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October 1995


PLAYSTATION
Kileak
Sony   Genki
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3-D Shooter   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Hard

Welcome to the Age of Doom-like corridor shooters. Sensing the stunning success of idSoftware's PC smash hit, developers are seeking to jump in on the fun. Kileak is Genki's take on this game type. An exclusive release on PlayStation, this shooter is extremely cinematic and immersive, if perhaps a bit too surreal. The player character explores a series of connected rooms with chrome walls, and the occasional bed or table, firing on weird-o baddies like floating eyeballs. Enemy shots are almost impossible to avoid due to less-than-satisfactory responsiveness and inability to strafe side to side. Despite some well-done special effects and a curious emphasis on puzzle elements, Kileak suffers from a poor interface, semi-decent yet repetitive music, and unfair combat.

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PLAYSTATION
Cyber Sled
Sony   Namco
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3-D Shooter   Release: October 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Cyber Sled is a shooting-style game from the perspective of a tank. Choose from an assortment of futuristic tanks, each with their own unique ratings in speed, weapons and shields. Steer the monstrous vehicle around obstacles, hide behind pillars for protection, and seek to blast enemy tanks in a brutal hide-n-seek spree. To win, destroy your foe before you get destroyed! Pick up power-ups and health boosts to keep yourself alive and be careful as enemies sneakily work around your defenses. On the downside of this hectic fun, the graphics are a tad underwhelming for 32-Bit and the score is totally cheesy 80s synth. Still, a combo of thrilling action and addicting gameplay keeps this title a definitive rental, especially in two-player split-screen mode.

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PLAYSTATION
Total Eclipse Turbo
Crystal Dynamics
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3-D Shooter   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Hard

Crystal Dynamics has opted to release some of its greatest hits from the 3DO on to the PlayStation and, at some future date, Saturn. Total Eclipse Turbo is an improved iteration of last year's 3-D shooter. To our disappointment, other than some slightly smoother and cleaner graphics, very little development time was spared to fix our main complaints with the original. TE remains a feast for the eyes with plenty of textured polygons to occupy your mind, but its twitchy flight control issues remain unresolved. Navigation is tough as nails, a fact made evident in the tunnel segments when maneuvering your fighter without hitting the walls seems as unlikely as Newt Gingrich on the front page of Esquire. In this fast-changing 32-Bit era, we doubt Turbo will excite as it once did.

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SATURN
Virtual Hydlide
Sega   T&E Soft
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Action-RPG   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Our hero must save the kingdom of an evil spirit. Generic, we know. Virtual Hydlide is a bottom-up recreation of the original 1984 Sega release. This one is a brave attempt to re-invent role-playing games for the 32-Bit generation as well as make up for a serious lack of RPGs on Saturn. Players control a character in a 360-degree environment, and fight monsters in real-time. Block enemy strikes with your shield, and utilize two sword attacks to get damage in. The player will discover various gear and magical items to help gain some power. There is no experience meter that boosts your abilities after killing baddies, but rather general stat increases when you complete tasks. Albeit visually fair to look at, the gameplay is awkward, tedious, and slow as molasses. This simple world is an empty snoozefest as well.

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SATURN
Virtua Fighter RX
Sega   Sega AM1
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Fighter   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

Sega, have you been holding out on us? Virtua Fighter Remix is a graphically enhanced version of the original VF with some rockin' textures that almost feel like VF2 in the arcade! It plainly smokes the pack-in with quality texture mapping that adds some personality to the blocky fighters. It reduces any painful flickering, too. The gameplay is otherwise completely unchanged, so players hoping for a total overhaul will need to stay patient. Sega reports that anyone who purchased the Saturn prior to Sept. 30 will receive a free copy of this disc, so be sure to jump on that if you can. Our crew presented our review of VR back in July (seen here), and our take on the game is generally the same despite the graphical evolution. Definitely recommended to fans of polygonal fighters.

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SATURN
Robotica
Acclaim   Micronet
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3-D Shooter   Release: August 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

Otherwise known as The Daedalus Encounter, Robotica is a first-person action game exclusive to the Sega Saturn. Upon turning this disc on, players will notice the excellent cinemas that immediately draw one into the story. The core gameplay of Robotica is along the lines of Doom, that is, a corridor-based shooter. However, the scrolling is wonderfully smooth, and the 3-D graphics showcased here are very nice. Players can discover an array of secret passages and traps, as well as usable objects littered throughout the Aliens-esque space station, intermingled with pre-rendered FMV footage to enhance the blaring action. Keep an eye on your radar and search out those keys as fast as you can! Each stage objective is the same, which can certainly get monotonous after a while.

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SNES
Dracula X
Konami
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Act-Platformer   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Hard

To sum up Konami's Dracula X in a nutshell, think of it as the Mega Man 7 to Super Castlevania IV's Mega Man X. It takes inspiration not from the previous game, but the original successes on NES. Although it exhibits the same sort of spooky flavoring and fun enemy design which put the series on the map, Dracula X fails to improve upon the 8-Bit entries. The visual style is a touch too bright and colorful for our tastes, and the upbeat arcade-like soundtrack feels mismatched. Its difficulty is dialed up to 11, probably to artificially lengthen DX's incredibly short span of eight levels (As is tradition for NES games -Jet). Altogether, an oddity and a rare miss from the reputable Konami.

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SNES
Secret of Evermore
Square Soft
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Action RPG   Release: October 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Coming off of a stream of hits like Chrono Trigger and FF III, expectations for Square Soft have risen sky-high. Secret of Evermore, despite the insinuation of its name, is not Secret of Mana 2. It does, however, borrow elements like the same top-down perspective, battle system, and ring-like menu system from Mana. Evermore was developed by the North American division of Square, which may explain the, erm, lesser quality. Combat can be a bit tedious due to unreliable hit detection and the sound effects seem out of place. However, the plot is fantastic and full of intrigue, made better by an incredible atmospheric landscape. It's worth a try, but we advise tempering your hype.

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SNES
The Mask
Black Pearl Software
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Act-Platformer   Release: October 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Easy

Is Black Pearl's conversion of The Mask just as snazzy as on-screen? Our team enjoyed the film quite a bit upon release last year, but this platformer, with a few noteworthy exceptions, is as generic as any other halfway decent 16-Bit side-scroller. Jim Carrey's likeness leaps onto the game surprisingly well, with all of his wacky mannerisms and cartoon craziness pulled right from the movie. The spritework is well-done overall, as are the assorted attacks moves from mallet strikes to Taz-Mania tornado spins. Mask's stage design is a bit dull and confusing, especially those vertically oriented levels that require pin-point accuracy. Better than cardboard cut-out platformers like Alfred Chicken, but still dull.

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GENESIS
Scooby-Doo
Acclaim   Sunsoft
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Adventure   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Easy

Scooby-Doo Mystery from Sunsoft and Acclaim is out now for Sega Genesis and SNES. Like the myriad of PC adventure games out on the market, the gameplay of Scooby consists of guiding the characters from room to room, clicking on options like "Look" and "Use" to make progress. The two overarching mysteries in this title have their fair share of brain teasers, though veterans of this genre will solve the puzzles in a cinch. Scooby's plotlines and visuals are borrowed straight from the TV series. You even get to unmask the bad guy at the end! Unfortunately, the graphics are a bit weak on the base Genesis system and the simplistic, albeit humorous, quests are way too short.

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SEGA CD
Lunar: Eternal Blue
Working Designs  Game Arts
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Role-Playing   Release: September 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Hard

Working Designs once more is playing its part in keeping the Sega-CD alive. With almost two years having passed since the release of Lunar, Game Arts completed its work developing Lunar: Eternal Blue and, with WD offering its trademarked brilliant translation, this one is available in the U.S. Eternal Blue is an excellent follow-up, boasting four times as much animation, a far-larger world to explore, and over 90 minutes of spoken dialogue. Although it uses the same combat formula as before with little flair added, spells are more graphically intense, and an increased number of frames improves the fluidity of fight scenes. The story is captivating, and the characters are fun, too.

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3DO
Blade Force
3DO Co.   Studio 3DO
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3-D Shooter   Release: October 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

A nefarious street gang has taken over the futuristic city of Mega Grid. From the burgeoning 3DO Studio, Blade Force is a rocket-powered explosion-filled action game. You control a vigilante who uses a suped-up helicopter to bring to justice a cadre of ex-cons. Buzz your chopper around the texture-mapped landscape, destroying enemy base installations, snagging power-ups and ammo, and generally causing mayhem. Choose from the main machine or some handy missile attacks and fly 360-degrees in a handful of gigantic, open-air levels. Decent FMV sequences profile the downtrodden world and your dastardly foes. BF's soundtrack is fun but can get repetitive.

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