Playstation Reviews O-P

This sprawling OddWorld sequel retains the formula of the original game while incorporating bizarre new creatures, expansive new environments, and added gameplay techniques. This time our Mudokon alien hero is infiltrating a massive bone-processing factory (Mudokon bones of course). Exodus comes spread over two disks with a 60-page instruction booklet, giving some indication of just how big and involved this adventure really is. The industrial environments are not quite as dark this time, but still offer the same brand of thoughtfully designed puzzles. There's usually only one way to solve each one, and your execution needs to be near perfect. Like the first game, speaking simple commands plays a key role. One useful new phrase is "All Y'all", which allows you to address several of your Mudokon friends at a time. Later in the game you can "possess" other creatures, and each species has its own limited vocabulary. Another new element is the "mine cart", which actually resembles a big wheel that crushes everything in its path. Tubes can be used to move between areas, and well-rendered cut-scenes do a nice job of conveying Abe being whisked between locations. Like the first game, it's cool how you'll often inadvertently preview new areas as you move through the contiguous screens. Perhaps the best new feature of Exodus is its "quick save", which lets you save your progress at the touch of a button. Like all OddWorld titles, a quirky sense of humor pervades your journey, from the green clouds caused by fluctuation to blind Mudokons who miss escape portals and jump into walls instead. A two-player coop mode is also included, but it's alternating turns only, and I really didn't have the patience for it. Exodus is a well-constructed adventure, but the benefit of the new features is largely offset by the games' more elaborate and demanding puzzles. Exoddus will thrill those who mastered the first game, but for newcomers this is a heck of a lot to chew. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

Abe's Oddysee was considered fresh and innovative upon its release, and it still retains those qualities many years later. Not only did OddWorld deliver quality 2D gameplay on a system best known for its polygons, but it conveyed a very distinctive style and dark atmosphere. Abe's gameplay is similar to 2D adventures like Flashback (Genesis, 1995), but OddWorld takes the formula to the next level with innovative features and excellent graphics. The main character is a goofy-looking "Modokon" alien forced to perform slave labor in a meat factory. When Abe discovers that Mudokon is the main ingredient in the latest product, he makes a bid to escape. Getting Abe to safety requires trigger reflexes and puzzle-solving abilities. To help me review this challenging game I enlisted the help my buddy George, who's not only a big fan of the Oddworld series, but also bears a striking resemblance to the main character. As Abe sneaks between contiguous screens in the dark industrial facility, he can save his fellow Mukodons by sending them through escape portals. This requires him to first communicate using a number of simple phrases like "hello", "follow me", and "wait". Saving Mudokons is optional, but dedicated gamers (like George) will go to great lengths in order to save every last one. Along the way you'll need to evade nasty guards with claw-like heads and yapping dog-like creatures. Abe is unarmed but can lure adversaries into trap doors and meat grinders. OddWorld incorporates a lot of stealth elements like tiptoeing past sleeping guards, hiding in shadows, and fooling motion detectors by standing still as their beams pass over. The character animations have a whimsical charm, and the dark industrial scenery is rendered with an artistic flair you'll rarely find in a 3D title. An ominous musical score adds tension, with great stereo sound effects that often cue you in to what's in the next room. Abe's Oddysee is a satisfying adventure, but only if you have the patience. Many areas need to be tackled in a strategic, deliberate manner, with little room for error. You will die a lot in this game, and the trial-and-error nature of it all can border on tedious. You can save your progress from the pause menu. OddWorld is not for everybody, but gamers looking for a more cerebral challenge will be hooked. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

Philosoma feels like a classic 2D shooter trapped in a 3D polygon world. Your ship is positively huge and you can unleash an impressive barrage of rapid-fire shots. The opening stage is a vertical shooter with asteroids, but they don't crumble easily. You can weave your way through them, but it's a tight squeeze. Enemy ships make their entrance by whizzing past the camera before settling into shooting range. This scaling effect is neat but it obstructs your view. Subsequent stages offer a variety of 2D and 3D viewpoints, and I like that. The 3D stages wind through some dark valleys, and they probably looked pretty impressive back in 1996. In general the 2D stages look like crap but are more playable. You can toggle between several weapons, each of which can be powered up. The rapid-fire vulcan is the most practical weapon but wiping the screen with the laser beam is also satisfying. The stage sequence is bizarre. Sometimes it feels like you're playing the same stage (or even fighting the same boss) twice in a row! A female radio voice alerts you to approaching enemies, and yeah, she actually called that boss "Doggy House". Save your smart bombs for the bosses, who tend to crowd the screen. I find it super lame how the larger defeated enemies just tend to smoke and drift off the screen. That doesn't satisfy my appetite for destruction. Full-motion video intermissions frequently interrupt the action, which were also pretty cool in 1996. Now you can skip them with the start button. Continues are available, but they take you way, way back. Philosoma is not particularly good, but if you enjoy shooters you might appreciate this strange, lost relic of the PS1 library. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

As with most early PS1 titles, Pitfall 3D kicks off with an obligatory full-motion video introduction. The story is an incomprehensible tale but the narrator sounds familiar. Hey, that's Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame! I'm liking this game already! Beyond the Jungle attempts a major franchise transition, easing the player into the third dimension with a gentle learning curve. As the title implies, it ditches the jungle environments for underground dungeons with magical mechanisms, floating platforms, and tacky yellow arrows that point the way. As if the arrows weren't enough, you can always follow the trail of huge blue gems. In a nod to the original Pitfall (Atari 2600, 1982), Beyond the Jungle incorporates disappearing pits, rolling logs, scorpions, and gold bars. When swinging on vines Bruce Campbell unleashes a mean Tarzan yell. The controls are digital-only so moving diagonally can be hard on the thumb. Pitfall 3D requires you to navigate a lot of floating platforms in dark environments. Fortunately the game incorporates "whoops I almost walked off that edge technology", saving you from a lot of careless deaths. Sadly, you do not have the benefit of "ledge-grabbing jump technology". The stages are peppered with random enemies like apes, flaming skulls, pixies, and pterodactyls. I find it odd how you can't harm those puny scorpions, yet giant rock monsters go down with one blow of your pickaxe. Among the traps and hazards is a mysterious blue liquid that causes Harry to levitate over it. The graphics are very good but depth perception is an issue when hopping between platforms. The stages are pretty big, so when you complete one you feel like you actually accomplished something! You can save after each stage and sometimes even in the middle of a stage. Bruce Campbell keeps things light with random one-liners like "Sayonara!", "Let's rock!", and "Step aside, coming though!" Pitfall 3D is fun for a while, but I grew weary of the cookie-cutter stages and ubiquitous items. Do I really need to collect all these blue diamonds and poker chips? After a while I started to wish I was back in the jungle again. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

When was the last time a good volleyball video game was made? I'm guessing Kings of the Beach for the NES, and that was way back in 1988! Power Spike is no classic, but it will satisfy some gamers with a craving for volleyball action. As a volleyball player myself, I was pretty psyched up about Power Spike Pro, especially with mega-babe Gabrielle Reese featured on the front cover. Power Spike gets off to a good start with a short video montage featuring some hot-looking women players in action. There's a long list of men and women pros to choose from, but once the action gets under way, the first thing you notice is the lousy graphics. My friend Scott even asked "Is it possible to give the graphics an F-?". The rough, poorly rendered players do look pretty sorry. There are several beach locations, but they all look the same, with huge crowd stands blocking what could have been some attractive scenery. But the number one problem by far is the camera. No matter what angle you select, you are always too far away! It's like watching the game from the nosebleed section! Forget about the four-player action; the two-player mode is hard enough to watch. The sound effects are abysmal, with uneven, disjointed crowd noise. The players seem to yell unintelligible phrases like "Nobody!" for no reason. The control is a mixed bag. Players move nervously, but the control scheme makes targeting the ball easy, and I love the way you can aim your shots. If you can look past the poor graphics and sound, Power Spike does provides some decent one or two-player volleyball action. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.

I own so many versions of Primal Rage I completely overlooked this Playstation edition. It's an extremely close port of the coin op that used to enthrall me at Mr. G's sub shop back in 1994. All of the awesome cinematics are included, along with several extraneous modes I never play. The opening line of the instruction booklet reads: "Eons ago, before humans walked the planet, there was rage." Primal Rage pits dinosaurs and giant apes against each other in a post-apocalyptic world. Stylistically this has got to be one of the coolest games of its era. You have to love those huge, stop-motion animated creatures. You'd think dinosaur attacks would be limited to bite and tail whip, but the developers concocted plenty of imaginative special attacks including venom spit, freeze breath, and ground pounds. The fascinating stages incorporate towering glaciers, volcanic ruins, and dilapidated skyscrapers. The fighting action is fine but certainly not on the same level as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. The controls are a little stiff and the collision detection is loose. You really need to have a special move or two under your belt to make much progress in this game. The manual lists several for each creature, but why did they have to refer to the buttons by numbers? It would be a lot less confusing if they referred to "button X" instead of "button 3". Using the same attack too often causes a "no cheese" icon to flash, yet that didn't prevent me from liberally applying Vertigo's venom attack to take down a string of foes. I noticed a lot of subtle details in this version of the game, like the way Sauron's tongue hangs out of his mouth or how Vertigo spits at the camera. The continue screen features a chick imploring you to keep going, and she looks a lot like Dana Plato. There's a high score screen but sadly it doesn't save to memory card. Primal Rage may go down in history as an average fighter, but the game still remains a spectacle to behold. © Copyright 2017 The Video Game Critic.

The late 90's was an interesting time for golf titles which were beginning to experiment with digitized graphics and 3D visuals. Pro 18 World Tour Golf has both. Courses are rendered with green polygons that seamlessly blend with static photo backdrops. The game features several professional players like Mark O'Meara and Vijay Singh who are digitized and superimposed over the course like weathermen. While strangely detached from the action, it's still neat to watch them react to great shots and tough misses. Pro 18's control scheme is overengineered. Press a button to start the half-circle swing meter, and press it again at the top to set your power. Then things get weird. For the third press you must hold in the button, causing a second green meter. This little thing fills so fast that by the time you see it, it's already full! No wonder my shots always landed in the pixelated sludge just to the right of the fairway. There's actually a second or two lag between using the meters and watching the swing animation. I do like how the ball explodes off the club like a rocket and stops on a dime. It's not very realistic but it keeps things moving. British commentators chime in after each shot but I'm always cutting them off by pressing a button (sorry chaps!). The best club is selected for you before each shot but the game doesn't help with your aim. While putting, the hole is off-center, which is confusing. Thank goodness the hole itself tends to suck in every ball in its vicinity with its tractor beam. My first impression of the scenery was not good, as the Scotland landscape looked like a hazy, pixelated mess. Later I discovered that was due to the randomized weather conditions. Check out these options: very foggy, foggy, misty, hazy, dull, bright, light rain, and rain. If you set the weather to anything but "bright" this game looks like garbage! Under the right conditions however the three courses are actually quite scenic, and classy piano music compliments the visuals. It look me about 16 holes to get the hang of the controls and I finished 47 over. Is that good? Pro 18 could have been better designed but sports fans looking for a challenge may want to give it a shot. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.