Pandemonium! (Platinum)

Description

Pandemonium! was one of the earliest and most successful pioneers of the original 2.5D platforming genre, originally arriving in 1997. It arrived right at the moment when the industry was aggressively pushing into 3D polygons, but developers were still wrestling with clumsy camera controls. By restricting the player’s movement to a fixed 2D path that twisted, swooped, and wrapped around fully 3D environments, it offered the visual thrill of next-gen hardware while maintaining the tight, fast-paced platforming mechanics of the 16-bit era.

The game lets players choose between two very distinctly 90s protagonists: Nikki, an acrobatic sorceress whose primary advantage is a double-jump, and Fargus, a manic jester who uses his talking puppet stick, Sid, as a weapon. The level design is incredibly vibrant and chaotic, relying heavily on momentum, bounce pads, and collecting treasure. While the gameplay itself is a relatively straightforward hop-and-bop affair, the dynamic, sweeping camera angles made the simple act of running from left to right feel like a rollercoaster ride.

From a technical and historical standpoint, the PS1 version is generally considered the definitive console experience. When compared side-by-side with the Sega Saturn port that arrived a few months later, the PlayStation handles the game’s vibrant textures with noticeably more crispness and less visual aliasing. It also features a classic retro quirk for the era: despite the PS1 having widespread memory card support, Pandemonium! stubbornly relied on an old-school, level-by-level password system to save your progress.

The PS1 version of Pandemonium! is widely considered the definitive console release of the 2.5D classic, utilising crisp textures and dynamic camera work. It is also notable for its Japanese release, which Bandai heavily localised with entirely different style and rebranded as Magical Hoppers . Nikki was completely redesigned into a traditional anime-style protagonist, Fargus was swapped out for a bizarre, smiling mascot character, and all the CGI cutscenes were entirely recreated from scratch.