MOST OF THE TIME WE HAVE IMPECCABLE TASTE, ONLY PLAYING THE ABSOLUTE BEST OF THE BEST. STILL, OCCASIONALLY EVEN WE HERE AT PLAY LIKE TO LET LOOSE AND PLAY SOMETHING A LITTLE LESS UNIVERSALLY ACCLAIMED. THINK OF THESE GAMES AS VIRTUAL JUNK FOOD: THEY AREN’T GOOD FOR OUR HEALTH, BUT THEY TASTE DAMN GOOD.DYNASTY WARRIORS
IT’S NO SECRET that we love Dynasty Warriors, but the series still has a bad reputation in the West. We understand the gameplay can be a bit repetitive, but when that gameplay consists of kicking the asses of thousands of soldiers with enormous weapons and badass magic, why exactly is it a bad thing? The Dynasty Warriors entries are good games, and we will continue to shout such a fact from the rooftops until it sticks.
RESIDENT EVIL 6
FANS OF THE original Resident Evil games can’t be happy with the direction the series has taken in the last decade. While Resi 4 was an excellent revitalisation of a franchise in danger of becoming irrelevant, subsequent titles have focused more on the action aspect, becoming less scary as a result. So no, Resi 6 is not a good Resi game. What it is, though, is a fun shooter with a crazy story that is a blast when playing co-op with a friend.
RIBBIT KING
AN OBSCURE PS2 game that nobody played, Ribbit King holds a special place in the hearts of the Play team thanks to the bi-annual Ribbit King Christmas Cup (which is rarely held at Christmas). Revolving around the fi ctional sport of frolf (frog, golf, duh), Ribbit King has you attempting to hit a frog into a hole in as few shots as ossible. The problem with this is that the frog tends to do whatever the hell it wants…
METAL GEAR SOLID 2
MGS2 IS A good game with a bizarre, almost crippling story. We still aren’t exactly sure what was going on at the Big Shell, but we do know that whiner Raiden is no replacement for the grizzled heroism of our boy, Solid Snake. In many ways, MGS2 was the worst thing to happen to the franchise, as although 3 was great, MGS4 was an entire game dedicated to explaining what happened in 2. But despite all this, we still love it.
SNIPER ELITE
IF SHOOTING NAZIS in the face in incredibly graphic slow motion is wrong, we don’t want to be right. Sniper Elite is an average series, a fun sniping sim offset by too much bland shooting with other weapons, but the amazing killcam saves it. The appeal never gets old, seeing your bullet travel through the body of an enemy soldier, shattering bones, splitting organs and tearing fl esh. Yeah, it’s horrible, but we are kind of sick.
MORTAL KOMBAT
THE NEW MORTAL Kombat game wasn’t a great fi ghting game. Compared to its contemporaries, Mortal Kombat didn’t hold up as a competitive fi ghter developed for high-level competition. So why did we enjoy it so much? That’s easy: fatalities. No game features gore as imaginative or absurd, with some of the horrifi c things these characters do to each other enough to give a Daily Mail reader a heart attack due to moral outrage.
DEADLY PREMONITION
ARGUABLY THE MOST divisive game of the last generation, Deadly Premonition got 1/10 scores from some outlets and 10/10 from others. Some say it’s a work of subversive genius in the style of Twin Peaks, others think it is just a poorly-made mess with ugly graphics and an awful script. The thing is, it all adds to the strange otherworldliness that makes Deadly Premonition one of the most bizarrely atmospheric games of last gen. It’s utterly unique, and as long as you know what are getting yourself into, everyone should give it a try. Don’t be put off by the slow opening and awful controls and you’ll fi nd a surprisingly decent story as well.
THE SIMPSONS ROAD RAGE
THE SIMPSONS HAS had plenty of terrible games over the years (remember The Simpsons Wrestling on PSone?) but Road Rage, a rip-off of Crazy Taxi and GTA, was surprisingly enjoyable. Driving around a fully-realised Springfi eld was cool, and some of the lines were actually amusing enough to elicit a chuckle. It’s aged pretty badly, but at the time we probably enjoyed Road Rage a lot more than we should have done. For being the best of a bad bunch of Simpsons games, and by no
means the worst GTA clone of the time, Road Rage actually raises a fond, nostalgic smile when we think of it. ‘Eat my shorts’, and so on.
TRUE CRIME: STREETS OF LA
A GTA CLONE cashing in at the height of the series’ popularity on PS2, True Crime was at once both wholly unremarkable and surprisingly enjoyable, in a terrible sort of way. The hand-to-hand kung-fu combat was pretty fun, but what really set the game apart was towards the end of the story when supernatural elements are introduced and you suddenly go from fi ghting criminal thugs to ancient mystical dragons. Erm, what? The whole thing jumps the shark so high it enters orbit, turning from a gritty crime thriller to a cheesy kung-fu movie. It’s bloody great, if only for how utterly insane it is.
WWE
WE ARE HUGE wrestling fans, and as such we still enjoy the yearly WWE games despite knowing that really, they just aren’t very good. We hoped and dreamed that a new developer would take up the games once the licence moved over to 2K, and while steps have been made, it still hasn’t happened. We like these games because we like wrestling, not because they are good games, but we can’t deny it is fun to play as our favourite wrestlers and beat each other up every now and then. Creating your own fi ghters is fun too, as is navigating a full season mode and creating your own storylines. If only the actual gameplay wasn’t so bloody rubbish, eh? Here’s hoping 2K15 is a big improvement…
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