Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: ps1

Fighting Force (PS1)

Posted on by Viljami

Fighting Force is a fighting game in three-dimensional world for PlayStation 1. It was released back in 1997. I remember this game very well. I did only play the demo version of this game back in the day but decided now just some days earlier to give it a try. First I checked if it would be a game that would require a long playing time. As I usually do I went to How Long To Beat and checked this matter. Playing this game through would take approximately three and a half hours.

So, it is a bit of a short game but I decided to start playing it and I already felt it would have something to give to me as a retro gamer and a huge fan of PS1 games. I would compare this game to some fighting games that were released earlier for Sega Mega Drive. Of course the graphics are three-dimensional and better than what Mega Drive was able to offer. Although the playing style, you basically just beat your enemies up, is very similar. You get score bonuses and health updates. You also get to use melee weapons and even some guns and grenades. The amount of ammunition is very limited. Grenades make a very powerful explosions and you often end up hurting yourself also in Fighting Force.

It takes a while for you to get really into Fighting Force. I played the game through with one of the four main characters – Hawk. You also get to choose the difficulty level from easy to medium to hard. This does give this game some replay value. In this game you can hit or kick. Jumping is also possible. You can also try to kick your enemies while you are running to make a kick in the air or try to slide on the ground and hit your enemies. It is necessary to try to pick up health bonuses or weapons that these enemies do drop. You can also wreck your environments. At the end of a level you might get continues if you have gathered enough of a score. There are possibilities at some points also to save your progress which feels comfortable.

There is a bit of a variation between the enemies in Fighting Force. Some of them keep healing and you have to beat them quickly or they will heal themselves fully. Some enemies can hit you with a strong punch and you have to run away from them at times. Some enemies can give you electric shocks that make you hit the ground. It is also important to try to kick your enemy if it gets knocked to the ground for a while. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to understand these basic tactics when you are trying to beat this game.

Back in 1997 Fighting Force was a new PlayStation 1 game. Now it is a solid peace of gaming history. It was very interesting to go back to this game. You can compare it to some of the greatest games of this era. I am comparing it to maybe the first two Resident Evil games which offered something very similar graphically but that had already a deep plot and some more advanced ways to make the player more involved to playing the game. While Fighting Force is a bit simple as a retro video game it still manages to offer something for a retro gamer and a PS1 fan like myself.

If you have a chance to play this game and you do like PlayStation 1 games I can definitely recommend Fighting Force. Just don’t expect too much of it as a game experience. It sure can bring some memories and also nostalgia to a retro gamer. It was nice to go back in time and play this game for some hours.

Tenchu

Posted on by Viljami

I think many of us old school gamers and maybe some retro game enthusiasts do recognize Tenchu. It was released for PS1 back in 1998. I can clearly remember these moments back in the day when I saw some footage from actual television about Tenchu. What made it interesting as a PS1 video game was that you were mainly using a sword as a weapon. The fact that this game was a stealth game more than just a simple action melee game that we saw many times in the mainstream of video gaming during the 90s. So, Tenchu was something different.

I do have played this. Not recently but it hasn’t been many years since I last time played the first Tenchu game. There have been several sequels. In actually had to search for some information. There have been at least thirteen games with some relevance to Tenchu. Tenchu 2 was released for PS1 in 2000. There were games released for PS2 and also to PSP. The latest in this series that I have played is Tenchu – Wrath of Heaven that was for PS2. I think it isn’t a bad way to start getting into this ninja combat series by playing the first Tenchu game on  a PS1.

The game did impress back in 1998 and it is still a very nice game to play even today. Maybe you have to have a certain retro type of attitude to actually enjoy this game. If we make a comparison to modern era there could be some improvements on the controls and graphics. So there is some adjusting in this sense. If you do like PS1 games I recommend this game especially.

So, what is the game all about? You try to move around in this three-dimensional environment and avoid enemies. If you get caught the enemies will call help and you usually end up  fighting too many enemies and you eventually end up dead. So, avoiding contact seems to be a working strategy. Also, when you encounter an enemy that hasn’t yet noticed you you can take that person out with only one stealth attack. If the enemy detects you the enemy will call help and you end up in a difficult fight.

You can use a grappling hook to move to for example up to some roof of a house. You use a sword to defeat your enemies. You also use throwing weapons try to take out enemies. Ther weapon, the sword I mean, is a melee weapon. This gives you a different feel of combat than if there were some ranged fire weapons used. The concept hasn’t been used in my opinion so much. Instead there are tons of shooting games available as retro and also as modern games. I think the idea of Tenchu is very good and original. Being that it is a game from 1998 makes it even more inventive as a video game. It was somewhat a pioneer as a three dimensional sword and melee fighting game.

Financially Tenchu was very successful in Japan and also all around the world in Europe and USA. It sold over 1,4 million copies worldwide. It was also successful as well appreciated game and received good grades in different reviews of gaming media of the time. Actually this many times meant magazines that were printed on paper. That was the method that was used back in the day. The gaming media wasn’t yet so strong on the internet. This particular fact has changed since Tenchu was first released.

Tenchu isn’t a pricey game to pick up. If you do find it from game shop I think it can be bought with a price tag of maybe 20 euros. I haven’t seen a copy available in a long time but that price of twenty euros was the price that I bought it for. It was one of my favorite games back in the 90s. It was also among the first games I wanted to own as I started collecting and buying PS1 games to my collection again about seven or eight years ago.

Resident Evil 2 Is The Most Significant PS1 Game for Me

Posted on by Viljami

What a game Resident Evil 2 was and still remains to be. It was released in 1998 for Sony PlayStation 1. My first game for this system was Gran Turismo. So, I cannot tell you that Resident Evil 2 would have been my first PS1 game. I did have a demo disc that featured this survival horror game. I remember playing the demo. Resident Evil 2 had a time limit. I don’t remember how long you could play the game. I think it was maybe fifteen minutes or something like that. That was enough to get me hooked to this game. I had to buy the game.

PS1 had been released already some years ago and game developers were already comfortable to design games for this console. This wasn’t among the first games that were released for PS1. Actually the first game in the horror game series was available for players back in 1996. Resident Evil 2 continued and expanded the story line. It actually represents the view of happenings from the perspective of two different characters that belong to the police department of Racoon City.

I can still clearly remember how the game starts. I remember more clearer the beginning with playing as Leon (Leon S. Kennedy). You can choose the character that you play in the start of the game. The other option is Claire (Claire Redfield). Leon starts his journey after a car collision. He is surrounded with zombies. There are burning flames all around. The best option seems to be to run away and maybe try to kill some zombies that are trying to bite Leon. The story progresses and Leon heads over to the police station trying avoid attacks of zombies.

I think the plot is a good one. So, I am not going to spoil it for you in case you want to play this game. I think Resident Evil 2 is still today something that a gamer that’s interested in retro games can pick up and play. You do have to consider that it is almost 30 years old as a video game. The graphics aren’t as sharp as with some modern video games. I especially recommend it for someone that likes horror games as it is a pioneer in this field. I also recommend it to someone that wants to get an idea of what kind of games there have been made for the Sony PlayStation 1.

For me this was a very significant game. It hit me even harder than Gran Turismo or a game like Metal Gear Solid. It was so good that I wanted to play the first Resident Evil game also. Of course I played also the third game in this survival horror game series. I enjoyed the grim environment and the limitations of ammo, saving points and camera angels which were causing me an interesting mix of anxiety and a deep interest in the world that was presented through this game. There have been some more scarier games released later but Resident Evil 2 was a true pioneer in the field of survival horror. All this was introduced to video game hobbyists already in 1998.

There were actually three games released in the main series for PlayStation 1. There were also a light gun supported spin-off, Resident Evil – Survivor. You can also count the first games release with “Director’s Cut” added to the title but I think the point is clear here. There were many sequels because these games were popular. The game series went on to get many new games for many newer systems.

You can actually see some more recent episodes for this series in some recent games like Resident Evil 7 or 8 and there is also a new game coming that is titled as Resident Evil 9. It is currently in development and it might get released in 2026 which isn’t so sure because it would be a huge release. For me it is actually something very big like GTA VI or something. We are dealing with a major video game release that is continuing the series that Resident Evil 2 is a part of.