cathedral; the click-and-loot game begins.
Base building, research and squads that die in the dark; the 1994 original of the tactics genre.
An island of puzzles and books that are doorways; the best-selling PC game of the 1990s.
Lara Croft in Peru, the T. rex in the valley and a whole new kind of hero.
Four fighters, a Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack and two-player co-op; the best beat-em-up of its era.
Samus Aran on Zebes, and the reveal at the end; the first half of Metroidvania.
Digitised fighters and fatalities; the game that created the ESRB.
The Facility, the watch menu and four-player split-screen; the N64 shooter that changed consoles.
Sixty minutes to save the princess, rotoscoped animation and the first cinematic platformer.
A purple dragon glides through pastel worlds; Insomniac's first hit.
Guybrush hunts the treasure of Big Whoop; the sequel with the ending fans still argue about.
Zone, tax, build a stadium and watch it burn; the city builder that defined the genre.
Guide a hundred green-haired creatures to the exit by giving them jobs; the DMA puzzle hit before GTA.
Strippers, pigs in cop uniforms and "it's time to kick ass"; the Build engine shooter.
A physicist teleported to an alien planet; Eric Chahi's wordless cinematic game.
Wumpa fruit and a marsupial running into the screen; Sony's answer to Mario.
The BFG, the imps and the shareware episode that ran on every office PC in 1993.
Cure Bloaty Head and Slack Tongue while the patients queue; Bullfrog's comedy management sim.
From a settler to Alpha Centauri, one more turn at a time; Sid Meier's masterpiece of 1996.
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