I had this in a three pack with Shogo mobile armor division and a racing game called speed demons. I won't lie though, i only wanted Gruntz.

A top down strategy, rts type puzzle thing with cartoony graphics and a humorous style. I remember loving it.

There were some great unit-types/weapons you could set your gruntz with, one of which was a giant drinking straw they'd clobber each other with, and then drink their remains. Brutal.

Mixed feelings for me. On one hand, represents the peak of WoW's popularity, a significant step up in visuals, a story and setting surrounding Warcraft's most popular antagonist(s).

But on the other, i can't help but feel this is where the rot set in. Here the game got noticeably more linear, and the introduction of the dungeon finder basically removed the main incentive to join guilds and form communities, and also took away the need to travel physically around the world to visit dungeons, making the world feel much more empty. There's a reason they didn't bring it back for WotlK classic.

Over in Europe it's just 'Micro Maniacs' rather than the weird and un-necessary foxkids.com bit. Plus the box art looks better.

ANYWAY

This thing is great, played it a bunch growing up, and i wish they'd went back to this concept.

Shrunk down super-heroes running around bedrooms and backyards in a foot race.

It's really quite creative, every level is memorable and unique, the retro one in particular where you get sucked into a 8-bit space-frogger type game mid-race is a stand out. But all are really cool and worth seeing.

The characters are distinct, each with their own style and ability types. And the music is fantastic.

I understand that the nostalgia here is strong for me, but i genuinely think this is a hidden gem for the PS1.

Probably one of the best looking ps1 games, with a good horror atmosphere that matches the films. It's better than the movie It's based on.

However the game is far too difficult, even on easy you just seem to die far too often. Of all things, the ladders seem to be the most dangerous, the way you dismount/mount ladders often makes you fall off them, thus taking damage you can't afford, as xenomorphs can take off half your health in seconds.

It's worth a look, but I'd be suprised if anyone can see this through to the end.

I won't rate it just yet, as I'm currently playing through it.

But so far I'm pleasantly surprised. It has a nice atmosphere, sort of like the future-war segments of Terminator. So if you want to see something like that on the PS1, with an eerie soundtrack, then this might be for you.

It's also surprisingly very BRITISH. Which is great for a BRIT like me. But it shatters the believability a bit, as why would any alien want to live in the UK?

I like how Eiji looks in this one, i'm a fan of the 'main character ascended to boss' trope. The music is great as always with the toshinden series.

However this is the worst of the series, it's very very slow (even by the standards of this series), characters are just extremely unbalanced. And most of the characters from previous games are removed here, in an attempt to refresh the franchise sort of like Tekken 3.

It's interesting enough to try, and not annoying or anything, but it's not very good.

Features a character create where you can make wrestlers invisible, or specific body parts/accessories invisible. Meaning you can turn Goldberg into Rayman.

Or, my personal favorite: Wrestle as a floating head, or floating pair of sunglasses.

Otherwise the game's a bit shit.