Arcana - HAL

Genre - RPG

SNES

To be honest, this was a shameless rip off of Sega's Shining In The Darkness, but it did things so much better. The graphics, the music, the basic quest itself were all better than that found in Sega's effort. The music is some of the best I've ever heard in any videogame.

If you happen to see this lying in a bargain bin at your local shop, buy it - I promise you won't regret it.

Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge - Konami

Genre - Action Platformer

Gameboy

Far and away the best Castlevania out of the three produced for the black and white Gameboy. It's said that a large number of the team behind this game were those who left Konami in the early 90's to form the legendary codehouse Treasure (Radiant Silvergun, Gunstar Heroes).

The graphics are as good as you can expect for the Gameboy, but it's the gameplay and music which really stand out. This is one of the most addictive Castlevanias, and offers a stern challenge without being annoying. The programmers managed to get the most out of the Gameboy's weak sound chip, and some of the tunes here rank as the best in the whole Castlevania series.

Just make sure you stay away from the first Gameboy Castlevania and the most recent, Castlevania Legends - they are both awful.

Silpheed - GameArts

Genre - Shooting

Mega CD

When StarFox was released on the SNES, Sega tried to hit back with this semi 3D shooter on the Mega CD. It wasn't anywhere as good as StarFox in terms of gameplay, but the graphics were jaw droppingly good. The intro will always stick in my mind - this was the first real example of the FMV intros we so often today.

The gameplay was shallow yet addictive, and although it may look like a dog by today's standards, this still manages to impress on a certain level. If you can pick it up cheap (like I did) it'll provide a few days worth of old school entertainment.

Ultima 7 - Origin/EA

Genre - RPG

PC

Forget the recent additions to the Ultima series - this was the last decent game in the series. The graphics are still impressive today - the level of detail is amazing. The depth and open ended nature of the game meant you could get lost for weeks without actually doing anything. There was a whole world to explore, and you were given basic quest guidelines but you didn't have to follow them - if you wanted to, you could just spend all day baking bread or producing clothing and then sell them for profit. This open, real world structure is reflected in the Ultima Online series.

As well as the main game (subtitled The Black Gate), there was a semi-sequel in the form of The Serpents Isle, and two expansion packs, The Forge Of Virtue and The Silver Seed. All these games are available in the Complete Ultima 7 pack.

Golden Axe - Sega

Genre - Fighting

MegaDrive

One of the first games to be released for Sega's 16-bit beauty, and it's still as addictive today as it was ten years ago. Golden Axe took the basic gameplay of Double Dragon and placed it in a fantasy landscape. The MegaDrive version was almost arcade perfect, which was just stunning all those years ago...like having the arcade game in your home.

You should be able to pick this up for next to nothing...it's also on the Mega CD "Sega Arcade Classics" disc, which came free with the machine.

International SuperStar Soccer - Konami

Genre - Sports

SNES
This one came out of the blue when it was released in 1994. Before ISS, the only console soccer games worth playing was Kick Off and Sensible Soccer. However, Konami's effort was better looking, more playable, more action packed and sounded amazing. The "side on" close up viewpoint was different to only other game on the market at the time, and ISS also introduced a feature which is now common place in soccer games - the "sprint" button. When you become familiar with the controls it was possible to score some stunning goals - overhead kicks, dummy shots, diving headers, the lot. Another neat feature was the sound - the crowd responded to where you were in the field of play - if you were in the middle of the pitch, far from goal, the crowd noise would die down, but if the play was taking place in front of goal, the crowd would start to cheer and shout. Also, the crowd noise depended on what team you were playing - Brazil, for example, would have a samba beat. And last, but not least, there was the commentator - when a goal was scored he would shout at the top of voice "GGGOOAAALLL!".
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