Tail of the Sun

released on Apr 26, 1996

In Tail of the Sun, you are a caveman in prehistoric times. Your mission: to build an ivory tower of mammoth tusks tall enough to reach the tail of the sun. You are to develop your caveman tribe by hunting, swimming, running, climbing, and taking on other activities to raise your physical or mental attributes. You must venture off into a vast, untamed world to explore harsh terrains that consist of deserts, caves, forests, and ocean floors. The player's ultimate objective is to build a tower of mammoth tusks that reaches the sun. To this end, he or she must gather enough food for the tribe to thrive and multiply, while exploring a large map full of various creatures and oddities.


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This review contains spoilers

Tail of the Sun was released for the original Playstation in 1997 by Artdink. It's an extraordinary experience set in an expansive open world featuring various monuments, landmarks, and oddities.

To beat the game, you'll simply need to kill animals and return the meat to your tribe until your weapon levels up enough to take on mammoths, which are located in the Tundra, north of your village. When the mammoth tusks are returned to your tribe, they are stacked until you can climb high enough to reach the "tail" of the sun.

However, once that's accomplished, you'll probably have a lot left to explore if you want to see everything this prehistoric wonderland has to offer. The instruction manual includes a map to get you started and furthermore lists some unmapped items and suggests there are many more.

Play this one on Retro Achievements so that your discoveries will count for something on paper.

Falls just short of something incredible. Giant empty sandbox world where your goal is to eat, explore, and beat the brakes off of any creature that gets within a foot of you.

Jokes aside, you're trying to build a tower out of mammoth tusks that's tall enough for you to touch the sun and see the meaning of life...it's so cool that if it was more embraced and interwoven throughout the game it would be a must play. Instead it's left completely to sudden discovery, which makes the journey, while fun, feel pointless. It's a game in its purest form...you play and that's all.

It's going to stick with me purely from the audacity to develop such a laid back game about wandering but many modern indie titles have done it better. Try A Short Hike out instead, unless the early PSX strangeness of it is your main reason for playing.

wish this game had something more to it (don't know what) because diving at full speed into an uncontrollable nap soundtracked to an archetypal 90s hype jungle mix is true gaming

I'm kinda obsessed with the way the game presents itself. All the strange little intricacies of the game that I initally hated lead me to kinda loving it.

Esse jogo é incrível, os movimentos que têm que fazer no controle durante um combate são semelhantes aos primeiros hominídeos fabricando uma ferramenta, eventualmente dá pra pular de baixo d'água como se tivesse na lua, e todos os personagens sofrem de narcolepsia, o que é hilário 99% das vezes. O mundo aberto é fantástico, eu não faço ideia do que as comidas do chão fazem, mas eventualmente, depois de muita carne pra expandir a vila e conseguir os upgrades, fui atrás do objetivo, que são os mamutes, e é um grind interminável, infelizmente minha única decepção com o jogo.

Sony apparently doesn't mind embarrassing itself with the release of Tail of the Sun. Probably one of the worst games ever made. The graphics have the quality of caveman carvings. Yes, we are aware of the irony that the game is about a caveman. The play control is also incredibly unrefined. Sometimes you must try several times to pick up an item that's right in front of you. Basically, you run around munching zillions of food chunks while trying to expand your tribe. The ultimate goal is to build a tower of mammoth tusks reaching to the tail of the sun. From just the footage you see here, you can tell how incredibly pathetic this game is. There's a quote from PSX Power on the back of the CD case. It reads

"This is one of the most immersive games we have seen on the Playstation."

Well at least one good thing can come from Tail of the Sun. We all know not to read PSX Power.