Table of contents for February 2018 in Gamesmaster

After playing games such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor, I’ve really come to appreciate the photo modes that games have been implementing. I feel like it adds a whole new layer to the game, letting me act as an action photographer! With all the tools available to use, you’re able to pause the action and really appreciate the beauty and hard work of what the developers have created in this world. I can’t count the number of times I’ve just had to stop dead in my tracks, pull up the photo mode, and just try to capture the moment at the best possible angle, lighting, and filter. I really, really love this feature as it has so much flexibility and can add many, many more…

Following its brilliantly mysterious, contemplative adventure The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, you’d be forgiven for having forgotten that developer The Astronauts has plenty of expertise when it comes to fast-paced, over-the-top first-person action too. But it certainly remembers. The teaser trailer for its new project, Witchfire, starts out with a rather leisurely stroll through a decrepit graveyard. It cleverly deceives the audience into thinking this is another walking simulator – and then the protagonist unexpectedly unveils some hefty weaponry, the game swiftly transforming into a full-blown FPS that looks more like Doom with a dark fantasy setting than anything else. Despite the increased emphasis on action, The Astronauts still isn’t skimping on the aesthetics. Using a process known as photogrammetry, the team has been able to produce 3D scans of…

Most god sims are really just glorified city builders where you micromanage settlement building and political discourse. What about a realgod game where all you can do is issue commandments and watch your followers get on with it? That’s the world of Crest, and one that Leon’s about to try out. God help us all. 0 MINUTES I am so ready to become a god. I always thought the world would be a much better place if everything did what I told it, and now I have one where everything will. Crest’s ‘thing’ is that you have no direct control over your minions; instead you hand down commandments that everyone follows. At least that’s the idea. Think of something like Civilization, but instead of loads of menus and complex political…

Format PS4 Developer Kojima Productions Publisher Sony ETA Autumn 2019 Skyscraper-sized beasties! Slightly smaller beasties that can levitate, Psycho Mantis style! Babies hiding inside Norman Reedus’ larynx! The most recent footage for Hideo Kojima’s utterly befuddling adventure is as exciting as it is confusing. And hoo boy are Death Stranding’s latest details confounding. Kojima’s latest trailer for his first post-Konami project is eight electrifying, bonkers minutes, all captured in real-time on a PS4 Pro. Not only does the gorgeous footage prove Kojima Productions is putting Guerilla Games’ Decima engine to exquisite use, it somehow manages to out-crazy the trailer from 2016’s PlayStation Experience… and that had Mads Mikkelsen bleeding oil from his eyeballs. Whereas that teaser seemed to be set on some war-ravaged corner of Earth, the latest action appears…

Format PC Publisher 10 Chambers Collective Developer 10 Chambers Collective ETA Autumn Those letters must stand for ‘Gosh, That’s Frightfully Ominous’. Four players make their way through a dimly-lit, claustrophobic underground facility, things suspiciously quiet. Needless to say, it doesn’t stay that way. An alarm is triggered, monsters arrive, and the shooting begins. Ostensibly an FPS, GTFO promises more than mindless shooting. Developer 10 Chambers Collective is headed by Ulf Andersson, the main chap behind Payday. There’s no bank to rob here, but co-operation between you and your three teammates is vital. That doesn’t just mean concentrated firepower. “If you merely ‘stay together’ or ‘shoot together’ you’ll just die in a pretty formation,” says Andersson. We’re promised a mixture of exploring, puzzle solving, and good ol’ fashioned baddie shooting. It’s…

It’s been 17 years since the release of Team Ico’s first game and there is still something extra special about the world it’s created. Ico, Shadow Of The Colossus, and The Last Guardian are each complete stories in their own right, but they share their setting, a world as recognisable as Bioshock’s underwater colony of Rapture or The Legend Of Zelda’s Hyrule. Huge, imposing, but crumbling ruins. Wildernesses left untouched for eons. Creatures made of fur and stone. These are the trademarks of these loosely connected games and their unnamed world, an ancient place where magic lurks in the shadows. Every return to these games evokes those same feelings: isolation, wonderment, awe. It’s feelings like that which we expect to be rekindled for a whole new audience when the Shadow…

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. A lone wanderer awakes without any sense of place, thrust into a ruinous setting somewhere in the great unknown. Their only choice is to explore in the hope of discovering a little more about the world around them, and in turn, to learn more about how they’re destined to fit into it. You’d be forgiven for thinking we’re referring to kinetic action game Hyper Light Drifter, the enrapturing path of exploration Rime sets you on, or possibly last year’s radar-slipping Hob. And we are – but we’re also referring to a whole raft of other indie titles too. These three speechless darlings are stellar examples of today’s underdog indie developers continuing to do what they’ve always done: breed creativity from limitation. Said…

PUBG is of the battle royale genre, that isn’t in doubt. But one element stands out and is worth talking about: the stories it creates. Situations, item drops, and safe zones are all randomised – there’s no space to get comfortable from game to game, and there are many ways in which to succeed. Or die trying. Here’s just one. We’ve dropped into an abandoned farm – two of us, the Undynamic Duo, not venturing too close to bigger towns until we’ve got at least one weapon between us. Looting commences, a few firearms are sourced, and even a vehicle shows its face – and the drive is on. We make a few stops here and there, topping up items and finding attachments to make ourselves feel that bit deadlier.…

Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Activision Developer Bungie ETA Out now Players MMO When Destiny 2 dropped on consoles back in September (and then on PC in October) it was very well received, and with good reason. Featuring incredibly fluid and satisfying gunplay, and a somewhat incomprehensible but visually spectacular story, it was a compelling experience indeed… for a while, anyway. Many players, some of us here at GamesMaster included, eventually drifted away from the game due to a pretty shallow endgame. For the lapsed among us, a new expansion has the potential to bring us back into that wonderfully addictive loot loop. So does this first DLC right the wrongs of the base game? Curse Of Osiris adds a new planet, Mercury, for our intrepid Guardians to explore,…

Format PC Publisher Bossa Studios Developer Bae Team ETA Out now Players 1 Visual novels have been undergoing a bit of a renaissance for several years now, and nothing’s been more popular than the subset of dating games they’ve produced. Dream Daddy recently stole the hearts of many, but before that was the peculiar Hatoful Boyfriend, in which you have to date various pigeons (no, you’re not a bird). In a similar vein comes Purrfect Date, a dating game in which your prospective partners are all cats, and there’s a pun in every other sentence. The game has you taking on the role of a new assistant, sent to Cat Island (not everything gets to be a pun) to help study the felines who are the island’s sole inhabitants. Of…

Format PC Publisher Mind’s Eclipse Interactive Developer Mind’s Eclipse Interactive ETA 25 January Players 1 Low on budget but high on ideas, The Mind’s Eclipse is a sci-fi visual novella that sadly betrays the inexperience of its makers once too often. Set more than 300 years in the future, it casts you as an amnesiac scientist who groggily wakes up inside a seemingly deserted research station, keen to find his wife and daughter with the help of an enigmatic AI companion. Gradually, the mystery of what happened to them and the facility itself is teased out through dozens of messages, accessed via datapads, terminals, and by interfacing with the internal operating systems of the many corpses scattered about the place. Yes, it’s another ruined utopia. But there are moments of…

1 Super Mario World (SNES – 1992) Yoshi’s debut as Mario’s ride also just happens to be one of the best 2D platformers of all time. While Yoshi hardly takes centre stage, he’s an invaluable ally thanks to his ability to eat Koopas, Goombas, and other obstacles you face. All that despite Mario riding on his back and repeatedly punching him in the head. 2 Yoshi’s Cookie (SNES, NES – 1993) Yoshi would have to wait a few years before his starring role in a platformer, so he kept himself busy in this puzzler. The aim was to match up different types of cookies on a grid to make them disappear from the screen. A two-player mode meant a friend could get in on the fun, but really, Yoshi deserved…

Where is it funnier to put the cat s***?” asks Rebellion lead designer Steve Bristow. “The duvet? Or the pillow?” We point to the pillow and an icon for randomly appearing faeces is put in place. It’s already a strange day, and we’ve only just arrived at Rebellion, where the team is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a three-day game jam. Everyone in the office is taking part, and there are T-shirts everywhere emblazoned with the theme, Nate Crowley’s book, 100 Best Video Games (That Never Existed). Encompassing such bizarre titles as Wetherspoons Fetish Party, Vin Diesel’s Weasel Eagle, and the infamous arcade title known only as ‘The Clown Game’ where players must drip their blood into a container to play, the book is packed with brilliant yet ludicrous games.…

THE MOST DEDICATED TEAM IN THE BUSINESS With new staff writer Sam Greer, the GamesMaster team is finally back to full strength and ready to take on anything 2018 can throw at us! Well, any videogame at least. Robin Valentine A new team member proved the perfect excuse for a fresh photoshoot – Robin especially was relieved to replace all of his questionable headshots with much more handsome versions like this one. Oof, what a hunk. What’s your favourite Mario game ever? Super Mario Odyssey Ben Tyrer Appearing in such a Nintendo-stuffed issue is videogame treason of the highest order for a man who writes for Official PlayStation Magazine by day. If caught, he’ll receive the highest punishment – buried in a landfill of old copies of ET for the…

Swords, staffs, and oversized axes at the ready: after a five-year hiatus, Soulcalibur is swinging back onto gaming platforms with its sixth instalment. Marking the 20th anniversary of the weapon-based brawler, this latest entry promises to commemorate the occasion by offering us the chance to revisit the events of the very first game and ‘uncover hidden truths’. While the roster is yet to be announced, we’re promised it’ll contain fan favourites as well as fresh faces – see ‘Brawling Buddies’ for the ones we know about so far. Footage revealed so far features Sophitia and a youthful-looking Mitsurugi engaged in some seriously stylish scrapping. Motohiro Okubo, who previously worked on Tekken 7, is handling producer duties on Soulcalibur VI. Speaking on stage Okubo said: “Working together with Harada-san I felt…

“DOZENS AND DOZENS OF TERRIFYINGLY MOBILE CORPSES ON SCREEN” From the book of the same name and the film of the same name now comes the game of the same name, resurrected by Paramount and Saber Interactive for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The book, fully titled World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War, purports to be the words of a UN agent narrating the accounts of survivors. The film adaptation is a much more action-driven affair, a globe-trotting adventure where the slow, lurching undead of the book are replaced with running, scrambling zombies that suit the film’s big set pieces. Z-cheers to that Thanks to the game retaining the book’s international theme, the campaign promises stories from all around the world (locations cited include New York,…

The moment we feared might never come is here: Bayonetta 3 has been announced by developer Platinum Games. And continuing the fruitful relationship with Nintendo established with the second game, it’s exclusive to Nintendo Switch. Platinum has had a busy few years since the last the Bayonetta, releasing titles such as Transformers: Devastation, Star Fox Zero, and Nier: Automata. Its Xbox-exclusive Scalebound, however was unfortunately cancelled. For anyone not in the know: the Bayonetta games revolve around the eponymous heroine, a witch who wields firearms and use her outfit made of her own hair (ew.…) to cast spells and summon demons. Anyone looking to play the game had better be on board for non-stop bonkers shenanigans. The games follow her various battles with angels, demons, and even gods. Since the…

An Italian plumber born on an island of dinosaurs, destined to save princesses and fight dragons… How could we have known, back in the days of the arcade, that this odd little fellow would one day be gaming’s greatest legend? Three decades on, Nintendo’s lead franchise still shows no sign of slowing down, with both Super Mario Odyssey and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle delighting players on Switch just last year. It’s been quite the storied history along the way, from his humble beginnings as a carpenter to his thriving career in tennis, his rivalry with an oversized gorilla to competing at the Olympics… There’s never been a dull moment for Mario – join us as we take you through the years to celebrate a legacy like no other.…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Media Molecule ETA Autumn Calling Media Molecule’s latest a game seems disingenuous. Building on the ‘Play, Create, Share’ theme of LittleBigPlanet, this truly astonishing follow-up allows you to conjure up pretty much anything and everything you can think of. It even has an in-engine music creator. And in case you think that’s just big talk, Media Molecule built the entire story mode with the game’s own tools. “There’s absolutely no cheating, we haven’t used external software to produce assets and import it in. We’ve made everything from an atomic level using a DualShock 4 and a PlayStation 4” says creative director Mark Healey about ‘Art’s Dream’, the developer-created story that will ease players into this huge universe. The demo we’re invited to check out is…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment Developer CreativeForge Games ETA Autumn Not many games attempt to capture the spirit of the Cold War period – double-agents, MKUltra, interrogations beneath solitary light bulbs. Phantom Doctrine goes there, in the form of a turn-based strategy game that’s like a sneakier version of XCOM, or grittier take on Invisible Inc. You’re in charge of a spy agency, unaffiliated with any government and made up of procedurally generated outcasts from the KGB, CIA, and Mossad. Every dirty trick in the spy handbook is on the table as you try to foil a conspiracy to make the Cold War a whole lot hotter. In your dank safe house, you assign agents to clandestine operations, from forging money, to body engineering that boosts their…

Format PC Publisher Star Drifters Developer Star Drifters ETA Summer You just can’t trust wizards. You barely have to turn your back for five minutes before they’re scrapping with each other, summoning up otherworldy horrors, and warping the fabric of time and space. Get enough of them together and it’s only a matter of time before they blow up the world. Thus the setting of this strategy game, available in Early Access on Steam. Following a series of arcane wars, all that remains of the world of Driftland is shattered islands floating in an endless sky. As an all-powerful mage yourself, your job is to build a new kingdom, and hopefully not screw it all up this time. You expand your domain by scouting the mists with your scrying powers,…

Format PC Dev Pathea Games ETA 2018 Web http://bit.ly/gmmytimeatportia If the words ‘inspired by Animal Crossing’ simultaneously delight and terrify you, prepare for this Kickstarter success to ruin your life and make it better all at once. The town of Portia is just waiting for you to start a new life and leave your old analogue one behind. Are there deserts, reefs, highlands, and mines in your real world? Of course not… Creating the ultimate adventure with the right balance of exciting quests and a life sim where you can choose to just spend all day down on the farm meant the devs had to draw on a wide range of inspirations. “We looked at several games when designing My Time At Portia’s gameplay, including Dark Cloud 2, Steambot Chronicles,…

Format PC, XO Publisher PUBG Corporation, Microsoft Developer PUBG Corporation ETA Out now Players 100 Believe the hype. With some caveats. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – or PUBG, as you will have seen it referred to across the entirety of the internet since March 2017 – had already sold millions of copies on the PC before it had even seen its full release, while the Xbox One version bagged over a million sales in its first three days on sale. It’s choppy, buggy, prone to some bizarre idiosyncrasies, and, quite frankly, not finished. And yet, PUBG still manages to be invigorating, fresh and one of the biggest adrenaline rushes we’ve encountered in all of gaming. The setup is initially straightforward: up to 100 players are dropped from a plane on to one…

Format PS4 Publisher Double Fine Developer Bone Loaf ETA Out now Players 1-8 Bone Loaf’s long-gestating frantic wrestler isn’t so much an agent of chaos but a commanding officer of it. A multiplayer brawler where you attempt to be the last person standing, matches seem simple but quickly devolve into a mess of headbutts and flailing limbs. The early hours we spend trying to grapple with its controls and systems provide hilarious moments of physical comedy and brutal finishes that are an absolute riot when you have a sofa full of friends to batter. But the longer your stay in the world of Beef City, the more its blend of fighting anarchy loses flavour. Let’s start where you should with Gang Beasts: its melee mode. A mix of sumo wrestling…

Format PC Publisher THQ Nordic Developer Grimlore Games ETA Out now Players 1-6 This curious combo whisks you back in time with a modern fantasy tale that’s chock-full of intrigue. Set over 500 years before the events of the first game, the absorbing plot explores the persecution of mages and the rise in power of anti-magic cult The Purity Of Light. For fans of the series, it’s intriguing to see the world of Eo before the cataclysmic event known as the Convocation, and for those who haven’t experienced the series before, it’s a nice starting point to delve into this lore-rich, high fantasy world. The prequel housed within this prequel acts as a tutorial to familiarise you with the various systems. While it might look somewhat daunting, it eases you…

Format PC, Mobile (reviewed) Publisher Devolver Digital Developer Nerial ETA Out now Players 1 This regal sequel is about as distilled as a game can be. Taking inspiration from the likes of Mass Effect and The Walking Dead, its focus is choices and their consequences, but it jettisons almost everything else. Moment-to-moment, you’re simply presented with a brief scenario, and must make a binary decision, before being presented with another, and so on. You take the role of a succession of medieval queens, each trying to survive as long as possible by keeping the kingdom’s four factions – the church, the people, the military, and the merchants – in balance. A bishop might, for example, demand that you ban alcohol for your subjects. Agree, and the power of the church…

Call them pals, hombres, or comrades, we all have a special chum who we turn to. Whether it’s a work colleague who helps get you through the 9-to-5 or a bestie you’ve been tight with since old times, there’s no denying that life’s just better when you have someone to share it with. That’s why this month we’re turning our attention to friends who stick it out, whatever the cost. Sometimes they’ve shared the move from 2D to 3D like a certain a moustached plumber and his brother. Other partnerships survive despite a constant barrage of fists and feet. And there are the ones who’ll always appear in each others’ games, no matter how questionable… Without further ado, let’s check out the best buddies of gaming. • RYU AND KEN…

If the shots above haven’t clearly illuminated the kind of game this newly announced title is, then perhaps creator Ethan Redd’s own introduction will help: “Blazing Legion: Ignition is an introspective first-person bullet hell about seven-storey tall mecha and consequences. If the action genre is rock ’n’ roll, this game is black metal.” Sounds pretty cool, right? In motion it’s a flurry of lights that’s hard to take your eyes away from. The first-person mech swerves and slides through the sky, dishing out a hail of bullets. It looks like you’ll constantly be busy, not given one moment to breathe. Redd explains the hectic pace: “From narrative to visual design Blazing Legion is about the feeling of facing insurmountable odds and still coming out swinging, and I’m definitely trying to…

Campo Santo, the developer behind Firewatch, has announced its latest title. It’s another first-person adventure – but this time the action takes us to Egypt. In The Valley Of The Gods casts you as Rashida, a disgraced former explorer and filmmaker, who has paired up with Zora, another explorer, to seek out a secluded valley and its various tombs. Rashida and Zora have a troubled history, and the trust (or lack of) between them will be tested as they navigate the ruins. You will have to repair your relationship with Zora over the course of the game to avoid making your precarious journey even more difficult, and co-operation between the two will be a key feature. The game promises plenty of thrilling exploration and danger, as you find your way…

“THE LILTING, MOODY GUITAR BRINGS HOME THE ‘FRONTIER’ FEELING THAT FAR CRY 5 INTRODUCES” Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Montreal ETA 27 March For our latest hands-on, we’re let truly off the leash in Hope County, Montana. With the freedom to drive, fly, and zipline around a third of Far Cry 5’s sardonically-named setting, we experience the contrast to the rugged terrain of its recent predecessors. The flat sprawl of Montana’s fields is impressive, and the distant mountains are low enough that the sky dominates the horizon, doing digital justice to the ‘Big Sky Country’ moniker that the state prides itself on. But the openness is also daunting, making you feel exposed and vulnerable, a bit like the Savannah regions of Far Cry 2, except with the…

Format PC Publisher Superhot Team Developer Superhot Team ETA Autumn The original ‘time only moves when you do’ first-person shooter, Superhot, was quite the surprise. The central mechanic led to each elaborate setpiece being a little puzzle box – but one where solving it was akin to choreographing a John Wick-esque fight scene. Enter Mind Control Delete, now available in Steam Early Access. This standalone expansion takes Superhot’s central mechanic and visual style and adapts it to an entirely new structure. Instead of a series of finely-tuned, hand-crafted set pieces, you are offered a series of sandbox-like levels tied into a progression system. You can unlock playable characters with unique abilities (one of the two currently available is able to swap bodies with foes) and choose different power-ups. The shift…

Format PC Developer Night School Studio Publisher Night School Studio ETA Summer 2019 After giving us the truly special Oxenfree, developer Night School Studio has announced its next game, and it’s looking no less interesting. Afterparty pits you in a drinking contest against the Devil himself. Sounds easy? Have you learned nothingfrom Cuphead? The game follows Milo and Lola, who’ve been best mates pretty much their whole lives, as they find themselves quite dead and set to face an eternity in Hell. Lucky for them, though, there is one way to get out of this grim afterlife, or so they’re told: by outdrinking the Devil. But to do so they’ll need to find a way into his private afterparty. You play as both Milo and Lola…

Format PC Pub Wadjet Eye Games Dev Wadjet Eye Games ETA Spring You were possessed by a demon but saved by a secret organization who freed you. But while you were possessed you left a trail of blood through New York City. Oops? Thankfully you’ve a chance to undo all the horrible things by joining a secret organisation, the Unavowed, and helping to solve a load of supernatural trouble. This point-and-click game comes from the maker of Gemini Rue, Resonance, and Shardlight. Like those, there’s plenty of detailed backgrounds and characters that recall the style of ’90s adventure games, though this has twice the resolution of the dev’s usual games. The grimy, slightly unsettling world is quite compelling and we can’t wait to see what unfolds. There are plenty of…

Format PS4, PS Vita, PC Dev Spooky Squid Games ETA 2018 Web http://bit.ly/gmrussiansubwaydogs If the most exciting thing that happens on your commute is when you change the flavour of syrup in your morning latte, join the club. The daily bus or train journey doesn’t have much going for it. One thing that would change everything would be if there were all kinds of shapes and sizes of dogs on there with you. It turns out that if you’re travelling to work in Moscow, you’re as likely to have a canine companion as that same guy in a suit who always picks his nose. “I read about the real-life dogs first in a news article back in 2012 when I made a prototype version of Russian…

Format PC Developer Terrifying Jellyfish ETA April Web http://bit.ly/gmnourgame There aren’t many games that make us hungry. You’d think Overcooked would have a chance but we always get too distracted furiously shouting about onions or tomatoes and screaming about dirty dishes. This means there’s definitely a gap in the market for something to tempt those tastebuds. Kickstarter success Nour does just that. It’s time to grab some digital noodles and settle down with a delicious interactive ramen simulator. Yes, really . Ramen at work Lone developer TJ Hughes was inspired by the intriguing shapes, colours, and textures of bubble tea and started 3D modelling glasses of the tapioca-filled drink. It was when he moved onto modelling ramen, though, that he managed to make all of his friends…

Format PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Bethesda Softworks Developer Id Software ETA Out now Players 1 Hats off to Id and Bethesda. Blithely ignoring the limitations of the tech, developer and publisher have invested time and money retooling one of the fastest shooters around for a format where movement – especially movement at speed – is a problem. Does Doom VFR miraculously fix that problem? Of course not. But it has a bloody good go. Emphasis on bloody. It’s a folly, then, albeit occasionally a glorious one. Technically, it’s astounding, appearing somehow sharper than most VR games with no loss of smoothness. It looks like Doom, only this time you’re in it, and that’s an unequivocal win. On paper, the controls are smartly considered, too. A game as immediate as Doom…

After clearing the opulent upper decks of the Leviathan starship, full of big shirtless turtle-rhino boys, the lower levels of the Leviathan are an interesting change, from gold gilded baths to a murky poisonous cyber-swamp. Why is there a giant area full of gross water in this starship? Can you have bilges in the zero gravity of space? Well, the dirty water from the baths has to go somewhere… ew. We’re just going to not think about all the times we fell in the water during that first platforming section. The steerage section of the Leviathan has some serious health and safety violations going on as well – apparently the only way to reach the lowest levels of the starship is to jump into a giant hole with a murderous…

Format Switch (reviewed), Wii U Publisher Nintendo Developer Nintendo ETA Out now Players 1 Forget any notion of this being the ‘story DLC’. The Champions’ Ballad is, in fact, a set of trials tied together by a wisp of narrative thread. That and the absence of new regions to explore might come as a disappointment, but by the time this add-on is over, you’ll have a Goron-sized grin plastered across your face all the same. As far as the story goes, don’t expect to learn much beyond what you already knew. Instead, we get a bit of extra background colour about the Champions themselves, detailed in flashbacks to when Zelda met each of them. There are some delightful moments, notably, a showcase of absolute badassery from Urbosa (easily our pick…

Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Released 1995 Format SNES Get it On Mini SNES or Ebay Dinosaurs are rarely both nice andcool. For instance, Barney The Dinosaur is a lovely fellow, but you’re not going to enjoy ploughing through a boxset of his. On the other hand, the T. rex from Jurassic Park is an icon of cinema, but she’d devour you in the time it takes a glass of water to shake. Well praise be to Yoshi, who might be the only exception to that ultra-specific law. The origin Our green icon made his debut in Super Mario World, the iconic platformer that turned SNES into a must-own console. When discussing the creation of SMW with the official Nintendo website, director Takashi Tezuka claims that Miyamoto once said he wanted…

Awesome Boss! Metal Gear Solid Format PS1 Developer Kojima Productions Released 1997 Psycho Mantis is the original Metal Gear series wild card. A boss who can read your mind (cough, your controller inputs and memory card), which forced you to think in a way no other game did at the time. While plugging your controller into port two might be an easy thing to do, it’s still an ingenious touch that makes Mantis a true original. Classic Moment! Hitman Blood Money Format PC, GameCube, Xbox, PS2 Developer Io Interactive Released 2006 Hitman has always had a silly streak, but the mission ‘The Murder Of Crows’, set during Mardi Gras, walked the perfect line between daft and tense. On the one hand, you were tracking a team of killers who are…