EW on the PlayStation

SYSTEM ADDICT

EW, Sep. 22'1995 Someone posted it on the net....

With the PlayStation, Sony pursues game and fortune

Sony is one of the most storied and formidable brand names in the global market place. Yet when the $40billion Japanese electronics conglomerate announced in May that it was going to join the home-videogame fray, most observers simply shrugged. The consensus seemed to be: So you brought us the transistor radio, the Walkman, and the VCR. What makes you think you're ready for the Sonic-eat-Mario carnage of the videogame industry?

If there's something to be learned from those skeptics, it is this: Never take Sony lightlty. The Sony PlayStation (Sony, $299) is a technological marvel, a robust 32-bit machine capable of delivering slick, 3-d graphics, bright CD-quality sound, and quicker-than-quick action. But video game systems are like Miss America contestants: Good looks and technical enhancements will only get you so far. With the Sony PlayStation, Sony has unvieled not just a sexy game machine but a smartly realized marketing strategy: innovative games, a broad software library, and full support from all the major game developers. Overnight, Sony has become a principle player in the $5 billion videogame market, right next to seasoned rivals Nintendo and Sega.

Cannily, Sony promises that at least 15 games will be available within a month of the PlayStation's Sept. 9th release. (In comparison, the same number of titles is currently available for the Sega Saturn - the PlayStation's chief 32-bit competitor - which hit stores in May.) More important, many of these early titles are eminently playable. For example, Ridge Racer (Namco, $49.99), an asphalt-smooth autoracing simulation, you'll probably never see most of the rich, seamless graphics, since the game's rubber-burning pace will have you unblinkingly focused on the road. Similarly, you'll have little time to admire the photo-realistic background scenery in Battle Arena Toshinden (Sony, $68.99), since you'll be concentrating on the cat-quick combat in this 3-D brawler. Pity. Violence has never been so lovingly framed.

To see a truly original application of the PlayStation's capabilities, plug into the jaunty world of Jumping Flash (Sony, $67.99). As a hop-happy robot rabbit, you skip through a fanciful 3-D world, crushing all manner of baddies (frogs, bugs) underfoot. The first-rabbit perspective makes for a neatly hypnotic effect: With each jump, your sense of free-falling glee increases. Perhaps the most euphoric sensation comes at the height of a turbo-charged jump, when you can look below and see the world quietly slip away. And if you squint hard, you can almost make out all those nay-saying industry cynics gaping on the ground.

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