Knoxbear plays Hercules for PS1 on Twitch! Click the pic to watch the VoD!
There are many games that send me onto a massive nostalgia trip, and Hercules for PS1 is certainly one of them. I remember sinking countless hours into this game at an old friend’s house, where three of us crowded around one PlayStation and swapped over the controller whenever someone died.
As soon as I fired up the ROM I was incredibly excited to find that the game absolutely lived up to my previous experiences of it as a child. My excitement was only heightened further by the fond memory of Danny DeVito giving me shit for the entire game in the form of Phil (Philoctetes). While Hercules is mostly a two-dimensional game, there are particular levels where you can move backwards and forwards using paths in the grass or stairways. This was genuinely a mind-blowing experience for me at the time.
Hercules was released in 1997 following the animated Disney film and was available to buy on Game Boy and on PS1 and was one of my all-time favourites at the time. This game has several ruthless levels, including two that force you to run forward through a tidal wave of enemies and obstacles while you attempt to collect as many coins, power-ups and letters as you can.
Through each level, you can grab each letter to spell out Hercules, collect mini Hercules figurines, collect clay pottery and probably most importantly, restore your health using drinks. At this point during my stream, there was a short discussion about what is actually said when collecting these items. My opinion is that he is saying “herculade” (a fun drink pun) but the same thing is said regardless of the object you collect – so perhaps this massively disproves my theory – let me know what you think it is!
Some boss fights in this game are completely next level. I really struggled with the Minotaur – I just don’t understand how you can avoid that guy’s wrath. The Hydra was also a tricky one for me, despite my efforts to jump and slash at the seemingly never ending supply of new heads!
If you enjoy old PS1 game walkthroughs, you might also like this Silent Hill blog post and stream.
