Pretty much a James Bond lightgun game but without the licence, Confidential Mission is as slick and enjoyable as any game of the genre, with plenty of charm and action to satisfy anybody. It also featured one of my favourite fliers, which you can see in full by clicking the photo below – I wanted to apply, but I don’t like Martinis.

Confidential Mission will be familiar to anyone who’s ever picked up a Virtua Gun – rings that surround enemies change from green to red as the danger increases, and there’s plenty of background interaction, my favourite being knocking the skulls off monkey skeletons in the game’s first level.

With a greater use of gadgets than its Virtua brethren, Confidential Mission presents missions like using sticky bullets to block gas vents, or shooting a zip wire across a huge gap. It’s all daft stuff but perfectly captures that ironic air Bond films possessed at the time, and with a friend is the most fun you can have shooting fat foreign baddies.

Yes, F-Zero‘s a Nintendo property, but Sega’s Amusement Vision got the best out of it with these arcade and Gamecube releases. The rollercoaster courses fly past at incredible speeds, and the custom machine creator lends longevity to the adrenaline. The story mode present in the Gamecube’s F-Zero GX is an odd inclusion that also stands as one of the most frustrating adventures in any game ever – I don’t know anybody who kept their sanity through the canyon race. 

Of course, you can’t possibly criticise an F-Zero game for having a bad story mode, especially when the sublime blend of fast reflexes and course knowledge works so well. The core thrill of boosting past 2,000 kph to blast past your opponents is enough to forgive all problems, and it’s great to see Sega doing a Nintendo game better than they ever did.

As regular readers will notice, the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers is conspicuous by its absence today, as it’s being handled superbly by Eclipse over at GamingMyWay.com. It’s still full of all the usual Carnival goodness including Old-Wizard flame-baiting, StarCraft unit statistics and much more, so head over to Gaming My Way to read this month’s top posts. Thanks for hosting it Eclipse, you’re welcome again any time!

The other thing I have to mention is that it’s sixteen years to the day since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released on Mega Drive in Europe, which makes our very own Miles “Tails” Prower sixteen years old today! Happy birthday Tails, now you’re finally a grown-up.

I wouldn’t count Space Harrier as one of my very favourites, but this classic shoot ‘em up has still left its mark on me. I now fully appreciate the dangers of mushrooms – countering Mario’s pro-fungus propaganda – and every time I see a large fluffy dog I sing the Bonus Stage music to myself. I actually just learnt that the opening phrase isn’t “welcome to the family, people” but “welcome to the Fantasy Zone”! You really do learn something new every day.

The sheer number of bizarre enemies in Space Harrier was without parallel until the Keio series started, with bouncing mushrooms, deadly Moai statues and reflective metallic… things. The dragon bosses stand out as great encounters, the original red dragon even being resurrected as a minigame in Sumo Digital’s recent Sega Superstars Tennis. It’s had quite a few good home conversions, the best of course being on Saturn’s Sega Ages Volume 1 (shame we never got Volume 2!), but make sure you avoid the 3D debacle on Sega Classics Collection for PS2. It burns!

Recently Tez Okana teased us with the prospect of a brand new Space Harrier, claiming that any future projects (including a new Fantasy Zone!) hinge on the sales performance of underwhelming PS2 shooter ThunderForce VI. I’m not holding my breath, but as always the promise of a new take on an old classic brings with it so  many conflicting emotions. Don’t mess this up, Sega!

I remember getting Shinobi on the Master System as one of my first games, and it still stands up as one of my favourite in the series. As an arcade conversion it’s hardly 100% accurate, but as an action platformer it excels in its own right. There’s more thought involved in the home version, as you learn to plan a route to free hostage children – very Moonwalker! – and avoid enemy fire. The end-of-level ninja bonus levels have gone down in history for being memory and reaction tests of the highest order, and even in my prime I could never clear the fourth test. So many ninja.

What’s amazing from looking at these screenshots is how differently I remember the game. I couldn’t believe it had so little detail – in my memory it was a beautifully sketched game of light and shade, yet the screenshots reveal it to be very different. Funny how our memories play tricks on us, although I suppose I did own this game nearly 15 years ago, which forgives a little memory lapse on my part!

Shinobi’s legacy is clear to see in any number of modern titles, but its greatest contribution to the world is, without doubt, Flying Squirrel Magic. It’s just a shame the attempt to render Joe Musashi in 3D fell flat, because I’m sure resurrecting those bonus levels for the Wii Remote has crossed more than one mind at Sega. Perhaps in Sega Superstars Tennis 2?

I couldn’t decide between the original arcade version, Sega Rally 2 and the recent home update, so I’ve included a generic Sega Rally entry here. Yes it’s a cop-out, but it’s my countdown!

All three are perfect Sega racers – slam the accelerator, flip out the back end and drift lazily around every corner. It’s an extremely Sega way of doing things, and always evokes a timeless and sublime joy. Sega Rally 2007 mixes things up by introducing an extremely advanced track deformation system that moulds under your tyres as you drive, leaving troughs and mud pools in key places. It’s a brilliant idea and to me represents the biggest advancement in the rally genre since it began. I’m sure it’ll make its way into Codemasters’ next rally effort and everyone will go ape over it. 

Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast is the only weak link here, its beautiful arcade origins marred by a rushed conversion and inconsistent framerate, but it’s a good stab at a meaningful single player career mode, and the ability to upload your best times online as well as carry them in your VM was a generation ahead of its time. In the arcade it was a complete revelation for me, its handbrake so tempting and satisfyingly solid when you used it to pivot and peel away from a hairpin.

I played Race Driver: Grid recently and was appalled when my attempt to powerslide around the first corner resulted in an embarrassing crash, but I was more appalled when people complained the game was “too arcadey”. No wonder Sega Rally 2007 didn’t sell, although the other day at work a couple did buy a copy for each other, which for me is every bit as good as the exchanging of rings.

Sega Racing Studio’s passing was a sad day for any Sega Rally fan – their version of the franchise was every bit as good as the original and perfectly captured the Sega Rally feel, and I can’t help but feel that theirs may have been the last entry in the series we ever see. If that’s the case, you couldn’t hope for three more enjoyable rally games that scream Sega with every powerslide and hairpin.