PlayStation Classic - what ARE those top 20 PS1 games?

This week the lineup for the PlayStation Classic was announced.  So, what are the 20 games that defined the PS1 era?  Which games did they choose to put on it..?  I'll tell you what: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash!, Metal Gear Solid, Mr Driller, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director's Cut, Revelations: Persona, Ridge Racer Type 4, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tekken 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal and Wild Arms.  I have to admit there's a sizeable proportion of games there that I've never even heard of!

I'm intrigued by how a list can miss off most of the games that people remember when you ask them what their favourite PS1 games were.  I still remember the winter when my brother and I walked through the snow to buy our first PlayStation from SES Computers in Southend.  Happy days.

As well as questioning friends, as part of my exhaustive research, I looked under our bed...

Spyro the Dragon seems to be a big favourite, remembered fondly by many, and lo and behold I found it under the bed.  Along with Worms Armageddon.  

Spyro and Worms Armageddon

Other classic platformers you may remember are Crash Bandicoot, Oddworld and Rayman (still appearing in great games on modern consoles).  Crash popped up in Uncharted 4 as a playable game in the game, which was pretty cool.

Final Fantasy VII and VIII are mentioned by a few people, and I did find VIII under the bed...

Final Fantasy VIII

There were plenty of great racing games on the PS1, though most have not aged well (some kinds of games get away with it better than others).  Gran Turismo is an obvious PS1 classic, but my brother and I also played a lot of Colin McRae Rally and TOCA, and Destruction Derby and Ridge Racer.  Racing games really do look a bit rubbish with their low polygon count.  Pixel art games can still look like they were made yesterday, but low poly cars, well...

Colin McRae, Demolition Racer, TOCA

Resident Evil!!  Aargh, great times spent eating herbs and what not.  Under the bed I found Resident Evil and also Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which was the first Resident Evil game I completed.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil

Interestingly, no-one mentioned the iconic PS1 character Lara Croft and her famous series of Tomb Raider games (you may have heard of them).  Oh yes, they're still making them.  I hear the latest one isn't that great...  And under the bed I have Tomb Raiders II and III (oddly not I, which I'm sure we had).  Lara Croft WAS PlayStation, like Sonic was Sega, and yet she's nowhere to be seen on the PSClassic.  Mmm, I still find it confusing that Tomb Raider is no longer a PS exclusive.

Tomb Raider II and III

And finally, who can forget Metal Gear Solid, Parappa the Rapper (recently re-released), criminal classics Grand Theft Auto and Driver, scary Silent Hill, skateboardy Tony Hawk's (still going strong), and if you're into fighting then Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Tekken 3..?

The PlayStation Classic features some of these, then: Destruction Derby, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director's Cut, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Tekken 3.  But the lack of some of the others is fairly disappointing.  I can see where the issues might lie (more on that later), but some might say if you can't do something properly then don't do it at all.

Of the ones I didn't know about, and/or no-one mentioned, the PSClassic features: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash!, Mr Driller, Revelations: Persona, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal and Wild Arms.  Quite a few of these were bigger in Japan than here, which may be why they were included.  But Rainbow Six seems a particularly strange choice.

(I should note here that the Japanese console does have eight different games on it, replacing some of the aforementioned games with Arc the Lad I and II, Armored Core, G-Darius, Gradius Gaiden, Parasite Eve, Devil Dice and SaGa Frontier.)

So why aren't so many of the great games we remember included?  This article has some reasons why the tiny console is missing some obvious classics - music licensing, other licensing problems (cars, or NFL), remakes/re-releases and remasters, some games used the newer controller with sticks (which doesn't come with the PSClassic) and the big one - most of the PlayStation's best games were third party.  Not an issue that Nintendo had to deal with...

Waaaah, a PS1 without Tomb Raider...

All in all I'm not sure it's worth the £89.99 it will cost when it comes out on December 3rd.  It seems a shame that they don't release these things with the intention of making more games available later, whether freely or as purchasable extras.  Ah well.  I guess the PS2's under the bed, and unlike newer consoles that was properly backwards compatible.  Only trouble is, I think the controller cables were degrading.  And we have to find the cables to plug it into the flatscreen telly.  Ack...

Lego Overwatch!

So, Target leaked all the new Lego Overwatch sets!  Overwatch (PEGI-12) (if you didn't know) is a team-based shooter set on Earth in the near future. There are loads of cool classes to choose from.  I haven't played it much (I did give it a go) but "Dad" plays it with his friends when he gets the chance.

There's no release date yet.  Expect them to be slightly more expensive than non-licensed sets, as always. 

The Lego sets, then, are pretty cool!  The tanks are the coolest, I think:


Bastion with his bird pal

D.Va

Reinhardt

I'm looking forward to Wrecking Ball, personally.  No sign of him in the leaked sets.  Hamsters, yay!

Ramble - brain training!

Computer games are often in the news for the wrong reasons, but every so often things pop up that show how games can improve our lives.  In this case, our cognitive functions.

Pretty much everyone has heard of Dr Kawashima's brain training software.  Sitting on the shelf in front of me is an old copy of 'Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?' (PEGI-3).  But does this stuff WORK?  I came to think about this again recently as I heard about a new study to see whether cognitive training can help people with Huntingdon's Disease.  Obviously brain training can't cure Huntingdon's, but it may improve quality of life.  The study, led by Dr Emma Yhnell, is using brain training exercises that specifically train thinking skills of executive function, using number puzzles, word games and tasks that measure attention.  Participants will play the games for 30 minutes, three times a week, for 12 weeks.  I will be interested to see the results!

Brain Training was big in 2005!

All those years ago, when Kawashima's games became so popular, he insisted that brain training could help those with dementia.  But he lamented the fact that few proper clinical trials had been carried out to prove whether cognitive training could be beneficial.  Professor Ryuta Kawashima, of Tohoku University, appears to have shown that brain training could not only slow the onset of dementia, but it might actually improve cognitive function.  You might find it hard to believe him, since he's made so much money from his games and books, but apparently he ploughed much of the money into the research centre at Tohoku University (the Institute of Development, Ageing and Cancer).  More than anywhere else in the world, Japan has a large ageing population - it needs ways to keep people's minds healthy for as long as possible.

Memory problems are one of the first things you notice about Alzheimer's patients - a 2013 study looked at cognitive rehabilitation and training for dementia patients, to see if brain training could improve memory function.  Sadly there was no statistically significant effect, though there were some 'modest, non-significant effects' - the study concluded that more research was needed.

A Parkinson's study in 2014 used a 'cognitive remediation program' to see if it could enhance gait and mobility.  (The motor function problems are associated with cognitive issues such as executive function and attention.)  The games were designed to improve executive function and attention and were played for 30 minutes a day, three times a week, for 12 weeks.  (The same as the new Huntingdon's study.)  The study concluded that the training did improve cognitive function and had a beneficial carryover effect to certain aspects of mobility.  But more research was needed...  (There's a pattern here!)  

A 2016 study, "Brain training: hype or hope?" suggested that if you do brain training exercises you get better at the brain training exercises, but it's hard to say much more than that.  They did seem to suggest that cognitive enhancement was possible, but larger and more thoroughly designed studies were needed.

Finally, an interesting article from 2017 looked at different brain training products to see which ones had evidence to back up their claims.  It looked at 18 brain training programs that were marketed with scientific claims.  Only seven of these had been assessed by peer-reviewed studies.  Only two met their highest standards (they had at least two well-designed randomised controlled trials).  These were BrainHQ and Cognifit.  Both of these websites offer programs that cost money per month, though BrainHQ offers some exercises for free.  The article finishes by saying that it's not clear why brain training works (or even if it really does).  It may be creating new neural pathways.  It may simply increase the blood circulation in the brain, in which case you can also improve by social interaction, exercise, diet, etc.  

BBC Music Memories website

It seems obvious that if you have things to occupy your mind it keeps your mind healthier.  Good dementia care homes have long used different activities to try and stimulate patients, such as music therapy.  I love the new BBC Music Memories website, which gives an easy way to find music from particular eras.  Music plays a big part in our formative teenage years, so choosing songs from those can be really successful.  My nan has Alzheimer's and was born in the 1920's; the website suggests popular tunes from the 30's by Gracie Fields and Fred Astaire.  What a great idea!

So... that's my serious ramble.  It's certainly an area that should be researched more.  It could be a cheap way of helping a lot of people.  Computer games needn't all be brain-melting disasters...

Game Review: Hollow Knight

Aaargh our house has been taken over by a 6 1/2 year old boy who is COMPLETELY OBSESSED by Hollow Knight (PEGI-7)!  This game's been around for a while on PC (since last year) but was released on Switch in June.  The Switch release has given the game a lot of press - it's a great format for it; it works brilliantly on the Switch's small screen.  The game's only £10.99 on the Switch, which pretty much makes it a must buy (if you own a Switch you'll know that most Switch games are a bit on the expensive side...).

Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania game.  I have to admit I didn't know what that meant, so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia:
"Metroidvania is a subgenre of the action-adventure genre of video games. The term is a portmanteau of the game series Metroid and Castlevania...  Metroidvania games generally feature a large interconnected world map the player can explore, though access to parts of the world is often limited by doors or other obstacles that can only be passed once the player has acquired special items, tools, weapons or abilities within the game. Acquiring such improvements can also aid the player in defeating more difficult enemies and locating shortcuts and secret areas, and often includes retracing one's steps across the map..."

That's how the game works, then -  it's a big world where you gradually unlock areas, having found items and/or defeated bosses. (Thankfully you can travel by Stag Beetle to get around a bit quicker.)  But the story and the way it has been put together really set it apart from a lot of other similar games.

The Kingdom of Hallownest

You are a bug Knight, equipped with his trusty 'nail' weapon, who for some reason arrives in the town of Dirtmouth.  Having talked to a chap there, you learn that there are mysterious ruins under the town.  So what do you do?  Jump down the well to explore them, of course!  The kingdom under the town is known as Hallownest, and some terrible tragedy has befallen it.  A lot of the bugs there have been tainted by an infection, and they're not very pleased to see you.  There are some friendly NPC's you can talk to, however, who reveal bits of the story.  If you obtain an item called the Dream Nail you can access further bits of lore from the dreams of the NPC's.

When you kill enemies you get currency called 'Geo', which can be spent on various items.  To begin with you'll want to spend them on a map, compass and other navigational aids (which you don't have when you start).  After that you can get other things like upgrades to your 'nail', items that give you abilities (such as wall jumping) and numerous charms.  The charms can be equipped in 'notches', and different charms take up different amounts of notches.  You'll have to be clever about which ones you equip in different situations.  You have to rest at a bench to swap charms around, so you have to plan ahead.

Charms!

Resting at benches sets a save point that you'll return to if you die.  If you die, you have to go back to where you were killed and defeat your 'shade' to get your Geo back.  If you die before you get to your 'shade', you lose your Geo.  But not your other stuff.  So it's annoying, but it could be worse...

As well as getting Geo when you kill things, when you hit enemies you gain 'soul', which you can use to recharge your health when you have a spare moment.  (Not something you get a lot of in boss fights, unfortunately!)  As you progress you can also unlock some offensive spells that consume 'soul', as well.

There is an interesting variety of normal enemies, in differently themed areas, but also some cool bosses.  Seb's good at most things but finds the bosses a bit hard.  (He's very good at the extremely tricky parkour in some of the areas!)  The style of the game is reminiscent of Anime - both the art style and the orchestral score.  (The made-up language that the NPC's speak also sounds kind of Japanese...)

The base game comes with all the content packs that have been released - Team Cherry have been making the game bigger and better.  The content packs are Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe and Godmaster.  Hidden Dreams added two new bosses, a new fast-travel system (Dreamgate) and a new Stag Station.  The Grimm Troupe added loads of stuff including the Nightmare King and Grimm, the Master of the Grimm Troupe, as well as  new quests, new charms and new enemies.  Godmaster added lots of bosses and other enemies, quests, secrets, two new endings and an area (Godhome) where you can do lots of boss fights.  (Seb really likes this...)

In conclusion, it's a great game, and since it's only £10.99 (on both Switch and PC) you have no reason not to buy it.  Though I'd probably like it more if Seb wasn't obsessed by it.  We're having to draw Hollow Knight maps and make books of the characters and models and play 'Hollow Knight in real life' (which he calls 'The Tiring Version' since that's what his Dad called it).  I suppose the fact that I do still like it, despite this all encompassing obsession that we're living with, must mean it's good!!!

Nintendo Switch Online NES games

Nintendo Switch Online launched on September 19th.  As well as giving you the ability to play online and cloud saves (like PS Plus), there's a library of classic NES titles to play!  Multiplayer games can be played with your friends online or by sharing joy cons, and single player games let you share the controller.

The 20 games available at launch were: Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, Ghosts'n Goblins, Ice Climber, The Legend of Zelda, Pro Wrestling, Soccer, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tennis, Baseball, Double Dragon, Excitebike, Gradius, Ice Hockey, Mario Bros., River City Ransom, Super Mario Bros., Tecmo Bowl and Yoshi.  On October 10th three more titles were added: Solomon's Key, Super Dodge Ball and NES Open Tournament Golf.  Also, a cheaty version of The Legend of Zelda where you start off with all the best equipment!  Perhaps there will be more 'easy mode' versions of classic titles available in the future on the Switch...

In November Metroid, Mighty Bomb Jack and TwinBee are being added, and in December Wario's Woods, Ninja Gaiden and Adventures of Lolo.

(I have italicised the games that are on the Nintendo Classic Mini NES - as you can see there's a bit of overlap but you do get different games on both things.)

I have to admit I don't know much about NES games - I never went down the Nintendo route (until our fairly recent Switch acquisition), so I had a bit of a look at some 'best of' lists online...

A GamesRadar article of the top NES games puts Super Mario Bros. 3 at no. 1, The Legend of Zelda at no. 3, Metroid at no. 4, River City Ransom at no. 8, Dr. Mario at no. 14 and Super Dodge Ball is no. 23.

Den of Geek's article on the 25 Most Underrated NES Games of All Time puts Adventures of Lolo at no. 4, River City Ransom at no. 12 and Wario's Woods at no. 25.

So there are some good games on the Online service, but they're clearly holding some jewels back to put on there later!  As Mario would say, 'Let's-a-go!'

October 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

It's that time again - PS Plus time!

On PS4: Friday the 13th: The Game (PEGI-18), Laser League (PEGI-7); on PS3: Master Reboot (PEGI-12); on PS3/PS4/Vita: The Bridge (PEGI-3), on PS4/Vita: Rocketbirds 2: Evolution (PEGI-12) and 2064: Read Only Memories  (PEGI-16).

Laser League (PEGI-7) is the big-hitter family game here.  It's surprisingly new for a PS Plus game (often they've been out for quite a while).  It's a team sport from the year 2150; two teams try to control nodes that create deadly lasers across the arena.  It takes place on a single screen with 1-4 players locally, 2-6 players online.  Locally, you can play vs. your mates or against them - you can add AI team mates to make up the two teams in whatever combination you like.  Sadly, though, you can't get four mates together to make a team in your living room and then take that team online...

You have different classes to choose from, such as Blade, Thief and Shock.  They have different skills and builds, for instance the Shock class generates a bubble of energy that temporarily incapacitates any opposition member within it.  When you activate a node a wall of light is projected that's the same colour as your squad.  Your team can pass through it, but any member of the opposition passing through is downed until they can be revived by a teammate.  When everyone's down you score a point.  There are three rounds to decide the match.  It's fast-paced stuff; it's simple to play (the only controls are the stick to move and R1 to pull off your special skill) but it's certainly difficult to master.

In a world when things like Fortnite and Overwatch are so popular, this could be a fun game to play as a family!  You're trying to take out your enemy, playing co-op, but it's not a terrible killing game.  Brilliant!