Panzer Dragoon

Having bought this game back in the early '90s(a kickass decade for gaming no doubt) I had the pleasure of basking in all of it's greatness. I remember watching the spectacular CGI intro movie, then hearing the majestic and hauntingly beautiful music as I took to the skies with my two-winged reptilian friend on an epic adventure of saving the world from the ultimate evil. The story was worthy of praise; simple but effective, setting the stage for later games in the franchise. After reaching what was an insurmountable challenge, I felt invigorated, transcended with feelings of utter excitement to the thrilling conclusion at hand. And what a journey it was to experience on then-cutting edge technology. But beneath all the gameplay that's deceptively simple yet easy to grasp is a cavalcade of art direction that I've never witnessed before in a video game and the effect it had on me at the time. Never have I've been so engrossed, so enchanted, so epically compelled to soak in all the details of this magnificent and wonderfully inventive world with an abundance of strange creatures and bizarre technology with a post-apocalyptic backdrop in the mist of an morally ambiguous war that led to the creation of the world in which the hero and his dragon now inhabit.

And so it is with out hesitation that I proclaim Panzer Dragoon as a game while not entirely original in concept of it's core mechanics, as one of the most enchantingly wonderful experiences I've ever had. A beautifully composed piece of virtual art that aspires to a core audience; an audience that appreciates the amiable assortment of simplicity, that when combined as a whole, is a memorable part of video game history that will forever be honored for years, perhaps generations to come.