December 1996
The N32 had a decently strong holiday line-up this month in both America and Japan.
In America, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Tobal No. 1, Resident Evil, and NBA Hangtime were released.
Although
Shadows of the Empire was still released in December, it was delayed a couple of weeks to fix faulty camera angles and unweildy controls.
In Japan, Mario Kart R and Mega Man 8 were released.
Mario Kart R is the second Mario Kart title and the franchise’s first 3D installment.
It features a roster of 10 playable characters including Kamek and Daisy. It has 6 cups, and 24 courses in total. The Cape Feather, an item from the original game, makes a return, and can be used as a hang glider that traverses faster than the normal carts. When playing multiplayer, it uses a split-screen.
2 of the cups include:
The
Leaf Cup is the second hardest cup, the courses are Going Green Factory, a 3D adaptation of Donut Plains, a 3D adaptation of Vanilla Lake, and Tanooki Forest (a forest level with Tanooki).
The
One-Up Cup is the hardest out of all of the cups. The courses include of an altered Rainbow Road, Dino Dino Jungle, Jumpman Sewers (a sewer like course with red scaffold piping, and references to Donkey Kong), and a 3D adaptation of Ghost Valley.
After a long time waiting, SEGA finally released the first main 3D Sonic title -
Sonic Saturn. Sonic Saturn started its life as “Sonic X-Treme”, but following the cancelling of the 32X - Sonic X-Treme made its way to the Saturn where it under went some changes.
It follows the current fight betweeen Sonic and Dr. Robotnik being taken to space. Sonic is separated from his friends and eventually crashes down onto the jungle planet of Jadegully. After meeting a small band of Wispies (the planet’s inhabitants who’ve been captured by Robotnik) - Sonic agrees to stop Robotnik and continues with his plan to destroy the rebuilt Death Egg (dubbed by the fans as the “Death Egg II”). What makes this Death Egg different from the original version, is this one has enough gravity to rip planets out of their orbits; causing armageddon. In order to save the planet, Sonic must first free the rest of the Wispies from captivity. As only they can get Sonic off of the planet.
While doing so, he meets a refugee from a Death Egg II victim planet, Tiara Bobowski. The player can switch between Sonic and Tiara during levels.
After the two rescue all the Wispies, they are sent on a ship to the Death Egg II to defeat the doctor in one action-packed showdown. Once Robotnik is defeated, he initiates the Death Egg II’s self-destruct sequence and escapes through an escape pod. Leaving one left behind. Tiara pushes Sonic into it, and sends him back to the planet below. An emotional scene in which Tiara goes down with the Death Egg II as it explodes (But, some have theorized that she survived) soon follows. The game ends after Tails and the gang reunite after beaming up an unconscious Sonic in his drifting escape pod
There are 25 levels in total, 20 taking place on Jadegully, and the last 5 on the Death Egg II.
Sonic Saturn introduces gameplay elements that would become the staple for 3D Sonic - as Sonic slowly increases in speed, when he reaches maximum speed he can preform one of three attacks (each progresses in damage): a homing attack, a kick attack, and his classic spin dash. Sonic can also dodge left/right as well as being able to preform limited parkour such as running up walls.
Tiara has a special blaster that can shoot laser beams while she runs - it does damage in between Sonic’s kick attack and Spin Dash. She is less aerobic than Sonic but is smaller and can fit in tighter spaces.
The game receives rave reviews and sells a little less than SM32 did.
The game is controversial among fans for having started an intense shopping war - Samy (SonicxAmy) v. Tiaranic (SonicxTiara).
Sony revealed that a show based off their hit summer game, Crash Bandicoot, was in production.
IGN said:
Interview with Jason Rubin, Jan 1997
Where did you get the idea for the Crash Bandicoot cartoon?
“So, we had these old animated clips lying around, from Universal, and it fav me this idea. What if we make a Crash show a la all those Mario and Sonic series? I called the idea up to the higher-ups and they loved it! We branched out to Universal and they’re like ‘Sure.’ So, which channel, which channel hmmmm. Then it came to me, NBC! Voila! They picked it up and the rest is history!”
Crash Bandicoot is set to premiere June 1997 on NBC, joining Doug as part of NBC’s Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup. Jess Harnell will play the character of the show’s name.
Nintendo has opened an animation studio, Nintentoon, and announced a SM32 cartoon in response.
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