Once considered the wholly uncool pastime of social pariahs, it goes without saying that video games have become a pretty big deal in the past few years. Blockbusters such as the COD franchise and Grand Theft Auto V have been obscenely successful and have indeed proved more bankable than even the biggest Hollywood movies. The industry has broken all kinds of commercial records - did you know for instance, that GTA V has sold more than any other entertainment property in the world ever? That's a fact. But this article is looking at games of generations past that weren't massive cultural events or lauded by critics - in some cases, they're not particularly great games. These are games that may not be remembered as classics, but they provided hours of fun and left us with some brilliant memories. We all have those guilty pleasure games that we can forgive for their flaws and enjoy them for what they are - feel free to chip in with your own such examples below. Warning: Nostalgia goggles may have been worn during the writing of this article.
10. Enter The Matrix
Cast your mind back if you will to the year 2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California, iTunes was first opened and Arsenal still won things. Also that year, there was massive hype surrounding the release of back-to-back sequels to 1999's The Matrix. It seems ridiculous now considering how Reloaded and Revelations were received and the Wachowski siblings' current reputation, but hindsight is a great thing. Enter The Matrix was released in the midst of that hype. And credit to the Wachowskis; they could have opted for the typical movie tie-in that just regurgitates scenes from the films, yet they made a considered effort to make ETM a standalone part of the franchise's canon with its own plot and characters, and even filmed footage exclusive to the game. Take the movie licence gloss away and truthfully, ETM played like a rather standard third person action game. Even the slo-mo bullet time made famous by the franchise had already been brought to gaming by titles such as 2001's Max Payne. But there was something just plain satisfying about being able to recreate the massive gun battles, kung-fu sequences and wall-hopping acrobatics of the films. Yes it wasn't perfect, but there was a good deal of fun to be had with this game - more than those two sequels offered anyway.