Camera, Action... Video Game 2! Quiz

Answer: Utopia

In this two-player game, each has their own island to control and they set about building it up. They spend gold to build houses, factories and other vital infrastructure. They will plant crops and build boats for fishing. They can launch attacks on the enemy island. Prior to starting, players will identify how many rounds they will play, up to a maximum of fifty, and how long each round is to go for. The latter can range from thirty seconds to two minutes. Score the most points and you're the winner.

A great deal of strategy is involved leading this game to be named by Richard Moss, in his 2017 publication "Build, Gather, Brawl, Repeat: The History of Real-time Strategy Games", "arguably the earliest ancestor of the real-time strategy genre".

Answer: Fallout

Developed, in the main, by Tim Cain, "Fallout" is seen as one of the games that re-invigorated the RPG (Role Playing Game) genre. Both GameSpot and Computer Games magazine awarded it the "Role-Playing Game of the Year" and it received a nomination for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences prize at the Spotlight Awards.

In 2077 a nuclear war has devastated the Earth. "Fallout's" story beginnings nearly a hundred years later and treks the birth of the Vault Dweller who is born in Vault 13, an underground bunker designed to protect humans from the ravages on the surface. When a chip controlling the vault's water supply is damaged, our protagonist must venture to the surface to find another, meaning he has confront whatever lies out there.

Answer: Star Fox 64

The evil Andross has gone mad and tries to destroy the planet Corneria. He is captured and exiled to the planet Venom. When strange things start to happen on Venom a team is sent to investigate. The team is betrayed by Pigma Gengar. James McCloud is captured but Peppy Hare manages to escape. It is now two years after those events and Andross is again loose and launching attacks across the Lylat system. A new team, featuring Fox McCloud (son of James), Peppy, Falco and Slippy Toad set out to defeat him.

"Star Fox 64" is the second in the "Star Fox" series of games and met with astonishing reviews, with some critics going as far to say that it represents one of the greatest video games of all time. The game sold in excess of four million copies for Nintendo. One of the features of this game was the inclusion of the "Rumble Pak", an addition that produces vibrations at certain points in the game (for example when firing a weapon), designed to further immerse the player in the game. "Star Fox 64" was the first game in the Nintendo stable to feature the accessory.

(Footnote) The winning game in this category was "GoldenEye 007", however, it could not be displayed at the Smithsonian due to copyright restrictions. "Star Fox 64" was next in line.

Answer: Phantasy Star

Sega was motivated to create "Phantasy Star" (1987) to compete with the popularity of another RPG, "Dragon Quest", which had been launched by Famicom the year before. Seeking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, they installed a female protagonist and drew inspiration from the "Star Wars" series of films to create a world that was a blend of both science-fiction and medieval fantasy.

The protagonist, Alis, seeks to overthrow King Lassic who rules the three planets that make up the Algol star system and her reasoning... Lassic, the cruel beast that he is, had killed her brother. She hops across the planets to assemble a team to defeat the King and it includes a warrior (Odin), a wizard (Noah), and a catlike creature named Myau. They eventually defeat the King but, in doing so, discover that there is a far greater evil amongst them.

Answer: Underwater

"Bioshock" is set in the year 1960 in the underwater city known as Rapture. The history of Rapture though, is just as intriguing as the game itself. Built in the 1940s by the mega rich Andrew Ryan, it was created as a utopian society for the Earth's elite, away from the control of governments and the burdens of bureaucracy. The city flourished and made great strides in scientific research. This was enhanced by the discovery of a substance known as ADAM that was secreted by certain sea slugs found on the ocean floor. Rapture would begin to crumble under its own weight. Initially by the creation of wealth disparities and then by greed. This would lead to an uprising from the working class in 1958, which saw Rapture crumble under the spectre of war and revolution. This game commences two years later when the protagonist, Jack, discovers the underwater city.

The lead creator of the series, Ken Levine, drew inspiration from a range of sources including John D. Rockefeller and Walt Disney, authors Ayn Rand, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley and the survival horror series "Resident Evil" (1996). The game has received high praise, in particular for its narrative and design and has been rated as one of the best video games produced.

Answer: Plant-like

Captain Olimar finds himself in terrible debt and is forced to return to the Pikmin planet to gather treasure to clear his accounts. So starts "Pikmin 2" (2004), a real time strategy game that had critics falling in love with it. You find yourself looking at the world from a tiny person's perspective as you direct the little plant-like Pikmin to do your bidding... moving objects, defeating enemies and destroying obstacles that get in your way. All the mechanics that were available to you in the original "Pikmin" game (2001) are back in this version with the added bonus that you now have the ability to control two Pikmin leaders at the same time.

Answer: Earthworm Jim

Jim is your normal everyday earthworm until he discovers a suit that has fallen from the sky. Crawling into the suit he becomes super and has the abilities to operate as, well almost, a human being. He tests his powers out by launching a cow into space and feels real good about himself. But, there's a whole host of people out there who also want to get their hand on the suit. Jim needs to avoid them or dispatch them as he winds his ways through the various levels of the game. All the while he is in search of the Princess... Princess What's-Her-Name. But, just as he manages to find her, a cow drops out of the sky and crushes her.

Answer: Splinter Cell

"Splinter Cell" was devised for the Xbox platform in 2002 but, a year later, it was ported across to Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Mac OS X. The game, which requires players to rely on concealment and shadows, was originally meant to be shaped along the lines of a sci-fi James Bond game, but it eventually drew heavily on the "Metal Gear" series (launched in 1987) for its inspiration. The end-result was excellent, and it received reviews of a highly positive nature. So much so that it inspired several sequels. A side development from this is a series of books and comics, most of which have been published under the author pseudonym of David Michaels.

The game follows the adventures of former U.S. Navy SEAL officer Sam Fisher, who has been inducted into a team called the Third Echelon, a division of the National Security Agency. His first mission sends him to Georgia to track down two missing CIA agents. He finds that they've been murdered on the orders of the newly installed President... but it gets deeper than that. The new President is up to his neck in an ethnic cleansing operation that he doesn't want the world to know about.

Answer: Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei

This sequel is really a prequel as it is set prior to the original "Panzer Dragoon", released the year prior, in 1995. Critics and players alike have praised the new game, nominating it as being superior to its predecessor. After the criticism received for the original, the designers of this game reduced the difficulty level and took pains to expand the storylines.

Jean Luc-Lundi, our protagonist, defies the superstitions of his village, who choose to kill "coolias" (pack animals) because they are seen as a bad omen, and adopts one of the beasts. He is drawn to the beast's wings and eventually teaches it to fly. While flying one day the Shelcoof arrive and destroy his village. His new adventure starts as he sets off in pursuit of the Shelcoof.

Answer: Wolf

The children in Link's village are being stolen by Bulbins. Link takes off in pursuit of them but is confronted by a wall of Twilight that he is pulled into, transformed into a wolf and imprisoned. He is freed by a creature going by the name of Midna, who leads him to Princess Zelda. Zelda had been captured by Zant, a sorcerer and the Usurper King of the Twili, who'd previously invaded Hyrule Castle. To save Hyrule from being swallowed by the Twilight Realm Link is required to do a number of tasks. These include reviving the Light Spirits, which bring him back to his true form (though Zant does revert him back to canine form later) and finding the Master Sword. This, ultimately, leads to a final confrontation with Ganondorf back on Hyrule.

Created for the Nintendo Wii and GameCube systems, the reception received by "Twilight Princess" was staggeringly positive and it led to it winning numerous "Game of the Year" awards. It would sell almost nine million copies by 2015, which made it the best selling "Zelda" game at the time. It would eventually be overtaken "Breath of the Wild" in 2018.