Official US PlayStation Magazine 28

"Wow... a stable of mostly sorry demos..."

Intro
I don't expect absolute excellence from a demo disc. Of course, it's nice to play them once in a while to see if there are any upcoming games that are worth checking out. One day, since I had a little extra cash left over I decided to buy a PlayStation US Magazine. It had some good articles and such like that. The mag itself was well worth the price. As an incentive, it came with a nice demo disc. Well, okay... So it wasn't so nice after all.

Games Featured: Playables

The only two games I didn't play (mainly because I really don't care a whole lot for sports titles) were NHL FaceOff 2000 and NBA Basketball 2000. I'm sure these were games that would probably wind up in the bargain pile of the used game stores after a few years. Not that the games were bad, I just noticed that most sports games, especially Genesis ones, find their way to the bargain sections in a massive exodus of electronic clearance. Anyway, the first game I decided to play was WCW Mayhem. I wasn't too impressed with that demo. The wrestler designs, in my view, were terrible and the basic gameplay didn't seem like something I wanted to rush out and buy so I could play more. Next, there's Dino Crisis. I like survival/horror games and this was probably the best demo on the disc and by far the only thing saving this from a 1. The graphics may not have been the best ever put together, but it had the challenge of a true survival/horror game. Hmm... Maybe I'll purchase this in the future... We move to Army Men: Air Attack. After playing this, I wanted to gouge my eyes out. The graphics, although well colored, were terrbly put together. You basically fly around and shoot everything while trying to accomplish a mission. I usually like mission-based games, but this one had the appeal of cat feces. Finally, we have Tarzan. I'll say, even though I really don't like the game too much, I was slightly impressed. The graphics were a bit better than I expected and the gameplay was a bit fun, but I really hated the cutsy approach. You basically slide down a vine and try to get to some point. I still have no idea where exactly I'm supposed to go. It's worth checking out, actually.

Non-Playables
They give me two stakes to the heart: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and International Track and Field. I didn't care for either of the non-playables. I almost cannot stand the Tomb Raider series. The only fun I actually had in the whole first game was making Lara Croft dive headfirst off her balcony onto her stairs or one of her crates, thus breaking her neck in mid-sentence: ''Oh... Sorry about the crates! I- THUMP!'' I did that for about an hour when I was sleep deprived once and could not stop laughing.

What This Needed
More non-playables would've been great. Maybe a better choice of games to mess with would've done some good, too. The only games worth checking out on this disc, in my opinion, are Dino Crisis and Tarzan.

Closing
Again, I don't expect much out of demos. They are supposed to be a one-time thrill. This didn't even thrill me once. Since this is my first demo review, I'll do my FJ in a new format and just can the whole Recommendation section for this.

FINAL JUDGMENT

DEMO RATINGS

WCW Mayhem- 2/10
Dino Crisis- 8/10
Army Men: Air Attack- 1/10
Tarzan- 6/10

Golden Mercy Awards
NHL FaceOff 2000 and NBA Basketball 2000

Playable Section- 4/10
Non-Playable Section- 2-10

All Together- (not an average) 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/01, Updated 07/30/01