SPACE HARRIER

God bless the 80s and its technical restrictions when it comes to video games, for Space Harrier with its surrealist surroundings wouldn't have been made. The game was ported to a plethora of systems and  I played the game quite frequently on 4 of them and enjoyed each and every version of it. Whether I played the 16bit arcade version or the clunky 8bit C64 version with the mesmerizing sid soundtrack, the experience of playing the game was simultaneously joyful and bizarre. First I feared the fact that I would let it suck me into its world whenever I played it and I feared this game just as I feared early animes as a kid (whether it was framerate, the goriness of it  or something else, I don't know). There was also something beautifully unsettling about flying through a long-gone civilization's urban landscape and killing mammoth cyclops and  the extinct civilization's defence systems in the form of  giant heads and flying shapes, and I couldn't help but feel like a usurper disturbing the peace of the deceased. No explanation was given to the nature of Harrier's mission(s), no storylines, nothing, and I would often  get this feeling of being a bad guy. When I revisited the game in college I had a completely different perception of the game , but the taikan (body sensation) remained. I still feel strange playing this title.

Space Harrier was the first successful rail shooter ever made.

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.