3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Most movie-game tie-ins are dreadful. Every Batman game ever, every Spider-man game, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, etc. They all usually range from the extremely mediocre to games so bad government legislation should be drawn up to protect us from them.

Occasionally of cause a good 'un turns up to restore our faith. Robocop at the arcade springs to mind, as does Dune and the Blade Runner game. Yet for every Knight of the old republic we have a Rebel Assault.

I didn't offer much hope for Casper. What could possibly inspire the license holder of 'Casper' to be bothered to make a half decent game? Really? What would be the motivation? It's not as if many 15 year old to 30 year old male gamers were beating down the door for a Casper film, let alone a Casper game.

But inspired they were.

Who would have guessed? Casper is alone on the 3DO for a number of reasons. It's an old fashioned isometric adventure game. Like, for those that can remember, Knight Lore on the Sinclair Spectrum or Last Ninja on the Commodore Amiga. Secondly the graphics are good. The transparency effects are well implemented, the animation smooth, the character realisation is perfect and the environment throughout which you roam is engrossing and varied. Finally, the game is good. In fact ahead of its time. Tips pop-up when you go to do something for the first time - like move a switch or open a door etc. The puzzles are well balanced, logical and well designed and it is fun to play - the game does encourage you to progress, to move on, to open up more areas of the house.

In fact, I'd personally go-so-far as to say that Casper is one of the best games on the 3DO.

Turns up occasionally on eBay - I'd recommend you keep your eyes open!

3DO Kid.

A major blast-from-the-past: US Gold - Makers of endless sports sims. None of which were ever very good. However - for me the winter olympics, the world cup, the triathlon are not real events. Well, not real without an officially licensed half-baked interpretation of the sport by the now defunct US Gold. It's like getting on the bus and not sitting as close to the back as possible or going into the gentleman's toilet and not picking the urinal furthest from the other guy - basically something isn't quite right. It feels like I've been short changed - Power of marketing right?

Anyway - World Cup Golf. The first part of a game is how easy is it to get into? Pretty easy. Even without looking at the instructions I got to grips with World Cup Golf very quickly. I know enough about golf - even having never actually really played the game - to know what I'm doing. I know what PAR means and when to use a driver and when to use a wood and so-on. So - easy enough to get started.

Once playing, how much fun is it? Yea gads. Oh mercy. It's hard. That's putting it (no pun intended) mildly. Golf games are all pretty much the same. Line-up the ball, hit the 'action' button - the golfer swings the club back, hit the button again and the golfer swings the club forward. Crack - the ball is hit. Dependant on your skill and timing the ball either sails off into the wild blue yonder or flinches twelve inches from when you last had it. The elegance the developers have to put into a golf game is balancing that swing motion. Too hard the game is unplayable, like this one, or too easy and the game is boring.

I'm sure, with the patience of the biblical Job, one could hone ones reflexes to able to just about play this game. Only to be thwarted by the god awful camera. Imagine if you will my immense joy having actually hit the damned ball further than six feet only to be stunned and depressed by an impromptu game of "Where's Wally" having not immediately realised that my golfing avatar was behind a tree on the near left hand side of the screen - not the centre of the screen as one might assume.

In summary: nice interface, cack-handed implementation - sorrow inducing camera.

Collect this rare-ish one at your leisure.

3DO Kid.