Name a better duo than a grown man and the weird PS1 platformer from his childhood that still haunts his dreams. While the Jorted wonder and Spyro of dragon fame may have become video game royalty, these PS1 platformers had no such luck, and have mostly been forgotten about over the years, some rightly, some a bit unfairly. Let’s start today’s episode with quite the cheeky scamp.
Rascal
Look at how bloody cool the main character is on the cover of Rascal. Look at him, all rad to the max with his backwards cap, green shades that wouldn’t look out of place in either a laboratory or a shooting range, and the Marvin the Martian-ass looking raygun he’s holding. Published by our one true loves at Psygnosis and interestingly developed by Traveller’s Tales before they were consigned to the Lego content mines for the rest of time, Rascal casts players as the rapscallion himself, a mischievous boy who must travel across time and defeat the villainous Chronon and rescue his dad, Professor Casper Clockwise. If you’re wondering why Casper named his kid Rascal, he didn’t. Apparently his name is actually Callum. Save that for your next trivia night.
While the gameplay itself is a bit different, thanks to the Bubble Gun weapon that Callum uses, comparisons to Crash were immediately obvious. The game has good graphics, brightly coloured worlds, and you’re still running and jumping over obstacles, with the gimmick in Rascal being that you experience the past, present and future of the game’s five worlds. In a way, it’s like Sonic CD, if Sonic CD was 3D and also completely lambasted by reviews upon launch thanks to its fundamentally just abysmal tank controls, yes, tank controls. Rascal is known as one of the worst platformers in PS1 history, and also one of the worst across the whole console.
Shocker.
M&M’s Shell Shocked
It’s fair to say that the success of Crash Bandicoot helped inspire a new wave of 3D platformers not only on the PS1, but across all gaming platforms. It’s also completely fair to say that M&Ms The Lost Formulas, the PC platformer from the year 2000, basically just copied Crash’s homework and ate all his crayons. “But why are you talking about a PC platformer on this PS1 list?”, we see you typing in the comments. Well, developer Boston Animations would port The Lost Formulas to PS1 as Shell Shocked, which kept pretty much all of the features except for the levels where the game tries to teach you maths. Remember kids, education is for nerds.
Released on the PS1 in North America in September 2001, which was not a particularly erm fun month in history, M&M’s Shell Shocked was a bit late to the 3D platforming party, especially when the PS2 was already well out. Still, Europe would have to wait another 10 months for their copies, going beyond fashionably late at that point.
Despite the Red M&M being on the cover, you control only the Yellow one, running and jumping through various levels, spinning into or jumping onto legally distinct crates to destroy. There’s even the mandatory vehicle sections to break up the pace, making it the most unashamed Crash clone on the PS1. It’s absolutely Tesco Value Bandicoot, but it’s honestly not the worst game ever made at least thanks to its jazzy soundtrack, and might be worth exploring on your nearest online emporium of shared entertainment products.
Barbie: Explorer
While Ken was back home keeping it locked down with his job as “beach”, Barbie was out there living her best life. Barbie has been everything from a diplomat to a dentist, astronaut to aerobics instructor, and countless other jobs in between, but somehow she still managed to find the time to make Indiana Jones quake in his boots. Granted, Barbie: Explorer’s concept might have also been inspired by the Tomb Raider games, but it’s like if Lara and Crash got married and the resulting baby is about half as mutated and horrific as you’d expect.
Barbie: Explorer doesn’t see the doll dual-wielding pistols and gunning down every indigenous creature unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity, unlike Tomb Raider. However, you do take trips across the world, exploring historical sites in Tibet, Egypt and Africa before unlocking a final level in Babylon, and each level sees you solving puzzles to progress and find treasure while awkwardly jumping over lots of gaps with terrible controls. Reviews for this one were, shockingly, not great but mixed, as while some blasted the controls and dismissed it as Tomb Raider for kids, some found genuine enjoyment in a predictable but exciting adventure. It’s nowhere near a Crash beater, but Iznotworstgameevermade?
Saban’s Iznogoud
“Iznogoud? You’re telling me, this game stinks!” you say very handsomely, eagerly liking and subscribing.
It turns out that’s the entire joke, with Iznogoud as a name coming from the “is no good” saying but pronounced in a French accent. Those darned French were one step ahead of us the entire time. A platformer based on a cartoon series that was based on a long-running French comic strip dating back to the 1960s, Iznogoud follows the titular Vizier as he continually plots against the Caliph of Baghdad in order to take his place. It never goes well for poor old Iznogoud, especially considering he now finds himself owned by Disney with an 8-part limited series on Disney Plus featuring a gratuitous Darth Maul cameo surely on the way.
Anyway, the game itself is your pretty standard platforming fare, with you controlling Iznogoud as he explores different areas across Baghdad in his grand plot to overthrow the Caliph. To the game’s credit, there’s plenty of colourful and varied environments, but that’s about all that Iznogoud is good for. The actual gameplay is considered to be among the worst on the PS1, platformer or otherwise, and even if the graphics have a lot of colour, most of it just looks like a jumbled mess. Iznouse this one even trying to beat Crash, as this game couldn’t even best M&M’s Shell Shocked. What a load of scrap.
Hermie Hopperhead: Scrap Panic
From one of the worst examples of platforming on the console to a pretty decent Sony published, Yuke’s developed 2D platformer that never launched outside of Japan, Hermie Hopperhead: Scrap Panic was likely the victim of Sony’s infamous policy of rejecting 2D games to release in Western markets. Hermie Hopperhead’s pixelated graphics wouldn’t have looked out of place on the SNES or SEGA Genesis, and even if the game did offer parallax scrolling and some brief 3D sections, the majority of the game running in 2D likely meant that the West were denied a pretty decent PS1 platformer from a development team that practically defined what 3D wrestling games look like.
Playing as the eponymous ginger rasta, you discover an egg that’s jumped out of a trash can. Naturally curious, you end up falling into another world entirely, filled with walking eggs, sentient scrap and plenty of stars to collect. Those walking eggs end up becoming a core part of the gameplay, as each one can be hatched for a creature that’ll back you up during the level, attacking enemies and collecting items as needed. The graphics are cute, and the gameplay is rock solid, but Hermie Hopperhead’s main flaw is that there’s too many levels and not enough evolution. You’re going to be sick of doing the same thing over and over again by the time the credits roll, which you can’t really say for some of the other best platformers on PS1. You also can’t say this next duology has seen the light much lately.
Pandemonium! 1 & 2
Two of the biggest “streets won’t forget” games ever here.
Decades before Toys For Bob established themselves as a platforming name worth remembering, thanks to the remakes of the original Spyro trilogy and the pretty decent Crash 4, TFB took a crack at becoming the best platformer on the PS1. Their effort, Pandemonium!, which launched on PS1 in 1996, was a great early release for the PS1, showcasing the power of 3D models and backgrounds while still being played on a 2D plane, creating a 2.5D effect. The story as well was pretty silly, with a jester and a wizard in training seeking a wishing machine to undo the “pandemonium” they unleashed on a small village.
While the graphics were beloved, most had some criticism for the gameplay, which didn’t really innovate on anything that was already done in Super Mario Bros. and every other platformer since, but to be fair it had a completely different vibe and feel to most of its peers. Still, Pandemonium! sold well enough that Toys For Bob were able to release a sequel, Pandemonium 2, where the two characters are now chasing down a wish granting comet. Toys For Bob made all the usual upgrades to the game’s graphics, while offering more abilities in gameplay to keep the action fresh, and while reviews were a bit kinder to the sequel, it still wasn’t enough for Pandemonium to really compete with the PS1’s big hitters. I can’t shake the feeling they did these games dirty with the awful Steam ports.
Shake Kids
Another 2.5D platformer, and also another platformer that never made it out of Japan, Shake Kids actually bears plenty of resemblance to Klonoa, something that did manage to release worldwide and achieve a decentishhhhh? level of success. Quite why Shake Kids was blocked from a worldwide release but Klonoa got pushed everywhere is unclear, as Shake Kids could have been at least a decent PS1 hit. Yeah, it might not be the most original game ever made, following the same running and fighting formula that most platformers had ran into the ground by this point already, but there’s fun to be had here.
You control one of two characters, Randy and Nihni, who are Shake Performers that can defeat enemies by throwing their shaker at enemies and then initiating a jam session. Everything was peaceful and lovely, blah blah blah and now some big evil has started running around dragging the world into peril. Having to hit the dancefloor in order to beat your enemies is definitely a touch better than just jumping on everything’s head until the credits roll, but because Shake Kids never got a worldwide launch, we’ll never know if it could have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Crash and the gang, but the better the devil you know and all that.
Jersey Devil
The PS1 had so many platformers, most of them chasing after Crash Bandicoot of course, but there weren’t as many PS1 platformers that were chasing after the Super Mario 64 formula of open, fully explorable 3D levels. Obviously, Spyro The Dragon would become the closest approximate, achieving massive success for putting its own spin on things, but aside from that, the competition for SM64 clones felt thin. In that way, Jersey Devil is an interesting addition to the PS1’s platforming library, as it offers open 3D platforming in a cartoonish world, making it worth checking out despite the absolutely honking camera at times.
Set in a dark cartoony world, you control the titular Jersey Devil, who happens to look more like a bat than whatever the hell this is, and he’s seeking revenge on the evil Dr Knarf who experimented on him when he was younger. Also, Knarf might have unleashed a bunch of killer vegetables on the city, something that the Devil also has to deal with. Like other 3D platformers, you’re exploring and collecting your way through levels, defeating enemies and using your movement abilities to reach new areas. It’s not breaking the mold, but there’s fun to be had here if you can look past the game’s difficulty and the troublesome camera. Wink and you’ll miss it.
40 Winks
40 winks? I’d settle for about 6.
This game was a bold pitch for developers Eurocom Entertainment Software, a English dev team who previously had made only licensed games and ports of arcade releases. Going from that experience to making a fully original 3D platformer was certainly a gamble, and to be fair to them, 40 Winks is a pretty decent game filled with imaginative worlds and plenty of gameplay abilities to keep the game fresh throughout its run time. Technically at least, 40 Winks definitely put the PS1 through its paces.
40 Winks casts players as either Ruff or Tumble, and we promise we didn’t mean to load this video with games about dual protagonists. Both siblings have to travel into Dreamland to rescue the Winks, who protect humans during their dreams, as they’ve been kidnapped and turned into the nightmare-bringing HoodWinks by the evil NiteKap. It’s a lot of sleeping jokes, basically. Each character has their own unique abilities, and you can even find power-ups within the levels to transform into different forms, making the levels varied and unique throughout 40 Winks’ runtime. It’s a charming, jaunty platformer, but one that can still be a bit creepy.
What are Eurocom up to these days? I don’t really have the heart to tell you.
Heart Of Darkness
Heart of Darkness for the PS1 has absolutely nothing to do with the Joseph Conrad novel of the same name, but you should definitely play Far Cry 2 or Spec Ops: The Line if you do want something like that. Instead, Heart of Darkness for the PS1 is actually a cinematic platformer in the same vein as Another World, or Out Of This World depending on the region you’re from, and the reason for those similarities is actually pretty simple: Heart of Darkness was supervised by Éric Chahi, the guy credited with making Another World. Another World? Not Another World. Yes exactly. It’s a bit different.
Both games follow a young lad who goes on a journey to Another World, but in Heart of Darkness’ case, the player character Andy is travelling to the Darkworld to rescue his kidnapped dog, using his variety of gadgets and other tools to mount the rescue mission. One small complication though is that Andy has a teeny tiny fear of the dark. The gameplay and platforming in Heart of Darkness is a lot more action-oriented than Another World, while retaining the fluid animations and beautiful backgrounds that Éric Chahi’s had become known for. It’s a visual treat at the very least, though the gameplay is a bit clunky and the game was kinda a bit too dark for a lot of kids. Heart of Darkness was in development for 6 years, but pretty much slipped into a very niche status almost immediately — apart from a PC port in the same year, it hasn’t been crawled out of the darkness since.
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