One of my favorite stages to hate in Crash Bandicoot. Always start with a smile.
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One of my favorite stages to hate in Crash Bandicoot. Always start with a smile.

(via jellybit)

Source: starfox118

Official PlayStation Magazine’s April 2002 feature on “every RPG on the PS one”. Check it out on flickr for some notes on who’s who and to help fill in the blanks. I’m not the biggest fan of RPGs but Final Fantasy VII definitely impacted my life when it came out and  I also own the super box set of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I dabbled with Beyond the Beyond and played demos of most every RPG available on the system. The majority of the ones I own now are just for collectability’s  sake.
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Official PlayStation Magazine’s April 2002 feature on “every RPG on the PS one”. Check it out on flickr for some notes on who’s who and to help fill in the blanks.

I’m not the biggest fan of RPGs but Final Fantasy VII definitely impacted my life when it came out and  I also own the super box set of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I dabbled with Beyond the Beyond and played demos of most every RPG available on the system. The majority of the ones I own now are just for collectability’s  sake.

Before Skylanders and before going full-on kiddie, Spyro was one tough 3D action platformer to complete. I beat my head against the wall trying to figure out fastest paths and secret pickups.
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Before Skylanders and before going full-on kiddie, Spyro was one tough 3D action platformer to complete. I beat my head against the wall trying to figure out fastest paths and secret pickups.

(via flid)

My gray-hued friend… who would become a sideways drunkard in later years in order to play discs properly. thatsmemarkbryan: Sony Playstation One 
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My gray-hued friend… who would become a sideways drunkard in later years in order to play discs properly.

thatsmemarkbryan:

Sony Playstation One 

Gran Turismo has always looked fantastic Polyphony Digital’s other PS1 releases (Motor Toon Grand Prix and Omega Boost) were much more interesting to me.

Backstreet Billiards (Argent, ASCII, 1998) was a game I received for review in my journalistic heyday at Videogamers.com. It was one of the first games I’d seen that came in a double disc case but only had one disc. Why the extra space? For the manual that lays out not just the game but the 10+ variations of billiards inside. It’s also memorable as a billiards RPG with a story that revolves around a mysterious murder, a high stakes pool shark, and family honor. No kidding, you can beat a guy at pool in a sewer and he’ll give you a +10 glove of accuracy. It also has an incredible jazz-ified soundtrack and it was one of the few games that fully embraced letting you swap out the game disc for a music CD, complete with track selection options. I can’t talk to the accuracy of the ball physics but the developers went so far as to include a whole separate Trick Shot mode that requires you to spin, bank and jump the ball. I can’t imagine it would even be in there if their engine wasn’t pretty damn close to reality.
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Backstreet Billiards (Argent, ASCII, 1998) was a game I received for review in my journalistic heyday at Videogamers.com. It was one of the first games I’d seen that came in a double disc case but only had one disc. Why the extra space? For the manual that lays out not just the game but the 10+ variations of billiards inside.

It’s also memorable as a billiards RPG with a story that revolves around a mysterious murder, a high stakes pool shark, and family honor. No kidding, you can beat a guy at pool in a sewer and he’ll give you a +10 glove of accuracy. It also has an incredible jazz-ified soundtrack and it was one of the few games that fully embraced letting you swap out the game disc for a music CD, complete with track selection options.

I can’t talk to the accuracy of the ball physics but the developers went so far as to include a whole separate Trick Shot mode that requires you to spin, bank and jump the ball. I can’t imagine it would even be in there if their engine wasn’t pretty damn close to reality.

After the flash of Toshinden wore off and long after I grew tired of Ridge Racer it’s ESPN Extreme Games that I still come back to to this day. It’s only a half-step up on tech from the “3D” racing games of the SNES era but it’s as close to the glory days of Road Rash as we’ve come. Winning was only half the thrill with up to 29 other racers (on rollerblades, luge sleds, skateboards and BMX bikes) to pummel and thousands of obstacles to dodge. The pre-rendered sprites, gaudy color schemes and FMV starring ESPN’s Suzy Kolber date it squarely in the mid-90’s but honestly, it’s still fun to load up today.
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After the flash of Toshinden wore off and long after I grew tired of Ridge Racer it’s ESPN Extreme Games that I still come back to to this day. It’s only a half-step up on tech from the “3D” racing games of the SNES era but it’s as close to the glory days of Road Rash as we’ve come. Winning was only half the thrill with up to 29 other racers (on rollerblades, luge sleds, skateboards and BMX bikes) to pummel and thousands of obstacles to dodge.

The pre-rendered sprites, gaudy color schemes and FMV starring ESPN’s Suzy Kolber date it squarely in the mid-90’s but honestly, it’s still fun to load up today.

PlayStation ‘Sofia Says’ Pre-Order (1994) Experimenting with a mascot, Sony flirted with Polygon Man and the russian dominatrix from Battle Arena Toshinden, Sofia. Ultimately they wisely chose to let the games themselves do the talking… and then kind of made Crash Bandicoot their mascot.
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PlayStation ‘Sofia Says’ Pre-Order (1994)

Experimenting with a mascot, Sony flirted with Polygon Man and the russian dominatrix from Battle Arena Toshinden, Sofia. Ultimately they wisely chose to let the games themselves do the talking… and then kind of made Crash Bandicoot their mascot.

boxvsbox:

Strider Hiryu 2 VS. Strider 2, 1999

Doing the good work they are at boxvsbox! I know Strider 2 gets a lot of hate but I personally quite liked it and its penguins that belly-slide to their own doom.