Benny

HOTPICK #6

 

Well, in all the confusion and excitement of collapsing timelines and jolly invasions, I’ve forgotten what I had decided for the next HOTPICK was going to be. Hmm wait, there seems to be a post-it note on my desk that just says,

 

Frequency

 

 

(voted for by: Jolly)

 

I never quite got on with early rhythm action titles. PaRappa the Rapper was charming but didn’t grab me. Space Channel 5 was ridiculous but felt a little slight. Vib Ribbon is the best thing ever but didn’t hold my interest after I’d exhausted my CD collection with it. As for DDR… I would forlornly observe it in the wild, knowing I was too flat footed and self conscious for it.

 

That all changed with Frequency.

 

From bopping along to the very first bars of the fizzy, sickeningly sweet “Science Genius Girl”, to deliberately missing the vocal track on “XLR8R”, I was HOOKED.

 

Track after track of sometimes incredible and sometimes questionable music became a digital drug par excellence, pushing you into chasing higher and higher scores, looking for that perfect route, trying to keep the multiplier going ever higher as you never skip a beat.

 

Once you finally learn to use the shoulder buttons, your fingers start to dance across the pad like a virtuoso pianist, becoming one with the machine.

 

Long before Guitar Hero would force unwieldy controllers and endless Dad Rock on us, the alluring score attack puzzle of Frequency was the only place to be. The excellent sequel may have been more refined, and more forgiving in button timings, but the flat, road based structure sacrificed a large amount of player freedom in deciding your route through the course.

 

The enduring genius of the octagonal grid is you could freely approach any bar from any angle, leaving the hard bits for your power ups, or, if you were really getting good, saving those parts for when you had the biggest multiplier, pushing that score as far as it would go.

 

A tricky game, but with an extremely well judged difficulty curve. Once you finally unlocked tracks like “FreQ Out” you were ready for the big leagues. Pulse pounding expert modes where your fingers would have to move faster than anything you could find in a fighting game, shmup, or racer. This is the purest reaction gaming ever gets.

 

It takes a while to get there, but once you can play perfectly on the hardest difficulty: going for high scores while listening to Freezepop is worse than crack.

 

Getting too old for this shit.

For fuck’s sake 2015 Benny, you had one job, and you messed it up like always. Wait, what’s that bright light?

 

Oh my God, It’s Benny 2999!

 

ERROR. TIMELINE MALFUNCTION

 

TOP 100 ORDER RESTORATION IN PROGRESS.

 

CORRECTION IN 3. 2. 1…

 

54. Chrono Trigger

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 53, down 22)

 

Chrono Trigger is now, I think, my favourite JRPG. There may be certain Final Fantasies that can rival it through sheer weight of nostalgia, but everything about the game is just so pitch perfect in every way that it will always be one of the very best of the genre. I adore it:

 

“Ah Chrono Trigger. I discovered this quite late as not owning a SNES back in the day plus when it was released PC games were starting to capture my interest, but it doesn't matter when you discovered Chrono Trigger, as you can play it today and it is still as fresh an experience as it ever was, and hands-down shames nearly every other RPG ever made since.

 

The obvious point of comparison for this game is with that other, more interminable RPG series of Square’s: the Final Fantasy series. And this is actually a good comparison to make, as Square have rarely captured with that series the same depth of storytelling, incredibly likeable characters, sense of fun, inventiveness, charm and utter flawless brilliance that they managed to knock out of the park with Chrono Trigger.

 

The visual design has held up far better than the PlayStation instalments of the FF series, as the pixel art has as much appeal as it ever did, perhaps even more so these days. And the MIDI music score by Yasunori Mitsuda is of a quality up there with Nobuo Uematsu’s best. There are gameplay innovations introduced here that Square were seemingly bafflingly reluctant of reusing for other games, which is a shame - the non-random battling with enemies that you could actually avoid and where the battles actually took place on the same screen as the one where you met the enemies on was a breath of fresh air compared to nearly every other RPG. It makes even Final Fantasy XIII, with all its wiz-bang graphical technical wizardry, look positively archaic with its immersion breaking random battle screen transition effects that seem cumbersome and stupid by comparison. In Final Fantasy XII they at least tried to do the more Chrono Trigger style of encounters, and it was much better for it.

 

It’s not worth going much into the brilliance of the game’s story, as so much of this game just needs to be experienced for yourself without any prior knowledge, but suffice to say, it is one rip-roaring, time spanning adventure that is almost unrivalled in gaming in general. If you've not played it yet and you have any interest in well told stories in games at all, I urge you to seek it out. You will be rewarded richly, and then some, by one of the finest games ever made.

 

The fact that it is ranked much higher than on the previous lists suggests that it has possibly been gaining more fans over time as people discover its greatness, or how much better it is than modern fare, which is a very good thing.”

 

Well, ranked higher until now that is. Philistines!

51. The Last Guardian

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 72, down 21)

 

*shoos Jolly away*

 

And here we mark the half-way point with the most troubled but ambitious of the Ueda trilogy. Drop the game disc in a PS5, and apparently the technical issues melt away. Or so I’ve been told. Everyone is going crazy right now for a game about a cyberpunk cat, but let me tell you, five years ago is was all about the kittybirbdoggo things:

 

“What a pleasant and welcome surprise this is. After all the endless delays, then criticism of framerates, poor optimisation and archaic controls, this is still absolutely deserving of a place in the list as one of Ueda’s most enchanting and interesting creations. 

 

This is one of those games where it is best to know as little as possible and to experience the joy of discovery yourself. One thing I can say is that whether it is largely smoke and mirrors that achieves it, or if there are far more complex behavioural systems going on, the illusion of sharing a space with a living, breathing and sympathetic creature that this game creates is nothing short of remarkable.

 

There is something magical about Ueda’s games that could not be replicated by any other designer, and often the themes and mysteries within them are as much a product of environmental storytelling as player interaction and progress. Here that sense of place and otherworldly majesty is given a true heart and soul, and is absolutely unforgettable.”

 

I’d like to replay it one of these days. Better find myself a PS5. Whatever that is.

 

Now go away past Bennies, before you really mess up the timeline. Wait, hold on... Something is... Missing.

53. Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (Rock Band 3)

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 34, up 8 )

 

I have still never played Rock Band 3, and most likely never will, given the faff of getting all the bits for it. So in the interest of celebrating my other great love: rock music, let me talk about one of my favourite prog rock concept albums ever.

 

One of the side effect of growing up during the dawn of the Internet Age, where the ability to freely download and listen to pretty much anything you wanted meant the progression of music culture would start to resemble a flat line, was that you could become exposed to albums that might maybe have been previously relegated to a dusty shelf of vinyls in your parent’s loft.

 

The scope for discovering new music in the late 90s to early 2000s seemed genuinely quite boundless, and one such album I discovered in this time of plenty was:

 

Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds.

 

I had grown up listening to the classic Orsone Welles narrated radio play version of the book, and being a big, rock loving sci-fi nerd I of course gravitated straight to this album.

 

From the first excerpt from the book, an intro that burst forth with thundering strings, leading into the thumping cosmic disco beats, I was hooked instantly.

 

What surprises is just how many passages of the book are weaved into the opera. They sit naturally within each piece such that it sometimes feels like this was how the story was always meant to be told.

 

Forget Spielberg - that Tom Cruise movie could never have hoped to reach the sheer majesty and incredible apocalyptic imagery this album conjures up in your mind.

 

From angelic martial choirs, to savage heat-ray guitars, it’s a blast. ULLA!

 

It’s the kind of thing that makes you want to break out an instrument and try to play along. If only there were games that let you do that, like some sort of Progressive Rock Band simulator.

 

Wait, you want me to talk about games again? Right I’ll get on that…

 

 

52. Leftism (Wipeout HD/Fury/Omega)

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 52, up 7)

 

The original Wipeout is for me a curious thing, it arrived before I was old enough to understand what was so “cool” about it, other than that the graphics were amazing, and it sounded like no game I had ever played before.

 

Maybe it infected my brain just enough though, because playing Wipeout and hearing things like “Afro Ride” for the first time would start my enduring love of all things dancey and ravey. So, with that in mind, let me talk now about my favourite album of all time:

 

Leftfield: Leftism.

 

Wait, what’s that? I’ve pulled this bait-and-switch twice already? Well It’s my list and I’ll do what I wan… Hold on, there’s someone at the door…

 

Oh hey 2015, 2017 and… 2018 Bennies, what do you want?

 

“Speed is still a major factor in WipEout HD, but one distinct advantage it has over other racers is the sheer gorgeousness of the visuals, and it has been refined from the previous instalments into a game that is actually playable. The learning curve is absolutely spot on, and the amount of content here is incredible. Quite a surprise entry into the top 100 in fact, but well deserved.”

 

Okay, 2015, you’ve said your piece, now fuck off and let me discuss Leftfield. What is it, 2017?

 

“I just wanted to let you know that HD and Fury are now part of the frankly superb looking Omega Collection, which is the definitive WipEout experience.”

 

That’s quite enough, get out of my house, and take your drug fuelled buddy 2018 with you.

 

“No wait! I won’t stop you discussing dance albums in a top 100 games thread, but… My “friend” will!”

 

[2018 Benny starts to perform some sort of bizarre incantation, that looks like an unholy cross between an Irish jig and a Melbourne shuffle]

 

No, STOP! What are you doing? You’ll Summon HIM