20 Severely Underrated 90s Video Games You Forgot You Loved
20. Space Station Silicon Valley - N64, 1998
Between making cutesy games about guiding cute lemmings to safety and satirical mass-killing simulators, Rockstar North managed to squeeze in this bizarre and wonderfully creative oddity. Taking place on a high-tech animal park/space station in which the local fauna has evolved to become mechanised, you control a computer chip called Evo, who must find a way to stop the space station colliding with Planet Earth (ultimately, you fail to do this, making for a memorable final level that i won't spoil here). You crawl around large, open levels as a microchip, solving puzzles by jumping into the eclectic range of robotic creatures - including racing dogs, steam-powered hippos, and skiing huskies. Unlike later Rockstar games, Silicon Valley doesn't hold your hand at all, making each level a tough-yet-hilarious challenge that forces you to utilise each animals' abilities. Animal lovers may find it slightly morbid that you have to kill animals before controlling them, meaning that you technically possess their corpses, but just try not to linger on that idea too much (remember that they're semi-robotic) and you'll have a great time.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
