Compared to the other whores of MWN, I had a very different childhood. Firstly, I was in Europe and so I was used to bullshit release dates (and still am) and 50hz etc. Secondly and most importantly, I lived through childhood at least 1 generation after most of the writers, which means I had different kinds of memories when it comes to the PS1 generation.  However the memories I’ll always remember most on that brilliant console are those of the first two Oddworld games.

Of course things started with Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (or Abe aGoGo in Japan) in 1997. My first memory is that of the very first PS1 demo disc. If I remember right, it was the one that came with the Playstation and it also had demos for Descent, Hercules, Rage Racer and some ski racing game as well as a tech demo with a T-Rex. Anyway, I don’t remember much about the demo but my Dad and Brother must have been impressed because later on in 1998 (we got the Ps1 in December 97′), they picked up the full version of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and boy am I glad they did.

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee was about a simple working mudokon named Abe who, one night discovers while cleaning, that his employer (Mullock the glukkon) is running low on paramite and scarab meat so he is going to start making meat products out of Abe and the rest of his species. So begins a grand adventure that starts with Abe escaping from Rupture Farms (the place he works out) before eventually returning to put an end to Mullock’s plans. At the time, I’d never seen anything like it and it captivated my imagination.

There was a time, believe it or not, when Square Soft was known for making quality games and releasing brand new role-playing games here in America. Their name stood for quality games, and not the tarnished company they have become. Nobody will deny the awesomeness that was Square during the SNES period, nobody! This trend thankfully continued into the 32-bit generation when Square started to branch off into other genres of gaming.