Developed by Game Design Sweden AB, Kula World is an impressive ball-rolling puzzle game where you must roll around 3D mazes that are floating high above the ground and collect keys to unlock the exit.
Tag Archives: console
Rapid Reload, PlayStation
Called Gunner’s Heaven in its native Japan, Rapid Reload is a run-and-gun scrolling shooter with amazing 2D graphics, massive amounts of destruction, and lots of tough boss battles. It was developed by Media.Vision and published by Sony.
Rapid Reload was first released for the PlayStation in 1995 and made an immediate impression with gamers, predominantly because of the action-packed gameplay and the sheer amount of on-screen carnage. Outside of arcades, little had been seen on this scale before – at least in terms of the amount of stuff going on on-screen. You only have to play the first level to know what you’ve got in store when you play Rapid Reload.
Sony PlayStation Special
The Sony PlayStation was the first machine in the PlayStation series of video game consoles and it came out in Japan first, in 1994, and in 1995 everywhere else. It is widely seen as being the console that changed gaming forever; the console that marked the transition from cartridge-based console gaming to CD-ROM based games, and also the console that ushered in a new era of 3D gaming. It was also the console that made Sony a major player in the video game business.
Over its eleven-year lifespan 7,918 individual games were released for the PlayStation, accumulating just under a billion sales overall. The console itself became the first to sell over 100 million units.
This week I’m going to be featuring screenshots from a number of my favourite PlayStation games. Some you might have heard of (or even played), others you might never have seen before. One thing is for sure, though: interest in the original PlayStation is still going strong, some 27 years after its initial release. And that’s because these great games endure, and because emulation has breathed new life into the format.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what the blue PlayStation is: that is a development PlayStation – used by developers to create and test the games themselves. The photos are of my very own console, taken by myself, specifically for this blog.
Here’s a full list of what was published:
Rapid Reload
Kula World
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!
Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu
Devil Dice
Revelations: Persona
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Pepsiman
Metal Gear Solid
Ridge Racer
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
Strider 2
Jumping Flash!
Vib-Ribbon
Enjoy,
The King of Grabs
More: Sony PlayStation on Wikipedia
Out Run, Megadrive/Genesis
This 1991 Megadrive/Genesis conversion of the classic arcade race game, Out Run, was written by Sega’s AM2 development team – who made the original – and it is therefore very authentic and just as much fun as the arcade game.
Snake’s Revenge, NES
Snake’s Revenge is a sequel to Metal Gear that was developed specifically for the North American and European NES markets by Konami and Ultra Games. It first came out in North America in 1990, and in Europe in 1992. Why there was a two-year gap between those releases is anyone’s guess.
Hideo Koijima wasn’t involved in the making of Snake’s Revenge and it is considered ‘non-canonical’, but he did make Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for the MSX in response to it. I’m guessing that he wasn’t particularly enamoured with the idea of another team working on his signature series, but ultimately he (rather diplomatically) says that Snake’s Revenge is “not a bad game“.
Metal Gear, NES
This reworked Nintendo Entertainment System port of the MSX version of Metal Gear first came out in 1987 (1988 in North America), just three months after the original. While it’s considered (rightly) to be inferior to the original MSX version it was a major hit and went on to sell over a million units in the United States alone.
Ghoul Patrol, Super Nintendo
Ghoul Patrol is the 1994 sequel to Zombies Ate My Neighbors and it features gameplay and graphics very similar to its predecessor, which is no bad thing on the face of it, considering that Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a fun game.
Gargoyle’s Quest II, NES
The sequel to the intriguing Game Boy game, Gargoyle’s Quest, was first released on the Nintendo Famicom in 1992 by Capcom. It is another spin-off from the successful Ghosts ‘N Goblins series.
Again, you play as Firebrand – the winged demon from Ghosts ‘N Goblins (and Ghouls ‘N Ghosts) – and again it features platforming action, with an interesting ‘fly-and-float’ mechanic.
Toki, NES
Toki is a conversion of the 1989 arcade game by Tad Corporation and it features a jumping ape who can spit bullets at his enemies. It’s a platform game with relatively short levels and occasional boss fights, and it is known for its rock-hard difficulty.
The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots!, Super Nintendo
The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! is a somewhat disappointing 1993 platform game developed by Gray Matter and published on the SNES by T*HQ.
Continue reading The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots!, Super Nintendo
The King of Grabs 