“We certainly wanted to go back to Ridge Racer, but Sega wanted our energies concentrated elsewhere, mostly on fighting games which were doing extremely well in both the arcades and on the Sega Saturn. Racing games went on the backburner, so to speak, but when given the chance to finally work on a sequel to Ridge Racer, of course I jumped at the opportunity!”
-Fumihiro Tanaka, discussing Ridge Racer 2 in the January 1998 issue of Famitsu magazine
“These new Pokemon, I haven't seen any of them in this part of the world, or even on my Pokedex!”
“Not only that, but Team Shrapnel is trying to catch them!”
“I'll stop them...I'm gonna catch 'em all first!”
-a dialogue between Sato Ketchum and Whitney in episode 105 of the Pokemon anime, part of the 26-episode saga Pokemon: The New Land
“His work has inspired the imaginations of millions, and his characters are beloved by many more. There's no doubt that many here at Sega were inspired by his work as well.”
-Tom Kalinske on the death of Charles Schulz, January 27, 2000
-
Ultra Nintendo:
Bass Masters 2000
EGM: 4.7 (quote: “Even the Ultra Nintendo's polished graphics can't really make this game interesting.”)
Gamespot: 7.0 (quote: “It's a really good fishing sim with some beautiful scenery.”)
Clock Tower III
EGM: 6.5 (quote: “It's scary enough at times, but monotonous gameplay makes some parts a slog.”)
Gamespot: 6.1 (quote: “The beautiful graphics make the repetitive levels a bit more fun to get through.”)
Crusaders Of Might And Magic
EGM: 7.0 (quote: “The voicework is excellent and overall the presentation is quite good.”)
Gamespot: 5.8 (quote: “There's definitely the framework of a good game here, but there are a lot of flaws.”)
ECW Hardcore Revolution
EGM: 7.0 (quote: “It's brutally good fun and features a nice selection of wrestlers.”)
Gamespot: 3.8 (quote: “The mechanics are deeply flawed and this pales in comparison to the WWF and WCW games.”)
Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000
EGM: 6.3 (quote: “There could be more tracks, but we did enjoy the realistic graphics.”)
Gamespot: 7.6 (quote: “This is a pretty fun game, featuring superb controls and a nice selection of racers and vehicles.”)
Railroad Tycoon (also ported to the Sega Saturn later in the year)
EGM: N/A
Gamespot: 8.0 (quote: “There are a lot of options to dig into here, and it definitely has the quality that Sid Meier's games are known for.”)
Ultra Dune
EGM: 7.5 (quote: “While the space sim portions of the game are outstanding, it does get a bit dicey once you actually land.”)
Gamespot: 8.4 (quote: “It's definitely the best space shooter on the Ultra Nintendo outside of Starfox 2. We also appreciated that the on-foot sequences were short and sweet.”)
Ultra Formula One
EGM: 6.8 (quote: “It's your standard racing game. It'll satisfy Formula One junkies, but fans of other racers might want to look elsewhere.”)
Gamespot: 4.9 (quote: “It's disappointing. Racing games don't get more generic than Ultra Formula One.”)
Road Storm: Rampage
EGM: 8.5 (quote: “It delivers the pure, fun, motorcycle bliss that the series is known for.”)
Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “Why introduce new characters if you're not going to flesh them out? Still, the gameplay is more than solid.”)
World Of Color: Millennium
EGM: 9.5 (quote: “Third time's a charm, this really is the best one yet.”)
Gamespot: 9.5 (quote: “How could this game have gotten so much better in barely a year? As much as I loved Ultra World of Color, this makes it look outdated.”)
Lode Syren
EGM: 6.3 (quote: “An RPG that takes place in a mine seems like a bit of a bore, but fans of the genre will find things to love.”)
Gamespot: 6.3 (quote: “The best thing about this game? It avoids repeating monster designs. That said, generic combat makes battles somewhat repetitive.”)
Winter Rush
EGM: 5.0 (quote: “There are much better winter sports games out there.”)
Gamespot: 4.0 (quote: “The skiing controls are really messed up.”)
Saturn:
Ridge Racer 2
EGM: 8.0 (quote: “Ridge Racer is back and it's as good as we remember, with tight controls and beautiful tracks made even prettier with the Ring.”)
Gamespot: 9.2 (quote: “A splendid arcade port that should get starving Saturn racing fans revved up again.”)
-
It was the beginning of a new millennium. Pokemon Sun and Moon had just launched in Japan, and those of us with internet connections who knew where to look were drooling over all the new Pokemon that had just been revealed. There were 106 of them in all, and the revelations instantly quashed all those silly “Pokegods” rumors that had been passed around the playground for the last year. Meanwhile, on the TV front, Cartoon Network was dutifully re-running all 104 episodes of the original series, depicting Sato's victory in the Pokemon League and his conquest of the Elite Four. Many of us had seen the Pokemon movie, which depicted Mewtwo and Mew, the powerful Psychic Pokemon who'd nearly ripped the world asunder.
And Japan had seen those episodes too...way back in 1998. In the year-long gap between the end of the original Indigo seasons and the launch of Sun and Moon, the powers that be needed to come up with a way to keep running the show on television. Sony, which owned Game Freak and shared Pokemon as a joint venture with Nintendo, suggested a series of episodes to promote the upcoming games, using some of the new Pokemon that were due to appear. Nintendo agreed, and 26 additional episodes were commissioned to bridge the gap between the Indigo League season and the Sun and Moon seasons. When these episodes arrived on Toonami in the spring of 2000, they were called Pokemon: The New Land.
After defeating the Indigo League's Elite Four, Sato had set out on his quest to catch all the Pokemon in order to become a Pokemon Master. Still accompanied by Misty and Brock, Sato was now three years older and noticeably more mature. He'd come a long way, catching more than half of the original 150 Pokemon, but now Pokemon were becoming increasingly hard to find, and he was visiting more and more hazardous areas. A major plot point for this arc was the introduction of Team Shrapnel, built from the remnants of Team Rocket (which was disbanded after Sato defeated the League Champion and Team Rocket's leader, Giovanni). Though Shrapnel's leader is never seen in these new episodes, he's constantly alluded to by the Shrapnel members who show up. Unlike Team Rocket, these guys are deadly serious, and rarely do the same members show up each time, with the exception of Tracker, who seems to be a high-ranking member and is usually the leader of the squad that shows up in any given episode. During these episodes, Sato meets several characters who would later be met by the Sun and Moon protagonist, including future Gym Leaders Whitney and Josh, and Professor Elm as well.
A number of new Pokemon were introduced during this saga, including all three Johto starters (Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile), the electric sheep Mareep, the miniature elephant Phanpy, the lightning fast Water type Skateray, and the mechanically-adept Steel type Rivitor, among several others. One of the main storylines involved Team Shrapnel trying to poach them, while Sato did his best to stop them at every turn. As the saga went on, Sato became increasingly determined, and started to become emotionally distant from his friends Misty and Brock, to the point where he eventually confessed to Misty that he thought his friends were holding him back. In the end, Sato defeated Tracker in a fierce Pokemon battle, and then decided to explore Johto alone, leaving Misty and Brock to return to Kanto to assume their roles as Gym Leaders once more. The saga not only introduced a decent crop of new Pokemon, it also set the tone for the more serious Johto episodes that would begin airing in Japan in November 1999 and in North America in July 2000. Pokemon: The New Land was more than just filler, it bridged the gap between the original games and the new Nova titles, and remains extremely popular with fans to this day.
-excerpted from the Pokemon Memories blog, from a post written on July 14, 2013
This is Professor Jay, with the latest scoop on all things Pokemon! I've been playing through the brand new Pokemon Sun and Moon games, and so far, here are my top ten favorite new Pokemon.
10. Natio
A really neat looking psychic bird, like you'd see on a totem pole! I just love the design for this one.
9. Tezaru
This is a weird electric type creature who deploys his arms like a tazer to shock opposing Pokemon!
8. Porygon2
I love what they did with Porygon's evolution, much smoother and sleeker.
7. Eifie
This is straight-up a psychic evolution for Eevee and it's really powerful, I love using it.
6. Menisuru
One of the strangest Pokemon ever, it walks around with a tiny little sphere for a head and then suddenly just pops out this HUGE face/head and blasts the enemy with psychic energy. Such a crazy design on this one!
5. Hikaoria
A beautiful floating bird and one of three legendary bird-like creatures in the game, this is another psychic type and uses brilliant beams of light to strike its opponents.
4. Odairu
Just an alligator. The fully-evolved water starter, he looks so vicious!
3. Bangiras
This is a REALLY powerful rock/dark type Pokemon, like a standing dinosaur or some such thing.
2. Tekiisis
This is a VERY powerful bug Pokemon (yep, there are actually powerful Bug-types in this game!) resembling the tarantula wasp from the American Southwest. One of the scariest and meanest things I've ever seen.
1. Kapoerer
Believe it or not, there's another “Hitmon”-esque fighting Pokemon! This guy has dreads and fights like Eddy Gordo. Super cool!
-excerpted from a January 30, 2000 post on “Professor Jay's Pokemon Lab” on Geocities.com
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Sega's biggest game of the month, however, is easily Ridge Racer 2, a game originally conceived by Namco nearly six years ago! That's right, originally a Ridge Racer sequel was to be released in 1994, but the company decided instead to concentrate on creating new arcade hardware and a new generation of games to utilize that hardware. What followed was a series of delays until the game was finally eventually released for arcades in 1998, becoming one of Japan's biggest hits of the year and immediately justifying a port to the Sega Saturn. So here we are with Ridge Racer 2 finally, and how does it play? Well, unless your racing games have to be uber-realistic (we're looking at you, Gran Turismo), it's one of the best racing games to come out in a long time, easily beating Sega's Virtua Racing Reality for realism and variety of cars and tracks. The controls are superb, power sliding has never been so fun and easy to learn, and once you've mastered the technique, you'll blaze past your opponents (though opponents on the tougher diffiulty levels will have even drift masters tearing out their hair). The graphics are gorgeous, and with the Ring are practically arcade perfect, it's clear that the Ring was designed with games like this in mind.
(…)
Ridge Racer 2 proves that the racing genre, which has served Sega fantastically throughout the years, is something they need to concentrate on, particularly once the Katana is released. They've sort of let Nintendo eat their lunch in recent years, especially Nintendo and Sony's Gran Turismo, and it's time for the racing king to come back to his throne. Some of the most popular Saturn bundles have featured steering wheels, and some of today's most popular arcade titles are racing games. Sega seems to be focusing more heavily on arcade games with the Ring, and if Ridge Racer 2 is any indication, racing titles should be a major focus going forward.
Score: 9/10
-excerpted from the January 2000 issue of Official Saturn Magazine
Namco “Not Ruling Out Publishing Titles For The Ultra Nintendo In The Future”, Says Company President
Namco and Sega have been inextricably linked since the release of the Saturn. The two companies have collaborated on a number of games, and most of Namco's biggest arcade hits over the last five years have appeared on the Sega Saturn. And though Sega has contractual “dibs” on many of Namco's biggest series, some, including the arcade hits Tekken and Ridge Racer, could theoretically be released on the Ultra Nintendo if the company desired to do so. In a recent article published in a Japanese business journal, Namco founder and president Masaya Nakamura stated that the Ultra Nintendo's recent sales successes were impossible for Namco to ignore, and that, in certain circumstances, the company might consider porting certain games over to the Ultra Nintendo.
Though Namco has not announced any such ports thus far, and though the company maintains a strong relationship with Sega that could still preclude any Namco games appearing on any of Nintendo's systems, such a move would certainly add to Sega's recent woes, at a time of great turbulance for the company. Rumors of a shake-up at Sega of America involving president Tom Kalinske potentially resigning are gaining steam, and were companies such as Namco (and possibly Enix, which would be free to publish games for Nintendo systems starting in 2001) to jump ship, Sega could be thrown into even more turmoil.
-from an article published on Gamespot on January 13, 2000
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*People all over the world are counting down to the year 2000.*
Crowds: 10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! HAPPY-
*The lights all begin to go out. The crowd looks worried, thinking it's the Y2K bug, but then when the lights return, they're in beautiful arrays of colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, all colors of the rainbow, all over the world. On TV screens across the globe, the characters from World of Color appear. People's faces light up as strange shapes in all different colors float in the sky. People begin pointing at them, causing them to disappear or to chain together for combos. On the big TV in Times Square, footage from World Of Color: Millennium begins to play.*
Narrator: New millennium, new world.
*Footage from the game is now shown on screen, from the single-player adventure battle mode, the various puzzle and high score modes (with huge combos appearing on screen), and the game's four-player multiplayer mode as well.*
Narrator: The best puzzle game is back, and it's only on Ultra Nintendo. In World Of Color: Millennium, make quick moves to mix and match colors for big points and big combos. Meet new friends and battle powerful enemies in the adventure mode, or go for a new high score in endless puzzle mode.
*Four people are shown in Times Square, holding Ultra Nintendo controllers and battling it out on one of the big electronic screens.*
Narrator: Or grab three of your friends and battle it out in a high stakes clash of color and light.
*People all over the world are shown playing the game now, bathed in all kinds of beautiful colors.*
Narrator: It's a brand new game for a brand new millennium. World Of Color: Millennium. Only for the Ultra Nintendo.
Ultimate Fun
-from the World Of Color: Millennium commercial, which began playing in late December 1999 and continued to play throughout the month of January, including during Super Bowl XXXIV
The first World of Color was a showcase for the Game Boy Color when it was released in 1996. A fairly simple but very colorful (if you had the GBC) puzzle game that scored high marks when it launched with the system, it was almost inevitable that it would receive some kind of sequel. That sequel appeared on the Ultra Nintendo in 1998 as Ultra World Of Color, which took the Game Boy classic, spruced it up with fancy graphics, tweaked gameplay, additional modes and fantastic multiplayer, and launched to great sales and great reviews. So why did Nintendo go back to the drawing board so quickly with World Of Color: Millennium, released just 15 months after Ultra World Of Color in North America (and a 17 month gap in Japan)? Whatever the reason, World Of Color: Millennium was a significantly more complete game than its 1998 predecessor. The game's single-player mode now came in four flavors: Adventure, Puzzle, Endless, or Challenge. Adventure mode featured a massive campaign complete with levels, worlds, and cutscenes, with battles played out on World of Color's familiar puzzle board. The adventure mode levels themselves contained various gimmicks designed to make battling opponents more interesting or challenging, and the colorful cast (both visually and personality-wise) helped to keep things interesting between rounds of play. Puzzle mode had a variety of pre-determined board layouts that you had to solve in a particular way. The beginning puzzles were a piece of cake, but by the end (there were 100 in all), things got brain-bustingly hard, with Levels 97 and 99 considered among the toughest challenges in Nintendo history. Endless mode was just that, racking up points by trying to keep the board cleared as long as possible, making combos as huge as you can to get your score up higher. And Challenge mode imposed challenges on the player, such as speeding things up, removing certain types of blocks, even making the stage invisible! Again, some of the toughest challenges in the game were found in this mode, and clearing both Puzzle and Challenge modes made you a true World of Color master. Of course, no discussion of an Ultra Nintendo World of Color game was complete without discussion of multiplayer mode. Millennium added literally dozens of new items to make battling your friends extremely fun. From the Blockade Grenade, which put up walls around certain parts of your opponent's playing field, to the Rude Rocket, which laughed and taunted you as it blew up pieces you needed to make combos, World of Color: Millennium's multiplayer mode had friendship-destruction potential, and there are some legendary anecdotes about player rage associated with this game.
World of Color: Millennium is considered by some to be among the greatest games of all time. It certainly ranks among the greatest puzzle games of all time, and also as one of the Ultra Nintendo's top selling games. This particular game helped to spawn an animated series based on the game's Adventure Mode characters that debuted on Disney Channel's Animagic block in 2000, joining fellow Nintendo show The Legend Of Zelda. Perhaps it was Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris, who gave the game some of its highest praise: “It is beautiful. It is beautiful to play, it is beautiful to watch. World of Color: Millennium is the game I most wish I had created.” Coming from the man who created perhaps the only game to top World of Color: Millennium on rankings of puzzle video games, the original Tetris, it's one hell of a compliment.
-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
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Though Tales Of The Seven Seas isn't as popular a series in Japan as it is in North America and Europe, One Piece undoubtedly draws inspiration from it, with series creator Eiichiro Oda admitting to designing the character Nami somewhat after Tales' Dona, particularly after playing Tales Of The Seven Seas 2 which featured her as the lead. He also includes a drunken brawler character who is quite a bit like the boisterous Creel. One Piece's setting is significantly more fantastical than its more realistic video game inspiration, but the character resemblances do show just how much of an impact Sony's game has had on pirate-themed media throughout the world.
One Piece's main competition in the shonen genre comes from Naruto, a manga based on the antics of a young, energetic and highly determined ninja. Created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto is a fierce fighter who trains hard in hopes of becoming the Hokage, the strongest ninja in his village. He is accompanied by his somewhat detached rival Sasuke and his crush Sakura, a pink-haired beauty who is as fierce and determined as Naruto, and somewhat more skilled (at least so far).
A dark horse in the shonen genre, and one increasingly gaining in popularity, is Bullheart, a manga about a young man named Soba who has trained to become a champion bullfighter, only to form a companionship with the bull he is scheduled to kill during his first fight. In Bullheart, bullfighting is a rite of passage in his society, with fighters slaying bulls in order to absorb their souls and gain their power. Because Soba refuses to slaughter bulls, it seems that he will remain weak, but through friendship with his bull companion (who does not talk, but communicates through a series of comical expressions and exaggerated noises), Soba gains spiritual energy and is able to defend himself against those who seek to uphold the current ways. Bullheart is gaining in popularity, and though it trails behind Naruto in popularity polls, it has a very vocal and active fanbase, and is becoming one of Shonen Jump's most popular series.
-excerpted from an article on Mangamania.com, posted on January 27, 2000
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Road Storm: Rampage introduces five new racers to the series' large cast! We'll tell you all about them.
Asuka- A Japanese foreign exchange student who rides a powerful and sleek motorcycle, she has a friendly personality when she's not on her bike, but once she hits the track, watch out! She specializes in speed, but has a disadvantage in durability.
Thugsy- A classic mobster who will make you an offer you can't refuse. Thugsy takes no prisoners, unless he needs to hold someone for ransom! Thugsy's bike is a fairly balanced one, and attack items get a bonus when he uses them.
Stock- A retail stocker who's fed up with his low paying job, he takes to the track so he can win enough money to quit! His bike seems like a cheap piece of junk, which means his durability is suspect, but he can corner exceptionally well.
Johnny- A cowboy who doesn't need anybody, he loves to ride in the wide open country. His bike is pretty fast, but he's not very good at cornering since he's used to riding such wide roads.
Chanele- A posh makeup magnate who has purchased one of the best bikes in the world with her vast fortune, but isn't all that good at riding it... her bike runs fairly average in every category due to her inexperience, but she gets pretty good acceleration.
-excerpted from the article on Road Storm: Rampage in the January 2000 issue of Nintendo Power
“Road Storm used to be a series that focused really heavily on the characters, giving them interesting backstories and motivations, and fun interactions...but as the series went on, the new characters (and even many of the old ones) descended somewhat into caricature and stereotypes. Take Road Storm: Rampage. Only Asuka and Stock out of the new characters were all that interesting. Thugsy was an over-the-top gangster and pretty much a ripoff of Bugsy from the Looney Tunes, and Johnny was an obvious John Wayne expy.
That said, the racing seemed to get better and better with every game. None of the Road Storm games have really been 'bad', though a couple could probably be classified as being 'on the right side of mediocre'. That wasn't the case with Rampage, probably the best of the fifth-gen games. There were some awesome tracks and the play controls were fantastic. Chanele might've been predictable and lame in the cutscenes, but controlling her motorcycle on the track was a lot of fun, it really gave you the sense that this stuck-up rich French woman was learning to race as she went. Road Storm: Rampage was a lot of fun, and it probably would've been the Ultra Nintendo's best game that month were it not for the flawless World of Color: Millennium.”
-from a Kotaku.com commenter, posted in reply to Kotaku's review of Road Storm: Route 66 on April 15, 2014
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>>The video game fuckin sucks tho, i mean geez i thought an ECW game would be awesome but man it blows pretty bad
>>>Yeah, I'd rather just watch ECW on TV.
>>>> i still cant believe there airing ECW on the dolly parton channel lol
>>>>> Isn't it like their highest rated show?
>>>> Last week's match between Tommy Dreamer and Balls Mahoney kicked ass, Balls was bleeding all over the place
>>>>> He took a hell of a sick bump didn't he? When he fell right on that trash can on his head?
>>>>> balls mahoney kicks ass
>>> I still wanna play it but all I have is a Sega Saturn
>>>> i think there makin a ecw game for the saturn
>>>>> It's called ECW: No Rulez. It's coming in June I think.
>>>>>> Oh really? I hope it's better than they're saying Hardcore Revolution is.
-taken from a series of posts on an InsideTheWeb.com wrestling message board on January 21, 2000
The Rock Wins Royal Rumble, Will Be In Main Event At Wrestlemania
The 30-man Royal Rumble was won by The Rock, who tossed Stone Cold Steve Austin over the top rope to claim victory in the main event match. The two men had previously teamed up to eliminate the massive Big Show, before engaging in a brutal three minute brawl that eventually saw The Rock counter a Stone Cold Stunner and reverse it into a flip that sent Austin out of the ring.
Both men had plenty of reasons to want to win the Rumble, as the prize, a title shot at Wrestlemania, would allow them to face off against the current champion Triple H. Triple H, who beat Mick Foley's alter ego Cactus Jack to retain his title in the other main event, has been ruling the WWF with an iron fist as part of the “McMahon-Helmsley Organization”, which formed after Triple H married the daughter of WWF's CEO Vince McMahon. The Organization's first target was Stone Cold Steve Austin, who'd been holding the championship since winning it off of Owen Hart at Summerslam 1999. Triple H gave himself a title match against Austin on the Monday Night Raw after Armageddon, and with the aid of a number of wrestlers and Stephanie McMahon, managed to screw Austin out of the title, leaving the Rattlesnake itching for revenge. The Organization then colluded to prevent Austin from getting a rematch, instead forcing him to earn it in the Royal Rumble. Meanwhile, the Rock and Triple H have been taking a number of verbal shots at each other over the past several months, and Triple H's wrath has recently come down on Mick Foley, one of the Rock's best friends. Now, it seems, The Rock will face Triple H at Wrestlemania 2000, though Stone Cold Steve Austin certainly looks to factor into the equation somehow, and likely won't take being denied a rematch for his title lying down. He looks to be on the warpath on tonight's Raw, and it'll be interesting to see whether he goes after the Organization first, or The Rock.
-update from a wrestling news site, January 24, 2000
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Alex Stansfield: Ridge Racer 2 is really good. The drifting is really fun, the levels all look great, I had a blast playing through this game.
Ted Crosley: You know, this game's such a big improvement over the original, and the original's a classic! For me, everything clicked. The sound effects, all the little voices...
Alex: That's how you do voices in an arcade racing game. Not too much, but just enough so that it keeps you in the game and keeps you excited. And yes, whenever I hear the voices saying “final lap!” or “great drift!” I get really excited. It just feels like I'm in an arcade, even if I'm just at home with a big racing wheel in my lap and a half-eaten pizza on the coffee table in front of me.
Ted: The home IS the best arcade.
Alex: True. At home you can eat whatever you want, the chairs are a lot more comfortable, and there's a bathroom nearby.
Ted: And you don't have to keep putting in quarters!
Alex: Ridge Racer 2 delivered on everything. Also, even though I recommend using a racing wheel, the Saturn controller works just fine. I'm giving Ridge Racer 2 a 4.5 out of 5.
Ted: I agree with you, it gets a 4.5 from me. Ridge Racer 2 is a hell of a lot of fun.
-excerpted from the January 11, 2000 episode of GameTV
(…)
Lyssa Fielding: *singing* Come on, baby, do the locomotion! *as a huge train is slamming into another huge train on screen*
Brittany Saldita: Is that all you did, try to make trains crash into each other?
Lyssa: Maybe.
Brittany: On a more serious note, Railroad Tycoon is a pretty deep sim. There's a lot to take in when you're playing, and if this kind of game isn't your thing, Railroad Tycoon won't be your thing. With that said, it's an excellently designed game and once you know what you're doing, you can have a lot of fun. And...even if you don't know what you're doing and just want to cause horrible train accidents...
Lyssa: *making train whistle noises as another accident plays out on the screen* Okay, you know what, I did have a lot of fun playing Railroad Tycoon. There is SO much to do, from building your own trains to buying stock in your rivals' companies, Brittany's absolutely right about there being a lot to take in and even hardcore sim players might be intimidated by this one. You are going to be balls deep in menus by the time you're really into the game.
Brittany: And the soundtrack really gets you into the feel of being an old-timey train magnate.
*A sampling of the game's classic early-20th century style bluegrass music is played.*
Lyssa: *wincing a bit*
Brittany: No, it's not something I'd listen to on my CD player, but it's appropriate for the game.
Lyssa: They couldn't have put Locomotion in there somewhere?
Brittany: Nope, I'm afraid not. Anyway, I give Railroad Tycoon a 4 out of 5.
Lyssa: And I give it a 3.5!
*A montage of train crashes from the game plays over Kylie Minogue's cover of “The Loco-Motion” as the show goes to commercial break*
(…)
*The hosts are sitting on the couch discussing the recent PC release Omikron, and the conversation shifts to David Bowie.*
Brittany: I just really really wish we could have him on here!
Ted: I think MTV asked him, but he had to turn them down.
Gary Westhouse: What would we even have talked with him about?
Brittany: Are...are you kidding me?
Alex: ANYTHING! “Space Oddity”, freaking Labyrinth, we could've just done a whole show talking to David Bowie about stuff.
Gary: I dunno if he even plays video games.
Steve Horton: I'm sure he plays something. I mean, dressing in outfits like that?
Brittany: *smirking* Where do you think video games with weird outfits got their ideas from?
Alex: Yeah, look at Edea *shows a picture of Edea from Final Fantasy VIII* I'm pretty sure Bowie's worn something like that outfit more than once.
Ted: The guy's a genius. The guy has influenced more video games... I mean the guy's influence is in everything.
Lyssa: *biting her lip* He was so hot in Labyrinth...
Alex: He was a freaky goblin king!
Lyssa: I wanted him to take me to his magical palace and keep me locked up in a tower like Rapunzel!
Ted: Ziggy Stardust is one of the greatest albums of all time. Ever.
Brittany: Agreed.
Alex: I listened to his music so much as a kid. I played Omikron just because he was in it. It was a decent game, but the only reason I played it, because, remember, Ted and Gary reviewed it...but I played it anyway just for Bowie.
Lyssa: He's the guy who taught me that it was okay to be both beautiful and weird. Like, when I was in beauty pageants, they said I could only be one or the other. David Bowie taught me I could be both.
Ted: ...we have to get him on here.
Alex: Yep. Yep.
Brittany: Oh yeah, for sure.
-excerpted from the January 18, 2000 episode of GameTV
(…)
*Martin Hollis from Rare has visited the GameTV studio to promote the upcoming Velvet Dark and to preview the game. Ted, Alex, Brittany, and Lyssa are trying out Velvet Dark's face mapping mode, using the camera on the Game Boy Nova to import their faces in the game. They get a first look at their characters on the screen.*
Brittany: *laughing her ass off*
Alex: That's us! That's us!
Ted: I'm gonna kill all of you guys.
Lyssa: I look weird!
*They enter multiplayer mode, and it's a four-player free-for-all. They go right at each other with multiple kills scored quickly, having a blast of wiping each other's custom characters out.*
Alex: Looks like you're dead again, Lyssa!
Brittany: I GOT you, I got you Ted! God, this is satisfying.
Ted: *groaning* Okay, okay, you got lucky on that one. *he gets up behind Alex and Brittany and wipes them out with a grenade* In your faces! Yeah!
Lyssa: Oh, oh, oh! *she tries to avoid Ted as he's coming after her*
Alex: Can you take pictures of anything and stick them in the game?
Hollis: Yes, you can!
Ted: So I can take pictures of famous people I don't like?
Alex: *laughing*
Hollis: We actually were kind of worried about something like that, but, you know, it's a private game, we didn't think there was much of a problem with it.
Ted: So somebody could take a picture of their junk and stick it on here?
Hollis: *laughing* I suppose so!
Brittany: That's like, the first thing you guys go to... *shoots Ted again* I swear, I'm working with a couple of 12-year-olds.
Ted: Somebody had to say it.
Brittany: No, dammit, nobody has to say *gets blown up by one of Lyssa's remote mines* (bleep)!
Lyssa: *giggling and kicking her legs*
Alex: I was thinking of using it to take pictures of Mario and put him in there and have him killing Sonic the Hedgehog. *shoots Lyssa and then Brittany, putting him back in the lead*
Hollis: Well, it is a Nintendo game so I guess that would be appropriate!
Alex: This is so much fun...
Lyssa: Yeah!
-excerpted from the January 25, 2000 episode of GameTV
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Nebraska Upsets Florida State In Second BCS Championship Game
In the second year of college football's BCS championship series, Nebraska hoped to settle some of the controversy circling around their berth in the game, and may have gone a long way in doing so by beating undefeated Florida State 25-23 after kicker Josh Brown's 53 yard field goal won it for the Cornhuskers in dramatic fashion. Though Nebraska's win did prove that they could compete with the best, fans of the Virginia Tech Hokies, who finished the season at 12-1 after beating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, may have something else to say. The Hokies started out the season a red-hot 8-0, but after the arrest of star quarterback Michael Vick for assault and battery, the team dropped their next game and were forced to rally behind their backup quarterback to win their remaining games. Virginia Tech's courageous play won them accolades from sportswriters and fans across the nation and made them the sentimental favorite, but the BCS computers picked Nebraska, and now Hokies fans wonder what might have been.
-from an article on Yahoo! News, January 5, 2000
Super Bowl XXXIV featured the Tennessee Titans and the New Orleans Saints. The Titans, who'd recently relocated from Houston and who'd changed their nickname from the Oilers, had a fantastic 1999 campaign behind quarterback Steve McNair, going 14-2 and becoming the overall top seed in the AFC. The New Orleans Saints, led by quarterback Peyton Manning, had been equally impressive, with a powerful offensive that became known as the “Greatest Show On Turf” that year, setting an NFL record for points in a single season. Saints fans were especially energetic that season, borrowing the old New Orleans expression “Who Dat?”, which grew in popularity after the Saints defeated the defending champion Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round. The Saints' NFC championship opponents were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by their volatile but talented quarterback Ryan Leaf. In a fierce back-and-forth game, the two quarterbacks drafted 1 and 2 in 1998 traded touchdowns, but in the end, the Saints pulled away to win by a final score of 45-42. After the game, Leaf created controversy when he nearly attacked a reporter trying to interview him in the locker room, yelling out “Get the fuck away from me, all right?” on live television. Meanwhile, in the AFC, the Titans had to battle the Indianapolis Colts in the conference championship. Led by Jim Harbaugh, who had announced before the season began that this would be his last year in the league, the upstart Colts led a valiant effort, but ultimately fell to the Titans, 28-18. With Selena singing the national anthem and Kid Rock performing at halftime, the Super Bowl musical lineup was arguably more entertaining than most of the game, a defensive struggle that pitted the Titans' potent defense against the Saints' usually potent offense. In the end, the Titans won the day by a final score of 13-6, after Kevin Dyson scored the game-winning touchdown on a 71-yard reception with just under a minute to go in the game. Dyson was named the Super Bowl MVP.
2000's NFL draft saw the St. Louis Rams, who finished worst in the league with a 1-15 record, pick offensive tackle Chris Samuels with their pick in hopes of building a better offensive line for the on-again off-again Ricky Williams. The hapless Cleveland Browns snapped up Courtney Brown at #2, while running back Jamal Lewis was picked by the New England Patriots at #3.
Notably, the Indianapolis Colts, who were expected to pick quarterback Chad Pennington to replace Jim Harbaugh, instead waited until the fifth round to select Michigan's Tom Brady. The Colts already had a capable backup in Trent Dilfer, whom the Colts expected to compete with Tom Brady for the starting spot during preseason.
-excerpted from the article “NFL Recap: 2000” on Bleacherreport.com
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Ultra Nintendo Power Charts: January 2000
1. Final Fantasy VIII
2. Ultra Donkey Kong Country
3. The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time
4. Silent Hill
5. Super Smash Bros.
6. Half-Life
7. Fire Emblem: The False Princess
8. Dog Dash 3
9. Metal Gear Solid
10. Super Mario Dimensions
The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart: January 2000
1. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
2. Soul Calibur
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 5
4. Turok III: Generation War
5. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
6. Ridge Racer 2
7. Silent Hill
8. Commander Keen: When Universes Collide
9. Marvel vs. Capcom
10. Virtua Fighter 3
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“AOL To Purchase Time Warner For $175 Billion: Biggest Corporate Merger Ever”
“Microsoft Stock Prices Inch Upward On Video Game Console Rumors”
“Sega To Lay Off More Employees, Market Share Lowest Since 1991”
-headlines on AOL.com's business news webpage, January 24, 2000
