Although the specifics change, it seems like there’s always a period in games that feels especially distant.
And I mean distant in a wonderful way.
No game looks as briskly abstract as G-Police at the moment.
MDK looks like a game about insects, but insects covered in early Stealth aircraft armour.
It’s the first PlayStation generation that feels weird and magically ancient right now, for me at least.
I look at those games and I’m just fascinated.
Games once looked like this?
I remember it, of course, but it still feels like a beautiful fantasy.
Games once looked this good?
This gorgeous juddering phantasmagoria was once mainstream?
And chief amongst these games, again: for me at least, is Tomb Raider.
I discovered this yesterday during the Nintendo Direct and I whooped for happiness.
Real talk:Tomb Raider 2is just about my favourite game of all time.
Well, it’s certainly the most transporting.
It sends me back in two ways, to two places.
I’m back at the Opera House, the Oil Rig, the bottom of the ocean.
Valium slowdown whenever I do that iconic jump to the side.
It’s not a complicated thought.
It’s just a faff to get Tomb Raider 2 to run these days.
This may be why they occupy such a massive space in my memory.
So come February I’ll have these special games back again.
