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Post by Discoalucard on Feb 10, 2015 20:27:54 GMT -5
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Post by Sac (a.k.a Icaras) on Feb 10, 2015 21:38:19 GMT -5
I remember this game, I never owned it but I did play the demo on my own PSX and I played the full version on a PSX demo station setup at a local shop.
I alwauys found it a bit odd that it was a platform game, but you essentially followed a pre-determined path.
Looking over the artwork...I think I much prefer the english version of the player characters, the girls' eyes are drawn in such a way she looks freaked out, rather than "anime big eyes" and the male looks like some he's wearing space age lycra bicycle gear, including the helmet.
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Post by Malev on Feb 11, 2015 0:55:58 GMT -5
Both these games were mostly played through on PC thanks to GoG, as both tend to go on sale a lot. Pandemonium's good for >$2 during the major sales. Even back in the 90s, the ads like the one I scanned for the article were enough for me to know that they were trying too hard to be edgy. I'm not sure if any Euro ad was as obnoxious, but damn does it scream total "mature" 90s design. Same goes to this cutscene screengrab that didn't make the cut: I also STILL don't know why Magical Hoppers changed Sid like they did... It might not have been a fair comparison, but I played through Klonoa 2 and some of Klonoa PS1 during the same time-frame as writing this review last year, and well, no fault of Pandemonium, but one series holds up a lot better nearly 15~20 years later.
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Post by apachacha on Feb 11, 2015 1:23:41 GMT -5
A bit of a question: how does one increase the length of the health bar in the first game ? Played through the whole thing with only three hearts.
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Feb 11, 2015 2:28:21 GMT -5
I'll read the whole article later, but it's incorrect to include Tomb Raider between Crystal Dynamics' IPs. They've been holding the franchise for almost a decade now, but the original developer during the years of Pandemonium and Gex was Core Design.
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Post by KeeperBvK on Feb 11, 2015 2:47:55 GMT -5
I'll read the whole article later, but it's incorrect to include Tomb Raider between Crystal Dynamics' IPs. They've been holding the franchise for almost a decade now, but the original developer during the years of Pandemonium and Gex was Core Design. They might not have created the IP, but they're still the one holding it and exclusively working on it, so I don't see why it shouldn't be included. The article doesn't state that they came up with the IP, so it's all good. On topic: Pandemonium is a series I've never understood the appeal of. I guess you need to have experienced that "wow, polygons in a platformer" moment with it to appreciate it, but when I played the first one in the late 90s, I thought it was easily among the worst, boring, uninspired, obnoxious and in places frustrating platformers I've ever played.
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Post by Elvin Atombender on Feb 11, 2015 3:09:24 GMT -5
A bit of a question: how does one increase the length of the health bar in the first game ? Played through the whole thing with only three hearts. There are several hidden hearts which extend your health bar scattered across the game. If I remember correctly the first of them was found in level three. I'll read the whole article later, but it's incorrect to include Tomb Raider between Crystal Dynamics' IPs. They've been holding the franchise for almost a decade now, but the original developer during the years of Pandemonium and Gex was Core Design. They might not have created the IP, but they're still the one holding it and exclusively working on it, so I don't see why it shouldn't be included. The article doesn't state that they came up with the IP, so it's all good. Yes, but that paragraph gives the wrong impression that Crystal Dynamics started working on Tomb Raider during the 90's.
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Post by KeeperBvK on Feb 11, 2015 4:26:46 GMT -5
Yes, but that paragraph gives the wrong impression that Crystal Dynamics started working on Tomb Raider during the 90's. Not really. It just says that Crystal Dynamics's IPs are very 90s in style and that these go to show that the company can only be a child of the 90s. But they could add something like "despite CD only picking up the TR IP in 2003" in parentheses to make it 100% clear.
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Post by elektrolurch on Feb 11, 2015 4:36:18 GMT -5
Lol, I still own the original CDs of 1 and 2 for pc. I loved esp. 2 back then.It had interesting eviroments and it was really pretty compared to the psx version..i would say it was my favorite plattformer of the day.mind you, on pc, there was no klonoa, no mario64, no banjo, only gex3D and croc......... Never knew that about magical hoppers though. pretty disturbing.
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raph
New Member
Posts: 18
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Post by raph on Feb 11, 2015 15:14:33 GMT -5
A bit of a question: how does one increase the length of the health bar in the first game ? Played through the whole thing with only three hearts. You can find hidden containers for extra health. These are really well hidden and only the one in the second level is even close to being obvious (presumably the one you found). If I remember it correctly, some cheat codes gives more health containers than there is actually containers in the game! Also; ugh, this game. I think the Pandemonium 2 version of Fargus still lives under my bed. I do think japanese Sid looks rather good actually. Gnarly, if you will.
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Post by alphex on Feb 11, 2015 17:48:52 GMT -5
i would say it was my favorite plattformer of the day.mind you, on pc, there was no klonoa, no mario64, no banjo, only gex3D and croc......... Sonic 3 & Knuckles, man! A German PC magazine (PC Games) loved Pandemonium and gave it 87% (I believe? I can still remember reading the review in a parking lot, it's been almost 18 years!) - they gave 69% (I think) to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The review itself stated Pandemonium! looked and played a lot better than jump & runs typically do, "it reminds me more of Tomb Raider than of the chubby Mario". Looking back, that was some mighty stupid reasoning, especially given how awful Tomb Raider's platforming was. But hey, that was simply a "lol nintendo consoles are for kids" by the reviewer I guess?
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Post by Snarboo on Feb 11, 2015 18:21:17 GMT -5
But hey, that was simply a "lol nintendo consoles are for kids" by the reviewer I guess? Could also have been anti-2D bias that was prevalent during the PSX era. For whatever, reason Western mags HATED 2D sprite based games.
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Post by alphex on Feb 11, 2015 18:30:43 GMT -5
But the game everybody associated Mario with during that time was Mario 64 I'd say?
But agreed on the sprite-hate. It was kinda weird when I was getting into Street Fighter big time and a guy from the game store we'd usually hang out said he preferred the 2D look over 3D. It was like "woah, that's actually an option and not just an invalid opinion?".
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Post by elektrolurch on Feb 11, 2015 18:53:14 GMT -5
Sonic 3 & Knuckles, man! A German PC magazine (PC Games) loved Pandemonium and gave it 87% (I believe? I can still remember reading the review in a parking lot, it's been almost 18 years!) - they gave 69% (I think) to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The review itself stated Pandemonium! looked and played a lot better than jump & runs typically do, "it reminds me more of Tomb Raider than of the chubby Mario". Looking back, that was some mighty stupid reasoning, especially given how awful Tomb Raider's platforming was. But hey, that was simply a "lol nintendo consoles are for kids" by the reviewer I guess? lol, I used to read pc games back in the day...all..the..time. i remember the high score, i thought it was justified. dont remember them dismissing sonic3 though. right, I remember now, sonic cd for windows was also there. and i think i played it even more then pandemonium... and yes,the 2D hate was so everywhere......glad we nowadays rediscover the joys of 2D,sprite based games.
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Post by alphex on Feb 11, 2015 19:08:12 GMT -5
They didn't dismiss it - 69% is not an abysmal rating, and the review itself was okay. But it's certainly not in the league that game deserves to be, especially given the jump & runs available on PC.
Puzzle Fighter was also reviewed in the same issue and got about 70% I believe. They stated that the choice of character "only matters against the CPU, as the CPU characters have different playing styles".
And in the very first PC Games I ever bought, they called Children Of The Atom the best 2D beat 'em up on the PC and gave it 74% (72%? Low 70). So much for 2D games.
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