Out of this World

Times were very tough for the 3DO ... not to mention the poor 3DO owners. If you weren't tired of Gex and the ports of Psychic Detective and the Daedelis Encounter, well, then you probably didn't own a 3DO. Still, there was very little to get excited about while your friends were still fighting the brutal 16-bit war. However, this port of Delphine's top-notch side-scroller was enough to satiate the 3DO owners for a t least a few days.

The plot centers on our hapless hero Lester, who has apparently been transported through space to a hostile alien world -- thanks to the machine he was working on. Soon after, he is captured by the gruesome aliens inhabiting this world, and the rest is non-stop, full-throttle action! Or rather, grueling trial by error and eventual action, usually on replaying previous levels. This game is hard. The very beginning of the game drives that point home right away.

From there it's all about solving puzzles and fighting off hordes of aliens in the process.

Most scenes are divided singularly as levels with passwords, so you can get frustrated, scream obscenities at the 3DO about its mother, throw the controller and come back to it later. You'd think with the growing scarcity of peripherals for these old systems I'd grow out of the throwing my controller with rage phase, but I haven't.

The 3DO's hardware really helps to polish the graphics up, especially when compared to its 16-bit counterparts. The sound effects are particularly pleasant, adding much more atmosphere than the previous incarnations.

While it doesn't stand the test of time as well as say, a 32-bit version of Flashback, it's still an excellent representation of early attempts to increase the scope and scale of your run of the mill side scrolling action games. And for the record, I don't mean any of the things I said about the 3DO's mother.