I have never actually owned an original Playstation -most of these videos were recorded via playing the games on my Japanese Playstation 2. The UK games were mostly played on my Playstation 3. UK games are PAL format, which sadly means slower game speed, big borders and only 50 frames per second.

Capcom Vs. SNK Pro
Video length: 27:59
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Kyo and Iori. CvS Pro is an update to the original game (which was never released for the Playstation) that is mainly known for having two extra characters: Dan Hibiki and Joe Higashi. The Playstation port understandably doesn't look as nice as the Dreamcast version, but it plays well enough and the load times aren't that bad.





Dead or Alive
Video length: 14:47
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

The Playstation version of this game is different to the Saturn version as not only does it feature two new characters (Bass and Ayane) it also has completely different stages, more costumes etc. It's still a really difficult game to get through on one credit though.





Dragon Ball Final Bout
Video length: 25:42
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Cell (in his Perfect form). This game is part of the Butōden series, and it isn't very good. I think it takes too long to charge up your energy, for one thing. You're supposed to keep your energy charged to use special moves, but you can still use them even if you have very little energy -it just leaves your character tired for a few seconds after the move, which is often fine in single player.

You can also just use the same move to take out your opponents, Cell's slide kick is a good example of this, as you'll see. I played on hard as I was hoping to fight the secret boss -SSJ4 Goku -but to get him to appear you need to play on hard and beat Baby with a lot of health left. Given how easily Baby can lower your health I gave up on this after a few attempts. I imagine SSJ4 Goku is just as easy to beat as everyone else though.





Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22
Video length: 51:35
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Cell (in his Perfect form). This game is part of the Butōden series -however this was the first DBZ game I've ever played so I can't compare it to the previous ones. It plays a bit like Art of Fighting to me, what with special moves draining a gauge that you have to charge up to be able to use certain attacks.

As for the game, it's a real slog to get through since you have to fight everyone. Using the more powerful special moves, such as Cell's kamehameha, is the best way to drain your opponent's life quickly, but these moves drain a lot of the special gauge. Most of the opponents are easy enough to beat, although I had a few problems with Mega Goku the first time I was playing this.

The Japanese version had pre-fight cutscenes for certain characters, but these were taken out of the Euro and American versions of the game. There are also some odd name choices in the European version. Examples include SSJ3 Goku becoming "Mega Goku" whilst Ginyu is "Genious". Most of these would be changed for the American release, which didn't happen until 2003.

I also used a cheat to add 5 extra characters -doing this changes the name of the game to "Ultimate Battle 27" as you'll now have to fight the secret characters in the single player mode.





Garou Densetsu Wild Ambition
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Mr. Karate, who is the older version of Ryo Sakazaki. He's a fighter you can unlock, with a bunch of powerful moves that make fighting against the CPU a little easier. He has an easy three hit combo than the CPU always seems to get hit by (although more often than not they will only not block the final hit).

However, despite his good moves, this game is still tough to beat as it doesn't play that well -everything feels really stiff and clunky, and the controls aren't as responsive as I'm used to in the 2D Garou games.

You can also fight him as a hidden boss at the end of the game. You need to beat all opponents without losing any rounds or using a continue to get him to appear after Geese. Unfortunately fighting him means you don't get to see your character's ending, so I've done two playthroughs of this: one where I don't fight him, and one where I do.


Normal playthrough (26:27)
Hidden boss playthrough (28:32)



Guilty Gear
Video length: 20:37
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough with Sol Badguy. This game has a rather broken mechanic in the form of insta-kills, where you can win the entire fight with just one move. Some genius decided it was a good idea to let you perform an insta-kill whenever you want, and whilst it's possible to counter them, it seems really hit or miss if you can do that.

However another tactic is to start spamming your character's super move when you get under 50% health, as when that happens you can use supers whenever you want. Sol's super in particular is really good because even if blocked it does decent damage, and can easily turn the tide it the opponent gets hit by it.

Justice, the final boss, is really annoying but trying to put as much pressure on as possible is the best thing you can do. I also fight the hidden boss, Baiken, who you can fight by playing as Sol or Ky and then beating the game without using a continue.





The King of Fighters '95
Video length: See below
Game region: &
Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with the Fatal Fury team (Terry, Andy and Joe). This port plays very differently to the Neo Geo version, and I imagine a lot of combos you could do in the arcade are now impossible to do on the Playstation. The gameplay feels much stiffer, with choppy animation and canceling moves into special moves becoming very hard/impossible to do.

On the plus side the CPU has been toned way, way down, to the point where even the bosses are really easy to beat, even using only one character. The CPU opponents will usually happily get hit by any projectiles thrown at them, something which can't be said about the Neo Geo version.

I did a playthrough of the Japanese version first. Then years later I did the European version, so watch that if you want the text in English.


Japanese version playthrough (33:12)
European version playthrough (40:34)



The King of Fighters '96
Video length: 51:23
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with the Garou Densetsu team. This port is much better than the Playstation port of KoF '95, and whilst the animation cuts are noticeable, it isn't anywhere near as choppy. It was only released in Japan, but does have an English language option.

The bosses for this game are both really cheap. Chizuru is easy to beat with Andy, but Goenitz is just a typical, horrible SNK boss fight.





The King of Fighters '97
Video length: 46:47
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with the Garou Densetsu team. This port isn't as good as the PS1 KoF '96 port, with some very choppy animation (just look at Terry's stance!). Once again, this version was only released in Japan. As a bonus I also played the KoF: Kyo trailer, which is something you can view in the "Private Mode".

This was the first game which let you choose between two different gameplay styles. You can select between advanced and extra. I used extra mainly because it lets you use super moves whenever you health is low, which is extremely useful against the CPU (advanced mode is the superior mode).

I had to try and beat this game several times, I kept losing to Orochi. He's the first boss in the series to have a screen filling super move, and all of his special moves are cheap and nasty too.





The King of Fighters '98
Video length: 34:40
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with the EX versions of Terry, Andy and Joe, using the extra system. KoF '97 wasn't a great port, but this is a lot better. The EX characters have different special moves, such as all three of them now having projectiles that travel all the way across the screen.

Rugal thankfully isn't too hard to beat in this game. Whilst his moves are powerful, some of them, like his giant projectile, are easy to dodge, and you can get him to do his genocide cutter just by jumping near him -as long as you've got the spacing down well, you won't get hit and Rugal will be left wide open.





The King of Fighters '99
Video length: 31:28
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with the Garou Densetsu team. KoF '99 increased the size of the teams to four, with the Garou team getting Mai Shiranui as their fourth member. However battles are still 3 on 3, with the remaining character being set as a "Striker". Strikers are characters you can call on a limited amount of times to perform an attack or technique.

This has to be the easiest KoF game yet -you only have to fight six teams and then the boss isn't too difficult, but I usually always beat his second form via time over.

The Garou team have two endings in this game, and I've put both in this video. The first ending shown is if you beat the boss with Mai, the second is if you beat him with anyone else.





Marvel Super Heroes
Video length: 23:15
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Captain America. There are 2 bosses, Doctor Doom isn't that hard and Thanos is the only challenge of the game, and even then he's not that difficult to beat either. I think this game is one of the easier Marvel by Capcom games.






Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter
Video length: 24:37
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Dark Sakura and Wolverine. As with the other Vs. ports to the PS1, you can't swap characters during a match, your second character can only be called on for assist attacks, counters and team hyper combos. And this port uses the traditional 2 out of 3 rounds system. The actual game is still easy to get through, but Cyber Akuma, the game's final boss, is really difficult due to how much damage his attacks do.

This is why I picked Wolverine, because he has an easy infinite. If you use his berserker charge hyper combo, you can just hold down and keep mashing fierce punch. It was still a close battle with the final boss though.





Marvel Vs. Capcom
Video length: 21:15
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu and War Machine. As usual, the Playstation port of MvC doesn't let you swap characters between rounds. But it has and extra problem this time around, as you can only choose to either have a partner character (for team hyper combos and counters) or to have a special partner assist. There's a nasty zoom in effect used whenever air combos are started and continued. You can turn this off thankfully, but I left it on in this playthrough.





Metal Slug
Video length: 26:28
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

The Playstation port of Metal Slug features mid-level loading, something the Neo Geo CD and Saturn versions lacked. But gameplay wise it's much like the other versions, so it's not that difficult to get through until the fifth level.





Mortal Kombat II
Video length: 23:24
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Scorpion. This rare version was only released in Japan (although the in-game text is still in English), thanks to Ragey for getting me a copy of it. This version is, for the most part, much easier than the arcade version -the regular opponents don't input read anywhere near as much, the only difficult opponent is Kintaro. It's that much easier that I even managed to get Jade to appear.

The Playstation port has frequent load times -usually they aren't very long, but you can have a brief load time went performing a special move in a fight for the first time. This seems to happen randomly, I don't understand why sometimes it has to load, sometimes it doesn't.





Mortal Kombat 3
Video length: 20:04
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Smoke, who is a secret character. There's a cheat code you can use to unlock him easily, rather than use the fiddly ultimate kode like in the arcade version.

The CPU in this game is a little easier than what's seen in Ultimate MK3, but the catch is I think Motaro is way harder. Shao Kahn is a terrible boss in this version, and completely broken. If you can land just one spear on him with Smoke, you're set -once he's dragged in, wait about a second, then do an uppercut and throw out another spear. Then repeat this until he's beaten.





Mortal Kombat 4
Video length: 21:34
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Quan Chi. This game is very easy to beat with him, as you can just spam his teleport stomp over and over, the CPU mostly won't block it. He also has a copy fatality, letting him use his opponent's finishing moves against them, so you'll get to see a variety of fatalities in this playthrough.





Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Video length: 17:35
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Motaro. This game features a huge roster, and also lets you play as the bosses. However, the CPU was updated to deal with them, so don't go in expecting to beat opponents easily. Motaro doesn't have it too bad though, his standard punches and kicks are often enough to win.

Since Motaro's ending is boring, I chose one of the fatality demonstrations instead as the reward.





Pocket Fighter
Video length: 26:31
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Ken. The general plan with this game is to collect as many gems as you can as quickly as possible, as doing this will power up your special attacks and make them do more damage. The game isn't that hard though.





Real Bout Fatal Fury
Video length: 33:19
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Mai Shiranui. This is the English version of the below game. I wish I'd used another character, I'd forgotten I'd already done a playthrough with Mai for the Neo Geo CD version, but oh well... I'm sure most won't complain about more Mai.





Real Bout Garou Densetsu
Video length: 26:34
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Kim Kaphwan. This is a surprisingly good port, whilst it isn't as good as the Saturn version, it has a couple of exclusive extras. One such extra is a special training mode, where you can view the commands for some powerful combos for each character.

I thought I might struggle to beat this game with Kim, as he has no projectiles, and the last boss, Geese, has counter moves than can easily stop any of his supers. It took a couple of tries to beat this version of the game, but it all worked out in the end.





Real Bout Special: Dominated Mind
Video length: 21:42
Game region:
Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Geese Howard. Dominated Mind is a unique version of Real Bout Special, as one of the major changes it makes is that you cannot switch planes. However, some characters have new moves (which you have to unlock), Alfred has been added as a playable character, it has a new intro movie, a new character select screen and a new boss called White.

White is the cheapest Garou boss ever... unless you fight him with Geese. For whatever reason White will constantly let himself be hit with Geese's double repuken special move, so you could easily get a double perfect against him. Just make sure to jump after you beat him!





Resident Evil 2
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

As I'm sure is the case with many fans, Resident Evil 2 is my most played and favorite game in the series, and as so I know this game fairly well.

The reason this gets a 4 out of 5 is because of the Tofu survivor -in which you play a giant piece of Tofu that is only armed with a knife and a lot of health. You've got to dodge rather than fight monsters, and it gets really hard towards the end due to some rooms having a ton of enemies in them, and can I just say how much I hate those plant monsters? I also have to mention the absolutely sick dodge I pulled off at 5:25 -never done that before!

The standard scenarios aren't really that hard, I'd give them a 2 out of 5 each. Leon's are easier than Claire's as Leon gets two really great guns: the shotgun and magnum, both of which can be upgraded. Claire's grenade launcher is pretty good but her bowgun is next to useless and I don't think her spark shot is any good either.

The version used was the version released on the Playstation Network, and this was played on a PS3. What's nice is than the PSN version uses the American version of the game, which means I get to play at the correct speed with no borders. I really wish all PS1 games on the European PSN had an option to let you purchase the American version.


Leon Scenario A playthrough (2:19:33)
Claire Scenario A playthrough (2:26:29)
Leon Scenario B playthrough (2:25:51)
Claire Scenario B playthrough (2:29:36)
The 4th Survivor playthrough (16:45)
The Tofu Survivor playthrough (10:52)



Resident Evil 3 Nemesis
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the PSN version, which, like RE2, uses the American version (this is a good thing). I played on the hard difficulty. There's only easy or hard for this game, and easy is too easy since you start off with an assault rifle.

I think that this game is the toughest Playstation RE game, what with Nemesis constantly chasing you around -I prefer not to fight him as it's always faster to try and avoid him, plus you save a lot of ammo. There's also the section where Nemesis infects Jill with a virus, and you have to be careful as she's constantly in her limping state, so it can be hard to tell how much health she has.

There were only two parts in this playthrough that went badly. The first was in the press office, where I stubbornly tried to push past Nemesis, he kept hitting me and I lost so much health. I've never done such a terrible job of that part before, I guess it only happens when recording.

The second bad part was when playing with Carlos, as I lost far too much health on the journey to the hospital and the hunters could have easily killed me had I not had such a good trigger finger. Usually I would have done the hospital floors in reverse order to what's seen in the video, but due to my screw up it was better to do them the other way around.

I was a little disappointed that I only got a B rank at the end of the game, but then in addition to using a lot of herbs I also wasted time reading documents. So if you want to see me A rank this game, see this playthrough on my other channel.

Finally, I did a playthrough of The Mercenaries with Mikhail, which is a bonus mode where you have to kill enemies, save hostages and make it to a certain point within a time limit. I was surprised I only got a B rank in this since I saved all hostages, found all of the hidden time spots and killed the mutated Nemesis (who only shows up if you reach that bus with so much time left) but oh well.


Main game playthrough (2:55:59)
The Mercenaries Mikhail playthrough (24:37)



Resident Evil Director's Cut
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the PSN version, on original mode. Sadly, rather than use the American versions like RE2 and RE3 do, Director's Cut is the European version. However maybe this is for the best, as in America they used the Dual Shock version of Director's Cut, which has a very questionable soundtrack.

As for the actual game, I used Jill. Jill is far weaker than Chris, and it's always worth checking her health every time she gets attacked. However, she can hold more items than Chris, she gets to use the bazooka, she can play the piano and of course, she also gets the help of Barry Burton, who, as everyone knows, is the joint-best Resident Evil character (along with Irving).

There's nothing too difficult about the game, although I'll admit I'm always afraid of screwing up on the rolling boulders, since those things cause instant death. The only thing I messed up on was one of the puzzles -I used the lab computer before I'd read what the passwords were. But since I've played the game that many times I already knew the passwords.

Originally, this game came with a second disc which contained a demo of Resident Evil 2 on it. This disc was omitted from the PSN release, but I had the demo disc so I did a playthrough of it anyway. Playing it on a PS3 reveals why Capcom didn't include with the PSN version: some of the sound effects aren't right, in particular, the sounds heard when moving around the inventory screen and some of the gun sound effects.


Jill playthrough (3:00:38)
Resident Evil 2 Preview playthrough (18:21)



Ridge Racer
Video length: 23:04
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the 3 circuits (beginner, mid-level and high-level) and then the first time trial, getting first place in each race. This gets you the first ending. There is more to this game, but since it's just things like racing on reversed circuits, I haven't bothered with that.





Ridge Racer Revolution
Video length: 22:07
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

First things first: yes, I know this playthrough sucks. I didn't really "get" the car handling in this game, but then from what I've read some people just don't think the car handling is very good in this game at all. Power sliding seems way too hard now, as it just seems inevitable you'll be sent crashing into a wall when you try to end the slide.

Anyway, this is almost the same deal as my playthrough of the original Ridge Racer: playthroughs of the 3 circuits. However you no longer have to beat a time trial afterwards to see the credits, that's optional. I did the circuits in reverse order (hardest to easiest) because I wanted to get the most difficult track over with first. Again, like with the last game, there is more to this than I'm showing, but I don't really care about the reversed circuits so I'm not playing them.





Ridge Racer Type 4
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Two playthroughs for this one. The first is a playthrough of the main game. Type 4 allows you to select a team at the start, resulting in unique dialogue before and after races. Depending on how well you do, the dialogue will differ, and you'll also be given different cars to use. I selected the Mappy team for this playthrough.

The original version of the game also included Ridge Racer High-Spec Demo (also known as Ridge Racer Turbo), which wasn't included in the PSN release. It's the original game running at a better frame rate, the full story about it can be seen in the playthrough.


Main game playthrough (1:03:42)
Ridge Racer High-Spec Demo playthrough (33:51)



Rival Schools: United by Fate
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Two playthroughs for this one. The first playthrough is with Batsu and Hinata, which shows the ending that happens if you beat Raizo with any other move than a team up super. The second playthrough is with Batsu and Kyosuke, which shows the game's true final boss. If you beat Raizo with a team up super, you'll get to fight Hyo and get a proper ending.

You'll get to fight Raizo in a single round fight about midway through the game. He's very strong, but if you keep away from him and keep throwing out fireballs, he'll usually keep getting hit by them. It's worth doing this as you'll get different dialogue after the fight, but you also get to skip two fights you'd have to do if you don't beat him.

Hyo is also tough, but if you manage to get away from him, he also seems to get hit by projectiles a lot, although he doesn't fall for them as badly as Raizo.


Raizo boss playthrough (33:20)
Hyo boss playthrough (28:58)



Soul Blade
Video length: 19:13
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Siegfried, getting his good ending (maybe "good" is a bit of a stretch for him though). You can get this ending by pressing a button as he walks towards Soul Edge.

As for the game, it isn't that hard to defeat most opponents, with only Cervantes and Soul Edge, the game's two bosses, being a bit harder. This version also has new English voices for some characters. Siegfried's lines are pretty good, and "I've never had such an easy victory" is a classic.





Soul Edge
Video length: 20:58
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

This is the Japanese version of Soul Blade, which retains the name the arcade version had (see this for why it was changed). Using Siegfried again, this time I get his bad ending, which is achieved by not pressing any buttons as Siegfried walks towards Soul Edge. This is one of the few games I've played where the bad ending is the canon one.





Star Gladiator
Video length: 18:33
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Hayato. There are 3 different endings for each character in this game. The worst ending will happen if you fail to get to and defeat Bilstein in six minutes (game timer). If you manage to beat Bilstein and are under 6 minutes, then you get to fight a more powerful version of Bilstein.

If you lose to Bilstein, you get another bad ending. But if you beat him you get your character's true ending, which is what this playthrough shows.

I think this game is tough -not so much that the opponents are hard, it's just beating them all quickly is really tricky, I think the time limit was far too strict. Ghost Bilstein is a pain to beat, especially since you can't ring him out (but he can ring you out).





Street Fighter II
Video length: 30:31
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on Street Fighter Collection 2. Guile has a good strat in this game: his jab punch. He can do several quick jabs in one combo, and it's really easy to dizzy your opponent with them. This only works in this version of SFII, for the updates his jab was changed so you couldn't combo it, and it also lost its long reach.

So for the most part the plan is to do a jab combo, then whilst the opponent is dizzy, throw them or try and do another jab combo. This game's toughest parts are the four boss characters, especially M. Bison, but if you can land a jab combo on them you can usually come out on top.





Street Fighter II' Champion Edition
Video length: 31:49
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on Street Fighter Collection 2, using Ryu. This update is much easier to beat that the original version. The bosses in particular were toned way down and are much easier to beat.





Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
Video length: 30:27
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough with Ken. Again, this is a playthrough of the version included on Street Fighter Collection 2. I don't like this update too much as I just don't like how fast it plays. Whilst the extra moves are nice, they were lazily implemented, with no truly new animations, but then this game was quickly put together (look it up). The CPU really know how to spam their new moves (like Honda and Blanka) plus their insane reaction times in the new speed get too much sometimes.





Street Fighter EX Plus @
Video length: 18:47
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Zangief, fighting Gouki at the end instead of Vega. Playing through this game with Zangief is simple, as you can mainly spam his throw moves to win easily. Only Gouki can be difficult, as even his simple combos can do huge damage. I just took it slowly when fighting him.





Street Fighter EX2 Plus
Video length: 20:25
Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Zangief, fighting Kairi as a hidden challenger. This game is slightly easier than the last one, and has less opponents to fight, although the 2 bonus games you have to do means it can still take as long to playthrough as the original.

I tried and tried to get Vega II to appear (he's a secret boss you can fight) but after 15 attempts or so I gave up. I don't know what I was doing wrong or why he wouldn't show up, but he wouldn't. I did make the requirements but I'm wondering if they're different in the Japanese version, or it's glitched.





Street Fighter The Movie
Video length: 36:14
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Ken. You can fight Akuma at the end as a secret boss, but since I've done that before (see my playthrough of Street Fighter Real Battle on Film for the Saturn) I didn't bother for this version and fought Bison instead.

Since I was playing on the default difficulty for this version, it wasn't hard to beat. I always found it weird how once you have a full super bar you can use unlimited EX moves.





Street Fighter Zero 3
Video length: 20:52
Game region:
Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Gouki (Akuma). The Playstation version came first and was as good as anyone could have hoped for. One of the main changes to this version is that instead of having sprites for the explosions shown when characters are hit or block, polygons were used instead. This version also had a lot of extras added into it, such as more characters (including Guile and Dee Jay) and more gameplay modes, such as the World Tour mode.





Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Video length: 20:51
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Donovan. Difficulty wise this often feels completely random to whether or not you're going to win. You can go from winning to losing within seconds, even with some of the earlier opponents. The final boss doesn't mess around either.





Super Street Fighter II
Video length: 32:13
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Sagat. This version of the game was included on Street Fighter Collection. Super Street Fighter II was the sequel to Street Fighter II' Turbo, and features new redrawn backgrounds, four new characters, new special moves, a lot slower game speed and more.





Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Video length: 29:06
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu. This version of the game was included on Street Fighter Collection. The arcade version of this game is well known for being hard, but the Playstation version features much more bearable A.I., making it easier to playthrough. It's also the game that introduced Akuma (a.k.a. Gouki) and he can be fought as a secret boss instead of M. Bison. Despite the CPU intelligence, CPU Akuma is still fairly smart.





Tekken
Video length: 16:10
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough with Kazuya. Read the description on Youtube if you want me thoughts on this series, but if you like things brief: Tekken is very hard. With Kazuya, you have a good chance of beating the game by abusing his spin kicks, as the CPU has trouble with blocking the low hit.

All of the endings in this game are hilarious, but Kazuya's in particular is legendary.





Tekken 2
Video length: 15:53
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Playthrough with Lee. Tekken 2 is even more difficult than the first one, but for some reason Lee's razor's edge combo works really well against the CPU -they'll either get hit by all of it, block a couple of hits then get hit by the rest, or sometimes block every hit, but you can just start the combo again if this happens.

Another tactic which can work with all characters is using your character's unblockable attack. You need to get your opponent away from you, then start up the attack, if timed right the opponent will then run straight into it and take massive damage.





Tekken 3
Video length: 18:17
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Law. This game is much easier than the previous games, although the CPU does start getting more difficult towards the end. But you don't really need to abuse any CPU exploits to beat Tekken 3.

This game also doesn't look very good when played on a PS3. I kind of wish I'd done this playthrough on my PS2 now instead, but oh well.





Time Crisis
Video length: See below
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

The original Time Crisis is possibly the most difficult in the series. Unlike in some of the other games you only have 3 lives instead of 4, so you've only got 2 chances to screw up. You also have to shoot really fast as the time limit is quite tight in this game.

The bullet hit detection in this port doesn't seem to be that great -there are instances where I think I'm clearly hitting an enemy, but it just doesn't register. I've never had the chance to play the arcade version of this game, I've heard it doesn't feature this problem though.

The second video os a playthrough of the special mode, taking the hardest route and getting the best ending. The Playstation port of Time Crisis features a new set of levels that weren't present in the arcade version, telling a new story where Richard is sent to track down Kantaris.


Story mode playthrough (27:20)
Special mode playthrough (19:23)



Time Crisis Project Titan
Video length: 41:11
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5


Project Titan
features largely the same gameplay mechanics as in the original but with some new additions. Firstly, during boss battles you can choose where you want to hide. It's important to select the right spot as you won't be able to hit the boss at all if you choose wrong, and getting it right means you can shoot at the boss before they know where to shoot at you.

The other big change is that you can now tell if an enemy bullet will hit you, as the bullet will be red. This isn't as good as the system used in TCII but it's something, at least. Another change is that you start with 4 life points instead of 3. This is incredibly useful since to one credit this game you have to beat 4 stages, whilst in the original game there were only 3.

One little known feature in the original TC was that, if you somehow managed to shoot forty times in a row without missing, you'd get an extra life point. This feature is also in this game, but you only have to get 30 hits (or 20 on easy) to get an extra life. I managed to do this in the first stage.

The reason I went for the extra life point is because this game is hard. Stages 1 and 2 aren't too bad, but from 3 and onwards it becomes a bit of a nightmare. I've never managed to beat the stage 3 boss without taking a hit, and usually every time I'm left scratching my head wondering how I got hit by it. The final boss is also really tough, although I guess Wild Dog's girly screams make up for it.





Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes
Video length: 21:36
Game region:
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5


Playthrough with the alternate version of Reika. This game is a mess, with a mix of decent looking pixel art sprites blended together with horrendous pre-rendered models. Gameplay isn't much better, with characters able to zoom around all over the screen at warp speed and combos with reverse damage scaling. The CPU is also very aggressive, but Reika has a secret weapon: light kick. Her light kick alone is enough to beat anyone, including the boss.





Vampire Savior EX Edition
Video length: 25:36
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5


Playthrough with Bulleta Whilst I like this game, I don't like the rounds system at all, I would have much preferred it to use the traditional rounds system used in the previous games. For once I got Oboro Bishamon to appear -I usually don't bother with this as the requirement to do it is too hard (get through the game without being "downed" once) but this time I pulled it off.





X-Men: Children of the Atom
Video length: 25:09
Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5


Playthrough with Cyclops. This port seems to be easier than the arcade version, at least with Cyclops, as many of the CPU opponents will just keep walking into his fierce punch laser blast. Magneto is still very hard though, I had to resort to time overs to beat him.

This is also one of the few games that won't play on my PS3 -it kept freezing when trying to load the first fight. I had to play it on my PS2 instead.





X-Men Vs. Street Fighter
Video length: 26:11
Game region:
Difficulty level: 2 out of 5


Playthrough with Akuma and Cyclops. The PS port differs from the arcade version as whilst you can still select two characters, your second character can only be used for counters and team hyper combos. So the game plays with the traditional two out of three rounds format.

Not that this change really matters as this is the easiest game in the series. Only the final boss provides a bit of challenge, but even then he's not that difficult, especially compared to what the later games throw at you.