The FPS Genre is something to behold when it comes to how it shaped the gaming world as a whole. Its existence on the PC is undeniable and it seems like that goes without saying. However, when it comes to console FPS games, this gets a little tricky. The Sega Saturn had no shortage of good games when it came to the genre. Though Doom didn't turn out quite as well as we had hoped, we got a wonderful port of Quake and Duke Nukem 3D so it's not like we were starving. If you wanted to count railshooters, the Saturn had those in droves as well.
This was not to be for all of the games, though. First Person Shooters are very hard to pull off well on a console, especially back in the days when joysticks were not standard. The Saturn pulled them off well enough with the d-pad and the button systems, but that's not to say it was always a tiptoe through the gory tulips.
After revisiting these games for myself, though, it became very clear that their quality didn't exactly lie in their appeal as games. It was more their appeal as experiences that draws in a crowd to these misfits. This is a very specific and very inspired genre of games that give you something that's not good as we like to call it in the business. These are very, very interesting for more reasons than one. Let's have a look?
Robotica
If you're in the mood for a lot of long, long hallways, here's your baby. This sucker can hold so many machine guns. For real, though, this is a very strange one, but also quite boring. There are enemies, but the corridors you need to go through can get somewhat mesmerizing if you keep playing it for too long. There's no soundtrack and with the very light sounds it makes, you can bet that at some point, you're going to catch some Z's. The real draw to this game, though, is the free-roam effect that it gives you, as well as the wondrous polygonal Sega Saturn view that we all know and love. Still, not great.
Space Hulk: Vengence of the Blood Angel
If you're in the mood for Load Times, this is your baby. Who here has never played Warhammer 40k? Well, if you haven't, you probably still have some money in the bank somewhere. This boardgame system will cost you a fortune, so you can forgo it by getting it on video games. Here you go! Space Hulk: The Really Long Subtitle, has nothing but old timey charm going for it. To its credit, though, it has a lot of that going for it. If you love some golden age 40K experience, then, this is your baby and all of your dreams have come true. Now, not your graphical dreams, maybe. Not unless you REALLY love the 32-bit sketchy look. Then, yes, all of your dreams and Christmases and Hanukkahs have come true.
Congo The Movie: The City of Zinj
Full Motion Video territory is not the territory we want to be in. Ape Territory isn't great either, but I'll take what I can get. The problem with this? Ape territory is scarce. No, I don't mean like it's only half the game, it's almost none of the game. You get spiders, there's actually quite a lot of those and there are a lot of nothing. Actually, there's a whole lot of nothing here. By far, this can be counted as the worst game on this list, but it's also so weird and funny with the FMV cut scenes. This guy tries to cut himself into the Congo movie, and that movie is terrible to begin with. His acting is on par with just about any run-of-the-mill FMV and he can be pretty entertaining to watch.
Krazy Ivan
Yeah, we're not going to talk about Russia or anything political here. Let's focus on the game. This game is extremely racist and stereotypical. I know, great start, right? Seriously, the accents and acting, it's all FMV cut scenes and wow, is it some kind of horrible. Does it fall into so-bad-it's-good? Yes, but it is also quite offensive, so we'll go half and half with it. Obviously, different times and whatnot, but at least it should be somewhat serviceable. Even for the time, this was bad.
When we're talking about the game. You're a tank and you roll around to shoot other tanks. Your weapons are terrible and you blow up a lot. This game drones, so, yeah, even its best features are some bad features. We'll call it second worst to Congo.
Magic Carpet
It wasn't until I started playing this again that I realized that I've actually played this before in my childhood. Where did I get this game? Whose was it? It wasn't from Blockbuster, I will tell you that much. This was a weird, amazingly strange, amazingly... WEIRD title. It's basically just free-roaming on a magic carpet with an engine sound. I don't know what else to tell you. There are people in deserts with turbins and some tents and whatnot but as for gameplay, there's really not much to speak of. Can you do stuff? Yes. Do I understand it or will I attempt to? No. You can fly around and collect vases and fire off a spark thing, but other than that, it's vast open fields with minor loops of gameplay. Do I want to keep playing it? Yes, very much so.
Ghen War
Rounding out this list is an extremely mediocre title. The mech suit genre was no stranger to the gaming world, but very seldom have they been pulled off really well. This was one of those titles that wasn't pulled off well at all. The foot sounds from your machine, the gun sounds and the overall gameplay is a bit grating. However, the graphics and the free-roam, once again, save this title because it is actually quite fun to just go around and shoot things. Does it get old after a while? Yes, and you will need to find a way to go through the actual gameplay if you want to keep doing it. Still, this title is a big half-and-half of an FPS, so why not give it a shot?
The best first person shooters are always fun to play, but sometimes, you should really indulge in some weird titles. Are they always to your liking? Oh, no, absolutely not. They are subjective and experiences in these titles vary so much that putting forth a real concrete review of many of these titles is very difficult. The AI, the gameplay, the enemies, all of them act so differently as a result of free roaming mechanics and gameplay.
Some of these titles you will put down in five minutes. Some of them you will pick up and put down at around three or four in the morning because you forgot what time it was.
