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  • Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (September 1999)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine – September 1999

    If I had to name the top three video game consoles in terms of their importance and influence on the video game industry, it would be the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the PlayStation. The Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine of course covered the latest one of those and 1999 may well have been the peak year for that system. They hype was already starting to swing towards its successor, the PS2 which would be released the following year. The September 1999 issue includes:

    Features

    • Final Fantasy VIII – Follow-up to Square’s enormously successful and outstanding Final Fantasy VII. While I played VII I never played VIII but it can be hard to live up to expectations.
    • Battle of the Brutes – A look at two of the biggest football games on the PlayStation, Madden NFL 2000 and NFL GameDay 2000 as well as a talk with the teams behind each.
    • WipeOut 3 – A preview of the third game in this futuristic racing game for the PlayStation. Think F-Zero but with more realism and weapons.
    • Jade Cocoon Strategy – Sort of a cross between an RPG and creature building. The focus is on the collection and merger of “minions”. I guess you could think of it as being a bit like Pokemon or other similar creature games. Anyway, this strategy guide will help you succeed.

    Departments

    • Letters – Topics from readers this month include Ape Escape, violence in games, the Resident Evil movie, two lasers vs. one in DVD drives, and more.
    • News – An interview with Phil Harrison, vice president of third-party relations and research and development for Sony Computer Entertainment America, EA pursues Michael Jordan license, Bleem makes it to retail, an update on the PlayStation 2, three Southpark games coming to the PlayStation, and much more.
    • Previews – Previews this month include Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, WipeOut 3, Wu Tang: Shaolin Style, Jet Moto 3, Mag 3, Xena: Warrior Princess, Vigilante 8: Second Offense, Thousand Arms, Bass Landing, Hot Wheels Turbo Racing, Tomb Raider: Last Revelation, Knockout Kings 2000, NBA ShootOut 2000, Dune 2000, You Don’t Know Jack, Gekido, Army Men: Air Attack, Dan O’Brien Decathalon, Die Hard Trilogy 2, Fox NHL Championship 2000, Rady 2 Rumble, South Park, Quake II, Fear Factor, and Fox NBA Basketball 2000.
    • International – A look at games recently released or coming soon in Japan. These include Chrono Cross, Geppy-X, Goo! Goo! Soundy, Vagrant Story, Pepsiman, and Space Invaders 2000.
    • Reviews
      • Driver – An action adventure game centered around driving.
      • NFL Blitz 2000 – A pretty good football game from Midway.
      • NFL Xtreme 2 – A not so great football game from 989 Sports.
      • Rising Zan – A 3rd person 3D action game featuring a samurai gunman.
      • Sled Storm – A snowmobile racing game.
      • Soul of the Samurai – A pretty terrible 3D adventure game.
      • Tarzan – A 3rd person 3D action game featuring Tarzan.
      • The Next Tetris – Like tetris but different.
      • Um Jammer Lammy – A sequel to PaRappa the Rapper.
      • WWF Attitude – A decent wrestling game from back when the WWF was still around.
      • Review Recap – A summary of recent reviews from previous issues.
    • Tricks – Tricks, strategies and codes for tons of games including 3Xtreme, Rushdown, Fisherman’s Bait, Invasion From Beyond, MLB 2000, Syphon Filter, Ape Escape, Big Air, Moto Racer, Need For Speed: High Stakes, Rally Cross 2, Army Men 3-D, T’ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger, Driver, WCS/nWo Thunder, Lunar: Silver Star Complete, R-type Delta, Destrega, Croc 2, and more.
    • g.e.a.r. – Gadgets, toys and so-forth that gamers might find of interest. Featured this month are Pelican’s Tilt Force motion-sensing controller, Final Fantasy VIII figures, the RF Max 900 cordless RF switch, a $999 digital photo frame, and a PlayStation carrying case.
    • Demo Disc – Demos this month include Um Jammer Lammy, Sled Storm, Chocobo Racing and Pong. There are also videos of Toy Story 2, Vigilante 8 and NFL GameDay 2000.

    …and more!


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  • Soul Blade (PlayStation)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/691627559764574208/playstationpark-slashed-up-soul-blade

    I was never really in to 3D fighting games. I wasn’t even into 2D fighting games that much after Street Fighter II. I did play Marvel vs. Capcom, Darkstalkers and a couple of others occasionally though. The Soul Blade series is an exception though. Soul Blade (known as Soul Edge in Japan) was originally released as an arcade game before being ported to the PlayStation in 1995. It wasn’t this game I started with though…I started with its sequel SoulCalibur on the Dreamcast in 1998 and while I played it quite a bit, I never tried any of the sequels of which there have been many. However, Soul Blade is where it all started.

    Soul Blade was developed by Namco as an arcade game and released in 1995. A slightly enhanced version was released for the PlayStation the following year. Namco was also the company that developed Tekken and some of the controls and moves in Soul Blade are reminiscent of that series. In Soul Blade, your weapons also has a life bar. If it gets depleted, you lose your weapons. Weaponless characters all have the same move set. There is unique special and powerful move that each character has that can be used under certain conditions but it depletes one third of your weapon.

    The story involves a group of warriors searching for the ultimate sword (the “Soul Edge” of course). Every character is searching for the sword for their own reasons. Unfortunately for anyone seeking the sword, it feeds on the souls of both its victims and its wielder. Ultimately, you must face the pirate Cervates if you want to obtain the Soul Edge.

    I’m not sure what appealed to me about this series of 3D fighters vs. others. I think it was several things. I liked the aesthetics of it more than most. It had unique characters and the moves seemed not that difficult to learn which is nice. It also had decent music and sound. In fact, there were two soundtracks released on CD for Soul Edge. Of course, I started with SoulCalibur which improved upon most of those factors (at least in my opinion). Soul Edge received very positive reviews so the critics seem to agree with me not that that always means much.

    At any rate, if you are a fighting game fan than chances are that you have played at least one game in the series. If not, then I highly recommend giving this series a try. My favorite is still SoulCalibur (I’m most familiar with the Dreamcast version) but you should give either the PlayStation or arcade version of Soul Edge a try as well to see where it all began. I’m not sure if there is a way to play the original Soul Blade without the original arcade game, PlayStation version or emulation. I didn’t see any references to any re-releases. There are a bunch of newer games in the series as well but I have not tried those. I’m sure the graphics, music and sound have continued to improve but I’m not sure how the fun factor compares.

    Screen shots above are from the PlayStation version of the game.


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  • Galerians (PlayStation)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/682838384035708928/thebunkajin-galerians-1999-playstation-1

    Galerians is a survival horror game that was released in 2000 for the PlayStation (PS1). In look and feel, it is similar to Resident Evil. However, there are different game play mechanics that make it somewhat unique. First, instead of having guns, you have psychic powers. This mechanism makes it more difficult to fight multiple enemies but these powers can also be used for purposes other than just fighting (solving puzzles, manipulating objects, etc.) To make things a little more difficult, these powers are enabled by drugs of which there are a limited number of vials in the game so conservation is important. This encourages you to avoid fighting where it is possible to do so.

    Controls are a little different as well though they are somewhat similar to the controls in Alone in the Dark. Pressing up moves your character forward and pressing down moves your character slowly backwards. This movement is independent of the camera angle and direction. There are also three bars shown on the screen that give you information. Two are pretty typical…a health meter that shows your health and a drug meter that shows how much psychic enhancing drug you still have. The third meter is a little more interesting. It is the AP (Absorption Points) meter. This meter increases when taking damage or using your abilities. If it gets maxed out that you experience “shorting” (basically a form of uncontrollable rage) in which you release a continuous stream of psychic power that can take out some enemies in a single blow. However, letting this happen too often will result in death.

    The story is that the protagonist, Rion, wakens in the hospital after as a result of hearing a psychic cry for help from a girl. Apparently he has been a prisoner there and some experiment has given him is psychic powers…and of course he has amnesia. You escape from the hospital and learn various information including what happened to your parents, more about these experiments, and more.

    Reviews for this game were mostly positive. There were a lot of survival horror games coming onto the market at the time and this one was above average and most importantly, unique enough to make it interesting. Some of the story elements are pretty cliche but overall it has enough unique aspects to keep you going.

    If you like survival horror games, then this is one that is worth checking out. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any re-releases for this one. I believe it was also only available on the PlayStation. If you do want to give it a try, you’ll have to find an original copy (which shouldn’t be terribly hard to do) or make do with emulation.


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