Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

[RySenkari]

Knuckles And Bit

Knuckles And Bit is a spinoff title of the Sonic The Hedgehog series. Though the game is a spinoff, it's related somewhat to the main series and serves as both a sequel to Knuckles: Renegade and a companion game to Sonic Neon. As the name implies, the game stars Knuckles the Echidna, who teams up with a friendly robot named Bit (voiced by Dan Castellaneta). Other major supporting characters include Corona the Butterfly and Mighty the Armadillo, along with a few other characters both old and new. Sonic and Tails hardly appear in the game at all, mostly in mentions and not in the flesh. The game deviates from the traditional Sonic formula: though it's technically a platformer, it contains many beat-em-up elements, giving protagonist Knuckles a repertoire of fighting moves and combos to use on enemies. The game eschews the typical life system of Sonic titles, instead of rings serving as Knuckles' health bar, he has a traditional health bar, with rings instead serving as currency to buy power-ups and new moves. Bit can also help Knuckles by providing him with power-ups and upgrades as he explores the levels along with Knuckles.

The plot of the game begins shortly after the events of Sonic Neon, with Knuckles investigating a mysterious glitch in reality. While investigating this glitch, he discovers a little robot acting suspiciously. After interrogating the robot, Knuckles learns that some kind of supercomputer is altering reality, and that Bit is a refugee from this computer's army. Bit can hack into things that the computer has altered, allowing Knuckles to enter the virtual world to combat its influence. Knuckles enters the virtual world, which contains a combination of sci-fi dataworlds and simulated environments. The game progresses somewhat like Devil May Cry (which heavily influenced Knuckles and Bit), with chapters instead of defined levels, a total of 18 in all. In an early chapter, Knuckles comes across Corona. It seems that after the supercomputer AI, known as BLANK, learned of Knuckles' presence, it attempted to get to Knuckles by attacking Corona, but she beat up the things BLANK sent after her and came in to see if Knuckles needed help. Mighty the Armadillo shows up soon after. Though the player can only control Knuckles (and Bit to some extent in certain puzzle segments), Corona and Mighty both serve as valuable NPC allies at certain points in the game. Eventually, Knuckles and friends learn that BLANK's incursions into the real world are what allowed Catastrophia to invade Lumina City, and that BLANK is attempting to tear the world into segments so that it can digitize the world and replace the real world with a digital copy. Bit was the last piece that BLANK needed in order to do so. BLANK has been working on a new version of Bit, which takes the form of a massive mecha monster known as Byte, and Knuckles must defeat both Byte and BLANK to save the world. After defeating BLANK, Bit repairs all the damage to the real world and decides to stay behind to make sure there are no further AI incursions. Knuckles promises to visit before returning to the real world with his friends.

Knuckles and Bit is generally well received. It's seen as a welcome change of pace to the typical Sonic formula, and a unique game even in its genre. The platforming segments are seen as inferior to those in previous Sonic games, and the combat is fairly simple, so it's not seen as a great game, but it gets a positive reception nonetheless. The game is released in Japan in March 2003, and in North America on May 5, 2003. Sales, while nowhere near that of Sonic Neon, are still quite good due to the heavy advertising and connection to the popular Sonic franchise, and the game eventually becomes a million-seller.

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Sonic Revolution

Sonic Revolution is a sports title that serves as the sequel to Sonic R, though in addition to go-kart racing, Sonic Revolution also offers skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing, and is sort of a response to the "extreme sports" games of the day such as Tony Hawk and White Mountain. The game features a massive amount of content: the go-kart portion of the game has even more tracks than Sonic R, while the skateboarding and snowboarding segments boast more than a dozen unique locales each. In addition, the game has a sizable character roster: in addition to the 18 Sonic the Hedgehog characters, there are also guest appearances from Vectorman, Billy and Becky Blaze, Akira Yuki and Sarah Bryant, and Aerio. The graphics are excellent, showing off the characters in great detail and making all of the tracks and stages look very pretty. So, in one sense, it's quite a high quality game. The developers had been working on it since before the release of the Katana, and the game did have a lot of work put into it. However, the gameplay isn't quite up to snuff: while the skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing segments are all generally fun, none of them is as good as the best of their genre, while the go-karting isn't quite as good as that of the Mario Kart series (even Double Dash). It's sort of a "jack of all trades, master of none" type of game, and while it's still a great way to enjoy some extreme sports action with popular Sega characters, it wouldn't be a go-to game for someone just looking for an extreme sports title. With that said, reviews are still very good: the game averages a solid 8/10 with most reviewers, who praise Sonic Revolution for its excellent graphics and wealth of content. One magazine which gave it a 9.5/10 said it's a "Sega lover's dream game", a review which gets quoted regularly in advertisements. Sonic Revolution is released on June 16, 2003, and like Knuckles and Bit, the game is a strong seller, though not a blockbuster.

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Vectorman

Vectorman is a Sega Katana exclusive platformer title and a reboot of the classic Vectorman games for the Genesis. The game plays much like the originals, with 2-D platforming as the bulk of the action in the game. The 2-D platformer segments are broken up by occasional tunnel segments which offer a mix of high-speed platforming and shooter components, and for the most part are some of the most highly praised aspects of the game. While the gameplay hasn't changed much from the originals, there are a few notable changes, including many, MANY more weapon upgrades and the addition of enormous bosses which require ingenuity and timing from the player. The graphics are among the best yet seen in a Katana game, despite the 2-D gameplay, the developers went all out to make the animation and 3-D effects look truly incredible, the game looks indistinguishable from many Wave and Xbox games thanks to the attention to detail put into every part of the game. Vectorman features voice acting, though Vectorman himself is a silent protagonist, instead it's the game's human characters who talk during cutscenes interspersed throughout the game. Vectorman follows a familiar level progression, with 24 levels in all.

The game's plot takes place as humans are in the process of leaving Earth due to the planet being consumed by natural disasters and pollution. Vectorman is assigned to help clean up rubble while soldier robots escort some of the last humans off the planet. However, a group of soldier orbots go rogue and begin shooting down the human escape vessels, including one that belongs to a VIP: Ellen Cordian, the 18-year-old daughter of the scientist who created the orbots. Vectorman is the only orbot nearby who hasn't gone rogue, and so he has to rescue Ellen and some of the other stranded humans, and help them find a way off world. Along the way, Vectorman meets and befriends numerous humans, including Ellen and other VIPs, and even finds some orbots who haven't gone rogue who help him along the way. Ellen determines that the cause of the rogue robots is an evil scientist who believes that mankind is a plague and who is determined to keep human beings from colonizing the galaxy. Vectorman must destroy the evil scientist to protect humanity and liberate his fellow orbots from the scientist's control.

Vectorman gets excellent reviews upon its release. Indeed, out of the three major third-party games Sega releases around this time (Knuckles and Bit, Sonic Revolution, and Vectorman), Vectorman is considered the best of the three by most reviewers, who praise its run-and-gun action and Vectorman's interaction with various humans (Ellen falls in love with Vectorman, but Vectorman doesn't reciprocate, instead simply feeling a general sense of righteousness and simply desiring to do his job, emotions which are entirely conveyed through Vectorman's body language). The game doesn't sell quite as well as the two Sonic spin-offs, but it's not a commercial failure either. It's released on June 30, 2003, along with a special Katana bundle containing Knuckles and Bit, Sonic Revolution, and Vectorman which is sold for $249.99.

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Katana Sales Creep Up In June

June's hardware sales figures have just been released, and the Katana saw yet another increase in sales in North America, up 18% over May. The rise in sales can be attributed to a number of factors, including the recent price cut to $149.99, the release of several high profile games including two Sonic spinoffs, and consumer confidence in Apple, which revealed its purchase of Sega's game assets, including the rights to sell the Katana, at E3 in May. A recent series of Sega commercials have just rolled out, depicting families and young adults enjoying Katana exclusive games such as Vectorman, Sonic Revolution, and Ecco's Water World. Steve Jobs has not yet released a statement about the recent sales report, but he did release a statement after the release of Vectorman, praising the Katana's games lineup and speaking directly to consumers about the console's long-term viability.

Says Jobs:

"June 2003 has been our biggest month for new game releases ever. We have a variety of titles for gamers young and old, and we're looking forward to rolling out even more games in the future. We're still preparing for our big SegaNet upgrade which will see a boost in server reliability, a huge improvement to our online game communities, and the introduction of classic Sega games for our users to download. We're looking forward to the Katana's biggest year ever in 2004, and toward the second half of 2003, which will see some of the best games we've ever put out. Thank you to our loyal fans, both those who already own a Katana and those who are thinking about owning one in the future."

-from a July 19, 2003 article on Gamespot.com

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Adam Sessler: And here's some really interesting, but not entirely unexpected news. Steve Jobs has been spotted personally courting software companies, presumably to get them to produce games for the Sega Katana.

Morgan Webb: We've heard he's talked with representatives from companies like Activision, Ubisoft, EA, and Bioware, hoping to get at least one of those companies on board to produce exclusive Katana games or to port over previously exclusive Xbox and Wave titles. And, we've also heard rumors that he may be in talks with Rockstar, who I'm sure all of you know is the developer of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Sessler: Nintendo announced at the most recent E3 that Grand Theft Auto will be showing up on the Wave this fall, so... thinking Steve Jobs wants a piece of that action?

Webb: Oh, you know it, he definitely doesn't want the Katana to be the only console you can't play Grand Theft Auto on. Though it is curious to note that all the companies we just mentioned are Western-based companies, no Japanese companies yet, in fact Namco, which used to make games exclusively for the Saturn and Katana, has been rumored to be saddened by the news of Sega's acquisition by Apple.

Sessler: That's right, the Japanese game magazine Famitsu actually reports that a number of Japanese software companies are unhappy with the sale.

Webb: And that sort of makes sense, I'm sure a lot of people at Sega were pretty close with some of those companies, the shakeup after the Apple purchase might have harmed some of those relationships, though whether it's just momentary growing pains or a sign of a larger trend is as of yet unknown. One thing to note is that sales of the Katana in Japan are still ticking up slightly, not as fast as they are in the States but still an upward trend, so that, at least, is one thing for Apple to be pleased about.

Sessler: Hearing about Steve Jobs going around begging for companies to develop for the Katana makes me sort of wonder what he might be bribing them with, gold-plated iPods maybe?

Webb: You wouldn't have to give me a gold-plated iPod to make me want to make a game for the Katana, I like the Katana. I mean, it would be nice, though. Some of that bling-bling, kaching...

Sessler: And if it doesn't work, Steve Jobs can just fall back on an old Apple classic: Oregon Trail. Who wouldn't want to see Oregon Trail on the Katana?

Webb: All those grade school memories, putting classmates I didn't like on a wagon and sinking them in the river. Or giving them dysentery.

-from the July 21, 2003 episode of Extended Play

 

[RySenkari]

Janet Shamlian: Tonight, NASA continues its investigation into the cause of an anomaly during the recent mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission, which took place over two weeks in early March, went as planned, but after the shuttle returned to Earth, scientists noticed damage to the left wing, caused by a large piece of foam that had broken off during takeoff. The hole created in the wing was only a few inches wide, but scientists say that had the hole been larger, which might have occurred had the foam broken off when the shuttle was higher up in the atmosphere, it could have jeopardized the integrity of the shuttle during re-entry, posing a threat to the lives of the astronauts on board. NASA has temporarily suspended the shuttle program, canceling a scheduled mission in May and postponing another that was to take place this August.

*Footage of the launch of STS-107 is shown. The camera zooms in.*

Shamlian: See that small piece of debris? It's easy to miss, and NASA scientists nearly did. But a later investigation determined that a piece of foam, no bigger than a football, caused a two and a half inch gash in the Space Shuttle Columbia's heat shielding. That foam originated from Columbia's external heat tank, and it's caused problems before, though none as potentially dangerous as this.

NASA Scientist: *in an interview with NBC Nightly News* It's definitely something we've noticed before, that foam coming off the space shuttle. It's happened to one of the other shuttles as well.

Shamlian: The Space Shuttle Atlantis had an even larger piece of foam come off during a mission in December 1998, but thankfully it missed the shuttle entirely, sailing harmlessly off into the atmosphere. Never before has a debris strike during takeoff caused this much damage to a critical component, and that's why NASA is taking this very seriously, even though the agency has been accused of having a lackadaisical attitude in the past.

Scientist: It's sort of been that culture of, you know, "we'll sort it out later", that led to the Challenge disaster 17 years ago.

*Footage of the Challenger disaster is shown.*

Shamlian: The Challenger disaster shocked and horrified a nation, back in 1986. Seven astronauts died, including the woman who was supposed to be the first teacher in space, Christa McAullife. Since then, NASA has done its best to prevent a similar disaster, but some say the agency has gotten complacent once more. The space shuttle program has faced criticism in recent years for its expense, and another disaster similar to that of the Challenger might doom the program. President Gore has spoken repeatedly of the need for an updated space program and a new spacecraft that will get American astronauts back to the Moon, and perhaps, someday, to Mars.

*Footage is shown of a speech given by Al Gore in November 2002 to a gathered crowd of college students.*

Al Gore: You are the generation that will see the first human being walk on the surface of another planet. I want to make it a goal of my administration to take the first serious steps toward putting a human being on Mars. I want to challenge NASA to create a new generation of space vehicles, with the size and the power we'll need for this unprecedented undertaking. We have the technology, we have the drive, and now we need to say "yes" to putting an astronaut on Mars.

Shamlian: Gore has repeatedly called for an increase in research funding for NASA devoted to studying a potential Mars mission, with a tentative goal of 2026 as the year for a manned mission. But both Gore and NASA realize the need to build confidence in the space program, and that confidence could be shattered if there were another space disaster that took the lives of American astronauts.

Scientist: It'd be, you know, it'd be devastating. Utterly devastating for our chances of making it off this planet if there were any more astronauts killed. That's why we've got to do this right and make sure everything is as safe as it can be before putting any more people up there. Let's get this right and let's get back into space.

Shamlian: For NBC News, I'm Janet Shamlian.

(...)

Tom Brokaw: And tonight, president Al Gore is meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two men will be sitting down in Moscow in just a few hours to discuss, among other things, the ongoing hunt for the remaining members of al-Queda. Though the United States and Russia don't see eye to eye on a lot of issues, Gore has stated numerous times that he considers Russia a key ally in the fight against terrorism. Russia too has experienced its share of terrorist attacks, most recently a car bombing in Moscow in March 2002 that took the lives of ten people outside a crowded restaurant. Gore is also said to be speaking with Putin on environmental issues and climate change. While the president has been encouraging nations all over the world to reduce their use of fossil fuels and increase their use of renewable energy, Russia has become a major leader in oil production, and continues to make record profits off the rise in oil prices over the last two years. While Putin has stated on numerous occasions that he believes climate change to be a significant problem, Russia continues to be increasingly dependent on oil exportation, a fact Gore may well address during his talks with the Russian leader. Gore has been critical of Russia's increasingly aggressive stance in the Caucasus region, where the country has been dealing with numerous terrorist attacks and insurgencies over the past few years, but has taken a largely neutral tone on both Russia and Putin during his presidency, and said in a speech earlier this year that: "Cooperation and friendship between the United States and Russia is perhaps the best way to ensure continued peace and stability in the world. We cannot go back to the Cold War-era days of fear and mistrust." The two leaders plan to give a joint address sometime tomorrow morning.

-from the June 10, 2003 broadcast of the NBC Nightly News

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Rick Santorum Enters Republican Presidential Field, Joins Bush, Dole, Kasich, Ashcroft

Rick Santorum has become the fifth person to officially declare his candidacy for the Republican presidential primary, joining 2000 candidates George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole, along with former Ohio congressman John Kasich and former United States Senator John Ashcroft. Santorum, the junior United States senator from Pennsylvania, narrowly won re-election to his seat in 2000, and has risen through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the minority whip in the Senate. Santorum, a pro-life senator known for his social conservatism, has criticized his own party for its increasing gravitation away from social issues in recent years, and his appointment to a position of leadership in the Senate has been attributed to the party's desire to keep religious conservatives motivated at the polls. Santorum announced his candidacy on Monday, giving a speech in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in front of more than 2,000 supporters. Said Santorum, "It's time to bring fiscal and moral responsibility back to America." Santorum has also been a supporter of a stronger American military presence in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, about which Santorum has said: "Saddam Hussein poses the greatest threat to American safety and security in the world today."

In a Gallup poll taken shortly after Santorum's announcement, George W. Bush continues to be the front-runner to challenge incumbent Al Gore in 2004, with 38% of the vote. John Kasich trails with 29%, with Ashcroft in third (15%), Santorum in fourth (10%), and Dole in fifth (8%). President Gore's approval rating stands at 57%.

-from an article on CNN.com, posted June 24, 2003

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Barbara Walters: Tonight on 20/20, an exclusive interview with the Lady Diana, Princess of Wales. We'll talk about her continued charitable activities, her advocacy for children around the world, and her recent work with the actor George Clooney. We'll also discuss her relationship with her children, the Princes William and Harry, and how often she speaks with her former husband, Prince Charles. That's tonight, on 20/20.

(...)

Walters: So you don't have any lingering bad feelings toward Dodi at all?

Diana: No, certainly not, it was very amicable the way we parted. I do still speak with him from time to time, but it's been...

Walters: Since Christmas of 1999.

Diana: Yes, more than three years now since we last went on vacation together. I still consider him a friend, and...it was a wonderful part of my life. We saw many wonderful places together, and I certainly wish him the best today.

Walters: The press, of course, any time they see you with a member of the opposite sex, there's speculation.

Diana: *she smiles and nods* Certainly that's...well that's how the press makes its living, isn't it? It's what your audience wants to see. It's the same in Britain, whether it's the BBC News or the Sun or anything else. People will speculate, people will ask questions, people will talk, it's human nature. We all have curiosity.

Walters: So you can imagine, whenever you and George Clooney are seen together...

Diana: *she nods again* And, you know, people can think what they want. George and I share a cause, a cause that a lot of people around the world share. We're continuing to push for an end to the AIDS epidemic in South Africa, something that's killing thousands of children a year. I hope that the people who are seeing us working together on this issue are also keeping in mind the cause we're fighting for. You can speculate all you like, but please remember that we're fighting for children who are born with this deadly disease and who need treatment and care from the moment they're born.

Walters: And that is extremely important work you're doing in South Africa, we recently aired a special on the AIDS epidemic there and we showed this footage of you and Clooney and Nelson Mandela all visiting a children's hospital together, this I think was very positively received. Those children were so happy to see you there talking to them, I think there's a level of comfort that you bring whenever you're around these children who've been afflicted.

Diana: It comes from being a mother myself, whenever I see those children I just think of my own boys, and I think my motherly instinct really does kick in. That's all I want to do, is help children whenever I can.

Walters: And you have raised an enormous amount of money and awareness for organizations like UNICEF, who you continue to work with as well.

Diana: And I actually got George involved in that as well, which was a blessing because now he's gone back to Hollywood and he's gotten several more actors involved, which raises awareness to an enormous degree. *footage is shown of Brandon Lee and Cameron Diaz working with UNICEF in Africa* So whenever there's someone new who's involved with the cause, it's incredibly encouraging.

-from the June 27, 2003 episode of 20/20

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"Friendster has been at the forefront of the recent social networking trend, where users can search for other users by interest and other categories, allowing people to find those who share certain characteristics with them. The site currently boasts over six million users, with more than 50,000 joining every day. It takes in revenue through advertising, though the site is also rumored to compile information submitted by users to sell to companies hoping to build profiles on potential customers. Social networking is a growing online trend, as more and more people now have internet access in their homes. Friendster's biggest rival in the social networking sphere is perhaps the service Angelfire, a subsidiary of Mark Cuban's Lycos that allows users to build their own webpages. However, Angelfire websites are more isolated, with networking only recently introduced to the service, and not emphasized as a major feature. Friendster, which connects users in the same way that links connect websites, puts significantly more emphasis on social networking as a central feature."
-from the July 2003 issue of Wired magazine

TOM ANDERSON HIRED AS NEW COMMUNITY MANAGER; PART OF APPLE'S SEGANET REORGANIZATION
-the title of a news article posted at Gamebiz.com on July 1, 2003

 

[RySenkari]

The 2002-03 NBA season saw the emergence of a number of talented young players, including rookies Carmelo Anthony and Yao Ming, and others like Ron Artest (playing for the Atlanta Hawks) and Shane Battier (playing for the Chicago Bulls). These youngsters led their teams to varying degrees of success, with Yao Ming making the biggest impact, teaming up with veteran power forward Chris Webber to propel the Phoenix Suns to a 46-36 record.

In the East, the Pacers, playing a fast-paced style of basketball thanks to all-star point guard Steve Nash and head coach Mike D'Antoni, got off to a great start, winning 19 of their first 22 games. However, not every player on the team could keep up with this breakneck pace: Reggie Miller tore his ACL in a Christmas Day game against Iverson's Washington Wizards, and the Pacers' fortunes declined, the team finished 47-35, good for only the fifth seed in the conference. Jonathan Bender emerged as an absolute beast, scoring 23.5 points and grabbing 10 boards a game as he led the Toronto Raptors to the #1 seed in the conference, even ahead of the talented Wizards and defending champion Celtics, who could only muster a 55-27 record and had to settle for the #3 seed.

In the West, Shaq and Duncan continued their dominance with a 62-20 record, the best in the league. The Warriors, last year's conference champions, were second at 60-22 behind the play of league MVP Kobe Bryant. The Portland Trailblazers, who'd started off so well the previous year, had a rough season due to injuries and finished at 41-41, good for only the #7 seed and a date with the Warriors in the first round.

Playoffs:

First Round:

Eastern Conference:

(1) Toronto Raptors over (8) New York Knicks, 4 to 3

This would be the first NBA Playoffs played with the best-of-7 format for the first round. The Knicks played an incredibly gutsy series, with their star center Kenyon Martin going off for an incredible 34 point, 18 rebound, 7 block performance to steal Game 1 in Toronto. From there, the Knicks and Raptors traded wins and losses, with Martin matching Bender every step of the way. Had the playoffs been played under the old format, the Knicks would have won after winning another game in Toronto, this one Game 5. However, the Raptors came back to win Game 6 in Madison Square Garden. Game 7 was in Toronto, and this time, Martin wouldn't be able to carry his team to a win. The Raptors dominated the deciding game, 119 to 81, giving them momentum for the second round.

(4) Orlando Magic over (5) Indiana Pacers, 4 to 0

This series was barely competitive, with Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki bullying the Pacers all series. Without Reggie, the Pacers couldn't get anything going on offense, and only Game 4 was somewhat close. The Magic swept and would get some much needed rest.

(3) Boston Celtics over (6) Detroit Pistons, 4 to 2

Despite the play of Rookie of the Year Carmelo Anthony, the Celtics just had too many weapons and too much experience. Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway continued to be one of the league's best tandems, and the Celtics were able to win the series despite a few close games.

(2) Washington Wizards over (7) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 1

Allen Iverson proved himself to be easily the best player on the floor, and the Bulls had no answer for him. Shane Battier was completely outmatched at point guard, with Iverson putting up 51 points in Game 4 to put the Wizards ahead 3-1. They would go back to Washington and win Game 5 easily after that, taking the series.

Western Conference:

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (8) Houston Rockets, 4 to 0

An easy Lakers sweep over a young but outmatched Rockets team who couldn't handle the combined size and skill of Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan. The Rockets had crept into the playoffs over a talented but underachieving Vancouver Grizzlies team who many in the league suspected of tanking their last few games for an outside shot at getting LeBron James in the draft lottery, and many Rockets fans thought their team should've done the same after this blowout series.

(4) Dallas Mavericks over (5) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 3

The Sonics had been fairly poor over recent years, but after acquiring Vince Carter in a blockbuster trade at mid-season, reversed their middling fortunes and made a major playoff push. These two teams played an epic series, but in the end, the Mavericks, led by Alonzo Mourning, tipped the scales and won in a 105-101 Game 7 thriller.

(6) Phoenix Suns over (3) San Antonio Spurs, 4 to 1

The Spurs hoped to give David Robinson, who was strongly rumored to be retiring after this year, his first NBA ring, but they ran into a buzz saw in the form of Yao Ming and the Phoenix Suns. The Suns, who also boasted Chris Webber and Mike Bibby, rattled off four straight wins after the Spurs won Game 1, with Yao outplaying David Robinson all the way. Despite this, during the last stretch of Game 5, with the Suns leading 104-91 with 20 seconds left, fans chanted "one more year!" at Robinson, imploring him to stay. Despite this, Robinson would retire ringless after the conclusion of the playoffs.

(2) Golden State Warriors over (7) Portland Trailblazers, 4 to 3

The Warriors survived a hell of a scare from the Trailblazers, who had injured starters Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd return in time for the playoffs, bringing their team back to full strength. To make matters worse for the Warriors, Kobe Bryant had an off series, scoring less than 20 points a game. However, Mitch Richmond, who'd already announced that it would be his final year in the league, wouldn't be denied, scoring 30 points in the clinching Game 7 to give the Warriors the win and advance them to the conference semifinals.

Second Round:

(4) Orlando Magic over (1) Toronto Raptors, 4 to 2

Dirk Nowitzki truly emerged as a superstar in this series, and the Magic defeated the Raptors, splitting Games 1 and 2 to steal home court advantage and defending their home court the rest of the way. The Raptors just couldn't stop the offensive might of the Magic's two European big men, who combined for 48.7 points per game between them over the six games.

(2) Washington Wizards over (3) Boston Celtics, 4 to 1

This was a highly anticipated series between two bitter rivals who had a lot of bad blood, the teams had spent the season battling it out back and forth for the Atlantic Division championship all year, and had split four highly competitive regular season games, with a number of ejections taking place during those games and a controversial incident in which Allen Iverson was suspended for a homophobic remark directed at Celtics stars Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway. The series, however, didn't live up to the hype: Iverson was just too good, and the Wizards had little trouble beating the defending champions, who were plagued by turnovers and injuries to key bench players. The Wizards would return to the Eastern Conference Finals.

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (4) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 0

Another dominant series by the Lakers, who had no trouble dispatching the talented Mavericks. Shaq and Duncan combined for an overwhelming 61.8 points per game between them, leaving the Mavericks completely outmatched.

(2) Golden State Warriors over (6) Phoenix Suns, 4 to 1

In a series that wasn't quite as close as people thought it might be (though there were some close games), the Warriors were able to knock off the Suns in 5. Kobe Bryant was back in star form, propelling the Warriors over the Suns' talented young core. Though the Warriors were able to win without much trouble, most fans believed that the Suns were just getting started.

Conference Finals

(2) Washington Wizards over (4) Orlando Magic, 4 to 3

The skillful play of Nowitzki and Gasol just about gave the Magic a win in this fiercely competitive Conference Finals that saw a frustrated Iverson ejected late in Game 6 after a controversial call. There was speculation he might be suspended for Game 7, but the league decided simply to slap him with a fine, and Iverson came out swinging in Game 7, pushing the Magic to a 22-7 lead. However, the Magic roared back, closing the gap to make it 50-48 at halftime, and even taking the lead briefly midway through the third quarter. The Wizards were able to take back the lead and push it to nine by the end of the third, and though the Magic got as close as four, they never led in the fourth quarter. The Wizards would advance to the NBA Finals.

(2) Golden State Warriors over (1) Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 2

For the second straight year, the Warriors upset the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They did it with a balanced attack, led by Kobe Bryant but involving numerous role players and bench warmers, and triumphed over the Lakers' twin towers in a thrilling Game 6 win in Oakland. The Warriors would once again advance to the NBA Finals for one last chance to get Mitch Richmond a ring.

NBA Finals

Golden State Warriors over Washington Wizards, 4 to 2

Years of heartbreak and frustration for Mitch Richmond came to an end as the Golden State Warriors won in six games to bring the title to Golden State for the first time since the 1970s. The Warriors took the first two at home and stole Game 4 in Washington, and though they would suffer a 108-87 rout in Game 5 to make the series 3-2, they would return the favor with a dominant 104-70 victory to clinch the series and the title, giving both Kobe Bryant and veteran Mitch Richmond their first championship rings.

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The 2003 NBA Draft was the story of one man and one man only: LeBron James, perhaps the most highly touted high school basketball star ever. Teams were tripping over themselves tanking in their quest to land the best shot at getting the #1 pick in the lottery, and ultimately, it came down to three teams:

Atlanta Hawks- Atlanta actually had the best record in the league of all the non-playoff teams, barely missing the #8 seed in the Eastern Conference. They had an excellent young nucleus led by mercurial defensive star Ron Artest, and landing LeBron James would've been a huge coup, similar to the Orlando Magic landing the #1 pick in the 1993 Draft.

Cleveland Cavaliers- The Cavs had been really crappy over the last several years, despite getting Vince Carter in the draft in 1998. Carter had been surrounded by terrible players and had been unhappy in Cleveland, though he was reported to have been excited about the prospect of possibly playing alongside LeBron. However, the Cavs traded Carter to Seattle at the trade deadline for a heap of picks in what many analysts suggested was a deliberate move to get James (the Cavs had the league's fifth worst record at the time), turning down another proposed trade package that included Gary Payton. The Cavs ended up with the worst record in the league and had the inside track at getting LeBron. James was the big hometown star, and it seemed like destiny that he would end up in Cleveland.

Denver Nuggets- The Nuggets were another team that had largely stunk up the Western Conference for the past few years. They had the third worst record in the league, just a game better than the Western Conference bottom-feeding Los Angeles Clippers (who wound up with the fourth pick in the draft).

The final draft order went like this:

1. Denver
2. Cleveland
3. Atlanta

The Nuggets got the #1 pick and went for LeBron, while the Cavaliers had to settle for #2. Analysts expected them to take the Serbian sensation, young Darko Milicic, but they stunned everyone (and drew some boos from gathered Cavs fans) when they instead took Dwyane Wade, an excellent shooting guard who'd led Marquette to an incredible run to the NCAA tournament finals that spring, but was thought to have a much lower ceiling than Milicic. The Hawks were glad to snatch up young Milicic at #3 (though they would have rather had James, they were desperate for a starting center and Milicic was a perfect fit), pairing him up with Ron Artest, Jamal Crawford, and Troy Murphy. The Clippers shocked many when they took Luke Ridnour with the fourth pick, this ultimately didn't go well for them. A popular sports-related "what if?" concerns high school phenomenon Chris Bosh, who tragically died of a sudden cardiac event during a game in his senior year of high school as he was leading his undefeated Lincoln squad into the state basketball playoffs. Had he not died during that year and had he attended college for a year (as he was expected to do instead of going prep-to-pro like Carmelo Anthony that year), he would have been available during the 2003 draft, which might have led either Atlanta or the Clippers to select him. Had the Clippers taken Bosh (and had he panned out as a good player) over Ridnour, they may have avoided the continued terrible stretch of basketball they played throughout the rest of the decade.

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Whistlestop Wins Belmont Stakes, 2nd Triple Crown Winner In Seven Years

In a dominating eight-length win over second place Uncalled For, Whistlestop became the 13th Triple Crown winner at the Belmont Stakes earlier today. Ridden by jockey Jerry Bailey, Whistlestop posted the fifth-best winning time in Belmont Stakes history on his way to victory.

Whistlestop joins an elite club of horses which includes legendary horses such as Seattle Slew, Citation, and Secretariat. The most recent Triple Crown winner before Whistlestop was Silver Charm in 1997, whose victory in the Belmont Stakes, by 1/30th of a length, was the closest in the event's history and ended a 19-year streak without a winner.

-from a June 7, 2003 article on Yahoo! News

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Serena Dominates Wimbledon, Roddick Triumphs In Epic Final

World #1 Serena Williams won her third straight Wimbledon title, defeating her sister Venus in straight sets to claim her third Wimbledon and seventh Grand Slam. She had little trouble in the final round, dominating with blistering serves and excellent all-around play, including her fewest unforced errors of any match in the tournament. Said Williams after the match: "I was just playing my game. I knew I had to really bring it like I do every time I face Venus, but I didn't let the pressure get to me, I treated it like just another game and played the same way I always do."

Meanwhile, controversial superstar Andy Roddick had a much more difficult time of things in his Wimbledon final, where he took on World #3 Roger Federer in a finals match that lasted nearly five hours, including a marathon tiebreaker that saw both men have match point at least three times each. 2003's Wimbledon win is the first Grand Slam title of Roddick's career, while Federer has yet to win one.

-from a July 6, 2003 article on Yahoo! News

 

[RySenkari]

Disavowed: Blacksite

Disavowed: Blacksite is the sequel to Acclaim's blockbuster 2000 FPS title Disavowed. Like its predecessor, it features a combination of FPS and stealth gameplay and a robust multiplayer mode. The graphics are a significant step up from the original game, with improved character models and lighting. As for the gameplay, there is a large selection of realistic weaponry, and enemy AI is also improved, making stealth more important than ever before. Blacksite is one of Acclaim's biggest budgeted games of the year. The original sold more than 3 million copies in total, and Acclaim spared no expense in advertising or voice acting: rather than the unknowns from the original game, there are multiple well known voice actors featured, and even a few minor celebrities, with wrestler Triple H (credited as his real name, Paul Levesque) playing the voice of protagonist Kevin Straborg. Other celebrity voice actors include Chris O'Donnell, Michael Madsen, and Zhang Ziyi. The multiplayer mode returns from the original game, and while it features plenty of stages, modes, and options, the most famous and popular mode from the original game, the ability for one player to play as a "boss" while the other three players try to take them down, is absent. Acclaim explains that the mode was too difficult to include in the game due to the focus on improved graphics and other multiplayer modes, and that it could be back in a future game in the series. The biggest improvement in the gameplay is in the game's melee combat system, which has more importance due to the increased presence of stealth in the game. Straborg can pull off a number of context-sensitive moves and silent takedowns, and quick time events are there in full force.

Blacksite takes place some time after the original game, and begins with a hooded man being taken to a hidden CIA blacksite somewhere outside of the United States. The hood is finally removed to reveal that the man is Kevin Straborg, who foiled a plan to take down the United States government during the events of the previous game, but who was forced to remain off the grid as the United States continued to treat him as a fugitive and disavow his very existence. Straborg is brought before General Harper (voiced by Michael Madsen), director of the blacksite, who wants information from Straborg, and orders him tortured. Eventually, after the torture fails to break him, Straborg is returned to his cell, where he must immediately work out an escape plan. As the game goes on and Straborg is making his way through the compound, we learn more about the circumstances that led him to this place. We learn that Harper is the new director of covert operations for the United States government, and that he is secretly (without the government's knowledge) hunting down and capturing everyone who knew about previous covert operations. While Straborg is making his escape, his comrade in arms, Savage (voiced by Chris O'Donnell) is attempting a rescue, with the help of a computer hacker named Liza (voiced by Zhang Ziyi). There are even some segments where the player must take control of Savage while Straborg is incapacitated. Eventually, the two soldiers re-unite and Straborg reveals that he stumbled upon a secret plan called Protocol Red, which is a program to launch coups in more than a dozen countries about the world. Straborg captured and interrogated a spy to get information, and the spy revealed that Protocol Red is being dismantled, as the American president no longer wishes to take such a deceptive hand in world affairs. However, Harper, who noticed many of his soldiers being pulled out of their assignments, went rogue and began taking drastic steps to find out what the secret protocol was. While he was unable to get the information on Protocol Red out of Straborg, he did manage to torture it out of another soldier being held prisoner at the compound, and now Straborg and Savage have to stop Harper before he can execute the plan. Eventually, they confront him on a helicopter launch pad and manage to kill him, but before his confrontation with Straborg, Harper launched another helicopter to attack Air Force One, which is flying near the blacksite. Straborg and Savage take to the skies and engage the helicopter and its crew in an aerial battle, saving the president and once again saving the world. The two men are commended by the president, who offers to give them a full pardon for their prior deeds. While Savage accepts it, Straborg elects to remain off the grid and remain a silent vigilant soldier to protect the world. We see the president giving Straborg a top-secret assignment, but we don't see what it is before the screen goes black.

Disavowed: Blacksite is one of 2003's most highly anticipated games, and launches on the Xbox and the Wave on June 30, 2003. While sales are outstanding (eventually topping those of the previous game), reviews are somewhat lacking in excitement. The game is criticized for its short length (it's about 2/3rds the length of the original game), it's fairly uninspired cookie-cutter FPS gameplay, its derivative and predictable plot, and its somewhat less engaging multiplayer mode. It's considered to be somewhat backward compared to some of the other FPS games of the time (particularly the Xbox exclusives), and Zhang Ziyi's hacker character gets criticism for not appearing very much in the game, and not in a very big role (though, in the words of one reviewer, "at least she doesn't get killed"). Triple H's voice acting is criticized fairly heavily, though Chris O'Donnell and Michael Madsen are praised for their performances.

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Alex Stansfield: Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this one. Disavowed was a fantastic game back in its day, and this sequel had me really hyped, but when you get right down to it, it's just another ho-hum FPS with not much in the way of inspiration. It's really pretty, it has its moments, but I'm still pretty bummed.

Victor Lucas: I won't even be that kind, this game was average. Straight-up average, and compared to the last game, that's pretty unforgivable. Apart from the graphics, which honestly aren't even all that great, there's nothing worth getting excited about here.

Alex: I think the worst thing is that they took out Mastermind mode, my favorite part of multiplayer...it's totally gone.

Victor: I was looking forward to playing Mastermind mode online! This has online multiplayer but without Mastermind mode there's nothing here to distinguish it from the Unreals and Quake III Arenas of the world. I mean...there's nothing more to say.

*Alex and Victor's scores appear on the screen, Alex's 7.0 in a red circle and Victor's 5.5 in a yellow circle.*

+ GOOD VISUALS
+ THE VILLAIN
+ DECENT STEALTH MECHANICS

- UNORIGINAL
- CAN BE VERY FRUSTRATING
- NO MASTERMIND MODE

Alex: On a positive note, the graphics are pretty nice, everything's smooth and detailed and it's a well-polished game overall. The villain, General Harper, was a real bright spot, and bringing on Michael Madsen to play him was a great choice. And the stealth in this game works well, which I think is the saving grace for it because usually stealth can be a real pain in the neck.

Victor: But on the minus side, there's nothing original about Disavowed: Blacksite to set it apart from every other first-person shooter out there. And while the stealth mechanics work well, there are still some really frustrating and overly hard segments in this game where you just have too many guys shooting at you at once. Finally, the Mastermind mode from the original multiplayer is gone. It's not there, don't even look for it, you're not gonna find it.

-from the June 30, 2003 episode of G4's Judgment Day

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While Acclaim waited until after this year's big Electronic Entertainment Expo to make this announcement, it's still a pretty big deal: the classic Valiant comic series Eternal Warrior will be getting a video game adaptation! Acclaim has announced that they are in the early stages of an action video game based on the Eternal Warrior comic, which featured an eons-old warrior named Gilad Anni-Padda who fights to defend the Earth from evil. The game will be exclusive to the Xbox console, and Acclaim stated that Gilad will use both his fists and a massive arsenal of weapons in the game. Considering Gilad's incredible skills, honed from millennia of fighting, players will have a lot of options at their disposal to battle whatever enemies he'll be facing on what's sure to be one heck of a quest!
-from an article in the August 2003 issue of Wizard magazine

 

[RySenkari]

Evanescence To Partner With Ubisoft For "Beyond Good And Evil"

Many have asked about the haunting song playing in the background of the E3 trailer for Ubisoft's upcoming adventure title Beyond Good And Evil. That song was "Whisper", from the band Evanescence's debut album Fallen, which reached #1 on the Billboard 200 for two weeks back in March and featured a string of singles hits including "Bring Me To Life", "Buried Alive", and "My Immortal". The rock band with a distinctly gothic sound has seen their star rise rapidly over the past few months, but Ubisoft creative director Michel Ancel says that he knew the band would be big even before their album launched.

"Back when we were looking for songs to promote the game in North America, I was listening to a few music samples, and one of them really stood out. It was that song 'Bring Me To Life', it really captured a lot of the spirit of what I was going for with Jade and with this game, and so I immediately got in touch with the band and asked if they could help us promote it."

Ancel sat down with the band and showed them some stills and footage from the game. The band members, especially lead singer Amy Lee, were extremely impressed.

"Amy wanted to know everything about the game," said Ancel, "and while we couldn't tell her everything, we told her enough for her to understand the basic idea of the game itself."

Not only did Evanescence agree for one of their songs to be featured in the E3 2003 trailer, they also agreed to play at E3 at Ubisoft's booth, and to include at least one of their songs in the upcoming game. With the band now one of the most well-known acts in America, the partnership definitely looks to be extremely beneficial for Beyond Good And Evil's upcoming prospects.

"If people who enjoy this band's music decide to check out our game because of that, it really is a win-win," said Ancel.

-from a May 21, 2003 article at Gamespot.com

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Maria Menounos: And this is an absolutely spectacular debut week for Julieta Venegas' new album.

JD Roth: Captured hit album stores last Tuesday and we've got the numbers for the first week of sales. The album sold 1,070,501 copies in its first seven days in North America, making it only the tenth album to achieve one million copies sold in its first week. For perspective, that tops any of the album debuts for acts such as Selena, Christina Aguilera, and Destiny's Child, and among female artists is second only to the release of Britney Spears' 2000 album Oops... I Did It Again.

Menounos: It features the hit singles "I Got A Problem" and "Soul In Flames", songs which both topped the singles chart. Venegas continues to be one of the hottest acts in the world, her international tour is taking place as we speak, visiting 86 cities on five continents over nine months. Tickets have been sold out for that tour since last year.

Roth: While many have expected Venegas' rival Selena to be displeased about the hot debut, Selena expressed her congratulations in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight.

*a clip plays of the interview*

Selena: One million? Wow! That's really something, I don't think I've ever had an album sell quite that fast. She definitely speaks to people, and she's really fierce in a way that girls today really appreciate. I'm actually quite happy for her.

*the clip ends*

Menounos: And of course Selena's new album, My Guardian Angel, comes out in September. It features collaborations, including several with her husband of eleven years, Chris Perez.

-from the June 20, 2003 episode of Entertainment Tonight

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Jenny Stigile's "A Moment Like This" failed to reach #1, but not for lack of trying. It had to contend with a monster hit in the Santana/Selena collaboration "The Game Of Love", and actually was #2 for two weeks behind that song in late September. But as American Idol picked up steam, its winners and even its finalists saw their songs grow in popularity. And where Stigile failed, season 2 winner Ruben Studdard succeeded: his song "Hold You Dear" was #1 for one week in October 2003. Studdard rose to stardom after beating fellow contestant Frenchie Davis in a highly competitive final. Davis herself had a successful debut album, No Apologies hit stores in March 2004, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard charts. After releasing her debut album, Davis took to Broadway, while Studdard continued to make albums.

-from the article "Idols And Their Chart Success", posted on Billboard.com on July 13, 2015

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Aggro Wins Big At BET Awards

The hip-hop artist Aggro (birth name Samuel Ripple) took home three trophies at this year's BET Awards, including Male Hip Hop Artist Of The Year, Best New Artist, and Viewer's Choice for his hit single "Sure Thing". The 21-year-old, who arrived at the ceremony with new girlfriend Ashanti by his side, also performed a medley of songs from his debut album at the event.

Aggro has been credited with helping to change the face of hip hop and R&B in recent months, with his edgy but still catchy lyrics and his innovative sound that mixes hardcore rap with smooth melodies. He's seen as somewhat of a "bridge" between acts such as Tupac Shakur and the Wu-Tang Clan, who have fallen out of favor with mainstream audiences, and acts such as Usher and R. Kelly, who are seen by some hardcore rap fans as being "too soft". Like his namesake suggests, Aggro takes an aggressive approach to his lyrics, with songs insulting those who he sees as too "scared" for the rap business, and painting a picture of himself as a tough, no-nonsense character. However, Aggro has also been known to show his softer side, with love ballads such as "If You Go Away I'll Be Hurtin'". Aggro also seems to stray away from some of the more misogynistic and homophobic lyrics featured in contemporary hip hop, and in "Cool Your Jets", makes threatening remarks directed toward men who use violence against women: You lay hands on her / I'll knock you out next .

Aggro is currently working on an album which is likely to be released sometime next year. As for girlfriend Ashanti, her album Chapter II drops in July, and features at least one collaboration with Aggro.

-from an article on Music Recap, posted on June 25, 2003

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Metallica's eighth studio album, Tetanus, was released on June 26, 2003. Two years in the making, the album was composed as rock music was being transformed by a wave of nu metal led by bands such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. It was also being composed as guitarist James Hetfield was dealing with substance abuse programs and while the band continued to struggle with the rise of file-sharing, which culminated in Metallica losing an important legal battle with Napster. Despite these problems, Tetanus was released largely on schedule, to a mostly positive reaction from critics. While there was definite nu metal influence, much of Metallica's classic sound remained intact, and though the songs lacked some of the artistry and innovation of Metallica's early work, the long wait time between 1997's Reload and 2003's Tetanus was, for the most part, worth the wait.

The album featured twelve songs in all, with three main singles: "Frantic", "Rusty Knife", and "Glory To The Raging". "Glory To The Raging" failed to chart on the Billboard Top 100, but was acclaimed by most fans as the best song on the album, a sort of throwback to 1991's Metallica that would win 2004's Grammy for Best Metal Performance. "Frantic" would be the theme song for 2003's WWE Summerslam event, and "Rusty Knife" would appear in a number of commercials and other forms of media, most notably the August 2003 action-horror film Death's Door.

For the most part, the release of Tetanus was a catharsis for the band. Though file-sharing worries surrounded the album's release, by 2003 Napster had started to die down thanks to the success of music stores such as iTunes. While many thought iTunes couldn't compete with the free music available on Napster, the service would run into technical problems including overloaded servers and virus distribution. Songmuse, a decentralized service also offering pirated music, ran into problems of its own and eventually had to go "legit" in 2005 with a monthly subscription and payments to record companies. The Napster situation had notably led to a major beef between Lars Ulrich and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, but after Cobain helped James Hetfield kick his heroin habit, there was a reconciliation between Ulrich and Cobain.

-from "A History Of Metallica: Album By Album", an article posted on the Legends Of Rock blog, February 22, 2011

 

[RySenkari]

(Here are the other notable North American game releases from April 2003 to June 2003!)

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Nintendo Wave:

Street Rockets

A motorcycle game centering around illegal and dangerous street racing. Another graphical showcase for the Wave that shows motorcycles zipping around realistic, beautiful cities. It's not quite as in-depth as the Need for Speed series (which it's frequently compared to), the focus is simply on making a good looking game that's fun to play. The difficulty is criticized but for those who can master it it's an excellent game. It sells well enough to get a sequel, though it's not a hit like Need for Speed.

Syphon Filter 3

The sequel to the original two Syphon Filter games, Sony originally intended to release the game in 2002 as an Ultra Nintendo title, but instead decided to delay it until 2003 to become a launch window game for the Wave. It's a third person shooter, with gameplay similar to previous titles in the series, and most of the improvements are from a graphical and presentation standpoint. The plot begins to seriously diverge from that of the OTL series here: though the game's main villain remains the Agency, numerous characters are now different, with Teresa staying dead (IOTL, she came back for Syphon Filter 3), and the subplot with Gabe and Lian testifying to Congress removed, since the main plot of the game concerns Gabe and Lian attempting to foil an Agency coup to overthrow the United States government. At the end of Syphon Filter 2, the Agency's activities were exposed and many agents were arrested, though the Agency had secret sleeper agents in high levels of the government. At the beginning of Syphon Filter 3, these agents are activated, and Washington DC is placed under siege. Gabe, Lian, and whatever allies they can find must defeat the remaining members of the Agency and liberate Washington. Among the new allies they team up with are a female Secret Service agent named Martina and an army general named Hadderson who refuses to cooperate with the attempted coup and who is tortured before being rescued by Gabe. Eventually, Gabe confronts the Agency leader in the House of Representatives chamber and defeats him in a fierce battle, restoring the government and saving America.

While Syphon Filter 3 is criticized for its somewhat derivative gameplay and action movie plot, that doesn't stop it from being a strong seller (though not quite as strong as Syphon Filter 2).

Spider-Man

Made to capitalize on the movie which is released around the same time, Spider-Man is a typical superhero beat 'em up that somewhat follows the movie plot but has a few extra missions for padding. The graphics aren't that great for a Wave game, but it does give you a nice big New York City to swing around, and the missions themselves are somewhat diverse, with entertaining boss fights. The game uses mostly substitute voice actors and not the actors from the movie, but the voice acting is still decent nonetheless. Reviews range from average to good, though sales are fairly strong due to the success of the movie and the popularity of the franchise.

Team ND Racing 2

The second kart racing title based on Naughty Dog's popular characters, Team ND Racing 2 adds several new characters, though it drops Aku Aku and Catsmeow. The game plays pretty much like the original, with a larger selection of stages and a couple new modes, Battle Racing (in which you still compete to win the race, but doing more damage to opponents gets time shaved off your clock) and Remix Race, in which parts of random stages are blended together. The game lacks an online mode, but does support four player local multiplayer. Ultimately, Team ND Racing 2 gets a lot of comparisons to Mario Kart: Double Dash!, in the same way its predecessor was also compared to a Mario Kart game. While Team ND Racing 2's tracks are seen as being more polished, they're also somewhat less creative, and the controls aren't quite as fluid. The game gets similar review scores and it's largely a matter of taste whether or not this game is better than Mario Kart: Double Dash!. Sales are decent, though not as much as Double Dash or the original Team ND Racing.

Pokemon Colosseum

Pokemon Colosseum is a game in the Pokemon Stadium series, which allows players to battle Pokemon in full 3-D. However, unlike OTL's game, Colosseum features only Pokemon from Generations 1 and 2, and its single-player “adventure” mode is somewhat lacking compared to the OTL game's, as it's largely bare-bones and doesn't really have much of a storyline besides advancing through towns and battling trainers. This also means that the Shadow Pokemon element from OTL has been eliminated. This is explained by the fact that TTL's Colosseum was seen as a bit of a rush game to get a 3-D Pokemon battler to the Nintendo Wave, and the incorporation of Gen 3 Pokemon and a more robust single-player mode was unable to be added to the game in time. However, Nintendo does plan to release a more proper Gen 3 3-D game later on, including a vastly more complex single-player mode. Despite the bare-bones nature of the game, Colosseum still gets a good deal of praise for its excellent presentation, and sales and reviews are quite good, making it one of the best selling Wave titles of June 2003 in North America. The game also comes with a 30-minute preview DVD showcasing Pokemon Alpha and Omega.

Ultra Nintendo:

Pokemon Puzzle Championship

Pokemon Puzzle Championship is essentially a Pokemon Puzzle League game with added characters from Generation 2. It does feature a few extra modes and more stages, but the gameplay remains very much identical. The game gets a good critical reception even with the lack of changes to the original game, and sales are decent, though not as strong as the original due to coming at the end of the Ultra Nintendo's lifespan.

Psycho Squad

A third-person shooter title about a group of futuristic soldiers who have psychic powers and can use them in battle alternatively with their gunplay. The game is quite fun, though it has fairly simplistic graphics compared to sixth-generation titles. You can choose from five different characters during the game's 14 missions, and each member has a different set of powers and character quirks, for example, Maurice, the leader, can use mind blasts to destroy objects and knock people back, while another character, Niki, can manipulate people's minds to make them attack one another or perform certain commands. The squad must team up against their former commander, a scientist who tries to enslave them when he realizes how powerful they've become. The scientist has trained another powerful psychic soldier whose mind is being much more strongly controlled, and the squad has to somehow free that soldier or destroy them before taking on his master to fight for their own freedom. The game is another franchise starter that gets new life on next-generation consoles, with good reviews and all right sales (sales are better in Europe than they are in North America and Japan).

Front Mission: Endgame

Released in North America more than a year after its release in Japan, Front Mission: Endgame is a strategic RPG based on mobile combat mecha, and, as its name implies, concludes the story established in previous games about the conflict between the nations of the world. It involves an escalation of the war that sees mecha powerful enough to shatter continents dueling it out in both the Earth and in space, and uniquely allows the player to take control of characters from four different factions: the United States of the New Continent, the Oceania Cooperative Union, The European Consolidation, and the Luna Collective (a faction unique to TTL about a group of rogue astronauts who formed a colony on the moon to escape Earth's strife). After chapters featuring each faction, the player chooses between the USN, and OCU, and the EC to stick with throughout the remainder of the game (no matter which faction the player chooses, they will align with the Luna Collective). Depending on the player's actions, there are one of five outcomes: USN conquest of Earth, OCU conquest of Earth, EC conquest of Earth, unified humanity, or a ravaged Earth where the Luna Collective represents the last humans remaining.

Front Mission: Endgame achieves decent success in North America, though it sells many more copies in Japan. The game is considered by many to be the best Front Mission game ever released. Due to the success of the game and the series in general, Squaresoft plans at least one future game, though any future games in the series will be a reboot and won't continue off already established events.

Chifighters III

The third game in the Chifighters 2-D fighting game series and the second for the Ultra Nintendo, Chifighters III continues the series' focus on energy-based combat, though the third title has many more characters and a wider selection of attacks. The graphics are a bit of an improvement over Chifighters II, though not as much as would be expected for a game released five years after its predecessor. While Chifighters III gets good reviews (averaging around 85-90 on Gamerankings), it's somewhat lost in the shuffle of late-generation fighting games. It would get an enhanced port to the Wave in 2004 as Chifighters III Complete which sells slightly better.

Dragon Quest VII

The long-awaited North American release of the port of the Saturn best-selling RPG, Dragon Quest VII does feature some graphical and presentation improvements and a few more bonus anime scenes, along with three more secret boss fights and seven additional vocations. Despite all these enhancements, the game barely manages to sell better than the Saturn release.

Mario Party 4

The last of the four Ultra Nintendo Mario Party games, Mario Party 4 largely continues where previous games left off. It does add an action element to the board game that allows players to play a special solo mini-game to move to a different spot on the board or to change what type of space they're standing on, though this mechanic is bashed by some longtime fans for adding another element of randomness to the game. Ultimately though, it's Mario Party and the reviews are decent, with sales about on pace with the previous games.

Sega Katana:

Ikaruga

An arcade style shoot 'em up developed by Treasure, Ikaruga is mostly like the OTL version, with butterflies changing the music and some of the stage aesthetics but not the core gameplay of shooting either black or white targets while dodging black and white bullets, changing the color of your ship to match the color of the bullets fired. If you get hit by the opposite color bullet, your ship is destroyed, while you absorb the bullets of the same color. The game is exceptionally difficult but very positively received, and its North American sales are better than they are for the Gamecube game IOTL. It's still a niche title, but does well with Katana players.

Lilith: Lethal Seduction

A stealth title made to mimic Blackheart somewhat, Lilith: Lethal Seduction features a sultry superspy named Lilith who must complete a variety of extremely dangerous missions. Lilith is a lot more over the top than Blackheart, while its stages are somewhat more cramped. Lilith can seduce enemies, lowering their guard before she kills them. Despite being an inferior mimicry of Ubisoft's far more popular game, Lilith does have its own charm and wins over Sega fans, with decent enough sales for the game to get a sequel.

Tak And The Power Of Juju

A 3-D platform adventure title, Tak And The Power Of Juju features a brave young shaman named Tak who must rise to the occasion to defeat an evil shaman named Tlaloc who desires to conquer the land by turning all the people to sheep. Tak is quite similar to its OTL counterpart, though it features a more robust magic power system that relies on combining the effects of magically-infused animal friends, sort of similar to the magic power system featured in Jewels Of The Realm. This adds more combat elements to the game at the expense of removing some of the puzzles. Sega, still seeking strong platformer titles to add to its resume of platform mascot successes, commissions the game as a Katana exclusive and promotes it fairly heavily, it's promoted alongside Knuckles And Bit as a big platform title for spring 2003. It would ultimately be commercially successful despite relatively mediocre reviews, contributing to the string of Katana platform successes and being another bright spot for the company.

The Gunrunners

This game is a sort of bullet hell third person shooter, where you lead a squad of tiny soldiers on missions in a variety of levels, wielding guns that fire particle bullets in many different directions. Upgrades are plentiful, enemies are many, and the plot doesn't take itself all that seriously. It's a surprisingly cute game, but it doesn't catch on as a mainstream hit due to its difficulty and strange aesthetic. Still, it's a decent cult classic title.

Aftermath

Aftermath is an FPS title meant to be the Katana's answer to some of the hit Xbox FPSes, and is one of the most hyped Katana releases of the first half of the year. The game takes place on a giant colony ship that passes through a mysterious region of space. Though there's a great deal of turbulence, things seem okay, but after people start dying in horrible ways, one soldier realizes that the ship is under attack. He has to shoot his way through hordes of terrifying monsters and possessed passengers to clear the ship and save the survivors. Despite the impressive trailers and the huge amount of hype, it's perhaps the most disappointing game of the year, with a boring plot, poor controls, and even a few glitches. Steve Jobs realized the game was a dud and tried to get the launch delayed, but because a large number of copies had already shipped out, the game is released as is. Jobs uses Aftermath as an example to force more quality control among first and second parties on the Katana.

Broken Hands

A fighting game by Konami developed exclusively for the Katana, Broken Hands becomes another of the great exclusive Katana fighters. It's a 2-D fighter with 3-D graphics and features a small but memorable cast and an intriguing single player mode along with excellent multiplayer gameplay, both local and online. It gives each of its characters a deep story and a distinct fighting style, there are no “clones” in this game. Along with Shototsu, it's one of the biggest fighting game hits of the year, selling more than half a million copies in North America alone.

Ecco's Water World

Ecco's Water World is the first Ecco the Dolphin title for the Sega Katana. It's a 3-D platformer with a heavy focus on exploration, taking place in a vast, open ocean and allowing Ecco to explore freely. There is no map in the game, but there are indicators of where Ecco is heading and where certain missions take place, and Ecco can also teleport between different areas to complete unfinished missions. The plot of the game involves the disappearance of numerous important creatures in the sea, which makes certain areas of the ocean extremely dangerous and hostile. Ecco must complete missions in order to gain clues as to where these creatures have been trapped. Once enough missions are completed, Ecco is able to go rescue one of these creatures, usually by fighting a boss. Eventually, it's learned that the sea is being drained by a vast creature buried deep beneath the ocean in a gigantic crater, and once all the creatures are freed from captivity, Ecco must go down to this crater to do battle with this enormous evil being and save the ocean. While the game is praised for its graphics and freedom of movement, it's also criticized somewhat for its confusing exploration and its somewhat repetitive missions. Reviews are good overall, and sales are about on par with Knuckles and Bit, making it one of the top selling Sega games of the first half of the year. Ecco is another franchise that Steve Jobs sees great possibility in, and personally gets involved in securing the developer for the franchise's next game.

Thunder Force VI

Thunder Force VI is a 3-D space shooter in which the player commands a ship that can fly in all three directions but is usually on a set path through a level filled with enemy ships and occasionally large bosses. The successor to Thunder Force V, Thunder Force VI is in many ways similar to the OTL Playstation 2 game, but features better graphics and a larger selection of weapons, and is slightly longer. The game is considered perhaps the best shoot 'em up of 2003 (along with Ikaruga, making this a very good time to be a Katana owning space shooter fan), but the lack of advertisement and hype puts a damper on sales, and puts the series' future in doubt.

Wing Commander

Developed as a collaboration between Sega and Electronic Arts, Wing Commander is a Katana exclusive reboot of the classic space shooter series, which puts the player in a cockpit and features high flying space shooting action in first person. It essentially retells the story of the original game, in which the player takes command of a space fighter and has to lead combat missions against an alien armada. Rather than featuring live action FMV cutscenes as in the 1990 original, cutscenes are fully rendered in 3-D, with voice actors performing lines. Despite Sega showing off the game at E3 2002 and the game getting a good measure of hype in the gaming press throughout the remainder of the year and the start of 2003, people didn't get all too hyped up for this game, as by the middle of 2003, the concept of such a shooter wasn't a very novel thing. The graphics were fairly mediocre, and the voice acted cutscenes, while competent, didn't have the same charm as the cheesy live action scenes from the original on the game. Despite decent reviews, Wing Commander does disappointing sales and the franchise is put back on the back-burner.

Extremis: Human Nightmare

The sequel to 2000's hit horror title Extremis, Extremis: Human Nightmare continues the series on the Sega Saturn. Rather than feature mutated animals as the antagonists (though some of those do return), this game features hideously mutated humans, and is somewhat of a showcase of body horror, with humans showing off various mutations and boasting different abilities depending on what forms they take. For example, there's someone with a gigantic eye growing on a stalk from his neck who can fire concentrated light beams, and other humans with arms mutated into blades. Some of the transformations border on the ridiculous (which garners criticism for the game), but most are appropriately scary. The gameplay is a bit more action-based rather than the slow and methodical horror of the original, though players are frequently left short on ammo and weapons and have to flee rather than fight. The plot involves protagonist Amy (from the original game) and new partner Greg, a young soldier who works alongside Amy as a bodyguard and escort. Amy now works for the CDC to deploy the antidote to the virus that ravaged humanity to locations around the world, mostly in remote parts of the world that haven't yet received it. Amy is first sent to Africa, then to a remote part of Mongolia, then to an army base in western Nevada, and finally to a research station on Antarctica. In this research station, a scientist has gone insane and is developing an enhanced version of the virus in order to maximize human pain. After having to put down more than five dozen of his fellow scientists, this twisted man has become overwhelmed with grief, and wants the rest of the world to share his pain by creating an airborne, incurable, hyper virulent version of the virus. He has tested it on the last three remaining scientists with various degrees of success, forcing Amy and Greg to hunt down and kill them all, before finally putting the scientist down. However, Amy is infected during the fight. After the fight, Amy begs Greg to kill her, but he can't do it, trying desperately to save her (because the two have fallen in love with each other). Finally, Amy manages to convince Greg to kill her, but as he's bringing the gun over to finish her off, Amy's mutation causes her to kill him first. To her horror, Amy is unable to kill herself, but she discovers that she can somehow control the mutation with her mind. She is left in the deserted research station, unable to die, in agonizing pain, the last infected person in the world, but with the mysterious ability to control her mutation, leaving the player unsure what Amy's ultimate fate will be as the game ends.

Extremis: Human Nightmare features some of the Katana's best graphics to date, and the gameplay is mostly seen as an evolution of the original game's. The plot is criticized somewhat, and some of the mutated humans are seen as being a bit silly, but overall, Human Nightmare is one of the best reviewed and best selling Katana games of the year after it's released on June 2, 2003.

Gundam Soul: Hyperion

Gundam Soul: Hyperion is a 3-D action title published by Sega. It features plot elements from the anime series, but also features a unique villain, making it a sort of “gaiden” title. Unlike most mecha games, it combines segments where players can control the human Gundam pilots themselves with segments where players actually pilot the five Gundams. The game is a bit short and the graphics are somewhat lacking, so reviews range from mixed to good and the game ultimately gets only mediocre sales, mostly from hardcore Gundam fans.

Space Channel Ulala Part 2

The sequel to the original Space Channel Ulala, this features upgraded graphics, more levels, and more songs, but mostly plays similarly to the original. Players can choose to play through as Ulala or one of two new characters: Kanner, a male character who serves as Ulala's love interest, and Picopico, a young girl with pigtails who is like a little sister to Ulala (though they're not actually related). Reviews are generally decent, though it doesn't get the reception or sales of the original, or of games like Gitaroo Man, which is considered vastly superior.

Virtua Quest 5:

Released in June 2003, Virtua Quest 5 is the latest title in the Virtua Quest series. (More details will be released on this later on.)

Microsoft Xbox:

Excelsior Luxury Circuit

One of the many Project Gotham/Gran Turismo clones to appear during the sixth generation, Excelsior Luxury Circuit is the most notable and successful. It cuts down on the number of cars to focus on showcasing dozens of tracks in exotic locales around the world, such as Beverly Hills, Monte Carlo, Abu Dhabi, Rio de Janiero, and others. Its story mode emphasizes the lavish lifestyle of a world championship racer, and consists of not only sanctioned races on official tracks, but unsanctioned after-hours races utilizing supercars that the player has purchased. It's a beautiful looking game and though the racing's not as realistic as Gran Turismo, it's still positively received.

Grizzly

Developed by Artoon, this game is TTL's equivalent of Blinx the Time Sweeper, but was ultimately retooled with different game mechanics. It still has some time control mechanics to it, but also relies on teleportation and world-jumping as well, adding elements of both time and space to the game. The mascot is a bear named Grizz with somewhat of an attitude. Due to the retool, the plot is completely different from OTL Blinx: the main villain is a pair of sisters called Ciera and Clara, Ciera has a kind of light magic/white witch motif and is focused on time, while Clara has a black magic/dark witch motif and focuses on space. To defeat Ciera's minions, Grizz needs to use his time manipulation tools, which include rewinding, stopping, and flashing forward in time. To defeat Clara's minions, Grizz needs to phase through space and manipulate gravity. The game's visual motifs and physics are highly praised, and the use of alternating villains adds a major twist in strategy to the typical platformer formula. It's about as commercially successful as the OTL Blinx: not on the same level as the top Nintendo and Sega platformers but still a strong game.

Ninja Gaiden

Somewhat based on OTL's Ninja Gaiden title for the Xbox, the game is a fast paced but highly difficult hack and slash title featuring action adventure elements and serves as a prequel to the NES Ninja Gaiden titles. Unlike OTL's game, TTL's Ninja Gaiden isn't connected to the Dead or Alive series, but instead remains in its own world, featuring Ryu Hayabusa as a ninja warrior who must solve a series of mysterious murders committed by a wicked demon. This demon has been known to possess people who Ryu has grown close to, and Ryu suspects it may be targeting him, perhaps in order to possess him as well. Ryu becomes close to a woman, Arianna, over the course of the game, and it's ultimately Arianna who the demon chooses as its final victim to possess. However, its reasons for possessing Arianna aren't just related to Ryu, who must discover the demon's true secret in order to gain victory and end the demon's murderous rampage. Ninja Gaiden is generally positively received compared to games like Devil May Cry, and is one of the best reviewed Xbox exclusives of the year. Though the harsh difficulty scares off some potential players, it's still considered for the most part a financial success.

Baldur's Gate II

A fairly straight port of the PC game, Baldur's Gate II is a large, western RPG in which the player must roam a vast world and team up with heroic companions in order to defeat an evil wizard. One of the most successful and best received PC titles of all time, Baldur's Gate II is a highly anticipated port prior to its release, but can't repeat its PC sales success on the Xbox. It does give people a chance to refuse to buy the game on PC the chance to play it on a console, but most people who would've bought it on the Xbox have already played it, and so it's not a terribly successful game. The port's quality is highly praised, with no cut content and only minor graphical compromises from the original game.

Batman: Corruption

A 3-D action title somewhat similar to the Wave's Spider-Man game, Batman: Corruption sees the Caped Crusader on a mission to defeat an evil crime boss who's managed to infiltrate the Gotham City Police Department to the extent that even Batman's faithful friend Commissioner Gordon may be compromised. It's up to Batman to find out the truth, with help from his sidekicks Robin and Batgirl. Batgirl, AKA Barbara Gordon, has her character explored extensively in the game, making it a must-play for Batgirl fans. While Corruption isn't as high quality as the OTL Arkham games, it can sort of be considered a bit of a “proto” version of those games, in that it allows Batman to explore a vastly expanded Gotham, and features a very serious storyline (the traditional rogue's gallery of Bat villains makes only cameo appearances, save for a big reveal toward the end of the game). Kevin Conroy voices Batman, Loren Lester voices Robin, and Tara Strong voices Batgirl, making the game a treat for fans of the animated series. Corruption gets mostly high marks, though sales aren't quite as hot as the earlier DC Super Clash.

Scathion Gorge

A strange adventure title where the player is tasked with finding dozens of toxic insects scattered about a desert landscape, occasionally running into wildlife as they are exploring. Once the player finds the insect, it grows larger and the player has to fight it in order to capture it. Some of these fights are just straight up action fights, while others are unique puzzles. It's definitely a niche title, but many critics really enjoy it.

Warcraft III: Heart Of Chaos

The long awaited port of the hit PC game, Warcraft III is a fairly faithful port with only minor graphical compromises. Reviews are excellent, and sales are very strong for the first week, though they drop off quickly afterward.

Aeon Flux

An action beat 'em up based on the cult classic MTV animated series, which sees Aeon Flux tasked with capturing a mysterious woman who has been elected to a high position in a neighboring country's government. The woman has been enhanced with special biotech chips, but their functions are at first a mystery. While the plot seems intriguing, and the unique graphical style is praised, gameplay eventually devolves into standard beat 'em up fare and reviews and sales are both mediocre.

Alter Echo

A THQ developed game in which the protagonist wields a special substance that can transform buildings, objects, and himself into strange and exotic forms. He must find and defeat a rogue scientist with similar abilities before the human race is conquered and destroyed. Though the game features a similar plot to OTL's game, it gives protagonist Nevin a pair of companions with similar powers, making this game sort of a superhero team-up title with a bit more of a lighter tone compared to OTL's game. While the game still isn't all that special, the interactions between Nevin and his friends are rather humorous and give the game a bit more of a personality, which helps reviews to be slightly better than those for OTL's game and makes this a minor sales hit.

Duke Nukem XXX

Duke Nukem returns in this first-person shooter title that sees Earth invaded by a megalomaniacal pigman named King Asshole, who commands a swarm of gigantic spiders. King Asshole invades while Duke Nukem is winning the “Hero of the Year” award, which features a grand prize of a night with the 100 hottest babes on Earth. Just as Duke is getting ready to get down, King Asshole's spider army absconds with Duke's babes, which really pisses him off. Duke goes on a furious rampage to kill as many of King Asshole's spiders as he can so he can save Earth and get his babes back. Needless to say, this game is completely over the top, though it features some excellent FPS gameplay and hilarious dialogue. It's classic Duke Nukem, a step up from TTL's Duke Nukem Forever and a HUGE improvement over OTL's Duke Nukem Forever. While it's definitely not the most creative FPS out there, Duke Nukem fans are extremely pleased, and the game does quite well commercially.

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

This game was released in OTL for the PS2 and Xbox, but here it's an Xbox exclusive (it's also released for the PC). It's pretty much the same game as OTL, featuring Indiana Jones in an adventure set between the first two movies, where Indiana Jones must retrieve a magical artifact before it falls into the hands of evil Nazis (though it eventually does fall into the hands of the man who hired Jones to retrieve it in the first place, forcing Jones to stop him). The game is generally considered quite good, certainly one of the best Indiana Jones video games to date, though it's much more successful on PC than on console.

Jungle Queen: Long May She Reign

The violent 3-D platforming jungle adventure returns in this sequel, which sees warrior queen Ketaya forced to defend her crown from a would-be usurper, the powerful and sadistic witch doctor Sancareda. Sancareda uses his powers to raise up an army against Ketaya, forcing her to flee her home and fight her way back through hordes of the most lethal creatures ever seen. This game largely features the same gameplay as the original, though Ketaya eventually learns powerful magic that gives her special powers, including (limited) flight, telekinesis, and eventually the power to make certain enemies explode into bloody chunks. Fans of the original game greatly enjoy this one, and sales and reviews are both a bit better than those of the original.

XIII

This cel-shaded first person shooter is based on the 80s Belgian comic book series, and has style and gameplay similarities with the original, though the plot is somewhat different. Protagonist Jason Fly (who, as IOTL, is voiced by David Duchovny) wakes up in a shack somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, and must recall what happened to him in time to stop a conspiracy of evildoers from completing a plot to hijack a brand new satellite array in order to use it to beam subliminal messages to every American household that would ultimately be able to take control of enough people's minds to overthrow the government. The game is praised for its unique and impressive visual style, but the fairly ho-hum FPS gameplay causes it to have mixed reviews, as IOTL's game did. Still, sales, while slow, remain consistent for some time, giving this game a stronger chance at a sequel than OTL's game had.

Game Boy Nova:

Battle Castles

An RTS where two opposing armies must destroy each other's fortresses while building up and protecting their own. The strategic split between offense and defense sets the game apart from others in its genre: neglect your own castles and you'll be wiped out quickly, but you have to be able to launch a potent attack as well. While not as successful as Nintendo Wars, it's still a fun and popular RTS for the system.

Klonoa

Namco finally brings their popular Klonoa franchise to the Game Boy Nova. While this game plays similarly to the first, it features a brand new plot, where Klonoa must gather up six mysterious orbs across six worlds in order to protect them from a corrupting evil influence. The gameplay is among the best yet in a Nova 2-D platformer, and the game is quite financially successful.

Sam And Max Get Busy!

The classic detective franchise Sam and Max comes to the Game Boy Nova. In this game, the duo must go undercover in a series of jobs to investigate a ring of criminals committing crimes all over the city. It features a mix of action gameplay and detective game elements, and is actually compared somewhat to the hit Ultra Nintendo game Dick (though obviously much, MUCH more family-friendly). It tells its story via comic-like cutscenes, and is a very well reviewed game. Sales aren't all that hot, but the game isn't a total flop either.

Twisted Metal

While this can be considered a straight port of the original SNES-CD car combat game, it does feature some added bonus levels and a much deeper multiplayer mode which allows players to link up to four Novas together (though each player has to have a copy of the game). It's considered a bit dated, but reviews are still decent, and the novelty of Twisted Metal in handheld form does draw in plenty of players.

Lunar: Silver Star Legends

A port of the original Lunar: The Silver Star, this is a MUCH more faithful port of the game than OTL's Lunar Legends, and can be considered somewhere between the Sega CD and Ultra Nintendo versions in terms of quality. Like the Mega Charger version of the game, Legends had to make some heavy compromises in terms of voice acting and cutscenes, but makes up for it with some unique character animation sequences. There IS some voice acting in the game, more than in the Mega Charger version, largely for the more important scenes. This port doesn't sell very well but it's considered a worthy handheld port.

WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames!

The classic WarioWare from OTL makes its way to TTL also, and the basic premise is similar: the player must play their way through a series of extremely short and extremely quirky minigames. Due to the enhanced controls on the Nova as opposed to OTL's Game Boy Advance, some of the genres presented are a bit different: there's an entire series of games based off of detective titles, there's an entire series of RPG-based titles, and there's also a shooter series inspired by Squad Four. Overall, this is considered as good if not better than OTL's game, making it one of the top rated Nova titles of the year and perhaps of all time. Sales are a bit slow at first, but as word of mouth spreads this game becomes a best seller.

Mega Man Blast 3

Mega Man Blast 3 is another sidescrolling Mega Man title with an emphasis on firepower. However, this game mixes things up somewhat, giving X a robotic companion that takes different forms based on what power X is using at the time. This robot can be used to solve puzzles and access certain power ups, adding an element of strategy to the game in an attempt to mix things up. This new change gets a mixed reaction: while the addition of the robot companion makes certain things easier, there are other times when the robot seems to get in the way and slow down the pace of the game, making Mega Man purists blanch. Reviews are generally good, however, and series sales remain steady, not declining from the previous game.

Outfoxed: Pocket Tails 2

The sequel to 2001's highly praised Outfoxed: Pocket Tails, this sequel essentially picks up where the previous game left off, featuring the same basic 2-D platforming gameplay but also featuring better graphics and a few gameplay evolutions, including power-ups and more collectibles. It gets a strong critical reception and good sales, continuing the series' streak of success on the Nova.

Tale Phantasia

Tale Phantasia is ported over to the Nova fairly straight-up, with less voice acting but a few added sidequests and bosses. It's the same great SNES-CD role playing game classic, and though after seven years it's definitely lost a step technologically, it's got that classic old school feel, and fans buy it in large numbers in order to have a handheld version of an all-time great RPG.

Multiplatform:

Contained

A sci-fi action third person shooter featuring a female scientist who must save her friends after something dangerous breaks loose at her lab. It's actually relatively lighthearted compared to other games in its genre, very few of the game's main characters die, and the protagonist, a woman named Libby (voiced adorably by Debi Derryberry, the closest she'll get to voicing a mad scientist ITTL) is rather chipper and definitely a change of pace from similar main characters in other games. It gets confused a bit with the upcoming Capcom action title The Containers, but this is only a minor issue. While the game is generally good, if a bit generic in terms of gameplay and also somewhat short, sales are somewhat poor. It's released for the Wave and the Xbox, and sells a lot better on the former console than the latter one, where it completely flops. It doesn't do well enough to get a sequel, but is considered a cult classic which has a good reputation even 10 or more years after its release.

Tenchu: Devil Blade

A third-person action/stealth title published by Activision, Devil Blade is the latest title in the Tenchu series and the first to be released for the sixth generation consoles. It's largely based on OTL's Wrath of Heaven in terms of gameplay style, but instead of three mystical jewels as the game's MacGuffin, it's a powerful sword known as the “Devil Blade”, which Rikimaru must protect from falling into the hands of evil. Somewhat lost amongst the crowd of hack and slash releases, the game is praised for its stealth elements and manages to stand out more on the Wave than on the Katana.

Truth And Lies

A detective/action game where you play as a detective investigating a prostitution and drug ring. The detective uses very unorthodox means to get his job done, and the game itself plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto (the game sounds like LA Noire, but it doesn't play much like that game as the interrogations are extremely simple compared to LA Noire, instead of asking questions the protagonist mostly just beats people up). At the time of its release it's considered somewhat of a rival to True Crime: Streets Of L.A., but after it's released, the critics tear it apart and it's mostly a flop. It's another Wave/Xbox release, with no Katana version, though after hearing about how lousy the game is, Katana fans are glad that they didn't get a chance to waste money on it. It's one of the more high-profile flops of the year.

Downfall

An FPS for the Wave and Xbox about a man who is sent on a mission to assassinate a dangerous criminal, only to be given the chance to join him instead. The game features two branching paths (one in which the protagonist hunts down and kills the criminal, the other in which he joins him and works for him), each with its own missions, and while the game itself is a fairly generic FPS, the storyline is praised and the game gets decent sales (mostly on the Xbox).

Max Payne 2

Max Payne 2 (which, unlike OTL's game, doesn't have a subtitle) is one of the most anticipated games of 2003 due to the success and notoriety of the original. It features the same action combat gameplay of the original, complete with bullet time effects. Like IOTL's game, Mona Sax returns and the player gets to play as her through several levels (in fact, about half of the levels in the game have Mona Sax as the protagonist). The love story element of the OTL game is ramped up a bit, not in terms of lovey-doveyness but in terms of showing off Mona as Max Payne's equal partner in crimefighting. The plot shows Max and Mona eventually reuniting as they fight to head off a gang of hired assassins who are chasing Max due to an old vendetta from a criminal Max once took out, who is also connected to Max's old mentor Sal Luchenzi. It's made clear that Max can't hold off these assassins alone, they're highly trained and Max needs Mona's skills in order to hold them all off. Eventually, Max and Mona discover that the assassins were hired by Rex Falcidor, an old criminal Max thought long dead. Falcidor needs Max out of the way so that he can re-emerge and set an old plan into motion. As it turns out, Falcidor also hired Mona to kill Max and she betrays him toward the end of the game, but because of her feelings for him, she can't kill him. Like IOTL's game, Mona is shot and thought to be killed after the defeat of the main villain, but in TTL's game, she survives on all endings, not just the “true” ending.

Like OTL's game, Max Payne 2 receives excellent reviews and is considered a classic in its genre. In terms of sales, it's a hit, though it's released in May 2003, one of the strongest months for third person shooters ever (also containing Blackheart 3 and Enter The Matrix), and because of this very strong competition, initial sales aren't quite as good as expected. Because of word of mouth, the game eventually does meet sales expectations. The Xbox and Katana versions are released first, while the Wave version doesn't come out until December (due to the original Max Payne being ported to it in the month of May).

Ravee

A platformer/puzzler about an anthropomorphic raven named Ravee who is cast out of his home for being too scary and decides to win back his friends by bringing them joy and happiness. He does this by collecting Smile Feathers that pop out whenever Ravee completes one of the tasks assigned to him, whether it be defeating an evil monster, retrieving a cat for a child, or any number of strange and quirky missions (the game doesn't take itself too seriously). However, once Ravee has enough Smile Feathers, he realizes his world has been taken over by the Evil Mist, and must use the gathered feathers to open a pathway to the World of Mist in order to rescue his friends and defeat the monster that generated the mist. It's a very lighthearted, colorful game, by Silver Sail (the makers of Frederico and Quixsters). It's their first game for a non-Nintendo system (in addition to Ultra Nintendo and Wave releases, it's also released on the Sega Katana), though later on, Quixsters and other games will join it. While not as popular as Quixsters, it's a fairly unique title in its genre and sells well enough to get a sequel.

Skulls 2

Skulls 2 is the sequel to the 2000 action platformer title Skulls. It's initially released for the Ultra Nintendo in May 2003, though in 2004 it would appear on the Xbox and the Katana in a graphically enhanced version (it was decided that instead of porting Skulls 2 to the Wave, it'd be more prudent to focus on the third game). Skulls 2 features much of the same gameplay as the original, with protagonist Lupe (voiced by Sara Ramirez) returning for more spooky but fun adventures. This time, Lupe finds herself trapped in an ancient realm 100,000 years in the past, where more ancient dead spirits are calling out to her. Though these spirits initially seem antagonistic, some are actually in need of saving, and Lupe must navigate the mysterious ancient world to save the future. Featuring large, open environments like the original game did, Skulls 2 has even more gameplay variety. It's not a major graphical step up from the original game (at least the Ultra Nintendo version isn't) but the gameplay is good enough to earn good reviews for the game. Sales are somewhat average on the Ultra Nintendo version (the Katana port sells slightly better while the Xbox version sells slightly worse), and the series would get a major overhaul for the third title.

True Crime: Streets Of L.A.

Like OTL's game, True Crime: Streets Of L.A. is an open world sandbox title featuring a cop protagonist who must investigate a series of crimes (in the OTL game it's a series of bombings, while in TTL's game it's a series of violent robberies). The gameplay is similar to OTL's game, with melee combat and gun battles, the melee combat especially is superior to that of the Grand Theft Auto games which True Crime is largely based on. However, in TTL's True Crime, the protagonist Nicholas Kang is unable to attack or kill innocent civilians. This does garner criticism from some who say that the game doesn't offer as much freedom as Grand Theft Auto, however, it makes up for it by featuring somewhat of a stronger storyline than OTL's game, with a more compelling antagonist (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland rather than Gary Oldman as IOTL) and a more engaging storyline. Like OTL's game, True Crime features branching paths, in which Kang must choose what crimes to investigate, the investigation differs depending on what he chooses to do and the game progresses differently, with certain characters living or dying depending on what path is taken.

With strong production values and accompanied by a similar wave of hype to OTL's game, True Crime scores stronger reviews than OTL's title and achieves excellent sales, though it's released in a crowded month and doesn't quite crack the top five for any of the systems (Xbox, Wave, Katana) that it's released on.

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Another PC port, though released simultaneously to the original game, Invisible War is released for the Xbox and the PC in June 2003, and the Nintendo Wave in March 2004. Invisible War, like OTL's game, has its protagonist Alex working for a number of factions, all of which seek to rule the world. The plot isn't entirely similar to OTL's game, there are a couple of different factions from those featured in OTL, including an entirely-AI run faction and a faction based in China run by three warlords that's a sort of homage to the legend of the Three Kingdoms. Ultimately, as IOTL's game, Alex can choose which faction to support, or he can choose to destroy all of the factions and take over based on his own vision of an ideal utopia, which is based on the actions taken by the player throughout the game. Invisible War is considered a commercial and critical success, though, like OTL, it pales in comparison to the original game in both aspects. Still, TTL Invisible War gets a slightly better reception than OTL's.

The Chamber

A fully 3-D fighting game featuring 14 playable characters, The Chamber has up to four fighters enter a room and battle it out until only one is left standing. It's in a way, sort of a tamer version of what OTL Thrill Kill was going for. The fighting itself is complex and it looks brutal, though there's very little blood and gore, so the game ends up with a Teen rating. It can sort of be compared to a UFC game, though taking place in a dingy looking basement as opposed to a ring surrounded by screaming fans. The game is praised for its excellent graphics and innovative fighting system, and while it's not a Soul Calibur II-sized hit, sales are very strong: the Xbox port of The Chamber actually slightly outsells Tekken 4 on that console.

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Top Selling Console Games In North America (in terms of sales over the first four weeks of release):

April 2003:

1. Tomb Raider: Absolution (Sega Katana)
2. Tomb Raider: Absolution (Nintendo Wave)
3. Devil May Cry (Nintendo Wave)
4. Gemini: Shadow In The Dark (Microsoft Xbox)
5. Wave Race: Blue Crest (Nintendo Wave)

May 2003:

1. Blackheart 3 (Microsoft Xbox)
2. Blackheart 3 (Nintendo Wave)
3. Blackheart 3 (Sega Katana)
4. Enter The Matrix (Sega Katana)
5. Deep Black 2 (Microsoft Xbox)

June 2003:

1. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (Nintendo Wave)
2. Disavowed: Blacksite (Microsoft Xbox)
3. Disavowed: Blacksite (Nintendo Wave)
4. Extremis: Human Nightmare (Sega Katana)
5. Sonic Revolution (Sega Katana)

 

[RySenkari]

Dog Dash 5

Dog Dash 5 is the fifth game in the Dog Dash platformer series and the third and final game in the series for the Ultra Nintendo. Like previous games in the series, it's developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony, and it once again stars Clark and his big dog Woofle on their adventures across many wondrous worlds. For the first time since the original Dog Dash, Clark and Woofle are largely alone on their adventures, as their dragon girl companion Selkie makes only brief cameo appearances. The game plays very similarly to the previous Ultra Nintendo Dog Dash games, though Woofle does have a few new moves in his repertoire, including a powerful fire breath attack that mostly makes up for the absence of Selkie. Alex D. Linz has stepped down as the voice of Clark, and the performance has been taken over by a new young voice actor who's largely unknown as this is pretty much his only major role and he only voices Clark for this particular game.

Dog Dash 5 revolves around a multi-dimensional sports competition in which animals from all over the multiverse have been summoned by the evil Sportsfreak in order to compete in various events for his amusement. There are six "worlds" in the game, each revolving around a different sport. There's a baseball themed world, an American football themed world, a basketball themed world, a track and field themed world, a snowboarding themed world, and a martial arts themed world. In each world, Clark and Woofle must best and then befriend a rival athlete. In the end, Sportsfreak decides to kill all the athletes who lose, and Clark and Woofle must save them. Ultimately, Sportsfreak is defeated, the athletes all return to their own universes, and Woofle is declared the Multiversal Athletic Champion.

Though Dog Dash 5 features solid gameplay and some creative worlds, by now the series has gotten extremely stale, and the game gets the lowest review scores of the series thus far. It also has the worst sales to date for any of the five Dog Dash games, though it's still one of the top selling Ultra Nintendo games of the year. The series goes on a bit of a hiatus, with Naughty Dog struggling to come up with a good idea for the next Dog Dash game. Ultimately, they'll decide to take the series in a somewhat more mature direction, but that won't be for several more years.

-

Alex Stansfield: Is it just me, or has Dog Dash completely run its course?

Victor Lucas: I'm not gonna lie, I actually liked this game. Yeah, it's the same old song and dance, but it's still a lot of fun. You can have Woofle dunk a basketball over a giant tyrannosaurus rex, how awesome is that?

Alex: If you've played one 3-D Dog Dash game, you've played them all. Naughty Dog was just going through the motions for this one

Victor: I'm going to respectfully disagree. There's nothing groundbreaking about Dog Dash 5, but sometimes the old formula still works.

*Alex and Victor's scores appear on the screen, Alex's 6.0 in a red circle and Victor's 7.5 in a yellow circle.*

+ FUN LEVELS
+ TRIED AND TRUE GAMEPLAY
+ THE SPORTS THEME WORKS

- NOT VERY ORIGINAL
- WE MISS SELKIE
- NO HOCKEY WORLD?

Victor: On a positive note, this is a really well made 3-D platformer. The levels aren't too big or too small, Woofle's as fun to control as ever, it really is a great game to pick up and play. And having all the levels based off of various sports is a nice touch that even people who aren't sports fans will be able to enjoy.

Alex: But on the negative side, they've done three of these games so far and I can barely tell them apart. Also, both of us think that Selkie should've come along for this one, we really miss her character. And finally, you did three of the four major sports but where's hockey? I wanted to check somebody into the glass, what a shame!

-from the July 21, 2003 episode of G4's Judgment Day

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Albert And Zulie

Albert and Zulie is a 3-D platformer made for both young audience and players of all ages. It's developed by a software company called Brazenworks and published by Activision. Its two main characters are a young girl named Zulie (voiced by Russi Taylor) who discovers a strange creature named Albert with a tubular nose and a rotund body who talks in funny noises and can shoot projectiles out of his belly. Zulie is a major smart-aleck who loves to boss Albert around, but as the two adventure together, she softens up to him and stops being quite so bossy. Albert is the main character the player controls, though occasionally the player takes control of Zulie (who can't attack but can scare enemies temporarily with her smart mouth) to solve puzzles and flip switches. Albert can utilize a variety of attacks, from swinging around his big elephant-like nose, to blowing his nose like a horn, to shooting various things out of his belly, to belly-bumping enemies, to sucking enemies into his belly, to utilizing various weapons, and so on. Albert has dozens of unique and special moves, both learned and context-sensitive, that he picks up throughout the game.

The plot of the game involves Albert suddenly appearing in a town. He tries to talk to and befriend the people there, but the people are startled by his strange appearance and toss him out of town and into a giant trash heap. There, he meets Zulie, who is digging through the trash heap for stuff she can use to build her inventions. Zulie is an orphan, and is so annoying and bossy that no one will adopt her. She decides to force Albert to adopt her, and she makes Albert into basically her slave, gathering up materials and helping her build a scrap house. However, one day a gang of junkers led by a cloaked mustachioed man who calls himself the Scavenger tear down Zulie's scrap house and steal a bunch of her things. Zulie commands Albert to go after the junkers, who turn out to be weapon builders. While Zulie initiates her quest with the purpose of revenge, she happens to inadvertently foil the Scavenger's plans all along the way, until eventually the Scavenger builds a giant weapon and tries to use it to conquer the world. By now, Zulie and Albert have actually bonded and Zulie genuinely cares for him, and she's also decided that she cares more about the world than about herself and is determined to stop the Scavenger and save everyone. Zulie and Albert defeat the Scavenger and dismantle his weapon, which Zulie uses to build a scrap castle for Albert and herself to live in.

Albert and Zulie is an extremely funny and quirky game, with very creative gameplay. Rather than being a collectathon type platformer, it's a game with definitive goals, though there are a variety of ways to accomplish those goals. The game is considered one of the funniest of the year, with excellent voice performances and hilarious lines and animation. It's released initially for the Wave and the Katana on July 28, 2003, but is eventually released for the Xbox later in the year. Reviews are outstanding, among the best for any original game in 2003, and while sales are somewhat slow at first, the game eventually becomes a major hit and gets a sequel in 2005.

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Paradventure

Paradventure is an action platformer for the Nintendo Wave, centering around a group of rescue heroes that parachute into dangerous situations to rescue people in need. Though the game was created with the Nintendo Wave in mind, it's not actually published or developed by Nintendo. It's developed by Traveller's Tales, primarily known for the Lego games IOTL and the Aerio games ITTL. Though Aerio is a major Sega-exclusive franchise, Traveller's Tales still makes games for other systems, and WB Games publishes Paradventure exclusively for the Nintendo Wave. Missions take a sort of hybrid gameplay form between Pilotwings-style parachuting segments in which players must fly into the stage, and then traditional platforming action segments where players have a mission to accomplish. During the parachuting segments, players must dodge obstacles while navigating toward the target, there can be enemies that attack and players may be able to attack those enemies while in the air. Ground segments can vary depending on how close the player lands to their target, landing close may make the mission more straightforward, while landing far away may make the mission more complex, but could enable an easier way to complete the mission once the player arrives (by collecting a certain item, taking out an unforeseen hazard, etc.). Clues are given to the player during their approach about how best to undertake the mission and where they might wish to land.

Paradventure is developed with younger audiences in mind. All of the violence in the game is cartoonish, and the plot of the game is fairly simple. There are five characters in all, each with a different rescue vocation.

Chad: The leader of the Paradventurers, Chad is a brave police officer who is sort of the jack of all trades of the game, he specializes in both combat and search missions, and can handle both enemies and rescue with equal skill. Chad is a good leader and an example for the other Paradventurers to look up to.
Jessica: Jessica is an aquatic rescue specialist, she's the best swimmer of all the group and she has an affinity for marine animals as well, particularly dolphins. Jessica isn't very good at combat but her fighting style does make her somewhat agile. She can fly and dodge obstacles with grace and she's very warmhearted and kind, she has a big crush on Chad but he doesn't seem to notice her very much.
Braxton: Braxton is a firefighter, and there's no one better at fighting fires and rescuing people on the ground. He's a musclehead and somewhat of a cocky showoff, posing every year for the Hot Firefighters calendar. He's also the best at brute force combat, but is kind of slow, meaning that agile individual bad guys can be a problem for him.
Vivian: Vivian is a forest ranger who knows the woods extremely well, and is a wildlife expert and a fantastic athlete. She's really tough and good at fighting, but is somewhat more used to saving animals than she is people. Braxton is always flirting with her, but she rejects his advances because she thinks he's stupid.
Steve: Steve is a doctor and the smartest of the Paradventurers. He can patch up just about anybody, but he does have trouble actually reaching the people he needs to save, he's not very good at flying or combat. Therefore, Steve oftentimes has to be escorted by another Paradventurer. He's somewhat of a nerd, but is a loyal and true friend.

Paradventure is a mission-based game, taking place in the area in and around a large Western American coastal city. There are 21 missions in all, each of them capable of being performed by any of the Paradventurers, though some are better for certain missions than others. Initially, missions are only loosely connected (if at all connected), but eventually, a villain is revealed: a mad arsonist named Chaos Jack is going around the city, causing incidents in order to make a name for himself. Eventually, the Paradventurers must confront Chaos Jack, but only after he commits one ultimate crime forcing the team to handle a variety of incidents all over the city. Once Chaos Jack is apprehended, the city is saved and the heroic Paradventurers are applauded for their heroic deeds.

Paradventure was one of the most hyped action titles of the year prior to its release on August 4, 2003. Reviews are good but not spectacular, the game's flying mechanics (which aren't quite as developed as those in the Aerio series) get the most praise, though the characters are a bit silly and the game itself is seen as being somewhat dumbed down for kids. However, sales are outstanding: families love the game and it becomes one of the big early family platformers on the Nintendo Wave. The game launches both a video game and a media franchise which includes toys and even an animated series down the road. Many game critics would come to somewhat despise Paradventure (though the games themselves are rarely bad, the franchise is seen as being undeserving of its success), but it would be one of the most enduring game franchises of its generation.

-

August 8, 2003

"Mommy, mommy, he's flying!"

Young Arturo Hardwick looked at the television screen with a smile as he held the Wave controller in his hands, awkwardly guiding heroic firefighter Chad across the screen. He was sitting in his mom Brittany's lap, and whenever his character would go too far off course, his mom gently placed her hands on his and helped to lead Chad back on the right track.

"He's flying, that's right sweetie, let's see, where should we land?"

"Um...um.... there, there!" said Arturo, pointing at a big fire on the screen. "The fire!"

"We don't want to land in the fire, it's too hot, it'll burn us, but let's get close, okay?"

As soon as Arturo could hold a controller in his hands, his mom set to work imparting her love for video games to her young son. Only a little bit a day, and only certain games, but slowly, he was learning. Brittany always thought games could be a valuable teaching tool in addition to being fun. She tried to have her son play games that featured plenty of on-screen dialogue so that he could learn to read as he was playing.

Chad landed just outside the danger zone, as icons on the screen and screaming voices indicated three people who needed help.

"Oh no!" said Arturo, looking a bit confused and frantic as he wondered who to help first.

"See the one glowing red?"

"Red? Um...."

"The one glowing red needs the most help, the two glowing yellow can wait."

"Red....like the stop sign, mommy?"

"That's right, go help the one who's glowing like a stop sign!"

Arturo nodded and began moving Chad in the direction of the civilian. Brittany snuck a peek at her watch and groaned.

"Oooh, Arturo, I'm sorry but mommy's got to go...." Brittany looked up. "Chris, honey, could you come be with Arturo? I have to go do some ADR, I don't know if I'll be back after or go right to the news station, depends on how many lines they want replaced."

Chris came into the room as Brittany pressed pause on the Wave controller and lifted Arturo up.

"Mommy I want you to stay..." Arturo said as Brittany kissed him on the cheek and gave him a big hug.

"Mommy has to go into work early today, daddy will play the game with you, I'll try to be back but I might be gone until you go to bed."

Brittany stood up and kissed Chris on the lips.

"What show's the ADR for? Spy School? Or that anime show Cartoon Network's looking at?"

"It's for that game, the one I'm doing with Avril," said Brittany, picking up her purse and keys and heading toward the front door. "The one where I'm a BMX biker."

"Mommy, don't gooooo!" Arturo shouted from the couch, tears forming in his eyes. "Daddy, make mommy stay!"

"Mommy's gonna go be in a video game, doesn't that sound cool?" asked Chris, pointing at Brittany and then at the Nintendo Wave. "She'll be in a video game, you'll get to hear her in the game all the time!"

"I'm mad at you mommy!" yelled Arturo.

"If you're mad at me, wait until the game comes out and then you can crash me into stuff, won't that be fun?" Brittany asked with a laugh. "I love you guys, I'll try to stop by before I go to the news station tonight, hopefully it won't take that long."

-

Brittany entered the recording studio and passed by a familiar face on her way into the booth.

"Hey Avril," said Brittany. Over the course of recording the game, she and Avril Lavigne had gotten to know each other somewhat, even though the two had only recorded in the same room together with the other voice actors a few times. The two even had a secret handshake, which they executed as they passed each other by. "So how much dialogue did you have to re-record today?"

"Just a few lines, probably won't take that long," Avril replied with a smirk. "Why, got somewhere you need to be?"

"My kid's pissed at me because we left in the middle of playing Paradventure," Brittany said.

"That's what you get for letting a two-year-old play video games," said Avril with a laugh.

"He'll be fine," said Brittany. "Honestly, the 'terrible twos' aren't as terrible as they're cracked up to be, he's hardly giving me any trouble at all."

"That kid LOVES his mommy. Every time you've brought him in he's been clinging to you like crazy. Better watch out, the other kids are gonna make fun of him for being a momma's boy."

"Well there are worse things you can be," said Brittany, who let out a sigh. She'd just remembered her own mother, who'd passed away suddenly of a heart attack back in May. "He'll probably grow out of it eventually, probably once he figures out how cool his dad's job is."

"In that case, hope he never figures out how cool my job is. He'll turn into a skater boy."

Brittany's sadness at remembering her recently deceased mother quickly melted away, and she gave a quiet laugh, then a playful groan.

"I'm gonna freak out every time he leaves the house," said Brittany.

"Welcome to motherhood. Maybe you can ask my mom for some tips. Hey, I'll see ya later, all right?"

"Sure thing, it was good talking to you," said Brittany, waving goodbye to Avril.

This game, which Brittany had started recording in late 2002, was her first job doing voice acting for a video game. She'd been reluctant to do any sort of work for a game, since she was still in that GameTV mentality and she didn't want anyone thinking she was in any way biased by her work. But it had been nearly three years now since the show had gone off the air, and she didn't see herself covering video games exclusively ever again. She'd started to find a new love, voice acting, and she'd been doing cartoons whenever she could find the time since 2001. Now she was working on games, and this project was absolutely incredible, though it wouldn't be officially reviewed until the 2004 MTV Video Game Awards next February. She didn't know how well it would do, but she knew she couldn't wait to play the finished product.

Whether or not she'd let her son play it, at least right away, would be a question she'd answer once the game was actually released.

 

[RySenkari]

Goblins 2

Goblins 2 is Naughty Dog's sequel to the 2001 platformer adventure Goblins: Children Of The Underworld. The two goblin protagonists, Puckle and Lune, return as the main characters of this game, while their two human friends, brother and sister Billy and Ava, return as supporting protagonists and helpers. Goblins 2 is the first game in the series for the Nintendo Wave, and features significantly enhanced graphics and a somewhat overhauled control scheme in which the two goblins can cooperate a lot more, using one another as climbing steps and also combining their attacks and executing context-sensitive commands. When Billy and Ava get into the mix, even more combinations open up: there are brand new 3 and 4 person combination techniques that open up as the player progresses through the game, giving Goblins 2 a more adventurous feel than the original title. The game's progression system is also somewhat overhauled, instead of using Krystals to progress between large segments of the game as in the previous title, Puckle and Lune use them to progress within smaller segments, making each of the game's five "worlds" (referred to as colonies) almost like its own little game, with new rules that the player has to learn after arriving.

After the events of the original game, humans and goblins have become friends, at least in the city near Puckle and Lune's colony. However, the new goblin elder hears through the Goblin Grapevine that there have been mysterious incidents of goblins disappearing in other colonies elsewhere in the world. Puckle and Lune, the Great Goblin Heroes, decide to visit the other colonies, and Billy and Ava tag along. The other goblin colonies treat the two humans with varying degrees of mistrust, with the very first colony they visit believing that it's humans who are responsible for the disappearances. However, Puckle and Lune discover that couldn't be further from the truth: instead, it's an enormous, lizard-like creature called Twotail (voiced by Tone Loc) who's capturing the goblins and eating them. Twotail slithers between goblin colonies by traveling through huge tunnels that it digs in the planet. At each colony, Twotail dredges up a massive creature to fight the goblins and their human friends as a distraction while he gets away to consume more goblins at another colony. By the end of the game, Twotail's tunneling is doing so much damage that the Earth itself is shaking, with big volcanic eruptions that threaten human civilization, making Twotail a threat to humans and goblins alike. The final battle is fought both underground and in the middle of a massive human city, with Twotail slithering up skyscrapers and forcing the goblins to attack him in segments. Finally, Twotail is defeated and all the goblins he swallowed up are rescued, and the world is saved.

Goblins 2 is a major critical success and generally seen as a significant improvement over the first game, thanks to its globetrotting adventure setting, its new techniques, and its epic boss battles. It's one of the best reviewed platformers of the year, challenging Albert and Zulie for the title of the summer's best platform game when it's released on July 21, 2003. Sales are very strong, not quite as strong initially as the first game (simply due to there being less Wave systems than Ultra Nintendo systems), but they pick up, especially over the holiday season.

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Valor II

Valor II is the sequel to Naughty Dog's 2000 World War II shooter game. The game takes place during the Vietnam War, and the protagonist is Skip Johnson, a member of a squad of soldiers closing in on a village in North Vietnam. The gameplay is much like the original title and reminiscent of the gameplay featured in the OTL Uncharted games, with Johnson given the ability to shoot, run, climb, take cover, toss grenades, or perform one of numerous context-sensitive actions. Valor II introduces QTE to the series, though none of it is insta-fail, instead affecting changes in health or the strength of a particular attack. Apart from the small gameplay changes, the biggest change to Valor is in its presentation: the graphics are among the best seen on the Wave in its first year, with realistic (for the time) character models and scenery, and breathtaking cutscenes. It's a major graphical showcase for the Wave, and looks better than anything seen on the OTL sixth generation or even the OTL Wii system. The game's voice acting has also improved, while the first game featured mostly unknowns, Valor II features a few familiar names, including a then largely unknown Aaron Paul as the voice of Skip Johnson, and Power Rangers' Thuy Trang as the voice of Maia, a young Vietnamese woman who Skip protects during the game.

The plot of Valor II can largely be divided into two segments. In the first part of the game, Skip's unit is attacked in a Viet Cong ambush, leading to the deaths of two of the men in the squad (or more depending on how the player performs during the mission), and leading to a painful injury for the squad leader, Lieutenant Stan Kramer. The ambush enrages Kramer, who orders a massacre of a nearby village. Skip refuses to participate in the massacre after Kramer singles out a little girl for execution, and fires on his own squad to prevent the massacre from escalating. This causes the squad to turn on Skip, forcing him to flee into the woods with the girl, who wants Skip to find her older sister, Maia. Eventually, Skip finds Maia about to be raped by some of his squadmates, and slaughters them to rescue her. Eventually, Skip finds a few friendly American faces: the other soldiers in his squad who refused to partake in the massacre. They eventually manage to contact a major who agrees with Skip that Kramer committed a war crime and that Skip was right to intervene. Skip is tasked with hunting down Kramer and either capturing or killing him. In a climactic mission, Skip subdues and defeats Kramer. Kramer's defeat marks only the halfway point of the game: the game's main villain is a ruthless Viet Cong soldier named Kunang who organized the ambush at the beginning of the game and who has been hunting and brutally killing both American soldiers and Vietnamese villagers who cooperate with them. Maia is asked to infiltrate Kunang's inner circle in order to spy on him, to the objection of Skip. Maia is largely successful, feeding key intel to American soldiers (including Skip), who manage to cripple Kunang's death squads. Ultimately, however, Kunang learns of the deception, but Maia manages to get away from him, wounding him but being critically wounded herself in the process. Skip arrives just in time for Maia to die in his arms. Skip vows revenge and leads a small squad to Kunang's stronghold for the game's final mission. Skip defeats Kunang, but even though one warlord is beaten, the war itself is far from over, and Skip reflects on the brutality of war as the game concludes.

Valor II gets excellent reviews after it's released on September 15, 2003. Reviews aren't quite as good as those of the original game, Valor II doesn't have as many compelling characters as those of the original game, and Kramer and Kunang are both seen as largely one-dimensional villains who are brutal for the sake of brutality and not quite as interesting as the Nazi soldier villains of the original game. The game does receive praise for being careful not to paint either side in too negative of a light: there are heroic and villainous characters on both sides, with Kramer and Kunang's brutality seen as an aberration compared to the American soldiers and the North Vietnamese in general. The game's graphics and voice acting are its most highly praised aspects, with Aaron Paul's performance as Skip Johnson acclaimed as one of the best voice acting performances to date in a video game. While Naughty Dog has yet to utilize motion capture for its games (the technology's not quite good enough to allow for it just yet), they are somewhat inspired by Paul's excellent vocal performance to look into the technology. Valor II sells about at the pace of the original game, though again, the relatively small number of Wave consoles at the time puts somewhat of a limit on the game's initial sales.

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August 10, 2003

Mark Cerny was pleased at the initial sales figures for Goblins 2, which had proven to be one of the fastest-selling Nintendo Wave games to date. He'd expected as such following the game's glowing reviews: a Gold award from EGM, a 9.4 from IGN, a 9.1 from Gamespot, and Alex Stansfield on Judgment Day giving the game a perfect 10 while calling it the best platformer he'd played since Super Mario Dimensions. He hoped that Goblins 2 could compete for Game of the Year, though it was shaping up to be quite a strong field, with the game he most feared, Commander Keen: A Stitch In Time, hitting store shelves within the week.

Valor II had just gone gold, and Naughty Dog's teams were now hard at work on the company's next two big games: the fourth game in the Tales Of The Seven Seas series, and an arcade-style 3-D platformer that had acquired the codename Project Throwback. That game likely wouldn't be complete until 2004 or maybe even 2005, but for now, the company's future was quite bright under the Sony umbrella.

Cerny was meeting with a team from Game Freak in a boardroom at Sony HQ. These meetings had occurred somewhat infrequently over the past few years, mostly to allow the two companies to bounce ideas off one another. Few actual productive endeavors had taken place at these meetings, though the latest Goblins game featured several elements inspired by Pokemon, and there were a few Pokemon in Alpha and Omega who had taken a bit of inspiration from a Naughty Dog generated idea.

Today's meeting had a particular air of importance: Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokemon, was in attendance. He sat across from Cerny, and the gentlemen in the room (and one woman, Amy Hennig, making her first appearance at one of these meetings) got down to business quite quickly.

"I'd like to know," said Tajiri, "if your company would be interested in a collaboration project for a future Nintendo Wave game."

"We'd always be interested in collaborating on a game," Cerny replied.

"A Pokemon game."

Tajiri went on to state that Game Freak was looking to make an epic Pokemon adventure for the Nintendo Wave, for release sometime in 2005 or 2006. The game would be a successor to the rather bare-bones Pokemon Colosseum. It wouldn't be a main series game, as those would remain on handheld devices, but it would instead be a companion to Alpha, Omega, and Gamma, the proposed third Gen 3 game. Tajiri wanted Naughty Dog to collaborate on the gameplay design and to also come up with a suitable story for the game, as he'd greatly enjoyed the stories for Goblins II and for the Tales of the Seven Seas series.

"We'd be honored, it's incredible you'd ask us to take on such an endeavor," said Cerny.

After the meeting, in which the executives agreed to make their meetings more frequent so as to discuss the upcoming game, Cerny took Amy Hennig aside and asked to speak to her privately.

"I want you to head up the storyline team for this game," said Cerny. "How well do you know the Pokemon series?"

"To be honest, not too terribly well," replied Hennig. "I haven't really had time to play the games, you know how time consuming and addictive they can be..."

"And with you being the busiest person I know..."

"Exactly."

"Well, take some time and play them if you can," said Cerny, "and read up on the stories of all three games. I've seen your work, I think you can come up with something truly special. It's why we brought you in. I can't wait to see what you come up with for this."

"Honestly, after working on Legacy Of Kain, how hard could this be?" said Hennig with a laugh.

 

[RySenkari]

Resident Evil: Infiltration

Resident Evil: Infiltration is a Game Boy Nova exclusive Resident Evil game. It plays much like the original two titles in the series, with a survival horror aspect, but also features a major element of stealth as well, as the characters must carefully avoid alerting hostile humans and deadly monsters to their presence. The graphics are rather primitive compared to the later titles in the series, but can be compared to those in the OTL PS1 Resident Evil, making it one of the Nova's better looking games. Infiltration doesn't feature any voice acting, instead displaying dialogue and character reactions on the screen. The main characters of the game are Sho and Casey. The two are members of an organization called Safeguard, an extragovernmental organization with ties to a secret branch of the United Nations that investigates and occasionally covers up biotech incidents. Because of their highly secretive nature, Safeguard has run up against STARS numerous times in the past. Sho is a Japanese-American agent who leads the Safeguard team investigating a hidden Umbrella facility. He is somewhat reckless in the field but his team is highly loyal to him. Casey Craig is a rookie agent with the team, she's highly cautious and very opposed to Sho's brash style, but finds herself increasingly attracted to him over the course of the game. The player will play as both Sho and Casey over the course of the game.

The plot involves Safeguard infiltrating an abandoned Umbrella facility, patrolled by a skeleton crew of guards. Slipping past these guards is easy enough, but it's what they're guarding that's the problem. Umbrella was experimenting on a way to allow human beings to control the T-Virus in order to possess superhuman mutations. They were hoping to raise an army of completely loyal supersoldiers, but something went terribly wrong and every test subject died. As Safeguard heads deeper into the facility, some of the experimental creatures begin to strike, forcing the Safeguard agents to hide once again, this time to prevent the creatures from killing them. They encounter a team of STARS agents along the way, and while the two teams are opposed at first, one by one members of both teams are picked off, until it's eventually down to Sho, Casey, and a STARS agent named Braden. However, Braden isn't entirely what he seems... he's eventually revealed to have betrayed his own team, just as Wesker betrayed Chris' team. Braden's trying to get this T-Virus mutation into himself so that he can become a god. Sho and Casey eventually confront him just as he's injecting himself, and at first, the experiment seems to be a success. Braden can't be hurt and he severely wounds Sho, forcing Casey to get him to safety. Eventually, Casey patches Sho up, while Braden loses control of his mutation, turning him into a hideous monster but also making him vulnerable and allowing Sho and Casey to corner and defeat him. The two return to civilization having completed their mission, but there's a small tease for Resident Evil 4, as a file is revealed showing that one more test subject still lives.

Resident Evil: Infiltration is a popular game when it's released for the Nova. Sales are strong, though not overwhelmingly so. Reviews praise the game's stealth aspects and the two main protagonists, though it's still agreed that the Resident Evil formula is getting somewhat stale.

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Hollow World

Hollow World is a 3-D platformer designed for the Game Boy Nova. One of the system's few truly successful 3-D platformers, it uses the Nova's problems with draw distance to its advantage, as a key game mechanic involves the protagonist gradually filling out the game world as he explores. The game's levels are constantly shifting and growing depending on actions performed by the player. The game is compared by some to the Ultra Nintendo's Carpathia, with its protagonist a young boy trying to explore a mysterious world and get home. However, it's revealed that the boy already IS home: he was created without a world to live in, and as he explores, he gradually populates the world according to his needs and desires. It's an intriguing concept, especially for a handheld game, and Hollow World is considered one of the best platformers on the Nova when it's released on August 11, 2003, coincidentally on the same day as Resident Evil: Infiltration. Though Infiltration would be the more successful of the two games, Hollow World would hold its own and ultimately make a profit for its developers. Though the game is successful, the developers would ultimately eschew a sequel in favor of doing a spiritual successor.

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Modular

Modular is a third-person shooter title developed exclusively for the Motorola Elite. The game is a throwback to the days of old-school FPS titles like Doom, with a very simple plot but with complex and enemy-packed levels. The game's title refers to the protagonist's gun, which can be upgraded and changed on the fly with parts found by the player as they kill enemies and explore for secrets. The gun can be switched from a basic pistol to a scatter shotgun to an energy weapon to a hookshot, with many other designs also possible. In addition, the gun can be equipped with more than one modification at a time: all in all, the player will ultimately gain the ability to attach up to six mods at once, making their gun a physics-defying killing machine. Again, the plot is very basic: a space station is being invaded by hostile aliens, and the protagonist, a hired security officer, must protect the civilians by killing as many aliens as they can. The game is highly praised for its Doom-like levels (and music) and its gun modification system. It's ultimately considered by most critics to be the Motorola Elite's best game, and, along with The Covenant: Mobile Elite, is probably one of the only two games that can be considered a "killer app", i.e. an actual reason to buy the Elite phone. It's the only Elite game that achieves at least 90% on GameRankings and would ultimately be the Elite's best selling piece of software (though this largely comes after it begins to be bundled with the phone).

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Mindy Kaling: Right now, the Motorola Elite's sales continue to lag far behind the Game Boy Nova. Mr. Galvin, what's your strategy for competing with Nintendo going forward?

Christopher Galvin (CEO of Motorola): Well, you have to remember that we're not just competing with Nintendo. We're competing with other smartphone companies, and right now we're still the best selling smartphone in America.

Kaling: Even though sales have dipped the past few months?

Galvin: We're still pushing forward with new partnerships and new games. We've got Techno Angel: Tactical coming out in September, and this month will see the release of our new first-person shooter title Modular. We've got hot new exclusives that people really want to play and we're making it easier than ever to get a Motorola Elite phone. We've just partnered with Cingular to offer the Elite for $99 with a qualifying data plan, and we're also working with companies like Verizon and Nextel to promote this phone also.

Kaling: So have you given up on challenging Nintendo for handheld dominance, or is this just phase one of your overall strategy?

Galvin: We know we're going up against a giant company. Nintendo was there first and they've got a great product, but it's just a game system. The Elite is a game system, a phone, a personal digital assistant, an internet device, we've got a better camera than the Nova, it just does so much more and we're offering it at around the same price through numerous mobile phone companies. So we've got what we need to sell the Elite, what we need now is more awareness and that's what we're doing right now. We've launched a new ad campaign, we're pushing this thing in magazines, we are a true next generation gaming device.

Kaling: And what's next for the Elite?

Galvin: We're thinking about bringing Elite games to other Motorola devices in the future. We're going to introduce an Elite family of devices that you can play these amazing games on.

Kaling: I do have to say that Modular is a fantastic game.

Galvin: Thank you. There's more amazing games on the way.

Kaling: Thanks again, looks like we'll be seeing more of the Motorola Elite in the future.

Galvin: You can count on it.

-from an interview segment on the August 11, 2003 episode of G4 Weekly News

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August 11, 2003

Steve Jobs thumbed through the design documents he'd been handed. The title of the documents simply read "iPlay Prototype". The design was for a handheld console that looked somewhat like a taller iPod with the screen in the center, meant to be held horizontally. There was a control pad at the left side of the device and on the right side were four face buttons with dual functionalities, meant to control both a music player and a video game depending on what was being played at the time.

"It should be a little more ergonomical," said Jobs. "Some kind of small grips on the side so that people feel comfortable playing this thing for more than 30 minutes at a time."

Jon Rubenstein nodded, and gestured for Jobs to flip the pages of the document. On one of the pages was numerous drawings of possible grip designs for the sides of the device. Jobs nodded and looked them over, then after some deliberation, circled four that he liked.

"We'll have them make molds of these, I'll hold them for a while and see what feels good for me," Jobs said, flipping another page to read the device's technical specifications. There were a range of possible specs based on different chipsets. The lowest was about twice as powerful as the Game Boy Nova, the highest approached the Xbox in terms of power. Jobs had previously told Rubenstein that he wanted a handheld about as powerful as the Katana, so that Katana games could be ported to it. The idea of playing Katana games on the go would be a major selling point for the Apple handheld, but the price had to be right in order to compete with Nintendo. $199 was thought to be the maximum possible price, but Jobs did muse on the idea of a $299 handheld...if anyone could sell such a thing, it would be him. After all, he'd gotten millions of people to pay that much for a music player. Selling a similar device that played music and games wouldn't be much of a stretch. "I think chipset number three is still our best bet, but keep working on it."

Chipset number three was the one closest to the Katana's level of power, but Apple would have to charge $299 to make a profit on it.

"Chipset two I think we could do for $199," said Rubenstein, pointing to the chipset that would power a device roughly midway between the Ultra Nintendo and the Katana in terms of power.

"I'll make a decision soon," said Jobs. "I'm honestly worried about Nintendo's next handheld."

"Sir, you know the Nova's probably going to be around until the end of the decade, judging by the product life of the previous Gameboy."

"That was when Gunpei Yokoi was working at Nintendo. He's gone now. Kutaragi's calling the shots. I guarantee they'll have something new less than a year after this comes out," said Jobs, handing the design documents back to Rubenstein. "I think we'll need to go with three. Maybe even chipset four."

"I'll have those grip models made for you," said Rubenstein as he turned to leave.

"Thanks," replied Jobs, who mused briefly to himself as his employee left the room. "And... we can't call it the iPlay. We've got to call it something that I can sell for 300 bucks."

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RUMOR MILL - Nintendo Already Working On Nova Successor?

Quartermann here with another hot rumor fresh from the gaming grapevine. Nintendo's been extremely mum on anything having to do with a possible successor to the Game Boy Nova, and for good reason. The Nova continues to sell at a rate of more than 500,000 units a month, and with a new Pokemon title set to launch in North America, those numbers may be about to skyrocket. But with the news that Apple is working on a next-generation handheld of their own, Nintendo may be looking to stay one step ahead in the technological arms race.

The rumor is that Sony, who's partnered with Nintendo on their gaming hardware for the last 12 years, has begun production on a new type of miniature disc. While some have stated that this could be a portable music disc, these discs are said to be high capacity: around 2 gigabytes of storage, or three times the size of a CD. It's also a known fact that Sony has begun work on a next-generation graphics processor for a line of laptop computers, but it's a lesser known fact that the company is working on a smaller version of this processor for an as of yet unnamed project that could be related to a new gaming handheld for Nintendo.

Nintendo remains completely silent on this matter, and games are continuing to launch for the Nova at a very rapid pace. If the company is working on their next handheld, it's likely to be at least a year before we hear anything official, and 2005 is the absolute earliest that a new Nintendo handheld could feasibly be released.

-from an August 16, 2003 article posted on EGM.com

 

[Pyro]

With the march to Justice League continuing unabated, Green Lantern: Chapter 3 - Rise of the Sinestro Corps was the perfect capstone for the first Green Lantern trilogy that combined with that year’s Harry Potter film, made 2002 an extremely profitable year for Warner Bros. It was also one of the rare occasions where the films had perfect synergy with the comics. 2002 was memorable for seminal Green Lantern: Recharged mini-series that brought Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, back to life and restored him to the Green Lantern Corps.

Recharged was extremely different from Green Lantern 3 in that its plot centered on Kyle and John’s mission to Nekron’s realm to rescue Hal Jordan’s soul while Parallax used Jordan’s body to sow fear across the cosmos. Of note was the mention of a greater “emotional spectrum” beyond the yellow light of fear and the green light of courage. Early drafts of Green Lantern 3 did not include any mention of the spectrum, however, with the focus on the redemption of Hal Jordan in the comics and the film further rewrites incorporated elements from Geoff Johns’ Recharged proposal.

In terms of casting, the core cast remained the same as film picks up where its predecessor left off. However, Adam Baldwin could not reprise the role of Hal Jordan/Parallax due to a scheduling conflict and Warner Bros. hastily recast Nathan Fillion (who had played Hermes in Wonder Woman) in the role. With the lead-up to Green Lantern: Recharged, many fans expressed concern and, in some cases, outrage that Warner Bros. would replace Kyle with Hal Jordan. Their protests became especially strident when word leaked that Barry Allen would be the lead character in 2003’s The Flash instead of Wally West, who was the incumbent Flash in the comics. Many fans of the then contemporary DC universe accused DC and Warner Bros of pandering to Silver Age “fanboys.” However, these allegations were largely unfounded as Zane and Snipes had both signed on for Justice League.

Other new faces included Brent Spiner as Desaad. It was a curious choice at first, given the lack of tangible connection between the Green Lantern mythos and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World. Given that Darkseid appeared in Wonder Woman, Desaad’s appearance gave the impression that GL3 was also building up for something bigger. Spiner used his background in comedy to great effect, making Desaad a conniving schemer who played a sycophant to Weaving’s Sinestro to stroke his ego and make him easier to manipulate. While the Desaad from the comics wouldn’t win any beauty pageants, the makeup artists for GL3 made him extremely hideous with half his face covered with tumor-like growths that reflected ugliness within. Combined with his giddiness at torturing John in the first act, Spiner stole the show and turned in an extremely memorable performance.

However, the first issue GL3 had to address was the fate of John Stewart. Though the previous film implied that he had sacrificed himself to insure the others’ escape, many fans had refused to believe that he had perished as GL2 did not explicitly show his death. GL3 established that John did in fact survive his confrontation with Parallax and was now a prisoner of Sinestro with daily torture from Desaad, and thus centered the first act on his escape. It starts with a monologue of Sinestro gloating that he had used the past few months to build his own corps to accomplish what the Guardians failed to do: bring order to the universe through the power of fear.

The opening scene was to establish that John, Hal Jordan (now Parallax), and Sinestro had a shared history. Notably that Sinestro trained Hal and Jordan upon their induction into the Green Lantern Corps, and that the pair were instrumental in his dishonourable discharge. Sinestro learned of the Parallax entity and, with the aid of Mongul, unleashed it on the universe and decimated the Corps. However, Mongul betrayed him and took the yellow ring and fear engine for himself, which set up the premise of the previous film.

Most of the first act centers around Kyle, Katma, and Guy’s plan to rescue John from Sinestro’s clutches. Another element from the comics that seeped into the film was Katma’s relationship with John. While the previous film hinted at a mutual attraction between the two, it did not become more apparent as it was Katma who volunteered to distract Sinestro when she attempts to free John so that Kyle and Guy can infiltrate the citadel. Katma’s larger role the films influenced the comics, in that Recharged not only brought Hal Jordan back into the fold, but also Katma (who died at the hands of Star Sapphire nearly fifteen years prior) and other Green Lanterns killed during “Emerald Twilight.”

The first act climaxes with the public execution of John and Katma when Kyle and Guy reveal themselves to surprise Sinestro and begin the first skirmish with the “Sinestro Corps.” Tom Wilson lets more of the Biff Tannen out during his personal duel with Sinestro when he yells out, “Hey, Butthead!” However, the line that had comic book and Back to the Future fans in stitches was this line:

GUY: Think, Sinestro, think! Kat was just the distraction. Kyle an’ me infiltrated the tower while you were gloating to her, genius!

Though Kyle and Guy rescue John and Kat, Parallax arrives to give the ring-slingers a thrashing. For all of Guy’s bravado, he is the first one to fall. Though Parallax forces them into a retreat, the encounter gives Kyle the impression that Hal Jordan is fighting Parallax’s influence, which sets up the secondary conflict of the second act.

The biggest element from Recharge introduced in the film was the concept of the emotional spectrum, which played a key role in GL3. Kyle’s fervent belief that it is possible to separate Hal Jordan from Parallax. A sparring match between Kyle and Guy reveals that the former can wield the blue light of hope when Guy eggs Kyle on when he states that Hal is beyond saving. John feels the same way, calling back to the first film when he claims that, “Hal died when Oa fell.”

It is clear that divisions are forming in their ranks with John and Guy favouring a head-on approach, while the more thoughtful Kyle believes there is another way. Only Ganthet and Sayd believe Kyle is correct. These divisions become more pronounced when John catches Katma alone with Kyle, and mistakes her encouraging words for affection. However, the situation grows more dire as Desaad skillfully manipulates Sinestro into attacking Earth. John, Guy, and Katma learn of this and make their stand on Earth while Kyle seeks out Parallax on Warworld.

What followed was probably one of the most breathtaking space battles in the history of the genre, as the three hopelessly outnumbered Lanterns face off against the full might of the Sinestro Corps. The third act of the movie is also notable for adding more crossover appeal; Wes Bentley makes his grand debut as Superman, who is briefly shown fighting several Sinestro Corps members in front of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis. Bradley Cooper appears in a “blink-you-miss-it” cameo as the Flash one year ahead of his JJ Abrams-directed solo film. Wonder Woman and Batman also appear, but used altered footage from Wonder Woman: Underworld Unleashed (then in post-production) and Batman Triumphant (as Warner Brothers had not recast the role.) Nevertheless, the appearance of several Justice League members increased hype for the upcoming film.

Meanwhile, Kyle infiltrates Warworld where he confronts Desaad and Parallax to reach out to Hal Jordan. Parallax mocks the idea and attacks Kyle by preying on own fears while Desaad gleefully watches. The entity forces Kyle to relive his greatest failures: his inability to save Alex, and Sinestro’s betrayal. Kyle nearly succumbs to Parallax when Alex appears as a blue apparition to encourage him to love again. This scene give Kyle the power to wield the blue light and successfully exorcises Parallax from Hal Jordan completely, leading to the iconic where a Green Lantern ring finds its way to his finger.

The battle over Earth goes poorly; Kat rescues an overwhelmed John while Guy fights on like the warrior he is, but the tide doesn’t turn until Kyle and Hal arrive to duel with Sinestro across the solar system. Together they overload Sinestro’s ring, which opens a vortex that pulls him into parts unknown. With their leader gone, the rudderless Sinestro Corps scatters and Earth is safe once more.

The film ends with Kyle and John deciding with help Ganthet and Sayd with helping rebuild the Green Lantern Corps with Sinestro’s followers hiding amongst the stars. John and Katma officially before an item, and Guy accepts a position as a trainer. As for Hal Jordan, while many fans expected the character to maintain his presence in the DCEM, Hal gives up his ring in favour of rebuilding his life on Earth though he tells Kyle and Ganthet that he’ll be around if they need them.

GL3 marked an end of an era in many respects. While the film would be the last Green Lantern-centric film for nearly five years, it was clear from the cameos that Warner Bros was building up for something bigger. The post-credits scene revealed Desaad’s true motives as he presents Parallax to his real master. With the fear entity in his possession, Desaad reveals to his master that he has one more piece of the Anti-Life Equation. His master turns around to reveal a smiling Darkseid. The Lord of Apokolips doesn’t say a word, but his presence was enough to make fans go crazy with uproarious applause in many theatres nationwide.

Darkseid’s appearance in GL3 solidified the underlying plot of the DC Expanded Multiverse in the coming years. While GL3 did not perform as well as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Warner’s own Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it was easily the highest grossing superhero film that year at $250 million domestic. Despite the positive buzz around Wonder Woman: Underworld Unleashed and the Flash, 2003 was going to be an extremely competitive year in the superhero arena.

-Tales From The Superhero Wars, sequentialhistory.net, September 16, 2010

 

[RySenkari]

Microsoft Continues To Report Strong Xbox Sales

Microsoft's Xbox console remains firmly in second place in both North American and worldwide sales, despite steady growth in sales of the Katana since Sega's acquisition by Apple in May. The recent announcement of a price drop to $199.99 and the bundling of either The Covenant, Grand Theft Auto: Miami, or Techno Angel with the system has caused a jump in sales, but that jump has flattened out. The Xbox is averaging about 650,000 units sold per month in North America since the beginning of the year, and has sold a total of 18 million units worldwide to date, making it the best selling current generation console on the market, ahead of the Katana (15.5 million) and the Nintendo Wave (10 million). The Xbox has also seen a slow growth of its sales in Japan, thanks to the success of games such as Techno Angel and Contra: Shattered Soldier in that country. Japanese sales have increased by about 8,000 per month since the beginning of the year, and the Xbox recently sold 100,000 in a single month in Japan for the first time in June.

The Xbox Live service has been especially strong for Microsoft, with daily users now well ahead of those using the Katana's SegaNet service. That gap is expected to increase after Apple's introduction of a yearly subscription scheme for SegaNet in October, though if Apple delivers on its numerous ambitious promises, SegaNet could stand a chance at retaking its lead over Xbox Live sometime in 2004. The remainder of the year features several major exclusives for the Xbox, including the FPS titles Cyberwar and Tom Clancy's Rendition, the crime-based action title Mafia, and the highly anticipated RPG reimagining Shadowrun.

-from an article on Forbes.com, posted on August 17, 2003

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Microsoft Celebrates Opening Of 25th X-Zone Location

Microsoft's high-concept arcade facility, the X-Zone, will be celebrating the grand opening of its 25th location at the King Of Prussia Town Center, about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The location will be the largest X-Zone to date in terms of floor space, featuring a full service sports bar, hundreds of classic and contemporary arcade machines, and more than 100 big screen televisions and projector screens on which to play the latest Microsoft Xbox titles. The location will also feature the Grand Theft Auto Experience, in which two teams compete in a live-action roleplaying game in which one team of players takes the role of a gang of criminals performing a bank heist and the opposing team takes on the role of a SWAT team trying to take them down.

Microsoft's X-Zone facilities have proven to be a major and surprising financial success for the company, ranking as the #1 large arcade facility in North America in terms of profit per location. The Los Angeles X-Zone is in fact the most profitable arcade in the entire country, with tens of thousands of visitors per day who spend on average more than $56 during their visits. The facilities have played host to a number of major debut events for recent Xbox games, including Grand Theft Auto: Miami, Warcraft III, and Duke Nukem XXX. The King Of Prussia X-Zone will have its grand opening this Saturday, where it will play host to a massive Counter-Strike tournament to celebrate the release of the hit multiplayer FPS for the Xbox. X-Zone locations have also played host to various entertainment events: the Los Angeles location will host a premiere event for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 this October. The event will be attended by Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman, and Chiaki Kuriyama, and will be hosted by Lyssa Fielding, former GameTV host who will be playing a character in next year's Kill Bill Vol. 2.

-from an August 19, 2003 article on Gamespot.com

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2004 is shaping up to be the best year yet for the Microsoft Xbox. Some of the biggest games of the year are being developed exclusively for the system. Come on an exciting journey with us as we briefly discuss these three games set to be released in the first half of next year.

Techno Angel: Salvation

Microsoft shocked everybody at E3 2004 when they unveiled that the sequel to 2002's Techno Angel, Techno Angel: Salvation, was already in development and would be released early in 2004. Indeed, as we visited Microsoft's studios to check out the game, it was already quite far into development, with most of the single player campaign already complete. We can't reveal everything we saw, but here's a bit of detail on the game's plot and its updated gameplay: It's a year after the events of Techno Angel, and Adriana is going around the world, utilizing her advanced combat suit to protect civilians from harm. American colonel Samuel McClane has been tasked with hunting Adriana down, as reluctant as he is to do so, and getting back the exosuit she stole. Adriana has made a number of friends in some very low places, and must decide whether she wants to remain a fugitive or take McClane's offer to return to the American military and fight under their auspices. The advanced HUD from the original game has returned, with a good deal of streamlining: every single element on the screen is connected to an essential function of Adriana's current weapon. The HUD changes on the fly, depending on how Adriana chooses to arm herself, and it's safe to say that depending on one's preferred loadout, one player's experience playing Salvation may be completely different from someone else's.

Red Sun

This is a GameInformer exclusive, we're the first publication to break the news on this hot Xbox release scheduled for next spring. Red Sun is what Microsoft is referring to as a “true next-generation FPS”, with advanced AI and rapid-fire reaction time. In Red Sun, you're a member of an elite special forces team chosen to infiltrate a terrorist splinter cell that's broken off from their main organization and is planning to launch immediate attacks around the world. Your team has only a week to stop the terrorists before they launch the deadliest attack of all time. What truly sets Red Sun apart is its realistic, close-quarters fighting: players will have to juggle realistic melee combat with the use of their weapon. A soldier may get into a fierce struggle to disarm a terrorist, only for two more terrorists to join in, forcing the soldier to call out for his buddies and hope help arrives before it's too late. Red Sun will also boast a team-based multiplayer mode in which players must truly cooperate to have any shot at success. This game was a bit less far along in development than Techno Angel: Salvation, but looks to be one of the most intriguing new IPs of the year.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Bethesda's Star Wars RPG, which we've been hearing about for the past two years now, is finally almost ready for release next spring. Players will be thrust into the role of a reluctant Jedi padawan who must learn quickly if they are to turn the tide off a war threatening to tear apart the galaxy. From the opening moments of the game, players have a true choice in which direction they want their quest to go. Key decisions will have to be made early on, which set the player down the path to the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force. This path is not an inexorable one, players are able to go back and forth between the light and the dark, and Bethesda tells us that there may even be a middle path that can be forged between the two. While this game takes place many years before the original films, and thus we're not likely to see any familiar characters from the movies, we may see a few Expanded Universe characters show up here and there, and a huge cast of brand new characters are poised to make their mark on the Star Wars legacy. The road to Knights Of The Old Republic has been a long one for Bethesda, which has also been working on continued expansions to their third Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind.

-from the September 2003 cover article in GameInformer magazine: "The Power Of X", which discussed more than a dozen upcoming Xbox games and featured numerous creator interviews

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Too early to finalize design on Project Second Coming. Unsure of Nintendo and Apple's next move. Best to aim for 2006 launch.

-from an internal memo sent by Microsoft Project Manager J Allard to Bill Gates on August 22, 2003

 

[RySenkari]

Time for a weekend bonus update, and once again it's a list of the Billboard #1 songs of the year, this time for 2003. By now, most of these are completely original TTL, but a few have avoided the butterflies even after all this time...

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Billboard #1 Hits Of 2003

January 4: “Neverland” by Ashanti
January 11: “Neverland” by Ashanti
January 18: “Neverland” by Ashanti
January 25: “Neverland” by Ashanti
February 1: “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera
February 8: “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera
February 15: “Just Droppin' In” by Aaliyah
February 22: “Just Droppin' In” by Aaliyah
March 1: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
March 8: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
March 15: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
March 22: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
March 29: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
April 5: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
April 12: “I Got A Problem” by Julieta Venegas
April 19: “Ignition” by R. Kelly
April 26: “Ignition” by R. Kelly
May 3: “When I'm Gone” by 3 Doors Down
May 10: “When I'm Gone” by 3 Doors Down
May 17: “When I'm Gone” by 3 Doors Down
May 24: “Villain” by Gorillaz
May 31: “Soul In Flames” by Julieta Venegas
June 7: “Soul In Flames” by Julieta Venegas
June 14: “Soul In Flames” by Julieta Venegas
June 21: “Soul In Flames” by Julieta Venegas
June 28: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
July 5: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
July 12: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
July 19: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
July 26: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
August 2: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
August 9: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
August 16: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
August 23: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
August 30: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
September 6: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
September 13: “That's The Way (Ay Ay)” by Destiny's Child
September 20: “Keep It Charged” by Fat Wallace
September 27: “Keep It Charged” by Fat Wallace
October 4: “Keep It Charged” by Fat Wallace
October 11: “Keep It Charged” by Fat Wallace
October 18: “Hold You Dear” by Ruben Studdard
October 25: “Unwell” by matchbox twenty
November 1: “Rain On Me” by Ashanti
November 8: “Rain On Me” by Ashanti
November 15: “Five Seconds” by Phipps ft. Jay-Z
November 22: “Five Seconds” by Phipps ft. Jay-Z
November 29: “More Than Words” by Selena and Chris Perez
December 6: “More Than Words” by Selena and Chris Perez
December 13: “More Than Words” by Selena and Chris Perez
December 20: “More Than Words” by Selena and Chris Perez
December 27: “Hey Ya!” by Outkast

 

[RySenkari]

Stage 8: Three Mile Island

Stage 8: Three Mile Island is a survival horror game developed exclusively for the Sega Katana. It takes place in an alternate history version of 1989, ten years after the Three Mile Island incident caused the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever known (the name of the game, "Stage 8", refers to the seven-stage nuclear incident scale, implying that the accident was FAR worse than real life level 7 incidents like Fukushima and Chernobyl), causing all of southern Pennsylvania to become an irradiated wasteland. The game plays at a somewhat faster pace than Resident Evil, though there are less enemy encounters. Combat is a very small part of the game, while stealth and exploration are more heavily emphasized. In addition, the protagonist is working with a four person team, and your three fellow scientists can each help you in specific ways. Usually, you must choose one of them to take with you while the other two stay behind, this heavily affects strategy going into each level.

The four scientists who serve as the game's main characters are as follows:

Eric Philbin: The primary protagonist, a 36-year-old doctor of chemistry who specializes in nuclear mutation
Carly Selvia: A 32-year-old physicist and math whiz, she's excellent at solving puzzles, which might help you progress through levels faster, however, she's a terrible fighter
Walter Gomez: A 29-year-old nuclear technician, he grew up in the area and is able to help you navigate somewhat better, meaning that you don't have to concentrate on where you're going so much, he can also hold off certain enemies
Dalton Oberholtzer: A 55-year-old biochemist, he can help Eric understand the various mutated creatures and identify their habits, though he has a tendency to get himself into trouble and if he (or any of your partners) gets killed, it's game over

The plot of the game is that the government has created a special compound that can neutralize the nuclear fallout, allowing the irradiated area to be habitable to human life again, however, there have been some strange creatures spotted in the area, and the four scientists are sent to investigate (the government neglects to send the army, ostensibly because they don't believe there's anything dangerous, however, the real reason they failed to do so is revealed later on). The four start in abandoned Philadelphia and make their way toward Three Mile Island itself. The scenery is incredible, the game features excellent graphics and the visuals are quite stunning, very OTL Last Of Us-esque. As the four scientists make their way out of the city and closer to the plant, the creatures they encounter get more and more strange and aggressive, at first it's just things like feral pigs and slightly larger dogs (which are still scary), but eventually the creatures become exceptionally nasty (very reminiscent of the mutated creatures in the Fallout series), and in the final level, the former Three Mile Island facility itself, there are things like 45-foot long lizards and giant killer wasps to deal with, along with nightmarish creatures like hideously mutated humans (somewhat like Extremis: Human Nightmare, but a bit more zombie-esque). In addition, the government isn't telling the four scientists the whole truth about their situation: they were sent in to bait a creature in the Three Mile Island facility that is able to take control of human minds, the reason the soldiers weren't sent in is because the government didn't want army soldiers captured by the creature. The creature is a mutated mass of all the humans who died in the nuclear calamity, somehow merged into one terrifying hive mind of pure hate. The creature eventually turns Walter and then Dalton on Eric and Carly. Eventually, Carly too has her mind taken over, but Eric is able to free her by killing the creature in the final boss battle. However, in doing so, Eric and Carly had to remove their radiation protection, and the two seem like they're going to die in each other's arms, until someone drops in via helicopter (during the latter half of the game, the four scientists have been in contact with a young computer hacker named Vi and her friend, an AWOL soldier named Johnson, it's these two who show up at the end of the game) and delivers a dose of the government's radiation cure, saving them both. With the evil hivemind creature destroyed, the government can begin cropdusting the irradiated areas with the cure, bringing normalcy back to the area affected by the disaster.

Stage 8: Three Mile Island gets a highly positive critical reception for its excellent graphics and innovative (and very thrilling) gameplay. The storyline is a bit polarizing, there are many fans who love it, claiming it to be a more fun, lighter take on the grim Extremis: Human Nightmare, while others think the plot is somewhat hokey, especially with the deus ex machina at the end. Still, reviews surpass even those for Human Nightmare, and sales are quite excellent, making it perhaps the best received Katana survival horror game of the year. It's released on July 28, 2003.

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Counter-Strike

The popular Half-Life multiplayer team FPS mod makes its console debut as an Xbox exclusive on August 4, 2003. Fairly highly anticipated, it sells well upon release, though it's not the most popular FPS for the system. It's about the same as the OTL title, with essentially the same gameplay as OTL, pitting a team of terrorists against a team of counter-terrorists in a variety of different modes. While it's a welcome addition to the growing roster of Xbox FPS games, it doesn't really sell all that many Xbox systems. The Xbox got a port of the original Half-Life in 2002, which sold more copies than this port did. Counter-Strike remains primarily a PC phenomenon, though its release on the Xbox is another sign of just how popular multiplayer FPS games are becoming on consoles even with the absence of Halo TTL.

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Battlefield 1942

Battlefield 1942 is released on the Microsoft Xbox on August 18, 2003, as a port of the blockbuster PC game (which won Game of the Year 2002 in many publications). The version ported to the Xbox is a straight port of the original PC title, though with a few graphical downgrades (nothing too major, though it clearly doesn't look as good as it does on the PC). Like OTL's game, Battlefield 1942 is developed by DICE, but unlike OTL's game, it's not published by EA. Instead, the PC version is published by Interplay and the Xbox version is published by Take-Two Interactive. The game contains the same realistic World War II combat action as OTL's game, with a variety of team-based missions where players can take on other humans or battle against the AI, and is based on capturing control points around the map and wiping out the other team. The Xbox version of the game is among the best selling PC ports released on the system, largely due to its multiplayer mode, which becomes one of the most popular games on Xbox Live at the time of its release (along with Cyberwar when it's released a month later).

The game would eventually be ported to the Nintendo Wave in the spring of 2004, published by Sony. The reason for the delay was that Sony opted for an enhanced port of the game, which contains the expansions and features slightly improved (but still inferior to the PC) graphics. Ultimately, the delay hurts the game's financial prospects on the Wave somewhat, but it's still considered a profitable game when it's ultimately released there, and despite the smaller player base, is considered to be the superior version of the game. For the most part, Xbox fans are happy they got the game ported to them first, while Wave fans are happy to boast about getting the "complete" version of the game. It's a win-win for everyone except the Katana, which gets left out of getting a port (though Steve Jobs would work to ensure that future sequels would make their way to the Katana and other Apple systems in the future).

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Cyberwar

Cyberwar is a Psygnosis developed Xbox exclusive FPS. The game features a very futuristic aesthetic, but at its heart it's a fairly standard FPS. The game's weapons are based on realistic modern weapons, but with advanced technology integrated into them. In some ways, the game is compared to the Velvet Dark series, though with a more realistic feel. While the main campaign is somewhat lengthy and designed to be a compelling narrative, the major selling point of the game is its multiplayer mode, which features both local and online play. In addition to the standard deathmatch and King of the Hill-type modes, there are numerous other modes that integrate elements of espionage and stealth, and a major point of emphasis are the game's four-on-four-on-four-on-four modes which place four teams of four against one another, this can be played in both LAN and online mode, making the game extremely popular for live tournaments.

As for the plot, Cyberwar takes place in the year 2029, in a tripolar world in which the United States, Russia, and China are the world's three hyperpowers, having pulled all other nations into their orbits. It's a bit 1984-esque, with the three entities in constant proxy wars, but none of these wars have gone full nuclear, as none of the three countries want to see themselves destroyed. However, there is a fourth faction: Veritas, which fancies itself as a group of "freedom fighters" opposed to the "tyranny" of the three hyperpowers. In truth, Veritas is a front organization created by the world's first trillionaire, Ergo Zast. Zast wishes for all three powers to destroy each other while he hides out the apocalypse in an underground bunker. When the fallout settles, Zast plans to emerge from his bunker and repopulate the Earth, remaking it in his image. The protagonist of Cyberwar is an American soldier, Jason Nettles. For the first part of the game, Nettles leads missions against Chinese and Russian forces. During the course of these missions, Nettles meets a beautiful Chinese sargeant, Li Peizhou, and an honorable Russian soldier, Feodor Zhatevsky. Eventually, the three all realize that their true common enemy is Veritas, and go AWOL from their units to team up and raid Veritas' underground bunker. They defeat Zast, ruining his plans to destroy humanity and rule the world, but even though the immediate threat is over, the war between the hyperpowers continues unabated. The three unlikely comrades all say their goodbyes and return to their armies to continue the fight, though they all share a bond of honor in combat.

Cyberwar is released on September 15, 2003. It's one of the best received FPS titles of the year and becomes one of the most popular multiplayer FPSes of its generation (it's the closest thing the TTL Xbox has to a Halo-style FPS hit, even if critical reception and sales aren't quite as good). It's easily Psygnosis' most popular game to date. Reviews are very good, though not great, the game itself is about on par with other popular FPS titles like Gemini: Shadow In The Dark and Deep Black 2 in terms of review scores. However, Cyberwar sets itself apart with its futuristic aesthetic and addictive multiplayer, and secures Psygnosis' place as one of Microsoft's most valuable second parties.

 

[RySenkari]

Over the last few years, there has been a steady uptick in the number of anime adaptations of video games. As two of the most lucrative entertainment industries in Japan, it seems like there should be even more crossover than there already is. This isn't a complete list of game/anime adaptations, but here are five of the most popular series to make the jump from console to cathode ray.

Squad Four is a 52-episode series based on the hit Nintendo game franchise. The series isn't related to any of the games and doesn't follow their canon, but can be said to take place sometime between the original game and Squad Four: Eclipse. The series follows Shad, Marcus, Rebecca, and Lane as they investigate a mysterious syndicate of intergalactic criminals selling a stash of alien weapons found on a deserted planet....though as it turns out, that planet may not be as deserted as the thieves thought. The series was very popular in Japan, but despite this, Nintendo declined to commission additional episodes, instead choosing to focus on other game properties. As for a localization, the series was originally to be brought over as part of Cartoon Network's Toonami in 2001. However, that deal fell through, leaving the localization in limbo. For a time, American Squad Four fans thought they'd never see this series on TV, only for a recent announcement that Nickelodeon will be airing the series in full starting next year!

Phantasy Star, based on Sega's hit series of RPGs, has aired in Japan since 2000. Rather than airing as a single, continuous series, Sega has thus far commissioned three separate series: a 26-episode series based on the original game, a 48-episode series based on Phantasy Star VI, and an ongoing series which began in fall 2002, based on the world of Phantasy Star Online. The original series was created by Hideaki Anno, of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame, and Anno is also contributing to the most recent series, though he's also begun work on a new anime set to air in 2004. None of the Phantasy Star series have been seen on American television, though the first two series have been dubbed in English and released on VHS and DVD by Sega's anime division.

Starsettlers Of Exion is a 26-episode series based on the Game Arts RPG franchise, about a group of galactic explorers who are forced to settle on a seemingly lifeless planet after their ship's power mysteriously fails. After landing on the planet, the crewmembers discover hidden, mysterious powers, which they'll need to combat the hostile aliens who greet them on arrival. The series contains much of the character humor, exciting fantasy action, and humor that makes the game series so great, but the series itself is only available in English via DVDs (6 volumes).

Perhaps the most popular recent video game-based anime series is NiGHTS, based on the hit platformer title from Sega. It's an ongoing series (which has aired 41 episodes thus far), and is somewhat reminiscent of the classic 1980s Care Bears series, though much less saccharine. The series is largely episodic, with the titular character descending to Earth to help some poor child deal with his or her nightmares. There are some recurring characters and a bit of continuity, but for the most part, each episode stands largely on its own. The series has been a ratings hit in Japan, and has been announced to be getting an English dub, which will air next year on Nickelodeon (along with Squad Four).

Finally, there's Dead Midnight, which has received two 13-episode OAVs thus far. Based on the Capcom shooter series, Dead Midnight follows the game's characters on one of their missions, with each OAV depicting a different mission. In the original OAV, released in 2002, Steve Sheckert and Raya Mystic are called upon to foil a terrorist attack, while in the second OAV, released in 2003, Steve deals with an enemy from his past who seems hellbent on revenge. Though the OAVs have much of the games' characteristic humor, they're actually quite serious and at times very violent. The first OAV has already been dubbed and released on DVD, and has been announced to be airing on Adult Swim's action block later this year, while the second OAV will get a DVD release in February.

-from the December 2003 issue of Wizard magazine

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Cartoon Network Reveals Saturday Night Toonami Plans

Cartoon Network's Toonami block has been one of the strongest blocks on cable, especially since the debut of Pokemon in 1998 and the continued strength of the block's anime offerings. In 2000, Cartoon Network expanded the weekday block to three hours. And this fall, Toonami will be coming to Saturdays, with a four-hour block that will air from 7-11 PM and lead immediately into the Saturday night Adult Swim action block. With Cartoon Network continuing to acquire more anime and air more action shows, the network needed a new place to air shows that weren't quite fit for Adult Swim but also wouldn't fit in on weekday Toonami. Most of these are shows that couldn't sustain a regular weekday schedule, such as 26-52 episode anime series and new Western action shows that haven't yet aired enough episodes to have reruns airing regularly on the block. Starting in September, this will be the weekday Toonami lineup:

4:00 PM: Pokemon
4:30 PM: One Piece
5:00 PM: Yu Yu Hakusho
5:30 PM: Inuyasha
6:00 PM: Dragonball Z
6:30 PM: Untethered

Though Dragonball Z has ended its run of premiere episodes, Cartoon Network sites the show's continued high ratings and popularity as a reason to keep it airing on weekdays. As for its Saturday night lineup, an exact schedule has yet to be confirmed, but it has been revealed that Spy School will be airing premiere episodes on Saturday night Toonami (rather than on the network's Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block, which will be retooled in the fall), and that Level Infinity will make its debut on the block's opening night. In addition, Dragonball GT will be airing new episodes on the Saturday night block, and a pair of female-oriented series will air on the block as well: the schoolgirl series Azumanga Daioh, and the shoujo action series Dynamic Point. Azumanga Daioh follows a group of schoolgirls in a sort of "slice of life" fashion, while Dynamic Point crosses over the magical school girl genre with the military genre, with a group of transforming magical girls under the tutelage of a harsh older woman with a mysterious secret.

-from an August 18, 2003 article on Toonzone.net

"While Cartoon Network continued to push the boundaries with its anime acquisitions, Nickelodeon was largely playing it safe. Shows like Yu-Gi-Oh! were major hits for the network, though Nick was quick to dump underperformers such as Zoids: New Century fairly quickly. The acquisition of a pair of video game adaptations, Squad Four and NiGHTS, was largely par for the course for the network, which was still the #1 kids' network on cable due to homegrown hits like Spongebob Squarepants and Taina. One area where Nick was willing to push the boundaries was in western-created anime imitations, such as Constant Payne. Nick would acquire another such show just as Constant Payne was finishing up its run. The show's success or failure would determine the future of action shows for the network and perhaps set the pace for an entire genre on kids' cable TV..."
-from The History Of Anime On American Cable, an article on Animandy's Anime Blog, posted on December 27, 2009

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After Spirited Away won Best Picture at the Oscars in February 2003, Hollywood scrambled to bring new anime films to the West, hoping to have the next big hit on their hands. The most lucrative of the films to come out of this period in terms of domestic box office gross was probably Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door. After being initially planned for a somewhat limited release, the Best Picture win for Spirited Away led Miramax to expand its plans, and the movie debuted in nearly 2,000 theaters in September of 2003, opening to $8.6 million in its first weekend. That was actually a record for a non-Pokemon anime debut in the West, beating out Fox's release of the Sailor Moon movie back in 1997. However, it wasn't quite as much as the film was expected to make. Other anime films received more limited releases, including the violent detective anime film Mystropolis and the giant mech film Macross Zero, created to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary. Though both of these films were highly acclaimed among critics (Roger Ebert listed Mystropolis among his top 10 films of the year, and Gene Siskel, while not quite as enthusiastic about the film, gave it a thumbs up), neither debuted in more than 250 theaters, and neither made more than $3 million at the American box office. Other lesser known anime titles performed even worse, and never got the kind of wide release that Cowboy Bebop or the Pokemon films did. However, Disney was positioning Studio Ghibli's next film to be an American success, and was pushing hard for a localization to debut in Western theaters only a few weeks after the Japanese version.

-from "Spirited Away's Miracle Oscar: Catching Lightning Twice", an article on Anime News Network, posted on February 17, 2008

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New Naoko Takeuchi Project Leads Crop Of New Anime For Fall 2003

When Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi revealed she would be working on a new manga last year, fans of that series awaited with bated breath. What could it be? A continuation of Sailor Moon, perhaps? A reboot of the series? Instead, Takeuchi surprised us all with something entirely new: Crossroad Pier, a mix of action, romance, and comedy, with a little bit of drama thrown in and brilliantly written female characters rivaling any of our favorite Sailor Guardians, was one of the biggest manga hits of 2002. An anime adaptation was inevitable, and now, the series is finally debuting on Japanese television.

For those not in the know, Crossroad Pier takes place at a "dimensional conflux", where the multiverse bends in on itself. This place is at the end of a pier on a beach on a planet much like our Earth. A young girl named Katsuya has been tasked with protecting the multiverse from the fiends who would threaten it, and whenever there's trouble, she and her friends take a leap off this pier into unknown dimensions, where their adventures are never what they expect. Rather than follow the traditional magical girl formula (which Takeuchi played a large part in pioneering), Crossroad Pier sees Katsuya's circumstances change every time she leaps off that pier. Depending on the world she and her friends wind up in, they end up with a whole new set of weapons and powers, forcing them to change strategies on the fly. But through it all, Katsuya knows she can rely on her friends, who she trusts to get her through anything. Crossroad Pier features beautiful visuals, spectacular animation, and voice acting from some of the most popular seiyuu in Japan, with Hisakawa Aya (who voiced Ami/Sailor Mercury in Sailor Moon) as the voice of Katsuya.

Apart from Crossroad Pier, there's plenty more to love from the newest crop of anime, such as Gunslinger Girl, about a fierce young girl who happens to be a deadly weapons expert, Office Fairy, about a young salaryman who is helped and/or possibly annoyed by a beautiful fairy who no one else at his office can see, Cromartie High, about a strange but hilarious group of high school misfits, and Oathgarland, about a disgraced assassin who must hunt down and kill 20 targets in order to win back his honor. This year has seen an unusually strong crop of debut anime series, with something for fans of every genre to enjoy. Only time will tell which of these will be making it to the West, but for those of us who get our anime straight from the source, it's an awesome time to be a fan.

-from an article posted to Anime Fan Source, on August 24, 2003

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Nickelodeon Orders Up Full Series For "Lowbrow"

Nickelodeon will go forward with production on a series based on the anime spoof short "Lowbrow", which aired on its Oh Yeah! Cartoons anthology series earlier this year. The short centers around an everyman named Coop who discovers a giant mech in a junkyard and brings it home, customizing it just as a mysterious woman from space arrives to warn him of an alien invasion. The short parodies numerous anime cliches and tropes, and looks to be a replacement for the departing Constant Payne, which is currently airing its final season. Nickelodeon has announced that the series will be named Megas XLR, and will debut sometime in spring 2004.

-from an August 30, 2003 article on Toonzone.net

 

[RySenkari]

Datacore

Datacore is an action-RPG developed by Squaresoft. Its gameplay can be compared to games such as the Mana series, Parasite Eve, and the OTL Final Fantasy VII: Dirge Of Cerberus, with a heavy emphasis on gunplay but also some turn-based tactical aspects as well. The combat itself moves at a somewhat faster pace than Dirge of Cerberus, but party member positioning and tactical decisions can be made via pausing combat if the player so chooses. The game also allows up to four players to play at the same time via split-screen local multiplayer (there's no online gameplay in this, Squaresoft has chosen to make the upcoming Final Fantasy Online its first online title, and isn't exploring the online option for its other games, at least for the time being). The game's combat is almost entirely gunplay, melee attacks can be performed up close but are largely ineffective and mostly done as a desperation action, since the default ammunition for almost every gun in the game is unlimited. Battles are a mix of gun fighting and the use of magic/special techniques. Magic (which features many of the same spells as the Final Fantasy series, including the -ara and -aga spells and even Ultima) is performed via the use of Guncasting, which requires special expendable bullets and requires characters to use DP (Data Points). However, Guncasting can be exceptionally powerful if the right spell is used and the enemy's weakness is targeted. In addition, characters can combine their attacks if timed properly. An enemy can be shot into the air and then a powerful Guncasting spell can be unleashed on them for major damage. Two characters can combine certain techniques, even bullets can have certain combinations if used at the right time. Combination attacks are one of the best ways to deal significant damage to difficult enemies, and players are encouraged to use them whenever possible. As for the XP/leveling system, pretty much everything can be leveled up in this game, not just the characters themselves, but their weapons, their techniques, even their hacking skills. Weapon XP can even be transferred to new weapons (at a fairly low exchange rate, but it's still enough to make it advantageous to switch ASAP and not hold onto old weapons that might be powered up highly). Weapons and techniques power up as they're used, so players are encouraged to use their favorites as often as possible. Datacore, as typical of a Squaresoft game, features vivid, detailed graphics, an excellent musical score (composed by Kenji Ito), and a talented cast of voice actors. While a majority of these voice actors are people who rarely dub games (and thus wouldn't be recognized by most voice actor enthusiasts), the cast also includes James Arnold Taylor (as Blipz), Gwendoline Yeo (as Spirit), and T'Keyah Keymah (as Psyche).

Datacore takes place in a futuristic, cyberpunk world where technology is ubiquitous, particularly computer and network technology. While the technology is futuristic, politics is typical Final Fantasy: there's a big evil empire seeking to conquer all, and the protagonists are a band of rebels looking to stop them. Old Final Fantasy tropes are given a futuristic twist, even moreso than they are in games like Final Fantasy VIII. There are four playable characters in the game, once they're all in the party, that's it, there's no switching. There are also a large number of support characters, and interesting villains as well.

The four playable characters are:

Alec (Vantiss) Sacre (codename: Creed): Creed is a brilliant computer hacker who winds up recruited to the rebel cause after his computer is implanted with a virus that causes the Empire to come looking for him. He's very reluctant to join up at first, as he's a bit of a coward, but once he realizes his potential and what the Empire is truly capable of, he becomes devoted to the cause. He holds a dark secret that is gradually revealed toward the end of the game.

John Edenson (codename: Alter): Alter is an older hacker who realizes Creed's potential and uses the virus to lure him into the group. He tries his best to help Creed see the potential in himself. He sees Creed as another chance, after a hacker he mentored previously was seemingly killed.

Stacy Soule (codename: Spirit): Spirit is a beautiful and highly intelligent special forces agent, and nearly as talented a hacker as Creed. She both blames Alter for the death of her former boyfriend and distrusts Creed for his cowardice. However, she eventually comes to realize that Creed might just save all of them.

Kendo Mizugachi (codename: Blipz): Blipz is kind of a joker, and is fairly happy-go-lucky. He's sort of the glue that holds the team together, always trying to mediate their arguments. He has a bit of a thing for Spirit, but once he sees how much Creed likes her, he tries his best to help Spirit and Creed get together. Despite his rather jokey exterior, Blipz is fairly deeply insecure.

Other support characters include:

Mori Zenkatsu (codename: Bunny): Bunny is a fast-talking, fast-typing, joke cracking hacker girl who loves causing mischief and chaos, and hates the Empire for being a bunch of meanies. She's a valuable ally to Creed and friends, though she's a bit of a wildcard and sometimes gets the team into trouble.

Dan Goldwyn: Goldwyn is a soldier in the Empire, but is serving as a mole, secretly helping the resistance. He and Alter go way back, and was there the night that Alter's previous protege was killed. He'll stop at nothing to see the Empire destroyed, even if he has to sacrifice his own life.

Villains include:

Emperor Grave Vantiss: A young but ruthless figure, Emperor Vantiss has continued his deceased father's wishes for conquest, and will stop at nothing to take over the world. As you can tell by Creed's real last name, Creed's secret is that Emperor Vantiss is his older brother. Creed was abducted when he was just two years old by a maid in service to the previous Emperor, and raised by this maid in a city slum.

Daric Jacquard (codename: Totality): Totality is Alter's former protege, thought to be killed but actually abducted and brainwashed to serve the Empire as a deadly assassin and hacker. He is perhaps the only hacker with more natural talent than Creed.

Bellasara Sykes (codename: Psyche): Psyche is Totality's partner and lover, and once Spirit discovers the truth about Totality's identity, the two women become fierce and hateful rivals.

The game's name, Datacore, refers to the large caches of data that the protagonists hack into over the course of the journey. These serve a variety of functions. Some of them guard powerful spells and weapons, some control parts of the power grid, some hold the brainwav data of people who have had their minds wiped, etc. Hacking into these Datacores forms the bulk of the game's storyline missions, though a majority of them are completely optional, accessed during main missions off the beaten path, or as goals for sidequests. Because data and cyberspace are so ubiquitous in the game, pretty much everything, including weapons and the protagonists themselves, has a certain digital component to them, which forms the explanation for how characters can learn "magic" and skills via computer hacking. There's a definite Matrix influence on the game, with Creed/Alter/Spirit having parallels to the Neo/Morpheus/Trinity trio, to the point where some fans wonder if Square might get sued by Warner Bros. However, there's enough there that's wholly different that it can be chalked up to influences rather than a straight-up imitation (for example, the basic plot is entirely different, there IS AI present but the AI is neutral, not evil, and all the villains are entirely human).

The main plot of the game begins with a brief introduction to Creed and his life as a hacker before soldiers of the Empire come knocking on his door, thanks to the tracer virus that Alter implanted into his computer. After he is saved by Spirit and picked up by Alter, the game's plot begins in earnest. Creed is gradually brought into the rebellion and does a few missions for them, leading up to the rescue of Blipz from a heavily guarded Imperial facility. The Vantissian Empire has conquered a vast majority of the world, only a few free areas remain and those are gradually being conquered via siege warfare. There's a strong rebel movement, but the Empire is gradually crushing all pockets of resistance. Creed, Alter, Spirit, and Blips must make their way to this free territory to recruit some valuable hackers. However, they're being pursued by Totality, who outclasses them in pretty much every way. Eventually, the rebel band reaches the free territory and meets up with some friendly faces there. After a few hours worth of gameplay that takes place in this free territory, it too is conquered by the Empire in a fairly brutal way. Creed, Alter, Spirit, and Blipz are all captured by the enemy and many of the characters who were met in this part of the game are killed. Also, the Emperor finds out that Creed is his brother, but rather than try to recruit him, orders him killed immediately. Creed manages to escape via some fortuitous interference from Blipz, but the two have to leave Alter and Spirit behind for a time (this and the beginning of the game are the only times that there isn't a full four-person party). Eventually, Alter rejoins the group (after learning Totality's true identity), and the three of them go together to rescue Spirit, who has already freed herself and is raising hell at an Imperial prison. After the party is reunited, they learn of a way that the Empire might be able to be defeated once and for all (and Alter and Spirit resolve to free Totality from his brainwashing). This next segment of the game (which takes place about two-thirds of the way through) spends a lot of time developing the characters of Psyche and Totality. Psyche, as it turns out, has true feelings for Totality, and becomes curious about what he was like before his brainwashing (while Psyche IS ruthless and at times sadistic, she's not entirely evil). A Datacore is identified that can restore Totality to his true self. It's retrieved, and Totality's true memories are restored. During a mission a short time later, Totality and Psyche sacrifice themselves in an attempt to defeat the Emperor, but it's all for naught. Eventually, the Emperor, now truly mad with power, absorbs a massive amount of data in an attempt to make himself a god. It's learned that he and Creed weren't truly born, but artificially created in a laboratory and gifted with the ability to manipulate the very essence of data itself. However, Creed is unwilling to go as far with this ability as his older brother, and thus can never truly be as powerful as the Emperor. After Creed and his friends go through the final dungeon and confront the Emperor, the Emperor mocks Creed for not realizing his true potential. After being defeated once in battle, the Emperor transforms himself into a glowing digital god and presses the attack. While Creed will never be powerful enough to stop the Emperor on his own, with the help of his friends and the help of those who sacrificed their lives to stop the Empire (Totality, Psyche, Goldwyn, and numerous other NPCs all have the essences of their data held within Creed and contribute their power to him during the final battle), the heroes are able to destroy the Emperor and liberate the world.

Hyped as Squaresoft's first "next generation" game, Datacore proves to be a major commercial success. It's certainly no Final Fantasy, and not quite as successful as Fairytale, but it's one of the company's more popular RPGs and is probably the best selling non-Pokemon/non-Final Fantasy JRPG of 2003, slightly outpacing Lunar 3 in terms of worldwide sales. Reviews are good, but not quite on the level of great: the game's battle system is highly praised, but the plot gets a decent amount of criticism, and even though combat is fun, it does start to get somewhat repetitive. Also, the game's framerate slows down a bit when four players are playing at once and there's a lot of action on the screen: the Wave can't quite handle the game's complex graphics while doing splitscreen. It's not a true gamebreaker but it's definitely noticeable, especially during boss fights when there's a lot going on. Datacore is released in Japan in July 2003 and in North America on September 22, 2003. In North America, it's packaged with a demo of Final Fantasy X.

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*Alex Stansfield and Victor Lucas are briefly sharing the Judgment Day stage with Alex's former GameTV co-hosts Ted Crosley and Brittany Saldita.*

Alex: And once again, I want to thank my good friend Brittany Saldita, who made her first appearance on G4 to help us test out Datacore's awesome four-player co-op mode.

Brittany: I had a really awesome time with you guys, it was great getting the old band back together!

Victor: Brief impressions from you two before Alex and I give our scores?

Brittany: I had a blast, the game moves really well, the combat's really fun, the lock-on feature is nicely done and I loved the combos. ....that being said, there was definitely some slowdown during more of the intense parts. I felt like the Wave was struggling a bit with certain big fight scenes.

Ted: I could actually kinda hear the Wave's fan kicking in really loud-

Brittany: You heard that too?

Ted: Yeah, it was really going.

Alex: The framerate, I felt, dropped by at least a third during the Chaos Red boss fight. When he was throwing that red stuff all over the place, I could actually hear the music stutter a bit.

Victor: Yeah, I noticed it too. You know what though? I still had fun. Datacore is a good game. It's not a great game, it's not as good as some of Squaresoft's other RPGs...

Ted: I liked it a lot. I mean, the combat's really nice. Guncasting is a blast, you move around so quickly, it kind of reminded me of Devil May Cry a bit when it was actually working at full speed.

Alex: Yeah, I definitely got a Devil May Cry feel from it at times.

Brittany: Parasite Eve was what it reminded me of. Running around as Spirit, shooting monsters and guards, it felt like I was back in Manhattan as Aya Brea again.

Victor: Yeah, but Parasite Eve I felt had a lot more going for it in terms of storyline. That game was legitimately scary, this game was trying to be Squaresoft's take on The Matrix.

Alex: Real quick, Ted and Brittany, you guys recommend it or no?

Ted: I recommend it.

Brittany: I definitely recommend it.

Victor: I will say this, on single-player, the framerate is totally solid. Never skipped for me once. It's only when you get three or four people playing at once that you have problems.

Alex: Here's our verdict.

*Alex and Victor's scores appear on the screen, Alex's 8.0 in a red circle and Victor's 7.0 in a yellow circle.*

+ AMAZING GRAPHICS
+ SUPER FUN COMBAT
+ 30 HOUR QUEST

- MULTIPLAYER SLOWDOWN
- RIPS OFF THE MATRIX
- NEEDS MORE ENEMY VARIETY

Alex: On the positive side, Datacore looks beautiful, we both thought it was the best looking RPG we've ever played on a console. The combat is a lot of fun, there's some minor hiccups but for the most part you'll have a blast. And for an action-RPG, the quest is really meaty. It'll take you a good 30 hours to beat, and that's without doing most of the sidequests.

Victor: The negatives, if you play with three other people, you will experience slowdown, there's no avoiding it. The plot is a bit of a mess and really rips off the Matrix movies, and we both got kind of tired fighting the same guards over and over again.

-from the October 6, 2003 episode of G4's Judgment Day

 

[RySenkari]

Phantasy Star: Journey

Phantasy Star: Journey is a remake of the original Phantasy Star game. Journey is a complete ground up redesign, unlike OTL's Phantasy Star Generation 1, which retained the original game's 2-D perspective with updated graphics. Journey transforms Phantasy Star into a completely 3-D game (visually similar to the Phantasy Star Online titles), but retains the characters, locations, and plot of the original. New weapons and items have been added to the game. The traditional turn-based combat of the original game largely returns (though battles take place with full 3-D graphics), though the battle system has been somewhat updated and now includes the option to utilize a sort of "timed hit" system, in which characters' attacks can become more powerful or change elemental properties if they're properly timed. The option to "talk" to certain enemies remains in the game, with more enemies able to be talked to and the addition of much more complex combat trees. Many bosses can be talked to as well, and some (though not many) can be persuaded not to fight, including two brand new characters, a mercenary named Cheval and a servant of Medusa named Keri. These two characters can be swapped with Odin or Noah in the party from any save point (Alis and Myau can never be swapped out). The plot has been somewhat expanded and there are a few new locations, though for the most part, classic Phantasy Star players will be able to discern where to go from their memory of the original game. The game features voice acting, with Catherine Taber as the voice of Alis (IOTL, Taber got her video game voice acting start in Knights of the Old Republic, which she doesn't appear in ITTL).

Phantasy Star: Journey is released in Japan in March 2003, and in North America on July 21, 2003. The game sells surprisingly well in the States, due to excellent marketing, the popularity of the PSO games, and nostalgia for the original Phantasy Star, rivaling Datacore as North America's best selling JRPG of the third quarter. Reviews for the game are quite strong, though a few critics remain nostalgic for the original and wish Journey hadn't overhauled the original game quite so much. The success of Journey prompts Apple to push a Phantasy Star II remake into immediate development. Sega's continued efforts to push Phantasy Star have another major consequence: Alis Landale becomes the Katana-exclusive Soul Calibur II character. While Link (Wave) and Spawn (Xbox) were both announced at E3 2002, Sega and Namco waited until the 2002 Tokyo Game Show to announce Alis for Soul Calibur II. This is partially because Sega had difficulties choosing a character: Akira Yuki (from Virtua Fighter) and Shinobi were both heavily considered before Sega decided on Alis, who appears prominently on the cover art for the Katana version of Soul Calibur II. Cat Taber reprises her role as Alis in the English dub, having performed the voice work for both games largely at the same time. Sega had decided on Alis before Nintendo's Link announcement, after hearing it Sega began having second thoughts (believing the two characters to be too similar), but Namco demonstrated that Link and Alis' characteristics and movesets were quite differentiated, and Sega decided to stick with Alis.

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ActRaiser: Valkyrie 2

ActRaiser: Valkyrie 2 is the sequel to ActRaiser: Valkyrie, which was an amalgamation of the plotlines of the OTL ActRaiser series (serving as somewhat of an ActRaiser 3) and OTL's Valkyrie Profile. This sequel features much of the improved graphics and action gameplay of OTL's Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, but features a completely different plot, and is somewhat of a retread of ActRaiser 2, in which The Master descends to Earth to battle demons representing the seven deadly sins. In ActRaiser: Valkyrie 2, Lenneth Valkyrie returns as the primary protagonist, and is summoned from Valhalla, many eons after the events of the original game. After Ragnarok, the world has reincarnated itself, and a new hierarchy of gods now hold domain over the world, ruled by the son of Odin, Thor. However, seven of these gods, each representing the seven deadly sins, have rebelled against Thor's new order and have descended to the world below to corrupt humanity. Lenneth must descend to the world below and choose humans uncorrupted by sin to serve as her new einherjar, in order to battle the seven dark gods and the humans they have corrupted. The world is divided into seven domains, each ruled by one of the seven dark gods. These domains contain a town or city, a wilderness area, and then a dungeon, which Lenneth can explore only once she's found her champion. Unlike the original ActRaiser: Valkyrie, Lenneth does not have to send any of her recruits away, once they join her they remain with her for the duration. In addition to the seven human champions Lenneth can recruit, there are also nine heavenly warriors, gods who have become mortal and descended to the human realm in order to aid Lenneth on her quest. Two of them join Lenneth's party almost immediately after the opening cutscene, while the other seven must be recruited from the domains, one per domain, and unlike the human champions, these seven heavenly warriors are optional recruits. Once all seven domains have been liberated, the dark gods call upon their true master, the god of destruction Fenrir, who has returned to avenge his father Loki's defeat. Lenneth and her champions must defeat Fenrir in one final epic battle to liberate the world and make it safe for humanity once more.

ActRaiser: Valkyrie 2 is released in North America as a Katana exclusive on September 8, 2003. The game is reviewed well, but not quite as well as its predecessor. While the graphics and updated gameplay are well received, there's some degree of controversy that the gameplay isn't evolved enough from its predecessor. In addition, the game's somewhat formulaic pacing, which doesn't allow for much in the way of sidequesting or backtracking, is also criticized. However, the game's music and overall feel, which recalls many of the positive aspects of ActRaiser 2, is also positively received. Overall, ActRaiser: Valkyrie 2 is considered a success. It actually outsells the original title in North America, as the original was somewhat obscure despite its excellent critical reception. The game also generates some positive buzz for the upcoming Wave title ActRaiser: The Master Returns, which looks to be much more faithful to the original ActRaiser games.

 

[Pyro]

One could imagine my excitement at the thought of visiting Ion Storm’s studios in Dallas. I was eighteen, a few months away from graduation, and about to enter to real world as a full adult. It brought me back to my carefree days of playing Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle on the family PC, so it was almost like going to visit Disney World, though the Magic Kingdom paled in comparison. It was a once in a lifetime privilege to meet luminaries like Tom Hall and Reggie Fils-Aime, but the highlight of the trip was a special look as the thirteenth game in the Commander Keen series.

Much to my surprise, Hall decided to take a step back from Commander Keen after Worlds United to work on project called Vitalogy (imagine my disappointment when I heard that it was coming to X-Box.) From what I recall of our conversation, it was an idea that he had in the back of his mind for years, but never had the time to work on. With the company’s success after Worlds United, Hall had grown the company enough to finally move forward with it. However, the critical and commercial success of Deus Ex on the PC (with a later Katana port), Hall placed the series in Warren Spector’s capable hands. One of the highlights of my visit was to actually test an early Alpha build of the game well ahead of its unveiling at E3 2003.

The game itself received a graphical overhaul from previous games, with a cel-shaded appearance reminiscent of Jet Set Radio and DC Super Clash. It worked quite well as it reminded of both the early games on the PC (particularly the “Good-Bye Galaxy” duology) and the animated series, albeit more fluid at 60 fps. Since this was an early build of the game, there wasn’t much to it other than the run-and-gun platforming. Most of the enemies seemed to be placeholders, but Spector personally assured me that this game would be something unique.

More details would trickle out toward the tail end of 2002, notably the title: A Stitch in Time, which implied a time travel element. However, a more detailed synopsis didn’t emerge until E3 2003 where Ion Storm revealed that Billy Blaze AKA Commander Keen, Defender of the Universe, invented a time machine made from his mother’s sewing machine, hence the title. While Billy’s intended to use his invention to meet such figures as Di Vinci, Newton, and Einstein, his brother, Bobby (often mentioned, but never appeared until this game,) uses it for something more mundane.

Bobby Blaze, being an archetypal “book dumb” jock (complete with letter jacket,) fails his history exam and decides to go back in time to give his past self the answers to the exam to avoid getting grounded. Commander Keen and Becky follow, but are unable to stop resulting paradox that leads to the spacetime continuum fracturing and turns their sleepy suburban home of Glenbrook into a Mad Max-style dystopia. An enigmatic beatnik calling himself Father Time reveals that Bobby’s actions inadvertently freed “the Time Waster” who has both stolen artifacts across time and interfered with historical events. Since with was Billy’s invention and Bobby’s actions that led to the current state of affairs, Father Time charges the Blaze siblings with the Time Waster’s capture.

“Glenbrook-A” (for “alternate”) act as something of a hubworld and tutorial, albeit a completely optional, to practice your platforming skills or use the roving gangs, making it an optimal place to farm for items and currency. It contains some sandbox elements ala Grand Theft Auto where the Blaze siblings can interact with the denizens for some humorous dialogue. As you advance farther in the game portions of the town will gradually return back to normal to signify your progress.

Becky, as with previous games in the series, has the speed advantage over her brothers and her small size makes her able to reach places they can’t. However, her slingshot does negligible damage to enemies are most enemies can dispatch her with one hit.

Commander Keen plays as the jack-of-all-trades and states, but has the most varied arsenal of the three. Many weapons from previous games including the beloved Poultry Buster, Tractor Beam, and Shrink Ray return, but the Wedgie Gun is conspicuously absent because…

Bobby is the melee fighter of the three with no ranged attacks to speak of and his prized baseball bat for a weapon. His moveset also includes sneaking up on enemies to give them wedgies, but can also wrap smaller ones in a headlock and to give them noogies. He is slower than both Becky and Keen, but is much stronger and tougher than his siblings.

In addition to Glenbrook-A, Keen and his siblings must visit seven time periods before they storm the Time Waster’s Tower Fortress making for nine worlds total. While this makes for fewer worlds to visit than its predecessor, Worlds United, these worlds are slightly bigger and act as hub worlds in their own right. Among the levels are Rome in last days of the republic where the Blaze siblings meet Julius Caesar and forces Bobby to participate in the gladiatorial arena in a parody of Gladiator.

Other periods include Japan during the Tokugawa period, where they must contend with a pair of greedy shogun who are thinly-veiled parodies of Nintendo and Sony. Meanwhile, the driving plot of the level draws parallels Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress (which Keen notes sounds familiar, “*cough*StarWars*cough*!) Spector and his team even blended time periods together as seen in the Salem level where the Puritans speak like Prohibition-era gangsters and wield Tommy Guns in their witch hunt. However, the crown jewel of the game is “Castle Waffle-stein,” which confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in video games.

Though only implied and never stated outright, Commander Keen was the grandson of Wolfenstein protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz. However, the transfer of Keen to Ion Storm muddled the waters. Hall had maintained good relations with his former colleagues at Id Software and when Spector proposed adding a parody of Castle Wolfenstein to the game, Hall was able to obtain permission from Id to use Blazkowicz in the game.

Given the difference in tone between the series, Ion Storm toned down the violence and gore to replace with a more comical aesthetic. Instead of Adolf Hitler, everybody’s favourite “not-Nazi,” Mr. Hiller, fills the role of the main antagonist of the level as leader of the grammar-obsessed Waffle-Super Spellers (a play on the pejorative, “grammar nazi.” Hiller captures the Blaze siblings’ grandfather (Blazkowicz,) who they now must free from the dungeon of Castle Waffle-stein. The two generations of Blazes then team up for a multi-part battle against the many clones of Hiller in a showdown reminiscent of Wolfenstein 3D.

ASiT also boasted some of most innovative level design of its time by way of the “butterfly effect.” All of the hub worlds and most of the levels contain NPCs that send you on optional missions with a set objective. Completing said objective in an earlier time period will often open up new paths in later time period, forcing the player to think fourth-dimensionally.For example, leaving the city gates open in Roman Holiday to allow the barbarians to sack the city opens up an alternate path to the castle dungeon in Castle Waffle-stein. However, Spector and Ion Storm were care not to make it strictly mandatory save for the one instance to introduce the element to the player.

Spector himself said that the purpose of the The Butterfly Effect was to encourage players to explore. While it provides a myriad of paths, all paths lead to the fateful confrontation with the Time Waster. Triggering the Butterfly Effect also counts as completion and acts as a de facto difficulty setting with six different endings. Playing the game in a strictly linear fashion by skipping these missions counts as playing it on easy mode, which the Time Waster mocks you for, and the game “rewards” you with the worst ending: a world where sentient vegetables enslave mankind! The Butterfly Effect also changes enemy behaviour and boss attack patterns, making them extremely punishing (but still fair) at high completion.

Many critics praised ASiT for its surprising complexity. Judgment Day co-host Victor Lucas joked how the game “tricked” him into believing that it was a straightforward platformer. The game itself received high marks for its stunning graphics, solid gameplay, and signature humour. Some reviewers and more than a few fans complained about absence of fan-favourites like Princess Lindsay and Mortimer McMire, but still managed to earn scores comparable (and in some cases, exceeding) to Mars’ Most Wanted. As for sales, with Apple’s acquisition of Sega’s game division slightly pushing up Katana sales, ASiT likely helped by pushing the needle a little more by selling a few more systems.

From a commercial and critical standpoint, ASiT was one of the best selling Katana games of 2003. While it did not push the Katana to second place, it at least gave the Katana some solid sales during the holiday season. It also helped solidify the perception that Billy Blaze was the “Lancer” to Sonic the Hedgehog’s “Hero” by releasing games in alternating years. While Ion Storm would release Vitalogy on the X-Box, that would prove to be a one-time deal.

The company finalized its second party status with “Segapple” (as Sega fans would later affectionately nickname it) towards the end of 2003. While Hall adjusted that a game like Keen could do gangbusters on a system like the Wave, he found it extremely difficult to say “no” to Steve Jobs.

“I could tell that Steve [Jobs] was in it to win it from our first meeting,” said Hall, “A lot of my colleagues asked me, ‘why stay with a sinking ship?’ (hence Vitalogy), but I had this feeling that Apple was working on something that could be a game changer like the iPod. I wanted to see how far this rabbit hole went.”

Apple would not play its hand until later, but with ASiT a critical darling, the future still looked optimistic for Commander Keen.

-from the blog "The Musing Platypus" by B. Ronning, March 24, 2013

 

[RySenkari]

Soul Calibur II

Soul Calibur II is an arcade fighting game developed by Namco and released in arcades in 2002 before being ported to the Nintendo Wave, Microsoft Xbox, and Sega Katana. The game retains largely the same 2-D weapons based gameplay of the original, but with substantial improvements to graphics and an expansion of game modes as well. Like OTL's Soul Calibur II, the game introduces additional weapons for each character that give their statistics a major boost, and a progressive storyline mode similar to the OTL game's Weapon Master mode. This storyline mode is called Soulventure, and it's somewhat inspired by OTL's Virtua Quest series of games, with a somewhat expanded storyline compared to the OTL game, at the expense of a reduction of levels to explore. Soulventure mode contains the game's main plotline and introduces a powerful new villain, an ancient weaponsmith named Tenkairugi. The arcade mode's main villain is Tenkairugi, and once the arcade mode is beaten for the first time, Tenkairugi can be chosen as a playable character.

Soul Calibur II features a total of 25 playable characters, though only 23 are playable in any one version of the game. Most are returners from previous games, though a few are new to Soul Calibur II.

Cervantes
Mitsurugi
Hwang (did not return to SCII IOTL, but returns in TTL's version of the game, butterflying OTL's Yunsung)
Seong Mina
Voldo
Sophitia
Taki
Siegfried/Nightmare
Astaroth
Ivy
Kilik
Lizardman
Xianghua
Yoshimitsu
Seraph (TTL original character from the first game)
Turok (returning character for all three versions of the game, Lenneth Valkyrie does not return)
Cassandra (like OTL, Cassandra, Sophitia's sister, makes her debut in this game. However, she's less a clone and more adapted from Lenneth Valkyrie's fighting style, since Lenneth doesn't return, making her more of a unique character)
Raphael
Murder (original TTL, Murder is a mysterious evil man with a crow's head, who fights using a large knife)
Oozoo (Oozoo is another TTL original, a strange being composed of blue slime, he fights with weapons crafted from this slime and can also trap other characters in ooze, he's definitely a weird one)
Zafira (another TTL original, Zafira sort of takes the place of OTL's Talim, she fights with dual knives and is very fast, but unlike Talim, who can be a bit melancholy, Zafira is a giggling trickster)
Link (Wave)/Alis (Katana)/Spawn (Xbox) (Alis Landale, the exclusive Katana character, fights with a more fast, lighthanded style than Link does, and can also whip out a futuristic pistol, though it doesn't do much damage)
Tenkairugi (the evil weapon-master, Tenkairugi fights with an evil demonic blade fueled by stolen souls)

Like OTL's game, the arcade mode comes in two flavors: a standard quickplay mode and then an "Extra" arcade mode with storyline cutscenes inbetween, where each character fights a rival in the penultimate battle, and then fights Tenkairugi at the end. Tenkairugi is fought normally in the first round, and then in the second round he dons the Soul Shatter blade and fights with much more power and fury. Soulventure mode contains eight "worlds", with numerous levels in each, where characters can power up and acquire new weapons by either winning them or purchasing them. The Soulventure mode also occasionally requires players to use a certain character for a certain fight, though most of the time you're allowed to choose who to use. In the Soulventure mode, while Tenkairugi remains the main villain, the true final boss is the demon lord Oblivion, who Tenkairugi has made his contract with to forge the Soul Shatter blade. Oblivion has a massive life bar and incredibly powerful attacks, and requires a massively leveled character using a powerful weapon, along with a very skillful player, to beat. Oblivion can be battled with any of the game's characters, including Tenkairugi, and a special ending cutscene for each character is shown after Oblivion is beaten (players who want to see ALL the special cutscenes can fight Oblivion again with a different character, since it's possible to save before fight itself). For the most part, the Soulventure mode is included as an added challenge for those who grow bored of the standard fighting modes themselves and as a way to acquire the characters' extra weapons and learn a bit more about them. While inspired by games like Virtua Quest, it's not nearly as long and the story isn't nearly as complex. Soul Calibur II also features online gameplay on all three consoles, including tournaments and a full leaderboard. This online mode is a major attraction of the game and advertised heavily in the game's TV commercials and magazine ads.

All in all, Soul Calibur II is considered the best fighting game of the year by a consensus of game critics and fans alike. Like OTL's game, it's among the top rated video games of 2003, and is a must-buy for fans of the first two games in the series. It's released for all three main consoles on August 11, 2003, and sells very rapidly: the Katana and Wave versions are the two best selling games of the month, while the Xbox version doesn't lag very far behind. Had it remained a Katana exclusive, it had the potential to be a system selling killer app, but Namco made a wise decision to release it as a multiplatform: it easily sells well over a million copies on each of the three consoles it appears on.

 

[RySenkari]

Pokemon Alpha And Omega

Pokemon Alpha and Omega is the third mainline game in the Pokemon series and the TTL equivalent of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The game was released in Japan in March 2003, and in North America on September 15, 2003. It's released in Europe in November 2003 and in Australia in January 2004. Unlike OTL's Ruby and Sapphire, which was a massive graphical upgrade over its Generation 2 counterpart, Alpha and Omega is only a modest upgrade, similar to the OTL leap between Diamond and Pearl and Black and White, due to both the Gen 2 and Gen 3 games appearing on the Game Boy Nova. Rather than a major improvement in presentation, Alpha and Omega focus on gameplay updates, and there are many major ones, including the introduction of both double and triple battles, the split between physical and special components of Pokemon moves (which didn't happen until Generation 4 IOTL), and most notably, the addition of special items that allow for mobility around the game map, negating the need for HMs, an innovation that wouldn't happen IOTL until Gen 7. This game also introduces the OTL Gen 5 ability to reuse TMs more than once. Most notably, however, Alpha and Omega refines the very way that the two versions of the game interact with one another, with something called the Inverse Scenario System.

Essentially, what that means is this:

Similar to most OTL Pokemon games, Alpha and Omega feature eight Gyms each, along with an overarching quest where the player must defeat an evil criminal team (Team Growth in Alpha, and Team Decay in Omega). The game world itself is divided into two halves: a built-up industrial half in the east, and a more natural wilderness half in the west. Each half contains four gyms, and each half contains its own set of dungeons and quests. However, in Pokemon Alpha, the player will explore the western half first, battle the gym leaders there, and then explore the eastern half and do the same. In Pokemon Omega, the player explores the eastern half first, battles the gym leaders, and then explores the western half. While the two games ultimately feature the same quest (there are small differences, mostly in terms of dialogue and in terms of the hideout of the villain team), but the quest is undertaken in a different order in both games, with the strength of trainers and Pokemon varying between the games to reflect this change. The order in which the player experiences the game is different depending on which version of the game is played, making the two versions more different than in either of the two generations before. Like OTL's Gen 3, the island that the game takes place on has more water than the previous two generations, with several islands visited over the course of the story. There is less Surfing overall than OTL Gen 3 but it does have a water motif in addition to the nature vs. industry theme.

As for the Pokemon themselves... butterflies have now greatly altered the Pokemon that become available to the player in Pokemon Alpha and Omega as opposed to OTL's Ruby and Sapphire. All in all, only 66 of TTL's Gen 3 Pokemon also appear in OTL. 74 Pokemon are either completely original TTL, or first appeared in another game: several of the Pokemon appearing in TTL's Gen 3 wouldn't appear IOTL until Gen 4. Particularly, a few of the new evolutions from OTL Gen 4 appear in TTL's Gen 3.

An incomplete list of the OTL Pokemon who return for TTL Alpha and Omega include:

Treecko/Grovyle/Sceptile
Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken
Mudkip/Marshtomp/Swampert
(This would be the LAST time that a TTL game and an OTL game have the same starters)
Numel/Camerupt
Azurill
Wynaut
Lotad/Lombre/Ludirico (same as OTL Ludicolo, name changed as an homage to Frederico)
Seecorn/Nuzleaf/Shiftry (OTL Seedot name changed to Seecorn)
Carvanha/Sharpedo
Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir
Electrike/Manectric
Zangoose
Seviper
Baltoy/Claydol
Feebas/Milotic
Castform
Trapinch/Vibrava/Flygon (ITTL, Flygon is a pseudo-legendary, while Salamence's line is butterflied away. Also, the Flygon line is ONLY catchable in Pokemon Alpha. And, Flygon is a Bug/Dragon type in this game, not a Ground/Dragon as IOTL.)
Beldum/Metang/Metagross (only catchable in Pokemon Omega)
Latias
Latios
Deoxys

A list of Gen 4 Pokemon that debut in Gen 3 ITTL:

Tangrowth
Rhyperior
Porygon-X (changed from Porygon-Z IOTL)
Combee/Vespiquen (exclusive to Alpha)
Skorupi/Drapion (exclusive to Omega)
Leafeon

A list of original TTL Pokemon debuting in Gen 3 (not a complete list, but the most notable ones):

Ghide/Harbintern (a two stage Ghost/Fire evolution that consists of a little ghost holding a small lantern and then a much larger ghost holding two, similar to the Chandelure line)
Budling/Flortrap (a two stage Grass type Venus flytrap line, Flortrap is like Carnivine but a bit more stationary)
Taltie (a single-stage Fighting type Pokemon based on the tai chi martial arts style, fights somewhat like Hariyama but also has some useful counter moves, making him a bit of a Hariyama/Wobbuffett hybrid who ends up being very impactful on the metagame)
Chimi/Ashflum/Smokstak (a three-stage Fire/Poison type Pokemon based on a chimney, Smokstak looks like a miniature factory and while quite slow, has a ton of Defense and good Atk/Special Atk stats as well)
Vunki/Jungilla (A two-stage Grass/Fighting type monkey/gorilla line that essentially replaces Shroomish and Breloom)
Dirtkyub/Sludslush (A two-stage Ice/Poison line, Sludslush is a mound of frozen garbage)
Sparliz/Voltilla/Shockosaur (A three-stage Electric line of reptilian Pokemon, Shockosaur is basically a hadrosaurus who stands on two legs and holds lightning between his claws with a really smug expression and becomes incredibly popular)
Toxeon (a Poison-type Eevee evolution)
Yggdrassa (A Grass/Ground type Legendary Pokemon, the version mascot of Alpha, based on the world tree Yggdrassil. Think Torterra but with significantly better stats.)
Morticloak (A Dark/Ghost type Legendary Pokemon, the version mascot of Omega, based on the Grim Reaper. Somewhat similar to Darkrai but with better Attack and Speed.)
Mutaxa (A Dragon/Poison type Legendary Pokemon that represents change and may have radioactive properties. Represents change and is the version mascot of 2004's Pokemon Gamma.)
Titangem/Titanhart/Titansteel/Titanleaf (An alternate take on the three Legendary Golems, this is a set of four Legendary titans, based on card suits: Titangem represents Diamonds and is Ice, Titanhart represents Hearts and is Rock, Titansteel represents Spades and is Steel, and Titanleaf represents Clubs and is Grass.)
Dorapan (a small blue apparition, based on hope and named after Pandora. A Mythical Pokemon, replaces OTL Jirachi).

Most of the eight gym leaders are new TTL, though a few did appear in OTL Ruby and Sapphire. There are four Gym Leaders for each half of the map:

Western Gym Leaders (fought first in Alpha, last in Omega):

Takio (Fighting)
Winona (Flying)- same as OTL's Winona
Jules/Jules And Joe (Water)- (fought as a double battle in Omega)
Arcadia (Grass)

Eastern Gym Leaders (fought first in Omega, last in Alpha):

Brad/Bessemer Brothers (Steel)- (fought as a double battle in Alpha)
Flannery (Fire)- same as OTL's Flannery
Jennifer (Electric)
Steven (Poison)- same as OTL's Steven, though this Steven has numerous differences in personality due to also being the leader of Team Decay

No matter what game you play, Alpha or Omega, you start out on a village in a small island just to the south of the main island that the game takes place on. Like OTL's Gen 3, the player is new to the area, but their father isn't a Gym Leader: instead, the player's mother is a documentarian, making a film about the unique conflict between nature and industry in the Hoenn region. Your parents decide that while the family is here, you'd be best off becoming a Pokemon trainer to get some of the Hoenn experience on your own. After getting your starter Pokemon, you head to the mainland. In Alpha, an industrial accident has made the road to the east impassible for the time being, while in Omega, a massive hurricane is striking the west, making passage to that area impassible. Either way, the protagonist (which can be male or female depending on player choice) makes their way either to the west or east side of the island and begins doing their Pokemon trainer thing, capturing Pokemon, battling gym leaders, etc. Early on, in either game, the player meets Wally, who is either sickened (if the player is playing Omega and exploring the heavy industrial area first) or very healthy (if the player is playing Alpha and exploring the nature area first). The player also has their first run-ins with both Team Growth and Team Decay.

Team Growth are a band of nature-loving types who want to help the environment and ensure the natural growth of plant and animal life. They're led by Ari (AKA Arcadia, the gym leader), a beautiful woman who loves plants and Pokemon and is very hippie-like in her philosophy. In reality, Team Growth are basically eco-terrorists who want to destroy all industry and revert Earth to a natural state, and will stop at nothing to do it. If playing Alpha, Team Growth will be friendly at first but become antagonistic later on.

Team Decay is a group devoted to advancing industry and technology, by getting rid of nature so that humans can utilize the land and its resources to its maximum extent. They're led by Sven (AKA Steven), the CEO of Devon Corporation, the leading corporation in the world. In reality, Team Decay are basically a bunch of Captain Planet villains who love chopping down trees and don't care about spreading pollution. Indeed, Steven is devoted to advancing the cause of entropy, which he believes is the ultimate destiny of the world. If playing Omega, Team Decay will be friendly at first but become antagonistic later on.

Eventually, after defeating Arcadia (in Alpha) or Steven (in Omega) to collect the fourth Gym badge, the player can finally cross over to the other side of Hoenn. Once there, Team Growth/Decay will become much more aggressive and the conflict between the two teams will degenerate into all out warfare. This comes to a head after defeating the eighth Gym Leader. In Alpha, after the player defeats Steven to earn their eighth Gym Badge, Steven will confess to being Sven and out of respect for the player's ability as a Pokemon trainer, resolves to end Team Decay's activities. Similarly, in Omega, after Arcadia is defeated for the eighth badge, she'll do the same. However, at this moment in either game, the leader of the other team (Ari/Arcadia in Alpha, Sven/Steven in Omega) shows up and eliminates their rival leader (not by killing them but by subduing them in their moment of defeat). The villainous team activates the Legendary Pokemon. In Alpha, Arcadia activates Yggdrassa, causing its vines to spread all over the world. This, however, causes a runaway chain reaction, and Yggdrassa's vines threaten to destroy all advanced life so that nature can start over. In Omega, Steven activates Morticloak, whose power of decay spreads everywhere, not just to the trees on the western side of the island, but to all living things, as Morticloak seeks only to destroy. After going to the place where the Legendary Pokemon rests and defeating the villain team leader in one final battle (and of course, both Arcadia and Steven are MUCH stronger than they were in their fourth badge battle, with Arcadia having a Flygon on her team and Steven having a Metagross), they come to their senses and, along with the other team's leader, helps the protagonist to reach the Legendary Pokemon, where they can then battle and catch it. Afterwards, the player battles the Elite Four (a team of trainers completely different from OTL's team, featuring a Normal trainer, an Ice trainer, a Dragon trainer, and a Psychic trainer), before battling the Champion, Wally (who has a song even more epic than his song from OTL OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire).

Alpha and Omega are, like the games before them, an enormous financial success. They're the biggest selling Game Boy Nova titles of the year, and among the biggest selling titles overall in 2003. Reviews are excellent and the games aren't quite as polarizing as OTL Ruby and Sapphire. Though Pokemon is still going through a bit of a lull in popularity ITTL, the games help to bring the series somewhat out of its slump, winning it new fans for the spinoffs that lay ahead.

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"If you've played Pokemon Alpha, you know how tough Arcadia can be. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Arcadia, she was my favorite environmentalist waifu since Linka from Captain Planet, but both of her boss fights are horrible. In Omega she's not so bad: she's the eighth gym leader, but by then you have the Pokemon who can deal with her and her Pokemon's levels are reasonable. But in Alpha, as the fourth gym leader, her Tangrowth is absolutely NASTY. It already knows Power Whip, which can tear through your Pokemon in seconds flat, especially if you were dumb enough to pick Mudkip as your starter like I did. Even Swampert was taken out in a single hit by it. And then there's the rematch battle with her toward the end of the game. She LEADS with Tangrowth, who is much, MUCH tougher than the Tangrowth you fight in Omega. And after your team's taken a beating from Tangrowth, you've still got Vespiquen, Sceptile, and Bloomarch to deal with...and then there's Flygon. Flygon is one nasty son of a bitch, packing Outrage, Megahorn, and Dragon Dance to power up both. Arcadia is tougher than the final boss, and that's saying something. You will definitely throw your Game Boy Nova against the wall facing her, both times."
-from a GameFAQs topic titled "Toughest Pokemon Boss Fight?" posted on the Pokemon general discussion board, July 17, 2016

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The Alpha and Omega anime series debuts on Toonami the exact same day as the games, September 15, 2003, as Pokemon Nova. The primary protagonist is named Kotto (appearance based on the OTL Gen 3 male protagonist), and he's a lot more cheerful than the somewhat melancholy Tai. He lives on the western half of the island, and is thus somewhat of a naturalist, not too familiar with modern technology but curious about it nonetheless. His companion is Sara, whose appearance is based on the TTL female protagonist, who looks a bit more world-weary than OTL's May. She's a bit more jaded (not so much as Tai though), and has moved recently from the eastern half of the island. She's somewhat of a city slicker and is annoyed with the west's lack of creature comforts, and ends up a somewhat reluctant companion to Kotto on their Pokemon journey. Their third companion is Takio, the first gym leader, who's an excellent fighter and also an excellent Pokemon trainer (think of him as somewhat of a hybrid of Brock and Brandon Lee). Kotto comes to deeply trust Arcadia after meeting and battling her, and the series starts out somewhat sympathetic toward Team Growth, while Steven is portrayed as somewhat of a heartless industrialist. However, Arcadia eventually turns into perhaps the most cruel villain to date in the animated series, even moreso than Team Shrapnel's Breaker. Unlike Breaker, though, Arcadia is redeemed: partially due to Kotto's mercy and desire to see her change, and partly due to the love of Steven, who is reformed during the second season after realizing the horror that his ambitions have caused. He pulls Arcadia back from the brink of madness and it's ultimately his love that redeems her at the end of the second season. The second season also features the Hoenn Pokemon League, in which Kotto competes and ultimately loses in the semifinals to a female trainer named Xanthia. The third season would cover a storyline that emerges in Pokemon Gamma, which involves radioactivity and otherworldly gateways, and a new anime-exclusive villain named Octavian. Xanthia also plays a major role in this third season, she's both champion of the Pokemon League and Octavian's top lieutenant.

Alpha and Omega would also receive a manga series: two of them in fact, one called Pokemon Alpha and one called Pokemon Omega. They would tell two separate stories that would ultimately come to interweave in five crossover specials interspersed throughout the run of the two manga series: four of them during the series' run and then a fifth at the very end that would wrap up both of them. In Pokemon Alpha, a young male trainer somewhat based on Kotto battles Team Decay to protect his forest world from being overrun while also battling and befriending the various gym leaders (once again, Arcadia is quite evil here, Team Growth is rather villainous from the start, and the two evil groups clash on more than one occasion in the Alpha manga). In Pokemon Omega, the protagonist is a female trainer somewhat based on Sara, who starts out as somewhat of a jaded bad girl, but ultimately becomes a hero after infiltrating Team Decay and learning of their evil plans. The two manga series (along with the crossover specials) are translated and brought to the States, though neither of them is a major hit.

 

[Pyro]

Spider-Man’s long journey to the silver screen was something that vexed fans of the web-slinger for years leading up to the film’s release on May 3, 2003. While there had been talk of a Spider-Man film since the eighties with Cannon Films, and then Carolco Films in the nineties, many fans assumed that a Spider-Man film would have been Fox’s top priority upon News Corp’s acquisition of Marvel. Indeed, Spider-Man had initially been slated for a 1999 release alongside Fantastic Four in hopes of courting James Cameron to take the helm. Cameron’s commitment to Terminator 3 and his lack of interest in completing his initial “scriptment” when the project had been with Carolco.

The success Sam Raimi’s “Last Son” trilogy for Warner Bros convinced the studio bass at Fox that the Spider-Man franchise would need just as much care and attention. Thus the studio quietly took the film off its slate until it had both a director and a screenplay. Fox approached several directors, but ultimately chose Robert Zemeckis who would bring on his Back to the Future partner, Bob Gale, to co-write the screenplay.

With Ben Reilly having been in the role for nearly a decade at that point, many fans wondered whether the film would mirror the comics. Zemeckis favoured a “back to basics” approach by focusing on the origins of the character, which meant going back to the beginning with Peter Parker. Joshua Jackson of Mighty Ducks and Dawson’s Creek fame landed the role of the titular hero with Chris Evans as Harry Osborn and Scarlett Johansson as Mary-Jane Watson. The project would also be something of a reunion as Christopher Lloyd signed on as Uncle Ben and Mary Steenburgen as Aunt May.

That left question of who Zemeckis and Gale would use for the primary antagonist of the film, which was a daunting prospect given the web-slingers expansive and recognizable rogues gallery. Zemeckis and Gale settled on Doctor Otto Octavius (played by John Malkovich), though Nicholas Cage did have a sizeable role as Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin, which did indicate the character would return in future sequels.

With film focusing on the origin story, the film clearly took inspiration from Amazing Fantasy #15, albeit with some alterations. The most noticeable was that Peter and his friends were university students as opposed to high school students (though it should be noted that Michael J. Fox was twenty-four years old when he played high school-aged Marty McFly in BttF.) It did not take away from the story as it established Peter Parker as an extremely bright, but socially awkward physics major at Empire State University who clearly holds a candle for drama student Mary-Jane Watson.

Unfortunately, Peter’s shy and bookish nature keeps him from approaching her and makes him target of the university’s fraternity led by Flash Thompson (played by James Van Der Beek in an instance of gag casting.) Adding to Peter’s worries is his aunt and uncle’s financial struggles, forcing him to take up a job as a part-time photographer at the Daily Bugle working under J. Jonah Jameson (played by J.K. Simmons) to help pay the bills.

He is also not without friends, as Harry Osborn (a member of the same fraternity as Flash, and the only one who defends Peter) gives Peter an invitation to a scientific demonstration as Oscorp. Another deviation from the source material is that Octavius is an employee of Harry’s father, Norman Osborn, specializing in radiation. The film does not say it outright, but supplementary material revealed that the government contracted Oscorp to reengineer the process used to create Captain America (both the serum and vita-ray treatment) via cosmic rays to also tie the film in with the Fantastic Four as well.

Naturally, a spider gets caught in the radiation bombardment and bites Peter. The film then plays out like Amazing Fantasy where Peter uses his powers to become a celebrity, which includes the wrestling match with Crusher Hogan (played by Bill Goldberg.) However, the first act ends with the birth of with the birth of Doctor Octopus when an overworked Octavius forgets to turn the safety measures on during an experiment, which causes his cosmic ray generator to explode.

The second act opens with Peter putting the finishing touches to his Spider-Man costume, which includes his iconic webshooters. While the suggestion of organic webshooters did arise during pre-production, Zemeckis balked at the idea claiming that it wouldn’t be Spider-Man without his mechanical webshooters. Though Peter’s “secret career” as a wrestler and media personality has proved a boon to his family, solving their financial woes, his newfound fame and powers cause him to grow more conceited and arrogant.

He revels in his powers by humiliating Flash at every opportunity and shamelessly flirts with other girls, which ironically, pushes Mary Jane into Harry’s arms. Peter also gains the audacity to break into the Baxter Building to audition the Fantastic Four, getting in a fight with the Human Torch and the Thing (with Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Chiklis reprising their roles) ala Amazing Spider-Man #1. Spidey only gives up on that ambition after things cool down and they inform him that the Fantastic Four is a non-profit organization. While the Thing dismisses Spider-Man as some stuck-up punk, the Torch counters that he may have a future, “if he loses the attitude.”

While Peter basks in his newfound fame, a team of surgeons attempt to remove Octavius’s mechanical arms, which have now fused to his spine. Octavius regains consciousness and lashes out in what is the most gruesome scene in the film where one of his mechanical arms impales the lead surgeon. Once he finishes off all his victims, Octavius, unable to accept that he made an error, blames Norman Osborn for the explosion that made him a freak and vows revenge.

The remainder of the second act plays out like Amazing Fantasy where Uncle Ben confronts Peter and utters the immortal words, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Advice that Peter ignores when he lets an armed robber get away after a wrestling match. Needless to say that same robber kills Uncle Ben in a home invasion and a grief-stricken Peter confronts the criminal as Spider-Man to learn it was the same one he could have stopped earlier. In a scene reminiscent of Amazing Spider-Man #50, Peter tosses his mask in a back-alley trash can and walks away from his alter ego for a homeless person to find (and sell to “Jolly” Jonah Jameson.)

Unfortunately, Peter’s retirement is short-lived as the third act opens with Octavius kidnapping Harry Osborn while he on a date with Mary Jane. Though in a surprising turn of events it is the fiery Mary Jane who puts up the bigger fight (with predictable results) when Octavius crashes their date. An inconsolable MJ turns to Peter who grapples with the question of whether to reclaim the mantle.

There is also a scene where Norman Osborn questions whether to take matters into his own hands. The police have been useless in trying to find Octavius, so he wonders where he should use the untested super-soldier serum and go after his deranged ex-employee himself. In what would be a piece of foreshadowing, Osborn reveals his own fractured personality when he speaks to “the Goblin,” who goads him into taking the serum, but Osborn decides against.

Meanwhile, after some encouraging words from Aunt May, Peter decides to confront Octavius because he refuses to let Harry down the way he did with Uncle Ben. So he stealthily steals his costume out from under Jameson’s moustached nose in an amusing scene where another BttF alum, Lea Thompson, appears as Betty Bryant. He follows “Doc Ock’s” trail to the ruins of Octavius’ old lab where doctor plans to build a larger version of his cosmic ray generator, which not only threatens Harry, but all of New York City.

And thus the final begins; while Peter attempts to reason with Octavius at first, it becomes clear to him that the neural feedback from his cybernetic arms has made him hopelessly insane. Their power and speed push Spidey’s own to the limits until Octavius collapses part of the ceiling on top of the wall-crawler and pins him to the floor.

In another evocation of the early comics, this time Amazing Spider-Man #33, Spidey musters the strength to free himself and continue the battle. This time he uses his signature wit and banter (which Jackson excels at) to goad Octavius until he maneuvers his foe into thrusting one of his arms into a conduit, both shocking Octavius into unconsciousness and powering the generator down to save the city. The Fantastic Four arrive on the scene (with body doubles playing Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman seen only from behind) to find that Spider-Man defeated Octavius. After some playful banter with the Thing and Human Torch, Spidey slings off while the Fantastic Four take Octavius into custody.

The film ends with Peter returning to his mundane life, but now accepting the responsibility that comes with being Spider-Man. Mary-Jane is still with Harry, but Peter comes to terms with it. However, he pays a visit to Jameson before the credits roll with the Bugle publisher ranting at the web-slinger.

JAMESON: I’m going to nail you to a cross, you hear? When I’m done with you, you’ll--

SFX: TWIP!

(Extreme close-up shot of Jameson with his mouth webbed up.)

SPIDER-MAN: Ah, that’s much better. Catch you later, JJ. See you in the funny pages!

(Spider-Man slings away)

As something as bonus and foreshadowing, the film included a post-credits scene where a student played by Kirsten Dunst arrives in Doctor Curt Connors (played by Michael J. Fox in a special cameo) class late. “Ms. Stacy” takes her seat next to Peter after Dr. Connors chastises her and introduces herself as “Gwen.”

Needless to say that Spider-Man was a runaway hit for Fox, and even shattered the record Captain America set with a $122 million opening weekend gross. Though Matrix Reloaded broke that record two weeks later, Spider-Man remained a solid performer throughout its theatrical run with many hardcore fans and some casual moviegoers viewing it multiple times. Overall Wonder Woman: Underworld Unleashed and the Flash combined brought in a greater overall gross than Spider-Man, but only by a narrow margin. Marvel’s Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man was the undisputed king of superhero films for 2003.

Most critics and fans praised the film for being faithful to the comic books with Stan Lee himself on record for saying that it was his favorite Marvel film. Fox immediately greenlit two sequels: The Spectacular Spider-Man for 2005 and The Amazing Spider-Man for 2007 with Zemeckis and Gale at the helm. The inclusion of the Fantastic Four was something of a pleasant surprise. With the middling performance of the 1999 film, many industry observers believed the franchise to be dead in the water. Zemeckis had believed that Fox would deny his request to include them in the film and was surprised when the studio agree. It added to the “organic” feel of the film and jump-started rumours that Fox might have another go at Marvel’s first family.

While Fox was not exactly hurting for success with enough blockbusters (the X-Men franchise and Captain America) and above-average films (Fantastic Four, Iron Man) under its belt, Spider-Man cemented the Marvel Mediaverse as viable contender for the title. It gave the studio some much needed confidence as films like Daredevil, Incredible Hulk, and The Mighty Thor appeared on the slate and a sequel to Fantastic Four confirmed for 2006.

Indeed Fox was positioning itself for the next phase of the Superhero Wars as after six years of firing salvos at each other, Warner Bros would drop a tactical nuke with Justice League.

-Tales From The Superhero Wars, sequentialhistory.net, September 23, 2010