The 3DO - Retrospective - IMPLANTgames 

How are you running it? S-video or RGB mod? 240p mod or 480i?

I feel as though the 3DO is a compilation all the types of games and systems of the 90's. You got the 2D sprite based games of the late 4th generation and early 5th generation sprite-oriented systems, and then you also have fmv games like those found on the Sega CD and CDI, and the 3D polygon games of the 5th generation consoles.

RIP Kenji Eno (guy that made D, he passed away a few years ago) the 3DO was that system that I and all my friends wanted but it cost so much we had to content with our SNES or Genesis. I never thought it was a bad console since it had great games. Most of the youtube people that trash the 3DO are just doing it for the views. Actual bad consoles are the game.com and the Hyperscan. Besides those two all other gaming consoles no matter how much they failed to sell still had good games.

I'll say I enjoyed the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in the 90s. It had a good run. I will say that this era had some wonderfully unique-looking games. FMV early CG and all. I especially enjoyed games like GEX, Ballz: the Director's Cut, Soccer Kid, Fifa, Killing Time, Bladeforce, Captain Quazar, Lost Eden, The Daedalus Encounter, Way of the Warrior, Out of this World, Myst, PO'd, Space Ace, Lemmings, Alone in the Dark 2, Primal Rage, Theme Park, Wing Commander III...Phew!! Yes, those are ALL games I had as a kid! What a lucky childhood! And who could possibly forget the classic that is Plumbers Don't Wear Ties?!?? Ha ha ha, joking, of course! Definitely not the best of consoles, but FAR from the worst, in my opinion. The biggest flaw with the console was its price. 700 dollars! Ah, I'm sure whoever picked the right games, enjoyed them and knew to get the most out of the console enjoyed it in their youth too. Despite the crazy saturated cutthroat market at the time. Good times, I say!! RIP 3DO! ^-^

Cool video. I really love the 3DO. It really was ahead of it's time. I have a lot of games for it, but sadly didn't have it when it was new. Naming it one of the worst consoles ever is rediculous in my opinion. How about the Amstrad GX4000, the Game.com, the CDI, the Virtual Boy, the Commodore 64 GS etc.

I really do love the competition of this era. Things have opened up as of recent, but the market just isn't as diverse and unique. I suppose it's better than the single console NES era.

I really dont get it when people say that the 3DO was one of the worst consoles ever, it was just WAY ahead of it's time and the price point reflected on that. When I started collecting for it close to 20 yrs ago I really liked it's library and I continue to pick up the occasional game when I can.

20:27 those scores are really high for a basketball game lol

thank you for not shitting on the console like many popular youtubers, I am so tired of the 'angry reviewer' crap everywhere

More videos like these please. Really gave a great overview of the system whilst being entertaining and informative.

Great video as always, Kris. A little historical note regarding why Samurai Shodown is often credited as such an influential title: it was not only the first weapon-based one on one fighting, but concerning the actual gameplay, it was the first to introduce a "rock-paper-scissors" mechanics relying both on the strenght and timing of each player's attacks. The number of possible outcomes on each individual player's duels(your or your opponent's weapon being taken out to the ground, one of the characters being sliced in half, or the two clashing weapons at the same time in a dispute etc) still amazes me until today. Samurai Shodown was the first Neo Geo AES game I've ever played and owned, and remains one of my all-time favorite fighting series. Alghough I've never played the 3DO version, it really seems to stand very close to the Neo Geo and arcade counterpart, and graphically vastly superior to those on the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo.

As near as I can tell, most of the console's bad rep comes from a garbage library, and a bad licensing model which meant high prices *and* weak compatibility. Calling it one of the worse consoles of all time overlooks a lot of shit tier consoles. IMO the fact that we even know what the 3DO is reveals that we shouldn't rate it so harshly.

35:48 - The absolutely most satisfying sound effect in any game ever.

I never had one. I have Gex on the Saturn and love the later 3D ones on the PS1. I prefer Road Rash 3D on PS1. My first Need for Speed was 2, Not played first one. '3DO' just makes me think of the Army Men games. Love those games.

Excellent video, Implant! I’ve been curious about the 3DO for a long time now and it’s great to hear more people talking about the good things about the console rather than regurgitating what other people have said over and over. Now I really want one, heh.

Loved this, thank you. Even my wife seemed into the Gex part lol

Great video by the way Kris, nice to see you out of the Sonic gauntlet, although I can understand the eyeballs that series can bring to your channel, and hopefully it brought some permanent ones.

Great video! Slam n Jam did have NBA rosters sort of. They used different names and switched team names. For example on your video Utah was san Antonio as you can see david Robinson in black with number 50.

I just discovered your channel yesterday, and I am really enjoying it. You have another subscriber.

I completely agree with you. In my book, calling a game console one of the worst just because it was a commercial failure is a bad habit that goes around on the internet. By that kind of logic the TurboGrafx16/PC Engine, Saturn, Dreamcast and even WiiU should be called some of the worst. In reality, all the aforementioned consoles are amazing and have the library to back it up. In my opinion, the 3DO is no exception here. Yes, the large majority of its game library is hot steaming garbage but once you find all the good hidden gems then you've got a respectable game library for an extremely underrated console. The 3DO's hate should be reserved for consoles like the Philips CD-I, Virtual Boy, Atari Jaguar CD and the absolutely dreadful Ouya. I'm just glad that I found someone who feels the same way. :)

i do love the 3do

I only ever saw an actual 3DO once. It was a demo unit in a store with Jurassic Park running on it. Specifically the T-Rex chase. For me, the 3DO always gave the impression of being a ridiculously expensive system that mostly had FMV games on it. Having played a bunch of the games in an emulator, I really find it hard to get that excited about it. The 2D action games really don't seem all that better than similar games on other systems and some of the 3D games look pretty rough, even compared to systems like the PS1 or Sega Saturn. Road Rash is probably my favorite out of the games I've tried. I hate Alone in the Dark (on any system) though. I never played it when it first came out (didn't have a DOS system), and after reading about it and seeing screenshots, I figured I'd like it. When I finally got to play it years later, I found it slow and clunky. The inventory system is a PITA to use, combat is annoying difficult with punching relying on precise timing and gun aiming being trial and error, and some of the puzzles just don't make sense. I also hate it for being the example that horror game designers continued to copy (fixed camera angles, tank controls, cumbersome inventory) long after there had ceased to be any technical reason for doing so. 3D engines evolved to the point where almost photo-realistic environments could be rendered in real-time, but horror games still looked like you were watching the action on a security monitor.

I really enjoyed this one. It is great seeing so many games. Great video!

One you didn't cover that's a great exclusive for the system is Twisted! Kind of like Mario Party, but fun and with a bizarre game show aesthetic, it's super quirky and really enjoyable.

Great, informative video! Check out a game on the Genesis/MD, platformer called The Hurricanes. It's a team of teens that you can choose from and you do like Soccer Kid and use your soccer ball as a weapon. It's got quarky music, too. Also, I similar to you, have been happily battling the Road Rash (Genesis) games for the last 23 years.😂 I'm in it 4Life. It's my favorite series of ALL TIME.

It was a shame you never mentioned Star Control 2, it’s one of the best games ever and the 3DO version is a nice upgrade from the original DOS version. (although not the best way to play it today, that’s The Ur-Quan Masters for PCs) SC2 is one of the only reasons why I ever knew about the 3DO before.

Great retrospective Kris. I hope this leads to more reviews of other 3do games like Bladeforce, Quarantine, Crash n Burn and even obscure imports like Yu Yu Hakusho and Eye of Typhoon. No copy protection means you can try any and all 3do games and they buy the ones you like.

Despite the general hate for it, believe it or not i personally love the 3DO. For me the console wasn't as bad as many people says. It has some great and very enjoyable games even today despite many will look dated now. It was ahead of its time, like the Neo Geo, and Sega Dreamcast. Sure it has a bad reputation for had some of the worst games of all time like "Plumbers don't wear ties", for example... but to me, i like the 3DO now. Road Rash and Road & Track presents: The Need for Speed are the main reason of why i enjoy playing 3DO games rather than play the DOS-W95//SAT//PSX ports. Anyways, this is a great video to present the plot of what was the 3DO and showing the catalogue is a very well made idea imo! Great job!! Also i enjoyed the ultra rare but fun PO'ed hahaha.

I've watched a ton of videos on the 3DO and I think this might be my favorite! I've somehow never seen that basketball game before, it looks pretty awesome. Reminds me of Konami's Run & Gun hoops arcade game!

Super street fighter 2 turbo was on the console. Love that game!

Kris, Thank you for saying what many gamers who own a 3DO feel. The system gets a bad rep by people who have never owned one and everyone else just repeats what they heard. Honestly I enjoy playing the ports on the system. Your videos are always great; please keep them coming!

Nice Retrospective! I am a FAN of 3DO! That I like FMV games helps as they look great on 3DO compared to say SegaCD.

Great to see some 3do love! I'm also a fan of the Myst port, and of course Flashback, Wing Commander and Rebel Assault to name a few :D. Love the content and looking forward to more. Subscription: engaged.

Fantastic 3do review Kris, best on the RU-vids for sure. I wholeheartedly agree: there are far worse consoles out there. Sure, some games on 3do haven’t aged well at all, or have better versions on other consoles. But hey, they’re still pretty good games! Love the podcasts as well man, listen them always asap when they appear in my list.

I hope you come back to making videos again soon. Yours are some of the best retrospectives on youtube.

I love your retrospectives, they are well researched and unbiased. Where many see the 3DO as terrible due to its failure to capture the market, you look deeper and find redeeming facts for the ill fated hardware. I never got a 3DO simply due to its extrodinary high price, but I still admired it on show in my old local Electronics Boutique. Thank you for this great video :)

Ha, I just got a 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, specifically the FZ-1 model made by Panasonic.

There were some other great games offered that were not covered. I also think the hardware was not properly utilized, due to its short life span.

Coincidentally, I saw a 3DO FZ-10 at a mom & pop store near me the other day. After watching this, I decided to pick it up today, $40. No games yet, though. I'll keep my eyes open for those games worth picking up. Also a six-button D-pad. Looking forward to those good old cheesy 90's FMV games and revisiting GEX. Thanks for covering such a somewhat forgot system. I hope more people watch.

I've always wanted to try the small handful of JRPG's on the 3DO, they're probably not the greatest but the fact that they exist on the console is interesting enough for me.

My father is one of those people who bought a 3DO. It had some fun games that I still think about. Starblade, Demolition Man, Return Fire, Shockwave and Shockwave 2, Rebel Assault, Battlesport, fifa and Madden, Slam N Jam 95, Wing Commander 3 are the ones I remember owning.

Agreed! I enjoyed the 3do games that I picked up when I got my 3do (road rash, samurai shodown, blade force, gex, and mad dog mcree). Admittedly I did not enjoy other games (battle sport and microcosm). I’m sure someone else said it but Slam N Jam is also on the Sega Saturn and I consider that to be a hidden gem on that system too.

Do more 3D0 games. Captain Quazar, Phoenix 3, Total Eclipse!

I've never owned a 3DO in my life, but I can tell it's not as bad as people say it is. While the system and its games can be a bit dated by today's standards, they were quite fascinating back in 1993. I think I remember only the Amiga 1200 and the NEC Turbo Duo being the only other systems at the time to offer close to 2 MB of RAM before the PlayStation, and the graphical capabilities were unheard of for the time. Frankly, I think what killed it was the launch price and the 3DO company's lenient software policies. For every good 3DO game released like Gex and Captain Quazar, there were 2-3 terrible games like BC Racers and the infamous Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. Still, I think it's worth getting for the few games released not ported to the other systems of the time.

Never ever use watch mojo again as a reference or to prove a point.

Great video. The 3DO definitely is not the worst console out there. The FZ-1 is a durable beast and I love that they have direct S-Video ports right on the back instead of common proprietary connections. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo with the 6 button Capcom Soldier Pad is arcade perfection.

love your 3do review! please next time review a few more games on the console!

In the 5th generation of video game consoles (the 32-bit era) you had: the clear #1 - the PlayStation; #2 - the N64; the distant #3 - the Saturn; and then the "rest"...the 3DO is, by far, the best of this "rest." P.S. I have a Panasonic 3DO (the FZ-1) and prefer it over the Saturn, hands-down.

I like the 3DO, but I will be the first to admit it's not a system for everyone. There are a lot of good games on the 3DO, particularly if you like hokey FMV games. Twisted! The Game Show Game and Zhadnost The Peoples Party are two of my favorite party games and are exclusive to the 3DO. A lot of the other stuff that made the system worth owning in its heyday wound up on other consoles eventually (or similar versions of games exist that are comparable to the 3DO port) so some of the best games like Super Street Fighter II Turbo, The Horde, Road Rash and Gex aren't reasons alone to buy the system if you have a lot of more common consoles like Saturn and Playstation. The 3DO being worth it to you really depends on if you like those multimedia experience type titles that mostly got phased out as the later part of the 90s changed the focus from FMV to polygons.

Loved mine....twisted the game show and wicked 18. Best party games ever.

I love my 3DO too death, bought an FZ-10 back in 2007, and now own roughly 70 games for it. One of my favorite consoles of all-time.

Yeah man, I picked one of these up at a thrift store in '01 with a stack o' boxed games (score) including several on this list and it's not bad. Plus, it has no copy protection so you can just download and burn games 'til your heart's content.

3DO had SOOO many good console exclusives...THAT was the strength of the system, and what keeps it alive in the hearts of collectors to this day!

Seems like everyone misses part of the controls in NFS; if you hold up while turning, the wheel turns slower, and if you hold down then it turns faster. Once you get used to it, it actually works brilliantly, almost like rudimentary analog steering. It worked so well in fact that it always bothered me no other game I've ever played that used a d-pad for steering ever did this.

The music on Out of this World is original for the 3d0 and is awesome. Slam n Jam is a great game, have no idea what happened to my copy, doesnt matter as my fz10 does not spin the disc anymore...

I liked the idea behind 3DO. One company comes up with the specs and advertising, and other companies manufacture the consoles. The problem comes when there is zero quality control. While not nearly as bad as the CD-I, the 3DO suffered from a glut of edutainment and FMV titles. I think the market just wasn't ready for CD based games, and developers didn't know what to do with it until the PS1 was released.

Was this all done with the Japanese 3DO you mentioned in the podcast? I don't remember the details exactly, but it had a switch that changes resolution to 240p (or was it 480p)? I gotta find one of those! The footage looks great!

Oh, the 3DO retrospective! It's finally here! Awesome!

I always wanted a 3DO due to Road Rash and Need for Speed. There was no way I could stomach that $700 price tag though. It was shortly after that I got a PC instead and could play both on that; as well as write my college papers. :)

3DO might've sold poorly but it was far from a bad console.

Honestly, if I ever find one of these on the cheap, I may pick it up just for Lucienne's Quest and the excellent version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo I am legitimately curious what this system could have been under better management. It really could have been, to the PSone and Saturn, what the Dreamcast was to the PS2 and GameCube

I wonder who that Doc Brown looking old man is doing at 5:42

There's only one fault with the 3DO the price, which was due to people having to pay a licensing fee to 3DO to make the console, rather than 3DO making the console and selling it at a loss like the Playstations/X-Boxs

I love the 3DO, great video!!

Its july 2021 and ive just become the proud owner of an fz1 3DO got 2 games just for now but love it i wanted one so much back in 93 but was way outta my price range but was worth the wait ❤️

Ahh Dreamcastguy, he tries so hard. Great video here.

I was just thinking there are games on the 3DO that better represent the console in comparison to games like BC Racers + Soccer Kid. BC racers was initially released on the Sega CD and has literally no improvements being released on the 3DO. Same goes for Soccer kid initially released on the Amiga 500 and not much changed on the 3DO

Please, which is the capture equipment you're using? The quality is awesome.

Here's some pretty cool insider info on Gex's creation: games.greggman.com/game/gex/

I got stuck on the 5th level of the fantastic Road Rash. The only thing holding that game back is it's lack of a split screen mode, which the Mega Drive games have.

Did you own a 3DO back in the 90s? I almost bought one but was into PC gaming at the time.

Poor 3DO... just came out at the wrong time for the wrong price. It was truly decent hardware, well made and well thought out. If it had released a few months or even a year earlier at $500, it would've stood a better chance. If the 3DO company's strategy was to have others make the hardware, they should've required manufacturers to sell hardware at cost in exchange for a fee/royalty paid by 3DO for every sale; that way the costs are absorbed into the software revenue just like other companies do it.

Dude I own the japanese 3do model with 240p and also a FZ10 model. BUt I want to buy some games on pal region, I know there are not region locks between Japnese and US versions on ames, but what about the european ones? They will work on a Japanese or american console?

i love the 3do There something about the 3DO it one first cd-rom drive game device in usa I like video podcast. keep up good work.

Was the cds fully utilized? Like all the space?

I enjoy your videos. Thank you.

I delved into the 3DO 4 years ago. I liked the controller besides the daisy chain. Had the 2nd model and about 25 games. It seemed like the system had plenty of potential but the software just isn't there for me. Sold it all about 2 years ago.

It's a shame the framerate is so awful on BC Racers... everything else about the game such as artwork and gameplay seems great, but the framerate ruins the controls (you can tell the game only polls the controller for every frame drawn... good developers poll the controls independent of the frame rate) and the choppiness obscures so many of the little details in the graphics because you just don't have enough frames to make sense of it all.

im getting a 3do in a couple weeks

Out of this world is on Dreamcast & Switch

at least 30 games going from decent to quite good. It surely doesn't have any masterpiece, but the 3DO games catalogue is well above the worst consoles. It was a failure, of course, but it remains as a well regarded niche system with really collectible titles that remain enjoyable even nowdays.

You should try BC Racers for the Sega CD if you get a chance; it's a much superior game compared to both the 32X and 3DO versions. Fun Fact about Gex on 3DO: it's the only version that has a save feature as opposed to a password system like the PlayStation and Saturn ports.

Great timing!

My Road Rash has chip tunes playing in the stage...

As someone who grew up at that time the 3do was not a bad console to own if you already had a genesis or snes. It had some good games. people like avgn and these so called reviewers weren't really around during those times or were fanboys to try anything else. Had the 3do been more affordable it would been more successful, shame really

You gotta turn the engine noise off on Road Rash!

Sounds like it might be a bit closer to the Wii U side of the unsuccessful console spectrum. Didn’t sell well, but has some redeeming games.

No one ever mentions Star Control 2.

I'm disappointed you didn't mention Star Fighter.

I'm surprised how many of those games I've played and finished. Although none of them on the 3DO. That's the main problem with the system, almost every title has a superior version on a different platform. That said It does have an interesting library with quite a few seminal games that are worth playing, Gex was the first 32 bit platformer, and Alone in the Dark and Out of this World were pioneering games at the time. It seems to be a good niche system for people interested in the history and progression of gaming in that very small window of time. There's nothing truly amazing on it though, no killer exclusives, no real classics, it's all a bit 6/10 in the grand scheme of things. The games would have been impressive in their day but the truly great fifth gen games were to come just a few years later. I mean just compare Alone in the Dark to Resident Evil. There's a reason that RE has been re-made and re-released for multiple systems across multiple generations and AitD, well….hasn't.

I'd rather play that over the Jaguar, that's for sure.

At last somebody who agrees that the X Man was the best part about Need For Speed 3DO. 😄

I like 3do

3do,,,is good ...thank you 4 your video

i've never seen anyone that bad at any fighting games.. The easiest would be Super Smash Brothers, I'm sure that would give you problems ^_^

I liked the game

Hoi