The “Autumn/Christmas Releases” disc is a small compilation disc for PS1 containing a few demos for games scheduled for Autumn/Christmas 1996. Note I didn’t have the original box and the disc itself fails to tell you which ones are rolling demos or playable til you select them.
Something that bothered me was th game would force you into random demo’s if you waited on the select screen too long. Also the visuals weren’t that good either in all honesty.
The Demos/Videos
Destruction Derby 2 ‘Rolling’ Demo
For those that don’t know a rolling demo is one that plays itself. This one in particular, for the driving game by Reflections, had the player watch a race replay following what I assume is an ai racer in a white car (they did kind bad at points) with different camera angles. I admit it does look quite cool but considering how both show the followed plaer doing terribly and neither of them finish the race (first one gets totalled, 2nd one just cuts off suddenly). That really wouldn’t have made me confident in buying it.
Wipeout 2097 Demo Review
The racer thats actually developed (and not just published) by Psygnosis Wipeout 2097 actually had a playable demo. While the type of race couldn’t be changed and options were also unselectable there were 4 possible vehicles (ranging fom beginner to expert in handling difficulty) to race around the track (which itself could be played in novice or expert). Thankfully it also shows the controls before throwing you into the race.
Controls definitely felt responsive but it was obviously not an easy game, one of the gimmicks of the game is similar to stuff like F-Zero you go pretty fast with the top speed getting higher as the difficulty does. I did alright on novice, had a bad habit of crashing in the dark tunnel section every time though. On expert however I did terrible, running out of time just before the finish line of the first lap. I probably would need to learn how the airbrakes worked to get good at it.
If there was one thing that bothered me about the controls was that circle was used to fire weapons and square was used to discard them. Its quite easy to press square while pressing down X but not O. Still a pretty nice demo though, I imagine the full game would have button config. The only reason Iwouldn’t have bought the full game is because of how bad I am at it but I’d still recommend it.
It does have a rolling demo if you leave it alone.
Monster Trucks Rolling Demo Review
This rolling demo was all sorts of awkward, for some reason it thought watching a monster truck drive over and crush a row of cars for a bit was enough to get peoples interest, with some of the voice lines being spoken twice in a row.
The advert after that was even more so especially nowadays, one of the features being 1,000,000 polygons per 6km2 per level. Interestingly its also made by Reflections, the people that made Destruction Derby 2. And people say companies shovel out games these days. This one doesn’t interest me at all, in fact it probably could have been part of another game.
Formula 1 Demo Review
Honestly by this point in reviewing and the 4th car related game published by Psygnosis (developed by Bizarre Creations) this disc was seeming disappointing. However it was a playable demo letting you play through a full track of the game.
Controls were surprisingly easy to guess though it’d have been nice to get shown them. I actually did quite alright though there was one thing that bothered me greatly, at one point it starts telling you that you are low on fuel and since the game doesn’t tell you and I’m not a Formula 1 watcher I had no idea what to do about it. Other than that its a pretty decent demo, I do have to wonder if the full game did well considering its name highly implies its the first F1 based game ever.
If you leave the game alone it’ll show a short rolling demo similar to how Destruction Derby 2’s did but I imagine it’d interest people more being based on something licensed.
Tekken 2 Demo Review
Finally something non car related, the fighting game sequel by Namco. After watching (or skipping) the intro cutscene you are given a choice between Jun or Lei to play a specific fight, Jun fights Jack-2 while Lei fights Heihachi.
Controls were easy to figure out (though once again not show) but something felt really awkward about the gameplay. A lot of attacks not only did huge damage but were usually the more chainable ones. Unlike other fighting games this meant it was possible to practically nuke the opponent or get nuked. On one hand I got a perfect against Heihachi, on the other hand Jack-2 did a throw attack on Jun that did a horrifying amount of damage.
Despite this it still seems like a pretty good demo, I imagine you wouldn’t have needed to play the first game to become interested in the game.
Crash Bandicoot Demo Review
The Crash Bandicoot demo (game by Naughty Dog) was another awkward one that threw you into a level with no instructions at all. In fact trying to pause quits the demo and leaving it too long has an ai play it for you.
The controls were pretty easy to work out though and the game was really generous with lives, to the point that I imagine people new to platformers would be able to work things out. The demo felt kinda tiny though so while I liked it I’m not sure it would’ve been enough to make me interested in buying it.
The Verdict
While the disc did have a few nice demo’s the heavy lean on driving related games all published by the same developer really lowered my overall opinion on it aka it wasn’t that good.
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