Jdanddiet's Top 100 games - Part 10 - The Top Ten

010.Flashback (Megadrive)
The MD was awash with cartoony platformers and beat em ups, so a complex arcade adventure such as Flashback, the spiritual successor to Another World, was very welcome back in 1994. Technically brilliant (thanks to the superb animation and some lovely graphics), Flashback was an intriguing and immersive game that challenged the mind as well as manual dexterity.

009.Match Day 2 (Spectrum)
You know what I like to do in Football games? Pass. Yep, scoring goals is nice, but putting together a slick, swift passing move is far more enjoyable to me, even if you don't score at the end of it. Thanks to Jon Ritman's superb diamond deflection technique, flick-ons, headers and through balls were all possible to an experienced player, thus hugely extending the playing time of this excellent simulation. It's slipped a few places thanks to a slow pace that's admittedly not a problem when emulated.

008.Laser Squad (Spectrum)
As brilliant as Rebelstar and its sequel were, Laser Squad upped the ante so far that it is streets ahead of Gollop's other classics. Offering a turn-based challenge once more, LS included hidden enemies, a huge variety of weapons, numerous scenarios and addictive, thoughtful gameplay. Fantastic stuff, and even more so in two-player mode.

007.Tenchu Stealth Assassins (Playstation)
Perhaps the most divisive of my top 10, yet a game that captured my imagination from the get-go. Yes, the graphics are terrible; yes the dialogue is cringeworthy. But I love it. Atmospheric and intuitive to control once you get the hang of it, the only disappointment is the fact that none of the sequels have quite managed to capture the magic again.

006.Resident Evil: REMake (Gamecube) NEW ENTRY
Let's be honest, the original Resi is starting to look a little tired round the edges. Capcom brilliantly updated it for the Gamecube, not only improving the gameplay (for example, the 180 degree spin-around move is now present), but also the graphics, music and dialogue. A triumph, and one of the best games on the 'cube.

005.Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)
If the benchmark for this top 100 was solely the amount of time spent on a game, C&C: RA would win hands down. Apart from the one player campaign, the amount of time I lost to the skirmish mode doesn't bear thinking about. Add in the brilliant Killer Ants secret missions and the ability to play whilst eating a pizza and you have a perfect strategy game.

004.Baldur's Gate II (PC)
The original was brilliant as well, but this sequel improved many aspects (such as removing some of the annoying restrictive rule conditions) and also kicked along the plot quite nicely. Bioware have struggled in my opinion to produce anything since to match BG2's majesty.

003.Streets of Rage 2 (Megadrive)
I'm no fan of BEU's, but this superb sequel makes my top ten nonetheless. As a scrolling fighter, it concentrates less on fancy moves and combos and more on despatching as many bad guys as possible and in the shortest time. Add in great co-op and vs modes and you have an all-time classic that I still go back to regularly all these years later.

002.Half Life 2 (PC)
As I wrote in my PC Gamer Magazine "Uncensored" review many moons ago, the word classic is bandied around far too much. Yet in the case of Half Life 2, it fits precisely. With great variation and playability as well as some atmospheric doom-laden trawls through a shattered city, HL2 improved greatly on an already pretty decent game.

001.Resident Evil 4 (Playstation 2)
You've probably gathered by now I'm a huge RE fan and the fourth instalmant has seen more play than I think any game ever. Completed many many times over, the PS2 version gets the nod over the Gamecube thanks to the Separate Ways Ada Wong mission. Includes possibly the finest extra ever in the Mercenaries, a frantic few levels of exquisite ganado-killing.

So there you have it, my top 100 games! Reckon they'll be a few changes next year...