It’s Christmas Morning. Ten-year-old me sneaks down early and catches a glimpse of a small, square-shaped present under the tree. Ho, ho, ho. After what felt like an eternity playing the Die Hard Trilogy demo on the PlayStation (which, if you remember, timed out after a certain point), I finally had the full game. Convincing my mum to let me have a title that rewarded you for ‘Mercy Shots’ wasn’t easy… but I somehow managed to do it (I did the same with Starship Troopers by saying injured soldiers’ limbs ‘grew back’). Little did I know that all these years later it would still be one of my favorites.

For those who have lived under a rock, or (and I hate writing this) are too young to remember Die Hard Trilogy, it was a trio of games that landed on the PSX in 1996. Loosely set on the, then, three Bruce Willis action films, each game had a very different style of gameplay. Die Hard 1 saw you control our hero John McClane in an almost ‘top down’ third person view. You’d start in the parking lot before blasting your way through Nakatomi Plaza. It was a lot of fun, but arguably the weakest of the three. Still, it captured a real sense of progression, and with rewarding shooting mechanics and enemy reactions (they would react to being shot multiple times), you really did feel like McClane. There were even semi-destructible environments, which back then, was revolutionary.

Yippee Ki-Yay, now I have a machine gun

Next up was Die Hard 2, a ‘light-gun’ shooter that could also be played with a controller. The latter is how I played the game for a while, until I saved up enough for a tidy-looking ‘light gun’. Die Hard 2 was, in my view, the best of the bunch. Kicking off at the start of the airport, and treated to a stunning soundtrack, you were thrust straight into the action – blasting baddies as they randomly spawned from behind taxis, pillars and the airport terminal. Never before had I seen anything so realistic.

A shot to the head would drop a foe awkwardly, another would send their primitively animated bodies jolting towards the floor. Every now and then you’d be treated to an explosive weapon, with those caught by the blast instantly turning to skeletons in a sea of claret.

My favorite bit of the whole game echoes that of the movie, where you find yourself in a plane cockpit getting peppered with grenades. Add to the mix snowmobile chases and perfect pacing, and Die Hard 2 was, and is, something special. Having had a Dreamcast and played the likes of Silent Scope and House of the Dead 2 with the controller, Die Hard 2 is perhaps the only game of its kind that didn’t punish you for not having a peripheral.

Simon says…have a lot of fun

Then came Die Hard 3, which was basically Crazy Taxi with blood. Here, you would drive a Yellow Cab around New York and have to reach bombs before the time went out. Some of these were static, other times you’d need to hound a car down the streets in a thrilling chase. I was lucky to have an entry level ‘Mad Katz’ wheel at the time, which made this incredibly fun.

The pumping hip-hop soundtrack really captured the gritty essence of the third film, with the odd soundbite from McClane never letting you forget you were playing a Die Hard game. Misjudge a curb and you’ll hit a civilian, causing a blocky spray of blood to cover the windscreen, only for McClane to use the wipers to get it off. At the time, I didn’t realize just how ridiculous it was.

Die Hard Trilogy is a classic, and in an age of remasters, this is one that just needs to be left alone. It’s one of those games that I would encourage anyone to play today – it’s still highly enjoyable and the second, in particular, can be played in one sitting. It also represented such value when it came out – whenever do we get a game that is in fact three, distinct games in one? The Orange Box is perhaps the only other example that was as generous. It was a bold and wholesome move, a far cry from the ‘paid for’ bonuses and DLC we see in so many games today.