Ludography
Krazy Ivan cover

1996 · First-person shooter · Shooter

Krazy Ivan

Timed PlayStation exclusive

It is the year 2018. Devastating energy shields have appeared in five different places on the earth and are spreading at an incredible rate. There is only one solution: combat the enemy from within and destroy them. Only one machine is powerful enough: a 40ft high Robot.

Released
15 February 1996
Platforms
PlayStationSega SaturnWindows
Genres
First-person shooterShooter
Developers
—
Publishers
SCE Studio Liverpool
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
Science fictionWarfare
Country
United Kingdom
Age ratings
ESRB E
Composers
Tim Wright

About

Krazy Ivan is a 1996 first-person shooter video game published by Psygnosis for Windows, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation. The player takes the role of Ivan Popovich, a Russian soldier controlling a giant mechanical suit, defending the Earth from robotic aliens. The game consists of five zones: Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, the United States and Japan. The game has an interface at the end of each zone allowing the player to spend the game's form of experience points (power cores) on upgrades and weapons.

The game uses full-motion video for its intro movie and a cutscene between each level. The soundtrack was written and produced by Mike Clarke and Tim Wright.

Keywords

  • aliens
  • mech
  • mecha
  • alien invasion
  • full motion video
  • russian

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Reception

Krazy Ivan received generally mixed reviews. Air Hendrix gave the PlayStation version a mixed review in GamePro, saying the gameplay is repetitive and requires little strategy but demands fast reflexes, the controls are tight but conspicuously lack the ability to jump, and the graphics are detailed but suffer from slowdown. He concluded that "Krazy Ivan has some problems, but it stands tall above its Saturn counterpart, Ghen War." Electronic Gaming Monthly called it the first great mech game for the console and praised the graphics, the cinematics, the controls, and the close guidance through mission objectives, but they criticized the lack of replay value.

A Next Generation critic praised the animation, heavy use of distance fog, PlayStation Link Cable support, and FMV sequences which "range from painless to humorous." However, he criticized that the levels, despite being set all around the world, all look the same, and that the game can be beaten in just a few hours. Maximum summarized that Krazy Ivan "is far too limited and, in all honesty, suffers from the perennial problem of presentation over playability." They specifically found that the game offers no motivation for the player to not simply head straight to the boss of each stage and defeat it using the simple strategy of firing while strafing.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
PlayStation15 February 1996North America · Japan 4 October 1996 · Europe 31 December 1996
Windows31 December 1996North America · Europe 31 December 1996
Sega Saturn31 December 1996Europe · Japan 27 June 1997

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.