Game Art Gallery #2

Most of my fellow UK retro gamers will probably remember the various Psygnosis adverts that appeared in magazines like C&VG and Ace back in the late 80s and early 90s, and for a majority of us they will be something we remember fondly. I've recently been looking into these in a bit more detail and found a few that I'd never even seen before. After careful consideration, I posted my Top Five a few months back, but there were some tough choices and the ones that didn't make the list deserve to be seen too. I therefore now present what I believe to be the complete Psygnosis adverts gallery! Well, the ads in this style at least, but I'm probably wrong anyway (grunkle). I've also tried to tidy/touch up some of the images too. Hope you like them, and let me know of any I missed :)

 

Top Five Psygnosis Arts

I have many happy memories of the various computer and/or game magazines I grew up reading but one of a handful of memories that stands out the most are those of the truly wonderful Psygnosis advertisements that adorned said magazines. They were most prevalent from the late 80s to early 90s and they were so eye-catching that to this day I still remember most of them while knowing little about the actual games they were advertising! This is mainly because most of them were for the Amiga and Atari ST which I didn't have, but I will remedy this in a series of posts in near (ish) future. In the meantime, here's a pick of some of the finest examples of their adverts from those glorious days. A gallery of them all will follow.

5. Barbarian (1987)

No, not that violent Barbarian game with Wolf and Maria Whittaker in the advert, although that was also memorable for different reasons (chortle!). The artwork for this Barbarian was, like many Psygnosis games, the work of talented British artist Roger Dean and, slightly oddly, places the warrior of the title only in the title logo thingy rather than in the actual scenario depicted in the art. The only creature there is a red dinosaur-type beastie which, as far as I know, doesn't feature in the game at any stage, but it's certainly a distinctive piece all the same. The game itself is a stabby platform adventure which casts the player in the expected role, but it has aged much less favourably than its lovely artwork thanks to some slow, sluggish gameplay that isn't helped by a 'unique', somewhat cumbersome control method. Look but don't touch!

Retro Gaming Zoo #4

Humans are stupid. Animals are always better than stupid humans, everyone knows that, and it's something that's also true in the world of video games. A tremendous variety of weird and wonderful animals have starred in games over the years and here I'll be taking a closer look at some of them. Next up is:

Creature #4 - Alestes of Agony
Type of Creature? Owl  Realistic Portrayal? Kind of, yes

By the early-90s, animal characters were firmly established in the world of videogames, often taking the starring role, but most of these were found in platform or general action games. There had of course been a shoot 'em up example or two but they were few and far between. One, however, that pretty much everyone remembers, here in the UK at least, is Agony. Not only was it from Psygnosis in the days of their gorgeous, distinctive game artwork, but the animal it featured was also a glorious, majestic barn owl. Alestes, as it turned out (if you read the accompanying blurb) was a student wizard who had been transformed into a barn owl, but it mattered not to those who played it - we were in control of a beautifully-animated flapper, swooshing through moody locales and taking out horrifying beasties with his echolocation waves. Now, I can't say for sure how destructive real owl echolocation waves are, and I'm confident they can't be powered-up, but aside from that uncertainty (and the fact that he used to be a human), Alestes does appear to be not only a graceful game character, especially for a shoot em up, but also a pretty accurately-portrayed one.

Is His Game Any Good? Indeed it is. To be honest, it was always a game I expected to be more style than substance, and I suppose it is, but contrary to what is often the norm in those circumstances, it doesn't make it a bad game. Aside from its visuals, it didn't break any new ground, admittedly, but it was a cracking game for its time and is still very enjoyable now. Check the full review here.

Overrated! #8

Destruction Derby (1995)
By: Reflections / Psygnosis Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 (via link-up) Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation First Day Score: 108
Also Available For: Saturn, PC

Unlike the poor old Saturn, the PS1 had a good few decent titles available at launch, including some that did a great job of showing off what the system could do. One of the more popular was Destruction Derby, a vehicular combat game developed right here in spiffing Blighty! Sadly, this was not enough to win my favour, and it wasn't even to do with my strong Sega allegiance as the Saturn got a version too! Indeed, as boring as it might be, I didn't like the game at the time, simply because I didn't enjoy playing it much. I was clearly in the minority though, for it was enthusiastically received by gamers of the time, many of them eager to impress all-comers with their fancy new consoles, and the series is fondly remembered today as well, so I thought it was high time I went back for another, perhaps less scornful look.

Computer Shmups #7

Agony (1992)
By: Art & Magic / Psygnosis Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Commodore Amiga First Day Score: 93,136
Also Available For: Nothing

Shmups have come in all manner of shapes and sizes over the long years of their existence, which is as many years as videogames have been around themselves, in fact. Most of them put you in command of an aircraft or spaceship, some cast you as a lone wizard or warrior of some sort, taking on the evildoers on foot, but there have been very few animal-based shooters. The Amiga is home to two notable examples however, both of which were released in the same year. Almost certainly the most memorable of the two, all things considered, was Agony. Even on a system not particularly associated with arcade-style shooters, it earned attention from all quarters, at least here in the UK during what was probably the genre's heyday. Most marvelled at the impressive artwork, both promotional and in-game, but how does it stand up today?

Crap Games #8

Shadow of the Beast (1989)
By: Reflections / Psygnosis Genre: Fighting Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Commodore Amiga
Also Available For: MegaDrive, Master System, PC Engine CD, FM Towns, Lynx, Atari ST, C64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

If you could go back in time to the end of the 80's and took a stroll to your local computer retailer (and yes, those little independent shops did used to exist), there's a very good chance the window displays would include, amongst other things, an Amiga running Shadow of the Beast. Its release was very quickly followed by all and sundry heralding its wondrous audio/visual delights and, naturally enough, many shop keepers swiftly seized upon these qualities in an attempt to sell more Amigas. Who could blame them? It certainly made an impressive sight. Before too long, however, the game developed a reputation of being all style over substance. Some even called it a glorified tech-demo. Not that anything is wrong with tech-demos of course, they've been used to sell hardware since there has been hardware, but most of those aren't then put on sale as full games at about three times the price of a normal release...

Overrated! #7

Wipeout (1996)
By: Psygnosis Genre: Racing Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega Saturn
Also Available For: PlayStation, PC
Download For: PlayStation Network

Well, it's certainly a pretty cool title screen...

Developers had been experimenting with futuristic racing games for some time already before Nintendo came along and gifted us with the mighty F-Zero. Mighty as it was, though, being a Nintendo game, it was just a little too cartoony and colourful for some tough and manly gamers of the time. Luckily for them, Nintendo's superb game was sufficiently popular that the years that immediately followed it saw many developers rushing to try and topple it from its throne, and most of those were far more serious and 'realistic'. The most successful of these by some margin was Wipeout by British studio, Psygnosis, and it's a game that was immediately hailed by near enough everyone as the game that had finally made gaming acceptable, even 'cool'. As I would hope anyone reading this would know, however, that's no guarantee of it actually being enjoyable.

Random Game I've Never Heard Of #2

Obitus (1993)
By: Psygnosis  Genre: RPG  Players: 1-2  Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo SNES
Also Available For: Amiga, Atari ST, PC

Right or wrong, certain systems are often known for one genre of game more than any other. You could say the SNES was most associated with Mode 7 or SuperFX games but for me it was RPG's. The MegaDrive had a few good ones but it couldn't compete with games like Terranigma, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, the Final Fantasy series, and of course A Link to the Past. If I know this, Psygnosis must've known it too, so they must've either been feeling brave or very confident to release this game on Nintendo's machine. At first glance it looks and feels more like an Amiga game so it's no surprise to find that it was originally! That's not necessarily a bad thing of course - the Amiga is home to some fantastic RPG's but are any of them really suited to what was at the time the flashiest console yet seen?

MegaDrive Platform Games #1

Wiz 'n' Liz (1993)
By: Raising Hell Software / Psygnosis  Genre: Platform  Players: 1-2  Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis  First Day Score: 1,487,025
Also Available For: Amiga

Released about mid-way through the MegaDrive's life, this quirky platformer for some reason seemed to slip under the radar for most gamers at the time. Is that because it sucks? Actually, no, and it was released on the most popular console and computer of the time, and came during a period when the genre was at its peak too, so it's a mystery to me why more people haven't played it! I actually first encountered it in a very favourable review in an Amiga magazine but it was the MegaDrive version I would ultimately purchase, purely because the MD is better than the Amiga as everyone knows (hee hee!), but the MD is also far better catered for as far as this kind of game is concerned too. So how did Wiz 'n' Liz fare against the likes of Sonic? Not too well, one might think, but could Psygnosis have a surprise in store?