Demo Derby: Toys "R" Us: Attack of the Killer Demos!

Welcome to the derby.

Dan and Drew really know how to make me happy.

The T-Shirt guy has become the biggest content contributor on the site. I am OK with this.

God bless the ring

Early derby woo!

Yes! I love these!, the nostalgia.

That PlayStation opening noise fires off the pleasure centres in my brain.

Demo Derby, go!

Watching these videos I have to say the the average PlayStation game holds up so much better visually than the average N64 game.

Here's Dan playing Legend of Legaia for anyone interested.

Legend of Legaia is an alright game. :|

Legend of legaia is one of those weird series I really love...

Don't shit talk Legend of Legaia

Legend of Legaia 1 was a game I liked a lot. They ended up changing a bunch of stuff for the 2nd, so I don't recall liking it as much.

@cooljammer00: I didn't even know there was a second, either way the first is amazing same with Jade Cocoon.

@cooljammer00: The second is basically a "babies first jRPG." It's not very good. Really predictable story and awkward dungeon design. It had a kind of cool equipment system though.

Man it is hard to watch Dan shit talk games he doesn't even know. But that kinda seems to be his MO. I've never seen someone so fiercely defend the shit they like while completely rejecting anything they think they might not.

Also most importantly.GOD BLESS THE RING!

I hope for a whale to destroy a tank in my lifetime.

Oh thank the heavens for @unastrike for remembering anything about Legend of Legaia and getting them to at least a fight scene, if just to show people that Legend of Legaia isn't a complete piece of shit. It had an interesting battle sequence that is much like a fighting game, as Jason says then Dan says as if Jason didn't say it.

Legend of Legaia is a really good game. Still one of my favorite older RPG battle systems.

@cooljammer00: Yeah, I have played that game a few times and it is quite good if you give it a chance, but the combat system only stands out if you are familiar with JRPG combat. I actually made a video looking at the game's combat system like 2 weeks ago.

I love this feature

I love JRPG's but a lot of them seem to have pacing and really weird difficulty ramping problems. Like the first hour or two are usually insultingly easy and slow and then suddenly hit you out of nowhere with a 'fuck you' boss from out of nowhere and then just fall back into an easy grind again.

The "Sam Raimi" effect is in Xena because Sam Raimi produced the show, and it was full of his trademark touches.

This tweet about @DanRyckert seems all to plausible after watching this Demo Derby.

I hope they get into the dumb playstation underground disc's where you would put in a code and a Korn music video wouldplay

Off topic, but just wondering if any one can help? I've recently been watching (and very much enjoying) the travelogues (liverpool and iceland) as well Drews trip to North Korea and just wanted to know if there were any other videos similar?

@danryckert mentioning Nightmare Creatures? Man, this feature is great.

EDIT: Also bananas don't grow on trees. They're actually herbs.

I remember playing the Legend of Dragoon demo a bunch of times and loving it. Never actually played the full game though.

Armadillo/tank talk is the best.

@seb: That game was so cool!

Plum Tree Hill.

Man Blur was awesome (until everyone stopped playing it, and it became impossible to find races online).

"Are those just the corncobs of bananas" has got to be the funniest thing I've heard in a good while. Or at least the hardest I've laughed.

Was not expecting a The Things They Carried reference. Also, Swatch Internet Time is divided into 1000 beats, not 100 - I really wish it was back in the chat :(

Ridge Racer Type 4 and its music is great.

I love Dan and Drew's chemistry, but this series still needs Jeff. He's the historian of the group. He'd know that 989 was once Sony Imagesoft. Seems weird to bench the one guy who knows the background to most of these games, but then that dude always seems busy.

Also, yeah, Legaia was great. I have no idea which PS1 JRPGs have aged better than others though, especially when so many used those ugly early polygonal models for their characters. I tend to prefer the ones that used sprites on 3D backgrounds, like Grandia or FFT.

"No no I remember now, yah this is boring as shit"

I love both Drew and Dan and this seris, but holy crap that wheat and fruit talk at the end :O What is wheat? Do plums grow on trees? Never seen a plum? Are banana leaves like corn husks? How has Dan made it to thirty?

Legaia has such and interesting fighting mechanic for an RPG, i'd love to see it revisited.

Oh man that Xena game . . . but their health bars are kinda cool.

I want my time measured in .beats and my temperature in Kelvin.

@mento: Depends what you want out of the feature. Do you want Jeff to school everyone about the history of those games, or for Drew and Dan to go into it and discover games they barely remember or haven't played? I prefer the latter.

I just realised that Drew is forever going to be locked behind premium content.

Don't know if this counts but the russians had anti-tank dogs in WWII, although they were strapped with explosives and didn't crawl into the gun barrel.

Wooop episode 2 :D :D

I think the problem with Jeff sitting in on this series is precisely that: his presence would turn it back into something familiar, basically an ol'-timey Quick Look. That's through no fault of his own; it's just that with a group, individuals after a while have their set roles, and Jeff's is to lead and educate. With his absence, though, Dan and Drew get a chance to explore their own chemistry.

Legend of Legaia seemed like it had a real cool battle system.

They need a disclaimer: "This video is not for educational purposes". Man, did Dan and Drew get a lot of stuff wrong. :D

Also, Swatch Beats is awesome!

Ever play Xenogears? I've just started that, and it uses 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds.

@amyggen: Eh, I think there's room for both Jeff Lessons and talking about anti-tank giraffes and the corncobs of bananas. The weird asides as they talk around the duller parts of the demos are what make this feature for me, not the "I remember this game, I think, maybe not. Wasn't it developed by [not the company that developed it]?" "Probably" commentary.

@xel: It's on my bucket list. It never came out in Europe, but there's various (legal) means for me to play it these days. A US PSN account for one.