Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: July 10, 2000

No one doubted that Square had a hit on their hands when they released Secret of Mana. For a time, that hallowed gray cartridge had a permanent home in thousands of SNES’s across the country. Sure, they may have shot themselves in the foot by following it with the abysmal Secret of Evermore, but for the moment we’ll overlook that. SOM had an engrossing story, an incredible multiplayer component, and a combat/magic schematic that managed to simultaneously be fast, fun, and incredibly complex. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 23, 1999

It’s getting to the point where there are almost as many wrestling games out there are there are racing titles. While I doubt that the grappling market will ever be quite as supersaturated as the racing one, I think this shift will have a very beneficial effect on the market as a whole. Competition is always good and should never be discouraged, especially in the world of electronic entertainment. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 21, 1999

When future archaeologists sift through the remains of our civilization, I wonder how much influence id software will be seen as having? Will future generations look back on these years and wonder why we all spent so much time worrying about the Strogg? Will they wonder why most college students could hit moving targets with a Rail Gun in nine out of 10 shots but were unable to get out of bed more than 15 minutes before class? ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 18, 1999

Puzzle games are dangerous.

More specifically, good puzzle games are extremely dangerous. Take Tetris, for example, arguably the best computer puzzler of all time. You’d be hard pressed to find a single computer literate person in the United States who hasn’t at least played it a few times, and when it was first released back in the arcades it gulped up almost as many quarters as Pac Man. Once it made its way to the home systems, it deviously infiltrated our domiciles and infected our brains. Many of us were powerless against it, repeating our mantra of “Just one more game…” well into the early hours of the morning. How many times did I try to beat Level 9 Height 5 before I finally managed it? ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 17, 1999

One of the most hyped and renowned Nintendo 64 titles ever to be released for the revered console was doubtlessly Mission Impossible. It garnered mixed reviews, being viewed as a cheap Goldeneye clone by some or a brilliant blend of action and adventure by others. My opinion sided with the former diagnosis as the repetitive gameplay wore thin for me. But even I was able to appreciate it for the innovative, quality offering it was and for the unique features it brought to the system. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 15, 1999

If one were to decide that their goal for the day was to divide the racing world into two easily distinguishable halves, the easiest way to do it would most likely be to separate the NASCAR people from the Autocrossers. There are those who go to Summit Point for “Friday at the Track” to whip their cars around hairpin turns, while others make yearly pilgrimages to Daytona to spin themselves around curves that are banked so sharply that their cars would slide off at speeds lower than 80 mph. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 14, 1999

Every male in the history of modern civilization played with Hot Wheels cars when they were young, and the lucky ones had the playsets with the multicolored tracks to boot. These had pieces that looped and spun around on themselves like roller coasters, and the inevitable fantasy we all fell into was that we were inside those cars, zipping around on our own tracks. The team at EA decided to tap into that daydream by creating over a dozen of the wildest Hot Wheels tracks we ever could have imagined, placing them in bizarre locations like abandoned mine shafts and tropical islands. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 4, 1999

Ingredients for a successful off road racing game:

• Ridiculously overpowered and customizable real life autos and trucks.
• Snazzy graphics.
• Tight controls with realistic driving physics.
• Expansive outdoor environments.
• Hard rocking soundtrack featuring popular bands.
• As much testosterone as will fit onto one 640MB PSX CD.

It’s a pretty simple formula, really, and seeing as how this is the third in the Test Drive Off Road series, you’d think that practice makes perfect. How close did Infogrames come? Let’s take a closer look. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 3, 1999

There are those who would argue that the true purpose of video games and computer simulations is to answer questions that could not be answered through any other means. Inquiries such as, “What would this city be like if I was mayor?” or, “Would I have been a good fighter pilot if I had enlisted in the Air Force during World War II?” No matter what the question may be, computer and video games can provide us with some sort of an answer. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: December 2, 1999

On the off chance that you’ve never heard of the software development arm of Dreamworks, Inc., commonly known as “The Neverhood,” consider this a wake up call. Go out immediately after reading this review and purchase their first offering, entitled, strangely enough, The Neverhood. This best-selling adventure game established the overall feel and spirit of the company, and that spirit is very strongly felt in their new PSX release, Boombots. While some companies like SquareSoft like to give their creations a cartoonish, anime feel, and others like Electronic Arts tend to lean toward the super realistic, The Neverhood uses clay as their medium of creation. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: November 30, 1999

Most of my early video gaming memories are based on the many evenings my parents spent with a friend of theirs named Danny and his Atari. It was a small miracle in a plastic case that was my gateway to a digital fantasyland that would later go on to shape my life in countless ways. He had what seemed at the time to be the largest privately owned collection of Atari titles in the western hemisphere, and while my parents and he would sit around and do whatever it was grownups found so interesting, I would glue myself to Danny’s television and lose myself for a few hours. I got hooked on everything from Missile Command to Centipede and Pitfall to The Smurfs, but nothing ever came close to stressing out my prepubescent psyche as much as Space Invaders. I don’t know what it was… ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: November 25, 1999

So, here’s the situation. Pretend you’re a huge, multi-million dollar video game developer and publisher. You have just recently shocked the world by releasing the most recent episode in what has become one of the most popular and best selling franchises in gaming history. You’re nearly drowning in critical acclaim as the populace floods into the little world you’ve created for them, gets scared witless, and then clamors for more. What do you do? Well, for Capcom, the answer to that question is a very simple one. Do the exact same thing you’ve done for the past two episodes, only do it bigger, scarier, and better looking. In other words, create Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: November 13, 1999

Raise your hand if you remember Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker video game. How about that perennial SNES classic, Shaq Fu? The former title, for some utterly inexplicable reason, actually attained a modicum of success in the arcades, but did anyone ever play Shaq Fu? I mean, besides me? I rented it for two days and played it for ten whole minutes. Some games are just plain bad, and as long as consumers continue to buy any tripe that gets tossed onto the market, this will continue, but that’s a rant for another day. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: November 11, 1999

Neversoft… Wow. That’s all I can really say about these guys. Twenty years from now, when we’re all reminiscing about the golden age of PSX gaming while waiting for our VR neurolinks to cool down after our last eight hour session of id’s latest fragfest, we’re going to be talking about EA’s sports games, SquareSoft’s RPGs, and practically everything Neversoft ever did. Remember that whiz-bang PC-to-PSX port of Shiny’s MDK a few years back? Yep, that was them. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: November 4, 1999

As a general rule, I try to go into each review with a clean slate. I go to a great deal of effort to ensure any preconceptions or biases I may possess are wiped clean before I pick up a title so that I can be sure to give it the attention it deserves. When I first became a game reviewer, I learned the hard way that if you have expectations you are counting on a title to meet, you’re doing little more than setting yourself up for a disappointment. ( read more… )