This topic is now closed
Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Dodgem Arena - GAG - 83% (3)
Grand Slam - BBBA - 13% (4)
Machine Hunter - ABBB - 13% (4)
Real Bout Fatal Fury - GGAGAAA - 71% (7)
Ridge Racer - GAGAAAAAAAAAAA - 57% (14)(1 SR)
Scrabble - AGGAG - 80% (5) (1 SR)
I thought we weren't getting a lot of votes for Ridge Racer, but I guess we did in the end.
Games for this topic:
Discworld
Formula Karts Special Edition
Magical Drop
Power Shovel
Sampras Extreme Tennis
Twisted Metal
I'm not sure if Power Shovel is an edutainment game or not, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Just don't get it mixed up with Twisted Metal.
Discworld - G
ReplyDeleteFormula Karts Special Edition - B
Magical Drop - G
Power Shovel - G
Sampras Extreme Tennis - B
Twisted Metal - B
Discworld is kind of borderline between A and G. It's a classic point and click adventure game, and like most games of its era many of the puzzles are illogical and basically require you to try everything to find your way. One thing that contributes to this is the dialogue system. In most Lucasarts games of the era, you can choose what to say during dialogue, but here, you just choose types of things to say (ie, sarcastic, question, hostile, etc). This frequently makes it unclear when a dialogue option will result in a useful response, basically forcing you to try them all when meeting a new person (and sometimes later, after progressing the plot to see if they have new responses). Luckily, the game's dialogue is generally excellent. The VA for the main character is great and the whole game has a dry British wit to it that I find very enjoyable, and it helps set it apart from many of its competitors. I feel like the sense of humour helps this game feel unique and that's probably enough to elevate it to G level, just be prepared to consult a guide from time to time because it's unlikely anyone is going to figure out everything by themselves.
Formula Karts is probably one of the worst racers of the generation. First of all, this is NOT a kart racer in the standard sense. There are no items, no powerslides, no sense of speed, no wacky courses, or any of the things you would typically associate with the genre. It plays much more like a sim racer, except the karts are slow as dirt, the courses are extremely short and simple, and the handling is completely terrible, you unavoidably fishtail on every turn and lose a ton of speed (of course, the computer isn't affected). I just can't get over how dull this game is.
I remember playing the SNES version of Magical Drop 1 and thinking it sucked, so upon playing this version (which is decent) I had to go back to the SNES version to make sure I didn't get that one wrong. I didn't. The SNES version is trash. For starters, the SNES version lacks any kind of "combo noise", so it's very hard to tell what the game considers to be a combo (there's skill chaining in this game). Secondly, the SNES version just seems "slower" overall, your block stack increases slower and attacks seem to do less damage. These problems were generally fixed in SNES Magical Drop 2, which the PSX version plays more akin to. This version is a little light on modes, but the presentation is quite solid, which generally makes playing it a little easier. I'm sure the later versions probably have more improvements compared to this one, but this is still solid fun.
Power Shovel is even better than I had hoped. It's almost impossible to properly describe this game. For starters, yes, the game involves driving a power shovel, which is actually quite complex. You need to use every single button on the PS1 controller for this, the face buttons control the scoop, while the dpad moves the body and the R buttons drive. Secondly, this game is super Japanese. Scooping sand and loading up a truck might sound like a menial task, but this game has a great degree of enthusiasm for everything it does. The foreman is constantly barking out instructions in Japanese as you work (and harshly garnishing your pay when you screw up), and the translation for the game is super excited about everything and has a lot of charm. You also get to listen to JPop while you work, and there are bonus stages where you have to do weird things like smash a car with the shovel that are hilarious. This is the kind of craziness that I love about old Sony. You'd only see a game like this on PS1.
DeleteSampras Extreme Tennis is actually an extremely basic Tennis game. It's basically a 1 button game, you can press any button to hit the ball and as far as I can tell there's no variation in shot types, with the game just choosing the appropriate swing based on the ball's position. Serving is also super simple and you don't seem to have much control over ball placement either. It's playable, but I feel like Mario Tennis is such a major step up from this in every possible way that I'm not sure if it would even make the A range.
Twisted Metal will become a great franchise, but it's definitely not there yet. Compared to the later games, the most obvious issue with this game is that the control is really bad. Power slides basically don't exist at this point, which makes it nearly impossible to do a proper strafing run on someone. The arenas are also generally bland and poorly designed and it's almost impossible to tell what the weapon pickups are from a distance. Compared to even Twisted Metal 2, it's night and day.