Super AiG Screenshots of the Year: 2012

It's been exactly a year since the last time I did this and this time around I had over 6000 pictures from 205 games to pick from (I'm starting to seriously rethink how many screenshots I take). Anyway, these are what I consider to be be the very best and worst (mostly the worst) images from the last 12 months of Super Adventures.

Click any of the game titles to read the original post!

JANUARY:

I got the year off to a good start with PlayStation car combat game Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012. Well, I got some good screenshots out of it anyway.

Amiga CD-32 fighter Dangerous Streets is far worse than this screenshot makes it look.

Bad Cat (Amstrad CPC). I'm so glad it wasn't me that played this one.


FEBRUARY:

A shot of intense action from the animated intro to the Amiga CD-32 version of Soccer Kid.

Just when I'd finally managed to put the Burger Man title screen behind me and move on, fate made me drag it back out again.

Weird Dreams (Amiga). It's weird, apparently (I wasn't the one who played it).


MARCH:

Even master thief Matt Stuvysant can't win them all. From The Clue (Amiga).

One of the many random internal monologue interludes in The Sniper 2 (PS2). The game's deep, man.

The floating cross-eyed face of true grumpy evil, from Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands.

It's the Burger King, harassing people outside a toilet, in a video game. I still can't believe Sneak King actually exists.

Ronald McDonald's down with his homeboys in M.C. Kids. These two are supposed to be like 10 years old!


APRIL:

Extreme on the ZX Spectrum. Well that's April sorted out, nothing else this month is gonna come close to that.


MAY:

This screen is a metaphor for the endless tedium of Cadaver.

Original Max Payne had all the best expressions.

Sometimes I forget just how weird Aladdin really was; the film and the games. It's like an animated adaptation of the inside of Robin Williams' brain.

Mega Traveller 2, guest starring Hannibal Lector as Steve the Friendly Weapon Shop Owner.


JUNE:

The mysterious "Well done!" cows from the Earthworm Jim 2 level complete screen.

An artist's interpretation of the dangers that await in the dungeons of Akalabeth. Show some respect, this game practically inspired the entire RPG genre.

Nothing funny about this image from Accele Brid, I just thought it looked cool.

Tom the cat showing kids how cool it is to smoke cigars in unlicensed NES platformer Tom and Jerry 3.

Bart's Nightmare probably wasn't the best of the Simpsons games. Or maybe it was, the franchise isn't exactly known for its high standards of excellence.

Obscure PlayStation platformer The Adventure of Little Ralph definitely has its moments. It's a quality game this one.

This shot from Hideo Kojima's cyberpunk adventure Snatcher looks almost as good as the Syd Mead Blade Runner concept art it's blatantly ripping off: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/tracing/tracing5.htm.


JULY:

A demonstration of the 'pillow shading' colouring technique in PC fighter TimeSlaughter.

Game over means spending the rest of your days as slime in a lava lamp in The Ooze.

Sadly this picture's the best thing in Duke Nukem Advance.


AUGUST:

Sexy shower time with James Bond in A View to a Kill.

I truly apologise if the title screen to The Living Daylights gives you nightmares for the rest of your life.

The title screen for The Spy Who Loved Me on the other hand just pure class.

James Bond week continued with The Stealth Affair, featuring this guy as the bloke who had the affair with the stealth.

Captain Claw is still unimpressed.

Nori is a hard man to faze in SNK. vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash.


SEPTEMBER:

It was tough to only choose one screenshot from Nightbreed, but I went with this one of Boone dodging a laser sight. Because it made me smile.

I had to include the owl from Agony. I mean just look at that animation!

I love the art on arcade machine attract screens and Shock Troopers didn't disappoint.


OCTOBER:

Believe it or not Star Crusader's music is worse than the graphics. At least this cutscene has the excuse of being made in the dark ages of 3D character animation, a year before Toy Story.

The boss from Mad TV seems to be struggling to hold his face together as well.

Mad TV's just a weird weird game. Shame I couldn't actually get anywhere in it. Apparently later on you can trick terrorists into blowing up rival studios by swapping door signs or something.

Some point and click adventure games make your character unkillable so you're free to screw around and try things out without any danger of getting a sudden game over. Beyond Shadowgate isn't one of them.

Lure of the Temptress is also fond of the occasional player smackdown.


NOVEMBER:

It's funny how playing video games can desensitise you. Not to violence I mean, but to things like this giant fish-head boss in Magical Pop'n. At the time it didn't even register with me how damn weird this thing is.

Something/everything about this line cracks me up every time I read it. I love the Metal Gear franchise, I really do. Even if I don't much like actually playing the games.

The Biker Mice From Mars totally sold out, man. The European version of the game is one long advert for Snickers.

Here's a screenshot of a mad Scotsman from classy sixties spy spoof shooter No One Lives Forever just to give me an excuse to mention it again.


DECEMBER:

I present Saint Row the Third, Prince of Character Creation.

Oh shit, it's a nuclear apocalypse! From Terminator: Rampage.

While I'm showing off animated gifs, have a dancing Goron from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

A glimpse of the magnificent city of Denerim, capital of Ferelden, in fantasy epic Dragon Age.

Top military scientist Hal Emmerich freaks out in Metal Gear Solid shortly after pissing himself. To be fair, he's not wrong.

And the winner of the public vote is this screenshot from Chrono Trigger. Though I only got around to asking one guy.


Well after all those quality screenshots, 2013 will surely be a massive disappointment by comparison. But I'll keep dragging the site on anyway, playing more games and taking more pictures. You never know, maybe there is some beauty yet undiscovered in this world.