GAMES CHART FLASHBACK
PlayStation - June 1998
>>Colin
For this month's Games Chart Flashback, we are going to whisk you back to June 1998. A time when the football
World Cup was being held in France and comedians Baddiel and Skinner along with The Lightning Seeds were topping the UK singles chart with 3 Lions '98. We all believed once more that football was coming home but of course, it sadly didn't with England losing to Argentina after a penalty shootout. If you weren't sat at home watching the football though you might have gone to your local cinema for a bit of comedy and romance by watching Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in the Wedding Singer. We however would have been busy playing the games in that months PlayStation chart and at number 5 James we find Codemasters with Micro Machines V3. >>James
Yes, and if like me, you loved the toy adverts back in the day and would have also wanted or owned one of the many versions of Micro Machines as it hit every console going. Most reviews at the time gave V3 anything from 80% to 94% with praise given to the 3D graphics, track design and the wide choice of 32 vehicles. In multiplayer modes you can guarantee gameplay will cause shouting and arguments as you knock each other out on the way to be first. V3 could handle up to 8 players with a control pad sharing system, it featured 48 courses all set around a house setting and a small selection of powerups. Personally, I was terrible at all the games in this series. To date the franchise has spawned another two sequels the latest being MM World Series for the PS4 released in 2017. >>Colin
At number four is a game I remember buying on the day it was released in Crash Bandicoot. I didn't know much about the game when I bought it, but I liked the fact it came with a free demo disk featuring Tekken 2, Wipeout 2097, Destruction Derby 2, Monster Trucks and Formula 1. Once I had got home, popped the disk into my PlayStation and excitedly completed the first couple of levels I realised that the game was taking the platforming genre to a whole new level. Just in case there are any readers who haven't come across Crash Bandicoot, the goal is to guide Crash over 32 levels in order to defeat the evil Doctor Cortex and rescue Tawna who Crash is rather fond of. The thing that set Crash Bandicoot apart from any other platformers of the time was that depending on the level being played, Crash could travel either into the screen, towards the player or left and right in the more traditional side-scrolling manner.
For example, the levels in which Crash mounts a wild boar that you then steer as it accelerates off uncontrollably into the screen and when Crash is being chased towards the screen by a huge bolder
COLIN AND JAMES FROM LET’S TALK RETRO LOOK BACK TO JUNE 1998 AND THE PLAYSTATION CHARTS
>>James
At number three we have Die Hard Trilogy and as the name suggests it's a collection of games based on the amazing films. Each game has its own gameplay style. Points are earned in each game and used to set high scores. The first of the three involve roaming around Nakatomi Plaza rescuing hostages and collecting grenades and machine guns. The second game, Die Hard 2 is a light gun rail shooter which I played the most with my Predator light gun. I thought I was pretty good at it too. There are plenty of things to shoot that reveal objects and secret routes but watch out for innocent people. Lastly, we of course have
Die Hard with a Vengeance,
a driving game set in New
York with the aim being to race across the city diffusing bombs and collecting time extensions. The game includes a small number of different vehicles that all handle slightly differently. >>Colin
At number two we find Tekken 2. This is another game I remember rushing out to buy on the day it was released after playing the first Tekken for hours on end. The game had slightly better graphics than its predecessor and included Survival, Team Battle and Time Attack modes for the first time. All the characters from the first game were back and available for player selection (except for Jack) and were joined by eight new characters in Alex, Angel, Baek Doo San, Bruce Irvin, Jack 2, Jun Kazama,
Lei Wulong and my favourite
Roger, a boxing Kangaroo. If you ask me today, there are better versions of the game like Tekken Tag on the PS2 but at the time you would have been hard pressed to find a better 3D fighter on any other system. >>James
At number one is the game where it all started for Lara Croft, created by Core Design and Eidos Interactive a new standard was set for actionadventure games. Featuring innovative 3D design, gameplay and controls its clear to see why this was a must have game for any system owners. It won too many industry awards to mention. The game was originally created by just six people and was initially set to be an Indiana Jones rip-off. Worried that Lucasfilm would sue it was decided a new character was needed and as a result Lara was born. Lara was made up of 540 polygons and the amount that could be allotted was so restrained that her hair braid had to be removed. Lara's chest size however was actually created by accident when one of the developers accidently set the model size incorrectly. Fast forward to today and you can find 19 different games in the franchise including some terrible mobile games. >>Colin
Well that was some chart! and sums up why the original PlayStation is my favourite console of all time. As Tomb Raider was number one, we will leave you with a cheat to help you skip levels.