FRANK HERBERT'S DUNE

There was a time when Dune could've been a behemoth of a franchise. Alejandro Jodorowsky's early treatment from the 70s became a legend in its own right and even inspired the likes of Star Wars and Alien. After David Lynch's underwhelming adaptation, the SyFy channel brought it to the small screen in the early 2000s with a small budget to match. So far, it's the best there is (that is until Denis Villeneuve gives us his inevitably awesome take) but I cannot forgive it for siring Frank Herbert's Dune, Cryo's broken attempt at a video game on PC and PlayStation 2.

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5 GAMES FOR JUNE

June's selection of games takes you on a trip around the world and beyond. First up is the space-themed pinball game 3D Ultra Pinball: Space Colony followed by a global racing tour in Magnetic Field's Network Q threequel International Rally Championship. Then, get into all sorts of hijinks while in Japan in Big Red Adventure's comedic predecessor Nippon Safes, Inc before travelling to a moon colony in order to protect its independence in the FPS sequel Rebel Moon Rising. Lastly, explore the trap-filled dungeons in the Tower of Souls, a rather unique dungeon crawling RPG.

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OUTWARS

If there's one overlooked sci-fi shooter of the 90s, it's Outwars, SingleTrac's balls-to-the-wall action game from 1998. Published by none other than MicroSoft, it bears comparisons to a certain space-bug movie of the time. Want to know more?

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STUPID INVADERS

Comedy is something of a rarity in today's gaming market. Sure you may muster a titter or two at the quips made in Doom or the tantrum of a losing sibling in Mario Kart but none of them gets there through actual, full-on comedy. That's where classic adventures shine. And one that does is Xilam's 2000 point-and-clicker Stupid Invaders.

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DISNEY'S ALADDIN TRIPLE

   

The live-action Aladdin remake has just hit theatres, so what better time to celebrate the animated classic that is the 1992  original? Here are three rather obscure titles to feature the big blue genie and the motley crew that freed him. Flip your balls around Agrabah in Disney's Aladdin Pinball, an obscure mission-based pinball game. Then, if you need some refreshers on two of your three 'r's, test your arithmetic in Disney's Math Adventure with Aladdin and your reading in Disney's Reading Quest with Aladdin.

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STAR TREK: ARMADA

Many a gaming genre has worn the Star Trek license, but out of all of them, the Real Time Strategy perhaps fits Gene Roddenberry's egalitarian concept the best. Shooters are arguably too violent for the peaceful goals of the Federation while narrative-driven adventures don't always delve into the complexities of diplomacy, telling distinctly one-sided stories. So let's talk about Star Trek: Armada, Activision's 1999 attempt to do the cult phenomenon justice.

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STAR TREK: KLINGON HONOR GUARD

Compared to other long-running franchises, Star Trek has had a pretty good run of games. In 1998, MicroProse had you play as one of the series' most famous villains - The Klingons - in Star Trek: Klingon Honor Guard.

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EVEN MORE DISNEY ACTIVITY CENTRES

   

I'm back with even more Disney goodness to keep your inner child at bay. They may not all be called Activity Centres by name, but they are in spirit. Here's The Emperor's New Groove: Groove Centre (2000), The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride - Active Play (1998) and Toy Story 2: Activity Centre (1999).

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THE THING

John Carpenter's The Thing is a milestone in sci-fi cinema so it's surprising that it took 20 years until we saw a videogame based on it. Released in 2002, Computer Artworks underrated gem proved that it was worth the wait. So much so that John Carpenter himself officially endorsed it as the canonical sequel.

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SHEEP, DOG 'N' WOLF (AKA SHEEP RAIDER)

What do you get if you cross Super Mario 64 and Metal Gear Solid by way of Tex Avery? Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf (2001 Infogrames), that's what. A hugely underrated puzzle platformer that's all about the stealth starring Wile E. Coyote's cousin Ralph Wolf.

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DIE HARD: NAKATOMI PLAZA

I've covered a fair number of Die Hard games so far, but if there's one game that doesn't seem to get the love that it deserves, it's Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. Published in 2002 by Sierra Entertainment, it was the first and only game to actually attempt to re-create the plot of the original film in video game form.

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TRESPASSER: THE LOST WORLD - JURASSIC PARK

Can there ever be a more impressive failure of a video game than Trespasser: The Lost World - Jurassic Park? Released in 1998, a year behind schedule, DreamWorks Interactive's ambitious open-world FPS survival game was nevertheless way ahead of its time.

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KISS: PSYCHO CIRCUS - THE NIGHTMARE CHILD

A first-person-shooter is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Kiss, but that's exactly what Third Law Interactive created way back in 2000 with Kiss: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child. When you realise it's based more on the graphic novel by Todd McFarlane's production company than any one Kiss song, it begins to make a little bit of sense. And only a little.

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HURLEMENTS

Before Ubi Soft were the powerhouse publisher they are today, the long-running French company was mainly known in its country of origin. It developed and distributed some neat games, including Zombi (found elsewhere on this site). In 1988, a spiritual sequel by the name of Hurlements swapped the gruesome groans of zombies with the high-pitched howls of werewolves.

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HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: THE FINAL CUT

Of all the licenses to base a computer game on, director extraordinaire Alfred Hitchcock wouldn't necessarily be the first choice. I'm not talking about a specific movie license like Psycho or The Birds but the man himself. Arxel Tribe's 2001 effort, Hitchcock: The Final Cut, confounded game-players and did just that. But can such an unconventional subject matter make for a compelling game?

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FORSAKEN

Acclaim's answer to the short-lived - and often missed - 6DoF (Six Degrees of Freedom) style of shooter is often denigrated as simply a clone of Descent. The truth is that Forsaken had - and still has - a lot going for it beyond the similarities in gameplay. So strap in, get your sick bags ready and let's get dizzy.

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WARCRAFT ADVENTURES: LORD OF THE CLANS

For eighteen long years, WarCraft Adventures remained the ultimate 'what if' in adventure gaming. It was heavily promoted in coming soon catalogues and magazine previews and then, not long before its release, Blizzard cancelled it. On 9th September, the Holy Grail - a working, almost complete Beta copy of the game - was found and uploaded to the internet for all to play. And play it we must!

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