I, Robot

Oh, what a technological marvel is I, Robot! It's a hodgepodge of lateral sci-fi influences like Asimov and Orwell that really has nothing to do with their stories other than set a generic backdrop of playing a robot, but that's not what matters here. It's hardly that a three-dimensional arcade game like this is concieveable, let alone that it lends itself to a simple gameplay that even today is accessible and hasn't aged one bit. If you imagine those 2D platformers like Miner 2049er, where the objective is to cover every platforming surface, this game is it but done in beautiful 3D spacing and with simple enemy patterns who you can also shoot to death. The game tanked back then because people didn't get the hang of the 3D spaciness, but playing it today is surprisingly compatible with the 3D game systems most people have become acquainted with today.

Each level you have to cover all red surfaces and turn them into blue, and after which there always comes another section that are Galaga style shoot-outs, except your focus is to dodge obstacles more than anything. Every third level you encounter a boss battle, which is another gauntlet where your goal is simply to run to the end of the course and endure. It's this system of levels that goes unchanged for some time, and after about 26 levels, they start to repeat, only with changing colour schemes and enemy patterns.

I Robot is a bonafide classic and an essential part of the gaming canon and history that needs to be republished in some form, like in a compilation, or in an online service.

It also has a hilarious "doodle mode", where you can essentially finger-paint with game models and polygons. You know, if you feel like it.