Well, I'm sorry for getting a bit off-topic in the last edition of "Three-Sentence Reviews," but I said what needed to be said and now we can trudge along. The good news is that this is the fifth of six "3SR" posts about video games, so we're almost done with the medium altogether. Today we look exclusively at one system: the Sony PlayStation. The PlayStation era in North America ran from late 1995 to late 2000 when the PS2 made its debut, although it kept releasing titles right up until 2004. I spent that 9 year window in 2nd through 10th grade, and the meat of the era ('97-'00, when 17 of the 19 games listed below debuted in America) saw me at the ages of nine, ten, eleven, and twelve. In other words, the PlayStation games listed below coincide with the end of my childhood and the commencement of adolescence. So this should be fun. I mean, was there ever a time in your life when you had more simplistic and innocent fun than when you were nine, ten, eleven, and twelve? If so, lucky you. Here we go!
A Bug's Life (1998)
While movies based on video games are rarely better than terrible, video games based on movies are generally just as bad. Like Aladdin before it, however, this animated feature promo was actually a lot of fun to play. Nothing other-worldly, of course, but certainly a very decent 3D platformer.
Chrono Cross (2000)
This is the official sequel to Chrono Trigger, but as is the case in Square's long-running Final Fantasy series, there's really no continuity between the two games whatsoever. There are 45 possible party members in the game to choose from, which certainly add a diverse feel to the game as well as a plethora of one-dimensional gimmicks. All in all, this might be the most beautiful RPG I've ever played, 32-bit graphics and all.
Cool Boarders 3 (1998)
Long before Tony Hawk exploded onto the scene and SSX made an arcade-like mockery of snowboarding games, we played and loved Cool Boarders. This third installment was my favorite, although I'll admit that the second may have been the height of the underrated series. If you enjoyed Tony Hawk but never found a suitable snowboarding game, may I suggest you give this one a quick look?
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (1997)
I'm not sure how widely agreed upon or obvious this statement is, but I always thought Croc was the PlayStation's half-assed answer to Super Mario 64. It actually isn't a bad game, either, and may be tied with Spyro the Dragon as the best PS1 platformer I ever played. Of course, it was no Super Mario 64, either.
Final Fantasy VII (1997)
This game was the sole reason I wanted to upgrade from an SNES to a PlayStation instead of an N64, and that decision was worth all the Mario and Star Fox and Ocarina you could ever throw at nine-year-old me. Actually, FF7 was hugely responsible for the success of the upstart Sony PlayStation all over the world, as well as the RPG genre's long-awaited breakthrough into mainstream circles. Oh, and it should go without saying that this is easily one of the greatest video games of all time.
Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
Graphically this was a step forward from Final Fantasy VII, but in most other aspects it feels like a regression. A very different approach to casting magic (essentially, it's ammunition and must be restocked from time to time) left many fans confused and disappointed, and the characters and story just felt so much blander and less epic this time around. The game still has its great moments, but after all the awesome things that happened in FF7, FF8 just doesn't carry the same weight.
Final Fantasy Tactics (1998)
I beat this fifty-to-seventy-hour game four or five times with differing parties and strategies. Battles are turn-based and take place on standardized grids, allowing for extremely thought-out and calculated plans of attack and defense. Factor in a comprehensive story and the return of the Final Fantasy job class system, and you're looking at one of my all time favorite games.
MLB 99 (1998)
This game is not without its graphical flaws, as balls hit to left field in Fenway Park were deemed homers if they hit - nay, went through - the green monster. But all things considered, it wouldn't be unplayable today by any metric. Throw in Vin Scully's legendary voice calling all the action on the field and you've got yourself a pretty decent baseball game.
NFL GameDay 98 (1997)
This sports game, on the other hand, is absolutely unplayable by today's standards. The players feel far too blocky and generic, even for back then, and you can only move them around the field in eight distinct directions. There's no nostalgic value in it either, unlike with such games as Tecmo Bowl.
NFL Xtreme 2 (1999)
You didn't see Midway's Blitz series doing too well for too long, so just imagine how bad the knock-off known as NFL Xtreme was. Do you have a good idea in your head about how bad it was? Well, just know that in reality it was even worse than that.
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft (1998)
I'd enjoyed fucking around with the first two Tomb Raider games on the computer when the third one came out, so I "spent" a Christmas gift request on it. It was enjoyable, but not quite as good as I had hoped it'd be. It was cool but also off-putting to see Lara Croft running through modern cities and government compounds instead of, well, tombs.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)
I have trouble differentiating from memory between my two Tomb Raider games, but neither really made a huge impact on me and I had stopped caring for the series once the new millennium arrived. It sounds like I'm not missing much, though, as all the offerings since then have ranged from terrible to half-decent. I'll happily come back for more if the franchise ever puts out another innovative "must-play" game, but until then, I'm fine without much Lara Croft in my life.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000)
The consensus is that the Tony Hawk series peaked either here or with THPS3. I say here, since the third game felt a little too humor-based and even less realistic, physically, than this game. Tony Hawk 2 was so much fun that on the day I bought the game my friend and I played it for ten straight hours without even knowing that one had gone by.
Twisted Metal (1995)
This came with my PlayStation bundle and I'm very happy it did. Twisted Metal is a game that has spawned many sequels and knock-offs, but I had never seen anything like it before when I first played it. I beat the game with every character to unlock all the endings and I never tired of the concept - a street vehicle-based deathmatch.
Twisted Metal 2 (1996)
Twisted Metal 2 did what any great sequel does and expanded upon its predecessor in all kinds of ways. It took an international approach to level design instead of just confining the demolition derby to the city of Los Angeles and it also allowed cooperative multi-player. Sadly, it remains the best Twisted Metal game to date, as the series went downhill - fast - from here.
Twisted Metal III (1998)
I don't hate this game quite as much as reviewers tended to hate it, but it's clearly a lot worse than Twisted Metal 2. Critics' biggest beef with the game seemed to be the lackluster level design and low quality sound and graphics. Mine was that the new physics engine allowed your car to flip over - why the hell?
Twisted Metal 4 (1999)
Critics liked this one more than III but I think at this point I was pretty tired of the once-great series, and as such I have the fewest fond memories of this Twisted Metal game. The car-flipping is much less prevalent this time around, but still present for some reason. And while some of the new level ideas were innovative and interesting, they lacked the simplistic charm that the ones in the second and even the third game had.
WWF SmackDown! (2000)
I really loved wrestling when this game came out, so it only had to be mediocre in order for me to enjoy it. Fortunately, it was actually better than mediocre - it was good! I put plenty of hours into this game, coming up with some truly horrible create-a-wrestler ideas such as "Mr. Alien," a guy who had a dinosaur head and parachute pants.
WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role (2000)
Just nine months after the first game came out, this sequel blew it away completely. If I remember correctly, the thing that nearly ruined this game for me was the dreadfully long loading time associated with every wrestler's entrance. Fortunately, the series graduated to the PlayStation 2 the following year and I never had to deal with that ever again.
That's a wrap on my PS1 games. In my final 3SR video game installment, I'll be looking at that mack daddy of all home consoles with a titanium lifespan and unprecedented versatility: the PlayStation 2. There will be 33 games in total in that post, so I'm really not looking forward to writing it up. Especially since 11 of those titles will be sports games, and that doesn't even include the three wrestling games, the skateboarding game, or the car-racing simulation. Wow! Stay tuned.
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