The Video Game Critic's
3DO Reviews M-Z

I'm a big fan of this game on the Sega CD/32X, so I was really anticipating the 3DO version to be something special. Night Trap is a full motion video game where you monitor eight rooms of a house, trying to trap thugs who attack a group of girls having a slumber party. The storyline and acting are cheesy, but that's all part of the fun. Beating the game requires trial and error as well as memorization, but I like how events happen in different rooms concurrently, and each time you play you can see something new. To me, this game really puts the capabilities of a CD to good use. Compared to the 32X version, the video looks much cleaner. The video screen is larger and the image is less grainy, but the frame rate looks a bit choppier for some reason. Actually, I found that the cleaner image actually took away somewhat from the mysterious quality of the game. Switching between cameras is faster in this version, but the 3DO controllers tend to be way too sensitive. Night Trap for the 3DO is still a fun game, but this version is hardly an improvement. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

An old 3DO magazine ad suggested that playing this game would cause the ocean to pour forth from your television set, flooding your living room and leaving you with an octopus on your lap. "It's the closest you'll ever come to diving without getting wet!" Not wanting to take any chances, before playing Oceans Below I put on a wet suit, snorkel, and flippers, only to look like an ass when my in-laws stopped by unannounced. As it turns out, the "interactive experience" is more like browsing the special feature menu of a DVD. You simply navigate graphical menus with a cursor and click on fish for more information. Sure, there are some videos of people diving or conveying safety tips, but these small, grainy video clips hardly convey the "20,000 leagues under the sea" experience I had in mind. You begin by choosing one of the numerous worldwide dive locations, and are presented with a composite photograph showing a static ocean floor. Then can then scroll around the picture and click on objects, which initiate short but informative videos explaining what the heck you just clicked on. There are over 200 clips, and thankfully they tend to be short, although the picture quality should have been better. Occasionally you'll stumble across tiny pieces of "not-so-buried treasure", but it's not too exciting. I suppose you could learn something from this CD, especially if you're interested in diving, but the loading time really ruined it for me. In the end, it's just another failed 3DO experiment. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

If you own a 3DO, you must own this game! It's fun and addicting, and never seems tedious like other golf games. The courses look a bit grainy, but the slopes undulate and curve realistically. The round swing meter is something EA has honed over many years of making golf games. It's always tempting to go for the extra power, but that increases your chances of a bad shot. The sound effects are excellent, and when you're putting, the commentator makes his remarks in a low, hushed voice. The game moves along at a nice clip, although there are occasional pauses for disk access. You get three real 18-hole courses and 56 pro golfers to compete against. Like the Playstation version, this stands as one of the finest golf games of all time. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Released at a time with first person shooters were the rage, PO'ed carved out its niche by being the most colorful, offbeat game of its kind. Gamers took notice of its twisted sense of humor and odd assortment of weapons including frying pans, butcher knives, and drills. The frying pan may sound like a pretty lame weapon, but it's surprisingly satisfying to clank a monster over the head with it. You play the role of an intergalactic cook whose ship has been invaded by a bizarre collection of aliens including "buttheads" (walking asses), bat-like creatures, and robots. But what really distinguishes PO'ed is its "vertical" dimension. There's plenty of platform jumping, as well the ability to hover with a jetpack. It's different, but it doesn't work well from the first-person point of view, and it's far too easy to overshoot your landing and become disoriented. The controls are slippery, and you're constantly sliding off the edges of platforms. In terms of graphics, the weapons you see in your hands look great, but the scenery looks terribly pixilated and the blocky monsters are poorly animated. The game lets you save at any time, but since it never prompts you, it's very easy to forget. PO'ed has some originality, but it's aged poorly and isn't nearly as entertaining as it once was. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

This game is billed as "the first 3-D Pinball Thrill Ride". Let's hope it's the last, because PaTaank is an awful mess. I suppose the designers were trying to be original and innovative, but this "first-person pinball" project should have never seen the light of day. The goal is to bounce around a pixelated 3D world trying to hit specific targets, but the choppy frame rate makes it hard to tell what the hell is going on! The three tables (carnival of love, surf, and disaster) are flashy but fairly small and uninteresting. Even when I got the hang of the game I wasn't having any fun. I'd have to chalk PaTaank up as a bad idea that was poorly executed. And who was the marketing genius who came up with that idiotic name that no one can pronounce? © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

What a disappointment! With the 3DO's extensive video capabilities, I was expecting some sweet-looking digitized courses, but instead I get a bunch of angular polygon holes with terribly pixelated trees. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the grainy video "fly by" of the first hole. The large digitized golfers look great, but there are no pros to be found. The gameplay borders on tedious; it takes forever to set up a friggin' shot! Besides going through the normal process of selecting your club and aiming, you have to mess with setting your "stance" and deal with a dorky-looking caddy in a jumpsuit. I wish they had included some options to expedite the process, but there are precious few options available, and none during the actual game! At least the swing meter works pretty well, and the game is certainly a challenge. Another problem is the audio - or lack of it! There are hardly any sound effects, and no commentary at all. Last, but not least, there's only ONE course. Pebble Beach Golf simply isn't up to par compared with other golf games. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Before you gamers get too excited about this one, I should warn you that Phoenix 3 is not a sequel to the popular bird-shooting arcade game of the early 80s. No, Phoenix 3 is half platform shooter and half first-person space shooter. While neither part is great, the package as a whole may be worth checking out. After a cheesy "live action" video introduction (boring), the game begins with some simple 2D platform action in a post-apocalyptic world. You control a large, digitized man who controls quite well. He can walk while squatting, shoot from ladders, fire in eight directions, hang onto ledges, and pull himself up. The scenery isn't much to look at, but the Alien-inspired enemies look slimy enough. It's fun to mow down these creeps with your rapid-fire gun and watch blood and internal organs fly, and the accompanying sound of splattering guts makes the mayhem all the more satisfying. The audio is superb, with crisp, digitized sound effects and an adrenaline pumping musical score. But despite the high-quality presentation, the gameplay is unpolished. The controls for climbing down are confusing, and you're often forced to make "blind leaps" - only to find a bed of spikes below. Shooting diagonally up is a problem, as your shots often miss their target for no reason at all. As a nice change of pace, you'll also get to participate in some first-person dog fighting action in space. These stages also look nice, with a finely detailed heads-up display and 3D alien ships. Visually it reminded me of Colony Wars for the Playstation. Unfortunately, you need to rely completely on your guided torpedoes to eliminate your enemies, because the twin cannons are worthless. The explosions look terrific, but the lack of variety makes this part feel repetitive. Phoenix 3 is not a great game by any stretch, but it has its moments, and will probably hold your interest for a while. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

On paper, Primal Rage may be the greatest video game of all time. With gigantic, motion-captured dinosaurs and apes battling for dominion over a post-apocalyptic world, what's not to like? I remember drooling over the screenshots of Primal Rage in magazines - they absolutely blew my mind. Then, I played it. For a game that looks so damn good, Primal Rage plays remarkably bad. First, there's the issue of the animation - or lack of it. Sure, the creatures look amazing in their pre-battle poses, but their attacks are choppy beyond belief! Next, there's the abysmal collision detection. You'll witness gratuitous flying blood even when a claw misses by a mile! Between the stilted animation, kicked-up dust, and flying blood, it's generally hard to tell what the heck's going on. In theory, you can pick up and eat human spectators for health, but this is so hard to execute that most players won't even bother. That said, this 3DO version is probably the best you'll encounter outside of the arcade. The graphics are crisp, and the creatures are much larger than the SNES or Genesis versions. The active volcanoes and devastated city skylines in the backgrounds are really fun to look at. The controls are responsive as well, although I don't like how the game pauses momentarily when a match ends to load the "victory" animation. This 3DO version of Primal Rage also includes video intros for each character, but frankly, these are awful. Poorly narrated and badly pixelated, you wonder why they even bothered. The game displays statistics and high scores, but sadly, these aren't saved when you power the system off. Overall, I'd have to say this is an above average version of a below average fighter. 2D fighter fans should take note, but casual gamers can look past this. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

Games like this could give the 3DO a bad name. Oh wait, that's right - the 3DO has had a bad name for years! But if I could grade Quarantine on innovation alone, it would receive my highest accolades. It's a fully 3D, drive-anywhere game with elements of car combat and taxi driving. Pretty ambitious stuff for 1994, but as far as the gameplay goes, Quarantine absolutely sucks. You're a taxi driver in an imprisoned city full of armed lunatics. The cheesy video intro makes you realize just how low budget these 3DO games were. I've heard this game compared to Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast), but I think that's giving it way too much credit. Quarantine actually resembles a very rough version of Twisted Metal (Playstation). The city is huge, but the pixelated facades are nothing to look at, and the people are little more than cardboard cutouts. You feel boxed in. Driving passengers to their destinations while mowing down thugs sounds like great fun, but the execution falters. Your view is first person only, which is part of the problem. The controls are awful, especially when trying to turn the car around. Mindless, pixelated vehicles ram you from out of nowhere, causing you to lose your passengers. There's plenty of gratuitous blood when you run over or shoot people, but those huge red splotches look ridiculous. You constantly need to consult a slow-loading map screen to see where you're going. You can upgrade weapons and repair your car, but when the basic gameplay falters this bad, extra fluff like that falls to the wayside. Perhaps the most telling sign about this game was the fact that it actually made me ill. I don't know if it was the lousy frame rate, terrible graphics, frustrating control, or the burrito I had eaten earlier, but I actually become nauseated and had to stop playing. On a positive note, I did enjoy a few of the selectable background tunes, featuring some vintage early 90's alternative rock. But no soundtrack could save this game. Quarantine had the right idea, but the technology just wasn't ready yet. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Honored by a certain game magazine as the "game of the year" in 1995, Return Fire was as overrated back then as it is today! Okay, it's not a bad game, but once you get past the fancy window dressing, you're left with a very mediocre shooter. Designed with two-player head-to-head action in mind, the game utilizes a vertical split screen, isometric view. Since each side only offers a window into a larger playing area, an overhead "scanner" is also displayed. The object is simple - capture your opponent's flag and return it to your base. You have a fleet of tanks, helicopters, jeeps, and armored vehicles available in your underground base, but you can only control one at a time, which severely limits your options. When one of your vehicles is destroyed, either by ground fire or by your opponent, you're returned to your base to select a replacement. Only the jeeps can transport flags, which provides an interesting twist. I played Return Fire when it first came out back in mid-90's, and again recently with a group of friends. In both cases, it was an under-whelming experience. Still, I can understand why people were excited about Return Fire back in the day. The game's slick presentation, scaling cameras, and satisfying explosions were certainly impressive for its time. Add in surround sound, an orchestrated soundtrack, and vintage video clips, and it's almost enough to make you overlook its tepid gameplay. But not in 2006! © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.

One thing's for sure - there's no shortage of crappy games for the 3DO. Rise of the Robots tries to be a high-tech, one-on-one 2D fighter, but its flaws are so blatant you have to wonder what the designers were smoking. I will give the game credit for some nice robot designs. The main robot character, ECO35-2, is basically humanoid in shape, but the other six robots take on wild designs like crabs, gorillas, or front loaders. They look incredibly menacing in the cut-scenes, but less so in the game itself. These cut-scenes are easily the best part of the game - they look great and contain some cool futuristic music. The one-player mode challenges you to take ECO35-2 through a series of individual battles, which is interesting until your opponents start repeating, at which time the game becomes boring. As you would expect, there is a two-player mode, but player one can only be ECO35-2. What the heck is THAT all about?? There are three punches and three kicks (light, medium, hard), but they all look exactly the same! The controls are sluggish, and trying to pull off special moves is futile. That's not much of an issue though, because the weak fighting engine doesn't demand much technique anyway. There are no interesting backgrounds to view during the fights, and no music either! Rise of the Robots is painfully shallow compared to classic fighters like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat. Even if you like this kind of thing, Rise of the Robots won't do much time in your 3DO. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

This outstanding game was probably the pinnacle of the Road Rash series. Gorgeous graphics, rocking music, and loads of options compliment the same exciting gameplay made famous on the Genesis. The production quality is great, with high octane music and stylish video cut scenes. The five tracks all feature beautiful, constantly changing scenery. In the city areas, you drive down building-lined streets teeming with traffic and pedestrians, something that was never possible on the Genesis. Most of the objects look digitized, and the framerate keeps up pretty well as you careen down city streets at breakneck speeds. The gameplay is almost identical to the Genesis version; you can kick, punch, or smack your opponents with a club or chain. You can even beat up on the police and ride over pedestrians. Some of the advanced bikes feature a "nitro" speed burst. The video scenes showing gangs of bikers are entertaining and the music is fantastic, featuring Soundgarden, Hammerbox, and Paw, to name a few. The "Big Game" mode allows you to earn money, purchase bikes, and progress through five levels. The set of tracks in each level are the same, except they get longer and tougher. I've always been a big Road Rash fan, and I was very impressed with this. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.

This was one of the better fighting games spawned by the 2D fighter epidemic of the early 90s. In fact, Samurai Shodown has got to be one of the most beautiful games I've ever laid eyes on. The colors and rich and vivid, and the Street Fighter-style graphics look fantastic. There are 12 very interesting characters to choose from, and they all brandish swords or other sharp weapons. The game plays much like Street Fighter 2, with three kicks, three punches and an assortment of special moves. One unique feature is how the screen scales out when the fighters are spread apart, although this gimmick really doesn't add much to the gameplay. The gorgeous backgrounds are Asian-inspired, and none of the voice dialogue has been translated, which is probably for the best. I had a great time playing this game. There's some slow-down, but the action and animation is first-rate. Unfortunately, the six-button controller is not supported, and you need to hold a shoulder button to activate your kicks, which works fine. Samurai Shodown made me wish ALL 3DO games were in 2D! © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Whoa, this game is amazing. Slam and Jam's characters are rendered with 2D sprites, but man, these guys are huge. Better yet, they're fluidly animated and scale with minimal pixelation. You view the action from one end of the court at about the height of the basket. While this isn't always an ideal view (it's hard to judge depth), it works fine for the most part. Slam and Jam's gameplay seems inspired by NBA Jam, with its frenetic, non-stop action and lenient foul calling. There's plenty of razzle-dazzle, including behind-the-back passes, tip-ins, and tremendous alley-oops. The players really elevate, and hang on the rim after dunking - even pulling down the backboard a bit. Slam and Jam seems very offensive-minded at first, but once you learn to whale away on the steal and block buttons, you'll be inflicting turnovers left and right. Van Earl Wright does a nice job with the voice-overs, enthusiastically shouting lines like "Drives the lane!", "Cleans the glass with authority!", and "Delivers the thunder!". Unfortunately, there's no NBA license, and it's hard to root for fictional players like Jay Chisholm, Jose Peck, Adrian Blatt, and Peter Pence. Also, if you plan to play a full season, be aware that this game will consume a huge chunk of your memory storage (5K bytes). But 3DO fans looking for some arcade-style sports action can't go wrong with Slam and Jam. © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.

There's an interesting concept buried in this game, but I'm not sure it's worth exploring or should remain buried. Space Hulk appears to be another generic first-person shooter on the surface, but it also contains a healthy dose of real-time strategy. Playing the game involves directing a squad of well-armored "terminator" robots on a series of missions through monster-infested labyrinths. Successfully completing these missions requires issuing specific orders to each robot such as follow, advance, retreat, cover, and open door. Although these are issued via an overhead map, you can take direct control of any robot at any time, causing the screen to switch to a first-person view. With this point of view, you can move around freely and engage in shooting or hand-to-hand combat. I spent a good portion of the game playing from the map view, manipulating robots as if they were pieces on a board. Space Hulk's graphics are exceptional, showing off the 3DO's ability to render rich textures and realistic lighting. As you roam the hallways, the doors and walls look nearly photo-realistic. Unfortunately, the frame-rate is lousy, and consequently navigating the hallways is more awkward than it should be. The well-designed creatures look fearsome (especially up close), and blasting them results in a generous amount of blood sprayed over the walls. I gave it a chance, but to be honest, Space Hulk is not my kind of game. I like the concept of issuing orders to the other robots and working as a team, but that's easier said than done. The game favors strategy over mindless shooting, and there's a major learning curve involved. In addition, the robots move slowly, and the gameplay seems to drag at times. I was able to complete some of the early missions, but as the objectives grew more complex, Space Hulk started to give me a headache. Only the most patient gamers will be able to fully appreciate this one. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

"Hey, haven't you heard the news? Interactive live video is the future of video games! Everybody knows that!" What you have just read was not a dramatization. Believe it or not, this was the conventional wisdom of the game industry in the early 90's, and that explains why we have embarrassments like Space Pirates. Judged on sheer cheesiness alone, it's hard to believe that this was produced in the 1990's. It more closely resembles one of those low-budget music videos from the early 80's. Space Pirate's shallow gameplay involves aiming a cursor and shooting at live-action "space pirates" that jump out of the scenery. You can also use a light gun if you own one of these ultra-rare 3DO peripherals. As you might imagine, the production values are rock bottom and the acting is so awful that it's almost worth watching. The general quality would suggest the footage was filmed by high school student in a rented warehouse, and the acting skills are a notch below those you'd witness at a neighborhood haunted house around Halloween. And here's a big surprise: the gameplay absolutely sucks. You don't have much time to react to the action onscreen, but once you've been through a scene, you know where the people will pop out. I don't know how this plays with the light gun, but I found the controller pad to be pretty [expletive] sorry. Making matters worse, each time you mess up some old man rags on you about how you let everybody down. [Expletive] you! At least I'm not stuck in some crummy FMV game! Topping things off, it's downright disconcerting when the evil villain says "winners don't do drugs!" during the intro. Wait a second - since when do we listen to the bad guys? Does this mean we should do drugs? Mixed messages like this are what put teenagers on a path to drug addiction, crime, and despair. Fortunately, no teenagers actually played this game, because their were too busy playing good games on their Genesis and Super Nintendo systems. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

Like Battlezone updated for the 90's, Stellar 7 puts you in a floating tank on colorful distant planets, blasting any polygons that move. Too bad it's saddled with a ridiculous name that makes people not want to play it! Draxon's graphics are commendable, with clean visuals and an exceptionally smooth frame-rate. While tracking down alien craft using your handy radar display, you can also employ special powers using buttons that line your dashboard. I was expecting these powers to elevate Draxon's Revenge to "the next level", but was disappointed at how lame most of these are. One is a cloaking device, and another lets you detect enemies with cloaking devices. There's one that lets you ram enemies, and another that lets you drop mines (snore). Even the "super cannon" is only a marginal improvement over your default weapon. Enemy tanks are pretty tame, but the flying "skimmers" are pain in the ass because you really need to lead your shots to nail those bastards. There are some very nice explosion effects, and crystal clear techno music really helps you get into a groove. The instruction manual recommends that you "keep moving", and that's probably the best advice I've ever heard in my entire life. Otherwise you're a sitting duck. Once your tank is destroyed, you can record your high score to a top-10 ranking chart. Stellar 7: Draxon's Revenge is a little predictable and could use some pizzazz, but it serves its purpose as a slick arcade shooter for the 3DO. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

I have mixed feelings about this game. Yes, Street Fighter 2 is a classic 2D fighting game, but this version isn't as great as it could have been. The graphics, for one thing, are only slightly better than the SNES version, and don't look nearly as sharp as 3DO's Samurai Shodown. They seem somewhat fuzzy, and some colors flicker. The music sounds a little jazzier than the SNES, but the voice samples are muffled. Perhaps the biggest letdown is the fact that this game didn't support my six-button controller (I think it requires a special controller). It's still playable with a three-button controller (five including the shoulder buttons), but that "P" button does NOT cut it as a sixth button (and don't try to tell me otherwise!). The game has three speed settings: Level one is like slow-motion (ugh), and level three is insanely fast (forget it), but level two is just about right. The biggest surprise is the inclusion of additional moves I never saw on the SNES. I was really surprised to see Zangief's glove, Dhalsim's upward flame, and Blanka's jump-spin. This is the kind of stuff that makes Street Fighter fans giddy as schoolgirls. Street Fighter 2 on the 3DO is somewhat of an underachiever, but considering the system, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything much better! © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Total Eclipse was probably pretty cool when it came out, but now it just looks like every other boring 3DO space game. You view the action from just behind your ship, which happens to look just like an X-Wing fighter. Eclipse offers rapid-fire shooting action over planet surfaces and inside tunnels. You're always moving in a set direction, although the stages are wide enough that you can sometimes take alternate routes. The game has a few things going for it. The scenery isn't particularly detailed (just pixelated textures), but the framerate is smooth and I like how the enemies disintegrate when shot. By flying through rings, you can collect power-ups and amass some serious firepower. But Total Eclipse is not without its problems. I couldn't get the "roll" controls to work, and sometimes you inadvertently scrape against the side of a mountain that was out of view. It's hard to judge the position of your ship in the tunnels, and the background guitar music is marginal. The action gets repetitive, and the scenery all looks the same after a while. To be honest, there's not much substance here, just some 3D graphics that looked good in 1993. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

One to four players can participate in this zany game show, full of wacky puzzle games, old movie footage, corny dialog, and madcap fun. Trip Hawkins, the inventor of the 3DO, produced this game. An overly enthusiastic host runs the show along with his lovely assistant. Since Twisted is mostly video, you might expect it to be slow, but it's not. The clips are short and the game moves at a steady pace. As far as the acting goes, it's not quite to the point of embarrassing, but close. I wasn't impressed with the bizarre contestants, but some of the commercials really did crack me up, like the product that was both toothpaste AND shoe polish. The "nothing toy" for dogs was also pretty clever. The action begins with two to four players on a large game board. Most spaces initiate "challenges", or mini-games played by one person. There are eight games in all, mostly consisting of puzzles, memory matches, or trivia challenges. Most are amusing, but some get annoying after repeated plays. The overall production quality of this game is pretty good, and the graphics and sound quality is commendable. Twisted The Game Show grew on me, but many players (like my wife) will hate the cheesy concept behind it all. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.

In the early 90's there were all kinds of bad Mortal Kombat rip-offs, but Way of the Warrior is particularly embarrassing. Where do we begin? Well, first of all, the cast of fighters is absolutely vomit-inducing. There's a ninja with a pink belt, an outback hillbilly, a redneck woman, a homo armed with fans, a black guy in a tie, and an Asian martial artist who looks like he's about 14. And that's just a sample. The graphics are remarkably photorealistic and colorful, but the animation is choppy and fighters look stiff. It's painfully evident that the developers knew absolutely nothing about martial arts. The attacks look stupid and the fights look utterly ridiculous. The controls are unresponsive and the characters hop around like fleas. The backgrounds are colorful but lack personality and fail to convey atmosphere. The audio consists of non-stop White Zombie head banging garbage that you'll be sick of by the second round. Other annoying sound effects include idiotic yells and quips from the fighters. Way of the Warrior is so bad that it's hard to comprehend. It's really more of a curiosity than a game. But perhaps the most shocking part is the fact that it was made by Naughty Dog, the same developers who later would produce the awesome Crash Bandicoot games for the Playstation. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

I thought this game looked awfully familiar at first, and then I realized that it's somewhat of a sequel to Pebble Beach Golf, using the same game engine and menu design. The unique thing about Wicked 18 is that it contains eighteen wild "fantasy" holes. You'll see totem poles, volcanoes, and islands floating in the sky. The holes are extreme in design, with steep hills and narrow canyons. One particular hole looks like a giant pyramid. It's a cool idea, and a nice break from the plain courses found in most golf games, but the execution is weak. The graphics engine has a hard time rendering these radical landscapes. The ball often appears to travel through solid walls, and it's very difficult to tell where it lands. Wicked 18 tends to be more confusing than anything else. At least the user interface has been tightened up a bit since Pebble Beach Golf, so you don't have to deal with a caddy as much. The background music is irritating as hell - it sounds like carnival music. Compared to Pebble Beach Golf, I'd say this game takes one step forward and two steps back. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.