It wasn't a great game, really, but I think the sheer 3D wow of Hard Drivin' coupled with its nails game (did anyone ever see anyone manage that loop the loop?) and 'real drivng' concept was properly innovative and captured the imagination and the public's interest in getting to play something 'real'.

A forerunner of Gran Turismo, the 'real driving simulator'?

Seth - Street Fighter IV. An inevitable pain in the ass waiting at the end of every single arcade game you play, which makes you not want to play it. Way to go to make a fun, fighting game into a joyless, soul-destroying chore.

Mario Kart Wii - Blue Shell. When being the best is considered reason enough for severe punishment. Generally about one corner before the finish line on your last lap.

And one for the veterans: The Last Ninja 2 on Commodore 64. Level 4. The first screen. All you had to do, in principle, was jump across three or four boxes. Not making a jump equalled death. In principle, doesn't seem so hard. In reality, every little nudge and twist and angle I could muster from my big black Quickfire Joystick generally resulted in me doing a somersaulting miss from one box to the next. Over and over. (The good news was that, passed this, Level 5 had a giant fan you had to walk BACKWARDS through, one step at a time, in order to progress. FUN TIMES WERE HAD FIGURING THAT OUT, he exclaimed, each word dripping with miserable sarcasm.)

Xplosive59 - that is a Goddamn funny joke!

Final Fantasy XII.

Then it got delayed. And delayed. And delayed.

Finally, on the day of release, I didn't get the game because the regular-sized box didn't fit through my letterbox. The same letterbox that all over DVDs and games have slotted through just nicely, thank you. So I had to go and collect from post office, the next day. More delays.

My mate just went in the shop on the same day, bought it there, and played it that night with me watching from the sidelines, glowering with impotent jealousy.

I would have thought online play would have been an obvious inclusion in this list.

The idea that I could be sat at home playing Mario Kart, racing against Japanese gamers, live. . .

My brain would not have been able to make the connection from '1980 reality' to '21st century reality', mainly because the Internet didn't exist.