#37 Backpacker 2
I do not think this game saw a general release in outside of a few markets in northern Europe. This game gets into my best ever list for one simple reason, it is by far the best educational game I have ever played and the only game in that category that I wanted to play for fun. The main premise of the game is to travel the world and collect certs for different jobs. Each city you visit can be explored to find the cheap or expensive hotel, the shop or different sightseeing's. The game released in 1997 and most of the "exploration" is point and click on a map to get different postcards with information or question. But it was full of pictures o high quality and needed two CDs to pack everything.
This game struck a strange lightning in a bottle where the style was cool in a game built around different questions. When searching for a job one needed to scan the newspaper with a magnifying glass. Even if the jobs are mostly just questions on the topic around the job they also incorporated more interactive tasks like sorting fruits, building electronic connections, mix correct drinks or hunt deer.
Each time you visit a new city a melody is playing with music from that location giving it an almost immersive experience. If you fail on your jobs, stay at to expensive hotels or buy very unnecessary stuff in the giftshop you can make a phone call home begging for some extra money, but don't overdo it or your mother will simple tell you to handle it on your own. The first installment in the Backpacker series was okay as well but everything dies with the third game, they removed everything that was great with the game without adding anything great and new. Since this game was only released in a small part of the world and for an older version of Windows, actually playing it today is difficult. But in my memory it will stay for ever.
