NEW

PlayStation
20
YEARS

100% UNOFFICIAL

INCLUDES THE
FOLLOWING GAMES
q GRAN TURISMO
q FINAL FANTASY VII
q METAL GEAR SOLID
q TOMB RAIDER
q CRASH BANDICOOT

THE ULTIMATE COLLECTORS GUIDE TO THE PLAYSTATION

Welcome to

PlayStation
TM

Sonys PlayStation changed everything. It was originally devised as a project with

Nintendo, but Sony soon forged ahead by itself when its rival made other plans.
The end result was an astonishingly ambitious piece of hardware that truly bought
gaming to the masses. Of course, videogames were popular long before the
PlayStation came along, but the PlayStation shied insane units of hardware. Sony
had $2 billion in capital to ensure the PlayStation was a success and its powerful
hardware was able to court a large number of developers, from Namco to
Capcom, Electronic Arts and Activision. Virtually all the big players wanted to play
on Sonys eld and Sony was more than happy to let them join in. In short it was
a revelation and it changed gaming forever. With that in mind, weve scoured the
last ten years of Retro Gamer to bring you amazingly in-depth articles on some of
the systems biggest games, as well as looking at the console itself. Its the perfect
way to celebrate one of Sonys greatest achievements.

In association with

magazine

PlayStation
TM

Imagine Publishing Ltd

Richmond House
33 Richmond Hill
Bournemouth
Dorset BH2 6EZ
 +44 (0) 1202 586200
Website: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
Twitter: @Books_Imagine
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Aaron Asadi
Head of Design
Ross Andrews
Editor
Darran Jones
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Greg Whitaker
Designer
John Ndojelana
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Disclaimer
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the
post. All text and layout is the copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this bookazine may
be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are
recognised and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review. Although the bookazine has
endeavoured to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and availability may change.
This bookazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
PlayStation is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc
The PlayStation Book 2015 Imagine Publishing Ltd
ISBN 978 1785 461 064

Part of the

bookazine series

PlayStationBoo

Contents
8

RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION
Discover the history of Sonys most important console

14 PERFECT TEN: PLAYSTATION

Essential classics every PlayStation owner must play

16 AND THE REST PLAYSTATION

A selection of stunning screenshots. Have you played them?

18 HOW PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

Developers celebrate Sonys groundbreaking console

32 TOP 25 PLAYSTATION GAMES

Retro Gamer readers reveal their favourite classics

38 THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII

Behind the scenes of Squares famous RPG

48 RETRO REVIVAL: PARAPPA THE RAPPER

Your guide to the coolest rapping dog youll ever meet

50 THE HISTORY OF TEKKEN

Everything you need to know about the hit ghting franchise

58 THE MAKING OF GRAND THEFT AUTO

The story behind Rockstars controversial mega-hit

64 THE HISTORY OF ODDWORLD

Lorne Lanning discusses the quirky series
6 | PLAYSTATION

20
YEARS

70 FEATURE: THE 20 GREATEST PLAYSTATION

GAMES YOUVE NEVER PLAYED
Discover some of the PlayStations strangest games, from
Power Diggerz to No One Can Stop Mr. Domino

76 CLASSIC GAME: SILENT HILL

We take a trip back to Konamis creepy masterpiece

78 THE MAKING OF TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER

How Neverso created its fantastic skateboarding game

84 CLASSIC MOMENTS: TIME CRISIS

All the best bits from Namcos classy shooter

86 THE MAKING OF CRASH BANDICOOT

Discover why the Sony hero was once called Sonics Ass

90 THE HISTORY OF WIPEOUT

Your guide to Studio Liverpools futuristic racer

96 RETRO REVIVAL: METAL GEAR SOLID

Why you need to go sneaking with the mighty Snake

98 MINORITY REPORT: PLAYSTATION

Read about some incredibly strange Japanese imports

102 THE MAKING OF DIE HARD TRILOGY

How the hit movie franchise became a hit PlayStation game

70

48
98

50

64

148

102

106

58

96

124

106 THE HISTORY OF RESIDENT EVIL

Capcoms developers discuss the hit horror franchise

116 CLASSIC MOMENTS: GRAN TURISMO

The coolest bits from Sonys stunning sim

118 THE MAKING OF VIB RIBBON

Find out how this utterly odd game was made

122 THE MAKING OF HOGS OF WAR

Behind the scenes of the silly strategy hit

124 THE HISTORY OF DINO CRISIS

How Capcom made dinosaurs cool

130 WHY YOU MUST PLAY: THE DIVIDE:

ENEMY WITHIN
The best Metroid-style game youve never played

134 THE MAKING OF MEDAL OF HONOR

How Steven Spielberg helped create this FPS hit

138 THE HISTORY OF TWISTED METAL

David Jae discusses his cult racing franchise

146 THE MAKING OF DESTRUCTION DERBY

How Reections Interactive made its boisterous racer

148 FEATURE: LOVING LARA CROFT

Find out why Cores heroine is an industry darling

122
156 FEATURE: NAUGHTY DOG
Andy Gavin explains how his company rose to greatness

162 THE MAKING OF CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY

OF THE NIGHT
Koji Igarashi celebrates his greatest Castlevania game

168 THE HISTORY OF RIDGE RACER

Namcos developers reveal the history of their hit series

174 RETRO REVIVAL: DANCING STAGE EUROMIX

The game dance mats were made for
PLAYSTATION | 7

RETROINSPECTION

8 | PLAYSTATION

RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION

PlayStation
THE NAME PLAYSTATION HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS
WITH VIDEOGAMING, BUT SONYS ROUTE INTO THE
INDUSTRY WAS ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHTFORWARD.
JOIN DAMIEN MCFERRAN AS HE CHARTS THE
HISTORY OF WHAT IS ARGUABLY ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT CONSOLES OF ALL TIME
to good use and produce its own videogame hardware. The
ts almost impossible to conceive
industry was growing at an alarming rate thanks largely to
it now, but prior to the 32-bit
Nintendos hugely successful NES and Game Boy systems,
PlayStations launch in 1994 there
and Sony was keen to obtain a foothold.
were real doubts in the media over
The initial agreement between the two rms was that Sony
its chances. Over 100 million hardware
would produce a CD-ROM expansion for the existing SNES
sales later, such pessimism seems
hardware and would have licence to produce games for that
woefully misplaced, but its easy to
system. Later, it was supposed, Sony would be permitted
forget just how many hurdles Sony
to produce its own all-in-one machine dubbed PlayStation
had to overcome to make a success of
which would play both SNES carts and CD-ROM games. The
its rst piece of videogames hardware
format used by the SNES-based version of the PlayStation was
and media scepticism was the least of
called Super Disc, and Sony made sure
those problems.
The PlayStation concept
SPECIFICATIONS BOX that it held the sole international rights in
other words, it would prot handsomely
actually has its roots way back
Year released:
from every single SNES CD-ROM title that
even before the 16-bit generation had
1994 (Japan), 1995 (US/Europe)
was sold. It was a match made in heaven:
hit the marketplace 1988, to be precise.
Original price: 39,800 (Japan),
Sony would instantly gain a potentially
Always thinking a few steps ahead of
$299.99 (US), 299.99 (UK)
massive installed base of users overnight as
its rivals, Nintendo was actively courting
the SNES was a dead cert to sell millions
manufacturers to create some kind of
Buy it now for: 10+
of units. SNES users would upgrade to the
expanded storage device for its Super NES
Associated magazines:
new CD-ROM add-on when they knew
console, which was in development and
PlayStation Plus, Ofcial
that Nintendos cutting-edge games would
due to hit the market in just over a year.
PlayStation Magazine, Play
be coming to it, and Sony would make
Sony in conjunction with Dutch electronics
Why the PlayStation was great
money on each software sale. Whats
giant Philips was working on a new
Some would argue that the
more, once the all-in-one PlayStation was
format called CD-ROM/XA, a new type of
videogame industry in the midlaunched, Sony would gain even more in
compact disc that allowed simultaneous
Nineties was in dire need of a
the way of prots and become a key player
access to audio, visual and computer data,
boot up the backside, and the
in the videogame industry. The man behind
making it thoroughly compatible with the
PlayStation delivered this kick.
this audacious scheme was Ken Kutaragi,
medium of interactive entertainment.
the engineer also responsible for producing
Because Sony was already being contracted Technologically groundbreaking
and supported by a wide range
the aforementioned SNES sound chip.
to produce the SPC-700 sound processor
of third-party developers, the
However, behind the scenes Nintendo
for the SNES, Nintendo decided to enlist
was predictably far from happy with
the electronics manufacturers assistance in machine is home to countless
classic titles. While some of these
the proposed arrangement. It was very
producing a CD-ROM add-on for its 16-bit
games have aged badly, most
protective of its licensing structure, which
console.
remain just as essential today as
allowed it to extract massive royalties
For Sony, it was a dream come true.
they were over a decade ago.
from third-party publishers. Allowing
Having been instrumental in the production
Sony leverage in this sector would only
of the ill-fated MSX computer format,
damage Nintendos protability; the Kyoto-based veteran
the rm never hid its desire to become a key player in the
reasoned that it should be making the majority of the prot
burgeoning videogame business. Therefore, an alliance with
on SNES CD sales, not Sony. The plan if it came to fruition
what was unquestionably the biggest and most famous name
would ultimately benet Sony far more than Nintendo: the
in the industry would not only help elevate Sonys standing; it
former would merely be using the latter as a way of getting
would also enable the company to set the wheels in motion
a ready-made market share and would eventually become
for its ultimate plan: to put its consumer electronics experience

INSTANT EXPERT
QThe Sony PlayStation is the rst
videogames console to sell over
100 million units worldwide
QGran Turismo is the systems
bestselling title, with 10.85 million
copies sold
QThe PlayStation can generate
360,000 at-shaded polygons
per second
QWith only 2MB of main RAM,
the PlayStation struggled with
2D titles that required lots of
animation frames, while its rival
the Saturn fared better thanks
to the fact that it had twice the
amount of memory and could
be expanded still further with a
separate cartridge
QApproximately 7,900
different games were produced
for the PlayStation during its
11-year lifespan
QCumulatively-speaking,
PlayStation software sales stand
at an astonishing 962 million
units worldwide
QEach Sony Memory Card came
with 128KB of storage for save
game data. Higher capacity thirdparty cards were also available
QThe consoles impressive sound
processor can handle 24 channels
of audio
QEarly versions of the machine
were aficted with skipping FMV
and sound, thanks to the poorly
designed nature of the CD drive.
Later models rectied this issue,
but early adopters still shudder
at the memory of having to place
their beloved consoles upside
down in order to get them to
work properly
QEarly UK adverts for the
machine featured SAPS the
Society Against PlayStation
a ctional organisation that
was committed to preventing
the console from ensnaring the
countrys youngsters

PLAYSTATION | 9

RETROINSPECTION
Sony had, by this point, poured a
a determined rival as a result.
signicant amount of cash into the
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi
proposed PlayStation concept. It had
was famous for being particularly
even moved as far as the prototype
ruthless in his business practices, but
phase, with PC CD-ROM titles such as
what happened next is one of the most
Trilobytes The 7th Guest being mooted
infamous double-crosses in the history
as possible launch games. Despite the
of the videogame industry.
tumultuous events of the 1991 CES,
It was at the 1991 Consumer
a deal was signed between Nintendo
Electronics Show that Nintendo dropped
and Sony that would allow the latter
the bombshell. Sony went to the event
to make its machine compatible with
full of enthusiasm and on the rst day
SNES CD-ROM titles with the proviso
proudly announced the details of its
that Nintendo would retain all software
new alliance with Nintendo, as well as
royalties. Although it was nothing more
news of the Super Disc format and the
than a clever stalling tactic
impending development
by Nintendo to keep Sony
of the SNES-compatible
from entering the market
PlayStation. Sony had less
on its own, this proposed
than 24 hours to soak
alliance nevertheless kept
up the palpable level of
the increasingly frustrated
excitement generated
Kutaragi and his team
by this press conference
busy. However, by 1992
before Nintendo conrmed
it had become clear that
that it was, in fact, working
such a union was going
with Philips on the SNES
nowhere. Sony cut off
CD-ROM drive. Yamauchi
communication with
had gone behind Sonys
Nintendo and the company
back at the last minute
was painfully close to
to broker a deal with
Although SNKs Neo Geo
system had used the same
withdrawing from the
the Dutch company a
concept some years beforehand,
arena for good.
deal that was predictably
Sonys decision to go with
removable data storage for save
Only Kutaragis intense
skewed in Nintendos
game files was regarded by many
resolve and determination
favour leaving Sony
as truly groundbreaking.
prevented the PlayStation
publicly humiliated at the
dream from ending in 1992. During
very moment it had expected to usher
a meeting with Sony president Norio
in a new era as a serious contender in
Ohga in order to decide the future of
the videogaming arena. At the time,
the project, Kutaragi made bold claims
Yamauchi and the rest of Nintendos
about the kind of machine he had been
top brass were suitably pleased with
developing. He argued that the 16-bit
their skulduggery; such swift action had
PlayStation, with its reliance on a union
prevented Sony from taking a sizeable
with the incumbent not to mention
bite out of the companys prots. As it
untrustworthy Nintendo, was a dead
happened, the planned Nintendo-Philips
end. The only option was to go it
alliance resulted in little more than a
alone and create a brand new piece of
handful of risible Nintendo licences on
hardware capable of shifting 3D graphics
the CD-i, and the abject failure of Segas
at a hitherto unprecedented rate. When
Mega-CD seemed to lend credence to
Kutaragis ambitious proposal was
the viewpoint that expanding existing
greeted with derision from the Sony
consoles was a mistake, so while
president, he presented another side to
Nintendo had protected its best interests
his argument: could Sonys pride allow it
by leaving Sony at the altar in such
to simply walk away when Nintendo had
degrading fashion, it actually gained little
so blatantly abused its trust? By making
else of note aside from a dogged rival.
UK gamers were treated to the amusing
Society Against PlayStation advertising
campaign, complete with its dorky spokesman.

10 | PLAYSTATION

VARIANTS PLAYSTATIONS MANY FACES

SNES PlayStation

Sony PlayStation

QThe fruit of Sony and Nintendos

ill-fated union, this machine would
have played SNES carts and SNES
CD-ROM software. Although it was
never ofcially released, it formed
the basis of the 32-bit machine.
Legend has it that Sony still has
200 prototype units secreted within
its Japanese headquarters.

QThe groundbreaking original. This

piece of hardware kick-started an
era of Sony-led market dominance
that would last for the best part of
a decade. Early units suffered from
skipping FMV and CD audio thanks
to their entirely plastic CD-ROM
mechanism; later versions had metal
parts that xed the issue

Net Yaroze

PSone

QAimed at bedroom coders, the

Net Yaroze came with development
tools that allowed users to create their
own games, some of which turned up
on ofcial demo discs. It also had no
regional lockout, so games from any
part of the world could be played on
it. Naturally, it was far more expensive
than the standard PlayStation

QReleased in 2000, this revised

machine was smaller than its
predecessor, clocking in at a
minuscule 38x193x144mm. An
ofcial LCD screen accessory could
be attached to make this the rst
portable PlayStation, albeit without
an ofcial battery. It outsold the PS2
in its rst year on sale

RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION

COMMUNITY THE BEST PLAYSTATION RESOURCES ON THE WEB

The PlayStation
Museum

PlayStation
DataCenter

Push Square

Absolute PlayStation

pushsquare.com

absolute-playstation.com

playstationmuseum.com

psxdatacenter.com

QA truly amazing site that is

dedicated to preserving the
history of Sonys machine.
Here you will nd reviews and
features, as well as lots of data
relating to unreleased titles or
prototypes. Well worth a visit if
you have a few hours to spare.

QA must for collectors, the

PlayStation DataCenter has
listings for almost every game
released on the format. It
even has high-quality cover
scans to download. A real
gold mine of information for
dedicated PlayStation fans.

QWhile its not strictly aimed

at the PSone, Push Square is
nevertheless one of the nets
leading Sony sites. It covers
retro-related news items
as well as the PlayStations
offspring. If youre a Sony
fanboy, then you should
bookmark this site for sure.

QAnother site that covers

the entire PlayStation brand,
Absolute PlayStation is packed
with reviews, guides, blogs
and even a chat forum. Its
also regularly updated with
the latest and greatest Sony
games, so if Sony is your
passion, this is the place to be.

PaRappa The Rapper was one of the first music

action titles and helped kick-start the recent
explosion in rhythm-based gaming.

Final Fantasy VII was one of the PlayStations most

significant releases, not just in commercial terms but from
a critical viewpoint as well. It became the first JRPG to
gain truly international acceptance.

the PlayStation project a success,

the company would experience the
sweet taste of revenge at the expense
of its one-time ally.
Kutaragis speech hit a nerve, and
early in 1994 Sony conrmed that it
was entering the videogame arena
with its own console, and even formed
subsidiary Sony Computer Entertainment
in order to oversee the new venture.
Keen to differentiate this new project
from its previous namesake, Sony
branded it the PlayStation-X this gave
rise to the abbreviation PSX, which
is still used even today, even though
the X was later dropped when the
console was ofcially launched. Early
reports were impressive, with some
developers condently proclaiming that
Sonys console would blow away the
competition. Despite the companys
wide entertainment portfolio which
included music label CBS Records and
Hollywood studio Columbia Tri-Star
Sony boldly decided not to focus on
the multimedia market, as its rival Philips,
with its CD-i and 3DO, had done, to its
great cost. Instead, the PlayStation was
unashamedly proclaimed as a dedicated

gaming machine, with SCEs director

Akira Sato condently stating that: If
its not real-time, its not a game a
thinly veiled criticism of other CD-based
consoles and their reliance on FMV
titles that featured live actors but little
interaction. The sheer power of the
new system shocked other players in
the industry; Sega of Japan president
Hayao Nakayama was reportedly so
furious when he read the specs for the

When you take into account Sonys

position as one of the worlds foremost
electronics manufacturers, its hardly
surprisingly that the original PlayStation
was a highly desirable piece of kit.
Unmistakably a games console but
showcasing a hint of mature design,
the machine seemed to speak to those
gamers who had cut their teeth on the
likes of the NES, Mega Drive and SNES
and were now ready to progress to

By making it a success, Sony

would experience revenge at the
expense of its one-time ally
PlayStation that he personally visited
Segas hardware division and gave them
a stern talking to. His tirade would result
in the Saturn, Segas entrant in the 32-bit
console war, getting an additional video
processor to boost its graphical muscle,
but this would make the system harder
to program for an issue that had severe
ramications in the future.

an entirely different level of challenge.

Everything from the two-pronged
joypads to the removable Memory
Card storage system seemed to drip
sophistication. Sony later revealed the
numerous hardware designs that had
been considered before the nal version
was decided upon; this was the work of
a company that was taking its entry into

the videogames market very seriously

indeed. Kutaragi and the entire project
in general had come under re from
high-level Sony executives who argued
that videogames were toys for children,
and therefore, one of the PlayStations
key aims was to challenge that view. As
a result, the nal design for the machine
was sleek and serious, mimicking the
appearance of a top-end piece of audiovisual equipment rather than a gamesplaying device.
However, while this posturing caught
the attention of gamers, some industry
experts were less enthused, citing
Sonys poor track record in the industry
up to that point. The companys software
publishing arm Sony Imagesoft had
so far failed to generate any titles of
note, pushing half-baked movie licences
such as Cliffhanger and Last Action Hero
onto store shelves to the complete
indifference of the games-buying public.
Indeed, software was one area in which
Sony was at a distinct disadvantage, as
Sega and Nintendo had highly talented
internal development teams that
traditionally produced the best software
for their respective consoles. Sony
PLAYSTATION | 11

RETROINSPECTION

Developer Viewpoint
Robert Troughton (programmer, Destruction Derby)
QIT WAS LATE in 1994 that Sony and myself were launching
into the console games business. Straight out of university, I wasnt
really sure what to expect. Reections, a game developer based
in the North East, were just beginning work on a new genre of
racing game: Destruction Derby. The premise was simple: a racing
game which you win not by coming rst although that helped
but by smashing your competitors cars to a pulp. From starting
in January 95, we had only nine months to complete the project,
with a team consisting of just three programmers and one artist.
The PlayStation was technically leagues ahead of the competition,
with amazing 3D graphics and CD-ROM technology. I cant
remember whether any of us saw daylight for those nine months,
but Im not sure that any of us cared all that much. Sony loved us
for how fast we were creating the game they gave us a release
date that would tie in with the PlayStations US and European
launch the press were all over us and it was clear that the game
was going to be a success. Destruction Derby went on to sell
millions. The PlayStation sold many times more, and Ive stayed
in the industry ever since, still doing what I was doing back then:
hacking away at code and trying to squeeze every last bit of juice
out of whatever platform Im working on and thankful to Sony for
giving me this opportunity.

Station to Station
QRELEASED LATE IN the machines lifespan, the
PocketStation was a self-contained handheld
similar in design to Segas Dreamcast Visual
Memory Unit. Its announcement caused a
surprising degree of excitement, and many
industry insiders condently predicted that
this miniature console was Sonys attempt
to crack Nintendos stranglehold on the
handheld market. Dubbed a personal digital
assistant, it stored save game data just
like a typical PlayStation Memory Card but
could also play crude games on its 32x32 dot
matrix LCD display, although, predictably,
the quality of these titles was well below what
could be experienced on Nintendos Game Boy. An
infrared connection was also included so users could exchange
data without having to connect their PocketStations to their main
console. Launched in 1999, it was only supported by a handful
of titles and sadly never saw release outside Japan although a
release was obviously on the drawing board at some juncture as
several Western games came with PocketStation functionality.
12 | PLAYSTATION

39,800 (around 250 in todays money)

lacked this key feature, although it
the PlayStation sold strongly, although
was at least attempting to rectify
the Japanese public seemed to gravitate
the issue by courting highly rated UK
towards Segas console more, possibly
code shop Psygnosis, which would go
because Virtua Fighter, despite the
on to publish vital launch titles such as
slightly unimpressive Saturn conversion,
WipEout and Destruction Derby. Still,
was the countrys number one arcade
there was an overwhelming feeling that
title at the time. Both formats started out
although Sony was perceived to be
fairly evenly, but as the months rolled by
doing everything right, it would ultimately
Sony was able to deliver on its promises
fall at the nal hurdle; Sega and Nintendo
thanks to sterling releases from Namco,
would continue to ght it out, just as
Konami and Capcom, while Segas inthey had done during the previous
house projects stalled. Ironically, Sonys
format war. Sony doesnt know games,
reliance on third-party developers proved
the critics cried. Thankfully, the rm
to be in its favour. Because it needed
managed to secure the assistance of a
outside assistance,
company that certainly
the company had
did know something
made great efforts to
about the industry:
get software support,
Japanese arcade
while it could be
veteran Namco.
argued that Sega was
Pac-Man creator
less active in courting
Namco was
developers. Sony had
undergoing something
made the PlayStation
of a resurgence thanks
as accessible as
to the incredible
possible, and it was
impact made by its 3D
paying dividends.
coin-op Ridge Racer.
The technological
A texture-mapped tour
DMAs controversial Grand Theft Auto started
gulf didnt do the
de force, the game
its console life as a PlayStation release and
made several appearances on the machine.
PlayStation any harm,
was unquestionably a
either; titles such
cutting-edge piece of
as WipEout looked gorgeous, with
programming and had given its parent
transparent textures and eye-popping
company the ability to leapfrog persistent
are effects. Segas machine lacked both
rival Sega in arcades. When Namco
of these embellishments, and, thanks
revealed that it was porting its hugely
to its complex dual-CPU setup, required
successful racer to the PlayStation,
the best coders to really get the most
it caused quite a stir. The notion that
out of it. Meanwhile, third-party studios
Sonys new console could replicate
were getting stuck in to PlayStation
an arcade title that cost thousands of
game production, and a string of classic
pounds created astonishing levels of
titles began to emerge. Tomb Raider
expectation, and this only increased
ironically a Saturn title originally along
when the rst shots of PSX-based
with Tekken 2, Soul Blade, Ridge
Ridge Racer were released to the
Racer Revolution and Resident Evil all
public. Coded in an incredible six
contributed to the PlayStations wide and
months, the game might not have
varied catalogue of titles.
been arcade-perfect, but it did enough
to cement Sonys position as a key
player, purely because it made Segas
WipEout came to define the PlayStations
heavily delayed in-house conversion of
approach to gaming and is a staple of
Sonys first-party lineup.
its Daytona USA coin-op look decidedly
second-rate by comparison. Elsewhere,
the PlayStations visual prowess was
demonstrated by exquisite third-party
titles such as Jumping Flash and Battle
Arena Toshinden, the former being a
groundbreaking, if shallow, 3D platformer
and the latter a likeable, if uninspired,
one-on-one brawler. Toshinden couldnt
hold a candle to Segas Virtua Fighter
port when it came to gameplay, but it
was nevertheless a fundamental game in
Sonys arsenal because it looked far, far
better. From screenshots alone, it was
clear that the PlayStation had the edge in
terms of raw power.
The Japanese launch took place on
3 December 1994 a handful of days
after Sega had shifted 200,000 Saturn
consoles on its rst day of sale. Priced at

RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION

Sony developed several different logos before

finally settling on the one we now know and love.

Norio Ohga was Sony president during the genesis of the

PlayStation project. He saw off apathy within the company
to ensure that Kutaragis dream came to fruition.

Sony Europes Phil Harrison was instrumental in attracting

quality developers to the machine and would eventually
rise to the top of the company.

Neo Turf Masters is a fantastic

golf game by Nazca, the same team
responsible for Metal Slug. Like many
AES games released in 1996, an
authentic cartridge will cost you plenty.

Fraternising with the enemy: Nintendos Shigeru Miyamoto

samples Crash Bandicoot during the 1996 E3 show.

The Western launches were

equally successful, with Sony
managing to undercut the retail price of
Segas Saturn in both North America
and Europe. In Europe, especially,
Sony displayed a masterly grasp of
how to market a games machine to a
more mature audience. The company
knew that those gamers who had
grown up with the 8-bit and 16-bit
consoles were gradually reaching
adulthood and would therefore require
more grown-up gaming experiences.
While Sega and Nintendo focused
on building recognisable mascots to
appeal to youngsters, Sony released the
PlayStation with a range of software
that was unashamedly adult in tone:
the aforementioned WipEout featured a
soundtrack that showcased the talents
of real recording artists, such as The
Chemical Brothers and Lefteld, while
visceral top-down shooter Loaded
not only featured excessive gore and
allusions to transvestism but also
enrolled the assistance of grebo-rock
outt Pop Will Eat Itself. One thing was
clear: Sony wasnt aiming for the Mario
and Sonic audience with the PlayStation.
Segas challenge soon began to
falter, and so Nintendo became Sonys
next opponent. The rm responsible for
such classics as Super Mario Bros and
The Legend Of Zelda had been making
condent noises about its cartridgebased Ultra 64 (later Nintendo 64)

console for some time, and although

it wouldnt be ready until 1996,
Nintendo went to great lengths to
encourage gamers to hold off on
buying a 32-bit machine. Sadly, the
decision to stick with the expensive
cartridge format would cost the rm
the support of one of its most prized
third-party publishers: Squaresoft.
Although the highly anticipated Final
Fantasy VII had been conrmed as an
N64 release, Square eventually switched
development over to Sonys machine,
citing the limited storage and high unit
cost of cartridges. Final Fantasy VII
was going to be the most epic game
yet conceived, and it needed as much
storage space as possible. Only CDROM could offer this, Square argued.
Nintendos loss was, of course, Sonys
massive gain; published in 1997, Final
Fantasy VII was a worldwide smash,
selling 10 million copies in the process.
This success established the console
as the leading platform of its generation
and subsequent system exclusives
such as Konamis Metal Gear Solid and
Polyphony Digitals seminal Gran Turismo
cemented this lofty status even further.
With both Sega and Nintendo
subdued, Sonys dominance was
assured. So tight was the companys
grip on the marketplace that even the
launch of Segas technically superior
128-bit Dreamcast in 1999 was unable
to upset the status quo. With millions of

units sold and a more

powerful successor
the PlayStation 2
waiting in the wings, 2000
saw Sony release a new
iteration of its 32-bit console
in the form of the PSone.
Smaller, sleeker and sexier, it
boasted enhanced functionally that
allowed it to link to mobile phones and
even supported a fold-down LCD display,
giving it a small degree of portability. The
revision was a triumph and enabled the
ageing machine to remain relevant in a
marketplace that was gradually leaving it
behind in technological terms.
Sony ceased manufacturing the
PlayStation in 2006, giving the console
an impressive production lifespan of 11
years. During that time it redened the
world of videogames, granting gamers
a taste of 3D visuals and making the
oft-derided hobby a cool and relevant
pastime. Of course, such activity earned
Sony and, by association, its console
a fair degree of scorn also, but few
would have the temerity to debate
the PlayStations incredible inuence
on modern interactive entertainment.
Without it, the gaming landscape today
would be near-unrecognisable.
PLAYSTATION | 13

PlayStation
PERFECT TEN
TOMB RAIDER

01

RELEASE: 1999

PUBLISHER: EIDOS INTERACTIVE

PUBLISHER: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT

CREATOR: CORE DESIGN

CREATOR: POLYPHONY DIGITAL

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: FIGHTING FORCE

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: OMEGA BOOST

01

02

Although her star has waned a little over the

past few years, theres no denying that Lara
Croft remains one of videogamings most enduring
icons. Her 1996 debut was actually on the Saturn, as
developer Core Design had traditionally supported
Segas consoles. However, it was the PlayStation
version released shortly afterwards that was truly
responsible for ring the delectable Miss Croft into
the realms of global superstardom. Sequels followed
as it rmly became a PlayStation series and arguably
improved on the template, but the original game
retains a near-legendary status.

FINAL FANTASY
TACTICS

02

03
14 | PLAYSTATION

GRAN TURISMO 2

RELEASE: 1996

The rst Gran Turismo was possibly the

most technically groundbreaking release of
the 32-bit era, and this sequel beefed up the already
considerable experience by adding more cars, more
tracks and even a rally mode. The titles visuals
already pretty mind-blowing in the original release
pushed the 32-bit hardware to the absolute limit, with
Polyphony Digitals unique development software
eking out every last drop of power from the PlayStation
in its nal years. Spanning two discs, Gran Turismo 2
is arguably the denitive racing title of that era and still
plays great today.

METAL GEAR SOLID

RESIDENT EVIL 2

RELEASE: 1998

RELEASE: 1998

RELEASE: 1997

PUBLISHER: KONAMI

PUBLISHER: CAPCOM

PUBLISHER: SQUARE

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER:

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: DINO CRISIS

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: DEW PRISM

INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTAR

03

SOCCER PRO

Released only in Japan

and North America, this
strategy RPG arrived around the
same time as Final Fantasy VII,
which caused some confusion
when gamers discovered that
they actually had very little in
common. Developed by the team
behind Tactics Ogre Square
snapped up studio Quest prior to
producing the game Final Fantasy
Tactics showcases gorgeous
visuals, breathtaking music and a
surprisingly mature and complex
plot. It was recently released on the
PSP in a slightly enhanced form.

04

04

Hideo Kojimas magnum

opus set a new high
watermark for storytelling in
videogames, as well as introducing
an entire generation to the
wonderful stealth sub-genre. Solid
Snake has gone on to become a
household name, starring in more
technically impressive sequels
on the PS2 and PS3 consoles.
However, hardcore fans maintain
that this instalment remains the
best, thanks largely to its tight
plotting, memorable characters and
judicious use of the host hardware.

05

05

The rst title established

Capcoms reputation as
master of the survival horror
genre, but it was the second game
in the series that truly conrmed
the companys god-like status.
Offering the ability to play the
story with two different characters
one to each of the games two
discs, with differences depending
on which you play rst Resi 2
mixed relentless zombie slaughter
with intriguing puzzles and some
of the best visuals seen on the
PlayStation up to that point. Its
unsurprising that series fans hold
this entry in the utmost regard.

PERFECT TEN: PLAYSTATION

GAMES

The original PlayStation brought us a massive number of

franchises that have become part of the gaming landscape
today. Just take a look at the following classics

06
TEKKEN 3

07
EINHNDER

08
FINAL FANTASY VII

RELEASE: 1998

RELEASE: 1997

RELEASE: 1997

PUBLISHER: NAMCO

PUBLISHER: SQUARE

PUBLISHER: SCE

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

CREATOR: SQUARE

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: SOUL BLADE

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER:

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER:

06

Tekken 2 had proven

that Namco was more
than capable of taking on Segas
illustrious Virtua Fighter, but it
was the third game that dazzled
the most. Sceptics had feared
that it would never appear on
the 32-bit console, but Namcos
expert coders managed to squeeze
in every aspect of the coin-op to
create a tting pugilistic swansong
for the ageing PlayStation. While
the Tekken Force and Tekken Ball
modes were superuous additions
to the domestic port, all of the
important features were present
and correct.

BRAVE FENCER MUSASHI

07

Famous for being Squares

one and only entry in the
shooter genre, Einhnder is an
incredible achievement. The
team involved had no previous
experience with this type of
game, yet it managed to create a
classic that is still talked about in
hushed, reverent tones even today.
Featuring a unique weapon system
based on grabbing the ordnance
of fallen enemies, Einhnders
brilliance is made even more
remarkable when you consider
that Square hasnt ventured to the
genre since its release.

SAGA FRONTIER

08

Having sold over 10

million copies worldwide,
Final Fantasy VII needs no
introduction. Cited as the game
that sold the Japanese RPG to the
Western mainstream, this threedisc epic made the most of the
PlayStations technical capabilities
to deliver hours of turn-based
entertainment. It remains arguably
the most popular entry in Squares
evergreen franchise and has
recently spawned several spin-off
games and other projects, such
as Crisis Core on the PSP and the
Advent Children CGI movie.

CASTLEVANIA:
SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT

VAGRANT STORY

RELEASE: 1997

PUBLISHER: SQUARE

RELEASE: 2000

PUBLISHER: KONAMI

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

CREATOR: IN-HOUSE

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: FRONT MISSION 2

BY THE SAME DEVELOPER: PROJECT OVERKILL

09

The PlayStation has a reputation for being

something of a duffer when it comes to 2D
titles, and to a certain extent, this is true. The console
had only 2MB of RAM compared to the Saturns 4MB,
and this resulted in some lacklustre conversions.
However, titles like Symphony Of The Night coded
with Sonys hardware in mind were mind-blowing.
Fusing 2D and 3D effects, Konamis designers created
one of the most mesmerising titles of the generation.
Look out for the limited edition European version,
complete with art book and CD.

09

10

One of the most ambitious role-playing games

of the 32-bit era, Vagrant Story is epic in every
sense of the word. Produced by the same team
responsible for Final Fantasy Tactics, the game featured
a deep and sometimes disturbing storyline, and lead
character Ashley Riot has to rank as one of the most
hard-edged protagonists in videogame history. Vagrant
Story was recently re-released on Sonys PlayStation
Network and can be purchased and downloaded for
play on both the PlayStation 3 and PSP, and it even
lives on through its shared universe with the Final
Fantasy Tactics series and Final Fantasy XII.

10
PLAYSTATION | 15

The PlayStation has one of the most interesting and diverse

catalogues of games around. How many of the following have
you experienced?

and the rest

PlayStation

01

02

03

08

09

10

15

16

17

22

23

24

29

30

31

36

37

38

43

44

45

50

51

52

01 HOGS OF WAR
02 NO ONE CAN STOP MR DOMINO
03 BUBBLE BOBBLE FEATURING
RAINBOW ISLANDS
04 FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
05 JUMPING FLASH
06 CRASH BANDICOOT
07 TOMB RAIDER
08 RESIDENT EVIL
09 METAL GEAR SOLID
10 ALUNDRA
11 GRAND THEFT AUTO
12 DOOM
13 ODDWORLD: ABES ODDYSEE
14 HARMFUL PARK
15 AQUANAUTS HOLIDAY
16 KULA WORLD
17 RIDGE RACER REVOLUTION
18 TIME CRISIS
19 RESIDENT EVIL 2
20 FINAL FANTASY VIII
21 PARAPPA THE RAPPER
22 BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN
23 DIE HARD TRILOGY
24 EINHANDER
25 RAYMAN
26 NBA JAM TOURNAMENT EDITION
27 TOMB RAIDER 2
28 PEPSI MAN
29 BOMBERMAN FANTASY RACE
30 DIABLO
31 THE DIVIDE: ENEMIES WITHIN
32 PORSCHE CHALLENGE
33 RAPID RELOAD
34 DESTRUCTION DERBY
35 CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT
36 STREET FIGHTER THE MOVIE
37 MEDAL OF HONOR
38 FINAL FANTASY VII
39 DEVIL DICE
40 TOMBI!
41 RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
42 CONTRA: LEGACY OF WAR
43 RIDGE RACER
44 LSD: DREAM EMULATOR
45 DINO CRISIS
46 TENCHU: STEALTH ASSASSINS
47 VIB RIBBON
48 TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER
49 KILEAK THE BLOOD
50 TEKKEN 2
51 NIGHTMARE CREATURES
52 TOMB RAIDER 3
53 WIPEOUT
54 LEMMINGS
55 POWER DIGGERZ
56 TWISTED METAL

16 | PLAYSTATION

04

05

06

07

11

12

13

14

18

19

20

21

25

26

27

28

32

33

34

35

39

40

41

42

46

47

48

49

53

54

55

56

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18 | PLAYSTATION

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

tation
CHANGED GAMING
It was the console that
arguably killed the arcades,
but revolutionised the way we
played at home. David Crookes
looks at why, 20 years on from
its western launch, we shouldnt
underestimate the
power of PlayStation

n 2000, some six years after the

PlayStation had launched in
Japan and with the PS2 nding
its way into the sweaty hands of
smitten gamers, Phil Harrison,
then senior vice president for
Sony Computer Entertainment
Europe, spoke retrospectively of the
ambition of the console brand that
shook the dominance of Nintendo
and Sega to its foundations.
At this point in time, Sega was
months off throwing in the towel as
its acclaimed yet largely shunned
Dreamcast opped in the shadow

of its Sony rival. The Nintendo 64

was about to be set aside in favour
of the GameCube. Atari had long
been cast into the wilderness as
its nal console, the Jaguar, was
discontinued in 1994 and its name
was on the verge of being sold by
Hasbro Interactive to Infogrames.
But Harrison had a different
company in mind when he
reected on the manner in which
the PlayStation had cleaned up
the opposition and made the fth
generation entirely its own. We
wanted it to become the Hoover of
videogames, he said, of the aim
to make the console late-comer a
proprietary eponym. And, in many
ways, it has.
It is fair to say that no gaming
machine up until that point had ever
had the widespread, mass-market
impact of the attractive, CD-playing
grey plastic box of tricks that became
the PlayStation, as controversial as
that may sound. Countless amazing
consoles had come before it, but
none of them were able to truly
break into the mainstream and

Two decades ago we would have never predicted how

important this logo would become.

PLAYSTATION | 19

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Although it catered for two players

out of the box, it was possible to add
more pads with a Multitap.

he answer is about to unfold. I think Sony

did a fantastic job in presenting PlayStation
as a brand new way of playing and making
games, explains Nick Burcombe, the lead
designer of seminal title WipEout. Sonys message
about how powerful the PlayStation would be prior to
launch did enough to get gamers looking at them, even
though Segas Dreamcast also had 3D capabilities and
used discs too. Dreamcast was a good console but
the message was loud and clear: PlayStation was even
better. The message worked well.
The story of the PlayStations origin has been well
told. Its an intriguing tale of two companies; Sony and
Nintendo striking a deal in 1988 to create a CD-ROM
add-on to the SNES that would use Nintendo Super
Discs. Sony went further and added support for Video

MARTYN
BROWN
VIDEOGAME
DEVELOPER AND
CONSULTANT
Back then it was all about
3D and especially the T-Rex
demo that was doing the
rounds but we had our
greatest PlayStation hit
with a 2D game: Worms.

24

none were able to say that, nine years and six

months after launch, they had sold 100 million units.
I think really, the legacy of the original PlayStation is
that it took gaming from a pastime that was for young
people or maybe for slightly geeky people and it turned
it into a highly credible form of mass entertainment,
really comparable with great legitimacy with the music
business and the movie business, says Sonys current
European boss Jim Ryan.
Yet how did a console made by an outsider make
such an impact? How did it become so successful
that the stars of its games would adorn the covers of
fashionable magazines? And why do people talk of
the period between 1990 and 2000 as the era of the
PlayStation Generation when the console wasnt even
around for a good third of that time?

PAUL RANSON
FORMERLY OF BIG RED
Levels, cutscenes and music previously squished into carts could now
be developed with panache and in a style that we thought emulated the
movie business. PS1 for me was the proper start of the Hollywood style
entertainment in the videogame business.

CDs and it took advantage of its permission to create

its own standalone console which it called the Play
Station (note the space), a machine that allowed for
the playing of both CDs and cartridge. Sony showed
off its creation to great fanfare at that years Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 1991.
But within mere hours of the unveiling Nintendo got
cold feet. It believed Sony could potentially pull the rug
from under them and steal a portion of the industry so
it cancelled the deal, announcing the day after that it
was instead bringing rival Philips on board. Eager not to
waste the huge amount of time invested in the project,
Sonys president Norio Ohga ordered that development
would continue without the experience of Nintendo.
Ken Kutaragi who had begun his career in Sonys
digital research labs was given the task of designing
the machine, which Sony codenamed PSX.
Kutaragi pooled the resources of engineers who
had been working on a geometric computer graphics
engine called System-G that was capable of real time
3D texture mapping for broadcasting networks. By
1992 he had a prototype ready to show his bosses, but
it wasnt an easy ride for Kutaragi and his team. There
was much internal resistance to the idea, with

classic gaming franchises

PLAYSTATION BABIES The
that were born on PlayStation

Nightmare Creatures tapped into

the survival horror genre.

Cliff Bleszinskis favourite ever

PlayStation game is Jumping Flash.

Pandemonium was an early

platformer that used 2.5D.

NUMBER OF GAMES
UNITS SOLD

22

20 | PLAYSTATION

4
8,000,000

ODDWORLD

7
19,000,000

DRIVER

8,500,000

SILENT HILL

14

16

17
29,000,000

SPYRO THE DRAGON

9
4,800,000

17
TENCHU

42,000,000

TOMB RAIDER

11
3,900,000

SUIKODEN

12
39,000,000

4
2

METAL GEAR SOLID

8
6

50,000,000

10

CRASH BANDICOOT

14
12

30,000,000

16

TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER

18

18

19

20

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

The PlayStations CD-ROM-based

media ensured far higher capacity
than cartridge-based consoles.

DARREN FALCUS
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF
HIPPO ENTERTAINMENT
The 3D technology and internal
structure meant that it was a much
easier technology to develop for.

Games required a memory card

for saving, something that meant an
additional cost for gamers.

Thats right, even the power button

managed to look sexy on Sonys new console.

PlayStations additional ports let Sony

add various peripherals to the console.

24

19

18
16
14

9
70,020,000

TWISTED METAL

3
2,000,000

MEDIEVIL

12

86,800,000

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER

70,020,000

GRAN TURISMO

600,000

10

13

20

KINGS FIELD

60,000,000

RESIDENT EVIL

6
31,000,000

SYPHON FILTER

2
2,200,000

PARAPPA THE RAPPER

14
31,000,000

MEDAL OF HONOR

10
8,000,000

WIPEOUT

22

22

10
8
6
4
2
0

PLAYSTATION | 21

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Sony still, overall, reluctant to become a player in the

games industry. Yet Ohgas anger at Nintendo was all
that was needed to overrule any doubts.
For Sonys president, it was a case of winning at
all costs. He kept the project on track, agreed the
purchase of British development house Psygnosis (a
startling move, given Japans previous tendency to
invest internally) and, with some renement and a bit
of design prodding, the machine was geared up for
launch, rst in Japan on 3 December 1994 and then in
September 1995 in North America and Europe (selling
for 299 in the UK). The console turned heads. Two
words: dinosaur demo, remembers Brian Baglow,
writer of the rst Grand Theft Auto, of the 3D graphic
display Sony had slapped on a disc for those who had
pre-ordered the console. As soon as I saw the giant
walking T-Rex, I was astonished and awed.
But the dino demo wasnt the only thing that stood
out. The PlayStation, which would thanks to a small
redesign and relaunch in 2000 eventually become

UNDER THE HOOD

The components that made the magic happen

RAM
QThe PlayStation packs a

whopping 2MB of RAM, which might

be next to nothing by todays standards
but it proved to be more than enough. An
additional 4k data cache meant that lesser
commands could be handled elsewhere,
freeing up a little more memory, while
1MB of graphics RAM also exists
for visuals.

DAVID DARLING
KWALEE CEO & FORMER CODEMASTERS BOSS
It was the first proper 3D games console to gain
significant market share and [Sony was] very active
in supporting and encouraging developers. It was fun
making games with 3D models and polygons rather
than the 2D games wed made for years on machines
like the Sega Mega Drive.

known as the PSone had a shapely, comfortable

games controller which did away with the at design
of other machines and replaced letters with shapes. It
had external memory cards with 15 save blocks that
added up to 128k (an idea copied from the Neo-Geo).
It also had a slick appearance. More than all of that,
though, it had games. Stunning games. And people
wanted to play them.
Eight games were available for the PlayStation on
the rst day but one truly stood out: Namcos Ridge
Racer. It was an arcade driving sim with chunky 3D
cars, wide tracks, catchy tunes and equally memorable
speech; it was a title that laid down an ambitious
marker and showed games could have just as much
impact as music or lm.
It was also a near-perfect version of the hit that had
been attracting coins at the arcades and it helped

LASER
QConsoles are never

built using top-end tech and the

PlayStation was no exception. While
certainly fit for purpose, the disc-reading laser
used in its CD drive was the cause or some of
the most common hardware failures. It could
be replaced, but enterprising gamers often
instead resorted to the cheaper option of
balancing the console at all kinds of
precarious angles to make it
read discs.
There was no doubting the significant role that the tomb-raiding Lara Croft
played in pushing Tomb Raider high in the charts.

22 | PLAYSTATION

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

MOTOR

CONTROLLER/
MEMORY CARD
SLOTS

QThat satisfying whirring

sound when booting up a new

game came from this x2 bad boy,
capable of transferring data at 300kb per
second. After extended use, the motor could
wear out and result in disc read errors,
while overuse of the swap trick (to play
import games, naturally) could
weaken and break the
plastic spindle.

QFour front-mounted slots allow for up to

two controllers and a pair of memory cards.
The controller ports are capable of relaying
information and commands from multiple
controllers and not just one, as evidenced by
the existence of the Multitap. Despite the
existence of a second Memory Card
slot, some games only allow
use of the first.

TRANSFORMER
QSome consoles use external

transformers to keep both size and

heat down, but the PlayStation had it all
on-board which helps explain its size. Sony
was able to shrink the console down for
the PSone model in part by moving to an
external power transformer on the
plug lead rather than having it
in the box.

CPU
QRocking a 32-bit R3000A

processor clocked at just over

33MHz, the PS1 is capable of
rendering around 360,000 polygons per
second. It serves just as well for 2D
games, mind, but few would deny
that 3D was what made this
console so exciting.

CHARLIE
CHAPMAN
NET YAROZE
PROGRAMMER
Theres no doubt that the
move from cartridges to
a CD format reduced the
barriers to entry and led to
the release of more games
which perhaps wouldnt
have made it before.

PLAYSTATION | 23

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HOW SONY MADE GAMING COOL

The reasons PlayStation was such an important console

NIGHTCLUBS

PIRACY

QPlacing consoles running stylish and exciting

games like WipEout in bars and nightclubs taught
an entire generation one very important lesson
games arent for kids any more, and theres a lot
more to gaming than you might have thought.

QWhat better way to hit the mainstream

than to have games available for free? With
the web in its infancy, blank discs constantly
falling in price and several simple solutions
for running unsigned code on PlayStation,
piracy was undeniably a huge part of the
PlayStation boom.

GAMES OF SUBSTANCE
QWith so much more storage space, it wasnt
just visuals that could be more impressive
worlds and mechanics could be far more intricate
than ever before. Only a handful of 16-bit games
lasted upwards of 20 hours, but PS1 RPGs would
commonly come in closer to 100 hours.

MATURE GAMES
QThe better graphics got, the
more developers were able to
use games to tell grown-up
stories and faithfully cover
topics that simpler visuals
perhaps wouldnt do justice.
Between visuals, audio and
scale, we finally entered
an era where games could
move and affect players on a
similar level to movies. This
more emotional connection to
games meant that they could
be taken a lot more seriously
as an entertainment medium.

ADVERTS
QIt used to be that advertising agencies
would target the same demographic as
toy retailers when producing campaigns
for games. But by making interesting and
original shorts that broke free from that,
Sonys marketing proved to generate both
conversation and interest in the brand.

NET YAROZE
QThe Net Yaroze provided students and
hobbyist programmers with a chance to
make PlayStation games, opening up the
traditionally closed console development
scene. A small community of bedroom
coders sprang up as a result.

CD FORMAT

NINTENDO/SEGA

QIt used to be that taking a few games around

QA lot of Sonys success came down to a

to a friends house would involve lugging around

a bag full of chunky cartridges. With the rise of
disc-based media, one game case could hold a
collection, plus the format also allowed for better
audio quality than older hardware could manage.

fresh approach to gaming its competitors

had been butting heads for years, leading
them to contest the same market. But
this just allowed Sonys new audience to
appreciate something new even more.

24 | PLAYSTATION

3D GAMING
QClever coding allowed 3D (or 3D-style)
visuals on some of the oldest hardware, but
it was the scale on which the PS1 hardware
was capable of rendering 3D worlds and
environments that really blew us all away.
Early polygon visuals havent aged well, but
it was so impressive at the time.

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

With the tunes from Parappa The Rapper staying with players forever,
little wonder it helped kickstart the whole rhythm-based genre.

With a gorgeous opening that showed the power of the

PlayStation and great moves, Tekken II was a revelation.

Sony shift 100,000 PlayStations on the rst day in

uelled by Namcos racer, sped along by
Japan. Before long, impatient punters were splashing
WipEout and propelled to a higher platform
out 700 or more to import the console into Europe
by Jumping Flash (which Cliff Bleszinski says
and the US and the momentum began to build. Those
remains his favourite game), 3D became
3D capabilities were a major draw and suddenly
the PlayStations hallmark and it led to an insatiable
gaming began to look more mature, moving away
demand for three-dimensional titles. Most releases
from the perception of kids playing in their darkened
for the console were 3D (the occasional Oddworld
bedrooms to something trendy adults wanted to share
game aside) and the likes of Tekken and Battle Arena
while sitting on their sofa.
Toshinden continued to feed the appetite.
The PlayStation introduced the idea
This changed videogaming in another
of true 3D gaming to the living room and,
way. Given that 3D was more complex,
beyond that, the mass market, says Cliff
larger development teams were needed.
Bleszinski, whose rst game The Palace
Programmers and artists who struggled
to work with 3D found themselves
Of Deceit: Dragons Plight was released
oundering as the new way of presenting
in 1991. The PlayStation shifted the
games became expected on all platforms,
console from having an almost toy-like
and not just the PS1. The switch to 3D
quality into the consumer electronics that
was a ton of work and it required the
are just as desired by 12-year-olds as
relearning of new skills, laments one
they are by 35-year-olds.Key to this was
half of the Pickford Bros development
getting developers on board and helping
them through the transition from 2D to
MARTIN HOLLIS team, Ste Pickford, who designed a kids
cartoon game called DragonTales: Dragon
3D. Before the PlayStation, creating 3D
WORKED ON
on consoles was no easy task but the PC
Seek. The massive 512 MB CDs we
GOLDENEYE:007
had shown the possibilities with Doom,
had to ll meant tons more graphics.
Sony cultivated the
It was more a feeling of Aaargh! than
Wolfenstein and Descent.
machines association with
The SNES, for instance, had a Mode 7
being blown away.
music and club culture.
Sony initially refused to grant concept
playeld which allowed for some pseudoWithout this it is difficult
3D with games such as Mario Kart and
approval of any 2D game, in its bid to
to imagine Dance Dance
use the beauty of graphics to attract a
Pilotwings but it could only simulate a
Revolution, SingStar, Guitar
new breed of gamer. It meant all game
single at-textured plane. There were
Hero, or Rock Band.
developers had to make 3D games when
a handful of games using the SuperFX
we were all new to it. I think this sent
chip for SNES, which was a coprocessor
games backwards for a while because the PlayStation
that accelerated 3D rendering on the SNES, but it
had power to burn for 2D stuff and there could have
wasnt a fully featured GPU as found in the PS1, and
been some amazing 2D games as we all had the skills
it was quite limited, explains Michael Troughton,
and tools to make them, continues Ste.
who worked on the Destruction Derby games for the
But as time went on, developers picked up the
PlayStation while at Reections.
skills. Ive denitely experienced the hard work that
The consoles that were appearing werent making
comes with adapting game development to each new
life any easier. Sega Saturn was a powerful machine
generation of consoles, says Michiteru Okabe who
with 2 SH2 RISC CPUs and a number of dedicated
produced the art and graphics for Armoured Core:
coprocessors to handle audio, video, sprites and
polygons but it was notoriously difcult to program
Master Of Arena in 1999 and has, more recently,
for, says Michael. Programmers had little experience
been the producer on Resident Evil Revelations
with multi-processsing and it hindered them. The
2. He recalls trying to reuse textures to make
PlayStation suddenly opened 3D up to a much
a massive stage, running out of memory and
wider range of developers, with its custom graphics
redesigning it all at the last minute.
processor and geometry engine in hardware.
Indeed, Paul Hughes, who was working
In fact, I remember thinking it was amazing that
for EA when the PlayStation was launched,
the PS1 had the same CPU as the 5,000 Silicon
tells of Sonys excellent tools, documentation
graphics workstation we were using to build the 3D
and all important development kit. Sony also
environments. Now almost any programmer with a
revolutionised the technical requirements
minimal amount of basic maths knowledge could
checklist and this helped to ensure a solid
write a 3D game.
barrier to entry from a quality perspective.

Although it was an below-average release,

Porsche Challenge didnt half look good.

I found the initial transition pretty painless, he

says. Id been writing 3D engines since the late
Eighties, so I had a reasonable grasp of rendering
pipelines if anything, it was mind-numbing that it had
hardware that would draw textured and lit triangles
for me rather than having to obsess about every clock
cycle of a software triangle rasteriser. From a visual
effects perspective, it had proper, honest-to-goodness
alpha blending which really helped up the ante for
particle/trail/post effects.
Despite the advancements, however, the
mainstream press cast doubt on the companies that
were newly emerging to take a slice of the digital
pie. In May 1995, the New York Times ran with the
headline Video Game War Looms In Hardware and
it spoke of the challenge to be dominant in the $4
billion videogame market by introducing better, faster
machines with 32-bit microprocessors that can deliver
three-dimensional graphics and quicker and more
intricate action than the current 16-bit machines.
Sony, the 3DO Company, and Sega were scorned
for offering what were now seen to be comparatively
expensive machines. Nintendo of America and the
Atari Corporation are producing machines that retain
the familiar cartridge format and sell for considerably
less, the piece continued, neglecting to focus on what
was really important
t was the CD-ROM drive that was so important
for Sony (which, after all, had invented the CD
format in 1982 in collaboration with Philips)
and it was, as we saw, the entire reason the
company had got involved into the videogame industry
in the rst place. Sony was our key partner when
we were developing the rst CD-ROM games on
Genesis, Tom Kalinske, the former CEO of Sega of
America tells us, Back then, none of us knew how to
develop on the optical disc media but we all thought
it could be great the future for game machines. It
helped to lower the cost of game production, ensuring
huge amounts of cash was not tied up in pre-booked
cartridge stock that may well not have sold.

JAMES RUTHERFORD
NET YAROZE PROGRAMMER WHO LATER
WORKED ON STUNTMAN AND DRIV3R
Net Yaroze added a whole new dimension to
the PlayStation and it was great to be able to
create games on something that was current and
powerful. Having the games on a magazine cover
disc was a major incentive for us.

PLAYSTATION | 25

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STEWART GILRAY
CEO OF JUST ADD WATER
Youll have to remember that 20 years ago games
simply didnt do 3D at home, at least not as well as
the arcades did. So when we got our Japanese import
PlayStation at launch with Ridge Racer, we all sat around
with the joypad in our hands, loaded it up, and raced like
we were playing the arcade version. That blew us away.

The PlayStations pad went through numerous

revisions in its live, this one introduced analog sticks.

DUALSHOCK AND AWE

The evolution of the PlayStation pad

PLAYSTATION CONTROL PAD

DUAL ANALOG

DUALSHOCK 2

QThe original controller and our first taste of those

QWith players wanting more precise

QWhile cosmetically and technically very similar to the

iconic button symbols. Also notable for popularising the

use of four shoulder buttons, where most major pads
would only use two.

control for 3D gaming, the Dual Analog

was a prayer quickly answered. Firstperson games could finally be played
with tight movement.

original DualShock (to the point where originals would

work on PS2 as well), there was one major change:
every major button was analog rather than digital.

DUALSHOCK
QEffectively the same as the previous

controller, with motors fitted into each

handgrip for vibration. It also brought
two additional buttons, namely L3 and R3
mapped to clicking the analog sticks.

26 | PLAYSTATION

DUAL ANALOG
QWith players wanting more

precise control for 3D gaming,

the Dual Analog was a prayer
quickly answered. First-person
games could finally be played
with tight movement, while
inventive devs could create
quirky uses for a pair of sticks,
as seen with launch title
Ape Escape.

The move to disc was a huge but natural and

necessary change, says Dave Ranyard, the current
London Studio boss of SCEE. Prior to that, we had
cartridges and before that dedicated machines, but the
ability to store tons more data for our games improved
them no end, graphically, musically, and in terms of
scope. Disc is a very cheap and efcient method of
distributing lots of data.
The disc also allowed for the streaming of a lot of
data. Movies could play back in 16-bit colour thanks
to the dedicated MDEC hardware. Then of course
you had CD quality audio that you could stream off the
media rather than a MIDI track with less than stellar
instruments, says Paul Hughes. Everything about it
just oozed quality right from the boot-up sequence.
PlayStation cemented CD soundtracks as the
standard throughout the industry. Until that point
most gamers were content with the chip-music
that consoles offered, excellent as it was. But after
people started hearing tracks they recognised by the
Chemical Brothers and Lefteld in their games, chipmusic became unacceptable really fast, says Colin
Anderson, who headed up the audio team at DMA
Design from 1993 to 2000 before leaving to create
Denki, the worlds rst digital toy company.
It kicked off some sizeable investment in audio
development as teams struggled to switch from chipmusic to full CD-quality soundtracks, he continues. I
enjoyed a front row seat on that particular roller-coaster
as we were working on the audio design for the game
that would eventually become Grand Theft Auto.
When we started development we fully expected to
be using chip-music, but within six months it became
clear we needed to up our game if we wanted to
compete with all the other great games that were
being released. WipEout was the straw that nally
helped me convince [boss] Dave Jones that DMA
needed its own music studio.
The PlayStation tapped into modern-day culture
like no other games console had ever achieved
before, positioning itself in style mags and persuading
celebrities to grab a joypad in the wake of videogames
new cool status. (I was getting carried away playing
Tekken II and Tomb Raider for hours on end, excused
England goalkeeper David James when he conceded
three times against Newcastle in 1997.)
But music and the PlayStation, in particular, went
hand-in-hand. Developers started to experiment

Some tried to make out that Crash

Bandicoot was the PlayStation
mascot but, as it turned out, the
machine didnt need a Mario or
Sonic equivalent.

with audio, putting it at the heart of titles such as

Vib-Ribbon and PaRappa The Rapper which led to
rhythm-based game crazes such as Dance Dance
Revolution. They also tapped into the Nineties music
vibe of techno and house. The PlayStation ingratiated
itself with the growing underground club culture and
the sound of big names such as Orbital, Lefteld and
The Future Sound Of London.
In Liverpool, where WipEout was made, the
emerging super-club Cream was positively surreal.
Bass pounded, strobes ashed, people danced and
then, they stopped, they stared, they gravitated
towards the PlayStation pods that had been placed
there, just as they had in dozens of other clubs up
and down the country, and they played. We knew
something signicant about gaming had changed,
continues Nick Burcombe, who now heads up Playrise
Digital. It was pretty amazing really.
n London, New York, Tokyo and hundreds
of cities in between, clubbers were relaxing
between DJ sets with a few rounds of Virtua
Fighter or WipEout, which was the rst game to
incorporate licensed music. PlayStation was bringing
gaming out of the bedroom and into the mainstream
in a way no other company had, says Colin. Thats
what changed gaming forever. It wasnt the hardware.
Aggressive inltration of this kind, together with
an approach to marketing that was wildly different
to much of what had gone before was repositioning
gaming as a cool pursuit. At the time of its launch I
was a student and Id always been into videogames
from the early days of arcades, says Dave. I

ESSENTIAL
EXTRAS
Six of the best Sony
peripherals

x5 images Evan-Amos

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

POCKETSTATION
QEffectively a portable device
akin to the Dreamcasts VMU,
PocketStation never saw the
light of day outside of Japan. Over
50 games supported this interesting
device, which plugged into the console
via the memory card port and had its own
LCD screen.

MEMORY CARD
QWhile cartridges sometimes allowed
game data to be saved to internal
memory, the CD format offered no
such luxury. Sonys solution was
a proprietary storage solution a
15-block 1MB memory card to which
game data could be saved.

MULTITAP
QTwo controller ports was enough
for most games but to fully enjoy
something like Micro Machines
V3 (whose predecessor had
additional ports built into the
cartridge itself) or Bomberman,
youd need more. Enter the Multitap.

GUNCON
DUALSHOCK 3

DUALSHOCK 4

QAs costs fell and tech improved, Sony was soon

QThe first full evolution in the life of the DualShock,

able to reintroduce rumble to the Sixaxis template

and the DualShock 3 was born. It quickly superseded
its forerunner as the PS3 standard and Sixaxis was
discontinued in mid-2008.

the PS4 pad adds many new features. Sixaxis motion

control remains, with a rear-mounted light bar allowing
a camera to better place the handset for accuracy. It
also adds a touch pad and Options and Share keys.

QLight gun arcade games were all

the rage around the time the PS1
rose to power, and this accessory,
originally released to allow Time
Crisis to be played at home, proved
to be one of the most accurate home
approximations of the arcade experience.

GAMESHARK
QPlugging into the consoles parallel
port, these cheat devices allowed
game code to be modified to
activate cheats, alter elements of
a game or even to access content
that wasnt in the final build, including
additional scenes in Final Fantasy VII.

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WipEout was one of the

UK launch titles for the
PlayStation and it took both
the gaming and the wider
world by storm.

As the sequel to
Flashback, the actionadventure Fade To
Black only made it to the
PlayStation (and PC).

nd yet, away from the camera, Sony

was putting games centre stage, signing
exclusive deals for the best games, among
them Tomb Raider. The second and third
titles in the series made the PlayStation their console
home and it led to increased sales. I remember
getting our hands on the original Tomb Raider when
we were working on the original GTA and thinking, Oh
f***, says Brian, on the impact the game had.
But it wasnt hard to persuade companies to climb
aboard. Behind the scenes, Sony offered developers
a better deal than its competitors, says David
Banner who worked on Tomb Raider as a tester. It
gave better royalties and it promoted games well.
It understood that having the best console relies on
having content so the more developers it got on board
the more titles itd have for the customer to digest.
Nintendo and Sega primarily relied on their titles being
developed in-house, whereas Sony saw the potential
of opening up development to third party developers.
Those third-party developers seized this opportunity,
understanding what a console with such a large user
base could offer. Programmers and artists looked
for new ways to take advantage of 3D and they also
sought to tap into current trends such as extreme
sports, generating games like Tony Hawks Pro Skater
and leading to many a big budget PlayStation event.
Over the course of the PlayStations lifetime, the age of
developers also began to rise, with graduates seeing a
stable career path in the industry. Two of the guys on
the Destruction Derby team were still in their teens
that would be unheard of today, says Michael.
That said, Sony also came to embrace smaller,
independent developers by releasing a development
kit called the Net Yaroze. The problem with previous
consoles was the cost of developing for the systems.
They were, by and large, closed shops. But with Net
Yaroze, a small outlay was enough to bag a kit and
start making games, some of which ended up on the
cover disc of the Ofcial PlayStation Magazine which,
thanks to the number of demos it would give away,
began to reach a sales gure of over 450,000.
We used the Net Yaroze to teach console
programming at the University of Abertay in Dundee

A
would hang around playing Space Invaders and
Galaxians and until the PS1 came out, that kind of thing
made me a geek. But this console changed all that
suddenly videogames were cool not just acceptable,
but actually club culture cool. With a soundtrack from
the coolest techno and dance DJs, videogames
became a part of sub-culture. And it led to a more
mainstream acceptance of consoles in general.
It helped the console to continue to attract adults,
a strategy that Sega had already begun but Sony
seemed to perfect. One of the keys to this was
Steve Race, boss of Sony Computer Entertainment
of America. Race had worked under Kalinske at Sega
and he had no problem competing with his former
workers (indeed, he infamously took to the stage at
the inaugural E3 in Los Angeles just after Sega had
announced the Sega Saturn at a price point of $399,
muttering one word $299 and walking off to
great applause).
Steve knew our strategies of going after an
older audience and being edgy and competitive in
advertising, continues Tom Kalinske. He knew we
would do everything we could to come across as the
superior cool brand, and he did this very well. But I
dont think Sony did anything other than copy lots of
aggressive marketing that we had done at Sega initially
with Genesis. And yet, Sony took its marketing to a
different level.
Although ads did target children (Croc was plastered
on bus shelters near schools) titles like Resident
Evil were certainly aimed at an older audience and
developers did all they could to grab their attention. The
disgraced former publicist Max Clifford used the tabloid
press to whip up a publicity frenzy for controversial

titles. Games such as Grand Theft Auto and Cool

Boarders 2 made the papers by talking of having
to get higher than last time in ads (Darren Carter,
the then senior product manager at SCEE, defended
this move, saying, the wording is genuinely how
snowboarders talk).
One of the most memorable adverts, though, was
Double Life which had been created by ad agency
TBWA. Written by James Sinclair, it became a
classic, its lengthy monologue showcasing eccentric
individuals describing what they did in their free time.
I wont deny Ive engaged in violence, even indulged
in it, says one, to the tune of Faurs Requiem as he
describes the viewer discovers later his fantasy
PlayStation life. In 2007, the advert, directed by Frank
Budgen, was accepted into the Clio Hall of Fame.
Sonys brief was to the point. It wanted to break
out of a core consumer base of geeky pubescent
teenage boys by bringing a broader acceptability and
dignity that was absent from the sector. Sinclair
cross-cast the advert, showing policemen breaking the
law and vicars committing all sorts of sins (this got
softened somewhat inevitably, he tells us). The idea
was to put people at the centre of gaming. The advert
contained no gameplay footage or screenshots.
Peoples imagination is the most powerful element
of the gaming experience, more than the graphics,
sound effects, atmosphere and so on. Thats what
really puts them in the moment, James says of the
ad that was shot for television and cinema. Id thrown
in some off-the-beaten-track words and phrases like
hoi polloi to give the piece a sort of anachronistic vibe.
It gave it a timelessness that has served it well over
the years.

STEVE LYCETT SUMO DIGITAL

To understand the impact, youve got to remember that when we first got our hands on the PlayStation
hardware it was a revelation on a number of fronts. First, it was the first proper dedicated 3D console this is
in a pre-3DFX/PowerVR accelerated PC graphics era, too. So the results you could achieve quickly and easily
were way in front of anything else. Next, having spent so long working with limited cartridge budgets, having
a whole CD you could fill and plenty of memory (2MB was a lot back then!) opened the door to bigger levels,
better audio, cutscenes and really going to town on the presentation as much as the game. You could say
any one of those components existed individually, but it was the PlayStation that pulled it all together in one
powerful and complete package.

28 | PLAYSTATION

Ridge Racer Revolution was the chunky car sequel to Ridge Racer but the
gameplay remained entirely unchanged.

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

THE 20 MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS
IN PLAYSTATION HISTORY
FINAL FANTASY
JUMPS SHIP

6
SONY GOES IT ALONE

After talks with Nintendo to develop a

disc-based add-on for the SNES, Nintendo
shockingly revealed a partnership with Philips,
which ultimately came to nothing. Sonys work
was not in vain, however the groundwork for
PlayStation had already been done.

ARCADE-PERFECT PORTS

Flick through old magazines and youll find

the term arcade perfect applied in so many
inaccurate ways. With Ridge Racer and the many
coin-op ports that followed, though, it really was
true a lot of the time.

The only way for something

as epic as Squares RPG series to
evolve was to go 3D and to go bigger,
a combination not possible on carts.
With Nintendo still backing the old
format, Square had little choice, and it
was a huge coup for Sony.

DONT HATE THE PLAYER, HATE THE GAME BOY

12

Sonys plan for Vita was simple take on Nintendos handheld dominance by offering consolequality games on the go. Despite huge Monster Hunter-fuelled success in Japan, neither PSP nor
Vita really managed to break the western market, but Sony still hasnt given up trying just yet.

MARKET AWARENESS

DVD READY

PSN HACKED

13

17

Smart advertising made PlayStation the

coolest brand in gaming in the space of a few
relatively simple campaigns Sony managed to
build the idea of gaming being something more
than just a nerdy pastime in mere months.

Choosing DVD as a primary format for

games was risky, but it also placed the PS2
among the most affordable DVD players available
during the formats boom. Want a DVD player?
Might as well get one that plays games too...

JUST DANCE

Cheap plastic dance mats are nothing

compared to the glorious coin-op stages
(assuming they work properly) upon which the
best perform, but bedroom pop stars didnt care.
It just felt good to step on arrows.

PS PLUS

18

CD CAPACITY =
BIGGER GAMES

SWAP TRICK

LEAP YEAR BLUES

14

Cartridges could only allow a certain amount

of data to be stored, with no easy way of
swapping between them. The compact disc
medium changed this, allowing for console
games that spanned as many as five discs.

Who didnt know the method of getting import

games and even illegal copies running on a
PS1? Broken spindles and motors were common,
but you could play whatever you wanted.

SMALLER, YET SMARTER

10

A revised PlayStation known as the PSone

launched in 2000, with its little form and
more cost-effective use of components allowing
Sony to sell it for less than the original console. It
also did away with many popular piracy methods.

PLATINUM PRICING

With gaming growing more popular, Sony

made the smart move of adding its most
successful games into the Platinum range,
slashing prices to help them shift more copies.

ANYONE CAN MAKE GAMES

The Net Yaroze remains one of the coolest

hardware iterations ever, a developer console
that effectively anyone was able to create games
for. The best of these would be showcased via the
official mags demo discs.

GTA3 INVENTS A GENRE

11

DMAs silly crime sprees were fun, but GTA

only really shot to notoriety when contained
realistic and free open-world sociopathy.

In April 2011, Sonys PSN network was

hacked and the details of around 77
million users compromised in the process. The
downtime lasted for several weeks and while
something of a disaster, it clearly taught Sony
some valuable lessons as it hasnt fallen foul to a
similarly devastating attack since.

Original PS3 models were hit by a bizarre

bug on 1 March 2010 when an error on the
consoles internal calendar assumed incorrectly
that 2010 was a leap year and proceeded to
implode on itself.

LIGHTS, CAMERA...

15

The rise of EyeToy

led many (including
the other modern
major platform holders,
apparently) into believing
motion control was the
future. At least everyone got that
wrong, but it was fun while it lasted.

$599

With Microsoft hiding online play behind

a paywall, Sony played it smart keep
online play free (at least on PS3) and instead
offer free games for recurring subscribers. The
model works, and even third-parties are getting
involved now.

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO...

19

Sonys confidence in countering every poor

decision made by Microsoft was an easy
highlight of E3 2013, but the brazen approach to
everything including pricing easily explains
Sonys return to prominence for this new
generation of consoles.

LOVING THE INDIES

20

Whatever you think about Sonys triple-A

PS4 line-up, its selection of indie and retro
titles is superb. From Resogun and Oddworld to
Grim Fandango and Final Fantasy VII (a PC port,
sure, but its better than nothing, right?), Sony is
doing its bit to keep old-school gameplay alive.

16

The announcement that the PS3 would be

worth getting a second job to pay for didnt
do all that much to help its early performance
Sony had to do a lot of work to get it even close to
the 360 in terms of units sold.

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LAUNCH GAMES REVISITED

Sonys PlayStation launch games are now two decades old. We were keen to see how they still fare

KILEAK: THE BLOOD

This failed to impress gamers 20 years ago, and
its still a shambles today. The lo-fi visuals and
clunky controls are rather charming, but the deathly dull
gameplay creates a miserable gaming experience

DARRAN

NBA JAM: TOURNAMENT EDITION

Visually, this isnt too much of a jump up from
the previous generation, but as far as gameplay
goes, this still stands up today as a great game to play
with friends, even if I am still terrible at it even all these
JON
years later

STREET FIGHTER: THE MOVIE

This is a great game for all the wrong reasons.
The animation is laughably poor, while the
difficulty level is all over the place. Its nowhere
near as dull to play as Toshinden, but it remains a
disappointingly average brawler DARRAN

LAUNCH
GAMES*

A-TRAIN IV EVOLUTION JAPAN

BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN US/UK
Q CRIME CRACKERS JAPAN
Q ESPN EXTREME GAMES US
Q GOKUJ PARODIUS DA! DELUXE PACK JAPAN
Q KILEAK: THE BLOOD US/UK
QMAHJONG GOKU SKY JAPAN
Q MAHJONG STATION MAZIN JAPAN
Q NBA JAM: TOURNAMENT EDITION US/UK
Q NEKKETSU OYAKO JAPAN
Q POWER SERVE 3D US
Q THE RAIDEN PROJECT US
Q RAPID RELOAD UK
QRAYMAN JAPAN
QRIDGE RACER US/UK
QSTREET FIGHTER: THE MOVIE US/UK
QTAMA JAPAN
Q TOTAL ECLIPSE TURBO US
QWIPEOUT UK
Q
Q

*ITS WORTH NOTING THAT EVEN SONY UK DOESNT HAVE COMPLETE

LISTINGS, BUT RESEARCH SUGGESTS THE ABOVE LIST IS CORRECT

30 | PLAYSTATION

RAPID RELOAD
Its not quite as good as Gunstar Heroes, which
it is clearly trying to imitate, but its still a great
blaster thats probably more appreciated now than it
NICK
was back then

CHARLES CECIL
REVOLITION SOFTWARE BOSS AND CREATOR OF BROKEN SWORD
The PlayStation oozed sex appeal. Sonys inspired marketing quickly
made videogames hip. And the team at Sony were amazing a small
team of inspirational, creative people who were re-defining the industry:
re-writing the rule book. The two Broken Sword games were incredibly well
received, being voted amongst the top ten best PlayStation games by Official
PlayStation Magazine readers. PlayStation launched a new epoch.

HOW THE PLAYSTATION CHANGED GAMING

at a time when educational establishments could

not get their hands on the full development kit,
says Professor Ian Marshall, whose department at
the Uni received a staggering 40 Net Yaroze kits
for its computer games technology Masters and
Undergraduate students. It was close enough to the
real thing that transferring from Net Yaroze to the full
dev kit did not take much re-learning.
As a result, scores of student programmers were
able to write tight code to run on a PlayStation
and it opened up a vibrant community of home
developers across the world. Just as the Spectrum
and BBC Micro created many of the leading UK
games developers of the Eighties, so the Net Yaroze
contributed to the development of the independent
and studio developers we have today. Mitsuru
Kamiyama created the RPG Terra Incognita. He ended
up working on the Final Fantasy series which, despite
having made its debut on the NES, became one of the
PlayStations most popular titles.
Final Fantasy was one of a large number of games
that made the PlayStation such an iconic hit. While
Nintendo continued to concentrate on Mario and Sega
on Sonic, Sony had no real mascot despite desperate
attempts by some players and media to intrinsically link
Crash Bandicoot to it. Instead heralded a eclectic era
of massive franchises that ran and ran, from Resident

BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN

Id probably have been thrilled at the time with
this, but while it looks the business it just doesnt
play that well. Its easy to see how Tekken became
NICK
more popular

PATRICK BUCKLAND
CEO, STAINLESS GAMES
I was actually involved with them pre-launch. Sony was determined
not to fall into the same trap as the CDi and the 3DO and try to be
everything to all men. They were clearly a games console through and
through, not a multimedia device. They also took the start that Sega
had made with the Mega Drive and made the PlayStation a games
console that you didnt feel embarrassed of.

RIDGE RACER
Riiiiiidge Raaaaaaacer! Yes theres only one track,
but what a track! It still controls exceptionally
well, while the jaunty music and challenging track
design will keep you chasing those top times

DARRAN

JUMPING FLASH
This was probably just as odd a game back then
as it is now, but I can imagine that for its time it
really stood out from anything else. The soundtrack is
JON
definitely worth a mention as well

Evil, Tomb Raider and Tekken to WipEout, Driver and

Grand Theft Auto. Racing sim Gran Turismo sold more
than 10 million copies.
Most astonishing of all, for the PlayStation, was
that the hunger for games was high. In May 1998,
Chris Deering, then president of Sony Computer
Entertainment Europe, said ve or more games were
being sold per PlayStation at least 50 per cent better
than it ever got on 16-bit. At that stage the average
age for a PlayStation gamer was 22. The PlayStation
was keeping the Eighties kids playing while attracting
new audiences.
Sony continued to tinker. It advanced on the N64s
Rumble Pak with the DualShock pad in 1998 bringing
vibration feedback and it introduced a Platinum
budget range for older games that had sold more than
150,000 copies, bringing the cost of console gaming
down further. They included TOCA, Die Hard Trilogy,
Fade To Black, Formula 1, Time Crisis, Micro Machines
V3 and V-Rally. The PlayStation was also keeping pace:
games made at the end of the PS1s life were far more
visually stunning than those at the start.
Sony jumped into the games business, disrupted
it and succeeded in much the same way that Apple
jumped into the portable music business and took
over, says Michael Troughton. The branding was
cool, the device was powerful, the technology was
good, the business model was better and the timing
was right. All of these things made it successful.

PLAYSTATION | 31

TOP

25GAMES
PLAYSTATION

The classic library of Sonys world-conquering console is

overwhelming readers provided over 150 nominations for its top
25 games. Join Nick Thorpe to see if your favourites made the cut
Gran Turismo 2
QDEVELOPER: POLYPHONY DIGITAL
QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: RACING

It can be hard to follow up the phenomenal

success of a game like Gran Turismo.
Polyphony Digitals approach was to retain
the gameplay of the original and massively increase
the amount of content available, including over
600 cars and 27 tracks. The game also widened in
scope, with the new additions including off-road
tracks and rally cars. The scale of the game required
it to be split across two discs, with the arcade and
simulation modes now contained separately.

24
ISS Pro Evolution
QDEVELOPER:KONAMI
QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: SPORTS

Konamis International Superstar Soccer had long been

a fantastic choice for gamers looking for an alternative to
EAs FIFA series, and this game represents the transition
from the ISS Pro series to the modern Pro Evolution Soccer line. ISS
Pro Evolution introduced club teams and the Master League mode,
bringing it closer to audience tastes while evolving the series trademark
simulation gameplay with additional dribbling tricks and an extremely
potent one-two pass.

25

32 | PLAYSTATION

Einhnder
QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP

Shoot-em-ups are denitely outside of Squaresofts

RPG comfort zone, but you wouldnt have known
it when playing Einhnder the game was pretty
conventional, but of a very high quality. The gameplay was
enhanced by the combo-based score system and modular
Gunpod power-ups, useful for taking down the big bosses. Its
the only import game to reach your top 25, and we can only
imagine how high it would have climbed if it had received a UK
release. Were hoping for a PSN release to correct the injustice.

23

TOP 25 PLAYSTATION GAMES

Time Crisis
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR: 1997
QGENRE: LIGHTGUN SHOOT-EM-UP

The rst of Namcos

arcade conversions to
make our list, Time Crisis
provided an excellent rendition
of the rescue mission that had
enthralled arcade gamers in 1995,
including all of the incredible set
pieces and secrets. Its easy to take
the game for granted now, but the
action pedal was a revolution in
lightgun game design the ability
to take cover allowing the player
an additional means of avoiding
damage beyond simply ring
faster than the enemy though

22

the constantly running timer

means that youll rely on your
sharpshooting frequently.
But Namco didnt stop there
the game included an exclusive
home console mission that
featured entirely new stages and
boss battles. In the new mission,
protagonist Richard Miller is
tasked with inltrating a hotel
which happens to be a front for an
illegal weapons factory, run by the
villainous Kantaris. The new mission
changed the dynamics of the game,
introducing a grading system which
determined the route players took
through the game, offering players
the chance to visit different locations
and ght different bosses on each
playthrough. The inclusion of the

extra mission massively extended

the lifespan of the game and gave
arcade veterans a key reason to pick
the game up.
The story of Time Crisis on
the PlayStation is as much about
the hardware as the software.
The game was incompatible with
previous lightguns, and came
bundled with Namcos new
lightgun. The G-Con 45 featured
extra buttons along the barrel,
acting as a substitute for the
arcade games foot pedal, and
plugged into the consoles video
output to enhance accuracy. Other
developers adopted Namcos gun
as a new standard, as thousands of
players picked up the hardware and
its bundled killer app.

A great
shooter with
music to die for

gmintyfresh

Resident Evil
QDEVELOPER: CAPCOM
QYEAR: 1996 QGENRE: SURVIVAL-HORROR

Capcoms survival-horror
game made a huge impact on its
debut, popularising survival-horror
and shifting over 5 million copies. Locked
inside a deadly mansion lled with mutated
monstrosities, your goal was to take control
of special forces agents Jill Valentine or Chris
Redeld and get out alive along with as
many of your comrades as you could save.
With limited ammunition, there was no hope
of laying waste to every zombie you could
nd a tension-building approach which was
novel in 1996. The fantastic 2002 GameCube
remake means that the original Resident Evil
doesnt have the impact it once did but just
remembering those dogs crashing through
the window easily justies the games place
in this list.

20

PaRappa The Rapper

QDEVELOPER: NANAON-SHA
QYEAR: 1996 QGENRE: RHYTHM-ACTION

The game that popularised rhythmaction as we know it today, PaRappa

The Rapper is one of the PlayStations
more offbeat hits. The core gameplay in
PaRappa is simple each of the games six
stages involves PaRappa rapping with an
instructor, whose lines he must repeat by
following the button prompts at the top of
the screen. While the game received some
criticism for its brevity, PaRappas charms won
over gamers. The use of paper-thin cartoon
characters in a 3D world is unique, the raps are
memorable and PaRappa nds himself in some
amusing predicaments, including queuing for
the toilet. For that alone, PaRappa is possibly the
most relatable character in any videogame ever.

19
Stupidly
addictive once you
know what youre
doing, and the songs are
great too.

Alundra

TwoHeadedBoy

QDEVELOPER: MATRIX SOFTWARE

QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: ACTION-RPG

The PlayStation is renowned for its excellent selection of

Japanese RPGs, but few of them took the action-RPG
approach. Of the ones that did, Alundra was the best, which
comes as no surprise. While Matrix Software isnt the most wellknown studio, it was founded by staff from Telenet Japan and Climax
Entertainment the studio that was responsible for Landstalker on
the Mega Drive. Alundras plot revolves around the titular elf who
has wound up shipwrecked in a strange village. He has the ability to
enter the dreams of others, which he needs to employ in order to
work out why the inhabitants of the village are having dreadful
nightmares. Standing apart from its contemporaries with great
2D artwork and a long, satisfying quest, Alundra is a classic that
fans of the 2D Zelda games will particularly appreciate.

21

PLAYSTATION | 33

Silent Bomber
QDEVELOPER: CYBERCONNECT2
QYEAR RELEASED: 1999 QGENRE: ACTION

This futuristic action game takes the

classic top-down shooter format and
introduces its own twist instead
of shooting your targets, your method of
attack is to lay down bombs and detonate
them from afar. This is complicated by
a whole host of extremely aggressive
enemies, ensuring that your protagonist
Jutah is constantly in motion. The result
is a unique game featuring a high level
of difculty and satisfyingly fast-paced
action. Its not uncommon to nd yourself
ghting multiple enemies while avoiding
the res emerging from recently destroyed
targets, which could have proved technically
challenging. CyberConnect 2 managed to
get the PlayStation to handle this visual
overload admirably, and provided an
appropriately energetic electronic soundtrack
to accompany the carnage.

17

Tomb Raider
QDEVELOPER: CORE DESIGN
QYEAR RELEASED: 1996 QGENRE: ACTION ADVENTURE

While Tomb Raider is one of the PlayStations most iconic

series, the annual sequels meant that voting was divided
between ve games and the series had a tough time in
this poll as a result. The original is the game which makes your
nal cut, and a ne choice it is its mixture of platforming, puzzlesolving and gunplay was groundbreaking in the mid-Nineties, a
time when developers were still nding their feet when it came
to making 3D games. The rst game in the series has a heavier
emphasis on puzzle-solving and exploration than its PlayStation
sequels, and is packed with memorable moments including an
encounter with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tomb Raider s success was
phenomenal, catapulting Lara Croft to stardom as one of gamings
rst female protagonists and launching a series that has seen
myriad sequels as well as movies and merchandise.

18

QDEVELOPER: GAME ARTS

QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: RPG

Grandia took ages to

arrive in the UK but was
worth the wait. Ported from
the Saturn original, this RPG
avoided the genre archetypes
of random encounters and
turn-based actions. The
combination of 2D sprites on
3D backdrops has aged well, too.

15

WipEout 2097
QDEVELOPER: PSYGNOSIS
QYEAR: 1996 QGENRE: RACING

14

Psygnosiss sequel
took everything
that was great about the
original and improved on it,
introducing one of gamings
greatest power-ups the
Quake Disruptor. The more
forgiving level of difculty
helped the game to reach a wider audience.

Tekken 3
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO QYEAR: 1998
QGENRE: BEAT-EM-UP

13
Tony Hawks
Pro Skater 2
QDEVELOPER: NEVERSOFT
QYEAR RELEASED: 2000 QGENRE: SPORTS

Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 was

one of the most well-timed games
ever when it launched in 2000,
you couldnt walk around town without
seeing skateboarding teenagers. The
original Tony Hawks Skateboarding had
been a surprise hit for Activision in 1999,
meaning that Tony Hawks Pro Skater
2 had a lot to live up to. The basic goal
of the game hadnt changed, however
improvements could be seen in almost
every area of the game. Stages were
larger, with twice as many objectives
and more secret areas to nd. Most
importantly, players could now perform
manuals on at ground, allowing for
continued combos. Better yet, the game
included two new user creation modes,
which allows players to design their own
custom skaters and stages, massively
expanding the lifespan of the game. The
soundtrack pleased the aforementioned
skating teens and the improved visuals
rounded off a top-notch game.

16

34 | PLAYSTATION

Grandia

A refreshed cast and

improved visuals took
Tekken 3 to the top of the
3D ghting scene in the late
Nineties. The game also
introduced the Eddy Gordo, a
favourite of button-mashers
worldwide perhaps
explaining why it didnt place higher.

Die Hard Trilogy

QDEVELOPER: PROBE ENTERTAINMENT
QYEAR: 1996 QGENRE: VARIOUS

12

Probe made the best

of this movie licence
by designing individual
games for each of the three
lms represented. Packed
with irreverent humour and
buckets of blood, the only
thing its missing is support
for the G-Con 45 lightgun.

Gran Turismo
QDEVELOPER: POLYPHONY DIGITAL
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: RACING

Seeing Gran Turismo

in action for the rst
time was mindblowing
console racing games had
never looked so realistic. It
provided long-term value too,
featuring 140 cars and 11
tracks. Little wonder it sold
over 10 million copies, becoming the bestselling PlayStation game of all time.

11

TOP 25 PLAYSTATION GAMES

Final Fantasy VIII

QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR RELEASED: 1999 QGENRE: RPG

Rage Racer
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR RELEASED: 1996 QGENRE: RACING

Rage Racer marked the point at

which the PlayStation entries of the
Ridge Racer series were no longer tied
to the arcade offerings. The game offered a
new take on the series, with the scenery being
more muted in colour than in previous releases.
However, it was still spectacular scenery new
to the series was the emphasis on courses with

10

great height variations, leading to memorable

sights such as the waterfall on your climb
towards the rst tracks tunnel and plunging
downhill straights. The move to console
exclusivity brought a main game with more
depth, as you competed to earn cash with
which to upgrade your vehicle to your liking.
You needed the upgrades too, as later stages
became very tricky to pass especially given
that you were limited to three retries. It wasnt
the best-selling game in the series, but proved
to be a key inuence on its successors.

I realised that
console gaming had
surpassed PC gaming
when this was running
fullscreen, with a
controller

SeanR

Doom
QDEVELOPER: GT INTERACTIVE
QYEAR RELEASED: 1995 QGENRE: FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER

This classic rst-person shooter might have appeared on every

system under the sun, but that doesnt diminish the impact of
the PlayStation release one bit quite the opposite, in fact. Prior
consoles had struggled to handle Doom, dropping enemies, windowing
the action and even removing the music to get everything to t. While
PlayStation Doom didnt contain everything from the PC version, it was
easily the most complete and playable console version available. The
game includes over 50 stages taken from Doom and Doom II on the
PC, as well as levels exclusive to the PlayStation, and the addition of a
new ambient soundtrack further intensies the fear factor that Doom is
famous for. Best of all, it includes support for Sonys oft-forgotten link
cable, allowing two players to have a deathmatch or team up to battle
the monstrous hordes. First-person shooters evolved rapidly over the life
of the PlayStation, but the quality of Dooms conversion secures its spot.

For gamers whose Final Fantasy

experience began and ended with VII, Final Fantasy VIII came as a
shock but even those who had followed the series from its days on
Nintendo consoles were in for some surprises. While the complete refresh
of cast and plot was a series tradition, Squaresofts decision to overhaul
the visual style of the series wasnt expected by many gamers. The
gameplay was also overhauled. Magic was now drawn from enemies, and
summoned creatures played a far more crucial role in the game. The new
Junction system allowed players to tie magic to stats for boosts a deep
but initially overwhelming addition. The changes werent to everyones
tastes, explaining its lower position relative to its predecessor, but Final
Fantasy VIII maintained the high quality associated with the series and
ranks as one of the PlayStations most visually stunning games.

Tekken 2
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR RELEASED: 1996 QGENRE: BEAT-EM-UP

The original Tekken became the best 3D ghting game on the PlayStation almost by
default it was clearly better than the likes of Battle Arena Toshinden, but was still in
need of renement. Tekken 2 provided the tune-up that saw the series become a serious
contender in the 3D ghting world. Staple moves such as reversals and back throws were
introduced here, as well as competitive modes like Team Battle and Survival which cemented
the game as a multiplayer favourite. Tekken 2 introduced a range of new characters, from series
stalwarts such as Jackie Chan homage Lei Wulong to comedy characters such as the boxing
kangaroo Roger. Additionally, unlocking the sub-bosses was now a much more rewarding
endeavour, as the returning characters were eshed out to match the standards of the new subbosses, greatly expanding the casts variety and giving the game increased long-term appeal.

As much as I
loved the rst one,
this just eshed
out the shell of a
game it was

Droo

PLAYSTATION | 35

Castlevania:
Symphony Of The Night
QDEVELOPER: KONAMI
QYEAR RELEASED: 1997 QGENRE: PLATFORMER

Konamis platformer was overlooked on

release but has gained a thoroughly deserved
reputation for excellence over the years.
Symphony Of The Night moved away from the linear
template of previous Castlevania games, opting
instead for a single, massive map that opened up
as new abilities were gained in a manner similar to
Nintendos Metroid games. The game provided huge scope for exploration, especially given that
when you think its all over, Draculas castle inverts and provides you with even more to do. Its an
expensive PlayStation game, but fan demand has seen it ported elsewhere since.

5
Ridge Racer Type 4
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: RACING

Towards the end of the Nineties, it was clear that trends in the
gaming market were changing. The colourful visuals and hyperactive
soundtrack that had served Ridge Racer so well at the PlayStations
launch were out of fashion, and players increasingly demanded longer
games with more content. Luckily for Namco, somebody had a nger on
the pulse of gaming because Ridge
Racer Type 4 shifted effortlessly to
match contemporary tastes. The
game adopted pastel-coloured skies
and a more relaxed soundtrack,
while the racing as excellently
drifty as ever took place across
more tracks and cars than ever
before in the new Grand Prix
season mode.

QDEVELOPER: KONAMI
QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: STEALTH ACTION

The technology of the 32-bit era gave

ambitious developers the tools they needed
to provide cinematic presentation and
none were more ambitious in that regard than
Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear Solid s high quality
cut-scenes provided a lesson in bringing the big
screen experience to consoles. But Metal Gear
Solid wasnt just great to watch, as it featured
tightly designed gameplay that inspired a number
of stealth imitators. However, none of them could
match its creativity, as the games ingenious
design leveraged everything from the contents of
your memory card to its own packaging.

Ninjas had been the subject of countless

games before Tenchu, but they were primarily
action games. Tenchu explored a more
authentic ninja experience, by requiring the player to
exercise caution and stealthily assassinate targets.
The game offered a great deal of freedom in terms of carrying out your objectives, but was not for
the impatient observation was key as you tried to identify the perfect time to strike. We have to
admit to being surprised by just how high Tenchu placed, but its well worth revisiting dropping from
the roof and slicing up an unsuspecting guard is a thrilling experience.

QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR RELEASED: 1997 QGENRE: RPG

Before 1997, publishers were under the impression that Japanese RPGs just
werent where the big money was to be made. Squaresofts Final Fantasy
VII changed that perception forever, selling over 9 million copies and
causing a boom in RPG localisation. The game introduced a generation of
gamers to the genre and spawned a variety of sequels, as well as a movie.
Final Fantasy VII was an epic on an unprecedented scale. The games use of
pre-rendered backgrounds allowed the game a visual impact unique within
its genre, combining with Nobuo Uematsus incredible soundtrack to aid the story
in emotionally affecting players. And boy, what a story with a memorable cast
of heroes, as well as an iconic villain involved in one of gamings most notoriously
shocking moments, it lingers in the memory long after completion.

This was
pretty much the
reason I even BOUGHT
a Playstation

gunbladelad

36 | PLAYSTATION

QDEVELOPER: ACQUIRE
QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: STEALTH ACTION

Final Fantasy VII

Metal Gear Solid

Tenchu:
Stealth Assassins

TOP 25 PLAYSTATION GAMES

Any game that

rewards an insane
amount of practice and time
spent with the chance to play
as a block of processed soya
curd must be the best of its
generation

earlymodernsteve

READER
CHOICES

Five Reasons
Why Its Great

Resident Evil 2
QDEVELOPER: CAPCOM QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: SURVIVAL HORROR

With the success of Resident Evil, a sequel was

inevitable. After briey planning a spin-off set in
the ruins of the rst games mansion, Capcom
put plans into place for a new game set in and
around Raccoon Citys police department,
starring rookie cop Leon S Kennedy and student
Elza Walker. If the latter name seems unfamiliar,
your memory isnt failing you. Resident Evil 2 had a
lot to live up to and Capcom knew it. A year into
development, the new game wasnt living up to the
teams expectations. Rather than trying to x the
games problems, Capcom took the bold decision to
scrap the game and start again. The number one spot
achieved here just goes to show how well that risk
paid off.
Now starring Leon and Claire Redeld, the sister
of Chris from the original game, the Resident Evil 2
that made it to market retained the basic setting of the
scrapped sequel but little else. While the basic idea
of the game remained much the same as the original
escape with your life, as well as any survivors you
nd the new setting made for big changes. Where the
original game turned up the heat slowly by introducing
a single zombie after a few scenes of build-up, Resident
Evil 2 drops you straight into the re, placing you on the
already infested streets of Raccoon City.

Resident Evil 2 employs many of the same

mechanics as the original game the same controls,
the limited saves and those item storage chests all
make a return. However, it improves on the original in
a variety of ways. Characters now respond to damage
visually, clutching wounds and even limping as their
health drops, and a variety of mini-games are provided
for players who have nished the game, including the
brilliantly ridiculous Tofu Survivor mission.
But the biggest improvement was the zapping
system, which allowed the two characters to experience
each others scenarios. Actions taken with one character
will affect the other characters experience defeating
an enemy during your rst run may well remove it for
the second, while using up items during the rst run
can make it harder to get through the second. This
feature gave the game massively improved replay value
over its predecessor.
Resident Evil 2 was a narrow winner in the voting,
but its a worthy one which represents Capcom at its
absolute best. The games mechanical improvements
were subtle enough to keep things immediately familiar
to fans of the original game, but the new setting
allowed the game its own distinct identity. Refusing to
compromise on quality caused short-term strife, but the
resulting game has stood the test of time.

It brilliantly handled the diminished

shock value of zombies by introducing
iconic enemies like the Licker.

The plot doesnt spiral into the

complex nonsense of later games in
the series.

It introduced Leon, who also starred

in the excellent Resident Evil 4 as
well as the best bit of Resi 6.

Raccoon City is the perfect setting

for Resident Evil, which is why its
so frequently revisited.

How many other games let you run

around as a giant block of tofu?

PLAYSTATION | 37

38 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII

In the mid-Nineties, Squares

flagship franchise abandoned
Nintendos hardware and
embraced the PlayStation,
a move that would lead to
Final Fantasy VII, an ambitious,
refined and enormously
influential RPG. Director
Yoshinori Kitase and art
director Yusuke Naora discuss
the creation of this masterpiece
with us in unprecedented depth.
Steven Spielbergs Jaws fits
into it somewhere, as Retro
Gamer discovers

ithout hyperbole, Final Fantasy VII is the

RPG that changed the genre. Opening the
Western oodgates to Japans own style
of role-playing and popularising the entire
sub-genre, the 10-million-plus-selling game
was, for many players, their introduction to the
potential of interactive storytelling and the rst
videogame narrative to leave a mark on them. Its
also divisive, anecdotally referred to as the most
returned game of all time and often criticised by
Western RPG veterans yet such cynicism cant
mask the impact it had upon release in 1997. Along
with Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII shifted millions
of PlayStation consoles by demonstrating the
machines capabilities, captivating gamers with a
ctional universe of unrestrained scope and style
that would govern an entire corner of the industry.
Back when the game was being created, Square
(today known as Square Enix) was a company in
transition, and the inux of talent that brought FFVII
into being, as well as a development culture that
fostered creativity, was ultimately responsible for
this deservedly celebrated RPG.
At the 1995 SIGGRAPH computer graphics
convention in Los Angeles, the company formerly
known as Square presented an interactive demo
to the world that showcased its Final Fantasy
property in unprecedented fashion. This project
PLAYSTATION | 39

depicted three characters from Final Fantasy VI

ghting a Golem enemy in full 3D, a jaw-dropping
contrast to the SNES-based 2D roots of the
game, complete with visual effects and cinematic
in-battle camera angles that implied a future
beyond the static staging of the series stories
up until that point. When you look at the tech
demo now, you can absolutely see the founding
technical conceit of Final Fantasy VII embedded
within it. Squaresoft saw that Final Fantasy could
be so much more on a platform that allowed
the company to experiment with such high-end
technical ideas.
The SIGGRAPH project would form the seed,
as producer and creator Hironobu Sakaguchi
dubbed it on a promotional video for the game,
of Final Fantasy s move into the next console
generation. To any seasoned gamer, the most
well-known part of the development of Final
Fantasy VII is the defection that started it all.
Long considered a Nintendo stalwart since the
original Final Fantasy s release on the NES in
1987, Square shifted to the PlayStation for its
CD-ROM capabilities over the N64s comparatively
limited cartridges. This t the grand ambitions of
this new sequel.
We were fans of Nintendos hardware,
although in order to use CG movies in the game
like we intended, we needed a lot of storage
space, and for that reason decided on a platform

that used the higher-capacity CD media, director

Yoshinori Kitase tells us.
How ironic that this franchise would soar on a
Sony platform, given that Nintendo publicly broke
away from a CD-enabled SNES collaboration with
the electronics giant earlier in the decade. The
emerging disc format enabled Final Fantasy VII
to be far more cinematic than its forebears an
important factor, especially to Sakaguchi. Yet
an interesting factor in all this was the set of
technical inuences on the team, many of whom
were from Western game development, as
Kitase explains to us: We looked at trends in
the foreign-made PC games of the time, such as
Alone In The Dark and Heart Of Darkness [and
so on], and made it our objective to combine
together smooth action sequences using polygonbased characters and clever camera work with
the insertion of effective CG movies at a high
level. I believe that we pretty much achieved our
goals in this regard.

hen it came to setting and story, Final

Fantasy VII would similarly be a departure
from series convention. While the previous
entry in the series had a pronounced
steampunk theme, the set of environments
in the seventh game would vary massively from
continent to continent, from a vast, polluted
metropolis to backwater towns; that clash of

DISTRACTIONS
Chocobos
Catching them, riding them, racing
them and breeding them the
Chocobo element of FFVII is a game
in itself, and becomes bewilderingly
complex when youre looking to
breed that lucrative Gold Chocobo,
which can reach parts of the map
that even the Highwind cannot.

Snowboarding
On the second disc, Cloud gets the
opportunity to snowboard down a
mountain. Later in the game, it reemerges as a tricky arcade game at
Gold Saucers Wonder Square. This
mini-game was popular enough to
justify a mobile spin-off, which is
naturally only available in Japan.

First-person
shooting
Visiting the Speed part of Gold
Saucer triggers this bizarre but quite
impressive rst-person shooter
section, where hitting a high score
lands you a prize. This is notable
for its kaleidoscopic visuals, in stark
contrast to much of the game.

The best of Final Fantasy VIIs

many extra tasks and mini-games

Battle on
Fort Condor
Visiting Fort Condor triggers this
intriguing little strategy offshoot,
where you fund small skirmishes
to hold back Shinra forces from the
giant bird perched atop the fort. Its
no Age Of Empires, but it shows
how diverse the ideas are in FFVII.

Motorcycle
chase
One of the nicest surprises early on
is an action-based mini-game where
you have to protect your comrades
from Shinra soldiers on bikes by
ramming them off the road with
Clouds inexplicably large Buster
Sword. Its great fun.

Battle arena
The only way to get Clouds
Omnislash Limit Break outside of
the nale, and a clever means of
extending the combats appeal, the
battle arena on Gold Saucer is a
relentless challenge where you have
to survive successive rounds of
enemies and status ailments.

THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII

FINAL FANTASY VIIS

UNSUNG HERO
Kitase weighs in on the oddly
high popularity of Zack Fair,
Clouds former mentor
As you may recall, the entire ashback
sequence where Cloud remembers
the events in Nibelheim that led to
Sephiroths transformation into a
twisted enemy turns out to be a bit
different. Later, we learn that Cloud
confused himself with Zack, his
superior in the army. Ever since then,
Zack has remained a popular gure
among Final Fantasy fans, which led
to the spin-off Crisis Core. His role
in Clouds story makes him a unique
element in FFVII s tangled web.
Zack is the vessel onto which
Cloud twistedly projects his complexes
towards SOLDIER [Shinras elite ghting
force], Kitase tells us. He was created
by the scenario writer, [Kazushige
Nojima], as he was trying to build up
the mystery surrounding Clouds past,
and we did not originally think of Zack
as a major character, but he seemed
to be strangely popular with the fans.
Much later on, Zack featured heavily
in Crisis Core, and Mr Nojima was in
charge of the scenario for both titles.
When he rst created Zack, I doubt that
he could possibly have thought that
we would be delving into the same
characters story ten years on!

Final Fantasy VIIs Materia system is so deep that it can eventually

transform the entire rhythm of a battle, by letting you alter the conditions of it.

Even though players could avoid him entirely, Vincent

earned his own cult reputation.

futuristic technology against these remnants of a

beautiful old world.
We asked Kitase to discuss the inspirations for
the planets creation, and he graciously passed
our questions on to FFVIIs art director, Yusuke
Naora. Initially we wanted to try something new
by having a corporation as the major enemy
while still keeping the game broadly in the fantasy
genre, he explains, referring to the Shinra
Electric Power Company. Having decided on this
concept, we actively included many steampunklike elements to try to merge the appeal of
traditional high-fantasy brick-built structures
and sci- elements at a high level. However, as
there was to be magic present in this world, it
would have been hard to have cyberpunk-esque
unknown future technology sitting comfortably
with the other inuences, so we tried to keep that
aspect down as much as possible.
Naora continues: On the design side, we were
also very much inspired to mix in things from
many different periods in a semi-chaotic manner,
including things from our everyday lives such as
the newer buildings in Tokyo, the streets of Ginza,
and the Shibuya station building. All this led to a
laudably diverse set of environments, which still
felt like a cohesive part of the same world.
The setting was closely connected to the
narrative the backdrop of Final Fantasy VII s
story is that the planet is suffering, being mined
of resources by the ruthless Shinra, which is
also a prominent military force. Yet the central
conict of the story is actually smaller-scale than

that. For the developers, it was more about the

symbiotic struggle between the hero, Cloud, and
the calculated villain, Sephiroth, that drove the
game forwards, as Kitase explains: Throughout
the story I really wanted to depict Sephiroth as
an overwhelmingly powerful threat. However,
if you have a villain as an actual opponent who
appears before the heroes then however strong
or charismatic you make the character, he will still
feel very much life-sized and limited in scope,
reduced to another minor evil.
What source of inspiration helped the team
tackle this issue? Youd be surprised. Kitase
continues: To solve this problem, I decided to
present Sephiroth indirectly, making the player
aware of his existence through hints and stories
but not having him show himself before them
much. The player sees the aftermath of his
ruthless deeds but does not arrive at the source
of the evil for a long time. This was the same
method used by Steven Spielberg in the lm
Jaws. Finding the butchered President Shinra
on the top oor of the Shinra building and the
impaled body of the Midgar Zolom are moments
symbolic of this approach.

layers dont properly encounter Sephiroth

until theyre around ten hours in, and even
then its in eeting glimpses we see
him prominently in ashbacks, leading to
the discovery about his sad origins and
subsequent breakdown. He, along with the
attached musical theme, One-Winged Angel,
would become iconic aspects of FFVII upon
release. Cloud, the amnesiac hero trying to piece
his distressing memories back together, was an
equal point of fascination for players. Its this
dynamic, with their subsequently explored

We made it our objective to

combine smooth action sequences
with CG movies at a high level
PLAYSTATION | 41

history of bloodshed and trauma, that players

hadnt seen before in Final Fantasy. Furthermore,
however far the player pursues him, Sephiroth
is always just out of reach, and because of this
our image of him becomes more and more
idolised and idealised, explains Kitase. This
story structure also overlaps with the reasons that
Cloud has such a complex about his own past,
and I believe it is an effective tool for showing the
relationship between the two characters.

THE GREATEST MOMENTS

OF FINAL FANTASY VII
Not featuring Cloud in a dress

That death
You knew it would be this
shocking, sad and brilliant
on the part of the Squaresoft
team, a certain character is
murdered by Sephiroth at
the climax of the games rst
act. Its notable because it
is so brutal, but this brave
move to take the character
out of the story meant Final
Fantasy VII would be forever
remembered by players.

Omnislash
The entire game builds to
this nal conict between
Cloud and Sephiroth,
where the hero slices down
the grey-haired villain
in spectacular fashion,
using his nal Limit Break,
Omnislash. All right, so it
isnt necessarily the rst time
you use Omnislash, but its
still a thrilling component of
the games conclusion.

The Weapons
emerge out of
the crater
Sephiroth unleashes
Weapons on the planet, giant
boss-style creatures that,
when put together, look like
something out of a Japanese
monster movie. The idea
of the optional super-boss
is a Final Fantasy staple
here, theyre made a key
turning point in the story, in
another example of Squares
pioneering FMVs.

500 years
later
After the credits, were
treated to this brilliant but
somehow chilling scene, 500
years into the future. We
see Nanaki and his children

42 | RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER

running through a canyon,

before emerging onto a vista
that shows an abandoned
Midgar, overgrown and
free of the technology that
drained the life of the planet.

The President
is dead
When Kitase alludes to Jaws,
hes referring to this scene
where the player reaches the
top of Shinra Headquarters
and nds the President
dead, impaled by Sephiroths
katana. Its a brilliant way
to bring the villain into the
story, having him lurk just
out of reach.

Summoning
Knights of
the Round
Knights of the Round was
easily the most lavish
summon spell in the entire
series up until that point.
The animation for the attack,
Ultimate End, sees 13 knights
battering the enemy with
a slew of extraordinarily
powerful moves; a just
reward for the exhausting
process of breeding a Gold
Chocobo to get it.

Sephiroth
walks into
the flames
The highlight of the entire
Nibelheim ashback, told
from the village of Kalm
early on in the story, is an
eye-opening cinematic where
Sephiroth turns away
from Cloud into the ames,
after the twisted warrior
burns the town to the
ground. Perhaps the most
visually recognisable part
of the game.

Zack and
Cloud escape
Nibelheim
In this ashback, the events
of the Nibelheim incident
are fully disclosed. We
learn that Cloud borrowed
Zacks identity, and that
this member of SOLDIER
was gunned down by
Shinra outside Midgar. This
sequence is made all the
more sad when youve earlier
encountered Zacks parents
in the town of Gongaga,
where both his mother
and father are completely
unaware of his tragic fate.

Emerald
Weapon swims
out of the
darkness
Late into the third disc,
heading into the ocean
with the submarine
gives the player a few
surprises, including the
nal whereabouts of the
Turks, Shinras agents
whose paths cross yours
throughout. Thats before
you see bubbles emerge
out of the black, though
when the fearsome Emerald
Weapon drifts towards you in
terrifying fashion. Brr! Its an
absolute bitch to kill, too.

Getting the
Highwind
Final Fantasy as a series is
ingenious in the way it lets
you manoeuvre around the
world. When you get the
Highwind, you can go almost
anywhere in the entire world,
a gloriously freeing reminder
of the diversity of locations
within the game.

ll the character designs and their

personalities were left in the hands of the
designers, a break from previous games,
where Sakaguchi would oversee their
conception. This was also the rst project
where Tetsuya Nomura would be the sole
character designer, who, having contributed work
to Final Fantasy V and VI, replaced Yoshitaka
Amano from the previous titles. A Famitsu
interview with Nomura (translated by Andriasang)
explains that Cloud was essentially his creation,
yet Kitase told us that determining both the
looks and personalities of every one of Final
Fantasy VIIs iconic cast of characters was
largely the responsibility of [Nomura]. It
marked a sea change for the series. Gone were
the primarily medieval, dreamy heroes of Amano,
and in came a fresh, exciting array of heroes that
would have an extensive impact on Japanese
popular culture not to mention birth a string of
ideas that would be appropriated into character
clichs, like spiky hair and giant swords. Amano
would still contribute character sketches and the
iconic meteor logo, however.
The immense back story for these heroes
and villains was ne-tuned by scenario writer
Kazushige Nojima, while many of the actual
narrative ideas came from a unique exercise that
once again showed Squaresofts experimental
approach. When designing the game, we asked
all staff on the Final Fantasy team to submit
possible episode ideas for character back stories
and created the overall stories by putting these
together, says Kitase. It was the scenario writer,
Mr Nojima, who managed to put together a
complete and detailed story from this massive
pool of ideas, a process that was much like
putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
This exercise led to an intriguing collection
of stories across the cast of heroes, with one
main plot driving it all: the planets impending
destruction at the hands of Sephiroth, where
he would harness the worlds natural defences
known as the Lifestream for himself. The
cast of Final Fantasy VII, including the tortured,
unfocused Barret; last of an ancient race Aeris
(or Aerith a misspelling in the games
translation, as you probably know); and downand-out pilot Cid Highwind; as well as more
esoteric faces like the tomb-dwelling, optional
companion Vincent Valentine, struck a chord with
gamers, as their stories dovetailed skilfully with
the main narrative.
These small tales, even Sephiroths, traced
back to the all-encompassing Shinra plot device
this corporation that is draining the planet of its
resources. Given that Final Fantasy VII was made
in the mid-Nineties, you could draw obvious

THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII

parallels with the real-world environmental issues
at that time. Yet environmentalism, surprisingly,
was not part of the teams storytelling agenda,
Kitase explains: We did not particularly plan
on bringing out environmental destruction as a
major theme of the game but rather intended
the story to depict the internal struggles of Cloud
and Sephiroth.
However, if pushed I would say that this
theme was not so much that of concern over
destruction of the environment but more about
how we wanted to show how civilisation and the
environment coexist. Cloud and his companions
rst appear in the game as a group trying to take
down the Mako reactors, but in the end we see
them getting help from the Lifestream that is the
source of that energy, and going forward into a
future of coexistence with the planet. I believe
that this theme of how we can strike a balance
and live in harmony with the environment is one
that is shared by all of us.

[Top left] Catching and

breeding Chocobos is
one of the true tests of
Final Fantasy VII.
[Bottom right] FFVII is a
high point for the series
stunning creatures,
with Bahamut being a
decent means of lazily
dispatching enemies.

he Lifestream is the literal embodiment of

the planets energy, where all life emerges
from and where it returns to with death.
Its genesis came from Sakaguchi, who had
come up with the idea as a reaction to tragic

Sephiroth is always just out of

reach, and so our image of him
becomes more and more idolised
events in his own life. When we were creating
Final Fantasy III, my mother passed away, he
said in a video to coincide with FFVIIs release.
And ever since, I have been thinking about
the theme of life. Life exists in many things,
and I was curious about what would happen if

I attempted to examine life in a mathematical

and logical way; maybe this was my approach in
overcoming the grief I was experiencing.
With that delicate balance in mind, an
antagonistic force like Shinra seemed suitable it
also presented a ne opportunity to go against
the curve of the last six games. We had a
feeling that ideas for villains in RPGs had kind of
become stale and repetitive, with it always being
something like a massive dragon or an evil ruler
who had acquired an ancient power, says Kitase.
When we asked ourselves what a more modern
take on a powerful evil would be, we came up
with the idea of a corporation that pollutes
the environment for excessive prot.

he most talked-about moment in this

complex tale, though, would be the death
of a major character. One of the conditions
of running our exclusive interview from
Square Enix was that we wouldnt reveal this
characters name but you know which one were
talking about. Everyone knows it. You might

RANDY
PITCHFORD
CEO, Gearbox
Software
Obviously,
role-playing
games were a huge
inuence on Borderlands. Final Fantasy
offered many of the standards and tropes
that are borrowed by many role-playing
games of today. The engagement and
motivation that comes from levelling
up and the draw of collecting loot
rst became clear to all of us when
we did such things with pencil-andpaper games. While many PC games
applied these principles, Final Fantasy
managed to capture the design in a
most accessible way at a time when
our controllers had only a D-pad and
two buttons. The elegance of the Final
Fantasy approach to role-playing has
inspired a generation.
In fact, the very rst videogame that
my wife and I played together from
beginning to end was the rst Final
Fantasy game on the NES. To this
day, we have fond memories of that
experience and an irrational loyalty to
the franchise. I know that many people
see Final Fantasy VII as the high-water
mark for the series, but for me it was the
earlier Final Fantasy games on the NES
and Super Nintendo that have had the
most impact.
PLAYSTATION | 43

WHAT HAPPENS
NEXT
SEQUELS IN FINAL FANTASY

Final Fantasy X-2

Solid and technically superb but
tonally misring, Final Fantasy X-2
took FFX s timid protagonist, Yuna,
then popped on some hot pants
and gave her a couple of guns. The
games Perfect ending is almost
worth playing through it alone for
fans of the rst game, though.

Final Fantasy IV:

The After Years
Originally released on mobiles in
Japan, then through WiiWare and
again on the PSP with Final Fantasy IV:
The Complete Collection, The After
Years is a direct sequel that is built
with the look of the original SNES title.
The PSP version presents it in the most
coherent, beautiful form.

have spent hours training this character up before

the event occurred. It didnt matter. This character
was wiped out of the story. Such a brave decision
would be the dening moment, and it stunned
this new generation of JRPG fans, and is still the
subject of much conversation today.
It is odd that Square Enix declined to comment
on the sequence, having done so in the past
even Kitase himself, back in 2003. It could be that
the company is hoping new gamers discover
Final Fantasy VII through the PlayStation Store, or
that something new involving the game is in the
pipeline. Either way, that moment was designed
by Square to create a sudden void in the player,
to make them think theyd have acted differently
were they to know it was coming.
There are more surprises besides, though. A
major plot point some way into the game sees the
threat level raised signicantly as giant creatures,

When thinking about a modern

take on a powerful evil, we came up
with the idea of a corporation
a super-boss motif of the series known as
Weapons, march into the overworld and heighten
the drama of the closing act. The Emerald and
Ruby Weapons are especially tough to beat, yet
incorporating these powerful entities as part of
the Sephiroth storyline imbued them with a new
importance. Kitase explains why the team opted
to do this: In all Final Fantasy games, we always
put in very powerful monsters in the latter parts
of the game to challenge dedicated players and to
deepen the gameplay experience, enhancing the
longevity of the title and giving something to do
aside from the main quest. We had already got
the concept of the Weapons as defenders of the
planet for FFVII and so decided to tie that together
with these play-enhancing features.
But the story, despite forever being the guiding
light for the Final Fantasy series, was matched
by FFVII s immense technical and mechanical
advances. Creating a masterpiece of this calibre,
with such scope in setting and the jaw-dropping
amount of iconography that would dene
Japanese RPGs from there on, was the product

The games early Tifa/Aeris choices give you

an opportunity to damage a girls self-esteem.

Dissidia 012 [Duodecim]

Final Fantasy
Forget the stupid title. Aside from the
unfortunate shortage of new content,
this sequel to the fan-service-packed
original is a top-notch action RPG
that was snubbed last year, no doubt
affected by the PSPs atrocious piracy
rates. Nevertheless, it comes packaged
with the rst game, so get it if you
have the chance.

44 | PLAYSTATION

of a talented group of people, sharing a potent

creative culture. We asked Kitase about the teams
dynamic at the time.
Before FFVII we only really had 2D pixel
art designers, but for this project many 3D CG
specialists and designers came in from outside
the company, leading to an interaction of various
working cultures that was very stimulating,
he says. All the in-house designers also
started to learn to use CG tools, and we held
a lot of seminars and explanation meetings. I
personally received instruction in how to use
Alias PowerAnimator, and around a tenth of all
the character motions seen in the games event
scenes were actually created by me!
We had to ask Kitase if anything changed in
development and, as it happens, Square had
a relatively airtight vision of FFVII, with only
one change that fans will denitely have noticed.

The only thing that we had to change during

development was the level of deformation on
the characters. The fact that the characters are
depicted at different levels of deformation in the
eld, battle and CG sections is a remnant of these
changes. Whereas eld characters ended up
being blocky 3D models, the characters in battle
had far more detail. As Kitase mentions, too,
you can see this difference in CG movies some
depict the characters in blocky form, while others,
like Sephiroth before the ames of Nibelheim,
are more impressively realised. Its a curious
inconsistency, but of course forgivable in the face
of the nished products other achievements.
The locations have aged better, thanks to the
heavy use of prerendered backgrounds. Yet part
of Final Fantasy VIIs appeal to long-time fans was
the introduction of a fully 3D world map. Despite
the cinematic touches present in other parts of
the experience, the world map was seen as an
updated version of the SNES overworld. This
part of the game was not actually all that much of
a challenge, says Kitase. It goes without saying
that, at the time, creating data for a 3D map was
hard work, but for better or worse we decided
to do the map along pretty similar lines to a 2D
world map from the Final Fantasy games of the
Super Famicom era, so there were not a lot of
problems with the overall vision.

THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII

With insight from Final Fantasy VIIs

art director, Yusuke Naora, we pick
out key locations from the story

The Northern
Crater

DEVELOPER COMMENTARY

DEVELOPER COMMENTARY

MIDGAR

FORGOTTEN
CAPITAL
As this was to be the
location for some of the
most important scenes, it
needed to be eerie, spiritual
and made up from a more
limited number of elements.
In order to convey the idea
of long dead civilisations,
we used the motif of the
fossilised prehistoric sea
bed, with architecture
based on giant shells.

Wutai

The overall
silhouette of
Midgar was
inspired by
looking at a pizza
I was eating with
friends while I was stuck for design
ideas. For the Shinra building, the
overall sense of scale came from
looking up every day at our company
ofces and also had features taken from
structures where practicality inuences
the design, such as the bridge of a
battleship and industrial furnaces.

Forgotten
Capital

Rocket
Town
Corel

Costa
Del Sol

Midgar

Nibelheim
Junon

Cosmo
Canyon

Gold
Saucer

DEVELOPER COMMENTARY

Gongaga

COSMO CANYON
The concept of this area
had been nalised as a
valley and observatory
like the Grand Canyon, so
I had the designers put in
more of a medieval feel,
with fantasy elements
such as the clockwork cosmic spheres
planetarium and the gyroscope compass.

DEVELOPER COMMENTARY

GOLD SAUCER
As there were a lot of mini-games in the title, I
set the question of, What would an amusement
park in this world be like? and made sure
everyone had fun when designing this area.

JUNON
A port town that is also a
military base, Junon is attacked
later on by Sapphire Weapon,
where the giant Junon cannon
ceremoniously takes it down.

THE NORTHERN
CRATER
This is where Jenova landed
about 2,000 years before the start
of the story a creepy, expansive
crater where the climax of the
game takes place.

NIBELHEIM
As more observant players will
know, after Nibelheim was burnt
down by Sephiroth, the entire
town was rebuilt by Shinra and
the citizens replaced with its
employees in a cover-up.

COSTA DEL SOL

An utterly bizarre, Spanish-style
holiday town with a relaxed
atmosphere, players could later
buy an overpriced house in this
pleasantly different part of the
world map.

GONGAGA
This sad little town is the
location of an exploded Mako
reactor, with the citizens
mourning their lost. Like a
sister town of Nibelheim, in
a strange way.

WUTAI
A more culturally differentiated
locale to everywhere else, Wutai
is the sole town on the far
western continent, and marks
the only location where the
heroes team up with the Turks.

COREL
Barrets hometown-turned-postShinra-wreck, this is where you
can catch the lift to the far more
jolly Gold Saucer. Theres a ruddy
superb chase sequence here later
in the game, too.

ROCKET TOWN
Built around a launchpad, this is
where one of the more interesting
characters, foul-mouthed pilot
Cid Highwind, hails from. Its
a cheerful moment when they
nally get the rocket into space.
PLAYSTATION | 45

 Aeris is the most innocent character in the story,

and remains massively popular with fans.

CONSTANTIN
JUPP
Assistant producer,
Media Molecule
Final Fantasy VII
made me realise
that games were so
much more than just running or shooting or
ghting. Far from mindless entertainment,
they could actually stir emotion within the
player. Its the game that inspired me to join
the games industry and help create those
experiences for others.

Instead, the team had to spend more

time worrying about the individual locations
themselves, which were signicantly more
imaginative than their cartridge-based forebears.
It was actually a lot harder and took much more
work realising the fully rendered backdrops for
the towns and dungeons, as nothing like these
had ever been done before at the time. Having
said this, the world map in FFVII did play a very
important role in the game. After the rst part,
which is spent in the oppressive and cramped
environment of Midgar, the feeling of liberation
and freedom at the moment when you step out

between generations. We had decided on the

idea of battles in 3D, with the camera panning
and zooming around the action, from before
beginning development on FFVII. In 1995, we
created a prototype game based on doing the
battles from FFVI in 3D and showcased it at the
SIGGRAPH convention that year. This test game
was made with an eye to perfecting the idea for
the battles in FFVII.
Aided by the straightforward yet endlessly
customisable Materia-based ability system, as
well as visually extravagant Limit Break attacks,
the combat in Final Fantasy VII would never
become a chore. This title also saw the best work
of composer Nobuo Uematsu, building on his
incredible music in FFVI with a series of stunning
and highly memorable themes and leitmotifs.
Any poignant, dark or pleasant instance is helped
along enormously by his work, and he made an
easy collaborator for Square. We basically just
showed Mr Uematsu the character designs and
the scenario, and had him familiarise with the
overall themes and images of the game before
letting him loose. There were no specic detailed

It took a lot of work realising

the rendered backdrops, as nothing
like them had been done before
onto the world map is one of the games most
memorable highlights. Thats completely true,
and this was a stones throw from making it into
our list of favourite moments. FFVII progressively
puts more power in the players hands through
the way they interact with the world.
Random battles would remain part of the series,
but as directed by the SIGGRAPH presentation,
the actual look of them marked an exciting leap

[Top right] The

Forgotten Capital is a
bizarre locale, and is still
the most atmospheric
part of this world.
[Bottom left] Dressing
Cloud up as a woman to
impress Don Corneo is
still bloody weird.

requests, and he was allowed to create the score

comparatively freely, says Kitase.
While HD technology and high-capacity
storage media has let Square Enix realise the
most elaborate of visions with Final Fantasy,
there is something pure about the seventh game.
Its such a well-rounded experience that its
obviously the product of a developer at a peak of
creativity. Being the rst Final Fantasy released
in Europe, and armed with a slightly misleading
marketing campaign that focused on FMVs over
gameplay, it turned a historically marginalised
genre into an international phenomenon.
Thats why theres always talk of a remake.
Yet gamers clamouring for this must surely
realise the potential for disappointment Final
Fantasy VII was a product of the CD-ROM era,
and everything was built on that foundation.
To try to replicate that in todays HD landscape
would be a fun curio, sure, but were almost
certain that it wouldnt surpass the original.
Still, the constant talk of revisiting the game
is a testament to gamers attachment to this
world, to these characters, and to the themes of
identity, life and death that no other entry in the
series has matched. It is a masterpiece, born in
the midst of Square enjoying the technological
revolution laid before it, and justiably becoming
synonymous with the PlayStation platform.
For the company, the project was a risk that
paid off supremely, but more profoundly for
FFVIIs receptive audience, it showed them that
videogames could offer a journey beyond that of
any other medium.
Special thanks to Roxana Etemad for her huge amount of
help with this feature.

46 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF FINAL FANTASY VII

The Anatomy of

CLOUD
He carries a big sword and
always seems miserable, but just
how much do you know about
Final Fantasy poster boy Cloud?

SWORD &
SORCERY
Though there is a whole load of swords for you to
equip to Cloud that you gather throughout the game,
none are as iconic as his famous starting weapon, the
gigantic Buster Sword. Itd never work in real life, of
course, but then never would Clouds unfeasibly pointy
hair. Besides, Final Fantasy VII is a game about a
half-alien madman trying to destroy the planet being
stopped by a magic wielding team that includes
a man with a gun for an arm and a talking cat.
In other words, forget about realism and
embrace that badass sword.

TROUBLE
& STRIFE
A poster boy for angst, Clouds sullen demeanour
early on in Final Fantasy VII has earned him a notundeserved reputation as being a bit of an arse.
As the game progresses, however, Cloud softens
up a little as we get to know his backstory and the
arrogant, uncaring front he puts up is broken down.
Cloud begins as a former member of elite military
unit SOLDIER, working as a mercenary for
freedom ghters AVALANCHE. However,
theres more to Clouds past than
meets the eye

SUPERSTAR
JACK OF
ALL TRADES
Cloud is unquestionably the best character in
Final Fantasy VII from a gameplay perspective, in
part because hes an all-rounder with high stats in all
categories. Hes got good attack power, meaning youll
probably want him in the front row to dish out damage.
But hes also the second best magic caster after Aeris,
so you can focus on magic with him if you choose. If
thats not enough, Clouds got the most powerful
Limit Breaks in the game, his signature
move and nal Limit Break being the
devastating Omnislash.

As well as being the protagonist of Final

Fantasy VII, Cloud has made a number of
other appearances. He appeared in the Final
Fantasy themed ghting game Dissidia Final
Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts
2, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Chocobo
Racing, amongst others. Hes even made
an appearance in a lm (albeit a rubbish
one) in the form of Final Fantasy
VII: Advent Children.

PLAYSTATION | 47

PaRappa The Rapper

RETROREVIVAL

KICK! PUNCH! ITS ALL IN THE MIND

48 | PLAYSTATION

PlayStation
NanaOn-Sha
1996
Masaya Matsuura may not have
created the rhythm genre when
he unleashed his cute rapping puppy, but
he arguably popularised it and brought it to
the attention of the gaming masses.
The core mechanics of PaRappa The Rapper
are still widely used today, but in 1996 they
were incredibly innovative, fusing gameplay to
music in a way that few previous games had
been able to successfully manage.
Matsuuras game is ridiculous fun, telling the
tale of our titular hero who wants to steal the
irresistible Sunny Funny away from his canine
rival Joe Chin. What follows is a genuinely
hilarious adventure that sees PaRappa rapping

his way through karate lessons, a driving test

and even a toilet queue, before nally making
his debut on stage in an attempt to win Sunny
Funnys owery heart.
Gameplay is fairly basic and revolves around
hitting buttons in time to the musics beat.
There are only six stages, but Parappa s clever
ranking system youll drop one of four ranks if
you mess up two lines in a row and must then
play well for two lines to reclaim it ensures
that the game has plenty of replay value. And
thats before you even delve into the freestyling
thats unlocked after completing the game.
Brought to life by the distinctive artwork of
Rodney Greenblat Matsuura and Greenblat
insisted it retained its 2D look and featuring a
range of superb tunes, PaRappa The Rapper is
as entertaining as it is innovative.

PLAYSTATION | 49

One of the trailbllazin

ng 3D ghterrs of itss time
e, the Tekke
en seriies
co
onttin
nues to
o pack a punch to thiss dayy. Luke
e Albig
gs go
oes he
ead-to
o-head
with
h series prroducerr and dire
ector Kaatsuhirro Harrada to learrn abo
out the
originss of the Kiing Of Irron Fisst Tou
urnam
ment

around games like VF and Tekken that extra dimension

f theres one thing weve learned over the
years, its that theres no tangible benet
offered ghters unprecedented tactical options while
to being rst to the party in the technology
showing off the latest tech beautifully, although we were
market. But Sega, more than any other
surprised to hear that Tekken was originally designed
company, seems to have suffered from failing to
around the latter rather than the former. Tekken was
recognise this trend.
a project to develop technology for use in 3D character
Saturn beat PlayStation to the punch, but Sony still
animation, rather than as a 3D ghting game, reveals
dominated the generation through clever marketing and
series overlord Katsuhiro Harada, the veteran producer
better third-party support. Dreamcast versus PS2 was
and director who has been on the series since it began.
a similar story, with many skipping Segas dinky white
We reworked the game drastically around Tekken 3 to
classic to wait for the follow-up to a proven success.
make it more of a proper 3D ghting game.
And even when it came to ushering the one-on-one
Through some combination of innate skill, blind
ghting genre into the third dimension, Sega was once
luck, experience and novelty value, though, everything
again rst on the scene with Virtua Fighter. But with a
came together to make Tekken seem like one of those
novel gimmick in its one button per limb conguration
glimpses of the future a moment where you see
and the good fortune to back the more popular console,
past a games problems and appreciate it for what it
Namcos Tekken series would come to be the very
means for the next era of gaming. Or, in this case,
just a supremely enjoyable early 3D ghter at a time
denition of what a 3D ghting game should be.
when nobody else had really stepped in to show
With the industry shifting rapidly from 2D to 3D at the
the world how the genre was supposed to be done.
time, its no real surprise that excitement was so high

The view select option was only really

there to show off the 3D visuals.

50 | PLAYSTATION

Finishing Arcade mode with a

character makes their rival playable.

King only came into his own when

Namco gave him his chain throws.

THE HISTORY OF TEKKEN

PLAYSTATION | 51

 A perfect run on the Galaga loading

game unlocks a secret character.

Going back to it today, the original Tekken (and

indeed to a lesser degree the second one too) does
feel rough around the edges, but with so many less
capable teams putting out horrible 3D beat-em-ups to
try and cash in on the new craze, Tekken would only
have felt even more accomplished by comparison.
Rather than being well received as a ghting game,
I was well aware that games of that era were more
highly regarded for the 3D polygon and other graphics
technology, Harada tells us, pinning a lot of the games
early popularity on it being the right kind of graphical
showcase in the right place at the right time.
Namco was locked into that right place from an early
stage, its arcade division developing boards based on
PlayStation technology before the platform had even
been released to prove itself. There wasnt another
option to consider, Harada conrms. Most people
knew that platform as PlayStation, but we developed
the PlayStation hardware-compatible arcade board,
System 11, along with SCE before the release of the
PlayStation. A risk, then, but a calculated one and
with PlayStation the strongest of the then-forthcoming
consoles in terms of 3D tech the route Namco was
exploring with games like Ridge Racer and Tekken
the team simply latched onto the most obvious partner.
Which, as the history books will tell you, worked out
pretty well. Whereas even established greats like Street
Fighter and The King Of Fighters would struggle to nd
their footing on PlayStation, Namco read the market
brilliantly and as such had a ghter at the forefront of
Sonys revolution to make gaming cool.
From an outsiders perspective, it seems to be an
extremely competitive market, but Harada is quick to
downplay this. If asked whether there is a rivalry with
other ghting games, maybe most wont understand
this, but in the arcade game sector, we are rivals but
also comrades, he reasons. For companies that
operate arcades, not only do you need your own games
to be successful, but also those of rival companies as
well. Thats why they are more like brothers-in-arms

Yoshimitsus design and moveset

change hugely with each game.

52 | PLAYSTATION

Jack will always get battered by

faster characters. So, everyone else.

We make at leastt as mucch, iff nott

more
e, from
m our arrcade
e rellease
es of Tek
kken
n
Katsuhiro Harada, Bandai Namco
rather than rivals. It shows lack of understanding when
people try to say there is rivalry or bad blood there.
Often, events for several games are held at the same
time. Perhaps its less a competitive scene and more
a somewhat symbiotic one, then each ghter needs
others to succeed as well in order to maintain popularity
and awareness for the genre as a whole. Even if
someone feels hostile towards a rival, that just shows
their own shortcomings. That said, it is entertaining as
a performance, he chuckles, as we recall his staged
spats with Street Fighter boss Yoshinori Ono in the
lead-up to the launch of Street Fighter X Tekken for all
the trash talk, cosplay, hashtags and other daft feigned
rivalry there, the pair were always complimentary of
one anothers work when asked directly.
As much as the market may have changed a lot
in the last 20 years, Harada himself doesnt seem to
think he has. Ive just gotten older, I think, he smiles.
My role hasnt changed that much. Perhaps going to
the arcade to promote the game and for the events is
something I dont do anymore. In regards to marketing
and PR, conceptual design, game design and project
management, these are some of the roles I have always
had. Ive been a bit bossy, even when I was young.

How far can you get on one life gauge?

Zero wins aint the best record

iven the enormous popularity of Tekken

both in arcades and on PlayStation, a sequel
was always on the cards. Indeed, Tekken
2 was one of the most anticipated titles of
the early PlayStation era, with the kind of magazine
coverage and pre-release buzz that you seldom see for
a franchise which is only one game old. With that in
mind, its odd to hear that Namco was still going at it
from a very tech-minded point of view. It was basically
decided by focusing on what new technology we
wanted to implement, recalls Harada when discussing
the approach to creating the second game. But it
wasnt all polygon counts and bullet points gameplay
still counted, as anyone who has played the improved
sequel will recognise. But the PlayStation audience was
still too young to be trusted, so Namco took gameplay
advice from a more established, reliable source instead.
Regarding the game as a ghting game, we based
our decisions on feedback from questionnaires in the
arcade, states Harada.
The arcade is a very severe market, he continues.
Consumers only pay you 100 Yen at a time to play.
You dont get 50 dollars right away you have to have
them keep coming back. That means your game has
to be extremely fun to survive. Fighting games raised
in this environment are more entertaining and more
balanced as a result. Even so, its a tough market to
crack from this angle today, with the cost of console
development alone being prohibitive enough for many
smaller teams before you even factor in anything like
arcade boards. Plus, theres the small fact that the
arcade scene isnt what it used to be, though Harada
doesnt seem to see this as a worldwide problem.
Many people say arcades are dead, he muses.
Maybe in the West, that is somewhat true. But they are
still around in the Eastern hemisphere, especially Asia.
They are even increasing in South-east Asia. Console
releases of Tekken sell millions of copies each so you
might think it is quite lucrative, right? Maybe even more

THE HISTORY OF TEKKEN

than the arcades? But, that is not true. You only receive
50 dollars for a console title, maybe up to 100 including
DLC, and then youre done. But hit games in the arcade
keep on performing. We make about as much as the
console release when we sell the initial game and arcade
cabinet, but then keep proting as the game continues
to perform in the arcade. Most people dont know that
we make at least as much, if not much more from our
arcade releases of Tekken. Are you surprised?
Yes. Yes we are, actually, but were even more
surprised to hear that the money made here is poured
right back into the franchise in the form of console
extras. The revenue gained from the arcade is then
invested into the development of the console version,
reveals Harada. That is why compared to other
ghting games, Tekken is able to have more bonus
modes, customisation features, bonus BGM and
additional characters at no added cost to the consumer.
So many console consumers often never realise the
benet they are receiving from Tekken being in the
arcade. That is basically why we develop in this cycle.
Thats probably also why Tekken has survived for 20
years now.

Even though Street Fighter X Tekken promotion

is long since nished, Harada cant seem to help but
take one last friendly pop at Ono in summarising his
argument. One of my favourite franchises, the Street
Fighter series, didnt see a new instalment for ten
years in between Street Fighter III [and] Street Fighter
IV, he recalls. However, we are also an arcade
operator, so we were able to generate revenue to keep
updating the Tekken franchise with new instalments.
Thats essentially why Tekken has generated the most
income in the arcades in the past 20 years of any
ghting games, and sold over 43 million console copies
worldwide, making it the most successful ghting
game franchise. I think that proves the strategy chosen
was the correct one.

As the smug grin subsides, we move onto the third

game, one widely renowned as one of the best of its
time. As previously stated, it was around this time that
Harada and his team really started to focus on gameplay
to the same degree as presentation and it shows
theres a level of depth here that arguably wouldnt be
beaten until Virtua Fighter 4 rolled around some time
later. Its the best performer out of all of the Tekken
games too, but is it the best? Harada offers a surprisingly
diplomatic response, considering weve effectively just
asked him to review his own children. Tekken 3 did
very well in the arcades, and sold well for many years
on the console, he says. The console sales ended up
being 8.3 million copies! If you just look at the numbers,
I guess you could say Tekken 3 was the most

The training mode in the third game

was as comprehensive as any other.

Leis a flashy fighter, but few can master

his confusing multiple stances.

GET THE PRIZE

SUPER
MARIO KART

RIBBIT KING

QWeve seen just how keen

on fuel. The solution? Give

away what scraps remain
as prizes in a interplanetary
Frolf competition. What
is Frolf, you ask? Its golf
played with frogs rather
than balls, the little croakers
hopping around of their own
accord after a shot. This
PS2/GameCube oddity is a
technical mess, but its a riot
in multiplayer.

residents of the Mushroom

Kingdom are to try out all
kinds of different pastimes,
but youd think the governing
body behind this racing
tournament would screen its
drivers known criminals,
kidnappers, vandals and
hoodlums are as free to
compete as the squeaky
clean guys.

QThe world is running low

A handful of the other crazy

tournaments from the rest of gaming

UNREAL
TOURNAMENT

POKMON

FINAL FANTASY X

CHAOS

QThe rules arent quite as

QBattle tournaments are

QThe Wizards Duel in

QTheres a delicious

well defined here as they are

for most competitions it
seems to be the case that
whoever beats the Elite Four
and the reigning champ
gets to call themselves the
champion, even though
the king is never actually
dethroned. Still, that epic
journey to catch em all and
beat the best is one we could
(and do) play over and over.

commonplace in roleplaying games, but this is

something quite different.
While Blitzball wasnt the
primary focus of FFX (or
at least wasnt meant to
be curse our addictive
personalities), Tiduss backstory and the rewards from
playing made grinding out
entire seasons essential for
a 100 per cent run.

The Sword In The Stone

has nothing on this,
Julian Gollops Spectrum
masterpiece pitting up to
eight wizards against one
another in the ultimate test
of wits, cunning and Gooey
Blobs. Crowdfunding on a
brand new Chaos game has
not long begun hopefully,
we wont have invested too
much in an illusion this time.

aftertaste of irony in the fact

that a game based around a
virtual sports event for the
pleasure of others became
one of the first major games
on the eSports scene. Few
players will remember the
premise, though, because
it just simply doesnt
matter. Its just a damn fine
multiplayer shooter.

PLAYSTATION | 53

KILLER COMBOS
The ten-hit strings well never forget

KING

NINA

PAUL

successful. I have a lot of good personal memories

from that instalment as well. That said, I dont consider it
as the best Tekken. 5 and 6 were also quite successful
and well received. They even maintained the top spot in
the arcades for ve consecutive years.
As you can probably gather, Harada wont offer a
personal favourite, rather reasoning that he learns from
creating each iteration. Tekken 3s assortment of odd
extra modes, from bizarre mini-game Tekken Ball to
chicken-avoured side-scrolling mode Tekken Force,
offered value far beyond the simple arcade ports that
were common, and were as weve now learned funded
by the games coin-op success. But what was it that
made the team want to give something back to the
community like this? Haradas answer is succinct.
The omotenashi (hospitality) mentality of Japanese,
he states. At the time, Namco was raking in money,
and arcades were doing extremely well. Since the
consumers were giving us so much support, it was
only natural to do our utmost to please them in return.
This kickstarted a revolution in ghters too, with Time
Attack and Arcade modes no longer enough players
demanded more, leading to console-only ghters like
later Mortal Kombat games offering crazy amounts
of single-player and unlockable content. Many of the
additional modes were simply throwaway novelties, but
even the most whimsical of them all had a grounding in
the core ghting experience. Tekken Ball was the result
of me originally trying to make a mini-game to practice
aerial combos, Harada explains we can process that,
but any attempt to link a hardcore 3D ghting game and
ten-pin bowling continues to blow our tiny minds.
No franchise can go 20 years without a disaster or
ten, though, and Haradas go-to example came pretty
early on in the series life. Theres one memory that
stands out, he says when asked about developmental
developments. At the time, a person who was like a
leader of development quit and joined another company,
taking many of the designers and programmers that
had joined the company at the same time as me. I was
very surprised! Its not uncommon in this industry,
but we cant imagine this kind of observation makes
it any easier to deal with this kind of mass exodus.
We were actually put in the position that we were
unable to develop the next Tekken or Soul Blade,
Harada reveals. It took much effort to rebuild the
development team. We had to redo everything,
basically starting from scratch.

Marduks ground-and-pound MMA

style feels really weighty and brutal.

54 | PLAYSTATION

THE HISTORY OF TEKKEN

Tekken Force: rubbish no matter how

much better it looks on new hardware.

SPECIAL
MOVIES

The ghters that have

tried (and failed) to take
on Hollywood

STREET FIGHTER: THE MOVIE

(1994)
Tekken Tag s innovative mechanics
helped it stand out at the time.

Tag s evolution allows for some insane

combos once you master the engine.

How many other fighters allow an old

man to punch out a kangaroo?

In ga
ame de
evelop
pment, failu
ures
o
en tea
ach uss qu
uite a lott

Katsuhiro Harada

his might go some way to explaining the

next two games in the timeline Tekken
Tag Tournament was effectively a greatest
hits package with a neat new mechanic,
while Tekken 4 went wildly off-template and made
fundamental changes to several crucial aspects of the
game, attracting a fair amount of criticism for doing so.
We ask whether Sony had wanted Tag to be a launch
title for the PlayStation 2 following the successful
collaboration between the two brands the generation
before, but Harada laughs off the idea. There wasnt
much discussion on whether to make Tekken Tag a
launch title, he tells us. That was the role of Ridge
Racer. Tag just came along at the right time.
Similarly, the question of making the non-insignicant
leap from PlayStation hardware to PS2 (with its
all-powerful Emotion Engine) seems equally easy for
the Tekken boss, but then he wouldnt have been
the one doing the coding. There wasnt much that
we had trouble with regarding the technology, he
says. Actually, the tough part was that the number of
polygons increased drastically, and we were struggling to
nd a way to use this increased power effectively.
But nd it they did Tekken Tag looked great at the
time and 4 looked even better when it turned up, even
if it did follow the odd mantra of if its not broke, x it
until it is. As is always the case, some gamers who
hadnt really gotten on with the series in the past will
tell you how much they love this one that breaks from
tradition, but the majority wanted tradition back. Moving
the emphasis away from juggle combos and onto spatial
positioning was an interesting move but not one that
paid off, although that doesnt seem to have hurt the
franchise. If anything, it has actually helped. It was
because of the failure of Tekken 4 that we are successful
today, Harada claims. In game development, failures
often teach us quite a lot. Thats why I think there was a
lot things in that game that are worth looking at.
After 4, its hardly surprising that core series Tekken
games havent taken any risks, at least not to that level

the Rage mechanic of Tekken 6 sails a little too close

to todays odd obsession with comeback mechanics,
but its no better, worse or more effective than Garous
TOP system so well let it go. Both Tekken 5 and 6
played things relatively safe, the core ghting returning
to the template laid out by 3 and with all the same
kind of frippery laid about around it to keep fans happy
whether they were ghting or not. Customisation was
the big new thing SoulCalibur s creation suite it may
not be, but the dress-up mode in modern Tekken
games is still fun to play around with all the same.
And so we come to Tekkens latest outing. No, not
the iOS card game, although that is surprisingly good
fun. Were talking about Tekken Revolution, the free-toplay PS3 game that has already been downloaded by
over 3 million players. It just goes to show how much
the world has changed Tekken 3 sells over 8 million
but today, Namco can only give away 3 million copies
of Revolution but Harada seems happy with how its
all going. We were able to gain a lot of feedback, so
I am satised, he states, but he does have an odd
confession to make. If I were to give my honest answer
to whether ghting games are well suited to F2P, I would
say no. This is because the basic game model was born
in the arcade, coin operation-based environment from
20 years ago. Currently popular genres such as team
battles, four-player co-op and RPGs are probably better
suited. Or perhaps changing the fundamental gameplay,
like in SoulCalibur: Lost Swords.
Even two decades on, Harada still has a passion for
his franchise and a bunch of interesting new ideas on
where to take it. The free-to-play experiment isnt the
sign of the end of Tekken as we know it either. Tekken
7 is currently going great guns in Japanese arcades and
will inevitably head to consoles in the not too distant
future, particularly as its built on Unreal Engine 4
hardware. And best of all, two decades in, Harada still
dreams big. To create a game which everyone says
Now that is exactly what I have been waiting for!
That is my goal, he closes.

QA classic for all the wrong reasons, with a

script written by someone who
had no idea about the game.
Raul Julias final role serves up
the best bits For you, the day
Bison graced your village was
the most important day of your
life, he taunts Chun-Li. But for
me, it was Tuesday.

MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

QSome fighter-based movies shy away

from the hokey nonsense that surrounds

the games ludicrous canon, but
Mortal Kombat fully embraces
it and it works. Its still rubbish,
obviously, but in terms of sheer
fun, the Mortal Kombat movies
are among the best examples of
videogame-based silver screen
silliness going.

DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE (2006)

QThe only movie here to really get its source

material, DOA is a gratuitous 87

minutes of teen titilation thanks to
sexy ladies, buff dudes and more
sexy ladies squaring off in various
unsuitable outfits. Jaime Pressly
kills it as Tina too bad the rest of
the bunch are either terribly cast
or just terrible by comparison.

THE KING OF FIGHTERS (2010)

QOnce again we turn to the casting

department with a giant question mark over

our heads casting an American dude as Kyo,
Maggie Q as Mai and Ray Park
(aka Star Wars baddie Darth
Maul and Toad in X-Men ) as
big boss man Rugal. Were
surprised they didnt get
Stephen Fry to play Terry
Bogard. Perhaps he was busy.

TEKKEN (2010)
QThe characters nonsensical back-stories

and reasons for competing in the Iron Fist

should make for an awesome movie before
the fights even start. But
director Dwight H Little plays
things a bit too straight here
this is far from the worst
movie on this rundown, but
perhaps the most forgettable.

PLAYSTATION | 55

19
5
3

23
20

1
8
7

22

21

ROGUES GALLERY

1KING
2 CHRISTIE
3 MOKUJIN
F/S: Wrestling

F/S: Capoeira

F/S: Mokujin-ken

56 | PLAYSTATION

4 LARS
5 PANDA
6 BOB

F/S: Karate

F/S: Advanced Bear Fighting

F/S: Freestyle Karate

7 BRUCE
8 ALISA
9 ZAFINA

A cross section of Tekkens enormous cast

F/S: Muay Thai Kickboxing

F/S: Humanoid Cyborg Combat

F/S: Ancient Assasination Arts

10 NINA
11PAUL
12 STEVE

F/S: Koppo

F/S: Judo

F/S: Boxing

13 LAW
14 RAVEN
15 ASUKA

F/S: Jeet Kune Do

F/S: Ninjitsu

F/S: Kazama Style traditional

THE HISTORY OF TEKKEN

25
14
26
24

11

30
28
13

10

27

12

15

29
18

17
16

F/S = FIGHTING STYLE

16 HWOARANG
17 JIN
18 KAZUYA
F/S: Taekwondo

F/S: Karate

F/S: Advanced Mishima style

19 ARMOR KING
20 EDDY
21LEO
F/S: Wrestling

F/S: Capoeira

F/S: Bajiquan

22 LILI
23 XIAOYU
24 HEIKACHI

F/S: Street fighting

F/S: Hakke Sho/ Hika Ken

F/S: Mishima-Style Karate

25 BAEK
26 KUMA
27 ANNA

F/S: Taekwondo

F/S: Advanced Bear Fighting

F/S: Koppo

28 MIGUEL
29 WANG
30 JULIA

F/S: Brawling

F/S: Xing Yi Quan

F/S: Kenpo/Wushu

PLAYSTATION | 57

LEAD
PROGRAMMER
KEITH
HAMILTON

58 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF: METAL SLUG

.
t was 1997. The UK was on a high
year
that
ion
elect
ral
The gene
had brought about the end of a
Conservative government and the
a
beginning of what was said to be
new era. British music was thriving
nt
to the point that a fresh moveme
the
Britpop had been created, with
Song
n
visio
Euro
the
ing
UK even winn
Contest. JK Rowling released the
rst of her Harry Potter novels, The
Cool
Philosophers Stone. The phrase
me
beco
have
may

nnia
Brita
rather tiresome, with The
Economist saying the
following year that the public
had grown sick of it, but it
sure encapsulated the mood

of the time.
Gaming formed part of this
British creative wave. WipEout
was enthralling clubgoers, boys
were lusting after Lara and, fresh
s,
from releasing the classic Lemming
ge
chan
a
ing
sens
was
gn
DMA Desi
in the way games were
being perceived. Dave
Jones, DMAs co-founder, felt
gaming should tap into the
wider world of entertainment.
He wanted people with an
interest in lm, music, books
and a broader sense of popular
culture to play. More than that,
DMA wanted people to forget
that they were playing a game
and immerse themselves into an
environment instead.
The DMA team cracked
on with a city simulator.
Programmer Mike Dailly

chaotic. The only agreed direction

was that we were basically writing
a game that we would want to play
ourselves, says lead programmer
to
Keith Hamilton. Everything had
be interactive. The player had to be
able to drive any vehicle he could
.
nd. Nothing was to be off-limits
ent
pres
to
tions
situa
fun
ted
We wan
themselves just by all the elements
in
coming together, not necessarily
ways that were specially designed.
About the only thing they could
e upon at this stage was that
decid
e,
gam
new
the
team loved it, and
produced a prototype on his 486
own view was the best way
top-d
the
the
entitled RaceNChase, was given
PC, working with an isometric
forward, nixing suggestions of using
go-ahead.
viewpoint and all of the action on
full 3D from a very early stage. DMA
n
In 1995, DMA drew up desig
e to
foot due to issues getting vehicles
wanted whatever game was mad
documents for the title. Aiming to
multiple platforms
around the city. But when it
over
ered
deliv
be
fast
and
produce a fun, addictive
,
came to actually playing this
the PlayStation, PC and, originally
multiplayer car racing and crashing
was
it
while
early prototype, it was deemed
the Saturn and
game which uses a novel graphics
too slow. It didnt help that
theoretically possible to do 3D on
day,
ent
pres
the
in
set
and
od
ar,
meth
ly
Syndicate Wars looked simil
the PC, the console versions simp
the developers had an idea for three
choices
The
it.
ort
so Mike went back to the drawing
supp
ldnt
wou
hical
cities, each with their own grap
type,
board and created a second proto
were to more or less develop two
to be packed
style. The game was
ive.
pect
pers
on
sidea
different game engines,
this time from
with missions. There
A short while later, Mike
or focus on making
were, the document
the game as rich
spoke to John Whyte, the
detailed, to be
lead programmer of Body
and deep and fun
pedestrians. Such
Harvest for the N64. Whyte
as we could on an
bystanders could
had wanted to create a topengine that would
be run over by cars.
down racer but Jones wasnt
run across all of the
Players could also
interested, yet it got Mike
platforms, recalls
get out of cars and
to
oor

thinking. Adding a
writer Brian Baglow.
steal other. And this
his side-on demo, he turned
So we did that. I
a
would attract the
from
type
his second proto
think it was the
attention of any
 PUBLISHER: BM
side-on view to a top-down
right decision.
G INTERACTIVE
the
nearby police.
using
,
Then
ive.
perspect
Although design
 DEVELOPER: DM
A DESIGN
The initial
rst prototype as a base,
ments existed,
docu
 PLATFORM: PC,
PLAYSTATION,
meetings about
he built perspective points
much of the game was
GAME BOY COLOR
the direction of the
using cubes to produce
made up on the spur
 RELEASED: 199
game turned out
a pseudo-3D effect.
7
of the moment. The
to be somewhat
 GENRE: ACTION
DMAs management
ADVEN

Grand Theft Auto, inevitably branded

an evil game by the Daily Mail, needss
little introduction. But, as David Crooke
discovers, what has grown into one of
Britains greatest gaming exports was
never initially intended to shock

IN THE KNOW

TURE

PLAYSTATION | 59

 The phone boxes

enabled the many missions
to form a seamless part of
the gameplay.

game evolved, explains Mike. It was

a true team-designed game. Each
design decision therefore became
an experiment. The eureka moment
came when the team thought about
the player leaving their own car and
getting into a different one.
They realised that, because
the other car wasnt really the
players, they must be a
criminal, and so the infamous
GTA theme was born.
We envisaged a straight
cops-and-robbers driving
game, recalls Brian. But it went
from that to a car-based crime
sim and wild sandbox adventure.
We initially had the player as a good
guy, and it was a long way down the
line before the decision to try playing
as the criminal was made. And at that
point, we could see that there was
something in there. Something fun
and unique.
As the months went by, DMAs
new game, which changed its name
to Grand Theft Auto mid-project,
started to grow. A lot of fresh talent
was hired to work on the game,
resulting in a very young team.
Despite the inexperience, the
ambition remained. The simulation
aspects of the game continued to be
important, especially for Keith, who
felt it was crucial to create a city that
the player could see in action and
then enjoy interfering with. For this
reason, police cars drove all the way
from the police station to a crime,
while ambulances motored from the
hospital and contained little characters
with stretchers to pick up bodies. If

60 | PLAYSTATION

you followed them, you could

see that they actually went back
to the hospital, says Keith.
The team also planned to have
the team wanted to produce I think
teams of trafc light repairmen
most of us would rather have been
who would drive out and x
working on one of the sexier Nintendo
any trafc lights if you broke
rst-party games, says Paul those
them. We dropped that
working on it soon recognised the
because it was getting a bit
games potential.
too anal and because players just
The actual level design was fairly
ignored the trafc lights anyway.
straightforward in the most part, says
The levels were designed by just
Paul. At the time I came on board
three people: Stephen Banks took on
there were some rough guidelines
San Andreas, Billy Thomson looked
to the possibilities and limitations
after Vice City, and Paul Farley was
of the game engine. The head of art
responsible for Liberty City. Paul had
had already written down some core
quit a degree in architecture and only
design considerations regarding the
envisaged being with DMA Design for
ow of space within the game. This
six months while
helped communicate
he gured out
to the team some of
what he wanted
the fundamental aims
to do with his
of the driving part of
life, and when he
the game.
started on GTA
The team were
GRAND THEFT AUTO sparked
it was little more
big
fans of top-down
when
y
overs
contr
of
a wave
than an uglyracers like Super
it was released, and it seems that a
looking and rather
Sprint
penchant to shock ran deep within the
rough demo. Yet
and Micro
team. David Cowan, the lead engineer
the
at
ed
at Visual Science, was amaz
while it wasnt the
Machines,
n,
Desig
text les he received from DMA
game everyone on
and these
.
upon which he was to base his work
games
The PC text les contained all of
s
informed
string
and
ation
inform
on
missi
the
some of the vehiclethat the user would see, he explains,
handling objectives
and they were originally absolutely
lthy and full of profanity. I dont know
in the game. Even
that,
with
ed
if the PC version shipp
from an early stage,
much
very
but the PSone version was
we were looking at
sanitised for Sony at the time.
how to make the
But how bad was it? One of the
driving ow well
lines was something like, Look, you
and be as forgiving
stupid mother****er get your ****ing
ass over to the phone booth to get your
as possible the
next ****ing mission, he says.
geometry of the
levels plays a huge
part in enabling this, continues Paul.
I think we did a good job of both
allowing the player space to express
themselves and their driving skills,
You had to be quick
on your toes, otherwise while providing contrasting spaces
youd get busted. to support gameplay focused on
pedestrian play. A real difculty was
the lack of diagonal road or sidewalk
tiles. I know I struggled with some

****ING
READ THIS!

aspects of Liberty City because of that

[very] limitation.
The team was given a lot of
freedom on the games direction.
Remarkably, only one person on the
team had ever shipped a game before,
but despite that, they were handed
a huge amount of responsibility and
ownership over the title and, says
Paul, it helped them make clear and
quick decisions. Each of the three level
designers took one of the city maps
each. You can clearly see the different
approaches coming through both
the level design and missions across
the three maps, explains Paul. And
they had a laugh doing it. Quite early
on, the sense of humour in the team
was becoming evident in the game.
In keeping with this cheeky nature,
it seemed natural to take real-life
American cities as our inspiration and
send them up a little. Im sure there
are kids that y into New York for the
rst time and are more familiar with
it as Liberty City. I hope they arent
disappointed; its an amazing city but
not quite like its portrayed in-game.
The criminal aspects let the
imagination of the team run riot. It was
possible to mow down a line of Hare
Krishnas to earn a Gouranga bonus,
for instance. We could also use the
pager and text to tell the players about
things that didnt really happen, like
with bomb shops and respray shops,
adds Brian. Some cars wouldnt
remap, so the idea was going to be
dropped. It was suggested giving the
player a message saying the plates
had been changed instead. Simple,
fast and it worked.
Some ideas didnt make it, however.
Vehicles,
characters,
missions
and city
locations all

THE MAKING OF: GRAND THEFT AUTO

CHASING
CONTROVERSY
GRAND THEFT AUTO wasnt
originally going to be an adul
t
game. The decision really
came quite
late in the day, recalls Pau
l. BMG
Interactive hired Max Cliord
to whip
things up and it worked a trea
t. Not
only did he deal with the fallo
ut from
the controversy, but he gain
ed the
game acres of column inch
es.
I still feel quite bemused abou
t
it all, frankly, says Paul. The
game,
while having some strong cont
ent, had
a very obvious tongue-in-ch
eek sense
of humour. This cheeky scho
olboy
humour combined with the
cartoon
top-down graphics really mad
e it
rather dicult to understand
how the
game could ever be seen as
pushing
the boundaries of taste and
decency. It
was very mild compared to
content on
TV, lm, music and other ente
rtainment
media at the time. We knew
we
had created a great piece of
art, an
innovative and entertaining
game
that stood proud on its own
merits.
We didnt add the mature cont
ent to
make it successful; it was core
to the
entire experience and helped
it stand
out from a crowd of competit
ors. We
were the bad boys, and in a
competitive
market like videogames, som
etimes it
pays to be a little nasty.

got cut along the way. We wanted

combine harvesters to mow down
pedestrians. We never quite had
time for it, so never had to consider
the issue of whether that might
have been taking things too far,
says Keith. As a result, cut-scenes,
voiceovers and cinematic sequences
were also axed, with the game
having just one cut-scene per city for
the main bad guys.
We also ended up losing the
original maps, which is a tragedy,
continues Brian. We had created
full maps for each town and around
the border of each were adverts
for local businesses, vouchers and
tourist destinations, all made up and
in keeping with the style and feel of
each city. Its one of the few things
I never managed to get a copy of
or nd when the company became
Rockstar North. In my imagination,
they were awesome. In real-life
well, we may never know.
Other ideas were in the PC
version but dropped for consoles
due to hardware limitations.
Speaking for the PlayStation
version, we had big problems
with the trains mainly due to the
way they were implemented on the
PC. They used a lot of memory and
were only used properly in a few
missions, so we had to drop them. It
was unfortunate, but we had to live
with the realities of the situation,
explains PlayStation programmer
Russell Kay.
According to Paul, however,
the team was fearless. It wasnt
scared of failure and it was open
to new ideas. Some of the team
even wanted missions involving
burning churches but, above all, they
wanted to give the player a sense
of right and wrong. The player
could choose not to act in a certain
way if they didnt want to. If we had
included missions where you were
forced to single out certain groups
of people to kill or abuse based on
race or religion, that would have
been a step too far, and it would

have devalued the players

sense of choice to the
detriment of the game and
its subsequent success.
One of the problems that faced
the team was how best to integrate
the missions. The level designers
were using fairly complex tools
to create fun, challenging and
exciting activities for the player,
but it ran as a series of challenges

writing reect the living, breathing

city thing that the whole game
embodied, muses Brian.
The non-linear mission
system came later in the games
development. At rst, the game had
players returning to a sub-menu
to select their next mission, but
the level designers felt this broke
the immersive nature of the game
and that the front end was too
boring. Coming up with the idea of
spawning missions from payphones,
characters, vehicles and other ingame elements was groundbreaking
at the time, effectively building
the level selection into the
game itself, and it made
a huge difference to the
players suspension of
disbelief. I dont think the
code team were initially very
pleased at this because they had
never designed the engine to run
indenitely, says Paul. The new
mission structure certainly created
a number of new issues for them to
solve, but Im glad they did.
The key to this was the levelscripting system. The programmers
invented a language that the level
designer could use to set up the

We wanted combine harvesters

to mow down pedestrians. That
might have been taking it too far
that were fundamentally
unconnected. The game
essentially ran along the lines of
go here, steal this car, drive to
this point, leave it, get on a bike,
take it to this point and so on.
So once the missions were in
place, it was up to Brian to come up
with the specics of what exactly the
player was doing and why.
This plot or narrative had to
be delivered, he explains. There
were no voiceovers, animation or
cut-scenes featuring a rich variety of
protagonists. Instead we had around
120 characters on a pager at the
top of the screen. This was years
before Twitter too! Everything had
to be scaled back and written for the
maximum amount of information in
the smallest amount of space.
But that wasnt the only problem
he faced. The missions could be
played in pretty much any order
within each city, so there was no real
way of doing any sort of linear plot
within a single city. Putting together
little self-contained missions was a
denite challenge. There was a lot
of allusion and implied action taking
place elsewhere, just to make the

missions so that they would all be

different. But although this brought
great freshness to the game and the
title was starting to come along at
a cracking pace, with the 20-strong
team working hard to perfect the
gameplay, the whole project came
close to cancellation on a few
occasions. It was DMAs rst game
with a million-dollar budget and it
was much bigger than anything the
team had previously attempted,
but when a group of high-ranking
American executives from DMAs

This early prototype of RaceNChase was

produced by Mike Dailly. He explains: Aer

the initial code was implemented in the game,
Syndicate Wars appeared in a magazine. It was a
little too close for our liking. On top of this, Keith
[Hamilton] was also having some problems with
his version of the engine, since he had to rewrite
it in C and the speed wasnt holding.
PLAYSTATION | 61

 The varied
cityscape meant you
could explore for hours.

This second prototype was based on the rst.

HITTING
THE STREETS
THE GTA DEVELOPMENT team
liked to muck in. They provided
all of the games voices, and there
were also frequent rows. The team
was always arguing about something,
laughs Paul. There was a lot of positive
friction on the team, but also some
negative stu from time to time. But it
speaks volumes that many of them are
still in touch with each other.
The sense of togetherness and fun
meant they took risks, and this was
evident early on. Usually a developer
would put out a demo in order to attract
the attention of a publisher. Not DMA
Design. When it tried to get a publishing
deal for Grand The Auto, it decided to
shun the normal prototype material and
get out on the streets of Dundee.
The team produced a live-action
video, with a story of someone getting
shot played by lead programmer Keith
Hamilton and then a crazy car chase
put together with some careful editing
using a company car and an old banger
that the team bought specially.
There are shots of us driving along,
hanging out the windows with guns
and doing handbrake turns, says Keith.
This wasnt done on ocially closed
roads just quiet industrial estates.
Unfortunately, I dont have a copy, and
I dont know if any copies still exist. Id
love to see one.

62 | PLAYSTATION

publisher, BMG Interactive, arrived,

it almost killed the game. They
came to the studio, bizarrely wearing
shorts, and they really didnt get
the game, with its outdated visuals,
loads of bugs, and no clear genre,
remembers Keith. Fortunately, Dave
Jones worked his magic and we were
given a stay of execution.
GTA was released before Christmas
and didnt appear that special on
the face of it. It was brought to the
table at a time when gamers were
becoming used to playing in 3D
and some reviewers reported drab,
lifeless visuals and awkward driving
dynamics. This, however, told only
half a story. Here was an expansive,
mould-breaking, free-form game with
a compelling plot that also allowed
for freedom and exploration. It had

Mike says: Using cubes, I built an array of

perspectives, then with a 3D array attached
faces to each active cube. I then removed
interior faces and rendered the resulting city.

how to bring them all together, so we

ended up writing a tool that read in
the nalised PC retail packages and
converted them back to individual
sprites, sounds, levels and so on so
we could convert them.
David remembers the code for the
pedestrian system being horrendous,
and he had to signicantly modify
it so that it wouldnt store the state
of every pedestrian and car in the
game. On the PlayStation, the state of
each of these things was cached only
for a short time and was randomly
generated within 20 or 30 metres
of the edge of the screen, which
quartered the memory requirement.
Dead bodies disappeared after 30
seconds or so, and vehicles were
randomly generated as you were
driving or walking around. Skid marks
on the PC version were also stored
indenitely but evaporated on the
PSone, says David.
GTA went down a storm on
release, and it caused an inevitable
spent around eight months on the
wave of controversy. Politicians
conversion overall.
began to debate the game and there
The biggest problem was taking
were calls for it to be banned. There
the PC version, which used around
was talk of videogame censorship.
16MB of RAM, and squeezing it into
But Brian says the team didnt realise
2MB on the PlayStation. The other
how contentious it would be.
challenge was the audio, admits
I think some of the team were a
Russell. The rich PC audio had to be
little shocked by the tabloid response,
squeezed into the minuscule RAM
questions in Parliament
of the PlayStation.
and getting the game
We used CD audio
on Question Time,
for the radio stations
he says. But once
and made all of the
everyone realised that
other sound effects
this was just the way
and police chatter as
the media works, they
standard audio.
all settled down a bit
David Cowan was
and started to enjoy it.
the lead engineer
After all, wed made
on the port. I
a game that gamers,
remember nothing on
critics and the people
the PC version being
actually playing the
documented very well.
RED
CTU
PI
GS
IN
LEMM
PC, ST,
game all thought was
Most of the docs were
SYSTEM: AMIGA, RAD, LYNX
pretty bloody good.
very out of date, so the
SPECTRUM, AMST
YEAR: 1991
The controversy and
only references we had
AUTO:
hysteria was nothing
were the code and assets GRAND THEF T
LONDON, 1969
compared to the
themselves, he says.
E
ON
PS
,
PC
SYSTEM:
satisfaction of having
We didnt have access
9
YEAR: 199
made a game that
to the original assets
2
TO
AU
T
EF
TH
D
GRAN
I think everyone
either because they were
E,
ON
PS
,
PC
:
SYSTEM
BOY COLOR
involved can be
spread all over the DMA
DREAMCAST, GAME
YEAR: 1999
justiably proud of.
network and no one knew
rough port to the PlayStation devkit,
which had much more memory than
a retail machine. This allowed them
to see it all working, albeit very slowly
less than a frame per second. We
then proled the code to see where
the slowdown was, and it was pretty
much where we expected it to be:
the rendering and the AI code, says
Russell. Over the next few months
we optimised those areas while
rening the control scheme. We had
to completely rewrite the front end for
the system, as the control mechanism
and Sonys Technical Requirements
Checklist were so different. It
took quite a while to get right. We

Grand Theft Auto was a chance to

run wild as the game car-jacked your
mind and drove away with it
driving, shooting, chases and theft. It
had all of the basic elements that have
made the series so incredibly popular.
And while the missions lent
purpose, the audio brought the city to
life with its seven radio stations and
police band track that boomed from
car stereos and encouraged players
to try different vehicles to see which
tunes they got. There was a great
sense that you were a criminal let
loose on a metropolis, and you were
not only up against other villains but
the police too. It was a chance to run
wild as the game car-jacked your mind
and drove away with it.
A PlayStation version was essential,
and it was created by Visual Science.
Russell Kay had been the head PC
programmer at DMA Design but left
to form the new rm, which was
located a short walk away. Visual
Science worked with Psygnosis
on several projects and so gained
PlayStation experience, and when
DMA realised that it couldnt deliver
the PlayStation version in time, it
called on Visual Science to assist.
The team consisted of four people,
plus two programmers from DMA for
a couple of months to help with some
of the missions. They created a very

DEVELOPESR
HIGHLIGHT

TO III
GRAND THEFT AU
PC
OX
SYSTEM: PS2, XB
YEAR: 2001

GTAs ROADMAP TO SUCCE$$

THE MAKING OF: GRAND THEFT AUTO

GTA: LONDON 1969

GTA 2

GTA III

GTA: VICE CITY

Year Released: 1999

Year Released: 1999

Year Released: 2001

Year Released: 2002

Aer parodying New York,

DMA Design turned its
attention closer to home with London,
and this time it visited the actual city.
The end result is a game rife with
cultural references that pay homage
to everyone from the Kray twins to
Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols and
James Bond. It featured over 30 new
missions and introduced an additional
30 vehicles. Another mission pack,
Grand The Auto: London 1961, was
released two months later.

DMAs sequel was business as

usual, although it did introduce
a number of new mechanics. The
biggest dierence was that you could
now do missions for separate gangs,
aecting your relationship with
others, while the saving system was
greatly improved, allowing you to
save the game whenever you entered
a church. The side missions that
would become a staple were also
introduced, letting the player take on
jobs like a taxi or bus driver.

DMA Design returned to

Liberty City for its rst 3D
Grand The Auto. The results were
spectacular, further expanding the
sandbox approach that had been
hinted at in earlier games, while the
likeable characters and well-plotted
story gave it an epic scope that past
titles simply couldnt match. You could
argue that it was simply a better
version of DMAs earlier Body Harvest,
but GTA III was on a far larger scale,
and all the more impressive for it.

In its new Rockstar North guise,

the former DMA followed up its
2001 hit with the excellent Vice City.
Set in a pastiche of Eighties Miami, its
a marvellous game and amazingly
nostalgic due to the many lm and
cultural references packed into it. Its
also loaded with recognisable voice
talent, including Ray Liotta, Robert
Davi, Danny Trejo, Tom Sizemore and
Dennis Hopper. Grand The Auto: Vice
City is one of our favourite games in
the entire franchise.

VICE CITY STORIES

LIBERTY CITY STORIES

GTA: SAN ANDREAS

GTA ADVANCE

Year Released: 2006

Year Released: 2005

Year Released: 2004

Year Released: 2004

Vice City Stories is a similar

retread for the PSP and is
another prequel story. Its a far better
game, though, thanks to a more
interesting lead character, a better
story and several new gameplay
mechanics. The most interesting is
empire building, which is a
combination of Vice Citys properties
and San Andreas gang war systems.
The multiplayer features additional
modes, while load times are
generally faster than its predecessor.

Another GTA game set in Liberty

City. Released for the PSP and
later ported to the PS2, its another
prequel to Grand The Auto III, but feels
cut down aer the epic scope of San
Andreas. While its now possible to
ride a motorcycle, your character cant
swim or climb. Its a lot smaller than
San Andreas as well. Its still an
enjoyable addition to the franchise and
far better structured than GTA Advance,
but it doesnt feel like its bringing
anything new to the series.

Everything about San Andreas

is epic. Its huge, featuring
parodies of San Francisco, Las Vegas
and Los Angeles. It has a great plot
and enjoyable characters. The voice
cast is also brilliant, with turns from
Samuel L Jackson, Ice T, James
Woods and Peter Fonda. Its the scale
that most impresses, though, with
clever RPG mechanics, numerous new
activities, burglary, car modication
and huge gang wars all adding to the
appeal. Quite easily GTAs nest hour.

GTA Advance was an attempt to

cram the winning formula into
a handheld. Sadly, it was a pretty
disappointing eort that wasnt able
to re-create the same magic that
made the original games so enjoyable
to play. Created by Digital Eclipse,
making it the rst GTA game not
handled by Rockstar, its events take
place a year before those of GTA III.
While it once again takes place in
Liberty City, many of the locations for
popular secrets have been changed.

GTA IV

GTA: CHINATOWN WARS

GTA V

Year Released: 2008

Year Released: 2009

Year Released: 2013

We were disappointed with Grand The Auto IV.

Yes, it featured a strong story and interesting
characters, but it felt lacking somehow especially aer
San Andreas as if the technology wasnt completely
ready for Rockstars vision. Fortunately, things picked
up signicantly with two digital add-ons, The Lost And
Damned and The Ballad Of Gay Tony (later released
together as Episodes From Liberty City), which added a
lot of fun elements that hadnt made it into the original.

First released on Nintendos DS and developed

by Rockstar Leeds, Chinatown Wars remains
the best handheld GTA. Sporting a new viewpoint,
crisp visuals and great use of the DSs touch screen,
its a fantastic game that implements many of the
mechanics of Grand The Auto IV. By far the best part
of the game, though, is its drug-dealing mini-game,
which allows for an insane amount of strategy as
you go about, dealing to the scum of the city.

Rockstar promised that Grand The Auto V

would be the largest and the most ambitious
game Rockstar has yet created, and a radical
reinvention of the Grand The Auto universe. It
wasnt wrong. While the controls still feel clunky,
the actual game world is incredibly immersive and
really pushes both the PS3 and Xbox 360 to their
limits. Our advice is to pick up the stunning next gen
ports or the recently released PC version.
PLAYSTATION | 63

THE
HISTORY
OF

64 | PLAYSTATION

THE HISTORY OF ODDWORLD

With a HD remake recently released,

David Crookes talks to Lorne Lanning
about the impact of Abes Oddysee and
the rest of a series that just fell short of
its planned quintology
character who can break
wind is always a winner.
Even if that character is
an alien with bulbous,
bloodshot eyes, a high ponytail of hair
made from feathers and a skinny, almost
malnourished torso; the ability to let one
go, while undoubtedly disgusting, is yet
all too endearing to ignore.
It may not be a tool employed by many
other gaming characters, but perhaps Sonic,
Mario and even Lara could give it a go. Then
again, they have not quite endured the life
of Abe, star of the Oddworld games, whose
backstory would make noises emit from all but
the toughest of bottoms.
Abes days are spent scrubbing oors and
suffering heartless beatings from Sligs, the
backbone of a repressive societys industrial
security team. Things take a rather sinister turn
when Abe accidentally discovers that he and
his fellow Mudokon workers are not merely
slaves, but fodder for the machines used at
the vast Rupture Farms food processing plant
where they toil each day.
Lucky then that Abe emerges as the
chosen one and is able to pursue the ousting
of dictator Mulluck the Glukkon and his evil
regime, thereby freeing the downtrodden from
their horric plight.
Today, such determination to stick one
to The Man and spark an uprising would
undoubtedly involve Twitter. Technology-free
Abe treads a rather more conventional path,
stomping around on foot, meeting other slaves
in person and cheerily urging them to follow
me but not too closely, you would hope.

From a story perspective, all of the

Oddworld stories were inspired from the
dirty deeds of the dark side of globalisation,
explains Lorne Lanning, who co-founded
American developer Oddworld Inhabitants with
fellow special effects and computer animation
expert Sherry McKenna. And it was the
stories that convinced Sherry to get involved
and do this whole thing with me.
Work began on the plot in January 1995.
We took big inspiration from Flashback,
Out Of This World and Myst, and it worked
well, Lorne continues. We started to create
an intriguing world. Ideas were bounced
off designer Paul OConnor and the crew to
work out what would work and what could be
altered should production hit any issues.
Originally, the idea was to call the game
SoulStorm, but other games at the time had
the word Soul in them so a new moniker
was found to avoid confusion. There were also
initial thoughts over making the game 3D, but
this was scrapped in favour of 2D, even though
the advent of the 32-bit consoles showed a
market going the other way.
The game drew on the gaming styles of old
right down to an 8-bit ick-screen mechanic
and that was due to Lornes belief that there
was still mileage left in 2D gaming. Lorne had
also been working with 3D for the previous
decade and didnt believe the crop of 3D
games on the PlayStation were outstanding
enough to prompt a switch.
Still, the assets were built in 3D. The
bitmaps for the game were pre-rendered and
this, in a sense,
produced
2.5D with
rich

Abe will often have to use

others in order to progress.

Its not all about noise.

Abes expressions show
emotion and struggle.

Lorne Lanning is the driving

force behind Oddworld.

image depth and detail. We didnt want to

launch low poly world to establish the rst
impression of the Oddworld Universe, Lorne
says, revealing that the plan to build a ve-part
story The Oddworld Quintology was
foremost in his mind.
As well as beautiful visuals and slick
cut-scenes that blended into the gameplay,
a major part of Oddworld was the feature
Gamespeak. It allowed Abe to talk, whistle
and, yes, fart, and it was crucial for gameplay
and for humour. Seldom failing to raise a
smile, it was seen as so important that it was
included in the demo Lorne hawked around to
publishers to whip up interest and investment
in the game.
he debut title also had an articial
intelligence routine called Aware
Lifeforms In Virtual Environments
(or ALIVE for short). This
controlled the actions of the games creatures
according to the situation they were faced
with and the type of character they were. Abe
could therefore decide to solve some puzzles
and ignore others, and the player could even
trick Sligs into shooting each other.
Abe could also chant and possess other
characters, using them to solve puzzles or carry
out a killing. Although Lorne wanted shooting
in the game he didnt want Abe to have a
twitchy trigger nger himself, and this
was a way around such a situation (keen
watchers will also note, incidentally, that
Abe had four ngers in the debut game
but only three thereafter this was to
avoid causing offence in Japan where
four-ngered characters are banned
out of respect for meat-packing
workers who often lost ngers
in work-related accidents). Abes
Oddysee progressed well
and was earmarked for a
PlayStation and
PC release.

PLAYSTATION | 65

 Early artwork
this
from 26 April 1995

shows the thinking

behind the strange
nature
of the world Abe inh
abits.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE 1982

QZooming through the body of a
brain-damaged scientist, this game
was inspired by the Sixties movie of the
same name. Items of note included a
lung, yellow cholesterol and other such
inside-of-body organs and happenings.

ANT ATTACK 1983

QThe walled city of Antescher was

inhabited by giant ants which would

be annihilated by lobbing grenades.
Gamers could play as a man or woman
and try and rescue hostages. A B-movie
of a game.

ANOTHER WORLD 1991

QYoung scientist Lester explores a

treacherous alien world with dangerous

indigenous animals and humanoid
creatures. Cinematic, and with use of the
rotoscoping animation technique, players
loved the enormous fictional universe.

ODD
WORLDS
We examine other games set
in bizarre universes

BEYOND GOOD
AND EVIL 1992
QTalking pigs? Tick. Or rather, raise
eyebrows. A commercial failure it may
have been, but the planet Hyllis was
under siege and freelance hack Jade
was just the sort to go head-to-head
with the alien race, Domz.

Abes Oddysee was a huge success

and it sold well in the lead up to Christmas,
prompting a Game Boy version called
Oddworld Adventures to be released in 1998.
If there was a complaint, it was the lack of a
quick-save facility It was maddening that we
delivered without getting it in the rst time,
muses Lorne. Chalk it up to lessons learned.
but the team made sure it was implemented
in the sequel.
We had just nine months to release Abes
Exoddus for Christmas following Oddysee s
release, recalls Lorne. It was a super crunch
all the way through the entire development,
and this was less than half the time that Abes
Oddysee took us to develop. But it was more
complicated as we also believed we needed
twice the game in sheer poundage.
The second game in the series, which was
released in November 1998, picked up where
the debut game left off. Abe had become
a celebrity but was told that the Glukkons,
a leading, ruthless, capitalist, industrial
race with a disregard for worker rights,
was grabbing blind
Mudokons and
enslaving them
to excavate
a Mudokon burial
site. With a
poison being created
from the
bones of the dead, Abe had to nd a cure
for the illness and prevent the creation of
SoulStorms brew.
This time out, the characters became
more emotionally engaging and the

HEART OF DARKNESS
1998
QThe Darklands was a foreboding

THE LONGEST
JOURNEY 1999
QSet in a parallel universe, this point-

and-click adventure game saw April

Ryan shifting between Arcadia and
Industrial Stark and all of the various
hazards that were present in
each of them.

66 | PLAYSTATION

With a face like that he should

be easy to spot

place with winged shadow creatures

and monsters. Controlled by the Master
of Darkness, you didnt always want to
avoid death given the deliciously explicit
meet-the-maker scenes youd witness.

Youll often move to the

background during play.

THE HISTORY OF ODDWORLD

pace picked up. Gamespeak instructions were

used to command multiple Mudokons at the
same time, and Mudokons found it harder to
follow Abe because many of them were blind.
For Lanning, it was about giving the game a
further level of polish, depth and challenge.
Our approach to the game was pretty much
compatible with how you would approach a
lm, says Lorne. With both you start with a
script, but we then used an additional layer of
game mechanics that we knew we wanted to
implement or evolve upon.
So starting with these two key highlevel components we worked them up
simultaneously. We integrated the script tightly
against the ramping of mechanics in gameplay.
Our target was continually working to try to nd
a tighter fusion of narrative that was not only
engaging as a story, but was also informative
and foreshadowing of new play mechanics that
would be coming up next for the gamer.

he rst game had a heads-up

display, but this was dropped
for the sequel. It was a goal of
mine to try to eliminate any menu
elements that broke the reality horizon, Lorne
explains. Floating GUI elements reinforce
for you this is a game and for the original
Abe games we wanted to get away from
that impression and instead try to instil the
sensation of the player being responsible for
these people living in this world.
In trying to remove all traces of the
traditional heads-up display, Oddworld
Inhabitants attempted to nd more clever,
subtle methods of communicating necessary
information, and tried to do it in more logical
ways so that it felt more like a lm. We
wanted the elements to feel like they were
within the world rather than a HUD layered
over the world, Lorne continues. It was
attempting to accomplish a deeper impression
of a living creature adventure, rather than just
a gaming adventure.
The emotions helped bring the creatures
to life. The second game had more
entertainment value as well as a stronger
emotional relationship to these silly little
characters, says Lorne. We always want
you to laugh when youre playing our games,
regardless of how dark their subject matter is.
And dark is a good description. Much of that
is down to Lorne himself. He is a deep thinker
who, with the Oddworld series of games,
was aiming to craft a gameplay and story
experience that drew on a sense of injustice.
Festering in the back of Lornes mind was a
concern for disturbing human rights abuses
by powerful corporations from the shipping
docks of Bangladesh to the diamond or gold
mines in South America and South Africa. He
wanted Oddworld to have a dark premise but

Cut-scenes did a great job

of conveying Abes weird and
wacky personality.

Abes world is a seriously

oppressive one. Poor Abe.

follow the lead set by The Simpsons and The

Daily Show, both of which refrain from getting
up on a soap box. Like them, he did not want
to lose sight of Oddworld as entertainment
and believed that humour and narrative would
combine to raise important issues.
He denies that the series is political.
Personally, I think politics is for chumps, he
says. Its for suckers who still believe they
have people ghting for their interests in the
greater halls of power and often willingly refuse
to see that their would be heroes have been
completely compromised. But he talks of an
insane elite class of globalists actively ruining
the planet for the rest of us and for their own
short-term power gains.
It was always these practises that inspired
the content of Oddworld, as these stories
started taking shape 20 years ago, Lorne

ODD ADVENTURES

Your guide to Abe and cos numerous retail releases

ABES
ODDYSEE
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER: GT
INTERACTIVE
PLATFORMS:
PLAYSTATION,
WINDOWS
YEAR: 1997

ABES
EXODDUS
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER: GT
INTERACTIVE
PLATFORMS:
PLAYSTATION,
WINDOWS
YEAR: 1998

MUNCHS
ODDYSEE
ODDWORLD
ADVENTURES

DEVELOPER: SAFFIRE
PUBLISHER: SAFFIRE
PLATFORM:
GAME BOY
YEAR: 1998

ODDWORLD
ADVENTURES 2

DEVELOPER: SAFFIRE
PUBLISHER: SAFFIRE
PLATFORM:
GAME BOY COLOR
YEAR: 2000

DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER:
MICROSOFT GAME
STUDIOS
PLATFORM: XBOX
YEAR: 2001

MUNCHS
ODDYSEE
DEVELOPER: ART CO
PUBLISHER: THQ INC
PLATFORM:
GAME BOY ADVANCE
YEAR: 2001

STRANGERS
WRATH
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER:
ELECTRONIC ARTS
PLATFORM: XBOX
YEAR: 2005

PLAYSTATION | 67

 Munchs Odyssey was Abes

first proper 3D adventure.

continues. So for me, I look deep into

the darkest practises of the kleptoclass in a
constant search of vehicles to inspire ction
from these practises in an effort to transform
that darkness into a launch point for some
seriously relevant and deeply ironic modern
myth humour.
Lornes outlook had an effect on the types
of enemies in the game that were always
designed around how they would play. The
Glukkons were inspired by the kleptoclass.
Big shots bossing people around while
ultimately being pretty useless parasites.
Like bankers, he says. New enemies were
also introduced including Flying Sligs, Slugs,
Mine Cars and Greeters. They were all
rst designed as challenges within our code
reach, then we interpreted the mechanics into
themed characters, Lorne says.
Following yet further acclaim, Lorne and his
team pushed on with the third of the planned
ve games. The loyalty to PlayStation had
gone and Munchs Oddysee was being slated
for an exclusive November 2001 release on
the Xbox.
As with the other games, there were two
endings. We did this because we always
wanted empathy to be a major factor in the
game, but if you played the game without
empathy, we wanted you to get an ending that
reected your personal character, says Lorne.
If you went through our journey as a heartless
douche, we wanted to remind you what a
schmuck you were being and how it would
ruin the fate of those you were supposed to
be helping.
But this instalment was the rst time
Oddworld was rendered in three dimensions.
At the time, everyone was enamoured with
3D and the gaming press was speaking of 3D
as the only viable way, Lorne recalls. It was
sad to see all the genres being left behind
because they werent using new chipsets.
Regardless, if you wanted to keep getting
funded, you needed to stay with the chipsets
and where the audience interests were
heading, and by the time we got to the Xbox
it was all about 3D otherwise you probably
werent getting funded.
The added dimension was a challenge
to capture what made Abe special in his
awkwardness and abilities, yet have that
embedded in a free roaming space. There was

68 | PLAYSTATION

Munch was the

main
protagonist of the
third game.

We always wanted empathy

to be a major factor
in the game
Lorne Lanning
also a huge real-time 3D learning curve that all
of the team was going through. But they made
the most of the situation and, with players not
only playing Abe but Munch too, the game
could enter fresh waters.
We needed the ability to swap between
characters while also dealing with targeting
in possession, says Lorne. In the Abe
games, they were 2D and so possession
was proximity auto-targeting. It was easy for
the user to understand who they would be
possessing. Once we entered 3D, the auto
nature of it needed to change as depth and
dimension added new dynamics and required
new accuracies to offer the player.
He said it was a case of the player wanting
to possess that Slig over there, not; hopefully
that one over there but well see what Slig the
game chooses for us. That wasnt going to
work, he explains, so we needed possession
to be targetable and, being in a 3D world,
targeting was as easy as character navigation,
so we used the same navigation abilities to
control your possession orb. You could then
navigate to nail your target.

he reviews were not as favourable

for Munchs Oddysee, with some
believing the puzzles lacked
variation. Lorne has no complaints.
I always felt all of our puzzles were not varied
enough, but these are challenges with puzzle
games and the amount of code we were
writing for each puzzle, he confesses. Puzzle
games are not very economical with code.
Combine that with development environments
that were unpredictable in terms of budgeting,
and you found yourself in tight spots making
lots of compromises.
The fourth game, Strangers Wrath,
however, was a superb return to form.
Released in January 2005 in America, it was
critically acclaimed. It had rst and third-person
perspectives and was also faster. The team
wanted speed to be a factor in the third-person
in particular, due to the characters nature and
ability to run faster. Stranger could become
a ramming melee ghter at higher speeds
and, by increasing in speed, his motion ability
morphed into a motorcycle mode. He didnt, as
Lorne explains, pivot on a dime with speed.
He steered and leaned into turns and it allowed
for him to run much faster and feel more like a
vehicle when controlled.
This allowed us to have more retreat
for higher ground ability if you were getting
overwhelmed in a combat situation, says
Lorne. Now you could retreat, and with
enough speed to get past getting shot in the
back something I felt was very much missing
out there for character-driven combat games.
Strangers Wrath had an element of stealth,
too. It remained true to the characters nature
but also compounded the chemistry of
choices that players were able to have at their
disposal. It offered the gamer more choices
in how to solve any combat situation. But
another decision was made: Strangers Wrath
contained role-playing elements.
Action-adventure games seemed
inevitably heading toward a role-playing
model, at least at an accounting level,
says Lorne. If the game was going to
have a persistent economy, and one that
your character needed to pursue in the
narrative, then it needed to incorporate more
modication and purchasability for the main
character. Having this inherent in a system
gives you many more things that you can
make the gamer do for various reasons at
The live ammo in Strangers
Wrath was brilliant.

Strangers Wrath continued with the switch

from 2D to 3D. A HD version also exists.

THE HISTORY OF ODDWORLD

Rupture farms has never
looked this good.

THE NEW KEEPER

OF ODDWORLD

Five years aer Strangers Wrath, the series was given a dust
down by developer Just Add Water. We talk to founder and CEO
Stewart Gilray about the HD remakes
2009 while still working
on the initial PC release
of Stranger, which was a
straight port from Xbox.

You began working on

the Oddworld franchise
in May 2010. Were you
a fan of the series
and how did you
get involved?
Id met Lorne briey
at GDC 2009. He was
one of my industry icon
legends and someone
Id always wanted to
meet. Over the years Id
been asking a mutual
friend to persuade Lorne
to go back to doing a
2D-type game but with
3D assets a remake of
Abes Oddysee or a game
of a similar nature but
in June 2009, Lorne and
I started exchanging
emails. We spent the next
nine months talking about
various things and then he
asked if Just Add Water
could help them out as
theyd been let down
by another developer.
He wanted us to look
at Strangers Wrath for
the PC and I said yes, as
long as we could do a
PS3 version. We began
to work on Stranger HD
for PS3 in late September

By the time of your

involvement, the series
had been stagnant for
four years. Were there
discussions about
moving the series on?
There were no real
discussions. It was a
case of lets do this
project, and see where
it leads to, and weve
now released the initial
PC release of Strangers
Wrath, three versions
of Strangers Wrath HD,
two versions of Munchs
Oddysee HD and were
working on the multiplatform remake of Abes
Oddysee, Oddworld:
New N Tasty. We only
had two staff when we
began the initial version
but we have 16 now. The
plan is we will continue
and work on some proper
new projects. Were going
through a re-structure at
the moment that will help
that become a reality.
There were promises
of SligStorm, Fangus
Klot, Squeeks Oddysee
and some other games.
What was happening
and why were these
games not getting off
the ground?
When the original studio
a great
New N Tasty was
HD update.

was closed in April 2005,

it was because Lorne
and Sherry McKenna
had decided enough was
enough working with
publishers. The primary
reason was the difculty
of working on a triple-A
title with budgets north of
$15m, especially if youre
only seeing a small return
rate due to publisher/
developer agreements
the way they were back
then. Fangus Klot was in
development when that
happened, so that was
the main victim of what
happened then. Lorne had
been working on the story
and design for Squeeks
Oddysee as well, but
couldnt solve a problem
he had with it so it kept
getting put on the back
burner until that thing was
solved. And SligStorm
just didnt happen mainly
due to working on
Munchs Oddysee.
What makes Oddworld
such a special series
of games?
This is pretty easy
actually: character, story,
the world, craziness
but most importantly
the humour.
Is there still a place
for 2D gaming in the
modern era?
Why not? I think both
pure 2D art and 3D art
with 2D gameplay can
still work very well, and
were showing that with
Oddworld: New N
Tasty. I think this need
for everything to be in 3D
isnt always the right thing
to do; there are better
solutions if the design
requires it.

various times, all of which are added tools

available to the designers that help overall
ramping while helping to decrease a potential
monotony that can come with a game.
The fourth game became the last
Oddworld title and the fth game did not
appear, cutting short the original quintology.
Strangers Wrath had been published by
Electronic Arts and, while Lorne doesnt
go too deep, he says, Our experience
working with the last publisher pretty much
annihilated any desire we might have had left
in continuing to work with big publishers,
which points to a potential issue.
Plans for other games came and went.
Names such as Oddworld: The Hand Of Odd,
SligStorm, The Brutal Ballad Of Fangas Klot,
Oddworld: Squeeks Oddysee, Oddworld:
Munchs Exoddus and Oddworld: Slave
Circus were put forward over the years. And
while a game may well have surfaced around
2008, the Western nancial crisis and work
on a new project called Citizen Siege caused
a distraction.
Remakes and digital content appear to be
the way forward for now, and the Oddworld
franchise is being built organically and without
nancing. But it means that the team cannot
spend in the way it did, and it will take a
while before triple-A contemporary content is
released. Weve talked about a number of
games but that was probably a mistake, says
Lorne. Its something I wont be doing until I
know they are paid for.
It seems the appetite is still there, however.
Were very grateful for the way things have
worked out but, like a lot of artists, were
always wanting to do better, he says, and we
pray to hear Abes farts in a new game sooner
rather than later.
Just Add Water has put
a lot of care and attention
into its HD remake.

PLAYSTATION | 69

20 Greatest
Games

The

D
E
Y
A
L
P
R
E
V
E
N
E
V
YOU

Though it was a hugely successful machine, theres more to

the PlayStation than million-selling mega hits. Nick Thorpe
leads the expedition to unearth some hidden gems

70| PLAYSTATION

THE 20 GREATEST PLAYSTATION GAMES YOUVE NEVER PLAYED

Rapid Reload
QDEVELOPER: MEDIA VISIONQYEAR: 1995 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP

This run-and-gunner made an appearance at the

PlayStations European launch, but it was passed over by
a public hungry for the 3D games that were still a huge
novelty at the time and thats a real shame. Though its visuals
were only slightly enhanced over the capabilities of the SNES, the
game itself was a riot. Developers Media Vision were very clearly
inuenced by Treasures Gunstar Heroes (a fact evident in the
original Japanese title Gunners Heaven), and while its not quite
as good as the Mega Drive classic, it packs much of the same
appeal with loads of on-screen carnage and some impressive
weaponry. PAL copies are scarce, but it shouldnt be too hard
to track down the Japanese version.

20

Kurushi is a tricky puzzler, with

an oppressive atmosphere
thanks to its dark aesthetic

Kurushi
QDEVELOPER: G-ARTISTS
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: PUZZLE

Kurushi enjoyed a relatively high prole due to its placement on demo discs,
but very few people actually appear to have picked it up. Set on a platform of
oating blocks, you play as a man whose goal is to survive by clearing waves
of massive blocks rolling towards him, while avoiding the black penalty blocks. Failure
to do so correctly will result in the platform shortening, giving less room to tackle the
oncoming waves. Its a tricky puzzler, which boasts an oppressive atmosphere thanks
to its stark aesthetic its just you, the blocks and the endless darkness that waits
below. Theres also a sequel available titled Kurushi Final, which adds extra game
modes for the most hardcore players.

19

Tombi!
QDEVELOPER: WHOOPEE CAMP QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: PLATFORM

The Koma Pigs have stolen a bracelet from Tombis grandfather, and
thats something he just wont stand for. As a result, our pink-haired
protagonist sets out on a quest to retrieve it, while leaping on pigs and
chucking them about the place. Its all rather uncivilised, but he is a caveman
after all. This adventure platformer isnt divided into stages, but calls to mind
the formula of the later Wonder Boy games as it takes place as one long
quest, in which, youll always be pursuing multiple goals at the same time.
The high quality of Tombis rst adventure didnt ensure sales success, and
the game was overlooked upon release, being seen as outdated due to its
2D gameplay. A sequel with fully 3D visuals was released later on, but it too
failed to nd a great deal of success and Whoopee Camp disbanded shortly
afterwards. As a result, both Tombi! and its sequel are rare and expensive
games, with the original typically changing hands for 50 or more.

17

Pepsiman
QDEVELOPER: KID QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: PLATFORMER

Many years before the likes of Temple Run

popularised the runner sub-genre on mobile
phones, Japanese gamers got to experience the
genre as a soft drink tie-in. Pepsiman sees our nearmute hero sprinting from destination to destination in
order to ensure that people get their Pepsi. Thankfully,
the game frequently throws up ridiculous situations in
order to keep the action fresh our hero can be found
running while stuck inside a bin, or being chased by
a giant can of Pepsi. Despite being a Japanese game
the voice acting is all in English, so this is a remarkably
import-friendly release but its tough enough to be
unfriendly to players.

18

PLAYSTATION | 71

Suzuki Bakuhatsu
QDEVELOPER: SOLQYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: PUZZLE

Sometimes, its hard to be a woman in Japan. You wake up,

thinking its going to be a relatively normal day, and then you
try to eat an orange but it turns out that the orange is a bomb.
Luckily, our protagonist just happens to be the daughter of a bomb
disposal expert, which is a good job because she runs into disguised
explosive devices all the time. Yes, its another odd game in which
heavily stylised cutscenes meet bizarre objectives, as our protagonist
has to defuse devices concealed as guns and even the moon.
The actual gameplay involves deactivating bombs by carefully
removing screws and cutting wires. Devices gradually become more
complex, and certain moves will make others inaccessible so you
have to consider your options, while also being mindful of the games
time limit. Further complicating matters, youll often come up against
dead ends and traps, meaning that one wrong move can see you rest
in pieces. As you might have guessed, Suzuki Bakuhatsu is an import
game. The screen text is all in Japanese but the game is generally
intuitive enough to be playable without knowledge of the language.

15

Worlds Scariest Police Chases

QDEVELOPER: UDSQYEAR: 2001 QGENRE: DRIVING

Though the launch of the PlayStation 2 in 2000 drew a lot of attention

away from its older sibling, the PlayStation still had plenty left to offer players
that stuck around through its later years. This excellent and oft-overlooked
licensed driving game is testament to that it plays a lot like Driver, but with the
player cast more denitely on the good side of the law. Chasing down criminals and
ramming them off the road is the order of the day and if theyre particularly hard
targets, youll be authorised to use rearms to assist in their capture. John Bunnell,
the host of the TV series, provides the voiceover work for each mission in the
dramatic tone that has made him famous. Its easy to pre-emptively dismiss the
game thanks to its licence, but give it a go youll be pleasantly surprised.

16

Incredible Crisis
QDEVELOPER: POLYGON MAGIC
QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: PARTY

You might have had a bad day at work, but

nothing like what poor Taneo has to deal with.
Things start going wrong when
a massive globe begins to crash
through his ofce, and quickly
escalate to plummeting elevators,
shocking quizzes from paramedics
and more. Whats more, this minigame collection succeeds primarily because
its a lot of fun and packs in a good amount of content
24 mini-games should provide plenty of variety.
However, Incredible Crisis also achieves the rare feat of
being an intentionally funny videogame thanks to some
strong visual gags. The game surprisingly managed to
receive a worldwide release, so you shouldnt run into
much trouble trying to acquire it.

14

72 | PLAYSTATION

Theres a lot of depth to Devil Dice.

The main puzzle mechanics are well
constructed and the puzzle mode
delivers lots of challenging problems
Tobal 2
QDEVELOPER: DREAMFACTORY
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: FIGHTING

While its predecessor gained a worldwide

release, Tobal 2 was unfortunately conned
to Japan. That means that most gamers
havent experienced one of the most interesting
ghting games of the 32-bit era, which features
some interesting innovations from Virtua Fighter and
Tekken director Seiichi Ishii. Chief amongst these
is a complex grapple system, which is unmatched
in most one-on-one ghters due to the increased
prominence of clinch strikes and transitions more
common in pro wrestling and MMA games. Another
factor setting the game apart is its RPG-style quest
mode, a huge addition to the game, which grants
access to dozens of unlockable ghters. All of this
is represented with high-resolution visuals at 60
frames per second, which show off Akira Toriyamas
outlandish character designs. There will never be
another ghter like it, so be sure to give it a try.

13

THE 20 GREATEST PLAYSTATION GAMES YOUVE NEVER PLAYED

Vagrant Story

Power Diggerz

QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: ACTION-RPG

QDEVELOPER: TAITOQYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: PARTY

Vagrant Story is an odd one it received

overwhelmingly positive reviews upon
release, but never achieved the fame of
Squaresofts Final Fantasy series. The later years
of the PlayStations life saw a trend for cinematic
storytelling in videogames develop, and Vagrant
Story excels at this. However, its actually a
decidedly old-school game you wont nd any
tedious Find The NPC quests or dull shopping
here, just action and adventure. The adventuring
elements of the game call to mind classic isometric
adventures such as Landstalker, while the in-depth
combat allows targeting of individual limbs,
allowing you to strategically disable your enemies.

12

Devil Dice
QDEVELOPER: SHIFT
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: PUZZLE

Were prone to describing puzzle

games as devilishly challenging,
and this one doesnt even attempt
to hide its satanic allegiances. This
is a block-matching puzzler, in which
the goal is to match faces on six-sided dice by running them around the grid. While
youre on top of the dice, each step rolls them over when youre on the oor with
them, theyll slide around on the bottom face instead of rotating. Each face needs to be
matched with the appropriate number of its counterparts twos are easy to clear but
sixes are much harder. However, higher numbers bring higher rewards.
Theres a lot of depth to Devil Dice. The main puzzle mechanics are well constructed
and the puzzle mode delivers lots of challenging pre-set problems featuring variant rule
sets, such as different oors and immovable metal blocks. If you enjoy it, theres an
even more obscure PS2 sequel called Bombastic.

11

No, we havent got the genre wrong in a just world, Power Diggerz
would be remembered as one of the best mini-game collections ever
to hit the market. The game sees you placed in charge of some heavyduty construction equipment, performing tasks like scooping sand, tearing
down buildings and clearing paths blocked by volcanic rocks. However, the
serious stuff isnt the reason why Power Diggerz is so appealing the real
joy lies in the mini-games, in which you perform bizarre tasks like scooping
turtles from a swimming pool and serving curry onto giant plates. If you can
think of a bizarre way to utilise a power shovel, its probably in this game.
The game is put together fantastically well, and offers the multiplayer
mode required to become a proper party classic. Unfortunately, there is
one particular aw that keeps it from reaching its full potential the control
system. While intuitive and responsive it uses every button on the pad and
thus requires players to spend some time learning to play properly. Its
clearly been done for the love of heavy machinery, which the game exhibits
in spades all the vehicles are licensed Komatsu models. You certainly cant
accuse Taito of failing to make the most of the games subject matter.
Power Diggerz seemed to have everything going for it upon release it
went down well with the press, earning scores as high as 92% in Play, and
hit the shelves at a budget price. Its even got the universal sign of high
quality: an intentionally misspelled title which uses Z to pluralise a word.
Unfortunately, by the time the game made the journey to international
audiences in 2001, much of the gaming market had already moved on to
newer consoles. Go back and pick up a copy, because youll really dig it.

10

Aquanauts Holiday
QDEVELOPER: ARTDINK
QYEAR: 1995 QGENRE: SIMULATION

Artdink was unafraid to experiment with Sonys

console, leading to this undersea exploration
game. Much of the action involves simply
exploring the ocean, searching for sh, crabs and the
like as well as occasionally nding unusual landmarks,
such as ruins of sunken cities. As you explore, you
gain more resources in order to build an articial reef
to attract marine life, with the ultimate goal being to
gather as much stuff as possible in one area. Its a very
slow-paced game with little in the way of traditional
structure, but the experience is worthwhile there
really isnt much like this on any console, and it serves
to highlight the diverse range of software available on
the PlayStation.

PLAYSTATION | 73

Sanvein
QDEVELOPER: SUCCESS
QYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP

This kind of shoot-em-up wasnt the most

popular type of game on the market by the
time it reached the West, and it was pushed out
by budget publishers as a result. While the game
offers a decent weapon choices, Sanveins stark blue
aesthetic and simplistic arena shooting might feel
off-putting, as its quite easy to bumble along for a
while and eventually die without ever quite knowing
why. However, spending some time with the game
reveals its hidden depths.
The trick is that each stage is only meant to last
for a very brief time get in, blow things up, then get
back to the hexagonal stage map. Its an important
feature of the game, as your progress through the
map determines your power for the next stage, so
its imperative to clear around bosses before you
take them on. However, youre up against the clock
and each hit takes away precious seconds, and
beating bosses is the only way to recover time. The
result is that a seemingly brainless shooter actually
offers an exciting strategic balance of risk and
reward, for those who are willing to nd it.

7
Vib Ribbon
QDEVELOPER: NANA ON-SHA
QYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: RHYTHM ACTION

While its likely that youve heard

of Vib Ribbon thanks to demo discs
and the cult classic status it has
attained, far fewer of you are likely to have
played it particularly readers in North
America, who didnt receive the game
the rst time around. Your goal is to guide
the rabbit Vibri over obstacles in time to
music, as she skips merrily down the line
(a literal line, as this is a black and white
wireframe game). Thats standard fare for
the rhythm action genre, but what sets
Vib Ribbon apart is the option to generate
stages from your own CDs. Much of the
fun comes from simply seeing how the
game reacts to your musical tastes fans
of speed metal and hardcore techno be
warned, your CD collection might just
cause blistered thumbs.

Harmful Park is a comedy shoot-em-up in the same

manner of Konamis Parodius series
iS: Internal Section
QDEVELOPER: POSITRON
QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP

The most immediately striking thing

about iS: Internal Section is its visuals.
While the PlayStations hardware
allowed for diverse approaches to 3D visuals,
most developers stuck with the standard
texture-mapped polygons not so Positron.
The abstract at-shaded polygon visuals
of Internal Section allowed the developer
to crank up the resolution and frame rate,
creating a game that has aged remarkably
gracefully. The game itself is a tube-based
shooter in the same manner as Tempest and
N2O, with some interesting twists including
a selection of 12 unique weapons and boss
battles in which you can adjust the size of
the tube. Its another Japan-only release, but
screen text is predominantly in English so
dont worry about the language barrier.

5
Harmful Park
QDEVELOPER: SKY THINK SYSTEMS
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP

The PlayStation isnt as well-recognised for its 2D

games as the Saturn, but games like this prove that
its non-polygonal offerings shouldnt be discounted.
Harmful Park is a comedy shoot-em-up in the same manner
as Konamis Parodius series. The well-designed stages see
you ghting off diverse enemies including gorillas, inatable
dinosaurs and gigantic women. This appears to have been
the nal game produced by Sky Think Systems, and as a
Japan-only release its not easy to get hold of original copies
regularly sell for over 100. Thankfully, for those of you with
access to a Japanese PSN account, its available digitally on
PlayStation platforms for a lower price of 600 less than 5.

74 | PLAYSTATION

Guardians Crusade
QDEVELOPER: TAMSOFT
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: RPG

Guardians Crusade is an RPG that

takes aim at a slightly younger
age group than most on the
PlayStation, but one which keeps you
playing thanks to a solid grasp of the
genres fundamentals. The most obvious
concession to the younger audience,
other than the relatively light tone, is the
monster-raising aspect. If you put in the
effort, your companion can be moulded
into a formidable ghting partner to aid
you on your journey. The game is also
renowned for its high-quality translation,
besting others of its era by managing to
retain much of the humour inherent in the
original Japanese script.

THE 20 GREATEST PLAYSTATION GAMES YOUVE NEVER PLAYED

Kula World
QDEVELOPER: GAME DESIGN SWEDEN AB
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: PUZZLE

This abstract puzzler is a real gem, and one of the best mental workouts
available on the PlayStation. Each stage takes place in a oating structure
comprised of interconnected cubes, and your goal is to guide a beach ball
around them, in order to collect keys before reaching the exit. This sounds simple,
but is made much more complex by the games convenient physics rolling over
the edge of a cube wont result in an untimely plummet, but instead a reorientation
of gravity. This means that each stage has six different oor surfaces and can be
approached in a number of different ways, but the area you want to be in will always
be tantalisingly difcult to actually reach. With over 150 stages, Kula World will keep
you occupied for a long time.
Kula World is an uncommon release, meaning that many of the players who
were interested in the full game never got to try it. That rarity meant that copies
used to change hands for as much as 50, but its now much easier to obtain
thanks to cheap digital re-releases. Even original copies shouldnt set you back more
than around 25 now, with US imports coming in even cheaper.

No One Can Stop Mr Domino!

QDEVELOPER: ARTDINKQYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: ACTION-PUZZLE

Laying a great line of dominoes is a tricky job at the best of times one false move
and all your time is wasted. So youve got to feel for poor Mr Domino, our titular hero
in this game, who has to do so while avoiding obstacles and laying the dominoes
from his own back. Yes indeed, its another weird one which is perhaps no surprise,
given that Artdinks other game in this list is Aquanauts Holiday.
At its core, Mr Domino is a score attack puzzle game your goal is to lay trails of
dominoes leading to trick points while you run a predetermined circuit. When you hit
your second lap, youll be able to knock down the previously-laid dominoes and set
off the tricks. If you started your chain from the right place, you can even perform
trick combos! Of course, as you try to set up your lines youll be accosted by cats,
vegetables and even the odd sumo wrestler. You also have a limited number of
dominoes to work with and strict time limits to adhere to, making this a trickier game
than you might imagine from just looking at it.
While the gameplay is perfectly good, much of Mr Dominos appeal comes from just
how weird it is. Your protagonists tricks quickly escalate from knocking down towers
of cards to causing a housewife to discover a bomb in her oven, and later causing a
meteor strike. While its all played off as humour, we do wonder how sympathetic this
protagonist is really meant to be

LSD: Dream Emulator

QDEVELOPER: OUTSIDE DIRECTORS COMPANY
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: SIMULATION

LSD is one of the weirdest games on the PlayStation. It tries

to simulate the experience of dreaming, and requires you
to wander around surreal landscapes. These settings range
from realistic historical landscapes to completely abstract
dreamscapes, and are populated by characters ranging
from humans to ghostly apparitions, animated teddy
bears, and more. In any case youll want to interact
with discretion touching walls and objects will move
you to a new environment instantly. LSD was a title that
exceeded the inaccessibility of most import titles, in
that was beyond the reach of most gamers due to its
high price youd be lucky to nd a copy for less than
150. Thankfully, a release on the Japanese PSN has
made it more accessible to gamers with a modern console.

PLAYSTATION | 75

SILENT HILL

Haunted House, Alone In The Dark, and Resident Evil three major survival
horrors which birthed and evolved the concept. Then suddenly in 1999, some
viewing it as bandwagon jumping, Konami gave the genre a darker shade of
depravity through Silent Hill. Lets return to that town, a nightmarish place of
burned children, satanic cults, and a malevolence which lurks behind the shadows

Masked bodies suspended, almost

crucified on wires, is a recurring theme
in Silent Hill.

IN THE KNOW

PUBLISHER: KONAMI
DEVELOPER: IN-HOUSE
PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION
RELEASED: 1999
GENRE: SURVIVAL HORROR

76 | PLAYSTATION

he rst Silent Hill is the best and

the scariest in the entire series.
Some controversial statements
are opinion, others, such as the
one which started this article, are fact.
The originals superiority over its followups is the direct result of its limitations;
it joins the short list of retro games
which are excellent mainly by virtue of
their age, and the ingrained facets which
result from this. The restrictions of the
hardware are what today put this game
above its rivals. Lets be crudely blunt
here, the grainy, dirty polygon-textures
of the rst game are honestly more likely
to scare the shit out of you than the
smoother rened visuals of the sequels.
Its one thing to see clearly-dened
super-shiny monsters, but its far more
unnerving when the thing youre looking
at appears as if its washed its face with a
bundle of rusted razor wire.
Another result of the technical
limitations was fogging, even indoors
which was maintained for the sequels
despite more powerful hardware.
Everything in the original Silent Hill is

swathed in either grey mist or darkness.

The fog exists in the real world, hiding
the roaming skinless dogs and other
enemies from view, while the inky
black of night occurs in the nightmarish
alternate reality of the town. It is this
other world where most peoples fear
comes from, as the protagonist, Harry
Mason, again and again has to force
himself through the horrors of this most
unnatural of places. Every surface is
encrusted with what appears to be rust,
or blood, and the walls are often replaced
with barbed wire and chain link fences.
For those that have seen it, the
depraved lth-saturated atmosphere,
plus other elements of Silent Hill, are
taken directly from the lm Jacobs
Ladder. Watching this ick, which stars
Tim Robbins, its quite astounding just
how much Team Silent borrowed. But
theres no attempt to hide various
inuences, and in fact Silent Hill openly
boasts of its source material by naming
various streets after horror writers and
other things connected to surreal and
scary forms of media (there are several

Twin Peaks references, which, along with

several of Lynches creations, was also a
major inuence for the games).
Another of Silent Hills strengths was
its use of sound and audio cues this
again follows the limitations theme.
Enemies could not easily be seen,
because of the limited draw distance,
and so to alert you to their presence a
special radio was available. Later games
reused the idea, but at the time it was an
ingenious decision, and the sheer terror
created by the white noise that crackled

A tank of gasoline! A tank of gasoline! My kingdom for a tank

of gasoline!

THE FIRST SILENT HILL IS THE BEST AND THE SCARIEST

IN THE ENTIRE SERIES. ITS BECAUSE OF THE GRAINY,
DIRTY POLYGON-TEXTURES

THE CLASSIC GAME

THE KIDS
ARENT
ALRIGHT

What the hell is happening? This hideously deformed and

crucified figure marks the opening of the game.

This opening scene in the diner sets up and reveals the

importance of the radio.

Suddenly, whilst in the mall, these TV screens come to life and

echo the cries of Harrys lost daughter. Its quite chilling.

TERROR IS ALWAYS MORE COMPLETE

WHEN COUPLED WITH THE
UNCOMFORTABLE REALISATION THAT
THERE IS NO HOPE

This is the deformed serpent boss. But look to the right. Notice
the human body engulfed in flames? Creepy.

out of it was palpable. The sound

nurtured a Pavlovian response, where
even if enemies cant (or dont exist) the
sound of the radio causes an adrenaline
spike; at one curdling point, there are
invisible ghost children which, while not
causing any actual harm, cause the radio
to scream static wildly. There is also the
sound of random banging and scraping
on the walls, as if the abyss unnatural
spawn were trying to break through,
into your mind. Its deeply unsettling.
At every opportunity it evokes
powerful negative emotions in the
player. Later on when discovering a
motorbike, shrouded in darkness, and

nding that its out of petrol, you want

to fall to the ground crying, screaming at
the TV, begging for just one canister of
gasoline so as to escape the nightmare.
Faced with such hopelessness and
despair, you instead hold the sawn-off
shotgun close to your chest and, with a
demented glint in a twitching eye, vow
that if hell is about to consume you,
youll go down ring and laughing like a
deranged psychopathic madman on the
edge. Terror is always more complete
when coupled with the uncomfortable
realisation that there is no hope. Silent
Hill is always bleak, even with its
happiest of endings, and the fact the
main protagonist seems trapped in a
looping never-ending nightmare (not to
mention being on the verge of insanity)
makes it seem all the more futile. The
inescapability of replayed scenarios
lends things a gloriously abhorrent
kind of nihilism. Playing it today its

slow, linear, has convoluted puzzles, and

is very clunky. Combat is imprecise,
difcult, with limited ammo and too
many melee weapons. The whole thing
has a giddy surrealism to it, as you ght
moths, slugs and giant lizards. But these
things must be accepted as intentional
and, once acknowledged, the game is
still as terrifying and disturbing as it ever
was. It was never about combat; Harry
Mason is a writer and its logical that he
would have more success running from,
than confronting evil. The vague and
disorientating puzzles were needed; they
helped convey the otherworldly location
you had descended into.
The same goes for the bosses, which
were a stark contrast to the demonic
general enemies found throughout.
While games like Resident Evil had a
cohesive internal logic with regards
to puzzles and bosses, Silent Hill
meandered about like a chimpanzee
drunk on meths, nauseas and dizzy,
forcing you to stumble without being
able to catch your balance afterwards.
The bosses did not appear as if they
belonged, which was a jolt to the system,
confusing, unnatural in a world which
was already an aberration it begged the
question, was Harry Mason simply going
insane? It of course has problems, but
Silent Hill uses such a focused (though
admittedly borrowed) visual style, and
carries it off with such momentum, that it
makes for a thrilling dip into chilling and
murky waters. And, as weve said, the
rst is still the best.

Censorship of the media.

Its a practice employed by
tyrannical governments
and nefarious agencies
wishing to control and
manipulate the public
consciousness keeping
us passive, and receptive.
Pushing us ever deeper
into the Orwellian dystopia
we are currently in, is
the UK version of Silent
Hill. While both the US
and Japanese releases
retained all their original
content, as its creators
intended, when the game
hit Britannias censorshipbesieged shores it lost one
of its main monsters. The
Grey Children (pictured),
which inhabit the school,
were removed. They were
ungodly-looking monsters
which wielded knives, and
apparently the ominous
noise they make is the
sound of children laughing,
digitally slowed down.
They freaked the hell out
of us. They were replaced
with Mumblers, strange
brown dwarven monsters
with claws, which werent
nearly as disturbing. So
if youre going to play
Silent Hill (and you really
should as its an amazing
experience )make sure you
get the US version. Its not
only free of all that nasty
censorship, but also runs
at 60Hz, which instantly
improves the gameplay.

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
GENSO SUIKODEN (PICTURED)
SYSTEMS: PS1, SATURN
YEAR: 1995

LEGEND OF THE
MYSTICAL NINJA
SYSTEMS: SNES
YEAR: 1991

TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL
SYSTEMS: PC ENGINE
YEAR: 1994

This is precisely what we mean. Large, chunky and pixelated visuals. Filthy and rust-covered, everything conveys a sense of foreboding.

Weve always found the unsanitary conditions of the hospital to

be deeply unsettling.

PLAYSTATION | 77

pcoming
u
an
by
ed
in
dl
ea
h
n
io
at
ass gener
a new type of
d
de
al
A precursor to the Jack
er
h
ly
on
ot
n
er
at
k
Pro S
sports icon, Tony Hawkgsnalled the arrival of an entire culture. Looking
videogame genre but sigan, Neverso co-founder Mick West discusses
back at where it all bes of one of the biggest franchises of all time
the humble origin

78 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF: TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER

SKATER PROFILES
A closer look at the
roster of characters

TONY HAWK

BOB BURNQUIST

QThe worlds most famous

QStill an active pro skater,

in 2010 Burnquist was the
fifth person to pull off the
infamous 900.

skateboarder retired his

board in 1999 but continues to
promote skating worldwide.

KAREEM
CAMPBELL

Neversoft didnt completely abandon the idea of linear downhill

courses. Two of the main stages Mall and Downhill Jam retain
the original concept inspired by Segas Top Skater.

n 1999, as publisher Activision

was circling the idea of an
extreme sports title, pro
skaterboarder Tony Hawk
peered over the edge of a halfpipe at the X-Games tournament
in San Francisco, bracing himself
as he prepared to attempt one
of the sports most complicated
tricks: the 900. An aerial spin
involving two-and-a-half turns, this was
skateboardings Holy Grail at the time,
residing just out of reach even to the
sports most distinguished competitors.
When the 32-year-old Hawk landed
the trick, in an instant it became one
of the most talked about sporting
moments of the year. It successfully
raised the global prole of both Hawk
and skateboarding overnight. The world
took notice. Activision had found its next
sports game.
Sensing the impending boom of
extreme sports culture and identifying
a niche in the games industry, several
marketing executives at Activision came
to the conclusion that a skateboarding
game would be a sure-re hit with a
young demographic. What it didnt have
was a studio to make it a reality.
We were the natural choice to do
it, responds Neversoft co-founder Mick
West when asked how the studio got
involved with Tony Hawks Pro Skater.
We were just nishing up Apocalypse
and they wanted to use us for something
else. Pretty much straight away they
approved us to make an exploratory
game prototype and it worked out well.

However, before Neversoft was given

the greenlight it was another studio
that had originally pitched the idea of
a skateboarding game to Activision.
The format didnt quite click with the
publisher but it liked the concept, so it
turned to Neversoft a studio that had
recently helped them out of a bind by
turning around the Bruce Willis-starring
action game Apocalypse in nine months
after its original developer dropped out
to make it happen.
It was attractive to them because
we were a team ready to go and we
had a lot of skill in getting out a game
quickly, says Mick. They werent
thinking that Tony Hawk was going to be
the huge seller that it was. They wanted
to get a game out on the market by next
Christmas and we were the team that
could do that.
Tony Hawk has
appeared in eight
sequels since the
1999 original.

RUNE GLIFBERG

one of the most successful

skaters to come out of the US.

QHailing from Denmark, he

remains an active skater and
recently released a line of
signature Converse shoes.

IN THE
KNOW

BUCKY LASEK

CHAD MUSKA

 PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION

QAlongside his professional

 DEVELOPER: NEVERSOFT

skateboarding career,
Lasek is also a professional
rallycross driver.

QOne of the most influential

skaters, Muskas recent
achievements include opening
an alternative clothing store.

QCampbell has become

 PLATFORM: VARIOUS
 RELEASED: 1999
 GENRE: EXTREME SPORTS

ANDREW
REYNOLDS

GEOFF ROWLEY

prowess, Reynolds is a
successful entrepreneur.

QLiverpool-born Geoff
Rowley was given Thrasher
magazines coveted Skater Of
The Year Award in 2000.

ELISSA STEAMER

JAMIE THOMAS

QThe first professional

QNicknamed The Chief

Jamie Thomas performed the
infamous Leap Of Faith down
an 18-foot, 8-inch drop.

QAs well as his board

female skater, Steamer was

last awarded Bronze at the
Summer X-Games 2009.

PLAYSTATION | 79

 Mick recalls that there was

some tension between the
skaters in the game, particularly
in later entries. According to him,
some felt strongly that it should
have either alternated between
the featured skaters as headline
acts or drop the Tony Hawk
name entirely.

If you look very closely in the Mall level youll

notice a reference to Neversofts previous
game, Apocalypse.

The mo-cap session was never

actually used it was more of a
publicity thing

into the game (which was currently

using the existing player model of Bruce
Willis from Apocalypse as an avatar)
understanding that authenticity would
be needed to legitimise the concept.
But it quickly became apparent that they
would need a pro skater to help guide
the rest of development.

Mick West

PLaylist

The tracklist of Tony

Hawks Pro Skater

DEAD KENNEDYS
Police Truck

THE ERNIES

Here And Now

EVEN RUDE
Villified

GOLDFINGER
Superman

PRIMUS

Jerry Was A Race

Car Driver

SPEEDEALER

Screamer/Nothing to Me

There was one small problem,

though. Neversoft had never made a
skateboarding game before it hadnt
even made a sports game before.
Where did the relatively unknown studio
start when it came to creating one of
the most popular gaming franchises of
all time?
The thing about Neversoft was
there was a bowling alley opposite the
ofces, remembers Mick. Wed go
there for lunch sometimes and it had a
Top Skater machine which was popular
with members of the ofce and that
inuenced the original thinking.
Created by Crazy Taxi creator Kenji
Kanno and released by Sega in 1997,
Top Skater featured a skateboard
controller that players stand on to guide
skaters down a linear course, performing
tricks to get a high score. We enjoyed
playing that game so we tried to make
something similar to that, reveals Mick.
Youd go from the start to the end and
when you got to the end youd stop and
get a score. It was like a racing game,
really youre basically trying to get
around or along a track.
A part of this original thinking remains
in the game: two of Tony Hawks Pro
Skaters courses are downhill with a

nish line at the end. However, the idea

evolved after the team began studying
real-life skaters.
Things changed drastically when
we tried to incorporate elements that
we saw in the X-Games, recalls Mick.
People doing tricks in a half-pipe; you
cant really get that half-pipe vibe on a
downhill course a half-pipe is going
back and forth, over the same spots
again and again. So the [original] idea
ended up not being as much fun to play
as we rst thought and the whole game
changed over time.
What became obvious was
the necessity to enable players to
concentrate on and express themselves
through the tricks system. Neversoft
poured over professional tapes,
scrutinising the movements and style
of top skaters, and began to integrate
boardslides, nosebones and heelips

y the time Tony Hawk signed on to

headline the game, Neversoft had
already been using the skater as a
basis for some of the animations
and moves featured in the game,
helping to inform the direction of the
title. However, with Hawks star rising,
conrmation of his involvement shined a
spotlight on the games development.
Tony was wildly popular at the time
because he got a lot of coverage for
doing the 900 for the rst time at the
X-Games, remembers Mick. It was an
epic thing and he was instantly the most
famous skateboarder around. His persona
really was a huge part of the publicity for
the game. You can see some of the other
games suffered from that. Competing
skating games were just Skating or
something like that and didnt have the
same star power, so it certainly helped.

THE SUICIDE MACHINES

Cyco Vision

THE SUICIDE MACHINES

New Girl

UNSANE

Committed

THE VANDALS
Euro-Barge

80 | PLAYSTATION

While most of the environments were complete

inventions, Burnside was based on a real skatepark in
Portland, Oregon.

Players could customise their character by choosing different

boards, handling and wheel colour. It didnt make much difference to
performance but added a touch of personality.

THE MAKING OF: TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER

5 EXTREME SPORTS TITLES

We present a selection of other celebrityendorsed extreme sports games

DAVE MIRRA
FREESTYLE BMX 2000

SUNNY GARCIA
SURFING 2001

MAT HOFFMANS
PRO BMX 2001

KELLY SLATERS
PRO SURFER 2002

SHAUN WHITE
SNOWBOARDING 2008

QDave Mirras inaugural videogame

effort rides on the coattails of Tony
Hawks Pro Skater somewhat, using it
as a template for its own trick-based
BMX gameplay. It was nowhere near
as impressive as its inspiration but
put amazing ragdoll physics to good
use to make its crashes all the more
brutal.

QVeteran surfer Sunny Garcia

headlines this extreme sports
sim that trades realism for wishfulfilment. Instead of utilising realworld locations, Sunny Garcia Surfing
invents its own island that boasts the
largest waves in the world. Although,
its also teeming with sharks, jet skis
and other hazardous objects to avoid.

QHoping to strike gold twice,

Activisions Mat Hoffmans Pro BMX
is, as you can imagine, an adaptation
of the publishers own Tony Hawks
Pro Skater. Using a modified version
of the Tony Hawk engine, the carboncopy gameplay involves passing a
series of objectives in each stage to
progress to the next level.

QAnother entry in Activisions Pro

series of extreme sports titles, Kelly
Slaters Pro Surfer involved stringing
tricks together to achieve the highest
possible score. Unfortunately,
the concept was nowhere near
as polished as Tony Hawks Pro
Skater, with clunky animations and a
noticeable lack of depth.

QWhile the original multiformat

release garnered a lukewarm
reception, it was the Wii version
titled Shaun White Snowboarding:
Road Trip that received the most
favourable critical reception. Using the
Wii Balance Board to cut through the
slopes, Whites first game was decent
if not particularly remarkable.

Instantly Activision used Tonys

involvement to make the wider media
aware of the games production.
Journalists from around the world were
invited to watch a mo-cap session,
where Tony (dressed in a lycra suit
covered in white balls) would perform
a series of signature moves to be
translated into the game. The event was
a huge success, but as Mick remembers
it wasnt particularly helpful to the
continued development of the game.
The mo-cap session was never actually
used, he states. It was more of a
publicity thing.
Activision was never under any false
impression that the mo-cap data would
prove useful to Neversoft. In fact, the
studio warned the publisher that it was
almost certain the data would be useless.
Activision was going to do it regardless
for publicity, continues Mick. Our
animator couldnt really do anything with
[the data] because it was not something
that we were familiar with using and we
had a lot of the animations coming along
anyway. We ended up doing everything
animate by hand using video reference.
Interestingly, Hawk wouldnt get
involved in the design he offered his
thoughts on a few occasions when
he visited the studio. When it came to
replicating the style and movements
of skaters, it was all down to the team
guring it out as they went along. Flip
tricks off quarter-pipes, the satisfaction
of holding a handstand off the lip, or just
perfecting a grind along a handrail this
was new territory for the team and it all
had to feel intuitive.
Having taken over player control
halfway through development on the

rst game, Mick implemented the

physics and control scheme that would
be fundamental to the titles accessible
nature. It was a major turning point
in development. In the rst game
[player control] was quite simple, he
says. You had a table mapping button
presses to tricks. It got a lot more
complicated in subsequent games.
One of the key things about Tony Hawk
is that it feels very nice to play. Its
very responsive. You hold down the
X button to crouch and you release to
jump. Its very tight, you feel like youre
controlling it. Its not like youre pressing
it and something happens a tenth of a
second later. Thats one of the factors
that contributed to the success of the
game. It was fun to simply skate around
and jump off things without really doing
anything because it felt so responsive.
Mick ironed out a lot of the bugs
one particular problem involved skaters
falling through the level while adding
features such as grinding on rails and
wall riding. But it was becoming clear
that if it truly wanted to push signicant
boundaries in the sports genre then the
studio would need to look further aeld
for inuence.
Super Mario 64 had been out for
a while and the concept of open-world
games was becoming popular, he
continues. This was part of the drift away
from the mould of Top Skater towards
an open-world game. The rst level in
Pro Skater, Warehouse, was fairly basic
in terms of level design; a box-like shape
with ramps, half-pipes and destructible
objects grafted to the scenery. While
rudimentary by todays standards, even
this fairly limited layout offered a

Everyone knows the first game

featured the unlockable character
Officer Dick. But did you know there
was another character, Private
Carrera, which was only attainable
through a cheat code?

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
APOCALYPSE
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION
YEAR: 1998

SPIDERMAN
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 2000

GUN PICTURED
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 2005

PLAYSTATION | 81

rare sense of freedom for the player.

The original Tony Hawk starts with the
Warehouse which is a small level, while
the second is the School level, which is
much more open, considers Mick. In
the rst game we werent using that
much reference, so they werent really
based on real places as they were on
later games. You sit down and think off
the tip of your head what environments
does a skater skate in? An empty school
is an obvious one, as is a city. We were
thinking of areas off the top of our head
and trying to think of the real-life things
that would be in those levels. In a school,
you can go down the railings of steps
that would be a real-life thing. You had to
make it a lot more fun as well so youd
stick a lot of quarter-pipes everywhere
and let people grind along the tops of
walls or phone lines that arent very real
at all. Youve got this mixture of reference

to real things with other elements that

make it more fun.
Pro Skater isnt a realistic game, and
Neversoft prioritised fun over simulating
skating to a precise degree. After leaping
in the air 30 feet, grinding along phone
lines and jumping from roof-to-roof, its
fair to assume that the studio wasnt
aiming for realistic physics. This approach
matched with the open layout of the level
design impacted how progression would
be dened within the game.
Collecting the tapes is analogous to
collecting the stars in Mario, says Mick,
once again referencing the seminal
Nintendo 64 title. Each level had ve
things to do to complete that level and
we just brainstormed them. We sat
in front of a whiteboard and I drew a
level and said what can we do? and
we would start throwing out ideas and
writing them down.
The game featured
FMVs in the form of
showreels of each of the
featured characters most
impressive tricks.

It had to have a more open world,

a trick system where you could score
points and an open design
Mick West

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF THE TONY HAWK FRANCHISE

TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 2
TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER

TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 3

TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 2X
TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 4

TONY HAWKS
UNDERGROUND
TONY HAWKS
UNDERGROUND 2

82 | PLAYSTATION

TONY HAWKS
AMERICAN WASTELAND

THE MAKING OF: TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER

There were some abandoned

concepts, not to mention a few levels
(one based along a pier, another on a
freeway) that didnt make the cut. The
process was collaborative, however
Mick reiterates that the team always
prioritised fun over gratuitous realism.
People were always coming up
with silly ideas that wouldnt work, he
says. People would say what if one of
the wheels on your skateboard falls off
and you have to skate around on three
wheels leaning to one side to go back
and get another wheel? That would
be no fun whatsoever. The fun factor is
a big consideration in any game idea
people seem to miss that.
They think realism is more
important than fun. Its not
really fun to fall over and
break your leg in real life so we
didnt simulate that.

ick reects on
how the studio
approached
creating a brand
new type of game. The biggest
challenge was learning how to do
it. We didnt know what we were
doing and therefore there was
a lot more experimentation.
The team had been familiar
with the genres it had
explored in previous
titles. Apocalypse was
a third-person shooter,
which was also similar to
a prototype the studio had
worked on before getting

The main campaign

is divided between
objective-based courses
and competition stages.
The latter involves scoring
a certain amount of points
to gain medals.
Rather than hire external developers
with experience working in the sports
genre, Neversoft felt there was no
game comparable and therefore it
was the same team as Apocalypse
that worked on the game.

Multiplayer was included, enabling players to

compete in several different modes.

the job. When it came to Tony Hawks

Pro Skater, the studio had to think on its
feet and adapt to the challenges it faced
as it cut its teeth in the sports genre.
Skating was very new, says Mick. It
had to have a more open world, a trick
system where you could score points and
an open design. The concepts were alien
to people working on the game. It was a
new type of game.
That sentiment was shared with
consumers upon the games release.
Few games have ever penetrated the
cultural zeitgeist quite like Tony Hawks
Pro Skater at the time. Before the
Jackass generation had ever peeled their
rst Band-Aid, Neversoft had managed
to encapsulate both the incipient
prominence of extreme sports and the
rebellious, carefree counter-culture of an
emerging youth scene. Unsurprisingly,
Mick cites the iconic soundtrack as
integral to this: The music was a
big thing, he says. Its not like its
authentic hardcore skating music of the
time but it was novel to have a game
that had such an interesting soundtrack
of music playing in the background all
the time. For a lot of skateboarders
music is very important to them.

Mick had no idea how important the

soundtrack would be to the games
legacy. Its initial implementation was
a matter of convenience the existing
engine could support music tracks and
video walls (the latter featured heavily
across the levels). All that was left was
for Activision to pick the tracks.
It was also capturing skate culture
with logos, stickers and using concepts
like videoing the moves and collecting
tapes, things like that, explains Mick.
They were all taking from skate culture.
We tried to do as much things that
directly reected or referenced skating
culture as possible.
But what Mick didnt expect was
how it would contribute directly to the
boom in skatings popularity. Ultimately,
with the accessibility of the control
scheme matched with a huge amount of
depth made it was an essential gaming
experience, but Hawks endorsement
gained it a far-reaching appeal. Even
though there wasnt anything quite like
it on the marketplace, Mick remembers
his condence in the games success.
My dening memory was just
before the rst game was released and
I was going out to lunch with the chief
executive of Activision at the time, he
says. He was talking about the game
and he said something like I think this
game is going to do fairly well and I said
I know its going to do well. Its going to
be a million-selling game. He said well
see. And then of course it was. He didnt
know what he had at the time and I felt
strongly that it was going to be huge,
concludes Mick. I look back at the
conversation with particular fondness.

If you successfully
pulled off a string of
tricks your special
bar would fill. Each
character had a
selection of individual
special moves.

TONY HAWKS
DOWNHILL JAM

TONY HAWKS
PROJECT 8

Each level has a set of

objectives to complete.
Some were as simple
as scoring a set amount
of points, others were
more arbitrary.

TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER HD

TONY HAWKS
PROVING GROUND
TONY HAWKS TONY HAWK:
MOTION
RIDE

TONY HAWK:
SHRED

PLAYSTATION | 83

BIO
Prior lightgun games had
simply required the player to
be quicker and more accurate
than the enemy, but Time
Crisis included a foot pedal
which allowed the player to
dive in and out of cover to
reload an incredibly simple
idea which added a new
layer of depth to the genre.
However, the entire game
took place against the clock,
adding pressure and ensuring
that players couldnt be too
methodical in their approach
to blasting the bad guys. Time
Crisis became a massive hit
in 1995, ensuring the release
of a PlayStation conversion as
well as a series of sequels.

Time Crisis
 PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION  DEVELOPER: NAMCO  RELEASED: 1995

he arrival of powerful 3D boards in the Nineties allowed

arcade game designers to exercise their cinematic skills,
thanks to the range of camera angles that were now
easily available. However, many games only employed
these techniques sparingly in attract modes after all, directing
cinematic action means taking control from the player. Time Crisis
was already on rails due to being a lightgun game, so there was no
such restriction and Namco made the most of it.
One of the best examples is a particularly exciting scene late in
Stage Two. The players character, Richard Miller, is running through
a corridor. He catches sight of himself reected in a mirror at the
end of the corridor, but thats not all he sees an enemy guard
rounds the corner shortly after him and lets off a shot, narrowly
missing Miller and shattering the mirror directly in front of him. Miller
then swings around, allowing the player to shoot the enemy. The
scene lasts only a few seconds, but leaves a permanent impression
on players and spectators alike.

84 | PLAYSTATION

MORE CLASSIC
TIME CRISIS MOMENTS
Explosive arrival
Continuing the cinematic
theme, Richard Millers arrival in
the rst stage is full of action.
Sliding down a zip line into
the enemy base, the carnage
escalates quickly as enemy
troops scramble to deal with the
intruding secret agent, a submarine in the background explodes
and begins to sink as red warning lights illuminate the area. You
dont spend long in this rst area, but it makes a huge impact.

Secret agent
Finding secrets in arcade games
is always satisfying, just for
those moments when you get to
impress a spectator who hasnt
yet seen them. Early in Stage
Two of Time Crisis youll come
across some girders. If you shoot
the wrap thats holding them together a few times, theyll fall and
send all the enemies eeing, saving yourself valuable seconds in the
race to rescue the Presidents daughter.

Backpedal
Time Crisis doesnt just throw
gun-toting bad guys at you
the entire environment can be
called into action as a hazard. A
battle amidst a group of parked
cars quickly takes a turn for
the worse for our hero as a
car comes sliding around the corner and begins to drive straight
towards him, requiring quick release of the pedal in order to avoid
eating bumper.

Unfriendly dialogue
Part of the charm of Time Crisis
is that the dialogue is hilariously
bad. Lines like How could you?
You killed my boss! wouldnt
make the script of even the
cheapest of cheap B-movies. The
character who best combines
hammy voice acting and risible writing is Sherudo Garo, the second
stage boss, who decides that you need to be entertained so he
slings throwing knives at you. Obviously

PLAYSTATION | 85

The mid-Nineties were an interesting time in

gaming. Technology was rapidly advancing and
the community was ready for something new.
Even so, its hard to believe anyone expected
something as fresh and innovative as Crash
Bandicoot. Cole Machin talks to Andrew Gavin
about Sonys surprise mascot
s gamers, we typically like
to think of the average
blockbuster release as being
something that was planned
in innitesimal detail. We tend to
conjure up images in our mind of
a big corporate boardroom, lled
with serious-looking fellows in suits
and armed with sales reports and
market research. We envision ow
charts, slides and whatever else we
used before PowerPoint. Sometimes
its hard to remember that some of
the greatest games ever developed
came about organically, that they
started off as nothing more than a
great idea between two friends, and
that sometimes the story of how
the game came to be is almost as
interesting as the game itself.
To really understand the story
of Crash Bandicoot, we rst need
to discuss a little bit of the history
behind those who created it Andrew
Gavin and Jason Rubin, who have
been long time business partners.
Having founded the company that
would later become Naughty Dog
while still in high school (at the tender
age of 16, no less), by 1994 the two
had a long and accomplished resume
that included games such as Keef
The Thief and Rings Of Power. It
was not until college, however, that
the two students would invest their
own money in what would become
the game most responsible for

IN THE KNOW
 PUBLISHER: SONY
 DEVELOPER: NAUGHTY DOG
 PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION
 RELEASED: 1996
 GENRE: PLATFORMER

86 | PLAYSTATION

truly launching their careers, Way

Of The Warrior, a ghting game for
the 3DO platform. It was the game
that rst drew the attention of a
little publishing company known as
Universal Interactive Studios.
After the release of Way Of The
Warrior, Naughty Dog was signed to
a three-game contract with U.I.S. and
given ofce space on Universals lot.
With this deal in place, Naughty Dog
was a company on the move, literally.
The company shifted its headquarters
from Boston to Los Angeles. While
such a road trip usually provides

The Whole Hog level stands out as a fan favourite.

friends with plenty of reasons to

become rather annoyed with one
another, Gavin and Rubin managed to
be a great deal more productive.
Jason and I had been debating
our next game for months, but the
three-day drive from Boston to LA
provided ample opportunity. Having
studied arcade games intensely in
1994 they were still relevant we
couldnt help but notice that two
or three of the leading genres had
really begun making the transition
into full 3D rendering. Racing had,
with Ridge Racer and Virtua Racing;

THE MAKING OF: CRASH BANDICOOT

One interesting aspect of Crash Bandicoot was the mixture

of conventional platforming and 3D adventure.

Crash s engine only allowed 800 polygons to be

visible onscreen at any one time.

NEW DOG,
NEW TRICKS
IF NAUGHTY DOGS original intent
was to create a new and iconic gaming
mascot, it would seem that there
can be little doubt about its success.
Since the original games release in
1996, Crash has gone on to star in an
additional 17 titles available on over half
a dozen various platforms. Perhaps
even more importantly, the character
has moved beyond the constraints
of his original platforming genre and
stepped up to compete with the big boys
in nearly every genre in which Sonic
The Hedgehog or Mario have found
success. Over the years, Crash has
risen to the challenges presented by
and competed with such gaming power
houses as Mario Kart 64 and the Mario
Party series. The greatest example of
the strength of the original concept and
character design, however, shows in the
characters continued popularity despite
diculties encountered as control of
the Crash Bandicoot IP changed hands,
going from Naughty Dog to Travellers
Tales to Radical Entertainment.

ghting, with Virtua Fighter; and

gun games, with Virtua Cop. Racing
was clearly 100 per cent better in 3D,
and while Virtua Fighter wasnt as
playable as Street Fighter, the writing
was on the wall. Sensing opportunity,
we turned to our own favourite
genre, the character platform action
game (CAG for short).
It was not until the second day of
the drive, however, that inspiration
would come from a rather unusual
and unpleasant source.
Passing Chicago and traveling
through Americas long at heartland,

that the concept behind Sonics Ass

was brilliant and, at the time,
unique. To the teams knowledge, no
other developer had begun any sort
of work trying to bring this wellloved genre into the world of threedimensional gaming. The question
that faced the now-four-man team
was clear: what system would best
meet their needs?
The 3DO was DOA, but we also
got our hands on specs for the
upcoming Sega Saturn, the Sega
32X, and the mysterious Sony
PlayStation. The decision really

Crash Bandicoot s zany characters are often cited as one of

the franchises greatest strengths.

in this eld of gaming needed to be

considered. If the team developed for
Sega, then its new character would
always play second ddle to the wellestablished and wildly popular Sonic
the Hedgehog. Similarly, Nintendo
seemed to already have some sort of
rotund plumber gamers were fond of.
Sony, on the other hand, didnt even
have a mascot a void that Naughty
Dog might just manage to ll. From
this, Willie the Wombat was born.
If Naughty Dog was going to
create the next Sonic or Mario, the
next challenge would lay in making

Sonys track record in videogames was nil,

but it was a sexy company and a sexy machine
fed on McDonalds, and accompanied
by a gassy Labrador/Ridgeback mix
(also fed on McDonalds), the idea
came to us. We called it the Sonics
Ass game. And it was born from
the question: what would a 3D CAG
be like? Well, we thought, youd
spend a lot of time looking at Sonics
ass. Aside from the difculties of
identifying with a character only
viewed in posterior, it seemed cool.
By the time the duo had arrived in
Los Angeles, the idea had begun to
rm up. As such, they presented it to
Universal Vice President Mark Cerny
and Naughty Dogs newest (and rst)
employee, Dave Baggett. All agreed

didnt take very long. 3DO: poor 3D

power, and no sales. 32X: unholy
Frankensteins monster and no
sales. Saturn: also a crazy hybrid
design, and really clunky dev units.
Then there was Sony. Its track record
in videogames was nil, but it was a
sexy company and a sexy machine
by far the best of the lot. I wont even
bring up the Jaguar.
Beyond the technical elements,
however, there was perhaps an even
more important factor involved in
the decision. If the teams plans
were to create a new characterdriven platformer, the console
manufacturers previous successes

the main character fun and lovable

and, of course, in creating a villain
that could remain fresh and fun
throughout an entire franchise.
I remember it clearly. The four
of us were eating at this mediocre
Italian near Universal and I had this
idea of an evil genius villain with a
big head. Obviously, brainy cartoon
villains have big heads. He was all
about his attitude and his minions.
Videogames need lots of minions.
We imagined The Brain from Pinky
And The Brain combined with
minions like the weasels in Who
Framed Roger Rabbit ; a villain, all full
of himself, unable to conceive of ever
PLAYSTATION | 87

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
CRASH TEAM RACING
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION
YEAR: 1999

JAK & DAXTER: THE

PRECURSOR LEGACY
SYSTEM: PS2
YEAR: 2001

UNCHARTED 2: AMONG
THIEVES PICTURED
SYSTEM: PS3
YEAR: 2009

doing anything the simple way, but

constantly (in his eyes) betrayed by
the incompetence of his henchmen.
I put on my silly villain voice and
intoned, If you had three neurons
between you, you couldnt make a
triangle! With this attitude, his name,
Doctor Neo Cortex, popped instantly
into our heads.
Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson
were then tasked with designing the
look of the decidedly cartoony cast of
characters, creating the fantastic look
and feel that the Crash Bandicoot
series would later become known
for. The most fantastic designs in
the world, however, are nothing if
the games designers are unable to
squeeze the same look and feel out of
the gaming hardware with which they
are to be presented, and this proved
problematic for the edgling Naughty
Dog team.
Dave struggled to build an engine
and tool pipeline that would make it
possible to render these grandiose
cartoon worlds we had envisioned
on paper. We made a bunch of really
innovative choices that inuenced
our direction.

The PlayStation had

this oddball 512x240 video
mode that almost no-one
ever used, mostly because
it ate up too much video
memory and didnt give you
enough room for textures.
But at the same time we
found the machine was
really good at rendering
shaded, but un-textured,
triangles. In fact, it did this
just as fast in the 512 mode
as in the typical 320 mode.
Since polygons on small
3D characters didnt end up very big
anyway, it turned out that shaded
characters actually looked better than
textured ones.
I also concocted a crazy
algorithmic texture packer that would
deal with the fact that our gorgeous
512x240 mode left us with too little
texture memory, and the even
crazier way crazier virtual memory
system required to shoehorn the
8-16MB levels the artists created
into the PlayStations little 2MB
of RAM. Dave, meanwhile, had
to invent insane bidirectional 10x

We made a bunch of
really innovative choices that
influenced our direction

According to folklore, if the head of Universal Interactive Entertainment had had his way, Crash would have been called Wizzy the Wombat or Ozzie the Ottsel.

88 | PLAYSTATION

compressors to help get the

128 MB levels down into 12 MB,
and gure out some tool for
managing the construction of our
gigantic 3D worlds.
Developing the overall gameplay
of such an innovative title also
presented some challenges.
When Crash Bandicoot rst began
development, nothing like it had
been done before. There was no preexisting three dimensional variation
on platforming titles to dissect in
terms of what worked and what did
not. Even something as seemingly
basic as the control structure
required multiple reworkings.
I did all of the programming
on it, but Mark helped a lot with
the complaining. For example, He
doesnt stop fast enough, or He
needs to be able to jump for a frame
or two after hes run off a cliff or it

THE MAKING OF: CRASH BANDICOOT

MASCOT MARKETING
AROUND THE TIME of Crash Bandicoot s
release, it was almost impossible not to
think of Crash whenever anyone mentioned
the Sony PlayStation. Though he may not
have been the systems ocial mascot,
advertising campaigns for the game seemed
spun to ensure that any viewer would
associate the game with Sonys entrance
into the console market. This was more
noticable in some advertisements than
others. For example, one commercial
featured Crash Bandicoot arriving at
Nintendo headquarters to taunt Mario by

way of loudspeaker. Furthermore, the only

scene showing gameplay footage of Crash
Bandicoot devoted nearly as much screen
space to the PlayStation controller as it did to
the game itself. Similarly, an early Australian
advertisement for the game, which featured
a gentleman acting as though he were Crash
while in a convenience store, displayed the
ocial PlayStation logo on the bottom-lehand side of the screen throughout its entire
30-second duration, before ending with the
now-famous slogan Do Not Underestimate
The Power of The PlayStation.

will be frustrating. Jasons also really

good at the detection of aws.
Every aspect of the game would
need to go through this sort of
process; even some of the games
most notable elements came about
as an elegant solution to difculties
encountered through the change
into 3D gaming. The crates, perhaps
one of Crash Bandicoot s dening
features, were conceived as a way
to compensate for the PlayStations
inability to display more than
between two and four incredibly high
poly count enemies.
As the game shaped up, the
team realised that it would require a
publisher. At this point, its contract
with Sony was for development
only, with the assumption being that
Naughty Dog would need to, at some

The majority of the games bosses provided not only a

challenge but also comic relief.

point, nd a third-party publisher if

the game were ever to see the light
of day. This was a slight problem,
as Naughty Dogs bid to create a
new mascot for Sony would greatly
benet from additional involvement
from the company. Thankfully, Gavin
had a brilliant back-door solution to
this minor problem.
Around Thanksgiving 1995, I and
one of our artists, Taylor Kurosaki,
who had a TV editing background,
took footage from the game and
spent two days editing it into a
two-minute preview tape. We
deliberately leaked this to a friend at
Sony so that the brass would see it.
They liked what they saw.
Management shakeups at Sony
slowed the process, but by March of
1996 Sony and Universal had struck

The cartoony, brightly coloured tribal feel contributed a

lot to the visual appeal of the early series.

a deal for Sony to do the publishing.

While Sony never ofcially declared
us their mascot, in all practical senses
we became one.
Needless to say,
when the nished
game was released the
response was huge. Not
only did gamers ock to this
new genre of gaming in droves,
but the name Crash Bandicoot
would go on to become synonymous
with PlayStation in a way that only
Lara Croft could compete with.
Indeed, Sony may never have set
out looking for a mascot but they
got one nonetheless; a mascot that
millions worldwide would come to
love. Naughty Dog had accomplished
something that no third-party
developer had done before or
since; it had created an iconic
character that would stand
shoulder to shoulder with Sonic
and Mario. 40 million copies
later across various games
and Crash Bandicoot is
still going strong today. We
wonder if Willy the Wombat
would have had the same
eventual success

Crashs crates began life as a way of adding level content in the

lieu of enough memory to fill the screen with baddies.

PLAYSTATION | 89

Racing By Design

Racing By Design
- The Complete
Arguably the
most iconic
Arguably
thePlayStations
PlayStations
most racing
iconic franchise,
racing franchise,
buckle up
up and
tight
as Stuart
Hunt
buckle
andhold
hold
tight
as Stuart
Hunt
recountsthe
the history
of WipEout,
Sonys
most most
recounts
history
of Wipeout,
Sonys
enduring racing series

enduring racing series

90 | PLAYSTATION

History of Wipeout
The Complete History of WipEout

Game designer Nick

Burcombe, graphic artist
Jim Bowers, The Surfaris,
beer, and the Amiga game
Matrix Marauders are all to be thanked for
jumpstarting WipEout.
After seeing an animation for Matrix
Marauders, which artist Jim Bowers was
working on, showing two WipEout-style ships
from the game racing each other, Nick was hit
with the inspiration to create a futuristic racing
game. The two men got together and eshed
out the idea between gulps of ale and excitable
chitchat in their local pub, and came up with
a title inspired by The Surfaris hit song Wipe
Out. An enthusiastic Jim got to work on creating
a concept demo, soon taking the idea to his

colleagues at Psygnosis. WipEout was quickly

thrust into production, with Nick as lead designer.
As well as Matrix Marauders, many other
games would inuence WipEouts design,
including F-Zero, Michael Powells 3D futuristic
racer Powerdrome and Psygnosis Infestation.
But, as Nick revealed in our making of WipEout
feature in Retro Gamer issue 35, it was Super
Mario Karts battle-themed racing antics that
provided the largest portion of the roadmap that
WipEout would follow. As work progressed, the
small team of ten faced a tight deadline. It was
a schedule made even tighter when well into
production it was decided that the code should be
restarted from scratch. Despite the interruption,
the team, which was comprised mostly of artists,
still completed the game in 14 months.

Considering its strong artistic direction, it

doesnt seem surprising that the ratio of artists to
designers was so high with WipEout. Of course,
Psygnosis wasnt entirely responsible for coming
up with WipEouts strong aesthetic, as it would
enlist the help of acclaimed graphic design studio
The Designers Republic (tDR) to sharpen its vision
for the game.
Originally hired just to design WipEouts box
art, tDR went on to have a bigger role in its
development after key artist Lee Carus (now art
director for Sonys Studio Liverpool) spotted a
fax from the company and liked the design of the
companys header. Splashing it across the side
of one of WipEouts ships in the games intro
to see how it looked, he and the team were in
agreement that it suited WipEout perfectly. From

PLAYSTATION | 91

that moment, as Carus tells it, tDR became more

heavily involved.
Of course, a futuristic racing game needed a
tting soundtrack, and for this the team hit all
the right notes. A mixture of well-known and
up-and-coming dance and electronic artists
contributed music to its soundtrack, including the
likes of Orbital and Lefteld. Any gaps were lled
in with a collection of brilliant compositions by
acclaimed Psygnosis musician Tim Wright (aka
CoLD SToRAGE).
While today licensed high-quality music tracks
can be heard in everything from FIFA to Tony
Hawks, at the time of WipEouts development
the games industrys relationship with the music
business was still very much in its infancy.
WipEouts success, and also that of the popular
CD soundtrack that sprung from it, proved the
two industries could be mutually benecial to
one another. Kids purchase both videogames and
music, and so a good game can offer musicians
a captive audience. Similarly, a videogame,
particularly a racing game, could be enhanced
with a banging soundtrack.
Released in 1995, WipEout is notable for being
the rst non-Japanese game released for the
PlayStation. It was also a launch game for the
machine in Europe, sharing shelves with the likes
of Rapid Reload, Jumping Flash!, Battle Arena
Toshinden and Namcos anticipated Ridge Racer
home conversion. WipEouts combat racing and
sci- setting worked in its favour. Indeed, had it
been a pure racer, it may well have been forced
to inhale Namcos dust come launch.

WipEout 2097 was a great follow-up that ironed out

many of the gripes fans had with WipEout. The difficulty
was smoothed out and the handling improved.

But WipEout was very much a game for its

time, and this was also a contributing factor to the
success it enjoyed. Its appearance on an exciting
new 32-bit console and the popular club and
dance culture of the period undoubtedly helped
push WipEout to the huge popularity and success
it saw, further assisted by a canny marketing
campaign that saw PlayStation booths installed
in nightclubs all across the country. WipEout, of
course, was a perfect dance partner.
Though Wipeout was certainly a strong
debut for a new racing franchise, and an
appropriate showcase for the PlayStations
audio and visual capabilities, it wasnt perfect. Its
sensitive steering mechanics and punishing
collision detection, which caused your ship to stop
dead in its tracks, combined to make a pretty
unforgiving racer, particularly on later circuits.
This was something that didnt go unnoticed
by the team when creating the sequel, WipEout
2097 (aka WipEout XL). The original WipEout
was very punishing on the user, says Studio
Liverpools Graeme Ankers, game director for
WipEout 2048. On 2097, Stewart Sockett did a
great job working with the designers to improve
the wing-tip collisions, and irritating weapons
were removed this really opened the game up
and the additional speed classes made the game a
little more accessible and a lot more skill-based at
faster (Phantom) speeds.

Work Buy Play Die Reborn

Work Buy Play Die Reborn

The Designers Republic was responsible for WipEout s strong design direction,
and as such it could be argued it was as much a contributor to the franchises
success as Psygnosis. Based in Shefeld, tDR was established by Ian Anderson
in 1986 to originally design posters for a band he was managing. The studios
success grew, particularly in the Nineties, though its strong brand of graphic
design, which combined ironic messages and hyper-consumerism with
minimalist and constructivist art inuences. It brought tDR to the attention of
large corporations such as Coca-Cola and Adidas as well as notable British bands
including Supergrass and Pulp. In the eld of games, tDR has also worked with the likes of Gremlin
Interactive, DMA/Rockstar Games and Electronic Arts.
But its most notable collaboration was with Psygnosis on the WipEout series, which came about
after tDR was hired to design the box art for the rst game and then invited to have a lot more creative
input. Despite its success in 2009 tDR was forced to close its doors. Speaking to Creative Review in
January 2009, Anderson explained that the company had become insolvent due to a number of factors,
but said tDR would go forward. The studio has since been connected with
a number of design projects for Warp Records.

92 | PLAYSTATION

But there was one other way the team sought

to improve the experience. In the original, a lot
of the weapons and power-ups could almost
be regarded as Mario Kart equals: Mines were
essentially Bananas, Rockets were Green Shells,
and Missiles were Red Shells. For WipEout 2097,
as Graeme explains, this was addressed by
adding more imaginative weapons.
All of the weapons were revisited on 2097.
Rockets were beefed up, rear-ring missiles
were added, and the plasma bolt, minigun (only
accessible as a cheat) and quake were added by
Chris Roberts, who was working on the weapons
at the time. Quake was quite an obvious one
because the track has such a simple structure on
PS1 it was easy to manipulate the geometry to
produce the quake effect, so the idea came from
the way the track was made rather than from any
specic design.
Offering a more creative array of weapons,
dropping any that proved unpopular and
improving those that were well loved, 2097
enhanced both sides of WipEouts core gameplay.
And to complement the rened weaponry, and
give each a sense of unique worth, crafts were
tted with destructible shields and could be
eliminated from races. Of course, this also worked
against players as they had to be conscious of
their own craft taking too much damage and
being retired from the race. This was offset
somewhat by the inclusion of pit stops, which
allowed players to replenish shields but at the
cost of losing time.
For 2097 s design, Psygnosis reteamed with
tDR, and the success of the rst title meant that
soundtrack contributions came from more revered
dance artists, including The Prodigy, The Future
Sound Of London, and The Chemical Brothers.
As a result of the popular changes, tweaks and
renements made, 2097 is regarded as the
pinnacle of the series by many fans. It certainly
marks the moment the franchise edged from
Super Mario Kart s slipstream, found its own
WipEout was a fantastic showcase for Sonys grey
box, and embraced the club and dance culture of
the time.

RACING BY DESIGN - THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF WIPEOUT

The Chronology of Wipeout

The Chronology of WipEout

A timeline of WipEouts
anti-gravity racing leagues
WipEout 2048
Takes place: 2048
AG racing league: ARGC
1st season
Number of teams: 5

WipEout
Takes place: 2052
AG racing league: F3600
Number of teams: 4

WipEout 2097
The franchise has always served to show off the
power and function of the machine its running on, its
particularly evident in WipEout 2048.

identity and became an iconic racing franchise in

its own right.
A sign of how popular the series had become,
Psygnosis worked on an exclusive WipEout
sequel for the N64. It was essentially a meshing
of WipEout and WipEout 2097, featuring slightly
tweaked mirrored tracks from those two games,
but dressing them up in new names and
locations. WipEout 64 also marked the series
debut for split-screen multiplayer and the popular
Challenge Mode, which allowed players to
compete in three different event classes which
comprised: Race (place high), Battle (destroy rival
racers) and Time Trial (nish in the fastest time).
The next PlayStation instalment was
Wip3out, released elsewhere originally as
WipEout 3, though it was also re-released
as WipEout 3 in 2000. Its original European box
art is telling of Psygnosis and tDRs intent for the
look and design of the game. The cover image
depicts a white stretch of track with the anti-grav
crafts distinguishable only by a few coloured
shapes. At a quick glance, it seems like nothing
more than a nice bit of minimalist artwork, until
you take a closer look and release that youre
actually looking at a brand new game in a popular
PlayStation franchise.
A similar thing can be said of the game itself.
Marking the last PlayStation instalment in the
series, Wip3out was another high-scoring entry,
but was criticised for not breaking new ground,
something Graeme feels was undeserved.
Wip3out criticism is never merited. With each
new iteration comes a desire from the team to

Takes place: 2097

AG racing league: F5000
Number of teams: 4

WipEout 64
Takes place: 2098
AG racing league: F5000
Number of teams: 5

Wip3out
Takes place: 2116
AG racing league: F7200
Number of teams: 8

WipEout Fusion
Takes place: 2160
AG racing league: F9000
Number of teams: 8

WipEout Pure
Takes place: 2197
AG racing league: FX300
Number of teams: 8

Wipeout
Wip3out
looks
like
looks like
nothing
more
nothing
more
than a nice bit
than a nice bit
of minimalist
of minimalist
artwork,
artwork, until
until
you
you take
take aa
closer
closerlook
look

WipEout HD
Takes place: 2205
AG racing league: FX350
Number of teams: 12

WipEout Pulse
Takes place: 2207
AG racing league: FX400
Number of teams: 12

PLAYSTATION | 93

take it to the next level. In the case of Wip3out,

Nicky Westcott got control and it was the rst title
out of the new Leeds Studio.
They were very design oriented and wanted
to break it down to its most minimal. The
relationship with The Designers Republic was
at its height and Mike from The Designers
Republic loves to keep things simple. It was a
bold approach considering CG was still maturing
everyone was trying to go brighter and bolder
they took a step back and gave us pure design,
which worked well given the systems constraints.
You couldnt get anything more from the PS1 so
why try? Rather than try anything obvious and
new, they stripped it back to what they thought
WipEout was all about.
Wip3out, despite an erratic difculty spike,
marked another jump up in the quality of the
series, although admittedly not as dramatic a leap
as with 2097. Wip3out introduced a number of
ideas that even elevated it above 2097 in some
ways. The most noticeable of which being its
visuals; as Greg points out, the approach taken
by tDR and the in-house design team was to
keep things simple. The teams, realising they
would struggle to squeeze any more visual grunt
from the PS1 therefore decided to embellish
the strong design philosophy of the original,
resulting in arguably the best-looking episode
in the PlayStation trilogy. It was also one of the
few PlayStation games that could be enjoyed in
glorious high-denition.
In addition to a few new weapons notably
the Energy Drain and Forcewall a second
speed boost ability was added. Accessible at
any point during a race by spending your
crafts shield reserve, it provided a fantastic
risk-and-reward mechanic. Wip3out featured the
popular Challenge Mode from WipEout 64, and
also introduced Eliminator, a last-one-standing
deathmatch that could be played by either two
players over split-screen, or, by using a cheat,
four-players via link-up using a single disc. 2097
supported link-up mode, but required players
have two copies of the game. Wip3out also
marks the nal WipEout game to have creative
input from tDR.
When Sony announced its successor to the
PlayStation, a WipEout title on the console was

94 | RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER

The team attempted something different with Fusion,

widening the tracks and making them noticeably more
elaborate than previous iterations.

As well as the PlayStation, WipEout also graced the Sega Saturn and PC.
The Saturn version (released in 1996) is slightly smoother than the PS
version, but lacks particle effects.

We exploit everything, and were not just ticking

We exploit everything, and were not just ticking
boxes, we do it in a way thats right for our game

boxes, we do it in a way thats right for our game

a given. During the interim period between the

release of Wip3out and the PS2, Psygnosis, which
was purchased by Sony prior to the launch of the
PlayStation, was renamed SCE Studio Liverpool
and the Psygnosis name and Roger Deans iconic
barn owl were both retired.
WipEout Fusion marked a noticeable shift in the
series. Good Design was brought in to create the
in-game advertisements and menus in the game,
and there was a bigger emphasis on weapon use
too. Ship upgrades made their rst appearance,
tracks were noticeably wider and free-form
sections added. Arguably the most popular new
addition was Zone Mode, which saw players
holding their nerve in a tense endurance race
in which their craft would gradually increase in
speed with each lap.
We wanted to make new game modes that
kept you hypnotised by the game and were
super quick something that you needed to play
without wasting time blinking! Graeme explains,
when we ask him where the idea for the mode
came from. As ever we experimented with a few
ideas, but Zone Mode was clearly special. We
evolved it over the years, with tweaks to the rules,
new track graphics and more recently, changing
tracks based on your Zone level. Sadly, despite
attempts at shaking up the formula, Fusion wasnt
as well received as previous iterations. And the
disappointing reaction it received affected the
teams approach to subsequent WipEout games.

The team back then were quite frustrated by

it. As a near launch title, it should be a given that
the game is primarily a showcase for what is
possible on a new platform. We tried very hard
to create environments that were more than just
the typical trench. The lap times were longer, the
tracks more elaborate, but in many instances that
wasnt judged to be a good thing. It made us step
back from trying anything new with the tracks
after that. Something weve rectied in WipEout
2048, as it happens.
The second WipEout game to be a launch
title for a Sony console was WipEout
Pure, this time on the Sony PSP. This
release marked the rst portable iteration of the
franchise so far, and would pave the way for more
to come. A hypnotic experience that had
previously only been designed for the big(ish)
screen, we asked Graeme how difcult it was to
condense WipEouts gameplay onto a portable.
The simple nature of WipEouts core DNA
meant it translated easily to a handheld, says
Graeme. We just made sure that races didnt
last too long and that we could allow the player
to save regularly, to help with the short bursts of
play nature of a hand-held device.
And was the pressure on to get the game
ready for the launch? We decided to do a new
version of WipEout for the launch of PSP a long
time before we got any PSP development kits.
We knew things like screen size, aspect ratio and
roughly how powerful the PSP was going to be,
so instead of waiting for kits, we started making,
running and testing the game on PC.
We played it via a DualShock 2 to PC
converter, and got most of our tracks and
handling sorted before the kits even arrived, so
we were ahead of the game. By time the kits
came in, it didnt take us long to get the game
running on them. We found we had to tweak
a few things to tailor it more to the PSPs form
factor, but there was very little wasted from the
PC development that had been carried out.
WipEout Pure was an impressive showcase for
Sonys new handheld, and its magazine scores
reected that. As its title implies, Pure marked a

RACING BY DESIGN - THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF WIPEOUT

Wipeinfluences

Wipeinuences

We examine in more detail the games said to have inuenced WipEout

F-Zero

Powerdrome

Infestation

Matrix Marauders

Super Mario Kart

Q Nintendos anti-grav racing

series is perhaps WipEouts
biggest racing rival, owing to
a comparably-sized fan base
and garnering a similar level of
success, though F-Zero has a
comic book aesthetic, and there
are no weapons to use.

Q Michael Powells Powerdrome

was another big inuence on
WipEout, but not in the way
some might think. It was seen
by Burcombe as how not
to make a WipEout game,
referring to the games ddly
handling as being an issue.

Q One of the more subtle

inuences is this 3D wireframe
sci- adventure game with an
Alien-style premise. Jim Bowers
worked as graphic artist on
this game as well, and theres
undoubtedly a connection to be
made with WipEout.

Q Another Jim Bowers joint,

Matrix Marauders is the spark
that set WipEout into motion,
and also inuenced the ship
design too. You can clearly see
this in the games intro (seen
here). See, looks just like a
FEISAR craft.

Q WipEouts combat-infused
racing and randomised
weapon pads were inspired
by the classic SNES kart racer.
WipEout s lead designer Nick
Burcombe was a big fan, and
wanted to channel its brilliance
into the game.

return to the simple, uncomplicated racing action

of early WipEout titles; pitting was removed and
the tracks made shorter and less elaborate. Pure
was also the rst in the series to feature DLC.
Allowing fans to expand their game via new
tracks, vehicles and artwork, it rounded off an
impressive portable debut for the franchise.
This was followed up with the PSP sequel
WipEout Pulse, which was later converted to PS2.
Pulse can be seen as something of a fusion of
past games, in that it featured many of the best
modes of previous entries in the series, including
the popular Eliminator and Zone Modes. Some
of the notable things it added included a mirror
mode, and on-rails track sections that took players
around tight corners and through rollercoaster
style sections without their craft bouncing around
the track like R2-D2 in a magnet factory.
In this current generation there have been two
releases in the franchise to date. WipEoutHD
kicked things off and marked the rst digital entry
in the series. It also saw the team revisit classic
tracks from Pure and Pulse and remaster them in
stunning high-denition, something which worked
incredibly well. This was perceived to be a fairly
straightforward porting process by the team, but
in reality required much more work than was
originally rst anticipated.
From an art perspective we were just going
to port the game assets from the PSP to the PS3,
however we soon realised that when viewed in
1080p the quality of these assets didnt look good
enough, Graeme explains. Geometry, textures,
materials and lighting all needed their resolution
and quality to be increased by around x10, often
more. This led to a complete reworking of each
racetrack, environment, vehicles, animation and
lighting, using the original PSP version as a blockout guide. The essence of each track remained

WipEout 3 would mark the final WipEout game to have design partnership with
The Designers Republic. The relationship lasted four years.

but the end result was a far richer, complex and

visually stunning experience for the player.
The recently released WipEout 2048 is the
latest game in the franchise. A prequel for the
franchise and a launch title for the Sony Vita, like
Pure, it makes impressive use of the consoles
capabilities, taking full advantage of the machine.
Over the years, the WipEout teams have viewed
each entry in the franchise as a vehicle to really
demonstrate the capability of the hardware it
appears on. This has never been more evident
than with WipEout 2048, which practically leaves
no stone unturned in Vitas oversized rock garden
of controls and functions.
WipEout is very distinct, nothing else really
looks, sounds or even plays like it. WipEout is
always a show-piece for the hardware its
running on, regardless of what hardware that is.
We always show off what can be done with a
new piece of kit by utilising as much of it as we
can. WipEout 2048 uses pretty much everything
the Vita can do buttons, sticks, tilt, touch,

Theres never been a bad WipEout, a testament to the teams desire to

ensure each entry takes the series forward.

cameras, network, near... we exploit everything,

and were not just ticking boxes, we do it in ways
that are right for our game. Thats why its a
show-piece for Vita.
Each new iteration of WipEout reveals a
developer driven by both the desire to not
disappoint fans and also to build on past games.
But its strong design direction and blend of
combat and racing may have been both a
blessing and a curse. As each new instalment
looks and feels similar, so the subtle tweaks and
renements to the formula are most visible to and
therefore appreciated by hardcore fans. The series
is, however, one of Sonys most enduring racing
franchises and is still arguably the best future
racing series out there. Its a pity then that the
WipEout story currently nishes on a bum note,
due to the closure of Studio Liverpool in 2012. The
spirit of WipeOut lives on thanks to the likes of
Formula Fusion (a recent Kickstarter success) and
Redout, but its not the same. Heres hoping Sony
kickstarts the franchise sooner rather than later

PLAYSTATION | 95

96 | PLAYSTATION

Metal Gear Solid

RETROREVIVAL

SNAKE? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEEEEEEEE!

PLAYSTATION KONAMI 1998

For many, the name Metal Gear Solid is as
synonymous with the PlayStation brand
as Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo and Final
Fantasy. Though the franchise was already
well established before the 32-bit game, the
power of the PlayStation let Hideo Kojima take
the series in a bold new direction.
This in part is mainly due to the excellent voiceover from
David Hayter and the rest of the cast. Unlike many actors of
the time, they simply assumed the role they were asked to
play was as important as theyd receive for any normal movie
and they acted accordingly. Its still a little hammy in places,
but its a world away from the likes of Resident Evil and many
other talkies of the time and helps Metal Gear Solid feel like an
interactive movie.
Then of course there are the well-realised stealth
components, with Kojima building on the mechanics of his
earlier MSX games and taking full advantage of the PlayStations
many buttons - expanding Snakes abilities and allowing him
access to all sorts of cool weapons and gadgets as a result.
Breaking the fourth wall, creating genuine three-dimensional
bosses and delivering stunningly cinematic cutscenes via the
in-game engine were just a few of the many things that made
Snakes adventure such a joy to play and it cemented Kojima as
a developer to watch.
Critically acclaimed upon release, it went on to sell over 6
million copies and helped turn Kojima into one of gamings most
famous developers. It even received an enhanced update for
Nintendos GameCube, complete with Metal Gear Solid 2
gameplay mechanics and ridiculous over-the-top cutscenes.
Metal Gear Solid wasnt the most original of games (Kojima
borrowed heavily from both pop culture and his own earlier
titles) but that didnt stop it from being an essential addition to
any PlayStation owners library.

PLAYSTATION | 97

CLASSIC GAMES
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The developers definitely never felt any

need to hold back on this games colour palettes.

98 | PLAYSTATION

SLAP HAPPY
RHYTHM
BUSTERS
DEVELOPER:POLYGON MAGIC YEAR: 2000

On first sight, its clear to anyone

that Slap Happy Rhythm Busters
is an amazing looking game, easily
among the top ten great looking
games for the PlayStation, in fact.
This is mainly thanks to the excellent
graffiti-punk aesthetic that permeates
every part of it, from the characters
designs and stages, right down to
the menus and comic strip loading
screens. There are very bright
colours, and a kind of chunkiness to
everything that makes the game and
its world radiate a feeling of energetic
fun. The game that this style is often
associated with is the Dreamcasts
Jet Set Radio. Amazingly, Segas
game and Slap Happy Rhythm
Busters were actually released in
Japan on the very same day.
The character designs are all very
appealing and mostly manage to

The Dance Dance Revolution-esque rhythm combos

are the games big gimmick, and they can feel unfair to the recipient.

avoid being variations on generic

fighting game stereotypes, with the
only exception being the very Chun
Li-esque chinese kung fu fighter, Mia.
Among them theres Vivian and Roxy,
two short girls who count as a single
character that take turns riding on
each others backs and throwing each
other at their opponents. Theres
also Trash, who is some kind of
rockstar binman, and Oreg, a sort of
enormous man/taxi hybrid. Though
the character designs are visually
original, there are a few concepts
that seem borrowed from other
games, such as the androgynous
Garia and her big floating sword

Garia throws her big sword around in a style

not dissimilar to Donovan from the Darkstalkers games.

MINORITY REPORT: PLAYSTATION

IN DEPTH

With the games cartoon style, even fighting

a chainsaw-weilding giant in a butchers shop looks like fun!

being reminiscent of Darkstalkers

Donovan, and another character, a
graffiti artist named Tomtom who
can summon living graffiti art that
looks a lot like the Stands present in
Jojos Bizarre Adventure.
The big gameplay gimmick of
SHRB is that, along with the typical
super moves that have been in
almost every fighting game since
Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Each
character can, when their super
meter is completely full, activate
a rhythm combo, that temporarily
turns the game into a miniature
version of Dance Dance Revolution,
with the aggressor matching button
presses to arrows on-screen to
cause more damage. The downside
of this is that once it begins, the
defending player cant really do
much except hope that the other
player has poor timing. Despite that,
though, were surprised that its a
concept that hasnt really been used
in other fighting games before or
since. Rhythm combos aside, the
fighting in SHRB is generally a lot
of fun. Hits are satisfyingly crunchy,
combos are simple enough to put
together and the general over the top,
super-colourful look to everything
makes every fight look like a pretty
exciting cartoon, with the excellently
modelled and textured graphics
doing an excellent job of sneakily
hiding the low polygon count. This
is a game that wouldnt look entirely
out of place on Segas Dreamcast, it
looks that good.
You can probably already guess
this, but Slap Happy Rhythm Busters
is a game you should definitely try to
get a hold of, should the opportunity
arise. Its fun, it looks great and its
pretty unique which is a rarity in the
fighting game genre.

SUPER METER

UNIQUE STYLE

QRegular super moves only

QA large part of the games

cost one bar overall, but filling

up all three segments allows
use of the games trademark
Dance Dance Revolution-esque
Rhythm Combos.

appeal is its looks and art

style, both the backgrounds
and the characters have
a heavily stylised, urban
aesthetic to them.

VARIED
CHARACTERS

GREAT SOUND

QThe games roster eschews

the typical martial artist,

with characters ranging from
cowgirls to pairs of twins and a
homeless mans dog.

QObviously, with the gimmick

it has, SHRB has an upbeat
soundtrack to match, but its
no slouch in sound design with
solid and meaty-sounding
punches and kicks.

IF YOU LIKE THIS TRY

RAGUKA KIDS

JET SET RADIO

NINTENDO 64

DREAMCAST

DRAGLADE
NINTENDO DS

QAnother quirky and colourful fighting

Q Although its not a fighting game, Segas

QAlthough taking a more traditional

game with a graffiti-inspired aesthetic,

though it is childish chalk drawings rather
than spray-painted urban art in this
one. Its also one of the N64s very few
2D games, let alone 2D fighting games.
Amazingly, it somehow managed to get
an EU release, too!

classic was obviously drawing from the

same pool of inspiration as Slap Happy
Rhythm Busters, in terms of its looks, its
setting and its music. Its also a muchbeloved classic to pretty much everyone
who ever played it, too. Check out the cool
sequel as well on Xbox.

anime influence for its aesthetic,

Draglade does have a similar rhythmbased special moves gimmick with Slap
Happy Rhythm Busters, with the extra
addition of some RPG elements thrown
into the mix. An interesting little effort
thats worth tracking down.

PLAYSTATION | 99

FOX JUNCTION

The Night Town, with its visible

constellations in the sky, is a sight to behold.

DEVELOPER: TRIPS YEAR: 1998

WITH ITS DIVERSE range of robot-inhabited

environments seemingly abandoned by mankind,
all depicted with a great looking combination of
sprites and low-poly 3D, it cant be denied that Fox
Junction is an absolutely beautiful game to feast
your eyes upon. But, unfortunately, since its such
an obscure title, with only a tiny cult following drawn
in by the games looks and atmosphere, theres scant
information on the internet, or anywhere else for that
matter, about how its meant to be played.
All thats currently known is that you play as a young
wanderer in this apparently empty world, travelling
from place to place and those places are beautiful
and varied, from wind-swept deserts, to standing
stone-littered plains, from glowing crystal caves to cosy
villages with constellations marked out in the night
skies above. Eventually, youll notice that a tower in the
distance is not just a background decoration, but has a
fixed position, and can actually be reached.
This is as far as anyone has gotten, on the
English-speaking internet, at least. Though a few
people have managed to reach the tower without
meeting their unseemly end at the hands of the various
robots that litter the stages, none have managed to get
inside it, or figure out the requirements for doing so, or
even found out that entering said tower is the actual
goal of the game or not.
If youre lucky enough to find a copy (though it
doesnt tend to fetch high prices, Fox Junction doesnt
turn up for sale often), and you want to play something
that is utterly unique and mysterious, we would say
that Fox Junction is definitely worth taking a chance on.

Graphically, Fox Junction still holds up well,

delivering some tasty looking environments to battle in.

MORE GAMES TO PLAY

CYBER ORG
DEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
YEAR: 1999

Squaresoft did a lot of branching

out into genres it hadnt bothered with
on the PlayStation, and Cyber Org
is part of that experiment. It mixes
elements of beat-em-ups, actionRPGs and even roguelikes. You take
a team of agents with varied abilities
through a series of space stations.
It was never going to set the world
on fire, but Cyber Org is a nice little
game, and its a shame it never came
to the west.

100 | PLAYSTATION

SUPER ROBOT
SHOOTING
DEVELOPER: MINATO GIKEN
YEAR: 1997

There are a few games on the

PlayStation that seem like they
existed to provide a substitute for
games on Segas consoles, like for
Gunstar Heroes theres Rapid Reload,
and for Space Harrier theres Super
Robot Shooting. You pick from one of
a few robots and blast through stages.
Each stage is themed, and you can
change robots between stages: good
news for fans of thematic accuracy.

Fox Junction is quite a hard game to

get hold of, meaning youll typically have to open your wallet.

EDGE OF SKYHIGH MAGICAL DROP F

DEVELOPER: MICRONET
YEAR: 1997

Its clear that Edge Of Skyhigh

was a labour of love for its
developers, and that love was aimed
at Afterburner II. You fly a jet which
can be transformed into a giant robot
and you lock-on to flying enemies,
just like Afterburner. But now, the
sprite scaling of Segas classic is
replaced with texture mapped 3D, and
theres more of a sci-fi theme to the
proceedings, with stages having the
player shoot down giant monsters.

DEVELOPER: SAS SAKATA

YEAR: 1999

Although it is unheard of over

here, Magical Drop F is the pinnacle
of the puzzle series. It makes a few
tweaks to the core game, like penalty
orbs dropping in individual columns
rather than solid rows, and though
the changes seem small, they add up
to a much better game. The graphics
also see a improvement with more
colours and animation, and theres
the addition of a RPG mode, with
equipment and Magical Drop battles.

MINORITY REPORT: PLAYSTATION

SPEED POWER GUNBIKE

In tight corners, your bikes robot mode

comes in handy for smashing both enemies and walls.

DEVELOPER: INTI CREATES YEAR: 1998

THIS GAME IS a bit of an odd one: on first

examination, its a striking title with a cool
concept, but a clunky, awkward execution
thats no fun to play. Fortunately its a game that
rewards perseverance, as it gets more fun to play
the more that you get used to its odd controls
and mechanics. Also, it was made by Inti Creates,
who are more associated with excellence in 2D
platformers, like the Mega Man Zero series, or,
more recently, Azure Striker Gunvolt.
The main focus of the game is riding at speed
down long, futuristic and enemy-littered roads
reminiscent of Eighties and Nineties cyberpunk
anime, such as Akira or Cyber City Oedo 808. The
vehicles you do this riding in/on are motorbikes
that can transform at will into slower but easier to
steer buggies, or very slow power armour thats
much better suited to combat.

The transforming aspects of Speed Power

Gunbike, ensures it stands apart from other racers.

GERMS
NERAWARETA
MACHI
DEVELOPER: KEJ
YEAR: 1999

With a large 3D city to navigate,

and plenty of buildings to explore and
people to talk to, Germs is a game
that was ahead of its time. Although it
was released to no fanfare or acclaim
back in 1999, it was rediscovered and
gained a tiny cult following thanks to
its aesthetic of low-poly buildings,
faceless characters and sultry music.

When you first start playing, youll bump into

walls and other objects, running out of time by
getting lost and generally having a bad time of it.
If you make the effort to practice, though, Speed
Power Gunbike feels great to play. Its almost like
some kind of strange, less forgiving alternate
universe Sonic game that wanted to make the
player earn the feeling of speed and freedom.

EXTRA BRIGHT
DEVELOPER: TO ONE
YEAR: 1996

Upon first seeing Extra Brights

narrow, twisty tracks, you could easily
mistake it for a futuristic racing game
in the F-Zero vein, but its actually a
pretty slow paced on-rails shooter.
Its a simple one, too, since you cant
even move vertically, only side to
side. Extra Bright looks great, though,
all the models are nicely designed,
looking both futuristic and cuddly at
the same time, with rounded edges
and pastel colours.

KURUKURU
MARUMARU
DEVELOPER: JAPAN ART MEDIA
YEAR: 2001

Despite its silly sounding name

and colourful, cartoony graphics,
Kurukuru Marumaru is actually a
harsh driving game. It has a control
system that uses every button on
the PlayStation controller, having the
player not only steering, controlling
their speed and changing gears,
but also starting the engine, using
the hand brake and even turning on
indicators before turning.

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PET IN TV
DEVELOPER: SCEI
YEAR: 1997

Unlike most of the games

featured here, Pet In TV did get a
release in Europe though without
much fanfare. You guide a weird robot
around, trying to teach it about the
world. The ultimate goal is to build
up its intellect so it can solve puzzles
with no player input. Its an interesting
concept, executed poorly. Guide is
an apt word, as you dont have direct
control over your pet, as you can only
make suggestions.

PLAYSTATION | 101

Die Hard Trilogy was the quirky PlayStation hit that successfully
melded old-fashioned arcade action with new-fangled 3D tech.
Martyn Carroll talks to the guys at Probe Entertainment who took allAmerican hero John McClane and placed him in a very British game
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: FOX INTERACTIVE
DEVELOPER:
PROBE ENTERTAINMENT
PLATFORM:
PLAYSTATION, SATURN, PC
RELEASED: 1996
GENRE: 3D FILM TIE-IN

102 | PLAYSTATION

he blood on the windscreen

was Simon Picks idea. Die Hard
Trilogys lead programmer and
co-designer was responsible for
that glorious, over-the-top moment that
everyone whos played the game will
always remember. Youre tearing around
New York City in the Die Hard With A
Vengeance portion of the game when
your yellow cab mounts the sidewalk
and ploughs into screaming pedestrians.
Bodies y and blood splatters, and your
vision is momentarily obscured until the
windscreen wipers wash the red stuff
away. Sorry, pal! quips McClane in
typical deadpan fashion.
Simon came up with some really
crazy stuff, says James Duncan, who

worked on the game as a 3D artist.

He would just come in each day with
madcap ideas involving explosions or
people on re youll notice that there
are a lot of people on re in the game.
I still, to this day, dont know how we
got away with some of the stuff like the
blood on the windscreen.
Simon is happy to take credit: The
blood on the windscreen was the low
point, or the high point, depending on
which way you look at it.
Retro Gamer met up with Simon and
James in a pub in Guildford. The pair
work nearby Simon at Electronic Arts
and James at Lionhead and they were
both happy to spend their lunch hours
chatting about the game that has opened

lots of doors for them in the industry.

Die Hard Trilogy was actually Jamess
rst published game following spells at
Digital Integration and NovaLogic, while
Simons softography stretches back
to 1984 with the release of Daredevil
Dennis on the BBC Micro. The self-taught
programmer went on to work for
The Sales Curve and coded a bunch of
Commodore 64 and NES titles before he
was invited to join Croydon-based Probe
Entertainment in the mid-Nineties.
Probe boss Fergus McGovern
had a number of things that needed
developing, reveals Simon, and one
of them was a PlayStation game based
on some weird ITV adventure game
show. And I said, Yeah, Ill do that. Itll

THE MAKING OF: DIE HARD TRILOGY

SEGA GAGA
DIE HARD TRILOGY is best known as a PlayStation game,
but it was also released on the Saturn and PC. The Saturn
version plays like a bit of a dog, and Simon reveals why:
In the previous generation, when you were doing
Spectrum and Amstrad games, you could pretty much
write the Spectrum version and port it to the Amstrad
really easily you just changed the render code and it
all worked. We thought it would be the same with the
PlayStation and Saturn, so we said wed concentrate on
the PlayStation version and then worry about the other
versions later. Two or three months before the end of the
project, these two guys came in and I just said, Heres my
code, go away and port it. It was full of PlayStation-isms,
and it was the rst game Id written in C and my C code
was awful, and it was a real nightmare for them, the poor
buggers. It was really slow and choppy as they had to
emulate a lot of the hardware, but they managed to do it.

One thing that really annoyed me was when Driver came out, says Simon.
They had a free roam mode where you could just drive around the city, and I
thought, Damn it, we should have done that!

pay the bills. About three months into

it, ITV canned the show and the game
disappeared with it. Fergus said, Thats
gone, Im afraid, but Fox is asking us
about making a Die Hard game are you
interested in doing that? To be honest,
at the time I was so into the game show
thing that I grudgingly accepted.
Although dozens of people worked on
Die Hard Trilogy, Simon was at the teams
core. He designed and coded the Die
Hard 2 and Die Hard With A Vengeance
segments and was the overall lead
programmer on the project, responsible
for everything from the front end to the
3D graphics engine. The Die Hard game
was designed by Dennis Gustafsson and
programmed by Greg Modern. James
worked across all three games as a 3D
world modeller, which basically involved
building the 3D elements that the player
gets to shoot, smash up or set re to.
Work on the game began in early
1994, when the PlayStation was still very
much in development and only trusted
third-parties were exposed to the new
hardware. We were sent some really

early dev kits, says Simon. They were

enormous, bulky things that were like
oversized PCs, and it was called the PSX
at that point. For the rst six months we
didnt see any other PlayStation software
at all, because it was all still new and
secret. There was a Sony developers
conference that we went to and it was
the rst time we saw what other people
were doing with the hardware. We were
terried going in, thinking that the others
would be doing all these amazing things,
but luckily everyone was doing the
same kind of stuff that we were. Coming
onto the PlayStation was really exciting,
although it was a bit of a culture shock
there were no sprites! But the fact that
you could render so much and do all the
3D stuff was amazing, and I spent the
rst month or so just seeing how many
pixels I could get in an explosion
Simon loves explosions, says
James, cutting in.
I do like explosions! laughs Simon,
and goes on to comment about the
kitchen sink nature of the game. I have
a very low boredom threshold, so Id play

It was particularly funny for us because the enemies had the faces of team
members, says James, so we were shooting people we worked with.

Therewascertainlynothing
pretentious about it. It was just
a good, fun game
JAMES DUNCAN

the game and say, This is boring. Lets

add some more random stuff and blow
it up. We shoved everything we could
think of into the game. Doing that can
end up with the game becoming bloated,
but it has a certain kind of charm, and
I think Die Hard Trilogy has that charm.
It clearly has no real guiding principles
or game design philosophy behind it. If
anybody in the team at any point said
wouldnt it be cool if then wed say
okay, yeah, ne and wed put it in.
We didnt really have any production
documents on the game, adds James.
We just thought things up and went
and did them. I guess, if anything, the
Die Hard movies acted as the games
production documents.
Despite the game being in
development at roughly the same time

The Die Hard 2 section was one of the first PlayStation games to include mouse
and lightgun support.

The main impetus behind the production of Die Hard Trilogy, Simon Pick (standing)
and Dennis Gustafsson.

PLAYSTATION | 103

DIY DIE HARD

THE GAME IS packed with funny cheats giving characters daft voices or making everyone
look like Probe boss Fergus McGovern, for example but theres one secret that was no
fun whatsoever for Die Hard 2 level designer Matt Nagy. If you pause the game and press a
special button combination right, up, down, square you can access the built-in level editor
that Matt actually used to map the DH2 levels. Simon explains: We didnt have any tools for
doing the mapping, and there wasnt a free dev kit available for Matt to use, so we decided to
actually map the game using one of those blue debug PlayStations. We built into the Die Hard 2
engine the level editor, which Matt could use to place objects and enemies, and he mapped the
whole game using that. Hed save his work to memory card, which Id then plug in to my dev kit
and pull off the data.
The DH2 level editor was actually left in the nished game, so anyone can access it and
tinker with the maps. So you can go through the same hell as Matt, laughs James.

Its really quite bad, says Simon about the games blood. I
wouldnt let my eight-year-old boy play it!

The hidden Die Hard 2 level editor is exactly the same as the one used in the games development.

One of the objectives in DH2 was to prevent hostages from getting mowed down, if you could be bothered.

as Die Hard With A Vengeance, the plan

was always to adapt the three lms.
Simon reveals that the decision to create
three separate games based on each
movie was the most obvious if not the
most sensible decision. At the time,
Probe was also developing Alien Trilogy,
and that was just one game based on the
three lms. We were sitting in an early
design meeting and I said, Why arent
we making three games? Its a trilogy:
it should be three games. Wed never
made a 3D game before, and we were
guessing it would take about six months
to make a game, so that would be three
games in 18 months, which
just about t into our time
schedule. It was madness
in hindsight, but thats
what we decided to do.
And Fergus pretty much
said, Do what you want.
We trust you. Fergus
was really good and I
think he was caught up
in the whole excitement of the
thing. I guess the main reason
we had so much freedom was
because we were in the rst
generation of 3D games and
104 | PLAYSTATION

there was no one else to copy. These

days when youre making a game you
have to say, Were making this and its
kind of like Grand Theft Auto with a bit of
this thrown in. Its always references to
other games. Back then we were unable
to say what it was like, because it wasnt
really like anything else.
Even now its hard to pigeonhole
Die Hard Trilogy, as its a collection of
three different games. DH1 is a freeroaming third-person shooter, DH2 is an
on-rails shooter, and DH3 is an open-city
driving game. The constant is that all
three feature wanton destruction and a
wicked sense of humour.
Inspirations were drawn primarily
from coin-op games DH2, in particular,
was the teams take on Segas Virtua Cop,
as there was a Virtua Cop arcade game
in the Probe ofces that received a lot of
play. Designer Dennis Gustafsson, who
was unable to join us for our lunchtime
chat, provided RG with additional insight
via email and singled out a specic
arcade game: We only had one golden
rule for the direction of the gameplay: we
wanted every aspect of the game to have
the action of the arcade classic Berzerk.
Full-on action from all directions. If we

If the bosss bright red jumper didnt make him stand out, the
massive signpost above his head probably did.

followed the game script so much the

better, but not at the cost of the action.
I think we managed to do just that.
Everyone got into the spirit of the game
and geared Die Hard Trilogy towards the
crazy, no-holds-barred action title for
which it has became famous.
One of the biggest difculties the
team had was taking arcade-style
2D gameplay and making it work in
3D. Breathing life into the characters
was particularly tricky, and it involved
using some primitive motion capture
technology. We had no idea how to
do 3D people, admits Simon. If you
wanted to properly skin polygonal people
you could only have about three of them
on screen and the game would start to
chug. So we came up with this ridiculous
meatball man idea, where you had eight
or so bits just stuck together one for
the head, one for the body, the arms and
legs and so on. Looking at them now,
they look terrible, like something out of
Captain Pugwash! Their heads wobble
and there are all these stupid artefacts all
over the place.
Using an early digital camera, which
Fergus had acquired on a trip to Japan,
photos were taken of each team member

THE MAKING OF: DIE HARD TRILOGY

FOX
FIGHTS
BACK
20TH CENTURY FOX had
minimal input during the games
development, and only objected
if the team added something that
had nothing to do with the lms.
One case in point was the teams
original depiction of New York City.
Dennis tells the tale: When the
Fox producers saw an early demo
of our driving game, the levels had
jumpy hills, meandering roads
and bendy curves that led into
sewers. I remember they were
strangely unimpressed by the wild
and crazy driving experience that
we had going.
When Dennis arrived in New
York to snap some location pictures
for the game, he soon found out
why. One of the producers, Scott,
took me downtown and literally
dragged me out into the trafc. We
stood in the middle of the street
and Scott said look and pointed
down the street. I looked. Then he
pointed in the opposite direction
and said look again. I looked.
What do you see? he asked. I
replied: Straight, wide streets, no
curves, no hills, no nothing. Just
cars. Scott nodded, having made
his point, and walked off, leaving
me to my own devices. The rest of
the stay I took hundreds of pictures
of all the areas that were to be
included in the game.

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
GOLDEN AXE
SYSTEM: C64, AMIGA, ST
YEAR: 1989

MORTAL KOMBAT (PICTURED)

SYSTEM: MEGA DRIVE,
GAME GEAR, AMIGA
YEAR: 1993

ALIEN TRILOGY
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION,
SATURN, PC
YEAR: 1996

Designer Alec Prenter using the grid-based

DH3 level editor to map out New York City.

Even without guns, Die Hard With A Vengeance proved to be violent.

The team rigged an old church with infrared cameras and used them for motion capture.

and their faces were used to give the

meatball men their identities. They
werent allowed to use Bruce Williss
likeness due to licensing costs, so the
McClane role went to the follically
challenged Dennis: They used me,
with less and less hair retouched onto
my head for each sequel. I was a lot
cheaper than Bruce.
The development took between
18 months and two years, and as the
release date approached, the team had
to clock up the overtime to nish it.
Weve probably made it sound like it
was really good fun making the game,
but towards the end of the project it was
really awful, says Simon. We were
working seven-day weeks for at least
three months, because it was going to be
a Christmas release and we were running
late. We really did crunch at the end. We
were getting closer to the date when it
had to be in shops, and Fox were getting
more and more desperate. I believe
Fox forced it through Sonys approval
process because there were still crash
bugs in it when it was released, which
was unusual. Sony wasnt really such
a big force at the time and I think Fox
bullied it a bit to get the game approved.

This clever visual trick lets you see through walls as you explore Nakatomi Plaza in DH1.

Getting the game done was sweet

for all involved, particularly as there
were rumours that theyd been playing
second ddle to the other Trilogy in
development at Probe. There was
a rivalry between ourselves and the
Alien Trilogy team, reveals Simon,
and with the imminent sale of Probe to
Acclaim, everyone assumed that Alien
Trilogy was the most likely to succeed.
Understandably, Fergus wanted to make
Alien Trilogy the best it could be to keep
Acclaim happy. From our perspective,
it often felt like Alien Trilogy was the
golden child, getting the quality staff and
internal plaudits. We didnt know it at the
time, but we were known as Try Hard
instead of Die Hard, because we were
just sitting there, trying really hard, not
knowing what we were doing. The Alien
Trilogy team was massive and its game
was gorgeous. We were the underdogs,
at least until our game was released. And
then the world went mad.
It was crazy, adds James. It was
my rst published game and it was
a fantastic experience. The feedback
was overwhelmingly positive. Die Hard
Trilogy was three solid games, nothing
more, but together they sealed the deal.

The game was a critical and

commercial smash, and although exact
sales gures are not available, it was a
multimillion-unit seller and one of the
strongest-performing titles during the
early years of the PlayStation. Part of
its success is surely due to the freedom
offered to the team during development.
It was amazing to have that level of
freedom in that creative environment,
and being left alone to do whatever we
wanted, says James. It will probably
never happen again. It also helped that
everyone on the team really liked games
wed talk about them and play them
in our lunchtimes. It really was a game
made by gamers. There was certainly
nothing pretentious about it. It was just a
good, fun game.
In many ways it was like one of those
classic albums you read about, adds
Simon. The right people, the right place,
the right time. It just worked.
And, with that, the interview ends and
Simon and James return to work for
the afternoon. We guess their current
videogame projects are somewhat more
structured and governed than Die Hard
Trilogy. And they almost certainly include
fewer explosions and people on re.
PLAYSTATION | 105

106 | PLAYSTATION

THE HISTORY OF RESIDENT EVIL

ethevstoryi l ofrriresident
se evils
Capcoms Resident Evil
series is one of the most
famous in videogames,
having spawned everything
from action figures to
Hollywood blockbusters.
But the story behind the
franchise is more intriguing
and fantastical than any of
its fictions : its a story of
determination, jealousy,
bankruptcy and people
pushed to the limit. Steve
Burns welcomes you back to
the world of survival-horror

saka, Japan, early 1996. It was

gone three AM in the long
abandoned cubicles and halls
of Capcoms HQ, but work was
by no means nished. Still prowling
the corridors was a young Shinji
Mikami: director of Capcoms new
Resident Evil project, drinker of too
much beer, and worker of too many
hours. With the nascent Resident
Evil racing to a hugely-pressurised
conclusion, Mikami had been doing
this for months, attempting to
balance not just his own perfectionist
expectations but those of Capcom as
well. As Mikami and his and his team
crunched not for the rst night and
not for the last, working 18-hour days
and indulging in deskchair chariot
races after hours to stay sane 1994
mustve seemed a long time ago.
Then, Mikami had just a handful
of licensed Disney games and a
scrapped F1 title under his belt. Soon
his spirits would be lifted when he
was approached by Capcom general

manager Tokoru Fujiwaru, to create a

game that could carry on the legacy
of Sweet Home, Capcoms 1989
NES horror adventure. Mikami was
intrigued and agreed, borrowing
some of that games ner touches
(the door-opening screens, for
example) for Capcoms newest IP:
Biohazard, or Resident Evil in the
West thanks to the band Biohazard
owning the copyright for the original
title. It would tell the tale of playable
characters Chris Redeld and Jill
Valentine, as well as the rest of
the STARS counter-terrorist unit,
ghting for their lives in a huge
mansion lled with tricks, traps and
what would become Resident Evils
trademark bad-science monstrosities,
while uncovering the growing
conspiracy that shrouded the
Umbrella pharmaceutical companys
virus research.
Mikami wanted to instil players
with fear, and had originally toyed
with the idea of a more

PLAYSTATION | 107

supernatural angle for the

horrors found in the Spencer
Mansion, like in Sweet Home.
Eventually, he settled on slightly
more grounded approach that
suited the paramilitary STARS unit
and their ghting abilities.
I wanted an atmosphere found
in the lm Jaws, where the player
was in danger, but still capable
of dealing with it, he stated in
the book The True Story Behind
Resident Evil. In short, I wanted

stating in The Birth of Resident Evil

that, This feeling of anxiety was
realised with the assistance of the
new generation of consoles (the
PlayStation) that helped achieve the
remarkable graphics.
New consoles, however, would
bring new challenges, and Mikami
soon realised that his dream of
creating Resident Evil in rst-person
was dead. This limitation would give
rise to the famous pre-rendered
backgrounds that gave Resident Evil

I wanted an atmosphere like

Jaws, where the player is in danger
but capable of dealing with it
the player to make clear
decisions while they experienced
much fear pursued not by
something supernatural, but
something concrete.
From this decision, the rest of
the project took shape. Sweet
Home would provide the basis for
the secluded mansion setting and
the delightfully wacky, completely
ludicrous puzzles that broke up
the action. Mikami loved Romeros
Dead lms, and for him the
zombie was the perfect enemy:
physical, killable, but capable of
projecting the right amount
of the fear in the way they
endlessly stalked their prey.
Mikami was also
fortunate with Fujiwarus
timing: next generation
consoles such as the
PlayStation were
on the horizon, and
Mikami was grateful
of the power they afforded,

Nemesis is a terrifying foe, more intelligent and far more

resilient than anything seen up until that point in the series.

108 | PLAYSTATION

its signature avour (and also, out

of necessity, its terrible controls).
Things would get worse before
they got better as the team size
uctuated, the deadline loomed and
the pressure intensied. Capcom
began to ask serious questions
regarding the project. Was it
nancially viable? Would Capcom
be sunk if the game opped?
Discontinue Resident Evil Project
was suggested by an external
consultancy rm. Capcom certainly
couldnt afford to go throwing good
money after allegedly bad.
Resident Evil was a make-or-break
project for the house Hadoukens
built. As so often happens in the
series, the countdown to selfdestruction had begun.
Things got even worse when
studio boss Yoshiki Okamoto
criticised Resident Evil s controls
and design, furiously demanding
Mikami doesnt put Capcoms
name to shit like this, as recalled

in The True Story Behind Resident

Evil. Only the interjection of Fujiwara
stopped the project from stalling.

lthough Mikami had claimed

that the interference from
above and the exhausting
schedule had meant that he
had lost all interest in watching
the game go on sale, Resident Evil
would become a triumph, selling
600,000 units and making Mikami
and the game big names. Finally,
his moment had come.
Resident Evil had become a
phenomenon: George A Romero
would go on to write a script for
a movie adaptation, and direct a
live-action Japanese advert for the
game. It was impossible to open
a videogame magazine between
1996-98 without reading about it.
The hype train wasnt just rolling, it
was out of control. Resident Evil 2
had to be better than good. It had to
be perfect.
Things got off to a shaky start
in 1996 and nosedived from there.
Jun Takeuchi stated in The True
Story Behind Resident Evil that he
wanted to widen [Resident Evil s]
audience. The rst Resident Evil,
by Mikamis own admission, was
made to be deliberately difcult,
especially in the US, where it was
made even tougher in an attempt
to thwart the rental market. Mikami
shared Takeuchis ideal for broader
audience reach, but also pondered
that a member of his team had told
him, It is not that easy to attract
a larger audience while not losing
sight of the games essence.
Mikami was burnt out after the
rst game, and soon found himself
kicked upstairs to a producing role,
a move that saddened him and

THE HISTORY OF RESIDENT EVIL

would go on to generate friction
with new director Hideki Kamiya.
To chronicle every step of what
transpired in the Resident Evil 2
project would require more pages
than both this magazine and
deforestation regulations permit,
but there are key touchstones
throughout development that crafted
it into the experience we have
today. First revealed in July 1996,
Resident Evil 2 looked impressive,
if evolutionary. The tried-and-tested
camera angles were still there; the
happy accident of technological
limitation that gave Resident
Evil its moody panoramas and
claustrophobic close-ups was still
paying off. The outlandish puzzles
still featured, breaking up the action
nicely. And, of course, the characters
still moved like tanks.
Everything else, however, had
been kicked up a gear. The new
characters (rookie cop Leon Kennedy
and the ill-fated biker chick/college
student Elza Walker, both caught in
the outbreak sweeping Raccoon)
werent just the blank-faced
mannequins they were before: now
they reacted to damage, their clothes
shredding at the teeth and claws of
their enemies. Those hallowed steelblue ofces of the early versions
would also suffer damage from
the upgraded amount of enemies
available on screen.
Anticipation grew as players
dreamed of pitched battles in the
streets of Raccoon City, but behind
closed doors tensions were
mounting. Mikami, still reeling from
Kamiya taking the directors chair,
began to attempt to inuence the
game directly. Worse still, Mikami
envisioned the sequel would give
closure to the universe, a notion

The Bet a Band

A brief look at the many different

versions of Resident Evil

MORE SO THAN perhaps any

other franchise in history,
Resident Evil is famed for its
betas and lost projects, due
in part to both Capcoms
willingness to change
artistic direction and the
vast differences between
the versions. Resident Evil 2
and 4 are obviously the most
famously revised, but the
series also features many littleknown entities that are lost
to time. Here are some of the
most interesting

Re sident Evil
Although Resident Evil s
supernatural elements were
cut early on, its rumoured
some versions did feature trace
elements of this thinking. In one
build, the player would pass
walls where blood would form
messages for the player.
Shockingly, Barry Burton also
wasnt in the game to begin
with. Instead we got Gelzer, a
tank-like behemoth that would
hold the ceiling from collapsing
on Jill in the shotgun trap
room. Elements of his character
were eventually moulded into
the Barry we all know and
love. Another character not to
make the cut was Dewey, who
was to be a playable character
unlocked after nishing the
game, described by Mikami
as an Eddie Murphy type who
would provide comic relief.
Early footage showed Chris
ghting the mutated snake
Yawn in the shed that leads to
the guardhouse. The shed was
changed in the nal release,
and the battle removed, but the
two exits on the beta map are
still in place in the FMV that
introduces the Hunter. In fact,
the beast even enters through
one of them in the video.

Early images circulated

to certain games magazines
showed that the game was
playable in co-op (as shown at
www.unseen64.net). Another
build showed players swapping
weapons in real time.

Re sident Evil 2
Originally, players would run
into the support characters.
Leon met cop Marvin Branagh
and researcher Linda, while
Elza had a guy named John
and Sherry Birkin.

Re sident Evil 3
The opening of Resident Evil 3
is different in earlier builds.
Instead of showing Jill leaving
her hotel and bursting onto
the streets of Raccoon City,
the beta shows a series of
images of STARS members
arguing with RPD Chief Irons,
before showing Jill walking the
wrecked streets of Racoon City.

trailers. Considering theyre still

the size of small nations, thats
saying something.
Chris originally had a
contextual duck manoeuvre for
evading attacking foes, as seen
in the rst gameplay trailer.
This was axed, with Kawata
particularly displeased with
its removal. It was originally
implemented as a prototype,
Kawata told us. But it got
removed as we implemented
other controls and systems.
That was an exciting and
powerful gimmick, so I was
also disappointed. The art
style is also more subdued than
in earlier versions. Whereas
Resident Evil 5 was originally
going to be high-contrast with
deep saturation, a more muted
colour scheme was chosen for
the nal build.

Re sident Evil 4
In the demo for Resident Evil 4
some unused items that didnt
make it to the nal cut are
still there, including infrared
goggles. Another beta shows
other items in Leons inventory,
including a sh!

Re sident Evil 5
Despite many gamers dearest wishes, Resident
Evil 2 was mostly confined to one location.

Chriss arms are much smaller

than they are in the early
RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER | 109

 Resident Evil Zero featured some innovations (the ability to

drop items, real-time character swapping) but still slavishly
stuck to series conventions.

How many zombies have we killed in this corridor over the

years? Thousands, probably.

that Okamoto sternly refused.

Despite good progress being made
on Resident Evil 2 the game was
set to release in May 1997, and
coverage in the games media had
been slavering Mikami pulled the
plug, with estimates placing the
game at over 60 per cent complete.
Mikami had decried Resident Evil
1.5, as it came to be known, for not
meeting his high standards. The
games cold, T2 esque lighting and
small police station setting didnt
have the appropriate feel, and to
this end the setting was rewritten
externally, starting Capcoms
relationship with scriptwriting rm
Flagship. Not for the rst time, and
certainly not for the last, a Resident
Evil game was going to have to be
completely redesigned. Mikami took
a back seat and allowed Kamiya
to nish the game uninterrupted.
Elza Walker morphed into Claire
Redeld to establish continuity with
the original game, and the Raccoon
Police Department became a more
Gothic environment.
Capcom apologised for the delay
by releasing Resident Evil: Directors
Cut, as Kamiya and the company
crunched to get Resident Evil 2

nished. Like Leon, Kamiya was a

rookie, and like Leon hed have to
battle to make it out of Resident
Evil 2 in one piece.

espite the crushing stress,

Resident Evil 2 was starting to
come together in a way that
1.5 never could, with Kamiya
remarking recently on his Twitter

It is not that easy to attract a

larger audience while not losing
sight of the games essence
feed that the difference between the
two versions was like heaven and
hell. Resident Evil 2 s innovative
zapping system, where scenarios
for Leon and Claire would overlap or
intertwine, lending the game replay
value, was excellent. The games
action focus was turning it into a riproaring slice of entertainment, the
same breed as its predecessor but
distinctly different. If Resident Evil
was Alien, the mansion the creaking
Nostromo, a haunted house, then
Resident Evil 2 was Aliens, and

Ho w remake s SHOULD be done

LONG BEFORE REMAKING old
games for new consoles became
the business plan du-jour for almost
every major publisher, Capcom
showed everyone how it should
be done with the release of the
Resident Evil remake in 2002.
Using the GameCubes thensuperior power, it was produced by
Production Studio 4 and directed by
Shinji Mikami.
RE5 co-producer Masachika
Kawata was on board as well, and
recalled to us the personal pressure
that the project entailed.
The decision was made right
after nishing Dino Crisis 2. I went
to work after a vacation and my
110 | RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER

boss told me that I was joining

the project. I was overworking
for years at that time so I was
mentally exhausted.
The environment was severe, so
personally I do not have many happy
memories in making this. I joined
this project as the leader of the
background designers, but I
did not work as a design leader
after this.
From this pressure, however,
Capcom created diamonds. While
most modern remakes are simply
up-rezzed versions of the old game
given a lick of paint (the recently
released Resident Evil 4 HD being
an example), Capcom really went to

Raccoon City was to be LV-426: this

time it was war.
Resident Evil 2 was an instant
hit. For Mikami, however, the
project would always be tinged
with regret.
My biggest disappointment
was that [the higher-ups] made
me be a producer, and that I had
to step back from actual game

development, he told 1Up.com.

When youre a director, you can
really create the game you want
to create hands-on, whereas when
youre the producer you just kind of
oversee it, so you kind of have to
stand back and watch.
Resident Evil 2 s success was
predictable: as the sequel to one
of the highest-prole games in
PlayStation history it was never
going to fail. With Resident Evil 3,
however, those assurances
disappeared quicker than zombie

A brief behind-the-scenes with

Capcoms glorious GameCube remake

town on the GameCube remake. The

basic tenets were the same guide
Chris and Jill through the mansion,
try not to get killed and even the
pre-rendered backdrops remained.
However, thanks to the power of
Nintendos console, the game looked
truly beautiful, and holds up to this
day. The game also added personal
defence weapons (grenades and
knives that could be used to fend off
zombies that had hold of the player),
the new Crimson Head zombie that
needed to be burned to be truly
nished off, and the reinstatement
of Trevors Letters.
For the uninitiated, the letters
were meant to serve as an

explanation as to why such a stately

mansion has so many bizarre and
illogical traps and puzzles. A series
of diary entries details the fate of
architect George Trevor and his
family as they visit Umbrella founder
Ozwell E Spencer at the estate
Trevor designed, and theyre a grisly
read as Spencer makes sure that
hes the only one that knows the
secret of the Arklay mansion. Throw
in Lisa Trevor the daughter of
George who has been experimented
on mercilessly for years and
now cannot die as a sub-boss
and youve got a fascinating
re-envisioning that deepens and
enriches an already brilliant game.

THE HISTORY OF RESIDENT EVIL

bodies when you leave and
re-enter a room in any Resident
Evil game. Directed neither by
Mikami nor Kamiya, for most of its
development Resident Evil 3 wasnt
going to be an fully-edged sequel.
Instead it was going to be a sidestory, and bore the titles Resident
Evil 2.1 and Resident Evil 1.9 during
development. As ever, Okamoto
had a say, re-instating the series to
full-sequel status, and production
came and went without much
of a hitch. Despite the success of
the game (it would go on to sell
over 3 million copies), it is seen
as the black sheep of the series
perhaps more so than even
Resident Evil 0. Which is perhaps
harsh, given it introduced new
features such as the dodge move,
Live Selection events that enable
you to shape your path through
the game, and of course Nemesis,
the persistent enemy that gives
the game its unique Terminatorstyle avour. Code Veronica too
was successful, if derivative
reintroducing Wesker, Chris and
Claire was a great idea, and the
3D backgrounds the Dreamcast
afforded were much appreciated.
Interestingly, rumours swirled that
Code Veronica had actually started
life as a PlayStation game before
making the leap to the Dreamcast.
In an exclusive interview with
Retro Gamer, Resi 5 co-producer
Masachika Kawata was cagey
when asked if this was the case,
simply stating I dont know.

hile Resident Evil 3, Code

Veronica and 0 were all
good games, they were
sidesteps; evolutionary
instalments rather than giant leaps
forward. For that reason (and also
those of time and space) we have
opted to concentrate on what was
to come. No matter how good
the classic gameplay may have
been (and CV is excellent) many
thought the series was simply
repeating itself, literally in the case
of the Resident Evil remake and
more guratively in Resident Evil
0. It was another romp through
a dusty old building, in this case
the Umbrella Training Facility
next to the Spencer Mansion.
Peer closer and you can see the
wheels of change slowly grinding,
with Capcom experimenting with
real-time player switching and on
the y item dropping. For the most
part, however, it was business as
usual. To stay relevant, Resident
Evil needed a rebirth, not just a
remake, and it got it with RE4.
Hinted at in 1999, nally released
in 2005 after four revisions (one
of which was the uber-action,
Gothic-drenched prototype that
spawned the Devil May Cry series)
Resident Evil 4 set the standard
for all action games to follow, but
again its genesis was difcult and
laborious, guided by Mikamis
stubborn genius and a period of
sharp introspection for the design
team at Capcom. The series
had been recycling the same

W o a h, t h i s
hal l i s

patterns, the
same gameplay
each time,
producer Hiroyuki
Kobayashi states on The
Making of Resident Evil 4.
So I spoke to Mikamisan
about reshaping the
game,
winning back the fans and winning
new fans that would never play a
Resident Evil game.
Mikami threw himself into the
production with gusto. As part of
the Capcom Five, an exclusive
agreement between Capcom and
Nintendo to put out ve games on
the GameCube system, Mikami was
nothing if not zealous. He insisted
that Resident Evil 4 wouldnt appear
on the PS2, threatening that he
would cut his head off if such a
thing came to pass. Naturally, it
did, but thankfully Mikami hasnt
suffered a decapitation yet.
He approached the game with
the same attacking instinct as he
had the PR. In the directors
chair that he so coveted, he
began another reign of
perfectionist terror. There
was also the old pressure
on his shoulders that he
hadnt felt since the rst
game: Mikami knew that
if Resident Evil 4 hadnt
been a hit, it would
have been the end for
the franchise he
helped create.
Yet another
countdown
had started.

d a n g e r o u s!
Finding out
who wrote
that dialogue
NO HISTORY OF Resident Evil
is complete without mention of
the dialogue that has given us
the fear over the years, and not
always for the right reasons.
The original games dialogue
was written in-house by Kenichi
Iwao, and is rightly regarded
as both the best and worst the
series has to offer. Barry Burton
got most of the best lines: who
can forget classics such as You
were almost a Jill sandwich, I
hope this isnt Chriss blood and
The master of unlocking!
Sadly for everyone involved,
Resident Evil 2 saw the
introduction of Capcoms
relationship with Flagship,
a company geared around
improving the quality of game
scripts. Founded by Noboru
Sugimura and Yoshiki Okamoto
(along with two others) after
they had collaborated on putting
Resident Evil 2 s script in order,
the company would then advise
on Resident Evil 3 s script (again
written internally). Mikami would
co-write 4, before four different
writers would collaborate on
Resident Evil 5. Although sadly
we dont know who wrote Albert
Weskers unintentionally dirty
complete, global saturation line.
Unfortunately, Sugimura passed
away in 2005, but his legacy still
stands today.

PLAYSTATION | 111

Whos the bo ss?

Running down Resident Evils

best baddies

5. Black Tiger Spider

(RESIDENT EVIL, RESIDENT EVIL REMAKE)

Nestled in the heart of the Spencer Estates
underground tunnel network, the Black Tiger
Spider is easily defeated, but not so easily
forgotten. Horrifying in the PSone original,
heart-attack-inducing in the remake, the Black
Tiger makes it onto this list for nearly killing
arachnophobes everywhere.

4. Krau ser v s. Leon

(RESIDENT EVIL 4)
Leons showdown with his former partner
is the pinnacle of Resi 4 s use of QTEs.
A cinematic knife-ght, this highlights
everything the game does well: a feeling of
power, OTT action and the tension that comes
from knowing death is around every corner.

3. Albert We sker
(RESIDENT EVIL 5)
Chris and Sheva have to work together to take out
the virus-enhanced madman in Resident Evil 5 s
gripping nale. Nice mechanics turning out the
lights so he cant see you; teaming up to inject him
with a strength-sapping serum complement the
satisfying feeling of nally kicking Weskers ass.

2. Li sa Trevor
(RESIDENT EVIL REMAKE)
Lisa is horribly disgured, and her mind has
been savagely twisted after spending years
being experimented upon by Wesker, Birkin
and Spencer. Unkillable, theres a both a
horrible feeling of helplessness and a twinge
of compassion as she stalks you in the
remake, begging for a death you cant give
her. Absolutely chilling.

1. Neme si s
(RESIDENT EVIL 3)
If Resident Evil 2 is akin to Aliens, then 3 is The
Terminator: a lean chase movie with a villain that
seemingly cant be stopped. Hearing his signature
music, and seeing him cry STAAAAAARS! is
enough to send a chill down any gamers spine,
and he keeps on coming and coming

112 | PLAYSTATION

Mikami was ruthless with his

changes. Those infamous door
opening screens and xed camera
angles were ditched for a thirdperson, over-the-shoulder camera,
and Resident Evil 4 s story featured
an upgraded Leon on a mission to
remote and rural Spain to rescue
the US Presidents kidnapped
daughter. Leon was a far cry from
the foppish cop of Resident Evil 2 :
now he was all-action, diving out of
windows and suplexing enemies
like he was auditioning for WWE.
Umbrella Corporation and the
series-dening zombies were gone,
replaced with rural, burlap-sackwearing Spanish cult members and
crazed yet intelligent parasitic mobs
straight out of a Lucio Fulci movie.
Mikami had evolved the fear from
survival-horror to panic action: less
a focus on puzzles and hoarding
ammo as it was negotiating the
waves of devious foes.
Capcom needed to be bold in
its changes; it was, and the rest is
history. Kobiyashi would go on to
call Resident Evil 4 the masterpiece
of the series, because all the
mechanics are as tuned, precise and
as co-dependent on each other as
the movement of the ne, expensive
watches that Okamoto once insisted
to 1Up.com that everyone wears
at Capcom. In the years following
its release, it became clear how
much Resident Evil 4 changed
videogames. Suddenly, you could
see Resident Evil 4 everywhere.
As if he needed to, Cliff Bleszinski
told an audience at GDC 2007
that he used RE4 as an inspiration
for Gears Of War, specically the
pacing and the camera, and Visceral
Games Dead Space series is also
heavily inuenced.

THE HISTORY OF RESIDENT EVIL

The sound
of terror

Code Veronica X saw new cut-scenes added, including this

Matrix-inspired fist fight between Wesker and Chris.

Its stupendous design had

infected videogames, and its legacy
was evolving. Resident Evil 4 wasnt
just an expertly-paced, relentlessly
playable update of a decaying
franchise: it had dened a genre,
and continues to dene it, with the
over-the-shoulder view being its
clear legacy.

One of the greatest openings of any game, Resident Evil 4 s really set the tone for the whole experience.

nother rough ride then,

but it was ultimately worth
it. Fantastic sales had
reinvigorated the series
nancially, but more importantly
overwhelming critical acclaim
had put the franchise back on the
pedestal it had slid wearily off in
years prior. Resident Evil was back.
Mikami, however, wouldnt be.
For those that had to produce the
follow-up, old hands Jun Takeuchi
and Masachika Kawata, there
was surely no way to match 4s
achievement. We were under a
lot of pressure, Kawata told Retro
Gamer in an exclusive interview.
But we also got a lot of support.
The concept would see
Chris Redeld return as the
star, investigating Resident Evil
outbreaks in Africa and eventually
tying up his long-running feud with
series antagonist Albert Wesker.
He would be teamed with Sheva

Shevas introduction in Resident Evil 5 is fine in co-op, but her AI is too troublesome to make singleplayer anything other than a chore.

Evil 5 was initially developed as a

single-player game). Either way,
co-op would be something the main
series had never seen before.
The setting would be destined to
reap the whirlwind of controversy,
with Capcom being accused (and
sternly refuting) accusations of
racism, but Africa would offer
the producers interesting new
gameplay options. One of these

We were under a lot of

pressure [on Resident Evil 5], but
we also got a lot of support
Alomar, a female soldier who would
give the game its co-op partner. The
production duo saw Resident Evil
4 s narrative as akin to a side-story,
and were keen to bring things full
circle. They also wisely kept the
camera style and action focus of 4,
and decided early on right from
the start, Takeuchi told Gamasutra
to focus on co-op play (although
production director Yasuhiro Anpo
contradicts him in the Complete
Ofcial Guide Collectors Edition
by Piggyback, stating that Resident

would be the use of light and

shadow, heat and shade. Originally,
the light was to have a huge effect
on the player, who would have to
seek solace from the scorching sun,
but the idea was dropped.
Takeuchi noted in an interview
with Famitsu: Until now, computer
graphics have been very good at
doing dark... Ive seen a lot of
Western developers using light as
a motif, and Im always keeping
my eye on many games. But I still
believe we at Capcom are the best.

Its a telling
statement, that of
keeping an eye on
Western developers,
because Resident Evil 5
has been accused of both
being in awe of Western
design philosophy
(co-op, a shoe-horned
in cover system) and
not changing enough
with the times. Takeuchi
and Kawata would
describe the project as
extremely demanding
on both a physical and
psychological level in
Piggybacks Complete
Ofcial Guide
Collectors Edition and
Takeuchi noted to
G4TV that his
experiences on Resident
Evil 5 had gone some
way to inuencing his
decision on whether or
not to work on the next
numbered title in the
series. Right now,
pretty much every day
myself, Kawata and
another producer at
Capcom Japan are

WHILE RESIDENT EVILS dialogue

may have been laughably bad since
the outset, one aural element of
the series that has always been
rst-class is the score Capcom uses
to anchor its scares and give each
Resident Evil its rich atmosphere.
Utter the name Masami Ueda to
all but the most hardcore Resident
Evil fans and youll probably get
a puzzled look in response, but
anyone who has played the rst
three games would be able to
identify work he collaborated on in
a heartbeat. From the haunting-yet
comforting melancholy of Peace
Of Mind (Resident Evil s save room
theme) to the terrifying strings
of Night Of Day (the mansions
second oor theme) and onto the
relentless warcry beat of Nemesiss
theme, Ueda and his contributors
(including, but not limited to,
Viewtiful Joe composer Akari Kaida)
crafted just as much of Resident
Evil s mystique and intrigue as
Mikami and company did.
Ueda stepped aside for Resident
Evil 4, where the Spanish setting
and new action focus called for a
different vibe. Misao Senbongi took
over, reecting the drastic change
of pace in the music. Senbongi
wasted no time in driving home
the differences, with the second
piece from the games score,
First Contact. It is composed of
passionate singing, fast acoustic
guitar and driving rhythmic beats,
and underscores the cultural
difference of Leons adventure in
remote and rural Spain.
Resident Evil 5 saw Kota Suzuki
take over as lead composer. For
Takeuchi and Kawata, the recording
of the score was a reminder of just
how big the franchise had become.
We were completely amazed
when we heard over a hundred
musicians play [at the 20th Century
Fox Hollywood Studio] in perfect
harmony by just reading their score
sheets, practically instantly, without
rehearsing, the pair state in their
foreword to The Complete Ofcial
Guide To Resident Evil 5. Often
overlooked, Resident Evil s music is
key to both its thrills and chills. After
all, what would the rst game be
without Moonlight Sonata?
PLAYSTATION | 113

Side sho w f reaks

Getting to grips with Resident Evils
extended universe
LIKE ALL FAMOUS franchises,
Resident Evil has mutated and
evolved faster than even its
creators could have imagined.
As well as novelisations,
comic books, action gures,
big-budget lms and even
interactive ghost houses built
like the Spencer Mansion,
Resident Evil has branched out
into other videogame genres as
Capcom has aimed to exploit
its killer franchise, establishing
side-stories and tying the
universe together into one
unwieldy package.
This trend began in earnest
with the release of 2000s
Resident Evil: Survivor, a light
gun title that was notable for
being the rst Resident Evil
game seen from a rst-person
perspective. Players took on
the role of Ark Thompson, an
amnesiac who awakens on
an Umbrella-owned island
dedicated to spewing out bioorganic weapons. Poor controls
and lukewarm gameplay,
however, ensured that the game
wasnt a critical success.
Undeterred, Capcom gave
us Gun Survivor 2 soon after,
which took elements and
scenarios from Code Veronica
and repackaged them into
another light gun-themed
FPS. Again, the result was not
critically successful. Neither
was Resident Evil Gaiden for
the Game Boy Colour, a spin-off
that saw Leon and Barry thwart
an outbreak on a cruise ship,
sadly held back by the primitive
technology of the time.
Much ner was 2003s
Resident Evil Dead Aim, yet
another FPS blaster set on a
cruise ship. Introducing US and
Chinese special agents Bruce
McGivern and Fong Ling, it has
ties to the main series but is at
heart a rudimentary shooter that
is light on scares.
114 | RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER

2004 saw Capcoms bravest

gamble yet, with the release of
Resident Evil Outbreak, a teamfocused co-op experience that
saw up to four players working
together to escape Raccoon
City. Good decisions (having all
the character be normal people
with special skills that aid their
escape is a nice touch) clashed
with bad no voice chat! to
ensure that both Outbreak and
its sequel are remembered as
frustrating missteps, though
they are ripe for a current-gen
update now online gaming is a
more stable experience.
After a series of misses,
Capcom returned to the light
gun mine it had furrowed so
deeply, with two on-rails Wii
titles that are both canonically
sound and actually fun to play.
The rst is Resident Evil: The
Umbrella Chronicles, which
is notable for telling the RE
story from Albert Weskers
perspective and being the rst
Resident Evil game to show
Umbrella founder Ozwell
Spencer on screen. The sequel,
Darkside Chronicles, is as close
as were going to get to a fullblown Resident Evil 2 remake
for the time being. Deepening
Krausers relationship with Leon
while also enabling players
to revisit the RPD, its well
worth checking out for any
fan who wants to expand their
knowledge of the sequel.
Finally, theres the thirdperson shooter, Operation
Raccoon City, a team-based
shooter that was developed by
Slant 6, which developed the
so-so Socom Confrontation.
While it gains kudos for being
set in and around the events
of Resident Evil 2, the actual
game itself is pure bobbins and
is both horribly generic and
suffers from bugs and terrible
gameplay. Best forget about it.

playing blackjack to decide who is

going to be stuck with the
responsibility of making the next
episode in the series.
Design changes, controversy
and the changing landscape of
game design (both scally and
geographically) had taken their toll.
Takeuchi would state to Famitsu that
Resident Evil is known for being
able to keep up with the times, but
for many fans, 5 didnt. AI-controlled
Sheva was a nightmare compared

featured popular areas from past

games, but lost a lot of its appeal
on the second-hand market due to
its inability to delete saves. Theres
a iOS port too, but its not as good,
being ill-suited to touch-based
controls. Another 3DS exclusive
appeared in 2012 in the form of
Resident Evil: Revelations. A timed
exclusive, it was eventually ported
to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013.
While the core adventure is best
described as average, it earns

Were playing blackjack to decide

wholl be stuck with the responsibility
of making the next episode
to Gears Of War s Dom (the obvious
inspiration for the addition) and the
inability to move and shoot would
prove a sticking point for fans who
had played EAs Dead Space. Its
destined to be remembered as a
good effort, stuck between two
worlds. Kawata at least has refused
to dwell on it. I am keen to think
about the future of the series rather
than the ones in the past, he told
Retro Gamer. I will constantly do
my best to deliver something great
for all the Resident Evil fans.

apcom followed up Resident

Evil 5 with the ambitious
Resident Evil 6, which featured
three separate story lines that
focused on some of the franchises
most beloved characters, including
Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong. It was
an interesting experiment, essentially
being three different Resident Evil
games in one. Despite exceptionally
good sales, though, it divided critics
and has some of the lowest scores
for a main game in the franchise.
And yet the series has kept rumbling
on with varying degrees of success.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

additional points for its excellent

Raid Mode that allowed up to
two players to ght together. The
success of Resident Evil: Revelations
led to a decent sequel that arrived
in 2015. It marked a big change
in direction for Capcom, as the
company chose to use an episodic
format and set the game between
the events of Resident Evil 5 and 6.
Its a solid adventure, but is indebted
to Naughty Dogs The Last Of Us,
which had arrived in 2013. Capcom
also released an impressive HD port
of its excellent GameCube remake
of the original Resi and has similar
plans for Resident Evil Zero.
Despite the franchises recent
wobbles, theres no sign of the
series dying yet. Why? Because
mans oldest emotion is fear, and
we love playing it out in controlled
environments, preferably with a big
gun and bad dialogue to go with it.
The Resident Evil series has had its
ups and downs, but its importance
in the world of videogames is
difcult to understate, as is the
special place it has in the hearts of
those who thought it safe to enter
that rundown mansion back in 1996.

One of the biggest triumphs of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 was the return of Barry
Burton who was looking for his daughter Moira, another playable character.

Special thanks to Paul Freshwater of www.crimson-head.com and

Luca Taborelli of www.unseen64.net for their help with this article

THE HISTORY OF RESIDENT EVIL

For a franchise with so many instalments, and hence so

many memorable characters, it would be near-impossible
to feature them all. So weve narrowed it down to the main
players on the Resident Evil stage, from Wesker to Claire
Redeld. Sadly, Tofu didnt make the cut

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4, and is dispatched to Spain to rescue Ashley
Graham, the kidnapped First Daughter. Has
a contentious relationship with spy Ada
Wong that developed in Resident Evil 2.
CONNECTIONS: Claire Redeld,
RPD, Ada Wong
APPEARANCES: Resident
Evil 2, Resident Evil Gaiden,
Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil:
The Darkside Chronicles,
Operation: Raccoon City

LEON S. KENNEDY

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BARRY BURTON

Shes the master of unlocking and Chriss old

partner. After escaping Raccoon by chopper in
Resident Evil 3, she turns up in Resident Evil 5 as
a zombied killing machine who is controlled
by Wesker. Eventually, however, she is freed
from her mind control and escapes with
Chris and Sheva.
CONNECTIONS: STARS, Wesker,
Umbrella, Barry Burton,
Chris Redeld
APPEARANCES: Resident
Evil, Resident Evil 3,
Resident Evil 5 & 6,
The Mercenaries 3DS

Affable father gure as well as weapons specialist

to the STARS Alpha Team, Barry is protective of
Jill, saving her life on more than one occasion in
the Spencer Mansion. Blackmailed by Wesker
into joining his plot in Resident Evil, he helps
Jill escape Raccoon City in Resident Evil 3
seconds before the city is destroyed.
CONNECTIONS: STARS,
Jill Valentine, Umbrella, Chris
Redeld, Albert Wesker
APPEARANCES: Resident
Evil, Resident Evil 3, Resident
Evil Gaiden, Resident Evil
5, The Mercenaries 3D

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ALBERT WESKER
Series villain and Chriss nemesis (and tormentor),
Wesker pulls all the strings in his plot for world
domination. Assassination, subterfuge and even
genocide are all in a days work, and his tendrils
snake through the whole series.
CONNECTIONS: Ozwell Spencer, Ada
Wong, Chris Redeld, Umbrella, STARS,
William Birkin, HCF, Tricell,
The Organisation
APPEARANCES: Resident Evil,
Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil:
Code Veronica, Resident Evil
4 (side-story), Resident Evil
5 +6, Resident Evil: The
Umbrella Chronicles,
Resident Evil: The
Darkside Chronicles

il:
Ev

Rogue s
gallery

Breaking down Resident Evils main players

PLAYSTATION | 115

Gran Turismo
 PLATFORM: PlayStation  DEVELOPER: Polyphony Digital  RELEASED: 1997

s it possible to have too much power? When you rst get

hold of a fully-tuned Nissan Skyline GT-R V Spec, you
might just think so. This is a car that practically protests at
being forced below 60mph, and one that exceeds 200mph
without issue on a decent straight. Its a capable machine, but one
which demands respect and expertise from its driver at all times.
Taking the wheel for the rst time is a frightening situation youll
nd yourself shtailing across the track and struggling not to spin
out at corners. If youre keeping up with the pack at all, its purely
because of the unhinged speed and power of the machine.
But if you spend a little while in the Skyline youll come to adjust
your braking distances, compensate for the vehicles heavy frame
and stay on the track, bringing your lap times tumbling down. It
still seems like youre a long way from fully taming the unstable
beast, but youve managed to gain control over one of the best
vehicles Gran Turismo has to offer.

BIO
Not many games are in the
works for ve years, but
Gran Turismo was worth
every single day of labour.
Having entered development
two years before the
PlayStations launch, the
game arrived in the nal days
of 1997 and redened players
expectations of console
racing games. Its packaging
proudly declared it to be The
Real Driving Simulator and
it was hard to argue, thanks
to an impressive handling
model, a 140 car roaster and
stunning visuals. Universal
critical acclaim followed, and
a staggering 10.85 million
copies were sold.

116 | PLAYSTATION

MORE CLASSIC GRAN

TOURISMO MOMENTS
Passing Your Test
One of Gran Turismos quirks
is the licence system, which
requires you to participate in
a series of racing challenges.
These can be rather strict, with
automatic failure for leaving the
track. The A Licence is much
harder to obtain than the faintly
useless B Licence, but your opportunities to race are much greater
once you manage to pass its tests.

From All Angles

When Gran Turismo launched, if
you were able to watch one of
its replays without being blown
away, there was a good chance
you were just dead. Visually,
the game was peerless. The
environments were incredible,
every single one of the cars was
modelled with care (and oh-so-shiny) and the dynamic camera
angles gave the appearance of a televised race.

Petrolheads Paradise
The range of cars and turning
options in Gran Turismo was
unprecedented for a console
game, and it was something
of a dream come true for the
racing enthusiast. A dedicated
player could nd hours of
satisfaction simply by buying
cars and modifying them, in an attempt to extract the maximum
performance from every single one of the games 140 cars.

The Home Straight

Youve narrowly held a lead for
the last half of the nal lap, but
could have taken that last corner
better. Now its time to panic. As
you near the nish line, beads
of sweat form on your forehead,
temptation overwhelms you and
you hit the rear camera button.
Your rival is close, but not quite close enough. You havent screwed
everything up, and victory is assured. Phew.

PLAYSTATION | 117

A big-eyed bouncing
rabbit and a game that let
you literally play your CD
collection. Paul Drury asks
Masaya Matsuura all about
his thing on a string

e want to clear this up

at the start. As much as
we adore the minimalism
of Vib-Ribbon, we
wonder what caused the man who
had introduced the PlayStation
generation to the candy-coloured,
Day-Glo worlds of PaRappa The
Rapper and UmJammer Lammy to
decide to shoot his next creature
feature in black and white?

118 | PLAYSTATION

Masaya Matsuura leans back on his

chair and smiles broadly. Actually, we
did try to create a colourful world at rst
but, you know, if you have sh and chips
every day, you want to try other dishes.
The very English analogy is a sweet
touch. We are sat in plush ofces
overlooking Nottinghams grand
Council House, grabbing an hour with
Matsuura-san before he delivers his
keynote speech as part of the annual
GameCity festival. We are joined by
NanaOn-Shas director of development
Dewi Tanner, who helps with the
occasional bit of translation, though
Matsuuras command of our language
demonstrates his long interest in
Western culture. And were here to
discover the tale behind the cult PSone
title Vib-Ribbon.
In the late Nineties, when everyone
was going mad for polygons and
the third dimension, along skipped

a resolutely 2D rabbit balanced on a

wobbly tightrope. Matsuura might have
already given us rapping dogs and
guitar-wielding sheep, but this bug-eyed
bunny still felt out of step with the times.
If the bizarre lead character and esoteric
rhythm-action gameplay wasnt enough,
hed gone and done it all with vector
graphics. Was this due to a misspent
youth playing Asteroids in the arcades of
Akihabara, perhaps?
No, actually, laughs Matsuura,
but I really love vector graphics. When
I started to make my own music,
everything went to the computer from
analogue media, analogue waves. I was
so excited to have friends who tried to
create something using computers. One
of them, who had a big impact on me,
was part of the computer graphics team.
At that time, computer graphics didnt
have texture. It was wireframe. I really
liked wireframe and this was the reason
for Vib-Ribbon.
The distinct visual style came later,
though. The roots of the rhythmic rabbit
began shortly after the completion
of PaRappa The Rapper in 1996,
when Matsuura and his NanaOn-Sha
development team were made a rather
unusual proposition. The game began
as an advertisement for the MercedesBenz A-Class car, he explains. They
wanted to appeal to a younger audience
in Japan, so they contacted Sony about
using a game to promote the car. We
were approached to take on the project.
The very rst prototype was not a
wireframe, just a regular polygon-based
car bumping along a road according to
the audio. But it was a living car. The
headlights were the eyes!
Even at this early stage, the idea of
using an external audio source to not

THE MAKING OF: VIB-RIBBON

only provide a soundtrack but to actually
trigger actions in the game was already
in place. However, what Matsuura had
in mind was not what he was seeing
on screen. Duh, duh, duh, duh, he
puffs, moving his hand up and down
to indicate the repetitive plod of that
initial demo. I really hated that rst
system! It was very simple. It is easy
to synchronise only the bass drum but
usually music contains various types
of frequencies together. All the things
happening on the road were the same
type of things. It really didnt feel like it
was synchronised with the audio.
NanaOn-Sha wasnt the only one
facing technical difculties. The mighty
Mercedes-Benz also had to return to the
drawing board after a serious blow to
its launch plans. The A-Class car had
trouble at that time from strong winds
coming from the side and it falling over,
says Matsuura, raising his eyebrows.
That is a design problem that had to be
xed! So now our platform is gone and
we almost gave up the project.
Fortunately, enough young team
members encouraged Matsuura to
persevere with the idea of utilising
external audio, and one particularly
talented programmer made a crucial
breakthrough. He discovered how to
analyse CD audio using the PlayStation
hardware, he explains. Kind of a
security hole in the PlayStation system.
I think maybe the system designer for
Sony was very upset!
Timing is everything in Vib-Ribbon. Performing a string of
loop-de-loops is especially satisfying.

WHATS THE
FREQUENCY, ALEX?
Matsuura has been
dubbed the father of
rhythm-action games
and Alex Rigopulos,
head of Harmonix, the
home of Rock Band, has
a personal debt of
gratitude to him.
He came to me before
they did Frequency,
says Matsuura, and
he had a very smart
system. They used a joystick for controlling the audio. How you moved
it could change the notes and the frequency but for me, it sounded too
random. I said to him something very simple: think about the game. This
is a very interesting experimental system but maybe the audience needs
play, excitement, results and be satised by playing the game. Focus on
these things for your content. Sound advice. We wonder if he has any
predictions for future developments in the eld. I think we have great
possibilities for game-based music and music-based games. I really want
to explore different categories of music for example, serious classical
music. Id love to conduct the London Philharmonic!
The happy couple:
Matsuura and Vibri.

We always thought Vibri

was a ballerina, dancing in
the street, or a figure skater
MATSUURA ON HIS GRACEFUL HEROINE

Those button
combinations explained.

This technical innovation was

accompanied by a conceptual one. The
headlights of the Mercedes morphed
into the wide eyes of a hyperactive
rabbit, and the road became the ribbon
that she was dancing along. Thus Vibri,
the heroine of this most inventive of
music games, was born, yet her form
was anything but stable. Follow the
rhythm correctly and she becomes a
princess, but mistime her steps and
she devolves into a frog and then a
lowly worm, wiggling along the wire.
Theres almost a fairytale quality to the
set of transformations.
We always thought she was a
ballerina, dancing in the street, or a
gure skater, muses Matsuura. By
becoming a frog and the way it moved,
we wanted to make you feel bad when
devolving and elated when evolving.
There is certainly something euphoric
when Vibri successfully negotiates
20 obstacles without tripping up and
becomes the angelic Super-Vibri, yet
that could be a tricky task. The game
uses four basic shapes square, circle,

[Amiga] The Amiga release

managed to update the
graphics without sacrificing
the spirit of Rogue.

IN THE KNOW
 PUBLISHER: SONY
 DEVELOPER: NANAONSHA
 PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION
 RELEASED: 1999
 GENRE: RHYTHM ACTION

PLAYSTATION | 119

triangle and a wiggly line which

correspond to the left and right shoulder
buttons, down on the D-pad and X
respectively. Hit the correct button
as you approach the shape and Vibri
gracefully vaults it. Get it wrong or mess
up your timing and she blunders through
it, ending your streak with a painful
electric shock. Too many mistakes and
you descend the evolutionary scale until
the song abruptly ends in failure.
Sounds simple? It certainly is at rst,
and the use of only four inputs at a
time when buttons were beginning to
proliferate across joypads everywhere
gives the game a charming retro feel,
which nicely complements the oldschool visuals. However, soon youll be
faced with weirdly shaped obstacles that
combine two of the basic pieces in one
and require some dextrous nger work
to negotiate.
Those combined shapes are
designed in a very intuitive way,
explains Matsuura. Triangle and square
its easy to combine these in the
brain with the two buttons. That was

Matsuura plays Rhyme

Rider Kerorican on the
WonderSwan while
your correspondent
goes weak at the knees.

An exclusive glimpse of NanaOn-Shas aborted

Mercedes-Benz project that evolved into Vib-Ribbon.

important to us. I wanted a game that

used both hands together. My private
reason is that Im very addicted to
playing drums and to play them well,
you need to combine the right and left
hand to t the rhythm.
Vib-Ribbon can be an almost
therapeutic experience when eyes
and ngers are working in harmony,
but as the speed and intricacy of the
courses increases, it can become a
dissonant nightmare. Things become
even more challenging when your view
of the ribbon swirls to a new viewpoint
mid-song and, if that wasnt enough,
the pieces start to oat back and forth,
changing the order in which they must
be traversed in brain-addling fashion.
That was a bug! laughs Matsuura.
I had an old friend, a recording engineer
who had worked with my old band
Psy-S, who now worked for Sony on
music. After PaRappa, Sony assigned

him to the project and he helped write

the script. He found the bug that made
the obstacles move from side to side
and the programmer really liked that! He
said we should keep it.
Now, if Vib-Ribbon danced to a
different drum in terms of game design,
what really made it unique was that
you could too. Once the game was
loaded, you could insert any CD from
your collection and the tunes became
not only the backing track, but the
music was actually used to create a

Vib-Ribbon was released

in Europe but not North
America. Suckers.

GOOD VIBRATIONS
Though not direct Mojib-Ribbon PS2 (2003)
The same concept as Vib-Ribbon
sequels, Matsuura
but using text les. At that time, the
PS2 was trying to be net-oriented.
and his team have
Our focus was a simple text message,
created two spiritual
which would be exchangeable online.
We wanted to carry it into the game.
successors to
Next, we found a speech synthesizer
Vib-Ribbon, though
developed by a Japanese phone
company, and we hooked it to a PS2.
neither got a release
We worked with the engineer for
outside Japan
almost two years so if you input a text
le it would rap the rhythm. We made
kind of a rap-thesizer!
120 | PLAYSTATION

Vib-Ripple PS2 (2004)

At that time in Japan, everyone was
exchanging pictures on their phones.
We made the picture the ring of a
trampoline. The system analyses areas
of the same colour and if the shape
looks like, for example, a mountain, like
a triangle shape, the system will assign
a mountain to that part and if you keep
jumping on it, a mountain will come
out! If you are successful you get the
stamp of a mountain and you can use it
to decorate the picture and send it back
from your mobile.

THE MAKING OF: VIB-RIBBON

Masaya Matsuura (left)

and Dewi Tanner at
Nottinghams GameCity
festival in 2009.

Complete a course and

you are rewarded with a
little bit of song and dance
from Vibri the better
you did, the longer and
more enthusiastic her
performance.

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
PARAPPA THE RAPPER
SYSTEM: PSONE
YEAR: 1996

RHYME RIDER KERORICAN

new course layout. Suddenly you could
skip along to Sonic Youth, race the
ribbon to Ravel, or vibrate to The Verve.
The use of external audio in such an
innovative way showed that Matsuura
was denitely looking to the future. Eight
seconds into the future, to be precise.
The system looks eight seconds
ahead of what you are listening to and
calculates what is going to happen,
he explains. We created a window
to quantify the audio and if something
interesting happens in this time, we pick
it. It is about nding the most interesting
frequency changes. If we see breaks
or louder parts, we pick them and they
become some sort of obstacle. The
table is a very complicated one.
Matsuura spent three weeks writing
this script, deciding how frequently
the system would select something
interesting to convert into a shape and
searching for the optimum window size.
The process also required experimenting
with various musical genres, to oftensurprising effect. We had lots of CDs
on our desks and we would try each
one. I remember one day I played with
Brian Eno. No pieces came out
Whether you were into ambient
soundscapes, dub reggae or speed
metal, half the fun was seeing how your
music of choice would be rendered.
While you were rewarded with a
score at the end of a level, your tally
was represented by swirling symbols,
signifying a move away from traditional
score-chasing. You could argue that
Vib-Ribbon wasnt so much a game
as another way to enjoy music, which
Matsuura was well aware of.
We had already had success with
PaRappa, which was, of course, a
hip-hop game. I was really satised that
many people love PaRappa, but I was so

I remember playing Vib-Ribbon

with a Brian Eno CD. No pieces
came out

SYSTEM: WONDERSWAN
YEAR: 2000

MAJOR MINORS
MAJESTIC MARCH PICTURED
SYSTEM: WII
YEAR: 2008

AIRPORT MUSIC ISNT GAMING MUSIC

Successfully negotiate 20 obstacles in a row

and you can become the winged Super-Vibri,
but mess up nine times and
you slip down the evolutionary scale.

surprised that many others didnt! So I

decided to make a sequel, UmJammer
Lammy, using rock music. Im very
happy to have two successful titles at
that time but I hadnt had the experience
of the audience loving both. It was a
big thing for me. Someone comes, for
example, and says that they really like
PaRappa and another says that they
really like Lammy, but nobody says both!
It was kind of expected, I suppose, but it
gave me a complex feeling, so I decided
to make a music game where the user
can choose their own tracks.
Thus Matsuura worked out how
to please everyone, and his PSone
swansong gave us a truly individual
experience. One of the joys is tackling
a cherished tune that throws up a
monumentally difcult course and
somehow nishing it, as if your ngers
are responding to the madness without
recourse to your befuddled brain. You
feel at one with the music. For us, it was
Motrheads Ace Of Spades that rst
pushed us into the zone.
Yes, I know that feeling, Matsuura
nods. You know about phantom pain?
When you have lost a limb but still feel

pain, even when it is not there? That

is pain, but games are fun. You might
not be plugged in with a cable to your
console, but you feel like you have a
connection. Lets call it phantom fun!
We all laugh at that. As Matsuura
and his entourage prepare to meet their
public, we just have time to ask whether
Vibri might one day return. They
exchange some furtive glances.
There is no clear answer, says
Tanner. We really want to keep making
Vib-Ribbon types of games. With
Vibri and to some extent PaRappa, it
depends on how much call there is
from customers. If we start seeing
more and more calls for these games
then who knows
It is still possible, adds Matsuura.
I think about it every day! It will never
disappear from my brain.
Time to raise your voices in unison.

PLAYSTATION | 121

Released in 2000 for the PlayStation and PC, Hogs Of War is

a hilarious, charming and mildly insane turn-based strategy game
in which warring armies of pigs blow each other to smithereens
in the pursuit of swill. Lead programmer Jacob Habgood
explains to Phil Locke the method behind the madness gas
ith just ten seconds
left on the turn clock,
your gamble pays off.
Successfully parachuting
behind enemy lines, you grab the
Super TNT and immediately set
about making your friends life a
brief misery. FOOM! The green
team strides the battleeld like a
COL-OS-USS!
Theres no point trying to hide it Hogs
Of War is very similar to Worms. Both
games draw from the same well, in that
theyre best played with friends, and
remembered not just as games but as
exercises in schadenfreude. However,
Hogs started out as something different.
The idea for Hogs Of War came from
Ian Stewart, explains Jacob
Habgood, lead programmer
on Hogs Of War, referring to
the founder and managing
director of Gremlin
Interactive, the publisher and
developer where work on
Hogs began. Gremlin,
at that stage, was
both a publisher and
a developer. So, unlike
today where I suppose
there tends to be a
lot of independence
between the two, a lot of
the old publishing houses
had the development side and
the publishing side both in one building,

W
IN THE KNOW
 PUBLISHER: INFOGRAMES
 RELEASED: 2000
 DEVELOPER:
INFOGRAMES SHEFFIELD
 PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION, PC
 GENRE: STRATEGY

122 | PLAYSTATION

owned by one person that person, in

this case, being Ian Stewart.
He had been to see Babe and felt
that we should be making a game based
on pigs. At the time, I think the top two
games in the chart were Command
& Conquer and Worms. As much as
everybody compares Hogs to Worms,
it was actually Command & Conquer
that was the original brief a kind of
Command & Conquer with pigs.
Hogs Of War veterans will be surprised
to learn that Chris Noonans cinematic
cute-fest was an inuence on the game,
and may well now wonder whether Babe
would have been improved with mortars.
The Command & Conquer inuence also
isnt immediately apparent to the player
without being a shameless copy, Hogs Of
War certainly seems to wear the inuence
of Worms on its sleeve, both in its turnbased gameplay and in its fantastically
British sense of humour.
Jacob agrees: Thats denitely what it
became, but it started off being a concept
based around a turn-based strategy game
with pigs. The single-player campaign
was actually considered to be more of a
priority during a lot of the development
period, but the team eventually came to
realise what a strong multiplayer title they
had on their hands.
Jacob explains it simply: We thought
about single-player more. But, as we
got through development, we started to
realise that it was the multiplayer that

people were getting very excited about.

So it probably was that more effort was
invested in the single-player, but a lot of
people prefer the multiplayer game.
Hogs Of War isnt by any means an
entirely original game, but what it lacks in
originality it more than makes up in sheer
fun. Its a pants-wavingly mad game, in
which you, while being alternately praised
and berated by Rik Mayall, control a squad
of armed pigs and take them to war in
a quest for a thinly veiled metaphor
namely, swill. Alternatively, you can forgo
the single-player campaign and receive
praise and abuse from Mayall for failing to
shoot friends properly.
Surprisingly for such a silly, fun game,
the development period was lengthy,
with problems involving who would
actually end up publishing the game. It
was started under Gremlin interactive,
Jacob begins, then Gremlin oated on
the stock exchange. Things didnt go so
well Gremlin ended up being bought
by Infogrames, the French company.
Along with near cancellations of the game
Jacob remembers two separate times
where we were ghting for the life of the
project to continue the uncertainty
started to draw out the development
further and further.
It was a bit complicated. You were
constantly having to re-justify the games
existence to a new set of management.
The development time for Hogs Of War
was probably about three years from

THE MAKING OF: HOGS OF WAR

With the aid of a jetpack, pigs can actually fly.

Its always good to reach out and touch one of your old friends.

Although pigs flying isnt out of the question in this game, swimming sadly is.

start to nish, which is an insane amount

of time. That was partly due to the fact
that there were these periods where
everythings on hold, when the company
gets taken over, things dont move
forward, nobody knows whats gonna
continue, whats not gonna continue.
However, Jacob doesnt feel that this
hindered the games development much.
Having gone through several periods of
this kind of thing, it did enable us to spend
that time improving the game. We were

A very creative guy. But towards the

end of the project, where it kind of took
on a slightly different direction, it was a
guy called Phil Wilson who took over as
the everyday designer on it, as the guy
who actually tweaked all of the levels,
and designed the nished version of the
levels. He was a very creative guy, very
passionate about his discipline. He would
go home every night and play the build
that wed created for him, and come back
the next morning with a list of changes

Hogs Of War seems to wear the influence

of Worms on its sleeve, both in its turn-based
gameplay and in its sense of humour
having to constantly re-present the game,
and rethink the ideas behind the game,
the focus and so on. While it represented
a challenge, it probably also beneted the
nal product because it had been through
so much, so many iterations.
We were lucky that, towards the
end, there was a guy who worked for
Infogrames called Sean Millard, who is
now the creative director of Sumo. He
came down and had a look at Hogs and
thought it was the best game hed
played in ages.
Jacob, who coded the engine
for the PlayStation, is quick to
praise his colleagues on Hogs
Of War. The designer behind
the game was a guy called Ade
Carless, the guy that invented
Zool and various other games.

that we needed to make. He went on to

work at Realtime Worlds on Crackdown.
Part of the appeal of Hogs Of
War is that its so charming.
Theres no hard-nosed
realism, nor anything
even resembling it.
This is a game in
which a spy
can steal an
opposing players
trotter, rendering
him armless. Part
of this charm is
in its anachronistic
nature in a world
where universality is
everything, its refreshing
to play a game thats so
unashamedly local.

Hogs Of War shared Worms proclivity for bizarre weapons.

Now, says Jacob, the big

companies, they want global games, built
to global audiences. Thats why there
was never a sequel to Hogs. There were
several rumours we started one, and
worked on the game for about six months.
Hogs sold very well, but only in terms of a
European phenomenon. It didnt really sell
in the US at all. For publishers at the time,
that wasnt a viable approach; they didnt
feel that was what they wanted. It was
too British, too European and too quirky,
which I think is a shame.
Theres a real sense that the
development team were having
fun when the game was being
made. Id denitely say that
one of the things that was so
great about working on Hogs
is that at that stage team sizes
were manageable enough that
everybody could have a say,
Jacob explains, so more than
any of the other projects
Ive ever worked on, it
was a kind of team
collaboration, and
everybody could have
a chance to put their
own creative input into
the nished game.

SOUNDS
FUNNY
THERES AN
EXTREMELY homegrown and localised sense of
humour to Hogs Of War, with
a lot of the humour relying
on well-known national
stereotypes. However, Hogs
is more silly than jingoistic.
In every dierent territory
that it went out in, we had a
dierent personality doing
the voices for it, remembers
Jacob. So, in France, they had
French comedians that were
voicing it; Germany had people
that were known in Germany,
and so on and so forth.
Although it had this very
British feel, and these European
stereotypes perhaps not
particularly politically correct
ones if you played the French
version it had the same about
the English. In every European
territory it had their stereotypes
of how they saw every other
European country, so it was
very balanced. It was extremely
popular in Germany.

PLAYSTATION | 123

124 | PLAYSTATION

THE HISTORY OF: DINO CRISIS

apcom has a pretty good knack

for knowing when its onto a
winning formula. 1942 was its
rst big hit in the arcades, and
after a few years of trying new ideas, it
was back to World War II for a number
of quick-re sequels and updates. Mega
Man? Yeah, that dude was pretty busy
for a while there. Final Fight did well
and before you knew it, it was scrolling
ghters as far as the eye could see. And
then it was the turn of Street Fighter, the
second game being a landmark ghter
that saw countless iterations while its
template was applied to everything from
vampires to superheroes.
So after Capcom found success hidden
away behind an eagle-crested panel within
the eerie walls of the Spencer Mansion, it
shouldnt have come as any real surprise to
anyone that the Resident Evil formula was
next. As well as an ambitious and excellent
zombie-packed sequel, Capcom had greater
plans for this format. These rst came to light
with the announcement of Dino Crisis. While
its easy to look back and see the game as just
a way of making a quick buck by switching
out zombies for dinosaurs, theres a good deal
more that Dino Crisis and its sequel did that
make them worth celebrating.
Think back to that famous moment in
Resident Evil. You edge down a creepy
corridor terried of what might be around the
next corner, but manage to reach the end
without incident. But then, on a later visit,
your over-condence in your own safety
is shattered as rabid dogs come barreling
in through the windows. It was ingenious,
both as a way of keeping players on their
toes and technologically the problem with
pre-rendered environments such as those
in the early Resident Evil games is that
anything that can or will change tends to stick

The agility of the dinosaurs

meant that youd often find
yourself cornered.

out like a sore thumb, just as it does in old

cartoons. This feat could only be achieved so
surprisingly with clever camera placement
to ensure the windows that would break
couldnt be seen. Terror could only come from
off-screen, effectively.
So, despite the fact that PlayStation was
starting to show its age, Capcom made
the bold move of adopting full-polygon
environments. It still took pride in its role as
camera operator, so the xed viewpoints
remain, though these could sweep, pan and
shift far more naturally than a static backdrop.
Some overall polish was lost in the process,
sure, but this was for the greater good. There
would be nothing that you could take for
granted as you did those cleverly out-of-shot
windows Dino Crisis could terrify from the
word go by allowing bad things to happen
anywhere, any time. And with this new (well,
extremely old) breed of predators more than
happy to take advantage of this technological
leg-up, the sense of constant unease was one

Dont open that door! No

really, the raptor will just follow
you anyway.

r
How Dino Crisis nearly made it to Game Boy Colo

The original Dino Crisis

turned out to be a surprisingly
graphic game

coming with this, the revelation

The Resident Evil similarities just keep on
port. Announced in early
Color
Boy
of an ambitious yet unreleased Game
ction at M4, the same
produ
in
was
Crisis
Dino
of
n
versio
le
2000, a portab
n to a lukewarm
Gaide
Evil:
nt
Reside
d
studio that successfully shippe
or reviews for Gaiden, or
mance
perfor
poor
to
due
er
Wheth
ion.
recept
see light of day, although we
some other factor, the game would never
ss was made on the project. In
have it on good authority that fair progre
of ex-M4 chap Tim Hull who
fact, calling in a few favours, we got hold
assets of the game
a
us that there is indeed both selection of
told
o traveling
and a demo ROM in existence. Sadly, hes
buried away
e
theyr
and
future
eable
for the forese
s
in his attic somewhere. If and when he return
from his interesting mission to learn about
how dierent cultures game, well
try and steal a look at it. Oh, and
share it with you guys as
well. Were nice like that.

Enemy variety doesnt matter

so much when the basic ones
are terrifying.

of the games most potent tools in separating

itself from its spiritual source.
Yet theres far more to it than just swapping
one set of enemies for another. Most of
Resident Evil s enemies are either lethargic
or fragile it isnt until the Hunters come into
play that theres ever that much sustained
tension, though their clacking footsteps will
admittedly haunt us for life. Going up against
the scaly newcomers, on the other hand, is
like dealing with an army of Hunters, only ones
that can work together, navigate the whole
environment and come from anywhere. Where
Resident Evil used slow plays and suspense to
dene survival horror, Dino Crisis instead had a
constant sense of being stalked by something
and a far more immediate and deadly threat
when it did inevitably nd you. This was
survival terror.
apcom made as much as it
possibly could out of the idea that
Regina was being hunted. In Resi,
you can happily push past a group
of brain-munchers and make for the door,
safe in the knowledge that they havent got
a clue how to work door handles. One of
the rst main surprises of Dino Crisis comes
when you try to adopt the same strategy and,
after giving you just long enough to assume
youre safe, the raptor that was just chasing
you comes crashing through the door or
leaps over a nearby fence. Outside of the
designated safe rooms (where you save and
change up your gear), nowhere is actually
safe. The panic is layered on further by some
clever and cruel design choices having to
bandage severe wounds so you dont leave
trails of delicious smelling blood for the
predators to follow, for instance, and having
dinosaurs capable of knocking your equipped
weapon out of your hand.
Surviving this new nightmare with the
STARS teams toolset would be frankly
impossible, so Capcom also had to rework
its control setup. Classic Resi tank controls
remain at the heart of the system, though the
ability to move and shoot at the same time is
invaluable against the far speedier enemies, as
is the quick 180-degree turn both features
that have since ltered back into the Resident
Evil series. The same is true of many features
of this so-called palette swap, actually. The
persistence of the dinosaurs is mirrored
in that of the Crimson Head zombies in

PLAYSTATION | 125

 Sorry Dylan, but we never

really liked you as much as
Regina. Nothing personal.

Coming face-to-face
with T-Rex, the sense of
helplessness is overwhelming.

the GameCube remake and inventory

management and puzzles have become
increasingly more complex as the horror series
has gone on, as rst seen in Dino Crisis. The
very idea of being stalked lies at the heart of
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, a game that was in
development alongside this and actually, one to
which Dino Crisis probably owes a good deal
of its success.
ot condent enough that the
world had picked up the extent to
which Dino Crisis was more than
just Resident Evil with dinosaurs,
Capcom elected to bundle it with a playable
demo of the third Resident Evil. The practice
had worked wonders for Square in the US,
with commercial gambles such as Tobal No
1 and Brave Fencer Musashi backed up with
demos of the latest Final Fantasy games to
make them that much more appealing. Its
certainly one of the rst instances in the UK,
though it wasnt long before others were
following suit Konami famously charged
sneaking enthusiasts 40 notes for the best
bit of Metal Gear Solid 2 and a free Zone Of
The Enders tech demo and these days, the
practice is commonplace.
It was the right move though, because
the majority of gamers to this day still refer
to Dino Crisis as Resident Evil with
dinosaurs. While technically true, its

more than a little unfair in light of the

gameplay and technology innovations that
set it apart. If Capcom wanted to truly prove
there was a gap between Resident Evil and
Dino Crisis, it would have to make signicant
changes to the games fundamental design if
and when it came to making a sequel. Which,
since the rst game sold well, was always
going to happen.
And lo, signicant changes were made.
The survival motif was all but entirely ditched
in favour of something more supportive of
the originals often frenetic pace, namely the
beating heart of an arcade shooter. Ammo
was doled out generously rather than rationed,
while the game actively kept score as you tore
through wave after wave of the

Unlike many PSone games,

Dino Crisis 2 still holds up
brilliantly today.

Larger dinos are far less

indimidating in the actionheavy sequel.

126 | PLAYSTATION

A solid scoring system laid

the foundations for Resi 4s
Mercenaries mode.

anachronistic monsters. The two feel almost

unconnected outside of the name and of
course returning protagonist Regina, alongside
some new guy who also really doesnt like
dinosaurs but some elements remained true,
such as having to collect a bunch of disks that
somehow open locked doors. And even with
this new action-heavy slant, the intelligence,
speed and overwhelming force of the reptilian
opposition still made it a pretty daunting
challenge regardless of how high the mountain
of ammo you were sat on was.
Signicant change for the better, then, and
the reviews reected this. Dino Crisis 2 was
almost unanimously well-received by critics
but, coming so late in the PlayStations life
(it was released the same day PlayStation 2
launched), it managed to do pretty well at retail
but couldnt replicate the originals numbers.
With no more big PSone games left to come,
Capcom couldnt even spice up the deal with
an enticing demo disc this time around.
More important than any of this, though,
is what a monumental turning point this
was for Capcom. Things could change,
and still be as loved if not more so than
their predecessors. Street Fighter EX was
the closest it had previously come to such
a monumental design change between
iterations, though that was neither well
received nor anything more than misguidedly
walking the polygon path in a pair of particularly
unsuitable shoes. For a company so founded
on iterative sequels and gradual improvements,
this revelation must have been a hard thing to
take on board, but it set the gears in motion
for the changes behind one of the greatest
games of all time. Reaction to later Resident
Evil games such as Code: Veronica and Zero
must have caused no small amount of deja vu
at Capcom HQ fans had started to feel the
same way about the core games as they did
about the dinosaur-themed spin-off when
Resi was just two games old. And again,
simply changing gear wouldnt have been
enough. It was time to change the whole
damn engine.
Yes, Resident Evil 4 owes a debt of
gratitude to Dino Crisis 2. The pack mentality
and terrifying pace of the Ganado was a radical
departure for the usual lurching and shufing
of the infected, though it was oddly familiar to
those who had had a pack of raptors snapping
at their heels. With several failed attempts

The horror legacy of one of

Capcoms guiding creative forces

RESIDENT EVIL 2 DINO CRISIS

QAs well as directing

the original, Mikami also

worked on the amazing
second game. Its with
good reason that many
still champion this as the
best game in the series
graphics aside, it still holds
up brilliantly.

QTrading zombies for

dinosaurs was a great

idea in concept, but it
would take someone
with the horror vision of
Mikami to pull it off. It had
Resi s cheap scares, sure,
but it also had a shed-load
of real tension.

DEVIL MAY CRY

QAnother one that owes

much to Resident Evil,

having been born from
a failed 3D prototype.
Were glad it went wrong,
though the actionpacked gothic horror gave
us one of gamings best
loved modern characters.

RESIDENT EVIL 4 SHADOWS OF

THE DAMNED

QThis controversial

series reboot changed so

much about the standard
Resident Evil formula but
stayed true to its horror
roots. Many of Mikamis
novel gameplay devices
are now par for the thirdperson shooter course.

QWith Mikamis horror

sensibilities, Suda 51s
creativity and EAs money
behind it, this shouldve
been huge. Similar to Resi
4 gameplay-wise and
stylish as hell, it deserved
to do better.

THE EVIL
WITHIN
QGood to see hes still got
it. Mikamis new project
looks incredible, very
much a traditional horror
experience but one where
next-gen visuals will be
able to genuinely affect
and scare players. Gulp.

Theyre scary in the first

game; here, theyre just a
points payday.

Dino Crisis 3 has what

many regard to be the worst
videogame camera ever.

at changing things up in the years prior to

Resi 4 s release Street Fighter EX and Devil
May Cry 2 being the worst offenders Dino
Crisis 2 remained a shining example of how
going back to the drawing board isnt always
a bad move. But its in the unlockable minigame The Mercenaries that we see most of
Reginas inuence. The score attack mentality,
the insane pace and the retention of horror
elements in what is ostensibly a pure action
game... it all comes straight from Dino Crisis 2.
Are we saying Resident Evil 4 wouldnt have
happened had it not been for Dino Crisis? No.
What were saying is that it would likely have
been a very different game.
Theres a chapter missing from this story,
though. No, not the one about that awful
PlayStation 2 lightgun Dino Crisis spin-off.
Thats not even a chapter its just a sentence,
and its right there. Were talking about a part
wed rather forget. The part where a game

that proved to Capcom that change can be a

good thing got a sequel that sent the gaming
world a very different message. Were talking,
of course, about the embarrassment that is
Dino Crisis 3.
as it made while the entire
creative and technical teams
were on holiday? Was it
produced during a brief period
where perception-altering drug use was
mandatory at Capcom? Was it an elaborate
yet costly stunt to troll a Western-developed
console? Whatever the reasoning behind it
(were pretty sure it was none of those things),
the fact remains that Dino Crisis 3 is one of
the worst games Capcom has ever put its
name to. Seemingly done with the constraints
of planet Earth after just two games, Capcom
saw t to set the third on a space station. And
these werent your run-of-the-mill dinosaurs

Fictional dinosaurs could

never excite the inner child like
the real thing did.

like they had in the past either, oh no. These

were genetically engineered dinolikes,
produced in their thousands so they could
be conveniently (and tediously) slain in their
thousands. It was even more an action game
than Dino Crisis 2, with new hero Patrick
whizzing around on a jetpack while ring hot
laser death at loads of space monsters. Oh
God, it was horrible.
It was the camera that proved to be the
games (and perhaps even the franchises)
mass extiction event, though. A hangover from
the series glorious past, the xed viewpoint
system simply couldnt keep up with either

PLAYSTATION | 127

More must-play games for those who like

their antagonists gigantic and extinct
RENEGADE III: THE FINAL CHAPTER
(1989)

CRASH BANDICOOT 3: WARPED

(1998)

QAfter huge success with Target: Renegade, Imagine

QThe time-hopping threequel features an entire set of

levels set in prehistoric times, though that didnt seem
to change much in terms of game design. Running away
from a Triceratops, dodging and spinning your way
through jungles... yeah, it was pretty much classic Crash.
Only with a Triceratops.

Software attempted the same trick again. Unfortunately,

its third original Renegade game was simply terrible,
with stiff controls and dull fighting. Its saving grace is a
time-travelling theme allowing you to head back to the
prehistoric age and punch dinosaurs in the face.

PREHISTORIC ISLE IN 1930 (1989)

QThis classic SNK shooter doesnt just rely on dino cameos its totally
built around the scaly buggers. Fly your biplane through a remote island in
the Bermuda Triangle, laying waste to anything that doesnt belong in the
Thirties. Simple enough, but great fun, and it features some of the most
memorable boss battles in the genre.

DINOPARK
TYCOON (1993)
QWhat could be better than

Theme Park? Easy Theme

Park crossed with all sorts of
different dinosaurs. The end
result was DinoPark Tycoon,
a solid strategy title with an
education slant that allowed
you to fill your zoo with longextinct lizards.

CHUCK ROCK (1991)

QCore Design must really love dinosaurs. Tomb Raider

came later, but this is the story of a cartoon caveman

with a penchant for lobbing bloody great boulders, which
proves helpful for combat and platforming. The final boss
was another T-Rex, albeit one wearing boxing gloves and
shorts. He was scarily cheap too, as we recall.

THE REVENGE OF SHINOBI (1990)

QWhy would a ninja fight a dinosaur? Well answer
that question with another question why wouldnt a
ninja fight a dinosaur? What could be more awesome,
after all? The New York boss was clearly Godzilla in
the copyright nightmare that was the original game (hi,
Batman) but was later changed to a skeletal dinosaur.

TUROK: DINOSAUR
HUNTER (1997)
QIts a dirty word these days but,
in the Nineties, Turok could do no
wrong. Both this and its sequel
feature loads of dinosaurs
to shoot some modded in
amusing, Dinoriders fashion
and Rage Wars set a benchmark
for console deathmatches. What
happened to you, Turok? Sob.

WHERE TIME STOOD STILL (1988)

MONSTER HUNTER (2006)

3D MONSTER MAZE (1981)

QHow do you improve on The Great Escape? Easy, add

QAnyone who likes dinosaurs should

dinosaurs. This is a superb isometric adventure with

clever gameplay mechanics that had you controlling
a group of people, stranded in a strange land. Before
long, various dinosaurs are out for your blood and youll
need to do everything you can to avoid being eaten.

savour the chance to go toe-to-toe with

Capcoms massive line-up of lizards,
dragons and horrible beasties. Not feeling
it? How about this when youre done with
them, you can carve them up and turn
them into new gear and fancy hats. Yeah,
we though that might do the trick...

QLadies and gentlemen, gamings first dinosaur.

Sure, you can outrun the lumbering fool and his
gummy grin but dont assume hes harmless
youll see his teeth if he catches you, thats for sure.
Massively pioneering back in the day, it remains a
highly atmospheric game of cat-and-mouse.

128 | PLAYSTATION

THE HISTORY OF: DINO CRISIS

JURASSIC PARK (1993)

QOf course. The were loads of licensed games released
around the rebirth of dino-cool that was Jurassic Park,
with this iffy Mega Drive platformer being among the
better ones. That tells you pretty much everything you
need to know about Jurassic Park games. Oh, apart
from the fact that Operation Genesis was ace.

PRIMAL RAGE (1994)

QWith the iconic Jurassic Park theme still echoing
around in everyones heads, kids and grownups alike
would bicker about which dinosaurs would win in a
fight. Were not sure this awful beat-em-up is an entirely
scientific way to find out, but it might just have settled a
few arguments all the same. And then caused a bunch
more. Oh well.

Thanks, Dino Crisis 3.

Thanks for killing off a
franchise that we really
cared about

CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS (1993)

QBased on comic series Xenozoic Tales and tied into
a Saturday morning cartoon, Cadillacs And Dinosaurs
had no right to be as good as it was. Perhaps the most
interesting element was the use of dinosaurs as a third
faction that could attack both players and enemies,
something we dont think weve seen in the genre since.

SUPER BC KID (1994)

QOr Bonk, if youd rather. Chuck Rocks younger brother

looks to be suffering from rather severe head trauma,

most likely caused by his continued use of his own skull
as an offensive weapon. Still, at least the platform action
games were pretty good, even if the character wasnt.

the frantic pace or the complex design of

the ship, frequently leading to situations where
youd instantly double back on yourself as the
viewpoint shifted or nd yourself shooting
enemies that arent even on the screen with
only the HUD to let you know when they were
dead. Capcom, after careful consideration, we
have decided not to endorse your game.
So have we seen the last of Dino Crisis? Its
been a decade now without a new game, and
even the most die-hard fans are starting to fear
the worst. Capcoms VP of strategic planning
and business development Christian Svensson
recently spoke with IGN, and it doesnt sound
too hopeful. Dino Crisis 3 I think is where
it went off the rails, he said. There are
discussions, Dino Crisis comes up from time
to time, but there isnt any burning desire
from R&D or the business side to light that
franchise back up again. And while wed love
to see some bright spark at Capcom extract
the DNA from back when the series was good
and bring it back to life, the fear that we could
see another Dino Crisis 3-level disaster means
that its probably best that it remain
extinct. And hey, at least we
can still look at the
pretty fossils.

TRESPASSER (1998)
QAnother Jurassic Park title, sure, but this list wouldnt be complete without

this inept shooter. After promising the moon on a stick, the only things
Trespasser delivered were a graphics engine that only about eight PCs on the
planet could make look good at that time and accidental hilarity in the way
protagonist Anne (voiced by Minnie Driver) interacts with the world. Too bad.

PLAYSTATION | 129

 ;/,+0=0+,!
,5,40,:>0;/05
Publisher:
Viacom New Media
Developer:
Radical Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation,
PC
Released: 1996
Genre: Adventure

WITH SO MANY TITLES RELEASED FOR SONYS PLAYSTATION

ITS INEVITABLE THAT SOME OF THEM WOULD DISAPPEAR
OFF THE RADAR OF MANY GAMERS. WED LIKE TO RECTIFY
THAT BY INTRODUCING YOU TO ONE OF THE CONSOLES
HIDDEN GEMS, A SUPERB ADVENTURE GAME THAT SHARES
MORE THAN A PASSING RESEMBLANCE TO THE EXCELLENT
SUPER METROID. PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A REAL TREAT!

OTHER VERSIONS
Other versions of The Divide: Enemies Within were developed by
Radical Entertainment. One release was a PC version, receiving even
less fanfare than the PSOne game. Reviewers of the day were harsh,
flaying for having pre-set save areas rather than quick-saving. Needing
a Windows 95 based Pentium PC with 133Mhz and 16Mb RAM, this
might be a cheaper option for some, and at the very least an interesting
curio to own. More interestingly is that according to Greg James, who
was Programmer and QA Director at Radical Entertainment, they also
developed a Sega Saturn version. Having never seen one in the wild,
were sure collectors would pay big money for a beta copy

Right: The minimalist cover and obfuscated title did

not sadly encourage sales.

130 | PLAYSTATION

or some games it would seem

as if destiny itself was intent on
bringing about failure. Its as
if nothing, not even excellence,
could have saved them from bargain
bins and commercial obscurity. The
Divide: Enemies Within (hereafter referred
to as Divide) was such a game, plagued
with problems from the very beginning,
ultimately ignored by critics and consumers
alike and yet somehow among all this
managing to be, in Retro Gamers opinion,
not only a fantastic PSOne game but also a
fine homage to Nintendos Super Metroid.
Problems started when Radical
Entertainment sought a publisher each
time they found one it was bought out,
leaving them hanging. When Divide finally
came to market it was very late, sneaking
into American stores at the tail-end of 1996.

The unintuitive name resulted in incorrect

listings, while most magazines only got
around to reviewing it in early 1997. Their
biggest criticism along with average scores?
That it was too 16-bit in terms of design and
too much like a last generation title. It was
almost universally shunned.
Now, it must be asked, what does too
16-bit even mean? The game features
a complex control scheme utilising every
button on the pad, various multi-use items
and weapons, and a gradually expanding
area of exploration. By all accounts the
gameplay was substantial. Neither could it
have been a result of everyones obsession
with the third-dimension and aversion to all
things 2D Divide implemented 3D with
great panache and achieved all that was
possible at that time. In all likelihood the
comments probably arose because of its
startling similarity to the SNES classic Super
Metroid, in terms of atmosphere and design.
The clich of familiarity breeding contempt
suddenly seems apt. Its greatest blessing
became its ultimate flaw a simple case of
bad timing, being released long before the
term Metroidvania came into vogue and
people started clamouring for all and any
such titles available.
Divide works on two different levels: it
has a complicated well written plot coupled
with incredible atmosphere, which is backed
up by solid and accomplished gameplay.
The game starts after a rousing written
account detailing the main characters,
Tanken and Advina, both of whom are

WHY YOU MUST PLAY!: ACTRAISER

BEASTLY BOSSES
The bosses were all once harmless foragers, now mutated over the
millennia by the probes radiation. Heres a selection.

the intro and

of the creature from
Its a descendant

ching a Terragator unit

it appears to be clut

mercenaries protecting a ship of sentient

AI refugees, which is escaping a planet in
the throes of a Luddite-styled revolution
Tankens motives being to break away from
the ways of the mysterious old order. None
of the technicalities are explained and much
is left to the imagination, meaning the story
doesnt run the risk of sloppy writing or
feeling overworked. A respectable looking
FMV introduces their vessel drifting through

Over an unknown period of time The Divide

thaws out and Tanken eventually regains
consciousness, his Terragator unit badly
damaged (with all items having been stolen)
and barely operable, at which point the
player takes control. The time spent lying
there is never disclosed, but by the look of
how drastically everything has changed,
the implication is millennia. Advina is likely
dead and you are now stranded with no

IT HAS A COMPLICATED WELL

WRITTEN PLOT COUPLED WITH
INCREDIBLE ATMOSPHERE, WHICH
IS THEN BACKED UP BY SOLID AND
WELL DESIGNED GAMEPLAY
space, with all passengers in hibernation, as
it searches for a suitable new home world.
An uninhabitable frozen planet is discovered,
but maybe the gaping fissure on its surface
can support life, and so ten automated
probes are dispatched.
Things go awry when one of these
probe crashes and kills the mate of an
indigenous creature, while the radiation
from them grants sentiency to all nearby
life. Tanken and Advina are awoken from
cryo-sleep hibernation and board their
enormous Terragator units (giant walking
mechs), before heading down into The
Divide. The enraged creature attacks and
immobilises them, before carrying Advina
off. Tanken remains and is again plunged
into hibernation when his heating unit fails.

try
a Rift, the enemies will
Be wary in the Lav
here
ambush you as shown

hope of return. While the game contains no

further narrative moments until the end, this
subtle technique of alienating and inducing
a sense of loneliness in the player makes
each discovery and step of exploration feel

MOROPUS THE
CLAWED BEARHORSE
(SIC)

PAPILLION
THE BAD SEED

As the first hideously deformed

guardian, Moropus guards the Jumper
which frees you from the confines of
ground level. Fast strafing makes short
work of him.

Arguably the toughest boss, by virtue

of you being underpowered. A hybrid
of plant and insect, Papillion takes two
forms: first a pod firing deadly seeds,
followed by a hatched larva with
missiles. Keep jumping!

GIANWHU THE
CRABBY ASSASSIN

GASTRO
THE LIZARD KING

By now you should have the Ice

Grippers, which thankfully restore
standard walking. Ignore his
formidable size, GianWhu is slow and
poorly mobile just make sure to
avoid his powerful attacks.

This multi-tailed serpent lives in the

side of a giant mountain, occasionally
poking out to attack you. Make use
of diagonal firing and the available
platforms. Dont fall down the ravine
just below him!

MAGICAL MOMENT
There were many magical moments
where it hit you just how inspired by
Metroid things are. Cynics may call it
plagiarism and unoriginal, but we say
its the sincerest form of flattery. There
are Power Bombs, Missiles and 99
unit Energy Tanks that resonate with
a familiar chime when collected, not
to mention an expanding map, several
elevators, and more.

to

PLAYSTATION | 131

 Thankfully the map

can be easily panned
and zoomed, becaus
poor navigation
e theres nothing

more frustrating than

a 3D

You probably cant

hear it by looking at
this
game with

TERRAGATOR FULL OF TRICKS

Just like Super Metroid there are many items that power you up and enable
further progress. Some important ones:

1
REPAIR KIT

TERRAIN MAPPER

The game starts with your Terragator

unit limping due to damage. Find this
to enable normal walking.

This handy item maps where youve

already been in the game, displaying
it as a moveable blue polygon display.

3
JUMPER UNIT

TRANSPORTER KEY

Until youve found the jumper unit,

even small obstacles stop you. Later
on youre able to double jump.

This key activates the dormant

transporter system. But who built it,
and for what reasons?

like the reading of anothers diary. Why were

the once docile creatures suddenly driven
to create huge eerie structures throughout
their world? Why had they taken and hidden
various pieces of equipment? What exactly
had the launching of those probes set in
motion and what can the ultimate conclusion
to this quest for survival be?
The games basic structure is that of a
guerrilla war, slowly acquiring items and
weapons until youre powerful enough
to actually reach and engage in the final
confrontation. Each additional munitions
pack makes you stronger, while the enemy

this one

until this item is collected, but overall it adds

nothing to the sequence of gameplay events.
Its one of many superfluous little touches
which builds atmosphere and sets up the
nature of things ahead; progress is halted
or staggered until the necessary items have
been acquired.
Weapons are suitably powerful and
diverse, comprised of screen-filling Power
Bombs, Standard Missiles, Homing Missiles,
a Gatling Cannon, Flame Laser and Particle
Blaster. For each of these there were five
ammo canisters to be found as well as
energy tanks to collect, making methodical

THE GAMES BASIC STRUCTURE IS

THAT OF A GUERRILLA WAR. EACH
ADDITIONAL MUNITIONS PACK
MAKES YOU STRONGER, WHILE
THE ENEMY GETS WEAKER
gets weaker. The pacing of these items
is implemented in a way to encourage
exploration and give players a sense of
real achievement. From the opening the
Terragator unit is limping, but less than a
minute later a repair kit is found and normal
walking is restored. Progress cant continue

exploration of each area worthwhile. Theres

also a degree of non-linearity to exploration,
and by the time you acquire the Double
Jumper no area should be beyond reach.
The graphics make clever use of 3D, with
hidden passages and areas. These never
frustrate due to the cleverly implemented

5
HEATING UNIT

ARMOUR

Essential for the Ice Chasms, this

keeps the joints defrosted and seats
toasty warm.

There are two armour upgrades: the

first is found in the Ice Chasms, the
second is found in the Sky City.

132 | PLAYSTATION

screenshot, but the

music is hauntingly goo
d. Trust us on

missiles.
ge all your energy and
An area to rechar
with
tr Okay! Well stop
Wait, didnt Super Me
the comparisons

ws how
onscious for god kno
While you were unc
ted the Terragator unit
long, someone replica

WHY YOU MUST PLAY! THE DIVIDE: ENEMIES WITHIN

LOCATION, LOCATION
The Divides organic environments are varied and hostile

probes
Weapons, items and
levels.
The status screen:
rent ammo and energy
acquired, plus your cur

PLANET SURFACE

FOREST CANYON

JUNGLE GORGE

Malfunctioning, desperate, alone,

and stranded on a desolate Planet
Surface. Cold walls of crude concrete
haphazardly criss-crossed with pipes
greet you, while the background music
is eerily reminiscent of Meridia.

Theres constant rain as lightning

blisters the sky above, and enemies
home in on you. The forest contains
many essential items, but youll have
the navigate the maze of branches
found high above.

Decayed ruins cover the landscape,

created by civilisations that dont exist
except in the depraved nightmares
of the possessed creatures wandering
throughout. Amid the vine covered
pillars, beware of crumbling platforms.

1
es a short
being discovered, ther
Prior to the planet
to things
you
m
usto
acc
to
training mission

map screen. It works elegantly, as all map

screens should, and makes the viewing of
whole areas easy, making it ideal for noting
points of interest that later need exploring.
Rather than attempting a fully freeform
camera, the game has a fixed camera that
can be panned up and down. In conjunction
with the map screens, this ensures you are
never lost, and are never without an idea
of where to go next. It also makes the 3D
platforming sections as painless as possible,
with only one notable section in the Lava Rift
area proving mildly frustrating.
Considering how many other games
omit even the simplest of things, its
refreshing to find that the designers have
taken into account what normally frustrates
gamers. For example, while there are
lengthy jumping sections in the slippery
Ice Chasms, the actual platforms you are
jumping onto have barriers at their sides to
stop you falling off. Again, its these small
touches that show that while the team were
trying to come close to replicating Super
Metroids design structure, they also had an
understanding of what wouldnt work. This

KNOW YOUR FOE

SKRIT

ICE CHASMS

DESERT ARROYO

LAVA RIFT

In freezing temperatures far too low for

even machines like the Terregator unity,
there manages to survive a great many
evils. To succeed against them you will
need the heating unit, but who knows
where it lies?

The searing wastes of the Arroyo

desert is home to unnatural forms of
organic and machine transmutations.
The temperature reaches 200 degrees
Celsius, making the cooling unit
essential for survival.

Rivers of lava flow beneath metal

spires and platforms the enemies are
immune to the molten slag but you are
not, so avoid falling in. Down below,
beneath the behemoth structures, lies
an enemy and an old friend.

helps to make the adventure very satisfying.

Those expecting a lengthy and silky smooth
60-frames-per-second adventure might be
a little disappointed at the frame rate and
slightly short length (around 5 hours), but this
doesnt detract from what is an otherwise
excellent game, and one which invokes
nostalgic recollections of a genuine classic.
At its core it may have been an imitation, but
when youre imitating the best its inevitable
that some of the original quality will emerge.
Play it and discover its greatness for yourself.

rt machine
This handy transpo
removes the need for
ances
backtracking long dist

that
A scorching area
g?
can cause overheatin

Just a few of the lesser creatures that you fight.

KIMPH

FOREST MOLE

DOZER

KRITAH
PLAYSTATION | 133

It is one of the PlayStations longest running franchises and was

overseen by none other than Steven Spielberg himself. Ed Smith
talks to the men who proved that it was possible to treat
war with the utmost respect
Being hit with a bazooka shell would
spell an instant death.

ke sure you
of weapons, so ma
Theres a variety one for each situation.
t
bes
the
always have

a U-boat in
sneaking about
Objectives, like
H s level design.
MO
to
l
gra
inte
disguise, were

134 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF: MEDAL OF HONOR

ng
also finely tuned, givi
Hit reactions were
berate pace.
them game a more deli

Medal Of Honor kicked off ofcially

y the time work started
on Medal Of Honor, the
on 11 November 1997, when Steven
Second World War had
returned from Europe after wrapping
principal photography on Saving Private
been over for 52 years. The
top-grossing lms were
Ryan. He wanted to teach a new
generation about World War Two, but
Titanic, Men In Black and
knew his movie would be too intense
Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and the
for younger audiences. His insight
videogame charts were dominated by
was to reach young people through a
Quake and GoldenEye 007. This was
medium theyd embraced: videogames
before Saving Private Ryan, before The
Looking back its ridiculous, but
Thin Red Line. Though war drama was
the idea was controversial at the time
about to have a big resurgence, in 1997,
because he was proposing an FPS
it wasnt in vogue.
that didnt have high-tech weapons or
Similarly, the PlayStation was still
take place on another planet. And this
nding its feet. Sonys rst console had
was before WW2 had come back into
sold well, shipping around 25 million
the public consciousness,
units worldwide, but the
before Ryan and before
catalogue of games was
dominated by just a few
Tom Brokaws The
genres. Tomb Raider and
Greatest Generation.
Plus, we only had 2Mb
Final Fantasy VII were the
biggest hits that year, along
of memory, so forgetting
even the broader context
with Tekken, Grand Theft
of WW2, we rst had to
Auto and PaRappa The
gure out how to deliver
Rapper. A studio called
a fun shooter experience.
Insomniac had just shipped
Not to compare ourselves
its Doom clone, Disruptor,  PUBLISHER:
to Jaws, but Steven said
over to Japan, but apart
ELECTRONIC ARTS
that not having a shark that
from that, on PlayStation
 DEVELOPER:
the rst-person shooter
worked all the time forced
DREAMWORKS INTERACTIVE
him to get creative. The
was yet to break through.
 RELEASED: 1999
So Dreamworks
same went for our team.
 PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION
Nobody was more
Interactive, founded by
 GENRE:
Steven Spielberg and
aware of that than
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
Christopher Cross, MOH s
comprised of only 30
people, had a challenge on its hands.
lead designer. To accommodate the
Not only did it want to reintroduce war
scale of Medal Of Honor on PlayStation,
history to the mainstream, but also build
he and fellow designer Lynne Henson
a sophisticated rst-person shooter
had to pull a lot of tricks, as he tells us.
on an as yet untested platform. Peter
The idea to do a rst-person shooter
Hirschmann, Medal Of Honors writer
on the PlayStation was f**king crazy.
These days you think of someone
and producer, remembers the early
using, say, the Unreal Engine and
stages of development:

IN THE
KNOW

The OSS wa
s used as a ba
writers conte
ck
xt to the send drop, since it gave MOH
s
player all acro
ss Europe.

building a whole level by themselves.

We couldnt do that. We had to be very
careful with the amount of polygons we
used because of the hardware.
An enemy in MOH is maybe 200
polys today, they dont even make
hats that are less than 200 polys. So,
we could only have four enemies
on the screen at once. We had to
work with smoke and mirrors so
players wouldnt notice the enemies
were backlling. Also, we had to cut
skyboxes. Thats why every level takes
place at night. In the end, though, that
kind of worked out, since youre playing
an OSS ofcer doing secret missions.
It added a lot of atmosphere.
hat wasnt the only instance
where technical boundaries
actually aided MOH s
development. As design work
went on, Christopher, contrary to his
initial reaction, discovered the PSone
was well suited to a war FPS.

The analogue controller was

announced before we launched but
we didnt design around it because
we couldnt guarantee it had market
penetration, so we were using the
D-pad. That gave the games a really
deliberate pace, since we were tuning
them to the directional buttons. We had
to allow time to set up the situation, to
show that, say, there are three guys
coming, theres cover over here, a
gun on that wall. We let players gure
out the situation and decide how to
approach it.
Plus, killing enemies was never
meant to be an objective, never meant
to be something you had to do to nish
a level. Modern games have these
cardboard cutouts popping up all the
time its just a test of your switch
skills. With MOH, youd need to shoot
one guy in the foot, one guy in the
hand then one guy in the head, then
come back to the other two. It was a
much slower paced game. It was a lot
more intimate.

THE REAL
MEDAL OF H
ONOR
Though h

now works for

to-play pueblis
her launchingNexon the freenext game, Blu
Cli Bleszinkis
has a neat ide eStreak Christop
her
a for a new M
ss
edal Of HoCnro
Itd be
or:

based on real
Medal Of Hono
because som
r recipients,
e of their stor
ies are amaz
one guy, John
ing. Theres
Robert Fox, wh
o was a forw
observer durin
ard
g a siege by Ge
rman troops
a town in Italy.
on
He was calling
in artillery an
basically, for
d
him to actual
ly stop the ad
the German co
vance of
lumn, he had
to call in an ar
strike on his
tillery
own position
. They warned
he could die
him that
but he did it an
yway, and th
they found hi
en later
s body. That
would have be
amazing miss
en an
ion, putting yo
u in the posit
where you re
ion
alise, o the
top of your ow
that you have
n head,
to do this and
youll probab
ly die.

PLAYSTATION | 135

 Peter Hirschmann wanted to keep the games

briefing sections short but highly informative.

Just as Christopher found a way

to make the PlayStation hardware work
for MOH, Peter Hirschman turned the
daunting task of creating an educational
war game to his favour. With Spielbergs
brief in mind, he had the responsibility
to make Medal Of Honor historically
accurate without compromising its
entertainment value. The more he wrote
and researched, the more he found that
one aspect complemented the other.
It was key to provide as much
historical context as possible, he says.
Absolutely, there was a concerted
effort to give Medal Of Honor an
educational quality, but it almost felt
subversive. I didnt want to scare
anyone into thinking it was anything but
a game. First and foremost, Medal Of
Honor was meant to be entertainment.
From a story perspective, it was
all about backing into it. We needed
someone whose initial combat
experience matched the player (ie they
had none), but yet had a legitimate
reason to be in the European Theater of
Operations in 1944. So Jimmy Patterson
was a C-47 pilot, shot down behind
enemy lines. We needed a context to
move him all around the continent. So
bam, hes recruited into the OSS. That
allowed us to cover a lot of ground. To

Sometimes a simple gun isnt

enough to get the job done.

this day, I imagine were the only game

that had mission objectives varying from
sabotaging V2 rockets to saving a rare
edition of the Canterbury Tales.
ust as the absent skyboxes and
minimal enemies gave Medal
Of Honor its atmosphere, the
authentic World War backdrop
distinguished it from other shooters of
the Nineties. The game had a distinctive
avour. It lived on the principal that truth
was better than ction. I think people
actually love to learn history, says Peter.
And working with constraints will often
push you to a better place. Instead of
ghting the limitations, you embrace
them and get to work.
But it wasnt all plain sailing. Despite
the pioneering GoldenEye, objectivebased rst-person shooters were still

Instead of fighting the limitations, you

embrace them and get to work

elements. Wed walk through the maps

saying were going to do this objective
here, have the rail-gun here and so on.
It was very organic. But then we had to
develop a scripting language that could
send messages between objects in the
game, something to tell an objective
when it was complete or when bombs
had been picked up things like that.
Things got complicated. The Wolfram
level for example had lots of objectives.
uncommon in the Nineties. Duke Nukem
That meant the level couldnt exist 100
3D, Doom and Quake challenged players
per cent in memory it was too much.
to simply get from one end of a level to
So we had to stream it all off the disc,
another there was no need to program
which meant breaking the world up into
in things like bombs, collectibles or
compartments, so that when you walked
stealth mechanics.
between areas, parts of the level would
That put Christopher on the horns
load and unload in front and
of a dilemma. If Medal Of
behind you.
Honor was to have this
But, of course, all of
broad, authentic-feeling
the scripts still had to be
narrative, he and the other
associated with an object,
designers needed to nd
so in that one level on the
ways to make all these
boat, the key was at the
objectives from sneaking
front, the door was at the
aboard a U-boat to
back and because of the
sabotaging it with dynamite
loading and unloading,
ow together. It meant
when you picked up the
a lot of scripting work and, THE NEVERHOOD
key it didnt unlock the
again, getting creative with SYSTEM: PC
door because the door
the PlayStations hardware. YEAR: 1996
didnt exist it hadnt
Lynne did most of the
SKULLMONKEYS
loaded. The game didnt
paper designs for levels.
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION
have an inventory, so we
I reviewed those, handed
YEAR: 1997
had to come up with a lot
them off to the artists then BOOM BLOX PICTURED
of creative ways to get
took them back and started SYSTEM: WII
around that.
to add in the gameplay
YEAR: 2008

Christopher Cross
Dale Dye, Spielbergs technical advisor on Saving Private
Ryan, would later join the Medal Of Honor franchise.

136 | PLAYSTATION

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS

THE MAKING OF: MEDAL OF HONOR

After almost two years in

development, Medal Of Honor launched
in October 1999. With the fundamentals
now in place, Dreamworks was free
to follow it up with a sequel, Medal
Of Honor: Underground, less than 12
months later.
longside Saving Private Ryan
and latterly Band Of Brothers,
MOH spearheaded the
resurgence of WW2 history
in popular culture. Christopher would
go on to head up design on Medal Of
Honor: Frontline, while Peter became
EAs project lead on the PC-only Allied
Assault. Two guys working for him,
Jason West and Vince Zampella, would
eventually break off and form their own
World War Two franchise Call Of Duty.
Now, 15 years and three generations
since Dreamworks embarked on its
great crusade, Christopher worries that
the war game has gone backwards: In
Medal Of Honor, you were going into
Germany, and youd nd the Germans
sitting around a re or taking a pee,
because this was their home this
is where they were stationed. You
could see a backpack propped up or
something on a bench. We didnt just
popcorn-spawn 50 guys.
The intention was to make you feel
like I f**ked up that guys day or those
guys were just eating soup, damn. It had
to feel like it was them or you, not that
there were ten more things between you
and the next movie moment.
We wanted people to have some
connection to the Germans, which in
turn would give every situation a sense
of gravity. But in modern games, in the
interest of speedy asset creation, they
put gas masks on enemies and stuff like
that. They dehumanise them. To actually
do a reboot of MOH in the old mould,
youd need storytelling chops. But I
think the monetary and market forces
on these games now makes something
with a bit of gravity destined to fail. This
is why World War Two shooters still
make sense. You know the Allies win
and that the world is a better place for
it, and that makes a big change about
your attitude towards your own actions.
It means more than just watching the
Eiffel Tower blow up or whatever.

SPIELBERG ON THE SMALL SCREEN

There are plenty of games based on the movie moguls lms

ET: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

INDIANA JONES AND THE

TEMPLE OF DOOM

JAWS

FORMAT: Atari 2600 YEAR: 1982

QCommonly described as one of the worst

FORMAT: Various YEAR: 1985

QThis 8-bit adaptation of the original

games ever made, hundreds of thousands of

unsold copies of ET were eventually consigned
to the Atari landfill site in New Mexico, which
was excavated in 2013.

QA rock-hard platformer, Temple Of Doom is

summer blockbuster combines action and

RPG-elements, as you kill smaller sharks
to upgrade your skills before taking on the
daddy: Jaws himself.

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST

CRUSADE: THE ACTION GAME

HOOK

FORMAT: Various YEAR: 1989

QThere were several games based on

Spielbergs pirate adventure, the most famous
being a side-scroller for SNES, Genesis and
Game Gear. The publisher, Sony Imagesoft,
would later merge with Sony Interactive.

QOne of the earlier LucasArts efforts, this

platformer for the Spectrum and various

others featured a punishing final level where
players had to race to find the Holy Grail.

notable for its licensed John Williams score

and voice clips from Harrison Ford. Theyre
digitised, though, so they sound a bit rubbish.

FORMAT: Various YEAR: 1992

FORMAT: NES YEAR: 1987

THE LOST WORLD:

JURASSIC PARK
FORMAT: PlayStation, Saturn YEAR: 1997
QThis was the second Dreamworks game

based on Jurassic Park. Also worth looking up

is Jurassic Park: Trespasser, which features
the most bizarre aiming controls ever.

Youll need quick reactions to

take down certain enemy soldiers.

MINORITY REPORT:
EVERYBODY RUNS

JURASSIC PARK: THE GAME

FORMAT: Various YEAR: 2002

QAfter securing a licence deal with Universal,

Telltale, maker of The Walking Dead, produced
this four-part episodic adventure game
focusing on events before, during and after the
1993 blockbuster.

QIts strange this got panned the way it did.

Developed by Treyarch, of Call Of Duty fame,

and published by Activision, it also had an
original score by Hitman stalwart Jesper Kyd.

FORMAT: Various YEAR: 2011

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN:

THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN
FORMAT: Various YEAR: 2011
QUbisoft Montpellier launched this to tie in

with Spielbergs underrated adaptation of the

famous Belgian comic. A sequel to that movie
is reportedly in the works.

PLAYSTATION | 137

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David Jaffe

138 | PLAYSTATION

Michael Riccio

THE HISTORY OF TWISTED METAL

TWISTED
METAL 101

QEach Twisted Metal

game depicts a vehicular

combat tournament, in
which drivers compete to
be the last man standing by
destroying their opponents
with machine guns,
missiles and all manner
of special abilities. The
winner is granted a single
wish by the mysterious
tournament organiser,
Calypso, whose abilities
seem to defy reality.

PLAYSTATION | 139

Twisted Metal was a success

Despite the pre-launch concerns,
ronic Gaming Monthly
Elect
ially.
both critically and commerc
strong accolade which
a
,
Year
The
Of
e
Gam
s
1995
it
crowned
good, but expressed
were
h
whic
ws
capped off a set of revie
e 78%, commenting
gam
the
some reservations. Play awarded
kind of laughs youd
the
s
vide
pro
bat
com
er
that the multiplay
in cold blood, but
ds
frien
your
expect when you get to murder
ng that it only
stati
e
gam
the
with
t
tmen
poin
expressed disap
l-up. Twisted
snar
rway
moto
age
lasts a bit longer than the aver
s in North America and
dorm
ge
colle
of
xture

a
me
Metal beca
es in that territory, though sales
went on to sell over a million copi
elsewhere were less impressive.
was already looking
efore these results were in, the team
d remembers
Davi
as
gh
thou
ct,
proje
w-up
follo
to do a
l. We knew
Meta
ted
Twis
to
el
it wasnt strictly a sequ
c again because it had
leTra
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with
work
to
ted
wan
we
it was a great developer, but
been a really good relationship and
l was going to be a dead in
we were convinced that Twisted Meta
physics were too wonky
the
ght
thou
we
the water title because
these problems,
solve
To
and the controls were too esoteric.
that moved
epts
conc
rent
diffe
of
ty
varie
a
the team explored
had a ooded
We
cles.
vehi
nal
away from the use of conventio
hover-taxis travelling
and
rty
Libe
Of
e
Statu
a
with
New York City
was so we could get strang
around it, and the reason we did that
a much more accepted,
into the game, which at the time was
r. We also explored
rolle
cont
the
use
understandable way to
going to become like an insect
were
they
so
ts,
insec
them
ing
mak
speed down. Obviously once
ghting game so we could slow the
d a legion of fans, at least
foun
[Twisted Metal ] hit the market and
ow.
wind
the
out
t
wen
all
in America, that
sequel that implemented
Twisted Metal 2: World Tour was a
r visuals and larger stages,
bette
as
such
ents
ovem
impr
the usual
cities, but offered a lot
nal
natio
inter
this time themed around
interactive, with plenty of
more besides. Each level was more
perative mode was also
co-o
er
play
twoA
secrets to discover.
addition to the excellent
ome
added to the game, providing a welc
ever, the biggest
How
nal.
origi
the
of
er
iplay
competitive mult

B
The original Twisted Metal took
place solely in Los Angeles, a nod to
the games conception.

I was in the depths of dispair,

you know, like, what the f**k, Im
nished before I start!
David Jae
in 3D visuals. We had
by game developers for its expertise
like that, so our minds
es
spac
e
activ
never seen games and inter
On the way back, being at the
were swimming with possibilities.
stuff it was like oh, rocket
and
c
traf
the
LAX airport, being in all
fantasies when youre stuck in
launchers on cars, very standard
Road Warrior
like
lms

with
trafc and grew up
nture was just one of a
Mel Gibsons post-apocalyptic adve
the team drew upon.
and
d
Davi
that
es
uenc
diverse set of in
t action movies, Car
grea
from
es
We were inspired by car chas
s like Autoduel,
thing
and
es
Gam
son
Jack
e
Stev
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e wasnt hard,
ogam
vide
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into
that
notes the designer. Turning
hanically and
mec
both
ies
either. Merge that with the sensibilit
y into at the
reall
were
we
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bat
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thematically of Mortal
well. This
as
e
uenc
in
big
a
time Mario Kart battle mode was
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Meta
ted
Twis
for
ula
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me
initial concept beco
other drivers and be the last
around 3D environments, blow up
iving a single wish from the
rece
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winn
the
with
,
man standing
pso. These wishes went
Caly
,
niser
enigmatic tournament orga
, more often than not.
horribly wrong for their recipients
e that SingleTrac was
gam
only
the
t
Twisted Metal wasn
Warhawk was also being
as
,
time
the
at
Sony
for
g
lopin
deve
two separate teams, but
developed by the team. There were
d explains, effects
Davi
there was a lot of cross-pollination,
swathes of code
sive
mas
ed,
shar
were
ds
were shared, soun
l has swarmer
Meta
ted
Twis
in
were shared. Youll see Warthog
from Warhawk.
iles
miss
mer
swar
t
exac
the
are
missiles that
it seemed as if Twisted Metal
However, as development wore on
really the golden child
was destined to op. Warhawk was
test and they all loved
s
focu
one
did
We
for the longest time.
Metal was utter shit,
ted
Warhawk and they just thought Twis
Players werent the
.
over
ers
care
my
it,
s
and I was like that
game either, as the
the
for
only ones who didnt seem to care
Marketing came in,
de
ldwi
Wor
r
mbe
reme
I
lls.
developer reca
they could not
and
es
gam
the
all
and we were showing them
but Warhawk came up and
,
l
Meta
ted
Twis
for
less
any
d
have care
zing and I was in the depths of
it was like oh my god, this is ama
f**k, Im nished before I start!
despair, you know, like what the

140 | PLAYSTATION

Manoeuvrability is placed ahead of

realism in Twisted Metal s handling model,
enabling players to quickly face threats.

THE HISTORY OF TWISTED METAL

WAR PE D WAR R IOR S

ge in the
orable combatants to engaon
Meet some of the most mem
aggressi
Twisted Metal tournaments automotive

AXEL
QAxels father forced

him into a hellish two-wheeled

contraption, in which he remained
for over 20 years. Axels wish is to be
free when he achieves this, he finds
that life without it is impossible. He
regains the ability to drive it, but
at the cost of fighting for
someone else.

MR GRIMM
QWith all the death inherent

in Twisted Metal tournaments, its

natural that the reaper himself should be
interested. Hes no longer in the business
of ferrying souls to their destination, and
has now become hooked on devouring
them. Controlled by his hunger, Mr
Grimms wishes always involve
his dark cravings.

NEEDLES
KANE
QSweet Tooths driver is the face of
Twisted Metal, appearing in every game
with his iconic mask and flaming head. The
events of the games often revolve around
this psychotic killer indeed, at times it is
implied that the tournament is the product
of his broken psyche, and that he is the
natural heir to Calypso. His wish
changes in each game.

CARL
ROBERTS

KRISTA
SPARKS

QAt the conclusion of the first

game, Outlaws driver, Sergeant Carl
Roberts, attempts to deliver the people
of LA from the destruction of Twisted Metal
by wishing to live in a world without the
tournament only to be sent to outer
space. Having been rescued by his sister,
Jamie Roberts, he is determined to
stop Calypso once
and for all.

QShe faked her age to join the

Twisted Metal tournament, with no
wish other than to meet Calypso the
father she thought dead. If the driver of
Grasshopper can win the tournament
and her desired reunion, the
revelations are bound to
be explosive!

change to the gameplay was the addition

of advanced moves, which added to the
depth of the game by enabling players to activate defensive and
secondary offensive moves at any time via button combinations.
Released in 1996, Twisted Metal 2: World Tour represents one
of the high points for the series. As well as once again exceeding
a million sales in North America, the game was well-loved by
critics, with a 9/10 from the Ofcial PlayStation Magazine UK
representative of the overall feeling towards the game. David
also considers it to be the high water mark in terms of gameplay,
stating, out of all the games Ive ever worked on, thats the only
game I can go back to and genuinely be engaged in the moment
to moment mechanics of the game. However, sales outside of
North America were again disappointing, so the remainder of the
PlayStation entries in that series were exclusive to that region.
Following Twisted Metal: World Tour, the original creative
team behind the series disbanded and development was
passed to Sonys 989 Studios as a result. David remained at
Sony but moved on to other projects, while SingleTrac and
Sony parted ways as the developer felt that it wasnt receiving
adequate rewards based on the success of the series, removing
key creatives such as Scott Campbell and Kellan Hatch.

MARCUS
KANE
QRoadkills driver has been
homeless for years. As a conspiracy
theorist, he believes that the world of
Twisted Metal is not real and desires
to return to a normal life. Given
his surname, we suspect that
he might not be who he
thinks he is.

FMV endings were filmed for

Twisted Metal, but was soon
dropped as they ended up
offending key developers.

Moving the sequel

out of LA allowed for
much more diverse
environments, like
this one.

PLAYSTATION | 141

now works alongside David

Programmer Michael Riccio, who
ral Detective Agency, was
rnatu
Jaffe at The Bartlet Jones Supe
Studios.
989
at
team
l
Meta
ted
Twis
part of the
a fresh start for the series.
The change of developer brought
no code was shared between
It was a completely new engine,
ted Metal III, Michael
Twis
and
Tour
ld
Twisted Metal 2: Wor
ted features of the new
romo
explains. One of the most heavily-p
had come across from
h
whic
ne,
engi
s
hysic
engine was its TruP
rammer, Jim Buck,
prog
lead
another PlayStation game. The
physics simulation.
cle
vehi
a
had
and
s
Cros
Rally
on
had worked
with springs
with
cube
a
was
it
ics,
It was basically Jell-O phys
s now but at the time
new
old
is
h
whic
ces,
verti
the
g
connectin
ght a lot of the Rally Cross
it was a real innovation. So he brou
ily modded, but physics came
engine to Twisted Metal III heav
for the game players. They
rsial
rove
cont
of
over, which was kind
ted Metal and Twisted
Twis
expected exactly the same feel as
y different.
ntall
ame
fund
was
e
gam
Metal 2, but the

ted Metal III

hat wasn't the only change. Twis
h was very
whic
e
mod
er
play
introduced a foures weren't quite
welcome indeed, but other differenc
't have the sick,
didn
We
.
ived
rece
ly
tical
so enthusias
tempered
was
tone
the
so
twisted David Jaffe involved in it,
tone of the
edic
com
the
as
ains,
expl
ael
somewhat, Mich
darker aspects of the story,
game took precedence ahead of the
s including Granny Dread
acter
char
new
of
ber
num
a
introducing
The game also included
s.
Cole
ien
and Keith Flint lookalike Dam
drawing on popular
,
time
rst

the
for
k
dtrac
soun
a licensed
Pitchshifter.
and
bie
Zom
Rob
industrial metal artists
critical reception in
Twisted Metal III launched to a poor
heavily praised and the
October 1998. The soundtrack was
but reviewers complained
,
visuals received a mixed reception
low standard and that the
a
of
was
n
desig
level
that the games
the game, due to the
to
tal
men
new physics model was detri
ip over. The majority

ld
wou
car
your
h
whic
with
frequency
competing titles such as
of critics suggested that players try
but Twisted Metal III managed
Vigilante 8 and Rogue Trip instead,
over a million copies.
ing
shift
n
agai
s,
to sell well regardles
a punishing schedule,
to
Twisted Metal 4 was developed
the reality was normal
but
,
year
a
had
We
lls.
as Michael reca
crunching, working
just
then
and
hours for the rst six months
dule took its toll on the
sche
h
toug
The
l.
bruta
was
it

weekends
liked each other after the
staff I wouldn't say that everyone
we got four months off
But
ael.
Mich
hs
laug
,
done
was
project
The fourth game in the
age.
that
at
it
h
at the end, so it was wort

S WE E T RIDE S

in the Twisted
Over 50 individual vehicles have appeared

SWEET TOOTH
lm Cone

SPECIAL ATTACK: Napa

HANDLING:
SPEED:
ARMOR:

SPECIAL WEAPON:

142 | PLAYSTATION

THE
SCRAPYARD
These Twisted Metal concepts
were broken down for parts
before hitting the shelves
Over the years, details have emerged
regarding various scrapped Twisted Metal
projects. The rst of these was Twisted
Metal: Harbor City, a PlayStation 2 sequel to
Twisted Metal: Black which was started in
2003. Though the game was scrapped, four
stages and a new character, Severed Sam,
had been completed, and the remnants of
the game were included in Twisted Metal
Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition as Twisted
Metal Lost. This was accompanied by a
story which explained that the game was
le unnished due to the deaths of six key
members of the team though this turned
out to be fake. Other scrapped concepts were
intended for the PlayStation 3. The rst was
Twisted Metal: Apocalypse, a game for which
some design work exists, including art of
Needles Kane in a gas mask. This wasnt
to the taste of co-director Scott Campbell,
who isnt a fan of post-apocalyptic themes.
Another theme involved a more urban style,
with more realistic depictions of characters
as gang members. Neither of these concepts
made it to any kind of playable product, with
the PlayStation 3 Twisted Metal eventually
taking a relatively traditional approach to the
established narrative of the series.

Competitors introduced in
Twisted Metal III, such as
Flower Power, didnt last long
in the series.

Some of Twisted Metal

III s stages featured
existing damage from
natural disasters such as
volcanic eruptions.

urites
Metal series here are some of our favo

MR GRIMM Spawn

SPECIAL ATTACK: Death

HANDLING:
SPEED:
ARMOR:

SPECIAL WEAPON:

THUMPER

SPECIAL ATTACK: Megafire

HANDLING:
SPEED:
ARMOR:
SPECIAL WEAPON:

THE HISTORY OF TWISTED METAL

sites that popped up that were all

about the rst two games. They
slammed Twisted Metal III and Twis
ted Metal 4, like they weren't
even part of the series, they were
crap, Michael remembers.
I remember we went to a conferen
ce, where Kelly Flock gave
a presentation about developing
sequels for videogames. We
left, and some kid came up to us
and was just totally angry, like
'why did you do this, why did you
change that?' I had never
experienced that, a crazy disgruntl
ed fan I didn't get exposure
to the fans at that time. I thought
it was kind of funny, it shocked
both of us. Fortunately for the serie
s, the situation was soon
resolved by the formation of Inco
g Inc., a new studio which was
formed primarily of ex-SingleTrac
staff. David also returned to the
series at this time, so with the origi
nal team was back in charge,
the continuity and concepts intro
duced in the 989 Studios games
were quickly discarded, never to
return.

n the summer of 2001, Twisted Meta

l: Black launched on
PlayStation 2. I was at a point whe
re I was much more
interested in the world and the story
, explains David of the
dark
reboot. Set in a blackened world,
A grimy, blackened colour palette
the game was
set Twisted Metal: Black apart from framed as a contest between mental asylu
m patients and
its vibrant predecessors. featured the dark
est story to date, lled with revenge
killings and
all manner of horric acts. In fact
the story was considered to be
too dark for the European audience
, which was receiving its rst
Twisted Metal game in ve years,
and all story content including
a full hour of FMV was removed from
the PAL release. Even the
American scenes were toned dow
n from the original intent one
particular scene featuring newcom
er Preacher drowning an
infant was considered to be a step
too far.
It was a triumphant return for the
series brought about a major story
original team, though.
line change, as Calypso was
Twisted Metal: Black was a critical
no longer in charge of proceedings
success, attracting
instead, Sweet Tooth driver
near-universal praise. Reviewers
Needles Kane was running things.
were impressed with the level
The former antagonist joined
design, which allowed just about
the cast of playable drivers, alongsid
everything to be blown up,
e a range of new characters
maimed or broken in some fashion,
such as Pizza Boy and Rob Zombie
and the visual design of
(yes, that Rob Zombie) and
the game. Praise was also reserved
retooled versions of old ones such
for the soundtrack, which
as Captain Grimm. The game
was
lled with original orchestral com
also featured more interactive envi
positions rather than the
ronmental attacks, softened
licensed tunes of the previous gam
physics and the ability to create your
es. Sales were excellent, and
own vehicle.
the
mult
iplayer portion of the game received
When Twisted Metal 4 released in
an online-enabled
1999, the reviewers
release to support the PS2 Network
recognised the game as a marked
Adapter. However, it isn't
improvement over its
Davi
d's
favo
urite entry in the series to play. The
predecessor and gave it a more posi
gameplay, the
tive reception overall.
mechanics of it, I thought were good
However, it was denitely good rathe
we put a lot of work into
r than great IGN's Marc
them
as
a
team
but I think it got too fast for a gam
Nix summed up the overall mood
e like that. It
in a 6/10 review, stating You
felt better for a lot of people beca
may have fun, as I did, but you won
use they felt more like cars, but
't feel a brush with greatness
there
were
a
large
r
num
from the once towering Twisted Meta
ber of people that could sit down
and
l series.
play Twisted Metal 2 and have a genu
Despite the improvements made
ine sense of depth. I
by 989 Studios in just a year,
the fans were at odds with the 989
Studios team. There were fan

I wouldnt say that everyone liked each

other aer the project was done but we
got four months o at the end
Michael Riccio

AXEL

SPECIAL ATTACK: Supernova Shockwave

HANDLING:
SPEED:
ARMOR:
SPECIAL WEAPON:

MR SLAM

SPECIAL ATTACK: Grab n Slam

HANDLING:
SPEED:
ARMOR:
SPECIAL WEAPON:

TWISTER

SPECIAL ATTACK: Tornado Spin

HANDLING:
SPEED:
ARMOR:
SPECIAL WEAPON:

PLAYSTATION | 143

INT RE PID E XPLODE R

youre the last to see them

Dont just see the sights make sure

TOKYO
TOWER

BIG BEN

LOCATION: Tokyo, Japan

GAME: Twisted Metal: Head-On

LOCATION: London, UK
GAME: Twisted Metal III

was
Q Given that Tokyos iconic tower
inspired by the Eiffel Tower, its natural
for the Twisted Metal crew to want to
blow it up. A bomb placed underneath
the tower will take out TV and radio
services for the populous

QTo destroy the Elizabeth Tower

STATUE
OF LIBERTY USA

LOCATION: New York,

GAME: Twisted Metal 2:
World Tour

(and Big Ben with it), position

yourself on the ramp facing the
clock and bombard it with
missiles youll soon bring it
crashing down.

metropolis.

can
QYou cant get up close to it, but you
trigger a three-part destruction sequence.
The first stage lights the torch, the
second sees it break away to reveal
a bikini-clad lady, and the last
destroys it fully.

GREAT
SPHINX

LOCATION: Giza, Egypt

GAME: Twisted Metal III
, the
Great Sphinx has clearly been affected
by the ravages of time. While you cant
outright destroy it, giving the ancient
landmark a good whack with a
missile changes its
facial expression.

QHalf-buried by the desert sands

HOLLYWOOD
SIGN

LOCATION: Los Angeles, USA

GAME: Twisted Metal III
wreck
Q The tournaments host city is a
d,
by the time its third iteration rolls aroun
but the iconic Hollywood sign remains
intact. One good hit from a missile
is all it takes to correct this
unfortunate oversight!

EIFFEL
TOWER

LOCATION: Paris, France

GAME: Twisted Metal 2:
World Tour
s
QDetonating a bomb in this famou
landmark doesnt just look cool. When
it explodes, the half of the tower
will topple over and create a
pathway to the rooftops
of Paris.

144 | PLAYSTATION

THE HISTORY OF TWISTED METAL

WRITEOFFS
Twisted Metal has
inspired rivals over
the years heres a
few of them
The use of radio-controlled
cars in large environments
is often reminiscent of the
popular Re-Volt.

had reached a smaller

think with Twisted Metal Black we
ers.
play
group of an already small group of
PlayStation arrived
nal
origi
the
on
g
outin
nal

The fth and

k, and stood in sharp
Blac
l:
Meta
just a few months after Twisted
of PlayStation owners was
contrast to it. As the average age
l was a kid-friendly spin-off
Braw
ll
falling, Twisted Metal: Sma
controlled cars in huge
radio
ing
battl
rs
drive
g
youn
ring
featu
, the game returned
helm
the
at
Inc.
g
Inco
environments. With
ics model and it
phys
Tour
ld
to the classic Twisted Metal: Wor
r of the previous
eithe
than
e
gam
l
Meta
ted
felt more like a Twis
2 and Twisted
on
Stati
Play
the
PlayStation instalments. With
ed by largely unnoticed,
pass
e
gam
the
e
scen
the
on
k
Metal: Blac
negative, complaining of poor
and contemporary reviews were
n.
desig
level
ting
teres
unin
and
visuals
the rst time, with
he series then went on hiatus for
Metal: Head-On
ted
Twis
re
befo
ing
pass
s
a few year
portable
rst

the
ming
arrived on the PSP, beco
a direct sequel to
was
e
gam
The
s.
serie
the
in
y
entr
again focused on a range
Twisted Metal: World Tour and once
iconic locations such as
and
new
with
,
ions
locat
nal
of internatio
such Paris and Tokyo.
s
urite
favo
past
Athens and Rome joining
drawn from the
rally
gene
Vehicles and characters were also
continued from
es
stori
ng
endi
s
-On
past releases, and Head
y addition was the
epla
gam
new
those in World Tour. The biggest
players avoiding
saw
h
whic
es
-gam
mini
e
stag
inclusion of midacters and extra
char
le
ckab
unlo
obstacles against the clock, with
rds.
rewa
as
able
avail
power-ups
well, with similar criticisms
Twisted Metal: Head-On reviewed
single-player but far better with
as the rst game it was good in
analogue control scheme
the
lly,
tiona
human opposition. Addi
onsive and just plain
-resp
was roundly criticised as being over
to up and down.
ped
map
were
e
brak
and
e
odd, as accelerat
-On entitled Extra
Head
l:
Meta
An enhanced version of Twisted
North America in
in
PS2
the
for
sed
relea
was
on
Twisted Editi
e and enhanced visuals, as well
2008, and contained an extra stag
fans.
as a variety of extras for hardcore
s was simply titled Twisted
The most recent outing in the serie
PlayStation 3. The original
Metal, and rebooted the series on
rience, as David explains.
expe
mal
mini
outline was for a very
Sleep Play, and we
Eat
d
We had started a company calle
t to do a small,
wan
we
'hey,
said
and
had gone to Sony
l, we dont think it
Meta
ted
Twis
downloadable-only version of
seems shrewd in light
e
mov
The
t.'
poin
price
$60
a
can sustain
taken off, but this was early
of how downloadable games have
wasn't yet understood. I
et
mark
the
and
cycle
life
s
PS3'
in the
s at Sony who were like 'we
exec
ness
busi
remember there were
s not viable, we know
that
dont know how thats going to sell,
.' With that, David and
them
sell
and
s
boxe
in
s
how to put thing
title.
full
the team set out to make a nal
reboot, and was unusual in
2012's Twisted Metal was another
stripped back to just three
was
n
paig
that the single-player cam
and a new Krista Sparks
m
Grim
Mr
,
Kane
les
Need

s
character
ld Tour character. Stories
Wor
l:
Meta
ted
unconnected to the Twis
s, a nod to the ones
cene
cuts
were told through live action FMV

VIGILANTE 8 1998:
QLuxofluxs spin-off of

Interstate 76 was arguably

the best of Twisted Metal s
competitors, thanks to its
unique style, excellent visuals,
and strong level design.

ROGUE TRIP:
VACATION 2012
1998:
QSingleTrac came up with
a unique spin on car combat
which sees players carrying
tourists to post-apocalyptic
sightseeing spots.

the original game. The

which were ultimately scrapped from
event types, including
rent
campaign included a variety of diffe
the multiplayer was
but
,
time
rst

the
for
ts
actual racing even
nt that David
exte
the
to

once again the focus of attention

sing players to rent
advi
of
n
autio
prec
ual
unus
the
himself took
their biggest interest.
the game if single-player action was
series received good
the
in
entry
PS3
only
and
rst

The
n tempered by problems
actio
core
the
reviews, with praise for
esTM awarded the title 7/10,
with the online component Gam
s and an anachronistic
error
ork
netw
ent
referencing frequ
d says: to Sony's credit,
Davi
interface. Reecting on the title,
wasnt a massive hit, but
it
think
I
and
out
e
cam
l
Twisted Meta
it could do at $60. But
ght
thou
it certainly did better than we
than we wanted it
more
way
ent
lopm
deve
ch
stret
it really did
use it was just a
beca
ct,
proje
r
-yea
three
to it ended up being a
ll team. After
sma
a
for such
long time to make all that content
that he had no
d
state
d
Davi
PS3,
for
l
Meta
the release of Twisted
, and Sony
time
long
very
a
plans to work on Twisted Metal for
be appearing on
will
s
serie
the
that
ation
indic
hasnt given any
been little news of the lm
its current platforms. There has also
written and directed by
g
bein
y
rtedl
repo
is
h
whic
adaptation,
Ghost Rider: Spirit Of
and
k
Cran
for
Brian Taylor (best known
2012.
in
d
unce
anno
was
it
since
),
e
Vengeanc
of Twisted Metal
age
carn
the
that
s
For now then, it seem
inly left some
certa
has
it
,
has nally come to a halt. However
gaming
the
of
e
scap
land
the
on
s
mark
impressive scorch
mo as one
Turis
Gran
of
likes
industry, ranking alongside the
series, providing
sive
exclu
on
Stati
Play
ng
unni
of the longest-r
and a distinctive cast of
a great deal of memorable action
ldn't be surprised if the series
wou
inly
certa
we
And
s.
character
use if there's one thing
beca

e
futur
did make a return in the
s, it's that Calypso has an
know
fan
l
Meta
ted
Twis
cated
a dedi
laugh.
incredible talent for getting the last

STAR WARS:
DEMOLITION 2000
QKeen to milk the Star Wars

licence dry, Activision pulled in

Luxoflux to create a vehicular
combat spin-off with the
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense engine.

Fan favourite real-world

locations such as Egypt
were revisited in Twisted
Metal: Head-On.

WWE CRUSH
HOUR 2003
QWere not sure if we needed a
WWE vehicular combat game,
but Pacific Coast Power And
Light thought otherwise.

FULL AUTO 2006

QPseudo Interactive
reintroduced racing to the
genre, as well as an unwreck
mechanic which allowed
players to rewind time.

Some of the special attacks

in Twisted Metal, such as the
Sweet Bot transformation here,
are absurd.

PLAYSTATION | 145

 Time trials were included if you

wanted to see how fast you
could push your car.

As well as the infamous Bowl, there were

races too with points for wrecking your
opponents cars.

DESTRUCTION DERBY
here did the idea for
Destruction Derby originally
come from?
Martin Edmondson and
Michael Troughton, my brother,
together came up with the concept
and design for the game. Martin was a
big fan of real-life demolition derbies.
We initially pitched it to Sony, along
with a technology demo showing
that we were more than capable of
getting it done.

W
IN THE KNOW
 PUBLISHER: PSYGNOSIS
 DEVELOPER:
REFLECTIONS INTERACTIVE
 PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION,
PC, SEGA SATURN
 RELEASED: 1995
 GENRE: RACING

The game was originally going to be

called Demolish Em Derby. Why did
it change?
I cant remember, but I recall Sony
didnt believe, at rst, that wed have
the game nished in nine months it
wasnt until around two months from
completion that they nally did and
they offered us the chance of being a
launch title for the PlayStation.
Destruction Derby has been referred
to as low-brow gameplay at its best.
Do you agree?

146 | PLAYSTATION

Denitely, yes. Thats exactly what we

went for when we made it. It was clear
to us early on that Destruction Derby
was going to be a very fun game to
play and we just went overboard with it.
Some people asked us to make it more
realistic but to do so would have been
at the expense of gameplay, so Im very
glad that we made it how we wanted to.
Physics denitely gave way to gameplay
how important was this?
Very. When you have 20 cars pushing
each other around a track, sensible
driving just goes out of the window. We
didnt cheat much to help the AI cope
with this but the one thing that we did
do was to increase the traction for the
AI. Without that, they would just be
slipping and sliding all over the track.
Arguably the best part of the game was
the Bowl, where you and a dozen or so
other cars could cause utter chaos
The Bowl was just something
completely different to the track-based
derby a complete free-for-all where

you just had to smash everything

possible and avoid being smashed
yourself. There were several problems
that we had to overcome with the Bowl.
The number of collisions, particles, the
complexity of the geometry and the
number of cars on screen caused us
many headaches with the frame rate, of
course. Having so many cars trying to
smash into you at the same time also
created several AI-related issues. Then
theres the problem of getting the cars
to drive intelligently when their steering
is smashed, when they can only turn
in one direction and so on all the
problems that the player faced playing
the game, we had to have the AI system
handle as well. Unlike other games
of the era, we didnt cheat with the AI
or handling. Just like a human player,
the AI could only steer and accelerate/
decelerate. It was common in other
games to see cars impossibly turning
on the spot. We didnt do that.
So what about the Stock Car and
Wreckin Racing modes? Whose idea

THE MAKING OF: DESTRUCTION DERBY

PLAY IT
AGAIN
One of the great features of Destruction
Derby was its replay editor. Given the
chaotic nature of the game, it was
possible to pull off some wonderful
crashes, and it was inevitable that
youd want to play them back. The
replay editor let you not only replay
your scenes but chop out the bits you
didnt like and position the camera in all
sorts of ways to really milk the best of
moments. It was like watching Eighties
television stunts, only you were in
control of the action.
Martin Edmondson, MD of
Reflections at the time, saw this as
one of the main features. Hed always
had a dream to be a Hollywood
director, I think. Stuntman, a game that
Reflections made many years later,
was one that hed often told us about.
Wed laughed it off as something that
would never work.

Race courses were tight, with

narrow tracks and evil bends.

It may have only taken nine months to make, but Destruction

Derby smashed its way into the charts in the mid-Nineties. David
Crookes buckles up and chats to programmer Robert Troughton
was it to introduce these sections and
was there anything in particular that
you wanted to achieve with them?
Wreckin Racing was the mode that we
started with. In this one, you had to
combine racing with demolition. You
could come rst in racing but still lose
overall if you didnt smash enough
cars. This was really the original plan
for the game. Stock Car Racing was
added later on as a fairly obvious
second mode removing the need to
smash other cars and turning it into a
more typical race, albeit one where you
could smash and spin out other cars in
order to get to rst place.
Was programming all of this an easy
task, given the quick response and
speed of the game?
It was all achieved through sheer
determination. We had some of the
best PSone programmers that there
were working on this. Other teams
working for Sony, such as the
WipEout team, were amazed at what
we were doing with the hardware. It

certainly wasnt easy to get it all done

and at a good frame rate, but we
always loved challenges.
The tracks were narrow, slippery and
bordered with walls. How did you
draw them up?
We originally planned to ship a level
editor with the game a feature that
was dropped due to time constraints.
For that reason, it was all built in a
very Scalextric style and on an 8x8
grid.When you think of how much
estate that gives you to play with,
it really isnt much so wed really
limited ourselves as to what we
could do with the tracks: small
corners (1x1 pieces), large corners
(2x2 pieces), crossover (one piece)
and straights (one piece) were about
all that we implemented, along with
narrowing of the lanes. Not only
was it difcult to t many track
variations into this system, it was
also difcult trying to t 20 cars
onto the tracks as well. Thankfully,
the crazily packed tracks actually

beneted the gameplay rather than

hindering it.
There was no inside view of the cars,
and no speedometer or gear shifting.
Why was this?
Time. Again, wed wanted to do this,
but it was dropped in order for us to
release the game at the same time as
the PlayStation.
So was the lack of choice of cars or
mechanical options deliberate too?
Partly. We wanted to keep things simple
for the rst game in the series but, also,
time was against us.
How much of an inuence did
Destruction Derby have on your
gaming life?
It was amazing. Destruction Derby
was the rst commercial game that Id
worked on so, to be part of such a small
team and to create something that
would be so successful was amazing.
Its something that Id love to have the
chance to do again.

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
DRIVER PICTURED
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION, PC
YEAR: 1999
SHADOW OF THE BEAST
SYSTEM: AMIGA, ATARI ST,
AMSTRAD CPC, C64, MEGA
DRIVE, LYNX, MASTER
SYSTEM, SPECTRUM
YEAR: 1989

STUNTMAN
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION 2
YEAR: 2002
PLAYSTATION | 147

L O V I N G

When Core created Tomb Raider in 1996 it not only

unleashed a 3D phenomenon, but also gave the world
one of gamings most iconic characters. Darran Jones
charts the cultural rise of the original silicon chick
ara Croft is the most famous female
videogame protagonist in the world.
She certainly wasnt the rst, and she
went through several changes, but she
has touched both the gaming industry and the
real world, an achievement that very few other
videogame characters, with the exception of
Mario, Sonic and Pac-Man, have managed.
Thanks to canny promotion on the part of Eidos
something creator Toby Gard wasnt happy
about the rising wave of Girl Power, and simply
being in the right place at the right time, Lara Croft
transcended typical videogame boundaries and
in some ways has become even more relevant
to the general public than Mario. After all, can
you imagine the Italian plumber being used
to sell credit cards, Seat or Lucozade on TV,
promoting skin cancer awareness or having
his own magazine photoshoot? Also can
you even imagine a new Super Mario lm
after the atrocity that was Super Mario Bros
in 1993? Lara has already had two successful
lms under her belt with a combined global prot
of $196 million, with a third on the way, although
its looking unlikely that Angelina Jolie will be back.
From non-videogame magazine covers to
promoting TV channels, and having both a blue
plaque and a ring road in Derby named after her
she had 89 per cent of the vote for that honour, if
youre interested shes certainly come a long way
since her conception in 1996, and even her creator
never anticipated her success.
It was all a big surprise for everyone,
commented Toby Gard when we rst had the
opportunity to speak to him via a transatlantic call
for the launch of Tomb Raider: Legend. I knew
[Tomb Raider] was good, I knew that what we were
making was dynamite, but I didnt expect it to go to
number one and stay there for months.
And yet when Tomb Raider was created,
Lara Croft wasnt even the main protagonist.
148 | PLAYSTATION

Having heard about this for many

years, we were keen to nd out if this
was anything to do with the rumour
that Tomb Raider started off as Rick
Dangerous 3. Gard simply gave us an
emphatic No when we caught up with him
again recently, and we also put the question to
Jeremy Heath-Smith, one of Cores original cofounders. His reaction was completely different,
as he just couldnt stop laughing. Oh no, he was
able to tell us after wiping away tears of mirth.
That never actually happened and Ive not heard
that before, although its certainly a nice thought.
So how did Lara come about, then? Realising
that 3D was the future and wanting to create a
game that was epic in scope and captured the spirit
of the best action movies, Gard created a stubbled
hero who had more than a hint of the look of a
famous archaeologist about him. After presenting
his idea, Gard was asked to reconsider his rst
choice: I was told I should consider including three
other character choices. From there I designed the
girl character and I simply couldnt go back.
We asked Heath-Smith why he wasnt keen on
using Gards original creation. Because it was
Indiana Jones, came his reply. I just looked at
him on the screen and I said to Toby: Its a great
character, but its Indiana Jones and I have a
sneaky suspicion that Spielberg wouldnt be very
happy and that hed sue us. [laughs] The original
idea was just too close to an Indy character. So we
tried other ones.
Even after Gards protagonist was created, Lara
Croft still went through several different changes
before he nally settled on a character that
everyone at Core was happy with. I remember
taking inspiration from various places and
characters at the time like Tank Girl and Neneh
Cherry. I looked around at cool characters but
not in any one particular place, he recalls. After
trying out various ideas for his heroine, Gard

WHAT THE INDUSTRY THINKS

Archer MacLean
What do you think of
Lara Cro?
Lara Cro has to be
one of the rst human
type game characters
to break out into the
real world, with fame
assured due to constantly looking like she
was about to bust out of her Lycra!
She is certainly a media icon, and
aer a dozen game titles shes gained
enough momentum for Hollywood to
make two full-on lms, with a third in
the making. Short of running for
president, how much more famous
can you get?

Do you have any fond memories of

Lara and Tomb Raider?
Well, I spent ages playing the rst PSone
version in about 1996, as it was one of
the best early uses of texturing in an
immersive 3D game, although I kind of got
fed up with running, jumping and shuing
along ledges.
However, I do have a personal anecdote
from the era. Prior to Tomb Raider, my
then-publisher, Virgin, wanted me to get
away from snooker games and come up
with a character franchise, especially one
not based on Jimmy White. At the time
Doom was a major hit on the PC were
talking 1993/94 and I came up with a
very fully edged design for a game simply

called TOMB, with the hero running around

inside pyramids. Some features of that
design would still cut it now in 2010. When
I presented it to Virgins management, the
rst response was that anything Egyptian
had always been the kiss of death and my
immediate response was: Ahh, thats a
cool strap line. Six months later, out comes
Tomb Raider, and the rest is history.
Also, one of the lads at work got
his photo taken at a games show with
the pneumatic Nell McAndrew, barely
constrained by green PVC. A large print of
it and many other art pics ended up stuck
to the back of the loo door at work. Last
I heard was that hed emailed Realdoll
asking if they could make one for him.

PLAYSTATION | 149

The Adventures Of Lara Croft

Tomb Raider 1996

Tomb Raider II 1997

Laras rst
adventure had
everything:
gorgeous
visuals,
exhilarating set
pieces, devilish
puzzles and a spunky central character.
Add in huge environments to explore
and it is little wonder that Tomb Raider
became such a success.

Laras
second outing
featured
improved
visuals, a far
greater variety
in its locations
and a smattering of new moves for its
heroine to enjoy. It also enabled Lara
to ride a selection of vehicles and was
another smash hit for Core Design.

Tomb Raider: Legend was

developed by Crystal Dynamics
the first non-Core Tomb Raider
and was well-received.

Tomb Raider:
Unnished Business 1998
Released
to tie in with
Tomb Raiders
Mac release,
Unnished
Business
consisted of
the original game and two additional
expert chapters. They were created in
San Francisco by Eidos.

Nonlinearity to
Tomb Raider III
meant it was
possible to
complete
stages in
a variety of ways. Add in a new save
system and a better balance between
action and exploration and it was third
time lucky for Lara.

Tomb Raider II:

The Golden Mask 1999
This
expanded
edition added
an entirely
separate
ve-level
mini-adventure
entitled The Golden Mask, in addition to
the entire original version of the excellent
Tomb Raider sequel.

otherwise, keen to report on the

eventually settled on a braided
WHAT THE INDUSTRY THINKS
latest Lara news as it developed.
South American beauty named
The global phenomenon that was
Lara Cruz. Changes from the
Martyn Brown
Lara Croft didnt really take off until
marketing department at Eidos,
How important
was the rst
the release of the second game,
which was publishing the game,
Tomb Raider?
but such was the scale of the
eventually meant that Laras
I think the timing
fervour surrounding her, Heathsurname became Croft and she
was critical in terms
Smith was in no doubt that Core
lost her South American roots
of capturing the
Design had created a monster.
and ended up as a member of
imagination of the
I still have the original
the British aristocracy. Lara also
gaming audience at
projections for the rst Tomb Raider
ended up with a larger bust after
that time. It also coincided with a relatively
strong title, which made for an obviously
game at Core Design, he begins.
Gard accidentally increased it
hugely successful game.
We originally said that we needed
by 20 per cent; the rest of the
to sell around 15,000 copies on the
team liked the change and it was
Whats your favourite Tomb Raider
Sega Saturn, another 15,000 on
never corrected. Gard became
game in the series?
the PlayStation and 5,000 on the
increasingly frustrated with the
As far as whats the best Tomb Raider
PC to make money. The rst order
changes and requests from Eidos
game, Im going to stick my neck out and
say that Uncharted 2 does it better than
eventually came in and it was for
and eventually left Core Design
Lara ever did!
300,000 copies and I was like: Oh
shortly after the rst Tomb Raider
my god. This is going to be slightly
was completed.
bigger than we thought.
One thing that many gamers
For all the focus on Lara, its easy to forget just what
forget is that Laras console adventures started off on
a big deal Tomb Raider was when it launched in 1996.
Segas Saturn and not the PlayStation. Core Design
While Super Mario 64 launched in exactly the same
had already proved to be the master of using Segas
year and made Lara look rather cumbersome thanks to
Mega-CD, so it seemed like a no-brainer that its rst big
Marios nifty, analogue-controlled athleticism, his 64-bit
next-generation game would end up on the Saturn. The
outing was more like snack-sized bites that you could
deal that Core had in place for Sega wasnt without its
jump in and out of. Tomb Raider, by comparison, felt
problems, however. The biggest problem we had was
more like how Gard had originally envisioned: a solid,
that Core had worked out an exclusivity deal with Sega,
immersive adventure that other games of the time just
giving them Tomb Raider a full month before it came
couldnt match. The tombs that the globe-trotting Lara
out on the PlayStation, continues Gard in a recent
investigated boasted fantastic scale that really made you
chat. Unfortunately, this did mean that the Saturn
fear for our heroine when you started climbing, while
version ended up shipping with some pretty major
the lush environments were full of detail, further adding
bugs, including one that could actually make the game
to the on-screen immersion. Huge in scope
impossible to complete.
and size good luck completing it on your rst run
Bugs or not, by the time Lara did arrive the hype
in less than 17 hours Tomb Raider encapsulated
for her and what she represented was already at fever
everything that made the adventures of Indiana Jones
pitch, with every aspect of the media, videogame or

At points, the promotional angle

for new Tomb Raider games
stopped even trying to be subtle.

150 | PLAYSTATION

Tomb Raider III 1998

LOVING LARA CROFT

Tomb Raider:
The Last Revelation 1999

Tomb Raider
Level Editor 2000

Tomb Raider III:

The Lost Artefact 2000

Tomb Raider Chronicles 2000 Tomb Raider

Splitting the Starring Lara Cro 2000

Heres
where it
started to fall
apart. A dull
adventure,
unimaginative
set pieces
and poor level design meant The Last
Revelation was a disappointment. Playing
as young Lara was a nice touch, though.

Only
available for
the PC, this
does exactly
as youd expect
and is a fairly
comprehensive
level editor. Its helped create a huge and
active fan community on the net and is
still in wide use today.

Sometimes
referred to as
Tomb Raider III
Gold, this is a
sequel to part
III and released
exclusively on
the PC. Full of variety, it starts o in the
Scottish Highlands and ends up in the
catacombs of Paris.

main game
into smaller
ashback
levels is a nice
touch, but
Chronicles
feels rather tired. The grappling hook
makes an early appearance, and Lara
gets a few new moves, but this is a pretty
bland eort.

so fun to watch. Battling bad guys, facing off against

nature itself and plunging into deep, murky pools was
all in a days work for Lara, and while the digital controls
that Core had given her let her down somewhat, she
was still absolutely fascinating to watch whenever she
was in action.
And action was one thing that was high on Lara
Crofts agenda. Running around with her dual-wielding
pistols, she epitomised the very body of the Girl
Power that the Spice Girls had so successfully
engineered two years earlier. Once youd got bored
of constantly manipulating Lara so that the camera
would zoom in and focus on her amply pointed chest
we all did this, right? you could simply focus on
the gameplay, rolling around like a lunatic, gunning
down wolves like an extra from a John Woo lm and
running like hell when you encountered that terrifying
T-rex. With its atmospheric music, strong characters
and impressive cut-scenes, it should come as no
surprise to learn that Gards inuences had come from
the lm world, with the works of John Woo being
particularly inspiring.
Id just seen Hard Boiled and I wanted to get that
in because I was so excited about the lm, continues
Gard on that original transatlantic call we had with him.
I wanted to have that kind of dual-pistol insanity going
on, with leaping and shooting and stuff. Obviously it
was quite a long way off from that in the end, but that
was what was pushing the action forward.
The original Tomb Raider became an absolutely
huge success for Core Design and an impressive
achievement, especially considering the teams
inexperience in making 3D games. Shifting huge
numbers on all formats particularly Sonys PlayStation,
where it t perfectly with the mature image cultivated

Despite
sharing
elements with
the original
game, Tomb
Raider on the
Game Boy
Color is a completely dierent adventure
with a new plot and 2D visuals. Its the
rst Tomb Raider on a Nintendo console.

We wanted to sell 35,000 copies to make

money. The rst order was for 300,000
by Sony it wasnt long before a sequel was
announced, and unfortunately for Sega, the poor old
Saturn didnt even get a look in.
There was no question, begins Heath-Smith when
we asked him if Sony chased the Tomb Raider sequels
because it was such a perfect t for the PlayStation
brand. Sony has gone on record to say that Tomb
Raider was a cornerstone product to show off what the
PlayStation could do. It came about from the success
of the rst game, the fact that wed put it out rst
on the Sega Saturn and Sony were really keen. They
approached us and asked if we would be interested [in
single-format exclusivity] and we said okay and ended
up making a deal that made a lot of sense for all of us.
It was phenomenal because it not only sold hardware
for them but also sold software for us.
While Core Design buckled down and started
planning out Laras next game, the rest of the
world was going absolutely mad for the pony-tailed
adventurer. By the time Tomb Raider II was released,
Lara mania was in full swing. She was appearing on
the cover of non-gaming magazines The Face was a
particularly memorable example made headlines on
the front cover of The Times and, amazingly, she even
found time to start a thankfully short-lived pop career.
Irish rock superstars U2 contacted Eidos in early 1997,
stating that they were keen for Lara to feature in the
upcoming PopMart Tour. She made a guest appearance
during the tour, with Core creating specic footage to

The Croft Phenomenon

Given how popular the games and
Lara became in a relatively short
space of time, and because the
media took Ms Cro to be the ideal
ambassador for the edgy new
image that gaming was getting
thanks to Sony and its PlayStation,
the marketing men were quick
to capitalise on the popularity
of Tomb Raider. Since leaping
onto our screens back in 1995,
on top of the requisite T-shirts,
socks and action gures, Lara
has appeared in two big-budget
movies, a 50-part comic book
series by Top Cow Productions,
and a series of novellas published

by Ballantine Books. She was

also immortalised on the cover
of the culture, music and fashion
mag The Face, helping cement
her status as a true media icon,
became the face of Lucozade,
appeared in an animated series
appearing on the subscriptionbased gaming portal GameTap,
and lent her face to four whiteknuckle theme park rides
three of which, though, no longer
have any Tomb Raider association.
Still, how many videogame
characters since Lara can boast
anything like that level of success
and celebrity?

be shown on the 7,000-square-foot video screen.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the rise of
Lara, particularly when you look at how carefully shes
marketed as a brand today, is that her cyber celebrity
status wasnt deliberately orchestrated by Eidos or
Core Design at all, effectively snow-balling into a global
behemoth all by itself.
If Im totally honest, that was kind of selfperpetuating, reveals Heath-Smith about Laras
increasing worldwide appeal. Youve got to remember
that this was the rst major female character in a
videogame, so we kind of kept it all under wraps for
quite a while because we were just so nervous about
the response we were going to get. I remember some
press coming to see us and they were looking at some
of the other projects we had in the company at the
time and we said to them: Come and have a quick
look at this and see what you think. They were all like:
Wow, thats awesome. We need to write about it, to
which we simply said: No, you cant. [laughs] I think
what happened was that once this news broke that
there was this female character there was this ground
swell from all media, and it wasnt just the videogames
press. We got blamed for David James losing goals at
the England game because he was up all night playing
Tomb Raider, she was on the front page of The Face
magazine she just kind of self-perpetuated. Id love to
say that it was a really dynamic PR machine that kicked
into gear, but it really wasnt like that at all.
To be honest it was all just lucky timing, reafrms
Gard when we recently quizzed him about her meteoric
rise to cyber-stardom. Lara was an unusually strong
heroine in one of the rst ever third-person games.
Because that space was pretty much untrodden by
anyone we had the opportunity to do a lot of rsts and
that made [Tomb Raider] very memorable.
Regardless of how Lara rose to celebrity status, she
was now big news. So big, in fact, that she even had a
live counterpart to represent her at various shows and
press events. While Core Design and Eidos hadnt been
behind Laras meteoric rise, they had come up with the
idea to create a real-life Lara something that still exists
today to act as a spokeswoman for all new games.
That all came about from going to the big CES
show in America, recalls Heath-Smith. We did a
couple of things there, including a digital animation
of Lara, where we devised this really clever motion
capture stuff. She was on a screen and we were using
a camera so that if you walked past she would actually

PLAYSTATION | 151

The Adventures Of Lara Croft

Tomb Raider:
Curse Of The Sword 2001

Tomb Raider Episode 1:

The Eye Of Osiris 2002

Tomb Raider:
The Prophecy 2002

Tomb Raider Episode 2:

The Shadow Falls 2003

Tomb Raider Episode 3:

Armageddon 2003

A far more
accomplished
Game Boy
follow-up
that features
excellent
visuals, a nice
blend of exploration and action and some
intriguing puzzles. Its still simple stu,
but nevertheless works a treat.

This was
a simplistic
platformer
created for
Sky Gamestar.
There are a
total of ten
levels to
explore but tricky controls mean that its
fairly hard to nish.

Although
it features
excellent
visuals and
plenty of
variety, Laras
rst GBA
outing isnt really that memorable. Little
wonder, then, that no other adventures
appeared on the platform.

The followup to Eye Of

Osiris is more
of the same,
but now has
Lara battling
her way
through a huge warehouse, Impossible
Mission-style. Again, controlling it with a
TV remote lets it down.

Armageddon
changes the
concept of
the original
two games
by having you
nish the nal
stage in a tight time limit. Its an otherwise
perfect time-waster that suers like the
other games.

Nell McAndrew
1998

Vanessa Demouy 1997

Lara Weller 1999

WHAT THE INDUSTRY THINKS

David Wilson
Head of Sony UK PR
Why was Tomb Raider so
important for Sony in the
PlayStation era?
The market was dominated by Sega
and Nintendo, but PlayStation carved
its own niche by being, frankly, cooler.
It appealed to an older demographic.
One of the initial ways it did this was by conscientiously not
having a mascot. Sega had Sonic, Nintendo had Mario.
Jonathan Ross once made a comment about Nintendo
Game Boy, Sony Walkman, which seemed fairly apposite.
When a mascot nally appeared, it was a dierent kind
not something that could be perceived as childish but a
pneumatic female superstar who was cool enough to feature
on the cover of the contemporary style bible The Face.

Rhona Mitra 1997

Jill de Jong 2002

Lucy Clarkson 2000

Ellen Roche 2001

Karima Adebibe 2006

THE GIRLS BEHIND LARA

The rst model was Vanessa
Demouy, who portrayed Lara
from 1996 to mid-1997. Rhona
Mitra whos arguably had the
most impressive career postLara carried
on the torch to
1998 and so it
went on, with
Eidos changing the model to
usually tie in with the release
of a new game although
Nell McAndrew was red aer
appearing in Playboy, which
used Lara Cro without Eidoss
permission. The current Lara
is Alison Carroll, a gymnast
and model who, like Lara
stand-ins before her, has had
intensive training in order to
better understand the role. The
impressive number of models
that have portrayed her over
the years meant that Lara was
entered in the Guinness Book
Of Records for the Most ocial
real-life stand-ins. Over the
years costumes have changed
to match Laras latest look, and
Nell McAndrews costume was
even donated to UNICEF for a
charity auction.

152 | PLAYSTATION

Why does she remain such an iconic character?

Lara Cro was very much of her time and thats why she
maintains cult status. She was hugely popular among the
male gamers, but she also crossed over with an appeal to
female gamers as well. This may sound naive in hindsight,
but Lara rose to popularity in the era of the Spice Girls and
Girl Power [as] a girl who was smart, powerful and sassy
and more than a match for her male adversaries. She was
empowering and also a rarity in videogames, where the hero
predictably tended toward the musclebound meathead. Her
legacy is possibly not just more female leads in games but
also more varied depictions of the male lead.

Alison Carroll 2008

Simon Pick
Senior soware engineer,
Electronic Arts
What impact did the rst
Tomb Raider game have on you?
I was annoyed that it was so good! We
released Die Hard Trilogy at around
the same time and I remember
standing in the Virgin Megastore on
Oxford Street watching a kid playing
it and thinking: Damn! Why does it have to be so good? No
one is going to buy our game now. On Die Hard Trilogy we
struggled to create 3D enemies I was convinced that it was
impossible to produce a fully skinned character and keep the
frame rate reasonable. Lara proved me completely wrong.
What do you think of Lara Cro as a character?
She proved that you could create a large 3D character that
was engaging. Before Lara, game characters were all
tiny random characters with no personality. There was a
connection with the player that no previous game character
had. A few years back I was hiring animators and modellers
for a new game, when in walked Lara Cro ponytail, small
round glasses, backpack, khaki pants, the works. It would
have been a genius interview technique, had I not been mied
that Tomb Raider stole some of our Die Hard Trilogy sales! I
hope her eorts paid o with a more reasonable interviewer.

LOVING LARA CROFT

Tomb Raider:
Tomb Raider Episode 4:
The Angel Of Darkness 2003 Temple Of Anubis 2003

Tomb Raider:
The Osiris Codex 2003

Tomb Raider:
Quest For Cinnabar 2004

Tomb Raider:
Elixir Of Life 2005

Missing
numerous
deadlines,
Laras PS2
outing felt
outdated as
soon as it was
released. Riddled with bugs, it has some
strong ideas but it just feels like old hat. It
was Core Designs last Tomb Raider.

Laras
rst mobile
phone game
is surprisingly
fun. Its a 2D
platformer
with plenty
of run-and-gun elements and the odd
puzzle to solve. Solid and slick, its well
worth investigating.

This is
the second
episode of
Laras mobile
adventures
and it is pretty
much business
as usual. Lara is now looking for a new
relic, but otherwise it features the same
solid platforming as before.

Laras
nal mobile
adventure
was a tting
send-o,
easily building
up what had
happened in the previous two games. It
was a little more polished visually and a
mite tougher, but still highly enjoyable.

[PSone] The first Tomb Raider

was a 3D adventure unlike
anything before it.

Laras fourth
outing on
Skys Digibox
sticks to the
same tried and
tested formula
as before,
with the same number of levels and
same gameplay. Needless to say, it was
beginning to get tiring.

talk to you. It was quite cool at the time but we felt

that you needed something more. At the same time
Eidos was promoting other games and it just made
sense that we had a Lara lookalike who could come
out on stage and do photos.
It was now approaching the end of 1998, and Tomb
Raider II was gearing up for release. While sticking to
the proven template of the original game, Core Design
nevertheless brought plenty of new additions to the
core gameplay, some of which split the original games
fan base. The globe-trotting aspects of the original
game remained, but Lara was now able to use vehicles
something that has continued with various degrees
of success on certain levels, and there were far more
human opponents to defeat. Where Tomb Raider
instantly recaptured the spirit of the Indiana Jones
lms, its sequel was a more modern affair, taking
place on the waterways of Venice and even an oil rig
in the middle of the Atlantic. Some fans voiced their

Fans began to
question whether a
year was enough to
make a new game
concerns about the new modern direction that Lara
and the franchise was heading in, but the sequel was
still a huge success for both Core and Sony, greatly
outselling the original and ensuring that Core Design
would be in charge of getting another game out in time
for the lucrative Christmas season again.
Lara was still enjoying huge success as Core began
working on part three, but the cracks of working to
such a strict schedule were beginning to show. Early
previews of Tomb Raider III, while generally positive,
were beginning to question whether a year was
enough time to work on a completely new game.
Granted, Lara herself would get many new
abilities monkey swinging being by far the most
useful but, for many, it didnt seem enough.
Hot off her stage appearance with U2 on their
PopMart Tour, Lara launched a singing career; or rather,
Rhona Mitra launched a singing career using
the Lara Croft name. Produced by the Eurythmics
Dave Stewart, the album Come Alive was an
unbelievably cheesy affair consisting of amazingly
poor Europop tunes that did little to enhance Laras
image as a globe-trotting adventurer. Unfortunately for
Rhona, debut single Getting Naked was a less than

stellar release, causing the one-time model to give

up her career and head to Hollywood, where she has
since carved a decent career.
It was during the release of the third Tomb Raider
game that rumblings rst began about a Lara Croft
movie, although it would be several years later that
the eventual lm would come along. It was all a blur
for Lara, however, and it was becoming increasingly
obvious that Core, too, was beginning to run out of
creative ideas for the franchise. Lara had always been
depicted as a sexy heroine much to Gards chagrin,
who left after being unhappy with the promotional
direction that his creation was heading in but by the
arrival of The Last Revelation the focus was starting
to be more on Lara than it was her actual adventures.
One famous advert featured a girl wearing Laras
familiar crop top and shorts as her boyfriend smugly
lay in bed behind her, while the videogames press was
spending just as much time talking about her latest
outts as it did about actual gameplay. It looked like the
feisty adventurer was getting out of control, and she
was becoming in danger of sinking what had started
off as a thoroughly enjoyable franchise.
All franchises tend to go through ups and downs as
they try to reinvent themselves and as different people
take charge of it, admits Gard when we asked him if
he felt like some of Cores later Tomb Raider games
began to lose their way. I remember consistently
getting into a lot of trouble and ghting over the
marketing campaigns for the original Tomb Raider,
but at the end of the day everyone has a different
interpretation of the character, so things are inevitably
going to get patchy as things progress.
Thats certainly something of a dilemma, admits
Heath-Smith when we put the same question to him.
Is Lara bigger than the actual games or is the game
bigger than Lara? If Lara is in a bad game does that
end up damaging Lara as a character? My own view
now is that shes probably far bigger than the actual
games. Although I do think that if its a bad game it
doesnt really matter what character you have in it.
I think the movie obviously had a big impact on that
because we personally didnt do a game of the movie
in case the movie ended up being bad.
The late Nineties passed quickly for both Lara and
Core, and while she remained in the public eye her
Larazade adverts were everywhere at one point
the franchise was turning into the very denition
of diminishing returns. The games were still proving
popular, but gamers were becoming increasingly
disillusioned with Laras adventures, especially when
titles like The Last Revelation and Chronicles still saw
her being controlled with all the ugly nesse of a Tesco
trolley with a broken wheel. Core certainly tried to
shake things up The Last Revelation was the rst

PLAYSTATION | 153

The Adventures Of Lara Croft

Lara Cro:
Tomb Raider 2005

Tomb Raider:
The Reckoning 2006

Tomb Raider
iDVD Game 2006

Tomb Raider:
Legend 2006

Lara Cro Tomb Raider:

Puzzle Paradox 2006

Lara Cros
Party Poker 2006

This
was Laras
very rst
video slots
outing by
Microgaming. The standard
spinning reel action is punctuated
by occasional mini-games and
it makes for an interesting Lara
Cro spin-o.

Another
side-on
quest for
Lara that
played like
a cross between the Game Boy
Color titles and the later Sky
Digital games that were released.
It was available live in Canada via
Bell ExpressVu.

Utilising
Angel Of
Darkness
footage
because
Legend was still in development,
this was an interesting attempt
to capture the casual market by
splicing footage of the PC version
with Dragons Lair-style controls.

Crystal
Dynamics
breathed
new life into
Lara thanks
to solid combat mechanics,
clever use of QTE, and a solid
balance between adventuring and
exploring. An excellent reboot of
the franchise.

Based on
elements
from Legend,
Puzzle
Paradox
is a solid little mobile release
that borrows from Gremlins
Deector and Sudoku. Nothing
earth-shattering, but good fun all
the same.

This is
nothing
more than
poker with
Laras name
attached. Youll battle a selection
of Eidos characters including
Gex and Kain before you get
to take on the mad card skills of
Lara herself.

Something was going to have to give.

That something was Angel Of Darkness
time that you could control Lara as a young girl and
Chronicles depicted Laras supposed death and was
told in the style of ashbacks but it was becoming
increasingly obvious that something was going to have
to give. That something was Tomb Raider: The Angel
Of Darkness, but before Laras sixth videogame arrived
she was busy starring in her rst feature lm.
Ever since rumours began circulating about a Lara
Croft movie in 1998, it was hard to imagine anyone
else other than Angelina Jolie starring as the heroine.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was released to commercial
if not critical success in 2001 and starred Jolie as the
famous archaeologist, her estranged father Jon Voight
as her on-screen father, and Daniel Craig as nemesis
Alex West. Despite a largely nonsensical plot, Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider turned into an enjoyable movie
experience, with a strong turn by Jolie and a very
commendable box ofce. In fact, Laras rst lm outing
not only became one of Paramounts most protable
openings at the time, but is easily the most successful
videogame to lm adaptation, with its $48.2 million
opening easily eclipsing the previous record of
$30 million that had been achieved by Pokmon:
The First Movie.
After grossing over $270 million from an
original budget of $115 million, a sequel duly
appeared in 2003 dubbed Lara Croft Tomb
Raider: The Cradle Of Life. Sadly, it was even
more poorly received critically than the
rst lm and, despite the addition of action
maestro Jan de Bont at the helm, didnt
perform anywhere near as successfully as the
original lm. It still made a $30 million prot, but
while Eidos is keen to make a third movie the
latest rumour is a prequel starring Megan Fox in
the lead role nothing else is conrmed.
The rst lm was all right but the
second one completely lost touch with
the character, explained Gard about
seeing his creation on the silver screen.
Eidos was far happier however, with
Heath-Smith being particularly pleased
about how the movies turned out. We
had a lot of creative control, he reveals
about the deal with Paramount Pictures. I
was executive producer on both lms and
one of the conditions was that we had veto
over script, actors and actresses and exactly
how they would portray Lara. At the end of

154 | PLAYSTATION

the day, Lara was our icon and what we didnt want
was a movie damaging Lara. I personally had a lot of
involvement, from script to directors to cast.
Although Heath-Smith was able to help guide Laras
big-screen outings, the same magic was not sprinkled
on Cores last game. Constantly delayed and nally
shipping with numerous bugs, Tomb Raider: The Angel
Of Darkness was a massive disappointment for both
Core and Eidos, receiving average scores from all
corners of the gaming community and causing Eidos to
have a massive rethink about the franchises future.
I listened to far too many people and there was a
huge amount of pressure put on us, begins HeathSmith when asked about Laras darkest videogame
moment. We actually let the marketing people get
involved, which was our biggest mistake. We wanted
to do an updated version of the original Tomb Raider,
but they were like: No, you cant do that. We need
to bring her into a new age and make her far more
interactive. Sadly we were just too over-engineered and
it was actually thought about too much. It was a shame
because the work that was put into that game I cant
even begin to tell you. The man-hours in that game
were huge, absolutely huge. The biggest problem with
it was the controls. We just struggled and struggled
with getting the controls right and trying to do so much
with her. Again we just over-engineered it. We should
have done what we did on the other ve games and
simply told them all to bugger off. Sadly the commercial

[PSone] Tomb Raider II had surprisingly

little actual tomb-raiding, taking in more
modern environments.

WHAT THE INDUSTRY THINKS

George Andreas
Design director, Rare
What was the rst thing that hit
you when you saw Tomb Raider for
the rst time?
How incredibly immersive the overall
experience was at the time given the
limitations of the hardware. Also, it
wasnt really pandering to the other
games of its era, it wasnt overtly cute,
it wasnt about collecting lots of shiny objects and it wasnt
about twitch skill gameplay it was brave and bold and
ultimately succeeded in introducing an original character to
the world outside of videogames.
Whats your favourite Tomb Raider?
For me, the rst one. Creating the rst of any series is always
the biggest creative and development challenge. Dening
what that is and executing that to a high level that really
resonates with people is no mean feat.
Why does Lara Cro remain so popular?
I guess you could ask the same question about some of the
other high-prole videogame icons of the same era. Mario
and Sonic also remain popular to name but two, regardless
of what we may think about the quality of some of their
outings over the years. Creating new IP is fast becoming a
fading art as the nancial risk developers and publishers face
is tremendous. So, sometimes its easier to bring back an
old character or give an old franchise a face li to appeal to
new consumers as well as the existing fans of the franchise.
Thats not to say that the developer can be lazy and throw
anything out the door customers will be just as quick to
disown something if the quality is poor as they will be willing
to adopt or continue to support a gaming franchise if the
game delivers on their expectations.

Tomb Raider
Anniversary 2007

Tomb Raider: Secret

Of The Sword 2008

Tomb Raider
Underworld 2008

Lara Cro And The

Guardian Of Light 2010

Tomb Raider 2013

Lara Cro And The

Temple Of Osiris 2014

Taking
over from
Core Design,
Crystal
Dynamics
revisited and expanded upon the
original game. Its not quite as
polished as Legend, but remains
a tting tribute to Laras very rst
adventure, ably updated.

Secret
Of The
Sword was
a video slot
machine that
featured Lara performing Tomb
Raider-themed tasks like shooting
targets in the bonus rounds.
Fans of the series unsurprisingly
shouldnt go out of their way.

Although
Nathan
Drake steals
Laras
thunder
a little, we really enjoyed
Underworld. An interesting setting
and improved mechanics meant
another hit for both Eidos and
Crystal Dynamics.

Laras
rst co-op
adventure
is already
looking like a
hell of a lot of fun and successfully
blends Robotron-style controls
with some impressive puzzles in
a downloadable package. It also
looks beautiful.

Aer a
number of
traditional
Tomb Raider
games,
Crystal Dynamics was allowed
to shake up the franchise. The
end result was a survival horrorbased romp with heavy nods to
Naughty Dogs Uncharted series.

Crystal
Dynamics
delivered
another
twin-stick
shooter, this time with four-player
action. Sadly, it was a ghastly dull
aair that failed to capture the
clever splice of action and puzzles
that the rst game oered.

When Crystal Dynamics

rebooted the series in 2013 it
completely overhauled Laras
look. Shes no longer a sex icon.

Lara was turned into a survivor for the

2013 reboot called Tomb Raider. A sequel,
Rise Of The Tomb Raider, is out shortly.

stakes that were around then were so huge that we

didnt have a lot of choice.
Angel Of Darknesss performance at retail saw the
shock announcement by Eidos that the next game in
the series would be created by American developer
Crystal Dynamics, which was best known for its
Legacy Of Kain franchise. The news was met by howls
of disgust from the fan base, but when Tomb Raider:
Legend was released in 2006 it turned out to be a
damned good reboot. Quick-time events were cleverly
segued into the main gameplay and the addition of a
new grappling hook proved more than a fancy gimmick,
while the available puzzles were also of a very high
standard. Lara was back on track, but Core Design had
been hit hard by both the loss of its signature character
and the Heath-Smith brothers, who departed to form
Circle Studios and took a good 70 per cent of Cores
staff with them. The company was unable to cope and
what was left of it was sold off to Rebellion in 2006.
To be really honest with you, it was time for a
change, admits Heath-Smith about Crystal Dynamics
taking over the franchise. The team had been on that
project for six games, which is too many, and it did
need a shake-up. The sad part was that the shake-up
was in America and at that time I had left, so there
was nobody there ghting the corner. I thought it was
really sad to lose a British icon to America, but to be
fair theyve done a really good job and Toby
also got re-involved, which was very
cool. It is sad, but who knows? Maybe
one day well get the original team
back, secure the game and make
another one. That would be
quite a headline, wouldnt it?
After the success of Tomb
Raider: Legend, Crystal
Dynamics further stamped its
authority on the franchise by
revisiting the original game and
implementing the back story
changes that had begun
in Legend. Interestingly, Core
Design had also been working on
a tenth anniversary edition
of the game for the
PSP, but disaster struck
when Core revealed
early screenshots in
June 2006, only for
Eidos to announce that
it would be created by
Crystal Dynamics the
following week.
Tomb Raider
Anniversary was nally

released in 2007 and proved a tting tribute to Laras

original adventure. It felt instantly familiar to anyone
who had played the original classic, but also contained
enough new elements to stop boredom
from setting in for even those who had completed
the original numerous times. It was followed in 2008
by Tomb Raider: Underworld, which was not only
a grittier vehicle for Lara but also featured far more
underwater action than in previous adventures.
Fortunately Crystal Dynamics was more than up to the
task, and the end result was another solid adventure
that easily built on the building blocks that the developer
had rst created with Legend.
Crystal Dynamics next game was Lara Croft And
The Guardian Of Light, her most interesting-looking
adventure yet. Its a downloadable game that introduces
many new and interesting play mechanics. The most
exciting is the addition of a second playable character
called Totec, which greatly changes the core gameplay
dynamics and also ensures that you can solve the
games many puzzles in a variety of different ways.
Sadly, a 2014 sequel called Lara Croft And The Temple
Of Osiris failed to get the same response from critics,
probably because it bodged the gameplay and had
replaced the exciting shooting of the original game with
encounters that were dull and unexciting.
The biggest contribution Crystal Dynamics has
made to the franchise was when it rebooted the
series in 2013 and made Lara Croft into a
more plausible character who has to grow
up rapidly when shes shipwrecked on
a mysterious island in Tomb Raider. Its
success has led to a sequel, due later this
year. With public awareness of Lara now
stronger than its ever been, we were
keen to know why shes such an iconic
gurehead. I think its mainly
because no one has ever
challenged her and created a
female character in the
same way, concludes
Heath-Smith. To
be honest, bringing
out a new female
character in todays
market is bloody
difcult. I dont think
its impossible, but
Lara is very much
an icon of her time,
just like James Bond
is, and its very hard
to match that without
mimicking it if youre
not rst to market.

PLAYSTATION | 155

A big thanks to www.tombraiderchronicles.com for its help

LOVING LARA CROFT

THE LAST OF US

ION
DRAKES DECE[PT
UNCHAR TED 3:

DREAM ZONE

UNCHARTE D

KEE F THE THIE F

JAK & DAXTER

CRASH BANDICOOT

RINGS OF POWER

FRO M TH E
RETRO GAMER DIGS UP THE FILES OF THE CLASSIC COMPANIES OF OLD

Naughty Dog
From two ambitious school friends to the most
creatively signicant PlayStation developer of today,
Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin talks us
through the companys impressive evolution
hatever you were up to in
school at age 12, it most likely
didnt lay down your career
path for the next 20 years. Naughty
Dog co-founder Andy Gavin met his
future creative partner Jason Rubin at
this age in 1982 and, united by their
fascination with programming on the
Apple II+, the two learned how to make
games through experimentation and
collaboration. Naughty Dog is today
renowned for its showstopping blend
of cinematic storytelling with sharp
gameplay mechanics, and the dizzying
ambition of its two young co-founders
led to those core principles.
The rst game I ever programmed
was a crude RPG called VE2 that I wrote
rst on my school Heathkit and then on
my Apple II+, explains Andy. It had
you wander around a fantasy world and
randomly encounter orcs, kobolds and the
like. It wasnt so different than a singleplayer text Dark Tower.
When they met, Jasons games looked
superior, yet they frequently crashed;
Andys, on the other hand, were better

156 | PLAYSTATION

programmed, yet lacked a certain visual air.

These complementary skills encapsulated
their creative dynamic. Fundamentally we
shared a very similar vision for game making
(make it cool!) and brought overlapping
but different skills to the table, says Andy.
I was more technical and he was more
artistic, but we were both very motivated
and energetic. We used to joke years later
that it would be difcult for any would-be
third partner to keep up, even if only on
account of our intensity.
Andy and Jason nished their rst
commercial Apple II title, Ski Stud, when

INSTANT EXPERT
The Simpsons creator Matt
Groening was a fan of the early
Crash games he said so on the
DVD commentary to the episode
Lisa Gets An A , which aired in
1998, where a Crash-like game
called Dash Dingo forms a central
part of the episodes storyline.
The original name for Naughty
Dog, JAM, stood for Jason and
Andys Magic.
Three of the Crash games rank in
the 20 bestselling titles on PSone.
The series shipped 30 million units
on the console across four games.

Crash Bash is the only PSone

Crash title that Naughty Dog didnt
work on, being released after the
studio moved on from the franchise.
It was a shoddy vision of things to
come for the character
Andy and Jason sold their rst
published game, Ski Crazed, out of
bags around Washington DC.

The title screen of Ski Crazed with Jam Software logo. Is it

us or does he look a little like Crash Bandicoot?

The duo spent $10,000 on renting

oor space at E3 to market Way Of
The Warrior. It paid off, as multiple
publishers expressed an interest.

they were both 15 (theyd completed

another unpublished title, Math Jam, a year
before). The duo struck a publishing deal
with Baudville worth $250 for Ski Stud
renamed Ski Crazed for political correctness
sake. Their chosen moniker at the time was
JAM Software, which they kept until 1989.
Greater success followed with adventure
title Dream Zone on the Amiga, Atari ST
and Apple II, which sold 10,000 copies and
marked their nal game to be published by
Baudville. The guys at Baudville were very
nice and supportive, Andy explains. But
the company had poor distribution, minor
league resources, and a laid-back approach.
There was a lot of woah, duuuude. Jason
and I were far too ambitious to stick around
in that environment.
While selling well, Dream Zone was still
short of a smash for the pair. Big hit isnt
the word I would use, but it was much
more real and substantial than Ski Crazed.
Signing with EA (right after Dream Zone)
was a big condence boost and we had
to really take things up a notch (although
there were many, many more notches until
Crash Bandicoot !).

RRIOR
WAY OF THE WA

Sega had Sonic and

Nintendo Mario, but Sony? We
hoped to jump into that slot
ANDY GAVIN ON CRASH BANDICOOT BECOMING A MASCOT

Ski Crazed was Naughty Dogs very rst videogame, back

when it was known as JAM Software.

Remarkably, cold-calling an EA hotline

led to their next gig, Keef The Thief, again
for the Amiga and Apple II. We just coldcalled EA after Dream Zone. They asked for
our games. We Fedexed them. They called
back and offered us a deal! EA in those
days was a lot of fun. Occasionally it was
a hair bureaucratic, but Trip Hawkins was
a very charismatic leader and an extremely
fair guy. The whole company had an open
and welcoming California feel.
EA was pleased with the success of
Keef The Thief, landing the duo a deal for
it to publish Rings Of Power on the Mega
Drive. At this point, however, Andy and
Jason were living in different parts of the
country as they attended college, so it took
three difcult years to get Rings Of Power
to market. A big problem with Rings was
that it was designed as a PC RPG with an
odd graphical gimmick (the three-quarter
perspective) and then migrated to the
Genesis. Really, we should have redone
the graphics at that point as a tile-based
scrolling world (like Phantasy Star). Plus, the
sheer scope of the project and the lacklustre
treatment from marketing left us a little

burnt. EA chose not to reprint Rings Of

Power, which disappointed the pair, leading
to a brief hiatus for the nascent studio.
Yet it was Trip Hawkins and the promise
of the 3DO that reignited their interest.
Trip approached the pair, who were given
free dev kits, which led to the creation
of their self-funded beat-em-up Way Of
The Warrior. We changed our whole
philosophy with Way. Instead of doing
the game we most wanted to make, we
looked for an intersection between cool,
manageable and popular. Fighting games
were really hot in 1992-4 and when we
started, no one seemed to be doing them
on the 3DO. It seemed a perfect match.
Way was a blast to develop. Jason and
I lived together in this shitty apartment and
worked on it 18 hours a day but we had
a lot of fun. The campy nature of both the
kung fu genre and our take on it made the
whole thing hilarious. I think that shows in
the nished product.
This change in development philosophy
governed the success of what followed for
the studio. Universal Interactive published
Way Of The Warrior, and the duo were
PLAYSTATION | 157

1982

158 | PLAYSTATION

1985

1994

1999

2001

I wouldnt call it a new engine,

but we basically stripped out and
rewrote every major system in
the engine one by one
ANDY GAVIN ON MAKING CRASH BANDICOOT 2
It has a measured pace and rewards
perseverance. When you get on a roll, its
pretty damn satisfying.
Crash Bandicoot may have
conceptually stemmed from the
phrase Sonics ass, but Naughty
Dogs character became an icon
in his own right just as the blue
hedgehogs best days were
ending. While Mario 64 became
a milestone of action adventure
games set in a 3D space, Crash
offered an edgier counterpoint,
encapsulating the cooler attitude
that made the original PlayStation
such a massive cultural event.
There was something fresher in
Crash and, like the Warner characters it
was inspired by, you got the sense that its
creators were speaking as much to adults
as they were to kids. Naughty Dog had
signed a three-game deal with Universal in

2007

2009

THE LAST OF US IS UNVEILED

AS NAUGHTY DOG BECOMES
A TWO-GAME DEVELOPER
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS
HISTORY, CREATING A NEW
IP FOR THE PS3 WHILE
CONCURRENTLY WORKING
ON THE UNCHARTED SERIES.

NAUGHTY DOG IS SOLD TO

SONY AS JAK & DAXTER
BECOMES A SMASH HIT ON
THE STILL RELATIVELY NEW
PS2 PLATFORM.

THE DEVELOPER LEAVES THE

UNIVERSAL LOT AND SETS UP
SHOP IN SANTA MONICA, AFTER
ITS THREE-GAME DEAL WITH
THE COMPANY HAS ENDED.

NAUGHTY DOG BEGINS WORK

ON THE CRASH BANDICOOT
SERIES AT UNIVERSAL, AFTER
SUCCESSFULLY RELEASING WAY
OF THE WARRIOR FOR THE 3DO.

AS JAM SOFTWARE, ANDY

AND JASONS FIRST TITLE,
SKI CRAZED, IS RELEASED
THROUGH BAUDVILLE ON THE
APPLE II.

ANDY GAVIN AND JASON RUBIN

MEET AT SCHOOL AND BEGIN
MAKING GAMES TOGETHER,
AROUND THE AGE OF 12.

TIMELINE

Rings Of Power was a complex

PC-style game brought to Segas
16-bit Mega Drive.

In many ways, Crash Bandicoot

encapsulated the cooler, alternative tone set
by PlayStation when it arrived on the market.

UNCHARTED 2: AMONG
THIEVES IS RELEASED TO
MONUMENTAL CRITICAL
ACCLAIM, AND RIGHTFULLY
SO ITS A PERFECTLY PACED
ACTION EXPERIENCE WITH
THE BEST TRAIN-RELATED
SET PIECE EVER.

The choice of format was easy. In a

hardware market burdened by big failures
and fragmented efforts from Sega, Sony
offered a fresher start with the PlayStation.
It was really the best choice. The hardware
was better. Sony seemed organised and
perhaps most importantly, didnt have a
pre-existing mascot character. Sega had
Sonic and Nintendo Mario, but Sony? We
hoped to jump into that slot.
Jason and Andy toyed with the idea
of a character called Willie The Wombat
before settling on a bandicoot. A Warner
Bros animation inuence hung over the art
direction and style of Crash Bandicoot, and
Mark Cerny employed talented cartoonist
Charles Zembillas to do character designs
for Crashs cast (Zembillas also created
Spyro The Dragon for Insomniac, based on
the Universal lot with Naughty Dog).
Released just three months after Super
Mario 64 in 1996, Crash Bandicoot was
a sales smash. Fundamentally, Crash
offered a number of things, Andy says,
when we ask about the key to its massive
success. First of all, the character and his
world are great, and totally approachable.
You can understand him at a glance, and
he is highly inclusive. His combination of
goofy positivity is very endearing. The world
was also very appealing and consistently
designed. Second, the gameplay is very
fast and furious if a little hard in Crash 1.

NAUGHTY DOG RELEASES ITS

FIRST PS3 TITLE, UNCHARTED:
DRAKES FORTUNE, WHICH
IS PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY
DECENT TITLE ON THE
CONSOLE AT THE TIME,
LEADING TO MASSIVE
SUCCESS FOR THE DEVELOPER.

then signed up by Universal in 1994 to

produce games on its LA lot, under the
guidance of Mark Cerny. The Universal
relationship was a complicated but critical
step in our evolution, Andy says. In
1994-5 they really brought a lot to the
table, particularly in the personication of
Mark Cerny and in making a minimalist
and relatively supportive environment. We
learned how to scale to more than two
developers and how to take every element
of the production seriously.
On their extended car journey to Los
Angeles, Jason and Andy conceived the
idea of a 3D character-driven action game,
informally named Sonics ass, where the
player would view the protagonist from
behind while manoeuvring through the
environment. This was the basis for Crash
Bandicoot s creation. We ask Andy if he felt
he and Jason had generated an idea that
was ahead of its time. Actually, yes. Even
as an idea, it seemed to offer a solution to
the how to do platforming in 3D dilemma.
In practice, there were a lot of details to
work out. As relayed on Andys website,
Naughty Dog was worried about the
players depth perception, the potential for
dizziness and camera quality. No precedent
had really been set, here yet Universal
was as keen on the Sonics ass idea as
Andy and Jason themselves. Plus, Mario 64
didnt exist yet, either.

2011

FROM THE ARCHIVES: NAUGHTY DOG

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Andy Gavin poses with one of his most
famous creations, Crash Bandicoot.

Andy Gavin
Andy co-founded the company Flektor with Jason Rubin after
leaving Naughty Dog, creating a web program that allowed for easy
online content mash-ups that quickly grew after its 2007 launch.
The duo sold it to Fox in 2009 for north of $20 million, just as
the latter was attempting to move into social media territory with
MySpace. Andy and Jason left soon after. Since then, Andy has
written two paranormal fantasy novels, Untimed and The Darkening
Dream, and blogs extensively about a variety of topics at
www.all-things-andy-gavin.com, where he often answers
questions about the series hes worked on. He also does some
rather entertaining write-ups of episodes of Game Of Thrones
and documents his memories of working at Naughty Dog, with
contributions from co-founder Jason Rubin.

Jason Rubin
Crash Team Racing was a sharp
alternative to Mario Kart on PlayStation,
with a nicely structured adventure mode.

1994, covering the next two releases: Crash

Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back in 1997
and Crash Bandicoot: Warped in 1998.
Another unusual part of Crash
Bandicoot s commercial performance was
its extraordinary sales in Japan, which were
unusual for a Western-developed title. It
truly was an international phenomenon
and the duos condence paid off. We
hoped for it, but I was still surprised it
actually happened, Andy reects on the
success. Enormously pleased though.
We each had to step into the role of
mentoring and advising an ever growing
crew of developers, Andy explains about
how his and Jasons roles changed as the
studio expanded. Fortunately, we hired
really talented people so we also learned a
lot from them, but we had to do a lot more
producing and managing. On a technical
level, Dave and I (the Crash 1 programmers)
combined some of our MIT engineering
rigour with game practicality to do some
really ambitious engineering on the level
with other great (even non-game) software
companies. This gave our games a leg up
that, when combined with great design and
awesome graphics, made them really stand
out. A one-two-three punch.
The subsequent titles performed equally
well thanks to this combination of qualities
and allowed the Naughty Dog team to push
the PlayStation hardwares visual capabilities
further. I wouldnt call it a new engine, but

we basically stripped out and rewrote every

major system in the engine one by one,
explains Andy, when we ask him to discuss
Crash s rst sequel. Crash 2 shares the
same architecture, but everything was
overhauled and improved!
The series won more plaudits over the
next two instalments, with critics praising
the more varied level design, increased
delity of the animation and the ambition
that demonstrated healthy signs of Naughty
Dogs maturity as a studio. Crash 3 wasnt
so much a technical risk like Crash 2, it was
just a death sprint. We did the whole game
in nine months and built so much content.
The engine itself got a few upgrades,
particularly the tech for various kinds of
water and the ying, but mostly it was
levels, levels, levels and more levels!
By this point, Sony was funding and
publishing the Crash titles, and the two
co-founders questioned the worth of
Universal Interactives input. As a result of
choosing not to renew the latters publishing
deal, Naughty Dog apparently had to make
Crash 3 in the corridors at Universal. For its
nal Crash title, the high-quality karting spinoff Crash Team Racing, Sony negotiated
the rights to use the licence since Naughty
Dog was no longer on brilliant terms with its
previous publisher.
Mark Cerny was there the entire time
we worked with them and we had a great
relationship with him, recalls Andy.

Crash Bandicoot 2 started to have some real fun with the

variety in level design.

A call to the Electronic Arts hotline led to Keef The Thief.

Rings Of Power eventually followed.

Working on Flektor with Andy, Jason Rubin also

ventured into comic book writing, creating The Iron
Saint and Mysterious Ways through his company
MORGANrose, published by Aspen Comics and Top
Cow respectively. He also co-owned a mobile games
studio with Andy known as Monkey Gods, which
Jason described as an experiment. Jason also recently
became president of THQ, which, despite his best
efforts to save the company, went bankrupt and had
its assets sold off earlier this year. His main focus as
president was focusing on stronger core titles, and it seemed like the company wasnt
too far off a turnaround, though a few poor releases prior to his leadership left THQ
with a lot of financial shortcomings. Anecdotally, weve heard positive things about
Jasons leadership at the now-defunct publisher.

Way Of The Warrior had great visuals,

enjoyable combat and plenty of gore.
Thanks to John Szczepaniak for the images.

Jak And Daxter eliminated loading times

from its gigantic overworld, which few
other PS2 games could match.

PLAYSTATION | 159

 The Uncharted series has been a

massive success for both Sony and
Naughty Dog. Were still hoping for
a fourth PS3 adventure.

The Jak And Daxter series was recently

rereleased on Sonys PlayStation 3 in a new HD
collection. Its a pretty solid compilation.

Jak II: Renegade made noticeable moves towards

modern trends in 2003 when it took the series into
GTA s sandbox territory.

PS2 had a very steep learning curve. It was

Our relationship with the 1997-1999
a great machine, but to milk all the power
management was actually cordial, but we
out of it you had to migrate a lot of code
didnt always think they brought a lot to the
onto the vector units. It was vastly more
table. Around the time we were separating,
complicated than the PSone. Naughty Dog
the whole management changed over there
was one of the few teams that thrived in
again (Jim Wilson came in) and we never
those early PS2 days because the quality of
really got to know that crew. The company
Jak And Daxter soon turned into a trilogy
our programmers and technical artists was
did have a pretty awed corporate culture,
for PlayStation 2 owners.
so high. Lesser tech guys got dusted.
one that didnt always encourage fair play.
The teams new title, 2001s Jak And
They stopped paying us we had to sue
them (we eventually won everything).
Daxter, marked an ambitious turn from the
After Universal, Naughty Dog set up
linear platforming of Crash. A Nintendoshop in Santa Monica, and by this point its
inspired platform/adventure, it would
relationship with Sony was exceptionally
feature a seamless open world with no
strong. Andy says that the developers
loading screens, which caused numerous
choice of hardware was more down to
opportunity than any emotional ties yet
in 2000, after beginning work on their rst
non-Crash title in six years, Andy and Jason
sold Naughty Dog to Sony, in a move
motivated by the console makers desire to
own its next big intellectual property.
We had a great relationship with Sony
from 1996 on, Andy says. By 2000
when we were discussing the merger,
ANDY GAVIN ON NAUGHTY DOGS DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES
we were not only exclusive in practice but
chummy with all levels of the company,
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CRASH BANDICOOT?
from junior producers and QA managers to
Owned by Activision now after it merged with
Kaz Hirai It is/was a great company, with
Vivendi several years ago, Crash Bandicoot
bright motivated people, a lot of energy,
is MIA while his former stablemate Spyro
the Dragon is part of the plastic-shifting
a determination to do things well, and an
phenomenon that is Skylanders. He isnt
ethos of fairness and honesty. Companies
really anywhere, which is sad, as Crash is a
great character, reects Andy on Crashs
are like people, and any that has a lot of
current status. That special quality that dened
these things going for it is a rarity.
Naughty Dogs Crash titles was lost in the rst
Jason was condent that Naughty Dog
multiplatform release, The Wrath of Cortex,
in 2001, which mostly rehashed the ideas of
could have functioned independently, but
previous Crash titles. It was published during
being absorbed by Sony allowed the team
the same holiday period as Jak And Daxter, and
to focus on making games. The studio was
naturally it didnt compare too well. From there, the Crash series got progressively worse, though
the last instalment, Crash Of The Titans, wasnt completely awful. The magics just been lost a
one of the rst to obtain a PS2 dev kit,
little bit from the series theres never been a drive to innovate or push the 3D platforming genre
though working with the new hardware
forward with Crash outside of Naughty Dogs hands, which dened the original games success.
didnt come easy, according to Andy. The

Focus on characters, trifecta

of art, gameplay and
technology, and massive polish
and attention to detail

160 | PLAYSTATION

headaches for Andy and his team. Oh,

God. The seamless loading was hard. We
had been heading in this direction with
Crash, which featured a very sophisticated
streaming system and extremely short
load times (3-4 seconds!), but with Jak
And Daxter we had this early mandate to
eliminate loading entirely. It was hard, but
very cool in a subtle way. Very few games
do it even now.
The Nintendo pastiche was deliberate,
too. There was a lot of Mario 64 / Banjo
inuence in Jak 1, as they were the most
modern (and best) examples of platforming
during the 1999-2000 period when Jak was
under design.
Jak was another huge hit on PS2, if not
quite as commercially gargantuan as Crash,
and once again gave the PlayStation brand

Uncharted 2 introduced multiplayer

gameplay, which soon became a
staple part of the series.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: NAUGHTY DOG

DEFINING GAMES

Crash Bandicoot

Way Of The Warrior

As a viable Mortal Kombat alternative on the
struggling 3DO, Way Of The Warrior was
arguably the best known of Naughty Dogs
pre-Crash titles, with a sense of irony that its
contemporaries lacked. This marked the start
of the studios relationship with Universal,
which turned out to be extremely fruitful. Way
Of The Warrior is notable for its gory visuals,
diverse characters (portrayed by friends and
relatives of the staff) and impressive combo
attacks. It features a particularly aggressive
soundtrack too, with many of the tracks
coming from White Zombies album Le
Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol 1.

Arriving on a console without a mascot, Crash

Bandicoot posited its own solution for the
3D platformer genre that contrasted strongly
with Nintendos ideas in Mario 64 Crash
was an icon with the complete package from
the start, with strong character designs and
instantly gratifying platforming mechanics in a
game packed with smart level design. Crash
Bandicoot proved to be a watershed moment
for Naughty Dog and, as Sonic had done with
Segas Mega Drive before it, helped convince
gamers that Sonys new cool console was the
machine to own. A superb evolution of the
platform genre that everyone needs to play.

Jak And Daxter:

The Precursor Legacy
Bearing some resemblance to the Crash
series in its feel, Jak And Daxter exchanged
linear levels for a gigantic environment lled
with 101 various challenges. Banjo Kazooie,
Zelda and Mario 64 all inspired its ambitious
design, which illustrated Naughty Dogs
ability to create a large, cohesive world to rival
Nintendos own properties. Jak s persistent
game world and near seamless loading times
showed off Naughty Dogs technical prowess,
while the clever pairing of the silent Jak and
motormouth Daxter was a testament to the
studios keen eye for strong characterisation.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

While Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was a
highly enjoyable PS3 debut, its ambitious
sequel bettered it in every way. It built on
the original games Indiana Jones pastiche,
setting players up with a gauntlet of everescalating set pieces and a rip-roaring tale,
marking a new high in pacing for third-person
action-adventure games. Its a highly engaging
cinematic romp, and still looks incredibly
cutting edge. Its also notable for introducing
for bringing a slick multiplayer offering to
the popular series. While Uncharted 3:
Drakes Deception featured more outlandish
setpieces, the gameplay wasnt as good.

Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End is due out

in 2016 and looks set to ramp up the
action to exciting new levels.

The Last Of Us has been a huge success for

Naughty Dog. A greatly enhanced version was
recently released for the PlayStation 4.

a mascot that it needed. The series moved

into an open-world paradigm with 2003s
Jak II: Renegade, which was clearly a
product of its time in a post-GTA III world.
We wanted to show that we could go
open world with the best of them!
By the time the vehicle-centric Jak 3 s
release came around in 2004, the
co-founders contracts were up, and Andy
and Jason felt condent about leaving
Naughty Dog in the hands of its veteran
staff, headed up by Evan Wells and
Christophe Balestra; their departure was
as much about allowing these new leaders
to develop as the desire to have a bit of
time off for other projects. Not only has
Naughty Dog survived for 8.5 years since
we left, but it has thrived and grown,
Andy says. Evan, Christophe and the
whole team over there continue to show
their enormous talent and dedication. The
games are new, cutting edge and yet still
very much Naughty Dog games. They draw

from the same basic philosophical strategy

we developed in the Crash era: focus
on characters, trifecta of art, gameplay,
and technology, and massive polish and
attention to detail.
The Uncharted series does indeed
embody those ideals and, particularly with
its barnstorming second instalment released
in 2009, shows how Naughty Dogs
direction has weathered time effectively and
allowed it to progress effectively as a studio.
The Last Of Us is its latest release, a postapocalyptic thriller that touches upon darker
subject matter than were used to seeing
in the developers releases, which again
seems like a natural part of its evolution.
Whats reassuring about Naughty Dogs
enduring reputation, then, is that those
principles outlined by Andy and Jason, back
when they made Way Of The Warrior, have
survived until today Naughty Dog creates
big, fun games with a credible mass appeal,
a balance that few developers can equal

with any great conviction. Yet it stemmed

from two condent friends teaching each
other how to make games, and a mutual
loyalty leading to unexpected levels of
hard-earned success.
They feature big integrated worlds,
gameplay-rst storytelling and all the above
stuff, says Andy, discussing what denes
a modern Naughty Dog game. Thats
what makes them Naughty Dog games.
Starting with Jak 1 and moving into Jak 2,
we really focused on trying to make the
best story you play possible. Uncharted 2
and 3 take this to whole new levels.
The 2004-2013 steps have been just as
challenging as the 1994-2004 steps.
Same dance, different moves.
Naughty Dogs The Last Of Us was recently
released on PS4. Andy Gavin is the author of
The Darkening Dream and Untimed. Find out
more at the-darkening-dream.com and untimednovel.com.
PLAYSTATION | 161

Symphony of the Night

Many 3D-obsessed gamers thought Konami was mad when it

decided to make a 2D Castlevania for Sonys powerful PlayStation.
The Japanese developer had the last laugh, thanks to its genrebusting game. Damien McFerran discovers how it all happened
162 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT

IN THE KNOW

PUBLISHER: KONAMI
DEVELOPER: KONAMI
The bells! The bells!

The bat transformation allows Alucard to enter previously inaccessible areas.

egular readers of Retro Gamer

may have noticed that we
harbour something of a soft
spot for Konamis splendid
gothic adventure Castlevania: Symphony
Of The Night. We gleefully leap on any
excuse to mention it and will happily print
screenshots at the slightest provocation,
only Capcoms Strider features more
prominently. In our defence, the bloodsucking platform romp remains one of
the most truly essential pieces of 32-bit
software and has justifiably attained nearlegendary status within the already classicfilled Castlevania canon. Even now, nearly
twenty years after its debut, it remains
not only the best game in the series, but
one of the finest Metroidvanias to ever be
created. With that in mind, we felt it was
the perfect opportunity to speak with Koji
IGA Igarashi (who was series producer at
the time) about the development of what
many deem to be the crowning glory of a
highly esteemed franchise.
IGA was responsible for the welfare
of Castlevania lineage and has recently
overseen the production of two excellent
Nintendo DS episodes in the shape of
Dawn Of Sorrow and Portrait Of Ruin.
He also oversaw the less successful
Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair. He
joined Konami in the early-Nineties
and worked on a variety of titles before
becoming part of the Castlevania team
prior to the development of Symphony

Of The Night. The game represented a

significant turning point for the series.
With the exception of the free-roaming
Simons Quest on the NES, over a decades
worth of instalments had displayed an
unwavering commitment to the fairly
straightforward platform action template,
which saw the player utilising the
legendary Vampire Killer whip to send
all manner of nocturnal beasties packing.
Contrary to popular belief, IGA was not
employed as primary director on the
project that honour fell to Toru Hagihara,
who was also responsible for the excellent
Dracula X: Rondo Of Blood on NECs PC
Engine Super CD-ROM system (which
incidentally is the direct prequel to
Symphony Of The Night). However, IGA
served as assistant director as well as
participating in the writing of the scenario
and general programming, so it could
be argued that he had the most telling
influence over proceedings.
It was apparent from the outset that
Konami wished to steer the franchise in a
fresh, new direction. Action games could
be cleared in a short time, but I wished
to create a game that could be enjoyed
for a much longer period, explains IGA.
Taking inspiration from Nintendos SNES
classic Super Metroid, the team decided
to shy away from the stage-by-stage
concept of previous titles and cultivate a
totally open, free-roaming castle for the
player to explore. Hardy adventurers were

initially denied access to every portion of

Vlads sprawling, demonic fortress from
the outset, but thanks to a finely tuned drip
feed of abilities ranging from the humble
double-jump to unique shape-shifting
enchantments they would gradually gain
entry to more sections of the ageing citadel
as progression was made. For example,
at various points in the castle the way
forward would be barred by iron grilles.
To continue, the player had to collect a
relic that would permit them to alter their
appearance to that of a fine mist, therefore
allowing them to pass effortlessly through
the obstacle. Another area a tunnel
covered in deadly spikes could only
be traversed when in bat form. These
puzzles were not particularly demanding
but they resulted in a game that rewarded
exploration and proved to be a supremely
involving and enjoyable experience, while
thankfully retaining the classic hack-andslash action that aficionados of the series
held so dear.

RELEASED: 1997
PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION, SATURN,
PSP, XBLA
GENRE: ADVENTURE

This looks a strange place for candlesticks if you ask us.

ACTION GAMES COULD BE CLEARED IN A SHORT TIME, BUT I WISHED

TO CREATE A GAME THAT COULD BE ENJOYED FOR A MUCH
LONGER PERIOD KOJI IGA IGARASHI
PLAYSTATION | 163

DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
DRACULA X:
RONDO OF BLOOD (PICTURED)
SYSTEMS: (PC ENGINE CD-ROM)
YEAR: 1993

METAL GEAR S OLID

SYSTEMS: (PSX)
YEAR: 1998

NANO BREAKER
SYSTEMS: PS2
YEAR: 2005

Flying crucifixes can take your eye out, lad.

The epic final encounter with Big Daddy Dracula.

Michiru Yamane and Koji IGA Igarashi.

Another major innovation was the

introduction of role-playing mechanics.
This particular evolution was borne out of
the common perception that the series
was something of a tough nut in terms of
challenge, as IGA explains: I wanted to
change the impression that Castlevania
was this difficult-to-access action game.
When we decided to adopt RPG elements,
we agreed that users should receive
something good when beating enemies.
So I thought of adding Experience
Points to the game. For the first time in
the series, players could enhance their
chances of victory by levelling up and
augmenting their character with a vast
array of powerful weapons, armour and
spells. The concept of earning experience
for every enemy successfully slain also
prevented the inevitable back-tracking
from becoming too arduous, and in many

ways made the game more accessible for

less skilled gamers. I thought that even
the users who were not good at playing
this type of action game would be able to
clear Symphony Of The Night if I adopted
this particular system, continues IGA.
Some fans would later complain that the
developer was slightly too successful
in this regard and actually made the
game too easy, and when compared to
the stubborn, almost sadistic challenge
represented by previous titles (NES
Castlevania, were looking at you), they had
a point. Regardless of this, Symphony still
possessed many hours of playtime within
the dank, crumbling walls of Draculas
stronghold. The map screen was massive
to begin with, but if certain parameters
were met the player could teleport to a
second castle an inverted, upside down
version of the first and continue the

THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRE THAT I HAVE IN MY

MIND IS BEAUTIFUL AND FLEETING WITH BLOOD
AND DARKNESS. THE SERIES HAD A VISUAL
IMAGE FEATURING HOSTILITY KOJI IGA IGARASHI

valiant quest. This effectively doubled the

size of the game and the proper ending
one of several could only be accessed
when this second castle was beaten. The
introduction of a multitude of useful items,
including healing potions, food and oneshot weaponry imbued Symphony with a
depth unlike anything else experienced in
such a title. The urge to collect every trinket,
explore the attack possibilities of every
weapon, and cover every inch of the evil
stronghold proved irresistible for many.
Not content with shaking things up
gameplay wise, IGA also turned a few
heads when it came to selecting the lead
character for the game. Traditionally, the
vampire-hunting Belmont clan took centre
stage in Castlevania titles but Symphony
saw the player controlling the half-vampire,
half-human offspring of Dracula himself,
Alucard. I decided to choose a character
that had a special link to the previous
Castlevania titles, comments IGA. Alucard
(Dracula spelt backwards) had appeared
as a secondary character in the brilliant
NES game Castlevania III: Draculas Curse
which IGA cites as his favourite entry in the
entire series where he fought alongside

The map screen takes inspiration from Super Metroid.

Left: The abysmal American cover artwork.

Middle: Ayami Kojimas striking artwork
for the Japanese release. Right: The
Euro release thankfully retained Kojimas
stunning work, but sold poorly.

164 | PLAYSTATION

THE MAKING OF CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT

Whos the man? Shaft! Ahem.

the heroic Trevor Belmont to prevent

his patriarchs murderous revival. After
sealing this important victory he made
the decision to place himself in indefinite
hibernation to prevent his cursed bloodline
from causing humanity any further
mischief. Resurrecting the Tragic Prince
for Symphony proved an inspired move,
but IGA reveals that, at the time, he was
concerned that such a sweeping change
would anger the fans. Personally, I liked
Alucard very much and it was totally fine
with me, but I presumed that those who
had been fans for a long time would be
angry with our decision since it was the
first time the series ever had a non-whipusing character as a hero. In hindsight,
he neednt have worried the fans took
to the new lead like a duck to water. The
Japanese title was Akumajo Dracula X. I
used X to show that it would be apart
from the main stream of the series, but
surprisingly, it has now become the
mainstream, he comments with a degree
of satisfaction. Alucard is now regarded
as one of the most popular characters in
the Castlevania universe and IGA is well
aware of the contribution he made to the
ultimate triumph of Symphony. Alucard
was just a really cool hero, and that is
why I think Symphony Of The Night has
been received so favourably by the fans.
Nevertheless, in order to appease those
few stubborn traditionalists that might
have been offended by a vampire taking
centre stage, IGA thoughtfully included the
option to play as Richter Belmont, albeit as
an unlockable extra.
Regardless of the changes being
made elsewhere, one aspect of the game
retained the brilliance of former titles:

the epic boss encounters. In keeping

with the grand vision IGA and his team
strived to attain, Symphony was packed
to bursting point with some of the most
creative and visually stunning 2D bosses
ever witnessed. Many of these fiendish
creations were able to trace their roots
right back to the NES instalments of
the series the towering Galamoth
previously appeared in the disarmingly
cute Castlevania spin-off Kid Dracula, and
hardcore fans should have no trouble
remembering which other games Medusa,
Werewolf and Frankensteins Monster
have cropped up in before. My favourite
is definitely Beelzebub, replies IGA when
pressed about which boss he rates highest.
Indeed, this particular enemy proved to be
one of the most memorable in the entire
game, taking the form of a gigantic, rotting
corpse suspended on rusty meat hooks.
Victory could only be gained by hacking
away at his putrid, decomposing limbs
while avoiding the unwelcome attention
of several massive mutated flies. When
you consider the limited RAM of Sonys
32-bit console and the poor reputation it
had for hosting 2D titles, it makes IGAs
achievements all the more impressive.
The Castlevania franchise has always
had a reputation for high-quality musical
accompaniment and Symphony is no
exception. Indeed, Many consider Michiru
Yamanes work to be the finest ever heard
in the series. With this in mind, did IGA
ever feel that the expectation of aural
excellence imposed limitations on his
development? The music direction has
never led the creation of the game, he
states. I have always asked Michiru to
compose music in accordance with the
actual game and never the other way
around. She always co-ordinated with
the development team and composed
music from the image of the stages.
When asked which tune was his favourite,
IGA playfully admits that hes slightly
biased: My favourite is Castle Dracula
which starts to play when Alucard enters
the castle for the very first time. I was
impressed with the way the music starts
to play once Alucard enters the dark castle,
and then suddenly the castle gets bright
and zombies start to appear. It might be

because that particular part of the game

was programmed by myself. Yamanes
soundtrack was a fusion of rock, jazz and
classical styles that appeared hopelessly
mismatched on paper but worked
surprisingly well in practice. Standout
tracks included Strange Bloodlines,
which played over Richters battle with
Dracula in the prelude; Wood Carving
Partita, a string-based composition that
wouldnt have sounded out of place in a
Hollywood period piece; and Requiem
For The Gods, a largely vocal track which
accompanied the Church section of the
castle. The musical package was rounded
off rather neatly by Rika Muranakas
heart-wrenching I am the Wind, which
plays over the end credits. It was sung
by American Cynthia Harrell, who also
performed vocal duties on the infamously
camp title theme of Metal Gear Solid
3: Snake Eater. Unsurprisingly, the
soundtrack CD remains popular with fans
a decade after it was published.
The introduction of Ayami Kojimas
sumptuous artwork was the icing on an
already tantalisingly gorgeous cake. Again,
a desire to establish a new vision for the
series was the main reason behind her
involvement as IGA explains: The world
of the vampire that I have in my mind
is beautiful and fleeting with blood and
darkness. The series had a visual image
featuring hostility, but I tried to change
the image since the game concept itself

FANGS FOR
THE MEMORIES

In 2007, Konami released

Symphony Of The Night on
XBLA. In the same year it
produced an updated version
of the acclaimed PC Engine
instalment Dracula X: Rondo Of
Blood this will be the first time
the game has been officially
published outside Japan. Similar
to Capcoms PSP game Extreme
Ghouls N Ghosts, the game
uses a brand new 2.5D graphic
engine, updated character
designs from Ayami Kojima and
an all-new soundtrack. Some
would argue that the best thing
regarding this momentous
release was the announcement
that the original versions of
both Rondo and Symphony will
feature as unlockable extras,
which means fans could play
Symphony on the move for
the first time ever. Symphony
Of The Night was also made
available on Sonys PSN service,
meaning PS3 owners could also
enjoy Konamis groundbreaking
adventure game.

PLAYSTATION | 165

 Richter tackles a giant Vlad in the gripping prologue.

was going to change, he continues.

Kojimas mature and astonishingly detailed
art elevated the game to a whole new
level of brilliance, and for once the series
was granted a cohesive image that has
endured ever since. Her combination of
Japanese sensibility with classical painting
methods resulted in some of the most
breathtakingly stunning artwork ever
attributed to a videogame release and its
testament to her truly wonderful talent that
when a new Castlevania title is announced
you can bet that one of the first questions
to flash across internet forums worldwide
is Has Kojima done the artwork? Just

check out our front cover if you need

further proof of her incredible skill.
With this amalgamation of fantastic
gameplay, stupefying depth, gorgeous
design and a downright brilliant musical
score, its unsurprising that Symphony
went on to sell thousands in Japan where
it was released as Akumajo Dracula X:
Gekka no Yasoukyoku (Demon Castle
Dracula X: Nocturne In The Moonlight).
Huge sales and heaps of critical acclaim
were also prevalent when the game
debuted in the US but it perplexingly failed
to replicate this success in Europe. Reports
vary but it is believed that the initial print

BONUS STAGE

The Sega Saturn version featured some rather

silly enemies.

If dying wasnt enough, these poor skeletons have

now been relegated to skull-bearing status.

166 | PLAYSTATION

Two bonus items were produced

by Konami and bundled with
Castlevania: Symphony Of The
Night in varying quantities across
the three main territories. The rst
was a small book, which featured
a black-and-white illustrated
prelude to the game and some
lovely full-colour character
artwork courtesy of Ayami
Kojima. Initially intended solely
for the Japanese market (it reads
from right to left, as is Japanese
custom, and is entitled Dracula
X: Nocturne In The Moonlight)
the book was eventually carried
across to the American and
PAL markets too. The second
item is a CD, which contains a
selection of tracks from various
titles in the Castlevania series.
Both items are highly sought
after by fans and the art book
alone has been known to fetch
50 on eBay. Amazingly, these
items were bundled with the PAL
version from launch but were
only available to those who preordered in NTSC territories.

run for the PAL version was around the

15,000 mark and many of these copies had
to be heavily discounted by disappointed
stores before they eventually sold. Its
been argued that lukewarm reviews in the
UK press several magazines dismissed
it as a 16-bit game on 32-bit hardware
contributed to the dour performance at
retail, but whatever the cause, Konami
knew it had a turkey on its hands and
consequently didnt produce any more
PAL copies. Meanwhile, in Japan and
the US the game was reprinted several
times in order to satisfy demand and was
eventually granted best-seller status in
both territories. The low number of PAL
units, coupled with the fact that most came
with highly desirable limited-edition items
(see Bonus Stage) has recently caused
prices to soar its not unusual for mint
and complete Euro editions to fetch three
figures on eBay, while the NTSC versions
struggle to scrape 10.
A year after the PlayStation release,
Symphony was ported to Sega Saturn by
Konamis Nagoya studio (not the original
team, it should be noted). On paper this
promised to be the definitive Symphony
the raw 2D clout of Segas 32-bit machine
combined with Konamis boast that it
intended to add a raft of exciting features
(such as an additional playable character
in the form of Maria Renard, two brand
new castle areas and a smattering of
additional items) resulted in fans being
whipped into a frenzy of anticipation.
Unfortunately, the eventual release was
something of a disappointment. The
gorgeous transparency and lighting
effects so abundant in the PlayStation
original had been replaced by unsightly
cross-hatch textures (Saturn infamously
struggled with these kinds of effects)
and the game was afflicted with bouts of
crippling slowdown when the on-screen
action became too hectic. The muchhyped new levels were also distinctly
underwhelming and were populated by
some seriously daft new enemy sprites
the deranged horticulturalist in the
Underground Garden instantly springs
to mind and consequently the Saturn
port remains a purchase only hardcore
fans should seriously consider making.
Segas 32-bit machine had all but given
up the ghost in the West by the time the
conversion was released in 1998 and as a
result it never made it officially outside of
Japan (although a Western release was
mentioned several times in Segas own
promotional material). This has elevated
prices to levels that almost rival that of the
PAL PlayStation version.
Interestingly, around the same time
another conversion was announced
for Tigers ill-fated Game.com handheld
platform. Envisaged as a competitor to
Nintendos all-conquering Game Boy,
the Game.com boasted rudimentary

THE MAKING OF CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT

I WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE ACTUAL

CONVERSION, BUT I THINK IT WAS HARD SINCE
I GAVE SO MANY TOUGH REQUESTS KOJI IGA IGARASHI

Screens from the abandoned port for Tigers ill-advised Game.com console.

touch-screen technology and basic online

functions, but neither of these potentially
groundbreaking features were utilised
effectively and a flood of lacklustre
software resulted in the monochrome
console flopping disastrously at retail.
Tiger threw in the towel and development
on the Symphony Of The Night port
(which was being handled in-house by
Tiger itself) was brought to an abrupt
halt. Beyond a handful of screenshots
its not known exactly how far they
got the official line is that it was half
finished, but some sceptics have gone
as far as to speculate that the screens
were simply mock-ups created in order to
generate badly needed public interest in
the doomed portable. No playable code
has appeared in the intervening years
so its unlikely that it was anywhere near
completion and the promise of a portable
Symphony has only recently been fulfilled
(see Fangs For The Memories).
Nearly two decades have passed since
the world laid eyes on this astounding
piece of electronic entertainment, yet
interest is still as strong as ever with

An advert for the cancelled Game.com conversion.

many devotees adamant that Symphony

represents the pinnacle of the entire
Castlevania franchise no mean feat
when you consider the gloriously high
benchmark set by past titles like Super
Castlevania IV and Dracula X: Rondo Of
Blood and more recent entries such the
Hideo Kojima produced Castlevania: Lords
Of Shadow. I am really proud that it has
been evaluated as such, comments
IGA with a completely justified sense
of pride. However, the man who was
once responsible for the future of one
of Konamis most valuable franchises
steadfastly refuses to rest on his laurels: I
cannot say it was the best since I think I
need to always make every endeavour to
create better games for everyone to enjoy.
As previously mentioned, the XBLA
release of Symphony was released in 2007.
Programming duties were carried out by
emulation expert Digital Eclipse which
has previously impressed with several
highly accurate and well-received retro
compilations. Although IGA is not directly
involved, he admits that he has been
badgering the developer to ensure it gets

superlative results. I was not involved

in the actual conversion, so I dont know
much about it, but I think it was hard since
I gave so many tough requests to the
conversion team when we first handed
them the project. There has been talk of
various graphical improvements being
included and the epic adventure will be
the first to break Microsofts self-imposed
50MB limit for Live Arcade content an
indication of how committed it is to
ensuring the port is as faithful as possible.
IGA has the utmost confidence in the
ability of Digital Eclipse. I am sure it
deserves to be downloaded and played,
and hopefully it will reach a brand new
audience, he states categorically. Does
this brave new method of software
distribution intrigue the Castlevania
producer and does he foresee the
possibility of more titles from the series
being made available for download? I am
very interested in the online distribution
and look forward to it, but thats all I can
say for now, he replies enigmatically. One
thing is certain the acclaimed franchise is
in very good hands.

AYAMI
KOJIMA

Self-taught illustrator
Kojima is now so
inexorably linked with
the Castlevania franchise
that its easy to forget that
shes only been involved
since Symphony Of The
Night. Kojima started her
career by illustrating novel
covers, and branched
into videogames in 1997
with Symphony and the
Koei Sega Saturn strategy
title Sldnerschild. Her
contribution to Symphony
made her something
of legend among Castlevania enthusiasts and she went on to create further
artwork for Castlevania Chronicles (PSOne), Harmony Of Dissonance/Concerto
Of The Midnight Sun (GBA), Aria Of Sorrow/Minuet Of Dawn (GBA), Lament
Of Innocence (PS2) and Curse Of Darkness (PS2/Xbox). Her somewhat unique
representation of the male form highly feminine with lithe bodies and long,
owing locks has caused consternation among some sectors of Castlevania
fandom as her work has proven especially appealing to female Shonen-ai
(young man love) manga addicts.

Beelzebub is Igas favourite boss. After fighting

against him, its easy to see why.

Alucard stops for a quick breather and a lecture

from an irate ghost.

PLAYSTATION | 167

168 | PLAYSTATION

HISTORY OF RIDGE RACER

IT MADE A BIG IMPACT WHEN IT DRIFTED INTO ARCADES IN 1993,

BEFORE MAKING AN EVEN BIGGER ONE A YEAR LATER WHEN IT
SHOWED OFF THE IMPRESSIVE POWER OF SONYS PLAYSTATION.
RETRO GAMER LOOKS THROUGH A ROSETINTED REARVIEW TO
REMEMBER THE RACING HISTORY OF RIIIIIIIDGE RACER

rcade gaming and arcade ports saw something of a

renaissance in the Nineties thanks to the arrival of
popular coin-ops such as Street Fighter II and Mortal
Kombat. Their close relationship went all the way
when hardware and software developers began experimenting
with comparable arcade and console technology, causing a
signicant shift to occur as the coin-op and domestic game
markets never looking so comparable. Reigniting creativity and
imagination as limitations lifted, a raft of popular polygonal 3D
games emerged as two of the biggest forces in arcade gaming
at the time, Namco and Sega, came to dominate the 3D arcade
market, sparking an epic rivalry between the two companies
that spilled into our homes.
That shift of battleeld came to put a considerable strain on
the coin-op market as the popularity of home gaming increased,
thanks largely to Sonys canny marketing and positioning of the
PlayStation. When the expected nally happened, and console
games began matching and later eclipsing arcade games in
visual delity, many no longer saw the value or need to play
games on vend. Piers and holiday camps, formerly the reserves
for high-delity gaming, became like gaming cinemas, showing
us coming soon titles that, in a few short months, we would be
able to play nigh-on arcade-perfect versions of in the comfort
of our living rooms. But as this entertaining battle for arcade
supremacy raged on, it was a pretty fantastic time to be a
gamer an exciting period lled with great arcade releases
and arcade conversions.
A game emblematic of this technical gap-bridging between the
two markets was Namcos Ridge Racer. A racing game designed
for and debuting in arcades, it found a welcome home on the

PlayStation when it was awlessly converted as a launch game

for the machine in December 1994.
As detailed in our exclusive making of in issue 52, Ridge Racer
was a concept brought about by brand new PCB technology that
Namco had in development, dubbed Namco System 22, that
was able to generate striking texture-mapped polygons. Wanting
to showcase the technology, Namco turned to the racing genre,
this being a common practice by arcade developers see Segas
Hang-On, Virtua Racing and Daytona USA, and Namcos own Pole
Position. Incidentally, this is also the reason why Ridge Racer has
appeared as a launch game for so many machines since.
In racing games, you can build a vast space structure; create
elaborate, realistic visuals; and process a complex, high-speed
program, explains Namcos Masanori Kato. So, I think this is an
appropriate subject to rst try out the potential of new hardware.
Besides, the rules are simple, and no matter the maker of the
game, the operations are the same. I think most people dont need
to read the manual to understand that they have to race to the
nish line. When you get a new piece of hardware, you want to
experience something surprising straight away. Isnt it annoying if
you have to read all the manual instructions and tips rst? For that
reason, when you play Ridge Racer on a newly acquired piece of
hardware, you can enjoy the surprising experience right away, so I
think it is the most appropriate launch title.
The original plan was to create an F1 game using the
technology, but this idea was soon dropped in favour of doing
something far more accessible, based on a trend that was
occurring in Japans booming car enthusiast scene at the time.
There was a trend among young people in Japan for tuning
their cars, Namco Bandai general manager Yozo Sakagami

PLAYSTATION | 169

 Ridge Racer Revolution became a popular

sequel not just due to having improved visuals
and new modes but also thanks to its two-player
link-up games only requiring a single disc to work.

>> NAMCO ON e cars after

Why it decided to nam

es.
other Namco arcade gam the
e of
Sakagami: It was becaus
elopment
deep affection of the dev
games. Most
co
Nam
s
ard
tow
team
mes both
of them played videoga
fessional
pro
and
al
son
per
r
in thei
se people
the
and
e,
tim
t
tha
at
life
ched to
eventually became atta
played it.
y
the
en
wh
er
Rac
ge
Rid

>> NAMCO ONase

d with Ridge

Whether it was ple

the PlayStation.
Racers success on
very rst Ridge
Sakagami: From the
were developed
Racer until R4, they
During that
for the PlayStation.
the kind support
period, we received
k the fact
of many players. I thin
s a PlayStation
that Ridge Racer wa
d a lot as well.
launch title contribute
the development,
At the beginning of
en there was
there was a time wh
ether any
some doubt as to wh
lly develop a
third-party could rea
ation hardware.
game on the PlaySt
had a meeting
Around this time we
ineering team,
with the software eng
wed us the rst
and when they sho
of Ridge Racer
development build
they really could
we felt certain that
this game work
succeed in making
dware. I
on the PlayStation har big role,
yed a
believe that this pla
Racer, but also
not only with Ridge
development of
in driving the overall
ation.
games on the PlaySt

170 | PLAYSTATION

tells us when explaining how the concept behind Ridge Racer

originated, and they liked to race on winding mountain roads.
They didnt want to slow down when they took corners, so they
started drifting their cars and crossing over the boundary line of
the road. Of course, this is completely forbidden. At that point,
we thought: Can we make a racing game in which the driver
pushes his driving abilities to the maximum and gets a feeling
of extreme speed? So we created a game in which we let the
player experience the sensations of manipulating a car at high
speed and mastering corner drift.
While realism took a bit of a back seat, beneath Ridge
Racers colourful exterior, brash J-pop techno beats and
videogame liveries roared impressive technical grunt and
a keen focus on the thrill of the race. Its signature focus on
drifting, which remains a staple in the series, allowed racers
to experience the sensation of taking corners at breakneck
speed while at the same time giving them the unnerving but
equally exhilarating sense of momentarily losing control of
their vehicle. Proof that Ridge Racer was never intended to

released the neGcon controller. Designed for racing games, it

featured two twistable halves connected by a swivel joint that
allowed the user to rotate each part for precision steering and
drifting in the game. In addition to this, two analogue buttons
afforded smooth and gradual control over acceleration and
braking. A successor to the controller, the Jogcon, was later
packed with special editions of Ridge Racer Type 4, offering force
feedback and a unique jogging dial to mimic a steering wheel.
The PSone conversion of Ridge Racer introduced aspects
that would become staples in the series, including mirror mode,
a means to eke more from the games single track by having
players race it in reverse; a third-person camera; and additional
cars to drive over the two in the arcade game. Garnering huge
prots for arcade operators before becoming a popular launch
game for the PlayStation, quickly sequels followed, beginning
with an arcade sequel, Ridge Racer 2, in 1994. More an update of
the original arcade game, Ridge Racer 2 featured no new tracks
over the rst game but added new aspects such as night driving,
a rear-view mirror and, most notably, multiplayer.

I think racing is an appropriate subject to

try out the potential of new hardware

MASANORI KATO

be a realistic driving simulator but designed to be a fun and

exhilarating racing experience.
It was in April 1994 that work at Namco began on porting
Ridge Racer to the PlayStation. The two biggest challenges the
conversion team faced in porting the game to the machine
was how to replicate the feel on the PlayStations D-pad
controller, and also how to alleviate the issue of CD-ROM
reading times, with Namco concerned that it would be an
issue for console gamers spoiled on immediate cartridge
gaming. Aware that it would be unable to fully avoid the
latter issue, the team came up with a clever workaround: it
would have the majority of the game data recovered at the
start of the game, and as this data was being read would
entertain users with a playable version of Namcos 1979
classic, Galaxian. Furthermore, beating it could unlock new
cars in the main game.
Similarly, on the other issue of control, Namco knew that
it would have to do the best with the tools Sony had given
it, meaning the responsibility to improve the experience of
Ridge Racer for PlayStation owners was its own. Therefore,
shortly after Ridge Racers launch in Japan, Namco

A proper sequel to Ridge Racer came the following year. Rave

Racer ran on the same hardware as its predecessors but built
on the original game brilliantly. Once again, players raced long
and short versions of the original track, but this time two new
circuits were added. These tracks, City and Mountain, were
brilliant additions, with City inviting players to scud along a wide
urban overpass embedded in an impressive cityscape, while the
challenging Mountain stage could be seen as the opposite: a
rural route that snaked through a beautiful rocky vista, decorated
with valleys and canyons. Rave Racer also marked the rst ever
appearance of popular Ridge Racer race queen Reiko Nagase,
though it wouldnt be until the release of Rage Racer that the
character was ofcially named.
Considering how great a sequel Rave Racer was, it remains
a bit of a mystery among fans as to why the game was never
ported to the PlayStation. Knowing that a version was mooted
and got to tech demo stage for high-performance PCs, we
speculate that the reason might lie with technical limitations, but
Sakagami puts us straight on the matter.
Following the rst Ridge Racer, the objective to convert
the games to home consoles during development only came

HISTORY OF RIDGE RACER

Mini making of
Ridge Racer
after Ridge Racer Revolution. Rave Racer had already been
developed at that time. This being said, its not entirely true that
Rave Racer was never converted to home consoles. In fact, we
kept in mind the fact that there is a woman in the opening of
Rave Racer. This was the introduction of Reiko Nagase. Also, the
Rave Racer circuits were incorporated in the PSP Ridge Racer
games, so the game hasnt been released for home consoles as
a standalone, but over the course of time, all of its content has
found its way into the Ridge Racer series.
PlayStation owners really didnt have cause to be too
disappointed, though, as the console received its own exclusive
sequel that same year. Despite improved visuals, two new
vehicles and a couple of new tracks, Ridge Racer Revolution
stuck close to the original template, particularly in terms of how
you progressed through the game. The notable new things that
Namco introduced in Revolution included two-player link-up
races, made better by the fact that you only needed one copy of
the game to set up a race, and the chance to adjust the speed
level of your car, hinting at the customisation elements that
would later be introduced. There are a few quirky aspects too,
such as buggy mode and squeaky voiced commentary, and
Galaga 88 also replaced Galaxian at the start of the game.
In the same year that Rage Racer and Revolution were
released, a third and pretty peculiar Ridge Racer game
also came out in Japan. Aimed specically at children, and
seemingly inspired by the buggy mode in Ridge Racer
Revolution, Pocket Racer was yet another reworked version
of the original arcade game that featured deformed vehicles
shaped like Choro-Q toy cars and simplied steering especially
catered towards making the game more accessible.
For the next game in the series, Rage Racer, Namco swapped
out the inviting, colourful aesthetics for more shiny, burnished
and realistic-looking visuals. In keeping with this new sense of
professionalism, Namco introduced the rst ever career mode
into the series too, in which players earned credits through
winning races to spend on purchasing new cars and upgrading
existing ones. Encompassing ve different classes with a secret
one unlocked at the end of the game, the career mode was
notable for giving players three chances to successfully nish a
heat, with failure to place third or higher in three tries clearing
you of all the trophies you had earned inside that attempt but
still allowing you to keep whatever cash and cars you had
accumulated up to that point.
This release was then followed up by Ridge Racer Type 4 the
following year, which continued down that same road. The nal
Ridge Racer game to appear on the PlayStation, Type 4 kept the

Where did the concept for Ridge Racer originate?

First of all, its important to state that Ridge
Racer was developed to make use of some newly
completed polygon-capable PCB technology,
albeit in the form of a proper game. I think its fair
to say Ridge Racers concept was an idea born
from polygon PCB technology.
Is it true that Ridge Racer was going to use
Formula 1 cars?
At that time in Japan, the thinking was, If youre
going to make a car racing game, take Formula
1 as a theme, so at rst we considered making
Ridge Racer with Formula 1-style cars. But
the result of that consideration was a number
of different concepts which informed the nal
version of Ridge Racer: the game had to be on
public roads, with machines like passenger
vehicles, and it had to encourage players to use
drift techniques. If we had gone with a Formula
1 style of racing game, would Ridge Racer have
been so loved by players?
Why did you make an arcade racer?
As people who know the game will appreciate,
Ridge Racer is not a realistic driving simulator.
Of course Ridge Racer had a high level of
programming technology and graphics
techniques, but more than that, I think it was a
game with a strong sense of good taste. Players
back in the day were able to race through the
game and enjoy a fun feeling, because it was
a rst-class racing game. It wasnt advanced
simulation programming that made that possible,
though I think it was down to the advanced
sense of game design.
Was there any competition with other arcade
developers like Sega?
At that time, we were racing against one of our
rival companies who also had a polygonal racing
game in development, so we were doing our
best to make sure that our game was nished

rst even if by just one day and was more

entertaining. I think the other company was
probably in the same position, racing against us.
How many people worked on Ridge Racer?
I cant answer this in detail, but the number of
team members was much smaller than what
most people would imagine.
Tell us about Ridge Racers soundtrack.
Can you believe that initially we were planning to
have no music in the game? Ridge Racers music
was produced at the same time as the game itself.
We didnt have time in our schedule for a surplus
of tracks to be composed, so that we could pick
our favourites at the end of development that
just wasnt possible. We were lucky to happen
upon danceable techno music for the BGM, which
really helped with the process of creating this
atmosphere where players could race through the
game and enjoy a fun feeling.
Why did you create the original arcade cabinets?
The theme of the game was to put you in control
of a high-power sports car, enabling you to hold
the steering wheel to drive through curves and
bends while skidding from side to side. Therefore,
it was necessary that the steering wheel conveyed
the response of the tyres in a way that players
could actually feel. We had H-type gears, a clutch
pedal, a large seat, and so on, all prepared so that
the feeling of driving a real sports car could be
conveyed properly.
Did you worry how Ridge Racer would be
received outside of Japan?
In those days, we didnt really think in terms of
intended for Japan or geared towards the West.
We were developing Ridge Racer to make players
experience a happy feeling, and that sense of
happiness from playing games we felt was
enjoyed by everyone in the global community
of players.

PLAYSTATION | 171

more realistic tone and look of Rage Racer, but was enhanced
by featuring gouraud-shaded visuals and an improved Grand
Prix mode in which players got to pick a racing team and car
manufacturer, and then competed in a series of races with their
team, investing in new cars along the way.
Type 4 also had more vehicles than had been seen in any
Ridge Racer before: an impressive 321, though made up of
only 40 or so models. Unlocked fully by nishing every race in
every possible combination of qualifying position, team and
manufacturer, lling your garage with them all certainly took
quite a bit of work, giving far more longevity to Type 4 than
previous instalments. Additionally, Type 4 was the rst in the
series to offer split-screen multiplayer and to allow players to
fully customise cars, and also broke tradition by introducing
an alternative, more realistic, grip type of handling on top of
the classic drift controls. Finally, packed with the game was a
second disc that contained an enhanced version of the original
Ridge Racer port. Dubbed Ridge Racer Hi-Spec Demo (or Ridge
Racer Turbo), it was a truncated version of the game that ran at
an impressive 60fps twice the frame rate of the original and

Racing Evolutions silly

story spirals into a tale
of rivalry, subterfuge
and girl power
featured enhanced visuals. It was a fantastic parting gift for
PlayStation owners and made a brilliant sequel even more
popular with fans.
From 2000 onwards, Ridge Racer received a large number
of sequels, went portable, and even dipped its toe in realistic
driving simulator waters. But before all that, it went multiformat.
Ridge Racer 64 was not only the rst Ridge Racer game not
to appear on a Sony machine, but also the rst game in the
series not to be developed by Namco, with the development
handled by NST, a rst-party developer for Nintendo Of America.
Ridge Racer 64 was basically a blend of Ridge Racer and Ridge
Racer Revolution, as it repurposed the tracks in both games. It
isnt a complete two-game facsimile, however, as it adds a
brand new track, a new career mode and improved driving
mechanics by offering a choice of different drift mode options,
one of which allowed your car to perform 360-degree spins.
Add in the N64s capacity to offer four-player single-screen
multiplayer, and Ridge Racer 64 certainly lived up to the
impeccable standards of Namcos entries.
Around the time that development on Ridge Racer 64 was
under way at NST, Namco was busy getting to grips with the
soon-to-be-released PlayStation 2, and once again produced a
Ridge Racer game to coincide with the machines March 2000
launch in Japan. Like the N64 game, Ridge Racer V also played
things close to the rst two PlayStation games. It saw a return to
the uncomplicated arcade origins of the series, and the circuits
harked back to the original game, featuring reworked versions of
the Novice and Advanced courses in Ridge Racer. Given its clear
arcade traits, its logical that Namco would choose to release a
coin-op version of the game, and so Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle,
currently the last ever Ridge Racer arcade game, was released
around the same time.
Following Ridge Racer V, Namco then produced a Ridge
Racer spin-off title designed to subtly test how the series would
perform as a realistic driving simulator. R: Racing Evolution,
which was released for the PS2 in 2003 and later ported to the
Xbox and GameCube, ignored Ridge Racers arcade heritage

172 | PLAYSTATION

by featuring intricate car customisation options, allowing

players to alter myriad settings of each car, from body
>> NAMCO ON
weight to wheels, and also incorporated a story into
How important is the
music to Ridge
Racer games and how
the racing. In the game you assume the role of an
is it chosen?
Hiro
shi
Oku
bo:
To
em
ambulance driver who, after impressing the head of a
body the
unrealistic speed and ten
sion of
shady racing team by speeding an injured racer to
Ridge Racer and the use
of the latest
the hospital, gets signed up to race for them. The story
computer technology,
the most
suitable music is techno,
then gets even sillier, spiralling into a tale of racing
which gives
an impression of energy
rivalry, corporate subterfuge and girl power. It then
, the journey
and speed. Historically,
a lot of early
gets a bit Thelma & Louise.
club music was launche
d that way.
In 2004, the series rst went portable with Ridge
Consequently, we inse
rted the most
Racer DS and Ridge Racer for the PSP. The former was a
recent music styles, ma
tching the
concept of every title. We
faithful DS port of Ridge Racer 64 that made use of the
made a
point of creating an atm
portables touch-screen controls as a steering method,
osphere the
player could be immerse
d into. In
while the latter was something of a best of, featuring
each and every title in
the series, we
tracks from previous PlayStation entries, but, most
chose a simple keywor
d or image
that we gave to the arti
notably, the City and Mountain stages from Rave Racer.
sts creating
the soundtrack. Then eac
It also added in new vehicles, and introduced nitro
h of them
would be free to create
music lled
boosting. A sequel followed in 2006, which kept to the
with a sensation of spe
ed linked to
exact same formula, once again featuring enhanced,
that keyword. Compar
ing them all,
repurposed tracks from the series but this time adding
we took the personal tou
ch of each
composer and created
a few from Rage Racer.
a Ridge Racer
sound rich in variety. Thi
Between these two PSP games, though, Ridge
s time I told
them: I dont care abo
ut the style,
Racer 6 became a launch title for the Xbox 360. As
but lock down the spir
it.
well as online racing, the most notable thing the game
added was the slightly more autonomous means of
progression. The games terribly named World Xplorer
>> NAMCO ON
mode was a gradually unfurling career that allowed
Why R: Racing Evoluti
you to pick and choose the race you wished to enter,
on never
received any sequels.
some of which featured differing race criteria such as
Sakagami: The develop
ment of
no boosting, as you unlocked new cars and tracks
R: Racing was challenged
by the
along the way. An enhanced version of the game
following limitation: wha
t are
we
going to do with yet ano
later appeared on the PlayStation 3 as Ridge Racer 7,
ther
racing game from Nam
featuring many of the same tracks but bringing in more
co when
we already had Ridge
Rac
er?
So
vehicles as well as complete vehicle and bodywork
it became a game that
offered a
customisation options. It also introduced a global
realistic driving experie
nce, with real
cars and real tracks. How
ranking system that allowed players to post and
ever, the
players who were great
compare their best lap times online. Oh, and its
supporters
of Ridge Racer felt unc
omfortable
ofcially the rst ever 3D Ridge Racer game, as in
with this evolution. Thi
s is why we
2010 Namco released a 3D update for it.
then reafrmed the orig
ins of what
Namco went all aboard with a full 3D game in 2011
made Ridge Racer inte
resting and
dev
eloped Ridge Racer 6 inst
with the release of Ridge Racer 3D. Its an excellent
ead of
making a sequel to R:
little racer that once again returns the series to its
Racing.
early arcade and PlayStation roots. This tradition
was followed in December when it released Ridge Racer for
Playstation Vita. The game received lots of criticism at the
time due to its tiny track and car selection and a focus on
downloadable content. Despite its excellent handling, many
critics (including us) felt it was a poor addition to the franchise.
Little did we know that wed still be playing it many years later.
Its sad then that the Ridge Racer story currently ends on
something of a sour note. 2012s Ridge Racer Unbounded
instantly turned off many gamers because its destruction-based
gameplay meant it didnt feel like a proper Ridge Racer game.
A selection of middling iOS games have also seen the series
ounder and lost favour with fans. 2013s Ridge
Racer Slipstream is currently the last game
in the series. Hopefully, Namco will
get the series back on
track in the near
future.

HISTORY OF RIDGE RACER

The Ridge Racer series has always been a supporter

of reusing and repurposing tracks it even did so in
the games themselves with mirror mode.

Series race queen Reiko Nagase was

dropped for shiny new pit-girl Ai Fukami for
Ridge Racer V. Ai wasnt popular with fans, and
following an online poll Reiko was reinstated.

The games of Ridge Racer

We take a look at all of the Namco games that inspired the racing team names in the original Ridge Racer
RIDGE RACER (ARCADE)
Cyber Sled
Car #9 RT Cyber Sled
Another arcade game that saw early
conversion to the PlayStation, Cyber
Sled was a futuristic vehicular combat
game essentially a polygonal take on
games such as Tank and Battlezone in
which players battled against either
computer or human enemies using
weaponised hover tanks.
RIDGE RACER (PLAYSTATION)
Solvalou
Car #2 RT Yellow Solvalou
Car #12 RT Blue Solvalou
Xevious fans will be well aware that
Solvalou is the name of the ship you
pilot in the game, and true fans will know
that it is also the title of the third game
in the series. Despite its rst-person
viewpoint and 3D visuals, Solvalou
sticks surprisingly close to the original
1982 arcade game. The game wasnt a
massive hit, though, and so is a rare cab
to come by these days.
Mappy
Car #5 RT Blue Mappy
Car#15 RT Pink Mappy
One of Namcos quirkier arcade games,
Mappy sees you assume the role of a
police ofcer mouse as he tries to retrieve
stolen objects that have been hidden
around the mansion hideout of a gang
of criminal cats. Very likely to have been
a game entirely based on that famous
idiom, a game of cat and mouse.

Galaga
Car #6 Galaga RT Carrot
Car #16 Galaga RT Plids
This very popular sequel to one of the
most successful coin-ops ever made,
Galaxian, is a fantastic and tense vertical
shooter that improves on the original
game in pretty much all areas. Retaining
the same insect alien-blasting as before,
Galaga adds a number of interesting
ideas and features to the mix, such as
bonus rounds.
Nebulasray
Car #8 Nebulasray
This little-known top-down shooter was
notable for using a distinct ray-tracing
technique to generate impressive and
realistic-looking 3D frigates and enemy
vehicles. Gorgeous to look at, fans of the
shooter genre should certainly investigate
the game be warned, however, that it
can be a pig to emulate.
Bosconian
Car #18 Bosconian
A game that many have heard of but
few have actually played, this eight-way
shooter sees you steering a ship and
trying to destroy a series of fortied bases
that look like watermelons while surviving
a co-operative onslaught of alien enemies
and space rocks. Its notable for being
one of the rst arcade games to feature
continue screens.
Xevious
Car #7 Xevious Red
Car #17 Xevious Green
Xevious is one of the earliest ever
examples of the vertical shooter. It was
also famed for its lush, vibrant-looking
graphics and clever enemy AI, which
allowed the game to be challenging
without the need to ll the screen with
enemies. In fact, the game is such a
classic that it received two mentions in
Ridge Racer, via Solvalou.

PLAYSTATION | 173

174 | PLAYSTATION

Dancing
Stage EuroMix
RETROREVIVAL

THIS IS THE BEST SHOW IVE EVER SEEN!

 PLAYSTATION  KONAMI  2001

The PlayStation played host to a variety of

bizarre controllers, from the twisty neGcon
to the one-handed ASCII Grip, but the novelty
that took the market by storm late in the
PlayStations life was the dance mat. The
catalyst was Konamis Dancing Stage EuroMix, a localised version
of the Dance Dance Revolution games that had already taken
the worlds arcades by storm, including my local Sega Park. It
had been a perfect t in arcades, providing the right mix of broad
appeal and a platform for showmanship people just couldnt
resist having a go at Word Up or Video Killed The Radio Star.
When it nally arrived on PlayStation, I was very excited indeed
after all, the arcade game had proven an expensive habit for my
sister and I to maintain at 1 a credit, and that was if we could
even get on the machine. When we got it, we were disappointed
to learn that the song list wasnt quite the same as that of the
arcade machine, but that was quickly tempered by the fact that
we could play it whenever we wanted and fail in the comfort of
our own living room. We denitely became a lot bolder about
picking harder difculties and faster songs!
While I might have shown my newly rened skills in the arcade,
if I was ever any good at Dancing Stage EuroMix, it was down to
the PlayStation version. Now, if only those soft dance mats didnt
break quite so easily

PLAYSTATION | 175

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