Category: Playstation

Crash Bash

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Crash Bash is a 2000 party video game developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software in association with Cerny Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fifth title in the Crash Bandicoot series and the first in the party genre. The game includes a collection of 28 mini-games playable within three modes of gameplay, as well as eight playable characters from the Crash Bandicoot series.

Crash Bash is the first game in the series not to be developed by Naughty Dog, as well as the last Crash Bandicoot game to be exclusively released on a Sony console, with subsequent installments being released on a wider variety of platforms. The game received mixed reviews from critics, who widely noted its similarity to Mario Party, but regarded it as an enjoyable multiplayer experience despite a perceived lack of depth and originality. The mini-games were determined to be varied but repetitive, and the graphics were appreciated for replicating the look and feel of previous Crash Bandicoot titles.

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Crash Team Racing

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Crash Team Racing (stylized as CTR: Crash Team Racing) is a 1999 kart racing video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fourth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series. The game’s story focuses on the efforts of Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, and other ragtag team of characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, who must race against the egomaniacal Nitros Oxide to save the Earth from destruction. In the game, players can take control of one of fifteen Crash Bandicoot series characters, though only eight are available at first. During the races, offensive and speed boosting power-ups can be used to gain an advantage.

Crash Team Racing was released on October 19, 1999, in North America, and on October 20, 1999 in Europe. It was praised by critics for its gameplay and graphics, though the audio was met with mixed opinions. A successor, Crash Nitro Kart, was released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and N-Gage. A remaster of the game, titled Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, was announced at The Game Awards 2018 and was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on June 21, 2019.

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Twisted Metal 4

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Twisted Metal 4 is a vehicular combat video game developed by 989 Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game was released in North America on November 16, 1999 and was re-released for the Sony Greatest Hits line-up in 2000. Like the previous installment, it wasn’t released in the PAL regions.

Twisted Metal 4 is the fourth installment in the Twisted Metal series and the second and last installment to be developed by 989 Studios. The game’s plot centers on Sweet Tooth, the long-time mascot of the titular Twisted Metal competition, overthrowing Calypso, the mysterious organizer of the competition, in a coup d’état. He then takes over the mantle of granting the winner of the competition a single wish, regardless of price, size or even reality.

Twisted Metal 4 received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who considered it to be an improvement over the previous Twisted Metal III, particularly in terms of level design.

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Silent Hill

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Silent Hill is a 1999 survival horror game developed by Team Silent, a group in Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami. The first installment in the video game series Silent Hill, the game was released exclusively for the PlayStation. Silent Hill uses a third-person view, with real-time rendering of 3D environments. To mitigate limitations of the console hardware, developers used fog and darkness to muddle the graphics and the pop-ins, which in return helped set up the atmosphere and mystery of the game. Unlike earlier survival horror games that focused on protagonists with combat training, the player character of Silent Hill is an “everyman”.[3]

The game follows Harry Mason as he searches for his missing adopted daughter in the eponymous fictional American town of Silent Hill; stumbling upon a cult conducting a ritual to revive a deity it worships, he discovers her true origin. Five game endings are possible, depending on actions taken by the player, including one joke ending.

Silent Hill received positive reviews from critics on its release and was commercially successful. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest video games ever made, as well as a defining title in the survival horror genre, as it moved away from B movie horror elements toward a more psychological horror style, emphasizing atmosphere.[3] Various adaptations of Silent Hill have been released, including a 2001 visual novel, the 2006 feature film Silent Hill, and a 2009 reimagining of the game, titled Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The game was followed by Silent Hill 2 in 2001, and a direct sequel, Silent Hill 3, in 2003.

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Resident Evil 2

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(Disc 1) (Leon)

(Disc 2) (Claire)

Resident Evil 2 is a 1998 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation. The player controls rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield, who must escape Raccoon City after its citizens are transformed into zombies by a biological weapon two months after the events of the original Resident Evil. The gameplay focuses on exploration, puzzles, and combat; the main difference from its predecessor are the branching paths, with each player character having unique storylines, partners and obstacles.

Resident Evil 2 was produced by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, directed by Hideki Kamiya, and developed by a team of approximately 50 across 21 months. The initial version, commonly referred to as Resident Evil 1.5, differs drastically; it was canceled at approximately two thirds completion because Mikami decided it was inadequate. The final design introduced a more cinematic presentation.

Resident Evil 2 received acclaim for its atmosphere, setting, graphics, audio, scenarios, overall gameplay, and its improvements over the original game, but with some criticism towards its controls, voice acting, and certain gameplay elements. It is widely listed among the best video games ever made. It is the best-selling Resident Evil game for a single platform at more than 6 million copies sold across all platforms. It was ported to Windows, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and GameCube, and a modified 2.5D version was released for the Game.com handheld. The story of Resident Evil 2 was retold and built upon in several later games, and has been adapted into a variety of licensed works. It was followed by Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999. A remake was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in 2019.

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Resident Evil

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Resident Evil[c] is a 1996 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation. It is the first game in Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise. Players control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, members of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S., who must escape a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters.

Resident Evil was conceived by the producer Tokuro Fujiwara as a remake of his 1989 horror game Sweet Home (1989). It was directed by Shinji Mikami. It went through several redesigns, first as Super NES game in 1993, then a fully 3D first-person PlayStation game in 1994 and finally a third-person game. Gameplay consists of action, exploration, puzzle solving and inventory management. Resident Evil established many conventions seen later in the series, and in other survival horror games, including the inventory system, save system, and use of a vitals-monitoring system instead of a health counter.

Resident Evil was praised for its graphics, gameplay, sound, and atmosphere, although it received some criticism for its dialogue and voice acting. It was an international best-seller, and became the highest-selling PlayStation game at the time. By December 1997, it had sold about 4 million copies worldwide and had grossed more than $200,000,000 (equivalent to $389,000,000 in 2023).

Resident Evil is often cited as one of the best video games of all time. It is credited with defining the survival horror genre and with returning zombies to popular culture, leading to a renewed interest in zombie films by the 2000s. It created a franchise including video games, films, comics, novels, and other merchandise. It has been ported to Sega Saturn, Windows and Nintendo DS. A sequel, Resident Evil 2, was released in 1998. In 2002, the game’s remake, alongside its prequel, Resident Evil Zero, were both released for GameCube (and subsequently on other platforms) in March and November 2002, respectively.

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Crash Bandicoot – Warped

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Crash Bandicoot: Warped, known in Europe as Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, is a 1998 platform game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the third game in the Crash Bandicoot video game series following Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.

The game’s story takes place immediately after the events of the second game. When the ruins of Doctor Neo Cortex’s space station crash-land on Earth, they unleash an evil entity known as Uka Uka, Aku Aku’s evil twin brother, who joins with Cortex and the time-obsessed Doctor Nefarious Tropy as they plan to gather powerful crystals that lay scattered across time, and use their energy to enslave the Earth. The game follows the main characters Crash and Coco Bandicoot as they travel through time and prevent the villains from gathering the crystals by collecting them themselves.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped was lauded by critics, who noted a high quality in many areas, including gameplay, graphics and audio, and the game has been considered one of the best video games of all time. It went on to sell nearly 6 million units, making it one of the best-selling video games for the PlayStation. In Japan, the game surpassed the sales of its two predecessors and became the first non-Japanese PlayStation title to sell over 1 million copies in the country. A remastered version was included in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy collection for the PlayStation 4 in June 2017, and ported to other platforms in June 2018.

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Crash Bandicoot 2 – Cortex Strikes Back

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Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is a 1997 platform game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is a sequel to Crash Bandicoot (1996), and is part of the Crash Bandicoot series.

Taking place on a fictional group of islands near Australia, Crash Bandicoot 2 follows the adventures of the anthropomorphic bandicoot named Crash. Crash is abducted by series villain Doctor Neo Cortex, who tricks him into thinking he wants to save the world. Crash is thrust into several parts of N. Sanity Island in order to gather crystals that will allow Cortex to contain the power of an upcoming planetary alignment and keep the planet from being destroyed. Crash’s sister Coco and Cortex’s former assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio try to warn him about Cortex, with the latter urging Crash to gather gems instead of crystals.

Cortex Strikes Back received positive reviews from critics and is widely considered to be superior to its predecessor. Much of the praise went to the game’s graphics, controls and music, while criticisms focused on the trial-and-error gameplay, lack of level variety, easy boss levels and lack of innovation as a platform game. The game went on to become one of the best-selling PlayStation video games of all time and replaced its predecessor as the highest-selling Western title in Japan at the time, selling more than 800,000 copies in the country by April 1998. A remastered version was included in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy collection, released on the PlayStation 4 in June 2017, and ported to other platforms in June 2018.

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Dune 2000

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Dune 2000 is a real-time strategy video game, developed by Intelligent Games and published by Westwood Studios in 1998 for Microsoft Windows. It was later ported to the PlayStation in 1999.[4] It is a partial remake of Dune II, which is loosely based on Frank Herbert’s Dune universe.[5] The story of the game is similar to Dune II, and is continued in Emperor: Battle for Dune.

Gameplay
The player commands of one of three Houses and must fight for control of the spice mélange on the planet Arrakis. The player harvests spice for ‘solaris’, the in-game currency, and uses the solaris to make units to supply their forces. Dune 2000 features an interface and gameplay similar to Command & Conquer: Red Alert, where unlike in Dune II, the player can control more than one unit at a time.

In-game screenshot; the player’s base with units is visible.
Like most real-time strategy games, the game map initially starts with a black fog of war covering the entire map, with an exception to units’ line of sight. As the units explore the map, the fog is removed for the duration of the mission, allowing the player to observe activity in those regions even if they do not have any units with line of sight to them. Like Dune II, the player may construct concrete before placing buildings. In Dune II, all buildings would deteriorate regardless, but the concrete foundations slowed the process. However, in Dune 2000, the buildings do not deteriorate over time when built in their entirety on concrete.

Although each house has many common units, such as infantry, Wind Traps, and Mobile Construction Vehicles, each House also has its own set of units, such as the Atreides Sonic Tank, the Ordos Deviator and the Harkonnen Devastator. Houses Harkonnen and Atreides share the Trike, while House Ordos has an upgraded version, the Raider. Like many games of the Westwood franchise, a player can gain access to other Houses’ special units by capturing an enemy building that can manufacture the desired units. House Ordos can obtain the Missile Tank by ordering it from the Starport when it would otherwise be inaccessible. After patch 1.06, the Harkonnen can eventually train the Sardaukar, which are soldier-fanatics loyal to the Corrino Emperor.

Cinematics
The game also features live action cinematics that play before each mission for the three different factions as well as for the introduction.

Synopsis
Emperor Corrino (Adrian Sparks) has issued a challenge that the House which can produce the most spice will control its source, the desert planet Dune, with no rules as to how the Houses can achieve the goal. Meanwhile, Lady Elara (Musetta Vander) of the Bene Gesserit and bound concubine to the Emperor, secretly takes the commander – the player – into one of the Heighliners, a person whose bloodline and future the Sisterhood had checked. According to Elara, they saw many visions of the commander dying — and only in one vision does the commander live and even rise to control massive armies and bring peace to Arrakis.

As in Dune II, the three main playable factions are House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Ordos. There are also four non-playable subfactions: House Corrino, the Fremen, the Mercenaries and the Smugglers.

House Atreides
Hailing from the water-planet of Caladan, the Atreides have a strict loyalty to their Duke and follow him with zeal. The Duke’s famous Mentat, Noree Moneo (John Rhys-Davies), advises and resides over the Duke’s forces on Arrakis. The House’s fleets of ornithopters ensure their superior air power backed by Sonic Tanks to humanely destroy enemies. The Duke also wishes to develop an alliance with the Fremen, the native warriors of Dune.
House Harkonnen
The Harkonnens are ruled by the wicked Baron and come from the volcanic waste-planet of Giedi Prime. According to Lady Elara, the only thing human about the Harkonnen is their genetic makeup, as all humanity was abandoned long ago in favor of brutality and maliciousness, favoring pure firepower brought by Devastator Tanks and the Death Hand Missile. The Baron’s Mentat, Hayt De Vries (Robert Carin), was born from the flesh of a dead man in the Tleilaxu Flesh Vats.
House Ordos
The Ordos originate from a frigid, ice covered planet unnamed in Dune 2000 but later called Sigma Draconis IV in Emperor: Battle for Dune. As they import their goods from nearby star systems, House Ordos relies on their skills as merchants to make their profits; however, their wealth has made them increasingly paranoid. According to the manual, House Ordos buys all of its units instead of constructing them themselves, including Saboteurs to demolish buildings and Deviator Tanks to temporarily turn enemy vehicles against each other. Unlike the other two houses, House Ordos is not mentioned in any of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, but it is mentioned in the non-canon The Dune Encyclopedia.[6]

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Casper

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Casper is a series of action-adventure games based on the 1995 film of the same name. Two different games were released in 1996 and 1997 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, by different publishers, in different regions. A third game was released for the 3DO (the final release for that system), Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color, published by Interplay Productions. There was also a Game Boy game developed by Bonsai. A PC game, Casper: The Interactive Adventure, and a Game Boy Advance game, simply titled Casper, were released in 1997 and 2002 respectively serving as sequels.

Mini-games
Fatso’s Creature Feature is a simple puzzle game with players completing puzzles that result in brief animations once finished. “Easy” has the player assembling Casper and his uncles, while “medium” has the player assembling puzzles featuring the Ghostly Trio in different shapes, colors and patterns. As explained upwards, the hard difficulty puzzles consist of stills from the film which when completed, play a scene relating to that image.
Stretch’s Shake Rattle and Roll is a spelling game in which players have to free Casper from the kitchen stove chimney (Stretch had trapped him down it) by spelling words in a Tetris-like fashion. Players have to use the arrow keys to put each letter into the correct boxes and each time a word is completed, Stretch moves Casper up a level until he reaches the top. On higher difficulties, the letters will fall faster and even appear in different orientations, so players must also use the up and down arrows to turn the letters. If no letters match any in the current word, they can be given to Fatso, though he will also eat any letters that are incorrectly matched or are in the wrong orientation even if they are matched.
Stinky’s Peek-A-Boo has the player help the ghost version of Dr. Harvey (who is trapped in the Lazarus) catch Stinky, who has stolen the Cellular Integrator for the Lazarus in an attempt to keep Harvey as a ghost. Stinky will turn himself into random shapes and players have to click on different tiles on a board to find words or objects (based on the current difficulty) that match the current shape he has become or something within the shape itself (i.e. a day of the week). The higher the difficulty, the more words/objects the player has to match to catch Stinky.

Sega Saturn, 3DO, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color game
The version published by Interplay and developed by Funcom plays as a top-view action-adventure game with pre-rendered graphics. The game features an alternate rendition of the film’s plot (with some of its dark elements retained) spread across three acts, consisting of Casper finding tokens of friendship for Kat and Dr. Harvey, then finding the pieces for the Lazarus machine (which the Ghostly Trio had disassembled to prevent Casper from using it) and assembling it, and finally finding the Cellular Integrator with which to restore Harvey (which is stolen by Carrigan, leading to the final challenge), while exploring the mansion, collecting jigsaw pieces to solve puzzles for morph icons, eating food for morph points and dealing with the Ghostly Trio. Unlike other versions, other than the Ghostly Trio and Carrigan, there are no enemies. The game instead focuses mainly on solving puzzles. Like in the Brainy Book, Casper and his uncles were reprised by their respective voice actors, whilst Kat and Dr. Harvey were voiced by Tanya Krievins and Blair Bess (again replacing Ricci and Pullman), with Bess providing narration for each act’s introduction as well as reading out several hint parchments found throughout the game. Carrigan’s voice actor remains uncredited (due to her appearing at the end and her only line being “I’ll take that!”).

In an odd seeming oversight, in the game, no matter what one does, the player seems to wind up with an extra red key.[2][3] Players have scoured the manor with no luck finding an extra red door. After combing through the games information, it seems there truly is no extra red door or room in which to use it. It is possible and likely that the extra red key was an oversight in the fact that it may have supposed to have been a gold key. If the player uses one of the gold key’s in the wrong intended order, it softlocks the player out of the latter half of the game’s secrets. It is also possible, but less likely, that it is merely a red herring.

The Game Boy Color game is a scaled-down version of the Saturn/3DO/PS game with the only puzzles and morph icons being the ones required to reach the ending and the sound and graphics are rendered for handheld.

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Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time

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Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time is a 1999 platform video game developed by Behaviour Interactive, published by Infogrames, and released for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It is based on the Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes characters by Warner Bros. Entertainment. The game follows the titular character, who finds himself in a time slip and is tasked with gathering clocks in order to return to the present.

An indirect sequel, Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters was released for the same platforms in November of the following year.

Plot
The game stars Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny, who finds and activates a time travel machine (mistaking it for a carrot juice dispenser) after taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque intended for Pismo Beach. He ends up in Nowhere, home of a sorcerer named Merlin Munroe. Merlin then informs Bugs that he is lost in time, and that he must travel through five different eras of time in order to collect clock symbols and golden carrots, which will allow him to return to the present.

Gameplay
The game finds the player (Bugs Bunny) in a race to collect time clocks. To progress in the game, Bugs must complete stages and various objectives which earn them; stages may also contain clocks out in the open in which Bugs can collect, as well as golden carrots. If the player meets a certain threshold of clocks or golden carrots, they’ll be able to unlock new stages or a new time era (serving as the game’s hub worlds), which become accessible by means of a time machine.

The player starts off in an area titled “Nowhere”, which acts as a tutorial level; Bugs will learn the basic moves he needs to use to progress through the game. He can kick, jump, pick up objects, roll, jump into rabbit holes to move underground, tiptoe to avoid alerting other enemies, climb ropes, and use his rabbit ears like propellers to slowly descend to the ground from high places. Bugs can also move some objects to get to certain places. Enemies in the game are mostly simple to beat. Some can be defeated with a kick or a jump, while others may require Bugs to be chased by an enemy until they run out of breath, then they can be kicked in the back. There are also special abilities for Bugs to learn from Merlin much later as he progresses through the game.

While in the time machine, there are five different eras (spanning 21 levels in total) for Bugs to visit. They are the Stone Age, Pirate Years, The 1930s, Medieval Period, and Dimension X. Each level has a varying amount of clock symbols and golden carrots for Bugs to find. There are also normal carrots for Bugs to pick up, which act as his health. Carrots can be collected by finding them scattered in a level. He can hold up to 99 carrots. After completing a level, Merlin will appear and the player can decide if they wish to save their progress up to that point.

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