PS1 Pipemania 3D (Promootio)

Harvinaisuus: Ei yleisessä myynnissä, promootiopeli, pieni CD-kotelo.

GameSpot User Review:

Pipe Dreams 3D is a bit of a novelty title. It plays on the nostalgic trappings of the old-school Pipe games from the early shareware era. While the game works fine, there are some unusual flaws which prevent it from being any more than a pretty mediocre title.

As with a lot of remakes of classic titles, this one gets a story. A mysterious alien force has started dumping gunk all over the world, and it's up to our charismatic, pipe-shaped mascot to put a stop to it. A colorful and delightfully amateurish cutscene sets the mood for the game; the cartoony atmosphere gives the game a much-needed boost of personality.

The gameplay is fairly standard; it doesn't deviate much from the template set by the original. Players must navigate flowing ooze through pipes. Players lay the pipe on a playfield, along a set grid. Like Tetris, players get their set of pipes a few moves in advance, which helps in planning ahead. Players have to lead the ooze through the pipes, occasionally collecting items or passing through specific barriers or obstacles in order to pass the stage. After collecting the items (or, sometimes, just having the ooze pass through a required amount of pipes) a drainpipe appears on the stage for players to lead the ooze into, thus completing the level. I think this game is easier to play with a mouse or a stylus, but the Playstation controller works fine too.

I don't mind as much that the thematic worlds - Space City World, Ice World, Fiesta World (complete with requisite stereotypes) - have nothing to do with the gameplay. You may expect to have to navigate around some penguins in the Ice World or flip switches in the futuristic worlds, but no; the gameplay remains relatively the same throughout, no matter what world you're currently in. That in itself is a bit of wasted potential, but what bothers me is how players have to wait so long to get to where they want to go.

The ooze moves very slowly; even pressing the speed-up button doesn't seem to do much. Worse, unused pipes explode and disappear from the grid if they go unused for too long. Even if they're part of an elaborate, well-planned route, which lets the ooze pass through all the required items, they'll soon disappear if the ooze doesn't go through the path quickly enough. You'll have to rebuild a lot of your canals and waste a lot of pipes - and grid space - to redo everything you've already done, and for no really good reason. The game isn't unplayable, but it's unnecessarily frustrating. That, and the drainpipe appears in some really inconvenient spots when you're done in each stage, so you'll likely waste some ooze, as it drips out of the pipes and into the playfield, just to get to the drainpipe. It'll cost you pipes, ooze and, occasionally, lives.

I've seen this gameplay better on the PS2 and the DS; I can't recommend this particular version. As a late release (probably a budget title), this game likely didn't get a lot of recognition. For purists, the game may be worth checking out but, if you're truly into Pipe Dreams and its ilk, chances are there's a great version on mobile devices. Despite the charming graphics and surprisingly good soundtrack, the gameplay model has some unusual flaws which prevent the game from being a real knockout.