2010/5/25: Playstation: Brain Dead 13, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Destruction Derby

[VideoGameCritic]

Here are three new Playstation reviews, which I think are pretty good.  Destruction Derby is an update which nicely sets up my forthcoming Destruction Derby 64 review.

Croc is a pretty decent platformer, but Brain Dead 13 is a horrible mess.

Comments?

[Sudz1]

So Shaun White was investigating haunted houses before he took the slopes with his snowboard?  Nice bit of trivia!  Good reviews, although I may have bumped Destruction Derby up a half-letter grade simply based on how many awful 'destruction derby' games tend to be in general... at least this one sort of got the point.  Not as well as Nintendo did with their version, but still more of a C+ effort in my book.

[MikieSm]

Ha, I actually have one of those Playstation 1 link cables. Back in the day, this guy who lived next door would occasionally haul over his Playstation and a 27" TV and we would have an all-nigher racing in "Wipeout XL." I bought Demolition Derby for less then a dollar several years ago, played it once, never came out again...

[Truthfulpietro1]

Croc: I remember playing this game on the PC. Brings back memories

Brian Dead 13: You reviewed the Atari Jaguar version and gave that a D, right? Does that still stand?

[VideoGameCritic]

[QUOTE=Truthfulpietro]

Brian Dead 13: You reviewed the Atari Jaguar version and gave that a D, right? Does that still stand?
[/QUOTE]

Yeah - that one was playable at least.

[Truthfulpietro1]

If that is the case, I wonder what the 3DO and Sega Saturn versions would be like?

[PSX1]

First, great Shaun White reference. Second, I might be one of the few other people to play the PSX version of Brain Dead 13 (did so within the last 6 months actually), and one of the very very few to actually beat the game (though I completely admit to full-on cheating to do so).

In the 90s, the magazine ads for Brain Dead 13 were very intriguing, and a few years ago I went through a veeery brief FMV collecting phase. I ended up picking up the Playstation version of the game because it is considered pretty rare (7 on the Digital Press scale) and I was able to get a copy for like $10 on eBay. Flash forward to very recently, and I still hadn't played it. I ended up selling it for $30 on Amazon, so I decided to actually play it before parting ways with it.

To do so, I got an online guide and just followed it step by step to complete the game. (I just wanted to see the full game story, so I didn't care about cheating.) With the step by step guide, the game was very tough. Without it, I could tell the game would be IMPOSSIBLE. For one, Critic, you don't just press the button once to register a move. For example, if you want to go Left, you usually need to hit Left three straight times before it registers. For me, I had a guide in front of me, so I could just slam on the Left button until it registered a "good move" and then I could immediately start slamming on the next button. But if someone didn't have a guide, you would be completely clueless as to what buttons to hit and when to hit them (even with the guide, it took me 20 minutes to figure this out and clear the first room). It really makes no sense whatsoever and the F- is well deserved.

However, the story itself is pretty decent by FMV standards, so I recommend the GameFAQs guide if you ever have an interest in seeing the game in its entirety. But you might give it an F-- once you see what little sense the button presses make.

[PSX1]

Also, I was in the same boat as you when it came to 3D platformers on the PSX circa 1997. There was nothing to compete with the N64.

The only really good one I recall at that time was Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998), the 3D follow-up to the original Gex. But I haven't played that since 1998, so not sure how well it's held up. (The game was also released on the N64 with improved graphics, but a substantial hit to the number of Gex's wisecracks because of the limited cartridge format. Plus, since the N64 had top-class platformers already, most people only noticed the PSX version.)

[Adamant1]

I played the N64 port of Enter the Gecko not too long after it came out, and didn't think too much of it then, and I can't imagine it having become much better since. Gex had an excellent debut in his original 2D platformer, but his switch to 3D was a mistake. Shame. Stick to Spyro if you want a PSX 3D platformer.

[JustLikeHeaven1]

Give me Spryo the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot over Super Mario 64 any day of the week!  In my eyes Mario 64 was and still remains one of the most overrated games ever made.  The "big expansive worlds" are hardly pleasing to look at today.  They look like barren wastelands of basic polygons compared to the beautiful Mushroom Kingdoms from the NES and SNES days.  Also Mario 64 introduce the silly aspect of "collecting stars" which is series staple that frankly needs to disappear.

Mario 64 might be better than copy cat garbage like Croc, but I don't believe it's earned it's place in the hallowed halls of the platformer hall of fame. 

Good call on Destruction Derby.  That game has not aged well at all.  Plus if you want excellent car wrecks more modern games have got that covered extremely well.

I have Brain Dead 13 on the 3DO and my friend and I always really like it.  The game is dumb and it's pointless trial and error, but I really liked the gothic horror, cartoonish graphics.  I was a huge fan of all the crazy ways you could die in that game.  Though the scenes of the main character springing back to life with the trumpet fanfare music wear unskipable and very annoying.  To me the game felt like a mixture Scooby Doo and the Itchy and Scratchy show...I always found it strangely appealing!