Game: Jersey Devil (PS1, Win/1997-98)
Mascot for: Megatoon Studios/Sony
Jersey Devil is a strange bat-like creature who is an anti-hero (or perhaps one of those dark superheroes like Batman or Daredevil). He goes on a mission to stop Dr. Knarf, who is terrorizing the city of Jersey with his mutant vegetables. This 3D platformer is derivative of the time, with JD attacking enemies, collecting pumpkins, and using his gliding ability to reach new areas. The environments are all horror-themed places (crypts, mansion, toxic factory, etc.). Every now and then, there is some voice acting, although (surprisingly) JD never speaks.
What happened: Apart from an excellent orchestral soundtrack, JD doesn't have much going for it. The game's not awful, but it's all "been there, done that." By this point, Playstation already had Crash Bandicoot and Spyro as recognizable mascots, and their games were far more interesting than JD. The character of JD was generic, looking like a wannabe Looney Toons character; the gameplay was generic too. And so, JD was a flop right out of the gate. Crash and Spyro are still around today, but that old Jersey Devil died in the '90s.
Everybody in PA/NJ knows the Jersey Devil is real and living in the Pine Barrens of NJ. I saw it fly by me last time I was there. Looks kind of like the game character actually.
But seriously, the only Jersey Devil I'm familiar with is the hockey team, which was PA Flyers nemesis back in the 90s when I used to follow such things.
I like the graphics in this game though. I'd play it.
I was thinking of hockey too. And I agree, it looks like a decent enough game and I like that there's a horror concept. But I wouldn't expect much.
The horror theme is cool and the music is good, but from what I've seen, the gameplay is pretty bland.
I reviewed this for The Dallas Morning News back in the day. I remember the opening cinamatic being kind of funny, but the rest of the game was pretty bland as far as I can remember. The only 3-D platformers on the PlayStation I really liked were Spyro, Tail Concerto, and the Mega Man Legends series, but really 3-D platforming on the PlsyStaiton didn't get N64 caliber until Ape Escape came along (also one of my favorites). And that was nearly five years after the system launched!
What's Tail Concerto?
What's Tail Concerto? WHAT'S TAIL CONCERTO?!? Well, OK, it was a pretty obscure game. Anyway, Tail Concerto was a PSOne game that came out at the tail end of 1999, right about the time I was about to graduate from college. It was made by Bandai and published by Atlus, and it's one of the first games I ordered online! It's a 3-D platformer starring a cartoon police dog named Waffle. Waffle lives in a world of floating islands populated by cat and dog people. Waffle's job is to stop a group of cat pirates and their kitten gang by piloting a walking mech that blows bubbles. He traps the kittens in the bubbles and captures them with the mech's floppy arms. It kind of plays like Mega Man Legends in a way. The game has a Miyazaki style story with animated cut scenes. It's a very charming game and I recommend you look it up and watch some videos about it, too, maybe. Believe it or not, Tail Concerto actually got a sequel on the DS that's even more obscure. It was called Solatorobo and while it was still a good game, it wasn't near as charming as Tail Concerto.
I've heard of Solatorobo, looks cool. It's a shame these kind of unique games often get overlooked in favor of the more paint-by-the-numbers games (if you know what I mean)