Driller isn’t a more popular franchise than it is. Indeed, we’d go out on a limb and say that Delta‘s a little better than the beautiful-looking yet glacially-paced PS2 swansong, R-Type Final. Polished, slick, and ferociously difficult, R-Type Delta‘s one of the very best sequels Irem ever made to its seminal 1987 blaster. Hogs of War also contains a welcome voice-over by the late, great Rik Mayall. The controls are nicely tailored for the PS1’s controller, and there’s a surprising amount of tactical depth beneath the cartoonish presentation. In essence, it’s a kind of 3D take on the classic Worms, with rival squads of porcine soldiers murdering one another with a variety of tanks and explosives. This turn-based strategy game got a bit of a lukewarm reception on its release in 2000, but we’d argue that it’s worth overlooking its more annoying quirks. If you can’t afford the PS1 version, it’s also contained on the Gradius Collectionrelease for the PSP. Sadly, Gradius Gaiden‘ s limited release makes it a bit of a collector’s piece these days. Its action may be rooted in ’80s arcades, but its big, meaty explosions and background effects (including a nice-looking aurora borealis shimmer on level one) give it a glossy feel. It’s a superb game and one that takes great advantage of the PS1’s processing power. Released only in Japan, Gradius Gaiden saw Konami attempt to update the spaceship shooter template a little, with polygon graphics, additional weapons systems, and a greater variety of difficulty levels to court the less seasoned gamer. You’ll know all about the Gradius games if you’re into your retro 2D shooters, but the PlayStation-exclusive Gradius Gaiden is undoubtedly one of its most obscure entries. All the same, it’s colorful and lots of fun, particularly in two-player mode. And once you get past the control problems, you'll discover a great game that possesses an almost unlimited amount of death and destruction.Even at the time of its release in the late ’90s, YoYo’s Puzzle Park felt like a bit of a retro throwback to games like Rodland or Psycho Pigs UXB, which means it never got much of a release in the west. Obviously, if you've never played the PC version, the Playstation's minor deficiencies won't be noticed. The music is a mixed bag - some of the tracks are great, while others are more than lame.ĭie-hard fans of the PC version will sorely miss the game's flexible control and video. The result is a grizzly scene of burning bodies running around, screaming, and waving their hands until their bodies are ashen outlines on the ground. Anyone foolish enough to stand near the blast is ignited. Pumping even a few pistol rounds into any of the computer equipment that lines the walls causes huge explosions with great stereo effects. The main attraction, both graphically and sound-wise, is the explosions. While this linear style ruins a little bit of the replay value, the alternative would be to be totally lost in the Consortium facility (because most rooms look somewhat similar). Once the mission objectives have been met, all that's left to do is jog to the nearest teleport pad and beam back to the base. Once everything has been destroyed, players will probably be near the end of the level - be it a reactor that needs to be destroyed or a daring prison break set for execution. The player simply runs around shooting everything in sight, taking special care to eliminate the security cameras before they catch sight of Silencer's red plastic armor. ![]() Playing Crusader is fairly simple - that is once you get accustomed to the unnecessarily difficult control. To make up for these minor problems, a few new weapons and maneuvers were stolen from the Crusader sequel, No Regret, and added to this version. While it conveys the same information, it lacks the warmth and occasional (and at times unintentional) humor the video brought to the game, thanks to actors' questionable skills. ![]() Also, most of the game's full motion video has been removed in favor of an e-mail system. The lack of walking makes fitting through some doorways challenging. The ability to choose between walking and running has been replaced with a slow jog somewhere between the two speeds. No Remorse was originally a PC game, and a few sacrifices have been made to accommodate the new format. computers that happen to get in the way of a revenge-driven slaughter. ![]() This also means this wayward Silencer, the player, gets to waste hundreds of Consortium lackeys (his old allies), and thousands of useless W.E.C. Of course, at first the rebels don't trust him, but after he saves their lives a few times, they all come around and accept him as one of their own. Crusader's storyline is all too familiar - elite trooper of an evil empire decides that he's been serving the wrong side for way too long and decides to join up with a scrappy group of freedom-fighting rebels.
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