BULLY: SCHOLARSHIP EDITION

The game is unique and skillfully made,I'll give them that. The story is cleverly built, the characters are well-outlined , though quite archetypal, and the narrative needs them to properly unfold. I understand trying new thing in games is a thing to aspire to, but I've never understood this kind of morally reprobate titles that some software houses simply excel at making. BULLY attracted a lot of attention for its concept and playability and its several re-released versions proved its grasp over players. But the question remains: who benefits from playing such a game? Whether you were bullied or a bully at school or a lone wolf who silently observed what was going on around them you feel pain upon playing  this game- very few people like reliving their high school days. If you're in high school and have already taken up a specific role at either side of this spectrum and you aspire to up the social ranks at school, this game can hardly be a training simulation for you. I guess it could  only be an interesting experience for girls who would like to try being a boy bullying and fighting other boys , making out with girls or boys, and doing what they want. Otherwise , no excuse can be made for fighting violence with violence.

I'll go and play some Mikie  on my good ole c64 right now for comparison.

QUANTUM MOVES

The first game I heard of that helped scientific research in a substantial way - this fact alone is enough to include it in the pantheon of unique games. Somebody in the scientific community realized the common man could help them build a quantum computer of tomorrow by playing a game more than several million of algorithm runs would. And when you realize that you contribute to the ever-lasting search for greater and faster computers by playing a game you simply feel proud to take part. And you're not alone in this endeavour -  some 150000 people played it over 8 million times.

You catch atoms in qubit's lattice moving the laser by moving the mouse sideways and determine the intensity of the laser firing atoms by moving it vertically. After  firing two atoms you merge them carefully without letting them "spill" over their final position too much. The "spilling" occurs whenever the energy is directed. This is just an awkward explanation of a man who spent his entire life around art and litterature, so I strongly recommend visiting this page to get to know the concept and the research behind the game and to play the game itself:
https://www.scienceathome.org/games/quantum-moves/game   

Knowing nothing about the concept behind the game  won't diminish the pleasure of playing it. It's a funny display of fine mouse manipulation skills that rewards the patient. You will find yourself drawn to the game and playing it for a few hours. The experience will demand another 2-3 tries at the game and that's it- you served your purpose.

I only wish there were more meaningful games like this.

BOTANICULA

Czech animation schools would always come up with the most mysterious ,wonderful ,intriguing and heavy animated  features of all the European studios. Europe's animation world is simply blessed by having amazing animators from this country. So to have such an extraordinary visual experience in a form of a game  coming from this country comes as no surprise. The visual aspect of the game is so otherworldly, refined, honest and delicate that you see life in all its glory unravel in front of you. A world worth living for and dying for, a world that  awakens your inner-child and makes you grateful for having somebody else out there realizing how precious life is.

The visual component and the exquisite audio accompaniment do overshadow everything else in this game, even though the playability is high. I heard a number of  people speaking about its low replay value, but I do think they're not being fair. After all, what other click-and-point adventure has ever had high replay value? It's about immersing yourself into this wonderful world, leading 5 botanical creatures trying to keep the last uninfected seed of their tree from parasites taking over their home, solving puzzles that  might border on  hard or illogical (just like life itself), collecting items and chosing what step to take at every point. Being directly involved in a changing world we are usually either unaware or oblivious of  makes us wonder what kind of  contribution we're making living inside those as oblivious giants. It's the same horrible feeling that  made me cringe at seeing other kids trying to destroy an ant colony or stretching rainworms.

We need titles like this , titles that spark  the immagination and deliver truths.

BEHOLDER

Surveillance State is old news in most of today's world , but the Russians were the first to openly deride it in their art, movies and culture, and so it's only befitting that they be the ones leading the pack when it came to games dealing with this subject.
I loved Papers,Please when it came out , but it was way too broad for my taste. I find  the ominously titled BEHOLDER game approaching the entire thing from a more interested angle. Being a landlord appointed by the State to record activities of all the tenants looking for traces of illegal behaviour you're given a choice- you can either blindfully obey your superiors and  tell on every single person or you can choose to turn a blind eye to what the tenants are doing.You can be friends with some and tell on others.Your finances  depend on your performance, so protecting the tenants might considerably affect your incurred expenses and lead to unsatisfied family needs and to ending your gaming session very early on,  You evesdrop on conversations with guests,peek through keyholes, search the apartments when tenants are away in search for illegal material, rob them of an item or two, or even plant illegal materials in their rooms only to tell on them later on. Anything you do seriously affects everything else. The navigation is simple and effective, and so is the music.
The player is faced with a myriad of moral dilemmas present in this day and age and that's what's most endearing about this title. Great art imitates life.

BEJEWELED 2

This is one of those legendary gems that come back to haunt you like ghosts in your gaming recollections. A guilty pleasure, yes. If you turn on a defunct pc machine lying around an old administrative or school office you are more than likely to find this title on it, Unlike Tetris,Sentris, Pang and other such shapes-bashing, tile-matching games,  Bejeweled 2 never gets anything but relaxing. Perfect casual cool for gamers and non-gamers alike. And player's view on whether this title is truly a game or not has absolutely nothing to do with it. The music is average but never gets unnerving, the graphics are beautiful and the backgrounds never get in the way; the puzzles are intricate while never getting too demanding; the playability is amazing; there are several different modes to keep you interested.
When you come home from work and want to blow off steam you will find yourself successfully doing so with this non-shooter game. Tried it today after a lousy day at work and it worked like a charm. College midterms all over again.  

you can play it online here:  
http://zone.msn.com/gameplayer/gameplayer.aspx?game=bejeweled2
or here:
http://www.popcap.com/sites/www.popcap.com/prettypkg/games/bejeweled2/flash/1033/bejeweled2.html

BAD MOJO

BAD MOJO is a Kafkian tale of an insect expert embezzling grant money to find himself  turned into a cockroach  by his mother's magic locket the minute he's about to flee his rented apartment and his current life.The locket-mother becomes an oracle guiding the roach through an astonishing world of  tubes, holes, fuses, appliances, furniture, carcasses of other roaches and small animals,oozes and leaks of various kinds and other wonderful features of a nasty old landlord's building and the bar beneath it.
The roach-you solves puzzle after puzzle  and is addressed by the oracle after unlocking each part of your quest until finally presented with a choice -to save the landlord or yourself or both (in which  a family reunion is in order).

Interactive movie games became one of my favourite genres the minute I found out about them in the 90s and I enjoyed playing each and every one of them (The Klingon Academy, The Ripper, Burn: Cycle etc). The reason I value this title more than others is that it took the bizarre elements and used them consciously moving away from the prevalent cyberpunk and  movie franchise tendencies of the day, thus creating a singular outing in the world of interactive movies. Highly recommended!

DOPE WARS / DRUGLORD ETC

Having retrieved my precious Pentium I from a local shop  in 1996 I found a version of this game installed by the shop owner. Around that time I played the likes of The Day of the Tentacle, Tomb Raider, Pandemonium etc and was blown away by the beauty of PC and Playstation graphics , so it comes as no surprise that I didn't like the game.Who would have endured a game that looked like an early version of Total Commander for Windows? It took me two years to sit down  and give it time in order to truly appreciate its magnitude .

Originally written in 1984, the game lived to see many versions and the fact that it is still being played around the world and is being constantly updated is a feat in itself, in addition to spawning a whole host of clones. Despite its sketchy and text-based form, it treats selling drugs as any other job , so it's practically a business strategy you're playing. You start with $2000 and $5500 in debt, you choose a city and play a turn. One turn includes a day's worth of  acquiring a quantity of drugs on offer and delivering them in your trenchcoat to a location you'll be selling them at. Different drugs are available for purchase at different locations in towns at different parts of a given day. Any action taken by the police, druglords, cartels, addicts, loan sharks or yourself changes the situation and affects your "business". As you move about you realise you're on edge all the time despite the fact that all the action and transactions are presented with simple pop-up text forms and a limited number of stagy voice samples. I've loved this game ever since.

You can find the list of all major versions of this game here:
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/PROGRAMS/DOORS/DOPEWARS/

PLACESPOTTING

What makes a  piece of music/art/ a video game genuine? We all have our own views and feel strongly in favour or against ideas that challenge the very notion of what a specific art form is. Is today's jazz "jazz"? Is crust punk better than California punk rock of the 90s? Should vaporwave stay in the realm of plunderphonics? Are superhero movies art?  Are retro games  the real thing and today's titles just a pale reflection of yesteryear's digital fun? Can educational games be art? And most importantly- can a non-game be a game?

PlaceSpotting makes use of Google Maps and the prominent user behaviour of screenshooting a location .and sending  it to friends so that they pinpoint the location by exploring Google Maps. What an interesting way to spend an incredible amount of one's time. Make an online game/application around this concept and voila! Judging by figures, people enjoy finding locations far more than creating "quizzes" (3mil:20k). I guess people love searching for needles in haystacks. You test your inner geography and culture buff and aggravate your friends in the process. Lovely.

Can such applications count as video games? I think so.

placespotting.com

A SLOWER SPEED OF LIGHT

I 've  only recently found this game and I was completely blown away by it! My ESL skills are virtually non-existent when it comes to physics and explaining scientific concepts and how they translate to video game parts . Therefore I strongly recommend  viewing the video below to get the grasp of what the game is all about.

The first time I tried it I figured it would just be a single afternoon's worth of  fun , but it transposed  a series of highly sophisticated concepts and physical phenomena to  your average 3d game mechanics and surroundings  making you somehow experience these so vividly that you almost feel smarter as you progress. Sure, it got mixed reviews , but mixed reviews have been en vogue for the last couple of years, haven't they?

ENVIRO-BEAR 2000: OPERATION: HIBERNATION

Messy games are the best , and this is truly one of the messiest ones out there. Messy as in sketchy  and swiftly built, a far cry from being an eye candy. The navigation is  simple and awkward and done by moving and clicking a single mouse button, the in-game music is obnoxious and made in a matter of minutes. Almost every aspect of this game seems unappealing . Despite this, ENVIRO-BEAR 2000 possesses some je-ne-sais-quoi that keeps you tied to your seat for at least a while. That is, if you're open to a game like this to begin with.

Having awaken a bit too far in the autumn, you now have to prepare for the upcoming winter by eating fish and berries. And what better way to do this  more efficiently and swiftly than to take someone's car and go through the reserve in trying to have enough food stuck to your windshield,  avoiding other cars driven by other bears and dealing with badgers and other animal friends that miraculously end in your car . If you fail to gather enough food and drive your car into your cave before the snow starts to fall the game's over. Sounds a lot dumber than  it's supposed to, but the game is loads of fun. The concept of using clumsiness of movement pays off and makes this a delightful play.

as user i_am_sad once said in a reddit comment : "Enviro-Bear 2000 is more fun than should be allowed for a game as stupid as this."

MR. MOSQUITO

I once let a mosquito live in my bathroom during wintertime without letting it bite me only to see if it would  survive. Needless to say it didn't last long,but I instantly remembered this the first time I played this game.
I'm partial to simulation on this blog,I know. I feel this genre has always been one of the very few to  often come up with original concepts. And MISTER MOSQUITO is no exception to this.You're a mosquito trying to live off the Yamada family during summer so that you may store enough blood to survive the upcoming winter. Targeting different body parts, carefully attacking so that the target(s)  are not annoyed enough to come after you ,carefully tracking their horizontal movements,and using hidden items in rooms and many other things the game tightens its grip on you with.The battle ensues even if any of the Yamadas see you without you attacking them.

The therapeutic value of your battle against Entomophobia is what I treasure above anything else in this game. A friend of mine recently said to me he would be interested in immersing himself in a first-hand virtual experience of being a targeted animal or an entity exploring different sides to their existence.Imagine people being able to cure themeselves of xenophobia, queerphobia or any other such debilitating condition.

The Incredible Machine 2

This game is an epitome of  what puzzle games should be like. It's about our dream of being Tom or Wile E.Coyote coming up with fantastic contraptions in order to catch their respective prey. You're given parts you need to integrate into a contraption that needs to perform a task (usually moving objects in a wanted direction).A cannon shoots a ball, the ball turns on a switch, the switch sets a factory line in motion and the motion spills a bucket with another ball coming out etc. Sounds simple and maybe a bit too retro as an idea for a game now, but it's another highly addictive game that stood the test of time with its unique concept.The navigation is easy, the playability is extremely high, the icons are beautiful. Of course,  Incredible Machine 1 set the foundation for the entire series, with IM 2 introducing new levels , better graphics ,less irritating sounds,new parts for machines etc, All the later versions  failed to introduce something new and take players somewhere else.

Absolutely worth your time.

LITTLE COMPUTER PEOPLE

I value this game over any other "God"-simulation or pet simulation as it blends the two concepts before each of them properly appeared in video games (feel free to correct me if there were previous uses of any of the two in video games or electronic games of any knd) . I absolutely adored being a caretaker for the little people who "lived" inside my computer in a wonderful two-storey dwelling.

When a new little person  is generated by the computer  they go about their daily routines and you can initiate contact or they might do it. They won't be coerced into talking to you. They decide whether to talk or play poker or play a piano tune for you or to themselves or otherwise. Using cuss words or hurling sarcasm at them will only get you further from them complying to your requests. A "pretty please" won't help either.This is exactly what makes this game so intriguing- at times I felt as if I was bullying them or encroaching on their privacy. I felt bad. And giving them gifts in forms of records, books. computer games didn't help. Sometimes I would go for days without playing the game, that's how uneasy I was about the whole thing.The only thing I had to do was to leave them food and see to their drinking water  to keep them alive. And so the pretense of little people living inside computers worked - I thought about  my characters starving to death or dying of thirst while I went about my own daily routines.

My late father finally said the disc had to go.

CLUSTERTRUCK

With so many dear people leaving my country and going elsewhere to work as truckers, I take sinful pride in seeing so many trucks bumped and destroyed in this game. An (ex-)trucker must have been stuck so many time in convoys and terrible traffic jams and have expressed his frustrations to an eager programmer truthfully enough to have these unpleasant experiences turned into a game. It is very common to have people walking atop your truck trying to rob you of your gasoline, tyres or your truck itself while you're trying to get some sleep during nights.

So in this game you may easily be a thug who tries to rob a truck in a convoy when the convoy starts moving. CLUSTERTRUCK is a platform indie game  where the aim is to stay atop moving trucks (moving platforms) long enough to meet the finish line. If you touch the ground, get burnt, or hit by rocks, trees, contraptions etc you die. The pun in the title is thoroughly appropriate, as the game becomes harder with each level making you realise the first few levels were just training ground for the onslaughts to come. You decide whether you run or sprint before jumping, and you can slightly correct your movement while in air.Takes some getting used to, As the levels become wackier and more addictive, you get style points and acquire skills. You can only unlock two skills total at any given time , but once you've amassed all 14 of them you will have a whole lot of features to choose from : slow-falling , taking a double jump,  beaming yourself elsewhere, using climbing hooks, jet packs etc.

Fresh ideas that become unique gaming experiences are not hard to come by at all.

LSD DREAM EMULATOR

When I was a kid I greatly enjoyed game intros and scene demos displaying the graphic capabilities of the C64. They were done with utmost attention to  detail and they were messy and loud at the same time and you would often leave the demo amazed at what was achieved there. The hunger for Amiga and C64 demos never stopped  and it became a noble tradition to this very day. The C64 demos we've seen in the competitions and displays in the last four years far exceeded anything we've seen on these defunct machines so far.

Playing this title back in the 90s I had the feeling that the creators of the game absolutely enjoyed the demos we all did. Based on a dream journal, LSD  is an first-person exploration game where the player navigates a surrealist world. If you bump into a wall, you're transported to another surrounding, and bumping into creatures, people, animals and anything in between will get you introduced to a unique surrealist surrounding. After a 10-minute dream you will "wake up" and be presented with a graph  of your progress and states induced, and when you get back to the game, a new dream may easily be influenced by the previous one. After  experiencing a certain number of dreams you earn the right to "flashbacks" that transport you back to previous dreams you could relive in a number of ways. The experience is  further intensified by IDM contemporaries such as Warp Records' mu-Ziq.

I think this concept should be taken further and be reintroduced into the gaming world with only slight alterations. A player might  enter key words and phrases of a dream they dreamt and provide other sensory data remembered so that the algorithm could generate a chance world the player could traverse.A sort of  No Man's Sky  for the exploration of synapses, sold for the price of your average indie title.

LED STORM (C64)/ MAD GEAR

You'd probably say I should have posted some other 8bit racer here. Well, no. This gem, and particularly its c64 version has it all. A jumping car vertically scrolling from level to level, jumping on/over cars or overtaking  them , the frog-like creatures that slow you down when they get stuck to your car if you don't shake them off, driving  damaged roads or open fields, taking boosters, enjoying  beautiful structures and sprites, jumping off ramps over missing bridge parts etc- it was the first time I saw any of that in a racing video game . I admit it, all the other versions of the game have everything I stated and some (the Amiga and the Atari ones) even finer graphics. What makes the commodore 64 version stand out is Tim Follin's masterful adaptation of themes from the arcade version, making them into something completely different on the C64. His greatness as a music composer really shines here. He introduces racing beats that skillfully combine techno and his ever-present prog-tinged melodies. Tim is/was one of the very few composers who managed to  push the  natural lushness of the SID chip way above its capabilities and trick you into thinking that your c64 had an additional sound chip installed. 16bit computers came nowhere near Commodore 64 when it came to the quality of sound. As you drive , it's the combined efort of excellent graphics and powerful music that keeps you glued to your seat  all throughout the game.

I loved Led Storm  and I played it so much that I ended up thinking  Deep Purple stole the riff from Tim Folin's opening theme. I never liked Deep Purple , and I still think Follin  is one od the greatest rebels in the history of original game soundtracks. The melody always comes first and I wish more game music composers realized this.

OH...SIR!! THE INSULT SIMULATOR

The best part of playing The Curse of Monkey Island for me was Guybrush's insult skill building aboard the pirate ships his crew attacked .I often thought it would be a grand idea if somebody made an entire game based on insulting and being insulted. And voila! Wish granted.

This is everything you 've ever wanted from Facebook but couldn't get- it's about finding ways to insult people and express most of your intolerant views without being ostrasized. You can choose from 5 wonderfully playable characters  with distinctive verbal intelligence levels,traits and quirkiness based on age and stature. All of them have their own strengths and weaknesses you can exploit and abuse. And if you get tired of those or a few unlockable characters there's always a cross-platform multiplayer that allows you to play against your friends or strangers from around the world.

The insult building is pretty addictive too- you string word upon word with each take and see to it that your combo hits a nerve. The words are chosen by characters from a list they both see .There are additional lines that unlock  as the round unravels that only you can see and use. Simple, brilliant, effective!

The best insult simulator that ever was.

CLOCK SIMULATOR

When games are this simplified  they are bound to become philosophical.And what better way to get philosophical about games and life in general than to reflect on time itself? Games have dealt with time in a number of ways and time proved to be a powerful ally in making games memorable and unique. Exploring the concept of time in games, CLOCK SIMULATOR took it to a whole different level making time itself and our understanding of time / our inner clock the protagonists. This game should have been titled - Time Simulator - or the like, and then people would not  look for new features in the game's architecture. Let us embrace the rigours of reality in games for a change.

This game should not be sold ,but integrated with each handheld  device  and played at least 5 minutes a day to make all of us question what we do with the time left to us here on this Earth.

WORMS

Another great game the impact of which was greatly diminished by the gruesome number of sequels.
There was such a simple concept behind it that it was bound to become a cult video game. It needs no introduction  or explanation - the minute you see the screen you soak the game in and become privy to the game's charm. True , we all tried our respective versions and have our opinions of the many,many post-1995 reiterations, but the truth is the players were blown away by the original game more than any other. It had tons of outstanding features for a 1995 game to achieve this -puerile humour to go along with the cartoon-like characters and scenery.excellent graphics and navigation,the level designs that were randomly generated, the multi-player option etc. It made a turn-based games hater like myself re-examine the genre altogether.
I  did playWorms Armaggedon  more than any other game in the series, but all the post-1995 changes they made to the series are purelly cosmetic.

NO MAN'S SKY

I admit I'm easily impressed with half-decent graphics and decent gaming mechanics and by the "cute factor" that confirms my being a casual gamer. Then there's my distaste of any first-person game involving shooting. And I understand that as such I don't fully appreciate the furore with which gamers who play AAA titles lashed out at the studio behind the game for all the hype and clever marketing prior to its release.I feel their pain, I really do.

But this is every spacefaring child's greatest dream- becoming an explorer exploring a whole universe of worlds . So a lot of them  repeat, and a lot of them are boring, and a lot of stations should be brimming with life since they provide services that require considerable resources etc. But awaken your inner trekker and boldly go where no one has gone before for the simple pleasure of going. I would have made it even more abstract, resembling elaborate Universe simulations appearing nowadays (Illustris?) with even more modest gaming elements, but this is a remarkable feat in itself.

You have to applaud the nature of procedural/chance build-up of worlds, their flaura, fauna, surface, lifeforms, mechanical representations of their respective cultures etc. This aspect alone is sufficient enough to sparkle our imagination like very few gaming titles have so far. Hell, even the soundtrack (not talking about the 65daysofstatic's  ogt album) is procedurally generated by a uniquely designed system -how cool is that?

 No Man's Sky is based on four pillars: survival, combat, trading and exploration, and the three of four pillars may have crumbled. But the pillar of exploration will stand tall as a bold pioneering project for as long as there's gaming.

THE OOZE

A scientist named Dr. Craine is about to blow the whistle on a secret plot by The Corporation to spread a chemical plague amongst the general populace when the director of The Corporation poures chemical waste on him in the hope of silencing him for good.  Dr. Caine awakens to find he is a puddle of ooze with a monstrous head. Now he needs to kill the enemies and solve puzzles to collect all the DNA helices ro reclaim his human form or else he's in for an even worse fate of becoming a lava lamp.

Dumb, I know. But you stretch and spit ooze to obliterate enemies and see to it that your puddle doesn't get too small or your head directly hit, and it was loads of fun to play on my friend's console. Some would probably argue in favour of this title being more of a dying breath than a swansong for the Sega Genesis system, but its originality stood the test of time well. I would personally do away with the head, and find some other way to move puddle parts to confuse the player even further, but again it was the easiest way to conform the concept with your average Sega platfomer.

I AM BREAD

Being a slice of bread isn't easy- you have to surpass your bodily  limitations, fight the  physics of rectangular movement, move across tricky surfaces  without dirting yourself too much in the process so that you still be edible after jumping into a toster. So many things to consider.

The very first bread simulator out there wasn't warmly received by the critics or the global gaming community, but it's revolutionary in the sense that it takes us places we never dreamt of visiting. I've always dreamt of inanimate objects imbued with life in games and concepts that would make us question our human identity without actually questioning it. And though such entities were present in gaming as early as mid-80s , they always appeared in the form of sprites who came at us.

I would add interactions with flies, cockroaches and other insects to spice it all up, but the game is perfect as it is.The concept and the absurdity of it is what makes the game stand out. Highly recommended!

ROCK STAR ATE MY HAMSTER

The first proper band manager simulation to have appeared and this alone makes it a significant point in gaming history.The reason behind its success was that it had so many  clever aspects  combined into a single enjoyable title. The two  protagonists assemble a band  from some stars on offer ( the pseudonyms sound strangely familiar) and formation of the band depends on the amount at hand. You perform many tasks as you go: you assemble a band, make them rehearse and make new material, see to their touring and gig arrangements, etc. The humour adds to simple and cute graphics with simple menus and options, making it strangely addictive , even by today's standards.Music is beautifully done ,at least in the versions I played (zx,c64).
I'd definitely say it deserves a remake, but with the remakes being done today (Giana Sisters, Bionic Commando etc) maybe it's better off without one.

locomaniac's Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcS9Hhqx3nPGmODJVs5P1qQ

CHO ANIKI- Kyuukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko

The Japanese call such games "idiot games" and "s++t games", and this series is so utterly nonsensical and original  in its content and visual identity  that you quickly realize there is no other game (series) like it.It is the bizarre combination of many elements that make this classic horizontal scrolling shooter a unique gaming experience. There's  homoeroticism everywhere, the media-perfect oiled male physique that  you were bombarded with as a kid during the 80s and that confused you greatly during the 90s ("wait , I loved He-Man, does that make me gay?", that type of stuff ).There's the surrealism that transcends kitsch to become so ugly that kitsch becomes its own antithesis. Fetishism is here as well -male feet and male noses,  Barbarian-style clothes to cover the scantily-clad lads pirouetting around, phallic secret weapons coming out of crotches or nipple areas etc.The bizarreness of imagery between levels leave you even more confused, even more so when you don't happen to know any Japanese,and can't explain the presence of a male-female pair, two kid angels, and two ripped bodybuilders simultaneously appearing on the screen. The downright-ugly 16-bit music abounds in different genres and styles and is aided by voice samples from many sources, making bizarre audio collages make the visual aspect even more bizarre.
I guess your background, upbringing and cultural values, taboos and tastes play a role in appreciating or hating the game, but at least it challenges the notion of what a computer games is and what it should address.

140

Another rhythm game that perfectly illustrates  the point I was trying to make in my previous post. 140 is a simple platformer that could have been made on any early 8bit system , but could only make sense today, in the age where electronic music and its culture of minimalism has completely infiltrated our lives and minds. Each movement of the triangle, each platform landing, each  fall,each life lost, every single arrival at a half-circular platform that announces a new level, the imaginary city skyline that rises and drops to music is built around an electronic tune of an idm/acid tech-like structure that you mix and alter by playing the game. Even the techno sequences in the space-shooter-like or the puzzle-like part of the game are musically embellished  by what you do.And all of this is possible due to masterful programming by Jeppe Carlsen's highly musical, synesthetic mind. When you move you're a black circle, when you jump you're a black triangle, and when you stop you're a rectangle. So idiotically simple , yet so brilliant!

I can totally see myself being a guest dj somewhere and banging a sweet , classy acid-tech tune just by playing this masterpiece.

SUPER HEXAGON

Colours are swapped as the game goes on and as the setting changes and the hexagon maze  closes its walls on you in perfect sync with rhythms of fine tunes done by the contemporary 8-bit scene hero Chipzel. You're a simple triangle that looks simply infinitesimally small  in the spiraling maze system.

I find this game fascinating as it addresses some issues that today's games have in common- they lack clear, simple fun!I miss the old era of 8-bit games where you had one life ,-and once you're dead you're dead.And it's not about nostalgia , it's about a single game designer being pressed for time and coming up with a legendary game- I want those people at the forefront of todays gaming universe. Sure, this game could have been made on earlier machines and in earlier eras, but the speed and the sheer simplicity look  way better now and highlight the above mentioned issue. In this day and age we've forgotten about bringing table-like games to a world outside of hand-held devices, and games like these will always win the hearts of new generations.

TOKYO JUNGLE

Another non-classifiable game that managed to break the mould of the stale action game genre. It's incredible how justifiable animal aggression combined with quirkiness and comical aspects of the game makes this an extremely enjoyable gaming experience.The food chain and everything it dictates in animals entertains us and we readily take up the role of an animal fighting for its survival  You can choose one of the  species left in the streets of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where humans are no more, be it a dog, cat, a herbivore or carnivore that escaped from the zoo etc. There are many things to take into account and master as you go along- attack, evading and hiding moves and manoeuvres against other animals , mating and  securing the area for your offspring while your computer years swoosh past you, adapting, looking for food, herbs etc. Naturally, each animal  has its weaknesses and strengths , and restarting the game  you had no high expectations for to begin with  with another animal is what gives you a different perspective that makes this game definitely worth your while

GOAT SIMULATOR

A true ode to absurdity of today's gaming industry and a fine example of sheer brilliance this is ! Aren't we tired of playing GTAs, inflicting  pain on other human beings in our digital surroundings and having a vast terrain to indulge ourselves in some well-earned anti-social behavour , and while we're at it, playing a franchise that's almost 20 years old? The GOAT SIMULATOR laughs at the staleness of the current gaming industry that hides behind proven titles ,being too afraid to try anything new. So be a goat and do damage and hurt people , you won't feel the same as IF you lead a human protagonist. Strangely enough,  it does look like the goat is either on drugs (ragdoll physics) or being seriously affected by some airborne agents -how do we fail to perceive the same rabies in humans while we play out GTAs? It only takes a "joke prototype from an internal one-month game jam"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Simulator )  to show how boring and repetetive the gaming mainstream is.

HUMAN: FALL FLAT

Now this is what  I call gaming entertainment! This may easily be the most successful attempt at putting one's dream into a computer game.No gory details, no beheaded beasts, no visits from spectres or ancestors, just your own inadequacies, the fear of failure , loneliness and curiosity that you get punished for on a daily basis.The landscape is simplistic and stripped of  any detail that could be inconsequential  to such a dream.  Bob is naked, wearing only a protective helmet , and fears heights. Accordingly, he solves puzzles by moving different objects around and pushing buttons while walking across floating islands so that he could address his fear by jumping off the platform and falling flat onto another level.To spice the feeling of inability to run things and limited physical movement while we dream , Bob is innately clumsy. In order to get Bob through all the 12 levels you have to master the awkward mechamics (OCTODAD  comes to mind)  that's integral to the game's value and charm. Failure is awarded by laughter in the proud tradition of slapstick humour and  narration borders on misanthropy. This is the kind of dream you can easily see yourself waking up from in a pearl of sweat.
And if you want to introduce your friend to this nightmarish world, there's always the split-screen cooperative multiplayer mode. Enjoy!

YEAR WALK

Year Walk was a divination folk ritual in Sweden performed at Christmas or New Year's.The year walker locks himself in a dark room for a day with no food or drink or company. At midnight he circles the local parish church 3 times and blows through its keyhole. He temporarily turns non-Christian and is challeged by supernatural beings and if he passes the test he's given  fragments of what is to come in the year to follow.

The game was originally designed  as a movie script and that is the most unique aspect that sets it apart from other games in the genre. The authors retained the stillness of  native landscapes and stripped the game of everything that would lead us away from storytelling that uncovers beauty in death and terror; their timing and suspense building is impeccable  and we get the impression that we are slowly unravelling a mystery filmscript more than playing  a game.

Daniel  the protagonist is asked by his lover Stina not to go through the ritual . He also finds out she is about to be engaged to somebody else and decides to year walk despite her plea. We're given no insight into what goes on  and nothing prepares us for encounters with mythical creatures of nordic folklore and the meaning of puzzles they present us with. The sounds and music are fantastic , the atmosphere is unreal, and the horror draws upon the collective unconscious where macrocosm meets individual madness...all of this is partially explained in the end when we see the words "it is too late" and Stina lying dead in the field. The journal post-game component of a  modern-day man named Theodore explains what happened in detail.

It is as if we are magically drawn to the darkness behind the ritual that  erroneously justifies the coming of Daniel's madness. The neo-paganism is strong with this one, but I also see the intensity found in early modernist literature of Sweden and Norway (Lagerkvist) present here.

I hate horror and suspense stories, but this game will keep you glued to your seat until its very end whether you like such stories or not.

Another piece of art in the gaming world.

BLOCK OUT

Tetris was a success with every kid I knew, and so was Duotris on the c64 , but when I saw this game in the amusement park that came to my hometown  I was completely blown away by it!Having spent a few days playing this title for hours on end, I decided to buy a Commodore64 version of it, and although it was quite a decent conversion I got back to playing the arcade version. The elegance behind the original Tetris game was so simply unique that the only way to upgrade it in a way was to make a 3d version of it, and the results were impressive.There's a decent colour palette that doesn't get in the way of  playing the game, and a firm sense of depth while moving your tertominoes about.The giant head that challenges you and decides whether you live on or die gives you an impression you are actually solving your packing problems on a holodeck of some kind.
Though nothing beats its original predecessor, this title is highly addictive and rewarding. Whether this game helped me with my geometry lessons and indeed enhanced my spatial intelligence or not is completely irrelevant. It was and still is unique and fun to play.

THE STANLEY PARABLE

Stanley is just another nine-to-fiver living a stale life of crunching numbers and doing meaningless repetitive tasks at work, a man with no family to come home to . The sudden disappearance of all his colleagues leaves him alone in the building with just an eloquent inner voice at his side telling him what he should do. The voice is annoying, controlling , laughing at his condition, incredibly discerning and intelligent. The game is all about starting again and again, finding alternate ways to come to a meaningless end for Stanley, or sticking to a silly routine like playing the baby game and pushing a single red button for 4 hours without a single pause  until the game recognises you as a God and you come out victorious. How can you not like that? The game puts our tenacity, sense of identity, belonging, orientation, purpose, irony, obeying or disobeying our inner voice to a serious test, with an illusion of choice being the main ingredient of the game. THE STANLEY PARABLE laughs at life, games, the gaming industry, our use of time, rendering them all obsolete.

"Onward Stanley...to destiny. Wouldn't whenever we end up be our destination, even if there's no story there? Or to put it another way- is the story of no destination still a story?"

GODUS

True, this is yet another life simulation game, but with a truly unique twist to it! You're God and you can go about it as you please, whether as an angry god or a benevolent one or something in between.You can see a civilization prosper or send them into oblivion if you so please. You manipulate the flora and fauna, sculpt the landscape, manipulate people's breeding, beliefs, life and test their faith. It feels awkward and fulfilling at the same time, playing God-you're omniscient and omnipotent. Or are you really a true god? The use of cards and steady progression of actions you take makes me wonder if god the player be just another god answering to a supreme god in a pantheon of gods. Be as it may, it is still a wonderful opportunity to test your worst and your best human qualities within this game, be them God-like or not.

COMIX ZONE

Comix Zone was a dream come true for everyone old enough to play games at the time. The appeal of this game wasn't that it was a great  beat 'em up with excellent graphics, no. The magic of this game lies in the fact that it managed to succeed where ordinary comic books failed- at being visibly interactive. Sure, there were attempts at making comic books with alternate endings and branching points in it, but this game was the first to persuade us we were in an actual comic book with many comic book cliches being laughed at (the narrator, aide,stale lines of the main protagonist and its sign-of-the-times clothes etc). Being able to physically destroy the panels and its edges and to jump from one panel to the other was the most unique thing this 13-year old has ever seen.You can't move around as freely as you'd want to throughout the world of this comic and there are pointers indicating where you should/will go , but then again if you could it would be most unappealing to you as a reader of the comic book you are playing, wouldn't it? :)

THE NEVERHOOD CHRONICLES

This game was  and still is a personal favourite from the 90s.Yes, it's a simple point-and-click adventure game with a linear structure and simple navigation throughout the imagined claymatian world. But what a magnificent world it is! Wooden and clay sets with abstract, yet easily identifiable architecture  of a highly artistic Demiurge aided by Terry Scott Taylor's  incredible genre-bending soundtrack invite you into a uniquely odd world. So many things I like about video games are featured here: superb stop-motion animation of the characters, awkward posture and coordination of Klaymen along with somewhat tedious walks he takes throughout the game, slapstick humour,silly full motion video cut scenes, puzzles that range from simple to abstract to silly, absense of inventory screens (I always disliked them in games) etc.
A cult classic that will be enjoyed even a hundred years from now!

JOURNEY

Probably the best game I've ever seen and played. The mere thought of making a game out of a life parable (imagine Piers Plowman made into a game :) ) and  succeeding in bringing all aspects of a regular human experience into a 2-hour gaming fun is a feat in itself. Everything befalls our beloved ethereal creature we guide through this life's journey: the loneliness and dignity of human experience,longing, growth, companionship. the beauty and mystery of life, the acquisiton of knowledge and experience, facing nature that is closer to Tarkowsky than Von Trier, wearing the ever-growing mark of  a seasoned soul. Our hearts slowly melt with passion and love and at the end of the game , when our character reaches the end of the road and passes on, it is very hard not to shed a tear. I know I did.Never have I felt such warmth in my heart while playing a computer game.

A true masterpiece of gaming if ever there was one.

SUPERHOT

I really dislike FPS games. I always did . I didn't like the original Doom,Wolfstein, I didn't even like playing Operation Wolf  in the local arcade when I was a kid. The stream of titles that flooded the market didn't  convert me into a fan, no siree (ok, except for maybe Borderlands). But then Superhot appeared and I was immediately attracted to it . Highly appealingly simplistic yet elegant visual representation combined with sparse use of colours gives this game a truly unique look. Plus the mechanics are impressive, limiting as they are- everything moves when you move your mouse , otherwise time passes extremely slow.The levels/missions don't last for days on end  (you can actually have a good night sleep before a daunting day at work), and each one is a bundle of joy and excitement. The look and feel of SUPERHOT make me almost forget I'm playing a game in  which I'm supposed to kill other living beings.

A masterpiece!

A Foreword

Games should be works of art defying the existing genres, current markets and should constantly defy expectations of both the young and the seasoned. I see playability, graphical capabilities and many other aspects that seem superimportant to us nowadays as secondary to games being authentic pieces of multidisciplinary art.
I'm too old to be playing Mortal Combat 56456, Tekken 234826, Super Mario on Steroids Part 293847 or other rehashes flooding the gaming market. Give me a small indie game that has an interesting twist to it and I'm hooked. Nothing against smart big titles either.
Ygorrr