1st March 2015, 1:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 1st March 2015, 1:21 AM by A Black Falcon.)
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.
Total summaries here: 108
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. :p 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. :p 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
---------
SUMMARIES
---------
ESPN/espn2 Extreme Games [aka 1Xtreme]
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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)
--
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)
--
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]
--
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)
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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)
--
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)
--
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
--
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
--
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)
--
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 ...
Total summaries here: 108
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. :p 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. :p 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
---------
SUMMARIES
---------
ESPN/espn2 Extreme Games [aka 1Xtreme]
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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)
--
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)
--
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]
--
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)
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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
--
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)
--
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)
--
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
--
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
--
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)
--
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 ...