Page 25 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #39 FREE Edition

in both the Commodore 64 and Spectrum versions, gamers can actually reconnect with the version they grew up with - or start a new adventure on a port they have never played before. It’s reasons like this that make the AntStream such an amazing platform.
LOADED
product, they managed to deliver on all
of those fronts, which had everything to do with the team they had in place.
Gremlin Interactive’s top-down shooter, Loaded, managed to deliver a slew of blood and violence, all while maintaining
the type of frenetic gameplay
that would have made Robotron’s Eugene Jarvis proud. Armed with a killer team that went on to have an impact in the business for decades to come, the game achieved PlayStation Greatest Hit status, selling over 250K copies and a sequel, which did the same.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Loaded is the type of game that would still have a fan base now if it was released, but it is very much a product of its time. Gremlin absolutely took advantage of the market but in the best way possible. They knew what fans wanted. They wanted violence. They wanted grit. They wanted energy. In terms of a final
adventure games, classics the likes of Gauntlet, Robotron and Smash TV, but allows
the player to explore massive levels in search of keycards in order to escape an intergalactic prison.
That may not seem like a huge change, but it took a fun and mainly static and strategic genre and made it feel oh so different. Those who have played the top- down levels of Contra on the NES will have a better understanding of how Loaded played, but with far superior graphics, sound and, of course, violence.
From a gameplay point of view, Loaded takes a clear nod from the Midway era of top-down shooters and
RELOADED
There’s less than a handful of PS1 games on the AntStream arcade and both games in this series
are home on the platform. A gory, fast, and wide-open shooter, it’s
a symptom of mid-90s gaming- think Nirvana meets Mortal Kombat in a Robotron engine. With awesome visuals, a rocking soundtrack, and memorable characters, it’s a shooter that is still more than playable today.
WHY WE LOVE IT The same top- down shooting action that made Loaded so much fun is still present in the sequel, albeit with bigger, more complex levels and just as good a score. Although the original game began as an SNES title, this one was always a PlayStation title and it’s obvious in the visuals. While the developers feel the second game in the series was rushed and critics felt like it wasn’t as much of an improvement over the original, it still earned a cult- fanbase and is a fast and frenetic shooter.
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