ECCO 2: THE TIDES OF TIME

Mega Drive Pal | 1994

Ecco returns for his second oceanic adventure. No major changes to the gameplay over the original but better graphics and better levels to play such as 3D sections and morphing into other marine animals.

You take on the queen of the alien vortex who has followed Ecco back to Earth to take up root in the oceans. Dolphins from the future contact Ecco in the present and he begins his mission to destroy the invasion.

There are about 25 levels taking you from your serene home bay to the technological innards of the aliens themselves.

A slightly enhanced version of the game was released on the Mega CD. The next installment in the Ecco series was on the Dreamcast in 2000 with Ecco: Defender of the Future. The game is a full immersive 3D experience. It was also released on the Playstation 2 later in the year.

Check out the feature for Ecco 2.

BUST A MOVE 2

Saturn Pal | 1996

Bust a Move is one of those love or hate games that never seems to stop being remade. The game is a simple puzzler making it very addictive.

Match 3 or more coloured balls as you fire them from your cannon below to pop them and clear your section. The difficulty factor is the barrier above your character. When your collection of balls crosses the line your out. All the time they are being pushed down from above and if playing with an opponent your section becomes filled with their waste.

You can play either a single player adventure style game taking on puzzles increasing in difficulty or play 1 on 1 against a CPU opponent or another player if they have the balls.

Bust a Move has appeared on everything in one form or another with the latest release being Bust a Move 4 on Playstation in 1999 and Dreamcast in 2000. Bust a Move 3000 is due out on the Nintendo Game Cube later this year.

SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER 2 TURBO

Saturn Pal | 1997

Various characters from the Street Fighter series make an appearance in this puzzler.

The play mechanics require you to build large colored gems and then break them to overload your opponent with counter gems. The more you break, the better your score and the more crap you kick out of your opponent. If you break a certain amount of gems, your character will do a super move from his/her fighting game. You loose by having your area full to the top.

The game was originally an arcade title but was ported to Saturn and Playstation. A version is due out for the Gameboy Advance.

GRAND THEFT AUTO

PC, DOS/WINDOWS, 3DFX | 1998

The original gangster-vigilante style game that caused all that stir several years ago. Embark on missions starting around the city of San Andreas with your middle finger to the authorities.

This is done by utilizing other people’s vehicles. i.e steal just about any car on the road.

You have a small arsenal at your disposal. Firstly you have your fist, a pistol, machine gun, flame thrower and rocket launcher not forgetting using your stolen car being pretty useful in running down pedestrians and hearing the crunch!

The game is full of bad language and the sound track is brilliant.

What’s good is that you can play the game by following the missions or if you’re feeling murderous bomb around the streets terrorizing.

Grand Theft Auto: The Collectors Edition has just been released for Playstation. Priced £15 it contains the original Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto London and Grand Theft Auto 2.