Everyone's UK games lists (except Frank's)

... because frank is off doing something for the video game history foundation and didn't respond to my email (hi, it's brandon writing this).

Anyway - we did the list differently this time, where we each brought a personal list of favorites and recommended them one by one. I think it worked pretty well! Obviously with this system not every game would get discussed, so as usual we're presenting our individual lists for your enjoyment.

First, let's have the annotated (and ordered!) list from Mathew Kumar, aka Captain Scotland:

He says: "I wrote some commentary because whyyyy not"
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1. Sensible World of Soccer

Of course.

2. Elite

I considered First Encounters, which I played the most, but I wanted to put some respect on Ian Bells name.

3. Lemmings

SCOTLAND!!!

4. Head Over Heels

Allows you to ride Prince Charles's head on a Dalek body. Nuff said!

5. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

It's the one I remember enjoying the most--though I kind of wanted to pick the original. I maybe rate this one over III in terms of creating modern gaming because of the licensed soundtrack and actual attempt to have a real plot with real actors and shit. I liked the PSP sequel, too...

6. Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe

ICE CREAM!!!

7. Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

Still got a great multiplayer mode that few have ripped off, really fast and fun. I like the original Supercars a lot though too.

8. Fantasy World Dizzy

Even though we picked Prince of the Yolkfolk, I picked this on my list for being an Oliver Twins joint. Plus they did these all on Amstrad CPC as the primary platform--RESPECT

9. Skool Daze

Still love this. More games in mundane spaces that aren't like... walking sims please?

10. UFO: Enemy Unknown

Fucking incredible from top to bottom. Should probably be higher, it's just hard as balls and the UI is tough to swallow these days. Never beaten it. I will one day.

11. Blast Corps

Probably Rare's most britishy game outside of their Ultimate Play the Game days, and the best "I'm a wank" choice if you want to pick a Rare game.. Makes me think of the DMA games on the N64 (Space Station Silicon Valley, Body Harvest, etc.) that I wish I liked more.

12. Manic Miner

Oh hey, I did put this on my list. The single screen platformer from another dimension... the British dimension. Tough but sort of weirdly fair. Completely incomprensible as an experience now, it's just so different from yer Marios.

13. Syndicate

I always remember Peter Molyneux saying in an interview that they used to have baby carriages in the game that you could like, tear up with mini-gun fire. Classic Molyneux.

14. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

Controversially above TxK.

15. TxK

Controversially below Geometry Wars.

16. 3D Death Chase

Ah fuck man did we even mention this? It is definitely the best ZX Spectrum game. Simple and playable and Atari should have ripped this off in vector-stylee for the arcades because we'd still be talking about it if they had. (brandon's note: we didn't mention this)

17. Batman: Arkham Asylum

I'll get around to Knight but City was such a bummer that I find it so hard to imagine that it's better but hell I'll trust you on it.

18. Crackdown

SCOTLAND!!!

19. Burnout Paradise

One day I'll replay this. The day it's less than five bucks on Switch.

20. Forza Horizon 4

Incredibly fun, almost Paradise-alike in that it's "do everything with cars". It's low because it didn't have the balls to just be set in Scotland, the GOOD bit of Britain (Wales is alright too, don't get me wrong.)
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Right!! Now let's do my (brandon's) list. I didn't order mine, but I'll do a little commentary too.

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Outrun 2006 coast 2 coast
it's the best outrun game and it was made in SHEFFIELD. Once I couldn't get Sonic R through I abandoned all these Sumo Digital and TT Games things.

Sonic R
Anyone who isn't super sonic racing needs to get their feet right on the ground. Also if you've never looked at Jon Burton's youtube channel about TT Games coding tricks, you owe yourself a visit. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfVFSjHQ57zyxajhhRc7i0g 

Sonic 3D blast
More TT Games stuff. I quite like it, he did a director's cut of the genesis game, and the Saturn game has the Jacques soundtrack.

Virtua Tennis and Sega Superstars Tennis
Okay maybe I was being a LITTLE cheeky with these.

Alien Resurrection
Really solid horror twinstick FPS whose graphics really hold up today. You should give it a try! Check out this widescreen upscaled 4K mod of the game and tell me it's not still gorgeous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOekK_C1tgg

Tempest 2000 OR txk if anyone prefers
Turns out people preferred txk.

xeno crisis
Y'all have heard me talk about this game enough, but I think it's really good, ESPECIALLY on the genesis.

wipeout XL / 2097
You gotta have a wipeout. I chose this one!

chaos engine/soldiers of fortune
I put this up instead of xeno crisis because I knew I could get it through but I do think xeno crisis is the better game.

Alien 3
secretly really cool "perfectable" action game in which dying and learning the routes are part of the process. One of the better licensed games of the era.

Soul star
one of the few games to really make good use of the Sega CD's hardware. The scaling and rotation in this game are just beastly.  

Plok
Plok is cool, he needs to find his flag.

Judge Dredd?
I wasn't sure about this so I put a question mark. The Genesis game is what I meant, here.

ones I thought someone else would say:
batman: arkham asylum
goldeneye (I'm still surprised nobody got this one in there)
a GTA
A red dead
Elite
Right! That's my list.

Now, let's have Bennett Foddy! No commentary, but yes ranking!

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1. Exile, BBC Micro

2. Gods, Amiga

3. Damocles, Amiga

4. Wizkid, Amiga

5. IK+, C64/Amiga

6. Syndicate, Amiga  

7. Cannon Fodder, Amiga

8. Zarch, Acorn Archimedes

9. Populous, Amiga

10. The Sentinel, BBC Micro

11. Paradroid ’90, Amiga

12. Alien8, ZX Spectrum

13. Deus Ex Machina, ZX Spectrum

14. Spindizzy Worlds, Amiga

15. Hunter, Amiga

16. Turbo Esprit, ZX Spectrum

17. Pipemania, Amiga

18. Frontier: Elite II, Amiga

19. Midwinter, Amiga

20. Lemmings, Amiga

I know that Bennett went primarily for "important" over playable, with "interesting" as a close second to "important" in his decision making process, which is why you see so many older games here.

Well that's what we got! I can grab Frank's list eventually but I think it's going to be exactly the games he recommended, ha ha.

ENJOY