3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Summary.

41. Syndicate.
42. The Horde.
43. Star Fighter.
44. Flashback.
45. Daedalus Encounter.
46. Braindead 13.
47. Foes of Ali.
48. Decathlon.
49. John Madden Football.
50. Snow Job.

41. Syndicate

An Amiga port. The Amiga version is exactly the same as this, the big difference is that the 3DO doesn’t support the 3DO mouse – which lets the game down chronically. Still – the Amiga is a big ol’ computer and the 3DO a tidy little box of tricks, and it’s not to say that this version is unplayable with the 3DO pad. If you want to wade into Australia, pluck off some guy with a sniper rifle, then use your other cyborgs to set fire to the watching crowd, and then laugh as your team escape in a stolen Police car – nothing does it better than Syndicate by Bullfrog.

42. The Horde

Games for Bob are more famous for Star Control than this but yes, they also did The Horde by Crystal Dynamics. Indeed the acting is cheesy. Also, agreed, the build-a-village part of the game is pretty thin – don’t expect Sim City, but that wasn’t the point, this arcade action meets strategy in one of the earliest 3DO games is capable of getting your heart racing even today. The graphics are quirky, brightly coloured and the sound quite frankly bazaar.
Most people won’t remember The Horde until they see it again – and then they go, “oh yeah – that was good.” That’s because it was.

43. Star Fighter.

I called it a graphic engine looking for a game, but don’t get me wrong, it’s very far from actually being a bad game; it’s just not very imaginative. Tip: don’t let my pretentious whining put you off – ever. The Star Fighter graphics engine is a thing of beauty, the missions, while being lame are a challenge and there are plenty of them to keep you occupied. At today’s prices, there is no good reason not to own and play Star Fighter. Also, in my less than humble opinion, it should be one of the bench marks by which all 3DO graphics should be measured.

44. Flashback.

More colour and more levels than its older brother Another World – but a less charismatic game because of it. It’s a more traditional rock-solid platformer that it predecessor and a good one. It’s more than worthy of being in the top 50. Just not much higher up the top 50. That is all.

45. Daedalus Encounter

More full motion video interactive movie entertainment. Yeah – quite a mouthful. Daedalus is not perfect, but it does sort of flow – and I'm not just talking about the acting. The puzzles are interesting, the footage sharp and clear, Tia Carrera looks cute – a more revealing outfit wouldn’t have gone a miss, but this game isn’t half as bad as you may think you think it is. The burgeoning CD era is quite famous for these types of game. Psychic Detective, 7th Guest, Myst, the difference being is that this is sort of fun.

46. Braindead

It’s a test of memory. Nothing more – nothing less. Up, up, down, down, left, right, up. Still – the story is entertaining, the graphics impressive and getting it right is actually rewarding.The other, ever so slightly freakish thing about this game, is witnessing your hands remembering the key stokes, years after you last played it.

47. Foes of Ali

More sports in the bottom 10 from 3DO kid. Quelle surprise as they say in France. (It means: what a surprise.) Yes indeed. Educationally and technically Foes of Ali is spectacular. Blood spatters, interactive information, real world fights, it’s ambitious, you can’t say fairer than that, and… and well, it sort of works. Boxing is not Street Fighter II, and after years of button mashing Foes of Ali feels slow and unresponsive. To call it unplayable though would be a crime. This game enjoyed two coats of wax polish, put on by Electronic Arts. It’s fun – if you happen to a bit slow.

48. Decathlon.

Released in 2007 by Older Games, Decathlon is as buggy as hell, but buried somewhere in there is a graphically impressive sports simulator, that is as fun as hell. It’s just button bashing, but it’s down well. Because the whole game is test of skill means you start off rubbish and get gradually better. That will merrily spirit away a great deal of time and again shows what the 3DO hardware was capable of. Take note Jag fans!

49. John Madden Football.

I’m not the greatest fan of Sport simulators, but even I can spot high production values when I see them. John Madden was a standard bearer for the 32bit console generation and it shows why. American Football lends it self well to a video game. After all, it’s a combination of turn based tactics and action. Throw into that Electronic Arts’ quality and polish and John Madden stands out as a 3DO must have.

50. Snow Job.

It depends on your definition of the term “Interactive Movie”, and I’ve postulated a few opinions in the past on this very blog, but if it’s something along the lines of; a bunch of real action clips strung together to make a game - then Snow Job fit’s the bill. The rest of us might call Snow Job a Point & Click adventure. It’s at the bottom of my Top 50 because it’s pretty slow going, however, the production values are high and it’s well worth a go, and of the 240 something games on the 3DO – this isn’t bad.

How often loyal 3DO fans, have you heard the phrase; "there were no good games for the 3DO?" It's like a mantra the unwashed masses recite if they are wishing to feign knowledge about our beloved system. So - I'm working on the 3DO Kid top 50 3DO games. To be honest I was afraid I couldn't do, I mean, find 50 games that were just about acceptable - but actually I ended up having to choose which games to include and not include. By my reckoning there are about 60 games worth looking at to play - not just collect.

I'll do it in reverse order. 50 to 1. The top 5 is contentious. The number 1 spot is also unusual.

I've also got some stuff from Japan coming soon.

[cough] Paper, scissors, stone [/cough]

Speak soon and take care!

3DO Kid.

Yup - that's right, another all new release for the 3DO. Courtesy of OlderGames. I imagine, and to be fair it's difficult to actually imagine, but if I imagine I actually liked football, I could be all philosophical about OnSide. I also imagine if I knew anything, anything at all about the sport, this review would be whole lot better. However, I don't, and it won't, and there you go. If you were afraid this was going to be another few hundred words of me reitterating my dislike of Soccer - then be afraid, be very afraid.

So what is OnSide Soccer? Well, much like the real life sport, it's a game of two halves.

The first half is a standard football game. You guide the player around the pitch using your 3DO controller, and if you get close enough to the opponents goal, you try and boot it in. Or at least you waggle the direction-pad furiously, putting way too much pressure through your soon to be aching thumb, and when the opportunity arises, after twisting and turning you upper torso, you whack the A button in the hopeless-hope, that hope against all odds, for a virtual goal.

It feels well paced. Indeed it's positively sprightly as your players run around the screen, one of whom has a white ground glow highlighting he is under your control.

As usual for me, I couldn't quite figure out what each button did. One button certainly made my player boot the ball as hard as he could - so I stuck with that. The other button I was less sure of. It did something, although I'm not sure what. Possibly lunge or try to use his head with the ball. That's almost certainly possible that's what it did. Yep, you guessed right - I don't know.

My game, with all the predictability of the sun rising, inevitably looked the same as every other virtualized football game I ever play. Run-run-run-run, slide tackle. Run-run-run, kick with all my might. The ball then goes a little way up the pitch, and then gets taken by the opponent. It's not the game - it's me, I'm always the same. I am not only bad at real football, but also computer football.

One thing I did like was the intuitive after-touch. You could kick the ball and if you felt it needed a bit of curve, you could give it to it by rolling your finger around the pad.

Rule wise the game seemed a little choosy - and it wasn't just a dodgy referee or me blaming the game for losing. You see -- I wasn't entirely sure if the laws of soccer where being properly adhered to. Admittedly, the rules of the game are somewhat hazy in my mind, due to my almost irrational dislike of the game, but I do recall tackling from behind being a big no-no. And although, again, I'm somewhat fuzzy about it, the off-side rule wasn't, I believed, being enforced. Not that that bothers me of all people.

Still - OnSide Soccer is actually pretty good. You can play a quick game, a league game or knockout league game depending on what you fancy, and there are healthy selection of teams from leagues from around the world. England, Italy, Germany and France.

The other half of Onside Soccer is management element. This wasn't quite so good. You pick a team and then it's your job to manage that team. Organise tactics, buy and sell players, alter the formation, it's all well and good but there isn't enough options in there to make you feel you are having any real influence. The training consists of playing five-a-side soccer, which is like the main game but without throw-ins or corners, and of cause only five players on each side. The other training option is the very boring penalty practice. In addition, you can borrow money, try and fill the stadium but this part of OnSide lacks any real depth and has no pizazz. How do you spell "Pizazz?". Hold on - what does it mean? Anyway - OnSide Soccer, the management half of the game doesn't have any.

Once you've sold your players, bought new ones, messed about or should that be "up" the formation, and then done some of the training you play the match. You can play the game, like you would with a dpad, or you can watch the game or you can simply not prolong the agony and go straight to the scores.

The graphics are pleasant enough, it's very retro in so much the crowd is completely flat and in many respects look like little shapeless blobs of colour. But then, having seen soccer fans, that's probably closer than a modern games console will ever get to truly recreating football fans. Graphically the players are well animated, each has their own little shadow and they come in many different shapes, sizes and colours, as do real players. And the 3D pitch is nice and smooth, it zooms in and out during replays and everything looks great.

The sound however is pretty awful - the worst is the music in the menu's, it's very English Soccer. Which made me wonder if the Italians, French, Spanish and Germans have this kind of stupid regionalized whistle-like tune that reminds them of the sport? If you listen to it with your eyes closed, you can almost see some fat bald headed tattooed hooligan cramming pork pies down his throat and dropping crumbs on his Arsenal football shirt, you can all most smell the Beer drench sweat too. It's very accurate indeed. And indeed, god awful.

Worse still, the in-game commentary is not only repetitive, but also passionless. You might think scoring the equaliser in the final few seconds of a game might get the juices flowing in the commentators voice - but no, he really does put the dead into dead-pan. And there is no crowd noise. Ever. Just the peep of the whistle and the word goal. This does ruin the game a little. Especially on one of those rare occasions I did actually score - I wanted a little reward - and that's exactly what I got. If the crowd and the commentator wasn't thrilled - my little players ran around with their hands raised in jubilance. Which is a small reward compared to the mighty roar of the appreciative crowd I was hoping for. Glory hunter me.

All-in-all OnSide Soccer is a quick and exciting, and only when it is most disappointing, soundless football game. I did like it. It's probably not as good as Fifa but the addition of the lackluster management element makes it an interesting offering none the less.

Games like this are contextual - and perhaps I'm not the best guy to be critiquing it. What do I know? Could Coventry beat Bolton Wanderers in 1994? Did they really have a player called Jonathon Gould? (Yes, they did apparently!) You see, Soccer doesn't interest me, which means this game is probably wasted on me. The main dish of the game is arcade and I liked that, the rest is purely for proper fans of the sport.

It's not rare - you can go to http://www.oldergames.knurdz.com and buy a brand new shrink wrapped edition right now!

3DO Kid.