| 70 | Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox) |
| 69 | Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 2 (PlayStation/Dreamcast/Xbox) |
| 68 | Pokémon Green/Blue/Red/Yellow (Game Boy) and LeafGreen/FireRed (Game Boy Advance) |
| 67 | Daytona (all variants) (Arcade) |
| 66 | Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast) |
| 65 | Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (PC) |
| 64 | Metal Gear Solid 3 (PlayStation 2) |
| 63 | Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64) |
| 62 | System Shock 2 (PC) |
| 61 | Super Metroid (SNES) |
Comments on the games I've played:
Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox)
PGR2 was the first game I ever played on Live, and it was a revelation. I mean, it was only the third game I'd ever played online (after Quake 3 and PSO on the Dreamcast), and even compared to the sublime PSO everything was so well organised. The online side of the game was so well integrated - seeing all your friends' times when you went into a time trial event, for example, gave you a real benchmark to aim for, making even the single-player game a community event. And even without that, the game was great fun - loads of different game types, with the kudos system refined from MSR and PGR making it much more fun to replay stages over and over.
Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 2 (Dreamcast)
My brother had a copy of the first Tony Hawks game when it came out on the PlayStation, and initially I dismissed it, thinking it was only for the sk8rbois (or whatever the trendy word is). I was so wrong. The Tony Hawks games are an evolution of the 3D platformer, containing elements of Tomb Raider (particularly when trying to work out how to get to high-up ramps and the hidden tapes) and the Sonic 3D games, in terms of speed and accurate landing of jumps. But there's so much more, in the trick system. I believe it's THPS2 that introduced the manuals, which link together countless tricks and enable stupidly high scores.
I'm not sure I'd say that 2 was the best Tony Hawks game, though. American Sk8land on the DS is probably my favourite.
Pokémon Yellow (Game Boy), Pokémon LeafGreen (Game Boy Advance)
Pokémon games are just immense. There's so much to do, with a relatively strong storyline to follow initially, guiding the trainer to the elite four, and apparently loads to do after that. I say apparently, because I've never actually beaten them, despite playing through Yellow, LeafGreen and Sapphire and getting to Victory Road each time. There's just such a huge difficulty leap from the previous gyms to the elite four, and by the time I get there I'm starting to get a bit bored of grinding my team to get them to a high-enough level. Hopefully Pearl's different.
Daytona USA (Arcade and Saturn), Daytona 2001 (Dreamcast)
Let's roll away! Daytona is a pure fun arcade racer, with over-the-top physics and car control. Each of the three tracks is almost a different game - the easy oval track with forty opponents, the curvy mountain track ... this is really the game that invented powersliding. No home conversion has matched the arcade, though the Dreamcast version comes close once you've turned down the sensitivity of the controls.
Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast)
I never got very far with this, mainly because of the time limits running alongside the police chases and the rivals making it just too frantic. I got so frustrated when I was close to finishing an area and then got chased off by the police and ran out of time. Apart from those annoyances, though, the game's lovely - stylish, in both playing style and visuals, and it has that all-important rhythm running through it.
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