Pandemonium! (Crystal Dynamics)

2D/3D platform action adventure game.
1 player
No save options
Kids to Adults
Difficulty: Moderate

I remember when Crash stepped into the video game scene and dazzled us
with spectacular 3D graphics and gameplay that set the tone for future
gaming. Its innovation of polygonal characters moving in a 3D world and
its unique inward gameplay movement was enough for some us to hail it a
great breakthrough in today’s technology. Never before did a game this
great looking and play mechanics was ever seen on any existing console
hardware (8-bit, 16-bit, or for that matter, 3DO, Jaguar, or Saturn.)
Obviously PSX is at the fore-front core of 32-bit game revolution, and
from the likes of recent new releases like Pandemonium, PSX wants to
rid of the old world and move into new, exhilarating experiences.

Pandemonium is another title exploiting all of PSX’s hardware to the
max., and by the looks of it, Sony continues to boast onto software
developers to join their philosophy of the 90’s 3D revolution. PSX made
its debut back in 95 with some hefty 3D games that really turned some
eyes, mainly: Warhawk, Battle Arena Toshinden, Jumping Jack Flash, and
who could forget RR.

Well, 96 was an excellent year for the young buck PSX, and it ended
with a bang. Pandemonium chases Crash hot on its heels with some
spectacular 3D graphics to grab your first impressions. Graphically the
game is just beautiful. The spectacular multilayered levels will leave
you breathless, with its camera angle constantly changing the
perspective to create a 3D feel over a 2D platform environment. (more
on this later) There’s plenty of great colour here throughout the 18
levels representing this platform game. All the characters are well
animated and move smoothly. Some of the characters you’ll control are a
bit blocky when compared to crash, but with all the characters you get
to play as, is no mayor loss, unless you’re picky. For example, your
Rhino is the most simple looking of the six characters you get to play.
However, your two main character move specially fast in this fast paced
3D word, and the speed in no manner does it slow-down the action, even
if the screen is full and pack with enemies. The first boss(Shroom
Lord) will certainly reveal the size of the game. He literally fills up
the foreground layer of the screen, while you move left or right
avoiding his deadly sneezes and lunging arms, while you run avoiding
large falling rocks. With all these going on, I was amaze to see no
slow-down, nor a hint of polygonal break ups, or graphics
blotches/glitches that we saw all too familiar in Tomb Raider. In other
words, the animation is strong, tight, smooth, and free from
side-effects. Excellent programming.

The Main Menu consists of three simple choices: NEW GAME, PASSWORD, and
OPTIONS. Nothing complicated here. The Options include Sound FX/Music:
adjust pressing the directional button. And Controls: Remap the jump,
fire, and special controls. You probably won’t bother with this, the
default settings are perfectly adaptable to easy control. As you can
see, the only missing factor we all have come to know in 32-bit gaming
is the ability to save the progress of the game. Unfortunately, for
some reason, Pandemonium will only allow you to save your recent place
in the game by the password feature -- kinda backwards considering this
game is second-generation and the best technology has to offer. Oh
well, I guess you can’t have everything for us PSX snobs.

Gameplay: Well, just before you tackle your first adventure level, you
have the choice to play as either Fargus, or Nikki. Furgus, is the
jukin’ jester. His whirling tumbles mow down monsters without taking 
hits. Nikki, is the acrobat of the two. Her high-flying double-jumps
glide over trouble and soar to hidden or hard-to-reach platforms and
pick-ups. So naturally, Nikki is the ideal character to choose to best 
progress through the levels and discover secrets that Fargus often
cannot reach. Each character has two hit points disguised as hearts on
the upper left corner screen. Lose all your hearts and you lose a life.
During the game, you can restore your health by collecting red hearts
placed in certain locales. But be warned, through the levels, hearts
are stingy to find, and in the latter levels you will have to be
extremely careful saving your hit points by avoiding gameplay follies.
There’s also Gold-Rimmed Hearts that adds a heart positions. You can
have up to 7 Hearts(hit points) at the top of the screen. Like most
platform games, you can earn lives by collecting special items, (Ankh)
pick-ups to add lives to your stock and increase your chances of
winning, but like the hearts, these are stingy and you won’t find many.
One main aspect of playing the levels is collecting coins, yeahp, did I
mentioned this is a platform game? Collect 300 Coins to gain an extra
life. Green coins are valued at 1, Red 5, and purple are worth 25
Coins. There’s also a hefty Double treasure timer(2) that doubles the
value of coins you collect in the next 10 seconds. But the best 
part of Coin collecting is you can earn an entry into two of the Bonus
Rounds! Collect 80% of the coins and find out how fast you are by
playing a track with twists and turns riddled with items to collect and
power ups. Here speed is of the essence since a translucent light
chases your path, if it reaches you, you start again from the
beginning, letting you several chances at the Bonus Round. You have
think quick here, and there’s obstacles blocking your path, avoid them
to reach the end and earn more coins. The track is in 3D and floats in
mid black space, giving you almost a since of vertigo. Collect over 95%
of the coins and get ready to bounce, flip and tilt! Yes, a second
bonus level opens up if you’re greedy and want to play a game of
pinball. Yes, Pinball in 3D. No flat screens here, the same excellent
graphics are stress in the bonus levels. The Pinball game is quite
large, and often you have to jump several spring boards to reach the
top. Like in the first bonus level, you have three chances to pick
coins and earn extra lives, and there’s tons of them. Sometimes, just
when you think you have cleared the level of coins, you pick a key 
and new coins appear, or open a gate way from the sides. This Pinball
bonus game is done so well, it almost stands as its own separate game.
I personally love it, and is the one reason you wanna collect 95% 
of the coins in the normal levels to keep coming back for some more
pinball. For this reason, the game has good replay. Like in Crash, once
you finish the game, you still have the chance to play any level and 
try perfecting your coin collection to earn yourself the bonus rounds,
definitely a plus, and extends gameplay.

When you do enter the first level, the action & difficulty will not
stress you out at the beginning. Of course, as you get deeper into the
game, the jumping and timing will be very crucial to proceed into the 
game. But still, Pandemonium is not a hard game to complete. Average
gamers will find the difficulty just right, in no way will a certain
level frustrate you or tax your skills to a high degree. This is good,
because the game won’t allow you to alter the difficulty level, just
like Crash. If you’re a WUSS, (and I know some of you are) don’t be
dismay, with practice the game will slowly grow on you. I personally
finish all 18 levels in about a week, of course my coin collecting
sucked -- hence I didn’t get to play that many bonus rounds. The best
way to play this game is finishing all the levels and write down all
the passwords. Thereafter, go back to any level you desire and try
collecting an 85% or 95% coin collection to enter the bonus rounds.
BTW, you can also get passwords for the bonus rounds.

Pandemonium can best be described as a hop-n-bop action game. Very
reminiscent to the hundreds of games you found yourself playing in the
80’s. Although the graphics are 3D, the game is completely locked on
rails, more so than Crash! So the paths are totally predetermined, and
you can only move left or right. However, several levels will have you
choose two different paths, although is rare, and I wished there was
more of this type of design! Like most platformers, Pandemonium will
have you run, jump on enemies, collect power-ups, coins, and find
hidden areas. Yes, this sounds like its been done before thousands of
times, and yes, you won’t find much innovation in terms of gameplay,
but as a traditional platform game, it won’t let you down. (Note: level
18 is probably the most innovative.) If you still love playing this
genre, Pandemonium will most likely grow on you. During gameplay,
bouncing on enemies can often let you reach remote places incapable of
reaching without the aid of your enemies. And with the game high
freedom of movement, you be using Nikki’s double jump to reach hovering
platforms soaring in the sky while looking for treasure and hidden
areas. In several levels I found some enemies hold the key to open
gates, or reveal secrets, so is best not to avoid action. Also, you
will encounter devices like trampolines, light switches, teleport huts,
rolling boulders, cannons you can use to shoot up into the sky, 
slides(Long & short ones) geyser’s etc. The latter levels definitely
pack a punch with some tricky maneuvering and illusive enemies. In the
game, there’s one enemy that can help you to your advantage: 
Dizzy. Using him by jumping over him will allow you to reach higher
places unattainable before. On the other hand, Branky is the most
deadly of the bunch, and he cannot be destroyed by your two leading 
characters, so if his around, RUN. Throughout the game, I counted about
16 enemies. So, with only sixteen, you’ll often run into the same enemy
over and over again. Maybe, a dozen more would have raise the
challenge, or the appeal to the game, but I was left wishing for more
of them to fight against. However, one exceptional addition to this
game that Crash never inhereted, is the fact your two lead characters
have the ability to shapechange into other animals when you run through
special gates to find yourself magically change. These include: Dragon!
Rhino! Frog! and Turtle! Of the four, only the Dragon has the ability
to use his fire breathing weapon. The Rhino carries none, but has the
ability to charge, and even destroy the dreaded Branky. These touches
add depth to the game, and keeps you constantly on your toes figuring
out their timing and what each can do best. In the whole game, I found
only two Main Bosses. The first you’ll encounter after beating level
sixth. His called: Shroom Lord. The second is named: Goon Honcho. Both
are created in a way that will surprise you in game play, and here, 
Pandemonium shines, very cool Bosses to defeat. Oh, and before I
forget, all levels includes checkpoints. Thank God! The levels are BIG,
believe me, bigger than those found in Crash. 

As to the control of the game, all the characters handle very well with
their simple jump and attack moves, and requires little knowledge or
practice to demand more in the controls. All respond well except 
for one of your leading characters: Nikki. Her double jump I found it
erratic at times, and can be tricky to pull off. Often I found myself
tapping the double jump only to see Nikki execute one single jump, and 
therefore, ruining my chances to reach higher platforms. There’s a
hitch there that is obvious, and I’m surprise Crystal Dynamics testers
failed to find this little gremlin. Is really a shame, because you’ll
find Nikki is the best character to use of the two, and in my opinion,
I found little reason to use Fargus. His pathetic!

Music! Hmmm. Lighthearted, but nothing fancy or groovy like the music
you’ll find in Crash, JumpingFlash2 and MotorToon GP. I would label it
‘Cute’ music. If you’re an older gamer, and don’t want your tough
neighbor letting him know you’re playing a kids track, you may wanta
prefer using headphones ;-) If not, I suggest you lowered the volume if
you don’t want to face some grins from your neighbor. Some of the
tracks are catchy, some not. The sound effect is what you expect from a
traditional platform game. The jumps of your characters overflows with
that ‘Boing’ effect, and some cute sounds coming from your enemy, like
the most popular ‘Duh’ Yes, ‘Duhh’ I guess the Goons are not that
bright. The effect of the weapons and power ups are deep, and have that
‘Boom’ noise.

Over all, Pandemonium is a descent game and graphically a power-house
with its camera angles weaving into the action. Some of the levels are
a tad bit more difficult than those encountered in Crash, and will 
keep you coming for more to play the bonus rounds. The levels are quite
big, with a total of 18, plus two level Bosses, and two additional
bonus levels for a total of 22. Crash and Pandemonium will most likely 
set the standard to what’s to come for the PSX in 97, and while playing
Pandemonium, it left me thinking, if only the upcoming Megaman8 would
have been done in this manner. I heard Sony wanted a 3D Megaman, but
Capcom wanted to stick with the old traditional tried-and-true flat 2D
formula. So much for that. Pandemonium is the future of gaming, and as
we move into the year 2000, soon every mayor software company will be
developing 3D platforms games by the bunch as they upgrade their 
equipment. 2D platform games in the existing 32-bit market and 64-bit
will soon be a rare commodity. The future looks bright!

Graphics      10
Music/Fx       7
Control        8
Fun Factor     8
Replay Value   8

WORST FEATUREs: no saving on optional memory card/ Nikki’s double jump
is hitchy/ Few enemies.

BEST FEATURE:      Excellent graphics! Bonus rounds! Descent platform
action!
Over all: 94%

Passwords levels:
1) PCAFECIA
2) ADAAEIIE
3) JFACBIAE
4) AEIAAEBBI
5) NCAAEBBI
6) AFEAIIIO
7) AFIAAIJA
8) AGIAAINC
9) AHAAAINE
10) NIAAEBDA
11) FBAACCCK
12) FDAACCDC
13) AJAAAIJO
14)ACEAAIMB
15)KHAABMDA
16) EMAAGCBE
17)EOAAGCBM

Review by Leogamer...