At first glance, it’s hard to tell this effort apart from the Pixar original… except for the IK-guilty right arm, painful upper-body twisting and complete lack of any attempt at cycling. This looks like an exercise in low-poly modelling taken too far – another slap in the face for videogame creators everywhere.

Quite possibly the most miserable CG character the alsoran has ever seen, and aside from the Parkinsons-esque shaky arms, there’s not a lot of movement here to actually critique. One can’t help but feel sorry for this mentally disadvantaged fellow demonstrating the lone walk across a friendless schoolyard – likely inspired by the animator’s own life experience.

The neaderthal movements of this competently made green beast just shout “modeller trying to animate”. His tensed arms and clenched buttocks perfectly capture the unenviable task of making the difficult journey to the toilet with as little bowel movement as possible.

Developer: Capcom

Format(s): Arcade/SNES/PS2

Comments: Originally released in 1991, this sequel to the forgettable original saw Ryu losing the red moccasins in favour of a vast array of moves, followed by Ken, Sagat and Mike (Bison – boxer in the original, renamed to Balrog in the US and Pal territories to disassociate from rape-scandalled Tyson).If there’s one classic arcade game that the alsoran still greatly enjoys it’s the Turbo Edition arcade at work. The cast is still unbalanced, with Ken, Ryu and Guile always showing heavily in competitions with colleagues, but these three alone provide a level enough playing field for skill alone to decide the victor.

Developer: Nintendo

Format(s): NES/Gameboy/SNES/Gamecube

What can be said about this classic series that hasn’t already? Before gushing forth a slew of fanboy acclamations, the alsoran would like to point out that he resents the fact that Nintendo don’t put their collective genius with game design towards something that doesn’t reinforce the image of games being for 5-year-olds. The dealbreaker with the original 2D episodes were the levels. Everything in the SMB series, every jump distance, every enemy, was chosen and placed specifically to get the most out of the simple controls, providing the player with a world perfectly tailored to the little Italian’s limited action set.

Developer: Nintendo

Format(s): NES/Gameboy/SNES/Gamecube

Introducing gamers to the first real implementation of multiple levels branching off from the central hub of Hyrule Field, the gameplay surrounds a perfect execution of character progression via the gradual accumulation of different weapons and items. Character and prop motifs are persistent throughout the series, to the point of some repetition in the solving of puzzles from one system to the next. The alsoran was fortunate enough to play The Twilight Princess as the 2005 E3 and came away impressed, but not blown away, with the graphics looking more like an updated rendition of the N64 versions’ style. It would appear Nintendo took to heart the criticism of Windwaker’s visual style from the uncultured masses.

Developer: Sega

Format(s): Megadrive/Genesis

Comments: Without a doubt, one of the strongest assets of this 16-bit brawler was composer Yuzo Koshiro’s amazing techno musical score. That said, the ability to walk right through town in one short 30 minute sitting and lay waste to hundreds of goons raised the bar so high that the rival Double Dragons and Final Fights could only look on in envy. The technological leap between the first and second installments is also noteworthy, considering the quadrupling in sprite-size, as well as art and sound-effects that were easily on a par with the arcade machines of the day. Imaginative controls allowed a large variety of ways to dispatch each foe, though no attacks were as consistently devastating as Axel’s Dragon Upper, rivalling the infamous Dragon Punch for invincible cool and a trademark audio clip.

Developer: KCEJ West

Format(s): PS1/PS2

Comments: This is perhaps the single series that has done more for the realtime cutscene than any other, with a superior engine tailored for post-processing, and the most accomplished motion-capture in real-time cinema, the alsoran impatiently awaits the arrival of the 4th installment on PS3. The gameplay has always been the premiere alternative to gung-ho action shooters clogging up the release calenders of all consoles, with the inclusion of some of the most imaginative puzzles ever, that quite literally reach out of the (or rather onto) the box. Director Kojima’s decision to remove the heroic Snake from under the bumbling control of the player in the original PS2 hit succeeded in elevating the character to mythologic hero status, but angered so many it is unlikely anyone will every attempt such a masterstroke stunt again…pity.

Developer: SquareSoft

Format(s): PS1/PS2

Comments: Though undeniably long-winded and tiresome towards the latter of the series, VII was the single biggest introduction the West has had to the weird and wonderful of the Japanese RPG (episodes I to VI are just too painfuly to attempt now). The financially unusual decision to begin every new episode with a completely different universe and character cast, (save for the chocobos and flight engineer mainstay Cid), is commendable and goes a long way to cementing the quality of each work. Drawing more from story and characterisation, hopefully the forthcoming XII will finally update the combat to a level on par with the latest crop of real-time RPGs, once again elevating the Final Fantasy to the peerless status it once celebrated.