Amazing How Far We’ve Come –
The 90s were a different time. Most of us were trying to deal with the 80s being over while still trying to figure out just how much of our time we should be wasting on this “internet fade” thing. It was also a time of transition, between the 2D battles that so many brawlers had taken places and the possibility of moving them into a more realized and fully three dimensional space. Most of the time this was awkward, clunky and people did what they could to never mention Grand Stream Saga ever again, the rare instance in all of this being Lucifer Ring – a game so different from the rest of the pack at the time. Thanks to the hard work at Monkey Paw, US gamers are now able to experience this Japanese import PSOne 3D brawler.
The game is janky, often blaming the player for events entirely out of seemingly anyone’s control. There are attacks that people are reportedly able to block, but I am sure that these are the same people that also tell me about how you can combo an entire life bar by being pixel perfect in Street Fighter. Also most of the mechanics in the game are dated as are the controls and pretty much everything else. Taking every last piece of that into consideration it is just about the world’s best time capsule to what generic game we were playing on the PS1 at that exact moment. If someone asked me what it was like to be a teenage in the 90s I would hand them this game and a copy of Rage Against the Machine’s Battle of Los Angeles.
Lucifer Ring is short. We actually finished the game during our live stream (posted below). It is pretty easy to recommend to anyone with a passing interest in what Gen X-er’s were doing on their down time, or just anyone who wants a quick trip into a very specific timeframe in gaming. While this probably isn’t the game for everyone, it really should be picked up by those who are looking to grab an odd and strange piece of their childhood back. If anything, this title makes it easy to see just how far gaming technology has come.