Rayman 1 - Full Review (MS-DOS and PS1 game)

The original Rayman game is a devilishly tricky but wonderfully clever little game with bucket loads of likability factor in its colourful and comical world that will have you engaged for hours. This side scrolling platformer was released in 1995 and was also one of the first games to be released for the PlayStation though it also came out on the PC and Atari Jaguar too. The game was an instant hit, becoming the most sold game on the PS1 of all time, and it’s easy to see why; gloriously detailed levels, hours upon hours of content all set an idyllic fantasy land that is both memorable and imaginative. Challenging, quirky and deeply immersive you’ll soon appreciate why this is the game that set off an incredibly successful series enjoyed by generations of gamers.

Gameplay and plot

The game follows Rayman, our lazy and limbless hero, as he tries to restore balance and harmony to the land after a certain ‘Mr Dark’ has stolen the Great Protoon. Without it, chaos has beset the usually peaceful land causing Electoons to be scattered and nasty, unnatural creatures to appear everywhere.  Rayman must rescue the Electoons and defeat Mr Dark to restore order and tranquillity to the land. If you’re familiar with ‘Rayman Origins’ and ‘Rayman Legends’ you’ll instantly recognize certain features like the style of the map, the inclusion of Electoons and of course Rayman but you’ll likely be surprised at how much slower and how much more difficult it is. 

Gameplay consists of navigating through the side scrolling levels to reach a signpost with an “!” on it which completes that level.  The levels tend to consist of lots of platforms and parts of the environment that you can interact with to gain access to otherwise out of reach areas such as bouncing purple fruit that can be used as a makeshift boat. Depending on the level they’ll be different obstacles and environments so it’s not all walking and jumping and quite often you’ll be sliding at top speed, hovering precariously or bouncing off and between objects. Each level is littered with enemies and also the poor, crying caged Electoons which you must release by smashing open their cages open with your fists. There are six caged Electoons on each level and you have to free all of them if you wish to complete the game as only then will you be able to reach and confront Mr Dark in the epic finale. This sounds easy enough, after all you can revisit the levels from the world map, but the Electoons tend to be tricky to find and even more tricky to access. With limited lives, you’re going to have your work cut out for you.

To help you through the game you gain additional abilities from Betilla the Fairy as you progress. The very first abilities you learn allow you to hang from ledges and to throw your fists which is your primary means of killing enemies. The other abilities are all generally very standard and nothing particularly unusual, except one, the helicopter ability. This power utilizes Rayman’s hair as a means of flying and this allows you to travel short distances or to save yourself from what would be otherwise fatal falls. Without the bolstered speed and agility from the more recent Rayman instalments like 'Rayman Origins' and 'Rayman Legends' you’re going to find yourself having to rely on your own accuracy and luck to get through this classic, making these abilities are utterly crucial to your success. 

Beneath its cute and colourful exterior lies a game that is punishingly difficult and infinitely frustrating. It really does make me wonder who this game is aimed at; children or adults as though on the surface it clearly looks like a children’s game it is just too incredibly challenging for that to be so. You’re probably wondering what could be so damn hard about this game that I keep mentioning how challenging it is, well, lots of things make it difficult. To begin with, you have a very limited amount of lives and acquiring additional lives is a huge challenge as it requires you to collect 100 blue orbs called Tings. When you die, you lose all your Tings collected so far which can leave you in a never ending loop of dying, being unable to get another life, and dying again. To make matters worse the chances to save the game are few and far between. Once you’ve started a level you have to complete it to be able to save again, there is no saving from the menu and there is no auto save feature. I can genuinely guarantee that, even with the one checkpoint they kindly throw in your general direction, you’ll be replaying certain parts of this game over and over until you want to crush the controller between your palms. 

For those of us who don’t mind a bit of gaming masochism, or employing cheat codes, there’s a staggering 70 levels to shoulder through that are either beautifully designed or, in the very least, pretty to play through. There are six different worlds that are divided into two categories, ‘natural’ and ‘imaginary’. The natural worlds take place in a forest, mountains and caves whereas the imaginary levels are set in worlds that are significantly more dreamlike and unusual. There’s a fair bit of freedom regarding which order you play through the levels in but, since the difficulty scales across the worlds, it’s a lot easier to play the game in the intended way.  At the end of each level you’ll have to defeat a boss enemy and the bosses are pretty interesting creatures, which is much appreciated since up until that point you’ve only been fighting one or two variations of enemy. Fighting enemies is purely to get them out the way so you don’t die and there’s no reward for killing them. To make things harder not all enemies are immediately visible. Instead, enemies tend to pop into existence once you’ve stepped foot in their little ‘area’ of the map such as some narrow platforms above dangerous water. What this usually results in is you being knocked back and taking away some life, knocked into some form of trap such as the water or surviving and still being unable to kill them due to the tiny platform you’re teetering on. Rayman can only take three hits before he dies so you need to be extremely careful when traversing the levels as danger can quite literally appear out of nowhere.

Graphics and audio

This game truly does push the PS1 console to its full capabilities as environmentally the game looks fantastic and it has genuinely aged extremely well, even if everything is 2D. I remember playing through Rayman 3 which was in full on 3D graphics and quite frankly, it looked absolutely dire. I probably enjoyed the game because I was extremely young and very forgiving when it came to games but Rayman feels very much like Oddworld in that, despite being 2D, that’s the best thing for it as it allows much more detail and much better graphics. The music of the game is quite lovely, very satisfying and exists as a great background addition that draws you fully into Rayman’s adventure. The soundtrack is a bit quirky but has a strong retro feel that manages to bring you right back to the 90s in an instant. For me, it was an instant reminder of all the times I’d played this game when I was a kid and I absolutely loved it. 

Although everything is quite cartoony ‘Rayman’ has a very clear identity that sets it apart from typical animated games so, rather than it coming across as childlike, it instead manages to portray itself as a mature, yet fun, platforming game. The levels are incredibly varied and though the distinct worlds mean that some levels have the same theme there is a clear difference in the way you get through the level. Rayman is incredibly animated as well and the humour really does make itself quite pronounced through his animation and his own audio. Sit away from the controller for five goddamn seconds and he’s coughing, trying to get your attention to make him move. I genuinely miss that in games and it was quite a common feature to have your character get a little pissed off if you ignored them for a bit, but Rayman does do it so politely. Apart from his impatience he has a wide range of facial expressions, utter terror being the most hilarious of course. Rayman will quite physically chew on his knuckles at the sight of a monstrous enemy and will appear, genuinely, to have his life flashing before his eyes as he teeters over a ledge. All in all, he’s designed and animated very well and he’s incredibly likable whilst his idle animations and emotions really do bring him to life.

Overall

Rayman is an incredibly memorable experience for me and really is the best 2D game that is on the PS1. As a platformer it’s of incredibly good standard whilst the levels are fun and inventive with plenty in them to maintain your interest. It’s very difficult to get back into due to how punishing it is but, and I’m ashamed to admit it, an infinite lives cheat really does ease the way into the game if you just want to play the thing without murdering everybody around you. The controls are so easy and simple to get used to though the lack of analog sticks is a bit of a pain. Though the game does feel much slower and clunkier than the latest instalments it’s still great fun and a whole different game to the Mario inspired 'Rayman Origins' and 'Rayman Legends' you’ll see today, though they are fantastic too.

Score: 9/10

Zeus, Master of Olympus - Full Review (PC game)

As city building games go ‘Zeus, Master of Olympus’ is an extremely enjoyable game with hours of good quality content and a fairly robust series of campaigns plus some sandbox maps. This game has great playability due to the dozens of different maps, continually challenging and enjoyable scenarios and the ability to play in sandbox mode. The liberal amounts of humour such as overly dramatic voice acting and amusing plotlines further enhances it making this game the master of city building games. It can be quite difficult to get the hang of due to all the different elements and conditions that need to be met but, once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s an extremely enjoyable experience with lots of opportunity for perfectionists to build the ultimate city.

Gameplay

The game is all set in Ancient Greece and has a strong emphasis on the worship of the Greek Gods, Heroes and mythological monsters. You’re unable to actually directly control any of those as it’s not an ‘Age of Empires’ type game but instead they’ll lend you a hand if you meet some specific requirements. The campaigns take place across different maps that vary in size and efficiency. Sometimes you’re stuck in a tiny little rocky map with barely any shoreline for fisheries and no farmland. Other time you’ll find yourself in a huge expanse of flat land with rivers, ocean, ore covered mountains and plenty of wildlife and farming areas to use to your heart’s content. There are essentially two types of city you’ll be building; a parent city and a colony. The colonies are built partway through a campaign and are used to support your parent city through trading in resources you couldn’t get before. After you’ve built it up from scratch and you go back to your parent city you’ll be able to continue trading with it, though you can’t flip back and forth between cities as you wish. If you’re not in the mood for a campaign with specific missions and a storyline then you can also play in the open play maps which come in three different modes; open play military, open play economic and open play sandbox that allow you to build up a huge city with all the buildings relevant to which mode you’re playing in. After you’ve picked what it is you’re doing you’ll be plonked into an empty map that will have particular resources, allies and rivals, depending on the map. Sometimes you’ll have a bountiful access to farmlands and rivers overflowing with fish, or sometimes you’ll get barely any means of getting food but instead a rich supply of copper ore and marble quarries, leaving you to figure out how to sustain your population. 

There are 7 campaigns which vary in difficulty and length. Some have only a handful of episodes whereas some have up to 8 episodes and which are generally tougher with more complex challenges. Challenges may include things like having a certain population in a certain type of house, collecting materials to start up a colony city or to send back to the parent city, building a temple to a God or slaying a mythological creature. The objectives of a mission will relate strongly to what the storyline is for that campaign and the reasoning behind the missions will be described in the narrated beginning of each one. You may have accidentally angered the God Poseidon for instance, who unleashes the mythological creature the Kraken. Your mission may then be to build a Hero Hall and to attract a hero to the city in order to defeat the beast. Heroes may include figures such as Achilles, Perseus, Hercules, Odysseus and so on. These heroes require specific conditions different to each individual, once you have met those conditions you can call for him to come and save your city from the monster. On the flip side, by worshiping particular Gods you will gain access to their specific beast who can aid you in protecting your city or invading other settlements. If you’re able to worship Poseidon then you’ll gain access to his Kraken. Who you’re able toworship or not worship varies from map to map and building a sanctuary for Gods is no easy feat due to the sheer quantity of rare resources that go into them such as marble and bronze statues.

There are a lot of different resources in the game but not every map will give you access to them, for instance when placing a farm you’ll likely only get one of several so either carrots, onions or wheat. You can get other food resources by trading with neighbouring, friendly allies. Other food sources include cheese, obtained from goats which you place individually in a field, urchins and fish which are found in the sea or rivers and pork which is obtained from wild boars that roam the forests. You distribute food and other supplies to your citizens via an ‘agora’ which is a building placed alongside a road where you may place 3 stalls on top of it or, if you build a large one that takes up both sides of the road, 6 stalls. There are two distinct forms of housing the game; regular and elite. Regular housing houses regular citizens who make up your workforce whereas the elite citizens are a mix of noblemen and your military. Whilst regular citizens can form a sort of vigilante rabble who throw rocks at enemies, these elite military guys are fully equipped with weapons, armour and horses if you supply them with such. Regular civilians, who live in a simple 2x2 house, require access to different things in order for them to improve their house which increases the number of people within that house and which generally improves the workforce and appearance of your city. By giving them food, fleece, olive oil, water and access to different ‘arts’ buildings you can have them renovate their house all the way up to a large three story townhouse.

For those who look for lots of military action in a city building game I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. There’s basically no strategic military action and, with the inclusion of a Hero, mythological creature or divine troops that some Gods may grant you, there’s very little chance of losing your city to the opposition. By bumping the difficulty level up you’ll find a lot more challenge in defending your city but you’ll only be invaded if you’ve really irritated a rival or if it’s pre-set in the mission you’re playing. Invading rivals basically includes building up a large army using the elite housing, not an easy task admittedly, then navigating to the map and selecting which city you want to invade before selecting which troops will be sent there. Then they’ll travel off by themselves whilst you wait to hear how it all went, if you win then you’ll receive goods or money every month from the conquered city and open up a trading route with them. If you lose you’ll just really irritate them and they’ll sometimes retaliate back whilst your troops are still recuperating. Overall, the military side of the game is lacking but it depends on what you’re looking for in a game.

Graphics and audio

For a city building game of the 90s it looks really nice. You can see a lot of detail such as people walking with their unique appearances, crops and grain growing in the fields, stall vendors walking back with a trail of workers ladened with goods following along behind and hunters killing wild boat in the forests. The buildings are highly detailed and lovingly crafted to look as close as possible to traditional Greek architecture whilst the people who inhabit those buildings such as the workers are visibly working or waiting to work. 



The audio is great with some really funny one liner’s on most buildings and people such as, by hovering over a theatre you’ll hear a dramatic actor exclaiming, “Has anybody seen my spear? How can I be a spear carrier without my spear?'' The narrator is a continual source of amusement for me but genuinely the voice acting is really well done and everything has a lovely sound with no irregularities anywhere. The music is very faint, subtle and relaxing and is quickly muffled by the increasing loudness of your bustling city and farmlands but for what it is, it’s certainly pleasant.

Overall

This game is rather like a balancing act between all sorts of elements such as the number of jobs, the population size, how much food you’ve got and how much money is in your coffers. It can be difficult to get used to but the tutorial is very substantial and detailed for new players and, if you’re already a veteran of city building games, you won’t find it difficult. It also helps that there’s a toggle-able difficulty level if you’re finding it too hard or too easy. This is my favourite city building game due to the unique position of it being set in Ancient Greece and without too much emphasis on fighting which, for me, should be reserved for games like ‘Red Alert’ and ‘Age of Empires’. This is the type of game where you can drop in, spend a couple of hours building something absolutely perfect, then drop back out again and leave it alone for a few weeks. It’s a nice, challenging but casual game that’s very easy to fall in love with and which looks and sounds great. If Zeus doesn’t have enough for you still then it also has an expansion pack called Poseidon which basically adds a new game onto it with a more ‘Atlantis’ theme running through it which doesn’t detract from the original game and really only enhances it.

Score: 9/10

To discover more of my old PC game reviews, check out this page here. 

Alternatively, if you're currently playing this game then you might want to check out the list of cheat codes for the game, found here.

5 Simple But Reflective Browser Games (Free online games)

Not all games are action or adventure orientated and often it’s nice to play a game that’s a little bit more interesting. These games tend to be incredibly unique, artistic and emotional and it’s a theme that’s been gaining both mainstream and critical acceptance following the success of games like Journey, Braid and Rain. These larger titles are not to be out done by the humble browser game however. This newly developing genre of game has produced dozens of high quality, free and online browser games that are reflective, thoughtful and incredibly original. Below are some of the most highly rated indie games that make you think a little about life, death and humanity.

Every Day the Same Dream (play it here)

I found this game to be surprisingly striking considering how bored I was for the first few minutes of playing it. You play a faceless man with no personality and whose life consists of getting up, getting dressed, going to work then repeating it all over again. You play this cycle again, and again, and again until you ask yourself; standing there in your pants by the alarm clock, what if I don’t want to do it again? Well, nobody’s making you, so why are you doing it? This game lets you figure that out by yourself, there’s no dialogue except the same one line from each person you meet; your wife and your boss. Everything is in shades of black, white and grey except a couple of tiny things like a leaf, the parking sign and the exit sign. I found myself trying to find things to improve this game and, consequentially, this man’s life and the moment you realize you don’t have to keep walking the same way, that you can find other things, that you truly see how life is represented in this simple, but meaningful game. The ending will leave you with questions and your own interpretations about what it all means. Play it here and ask yourself, is this my life? 

Today I Die (play it here)

This short game is more like a piece of interactive poetry than a game though it does have some puzzle elements. The game has a very simple, pixel retro appearance to it and it won’t take you much longer than 10 minutes to complete it, though it does have alternate endings. The game begins with the very depressing sight of a dead young woman held down by a boulder at the bottom of the ocean. Around her swims dark creatures and a handful of rising jellyfish, a very short poem is also on the screen. You can interact with everything and gradually fit together the puzzle pieces to move the game onwards and to change the wording of the poem. It’s an imaginative piece with great atmosphere and a strong emotional element that leaves you quietly reflective. This game manages to say a great deal in its simple poem format and spiritual melodies which make you ponder your own outlook on life and death. 

The Company of Myself (play it here)

This platforming puzzle game puts you in the shoes of an introvert as he progresses through a series of levels all by himself, well, not completely by himself. The goal of the game is to progress through linear levels and reach a green door on the other side of the level. Sometimes there are force fields and jumps too high to reach by yourself, but you’re all alone so who do you turn to? Here, the game takes an unusual twist. By pressing the spacebar prior to finishing the level you’ll die and be reborn again, using one of your lives, but now there is a shadow of your past self that will re-enact all of the actions, perfectly replicated, that you performed prior to pressing the spacebar. These shadows of your former self can pass through barriers you cannot, and are blocked by other barriers that you’re not blocked by. This means that you can find yourself in scenarios when you have to pretend to jump up a set of stairs so that when your shadow attempts it he’ll be actually going up the stairs; prevented from falling by the pink force fields. The game’s storyline is told in silent verses though the ending consists of an incredibly sad epilogue that changes the entire meaning of the game. If you’d like to read about the story I’ve written it out here but to keep this review spoiler free I’ll just tell you that it’s both shocking and saddening to have journeyed with this character through 20 introspective levels only to find out the true meaning of it all. 

Coma (play it here)

This game is a highly imaginative, incredibly creepy game that takes place in a realm somewhere between the dreams and wakefulness of a boy called Pete. The artwork of this game is an entrancing mixture of unsettling darkness and luscious colour and it has instant appeal for those who enjoy atmospheric games. Everything is a little off colour, a little dreamlike and a little unsettling. You play a very small character with barely any features who starts off standing in a dark, dreary, oversized house. The game has puzzle elements but is quite linear and not particularly challenging as the focus lies on the journey, meaning and mood that it creates. You can quite simply move, jump and talk to creatures and people you find along the way as you explore this world and go about the tasks you are set. The first character you interact with sets the unnerving tone that the entire game possesses “Dad locked me in this cage so I wouldn’t tell. He locked your sister in his secret basement! He says he wants her to starve…” The overall meaning and story of the game that can be taken from the few simple words spoken in this game is entirely down to your interpretation but quite simply, you set out on a mission to save your sister. By the time the credits roll you’ll be wondering what Pete’s life is truly like for him to have created this striking, but dark, world and it really does make you wonder, was he in an accident or did something else, someone else, put him in that coma? 

ImmorTALL(play it here)

The short story of this game is both shocking and moving. It’s a short piece that takes the French idea of a bête noire, “black beast” and turns it into an interesting examination of humanity. A bête noire in literacy is something that is conventionally avoided or disliked and in this case it’s supposedly the alien creature that you play. After a crash landing to Earth you’ll play this black alien as he starts out tiny and grows larger and larger as the friendship of a farming family is extended towards him. Unfortunately, this alien is about to find itself caught in the throes of mankind’s lust for violence. This game manages to tell a story in very simple, small gestures and without words; opening the eyes of its players simply through expression. When the game ended I was left with a single question that I’m sure many others can relate to; “why?”

Flower - Quick Review (PS3 and PS4 game)

If I told you that this was a game where you play as a single petal on the wind, gradually gathering more and more petals, you’d probably laugh at me for suggesting it’s a fantastic game. Well, go ahead and laugh at me because Flower is a fantastic game. I admit, the concept is odd, absurd even, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a subtly emotional, beautifully depicted piece of art with enrapturing music and a sense of majesty that is difficult to escape.  

Flower is a game with no words, no written objectives and no living creatures present in the entire game, except flowers. The use of the PlayStation Move controller makes it quite hard to get used to at first because it feels so overly sensitive but, after a little practice you and the controller become one. You soar through the hilly landscapes, dipping and diving and riding on the wind with such utter freedom of movement that it’s a truly satisfying experience and a beautiful sight to behold. The game is slightly puzzle based but mostly an expression of freedom that is completely without restriction. You begin as a couple of petals, bumbling across the wind until you knock into a flower, the petals from that flower join onto you and you become larger, a mass of petals that are different coloured as you plummet and soar into different types of flowers. There’s very little challenge and it’s all reward with no frustration which is a lovely way to relax and spend some time away from traditional, heavily action or story orientated games. 

There are six levels and each level has a little mystery to find within it though generally you’ll be spending your time finding and opening up the buds of flowers that usually form rings or patterns. By opening up all the flowers you’ll watch as the grass around you flutters with life and takes on a new colour, completing that area of the map. It’s a little tactical; you’ll need to catch the wind to reach new heights and by pushing it too hard and too fast you’ll end up swirling out of control, well away from your objective flower. Too slow and you won’t get enough speed to continue moving forward smoothly and you’ll spend a lot of time slowly turning on the spot. The flowers and grasses in this game are like finely shredded paper and they rustle with utter perfection as you breeze them through. Everything is very responsive to your touch and it’s an immense thrill to be thrown into an open world with no goals, no direction and to find things out for yourself with wondrous results.

Playing this game is an almost dreamy experience that’s incredibly calming and almost therapeutic, but at the same time it’s enjoyable and rewarding. This is likely to be a love it or hate it type of game but the combination of stunning graphics, a deeply expressive soundtrack and the sad underlying storyline makes this game a wonderful piece of interactive artwork. Overall, you can get a good few hours of gameplay out of this if you don’t rush it and it’s such a great source of escapism that I’m sure I’ll be playing it for years to come.

Score: 8/10

Loved - Quick Review (Free online game)

When you obey without question things are so much clearer, but when you defy authority and find your own path you tend to discover that, without guidance, it can be difficult to judge where to go next. This dark little puzzle game takes this idea and turns it into reality as from the very moment you start playing you find yourself at the mercy of a cruel narrator who mocks and jibes your every action. “Are you a man, or a woman?” you’re asked at the beginning only to be immediately told after your decision that you’re not, that you’re a good girl, not a boy. The narrator is a silent stream of text that appears on screen but it’s quite clear that this person is your master and you are quite clearly his minion. This platforming game is set in a world of black and white where everything is stark and bare and the initial navigating of the area is simple as you jump over spike pits and steer yourself up and down solid black ledges and platforms. Occasionally though, you’ll be ordered to do things.

“Take the lower path. Throw yourself into the barbs. Do not touch the statue.” Your master commands you at certain intervals, but do you obey? If you refuse you’re chided and berated though you notice that tiny little specks of colour are appearing on the otherwise black and white world. Now and then you’ll be asked questions, “Do I own your body or your mind?” by selecting body he demands that you dance for him, by selecting mind he demands that you beg for him. The little blips of colour that start to appear are so slight and insignificant that you don’t really see them until your master speaks again, “Touch that statue and I will forgive you.” Bypass the statue and you’ll be sneered at again but more colour appears, the more you defy your master the more colour courses across the screen in increasingly vivid and beautiful patterns but with that comes a price; you can’t see where you’re going. The game does become increasingly difficult by choosing to not obey and this confrontational approach to gaming is unsettling, though interesting as the ending does change depending on how you play it. It’s an extremely short game and can be completed in less than 10 minutes but it’s still very enjoyable and stands strongly as a solid and introspective platformer that can appeals to the causal and the serious gamer. 

 

If you want to try the game out for yourself, check out the creator’s website here.

Score: 9/10

Serena - Quick Review (Free Steam game)

How long has it been? A man sits alone in a worn out cabin somewhere deep in the woods, waiting for his wife Serena. Where is she, and why can't he remember her face? Serena is surprisingly powerful for a free game that you can complete in less than an hour. The game’s realistic and subdued appearance is enhanced by the area you’re in; an open plan wooden cabin that was once home to two people, the man you’re playing and a woman called Serena who’s not present. It’s eerie from the moment you start playing; the photograph on the table leaves the woman’s face completely blank, just a white smear, as the man cannot remember what she looks like. The cabin looks as though nobody’s been there for weeks and as you point and click your way around the cabin you’ll get the man’s remarks that revolve around his memories of Serena. He’ll comment on her cooking, their love for one another, the books she read curled up in the armchair by the window and things of that assortment. The controls are very simple; you click the edges of the screen to move to different parts of the room, open drawers and look at objects.

You’ll guide this man to remember something best left forgotten and his memories will gradually return as you find things of Serena’s or things which remind him of her. The tone changes midway through the game and the remarks he makes about the few objects and pieces of furniture in the cabin changes as well. The build up to the ending is incredible and, though you see the ending coming from a mile away, it’s the emotion in his voice which is so memorable. It’s beautifully voice acted and looks the part; dirty, dusty but cosy and confined. The atmosphere is chilling and the creeping sensations that build up as you piece together the lost memories are the work of an undeniably emotional tale. Serena is a game you won’t soon forget, even if it is just a free game on Steam I highly recommend it. Check out the link below if you want to try this game and find out what makes it worth the experience. 

Score: 8/10

Serena - Free Indie game on Steam website.

South Park: The Stick of Truth - Full Review (PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 game)

The crude, provocative satire of South Park has been changing the shape of animated adult entertainment since the late 90s and now, it’s changing the shape of RPG video games. If you’re unfamiliar with South Park then a lot of the content of The Stick of Truth will likely be lost on you as this is a game of nostalgia; revisiting the best jokes and moments from the TV series but that’s not to say you won’t enjoy it. For newcomers, ‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’ is a healthy introduction into the surreal and exaggerated world of South Park and is a great lesson in just how far their famously unsettling humour can venture. 

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment/South Park Digital Studios

Genre: RPG
Release date: March 4th 2014
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows
ESRB: M - Mature
Despite it’s comical, innocuous cut out paper style appearance South Park has always been something aimed at a mature audience and it’s refreshing to see that the Stick of Truth has pulled no punches (except for the Europe edition of the game) in delivering shocking scenes but vastly enjoyable gameplay. This is the game that South Park fans have been waiting for and not only does it stay true to its roots but it stands as an innovative, enjoyable and brilliantly funny game in and of its own rights. Welcome to Colorado.

Gameplay and plot

South Park: The Stick of Truth is quite recognizably an RPG game with character classes, turn based combat and plenty of quests and side quests to complete. You start by creating your character where you can choose your outfit, skin colour, hair and accessories like freckles or glasses. The customizability options here are pleasantly varied so I had no trouble getting my perfect looking ‘new kid’ in order. There is no option for a female character, though you can put them in ponytails and buns if you want to, though this is probably down to the male dominated friendship group you’ll be spending time with. Later on in the game you can change your character’s appearance by finding wigs, dyes and accessories which is useful if you change your mind later on. 
 

You play a new kid who has just arrived in South Park with your parents. There’s some indication that you’re an extremely special, ‘chosen’ child who has forgotten what their special power or nature is. You don’t ever actually talk but you’re quickly initiated into a make-believe game by Butters, Cartman and Kenny which vaguely involves a ‘humans versus elves ‘type scenario that parody’s a variety of cultural bits and pieces like Game of Thrones, Skyrim and Lord of the Rings. In a typical South Park fashion the plotline then spirals completely out of control and falls into a deep, dark hole of surreal adventuring and government conspiracies. The game isn’t very long and is around about 20 hours of gameplay if you do all the side quests and take care to grab collectibles and search each area thoroughly. I imagine if you just went through the main storyline as quickly as possible you’d be very disappointed in how quickly it was over.

Gameplay consists of a liberal mix of fighting and exploring and, if you don’t want to continue the main quest straight away, you can just mill around the world and see what’s going on. You can pick up side quests by talking to characters, collect ‘Chinpokemon’ toys that are hidden throughout the game and smash bits of scenery to reveal bags of loot. By looking for containers with gold handles you can also enjoy the many, many in-jokes about things found in episodes like the ‘Shake Weight’ in Stan’s parents room and the ‘Boy sized leash’ found in the back of the church. Most of this stuff is junk, and there’s plenty of it in-game, which you can sell for money meaning you’re never short of cash to buy all the new equipment, items and ‘strap-ons’ that the game has. The shops don’t generate any new equipment however so you’ll mostly get new equipment by carefully searching areas.

The map area of the game is fairly large and almost everywhere is explorable. Some buildings do require keys that can be found by questing, progressing through the storyline or by searching through people’s drawers to find say, the key to the garage. To make travel easier there’s a variation of a fast travel service (Timmy with a trailer hooked to the back of his wheelchair) that is restricted to 12 locations and which can only be used if you’re at one of the flags at these locations. The menu system is based as though you’re on the internet and there’s an odd Facebook friends system where you make friends by finding and talking to people or completing quests for them. There’s then a Facebook style messaging bar where they’ll post up status updates for you to read. The menu is where you’ll find your journal and party members who can be changed depending on what point you’re at in the story.

The environments are surprisingly puzzle based if you’re looking to explore everywhere and you can interact quite readily with things around you. As you progress through the storyline you gain access to abilities that will help you get to special areas but you’re initially restricted to a bow and unlimited arrows that you can use to hit gleaming objects in the environment, which makes stuff happen. Quite often you do this to open up a pathway or to kill an enemy before engaging it in the standard turn based combat you’ll grow familiar with. This is a handy feature and requires some degree of thought as potential traps in the environment are not always apparent and can be passed over if you’re not looking carefully. Merely hitting an enemy with an arrow will not kill them and will instead stun them. If you then chose to engage them you’d have them stunned at the beginning but only temporarily so. Environmental traps will kill them outright and tends to include doing things like bursting a water pipe then breaking an electrical wire or setting something on fire and then igniting it using magic which is a crude take on Dragon Shouts from Bethesda’s Skyrim. 

The regular turn based combat in this game is incredibly well done and has been decked out with enough features to not make the turn based fighting style boring. To begin with, your class dictates a number of special abilities you can unlock as you gain levels and experience which gives enough diversity to the classes to make your initial decision matter. These abilities often put a de-buff on the enemy such as gross out, where they throw up, bleeding which makes them… bleed, and burning which sets them on fire. These de-buffs last a few turns and can stack up meaning for each turn the inflicted enemy will lose health until the de-buff wears off. These effects have very visual indicators such as a puddle of blood around their feet and, since they can also be applied to you, this is especially helpful for new players as it makes everything very apparent. Unfortunately by the time I had reached the end of the game I was sick of just how much focus has been placed on combat. By that point I’d reached the maximum level, a mere level 15, and battles had become extremely simple and repetitive since only a couple of combination of attacks were truly effective.

You also have perks which you unlock by making lots of Facebook friends. Perks are passive abilities that do things like increase your health or give you additional damage to bleeding targets. Combat consists of a ranged weapon, melee weapon, special class based abilities and magic abilities and uses a form of quick time event which punishes the overzealous or distracted player since damage is severely reduced if you’re too fast or too slow. Enemies can also take stances like ‘deflect’ to hit back range attacks at you, ‘riposte’ to negate your melee attacks or ‘channelling’ which means they’re charging up a very powerful attack that needs to be interrupted. All weapons and armour can be changed at any time outside of combat and further enhanced using strap-ons that are either bought or found. Strap-ons are a type of augmentation that you put in slots on your weapons and armour which apply additional effects like shock damage, health regeneration or stronger melee attacks. These simple additions I’ve mentioned make combat much more interesting than just hitting, waiting your turn, and hitting again as it means you have to apply some tactical grace to your battles. It’s also great fun to attach a dead rat to the end of your weapon and smack people with it, making them throw up for a few turns and stopping them from healing because they can’t stand the sight of food.

Graphics and audio

If anybody looked in on you playing this game they would surely think it was a new episode of South Park as the sound and appearance is utterly flawless. To an outsider it may look like a crude, half assed attempt at an animation as the iconic ‘paper cut out’ style of the characters remains, but that’s beside the point. Each area, character and object is identical to its predecessor, perfectly detailed, vibrantly coloured and beautifully shaded. Truly, this game is a seamless replica of the latest version of South Park and boasts flawless voice acting due to the presence of the show’s original actors. The audio is partly what makes this game so brilliant as there’s no strained attempts at recreating Cartman’s ‘maaamm’ whine or Jimmy’s relentless stuttering. Not only did the original actors from the show lend the game their voices but all of South Park’s audio resources like music and sound effects have been fitted in too. It’s clear that Parker and Stone really wanted this game to happen, compared to previous South Park games, as they had a direct hand in shaping every aspect of the Stick of Truth from armour designs to writing the game script. All in all, the game looks and sounds exactly as it should be and every asset from the show has been liberally used to make this game instantly recognizable and it really does feel like a continuation of the show.

Overall

I was surprised that this game was not only a great representation of South Park but also a fun and challenging RPG game. The storyline was incredibly short and after about 20 hours of play everything was starting to feel a little tame and cheesy so it was probably good it ended when it did. The combat in the game makes up a huge percentage of what you’ll be doing though it does remains continually challenging and interesting until you’re at the game’s end. Luckily, there’s no real need to grind your way up levels like a lot of RPGs so combat is mostly restricted to quests and the occasional encounter and you’ll reach the level cap quite naturally. I found the world environment to be a perfect replica of the show and the strong support from Parker and Stone really does set this game apart from its previous counterparts. There are so many great, memorable and hilarious features in this game that will keep you amused for hours as you travel from the quiet little mountain town, to the fantastically designed Canada and every weird place in between. If you love South Park then you won’t be disappointed in this game and if you’ve never watched South Park then you can still enjoy it as an introduction into their strange and disturbing world. I highly rate this and recommend this game to everybody but for the love of God, please be over 18 and beware of highly offensive content on all topics.

The Good:

• Looks fantastic
• Huge scope of environments
• Downright hilarious/offensive
• Fairly interesting combat
• World interactions are substantial
• Lots of collectibles
• Great interfaces
• Decent storyline
• Lots of side quests

The Bad:

• A little too short
• Combat can become repetative
• Europe version is censored
• Unable to play as female

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "I do love South Park but this is really just a game for those that like crude humour and the series itself. Apart from that, it's a fairly average RPG." 

The Novelist - Full Review (PC game)

How do you balance the pressures of your struggling career with the responsibilities that come with family life? A marriage that's falling apart, a child who's failing at school, a writer who needs time to finish his book before it's too late and an artist who's trying to reignite her career. The Novelist puts you in the role of a guide as you try and steer a family that's fraying at the seams to make the right decisions but, ultimately, can you live with the consequences of your decisions? 

The Novelist is a dynamic indie title whose storyline develops around the decisions made by the player and which strongly encourages empathy, compromise and living with the consequences of your decisions. The game is confined to a holiday home in a scenic area of beaches and woodlands though the time of day and year changes as the storyline progresses. The story is centred on the family who is current staying in this holiday home; a father, Dan, mother, Linda, and their son, Tommy. Dan is a struggling novelist, Linda is trying to reignite her painting career and Tommy needs help with his reading and writing. But things are never that simple as, in the short week they have together, tough decisions will need to be made about who gets priority and what the consequences of neglecting the needs of others may be. Dan and Linda are not only having trouble with their careers; they’re having trouble with their marriage too, by focusing too much on his book Dan risks cutting off his family but, by ignoring it, can we count on Linda to bring money to the table? You play a spirit who has lived in this house for quite a long time and, watching the Kaplans, you have the power to read their minds, visit their memories and encourage them to act on their desires. If anything it’s a curious game that is slow paced, a little tedious but which manages to feel incredibly meaningful as you guide the family through this life changing excursion.  

Story

This game is so heavily focused on the story of the Kaplan’s family that I feel that I should write a separate category just for this. It’s a nice touch that though the title seems to indicate it’s talking about Dan it’s actually referring to you since it is you who will be writing this story and guiding what happens. Regardless, the game does seem extremely focused on Dan and his career as a writer, though it can just as easily be focused on Linda and, less so, Tommy who each have their own problems to deal with. I won’t go into the fact that it’s the father’s career the game focuses on and not the mother’s though I did notice the rather dramatic slant. Sadly, Dan’s pretty self-absorbed since all of his needs and desires are focused on his novel whereas Linda divides her interests equally between her career and her family. 

The message of this game appears to be that, in real life, it’s impossible to please everybody and that family life is all about compromise and working through difficulties together. In every chapter it’s your task to find clues around the house, 3 for each character, and then read their mind to see what it is they currently want. Tommy, for example, often feels lonely and neglected so would like to go play with his Dad at the beach whereas Dan is struggling to get any work done because people keep interrupting him. Dan would like to enforce a ‘do not open my office door when it is shut’ rule. On the other hand, Linda is considering how distant he’s already become and is thinking of enforcing her own rule where everybody must sit at the dinner table together for some quality family conversation. Who do you side with? It’s not easy if you can emphasize with everybody but, at the end of the day, somebody has to get their way and the other two are left out in the cold. Thankfully if you know what each of the three family members want you can pick one other person for a compromise option so, say, instead of going with Tommy to the beach you can stick him in front of a nature documentary whilst you get on with your damn work.

The characters of Dan and Linda are quite good, if a little stereotypical, and it’s really their relationship and their interactions that make the game substantial. Tommy’s character though is extremely under-developed and it’s as though he’s just there to be stuck in the middle of his parents problems. He only communicates through drawn pictures and what he wants is completely unimportant in the long run despite the natural inclination being to make sure he feels supported and loved. All in all, it’s turned out that Tommy’s just a third wheel in his parents’ drama story.

On a positive note the game is very dynamic and responsive to player decision. The story develops and changes around the choices you make and it is quite emotionally enriching since it makes you feel personally responsible for everything that happens. The choices are very genuine, realistic and honest so you do take care when deciding because, depending on who you sympathize with the most, you don’t want to upset anybody. It’s a powerful addition to artistic indie titles and though that may not be everybody’s bag it is mine since it puts games in a light of greater importance and meaning than shooting a thousand aliens dead in the fastest time possible. I particularly love how each chapter ends and details to you the consequences of your decisions and it’s saddening to view silent, black and white scenes of a neglected family member as the chapter’s conclusion is typed below in traditional, type writer text. Watching Linda sitting alone in the living room at night, drinking wine when she wanted to go out for dinner with her husband so she can see that he still loves her really did make me regret my decision to put Dan’s book first. It genuinely made me want to go back and try again, knowing I’d only be watching Dan pull his hair out and cry himself to sleep at night instead and the fact it can pull out that kind of commitment to the family is appreciable. 

It is admittedly unusual that over the course of three months the entire fate of the family is decided and, extensive as it may be, I’d have preferred decisions that carried on over a number of years and which shaped the family more organically. Unfortunately, the ending is awful as the final decision is extremely unfair and devastating to the individuals who don’t get ‘picked’ and that’s just not how life works. The ability to enforce a balance of interests isn’t really in the game and it’s very much one person gets what they want, someone gets a bit of what they want and the last person gets sod all whilst the ending makes all previous decisions totally irrelevant. This is a family that lives life dramatically it seems with very little conversation and no amount of actual compromise.

Gameplay

The gameplay has a fairly interesting concept as its stealth based but, since you’re a spirit, you possess lights to hide rather than duck behind counters and curtains. The game has two gameplay modes; Story and Stealth. Stealth is where you can be spotted and thus need to utilize the lights whereas Story mode adds no stealth element meaning you can waltz up to the Kaplans without any problems. Stealth mode ultimately results in lots of zipping about between lampshades and ceiling fittings so you can spy on what the Kaplan’s are doing and sneak up behind them to possess their memories. You can make the light flitter which encourages whomever is near to stop what they’re doing and walk over to the light and examine it whilst commenting on it being broken. This then gives you the opportunity to go into another light fitting and jump out into the room to slip up behind them or back out the door to go somewhere else. If they spot you walking about in broad daylight then they get spooked and you can’t pick their resolution at the end of the chapter but, despite having some very near misses, I was never spotted for long enough to spook them. The most I got was a sleepy and confused ‘huh?’ before I’d high-tailed it into the table lamp and they’d continued on their way to look out the window. Maybe I’m just incredibly fast or maybe the game just hasn’t made it hard enough but by the end of the game I was walking around quite brazenly through the corridors knowing that, even if one of them turned a corner, there was always a bulb close by. 

The character interaction of the game is awful and the entire atmosphere of the house is sterile and bland. It’s an unavoidable flaw in the game is a great shame since it ruins everything. As the family move around the house they’ll often make a soulless passing comment to one another which indicates where they currently are and I believe this is so you know that somebody’s on the way. What it results in instead is a house that feels lifeless and cold, maybe that’s the point if the family is at breaking point but when you watch one family sit in the living room only for the other one to get up and leave, you do start to feel as though the family members are far too robotic and less ‘family life’ than they should be. There’s an attempt at having the family talk to one another here and there but it’s so forced and vapid there’s not much point, though it does explain why communication is so bad between them all.

That said, the actual storyline is well written and it’s a really great concept at balancing professions with family life because it’s a problem so many people experience but that nobody ever really digs into, not in games at any rate. The fact that you can go into the memories of the family is interesting though still a little hollow feeling as, in each memory, you just have to find a frozen image of whomever memories it is and click them to get a spoken line of dialogue then to click whomever they are with to get another spoken line of dialogue. This is supposedly revealing hugely important plot details but it’s more like ‘…don’t you want to play with your rocket ship?...’ and ‘…I already played with it…’ that’s spoken in ghostly tones, showing that Tommy’s more obsessed with television nowadays than playing with his toys. It’s a creative spin on family life and family problems but it just lacks interactivity and life to make it feel real and to engage its audience.

I’m ashamed to admit it since it’s such a great concept but I found this game tedious. In order to put up with a lot of what the game had to offer I had to be a very specific mood; somewhere between self-motivating and extremely empathetic. There are a lot of in-game notes and letters to read and this is primarily the source of monotony found in ‘The Novelist’. Letters are fine when they’re a few sentences but when you bring up the fifth page long whinge it’s hard to not just skip past it and get back on with the action of deciding people’s fates. Of course, by skipping through all the pages and notes you miss out on the storyline and you’re then not entirely sure about what’s going on in the Kaplan household. This essentially makes playing the game entirely pointless because you’re supposed to care about what’s going on and each little additional bit of information that arises. Some of the notes are read aloud but the voice acting isn’t fantastic and it comes across as a slow drawl that runs the risk of sending you straight to sleep.  Now, I understand there are plenty of people who won’t mind reading so many things in game but I would have preferred a lot more talking and a lot more interactivity because, like Tommy, I’m a bit of a visual learner.

Graphics

The game has a sketchy, painted look that’s very simplistic and quite downplayed which keeps the focus on the storyline. There’s nothing particularly ugly about it but the family members don’t look realistic and have extremely undetailed faces but, truthfully, they do fit in great with their surroundings. I'm kind of of the opinion that by having extremely high definition people with lifelike features and expressions would have actually made this game less artistic than it originally came across as.

The colours are lovely and the memories put everything in muted, black and white tones to differentiate between the present and the past. Oddly, going into a light puts a muted tone on everything too so you’re often looking out at a great landscape but in a way that doesn’t give it enough credit. Of course you can bypass those restrictions by playing in story mode but it’s just a shame nipping out a light to possess somebody then being all, ‘wow this game is incredibly colourful and attractive, back into black and white I go.’ Overall, you won’t be disappointed by the graphics because they’re there to portray a nice, painting backdrop to a storyline and it’s all done very well with plenty of detail in an interesting but vibrant style. It's just a shame about all the muted tones that you're forced to view the world through because there are some lovely scenic moments in the game.

Conclusion

Sadly, I think The Novelist fell a little short of where it was aiming. There’s too much reading and not enough talking to make this game feel alive and the over simplified nature of communication in the family is exasperating and unrealistic. The ending of the game is extremely disappointing because you spend a lot of time juggling the family’s needs and wants throughout the chapters then, at the end, you’re forced to make an impossible decision between two options which renders all previous choices irrelevant. The stealth element of the game doesn’t really add any challenge as the Kaplans are very slow on the uptake even if you’re seen running about in front of them. The ability to enter their memories is, in theory, interesting but when you get there it’s just more sterile, lifeless scenes and a few soundbites of their opinions and problems. Overall, this game is worth your time because I did enjoy it and the difficult decisions that had to be made, graphically it looks pleasant and it all feels very modern and very slick. Unfortunately the game lacks what it needed to make it a fantastic title but it’s not a disaster and there are some lovely experiences to be had in The Novelist.

Score – 7/10 

MicroMachines V3 - Full Review (PS1 and Nintendo 64 game)

MicroMachines V3 is truly a forgotton gem of retro gaming. It was the first game in the MicroMachines series to feature 3D graphics in an already successful video game series and it were as though somebody opened the floodgates of awesome driving games. 

Devloper: Codemasters, Novalicious
Genre: Racing
Release date: March 1997 (PS1), 1998 (PC),  Aarch/April 1999 (Nintendo 64 port)
Platforms: PlayStation, Windows and Nintendo 64
ESRB: E - Everyone
 
The game was later re-ported for its Nintendo 64 debut, albeit under a different name because Sega likes to look original and from that point on lots of successful, similar style racing games came out including.. Super Mario Karts, woo. So, the MicroMachines series is a racing game featuring toy cars on somewhat unusual courses that are typically places around the house and garden, since you’re driving miniature vehicles everything is oversized so you feel a little like a teenage Borrower skidding about on somebody’s kitchen table. Overall the game is extremely memorable and comes with bags of personality and nostalgia for those who grew up in the 90s.

Gameplay

There is no real skill required in playing this game and in that sense it’s very simple to play. Saying that, this is a really funny and enjoyable party game and the more people you get involved the more fun you’ll find it. You can pick which vehicle you want to race out of a pretty wide selection including ice cream trucks, offload trucks, racing cars or big rigs and then race them across crazy, oversized courses that take place in various mundane settings like on a school desk or on the breakfast table. These places are mundane in theory but agonizingly dangerous when you’re essentially a matchbox on wheels as the courses often take you over perilous bridges made out of rulers and baguettes or through deep trenches of sticky honey. To make things more interesting some of the courses are on the surface of a pond meaning you get to race in speed boats rather than ground vehicles which is great if you want to change things up a bit.

The diners must be pretty immature to line their vegetables up like this.

But it’s not just the environment that’s there to slow you down; your opponents too have the ability to send you hurtling off the table top to your demise. The game a good amount of healthy competition as you can pick up plenty of weapons and power ups to help you win the race. If you like you can pick up a mallet power up that will quite literally stick an enormous car-smashing hammer onto the front of your vehicle, there’s something greatly amusing about chasing your friends around the course and beating them to a plastic pulp. So, the game doesn’t just have a mallet to pick up but your standard power ups too like turbo boost and force fields, that stop your friends from beating you into plastic pulp, there’s also some particularly destructive items like explosive mines and dynamite that can ricochet off solid bits of scenery and hit you slap bang in the face if you’re not careful.

I imagine this is how pond-skippers settle their differences.

The gameplay is generally fun but only if you’re playing against human opponents due to the excessively simple AI of the computer opponents. A fairly frustrating element of the game is that if you fall too far behind the other cars you just automatically respawn close to the others and this can take away a lot of the challenge and, especially when playing against friends, can take away a lot of the competitiveness. There’s no split screen feature, which may be why the cars respawn rather than fall back, but on the Nintendo 64 port you can have up to 8 people playing using pad-share which greatly enhances this game’s status as a party game.

Graphics and race tracks

Even though the graphics of this game are dated now the levels are still looking undeniably great. The race tracks of the game are split between various themes such as the breakfast table, in the garden, on the surface of a pond and on a snooker table with each theme having thoughtful little design features. Sticky honey that will slow you right down and milk that will send you skidding off the table to your death are really quaint features of the breakfast table level and it’s great how even the borders of the track change with each area. Whilst the breakfast table has chocolate cereal outlining where you’re supposed to stay the pond has little drops of algae and the wine stained cloth of the restaurant table has peas and carrots instead. It’s all very cute and very charming with great little touches like a snail retreating into its shell when you bump into it and giant frogs and dogs to the side of the track.

That's either an extremely tiny note or the scaling is way off.

My only criticism of the levels of this game is that they can quickly become repetitive as many tracks are rehashes of the same few themes which results in the cuteness and personality of your surroundings wearing off, leaving you feeling a little bored due to the unchallenging gameplay. Despite this, there are 48 different courses and they have varying difficulty levels like beginner and master. You can also attempt the time trials and challenges that they game sets you or you can try your hand at a tournament which is great fun with lots of friends, all in all there’s a lot packed into this game so you can get quite a few hours out of it by trying to complete everything.

I'm not sure if that's supposed to be cheese or extremely round butter. And why is that bread miniture?

Conclusion

MicroMachines can wear on you a little if you’re playing by yourself as most of the fun comes from the competiveness of racing with your friends rather than beating the AI. Despite this, it’s a fun racing game with lots of playability and some great features that can be easily overlooked. The menu system and tutorial are fun and quirky and give the game a feel good factor that you don’t often get with driving games and the different driving modes like time trials and tournaments add in a much needed variation to the standard winding around a memorized track. The camera angles are a little dodgy but tolerable and quite common in late 90s games. The fact that this game is a PlayStation childhood staple means it is worthy of having a few modern day flaws here and there and overall it’s still a fun, eccentric miniature car racing game that will get everyone involved. 


The Good:

• It's always fun being this tiny
• Fast paced, competitive racing
• Quirky and original
• Nice looking maps, very detailed
• Decent variety of vehicles including boats
• A good party game with lots of people
• Fun 'beat em up' power-ups

The Bad:

• Despite lots of courses, maps feel repetitive
• A little grating after a while
• Boring on your own
• Camera can be rather temperamental 

The Score – 7/10

If you're playing this game maybe you want to check out the PS1 cheats and debug mode codes for MicroMachines V3, find them here.