In a wildly ambitious move, the game utilized a special microphone called the Voice Recognition Unit to ‘speak’ to the Pikachu and issue commands. The premise of the game is communicating with a wild Pikachu using a device that Professor Oak is testing. Once you see it and zoom in, you will not be able to stop looking. Until now, you’ve never really thought about whether he had digits, let alone if he could even curl them into a shape. Right off the bat, the best thing about this game is Pikachu’s pointed finger on the box art. Hey You, Pikachu! OctoAmbrella Nintendo $27.19 on Amazon Anyone who grew up playing this multiplayer staple will get filled with an anxiety-inducing yet thrilling state of panic when they read or hear the words, “HEAD FOR THE EXIT!” It’s also got a groovy, bass-heavy soundtrack that just slaps hard. Where the game really sings is in its Beetle Battle mode, pitting two to four players in a vehicular combat arena to six different colored ladybugs and then escape. While the vehicle selection is obviously limited, the tracks are vibrant and long gauntlets stuffed with hidden shortcuts around every turn. As a kid in the backseat, you couldn’t help but keep your eyes peeled wide open, scanning the streets for one so you could turn to your sibling and strike them in the shoulder whilst yelling “Punch Buggy!” And the video game that was delivered here managed to be one of the best racing games on the Nintendo 64. But in 1999, the Beetle was a cultural touchstone. On paper, a game about Volkswagen vehicles sounds like nothing more than a boring advertisement.

Beetle Adventure Racing FebruParadigm Entertainment Electronic Arts $54.99 on Amazon

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