I have quite a few games for sony tm playstation. I've also
rented/borrowed a few as well. This is just a collection of my thoughts because some games
are seriously hyped and end up being duds while others get no hype and end up shining.
-Don't forget to look at the links at end of the page!-
New Games:
I have 38 more games that I need to catalog on this page. I am spending time on other parts of the site that get more hits.
XMen: Mutant Academy
Well it's labeled 3d but it's more like 2.41d since you cannot represent truly three dimensions in two dimensions. You get to pick one of 10 mutants and fight in an arena-like situation aka Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Street Fighter, need I continue? Pretty good controls and incredible graphics.
Duke Nukem: Planet of Babes
Just another Duke Nukem game. In the future, the aliens have killed all the guys and enslaved all the babes. A group breaks free and starts a resistance movement. They go back in time to get Duke. I got frustrated after rounding the first corner and figuring out how to launch across the ceiling. I even cheated the jetpack into inventory but it wouldn't activate. So much for these guys trying to make a less lara-croftish Duke game! Hopefully no block puzzles this time!
Dino Crisis (the first one)
Too scary. Try a less scary game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil 3.
F1 2000
Now here's a racing game I can get used to. The driver autopilots around corners and your job is to get the guy around those in front of him. Don't think this is twisted metal....too many bumps and your cars starts losing wheels, etc.
ARMY MEN 3D
It's too difficult and frustrating. Nice concept, bad delivery. I cannot believe they have some half-dozen army men games across the platforms now. The plastic toys from my childhood were much more fun than this bomb could ever hope to be.
COLONY WARS VENGEANCE
INCREDIBLE! Shoot em up blast em up with stratgey and an ever-unfolding story. I was told that there are 40 missions with 16 possible outcomes. If you fail a mission, the game isn't necessarily over, you simply go toward a certain ending...like choose your own adventure books! It's VERY difficult, though! Almost to the point of putting the disc in the microwave! Even worse, some of the early missions are much more difficult than later missions. I ended up saying "gameshark on" putting in a half-dozen codes and tearing this thing up with superweapons and infinite energy and shields.
CONTENDER
Wanna check someone straight into smackdown hotel? This is as close to Ring King or Punchout that the psx has come. All the characters are fictional, but you start at the bottom, working your way through the Local, National, and World leagues. It's a fun game!! There's great replay features and bobbin and weavin, special combinations of punches that'll leave your foe seeing stars! And, unlike real boxing, it's not fixed!
CRASH BANDICOOT WARPED
Very highly recommended to me. It looks to be fun...if you consider jersey devil and spyro to be fun.
DRAGONBALL GT FINAL BOUT
Well it's the big hot thing in the USA now. It started back in Japan more than a decade ago. This game is the last in the series of 'I wish I were 1/10th the game that Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat happen to be' wannabes for psx. If you like the series you'll like the characters. There's a journeyman mode that lets you build up your character and gain new ablilites.
DRIVER: YOU ARE THE WHEELMAN
This game rocks. You're a driver working jobs in major US cities (San Fran, LA, Miami, New York). Most of the time it's related to picking someone up and dropping them off somewhere else. The cops are almost always on your tail and you get to drive around in a souped up beater (?) but you don't get the element that GTA provides: running over people and otherwise violent things. In fact I've not been able to run over anyone YET! They jump out of your way, like reality! The game is deep and entertaining and will take quite a while to complete. And the cheat codes are great for the gameshark.
DUKE NUKEM: TIME TO KILL
Who wants some? Mr. "I Aint afraid of no Quake" checks in alien scum across time. Very inventive and imaginative and great use of the 3D engine makes this game a must have for any fan of PC Duke. Unlike metal gear solid, there is little or no stealth involved here. Turn on that GameShark or enter some codes and give yourself all the goods and have a bonafide pig roast! Very reminiscent of Lara Croft/Tomb Raider.
ECW HARDCORE REVOLUTION
Can you say 'take the war zone engine and fill it with ecw characters and no t even copy their entrance music'? I knew you could. You've just grasped 90% of this game. Unless you are a hardcore ECW fan it's not recommended because many better wrestling games are available (ie WWF SMACKDOWN). But it is fun seeing Styles, Gertner, Roadkill, Sandman, RVD etal in action.
EINHANDER
Squaresort's arcade shootemup. You have a ship that can carry different weapon pods that it picks up throughout the game. With the variety of cheat codes available you could make it through this one in less than an hour.
GRAN TURISMO2 DISC 1
I never became addicted to GT1 so I cannot see many differences. In this one you have a damage mode so you cannot just freely bash cars around with no ill affects anymore. The music isn't as cool as NSF4: High Stakes but the handling is much better. Disc 1 serves as the arcade disk. In this you play against the computer or a friend and computer with similar cars. This has added the feature of Rally (dirt) tracks.
GRAN TURISMO2 DISC 2
This is the career disc for GT2. You start off as a bum with a beater and work your way up in the world. The car list is updated for 1999 and all major manufacturers are included. It has used car lists and the whole gamut of modifications made available with GT1 plus more.
GRAN TURISMO
The ultimate driving game on psx! Watch out with this one....you could easily find yourself spending hundreds of hours as it's not really a game that you "conquer" and then it's over. You get to start out with a beater and win some money and upgrade until you are driving something respectable. The game is very detailed in that you can pick certain tuning details for suspension, brakes, engine.
GRAND THEFT AUTO 2
BUY BUY BUY! As if GTA could get any better. Could PSX get any better? Well wonders never cease. The first time I put this in I was glued to the psx for the next three hours. It has three cities and in this game respect is everything. You basically work for one of three gangs in the city, carrying out missions of increasing difficulty. But the freedom that made GTA great remains. IF you want to do nothing but drive around the city, that's fine. If all you want to do is find Kill Frenzies, that's fine. As you gain respect with one gang their rival loses respect for you. So when you go into their area they shoot at you and generally are hostile. But the graphics are much improved and the missions much more detailed. If your wanted level goes max in the second or third city the cops leave and the fbi comes in. After that the army comes in, complete with machine gun wielding troops and rocket firing tanks and machine gun firing jeeps. There is a large amount of humor in the game but the later levels are impossible for me to complete without resorting to cheat codes (activated by entering different player names). It's ability to let you play the missions or just roam around the virtual world makes it one of the highest recommended buys for the PSX.
GRAND THEFT AUTO
The game that many stores and cities tried to ban....yes, it's GTA. Popularized on the PC, it's in PSX format. In this game you satisfy all the fantasies you get while listening to gangsta rap. You cruise around simulations of three major cities working for the mob, hijacking cars, blowing up the police station, collecting knicknacks, playin postman, and runnin missions: layin the smack down on prankstas. In one city, you even work for a crooked cop! Nothing in this game is legal! You get points for shooting innocent pedestrians, running them over, stealing cars and selling them to fences. It's what video games are all about: a complete escape from reality. Highly recommended but good luck finding it!
GTA DIRECTORS CUT
Same thing as GTA. They bundled it with GTA London 69 dude.
GTA LONDON 1969
Set in Limeyland. People talk british and stuff. The cops aren't as tough as GTA that's for sure! Plays similar to GTA except all of the work takes place in london. You get some different weapons too. The kill frenzy's are still there...that's all I care about. Oh yeah and tanks too. You need to have GTA or GTA DC to load this game.
JERSEY DEVIL
Another ripoff of crash bandicoot. Cute game for kids. As opposed to Silent Hill.
LEGACY OF KAIN: SOUL REAVER
ARGGGGH! Will the block puzzles never end?!? I thought I was playing tomb raider with a vampirized Lara Croft!. Will Eidos get the idea EVER that games can sell without BLOCK PUZZLES?!? Otherwise it's a cool 3d wraparound world and you're a vampire out for revenge. The game has a good storyline and with a walkthrough in hand you can make it through the game in a day or two no sweat. Then you'll be chilling wit a milla in one and a buddha stick in tha otha.
MACROSS 2 EX
It's in Japanese so it doesn't do much good to have my teammates yelling at me in Japanese. Just shoot at anything that moves oops I mean shoots at you.
MARVEL VS CAPCOM EX
Capcom presents....the latest in the adaptions of cabinet to psx. It's SOOOO much better than XM vs SF. It's an improvement on MSF VS SF. It has many modes of playability and the crossover mode is what you're used to in the cabinet but it only works by fighting the same team. It's faithful to the cab. Onslaught is cheap but noway is he as cheap as cyber akuma. But he does make apocalypse look like a pushover. Given a choice of all of the Capcom vs games, go for this one. There are more than six hidden characters with unique move sets! You can convert Ryu's moves to mimic Ken's or Akumas (sorry, no shungokusatsu). Too bad I can't read Japanese! It also features the most uncheap capcom character: ROLL! ROLL RULES! If you win the game with ROLL you have mastered this game!
MARVEL SUPER HEROES VS STREET FIGHTER
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY!!!! The hypers, cancels, combos are VERY similar to the cabinet and the game is a much needed improvement over the design of the aforementioned trash. It also features easy and beginner modes for those of you who have trouble executing the sometimes ridiculously complex keystrokes to activate specials. The only thing you need to know is you will face the most incredibly CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP boss. I mean he might as well have been named Tweety because all he is...CHEAP. Even cheaper than wolverine!
There is no true tag team mode, but they do have a "me vs you" and "you vs me" crossover mode similar to the EX mode in XM vs SF except that it's a menu option. Now this really kicks butt. The controls are better than XM vs. SF. Now I wish they would go back and re-release XM vs. SF just to accomodate the cabinet realism and combos and not to mention analog control. Oh well, wish upon a star...
MEDIEVIL
Ever wanted to control a retarded-looking skeleton? Step right up! Seriously, this is a fun game and a fairly easy one to walk through if you have the health code. I played through a walkthrough in an afternoon. But once you've walked through, the replay value is gone! Good weekend rental.
METAL GEAR SOLID
The hype is dead. The game is more about stealth and avoidance than layin the smack down. One of my buddies made it through the game in one day (about 8 hours of playtime). Not quite worth 45 bucks. So we bumped it up to medium. Still not worth 50 bucks. Bump it up to hard....impossible. Much more fun to turn on the GameShark and blast everything in sight! Incredible use of the 3d engine and the AI is incredible, but give me duke nukem anyday over this!
NEED FOR SPEED 4 HIGH STAKES
It features a hot pursuit mode, where you have the choice of playing the cops chasing the perps or vice versa! Catch 20 perps and you get the diablo SV as your patrol car! BUST THAT! Beautiful courses though Europe and Canada (yah der hey). The sounds and effects beat Gran Turismo but the pure selection of vehicles....GT can't be beat! There are many secret vehicles and tracks that can be unlocked via legit play or the use of a gameshark tm. I find the control to be much more difficult than GT. You can't take curves at 40kph in a Diablo? Gimme a break. The control is very tight and sensitive. NSF4 has the fun options but GT and GT2 have the playability. Rent and let me know if I'm off base.
NFL BLITZ
The ultimate head-on football game now available for your psx. Lightning quick and NO PENALTIES! Run over the kicker, smash the punter. Choose (quickly) from one of dozens of available plays. Did I mention NO PENALTIES?A true arcade favorite with infinite replay value.
NHL 99
NHL 99 totally rocks. They made good use of the analog/dual shock. I also have NHL 97 for the PC and this is heads and shoulders above the PC version. The coaching section really helps the hockey-illiterate understand the basics of strategy. I haven't played any of the other psx hockey games and after NHL 99, frankly, I'd rather not waste my time! TONS of replay value.
RAINBOW SIX
This game is great for the PC. I hear it's good for N64 and the dreamcast. But it's horrible on PSX. The controls are impossible and the graphics are amateur. You need a dualshock controller and you use both sticks, the d pad and all buttons for basic control. For the first couple missions the guards might as well be deaf and blind. After that and it becomes mission impossible. What a travesty to name this game and model it after such an exellent Tom Clancy novel!
READY 2 RUMBLE
Well I gave up on this one after I played it by picking the biggest lunk of a character and pounding my way to beat the champ on my first try. I also couldn't get any of the gameshark codes to work. Two strikes against doth not a good beater-upper make. It is more fun than contender. And the characters all have much more personality. So it's probably the best boxer for psx by far.
RESIDENT EVIL DIRECTOR'S CUT
I tried this game but put it away after I fought the first spiders. I don't like spiders.
ROGUE TRIP: VACATION 2012
Like twisted metal II but there's more to it than shooting anything that moves. If you like Twisted Metal, you'll like this. It was made by the same development studio! Ever wanna drive the weinermobile and blow things away? Step right up! Be sure to Check out the PornStar banner flying from an airplane in one of the episodes! So that's what those guided rockets are for?!?!
SILENT HILL
I started playing this game. It's in the vein of Resident Evil. Not recommended for kids. I don't know if there are any spiders in it or not so I have not played it any further until I read a walkthrough.
STREET FIGHTER
ALPLA THREE 
After a two month delay Capcom came to it's senses and let the ULTIMATE 2D fighter on planet earth come to the PSX! Have you played the cabinet? Like it? You'll like this for sure. It's supposedly a direct translation. Haven't played the cabinet but I like what I see. It logs your game time and secrets become enabled as you accumulate hour upon hour of game time and believe me, it is not difficult to do. I have suffered for sleep! I bought this at Wal*Mart, not best buy. You actually have to perform some keystrokes to hit the hypers unlike xm sf and marvel sf!
STREET FIGHTER EX2
Have not played it much. I am a fan of the 2d sf. But it was fun when I played it. Just odd seeing the characters with thickness. And speaking of characters just about any you can think of from any of the presious SFs are in this one. So knock yourself out. It has career, arcade, vs modes all similar to other SFs but not nearly as involved as that of SFA3.
SOUTHPARK CHEFS LUV SHACK
Answer southpark trivia questions and build bonus points by playing mission-impossible like mini arcade games. Fun in a group, pointless otherwise. DEFINITELY a weekend rental. Don't know who would buy this one.
TNN HARDCORE TRUCK RACING
What good is a truck racing game without being able to go off the track? The graphics are horrible. At least the atari2600tm had an excuse! How about a night race? You don't get headlights! That light comes from somewhere though? Is it the moon? Don't even waste your money on so much as renting this.
TWISTED METAL TWO
This game is a total blast, even without buddies! It's $19.99 in most
places, well worth the cost. Heck for 20 bucks, it's a steal! This has incredible replay
value and is widely known as one of the all-time great games for the psx tm. Download the
codes and rent it. You shouldn't be disappointed.
WCW VS THE WORLD
What a waste of cash. I bought this and Twisted II on the same day and my time on this game is inversely proportional to my time on Twisted II. Almost as much of a waste as Xmen vs Street Fighter! It just cannot keep up with the genre of available wrestling games today.
WCW/NWO THUNDER
Might as well be called blunder. I love wcw/nwo revenge for n64. Why couldn't they have
copied that great game layout into the PSX instead of the okay product that blunder turned
out to be? Flame On....
First, it doesn't have a character create mode.
Second, each fighter only has three unique moves and even these are repeated on many
characters.
Third, it has this stupid move called "test of strength." All you do is execute,
mash buttons, your health goes up, computer health goes down, regardless of difficulty
setting, your strength, or their strength. You're a guaranteed winner with this! You can
win the world title with Elizabeth or a jobber like rey mysterio no problemo!
With that aside, it's an okay play. The graphics are better than war zone, you can unlock
32 plus another 32 wrestlers with the right codes. Included in the second set of 32 are
the Nitro Girls, the jabronies who made the game, a cow, chicken, pig, horse, among
others. I had great satisfaction beating gayberg with the cow! Or even Kimberly for that
matter!
The game features many custom options and several rings. The intros/rants of the wrestlers
in the select screen are the best part of the game! This aside, don't waste $40 like I
did. It has good replay value with friends but the winner is determined by who wins the
button mashfest.
WCW MAYHEM
Just another wrestling game except now you can fight in the kitchen and outisde the general ring area. Updated characters and allegiances since WCW Thunder. I like Thunder more than Mayhem. I don't care if you disagree.
WWF SMACKDOWN FULL BETA
The game has debugger codes on the screen but it's a lot of fun. The fighters groan and moan and twitch when you kick them. The most realistic I've seen so far. The entrance themes are original and even the rock does the peoples eyebrow. If you must buy a wrestling game then buy this one you should like it unless you are a loser.
WWF ATTITUDE BETA
Not as fun as the final release because some of the folks are still wire frames or they don't have entrances programmed. Even better when they execute a move and their arms disappear!
WWF ATTITUDE FINAL
Still on the same engine as War Zone but a needed improvement. Wrestlers galore and great entrance themes. You are hosted by Shane O Mac and good ol JR. Back with the same great create a wrestler feature that made war zone sell so well. Some of the sites listed below have links that give inputs for creating wrestlers not in the game.
WWF WAR ZONE
Vinny Mac doesn't wrestle in the game, but he is an announcer along with
good old JR. The game is complex yet very easy to pick up. One hour learning curve tops.
Each fighter has their own move set based upon their position in the ring. wcw world and
blunder do not.
You really have to pound the crap out of someone before you can check them into the
smackdown hotel, so playability is high. Winning with different wrestlers unlocks various
cheats and hidden characters.
Warzone also has a great "wrestler create" feature! wcw world and blunder don't.
All of the characters have their signature moves and some great taunts. I love this game!
BUT, the big disappointment is that you cannot pick your opponent unlike the exhibition
mode of blunder.
XENOGEARS
Complex? Yes. Incredible? Yes. Remember the end of Final Fantasy VII
when the word xenagais appears? Say it phoenetically....voila....XENOGEARS! This two-disk
game is a tour de force adventure integrating role-playing, strategy, and live-action into
one awesome package. I got it because it reminded me of Robotech, a long beloved animated
and comic series from my teen years! It's two disks of thoughtful, imaginative fun.
Allow plenty of time for this one. You will not be disappointed.
X-MEN VS STREET FIGHTER
I am a total master of the cab. So, silly me, I buy the game without
reading any reviews, simply going off the credibility of Capcom. DOHH!!!!! If you like the
cabinet and are considering this game.... DO NOT PURCHASE!!!!
It doesn't have the true tag mode, a majority of combos and chains, and the frames and
graphics that the cabinet does! Remember Ken's fabulous Shinryuken? About 50% of the
frames are missing and it still slows down the game to a crawl! Face it, the PSX gets
eaten alive on 2D! It doesn't support analog and the combos are difficult to execute on
the pad They did translate some of the hypers from Alpha 2, but it's not consistent,
almost like a "cut and paste." You can basically mash on buttons and still win.
There's actually strategy involved in the cabinet. Sad. Whoever designed and let this game
go to market should be given a dirt nap! It's made me leary of Capcom and they have some
work to do before they receive any more of my dollars on game systems!
In summary: go buy Marvel Versus Capcom instead!
LINKS
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ is THE site for walkthroughs, character guides, codes
videogames.com PlayStation Reviews Index
Cheaters' Playstation Paradise - Your PSX Tricks and Tips source!
Happy Puppy's Computer Game Demo & Info Pages
Games Domain - The Gamer's Voice
Game Shark Code Creators Club - Playstation Page
Console Domain - Playstation Zone
Cheater's Playground - Playstation
Cheat Planet- Planet Playstation!
Cheat Code Central -
Enhancing Game Experiences Around The World
