The fourth lightgun game in the countdown so far – I promise there is more variety in the top 40!

Easily the most ostentatious and blockbusting arcade lightgun game ever, The Lost World was released in three different species: regular, a small booth (a first) and the amazing Trocadero edition.

Based very loosely (naturally) on the film, The Lost World packs in setpiece after setpiece, from thrashing a Jeep in order to escape an army of compies to an amazing boss fight against a giant crocodile, and the final encounter with the T-Rex is probably more memorable than the film itself. Like in the film, however, you’re not allowed to kill the dinosaurs, so you use a combination of tranquilliser darts, flash grenades and suchlike. If only they were zombie dinosaurs I’m sure the game would have been drastically different! 

Although the core game is more or less the same across all versions, the Trocadero cabinet elevates it from enjoyable shooter to an experience to tell your kids about. A huge projection screen stands in front of a rotating seat that twists to give the impression of looking out of a Jeep window, for example. The physical sensation is quite disorienting and certainly makes blasting compies even trickier, but the real joy is the vents that blow damp air when the T-Rex gets too close. Combined with the surround sound and amazing Model 3 graphics, playing The Lost World remains one of my all-time favourite Sega memories.

With its mansion of zombies, House of the Dead is a distinctly un-Sega property at first glance, but that magic is never far from the surface. The twist is in removing the one-shot kill of Virtua Cop in favour of a more trigger-happy approach to blowing limbs off zombies, at once repulsive and satisfying. A steady hand can take the head from a monster’s shoulders, but when they start shambling towards you, mouths sagging open, even the sharpest aim starts to waver.

Of the four games already released, only the shotgun-equipped third entry dips in standard, but the fourth instalment is my favourite. Spraying enemies with machine gun bullets seems more sensible than picking off limbs with a six-shooter, and the action events that require you to shake the weapon is a more intense upper-body workout than Wii Fit could ever muster. Yes, a lot of the enemies and particularly bosses are reworked from the original game, but when viewed as a riff on a game that’s around a dozen years old it’s more an homage than a lack of imagination. 

With House of the Dead 2 & 3 achieving very good sales on Wii, the smart money is on more zombie-blasting antics before too long. Get to it, Sega!

PS: Shortly after I originally wrote this article offline, Sega announced House of the Dead Overkill on Wii. Hurrah!

A real “Ronseal” game – you get exactly what it says on the box. The joy is in customising your cyborgs with everyone from circular saws to flamethrowers, mainly salvaged from the robots you crush along the way.

It’s not only weapons that mark out your killer robot from the others – different bodies have varying defence ratings, and a range of legs lets you do everything from turn into a tank to somersault your way to victory. The control scheme is crying out for a six-button pad when they were still on their way to becoming accepted, but the game makes good use of its ABC limitations to give you an array of attacks with which to mash some robot heads. 

Cyborg Justice may not be exactly the most cerebral of games, but tearing cybernetic limbs from enemies is undeniably one of the most satisfying moments from scrolling beat ‘em up history.

By far Sega’s most successful arcade game ever, you only have to walk near a Daytona USA cabinet to realise why – that theme tune is the mating call of Sega racing joy.

On your own it’s an enjoyable racer against a very muscular CPU, but with a friend or seven it becomes easily the most exciting multiplayer arcade game ever produced. Extremely smart mechanics and AI ensure every single game is sure to include pile-ups, huge crashes and skin-of-your-teeth takeover manoeuvres you’ll be talking about long after the famous Game Over tune hits you. Daytona is full of such iconic moments: the Sonic Wall on 777 Speedway; the Hornet brand; the opening call of "Daaaytoonaaaaa!" in "Let’s Go Away". 

Here’s a testament to how integral Daytona is to Sega; I’m still bitter about once being lapped by my brother Phil on Daytona 2 after not realising my foot was slightly pressed against the brake the whole race through. Sometimes counselling can’t help.

Brave Firefighter continued Sega’s heritage of pitting players against huge real-life dangers – terrorists, criminal syndicates, dinosaurs – with three levels of incendiary action. A ring on the nozzle let you control the shape of your spray, from wide angle to precise beam, and the level design featured some tremendously scripted events.

Although a novelty on the surface, like a fair amount of Sega’s arcade output at that time, Brave Firefighter‘s quirky exterior gives way to reveal a satisfying arcade experience. Saving civilians isn’t quite as rewarding as in Sega’s home anti-incendiary classic Burning Rangers, but the fire is much more menacing and, I’m sure, served as inspiration for Far Cry 2‘s recently much-acclaimed fire. Yep.

Hey, and guess what? Wouldn’t it be perfect for the Wii Remote? I can just imagine someone at Sega furiously scribbling notes at this countdown. “Of course! Lightgun games would be perfect for Wii!”