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  • Duke Nukem: A Time to Kill (PlayStation)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

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    Duke Nukem 3D was a, for lack of a better descriptive term, “Doom-a-like” on the PC. It was a first person shooter and one of the earliest inspired by the success of Doom. Duke Nukem added a lot of humor to the game play making it have quite a different feel from Doom. There were a few spin-offs and only one true sequel that got mostly negative reviews. It really needs another sequel. It’s also worth noting that Duke Nuke 3D was not the first game in the Duke Nukem franchise but the third. The first two were 2D action platformers.

    “Duke Nukem: Time to Kill” was released by GT Interactive for the PlayStation in 1998. It has all the Duke Nukem characteristics you would expect from a Duke Nukem game, mainly action and humor. However, this iteration of Duke Nukem adds time travel mix. Aliens are stil involved of course. It mixes up the format once again by being a 3rd person shooter.

    Duke Nukem games have had an uneven history in terms of quality but overall this one is pretty good. The game’s graphics, at least for the time, were pretty solid. They did an excellent job of capturing the gritty, tongue-in-cheek aesthetic that the Duke Nukem series is known for. The environments are diverse and detailed making for a good amount of variety. They span different time periods including Ancient Rome, the Wild West, as well as cities with a futuristic theme. Each environment comes with its own unique set of enemies and challenges. Duke Nukem: A Time to Kill also has plenty of what Duke Nukem is known for the most. A sense of humor. While it is a little more tame that Duke Nukem 3D, there’s still plenty of funny one-liners and pop culture references.

    The game play which is the most important aspect of any game is also pretty solid with Time to Kill. There is a decent amount of exploration mixed in with all of the action which is always nice. There are also a wide variety of unique weapons available including things like the shrink ray and freeze thrower as well as more common weapons like the shotgun and RPG. Most importantly the controls are responsive, making things like timing and aiming easier. Not being frustrated by the controls is always a big plus.

    Level design is another plus for this game. Every level has secrets to find, multiple paths to completion, and various interactive elements. As mentioned above, there is quite a bit of variety. You might be scaling castle walls in one level and then wandering through the corridors of an alien spaceship in the next. There are also puzzles to solve in order to make it from one level to the next.

    This game also has a two player mode. You can face off in a deathmatch or play in co-op mode. I’ve never really been a big fan of deathmatch on a split screen but co-op can be a lot of fun in this game.

    If you have never played a Duke Nukem game, then I highly recommend the original Duke Nukem 3D game on the PC. The best/easiest way to play this is to get a hold of Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour which was released on the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch and is also available for the PC via Steam. It has updated graphis and an extra episode over the original. However, Time to Kill isn’t a bad spin-off and it can be a lot of fun as well. Personally, I prefer the first person POV on the PC but I’m sure there are plenty of people who prefer the 3rd person viewpoint of this game. There are a few other spin-off games that are all mostly 3rd person and of varying quality. There are also several mobile games in the Duke Nukem universe. One of the more interesting ones to me is Duke Nuke Advance on the Game Boy Advance. It’s really the only true first person console Duke Nukem game (other than more recent remakes) and it was largely ported from the orginal Duke Nukem 3D.


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  • Parasite Eve II (PlayStation)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/706066439799488512/asobi-station-parasite-eve-ii-ps1-1999-square

    Parasite Eve II is an action RPG / survival horror game produce by Squaresoft for the PlayStation. It was released in 1999 and is of course the sequel to parasite Eve. While it still has some role playing elements, Parasite Eve II has less of those than the original and is more like traditional survival horror games like Resident Evil.

    The control system is typical of such games, at least early on, using tank controls which presents movement from a player perspective rather than a camera perspective. Speaking of which, the player doesn’t really have any control over the camera in this game. The player does have more freedom of movement in this game vs. its predecessor creating a little more of an open world feel, however you are normally only seeing one room at a time so action generally takes place in a confined area. Another difference from the original is that combat is in real-time. In the original there was a time bar that dictated order of actions.

    Parasite Eve II is set three years after the events of the first game. The main character and your avatar, Aya Brea, now works for the FBI as part of something called the Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team. Anyway, the plot involves more Neo-Mitochondrial Creatures, cyborgs, corruption in the FBI and so-forth. Aya has special abilities governed by “parasite energy”. However, these abilities were locked and now she has to rediscover them in Parasite Eve II.

    Parasite Eve II was worked on by the same developers as the original so there is some continuity there. The story was directed and written by the same person that wrote and directed Resident Evil (Kenichi Iwano). This game generally got positive reviews and if you are a fan of survival horror then I would say it is definitely one you should try. You can always track down an original copy and it was also released as part of the Square Millennium Collection in 2000 and as part of the PSone Books line (Japan only) in 2002. Parasite Eve II was also released on the North American PlayStation Network in 2011. Emulation is always an option as well. Personally, I still like my games in physical form.


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  • Spyro the Dragon (PlayStation

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/706126837387018240/playstationpark-train-crashing-spyro-the

    Spyro the Dragon is a 3D platform game released for the PlayStation in 1998. You play the role of a small purple dragon named Spyro and must travel through various worlds in order to save other dragons. You must also save your home from the main antagonist of the game, Gnasty Gnorc.

    Spyro had a number of abilities that gave the game a lot of variety, including breathing fire, flying, charging and more. Besides, who doesn’t want to control a dragon? The levels were large and added an open world feel to the game. In addition to the primary goals of saving your home and rescuing dragons, there were a variety of other challenges as well.

    This game got almost universally positive reviews. The graphics were excellent for the time as were the sound and music. The level/world design was excellent as well. Not only were they large as mentioned above but each world was also quite unique. The most important aspect, the game play itself, was on point as well and even the character design was very good.

    I was never a huge fan of the 3D platformer genre and I would prefer a more serious game. By that I don’t mean harder or more complex, just something with more “realism” that felt more like a Dungeons and Dragons game. Still, it was an excellent game and if you like cutesy 3D platformer type games then this is definitely the game for you.

    Spyro the Dragon was hugely successful, ultimately selling over 5 million copies worldwide. A number of sequels were produced, including two more games for the PlayStation including Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Afterwards, the series continued on other platforms with different developers. These games include Spyro: Season of Ice (Game Boy Advance), Spyro 2: Season of Flame (Game Boy Advance), Spyro: Enter the Dragon (PlayStation 2, GameCube), Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs (Game Boy Advance), Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto’s Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy (Game Boy Advance), Spyro: A Hero’s Tail (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox), and Spyro: Shadow Legacy (Nintendo DS). After this, the original trilogy was rebooted on a variety of platforms including the Xbox, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox, and Xbox 360. However, these games, while not bad, were not really as good as the originals. Finally, there was the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. This was a remaster of the original trilogy for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows.

    Most of these games are at least ok but some are better than others. The original trilogy is by far the best and the remastered trilogy is a good substitute, especially if you are looking for upgraded graphics. In general, the originals are not hard to find or too expensive and Spyro Reignited is even easier to find, especially since it includes all three games. All of them can be picked up pretty easily and reasonable prices on eBay for example. The originals can of course be emulated as well. In any case, any 3D platform fan should give the original Spyro a try as it is one of the best.


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