This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on June 1st, 2019.
Today is
Saturday, so it’s time for PlayStation Basement. As always, I have another
review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated
Good, Bad, or Neutral. Let’s go!
This week
it’s the anniversary of Evil Zone, a
fighting game by Yuke’s Future Media Creations. This anime-influenced brawler
was released 20 years ago in North America on May 31st, 1999 by publisher Titus
Interactive. The Japanese release, published by Yuke’s themselves, preceded the
American release by a few months (January 14th, 1999). Evil Zone was also released in Europe and Australia in the same
year, but I could not find specific dates.
The cover
art of Evil Zone varies significantly
by region. The American release shows the villain, Ihadurca, casting a spell in
a green mist (small aside: the American release also lacks the normal ridges on
the left edge of the tray art as per standard PS1 games and is instead all
black). The Japanese art shows her in sepia tone somewhat sorrowfully compared
to her sneer on the American cover. The European and Australian covers go for a
cyberpunk look in a light purple with a few other characters poorly pasted
below Ihadurca. Surprisingly, these covers all work for this game.
Evil Zone features a multitude of
fighters each based on different anime tropes of the 80s and 90s. The
characters are rendered and animated well. I’m impressed with the smooth
animation for the types of attacks they do from summoning spells to swinging
swords. The arenas are pretty plain compared with the colorful characters,
unfortunately. In addition to the in-game 3D graphics, Evil Zone includes some nice animated cutscenes that really make me
wish the game could have been done with cel-shading. A later release would have
turned this into a very different game though; it’s certainly a product of that
time when weird anime OVAs were on late at night or available from a video
rental store.
The sound
design of Evil Zone follows the same
trend of the bleary-eyed video trash as the rest of this game. In addition to
synth rock and heavy metal, the game has all the silly voice acting you might
find in barely-funded anime dubs. There’s a surprising number of voice sounds
actually, and they aren’t all bad. The in-battle voices are decent, though a
little annoying, but the between battle cutscenes can sound wooden. It really
depends on the character for the quality overall. The sound effects for Evil Zone are decent. The game does not
have any hard-hitting sounds that you usually get with a fighting game, going
for a lot of thinner sounds including a cracking crystal effect upon each blow
struck. It’s kind of silly.
The gameplay
itself is silly too. Evil Zone goes
for something different, but it does not entirely succeed. Instead of the more
complex maneuvers of King of Fighters or Street Fighter Alpha, Evil Zone uses a
very simple system more like Super Smash
Bros. or Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy
Tale. Instead of fireball inputs, you’ll be pushing forward, back, or up
along with the attack button. There’s only one attack button. There’s also a
button to guard. Attacks vary depending on the distance the characters are from
each other, utilizing beams and guns at longer range and basic combos when face
to face. You can hold the attack button to charge up for a super move. The game
also utilizes a number of grabs/throws (called “captures”) to showcase cool
scenes you might find in your favorite anime. The problem is that this system
is too simple, and the controls feel a little delayed though the game is
fast-paced. I like that the developers went for a simple design that would
appeal to players of all skill levels, but, like, there are eight main buttons
on the PlayStation controller; there’s no reason to just use two. It would have
added a bit more strategy and ease of use to utilize at least separate buttons
for long range attacks, close range attacks, and charging up.
Something
that is kind of neat is how Evil Zone
structures its story mode. Each character plays through a number of episodes in
their own titled television series, each with their own name, beginning and
ending cutscenes, and teasers for next time. It feels like you are watching
some weird fansub from 1993.
Unfortunately,
the unique aspects of Evil Zone do
not outweigh the clunky design. The game is still pretty interesting, but it
isn’t as deep or varied as other fighters from that time. I played the game
with a few characters, and I enjoyed the different stories since the characters
are from different fictional settings that play off of tropes. It was fun to
see how the developers took these cyborgs, knights, sorcerers, and martial
artists and created a bizarre multiverse to tie them all together. I just wish
the gameplay was deeper and more intuitive.
Evil Zone receives a Neutral.
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