PlayStation Underground 3.1

PSU 3.1's "cover feature" was WCW/nWo Thunder, which holds an impressive 1.8 average here on Backloggd. But before that, the first option on Disc 1 is a little documentary about a Spryo the Dragon scavenger hunt hosted in Las Vegas with special guest participant Tommy Tallarico. Tommy's team actually won the scavenger hunt, which might just be the only legitimate documented victory the man has ever had in his entire life. Give it up for Tommy, everybody.


PSU 3.1 also has some coverage of Project Wormhole, a game that existed for the sole purpose of conveying the basics of game design to PlayStation Underground subscribers. In this issue, enemies were added to The Hole, but the squirrely controls of my ship and uncooperative camera are easily the most challenging elements. Project Wormhole was made under some tight constraints and was never really meant to be much of a game in its own right so much as a teaching tool, so its shortcomings are pretty easily forgiven, and I think its existence is still a net positive.


There's some additional behind the scenes coverage for Legends of Legia, a look at the Pocket Alpha 3 that allowed players to download Street Fighter Alpha 3 characters to a Tamagotchi-like handheld, and a quick look at Xena: Warrior Princess if you're like, into that sort of thing. The main event is, of course, the promotional video for WCW/nWo Thunder, which opens with so many quick cuts of body slams, kicks, and suplexes that by the time the veins are popping on Goldburg's bald head I've already succumb to total sensory overload. I'm on the ground foaming at the mouth and convulsing, unable to process anything Mean Gene Okerlund has to say about this dogshit THQ wrasslin' game. There's a demo for it on disc 2 and going off that, I'm gonna say 1.8 is too high. Speaking of Disc 2, that's where all the demos live! There's some pretty good stuff on here like a playable demos for Ridge Racer Type 4 and Cool Boarders 3, but there's also dreck like T'ai Fu and a video preview for Shadow Madness. This is how I actually found out about Shadow Madness in the first place, so while the PSU 3.1 experience is certainly nostalgic in its own way, I feel like it is also full of crap that is designed to psychically harm me (Hulk Hogan, Tommy Tallerico, Gex 3, Shadow Madness.)

Closing thoughts: All apparel advertisements should look like this.


Score: Uhhh, 4/5! Games Featured: Spyro the Dragon, WCW/nWO Thunder, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Xena: Warrior Princess, Legends of Legia

Playable Demos: Contender, Ridge Racer Type 4, WCW/nWo Thunder, T'ai Fu, Cool Boarders 3, Syphon Filter

Video Previews: Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, Shadow Madness, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Silent Hill, 3Extreme

Official US PlayStation Magazine #47

As far as PlayStation 1 demo discs go, this is fairly late in OPM's run and is focused almost entirely on Squaresoft games, featuring video previews of titles like Final Fantasy IX and FInal Fantasy Chronicles, with the main (and only) playable demo being Final Fantasy VIII. Anyone who has been following me for the last little while will know that I've gotten deep into collecting Final Fantasy games for the PlayStation, because I bring it up constantly and am very annoying about it. Needless to say, when I was looking around for what discs to grab, this Oops! All Square! disc looked pretty appealing.

The demo for Final Fantasy VIII covers the invasion of Dollet and assault on the communications tower. Not a bad sequence to use as your vertical slice, though it's nowhere near as heart pumping as the bombing run from Final Fantasy VII, and which famously served as that game's demo sequence. It's a high bar to pass, the bombing run is perhaps one of the most iconic openings to any video game and I remember the demo being a pretty big deal at the time, too. Still, it's a solid early game set piece that does a good job at introducing some of Final Fantasy VIII's key characters, gives players a taste of the Junction system, and does a great job showing off VIII's impressive visuals and cinematic action.

The demo is so cinematic, in fact, that I wish they would make a whole movie out of Final Fantasy's FMVs. God, that would be so cool. Anyway, there's a trailer for Spirits Within on here. Remember how Square wanted to turn the lead character into an "artificial actress" that could be used in future movies and games? Weirdly predictive of the direction modern filmmaking is headed in, and just like Spirits Within, I hope it fails miserably. I've heard Spirits Within is pretty boring, but it looked really impressive at the time and could see it making an impact on a young, impressionable early 2000s audience. Hell, I still kind of want to watch it, even though I know it won't be as off-the-walls as Dead or Alive or the original Mario Bros. movie.

The rest of the disc is entirely video previews for other Square games with the only outliers being Klonoa 2 (great game!) and Star Wars Episode 1: Super Bombad Racing (eeerruuughhh.)

Score: A slightly more confident 4/5

Demos: Final Fantasy VII

Video Previews: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Chronicles, Star Wars Episode 1: Super Bombad Racing, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Klonoa 2