EfreetEater

This review was originally published on the  Console Purist  Facebook group on July 13th, 2019. Today is Saturday, and it is time for everyone’s favorite, the PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement appears every week with a review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Shuwatch! July 10 th is Ultraman Day all around the cosmos, so this week we’ll take a look at an early game that never left Japan – PD Ultraman Invader . This game is Space Invaders with Ultraman characters, though the original Space Invaders is also included. I believe that the “PD” means “parody deformed” (like the SD for “super deformed”), as this is a comedic crossover of Ultraman characters. PD Ultraman Invader was released December 22 nd , 1995 by Bandai. Though I had been interested in Ultraman since around when this game was released, I did not know what it was until later. I have some little, rubber finger puppets of va...

Hype is a dangerous thing. It can get people excited for a game, but sometimes things fly too close to the sun. Last time, I talked about my bad experiences with The Legend of Alon D'ar  and a few other disappointments. Today, I have some more games that didn't take me to where I wanted to go. This time I'm focusing on faults based on reviews, recommendations from others, and my own expectations based on the box art and blurb. Dragon Ball Origins [DS, 2008] When I read about Dragon Ball Origins  a few years ago, it sounded very cool. I had wanted a Dragon Ball  game for a while, especially after the excellent beat 'em up,  Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure , on Game Boy Advance. I was surprised that I had missed the game when it came out and also surprised that it had pretty good reviews. It seemed like it would be a great game, but boy was I wrong. There's so much wrong with Dragon Ball Origins . I've never played them, but this game is apparently like t...

This review was originally published on the  Console Purist  Facebook group on July 6th, 2019. If you are in the United States, I’m sure you’ve heard fireworks during the last few days. We’ll be launching some things with today’s PlayStation Basement review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Let’s go! Today’s game is Ballerburg: Castle Chaos . This game is a 3D reimagining of Eckhard Kruse’s 1987 artillery strategy game Ballerburg for the Atari ST. Because the original game was released into the public domain from the beginning, this 2001 version had no input from Kruse. The developers for this one were Ascaron Entertainment who also published the initial PC version in Europe in December 2001. Phoenix Games published the PlayStation version, also in Europe, in April 2003, and Mud Duck Productions published it in North America in December of the same year. Mud Duck is another budget publisher like A1 Games, ...

This review was originally published on the  Console Purist  Facebook group on June 29th, 2019. Have you taken a vacation this year? A summer holiday to somewhere tropical or somewhere cool? In today’s PlayStation Basement we might do just that with a review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Let’s take a trip. Aquanaut’s Holiday is another Artdink game. If you’ve been following along since the beginning, you’ll remember Notam of Wind , a game that Artdink released in Japan and nowhere else. The company released some perfectly PlayStation Basement titles when they developed games for the PS1. Aquanaut’s Holiday is a game about exploring the dark oceans. What will you find there that’s been lying dormant since this game was released 24 years ago on June 30 th , 1995 in Japan (and September 1996 and October 1996 in North America and Europe respectively)? Before diving in, let’s look at the cover ...

This review was originally published on the  Console Purist  Facebook group on June 22nd, 2019. It’s Saturday, and here is another PlayStation Basement. PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Let’s go! Today, I’m reviewing The Unholy War , a strategy/arena-fighting game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Eidos Interactive. The game was released in both North America and Europe in September 1998. Designed by Paul Reiche III, The Unholy War tells the tale of a battle between the native Arcanes and the invading Teknos over control of the planet Xsarra. It takes after his earlier computer game, Archon: The Light and the Dark . The cover to The Unholy War is especially lurid, an image of a vicious Prana, an Arcane warrior. The European art features the Prana in an aura of flames, while the American art has the creature under attack by a Teknos Killcycle. T...