Hi! I was the art director/lead artist on Slave Zero X, and I was part of the team that originally pitched the title to Ziggurat, our publisher. I do want you to know that X isn't unrelated by any means - i've had the pleasure to talk with the original team responsible for Slave Zero, and to incorporate and draw inspiration from unused concepts of theirs. We made an effort to recapture a lot of what made the moment in time that created Slave Zero the first time around special, and to connect with and further develop the universe of the original game - i totally understand frustration with the shift in genre, but I do hope that folks will give us a shot.
I really liked Slave Zero a lot, i was that kid that showed everyone you could throw people at building and watch them slowly slide down with a cool blood decal : P stuff like that blew our minds back then, such detail and care is what we always looked for and made us love gaming. thank you every one who worked on it : D
I think what you guys are doing looks good and appreciated the Quake mod as well. That said, I hope that a combination of Armored Core's success and Slave Zero X's hopeful success will lead to another giant mech game in the setting :)
I pre order the special edition of Slave zero x for switch, hope that run well. I keep my eyes on this game for a long time👀👀 The pixel Art and the animation looks great. Can't waith to play. I love Slave zero on Dreamcast, so im courious to play Zero x.
I was a tester for Slave Zero back in the Accolade/Infogrames days. We were so hyped that it was going to be on Dreamcast. We needed a hit game after a few flops. We hyped it up big time and I think we even had some commercials on tv for it. I honestly think the transition to infogrames hurt the game. We went from making unique games to mass market games. I left the company after I got put on bugs bunny for gameboy and went to namco. I still enjoyed working for accolade though just not infogrames.
Holy shit, someone else remembers Slave Zero. Favorite mech game. I have the disc floating around somewhere, I think, but it's scratched to hell. The fact that you could just explore the disc and it had all kinds of goodies on it like concept art and making of videos.. I wish more games did that. I wish ALL games did that. With the popularity of digital downloads, adding this stuff to physical releases feels almost mandatory since it's SO FUCKING COOL!
Thanks for posting this. I'm working on a digital museum for old mech titles, and the link to the interview is super helpful. Hopefully I can do my part to keep games like this from completely dying. Update: I bought a copy of the PC version.
You’ll be happy to hear, not all of us have forgotten this game. I still own it. You’ll be UNhappy to hear, it’s the Dreamcast version. But you’re correct it’s awesome. Thank you for such a considered, and deep dive on the subject. This is an excellent combination of tech info & history. Subscribing.
nightdive managed to make the best remake of an old classic I've ever played with system shock, now imagine if they were to ride the AC6 hype wave and get funding for a mech game...
In peixoto's patch, it is also a good idea to find and check the "force 60 hertz" option. It fixes a mouse issue that can crop up, and also fixes some of the physics (like gravity-affected weapons). Also you can pick up downgrade weapons manually by aiming at the weapon and pressing the same button you use to pick up cars and people Having seen the end of the video, the final boss is actually super easy if you limit your framerate to 60 with peixoto's patch. Your artillery cannon can hit his face super easy, and you can also hit his face with the valhalla cluster rockets (the best missile launcher in the game). You even have more than enough ammo for hard difficulty. Also with those enemies that crash the game, i THINK what the issue is that if you save *after* an enemy slave spawns (the enemies that are basically another you) that slave has a chance to glitch, causing a crash on it's death. You can avoid this by having a few saves in rotation (so you can revert to an older one if you get stuck), and worst case scenario using the "restart level" option in the pause screen.
Thanks for making this. I tend to hate all the mecha games, escept the ones almost no one heard about. This was really a gem back in the days, sitting next to Metal Fatigue and Shogo at the bench of forgotten mecha franchises.
I was sitting here after a play through of Armored core 6 and I wanted to make a build based on slave zero and I was like...I bet no one even remembers this game at all. I played it on pc as a demo where you could only play the first level and then on the dreamcast and I remember it being broken or something because me and my buddy couldn't fire the missiles and we pressed every button and couldn't end the first level it just crashed every time. but still that first level left a core memory and what got me into mecha style games where I branched off into mech warrior and armored core the early days on play station. I didn't even know they were trying to remake this until you mentioned it so now im kinda excited!
Remember inviting all my friends over to show this game off. they would freak out that the people could be picked and thrown but when they hit a building they would splat and slowly slide down with a tiny blood decal that would smear as they fell. not only amazing but hilarious, always loved little details like that that show passion and creativity you rarely see : D
I remember playing this over and over again as a kid early 2000s, on PC, from a CD that came from this weird collection of like 20 titles in a box, with the likes of Daikatana an Sim City...to this day I don't know if it even was official. Never got through the Boss with the rising 'water' levels. I think I saw it on Steam a while ago and bought it, should give it a shot.
Been on the wishlist for a long time but this video finally pushed me to get it. Just played for a little bit and man oh man what a first impression. Sad to hear about it the final couple of levels though (although I'm sure I can manage)
Hey bro just wanted to say I love watching your videos. As someone who was born in the early 2000s you have reviewed some of my favorite games and have done an awesome job on them. I love both positive and negative opinions that you have towards games and really resonate with a lot of your views personally on these beloved games of mine. Just wanted to say I would love for you to review Halo 5 or Marathon cause Bungie is remaking the game so I want to see your review on the classic version. With that being said once again this was an awesome video. Keep up the good work.
I got Slave Zero for free from PC Gamer back in the day. It was my favourite mech game until Titanfall came out, always wondered why there wasn't a sequel. If we're lucky we'll get a proper remaster from Nightdive after Armored Core 6 comes out and everybody suddenly wants a piece of the mech shooter genre. Update: I didn't know the Dreamcast version runs like liquid shit...
i think the producer used 3D space at very small scale, thats why everything is low polygon made. Because 3D space uses much more memory, but developer tried to put some next level effects to close the gap of tech visually
Oh the memories. I played this game so many times back in the day, I loved it. I still remember most of it, included the wonky weapon swapping mechanic and me avoiding certain "upgrades" because I liked the previous version more. I also remember most of the boss fights including the last one, but I don't remember any crashing issue or excessive difficulty. Maybe my mind just removed those memories. Btw great video.
25:15 i like gundam evolution but god these maps are abysmal. I gripe about them with my friends every time we play lol. Gundam Battle Operation 2 did better with the sense of scale, which imo is the second most important part of mech stuff (first being the mechs) 43:19 favorite part of the video (time-stamping for myself) 45:05 ew, their writing is mondo garbo Very cool video for a very cool game. Informative and entertaining.
Awesome video, man! I actually just got done beating the Dreamcast port, and although your criticisms of it ring true, it still delivers explosive gameplay in a catching artstyle with brilliant levels. Fun fact the back of the dreamcast case says it has "13 immersive levels" seems even the producers wanted to forget about 14
another decent but mostly forgotten mech series is Gungriffon 1 and 2 from Game Arts on the sega saturn... part 2 has an english patch now.. biggest flaw is probably the saturn's controls, but still pretty good for its console generation.. also i know every one hates this but, Evangelion is pronounced with a hard g, "Geh" lion, no j sound...i didnt know either until I started buying the ADV discs in the late 90's/ early 2000's..i havent played Slave Zero yet, but i do have the Dreamcast GDI, but based on your review i guess ill hold off till i get the pc version.. great video
Ironic you talk about how slave zeros x covered up everything related to this game because x was how i discovered this game exist and i was like “yo this cool mech beat em up has a 3rd person shooter and a official total conversion in quake this series is awesome”
I got this one on Dreamcast about 5 years ago because it looked weird and interesting, but I ended up dropping it because of how bad the port was. I pretty much forgot about it after that, but this PC gameplay looks like so much fun, I think I'm going to pick it up and give it another whirl.
Dreamcast was revolutionary and had SOO MANY GREAT GAMES! Slave Zero! Rage:Expendable! Rage:Incoming! They were fcking amazing games! It just sucks it was such a failure, i loved my dreamcast and i had a special aftermarket controller with 2 thumbsticks. I loved Slave Zero and Rage:Incoming so damn much!
Damn good video, I hope these big videos bring in subscribers. Quick question though you’ve made in-depth videos on halo 4& infinite will you do the same for 5 thanks I really enjoy watching you bash 343 while nearly everyone else is still coping
I sometimes wonder why there isnt another mech themed FPS or Third Person shooter that uses the enlarged low poly enviroment as a backdrop for fighting in like Slave Zero or Shogo Armored Division. It feels like such a simple way to do a mech themed level at least. But anyways thanks for looking into this game deeper, hearing how much the team loved the game really makes the whole ''looks nothing like it'' prequel thing dissapointing.
I actually have wondered when someone will try and make a game that is intentionally throwing back to late 90s early 2000s 3D accelerated PC graphics We have plenty of games imitating PS1 graphics, but none that imitate late 90s PC graphics with grimy and blurry bilinear filtered textures and noticeable texture seams
2:59 I am totally ignorant to how PC gaming works but in my mind, it's like, if these newer PCs have such amazing specs and capabilities, why are they unable to play older pc games? I'm sure someone will leave a snarky comment in response but as a console normie it's something I always wondered about PCs
It's not just about the hardware, but how you talk to it, and on Windows PCs that's mostly DirectX. New features were added, while others got removed on a near yearly basis. If your game took 3 years to make, you could be re-writing a lot of code during development just to keep up and there was no way to know how things would change in the future. But DX isn't the only culprit: the switch from DOS (eg Win95/98) architecture to NT (Win2k/XP), 32 to 64bit, discontinuation of 3Dfx, hardware manufacturers removing "old and unused" features in new products .... a lot has changed and any combination could break a game.
I once brought this game to my middle school activity days and nobody played it with me lol. To be fair somebody brought an Xbox with Halo so nobody cared about my Dreamcast.
Great forgotten game, i remember gets really wonky towards the end sadly. Still the idea is great and the game pulls it off. And there is just something super cool about 90s stylized cyberpunk like pysgnosis stuff, G police, wipeout,etc. Interesting that a dev from Interstate 76 worked on it, that game is also a forgotten masterpiece. But Slave Zero is a true tragedy, it should also have been masterpiece.
i thought it was fairly popular when i played it as a kid i do not remember much about it aside from kicking cars around. I do remember enjoying it tho. Not sure if you take recomendations but If you have not already, another obscure but great game that flew under the radar is the battlezone series. It even has a remaster with a small but tight nit community thats been around since the start. Its a late 90s FPS infused with RTS game play. can be 3rd person if you want, and I know some people play that way, but personally I much prefer first person.
One of the billboards reads オキンヒモ, which, if we disregard the first kana, is the Japanese name for the rattail cactus. Given this is a game from the late 90s made by a Western studio, it's more likely than not that they just keyboard-mashed a bunch of katakana together to make decorations instead of actually trying to make words.
I recall seeing this game at a Kohl's demo kiosk back in the day, almost certainly the Dreamcast version. I was in grade school at the time and I had no idea what the game was called until years later. I think the visuals intrigued me enough that the memory of demo lingered in my head until I rediscovered the game. It's a shame the final levels are almost unplayable and quite likely unbeatable without cheating. A patch to fix these issues would be most welcome.
Some of the spawn rooms in Gundam Evolution have little vehicles and extendable platforms to sell the scale, but they definitely didn't do enough to make you feel like you're piloting a giant robot. It doesn't help that Gundam Evo is a first person shooter first and foremost, and has none of the clunk you'd associate with a mecha game.
No. This game was killed by Accolade chopping 6 months off our development time at the end while simultaneously adding another SKU of the title. This caused our Lead and Senior Programmers to quit, leaving the rest of us working 100+ hour work weeks desperately trying to make the new insane schedule. Just so you know.
Hah, had some good memories of the game and now I know why after a late 1998 article about this game there was the void. Never seen it on the shelves, and the reason I could play it was because there was a steam release that a friend of mine found. Anyway, as a piece of trivia I can mention how I knew of the game; other than an article in a gaming mag, there was a pre-alpha demo of it, which I've played to hell and back. And what I can tell you is that there were many elements cut from the final release; crouching, 3 types of growling including the one seen in the intro, a different introductory sequence where you were greeted by "Welcome to the industrial sector Unit Zero". Also what I've noticed from right from the get go while playing the game was the fact that levels have been split into 3 parts, probably because of the dreamcast release. Oh and Initially Zero was Gunmetal grey on grey, not grey on red.
Still have the CD and game BOX here... The only games i played has a kid, RUNE, SEVERANCE, SLAVE ZERO, CRUSADER NO REMORSE/REGRET The final boss is easy you just have to control your ammo and rockets... I beat the game on hard many times.
Ah, I love this game. Seems you were unlucky, I played through the game multiple times without a single crash, though that was without the unofficial patch.
I played the demo for this game way back in the day, it was the first level of the game in full, but there was one little problem: there were ZERO health pickups. I loved the demo's combat feel, the level design, the music, but the game just felt way too hard for me because of that oversight, so I never picked it up.
Still in the middle of watching but I felt like I had to point out inaccuracies. Widescreen is possible with Pexioto's patch. It involves writing in custom resolutions in the config file. Widescreen keeps the misaligned crosshair issue which breaks missile lock on. Also, you can pick up weapons manually. It's just that you have to aim at them and press E. Or whatever the assigned pickup button is. I forget if E is the default or not. Of course, the autopick still kicks in so you gotta be careful not to auto pick up the gun you just swapped. Edit: Finished the video. Weird you had issues with the final level. I had no problem with it when I played the Steam version a few months ago. Sure you didn't have a file corruption issue or something? The final boss is definitely awful though. Way too much health and not enough ammo. By the way, you can also charge the Dark Matter gun. It does a lot more damage but eats through even more ammo.
Nice video 💪 Though I wouldn't be that negative about the new game. For starter it plays incredible, I tried the demo on Steam and it's freaking amazing, it helps that I love the genre of course, but it's really a great action game. With that said, I learned about Slave Zero thanks to the new game, not the other way around. It's unfortunate that the old game got so obscure and forgotten, that was clearly a sad story, but the new one if anything can help rediscover this old gem.
I picked up a cheap used Dreamcast copy of this game. I'd recommend checking out Shogo Mobile Armor Division too. Wish that game got a remake or spiritual successor, mixing anime mecha with an FPS. So cool of an idea. Too cool for this bland and boring industry...
for the life of me I cannot find the download in the link you provided for the patch, I can't even find a mention of the game Slave Zero everything seems to be patches for Signalis?
Thankyou for mentioning the bad level design of the new gundam game. The game was already meh for me since its just a poor overwatch clone ,but the environments were so poorly detailed, like you said, could fit into any generic scifi game. Didnt get the sense of being in a giant robot. One of my favorite games that pulled off mech scaling and also allowed that human sized perspective was the titanfall games. You get to experience a town and be able to walk through buildings as the pilot, and then you can tower over everything in the titan.
@@JakoBreaker Maybe better than AC2, but 1 and 3 are still my favorites, so I wouldn't say that. All of the games have their individual value in the series, though.
42:57 - Yeah, no other buttons, whatsoever... impossibruh to do. Look, don't shit on the Dreamcast because of halfbaked un-thought-through business deals and development with no money left.
Just beat it on the dreamcast the other day. It was much more ambitious of a game than most of the PS1 and N64 games that I was playing at that time, and I would have enjoyed it had If I had dreamcast back then. The controls were tough to get down on the DC controller, but by the second mission it was just fine.
Love this game, i simply used the files (d3d_SlaveZero.exe and d3d.dll) form the Steam guide "Slave Zero lock on and crosshair fix" and dgVoodoo to achive 2560x1440 120fps back when i played the Steam version, fun times.
Hi! I was the art director/lead artist on Slave Zero X, and I was part of the team that originally pitched the title to Ziggurat, our publisher. I do want you to know that X isn't unrelated by any means - i've had the pleasure to talk with the original team responsible for Slave Zero, and to incorporate and draw inspiration from unused concepts of theirs. We made an effort to recapture a lot of what made the moment in time that created Slave Zero the first time around special, and to connect with and further develop the universe of the original game - i totally understand frustration with the shift in genre, but I do hope that folks will give us a shot.
I really liked Slave Zero a lot, i was that kid that showed everyone you could throw people at building and watch them slowly slide down with a cool blood decal : P stuff like that blew our minds back then, such detail and care is what we always looked for and made us love gaming. thank you every one who worked on it : D
loved the original, and have wishlisted the prequel (the demo was great).
I also really liked the 6 level pre-prequel mod for quake
I think what you guys are doing looks good and appreciated the Quake mod as well. That said, I hope that a combination of Armored Core's success and Slave Zero X's hopeful success will lead to another giant mech game in the setting :)
@francinebridge9987 I have Slave Zero X on my wishlist, your art is impressive.
I pre order the special edition of Slave zero x for switch, hope that run well.
I keep my eyes on this game for a long time👀👀
The pixel Art and the animation looks great.
Can't waith to play.
I love Slave zero on Dreamcast, so im courious to play Zero x.
I was a tester for Slave Zero back in the Accolade/Infogrames days. We were so hyped that it was going to be on Dreamcast. We needed a hit game after a few flops. We hyped it up big time and I think we even had some commercials on tv for it. I honestly think the transition to infogrames hurt the game. We went from making unique games to mass market games. I left the company after I got put on bugs bunny for gameboy and went to namco. I still enjoyed working for accolade though just not infogrames.
it was a extremely fun game on Dreamcast.
Holy shit, someone else remembers Slave Zero.
Favorite mech game. I have the disc floating around somewhere, I think, but it's scratched to hell. The fact that you could just explore the disc and it had all kinds of goodies on it like concept art and making of videos..
I wish more games did that. I wish ALL games did that. With the popularity of digital downloads, adding this stuff to physical releases feels almost mandatory since it's SO FUCKING COOL!
Thanks for posting this. I'm working on a digital museum for old mech titles, and the link to the interview is super helpful. Hopefully I can do my part to keep games like this from completely dying.
Update: I bought a copy of the PC version.
I recognised that alarm sound effect from another game and was going nuts trying to remember which one. Splinter cell, they used it in splinter cell.
Yeah, I hear that alarm in a lot of things, from games to movies. Every time I hear it, I'm reminded of Slave Zero.
I played the first level of this so many times as a kid on pc. The music is what got me I think.
You’ll be happy to hear, not all of us have forgotten this game. I still own it.
You’ll be UNhappy to hear, it’s the Dreamcast version.
But you’re correct it’s awesome.
Thank you for such a considered, and deep dive on the subject. This is an excellent combination of tech info & history. Subscribing.
nightdive managed to make the best remake of an old classic I've ever played with system shock, now imagine if they were to ride the AC6 hype wave and get funding for a mech game...
In peixoto's patch, it is also a good idea to find and check the "force 60 hertz" option. It fixes a mouse issue that can crop up, and also fixes some of the physics (like gravity-affected weapons).
Also you can pick up downgrade weapons manually by aiming at the weapon and pressing the same button you use to pick up cars and people
Having seen the end of the video, the final boss is actually super easy if you limit your framerate to 60 with peixoto's patch. Your artillery cannon can hit his face super easy, and you can also hit his face with the valhalla cluster rockets (the best missile launcher in the game). You even have more than enough ammo for hard difficulty.
Also with those enemies that crash the game, i THINK what the issue is that if you save *after* an enemy slave spawns (the enemies that are basically another you) that slave has a chance to glitch, causing a crash on it's death. You can avoid this by having a few saves in rotation (so you can revert to an older one if you get stuck), and worst case scenario using the "restart level" option in the pause screen.
Thanks for making this. I tend to hate all the mecha games, escept the ones almost no one heard about. This was really a gem back in the days, sitting next to Metal Fatigue and Shogo at the bench of forgotten mecha franchises.
I played this gameike crazy along with FF7 and Soul Reaver when I had a PC in the late 90s. It was such a fun game on PC at the time.
I was sitting here after a play through of Armored core 6 and I wanted to make a build based on slave zero and I was like...I bet no one even remembers this game at all. I played it on pc as a demo where you could only play the first level and then on the dreamcast and I remember it being broken or something because me and my buddy couldn't fire the missiles and we pressed every button and couldn't end the first level it just crashed every time. but still that first level left a core memory and what got me into mecha style games where I branched off into mech warrior and armored core the early days on play station. I didn't even know they were trying to remake this until you mentioned it so now im kinda excited!
I would’ve likely never of heard of this game had you not covered it Andy, thank you for that.
Remember inviting all my friends over to show this game off. they would freak out that the people could be picked and thrown but when they hit a building they would splat and slowly slide down with a tiny blood decal that would smear as they fell. not only amazing but hilarious, always loved little details like that that show passion and creativity you rarely see : D
I remember playing this over and over again as a kid early 2000s, on PC, from a CD that came from this weird collection of like 20 titles in a box, with the likes of Daikatana an Sim City...to this day I don't know if it even was official. Never got through the Boss with the rising 'water' levels. I think I saw it on Steam a while ago and bought it, should give it a shot.
Been on the wishlist for a long time but this video finally pushed me to get it. Just played for a little bit and man oh man what a first impression. Sad to hear about it the final couple of levels though (although I'm sure I can manage)
The Mecha Design in Slave Zero reminds me of The Guyver.
New hour long video to listen to at work, awesome as always!
This was my high school jam! Thanks for giving it some love
Oh yeah, Omega Boost on PS, using another big robot, is a good one forgotten by most too
Never heard of this before. Does look like it is worth a Look. Sad that Gems like this one often go overlooked.
It was amazing back in the day
Hey bro just wanted to say I love watching your videos. As someone who was born in the early 2000s you have reviewed some of my favorite games and have done an awesome job on them. I love both positive and negative opinions that you have towards games and really resonate with a lot of your views personally on these beloved games of mine. Just wanted to say I would love for you to review Halo 5 or Marathon cause Bungie is remaking the game so I want to see your review on the classic version. With that being said once again this was an awesome video. Keep up the good work.
It came out in 1999. The greatest year in video game history, so got buried. Really loved it in Dreamcast
I got Slave Zero for free from PC Gamer back in the day. It was my favourite mech game until Titanfall came out, always wondered why there wasn't a sequel. If we're lucky we'll get a proper remaster from Nightdive after Armored Core 6 comes out and everybody suddenly wants a piece of the mech shooter genre.
Update: I didn't know the Dreamcast version runs like liquid shit...
Awesome retrospective! You convinced me to pick up the GOG edition!
i think the producer used 3D space at very small scale, thats why everything is low polygon made. Because 3D space uses much more memory, but developer tried to put some next level effects to close the gap of tech visually
Oh the memories. I played this game so many times back in the day, I loved it. I still remember most of it, included the wonky weapon swapping mechanic and me avoiding certain "upgrades" because I liked the previous version more. I also remember most of the boss fights including the last one, but I don't remember any crashing issue or excessive difficulty. Maybe my mind just removed those memories. Btw great video.
never had a crash on Dreamcast, played it a ton.
I remember getting this with my dreamcast that my mom picked up at a yard sale in 2001. Wish I played the PC version!
25:15 i like gundam evolution but god these maps are abysmal. I gripe about them with my friends every time we play lol. Gundam Battle Operation 2 did better with the sense of scale, which imo is the second most important part of mech stuff (first being the mechs)
43:19 favorite part of the video (time-stamping for myself)
45:05 ew, their writing is mondo garbo
Very cool video for a very cool game. Informative and entertaining.
I Hope Nightdive can make a remake of this gem.
Awesome video, man! I actually just got done beating the Dreamcast port, and although your criticisms of it ring true, it still delivers explosive gameplay in a catching artstyle with brilliant levels. Fun fact the back of the dreamcast case says it has "13 immersive levels" seems even the producers wanted to forget about 14
another decent but mostly forgotten mech series is Gungriffon 1 and 2 from Game Arts on the sega saturn... part 2 has an english patch now.. biggest flaw is probably the saturn's controls, but still pretty good for its console generation.. also i know every one hates this but, Evangelion is pronounced with a hard g, "Geh" lion, no j sound...i didnt know either until I started buying the ADV discs in the late 90's/ early 2000's..i havent played Slave Zero yet, but i do have the Dreamcast GDI, but based on your review i guess ill hold off till i get the pc version.. great video
Ironic you talk about how slave zeros x covered up everything related to this game because x was how i discovered this game exist and i was like “yo this cool mech beat em up has a 3rd person shooter and a official total conversion in quake this series is awesome”
Bought it off a GoG sale for a pittance years ago, one of the best thing I've ever bought off that site.
This was a cool retrospective. I would've liked this game if I found out about it sooner, so thanks for introducing it to me and many others.
I played that game, I remenber that with love, great game
omg i played this as a kid
I got this one on Dreamcast about 5 years ago because it looked weird and interesting, but I ended up dropping it because of how bad the port was. I pretty much forgot about it after that, but this PC gameplay looks like so much fun, I think I'm going to pick it up and give it another whirl.
Dreamcast was revolutionary and had SOO MANY GREAT GAMES! Slave Zero! Rage:Expendable! Rage:Incoming! They were fcking amazing games! It just sucks it was such a failure, i loved my dreamcast and i had a special aftermarket controller with 2 thumbsticks. I loved Slave Zero and Rage:Incoming so damn much!
it took me years as a kid to make progress in this game
Loved this game, was even fun to just mess around and throw cars at walls XD
Damn good video, I hope these big videos bring in subscribers. Quick question though you’ve made in-depth videos on halo 4& infinite will you do the same for 5 thanks I really enjoy watching you bash 343 while nearly everyone else is still coping
I sometimes wonder why there isnt another mech themed FPS or Third Person shooter that uses the enlarged low poly enviroment as a backdrop for fighting in like Slave Zero or Shogo Armored Division.
It feels like such a simple way to do a mech themed level at least.
But anyways thanks for looking into this game deeper, hearing how much the team loved the game really makes the whole ''looks nothing like it'' prequel thing dissapointing.
I actually have wondered when someone will try and make a game that is intentionally throwing back to late 90s early 2000s 3D accelerated PC graphics
We have plenty of games imitating PS1 graphics, but none that imitate late 90s PC graphics with grimy and blurry bilinear filtered textures and noticeable texture seams
2:59 I am totally ignorant to how PC gaming works but in my mind, it's like, if these newer PCs have such amazing specs and capabilities, why are they unable to play older pc games? I'm sure someone will leave a snarky comment in response but as a console normie it's something I always wondered about PCs
It's not just about the hardware, but how you talk to it, and on Windows PCs that's mostly DirectX. New features were added, while others got removed on a near yearly basis. If your game took 3 years to make, you could be re-writing a lot of code during development just to keep up and there was no way to know how things would change in the future.
But DX isn't the only culprit: the switch from DOS (eg Win95/98) architecture to NT (Win2k/XP), 32 to 64bit, discontinuation of 3Dfx, hardware manufacturers removing "old and unused" features in new products .... a lot has changed and any combination could break a game.
I once brought this game to my middle school activity days and nobody played it with me lol. To be fair somebody brought an Xbox with Halo so nobody cared about my Dreamcast.
I loved this game and when I bring it up no one knows what I'm talking about. Don't even get me started on seaman lol
Great forgotten game, i remember gets really wonky towards the end sadly. Still the idea is great and the game pulls it off. And there is just something super cool about 90s stylized cyberpunk like pysgnosis stuff, G police, wipeout,etc. Interesting that a dev from Interstate 76 worked on it, that game is also a forgotten masterpiece. But Slave Zero is a true tragedy, it should also have been masterpiece.
i thought it was fairly popular when i played it as a kid
i do not remember much about it aside from kicking cars around. I do remember enjoying it tho.
Not sure if you take recomendations but If you have not already, another obscure but great game that flew under the radar is the battlezone series. It even has a remaster with a small but tight nit community thats been around since the start. Its a late 90s FPS infused with RTS game play. can be 3rd person if you want, and I know some people play that way, but personally I much prefer first person.
I played this game many times 20 years ago... I think they should release remastered...
One of the billboards reads オキンヒモ, which, if we disregard the first kana, is the Japanese name for the rattail cactus. Given this is a game from the late 90s made by a Western studio, it's more likely than not that they just keyboard-mashed a bunch of katakana together to make decorations instead of actually trying to make words.
30:35 "artillery cannon" "very short range."
Yeah, something has gone terribly wrong if your artillery is short ranged.
I recall seeing this game at a Kohl's demo kiosk back in the day, almost certainly the Dreamcast version. I was in grade school at the time and I had no idea what the game was called until years later. I think the visuals intrigued me enough that the memory of demo lingered in my head until I rediscovered the game. It's a shame the final levels are almost unplayable and quite likely unbeatable without cheating. A patch to fix these issues would be most welcome.
wow i never forgot it, one of the best games i have ever played! Dream cast? i played it on PC.
Night dive needs to do this game!
Some of the spawn rooms in Gundam Evolution have little vehicles and extendable platforms to sell the scale, but they definitely didn't do enough to make you feel like you're piloting a giant robot. It doesn't help that Gundam Evo is a first person shooter first and foremost, and has none of the clunk you'd associate with a mecha game.
Amazing work on this one you sir just got a new sub.
lol this game was not killed by the dreamcast, it was killed by the decisions of the developers
No. This game was killed by Accolade chopping 6 months off our development time at the end while simultaneously adding another SKU of the title. This caused our Lead and Senior Programmers to quit, leaving the rest of us working 100+ hour work weeks desperately trying to make the new insane schedule. Just so you know.
@@mwikan01 thanks for the insights, but to me this sounds like a decision of the developers (accolade)
The first game I ever finished. Will forever have a special place in my heart.
How have you finished it?!
@@hater2764 well, yes..
Hah, had some good memories of the game and now I know why after a late 1998 article about this game there was the void. Never seen it on the shelves, and the reason I could play it was because there was a steam release that a friend of mine found.
Anyway, as a piece of trivia I can mention how I knew of the game; other than an article in a gaming mag, there was a pre-alpha demo of it, which I've played to hell and back. And what I can tell you is that there were many elements cut from the final release; crouching, 3 types of growling including the one seen in the intro, a different introductory sequence where you were greeted by "Welcome to the industrial sector Unit Zero". Also what I've noticed from right from the get go while playing the game was the fact that levels have been split into 3 parts, probably because of the dreamcast release. Oh and Initially Zero was Gunmetal grey on grey, not grey on red.
feels like older low tech fires of Rubicon thing
Still have the CD and game BOX here...
The only games i played has a kid, RUNE, SEVERANCE, SLAVE ZERO, CRUSADER NO REMORSE/REGRET
The final boss is easy you just have to control your ammo and rockets... I beat the game on hard many times.
Shogo: "hold my beer."
Ah, I love this game.
Seems you were unlucky, I played through the game multiple times without a single crash, though that was without the unofficial patch.
I played the demo for this game way back in the day, it was the first level of the game in full, but there was one little problem: there were ZERO health pickups. I loved the demo's combat feel, the level design, the music, but the game just felt way too hard for me because of that oversight, so I never picked it up.
I wish you didn't keep calling Slave Zero X a "fighting game" cause it's meant to be a hack n' slash game. Like a 2D Devil May Cry.
Epic game 💪💪💪💪
Still in the middle of watching but I felt like I had to point out inaccuracies. Widescreen is possible with Pexioto's patch. It involves writing in custom resolutions in the config file. Widescreen keeps the misaligned crosshair issue which breaks missile lock on.
Also, you can pick up weapons manually. It's just that you have to aim at them and press E. Or whatever the assigned pickup button is. I forget if E is the default or not. Of course, the autopick still kicks in so you gotta be careful not to auto pick up the gun you just swapped.
Edit: Finished the video. Weird you had issues with the final level. I had no problem with it when I played the Steam version a few months ago. Sure you didn't have a file corruption issue or something? The final boss is definitely awful though. Way too much health and not enough ammo.
By the way, you can also charge the Dark Matter gun. It does a lot more damage but eats through even more ammo.
Nice video 💪
Though I wouldn't be that negative about the new game. For starter it plays incredible, I tried the demo on Steam and it's freaking amazing, it helps that I love the genre of course, but it's really a great action game. With that said, I learned about Slave Zero thanks to the new game, not the other way around.
It's unfortunate that the old game got so obscure and forgotten, that was clearly a sad story, but the new one if anything can help rediscover this old gem.
I played it
The original Steel Battalion is worth checking out.
@Falcon_by_the_lake haha yea there are not many still around. I picked mine up on eBay about 10 years ago.
I picked up a cheap used Dreamcast copy of this game. I'd recommend checking out Shogo Mobile Armor Division too. Wish that game got a remake or spiritual successor, mixing anime mecha with an FPS. So cool of an idea.
Too cool for this bland and boring industry...
Pretty good year for games. i played Incoming and the new (at the time) Oregon Trail instead
This game is the same age as me
well like how thief 2014 has made me never buy another squeenix game, im never buying anything with segas label on it after this
for the life of me I cannot find the download in the link you provided for the patch, I can't even find a mention of the game Slave Zero everything seems to be patches for Signalis?
I updated it. Try it now
got it, thanks!@@BunkerDweller
Gonna make a halo 5 or mcc video?
A RWBY writer is writing the sequel!? 🤢
Prequel but... Yeah, very sus considering how bad RWBY's writing is...
I played it
this gives me hope for armored core 6
Fucking hype!
Thankyou for mentioning the bad level design of the new gundam game. The game was already meh for me since its just a poor overwatch clone ,but the environments were so poorly detailed, like you said, could fit into any generic scifi game. Didnt get the sense of being in a giant robot.
One of my favorite games that pulled off mech scaling and also allowed that human sized perspective was the titanfall games. You get to experience a town and be able to walk through buildings as the pilot, and then you can tower over everything in the titan.
No, it just looked unappealing. I was a big dreamcast gamer, this was on shelves and gave me no "must buy" vibes.
Damn you remind me of myself with armored core games I like seeing that size scale in mech games might have to give this a shot one day
Is it better than armored core tho
better than early AC maybe
Not better or worse, just different.
@@JakoBreaker Maybe better than AC2, but 1 and 3 are still my favorites, so I wouldn't say that. All of the games have their individual value in the series, though.
42:57 - Yeah, no other buttons, whatsoever... impossibruh to do.
Look, don't shit on the Dreamcast because of halfbaked un-thought-through business deals and development with no money left.
🤦 'Promo SM'
Game is bad. Bosses were bullet sponges.
Just beat it on the dreamcast the other day. It was much more ambitious of a game than most of the PS1 and N64 games that I was playing at that time, and I would have enjoyed it had If I had dreamcast back then. The controls were tough to get down on the DC controller, but by the second mission it was just fine.
Love this game, i simply used the files (d3d_SlaveZero.exe and d3d.dll) form the Steam guide "Slave Zero lock on and crosshair fix" and dgVoodoo to achive 2560x1440 120fps back when i played the Steam version, fun times.
Ngl I want to see more videos of you trashing on garbage games. Maybe even Halo 5 at some point hmmmmmmm
Fucking hype!