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Complete PS1 Games Under $20 in 2021

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/05/2021

Posted in: PlayStation (PS1), Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: activision, ea, fps, need for speed, playstation, Sony, spyro, syphon filter, tomb raider. Leave a comment

Game collecting has skyrocketed due to the lockdown of COVID and the general boredom of a new generation of gamers stuck inside. With the easy access of information from YouTube, Wikipedia, and various streams and let’s-plays, retro gaming is seeing a renaissance. To collectors this is usually a bad time to buy up games. A game that was once maybe $30 can easily shoot upwards above $100 because of it’s obscurity, rarity, or going viral on a popular YouTube channel. You may think you want to pick up Tekken for $5, but you might look on eBay and see $60 price tags and go, “HUH?!” Your favorite childhood PS1 game like maybe Symphony of the Night isn’t a quick $20 steal and the different versions matter. Original black label releases always cost more than the Greatest Hits versions. This is because the black labels were a smaller print run because the games weren’t popular yet. Don’t fret though. Your favorite game may not be cheap but there are so many fantastic games you and others have never heard of that are worth playing. You won’t see any survival horror here as that genre is highly coveted because of its niche. The PS1/PS2 era of survival horrors are considered mostly cult classics. You won’t see a lot of Mega Man games, JRPGs, or a lot of obscure and rare titles either.

The PlayStation is one of the most diverse 32-bit systems when it comes to genres and overall games available. The system saw numerous entries for any genre imaginable and it can be intimidating to start collecting today. I’m going to cover games that you can pick up complete in box for under $20 to help start your collection. These may not be rare, or even popular, but they’re interesting and fun for sure. These are actually all games in my personal collection so I’m going to stick with that rather than research every single PS1 game and find prices on eBay…that would take months.

Akuji the Heartless – Crystal Dynamics/Eidos Interactive – 1999

Akuji is a game I have played all the way through and it’s from the creators of Tomb Raider. It looks good and has a great atmosphere, but it does feel a bit clunky in spots, but not to the point you can’t finish the game. There are a few frustrating mechanics at play, but if you want a good looking action game then pick this up.

Animaniacs: Ten Pin Alley – Saffire, Inc./American Softworks Corporation – 1998

Ten Pin Alley is one of the best bowling games on the system and who doesn’t love Animaniacs? It isn’t stuffy like most pro bowling games and has great animations and one-liners from the triplets. It has great sound effects and just feels like the show in general.

Army Men: Air Attack – The 3DO Company – 1999

This is a fun Choplifter clone starring the green toys. It has tight controls, fun objectives, and just plays well overall. It can get a little repetitive, but the miniaturization of everything is great and is one of the best Army Men games made in this era.

Asteroids – Syrox Developments/Activision – 1998

It’s Asteroids but in THREE DEE. This was a common thing to bring back 8-bit games into 3D and some succeeded while most didn’t. Asteroids is fun and fast paced and looks modern, for the time, and it’s one of the cheapest games you can pick up on the system complete.

Ballistic – Mitchell Corporation/Infogrames – 1999

It’s a Zuma clone before Zuma. It’s the best way to explain this. A lot of people compared it to Puyo Puyo at the time, but it’s obviously nothing like it in reality. It’s a fun match three puzzle game that’s dirt cheap and will provide tons of fun.

Black Dawn – Black Ops Entertainment/Virgin Interactive – 1996

Black Dawn is a great looking helicopter sim with great controls and a lot of fun missions. These types of games were clunky in the 32-bit era, but Black Ops managed to make a helicopter sim on a home console playable. PC was where all of the flight sims were home to back in the day, but a few managed to make it on consoles.

Bust-A-Move 99 – Taito Corporation/Acclaim Entertainment – 1999

Bust-A-Move is one of my favorite puzzle games of all time. I still remember beating the grim reaper boss on the SNES version and getting past that 100th level. The music is great, the graphics are colorful, and the puzzles are addictive and the difficulty slowly ramps up. The PlayStation version is a great puzzle game just like the classic and you can’t really go wrong here.

C-12: Final Resistance – SCE Studio Cambridge/SCEA – 2001

C-12 was released late in the PS1’s life cycle, in fact, just after the PS2 launched. The game looks fantastic and pushes the system to its limits, and it’s a very entertaining action game. It didn’t sell well due to the hype of the PS2 and a lot of consumers were over the 32-bit era by now. It plays similar to Syphon Filter and has a great sci-fi atmosphere. It’s very underrated and overlooked by most. I believe this was the last first party title developed on the system.

Championship Motocross 2001 Featuring Ricky Carmichael – Funcom Dublin/THQ – 2001

Another late releasing PS1 game, Motocross 2001 is a solid circuit style dirt bike racing game. It had great physics and looked good with some excellent sound in there as well. This was one of the best dirt bike games before the MX series came along. The game also feels fast paced despite slightly slippery physics. The system couldn’t do too much and Gran Turismo was about as realistic as you could get on the system, but that was years spent studying the hardware.

Codename: Tenka – Psygnosis – 1997

Most FPS games are coveted on 32-bit systems because it was the era just before they became mainstream on 128-bit systems. Tenka is an odd Doom clone set in a sci-fi universe with over 20 missions. It’s hard and sometimes frustrating due to poor checkpoint placement, but it requires patience and slower movement than Doom. It’s a great alternative with full 3D graphics, while not the best FPS on the system, it is still a lot of fun for the low price of entry.

Colony Wars: Vengeance – Psygnosis – 1998

Psygnosis were masters at their craft during the 32-bit era both on consoles and PCs. Colony Wars: Vengeance is considered one of the best games on the system and it’s surprising it’s so cheap despite this claim. While it didn’t sell too well space combat lovers will get a lot of fun out of this. The game looks fantastic, has a lot of variety in missions, and just feels good to control. This was actually one of the first PS1 games I ever bought that kick started the collector in me. I didn’t own a single PS1 game outside of Mortal Kombat: Trilogy and this was a must have.

Darkstone – Delphine Software/Take-Two – 2001

Another game released late into the system’s life, and a Diablo clone of all things. Now this game is something that you either love or hate. It’s still one of the best Diablo clones on any console system as these just didn’t really exist back in the day. It has a decent story, lots of loot, and looks pretty good. It may feel clunky compared to later games like Champions of Norrath, but it’s well worth the time it takes to get into it.

Descent Maximum – Parallax Software/Interplay Productions – 1997

Descent is considered one of the best PC games of the 90’s and this is probably one of the best PC ports to home consoles at the time. This is essentially Descent 2, but was put in a new engine and had 36 levels retooled for the PS1, so essentially this is a PS1 exclusive Descent game. You play in a first person view and can rotate 360 degrees and you shoot down things in mines and tunnels. It’s fast paced and a lot of fun. You can’t go wrong here.

Descent – Parallax Software/Interplay Productions – 1996

Probably a little better than Maximum, Descent has players trying to find a reactor core in each level and you get 45 seconds to find the escape hatch afterwards. It’s a lot of fast paced fun and was one of the best PC-to-console ports of the time. It takes advantage of the DualShock controller and looks great in the process. Even the longbox version of the game is cheap right now.

Destruction Derby 2 – Reflections Interactive/SCEA – 1996

This is one of the best games on the system and is so cheap because of how well it sold. There’s a lot of copies out there. The game looks great for being an early title on the system and is more of the same but just tweaked and improved upon. Pit stops are a thing now and there are more tracks with more cars. More is always good, right?

Driver – Reflections Interactive/GT Interactive – 1999

Brought to you by the creators of Destruction Derby, Reflections were some of the best out there when it came to fast paced arcade racers. Driver went the more realistic route with one of the best looking games of the entire era and had an open world with excellent driving mechanics. Some may find it boring, but some may love just how modern it feels. It’s not for everyone, but if you want something that was really genre defining for the system then this is it.

Duke Nukem: Time to Kill – n-Space/GT Interactive – 1999

Duke Nukem made a strong presence on PS1 and was the only console ever to have this much mainstay. Duke Nukem had a series of games set in the third person and Time to Kill was probably the best of them. It had the same fun humor, multiplayer, and great controls and level design. If you want a great third person shooter, this is one of the best on the system.

Final Fantasy Origins – Square Enix – 2002

So this is a weird one. You can still find sealed copies of this game, the Greatest Hits version, because it was one of the last PS1 games ever released. I picked up a sealed copy a few years ago for $20 and was shocked. It contains great ports of Final Fantasy I and II for a low price. While these aren’t the best games in the series, this is great for those who want to play the older NES/SNES titles in a higher resolution with slightly upgraded visuals.

Final Fantasy VIII – Square – 1999

This is an instant classic, but also a lot of people’s least favorite in the series. It did a lot of things different like the stupid magic system for one, which I can’t stand, as it’s based on cards instead of mana. However, the story, characters, setting, and overall atmosphere are memorable. Just be prepared to sink nearly 40 hours into this game as it’s long and only for diehard JRPG fans. The pre-rendered cut scenes look fantastic and overall it’s a great looking game.

Frogger – Millennium Interactive/Hasbro Interactive – 1997

This is a game I spent a lot of time on as a kid. My sister got this from a game store used and we sunk so many hours into it despite it being hard as balls. If you didn’t like the classic arcade Frogger you won’t like this one here despite the 3D graphics. It doesn’t look the best, but it’s challenging platforming fun.

G-Police – Psygnosis – 1997

Hey it’s them again. G-Police is a helicopter game set in the distant future. You are tasked to destroy things, follow suspicious packages, maneuver through billboards and skyscrapers, and it’s rather fun despite being a really dark looking game. It’s one of the better flight games on the system and a must have for anyone who likes this genre.

Gran Turismo – Polyphony Digital/SCEA – 1998

Ah yes, the game that actually made me care about cars and allowed me to identify EVERY single car on the road just by tail lights, badges, or silhouettes. That’s how good Gran Turismo is and the amount of detail this game sucked out of the PS1 is astounding. It took the world by storm and for once PC gamers were jealous of console players. This was the most advanced racing sim of the generation and it was on a puny console? I spent dozens of hours trying to get gold in the license trials and doing 100 lap endurance runs. It’s a fantastic game, but of course you can just get the sequel instead unless you want to see how the series progressed.

Gran Turismo 2 – Polyphony Digital/SCEA – 1999

Yep, more of the same but better-er. It somehow looked better, had more cars, tracks, upgrades, modes, and was just the best racing sim of the entire generation. It came out late in the console’s life and would pave the path for Gran Turismo 3, the single best console racing sim of the 2000’s. Unless you want to see the series progression just pick this one up as it holds up surprisingly well today. I can easily pick this up and spend an entire day racing and having fun.

Grid Runner – Radical Entertainment/Virgin Interactive – 1996

This was an early title for the system and unless you like capture-the-flag don’t bother. It’s fun and challenging as you run along the paths of different levels and requires some strategy. It’s mindless fun and great in short bursts and it’s super cheap. It has a weird art style and isn’t the best looking game, but it’s also fun with another person.

Grind Session – Shaba Games/SCEA – 2000

Probably one of the best Tony Hawk clones, Grind Session offers some slightly different gameplay, skaters, and levels of course. While not quite as polished it’s still fun. It’s only competitor at the time was the first Tony Hawk and Thrasher. It also featured a fantastic licensed soundtrack and just looked good with smooth frame rates as well. Sadly, due to Tony Hawk‘s popularity, this game wound up in the bargain bins as a rip-off and nothing more.

Gubble – Actual Entertainment/Mud Duck Productions – 1998

Umm, what the hell is right. I’m sure no one has heard of this game at all. It’s a fun puzzle game in which you break apart levels to free your race from invaders. It’s kind of like a tower defense game, but different. It’s super weird, looks ugly as sin, but that’s kind of the charm with this game. If you want a quirky puzzle game then look no further.

Hot Wheels: Turbo Racing – Stormfront Studios/EA – 1999

This is seriously one of the most fun games I have played on the system. It’s face paced, colorful, there are a lot of imaginative tracks and cars, and it feels like a Hot Wheels game should be. The framerate is also pretty smooth and also includes a heavy metal licensed soundtrack. It’s such an underrated arcade game on the system and is always overlooked for Need for Speed or Wipeout.

The Italian Job – Pixelogic Limited/Rockstar Games – 2001

This came out towards the end of the system’s life cycle and while it looks fantastic it isn’t for everyone. It’s a checkpoint based arcade racer with realistic physics and art. The game has you evading the mafia, police, and others as you race through twists and turns in the city. It doesn’t have much variety, but it plays well and is a fun alternative if you’ve burned out all the popular racers.

Jet Moto 2 – 989 Studios/SCEA – 1998

A fun jet ski game and there aren’t many of those. This was a racing series Sony milked for the longest time but never saw an entries past the PS1. It’s fast paced, fun, and looks great and runs at a steady framerate. It at least does have a good sense of speed, but the physics may feel wonky if you aren’t into jet skis.

Jet Moto 3 – Pacific Coast Power & Light/989 Studios – 1999

It’s more Jet Moto if that’s your thing. This time Sony gave up the publishing rights and it was created by a new studio. This is by far the best entry in the series and one of the best arcade racers on the system. It has a whopping 19 tracks and you can now race across land and use a grapple to take turns. It runs smooth and looks great. A must have if you love arcade racers.

Lemmings & Oh No! More Lemmings – DMA Design/Psygnosis – 1998

Lemmings an acquired taste and mostly PC gamers will remember this from back in the day. It’s developed by what would become Rockstar Games, the same team who made GTA. It’s a reverse tower defense in which you must manipulate the levels around you to guide the lemmings to safety. There are a ton of levels and a lot of different lemmings to use. This is probably one of the best console ports for the system. It’s slow paced, so if you want a cerebral puzzle game then go for this.

Mass Destruction – NMS Software/American Softworks Corporation – 1997

This is a top down shooter in which you drive a tank and blow everything up. It looks kind of ugly but plays well and has a good sense of speed. It’s one of the earlier titles for the system and didn’t garner much sales. If you want some quick jump-in-and-play action then this is for you.

Medal of Honor: Underground – DreamWorks Interactive/EA – 2000

While the first game was great the second game is even better. It plays a little better, improved graphics and more varied missions. You could say this was the birth of the modern military shooter and you can see the blueprint here. It’s a great game to play through and is probably one of the few good 3D FPS games on consoles in this time. It was a late PS1 release thus it didn’t see as many sales as the first game, but it’s still impressive nonetheless.

Medal of Honor – DreamWorks Interactive/EA – 1999

I remember seeing a demo of this at a local gamestore when I was a kid and was blown away by the graphics and just seeing a PC FPS game on the PS1. I had played Quake before this and was just surprised. This game revolutionized first person shooters on consoles. It felt modern, close to PC versions, and just looked and handled really well. It was also the birth of the modern yearly shooter releases we have grown to loath over the years. While Steven Spielberg sold the rights to EA after the release of Underground, the formula and blueprint staid with the series with Allied Assault being considered the best entry in the series. While not as good or as polished as Underground is a cheap way to discover the birth of modern FPS on consoles.

Moto Racer World Tour – Delphine Software/Infogrames – 2000

This game just looks amazing for the system. The detailed cockpit view is astounding and the tracks look great. It’s no surprise as this was released late in the console’s life so most developers were pulling every trick in the book on the PS1. It has great bikes, physics, controls, and has a great sense of speed. It’s fun for any motorbike fan.

Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness – Namco – 2000

This is a great 3D remake of the original classic. It looks the part, sounds great, and has well designed levels. You just can’t go wrong here as it’s one of the better 8-bit remakes of the time. There are a lot of levels and it features a stupid story even. Gotta love it!

N2O: Nitrous Oxide – Gremlin Interactive – 1998

This is a fast paced on rails tunnel shooter and man is it hard and exciting. While the tunnels are kind of boring the enemies are fun and the game is a blast to play through with varied levels. The game is all about taking down real world insects so if you are afraid of bugs you probably won’t want this. Power-ups and items to find as well. It’s a fun take on the vertical shooter.

Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit – EA – 1998

Of course everyone knows this series. While it did get better during the next generation of consoles, Hot Pursuit is considered by many the pinnacle of the series. While it looked best on PC, the PS1 version is no slouch. A good amount of modes, high speed real-world cars, great tracks, a good sense of speed, and nice physics all add to a top quality arcade racer. This is some of the best the generation had to offer.

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed – Eden Studios/EA – 2000

Handed over to a different developer this time around, Porsche Unleashed is all about, you guessed it, Porsches. There are a whopping 80 cars and two completely different game modes to go through. Race as usual or become a test driver for Porsche. The physics model is updated once again and is such a fun time all around. This is still where the series peaked and is one of the best racing games of the generation.

Norse By Norse West: Return of the Lost Vikings – Blizzard Entertainment/Interplay – 1997

Yes, this was developed by the good Blizzard. This is an action puzzle game where you play as 3D sprite Vikings. It doesn’t look super pretty, but it’s fun and has some interesting levels to play through. It’s also slow paced, so don’t go into this expecting Jazz the Jackrabbit stuff here. If you want something to just chill out to and love puzzle solving then this is a great pick up for you.

Nuclear Strike – EA – 1997

This is a top down helicopter flight game that is fast paced and looks really good. The levels are varied and the gameplay has multiple objectives to complete. It controls really well to and has a good sense of speed. It’s honestly one of the best top down helicopter games of the era and shouldn’t be passed up.

O.D.T.: Escape…or Die Trying – Psygnosis – 1998

See, that name showed up again! Psygnosis made some great classics or underrated gems. ODT is an action adventure platformer with some light puzzle solving. It has a sci-fi settings and controls fairly well despite not being super fast paced. It’s fully 3D and looks pretty decent too. I actually picked up a copy of this still sealed a few years ago for under $20. These were over produced as Psygnosis thought they had their next Tomb Raider on their hands and it was just lost in the shuffle. 1998 was a major year for game releases as we were in a mature stage of the 32-bit era.

Pac-Man World – Nacmo – 1999

Pac-Man World is actually a fairly good series spreading out on the PSP and Xbox. It controls well, it’s a lot of fun, and doesn’t try to stick to the Pac-Man formula too much. Pac-Man World 3 even has an insane plot that takes itself really seriously. It’s not the best platformer on the system, but it’s still a lot of fun if you like Pac-Man.

Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle – Activision – 1998

Pitfall made it’s 3D platformer debut here and it’s actually not bad. The animations are good, the levels are varied, and it feels like a modern Pitfall game. You gather crystals, complete levels, and enjoy the platforming. You don’t even have to like the original game to enjoy this one either.

Pong: The Next Level – Supersonic Software/Hasbro Interactive – 1999

It’s Pong, but in THREE DEE! It’s actually quite good with great animations, fun levels, and varied takes on the series. This is probably the best Pong remake ever made and it’s one of the cheapest games on the system you can pick up. Usually less than $5 complete. lt’s more fun with other players, and even supports the multitap, but it’s great pick-up-and play to kill an hour or two.

Project Overkill – Konami – 1996

One of the earlier releases on the system, this is an isometric action shooter and is actually quite fun. There’s around 50 levels and you just run around mowing every one down. It’s a lot of fun, and while looking a little rough, it still plays well. You think something this obscure and “hidden” would be more expensive, but I guess people haven’t caught on yet.

Quake II – id Software/Activision – 1999

This was one of the best console ports around. It featured every level and even multiplayer and was just solid and ran at a good frame rate. I sadly only had the N64 version which wasn’t as good, but I still played this game to death and even more so once I picked it up years later. If you haven’t experienced the perfection of Quake II this is a great console port and one of the best FPS games of the generation.

RC de GO! – Taito/Acclaim – 2000

A late release for the system, but the miniature car top down racer is a lot of fun. There are over a dozen tracks and cars and it just runs well, has great visuals, and a good sense of speed. If you don’t like top down racers from the 16-bit era than pass this up, but the camera does a good job keeping up with the action.

Rampage World Tour – Game Refuge/Midway Games – 1997

This is Rampage, but 3D! It actually plays very close to the arcade classic with nice cartoony graphics and tons of levels and power-ups to use. It’s a lot of fun and you can easily get addicted and sucked into the game for hours. If you don’t care much for the simplicity of arcade games then pass this up, but otherwise it’s a must have.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 – Midway – 2000

While not as polished as the PS2 version this is still a great version of the game. A boxing game with funny over the top characters and Michael Jackson. It’s hilarious and is a lot of fun in short bursts especially with others so you can laugh together at the humor. The game feels more like a regular fighter than a boxing sim so don’t take it too seriously.

Ridge Racer – Namco – 1995

This was a launch title for the system and it shows. It looks really rough and is really simple, but it’s fast paced racing and worth a pick up just to see how the series progressed over time. While Ridge Racer 2 is much better this one is incredibly cheap and fun to play through for a few hours.

Road Rash 3-D – EA – 1998

Road Rash was one of the best racing games on the Sega Genesis and it transitioned to 3D really well. The game is fast paced, looks good, and has a lot of tracks and bikes to choose from. At this time EA pretty much dominated the console arcade racing scene and they were at their prime here. Road Rash is a must have for any fan of arcade racers and the combat just adds a layer to the already sweet cake.

Road Rash: Jailbreak – EA – 2000

A late console release, Jailbreak was a little more arcade like than 3D, but still fun nonetheless. It pulls the camera back some and adds a few changes to the formula, and while not as good as 3D, it’s still a lot of fun and worth owning. All the 3D Road Rash games actually turned out great and that’s kind of a surprise honestly.

Rollcage – Attention to Detail Limited/Psygnosis – 1999

While this was just published by Psygonsis, it’s still an insane arcade racing game in which you can drive on the wall and ceiling. The sense of speed is incredible and I was blown away by this game as a kid, however, the controls take some getting used to as they can be quite finnicky at first. Once you master the controls the levels look good and the game is just a blast. There’s no other racer like it on the system.

Rollcage Stage II – Attention to Detail Limited/Psygnosis – 2000

A late release for the system, Stage II adds more tracks, improves the visuals, and even the handling. You can now double up on power-ups, but the tracks are shorter this time around. It’s overall a little easier than the first game, but both are worth picking up because of the difference between the two.

Sentinel Returns – Hookstone/Psygonsis – 1998

This is a…um…well, it’s a game. This is one of the weirdest games ever released on the system. This is one par with weird Japanese PS1 games. You play in a first person view and you must absorb objects and build a robot tower that can defeat the evil Sentinel in the center of the level. The eye rotates and absorbs things other than trees and that includes you. It’s something that requires explaining the from the manual and takes getting used to, but it’s one of the most interesting and original games ever released on the system.

SimCity 2000 – Maxis Software – 1996

Well, it’s a good port of SimCity 2000. It’s pretty much just a straight port and it works surprisingly well on a controller. If you don’t like SimCity or sim type games then this will bore you to death, but the key here is being patient and spending a few hours learning the ins and outs of the game and then it becomes addictive and hard to put down.

Sled Storm – EA – 1998

If you don’t like snowmobiles stay far away! Honestly, it’s the only game of its kind and it’s actually really solid. It’s not super fast paced, but there’s tricks, it controls well, and it’s a lot of fun. The snow looks boring, so there’s not much to look at, but it’s another solid racer by EA at the time and shouldn’t be passed up unless you have a thing against snowmobiles.

Soviet Strike – EA – 1996

An early release for the system, and doesn’t look as good as Nuclear Strike, it’s still a solid helicopter action game and these were the last of their kind honestly. You mow things down, complete objectives, and mow more things down. It’s fun to play through it in an evening and just have a lot of fun.

Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels – Key Game/EA – 1996

Yeah, EA owned the Warhammer license at one point. Scary right? Well, there’s more reasons for you not to play this game, but it’s not for everyone. It’s slow, and early release title, probably really for only Warhammer fans, and it’s weird and confusing to understand. It’s a mix between tactical planning and an FPS. Yeah, it’s hard to get into, but once you do there’s a surprising amount of depth to be had. Don’t go in expecting an 3D action game or even a full strategy game port as Warhammer Dawn of War wasn’t a thing yet at this point.

Spyro the Dragon – Insomniac Games/SCEA – 1998

Well, this game doesn’t need an introduction. It’s one of the most iconic games of all time, and sure you can play the new remake, but the classic PS1 versions are solid and hold up well today. While the first game is rather simple and easy it has a lot of charm and it’s fun to play through each game and see the progression of the series. The controls are solid, the game looks great, and it’s Spyro man!

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! – Insomniac Games/SCEA – 1999

Better than the second in terms of scope and level design. The game just feels bigger, has a more involved story (still don’t care about it) and has more characters. All three games are solid on their own and should be owned and played by any PS1 collector. These are just must haves and icons in the gaming industry.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon – Insomniac Games/SCEA – 2000

Believe it or not, these used to run upwards of $40 each shortly after the remake was released and right after it was announced. Yes, it was a late release, but helped the PS1 go out with a bang! This game is full of so much content. Mini-games, skateboarding, better graphics, more levels. It’s just the best Spyro game in the entire series outside of the GBA games. So yeah, this is seriously one of the best games on the system.

Star Trek: Invasion – Warthog/Activision – 2000

A late system release, but it looks damn good and is one of the best Star Trek console games ever made. It plays similar to Colony Wars because it’s made by the same devs so you know you’re in good hands, and is narrated by Michael Dorn and Patrick Stewart and not some knock-offs. If you are a Star Trek fan this is a must own and is one of the best space sim games on PS1.

Street Sk8er – Atelier Double/EA – 1999

Don’t go into this expecting a Tony Hawk clone. It’s more of an arcade style game with racing events, half-pipe events, and things like that. The trick system is more basic and it doesn’t feel as fluid and tight as Tony Hawk or even Grind Session, but is a fun alternative if you are tired of the Tony Hawk clones. This one is from EA as they wanted a piece of that late 90’s skateboarding pie. It still has a rocking licensed soundtrack though.

Supercross 2000 – MBL Research/EA – 1999

This isn’t the best motocross game on the system, but it’s a fun arena racer rather than outdoor tracks. It’s more realistic and serious than other games like Motocross 2001, but still solid nonetheless. It’s also slower paced and more physics based. If you are fine with other motocross games and have your favorite then you can pass this up. It’s just less than $5 complete and worth a pick up.

Supercross Circuit – 989 Studios/SCEA – 1999

Again, the same as above except this one is outdoors and faster paced with less realistic physics. It plays more like a kart racer, but don’t let that discourage you. It has tight controls, but still not the best the system has to offer. It’s just these late console release motocross games were the best on the system and there’s at least a variety from various studios to choose from.

Syphon Filter – Eidetic/989 Studios – 1999

The best game for the system hands down. Okay, that’s just my love for this game talking but it’s my personal favorite for the entire system and one of the best that still holds up today. Clever and amazing level design, fantastic controls and gun play, and it honestly was the game that got me to recognize real world weapons. Gabe’s voice is also iconic and while the story itself isn’t very interesting the game has a great pace of stealth and action. It also has insane replay value and I actually play this through once a year.

Syphon Filter 2 – Eidetic/989 Studios – 2000

A late console release, but it helped the system go out with a bang. Y2K was a great year for the PS1. Syphon Filter 2 is probably the best game in the series. It came on a whopping 2 discs and has the same excellent level design and you can play as Lian in this as well. The graphics are improved and the story is expanded upon with better pre-rendered cut scenes. Good times were had for me as a kid because my late father and I spent countless hours perfecting our runs of this game and rented it many times. I even remember we had a “birds and the bees” talk on the way to the mall to pick this up when I was 10.

Syphon Filter 3 – Sony Bend/SCEA – 2001

Oh man was this a fart in the series. I imagine a timeline where this was pushed back a year or two and released on PS2 and Gabe didn’t look like Dan Aykroyd. It’s not a terrible game, but it was released so late in the console’s life and the PS2 was hot on the scene. It has worse level design and just doesn’t feel as good overall. It plays just fine and all that, but it’s not my favorite. Still, it’s worth a play if you already played the first two. Funny enough, this was the damn game I got when I picked up my used PS2 in 2002. The price had dropped to $200 and I just had an N64 for the previous three years. I wanted to play this so bad and was kind of let down. Sad times man.

Tempest X3 – High Voltage Software/Interplay Entertainment – 1996

If you haven’t experienced vector graphics from the 80’s than you’re missing out. It’s an iconic thing to look at and IS the 80’s Tempest was a popular arcade game featuring these graphics and is hard as balls and also addictive. It’s a top down shooter where enemies climb up a tunnel and you kind of spin around on the rim and shoot down. It played well with the pseudo 3D of the vector graphics back in the day and X3 is one of the best version so this game.

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins – Acquire Corp./Activision – 1998

This was a huge hit back in the day. So much so, that while I didn’t understand the game and it was too hard for me I remember my dad talking about it with co-workers at his job. We even picked it up from one of his friends to borrow it was such a big deal. It’s a fantastic stealth action game with a grappling hook mechanic. The levels are well designed and varied and it looked great. It’s a must have if you like Metal Gear Solid or other early stealth games.

Test Drive 5 – Pitbull Syndicate Limited/Accolade – 1998

Test Drive was a very weird game in which it was all over the scale in terms of quality with each release. Test Drive 5 is probably the best in the series and I fondly remember a friend’s little brother playing this on a portable PS1 back in 2001 and was hooked by the fast paced racing and licensed cars. While it may seem generic compared to classics like Need for Speed or Ridge Racer, it still had it’s own feel and it was big on track variety, nearly 20, and licensed cars which Ridge Racer didn’t have.

Time Commando – Adeline Software/Activision – 1996

This is a slow paced PC port and if you have the patience you might have something super deep and fun to get into. The game has pre-rendered backgrounds and plays similar to Alone in the Dark, but this isn’t a survival horror. You warp through time to different periods and you fight enemies, level up, and solve puzzles. It’s clunky, but fun once you get into a groove. One of the more obscure and brave titles on the system and released early in its life.

Tomb Raider – Core Design/Eidos – 1996

It’s clunky, feels slow, and is old. It’s not the best in the series, but worth a play through if you want to see how the series started. It’s not a terrible game but the improved upon sequels just show how old and clunky this game is. You can skip this if you aren’t a die hard Lara fan, or want to jump into the better games.

Tomb Raider II – Core Design/Eidos – 1997

Tomb Raider II is a great jumping in point as it controls better, looks better, and overall doesn’t feel as experimental as the first game. Unless you want the entire series to collect this is a great start. The game is classic, iconic, and one of the best in the series.

Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft – Core Design/Eidos – 1998

Well, it’s more Lara. This game is still up there as some of the best in the series and it looks much better than the previous two games. Lara is less polygonal looking, controls better, and the overall series has just progressed in a positive way. This is also a good jumping in point if you want a better looking and playing Lara game.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation – Core Design/Eidos – 1999

This is probably still up there with the best and might be the best playing on the system. While the gameplay is more or less the same it’s still rock solid and looks even better if you can imagine that. Lara Croft was probably the only character to see so many sequels on the same system. The game has a larger level design this time around in which you must complete puzzles in one area to access another. New ideas are good right?

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 – Neversoft Entertainment/Activision – 2000

While the first one is also cheap, I don’t own it, and it just feels clunky compared to this one. This is the best in the series outside of THPS3 so you might as well just jump in here unless you want to see where the series started. Yes, you can play the remake, but the PS1 version here was one of the best sports games ever made. While the Dreamcast version superseded this one it’s a great game to pick up. Now, if you don’t care for skateboarding then obviously don’t bother. I spent countless hours on the N64 version, yeah I didn’t have a PS1 for very long as a kid, and the soundtrack is fantastic as well.

Warhawk – SingleTrac Entertainment/SCEA – 1995

Yes, it’s an early adopter, but man is this game awesome even today. It feels so face and fluid and controls so well. If you like arcade flight games like Heat Seeker for Afterburner than you want to pick this game up. It doesn’t look super pretty, since it released shortly after the PS1 launched, but it still looks clean and the level design is great.

Wild 9 – Shiny Entertainment/Interplay Entertainment – 1998

This was created by the brilliant minds who made Earthworm Jim. It has a similar art style and is a fun 2.5D action platformer that isn’t Earthworm Jim 3D, so it has that going for it. The game’s gimmick is an electric lasso that you can use to whip enemies and move objects. It’s really fun and a hidden gem for the system (God that term is overused in this day and age isn’t it?).

World’s Scariest Police Chases – Unique Development Studios/Activision – 2001

This was released way late in the system’s life and it’s no wonder it didn’t sell anything. You have to take down criminals with your car, bullets, or other means. It’s a more open world type of game and is a lot of fun once you figure out what to do. If you like Driver you will really like this one.

Metal Gear Acid

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/03/2021

Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Leave a comment

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Konami

Release Date: 03/22/2005

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $39.99

Available Exclusively On

I’m not the biggest Metal Gear fan. I’ve played most of them all the way through, but it takes a certain kind of patience to finish an MGS game. Whether it’s the stealth trial and error or the sometimes nearly hour-long cut scenes and convoluted story, MGS is an acquired taste. I hesitated on Acid for years and years because it was a slower-paced strategy game set in the MGS universe. Normally this would be okay as plenty of action games adopted strategy gameplay and it worked. Acid also uses a card-based system that determines what moves you can make and this is the bullet in the foot for the game.

The story is pretty basic MGS stuff. Nothing really interesting, but you do play as Snake who is trying to rescue a US Senator who is aboard a plane that has been taken over by a terrorist. A typical weird MGS villain. It’s nothing as deep as the console games but it’s there. Once you get based on the first cut scene (there is no voice acting here) you are introduced to the game’s tutorial. You move on a tile-based system and you will be dealt a random set of cards. These cards have actions like healing, guns, grenades, melee attacks, camo, a box, etc. However, the first major flaw is you must sacrifice a card for a move turn. Each card has a move option and once the move is complete the card is gone. Why? This makes no sense. Why can’t I keep my cards for strategic actions, but now I have to throw away cards I could be using later on and this happens all the time. You get a deck refresh after all your Cost points are depleted.

Once you move you can pick a direction to face and whether to stay in the current position, crawl, or flatten against a wall so you can knock on it and distract a guard. The second biggest issue is not being able to tell what the guard patterns are or being able to move around the map and see what’s ahead so you can plan. The whole point of a strategy game is to plan, but Kojima wants you to do things on the fly with a turned-based card system What? Most of the time I restarted levels over and over because I got stuck in a situation in which I was spotted, the alarm sounded, and I had too many enemies on me and not enough fighting cards. The alarm runs down three phases at 15 seconds each and it takes around three turns to get to the next phase. You’re in alarm mode for about nine turns! What?!

A lot of times you can’t see an enemy make a move on their turn unless they are in view which is so dumb. I will just walk into a hallway or around a corner and there’s a guard there. I either have to kill him or run away before his turn. You usually get two moves per turn and that’s it. The same goes for cameras. I walked down hallways just to get spotted by a camera I didn’t see or couldn’t do anything about because I ran out of moves. Not being able to see what’s ahead is a serious detriment to this game. I wish I could at least bank cards I want to keep until the next turn and not sacrifice them for moves. The enemies also seem to have random times when they turn around and move. Sometimes they would take three whole turns before moving, then the next guard would do it every other turn, then some guards alert the whole area right away and some don’t. You either have to go full strategy with this or don’t bother.

The game looks good. The game is sharp and looks like MGS2 and that’s about it. There’s nothing special here, and while finishing missions gives you new cards for your 30 card deck, I just set the thing to auto. The game is also very long-winded and can take you 20 hours or more to finish if you end up restarting a lot, and that’s just too damn long for a handheld game. As a launch title it was fine, but not the strongest. We didn’t get much of a choice and it was the only strategy title for the longest time until Field Commander blew it out of the water. Acid just doesn’t mesh MGS action with card strategy. It’s a dull, dry, and downright boring game that only the most diehard MGS fans will want to play. Even strategy fans won’t want to bother at all here. Clearly, Kojima didn’t want to part with conventional MGS gameplay elements like knocking on walls as an actual move, being able to see ahead, shortening the alarm stages, etc. These all could have just been cards dealt by the enemy. Real-time actions don’t mesh well with a pure strategy like this and it shows.

After Burner: Black Falcon

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/30/2021

Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Leave a comment

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Planet Moon Studios

Release Date: 03/20/2007

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $39.99

Available Exclusively On

I’m not up to date on the After Burner series, but I do know Sega has put it on the back burner for a long time. They brought it out for the PSP and boy is this a bland and boring game. A stupid story, repetitive level design, and just insanely boring gameplay are peppered throughout the game with almost zero redeeming qualities.

I will give the game the token for a sense of speed. You do feel like you’re flying incredibly fast over oceans, jungles, deserts, or cities. I just wish the gameplay reflected this. You start out with a comic book-style story based on one of the three generic pilots you pick that literally has no difference in the actual gameplay. This was clearly filler to try and convince you it’s worth playing through this long laborious campaign three separate times. You then pick your jet which most are locked behind cash. You can then pick your paint and buy any weapon upgrades and go. There’s no tutorial here so the manual would help some, but it’s fairly simple. Green circles are for ground missiles and blue circles are jets for air missiles. You also have a gun to fight off any planes that come up from behind you.

An arcade game like this needs simple gameplay like this. Just three buttons and you can boost and barrel roll as well. The first issue I can across is that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t dodge missiles. They homed in on me no matter what unless I barrel-rolled, but you can’t shoot while doing this. Your field of movement is restricted and I could only move around and boost through missiles, but no matter what I always took damage. You have bonus objectives you can complete to earn more cash such as reaching a certain score, shooting down certain enemy types, etc. Every single mission is exactly the same with no differences say maybe a boss. You can shoot down ground units or the same five jets over and over. Even the attack patterns start repeating. It got a little fun when I had tons of enemies coming up and I had to alternate between ground and air missiles, and if you do this you get combo awards in form of health or lame power-ups like slowing down time which is useless.

The levels drag on for 10+ minutes as well. The checkpoints are unfairly placed and if you run out of lives you start the entire level over again. Just on the first mission, I had to play it five times in order to beat it and that was probably out of luck. You can’t change the difficulty without starting a new profile which is really lame. Outside of that, the graphics are bland as hell and the game slows down when there are lots of explosions. Everything just looks flat and lifeless. It’s not ugly just tiring and boring to look at. It’s honestly one of the dullest games I have played on PSP And this was a high-profile well-covered game as well. I can’t recommend this to anyone unless you are a fan of the arcade game. I would have liked to have seen the series brought to modern standards. This works in an arcade cabinet and not a home console.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/26/2020

Posted in: PlayStation 2, PSP, Sony Consoles. Tagged: grand theft auto, gta, liberty city stories, open world, rockstar games. Leave a comment

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Developer: Rockstar Leeds

Release Date: 10/24/2005 (PSP), 06/06/2006 (PS2), 12/17/2015 (iOS), 02/11/2016 (AND)

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $39.99

Also Available On

Grand Theft Auto was an unstoppable juggernaut in the early to mid-2000s. With the rise of the PSP and it’s new near PS2 quality visuals it was a perfect match for the series. Liberty City Stories wasn’t simply a GTA3 port, but a whole new story and set of missions set within the same world. The exact copy of GTA3’s Liberty City is ripped out of the PS2 and copied on the PSP with grace and detail. I felt like I was playing GTA3 the entire time through my 10-hour campaign, but it came with caveats.

When you jump into a car for the first time LCS has that classic GTA feel. Arcadey physics, campy humor, and unrealistic everything else. You can run people over, get 5-star police wanted ratings, jump off cliffs, and everything else you could do in GTA3. It’s a sight to behold on such a small system. Driving is probably the most enjoyable aspect of LCS including the missions that have you driving the most. When you jump out of the car is when things go awry.

Combat is abysmal on in this game and really brings it down. Since there is no right analog stick you must rely on a lock-on system that just doesn’t work. Half of the time if you aren’t facing an enemy shooting at you there will be no lock-on causing cheap deaths. There is no cover system, so missions are tailored toward the console with slightly better controls. It’s impossible to gun down two dozen enemies while also only being able to take 4-5 shots before dying. This is the most infuriating thing about LCS and really brings the score down. I had to use cheats to finish the game. I died maybe 10-15 times on several missions even with cheats! Having only a few enemies is manageable and some missions felt tailored towards the PSP controls and some didn’t. There were missions I really thought were fun, but then I’d be thrown into a multi-part mission and die a dozen times on the last part just to have to restart all over again. It also doesn’t help that you don’t make much money in this game quickly so every time you die or get arrested your weapons are gone. Some missions I was stuck with no money and had to have a weapon so I had to use a weapon cheat. The game’s flow was not thought out very well.

At least the story and characters are entertaining. While not as fleshed out as later games in the series Toni Cipriani and his fellow employers are all classic GTA style characters and I enjoyed seeing them on screen. The radio stations are back and are one of my favorite parts of the game. Driving around listening to the hilarious commentary is gold. Due to the small volume space on the PSP disc, there isn’t much of it. I would start to hear repeated stuff about a quarter of the way through the game which is a shame, but the game supports custom soundtracks which is nice. There is a multiplayer mode, but it’s nothing really special. You and a buddy can basically wreak havoc over ad-hoc. You can participate in races, taxi, and first responder missions, but there’s nothing special here that wasn’t in GTA3 or is PSP exclusive.

The visuals of the game are pretty impressive, but there is a lot of slowdown and pop-up. LCS pushes the system to its limits, and the amount of detail is crazy. There are reflections when it rains, tons of traffic and pedestrians, large buildings loom over the horizon. The sound is great as well as it feels like a living breathing city despite how little interaction there is. But, on the surface, after the story is over there’s no real reason to come back unless you just want to ride around causing mayhem.

Overall, LCS is an incredible technical feat but is brought down by a mission structure not tailored for the handheld’s control system. It’s way too easy to die with missions that require sometimes dozens of enemies firing at you all at once, which leads to dozens of restarts and endless frustration. There’s a lot of slowdown and pop-in, and the radio stations start repeating after only a couple of hours, but that’s just the roughness of the original GTA open-world games. They weren’t perfect but were enjoyable thanks to their sense of freedom and great writing and character design. I recommend playing LCS, but keep the cheat sheet handy as you will need it since there are no difficulty options.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/20/2020

Posted in: Mac, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Tagged: max payne 2, remedy entertainment, rockstar games, the fall of max payne, third person shooter, tps. Leave a comment

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Release Date: 10/14/2003 (PC), 11/25/2003 (Xbox), 12/02/2003 (PS2)

MSRP: $49.99

Rating: Mature

Also Available On

Max Payne 2 was released a little over a year from the original and a surprising amount of fat was cut from the original. It’s the same game, but more refined and updated and feels more tightly woven than its predecessor. A lot of problems were fixed, but new ones arose as well. The narrative continues right after the first game with Max still trying to avenge the death of his wife and child, still trying to get to the bottom of The Inner Circle, and a new love blooms: Mona Sax.

The game starts off similarly to the first game, we get some weird trippy dream sequences, but they aren’t nearly as awful with zero platforming this time. Once you are in control of Max you can instantly feel the difference. He has more weight, his animations are smoother, and gunplay overall just feels punchier and sharper. More weapons were introduced with many old ones coming back. The new M4 and Kolishnokov weapons are a great addition, but unnecessary. One assault rifle is good enough as well as the addition of the HP5, but the Ingrams do just fine for a sub-machine gun. While the older weapons pack more of a punch the new weapons just feel like they were added just to add to the weapon count, less would have been fine. A new dedicated projectile button has been added so you can throw grenades and molotovs without equipping them.

Bullet Time has been refined and fixed as well. Max can now spin around in a 360-degree motion while dodging and the bullets impact harder and there’s less of a delay when you shoot. There is also better feedback on enemies when hit as they stumble more and drop their weapons so you know they’re dead in bullet time. Max can also stay lying down while continuing to empty a clip so the delay in getting up doesn’t make you completely vulnerable as the first game did. The difficulty has been dialed way back and I died a lot less than in the first game. All these great fixes and additions make Max Payne 2 the better of the two games already.

When it comes to level design, Max Payne 2 has more interesting levels like a creepy funhouse, a sprawling mansion, a construction site, and some apartment slums, but there’s a lot of backtracking and I feel the overall scope of the game feels claustrophobic. The variety is better, but you explore those few areas longer and I just feel I wanted to see more of New York inside this noire world Max lives in. Also, gone are the boss fights so the game feels better paced and I felt a tempo of gameplay going that the first didn’t have. However, the game is much shorter clocking in at 4-5 hours. There aren’t any collectibles or anything like that so once you fly through the game it’s over and there’s no reason to ever go back honestly.

Max Payne 2 is a memorable ride. The story is still told in those awesome comic strips, and I feel at the end of the game we get to know Max and Mona well enough to understand their characters and want them on screen more. Their love story is a great centerpiece for this Mafia revenge tale and it makes Max and Mona feel more human. There’s still a cliffhanger at the end of the story, and a third Max Payne game didn’t come until a decade later, but what we get is one of the best single-player shooters of the PS2/Xbox era. It’s tightly compacted and solid and while its short, sometimes that means quality and that is rare even to this day.

Max Payne

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/18/2020

Posted in: Android, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Tagged: bullet time, max payne, remedy entertainment, rockstar games, third person shooter, tps. Leave a comment

Publisher: Gathering of Developers

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Release Date: 07/23/2001 (PC), 12/06/2001 (PS2), 12/12/2001 (Xbox), 07/16/2002 (Mac), 12/16/2003 (GBA), 04/12/2012 (iOS), 06/14/2012 (AND)

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

Bullet time. While The Matrix made it popular amid pop culture, Max Payne started it all in the video game realm. You play as a cop, Max Payne, who is framed for murder of another NYPD cop. Your wife and newborn child are also murdered and you are trying to get revenge on the people who did it. The story isn’t anything amazing, but Max Payne’s voice actor, and the well done writing, keep you hooked long enough to find out what happened behind the scenes. The game is told in a comic noir graphic-novel style and it suits the game well. The cut scenes are imaginative and different, and don’t look cheap or like the developers were trying to take short cuts.

Outside of the story, the gameplay is all about shooting because that’s literally it. Max runs around with various weapons such as Barrettas, Ingrams, shotguns, grenade launchers, Molotov cocktails, grenades, and assault rifles to mow down the Mafia and corrupt cops. Bullet time is the main gameplay element here and when activated Max does a jump dodge in the direction you move and you can see him dodging bullets in real-time. This is actually a mechanic you must master as most situations require you to use it to stay alive. You can’t stand in one spot or you will be dead in a few hits and there’s no cover system. I had to quicksave every 2-3 minutes as well because the game is so difficult. It’s cool to jump dodge around a corner, but once Max lands there’s a delay in him getting up and you are completely vulnerable to gunfire. I had to make sure I jump dodged behind cover or across a hallway so I wouldn’t die the second the bullet time finished. You can also activate bullet time and just run your meter down so you can run and gun with it too.

There are very few scenarios in which you do more than press buttons. One scene has Max driving a crate crane around an area, but it’s nothing special, and there are some interactive objects that trigger comic cut scenes, but 95% of the game is just shooting. The weapons themselves feel good and I felt I had to switch up weapons depending on the situation to make my life easier. The locales are varied, but they are a bit too stale and boring for my taste. They don’t quite capture the noir feeling of the comic cut scenes, but there is one level early on called Ragna Rock that was a gothic cult house that reminded me a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, so that’s a good thing. The game really does feel like a first-generation PS2/Xbox game, but it’s very polished. The game flows nicely, but the difficulty is all over the place, you will die dozens and dozens of times in this game.

The visuals are clean and look nice even 20 years later. I installed a texture upgrade patch and some other things to make the game upscale to 4K nicely and play on modern hardware, and it looks pretty good. Even in the original, the facial textures are nice and very realistic, and the over aesthetic of the game stands out over most shooters of its time. The voice acting is great, and I finished the game in about 7 hours. After you finish it there’s literally nothing else to do as the multiplayer mode was scrapped. It’s a fantastic single-player game that holds up well even today despite its insane difficulty and unbalanced gameplay. The story isn’t anything special, but Max is a great character to dive into and it makes for a fun evening.

Bujingai: The Forsaken City

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/22/2020

Posted in: PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles. Tagged: action, bujingai, exclusive, gackt, playstation, PlayStation 2, ps2, red entertainment, Sony, taito, the forsaken city. Leave a comment

Publisher: Taito Corporation

Developer: Taito Corporation

Release Date: 07/25/2004

Rating: Teen

MSRP : $49.99

Available Exclusively On

Third-person action games were big on PS2 thanks to games like Devil May Cry. They were some of the largest games you could find on the system, and Bujingai followed that trend. The story is nonsensical and has almost no point existing. You’re following a former master around who has been possessed by a demon and has taken your girlfriend or something lame like that. Having almost no story isn’t a great way to start a game either.

One of the big draws with this game was the fact that the Japanese rockstar Gackt was involved, and I mean about as involved as showing up and grunting. Advertising someone as big as Gackt was at the time and only having him grunt and shout is a complete waste of talent. He has zero lines of dialogue and probably finished his whole recording session in a few hours. There isn’t even any music by Gackt in here which is lame. With that said, the game is all about hacking and slashing and there’s plenty of that.

The game consists of a quick and heavy attack as well as dodging and a defense meter that auto-blocks attacks until the meter is run down. 90% of the regular enemies are brain dead and are a cakewalk to slice through. As enemies die you acquire orbs which are used to upgrade various stats. You also have spells that are hidden throughout levels and can be passive or active. I rarely used these and most are not that powerful, but the passive attack increase spell wound up being the most useful. Lau, the main character, has some really nice animations and the game is very flashy, but there are so many flaws that make this game a frustrating nightmare to play.

Something as simple as platforming is bogged down by an awful camera and finicky jumping mechanics. The character jumps in the direction the camera is facing and the direction can’t be altered mid-air. This led to dozens of minutes just trying to get across a few platforms. You can wall run, glide, and wall jump but they add to the chore and headache that is platforming in this game. The combat solely relies on the lock on mode as the camera can’t keep up with the action. This proves extremely annoying during boss fights, and the final nail in the coffin is the uninterruptable animations that cause endless deaths and pointless damage being taken. Lau will spin and slice, but one button press is a series of animations that must be played out before you can even dodge. Even if you time your attacks in between the enemies’ most of the time you will still take damage because you can’t stop the attack. This also goes for the fall-down animations that take forever and recovery is just as slow.

The level design is also very bland with generic Japanese folklore-inspired enemies and repeated bosses. There’s not a soul in this game as it just feels like a cookie-cutter Japanese game that tried to get sales with Gackt’s name. I honestly didn’t feel like there was any benefit to playing this game the entire time I played and I couldn’t even finish the game due to how incredibly difficult it ends up being by just fighting the animations and camera. I got to the second to last boss and had to just give up after 2 hours of trying. It also doesn’t help that orbs aren’t given out often enough to allow you to upgrade fully before reaching the final 8th stage. I like how if you die you just restart the area you’re in instead of the entire level, but it means nothing if you can’t progress.

As it stands, Bujingai is a forgettable game with almost no point in existing. If you’re itching for a hardcore hack and slash that requires precise timing then this might be for you, but there isn’t even a decent story to complete and even Gackt fans have nothing to really gain here.

Syphon Filter 3

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/22/2020

Posted in: PlayStation (PS1), Sony Consoles. Tagged: 989 studios, action, eidetic, exclusive, gabriel logan, playstation, ps1, psone, Sony, syphon filter 3, third person shooter, tps. Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Sony Bend

Release Date: 11/06/2001

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Available Exclusively On

Gabe and Lian are now federally wanted fugitives and are marked as terrorists after trying to foil The Agencies plans to acquire the Syphon Filter biological weapon. The game picks up right after the end of Syphon Filter 2. Both agents are testifying to Vince Hadden, the main villain of the previous game, and the entire game is made up of flashback missions filling in gaps for the entire series.

While this is a fine idea, Syphon Filter 3 suffers from a huge flaw and that’s level design, as the clever level design from the last 2 games are out the window here and seriously bring this entire game down. While I liked knowing what happened before the first game during the beginning cut scene with Rhomer and Mara in the jungle, and I like seeing how Gabe, Lian, Mujari, and Teresa all met, but the levels don’t do it justice. The issue here is both lazy level design or over ambitious design mixed with hardware limitations. This game came out too late and should have been made for the PS2. Levels in this game are large and open and suffer from the black distance and low draw distance from the PS1’s hardware limitations. The level design is incredibly confusing and hard to navigate. One mission as Lian in the Ancient Ruins is just a labyrinth of hallways and instead of the smooth push through each level there’s tons of backtracking and running around blindly.

Another issue the game suffers from is too much action. There aren’t really any required stealth missions anymore and too many enemies are thrown at you at once as well as a mix of low ammo resources. I frequently ran out of ammo and had to exploit the game by resorting to headshots when I didn’t have to. The increased enemy count just doesn’t work with the game’s auto lock-on system. Many times I died because I couldn’t switch between enemies fast enough. Another mission as Gabe has him running around a boat to plant explosives which is incredibly boring and one level is so short it only has four enemies in it. I feel like 18 months wasn’t enough time to develop this game and create the fun clever levels and enemy placements that made the series so popular.

There are no new gameplay elements added this time around, just new weapons. The MARS, Spyder, AUG3000 (that can see through walls), and that’s about it. Even these weapons are hard to come by and you’re left with the same weapons used in the previous two games. I also didn’t care for the multiplayer this time around and the added mini-games which are just trial runs aren’t that fun either. The only real enjoyable parts of the game was the final mission as it felt like a classic Syphon Filter level and the satisfying conclusion to the story for this chapter.

There are no visual improvements outside of better pre-rendered cut-scenes and virtually no new gameplay additions or enhancements. Overall, I feel Syphon Filter 3 was a product of rushed development and trying to get it out the door for the PS1 players who hadn’t adopted the PS2 just yet. Is it worth playing? Yes, if you’re a hardcore fan, but just take the game with a grain of salt and be prepared for aimless wandering around levels and many frustrated restarts due to poor enemy placement and lack of ammo.

Syphon Filter 2

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/15/2020

Posted in: Editor's Choice, PlayStation (PS1), Sony Consoles. Tagged: 989 studios, eidetic, exclusive, gabriel logan, playstation, ps1, psone, shooter, Sony, syphon filter 2, third person shooter, tps. Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Eidetic

Release Date: 03/14/2000

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $49.99

Available Exclusively On

Syphon Filter is one of my favorite gaming franchises of all time and top five PS1 series. It was my very first serious “adult” game I ever played and got into. Just the concept of how shooters work was totally alien to me before Syphon Filter. It was a game that I also spent a lot of time with my late father with and we aced each game learning every enemy spawn point, hidden cache, and level design. We rented this game frequently and spent dozens of hours mastering each game. We probably spent more time on Syphon Filter 2 than any other game in the series and for good measure as it’s the best game out of the three.

Syphon Filter 2 isn’t just an expansion, despite playing and looking exactly like the first game, as there is a greater and more expanded story, more weapons, new levels, and it’s also a couple of hours longer than the first game coming on two discs. You play as both Gabriel Logan and Lian Xing as you are fugitives of the US government and are still fighting The Agency so get back the data discs that store the Syphon Filter data. The game picks up right where the last game left off when with Gabe crash landing in the Colorado Rockies. In the first level the game introduces new weapons and gameplay elements such as being able to leap gaps. New weapons include the unsilenced 9mm, H-11 sub-machine gun, silenced HK-5, UA12 auto-shotgun, hand taser, flashlight, teargas launcher, and more. These weapons are just as memorable and awesome as the first game’s. There’s so many new weapons here it nearly doubles the arsenal.

On top of this there are other gameplay elements added such as enemies being able to get a headshot on you. The HUD will flash red and a headshot text will appear on screen. You have mere seconds to get out of the way or you instantly die. New enemies are introduced such as full armored ones that only die with explosions in one level towards the end of the game. There is also a better balance of action and stealth with Lian’s levels in the air force base are perfect examples. Agents can be killed but military MPs can not. You must sneak around an tase the MPs with your hand taser, but the agents are fair game with silenced weapons. Another level has you sneaking around vents and nightvision automatically kicks in when the area is too dark which is awesome.

The level design is on point just like the first game. Each level is memorable and fun and takes you around the globe. From the Colorado Rockies that the first disc mostly takes place in to the Moscow night clubs, Agency bio-labs and New York sewers. The levels are incredibly designed with the perfect balance of stealth and action. The train ride is a fun linear shooting gallery while the bridge level requires quick thinking and stealth and mastering enemy movement patterns. You can tell Eidetic mastered this genre with the second game and even the voice acting greatly improved. This is a AAA PS1 game at its finest and you will be hard pressed to find better on the system.

The visuals didn’t really improve any, but they already pushed the system to its limits and still have plenty of detail and the game looks great. There is some issue with slowdown here and there, but what PS1 game didn’t have that? There’s also a shoehorned multiplayer mode that I didn’t ever care for. 1v1 on maps from both Syphon Filter games just isn’t very fun. If the game allowed 2v2 via a multi-tap that would have been awesome, but what we have here is something just not very fun, and not to mention half the maps need to be unlocked by finding secrets in the game.

Overall, Syphon Filter 2 shows what the PS1 era of games would do and helped push the third-person shooter genre into what it is today. While it came out very late at the end of the systems life cycle — a mere week before the launch of the PS2, it still sold incredibly well and showed that the PS1 had staying power even after its successor launched. The story, voice acting, visuals, and overall feeling of the game is fantastic and there’s nothing else like it on the system. It’s a must own for any PlayStation fan.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/03/2019

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox, Xbox 360. Tagged: advanced warfighter, first person shooter, fps, ghost recon, grin, military, red storm, shooter, tom clancy's, ubisoft. Leave a comment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Grin

Release Date: 05/03/2006

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $59.99

Also Available On

Ghost Recon has always been a part of my childhood as it was one of my dad’s favorite games. While we only had the inferior PS2 versions, they were kind of fun to play and really challenging. The slow pace of crawling through enemy territory and deciding the best way to take them all out without dying after 3 shots could sometimes be quite rewarding especially since this is what the series was popular for. GRAW carries this over on the PC version specifically while the Xbox 360 version is faster paced. I personally think this is a much inferior version and the slower pace feels dated and boring.

After so many Ghost Recon games, it was exciting to get a new game in the series on the brink of brand new technology. While the PC version sure looks great, it uses a slightly different engine and is in a first person perspective rather than third like the Xbox 360 version. Everything just feels completely different such as enemies not staying tagged with the orange diamonds and this became a real big problem. You get a drone in this game but it’s tied to a tactical map rather than viewing it in real-time overhead. You can use basic commands to send squad members to an area and take out enemies, but you’re so blind and the angle of the camera for the map is really strange and distorts your perspective. Many times my men died because I didn’t know what was ahead and unless you play at a snail’s pace you’re going to die a lot.

That also goes for your character. Two or three shots and your dead and the checkpoints are so infrequent and spread apart that it leads to many frustrations. The PC version should have a manul quick save feature and it doesn’t. The character walks like a geriatric on a crutch or sprints as fast as a turtle. The maps are bland and void of any type of action or ambiance. Just plain walls, silos, warehouses, and blown up cars. Once I did get a few bad guys tagged I would send my guys out, but stray too far and the tags disappear which is really pointless. Just on the training map alone, I died maybe 6 or 7 times because it’s just so hard to see what’s coming up in a large open map. I need something like, I don’t know, my drone’s tags to stay up and I see where every bad guy is and either skip some or avoid certain areas.

At least giving commands is rather simple as using the mouse wheel or number row tells your guys to stop, follow, attack, or carry out commands set on the map. However, the AI is weird as sometimes my guys would pop people I never even saw and then not engage on tagged targets I told them to attack. They would just stand there and stare and sometimes get shot up and tell me that the target isn’t reachable. With all of this combined, this makes for a buggy and frustrating mess of a game that doesn’t exist on the Xbox 360 version. The snail’s pace alone isn’t fun and is boring and bland and takes away all the character and amazing pace of the console version. Why Ubisoft tried to make the PC slower is beyond me as I wanted the 360 version just with better visuals maybe? Even the art style is completely different despite most of the maps and missions being the same.

Overall, GRAW on PC is a huge let down as Ubisoft thinks we want a slower more boring game? It feels more like Rainbow Six than Ghost Recon and carries with it too many of the issues from past Ghost Recon games. Get rid of the slow pace and animations, make the AI better, and stop making up crawl around a massive map trying to pick off-targets. It’s just not fun at all. Some people may love this, such as those who actually like boring tactical shooters that play at a crawl, but GRAW on PC just doesn’t cut it and shouldn’t exist when a superior version exists on Xbox 360.