Originally released for the arcade in 1996 by the Taito corporation, Raystorm is the second game in the Ray series following after Rayforce and proceeded by Raycrisis. The game has since been ported on the Sega Saturn in 1996, the PlayStation in 1997 and later a high definition version for the Xbox 360 in 2010. It is the first game in the series to make the jump from the original 2-D graphics to 3-D, and in it’s own right was successful in effectively make the graphical transition.

The graphics are very smooth, and the game is one of the rare 3-D titles to still maintain a decent look by today’s standards. Even small aspects such as the water effects on the earlier levels were pretty decent at the time, where its translucency nicely displays submerged enemies without awkwardly having that very plastic look. The overall 3-D aspect of the game is very well realised, creating effects such as the parallax effect that allows enemy ships to shift effortlessly from the background and foreground.

The gameplay is also very fast paced and combined with an epic electronic soundtrack and imposing environments, gives the game a level of grit and intensity that lends the game its own unique appeal and style. The presentation and speed can give players quite the adrenaline rush, making the game very addictive. The game also allows two players to play co-operatively, which with a decent team, can effectively half the difficulty of the game.

The response and control of your ship is also very smooth, reacting to your every input instantly. Game mechanics is rarely a problem here and for the most part a player’s skill is the only factor in overcoming obstacles.

While Raystorm have tightened its key elements for near flawless gameplay, it suffers from the same big problem that is essentially beset in most games of the shoot em’ up genre: the accessibility. The game does not hold any punches and the screen can quickly become overcrowded with enemy projectiles to the point where newer players can easily become overwhelmed.

This is another title that relies on the heavy subscription to the shoot em’ up genre, particularly experience. Raystorm demands fast reflexes, understanding your spacecraft’s hitbox, memorising which enemy to dispatch first and their firing patterns. The game itself is also surprisingly short, consisting of eight stages that can each take as little as three to five minutes to complete.

The game can be made slightly easier with the use of co-op, however this is not without its drawbacks. In the later levels, the game can suffer from some heavy slowdown from time to time, and co-op can further exacerbate this slowdown in places that can really stall the game’s flow.

While the game is quite difficult, the crisp presentation and exhilarating gameplay is captivating enough for players to keep pressing through even the harder elements. Even if you’re not an expert of the genre, it’s definitely worth a look.

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Command and Conquer: Red alert was the 1996 sequel to the real-time strategy game Command and Conquer developed by Westwood studios. While more successful on the PC due to its modding and multiplayer accessibility, the PlayStation version was still a reputable port, keeping the core elements intact.

The game takes place in an alternate 1940s where the united states army enlists Albert Einstein to create the Chronosphere, A time traveling device conceived to assassinate Hitler in 1924, after He is released from Landsburg prison. While doing so succeeds to circumvent the rise of the Nazi regime, one detail is overlooked: The Nazi’s influence on the Soviet’s military expansion. Now living in 1940s even further than the original visions of World War II, the Allied forces must now contend with the incessant assault of the Soviet Union, a now inconceivably stronger threat than the Nazis.

The game contains two disks that both represent a respective team; Allied or soviet. Allied are the token protagonists of the game and utilise a wider array of arsenal, while not as outwardly strong as soviet, are better for tactical endeavours as well as cheaper for fast economic deployment. The Soviets, while less varied and more expensive, have a fierce and robust arsenal that gives no quarter in disposing the opposition; make them ideal for newer players.

One of the major improvements over the prior RTS franchises from Westwood would be the interface. The interface is so neatly packaged it makes the game very accessible to newer players. The single window tab in the right hand corner of the screen consolidates all gameplay options very clearly.

The variety of units available are plentiful and each with its unique function to serve a particular role. They vary from turrets placements to hold off enemy assaults, foot soldiers for economic deployment, as well as heavy duty vehicles to transport troops or provide heavy artillery. Each unit have their own varying strength and weakness as well as being effective for situational use.

The main story line has various mission styles that vary from search and destroy, rescue a key figure or destroy an enemy transport routes. The mission lengths can vary, some lasting five minutes while others can effectively last for over an hour.

For the most part the gameplay is solid but has a few problems. AI can be suspect at times, where positioning your troops can be troublesome if they get confused on traversing through map layouts and instead get lost.

The Difficulty in the storyline missions is also very jarring, as missions vary from being way too easy to being mercilessly hard. While trial and error is encouraged for these missions, a steady gradient of difficulty would have been preferable as opposed to an erratic flux that can take a player off-guard.

While other games have since advanced the formula, Red Alert sets the standard that heavily influences RTS games today and is enjoyable with simple yet with tightly packaged gameplay.

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Developed in 1997 by Konami for the Sony PlayStation, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a unique title at the time, adopting classic 2D Platforming sensibilities on a system marketed for 3D gaming. Despite its low sales upon release, Symphony obtained a cult following and has since been noted by critics as one of the mainstays of the PlayStation’s gaming library.

The majority of the game takes place five years after the previous game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. You assume the character Alucard, a Dhampir (half human, half vampire) and son of Dracula, who strongly opposes his father tyrannical rule and has sided with humans to prevent his father’s resurrection, causing the enslavement of mankind.

The first striking aspect of the game would be the 2D graphical preference which contrasted the frantic obsession to showcase the PlayStation’s 3D processing power at the time. Yet with the extra processing power available, what we get are detailed environments and character palettes that are drawn and animated with precision and intricacy that could be compared to an artisan level. The presentation is beautiful, with a visual maturity attributed to the art designer Ayami Kojima which resonates with 19th century gothic fiction.

The music is also wonderfully composed with a diverse soundtrack that perfectly denotes the set piece of the 18th century castle where the game takes place. The music contains beautifully delicate orchestral nocturnes; with occasional segues into heavy metal that marks a tense confrontation or a frantic boss battle.

The gameplay adopts Platforming and RPG mechanics from successful titles of the 16-bit generation such as Super Metroid and Final Fantasy, managing to keep the gameplay solid without diluting the game’s depth. So many variables affect how you play, such as the type of items you equip, magic spells and unique weapons, with varying strengths and weaknesses that can be used to overcome situational difficulties. All of these options serve to offer a preferred playing style for each different type of player. The game also adopts Super Metroid’s non-linear map system, allowing the player to approach each objective in any order they wish.

While the game hits the right notes for the most part, there are a few criticisms. The voice acting is mawkish to the point of ridicule, but is not too intrusive and does not completely affect the overall presentation. The magic inputs, while generally easy to execute, can be quite awkward at times, and in the more desperate situations, will render quick inputs cumbersome and unreliable.

The game also does not direct the player in any clear manner, and at times will cause the player to get lost. There is also a crucial turning point in the game where certain objectives need to be met in order to officially complete the game, otherwise further progression becomes blocked off.

Often hailed as a hallmark of the Castlevania series, Symphony of the Night lifts several game mechanics from successful genres of the 16 bit era and amalgamates them into a solid game.

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Made at the end of the PlayStation One’s lifespan, Omega Boost was a shooter game developed by Polyphony Digital in collaboration Shoji Kawamori, renowned for his mechanical designs for game and anime franchises.

The game’s story is pretty standard, and serves to give the game a setting as opposed to substance. Set in the year 2099, a rogue A.I known as Alpha Core has taken over the world to the point that human resistance is nigh-impossible. Humanity’s only hope is in Lieutenant Lester, the pilot for the mecha Omega Boost. Lester is tasked to infiltrate Alpha Core’s main base, utilize its “time-shaft” machine to travel back in time and reprogram the world first electronic computer so that it does not spawn the Alpha Core virus.

The game itself was met with some extremely polarized criticism, and is infamous in causing a divide with gamers and critics alike, due to the game’s design. Taking all criticism and plaudits on board it is fair to say that Omega Boost is a very fun and enjoyable game, but built with game mechanics that make the gameplay hideously simplistic.

The presentation of the game is commendable. The soundtrack is a memorable hybrid of rock and electronic music, and the game’s visual graphics proudly maintain a degree of polish, with little to no blocky models or flat shading. The game also boasts a 60 frame per second frame rate, which was quite rare for games at the time. Omega Boost is also very addictively fun to play, with a style that harkens back to older titles such as Panzer Dragoon and Starfox.

Omega Boost has three weapons. First being an energy machine gun that is fired by pressing the fire button rapidly and a missile module that locks on to enemies by holding down the fire button and fires a barrage upon release. Access to the Viper Boost weapon becomes available in later levels but with limited use due to its power. Variety in weapons however is somewhat lacking, with a missed opportunity for an extended arsenal.

The most glaring criticism and limitation of the game is the lack of any depth in its gameplay. While Omega Boost tries to feign free movement in an open zone by the way the player can rotate the orientation of Omega Boost’s aim, the mech actually moves on a set line, much like a rail shooter.

The best way to describe the games movement is to compare it to a gyroscope. Omega Boost can orientate itself in all three axes, however is restricted in forward movement, much like how the gyroscope’s frame restricts its rotor. Holding the scan button down allows movement symmetrical to the mechanics of scrolling shooters however you are still fixed to move along an invisible rail. The game is also very short, adding to the impression of style over substance.

If you are able to overlook the contained and somewhat sketchy game mechanics then Omega Boost is quite enjoyable, despite lacking any originality or depth.

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In most cases bad games deserve the derision and scorn attached to them as usually the intentions behind its development are built on cynical foundations (I.E. poor cash in of an existing property, a kitsch copy of a separate game franchise). However Jurassic Park: Trespasser was one of the few games that was conceived with respectable aspirations to innovate the gaming industry, yet unfortunately was released as a partially finished mess; leaving with it some scarces game remnants of what could have been a potentially good game.

Trespasser was developed by DreamWorks Interactive in 1998 and was a project that closely worked with Jurassic Park director Steven Speilberg in an attempt to create a world that emulated the dynamic environment of the movie licences. The goal was to make a realistic game that included an advanced physics engine with interactive objects that respond to environmental stimulus and a simulated ecosystem matching the proposed ecosystem from the movies. This was going to utilize procedural generated actions in its dinosaur AI based on their individual needs; effectively emulating set behaviourial responses towards the player and other dinosaurs, influenced by hunger levels and feelings of threat. A bold ambition that unfortunately failed to meet expectations, due to the pressure placed to develop a game to outshine its competitors in a tight time frame.

Trespasser takes place a year after events of the movie The Lost World where you assume the character of Anna, the sole survivor of a plane crash, on the island Isla Sorna. As Anna acquires her bearings traversing the lush and flourishing flora of the island, she comes across derelict camps and abandoned prefabrications. To her dismay, she realises that she has been stranded on Site B, the location used by InGen to breed dinosaurs for Jurassic park.

The positives of the game should first be acknowledged. Trespasser was one of the first games of its kind to include physics in its game, meaning that you could interact with the environment around you where objects such as chairs, barrels and crates which would tumble, roll, and lean on other surfaces.

The story itself, or fragments of it, tie very closely to both the movies and the novels, creating a narrative that neatly fits with the fictional continuity. Research made into the Jurassic Park universe shows itself in the landscapes, archives and momentous events in game that are apropos to the canon of the Jurassic park franchise. This is also further emboldened by the narrative elements where certain events trigger the disembodied voice of John Hammond, who reads out extracts of his diary relating to key structures used for the development of Jurassic park.

The game had an impressive draw distance for the day, meaning that you could see a vast amount of the scenery from several miles away; quite impressive for a game made in 1998. Here you see a vista of tropical jungle flora that were surprisingly well rendered for the time and give the player a great immersive feel. Many different types of prehistoric creatures wander around the island minding to their own devises and simply serve as a reminder of the vast scale of the project undertook by John Hammond’s industry.

However after processing the grandeur of the initial gameplay, the more problematic elements become apparent. Firstly the most frustrating was the game’s much vaunted aiming system which tried to emulate the movement of a human arm. This unfortunately is not implemented very well as the controls make it difficult to align the main character’s arm in a manner that makes aiming a weapon feasible. The physics in game do not contain friction, meaning that objects leaning on another object have a tendency to slide of its surface quite frequently. In addition to this there are certain glitches  that make object float inexplicably in the air, detracting from the immersion factor.

Some of the later levels are very bare, including the towns and labourites. Particular buildings contain very little inside, other than plain whitewashed walls and surfaces that does little to add to the game. In one level known as the industrial jungle, the game designers resort to stretching the rock textures in order to create the effect of being trapped in the bottom of a large ravine, but the end result makes the textures look very out of place. The puzzles set in the game are very repetitive surmounting to little more than box moving puzzles intended solely to showcase the powerful physics engine at the time. This eventually becomes so tiresome that it renders an initially impressive aspect, quite tawdry. Also segments of the game are practically unplayable, including puzzles which are broken to the point of making the game unplayable without console command inputs (cheat codes).

The enemy variation is surprisingly sparse considering how varied the passive dinosaurs are and how frequently they appear in game. The most a player will encounter enemy wise are raptors whose only variance is a change in its pallet colour, that indicates the animal’s difficulty. The enemies also have a tendency to glitch out frequently, either trapping themselves on walls, gates and fences or even killing themselves should they interact with a surface in a particular manner. One of the more common glitchs with the raptors is for their textures to randomly compress, at random intervals, with little to no reason as to the cause; a testament to a very unstable game engine. The proposed procedural actions of the passive dinosaur AI is rarely apparent, as well as such dinosaurs becoming unresponsive to the assaults or interactions of the player themselves.

It is difficult to recommend this game, as expressed from the outset of this review. The game is not a good enough on its own to be an enjoyable experience. However what the game itself does is display an interesting attempt in a feat to innovate the way games could be played in the 1990s and how aspects such as time constrains and pressure can affect the overall quality. It also influenced the development of more successful titles and is noted by game developer Valve as inspiration to implement physics in game franchises such as Half-life.

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