It's time to get caught up once again on some recent additions to my video game library.
Ape Escape is still a fairly heavy hitter, in terms of how much it costs-- even for the Greatest Hits variant, as I picked up from eBay. It was the first original PlayStation game to require dual analog sticks-- a concept of play controls that I really struggled to grasp back in 1999 after years of being D-Pad reliant. It's still a fun game more than 15 years later. I'm glad to have both the black label and Greatest Hits versions in my library.
WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role, a Greatest Hits variant that's actually worth a bit more than its black-label counterpart, is a game I played a lot of during its release window. I was so big into wrestling at the time, and always had a blast with the arcade-skewed approach that Yuke's took with the SmackDown! series. There's something to be said about the often/lengthy loading times that Know Your Role players have to endure, but we just kind of dealt with it at the time.
Next up...
Another visit to my friends at Retro World Games found a few more goodies, as seen above. I won't write about all of what I got, but I do want to make mention of the two Street Fighter 15th Anniversary controllers. Before this visit, I already had two of these-- A new-in-box Ken model and a loose Chun-Li model. Now I have four, two of which are new-in-box... which are the two main Street Fighter characters. I should get around to using these at some point. And Akuma is probably the one I would use, given that Akuma is the character I use the most. There's a couple of PlayStation 2 games here as well, including a still-sealed NCAA GameBreaker 2001 and the... ummm... dubious WWE-themed Twisted Metal knockoff, WWE Crush Hour.
Let's keep going:
I really don't have a good excuse for not owning NFL Blitz 2001 for the original PlayStation until now. I love Midway and own so many of the company's games... but this one's a bit of an oddity. Maybe it's because it wasn't based on a released arcade game, as Midway didn't release another Blitz after '99. To me, anyway, it just feels different. I definitely lean more toward the two arcade games and their console ports. Even in the cases of Blitz 20-02 and 2003, I still found myself wanting to go back in time... despite the admittedly impressive visuals for the early 2000s. You can tell the difference, I think. Also... hey, look. Another Army Men game! Now I have all of the black-label releases. How many have I tried? One, I think.
Next up...
My collection of sports video games is massive, and the three PlayStation games seen here are not new for me. So why are they here, if I have them already? Well... I only had the discs before, so now I have these in complete-in-case condition. I have been trying to upgrade my loose discs to complete copies, but the process does take time-- and money, especially for the bigger-ticket games, like Einhänder and Mega Man Legends 2 were for me in recent months. Sports games are typically the cheapest and easiest genre of games to upgrade. It just so happens that sports games are also one of my favorite kinds of games to play, so it's a win.
And, finally for this update...
Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon are two of the most iconic characters in original PlayStation history. Crash was basically a PlayStation mascot, replacing Toshinden's Sofia and Sony's own Polygon Man (who is a personal favorite from the URNOT(red)E campaign). Spyro spawned a trio of gradually improving games in a universe of fun characters and colorful settings. There's a reason the Crash and Spyro trilogies were tabbed for remaster status by Activision, and were so well-received. I have most of the original PlayStation games featuring these characters, with only two missing as of this writing-- the Greatest Hits variant of Crash Team Racing and the black-label release of Spyro the Dragon 3. Those are on my want list for 2025. As for these? Crash Bash is another Caddicarus-driven purchase, as he's talked about the game a bit. Spyro 2 in Greatest Hits form isn't as attractive a package as the metallic look of the black-label release... but the game is what's important, and it's an adventure definitely worth taking.
That's it for this installment. As I type this, there's a few more original PlayStation games on their way, and some should be familar to fans. I'll share those next time.
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