Ranking the Crash Bandicoot Demos

 Crash Bandicoot has had a long history with demos. This history dates all the way back to the first game having a demo on Interactive Sampler Vol. 3. Since then,  every single console game up until Titans has had a demo on a PS1, or PS2 demo disc. And the best part about it is that I own all of these demos throughout multiple discs, so why not look at every single one, and rate them with a letter grade. Before we dive in, keep in mind, I'm rating just the demo, and sometimes this may not reflect my feelings on the final game. I am also rating these on two aspects, if I find the demo fun, and if I think the content represents the final game well. With that said, let's spin on in.

Crash Bandicoot: B

Starting the list, we have the first  Crash Bandicoot, funny how that works. The level they used in the demo is Jungle Rollers, the second level in the final game. The level plays like the final level, but I found it interesting that they unlock the green gem path in this level, which gives you a few extra lives. I think this is a good pick for the level to showcase, it's fun, but not too tough, and I just really don't care about N. Sanity Beach, so I'm glad they didn't go with it. If I can give one gripe, it's that I think there should be one more level. Boulders would've been a good pick in my opinion, because it's a different gimmick level, and one that I think stands out, especially since every Crash game would go on to have a chase level, which proves it worked wonders.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back: A

Crash 2's demo picks Snow Go as the level to represent the final game. This is a decent level to go with in my opinion, as it shows off the new snow themed levels, shows off Nitro Crates, and overall is just a fun level. I again do think one more level would've cemented the demo into S rank, but this is still a great demo. If I could've picked one more level, I would've gone with Hang Eight for the Jet Board gimmick, and it's overall fun factor. You want to show what's new in Crash 2 to make it stand out from the first game, and I think Hang Eight would've done that perfectly.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: D

Before we get into Crash Bandicoot 3, I have to mention that there are two demos for it. This is the only game we're talking about like this today, so I'm just going to treat both of them as one demo, this will make sense later.  Crash 3 picks Under Pressure and Midnight Run as it's representing levels. Midnight Run is a decent pick, it's a fun level and it shows off Coco being playable in this game. However, Under Pressure is boring. Even though it does show off a new gimmick in Crash 3, it's definitely one of the least fun gimmicks in Crash 3. This, and the fact Midnight Run is not really a new gimmick is why I give Crash 3 a low rating, despite it being my favorite game in the series. If I were to change the included levels, I would either change them to Toad Village, or Makin' Waves. Toad Village is a fun first level that would put over the time travel motif of 3 well, and Makin' Waves is the first jet ski level, a new gimmick that's actually fun. Replacing Under Pressure with one of those two would improve Crash 3's demo by a few letters. 

Crash Team Racing: C

We're at the first Crash racing game, and these are going to be harder to judge. I was never really into these games as a kid, and even now I would still rather sit with Mario Kart. Maybe one day I'll sit down with them properly, and learn them, but for now, don't take these opinions too seriously. Crash Team Racing's demo has three tracks, Papu's Pyramid, Dingo Canyon, and Blizzard Bluff.  However these are divided into player numbers, so Papu's Pyramid is one player, Dingo Canyon is two player, and Blizzard Bluff is four player. I mostly just played the one player course as a kid, because I didn't have friends. It was fine, and I can't really say anything else, I'm just not into the game.

Crash Bash: S

Now we got everyone's favorite party game to bully. Crash Bash is a game I haven't played much, because who would want to play a party game by themselves? But the demo is actually pretty good. You get three levels to choose from, Pogo Painter, Polar Panic, and Pogo-a-Gogo. The amount is good, and the fact you can do the trophy, crystal, and relic challenge is neat. I kind of wished they picked a different game to replace one of the two pogo levels. CrashBall can be seen, but is inaccessible, and I think that would've worked better. Enough of the small talk though, because there is one other minor detail that gives Crash Bash the S rank, the fact that you can unlock the full game with a code. The developers accidentally left the level select debug in the game, and with a code you can enable it, and play everything. Knowing this, Crash Bash has to get an S rank.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex: A

Wrath of Cortex's demo has two levels to play through, Arctic Antics, and Bamboozled. Both of these levels are pretty fun, and Bamboozled introduces the new ball levels, which were a highlight of Wrath of Cortex. I quite like Wrath of Cortex by the way, I think it gets too much hate. Sure it didn't change much from Crash 3, but not every game needs to be a grand leap, and I liked a lot of the things Wrath of Cortex tried to do. Anyway, going back to the demo, there is one complaint. The levels are on a time limit, and it can be easy to not finish the level before you get booted out, especially if you try to get every crate in Arctic Antics, but other than that the demo is great.

Crash Nitro Kart: D

Crash Nitro Kart is up next with a variety of characters to choose from, you can even play as the egg boy himself, N. Trance. There are two tracks  to pick from, Jungle Boogie, and Out of Mime. I didn't have a fun time here, because Nitro Kart to me is a more clunky, slower Crash Team Racing. With that in mind, I have to rank it low, because it presents less than Crash Team Racing's demo, and it's just not fun.

Crash Twinsanity: S

Crash Twinsanity brings something pretty cool on boot up, some unique  Cortex dialogue done by Lex Lang himself. The dialogue introduces you to the demo, while breaking the fourth wall, with Cortex calling himself the star of the franchise. After that you're free to play whichever level you wish from the three rooms, with the Iceberg Lair acting as a hub world of sorts for this purpose. The three levels in this demo are Jungle Bungle, Cavern Castatrophe, and Totem Hokum. These three levels are fun, and all of them do a good job of showing what makes Crash Twinsanity such a unique game. Honestly with the presentation, demo exclusive content, and it selling the game well, it deserves a very high ranking.

Crash Tag Team Racing: B

Finally, the last game we're going to talk about today, Crash Tag Team Racing. Booting the demo up, you will immediately notice the fifteen minute timer on the left of the screen. You only get fifteen minutes here, and it's honestly not enough time, so reload that demo to experience everything. You start out in  the park on foot, and you can do side quests for some of the characters, play the bowling minigame, race in a few races, and do a few gags. There's honestly a lot here to do, and could keep you busy for a good half an hour. The biggest problem is that this is Crash Tag Team Racing, a game that's not particularly liked, and is definitely the weakest racer of the three Crash racers. However, this demo is very good, and would keep you busy for a bit, so in that sense, I feel a higher ranking is deserved. 

Well, that's every single Crash demo ranked, and boy am my arms tired. I  could do this again for another franchise, Spyro being a good option if I do this again,  but not anytime soon. I'm crashed out for the time being, and adding a dragon will only make it worse. Anyway, have a great day!

Puyo Pop Fever: How a Little Spice Can Change the Dish

I'm a bit of a puzzle game fan. Whether it's Tetris, Dr. Mario, Puzzle Bobble, or many others, I like popping these games in to play for a few rounds. My Japanese Sega Saturn library can best be described as Sega classics, and Puzzle games. I could probably do a post on Sega Saturn puzzle games, but that will be for another day. Today, I'm going to talk about a puzzle franchise that up until recently, I had no interest in, that franchise being Puyo Puyo.

I think I can confidently say that a lot of people were first exposed to Puyo Puyo from Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, or maybe that's just the Sonic fan in me showing. I played it as a kid, through Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3. I didn't like it back then, but I also didn't care for the genre back then. However, even as an adult who loves the genre,  I still don't like it, and I know exactly why, I'm not good with setting up combos. Combos in Puyo Puyo require forward thinking, and luck. You need to be able think ahead, and if you can't, well you're not getting far, because the CPU will destroy you. Add on to the fact that I tend to prefer high score puzzlers over head to head puzzlers, and yeah, Puyo Puyo was just never for me. That was until one recent addition to the collection changed that.

During one afternoon eBay session, I saw a Japanese copy of Puyo Pop Fever on PS2 for cheap, so I decided to grab it. I'm always looking for PS2 games to add to my collection, and even though I didn't really  care for Puyo Puyo, it was still a puzzle game to add, and I had heard good things about it. When it arrived, I played it for a little bit, not really expecting to enjoy it, but I ended up liking it. Now, I'm not going to say this game made me fall in love with the entire franchise, and I'm now a Puyo Puyo superfan, but I will say that if you want to give Puyo Puyo another chance, you should try Puyo Pop Fever.

Puyo Pop Fever adds some spice from the spice cabinet into normal Puyo Puyo. It's not a new dish entirely, but it adds flavor to the original to give it a different taste. For starters, we must mention the new Fever mode, because it's in the game's title. Fever mode is a special mode that activates after filling a 7 point meter. This meter fills by one every time you counter trash Puyos entering your field. Fever mode gives you preset Puyo patterns to make chains off of, and if you're fast, it's a handy way to send a lot of trash to your opponent. 

Now, if this was the only spice added, I'd probably not care much, but there are a few other bits of spice I did not see in previous titles I've played. There are a few new pieces in this version, these being the "L-shaped" piece, the "Yin-Yang" piece, and the Big Puyo. The "L-shaped" piece is 2 matching colored Puyo pieces, with an additional differently colored Puyo on the end of it. I call it the "L-shaped" piece, because in some orientations, it looks like an L. The "Yin-Yang" piece is a block of 4 Puyos, 2 lines of 2 different colors, and as its dropping, its shaped like an "Yin-Yang" symbol to me. Finally there's the Big Puyo, which is just a block of 4 matching Puyo. There's one more little bit of spice to mention, which is if you clear all the Puyos on your  field, you receive a small pile of Puyo that you can use to chain  a small combo in order to give trash to the other player, it's a nice little incentive. None of these are major game changers to me, but they help spice up the traditional Puyo formula, which was stale to me at this point.

I do also want to mention the personality of this game. I didn't really care for the presentation of previous Puyo Puyo games, even the earlier Japanese games.  Although the older games have cute character designs, they don't have much else to an English speaking man who can't read Japanese. I'm not blaming the games on that by the way, that would be like me blaming an anime for not making sense, but I'm watching it without subtitles, I’m not the intended audience. Puyo Pop Fever though is one of those games with language settings, so even though I bought the Japanese version, I can put it in English, which means I can enjoy the dialogue. Battle intros bring a smile to my face here, because the voice acting is silly in an humourous way, and it being in English lets me understand what is going on. The game’s also pretty colorful and has interesting background art, meaning your play field is not some boring rocks, looking at you Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean  Machine. 

Puyo Pop Fever is not a game that's going to completely change your mind about Puyo  Puyo. If you hate these games, and can't stand them at all, yea this isn't gonna be for you. However, if you want something new from Puyo, a little spice on the traditional formula, Puyo Pop Fever might be for you. I am certainly a little more open-minded to the franchise now, and I might look into other games. I hear Puyo Puyo Sun is pretty good, and I believe it changes up the formula, so maybe one day I will have to look at it. But until then, have a great day!

PlayStation Interactive Sampler Disc 1: The beginning

I have a rather large collection of US PlayStation demo discs at this point. I have every US PS2 Magazine demo disc, and almost every PlayStation  Underground volume. I'll probably yap about them in a future post, but not today. Today I wanna yap about a part of a recent addition, being Vol 1. of the PlayStation Interactive Sampler discs. I acquired several of these in an eBay lot recently, and I might yap about other volumes in the future, but as the first post on this mess of a blog, I find it poetic to yap about one of the first demo discs on the original PlayStation.

Before I dive into this disc, I want to share a fun fact I learnt while doing a tiny bit of research. There are actually two versions of this disc, one bundled with the console, and another apparently sold in stores. The difference is the packaging here, the store versions removes references to Mortal Kombat 3, and Loaded, both being mature  rated games. I don't know if these 2 titles are removed on the disc, but if so, that's crappy. I own the pack-in version if that wasn't made clear.

Booting the demo disc up brings you a little intro followed by a list of the games featured on the disc. This is peak 90s aesthetic to me, trying to be extreme, cool, and hip, which is something I enjoy. The games with playable demos are Loaded, Wipeout, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, and Mortal Kombat 3, while NHL Faceoff, NBA Gameday, Destruction Derby, and Descent are video previews. This disc is pretty light on content  compared  to future demo discs,  but keep in mind this is a disc released around the PS1's launch. 

Do I think this is a great demo disc today? No, not really. I am a little biased, because I tend to prefer later PS1 stuff, around 1998 and onwards. This is 1996, so it's that launch period of the PS1, a time I'm less accustomed to. Now that's not to say all of these games suck, but I will say nothing here is something I really enjoyed. Wipeout is the best game here in my opinion, but even that is just a 1 lap 2 minute course. Most of these demos are under 5 minutes, hard to get anything out of them now. Now for 1996 that's fine, this was a new thing for a lot of people, and to get even something small in their console bundled in will surely distract them for a bit, but in a modern lens, this is good for collectors wanting to own a bunch of demo discs, but there's nothing for a player here, for that you should buy an Underground demo disc. I do get how its silly to  talk playability in a demo disc, because it’s 2026, and if you want to play any  game on ps1, there's so many options, but I am a silly guy who has played arguably too many demo discs, and I do find fun in them, but this one was just cool for the novelty, nothing more. 

That's Vol 1  of the PlayStation Interactive Sampler  Disc. I love demo discs,. so expect to see more demo discs yapped about. I got over a hundred of them, so I'm not lacking at all. I might  even have more demo discs than games at this point, which is sad to think about. Anyway, have a great day.