I don’t know if its me or are police men getting younger?!. I remember when summers were hot, crisps cost 10p and gaming used to be fun. Games nowadays have to be such huge epic cinematic master pieces to deliver what is expected of the next gen machines that often a simple thing like gameplay gets lost. With the recent arrival of PSP Mini’s I got a glimpse back into my gaming past and that got me thinking about what it could do for the retro gaming market in the future, its perfect. The games need to be small, simple and fun and best of all they are already made !. These are 5 games I think need to be remade for the Mini’s market. They are classic games that although they are from the 90’s they are timeless works of gaming art that need to live again.   Let us know of any other games in our forum
Cannon Fodder: Appearing in 1993 on the Amiga but soon got ported onto other machines as it proved a massive hit with the fans.   It’s a classic real time strategy game from the same guys behind sensible soccer. You control a squadron of grunts using two simple controls move and shoot. One of the finest RTS games ever made mixing action and humour perfectly. It has a steady learning curve it proved tricky but not annoyingly so.
Desert strike:  Desert strike showed up on the Mega drive back in 1992. It was one of EA’s big success stories gathering great reviews and massive retail sales topping the charts for quite a while.    It’s a helicopter based shoot em up you view the action from outside the chopper on open multidirectional scrolling maps in an isometric perspective. The player controls a single Apache as well as micro managing fuel and ammo you fly around destroying enemy weapons and buildings and rescuing hostages. Multiple missions make up each level.  Slower than many shooters at the time but it offered more than the usual blasting.
Sensible soccer: Another classic from the guys at Sensible software. 1992 saw the release of one of the best football games ever made.     Although it had simple game play & simple graphics it was its user friendly set up and massive data base of world wide clubs and countries that made it a massive hit. Giving people easy access to make there own league and cup tournaments between friends. Meaning it was great fun battling your mates something that seems to have been lost from modern gaming.   It received many awards and was even referred to as one of the most important games of all time.
Sim City 2000: From developers Maxis this iteration came strangely not in 2000 but 1993 and while I could pick any of the Sim city games this one is the pivotal game which took it over the threshold and made it a really great game.      Introducing neighbouring cities to deal with, the ability to rezone areas of different densities giving you more control over your city. It was a simple top down isometric view again. You started with a blank canvas and took it from there building roads, power plants, zoning areas for residential, commercial or industrial development. All the time trying to balance to budget and keep the locals happy safe and healthy. Not an easy task by any means.
Fallout 1: Released by Interscope in 1997 this is the first in the series of post apocalyptic tales.    It consists of travelling the ruined world visiting locations and interacting with people in real time although the combat is in a turn based form. Like the recent Fallout 3 your actions have reactions and you are faced with many dilemmas do you look after number 1 or do you stop to help the people you meet. Karma perks & power ups are all included to allow character development. A great story and the ability to roam and do what you liked made got this game many an award.