Trying a new title for this series that also includes the Odyssey 2, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and PC Racing Games.

I'm not using the word "review" in the main title because I only would use that for games I've beaten or at least played a LOT of. "Short Reviews" is in the subtitle in order to connect it to those other four threads, all of which mention that phrase. The issue with that here is that with only two exceptions, the only PSX games I've beaten are the fighting games and shmups. (The two exceptions are Threads of Fate and Tenchu: Stealth Assassins.) I'm a Nintendo fan and the N64 is my favorite console, and like Sega consoles too, but have never liked Sony or their consoles. Regardless, I know that there are many good games on Sony systems, which is why I got a PSone in '06, and why I've kept buying games for the system since then. I have about as many games now for the PS1 as I do for any console, somewhere in the 150 range. But do expect a somewhat different perspective from the one a Sony fan would give.


Top 10 favorite PS1 games (from what I have) (this is just something I just put together, it's nothing thought through too deeply. The order is sketchy, but these are all at least games I like a lot.)
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1. Threads of Fate
2. Star Ocean: The Second Story
3. Rollcage
4. Strikers 1945
5. Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
6. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
7. Evil Zone
8. Grandia
9. Tempest X3
10. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

Honorable Mentions: Mobile Light Force, Wipeout XL, Wipeout 3, Castlevania Chronicles, Bushido Blade 2, In the Hunt, DarkStalkers 3, WarHawk, Dead or Alive, Koudelka, Shooter: Starfighter Sanvein

Noteworthy lesser-known titles: Evil Zone, Invasion from Beyond!, Sea-Doo HydroCross, Sanvein

Worst I Have (in no order): Psybadek, O.D.T., Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memories, NHL FaceOff 98, Largo Winch, CyberSpeed, Moto Racer: World Tour, Motocross Mania


Note that I have no import titles for Playstation -- these are all US releases.

Games I have but haven't played at all so I obviously can't cover yet: 2Xtreme, Allied General, Broken Helix, Colony Wars, Crypt Killer, Die Hard Trilogy, Driver 2, Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, JetMoto 2, The Legend of Dragoon, Medal of Honor: Underground, NASCAR 2000, NFL GameDay 2002, Parasite Eve, Parasite Eve 2, Resident Evil: Survivor, Robotron X, RushDown, Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001, Sentinel Returns, Silent Hill, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, Spyro (3): Year of the Dragon, Street Fighter Collection 2, Wild Arms, WWF: In Your House

Games I have and have played a little of, but not enough to do a full review. I wrote entries for these games in the main text; these titles are marked with brackets in the full titles review list below this list. I wanted to write something for every PS1 game I have and have played, even if I can't say enough to really review them. Games: Chrono Cross, Dino Crisis, Fear Effect, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, King's Field, Martian Gothic: Unification, Metal Gear Solid, Midway Presents Atari's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 2, Namco Museum Vol. 1, Namco Museum Vol. 3, NHL FaceOff 98, O.D.T., Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire, SaGa Frontier, Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memories



Games Covered Below (brackets mean not-really-reviews as listed above)
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Activision's collection of 30 classic games for the Atari 2600, Alundra, Alundra 2, Ape Escape, Army Men Air Attack 2, Assault: Retribution, Atari Anniversary Edition Redux, Battle Arena Toshinden 3, Ball Breakers, Ballerburg: Castle Chaos, BattleTanx: Global Assault, Beyond the Beyond, Board Game Top Shop, Bomberman Fantasy Race, Bomberman: Party Edition, Bomberman World, The Bombing Islands, Brave Fencer Musashi, Bravo Air Race, Bubsy 3D, Bushido Blade 2, Castlevania Chronicles, Circuit Breakers, Clock Tower, College Slam, [Colony Wars], Colony Wars 2: Vengeance, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Critical Depth, Croc 2, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Crash Team Racing, CyberSpeed, Darkstalkers 3, Darkstone, Dead or Alive, Deathtrap Dungeon, Deception: Invitation to Darkness, Destruction Derby, [Dino Crisis], Driver, Evil Zone, [Fear Effect], [Final Fantasy IX], [Final Fantasy Tactics], [Final Fantasy VII], Gauntlet Legends, Gex: Enter the Gecko, Ghost in the Shell, Grandia, Granstream Saga, Gubble, Heart of Darkness, In the Hunt, Interactive CD Sampler Disc Vol. 4, Invasion from Beyond, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu, Jet Moto, Kartia: The Word of Fate, The King of Fighters '99, [King's Field], Koudelka, Largo Winch: Commando SAR, Legend of Legaia, Lucky Luke, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Four Disc Collector's Edition), [Martian Gothic: Unification], MDK, Medal of Honor, Medievil II, Mega Man X6, [Metal Gear Solid], Midway Presents Atari's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 2, Mobile Light Force, Mort the Chicken, Motocross Mania, Moto Racer: World Tour, N2O: Nitrous Oxide, [Namco Museum Vol. 1], [Namco Museum Vol. 3], Norse By Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings, Novastorm, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, [O.D.T.: Escape... Or Die Trying], Off-World Interceptor Extreme, One, Pandemonium, Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Project: Horned Owl, Project Overkill, Psybadek, Punky Skunk, Putter Golf, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, RayCrisis: Series Termination, Rayman, Rival Schools: United by Fate, Road Rash 3D, Rollcage: Limited Edition, [Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire], [SaGa Frontier], San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing, Sea-Doo HydroCross, Sheep, ShipWreckers, Shooter Space Shot, Shooter Starfighter Sanvein, Sled Storm, Sol Divide, Soul Blade, Space Griffon VF-9, Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, Spin Jam, Spyro the Dragon, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha, Street Fighter EX2 Plus, Street Racer, Strikers 1945 II, Super Bubble Pop, Syphon Filter, Tales of Destiny, Tekken 3, Tempest X3: An Inter-Galactic Battle Zone, Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Test Drive 4, Tetris Plus, Threads of Fate, Tiger Shark, Time Crisis, TNN Motorsports Hardcore 4X4, Total Eclipse Turbo, Tunnel B-1, Um Jammer Lammy, Vandal Hearts, Warhawk, Wild 9, WipEout, WipEout XL, WipEout 3, [Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories]


Notes: I list the number of players each game supports, whether it saves, and whether the game supports the Analog Gamepad and Dual Shock's analog mode. I may also list other peripherals certain games support, and try to list other platforms games are on, for multiplatform titles. "Analog Gamepad supported" means that the game will work on the DualShock or Analog Gamepad in analog mode. Games listed as having negCon controller support also support Playstation wheels, because all PS1 wheel controllers use the negCon analog system. Most PS1 racing games support it, even though they rarely mention it on their US packaging. Also remember that review length is not a reflection of overall game quality; longer reviews don't mean better games, it just means that I had more to say, that's all.


Reviews
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Activision's collection of 30 classic games for the Atari 2600
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Two player, saves (1 block). This is a fine collection of 30 Activision games for the 2600. It does save, but only a game in progress -- it's just rom emulation here, no high-score saving here. Write them down yourself or something. That really is a problem with these games, most of which have no ending, you just play until you lose... I really don't get why so many games back then had no endings. I much prefer it when games do have endings eventually. This whole "play until you lose" concept is kind of depressing when you think about it a bit... "save the world from the aliens!" But actually you can't, you and the Earth are doomed every time. Ah well, at least the games are often fun. As score-competition titles, this collection definitely includes some pretty good games. However, that ties in to my other, and most important, complaint: In a modern collection of 2nd gen games, at least figure out how to save the scores. That's the only thing most of these games have, score, so it's important to save it somehow. I'd expect the collection to save my best efforts, but it doesn't. Still, the games are classics, and the emulation is okay. The manual is nice and has a little blurb for each game, explaining the difficulty/game select options. (Again, you can save a game in progress, but that's all.)

Ape Escape
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Platformer(3d). Two player, saves (1 block), Analog Controller required. Ape Escape is a decently good 3d platformer game, and the first major title to require the dual analog controller, which obviously makes 3d platformer games much more fun than they are with d-pads. It's not the greatest game ever, but it's okay. The levels have a decent amount to do in them, and the platforming can be fun. I didn't get that far into it before quitting, though. Ape Escape may be decent, but it's also generic in gameplay and level designs. The graphics are okay for PSX 3d, but aren't great. The gameplay's no better. Overall this is an average game. It got attention at the time of its release because it was the only PS1 game that required an analog gamepad, but even the PS1 has 3d platformers better than this one. It might be worth a look, but is nothing too exciting.

Alundra
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Action-RPG(2d). One player, saves (1 block). Alundra is an action-RPG in the Zelda mold. The game is by some of the staff behind Landstalker, and while I definitely don't think it's as good as Landstalker, it is a pretty good game in its own right. This game does not really play much like Landstalker, with more Zelda or Mana-style stuff in it than that game. It also does not share Landstalker's signature isometric viewpoint. It does have platform jumping and some similar art though, so there are a few similarities. The game is entirely top-down 2d, which is great. The visuals look very nice. This game is mostly set in and around this one town, where the dreamwalker Alundra has ended up. He has the ability to enter peoples' dreams, and is here to stop a demon invading the real and dream worlds. The visuals and story are both dark and depressing; there's not much happiness to be found in this town, or in this game. The game borders on being overly depressing, really -- expect a high body count and little happiness. The gameplay is good though, with areas to explore, items to find, puzzles to solve, and monsters to fight. The game has some fairly difficult puzzles in it, and some equally challenging combat at times, so it won't be easy, but it is always well designed. This game has a good reputation, and it deserves it.

Alundra 2
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Action-RPG(3d). One player, saves, Analog Gamepad support. This is a bland and not that great 3d action-RPG. The game stars a new main character, and really has very little to do with the first Alundra apart from the name and genre. There's nothing really special here, and the game is neither great or awful. Average stuff really. I haven't gotten that far in this game... I know most Alundra 1 fans hate it, because it's a somewhat cute anime-style game that's a far cry from Alundra 1's dark and depressing story and world, but gameplay-wise it's not THAT bad. Seems average at least, for the genre and platform. And I don't mind optimistic anime stuff, so the theme is fine with me. Plus it has airships, which are usually cool. But even so, this isn't a great game, certainly. The 3d world isn't as fun to explore as the first game's 2d one, the controls aren't too good, and there's no lock-on either. I can see why the people who liked the first one don't like this, but it is somewhat entertaining. I don't mind light anime themes like this one, myself, and don't really think it's worse just because it's light instead of dark and depressing. It's worse because it isn't quite as good of a game in either graphics or gameplay. But still, it's not actually bad, just okay. Still, this probably is the least fun of the action-RPGs I have for PS1.

Army Men Air Attack 2
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Flight Action(2.5d). Two player, saves, Analog Gamepad support. Army Men Air Attack 2 is a solid sequel. Gameplay-wise it provides more of the same angled-overhead-view, 2d-plane-movement-only helicopter shooting game action from the first game, except with new levels and a lot more story this time. The game is a helicopter action game, somewhat in the Strike series mold but simpler. You fly around your attack helicopter, blowing up enemy tanks, soldiers, and vehicles and picking up stuff as you try to accomplish your mission objectives. Quite the opposite of the Strike games, but like the first Army Men Air Attack, the game's easy. It's probably too easy, really; this game may have 20+ missions, but few will challenge. Still, it is fun while it lasts, and the Strike games can be very hard, so having something similar but easier isn't that bad. I like the gameplay in these games, they are simple but fun. The story is told through CG cutscenes, and they're decently done; the plastic people are amusing looking, and I like the "plastic WWII" theme. Army Men was of course a heavily over-published franchise that generation, but the Air Combat games are probably the best games in the Army Men franchise overall, so it was great to see this sequel.

It is too bad that, unlike the first one, it didn't come to N64 too, but the game does have some next-gen ports, as detailed below. And that is probably the biggest issue with this game -- there are also PS2 and GC ports of the game, and they are better than this one. I haven't played it on PS2, but I do have the GC version (it's titled "Army Men Air Combat: The Elite Missions", but it is a port of the PS2 version with 4-player multiplayer added and no other changes of note), and between the two, the helicopter controls are much better on the GC. Sure, controls are decent on the PS1, but after playing both, I could really tell the difference between the two; you simply have better, more accurate controls in that later release. The graphics are better there too, of course, though for the PS1 AMAA2 looks nice enough. Both releases have some slowdown, for whatever reason. I'm hoping it was intentional, particularly on the GC, with how bland it looks visually (for the GC)... The PS1 version does have one thing missing from the GC and PS2 though: for some reason, one of the five multiplayer modes was removed from the PS2 and GC releases. So yeah, there's one PS1-exclusive multiplayer mode, though given that the GC is the only one with 3 or 4 player support, it's the best multiplayer option overall even so. Still, even though better versions of this game are out there, the PS1 version's decent fun. I would recommend getting the GC version if possible, but this one's sure to be much cheaper and easier to find. Also on PlayStation II and Gamecube (titled "Army Men Air Combat: The Elite Missions" on the latter system; yes, that is a port of this game.)

Assault: Retribution
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Run&Gun(3d). Two player, saves, Analog Gamepad support. Assault: Retribution is a 3d run-and-gun played from a somewhat isometric angle. As it's a 3d game the camera moves around from area to area, but it has a side or overhead-style viewpoint. In the game, you run along narrow, but not entirely 2d, environments, defeating enemies and avoiding obstacles. There are several different weapons, two playable characters, and plenty of powerups to collect. It's straightforward stuff and works well. The game was published (but not developed) by Midway in the US, and it's a pretty good game. The developer, Candle Light Studio, didn't make any games other than this one, so I guess it failed, unfortunately. Though jumping puzzles aside the game is easy on the default setting, the game is a decent challenge on higher difficulties, and is fun regardless. The graphics are only average, too, but they're decent enough to do. Overall, I found myself actually having a lot of fun with this game. Recommended for any run & gun fans -- this game is better than its reviews suggest. And yes, it has two player co-op, which is great. The PS1 Contra games don't have that.

Atari Anniversary Edition Redux
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Collection. Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad and Mouse support. This is a collection of 12 Atari arcade games. Yeah, arcade, not 2600. This collection does save your high scores, and includes some interesting games; in addition to the expected Pong, Missile Command, Centipede, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Super Breakout, Tempest, Battlezone, and Warlords, you also get Gravitar, Space Duel, and Black Widow. Each game can be played windowed with machine art on the sides of the screen, or full-screen. Unfortunately there is no tate mode for vertical-monitor games. That's really too bad. The collection does include some promo art and video interviews with the original designers, so it's not just a ROM dump collection, which is great. I also like that it does save your scores and settings, and that it's got some fairly good presentation and full sets of options and settings for each game as well. The main problem I have with the collection is that many of these games are a little hard to read at the Playstation's resolution, or something... the transition to the PS1 is not perfect, many of these games have small text and graphics which can be hard to make out. Still, it's a solid collection, maybe worth getting for cheap. Black Widow is a particularly interesting surprise; I hadn't played it before, but it's a pretty cool twin-stick shooter! I love those. Atari Anniversary Edition Redux is a Playstation-exclusive remix of the PC/Dreamcast collection "Atari Anniversary Edition". The original creator video interviews are all new and exclusive to this version, and Crystal Castles (from the original collection) was removed and replaced with Black Widow. However, I'll bet that the screen's easier to see in those versions... Still, some stuff is exclusive here.

Ball Breakers
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Action/Racing. Two player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Ball Breakers is a somewhat odd futuristic vehicular action/racing game. The game's concept is that in the future, some hardened criminal androids are being allowed to fight in this competition for future television. If you win, you might get out. The characters don't have legs, though; instead, for a lower body they have a ball, which explains the title, and driving-game-esque, or perhaps rolling-ball-game-esque (Marble Madness, etc.), controls. The game has solid rolling-ball physics for the characters, as well. The game has a mostly-overhead camera and 3d polygonal graphics. The game is made up of a variety of mission types, so different levels play differently. There are races, gauntlet stages where you have to get to the end without dying, shootouts, tag matches, and more -- seven mission types in all. There are six playable characters, and ten areas full of missions. The game's variety and concept are its strong points for sure, along with solid controls and gameplay... and it originally sold for $10! Sure, the game has some issues, such as some difficult and frustrating parts, and even though there's a lot of variety in game styles they all have the same basic controls and the graphics, while nice, all look similar so it can get repetitive, but even so Ball Breakers is definitely a good game. In the US this was only released on PS1, but in Europe it also had PC and Dreamcast releases which surely are improved over this one, at least visually. In Europe the game is called "MoHo".

Ballerburg: Castle Chaos
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Strategy. Two player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Ballerburg: Castle Chaos is a port of a PC game released under several different titles, including Ballerburg and Castle Siege Ballerburg. It's a very late PS1 release from the last years of the system. Basically this is an artillery game, sort of Scorched Earth-style, crossed with some basic strategy game elements such as simple base-building. So, you spend some of your time tossing projectiles at the other castle, and the rest of your time building up your base. It's a low-budget game and it shows, though, with mediocre at best graphics and sound. Also, importantly, the controls are frustrating -- this game would be much better with a mouse! It's not a particularly good game, but because I like the theme and concept I find it a little enjoyable. Shooting cannons and catapults at other castles, aiming to hit them taking wind into consideration, and building up your fortress are fun, even if not implemented here nearly as well as they could have been. Also on PC.

Battle Arena Toshinden 3
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Fighting. Two player. This is the third Toshinden game, and it's the last one that got a release in the US; the fourth PS1 game, and the more recent Wii title, were both Japan only. The first Toshinden was one of the most significant PS1 titles of 1995 in the US, though, so it's interesting that the series had such a hard fall. However, looking at this game, I can see why: Toshinden 3 is a mediocre game even for Toshinden, and was a worse game than either of its predecessors. Yes, Toshinden 1 is a far better game than this. There are lots of characters in Toshinden 3, and you can choose 30 or 60 frames per second modes (with limited graphics in 60 fps mode), but regardless of the framerate, the gameplay is just far too slow and not very fun. Play a better fighting game instead of this one.

BattleTanx: Global Assault
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Vehicular action. Two player, saves (one block), Analog Gamepad support. Overall, this is a mediocre PSX remake of the N64 classic of the same name. The N64 version is a favorite of mine, I've played many hours over the years and really love it. This one just isn't the same, though. First, the campaign. There are more levels in the single player campaign in this version, but they are shorter and smaller, so the overall length isn't that different. The PSX version may be slightly longer, but the levels are more boring and less fun because of their reduced size and complexity, so overall the N64 version is definitely superior. Cutscenes are fully voiced FMV now, instead of pictures with text; it's really not an improvement, they made the story even stupider. I mean, the intro before the first level... they made it so that now Cassandra personally attacks Madison and the baby, and Griffin shows up to save her, but instead of shooting Cassandra, who is just standing there right in front of him, he just leaves, "never actually defeat the bad guy" style. Um, no, that's not what happened in the original... on the N64 Cassandra never has a face-to-face meeting with our heroes, it's just that her army is attacking. The change was for the worse, that's for sure. And then from there you go to the new, smaller, less interesting levels, and it may be hard to see why this game was so great on the N64. At least the graphics are decently good, for a PSX game. However, multiplayer was one of the great strengths of BattleTanx on the N64. The four player multiplayer, with numerous modes, and the two player campaign, were both fantastic. Well, the game is two player only here. Even though otherwise it's not that different, some smaller map sizes aside, that limitation really hurts the game a lot. Again, the N64 game is much better.

Beyond the Beyond
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RPG(2d). One player, saves. Beyond the Beyond is a fairly early (1996) RPG from Camelot. Camelot had started out on the Genesis, and did develop on Saturn, but made this game too along the way. The game looks like a Camelot game, and the text font is nearly identical to the one in Golden Sun, for instance. I liked Golden Sun, and Shining Force, so it's interesting to see this in-between work. As I said it definitely looks like a Camelot game, and that's great. The graphics are fairly simplistic, with barely-better-than-4th-gen visuals and not a whole lot of cutscenes or voice acting either, but I don't mind that; I think the game looks fine. Gameplay is very standard, with an average JRPG menu-based battle system, random battles, and such. The characters are moderately interesting, and the story starts off generically, but well. Overall, I think I like this game. Its main problem is that it's sure to eventually get frustrating or grindey, since the dungeons quickly start getting larger and there is of course no map. I hate when games have that stuff, and random battles too... oh well. Overall, this game doesn't have the best reputation, but really, it's a simple but solid early-5th-gen RPG. Repetition is the main issue here; apart from that, it seems good.

Board Game: Top Shop
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Boardgame. Four player, saves (2 blocks). Board Game: Top Shop is a 2d side-view, and Monopoly-esque, board game. In the game, the players move around a three-story mall, buying stores as they land on them, stocking the stores, and forcing other players to buy stuff in their stores as they land on them. The twist that you don't just get money whenever someone lands on your shops, but have to actually stock shops so that they will have something to buy, adds some challenge to the game. There are 40 different types of shops to open, and lots of goods, so this game has some nice variety. It's also definitely got challenge, too; the computer AI can be tough. There are a decent number of anime-style characters to choose from, and the game has solid 2d visuals. As for the gameplay though, that depends on how much you like Monopoly variants. It's certainly decent, at least. The main downside is that it's somewhat slow paced, particularly against the computer. Games take quite a while.

Bomberman Fantasy Race
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Racing. Two player, saves (1 block). This is an okay but not great 3d kart racing game with Bomberman characters. Poor graphics, mediocre options... don't bother, I think. There are worse kart racing games out there, but there are also much better, even on PS1.

Bomberman: Party Edition
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Action/Party(2d). Five player (with multitap), saves (1 block). This is a 2d, classic Bomberman game, with 5 player play. There's nothing original here; this is just a fine, solid top-down-2d-style Bomberman game. The single player mode is actually a remake of the original NES Bomberman game, which is interesting. This means that single player mode levels scroll, unlike the single-screen battle arenas, as you have to blow up all the enemies in each stage. I don't think that the first Bomberman game is one of the better ones in the series though, so I find the single player a little boring even for a Bomberman game. Still, it's okay, and does have better visuals than the NES at least, and saving of course. Overall though, Bomberman Party Edition is average Bomberman, just like Bomberman usually is. It is nice to have one 2d Bomberman game on each system, though. It's not too compelling in single player, but Bomberman is usually better in multiplayer anyway, so that isn't a crippling flaw. The graphics are solid, and it's a fine, traditional 2d Bomberman multiplayer game. This isn't one of the best Bomberman games for sure, but it's decent.

Bomberman World
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Action/Party(2d). Five player (with multitap), saves (1 block). Bomberman World is the first PS1 Bomberman game, though it released after both Saturn titles and the first N64 game, and it's decent. The game has a sort of isometric view of the action, as you see things from the side at a slight angle. The graphics are pre-rendered CG 2d, and look decent. The game has a traditional Bomberman single player mode where you go through a sequence of levels, killing all the enemies on each stage to progress, and the usual multiplayer mode full of options. I think I like this game a bit more than Party Edition in both graphics and gameplay; the game's a bit more visually unique than that one is, and the single player's more updated, as you'd expect from a new game (remembering that Party Edition's single player is actually a remake of the original Bomberman). This game, like the title above, is not original and pushes no boundaries, unlike the N64 Bombermans, but at least the formula it uses is a solid one. I've rarely loved traditional Bomberman as a single-player series -- I liked Bomberman GB for the Game Boy, but that's about it really -- but they are fun multiplayer games and decent single player games too, and this one has some decent graphics and solid level designs, too. Don't expect anything original here, but do expect good, solid, classic Bomberman fun.

The Bombing Islands
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Puzzle(3d). One player, saves. A puzzle game from Kemco, this got some bad reviews. It stars Kid Klown, but unfortunately it's not nearly as good as his earlier platformers. The game's not terrible, but it's not that good either. You move around the field, trying to figure out where to move the bombs to so that they'll destroy all the bombs in one blast; somehow if they all go off at once you're safe, but if you fail to destroy them all you get blown up. Huh. It quickly gets hard and frustrating. Very mediocre 3d graphics too. This game has the same concept and basic game design as another Kemco game from that generation, Charlie Blast's Territory for the N64. They aren't exactly the same in content, but they are quite similar.

Brave Fencer Musashi
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Action-RPG(3d). One player, saves. This is a game I really should play a lot more before reviewing. As far as I've gotten it seems pretty good, though the graphics aren't great, but I got stuck not too far in and stopped. I think one problem I have is that I played Threads of Fate first, which sort of is like a sequel to this game, and has better graphics and gameplay, so going back to this one is tough. Still, it is a pretty good game. It has a simple but amusingly comical story, and fun 3d plaform-RPG gameplay. It feels somewhat 2.5d, as you are often going right or left, but areas are 3d and you do move around in 3d. It's a good mix and works well.

Bravo Air Race
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Racing. Two player, saves. Bravo Air Race is a plane racing game. The game is dated, with a simple look, narrow tracks, and not much space to fly around in. All four tracks - and yes, there are only four - are in canyons of some kind or another, so there are no open areas. If you go too high or low, you will be brought back into the flying area, too. At first I didn't like this game much, but after a few races I got used to it, and I do think that the core gameplay is fun. The controls work well, and the planes control quite well. Each plane handles differently, too, which is good. The main problem is that simply this game has almost no content. There are only four tracks, and you can play them in any order. Only one of the four tracks challenged me much, once I got used to the controls, too. Once you've finished in first in all four and get to see the credits, that's pretty much it. There really is no replay value here at all, unless you want to play it in multiplayer, but even then, it won't last long. Apparently the sequel, which sadly was only released in Japan, has more tracks and adds a much-needed circuit mode to add more play value, but this first one doesn't have that, unfortunately. As it is, this game is some fun to play despite being badly dated, but expect your time with this game to be very short.

Bubsy 3D
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Platformer(3d). One player, saves (one block). Bubsy 3D is widely despised as one of the worst 3d platformers ever, so my expectations were absolutely bottom of the barrel when I got it. Well, I was quite pleasantly surprised -- Bubsy 3D really is not that bad. The controls are a challenge, for sure -- this is a d-pad only game, as expected for an early PSX title, and the controls really suffer for it. It's too bad that there wasn't a version of this game released on some system with an analog controller, it'd make a huge difference. Also, the controls are slippery so landing on platforms can be tricky. Finally, for the graphics, at the time textures were the new big thing, so the fact that it has lots of shaded polygons instead, with only some that are textured, bothered people. Today this shouldn't be too much of a problem though, it gives the game a different style. The graphics actually are reasonably good. The game has a sharp, clear look that I almost never see in Playstation games -- it almost makes me think it's running in hi-res or something. There are a good number of levels, and there are things to go back and find in them too, after you beat them the first time. Really, once I got used to the game's eccentricities, I found this game to be both fun and quite challenging. It is frustrating and hard so it's easy to give up when you die over and over trying to figure out your way through the complex, jumping-puzzles-between-lots-of-small-moving-platforms-over-bottomless-pits-filled levels. Still though, that kind of thing is both fun as well as frustrating, so it's not all bad. Overall, it's really not that bad. Yes, I can easily see why Mario 64 destroyed it in the press because Bubsy 3D is nothing like that and obviously is much simpler and inferior, but on its own, really, despite some definite flaws, it's a decent game.

Bushido Blade 2
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Fighting(3d). Two players, saves. This is a great, and original, 3d fighting game. The concept is a more "realistic" weapon-based fighting game, where a single hit can kill. The game is executed well, with a nice variety of characters, good controls, and compelling combat. The game's theme, though, is very much anime-styled, so the "realism" is only in the combat system, really. It is funny seeing these anime-style characters killing eachother in one hit, that often doesn't happen in anime... I like anime well enough, but a more realistic theme would have been cool too. The final boss is particularly anime/videogameey in design, and I don't know if it really fits with the rest of the gameplay. Still, this is a very good game, unlike anything else except for the first one. The challenge and uniqueness of the system really makes it interesting, and fighting game fans should consider this a must play. It's a lot of fun, and has good replay value as well. It's too bad that the series did not continue, it should have!

Castlevania Chronicles
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Platformer(2d). One player, saves (1 block). This is a port of the Sharp X68000 (a Japanese computer) game Akamajou Dracula, or Castlevania as we know it. This was the game's first Western release, and it's a great, but very difficult, classic-style Castlevania platformer. The game has good 16-bit graphics and sound, a good length, and lots of challenge. I haven't finished it; it's very difficult. Still, if you can find it cheap, buy this game -- it's very good. It's great that we finally got this "lost" Castlevania game. It's not quite Super Castlevania IV in quality, but it is a good game. I haven't finished this though, mostly because it gets extremely hard, much harder than anything in SCIV or Rondo of Blood. Still, great game.

[Chrono Cross]
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RPG(3d). One player, saves, has Analog Gamepad support. Chrono Cross is the controversial sequel (of sorts) to the popular classic SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. I've only played a handful of hours of Trigger, but it did seem reasonably good for a SNES JRPG (not exactly my favorite kind of game, really). As for this one though, the few hours I did play it seemed good. The graphics are pretty nice for PS1 3d, and the music is good. I like how it has visible enemies, like Trigger did; always very much appreciated! The main problem with the game is that I've spoiled large parts of the stories for both games for myself, and really dislike some of what this game does to Trigger's story...

Circuit Breakers
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Racing. Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Circuit Breakers is a racing game from Supersonic, the same developers as Micro Machines 2, V3, and V4, among others. This game feels like a Micro Machines game, except that instead of being from a top-down perspective, it's sort of three quarters behind. The result is it's not directly behind the car, and not overhead, but something in between. The most important difference between this and Micro Machines isn't that, though, it's that the tracks here do have walls; Circuit Breakers is not as free-roaming a game as Micro Machines is, so staying on the course isn't quite as tough. There's plenty of challenge elsewhere, though. The graphics are okay; definitely nothing special, but for the PSX it looks okay and has a decent style. The game uses some nice visual effects, particularly for the weapons. The gameplay is fun, anyone who likes Micro Machines as I do likely will like this game. It's got a good challenge level, but isn't impossible. Circuit Breakers is good.

Clock Tower
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Adventure. One player, has saving. This is actually Clock Tower 2, the sequel to a Japan-only Super Famicom (also later remade for PSX, also Japan only) game called Clock Tower. The Clock Tower series is a horror series, but the first three games for the SFC and PSX are not the Resident Evil clones you might expect. Instead, they are classic style graphic adventure games with a horror theme. There are two main playable characters and several secondary ones you play as for short periods of time, and there are many paths through the game -- like the first game, Clock Tower 2 has lots of endings, most of them bad endings where the characters get killed, as you'd expect from a horror game. Your goal is to survive the second appearance of the evil killer with the giant sissors who terrorized (and killed) his way through the first game. This is a direct sequel, set several years later; it must have been be a little confusing for US audiences, given that we never got either version of the original title. Still, it has its own story, and does stand on its own decently well enough that it works, and it's great that we got the game -- we didn't get many graphic adventures on consoles! Talk to people, pick up items, solve puzzles, try to avoid the killer, and try to defeat him somehow... I'm early in the game of course, but it's fun. Oh, it is slow paced -- slow text speed, slow walking speed, only somewhat useful run. Oh well. The graphics have average prerendered/drawn backdrops (no Resident Evil quality stuff here) with mediocre 3d polygon characters. It's obviously not a big budget production, but it's fun and well made.

College Slam
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Sports. Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block). This is a good port of this "NBA Jam TE with college players" game Acclaim made. And it really is NBA Jam T.E. with college players. College Slam uses the same engine and has an identical set of options to T.E., just with college teams instead of pro. That's good, though, because T.E. is the best NBA Jam game, but this is not quite as good as the original. This is a hard game, but I usually have difficulty with NBA Jam-franchise titles, so that's really no surprise. I like the games anyway, even if I'm not that good at them. But even if it isn't as good as NBA Jam T.E. due to the fact that the clone is often not quite the same as the original, and that I find the pro teams more interesting than these college ones, College Slam is a fun game, and does have 4 player multitap support, which is nice. The 2d graphics also work well, and it's got good scaling as you expect from the 5th gen systems. Visually it looks great. Also, it's a longbox title! I love those. Also on Saturn. Other versions of the game were released in Arcades, SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy.

[Colony Wars]
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Flight Action(3d). One player, has saving, has Playstation Analog Joystick support. Haven't actually played this game yet. This game does work with the Playstation Analog Joystick, so if I ever get one I can play it with good controls... that's cool.

[Colony Wars: Vengeance]
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Flight Action(3d). One player, has saving, has Analog Gamepad support. I played one mission of this game, a while ago. I thought that space combat games like this are no fun with a gamepad, but really should be played with a joystick, and quit and never came back. What it is, though, is a simple 3d space flight combat game. Fly around and shoot the baddies. It's not much compared to an X-Wing or Wing Commander game, that's for sure... not terrible, I guess, but nothing too interesting.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
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Platformer(2.5d/3d-ish). One player, saves (1 block). Crash Bandicoot was about as close as the PS1 had to a mascot character, so like many good Nintendo fans, at the time I disliked him without ever actually playing his games (And no, I still haven't played the first one.). It wasn't until the last year or so that I actually played a Crash game for more than a minute, really. And indeed, I still don't like Crash's design. It really looks like they were trying way too hard to make him "cool", but all they succeeded at is making him look kind of foolish... Mario or Sonic he is not! The collecting focus in this series is on boxes, too. Yes, boxes. It's pretty much impossible to imagine a more boring collection-item focus than "get 100% by destroying all the boxes in each level!" But that's how it is, for whatever reason. Anyway though, Crash 2 has polygonal graphics and two basic level types, into-the-screen running, or side-scrolling. The sidescrolling levels are fun and solidly designed. I like that part of the game. The into-the-screen running parts, though, just aren't as good. This is supposed to be an answer to Mario 64, or something comprable to it, really? How? It's basic, plays like something the SNES could have handled a simplified version of (I mean, the SNES does have some isometric-path platformers, like that Kid Klown game), and doesn't give you anywhere near the feel that true 3d exploration does. Even just having you move around a linear sequence of 3d areas, such as Rayman 2, is far better than this. Still, the visuals are okay to good, and there certainly is plenty of challenge here. I do like that it mixes things up a bit with things like the parts where you have to run into the screen. But yeah, the sidescrolling parts of the game are the best. Overall Crash 2 is decent, but not great. It can be some fun.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped!
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Platformer(2.5d/3d-ish). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Crash 3, the final platformer Crash game on the PS1, is very similar to the first two. This makes sense since only one year separated the releases of each title, but it is very much like the others. If you like Crash, you'll like it. Otherwise, it's not any better. The main addition here is that there are some vehicle-based stages where you play as Crash's sister instead of Crash himself, and some of them occur in slightly more dynamically 3d worlds than the straight paths of most of the game. They're still ocmpletely linear on narrow paths, of course, but stuff like the jetski-style level is nice to see. The sidescrolling areas are the best part again, though. This is a solid platformer, mostly held back by the same issues it shares with the previous titles in the series. Due to being more varied it's probably the better of these two Crash games, but it's certainly still nothing that competes with the best polygonal platformers. And yeah, Crash's design is still not so good, and it's aged too - he looks very '90s.

Critical Depth
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Vehicular Combat. Two player, saves. Critical Depth is a 3d sub combat game from Singletrac. It's an arena combat game, essentially, except in 3d (underwater) space. There are 12 subs to choose from, a story mode where you go through levels (it's very hard, limited lives...), and more. The d-pad only controls are an issue though, this kind of game badly needs analog control... Graphics are okay for the system, but nothing special for sure. It looks grainy and pixelated as expected. Still, tolerable visuals and the gameplay can be fun, this game's alright. Getting good enough to not die, though, might take a while. You need to not just kill the enemies, but also keep them from gathering all five of the item pieces, because in the main (story) mode if you do that you can win immediately, if no one shoots you before you get to the portal. It is tough to do that without killing everyone, but it is possible. There are several other game modes too, though all of course involve shooting. Two player, this is the kind of thing you wish you could play with four people... still, a decent effort for the system. It's a good game, but would have been even better with four player support, analog controls, and improved graphics.

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
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Platformer(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Support. I've always liked Croc. It's a 3d platformer game from 1997 that started development before the release of Mario 64, but came out the year after it. I first played the demo of the PC version of this Argonaut classic back in the '90s and liked it, and it's just as good on Playstation. The game is a 3d platformer made up of segmented levels that consist of a series of small rooms. Indeed, Croc does not have any huge areas to explore, but it does have some decent graphics and solid level designs. There's plenty to collect in each level, too, as you need to hunt down the five crystals in each stage. The game's main flaw is that it does take a while to get used to the jumping, because making jumps can be a challenge due to perspective issues (the camera is right behind Croc, so it can be hard to see exactly how far you'll jump) and the controls take a little getting used to; Croc's controls are somewhat tanklike, as he rotates instead of just running freely. The game does have good analog controls though, which is great for a game from '97. You do eventually get used to it, though. The nice graphics, cute and fun characters, and good gameplay and level designs hold it up despite the tricky jumping. Croc is a very good game, in my opinion. It's a favorite of mine, and my favorite 3d platformer on the Playstation. Croc is a ridiculously saccharine character, but I don't mind, and the gameplay's great. Also on Saturn and PC.

Croc 2
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Platformer(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Support. Croc 2 has better graphics, better controls, and a bigger, contiguous world than the first game. However, despite that, I don't think it's that much better overall than the first one is. It's not worse either though, which is good -- it's most just similar, with some things better and some things worse than the first one, but without the nostalgia value that I have for the first game. Croc 2 is, obviously, another 3d platformer, and Croc has another adventure to go on. The controls are definitely better this time, and the analog support is good. I like the overworld too, it's better than the simple level-select system of the first game. The level designs aren't as original as the first's were, though; this game feels a bit more generic. Still, it's a great game. It's too bad that the Croc series didn't continue and that Argonaut is out of business now, I'd love to see another Croc game. You can't have too many cute, high quality 3d platformers starring adorable cartoon-style animals. Also on PC.

CTR: Crash Team Racing
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Racing(Kart). Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. CTR is a good 3d kart racing game, in the Mario Kart mold. Playstation fans like to say that this game is better than MK64 or DKR on the N64, but I definitely disagree. It's an okay game, and for PSX 3d the graphics are decent, but in both gameplay and graphics this game gets blown away by any of the Rare or Nintendo N64 kart racing games, no question about it. The game mechanics don't match up, first. Kart controls here just aren't quite right, compared to the near-perfection of Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing. The graphics of course aren't even close, but I'd expect that. At least it looks good for the system. It does have 4 player splitscreen with a multitap, though, so at least there it is even. This is probably one of the more popular PS1 multitap titles, and I can see why, but it really is a clone that isn't as good as the original. Few ideas in this game don't originate from one of those two titles. But yes, it's a decent game.

Cubix: Robots for Everyone
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Racing(Topdown). Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Cubix for PS1 is a top-down 3d racing game based on a childrens' TV show license. The game has simple, easy gameplay, a low difficulty level, and plenty of CG cutscenes in the style of the show I presume; I've never seen the show, myself. The cutscenes and story are bland cartoony stuff. There's worse out there, but I'm not playing this for the story, certainly. Given that this is a racing game, having even less plot might have been a good thing... the cutscenes are a bit long. I got it because it's a topdown racer, and I like top-down racing games. And yes, this is an okay game. The controls are very simple; turn left or right, use powerups, and that's about it. Don't expect anything challenging at all here, but it's a decent amusement with okay top-down-racing gameplay and conventional but fine track layouts. There are nine tracks, but they're short, so you will see all of them quickly and it doesn't add up to much content. The tracks do have speed/slowdown strips and obstacles on them, and weapons powerups too. You can upgrade your robot between races as well. Still, I'd never call this game good, but it is okay, I guess. Probably a bit below average overall; the very short length and complete lack of challenge hold it back. Still, it's cool that it has four player support. Other PS1 top-down-style racers like Micro Machines V3 or Circuit Breakers are probably better PS1 top-down racer choices, but this is an okay one if you want to play a topdown racing game that's a whole lot easier than those other ones.

CyberSpeed
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Racing(Futuristic). One player, saves. CyberSpeed is a futuristic racing game with a twist. A bad twist. While futuristic racing games are one of my favorite kinds of games, this one is one of the few of them which really isn't very good at all. CyberSpeed is a racing game on a rail, essentially -- and literally. You see, while the tracks look like tracks, you cannot actually fly around them. Instead, all you can do is spin around a wire. You cannot detach from the wire; the entire game is just about spinning around that wire while adjusting your speed and firing weapon pickups when opponents are in range. This makes it feel like a tube racing game, but the problem is, this game isn't anywhere near as good as good tube-racing games like Ballistic (PC), the tube parts of F-Zero X or GX, or Tube Slider. Here it more feels limiting than anything else. There is some skill required, as learning where to be on each turn does matter, and the game is actually fairly challenging, but still, this game really isn't that good. The lack of any multiplayer is unfortunate as well. Expect little from the graphics too -- this game is an early release and looks it. At least that longbox box looks cool...

Darkstalkers 3
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Fighting(2d). Two player, has saving. Darkstalkers 3 is a great 2d fighting game. This version isn't the best version of Darkstalkers 3 (Vampire Savior in Japan) graphics or load times-wise, but it makes up for it with an unbeatable in the series lineup of extras. Saturn Vampire Savior may have shorter load times and better graphics and animation, but the PSX version is the only one with multiple hidden extra options menus, modes to play the game with the "Vampire Hunter 2" and "Vampire Savior 2" rulesets instead of the basic original "Vampire Savior" one, music options so you can play with any version of the soundtrack from the original game up to Darkstalkers 3, the Original mode where you color-edit a character and then build up their level in fights from 1 to 99, and more. It's a great package, and any Darkstalkers, or 2d fighting, game fan should get this. The Darkstalkers series isn't as well known as Street Fighter, but it's a great series of simple but fun fighting games. Darkstalkers characters are unique and really cool looking monsters with simple, straightforward movesets full of basic quarter circles and stuff -- this is not a hyper-technical fighter, but one designed to be easy to play and fun. It works, the game is fun and the characters are just awesome. Have the manual though, as with most fighting games of this era, that's where the moves are listed, there's no ingame movelist. Based on the arcade games. A better-playing, but less feature-rich, version is available for the Japanese Saturn.

Darkstone
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Action-RPG(3d). One player, has saving (6 blocks), has Analog Gamepad support. This is a port of the PC Diablo clone dungeon crawler action-RPG of the same name. It's a decent game with solid gameplay and large dungeons to explore. The PSX version is a little cut down from the PC original, losing things such as the voice acting in towns (on the PC townsfolk all talk, here it's just text) and more, though, and the game requires a full six blocks of memory card space to save, but it's a decent Diablo clone, and fans of clickfest action-RPGs should give it a try. It's not too bad, flaws aside, and while the graphics are quite simple and low detail top-down 3d, they work and look decently good. Also on PC.

Dead or Alive
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Fighting(2.5/3d). Two player, saves (1 block). DoA for the Playstation is the most feature-complete version of this classic 2.5d fighting game, and going against general opinion, it is my favorite version of the game as well. Like Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive is a Sega Model 2 arcade game with polygonal graphics, but no real 3d movement -- the 3d is mostly for show. It is a fun game, though, surprisingly so -- I wasn't expecting to like this game that much when I got it as I do not like Virtua Fighter very much, but I got hooked and played it a lot. The game has its own style and isn't that much like Virtua Fighter, aside from the hardware and superficial basics. It's a fast, fluid fighting game with a decently varied character list and a good amount of stuff to do. You have a punch button, a kick button, and an "avoid" button that sort of is 3d movement, but not really, and takes some time to learn how to use. Simple, but it works. Arenas are squares, but instead of VF-style automatic loss when pushed out of the arena, the outer area has an explosive floor and if knocked down there, the hit player takes damage and gets blown into the air. It's a cool effect, and makes for some different gameplay. While graphically the PSX version is even with or slightly below the Japan-only Saturn version of the game, some opinion is involved because the two have different looks to them, though most do seem to prefer the Saturn's visuals. Features-wise though the Playstation blows the Saturn away -- it has one new character, Ayane, who in my opinion is the best one in the game, and increases the costume count from two to four costumes each to three to twenty. The female characters in this version have 20 costumes each, and the male ones 3-8 or so each. You unlock one costume each time you beat the game with the character, so you'll need to beat it a lot of times to get them all, which I did, eventually, because it was fun. Other than arcade mode costume unlocking there's not a lot here, but it's a fighting game so what do you expect? It's got some odd "30 battles" and "100 battles" where you fight that number of fights in a row and see at the end what your win percentage is, but you can't unlock costumes (or anything else) there so it's of limited use before you've gotten them all, and even then, 100 battles is a lot and gets boring played all in a row. Oh, yes, the breast bounce in this game is truly crazy, it's by far the most in the series when on. It is optional, though, the game has a great options screen with all kinds of options for not just that but also arena size, making the whole floor explosive, etc. Overall, it's a good game. DoA is simple, but fun. This is the best version -- the many added costumes and Ayane more than make up for the perhaps slightly weaker graphics. Another version of the game is on Saturn and Xbox.

Deathtrap Dungeon
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Action-Adventure(3d). One player, has saving. I'm only a few levels into it, but so far I actually like this game. It's a little bit like a fantasy Tomb Raider, but it's also enough different that it's its own thing. It's a fantasy medieval dungeon crawling game where you choose to play as a male or female character braving the dungeon. You explore dungeons, kill monsters (most die in just a hit or two, which is different, bosses excepted), solve puzzles, find switches, jump between platforms, and more. The digital-only controls are frustrating though, I really wish it had analog. The graphics are similarly iffy, it's not awful looking for its time and platform but, well, most 3d Playstation games haven't aged well, and this isn't one of the best looking ones. Still the good art direction does shine through, and the game has a good sense of atmosphere. I can see it potentially getting frustrating, as even in the early levels the puzzles can be tricky, but it seems pretty good really, I'm surprised. Also on PC.

Deception: Invitation to Darkness
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Strategy-Action. One player, saves (9 blocks). Deception 1 is the first of four Deception games on the PS1 and PS2. This series, set in a fantasy world, is about people in trouble who go to this mansion to hide from their enemies. Instead, what they find is a demonic power. The core gameplay of all four titles is about setting up traps in that game's mansion in order to kill everyone who enters. This game, unlike the sequels, plays entirely from a first person perspective; you're some prince (the only male lead in any of the four games), but he's never seen. As usual in these games, you start out apparently as a victim, a decent person forced out of your position by enemies, but once he gets the power of the mansion, he (and you) become cruel, killing or capturing everyone who sets foot inside. Considering how easily they turn to darkness when pressed, maybe these main characters (in the series) weren't so good after all... Also, each enemy has a name and backstory, and while many are soldiers sent there to kill you, some are just random people who entered, or people angry about others who you killed earlier; regardless, all of them will need to be killed or captured. Some need to be killed; others will try to escape, but you won't get money if you let them go. Kills get some money, but captures get the most. Captured people can be killed, imprisoned and turned into monsters, or you can steal their souls for magic. Yeah, this franchise is like that. The gameplay is a strategy/action cross, as you strategically set up the traps, and then run around trying to lead the enemies into them and such once they attack. The system works fairly well; I don't love the gameplay, but it is unique, and the game is good. The graphics are basic, early-PS1 stuff, and that save file is crazy-large, but overall, this is a good, and challenging, game.

Destruction Derby
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Racing. One player (two player via system link cable only), saves (1 block), analog via neGcon only. A good, early Playstation racing game. It has the bad 3d graphics you expect from the early Playstation, and no multiplayer without a system link cable, and is only analog with a neGcon or wheel, but the gameplay is much better than the visuals. I remember playing the demo of Destruction Derby 2 for the PC back in the mid '90s and really liking it, but while this game isn't quite as good as the second one, it is still good. Destruction Derby is a racing game where car damage is central. Cars all have damage zones, so different areas take different damage, and you, or your opponents, will be eliminated if you or they take too much damage. The amount of damage you can take is not too high, so the first two Destruction Derby games really are quite challenging. Still, it's pretty fun, and I definitely like the game. There are both racing series and crash arena modes, and both are fun. But yes, the graphics are pretty bad. It's also too bad that the multiplayer is system link only. Still a game worth playing, though. Also on Saturn and PC.

[Dino Crisis]
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Survival Horror Adventure. One player, has saving, has Analog Gamepad support. Resident Evil with dinosaurs. (What, isn't that pretty much a complete review of this game? It's okay.) Also on PC and Dreamcast.

Driver
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Racing(Mission-based). One player, has saving, has Analog Gamepad support. Driver is a port of the PC game of the same name. I got the PC version of this game back in 2000 or so when it came out and loved it, with one major qualm -- the game was insanely, "not fun anymore" hard. The first mission, in fact, is probably the hardest first level of any game I have ever played in my life. The "tutorial" level is a complete nightmare that will haunt your dreams... As for this PSX port, it's the same thing as the PC game, but with the expected much worse graphics. The graphics are okay for the Playstation I guess, but Playstation 3d looks pretty bad compared to PC 3d of the same age, so that's not saying much. At least you do get the same huge cities to drive around in and the same driving action, though. Driver 1 is by far the best game in its series, because it's the only one with no guns and no killing -- Driver is not Grand Theft Auto, but its own thing, entirely focused on driving missions where you get from point to point and evade the police along the way. You can't run over pedestrians either, they're there but always avoid your car. Instead of trying to be GTA like the series has tried to do since this one, Driver 1 is focused and great at what it does. It's far too hard, but a great game -- though play it on the PC if you can, the graphics there are far better. Also on PC.

Evil Zone
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Fighting(3d). Two player, has saving (1 block). Evil Zone, or Eretzvaju in Japan, is a great, and quite original 3d fighting game from Yuke's, who mostly makes wrestling games but made this as well. I don't like wrestling games at all, but this is, in fact, my favorite PS1 3d fighting game. In the game, you control one of a variety of warriors who have traveled to Eretzvaju in order to stop Ihadurca, the "ultimate existence". The game is both simple and complex, with many moves that have very basic, unified commands, and utterly unique gameplay. There is really nothing else out there like this game, and that's too bad because it's probably my favorite 3d fighting game on the Playstation. Evil Zone almost feels like a projectile-heavy 3d fighting game version of Super Smash Bros., in its simplicity -- moves are all done with a single or double tap of a direction arrow and then a button press, no complex button moves (not even quarter-circles) here -- and there are only two buttons, an attack button and a block button. That's all. Despite that, there are over 12 moves at your disposal, including different moves for single and double taps of a direction followed by a press of the button, plus several moves that change depending on how far you are from the other character, and a few that change depending on how you press attack -- the long-distance grab for example has two attack patterns, and you switch by pressing attack again after you start the move. Once I learned how to do all of the moves, I realized how much depth this game has. Yes, there is a learning curve, bu it really is quite well designed. Once learned, the action is fast, fluid, unique, and rewarding. The game's mixture of simple action and a fascinating variety of original move types sets Evil Zone apart from, and above, most PS1 3d fighting games. The characters and story are heavily anime styled, and all characters are based on an anime stereotype. In fact, the Story mode for each character is designed like an anime series, with different, and character type appropriate, plots, "episode intros", and "next episode previews" before and after each fight. Story mode fights are one round matches, so the game moves quickly and you only need to win once to move on. There aren't a huge number of characters, but there are enough and they are varied enough; the base moves are similar for all characters, but each one has their own twist on things. There is also an ingame history section where you can read text descriptions of all the characters, and about the strange world, the "Evil Zone", that they're fighting in. My only real complaint is that episode endings are often vague, so sometimes I didn't entirely know what had happened, or even whether they had killed their opponents at the end of the match or not -- the game's not clear on that. Annoying. That's about the only flaw with this game that I can think of, though, story or otherwise. Otherwise, it's fantastic!

But returning to the gameplay, it's very difficult to describe Evil Zone to someone who hasn't played it, really -- it just plays so differently. You need to learn all the different kinds of moves to get good. While the controls are simple, the great variety of moves available means that the game is by no means simple or easy. The moves include a long-distance grab (that can be avoided by moving outside of the target circle or attacking the other player), normal projectile attacks (done just by hitting attack from a distance), stronger projectiles, a jumping attack, a move where you fly towards the opponent fast and try to repeatedly hit them, the charge move (hold the button) which charges a meter in your health bar, so that the less health you have, the faster you charge up meter levels -- a great and balancing mechanic that gives the player who is behind a chance, the super attack (a projectile which uses a level of charge power) which does huge damage if it successfully hits the enemy (plus there's a special animation for each character if you finish someone with the super attack, sort of the "fatality" move of the game), melee attacks, and more. It may sound confusing, but using the moves is simple and you learn them with time. Great game, lots of fun.

Oh, one last thing -- Titus, the Western publisher, did censor the game. They changed all characters under age 21 to be listed as "21", and censored Erel's (one of the female characters) outfit as well, to cover more skin through a texture color change. It's kind of lame, but oh well. Comically, they did not change her character art, only her polygon model. Yeah. Oh yes, and the voice acting is kind of bad, but it fits with the game perfectly -- perfect bad English voice acting for the somewhat lame, stereotypical anime knockoff stories the various characters have. It's good stuff.

[Fear Effect]
--
Survival Horror Adventure. One player, saves, has Analog Gamepad support. This is a survival horror game on four CDs. I haven't gotten past early on disc 1, so I can't say too much except that the prerendered backdrops look very nice, and the game seems promising, for fans of the genre. The game has multiple playable characters, one female and several male. You play as all of them, switching between them as you progress through the story. You start with the female character, but spend most of the game with the male ones.

[Final Fantasy VII]
--
RPG(2-3d). One player, saves (1 block). I first played FF7 when the demo of the PC version first released. I remember thinking that the story seemed interesting, but the battles were boring. Yeah, I was not a JRPG fan in the '90s to say the least. Well, I have more of an appreciation for JRPG combat now than I did then; higher tolerance for boredom or something maybe, I don't know, but I do; but still, I've only played an early part of this game. And indeed, the story's somewhat interesting, but the battles aren't so much, and I've never liked Square's menu design styles either; somehow they always turn me off versus the menu styles used in other peoples' games. Square games usually use similar design and font choices which I think are kind of bland. I also prefer RPGs which either have strategic combat (that is, where you can move around), or at least where the characters appear to be in a field, instead of Square's preference for two straight lines of characters who jump out and hit eachother. Yeah, FF12 is probably my favorite game in the franchise. But still, this games' battle system does work, and the game seems fun enough what little I've played. I can see why this game made such a big impact back in '97. Of course the actual polygonal elements look bad, but they try to cover for that by making all of the backgrounds 2d. It helps, a lot, but it is true that the actual polygon graphics (and battles) are ugly.

[Final Fantasy IX]
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RPG(2-3d). One player, saves (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. FFIX is an okay game. It's got very nice backdrops, but those Playstation 3d polygon models... they tried, but there's only so much you can do wih PSX 3d. Yeah, the bad polygon visuals definitely stand out on the nice CG backdrops, and battle mode looks worse. I also always have disliked that Final Fantasy style of "two lines of characters jump forward and hit eachother" battles, and the amount of grind always required in this game. Still, it seems okay. Nice graphics, okay story, some decent gameplay, through the first few hours. I don't know how much I'll actually play it though. I'm not exactly a series fan, as I said above...

[Final Fantasy Tactics]
--
Strategy. One player, saves. This classic is an isometric-3d square-based strategy game with RPG elements, much like Tactics Ogre. Because I am a strategy game fan you might think I'd love this, but ... eh. This was one of the first Playstation games I bought, but I've barely touched it in all that time, and I didn't get past a couple of missions into the game before quitting. It's okay, but not great. The 3d visuals are not so good looking, the story is quite depressing, the camera can be a real pain... I love strategy games, and this IS a good one, but I'd rather play something else. Also remade on PSP.

Gauntlet Legends
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Action-RPG. Two players, saves (1 block per character), Analog Gamepad support. Gauntlet Legends, a multiplayer-focused action-RPG with levels to explore, enemies to shoot, secrets to find, and monster generators to destroy, is an old favorite of mine from both the arcades and the N64. I love the sequel, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, as well. See my Gauntlet Legends/Dark Legacy thread for the full details of how each version differs -- almost every one has something different in it, it's pretty interesting. I won't list all the details here (see that thread), but PS1 Gauntlet Legends is both good, and bad. On the good side, this version has an exclusive level that does not appear in any other version of the game. It is one of four levels unlocked at the very end, after you beat the game. Two of those levels are from the Dark Legacy arcade game, and the other new one was added to the Dark Legacy console ports, but one is exclusive to PS1 Legends only, unfortunately. It's really too bad that it was left out, but it does give a reason to play this game. Other than those unlockable ones, the rest of the level set is the same as the earlier N64 version. The base gameplay is exactly as you expect it to be, too; this game plays well. However, on the bad side, this is a limited game. First, there are absolutely no difficulty levels here. Don't expect to be able to change your difficulty level; you can't do it. This is the only version with only one difficulty setting, and it's both unfortunate, and way too easy. Disappointing! Also, this is the only version with only two maximum players; all others support the full four. And the graphics are worse here than in any other versions, as you'd expect. At least this game does have full item storage (can save your items, instead of having them just time out like the arcade game) and does let you buy health in the store, unlike the later Dreamcast version. Overall though, thanks to the removal of difficulty levels (and that the one setting it has is kind of easy) and the lack of 3-4 player play, this version is not recommended except for hardcore Gauntlet Legends fans like me who want to see every level in the series.

Gex: Enter the Gecko
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Platformer(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. The first Gex, which I have for Saturn and was also on 3DO and PC, was a good 2d platformer. This sequel, released several years later, has gone 3d. Yes, this is a 3d platformer. Expect to do the usual running, jumping, and item collecting. I like 3d platformers, but unfortunately, it's not a particularly good one; this is average or below average across the board. As with the first game, you play as Gex the TV-obsessed gecko. Each world is themed after some television or movie. It's a decent concept and it works well enough. However, the camera here really isn't very good. I'm fairly tolerant to mediocre 3d platformer cameras (Epic Mickey doesn't bother me, for instance), but this one really is annoying; it really is Sonic Team levels of bad and will kill you. The controls aren't great either; it works, but but not as well as other 3d platformers. The thoroughly average level designs don't help at all either, certainly. The graphics are also completely average. There are some nice platforming parts and scenes, and worlds are good sized, but have low expectations for this one: the game is playably average, but nothing above that. Gex 2 was considered decently good when it released, but it wouldn't be anymore. Also on N64 and PC.

Ghost in the Shell
--
Vehicular Combat. One player, saves (1 block). Ghost in the Shell is a 3d vehicular action game. Yeah, they decided to make a GitS game, and decided... to have you drive around one of those little sentient tank things, here called a Fuchikoma. Yeah, it's an odd design choice. The cutscenes between levels look quite GitS-like, but the actual gameplay's not too much like the show. Fortunately, though, the game is actually good! Yeah, it may be strangely designed, but it IS in fact a good tank action game. It's unfortunate that the game does not have analog controls, but even so, you have good, quick control of your tank. In this game you can drive along almost any surface, so you can drive on walls and ceilings, which is pretty cool. The game's challenging but well designed, with missions that are long but not too long, and good enemy designs and layouts too. As for the visuals, though, they're earlyish Playstation stuff. Don't expect much. The draw-in is pretty close as well, and can be annoying. Still, GitS is good thanks to the good controls and fun, high quality action-heavy tank combat that makes up the game. Recommended.

Grandia
--
RPG(2-3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Support. Grandia is a fantasic RPG! This is one of the best RPGs of the generation, no question. I'm pretty far into it, maybe 30 hours (that's almost halfway, this is a long game -- I'm near the end of disc 1...), and it's one that I keep going back to now and then to get farther in. The characters, music, world design, and artwork are fantastic. It's an upbeat, uplifting game most of the time, which I like in RPGs -- among JRPGs, after Skies of Arcadia, Game Arts' Lunar and Grandia games are my favorites. It's such a great counterpoint to your usual depressing Final Fantasy grindfests. The negatives are few, but important -- the game is fairly easy, so most of the time there is little challenge. As a result, even though the battle system is great and actually has some pretty interesting depth, annoyingly, you are rarely actually required to learn it -- you'll barely have to even think about learning the depth of the battle system through most of the game, because it's so easy that just setting everyone to basic attack will work 95% of the time. It's unfortunate, really. I mean, I would not want grind, I hate that far more than the game just being a little easy, but I'd like if it was challenging enough that you did have to think and use the depth of the system. I prefer thought in my RPGs, JRPGs are just too mindless and repetitive for me to find them fun way too much of the time. Grandia does not escape that. The game also has a horrible, horrible dub job; it's not even funny bad, it's just painful. Also, though the art design is fantastic, the game has 3d polygon environments, and they are technically iffy, due to the limitations of the platform. The characters, which are 2d sprites, look better. The rough graphics are distracting, but not everything is perfect, and overall, Grandia is a very, very good game. Justin, Feena, and the others are great, likable characters, the story is good, and the game has a sense of adventure and exploration matched by very few other JRPGs. It's a great game that I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in JRPGs at all. The Saturn version is slightly better, but it's not in English, so this is the one to get.

The Granstream Saga
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Action-RPG(3d). One player, saves (1 block). This game is an action-RPG from some of the people behind SoulBlazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. It's not quite as good as any of those three games, but it is good. The 3d graphics are somewhat simple, and some people complained that the people's polygon models do not have faces, but it's really not so bad, and the game is fun and has a solid anime-style story. My main complaint would be that it's too easy to get lost in the dungeons, and you do not have a decent map, as you really do need. It can be frustrating and made me want to stop playing several times, due to the irritation factor of the dungeon designs. Still, it's a pretty solid game, probably a little under-rated. There's plenty of good gameplay here to be found, if you can manage to navigate the dungeons.

Gubble
--
Arcade Action. One player, Analog Gamepad support. Gubble is an arcade game in the early-80s mold. The game is okay, but has one critical flaw. The game is isometric 2d, and is a static-screen game where you have to get all the stuff in each maze before moving on to the next screen. You move around the screen as this weird purple alien, and use some kind of tool to remove the items from the screen. At first you have a screwdriver attachment and have to remove screws from the field, for instance. It's odd stuff, but that makes things more interesting. There are also minigames occasionally. The isometric look is fine, and the graphics are basic but decent. The music is okay but odd. The concept is a fine, classic one too; it's obviously inspired by games out of the Pac-Man mold, but why not make a new game in the style of classics? That's a fine idea, and the game works fairly well. Gubble isn't great, but it is decent to good.

However, as I said earlier, this game has a critical flaw, and it isn't about the gameplay. It's about the fact that the idiots who published this in the US removed the save system. Now, this is a Western-developed title, first released on the PC, but if you want to play this sanely, you'll need an import-capable Playstation, because you'll need to get the Japanese version if you want to save. And no, it wasn't a later release there; actually, the PS1 version released in Japan several years before it did in the US. I don't know what kind of total idiot would remove all saving -- and not just memory card support, there are no passwords either -- from this game, but it was a very, very bad decision. As a result, if you want to play through this game, and it's not short, you'll need to just leave on the system until you're done. I know that's how a lot of 8 and 16 bit games worked, and I like many of those games, but I really like being able to save in games, and there's absolutely no excuse for this. I don't know what they were thinking, but they were wrong. The actual gameplay, though, is fun enough maze-game stuff. Also on PC and iOS, and also remade in Gubble HD on iPad and PC (www.gubble.com). Play the import or one of the other versions if you want to play this game; it's worth trying if you like classic arcade games.

Heart of Darkness
--
Platformer(2d). One player, saves (1 block). This game was long in the making, and released on PSX and PC in 1998 after many years. It was made by Eric Chahi, the developer of Out of this World, and has quite similar gameplay to that classic platform-puzzle game. Like in Out of this World, the graphics are beautiful, though hand-drawn here instead of polygon style, and the game is a sidescroller where you need to figure out the right action at each moment or you die. Once you figure out what to do it's easy, but before that point it's quite hard. The game has a fun, cartoony story and some nice cartoon-style character designs and cutscenes, as it tells a story of a boy trying to save his dog from monstrous shadow creatures which kidnapped the dog and took it to the heart of the world of shadow. It's a two disc game because of the cutscenes. Good stuff. Play it.

In the Hunt
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Shmuplike(2d). Two player, saves (1 block). In the Hunt is a submarine-themed Irem non-autoscrolling shmuplike with fantastic, Metal Slug style 2d artwork. The game has great gameplay, good level designs, lots of stuff to destroy, and more. The shooting action is frenetic and extremely well designed, with lots of variety and challenge. Some of the boss fights are particularly interesting. It's an all-around great game; the only blemish is that once you've learned the game, it is a little easy, particularly compared to Metal Slug titles. Yes, this game is actually beatable on Normal with the default 5 credits per player setting. Still, it's very good and is a must play, and it's not easy; it just isn't Metal Slug hard. This is the best version of the game out there, too. The Playstation version is by far the superior version, versus the Saturn one -- that version has only the original arcade PCM (chiptune) soundtrack, while on Saturn the game saves your high scores, has a Playstation-exclusive CD audio soundtrack option as well as an option for the original PCM music. Unlike the PS1 the Saturn version also has no saving for scores or anything else, and a LOT of slowdown. The PS1 version does have a little bit of slowdown, but not much. Essentially the PS1 version has the least slowdown, the arcade original is in the middle, and the Saturn port has the most. Not good for the Saturn there, for sure; it's really too bad. At least this port is good, though! In the Hunt is one of the last games that the people who would later leave to form Nazca and make the Metal Slug series made for Irem before leaving the company, and it really does play sort of like "Metal Slug: Submarine Edition". The art design is the same, and has that same extremely detailed and amazing looking style. This game is kind of hard to find (I was lucky to find a cheap copy), but is highly recommended! Anyone who likes shmups or Metal Slug must play In the Hunt. Also in arcades and Saturn, but best on PS1.

Interactive CD Sampler Disc Vol. 4
--
Demo Disc. One player, menu requires digital control, while some demos have Analog Gamepad support. Yes, you'll have to switch your gamepad to digital mode for the menus, and then back to analog mode for the demos with analog support such as Ferrarri, Steel Reign, and others. It's quite annoying. Apart from that though this is a good, demo-filled demo disc. The disc has demos of Porsche Challenge, Steel Reign, Intelligent Qube, Ace Combat 2, Armored Core, Parappa the Rapper, and CART World Series, and maybe more. I particularly liked Intelligent Qube and Steel Reign; I'd like to get both of those games. Steel Reign is a tank action game with nice graphics, fun gameplay, and plenty to destroy. Feels like a late '90s PC game; indeed, it might have done better there, with how this seems to have been the studio's only game. Regardless, it's good stuff.

Invasion from Beyond
--
Flight Action(2.5d). One player, saves (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Invasion from Beyond is an obscure and somewhat strange game. As the title suggests, the game has a '50s sci-fi alien UFO invasion movie theme, and it's appropriately silly and not at all serious. The game is sort of like Defender gone third-person and topdown but with additional missions, so maybe Defender crossed with Desert Strike? In the game you control a plane from behind it, but can't actually fly up and down -- you can only fly in a 2d plane in this game. Levels wrap around on all four sides, so even though they are small, you can fly from one side to the other easily. As you play you are given mission objectives, and have to go there and kill those enemies, rescue those survivors, or what have you. The missions usually make sense, but sometimes it might take a few tries to figure out what to do. Make sure to read the mission objectives screen, as you do in Strike series titles, but this game is more straightforward than those games, which is good. Still, the game has a good challenge. The game does also allow you to use a targeting cursor to aim better than you could with just "fire forward" or something. It also has strafe controls, thankfully. Overall, Invasion from Beyond is a reasonably interesting game that most people probably haven't heard of, but should consider checking out if you like this kind of game at all. It won't be easy, but it is worth playing.

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
--
RPG(2-3d). One player, saves (1 block). This is an RPG I knew little about before playing. I haven't gotten far, but based on impressions from playing for a few hours, it's actually pretty good. The story is fairly generic JRPG stuff, your usual story about a boy who has to save his home village from the threatening evil, but it is told well, better than many certainly. The background art is prerendered CG, and looks fantastic -- this is a good looking game. As always the polygon characters look awful in comparison, but oh well. The gameplay is simple JRPG fare with a Pokemon monster-collecting theme, but it works well enough. This is a somewhat darker game than Pokemon, though; don't expect all light-hearted fun, it has a somewhat serious plot. Still, it's not incredibly deep or complex, but it's a decently good game. Worth playing.

Jet Moto
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Racing(Futuristic). Two player, saves (1 block). Jet Moto is an early Playstation game from Singletrac. It's a futuristic hover-ski racing game. The game has an interesting concept and is some fun, but the early release date does show. The horrific early Playstation graphics hold the game back for sure, and do impact fun. The bad controls do not help much either -- this game needs analog gamepad support! Really, this game isn't that great. Maybe if you don't mind the visuals and can get used to the controls it could eventually be fun, but I didn't have that much patience... it's this kind of thing that is why I disliked the Playstation back in the day, really. I had a little hope for this game, but it's not that good. The PC version is much improved all around, with much better visuals and analog support too. Play that version. Both versions have the same generic soundtrack, though; it's quite unexciting.

Kartia: The Word of Fate
--
Strategy. One player, saves (1 block). Kartia is a somewhat little known strategy-RPG, but it's good, I think. One of the game's top claims to fame is that it has art from Amano, the same guy who did the art for the early Final Fantasy games, and does all FF logo images too. I only got a few missions into it, but the story's somewhat interesting anime style stuff, and the gameplay is fun enough for a Tactics Ogre/FFT-style game. It seems pretty good. As usual for JRPG fantasy worlds the world makes no sense though, the mixture of stuff from different ages is so bizarre... I know Japanese fantasy settings almost always do stupid stuff like this one does (random coffee cups and Victorian elements in "medieval" fantasy!), but it's always inexplicable. Still though, as far as the actual game goes, Kartia is a good game. Not the greatest, but good. This game is fairly standard for its genre, but at least it's on the good side of standard.

The King of Fighters '99
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Fighting(2d). Two player, saves (one block). KOF'99 is the second and last KOF game released on the PS1 in the US. KOF '99 is the sixth King of Fighters game, and is the first of the three Nests Saga titles ('99 to '01). It's much better than the other US PS1 KOF game, but still, while KOF'99 on the PSX has some nice added features, like color edit mode, it still has load times that are just too long. I love the KOF series, and SNK fighting games in general, so this was one of the first PSX games I got when I got the system in early 2006, but while it is still good, the loading is very annoying and makes it so the game just isn't that fun. You wait too long. And supposedly KOF'95 (the other US PSX KOF release) has even worse loading... I do not want to even try it. Play this on a platform where you don't have to deal with all the loading -- KOF '99 is a fantastic game, great fighting game all around. This game doesn't have any of the Dreamcast version's (still exclusive) extras, either, like the two new strikers, the 3d polygonal stage backgrounds, and more. Get the Dreamcast release, KOF '99 Evolution. That version is much, much better, even better than the Neo-Geo original in some ways. You can find the Neo-Geo version of KOF'99 on the PS2, Wii, etc. in collections/download services, but if you want the best version, play it on Dreamcast.

[King's Field]
--
Action-RPG(3d). One player, saves. I bought this game a while ago, but never have really played it for more than a few minutes... it's a first-person action-RPG. Doesn't look incredibly intresting, but I haven't played it for long either. This is actually the second game in the series, the first one was Japan-only (and also was on Playstation).

Koudelka
--
RPG. One player, saves (1 block). Actually the first game in the Shadow Hearts series, this four disc game stars the female character Koudelka, who is also on the cover. It's kind of a horror RPG, and that's the problem -- it's half survival horror game, half random-battles JRPG, and the battles ruin the pacing and tension of the survival horror side of the game. Still, it is a good game. The story's interesting survival horror style stuff, I like the characters, and the battle system is a pretty good, strategic combat system with a grid your characters move around on, but the issue between the contrast between battles and survival horror style tension really is an issue that hurts the game. It's also somewhat short, despite being on four discs. Still, it's not bad, and overall I like the game. Koudelka herself is kind of cool and a good lead. It's really too bad that none of the Shadow Hearts games have a female main character, and drop Koudelka's great strategic battle system for much more generic menu-only JRPG combat too. Despite its flaws, I actually like this more than Shadow Hearts for those two reasons. Good game.

Largo Winch: Commando SAR
--
Third-Person Stealth Action. One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. This complete disaster of a stealth game shouldn't be played by anyone except the absolute most desperate stealth game fans who have played everything else and simply must play all of them. Even they should consider passing on this waste of time, though. The game is based on a French comic book series that is obscure everywhere else; I've never heard of it, for sure. You play as Largo Winch, super-rich billionaire and spy extordinaire. In this game's short seven level campaign, you play through a story where Largo has to resist evil terrorist groups, stop villains from doing their dastardly deeds, etc. The usual. The game has extremely bland and dated graphics with low-poly environments and a short draw distance. Note: this is a 2002 release! Your character couldn't look more generic, either; James Bond Largo Winch is not. The controls are extremely sluggish and slow too; Largo moves at a very slow pace most of the time. The controls are bad, with awkward, no-fun fighting controls, annoying jumping, and more. Cameras and guards are hard to avoid too, as there are no on-screen indicators of where they can see; you just have to figure it out by trial and error, pretty much. Have fun (you won't). Overall, this game is awful. There were various other Largo Winch titles in Europe (on the PC, PS2, Xbox, GC...), but only this one released in the US. It's probably too bad that it was...

Legend of Legaia
--
RPG(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Legend of Legaia is a fairly average 3d JRPG. The game is good and playable, but isn't something special. Still though, the game is fun enough for its genre. The story of this game is that in the game's world there has been an apocalypse, essentially; killer fog, and monsters in the fog, have spead across the land. Your character, the boy who will save the world naturally, lives in a small town surrounded by a wall that holds back the fog. As usual in RPGs, things go badly, and then you're off on a journey to see the various kingdoms of the world and save them from the fog. It's a slight variant on the usual RPG story. The battle system works well -- at its core it's pretty much a menu-based system, but instead of normal menus, each button is mapped to an action, so you can get through rounds quickly, which is nice. The game has a "fighting" theme, so moves are done through fighting game-esque inputs, and the longer the input string required the stronger the move, but underneath that it is a conventional turnbased JRPG. You have a decent cast of anime-style characters to help you too. The fully polygonal graphics are average at best, but the art design is good. Even though I wasn't really expecting to, I moderately liked what I played of the game.

Lucky Luke
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Platformer(2.5d). One player, saves (1 block). Lucky Luke is another game based on a European comic book series, but the comparisons to Largo Winch (above) end there; this one is a 2.5d platformer, and a decent one too. Lucky Luke is not a great, or particularly memorable, game, but it is a decent, sometimes fun platformer experience. You play as Luke, an Old West cowboy, and have to stop the bad guys. The Wild West theme is a fun one, and the level designs are okay. The game does have some minor puzzle elements, so you don't just walk right and shoot the baddies; you do have to figure out how to progress at times. It works reasonably well. There are also some minigame-esque elements between levels. Overall this game is average. Don't expect too much, but it might be worth a look for cheap, if you like platformers. It's okay, and I think I like it more than the GBC Lucky Luke game.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (four disc collector's edition ver.)
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RPG(2d). One player, saves (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Lunar SSSC is an anime-style RPG with a simple plot, some romance, and plenty of good design. Ah, Lunar 1, a true classic and one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit console generation... this 32-bit remake is arguably the best version of the game. Some people prefer the Sega CD original, but while that version has some advantages over this one, I like the PSX version more overall, I think. Some of the changes, like making Luna playable for many hours instead of not at all, was definitely for the better. Making the enemies visible instead of having random battles is also fantastic, that's a great change that makes the game a lot less annoying. The redone visuals are also great looking -- the game's 2d and looks fantastic. The battle system is the same as in the original version, and is just as great here as it was on the Sega CD. The music is outstanding, too -- I really love the Lunar game soundtracks. The characters and story are great, too. The story is a classic by now of course, but it's a good one, sweet and romantic with lots of optimism and a human focus. It's really too bad that the game's a little expensive, because it's a very good game; any JRPG fan should definitely try out Lunar and Lunar 2 for the Sega CD or Playstation (or Saturn, if you know Japanese)!

Compared to the original Sega CD version, Lunar SSSC's biggest changes are to the story, where some controversial changes were made that series fans are divided over, and to the character lineup, where one major change was made, which I mentioned above: while on the Sega CD Luna was never in your party, in this remake she does join you through the first quarter of the game or so until she gets kidnapped. I think this is worth empathising because it's the single best change in this version of the game, both making that first part of the game much more fun (that sewer level is so hard on the SCD, where you have no healer!), and makes the main pair's relationship deeper and closer, too. On the SCD you barely ever saw Luna, so it was harder to tell why he liked her so much. This version fixes that. The visible enemies and little puzzles that have been added to some dungeons are good stuff too; I like that it's at least got a little bit to the dungeons other than just mazes and monsters. It's not much, but it's something. This is my favorite version of Lunar 1. I like Lunar 2 even more than Lunar 1 (and I do like that one best on SCD, not PS1), but the first is still a pretty good game. It's simple and straightforward, but it's good. Other versions of Lunar 1 are on Sega CD, Saturn, Game Boy Advance, PSP, and iPhone, but apart from the PS1 and Saturn ports, which are the same, all of the others each have some differences between them. Again, this and the SCD original are still the best ones.

Martian Gothic: Unification
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Survival Horror Adventure. One player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Martian Gothic is a Resident Evil or Alone in the Dark-inspired third-person, cinematic-camera-angles adventure game set on a Mars base. Apart from the setting, really the only unique thing here is that you control three characters at once which you will have to switch between. That's an interesting mechanic, as you can unlock things with one character that then allows you to progress with another. That makes things more complex, but interesting.

MDK
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Third-Person Action. One player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. A port of Shiny's PC game of the same name, this is a 3d, third-person shooter with some platforming elements, essentially. The game is an action-heavy title where you play as Kurt, a guy in a super suit who has to kill the aliens which are wiping out humanity at a rapid pace. The graphics aren't as good as the PC version of course, and definitely are questionable, and gamepad controls are not as good as mouse and keyboard, but still, it's pretty good, as it's a competent version of a good game. MDK has good art design, lots of fun and varied shooting action, jumping, puzzles, and more. I like MDK2 better than the first game, as the first one isn't nearly as funny as the second and it has less variety too. I really like what Bioware did with the series in that game, and it's really a shame that it didn't continue from there. This game would benefit from having more humor like that game, and some of its variety too. Shiny was known for humor thanks to Earthworm Jim, but while this game has some, it's nothing compared to the sequel. Still, while too much of it is serious, or just focused on the action, there are some silly moments at least. The game's a bit short, but is good while it lasts. This first MDK game still holds up. Also on PC.

Medal of Honor
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FPS. One player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Medal of Honor is a WWII FPS, and was a quite popular game when it released, and I can sort of see why. While the game has aged very badly and really isn't all that great, for a Playstation FPS, it is ambitious -- it's got nice graphics, good dual-analog controls, a cinematic design, and more. Unfortunately, it also has horribly close pop-in, completely linear level designs, and formulaic shooting. The game is quite playable, and is even fun at times, but I can really see the limits of the system when I play this game. The level designs are somewhat bland because of how linear they are, for one, and that popup is distracting, and makes the game harder too. I do like the video clips -- the presentation is pretty good -- but the actual gameplay isn't on that level. And while this is completely genre-standard, it is silly how you're this secret agent supposedly sneaking around... while you slaughter hundreds and hundreds of Nazis. Yeah, that makes sense. Also, while you theoretically are helping some French Resistance fighters, don't expect to ever see actual allies, or civilians for that matter; only Nazis to shoot. Still, for its platform this is a decent game. It's nowhere remotely as good as most any N64 FPS, but for the Playstation it's decent, and as I said, can be fun in bursts. And yes, the dual-analog controls do work well, for people who like that control style.

MediEvil II
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Third-Person Action. One player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. I've owned this one for a long time, but quit early on and never have gone back. I didn't like it that much at the beginning, and didn't keep going. The graphics are your usual PSX 3d bad, and the gameplay's average to subpar. I also dislike that this game drops the original's medieval theme for a modern setting; it's called MediEvil, darnit, not "ModernEvil"! Sure, you still control the medieval knight Dan, but the scene change is unfortunate. More unfortunate is the gameplay, which is the same mediocre, poorly-controlling mess that was the first game. First game, second game, or PSP remake of the first game, this series has bad targeting controls, small levels, and subpar gameplay. I'm not quite sure why this series was popular. People who didn't own PCs or N64s, perhaps? But there are much better 3d action games on PS1 than this... oh well. Average at best, probably below that.

Mega Man X6
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Platformer(2d). One player, has saving (1 block). I like Mega Man and the various Mega Man platform-action series a lot, and got both X4 and X5 for the PC back when they originally released. I loved X4 and liked X5, but had to wait a long time, until I got a PS1, before I could finally play X6. I wasn't sure what to expect, with how I'd heard that it was by far the worst of the three, and indeed, it is by far the worst of the three, unfortunately. As a series fan I had to get it, and I don't regret that as the game has some interesting stage designs, but it's quite flawed. Mega Man X6 is also far too hard. That is the main thing I get from the game, it's too hard. The game was clearly a rushed production, releasing less than a year after X5 and late in the Playstation's life. The story is the worst of any Mega Man X game up to that point, and the difficulty level was jacked up again; X5 was hard enough, but this goes too far. Only Mega Man 9, the Mega Man Zero series (Zero 1 particularly), and Mega Man & Base compare to X6 in difficulty, as far as Mega Man games go. The levels are varied and interesting though, and really are the best thing about this game. The gimmicks in the various stages are unique and different. There's some pretty cool stuff here, and it's great to see another 2d Playstation game because it actually has good graphics, unlike so many 3d games on the platform. It's just too hard. I haven't even gotten to the Sigma levels. Also on PS2 and GC in the Mega Man X Collection.

[Metal Gear Solid]
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Third-Person Stealth Action. One player, has saving, has Analog Gamepad support. Haven't played this yet, but I know based on what I've played of the second one I'm sure the volume of cutscenes will quite annoy me. I played through half of MGS2 back in '02, and sort of liked it, but ended up quitting because of how tedious the endless-and-getting-longer cutscenes were, versus the small fragments of mostly-good gameplay. Also on PC.

Midway Presents Atari's Greatest Arcade Hits: The Midway Collection 2
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Collection. Two player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. The Midway Collection 2 includes seven games: Root Beer Tapper, Moon Patrol, BurgerTime, Blaster, Splat!, Joust 2, and Spy Hunter. The emulation is about as good as you'll find on the PS1, which is nice. There is also some bonus material including developer interview videos for some games. There's even a trivia game exclusive to this release that you will have to beat in order to see the videos. The actual videos, art, etc. are mostly also available in Midway Arcade Treasures 1, which also has five of these seven games in it, but still, it's a nice inclusion. But those other two games bear special mention. While many of these titles have re-appeared in other Midway collections, two have not; you won't find Burgertime in any more recent Midway collection since that Data East original that Midway had rights to for a while reverted to Data East liscencing years ago and thus now is in Data East collections, and Moon Patrol similarly is a game that Midway had rights to for some time, but somewhere around 2001 lost the rights to. Moon Patrol is also in the second Dreamcast Midway collection, but that was the last time that the game has been re-released anywhere, I believe. There must be some rights issue, because it hasn't been released on any videogame console since the DC. There was a 2005 cell-phone release called Moon Patrol EX, but that's it for anything after that DC collection. So for Moon Patrol in particular, this PS1 collection is actually interesting; this is one of the very few accurate home console releases of the game. The other five titles, though, are also available in better forms in the first Midway Arcade Treasures collection for GC, Xbox, and PS2. Also on PC.

Mobile Light Force
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Shmup. Two player, "Mobile Light Force" is actually Gunbird, a good 2d top-down bullet-hell shmup from Psikyo. Gunbird has a somewhat silly, cute theme, and is a hard but entertaining game. The game has seven difficulty levels and you need to play through two loops before it ends and you can input your name, though of course it won't save it unless you write down the score or something, because the port was was butchered in localization and is much worse than the Japanese Playstation or Saturn versions. Still, the core game is still here and is fun. All of the levels are intact, and it's still a good game. Still, the major alterations, most notably the removal tate mode, the cutting of the entire story, the removal of high score saving (and any other saving too), hurt the game a lot. They even changed the names of several of the characters for no good reason. Really, import the Saturn version, or play the English-language version of the arcade game, if you want to understand the endings. If you just want to play the core game though, this is there in the US PS1 release. The levels themselves, at least, haven't been changed, and the actual game is great Psikyo (a company founded by the Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters series creators) shooting action. It's hard but great fun as you try (and fail) to dodge the screens full of bullets. I like 16-bit style shmups better than this bullet-hell-ish stuff, but still, Psikyo shmups are great, even if I'm pretty bad at them. Arcade port also on Saturn (Japan only) as Gunbird.

Mort the Chicken
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Platformer(3d). One player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Mort the Chicken is a short, easy, and low-budget 3d platformer. In the game you play as a chicken in an alternate world where chickens are sentient. Specifically, you are Mort the Chicken, a childrens' TV show host, and evil cubes have invaded and kidnapped all the chicks. Obviously you can't have a show without them, so you're off to rescue them all from the evil cube menace. Yes, really, that's the plot. The story is told through CG-rendered cutscenes between levels, and they're one of the highlighs of the game, as they can be silly and amusing at times. Yes, expect a lot of chicken jokes, but at least they're sometimes funny. This game was clearly a budget title. Still, though it's got a lot of problems, the core platforming is actually okay, and during the (very short) time that this game lasted, I did in fact enjoy it. The graphics are good for the system, and the levels are laid out well and it will take some thought to collect everything. It's hard to actually die, but collecting all of the required and optional pickups successfully will be more difficult. However, each level is small, and there aren't very many of them in the game, so this really is a game that will only last a couple of hours at most. Don't pay more than a few dollars for this one. I can understand why it got low scores. Still, I was entertained enough that I don't regret playing this game; it's short, easy, and small, but it's fun in its low-budget, simplistic way. I guess I like this in the same way that I enjoyed games like Rock & Roll Adventures or Anubis II on the Wii, except here there are moderately silly CG videos as well as low-budget 3d platforming.

Motocross Mania
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Racing. Two players, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad and negCon support. Motocross Mania is a bad, low budget dirt-bike racing game. As the name suggests, in this game you race on motocross circuits. The graphics are poor, controls are not that great, and track designs largely uninteresting. While it is a later PS1 game, this game looks older than it is. Overall this game is not at all worth playing. There's nothing here to interest much of anyone, I think. Despite that this game was apparently successful, because it has several sequels that I have not played.

Moto Racer: World Tour
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Racing. Two players, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad and negCon support. While this game is theoretically the third game in the Moto Racer series, really it has nothing at all to do with the first two. While Moto Racers 1 and 2 are outstanding arcade-style motorcycle racing games that I very highly recommend, particularly on the PC (MR2 is one of my favorite PC racing games of the '90s!), World Tour ditches that entirely for a more realistic (and less interesting) design style and arcade/sim hybrid controls. It also drops the videogame-style tracks from the first two games in favor of boring real-world style tracks. The game does still have both motocross and superbike modes, so you can race both racetracks and superbike dirt courses. Neither type are interesting compared to the fun videogame tracks from the first two games. The controls aren't that interesting either; very average slightly-simmish stuff here. Again, it's absolutely nothing like Moto Racer. Even though I went into this game expecting it to be not very good, I still was very disappointed simply because it was the first of the games that ruined what had previously been, in my opinion, the best motorcycle racing game franchise ever. I imagine there was some kind of audience for this game, but I'm not in it. But even sim-racer fans can surely find a much better PS1 motorcycle sim than this one; it's not exactly a hardcore sim, but it's no good as an arcade game either. Skip this and get the first two on GOG.com.

N2O: Nitrous Oxide
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Tube shooter. Two player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. N2O is a tube shooter. It was somewhat inspired by Tempest 2000, but it's nowhere near as good as that classic. I was hoping for this game to be good, but I just don't like it very much. I haven't played this game as much as maybe I should, but I find it somewhat boring and not as fun as it seems it should be. The game's speed is somewhat slow, so you don't feel like you're going really fast. On the other hand, once your speed does increase, as it will gradually (very gradually...), it is sometimes too fast, because the enemies can zip past you and kill you without you ever being able to see them. The balance just isn't that great. Honestly, a static setup like Tempest 2000 probably would have been a better idea. I do like the graphics though, the game has a great, moving "psychedelic" look to it, obviously T2k inspired. There's two player multiplayer too. It's just... not fun enough, and feels slow. Play T2k (or Tempest X3) instead.

[Namco Museum Vol. 1]
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Collection. Two players, has saving (1 block), has negCon support (for Pole Position). There were five volumes of Namco Museum compilations released on the PSX. Each collection includes several well-known titles, and several less well known titles. They are all tied together with a "museum" interface where you can move around through a 3d digital museum, looking at the various history objects on display for each game such as control cards, art, etc., and also playing the games. Only the PS1 Namco Museum titles have the actual 3d museums in them, no other games in the series do. Namco Museum 1 here is a very common one because it was re-released; only the first and third PS1 collections got Greatest Hits reprints, so they are common, while volumes 2, 3, and 5 are rare. Unfortunately I only have the common ones. Still, each one has some interesting games. Vol. 1 here includes Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Bosconian, Rally-X, New Rally-X, and Toy Pop. The other six games in this pack are available elsewhere, but Toy Pop is exclusive to this collection, as far as Namco Museum collections go -- it's not in any of the more recent ones anywhere. In addition to that, the bonus materials are interesting. Seven games plus bonus materials is pretty nice for 1996, and the 3d museum element is kind of amusing to walk around even if the 3d is quite primitive looking. I've only tried a few of the games in this collection here, which is why the title is in brackets, but Bosconian, a game I have little experience with, seems pretty good.

[Namco Museum Vol. 3]
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Collection. Two players, has saving (1 block), has negCon support (for Pole Position). Like with Namco Museum Vol. 1, this collection includes six classic Namco arcade games, plus a 3d museum you'll only find here. The games this time are Galaxian, Pole Position II, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Phozon, and The Tower of Druaga, plus there are two unlockable alternate harder Tower of Druaga variants. Of these Galaxian, Pole Position II, Ms. Pac-Man, and The Tower of Druaga are available in multiple other collections, but Phozon and those two alternate Druaga variants make their only ever Namco Museum appearances in this collection, so if you want an official version of them you've got to get this, annoyingly. Namco has been horrible with these collections; Capcom, Tecmo, Taito, and Midway all released very comprehensive collections in both of the last two generations, but Namco's are always peacemeal, and there are still a good number of titles only available on these old PS1 collections. Quite annoying, but it is a reason to get them. Of the five PS1 collections, only Vol. 2 has no games that haven't re-appeared in other Namco Museum collections. I haven't really played much of this, but the emulation appears to be fairly good, as always in the series. The 3d museum is here too of course, and is amusing to look around. It's ironic how Namco has stuck with the "Museum" title for their post-PS1 collections, even though the actual museums have been gone ever since the N64 and Dreamcast releases... oh well.

[NHL FaceOff '98]
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Sports. Two players, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. NHL FaceOff was Sony's hockey franchise. Well, the game has okay graphics, but I can't figure out how to play it; the controls are so ridiculously complicated that since I don't have the manual, and there is no ingame control listing, I can't make any sense of them. Maybe if I can ever find instructions online (I haven't succeeded yet) or something this game will be playable, but as it is, it seems overly complex to an annoying degree. Seriously, do you REALLY have to use pretty much every single button for a hockey game?

Norse By Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings
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Platformer(2d). Two players, has saving (1 block). Now, the original The Lost Vikings, Blizzard's first original title, is a great classic. I highly recommend playing it, whether it's on PC, SNES, or Genesis. The game is a puzzle-platformer with three very different characters, each with a single specialization, who must work together to succeed, and survive. The interplay (hah) between the three characters is really what made the game great. I love how each character has a defined role, with almost no overlap. It really makes each one matter. The game's funny writing, good graphics, and general great game design all helped as well. Only the Amiga and Genesis versions have multiplayer (for up to the full three players, on Genesis!), and the Genesis version has four exclusive levels added in as well, but the PC and SNES have the best graphics. Still, because of all that added stuff, the Genesis version is worth having. But that's the first game, not this one.

Well, Norse By Norsewest is a PC/PSX/Saturn port of the game's sequel, Blizzard's The Lost Vikings 2 for the SNES. Unlike the ports of The Lost Vikings to the PC, Genesis, etc., Blizzard didn't make the ports of the second game internally, unfortunately; the only did the SNES original. The base The Lost Vikings 2 game was not nearly as good as the original TLV, though, and that is where the core of the problems lie, but the external port added some more, such as the sometimes iffy quality of the now CG-rendered graphics; on the SNES, the game is all drawn sprites, just like the first game. At least the console ports do not have some of the flaws of the PC version (that version had no gamepad support, ridiculously, and a few other problems), but still, somehow it's just not the same. At least this time all versions do have co-op multiplayer, which is great, though the lack of a 3-player mode is somewhat unfortunate. But again, TLV2 itself is the core of the problem. The Lost Vikings 2 simply is not as good as the first Lost Vikings. The humor is still here, and it's as funny as ever, but the gameplay and level designs aren't even close. Most importantly, I don't like how the characters are given too many overlapping powers now. In the first game, the whole point of the game was that the three characters each had different, and complimentary, abilities, and that you'd have to use all three heavily in order to get through. In the second game though, everyone has some kind of jump or swing move, most characters can attack (Olaf is the only one who can't), Baleog's jump/swing move is a has an annoying, hard-to-use grappling hook that sadly replaces the first games' quite nice bow, and more. The two new characters, a worlfman and a small dragon, are the worst offenders, as both can both jump and attack and are so versatile that really the only reason to use the Vikings is for the sections which require them. There are many such areas, but still, this game just does not feel right, and the three orignals, as I said, were changed far too much too. TLV2 is just not anywhere near as good as the first game. The pure puzzle nature of the original game is heavily watered down with a lot of generic platforming action thanks to the added moves and characters. The game's not terrible though; it is a decent to good 2d platformer with some puzzles and character switching, and it is fun. The humor is back too, and is even funnier in the CD release thanks to all the reasonably good voice acting in Norse by Norsewest that the SNES didn't have -- some of the jokes in this game are pretty good. "That said 'Do Not Touch', not 'Doughnuts'!" :lol: Also on SNES, PC, and Saturn.

Novastorm
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Rail shooter. One player, no saving. Novastorm is a rail shooter where you control a ship on screen while flying over FMV backdrops. The game's an enhanced port of a game previously released on the Sega CD, PC, and 3DO. The PS1 version is better than any previous versions, though -- it has higher quality video and runs at full screen. As a result is on two discs instead of just one like the previous versions. This game is also a longbox-only release -- it didn't get re-released in a jewelcase. As a result, it's not all that common, but it's not expensive. As a game, Novastorm is okay. This is defintiely not a great game, but it manages to be decent, anyway, and I do like the good video quality. The game has no saving, so you'll need to play it in one sitting, which is annoying -- while it starts off easy, the game gets harder as you go in, and it can be frustrating. It's often hard to avoid taking damage, and this kind of "shoot at enemies over video" game has limited interaction. They can be fun -- I do like Starblade, and that one doesn't even let you move around like Novastorm does, you just control a cursor -- but because of the video backgrounds they're limited compared to games like Star Fox. I didn't have the patience to keep playing Novastorm until I was good enough to get to disc two. Still, the PS1 is a system with a surprisingly weak rail shooter library, so if you want an okay rail shooter for your PS1, maybe look up Novastorm. It's not great, but it is an okay sci-fi themed rail shooter with some decently interesting environments, and it is the best version of the game by far. Also on Sega CD, PC, and 3DO.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
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Platform-Puzzle(2d). One player, has saving (1 block). Oddworld is another 2d platformer on the Playstation, but it's a different one from most of the others. It's from the Out of this World, Flashback, or Blackthorne school of platformers, but it's somewhat different from any of those games. Oddworld is a bit more open-ended, and much more (often dark) comedy-centric, than any of those. The concept, of Abe the Mudokon, a humanoid creature who needs to escape from villanous tycoons who are planning on killing his whole race in order to use them as flavoring for a soda. It's good stuff, and Abe is a good character. In the game, you solve puzzles, avoid or defeat enemies in a very Flashback or Blackthorne manner, and rescue other Mudokons. The game uses a system called Gamespeak, where Abe can 'talk' to the other Mudokons to give them orders, ask them things, etc. I've never really liked Gamespeak, though; it's got five or six commands and is kind of confusing, and I just never gave it the time that it'd take to really get used to using it. Overall, Oddworld is a good game, but be prepared to spend some time learning how to properly play it. Also on PC.

[O.D.T.: Escape... Or Die Trying]
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Action-Adventure. One player, has saving (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. O.D.T. is a horrible atrocity of a 3d, third-person action-adventure platformer game from Psygnosis. I guess it's trying to be sort of like Tomb Raider and such, but with a pathetically short draw distance, subpar graphics, annoying controls, and uninteresting gameplay, this title turned me off immediately. The frustrating, no-fun-to-explore level designs that you run into right from the start of the game finished off any remaining interest I had. I regret buying it. Also on PC.

Off-World Interceptor Extreme
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Racing-Shooter(Futuristic). Two players, has saving (1 block). Off-World Interceptor was originally a 3DO game. It runs in the Total Eclipse engine (see my review of that game below), but plays differently -- instead of being a rail shooter, this game is a sort of sci-fi racing/shooter. I've heard that the PS1 and Saturn ports (which add "Extreme" to the title) are a little different from the 3DO original, but I've never played that version, so I can't say exactly how they changed things. As for this PS1 version, it's okay to good. The graphics are dated; you can tell that this started out as a 3DO game. Still, it looks okay. The game has incredibly cheesy live-action-video FMV cutscenes. Apparently you're a bounty hunter of sorts here to blow stuff up, but the military doesn't like bounty hunters, and they mostly die anyway. Well, you at least won't be doing that, at least not if you keep trying that is. The game actually has Mystery Science Theater 3000-style talking heads on the bottom of the screen commenting on how ridiculous the acting and story are, so it doesn't take itself seriously at all. That's nice to see, given that this game is from the era where everything had FMV and people apparently thought it actually was cool. As for the gameplay, it's decent to good. Again the game has no analog support, annoyingly, but it is an early game, and a longbox title, so I guess that makes sense. Still, joystick support would have been cool. The game, again, is sort of a hybrid between a shmup and a racing game. In each level, the main goal is to reach the end of the level, alive, and before time runs out. Secondarily, you can try to blow up stuff, destroy the competition or enemies along the way, and such. You can buy weapons between levels. For a "racing" game it's very action-heavy, but for a shooter, it's got more of a driving component than you'd expect. The hybrid does actually work, though. The game starts out moderately challenging, but the bosses are much harder; expect to have to put some time into this one if you want to progress. It's cool that it does have a two player splitscreen mode as well. Overall, this is a solid game. It's not amazing, but is somewhat good. Also on Saturn and 3DO (slightly different on 3DO versus the other two).

ONE
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Run&gun(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. ONE is a run-and-gun shooter. The game's levels are each on a narrow, but not flat, path, so you have some 3d space to run around in, but generally not full 3d environments -- this game is heavily railed. It was obviously inspired by Contra, and Assault: Retribution is also a bit like this, but One's levels, which do have a legitimate platform-jumping element as well as shooting, are a bit different from those games. Unfortunately, some of that jumping is a pain to get right, and you will find yourself frequently dying in jumps that you thought you'd make. Dying sends you back to the last checkpoint, too, and checkpoints are often far apart. Overall though it is in that category of games, and like most of them that generation, it's got issues. The graphics are average, for one thing. The game does try to keep the tempo up with some exciting scenes, as you run away from pursuit or go to defeat your opponents, but the quality of the gameplay doesn't quite match up to the tempo of the presentation; the music is exciting and explosions constant, but it doesn't keep me coming back thanks to the actual gameplay. Essentially they were going for a sci-fi action-movie look, and got it, but it's a lower-tier movie, not one of the top hits. Bosses are fought in arenas and can be challenging. Overall this game isn't great, and could have been a lot better. The bland visuals, sometimes annoying level designs, lack of multiplayer, and decent but not great gameplay put this squarely in the middle ground overall.

Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary
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Platformer(3d isometric). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Pac-Man World is an isometric 3d platformer. You view the whole game from the side, moving Pac-Man through various standard 2d and 3d platformer-style situations. Kill the enemies, collect the dots, jump between the platforms, etc. Graphics have decent style, but the usual awful Playstation 3d look that make them look not very good. The isometric perspective also can be tricky, some jumps are hard to determine thanks to the view. However, the game's not bad. It's definitely got some fun platforming, and eventually you get used to the perspective. I like the Pac-Man-esque touches like the areas where you stop and collect all the dots in a mazelike area, hunted by ghosts. It's an alright game that is some fun, graphics and controls aside. Still, the second Pac-Man World game, for PS2/Xbox/GC, is probably better overall. This game is good, but the strict side-view-isometric camera, and level design, hold the game back. The not-so-great graphics don't help either. 3d platformer fans should give this game a look, though.

Pandemonium
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Platformer(2.5d). One player, saves by password only. Pandemonium is a 2.5d platformer, which means polygon graphics with 2d gameplay. It's got nice graphics for early-gen Playstation 3d, good cartoonish art design, fun graphics, and a lot of challenging platforming. That last point is the game's downside too, though, as Pandemonium is simply far too hard. I've never been able to get very far in Pandemonium; I don't know if I've even beaten the third or fourth level, actually. At the start of the game you only have two hit points before you die, and health-ups are quite rare. The levels are long and full of obstacles, enemies, traps, and tricky jumps, and the result is a ridiculous difficulty level. It's too bad, because apart from the difficulty, I like this game a lot -- the game looks nice, is fun to play, and has a decent soundtrack. I love how the levels, though entirely side-scrolling, twist around through a 3d environment. It's a cool look and it works well. I just wish it was a little easier, Pandemonium is way too hard for me. I'd like to play the sequel. The password-only saving is kind of lame, too. Also on PC and Saturn.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
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RPG(2-3d). One player, saves (3 blocks per file), Analog Gamepad support. Persona 2 is an Japanese RPG with a modern day theme. Specifically, it's a grind-heavy game with a dark story set in the Shin Megami Tensei universe, where demons frequently enter the human world causing havoc. It's the sequel to Persona 2: Innocent Sin, a game not released outside of Japan (though now it does have a fan translation patch for the game, I believe), so part of the backstory is lost. The US did get Persona 1 (as Persona: Revelations for the PS1), but not the first part of Persona 2. As for this game though, it's a little unique in starring a 20-something woman, not a teenage boy like usual for a JRPG. This is because it is a sequel, and in the first game the characters were teenagers (and you played as a boy, though this girl was a character in the game). That's cool, it's a little different from other JRPGs, Personas 3 and 4 included, where you play as high school students. The game has 3d environments with 2d sprite characters, and looks decently good. However, the game has some major problems that make it, for me, absolutely no fun at all. First, it's a grind-focused game. In SMT games, you grind, and then you grind some more, and then you grind some more. I just do not find dozens of hours of repetitive, identical battles at all fun, and so I can't enjoy this game. I want to be strong enough to fight the boss when I reach them, I don't want to have to wander around levelling for an hour every time just because. That kind of thing gets me to quit playing games, and that's exactly what happened here.

Also, I find the game a little disturbing. In the battle system, you have the choice of either talking to your demon enemies or fighting them. If you talk to them, you can, if you choose the right dialog options, convince the demons to leave and go home. Each type of monster says different things and requires different dialog options to convince. Honestly, this was my favorite thing about the game. Talking to the monsters and convincing them to leave was much more fun than the standard repetitive battles. However, you can't do this much, because if you convince an enemy to leave, you get no XP. Needless to say, you need lots of that to deal with the mountain of grind, so you usually just have to fight the enemies. My problem was though, the characters never have any kind of moral issue about this. I mean, it's normal in RPGs to kill all kinds of baddies, sure, and then have the characters return to being normal nieve 14 year olds afterwards... but you usually can't convince enemies to leave like you can here. If I don't have to fight them, why should I? They're not all irredeemably evil... but no, the entire concept isn't even mentioned. Oh well, I think this was just me. Oh, I got this game (as one of my first PS1 games) because it'd just been re-released, and I thought that it'd be impossible to find in the future for anywhere near the $30 I paid. That is true. However, gameplay-wise, I think I'd have enjoyed that other game that had just been republished, Rhapsody, more... Also on PSP (Japan-only remake).

Project: Horned Owl
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Light Gun Shooter. Two players, saves (1 block), digital or Konami Justifier (Playstation) control. Project: Horned Owl is a light-gun shooter from somewhat early in the Playstation's life. This game is from the always-moving school of light-gun shooter design, as opposed to being a sequence of static screens. Your character is always moving, usually in a set direction such as forwards or sideways. There is a little camera movement, but not too much. It's sort of like Starblade, except on land, and with sprite enemies. The game does not have dynamic 3d camera moves like you see in Virtua Cop or Time Crisis. It's also mostly about moving -- you're not standing in place shooting all the enemies on a screen most of the time, which is nice. I like the changing environments, even if the polygonal 3d environments are quite basic. Those 2d sprite enemies do look nice enough though. Overall, apart from the polygons, the game barely feels 5th gen. But despite the dated design, Project Horned Owl is a fun game. The graphics may be average, and the game doesn't push any new ideas, but what it does do it does well. The game has anime cutscenes between levels, too, which is cool. The English voice acting isn't great, but is tolerable. There's some radio chatter during the levels, too. This is a fun game and I like it; I'd rather play this than the other PS1 light-gun shooters I've tried, even if in absolute terms it's probably not as good as some of them. Note that the Playstation Justifier, or a third-party gun compatible with it, is required if you want to use a gun, so you can't use this with the Guncon. I don't have a PS1 Justifier. I don't really mind though, I'm so horrible at hitting anything with light guns that I do at least as well, or better, with the pad. So yeah, simple but good game.

Project Overkill
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Action-Adventure(2d isometric). One player, saves (1 block), digital only. This game is a not too well known early Playstation game with isometric 2d graphics. The gameplay reminds me the most of the Crusader games, No Remorse or No Regret. You run around, collect ammo, solve simple puzzles, kill enemies, and die a lot from the high difficulty level. Ammo is quite limited, so don't waste it! You really don't want to run out, you're a sitting duck if you do. This is a pretty good game, though. It doesn't have the depth of the PC Crusader games, but nor did the console Crusader game, so it's about even probably. The controls definitely do take some getting used to, as is common with isometric games, but once you get used to it it works. There are several playable characters and plenty of game to get through, too. This definitely isn't the greatest game around, the graphics are decent but nothing amazing and the gameplay can be frustrating, but it's interesting enough to probably be worth a look. The controls really will take a while to get used to though, they're somewhat odd and clumsy. Stick with it and learn the game, conserve your ammo, and use the map! There is a good game here once you get used to it.

Psybadek
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Racing-Platformer. One player, saves (1 block), digital only. Psybadek is, essentially, a quite bad 3d platformer/racing game on hoverboards. It really is a terrible game, and is one of the worst games I've ever played published by Psygnosis. Yeah, it's right up there next to O.D.T. on that list. The controls are just abysmal; sure, since you're on hoverboards all the time you might expect slippery controls, but even so, these are horrible! Slipperier controls would be hard to find. Sure, the graphics are nice enough for Playstation 3d (there's pop-in, but overall it looks good), and there is some variety to the missions, including races, collection-focused stages, boss fights, and minigames, but none of it is even remotely fun. The races are an excercize in frustration thanks to the controls, and the other stages are even less playable -- trying to collect items in this game is horribly unfun! The trick system is simplistic and not worth bothering with, either. The theme is odd too; the "cool skateboarders" theme doesn't fit well with the cutesey environments. There are two playable characters, male or female, but they're both equally bad. There's no multiplayer to be found either. Don't bother with this game, play something else (almost anything else) instead! A GameFAQs review called the game "Psybadreck". Indeed.

Punky Skunk
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Platformer(2d). One player, saves (1 block). Punky Skunk is a very SNES-ish 2d platformer with a garish early '90s color scheme and an animal mascot hero with attitude. But wait, don't leave, it's actually decent. The game does have saving on the map between levels, but other than that and the CD audio, it'd be easy to mistake this for a 16-bit game, from the not very next-gen 2d artwork -- Punky Skunk is no competition for Rayman, graphically -- to the Genesis-era Sonic-inspired "cool" anthropomorphic skunk hero. The game, though, is good. It's not very long, and isn't that hard either, but while it lasts the game is good, solid 2d platforming fun. In Japan the character was just supposed to be cute, not "tough" as the 'Punky' name suggests; they tried to make him cool by giving him the name Punky Skunk, but the saccharine cuteness of the actual game is unaltered. If you like cute, fun mascot platformers, though, this one's probably worth looking up, because it's a fun game. Punky has various costumes he puts on in different levels, so in one level he's in a bright pink rollerblading costume, then in the next a neon green flight suit or something like that. Yes, this game is very early '90s. It's simple, but fun, and I like it.

Putter Golf
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Sports. Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block), digital only. Putter Golf is a budget 3d minigolf game. Originally from the Simple 1500 line, it released in the US for even less, I believe. The game has a small number of holes, and I beat the game in a short amount of time. Do not expect length from this game; there's a little bit of replay value, to try to do better on the holes, but not too much. It's also too bad that the game is digital control only. Fortunately, however, while it lasts, the game is fun. Each hole has a different design, and some have some interesting, and somewhat challenging, obstacles to figure out. These include things like warp holes which will send the ball somewhere else in the hole, bounce-limiting walls to keep you from hitting over a barrier, and conveyor belts which will move the ball to the end of the belt if you land it on it. Sometimes these things are good, other times bad. I liked the challenge of figuring out how to get a passing score on each hole. It's unfortunate that the experience is over so, so quickly, but still, for a very low budget, cheap game, this game isn't that bad. The main problem is the very limited amount of content, but at least what's there can be fun. This game was a pleasant surprise, I liked it.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
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Racing. Two player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. The fourth game in the Ridge Racer series, R4 is popular among Playstation fans, but I don't think it's that special. I don't like its graphics as much as Ridge Racer 64's, and the gameplay is classic Ridge Racer, which means extreme frustration as you try to catch up to that guy in first who you might, if you race nearly perfectly, catch on the last turn. This game has more content than the previous games in the series, with more tracks, more cars, a real campaign mode for the first time, and more, but the gameplay is what matters, and I just don't like Ridge Racer's style that much. R4's new drifting controls are more controllable than RR64's auto-drifting, but the controls are only slightly better overall. It's still Ridge Racer, and though it's okay, I still don't find it that fun. There is 2 player splitscreen.

The Ridge Racer Turbo Disc is a bonus disc that came with the game that includes a demo of the original Ridge Racer for PSX, and a 60 fps version of it as well showing what they could do with the Playstation now. This really shows how ridiculously limited in content RR was, it's got about 1 1/3 tracks and that's all apart for mirror and reverse modes. This disc's version is even more limited, because there is only one other car on the track; at least in the original release you had a full field of opponents. Maybe they couldn't hold up the 60 fps with more than one other car? Whatever the reason, it's kind of lame. Also, there's still no multiplayer. The best thing on this disc was definitely the Klonoa demo. Heck, that was probably the best thing in the whole package, R4 included.

RayCrisis: Series Termination
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Shmup(2.5d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. RayCrisis is the third and last game in a shmup series that also includes RayStorm (the second game; aka Layer Section II) and RayForce (the first game; aka Galactic Attack or Layer Section). The original game is a slightly gimmicky but great 2d shmup, but the other two are 2.5d, so the graphics don't hold up nearly as well. RayCrisis is a decent to good game, but I don't think it's nearly the game that Galactic Attack is. The basic gameplay is similar, though -- you fly along in a ship with both a gun and missiles. You can use the gun, but most of the time you'll be using the missiles, which lock on to targets in the background. Many enemies start in the background before coming to the main plane, so if you're good with the missiles, you won't use the guns so much. If you fail to kill enemies, the game will actually put fewer on screen as you progress, so the game will make itself easier for people not as good, or harder for the reverse. The game has a cyber theme and which looks decent, as the entire game is supposed to take place inside a computer, but for that I'd probably rather play Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth for N64 (that game had a cyber-style level in it). Like that game, this one also has three ships to choose from, each with different weapons, and one is better than the other two. Also, the game is even shorter per playthrough than most shmups, as the arcade mode is only three stages long. You choose which three of the levels you play through each time before starting, essentially. There is an added mode where you play through all the levels, but it's easy, as you have full weapon power there at all times. Still, with many paths to take and the challenge of trying to get through while killing more of the enemies and thus seeing the harder route there's plenty to do here if you want to master the game, and it is a good shmup. Worth getting, but not for too much (I paid only a few dollars). The first in the series is the best. Also in arcades and on the PC.

Rayman
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Platformer(2d). One player, saves (1 block). Ah, Rayman... Rayman 1 is a classic 2d platformer from the mid '90s that was released on a variety of platforms. I got it for the PC back around 2000, and found it incredibly difficult and frustrating, but beautiful graphically and very well designed. It's the same on Playstation as it was on PC, a very nice looking game with incredibly difficult and frustrating gameplay. The limited lives and continues are also a real pain, sure you can save but eventually you run low and have to beat levels with very few lives, increasing the difficulty even higher. I've never got anywhere near the end of Rayman, it's just too hard. Band Land is particularly insane in challenge. That's too bad too, because the concept, graphics, gameplay, and design are all great... they just went overboard with the challenge and frustration.

Rival Schools: United By Fate
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Fighting(2.5d). Two player, saves (2 blocks, one each for each disc), digital only. Rival Schools is a 2.5d fighting game from Capcom. The game has a Japanese high school theme, as each group of characters comes from a different school, literally. As wtih most of Capcom's polygonal fighting games that generation, it's a side-view game, so there's no real 3d environments here. I haven't played it a huge amount, but from what I have, I think that it's mediocre and not as good as I was hoping based on the pretty cool packaging. It's not awful, but I just don't find it that fun. The game's kind of slow, the graphics are ugly, the gameplay thoroughly mediocre... games like this are why 2d fighting games were so, so much better that generation, really. For a polygonal fighting game that gen this isn't THAT bad, I guess, but I don't like this very much. The pacing, moves, speed, game flow... somehow it just doesn't work, compared to, say, a 2d Street Fighter or Darkstalkers game. C-grade stuff, maybe. Why is this two discs with two different save files, again? They're not that different... in the original Japanese version the second disc has an exclusive mode where you can train up a character, but because it had a lot of Japanese text in it, Capcom cut it out instead of bothering to translate the thing. Jerks. The result is that the two discs are so similar in content that it's hard to tell why they needed two; the main differences are just in minor balance changes and pretty much nothing else of note. It's the same unintersting game on either disc. This game's sequel, Project Justice for the Dreamcast, is a true 3d fighting game, and is also a vast improvement over this one, and is a truly great game (though it too also has a cut, but interesting sounding Japanese-only text-heavy mode, annoyingly). Play that one, and skip this unless you really want to see Project Justice's backstory.

Road Rash 3D
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Racing. Two players, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Road Rash 3D is not a very popular game. The first of three polygonal Road Rash games on the PS1 and N64, this game is blamed for being the first of four straight poor Road Rash games that eventually would cause this once-popular series' demise. The first 5th gen Road Rash, though, the 2d-sprites-in-3d-environments 3DO Road Rash game, is widely popular with the series' fanbase, and is considered probably the best game in the franchise. However, while I think it is an okay game, I do not love Road Rash (3DO/etc.). It's probably because I don't like any of the Genesis games either; they're just too flawed, in my opinion. The 3Do one may have much better framerates than the Genesis, but it still has the annoyingly cruel crashes where if you crash near the end of a race you're doomed, which is annoying with races as long as it has. I don't find the fighting all that exciting either. I have 3DO Road Rash for the PC, and it's decent, but has never interested me enough to hold me for more than a couple of races.

So, when I picked up a copy of this game for a dollar or so, my expectations were very low. Well, it exceeded them. Indeed, this is probably actually my favorite Road Rash game, oddly enough. Some of the reasons why I see this one criticized online are reasons why I like it, in fact, most notably that this is a game more focused on the racing, and less on the fighting, than better-reviewed games like Road Rash 64 or 3DO Road Rash are. Well, Road Rash 64 may have gotten better scores than this game, and it did, but I don't think it's very good, while I like this one. That this game focuses on the racing, while that one is much more about combat, is certainly part of why. Still, Road Rash 3D does have some downsides. First, the graphics aren't very good. The 3d polygonal visuals have aged very badly, and like games like Test Drive 4, the game is highly pixelated. There's no other version of this one to play, though, it's PS1 exclusive. Also like Test Drive 4, this game has the absolutely insane design decision that in analog mode, acceleration and braking are done by the right stick ONLY. The buttons do nothing. It's so, so horrible! I mostly play this with the d-pad. Still though, this is a decently fun motorcycle racing game. The tracks may be ugly, but they are fun to drive through and the game grabbed me right from the start in a way no other Road Rash game has. The course designs, which like the later Road Rash 64 are a network of roads that are sectioned off into segments you will drive on, a design also seen more recently in games like NFS High Stakes 2010, for instance, works well. There's plenty of challenge here in both the course layouts and enemy AI. Overall Road Rash 3D has some problems, but while it may be a mediocre Road Rash game, it is a fun arcade-style racing game, and I, at least, much prefer the latter to the former.

Rollcage: Special Edition
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Racing(futuristic). Two players, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Rollcage is a racing game from Psygnosis that was developed by ATD. It's a fantastic game, maybe even better than Psygnosis's great Wipeout series, and really is a series that I wish would come back. I first played the demo of Rollcage on the PC, and bought Rollcage Stage II for PC back when it came out, so I haven't bought the second one on PSX, but I did get this one because I didn't have it for PC. That was a good decision, as this game is great. Rollcage has great, challenging gameplay, great graphics, variety, style, music... Rollcage has it all. There really isn't anything negative to say, except that the sequel is even better. One major change between the two is that in this first game, you only get championship points for your finishing position. In Stage II, however, you also get points for damage done to both other cars and buildings in the environment. That change makes Stage II a much more varied game; you can shoot at other cars in this one, and blow up buildings, but as you don't get much back for it, it's a much better strategy to try to stay on the road and win the race. And on that note, getting used to Rollcage's handling takes time, because it's very tricky and you spin out with barely a tap. You can drive on walls and ceilings as well, and will go flying in any imaginable direction on a regular basis. Don't give up though, because it's that handling that makes Rollcage what it is. I wouldn't want it to be any different. It does make the games hard, but it also makes them great. Oh yeah, and the flashy weapons are fun, too. This Special Edition release comes packed with a soundtrack disc. Also on PC.

[Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire]
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Strategy. One player, saves. Port of the strategy game released on many platforms. I really haven't played this much. Very deep and complicated, if I ever get around to giving it some time I'm sure I'll love it, because I do like strategy games a lot. Also on PC, SNES, 32X (Japan only), and Saturn (Japan only).

San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
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Racing. Two player, saves, has Analog Gamepad and negCon support. San Francisco Rush for the Playstation is known for being a horrible port of this great arcade classic. Most reviews of the game completely tear it apart. Now, SF Rush for arcades is one of my favorite arcade racing games ever, and may indeed be my overall favorite arcade racing game. The N64 version is fantastic as well; sure it has blurry textures and is incredibly difficult, but otherwise it's fantastic. The N64 version added three new tracks to the game too, which are also present in the second arcade version, SF Rush The Rock, too, for a total of eight (including one hidden track from the Rush the Rock arcade machine). This version... is not Rush the Rock, let's just make that clear. Playstation SF Rush is a port of the original arcade game only. There is one new track added, but it's nowhere near the quality of the three new tracks from the N64 game, so it's not a big loss that it's only available here. And why are the Rush the Rock tracks not here, when this version released some time after the N64 port? It's obvious that Midway didn't care about the PS1 as much as they did the N64. I'm fine with that, but it did result in some bad Playstation games. The graphics of this version are indeed poor, the popin much too close, and the gameplay nowhere near as good as the arcade or N64 versions of the game. However, it IS still Rush, so I do still enjoy it; even if it's ugly and lacking, the core of SF Rush is intact. There's no real reason to play this version, but even so, I'm happy that I have it. It's actually a little better than I was expecting, compared to all the criticism I've seen of this game over the years. It is indeed poor compared to the other versions of the game, but on its own, and for the PS1, it's not THAT bad. For the Playstation, it's more just below average than anything. That is indeed disappointing, but this game is playable, and occasionally even a little fun. I would highly recommend playing a better version of the game instead, though. One odd note: while the game is supposed to have a purple disc with the word "RUSH" printed on it, mine is a misprint or something and it's uncolored and has no logo at all. The only text on the disc is the ESRB rating and the copyright text. Yeah, it's odd. The game itself plays fine, however. Other versions of the game are in arcades, N64, and in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for the GC, Xbox, PS2, and PC.

[SaGa Frontier]
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RPG(2d). One player, saves. Saga Frontier is a JRPG, and part of the SaGa series, which has always had mixed popularity at best. The game is 2d, with decent but not great rendered backgrounds and sprites. As usual with SaGa, the game is somewhat nonlinear, there are many sidequests, and you have a bunch of playable characters. I haven't played this one much, but it seems good.

Sea-Doo HydroCross
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Racing. Two players, saves (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Sea-Doo HydroCross is effectively the sequel to the previous year's Polaris SnoCross. While that game had a later N64 port, the N64 port of HydroCross was, sadly, cancelled. Screenshots exist, but not the game. This PS1 version was released, but probably thanks to its mid 2001 release date and the studio's mixed history, it got very little coverage and even less attention. Polaris SnoCross is an okay game, and I do like it, but it didn't exactly get great reviews. As for this one though, I can't even find a single review on the web, or even a Youtube video of gameplay! So, before actually playing it, I was unsure about if we'd (N64 fans, that is) actually missed anything of note with this one, or not.

Well, now that I have played it, I'd say that we did: Sea-Doo HydroCross is good! The game has good graphics, music, level designs, and gameplay. It's a bit short, but is a somewhat low budget, but well-designed, quality game. It has good visuals for the PS1, and the level designs show that. It does have popin, and doesn't really have wave effects, so don't expect anything that tries to match Wave Race 64's unparallelled wave effects and physics. Even so though, for a flat-water water racing game, the physics are solid. Overall the graphics are pretty good, and the music is great as well. HydroCross has a good soundtrack that keeps the tempo up and fits the game well. The eight tracks are also good. Tracks like Venice and the Paris Sewers both look good and play well. I particularly like that some of the tracks do have shortcuts and multiple paths, as was also true in SnoCross. Some tracks are tough, but it's good to have some challenge, and with practice you will get better; memorization helps! Each track looks completely different, too; it's great that it has variety. As for the difficulty, sure, it's not very hard to get through the first half of the game, but it does get more difficult once you get to the second circuit, so it's not quite as short and easy as SnoCross was. Despite the challenge in the second half this game is still short overall, but at least it's a solidly fun game while it lasts. The one real problem I noticed was that I had a lot of trouble pulling off the stunts with the analog stick; they seem to work fine on dpad, but almost never worked on analog. Oh well, stunts really aren't necessary. Overall, this is a good game. You race around a nice variety of water courses on your jetski, trying to beat the competition and win the races. As with SnoCross, you can save between races, which is nice. Overall, good game. It's not too long, but is fun. I don't know if this game is quite a hidden gem, but does deserve better than to be completely overlooked and forgotten as it has been. This game may be unknown, but it shouldn't be. This games' limited budget does show, but even so it is one of the best water racing games on the PS1. Only Hydro Thunder compares.

Sheep
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Puzzle. One player, saves (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Sheep is a puzzle game, port of the PC game of the same name. It's a top-down 2d game where you, well, herd sheep. There are several characters to choose from, including a rocker version of Bo Peep, a sheepdog, and several more. The game has a silly sense of humor, which is nice. The plot is entertainingly odd, for instance -- the sheep aren't normal Earth sheep, you see. They are actually aliens who just look like sheep, but are stupid and easily misled, much like real Earth sheep, or more gameplay-appropriately, Lemmings. A top-down take on Lemmings was the obvious major inspiration here. That's fine though, considering how great a game Lemmings is. Sheep isn't quite up to Lemmings' level of quality, as the budget just wasn't there and the puzzles get frustrating sometimes due to how difficult herding your sheep in the correct way can sometimes be. It gets quite aggrivating when they kill themselves over and over while you're trying to keep them away from those obstacles. Even so, overall it's a good puzzle game with some amusing graphics and challenging and (usually ) fun gameplay. Also on PC.

ShipWreckers
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Vehicular Combat. Four player (with multitap), saves (1 block). ShipWreckers is a Psygnosis game also released for the PC. As such, it has the usual reasonably good graphics (as far as the PS1 can do anyway) Psygnosis PSX games usually have, which is nice. This one has good gameplay, too. It's a 3d, top view pirate ship action game. You sail your little ship around, shooting at baddies, picking up weapons and powerups, and wiping out the enemies. You can fire left and right, with your left and right broadsides, each on a different button. The levels are large and get complex, and have plenty of exploration and stuff to find in them. There is a nice variety of weapons, too. The game's challenging, as expected from them, but a lot of fun. This is a pretty good game. Sailing around the game's levels, defeating enemies and finding the way forward, is fun and the game is well designed. I only wish it had analog support, the digital-only controls hold the game back versus the PC version. Also on PC.

Shooter: Space Shot
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Shmup(2.5d). One player, saves (1 block). Space Shot is a very low budget shmup. The game has 2.5d graphics and anime-style prerendered CG cutscenes, in Japanese with English subtitles. The designers tried to put some depth in the game system, but it's not needed to actually beat the game -- just basic moving and shooting will do fine for that with minimal trouble. It's only in the trial mode that some of that depth in the game system comes out. The graphics are budget, as you'd expect. The story is generic anime stuff told with prerendered, and dubbed, anime-esque CG cutscenes. The three characters are all male, I think, but with one of them I can't quite tell (the manual says he's male, but who knows). The story is not original, but it was decent enough that I did want to finish the game. Of course though, that did not take long. The shooting action is okay, but nothing great. So yeah, this isn't a great game. It's not that awful either, though, just a product of its budget. For something that I don't think was over $10 new, it's not that bad. It won't hold your interest much longer than it takes to play through once, though. If you do really like it, the trial mode is probably where most of the depth lies. It's quite strange that they put these interesting systems into the game and then made a game which doesn't require you to use them at all, but that's how it is.

Shooter: Starfighter Sanvein
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Arena Shooter(2.5d). One player, saves (1 block). Shooter: Starfighter Sanvein, or simply Sanvein, is a pretty good and unique game. While also part of the same budget line as Space Shot above, this is a very different game, much higher quality and much more interesting. The game has good presentation and some cool looking menus. Very stylish stuff. Sanvein is an arena shooter, pretty much. You control a spaceship, as expected, flying through space. The game uses 2.5d polygonal graphics viewed from an overhead perspective. Except instead of just flying up or right, when starting you are presented with a hex grid. You start from one point, and the goal is to defeat all of the boss enemies, which are on specific hexes of the grid. The rest of the hexes have generic, weaker enemies in them. The battle on each hex, boss or regular, is a single-screen affair where you and the enemies fly around, trying to destroy eachother. The uniqueness comes from two things: first, you have a time limit which only increases when you beat bosses, so you do not get time back that you spend playing non-boss hexes. Second, however, your weapon power in any given hex depends on the number of adjacent hexes you have beaten, and bosses are tough enough that greater weapon power is often advisable. Also, you don't get game over for dying, but lose time instead. So you need to deal with beating as many hexes around a boss as you can before your time runs out and you get game over. It's an interesting system. The difficulty increases as you progress from level to level, too, as you would expect. The graphics are average at best, but I do like the menus and sense of style. Sanvein is an interesting game that's worth checking out.

Sled Storm
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Racing. Two players, saves (1 block), has Analog Gamepad support. Sled Storm, from EA, is one of the few snowmobile racing games ever made that is actually a pretty good game. With solid graphics, good course designs, and good controls, Sled Storm is the decently-budgeted snowmobile racing game that, other than here, has arguably never been made. Yeah, it's hard to find a snowmobile racing game that isn't low budget, but this one is just that. I was told that this game was good, and indeed, it is. This is not one of the PS1's best racing games, but it is a good game. The game has a circuit-based design and gradually gets harder as you go. The tracks have some branches and shortcuts, so there's some variety within each track. It's not the longest game, but it'll take a decent while to beat, longer than something like Polaris SnoCross for instance for certain. The good controls are nice to see, too; no issues here! There is a minor trick component in this game, but it's mostly focused on the racing, just how I like it. I've heard that the game's PS2 sequel is much more like SSX, so I don't know if I'd like it as much as this one; I prefer a racing focus to a stunt focus in snow racing games. So yeah, Sled Storm is good.

Sol Divide
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Shmup(2d). Two player. Sol Divide is a 2d, side-scrolling fantasy-themed shmup from Psikyo. It's one of their less-regarded games, but as I love fantasy stuff, I do like the game. It's frustrating and you randomly get hit a lot, but the game has good anime-style fantasy graphics and artwork, varied environments, characters, and enemies, and interesting (if a little flawed) game design, with various different spells to collect and use. There are three different playable characters, and the game has some home-exclusive content too, with both the original arcade game and a second, original mode where you have levels, items, and more going through a longer quest. Interesting stuff. Annoying sometimes, as the game is quite hard and isn't the most predictable, pattern-based shmup around, but fun anyway. The base game is good.

However, XS Games completely failed in the localization process. Even though it gets much less attention for it, this game is every bit as horribly mangled as "Mobile Light Force". Perhaps even worse, actually. In that case what was lost were the funny, entertaining stories and endings, some of the character names, high score saving, and the art galleries. Sol Divide is similar -- saving and the story are gone. The endings are intact this time, but they are left in text-only, untranslated Japanese, which is no better, particularly with how all story before that point, with one line excepted (at a point where you can choose two different routes -- the only such point in the arcade game), was cut out. All the items in Original mode do have their names and item descriptions translated, but that effort was utterly wasted with the game's biggest flaw -- the removal of saving. You see, in the Japanese PSX and Saturn versions, you can save in Original mode at the beginning or at regular checkpoints in the levels. When you die you get sent back to the start and lose all of your equipped items as in a roguelike, and the Original mode game is long and full of branching paths, so saving is absolutely essential. When you mess up, you can load your save and try that part again, without losing your stuff that will be hard to replace, and without having to start from the beginning of the game again. But... there's no saving in the US version. None at all. This means that when you die, you always lose everything, and get sent back to the very beginning. It's absurd that the game actually shipped like this, and that they'd actually do something so stupid as to remove saving... what in the world were they thinking? I mean, removing the story is one thing, but they utterly ruined a huge part of the game by getting rid of save support! Ridiculous. Don't buy this -- import a Japanese copy instead, maybe for Saturn because it's easier to play imports there. You'll have to figure out what items do just by memorization, but at least the game is playable.

Soul Blade
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Fighting(3d). Two player, saves, digital only. SoulBlade is a 3d fighting game from Namco. It was pretty popular at the time, and is the first game in the long-running SoulCalibur series, but the first game isn't very good, at least not anymore. The game is slow, has iffy graphics, and is just boring. I have beaten it with a couple of characters and maybe even beaten the adventure mode, but I didn't like it very much, and this is not a game I ever go back and play. It's bland, boring, and not much fun. Don't bother with this unless you have strong nostalgia value for the game. Even then, this might be one best left to your memories... play Soul Calibur instead. Any Soul Calibur.

Space Griffon VF-9
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Mech FPS. One player, saves (9 blocks). This game is an early Playstation release, which means a longbox title. Cool, those cases are so much better looking than small jewelcases... As for the game, this is a mech first person shooter. The game's about a team of people told to enter a colony that has lost contact with the outside world and find out what went wrong. The game has lots of story, as the characters talk to eachother as they explore the place. Fortunately the English dubbing isn't too bad, and the story's decent enough anime-ish stuff. There are only a few actual cutscenes, most is just in-engine with talking heads, but it works. The gameplay itself is slow and heavily maze-based, as you wander around the game shooting enemies and going to your next objective points, but it's decently fun. There is an onscreen map, which is an extremely important part of why I find the game good -- no getting lost in this game!this game's draw distance isn't too good, but that's very common in 3d games from this time, and it's enough to be playable. While the concept may sound similar to Robotica on the Saturn, in practice the two games are quite different because of different maze design styles, movement speeds, and area layouts. That game is about going from room to room, while this one is more about corridors. I'm not sure which one is better, though. Robotica probably has better graphics, but this one might be the better game. You can save your progress in this one too, unlike Robotica. Yeah, overall I kind of liked this game. It's not bad, nothing amazing for sure but fine at what it does and fun to play. The story's decent, and the game's moderately fun. Overall, this is a good game. The worst thing about the game is the crazy amount of memory card space it requires. Otherwise though, while repetitive, I like it.

[Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels]
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Strategy-FPS. One player, saves. I've owned this game for years now, but never did play it much... this is definitely something that would be a lot more fun with a PC and a mouse, it's complex and has a lot of buttons. The game is a first-person game, but it's not just a shooter, it has a big strategy component too. Looks interesting, but playing it with a gamepad isn't much fun at all. (Oh yeah, and don't even bother without the manual. The game is complex and there is no tutorial.) Also on PC, 3DO, and Saturn.

Spin Jam
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Puzzle. Spin Jam is a simple, low budget puzzle game that rips off Bust-A-Move, but with its own unique twist. In the game you shoot bubbles at a spinning wheel centerpoint. The bubbles will stick to that point, but then by shooting 2 or more bubbles they will pop. When they do this, bubbles on the other side of the spinning wheel will fly off, away from the circle. Your goal is to get bubbles into the colored "petals" surrounding the spinning wheel. As a result, what you try to do is shoot the other side of the wheel from where you want to shoot at, when the bubbles are lined up right to hit the outer edge (I haven't played this in a few weeks so the details might be slightly off, but that's about how it works). The game's alright, but limited -- that's all you do in this game, and it just doesn't have the depth of better puzzle games like, well, Bust-A-Move. The graphics are pretty average too, the art's not exactly the best (it's European "anime-style" art, and has the questionable quality you expect from such things). It's a low budget puzzle game, though, so how much can be expected... this game does get repetitive, but it's okay I guess.

Spyro the Dragon
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Platformer(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Spyro the Dragon is probably the Playstation's other best-known platformer franchise, after Crash. Unlike that series though, the Spyro games are true 3d platformers. The levels may not be as large as N64 3d platformer stages, but for the system it is a pretty good effort. The controls are good, and you can hover, charge, and breathe fire too. You play as Spyro, a small dragon, who has to save all the other dragons from capture. The game has a very cute theme and was obviously aimed at a younger audience. The plot is that Spyro is the only dragon who did not turn to stone when the villain tried to turn all dragons to stone, and now he has to rescue them all. Saving dragons is this game's version of Mario 64 stars, so you progress by figuring out how to rescue dragons and getting to them. The game has fairly good graphics for the PS1, and it does a nice job of making some of the areas moderately decent sized, though others are too small. I do like Croc better than this, but Spyro is a simple, fun 3d platformer. Probably thanks to the voice acting and conversations between Spyro and the dragons he rescues this feels even more cutesey than that game. Spyro is also much easier than either Croc title, unfortunately; this game is not very hard at almost any point, and is only average (or shorter) length too. That is an issue. Still though, even if it isn't challenging, it is fun to play. Spyro is not N64 3d platformer quality, but it is light fun.

Star Ocean: The 2nd Story
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RPG(2-3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Supported. Star Ocean: The 2nd Story is one of my favorite Playstation games. I admittedly haven't finished it, though I did get to the second disc (of two) so I got well into it compared to most other games on the system. Star Ocean 2 is an action-RPG. Developed by tri-ace, the game is a sequel to the Japan-only SNES original (now available in the US in its PSP remake), and comes from the same roots as the Tales series. The two series indeed have some strong similarities in style and combat, but have their differences as well, some good and some bad. On the good side, this game is better than most any Tales game. But on the bad, Star Ocean games never have multiplayer, unlike Tales. But again on the good side, this game has two main characters, male or female, and the two are actually different -- if you like the game it's worth replaying as the other one, because some parts will be different.

Star Ocean 2 has good sprite art and 2d dungeons and towns along with a 3d world map. The world map looks ugly, but fortunately you're not on it all that much, and the drawn elements look good. In addition to the combat, the game also has a deep skill system. There are many skills and abilities to learn, including both combat abilities and non-combat ones like painting pictures or learing music. These abilities also often require items to work, like canvass for painting. Yeah, it's a deep game, and I like that about it. The battle system is good, and you can control any party member while the others do their thing. Combat is in a 3d area, so you can move around, attack enemies, and cast spells freely. After battle you can cook various kinds of food to recover some health, if your characters have that skill and you have the right ingredients in your inventory. You can switch between characters during combat of course. In addition to the two main characters, who are always in the game, there are eight other possible characters who can join your party, of which you will have six in each game; some are missable, or either/or choices.

Like many Japanese RPGs the game is anime-styled. The game has a good anime-style story with many twists and turns along the way. It is mostly following a linear story, but you do make choices along the way, so the game will not play the same way every time, at least not in the details. There are little side scenes with the characters that add more to their characters, too. The ending will be made up of a large number of different elements, depending on what you did and which characters you're closer to. That's great to see. Overall the game is deep and complex, but not too hard to learn or understand either, the mark of a great game. I have heard that there is some extremely difficult optional content at the end of the game, but that the main game itself isn't so bad. Star Ocean 2 is a great game, and my favorite action-RPG for the system. The game has a remake on the PSP that I have not played, but I dislike its redrawn artwork; the original character art is better. The female lead looks much younger in the new artwork, for instance. It doesn't really work. Get this version. Also on PSP.

Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha
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Fighting(2.5d). Two players, saves (1 block), digital only. The Street Fighter EX are 2.5d Street Fighter games. That is, side-view gameplay, but polygon character models. The games were actually outsourced to Arika, so Capcom did not make them internally. The EX games were not overly popular at the time and don't seem to be overly well remembered, but they do have a few fans. I came into this with low expectations, but it is a decent game. The game isn't as good as Capcom's 2d fighting games from that generation, as polygon graphics generally just weren't quite good enough that generation for fighting games on par with the best 3d fighters, but it is playable and runs at decent speed at least. The game has a good-sized character selection, including many Arika made and that are as a result exclusive to the EX series, as well as a few from the main franchise. The game also has some amusing CG FMV cutscenes when you beat it with each character. Despite being somewhat pleasantly surprised by the gameplay though, it might not really have been worth getting, considering that I got the second game (below) at the same time and that feels like an expanded version of the same thing, but there are a few things in the first game but not the second, most notably a couple of characters that were removed from the second game. Yeah, I have no idea why they cut Sakura (yeah, the Sakura from Alpha) and Kairi (new character) from EX2, but they did. So I guess there's that. But apart from her and the few other characters that are in EX1 but not EX2, there really isn't much else going for why to play this game over the second one. They're very, very similar games, except in all but two ways (2 missing characters, removed CG endings) the second one is better. One last thing though -- that title sure is silly. I mean, it's a Greek "Alpha" symbol at the end, not the word Alpha. Apparently there was an arcade "Street Fighter EX Plus" release, but still, this title is silly.

Street Fighter EX2 Plus
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Fighting(2.5d). Two players, saves (1 block), digital only. The second and middle Street Fighter EX game, this is the last one on the PS1; EX3 is a PS2 game. While you might think that because it's just "Plus" and not "Plus Alpha" it's a worse game than the previous one, but it isn't! Seriously though, this game is very similar to the first one, so it's another 2.5d side-view fighter. It is improved, though, with better gameplay and graphics than the first one. Two characters were removed, as I said in the above review, and four added, so there are more overall. It's too bad some were removed, and also unfortunately those CG FMV ending cutscenes have been dropped in favor of just some text boxes, but overall this is definitely the better game. It runs better, too. It's no 2d Street Fighter, but it's actually not bad. This series' 2.5d style is something like that of the Street Fighter IV series, except not quite as good as those games. Still, it's decent; this is probably about as good as a PS1 2.5d fighter will get. I was expecting worse.

Street Racer
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Racing(Kart). Eight player (with multitaps), saves, digital only. Street Racer is an Ubisoft racing game that was first on the SNES, but also saw Genesis (Europe only release), Game Boy, Playstation, and Saturn versions. The Genesis and GB versions are entirely different, but the PSX and Saturn versions are upgraded versions of the SNES game, which is a pretty good, Mode 7, Mario Kart clone with a 4-player splitscreen mode. The Saturn version is quite superior visually to this Playstation version, but unfortunately didn't get a US release so it's import (Japan or Europe) only. Both the PSX and Saturn versions do have 8 player splitscreen multiplayer with two multitaps, though, which is pretty cool -- it's the only splitscreen racing game on either system with support for more than four players. All of the other 8-player PS1 racing games are Micro Machines-style ones where the players all share one screen. Even if the Saturn version looks nicer, PSX Street Racer is still a fun game. Gameplay-wise it's still pretty much flat, Mario Kart style, so do not expect Mario Kart 64, but it's a good game. I'm not sure if I actually like it more than the SNES game, because just because it has better graphics doesn't mean the gameplay is better, but it is a quality title for sure either way. Fun game for kart racing fans. Look up the SNES and import Saturn versions too, though.

Strikers 1945
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Shmup(2d). Two player, saves (1 block), digital only. This game is actually Strikers 1945 II, but as the first one didn't have a Western release, Agetec renamed it to just Strikers 1945. The Strikers 1945 series is a series of shmups clearly descended from Aero Fighters and 1942, and are from Psikyo. As with those games it is a vertical scrolling shooter with 2d graphics and great, classic gameplay. The 2d artwork is great and the game runs very well -- this is definitely some of the better 2d work I've seen on the Playstation. It's short but hard and has lots of replay value, like all the best shmups. The options are similar to the other Psikyo games I have for PSX, Mobile Light Force and Sol Divide, except Agetec didn't completely butcher this port like XS Games did to those two. They didn't remove the high-score saving, most importantly. There's no autosave, so you need to remember to save, but at least the feature is there. This game is great, probably my favorite of the shmups I own for PSX. It was also the first Playstation shmup I bought, the day I bought the system in Jan. '06, and it was a great choice, I haven't seen it very often since. The only removed feature from the US version is Tate mode, for vertical monitors, and it's quite unfortunate that that mode was cut, but overall it's a great game, very highly recommended. Do get an import copy if you want tate mode, though, and that is always the best way to play vertical-orientation shmups like this one. Arcade port, also on Saturn in Japan though the PS1 version is said to be slightly better.

Super Bubble Pop
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Puzzle. One player, saves. Super Bubble Pop is a low-budget puzzle game released on the PSX, GBA, GC, and Xbox. The game got extremely low scores, but I enjoyed it. The basic game is the same on all platforms, but there's only 2-player multiplayer on the GC and Xbox -- the PSX and GBA don't have any, annoyingly. It's a puzzle game, I expect multiplayer. What is here, though, is a cheap looking, but somewhat fun and addictive, puzzle game. The game is sort of 3d, with a polygon character shooting colored bubbles. You move left and right on an isometric plane, and fire towards the arrays of bubbles. The bubbles move towards you slowly in patterns, and they pop when you line up three in a row vertically or horizontally. You can't shoot up though, so you need to pop a bubble below in order to pop a differently colored one above. Making horizontal chains is hard, because as soon as the bubbles move forward from the back wall they start from, when you fire to the left or right of a bubble you'll shoot all the way to the back, and bubbles will stack up, not really allow you to fire again and fill in holes, so to speak. As a result you mostly make vertical columns. It's a little odd, but the simple, classic design works, and despite the abysmal scores this game got, I found myself having fun. It's not a puzzle game you're going to be playing for years, but if you find it cheap it might be worth a thought. I like Super Bubble Pop. Also on GC, Xbox, and GBA (with 2 player splitscreen on GC and Xbox, and 2 player link support on GBA).

Syphon Filter
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Third-Person Stealth Action. One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Syphon Filter is a third person shooter with a mixture of stealth and shooting gameplay. Sometimes you have to sneak around, but most of the time the solution involves shooting people and getting in gunfights. As third person action games are not a genre I generally find particularly interesting, and modern-day shooters are something that interests me even less I had pretty low expectations for this one, but it turns out to actually be a decent game. Syphon Filter's graphics are very Playstationey, so they look bad by modern standards, but for the system it looks okay. The controls take some getting used to -- some functions are not intuitive, and I got stuck at one point late in the first mission because I didn't know about some of the controls worked and they are not all explained ingame (the manual would help, I hope, but sadly I don't have it) -- but once you get them down, it works, particularly with a dual-analog controller of course. The controls are a bit clumsy, but the shooting action does mostly hold up. The level designs are solid, too; they're mostly linear, but there is often at least a little openness in the designs, and sometimes you can do mission objectives in different orders too. Overall, okay game. Better than I was expecting.

Tales of Destiny
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Action-RPG(2d). Four players (with multitap), saves (1 block). Tales of Destiny, the first of two (US-released) PS1 Tales games, was the first Tales game released in the US. As with all Tales titles, the game has a traditional JRPG world with action-RPG combat. The game has the usual overworld, towns, and dungeons layout, with the occasional puzzle to make things more interesting, and follows through a quite Tales-style story. It's fairly standard videogame RPG stuff, about a boy with a heroic destiny (of course), but it is decently well told, as usual in the franchise. The game starts with your hero as a stowaway on an airship, but it's not much of a spoiler to say that it doesn't take long before the usual RPG-hero-escapes-burning-village-at-the-start syndrome hits. Why does almost every RPG have to start that way... oh well, at least they made things slightly different, with the airship and all. Battles are side-view 2d on a flat plane, as with the first game. You can move forward and back, fighting the monsters and using abilities. Like the original SNES version of Tales of Phantasia, in this game you can only ever control the main character the generic warrior hero guy -- any other party members will always be AI controlled only in single player. This is very annoying, as every Tales game since the third one has allowed you to play as any character you want, including the much-maligned GBA remake of Tales of Phantasia. Unfortunately while this game does have a PS2 remake that fixes the issue, it was only released in Japan. Too bad. At least he is a decent character with a somewhat varied move set, unlike, for instance, the Radiata Stories guy, who you were also forced to play all the time but really wasn't very fun to play as at all... and also unlike that game, ToD has a hidden 4-player mode, which allows other players to control the other three party members, if you have the special item that allows human-controlled other party members that is. Stahn will always need to be human-controlled though. Anyway, Tales of Destiny is an entirely 2d game, and it doesn't exactly push the PS1 much. Really, this could have started out as a SNES game and I wouldn't be surprised. Still, there's nothing wrong with that, because 2d PS1 games generally hold up well, even if they don't push the hardware, and indeed, that is true here too. ToD is a good game.

Tekken 3
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Fighting(3d). Two player, saves (1 block), digital only. I don't really like Tekken, any of them. Somehow the series's style just doesn't quite work for me, and I would not rank Tekken very high at all in my list of the great 3d fighting game franchises. Tekken 3 here looks great, has very short load times, plays fast and fairly smooth, and has a good amount of stuff to unlock including hidden characters and a beat 'em up mode, but somehow it doesn't work and I just don't like it that much. The beat 'em up mode was fun, but the main game isn't really. This is a case where a game is obviously good on an objective level, but I just don't like it that much. This is the only PS1 Tekken game I own, I don't want to spend much for games I just don't find all that fun. Beyond the above, I have two major complaints with Tekken: first that the game is too fast. Matches are over in seconds, while I much prefer fighting games that are a bit slower, like 2d SNK games or the Street Fighter series. Tekken matches are irritatingly brief; DoA's fast, but even that series's rounds take longer than Tekken. And second, I prefer games with more videogamey movesets and designs, like Street Fighter, to games trying for some faux "realism" like Virtua Fighter or Tekken. I don't like 5th gen VF any more than I do Tekken, that's for sure. Still though, this is at least better than Soul Blade, certainly, so it's probably Namco's best PS1 fighter, though that isn't saying very much. I do have Tekkens 4 and 5 on PS2, but they're just as uninteresting as this game is, or worse because they don't have beat 'em up modes. The Soul series improved massively that next generation, but Tekken, not so much. I guess they thought it was good enough as is; I know lots of people agree with that, but I'm not one of them.

Tempest X3
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Static Shooter. Two player, saves (1 block), digital only. Tempest X3 is the slightly inferior Playstation port of the Jaguar great Tempest 2000, which is the best game on the Jaguar and one of the best games of the entire fifth generation. The CD audio soundtrack is pretty cool, but the gameplay changes, including adding many more levels and increasing the difficulty level through changes like making spikes extremely hard to destroy, do not improve the game. Tempest X3 is still a great game, with good techno music and great psychedelic-style visuals paired with good, classic arcade gameplay, but anyone who's played the Jaguar version knows that the original really is the best. I love this game even so though, I'd put it in the upper tier of my Playstation games for sure. The Jaguar original would rank higher, but this version is still very good. Interplay slightly messed it up in the porting, but enough of the brilliant T2k shooting and flying action is here for this game to still be an amazing experience. Even in this altered form Tempest 2000/X3 is one of the best shooters ever. Also on PC and Saturn as Tempest 2000; all three are the same, despite the name difference, and are not exactly the same as the Jaguar original Tempest 2000.

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
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Third-Person Stealth Action. One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Support. Tenchu is a simple stealth game. It's not little of the depth of a Thief, but for a console game in 1998 did a good job with a stealth system. You play as one of two ninjas (male or female), each doing a set of missions. Both characters go through the same environments, but some missions do differ slightly between them; still, replay value is somewhat limited. In the game, you sneak around killing people from the shadows. Fun stuff. Explore the levels, figure out guards' patterns and how to sneak up behind them, and kill them. It's best to avoid getting detected when you can. The game has an okay story, decent to good gameplay, and average 3d graphics. It's definitely got issues, with the sometimes mediocre graphics, with the draw distance, with the controls, and with the simple, pattern-based nature of the gameplay, but it is fun and works. The voice acting deserves special mention, it's in that great zone of games with voice acting so bad that it's good. Some parts of the game are pretty entertaining due to the sometimes iffy script and awful voice acting... I actually beat this game, as I said at the top. That says a lot.

Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins
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Third-Person Stealth Action. One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Support. Tenchu 2 is like Tenchu 1, but with slightly improved graphics, a very, very annoying forced-stealth-only first mission, a skimpier costume for the female ninja Ayane, a third unlockable character to play as, and better (and thus much less entertaining) voice acting and script. Oh, and the controls were changed, and for the worse; I liked Tenchu 1's controls better. The base gameplay is the same as the first one, though. Tenchu 2 is a decent game, but could have been better. It's okay, but I like the first game more overall. The control change is hard to get used to, the first level is just awful, and the "better" script and voice acting don't have the entertainment value the first one's did. Tenchu 2 is still good, though, and overall very similar to the first. This is a pretty good game.

Test Drive 4
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Racing. Two player, saves (1 block), has digital, Analog Gamepad, or negCon support. The first Test Drive game in some years, Test Drive 4 was the first of a new set of Test Drive games from the later '90s to early '00s. The game shares some things in common with the three original games, but drops any attempt at simulation in favor of a purely arcade-based driving style. I think that works fine. TD4 has mediocre but smooth graphics and a decent draw distance. Expect a LOT of pixelization here. The game is still a linear-path racer, just like Test Drive 2, and you still go through five checkpoints in each stage. Test Drive 5 would add some circuit races, but this one does not have them, it's one-way races only. Track designs in Test Drive 4 remind me more of Outrun than anything 5th gen; don't expect full-scale environments here, just a strip of road to drive down, as you try to make the turns and not crash into the oncoming traffic. That task is much more difficult than it might sound, though, as TD4 is oldschool levels of hard; expect a challenge with this one! The controls are weird in analog gamepad mode, too -- if you want to use the left stick to turn, it forces you to use the right stick for acceleration. Horrible, horrible design! I hate having to use a stick for acceleration, it really does not work at all. Good PS1 racing games might have that as an option, but let you use buttons too. Unless you can get used to it I'd recommend using the d-pad instead, or a wheel if you want to try it that way. Whichever control method you use, though, getting anywhere in this game will take a lot of practice. In order to finish tracks you will need to be good, memorize the courses as much as possible considering how long they are, and not mess up much. It is a good game, and I like it, but it is tough. Regardless, TD4 is a good, under-rated game, much like its two sequels, but with an even more oldschool design than either of them. Also on PC. The PC version plays the same, but has much better visuals as you'd expect.

Tetris Plus
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Puzzle. Two player, saves, digital only. Tetris Plus is a puzzle game, obviously. It's a port of the arcade game of the same name and had an Egyptian tomb exploration theme. It includes both a classic Tetris mode and a new puzzle mode where you have to get the professor down to the exit before the slowly dropping ceiling crushes him, by making lines to clear a path for him to drop down. It's simple, with straightforward 2d graphics and not that many options or modes, but it's fun classic Tetris action and plays quite well. I do kind of wish it was Russian themed, though, that fits Tetris best... Also on Saturn and Game Boy.

Threads of Fate
--
Action-RPG. One player, saves, Analog Gamepad Support. Called Dewprism in Japan, the US title is much more serious. I like the Japanese name more. I've finished this game, and it's a fantastic game that is easily one of my favorite games on the Playstation; indeed, it might be my overall favorite PS1 game. The game is a platform-action-RPG much like its predecessor Brave Fencer Musashi, but simplified in some ways down to its core. The somewhat confusing timing and day elements of Brave Fencer Musashi are gone, for instance, replaced with a much more straightforward system where time passes as you progress through the game. You get two playable characters, each with a completely different storyline and very different play styles as well, improved graphics, and lots of great gameplay throughout. Threads of Fate has a narrow focus, not a wide one -- instead of exploring the world, you have one single hub village from which you set out on various missions in the area. You revisit many areas multiple times, taking different routes each time. I really like this design, not every game needs to be about travelling around teh whole world and seeing every country. JRPGs much overdo that theme, really; PC RPGs have been more likely to use this kind of design than Japanese games. They should try it more, it works really well when done right, as it is here. The game is on the short side, but it feels absolutely right, like any more length would just be padding and instead they designed it for the perfect length for the story. The only reason I could possibly complain is because I liked it so much that I wished it'd last longer, but that's much more praise than anything else. It lasts the right amount of time.

Also, there's replay value by playing as the other character, because the two play quite differently. Mint, a very spoiled princess, has a quite funny story about how she was thrown out of her kingdom due to her sister and the royal advisor's scheming. She has a a weakness, you see... Now, she wants the ultimate power of the Dewprism (of the JP title) to get revenge and take over the world... whatever exactly the Dewprism is, nobody's quite clear on it, except that it supposedly has great powers. She uses magic spells, and as you progress through the game you gradually get better and better spells. Rue, on the other hand, has a sadder story. He is a boy with no memory, who woke up in the middle of nowhere. He met a woman living there, and he was staying with her, when they were attacked and she was killed. He's trying to figure out who he is and who attacked them. He uses a power that allows him to take the form of his enemies, so instead of upgrading in skills you just find stronger enemies as you go along. I find Mint's side much more fun, the entertaining story fits the game better I think, though there is a definite serious side to the story no matter who you play as. The game does a great job of mixing funny and sad or nostalgic moments, and it never feels wrong. Every element of the game is done brilliantly, from the platforming to the stories to the action to the RPG elements to the music. Fun platform jumping, great, memorable bosses, cool dungeons, interesting gameplay mechanics, a good story, and more... Threads of Fate is outstanding. Play this game!

TigerShark
--
Vehicular Action(3d). One player, saves, digital only. TigerShark is an extremely hard 3d undersea combat sim. The graphics are not-very-good-looking earlier Playstation 3d, the d-pad only controls are not good, and the challenge level is immense. It feels like a game that could be pretty fun if I could get into it, as I like futuristic vehicular combat sims like this (it's a bit like a space sim underwater), but the difficulty level makes that hard. The PC version, with joystick controls, would probably be more fun. Also on PC.

Time Crisis
--
Light Gun Shooter. One player, saves (1 block), digital or GunCon 1 light gun only. Time Crisis is a port of the first game in this now long-running light-gun-shooter series. I've never loved Time Crisis, but it is a decent game, with the usual cover-based lightgun Time Crisis action you see in all games in this series; you can hide behind an object and be safe, or pop out and shoot at the badguys, so it's not entirely static. The PS1 version here adds a new Playstation-exclusive mission, in addition to the arcade original. The graphics are average for the system, and as usual for the genre the game's not too long, though the additional content helps. There isn't much variety here, though; there's one gun, no powerups or anything to be found. The biggest problem with this game, beyond that I've never liked this series that much, is that in order to make up for the length, Namco decided made this home port crazy-hard. The game has a strict time limit, and when you die you get sent back to the last checkpoint. By the end of the first level, it'd gotten so hard that I found it nearly impossible to progress. And the game has limited continues too. Yeah, I haven't gotten anywhere near the end of this game, and I doubt I ever will. And there's no multiplayer support to help you out here, either; this is strictly a single-player experience. With lots of fire coming at you and a strict continue limit, this game's difficulty level is up a bit too high.Time Crisis is average or below, overall. Any Sega light gun game is a far better game than this, and I'd rather play Project Horned Owl too, but this game is okay, I guess. I wouldn't really recommend it though. (Yes, I'm critical of yet another Namco PS1 game. I'm sure by now people reading this are shocked. Klonoa is the only truly great Namco PS1 game I can think of... maybe also Tales of Destiny.)

TNN Motorsports Hardocre 4x4
--
Racing. One player, saves, analog is negCon only. This game is an early PSX racing game. Between the poor 3d graphics and the bland, uninteresting gameplay, I doubt many people today will play it for long. I haven't. It's not the worst thing ever, there just are very few reasons to play it of the very many much better racing games you could be playing instead. Maybe fans of 4x4 truck racing would get a bit more out of it than I can. I prefer hovercars with turbo-jets, myself. Even 4x4 racing fans probably will find this one disappointing, though; far from being an off-road adventure, in Hardcore 4x4, you're driving down canyons at all times. Yes, there are high walls on both sides of the track almost all of the time walling you onto the track. This visual style was one you saw in the mid '90s, but it has aged quite badly, and in this case never looked, or worked, very well to begin with. Also on Saturn.

Total Eclipse Turbo
--
Rail Shooter. One player, saves (1 block). Total Eclipse Turbo is a 3DO port rail shooter. The graphics look about what you'd expect considering that it was originally supposed to be on the 3DO, and the gameplay isn't much above average for the genre. It isn't a bad game -- I like rail shooters, and the game is fun -- but it's clearly early and suffers from some definite flaws, most notably the very close, and distracting, draw distance. You really can't see very far in front of you. Also as usual d-pads are not good control schemes for 3d games... still, it does have a good challenge, some variety of settings and environments, some nice weapons, and some cool challenges, such as when you're going through narrow tunnels. The biggest enhancement here over the 3DO original is that this version has a save system, while on the 3DO you had to play the whole thing in one sitting. Important improvement there indeed! Still, overall, it's only okay. The game is definitely a product of its time, and its 3DO roots show through. Still, on the good-rail-shooter-starved Playstation, Total Eclipse Turbo is worth picking up. The game has a sequel, Solar Eclipse for the Saturn (and PS1 in Japan and Europe only; the game was called Titan Wars in some regions). Solar Eclipse has even more live-action FMV video than this game, and better gameplay, but the basic concept is similar. Enhanced 3DO port.

Tunnel B-1
--
Vehicular Combat. One player, saves (1 block). This review is copied over from my Saturn review because, well, the two versions are pretty much the same. The gameplay and graphics are pretty much the same on both systems. Tunnel B-1 is a first-person vehicular combat game. In the game, you control a vehicle of some kind and have to drive through tunnels, cleansing them of a plague of evil robots and such. Yeah, it's a fairly generic concept, and is generic in execution too; there are plenty of other games that do something similar to this, and often a bit better than this one too. However, it's not a bad game, just average. If you like vehicular combat games, you well might enjoy this one. Drive around, shoot stuff, collect better weapons, try not to die, and make your way through the increasingly complex tunnel networks. You start out with only basic weapons and in tunnels with only a branch or two, but it gets more interesting farther in. The game is a challenge from early on, so don't expect it to be easy. Still the game never reaches greatness, but it is average shooting entertainment, at least, and can be fun to play. I enjoyed it just enough to buy the Saturn version even though I already had it for PS1, but I do enjoy vehicular combat games. Also on Saturn.

UmJammer Lammy
--
Music. Two player, saves (1 block). This is a music game where you have to press the buttons in time. It's a spiritual sequel to PaRappa the Rapper, except with a lamb character this time, and rock music instead of rap. It's also very difficult; I'm utterly horrible at it and can't beat a single level. The graphics are good and the songs funny, but I'm utterly hopeless at this genre. Even my cousin, who liked PaRappa (I've never played that one, but I imagine I wouldn't like it at all), had trouble with this game... apparently it's harder than that game is. The songs and lyrics are silly, amusing stuff, but I'll probably only ever see them in videos.

Vandal Hearts
--
Strategy. One player, saves. Vandal Hearts is a tactical strategy game of the Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics style, but simpler than those games. Vandal Hearts has 3d environments and 2d sprite characters, like FFT. The game is more straightforward than that one, though. I think it's pretty good, it's got enough depth to require definite strategy and thought, but isn't so complex that you feel that you need to play with a guide by you at all times in order to make it worth playing at all, like games like FFT and the Ogre Battle games often seem to be like. It's a good game, a little under the radar but definitely worth checking out. I like this game; it's got a good balance of simplicity in design and solid strategy gameplay. Also on Saturn, though that version is Japan-only.

Wild 9
--
Platformer(2.5d)/Vehicular Action(3d). One player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad Support. Wild 9 is a 2.5d platform-action game from Shiny, the makers of Earthworm Jim. Advertised with the slogan "Torture your enemies!", the game was aimed at an older audience than their past titles, and didn't do as well as Shiny hoped. The game's okay, but not great. The graphics are mediocre polygonal Playstation 3d, which means not that good. Sure, there are hardware limits, but the system can do better. Despite that though the game can be fun. Levels are large and full of enemies and some puzzles, and there are some bike shooting stages to mix up the platforming. It's fun until it starts getting repetitive, which it will eventually, as the game somewhat lacks in variety. Your weapons are definitely entertaining, they focused the advertising on them for a reason -- it's obviously a major focal point of the design, and it works, some of the time -- whacking the enemies around can be amusing for sure. Still though, maybe they should have spent more time on the gameplay, less on the weapons? Also, the "extreme" tone of the game gets annoying fast, as does the main character. Earthworm Jim this guy is not... Overall though, it's at least an okay game and maybe better (graphics aside), and is another decent platform-action game in the Playstation's library. The PSX really doesn't get enough credit for its substantial 2d and 2.5d platformer library, I think... it's actually pretty good.

WarHawk
--
Vehicular Combat(3d). One player, password only saving. WarHawk was considered one of the best early Playstation games in 1995, and I can see why. The game is great, and is definitely one of the best of the early Playstation lineup along with Wipeout. Warhawk is a futuristic 3d flight combat game from SingleTrac where you fly a helicopter around, destroying enemies and doing missions in order to save the world. Each level is an open area, so this game is not railed, it's free flight. The graphics certainly look like the early PS1 visuals they are, but still, the style, good design, and great level designs still hold up. WarHawk is a lot of fun to play, as you fly around shooting enemies and trying to accomplish your mission. I like this kind of game, and this is one of the better flight combat games on the PS1. The game has live-action-video FMV cutscenes, which are entertaining enough but not great. They work I guess, but are a product of their time; it's the gameplay that really makes this game good. WarHawk definitely has aged from 1995, and in visuals and gameplay you can tell that it's an early Playstation game, but the high quality of the game shines through even so and it is still quite fun. The password-only save system is annoying, though, why couldn't it just use the memory card? Still, this is a pretty good game, as long as you keep in mind that it is from 1995.

WipEout
--
Racing(Futuristic). One player (two player by system link only), saves (1 block), analog by negCon only. Wipeout is the original classic, the most influential futuristic racing game since F-Zero years earlier. It helped spark the futuristic racing genre's rapid growth, and the series is still around and great. The original game, though, has some real problems thanks to a few bad design decisions that were improved on with each successive release in the series. On the positive side, Wipeout has very good graphics with some flashy special effects, great track designs, decent controls for a d-pad racing game, and outstanding design, music, and style. However, the game is hard and incredibly unforgiving. For some reason, Psygnosis made it so that when you hit a wall you lose almost all of your speed. This single problem has a massive impact and makes it so that in order to win, which you must if you expect to finish the game, you must be perfect. Memorize the courses exactly. Use your left and right airbrakes at the right time on each turn, and hope you don't mess up. It's just too unforgivingly difficult, and I have never even finished the first, and easier and slower, of the game's two circuits. Also you can't save during a circuit, and in the harder circuit you only go to the last track if you're in first place overall after the first six tracks. You only get three chances at each track to finish in the top three, or it's game over. Brutal. The game has multiplayer, but system link only, lamely.

The game also was ported to PC and Saturn. I'm not sure about the PC version, but in the Saturn version made a critical improvement in speed loss when you hit walls -- instead of your acceleration going to zero as on PSX, on Saturn you just lose a bit of speed. It makes the game incredibly more fun and playable. The Saturn version has worse graphics (the effects particularly look less impressive), no real analog (even with the wheel it feels digital), and no system link multiplayer, but in gameplay it is vastly superior.

WipEout XL
--
Racing(Futuristic). One player (two player by system link only), saves (1 block), analog by negCon only. Wipeout XL is probably the most popular of the Playstation Wipeout games, and it is indeed a great game. The first half of the game has you play each race as a single race, with saving between races. Once you've beaten all six of these, though, you reach the second part, where you have to go through a circuit, Wipeout 1-style, and beat all six of them with only one try for the whole thing and limited continues. This is, like with the first game, crazy hard; I've never managed it. It's a nasty design change, and is even harder than Wipeout 1's circuits because you only get three tries for the whole thing, not three tries for each track, regenerating once you beat the race. It's just crazy hard at that point, I wish they'd stuck with the design of the first part of the game throughout. It wasn't until Wipeout 64, and then Wipeout 3 after it, that Psygnosis finally stopped it with the circuits, and went to designs where you could save after every race. I just wish they'd started sooner. Still, this game is a true classic, and definitely is something worth playing. Despite its flaws it's a great game. I wish that the whole game allowed you to save between races, that's such a better design for games like this... oh well. It is still a great game, certainly. As with the first game you have to use the d-pad or neGcon/racing wheel, and racing wheels just aren't that great for Wipeout, I've found. The game is easier with d-pad, which means much less precision than an analog stick has, and it does affect how much fun the game is, particularly compared to Wipeout 64, which has very similar graphics, but analog controls and 4-player splitscreen. Wipeout 64 is better than Wipeout XL. On its own though XL is a good game. The graphics are good, better looking than the first game in many ways, and the gameplay is similarly improved. It is, as with most Wipeout games, a very difficult, challenging game which can be brutal and unforgiving, but if you have the skill, there is a lot here to like. I do think other Wipeout games are better than this game, but it is a pretty good one. Also on PC and Saturn (released in Japan and Europe only on Saturn), though the music was replaced with different stuff in those versions, and the Saturn port has no multiplayer as well. The Saturn port does, however, have good 3D Controller analog support.

WipEout 3
--
Racing(Futuristic). Two player (four player via system link with two players on each system), saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad and negCon support. Wipeout 3 has outstanding, high resolution graphics for the PS1, a lot of content, multiple gameplay modes, two player splitscreen, analog support on the dualshock controller so that finally PSX Wipeout has controls about as good as the N64 version, and more. Featureswise it sounds outstanding, and it is. Some of the tracks are very cool looking, and the graphics do impress me a lot for the system. As with all Wipeout games, it's very good at its core. However, gameplay and design wise the game is somewhat disappointing. First, again, the game is insanely hard and technical. This is perhaps the most technical game of all the 5th gen Wipeouts, and that's even including the PSX version of the first game. The courses are narrow, twisting, and require great precision, skill, and memorization to master. The addition of a turbo boost that drains your shields doesn't help either, the game expects you to use it but it makes things harder more than anything. I wish they hadn't put it in, really. The loss of the Quake weapon is also unfortunate, I liked it. The biggest problem with the game, though, is the amount of technical skill it requires to get good at. This is a much, much harder game than Wipeout 64 or Wipeout Fusion, and is definitely harder than XL as well. When it's good Wipeout 3 is very good, but it'll be frustrating and tedious much more of the time as you fail again and again until you get good at each track and speed. The question is, do you have the patience? Ultimately, it's great, but I wish it was a little easier, like 64 and Fusion. WO3 is for the hardcore fan. Still, it's a must-play. There's an enhanced version of this with more tracks, Wipeout 3 Special Edition (also for PS1), that was unfortunately only released in Europe.

[Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories]
--
Card. I don't know how to play the Yugioh card game, so I have no idea how to play this because it really gives you no help. I don't have the manual either, but I don't know if that'd be enough... maybe?


And that is all for now. More reviews will come once I get more games, or play some of those games I have but haven't played yet.

I love A Black Falcon threads. Freight trains of text, knowledge and love.

Spider seems like a great candidate for this. Can't wait to read everything.

My word, what a thread!

Could I humbly request a mini review of Blasto please? I'll be bookmarking this thread for future research of purchases. Top work op, top work.

That's definitely the weirdest PS1 top 10 I've ever seen.

A Black Falcon strikes again

Salsa suggest images again

but kewl, i'll read through it as always

Raonak said:

That's definitely the weirdest PS1 top 10 I've ever seen.

Click to expand...

It's just honest.

A Black Falcon said:

Games I have and have played a little of, but not enough to do a full review. I wrote a few sentences for these games which is included in the main text below; these titles are marked with brackets in the full titles review list below this list. I thought that I wanted to write something for every PS1 game I have and have played at least some of, even if I can't say enough to actually give it any kind of review. Games: Chrono Cross, Dino Crisis, Fear Effect, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, King's Field, Martian Gothic: Unification, Metal Gear Solid, Midway Presents Atari's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 2, Namco Museum Vol. 1, Namco Museum Vol. 3, NHL FaceOff 98, O.D.T., Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire, SaGa Frontier, Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memories

Click to expand...

There are some games there that are traditionally thought of as great games, how come you haven't reached these games yet?

I'd have thought one would start with some of those games.

How long did all that take?

Disagree with your reviews of Crash 2, 3, CTR, Medal of Honor, Medievil II, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Those and the Spyro games and FFVII are basically all I've played from PS1 and were good to fantastic titles.

I'm worried A Black Falcon. I'm worried that you feel your time is finite and feel the need to catalog all your experiences on the internet as proof you existed.

Ok, actually, why the hell have you not played Carnage Heart? Rectify that shit.

Your review of Alundra made me certain I should try it at some point; I really like depressing stories and atmosphere.

Wanted to try Medievil 2 at some point, wont now.

Wanted to also try GitS, but don't like tanks, boo.

---
I don't like images, so it's good your threads don't have them; but I think genre mention could help.

-Xenogears
-Legend of Mana
-Valkyrie Profile
-Arc the Lad Collection
-Silent Hill
-Incredible Crisis
-Silhouette Mirage
-Breath of Fire III
-Breath of Fire IV
-Einhänder
-Front Mission 3
-Suikoden II
-Thousand Arms
-Twisted Metal 2
-Vagrant Story

Get on it!

I Push Fat Kids said:

Spider seems like a great candidate for this. Can't wait to read everything.

Click to expand...

Yagharek said:

My word, what a thread!

Could I humbly request a mini review of Blasto please? I'll be bookmarking this thread for future research of purchases. Top work op, top work.

Click to expand...

There are thousands of Playstation games (worldwide), I'm sure there are many I haven't played...

Raonak said:

That's definitely the weirdest PS1 top 10 I've ever seen.

Click to expand...

I'm not going to make a top 10 based just on what the most popular games are.

SalsaShark said:

A Black Falcon strikes again

Salsa suggest images again

but kewl, i'll read through it as always

Click to expand...

I put images in the PC racing games thread, does it really add all that much?

Ashes1396 said:

It's just honest.



There are some games there that are traditionally thought of as great games, how come you haven't reached these games yet?

I'd have thought one would start with some of those games.

Click to expand...

You should read what I wrote for some of those, FF7 and MGS especially, for some answers to that question.

Jexhius said:

How long did all that take?

Click to expand...

Quite a while of course as usual, but even though this was much-delayed, that was mostly because I wasn't working on it; I actually did a first PS1 list back in '09, though it was never posted on GAF. There was a lot of work to improve/lengthen most of the reviews, and add lots more for newer pickups of course, but unlike the others I didn't start this one from nothing.

NBtoaster said:

Disagree with your reviews of Crash 2, 3, CTR, Medal of Honor, Medievil II, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Those and the Spyro games and FFVII are basically all I've played from PS1 and were good to fantastic titles.

Click to expand...

I would imagine that Playstation fans would disagree with me on those reviews, yeah. (What is there to like about MediEvil, though?)

mAcOdIn said:

I'm worried A Black Falcon. I'm worried that you feel your time is finite and feel the need to catalog all your experiences on the internet as proof you existed.

Click to expand...

What, is there something wrong with wanting to do more with my game collection than just have it sit there to be played once in a while? I think writing reviews like this is worthwhile, and it might lead some people to try games they haven't, too, which would be great.

Ok, actually, why the hell have you not played Carnage Heart? Rectify that shit.

Click to expand...

See above, can't play everything... I've heard that game's name, but don't know much about it.

walking fiend said:

Your review of Alundra made me certain I should try it at some point; I really like depressing stories and atmosphere.

Click to expand...

Well then, yeah, you should play it.

Wanted to try Medievil 2 at some point, wont now.

Click to expand...

Have you played the first one sometime? The two are very similar, except for the modern setting in the second.

Wanted to also try GitS, but don't like tanks, boo.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a somewhat odd design decision, but it is good for its genre. If you want a third-person character action game from GitS though, you'll have to get the PS2 game. Not sure if it's good.

---
I don't like images, so it's good your threads don't have them; but I think genre mention could help.

Click to expand...

Hmm, genres... I hadn't really thought of that, because I always try to mention the genre somewhere in the review, but that's not too bad of an idea. Might add those.

A Black Falcon said:

(What is there to like about MediEvil, though?)

Click to expand...

There's plenty of charm in the character design, music and world. And I don't think I'd call a Victorian setting modern. The camera is a problem, but killing zombies, dinosaurs, elephant mechs and Jack the Ripper as a medieval skeleton is fun. I like collecting the weapons too.

Well, there goes productivity for the day... nice to see that SO2 is one of your favorites (it's my favorite PS1 game), I never took you to be a big RPG guy outside of Skies of Arcadia.

Great Rumbler said:

-Xenogears
-Legend of Mana
-Valkyrie Profile
-Arc the Lad Collection
-Silent Hill
-Incredible Crisis
-Silhouette Mirage
-Breath of Fire III
-Breath of Fire IV
-Einhänder
-Front Mission 3
-Suikoden II
-Thousand Arms
-Twisted Metal 2
-Vagrant Story

Get on it!

Click to expand...

<3 <3 <3

I Push Fat Kids said:

Spider seems like a great candidate for this. Can't wait to read everything.

Click to expand...

I remember wanting that game so badly, but I never got it. Wish they'd put it up on PSN.

A Black Falcon said:

I would imagine that Playstation fans would disagree with me on those reviews, yeah. (What is there to like about MediEvil, though?)

Click to expand...

The game was pretty fun *shrugs* Sure, the graphics were kinda eh and the camera didn't always work all that well (but it's way worse in the PSP remake). Never played the sequel though. Oh, and you need to play Silent Hill.

djtiesto said:

Well, there goes productivity for the day... nice to see that SO2 is one of your favorites (it's my favorite PS1 game), I never took you to be a big RPG guy outside of Skies of Arcadia.

Click to expand...

I'm not really, but I certainly have at least tried a lot more JRPGs in the last few years than I did before; back in the '90s, I really didn't play them at all. Skies of Arcadia was probably the first JRPG I tried that I really loved, and it is still my favorite, but yeah, I do like SO2 a lot. Oh, SO2 is a game I played some of before getting a PS1. Of course though I'm only a bit over halfway in it and haven't really played it in years now, and it has action battles instead of menu-based, which is different. (On a related note, it's probably not as good as SO2, but I did finish Tales of Symphonia.)

Generally though, my biggest problems with JRPGs is that I get bored of the endless, usually thought-free battles and stop playing them after a while, particularly if I hit a point where grind is required (I really hate that...) or something. It gets tedious. Like, Grandia. As I say in my review, why did they put the time in to make such a potentially interesting battle system, when 95% of the time all you need to do is just tell all your people do do the basic, default attack until you win? And Grandia II and III are exactly the same way, too. It makes no sense.

But despite that, though I've always said that I like western RPGs more than Japanese (in part because they generally require greater strategy during average battles) and I do, I haven't actually finished lots of RPGs from either region, not counting strategy games that some people call RPGs but I definitely would say are not (for the "games completed" list, the relevant titles there are Fire Emblem games), action-RPGs, or Zelda. About a dozen total, split between W and J RPGs... though things do get a bit fuzzy between action-RPG and traditional with games like Tales, Star Ocean, or Summon Night: Swordcraft Story. I mean, the game constructions are traditional JRPG, but they have action-RPG battles. It's a hybrid design, which category should they go in? A similar question can be asked for games with MMO-style combat. I mean, I did play over a thousand hours of Guild Wars 1, so what category should that go in? (GW2's nowhere remotely near as good as the first one, but anyway.)


On another non-PS1 but JRPG note, I'm currently playing Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time on PSP and am really loving it. Great game. Also playing Sands of Destruction on DS... for the moment; it's getting boring and tedious.

Great Rumbler said:

-Xenogears
-Legend of Mana
-Valkyrie Profile
-Arc the Lad Collection
-Silent Hill
-Incredible Crisis
-Silhouette Mirage
-Breath of Fire III
-Breath of Fire IV
-Einhänder
-Front Mission 3
-Suikoden II
-Thousand Arms
-Twisted Metal 2
-Vagrant Story

Get on it!

Click to expand...

Xenogears - Yeah, I'd like to play that. I like the soundtrack, but yeah, I should get it sometime. I've been hoping to find it cheap sometime, but that hasn't happened... I don't want to spend like $30 or more for PS1 RPGs I'll barely play, $10 is about the limit unless it's something I really want (Lunar SSSC, Grandia, Alundra 1). Yes, I got PE1, PE2, Legaia, FF7, FF9, Threads of Fate, Chrono Cross, and maybe others for no more than $9 each.

Valkyrie Profile - Have for PSP.

Twisted Metal (any) - Eh, that series has never really interested me... I've never bothered to pick up any of them.

Vagrant Story, Einhander - Yes, I would like to get these for sure.

Legend of Mana - One of my most-wanted PS1 games I don't own. I've played a bit of it and liked what I saw, but don't want to have to spend like $50 or something for the game, so I've never gotten it unfortunately.

Thousand Arms - I've played a little of this, but I don't know if I actually want to buy it because the tedious repetition of large, mazelike random-battle dungeons would REALLY get old fast, even if the story and stuff is moderately interesting...

Front Mission 3 - Maybe. Haven't played any Front Mission games before, actually, but they do look interesting.

Breath of Fire III/IV - Sure, might be interested if I find cheap copies.

Silhouette Mirage - Another one I'd be more interested in if it was cheaper...

Arc the Lad Collection - That's an expensive one... (I do have the PS2 Arc the Lad game, have had it for quite some time. Haven't tried playing it yet.)

Silent Hill - I have this game of course, but haven't played it because, well, I seem to have more interest in buying survival horror games than I do in actually playing them... never finished a game in the genre before, actually. I rarely play them beyond the beginning in fact. I got partway through Blue Stinger, RE2, and RE0, but that's about it really...

Incredible Crisis - Does look interesting, might get it sometime.

Suikoden 1/2 - I have Suikodens 4 and 5. Haven't played 4, but I did play some hours of 5 and it seemed decent to good... but 2 is pretty expensive, isn't it?

Black Falcon, I love your posts.

I love you.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memories is a bad game. It uses made up rules for the card game that don't exist in any other video game, or the actual TCG. It also has one of those "forced to lose" battles.

Suggestion for Rayman: when you're running out of continues, press Up, Down, Right, Left and get some more. Don't even bother playing the game with the continue limit, it's utterly insane. Once you just focus on completing the game at all, it becomes a much more fun and worthwhile adventure that's still replete with challenge.

So yeah, I added genre listings. Also, it's kind of funny that this thread is going so slowly, when the N64 thread got to 5 pages, and the Saturn one almost to three... but the more successful console gets less interest or something. Heh.

Shadow Hog said:

Suggestion for Rayman: when you're running out of continues, press Up, Down, Right, Left and get some more. Don't even bother playing the game with the continue limit, it's utterly insane. Once you just focus on completing the game at all, it becomes a much more fun and worthwhile adventure that's still replete with challenge.

Click to expand...

Oh, there's a extra-continues code? That's good, because yeah, trying to play the game with a continue limit is beyond insane. I wonder if it works in the PC version though, that's the one I got farthest in... gave up in that version in Band Land because of how hard that part is, and because I was out of continues I believe. Also I got tired of having to deal with such a close-in camera...

Takao said:

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memories is a bad game. It uses made up rules for the card game that don't exist in any other video game, or the actual TCG. It also has one of those "forced to lose" battles.

Click to expand...

Kinda neat fusion system though. But every battle in the last half of the game is 100% luck.

Black Falcon needs a tag already lol. I love his posts.

A Black Falcon said:

Oh, there's a extra-continues code? That's good, because yeah, trying to play the game with a continue limit is beyond insane. I wonder if it works in the PC version though, that's the one I got farthest in... gave up in that version in Band Land because of how hard that part is, and because I was out of continues I believe. Also I got tired of having to deal with such a close-in camera...

Click to expand...

IIRC it does. I know for a fact it works on both the Saturn and PS1 versions. Dunno about later ports like the GBA or DSi versions, though, nor the original Jaguar version.

I played so much of the Evil Zone demo as a kid. OBJECTIVE UNDERSTOOD
Great thread as usual

O_O

You know Black Falcon you might like the latest Driver game (San Francisco). There's no shooting or on foot sections and the story is pretty entertaining.

Great list and descriptions. You've got to get on Silent Hill though! My favorite survival horror game of all time.

Neuromancer said:

You know Black Falcon you might like the latest Driver game (San Francisco). There's no shooting or on foot sections and the story is pretty entertaining.

Great list and descriptions. You've got to get on Silent Hill though! My favorite survival horror game of all time.

Click to expand...

I do have Driver San Francisco for the PC, and talk about it in my PC Racing Games thread (linked at the top of this one).
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=491352

And yeah, I love the game. Very, very good stuff! One of the best new racing games I've played in the past ~5 years.

Okay... after months of work, here's a huge update to this list! 108 new summaries. Well, 102 plus six redos of some of the worst on the above list. This probably will go slightly onto page two because of GAF's stupid characters-per-post limit so maybe I should have made a new thread, but I like having the old and new lists together. I just hope people read the new list. It took a while.

Alternatively read the list on my site with better formatting: http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=186

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Opening Notes
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Total summaries here: 108 (if I counted right)

The most important thing to note here is that this is more of a "first impressions" list than it is "reviews". These are games I mostly haven't played for more than two or four hours. Don't consider the vast majority of these to be reviews; though I'm sure plenty of people on the internet would "review" games after playing them this little, I don't think that's right. But I did make sure to play each game enough to form a definite opinion on it, and that's what I wrote up below.

The original December 2012 PS1 list has 144 Game Opinion Summaries in it. This new list has fewer games on it, but is longer overall because I go into greater detail about each game. In the first PS1 Game Opinion Summaries list, 17 of the game discussed were games that I covered, but hadn't played enough to give a good enough picture of. Some of those I played and expanded my summaries of a while ago, the two Namco Museum volumes perhaps most notably, but there are still several games I need to make myself play sometime. I've gone back and played six of those games again. Those games are covered below, in addition to very briefly in the first list. I also added a bit to some of the summaries in the first list that were there, but not detailed enough, such as Namco Museum 1 and 3. The difference is, those games had summaries, I just needed to add a bit to them, while the ones covered again really did not have usable summaries before, but now do.

Overall, this new list has fewer games on it than the first one, but is longer overall because I go into greater detail about each game. Beyond the six redos, the other 102 summaries below are new. Of the new summaries, 26 are games that I had as of the last list but hadn't played yet. I played them now, so that I could discuss them. Six are new redos of games I covered at extremely brief length in the first PS1 Game Opinion Summaries list, but have gone back to, played more, and said more about this time. The remaining 66 are entirely new reviews, games I didn't have yet in Dec. '12. Yeah, in only a couple of years the "short" part of the original "short reviews" title has been partially abandoned, for sure. Ah well. Quite a few of the new games are Japanese import titles -- I got a Japanese PS2 earlier this year, and 30-odd import Japanese PS1 and PS2 games for each of them. Expectedly, the new summaries are longer than the old ones. I'm not (yet) going to go back and rewrite all of the old summaries to make them longer and stuff, they'll have to do.

Finally, there should have been one more summary in this list, but sadly the first disc of Parasite Eve II isn't working. I'll try to get it fixed, but it was actually the last game I was going to play for this, so there isn't time to get that done before posting this, if the disc is fixable (I hope it is).


The best PS1 games covered in this update: Galeoz, Tiny Tank, Steel Reign, Need for Speed: High Stakes, Red Asphalt, Egg, Gradius Gaiden, Puchi Carat, Rage Racer, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Roll Away, Wild ARMs, Driver 2, Megatudo 2096, Ganbare Goemon: Space Pirate Akoging!

The worst PS1 games covered in this update (and some of my least favorite games ever!): ESPN Extreme Games, 2Xtreme, Rush Down, VR Sports Powerboat Racing, Turbo Prop Racing, Die Hard Trilogy, maybe also CoolBoarders 2

Table of Contents (titles covered; * marks redos of games from the first list): ESPN/espn2 Extreme Games, 2 Xtreme, Ace Combat 2, Allied General, Apocalypse, Azumanga Danjyaro Daioh (J), Blade Arts (J), Block Kuzushi, The (J) [The Block Breaker], Bounty Sword First (J), Breakout, *Broken Helix, Bug Riders, Casper: Friends Around the World, Cleopatra's Fortune, Cool Boarders 2, Crime Crackers (J), Crime Crackers 2 (J), Crusaders of Might and Magic, Crypt Killer, Cybernetic Empire (J), Dare Devil Derby 3D, Descent Maximum, Die Hard Trilogy, *Dino Crisis, Driver 2, Egg (J), End Sector (J), Enigma (J), Excalibur 2555 A.D., Extra Bright (J), Extreme Go-Kart Racing, *Fear Effect, Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, Galaga: Destination Earth, Galaxian 3 (J), Galeoz (J), Ganbare Goemon: Space Pirate Akoging! (J), Ganbare Goemon: Kurunarakoi! Ayashigeikka no Kuroikage! (J), Ganbare Goemon: Oedo Daikaiten! (J), Gekitotsu TomaLarc - Tomarunner vs. L'Arc-en-Ciel (J), Gradius Gaiden (J), Grille Logic (J), Grudge Warriors, Gu Gu Trops (J) [Gugutoropusu], Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale, Italian Job, The, Jet Moto 2, Jigsaw Madness, Kowloon's Gate (J), Kuru Kuru Cube (J), Kyutenkai: Fantastic Pinball (J), Legend of Dragoon, The, Medal of Honor Underground, Megatudo 2096 (J), *Metal Gear Solid, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Puzzle Star Strike, NASCAR 2000, Need for Speed: High Stakes, Parasite Eve, Poitter's Point (J), Primal Rage, Puchi Carat (J), Rage Racer, Rally de Europe (J), RC de GO!, Red Asphalt, Resident Evil: Survivor, Robotron X, Roll Away, *Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire, Running High (J), Rush Down, Rush Hour, Saga Frontier, SaGa Frontier 2, Sentinel Returns, Silent Hill, Slayers Wonderful (J), Sorcerer's Maze, Speed King (J), Spriggan: Lunar Verse (J), Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Starwinder: The Ultimate Space Race, Steel Reign, Street Fighter Collection 2, Summon Night (J), Summon Night 2 (J), Syphon Filter 2, Team Losi RC Racer, Tiny Bullets (J), Tiny Tank: Up Your Arsenal, Turbo Prop Racing, Tyco R/C: Assault With A Battery, The Unholy War, Van-Gale: The War of Neo-Century (J), VMX Racing, VR Sports Powerboat Racing, Wild ARMs, Witch of Salzburg, The (J), Wonder Trek (J), WWF In Your House; XS Junior League DodgeBall, Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule Breed & Battle (J), *Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories, (J)Zeiram Zone (J), Zoop


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SUMMARIES
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ESPN/espn2 Extreme Games [aka 1Xtreme]
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). ESPN/espn2 Extreme Games, later re-released as 1Xtreme, is a 1995 "extreme" racing game developed by EA and published by Sony. This is a combat racing game. There are six tracks, all supposedly downhill, and four types of transportation: bike, rollerblades, skateboard, and street luge. It's kind of like a terrible spinoff of the 3DO/etc. Road Rash game. This game was quite successful, and got two sequels. I can't be objective about this game, or series, though; the 1/2/3Xtreme series is one that I've always hated, a poster-child of everything that I couldn't stand about Sony and its audience. I remember 1 and 2 Xtreme from the mid/late '90s. This kind of "extreme sports" thing was in, then. I liked PC and Nintendo, though, so despite being a teenager by the time the PS1 released, I had no interest in this game, or the skateboarding and rock-music lifestyle it was pushing; I quite disliked it, in fact. The live-action-video FMV in the game aims at this audience. It's pretty bad.

The game is awful, too. For some reason, this game is considered to be the "good" 1/2/3Xtreme game. I don't get it, they all seem atrociously terrible to me. of course I did go into this wanting to hate it, so I can't pretend to be objective, but it did not disappoint. This game and the second one (below) have some differences. First, in this game, you can use any 'vehicle' type on any track. There are 16 participants in each race, so there's a big field, and there will always be a mix of all four vehicle types in each race. You can play as any of 16 characters, and each have different stats. They all control badly, at first at least. Both games have very similar graphics. The characters are all sprites, while environments are a mixture of sprite and polygon elements. While you're supposedly on a slope, it looks more like you're going UPHILL than down, stupidly enough. The characters look terrible, and the environments are ugly and low-quality. The racing is no fun, and too hard as well. This game is very difficult, and I have no interest in playing it enough to get even remotely good. The game has combat just like 3DO Road Rash, so beat up your opponents as you go; the shoulder buttons attack. I don't mind combat racing, but the Road Rash format doesn't work for me, I don't enjoy it. The tracks are also overlong, just like they are in Road Rash. Unlike Road Rash, though, there are also many gates along the track which you should try to go through. You've got to aim right in the center to get through them; hitting the gates is annoyingly easy. Hitting the other obstacles, such as fences and barrels, are also annoying. If you actually manage to do well in races, you get money which you can buy new boards/skates/bikes with. I don't think I'll ever do that, with how bad this game is. There is one amusing thing about the game, though, live-action-video FMV! Apparently the "1Xtreme" re-release removes the FMV video clips from the game, so get this version. I mean, why buy this horrendous disasaster if not in part to watch the oh-so-'90s "extreme" live-action-video clips? But otherwise, thanks to an obnoxous "extreme sports" theme, bad controls, awful graphics, simplistic, unfun, and yet overly difficult gameplay, this is a terrible, terrible game. Only diehard 3DO-style Road Rash fans should even consider this debacle. WHY did this stupid thing sell? The sad thing is, it's actually the best game in its trilogy, pitifully enough. Really though, don't fall for the people who claim this game is competent. It's not, at all. Also on PC.


2 Xtreme
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). 2Xtreme is pretty much the same thing as the first one, but maybe worse. Now made by a Sony internal studio, they didn't change much of anything. Even the graphics look like a lot of visual elements were cloned straight out of the first game! Why did they decide to keep those horrible rock-wall textures? And the still sprite-based characters still look terrible, too. They did make a few changes, though. First, there are only ten racers in each race now, instead of 16. There's no visible reason for the downgrade. They did add a character-editor option though, so you can choose which bad sprite you want to play as and then customize their stats and name if you wish. Also, now each of the different propulsion types are locked to one location. You snowboard in Japan, bike in other place, etc. It's kind of too bad that now everyone on the course has the same vehicle; the mix of vehicle types was one of the few slightly interesting things about the first game. Otherwise, though, this is the same game again. Tracks still look like you're somehow sliding uphill; it's still as much about hitting the other racers as it is actually racing; it's still kind of hard; controls and gameplay are still terrible; and those gates and obstacles on the tracks are still annoying. I totally hate it, these two games are two of the worst Playstation games I've played. Of course I'm sure part of that is because of how much I remember hating these games in the '90s, but had it actually been fun when I went back to this game now, I could have changed my mind... but they aren't, at all. 2Xtreme is an absolutely atrocious disaster. But hey, if people wanted something "cooler" than Nintendo's oh-so-kiddy games, then this is perfect! Play this over Mario Kart, you're only hurting yourself. [... Sorry, I can't resist. As I said, fair or not, I've always thought of these two games as poster-children for the PS1 audience...]


Ace Combat 2
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad and Analog Joystick both supported. Ace Combat 2 is the second average-at-best game in Namco's popular flight combat series. A lot of people like this series, but based on playing this, I don't. Plane combat games with real airplanes have never interested me much, and this isn't the game which is going to change my mind on that. This is a fairly simple airplane combat game. You choose a plane (you start with two, and can buy more), and set off on a linear campaign of missions, all of which involve destroying enemy planes. The game is played with an in-cockpit view, but that's where the simulation elements end: you've got scores of missiles, and a fairly simple lock-on system. It's hard to hit enemies with guns, but missiles are better anyway. Just get within range with the enemy near the reticle and you'll lock on, then start firing away. You can accelerate and brake with buttons, though they only last while you are holding them, as in Rogue Squadron; normal throttle controls would be better. There's also a map. You can't really lock on to and follow a target, just lock on with your missile onto an enemy in front of you, but there is a map, and the game isn't busy enough to be unmanagable. Hold map button, point plane towards enemy, fly forward until you find them. As you progress it gets harder, but the basic gameplay is simple, and I don't find it particularly interesting. The graphics are okay for the PS1, with fairly basic but decent environments and planes. It would be better with decent controls, though! I do find the game somewhat boring, but the controls with a Dual Shock are by far the worst thing about this game, I'd say. It's difficult to get a flight game controlling well on a gamepad's small analog stick; the genre greatly benefits from full-size joysticks. Making it worse, the PS1's joysticks are, of course, very imprecise and loose. Ace Combat 2 has both of these problems, bad, so the controls are twitchy and frustrating. Keeping enemies on screen is harder than it should be. If you want to play Ace Combat 2, don't bother unless you have an Analog Joystick (the Playstation's big twin flightstick joystick controller), essentially. I'll try this again whenever I get one. I'm sure I'd still find the game not all that exciting, but it'd definitely control a lot better with one of those, and that would make a difference. But with a gamepad, this is average to below average overall.


Allied General
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1 player, saves (3 blocks). Allied General is a port of the PC strategy wargame of the same name. The sequel to the classic Panzer General, this entirely 2d wargame is, of course, far better on computers. Panzer General is a wargame that tried to be a lot more approachable than most wargames; it is a genre that usually is very complex and inapproachable to those who don't already like the genre. Panzer General, and this sequel, aren't like that; they are simpler and easier to play. That doesn't mean that there is no depth, though. There are quit4e a few different types of units, in various categories including infantry, artillery, and tanks. Each unit has various stats showing its abilities and strength. As usual in wargames, the game plays on a hex grid, albeit zoomed in too close here because of the PS1's very low resolution compared to a mid '90s PC. Of course, this also means that there isn't an onscreen minimap. Not good. The basic gameplay is fun enough, though; just learn your forces, and try to destroy the enemy. There are little animations when units attack eachother, something you wouldn't see in a more serious wargame. I like strategy games, but have neverr gotten into the full-on wargames, so a simpler one like Allied General is great. However, I just don't think there is any reason to actually play this downgraded Playstation version over the PC original, or a newer similar title. And I always did like Steel Panthers a bit more than Allied General anyway, even if it is a bit more complex... but even so, for the hardware this is a fine port. There's just no reason to actually play it today. Port of a PC game.


Apocalypse
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Apocalypse is a 3d run & gun action game where you play as Bruce Willis, '90s action-movie star. This is a decent but fairly easy game. It's an original title, not based on a movie. I've only actually seen one Bruce Willis movie, the asteroid movie Armageddon, but he's been in a lot of films, most notably Die Hard. This time, it's the apocalypse, as the name suggests, and only Bruce Willis can save the world from the Satanic armies! It's a solid setup for an action game, why not. Apocalypse is a 3d run & gun action game, and plays a lot like the Playstation games One or Assault: Retribution. Apocalypse is better than One, but not as good as Assault: Retribution, becuase I like that game more than most people seem to. This game is easier than either of those games, though. I didn't have much trouble zipping through several levels of the game. Still, this game is pretty good for a licensed game. As in those other games, Apocalypse is straightforward. In each of the games' few levels, you follow a linear path through the stage, killing all of the enemies along the way and navigating some platform-jumping challenges. There aren't large open areas in this game; it's quite linear, with narrow spaces to fight in. That's alright, it keeps the game moving. Perhaps in part because of that, and its apparently protracted development, Apocalypse looks fairly nice. The graphics are good for the PS1, and it's got lots of shiny visual effects on the weapon animations. You have a nice variety of weapons to attack with. Also, Bruce Willis did voice work for the game. He says a constant stream of voice quips during play. That's the game, though; run forward, shoot the baddies, kill everything, and then face the next area. Sometimes you're running forward navigating platforms while shooting enemies, and other times you're in a room, killing the enemies or boss. Don't miss the jumps and you should be fine, this game really is easy for a run & gun. Other than the lacking difficulty, though, this game is reasonably fun stuff. Pick it up if you find it cheap.


Azumanga Danjyaro Daioh (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. This game is basically a simpler spinoff of mahjong with the characters from the pretty great early '00s slice-of-life anime Azumanga Daioh in it. Anime games are rarely good, and this one isn'ttoo great either. It is playable, but too simplistic and random. Think mahjong, but easier; that's this game. As in mahjong, you get a hand of tiles, here nine. Your goal is either to make three sets of three matching tiles, or otherwise make one of the special hands that are listed in the manual and pause menu. Instead of the large mahjong tileset, however, this game uses pictures of nine of the characters as the tiles. There are also numbers on each tile, but for basic play these are less important than the pictures -- all you need to do to get a set of three is have three tiles of the same picture, no matter what numbers are on them. Much simpler than mahjong! I'm not clear on what the numbers are for, honestly; that's explained in Japanese, but I can't read much of that, and though I've played the game, I don't quite get it. I also don't know the differences between different tile colors, if there are any. Ah well, I can't read much Japanese, so those who can won't have these issues. Each turn you can either take the tile the other player dropped or pick up a tile. You then have to discard a tile, either one of your nine or the tile you drew. There are no kan, pon, or chii calls in this game, that's one of the many things simplified here.

For options and graphics, the main mode is a story mode where you choose a main and second character and then face off against a series of opponents, all characters from the show. You unlock an image or two in the games' gallery if you beat the game with a character, and more images if you play well, so it'll take a while if you want to unlock everything. Unlike mahjong, this is a 1-on-1 game only. One of your characters appears on screen in a 3d chibi form, and will kick over the tile you discard, drop in the tiles you add, and such. It's a cute touch. The two characters you chose will alternate during each match. Just like in majong, of course I constantly found myself discarding the "wrong" tile, but you never know what you'll get next, so predicting which tile I should discard is pretty tough. Ah well, that's how this kind of game goes. Getting a basic win with three sets of three isn't too hard, but that gets you few points, and to win each match you need to have more of your health points left after five rounds than your opponent does. Yes, matches are five rounds only, that's how it works. The basic game is simple, but frustrating because it's so easy to lose because the opponent got some great set of tiles in the last round and crushes you even though they were way behind... bah. But mahjong IS a gambling game, and some of that unfair randomness is still present here. Overall, this game is okay, but I'd rather play a real mahjong game. The 2d and 3d graphics look nice, and the game isn't hard to learn the basics of, and I certainly like Azumanga Daioh and the characters, but the game's not the greatest. I'm not the biggest mahjong fan, but dumbing it down a bit doesn't make it better. Still, this is an okay game.


Blade Arts (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Blade Arts is a 3d action-adventure game from Enix, sort of like Tomb Raider but Japanese, and IN Japanese. Yes, this is the first of quite a few import games I'll be reviewing here. Blade Arts is a decently good game, but it has a couple of issues. You play as a warrior guy, and have a decent variety of moves. In each level you have to find the end by killing the enemies, navigating through sometimes tricky jumping puzzles, and figuring out some puzzles. Your guy has a sword, and you can use some attack combos. You've got special abilities as well. These will be particularly useful in the sometimes-tough boss fights. In addition to all that, there is also a lot of story in this game, so you have to watch many very long Japanese-language cutscenes. At least they are voiced, but of course I can't understand a lot of what's going on. This is a story-heavy game, and the cutscenes are, frustratingly, unskippable. This is one problem with the game. Another is the save system. You can only save between levels, so if you die late in a stage, you go all the way back to the beginning... and in some cases might have to spend 15 minutes watching cutscenes before you're finally back to the game and get another chance to die at the same point again. Argh! I quite liked this game at first, but it got really frustrating only a couple of stages in thanks to how long it takes whenever I died. There may be save points sometimes, but not always. I eventually gave up on the game in a stage with a particularly long cutscene sequence before a tough and frustrating jumping puzzle; this game has fall damage, so missing a jump can be fatal. Still though, I'm sure I will go back to Blade Arts. It's a good game well worth playing, and it's really too bad that it wasn't brought over to the West. The game plays fairly well, looks like it has a somewhat interesting story with some definite twists and turns, and has a nice mix of action and adventure. It's definitely worth a play if you like this kind of thing.

Block Kuzushi, The (J) (Simple 2000 Series Vol. 5) [The Block Breaker]
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. The Block Breaker is one of several Breakout-style games in the Simple 2000 line of cheap games, named for their 2000 yen price per game (about $20). The line is a mixture of fun games and super-cheap junk. This game is okay, but definitely very low budget. The Block Breaker feels kind of like a '90s PC shareware game, in quality and graphics. It is a fun 2d Breakout/Arkanoid clone with a few unique mechanics. As usual in this genre, you control a paddle at the bottom of the screen, and have to destroy a field of blocks above. This is a 2d game, and the graphics are simple and have no variety, but the blocks look nice. The game has no music. The overall presentation isn't great. The only audio is sound effects and some musical fanfares that play between levels.

At first I thought this game was tedious, but it actually is kind of interesting thanks to the ball-manipulating abilities that you have. If you hit X when the ball hits the paddle, the ball bounces off at increased speed. If you keep timing your button-presses correctly so that it keeps increasing in speed each time it hits the paddle, you can enable a shot which will go right through the bricks, destroying them without stopping! It'll only last until it hits a wall, but you can destroy whole columns of blocks this way, so long as they're destructible. You can also angle the ball left or right with the L and R shoulder buttons, which is cool. With these powers you can quickly increase the ball to a quite high speed, and somewhat control it in the air, things you usually can't do in this genre. However, there are few powerups here. There's a 1-up, a powerup that makes your paddle longer, a multiball powerup (but the additional balls are small, and you still will lose a life if the main ball falls through the bottom, so it's not like normal multiball), and not much else. There isn't a gun powerup, so once you're down to that one last block, you just have to keep bouncing the ball around until you manage to hit the stupid thing. There is a wall of blocks at the bottom of the screen acting as a backup defense line, though, which is nice. One powerup will replace this with a new line of blocks, it's helpful. For blocks, the game has only the basics: normal blocks, shiny blocks that take more hits, and invincible blocks. The unique element here is the ball modifiers.

Block Breaker has two main modes, Simple or branching. In the simpler mode, you just play through a linear sequence of levels. I think there are a hundred levels. In the more complex mode, the game has a Outrun-esque branching mission tree. After each five stages, you choose which of two routes you want to take, each with different levels. Gameplay is the same in either mode. The game saves the top 10 scores in each mode. As for a language barrier in this Japan-only release, it is low. The main menu options are in Japanese, but it's easy enough to learn them. The high-score table is in English, and there's no other text in the game. Overall, The Block Kuzushi is low-budget, perhaps too low-budget, but I do like it. I wish the game had more variety and some music, but the ball speed-boost mechanic is cool. This game has a sequel on the PS2, The Block Kuzushi Hyper; it looks like it mixes this game with some elements from Hasbro's Breakout remake (below). Both games are worth a look for a low enough price, for genre fans.


Bounty Sword First (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Bounty Sword: First is an interesting and somewhat original strategy game with RPG elements. This game is a remake of the original SNES Bounty Sword game, as the title suggests. So, because of its SNES origins, it's a top-view isometric 2d game. The graphics are improved over the original version. There is a lot of text and story in this game, and almost no voice acting. However, the game IS mostly playable even if you don't know the language, and I like it anyway. Oddly, when starting the game the game says "Bounty Sword Trilogy" before flipping over to "Bounty Sword First", but there is only one more game in this series, before its developer shut down or something like that. With how interesting this game is, though, I'd like to play the sequel. Bounty Sword is a fairly automated game, in that characters can act on their own, based on the AI settings you give them. Now, this is an RPG-ish strategy game, but it's not an open adventure game. Instead, as in, say, Shining Force CD, you have battles, camps, and menu-style towns, and that's pretty much it. You can save in the camp or town in between battles. Each battle is won by killing all of the enemies. Now, as I said, characters will act on their own. Once set to attack enemies, they will move around and attack on their own. Each character has a meter, and when it empties they will take an action, either attack, heal, or such. They will act on their own, but you can give movement orders at any time, tell mages or healers to cast specific spells, and also change the AI settings during battle. I don't know what some of the options do because they're all in Japanese, but the settings for attack and healing make sense -- you can set characters to attack enemies or to not do that (useful for mages for example), and set how low a characters' health has to get before they automatically heal themselves; lots of characters have healing spells, though you can also use items if someone has run out of magic. Of course, all spell and item names are in Japanese, so it'll take practice to learn what things do. For a game with mostly automatic combat, this game is about as fun as it could be. I love that characters can move around the map, instead of being stuck in generic menu-style JRPG battles. The graphics are good, too, for a 2d game. This game clearly doesn't push the PS1, but I like its good-quality 2d art. This game has a somewhat Western/Japanese hybrid art style; it's not another game with super-stylized anime art, and I like the resulting look. The main character is a mercenary swordsman type warrior, so you're not playing as yet another little kid out to save the world, either; this game is clearly a darker fantasy story. You quickly gather a few allies, and can buy more (mercenary) party members in town. Towns also have item stores and battle arenas where you can fight extra battles. Overall, Bounty Sword First is a very promising game. I'm not far enoguh into it to say for sure how good it is yet, but I can definitely say that I like it. The game has good art design, fun if somewhat simple gameplay, and maybe a decent story, particularly if you know the language. It's worth checking out! The game is a remake of Bounty Sword for the SNES, which is also a Japan-only release.


Breakout
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4 player simultaneous (with multitap), saves (1 block), supports the Analog Gamepad, Jogcon, and Playstation Mouse controllers. Breakout is one of several classic Atari remakes published by Hasbro in the late '90s and early '00s. I have most of them for PC, Game Boy Color, and Dreamcast, but this is one I hadn't played until very recently. Breakout is a 3d polygonal remake of the classic Atari blockbreaking game of the same name, this time from the British studio Supersonic Software. Supersonic is better known for its top-down racing games, but they did a quite competent job with blockbreaking as well, because this game is solid fun. It does have a few issues, but is good overall. The main single player game in Breakout is a somewhat short, but interesting and varied, Story mode. Most levels in story mode involve breaking blocks or other objects with a ball or balls you bounce off of the paddle that you control, as always in Breakout/Arkanoid-style games. This game does have powerups, as per Arkanoid; grab them when they drop down the screen. A few stages have other styles of gameplay, though; they try to mix things up with some Crash-esque 'escape the monster by running into the screen' areas, among other things. There's also a story here. It's a very basic one of a paddle who has to rescue his friends and female love interest from an evil paddle that has kidnapped them all, so the story is awful, but there are some amusing jokes in the cutscenes; it's very British, and is amusing. I also really like the level variety. Sometimes you're destroying Egyptian pyramid blocks, others chickens while a Space Invaders-like soundtrack plays, parts of a castle, and more. Back in the mid '90s I thought that it'd be great if there was a Breakout-style game with enemies to hit with your ball instead of just blocks. I actually made a little Klik & Play game like that, though it was sadly lost years ago (stupid me of 15 years ago, back up those KNP games!). I don't think any commercial games back then did it, though there is a bit of that in Kirby's Block Ball. This game is like that too, and that's great! There are even "bossfights". The campaign is sadly quite short, but it's fun stuff while it lasts, and has replay value. Playing for score is worthwhile in this kind of game.

For negatives, the main one really is the controls. The games' length is also an issue, but I think the fun factor and replay value make up for that, but the controls? If you want good controls here, have a Jogcon or mouse, that's for sure! The d-pad or analog stick controls aren't very good. Control is somewhat imprecise with analog, and I don't always feel like the paddle moves where it should, and d-pad precision isn't the right thing for this kind of game. What you need is an analog spinner or mouse. Unfortunately the neGcon isn't supported, because the neGcon and some neGcon-compatible controllers, the Ultra Racer in particular, would be perfect for this game, but it does at least have Jogcon and Mouse support. Of course those two controllers are much rarer than a neGcon-compatible one, but they are supported, and should work great. I'd recommend getting a compatible controller for this one, or get the PC version if you can get it running right. The other control issue is that sometimes it can be hard to see what you're doing because of the 3d element of the game. Fields may be flat, but often blocks are stacked up above where you are bouncing the ball, and sometimes I just couldn't quite see where the ball was going. The 3d paddle model also doesn't look or control quite as well as a 2d sprite would have on the PS1. You get used to it, but the game does have a learning curve.

Breakout for PS1 has up to four player split-screen multiplayer. While Pong: The Next Level (released one year before this game, and also developed by Supersonic; play it, it's good!) had a 4-player single-screen multiplayer mode, an awesome feature that was in some '70s and early '80s Pong clones such as 4-player Pong and Warlords but in pretty much nothing else until The Next Level (though I did have a 4-player single-screen mode in that KNP game of mine, thought that'd be cool and I hadn't heard of those old games that did the same thing). Anyway, Breakout doesn't work like that; instead, it's split-screen, and the players compete to break their walls of bricks first. I think that Pong probably makes for the better multiplayer game, but it's interesting that they tried to get Breakout working as a multiplayer game. Perhaps they should have had the multiplayer mode play like Warlords, instead; that's sort of a Pong/Breakout hybrid. I mean, splitscreen competition to break walls is alright, but it'd be better if the players could directly compete! Overall though, Breakout for the PS1 is a good fun game. I'd recommend it to any genre fan. Also on PC.


*Broken Helix
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1 player, saves (1 block). Broken Helix is a mediocre third person action-adventure shooter with some stealth elements from an American team at Konami. This game gets decent reviews, but I don't like it very much, though this genre is one I often dislike, so that shouldn't be too surprising. Broken Helix isn't an awful game, but it has some frustrating elements that hurt it. You play as a guy voiced by Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness), and are going into Area 51 to defuse some bombs set by scientists threatening to blow up the base. Of course, more is going on than it seems, and after the really annoying timed section at the beginning of the game, you get to make some choices that lead to four different routes thoguh the game with different endings. Yes, aliens are involved, as you'd expect from any Area 51 game, but this isn't just a story of evil aliens attacking Earth; instead the game tries to tell a more complex story, though it doesn't really hold my interest. The cutscenes are rendered in-engine, and look quite ugly, and the voice acting is average. As for the gameplay, it's not the greatest either. As expected for the PS1, the graphics aren't great; everything is, as usual, quite pixelated. Control is alright, but would be a lot better with analog support; it's really unfortunate that the game doesn't support the PS1 analog gamepads, which I believe had recently released when the game came out in fall '97. As it is, you have to make do with a d-pad and generous aiming assitance. Hitting enemies in this game is fairly easy, but there is challenge to be found. At the start, you hvae a 20 minute time limit to defuse two bombs. I hate time limits like this in games! I got the base blown up again and again, and it made me want to stop playing, not try to master it. One bomb you find right away, but the other is a ways in. The problem is, if you get seen by a camera drone three times, the bad guy blows the bombs, game over. You can save in this game, but it is limited -- you need to collect CD items in order to save, and each save uses up a CD item. It's stupid, I hate limited saving. You also collect a variety of weapons, healing items, keys, and such, though the inventory system could be better (I wish keys would auto-use when I have the right key and interact with the lock!). There is also a map, thankfully. You also find robots you can control to go into areas you can't reach and such. Enemies start out really easy, apart from those camera drones you have to avoid, but of course it gets tougher once you fight real soldiers and/or aliens and not just near-helpless scientists. Overall the game plays okay, but forcing myself past that initial timed segment was a struggle, I wasn't having fun. I'm sure there is still an audience for this game, though it has aged a lot, but I'm not in it. Broken Helix has poor graphics, control issues, some frustrating design decisions, and generally average gameplay. it's not that good.


Bug Riders
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Bugriders: The Race of Kings is a 3d flight racing game from n-Space. This is a pretty unique title, and I definitely like some things about it. The game has plenty of issues, but is so unique and interesting that I like it anyway. Bugriders clearly was made on a limited budget. Production values are questionable. Bugriders is set in a fantasy world where people ride giant flying insects in a series of races. As in most racing games, there isn't much story here, but that's just fine. There is a CG intro at the beginning telling the backstory. In this world, the next emperor is chosen based on who wins a bug-riding race. Yes, really. It's a good excuse for a game, at least. There are a variety of characters to choose from, each riding a weird bug, and then it's off to the races. Each character has different specs. The game is organized into point-based championship circuits, so you need to complete several races and do well in them in order to win each championship. Sort of like in Bravo Air Race (reviewed in my original PS1 list), while this is an air racing game, you can't go very high into the air, and the courses are somewhat narrow -- there are walls, either visible or invisible, that keep you on the course at all times. Modern air racing games like SkyDrift have much wider and more involved environments. Of course though, this is just a PS1 game, so you can't expect too much. The graphics are average at best, but at least th settings are varied. It's not great looking, but for a mid-life PS1 game isn't too bad. I really wish the game had analog controls, though! It doesn't. I like arcadey racing games, and this one can be fun. Game controls are simple, but since you are flying in 3d space, it can be easy to get turned around. The narrow paths do usually help with this, but memorization will definitely be required in order to do well at this game. You can attack as well, and helpfully the shots do home in on enemies in front of you. Sometimes your goal is kills, instead of just finishing in a high enough position, so it's good that it's fairly easy to hit the enemies. There are also speed-up rings to fly through, and you get special weapons from colored gates. This is a very dated game, with very "Playstation" graphics, dated gameplay thanks to having to manage to fly through 3d space with nothing but a d-pad and sometimes touchy controls, and memorization-heavy track designs. Probably partially because of the fantasy setting, unique theme, and simple arcadey racing gameplay, I kind of like this game anyway, though. It's far from good, but is definitely entertaining for a while. It's also quite unknown, but maybe it'll be a little less so now.


Casper: Friends Around the World
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1 player, saves (1 block). This game is a 2.5d platformer from Realtime Associates. It's clearly a cheap budget title, and the game is short and easy, but I've had fun with it anyway. Sure, any half-decent platformer fan should be able to zip right through the ~10 levels and beat the game no problem, but it really isn't that bad, despite the poor reviews! In the game, you play as Casper, as expected. Casper's got a cool transparency effect on his character, which looks pretty nice. Casper also can float straight ahead, for as long as a meter on screen allows; you can't fly freely, but that would make the game far too easy. Lastly you can also shoot bolts of energy at the enemies. The controls are simple, but work decently well. Your goal is to get to the end of each level; Casper has some human friends who were captured, and you rescue one at the end of each level. Somewhat oddly, they're just waiting for you at the end of the stage. They don't seem very captured... eh, whatever, it's a videogame. In each level, there are some collectables to pick up, but most importantly, you must find a special item in each level in order to progress. If you miss it, you'll need to play the level again, so search around. In terms of level designs, one nice thing about Casper: Friends Around the World isn't entirely 2d. I called the game "2.5d", and it probably is, but this game has a lot of branching paths that curve around different ways in 3d space. This game is much less complex than Realtime's earlier Bug! titles on the Saturn, but it's nice to see at least this much of a 3d element in the game! You can often go up or down to enter alternate routes. These aren't always obvious, and I found looking out for the trails or marks fun. It's not too hard, but adds some nice variety to the game. The item you need is often on an alternate path. Once you find it, you need to play a mediocre Breakout-style minigame. Beating these is easy, and once you do you'll be able to play the next level, once you reach the end and 'rescue' the level's kid. Each level is set in a different place around the world, so you'll see Brazil, London, and more. Levels are somewhat short, but the game has a decent difficulty curve. It's an easy game, but a few levels in I started dying once in a while, so that was nice. Overall, this game's alright. It's average to poor, objectively, but I find it a decently fun game for the few hours it lasts. Maybe pick it up if you like platformers and see it for a few bucks; I paid $3.


Cleopatra's Fortune
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Cleopatra's Fortune is the PS1 version of this Taito arcade puzzle game. This is one of the Tetris-inspired block-dropping kinds of puzzle games. The game stars a cute anime-style Cleopatra, but the gameplay is fairly traditional stuff. Cleopatra's Fortune does have some quirks, though. In the game, various pieces drop from above. There are two kinds of blocks, stone blocks or treasures. Treasures look different, depending on their size, but all work the same. Making a row of stone blocks will also cause the blocks to vanish, though the same is not true for treasures. The goal of the game is to surround the treasure blocks with stone blocks -- left/right/up/down only, diagonals don't matter. Wall in treasures with blocks and the treasures will vanish, and then the blocks will follow, and you'll get points of course. The game starts out simple enough, but gets much more challenging as it gets faster! As your score goes up so will block variety, so while at the start you'll mostly be seeing just one or two block pairs drop, later much larger and harder to place ones will. This gives the game a definite difficulty curve during each game, something perhaps uncommon in the block-dropping puzzle game genre, but it works. And that's the game, basically. The main mode is an endless mode, but there are a couple of other options, so they did add to the game versus the original arcade version. This is not a content-rich game, and you can play Cleopatra's Fortune other ways, such as Taito Legends 2, but still, it's a very good version of a fun puzzle game. This was a very late US release on the PS1, coming only in 2003 many years after its Japanese release, but they didn't mess with the game, thankfully, unlike some other late PS1 games (Mobile Light Force, Sorcerer's Maze, etc.). Overall, I like puzzle games, and while simple, Cleopatra's Fortune is definitely a good game. I wasn't sure if this would be worth it since I do have Taito Legends 2, but the new modes, while not major, are fun enough to make this version of the game also worth having. Arcade conversion, also on Saturn (in Japan only) and in Taito Legends 2 on PS2 and PC (and, in Europe, Xbox).

Cool Boarders 2
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). The second, and perhaps most popular, Coolboarders game, Cool Boarders 2 is an awful snowboarding game. Yes, this is another popular PS1 game that I think isn't any good at all. With ugly graphics, boring tracks, frustrating gameplay, and poor controls, I don't see much of any redeeming qualities here. This doesn't surprise me to much, though; I also hated Rippin' Riders for the Dreamcast, a newer snowboarding game by UEP Systems, the same developer as the first two Coolboarders games and a game that in Japan is a Cool Boarders game. Considering how much I disliked that game, I saw little hope for UEP's two PS1 Coolboarders games, Coolboarders 1 and 2. That caution was accurate. I know that this released in 1997, but that's several years into the PS1's life, shouldn't we expect something better than this? Cool Boarders 2 is very basic. The main mode is boring, unfun racing. Before each race you do a quick snowboard-jump stunt stage to determine your start position. Decent idea, but stunts aren't all that much fun, and the races are probably even worse. Track designs are pretty bad. Tracks are long and mostly straight; they don't feel much like actual mountains. Each track is linear, with almost no branching paths and little fun. Turn when the course does and try to stay away from the sides, that's all there is to it. It won't be easy, though, not with this games' poor handling. Controls are digital only, and they're bad and jerky. This just doesn't look or feel like a snowboarding game should! The bad controls are probably the thing I dislike the most about this game, and this series. And just as in Rippin' Riders, if you mess up, the awful announcer insults you. Who thought THAT was a good idea? You're just going to make people not want to play your game! That's what they make me want to do in both of these games. These games have some of the worst voice announcing ever. They didn't fix the controls in Rippin Riders', either; one of that games' biggest problems is that it also controls poorly. Both games are entirely too hard as well. Instead of making me want to keep trying, the losing makes me want to quit playing, which is what I did. Graphically, as I said, this game looks pretty bad. Yes, it's improved over what I've seen of the first one, but the game still has broken polygon seams between pretty much every polygon. Watching the polygons jitter all over is kind of painful. Character and environment models are extremely basic, as well. Ugly stuff. Overall, I admit, I haven't played much of Cool Boarders 2, but when I'm having absolutely no fun at all, why should I? Cool Boarders 2 has bad graphics, bad and boring track designs, terrible controls, and more. There are no redeeming qualities to this disaster; maybe it was tolerable in 1997, since better games like 1080 didn't exist yet, but in a post-1080 and SSX world, there is absolutely no reason to touch this boring failure.


Crime Crackers (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Crime Crackers is a FPS/RPG hybrid. It's sort of like Robotica (Saturn) or Space Griffon VF-9 (PS1), except in Japanese, with an anime theme, and with more RPG elements, such as experience levels, items, and equipment. Also this game actually released before either of those titles -- this was a 1994 release! It's okay but dated, much like those other two games are. In the game, you play as a team of three space police officers, two of them anime girls and one a sort of human-sized dragon who I presume is male. One of the girls is the main character, and she's in the center on the cover as well. I like that the game has a female lead. The game has a story, but it's all in text-only Japanese -- there is no voice acting in this game, unfortunately. So yeah, I'm not clear on much of the plot, but this is a somewhat silly, comedic game, I can tell that much. the gameplay is easy enough to figure out. In each mission, you need to navigate your way in first person 3d through a maze, defeat the enemies, and finally kill the boss at the end of the stage. You control the three characters with one view, and can switch between them with a button press; each has separate weapons and health. You can save at any time, which is pretty nice. The first mission has a fairly simple maze of only two levels, but the game gets much more complex as you go, of course. Floors are mazes of corridors and rooms, basic stuff. As expected for an early PS1 game, the graphics aren't that good. Environments are repetitive, and the corridors don't look great. It's good enough to do, but that's it. When you see an enemy, pressing Square button will bring up a targeting cursor, then X fires. One of the girls has a shorter-range melee attack that doesn't use ammo, while the other two characters require ammo in order to fire. The main character can use bomb attacks (with O) that damage everything on screen, as well. Now, in aiming mode you can't move forward or backward since the d-pad controls the aiming cursor, but you can still dodge right and left with the shoulder buttons. This is key, try to dodge incoming enemy fire! If you don't, you will take damage quickly. The controls are clumsy, but no PS1 analog gamepads existed yet, so there was no way around something like this in a 3d shooter. Triangle opens the menu. From here you can use items, equip stuff, save, etc. Item descriptions are in Japanese, but fortunately there are also images of the items, and some descriptions are helpful. The pills heal a character 100 health, the gun refills weapon ammo, the key is a key to use on a door, etc. You can use money you collect to buy stuff in a store screen that appears between missions. You'll need it, because this game can get difficult, but the game is interesting enough to keep me playing. The graphics and design may be primitive, but I like this game. Crime Crackers is a simple but fun maze shooter. If you like early shooters, and particularly Robotica or Space Griffon, as I do, give it a try. Oh, and in addition to the usual nice full-color manual, Crime Crackers comes with a fun little sheet of stickers as well. There are some game logos, an image of the main girl, and more. Nice.


Crime Crackers 2 (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block per file). Crime Crackers 2 released in late 1997, almost three years after the first game. Unfortunately, it does not take advantage of the analog gamepads which by that point existed, and still has clumsy d-pad-only controls. Otherwise, though, this game is a good game that takes the design of its predecessor but improves on it in almost every way. I mostly liked the first Crime Crackers, but this one is definitely good. The production values, controls, graphics, story, character roster, and dungeon designs are all improved. Oddly, this game has a new cast, though the character artist is the same as before; you don't control the three from the first game again, though they are shown in the manual so they're out there somewhere. Instead, you control a new group of Crime Crackers in their spaceship. The lead is a blonde anime girl, and she's the captain of the ship and has a pet monkey. There are also two more girls, a human guy (only playable one in the franchise!), a robot guy, and a few animal-guys. This game has some nice-quality, fully-voiced anime cutscenes, all fully animated. The intro is full screen, but cutscenes during the game play in a small window, perhaps to keep this game to only one disc and save money on animation. I wish it was all full screen, but still, the animation is all good quality work and it's nice to see. The cutscenes are amusing and add a bit to the game. Ingame, again you are traveling through 3d maze-like dungeons in first person. The graphics are definitely better, with more detailed environments, better-rendered enemies, and a lot less fog. This game looks pretty decent. Level maps are nicely complex, with plenty of multi-tier areas with overlapping paths; this is a true 3d game. The map on the Start button is very helpful! For audio, the game sounds okay, but nothing special. The cutscenes are fully voiced, but in-mission text is just text. Ah well.

Ingame, your party has four members at a time now. You start with four preset characters, but the party will change over time. This game has nine different routes, eight of them available at first and then one final route once you complete all the others. This means that the choices you make and places you go during the game will determine what areas you see and how the game ends, which is pretty cool. There is a simple guide on GameFAQs saying what you need to do to get onto each route, helpfully. There are some puzzles along the way as well, which is nice. Control is an issue, though. The main problem with this game is aiming, at enemies above or below you particularly. The d-pad moves forward and back and turns left and right, L1 and R1 strafe, L2 and R2 look up and down, and Square fires your main weapon while X uses the character's secondary weapon if they have one.So, controls are improved over the first game, but using L2/R2 to aim at enemies above you can be difficult. Some characters have melee weapons, others ranged. Ammo is mostly gone this time, though, which is nice; each characters' main weapon has infinite ammo. Each character does have a secondary attack on X that uses Energy, though, and that is limited. As before, characters will level up as you progress, and there are stations where you can buy items. Most of them are fairly easy to figure out the function of regardless of language. There are items for healing health and energy, resurrection pots, new weapons, and such. Overall, Crime Crackers 2 isn't great, but it is a fun little first-person dungeon-crawling shooter/RPG. Once I got used to the aiming I definitely started having fun. This game seems more approachable at the start than the first game was, but I'm sure it'll get challenging over time. This game is worth a look.


Crusaders of Might and Magic
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1 player, saves (1 block). Crusaders of Might & Magic is a third-person action-adventure game set in New World Computing's Might & Magic universe. The game is somewhat in the style of Tomb Raider, but more action-oriented. This became a popular genre on the PS1, but not many of the games are all that great. This one is no exception; Crusaders is mediocre at best. This game does have a reputation for being slightly better than the PC Crusaders of Might & Magic game, though. The two aren't the same game. You'd think the PC game would be better, but no, after playing this one finally, that conventional wisdom is correct -- this PS1 game is indeed a bit better than the PC game. It's still not all that great, but I found myself kind of enjoying this, which is more than I can say for the PC game, really. In this game, you play as a mercenary guy who starts out in the enemy's prison, but quickly gets dragged in to a quest to save the world from evil. Evil plans are afoot, and for various reasons (read: it's a videogame) you've got to save the world mostly on your own. The game has okay graphics and good-sized levels. Controls are fairly stiff; this game could definitely control better. Also, it's very unfortunate that the game has no analog support, it would play a lot better with analog! I found myself using the Performance pad so that I could play the game with the analog stick, since it has the analog sticks emulated the d-pad in d-pad mode; improved things a bit. The controls are still stiff and frustratingly digital in movement, though. Jumping also can be tricky, jumping puzzles in this game can be a pain. Combat is similarly stiff. You can attack with your weapon, stiffly, or use some magic spells. Magic is mostly for healing or ranged combat. It works, but this game clearly was meant to be more about the up-close fighting than magical combat. So yeah, the controls could be better. I do like the level designs, though. I like their size, complexity, and design; the game has good, and varied, art design, and plenty of variety in its levels. That's great. It's a reasonably nice-looking for a PS1 game, art-wise. You can only save at save points, though, so watch out and try not to die, you can be sent back a ways. Also, it is possible to get stuck sometimes, because the way forward isn't always obvious. That's okay with me, but I can see people disliking that. Overall, Crusaders of Might & Magic is a below-average fantasy hack and slash action-adventure game, but it's not without redeeming qualities. Even if it's not that great, this game is somewhat entertaining and fun anyway, or at least I thought so. There is also a PC version, but it's a fairly different and even worse game.


Crypt Killer
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2 player simultaneous, Playstation Justifier light gun supported. Crypt Killer is a simple, thoroughly mediocre, and dated light-gun game from Konami. This game got pretty bad scores when it released in 1997, and I can see why, but it's not all bad. Crypt Killer is a long and difficult light gun shooter. As usual in the genre you move a cursor around the screen, if you're using a controller, or use your light gun to shoot at the screen, if you have a Justifier, and shoot everything that moves. There are no non-hostile targets in this game, so do shoot at everything. There is no locational damage or cover system here, so the game is simpler and perhaps dated compared to Virtua Cop or Time Crisis. The game has some pretty awful graphics, too. Crypt Killer has mostly 2d sprite enemies in polygonal worlds. The camera moves around as if it's your vision, which is nice, but the draw distance is terrible and everything is incredibly pixelated, more so than usual on the PS1. This is an ugly looking game. The game does have a somewhat interesting variety of settings, though. Each of the six levels looks completely different, and have some unique enemies as well, though others do repeat between stages. There are six base levels, and you can play them in any order. Each level is made up of three parts and then a boss, and you can choose between two routes at the end of the first and second segments of each level. There aren't four entirely different routes in each level, but the branching paths add some nice replay value to a game already long for its genre. The levels themselves are as long as any in the genre. Most light gun games from the '90s have only three or four levels, though, not six or seven as this game has, so Crypt Killer is probably longer than most games like this. It's harder, too. The game has eight difficulty settings, but will be quite hard even on the easiest one, particularly if you're using a gamepad, thanks to the long levels, frequent enemies, slow gamepad controls (even if you try to speed up the cursor; there's a setting for this, but it's of limited help and sometimes randomly reverts to the slow default speed), and three continue limit. Three continues isn't enough for a game as long and tough as this! The game doesn't support saving either, and I know of no codes, so I doubt I'll ever finish this game. I'm not that good with light guns either, so even if I did have a PS1 Justifier, I doubt it'd be enough. Unfortunately, the game does not support the Namco GunCon, which I don't think had been released yet when this game shipped in mid '97. The Guncon and its clones are common, but PS1 Justifiers are much harder to find. With enough practice and memorization this game is probably beatable, but why not play a better light gun game instead? Crypt Killer is average at best, and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. Overall, Crypt Killer is an average lightgun game that feels a bit dated for a 1997 release, has bad graphics, no saving, limited continues, and bland gameplay. The graphical and setting variety is nice, though, and it can be fun to play sometimes, particularly if you have the right lightgun I am sure. It's probably below average overall, but might be amusing for genre fans. Also released on the Saturn.


Cybernetic Empire (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Cybernetic Empire is a third-person sci-fi 3d action-adventure game very much in the vein of Tomb Raider. Developed by Wolfteam and published by Telenet Japan, this game is interesting for several reasons, both for its solid gameplay and because it was the last "serious" game once-significant publisher Telenet Japan published. Wolfteam had previously been a division of Telenet, but Namco bought a majority share of the studio back in 1995, four years before this games' release. I don't know how that happened, but Telenet did own a third of Wolf Team until '06, and it looks like the one other non-mahjong post-'94 game Telenet made, Swingerz Golf (GC/PS2) also had some Wolfteam involvement. For Telenet though, it was a last hurrah. After this, Telenet regressed to only publishing golf and mahjong games (and licensing out the Valis name to a hentai game developer for some quick cash), before shutting down for good in 2007. Wolfteam, now known as Namco Tales Studio, have pretty much only made the Tales series of action-RPGs ever since Namco bought them, except for this game (and that later golf game, perhaps). Despite this, Cybernetic Empire is a quite competent game. It's impressive that the programmers hadn't mad anything like this before, it doesn't show! Now, this game does have issues, but Telenet's games always did have imperfections, so that isn't surprising. Still, Wolfteam did a good job here.

Cybernetic Empire is a reasonably good 3d action-adventure game that Tomb Raider fans will probably like. The game has some Resident Evil elements to it as well, I'd say. Of course, the game only released in Japan and does have Japanese dialog, but the game isn't too hard to figure out, fortunately, though I'm sure there'll be tougher puzzles eventually. There's plenty of story here, as this game takes up a full two discs, but there's also plenty of gameplay. There are two playable characters, one male and one female, and you've got to infiltrate a secret facility and stop the badguys. You walk around, get items, shoot baddies, jump on stuff, push boxes around, and the like. The controls are average for this genre on the PS1, so yes, tank controls here. They're not the best, as usual, but are okay. You can also swing around with a grappling hook, which is pretty cool! I love grappling hooks in games, more games should have them. Fun game overall, apart from occasional language barrier issues and the usual 5th gen 3d issues you get in most games of the time -- camera, etc.


Dare Devil Derby 3D
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4 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Dare Devil Derby 3D was one of Supersonic's first 5th gen games, and this developer of many of the better top-down racing games, including Micro Machines 2 through 4, Mashed, and more, got off to a rocky start. As usual for Supersonic, this is an overhead-style racing game. Instead of being strictly overhead like their 4th-gen games were, though, this game pulls the camera back, to a hybrid overhead / behind-the-car view. DDD 3D's camera is good idea. and it works great in Circuit Breakers, but here it has some issues. It's often zoomed in too close, and it is kind of odd how the camera is sometimes overhead and sometimes more pulled back, too. Because I usually like Supersonic's games and love the Micro Machines series I had high hopes for this game, but it disappointed even me at first. While their later 5th gen titles Circuit Breakers (PS1) and Micro Machines V3/64 (PS1/N64), Dare Devil Derby 3D doesn't live up to its successors, unfortunately. Still, this isn't awful, it's just not nearly as good as it could have been.

Gameplay-wise, this game is a not quite as good copy of Supersonic's work on Micro Machines games. For those who don't know Micro Machines, the game is a topdown racer. There are no walls on the road; instead, you just have to try to stay on the road, which is marked by a different-colored strip of ground, or markers on the sides of the track. There are plenty of obstacles you can run into, and cliffs or pits to avoid, though, and this will be hard! This is a fast, fast game, and the camera zooms in close. Much like the handheld versions of Micro Machines 2, this game is maybe too hard at times; you'll need to do a lot of memorization in order to survive. The controls can be an issue here as well, because this game has digital-only controls. While Supersonic's later PS1 games have analog support, DDD 3D doesn't. The Dual Shock didn't exist yet when this game released, but it should have supported the neGcon/wheel! Disappointing. The digital controls aren't nearly as good as analog ones would be. The skiddy controls are very Micro Machines 2-styled, though, as is the speed, so if you like that game you might like this one.

Graphically, this game looks rough, and early. DDD 3D has a cartoony art style, and some of it works and some of it looks kind of awful; the character art is... something. Some of the color and texture choices are poor as well. Some tracks look okay, but too many are ugly-looking, like the hideous graveyard stage, and the ground is often overly pixelated. You can get used to it, but it doesn't look as good as MM V3. I like the overhead perspective, but the camera feels a bit stiflingly close; I'd like to be able to see a bit farther ahead. This is a fast game, more like Micro Machines 2 than Micro Machines 1, so this matters. DDD 3D is a console game, not handheld, there's no reason that the viewing distance is so short! Micro Machines-styled games like this always have track designs that absolutely require memorization, but this camera makes it harder. Overall, Dare Devil Derby 3D is basically an unbranded 3d spinoff of Micro Machines 2. I do like Micro Machines 2, but have always been frustrated by MM2's high speeds, it's a very hard game. The 3d camera makes this one a little harder than MM2 for the PC or Genesis, and that's an issue. Still, I like the Micro Machines franchise enough to think that this game is alright, if you give it some time. It's not one of Supersonic's better games, and it is somewhat disappointing, but it's not their worst either. Try it out if you find it cheap. The first Micro Machines game will probably always be my favorite one in the franchise, though.

Descent Maximum
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1 player, saves (3 blocks), Analog Joystick support (NOT the dualshock, the twin=stick joystick!). Descent Maximum is a PS1 port of the PC game Descent II. Descent was a very influential title when it released in the mid '90s, and immediately became a classic, but I never paid much attention to its sequel; seemed like more of the same, really. And while I liked Descent in concept, I found the game so hard that I didn't get around to buying the sequel after I finally got the first game in the late '90s (I'd played the demo right after the first game came out, but didn't buy it; I only very rarely bought first-person games like this. There is also a PS1 version of Descent, but I haven't played it, only this game. Anyway, Descent Maximum is a solid port of Descent II. I haven't played it all that much, though, because I really want to play it with the proper controller -- that is, a Playstation Analog Joystick, and I still don't have one. The game is playable with a gamepad, but it's just not the same! Descent is a 3-degrees-of-freedom first-person flying/shooting game, and analog controls make a huge difference. As in the first game, in Descent Maximum you have to navigate your futuristic fighter craft through many mazelike levels, defeating enemies along the way, destroying the enemy cores, and then trying to escape before each facility is destroyed by the blast. The catch is, you are floating in the air! This isn't a traditional fight game, though. You move as you do in a first-person shooter, except here you can move in any direction. It was an innovative concept, and Descent executed on it brilliantly. This sequel really is more of the same as the first one, though. It's a good same, but Descent 2 took few risks. The Descent games are all very difficult, though, and it's even harder here on the PS1, particularly if you're trying to play with a gamepad! This game was desgigned for a mouse, after all. A joystick might do, but a d-pad will give you problems, targeting enemies without analog is quite difficult. You have to actually point at enemies to hit them, there's no lockon. The graphics aren't the best, either. This is an earlier PS1 game, and you can tell. Environments are fairly simple in design, and the low resolution doesn't help either. It's fun and engrossing if you get into it, but overall, play this game on the PC; the PS1 port is solid, but the PC original is better. Also on PC.


Die Hard Trilogy
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1 player, supports neGcon (in Die Hard with a Vengeance only) and the Konami Justifier light gun and Playstation Mouse (both in Die Harder only), saves (1 block). Die Hard Trilogy is a collection of three games on one disc. These games were never sold seperately, though, only together. The first game is an overhead-isometric 3d run & gun action game, Die Hard. The second is a light gun shooter, Die Harder. And the last is a point-to-point city driving game, Die Hard with a Vengeance. This game sold very well, and got a best-seller re-release and a sequel... and is absolutely ATROCIOUS! Seriously, I know I keep saying this in this update, but this is another one of the worst games I've ever played for the PS1. All three games are horrendously unfun, ugly disasters with bad controls almost all of the time. I know that I'm not in this games' target audience -- I've never seen a Die Hard movie, and again the only Bruce Willis movie (he was the star in the films) I've ever seen is Armageddon -- but still, this isn't some accurate movie representation, it's just a collection of games, atrociously bad games. Oh, and if you get game over, you're done; you've got to save in the pause menu while playing ("Save to Slot" option) in order to pick up where you left off. Odd design decision in a console game, so be sure to save, these games are tough. The 1 block does include all 8 possible saves in that menu, fortunately. Each game has 15 levels, I believe. They're almost a full length total debacle each.

The first game is Die Hard. In this very ugly looking topdown action game, you run around and shoot all the badguys in each stage, and then move on to the next one. The first floor is a fairly open basement garage, but the levels quickly become mazes of offices and cooridors, and the draw distance is comically short and there's no map of course. The game has a few neat touches, such as breakable glass windows on some rooms, but there's nothing else good here. Enemy AI barely even exists, collision detection is awful, controls are slow and bad, the level designs get annoying very quickly, the very short draw distance awful, and more. There are plenty of weapons to use, but it's never actually much fun, only maybe barely passable for a few moments here and there. I was ready to be done with this terrible shooting game forever after about floor two or three.

Second is Die Harder. This one's an awful, and unbelievably ugly, light-gun shooter. Enemies pop up, Virtua Cop-style targets appear around them, and you shoot them, while trying to avoid hitting the civilians. Light gun shooters can be quite fun!... but this one isn't. With a gun the controls are passable, but anyone who attemps to play this with a controller sure won't have a good time! Gamepad controls here are ridiculously terrible, basically unsusably broken. I do have PS1 lightguns, but don't usually have my system hooked up to a CRT, and am hopeless at hitting things with light guns anyway; in decent lightgun games, I'm actually often just as good or better with the controller! But here the gamepad controls are so imprecise I can't hit much of anything, not that I really care to try. This game is essentially a F-grade knockoff of Virtua Cop, design-wise. Virtua Cop is a fantastic game, just stick to those games and forget this thing ever existed. I'll be trying to do that. This has got to be one of the worst light gun games I've ever played, in gameplay, controls, and graphics.

Die Hard with a Vengeance is a racing game, and it's slightly better than the other two games... but it still fails miserably overall. This is a mission-based city driving game, a fairly advanced concept for a game from 1996. The city is large, and there are no walls -- you need to follow instructions and go to the places you're told to go. There is a compass to "help". It should have been a map. It's nice that the designers were trying new things with this game, mission-based games like this were a new idea, but the game doesn't work very well. The objectives aren't always clear enough, first, which got very frustrating quickly. Also, the turning instructions aren't always well-timed, and some come too late to actually make the turn unless you have amazing reflexes. I always have preferred racing games on set courses to these city-driving games for this kind of reason, I like actually knowing where I'm going. Next, the graphics are, of course, horrendously ugly. Yes, I know this is a 1996 game, but still, the PS1 has to be able to do better than this! The city is a sea of messy jittering pixels. It's often hard to make out much of anything. And last, the controls are awful too. It's riciulous how many times just trying to make a turn sent me straight into a building! Sure, you don't crash or anything, but you lose time, and time is your enemy in this mode; you've got a tight time limit to accomplish each objective. Fail one and it's game over. After some frustration with the awful controls, graphics, and directions, I gave up on this, and this unbelievably terrible game. I guess I hate this game more than most people, but Die Hard Trilogy is a really, REALLY bad game, one of the worst games I've played on the PS1. If you want to play a good Die Hard game, stick to Sega's pretty good Saturn beat 'em up Die Hard Arcade. Also on PC and Saturn.


*Dino Crisis
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Survival Horror Adventure. One player, has saving. My original summary from the first thread, after playing an hour of this game, was "Resident Evil with dinosaurs." And really, that's accurate, as this is a survival horror game with tank controls (it claims to "support the analog controller", but it doesn't.). Still, there are a couple of changes. First, this game is polygonal 3d, instead of being polygonal characters on CG-rendered backgrounds. This doesn't matter all that much, though, because the game still has a Alone in the Dark-style static camera. Otherwise, this is basically RE with dinosaurs. Once again, you wander around a building, avoiding or occasionally fighting enemies while solving some mostly simple puzzles and collecting items. My complaints here are mostly the same as in my thoughts on RE0, REmake, and 2 in other Game Opinion Summary threads. You can only hold 10 items, so choose what you carry carefully. As before, you'll have far too little ammo, so you can't fight all the enemies. I really hate this! It's awful in RE, and awful here. I want to be able to fight the enemies, because I can't just dodge them all, but here, it's quite easy to get stuck with no ammo and some tough dino in front of you. And what do I do then? Start over? I'd rather not! Seriously, either just make an adventure game, or make an action game; these hybrids which try to make things scarier by not giving you enough ammo just end up being really annoying, for me at least. Otherwise, this game is okay. You play as Regina, a soldier in a team, and the dinosaurs have broken loose! You need to try to save those who you can, accomplish your mission, and stop any dinos who get in your way, not that I have much chance of that with no ammo or inventory space. Targeting enemies in this game is challenging, too. It claims to "auto-target", but it doesn't always work well, and it's too easy to waste ammo. Fear Effect's much more generous amounts of ammo and "you are targeting someone" icon in the status bar are far better design elements than this, and I didn't exactly like the combat in that game either. As for the puzzles, I've never played enough of a survival horror game to see if the puzzles get hard later on, but the ones I have seen never seem to be all that hard; these may often be called "adenture" game, but they don't seem to focus on great puzzles like a true adventure game would. Too many 'find the key' puzzles, with 'here's a puzzle with too few clues to make it harder' stuff sometimes. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but this has always been my impression of the genre. An adventure game with dinosaurs is a cool idea, but I don't like survival horror game conventions this game has, including too little ammo, constant backtracking, and not-great puzzles. Why can't there be more horror adventure games like Eternal Darkness, and fewer like Resident Evil? That game is so amazing in all the ways that RE, or Dino Crisis, aren't! Ah well. Also, this is the worst version of this game. Also on PC and Dreamcast. Either other version would have better graphics, of course.


Driver 2
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block per file), Analog Gamepad supported. The first Driver was a great car-chase driving game, and this game is, for the most part, more of the same. As in the first Driver, you play as agent Tanner, and have four cities to work your way through. This is a mission-based driving game in sizable open cities, and generally your task is to either get from one place to another, or follow a person or vehicle across the city. Tanner is going undercover again to figure out a murder and go after a criminal syndicate. This is a two-disc game with more CG cutscenes than the first game. Either way, as in the first game, the challenge will be steep. Time limits are very tight, people you're chasing will easily get away if you mess up and hit something, and car controls are somewhat slippery; these cars aren't the easiest to handle. When the police are looking for you, watch that radar closely for police viewing ranges, it's vital! In some ways this game seems better than the first one, in others worse. Some of the most important improvements as are to the save system and the beginning. Driver 1's insanely hard tutorial mission does not repeat this time; instead, you just start out with the first mission. Nice! Also, you can now save after every mission, which is a HUGE improvement; in Driver 1 you can only save every three or four missions, which makes getting from one save point to the next a nightmare when the third or fourth mission of a group is super-hard. I got tired of replaying hard missions over and over, and eventually dropped Driver 1 midway through when playing it on the PC back in '99 or '00, even though I'd mostly quite liked it. The improved save system here is fantastic. The main issues with this game are that it's not also on the PC and the added on-foot segments. Driver is a good Playstation game, but the graphics are much rougher than the sharp, fast PC version, and this game is similar. For the PS1, Driver 2 is very impressive; it's got huge cities, complex environments, physics, visual effects, and more. There's a lot going on here, so the slow feel is understandable. However, the game runs somewhat slowly a lot of the time, car handling can be frustratingly floaty, the draw distance isn't very good, and the game has the usual Playstation blocky textures and warping and popping polygons. It's really unfortunate that they didn't make a PC port of this game too, it'd have cleared up those issues, and I'd have been able to play the game long before I did, too. Oh well. As for the on-foot parts, they decided to have Tanner get out of the car sometimes in this game, but it doesn't work very well. Tanner controls like a car, so you still use X to run forward and the stick to turn left and right. His handling is quite bad, and this game would have been better if, like the first game, you were stuck in the car all of the time. The on-foot segments don't play that well. Otherwise, though, Driver 2 is a pretty great game. I wasn't expecting as much from this game as the first one, because I'd heard it wasn't as good, but for the PS1 this game does about as well as it probably could, and has some nice improvements over the great, but too hard, first game. This is a very similar game to Driver 1, and I probably like the first game more, but Driver 2 is a very good game that I definitely recommend! This is a great fun game, even when it's being very frustrating.


Egg (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (3 blocks). Egg is a quite obscure territory-control action puzzle game. In the game, the player and opponent (computer or human) face off in a battle of eggs. Yes, each player controls a egg that they roll around the level. This is a top-view game, and there are a couple of different kinds of mission objectives, but the basic one is territory control. Generally, you win when you control enough of the map, sort of like in Qix but with different gameplay. You take over territory by surrounding it with your egg, because as you move, you leave a trail of your color behind you. Interestingly, this isn't just an abstract puzzle game, though -- in the territory you take over a civilization sprouts forth! It's a cool graphical touch. You're not just coloring in space, but you are building a nation with a giant egg. When you roll over enemy territory, you overwrite it and can take it yourself. You can heal on your base territory, but will have to leave it to win, of course. Take too much damage, either from running into the enemy egg too often or from their attacks, and you lose. The game has several different victory conditions, depending on the stage. Sometimes, instead of territory control, you have to destroy the enemy egg. This is probably tougher than territory control because of how they can heal. There are more as well. This is a fairly interesting game that I'm glad to have gotten. I had no idea what to expect with this one, and some such games go well and others poorly, but this one's pretty good! Egg is a good game that puzzle or classic arcade gaming fans should absolutely get. It's interesting, original, and fun. Highly recommended. I will write more about this game another time, in a solo review. It needs the attention, there is nothing out there about this game in English, but should be!


End Sector (J)
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1 player, saves. End Sector is part card-battle RPG and part sound novel. Sound novels are mostly-text adventure games; there's text on screen, and CG-rendered backdrops, but that's about it apart from images of cards sometimes when someone is talking. Why did I get this? This has one of the highest language barriers of any of the import Japanese games I have. It's hard to play if you don't know the language, and it's not like I love card-battle games like Magic, Pokemon cards, and such either. And yet I have this thing. Hmm. In this game set in a fantasy world, you play as a guy you name. I'm not sure what the story is beyond that, there's almost nothing out there in English about this game and the sound novel portions are, of course, impossible to understand. The term may use the word "sound", but this is purely text-based, no voice acting here. This game has lots and lots of Japanese text, and you occasionally make a choice between several different options as well. Of course, I can't understand any of it, but can get through it (without knowing what I'm choosing) by just clicking, so the game is playable. The game seems to have a branching design, but I don't know how different the various routes are; I haven't played it nearly enough to say that, if I could even tell. I do know that you can sometimes lose a match and then keep going, though, which is interesting. I wasn't expecting that. I wonder if it changes the story much afterwards, or if you just lose out on the extra reward cards winning gets? I'm not sure. If you hit Start while in the sound novel, a menu opens where you can choose which cards are in your deck and save and load the game, essential features. You can't save during a match, only in the adventure part.

Once a battle starts, you go from the adventure mode to a battle screen. Your guy is on the left, and your opponent is on the right. The battle is decided when one of the two runs out of health. From your deck, you are given a random selection of five cards. There are several kinds of cards, including summon creatures, direct attacks, and boost spells. Summon creatures can be placed in a grid of six spaces in front of your character;' the opponent has a similar grid. This means you can summon at most six creatures at once. A cursor on screen lets you select each character to give them orders. Orders include an attack, where you choose which opponent to target, a boost spell (which you can cast on another character, to give them some kind of stat-up or such), defend, to reduce damage, or one other function I haven't used yet. Instead of a boost spell, the main character instead can choose to use one of the cards in your hand, though this means he can't attack of course. Once you choose an attack or casting move, a meter appears next to the character. When the meter fills, the action will occur, then the meter will have to drain before you can select another move. Defend is the default ability which characters return to once an action is complete, so there is no auto-attack. You can also check character stats or health by holding shoulder buttons. It's an active-time-battle type of system, I guess. Different types of moves take different amounts of time. You start out with only a few cards, but quickly start collecting more. I found the first few matches easy to win, though it starts getting harder after that, so there's a decent difficulty curve. This seems like a substantial game with lots of content.

Of course there is a language barrier here, but with experimentation I did manage to figure out the basics of combat. It is easy to tell summons, attacks, and spells apart, but the specifics of what some things do is hard to guess. Helpfully there are English names on each card, but that won't help for things such as their boost spells, or some of the stats; as is common in Japanese games, the menus are a mixture of English and Japanese. It's nice that the Save/Load/Card setup menu is in English too. This game is LOADED wtih Japanese text, though. Even during the battles, your character and his opponents talk frequently, and the sound novel sections between battles can be long. So yeah, I can't really recommend this game to anyone other than serious card-battle game fans, which I'm not really one of even if I did like Phantasy Star Online III (Gamecube), the PSO card-battle game. Knowledge of Japanese would help a lot too, thanks to the extensive sound-novel adventure half of the game. Even so, once in a match this is more playable than I feared; gameplay isn't too hard to figure out, and the English names on cards and other random bits of text help.


Enigma (J)
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1 player, saves (3 blocks). Enigma is a Japanese adventure game. The game is clearly inspired by Resident Evil,but this game is more adventure than survival horror. The camera is pure Alone in the Dark or Resident Evil-inspired static camera angles, and the game has tank controls too of course. In gameplay, though, while there is fighting, the game also requires a lot of adventure game style item puzzles. You'll need to explore, look at everything (sometimes multiple times!), talk to people, and such. Of course it's all much harder than it should be, because the game's in Japanese, but at least the whole game is fully voice-acted. The game also has a full walkthrough on GameFAQs that tells you what to do to get through the game; it's very useful! This is a two-disc game, and that's because of all that voice acting, the CGI cutscenes, and the games' many locations. There are three characters to play as, too, two guys and a girl, each one with a separate adventure. Enigma has good production values, the story seems interesting from what I can understand of it, and solid adventure gameplay with occasional fights. The combat's only okay, not great. You swing your weapon with one button to hack at the enemy, and block with another button. Blocking is important, use it! It's simple stuff though; I don't think combat was the focus here. Enigma definitely can be frustrating, as adventure games always are sometimes when you're not sure what to do, but that's fine, that's how the genre works. Of course it'd make more sense if you can understand the language! If you don't, prepare for some frustration. Sometimes check things twice, for example... it's necessary. Visually. Enigma looks good and plays fairly well. There's also good replay value too, if you want to play all three characters' stories. Decent game.

Excalibur 2555 A.D.
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1 player, saves (by password ONLY). Excalibur 2555 AD is a mediocre-at-best 3d third-person action-adventure game. The story is that time-travelling robots have attacked Camelot and stolen Excalibur. So, Merlin created a time-portal spell, and since none of the knights trust it he's sending his niece Beth to save Camelot and recover Excalibur. Even though you're in the future, bad things must have happened, because the games' world is barely any less medieval than any medieval fantasy game would be. Enemies mostly have swords, you spend the whole game in grimy tunnels and mazes of wood and dirt rooms, etc. It's kind of odd to set a game in the future and then have so little futuristic about it. There's no explanation in the game for why the world is in the state it is, either. As for the main character Beth, since she's a female videogame character of course she's in a implausibly skimpy outfit, though oddly the British version of the game, which I believe is the original, has her with brown hair instead of blonde, and more clothing as well -- she has pants in that version, instead of just thigh-highs and... uh, short shorts or underwear or whatever it is, in the US release. I'd actually probably rather have the UK version, it's kind of silly to be wandering around these future-medieval dungeons so exposed. So yeah, it's a game inspired by Tomb Raider, except this game is much slower-paced and more adventure-focused than Tomb Raider, or even Crusaders of Might & Magic.

This game is one of those clearly from the early days of 3d. With small rooms, no outdoor areas, clumsy combat, tank controls, constant fetch quests, and password-only saving for no good reason (the PS1 has memory cards!), this game has a lot of issues. It's not all bad, though; even if this game definitely isn't great, I did have some fun playing it, though it gets annoying at times for sure. This game has action, but it's really more of a puzzle adventure game than it is an action game. You'll need to learn each level in order to beat it, as dying in combat is easy; enemies do a lot of damage per hit. Some enemies can be avoided, though. There's one nearly impossible-to-defeat enemy in the first level which you actually should just not fight at all, for example; just do the puzzles, and stay out of that room. That's kind of clever, but also kind of annoying -- I want to beat the enemies, not learn after dying repeatedly that actually I wasn't supposed to fight them! Bah. The clumsy controls really are an issue, too. The games' tank-style controls (left/right rotate, not move) mean slow movement, and your characters' walk speed is slow. You can run with Square, but only in a straight line, so it's only sometimes useful. The inventory is on Select; choose an item with Circle in order to use it in the field, or select several with X to combine them, if they can be combined. Then Circle uses items or jumps, and X interacts. Hitting R1 or R2 go into combat mode. Beth is only armed with a sword throughout the game; other items don't add to your arsenal. In combat mode, Circle swings from the right, Square swings from the left, and X blocks for a second or two. Timing blocks is central to the battle system, as enemies also block a lot, and you can't do or take damage while blocking. Blocks only last a few seconds, though, so get used to blocking, then attacking just before an enemy strikes, and the like. Which way you attack matters too, because enemies sometimes are blocking one side but not the other. There are no combos or anything here, though, just button-mashing. You also get magic eventually, but physical combat remains central. Combat may be simple, but it's not always fair; predicting enemy attacks isn't easy, and you die quickly. Enemies block a lot too, which makes hitting some of them a matter of chance. And when you die, it's game over, back to the main menu with you! You'll need to re-enter the password (or start a new game) to continue, stupidly enough. What happened to a continue screen? Come on!

Excalibur is more of an adventure game than action, though. You'll spend more time wandering around looking for items and talking to people than you will fighting. Most of the puzzles are basic fetch quests, but it does get more complex once combined items come into play. Some puzzles do require actions, too, such as one early on where you have to lure out a rat with some bait in order to grab it. The rooms in this game are as I said quite small, and 100% of the game is indoors, so finding items isn't hard, but do keep a lookout for all of them, you'll need them all, pretty much. The clunky controls and basic fetch-quest gameplay hold this back as an adventure game, though. Overall Excalibur 2555 AD isn't a very good action game, and is slightly below average as an action-adventure game as well. The game also has largely featureless tunnel environments and not-too-good character models as well. However, running around trying to solve puzzles can be kind of fun as long as you're not dying, and if you're used to PS1 graphics the game looks kind of okay, I guess. This game isn't good, but it could be worse too. I will play it more; I'd like to get farther in. Also on PC.


Extra Bright (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Extra Bright is a fairly average at best shmup/rail shooter game with a great '90s anime style to it. This game alternates between average shooting stages and fairly nice-looking anime cutscenes that look heavily inspired by shows such as Gundam and Evangelion. They look great! I only wish that the gameplay was as good, but it isn't. The actual gameplay here is somewhat forgettable, as are the graphics. In the game, you play as a generic guy, and can choose between three anime girl copilots, each with different stats and a different ship design. The main gun is always the same, but you also choose your two secondary weapons between levels. Sort of like in Silpheed (Sega CD), you unlock new secondary weapons as you progress, so try out the new ones! Each one is completely different. Ingame, while the game has a third-person camera behind the ship, you only can move left and right; there is no aiming cursor, you can only shoot straight ahead. So, while the game looks like a rail shooter, it's more of a semi-3d shmup. This makes the game simpler, but as enemies do move up and down, it means that you can't always hit the enemies, and sometimes will just have to wait for them to fly to the plane you can shoot on. All levels sort of look like tubes, tunnels, roads, and the such;. you've always got a clear path to move on in the middle of the screen. You do occasionally get a branching-path choice, but I think they all just merge together after a while, I don't think the game has a Outrun-like branching grid. Still, some variety is nice. The graphics are basic, but look okay. Nothing particularly visually complex here, just basic cooridors, buildings, tunnels, etc. most of the game is either just shaded or done with fairly simple-looking textures, so the game has a somewhat plain look, but that's better than some PS1 games, for sure. The mostly bright pastel colors of the environments look different from your usual shooting game. Apart from the black 'fog' in the distance that objects pop up out of, the game looks "Extra Bright" indeed.

As far as level designs go, most are simple cooridors, though the last level is different. I wish more levels were like that one! Oh well. The game also mixes things up by frequently having your ship change paths, when a wall blocks you ahead, or when there's a gap in the road and you drop to a lower level, and what have you. This movement is all entirely automated, though, so you don't need to actually dodge obstacles. Still, the hills and path-switches will make things harder for you because yo ucan only shoot straight, so while switching or going up or down you won't be able to hit much of anything. The game is somewhat forgiving, but you do need to pay attention for when you can actually hit the enemies. Enemies and their fire is your main obstacle. You have a health bar in the game, but only one life per continue. The game does have infinite continues from the beginning of the last level you were on, and the game is kind of easy, particularly on Beginner. There are higher settings, but this isn't as hard as many shmups, really, if you use continues. One key on higher settings is dodging with the L2 and R2 buttons; they make your ship quickly move right or left. How often you can do this is limited by a meter on the right side of the screen. Another meter on the left side limits how often you can use those secondary weapons. The face buttons fire your main and secondary weapons. It's a fairly simple game, and definitely is one of those games that shows how on the PS1, 2d gameplay was definitely better for this kind of thing than 3d; Extra Bright is alright, but it's got nothing on any of the PS1's better shmups. Compared to top 2d shmups, the gameplay is simpler, the enemy patterns much less complex, and the graphics not as varied or interesting. Still, it's not all bad. The gameplay is alright, I did come to like it a bit more as I got farther, it's a bit more interesting in higher difficulties, and I do like those anime cutscenes; there is one every other level, so there are several as you progress through the game. Also your health doesn't recover much if at all between levels, so if you're going for a high score you'll have to be much more careful than otherwise. Overall though, Extra Bright is a somewhat bland and average 2d/3d hybrid shooter with some decent cutscenes. It's cool to see so many fully animated anime cutscenes in a game like this, you don't usually expect it. The game itself isn't great, but it has some charm and is worth a look for shooter fans. I did have enough fun with the game to finish it, at least.


Extreme Go-Kart Racing
-- 2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). I reviewed this game not too long ago; see that article for more. This game is a mediocre low-budget drift racing game with kart racer graphics, essentially. It may look like a Mario Kart clone, but this game is actually much more Power Drift than it is Mario Kart. Choose one of a variety of anime-style characters and race. There's only one championship, and you have to win all of the races to complete it. You've got infinite continues, and can save your best times on each track. Unfortunately, the track designs are too narrow, and the game isn't much fun to play. I finished the game anyway, so it was at least somewhat enjoyable I guess, but it definitely helped that it's a pretty short game; I wouldn't have stuck with a long one. There are multiple difficulty levels, if you really want to replay the game, but I doubt most people would. For being a drift-centric racing game with a kart-racer style to it Extreme Go-Kart Racing is kind of interesting, but those narrow tracks get very frustrating, very quickly. The graphics are extremely bland and generic, too. And don't expect hills, the tracks are all flat. It was kind of worth playing, though -- the wide-open final Rainbow Road-style track was actually probably the most fun one in the game! Overall, don't bother unless it's really cheap and you're curious like I was. It's bad, but not completely a waste of time.


*Fear Effect
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Survival Horror Adventure. 1 player, saves, has Analog Gamepad support. This is an action-adventure game on four CDs. It was inspired by both survival horror games like Resident Evil, and stealth games like Metal Gear Solid. I said a little about this game in the first PS1 Game Opinion Summaries thread, but played it a bit more now. In this game, you play as a trio of people who are trying to find a Triad leader's runaway daughter, for the large profit it'd bring. More is going on than it first seems, though, and later on the game goes supernatural. Even though this is a European game, it's set in Hong Kong and has a somewhat Chinese theme to it. You play as all three characters, though two of them take up the majority of the playtime. You automatically switch between them as you progress through the game, so you can't switch back and forth at will, unlike some games such as Martian Gothic (PS1). Fear Effect has prerendered backgrounds with polygonal 3d characters, annoying tank controls, and lots of enemies to shoot. You can stealth-kill them if you sneak up behind them. There's no radar, you just have to try to watch their head movement, which is tricky because of the messy PS1 3d of the character models. As usual in games with prerendered environments, where you can go is very limited; paths are narrow, and the game is heavily railed and linear. Despite this, it's easy to miss important things because the very busy backgrounds make telling things you can interact with apart from background objects difficult. Even though an 'interact' label appears when you get close to such an object, I'm not too far into the game, and already have had multiple times where I missed important things because I couldn't tell they weren't just background objects. It's kind of annoying.

Worse, though, are the controls. This game has tank controls, with a reverse-direction button, and run and sneak also on shoulder buttons, as in the games that inspired it. This game lets you use the analog stick, but I have a hard time walking in a straight line with the thing! Controls are in no way proportional, and character-relative tank controls on an analog stick are confusing. It's way too easy to walk into walls when you're trying to get around them and such thanks to the frustrating controls, and combat is even worse; these controls shouldn't be in a game with as much shooting as this game has! Fear Effect is part puzzles and part action, but I have issues with both elements. For puzzles, missing items in the backgrounds is the biggest issue, but it's not only items, but also clues. But how was I supposed to know that those lights were a clue, when backgrounds are so full of useless things? It's kind of ridiculous! And in battle, moving around doesn't work well thanks to the tank controls, and even worse, in boss fights the auto-aim that otherwise makees the game playable is disabled, meaning you have to actually aim at the enemy. Even though there is no height component to aiming in this game (so enemies shooting at the floor will hit you at the top of the staircase beyond, for example; yes, it looks silly), This is harder than it should be, and I died probably dozens of times at the first boss before finally beating the guy. Overall, Fear Effect looks nice for the system, but is a bit too busy, and the combat is frustrating and puzzles somewhat obtuse. If you want to play this, using a walkthrough might be a good idea. This isn't the kind of game I'd usually like, and I don't like this all that much either, though I'm sure genre fans would, there is some good here.


Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix
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1 player, saves (1 block per file), has Analog Gamepad support. Fear Effect 2 is the prequel to Fear Effect. It wasn't supposed to be the end of the franchise, but a PS2 game was cancelled, so it ended up being that way. This game is, pretty much, more of the same. The graphics are the same as the first game; again, blocky low-res CG-rendered backgrounds with polygonal characters. The gameplay is still a mixture of awkward shooting, annoying timed puzzles (again, using a walkthrough with this game is probably a good idea), and wandering around with some not-great stealth here and there. The controls have been improved, but still should be better. Other than the new story set before the first game, new locations and enemies, and a fourth playable character, the mysterious woman Rain, there isn't much different here apart from the control changes. This time, the game has a much better analog control option, "3D" mode. It works a lot like the "3D" mode in Resident Evil 2 for the N64, in that it gives you a camera-relative control option which ditches the tank controls. Don't worry, if you love them you can use that control style as well, but I'd rather use 3D mode. The analog feels better than the first game, too, though you still need to hold a button to run, the stick doesn't give speed control. It works alright. You have a Roll button too, now, for a dodge-roll, and it's useful, but combat is still stiff and not as good as I would hope for a game with this much shooting in it.

This game was sold with an ad campaign that focused heavily on oversexed, pseudo-lesbian shots of Hana and Rain. In the game though, it seems that there's only little bits of hinting at that, and nothing nearly as overt as the ads were. What is here is another story of how our group of protagonists are on a seemingly simple mission which eventually goes supernatural, though maybe less so than the first game? There are a lot of FMVs along the way, as its four-disc length suggests. The story seems okay, but nothing overly interesting. Overall, I don't like this game all that much, just like its predecessor. It's not a bad game, but the controls are still annoying -- improved, but annoying and too limiting, particularly in combat; the static camera can still be a problem, and combined with the very busy backgrounds it makes figuring out where you can go and what you can interact with a complete guessing game; and the puzzles are still frustrating, with too few clues and time limits sometimes. I can like a somewhat horror-ish action-adventure game -- Eternal Darkness is one of my favorite console games -- but this game is nowhere near that ones' level, not in design or gameplay. It's okay I guess, but I don't really want to play it much, at least not now.


Galaga: Destination Earth
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1 player, saves scores only (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Galaga: Destination Earth is a Western-developed shooter. The game has a story told in the intro cutscene, but it's generic stuff. The Earth is being attacked by enemy Galaga forces again, and only you can save it! The game is part shmup and part rail shooter; the gimmick is that the perspective changes during levels, so some sections are classic single-screen shmup areas, others scroll (sometimes right, sometimes up), others are rail-shooter sections, and there are even a few turret-gunner bits. Unfortunately, as most reviews say, this game is thoroughly mediocre. There are a few good things about the game, though. Galaga: Destination Earth has fairly good graphics, variety, and plenty of challenge. The graphics and art design are nice for the PS1. Everything is nicely detailed, and there's a great variety of settings and enemies. The challenge can be steep here, though. Levels are long, lives limited, you restart the level if you get game over, you have limited continues and can't save your progress during the game, so completing the game will be quite a challenge. Unfortunately, in addition to the intentionally annoying lack of a save system, another part of that is because of the controls. While the game controls okay in the 2d segments, the 3d rail-shooter controls aren't as great. It's way too hard to actually hit the enemies! The game doesn't even try to help you line up your shots with the enemies, unfortunately. Your targeting cursor is large and directly in front of you, and enemies often move quickly. Panzer Dragoon this game is no, that's for sure. There are weapon powerups, which you lose if you die, of course; this can be a big setback, your basic weapon is weak. The pickups can be hard to line up with in the rail shooter sections, too. The controls are serviceable, but could be a lot better. The length of the levels gets annoying when you get game over late in a level and have to restart the whole thing, as well. Seriously, this game is too frustrating and too long to not have saving! There's an excuse in the manual about how it's more traditional this way, but I've always preferred saving in games, and this game needs it. I do like that the game mixes in some traditional static-screen Galaga waves, though. It's a nice touch. Overall, Galaga: Destination Earth is a disappointing game. The variety of gameplay styles is nice, but the rail-shooter sections are probably a majority of the game, and they are the most flawed. This game might be fun for a little while, but the frustration and mediocrity will set in soon enough. American-made shmups have rarely been great ever since the crash of '83, and sadly Galaga: Destination Earth is no exception. Also on PC.


Galaxian 3 (J)
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4 player simultaneous (multitap required). Galaxian 3 is a space-fighter FMV light-gun game. It looks and plays just like Namco's earlier title Starblade, except set in the Galaga/Galaxian universe this time. As far as the gameplay goes, though, this game is basically Starblade 2. Just like that game, a CG-rendered video plays in the background, while polygonal enemies fly by on preset paths. Everything happens exactly the same way every time in these games, you just try to memorize it in order to survive longer and get a better score. The added four player multiplayer mode might help with that! That's easily the best addition here versus Starblade. Each player moves a cursor around the screen and tries to shoot all of the targets they can. There are turrets, ships, vehicles, and more to shoot at, though space fighters are your most common opponents. Some people call these games "rail shooters", but because you can't control your ship in any way, I think that's inaccurate; it's just a lightgun-style game without a gun, just like Starblade. Just like the graphics, Galaxian 3's audio is very much like Starblade as well. Once again voices tell you what's going on as you play, adding to the immersion of the space battle missions you're going on. Fortunately, they're all entirely in English, even though this game is a Japan-only release. I like Starblade, and Galaxian 3 is just as good. I didn't realize how similar to Starblade this game is when I got it, but I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much like that game Galaxian 3 is. The main downside is that the game is the same every time, of course. There are a couple of short missions to play, but they are short, and each mission is identical each time. There are several to play, but once you learn them, there's nothing more here to do. The multiplayer support and continues make this game a lot easier than the quite hard (two continue limit!) Sega CD version of Starblade, too, though it probably is longer than the PS1 version of Starblade (called Starblade Alpha), since that version has infinite continues. Overall, Galaxian 3 is a good game. It's a fun lightgun-style spaceship shooter with nice early '90s CG graphics. I like sci-fi stuff, and this game looks and sounds great! I love that the in-game voices are in English, too. The intro is voiced in Japanese, but once the game actually starts, it's in English. I know that happens once in a while with Japanese games, but you can't expect it. This kind of game would be entirely playable in Japanese, but knowing what everyone is saying helps set the scene better. Galaxian 3 is a short but good game that's well worth getting. Arcade port (it was a laserdisc game in the arcades).

Galeoz (J)
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1 player. Galeoz, written in Cyrillic on the case I believe, is a 3d futuristic tank action game. In each level, you've got to get to the objective points, defeat the required enemies, and then beat the boss. The first level is entirely linear, but the levels open up after that. Galeoz is actually a good game that is quite a bit of fun to play if you like this kind of thing, as I do. Other than the average-at-best graphics, the game only has one flaw, really: you can't save in this game and you have limited continues, so repeat play will be required, unfortunately. The game probably would be short otherwise, and this is an early-ish PS1 game, but still, let me save my game! Ugh. Otherwise, though, Galeoz is actually good. This is definitely a tough game, but challenging myself to learn and get better at each level is fun and worth the effort. Your futuristic tank has a nice variety of weapons to use, which you get ammo for by collecting the powerups that litter each level. Ammo is important, so look for it! Some of the weapons are pretty cool. The enemies are fairly average, but they have a nice variety of types, including flying ones, ground ones, turrets, and tougher boss enemies. The first level wasn't too promising, but after that I really started to like this game. The ice level is particularly cool; it's got lower water paths and higher up 'islands', with nicely jagged terrain and plenty of tough enemies. Each time I play the game I get a bit farther than the last time, as I learn the stages, and the game has kept me coming back. Galeoz is a quite unknown game, but it's good and well worth playing. Action game fans should absolutely pick it up!


Ganbare Goemon: Space Pirate Akoging! (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu (Space Pirate Akoging) is the first PS1 Goemon game. It's a 2d game in the style of the SNES Goemon games. It's good, but not as good as the best Goemon games. I like the Goemon series a lot, and this game is pretty fun, but it does have some issues. As usual in the series, the game is set in Goemon's crazy anime-Edo-Japan world, with giant robots of course. The story is that a space pirate has ended up on Earth, and it's up to Goemon and friends to stop him. The decently animated intro feels like a space shooter intro, as it shows the backstory of how the pirate and his hapless alien opponent (who you will help, but not play as) ended up on Earth. Graphically, the game really doesn't look much better than a SNES game, and there's no voice acting though there is some nice CD audio music. It does use a nice slightly angled perspective and has nice 2d graphics, but it's no match for, say, Rayman. Also, while it plays well, it's not quite as fun as the later SNES Goemon games. Also, Sasuke and Yae have inexplicably been cut out of the game for no good reason; instead, two new guys are playable, along with Goemon and Ebisumaru. The two new characters are both somewhat generic-looking men, one a tough bearded guy and the other an old man, and aren't nearly as interesting as any of the main four, really. It's also too bad that just a few games after finally adding a playable female character (in SNES Goemon 3), this game (and also the last original GB game) go back to not having one. People seem to have disliked the new characters, and the loss of Sasuke and Yae, when the game originally released, though, because neither one of them ever re-appeared in the series, while Sasuke and Yae returned in most subsequent games.

Still, gameplay-wise this is a good game. Sort of like the first and third SNES games, the game has an overworld and sidescrolling levels, but not a world map like the second and fourth SNES ones. This is a more linear game than SNES Goemon 3, though. Either it didn't get as much budget as the SNES games, or it got as much but they had to spend it more ways; either way, it doesn't quite match them. I don't mind the linear design, it makes it easier to deal with through a language barrier, but it's not quite their match, and the N64 games pushed the series forward in ways this game does not attempt. The game has towns, topdown explorable areas, and sidescrolling stages. In town talk to everyone and hopefully eventually you'll figure out how to progress; it can be frustrating, I was stuck in the first town for a while even with GameFAQ's walkthrough. The top-view explorarable areas are nice, but short. Sidescrolling levels have somewhat dated 2d graphics, without the nice angled view of the overworld, but do have reasonably good level designs. There are also some minigames. The game has that Goemon charm, though, which keeps me coming back for sure. The controls are solid, and it is nice that they made the characters different by giving each one a special ability. They are more straightforward than those in some games in the series, but what's here is good. It's no match for Goemon's Great Adventure, but I haven't yet seen any of Oedo Daikaiten (below)'s design issues, though some of the jumps you have to make while swinging from things with Ebisumaru's special ability are annoying, and when you miss a jump you'll need to deal with the respawning enemies again, which gets annoying fast. I like this game, but the game is unoriginal and a slight downgrade from SNES Goemon 4 and doesn't come close to Goemon's Great Adventure (N64)'s greatness. Still, it's a fun game I'll definitely play more. Goemon is a great series, and this is a fun 2d game with okay graphics and mostly good gameplay, apart for getting stuck in towns and some frustrating parts in the levels. Also, considering how badly wrong Goemon got off-track in the series' first attempt at 3d on the PS1 (below), this SNES-style design is a much better idea based on a solid foundation. I like platformers, and this is a good platformer. Still, the best overall 5th gen Goemon games are the two N64 games, not the four PS1 ones. While the PS1 games are mostly okay (Kurunarakoi excepted), the two N64 games are both fantastic! Even so, Space Pirate Akoging is a good game I definitely recommend to Goemon and platformer fans. It's fun stuff.


Ganbare Goemon: Kurunarakoi! Ayashigeikka no Kuroikage! (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Goemon: Kuru nara koi is a 3d platformer Goemon game from 1997, and the only fully 3d Goemon game on the PS1. The Goemon series is great, but this game has a reputation for mediocrity that is unfortunately accurate. Kurunarakoi is a mediocre, short, repetitive, and somewhat bland-looking game. It still is kind of fun, though. This game isn't all bad, despite its definite flaws. As usual, you start out the game playing as Goemon. Of course bad stuff is going on, and you'll need to save the day again. You unlock Ebisubaru, Sasuke, and Yae as you go, and it's great that Sasuke and Yae return after their unfortunate absence from Space Pirate Akoging. I don't know what they were thinking with that one, but they returned to their senses here. The graphics are also average, but not awful; PS1 graphics get a lot better than this, but also a lot worse. The games' main problem is with its design, though. Kurunarakoi is a 3d platform game, with hub towns that split off into linear platform-action levels that you take on one at a time. I love platformers, but Konami made some bad choices here. First, there are the controls and camera. Of course, getting the controls and camera right can be difficult in 3d games, and this game is no exception. The game has a mostly preset camera, angled forwards toward the end of the stage, but it's not always where you want it. The action has issues too. Fighting enemies in this game feels a bit like a simplistic beat 'em up. This is a direction many 3d action-platformer games have taken, but the enemies in this game have far too much health; every fight lasts way too long, if you stop to fight. Fortunately, many enemies can simply be walked past. The fighting system is also too simplistic. There are some basic combos, and that's about it. Platforming also can be tricky -- judging jump distance is sometimes difficult thanks to the angled perspective. At least the game does have analog controls, which helps quite a bit. Even more annoying is one of the games' core design decisions: after reaching the end of each level, you need to walk the whole way back! Yes, right when you finish a level, you need to retrace your steps, moving towards the camera this time. I guess they realized that they had way too little content here and needed to pad the game a bit, but seriously, this is one awful way to extend a game. Even if it's quicker than the first time, replaying levels like this is annoying. The game really is too short, too; I haven't finished it yet, but all accounts say that the game is only a few hours of repetition long. The game does have some of that Goemon sense of humor, though, and enough of it comes across through the language barrier that I do have fun with this game. The story is amusing, and I like the characters of course. The level designs are decent, too. With better graphics, a better camera, more content, better combat, and less repetition this game could have been good, but as it is it's just average at best. As a Goemon fan I find it amusing anyway, though, even if it's not that great.


Ganbare Goemon: Oedo Daikaiten! (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). This third PS1 Goemon game is partially new, and partially a remake of the second SNES Goemon game, which was the first Goemon game to be almost exclusively a sidescroller. Released in early 2001, Oedo Daikaiten was the first TV console Goemon game after the series' magnum opus, Goemon's Great Adventure (GGA) for the N64. Unfortunately, after making that incredible classic, Konami decided to never again make a AAA Goemon game. The idea of an update to the great second SNES game is a fine idea, but why did this game have to have such an obviously limited budget? I'm really very conflicted about this game; on the one hand, it looks like a Goemon game, and sounds like a CD version of Goemon's Great Adventure. The level designs are solid. But... why is it so CHEAP, both in its surely-not-high budget and in some questionable design decisions? Why did Konami seem to sort of give up on this franchise right after making one of the best platformers ever? It's very confusing.

Anyway, Goemon: Oedo Daikaiten is basically a remake of the second SNES game with a a few old and many new level designs, a new story, Yae playable (fantastic addition here!), and a CD mix of GGA's soundtrack for the audio. And yes, it IS just GGA's soundtrack redone for CD; they saved money by not actually writing new music for this game. GGA has a fantastic soundtrack and I love it here too, but as this game was inspired by the second SNES game, why not redo some of its tunes? Ah well. Visually, the graphics are 2.5d, with sprite-based characters in polygonal worlds, but entirely unlike GGA, this game doesn't have branching 3d paths. Levels are just a flat 2d plane. Walk to the right to win. This really is VERY disappointing compared to GGA; the branching paths which curved around in 3d space were really cool! The switch to sprite characters makes sense considering the PS1's lower power and the flat view; I don't mind this, except that it's a sign of how the game is less "3d" than GGA, even though both are 2.5d platformers. As usual in Goemon games, the game is mostly a platformer, with some isometric town bits interspersed here and there. Town elements are shorter and less complex than GGA's towns. They are expanded versus the towns in Goemon 2 for SNES, but you'll spend less time in town here than on the N64, and there aren't nearly as many sidequests and the like to do in towns either.

This game also has many fewer levels total than GGA does. Most worlds have only about three stages, a town, and a palace, and the game is almost entirely linear with few secrets to find. Unfortunate. They try to make up for the short length of the game with some frustratingly hard levels, but this just makes it worse, not better. The first level is a remake of SNES Goemon 2's first stage with only a few changes (that to make it a little less fun; why remove the water?), but after that the rest of the first world is mostly new. Unfortunately, this is more bad than good, particularly for the first castle stage, which now is much longer, and much more frustrating. Steep difficulty curves at the first castle stage are common in this series, GGA was like that, but it's worse here, particularly thanks to the horrible, and barely functional, bounce pads. See, unlike your average bounce pad, you have to hit the button in order to go high. The problem is, you need near-perfect timing in order to bounce high, and getting this timing right is VERY tough! I still probably fail almost half of the time, and the castle is loaded with bounce pads over instant-death pits. And the boss is tough at first, too. It's all so frustrating that just beating the first world is a trial. In comparison, the first world in the SNES game is shorter and much more fun. The giant-robot fight there is tricky, but not the stage before it.

Overall, Konami's PS1 Goemon games all feel somewhat cheap. The first one did little to show that it was a next-gen game, the second wasn't much fun at all (and must have had a lot less budget than the first N64 game, too!), this third is frustrating and kind of low-budget, and the last is a complete disater design-wise and gameplay-wise is very similar to this game from what I've read. I like Goemon, so it'd have been nice if the PS1 Goemon games were even close to as great as the main two N64 games are, but they aren't even remotely close, and these later PS1 games started the series' decline. Oedo Daikaiten is partially a pretty good game, and I do like it despite its flaws, but it's painfully unoriginal compared to Goemon's Great Adventure or Goemon 2 for SNES, and is downgraded in almost all respects versus those games as well. Really the only advantage is that versus the SNES game, now Yae is playable. That's great, but is it worth getting this game just bcause of that and because the levels are mostly new? Maybe, or maybe not. I thought so, but it's a close call; non-series-fans don't need to bother with any of the PS1 games, really. Still, if you like platformers, maybe check Ganbare Goemon; Ooedo Daikanten out, it's not all bad. Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) is my favorite 2.5d platformer ever and this game pales compared to that one, but it's enough like the earlier, better Goemon games to still be fun most of the time.


Gekitotsu TomaLarc - Tomarunner vs. L'Arc-en-Ciel (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). This game is a very unique platform/racing runner game. It is on foot, as in some other racing games such as Sonic R, etc., but gameplay is not like other games. TomaLarc is essentially Tomarunner 2, a sequel to another game I haven't played that apparently plays a lot like this one does, but there isn't anything else out there quite like it. Despite the French name, L'Arc-en-Ciel was a Japanese rock band popular around the time of this games' release (2000). It's a group of four guys, and the lead liked the first Tomarunner, so they made a sequel starring his band. If you're famous, you can get those kinds of things. The game has four modes: a practice mode where you can try out some annoying minigames (mostly unlockable) in Tomarunner hell; the main tournament mode where you go through the five tracks as one of the four band members and take on quite a few crazy opponents (who you'll never be able to race as in tournament mode, sadly, it's the L'Arc-en-Ciel guys only most of the time); single-race mode; options; and some unlockable modes, one of which is a team battle and the other information about the characters (the band especially). The options menu is in Japanese, but the first option is save/load. In the options part, the top one is difficulty, second number of laps per race, and I don't know what the rest are. There is a great guide for this game on GameFAQs which is quite helpful, but the one thing missing are descriptions of the options menu options. Ah well.

This is a third-person racing game with a forced split-screen. The split is a vertical split down the center of the screen, so each player has one side; there is no option for the more standard horizontal split, I don't think. Player one is on the left, and player 2 or the CPU is on the right. All races are 1-on-1, and no, there is no full-screen option, though being able to see where your opponent is is useful. There's also some bars at the bottom of the screen showing how far each player is through their current lap. Tracks in TomaLarc are very narrow most of the time, and are full of sharp 90-degree turns. You can move left and right with the d-pad (no, no analog support, even though the back of the case lies by having an analog logo on it), but that won't get around the sharp turns. To get around them, you have to hold out an arm, and grab poles which are at most corners. L1 and R1 hold out each respective hand, and getting used to this system is central to the game. Not only are they used to get around many corners, but they also help other ways -- hold out both hands to go up a pole quickly, quickly alternate between hands to swim faster, hit the correct hand at a yellow bounce pad to bounce off it, and more. It's an interesting system which takes some getting used to, but it's nice to see something different. You can also jump, which is useful for some obstacles; fail to jump and you'll be slowed down, the same as if you miss a hand-grab and run into a wall. There's also a limited speed-boost Run button, and various weapons you can use (R2) as well. You choose a boost or weapon to take with you at the beginning of each race, but I think you can pick up a few more during the race. Getting used to this game takes some time, and it's a bit overwhelming with all of the obstacles you have to learn how to correctly get past. Still, the game is interesting and somewhat fun for sure, and there is an option to make running automatic, which removes one button you otherwise have to hold down (sort of a not-endless runner in 3d, I guess? ).

Visually, the graphics are probably a bit above average, and each track looks completely different. Audio is uninteresting generic rock stuff, probably some of it from the band. The variety of opponents is also nice, though I wish you could race as them in the tournament mode after unlocking them; instead, they're just for single races, and evere then I don't know if player one can ever play as anyone other than the four band members, while player 2 can only play as the other characters. Or at least, so far that's how it is for me; you do unlock more characters as you go, though the GameFAQs guide is clear that tournament mode is band members only. Overall, Gekitotsu TomaLarc is an interesting platformer-ish racing game with quite unique controls. You need to learn each track in order to do well at it, so practice will be required, but I'm sure higher-level matches of this game could get quite fun. I don't like how much you have to use the shoulder buttons, though -- I much prefer face or trigger buttons to shoulder buttons, and games that rely on lots of precise shoulder button control frustrate me. That's one major issue I have with Drill Dozer for the GBA, for instance, and this game definitely has that. You could map those functions to the face buttons, but something's going to be on shoulder buttons. Still, TomaLarc is mostly a good game. Interesting idea, even if it is a licensed game using the members of some Japanese rock band I couldn't care less about.


Gradius Gaiden (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block; saves scores and options only). Gradius is my favorite shmup series, which is why I made this game my first, and so far only, import shmup I have for the PS1. Excepting the Turbografx, which I got a bunch of import shmups for, I have generally bought larger numbers of cheaper imports over smaller numbers of games in this usually-expensive genre, but I definitely had to make an exception for a Gradius game! I do have the PSP version of this game in the Gradius Anthology, but a game made for a TV just isn't quite the same on a small screen. So, I've now gotten the real thing. This game cost a little more than most of my import games, but isn't really expensive, thankfully. And it's definitely a great game, too. I don't think I love this game quite as much as Gradius II (TCD) or Gradius III (SNES), but Gaiden is also a very good game. It's really too bad Konami never released it in the US on the PS1, they absolutely should have! Gradius was a well-known series, and people would definitely have wanted this.

As for the gameplay, this is a shmup, and it plays like most any other Gradius game. This game is plenty hard, and there are multiple difficulty settings and loops if you want more. The game length is similar to other Gradius titles, but it's tough, so beating it will take practice! This is a horizontal-scrolling shmup. You choose one of several ships, and then fly off to kill the evil Bacterions yet again. Killing certain enemies drops a powerup. As always in Gradius games, powerups are in a bar on the bottom of the screen, and you hit the powerup button to take the powerup currently selected. This game adds the feature to customize the order of the powerups, but otherwise it's the same as usual. I love Gradius games, and Gradius's powerup system is fantastic, one of the best around. Gradius Gaiden definitely plays like a Gradius game. Indeed, Gaiden is a lot like previous Gradius games, just with new levels, some new visual effects, and with two player simultaneous support added. There are some cool level settings and bosses, and I like that it sticks with a traditonal Gradius design, though. It could look better and be more original, but what's here is good. The game has a mixture of classic and new settings, all with good, but conventional, level designs. The two player co-op is great as well, and was a fantastic addition, Unfortunately, co-op has some definite slowdown, particularly when fully powered up. I'm not sure why, I'd have thought the PS1 could handle that.

Gradius Gaiden has solid, but not incredible or hardware-pushing, 2d graphics with great music. Graphically, I think that the sprites might be a little bit too small. If you compare this game to Gradius I, II, or III, the sprites are noticeably smaller here. Perhaps that was done just in order to fit more on the screen, or because of the added simultaneous multiplayer, but regardless, I like the sprite sizes of the earlier games better; the small size is a downgrade. The music is great, though. Of course, the first three Gradius games had exceptional soundtracks, so I would expect this game to sound great, but it does. It's not quite the iconic soundtrack of the first three games, but I like the music a lot. Still, in terms of presentation, while this game looks nice, it's not as impressive as it could be. As with the gameplay, there isn't much innovation or big-budget flair here. While Gradius was one of the major gaming series back in the late '80s and early '90s, this game isn't on that level, commensurate with the decline of the shmup genre after its peak in 1992. In Japan the industry was overwhelmed with shmups that year, and a decline soon followed. Then came the bullet-hell genre, which quickly gained prominence. Howver, Konami resisted this trend, and their Gradius and Parodius series stuck with their traditional gameplay to the end. I at least am quite happy about this, because I much prefer traditional-style shmups to bullet-hell ones! Still, it would have been cool to see a 5th gen Gradius game which actually pushed the hardware. Gradius Gaiden clearly does not.

Overall, while Gradius Gaiden is a very good game, somehow this game just doesn't grab me quite as much as Gradius I, II, III, or V do. I have this issue with the next game after this one, IV, as well; they seem good... but not quite as great as the early titles, and not as original as V. They're in between, and while they are also definitely great games, they aren't quite AS great as the best Gradius games. But this is a fantastic series, and Gradius Gaiden is a good game, and certainly one of the better shmups on the PS1. Pick it up if you can, at least on PSP. Also on PSP in the Gradius Anthology collection.


Grille Logic (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Grille Logic is a challenging logic puzzle game. This game is for people with good spatial reasoning, that's for sure! Mine isn't the best, so I find this game quite difficult. I'm sure my sister would be very good at this, but me, I find it frustrating. The concept here is that you have a pair of 5x5 grids. You have to make it so that the arrows in one grid fit into the empty spaces in the other grid while the other grid has arrows of that direction on it. The trick is that the grid rotates, but you are only initially shown the Up-arrow direction. So, at Up maybe the upper left block is blank, but then it rotates to Left, then Down, then Right, and each time the blank block is in a different spot. The Left, Down, and Right arrows will need to be in the spaces on their grid where they will match those rotated blanks. The O button places the current arrow, and the Square button tests by rotating the block and checking if the arrows and holes line up. It's hard to explain without playing the game, but hopefully that makes sense. I quickly understood the concept, but executing on that is another story! The game has an always-ticking, and often tight, timer, so you've got to try to figure out where the blocks should go when the field rotates, probably without actually seeing the rotated positions because by a little ways into the game that will take too long. You do get a bit of time added for each correctly-placed arrow when you test the puzzle. Wrongly placed arrows are removed from the field. Sometimes you have to place the arrows, and other times the spaces; the latter is more difficult. The game starts out not too bad, but gets pretty hard by the second "loop"; loops in this game aren't shmup-like loops, they're just what the gameworlds are called. There are about 14 levels per loop. I got through loop 1 fairly easily, but loop 2 is tougher and takes practice, and it's only uphill from there. You must place the arrows in the order you're given them, you see. At first you're given all of the arrows in the same order as the rotation, but in loop 2 it starts giving them out of order, so you have to do the mental rotation just in order to place the first blocks, because the other side of the puzzle always shows the Up arrow hole layout! No way is there time to watch each one rotate. This is where I started to struggle. I can do it, just with this kind of time limit it's difficult. Still, though, Grille Logic is a pretty cool game. The game has a two player mode, and saves your top five high scores as well. There are no options at all, though, so it's a pretty bare-bones package. There is a tutorial video, but the text is in Japanese of course; the menus and high-score table are in English. At least the background and music change for each loop you reach. Spatial-reasoning logic puzzle fans should absolutely check this game out and import it.


Grudge Warriors
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Grudge Warriors is a disappointingly mediocre third-person tank action game. This game is sort of like Tiny Tank, but a lot worse. With somewhat ugly graphics, subpar gameplay, at times frustrating controls, and more, this game really isn't worth it. That definitely disappoints me, because I quite like the tank action genre! There were quite a few good games in this style in the late '90s and early '00s. Sadly they then vanished, but not before leaving us good games like BattleTanx, Steel Reign, Recoil, and more. I was hoping that this game would be as good as most of the others like it, but it isn't; this is one of the least fun games like this that I've played. The game does have a few good points, though, including potentially interesting level designs and 11 different vehicles to play as over the course of the game. In each level of Grudge Warriors you need to destroy all of the targets. Levels start out somewhat small, but layouts are multi-level, which is nice. The levels are somewhat complex and challenging. The levels are decent conceptually, and could have made for an okay game, though a bit more direction would be nice; sometimes I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, and was just wandering around aimlessly. I just wish that they were also fun. Decent graphics would be nice, too. This game looks very pixelated, and the texture warping and polygon seams are very visible. The special effects are nice, though, so there is that. Perhaps the worst thing about the game, however, are the controls! You move with the left analog stick, and a cursor tries to auto-target enemies. It sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. The controls are very skiddy and slippery as well, to a quite frustrating degree at times. The game is loaded with narrow platforms and ledges you must navigate and it's far too easy to miss a jump (from a ramp, there isn't a jump button) or fall off a cliffside. Movement and targeting controls are worse in this game than in the other PS1 games I have in this genre, and so is the texture warping. It's easy to die here, too; enemies do quite a bit of damage, and it's easy to run out of health, particularly with the games' sometime lack of direction. I did beat a couple of levels, but it wasn't long before I gave up on this game, it's just not worth the effort. It's really too bad, because I like this kind of game and you see almost no games like this anymore, but Grudge Warriors betrays its surely extremely low budget throughout. Though it's not the worst thing ever, Grudge Warriors probably isn't really worth playing.


Gu Gu Trops (J) [Gugutoropusu]
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1 player, saves. Gu Gu Trops, or however it's supposed to be Anglicized, is a somewhat obtuse Japanese action-adventure game, I guess. I tried to play this game, but had to give up at the end of the first level because I couldn't figure out what to do in order to win the level. If anyone could tell me, it'd be much appreciated! I can find absolutely nothing about this game out there in English. In the game, you play as a group of cave-people in a cavemen-and-dinosaurs setting. You start out with only one guy, but pick up more as you go along. You explore around a somewhat top-down polygonal 3d world, killing dangerous dinosaurs, cutting down trees, and collecting items. Some enemies do respawn, so pay attention and keep moving. The first key item I got was an axe, which let me fight better and cut down those trees. Actions take time, and the game has a day-night cycle, interestingly. You can also go into a first-person view, to see farther than the limited overhead distance. This is a quite slow-paced and deliberate game, and might well get boring after a while, but there's something interesting about it as well. I'm sure that as you progress you get more and better stuff, but as I said, I couldn't figure out how to get past the end of the area. There's this block that I can interact with, and it tells me to put an item on it, but none of the few items I have work and I'm just stuck there. Bah. I'm sure if I could read all the text it'd help, but it's in Japanese, so yeah. If you can read the language and are interested in action-adventure games, though, make give Gugutoropusu a look. It does seem somewhat interesting, and I'd like to play it more.


Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Inuyasha for the PS1 is a generic and average 2d fighting game. Licensed anime games are rarely great, and this one definitely isn't, but it is playable and somewhat entertaining, so if you liked the anime as I did it might be worth getting for cheap. In the game you can play as most of the major characters, including Inuyasha, Kagome, and the rest. For modes, there's a standard single player game, training, and versus. You can play with 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 tag team fights; the latter is a nice option to have. The single player mode is a fairly short and straightforward adventure where you choose a character and then fight each opponent. There is a map screen you can move around, but it mostly just serves to let you choose the order you fight some opponents in. Of course, after beating the rest you fight Naraku. This isn't one of the harder fighting games out there, so on the default difficulty finishing it won't be that hard, though novice fighting game players will need to practice some for sure to learn some of the moves. The game does easy chain combos through timed button presses; I"m, no good at memorizing such things, though. The gameplay is okay, but it's average. Each character has several moves, all of which activate with standard fighting game motions. Control is okay; not the best, but not the worst. Controls are nowhere near as precise as a Capcom or SNK fighting game, that's for sure! They could be a lot worse, but the controls are not as accurate as they could be. The graphics are decent, but again, aren't a standout on the platform. This is a very late PS1 game and you can tell, as this looks far better than budget PS1 games did in the early days, but it is still fairly average looking overall. The sprites are decent-looking, though. Still, this game really is average all around. The issue really is though, how much longevity does it have:? For me, I had fun with it for a little while, but it didn't last long; each playthrough of the single player mode is short, and there are definitely better fighting games out there to play in multiplayer. There are a few things to unlock, but that only adds a bit of playtime really. Overall Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale is a very average game which you probably won't play for very long at all. Still, as a fan of the series, I like having it; it's okay, and it's fun to play a 2d fighter with the Inuyasha characters.


Italian Job, The
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. The Italian Job is an okay open-world-style driving game based on the heist movie of the same name. I haven't gotten around to watching the movie yet, but I presume it has a lot of car chases, because that's what this game is about, for sure! Obviously inspired by Driver, each stage in the game requires you to get from one point to another while attracting as little police attention as possible. There are several cities you'll visit, starting with London and then later moving on to Rome and more. There are short cutscenes between stages, telling bits of story. You play as one of a group of criminals who are planning some big robbery, but all you'll do in this game is drive from point to point, not actually break into something yourself, shoot at people, or what have you. I like driving games more than third-person shooters, so I at least like the game more this way. This game is decent for the platform. It's not quite as good as Driver, but looks good for a PS1 game, controls okay, and has a reasonable number of missions to attempt. Escaping the police can be frustrating, though. Unlike many modern games police don't have a visible detection range on the map, so trying to figure out when you'll be detected and when you won't is pretty much just a guessing game, and when you do get detected, escaping the police can be quite frustrating! Driver gives you better information about how to get away, but in The Italian Job you pretty much just need to drive around and hope that somehow they lose them. Combine that with the mission time limits, and this is a problem. The cutscenes and story aren't great, either. Still, this is mostly a good game. Genre fans might want to pick it up.


Jet Moto 2
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Jet Moto 2 is SingleTrac's second try at a futuristic hover jet-bike racing game. This game is improved over the first Jet Moto, but still is very much a JetMoto game, for both good and bad. And it's really both. JetMoto is a somewhat weird series with questionable controls, poor graphics, and a significant learning curve. I kind of like this game, apart from the difficulty, but it is flawed. SingleTrac made popular good and games such as Warhawk (PS1), Twisted Metal 1 and 2, and Outwars (PC), but the JetMoto games never achieved the popularity of their other series, though it did do well enough to get sequels. Jet Moto 2 is a racing game with 10 tracks, about the same number of drivers, and a serious difficulty level. At the beginning, only three tracks are unlocked, which isn't many. There are single player or splitscreen modes. In single player, the game has single-race, circuit, or custom circuit modes, but you need to play standard circuit mode in order to progress. There are also four difficulty settings, but it's quite tough even on Beginner, until you get good at the game. You have to finish in first place overall in order to unlock more tracks, and this will take a lot of practice. Once you win a circuit the next tier is unlocked, and the circuit now is longer, until it maxes out at 10 tracks. Getting to that point would take a lot of work, even on Beginner!

The tracks in this game are interesting, bumpy, and full of sharp curves. There are also many obstacles in the track on some courses, making memorization essential. After the first three, the game also starts throwing many segments with suspended roads over bottomless pits at you, which seriously amps up the challenge, and frustration. Tracks aren't the widest, but they try to make up for that with variety along the way. As before, Jet Moto 2 has physics. Your acceleration will vary depending on the slope of the hill and the surface you're driving over, though I'm not sure why this is the case given that these are HOVER bikes. If you hit something, it's easy to send the rider flying off the bike. In these bumpy tracks, those gates over the track can be difficult obstacles to avoid. Controls have some depth too. Each bike handles differently, so try several. The game has analog control on the PS1 now; with the first game, only the PC port has it, so that's a nice improvement. You can lean forward or back (Up and Down on the stick) to help go faster or slower, and L1 and R1 to the sides. Also returning from the first game is the grapple-beam (O button), which attaches to special poles at some turns for easier turning around sharp curves. Look for those poles, it makes getting around those turns much easier! Getting used to the grapple beam might take a while but it's important. This is a hard game, and doesn't play quite like other games. The track designs are also more involved than you usually see on the PS1. These things are both good and bad, though; the tracks can be annoyingly hard, and the controls aren't as good as they could be. I also wish that the tracks were a bit wider, and didn't have those awful bottomless-pit segments.

Graphically, Jet Moto 2 is a bit improved over the first game, but still is a somewhat ugly-looking game. SingleTrac could make some interesting gameplay, but never did have the best-looking games. This is a very pixelated game, that's for sure, and the often-jagged terrain emphasizes some of the PS1's graphical shortcomings. The music is also very generic rock stuff, nothing interesting there. So, the reason to play this is the gameplay, but the gameplay is definitely not for everyone. There is a lot of game here, but I don't know if I want to put in the time commitment that beating this game would require; having to finish first overall to progress is a high bar, it'd be more fun if you could move on if you finish in the top three for example. That's easy enough to do, but winning is much more difficult because the AI doesn't always seem fair. You'll need to do well in most races to move on. Fortunately the game does let you save between races, but still, the game is too hard. Overall, Jet Moto 2 is a good but overly difficult game that I like, but also find very frustrating. Is it worth the effort? Maybe, maybe not. Could go either way on that. I did have fun, though, when not trying to win. This was SingleTrac's last JetMoto game, as the third game was by Sony, and the series died after that. SingleTrac did make Streak: Hoverboard Racing, but that game is simpler and not really quite the same thing as this. It'd be interesting to see another JetMoto game sometime; the concept is good, it just needs better hardware and execution.


Jigsaw Madness
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1-4 or 2 player simultaneous (3-4 player requires the multitap). Jigsaw Madness is a jigsaw-puzzle game from Nippon Ichi, released in Japan before they became a bigger name. It's mostly good, except for one unforgivably bad move by the localizers, XS Games, aka probably the worst publisher ever as far as localizations go. In the game, you take pieces and try to put them back together to form an image. There are 150 different pictures, a mixture of anime girls, photographs of objects and landscapes, and more; yes, this game is Japanese. The game has several options as well, including three different numbers of pieces per puzzle. The small size, 24 pieces, is easy, while the other two are pretty hard, though I almost never try to do jigsaw puzzles, so I'm not that great at this. You can also choose to have the pieces either always be right-side-up, or be any direction and you'll have to rotate them to fit, and can turn on lines that show where the pieces are supposed to go, though they look so similar that this isn't quite as helpful as it sounds, often. You can't place a piece in a wrong place, which is helpful. The game keeps track of each player's correct and attempted incorrect placements. The game even has four player co-op play, which is pretty cool. I'm sure having four people work together to solve the harder number of piece puzzle settings would be fun! There is also two player versus play, with two different variations; here each player has their own puzzle to solve, instead of working together as you do in the main mode. After you solve a puzzle in any mode, you get a score, based on how long you took and how many mistakes you made. This all sounds good, if you like jigsaw puzzles.

So what's the problem? XS Games, that's what. I have no idea what they were thinking in 2002, but just like all of their other PS1 games released around that time, there is NO SAVING in this game! Instead, you just have access to all of the puzzles from the start. If you want to try to beat them all or something, or remember good scores, you'll have to write them down. As in all of the other games they ruined this way, the original Japanese release of this game let you save, so there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for XS games' unconcionably awful decision. They ruined this game, Sol Divide, Sorcerer's Maze, Gunbird ("Mobile Light Force"), and more, all by removing the games' stories (if they had them) and save systems. In this case, they also stripped out the Playstation mouse support that the original Japanese version has. That's quite mean, this game would be more fun with the mouse for sure! So, if you want a good jigsaw puzzle game for the PS1, import the Japanese PS1 jigsaw games from the same developer. There are two, and both look much better than this broken game. What in the world did XS Games have against allowing people to save in PS1 games? Idiots... They weren't the only one to do this -- Midas & Mud Duck's EU and US releases of Gubble, for instance, also remove saving support that the original Japanese release of that game has -- but they seem to be the worst, and no one did worse things to the stories in their US releases either; see Sol Divide, Gunbird, etc. I like that we got a bunch of interesting 2d PS1 games late in its life, but broken releases like this are almost worse than nothing... It's sad, because the gameplay here is good, challenging fun. Why did they have to ruin it with pointlessly removed features? And I'll need to import the Japanese games eventually.

Kowloon's Gate (Limited Edition) (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Kowloon's Gate is a creepy horror adventure game set in the walled city of Kowloon, an incredibly densely-packed block of Hong Kong that was torn down in the 1990s, several years before this game was made. It was an infamous and lawless place, built incredibly densely inside of a small old walled Chinese fort in Hong Kong. In the 20th century, Kowloon became one of those fantasy cities with layers of city on top of other layers of city made real before being torn down because it was a major Triad criminal base. This game is a Japanese first-person somewhat Myst-style adventure game, sort of like D or The Mansion of Hidden Souls, except not translated into English. As in those other games, in much of the game you don't have free movement, but move from point to point between screens, and the game uses detailed, and often creepy, CG-rendered backgrounds. I really like this games' art design! On each screen you can look for items to pick up, or interact with or talk to anyone on that screen. It's a fairly standard system, albeit creepier here than usual because of the games' themes. But that's not all there is to this game; while some of the time you are in the aforementioned 'town' parts, you also explore free-roaming areas in polygonal 3d. The polygonal parts are bland and sparse areas made up of only walls and doors, without the cool visual clutter of the CG parts, but they aren't bad, just bland. I do wish you could turn while moving, though; you can't. There are also some weird fung shui-based battles in the polygonal parts of the game. You need to set the five elements correctly to win. This is mostly an adventure game, though, so it is mostly about items, story, and puzzles. You will get items, need to figure out what items to use where, what order to do things, who to talk to when, and the like.

This is a big, four-disc game with two manuals in the case, one for how to play and one with background info, and the limited edition version that I have comes in a creepy cardboard sleeve covered in red Chinese characters that bump up off of a black background and a nice art/story book as well. High production values here! The artbook is great, if you get the game get this version if you can! The story is that the Kowloon Walled City has returned, and you are a (female, I believe) Super Feng Shui Practitioner sent by Hong Kong's Feng Shui Confrence, entering this phantom city looking to restore order and return the ghost town back to where it belongs. The strong Chinese themes here, including Feng Shui, yin and yang, the five Chinese elements (fire, water, earth, air, and wood), and the like are probably why this game was never localized for Western audiences. That's too bad, because it seems like a pretty interesting game, and I'd love to be able to read the story! The game is somewhat playable but very Japanese text-heavy, and it'd be better if I could read it of course. The creepy sense of atmosphere that the graphics and music combine to form works regardless of language, though. I like the audio work, it fits the game perfectly. It's great creepy atmospheric sound! The CG transitions between screens also look nicer than some do in this genre, though the game is somewhat low-resolution; it's too bad there wasn't also a PC version of this game. As for the gameplay, it's obviously hard to play without knowing the language. This is an adventure game after all, and you need to read a lot (voice work is only used sparingly), choose dialog options, and figure out what items go where. It'd take a lot of trial and error to beat without knowing how to read the text, and missing the story would be unfortunate. There some videos of the game on Youtube, so perhaps you could figure it out that way, but still, it's tricky. Still, I find the game interesting enough that I want to try, at least for a while; these first-person point-to-point-movement adventure games never have been my favorite thing. Even on the PC, I've never actually beaten one of them... though I probably would have beaten Timelapse if not for that horrendous impossible sliding tile puzzle. Anyway, Kowloon's Gate seems pretty cool. The really fantastic sense of atmosphere might be its best trait, but apparently the game is good too -- it was popular in Japan, it seems, at the time. I can see why. I know it would be a big job, but it'd be fantastic to play this game in English, it's good but the language barrier is high.


Kuru Kuru Cube (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Kuru Kuru Cube is a puzzle game with some cute cartoon-style animals, but I can't figure out exactly how to play it, and there's absolutely nothing out there on the Internet about this game that I can find other than that it exists. Block-dropping puzzle games like this are usually fairly easy games to figure out, but somehow, this game isn't at all. The manual is very thin and you'd need to know Japanese to figure out how to play, and there is absolutely no ingame help in any language. It's frustrating. I did manage to win a few matches despite not quite knowing what to do, though, so I'll say what I can. In this game, you have a 6 by 6-square playfield, and differently colored squares descend from the top. By hitting the L or R buttons, you rotate the square in that direction 90 degrees, after which the blocks fall to the bottom; there is gravity here. Your goal is unclear, but it seems to involve getting similar-colored blocks in groups of 4 or more, which sometimes will destroy them. Blocks don't just disappear when matched, though; no, that would make far too much sense. Instead, you seem to need to alternate colors or something. Often even though I've got large blocks of one color, nothing will be destroyed. The key seems to be the alternating-colors thing -- so try to match any blocks in the playfield of the same color. I only seem to be able to destroy anything when each new pair is a different color, until all the possibilities on the field currently are used up. Or something; I could be playing this entirely wrong. I'll scan what I think are the relevant manual pages, maybe someone can help! That'd be fantastic. But yeah, by, for instance, putting the white ones together, then red, then blue, then green, then white again, I eventually would manage to get some to destroy. You don't only need to make cutes; various shapes work. I'm not sure if there are some restrictions on what shape or color you need to use next in order to destroy some blocks, because there are no on-screen indicators about this, even though there probably should be something, particularly if you really do have to not use the same color multiple times in a row. Bah. I need to understand this game better if I want to be able to compete at Normal difficulty; as it is I can barely manage to survive on Easy, but for that I think I'll need some help translating the manual.

For modes and options, in single player there is a story mode where you play as this penguin guy and fight a preset series of opponents and a pair of endless modes. I'm not sure what the differences are between the two, other than that the music is different in each. In the story mode, there's a short cutscene between each match, mostly voiced in Japanese. In all three modes you can choose Easy, Medium, or Hard difficulties, and in the endless games you also can choose a starting speed. The game also has multiplayer, where each player can choose a character to play as from about eight choices. The options menu has very little in it; there are a couple of sound-setting options, Save and Load (there's no auto-save here, manual only; common on the PS1, sadly), and an option to check the high scores. Overall though, this game seems kind of interesting, but I wish it was clearer about what you need to do. An ingame tutorial would have been every helpful; some puzzle games of this era do have one. I know you make blocks of the same color touch to destroy them, and have to alternate between different colored groups in order to keep destroying blocks, but there might be more to it. Still though, decent game, from what I've seen of it.


Kyutenkai: Fantastic Pinball (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Kyutenkai: Fantastic Pinball is a 4th gen-esque console-style pinball game from Techno Soft. Clearly taking a lot of gameplay inspiration from the Turbografx hit Alien Crush and its sequels with character art that reminds me of that from Magical Drop, Kyutenkai plays like a not quite as good takeoff of a Crush game. This is an anime-fantasy pinball game with only one table. More tables would have been great and would have improved the game. As it is, you get one three-screen table. For options, there are few. The game keeps track of the top 15 high scores, there are slower or faster speed options as in the Crush games, and there are three different characters to play as, each with a different special ability and different music. You can switch between characters after you lose each life, which is nice. There aren't any options to have more than three lives, though, and this game isn't easy; this is a 5th-gen game, not 4th, more options would have been great. The game has 2d graphics, and looks a bit dated compared to later pinball titles; this game is no match for Pro Pinball, visually, it looks clearly inspired by last-gen console pinball games. The game looks okay though, and has decent art design and graphics. I like the scrolling background, it gives the game some variety and makes it look like you are floating above the ground.

As in the Crush games or Kirby's Pinball Land, each screen has its own set of paddles, and you only lose a life if the ball goes below the bottom screen. I seem to do worse at this game than Alien Crush, though; maybe the gap between the paddles is wider? The ball hits the drain lanes frustratingly often, too. This game is kind of tough, Alien (or Devil's) Crush are more fun. The three screen layouts are fairly simple, but there are some tricky elements, which is good; pinball needs some trickier shots to keep you playing. Tables have only a few targets per screen. As in Kirby's Pinball or the Crush games, there are some minigame tables you can access if you do the right things. This game has five of those sub-tables, each accessed from one of the large characters in the screens, and with a different minigame to play for each one. Some are easy, others much tougher. More minigames would have been nice; with only one table, there should at least be more sub-tables. This isn't a Pro Pinball-like simulation.

The table is simple in design with, as I said, few targets. The bottom screen is the 'Underworld' screen, with a devil boy in the middle. His minigame is the easiest one to access. On the upper right is a scantily-clad harpy, who has a minigame I've only gotten to once so far (not sure how I did it). On the left are three smaller targets. Getting up from this screen can be frustrating, because hitting the ball up the lanes isn't easy and a spinner on the demon's head gets in the way. Trying to activate one of the bonus games might be the best way, and it'll get lots of points too. On the middle screen, 'Earth', is a three-eyed woman, and a snakelike dragon with a bunnygirl climbing it on the right, which has a minigame in its mouth. There are three blinking targets in the middle; match three of the same face to activate minigames. Some are easier to match than others, I've found. On the top screen, 'Heaven', there are three bells and a few other targets on the top, endlessly spawning things to hit in the center, and a minigame in the thing in the left-side drain. It's easier to keep the ball on this screen than the lower ones. If you beat all four of the other bonus games, it'll unlock a fifth 'final boss' one. I haven't gotten to that yet.

And that's pretty much the game. It's alright, but I'd much rather play a Crush game or Kirby's Pinball, they have better table designs than Kyutenkai does. Also, the Playstation can do a much more ambitious pinball game than this. I also prefer the 'build the bonus multipllier' focus of an Alien Crush or Kirby's Pinball to Kyutenkai's less focused playstyle that seems to be more about just getting points than building up a multiplier, though perhaps I am missing some of its depth. My first impression of Kyutenkai wasn't very good, but it has grown on me a bit. It's not a great game, but it is at least average for sure, and perhaps better. Fans of this kind of pinball game should check it out, though better games are out there for sure. Also on the Saturn. I've heard that the Playstation ersionv is supposed to be slightly better. On Saturn apparently the shoulder buttons are only for nudging the table, for instance, while on PS1 the L1/R1 buttons are additional flipper options, and L2/R2 nudge.


Legend of Dragoon, The
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1 player, saves (1 block per file), Analog Gamepad support. The Legend of Dragoon is a generic RPG Sony made in the aftermath of Final Fantasy VII's groundbreaking smash-hit success. The game sold well in the US, but Sony never made a sequel for some reason, unlike other PS1 RPGs of theirs like Legend of Legaia or Wild ARMs. This seems like a quite generic game to me, though. Legend of Dragoon is a lot like many other RPGs. The story is a generic JRPG story of a guy who goes on to save the world, his mysterious-girl childood friend, and his other companions. The story isn't awful, and as this is a four-disc game there is a lot of plot to get through here, but it is very average. Like games like Mario RPG, the game has a timing element to combat, so if you hit the buttons at the right time you'll do more damage in attacks. Getting used to the tricky timing is essential, as these timed button presses will be necessary in almost every attack you make in this game, excepting only a couple of characters who can't do them. As in other games published by Sony on the PS1, the game has a horrendous translation that makes actually understanding what's going on difficult sometimes. Even the menus are pretty badly translated! There isn't much voice acting, either, even though this game takes up four discs. Mostly just text. Visually, the game uses PS1 Final Fantasy-style prerendered backdrops with polygonal characters walking around on them. In some areas you can explore, while in others you can only follow railed paths, as usual in RPGs with this graphical style. Battles, of course, are rendered in polygonal 3d, and apart from the timing system are quite standard "two lines of characters stand there and hit eachother" affairs with minimal strategy. Most battles are random, unfortunately, though a few areas do allow you to try to avoid combat, which is nice. Of course most of the time it's just standard random battles. There is no ingame map, but areas zoom out and the game is linear enough that it's not too hard to navigate, I think, though of course every game could use a map. The otherworld is simple too; you can't wander around, just walk along preset paths. Overall, The Legend of Dragoon has okay graphics and isn't too hard to play, but there just isn't anything particularly interesting here to make me want to keep playing the game. This game is bland, generic, and average. Of those games I listed at the top, I think I might like Wild Arms the most. Definitely not this.


Medal of Honor Underground
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. MoH: Underground is the second console game in this thoroughly average shooter series. As with the first game, this one is set in World War II. The first Medal of Honor game was probably the most popular first-person shooter on the original PS1, but that's not much of a compliment; unlike the N64, the PS1 was not known for great shooters, beyond it solid port of Doom and such. If this is the best it can do, it's easy to see why that is. Underground feels like more of the same, just with a new story and character. Rarely for a major console FPS, you play as a female character in this game. She's a French Resistance fighter, another rarity in this genre. You'll have plenty of Nazis to kill, though, even if you're supposedly not a front-line soldier; as with the first game, there's no reason to be stealthy much. The PS1 MoH games have decent graphics for the system, but very linear gameplay with narrow cooridors everywhere. Just like the first one, this game doesn't have large areas. It's probably a hardware limitation, the PS1 has limited RAM. Still, it feels stiflingly limited, most '90s FPSes on the PC or N64 have much more extensive worlds. In each level, you have objectives to accomplish, which is nice. They are mostly sraightforward goals such as getting to a specific point or killing the enemies, but there is occasional variety. As for challenge, on normal it seems managable even for someone as mediocre at this genre as I am. If you're better at these games, definitely turn up the difficulty. Most of the gameplay involves exploring the narrow, sometimes mazelike paths of the levels in this game. Where you should be going isn't always clear, and I did get stuck sometimes, but not in a good way; wandering around an area which I've killed all the enemies in because I'm not sure where to go because the game didn't tell me and there isn't a good map system is frustrating. I like FPSes to have some thought to their levels, as opposed to just a series of linear cooridors, but I really wish this game had a map, not only a compass. Still, levels aren't large enough for this to be too bad, if I was actually having fun with the game that is. I've never loved the FPS genre, but I do like some shooters... but not this. It's just too generic, with mediocre graphics, dumb enemies, repetitive gameplay, and very dated design. I like the main character, but nothing else about this game stands out. I don't much like the newer Medal of Honor games either, but these early ones certainly aren't going to change my mind about this franchise, or its Call of Duty spinoff series of sorts either.


Megatudo 2096 (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Megatudo 2096, pronounced Megatude 2096, is a very interesting and different 3d fighting game from Banpresto that was only released in Japan. This is a pretty good game with some flaws that a sadly never-to-be sequel could have fixed. This is a fast and smooth giant-robot fighting game, with Gundam-style robot designs. There are 12 playable characters, plus two bosses; you can unlock one boss, but seemingly not the other one. For controls, while the camera is NOT locked, controls are always character-relative. This can sometimes be confusing, when the character is stuck on some edge of the arena in the background, and there are no camera-control buttons; a sequel could have improved here. The camera kind of feels like it's for a TV show, not a video game. Left and Right more towards and away from your opponent, Down ducks, and Up jumps; remember, character-relative at all times, so when you're in the background controls will be reversed. Each character has two weapons, a melee weapon and a gun. You can switch with a button. You've got two attack buttons, block, circle-jet left and right, and a 'both action buttons' button. The gun always shoots at your opponent, though while you are both moving you'll need to be lined up to hit. The manual has several nice diagrams of how circling around an opponent can work, so it's clear the designers knew what kind of game they were making -- you need to learn how the shots will angle as they move while both characters are zooming around. You can also quickly zoom forwards or backwards by holding both strafe buttons at the same time and pressing left or right ("towards" or "away"). Oh, I HIGHLY recommend changing the controls! By default, the left and right circle-strafe buttons are on R1 and R2. This makes no sense; change it to L1 and R1 for left and right, of course. Circle-strafe around your opponent while you shoot at them is central to this game, and it's really confusing when both directions are on the same side of the controller. The AI is okay, but sometimes fails to switch modes as often as it should; playing a human would probably be a lot more fun here than the AI is.

Unfortunately, while Megatudo is quite fun, the game has almost no modes: there are only "Story", which is quite misnamed because there's no plot to be found in this game outside of the manual, Versus, or Options. Megatudo is, helpfully, almost entirely in English; the options menu is all-English, as is the character select screen, and the announcer is also a native English speaker. The only Japanese I've seen in the entire game is the 'do you want to save' prompt that appears after you beat the game if you have Auto Save turned on. Yeah, that's Japanese text, but not anything else, though most of the manual is in Japanese of course. For options, the game has four difficulty levels, and you can also choose how many rounds per match, how much health each player gets (up to infinite), save, change the controls, and view the few records the game stores. It only keeps track of your best times in the story mode (no setting options recorded here, so easy 1-round match times will naturally be better than Pro 3-round ones), and versus win/loss data. You unlock the one unlockable character by beating the game at the top setting, Pro, without losing; I haven't managed that yet, though you could cheese it by turning on infinite health. Otherwise there's nothing to unlock here. Also, while the game has a nice CG-rendered introduction showing all the robots (there's no voice acting during it, the announcer is the only one to talk during the game), the game doesn't really have endings; all you get for your trouble is a single-screen 'Congratulations' message with an image of your mech and then the (English-language) credits. I was hoping for more.

Still, gameplay in Megatudo is fast and fun. This game keeps up a high and stable framerate at all times, which is critical to the game; a lot of 5th gen fighting games don't have great framerates, and in this genre it really hurts. No problem here. Environments are textured polygons, but the two characters, the mecha robots, that is, are shaded polygons; this probably helps with the framerate, and might help with texture warping as well. The results look pretty nice. Other than some polygon flicker, this is a pretty decent-looking game. The robot designs look prety cool, and definitely have a Gundam-knockoff style. The manual has two page spreads for each character, and while the text is in Japanese, the images of the robots and their pilots, the move list, and the robot specs are all interesting. Oddly, the pilot art is never seen ingame, only in the manual. It's pretty good, so it's quite bizarre that it's apparently entirely absent from the actual game! I wonder what the boss robot pilots are; the manual doesn't cover those two. This is a somewhat unique game. While the robots are slow and lumbering while moving on their own, with the circle-strafe jets you move quickly and can really zoom around the circular arenas. The two weapons each require different playstyles: with the gun you circle around trying to line up for shots, as if the game is a shooter, while with the sword you race in for some punishing hits, making it feel more like a fighting game. Gun damage is generally low, to make up for how much easier it is to hit with. Special moves are helpful; many work only in one weapon mode or the other, but it's hard to tell in the manual which are which if you can't read Japanese. There is a GameFAQs guide which lists all the moves, separated by weapon type; use it.

Overall, this is a good fun game. Still, the game can be frustrating sometimes, because of the sometimes annoying AI, the constant circling around taking shots which often miss, the too-frequent camera issues, those times when I go in for a close-in attack but instead take lots of damage, and such, but it's a good game overall for sure, or at least definitely above average, and for a PS1 fighting game from this era, above average is pretty good! The uniqueness is great as well; this game isn't quite like anything else I've played. I really wish it had gotten a sequel, to add in the better story, endings, polished controls and camera, and more modes that this game deserves. It's too bad hta t didn't happen.


*Metal Gear Solid
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1 player, saves (1 block per file, 1 block for VR Training data, 2 blocks per (optional) screenshot), Analog Gamepad supported. Metal Gear Solid was one of the Playstation's most popular games. I'm sure almost anyone reading this knows (and has played) more about this game , and series, than I do, so I don't know if there is much to say here. This is a mostly overhead-view 3d stealth action game with a whole lot of long cutscenes and voice conversations telling the overly complex story. And Metal Gear stories would just get crazier from this point on, too! It's kind of absurd. I've never liked how much story there is compared to gameplay in the MGS games, or at least the first two of them since those are the only ones I've played; I first played MGS2 in 2001, and lost interst midway because of far too many absurdly long cutscenes, with too little gameplay in between. So far this game has more gameplay than that, but it does also have lots of long voice conversations in the codec and regular crazy cutscenes. And as for that gameplay, it's definitely not exactly the kind of thing I love. MGS has clumsy, not-that-good shooting, no way to control your character Snake's speed other than Run or Crawl on the ground, and highly pixelated graphics with too few indicators of what you can interact with (it's easy to overlook stuff among the pixels, and Interact and Punch are on the same button too, which causes issues) and questionable controls that make attaching to walls, knocking on walls, and such harder than they are in some newer games in this genre. Also, where in the world is a walk button? And analog speed control on the analog stick! too! Come on. Of course, this game was one of the earlier stealth-action games, so it makes sense that the genre would improve from this, but yeah, this game has aged in some ways. Still, this probably is good for its time. Stealth was a new genre back in 1998, after all. This game has nothing on 1998's Thief: The Dark Project on PC, though! And between this and Tenchu (PS1, also from 1998) I have more fun with Tenchu, though I'm not sure if it's actually a better game. Still, this is a decent game I guess. It has high production values for the time, takes up two discs, has a lot of story (even if it's overly crazy), and definitely can be challenging. Snake gets a lot of items and weapons to use, and each area is like a puzzle where you have to figure out how to reach your target point hopefully while being detected as little as possible. Of course, these "genetically enhanced" enemies can see like three feet in front of them and only will react to footsteps if you're running on something loud like puddles, so that helps. The on-screen radar showing their view cones is also a big help; otherwise you just have to guess, which is annoying. I'd never play this game on the difficulties which disable the radar, no way! Anyway, I guess this game is alright, but it's not my thing and I don't know if I actually want to play it again or not. Also on PC, and remade on Gamecube.


Motor Toon Grand Prix
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1 player (2 player simultaneous by system link only), saves (1 block for save data, up to 15 for replays), neGcon compatible. Motor Toon Grand Prix is a kart-ish arcade-style racing game from Polyphony Digital, the team that would soon go on to make Gran Turismo. I don't have much interest in that franchise, that kind of game completely bores me and if I really did want to play a racing sim it'd be a real racing sim, presumably on the PC, and not a damage-modeling-free game like Gran Turismo (this is true for the older ones anyway!), but Motor Toon Grand Prix is a pretty good game! This game is actually the second Motor Toon game; the first one was released only in Japan, so they dropped the "2" from the Western release of the game. Motor Toon is a fast game with some unique visual quirks and solid arcade racing gameplay. The cars have this weird warping effect that makes them really look like they are 'leaning' into the turns. It's kind of neat, but the resulting almost drift-like sliding that cars do as they turn takes a while to master. Practice is essential to get around the tracks without messing up. There are also weapons in the game, though driving skill is the most important thing here. Motor Toon may be a "kart" game, but you'll need to learn the courses and drive well in order to succeed. It's very different from Mario Kart. And on that note, if you want to play this game well, a compatible analog controller, either neGcon, wheel, or Performance Analog Gamepad, is HIGHLY recommended! It's not the same at all with digital controls, and this game released before the Dual Shock. Motor Toon is a short game, too. It will take a little while to complete, because it starts out with only five tracks and six characters and you unlock one more track for each difficulty you beat the game on, but despite that Motor Toon feels kind of short, and the lacking multiplayer hurts the game as well. Link cable only, really? This would be so much better with splitscreen! Also, while the graphics are decent and the art design good, the games' early-ish 1996 release date shows; Motor Toon doesn't look as good as later Playstation games would.


NASCAR 2000
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. NASCAR 2000 is one of EA's NASCAR stock car racing games, and like all of their games in the franchise, is a sort of hybrid game, mostly arcade-styled but with a bit of sim to it. First, the good: the game has two player splitscreen, a bunch of cars and tracks, some car settings, and solid, sometimes good graphics. That's about it for me, though. In addition to being boring because it's a semi-realistic stock car racing game and I always find this kind of game boring, NASCAR 2000 is a game of compromises. The game requires some strategy, but isn't a sim. These games that try to be in between sim and arcade usually end up being worse than both, and I don't think there's any exception to that here. The game has a good-sized field of cars in each race, but not a full field -- there are 16 cars per race. There are a bunch of drivers to choose from, but not all of the drivers from the '99 season that the game simulates. I was looking for Maine's Ricky Craven, who was a driver back then, but nope, not here. Similarly, there are over 20 tracks in the game, but not all of the tracks from the 1999 season are here, and some fantasy tracks have been added. Daytona and New Hampshire are missing, for example. And of course, almost all of the tracks are boring ovals. And in the gameplay, you will have to brake in order to get around the turns, and having to brake for every turn definitely isn't something I'm great at since I prefer racing games where you don't have to do that, but I'm sure with some practice this game wouldn't be too hard. After losing badly in my first race on a speedway I turned down the AI difficulty all the way and easily won a road-course race, for example. You can set AI difficulty to between 80% and 120%, and drafting between 90% and 130%, to make the game harder or easier. You can also set race lengths between 3% and more than 100% of normal; I stuck with the minimum here, I have no interest in 200-lap videogame races. It's telling that the minimum, 3%, is the default setting, it shows how this game isn't much of a sim. You can also "create a racer", but all this really means is renaming one of the racers in the game, because you can't design a car, just choose a car and name the racer. There is a season mode, at least. Overall though, this is a genre game, for fans of NASCAR and oval racing. I am neither of those things; I've never cared for watching car racing on TV. As an arcade game this game is very boring, with that annoying braking required on most turns, but it's not even the remotest competition for Papyrus's highly realistic NASCAR sim racing games of the '90s, either. Overall NASCAR 2000 is boring and extremely bland, stick to Indy Racing 2000 on the N64 if you want a fun and arcadey mostly-oval-racing game on a 5th gen console or the Papyrus games on PC if you want a sim. NASCAR 2000 isn't fun to play, and I can't respect it as a sim either; I only have this game because it was part of a lot, and am glad I didn't really pay money for it. Also on PC and N64.


Need for Speed: High Stakes
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad or neGcon supported. NFSHS is the fourth Need for Speed game, and the PC version of this game is probably my favorite game in the series! This PS1 version isn't quite up to the level of the PC original, of course; it has significantly worse graphics, fewer tracks, simpler damage modeling, fewer circuits, fewer cars, framerate drops sometimes, an overall easier difficulty level, and more. Despite the greatly reduced amount of content, though, NFSHS for the PS1 is still an extremely good game. This game is easily one of the best racing games I've played for the PS1, I was very impressed by how good they made this game considering the hardware. I got NFSHS for the PC back when it came out in 1999, so I am quite familiar with that game, and while I had heard that this was a good version, yo ucan never be sure until you try it for yourself... but yes, it's great! I have played a lot of awful PS1 racing games recently, while working on this, so it was nice to play a great one for once. It's also interesting because I'm so familiar with this game, but not this version. I listed the major downgrades already, but the core of the game is the same, and that's great. Pixelated PS1 graphics aside, the tracks look just like they do on the PC.

The game has a total of 11 tracks, some of which have to be unlocked. This is less than the 18 tracks in the PC version; the PC game includes all of NFS3's tracks as unlockable extras, while this game does not. Still, the tracks that are here are great, and have nice variety. The fantastic course designs are one of the highlights of this game for sure! Of course everything looks a LOT uglier than on the PC, but PS1 racing game graphics don't get much better than this. The cars in NFSHS control very well. In fact, maybe too well! I've always thought of NFSHS for the PC as a tough game because of the slightly realistic handling and the games' sometimes cruel money and damage system, but this game seems to be easier to control and is much more forgiving. Here, damage is just a percentage. There is visible damage, but you can't actually break your car. At the end of each race, the cost of repairs for damage done to your car is automatically deducted from your winnings. On the PC you have four separate car areas that each take damage, you choose to do repairs or not, and they are more expensive than on PS1. Also there are only 11 cars, which is a lot fewer than the PC game, though this is somewhat unfair because on PC the game did get some free download cars.

Overall, the controls and simple damage modeling make this game feel less substantial than the PC game. However, console games usually are simpler than PC games, so this does make sense. That doesn't mean that the game is easy, though. The game may have only six championships to win, instead of 10 tiers of 2-3 championships as the PC game has, but there are still plenty of modes, including splitscreen, hot pursuit (play as the police, and try to catch all the racers!), and more, and three difficulty levels as well. The game starts out easy, but does have a decent difficulty curve and several difficulty levels. Oh, and the music and sound is pretty good as well; I particularly like all the police radio chatter. On the whole, Need for Speed: High Stakes for the PS1 is a fantastic and really fun racing game. It's well worth getting for sure. Also on PC.


Parasite Eve
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1 player, saves (1 block per file), Analog Gamepad supported. Parasite Eve is a fairly interesting actionish RPG with a very cinematic feel to it. It sort of feels like one part Resident Evil-style horror and one part Final Fantasy VII0-style Square RPG, with an original hybrid action/turnbased battle system. Interestingly, you play as a female character, Aya Brea, in this game, and its sequels as well; there are no parties in the Parasite Eve games, you always just play as Aya. It works. This two-disc game has a lot of cutscenes and plenty of voice acting, though the English voice acting is kind of bad, which hurts a bit. The game has polygonal characters in pre-rendered environments, as in RE or FFVII. There's no Final Fantasy-style overworld here, though, just prerendered environments. Unlike many RPGs, Parasite Eve is set in an alternate version of our world. The game is set in New York City, and Aya works for the NYPD. So yes, not only does the game have a female main character, but she's not a teenager either! Of course she's attractive, though, so it follows that trope for sure. Still, most Japanese RPG main characters are teenagers, so it's nice to see some variety. The 'real-world' horror-RPG style of this game reminds me a lot of Aruze's Koudelka/Shadow Hearts series, though this game released before that series began. Of course, Capcom's NES game Sweet Home is a horror RPG, and there are probably more. I don't usually like horror stuff, and some of the creepier elements of this game are off-putting to me, but despite this Parasite Eve seems like a good game, from what I've played of it. The story is weird, though. Aya has some kind of weird power, and the villain is always talking about Mitochondria, that part of the cells that make up all life. This is a Square game, and the story starts off strange and then gets weirder and weirder. The game's plot is loosely inspired by a Japanese book of the same name, but it seems that the story of the game is fairly different from the book. As usual, Square made everything a lot more complex, and it seems that that gets even worse in the sequels, the third game (The Third Birthday for PSP) particularly; even fans of the first two games often don't seem to like that one, though I haven't played it myself.

The combat system is good, mostly. There are random battles as you wander around, and also preset ones at certain points. Battles take place in a blocked off section of the world, so there isn't a separate battle screen. I love this, and definitely prefer this style to pulling everyone into a separate screen. You can move around during combat, which is the main action part of the combat system; this isn't another one of those games where the characters just stand in static lines and hit eachother, thankfully. You've got an ATB-style gauge that controls when you can attack, though, so it's not entirely an action-RPG, it's a hybrid as I said. Once the meter hits 100%, hit X and you can choose a target for Aya to shoot at. She'll then shoot a couple of shots at that target or targets. Yes, guns are your main weapons; there are also melee weapons, but the guns are better. They do need ammo, but many enemies drop some. Aya also has special magic-like powers, first a useful healing spell. You get more as you progress. These abilities use power from a meter that slowly recharges during battle, so you don't need to worry about limited magic points in this game. Overall combat may be a bit streamlined, but it's fun. The main frustration is that you don't have any good dodge moves, so getting away from the enemies can be difficult, particularly while you're attacking. Enemies won't just stand there and take your hits, so damage is often unavoidable. It's fortunate that you do have recharging ability points to help counteract that, but the system could be better. Still, overall, I like this game. I wasn't really expecting to, but I do. I don't like some of the horror stuff and combat is somewhat stiff, but Parasite Eve is good overall despite those issues.


Poitter's Point (J) [US/EU title: Poy Poy]
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4 player simultaneous (with multitap), saves (1 block). Poitter's Point, or Poy Poy, is a very simple overhead-view "fighting" game from Konami. This game is very simple, and feels a bit like a predecessor to Smash Brothers or, more appropriately because of the overhead viewpoint, Power Stone. It's nowhere near as good as those games are, though; Poy Poy isn't awful, but it's far from great. The game basically has two modes, single player gameshow mode, or exhibition matches for one to four players. It's cool that the game has four player support; that's quite rare for a PS1 game that isn't a sports game! The multiplayer is certainly the best thing abotu this game, but today you can play better things than this. Still, it is at least moderately amusing. The single player mode has a gameshow theme, with voiced cutscenes with an announcer occasionally. THere's a small lobby area where you can save (at the terminal), buy new or upgraded special attacks (at the desk), and start a new game (by going into the door and talking to the guy). Then choose your character, set game settings, and go. I have the Japanese version because it was cheap, and all of the special attack and new-game options are in Japanese, but other than that the game's quite playable regardless of language. Also, while the lobby stuff is in Japanese, once you get into the character and game settings screens, it's all in English. So yes, the special-attack purchase menu in the lobby is in Japanese, but the screen where you select a special to use in the match lists them in English. Japanese games are weird with the mixture of languages, sometimes...

Actual gameplay is the same anywhere: it's simple. In matches, you walk around the screen, pick stuff up, and throw it at your opponents. You can also pick up and throw your opponents directly, but throwing things at them usually works better. There are always four players in each match, human or computer, going around the single-screen stages and throwing stuff at eachother. There are initially eight characters to choose from, but you can unlock more as you progress. Each game is made up of seven or eight stages, each a three-round match on a new map. You can choose fewer or more rounds per stage, if you wish. Players are knocked out in a round once their health heart runs out, so watch your health. Each hit takes out a bit of health. The basic items are rocks and bombs. Rocks have to hit the enemy directly, but the bombs (large or small size) blow up an area. Holding down the throw button will throw a bomb farther, which can be useful. You can also jump, though it's not always useful, since all arenas are flat squares or circles. The only real use for it is jumping over rocks, pretty much. Some stages also have other things you can throw like logs. You also have those super attacks, based on which one you have equipped (R1 uses the one you have). There are also often stage-specific hazards, such as ice (slippery ground, of course) and penguins in the winter stage, a robot shooting freeze rays in the robot stage, and more. Gameplay is very formulaic, though -- grab bombs, throw them at people, and hope they go down before you do. It's kind of amusing, and there is a bit of strategy, but this game is probably a bit too simple. It is kind of amusing though, and there is some replay value since you can spend your winnings on better super moves. Overall, though, this game's average at best, I think. I doubt I'll play it often, but it is interesting to see because this style of simple beat 'em up-esque fighting became much more popular in later titles like SSB and Power Stone. The game also has a sequel, though the second game didn't release in the US; it did get a Japanese and European release, though.

Primal Rage
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2 player simultaneous. Primal Rage was a popular arcade fighting game from Atari Games where you play as a variety of prehistoric monsters, and got ported by Atari Games' console division, recently renamed from Tengen to Time Warner Interactive, to almost every platform that existed in 1995. There is even a Jaguar CD version! This Playstation version is probably one of the better ones, though it is the only version of the game I actually own so I can't say that myself for sure. Primal Rage is a fairly simple fighting game, and I never have played it all that much; the dinosaur and giant ape characters certainly do look cool, the basic special-move-and-combo-heavy gameplay has never held my interest for long. Primal Rage isn't a bad game, but Street Fighter II it is not, either. It doesn't have either Street Fighter II's depth or quite the hook of Mortal Kombat. I mean, I love dinosaurs as much as anyone, but this is a fairly simple fighting game, and doesn't play quite as well as MK. I've never played Primal Rage enough to actually get good at it, though; I've just played it for a bit here and there and then moved on. With nice graphics and solid gameplay the PS1 version of Primal Rage is definitely good, and one of the better versions. I'm just lukewarm on the actual game. Primal Rage was released on almost every major platform out there in 1995, but this is the only version I have.


Puchi Carat (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Puchi Carat is a port of the very good Taito arcade game of the same name. This game is essentially a two player versus Breakout/Arkanoid-style game. The game has the design styles of a '90s anime-styled versus block-dropping puzzle game, but the gameplay is ball-and-paddle action, and it's great! I really like this game, it's sad that it didn't get a US release on the PS1. There was a European release, but not American. We did finally get it, and in English, in Taito Legends 2, but the PS1 version has a few added features that straight arcade port doesn't have. Of course since I got the Japanese version all the text is in Japanese, but I've read the story in English before (online and on the PS2) and have Taito Legends 2, so I know the plot. Whatever the platform, I like this game a lot. PuchiCarat is great! I do wish that the PS1 version added more content versus the arcade version, though. What you get here is single player or multiplayer, that's it. There are some difficulty settings, but not too many options. The single player modes are an endless single-player mode, vs. CPU story mode where you choose a character and then beat all the others, a time attack mode where you try to finish a set number of vs. CPU stages as quickly as possible, and Rapid mode which speeds up the game. The versus modes are the highlight here, as a solo game the game is less unique. Most of these modes are also in the arcade game as seen in Taito Legends 2, though, and of course the graphics are downgraded a bit here too; they're good, but lower resolution than the arcade game.

But I mostly like this game so much because it's so fun to play, not because of the some-good and some-bad weirdness. This is a simple but really fun game. As in many versus puzzle games, the game is always splitscreen; you are always facing an opponent in this game. Again, this is an Arkanoid-style game, so you move your paddle back and forth and bounce the ball around. Patterns of jewels (blocks, essentially) come down the screen towards you a row at a time, and if you destroy a large grouping all at once by breaking away their connection to the top of the screen, you will hit the opponent with a quick row. If the ball hits the bottom of the screen, the blocks move down three rows. There are only about ten or twelve rows on the screen, so many hits on the bottom and you will lose very quickly. You lose if the blocks reach the bottom of the screen, of course. The game is frenetic, fast-paced, and challenging. Play is often a constant stream of attacks back and forth, as each player knocks off chunks of blocks and sends rows the other way. Puchi Carat looks like a puzzle game, but it sure doesn't play like one! For instance, groups of blocks are in different colors, but this is irrelevant; it's just a graphical detail. This is a classic arcade action game through and through.

The game has a fantasy-anime theme, and each of the characters are an anime stereotype. There are 12 characters, each named for a month's birthstone, and you'll need to beat all the others in order to win. The characters are mostly kind of weird, though. Puchi Carat tries to be funny, and it sometimes is, but sometimes it's just ... weird-anime, and somewhat creepy as well. Why does the fairy woman maid have a full-size human husband? Why the incestuous twin sibling alchemists (and yes, the one with pants is a boy even if it's hard to tell)? The girl is kind of messed up, too... she threatens to eat the cute mascot animal, tear the wings off the fairy woman to use them in alchemy potions, etc. And then there's the rich girl who steals the clothing of everyone she defeats, because she has an obsession with collecting clothing... that last one is funny, at least. Yes, Puchi Carat has a very odd cast, in both good and bad ways. But overall, this is a pretty good game because of the great gameplay. The idea of a puzzle-styled versus Arkanoid game was a good one, and it worked quite well! It's too bad that we haven't seen many similar games since, because this game had a great concept and I'd love to see more games with gameplay like this. Arcade conversion; the arcade version is also in Taito Legends 2 for the PS2.


Puzzle Star Strike
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2 player, saves (1 block). Star Strike is a solid and clearly low-budget but frustratingly hard block-dropping puzzle game. It is similar to other puzzle games, perhaps most notably Columns, but is different in several significant ways. As in Columns, all pieces in this game are three-block-long tiles. However, this isn't a match-three game. Instead, you only have to match two blocks of the same color to destroy them, but the catch is that only star blocks can match, the other blocks on each piece do nothing. Most blocks have one star block, always on one end and never in the center, while some have two star blocks, one on each end. There are only three colors of blocks in this game, but this is a fast, and very hard, game! Matches in this game are usually short and extremely tense. Instead of the usual style of blocks dropping from above, in this game some blocks rise up out of the floor, while you place others with a cursor outline. Blocks can be placed either horizontally or vertically. One button rotates, the other places the current block. If you make combos, you can send blocks to the other player; this is mostly a versus game, either you against a human or AI opponent. I struggle to get much of any combos beyond the most basic ones, though, just staying alive at all is usually hard enough. Sent blocks are large cloudlike blobs that drop from the top of the screen, and pile up on the left and right halves of the field in two piles. Breaking blocks next to them destroys the ones touching that. Naturally the AI is much better at sending mountains of blocks than I am. You can only rotate blocks one way, which is quite annoying sometimes; there are more than two buttons on this controller, use at least three of them! There are two issues here. First, the blocks rising up out of the floor are randomly placed, which means that the floor of the field can and will change, often between the time you hit the button and when the block appears! This mean that I'm constantly placing blocks which don't line up to the star block I was trying to line them up with because the field has shifted up, and say the other block now has a star block under it lifting it higher, while the one I put down doesn't. Chance plays a very large role in this game, larger than it does in some puzzle games, for that and some other reasons. Also, I sometimes have trouble telling which color the cursor is; red, white, or blue should be easy to tell apart, but it's kind of tricky sometimes because the cursor is pale and transparent, not solid-colored. Another major luck element is in how you win matches. Instead of winning as soon as one person's blocks hit the top, you have three seconds to clear enough blocks so that the top row is empty again. Yes, seconds, not moves. It's ridiculous, and I can see why puzzle games don't usually do this; it's frustrating and helps make this game even harder, since the AI has a much easier time clearing those blocks than a human does. Often it's just a matter of pure luck -- does the game give you the color(s) you need, in the move or two you have before time runs out? If not, you lose again. Argh.

For options, Star Strike has an Arcade mode, Story mode, endless mode, 2 player versus play, and some unlockable bonus modes. There are four difficulty levels; only the lowest one is easy, the others are frustratingly hard, as I've been describing -- I've mostly played the game on Normal. This game, and the manual as well, are poorly translated, so I'm not really sure what is going on in the story. The manual says that someone destroyed most of the stars (not counting ours, of course), and turned them into colored stardust, or something, but there's a Star Pig that's eating the stardust, and if you match the stars they explode... or something. Anyway, that's what you're doing in this game. In Story mode you play as a girl who's off to stop the person who did it, or something? Or maybe not, she could just be trying to play this new 'Star Strike' game and ends up trying to beat those people too. Even though I finished the game, I'm still confused. I'm not even sure if the final boss was the person who did all this; I guess she was, but then why does the game and manual call that person a "him"? It's probably just a poor translation, but still. The manual does have some character descriptions, but not for the boss woman or her top henchman robot, unfortunately. It's those two who are really hard to beat, too; the six rounds before aren't nearly as bad. In Arcade mode you can choose a character (and matches default to best-of-3 instead of 1-win-wins as Story mode is by default), but there isn't really a story, not that Story mode has much of it either. The game does keep track of the best scores in Arcade mode, best finishing times in Story mode, and more. Just remember to save, it's not really automatic. Overall, Star Strike is an okay but hard and frustrating puzzle game. It's worth a try if you like the genre and see it for cheap. There is also a Japan-exclusive Game Boy version of the game that I haven't played.


Rage Racer
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1 player, saves (1 block), neGcon analog controller supported. Rage Racer is the third Ridge Racer game for the PS1. A significant improvement over its two predecessors, I think this one is, oddly enough, actually my favorite of the four PS1 Ridge Racer games. In terms of graphics, amount content, and multiplayer R4 is far better, since this game has worse graphics, many fewer tracks, and no multiplayer support, but the racing is as good as Ridge Racer gameplay gets, the courses are designed well, and the graphics are okay and an improvement over the first two PS1 Ridge Racer games. The gameplay here is classic Ridge Racer. As usual auto-powersliding is central to the game, you start in last place far behind the leader, and have to try to work your way to the front before the race ends. Winning will be very difficult and requires a lot of practice. As in the previous two games, Rage Racer has only one track, with three variants this time. The variants are more different than in the past though, and the "three" resulting courses are all pretty good. This track is much, much better and more interesting than the original Ridge Racer course! This is a big part of why I like the game, the tracks are fun to play. Still, it is only three variants and that's all you get. There are a bunch of cars to unlock, but there's no championship mode or anything, that wouldn't appear until R4. R4 also would have the first multiplayer mode in the series on PS1, and vastly improved graphics too. But for some odd reason, I had more fun with Rage Racer here than I have with R4. I shouldn't, considering what I think of the Ridge Racer series in general, like this game any more than the other ones, particularly considering its average graphics and very limited amount of content. But... I do. I like the handling here better than R4's, and for a mid '90s racer it plays pretty well. The graphics are also good for the time. This is a fun, classic arcade-style driving game. The controls are good, for Ridge Racer. It's a fun game to play and I definitely like it, more so than most of its franchise for whatever reason. Rage Racer is a PS1 exclusive, but it was somewhat inspired by the arcade game Rave Racer.


Rally de Europe (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Rally de Europe is a below-average Sega Rally-style racing game. This game makes no attempt to hide what it is; one glance at the back of the box and the Sega Rally influences could not be more obvious. Unfortunately, while this isn't an awful game, it's nowhere near as great as Sega Rally is, either. Rally de Europe has average controls, average gameplay, average-at-best graphics, an average number of tracks. I'm not really the right person to review this game, though; I've never cared for most rally games all that much. As in most rally games, you're locked to the track, and can't leave it. The game looks okay, at least. Of course it has the usual PS1 graphical issues, but the graphics are good. The games' art design REALLY is copied straight out of Sega Rally, though. Menu and logo art particularly looks exactly like Sega Rally stuff, and the game even has some of the same cars as well (or lookalikes, rather). Gameplay-wise, though, it's just so bland. You drive forward, turn as per the instructions, and try to catch up to the leaders. Yeah, this isn't a time-based game as a more realistic rally racing game would be; like Sega Rally or Ridge Racer, it's a catchup-based game where you start far behind the leader and have to race well in order to maybe catch the leader near the end. I didn't mind this system in Hydro Thunder, but I rarely like it, here included. I really do prefer a full field all starting together... ah well. This game has pretty bad collision physics, too. Things just sort of stop when they hit eachother, it's pretty bad. The english for the turn commands is somewhat comically bad, too. Yes, in this Japanese-only release, the "easy right", etc. voices are English... supposedly. Some of it's so hard to understand that it's basically static, and at the end of each race the guy says "Rinish!". Yeah. Overall I quickly got bored by this game and highly doubt I'll go back to it much, but arcade-style rally fans who have played all the other PS1 rally games and need another one might find the game interesting, maybe. There are much better rally games than this one on the PS1, but worse ones as well. Rally de Europe is okay but quite unoriginal. This game has a predessor from the same developer, Rally de Africa, which I have not played.


RC de GO!
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. RC de GO! is a fairly good RC car racing game, based more on real RC racing than most such games are, at least thematically; the gameplay is simple and approachable, even if there is a real-world feel to the game. RC de GO plays from a sort of overhead perspective. The camera follows you around the track, but in order to replicate the feeling of a real RC car driver, the camera turns from one set point, as if you are looking around the track from where your unseen driver is standing. It's a pretty cool idea that I don't believe I have seen in any other games. The game has a lot of RC car parts to buy, as well, including many shells, and lots of replacement parts. As you win races you can buy new parts with your winnings, and more will unlock as you progress. Standard stuff, but nice to see. Unfortuantely it's cars only; no RC cars with tank treads here. WHy do no RC car gaems ever have them? The RC car I had as a kid had tank treads, and tank controls too (two vertical sticks, press up on one and down on the other to turn!). It'd be cool to have a car like that in an RC car game someday. That's a minor complaint, though, and of course none of the other RC car games of this era have that either. What this game does have is good, solid somewhat RC Pro-Am style topdown racing fun. Though the game is easy to play there is a basic physics model, and cars feel appropriately light. The game starts out pretty easy, if you make use of the generous amount of turbo they give you, but does get tougher as you progress. Graphically, the game looks okay. It's a solidly average-looking midlife PS1 game, with some nice visual work in places but the usual PS1 graphical issues here and there. That camera is kind of neat, though. Overall, RC de GO! is a good racing game that topdown racer genre fans, which I am certainly one of, should absolutely pick up. It's not an amazing experience, but it's fun stuff worth a try.


Red Asphalt
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1 player (2 player simultaneous by system link only), saves (1 block), neGcon supported. Red Asphalt, which in Europe was titled Rock n Roll Racing 2, is a racing game from Interplay. It's not by Blizzard, the developers of the first Rock n Roll Racing, but an internal Interplay team instead. Sort of like another Interplay sequel to an outside game, Heart of the Alien for the Sega CD, Red Asphalt isn't very well thought of, and got mediocre at best reviews. I got th4 game mostly because of how much I like futuristic racing games, really. But actually... it's really good! Well, for serious genre fans, at least. I like this game a lot, what can I say. Red Asphalt has good art design, average to above average graphics, average to good track designs, lots of tracks, upgrades to buy, a decent story, and more! Just make sure to get out your neGcon, wheel, or Performance Analog Gamepad for this one, because the game GREATLY benefits from analog controls, but doesn't support the Dual Shock. With proper controller in hand, Red Asphalt is great fun. The game does have a few issues, but they're relatively minor, to me at least. The intro explains that the racers are a group who are supposedly working together to take down the evil galactic emperor through his own race tournament. The intro is told as a retrospective being told by the main character, so I guess he won? Because otherwise, it's unlikely he'd be here to tell the story. Kind of spoils the ending, doesn't it. Ah well.

Oddly, even though the intro claims the six main racers are "allies" against the villains, you'll spend most of your time blowing eachother up. Each race has seven racers, your six and one opponent leader from the planet you're on. Your goal is to make enough money by winning races and killing enemy cars so that you can upgrade your car and make it to the next planet. Each planet has about five or six races on it, and there are five planets, with a total of 24 tracks total, a pretty good number for a game from 1997, still a time when many racing games had only three or four tracks. The tracks on each planet are variants, though, not entirely original courses. Some are mostly different, while others just change one small section of the previous course. It's nice to see the variety of courses as you progress, but I like F-Zero's cup design better; in this game you play all the tracks in one setting one after another. Yeah, that lava planet looks kind of cool, but after three or four straight races there I wish I could go somewhere else for a while! At least the tracks are all well designed and the game plays great, though. Track designs in Red Asphalt aren't as over-the-top as F-Zero X or Extreme-G track designs, but still, they are pretty cool at times, and I definitely like the courses here. Branching paths abound, nicely. With a compatible analog controller Red Asphalt controls great. Each of the different vehicle types has noticeably different controls, too, which is nice to see. between the upgrades and cars there is plenty to spend your winnings on.

Red Asphalt is a combat racing game, but this game isn't exclusively devoted to combat, unlike, for instance, Impact Racing (PS1/Saturn). The racing element is just as important. Each car does have a weapon, though, plus pickups for special weapons. Each car type has one specific main gun which you cannot change. I don't mind this, it keeps things simple so you can focus on the driving and shooting, not on switching weapons. Main guns are different between cars, to add some variety. The pickups give you a variety of more powerful weapons or turbo. Also key is the recharge area in each track. Your health drains VERY fast when you get hit! You do respawn after dying, but this takes time, so you'll lose some ground. Do use the Wipeout-styled recharge areas. Red Asphalt isn't the hardest game, but it's lots of fun, and will present at least a little challenge for sure. The only real flaws here are that it doesn't have Dual Shock support and the absence of split-screen multiplayer. Otherwise, it's a quite good game. Overall, Red Asphalt is pretty good! Futuristic racing game fans should play it for sure.

Resident Evil: Survivor
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad compatible. The Japan and Europe versions also support the Namco Guncon light gun, but support was removed from the US release, sadly. Resident Evil Survivor is a bad first-person "adventure"/light gun style shooter game. The basic concept here wasn't very good, and the execution isn't good either, which is why it's so mystifying that this game was apparently so successful that Capcom thought they should make THREE sequels (Gun Survivor 2: Code Veronica (J/E only), Dino Stalker, and RE: Dead Aim) on the PS2 based on the same flawed concept! No, a light gun shooter where you walk around during the game isn't a particularly good idea, but that's what the Survivor series is. You can't even save your game in progress in this game, it only saves after you win or get game over for good! Argh, that's awful. And technologically, because it's on the PS1, this game is even more limited than the PS2 games; I don't like the one of them I have, Dino Stalker, much either, but at least it doesn't look as horribly ugly as this game does. RE: Survivor feels like a mostly-railed "adventure" game with light-gun-shooting-with-a-gamepad combat. You walk around in first person through the games' small and ugly-looking 3d environments. Doors, stairs, and the sort are loading screens, and they are very frequent and too long. Most rooms have one enterance and one exit, or several exits with locked doors that you must do in order, or maybe, at the most, an area with a few different routes for you to take. The branching paths are one of the better things about this game, at least it has that variety, even if what you do in each route is exactly the same. As in Resident Evil, this game has your character taking on a horde of zombies while discovering the mystery of what happened at this evil Umbrella Corporation base. This game has some very dark themes; Umbrella's program that turned teenagers into test subjects they would eventually murder, or turn into monsters, is a major focus. The voice acting goes back to RE1 levels of terrible, but without as much of the humor value. It's bad. Unlike RE though, don't expect to do any actual adventuring here. Items are hard to miss, and you pick them up by just walking into them, and key items automatically activate when you walk into the item that they work on. The only reason to go into your inventory is to change weapons or use a healing item, that's it. There is also a map, but there's not much of a reason to ever use it, this game is very linear, and you can't backtrack back to those decision points and take a different route, anyway.

As for the actual combat, in this light-gun-less American version, you have to use the gamepad. R1 brings up the cursor. You are locked in place while the cursor is on screen, so you cannot dodge a tougher enemy coming at you unless you drop the cursor (let go of R1), move, and then bring it up again. It's clumsy and doesn't work too well. At least the game supports analog, though the analog isn't great; control feels too digital. It'd be much more fun with a gun, but then you'd have to walk around with the little dpad on the side of the Guncon, and that's no fun, I've tried it in Dino Stalker. Normal zombies are all use a couple of ugly, repeating character models, are tediously easy to kill, come at you slowly, and are only a threat if you enter a room with zombies already behind you, where you can't see them approach. Of course, the game does this regularly, because otherwise it'd be far too easy to shoot them down. There are tougher enemies boss-like here and there, though. If you do die, the game punishes you harshly. This game has limited continues (only four), no saving, and when you get a game over you're sent back a long way to an arbitrarily determined checkpoint. Ugh! So, overall, Resident Evil: Survivor is a subpar and tedious attempt at a non-railed lightgun game with some stupidly basic adventure-game elements. The combination doesn't work very well. With bad graphics, unfun and repetitive gameplay, no saving during a game, lots of loading, and more, this game is pretty bad.


Robotron X
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Robotron X is a 3d twinstick shooter, and was the first new Robotron game since the original one in the early '80s. As in the original, you run around a lot of levels, shooting robots and saving humans. The d-pad moves, and the four buttons aim your shots. Unfortunately, the game isn't a good classic reboot; it's fairly terrible. Robotron X is playable, but not much fun thanks to some bad design decisions, most notably the far-too-close-in camera. You can't see anywhere near far enough! That's killer in this genre, and this is the top factor that ruins this game. The controls also aren't nearly as good as analog ones would be, analog aiming makes a huge difference in this kind of game. The graphics are also very bland and subpar. Fortunately, the developers listened to the criticism, and vastly improved the game when porting it over to the N64. The N64 version has analog movement or aiming with the analog stick and a nice new zoomed-out camera option, which is the only one you ever want to use. Play that version if you want to play the 5th gen Robotron game, it's a fun little game on the N64. Not so on PS1, unfortunately. Midway rarely put much effort into its PS1 games, compared to the N64, and that shows here as much as anywhere. Also on N64 as Robotron 64; that version is much improved over this one.


Roll Away [aka Kula World/Quest]
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1 player, saves (1 block). Roll Away is an interesting, and pretty good, puzzle/maze game where you control a ball in a block maze. At first glance I thought that it would play like the marble-maze boardgame Labyrinth (think Marble Madness and such), but it doesn't; instead, this game is more deliberate than that. Think more Cube (PSP) or Edge (PC/etc), as far as the gameplay goes, except with a ball instead of a cube and a behind-the-ball viwpoint, but this game predates those two. First, graphically, this game looks nice. THere is good use of ransparencies and effects, and the textures and environments look as good as you could hope for. It probably helps that each stage is just a relatively small amount of blocks floating in space over some kind of background image, there isn't a fully polygonal environment around you that surely would look ugly. The techno-style soundtrack is nice as well, though it's not memorable. Levels are in full 3d, and you can roll around the sides of the arrays of floating platforms that make up each stage at many corners. You can only go aroun the sides of a platform on endblocks or corners, not anywhere; don't go rolling into oblivion by accident. I'm not sure why you can roll onto the end of a platform but can't just roll over the side onto the face you want to get to, but you can't, and this is key to the puzzles. You can also jump, though watch out, if you don't land on a platform, you'll have to restart the stage. Jumps will go over one space, unless there's noting two blocks in front of you, in which case you'll fall down, and hope that maybe you land on something. If you miss and fall off the stage, or hit a spike, you restart the level. Your goal is simple, get the stuff and get to the exit, but actually getting there can be hard. This is a challenging, complex title to say the least! The game may start out simple, but levels get very tricky in a hurry. Because each level is in full 3d, you really need to think three dimensionally in order to get anywhere in this game. Move to every side of every block, consider what will happen from that point, and eventually maybe you'll figure out how to get to that seemingly-unreachable area. Yes, Roll Away is a hard game. It's a good hard game, though! This game requires a lot of thought, but it's so worth it. I wasn't expecting much from this game, butit really surprised me; Roll Away is a great game I highly recommend platofrmer and puzzle game fans definitely should try out. Pick it up! [Note: Apparently the European release of this game costs a good three to five times more than the US version. Get the US release if you can!]


*Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire
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Strategy. 1+ players alternating, saves (4 blocks per file). This is a port of the strategy game released on many platforms. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a very long-running grand strategy series from Koei that still is ongoing, though in the West it never achieved the popularity it did in Japan. This first 5th-gen RotTK game still feels a lot like the 4th-gen game it is a port of. It's probably good for the time, but feels very dated today. This is also a quite complex game, and while I love strategy games, I like more moderately complex games like Civilization or Starcraft more than, say, Europa Universalis. This game isn't Europa Universalis, but it is a somewhat complex game, made worse by the dated interface. The menu-based interface takes a while to learn, and gamepad controls for game that would be far better with a mouse. The games' not-that-great battle system also hold this game back. Even so, there is a solid core here for sure. This game has basic SNES-style 2d graphics, unsurprising for a game also available on the SNES, and nice CD audio music. RotTK IV has six scenarios, all set during different times during the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China, between about 180 and 220 AD. Each one allows you to play as any of the factions still alive as of that point, and you can play as as many sides as you want, the idea presumably being for multiplayer, though this game seems far too long for that to be feasible. Other factions are computer-controlled. There are only two difficulty levels, and only a couple of options. Ingame, you will have to manage each city in your empire. This game is all about control and command of cities; the rest of the land might as well not exist, except for times when you fight battles in between two cities. There are quite a few options in the main menu in each city, but you can't use all of them at first; RotTK isn't just about managing cities and sending out armies, Officers are key. Officers each have different skills, and you can assign officers to manage a city, assign officers to manage one specific industry in a city of the four that you can put money into improving, and of course have them lead divisions of your army. Managing officer skills, raising officers, and finding the right one for each task adds a lot of complexity here, but it's frustrating that, say, you can't use any Foreign (relations) skills unless you've got an officer with that skill, and such. I also didn't see any hints about the max number of troops I could recruit from each city each turn; just had to guess until it let me recruit them. You can also train troops, with an officer of course. If you manage to grow your cities, you can spend the money you make on better weapons, such as horses, bows, siege weapons, and the like. There are more things to manage than this as well, including deception to sabotage enemy cities or pay off barbarians to attack places. One issue with the game is that each city is separate; you can't manage things empire-wide. Gathering and attacking with armies in a large empire takes time. Having to use a gamepad in this kind of game makes these problems worse.

In battle, RotTK is simplistic and kind of boring. You can only have a maximum of five or six units in each battle, each with one weapon type. Infantry are normal, cavalry can move farther, and archers can shoot multiple spaces, as expected. Battles occur on a single-screen isometric square-grid map with small sprite characters; this is an entirely 2d game, except for the occasional bad FMV video they've put here and there to justify the 5th-gen release. You've got a couple of options, including a normal weak attack, riskier Charges, and trying to call out an enemy leader into single combat Duels, and you can use some mess-with-the enemy tactics in battle as well as out of it, but Heroes of Might & Magic or Panzer General this is not! The battle maps feel empty with so few troops on them, damaging enemies takes too long, and strategy is limited. Weakening enemy units is a tediously slow process, as you attack over and over, doing small amounts of damage per turn. Numbers and morale are critical. I don't think you can choose to simulate battles, either, which is unfortunate. Of course, as this game is all about conquering China, combat is central to the game; all that economy-building and city management just allows you to make a better army, you won't win with diplomacy alone. Overall, I still haven't played this game nearly long enough to have a strong opinion on it, but it's alright, I did start having a little fun once I figured out the basics of what to do. However, this game has a lot of issues. It's a slow-paced game with mediocre-at-best battles, a complex interface that would be far better with a mouse, sometimes lacking information in the menus, and lots of menus. This design was fine back in the early '90s, but on both PCs and consoles, it has aged badly since; I don't love most early '90s PC strategy games either, they also often have interfaces which are quite hard to deal with in retrospect. This is also a VERY slow-paced game. Still, it's okay, and I can see why the series got so popular. Managing empires is kind of fun, and the Officer system makes this game different from others. This is the only RotTK game I've played, though, so I don't know how it compares to the newer ones. Also on PC, SNES, 32X (Japan only), and Saturn (Japan only). Play it on PC if you want to have fun, a mouse would do wonders for this kind of game.


Running High (J)
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block). Running High is a fun, but very short and simple, futuristic on-foot running racing game from System Sacom, a developer better known for their adventure games such as Mansion of Hidden Souls on Sega CD. Running High makes a good first impression, but there's almost nothing to it, unfortunately. The game is VERY import-friendly, though -- apart from the control-settings screen, the game is entirely in English. Once you start the game, you can select your character and track. There are six characters, each with different stats. Of course, because the game is Japanese, they're all in robot suits. Then you choose a track. You start with only three, though one more is unlockable once you beat the first three with all the characters. There is also a difficulty setting. That's really all there is for content, though. Yes, it's thin. The simplistic gameplay is my biggest problem with Running High, though. I mean, this game is fun... for maybe an hour. Ingame, the dated graphics will immediately become apparent. This game isn't exactly one of the better-looking PS1 games, for sure. It's got some decent art design, but the graphics aren't great. The game is fast, though, and that's pretty cool. Your characters run along at high speed, as you try to learn the courses, slow down or slide around corners, and beat up the other players. You can also do a jumping vault move if you hit attack (R1, by default) when an opponent is a specific distance in front of you. Tracks are all fairly flat, though they do curve left and right a lot. When you run into the side you will be slowed down, so learning the sharper curves is important. You slide with the standard powerslide setup, let go of accelerate, hit brake, then hit accelerate again. It's sometimes useful, though might take a while to get used to. It's fun to run along, hit the others, and try to make it around the corners better. Combat is important as well, and that vault move is useful. It also lets the AI vault over you just before the finish line, though; skill will only get you so far here, you'll also need luck. Despite this, on the default difficulty, it's a bit too easy to win races in this game, and there just isn't any depth to the game at all. Yes, you can try to learn the turns, but the game is forgiving, and I won races even when hitting the sides quite a lot. Just make any kind of effort and you have a good chance of a top three finish. And why do I have to do the first three races at the same challenge level with all six different characters before I'm finally allowed to play the final track? Yeah, having something to work for is nice, but a championship system would be better than this. That wouldn't fix the simplistic gameplay, though. I love arcade racing games, but there just isn't much challenge here, and there are only four tracks too, none with partiuclarly complex layouts! I'd have liked to see more. After zipping through the first three tracks the first time in maybe half an hour, the only reason to keep going is if you want to unlock the fourth track and the one or two unlockable characters you'll also get. It doesn't get harder, though, which is a real issue. Overall, Running High is a simple fun game, but it's very light on content and value. I'm not sure if it's actually worth it or not. It is a good beginning for a fun racing game, but needed more content and slightly deeper gameplay.


Rush Down
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. RushDown is a horrendous debacle of a 1/2/3Xtreme knockoff from Infogrames, the company that would become "Atari". Even 1/2Xtreme defenders mostly dislike this game, it seems, and that should tell you something. Still, this game is more just bad than it is objectionably atrocious, honestly. The game has three different extreme disciplines, kayaking, mountain biking, and snowboarding. As the name suggests, this is a racing game. As in the Xtreme trilogy, it's a point-to-point racer. You've got to try to fight the bad graphics, controls, gameplay, and everything else in your quest to be the best extreme athlete. It isn't worth it. RushDown isn't a straight clone, though. Unlike that other series, this game is fully polygonal, including the characters. Also, kayaking never made an appearance in the Xtreme trilogy, and it's kind of neat to see it here -- there are very few kayaking games out there. The problem is, nothing here is actually fun. I don't know if I dislike this game much more than I do 1/2Xtreme, but it does feel glitchier -- collision detection has issues here. Control is simple, but getting to the bottom is harder than it should be because of the many annoying obstacles on the track. The controls are simple, just accelerate and turn left and right, but actually staying away from the obstacles is harder than it probably should be. The very ugly 3d graphics don't help matters, either. Polygon seams, horrible texture warping, super-pixelated graphics, etc., this game has it all. The game has obnoxious music and menus, also. I usually like techno music, which RushDown has, but this isn't any good. Why do so many songs have the word "RushDown" in them over and over? Ugh. Overall, RushDown is a bad game. Of the three modes, kayaking is probably the best, and snowboarding the worst, but none are good, unfortunately. The game has bad voice acting, often-annoying music, ugly graphics, some of that "extreme sports" attitude I've never liked, and mediocre-to-bad gameplay and controls. There's no reason to actually play this thing, ever, really.


Rush Hour
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Joystick (NOT Gamepad!) and neGcon support. Rush Hour is a top-down 3d polygonal racing game from Psygnosis with a slightly angled foreward view and solid gameplay. The game does have some issues, though I like it overall. Graphically, the game looks okay. The visuals are very pixelated, but you expect that on the PS1. The game has a weird tiny "High Res" mode that plays in an almost postage-stamp-sized window (maybe it's running a 320x240 game in a 640x480 screen, or something? How odd!), and also a Widescreen mode that fills the screen on a widescreen TV if you go to a stretch mode (on my TV, the second one). There's also normal low-res 4:3 support of course. This looks like a mid '90s racing game pulled overhead. It looks okay for the time, so the graphics are kind of bad but look alright for the system. I do like the variety of the track designs, though, and the overhead perspective hides the surely poor draw distance, too. The framerate also seems fine. Music is average stuff, nothing memorable.

Though you are driving normal cars in this game, the physics and handling feel very much like those in a Micro Machines or RC Pro-Am game -- the cars are very light and spin out constantly. I like those games, though, so I don't mind this too much, but you definitely need to be paying attention in this game, almost any hit can spin you around, and there is no margin for error in this very difficult game! Yes, Rush Hour is a very tough game, and that, along with the handling, are probably its biggest issues. The game has three modes, Championship, single race, and time trial. In Championship mode, you play the eight tracks one after another. You must finish in first in each race in order to move on, and have limited continues -- only three for the whole eight tracks. You do get a free retry if you finish in second or third, but that's the only help you get here. There are two car types, the slower and easier Heavy Metal trucks and the faster and tougher-to-play-as sportscars. There are three difficulty levels on top of that, but this game is tough even on Easy! Forget it on the higher settings, I haven't managed to do anything other than lose badly there. The higher difficulties increase the speed of the game, Wipeout style; reduce the amount of time you have to get to the next checkpoint; and make the AI tougher as well.

The gameplay really is fun if you like the genre, though. The tracks are full of interesting curves, branches, and unique obstacles, warning notices help you with upcoming turns, the different cars handle differently (try them all!) and different surfaces affect your car differently, as well; not all games of the time have that. I really wish that you could move on for finishing in the top three, or that the game used a standard points championship system, though, because 'first only' is overly harsh. This game will require quite a bit of practice to beat even on the lowest difficulty level. I'm sure I'll beat this at least on Easy, though, because I like this kind of game, and Rush Hour's tracks are fun, varied, and well laid out. There are no weapons or powerups in this game, and sometimes I wish it had them because catching up to opponents can be tough. Ah well. You just need to learn the tracks better and not mess up. For that, a compatible analog controller is VERY HIGHLY recommended! The d-pad controls for this game are extremely touchy and frustrating; use small taps of the pad most of the time, instead of presses, but even with that controls aren't good... unless you have a PS1 wheel, Analog Joystick, or Performance Analog Gamepad, in which case you're fine! The analog controls in this game are great, cars control much better. It's still a hard, hard game, but analog controls makes a huge difference. It's too bad that this game predates the Dual Shock, that makes playing this game properly harder for most people. Definitely pick this up if you have a compatible analog controller and have any interest in this kind of game, though! It's challenging, but the good kind of hard, if you have the patience to learn the tracks and drive better each time.

*SaGa Frontier
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RPG(2d). 1 player, saves (1 block per file). Saga Frontier is a JRPG, and part of the SaGa series, which has always had mixed popularity at best. I find the franchise interesting, but have never spent all that much time with the games, unfortunately. I'll say what I can. SaGa Frontier is 2d, with decent but not great prerendered backgrounds and sprite characters. As usual with SaGa games after the Game Boy, the game is somewhat nonlinear, there are many sidequests, lots of recruitable party members along the way, and you have seven different main characters to choose from. Each main character has a moderate-length story, and if you play all of them it'll give you a better picture of events. This game is set in an alternate present or future, instead of the usual fantasy setting. It fits the game. There are four races, mostly taken from the Game Boy SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) games: Humans, Mechs (robots), recruited Monsters, and Mystics. Each are quite different; Mechs only gain skills by defeating other mechs, humans gain skills based on what they have equipped and what abilities you use, Mystics won't gain most stat points on level-up but instead have to absorb monsters in battle, etc. Combat is traditional JRPG stuff, but with a few unique elements. You can have three parties of characters and choose which one to use before battle. In combat, you can attack with your hands or feet, use your equipped weapon (or spells), or use items during battle. Combat is okay; it's not the best, but is better than many JRPGs. As in most SaGa games, you've got both health and life points. Once a character's health runs out you start losing irreplaceable life points. You don't want those to run out, or they're dead for real. Yes, the SaGa games are often tough, and this one is no exception. You can also set character locations, though you can't move during battle. Characters can also do combination attacks when aligned correctly. Enemies are visible, which is nice, I don't like random battles.

The biggest problem here, though, is that as usual in SaGa games, it's hard to figure out what in the world you are supposed to do in the game. This series always has been extremely obtuse, and game systems that aren't explained to the player are common, and large worlds you can wander around in without enough guidance to really make it clear where you should be going are an issue too. This game certainly has both of those problems, at least. I like that SaGa games aren't just your standard JRPG but do some different things, with their seven playable characters per game (from the SNES ones on), open worlds, and more, but I wish the game would tell me where to go! There is no map, no questlog, and often few clues about where you should be going. I'd rather not wander around lost in areas I shouldn't be with this character, come on! There are 15 cities you can visit (travel is free from each Port), but are given few clues about which ones might be useful to visit in your current quest. So either waste time exploring, or miss out on a lot of your character's quest and only do the required basics, I guess. If you want to have fun with SaGa Frontier, play it with a guide, both for telling you where to go, and explaining how the game plays better than the thin explanations in the game and manual. You really need a guide to make sense out of this game. You can save anytime outside of battle, though, which is fantastic; save anywhere is so, so much better than save points! Overall, I still haven't played this enough to actually figure out the story or fully understand the game, but I haven't seen anything I really dislike either, other than the extremely annoying absence of any ingame map and quest log. Decent game, I think. The graphics and sound are okay, and the game can be fun to play, if I use a guide so I know where I'm supposed to be going and how the battle and skill systems work; I do NOT enjoy aimless wandering in RPGs, it makes me drop them faster than almost anything else. I dislike hidden mechanics too, and this game has those problems bad. Still, I do kind of like what little I've played of this game, and want to play more of it, with a guide of course.


SaGa Frontier 2
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1 player, saves (1 block per file), Analog Gamepad supported, PocketStation supported (for 2 minigames). SaGa Frontier 2 is still a SaGa RPG, but it is a very different game from the first SaGa Frontier. Gone are the CG-rendered backdrops; instead, the game has beautiful hand-drawn environments with sprite characters. The game world looks fantastic, and is definitely an upgrade ofer the previous games' muddy rendered backdrops. Gone is the modern-day setting; instead, this game has a fantasy medieval setting. Gone are the Monster and Mecha races too; all characters are human this time. Gone is the open world; instead, this game is much more linear. This game doesn't have seven different routes, either. Instead, there are only two main story paths, and you can kind of do both at the same time. This game breaks the game up into chapters, and after each chapter you can choose which one you want to do next from a map screen. You can save anytime you're not in battle, again, which is awesome. The story covers more than 80 years, about a king named Gustave XIII and also a knight, Will, and the many characters connected to them. There are a total of 24 playable characters, never all at the same time; which ones are available depends on the scenario, which makes sense considering how much time the game covers. This game has an interesting story, telling the tale of these characters and the world they inhabit. The SaGa games have usually had more interesting stories than many JRPGs do, and this one seems to be no exception. The game starts with Gustave's birth, and then moves on to his troubles. He may eventually become a king, but he starts out kicked out of the castle at age 7 because he has no magic. Meanwhile, in the other story track, Will starts out as a would-be 'digger', someone who goes to dungeons and looks for magic items. Of course things will scale up a lot over time. Gustave's story eventually has some city-building and battle-strategy bits, as well as traditional RPG exploration and combat, though most of the game is story and regular RPG gameplay. As in the previous game, enemies are visible in the world, not random; this is how it should be!

The place where SaGa Frontier 2 is the most like its predecessor is in its battle system. Battles are fought with sprite characters on average-looking polygonal 3d environments. Parties are a maximum of four. The attacks you have available depend on what weapons each character has equipped, and weapons all have durability; each time you attack with an item it reduces the durability by one, and weapons will break when it runs out. You do have some actions that are infinite-use, but they, of course, either are status effects or do little damage. So, stock up on weapons. Using attacks builds towards unlocking better attacks on the same weapon, as usual in SaGa games. Weapon attacks use WP, and spell attacks SP, so you've got those stats to manage as well, though WP and HP do recover some, HP after winning a battle. Also, as usual in the series, characters have both Health and Life points. Once your health runs out, you use a LP point to get some back, if the party survives the battle. Alternately, you can have all characters use an LP point at the beginning of a turn to get some health back. LP won't recover except between chapters, so try to avoid this when possible, but it won't always be; other ways to heal don't always seem to be available. The HP/LP system always makes these games tricky. You can also arrange party order, and give party members Roles which boost a specific stat. Only one character can use each Role. Then try to use the abilities that the chosen role boosts in battle. There are also multi-character combo-attacks, and party automation options. The battle system is okay, but I find it a bit average. I'm more interested in the story and characters here than the battles, and as this is an RPG, that is an issue. Still, this seems like a good game, and I'll definitely play it more. The story and characters are interesting, the graphics are great, and combat is okay.


Sentinel Returns
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1 player, saves (1 block), Playstation Mouse supported. Sentinel Returns is a sequel / remake to a 1986 British computer game called The Sentinel. No, it's no relation to Atari's 1990 Atari 2600 & 7800 game Sentinel, that game is entirely different, and much more conventional. I've never played the original The Sentinel game, but it seems that this game is very similar to that one, and pretty much nothing else. The game is kind of like a 3d first-person shooter strategy puzzle... thing. Yes, Sentinel Returns is one weird, weird game! The game has a strange but sparse backstory, but it's not important (or particularly intelligible), other than to say that this game is kind of creepy. This game has a dark, foreboding atmosphere with music that keeps up a feeling of constant tension. Everything looks strange; I've seen it described to a drug-trip look. The world of The Sentinel isn't a place I would want to be, but it does make for a somewhat unique game setting. The very stylized 3d models and world fit in well with the limitations of 5th-gen 3d.

Gameplay-wise, at first Sentinel probably won't make sense. It'll take at least one readthroughs of the manual to get a handle on this game, and there is no in-game help or tutorial at all, so definitely do read that manual. You play as a person controlling a robot in a 3d landscape. On the highest peak in each level, a Sentinel stands. If it looks at you, it drains away your energy. A bar in the top right corner shows if you're being watched or not (the manual explains the states). The Sentinel can also create lesser minions called Sentries who also watch for you. You can't just walk around and shoot stuff in this game, though; your robot is immobile. From each position, you can look around and either absorb things in the world, place things (each one costs a different amount of energy), travel to another robot if one is in view, or use some energy to warp to a random spot (for use if you are in trouble). You can only absorb or place things on terrain near you and on the same or a lower plane, so getting to higher terrain is your central focus. You can place trees, which are mostly useless but can help shield you from the Sentinel's view; blocks which make a higher platform to put a robot on in order to get to higher ground, and robots. Blocks are the key to getting higher, as while you can't place a robot on higher land, you CAN place one on top of a pile of blocks on another point on the same (or lower) level as you. Of course though the Sentinel is likely to notice this, and will attack and absorb any blocks or robots it sees. You get energy by absorbing things, most prominently the trees which litter each stage, and win each level by reaching the Sentinel's height and absorbing it (and then building a robot on that point and teleporting, for some reason). Of course though, the longer you spend placing stuff around the stage, the more likely the Sentinel and its sentries will see you and attack. You will be rewarded, though -- for collecting higher percentages of each level's energy you can skip levels, up to four for a 100% complete stage. Once you beat a level you return to the menu with a new stage unlocked. Do save first, though, the game doesn't autosave. The game has a hundreds and hundreds of levels, so there is no shortage of content if you get into the simple and yet complex gameplay of this unique title.

But is it actually fun? That I'm not sure of. I'll need to play it more. I wish it was a bit easier to quickly see where the enemies are looking, though. Also, this is a very slow-paced game. Also, the game really is quite simple once you figure it out -- just build towers and robots, try to avoid detection if you can, and move upwards! Of course, avoiding detection quickly becomes MUCH easier said than done, so there's plenty of challenge to be found. Still, every level plays pretty much exactly the same, and there are few new gameplay elements introduced as you go along. Overall, Sentinel Returns is interesting. I really like the unique concept, but the slow, frustrating, and repetitive elements of the gameplay are definite problems. It's hard to say what I think of this game; it's okay, but not great, I guess. Anyone interested should absolutely try the game, though. It's absolutely worth playing for its unique gameplay experience, creepy atmosphere, and challenging puzzle gameplay. This game is scarier than plenty of actual horror games, for sure! I'm sure the game is better on the PC, though, or at least with a PS1 mouse; controlling the cursor with a gamepad works, but would be easier and more precise with a mouse. This is one of the few games that makes me want a PS1 mouse. Also on PC.


Silent Hill
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Silent Hill is a survival horror game, and the first game in what would become a very popular franchise. Clearly inspired by Resident Evil but somewhat different, this game is an action/adventure game with monsters to fight or avoid, lots of action, and some puzzle solving. I've always had some interest in this genre conceptually, but just don't really find survival horror games all that interesting to play and never have; I don't think I've ever gotten even halfway into any game in the genre. I don't like horror movies, so the horror themes central to the genre does little for me, first. Second, the adventure game elements are overly simplistic; Lucasarts adventure games these are not, that's for sure. It's more just about finding keys and notes and then using them in the usually obvious places where they are supposed to be used. And as action games, they aren't very good. As in most survival horror games, Silent Hill has slow tank controls, poor controls even with the analog stick -- this is one of far too many games that basically just maps the d-pad to the analog stick and calls it done, and that never works all that well -- and nowhere near enough ammunition to actually shoot all of the enemies. You do get a few melee weapons, but I found actually trying to hit anything with them impossible, so that's not much help. I'd never finish this game, probably; as in RE, I can't avoid all of the enemies, and the ammo certainly won't hold out, it's quite limited! But of course, I didn't stick with the game for long. Visually, unlike Resident Evil, Silent Hill is a fully polygonal 3d game. It's got a larger world to explore, too, making up several blocks of the fictional town of Silent Hill. (As an aside, Silent Hill apparently is supposedly in Maine, but I live in Maine. I can say this right now, there's no town or city that looks remotely like this here. But is there any town anywhere with crosswalks this absurdly wide, among other things?) The graphics are pixelated and somewhat ugly, but a lot of attention to detail went into designing this world, and it looks good for the platform, I guess. The wall of fog quite close to you isn't good, though. They make the detail level of the area you can see higher by severely limiting the draw distance. Fortunately, you do have a map to help you navigate. That's great. It even gets marked with hints and such as you do things, which is great. As for the story, you are a guy who is looking for his daughter in this mysterious foggy town. Of course, sinister forces are at work; this series is well known for its detailed, and dark, plot, though I haven't seen much of that myself. As I don't like horror, I'm fine with not seeing it all. Overall, my problem with Silent Hill is that I just don't enjoy playing this kind of game all that much, I think. For its genre it might be one of the better ones of the time. It's okay.


Slayers Wonderful (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Slayers Wonderful is the last of five RPGs based on the great anime/manga/light novel franchise, The Slayers. The anime series is one of my favorites, so when I started getting Japanese games, I made sure to get Slayers games. Now I have all four of the console games; there's a SNES game (The Slayers), two PS1/Saturn tactical Slayers Royal strategy games (I have them on Saturn), and this Playstation RPG. The other Slayers game is a Japanese computer RPG from the early '90s. Slayers Wonderful here is a very generic JRPG. Anime games rarely are great, and unfortunately this one is no exception. This is a decent but easy game mostly for fans of the franchise. This game is an overhead-isometric RPG with 3d polygonal worlds and sprite-based characters. In battle the characters are polygonal. Either way, the graphics are bland and plain-looking. The chibi sprites look okay, but aren't very detailed, and the world feels sparse and empty. The game also has fairly awful music which loops constantly.

As in many JRPGs, battles are random, and there are no fights in town, apart for preset fights of course. Slayers is a series about the adventures of Lina Inverse, a very powerful mage girl, and her group of companions. The anime is part comedy and part action, with occasional drama, and it's great fun stuff. This game has some animated cutscenes, though they are generally very short, maybe ten seconds each; this is only a one-CD game. There are also some static cinema scenes. Then the game switches over to in-engine story, with more important lines voice-acted and others just text. Fans of the franchise should be able to get quite a bit of the humor, which is full of classic Slayers stuff. Figuring out where to go in the game is more difficult, but fortunately there is a useful guide on GameFAQs that tells you where to do. It says little about the story, but that's fine. Slayers Wonderful isn't complex, but finding your way around, and figuring out what to do, is just tricky enough to make the guide welcome. One reason why it's so useful is because of the camera and lack of a map of the current area. The camera feels fairly closely zoomed-in, and because of that and the isometric perspective, figuring out where you're going can be challenging. You can move the camera around with the L1 and R1 buttons, to switch between eight preset camera positions. I keep feeling like I don't know where I'm going; the camera is just too close, and this game badly needs a map, but there isn't one. Without that guide, I'd have quit on this game quite early I think, even though the game is entirely linear. Even as it is, navigating is harder than it should be, though at least you always know the general area you should be in because the game doesn't allow you to go elsewhere in the world. Another issue with the camera is that getting doors to register that you want to go through them can be tricky unless the camera is directly facing at the door, so the movable camera is a big help. It can also reveal paths hidden by buildings and walls and such, so you've got to move the camera regularly. I don't usually like it when games hide things with the camera like this, and it is kind of annoying.

This is an easy game, too. In the anime Lina is absurdly powerful, though; only the strongest of foes are any threat. This game actually nerfs Lina's powers in the beginning, in classic videogame fashion, so as to come up with an excuse for not having the characters start at full power, but you still start out with more than enough to wipe out the enemies. Lina gets a lot of magic, and is a decent swordfighters as well. Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis, the rest of the main group from the anime, are in your party at various points in the game, of course, along with a few other characters including Sylphiel. Parties max out at three, so you'll never have all four of the main characters playable at once, unfortunately. It really should have had that. Lina, Amelia, and Zelgadis are all mages, so you'll be using a lot of magic in this game, and that's great. The magic system is standard stuff; magic points as usual. You get lots of magic points, so you can cast a lot more early on than you can in many JRPGs. You won't get Lina's super-strong spell Dragon Slave at the beginning because of the aforementioned opening nerf. Ah well; this easy game would be totally broken, maybe even more so than Slayers Royal is, if it did let you cast it from the beginning, and you do have magic. Ovearll, this game is very average. I like the Slayers-like elments, such as the humor, the eating scenes, and the magic, but the annoying camera, lack of a map, very low difficulty, and very generic look and feel make this game quite average. Series fans might enjoy it anyway, though; I do, somewhat. Lina Inverse makes even average games fun!

Sorcerer's Maze
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2 player alternating, Analog Gamepad support. This game is an Arkanoid or Breakout-style ball-and-blocks game. You move the paddle right and left, and bounce a ball up in order to destroy the walls of blocks above. It's a simple but fun game, and I like the gameplay. I actually beat this game, unlike the vast majority of games on this list, because it's pretty fun, and doesn't take too long. The game has a decent fantasy theme, too; Sorcerer's Maze is another one of those late budget PS1 releases from XS Games, and like too many of their unconcionably bad porting jobs, is a port of a better earlier Japanese game, this time Prism Land Story. Why games like Sorcerer's Maze, Mobile Light Force, and Sol Divide actually shipped as broken as they are I have no idea, but whatever idiots decided to strip key features out of these games did horrible things. See the other reviews (in the original list) for more details on those other two games, but in this case, the key removed features are saving (again, as in both of those games, it's now gone) and mouse and Namco paddle controller support. At least XS Games did add in analog gamepad support, but this kind of game is best with a mouse or paddle, not an analog stick, so that's small consolation. And seriously, why remove saving from most of your games? It's one of the stupidest, and most annoying, things you could possibly do to a port! Sure, this game isn't that long, but who wants to have to leave their console on long enough to play all 101 stages of this game without touching the power, or lose their scores as soon as you turn off the system because the scores aren't saved? Obnoxious. The basic game is fun, though. This is a fairly simple, and not overly difficult, Arkanoid-style blockbreaking game. As always, break all the blocks to progress. There are various different powerups to help you out along the way, magical-themed this time as per the fantasy setting. Some of the many powerups are pretty amusing, such as the one which creates a full 100 balls, or ones which destroy chunks of the block field. Graphically, this game looks like a budget game indeed. The 2d graphics are fine, and I guess I like the visual style of the game, but it does nothing great; it's enough, nothing more, and there is slowdown sometimes. The playfield is on the left, and a status bar is on the right. The story is about a princess and her magical cat who are off to save the kingdom by collecting the magic jewels; you play as both characters in two player mode. It's nice there is a two player mode, at least they didn't cut THAT out. It's an alternating mode, fairly standard for the genre. There are ten areas to complete, each with 9 stages and a boss. Thanks to all those powerups, the infinite continues that never send you back, and fairly forgiving stage designs, though, Sorcerer's Maze is a somewhat easy game. I finished it within a few days of getting the game and maybe less, only getting stuck in a few places. It's only a few hours long, really. Replay value is debatable, too. It depends on how much you care about trying to get a better score, which of course it won't save. Yeah, I really need to get an import copy of this one, but this cost a lot less for sure.


Speed King (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block). Speed King is a fairly mediocre early PS1 futuristic racing game from Konami. Really, "early" is the key term there -- Speed King is a very dated game that clearly is from the early days of 3d racing games. As usual for games of the period, the game has only a couple of tracks, all of which are closely walled in narrow paths with a too-close draw distance and awful graphics. I got this game because I love futuristic racing games and want to play most of them, but for anyone NOT a big futuristic racing game fan, there's no reason to ever play this game, really. It's kind of bad. Running High (above) may be super short, but at least it's fun while it lasts. Speed King, though, has nothing. Well, the game is almost 100% in English, that's nice, but there's not much else good to say about this game. Even by mid '90s 3d racing game standards these tracks are narrow, and you lose speed when you hit a wall. With good controls maybe it'd be okay, but the hovercars in this game have clumsy, poor handling that makes it hard to get around the corners without hitting a wall or two. There is an announcer that tells you which way to turn, as in a rally racer, but he's not always helpful, and futuristic racing games shouldn't need that kind of thing if they were better designed. A longer draw distance would be a big help here. In addition to the poor controls, again, this is a very short game. The tracks are short, and there are only four of them. There's not much to do other than try to win the tracks on various difficulties; there aren't circuits and the like, just a single race, time attack, vs. one CPU race, or practice. There's no multiplayer, no circuits, and nothing to unlock. Combine that with the games' bad, heavy controls and bad graphics and you get a game really not worth getting at all unless you are a huge Konami fan; the game is supposedly set in the same city as Snatcher is. Don't buy this game just because of that, or at all. Arcade port.


Spriggan: Lunar Verse (J)
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Spriggan: Lunar Verse is a third person action/adventure game from From Software. This is an okay but badly dated game that's sort of in between Tomb Raider and a third-person beat 'em up. I like the concept here, and it can be fun to play, but the controls and camera are awful. The game is a spinoff of the manga franchise of the same name. I haven't read it, btu I do know of the three good to great Spriggan shmups for the Turbo CD and SNES. This is unrelated, unfortunately. I don't know what the story is because it's in Japanese and isn't clear unless you speak the language, but you're a guy and have people to fight and stuff to find. The game starts in a bland warehouse, but each level has a different setting, which is nice. Actually finishing levels will take a lot of practice, though. There are no checkpoints during levels, so if you run out of health you start the level over from the beginning. Oh, and most enemies respawn instantly as soon as you leave each room, which is quite annoying. Levels take a while, so this is a big setback. There are only 8 levels, but it'll take a while. The options and controls menus are in English, which is nice, but of course the cutscenes are in Japanese. Fortunately it's not too hard to figure out what to do by just wandering around, areas are not large and there is a good map screen in the pause menu. You also collect items as you explore, the usual stuff like ammo, health, keycards, and the like. Gameplay is okay and somewhat addictive, I did want to keep trying. The levels have some variety, I like that the maps aren't just cooridors but do require vertical movement, platforming, and some tricky jumps, there are some light puzzles, and the graphics are decent.

The bad controls and awful camera are a big problem which make the game a lot less fun, though. The d-pad offers tank controls, while the analog stick moves in the way you point the stick. It's nice to have both options. However, movement on the analog stick is digital. The stick runs only, and have to hold a button to walk, and can only move in about eight directions, there is no 360 degree movement. So, crazily enough, when trying to navigate the narrow beam platforms that are common in this game, you need to use the d-pad, because tank controls give you precise control of which direction you are moving in, something impossible with the (not-)analog stick. You look up and down, to hit flying enemies and the like, with L2 and R2. You can remap the controls, but it'll be buttons somewhere, and it's not good. The camera is also really awful, and constantly fails to follow my movements. YOu can hit Square once to center the camera behind you (don't double-tap Square by accident, that changes weapons!), but it'll just get out of line again. The bad camera makes those narrow platforms even harder to navigate without falling off! Using the d-pad helps, but still, the camera is a problem. It also makes lining up attacks harder than it should be. You have several weapons from the start, including both melee weapons and a gun, but the gun has limited ammo and there is no first-person view or targeting crosshair in this game! There also isn't any autoaim, and if you miss there is no mark showing how far off you are. You just need to try to line up the camera with the enemy and fire away and hope for the best (and that you kill the guy before running out of ammo). It's probably best to stick with the melee weapons when you can. I found myself constantly missing enemies with melee attacks too, though, because you need to be lined up right with them to hit them, and they are aggressive about hitting you when they can. With time you get used to it, but there's a big, annoying learning curve here. Overall, the level designs and puzzle elements are the best things about this game, but its issues are significant. This is not one of the better third-person 3d action-adventure games I've played on the PS1, but controls aside it's okay. Really frustrating, but okay.


Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. Spyro 2 is very similar to the first game (which I discussed in the first PS1 list), but with new levels and a new, but equally generic, story. There's not much of anything else original here, though, it's just more Spyro. I thought the first game was kind of boring because of the often barren levels, relatively small level size compared to 3d platformers on other systems, and above all the games' far too low difficulty level. This game doesn't fix any of those problems, unfortunately, and the main quest is still far too easy apart from occasional annoying parts. Combat, bosses aside, is easy; Spyro's flame and charge attacks are strong. Just learn which attack to use against each enemy type and enemies will be no threat. There is some of challenge, mostly from jumping puzzles, if you want to complete all of the missions in the game, though, so that's something. At first I thought the game would be a complete pushover, but some of the orb missions are tough. That's in part because of the controls and stupid instant-death pits, though. Spyro doesn't control nearly as well as top N64 3d platformers do! Part of that is the controller, I know, because the PS1/2/3 controller's analog sticks are far too loose and imprecise, but the game doesn't control as well as it should either. Sometimes the game barely even feels like you're getting proper proportional analog movement controls, which is annoying and causes some of the challenge. I know this game had to work on a d-pad too, but it needs better controls, and all three PS1 Spryo games are like this. Landing jumps, or perhaps collision detection, sometimes is a bit weird, I miss platforms I thought I'd landed on. Also, like usual on the PS1, the game doesn't use the right stick; you rotate tht camera with the L and R buttons, not the right stick. L and R work, but since that stick is there it'd be great to support it, it'd be better. Cameras in 3d platformers are often an issue, I know, but it is an issue here, made worse by the sometimes-iffy controls. The game does have an awesome option to put a map of the area on screen. Use it, it's really helpful!

In Spyro 2, Spyro has been pulled into a new world because the villain Ripto was brought there, and has decided to take over the place. Naturally you'll need to save the day, everyone else is helpless. The game has several areas, each with a hub, six levels, and then a boss. Each level has a main, stupidly easy mission for a talisman, and three side missions for orbs, those two items being the standard Mario 64 star style collectables you need to save this world with. There are also 400 gems to collect in each stage. You'll need these to buy upgrades. Some of the orb missions require powers you won't initially have, so you'll need to backtrack to get everything. Fortunately the game DOES save what gems and orbs you've gotten when you leave a level, which is nice, though enemies and obstacles reset. However, as in the first game, there is far too much boring story in this game, almost all of it voice acted. Why did the people who made the Spyro games think that every single NPC you save needs to talk to you with overlong, boring dialog? It's like if after getting every star in Mario 64 you had to sit through a bunch of annoying dialog before you could continue! This was a problem in the first game, and it's just as bad here, just with new characters for Spyro to talk to, including a scientist animal, a faun girl, and a humanoid cat-man. Each world has its own characters as well. There's solid variety here, including water levels, regular levels, and more. Levels aren't huge, but are decent-sized. You probably couldn't expect more from the PS1's very limited amount of RAM. As in the first game, Spyro 2 looks quite nice. This is definitely a top-tier series, graphically, for the PS1. The gameplay never matches up to the graphics, though. I'm only through the first world so far, but I guess this game is okay; my first impression was bad, but it gets a little better as you get into it. I know that this is a generally easy series, though, so don't expect a real challenge here. Overall, the game, and series, show the PS1's limitations off; the Ps1 just isn't quite able to match the N64 in 3d platformers. Still, for the PS1 this game is alright, and I did get a bit hooked once I hit some slightly harder parts, even if some of that was because of the not-great controls.


Spyro: Year of the Dragon
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1 player, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad supported. This third Spyro game is more of the same. There are a few minor new features, most notably that you can play as other characters in some limited parts of the game, but for the most part, this game is Spyro again. I'm sure series fans are happy that three similar games were released on the platform, but I find this one about as bland as its predecessors. Sadly enough, though, for the somewhat weak field of PS1 3d platformers, this game is one of the better ones on the platform. This might be the best Spyro game; it's a slightly improved version of the previous games, mostly. This time a villainous Sorceress from the other side of the world has stolen all of the dragon eggs, right after the Dragon Festival where the eggs just... appear. This is all G-rated stuff after all. In the series-standard overly-frequent cutscenes, we learn that there used to be dragons on the other side of the world, but ever since they left a thousand years ago magic has slowly been fading. So yeah, the sorceress is just trying to save magic in her realm, though through villainous means. She also has an underling, a young witch who you'll see often. So, Spyro has to save the day (and beat up the innocents as much as you want along the way with no reprisal, that IS a weird thing about this series), and of course the 150 eggs are this games' main collectable, along with gems (money). Each level has 6 missions for eggs, and 400 gems. Also as usual, the game starts out far too easy, and only slowly goes up, and not in good ways; the annoying jumping puzzles return. I like jumping puzzles in 3d platformers, but these games just don't control as well as they should, and why are there so many instant-death pits in these childrens' games? While dying is a minor punishment, game over DOES punish yout a bit. And why does the game STILL feel like the controls are often barely analog? Of course, the PS1 analog stick is awful (why did Sony copy the idea of analog, without putting in the effort to actually put a decent one on their controller?), but PS2 games don't control quite as bad as this, while PS1 games often seem to. I blame the need for d-pad support, probably. Ah well. So, Spyro controls just like before. The four new characters, though, each play a bit differently, and I like the addition, it mixes things up a bit. The first one is a kangaroo; she has a great double-jump and high jump, but her kick attack is much harder to hit enemies with than Spyro's overpowered-as-always flame and charge attacks. The added variety is nice. Spyro: Year of the Dragon also looks great; this game looks about as good as PS1 games get. Impressive work was done to cover over a lot of the texture warping, though there is some of course. I wish that they'd ditched the constant cutscenes though, why did they think those were a good ideaa? Yeah, they try to make them funny, but there doesn't need to be so many of them, and they aren't always funny.

The game has issues, of course. First, the game is still mostly easy, apart for those issues with the controls, jumping, and bottomless pits. Also, the map is gone; there's no map in this game, sadly! Why in the world would they do that, it's a horrible change! Yeah, this game isn't hard to learn, but maps make games better, period. Also, you can only play as the new characters in certain areas designed for them. It'd have been cool if the game let you explore more with each one, as you can with, say, the transformations in Banjo-Kazooie. In addition, this game also has some vehicles you can use... including skateboarding, of course. Almost every game around this time had to have skateboarding in it, and this one is no exception. There are others as well, but really, Spyro skateboarding is kind of stupid. He can fly (kind of), why would you need to do that? And the game is still very bland and simplistic, as well. Insomniac's Spyro games are very basic games, clearly designed for a young audience. I don't like the storytelling style of the PS1 Spyro games, and as usual some of the characters are annoying. The PS1 Spyro games do not have the depth, challenge, great level designs, or great gameplay of Nintendo or Rare's 3d platformers of the era, it's not even close. Still, this is an alright game, above average for its platform for sure. Flawed, but okay I guess.


Starwinder: The Ultimate Space Race
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1 player, saves (1 block). Starwinder is a subpar futuristic action/racing game. As the name suggests this game is set in space, with spaceships, instead of on a track. You have to follow a narrow railed path anyway, though, so no wandering is allowed here. There is a red power strip going along each course, you see, called a Rail, and if you stick close to it you go faster. You QUICKLY lose speed if you get away from the rail. Argh! In a flight racing game, I'd much rather actually fly around, not just stick to the red strip. This game isn't much fun. The many lengthy CG cutscenes are pretty amusing ("50 minutes of CG animation!" says the box), but the gameplay is poor at best. Oddly, this is a first-person game only. I'd rather have a third-person view. The environments and enemy ships are very basic low-polygon affairs; this is an ugly game. Combat is important here, of course. Shooting is almost as important as flying, in Starwinder. There are both obstacles and opponents to blow away, and you've got lasers to shoot stuff with. That's the basic gameplay. It's simple, but does get tricky eventually, thanks to all the obstacles and the curving courses. At least you CAN fly around in space, though, unlike CyberSpeed (PS1). I'd rather play Starwinder than that game, at least. The ridiculous, comedic cutscenes make the game worth a look too. I don't know if it's actually worth PLAYING, though; maybe just watch the cutscenes on Youtube... actually playing this game alternates between boring and frustrating. Starwainder isn't completely awful, it can be kind of amusing in short bursts, but it is a mediocre game at best for sure. The numerous absurd cutscenes are by far the best thing here.


Steel Reign
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2 player simultaneous, saves (1 block), Analog Gamepad support. Steel Reign is a great tank action game published by Sony. This game is a very good game that somehow is mostly forgotten, and doesn't seem to have made much of an impact when it released either. I really like this game, though! It's probably the best tank action game I've played on PS1, above games like Tiny Tank or the PS1 version of BattleTanx: Global Assault. It's not quite the equal of the N64 Battletanx games, or PC and Dreamcast games like Recoil or Red Dog, but for the PS1, Steel Reign is about as good as it gets! I first played this game on that one PS1 demo disc I have, which I mentioned in the original PS1 Game Opinion Summaries thread, so as soon as I saw the full game, I knew I had to get it and did, and it did not disappoint! The game starts with a live-action video cutscene. It's pretty amusing in that '90s live-action-video FMV way. Basically, evil forces are attacking, and only one guy in his tank can save the world, and you're him. The intro is presented as more of a news broadcast than just generic action-movie intro, though, which is nice, makes it a bit more interesting. This game's mostly gameplay though, not story.