FLips

22 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:
 

Although you’ve deffo did the bit where Arthur and Charles look like they’re about to get into a huge saloon brawl in Valentine and it jump cuts to something different!

I have done that bit! That was good fun. 
In terms of story missions I’ve just done the bit where you have a welcome home party for the Irish lad you rescue and they’re all singing a song about fannies.

Been playing more Red Dead Redemption 2 in spurts during work or on a morning before.

Fully invested in this game now and I'm quite shocked how glad I am it's not like GTA at this point. They've done such a good job with all the NPCs that I can't bring myself to kill any of them, same as all the wildlife. I'm genuinely gutted when I accidentally trample a rabbit and I don't enjoy the hunting at all because compared to other games it all seems too real.
Recently did the mission with the Bison poachers and it took all my might to spare the guy.

Enjoying the random encounters. So far highlights have been helping a guy hid up a tree from a cougar, getting into a shootout with some guys blocking a bridge (who by the way killed my fucking horse! Thankfully I had a horse revival) and some cult or something executing people by a river. When I killed them and started dumping their bodies into the river, the biggest crocodile I've ever seen just ran at me full speed and it was squeeky bum time let me tell you. I didn't even know they were in the game, you all could have warned me!

I was completely lost when I got to St Denis. It seemed so out of place for what I'd seen so far. Civilized life, trams and roads. I had no idea where I stood with it so I made my excuses and left back into the less impressive but easier to navigate frontier.

Encountered a few deaths by this point too. A couple in shootouts, one because I accidentally ran my horse into another horse trying to round up bison, and my most recent one was being kicked to death by a horse trying to loot it's saddle bag. Live and learn.

Really enjoying it now though. There's definitely improvements I would make like the amount of buttons you have to hold or press to do basic things like speak to people or access your weapons. The health/stamina bar and core systems confuse me a bit too. I'd also like to be given time to loot during missions without being shouted at please and thank you.

My demo disc bundle arrived and it's absolutely fascinating some of the stuff on there. I'll go into them in more detail individually at some point but some highlights so far from scouring the covers and contents, and sneakily playing a few during work.

• Official UK Playstation Magazine 46 (OPM from here on out) has a demo for Live Wire which is a confusing and low budget looking puzzle game where you play as some fish thing on a spherical grid and have to dash between the lines to flip the squares that make up the grid, while other colour fish things do the same. It's a mess, but the interesting part is it's hugely promoted with involvement from prolific House DJ Allister Whitehead "of Ministry of Sound and Cream fame". It's very 90s and not the only musical guest on the demo.
• OPM 46 also has Judge Jules' Music Tune which isn't a demo as much as it is a music player that features what looks to be a lot of CoLD SToRAGE music tracks remixed or promoted by Judge Jules (I'm not sure). Seems you can also save them to your memory card, I imagine to maybe play in the CD Player function? Again, very 90s.
• OPM 71 is a beast of a disc. Playable demos for Metal Gear Solid, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Twisted Metal and WWF Smackdown among others. It's the non-playable demos on this one though that get me all giddy. Promo videos for Final Fantasy IX, Alone in the Dark 4 (which is so early in development it isn't using the New Nightmare subtitle yet) and the cream of this particular crop, a promo video for the eventually cancelled console version of Black & White.
• OPM 49 is misleading. To promote Tekken 3 getting a Platinum release the inner sleeve says "Here's Tekken. Free" and shows a screenshot of Tekken 1. It is in fact just a 2 character demo of Tekken 3 though which is a crying shame. Thought I'd got a full copy of Tekken 1 there. Still, good game to have a demo of and it gets rounded off by the likes of Speed Freaks and Tony Hawks Skateboarding so can't complain too much.
• OPM 44 has a first look video for Ridge Racer Type 4 which is fascinating because  on the very next demo disc it was a playable demo. Excited to watch the trailer then play the demo and see what it was like in what I assume is a month's time between magazines.
• OPM 45 has video footage of a Tekken 3 Tournament, which someone like JLM might be able to share more knowledge on what the fighting game community was like around that time as I had no idea competitions like that existed outside of GamesMaster. The previously mentioned Ridge Racer Type 4, R-Type Delta and Gex: Deep Cover Gecko make up some of the playable games.
• OPM 47 comes in hot and heavy with playable demos for Syphon Filter, Ape Escape, Bloody Roar 2, Driver and Final Fantasy VII. A who's who of Playstation icons, even if the quality is a mixed bag.
• OPM 52 is another big slugger with exclusive video footage of Gran Turismo 2 backed up by playable demos of Spyro The Dragon 2, Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, the underrated Kingsley's Adventure, and the rightfully trashed Fighting Force 2. If that's not enough for you, how about "top video footage of The Polygonal Whirlwhind - Jimmy White's Cueball".
• OPM 54 is still promoting video footage of Gran Turismo 2 (featuring an exclusive track by Propellerheads) alongside a world exclusive playable demo of Toy Story 2. At this stage I'm beginning to get really confused by when Gran Turismo 2 came out because this disc also has downloadable cheats for Tekken 3 and Crash Bandicoot 3. Both those games seem really late in the cycle for me, I would have sworn GT2 was out at this point.
• OPM 67 has a lot going for it with playable Time Crisis Project Titan and Bugs Bunny and Taz: Timebusters, along with exclusive previews for Tomb Raider Chronicles and Spyro: Year of The Dragon. The most interesting thing (to me at least) on this disc is a playable demo of Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar which has jogged my memory that I might have had this full game as a kid if it's a war-based strategy game. Can't wait to see if I understand it more than I did back then.
• The Magical World of Disney on Playstation is a demo disc The Sun (I know, I know) gave out to promote the release of Lilo & Stitch in the cinemas. 7 playable Disney games here, sadly long past their golden years. Junglebook Groove Party without a dance mat and Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge I don't think will hold up as well as Lion King or non-straight-to-VHS Aladdin.

There are more contents to each disc, and more discs, but those are my first glance highlights. There's plenty to be played here though across a healthy stretch of the console's life. There's a playable demo for almost every big game you can think of here, but oddly a lack of a Demo One disc means playing Demo Disc Bingo would leave everyone with some pretty empty cards. No sign of Nightmare Creatures, Kula World, Battle Arena Toshinden, Kurushi, Medievil, Overboard or Abe's Oddysee (though I did win an Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus demo disc for £2 earlier).

Sorry for the big boring list but I'm sure someone will find it as interesting as I do!

In other news I finished Loaded and did give Re-Loaded a go. While the sequel does add some welcome features like a trail of where you've been on the minimap and less key-card based levels, it does almost everything else worse. Worse soundtrack, less interesting graphics, more boring gameplay and it's pretty laggy. I think Loaded sits firmly in my Average-Good pile with it's grungy feel and non-stop blasting gameplay. Re-Loaded is pretty low down in comparison though.

Got a PS1 VIP Demo disc and the Abe Demo Disc on the way in the post currently. Need to get a copy of Demo One so I can watch the T-Rex and Manta Ray demos at some point. The OPM demos being numbered is a worst case scenario as well as now I know which ones I'm missing. It's going to be a long year.

4 minutes ago, Daaaaaad! said:

I had this demo disc! Oh, Vib Ribbon. What an absolutely perfect game for a demo. Would be delighted to hear all about it. Especially if it has the music on the menu that goes BOW BA-WOW BOW, BA BOOP BOOP BAO-WOW over a funky screensaver as so many had.

Because I clog this board up with retro game stuff all over the place when I should maybe just keep it in here, you might have missed it when I played the full game a while back and posted about it in the PS1 thread.

On 10/18/2023 at 9:46 AM, FLips said:

Vib Ribbon

What is it?

Vib Ribbon is a unique rhythm cult hit from the brains behind PaRappa The Rapper which has you walk a straight line to the beat of the music, pressing prompts to dodge obstacles. The game comes with it's own Easy, Medium and Hard levels but also astonishingly allows you to enter your own CDs and play levels based off the music on them; something I think only Monster Rancher let you do.

How is it?

It's actually fantastic and I can see why it's a cult hit. It came to the Playstation in 2000, well into the life cycle and just as the PS2 was hitting shelves. The console wasn't dead by any means with huge PS1 titans like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Final Fantasy IX and Spyro The Dragon 3 coming out, and in fact it was still the best selling console that year but it was the swansong for the PS1 as 2001 saw the PS2 completely dominate the console market.

So you'd be forgiven for not having played or heard of this game, but like me, you've missed out on an incredibly unique experience. The whole presentation is a joy with everything made up of black background and white vector lines and that's it. The protagonist Vibri is wonderful and animated too as she dances and skips through the stages to some thumpingly strange beats. You press 4 buttons to dodge specific obstacles, cleverly shaped the same as the button you have to press. A loop is R, a block is L, a pit is Down and waves ^^^ are X. In harder stages they combine shapes so you have to press two buttons to get through, e.g a block with waves on would be L1 and X, a loop with a pit would be R1 and Down.
As you combo obstacles you gain little pellets that eventually transform you into some sort of ballerina that increases your score, and if you take too many hits the screen will distort and you'll transform into a frog, then a worm and then game over.

There is no story, just difficulty modes, High Score boards and endless potential for levels based on your music taste. It is the ultimate expression of less is more and it's truly a shame it came out so late or it would be considered a defining moment of the console.

Obviously I’ll be doing a little write up of the demo as well though, cos it’s a different thing innit?

37 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

@FLips Saw this Tweet and thought of you... 😘

 

 

I already have most of them but had a look at that SNES Cool Spot and it’s rank!

Thanks for keeping me in mind though, there’s some good games there.

@Jesse Summoning Salt is fantastic. I don’t know how he does so much research, it’s insane.

Well it's official, I won the bidding war for the McDonalds Demo 1 disc (paying slightly more at £7.50 than I did for the other demos in a bundle at £5) so my McDonalds set is complete. Luckily for me I met a woman and got married long before this became a thing so there's nothing she can do now.

£7.50 is a little bit steep for a demo disc but you should see the games on it. Gran Turismo 2, Wip3out, Vib Ribbon and erm, Alfred Chicken. What a selection that is.

In terms of what I'm playing currently I have Wind Waker to finish and I'm in the final third, Red Dead Redemption 2 is still eating up a lot of time and I'll no doubt update in the What Play You thread at some point, and finally Loaded on the PS1 which I spent a lot of yesterday playing and will jump back on tonight.

It's a top down shooter in the same vein as Gauntlet, Chaos Engine or Smash TV where you blast your way through maze-like levels with numerous hidden paths, keys and powerups. It's basic stuff but if you like those types of games it's good fun. It's one of the last games by Gremlin Interactive and so as you would expect it's got plenty of character and the soundtrack is a thumper (so much so they made it fully compatible with CD players and even hid some Zool 2 unused tracks on there as a bonus). With a different graphics engine it would feel very much at home on the Amiga, funnily enough.

They made a sequel called Re-Loaded which it turns out isn't much of a sequel at all as it came out later in the same year and basically changed nothing but a few levels and characters. I'll give it a go probably but less excited after I heard it was a thoughtless churn-out.

Not much happening this week. The boot sale was heaving because the sun was out and there was plenty of stalls.

I only picked up a few PS2 games for my mate as he was working and couldn’t make it. Call of Duty Finest Hour, Price of Persia Warrior Within and Ghost Recon 2. Also Mass Effect 1 on Xbox 360. All boxed with manuals in pretty fantastic condition for £2 each.

I got a Scart Extender for £2 which will come in handy. My collection got a little out of hand and so now I have a 2 TV setup. PS1, Wii/Gamecube and soon to be PS2 on the big telly and NES, SNES, and N64 on the little telly. Using this for the little one to tidy things up a bit. 

Almost picked a Dualshock controller up as mine has a gammy right stick but the rubber was a bit worn off and the right stick looked slightly wonky so I didn’t risk it. There was a good amount of game stalls this week but as usual slim pickings on the cartridge front. Would have taken a No Mercy but only found an ECW Anarchy Rulez.

The usual van burger and some dinky donuts to share saw us through to the end and we left fairly empty handed but plenty sunburned.

What was the deal with Isreal getting 12 points in our televote and them nearly winning it, but clearly getting boos and political messages aimed directly at them all show?

Everyone online seems fuming about it but then where did all the votes come from?

34 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Croatia, Finland, Switzerland, Ireland, Estonia and Spain doing the heavy lifting tonight.

Those are my exact picks too. Estonia really grew on me.

I had a quick go of Champion Wrestler (I’m burning and testing 31 games in alphabetical order so might be a while til I get to WCW) and it’s brill. It’s kind of like the presentation/camera angle of WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade but with the gameplay close to a Fire Pro. Has a fab roster full of recognisable names too that you usually see show up in these games like The Steiners, Stan Hansen and so on.

I’ll be playing more later at some point but had a lot of fun with it. Thanks for the recommendation @Merzbow

20 minutes ago, Donald J Trump said:

wCw vrs The World has for me, the best introduction reel of any Wrestling game I've played and at the time it was something else. "The world" consists of stars from AJPW, NJPW, UWF, FMW and Michinoku, among others. I think I'm right in saying they all had their proper names in the Japanese version but when it was released in the west, they were changed due to licensing. Working out who's who is was entertaining but some of them are pretty impossible. There is a list on the games wiki page with all the details though. Obviously it looks pretty ropey now, but in the mid 90s this was a bit of lesser known gem. Any game that features Sabu, Bruiser Brody and Taka Michinoku has to be worth a look at least. 

Excited to play it, it looks like the N64 Aki games which is exactly what I wanted.

In other news my knockoff Castlevania 3 from AliExpress finally arrived. Really happy with it. The differences in quality of cartridge are negligable with the fake being only very slightly darker (I imagine as it hasn’t had chance to fade like the legit carts) and having a glossier label as most fakes do and a different back label. The weight is oddly heavier but makes it feel actually a sturdier quality.

Gameplay wise though it’s 100% perfect and required no region changing as the listing said, so maybe they looked at my address and guessed I’d need PAL.

Better than any of the emulated versions I’ve been practicing on in the meantime. For £17 all included I can’t complain at all. Thrilled with it.

Thanks all. I’ve got wCw vs The World and Champion Wrestler downloaded. I also did a search and found there is a Fire Pro G so got that too. I’m all set for wrestling games!

@Carbomb (or anyone else really) are there any good wrestling games outside of Smackdown 1 and 2 on the PS1?

I’m looking more in the spirit of No Mercy/Fire Pro or something unique than I am the awful Acclaim games.

Japanese exclusives are fine, my PS1 should play them.

Fantastic stuff! I see Cool Boarders 2 on there as well so will give that a go and let @SuperBaconknow if it still holds up.

Bought 50 more blank CD-Rs today as well so can start adding more full games as I go.

5 hours ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I have really fond memories of Syphon Filter and Soul Reaver. I’d be curious to know if they still hold up. Out of curiosity, what is the X-Men/Spider-Man demo?

I’m not sure! 
I imagine it’s going to be Marvel Super Heroes but the other games on the demo don’t track at that time so maybe Marvel vs Capcom but they’re using two Marvel characters?

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As of 18:46 CEST, According to SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster, there was an incident between Joost and a photographer, which led us to where we are now.

As soon as we have any more confirmed information, I will add it to this comment.

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Another day another Demo. This time up is McDonalds Demo 3 which is serving up Pink Panther, Rayman Rush, World Rally Championship Arcade and Destruction Derby Raw.

Pink Panther is up first. It's a platformer as you could probably imagine, and not a very good one. The demo starts you in a big house which acts as a hub and half my time playing it was trying to find a playable level in the house which required me to basically force myself through a window to access it.
The playable level is a Donkey Kong style dinosaur boss where you have to climb up the level and avoid the boulders it throws down, then put a bone on his platform and quickly grab a bomb and put it there too before the bomb blows up, so the dinosaur eats them and takes damage.

Pink Panther is a floaty mess. His movement is all over the place, and the hit detection is shoddy. You have a spin attack to help but it rarely works at the time you expect it to. Grabbing the bomb and bone in time is a faff on too.

The biggest crime is it doesn't even play the Pink Panther theme either. I didn't like the cartoon as a kid and I don't like this. PS1 has a banquet of great platformers and even some of the midcarders like Bugs Bunny Lost in Time or Rugrats are a lot better than this. After playing the demo it's a no-go for me. Would not have bothered.

I followed that up with Destruction Derby Raw which is by Studio 33/Psygnosis. Psygnosis had a really strong presence on the PS1 and it really is a shame that the console was their last hurrah.

Not much to see with this one though. There aren't many options to choose from and the racing isn't that responsive. There was one particular corner where I slammed into it every single time because the turning was so wide and slow. Not really sure what the aim of the game is either as there's a lot less emphasis on the destruction than I thought there would be. Like Cool Boarders 4 the winner is whoever finishes first and so the destruction was a pointless addition as it makes more sense to avoid everyone.

There is a cool bit of programming at the end of the demo though where on that last corner (the one I kept crashing into) during the final lap, the game cuts your controls and forces you to drive head-on into the barrier so it can cut to black and end the demo. That impressed me.

If I was playing it back in the day though I can't say I'd have been looking to get it. It doesn't hit any right notes as either a simulation driver or an arcade driver, it's just kinda there.

Rayman Rush was next and this very well may be the most barebones and unfinished of the demos on here. A lot of plain text menus, not much pomp or circumstance. You get to play one level and that's that.

I was a massive fan of the original Rayman. My cousins had it and I thought it was beautiful even if I couldn't get past Band Land. Even to this day I've only ever "completed" it once and I have to put air quotes there because I had to use a password to unlock the last boss as you can't fight him unless you 100% the game which I just couldn't do. So I've done every level legit, but balls to doing it properly.

As soon as Rayman moved into 3D he lost me though. Rayman 2 has never been one I got on with. You name 2D platformers on the PS1 better than Rayman and it's a struggle to even make a list at all, but as soon as you get into 3D he's competing with Crash, Spyro, and sadly thanks to my tastes at that time even Gex.
Rayman Rush sticks with a 2D/3D combo where you play some parts of each except now it's a racing game. Maybe it's just way ahead of it's time as a speed-based platformer like Super Meat Boy or Celeste or maybe it's just junk from Ubisoft, a company that has produced almost exclusively junk for decades.

Again, not a fan of this one. 3D Rayman has never worked for me and making it a 2 player platform racer was a poor decision. Upon further research it seems this game is actually a demake of a PS2 game called Rayman M featuring worse graphics, less gameplay options and less players. Not actually sure why they bothered and it was rightfully panned. Weird to see a demo of a PS1 remake of a PS2 game though, so i'll give it that.

Last but not least is World Rally Championship Arcade. I'm not sure if that's Arcade like Gran Turismo 2 had Simulation and Arcade or if it's a port from the Arcades or something else. The demo opens with an advert for a competition to WIN A SONY WIDESCREEN. Entries close August 31st 2002. Over 21 years ago and on that day not only were Blazin' Squad #1 in the charts with Crossroads but someone won a TV. Great day for them.

The competition was really weak but this is by far the best demo on the disc. Only one track (Argentina) and only one mode (Time Trial) but it lets you pick from 8 cars and they're all different manufacturers with different stats which is really generous for a demo disc and if you like the gameplay means there's plenty to be had here as it also saves your times.
The graphics are genuinely impressive too with some terrain effects that even today have stunned me a bit. There are muddy patches that if you drive through them spray mud everywhere and it makes your car look dirtier, then later there are large puddles and if you drive through those it cleans the mud off. Terrific.

The cars handle pretty well though like most racing games of this era the drift is lacking. Games like Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer and Crash Team Racing have the leaders in functional, easy to learn drifting and this one sadly isn't up there with them despite the "arcade" banner.

When it all comes to it though, as impressed as I was by the presentation and the generosity of the demo, I wouldn't be buying this one either. The only "realistic" racing game I was interested in on the PS1 was V-Rally 2 after seeing a feature on Big Breakfast about making your own tracks and that is one I ordered a chipped copy of. Again though, my Brother was more into stuff like this and had the Moto GP games and that so he'd have maybe went for this one. Personal taste aside it is a really good demo.

So that was McDonalds Disc 3. 1/4 ain't bad.

---

As a side note to the demos, I recently won a GunCon off Ebay which arrived yesterday so I've been playing Time Crisis with that which as you'd imagine is fantastic. Next time I get blank discs I'll have to get the Point Blanks and another few light gun games I've heard good things about. Also need to keep my eyes peeled for a Konami Hyper Blaster which is the other main Light Gun for the PS1. I had no idea but it seems only some games are compatible with certain guns which is a huge shame. Thankfully all the best ones seem to be with the GunCon so I'm ok for now.

I also won a huge bundle of PS1 demo discs too which were dispatched today. The winning bid by mere pence!

Can't wait!

It's all about the positioning of the bread as well. If you took those hot dogs, snapped the bun in half and placed them on their side they'd be a sandwich.

Yeah my 13 year old neice is into Korn as well. Not so much when me and my wife (as seen in the Eric Andre bit above) do our best impressions of them or ask if she's seen the South Park episode where they go on a spooky mystery tour.

20 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

A genuine question - could you give examples to illustrate this point? I honestly don't think that statement holds up to scrutiny. It's absolutely happened in wrestling, but I'm not sure it stands true when you consider the really good angles. 

 

What a good angle is is subjective but in terms of good/memorable/famous angles that weren't famous for being bad...

Kane's debut/feud/relationship with The Undertaker never and to this day still doesn't really make sense.

Hogan vs Rock had an attempted murder in it

Austin vs HHH likewise had an attempted murder in it

Shane McMahon vs Vince McMahon/Shane just swooping in and buying WCW

The Invasion or any invasion style storylines

Any time a champion leaves with the belt or threatens to leave with the belt. That's theft and if they did take it the company would just make a new belt and move on while criminal proceedings took place for said theft. E.g Punk at MITB

Wrestling as a concept doesn't make sense and we shouldn't really try and make sense of it either. Like LaGoosh said it's a mad bubble world.

5 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Cool Boarders 2 was the absolute shit, hence why I voted for it in the best ever games thing.

Coooooooool Boarders!

Cool Boarders 1 and 2 were developed by a different team to 3 and 4 so maybe they were the good ones that left the legacy! 

@RedRooster There are still snowboarding games, I think the most recent one that was meant to be good was called STEEP. I haven’t played any since SSX 3 on the Gamecube though.

Still not many older games impress me as much as the Dreamscape port of Soul Calibur. It’s absolutely stunning.

That’s fantastic. The Sega Dreamscape is what I will be calling it from now on.

I won’t lie, as someone who didn’t know about him at all and looked him up after seeing all the glowing tributes in here, I can’t say he came across as the nicest of people to put it lightly. I can’t see the X thread but if it’s the same article he wrote that came up on Reddit about how he’d love to sexually assault 12 year olds then it was pretty grim stuff.

I’m not going to go all Lance Storm about it but I can certainly see why he wouldn’t be missed.

Been playing through the demo discs and as I've said before, I find them absolutely fascinating. In a period where most of us could get chipped games for a few quid, having demos there was a great way to decide what names you'd circle next time you got a look at the games list. They were so easy to get hold of too as most magazines gave them away and as I now know, you could order a pizza or a large meal and get a disc thrown in with it.

I adore the aesthetics of them. The trippy backgrounds, the house/techno/dance music that plays on all of them, and the way they all lag when you choose a game. I remember seeing the Manta Ray/T-Rex Demo and genuinely thinking games would never look better. Some games I even associate more as a demo game than a full release (I'm looking at you Overboard, Kula World, and Kurushi).

I'm going to work my way through the ones I have (I have my eyes on more on Ebay too) and basically come to a decision on whether or not the demo would have enticed me back in the day to buy the game.

I don't have McDonalds Disc 1 (yet) so I've started with McDonalds Disc 2.

The games on there are Ape Escape, Cool Boarders 4, Ace Combat 3 and FIFA 2002.

The Ape Escape demo has two playable stages with the water net tutorial in between as you need it for the second stage. After that you can try three of the other gadgets that will feature in the main game, the RC Car, the Sky Flyer and the Monkey Radar.

There's no voice acting yet so the dialogue is all text boxes that aren't present in the full game. Other than that though there's not much difference between this and the full game other than a few graphical changes and other minor changes. All of which can be seen here if you're bothered https://tcrf.net/Proto:Ape_Escape

It plays great as you would expect. It's a little basic with all the monkeys being really easy to catch. The main draw here though is the unique control scheme, which has mandatory dualshock requirements as your net and other gadgets are used by pushing the right stick. The music is from the full game too, which has a banging OST.

Would I buy the full game off the back of the demo?
Absolutely. Ignoring the fact I know it's a good game and judging it purely on what's presented in the demo, it's a good showing that gives you a taste of a little bit of everything. Unique but easy gameplay, bright graphics comparable to Mega Man Legends, a good sountrack, and as the cherry on top it lets you play with 3 of the more fun gadgets from the full game. Solid demo.

Next up was Cool Boarders 4.

Cool Boarders is one of those games I always knew existed but never had any interest in. I assumed they must be good though as the PS1 had four of them.

I was wrong. This is a dud of a demo. It's one level with one character and SSX it ain't. Really heavy controls and gameplay that encourages you to not play it in order to win. It's a downhill race and similarly to Tony Hawk Pro Skater you Hold X to build up speed and store your jump at the same time, then when you do jump you can press a direction and square or circle to do tricks, with triangle allowing you to grind.

Cool Boarders 4 though leaves no room for error. You eat snow trying a backflip and the race is lost because the other three racers don't even attempt tricks and despite having a score there seems to be no benefit to increasing it. I stumbled downhill and the three of them met me at the bottom where I fell to my knees in disgrace.

Would I buy this one?
No chance. It's clunky, no fun and has counter intuitive gameplay. If you want a game like this then get Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I wouldn't have spent £3 of my pocket money for a copy of this.

Third in line was Ace Combat 3 which looks really good. The environments look shoddy but the model of your jet looks brilliant and the game knows it. Plenty of close ups, camera angles and replays to show it off. The demo gives you a stage that looks like possibly above New York where you have to dogfight other planes and blast a couple of SAM sites on the nearby ships and docks.

It's interesting to see how little games like this have evolved over time. The control schemes, the way the plane handles, the lock on systems, everything is the same here as you would expect it to be now.

As you would expect from a game like this, you're just turning in circles as the enemy planes constantly go behind you just as you're about to lock on. That being said it's easy to pick up and play and when you blow an enemy up it makes a big fuss of it. Pretty decent.

Would I buy the full thing?
No. That's not to say it's a bad demo but games like this aren't my bag. My Brother probably would have loved it and he would have likely bought it though. This isn't like Cool Boarders where I see no upside to it, it's one I'd recommend to others.

Last but not least is FIFA 2002 which generously lets you play one half of a France vs Brazil match. They do Zidane really dirty on the walk-out as he looks like Friar Tuck. Absolute egg in a bun.
My history of football games at this stage would have been World Cup Italia 90 on the Mega Drive and Three Lions which I got with my PS1. This is better than both of those. The controls are very FIFA but there's no through-ball option, with triangle wierdly being a sprint that didn't seem to work. It's a little slower than what it would be like even on the PS2.

It functions fine though, but a 3 minute half is no time at all to get a proper feel for the game. It was over as quickly as it started at 0-0.

If I'd played the demo at the time and was in the market for a football game then yeah I'd have probably went for this. It's a lot better than it's peers (that I'd played) at the time, the graphics are decent and the gameplay is a little slow but I quite liked it wasn't just constant sliding tackles and rubberbanding.

Overall of the four games Ape Escape is a definite buy, and FIFA 2002 and Ace Combat 3 are good representations that if I wanted a game in those genres I'd have probably went for. Cool Boarders 4 is a dud. Not sure how there was 4 of them.