TimeSplitters series
Surreal, satirical, and delivering fun the bucket-load, there's no end of reasons why the TimeSplitters series deserves a place on our list.
"It was not about a character, it was about the variety and being able to mix and match characters and backgrounds, kind of like a sandbox," says TimeSplitters series developer Steve Ellis
"That's what we were going for with it - something where variety was the selling point."
But the jewel in the TimeSplitters crown has always been its multiplayer. Free Radical set out to create a sandbox and we built sandcastles for hours.
Plus, monkeys with machine guns. What's not to love?
Sensible World of Soccer
John Hare's Sensi Soccer or Dino Dini's Kick Off, which one would win? There's only one way to find out!!!
"Sensi Soccer gave me hundreds of hours of fun," says Phil Gaskell, Creative Director of Ripstone. "It was a game I always came back to and fought with my kid brother over. In fact I think I invested in a few top of the range Kempston Pro's just for that game!"
The best version of Jon Hare's franchise was SWOS. It had management elements and a pinball table wall of playing with a top down view that recreated the feel of football if not the looks.
"Loved it," says Skybound's Boutros. "Football for people who couldn't give a shit about football – i.e. me! Just a great, fun, slick, simple to play game."
"Sensible Soccer was my introduction to social multi-player gaming," says Mark Baldwin, Community Manager at New Star Games. "Me and my mates would sit around the Amiga and play tournaments, it was rubbish when we had an odd number because someone had to play the AI and nobody wanted to potentially lose to the computer.
"There was some kind of dignity allowed when losing to one of your mates. So many games today concentrate on single player experiences or online multiplayer, but for me there is something special about playing competitive games in the same room, cajoling your friends when they mess a shot up and bragging when you take a whole team on and curl a shot into the top corner. See also Worms and Street fighter for other great examples of social multiplayer games."
Little Big Planet
Lots of user-generated content made sure that this was as much an immersive and interactive experience as a game. It did well. It had truly British humour. We loved it.
Leo Cubbin, Managing Director of Ripstone; previously internal producer of LittleBigPlanet at Sony, tells us how he "had the pleasure of working alongside Media Molecule on LittleBigPlanet and I have to say they were the most diverse and multicultural team I have ever worked with.
"With team members from Egypt, China, Japan, Sweden, Australia and France to name but a few, it makes me chuckle to see it being described as having "British humour"."
Banjo Kazooie
From the mighty Rare, Banjo Kazooie made our N64s sing. A much-loved title from a fondly-remembered, sorely-missed British gang.
"Rare were exactly that, they had a rare talent for creating amazing games one after the other," says Phil Gaskell, Creative Director of Ripstone. "I played Banjo for many enjoyable hours, and even deconstructed it when I had to design a 3D platform game myself.
"What I loved about the development of the game was how Kazooie came about. The team added a pair of wings that sprang out of Banjo's backpack to help him perform a 'double-jump', they also added a pair of chicken-like legs that appeared from the bottom of the backpack to help him run fast and the logical conclusion was these could belong to another character, one that actually lived in Banjo's backpack.
"This sort've emergent, somewhat serendipitous game design always inspires me to continue creating."
