PlayStation Basement #40 - Evil Zone

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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