PSM EXCLUSIVE

For years video game magazines have teased us with sparse screenshots of Battleship from Hasbro Interactive. This drove me absolutely nuts especially when I heard those screenshots were from the PC version. The PlayStation Museum has finally been able to sit down and play the real PlayStation version of Battleship. Was it worth the wait? Yes, every second.

Battleship contains three modes of play: Campaign, Training, and Classic. Classic mode is what I have come to expect from a proper Battleship game. Place your ships on an isometric grid and fire missile at your enemies’ grid. Classic mode allows for one or two players to play against each other taking turns picking off squares. There are also extended options such as Salvo, Special Weapons, Bonus, and In Game Video. Salvo allows players to pick more than one square to shoot at, but the amount of missiles is dependant on how many ships you have remaining. Once a ship is sunk, the amount of missiles available to use is depleted. Special Weapons gives each player four special missile attacks based on four different types of ships. For instance your submarine can run a missile and take out a whole line on the grid. Be smart though, you can save your special weapons but if that ship is sunk you lose your ability for that attack. In game video is top notch, but luckily it can be turned off. Watching your ship attack and get attacked does get rather old quickly. The classic mode is as much fun as I ever had playing Battleship anywhere.

If the developers had just stopped at the classic mode I would have been satisfied. However, the Campaign mode was an unwarranted delight! You construct fleets and send them out to accomplish a particular goal, and you must stop your opponent from doing the same. But what’s different in Campaign mode is it's in real-time, and not too different from such classics as Warcraft or Command & Conquer. You can give your ships commands on where to sail, attack, or retreat. Graphics in this mode are distinctly different from the classic mode and the ships are free to go anywhere. The player also has limited control of air support and potentially helicopters or satellites (as I found out poking around in the movies contained within the code). In the final version there would be 20 missions to play. Training mode is a variant of Campaign mode where you can practice your skills.

Overall, the presentation of this game is top notch. NMS Software Ltd., the developer of Mass Destruction, was in charge of this translation. Graphics in the classic mode were isometric but very well done for the PlayStation. Campaign mode graphics is where the game really shined with smooth animation and crisp and colorful graphics. Overall sound and music were nothing less than stellar. From your first mate yelling out “Battleship sunk sir!” to the sound effects of an explosion, it’s all in there and high quality. In conclusion, Hasbro Interactive had an instant hit on their hands. This game is considered to be a real tragedy in the history of the PlayStation because it was never completed nor released.