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July 20 2009

no doubt, spent countless hours with my friends trying to master this game. thank you for reminding me about it. dailymeh: Fuck Mario. Pandemonium (1996) is the greatest 2D platformer ever. I spent a lot of time playing this on a Playstation 1, and today I found a somewhat buggy PC version that is, nonetheless, playable, and worth it if I can experience some of the magic I once did with this game. I don’t play a lot of games, but, like Heroes 3, this is one I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time with. Pandemonium is a 2D platformer whose levels twist and turn in 3D space, which might have been 1) a topologist’s dream or 2) a recipe for nausea, but ends up being 3) a pleasant gimmick that doesn’t detract from the gameplay, which is solid 2D platformer glory. There aren’t a lot of options: there is a short backstory about some illicit magic to set the quest off, and then you get to choose between playing a jester, who can do cartwheels, and a woman, who is good at jumping. I always played the woman. From there, it’s 18 levels and three bosses. The final level is devilishly hard, or at least that’s how I remember it, and if you beat it, you get to fight the final boss, who is a giant eyeball. If you don’t love it, you clearly have no taste. According to one review: It is the more sinister aspects, like mad hatter toads and killer fungi, that elevate the game from a mere bad trip to a nightmare worthy of Lewis Carroll… Perhaps Pandemonium!’s greatest achievement is that it overcomes a cliche-ridden idiom through the sheer force of its design. Of course, the graphics look like 1996. Back then, they were apparently considered “exceptionally rendered and crisp.” I still like them. I suspect the version I downloaded is an emulation of the Playstation version I used to play, rather than the PC version, so the PC version may look a little better on modern screens (nostalgia aside, I don’t like permanent scanlines).

no doubt, spent countless hours with my friends trying to master this game. thank you for reminding me about it.

dailymeh:

Fuck Mario. Pandemonium (1996) is the greatest 2D platformer ever.

I spent a lot of time playing this on a Playstation 1, and today I found a somewhat buggy PC version that is, nonetheless, playable, and worth it if I can experience some of the magic I once did with this game. I don’t play a lot of games, but, like Heroes 3, this is one I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time with.

Pandemonium is a 2D platformer whose levels twist and turn in 3D space, which might have been 1) a topologist’s dream or 2) a recipe for nausea, but ends up being 3) a pleasant gimmick that doesn’t detract from the gameplay, which is solid 2D platformer glory. There aren’t a lot of options: there is a short backstory about some illicit magic to set the quest off, and then you get to choose between playing a jester, who can do cartwheels, and a woman, who is good at jumping. I always played the woman. From there, it’s 18 levels and three bosses. The final level is devilishly hard, or at least that’s how I remember it, and if you beat it, you get to fight the final boss, who is a giant eyeball.

If you don’t love it, you clearly have no taste. According to one review:

It is the more sinister aspects, like mad hatter toads and killer fungi, that elevate the game from a mere bad trip to a nightmare worthy of Lewis Carroll… Perhaps Pandemonium!’s greatest achievement is that it overcomes a cliche-ridden idiom through the sheer force of its design.

Of course, the graphics look like 1996. Back then, they were apparently considered “exceptionally rendered and crisp.” I still like them. I suspect the version I downloaded is an emulation of the Playstation version I used to play, rather than the PC version, so the PC version may look a little better on modern screens (nostalgia aside, I don’t like permanent scanlines).

  1. harryroman reblogged this from dailymeh and added:
    my friends trying to master
  2. nickwild reblogged this from dailymeh and added:
    Holy shit, I loved this game. I remember playing 2 of these on the PS1: One a traditional 2D view with 3D looking...
  3. dailymeh posted this