Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

RySenkari · Feb 2, 2017

The 2002 Tokyo Game Show was the only TGS this year, and companies brought out all their upcoming hits for the festivities. Nintendo, normally a no-show or a very small participant in TGS, had one of the year's biggest booths, and they were pushing their upcoming Wave system massively. The biggest game being shown at Nintendo's booth was the upcoming Squad Four: Upheaval, which had its first playable demo at the show. The demo only featured a small part of the world of Agaria, the planet that the squad is fighting to liberate in the game. Players could choose either Shad or Rebecca, and explore a small section of the planet, fighting several mercenary guards and trying out the game's control scheme. For those who played Rebellion, the controls are a bit similar, though each character now has context-sensitive fighting moves that can link to combos in battle. The graphics looked absolutely amazing, demonstrating the Wave's technical power. Each blade of grass waves independently, the sun glistens off the morning dew, and the character models are more detailed than most Xbox games. Squad Four: Upheaval is looking to be the Wave's marquee game next year, and there were long lines to play the game while we were over at Nintendo's booth. Other Wave games featured at the booth included Killer Instinct 3, Mario Kart: Double Dash, and a new Wave Race title: Wave Race: Blue Crest. Wave Race is expected to be a launch window game and got its first playable demo here as well, with most of the racers and tracks available to play. It's appropriate that Nintendo picked their new Wave Race game to help show off their new Wave console, and it too is graphically gorgeous, while the animation is far smoother and races move at a very rapid pace. Nintendo also had their new Zelda game at the show, but they were mostly demoing the same videos and screenshots that we've already seen. Alongside Nintendo at the show was Sony, showing off more of Gran Turismo 3. There wasn't much more of the game than we'd already seen, but the playable demo booth was still extremely crowded, and the visuals really wowed attendees.

The other big Nintendo game exhibited at TGS 2002 was the new Pokemon. Called Pokemon Alpha and Omega, the game takes place in a water-centric region, and will center around the concepts of life and death, framed in the games as growth and decay. The game was unveiled in CoroCoro Magazine last month, and five of the game's Pokemon were revealed, including the three starters (a grass-based gecko, a fire based chick, and a water based mudskipper) and the two version mascots (a massive tree-like Pokemon representing Yggdrasil, the world tree, and a black cloaked reaper Pokemon meant to represent decay and death). Nintendo showed off some footage of the game's graphics, which are a slight step up from Sun and Moon, though the game doesn't appear to be a wholesale rehaul like generation 2 was. Nintendo is using the game to introduce a few new concepts and a bunch of new Pokemon, and obviously to sell millions and millions of units to creature-starved Pokemaniacs. Nintendo has announced a release date for early next year, at least here in Japan.

As always, Squaresoft had one of the biggest booths at the show, and they were showing off Final Fantasy, including the upcoming Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy Online, both for the Nintendo Wave. Final Fantasy X looks to be one of the biggest changes for the series to date. The game is scrapping the longtime ATB combat system in favor of a slower, more strategic combat system in which players can see their characters' and enemies' upcoming turns at a glance. Two of the game's main characters have been revealed: a pirate captain named Lancet and a scientist named Aki. The game takes place on an archipelago inspired by the cultures of South Asia, and the plot revolves around strange entities called "Phantoms" and their connection to people and objects. Hiranobu Sakaguchi described the game's plot as a kind of "spiritual warfare" in which these Phantoms battle with one another for the souls of humankind. Aki specializes in studying these Phantoms, while Lancet is more of a fatalist who doesn't believe they can be controlled or influenced. In the game's playable demo, the player guides Lancet and Aki through a few battles and is introduced to the Spiritual System, in which benevolent spirits can be powered up in order to enhance the characters' stats. Square says that the game will be released in 2003, while Final Fantasy Online is expected to debut in 2004. Squaresoft also showed off more of their upcoming 2003 RPG Datacore, a cyberpunk action RPG in which a band of renegade hackers battle it out as the world around them comes apart via conflict and war. The game's combat combines elements of Parasite Eve and Secret Of Mana, and in the demo, three characters battled a large robotic boss. Squaresoft says that up to four people can play together at once. Another announcement was that Squaresoft's long awaited collaboration with Disney, titled Kingdom Hearts, will be coming to the Wave in 2004. Little else was shown except for a few screenshots showing a spiky-haired boy fighting alongside Donald Duck and Goofy. We're definitely excited to learn more about Kingdom Hearts in the months ahead. Squaresoft is still making games for the Ultra Nintendo, as Front Mission: Endgame was announced for an early 2003 release. And, of course, there are a number of high profile remakes coming to the Game Boy Nova, including Final Fantasy VI and Secret Of Mana. Secret Of Mana in particular is one of the most anticipated Nova ports to date. It's coming to Japan in April, and Squaresoft also has plans to bring the port to North America down the road. Final Fantasy VI and Secret Of Mana join Tale Phantasia and an upcoming Mother 1+2 compilation that look to make 2003 the year of RPG nostalgia on the Nova. We also got to check out Mystic Creature Cobalt, a Nova spin-off of the hit monster capturing game. In addition to returning old monsters and many new ones, we'll also be seeing classic Final Fantasy creatures such as the Moogle and Chocobo making their series debut.

Konami was another company with a big presence at TGS. The company's been riding high off the successful release of Metal Gear War in Japan, and has already announced two more Metal Gear games: Metal Gear Solid II for the Nintendo Wave, and a spinoff game for the Nova featuring one of the new characters revealed in Metal Gear War. We saw absolutely nothing of Metal Gear Solid II other than the announcement, but the new Nova game looked excellent, with VR Missions-style gameplay but at a less stealthy pace. Revealing the actual name of the game and the main character would be a big spoiler for War, but those of you who wish to be spoiled can read our sub-article about our experience with the game. Konami also revealed a new Contra title exclusive to the Microsoft Xbox. Called Shattered Soldier, the game features classic Contra gameplay but with fully 3-D graphics. When asked why the game would only appear on the Xbox, which few Japanese gamers own, director Nobuya Nakazato cited the Xbox's unique capabilities as inspiration for the game's design. We suspect that money was possibly involved. However, Konami's next installment in the Castlevania series will be exclusive to the Nintendo Wave. Castlevania: Belmont's Lament, which we saw at E3, takes the series into 3D for the first time, and looked absolutely gorgeous, with haunting environments and unique foes. Konami also showed off more of an upcoming Katana exclusive: Broken Hands, a 2-D fighter with 3-D graphics. Broken Hands, as the name would imply, features brutal hand to hand combat between highly detailed characters. These characters have not only been fleshed out graphically, but thematically as well: Konami is providing each character with a lengthy story mode and a complex backstory, making the player much more involved in their fights. We're thinking this might be to set the game apart from other upcoming fighting titles next year.

Speaking of upcoming fighting titles, Namco was all too eager to show off Soul Calibur II and Tekken 4. Players crowded around Namco's booth for the opportunity to play both games, which are set to appear on all three next-gen consoles and are coming along very nicely. Tekken 4 was announced as a launch game for the Wave, at least here in Japan, and it will be appearing on the Katana at the same time, while the Xbox version won't be coming until later on. Soul Calibur II, which features 24 fighters plus one console-exclusive fighter per system, looked incredible and might have been the game of the show. The fighting is improved from the original, which has already been considered by some to be the best fighting game of all time. We couldn't be more excited for Soul Calibur II, which is set to be a massive multiplatform hit. Tecmo showed off a few new games as well, including a pair of Xbox exclusives: a brand new Ninja Gaiden and a Dead or Alive spinoff featuring beach volleyball. While the babes of Dead or Alive are cute, we would've preferred the announcement of a new Tecmo Bowl game. Capcom was there too, showing off Devil May Cry 2, which looks as fast paced and pretty as the original, and will be coming to the three next gen consoles in 2003. They also teased an intriguing new title for 2004: a sci-fi beat 'em up in which human assassins are fired into enemy positions like bullets. Called XR: Human Weapon, the game was shown off only with a brief teaser video, but the crowd liked what it saw, and flocked to watch the teaser over and over again.

Enix was showing off several games, including the Revolution Alpha port to the Wave, but the game we liked best was the new Wave ActRaiser game. City building is as fun as ever, and players can view their cities from both a top-down, godlike perspective and a third person perspective as they walk through their creations (or occasionally fight in them). As for the game itself, combat retains its familiar ActRaiser feel, though it's now in a fully 3-D environment resembling a modern action RPG. Players control The Master as he roams environments, finds treasures, rescues humans and other creatures, and liberates territory from the forces of evil. It was a ton of a fun to play and brought back a lot of nostalgic memories. The Japanese release is coming in March 2003, and we hope we won't have to wait too long to play the game in North America. Telenet Japan announced their new Tale series title, Tale Valentia. The game takes place in a medieval realm of knights and swords, and will be released for the Wave in late 2003. Gameplay looks to be somewhat more complex than previous series titles, though we only got a brief video snippet of some of the combat action.

And then there was Sega. The Katana's sales in Japan have been steadily picking up, with Sonic Neon proving to be a major worldwide hit. Sega had nearly a dozen games on display at the show, including a new Virtua Quest and a new Vectorman, but the main three were Shenmue III, Knuckles and Bit, and a new Ecco the Dolphin title that features Ecco exploring a vast 3-D ocean. The Ecco title, which came as a surprise announcement and looked positively incredible, was maybe the biggest sleeper hit of the show, but we loved what we saw from Knuckles and Bit, which played like a combat-focused Sonic Neon. And Shenmue III, which was only teased but still drew an enormous crowd reaction, is likely to be one of the biggest hits of the year, at least here in Japan when it's released sometime late next year.

This year's Tokyo Game Show was easily the biggest in the event's history, and the companies gathered here brought out all of their best games for the occasion, holding very little back. The atmosphere was thick with excitement, and fans were clamoring at every big announcement that came from the many companies in attendance. We got a fantastic glimpse at the future of gaming, and players of all the major consoles should be extremely excited for the next two years.

-from an article posted on Gamepro.com on September 24, 2002

The Jovian · Feb 3, 2017

Greetings I'm the Jovian. With RySenkari's blessing I'll be posting a retrospective of the ITTL Command & Conquer franchise. I'll be posting one for every game chronologically released in the timeline so far and I'll do the rest when the TL gets to that point in time when they're released.

----

It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed since Westwood Studios released their magnum opus, Command & Conquer all the way back in 1995. I mean for me it feels like it was just yesterday when I first experienced the franchise for the first time when I booted up Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun for the first time and was treated to seeing James Earl Jones reacting to Joe Kucan's Kane saying that "you can't kill the messiah."

To me it really was a lifetime ago when Command & Conquer first came to be and to celebrate the fact that the franchise is still going strong after 20 years, 17 of which were under EA of all publishers, I'll be reviewing all of the Command & Conquer titles in order starting with the original, simply titled Command & Conquer.

Now the first game is very basic in terms of story, there isn't all that much to it, the plot is "defeat GDI" if you're playing as Nod or "defeat Nod" if you're playing as GDI. The overarching plot can be summed up as "Tiberuim happened, the opposition is trying to control this continent (Europe in the GDI campaign and Africa in the Nod campaign), go stop them." Sure the GDI campaign does have a mild twist where GDI's funding is cut by the UN when Nod frames them for war crimes but it really didn't have much of an impact and the resolution was the definition of "oh, was that it?" But then again, Nod's story really isn't any better, your mission is to rid Africa of GDI's presence and that's what you're doing, no twists, no turns (well unless you call Seth's obvious Starscream-ing to be a twist). By and large the story is a disposable framework from which you get the campaign missions.

The gameplay itself feels very archaic compared to Tiberian Sun and especially to Tiberian Insurrection. No power management button, no unit or structure queues, every building needs to be adjacent to every other one. It definitely took me a while to get used to it but once I did I was still loving every second of play and this still was Command & Conquer, a very primitive and larval form of Command & Conquer but Command & Conquer all the same. You build your base, build an army and you either steamroll the enemy or watch your forces break like water on a rock by the enemy's superior defenses, (especially if you're playing against Nod because their signature Obelisks of Light are just as powerful here as they were in TibSun and Insurrection). If you're feeling clever you build artillery and a commando to clear away the enemy defenses and infantry respectively so that your tank battalions have it easy.

If there's one thing about this game that hasn't aged well it's the FMV, it just feels really quaint compared to the epic presentation of the following titles, even Red Alert's FMVs had more going on in them than just a talking head giving you orders, which is what we have in this game, set against a very poorly aged CGI backdrop that is put to shame by Wing Commander 3's FMVs and that game came out two years earlier.

Don't get me wrong as much as I love watching Kane giving me orders (in no small part thanks to Joe Kucan's performance and the writing) the FMVs feel too claustrophobic and the poorly aged green-screen effects make the scene where Greg Burdette frames GDI for war crimes unintentionally hilarious because of how obviously fake the CGI backdrops are, I make no joke when I say that a matte painting would've looked more realistic.

As much as I can moan about how poorly the presentation has aged the gameplay is the main draw and the game does come complete with two campaigns and a whole bunch of other missions in the The Covert Operations expansion (which I'll discuss in a sec), Playing through all of them does take some time even after you get used to all the mechanical limitations, as some of them a really difficult, including the GDI mission where you're tasked with stealthing your commando in an enemy base and blowing a randomly determined building, which the game fails to point out which one. I almost considered not doing this retrospective just because of how much I struggled with this one level. It's that hard (or maybe I'm just that terrible at RTSes in general), and overall a nice robust length for an RTS campaign. Combined with a decent selection of skirmish and multiplayer maps and there's more than enough content for a first installment.

Then there was also the The Covert Operations expansion which really didn't offer much except for the missions, and again, when compared to how epic future expansions like Firestorm and Yuri's Revenge were, it feels very quaint and I'm glad that it now comes with every online copy of the game because it's not something that's worth the extra money.

Oh and there was also the SNES-CD port, I'm pretty sure nobody remembers it and I doubt the GameTV guys talked about it, I haven't played it personally but according to a friend of mine who has, it is a well polished, well made port. So I'm just going to take her word for it.

Overall there really isn't much to say about this one, Command & Conquer is the egg of the franchise's life cycle (with Red Alert being the caterpillar and TibSun / RA2 being the chrysalis from which the butterfly of Incursion / RA3 would emerge, and boy was that a drawn out metaphor). It's basic, the plot doesn't require an in-depth analysis that that games from TibSun onward will receive and the gameplay is very plain and vanilla compared to the more dynamic mechanics of future titles. I'm not sure if should recommend it to franchise newcomers but for those that have already played most of the games in the series, you should give it a try if only to see where it all began.

Also "Act on Instinct" (and by extension the rest of Frank Klepacki's epic soundtrack) still rocks. Give it a listen.

- The Jovian's Journal (30/08/2015) - Command & Conquer Retrospective (Part 1) - Command & Conquer (1995)

RySenkari · Feb 3, 2017

Grand Theft Auto: Miami

The sequel to the Xbox launch blockbuster Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: Miami is based on OTL's Vice City, and plays very similarly. Like OTL's game, it takes place in 1986, in a Miami full of crime, drugs, sex, and general debauchery. The main character is Tommy Vercetti, the same as OTL, though ITTL's game, the main villain isn't Sonny Forelli, but a ruthless Cuban drug lord named Emelio Cortez, based very closely on Tony Montana from Scarface. Ricardo Diaz is also present in the game, but serves as one of Cortez's lieutenants that Tommy defeats earlier in the story. The biggest change to gameplay from OTL's Vice City is the addition of the ability to swim, which aids Tommy greatly in the numerous speedboat chases he engages in. Lance Vance also returns in the story, and betrays Tommy as well, but in this game, he's working as an undercover cop, partnered with Cole Sanders (voiced by Don Johnson). The two characters are a deliberate homage to Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, from which TTL's game takes just as much inspiration from as OTL's. The city of Miami is divided into three segments that open up as the story plays out, with the size of the city being about twice as big as Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto. There are a total of 121 licensed songs in the game, all selected from the late 70s and 80s, from a variety of genres. About half of the song selections appeared in OTL's game, while the other half are exclusive to this game, including songs such as "Come On Eileen", "Kyrie", "Physical", and "Killed By Death". The game introduces numerous new weapons, though a notable absence from OTL Vice City is the katana. Tommy Vercetti is voiced by Joe Pantoliano, who didn't voice any characters in TTL's Grand Theft Auto like he did in OTL's Grand Theft Auto III. Overall, the game maintains the same high quality and fun gameplay as OTL's Vice City. It's planned from the beginning with a Wave port in mind, even though the exclusivity agreement would preclude a Wave port until at least 2003 (in truth, the game doesn't come to the Wave until spring 2004).

The plot holds many similarities with OTL's game, though Tommy Vercetti's path up the criminal world is less like Scarface and more like the original Grand Theft Auto, due to the presence of Cortez in the game. He is still assisted by the character Ken Rosenberg, and there's also a woman in the game who helps Tommy on a few early missions: Lola Anglio (voiced by Constance Marie). Lola is a bit of a femme fatale and is excellent with a sniper rifle, though she becomes the first major character to be killed off: her dead body ending up on Tommy's doorstep is the impetus of a mission about a third of the way through the game, the first sign that the Cubans are on to Tommy. Once again, Tommy must forge relationships with a number of gangs throughout the second half of the game, including the Haitians, the Mexicans, and the Mafia. He must also forge a relationship with a biker gang, similar to the one in OTL Vice City. Like OTL's game, the end of Vice City can't be reached until Tommy buys and operates a number of businesses throughout the city: in fact, this part of the game drags on even longer and has several frustrating missions toward the end, and there's not just one but two complicated and difficult driving missions Tommy must perform. Though this segment of the game is heavily criticized by players, it does little to detract from overall critical reception of the game, at least at the time (future critics wouldn't be as kind). The final battle of the game is similar to the Diaz mission from OTL, but somewhat more complex, as Tommy finally raids Cortez's mansion and takes him out in one final showdown. Tommy then confronts Cole and Lance after they show up to arrest him, but he successfully intimidates them into leaving his operation alone, and he becomes the undisputed kingpin of Miami.

Grand Theft Auto: Miami is an extremely successful game, selling much faster than the original due to the large number of Xboxes now in the hands of players. It's released on October 14, 2002, and cements the Xbox as the top sixth-generation system currently on the market, as a massive number of console sales accompany the release of the game. It's not without controversy for its violent and offensive content, and the fact that the game takes place in the real-world city of Miami only adds to the controversy. The mayor of Miami personally condemns the game, though more Miami area players per capita buy the game than almost any other American city, and there's more than one midnight release party for the game where loud "Fuck Mayor Diaz" chants break out, leading to even more controversy... leading to even more sales. Reviews are excellent, if SLIGHTLY lower than OTL Vice City due to the difficulty and tedium of the final missions of the game. It's considered one of the best games of the year, and wins many Game of the Year awards for 2002.

-

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower is a WRPG produced by Microsoft and developed by Bioware, released exclusively for the PC and the Xbox. The game is based on Stephen King's acclaimed Western fantasy book series, namely the first four books, with elements of the fifth book, which was released in June 2002 ITTL, included. The game allows the player to create his or her own character, which can inhabit up to 12 different primary classes, including the Gunslinger class, similar to the protagonist of the book series, Roland Deschain. Roland can actually be encountered by the player character during the story, though it's not toward the end and it's entirely optional whether or not he is encountered, he plays no physical role in the main story of the game. Gameplay is a mix of third person shooter elements and OTL Knights of the Old Republic, creating a game that almost plays like a proto OTL Fallout 3, with turn-based combat blended with third person shooter gameplay depending on the situation. This creates a sort of "epic feel" to certain battles where turn based combat is used, making every shot, spell, or blow count. The exploration is centered around settlements. There's a great deal of wandering, but the vast majority of the game's actual missions are given out in towns that the player visits. The player can also establish their own settlements, which is the only way to make certain missions appear (indeed, part of the main quest line requires the player to assist in the founding of their own settlement). The game, like the book series, blends fantasy and Western elements with some horror elements: there are numerous allusions to King's works, some of which don't appear in the novels themselves. There's a certain quest line where the player slips through a rift and enters the town of Desperation, for example. The game also briefly alludes to the short story "The Body", which the film Stand By Me was based on.

The game's main plot involves the player character, who comes to be known as the Fate-Weaver, as this character has the ability to bind together the fates of those they encounter along the way. The Fate-Weaver is asked to procure water, food, and materials for a settlement called Dream's End, a seemingly peaceful town full of good people in the middle of a vast wasteland of desperation and fear. As the Fate-Weaver journeys, they come to hear a legend of the "man in black", who is threatening the people of Dream's End. The young mayor of Dream's End, a 20-something woman named Mercuria, tells the Fate-Weaver that this man visits her in her dreams and tortures her. Progressing through the main quest line causes events to become increasingly disjointed. More rifts open, characters disappear and appear suddenly, and the world begins to make less and less sense. The Fate-Weaver learns that their repeated journeys to Dream's End are causing fate itself to slip out of balance, and causing dreams to become reality. Eventually, this causes a massive rift to open underneath Dream's End, destroying the city in spectacular fashion. Mercuria disappears, said by the lone survivor of Dream's End to have been taken to a mysterious castle by the Man in Black. As the Fate-Weaver progresses through this castle, they encounter numerous incarnations of the Man in Black, including Walter o'Dim, Marten Broadcloak, and of course, Randall Flagg. In the end, however, the Fate-Weaver encounters Mercuria, and learns that Mercuria is yet another incarnation of Flagg. She reveals that the Fate-Weaver is so called because their fate is intertwined with another, which is implied to be the player. She reveals that the Fate-Weaver is simply one of an infinite number of people who have come to this place before, and displays a number of random player avatars completing various tasks that the player has accomplished during the course of the game. The player then engages Mercuria/Flagg in combat, in which Mercuria/Flagg utilizes a number of fourth-wall shattering tricks in an attempt to disturb the player. The final boss fight is essentially the Psycho Mantis fight from Metal Gear Solid on steroids: Mercuria mentions the player's favorite television shows, books, and even their friends depending on how much personal information the player has provided to their Xbox over time. Eventually, though, Mercuria is defeated, and Flagg appears, gravely wounded. He tells the player directly that this isn't over, that as long as a spark of evil remains in the minds of twisted humanity, that he will return and cause more death and pain. He then falls into an abyss. In the game's ending, the Fate-Weaver seems consumed with despair, but is given solace by a figure that takes the form of the character that the Fate-Weaver has done the most good for during the game. He/she tells the Fate-Weaver that they've done a lot of good in the world, and that it takes a truly bright light to find hope and pleasure in a world consumed with such darkness. There are some variations on this ending: if the Fate-Weaver has been mostly evil, they don't despair at all in the game's ending, and in some cases, return directly to the world to cause more mayhem (in which case the game compares the player to Stephen King himself). There's also a "golden ending" in which Mercuria herself appears to the player, separated completely from Randall Flagg and allowed to begin life anew at the Fate-Weaver's side. This ending requires a number of conditions and side-quests to be completed, and the game's developers estimate that less than 1% of first time players reach this ending without the help of a guide. Most endings have the Fate-Weaver returning to the world to continue their quest: though it is now a quest without purpose, the Fate-Weaver can surely find a way to draw purpose from nothing.

The Dark Tower was released on the PC on April 13, 2002, and on the Xbox on October 28, 2002. Both versions were highly praised by reviewers, with the Xbox version containing numerous fixes and patches applied to the PC game after release. Though the PC version featured superior graphics, the Xbox version of the game features excellent graphics as well, probably the best to date in a console JRPG. The reviews ARE a bit polarized: though there's a high floor for the game (about 8.0/10), not all reviewers considered it a truly "great" game, with a few stating that it's just impossible for a game, even one as big as this one, to contain all the nuances and elements that made the novels so great. However, some reviewers considered The Dark Tower among the greatest games of all time, with Gamespot awarding it a 10/10 and calling it "among the two or three best games ever made, bar none". Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a Gold award: two of its reviewers gave it a perfect 10, while another gave it an 8. Stephen King himself, who helped to write the game's story and was involved in the development process as a consultant, said he was "proud" of his work, but that he understood if people didn't like it. Overall, sales were very strong. The PC game had some of the best sales numbers of the year, while the Xbox version, though not a megahit like Grand Theft Auto, still reached a million sales fairly quickly and would be a multi-million selling game by the time everything was said and done. The Dark Tower was, notably, the first modern WRPG to be considered the console RPG of the year by a plurality of reviewers, after JRPGs had dominated the console RPG landscape since the release of Phantasy Star on the Master System. It was the beginning of what would become a growing trend in console gaming: the rise of the WRPG, as consoles got powerful enough to contain the massive worlds required of them.

-

"One thing I learned in helping to develop the video game version of The Dark Tower is that making video games is hard. It's not like in that dumbass commercial, where all you have to do is 'tighten up the graphics'. It's legitimately one of the most difficult forms of art to create, and those people who worked on programming the game, those guys are heroes. All I did was give suggestions and help work on the story. Writing novels is hard too, I can attest to that. But those guys who make the games, they're working their asses off, and most of the time it's pretty thankless. I'm going to get more credit for making The Dark Tower video game than 99 percent of the people who worked on it combined, and that's really not fair."
-Stephen King, discussing the video game version of The Dark Tower in an exclusive G4 interview with Bill Sindelar and Ted Crosley in the leadup to the release of the Xbox port

-

Ultra Nintendo, Xbox Sales Strong In October

Both the Ultra Nintendo and Microsoft's Xbox console saw strong sales in the month of October, bolstered by the releases of major games for both systems. Super Mario Ranger, released on September 30, helped Ultra Nintendo sales climb to their best levels since June, and helped the console to once again take the worldwide crown in terms of overall units sold by a few thousand units over the Xbox. However, Microsoft's Xbox was easily king in North America, with more than double the units sold of the Ultra Nintendo. The dual releases of megahits Grand Theft Auto: Miami and The Dark Tower helped the Xbox to its strongest North American sales month to date, with over 800,000 units sold in the United States and Canada. Grand Theft Auto: Miami sold more than a million units during the calendar month, while The Dark Tower climbed over 200,000 sales in its first day of release.

Meanwhile, the Katana's sales continue to drop: while the system was #1 in terms of units sold in Japan, its North American sales dropped steadily: only 140,000 units sold in North America during the month of October, after seeing a strong rebound in sales in August and September thanks to the release of Sonic Neon. Sega expects strong sales numbers during the holiday season, but industry analysts aren't so sure, and though Sega's overall profits are strong, this is mostly on the strength of the company's toy sales, which rose 37% during the fiscal year, bolstered by sales of anime tie-in toys and toys based on the company's game properties.

-from an article posted on Gamespot.com on November 10, 2002

RySenkari · Feb 4, 2017

Here's Electronic Gaming Monthly's list of their favorite 100 video games of all time, listed in their January 2002 issue. Only games from before September 1, 2001 were ranked, so no Xbox games.

This is the OTL list: https://sunriseblvd.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/egms-100-best-games-ever/

-

Metroid: Darkness
Tetris
Squad Four: Rebellion
Super Mario Dimensions
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
Super Metroid
The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Street Fighter II: Arcade Edition
Chrono Infinite
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
Super Mario World 2
The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Secret Of Mana
Tetris Attack
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Galaga
Final Fantasy VI
The Legend Of Zelda
Castlevania: The Occulted Circle
Metal Gear Solid
Gunstar Heroes
The Longest Journey
Super Mario World
Soul Calibur
Final Fantasy VII
Half-Life
Goldeneye 007
Chrono Trigger
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Super Mario Bros.
Universalizer
Yoshi's Island
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Contra
Dragon Force
Terranigma
Ballistic Limit
Gran Turismo 2
White Mountain 2
NFL 2K1
Final Fantasy V
Ninja Gaiden II
World Of Color: Millennium
Strider
Vectorman
Shenmue
Commander Keen: Mars' Most Wanted
Doom
Squad Four: Eclipse
Herzog Zwei
Metroid
Snatcher
Ys I and II
Super Castlevania IV
Saturn Bomberman
Pokemon Sun And Moon
Ms. Pac-Man
Madden NFL 2002
NCAA Football 2002
NiGHTS Into The Labyrinth...
Virtua Fighter 4
NHL 2K2
Super Mario Bros. 2
Quixsters Nova
Velvet Dark
Skies Of Arcadia
Tale Phantasia
Vintage Speed Series
Super Mario Kart
Killer Instinct Ultra
Resident Evil 2
Dragon Warrior V
Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain
Sonic The Hedgehog 4
Tales Of The Seven Seas: The Victorian Legacy
Final Fantasy VIII
Valor
Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link
Phantasy Star Online
Phantasy Star II
World Of Color
Quake III Arena
The Lost Vikings
Fire Emblem: The False Princess
ActRaiser: Valkyrie
Dragon Quest V
Axelay
Guardian Heroes
Ultima: The Worldly Lord
Mega Man 2
Fairytale
Meteora
Super Squadron X
Spare Parts
The Darkest Night

Neoteros · Feb 6, 2017

Pokemon Master said:
Who's won the past few Super Bowls ITTL?

Just for fun, the winners of the Serie A from 1991 to 2002. It's not canon unless @Nivek and @RySenkari say it is.

1990-1991 Sampdoria (OTL: Sampdoria)
1991-1992 Milan (OTL: Milan)
1992-1993 Parma (OTL: Milan)
1993-1994 Milan (OTL: Milan)
1994-1995 Juventus (OTL: Juventus)
1995-1996 Milan (OTL: Milan)
1996-1997 Parma (OTL: Juventus)
1997-1998 Juventus (OTL: Juventus)
1998-1999 Lazio (OTL: Milan)
1999-2000 Lazio (OTL: Lazio)
2000-2001 Roma (OTL: Roma)
2001-2002 Roma (OTL: Juventus)

The butterflies are minimal (all the teams that won a championship they didn't actually win were either overachieving Leicester-like teams, like Parma in 1993, or teams that could've won if they hadn't lost even just a couple of matches, like Roma in 2002) so it must be somewhat plausible. I'm not a football fan, but I hope than in this ATL the OTL slide into mediocrity and the dominance of the big three in general and Juventus in particular will be avoided, even though the Bosman ruling and the typically Italian distrust of the youth and short-sightedness of the local football big wigs are hard to avoid.

Despite hating the whole professional football circus, I've always thought that at least in Italy, the Serie A is a mirror of society as a whole, since the same kinds of people, with the same mentality, make all the important decisions both in the world of sports and in politics - Berlusconi is just the most obvious example.

Neoteros · Feb 6, 2017

RyderWest said:
Does Manchester United Champion's League final victory still happen?

Should I do the Champions' League, too? Okay...

1990-1991 Red Star Belgrade (OTL: Red Star Belgrade)
1991-1992 Sampdoria (OTL: Barcelona)
1992-1993 Marseille (OTL: Marseille)
1993-1994 Milan (OTL: Milan)
1994-1995 Ajax (OTL: Ajax)
1995-1996 Ajax (OTL: Juventus)
1996-1997 Borussia Dortmund (OTL: Borussia Dortmund)
1997-1998 Juventus (OTL: Real Madrid)
1998-1999 Dynamo Kyiv (OTL: Manchester United)
1999-2000 Real Madrid (OTL: Real Madrid)
2000-2001 Leeds United (OTL: Bayern Munich)
2001-2002 Bayer Leverkusen (OTL: Real Madrid)

Dynamo and Leeds winning is borderline ASB I know but, why not. The serious butterflies in the footballing world might start with the 2002 World Cup, since in OTL it began where the TL itself began. People who know more about football than I do are free to give their own opinion about how would football be like in the Player Two Start/Massively Multiplayer universe: it'd be nice to have the rest of the world (that isn't western Europe and South America) more prominent, since (for example) some of the most infamous butterflies that affected American Football in ATL might've swayed more people towards soccer in the US and maybe Canada too since it's so culturally and geographically close. East Asia and Oceania are promising as well, Africa... they've always had great players (Senegal in 2002 was the shit, nothing like seeing a Third World country beat their former colonizer on the first match of a tournament) but the Maghreb countries and Egypt are perennial underachievers outside of their home continent, and the "black" part of Africa, well, they aren't exactly swimming in money. South Africa's okay but it's a rugby country.

RySenkari · Feb 6, 2017

(Neoteros, those football updates are fine, I don't see any problems with the Serie A and Champions League winners you posted, so if Nivek signs off we'll go ahead and make those canon. Thanks for the contribution!)

-

Dick

Dick is a satirical comedy/detective/3-D platformer game developed by Rare exclusively for the Ultra Nintendo. The game had been promoted heavily by Rare since early 2001 and was originally intended as a spring 2002 release, but due to development on Velvet Dark: Synthesis taking more resources than expected, the game was pushed back to the end of the year. The game is an M-rated spoof of both detective games and video games in general, and stars a down-on-his luck private investigator named Dick Gumshoe. Dick spends much of his days solving petty crimes and drinking his sorrows away. The game itself takes the form of a film noire type environment sometime in the 1930s, in Shadow City (a sort of mix of Chicago and New York). It generally plays like a 3-D platformer (it has the same engine as Conker's Twelve Tales), and Dick has the ability to run, jump, shoot, use melee attacks, or use the action button to talk or activate puzzles. The game's puzzle elements are a heavy part of gameplay, as numerous times throughout the game, Dick will have to hunt for clues or interrogate witnesses. These interrogations are generally humorous, and Dick can use a number of tactics to get answers (interrogations generally play out like a simplified, humorous version of the interrogations from OTL's L.A. Noire). The puzzles take a number of forms, but they're usually fairly simple as well. Many of them are adapted from puzzles found in classic detective games, though with more context clues. While the player is solving these puzzles or finding clues, Dick will make a number of humorous comments, many of them breaking the fourth wall in some way. If the player is taking a lot of time to solve a puzzle, Dick will begin to insult the player, though he'll usually offer up more clues at the same time. The game also has some shooting elements, though this is very simplified shooting: Dick can lock onto an enemy and fire his weapon. It's always the same weapon, a standard revolver, though Dick can run out of bullets and he'll either have to buy or find more. The game has a number of collectables, all of them optional except for the "clues", which serve a similar role in this game as stars in Mario platformers: find enough clues and Dick will solve another part of the case, allowing the player to move on with the story. There are a number of options for Dick to find clues, so you're never stuck having to do only one thing unless it's a mandatory story mission (which usually comes up immediately after a new chapter starts or immediately before the end of a chapter). This allows the player to take a number of approaches in gathering clues: if the player is good at detective games already, there's the option to do puzzle missions, while if the player is better at standard platformers or action titles, they can do a more action-oriented mission. Dick can gather clues by helping citizens with smaller cases as well, such as finding a lost cat or rescuing a kidnapped person or solving a bank robbery. The gameplay blends elements of the 3-D platfomer and detective genres really seamlessly (one of the things it's most highly praised for). The game's graphics are quite cartoony, similar to the sort of graphics one would find in a Conker title, only with an all-human cast. The music is composed by David Wise, while the voice acting is performed by a mix of American and British actors, with Simon Pegg playing the voice of Dick himself (using an American accent, but with excellent comic timing that critics highly praise). The rest of the cast consists mostly of unknowns, though Grey Delisle, who's only just starting to become a prolific voice actress, does double duty as the voices of femme-fatale Laura and Mr. Big's daughter Katherine. Despite the game's cartoony look, it's definitely considered a hard M-rated game. Compared to Grand Theft Auto, there's little blood (though blood does spurt out for a moment when someone is shot in the game), but there's definitely a good amount of sexual content (no real nudity, but still some very raunchy stuff), and an extreme amount of foul language and sexual innuendo. The game's title, Dick, refers to four different meanings of the word: the detective's name, the slang term for a detective, the slang term for a contemptible person, and a slang term for the male anatomy. Other sexual innuendos include a family of criminals with the last name Arso (which Simon Pegg always reverts to his British accent when he says the name) who play a major role in the story, leading to the name being mentioned dozens of times throughout the game. Nintendo themselves mostly shy away from promoting the game (it gets VERY little coverage in Nintendo Power), though the game does get primetime advertisements on networks like Comedy Central (the fifth season of Battlebots is sponsored by the game for a few episodes).

The plot begins when Dick is visited by a beautiful woman named Laura, who asks Dick to help her find a bunch of jewels that have gone missing. Dick is hoping to earn enough money so that he can hire a prostitute (he also repeatedly flirts with Laura, who wants nothing to do with him romnatically), so he takes the case. Along the way, he encounters a gang of ruthless jewel thieves who immediately become his top suspects. He also runs into two crime gangs dueling for control of Shadow City: the Big crime syndicate, led by stereotypical Godfather-like figure Mr. Big, and the Arso family. While the Big crime syndicate is ruthless in their control of the city, they also have a code of honor, while the Arsos have cheated, lied, and stolen their way to the top. Meanwhile, Dick also meets Katherine, the beautiful daughter of Mr. Big, who actually does seem to have romantic interest in Dick. She wants him to protect her from her father, who she says controls everything she does. Most of the early game is spent hunting down the jewel thieves one by one. There are six in all, each with a peculiar humorous quirk. Dick hunts down and kills the first three before he gets a serious lead on the jewels: they may be in possession of the Arso family. Dick eventually finds Harry, the Arso family patriarch, but Dick and Harry find common ground, and despite Harry's unscrupulous nature, the two end up being friends. Dick also makes friends with an underground bootlegger named Tom, who gives Dick a number of leads throughout the game. Dick takes out the next two jewel thieves before learning that the final jewel thief and the leader of their gang is actually Katherine, the daughter of Mr. Big. Furthermore, Dick comes to learn that Katherine and Laura are sisters, and that the jewels Laura lost belong to the Big family: they're known as the "Family Jewels". Without the Family Jewels, the Big crime syndicate doesn't have the financial backing to pay their muscle. Laura has been estranged from her family for some time, because she thinks her family needs to go legit, while Katherine has been trying to double-cross her father in order to take control of the city's crime herself. Dick actually trusts Katherine until a late-game mission in which Laura is kidnapped by men who Dick believes is working for Mr. Big. Instead, Dick learns that Katherine has actually kidnapped her own sister and wants to take out Dick and Laura at the same time. Dick defeats Katherine in an elaborate boss fight, but when it comes time for Dick to apprehend Katherine, she uses her agility (from years of being a jewel thief) to beat the crap out of Dick, and it's Laura who has to save the day by pushing her own sister into a vat of acid. Dick asks Laura if she feels bad about killing her own sister, but Laura is comically dismissive of the whole thing, telling Dick she always hated her. However, in the aftermath, one of Mr. Big's men, a ratlike thug named Twitches who makes numerous appearances throughout the game, has made off with the jewels and has returned to Mr. Big. The game's final level involves Dick raiding Mr. Big's headquarters and taking him out once and for all. Laura claims the jewels and vows to turn her father's former criminal empire into a legitimate business: the biggest brothel Shadow City has ever seen. However, when Dick asks if he can be the first customer (with the money Laura paid him for getting back the jewels), she shows Dick her prices and they're way too expensive for him. Then she tosses him out on his ass. However, Dick is able to pay for a prostitute from a nearby alley. The final line of the game takes place while Dick and the prostitute are conducting business in Dick's office (with accompanying creaking noises). The prostitute asks Dick if he's ready, he says yes, she says "let's see it", and then... "Is that it? Wow, I don't think I've ever seen such a little-"... followed by the game's title logo. The credits then roll, accompanied by Hall and Oates' "Private Eyes".

The critical reception for Dick is overwhelmingly positive: it's easily one of the Ultra Nintendo's top rated games of the year. The mix of platforming action, fun puzzles, and copious humor makes the game a hit with reviewers and players alike, who consider the well-polished game worth the wait. Sales are strong, even considering the game's content. It had a lot of anticipation built up for it, and though Nintendo largely shies away from marketing the game as a massive holiday hit, word of mouth and internet/magazine advertising generate enough buzz that it still becomes a big seller after its release on October 21, 2002. Though the demand for a sequel is there, Rare ultimately declines to revisit the franchise, though the character himself makes cameos in future games. When asked why a sequel to Dick was never made, Chris Seavor explains that "this game for us was a one-time thing. We caught lightning in a bottle, and we've never been confident that we'd catch it again. We're glad that the reception to Dick was so positive, but we hope everyone can be all right with just the one game. We've moved on." Dick does show that Nintendo remains committed to producing games for adults, and that those games can be excellent sellers if properly done.

-

Carpathia

Carpathia is an action/adventure/platformer title developed by Sony for the Ultra Nintendo. The game had a very long development time: the original concept was created in 1998, the game was announced in 1999, and hit a large number of snags, delays, and even re-imaginings before finally being completed in 2002. It takes the form of an adventure game with some similarities to the 3-D Zelda titles and some similarities to games like the OTL Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and the TTL Sarasvati. The gameplay is fairly simple: the protagonist, initially known as The Lost Boy but eventually gaining a name once the player finds out more about him, can run, jump, climb, or wield a weapon. The Lost Boy starts out with a stick he picks up (and which is capable of breaking), but will eventually find other weapons, including a sword, which he can use to attack enemies, who appear fairly infrequently. Much of the gameplay involves exploration, and as the Lost Boy explores, more of the world will become open to him. There are puzzles in the game, though they're usually not very complex, and most of the game's "puzzles" revolve around the act of exploration, of finding or discovering something. Gameplay is fairly non-linear, not in a Metroidvania backtracking sense, but in the sense that certain parts of the world will open up and give the Lost Boy an option about where to go next: does he want to visit a temple that just appeared, or explore a town of strange creatures? Either option will provide a way forward, though he can go back and take the path not traveled if the player so chooses. The game features some of the best graphics available on the Ultra Nintendo to date, with beautiful environments that have an almost art-like quality to them: Carpathia is known as one of the games that pushes the Ultra Nintendo to its very limit in terms of technical prowess, with a proto cel-shaded look that makes the game more timeless than a lot of sixth-generation games. The music consists of an orchestral score with instruments that change depending on the mood or the scenery: there are songs and variations to songs and dozens of short musical cues, with moments of silence interspersed. There's also voice acting: some of the creatures the boy meets are able to speak, and though at first the Lost Boy is silent (he's actually unable to talk, he doesn't have his voice at the start of the game), once he regains his voice he is able to speak and he's voiced by a previously unknown child actor (who wasn't famous IOTL) who later voices other video games and cartoons later on. The game is rated T for Teen: despite its somewhat family-friendly premise, there's a decent amount of violence and some thematic scary moments that earn the game a Teen rating (had E10+ existed in 2002 TTL, it would have been given that rating).

When Carpathia begins, a boy who at first is known as the Lost Boy appears atop a cold, snowy mountain. He looks for shelter and eventually finds it in a cave, but this cave turns out to be vast, and massive, and the Lost Boy ends up exploring it for a while. Once he's through the cave, he realizes he's no longer on the mountain, but instead he's in a huge, grassy field. He continues to explore until he finds a village of friendly bear-like creatures who are about his size but much older and wiser, and they ask him to help him vanquish a big monster for them. The boy doesn't have to fight alone: the creatures help him, and together they defeat the monster. The boy is rewarded with some memories of who he is, though he can't piece together his identity just yet. Eventually, after exploring for some time longer, he regains his voice. A bit more exploring and he can remember his name: Aaron. More memories come to Aaron as he explores even more strange lands: a desert, an ancient ruin, even a vast ocean aboard a hostile pirate ship. As Aaron continues to explore, he gets back more and more of his memories. He remembers his family, and about 75% of the way through the game, he completely regains his identity: he lives in an American city, in our modern day world. He had a terrible fight with his twin sister, and as he was sleeping, his bed, his room, and then Aaron himself got sucked into a huge rift. He felt himself being torn apart, then he woke up on the mountain. Regaining his memories causes Aaron to have somewhat of a breakdown, and he collapses. He's saved by some of the people and creatures he met along the way, and they help him to keep going. The game's final level is Parallel City: a shadow version of the city in which Aaron lives. He explores the city until he finds his house, and then his room....his room is like nothing else in the city. Instead of being dark and silhouetted, Aaron's room is completely intact and normal in this parallel world. He is compelled by a mysterious voice to look in his sister Sasha's room. In Sasha's room, he finds a diary. Sasha's diary. He reads it....she wished that he went away and never came back. Then mysterious dark tentacles emerge from Sasha's diary, ensnaring him. Aaron is taken before the Lord of Oblivion, who tells Aaron that Sasha's wish brought him here and that he's never coming back. Aaron has to find a way to get free and call out to Sasha. As he is trying to reach her through the darkness, he remembers the fight. He and Sasha both said horrible things to each other. Finally, Aaron is able to reach her, but he can't directly contact her, he has to guide Sasha to his room in the real world. This segment, which is intended to make the player sympathize with Aaron's feeling of helplessness, has an element of frustration to it, as the player can't directly control Sasha but can only subtly influence her. However, there's no element of luck to it: if the player follows the contextual clues, they'll be successful. Sasha reaches Aaron's room but realizes it's gone. She revokes her wish, only for her to be ensnared as well. Aaron and Sasha have to reach across the void to one another and hold hands in order to begin restoring Aaron and his room back to the real world. However, the Lord of Oblivion is trying his hardest to claim them both, leading to a somewhat unique final boss fight in which the player alternates between controlling Aaron and directly attacking the Lord of Oblivion, and controlling Sasha and indirectly helping to fight him. Once the Lord of Oblivion is sufficiently weakened, Aaron and Sasha can clasp hands across the void, and in that instant, Aaron and his room are snapped back to reality. When they emerge, neither of them remember what happened but are still holding hands, and the two of them apologize to each other for their fight and hug. As they do, Sasha's diary can be seen on the floor, her wish disappearing from its pages.

Carpathia is released in Japan in November 2002 and in North America and Europe on December 2nd. It's considered another of the Ultra Nintendo's best games of the year, despite all the delays and production problems. Its non-conventional approach to the 3-D action genre makes it a critical darling, while sales of the game are very strong, ultimately making it one of the Ultra Nintendo's top platformers of the year behind Super Mario Ranger.

-

November 1, 2002

Katsuya Eguchi had just gotten the early sales figures for Dick in North America. Though he wasn't fond of the game's adult content, he had to admit that it was an extremely well made game and very fun to play, on par with Rare's usual work. He was glad that Nintendo had locked up Rare as a second party until at least 2005, and he knew Hiroshi Yamauchi was considering having Nintendo buy the company outright...though the more excellent games they were producing, the higher the asking price would probably be. The key to the game's success, Eguchi knew, had been the willingness of the team at Rare to delay the game several months in order to complete the needed work. The result had been a game with very few bugs and very few flaws, and Sony's Carpathia, which was days away from its Japanese launch, was the same way: despite the long lead time, the game was extraordinarily well made and would be a huge hit.

The successes of Dick and Carpathia were making Eguchi start to re-consider his decision to rush the next Mario game into development. Great games needed time to come together. His late boss, the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto, had known that. Miyamoto-san was always willing to give a game more time, even if fans and top Nintendo brass were chomping at the bit for it to be completed faster. Had Miyamoto not gotten his way on Super Mario World 2 (which Yamauchi was begging Miyamoto to rush the game for the system's launch), it may not have been the system-selling blockbuster it was, and the relationship between Nintendo and Sony could be looking a lot different.

Now, Eguchi was seated at Hiroshi Yamauchi's desk. He was there to discuss the next Mario game, along with Mario Kart: Double Dash!, which was about to go gold in time to make the Wave's Japanese launch on December 16, 2002. He'd seen Double Dash, and it was a very pretty game, a logical step up from Ultra Mario Kart. It would sell extremely well.

"Eguchi, you wish to discuss the new Mario Kart with me?" asked Yamauchi.

"I think that we should reconsider launching the new Mario Kart with the Wave," said Eguchi. "I think it may need more time."

Yamauchi folded his hands under his chin. He'd heard from some members of the development team that the game had a few problems. Some of the tracks were rather plain. Items weren't properly balanced. There were game-breaking shortcuts that developers hadn't intended to be there. The game wasn't "broken", per se...but it wasn't polished, either, and it certainly wasn't up to the high standards that Ultra Mario Kart had set for the franchise.

"We need a Mario game at launch," said Yamauchi. "We've always launched our home consoles with a Mario Kart game, ever since the Super Famicom CD. It will be two years before the new Mario action game, we need to give them something."

"Just a few more months," said Eguchi. "I think maybe a spring 2003 release for Japan and a fall 2003 release for other territories would be the best thing for Double Dash. We have plenty of launch titles. Killer Instinct 3 is going to be huge."

"We're not launching with Killer Instinct 3 in Japan," said Yamauchi. "Rare needs more time for that game. If we don't launch with Mario Kart, we won't have a first party launch title at all. Our biggest launch title will be a Capcom game. We cannot sell systems with a Capcom game."

Eguchi started to mention how well Street Fighter II had sold Super Famicom systems, but he kept his mouth shut, as he could tell that Yamauchi was in a stern mood.

"Mario Kart: Double Dash! is going gold this week and that is my final decision," said Yamauchi. "Is there anything else you want to discuss?"

Eguchi shook his head, declining to bring up what he'd originally wanted to discuss: that his team needed more than two years to produce the next Mario platformer. Work had already begun, and now Eguchi would just have to push the team harder.

There was something else, the hidden elephant in the room. The Ultra Nintendo was still the best selling console in the world. It was scraping by the Xbox and smashing the Katana...this, despite being massively behind them both technologically and having been in the market for five years. They'd sold more than 110 million total units and yet the demand for new Ultra Nintendo systems was still there. Eguchi had privately pondered the wisdom of releasing the Wave when the Ultra Nintendo was doing so well...but ultimately it was Ken Kutaragi who'd pushed the idea of a new system. Nintendo had to stay ahead of their competitors, they couldn't risk falling behind. There'd still be Ultra Nintendo games. There were new Ultra Nintendo games scheduled for 2004. The system would still sell...but now that Nintendo was moving on, sales would inevitably slow. This, Eguchi knew, would be the Ultra Nintendo's last big holiday.

Gunpei Yokoi had retired. Shigeru Miyamoto was gone. The two men who might've kept the Ultra Nintendo alive perhaps just a year longer were no longer able to lend their voices to the company.

And yet...the Wave was already making a splash in the market. Analysts were beginning to comment on how the Wave could potentially be the thing keeping Xbox and Katana sales down: people were waiting for the Wave rather than buy one of the other two next-generation systems out on the market. If the Wave wasn't on the way, maybe both of those systems would be selling twice as much, maybe the Ultra Nintendo would be third with its successor not on the way until the end of 2003. Eguchi and Yamauchi both remembered that difficult 1997 before the Ultra Nintendo's launch, when the Saturn was on top of the world. Maybe that's what was driving Yamauchi's decision, and not Ken Kutaragi.

"I'm...sorry for wasting your time, sir," said Eguchi, starting to stand.

"It's all right," Yamauchi replied. "Honestly, part of me wants to hold Mario Kart back too. But we can't risk blowing this launch and giving Sega another chance to get back into the fight. Not to mention Microsoft...whatever they're doing over there is working, and that's why we've got to stay on our toes. We've got no choice, we've got to launch Mario Kart with the Wave. It's a fine game. It's Mario Kart. It will sell."

Eguchi nodded, but a part of him remembered when Yamauchi would have listened to him... but those days, it seemed, died with Shigeru Miyamoto. He stood up, bowed to Yamauchi, and left the room.

"I know it will sell," thought Eguchi as he stepped out into the hallway. "But...will it sell enough?"

RySenkari · Feb 7, 2017

Arbiter Of Sin 3

The first and only Arbiter Of Sin game to be released for the Katana, Arbiter Of Sin 3 follows up the hugely successful and hugely controversial Arbiter Of Sin 2. Despite the enormous bad will toward the franchise generated by the game being seen as the inspiration for the Valentine's Day Massacre, Sega pushes forward with their third Arbiter Of Sin title, which features enhanced graphics and essentially the same gameplay as the first two games: ultra-violent FPS gameplay, with a bit more exploration and larger (though fewer levels). Mitch Atwater returns as the game's protagonist, though he returns with a new companion: Krysta Sicora, younger sister to Shade, who was freed by Blade as part of his deal with the devil in the previous game. Krysta is deeply mentally and emotionally scarred from her time with Blade, and fears her sister is enduring the same ordeal as her. Mitch is determined to rescue Shade, at first not caring about the impending Armageddon, though he is dragged into the fighting soon enough. Arbiter Of Sin 3 takes place mostly on Earth during the hellish End of Days, when the forces of heaven and hell are battling it out for control of the universe. Mitch seeks revenge on Blade as well. Blade is working as Lucifer's top lieutenant and has been given a powerful new demonic body. He keeps Shade at his side as his Satanic bride, though she continues to try and fight against his control. Meanwhile, after the defeat of Michael in the previous game, God's forces are being led by a new angel: Seraphim, a ruthless but surprisingly humble angel who has no qualms about eradicating anyone who gets in the way of his mission to destroy Lucifer's forces, but prays for absolution after shedding innocent life. Mitch, believing Seraphim and the forces of Heaven to be hypocritical, initially wants nothing to do with him, but after Seraphim is able to use his powers to heal Krysta's emotional trauma, Mitch thinks that Seraphim might be able to help Shade and asks to become his ally. Mitch eventually does defeat Blade, though it's Shade who lands the final blow on him, impaling him with the Lance of Longinus after he tries forcing Mitch to surrender by taking Krysta hostage. Shade returns to Mitch's side and Mitch asks Seraphim to heal her, but instead, Seraphim, sensing Lucifer's dark influence in her, violently purges Shade from existence. Mitch attacks Seraphim but is struck down, and Krysta has to help him escape. Mitch becomes determined to get revenge on Seraphim, but first, he has to kill Lucifer. Afterward, Mitch marches on Heaven. He uses Krysta's pure light to get back in, and then leads a one-man assault on Seraphim's angelic armies, slaughtering them all before finally killing Seraphim. It's then that God emerges and offers to make Mitch his champion, ruling Heaven at his side. Mitch turns down the offer, and when God tells him that it's not a request but a demand, Mitch kills him too. Mitch then sits on the throne of Heaven himself, ruling over all creation with Krysta at his side.

Arbiter Of Sin 3 is released on November 4, 2002. Reviews for Arbiter Of Sin 3 are even worse than the reviews for the previous game: solidly mediocre, with some blistering negative reviews thrown in. The plot is decried for being predictable, misogynistic, and over-the-top edgy. Despite the poor reviews, sales are still very strong, though not as strong as the sales for Arbiter Of Sin 2. The game sells well enough to be a success, but it's clear the series has run its course, and the developers of the game begin work on a new franchise, one that can be considered a spiritual successor in terms of gameplay but has nothing to do with the Arbiter Of Sin trilogy in terms of plot.

-

Aerio 2: Hurricane Force

Aerio 2: Hurricane Force is the sequel to 2001's hit game Aerio: Ride The Wind. Like its predecessor, it's a 3-D action platformer, though it's a bit more combat focused than the previous game. It also introduces several new game mechanics, including a companion system: Aerio can have one of two companions on her journey: her find Lina (along with Lina's younger brother Tobias, who tags along), or new character Johnny, who wields a backpack full of interesting gadgets and weapons. Rather than requiring either character for certain parts of the game, Aerio 2 allows for different methods of getting through certain areas depending on whether Johnny or Lina is with you. Lina and Tobias have magical potions they can use to enhance Aerio's powers, while Tobias can crawl into small spaces to access certain areas. Meanwhile, Johnny's backpack gives him tools to get through certain puzzles and doors that Lina and Tobias can't reach. Aerio can also use her wind powers to move enemies, NPCs, and objects into certain areas, and there are sometimes options to switch control over to other living things in order to manipulate objects or switches. In Aerio 2, Aerio must rely on others to help her through certain parts of the adventure, adding a more teamwork-centric feel to the game.

The game itself takes place one year after the original Aerio. Aerio, now 13, is on vacation with Lina, Tobias, and their guardian, an old woman named Louise. Suddenly, a powerful hurricane destroys the resort they're staying at. Though Aerio uses her powers to protect the people, including her friends, the entire resort is wrecked. The hurricane has been caused by a person, a teenaged boy named Fitzer, who says he'll destroy everything until there's nothing left. Aerio, Lina, and Tobias are soon met by Johnny, a 13-year-old boy and Fitzer's younger brother. Johnny explains that while the two were exploring together, Fitzer came across a mysterious glowing stone, and touching the stone gave him strange powers and left him different than before. Aerio, Lina, Tobias, and Johnny must follow Fitzer's trail of destruction, exploring new lands in his wake. Along the way, they'll come across friendly people and people who want revenge by taking it out on Johnny. They also discriminate against Aerio, because her powers are quite similar to Johnny's. The four kids also meet up with Brion, Prince Destin, and Zia, the three captured kids from the previous game who Aerio rescued (Brion can control earth, Destin can control water, and Zia can control fire). With their help, Aerio and her friends eventually manage to trap Fitzer so that he can be confronted. They pull the evil hurricane spirit out of him, but it leaves Fitzer near death. The spirit has taken Fitzer's life force in order to regain autonomy, and if allowed to go free, it will destroy the entire planet with unstoppable winds. Johnny realizes he has to sacrifice himself by allowing the spirit to possess him, at which point Aerio can destroy him. Johnny takes the spirit under his control, but Aerio, instead of killing Johnny, finds another way with Lina's help. She calms the hurricane spirit and drains its evil, leaving Johnny with the spirit's powers but with control over it. Johnny restores Fitzer's life force, saving his older brother's life. Aerio offers to train Johnny in the use of his new wind powers, but Johnny says he'd rather be trained by his brother, but promises to return someday. He kisses Aerio on the cheek and then leaves with Fitzer to continue exploring the world.

Aerio 2: Hurricane Force is released on December 2, 2002. Despite having a fairly abbreviated development period, it's still a massive critical and commercial success. The new game mechanics are highly praised, and its graphical improvements over the previous game make it one of the best looking Katana titles to date. Positioned as Sega's big family holiday release, it sells extremely well, and overall sales are significantly higher than those of the first game. Though a majority of critics still prefer Super Mario Ranger, it's considered to be a superior game to Sonic Neon, and the review scores between SMR and Aerio 2 are very close.

-

Space Harrier Galactic

Space Harrier Galactic is a reboot of the classic Sega rail-shooter series Space Harrier. The game looks and plays much like the OTL arcade game Planet Harriers, though instead of four playable characters, the game features three: Cody, Juliet, and a robot named Retro. The plot of the game is that an evil sorcerer named Black Eterno has unleashed a wave of darkness across the galaxy, polluting eight inhabited planets with evil. The three heroes must travel to these planets in their warp speed spaceship, battle the monsters that the spell has unleashed, and then battle a boss at the end of each level to free that planet from the spell's evil power. They must then venture to a black hole in the center of the galaxy, where Black Eterno is making his final stand. The game contains nine levels in all, and players can either play by themselves or with up to two other players, either locally or online. When playing with two other players, there's the option to play a co-op mode, where players help each other take out monsters but still compete to see who has the highest score, or competitive mode, where players are still competing for the highest score but are also actively impeding each other's gameplay. Space Harrier Galactic is released on December 9, 2002 in North America (after a June 2002 Japanese release, and a 2001 release in arcades in a somewhat shorter version with only six levels and no competitive mode). Despite being considered somewhat of an afterthought, reviews are quite good, much better than Sega's other old-school reboot of the year, Herzog Zwei. The game gets a decent amount of sales for Sega over the holidays, and word of mouth keeps sales strong throughout 2003. The success of Space Harrier Galactic encourages Sega to continue working on the franchise, while Treasure, which had been considering a Battleborn sequel, goes ahead with their plans as well.

-

November 15, 2002

Hisao Oguchi had faced the board of directors before, but today's meeting had a different atmosphere. Today, Oguchi was seated next to Hideki Okamura, who had been named chief of the company's toy division in 1999. Okamura's tenure had been a massive success: he'd overseen the integration of the remainder of Bandai's properties into the company's production schedule, and had restructured operations worldwide, positioning Sega's toy properties in a number of new business territories. Under Okamura, the company's toy division had seen a nearly 50% jump in sales, making Sega the undisputed #3 toy company in the world and catching up rapidly with Hasbro and Mattel. Oguchi's tenure had been far less successful. Profits were down 19%, and the Katana, while currently the #1 system in Japan, had seen worldwide sales decline over the previous quarter. The Katana was now generating a loss for the company, a loss that was getting bigger and bigger. In addition, projections weren't optimistic. Once the Wave was released next month, that loss was expected to grow.

“Gentlemen,” said the chairman of the board. “I've called you both here to discuss the sales for the previous quarter.”

The chairman gave the two men an overview of what they already knew. The toy division: great. The game division: not so great.

“I will not mince words. The current market valuation of all our video game related assets is 180 billion yen. That valuation is more than 100 billion yen less than the previous year's.”

“Are you implying that... the game division is up for sale?” asked Oguchi, a look of shock on his face.

“Not at this time,” said the chairman. “However...”

“Sir, I can turn things around,” Oguchi added, showing a chart that displayed optimistic projections for the company in 2003. Upcoming games such as Sonic Revolution and the new Vectorman game, along with the new Phantasy Star Online expansion, were expected to generate more Katana sales. In addition, Oguchi pointed out, Sega Online was still a major success, with hundreds of thousands of users.

“We are losing money on Sega Online,” said the chairman. “It's clearly not generating hardware sales. We need to start charging a subscription fee to recoup some of that money.”

“We can start uploading classic Sega games to the service,” said one of the directors. “Perhaps a free game each month can justify a monthly fee for the service?”

“Reggie Fils-Aime, our American director, has been confiding to me privately that we need to start charging a fee,” Oguchi said, his tone one of resignation. “...after he publicly promised to users that we never would.”

“He's a good salesman,” said one of the directors. “He's good at selling games. But not so good at selling hardware.”

“He's doing a good job,” said the chairman, “and so are you. You're not the problem. The problem is the Katana itself. People prefer Nintendo's system. In America, they prefer the Xbox. Good games aren't helping, and we've been losing exclusives.”

“So are we pulling out of games, or not?” asked Oguchi, half relieved to hear that the director thought he was doing a good job, and half desperate to know if Sega's games division would still exist in a year.

“...if the right buyer came along,” said the director, “we would have to consider the possibility. Right now I'm not sure anyone would be a buyer at 180 billion yen anyway.”

“The company is healthy,” said Okamura. “The game sales drive the toy sales. Without the game sales, where would the toys be?”

The directors nodded, and the subject didn't come up again. Oguchi left the room after the meeting still somewhat worried, and placed a phone call to Reggie Fils-Aime.

“Reggie, this is Oguchi.”

“Hey Oguchi-san, how's it going? I've been prepping for the Aerio 2 launch, I think this game is gonna be a big hit. How'd the board meeting go?”

“It went...well,” said Oguchi.

“...that doesn't sound well.”

“I think they want to sell off the games division. They were talking valuations, profits...”

“No,” said Fils-Aime, shaking his head. “I don't think they'd do that. If they sold off Sonic, how would they sell any Sonic toys?”

“They'd still have the rights to the toys.”

“I didn't mean that, I meant, if Sega wasn't making Sonic games, the toys wouldn't sell. The games would suck. I wouldn't trust anyone to make a Sonic game but Sega. They...might use sales from the toys to prop up the game division, though. It just means we really need to go full-force against Nintendo when the Wave launches. Promote World Series 2K3 to counter Ken Griffey. Promote Fighting Vipers Eternal to counter Killer Instinct. We're not trying to compete with the Xbox, we're competing with Nintendo.”

“They're still #1 in the world with an outdated system. Once the Wave hits....”

“We need to accentuate the positives. They're not launching with a Mario platformer. We've got Knuckles and Bit and Vectorman coming. We can bring back that old line, how's it go...'Katana does what Nintendon't'. That sold plenty of Saturns, it'll sell plenty of Katanas. The Wave's gonna be a flop.”

Oguchi appreciated Reggie's optimism, but it wasn't him he had to convince: it was all 110 million-plus Ultra Nintendo owners who would be chomping at the bit to buy the Wave. If he couldn't convince them to buy a Katana before, how could he do it once something bigger and better was out there?

“I hope you're right. Not just about the Wave, but about the games division,” said Oguchi.

“I'll talk to the director tomorrow, see what he's thinking. In the meantime, I need to get some sleep, it's past midnight here.”

“Right....it was good talking to you.”

Oguchi put down the phone and sat at his desk. Then he got to thinking. Nintendo was pouring tons of money into the Wave launch. There was no way they'd be buying. No third party on the market except perhaps Square, Capcom, or EA had the money to purchase Sega's game properties, and for any of those companies it'd be an enormous financial risk. EA might be willing to do it to take out a rival (in the form of the 2K Sports titles), but even then, the company had too much currently on its plate to take up such an enormous financial undertaking.

Oguchi couldn't think of a single company that would have both the money and the desire to purchase Sega's game division. This conclusion comforted him, though not entirely. He knew now that time was running short. It was no longer about the Katana being a success...the Wave had to be a flop. Reggie had to be right.

RySenkari · Feb 8, 2017

Metal Gear War

Metal Gear War is the sequel to Metal Gear Solid, exclusively for the Ultra Nintendo. The game was initially envisioned as a potential launch title for what would become the Wave, but realizing the success of the Ultra Nintendo, Hideo Kojima decided to instead develop the game for that system. Certain elements intended for Metal Gear War were removed for inclusion in a future Wave title, but for the most part, the game remained true to Kojima's vision, even if the graphics had to be downgraded somewhat. Metal Gear War shares quite a bit in common with the OTL game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty, including many plot elements and the game's main playable character, Raiden. Like IOTL, Raiden is introduced in Metal Gear War, and the player spends most of the game controlling him instead of Solid Snake. This fact was concealed in most of the run-up to the game, and like OTL's title, was a source of initial controversy. Metal Gear War includes much of the innovations from OTL's Metal Gear Solid 2, including first-person aiming, firing from cover, and hiding in lockers. However, due to hardware limitations, the advanced AI from OTL's Metal Gear Solid 2 is not featured in Metal Gear War. The game still features quite good AI, better than that in Metal Gear Solid, but Kojima had to compromise and compensate to ensure a balanced stealth experience with the AI limitations. This means that there are far fewer teams of enemy soldiers in the game, but instead, individual soldiers are made stronger. This is explained via the use of the Demon serum from Metal Gear Gaiden, which has been developed into a drug that certain enemies take. It's a weaker variation of the drug, but it enhances the abilities of certain enemies (Raiden can even catch enemy soldiers popping pills, an indication that they might be stronger than normal). Raiden can in fact confiscate and use the Demon drug himself, though this leads him open to being controlled by certain enemy characters while he's under the drug's influence, meaning that the player has to be extremely careful and sneaky when under the influence of the drug (and Raiden himself expresses a deep dislike toward taking the drug during the game, indicating to the player that using it might not be a good idea). The stealth meter from OTL returns with a number of enhancements, allowing the player to choose how they navigate a certain segment of the game. Some enemies can detect certain actions better than others, allowing the player to tailor Raiden's approach to the situation. This gives the game a more strategic approach to stealth in some aspects than OTL Metal Gear Solid 2. Presentation-wise, the game is among the best looking titles on the Ultra Nintendo. Konami had to use three discs to store all of the game's content, indicating hours worth of voice acting and FMV cutscenes, some of them very lengthy (which would be a hallmark for the series).

The game begins much as OTL Metal Gear Solid 2 does, with Snake and Otacon on a mission. However, instead of being on a tanker, Snake is infiltrating a United States blacksite somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, and instead of searching for a new Metal Gear, his mission is to retrieve Lyra, who has been missing for the past two years and who Snake believes is in the custody of a secret branch of the United States government. He's gathered this information by capturing and interrogating individuals believed to have been connected to FOXHOUND. As Snake is infiltrating the facility, he realizes he's not the only one here: a Russian agent, Colonel Gurlukovich, along with his daughter Olga, are leading a squad into the facility as well. They are accompanied by Revolver Ocelot, a man Snake thought he'd killed, and who Snake never learned was the one who abducted Lyra. Snake also learns that while Lyra is not at the facility, it's being used to construct Metal Gear RAY. And, like in OTL's game, the mission goes south quickly. Ocelot shoots the Colonel, and Snake briefly battles with Ocelot, who taunts him about Lyra before stealing the gear (unlike IOTL's game, Ocelot still has both arms and isn't being possessed by Liquid Snake). The facility self destructs, with Snake seemingly trapped inside. Two years later, our perspective switches to the young soldier Raiden, who is the leader of a squad of highly trained soldiers into an off-shore facility disguised as an oil rig, where a new weapon, rumored by some of the soldiers to be a new Metal Gear, has been built, and where the president of the United States, James Johnson, was touring before being taken hostage with the scientists at the facility. The facility has been captured by a group of renegade mercenaries called the Sons Of Liberty (Dead Cell doesn't exist ITTL's game) and Raiden is leading the team to free the hostages and secure the weapon. Among the soldiers is a man named Iroquois Pliskin (who, like in OTL's Metal Gear Solid 2, is secretly Solid Snake in disguise), and early in the raid, it's learned that Solid Snake, once thought dead, appears to be the leader of the Sons of Liberty. Raiden proceeds through the facility along with his team, rescuing several hostages and defeating a few minor Sons of Liberty mercenaries as he goes along. Pliskin seems to be unusually skilled, and though most of Raiden's team is taken out, Pliskin is one of the survivors (and even saves Raiden's neck a couple of times). Eventually, the team confronts "Solid Snake" himself, and Raiden briefly does battle with him, but after reinforcements arrive (including dangerous Sons of Liberty operatives Calico and Vamp), he is forced to flee with Pliskin's help. There are numerous revelations after Raiden and Pliskin are able to locate and rescue President Johnson, much of them from OTL's Metal Gear Solid 2: America's government is controlled by a shadowy group of operatives known as the Patriots, and "Solid Snake" is actually Solidus Snake, who once served as George Sears, the previous President. After a disagreement between Solidus and the Patriots, he defected from the group, and sought to take control of their new weapons program: Arsenal Gear, a new AI-powered model of Metal Gear. Before Johnson can reveal more, he is taken out from the shadows by Revolver Ocelot, who claims to be an agent of the Patriots and who is seeking to regain control of Arsenal Gear from Solidus. There's a brief fight between Raiden and Ocelot, but Ocelot escapes, and Raiden and Pliskin decide to stop Arsenal Gear together. Pliskin reveals himself as the real Solid Snake, and that he's been in contact with Otacon the entire time. Otacon reveals that his sister Emma is one of the main engineers of Arsenal Gear's AI systems, and that she is still being held in the facility, trying to hold out as long as she can so that Solidus can't get control of Arsenal Gear. The two return to the facility, with Raiden agreeing to find Emma while Snake goes to track down Ocelot.

Multiple confrontations ensue: Raiden and Snake do battle with the remaining Sons of Liberty, Emma is found (and this time she survives, though she's still injured, this time by Calico), while Olga captures Snake and tries to torture him before realizing that Snake wasn't responsible for her father's death (and sacrificing herself to protect him from an ambush by Ocelot). Unlike IOTL's game, Snake is the one who finds Arsenal Gear, but without Emma with him, he can't deactivate it, and he can't contact her either (Emma is currently unconscious). Meanwhile, Raiden, after finding a safe place for Emma, is searching for Solidus Snake. Instead, he is confronted and attacked by a figure, clad in a skin-tight, face covering, blue and black bodysuit. The mysterious figure's agility is seemingly superhuman, and despite putting up a valiant fight, Raiden is quickly and severely beaten into submission. Before the figure can finish Raiden off for good, however, Snake appears and begins fighting. The figure eventually identifies itself as Vapor Snake. Solid Snake puts up a better fight than Raiden, but he too is eventually defeated. However, Raiden is able to stand and fight as well, and the two combine forces, doing better but still barely able to land a blow on Vapor Snake. When all seems lost, Solid Snake is able to catch Vapor Snake off guard, detonating a grenade at deadly range. The figure phases away, but not entirely in time: the blast blows off Vapor Snake's face covering. When the smoke clears, Solid Snake is shocked: Vapor Snake is revealed to be Lyra. He calls out to her, but Lyra tells Snake that Lyra is dead and that she is Vapor Snake. Then, she phases away. Putting two and two together, Snake realizes that Arsenal Gear, while formidable, wasn't the weapon being guarded at the facility: the weapon was Vapor Snake. However, Arsenal Gear remains a threat, and Snake and Raiden hurry to try and capture it. However, they're too late: Solidus has already taken control of Arsenal Gear. Snake and Raiden manage to hitch a ride, and there's a fierce battle for control of Arsenal Gear as it races across the ocean toward New York City. At some point, Emma awakens and Otacon patches her through to Snake and Raiden, telling them how they can take control of Arsenal Gear. They set the Gear to self-destruct in the skies above the city. After another revelation from Solidus (that Raiden is his adopted son), the gear explodes, knocking Raiden unconscious and sending Solid and Solidus plunging into a skyscraper. When Solid Snake awakens, he's in the middle of an ambush: Ocelot and agents of the Patriots are coming after him. He fights his way through the soldiers, only to be attacked by Vapor Snake and nearly killed. Solid Snake tries once again to reason with Lyra, but she's unable to be reached, and finally Solid Snake has to fight her in earnest. After a fierce boss battle, Solid Snake manages to get the upper hand via various tricks, but Vapor Snake is still too strong and is about to kill Solid Snake when suddenly Raiden re-appears and saves him. He beats Vapor Snake back, injuring her in such a manner that she is forced to flee. He has also brought along Olga, who followed them from the facility in a helicopter. While Snake and Olga hunt for Ocelot, Raiden makes his way up the building to confront Solidus. Snake and Ocelot do battle, with Olga sacrificing herself at one point to save Snake's life. Snake manages to defeat Ocelot, who gives up information on the Patriots and Vapor Snake, along with the cryptic phrase: "the child of war and peace". Meanwhile, Raiden confronts Solidus, who tries to get Raiden to help him with his mission to take down and destroy the Patriots once and for all. However, Solidus wants to tear down everything. He believes society has been irreparably tainted by the Patriots, and that he himself bears their taint as well, along with Solid Snake and Vapor Snake. He sees Raiden, raised as a child soldier in a distant land, as someone untouched by their influence, who can claim to be a true Son of Liberty. He claims that there are more Arsenal Gears, programmed to purge the entire civilized world. Realizing his adoptive father's madness, Raiden has no choice but to defeat him. Meanwhile, Ocelot is able to escape by blackmailing Snake, showing the Patriots' true influence. Snake has no choice but to let Ocelot go, and Ocelot tells Snake to expect him again. Snake and Raiden meet on the roof of the building to discuss what they've learned. Thanks to Otacon, Emma, and the remnants of Arsenal Gear (containing information stolen by Solidus), Snake and Raiden have a lead on the identities and location of the Patriots, which, Snake says, might provide them with a way to save Lyra. While Snake decides to begin his search, Raiden decides to take a break and start a new life with his wife Rosemary (whose subplot basically was the same as OTL Metal Gear Solid 2, minus the AI portions). Meanwhile, Lyra returns to Ocelot. Her identity compromised, she expects to be destroyed, which she is prepared to accept. However, reveals Ocelot, all is going according to plan. "Now that Snake knows the truth, he will never stop looking, and we can guide him to the exact place we need him to be. You haven't failed at all." Through brief flashbacks, it's shown that it was Ocelot who provided that piece of information to Lyra when she was a young girl, setting her down the path of hunting for the Patriots, and putting her where she was needed to be to eventually be transformed into Vapor Snake. Meanwhile, Snake still has that single clue Ocelot gave him: "The child of war and peace."

Metal Gear War is released in North America on November 11, 2002, to a huge amount of sales (its first day sales top every other Ultra Nintendo game's first day sales that year, save for Super Mario Ranger). Metal Gear War's plot is somewhat less obtuse than OTL Metal Gear Solid 2's, which, said Kojima, was partially due to the limitations of the Ultra Nintendo, and partially due to influence from the Velvet Dark games, which confronted the prospects of AI in such a way that Kojima didn't want his game to seem like a rip-off of. Instead, Kojima chose to focus on a more politically-based storyline, the prospect of a secret shadow government and of the influence it can have on the world. He still plans to confront AI (and the Patriots are later revealed to be an AI, as IOTL), but he saves most of those plot elements for future games. Metal Gear War is considered to be one of the best games of the year and is, initally, less controversial than OTL Metal Gear Solid 2, though while Metal Gear Solid 2's reputation would improve considerably over time, Metal Gear War is never considered anything more but a great follow-up to Metal Gear Solid. It's not disappointing, but it's not truly groundbreaking either. However, Kojima is planning to pull out all the stops for the game that would come to be known as Metal Gear Solid II ITTL: the series' first installment on the Nintendo Wave, planned for a late 2004 release.

-

Metal Gear Vaporized Revealed At TGS 2002

REMINDER: This article contains spoilers for Metal Gear War. If you don't want that game spoiled, skip this article!

So, it was revealed in Metal Gear War that Lyra Marin, former Undersecretary Of Defense and ally to Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, was captured by the Patriots and transformed into Vapor Snake, a deadly mercenary with superhuman agility and the ability to phase and become invisible. At TGS 2002, Konami revealed that Vapor Snake would be getting her own game for the Nova: Metal Gear Vaporized, a prequel to Metal Gear War in which players control Vapor Snake on a series of missions given to her by the mysterious Patriots. Little else was revealed about the game's plot, though it was revealed that Gray Fox would be making his return, possibly as Vapor Snake's rival. We'll likely learn more about the process that transformed Lyra into Vapor Snake, and possibly get some insight into her thoughts as she completes her new missions. Is there any hope for Lyra to be saved? Just how much of her is truly brainwashed and how much of the old Lyra still remains? And just what are the Patriots planning in their quest to continue shaping the world? Metal Gear Vaporized promises some of those answers and plenty of stealth gameplay, with what looks like a bit of melee action thrown in too. Konami announced the game for a 2003 release in Japan, and it's likely the game will be released next year here in the States as well.

-from an article posted on Gamepro.com on September 24, 2002

RySenkari · Feb 9, 2017

Top Ten Grossing Films Of The Last Three Months Of 2002: (films that debuted in North America between October-December 2001, North American box office receipts only)

#1: The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers ($310 million)

Peter Jackson's epic trilogy returns for its second installment, where the Fellowship of the Ring has become fractured. Sam and Frodo venture alone to Mt. Doom, and they are stalked by a strange creature named Gollum who seems obsessed with the ring. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli must assist in the defense of Rohan from Sauron's forces. The film continues the series' excellent reputation, and like the previous film, becomes a Best Picture nominee, alongside Gangs Of New York, Dying Light, Zlata's Diary, and Spirited Away.

#2: Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets ($268 million)

The second film in the Harry Potter series sees the boy wizard and his friends returning to Hogwarts to combat another sinister plot by the Dark Lord Voldemort and his evil followers. The film isn't quite as big of a box office smash as the original, but is still one of the biggest films of the year.

#3: Green Lantern 3 ($250 million)

One of the year's most anticipated sequels, Green Lantern 3 continues the action from the previous film and expands on the growing DC movie universe. It establishes Green Lantern as one of the biggest superhero franchises, outperforming even the X-Men sequel at the box office.

#4: Dying Light ($204 million)

This disaster/drama film that stars Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler, Michelle Yeoh, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Dennis Quaid as scientists stranded at an Antarctic research facility as a cataclysm sweeps the globe. The small group of scientists must find a way to stay alive while confronting the reality that they may be the last human beings left alive on Earth. The film debuted in early October and got some of the year's best reviews, which led to the film's weekend legs remaining very strong. It would be nominated for a slew of Oscars.

#5: Treasure Island ($200 million)

Disney's 2-D animated musical adventure film based on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson film, the movie follows the plotline of the book but introduces a number of new characters, including a girl named Sarah who serves as a love interest for protagonist Jim, and which features Patrick Stewart as the voice of a somewhat sympathetic but still ultimately villainous Long John Silver. Considered one of Disney's best films in quite some time, it becomes their biggest animated hit since The Lion King, grossing over half a billion dollars worldwide. At the time, Disney working on both a CGI film and another traditionally animated film. The success of Treasure Island would lead to the company signing off on two more traditionally animated films, though the company would eventually transition to full CGI beginning in 2009.

#6: Iron Man ($180 million)

Another superhero blockbuster, Iron Man is only the latest in the biggest trend sweeping the American box office. It continues the streak of Marvel successes, though it's not as big a hit as Green Lantern 3.

#7: Die Another Day ($175 million)

A film that would see James Bond battling with a crazed North Korean general and a dangerous powerbroker, Die Another Day was considered a fairly mediocre Bond film, but Penelope Cruz's performance as the film's Bond Girl Jinx was highly praised. Ultimately, Pierce Brosnan would sign on for one more Bond film following this, which would be released in 2004.

#8: The Santa Clause 2 ($170 million)

Tim Allen returns as Santa Claus in this family film set eight years after 1994's hit. In Santa Clause 2, Santa has to find a Mrs. Claus or Christmas will be canceled forever. Despite the movie's rather cliched plot, it still charms families and monopolizes the family box office until Harry Potter and Treasure Island are released.

#9: Aunt Bella ($124 million)

Aunt Bella starts Queen Latifah as a money-grubbing aunt who swoops in after her niece Michelle (played by Brandy) hits it big in the music business. Queen Latifah's hilarious performance is probably the centerpiece of the film, which is otherwise just a mediocre comedy. It still continues Brandy's streak of box office success and is the most successful comedy of the season.

#10: The Ring ($120 million)

Adapted from a Japanese horror film, The Ring features a cursed video that kills anyone who watches it within a week. The film became a major sleeper hit and the year's biggest horror blockbuster after its October release.

RySenkari · Feb 10, 2017

Metroid: Revenant

Metroid: Revenant is the first game in the series specifically made for the Game Boy Nova (after Super Metroid was ported to the Nova early in the system's lifespan). The game continues from the storyline of Metroid: Darkness, in which Samus is in search of an ancient Chozo artifact. In doing so, she comes across a strange installation on a seemingly lifeless moon, and discovers that she's not alone in what appears to be a mass grave in deep space. Metroid: Revenant features classic 2-D Metroid gameplay, with graphics similar to that of an OTL Nintendo DS game (think the DS Castlevania games), with advanced and fluid sprite art and some limited polygonal animation at certain segments of the game. Metroid: Revenant features many of the new weapons from Metroid: Darkness, including the Refraction Beam, Graviton Bomb, and Annihilator Beam. However, the Special meter from Darkness doesn't return. Instead, certain advanced weapons like the Annihilator Beam draw from Samus' missile stockpile. The game also features new weapons, including the Spirit Beam (which is more effective against ghosts in their invisible phase) and the Spectral Suit (which protects Samus from ghost attacks, which can be otherwise devastating, and also allows her to commune with the dead). The game is the first "horror" title in the Metroid series, with a number of very disturbing enemies, spooky scenes, and even a few well-timed jump scares. The game draws inspiration from the Wrecked Ship level in Super Metroid, and requires Samus to backtrack in certain areas to restore power to certain areas of the installation. Depending on whether or not power is restored, certain areas can change dramatically. Rooms will flood as water pumps activate, certain monsters will be let out of their cages, etc. This gives the game a feeling of non-linear exploration that OTL Metroid Fusion lacked and which even many TTL Metroid titles do not include. While the game does feature a lot of backtracking, the changing environments help to avoid a sense of tedium, with some areas changing four or more times over the course of the game.

Revenant begins with Samus continuing to search for an ancient Chozo artifact she learned about at the end of Metroid: Darkness. She's tracked the artifact to a moon in a far-flung corner of the galaxy, but when she arrives, all she finds is a massive abandoned settlement. There's an eerie atmosphere: much of the installation is intact, but there are no signs of life, as if everyone either died suddenly or was forced to flee. However, as she begins to explore, she notices strange occurrences: ghostly echoes, weird noises, eerie sounds...and then Samus is attacked by a ghostly creature. The creature also triggers a failsafe in the installation that traps Samus, forcing her to go forward in search of an escape (and in search of the artifact she's seeking). The game is divided into five main segments, each one providing a clue to Samus as to what happened to the people of this base.

Segment One: Research Outpost
Samus first arrives in a laboratory area where certain experiments were conducted. She learns that the Chozo scientists were experimenting on spectral energy and that something clearly went awry. She also does battle with some of the creatures still trapped here, though she wonders how these creatures could survive decades in cages without food or water. The main boss of this segment is the ghostly creature from before, which takes the form of a floating jellyfish-like beast that Samus must separate from its tentacles before finishing it off.

Segment Two: Residential Area
This is where the Chozo scientists lived, and where possessed Chozo still roam the halls. Samus learns that the lead scientist may have been possessed while experimenting with spectral energy, and that he may have slaughtered all the people here. She tracks down the scientist's possessed body to a large, domed building, where she does battle with him. He fights much like the living Chozo statues from Super Metroid, though he also utilizes spectral energy and ghost minions in his attacks.

Segment Three: Underground Lab
Using the scientist's credentials, Samus opens up the underground lab, believing the ancient artifact to be here. She learns that there may have been a sole survivor from the lab, and thus, possibly a sole living Chozo, though Samus is unable to find out where he or she still is. Samus also discovers that the scientists were experimenting on creatures from all parts of the galaxy in an effort to discover the secret of extending life: the Chozo knew of their impending extinction. Samus' activities in the lab free a hideous creature from captivity: a massive beast capable of phasing in and out of this dimension. Defeating the beast earns Samus the Spectral Suit, enabling her to phase in and out of dimensions as well.

Segment Four: Chozo Graveyard
Samus uses the suit to access a hidden area where the Chozo researchers buried their dead. However, this area is also teeming with spectral energy and dangerous ghost creatures. Samus eventually is able to find intact Chozo spirits to talk with, and learns that the artifact she seeks isn't in this place, but that a survivor took it offworld as the calamities were unfolding. She also learns that the reason this lab is so remote is because the researchers were exiled from Chozo society for their experimentation, and that what happened to them was punishment for their sins. The collective guilt of the Chozo eventually coalesces into a massive specter that Samus must defeat. Piecing together the Chozo's notes, Samus learns that the way out of this facility is close, but that Samus must pass through a forbidden area where the Chozo conducted their most dangerous and sinful experiments.

Segment Five: Forbidden Zone
The Forbidden Zone is a place of horrors and abominations, where spectral energy is overflowing and terrifying creatures lurk. About halfway through this zone, Samus learns that the Chozo were experimenting on Metroids...which she learns when a Ghost Metroid appears and attacks her. She defeats the Ghost Metroid, but learns that even more deadly Metroids lurk further on and that she must proceed with utmost caution. Samus also learns that the tainted spectral energy of this place is beginning to manifest on other worlds, endangering the Federation itself. Despite having a chance to escape, Samus decides to embark on a suicide mission into the depths of the Forbidden Zone to eradicate the threat once and for all. She descends into the nightmare and discovers something truly horrific: a spectral version of Mother Brain, which was manipulating the Chozo into carrying out these deadly experiments. Samus defeats the Mother Brain's first form (a fairly simple fight against a shielded brain, like in Super Metroid, only for Spectral Brain to morph into an amalgamation of terrifying monstrosities. Samus must destroy Spectral Brain piece by piece, then set the moon to self-destruct. Samus barely makes it out alive, but now she knows where the Chozo artifact has been taken... back to the Chozo homeworld.

Metroid: Revenant wins rave reviews at the time of its release, immediately becoming one of the best reviewed games of the year. It's considered the best Game Boy Nova game of the year (and perhaps overall), and a worthy successor to Metroid: Darkness. The spooky atmosphere wins particularly high praise, with reviewers imploring people not to play in the dark (or begging people to do so if they want a true scare). The game is released alongside the new model of the Nova, the Nova S, and it's heavily featured in advertising for the remodel, with a special Metroid: Revenant bundle released on the same day (November 18, 2002). Because of this and because of the good reviews, it has even higher first day sales than Metroid: Darkness, an incredible feat for a handheld game. Despite only being out for six weeks in 2002, it becomes one of the Nova's best selling games of the calendar year.

-

Kensuke Tanabe To Direct Metroid Wave Title

The first Metroid title for the Nintendo Wave has yet to be formally announced, but it has been let slip that Kensuke Tanabe will make his directorial debut on the Metroid franchise's first Nintendo Wave release. The game is expected to be a third-person shooter (similar to Squad Four: Upheaval) with a heavy focus on exploration. It's also implied that the game will see Samus return to the Chozo homeworld in her continued search for an ancient Chozo artifact. Work on the game has already begun, and Nintendo is likely targeting a 2004 release window for the game.

-from an article posted on Gaming Age on November 27, 2002

RySenkari · Feb 13, 2017

Star Tropics

Star Tropics is a 3-D action/adventure title for the Ultra Nintendo. The game is a reboot of the classic Star Tropics games, taking its top-down adventure gameplay and transforming it into a fully 3-D title. To that effect, Star Tropics plays much like a hybrid of the 3-D Zelda titles and Tomb Raider: it borrows much of the gameplay from games like Temple Of Time, with fully 3-D puzzles, a large variety of items and weapons, and life represented as hearts, and mixes it with Tomb Raider-style mystery and somewhat more structured gameplay progression. Protagonist Mike Jones returns for the game, along with his uncle, Dr. Steven Jones. There's also several new major characters, including a female companion for Mike named Marion (named after Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark), a somewhat comic relief character named Tosh, and the game's villain, an unscrupulous TV host named Scott Scippio, who starts out as just a smarmy, arrogant celebrity, but eventually resorts to deadly measures to get his footage and get Mike and his friends out of the way. The gameplay is pretty much just the classic Star Tropics gameplay translated to 3-D: Mike once again uses a yoyo as his main weapon, though he can also use a baseball bat and a pitching machine (basically, he sets it up and it operates like a turret). The player can also control Marion at certain points, she can use a frying pan and she also has pepper spray to use on enemies. While the game uses a more realistic art style, there's still some elements of cartoonishness to the characters, giving them a sort of "3-D Scooby-Doo" kind of feel. The game is definitely more serious than previous titles in the series (it's rated T for Teen), but it's still very lighthearted and adventurous, like Jonny Quest or the Indiana Jones films. The game features voice acting, with Quinton Flynn (who didn't voice Raiden in TTL Metal Gear War) as Mike Jones and Katie Leigh as Marion. It's the first Star Tropics game to be released in Japan: in fact, Nintendo actually promotes the game heavily in Japan. In addition, the original StarTropics is included as an easter egg in the game, and it gets a full Japanese localization for this game, thus making the original game available in Japan ITTL when it was never made available IOTL.

The game itself starts much like the original StarTropics, with Mike Jones arriving on C-Island only to learn that his uncle has gone missing. He's approached at first by Tosh, Dr. Jones' assistant, who has a few clues about what might've happened to Dr. Jones. Mike eventually comes across Scippio and his crew, including Marion, a young woman who's serving as an intern. Mike is smitten with Marion and she seems to like him, but the overbearing Scippio keeps them apart and shows indifference concerning the plight of Mike's uncle. Mike and Tosh explore the first temple, while Scippio and his crew get there soon after. Their carelessness triggers a trap that forces Mike and Tosh to battle the game's first boss. In the second temple, Mike manages to find his uncle, no thanks to Scippio, who nearly gets Dr. Jones killed. This causes Marion to quit working for Scippio and join Mike's group. Dr. Jones has done research on ancient aliens who once inhabited the South Seas and who have hidden a weapon of great power. This piques Scippio's interest, and he begins working his crew incredibly hard to find the weapon. However, Marion has stolen a key bit of information when she defected from Scippio, and once he realizes this, he becomes hell-bent on getting it back. Mike and friends continue to explore the South Seas, battling a variety of monsters and dangers and meeting lots of new friends along the way. They explore seven temples in all before the final confrontation in which Scippio has used the powers of the alien weapon to transform himself into a powerful monster. Mike and friends defeat Scippio and transform him back to normal (though Marion briefly entertains the thought of leaving him as a freak) and Scippio is arrested for his crimes and his show canceled, while Mike and friends return to civilization, having had the adventure of a lifetime. It's implied that Mike and Marion start a romance, though Tosh interrupts them before they can actually kiss.

Star Tropics was hyped up as Nintendo's big holiday release (along with Super Smash Bros. 2). It's released on November 4, 2002 in North America and Europe and early 2003 in Japan. The game, though reporting strong initial sales, is a bit of a disappointment. Critically, reviews are good, but not great. The game has strong adventure gameplay and strong action gameplay, along with a passable story, but the consensus is that Star Tropics tried to do too much: it wasn't as epic an adventure as Zelda and wasn't as riveting an action title as Tomb Raider. The game is considered, for lack of a better term, a jack of all trades and a master of none. Its GameRankings average is 79.02%, with Electronic Gaming Monthly giving it an 8.0/7.5/7.5, Gamespot giving it a 7.7, and IGN giving it an 8.1. Alex Stansfield, on G4's Judgment Day, scores it a 6.0, saying that he was "extremely disappointed considering all the hype that went into this title. I loved the first two StarTropics games, but this just didn't give me that sense of wonder that the first two titles did". His co-host Victor Lucas was a bit more kind, giving it a 7.0, and saying that he loved the game's humor, but the weapons and puzzles were fairly uninspired. Ironically, Ted Crosley, who usually favored Sega games to Nintendo, gave the game a fairly glowing review on G4's Blister, saying that he liked Star Tropics even more than he liked Sonic Neon (prompting his co-host Bill Sindelar to first ask if Ted had a fever, and then to ask where he was hiding the real Ted). Despite the fairly disappointing reviews and sales, Nintendo still considers Star Tropics a success, and plans to make a follow-up for the Nintendo Wave.

-

Super Smash Bros. 2

Super Smash Bros. 2 is the sequel to 1999's Super Smash Bros. Unlike OTL's Super Smash Bros. Melee, this sequel is released for the same system as its predecessor, and is thus somewhat backward in terms of graphics and features. It does contain many of the presentation and gameplay enhancements from OTL's Melee, including the expanded selection of modes and the new Adventure mode (which isn't quite as robust as OTL Melee's but is a step up from the traditional arcade mode), along with events and trophies. However, it has fewer selectable stages than OTL's game, and no returning stages from the original. The one advantage it DOES have from OTL is the number of selectable characters: 28 in all, up from OTL Melee's 25. These include 16 characters selectable from the outset of the game, and 12 unlockables. The initially selectable characters are: Mario, Yoshi, Link, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Samus, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Shad, Woofle, Cloud, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser. The 12 unlockables are: Simon Belmont, Ness, Rebecca, Ash Beckland, Ganondorf, Cless, Solid Snake, Ice Climbers, Dr. Mario, Marth, Shirei, and Feraligator.

Shad, Woofle, Cloud, Simon, Rebecca, and Ash play much as they did in the original Super Smash Bros., with Rebecca and Ash's inclusion being a large part of why Joanna Dark wasn't added to this game (though she would appear in a later Smash title). Solid Snake plays a bit more bulkier than OTL, being a more melee-based character while Ash gets a lot of Snake's OTL ranged moves. The Ice Climbers play somewhat differently from OTL, since there's not two of them on screen at a time: there's one, and players use a B-select move to swap between them (though when one gets knocked out, it's counted as a fall), the two Ice Climbers have their own move-sets, with Popo utilizing more hammer moves and Nana utilizing more ice moves. Shirei, from TTL's Fire Emblem: The False Princess, plays a lot like OTL Robin, with a mix of light sword-strikes and magic. Marth, while not quite as hard-hitting as OTL's Roy, hits a bit more heavily than his OTL counterpart. Cless (from Tale Phantasia) uses a lot of rapid sword attacks and some of his Tale Phantasia moves like Rising Falcon, he plays somewhat like OTL's Meta Knight. Feraligator alternates between hard-hitting chomp moves and water-based attacks, he's slow and bulky but players can use ranged attacks to keep enemies at bay. He's compared to Bowser and Donkey Kong but is a bit lighter than them.

Super Smash Bros. 2 is released on December 16, 2002. Overall, Super Smash Bros. 2 is considered an excellent follow-up to the original title for its added modes and huge variety of characters. However, it doesn't have anywhere near the tournament impact that OTL Melee had. It remains largely a party-based game played among friends than a hardcore tournament brawler. It's the Killer Instinct series that takes its place as the biggest Nintendo-made tournament fighter, though Killer Instinct hasn't approached the popularity of OTL Melee. Masahiro Sakurai is pleased with the critical and commercial success of the game, and doesn't regret not waiting for the release of the Wave to do a Smash sequel. Instead, he applies the lessons from Smash Bros. 2 to his development of the inevitable Wave follow-up, which he hopes to release as early as 2005, with lots more characters, many more modes, and significantly better graphics and presentation.

RySenkari · Feb 14, 2017

The first two years of Al Gore's presidency had been among the most tumultuous in the history of the Republic. Though Gore had pushed for an agenda of environmental protection and financial reform, all of this was overshadowed by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Gore's response: an invasion of Afghanistan led by American special forces, had succeeded in toppling the Taliban and capturing many terrorist operatives. However, the main planners of the 9/11 attacks, including the leader of Al-Queda, Osama Bin Laden, were still at large, and the American people were beginning to grow weary of the lack of progress in the fight against terrorism. Turmoil in Pakistan further complicated matters, and some on the right were clamoring for a more vigorous response to terrorism, including an invasion of Iraq, whose leader, Saddam Hussein, continued to express anti-American views. Gore's domestic policy had met with numerous challenges as well. The primary domestic policy achievement of his presidency thus far, CERA, was making some headway in slowly reducing the country's fossil fuel emissions, while at the same time preserving coal industry jobs. However, average Americans had seen little benefit from the policies enacted by this bill. Gore's financial reforms had been defanged by Congressional Republicans and their conservative Democratic allies, and his plan to reform health care had not come to fruition. In the eyes of many Americans, Gore had achieved little. His approval rating still hovered around 60 percent due to continued patriotic fervor post-9/11, but this was dropping slowly week by week, and by the time the midterms came, Republicans were making a strong case that they should be returned to power.

The midterm elections saw a number of close and important races, including a hotly contested Senate race in Minnesota between liberal incumbent Paul Wellstone and his Republican challenger Norm Coleman, who'd declined to run for a second term in order to run against Wellstone. The election was incredibly bitter, with Wellstone calling Coleman a "lapdog for the rich and powerful", and Coleman calling Wellstone a "dangerous socialist". In Georgia, Incumbent Max Cleland was in a fierce contest with Sonny Perdue, while Elizabeth Dole, wife of former Presidential candidate Bob Dole, was in a race against Democratic upstart Cynthia D. Brown, who had come out of seemingly nowhere to win the Democratic Senatorial primary. The Senate had been evenly divided, 50 to 50, for the past two years, with vice president Joe Lieberman forced to cast numerous deciding votes. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, in which Democrats held a narrow lead, was in peril. Analysts expected Republicans to gain five seats, which would give them a narrow majority, 218-216 (with the lone independent, Bernie Sanders, usually voting with the Democrats to give the Republicans just a single seat majority). In the governors' races, perhaps the most interesting race was unfolding in Arkansas, with John Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, running against Jimmie Lou Fisher after unseating incumbent governor Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary in what was considered a monumental upset. Remarks made by Huckabee following 9/11, which were believed by many to be homophobic, opened the door for a potential primary challenger, and John Walton stepped through that door to challenge Huckabee, beating him 51%-49% in the primary after promising to make Arkansas a more open, pro-business state, and continuing the Republican Party's move away from social issues and toward economic ones. Walton and Fisher were running an incredibly close general election campaign, with Fisher actually pulling some evangelical Christians away from Walton.

In the end, most of the close Senate races, including those in Minnesota and Georgia, broke for the Democrats. Elizabeth Dole did manage to fend off her challenger, but Democratic pickups in New Hampshire (Jeanne Shaheen) and Arkansas (Mark Pryor) ensured that the Democrats not only kept control of the Senate, but actually gained seats to give them a 52 to 48 majority. However, they weren't so lucky in the House: Republicans slightly outperformed expectations, recapturing the House with a 220-215 majority and ensuring that Al Gore would have to work with congressional Republicans to help get some of his agenda through. The big news of the night on the governorship front was the victory of John Walton over his Democratic challenger. Walton became governor of Arkansas, prompting jokes on the late-night talk shows that the Arkansas state capitol building would be replaced with a Wal-Mart. While Al Gore had suffered a partial defeat, he continued to push for increased environmental regulations, and began working in earnest on a health care law to present to the American public in 2003.

-

Peter Jennings: This is breaking news out of Washington right now, we've just heard that a presidential press conference is scheduled for 6 PM, Eastern time. At this time, we don't have any idea what the president is planning to discuss, only that this was unexpected and may have some potential ramifications for the ongoing fight against terrorism. And of course, the most recent development being last week's attack in Lahore that killed 22 people, including seven Americans. We do not believe there's been another attack, as no other news source is reporting anything of the sort currently, so we have to believe that this could have something to do with American intelligence, that something has been found, or discovered, we don't know.

-from an ABC News Special Report on December 1, 2002

-

Dan Rather: All that's been said at this time is that there's expected to be a major announcement from the president. And we have a source now that's saying that American forces may have captured a top Al-Queda lieutenant. We do not believe, we cannot confirm positively or negatively that it may be Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al-Queda. It's been speculated that it could be one of Bin Laden's top lieutenants, which would make this a significant milestone in the fight against terrorism, but for the president himself to make such an announcement does seem like it would be unusual.

-from a CBS News Special Report on December 1, 2002

-

"My fellow Americans, tonight I can confirm that Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Queda and mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 4,000 Americans, has been killed in a raid in Pakistan. This raid was conducted by a joint force of American and Pakistani troops, led by a squadron of United States Army Rangers, that assaulted a large compound where Bin Laden was confirmed to be hiding. These forces went into the compound in an attempt to capture or kill Bin Laden."
-from an address by Al Gore to the American people on the evening of December 1, 2002

-

The death of Osama Bin Laden on December 1, 2002 (December 2, 2002 in Pakistan) was a major breakthrough in the fight against Al-Queda. A unit of Pakistani soldiers, with assistance from American special forces, had made a sudden push into an area of western Pakistan believed to be used as a training ground for Al-Queda. This push caught the terrorist organization off guard as they were attempting to transfer Osama Bin Laden to another location, and they were forced to hole up in a large compound just north of a small village that was being used by Al-Queda to train fighters. Rather than pause to call in an outside strike force, American military leaders decided that they would use the soldiers already on site, including a Ranger contingent, to make a final push into the compound so as not to give Al-Queda time to regroup or call in Taliban reinforcements. President Gore approved the operation, and the Rangers led a squadron comprised of both American and Pakistani soldiers in an all-out attack against the compound. Though the terrorists fought back fiercely (seriously wounding two Americans and killing two Pakistanis in the process), the operation went mostly smoothly. Initially, the objective was to take Bin Laden alive, but when that proved impossible, he was killed with numerous rounds to the chest and a final round to the head.

Numerous political commentators remarked that the death of Bin Laden came at a fairly inopportune time for President Al Gore, considering that had it happened on November 1st, Democrats likely would've held on to the House of Representatives, but Gore, when asked this question by a reporter, dismissed it and said that: "The important thing is that the most dangerous threat to the free world is now no more, and the intelligence gained via this operation will help to bring down the rest of his followers." Indeed, numerous dangerous Al-Queda operatives, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, remained at large, but for the time being, many around the world rejoiced at the death of the man most responsible for the most horrific terrorist attacks the world had ever seen.

RySenkari · Feb 15, 2017

(Here are the other notable North American game releases from October 2002 to December 2002!

-

Ultra Nintendo:

Lufia: Bride Of Starlight

Taito's reboot of the Lufia series and its first and only installment on a fifth-generation console, Lufia: Bride Of Starlight was released in Japan in late 2001, and localized by Working Designs (their first game localized from their new San Francisco-based HQ) and released in North America in November 2002. The game features 3-D graphics but classic turn-based combat that is barely changed from that of the original series (though characters do possess special “affinity” attacks now that activate during certain battle conditions). The game also features anime cutscenes and voice acting, and because of this, it's on two discs. The plot of the game involves a protagonist, a young knight named Maxim, assigned to guard a young woman named Lisa, who is engaged to be wed to the prince of the kingdom. However, after disaster strikes due to an invasion of monsters, Maxim becomes Lisa's protector. Maxim and Lisa are two of the game's eight playable characters, though by the end of the game, the party consists of four, with the other four characters having left the party, suffered injuries, or in one case (the warrior king Gedel), having been killed. The final party consists of Maxim, Lisa, a stoic archer named Colin, and a flighty young inventress named Xandra. About halfway through the game, Maxim learns that the monster incursions are due to the rise of four deadly ancient gods known as Sinistrals. These Sinistrals are completely new: instead of the classic foursome of Gades, Amon, Erim, and Daos, the Sinistrals consist of Kreig, the Sinistral of War, Phere, the Sinistral of Hate, Zade, the Sinistral of Deception, and Necro, the Sinistral of Death. Kreig is an armor-clad warrior with a massive battle axe, Phere is a deadly sorceress in black robes, Zade is a cloaked figure with long, white hair, and Necro is a skeleton lord. Like the original games, the Sinistrals seek to conquer the world from their fortress on Doom Island, which the heroes reach at the end of the game. However, once the Sinistrals are defeated, the heroes must battle a final boss comprised of the island itself in a multi-staged battle. After the world is saved, Maxim delivers Lisa safely to her prince (who fights bravely against the Sinistral incursions numerous times throughout the game and is actually a pretty decent guy even if he's not as strong as Maxim). The game ends with a beautiful wedding, celebrating the new peaceful world. Lufia: Bride of Starlight is about as traditional a JRPG as they come, with solid but not too terribly impressive reviews. With little else in the way of JRPGs released for the Ultra Nintendo during the 2002 holiday season, it does decently in sales simply because there are few other options. Some fans, however, decide to wait for the Wave, which promises a much bigger selection of JRPGs.

Baldur's Gate

Developed by Bioware exclusively for the Ultra Nintendo, Baldur's Gate is an adaptation of the hit PC RPG franchise that takes elements from both Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II and combines them into a single Ultra Nintendo game. The graphics and presentation are a step down from the PC versions, and the world itself is slightly smaller, but it's a well made game and considered a decent adaptation of the series and its gameplay if players are unable to play it on PC for whatever reason. The game's main quest is one of the longest found in an Ultra Nintendo RPG, and many of the side quests from the first two games are adapted to this port. It contains the classic Dungeons and Dragons character creation and gameplay from the PC titles, and is considered at the time to be the best Dungeons and Dragons game to appear on a console. Though it's definitely not the full Baldur's Gate experience, it sells decently enough, and reviews are solid, overall performing better than rival RPG Lufia: Bride of Starlight in both reviews and sales (and proving in the eyes of some analysts that WRPGs are beginning to surpass JRPGs).

Catacombia

A horror game with a medieval setting, about a man condemned to death who must escape from a seemingly endless dungeon filled with supernatural monsters. The grotesque designs of the monsters are one of the main selling points of the game, though many critics also deride Catacombia for repeated cheap jump scares. The graphics aren’t so great but the game IS quite scary and this leads to decent reviews and sales, though not enough to assure an immediate sequel.

Sega Katana:

Jet Set Radio Future

The sequel to Jet Set Radio features more of the same open-world skating and tagging gameplay of the original, with a few new gameplay improvements such as larger levels and easier spraypainting. There's also a new character: Yoyo (from OTL's game, though his storyline is different), who starts out as a newbie skater who is seeking to join the GGs. Sariko also returns as a playable character, while Beat, Mixx, and Psych all return from the previous game. The main enemy in Jet Set Radio Future are the Beatbots, an army of robot invaders seeking to force all humans to conform to their style of music, a strange and rhythmless futuristic sound. The Beatbots begin enslaving humans in Tokyo-to and make them conform to their music, forcing the GGs to rebel by tagging Beatbots and playing their own brand of music throughout the city. Eventually, the GGs start remixing the Beatbots' music into a new unique sound, which leads to the Beatbots' destruction and the liberation of Tokyo-to. Jet Set Radio Future gets very positive reviews for expanding on the gameplay and style of the first game, and sales are quite strong, making it one of the Katana's biggest exclusives of the holiday season.

Golden Axe: Warriors Of Legend

Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gillius Thunderhead return, this time in a fully 3-D beat-em-up adventure. The classic Golden Axe hack and slash gameplay returns as the three heroes once again unite to take down Death Adder's armies. Ultimately, unless you're a Golden Axe fan, the game plays mostly like just another generic hack and slash title. Unlike the fluid combos of Devil May Cry, Golden Axe plays fairly slowly and monotonously. However, the game does contain lots of nods to the classic series and has some pretty epic boss fights, so reviews for the most part are positive. Unfortunately, sales are merely average, proving that much of the Golden Axe nostalgia has worn out and that Sega may need to take the series in a new direction to win new fans.

Gitaroo Man

Koei's rhythm title about a boy who transforms into the legendary Gitaroo Man is fairly identical to OTL's game, though some of the characters and stages have been tweaked somewhat (indeed, there are 12 stages in all, as opposed to the original's 10, with a pirate-themed enemy and a giant mech battle added to the 10 stages from OTL). It's a fun little game with some great music and a lot of charm, and finds a decent audience on the Katana. Japanese sales are great and North American sales slightly outpace expectations.

Troublemakers 3

Marina Liteyears returns in yet another Treasure-developed sidescroller. The graphics have been significantly improved but the game is still for the most part a 2-D sidescroller, with some vertical 3-D elements added to certain stages. The plot of the game is that Marina and Theo are enjoying peace and quiet on Earth when Marina suddenly learns of an invasion force of evil fighters very similar to her. These unauthorized robots are being created by the mad scientist Dr. Krattle, who is actually invading Earth in order to lure Marina to his factory so he can improve his robot clones using the original Marina design. Marina must battle her way through Krattle's army, with the help of a number of friends she's made along the way. While Troublemakers isn't a marquee series for Sega on the level of Zodiac World, or Aerio, it's still advertised fairly heavily, and sales slightly exceed those of Troublemakers 2. Critics praise the game for its epic boss fights, though they do have issues with the repetitiveness and shortness of some of the levels, a common series complaint. Despite taking few risks, the game is still considered a success.

Kytokana

A hack-and-slash title about a futuristic ninja warrior named Kyto, who discovers a plot to assassinate his girlfriend, an important diplomat. Kyto barely foils the plan, but after his girlfriend is taken hostage, he must fight his way through an army of mercenaries to win her back. Kyto not only utilizes his sword and his fists, but an array of futuristic weapons as well, and the game features a pounding but addictive techno soundtrack. A sort of rival game of sorts to Devil May Cry, it doesn’t get quite the hype, reception, or sales of that game, but still becomes a really popular title. It’s ultimately one of Namco’s last Sega exclusives before going back to multiplatform in 2003.

Crazy Taxi 2

A sequel to Crazy Taxi, Crazy Taxi 2 features more (and bigger cities), improved graphics, and a much larger musical soundtrack. Reviews are quite good, and it sells pretty well, though it's not as innovative as the original game. It's another strong game for the Katana, though it pushes few system sales.

Microsoft Xbox:

Between Two Skies

Between Two Skies is a platforming adventure title exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox. It takes place between two enormous planets that affect one another's gravitational pull in such a unique way that someone can travel freely between them at certain junctions. The game has Metroidvania and puzzle elements, as its protagonist, a young boy named John, can collect items and navigate buildings to travel between the worlds at certain points. The plot of the game begins when the leaders of both worlds learn that their two worlds' gravity is beginning to fail and that the worlds will soon collide, spelling doom for the people of both worlds. For millennia, an ancient order of people known as the Keepers protected the two worlds from falling into disarray. John was born into the Keepers' order, but his powers never properly developed, and the man that was to serve as the Keeper in John's stead, an older man named Terrance, has gone missing. John is tasked with finding Terrance and returning him to his proper place so that the worlds can continue to co-exist. However, elements from both worlds who wish to destroy the other world so that their own world can survive are trying to stop John from completing his mission. In addition, the interaction between the worlds is creating strange gravitational anomalies that are unsealing ancient prisons on both worlds, unleashing strange ancient beasts that John must defeat. Combat in the game is actually fairly rare, mostly performed in certain action “set pieces” between large puzzle or platforming segments. The gameplay consists largely of platforming or gravity puzzles similar to some of the environments found in OTL Super Mario Galaxy (though Between Two Skies features a lot of interior gameplay that Super Mario Galaxy doesn't). While John travels alone most of the time, he is sometimes accompanied by a girl named Glyneth, who ends up being John's love interest by the end of the game. Glyneth possesses a secret that causes her to be targeted by a military squad from one of the two worlds, and John finds himself in the position of having to protect her. Eventually, John hunts down Terrance, but Terrance didn't want to be found: in fact, he deliberately rejected his duty, wanting the two worlds to collide in order to teach them a lesson about using the Keepers. He had also been weakening John's power so that John couldn't take over in his stead. Terrance ultimately becomes the main villain, abusing his Keeper powers to manipulate gravity. He kills many people from both worlds and tries to kill John and Glyneth on numerous occasions. Eventually, John realizes that while he can't prevent the worlds from colliding, he can activate a special trigger failsafe that will separate the worlds permanently. He does this by activating two points on each world, four in all. The final point is being guarded by Terrance, but John, working together with Glyneth, manages to defeat him. However, John and Glyneth become separated during the battle, and John realizes that he'll have to say goodbye to Glyneth to save both their worlds. He says his last goodbye to her before severing the worlds forever. John returns to a normal life, believing he'll never get to see or talk to Glyneth again. However, a tessera remains connecting the two worlds and allowing people from one to communicate with people from the other. After getting to speak to Glyneth again, John makes it his new mission to find and open more of these tessera to make it easier for the two worlds to communicate.

Between Two Skies features groundbreaking graphics and physics, and the game is highly praised for this, winning a number of year-end awards. However, the plot itself and some of the gameplay are a bit disappointing, and while the game scores very highly in terms of reviews, it's not a Game of the Year contender and is even somewhat disappointing in terms of sales. Overall, it's still considered a success, and the development studio begins work on a sequel for either the Xbox or its successor.

Junction Point

A fairly straightforward port of Looking Glass' 1999 PC hit, Junction Point takes place on a spaceship traveling through a terrifying corridor of the galaxy. With many gameplay and plot elements from OTL's System Shock 2, Junction Point was a massive blockbuster on the PC and was one of the most anticipated Xbox ports to date. It's an excellent port with few graphical and no gameplay compromises, and review scores for the game are quite high. Sales, while not huge initially, remain strong throughout the game's lifespan, and it eventually sells over a million copies.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

An open-world RPG developed by Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a port from the PC version and very similar to OTL's game, with a plot that takes a backseat to sidequests and exploration. The game's main plot concerns the player character's battle to liberate Morrowind from the evil Dagoth Ur, who terrorizes the realm in his quest to rule over all. The game features a massive world to explore and countless quests for the player to perform. It's not as highly anticipated or successful a port as Junction Point, but it's considered an outstanding game nonetheless, outscoring the Ultra Nintendo's Baldur's Gate among most reviewers.

Yoyo 2: The Comeback

Unlike the Katana's Aerio 2, which was considered one of the best games of the year, Yoyo 2 is a really rushed platformer sequel after the marginal success of Yoyo. The protagonist from the previous game, an anthropomorphic bird who uses a yoyo as a weapon, returns, this time to fight off a band of wisecracking flying monkeys who are kidnapping random citizens from Yoyo's homeland. The worlds, eight in all (down from the ten featured in the previous game) are rather uninspired, and the game's reception is fairly mediocre. Still, since the game is one of the few family-friendly platformers on the console, sales remain fairly decent and a sequel is quickly greenlighted.

American McGee's Alice

American McGee's Alice is ported to the Xbox in 2002 ITTL, unlike IOTL where console players had to wait more than a decade to get their hands on the game. Nearly identical to OTL's title, it features much of the strange and macabre imagery that made the original game so highly praised. It's a twisted take on the classic Alice in Wonderland, featuring platforming and puzzle gameplay. Though reviews for the console port are excellent, like those for the PC version of the game, sales are fairly low due to a glut of horror titles on the Xbox at the time (it's got to compete with games like The Dark Tower for example).

They Stole My Name

A stealth/action title about an ordinary man who is dragged into a tale of espionage and violence after his identity is used by a terroristic hacker. Gets a better reception for its thrilling story than its gameplay, which is fairly pedestrian. The controls are deliberately clunky due to the fact that the player is controlling an average joe who is learning on the fly (which forces the player to use stealth, there are a LOT of forced stealth segments in the game). The voice acting is highly praised, though a few of the cutscenes are still turned into memes later on due to some silly plot contrivances and out of context lines. It's a game remembered more for Youtube reviews and playthroughs than the actual game itself.

Game Boy Nova:

Triple Orb 2

The sequel to Capcom's hit 2000 action platformer Triple Orb, Triple Orb 2 retains the same gameplay as the original but takes it up a notch: protagonist Tri can now utilize over 180 different combinations of orbs, from 24 different Clash and Aura orbs including 12 new varieties of each. The gameplay is now more open-ended, with Tri able to select from up to four levels as he progresses through the game, once one group of levels is beaten, another one opens up, for a total of 32 levels in all. The plot of the game involves an evil beast named Aurochtar (a gigantic bull god with the ability to smash entire cities with a single blow of his fist). Aurochtar has arisen and is forcing the people of the world to do his bidding. He's created an evil army of mind-controlled slaves and is taking over the world piece by piece, forcing Tri into action to defeat him (and followed by his girlfriend/camerawoman Tezuki the whole time). Tezuki is considerably more useful this time around, she can track down new orbs for Tri and can store Triple Orbs for him, allowing him to activate his Triple Orb specials instantly whenever he wants (though there are occasions that Tezuki gets into trouble, rendering Tri unable to use this ability, this includes several of the game's boss fights). For the most part, Triple Orb 2 plays just like the original, except significantly ramped up. It's got enough gameplay tweaks and new challenges to make it more than just a rehash, and it's an immediate sales success for the Nova, with very positive reviews.

Shadows Of The Moon: Dark Legend

Konami's first portable installment of their Shadows of the Moon series, about a woman named Ariel who hunts down werewolves to protect the innocent, Dark Legend plays like a traditional, 2-D Metroidvania style, though it features less RPG elements and more platforming and shooter elements than 2-D Castlevania games (it also features a lot of voice acting for a Nova game). Dark Legend is actually a prequel, taking place between Shadows of the Moon and its sequel, in which Ariel found out that her sister Magritte was actually an evil werewolf. In Dark Legend, Ariel must hunt down a band of rogue hunters on the request of Magritte, who is secretly plotting to take over the underworld herself. Though most of the hunters are ruthless and evil and deserve to be taken down, a few of them, including their leader Asher, are in reality quite decent people trying to do good. Ultimately, Ariel is deceived by her sister into kiling Asher, making the game's ending somewhat of a tragedy. However, in an after-credits scene that follows the events of Shadows of the Moon II, Ariel visits the graves of both Destin (who died at Magritte's hand at the end of Shadows of the Moon II) and Asher, who she was tricked into killing at the end of Dark Legend. Ariel swears to fight on in their names and to purge the Black King, the villain behind Magritte and the one responsible for many of the events of all three previous games in the series. Dark Legend is praised as one of the best handheld games of the year and a strong rival to Metroid: Revenant. Though sales aren't quite on Revenant's level, it's still one of the best selling games of December 2002.

Tree Of Mekia

Enix's first title developed for a Nintendo system since 1997, Tree of Mekia is a fairly basic Soul Blazer-esque action RPG. Its protagonist, a young hero named Leder, must combat an ancient corruption that is causing people all over the world to mutate into evil monsters. In order to save the people (and to stave off the corruption from overtaking him), Leder must tap into the roots of a massive tree, the Tree of Mekia, which has spread all over in response to the corruption. Though the tree's intentions are good, the more the corruption spreads, the worse the overgrowth becomes, becoming a threat to the very planet it was trying to protect. Leder must venture through eight dungeons, called Seeds of Corruption in the game, and defeat the boss monsters there. The final dungeon is the Tree itself, which Leder must prevent from becoming corrupted and from growing so large that it cracks the planet in two. The game's graphics, which are outstanding for the Nova, surpassing even those found in the Saturn port of Terranigma (which focused more on cutscenes than on in-game graphics), earn the game some very high praise, though its action gameplay isn't anything new for fans of Enix's previous work (indeed, some reviewers say that after playing Revolution Alpha, it's hard to go back to a game like Tree of Mekia). Reviews overall are still very good (hovering around 85% on GameRankings), but North American sales are quite poor. Despite this, it does sell quite well in Japan and is a surprising minor hit in Europe, which leads Enix to continue developing titles for the Nova and the upcoming Wave.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children

A kid-friendly Shin Megami Tensei take on the Pokemon series, Devil Children is much like OTL's game (which was released as DemiKids in some territories IOTL, but here retains its original title in all versions). It's split into two games: Red Book and Black Book, that feature different catchable creatures, and is overall a rather standard capture-based role playing game. North American sales are extremely low: the game's name generates a lot of controversy and it's mostly seen by American audiences as a Pokemon rip-off. Future Devil Children games aren't localized for quite some time.

Super Punch-Out Nova

A half-port, half-remake of Super Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out CD, Super Punch-Out Nova features the classic Punch-Out gameplay with a cast of 18 characters divided amongst three circuits. However, there are some new characters in the game, including a Crocodile Dundee-like Australian character, a one-armed man who's still VERY lethal with his single fist, and a Hitmonchan. Yes, you can fight a Hitmonchan in this game (he's the second-to-last fighter and he's EXTREMELY good). Super Punch-Out Nova's sales are decent, though not stellar.

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

An Ubisoft-developed RPG based on the second Harry Potter book and movie, it plays very similarly to the first game and sells about equally. The Harry Potter console games remain fairly average action platformers, so the Nova titles are a unique take on the franchise and are serviceable RPGs (since Ubisoft uses the Darkest Ritual engine to make them).

Mutant Season

A game where you use a reticle to hunt animals that have turned into mutant horrors. The game has an art style that makes the mutant animals, while still scary, look very cartoonish and it has a pseudo cel-shading type of style that makes the game somewhat distinct. It's seen as a silly shooter title but there's little notable about it other than the art style.

Donkey Kong Country
Final Fantasy V

A pair of SNES-CD ports, Donkey Kong Country is much better than the OTL Advance port but the graphics are still a bit downgraded from the original due to utilizing a cartridge rather than a CD (it still looks and sounds better than the OTL SNES game). As for Final Fantasy V, it too is a slight improvement from OTL's SNES game, particularly in the sound department. It has a pair of new jobs, including a Mascot job that allows characters to utilize the powers of a Moogle, a Chocobo, or a Tonberry, and a Scholar job that allows players to learn attacks from textbooks scattered throughout the world. Both ports are well received and are successful commercially.

Multiplatform:

Iron Combatant 2

The true “sequel” to 1996's Iron Combatant, Iron Combatant 2 returns to a traditional controller-based control scheme when it's released for the Ultra Nintendo and the Microsoft Xbox (though Xbox players are allowed to use the Iron Battalion controller, which gives them a few more control options). Iron Combatant 2 sees protagonist Layla returning to action in an advanced combat suit with significantly more weaponry and battle options than the original game. Iron Combatant 2 plays like somewhat of a hybrid between Techno Angel and Zone of the Enders, it's not as hack and slashy as Zone, but also not as strategic and deliberate as Techno. Instead, it finds a bit of a happy medium: there are moments when Layla is forced to slow down, take cover, and plan out her attacks, but other moments when she's forced to charge and fight with ferocity. Ammunition is limited, though melee attacks can sometimes jar ammo loose from opposing combat mechs (the stronger the enemy mechs, the stronger the ammunition that drops out). Layla can also enhance her ammunition with certain components, though these enhancements only last until the components burn out. Jennifer Hale returns as Layla's voice actress, bringing more of a brashness to her than she did to Samus, also using a higher pitched voice to give Layla a youthful ferocity.

Iron Combatant 2 takes place a year after the original Iron Combatant. After defeating the enemies who threatened her homeland, including her lover Albrecht, Layla is in somewhat of a bitter state, not wanting to get close to anyone for fear of being betrayed. She works as a mercenary in a city slowly rebuilding itself from the ruined world of the first game. When she finds an injured young girl being pursued by a military squadron commanded by the city's leader, Layla decides to protect her. The young girl has had military secrets downloaded into her brain, drawing attention from both the military seeking to steal her secrets and others such as mercenaries and rebels who would do the same. Though Layla sympathizes with the rebellion's cause (and its leader Kirkpatrick), Layla refuses to allow the girl to fall into anyone's hands, and believes Kirkpatrick will betray her in the same way Albrecht did. Eventually, Layla is able to undergo a procedure to transfer the military secrets from the girl's mind into her own, learning that the military is seeking to restart the Iron Combatant program with advanced military tech, in order to protect the city from any possible outside invasion. To protect the girl, Layla offers herself up as a soldier for the military, and is given the task of crushing the rebellion. Layla takes out most of the rebels but can't bring herself to kill Kirkpatrick, realizing that by doing so she'd be doing the same thing that Albrecht did to her. This causes the military to turn on Layla, and after she takes out some of their soldiers she is wounded and surrounded. It's then that the little girl who Layla had been protecting comes to Layla's aid using a new model mechsuit built from the secrets that had once been in her brain. The girl can barely control the suit but it's enough to get Layla to safety. However, the mech is soon commandeered by the city's military leader, who destroys Layla's mech suit and captures the girl to be publicly executed. Layla resolves to go in alone, without her mech suit, to try and save the girl, but Kirkpatrick stops her. Layla asks him how he can forgive her for what she did, and Kirkpatrick reveals that the rebels Layla thought she killed are still alive: they knew Layla would do what she had to and made plans to fake their own deaths once she began attacking them. The rebels help Layla assemble a new and improved mech suit and help her invade the compound where the little girl is being held. Layla defeats the military leader and rescues the girl, and becomes the city's protector along with Kirkpatrick and the other rebels.

Though Iron Combatant 2 isn't quite as well received as Techno Angel (the stuttered pace of its combat turns off some players and reviewers), it's still a very well liked game, and sales are good, about even between the Ultra Nintendo and Xbox versions and combining for more than a million sales between both. The game is definitely more commercially successful than Iron Battalion, and Capcom decides to continue the main series, while shelving the Battalion series for possibly the next console generation.

Bloodrayne

A hack-and-slash title centered around a half-vampire named Rayne, Bloodrayne is a fairly mediocre game, though reviews and sales are slightly better than OTL's version due to the more positive reception enjoyed by female protagonists ITTL. It's released for the Ultra Nintendo, Katana, and Xbox, though the Ultra Nintendo version is definitely the worst of the three, featuring blocky graphics and smaller levels. The Katana version actually features slightly more content than the Xbox version, including two additional levels and an additional playable protagonist named Marta who is accessible after the game is completed with Rayne: Marta is a full-blooded vampire who can fly and who wields massive claws. Despite being a somewhat average game, Bloodrayne does start a franchise with at least one additional game.

Menace

A 3-D mascot platformer about an unpleasant little monster known as “The Menace”, who visits various places and scares people while gathering up items to help him scare even more. The game gets a pretty robust advertising campaign and is released on all three consoles, and while it doesn’t sell great on any particular console (though it does its best sales on the Ultra), it’s still considered an overall success.

-

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

October 2002

1. Grand Theft Auto: Miami (Microsoft Xbox)
2. The Dark Tower (Microsoft Xbox)
3. Dick (Ultra Nintendo)
4. Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Nova)
5. Triple Orb 2 (Game Boy Nova)

November 2002

1. Metal Gear War (Ultra Nintendo)
2. Metroid: Revenant (Game Boy Nova)
3. Mortal Kombat: Revenge (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Arbiter Of Sin 3 (Sega Katana)
5. Kytokana (Sega Katana)

December 2002

1. Super Smash Bros. 2 (Ultra Nintendo)
2. Aerio 2: Hurricane Force (Sega Katana)
3. Between Two Skies (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Carpathia (Ultra Nintendo)
5. Junction Point (Microsoft Xbox)

RySenkari · Feb 16, 2017

Motorola Elite Released To Positive Reviews, Little Fanfare

Motorola's new Elite smartphone, which not only makes phone calls but plays games with advanced graphics and sound, made its debut last week. The Elite is a fliptop device, a bit smaller and somewhat more rounded than Nintendo's Game Boy Nova S. On the top of the device is a wide screen which can be used to interface with the phone or play the various games, which come on cartridges about half the size of the typical Nova cart, and slide into a slot on the bottom half of the phone. The bottom half of the phone is somewhat crowded, with a control pad on the left, four face buttons on the right, and between them, a number pad and several additional buttons that serve as both menu keys and Select/Start buttons. When someone is playing a game and receives a call, they can suspend the game they're playing to take the call. Holding the phone up to one's face to talk is a bit awkward considering the phone's shape, but it's something Motorola expects owners to get used to.

The device launched with six games: The Covenant: Mobile Elite, a compressed version of the Xbox hit with eight levels that somewhat follows the plot of the original game, Tomb Raider, essentially a straight port of the original Saturn version, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, a port of the original game that contains elements of all three console titles, Madden NFL 2003, a handheld version of Madden featuring 3-D graphics (making it the only handheld version of the game to do so, as the Game Boy Nova version is in 2-D), and two original titles: a rather plain but somewhat addictive puzzler called Swapperz that plays a bit like a hybrid of Bust-A-Move and World Of Color, and the Elite's only strategy game: Feudal Conquest. Feudal Conquest is a turn-based strategy title with RPG elements, where the player must use his units to capture segments of a map before their opponent can do so. The game plays a bit like PDA staple Hex Wars, though it can also be compared to titles like the XCOM series. Feudal Conquest is the Elite's most high profile original game, and some are even calling it the system's "killer app", if there even is something like that for the Elite. Reviewers have noted that none of the six launch games have been explicitly bad, the worst reviews so far have been for Swapperz, while Mobile Elite and Feudal Conquest have been very positively received. So far, the Elite's sales have been slightly above expectations, though they paled in comparison to sales of Nintendo's Game Boy Nova over the same period. Motorola projects the Elite to be one of the best selling phones of the holidays, though whether it can top Nintendo's Nova, which is seeing a massive sales spike due to the release of the lighter, slimmer Nova S, has yet to be seen. Motorola has announced more than 60 games to be released for the Elite next year, including versions of Dead Midnight, White Mountain, Resident Evil, and, most curiously, Grand Theft Auto.

-from a Gamespot.com article posted on December 14, 2002

-

Top 25 Best Selling Games Of 2002:

(Note: Multiplatform sales are combined. Only console games are included. Includes pack-in and bundle sales. Includes all North American software sales between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2002.)

1. Super Mario Ranger
2. Pokemon Eclipse
3. Madden NFL 2003
4. Sonic Neon
5. Medal Of Honor: Frontline
6. Super Mario Dimensions
7. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
8. Grand Theft Auto: Miami
9. Grand Theft Auto
10. Dead Midnight 3
11. Divine Wrath 2
12. Need For Speed: Unleashed 2
13. Velvet Dark: Synthesis
14. The Legend Of Zelda: Elven Bell
15. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
16. The Covenant
17. NFL Play Action 2003
18. Gran Turismo 2
19. NFL 2K3
20. Metal Gear War
21. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
22. Super Smash Bros. 2
23. Metroid: Revenant
24. NASCAR 2K2
25. Load 2

MTV Video Game Awards 2002:

Console Game Of The Year:

The Dark Tower
Grand Theft Auto: Miami
Metal Gear War
Super Mario Ranger
Techno Angel

PC Game Of The Year:

Battlefield 1942
Gunmetal
Ledrith's Sail
Neverwinter Nights
Warcraft III: Heart Of Chaos

Handheld Game Of The Year:

The Legend Of Zelda: Elven Bell
Metroid: Revenant
Moto X
Pokemon Eclipse
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Action/Adventure Game Of The Year:

Devil May Cry
Grand Theft Auto: Miami
Ledrith's Sail
Metroid: Revenant
Super Mario Ranger

Sports Game Of The Year:

Madden NFL 2003
NBA Live 2003
NFL 2K3
NFL Play Action 2003
NHL 2K3

Racing Game Of The Year:

Burnout 2
Exhilaration
NASCAR 2K2
Need For Speed: Unleashed 2
Ridge Racer 3

Fighting Game Of The Year:

Divine Wrath 2
Mortal Kombat: Revenge
Street Fighter Omega
Super Smash Bros. 2
WWF vs. NWO

Shooter Of The Year:

Battlefield 1942
Dead Midnight 3
No One Lives Forever
Techno Angel
Velvet Dark: Synthesis

Best Soundtrack:

Carpathia
Devil May Cry
The Dark Tower
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Grand Theft Auto: Miami

Most Addictive Game:

The Dark Tower
Electrolight
Grand Theft Auto: Miami
Pokemon Eclipse
Super Mario Ranger

Best Open World Game

The Dark Tower
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Grand Theft Auto: Miami
Neverwinter Nights
Wastes Of Secordia

Best Original Game

Carpathia
Devil May Cry
Dick
Infinity Age
Techno Angel

Best Online Game

Battlefield 1942
Castle Ruin
NFL 2K3
Unreal Championship
Warcraft III: Heart Of Chaos

Villain Of The Year

Bowser (Super Mario Ranger)
Catastrophia (Sonic Neon)
The Man In Black (The Dark Tower)
Sanders And Vance (Grand Theft Auto: Miami)
Solidus Snake (Metal Gear War)

Babe Of The Year

Adriana (Techno Angel)
Messiah (Blackheart 2)
Laura (Dick)
Pele (Divine Wrath 2)
Sadira Blackheart (Blackheart 2)

Holy S*** Moment Of The Year:

The Truth About Mercuria (The Dark Tower)
Michael Rips Off Lucifer's Head (Divine Wrath 2)
Vapor Snake (Metal Gear War)
Ghost Metroid (Metroid: Revenant)
Chicago Gets Nuked (Velvet Dark: Synthesis)

Game Company Of The Year:

Capcom
Microsoft
Nintendo
Rockstar
Ubisoft

Gamespot Awards 2002:

Game Of The Year: The Dark Tower
Game Of The Year (Readers' Choice): Grand Theft Auto: Miami
Best Graphics, Artistic (Console): No One Lives Forever
Best Graphics, Technical (Console): Between Two Skies
Best Original Music: Dick
Best Sound Effects/Design (Console): Techno Angel
Best Voice Acting: Metal Gear War
Best Story (Console): Metal Gear War
Best Game No One Played: ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal
Most Disappointing Game (Console): Herzog Zwei
Best Licensed Game: The Dark Tower
Most Improved Sequel: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Best Action/Adventure: Metal Gear War
Best Driving Game: NASCAR 2K2
Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter Omega
Best Puzzle Game: Flipsuits
Best Role-Playing Game: The Dark Tower
Best Shooter: Velvet Dark: Synthesis
Best Sports Game: NHL 2K3
Best Ultra Nintendo Game: Metal Gear War
Best Katana Game: No One Lives Forever
Best Xbox Game: The Dark Tower
Best Game Boy Nova Game: Metroid: Revenant

Interactive Entertainment Awards 2002:

Game Of The Year: Battlefield 1942
Console Game Of The Year: Grand Theft Auto: Miami
Computer Game Of The Year: Battlefield 1942
Action/Adventure Game Of The Year: Devil May Cry
Family Game Of The Year: Sonic Neon
Massively Multiplayer Game Of The Year: Castle Ruin
Handheld Game Of The Year: Shadows Of The Moon: Dark Legend
Racing Game Of The Year: Ridge Racer 3
Role Playing Game Of The Year: The Dark Tower
Shooter Game Of The Year: Battlefield 1942
Strategy/Simulation Game Of The Year: Warcraft III: Heart Of Chaos
Sports Game Of The Year: NHL 2K3
Fighting Game Of The Year: Super Smash Bros. 2
Outstanding Art Direction: Between Two Skies
Outstanding Vocal Performance: Joe Pantoliano as Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Miami (Male), Jennie Kwan as Adriana in Techno Angel (Female)
Outstanding Animation: Devil May Cry
Outstanding Game Design: Battlefield 1942
Outstanding Gameplay Engineering: Battlefield 1942
Outstanding Online Gameplay: Battlefield 1942
Outstanding Original Music: Medal Of Honor: Frontline
Outstanding Sound Design: Battlefield 1942
Outstanding Story: The Dark Tower
Outstanding Visual Engineering: Battlefield 1942

-

Nintendo Wave Launches In Japan, Sellouts, Massive Crowds Reported

The Nintendo Wave launched yesterday in Japan, and was easily one of the biggest electronics launches in the nation's history. The Wave's Japanese launch day outsold that of the Ultra Nintendo by two and a half times, easily moving over a million units in a single day. Sellouts were reported nationwide, despite Nintendo pushing production into overtime after shortages plagued the launch window of the Ultra Nintendo. The Wave launched with 12 games in Japan, most notably the new Mario Kart title, but also Lunar 3, Star Siren, Zone Of The Enders 2, Rose Champion Derby (a horse racing simulator) and a new One Piece game, among others. Mario Kart was easily the biggest seller, with nearly a third of those purchasing the Wave also purchasing the new Mario Kart. Though reviewers have criticized the game for a lack of polish and somewhat simplistic track layouts (along with a lack of online multiplayer, which Nintendo says won't go live until 2003), the game's graphics and presentation have been very positively received, and early fan impressions have been highly favorable. Lunar 3 also saw strong sales and somewhat better reviews, it received a 36/40 in Famitsu and is said to be the best game in the series. Lunar 3's launch day sales blew past Game Arts' expectations, and bode well for the game's success in North America. The best reviewed launch title was Capcom's sidescrolling brawler Star Siren, which got a 37/40 in Famitsu and was the third best selling game of the Wave launch.

Other hotly anticipated titles such as Killer Instinct 3 and Ken Griffey won't be made available in Japan until spring 2003, closer to the system's launch in North America and Europe. Enix's port of Revolution Alpha, which was initially planned for the Wave's Japanese launch, had to be pushed back until February 2003 in Japan and likely won't see North American release until the end of the year. We'll have more coverage of the Wave, including import reviews, over the next few days.

-from a Gamespot.com article posted on December 17, 2002

-

Filter Top 50 Games Of 2002
(Note: Rankings derived from an online fan poll on G4's website, the OTL chart included remakes and ports, so TTL's chart does as well.)

1. Grand Theft Auto: Miami
2. Super Mario Ranger
3. Metal Gear War
4. Fairytale 2
5. Sonic Neon
6. Techno Angel
7. Metroid: Revenant
8. The Dark Tower
9. Super Smash Bros. 2
10. Velvet Dark: Synthesis
11. Battlefield 1942
12. Pokemon Eclipse
13. Metal Gear Gaiden
14. The Legend Of Zelda: Elven Bell
15. Divine Wrath 2
16. Blackheart 2
17. Dead Midnight 3
18. Devil May Cry
19. Super Mario All-Stars (Nova)
20. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
21. Street Fighter Omega
22. Turok Evolution
23. Junction Point (Xbox)
24. Warcraft III: Heart Of Chaos
25. Dick
26. Madden NFL 2003
27. Need For Speed: Unleashed 2
28. Neverwinter Nights
29. Final Fantasy V (Nova)
30. Ledrith's Sail
31. NHL 2K3
32. Carpathia
33. Donkey Kong Country (Nova)
34. Mortal Kombat Revenge
35. Wheelman 2
36. Homeworld (Xbox)
37. The Slayer
38. Between Two Skies
39. Gitaroo Man
40. Narcotics Squad: Undercover
41. Star Wars Heroes
42. No One Lives Forever
43. Birth Of Mana
44. Arbiter Of Sin 3
45. NBA 2K3
46. Load 2
47. Exhilaration
48. Jungle Queen
49. Medal Of Honor: Frontline
50. State: Crisis

GameRankings Top 25 Games Of 2002 (only games newly released or significantly remade in 2002 are included, multiplatform releases are averaged)

1. Techno Angel: 95.06%
2. Battlefield 1942: 94.88%
3. Metroid: Revenant: 94.71%
4. Super Mario Ranger: 94.26%
5. Velvet Dark: Synthesis: 93.90%
6. Carpathia: 93.33%
7. Divine Wrath 2: 93.22%
8. Grand Theft Auto: Miami: 93.15%
9. Metal Gear War: 92.74%
10. Blackheart 2: 92.71%
11. Super Smash Bros. 2: 92.03%
12. Fairytale 2: 92.02%
13. Neverwinter Nights: 91.97%
14. Metal Gear Gaiden: 91.87%
15. Pokemon Eclipse: 91.81%
16. The Legend Of Zelda: Elven Bell: 91.74%
17. Devil May Cry: 91.70%
18. Dick: 91.55%
19. No One Lives Forever: 91.54%
20. The Dark Tower: 91.52%
21. Warcraft III: Heart Of Chaos: 91.50%
22. Aerio 2: Hurricane Force: 91.14%
23. NASCAR 2K2: 91.13%
24. Quixsters 3: Too Many Heroes!: 90.90%
25. Mascoteer: 90.88%

-

December 8, 2002

Every now and then
When I'm all alone
I keep wishin' you would call me on the telepone
Say you want me bad
But you never do
I feel like such a fool...

The loud pop beat of Stacie Orrico's "Stuck" reverberated through the karaoke hall as Alex Stansfield sat at a table and watched his friends Lyssa Fielding and Brittany Saldita bring the house down with a duet of the song. It was Lyssa's 29th birthday, and everyone was having a hell of a time.

"I feel bad for Jimmy," said Alex, looking over at one of the fellow IGN writers he was seated with at a table near the stage. "He's on assignment in Japan while we're having a blast here in L.A."

"Well, they got karaoke in Japan," replied Alex's co-worker with a laugh.

"But are the singers this good?" asked Alex, pointing at the stage.

"What are you talking about, they both suck," came a voice from nearby. Alex looked over to the next table, where Ted Crosley was seated.

"Careful, just because Brittany's a mom now doesn't mean she can't kick your ass," said Alex, exchanging a laugh with his former co-host.

"They're way too into the song to hear anything we're saying," Ted replied, only to see Brittany playfully flipping him the bird as she and Lyssa sang the end of the chorus, sending Ted and Alex's tables into hysterical laughter. "I mean it, you suck!"

Just as Alex was getting ready to take another swig from his drink, the phone in his pocket rang. He took out the phone and looked at it.

"It's Jimmy," said Alex, flipping the phone open. He wouldn't have if it were anyone else. "Jimmy, you still outside of Sega HQ? Has anyone shown up?"

When Alex heard Jimmy's answer, he backed up in his chair so much that he nearly tipped it over.

"Holy shit," Alex said, prompting his co-worker to turn and look at him.

"Is everything okay?" his co-worker asked. "What'd Jimmy say?"

Alex gestured for the man to be quiet as he began talking to Jimmy.

"Are you serious? ...you're sure it was him? ...all right, can you get to a computer? ....okay. ....okay, no....no I'll do it."

Alex put his phone away and stood up.

"This is big," said Alex. "This is really big."

He briefly looked up to the stage, where Lyssa and Brittany were still singing. He felt a big pang of regret, but he knew Lyssa would understand.

"Ted," said Alex, turning to his friend at the other table. "I have to go. Something came up, this is really big. Tell Lyssa I'm really sorry."

"Yeah, sure....uh....what is it?" Ted asked. Alex leaned over and whispered in Ted's ear. "....HE'S thinking about buying out Sega?"

-

Hisao Oguchi sat across the table from a man whose career he'd followed for more than a decade. One of the pioneers of the electronics industry, though it was never a man he expected to be conducting business with.

Especially when it was business as significant as the sale of Sega's entire video game division. The company had yet to finalize a decision on the sale either way, but now that they were shopping around for a buyer, it seemed inevitable that Sonic the Hedgehog and the other enormous franchises the company had cultivated over the years would soon be in the hands of another.

Oguchi didn't want to be doing this, but he didn't have a choice. And, he'd been told, he'd most likely be able to keep his job in some capacity, though he would no longer be answering to Sega's board of directors, but to another company's chief executive...perhaps even to the man sitting across from him right now.

"Thank you again for coming in," said Oguchi, extending his hand for the visitor to shake. "As you know, Sega has been looking for a buyer for its video game properties. If your company decided to purchase these properties, it would have ownership of the rights to all of our first and second party game franchises and the right to manufacture our Katana game hardware. We believe these properties hold great value, which I'm sure you understand well. I'm ready to hear the offer to have for us, but first, if I may, why is your company looking to purchase our video game division?"

The man across the desk from Oguchi adjusted his glasses and smiled.

"We've been waiting for an opportunity like this for a very long time," said Steve Jobs, thumbing through the folder Oguchi had presented to him. "With the new cultural recognition we've gained through the creation of the iMac and the iPod, my business associates and I feel that the time is right for Apple to expand into one of the most exciting growth industries in the world."

RySenkari · Feb 17, 2017

Here's an update about the state of kids' TV as of January 1, 2003. We won't be going into too much detail on individual shows, this is just sort of a snapshot as to where the big cable and network channels are at right now.)

-

Network Television: While the loosening of content restrictions and widening of fan bases has in general helped kids' TV and has helped the networks to stave off the end of Saturday mornings, the decline of network kids' TV was still pretty much inevitable ITTL, just as IOTL. Fox Kids is still doing the best but is really hurting. Saban is still around, and Power Rangers is still around on Fox Kids. It's back to being the highest rated show on the block after the end of Cybersix and the failure of most of Marvel's new animated wave (the new X-Men was the most successful of those, and like Cybersix, got to end on its own terms in 2002). Still, Power Rangers has been in a steady ratings decline for the past few seasons. The announcement of the new Hexagon season that promises to close up many of the series' recurring loose ends has generated some buzz, but there are rumors that it might air on Fox Family (which hasn't become ABC Family ITTL... yet). As for ABC and CBS, ABC is ready to give up on its One Saturday Morning experiment and start airing syndicated programs. CBS is still chugging along with Teletoon shows, though the success of a certain Canadian school-based show has lured a lot of the best of those to Nickelodeon's digital cable channel. By 2004, ABC and CBS' Saturday mornings will be a thing of the past, joining Kids WB on the scrap heap (Kids' WB ended in 2002).

Cartoon Network: Cartoon Network is still doing quite well, thanks to the success of shows like Gundam Soul and Spy School. Dragonball Z is getting ready to end, but Dragonball is still airing "new" episodes on weekday mornings, and Dragonball GT will be ready to join Toonami by the end of 2003. Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha have debuted on Toonami to moderate ratings successes, and One Piece will start airing in 2003, joining Untethered as a debut show on the block (Untethered is a TTL original anime that began airing in 2000, it revolves around a group of demon hunters who magically tether demons to their bodies in order to help them kill hostile demons, when one demon hunter betrays his allies, his tethered demon is able to free himself and must now wander the earth, hiding from his former master while recruiting other demons and friendly hunters). As far as the network's original cartoon properties go, Larry And Steve is the venerable old veteran among the network's Friday night shows and is still performing well, though ratings have declined somewhat. Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy and Courage the Cowardly Dog are still chugging along as well, while Exterminator Squad will air for one more year and Spy School is just starting to ramp up in popularity. Cartoon Network is on the verge of debuting two new shows: a comedy called The Cariocas, about a somewhat off-beat Hispanic family, and a majorly hyped action cartoon called Level Infinity, an RPG-inspired show about a group of gamer kids whose dream comes true when their world is transformed into a real-life video game.
Boomerang: Cartoon Network's sister digital cable station, Boomerang, also exists, and is largely as it is IOTL, airing classic reruns of old Hanna-Barbera shows. The network is just now starting to add 90s action cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest, and Captain Planet to the mix. Boomerang's ratings aren't great, but it's getting enough subscribers to stay afloat and isn't in any real danger.

The Disney Channel: Now a basic cable network with most providers, the Disney Channel is rapidly becoming the #1 kids' cable network on TV. Its success is largely due to its growing crop of live-action hits: Zenon: Girl Of The 21st Century is currently airing its final season, while Lizzie McGuire is one of the hottest shows on all of television, and Odd Jobs, starring Shia LeBeouf as a middle schooler working various jobs to pay for things he wants to buy while experiencing the trials and tribulations of middle school life, is getting major ratings buzz as well, with Shia's performance especially hailed. There are a few other live action "kidcoms" airing on Disney, but nothing all that notable. The network is also still airing its Animagic block, with a major focus on girl-centric shows (to counter Toonami's increasing male focus). The Legend Of Zelda is in its final season, while the network continues to air Mulan: The Animated Series, Corrector Yui, and Princess High (also in its final season). There's also Angelic Layer, which debuted in fall 2002 to somewhat disappointing ratings, and a new animated series based on Carmen Sandiego. The declining ratings for Animagic cause Disney to consider canceling the block entirely in 2003, but instead, Disney decides on a retool for 2004, which will launch with an animated series based on the Italian comic W.I.T.C.H..
Toon Disney: Toon Disney, Disney's cable network for all things animated, launched in 2000 and has become somewhat of a haven for cast-offs from Animagic, along with reruns of the old Disney Afternoon shows. It will start to get its own original content in 2003, becoming somewhat of a "boy" channel to counter the girl-centric shows on Disney Channel.

Nickelodeon: Nickelodeon is also going very strong. Taina is the network's biggest ratings hit, much bigger than it was IOTL and comparable to OTL iCarly when it was near its peak. Speaking of iCarly, Dan Schneider is still producing The Amanda Show for Nickelodeon, and despite all the butterflies, Drake and Josh will still become a reality in 2003 (though with many, many changes, including a somewhat more likable little sister character for the protagonists). Spongebob Squarepants is another massive ratings hit, as IOTL, but not quite as much as it was in our reality. Production has begun on a theatrical movie for 2004. Rocket Power is still airing and is even more popular than IOTL, due to the increased popularity of extreme sports video games. Bear It is also still going strong, and the network plans to introduce a new comedy Nicktoon, Tom Toolery, about a kid whose dad owns a hardware store and who is exceptionally talented with tools, building outlandish contraptions and structures (Nickelodeon is hoping to capture the same lightning in a bottle that it did with Phineas and Ferb, whose creators have been poached by Seth MacFarlane to work on Larry and Steve). Nickelodeon has also begun to air anime on the network, and scored a massive hit when they began airing Konami's Yu-Gi-Oh in 2002, which is pulling in some of the network's biggest ratings. There's also still Constant Payne, which continues to pull in excellent ratings as well. Nickelodeon is already looking for a new action cartoon to air in 2004, and will come to consider two competing pitches: a satirical action comedy about a giant robot, and a show about a young boy who can control the elements...
The N: Rather than starting the Noggin Network, Nickelodeon instead chooses to focus on older viewers when it launches The N for digital cable services in 2001. The N would air classic episodes of old Nickelodeon shows, along with numerous acquisitions. Three shows would come to be known as the network's "big three": two of them are Canadian acquisitions: Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Detectives, Jr., a mystery-based show where four adolescents, with the help of an up-and-coming mystery author played by former YTV presenter Stephanie Broschart, team up to solve various mysteries that spring up around their small Ontario town. The show pokes fun at various mystery genre tropes while also giving its characters a variety of heartfelt storylines. The final of the "big three" is an original, American produced show: Waterwitch. Created by Thomas W. Lynch, the creator of The Secret World of Alex Mack and Caitlin's Way, Waterwitch is the story of two best friends, a boy named Shannon and a girl named Sumi, whose lives are changed forever after Shannon finds out that Sumi is actually a water witch, the latest in a long line of water witches, whose destiny may one day take her away from their hometown forever. The two have to juggle their normal middle school lives with Sumi's fantastical circumstances. Though Degrassi is the biggest hit of the three shows, all three of them help to boost The N's profile substantially, and out of the three digital cable companion networks, The N is currently more successful than either Toon Disney or Boomerang.

-

Here are the ten most popular currently running kids' shows as of the end of 2002. This isn't in terms of absolute ratings, but a combination of ratings, reviews, and cultural relevance:

1. Lizzie McGuire (Disney Channel)
2. Taina (Nickelodeon)
3. Spongebob Squarepants (Nickelodeon)
4. Dragonball Z (Cartoon Network)
5. Zenon: Girl Of The 21st Century (Disney Channel)
6. Odd Jobs (Disney Channel)
7. Yu-Gi-Oh (Nickelodeon)
8. Larry And Steve (Cartoon Network)
9. Constant Payne (Nickelodeon)
10. Rocket Power (Nickelodeon)

RySenkari · Feb 20, 2017

Star Trek Online

(Authors' Note: The idea for the Massively Multiplayer version of Star Trek Online was originally given to us by Paradox-less, though he initially proposed the game as an offline RPG.)

Star Trek Online is an MMORPG released for the Xbox and the PC in January 2003. Unlike OTL's game, which came out in 2010 and initially required a fee, Star Trek Online requires no monthly fee (though you do have to be an Xbox Live subscriber to play the game). The game includes both space shooter and third-person shooter elements, as the game includes both ship-to-ship combat and individual on-foot combat. There are a number of scenarios that can be played alone (and indeed, the early part of the game is played alone), though players can also team up with others on most of the later missions, and can also team up with squads of players in ship to ship combat missions (there's nothing approaching the scale of combat in OTL EVE Online, though when there are many players on each side, some of the space battles can get pretty spectacular). The player starts out as a space cadet, and undergoes training in Starfleet Academy, which serves as the game's tutorial mode. After finishing the tutorial level, the player is put on the Kobayashi Maru test before graduating from the academy and becoming an Ensign on a ship. The player can choose to serve on a ship with CPU crew members for scripted missions, or to join a ship with other players who may have achieved higher ranks. Either way, the player is able to work their way through the ranks to eventually become captain of their own ship. Once the player becomes captain, they have the option to crew their ship with their online buddies or to choose CPU crew members (or a mix of both). In addition to the game's original scenarios, which involve a new invading faction known as the Seccators (which players are able to join, providing the impetus for PvP combat), players can choose to relive scenarios from classic Star Trek series and films (and again, players can choose sides during these scenarios).

Star Trek Online gets a considerable amount of pre-release hype, due to being one of the Xbox's first sci-fi based MMO games. Initially, reviews are fair to good: the game's original scenarios are criticized for being fairly unimaginative compared to the scenarios from the classic series, and the PvP space combat has some hiccups. As time goes by and developers add more content to the game, it improves, especially once players are able to start as Klingons, Vulcans, or Romulans, options which are added to the PC version first and then come to the Xbox in late 2003/early 2004. Star Trek Online never develops a large online community, but it does have a devoted fanbase, and sales are about what the developers expected, with the PC version outselling the Xbox version 3-to-1.

-

Phantasy Star Online Vol. 2

Rather than create a slightly upgraded version, as with OTL's Phantasy Star Online ver. 2, Sega instead creates a sort of "expansion pack sequel" to the original game. Retailing for $39.99, Phantasy Star Online Vol. 2 features all of the previous game's content, with about 50% more missions added. New character classes are selectable, there are two new difficulty modes, and the level cap is doubled from the original game as well. While the final boss remains the same, there's an added "bonus boss" that serves as sort of the final boss of the new content, adding more storyline details to the original game and also teasing a possible new single-player Phantasy Star as well. The new content is "walled off" from the old content, so players of Vol. 2 and the original can still play with one another, but people with the original game can't play any of the new quests (though a downloaded update does allow them to view the new items and they also have their level cap raised). While the game's release does cause some controversy that Sega is "double dipping" those who purchased the original game, the company does offer a limited time special trade-in promotion where people can trade in their old game to get Vol. 2 for $14.99, alleviating some of the controversy. All in all, Phantasy Star Online Vol. 2 gets a positive reception, and brings more people into the PSO fold. Indeed, the game remains the most widely played console-exclusive MMORPG worldwide (though "console exclusive MMORPG" is a very small genre at this point) with hundreds of thousands of players and more coming in every day. The release of the game generates the largest Katana hardware sales spike since Sonic Neon, illustrating the popularity of the game and the drawing power of a unique experience to get people to purchase the Katana. Vol. 2, which is released in North America on the same day as Star Trek Online, outsells the Xbox version of that game on launch day 2-to-1 in the States...and that's with the disadvantage of being an expansion pack sequel to a previous game.

-

Wil Wheaton: Let's check out some of the new content in Phantasy Star Online Vol. 2. Now, I can't actually team up with Minya on the same Katana, so she's in another room so we can party up and kick some butt together. The game doesn't have voice chat, but we've got monitors here so that's how we're talking live to each other.

Minya Oh: *in split-screen with Wil* Hey there! *waving* My character's not all that powerful, but there are some new beginner's missions too, so we'll get in on one of those.

Wil: Minya is always holding me back.

Minya: Oh, I'm sorry, I don't play as much as you do. I don't sit in my room in the middle of the night guzzling down soda pop and pizza and level grinding way past my bedtime like you do.

Wil: We can go PvP right now.

Minya: *laughing*

Wil: Okay, Minya just picked up the Steel Combat Boots. Those are new, those weren't in the old PSO.

Minya: I just got a nice defense boost from these, nice!

*They continue playing, the current dungeon is a large red cave with lots of fire-based bad guys and there are a couple other parties exploring the cave as well.*

Minya: We're not alone in here!

Wil: Maybe we can get somebody to join us.

Minya: That'd be nice because I'm only level 3. *kills a fire bat* Level 4, all right!

*They continue to play until they run up against a giant fire-breathing frog monster*

Wil: I'm gonna let Minya kill this thing because if I was fighting it, I'd kill it real quick because of my high level.

Minya: *taking a beating* Maybe you should jump in!

Wil: No, I think you're okay.

Minya: *in critical health* Aaaaaaah!!!

*Another player jumps in and starts attacking the frog*

Minya: Oh... CriticalJackal77 saved me!

Wil: He is really whaling on that frog!

Minya: *gets in a few hits of her own, soon the frog goes down* All right! Level 5, too...oh, level 6!

Wil: That was pretty good, and we got some good items too.

Minya: So yeah, Phantasy Star Online Vol. 2 is a lot of fun, and don't worry if you didn't play the original because this is pretty much the original but really significantly improved.

Wil: We're going to keep playing PSO for a little bit longer, so join us after the break when we take on a more advanced mission and hopefully Minya doesn't get killed!

-from the January 22, 2003 episode of Epic on G4

-

Mindy Kaling: Nintendo has begun revealing its online plans for the upcoming Wave console, set to be released here in North America this March. The system released last month in Japan to rave reviews and record-breaking sales, but Nintendo's online network, the first official online network for any Nintendo console, hasn't gone up yet, leaving many players wondering when they'll be able to play with their friends around the world.

Patrick Clark: Now, Nintendo has revealed that Sony, their hardware partner for the past decade, will be a major player in their online strategy. The company's upcoming online network, which doesn't officially have a name, will be free, like competitor Sega's SegaNet service, but unlike Microsoft's Xbox Live service, which charges a yearly subscription. Players will get to create their own screen name and jump into a general online lobby in which they'll be able to compete with players in any online compatible game, including Mario Kart: Double Dash!, Killer Instinct 3, and Ken Griffey: Hall Of Fame.

Mindy: Most intriguing for Nintendo's new system is the possibility that classic Nintendo games may be made available for download. This, following rumors that Sega will be opening an online store offering classic Master System and Genesis games for download on the Katana. Rumors that Sega and Apple have recently been entering into business negotiations may be related to this download service, which could open up the possibility of an iTunes-like store for online titles. While Sony's Ken Kutaragi has mentioned the idea of downloading classic NES, Super NES, and Super Nintendo CD games to the Nintendo Wave's hard drive, neither Nintendo nor Sony has made any mention of a download service thus far.

Patrick: Nintendo has announced that its online service will be ready for the North American launch of the game, meaning that Japanese players will have to make due with local multiplayer for the next couple of months until the Wave's official release on American shores.

Mindy: Sony has also announced the development of an online multiplayer game for next year, based on the Navy Seals. The idea, which Sony has had in the conceptual stages since 2000, was initially pitched as an offline shooter before being shelved to free up developers for oft-delayed adventure title Carpathia. We may hear more about the upcoming game at this year's E3.

-from the January 27, 2003 episode of G4 Weekly News

-

Blizzard's upcoming World Of Warcraft, scheduled for release sometime next year, is definitely the most intriguing new MMORPG to be announced in quite some time. With a massive world and the strength of the Warcraft lore behind it, the game is set to become the most popular online multiplayer title on the market when it's released, and Blizzard hopes to create a game that will stand the test of time, as Sony's PirateQuest and EA's Ultima Online have done. It'll also have to compete with what's considered to be 2002's best MMORPG: Castle Ruin, which is growing rapidly in monthly subscribers and has become the #5 MMORPG overall. While the scale of Castle Ruin's somewhat claustrophobic towns doesn't compare to what Blizzard has in mind for WoW, its addictive gameplay and intense strategizing, which its players have compared to the finest tabletop RPGs, have made it somewhat unique among online RPGs, which typically tend more toward a hack-and-slash feel. However, Blizzard is hoping to make World of Warcraft the most accessible MMORPG ever made, and while impressed by Castle Ruin's deep strategic gameplay, don't feel the need to compete with the game on such a deep level. Instead, they're seeking to create a game that's easy to learn but impossible to leave. Only time will tell whether their new game has what it takes to compete with the big boys.

World of Warcraft has been confirmed to be a computer exclusive game, which may disappoint console diehards seeking a hardcore MMORPG experience. Star Trek Online is looking to quench some of that thirst for Xbox players, and Phantasy Star Online, which just received an update that should be hitting stores as you read this, is the most popular console MMORPG ever released. But Squaresoft is looking to bring a true MMORPG experience to both the console and the PC, and Final Fantasy Online is perhaps the most ambitious MMORPG ever attempted. Combining classic Final Fantasy worlds with online gameplay, Final Fantasy Online is scheduled for a late 2004 release and will hit the Wave first and the PC in 2005. The early screenshots look spectacular, and they're from the Wave version of the game, which looks as good as anything we've seen on PC (demonstrating the Wave's incredible power). It looks to play similarly to the upcoming World of Warcraft, and it seems that the two games are on a collision course to compete not only for the title of best MMORPG of 2004, but perhaps best overall game. The game was originally conceived as Final Fantasy XI, but, said series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, an employee at Square convinced Sakaguchi to keep the online series separate from the main numbered series, saying that "this is a completely unique experience and should be treated as such". The employee was later confirmed to be Tetsuya Takahashi, who is doing some scenario work for the game, and is at work on another original RPG for the company, also set to be released next year.

MMORPGs have been among the biggest PC hits of the last decade, and now the genre is poised to take the console world by storm. With all three next-generation consoles capable of online gameplay, the internet is about to make its mark on gaming in a lasting way, and it's the RPG that's leading the way to this revolution.

-from an article in the February 2003 issue of GameInformer magazine

RySenkari · Feb 21, 2017

2003 Grammy Nominees: (winners in bold)

Best New Artist-

Ashanti
John Mayer
Marissa Linz
Norah Jones
The Paddleboats

(Notes: This one was really a two way race between Ashanti and Norah Jones. Marissa Linz was pretty much just happy to be nominated, while The Paddleboats, an original TTL British mod throwback band, were considered a bit too weird to win the award. This year didn't see any new Latin acts go up for Best New Artist, which was a bit of a sign that the Latin boom had begun to peak. Norah Jones took home the award, as IOTL. While Peter Malick's OTL encounter with Norah was butterflied away, she's just too talented to have avoided discovery at some point, and considering her musical pedigree, it's hard to envision her doing something else besides performing.)

Song Of The Year-

"A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton
"Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones
"Down By The Ocean Where The Seagulls Fly" by The Paddleboats
"Tear Out The Pages" by Selena
“You Know I'm Here 4 U” by Usher

(Notes: Norah Jones was once again the prohibitive favorite in the category, with A Thousand Miles a somewhat distant second. Selena was also given somewhat of a chance considering her popularity, but this was Norah's category from start to finish, as IOTL, and she won fairly handily.)

Record Of The Year-

"A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton
"Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones
"The Game Of Love" by Santana ft. Selena
"The Journey" by Rod Stewart
“You Know I'm Here 4 U” by Usher

(Notes: Norah Jones fails to pick up the sweep ITTL, as she gets edged out by Santana and Selena's massive hit "The Game Of Love". IOTL, that song was recorded by Santana and Michelle Branch, and while it's still a successful song, it never hits #1 or has anywhere near the accolades it gets here. Michelle Branch, who was nominated for Best New Artist IOTL, has had her breakout pushed back somewhat, but she may get her chance again down the road.

Album Of The Year-

All About U by Usher
Come Away With Me by Norah Jones
Home by The Dixie Chicks
Lionheart by Rod Stewart
Shaman by Santana

(Notes: And the big prize goes to the same album it went to IOTL. ITTL, Norah Jones wasn't always the front-runner for this category: Rod Stewart's Lionheart was the choice of many critics and it was thought that he might take the award, to the point where Norah Jones was absolutely shocked when it was announced she had won, as she also thought Rod Stewart would take it. The Dixie Chicks were seen as a possible dark horse, and without the controversy they would soon have IOTL, they'd be getting another shot at this prize sooner rather than later.)

-

2003 Oscar Nominees: (winners in bold)

Best Picture-

Dying Light
Gangs Of New York
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
Spirited Away
Zlata's Diary

(Notes: As shocking an upset as any in the history of this category, Spirited Away becomes the first animated film to win Best Picture. It was thought that an animated film could never win this award, due to opposition from the actors' wing of the Academy, but The Iron Giant's nomination in 1999 paved the way for an animated film to make history, and a massive Disney lobbying campaign, along with a number of persuasive film critics led by Roger Ebert, led to Spirited Away squeaking out a close victory over front-runner Gangs Of New York. Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter went up together to receive the Oscar, but Lasseter refused to even touch it, saying that the credit for this film was entirely on Miyazaki's shoulders and lavishing Miyazaki with praise as he humbly stood holding the award.)

Best Director-

Joel and Ethan Coen for Far Out
Kenneth Branagh for Revenger
Martin Scorsese for Gangs Of New York
Mike Leigh for Zlata's Diary
Roman Polanski for The Pianist

(Notes: Scorsese gets his Oscar sooner than IOTL, beating Polanski in the category to win the Best Director award (IOTL, Polanski beat him). The other three directors were nominated for original TTL films, with Joel and Ethan Coen penning and directing a film about hippies who run afoul of an FBI agent, Zlata's Diary being an adaptation of the diary of a young girl during the Bosnian War, and Revenger being a film about a betrayed knight who seeks to kill a ruthless feudal lord.)

Best Actor-

Adrien Brody in The Pianist
Cillian Murphy in Revenger
Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs Of New York
Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt
Samuel L. Jackson in Undeclared War

(Notes: Adrien Brody and Cillian Murphy were both getting a lot of buzz due to their youth, while Daniel Day-Lewis, nominated for Best Actor for Gangs despite playing the villain of the film, was considered the favorite. However, it was Adrien Brody who won the award, and in one of the funniest moments of the night, planted a big excited kiss on the forehead of presenter Evan Rachel Wood, last year's Best Actress winner.)

Best Actress-

Brittany Murphy in Far Out
Diane Lane in Unfaithful
Jodie Foster in Dying Light
Lejla Marjanović in Zlata's Diary
Salma Hayek in Frida

(Notes: For the second straight year, it was thought that we might have a child actress winner in this category, as Lejla Marjanović's performance as the titular character in Zlata's Diary won major accolades. Brittany Murphy, whose performance in Far Out won heavy praise as well, was also thought to be a popular underdog choice. In the end, however, it was the "boring" winner: Salma Hayek, the front-runner most of the way for her performance as Frida Kahlo, took home the Oscar.)

Best Supporting Actor-

Bill Paxton in Far Out
Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Undeclared War
Ian McKellen in Revenger
Leandro Firmino in City Of God
Powers Boothe in Brimstone

(Notes: The only OTL film that appears in this category is City Of God, and none of these actors were nominated in this category this year IOTL. Bill Paxton, who plays a sadistic, corrupt FBI agent in Far Out, was the runaway winner in the category, which, with the exception of Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character in Spike Lee's Undeclared War, were all villains.

Best Supporting Actress-

Cameron Diaz in Gangs Of New York
Carrie-Anne Moss in The Losers Of Promontory Point
Julia Roberts in No Money Down
Kathy Bates in About Schmidt
Maribel Verdu in Y tu Mama Tambien

(Notes: This category was anyone's to win, as all five performances were highly praised and nothing truly stood out. In the end, it was Carrie-Anne Moss' performance as a bisexual married woman who has a fling with her old high school best friend at an impromptu 20-year reunion that took the award.)

RySenkari · Feb 22, 2017

(Authors' Note: This was an idea given to us by our reader HonestAbe1809! Virtually everything you see here was his idea, we filled in a few gaps and tied it all together but the concept, characters, and storyline are his.)

Kingdom Quest

Kingdom Quest is an adventure/platformer title developed and published by Sony for the Ultra Nintendo. Originally conceived in 2000, its development cycle was one of the reasons for the Carpathia delays, as more and more of the company's resources were going toward the development of Kingdom Quest. The game was originally intended to be released in the summer of 2002, but Nintendo requested that Sony delay the game's release to early 2003 in order to make more room for Super Mario Ranger. At one point, Sony considered making the game a Wave launch title, perhaps giving it a dual release with the Ultra Nintendo version, but didn't want to delay the game any more than they had to, and knew that the graphics, while excellent for the Ultra Nintendo, would look somewhat primitive on the Wave even with a slight resolution increase. Kingdom Quest is a deconstruction of Mario-like platformer games, and even stars two brothers, Tony and Louie, that are a parody of Mario and Luigi (though with Brooklyn accents like in the original cartoon, rather than Italian accents like in the more recent games). The game actually starts out more lighthearted in tone for the first half of the game (contained on the game's first disc), then turns into a darker, more deconstructive game for Disc 2. Ultimately, even as a parody, it's still a very smartly written game. The characters, for the most part, aren't portrayed as being stupid, and the ribbing at Mario and platformer conventions is more gentle than out and out criticizing. The game itself plays much like a typical 3-D platformer, with lots of jumping and exploration. Tony and Louie can utilize various weapons and gadgets across the course of their adventure, making the game play more like Super Mario Ranger than Super Mario Dimensions (indeed, it's a bit more like OTL Ratchet and Clank than a 3-D Mario title, with weapons that can be purchased with in-game currency or found by going off the beaten path, the developers took a good amount of inspiration from the Frederico games as well). As a Sony developed title, the game features excellent, colorful graphics (though again, it's an Ultra Nintendo game, so compared to the latest Katana and Xbox platformers it's somewhat primitive, but its cartoony style holds up fairly well). It also features outstanding music and a bevy of well-known voice actors (Sony's voice actor budget for Kingdom Quest was several times that of Carpathia, where most of the money that went into that game went into graphics).

The main characters are as follows:

Tony: The game's main hero with a snarky sense of humor, but also a very strong moral compass and sense of determination. He's voiced by John DiMaggio.
Louie: Tony's little brother, he's somewhat of an egghead but when push comes to shove he's as brave as Tony and ready to fight with his brother to defend the world. He's voiced by John DiMaggio also.
Princess Cally/Calypso: The typical princess who needs saving, Cally is a bubbleheaded blonde bimbo who gets herself kidnapped in every single level. She's voiced by Hynden Walch, who uses the same voiced she used for Starfire in Teen Titans IOTL.
King Barathus: The game's main villain, a powerful lizard king who wears a fierce suit of armor and won't stop until Cally is his prisoner forever. He's voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.

There are a variety of other wacky characters in the game, most of who serve as bosses of the individual levels, including Ted E. Bear (a Chuck E. Cheese parody), voiced by Seth MacFarlane, Agent X, an expy of James Bond who also parodies Bond's womanizing and drinking (though in a PG way), voiced by Phil Hartman, Amazing-Man and Captain Patriot, parodies of Superman and Captain America, voiced by Tim Daly and David Hayter, Captain Henri-Phillipe Montgolfier, a parody of Captain Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation, voiced by Maurice LaMarche, and The Hoppers, a parody of the Beatles, who do battle in a yellow submarine and are voiced by Jess Harnell using a variety of British accents.

Each level has the structure of a typical 3-D platforming level, though instead of having a hub level, there's a specific order in which each level must be completed. Each level has several required objectives and several hidden objectives, the hidden objectives earn extra money, weapons, and story snippets (some of which imply that Cally can't be trusted), while in the required objectives, Tony and Louie will usually need to rescue at least one cute animal denizen, rescue the Princess herself, and find and repair a mystical sigil in each level that the Princess says will "vanquish evil forever".

The levels are as follows:

Level One: Ted E. Bear's
After a sequence introducing Barathus and some of his lackeys, Tony and Louie pursue Ted E. Bear into a massive restaurant/funhouse/dungeon where Princess Cally is being held hostage. They rescue Piggy the Pig, who reveals that Ted's been corrupted by Barathus who has hacked into the programming of all the robots. The brothers repair the sigil, then rescue Cally from Ted E., using the sigil to undo the corruption that Barathus has inflicted.

Level Two: Meet The Hoppers
Cally's gotten herself kidnapped again, this time by the Hoppers, who have taken Cally into a psychedelic dreamworld. Tony and Louie must rescue the Groovefish and his bandmates before finding and saving Cally. This time, since Cally is saved before the sigil is found, the brothers get a chance to spend some time with her. Though Cally is very bubbly and sweet, she can get a bit impatient at certain segments of the level (the rescued animals are like this too, sometimes using dark humor after the brothers free them). Eventually, the brothers repair the sigil, and take on the yellow submarine, which transforms into a mecha to battle the brothers.

Level Three: Epic Fantasy
The brothers find themselves in a world parodying classic RPG tropes, where Cally's been abducted by a longhaired prettyboy villain named Falcroft and taken to a tower of evil. The brothers first rescue Moocoo the Bunny, a sort of parody of a moogle, before they venture into Falcroft's tower and rescue Cally herself, and repair the sigil too.

Level Four: Spy Games
The brothers must rescue Cally from the clutches of Agent X, who is boring her greatly with his attempts at wooing her. The brothers rescue a prized falcon from Agent X's collection, then rescue Cally before repairing the sigil and battling Agent X, who engages the brothers in a gun battle that will test their wits and the weapons they've acquired along the way.

Level Five: The Penultimate Frontier
The brothers find themselves in space, where Cally is being held prisoner on Captain Henri-Phillipe Montgolfier's ship. In a parody of various space tropes, the brothers battle their way through the ship, first repairing the sigil, then wrecking the ship, forcing it to crashland on an alien world, and then saving Cally from Montgolfier after rescuing a friendly alien.

Level Six: City Under Siege
The brothers wind up in a city much like their hometown, but local heroes Amazing-Man and Captain Patriot are trashing everything with their not-so-superheroic ways. Cally is kidnapped, not by the "heroes" but by the city's resident villain, who the brothers dispatch easily since the heroes can't be relied upon to do it. The heroes spend more time with Cally here than in any other level (and her somewhat impatient nature comes out a bit more here). Cally helps them repair the sigil and rescue a snake that got accidentally flushed into the sewers, then the heroes challenge the brothers to a fight. The brothers can beat them (though their superpowers make that tough), OR they can trick the heroes into fighting each other. Either way, after the heroes are defeated, Barathus shows up, blasts the city from his superfortress, and captures Cally yet again.

Level Seven: Battling Barathus
The brothers invade Barathus' fortress. It's a fairly straight-forward level, there are lots of tough robot enemies and difficult platforming, but it's still somewhat shorter than the others due to the lack of side objectives. The goal is simply to get to Barathus and fight him. It's a very difficult battle in two stages, first a straight-up fight with Barathus himself, then a massive melee as Barathus uses every weapon in his arsenal to destroy the brothers. But eventually, Barathus is defeated and his suit is smashed to bits, revealing that he's not the fierce and formidable lizard monster he appeared to be, but just a tiny turtle in a suit whose name is Bert (and who's now voiced by Richard Horvitz). Cally is freed from her restraints and the brothers have saved the day. Cally gathers up the sigils and thanks the brothers, giving them both a kiss on the cheek. Then she takes up the sigils and raises them to the sky... and everything disappears. The fortress, the city below, the world, everything. The brothers wonder what's happening, only to be completely paralyzed as their bodies glow black. Cally looks at them...and laughs. Her voice gets deeper, more vicious (Hynden Walch is now using her Blackfire voice). Cally reveals herself as Queen Calypso, ruler of the world, who created a grand illusion to trick the brothers into finding the magic sigils for her. She reveals that some time ago, a band of rebels challenged her rule. Using their powers and their bravery, they managed to break Calypso's sigils one by one, but as they did so, Calypso hunted them down and killed them. The last hero broke Calypso's final sigil just as she struck him down with a burst of magical lightning. Calypso had only her illusion magic remaining, and decided that she would reach outside her world to find more heroes to "save" her and restore her powers again. The cute animals that the brothers saved throughout their adventure? Calypso's loyal pets, transformed by the previous heroes into harmless creatures, but now that Calypso's full powers have returned, her pets transform back into terrifying creatures of darkness. The entire world, the true world, is a nightmarish, Tim Burton-esque realm of twisted horror. The entire mood of the game has completely changed. And Tony and Louie, poisoned by Calypso's kisses, are powerless to stop it....or perhaps not. Louie had saved a potion during the previous level, and he manages to drink it before giving some to his brother. The two brothers escape Calypso, but just barely. Disc One ends with Calypso cackling in madness while deploying her pets to finish off the two brothers as she works to take over all worlds with her evil magic.

Level Eight: Callyworld
The illusion magic that Calypso used to make a world of cities, spaceships, mystical forests, and a funhouse restaurant among other things is gone. In its place is left a dark, twisted, nightmare hellscape that pushes the boundaries of the game's T rating. Callyworld is a carnival that fuses Tim Burton and Pink Floyd nightmares. Tony and Louie must battle the brainwashed denizens of Calypso's kingdom, who take the form of killer clowns and mascoted animals that look diseased and walk like zombies (fortunately, defeating them breaks the spell, when Tony and Louie take out most enemies, they turn back into unconscious humans). Calypso occasionally appears to taunt the heroes, who must explore Callyworld and break the sigil once more. It's guarded by Piggy the Pig, whose true form is that of a fearsome boar whose eyes glow red (a reference to Pink Floyd). Defeating the boar enables the brothers to break the sigil, but there are still five more to go.

Level Nine: Dark Ocean
Tony and Louie dive into the ocean, a spooky nightmare of broken ghost ships and dead pirate zombies (who turn into live unconscious villagers when Tony and Louie defeat them). Calypso appears to briefly perform a Beatles-like song about evil with a band of evil fish. The boss of this realm is the transformed Groovefish, who becomes a music-playing shark that tries to swallow the brothers whole before it's defeated and the sigil of the level is broken.

Level Ten: The Dungeon
Tony and Louie must enter Calypso's dungeon, where her few remaining unbrainwashed prisoners are being kept in gloomy cells. It's a terrifying, claustrophobic place that the brothers must explore, freeing all the prisoners before finding the sigil. Moocoo the Bunny transforms into a slightly larger bunny who attacks with the same homicidal rage as the Killer Rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, its small size and furious speed make it one of the game's toughest bosses. The brothers shatter the sigil, and the freed prisoners help them reach the next level.

Level Eleven: The Lab
The brothers explore a secret underground laboratory, where they come across who else but Bert, who reveals that he had been hired by Calypso as a patsy. He apologizes to the brothers, telling them that he only helped them because he thinks Calypso is the most beautiful woman in the universe, and thought that if he helped her, she'd like him, but she was only just using him. Bert offers to help the heroes out, and they'll need it, because the lab contains horrifying experiments and terrifying weapons. Calypso makes an appearance in this level too, taunting Bert and cruelly hurting his feelings (but in an utterly hilarious way). Eventually, the brothers reach a massive aviary where they battle a terrifying giant raven, the mutated version of the falcon they saved from Agent X's collection. They defeat the raven and smash the sigil.

Level Twelve: Death Desert
The alien world the brothers explored was actually just a huge desert filled with black sand, mirages, and radioactive beasts (in a sort of parody of the 1950s New Mexico nuclear tests). Bert helps the brothers out here, showing them where Calypso experimented with dangerous new spells. She also captured an alien and let it loose here: that alien the brothers saved was actually a Xenomorph-like terror, that hunts down the brothers on numerous occasions (as Calypso taunts them via loud air raid speakers). Eventually, they corner the beast near the sigil and fight it, defeating it and destroying the sigil.

Level Thirteen: City Of Nightmares
The final level is comprised of a massive city and Calypso's castle at the center: the brothers have returned to the site of their betrayal before. Along the way, they'll battle Calypso's pet snake, an enormous, skyscraper-sized serpent. The serpent at one point actually swallows them whole, forcing the brothers to carve their way out. After defeating the snake and impaling it, Midgar Zolom-style, on the spire of a skyscraper, the brothers invade Calypso's castle, with her taunting them the entire way. They fight several more bosses on their way up the castle as Calypso continuously taunts them. Finally, they battle Calypso herself in a two-part fight: the first against her more human, Dark Queen form, and the second against an enormous hybrid of a woman, a spider, and a scorpion. The brothers defeat Calypso and destroy her final sigil, and the world is restored to its true form: what it appeared to be in Calypso's illusions during the first part of the game, a light, peaceful, sunny world filled with wonderful and diverse landscapes. The brainwashed denizens are restored to life, the bosses from the first part of the game (which were thought to be only illusions) are restored as peaceful (if somewhat annoying) residents of the restored world, and Calypso herself is imprisoned in the deepest, darkest dungeon in the kingdom, where nobody (except a very unfortunate guard) has to listen to her ranting.

Kingdom Quest is considered to be one of the best platformers of 2003, and the last truly great Ultra Nintendo game prior to the release of the Wave. Though it doesn't get as much hype as it probably should have gotten (Sony directs much of its promotional budget to Carpathia, and neglects Kingdom Quest somewhat), the game gets fantastic reviews in most outlets, averaging in the high-80s on Gamerankings. The game is released for the Ultra Nintendo on North America on January 20, 2003, and would eventually get a somewhat enhanced port on the Nintendo Wave in 2005. The game's initial sales are only moderate (though, due to the great reviews, are better than expected), and word of mouth helps sales to remain steady in the weeks and months following the game's initial release. Even after the release of the Wave, its sales dip only slightly, and it becomes one of the best selling Ultra Nintendo games of 2003.

-

Victor Lucas: Today on Judgment Day, there's something for everyone, no matter what console you own. We're going to be reviewing three games today, one for the Xbox, one for the Katana, and one for the Ultra Nintendo.

Alex Stansfield: That's right, we're going to boldly go into the world of Star Trek Online for the Microsoft Xbox. Is this a Trekkie's dream game, or is it more Tribble than it's worth?

Victor: Then we're going to continue with the sci-fi MMORPGs when we take on Phantasy Star Online, Volume 2. This updated version of the 2001 Katana hit brings back all the fun of the original, but is there enough new content to justify purchasing a brand new version of the same old game?

Alex: And finally, we take on a new platformer for the Ultra Nintendo, it's Sony's Kingdom Quest. There's more to this game than meets the eye, but does it meet up to our strict standards?

Victor: We'll also be checking out a handheld game today, and this time it's a Motorola Elite game!

Alex: Yeah, we're following up our system review from a couple weeks back with an in-depth look at Feudal Conquest, one of the phone hybrid's exclusive titles.

(...)

Alex: Kingdom Quest really is a ton of fun. It's a surprisingly deep platformer game, and it's absolutely gorgeous as well. This really should have been a launch title for the Wave.

Victor: Right, it's looking so far like there's a distinct lack of platformers coming out right away for that console, so why not this?

Alex: Well, it's not perfect, but it would've been perfect for the new console. I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.

Victor: We don't usually agree on these types of games, but today we do, I'm giving it an 8 also.

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

+ A GORGEOUS WORLD
+ VERY FUNNY
+ GREAT VOICE ACTING

- GAMEPLAY NOT ALL THAT ORIGINAL
- LEVELS TOO SMALL
- WHY NOT A WAVE GAME?

Victor: On the plus side, the game looks beautiful, with a variety of diverse worlds and visual motifs. The humor's great, the game's not actually a straight-up parody, but it has enough jokes and riffs on gaming cliches and culture that long-time gamers will be in stitches at some parts. And the voice acting's really excellent, they definitely went the extra mile to hire good actors for this game and it shows.

Alex: On the negative side, the gameplay's really not all that different from platformers we've played before, there's enough new stuff to make it interesting but no big innovations in the genre. The levels are pretty small, a lot smaller than the ones in Super Mario Ranger, so it's not that much of a challenge to find everything. And finally...this really should have been a Wave game. The graphics are awesome for the Ultra Nintendo but they would've looked so much better on the Wave.

Victor: That said though, it's still a great game.

Alex: And it is nice to have it on the Ultra Nintendo, since it helps make the wait for the Wave seem a whole lot shorter.

-from the January 27, 2003 episode of G4's Judgment Day

RySenkari · Feb 23, 2017

The 2002 NFL season saw some of the biggest changes since the AFL merger, as the Houston Texans joined the league to become the 32nd NFL franchise. The conferences and divisions were realigned, with four divisions in each conference and four teams in each division. Seattle would move from the AFC to the NFC, while a new South division was formed in each conference. (Authors' Note: The conferences and divisions ended up exactly as they did IOTL. I thought of having the divisions make a bit more sense geographically, but I figured the butterflies wouldn't make the powers-that-be in the NFL any smarter ITTL

)

Once again, the two-time defending champion New Orleans Saints were off and running, and achieved the league's best record at 14-2. While their offense wasn't quite as potent as it was the previous year, it was still plenty good, with 51 passing touchdowns for Peyton Manning. The NFC showcased a pair of rookie quarterbacks: #2 pick David Carr for the Detroit Lions, and #3 pick Joey Harrington in Arizona. Carr thrived on the Lions, successfully leading the team to an 11-5 record and the division crown over the 10-6 Green Bay Packers. Carr had some help from the Lions' fifth-ranked defense, but was still good enough to win offensive rookie for the year. As for Harrington, his team the Cardinals would have a difficult campaign in his opening year, and while he showed flashes of brilliance, it wasn't enough for more than a 6-10 season. However, Harrington's rookie season was a dream compared to the nightmare that was the one and only play of #1 pick Carson Palmer's career. The Houston Texans placed Palmer behind an absolutely terrible offensive line, and on the very first play of the Texans' very first regular season game, against the Dallas Cowboys, rookie defensive end Dwight Freeney penetrated the Texans' line and slammed Palmer hard into the turf. Palmer didn't get up. The hard hit had caused Palmer to land in such a way that one of the vertebra in his back was crushed, severing his spine and rendering him a paraplegic for the rest of his life. The game stopped for more than a half hour as Palmer was carted off the field, and the shell-shocked Texans and their backup quarterback could barely get through the rest of the game. The Cowboys were badly shaken as well, but ended up winning, 24 to 3. The Texans would only win one game the entire year, rivaling the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of 1979 as the worst starting campaign in NFL history. Speaking of the Buccaneers, the team would struggle as well, as quarterback Ryan Leaf would be benched in favor of rookie Patrick Ramsey, who played poorly in his first few games. While Leaf was still a good quarterback, numerous off the field controversies continued to dog him. Eventually, Leaf would be traded to the quarterback desperate Houston Texans in the offseason. The top two AFC teams were the New England Patriots, led by Donovan McNabb and featuring a staunch defense, and the Indianapolis Colts, whose defense was given a major boost by rookie Julius Peppers, the Defensive Rookie of the Year. The Colts still boasted a powerful offensive attack, led by quarterback Tom Brady and his top two weapons, Marvin Harrison and Randy Moss. Brady would win the year's MVP award, but would have to share it with the dynamic Michael Vick, who led the Cleveland Browns to a 12-4 record and the AFC North title.

NFL Playoffs 2002-03:

Wild Card Round

(3) Cleveland Browns: 38, (6) Jacksonville Jaguars: 0

The Jaguars played their way into the playoffs by winning their last five games of the regular season, but they were no match for Michael Vick and the Cleveland Browns. Vick rushed for 158 yards and passed for 242 more, giving him 400 total yards, 2 rushing touchdowns, and 2 passing touchdowns. Combined with the Browns' excellent defense, and the Jaguars were totally shut out.

(5) Pittsburgh Steelers: 26, (4) Denver Broncos: 14

Kordell Stewart played an excellent game, while the Steelers defense kept the Broncos' excellent rushing game stalled when they needed to. The Broncos had trouble getting anything going, except for a 70-yard touchdown run late in the first half and a long touchdown drive in the middle of the third quarter that brought the score to 16-14. The Steelers shut out the Broncos the rest of the way, and advanced to once again face their rivals, the New England Patriots, who they hoped they could achieve revenge on for their loss two seasons ago.

(3) Detroit Lions: 13, (6) Philadelphia Eagles: 10

The Eagles lost this game more than the Lions won it, as Tim Couch threw three critical interceptions, including two in the Lions' end zone, to help the Lions win this close game. David Carr threw a couple of picks himself, but they were much less consequential. Couch cried in the post-game press conference, which was one of the most memorable of the decade, giving us the timeless quote: "I feel like a big damn failure."

(5) Green Bay Packers: 27, (4) St. Louis Rams: 9

The Green Bay Packers dominated this one all the way. Brett Favre was basically Brett Favre, throwing for 342 yards and three touchdowns, while the Rams struggled to get anything going. They scored a touchdown in the first quarter, but failed to convert on an attempt at a surprise two point conversion that would end up being a bad omen for the remainder of the game.

Divisional Round

(5) Pittsburgh Steelers: 25, (1) New England Patriots: 15

Revenge was sweet for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who knocked off the New England Patriots in a strange game that saw the Steelers score two safeties: one after a Patriots punt attempt sailed out of the back of the end zone, and one after Donovan McNabb fumbled an attempted bootleg and had to fall on the ball and take a safety rather than let the Steelers get the ball. The tough Steelers defense had the Patriots rattled all day, while the Patriots had trouble catching Kordell Stewart, who ran for 72 yards in addition to 210 passing yards. Stewart never ran the ball into the end zone, but he broke off big runs that kept crucial drives alive, further frustrating the Patriots.

(2) Indianapolis Colts: 34, (3) Cleveland Browns: 31 (OT)

In what was probably the most exciting game of the entire postseason (and winner of the 2003 ESPY Award for Game of the Year), the Colts and Browns went back and forth, trading touchdowns all day. The Browns started with a 7-0 lead, then were down 14-7, then were up 24-14 before Brady led the Colts back to tie it up. The Browns put themselves ahead by 31-24 with less than two minutes to go on an amazing Michael Vick touchdown run, but Brady led the Colts on an 80-yard drive to score in the final five seconds of the game. In the overtime period, the Colts failed to score when Cary Blanchard missed a 54-yard field goal as it bounced off the left upright. Then the Browns drove deep into Colts territory, but rather than kick a game winning 47-yarder, they went for one more play. Vick threw a screen pass to his running back, who was immediately crushed by a punishing hit from a Colts linebacker that caused him to fumble the ball. The Colts recovered and drove down to the Browns' 34, where Blanchard would have another shot to win the game, this time from 51 yards. The kick sailed just over the crossbar, giving the Colts the win and advancing them to the conference finals.

(1) New Orleans Saints: 56, (5) Green Bay Packers: 35

Another Saints divisional playoff game, another shootout. Peyton Manning and Brett Favre went back and forth for two quarters before the Saints once again pulled away, looking damn near unstoppable in the process.

(2) Washington Redskins: 27, (3) Detroit Lions: 13

The Redskins wouldn't make the same mistakes in this game that plagued their fellow NFC East team the Eagles in the wild card round. LaDainian Tomlinson had a solid 106 yard performance, while Redskins quarterback Rich Gannon would throw for over 300 yards to help the Redskins fend off the Lions. David Carr threw a touchdown, but two interceptions, and just couldn't outperform his veteran opponent.

Conference Championships

(5) Pittsburgh Steelers: 21, (2) Indianapolis Colts: 20

The Colts played another nailbiter, but just couldn't get the job done against the Steelers this time around, in another revenge game for Pittsburgh. The Steelers were up 21-17 when the Colts had the ball in the red zone. With 5:46 left on the clock, they decided to kick a field goal on 4th and 3 rather than go for a touchdown, and it's a decision the Steelers would make them regret. The Steelers managed to burn the last 5:38 off the clock, even though the Colts had all three of their timeouts, as Kordell Stewart was once again able to run for first downs when he needed to. Once the Colts had exhausted their time outs, Stewart took three well-earned knees, and the Steelers were AFC champions.

(2) Washington Redskins: 26, (1) New Orleans Saints: 21

The gutsy Redskins defense stymied Peyton Manning, picking him off four times over the course of the game, while the Saints had no answer for Tomlinson, who gashed them for 176 yards and three touchdowns in one of the best rushing performances in conference championship game history. With the Redskins up 26-14 with just 38 seconds to go, Manning almost pulled off a miracle: a long touchdown pass made it 26-21 with just thirteen seconds to go, and the Saints recovered an onside kick, setting Manning up for a Hail Mary throw. The throw hung in the air and it looked like Reggie Wayne would be able to pick the ball up over four Redskins defenders, but as he was coming down with the ball, it was batted out of his hands, and the Redskins held on for a narrow victory.

Super Bowl XXXVII:

Washington Redskins: 28, Pittsburgh Steelers: 10

Super Bowl XXXVII took place in San Diego, California, and rising Latin pop star Julieta Venegas performed one of the most positively received renditions of the national anthem in Super Bowl history. As for the game itself, it was fairly anticlimactic. LaDainian Tomlinson played another excellent game, with 152 yards and two touchdowns, including a spectacular 58 yard touchdown run early in the third quarter to give the Redskins a 14-3 lead. The halftime show would prove more entertaining than the game, as Destiny's Child, who had an album set to come out later that year, gave a stunning performance, singing their biggest hits. The Redskins continued to dominate the second half and won handily, 28 to 10. LaDainian Tomlinson won the game's MVP award, though he insisted on having his offensive line hold up the trophy together.

-

The Houston Texans once again had the #1 overall pick, and used it to select receiver Andre Johnson, after thinking about drafting Byron Leftwich but instead choosing to trade for Ryan Leaf instead. Leftwich would instead fall to #2, where he would be drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, who were hoping to turn their misfortunes around. The #3 pick went to the New York Giants, who decided to grab Willis McGahee, hoping that he would bring them the same results that LaDainian Tomlinson had brought to the Super Bowl champion Redskins. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, instead of picking up a quarterback, chose to trust Patrick Ramsay, and grabbed safety Troy Polamalu with the 14th pick. The Colts, picking #28, decided to grab a new toy for Tom Brady and would draft tight end Dallas Clark out of Iowa.

Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

Recent threadmarks

RySenkari

The Jovian

RySenkari

RySenkari

Neoteros

Neoteros

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

RySenkari

Recent threadmarks