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April 1996


PLAYSTATION
Magic Carpet
EA   Krisalis Soft
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Act-Adventure   Release: March 1996
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

In 1994, Bullfrog Productions came forward with a revolutionary flight simulation game called Magic Carpet. Then exclusive only to home computers, their release was an absolute stunner - well, if you happen to have a modern PC with new chips installed. Now, this much-heralded title is available for PlayStation. Explore a fully 3-D world taken right from the tales of Arabian Nights, floating through fractal environments capable of total terrain morphing. Accrue enhancing mana at the start of each locale to cast spells you learn along the way. Prepare to use your devastating magical abilities to fend off fierce beasties like trolls, zombies, and dragons. All 70 quests from the original made the journey to console, all made better with quicker gameplay and a re-worked spellcasting system that allows fast swapping at any time.

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PLAYSTATION
Alien Trilogy
Acclaim   Probe Ent
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3-D Shooter    Release: February 1996
Age Rating: Mature   Challenge: Hard

Alien Trilogy, set in the cinematic world of its namesake, is a dark and terrifying first-person shooter. Start it up and you will be thrown right into the action. As Lt. Ripley, you must work to fix up an awful mess as the nefarious aliens infect a group of colonists. Ripley begins with a meager 9mm pistol, but before long will collect stronger weapons like shotguns and grenades to blast apart face-huggers as well as fully-grown alien scum. As for gameplay, imagine the hectic nature of Doom turned up to 11! Shoot all which moves and hope that you make it out the other side! Striking down foes in the haunting atmosphere of Alien results in explosive slime puddles, accompanied by lovely yet gruesome sounds. Those searching for a nightmarish horror experience with pants-wetting material will be pleased with this game.

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PLAYSTATION
Return Fire
Time Warner   Silent Soft
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Action-Strategy   Release: April 1996
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Return Fire is Silent Software's war simulator with a masterful blend of action and strategy rolled into one. Originally emerging on the struggling 3DO last March, this fantastic game is now up for grabs on the PS-X. From a 3-D angled, overhead view, players control various types of military vehicles in an open battlefield. Navigation is a cinch thanks to the simple control scheme, and in seconds you can dart around the map and blast away as you please. To win, capture the enemy's flag and return it to your home base. Multiplayer action is a frenzy experience and certainly worth a try. Expect an above average musical score containing adrenaline-pumping classical tunes to accompany the gameplay, too. As was true other experimental gems on the 3DO, the innovative Return Fire is wonderful to see emerge on the Sony system.

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SATURN
Congo The Movie
Sega   Jumpin' Jack
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3-D Shooter   Release: March 1996
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

Last year's sci-fi film Congo may have been lackluster at the theater, but can the home game revitalize interest? This Saturn disc is a first-person shooter set into the African Congo. Albeit a welcome change of scenery from the typical claustrophobic space setting, the 360-degree jungle environment may become rather monotonous after only a brief excursion. As the story goes, you are stranded in the unforgiving greenery infected with a tropical ailment. Find the antidote, then traverse city ruins and its underground catacombs. Giant insects and chest-thumping gorillas will stand in your way, but the over-powered guns you collect (Particularly the phasic laser) will make mincemeat of them. Sprite-based foes are also poorly animated, and in-game cinemas are ugly and grainy. A rushed product on the borderline of awfulness.

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SATURN
Night Warriors
Capcom
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Fighter   Release: March 1996
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge is Capcom's best arcade translation since SF Alpha 2. An exhilarating versus fighting game, this new version of Darkstalkers is a worthwhile improvement over the initial run. The Capcom development studio continues to prove their tireless nature in converting their coin-op favorites to home console. Nearly all frames of animation, sound effects, and gameplay elements made the trip unscathed. Players have twelve ultra cool characters to choose from in the opening screen to duke it out with. Two new vampire hunters join the fray with the well-designed Donovan Baine and Hsien-Ko. All fighters control splendidly on the Saturn gamepad. A lack of arranged music and the absence of any sort of training mode to familiarize yourself with moves and combos are notable downsides.

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SATURN
X-Men: Atom
Acclaim   Rutubo
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Fighter   Release: April 1996
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

X-Men: Children of the Atom landed on the Saturn at long last. For those unfamiliar with the current generation of hit arcade fighters, X-Men is a traditional 2-D one-vs.-one with a superpowered, yet balanced, roster and a huge range of special moves to go around. It performed splendidly in coin-op form likely due to familiarity with the characters themselves, but the game itself does well to stand-out from the glut of fighting games flooding the market. An eye-catching combination of bright-colored graphics and smooth animations, juxtaposed with clever additions like the specialized "Hyper-X" mutant power move, will entice SF2 veterans and fighting fans of all sorts. Drawbacks here include far fewer frames than the arcade cab and the insane strength of Magneto versus any other fighter. Besides that, fully recommended!

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SNES
Aah! Real Monsters
Viacom   Realtime
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Act-Platformer   Release: November 1995
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Easy

Based on the hit Nickelodeon cartoon, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is a standard, sprite-based action-platformer on the Super NES. Its saving grace is the source material at-hand with Klasky Csupo's zany world. Take the role of three young monsters, Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm, in their quest to gain high scaring scores from Headmaster Gromble. Several features of this game inspired by the show include the goofy character designs and the strange power-up items (Apple cores, diapers, and roaches! How trashy! -Jet). You can also swap between the three protagonists to use different moves or triple attacks. Gather up Monster Manuals along the journey to gain the means to scare humans, our favorite bit in this game. Elsewise, the music and sound effects are fine, controls are serviceable, and the platforming is run-of-the-mill SNES fare. Not too shabby.

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SNES
Frantic Flea
GameTek   Haus Tek
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Act-Platformer   Release: April 1996
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Hard

GameTek had to really dig into its history to find this title, made by German company Haus Teknikka. The game is Frantic Flea, and the main objective is rescuing tiny flea friends from certain doom at the behest of nasty aliens. Leap, run, and spin around fairly large areas filled with all assortments of traps, however no hidden items or secrets to discover. Frantic Flea is as straightforward a platform game can get. The stark lack of cinemas or bonus levels make for an extremely dull and repetitive experience, as does the constant re-collection for fleas when you get hit and lose them. Poor controls inhibit this further, as does Flea's annoying, obnoxious sound design. Decent stages with fun locales like the vertical Stikko Hills makes for a nice sight, but little else merits a full purchase. Curious flea circus fanatics should try another cart.

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SNES
The Brainies
Titus France
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Puzzle   Release: April 1996
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Easy

Like Ardy Lightfoot, The Brainies is an older Euro-only release that is just now making its way stateside. This is a top-down puzzle game created by Titus France as an off-shoot of an Amiga computer disk. Your task is to direct multicolor orbs into the appropriate slot on-screen according to their color tones. Move the cursor to one of the Brainies, select it, and choose where it will move. The tricky bit is that the round creatures will continue moving in the direction chosen until they smack into an obstacle, the land's edge, or another Brainie. With over one hundred levels to conquer, Titus certainly put in the footwork to keep players occupied. Indeed, the game can be quite addictive. That said, if the gameplay fails to grab you, this will be a dud. Flat graphics, homogeneous levels, and tiresome tunes hardly make The Brainies a worthwhile pick-up.

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GENESIS
Pocahontas
Disney Int   Funcom
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Act-Platformer   Release: March 1996
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Easy

Play as the Disney-fied interpretation of the historical Native American heroine Pocahontas in the same-named game on Genesis. Seeking to capture the basic story elements of the animated film, whilst making the package accessible to younger games players, Funcom devs crafted a different kind of action-platformer. As Pocahontas and her raccoon companion Meeko, traverse the deep forest and help save critters in danger. There are no monsters to fight. In truth, there is no fighting at all! This game is one-hundred percent puzzle and exploration. Saving an animal will unlock new spirit powers, like a quick speed boost upon helping a troubled deer. Putting aside unexciting gameplay, the controls are the real hindrance, here. Think Prince of Persia stiffness, made worse with sluggish input lag. Not worth much for those above age 6.

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3DO
Creature Shock
Virgin Interactive   Argonaut Soft
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Shooter   Release: March 1996
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

Amid humanity's effort to colonize the galaxy, the Amazon spaceship mysteriously disappears. This, the baseline plot of Creature Shock, is presented to the audience in superb, 3-D rendered, cinematic form. The opening FMV cutscenes transition to a track-based shooting spree in the darkness of space - reminiscent of Solar Eclipse with refined, sprite-based graphics. But, once the player character is tasked with blasting aliens on the surface of an asteroid, the gameplay style shifts dramatically to a point-and-click gallery shooter. The cursor in these scenes move at a snail's pace, dragging down the speed of CS to dreadful lows. Power-ups are sparse, and the monster thrashing becomes routine within minutes. Though it sports flashy visuals, players are better off avoiding this disc and spending their time elsewhere.

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GAME GEAR
Sonic Drift
Sega
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Racing   Release: November 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Players, start your engines! Sega's cast of animal friends from the Sonic series make their go-kart racing scene debut with Sonic Drift Racing. To begin, any Game Gear owners who enjoyed the brilliance of Super Mario Kart will quickly fall in love with this extraordinarily similar portable entry. Choose from 7 cutesy racers and 12 imaginative tracks, then try your best to win the first-place prize. The graphical presentation is about standard for the colorized handheld: Fairly limited in its palette but never hard to decipher your racers from your rivals despite the tiny screen. That small-scale display does negatively impact your field of view - resulting in the need for insanely quick reaction time when road signs pop up. Otherwise, you may fly off the banked turns. Lots of fast fun, regardless, for the speed demons out there.

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