5 of the best games for students

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Ah, to be a student again. Overdrafts, reduced food for dinner, medically inadvisable alcohol consumption and even the occiasional lecture or too. The memories…

Some of our best times were spent in the living room, controller in hand, battling it out with housemates to earn their respect and avoid the punishment of scraping the weird burnt black stuff out of the oven.

Gross.

Mario Kart 64 (N64, 1997)

If you were in a flat along with 12 other students and a malfunctioning boiler back in the late 1990s, Mario Kart 64 would have been the main source of post-pub entertainment. Joyous multiplayer modes, great 3D and so many lovely tracks to slowly grow to hate.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (Game Cube, 2001)

Friendship-destroying. Stress-inducing. Adrenaline-pumping. It can only be Super Smash Bros. There’s something rather magical watching Mario repeatedly bury his gloved fists into Pikachu’s adorable little yellow face, or Kirby laying the smackdown on Link. Combine with shots for ultimate pre-drinking fun.

Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, PS3, 2007)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZM6IN0j1Y8

It used to be that we’d have a cardboard box full of beloved old games, but Rock Band and rival series Guitar Hero ensured we now have entire rooms full of plastic instruments. It was great while it was cool, the perfect culmination of the "rhythm action" genre.

Left 4 Dead (PC, Xbox 360, 2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqpibO7tR0

A four-player zombie slaughter experience, in which you help your friends survive while attempting to annihilate the disease-ridden population. Worth it for the Survival mode alone, which had your team holed up and trying to fend off attackers for as long as possible.

FIFA 14 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC 2013)

It was fun and quite fashionable to hate it once but, over the years, EA’s endless annual football franchise has evolved into a really quite acceptable game. Everyone has it, has played it or is getting it for Christmas, so there’s really no escaping it.