Splendid PlayStation Music #3

I've been collecting game music for a good few years now. It started thanks to a combination of emulators and their splendid 'sound test' features along with recording programs such as Audacity, and I also used to download some examples using P2P file sharing thingies like Kazaa. For many moons I had a song called Moon Over the Castle which I acquired using the P2P method. It was excellent but I didn't know which game it was from. Admittedly, I didn't put too much effort into finding out and instead just assumed it was from a Castlevania game owing to its name and style.

I can't remember how, but I found out many years later where this great song came from, and it wasn't a Castlevania game at all - it was (and still is) actually the main theme to the Gran Turismo series! Judging by the musical style, a racing game would have been the last type I would've guessed, even one so mighty as Gran Turismo! It was written by Masahiro Andoh of T-Square and was, as far as I can tell, only used in the Japanese versions of the games until the fourth instalment which goes some way to explaining how I didn't know it was the theme to a game I'd played extensively! Anyway, however I might've encountered it, and wherever I thought it was from, it's a fantastic piece of music and I encourage you to embrace it accordingly!



Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit goes to the original composer

Super Conversions #2

The Need For Speed (1996)
By: Electronic Arts Genre: Driving Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: 3DO, Saturn, PC

The arrival of the fearsome 32-bit CD-based consoles in the mid-90s was a fascinating time for a gamer. There were several choices, some from newcomers, and in those days each offering needed a 'killer app' to succeed. In many people's eyes, Trip Hawkins' innovative 3DO had one in the shape of The Need For Speed - an immersive, technically stunning point-to-point driving game featuring a roster of real cars which could be driven over varied environments and landscape types against a rival. It persuaded many to commit to the hefty outlay required to play it and was a big hit with those who could afford it (or, more to the point, the expensive console which ran it). The sneers of smug 3DO owners were short-lived, however, as within a couple of years, Electronic bloody Arts had ported it to the PlayStation and Saturn, and it wasn't too long after this the 3DO itself went down as well.

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.

Overhead Racers #16

Speedster a.k.a. Rush Hour (1997)
By: Clockwork Entertainment / Psygnosis Genre: Overhead Racing Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

Racing games were a huge deal on the first few 32-bit consoles. The latest fancy 3D titles could help make or break a system, so why would you choose that time to make a crusty overhead-viewed example? They were relics from the ancient days, surely? Well, if you were going to do it, you should probably try and make it a 3D polygonal affair as well, right? That's what it looks like we have here anyway, although you could be forgiven when going through the various options screens that you were about to play a normal 3D 'behind the car' racing game. There is a split-screen two-player game, but solo players have the choice of Quick Race, Championship, or Time Trial modes. Then you can choose a car from two classes - High Performance or Heavy Metal - then choose a track, and away you go. Only, instead of being behind your car, the 'camera' seems more like it's attached to a helicopter above.

Retro News - PS1 Classic Lineup!

I don't usually cover stuff like this here but, having missed out on many PS1 games at the time due to my fierce Sega allegiance, this latest 'mini' console release is one that I have at least a bit of interest in. It was initially announced a few weeks ago accompanied by few details. Apparently the dinky console would come with a pair of original (non analogue) controllers for two-player splendidness, and twenty original PS1 games would be loaded onto it but, no more info was forthcoming.

Actually, that's not true - a few of the bundled titles were divulged at the time of the announcement but a majority remained a mystery. That is, until now (tootle tootle)! Indeed, the full line-up has now been unveiled and the reaction has been... somewhat mixed. I imagine most interested parties will have compiled wish-lists in their heads over the intervening weeks and I'm no different, but I figured I'd take a look at the official selection.

This 'look' will naturally be from the perspective of someone who has never been a big Sony gamer, and certainly not a fanboy (i.e. me), so it will probably be inane drivel unfit for the eyes of even a comatose marrow farmer, but that's okay since no one visits here nowadays anyway (guffaw/cry). Nonetheless, here is a look at the lucky few titles which will be split into three sections - the games included in all regions, the games only included with the console's Western release, and the games that only the Japanese players will get, and I thought I'd follow it up with my own picks.

First Look PS1 #1

Akuji the Heartless by Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive (1998) - PlayStation

It has been a while since I played a Tomb Raider-style adventure so I thought I'd have a quick look at this one. There are no English hotties with enormous boobs here though - instead I found myself in control of a scary voodoo dude who rather unkindly has his heart ripped out on his wedding day. That must've put a dampener on proceedings! He has one chance for happiness - traverse the realms of hell collecting souls. Gather enough he will be freed - probably just in time to save his better half too. This is where things become more familiar as our presumably-undead hero runs and leaps around the gloomy world that makes up the game's three main areas. I've only explored the first one so far which is rather dark and spooky, but it doesn't look as bad as one might expect hell to look. There are no rivers of lava or tortured souls to torment you anyway!

Maze Games #13

Loaded a.k.a. Blood Factory (1996)
By: Gremlin Interactive / Interplay Genre: Maze / Run 'n' Gun Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Saturn

As should be pretty clear from the title screen alone, Loaded is not a game for children. Though certainly not the first game to feature blood 'n' gore in a remotely realistic way, it was probably the first such game I played. It was therefore also the first game to make me question whether the inclusion of so much crimson content added enough to a game to make it worth restricting the number of people that could play it. We'll find that out soon I guess! It's set in the far future and features a space-faring mankind who have colonised many worlds in all corners of the galaxy. One such colony is the Raulf maximum security prison planet where six psychotic mercenaries are among the inmates. They have more reason than the many other inmates to feel aggrieved, however, as they have all been framed for the crimes of an evil space pirate known as F.U.B. who is now warden of the prison.

PlayStation Shmups #1

Airgrave (1996)
By: Santos Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation First Day Score: 156,200 (one credit)
Also Available For: Nothing

Foom, peeyoww! The greatest title screen of all-time?

Sony's debut console might not be most famous for shmups but there are quite a few available for it, many of them exclusively, and yet one that I've barely heard anything about is Airgrave. This could mean that it sucks arse of course but, whatever the reason, my curiosity to learn its secrets has hastened the start of this series of features! It was a Japan-only release so the story is largely incomprehensible to me but it's clear that we're in the usual territory. It's a military-style vertical scroller (as opposed to a spacey one) and it seems your objective, as laid down by some gruff-looking general type, is to destroy various targets on a pre-stage map screen, presumably bases and strongholds of some dastardly evil dictator or something. You get to choose between four different craft for this testing mission, each varying in terms of its ground attack, air attack, mobility, and defence, as well as its pilot.

Random Game I've Never Heard Of #10

Bakuryu a.k.a. Wild Rapids (2000)
By: Fujimic Inc. Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

One of the great things about the really successful consoles such as the PlayStation is that amongst its millions of releases are lots of obscure, niche titles that cover all sorts of ground left untouched by releases on other systems. One great example is this game which I discovered just this past week, having never previously even heard of it. It must've received a release somewhere in the West judging by its alternate title but it was the Japanese version I happened upon and was surprised but pleased to find a racing game, albeit one featuring kayaks in place of cars! Aside from the rowing event in Daley Thompson's Decathlon on the Speccy I don't think I've ever been in command of an engine-less boat in a video game before so I was immediately intrigued by this largely unknown game.

PlayStation Driving / Racing Games #3

Ridge Racer Revolution (1995)
By: Namco Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

If any game ever demonstrated the difference between arcade and home gaming it was Ridge Racer. Released in the arcades just as the obsession with polygon games was taking hold, it went down a storm, especially if you were lucky enough to happen upon the enormous version complete with a full-size car to sit in (a Mazda MX5/Eunos Roadster, I believe, which doesn't suit the game really). However, upon receiving a hasty conversion for the PlayStation's launch, the shortcomings of Namco's racer were all too obvious to everyone but the biggest graphics tarts. Yes, it looked nice - nicer than the rival Saturn version of Daytona USA - but the pitiful one-and-a-half courses got old very quickly, and that's if you even liked the game to begin with which I didn't thanks to its stupid twisty-twirly car handling. What this game needed was a sequel.

Puzzle Games #14

Kula World a.k.a. Kula Quest, a.k.a. Roll Away (1998)
By: Game Design Sweden AB / SCEE Genre: Puzzle / Platform Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation First Day Score: 104,770
Also Available For: Nothing
Download For: PlayStation Network

When the fancy 32-bit consoles arrived, every developer around was frantically trying to convert all the game genres under the sun into equally fancy 3D games to wow expectant gamers. Most tried but few succeeded, at least as far as some genres were concerned. One of these was that of puzzle games which probably didn't really seem like a priority at the time. However, from nowhere, courtesy of a developer no one had even previously heard of, came Kula World which, like so many puzzle games before it, seemed like such an obvious idea that it's amazing no one had thought of it before! Accordingly, the concept is a simple one: you are charged with guiding a beach ball (a 'Kula' beach ball, no less) across/around a floating geometric shape with the ultimate objective of reaching the exit. As any gamer should already know, however, it's not quite that simple.

Almost 3D Platform Games #1

Spider: The Video Game (1996)
By: Boss Game Studios Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

The arrival of the powerful 32-bit CD-based consoles brought many new and exciting things to gaming but one of the most obvious was 3D games. Although some had come before, notably on the PC, it was now much easier for developers to create complex game worlds in all three dimensions. A good number of these flashy new games came on Sony's PlayStation which was much better suited to the job than the Saturn (boo hoo!) but, whilst they almost always looked nice, not all of them were truly 3D. This was particularly true of platform games - many featured lovely polygonal worlds in which you often spent as much time moving into and out from the screen as you did moving left and right, but their stages were still linear, forcing you to follow a set path. This didn't necessarily make them bad of course; some were spiffing and one that I always found interesting was Spider.

PlayStation Driving / Racing Games #2

Motorhead (1998)
By: Digital Illusions CE / Gremlin Interactive Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: PC 

It was a pain in the arse getting this screen grab :|

The 70's and 80's were surely the 'golden age' of hard rock and heavy metal and one of the most iconic bands to emerge during this grand period were Motörhead. They were founded way back in 1975, took the world by storm, and are still recording music together today. Their longevity can at least partially be attributed to Lemmy who is about as close to a living deity as can be found in the world today. Some even believe that he possesses magical powers of some type. How else can his enormous success with young ladies be explained? Then again, perhaps his high 'score' count can be attributed to his money and success more than his 'good looks', or indeed his reputed magical powers. Nonetheless, their legacy remains strong today - even one of the most successful wrestlers ever - Triple H - used a Motörhead song as his entrance music. It's ironic then, that Motorhead - the game has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Motörhead - the band.

Golf Games #4

Everybody's Golf a.k.a. Hot Shots Golf (1997)
By: Camelot Software Planning / SCEI Genre: Sports Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

It's a bit of a spoiler but this is all ten characters!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my favourite kind of golf game by far is the cartoony, arcadey type which those zany folks over in the Far East seem to do so well. There's quite a few of these around nowadays but the one which kick-started the whole craze was the first in a series which happily is still going strong today - the mighty Everybody's Golf! The original, like all subsequent instalments, was released exclusively on Sony hardware, in this case the original PlayStation where it was met with a reasonable reception without really setting the world alight. For some reason though, I was immediately taken with it despite having almost no interest in actual golf and not even being fully aware of the rules to begin with. I guess that's always been the secret of the success of the series though - easily accessible and full of charm! The series is a somewhat startling sixteen years old now though, so how does this début hold up after so many sequels?

PlayStation Driving / Racing Games #1

Total Drivin a.k.a. Grand Tour Racing '98 (1997)
By: Eutechnyx / Ocean Software Genre: Racing Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation 
Also Available For: Nothing 

When the 32-bit console era came to pass I was still a devout Sega fan-boy, but the new fangled hardware brought with it some of the finest racing games yet seen which, with the sudden absence of shmups and platform games, quickly became one of my new favourite genres. Sadly, my lovely Saturn wasn't home to many great examples of these. Sure, it had a few, mostly conversions of Sega's own arcade games, but there wasn't really anything I could get stuck into. It was mainly for this reason that I finally relented and bought a PlayStation. This pesky system hosted some fantastic examples of the genre, both arcade-style ones as well as more serious simulatory ones, and one of the first I really got into was Total Drivin which was a curious mixture of the two.

Splendid PlayStation Music #2

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

Few original PlayStation games are as revered as this one so I'm very pleased to say it's one of the couple of dozen that I actually own! I very much doubt I'll get around to giving it the coverage it deserves for a good while yet but it is of course a thoroughly splendid game in pretty much every way. One particularly noteworthy way is its amazing soundtrack by Michiru Yamane which features over thirty songs spread over a typically eclectic variety of styles including classical, rock, techno, and jazz. My favourite tracks, however, are the gothic ones like this fantastic piece:



Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit goes to the original composer

Splendid PlayStation Music #1

Viewpoint (1996)

Originally released by Sammy Corp on the Neo Geo, like many games for that rather exclusive console, Viewpoint was later ported to a few other systems including the PS1. Although I've played and like both versions, many seem to dislike this conversion. However, regardless of your opinion, no one could deny that the CD-based nature of the console provided the opportunity to improve upon the already-splendid soundtrack of the Neo Geo version.

Rather than remixing the existing soundtrack, however, Visual Concepts Entertainment, who handled the conversion, charged Music 'Director', Mark Chosak, with assembling an all-new soundtrack from choice house/trance picks of the day. The result is a cracking selection of tunes which suits the punishing shmup action down to the ground. Getting to hear all of them is a challenge in itself so it's perhaps fitting that my favourite is the first one which is a Todd Terry track called 'This Will Be Mine' (1995). See what you think...



Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit goes to the original composer

Top Five PlayStation Racing Games

I've always been of the opinion that fancy graphics are far less important than a well-designed game. I think my continued love or retro games and enduring disdain for modern gaming is evidence enough of this, but there's always been one exception - driving/racing games. Try as they might, developers in the 80's and early 90's were rarely able to fashion both a playable and convincing into-the-screen racer outside of the arcades, and I can probably count on the fingers of one hand how many I personally liked. That is until the CD-ROM-based consoles appeared. The Need For Speed on the 3DO was perhaps the first indication of what this medium could do for the genre but it took the release of the Saturn and PlayStation for it to reach full bloom, with the latter system producing both the most numerous and most impressive examples yet seen.

I personally got into PlayStation gaming late, sticking loyally with my good old Saturn for as long as there were games made for it, but eventually I had to join the ranks of the competition. When I did, a majority of the time I spent on it was spent playing driving games. I certainly didn't play all of the ones on offer but of the ones I did play, here are in my opinion the Top Five:

Special Note: A big thanks to Martyn Carroll, Facebook friend and editor of the original version of Retro Gamer magazine (and contributor to the current incarnation) for providing me with a working PlayStation emulator for this piece. Yes, I own the originals of the games featured here, but I needed the emulator to get the screenshots, so... thanks Martyn, I owe you one!

Games-Related Top Fives Disclaimer: I've traditionally stuck to the games I know and love so far, and these game-related top fives reflect that. One of the purposes of this blog is diversify my gaming experiences, to play games I haven't played before, so I will do new game-related top fives in a few years to see how different they are!

If I review any PS1 driving games in my upcoming feature that get really high scores, they don't appear in this Top Five because I hadn't played them before! (a.k.a covering my arse!)

5. Total Drivin' (1997)

I bought this game cheap with no prior knowledge of it on the off-chance it might be worth the risk. Luckily it paid off! Whilst far from the pinnacle of the PlayStation's graphical achievements, it is pretty innovative in other ways. The championship mode, for example, features races in various locations around the world and consequently on a variety of surfaces. To this end, there's not just one type of racing here but five - Rally, Sports, Indy, Buggies, and Dakar Rally! One of my favourite things about this game is that your opponents aren't just bunched up behind you waiting for a mistake - the better you race, the further ahead you'll get. You can even lap them if you're fast enough! This is a great and underrated racing game with a lot more variety than even Gran Turismo.

Overrated! #1

Ridge Racer (1994)
By: Namco  Genre: Racing  Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Arcade, PlayStation 2 (as part of compilation)

Back in the good old days when amusement arcades actually had games in them, every now and then an example would arrive that took the world by storm. Everyone, everywhere is talking about it, playing it, or talking about playing it, and if you're not among them, you're left out. Arguably one of the very last of these titles was Namco's rather popular Ridge Racer. When it was announced as a launch title for the Sony's new PlayStation console its fans went into mild hysterics. "We can now play the best racing game of all-time in the comfort of our own homes!" they all exclaimed with glee. It arrived - they all bought a PlayStation and a copy of it, played it for a couple of hours, and realised that Ridge Racer was far from the best racing game of all-time, after all. A valuable lesson to us all then, that good arcade games do not always make good home console games.