[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Though Wired.com states that 1998 was the greatest years in video gaming accord, 1999 was a benchmark year for comics industry in the wake of the speculator market collapse, Marvel’s bankruptcy, and subsequent accquisition by NewsCorp. The releases of both [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Green Lantern[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]X-Men[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] started Hollywood’s “Superhero Wars” in earnest the previous year where DC/Warner Bros. and Marvel/20th Century Fox would duel each summer in the oughts to see which property ruled the roost. Green Lantern’s narrow victory saw a dramatic increase in sales of the comic as well as the launch of a second title in October in conjunction with a new story arc. In the year-long “Torchbearer” arc, the last Guardian of the Universe, Ganthet charged Kyle Rayner with the task of restarting the Green Lantern Corps when a new Corps using yellow rings appears. Additionally, with Hal Jordan dead in the aftermath of Zero Hour, Kyle learns that he inherited the power of Central Power Battery, which he uses to recover the souls of Kilowog, Tomar-Tu, and other Lanterns murdered in “Emerald Twilight” from Nekron’s realm.
The second title [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] written by John Acrudi and pencilled by Doug Manhke focused on Kyle’s then-love interest Jade and John Stewart who became Earth’s new Green Lanterns after Kyle’s departure. Both arcs ended with the restoration of both the Green Lantern Corps and Central Power Battery on Oa was well as the revelation the power behind the yellow rings was Mongul who made reference to an “Emotional Spectrum.” An idea pitched by then production assistant, Geoff Johns, who would briefly take over the main title four year later.
Sales of X-Men saw a noticeable bump, though not to as great a degree as Green Lantern since Uncanny X-Men was Marvel’s best-selling title. However, the success of the X-Men film and upcoming anime was the impetus behind the Magneto War, which evolved into a company-wide crossover that included [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Avengers, Fantastic Four,[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and (believe it or not) [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Spider-Man[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. The premise was a relatively simple one, Magneto reverses the Earth’s magnetic poles and issues an ultimatum to the UN for a mutant homeland, which forces the X-Men and Avengers to team up to stop him while Fantastic Four and Spider-Man dealt with the consequences in their self-contained episodes.
"The Magneto War" is significant in itself because of the final confrontation where Magneto threatens to intervene with the X-Men/Avengers plan to use Polaris and Magneto’s clone, Joseph to realign the poles. When Xavier’s resolve falters when he momentarily neutralizes Magneto, Wolverine decapitates the longtime X-Men foe in revenge for killing Storm. The consequences were far reaching for the X-Men franchise because Wolverine’s actions splintered the team into two camps: Xavier/Cyclops faction, which advocated a peaceful coexistence and cooperation with humanity, and Wolverine’s, which took a militant stance against mutant extremism.
Meanwhile, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fantastic Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] was riding on the hype generated by both “Heroes Return” and upcoming film. Marvel went to great lengths to make the title its flagship title once more, even integrating the retired Parker Parker into its supporting cast as Reed Richards protege. Similarly, Johnny Storm frequently crossed over Ben Reilly’s Spider-Man titles as member of his supporting cast. This cross-pollination between the titles bore some fruit and bumped up sales as well as produce memorable stories like Scott Lobdell’s “The Return of the Bombastic Bag-Man” where a crisis forced Peter Parker to don his humorous alter ego to rescue the Fantastic Four from the Mole Man (no joke!) While it did not placate fans of Peter Parker as “the one, true Spider-Man,” it at least gave him a prominent role the Marvel universe while Ben Reilly headlined the comics and video games. Unfortunately, Fantastic Four was fighting an uphill battle since not only had Warner Bros. scheduled [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Batman Triumphant[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] for release that summer, the sequel to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Last Son of Krypton, Man of Tomorrow[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] would shatter box office records that November to say nothing Fox’s other sci-fi epic, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Star Wars: Episode I[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].
1998 was also the year that [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Justice League[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] writer Mark Waid, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Legion[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] writer Grant Morrison, and relative unknowns Tom Peyer and Mark Millar pitched their polarizing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Superman 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] relaunch to DC Comics. Though incoming editor Eddie Berganza gave the rubber stamp to proposal and fired regular writers Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway in preparation for the new creative teams, but found resistance in DC Comics VP Paul Levitz. Company policy at the time disallowed A-List talent on its Superman and Batman titles. Levitz would have squelched the proposal had Man of Tomorrow not been scheduled for release that November. Pressured by both DC and Warner Bros. marketing departments, Levitz eventually greenlighted the revamp for April 1999.
The revamp was not without controversy; message boards across Internet erupted into a firestorm when they learned that after sixty years, Superman would be dropping the red shorts. Similarly, the mainstream media picked up on the story, brings the general public into the debate. “RUINED FOREVER!” Fans cried on Comic Book Resources forums, however, sales saw a dramatic increase. In fact, the newly-rechristened Superman Now would court further controversy later in the year again drive up sales to where the first time in decades, Superman outsold Batman.
“The Final Night” (or derisively known as “the Super-Annulment” in some circles) proved to be the biggest base-breaker in the company’s history. Essentially, the story started strongly with Lex Luthor and Brainiac teaming up (again), and reveal Superman’s secret identity to the word, placing his supporting cast and Lois Lane in particular in danger. Many fans draw parallels between this story and Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” except that the new Luthor/Brainiac team’s plan now threatened even the Fifth Dimension, forcing Superman and Mr. Mxyzptlk to team up. Despite its initial good reception, fans decried the aftermath.
In an act of uncharacteristic spite, Brainiac alters Lois’ brain chemistry so that the memory of Clark and Superman being one in the same literally became a poison that would kill. Faced with no other options, Superman turns to Mr. Mxyzptlk for help. Since, the imp is only permitted to do mischief in the Third Dimension, he can only “reset” reality so that Lois never knew and that they would never have been married. Longtime fans, especially one of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Superman, rose up in arms, accusing DC of pandering to Silver/Bronze Age fans. The furor became so great that [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Superman[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] received attention from the mainstream media when [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Batman Triumphant[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fantastic Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] duked it out in the box office.
In spite of the criticism it received, “The Final Night” is the defining Superman story of its generation. It had action, suspense, romance, and most of all tragedy. As distasteful as the idea of magically annulling the marriage was to fans, Morrison, Waid, et al. treated it with gravitas and gave it one hell of a send-off. Their waltz among the Aurora Borealis was a particularly well-rendered scene and their final embrace under the Daily Planet globe where Lois whispers that they find each other again as the sun sets. A statement that would prove prophetic as DC would later reverse the decision after Morrison’s run on Superman ended.
Though it hardly received any media attention outside of industry trades such as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wizard[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] Magazine, WildStorm Productions’ sale to Disney was probably the biggest story in comic news in 1998. Since the collapse of the speculator’s market in 1993, Jim Lee had been looking for a buyer. While DC Comics expressed interest, Disney outbid them after the successes of the superhero films of the mid to late 90s, which surprised industry insiders as rumors persisted that Disney was interested in purchasing the rights to Valiant Comics properties from Akklaim Entertainment. Granted, Wildstorm’s stable of characters was comparatively small, it gave Disney a toehold in the comic book market.
Disney originally had laissez-faire policy towards its acquisition, as the case was for Warren Ellis’ [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Authority[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Planetary[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], but the staunchly anti-establishment Alan Moore immediately broke ties with WildStorm the moment the sale took effect on January 1, 1999. Likewise, creator-owned titles like Kurt Busiek’s [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Astro City[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Joe Madureria’s [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Battle Chasers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and J. Scott Campbell’s [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Danger Girl[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] remained property of their owners. However, Disney took a more direct role in WildStorm-owned properties like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gen13[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which they transformed (and cleaned up, considering the source material) into an animated series in 2000. However, with a limited stable of characters to choose from and Disney’s appetite for a larger market share, the company not only sought more studios to purchase, but also properties to license after the success of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Legend of Zelda[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] animated series on the Disney Channel.
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the blog "The Musing Platypus" by B. Ronning, January 20, 2015[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
--
Apologies for the brevity of this post. However, I would like to note that the Superman 2000 proposal is real and quite an interesting read. Since Paul Levitz gave Waid, Morrison, et. al the keys to the "family car" we can assume such seminal Superman works like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Birthright, Red Son,[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All-Star Superman[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] never come into existence TTL but elements from them will appear in TTL's Superman titles (Action Comics, Superman [Adventures of Superman and Superman Vol. 2 folded back into one title], Superman: Man of Steel, and a now-monthly Superman: Man of Tomorrow.)
As for Disney's acquisition of WildStorm, I will try to elaborate on that more later.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hmm, how's this sound for a [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gen13[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] cast list?
Caitlin Fairchild- Lyssa Fielding (for reference, I imagine her voice sounding a lot like Kate Mara's, so...think something close to the voice Kate Mara uses for Chrysalis in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Moonbeam City[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif])
Bobby "Burnout" Lane- Rider Strong
Roxy "Freefall" Spaulding- Grey Delisle
Sarah Rainmaker- Irene Bedard
Percival "Grunge" Chang- B. D. Wong
John Lynch- John de Lancie
-
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If I can get players to feel many different emotions while playing this game, I've done my job properly.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Hideo Kojima on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in an interview on the February 23, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No, Metal Gear Solid isn't the greatest game of all time. But it's absolutely the front-runner for Game of the Year.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the March 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameInformer[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shenmue and Parasite Eve had some of the most movie-like stories in recent memory, but Metal Gear Solid is undoubtedly the most cinematic game ever made.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from Dan “Shoe” Hsu's 10/10 review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electronic Gaming Monthly[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Releasing the similar title Dead Midnight in the leadup to Metal Gear Solid might seem like sales suicide, but there's definitely enough here to distinguish this game from Konami's game.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from a preview article on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the January 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Next Generation [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The way you approach a console game has to be different from the way you approach a PC game. Can great PC games be ported to consoles? Absolutely. Can great console games be ported to the PC? Absolutely. But if you're designing a game from the ground up for a particular console, you've got to take an entirely different approach.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Will Wright, in an interview in the February 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh, I had nothing to do with Harry Potter. That wasn't my call! I make game machines, not movie decisions! But if it was my call, absolutely I'd have gone a different way! No doubt about that!” [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Ken Kutaragi, in a January 26, 2006 interview with UGO.com[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I do remember being in the room for one of those Nintendo meetings, but I didn't have enough knowledge about video games at the time to make any kind of informed decisions. My kids weren't even old enough to play back then. The one video game I've ever watched that I enjoyed watching being played was Syrielle. Brilliant characters in that.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-J.K. Rowling, speaking at the 2005 PotterCon[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age Of Empires[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.3 (quote: “A very capable port, though I still somewhat preferred playing this on PC, where more units can appear on screen at once.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.5 (quote: “Definitely optimized for the Ultra, it's one of the better strategy games on the system, though it still pales in comparison to some of the great PC strategy classics.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Aliens vs. Predator[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 5.0 (quote: “Everything that I loved about the SNES-CD game was removed from this one and in its place is a stunted, repetitive FPS rife with glitches.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.8 (quote: “This was one of the more anticipated games of the year, it's a shame that it's such a dull shadow of our expectations.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Darkstalkers: The Dreaded[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “A really fun port of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Darkstalkers 3 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that works great on the Ultra and adds in a few exclusive characters to really mix things up.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “Just a really fun and clever game full of quirky twists and even some black comedy.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]King Of Fighters '99[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.3 (quote: “Another year, another spiffy SNK game. It's the series' first turn on the Ultra, and it looks really great.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.4 (quote: “The series is wearing a bit thin, but it's a pitch perfect port with some of the Ultra's best animation.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 10 (quote: “An astonishing masterpiece that grabs your attention from the moment you first turn it on and doesn't let you go until the end of the credits sequence.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.7 (quote: “There has never been a better stealth game and it's hard to imagine there even will be.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Slug X[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “A really exciting run and gun that takes this series to fantastic new heights.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.6 (quote: “The sheer variety of weapons and animation quality make this a must play for action junkies.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Need For Speed: High Stakes[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “We would've liked a little more track variety to match the graphical polish.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.8 (quote: “A few of the modes from the PC version are missing, making this a fairly pedestrian game rather than an instant classic.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince Of Persia: The Jade Queen[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “The series' transition to 3-D isn't perfect, but the puzzles are very creative.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.6 (quote: “The production values aren't so hot (no voice acting?) but the game itself is really fun to play.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.2 (quote: “While it's probably the worst of the three Tomb Raider games, Lara Croft's latest adventure is still a great thrill ride.”)
Gamespot: 8.0 (quote: “We wish there were more upgrades from Tomb Raider II, but the quest itself is undoubtedly fun.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Phineas and Ferb[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Ultimately it's a very ho-hum collectathon.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.7 (quote: “Fans of the show will dig the jump to 3-D.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “This game simplifies things but at the same time captures a lot of the fun of the SNES classic.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.6 (quote: “Some players won't like the dumbing down from SimCity 2000, but fans of the original SNES game will see this as a true sequel.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wild Arms 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.2 (quote: “It's more of the same, but the jump to Ultra did this series a lot of good in the graphics department.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “Cliches are everywhere, but it's still a solid RPG.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]X-Men: Apocalypse[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.3 (quote: “A fairly uncreative effort that at times seems to be just going through the motions.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.5 (quote: “A supremely fun beat-em-up that fans of both the classic comics and last year's film will love.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Deadman Sam[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.5 (quote: “The leap to 3-D brought some great graphics but some really uninspired gameplay.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.0 (quote: “The Deadman Sam series has gotten worse with each game and this is definitely the worst yet.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra World Championship Boxing[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.8 (quote: “The story mode is definitely a ripoff of Rocky but I played the hell out of it anyway!”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “While we're still waiting for an announcement of an Ultra Punch-Out! game, this more realistic boxing title is still a worthy diversion in the meantime.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.7 (quote: “With a really deep plot and some excellent gunfight mechanics, Dead Midnight is one of the most rewarding shooters I've played in a long time.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.5 (quote: “The plot is a bit convoluted, but the action and gunplay are superb.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Multiplicator[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.8 (quote: “This game can get extremely hard to play when all four players have hundreds of guys on screen at once.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.1 (quote: “This fun competitive puzzle race is the most fun you'll ever have playing as dozens of characters at once.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saturn[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.8 (quote: “The Ultra Nintendo version is prettier, but this is a more than capable adventure on the Saturn.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: N/A[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “The multiplayer mode takes a step back to the single player adventure, which has its moments but not nearly as much competitive flair.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.2 (quote: “It's Bomberman, what else is there to say? The single player mode is more robust than any yet seen on the Saturn in this series.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force IV[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.5 (quote: “An outstanding, epic, brilliant RPG that feels like the culmination of this entire series. We've been waiting for this for a long time.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “Quality gameplay is marred by a reall convoluted plot.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mr. Driller[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “It's Dig Dug, but modern Dig Dug and one of the most addictive puzzle games we've played in a while.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.3 (quote: “This great update of an arcade classic just works perfectly on the Sega Saturn.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Infernal: Dark Reality[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.5 (quote: “It's kind of a bore, but it has its moments.”)
Gamespot: 7.7 (quote: “The powerups and enemy variety make this action RPG a worthy quest.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III: The Basics[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the third game of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series and the first to get a simultaneous release on the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Saturn. ITTL, it doesn't have a subtitle like it did in OTL ([/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Adventures Of Lara Croft[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]), but as in OTL, the gameplay improvements are somewhat small (which becomes a criticism of the game. Lara gains a few new moves, the swimming system is improved, and there are some added weapons (including a sword and an explosive shotgun). The sprint from OTL [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]also makes its first appearance. The Save Crystal system from OTL does not appear in TTL's game, instead, there are defined save points within the missions. The graphics have received a boost, a minor boost on the Sega Saturn and a significant, but not major, boost on the Ultra Nintendo, so that the Ultra Nintendo version of the game now matches up with some of the better looking games on the console. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]In [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Jade Bessemer, the villain from TTL's original [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, has returned to running her company after escaping from the collapsed ruins of Xanadu. However, Jade's near-death experience has left her physically scarred and somewhat mentally unhinged, making her actions increasingly erratic and deranged as the game goes on. She plays a role in this game somewhat like a combination of Dr. Willard and Sophia Leigh from OTL's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and the basic plot of this game is somewhat similar. Jade has poured her company's resources into hiring a private army to find an ancient meteorite that once struck Antarctica in the distant past and is said to have great powers. After the game's tutorial level, Lara is seen exploring an ancient Japanese temple, once owned by a powerful shogun. Things are easy enough at first, but soon Lara comes across some armed thugs and must evade them to reach the center of the temple and the ancient meteorite fragment within. As she claims it, she is ambushed by some of the thugs and is nearly killed when she is suddenly rescued by a brash young adventurer named Gillens. Lara discovers a piece of evidence on one of the dead thugs and traces it back to Jade's company, indicating that her old rival is going after the meteorite pieces. Gillens wants Lara to thank him for saving her life, but she refuses and she eventually tracks the second meteorite piece to an ancient temple in the Amazon rainforest, where she discovers a completely deserted village and some tough wild animals to beat. She takes down the animals and eventually comes to a river, where she gets on a speedboat and makes her way to the temple. On the way there, she's set upon by more thugs and must jump onto one of their speedboats after her own is about to explode. She reaches the second temple and claims the second meteorite piece. On her way out, she is confronted by Jade, who taunts her with the third meteorite piece already in hand. After a brief fight in which Lara wins but Jade summons some thugs to keep her busy as she flees with the piece, Lara makes her way back to London to infiltrate Jade's corporate headquarters to snatch the third piece. On the way there, she stumbles across a lab in which Jade's thugs have taken some of the villagers from the Amazon hostage to perform experiments on them. She also reunites with Gillens who is revealed to be one of Jade's hired thugs. He captures Lara and takes her to Jade. Lara furiously denounces Jade for experimenting on the villagers. Jade says that she'd kill Lara but Lara is needed to open up the fourth temple, which is on Easter Island. As Lara is being flown to the island in a plane, she manages to escape and takes out a few guards before causing the plane to crash, separating Lara, Gillens, and Jade. While dodging dinosaurs and thugs on the island, Lara discovers that Gillens is actually a government agent whose job is to infiltrate Jade's operation. However, Jade discovers this too, and has Gillens taken prisoner. Lara must choose between saving him and stopping Jade from collecting the fourth meteorite piece. Jade manages to get all the pieces, but Gillens reveals that there's a fifth piece that Jade needs and that it's being exhibited at a casino in Las Vegas. This leads to a big showdown between Jade and Lara in Vegas that ends in a dramatic casino shootout, and also ends with Jade getting away with the fifth and final meteorite piece. The final level of the game takes place in Antarctica. Lara and Gillens must team up to stop Jade before she can use the power of the meteorite pieces to become an unstoppable god. Jade manages to activate some of the meteorites' power, but thanks to Gillens' interference, Jade remains in a form that Lara can fight. After the final boss battle, in which Gillens sacrifices himself to help Lara win, Jade, reverted to normal, is left on the ground, apologizing and promising Lara she'll change. Lara looks like she's going to spare Jade, but then we see Lara point her gun at Jade's head, the screen going black just before we hear a gunshot. The credits then roll.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]February 8, 1999[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is released for both the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Saturn. Though the Ultra Nintendo version of the game is graphically superior, the Saturn version has a couple of very small bits of extra content, including a skimpy wetsuit for Lara in certain scenes and a bit of added dialogue, including Lara saying “shit” in a cutscene toward the end of the game. Sega markets these extra bits of “mature” content as evidence that the Saturn version of the game is superior (which somewhat contradicts their concurrent marketing push of family-friendly platform games). Initially, sales of the Ultra Nintendo and Saturn versions of the game are about equal, though in the months after the game's release, the Ultra Nintendo version begins to pull away, due to the system's larger install base. The game's reviews are good, but not quite as good as the previous two [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]titles, siting the lack of gameplay innovation and the somewhat derivative plot as evidence that the series is starting to run out of ideas. Still, sales are quite strong, even if the game would soon be largely overshadowed by [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s release...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It may have seemed crazy at the time to release a game like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the Ultra Nintendo so close to the release of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Indeed, the game not only released a mere two weeks away from Konami's massive game, but on the same day as the release of the third [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, another mega blockbuster. Still, Capcom put a heavy marketing push on their title, with commercials highlighting the game's rapid-fire gunplay, complex storyline full of fascinating characters, and excellent graphics as selling points. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]took place in America in the year 2019. The country has been ravaged by a series of terrorist attacks, and now it's been discovered that rogue cells of terrorists are planning several more. A special operations unit led by Steve Sheckert is deployed to hunt down and take out these terrorists before any of them can strike again. Sheckert's team consists of a group of highly specialized and highly skilled operatives, including Divebomb Grey (a reckless agent who takes huge risks but gets results), Marie (a lovely French woman who can break people's necks with her legs), Alex Frier (a computer hacking whiz who's also highly trained with knives), and Raya Mystic (the first woman Navy SEAL, an intense commando who also happens to be the mother of two 17-year old fraternal twins, Derek and Darla, who she's training to follow in her footsteps). The game vacillates between taking itself highly seriously and offering up copious amounts of comic relief, and though you only control Steve through the course of the game, you can take up to two of your team on missions with you, while giving orders to everyone left behind. The game's villains, a team of seven dangerous terrorists, are as interesting as the heroes. Rather than serving one nation or ideology, the terrorists are each working for their own separate cause, working together to cause chaos and havoc all over the world, and though they each must be taken down, each of them has their own sympathetic backstory (except for the lead villain, Raymond Fatal, who's just a genocidal dick). The game plays out over 14 different levels, with each villain getting two levels a piece: one level where you have to find their staging ground or lair, and the next level where you have to infiltrate and take them out. Each level takes place in a different American city, and once you've neutralized the threat in one city, you move on to the next. But here's the thing: the game plays out like Mega Man in that, for the first six cities, you choose the order in which you go after the bad guys. While there IS a recommended order for new players (some cities and bosses are definitely tougher than others), there's a lot of freedom in how the quest plays out. Also, at least for the first six terrorist leaders, you can choose to spare all, some, or none of them (but the option to spare them only comes up if you perform a certain action, such as bringing a certain operative or collecting a hidden item).[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Playing out at a much faster pace than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] (with stealth recommended in some levels but completely optional), [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]carved out a fanbase of its very own, and joined [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Victory[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] as one of Capcom's most successful original franchises of the latter half of the decade. It sold more than enough copies to be a success even with the stiff competition, and its review scores in most publications topped those of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]wasn't a guaranteed success by any stretch, but its performance justified Capcom's decisions to promote the game heavily and release it into such a crowded month.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*A bunch of police are crowded around a building, there's some kids outside complaining.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Officer: Nobody can go in, there's been a bomb threat![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Boy: But my Saturn's in there![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*The crowd parts to make way for Segata Sanshiro*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Segata Sanshiro: *glares at the officer*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Officer: Sir, there's a bomb in there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Segata Sanshiro: *looks up at the building and says in Japanese* I will take care of the bomb. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*He walks toward the building*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Officer: You can't go in there without protection! *offers up a huge bombproof suit*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Segata Sanshiro: *waves his hand and enters the building as he is, he makes his way to a room on the top floor where there's some ticking sounds coming from, he enters the room and crosses his arms over his chest*
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*A large explosion noise is heard. The crowd gasps and looks at the door. Segata Sanshiro comes out, looking like he's been in an explosion with messed up hair and ripped clothing, and some dirt marks all over his body, but unharmed.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Segata Sanshiro: *thrusts forward a Sega Saturn and a copy of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]* Sega Saturn, shiro![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Scenes from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]play on the screen as the narrator begins to speak.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Narrator: The Saturn gets a lot more explosive with the all new [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Take on your friends in the arena, or jump into the brand new adventure mode to tackle eight huge worlds with only your wits and your bombs to help you. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], only on the Sega Saturn. Get ready to take cover.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Segata Sanshiro is seen playing the game with several heavily armored men from the bomb squad, there's another explosion noise and all of them get blasted across the room.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Bomb Squad Officer: *clutching a Saturn controller, he does the Sega! Scream*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Action Is Here [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](the Sega Saturn's new slogan, introduced in 1999 to promote the console's action games, it appears in many of their game ads that year)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-a commercial for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that aired in February 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]does a number of things right, but in many aspects it's a step back from 1997's amazing Saturn [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, especially in the multiplayer department, which drops the ability to play with more than four players at once and also reduces the number of multiplayer arenas available. Instead, the game largely focuses on its single-player mode, for better or for worse, in an attempt to follow the success of the two Ultra Nintendo [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, which themselves heavily pushed their adventure modes. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s adventure mode does allow Bomberman to properly jump for the first time, but many of the levels are uninspired and repetitive, and while there is fun to be had, there are many levels that are a chore to get through. The cutscenes are quite silly (since when has Bomberman needed a personality?) and as far as the Saturn's recent action platformers go, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is arguably worse than all of them. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman'[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]s always been at its best as a fast-paced puzzle title or a frenetic multiplayer partyfest, not a wannabe mascot platformer. It's a solid title and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]fans should pick it up, but it's not going to rewrite any of the series' longstanding rules.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Score: 7/10[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the February 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Official Saturn Magazine[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Another month, another pair of RPGs to add to the Saturn's library. The console currently boasts an impressive collection of great RPGs, including games like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Panzer Dragoon Saga [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Windborn[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and even [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sonic [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Virtua Quest [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]have gotten in on the action. Of course, the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series has been a stalwart for Sega, and in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force IV[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], the Saturn might have its best one to date. Continuing right where [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]left off, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]IV [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]consists of the remaining two scenarios focused on the characters Medion and Julian. Julian in particular is of crucial importance to this game's plot, as he realizes his destiny as a hero that can lead an army to take down the evil Bulzome. While the tactical gameplay is familiar to anyone who's played a [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game before, it's the game's epic plot, which ties up all the loose ends from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force III, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that really makes this game a standout. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Infernal: Dark Reality [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]may some of you of last year's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Angels[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] for the Ring, but this game is a far more straightforward RPG. You play as a priest who must go around slaying a demonic invasion of nearby villages, and while this sort of gothic-themed game is fairly cliched, the battle system, where you must manually aim at enemies with a magical gun, with damage determined by where you hit them on their body, is fairly innovative and makes battles a bit less boring. Atlus has made some excellent RPGs in the past (as evidenced by the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shin Megami Tensei [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series), and while [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Infernal [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]isn't an all-time great, it's still a fun, if thematically simple, RPG.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article on RPGamer.net, posted on February 27, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]In February 1999, a month which saw several excellent Ultra Nintendo releases (including [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]), the Ultra Nintendo saw its first [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia: The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was perhaps the most hyped game yet in the series, but somewhat disappointing reviews and its release into a crowded month of games diminished its potential somewhat. Released by Activision, which had purchased Broderbund shortly after the release of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Where In Space Is Carmen Sandiego? [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the SNES-CD, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was the company's first [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, and the company tried to emulate the 3-D platforming style of recent hits such as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Mario Dimensions [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Dreamers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. The result? Collecting, collecting, and more collecting. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince Of Persia: The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]saw the titular prince needing to venture across a vast desert filled with palaces and cities in order to collect various golden artifacts in each location. The desert was ruled over by a great and powerful dynasty which built a massive palace of pure jade from which to rule. As legend had it, the Jade Queen was trapped within the palace, and a warrior of pure heart and great courage who penetrated the castle walls could rescue her. Of course, in a somewhat predictable twist, the Jade Queen didn't need rescuing...she was the villain, and collecting treasures imbued her with limitless beauty and power. She'd been luring heroes into her trap for centuries, and now it was the prince's turn. Of course, the prince's love interest, Shana, a peasant girl in one of the cities the prince visited over the course of his journey, was able to break the Queen's hold over him, and eventually the prince battled her in her throne room as she entered a giant golden bird statue to do battle with him. While [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Jade Queen'[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]s puzzles were creative and its platforming mechanics were solid (and indeed, future installments of the series would achieve great success by building on this tight platforming), the game itself was a bit of a bore, criticized for requiring the player to revisit certain areas in order to re-do already completed puzzles just to earn another piece of treasure. Ultimately, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was merely the framework of a great game rather than being a great game in its own right. Still, it sold well enough to easily justify the creation of a sequel, and by that time, Activision had learned what worked and what didn't when it came to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The differences between the Ultra Nintendo's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]are numerous. In fact, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Sim City [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in some ways has taken a step back from the level of customization available in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], instead presenting itself as a successor to the Super Nintendo's early [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]title. Like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] takes a more stylistic approach, bringing back Dr. Wright and the colorful animations and vibrant musical themes from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. However, the game does contain many of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s enhancements, allowing mayors to pass city ordinances and build with much more detail. Traffic options such as bridges and subway tunnels are included in the game, though the complex water management system of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] has been removed, and arcologies are also a no-go until the player's city reaches a certain level of development. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]includes ten different population levels for the player's city to achieve: hamlet (up to 500 population), village (between 500-2,500), town (between 2,500-10,000), municipality (between 10,000-30,000), city (between 30,000-60,000), capital (between 60,000-150,000), conurbation (between 150,000-400,000), metropolis (between 400,000-1,000,000), megalopolis (between 1,000,000-5,000,000), and global city (5,000,000+). Each level has its own theme song, though in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]you have the option to change the background music. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is more simplistic and easier to learn than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and certainly moreso than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. It's been optimized for the console player, which is both a good thing and a bad thing, but in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s case, mostly a good thing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameInformer[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s 8.5/10 review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Nintendo Power: And are there currently plans to bring [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to the Ultra Nintendo?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: Currently there aren't, but if demand is there and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]pulls in good enough sales, it might be an option. Certainly the complexity of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]doesn't lend itself well to consoles, but the Ultra Nintendo has the power to handle it, so if players are willing to play it, anything's possible.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Has the recent acquisition of Maxis by Electronic Arts limited your creativity?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: Absolutely not! If anything, it's enhanced it, I've got more people around me now and they largely let me do my own thing. In fact, I'm working on a “virtual people” project that's coming to computers next year and certainly could come to the Ultra Nintendo, again, if there's enough demand for it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Besides the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sim [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series, what other games are you currently working on?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: Right now, all my attention and time is going into my “virtual people” project, but certainly if the opportunity arises I'd love to try my hand at another genre entirely.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Have you had any time to play the Ultra Nintendo? Has anything impressed you?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: I really loved what I got to play of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Temple of Time[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra World Of Color [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a really fun game to play with my daughter. I love the strategy behind the game and how easy it is to pick up, she certainly plays a lot better than I do! And I also like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Clash[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], since I build combat robots in my spare time. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Thanks again for the interview!
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an interview with Will Wright in the February 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For the second straight year, a recently deceased artist won big at the year's Grammy Awards. This year, it was Celine Dion, whose tragic death in February of last year generated a wave of grief in the music world and a massive wave of success for her Titanic theme song, “My Heart Will Go On”. The song won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, but the night's big winner was Lauryn Hill, whose album [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]won Album of the Year, while she took home Best New Artist. The night's biggest live performance saw Selena, who's been touring with recording artist Santana for much of the past year, perform a portion of Santana's classic “Black Magic Woman” before launching into her own newest collaboration with Santana, “Say What You Want About Me”. The song is one of three joint Selena/Santana songs that will be appearing on Santana's newest album, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supernatural[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], set to debut later this year. Latin artists made numerous appearances at this year's Grammys, in addition to Selena and Santana's much-lauded performance, Ricky Martin, formerly of the boy band Menudo, made a major impression with his live performance of his new single “Livin' La Vida Loca”. Tupac Shakur won a pair of Grammys for his hit album [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fender Bender[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], with the hit single “You Can't Kill What You Can't See” taking home the award for Best Rap Solo Performance. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from a Grammys recap posted on Yahoo! News on February 25, 1999[/FONT]
(Authors' Note: This next Backstreet Boys article was inspired by a PM sent to us by Moe Satyr! Thanks for the tip!)
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hype Builds For Backstreet Boys' [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Millennium[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Backstreet Boys have been one of the hottest bands in recent memory, and their album [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Millennium [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is set to drop in just three short months. While most of the songs on the album have already been recorded, two of them, including the much anticipated single “I Want It That Way”, are being re-recorded this week after what the band's manager describes as “lyrical tweaks”. Regardless of what lyrics make the final cut, the album is already being heavily promoted, and is set to have one of the biggest debut weeks ever when it's released this May.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The band is set to appear on both [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Total Request Live [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to promote the album on its release date, May 25.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an update on MTV's website, February 27, 1999
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid: The Basics[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the sequel to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Developed over four years by Konami and Hideo Kojima, the game was initially conceived for release on the 3DO, but after the failure of that system, Kojima briefly considered releasing the game on the Saturn before switching to the Ultra Nintendo after being impressed with the system's development kit. The gameplay remains as IOTL for the most part, it's heavily based on stealth, with direct enemy confrontation only recommended as a last resort. Snake has a variety of ways to achieve stealth, such as hiding under or behind certain objects, or in certain environments, merely crouching in the shadows. TTL's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has the addition of a stealth meter that indicates which enemies are liable to be able to see Snake in his current position. The codec is also more integrated into gameplay, appearing in real time rather than in a separate screen, though the player has the option of pausing the game to receive codec messages. The graphics are significantly improved from OTL's game, which was already one of the most graphically impressive games on the original Playstation. Characters and backgrounds appear in great detail. Perhaps the greatest presentation enhancement is in the game's music and sound effects. Due to the Ultra Nintendo's powerful sound chip, Kojima's plan for dynamic music is fully realized in TTL's game. Music changes in real-time based on what's happening on the screen, and individual character themes can also dynamically change to suit their current mood, making for hundreds of different musical motifs that are possible in-game. The game is fully voice acted as IOTL, with most of OTL's voice actors, including David Hayter, Debi Mae West, and Paul Eiding performing as Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh, and Colonel Campbell respectively. Mari Devon appears as the voice of a major character, Lyra, and the TTL-exclusive members of FOXHOUND, Silicon Leech and Serrated Panther, are voiced by James Arnold Taylor and Cree Summer respectively.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The basis of the game's plot, about a group of rogue special operations forces seizing an Alaskan island, hijacking the experimental weapon Metal Gear REX, and threatening America with nuclear bombardment remains the same as OTL, but many details about the plot and a number of future plot threads are heavily changed, and the overall flow of the game widens somewhat in scope from IOTL's game. The early part of the game, with Solid Snake infiltrating an island and finding DARPA chief Donald Anderson, who dies suddenly while conversing with Snake, also remains the same. However, after Anderson dies and Snake meets Meryl, Meryl informs Snake of a third hostage, in addition to Donald Anderson and tech CEO Kenneth Baker: the United States Undersecretary of Defense, a 32-year-old woman named Lyra Marin. She was being given a classified tour of the facility when the FOXHOUND takeover took place, and is considered the highest value hostage at the facility. After a boss fight against Revolver Ocelot, Snake is able to find and free Lyra, who tells Snake that the man she was touring the facility with, a general named Martens, may be behind everything, a suspicion that grows once Snake discovers information about the connection between Martens and Liquid Snake. Snake and Lyra then locate Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, the designer of Metal Gear REX and an expert computer hacker. Otacon has been engaging in a covert cyberspace war with another hacker at the facility, a man who turns out to be FOXHOUND tech expert Silicon Leech, who Snake needs to find and kill if he is to progress any further. Snake has Lyra remain with Otacon while he goes to hunt down Silicon Leech, but on the way he is confronted by Psycho Mantis (who has the same psychic abilities as in OTL, the same controller trick works on him and he has some very interesting comments if the player has Mario games on their memory card!) and must defeat him. Snake and Meryl must then make their way through an underground maze which is controlled by Silicon Leech remotely. After getting through the maze, Snake kills Leech, who coughs up some information about Lyra before he dies: that Lyra is the true enemy in all of this. Before Snake can contact Otacon about Lyra, he and Meryl are forced to flee from the bullets of Sniper Wolf, who eventually wounds Snake and renders him unconscious.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Snake awakens and is confronted by Liquid Snake before being tortured by Ocelot, which, as in OTL, prompts the player to press the A button rapidly in order to resist the torture. Unlike IOTL, however, submitting to the torture does NOT effect the ending (ITTL, Masahiro Sakurai expressed frustration that the player could only get the best ending via a very difficult button mashing challenge, and convinced Kojima to change the “reward” somewhat). Instead, successfully refusing to submit to the torture earns some cool bonus cutscenes during the latter part of the game (including an awesome Meryl rescue scene and another bonus scene with Otacon) but does not affect whether Meryl lives or dies. Whether or not Snake submits, he escapes, and learns that Metal Gear REX has already been moved out of the facility to another island. Lyra and Otacon are both gone, but Mei Ling tips Snake off to the fact that there's another ship heading to that island, and Martens is on it. Snake must infiltrate the ship, but before he can reach it, Serrated Panther cuts him off in her motorcycle. After inflicting enough damage, one of two things will happen: either Meryl knocks Serrated Panther off her motorcycle (if Snake didn't submit to the torture) or Snake sets a trap for Serrated Panther that knocks her off the motorcycle. Either way, Panther gets up and engages in one-on-one combat with Snake. An expert with a brutal hunting knife, Snake must keep his distance from her because getting close to her is certain death. After Snake takes out Panther, he and Meryl have a brief conversation before Snake catches the departing ship. He climbs up to the control tower to confront Martens, only for Martens to be shot dead by Ocelot. After a brief tussle on the boat (that involves Meryl coming to Snake's rescue, this time in a helicopter), the two tumble into the water together, both heavily wounded. The two of them crawl onto shore and another battle begins, quick but brutal. Snake seemingly kills Ocelot before collapsing on the shore. He awakens in a small shack with Lyra sitting near his bedside, tending to his wounds. Snake tries to attack Lyra, who frantically tries to defend herself both physically and verbally. She gives Snake information about Liquid Snake, including the fact that Liquid and Solid are brothers and that Liquid is really working for the government, that Martens, Kenneth Baker, and Donald Anderson were all working with FOXHOUND and that the information she's discovered could potentially bring down the entire government. Snake still believes that Lyra is lying and he holds a knife to her throat, he's going to kill her when Otacon tells him to back off, that Leech was lying and that Lyra's telling the truth about everything. Lyra tells Snake that when she was a little girl, she became privy to a piece of information. One thing led to another and eventually, when she first got to college, that she would work her way up to a powerful enough position in the government to discover the secrets she knows it's hiding. Otacon tells Snake that he has to go and stop Metal Gear REX before the missiles are used. Snake works his way up to Liquid Snake's base, battling and defeating Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven along the way. He reaches Liquid Snake, who reveals that he and Solid Snake are both clones of Big Boss, a legendary agent from the Cold War, and that after a virus implanted in both the FOXHOUND members and Solid Snake is activated, all of them will die and the government will be able to go in and retrieve Metal Gear REX. Snake then battles Metal Gear REX before taking on Liquid Snake atop the disabled machine. After Liquid Snake is defeated, Snake reunites with Meryl, who joins Snake as the two flee the base. Liquid pursues them and is about to kill them when he keels over and dies from the effects of the virus. Snake then contacts Colonel Campbell, who tells Snake that both he and Lyra are going to be considered fugitives from the United States government and that the two of them should go into hiding. Otacon tells Snake that he already made sure Lyra got out safely, and that she told him that she would continue working from the shadows to uncover more of the government's secrets. Snake and Meryl share a kiss as the two drive off into the wilderness together, Snake's days seemingly numbered due to the Foxdie virus.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
After the credits, Ocelot, recovered from his seemingly fatal wounds, is seen talking to the President over a secure codec. He confirms that the Metal Gear specifications have been safely retrieved, and then it's shown that he's pointing a gun at the head of a captive Lyra, whom he captured some time after Otacon saw her off (it will be revealed in a later game that the Patriots had been tapping into Otacon's communications the entire time). The President tells Ocelot to kill her, and he says that he'll do it, but after their communication ends, Ocelot tells Lyra that “they” have other plans for her, before injecting her with something that renders her unconscious. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]February 22, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is released for the Ultra Nintendo, to universal critical acclaim that nearly matches what [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]had achieved the previous year. The game sells enormously well in its first week (a bit less than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye 007 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]did in its first week of release), and due to the outstanding critical reception, easily becomes one of the Ultra Nintendo's best selling games of the year. The game is seen as living up to the hype and then some, and becomes a benchmark for both cinematic game design and technological achievement. Numerous characters, including Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Meryl Silverburgh, Otacon, and Lyra, become fan favorites, and once again, sales momentum swings back to Nintendo. Hideo Kojima becomes an instant celebrity among game fans, and his previous works, including both [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Snatcher[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Policenauts[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], all see a bump in sales due to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s release. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex Stansfield: And while [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]isn't groundbreaking like the previous two [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, it's still a great deal of fun and Jade Bessemer's return as the villain is truly welcome indeed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany Saldita: Now, if you're wondering whether or not to get it on the Ultra Nintendo or the Sega Saturn, if you're lucky enough to own both, definitely get the Ultra Nintendo version.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Right. It looks better, the control scheme is better, it's just the better version of the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: In fact, if you're lucky enough to have both systems and have to choose between the Ultra version or the Saturn version, always pick the Ultra version! We'll let you know if you ever need to pick the Saturn version![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Well, in the Saturn version of this game, Lara gets a sexy wetsuit *Brittany rolls her eyes* and there's a few more cuss words.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: It's not like you can't hear cuss words on Nintendo games. Didn't they say s(bleep)t 17 times in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit 2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: You counted?
Brittany: Somebody did and that's the number they gave. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: But yeah, a wetsuit and a few cuss words aren't worth losing the superior graphics and sound effects of the Ultra game. If you have only the Saturn, it's definitely a good game on there though. I give it a 4.0 out of 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: A solid 4 from me too. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is another fine adventure from the awesome Lara Croft.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa Fielding: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mr. Driller[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s quirky anime graphics and super addictive gameplay make it one of the best puzzle games I've ever played! I couldn't put my controller down![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian Fry: Yeah, I gotta say, it's a surprisingly addictive game. There are so many quirky characters and you never seem to run out of things to drill![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Lyssa: It's like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Armageddon[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], but without angry Bruce Willis or the fate of the world hanging in the balance.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: Hey, that might've made this game a bit more interesting! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: It doesn't really need a storyline, although it does give you a really cute one that makes you really fall in love with all the characters you get to meet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: So Lyssa, what's your final verdict?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Lyssa: Oh, an easy 5![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: Wow, you loved it that much?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: Without a doubt! I told you, I'm super into this one![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: I give [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mr. Driller [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 4. It's a really fun ride but it DOES get repetitive after a while, and the multiplayer isn't as fun as some of the other great multiplayer puzzle modes.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the February 9, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary Westhouse: In the end, while I think [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age of Empires[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] is a solid port, it doesn't have that really killer hook that would've really gotten me into this game like I've done with other strategy titles.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: Yeah, for an Ultra Nintendo game, one, it really doesn't look very great, two, after a while it stops being fun. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Civilization II [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]never stopped being fun for me, I can go back and play that any day of the week. But [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age of Empires [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a somewhat lesser [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Civilization II[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and I disagree with you that this was a solid port, it's way more fun to play this one on PC.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Gary: There was some hype for this game, when it first got announced for the Ultra. Was that hype justified?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: It wasn't a very good computer game, so I don't know why they thought it'd be better on the Ultra. It's worse. Not much worse, but still worse.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary: Without the custom scenarios from the PC version...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: You CAN actually make custom scenarios and save them to your memory card, though they take up a ton of space that could be used to save better games, like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Then you can take them to your friends' house and I guess play them there?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary: Would you?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: No. No no no.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary: Well, I give [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age of Empires [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the Ultra Nintendo a 3 out of 5. It's a decent strategy game but it is missing a few of the best things from the PC version.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: And I'm giving it a 2. Stick to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Civilization II, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]or even wait for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Starcraft [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for your Ultra later this year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted Crosley: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the perfect example of a “complete” game. It's all there. The graphics, the music, the characters... the care they put into all the characters. Nobody's in this game without a purpose. EVERYBODY's in the game for a reason.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Every character has their own theme song, and VARIATIONS of their own theme song! Ted, I'm gonna demand MTV for our own theme songs![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: You and me both, when I walk into a room I wanna hear something badass playing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: The music sets the tone for this game. And then the vibration of the Rumbleshock on the controller...I won't spoil it but there's a moment when you're with a certain character and you can feel the tension in your hands because of that subtle rumbling.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: The Psycho Mantis fight is a masterpiece.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: This whole game is a masterpiece and I feel privileged to have played it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: And this game, it was in development WELL before the Ultra Nintendo was released. It was designed even before we got [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]here in the States. Which, by the way, if you haven't played [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear 1+2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], you can get them pretty cheap on the SNES-CD and play them on the Ultra. If you liked this game, definitely play both of them.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: If? If you like this game? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: *laughing* I know, hard to imagine how someone could hate it, right?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Is it better than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Temple of Time[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I say yes. You?
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: It's real close. I gotta say though, I'm giving it a 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I'm giving it a 5 going away.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*The siren sounds*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], joining the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hall of Fame, let's put it up on the wall![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Ted and Alex make their way over to the Hall of Fame wall, joining the other hosts as they mount a framed copy of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]up on the wall*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Completely deserving of the honor. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is one incredible game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: And on that note, we wish you good night and have a ton of fun playing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the February 23, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo Power Charts: February 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Final Fantasy VII[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Killer Instinct Ultra[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Super Mario Dimensions[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Gran Turismo[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Tale Lemuria[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Ballistic Limit 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Brave Fencer Kyuriadan[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Ultra Mario Kart[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. Metal Clash[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart: February 1999[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Virtua Fighter 3[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Zodiac World[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Shenmue[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Sonic the Hedgehog 4[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Shining Force IV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Arbiter Of Sin[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Spare Parts[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Warner Bros. Acquires Harry Potter Film Rights[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Warner Bros. company recently acquired the rights to a future film adaptation of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], after engaging in a brief bidding war with Sony before that company backed off and did not match Warner's bid. The book series, which is set to release its third book, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], later this year, is growing rapidly in popularity with children and adults alike. Sony had submitted a joint bid with Nintendo that would have given the latter company the rights to all future video game adaptations of the books, while Sony would have been in charge of producing the films.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Variety [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine, March 5, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]So why didn't Sony acquire the Harry Potter film rights? In hindsight, such a move would seem like a no-brainer, but at the time, a number of factors made the company think twice about their initial plans to adapt the popular book series, and in the end, it was Warner Bros. who scooped them up after Sony dropped the ball. Sony's initial plans for the films were extremely ambitious. They envisioned a grand CGI animated adaptation of the books, jointly produced by Dreamworks and Squaresoft (under their Square Pictures label) and directed by Steven Spielberg, with Nintendo doing a game for each book in the series. Why an animated film and not a live-action adaptation? Two reasons: one, Spielberg and Dreamworks preferred animation, believing it would best convey the film's magical reality. And two, Sony was working on an adaptation of the game Ballistic Limit at the time, and didn't want to have two major live-action productions going on at once. Remember, at the time, Sony was just starting out in the film production business, and even though they were flush with cash from the success of the Ultra Nintendo, they didn't want to take the risk. Harry Potter? A risk? Even then, many believed that adapting Harry Potter into a film series would undoubtedly be a cash cow, and Warner Bros. was all too eager to purchase the rights once Sony backed out. But even though many within Sony itself could see how big Harry Potter was going to be, most of the ones in charge, including Norio Ohga, could not, and it was Ohga who ultimately made the deciding call in favor of backing off the pursuit of the Harry Potter film rights. Perhaps it was for the best: Sony and Nintendo were already dominating the video game world due to the Ultra Nintendo's unprecedented success. Adding Harry Potter to that would've been like adding Len Bias to the 1985-86 Celtics (at least before he overdosed): just too good to be true. In retrospect, considering the massive success of the Harry Potter book and film franchise, it's probably the dumbest move a gaming company had made since Atari declined to work with Nintendo in the mid 1980s. However, unlike Atari, Nintendo and Sony were more than able to absorb even a colossally boneheaded move like throwing away the Harry Potter franchise. The Ultra Nintendo kept right on truckin', unaware that it had just raced past a few billion dollars lying on the side of the road.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from “Ask Alex” on Alex Stansfield's blog, April 17, 2014[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The job's easy when 99 percent of it is already done for me. Rare makes great games, and it's not a challenge getting people to buy great games.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Reggie Fils-Aime, discussing his work as the VP of sales and marketing at Rareware in the June 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Next Generation [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We were determined not to let Ape Escape become 'just another platformer', and I'm pretty sure we succeeded.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Masamichi Seki, director of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot had always been kind of our third wheel, so we hoped that this spring release would give him a chance to shine. The problem was, of course, that our hearts laid with our other franchises, and so Crash was never going to be a marquee mascot.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Mark Cerny[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “A unique platformer filled with so many great mechanics that it really distinguishes itself from the Marios of the world.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.1 (quote: “A colorful, unique game with some of the best play controls we've ever seen.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men: Sarge's Heroes[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “It's a decently fun shooter, but it doesn't do anything groundbreaking.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.4 (quote: “These army men aren't even close to being the next great game heroes.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Carmageddon[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 4.5 (quote: “The violence is the only thing that really stands out about this car combat game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 4.1 (quote: “Running people over gets old really fast.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “Builds on the previous game but doesn't really do anything new.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “The tight platforming of the last game returns, and Crash 2 is decent but doesn't stand out.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]R-Type Delta[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.8 (quote: “Old-school shooters haven't gone out of style, but R-Type isn't always a blast.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.8 (quote: “Superb graphics and some brand new power-ups make this a brilliant update of a shooter classic.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Snowboard Kids 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.5 (quote: “Still a really fun game, the new tracks and power-ups are a welcome update.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “This cutesy title might be the best extreme sports franchise around.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Shadowgate[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.3 (quote: “It has some strong points, but it's very clunky at times and doesn't take full advantage of the Ultra's capabilities.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.0 (quote: “A capable old-school adventure game, but is weighed down by the awkward controls.")[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]WCW Nitro[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 4.0 (quote: “The controls are atrocious and this is actually inferior to WCW/NWO Revenge by quite a bit.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.0 (quote: “A decent enough roster update but it definitely could've used more updated gameplay.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Boom Island 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
EGM: 5.8 (quote: “While the original game was cheesy fun, this game is merely cheesy and not very much fun.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.4 (quote: “Clearly the makers learned nothing from the excellent platformers of the last couple years.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.3 (quote: “This puzzle stealth title is still a ton of fun and the brand new multiplayer mode is hilarious.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.7 (quote: “Another series to make a successful Ultra transition, the new Klepto is superb in its simplicity.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Cyringe[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.2 (quote: “If you can look past all the weird fanservice moments, there's a really fun platformer here.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.7 (quote: “The main character is quite lovely and you'll have a lot of fun sticking enemies with her giant syringe.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goat Gruff Bluff[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Are we ready for a goat game mascot? Probably not, but there's nothing really terrible about this platformer.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.5 (quote: “It's decent enough, but the controls could be a lot less frustrating.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rock [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 5.5 (quote: “As generic a shooter as they come.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 2.6 (quote: “The plot is a complete ripoff of the movie Cliffhanger, which wasn't the best plot to begin with.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saturn:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 3: Siren's Sorrow[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “Yuna returns in a fun little title that adds some interesting mini-games.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.1 (quote: “A bit light on content, but the characters are extremely lovable.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “A difficult RPG that has some fun moments but is mostly pretty plain.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 3.8 (quote: “A deeply flawed game with atrocious graphics and frustrating battle mechanics.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.7 (quote: “As far as fighting games go, this one is pretty nifty.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.2 (quote: “You'll love the cast of characters and the really polished controls.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If there's one thing Reggie Fils-Aime has, it's great timing. Having joined Rare in March 1998, just as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye 007 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was being released worldwide, he didn't have anything to do with the success of that game, but was immediately put to work on the promotional effort ramping up for that fall's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which would go on to become the biggest console fighting game hit of the year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rare had told me how disappointed they were with the sales of the previous game and asked me how to make the sequel a huge success. I just told them, 'let's show everybody what the Ultra Nintendo can do. Let's show them how gorgeous this game looks and how fun it is to play.'”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The ad campaign began early and ramped up over the summer in preparation for the game's September release. Fils-Aime directed Rare to emphasize the game's revamped combo system and to show off the game's impressive visuals in advertising material. Nearly every video preview for the game was showing off the furious combo moves. The impressive promos got the games media interested and from there, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was positioned as a major hit.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]By the end of it all, I wasn't surprised at the sales numbers we were pulling in.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Fils-Aime is himself a fan of video games, having played many of the classic Nintendo arcade titles in his youth, and once he became an adult, he continued to play games as an occasional distraction from the demands of his career in marketing and sales.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I've started playing again a lot more since taking the job with Rare,” says Fils-Aime, who previously worked at Procter&Gamble and Pizza Hut. He'd been working for Pizza Hut when he got the job offer from Rareware, who had impressed him with their sales pitch and by showing him the work they'd done on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. “When I saw what Rare was doing with the James Bond license, I knew this was a company that was extremely serious about video games.”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fils-Aime's marketing push for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was a success, and now he's working on the company's next big push. In addition to a brand new [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong Country [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]title scheduled for later this year, Rare is also working on a sequel to their SNES-CD game [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blast Corps[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. There's also another shooter. While Rare turned down the opportunity to make a game based on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomorrow Never Dies[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], the company instead elected to create a sort of spiritual successor to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], a game based on an original storyline conceived by Rare, rather than adapting an existing property. When we asked Reggie about the new game, titled [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Velvet Dark[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Reggie was excited but fairly cryptic.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A lot of people are waiting for news on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Velvet Dark[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and we're excited to see that, but I've been instructed not to give away too much about it until E3,” said Reggie, referring to the big annual video game trade show taking place in May. “All I can say is that it's going to make [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]look like a tech demo!”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Reggie was also fairly quiet about Rare's next platformer project, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Conker: Twelve Tales[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which is scheduled for release sometime next year.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]On the one hand, with all these big projects I'm going to be pretty busy, but on the other hand, these games of Rare's really do promote themselves.”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rareware's been on quite a roll, and Fils-Aime seems more than happy to be along for the ride.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electronic Gaming Monthly[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sony's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was released on the Ultra Nintendo in March 1999, accompanied by quite a bit of hype at being quite possibly the best original Ultra Nintendo platformer title since [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Mario Dimensions[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. While Sony was initially reluctant to make a monkey-based game (due to the success of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong Country [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series), they eventually proceeded and were even able to release the game sooner than initially anticipated due to their experience working with the game [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](which shares an engine with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], believe it or not). The [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong Country [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]similarities encouraged Sony to differentiate their title from the game somewhat, they added a bit more stealth and also more gadgets, both of which were things that the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]DKC [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series lacked for the most part. The plot of the game involves a boy named Spike who is given the task of hunting down dozens of monkeys after they're set free by an evil villainess named Queen Saranya, her pet monkey Specter is the boss of the runaway monkeys in the game and serves as Saranya's right hand pet, so to speak. Saranya has dispatched the monkeys, altering their minds with her Pipo Helmets so that they can change history to make her arch queen throughout the ages, Spike must capture the monkeys and free them from Saranya's control. With its emphasis on capturing and by giving the monkeys a variety of different temperaments and personalities, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was able to set itself apart from being just a typical platformer and was nearly as successful for the Ultra Nintendo as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Zodiac World [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]had been for the Sega Saturn. While the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]characters weren't quite memorable enough to become mascots for Nintendo, the game itself became one of the more highly regarded franchises put out by Sony, and at least one sequel would follow.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]had some stiff competition in the platformer department, with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]being released for the Ultra Nintendo that very same month. Still, the first game had been one of the better selling launch titles for the system, and it was hoped that [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], with its larger world and more compelling villain, would surpass the first and would establish the series as one of the Ultra Nintendo's top franchises. It ultimately fell short of those goals, despite being a quality game. The problem with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is that unlike [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which it was inescapably compared to upon its release, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]didn't innovate in its genre at all. It stuck to the same basic platforming gameplay of the original, with only a few relatively minor graphical improvements. Instead of rehashing Dr. Cortex as the main villain, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]instead introduced Crazy Wing, a maniacal giant bird who commanded an army of evil anthropomorphic animals to conquer Crash's world. While the boss fights were fairly fun, the levels themselves were fairly lacking in innovative gimmicks, and the game itself was largely seen as a rehash of the original. Ultimately, while [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]sold relatively well, the game's sales paled compared to Naughty Dog's other highly successful franchises, and ultimately the game was the last in the series to be released for the Ultra Nintendo, as Naughty Dog largely moved on from the character after that. The rights to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]would be sold later on, leading to a revival of the character on future consoles, but the promise that Crash Bandicoot held as being one of the Ultra Nintendo's great mascots went up in smoke with the mediocre performance of the second game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot 2 And Beyond: Naughty Dog's Impressive Lineup[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]As Naughty Dog celebrates the release of the second game in the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series, the company now looks forward to the summer and its big upcoming release: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dog Dash 3[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. The game sees friends Clark, Woofle, and Selkie entering a fully 3-D world to rescue their friends from the evil General Catsmeow and his feline army. Boasting some of the year's most impressive visuals, with gameplay that looks like a perfect transition to 3-D, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dog Dash 3 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is sure to be a major hit. Of course, Naughty Dog is also working on a pair of games for the year 2000, one of them being the third title in the acclaimed [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tales Of The Seven Seas [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
The third [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tales Of The Seven Seas [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is said to be significantly more storyline-heavy than the two titles that came before it, and just as the first game focused on Erick and the second game on Dona, this third game has already been stated to focus heavily on Victoria, the noble girl-turned-pirate, who, according to the game's director Mark Cerny, must “make a major decision” in the upcoming game. While Victoria will be the main focus of the game's plot, Cerny assures fans that you'll still be able to play as all seven of the beloved main characters in the new title, and that there will still be lots of freedom to perform a variety of different tasks and jobs. Naughty Dog's other upcoming game of 2000 hasn't been revealed yet but is said to be a “war” game that will be a bit more mature than their previous titles. We'll see if there's any announcement at E3 concerning this unannounced game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article on Gamespot.com, posted on March 22, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]One of the year's most successful arcade titles, Duelists has been a surprise hit for Sega, which initially viewed the game as somewhat of an afterthought. Featuring ten fighters ranging in age from 14 to 19, the game's heavy basis on the character's backstories and difficult single player AI has forced players to deposit many, many quarters to see how each character's story plays out, and fights have broken out at arcades when human challengers have interrupted players' quests by putting in their own coins.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-from the June 1998 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electronic Gaming Monthly[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Following its console release in Japan last November, the arcade hit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has come to the Sega Saturn as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. While the game's combat is fierce and smooth, the game's main draw is its cast of young fighters. Sega's arcade hit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Raigeki [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was fairly wild in terms of its character backstories, but [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]takes itself a lot more seriously, with some of the stories being quite dramatic and the characters largely grounded in realism. The most popular character in Japan is 14-year-old Lily, a schoolgirl who begins fighting in order to teach her rival, Maitreya, leader of the school's powerful student council, a lesson. Maitreya herself is another playable character and she fights in order to uphold her family's honor, while keeping her dark secrets hidden from Lily in the guise of domineering bullying. Each of the game's player characters has a rival, and with ten characters in all, that adds up to five rivalries (though one of those, the rivalry between Veil and Kraig, is also probably the game's most enduring romantic couple). Every battle has meaning in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], every character has some sort of relationship with every other character in the game. There's no defined “final boss”, the final battle is with your character's rival, and the result of the battle determines the ending your character gets (yes, if you lose, there's no “game over” or “continue”, you get your character's “bad ending” and must start over if you want another try at their “good” one). This “story based” approach to fighting games has become somewhat of a trend on both major consoles, we just saw [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]take that approach somewhat with its adventure mode, and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mortal Kombat [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Street Fighter [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]both have a ton of story-related tie-ins outside the main games. With the main draw behind fighting games still largely their competitive multiplayer nature, such story modes seem fairly extraneous, but if companies are trying to sell fighting games to players who have few real life friends or are unwilling to put in the time needed to become good at such games, these single-player story modes might indeed raise sales, and there's a good chance we'll see them expand in the future. Whether or not [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the beginning of a trend is at this time uncertain.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameInformer[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
(Authors' Note: All the info on Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 3 was given to us by the user Cataquack Warrior, who's done some excellent work for us so far!)
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Woman: Hey! I'm Stacy Grenna and it's time for today's Here and Now segment! As always, Here and Now is where I take a look at a game I've played in the past, and I have somebody else who's never played it before spend some time playing it for the first time, and then we compare notes! Today's Here and Now game is [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 3: Siren's Sorrow[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], a fun little title from a few years back on the Sega Saturn. I'm a big fan of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Galaxy Fraulein Yuna [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, and I enjoyed this one a lot, so I asked our own Mindy Kaling from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]G4 Weekly News [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to play it this week! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Mindy joins Stacy on the screen.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: So Mindy, you played [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna 3[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], what did you think?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Well, it's one of those weird anime games...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: I know, isn't it fun?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: For a game, there's not a lot of actual...game, is there?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Stacy: Ah, there's plenty of game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Like the slot machine where you get to choose what ultra-revealing outfit Yuna's gonna wear this time? *as the slot machine shows on screen* “Come on, Daddy needs a new pair of high-heeled shoes!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Did you like the game where you got to save the puppy?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Mindy: I never understood how saving a puppy could be so hard. I don't see why Yuna can't just jump in the river and save it. With the kind of game this is, you'd think a wet outfit would be the least of her problems![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, the river WAS moving really fast.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Isn't she supposed to be some kind of hero or something? Anyway, with everything in this game that didn't make sense, I liked the trial sequence and how every decision you make plays into the outcome of the trial. It kind of reminded me of the trial from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Chrono Trigger[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], but even more complex than that. So that was a part of the game I liked.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: For me, I just love all the great characters. I think Yuna is really funny and really inspiring, and her little dialogues with Elner throughout the game are a nice treat. I thought [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna 3 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was better than either one of the first two games, the plot was a lot better and the fact that they actually had a lot of animation instead of just a bunch of still screens was also really nice.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Wait a minute, the last games only had still screens? How lazy is that?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, the technology wasn't there for animation just yet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Mindy: Imagine if this game just had slides showing off what was happening in the game. It'd be like visiting your relatives, only if they were weird anime characters. *screenshot of Yuna's mech digging in the ground for ingredients* And here's where we hunted for buried treasure on the beach. I just wanted to use a metal detector, but my husband insisted on breaking out the giant robot. *screenshot of Yuna being spied on in the locker room* Here's where we visited Pervert Canyon and experienced the thrill of voyeurism for the first time! *Yuna watches the puppy drown after failing to rescue it* Here's where Spot went swimming in the river, all the way to a nice old couple's farm! At least that's what we told the kids. *Yuna is shown chained up in a prison cell* Here's what happened when we got caught stealing from the souvenir shop at Disney World. They take that sort of thing very seriously.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: So did you like the game at all?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: It wasn't bad. I don't think I like it as much as you did, but as far as weird anime character games go, it was decent enough. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s kind of an acquired taste. It's not the most popular series out there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: How'd it end up doing?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Stacy: Believe it or not, it actually sold a decent number of copies! Even more than the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna Anthology[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which itself sold better than expectations. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Mindy: Anthology? They made a boxed set of these things?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, technically it was only the first two games.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: That's not an anthology. That's like...two games. That's like Wrigley calling Doublemint Gum a “gum anthology”. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Mario All-Stars, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that's an anthology. The [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy Collection[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], that's an anthology. Two games...is two games. Call it a double pack or something.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Anthology sounds fancier![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Put it in a little tuxedo! Don't call it something it's not, that's false advertising. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-a segment from an episode of the show “Focus” on G4, originally aired on December 3, 2003[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And the release of WCW Nitro for the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Saturn coincides with this Sunday's pay-per-view, Uncensored, which will see Goldberg defending his title and his nearly 200 match unbeaten streak against the Nature Boy, Ric Flair. Uncensored marks the final day of Flair's 90-day control over WCW that he won last December, and has used this power to challenge Goldberg for the belt, despite supposedly being Goldberg's friend in the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view. Uncensored will also see Booker T face off against Hollywood Hogan for the first time, though Booker T now has Bret 'The Hitman' Hart in his corner, making for an interesting match dynamic, as Hogan will have to keep both eyes open during the match, especially since both Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are to be escorted from the arena after the conclusion of their tag team championship match against Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, and won't be able to help Hogan in his match against Booker T.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]excerpted from an online news report on WCW Uncensored 1999, posted on March 10, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saving Private Ryan [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]dominated the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director for Steven Spielberg, and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, his third such award in six years. That was the big story of this year's Oscar ceremony that proved to be a largely “by the numbers” night, with no major upsets to speak of. Though [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shakespeare in Love [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was speculated to be a dark horse Oscar pick, and did several Oscars of its own (including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench), it was unable to take down [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saving Private Ryan [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the big award of the night, despite a fierce pre-Oscar campaign by Harvey Weinstein to promote the film. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Deep Impact[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which was nominated for several major awards (including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman), failed to win any of the big prizes, but did manage to win the Best Visual Effects Oscar. Celine Dion won another posthumous award to go with her Grammy when her song “The Prayer” from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Quest for Camelot [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]took home the award for Best Song, beating out “When You Believe” from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Prince Of Egypt[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] among others. It was, once again, Spielberg's night, though the director did give a bit of time during his Best Director Oscar speech to send well wishes to his friend and colleague Stanley Kubrick, who's currently recovering from the heart attack he suffered several weeks back. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from a Yahoo News! report posted on March 22, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The games have been getting better and better, especially lately. I was very impressed with the most recent Zelda game, and I got my hands on Metal Gear Solid, and that was extremely impressive as well. These games, they're definitely becoming a lot more movie-like, and so with Medal of Honor, I'm hoping to give the player the same type of experience they might've had when they were watching Saving Private Ryan, only now they've got a controller in their hands and they can storm Omaha Beach. It wasn't easy in real life and it's certainly not going to be easy in the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Something I'm growing to appreciate about the world of games is that the games that win the big industry awards and the games that win with the fans are usually one and the same. You'd be hard pressed to ever see the Oscars and the MTV Movie Awards pick the same movie as their Best Picture, but that's what happened with the Interactive Arts and Sciences Awards and the MTV Video Game Awards, both of you picked The Legend of Zelda. I think in the world of video games, the best games are oftentimes appreciated more than the best movies necessarily are in the cinematic world. And that's an encouraging thing for video games going forward.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Steven Spielberg, in an interview in the June 20, 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Parade [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany Saldita: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s single-player mode was really solid, but...Ted, I gotta say, I got REALLY into the multiplayer![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted Crosley: Yeah, it was a ton of fun for me. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Okay, so in the multiplayer, there are several different modes. My favorite mode was the competitive mode because in this mode, basically, one or more players is the thief, and they're going up against one or more players being the security guards. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: And basically, if you're the guards, you get a nightstick and a flashlight, and if you're the thieves, you gotta try and sneak past the guards.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: Because if you're the guards, you can just...whack the crap outta people! Look at this![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*A video from the game's multiplayer mode shows a comically over-exaggerated animation of a security guard pummeling the crap out of a thief with his nightstick*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: He's getting beat on, and his eyes pop out of his head and go bouncing around the room before he disappears from the screen![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: How the HELL did this game get an E rating? Yeah, there's no blood or anything, but look at the bouncing eyeballs![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: So if you manage to sneak past and get the treasure, and get it back in time, the security guards...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: They start crying like little babies![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: The animations in this game are pure gold, and the SNES-CD games never really got this silly with the animations.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: The multiplayer modes are so much fun. Not just the competitive mode, but the co-op mode, which basically is “cooperative until it becomes funnier to mess with your teammates”.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Right, you can screw your friends over so badly in this game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I loved finding all the myriad little ways I could mess with Brittany when we were trying out the co-op mode together.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: You spent more time laying traps for me than actually playing the game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: *snickering*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
*A brief video is shown of Brittany's character getting caught in one of Ted's traps for the fourth time while they're playing the game together*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: You did that on purpose![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: ...no I didn't.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: That was four times in a row! Ted![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: I swear, that was an accident. *he's laying another trap for Brittany while he's “apologizing”* I am so sorry.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: *steps in another trap* (bleep)! You (bleep)hole![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: *laughing hysterically*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
*the video ends*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: So yeah, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]mixes a really fun and challenging single player mode with a fantastic and hilarious multiplayer mode for plenty of long-lasting fun. It's the best game in the series and I'm giving it a perfect 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Wow, you liked it that much? I'm giving [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 4.5, the single-player mode could use a bit of work but that multiplayer mode is one of the best on the Ultra and I agree with Ted, this is the best game thus far in what's overall a pretty quality series. Nice work.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the March 2, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](...)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex Stansfield: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]combines some really unique gameplay with cutesy characters and visuals for one really solid platforming experience.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Right, it's just a really fun game. The plot's a bit silly but I can forgive that, catching apes is a lot of fun.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Who came up with the idea of putting siren hats on those little monkeys' heads?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Not me but damn if it's not adorable.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: You add monkeys to anything, it makes it better. True or false?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Well, I'm not sure if [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saving Private Ryan [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]would've been better with a little chimp soldier going around...it might've been a lot less depressing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Oh yeah. Seeing them walking around bombed out towns, and then they cut to this monkey sitting against a tree, maybe smoking a cigarette? Instant laugh.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Or at the somber graveyard scene, he starts crying but then we see a monkey just sitting on one of the tombstones? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Well, video games are definitely better with monkeys. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and now [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Some of the levels DO get a bit repetitive, even when the apes get new gadgets to help themselves out, that was my big complaint about the game. Is it a valid one?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I think it's reasonably valid, I mean, you can only catch so many of those apes before they all start to kind of blur together. So it's not the best platformer in the world but I think it deserves a 4.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Yeah, I agree, I'm giving [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 4. Some parts are a bit of a slog but for the most part it's a unique and really fun game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from the March 16, 1999 review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
(…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa Fielding: Oh my god this game was crap.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian Fry: I have no idea why you hated it so much![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa Fielding: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men: Sarge's Heroes [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the most unimaginative, derivative, uninspired and boring shooter I've ever played! If not for the fact that you're controlling plastic army men, there'd be NOTHING special about the game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: The graphics are good, the gameplay is solid, why don't you like it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: The level design is the most basic a game can possibly be. The voice acting is terrible. The plot is so cliched. It's like, “okay, here are the green army guys, and you're fighting the tan army guys!” Literally a three year old could come up with that. Literally, that's what a three year old does when he plays with his army men.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: It doesn't need a great plot, it's just a fun shooting game where you run around killing the other army. Look, I thought [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was refreshing. It is a bit simple, but you know where to go and what to do, it's easy to pick up, you have a decent variety of weapons...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: None of which do anything special, it's as basic as it can possibly be.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: There's destructable environments. They put a lot of thought into the visuals of the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: And yet when your army man gets hit he just falls over. The trees can be damaged, the buildings can be damaged, but army men are either knocked down or they disappear. There's no army man limb injuries or anything like that. For an Ultra Nintendo game, the graphical detail is lousy. I'm giving [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 0.5 out of 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: Oh man, that's a really low score. I'm giving it a 3.5. You didn't even like the multiplayer mode?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: Not at all. Just not a fan of these [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, and this was the worst of the bunch.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the March 23, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: So while I appreciated [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers' [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]difficulty and what it was trying to do, this game didn't really work for me from an overall standpoint.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: As far as RPGs go, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is definitely different, but I felt like it could've done a lot of things better.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: You REALLY have to manage your items closely in this game, and while it's not the first RPG to make you start leveling all over again in every dungeon, that was still an aspect of the game that I felt really slowed it down.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: It did have some nice Easter eggs from previous obscure Sega titles. If you played [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining in the Darkness[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Pyra from there is in here. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: You played that back in the day?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I did! Have you ever played it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: No, but I did play [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sword of Vermillion [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Phantasy Star [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]back in the day. This game, while looking a heck of a lot prettier, is not nearly as good as those.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I think I'm gonna be a bit less harsh on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]than you're being, I thought it had its moments and the graphics aren't so bad. For the Saturn, they're decent, if a little bit blocky looking.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: The pacing is really bad. This RPG slows to a crawl at times and without a compelling plot to keep you going, what's the point? I'm giving it a 2 out of 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I'm giving it a 3. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the March 30, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo Power Charts: March 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Parasite Eve[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Final Fantasy VII[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Street Fighter III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Super Mario Dimensions[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Killer Instinct Ultra[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Daikatana[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Shadows Of The Moon[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Ballistic Limit 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. Fallout[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart: March 1999[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Virtua Fighter 3[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Shenmue[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Mortal Kombat 4[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Sonic The Hedgehog 4[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Zodiac World[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. WCW Nitro[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]March 31, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly Klaas looked out the passenger side window of her friend Caitlyn's car as the two headed back to Caitlyn's house after school that day.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm gonna miss high school,” said Caitlyn, smiling wistfully at her friend. “But it's gonna be a lot of fun rooming together at Stanford, right? God, I was so nervous waiting to see if I got in. I mean, I knew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]you'd [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]make it, but I was biting my nails the whole two months since I applied!”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They don't look like it,” Polly replied, smirking as she glanced back at her friend Caitlyn's flawlessly groomed nails. “Unless those are falsies?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Pfffffftt....” Caitlyn snorted, slapping the steering wheel. “But yeah, I mean... have fun learning psychology. Maybe after you graduate you can figure out what's wrong with Eric?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly's friend Eric had become further and further withdrawn, though the two had continued to speak even as Eric withdrew further into himself over the last few weeks. He'd stopped having Polly over at his house, and his comments about others and about himself had gotten increasingly dark and disturbing. He'd gone to see Polly's therapist...once, and never again. [/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Did he say anything else to you?” Polly asked Caitlyn.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nothing,” Caitlyn replied, shaking her head. “He's said...nothing to me since we broke up. When we pass in the halls, he doesn't even look at me. Is he still hanging out with Dylan?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No...I don't think they're friends anymore,” Polly replied. “Has Dylan told you anything?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dylan doesn't even [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]mention [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Eric anymore. Actually...the last time I did mention Eric to him, he looked kind of...scared.”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I know they used to be so close,” said Polly, shaking her head. She wondered if she was the only friend Eric had left...if Eric even saw the two of them as friends anymore. Even when other students reached out to him, he seemed to pull back or lash out, as if he didn't want anybody around. Sometimes Polly wondered if Eric just...hated everybody. But that couldn't be true, because she knew he didn't hate her. “I told him if he ever feels like he might hurt himself to call me, that I'd be there for him.”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And if he feels like hurting other people?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly just stared straight ahead.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly, if he shows any signs of that-”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Once I do that...he'll...he'd never forgive me if I got him in trouble.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This isn't about you, or him. Polly, if you think he'll do something to hurt anyone, himself or anyone else...you have to tell the school counselor, or something. I mean...I know you can't go to the cops just if you think he's gonna do something bad, but...”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I know...I know, I....”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly sighed and bowed her head. As much as she felt a need to help Eric, now she was regretting ever meeting him in the first place. She'd gotten a weird feeling from him from the moment they first met, and now...now every time Caitlyn brought up the possibility that Eric might hurt someone, she got a shiver through her spine.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...I'm sorry,” said Caitlyn. The car was pulling into their neighborhood now, and she could tell just how distressed this was making Polly. “I didn't mean to bring that up, now you're.... let's talk about college again, okay?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yeah...I'd rather talk about that,” said Polly, a smile returning to her face. “So you're definitely thinking about law school?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Maybe. Like, I REALLY want to do entertainment law, but I'm trying to figure out if it's something I actually want to do or if it's just so I can meet celebrities.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Across town, Eric Harris was sitting in his room, flipping through a magazine. He saw an ad for next month's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Doom: Inferno [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the Ultra Nintendo, and his eyes lit up.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That looks fucking sweet,” [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]he thought, eyeing the advertisement which was filled with detailed screenshots from the game and emblazoned with artwork of the game's demonic monsters.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Then his eyes glanced at the release date, and he let out a long sigh.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Too bad I'll never get to play it.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
The game's release date? April 20, 1999.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
Here are some more details on Yuna III: Siren's Sorrow. A big thanks to RySenkari and Nivek for allowing me to contribute.
Production
Siren's Sorrow, called Yuna FX IOTL, was initially intended just as a limited edition bonus and as the basis for a parallel set of OVA specials. However, the popularity of the Anthology led Hudson to turn the material into a full game. As a result, the new version of Siren's Sorrow has a more complex plot, and the anime was likewise extended to three OVAs instead of two. Even so, there were some flaws in the design. A particular source of criticism was that some of the OVAs' scenes were taken straight out of the game. Still, the game was a considerable improvement over the previous two games, and had a fair amount of success.
Gameplay
The game plays similar to the previous games, but there are more choices for Yuna to make and more exploration available. Plus, there are more mini-games, from saving a puppy to being on a game show. As for the scenes, the graphics have improved, with animated scenes instead of stills.
Also, as expected in the series, Yuna III has an extensive bonus section filled with various special content for fans.
Plot
In the prologue to the game, Yuna is participating in a galactic cooking championship, and is using her mech to search for a rare Star Swallow Egg (much to Elner’s frustration, as she hardly appreciates Yuna using her and the Matrix of Light for such frivolous ends). However, she is suddenly attacked by an enigmatic, monstrous mech called Anderope. Yuna manages to defeat it after a battle, and hurries back to the judging center, where there is a short mini-game to win the competition with her sunny-side up omelet. However, afterwards the scene cuts to a mysterious figure watching a playback of Yuna’s earlier fight. The figure concludes that all of the information is prepared, and that soon the Guardian of Light will fall.
Next comes the main plot. After being woken up by Princess Mirage’s bombardment alarm (she literally has the Eternal Princess open fire on the house to wake Yuna up), Yuna and Yuri hurry to school. Yuna’s class has a new transfer student, a stoic girl named Misaki who seems especially interested in Yuna but actually seems to avoid direct interaction with her. Yuna thinks that Misaki has a crush on her (and has various fantasies), but Misaki is actually a police agent for the Galactic Alliance, codename Siren. Her superior Fraulein D. has sent her to investigate rumors that Yuna is actually using her powers for evil.
Instead of Mai releasing the class early as in the OTL OVAs, you end up going through the full school day, with chances to interact with your many friends and participate in mini-games such as sports-related ones with the Erika 7. At lunch, Yuna and Yuri get into an argument about food (Yuri ate all of it), and Misaki intervenes, thinking that Yuna was bullying Yuri before getting the details straightened out. Later during P.E., Yuna is late getting changed in the locker, and accidentally stumbles on someone spying on her. Caught in the act, Lika gets into a fight with you. Lika is a ninja and uses classic ninja moves such as throwing ninjas stars. However, when other people arrive, she pretends that Yuna was bullying her and escapes in the confusion. The other students believe Yuna’s side of the story, but Misaki appears suspicious.
After school, Yuna goes shopping with Yuri, but then finds a trail of Polylina cards leading to the far end of town. In the process, Yuna gets caught up in finding and rescuing a lost puppy; one of the mini-games involves saving the puppy from drowning in a river. Yuna then tries to find her way back home; she convinced Yuri to collect the rest of the cards while she looked for the puppy, so she’s on her own now. She ends up encountering Lika again, along with another suspicious character named Lucia. Yuna is wondering what’s going on, and the two enigmatically comment that they managed to keep her busy long enough. Yuna is actually more concerned with the revelation that Lucia made all of the cards herself for the trap, meaning that they are all counterfeits, something unforgivable for the number one member of the Polylina fan club. You now have to fight both of them. Lucia is an artist and uses her sketchbook to attack. They manage to give Yuna the slip, so Yuna goes home. However, she gets ambushed by Misaki and knocked out.
Yuna wakes up chained down in a prison cell. Misaki enters, and despite Yuna’s erotic misinterpretation of the situation, quickly makes it clear that Yuna has been arrested as a criminal. Yuna is taken to a trial committee and shown a news video of her attacking the main part of Neo Tokyo when she had been busy in that other part of the city, without a solid alibi. A trial mini-game commences as you try to defend yourself against the various charges laid against you – from attacking Neo Tokyo to destroying a government prototype (Yuna expresses confusion about this charge, but does not receive an answer) – all serving as evidence that you are plotting to take over the galaxy. The trial is a farce, but if you handle your defense well enough, the Alliance counselors have enough doubt to delay the judgement until more evidence can be gathered. You are returned to your cell to wait, your future still bleak, but Polylina breaks in to save you. After sneaking past guards and getting into a fight with Misaki, you escape the facility. Even so, you are now a wanted criminal, and need to clear your good name.
Yuna decides to first contact the independent news reporter and investigator Mashe, who filmed the attack on Neo Tokyo; hopefully Yuna can learn more about the robot and give her own side of the story. You travel to a news studio and have to sneak in by participating in a game show. You manage to get a private interview with Mashe, but she reveals that she was actually working for the same purpose as Lucia and Lika. Mashe uses her camera as a weapon in battle, and can use its powerful flash to temporarily stun you. Security forces you to retreat, but Mashe lets slip the next location that the Yuna impostor is going to attack: a massive dam on a mountainous planet that is the only thing keeping the capital from being flooded.
You hurry to stop the attack and arrive ahead of time. Along the way, you have to complete a lumberjack challenge to get a ride to the dam. However, Misaki has tracked you down. You end up having two consecutive battles – first against Misaki, and then against the fake Yuna when she arrives. After the fight, the artificial Yuna retreats, but you find evidence that she was constructed by Red Factory, a company employed by the Galactic Alliance. While still wary about Yuna, Misaki is now aware that there is more going on than she thought, and teams up with Yuna to investigate.
You now have to investigate Red Factory’s headquarters. There are a couple of mini-game puzzles to solve along the way, such as one that involves controlling conveyor belts to take an item to a specific point. While exploring the factory, you get into a fight against three Anderope mechs. It turns out that the mechs and other soldiers are part of a special government project that is intended to replace Yuna once she is convicted. You reach the central office of the factory, and Misaki and Yuna come up with a plan. Yuna approaches the factory chief Aira and pretends to be the fake Yuna, in need of repairs and a new assignment. Aira falls for the trick and reveals that is part of the conspiracy to frame Yuna, but says that there are no more missions for her now, and tries to activate her self-destruct programming. Yuna naturally does not comply, and Misaki bursts in to arrest Aira. Aira desperately summons the fake Yuna to fight you, but the copy rebels. She had been told that once Yuna was gone, she would be the new hero, but now she realizes that she was meant to be expendable from the beginning. Deleting the safeguard protocols from her programming, the artificial flies off, leaving Aira to fight you herself. She has a cold, managerial personality and avoids physical conflict; she instead uses the factory’s defense systems against you. After her equipment is destroyed, she considers fighting you herself, but then decides to call it quits with this operation and escapes.
You still have not figured out who is behind all of this, but you have enough evidence to clear the charges. Misaki contacts her superior and mentor Fraulein D. with her new discoveries and arranges a private rendezvous. However, it turns into a trap, and both you and Misaki are arrested. It is revealed that D. was behind the framing all along. D. tries to convince Misaki to just return to her work and forget about Yuna, but Misaki refuses. With some regret, D. gives Misaki the same sentence as Yuna: to be sealed within a black hole for eternity.
However, just as the execution is about to take place, the Alliance Headquarters space station is hijacked by a rogue communication being broadcasted across the galaxy. Mashe has had a change of heart, and now unveils a new broadcast that clears Yuna’s name. All of your friends defend you, and you are shown to have been saving the puppy when the alleged attack on Neo Tokyo took place. On seeing this, the council members withdraw their support for Fraulein D. and realize that they were deceived.
Although the first part of her plan failed, D. goes through with the second stage of her plan. The trial and execution of the Guardian of Light required all key members of the Galactic Alliance government to be present, and D. uses her assembled army – along with more from the black hole – to launch a coup and still carry out your execution, even without official sanction anymore. Fortunately, Yuna’s many friends such as Polylina, Yuri, and Princess Mirage (among many others) arrive to free you, and you chase down D. while they handle her army.
After dealing with Lucia and Lika again, you catch up with Fraulein D. Misaki is shocked and betrayed that D. is doing all of this. D. reveals that she is in fact the “Devil Fraulein,” banished to a black hole by a previous Guardian of Light. However, she was in fact innocent of the accusations at the time, but due to a misunderstanding was sentenced to imprisonment regardless. After escaping by giving in to darkness, she decided to have revenge by showing the current Guardian of Light the despair she felt when the galaxy turned against her. Yuna points out that D. made new friends and a new life for herself, but she is throwing it all away for revenge. This makes D. hesitate, but she still fights you. After a fight against her in her regular form, D. becomes a demonic behemoth vaguely resembling Giratina from Pokémon.
Yuna manages to defeat D. by transforming into the super mech El-Line Noi, but then there is one last surprise. As D.’s power starts to dissipate, artificial Yuna suddenly appears, stabs D. in the back, and absorbs the darkness into herself. She saw D. as her mother, and is enraged that she was nothing but a tool in the end. On realizing how she has committed some of the same sins she hated the previous Guardian for, D. has a breakdown. The copy then confronts Yuna for a final battle to determine the point of her existence. Whether she dies as a villain or triumphs as a hero, she will create her own destiny.
After one last battle, Yuna defeats her copy, but shows mercy. She tells her that she can be her own person, and choose her own path in life. The copy renames herself Anuy (“Anny”), and reconciles with her mother, with both of them reforming. Also in the aftermath, Misaki apologizes to Yuna and offers to take any punishment she decrees; Yuna replies that Misaki’s “punishment” is to become her friend. Everyone then has a party to celebrate Yuna’s victory.
Reception
Yuna III proved popular like its predecessors, but the continued criticism of certain aspects of the game convinced Hudson that it needed to take the series to a new level. Fortunately, the second set of OVAs in store, as well as the Yuna Tactics project, would fulfill that goal in the coming future.
-
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I've never been opposed to putting third party characters in Super Smash Brothers. Nintendo, at first, was reluctant, but I think they realized what I already knew, that these other companies have been an important part of our success and are as much a part of Nintendo as Mario and Link! And of course, the added sales draw from these characters doesn't hurt either!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Masahiro Sakurai, discussing third party characters in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in an interview with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Famitsu [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine in March 1999
[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's always gratifying to please our fans! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this game!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Satoru Iwata, discussing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]at a panel at E3 1999[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This is the kind of game you just can't do on the Sega Saturn. It's our first next generation Doom game, we haven't even done this on PC yet. The Ultra Nintendo's getting the first real 3-D Doom, and it's a deserving platform to get it.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-John Romero, discussing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Doom: Inferno [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wat an asshoel, u had no prolem putting quake on saturn, wtf man”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-an anonymous poster on an InsideTheWeb.com forum, discussing John Romero's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]interview, posted on April 29, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I guess video games were an inspiration for The Matrix. I mean, we're both big gamers, but they weren't a huge influence. We'd love to do a more video game-ish film later on, though.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Andy Wachowski, fielding a question about [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]at Comic-Con 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I think I wept openly after reading that part of the script. We had to stop recording for about ten minutes until I could compose myself.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Sara Bareilles, answering a question from a fan at a music festival in 2008 about what it was like to work on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Don't underestimate me!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-One of Rebecca's two victory quotes in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hohoho....hahahahahaha![/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fire and blood, burn...burn burn burn, all of you BURN! I'll see your bones ripped from your flesh before the day is done!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Luca Blight, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden II[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm always here, Kris. And I always will be. No matter what.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Etienne, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For something like that to happen on the release date of that huge Doom game, I mean...you shudder to think about it.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Adam Sessler, discussing the April 1999 incident at Columbine High School on a video game podcast on April 20, 2009[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu, and Donkey Kong, played by people in giant plush costumes, are skipping happily through a field of flowers as “So Happy Together” by The Turtles plays. Suddenly, the four of them come face-to-face with Fox McCloud, Shad, Captain Falcon, and Link. The two groups stare at each other from across the field, then charge at one another, punching, kicking, and bashing one another with a variety of weapons.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Narrator (Don LaFontaine): Something's gone wrong in the happy-go-lucky world of Nintendo. Introducing Super Smash Bros., where all your favorite characters duke it out in one epic four-player star studded slamfest.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Donkey Kong bashes Shad over the head with a giant mallet*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Narrator: Only on the Ultra Nintendo.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*The Ultra Nintendo logo is shown, along with Nintendo's current slogan: “Ultimate Fun”*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-the North American commercial for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which was shown on TV during the spring of 1999, based on OTL's commercial seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K783SDTBKmg[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.: The Basics[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a four-player fighting game created by Masahiro Sakurai and HAL Laboratory and featuring 18 of Nintendo's first, second, and third party characters. The gameplay, in which characters brawl and fight, racking up damage until a character is knocked out of the arena, is almost identical to OTL's game, and like OTL's game, this first installment is fairly bare bones in terms of features, with a single player arcade-style mode where players fight a progression of battlers until they reach the final boss, a giant gloved hand named Master Hand, or a versus mode in which players can battle either the CPU or other human players in 2-4 player fights under a variety of rules. The biggest change from OTL comes in the form of additional characters included in the game. Unlike OTL's game, which featured eight characters and four hidden characters, TTL's game features 12 characters and six hidden characters, which are unlocked via a variety of methods. The only character from OTL's game that doesn't appear in TTL's game is Jigglypuff, which is butterflied away due to Jigglypuff having a slightly smaller role in the Pokemon anime. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
The twelve characters available in this game from the outset are: Mario, Yoshi, Link, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Samus, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Shad (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Squad Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]) and Woofle (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dog Dash[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]). The six unlockable characters are: Cloud Strife, Simon Belmont, Ness, Luigi, Rebecca (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Squad Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]) and Ash Beckland (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]). Of the characters that don't appear in any of the OTL Smash Bros. games, here's a quick overview of their fighting styles:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shad (a somewhat slow fighter who specializes in the use of his laser gun, he's somewhat more of a bulkier Fox McCloud)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Woofle (Romps around the stage pouncing on people and licking them with his tongue, he's surprisingly quick for his size but can be knocked around easier than other heavy fighters)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Cloud Strife (A bulky sword fighter who can deal a lot of damage with his blade, think a bulkier version of OTL's Ike)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Simon Belmont (specializes in whip fighting and is fairly agile, sort of like Zero Suit Samus but without as many kicks)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rebecca (uses her twin blades for quick, furious melee strikes, she's fast but her attacks don't pack much punch)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ash Beckland (fights a lot like OTL Solid Snake but is a bit more accessible for newbie fighters, uses bombs, guns, and powerful melee blows)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Of the six unlockables, Luigi and Ness are acquired identically to OTL. Cloud, Simon, Ash, and Rebecca can be unlocked one of two ways: either via game saves (with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania: SOTN, Ballistic Limit 2, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and the as of yet unreleased third [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Squad Four [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game respectively) or via in-game methods, Cloud and Simon's are fairly easy, Rebecca's is a bit trickier, and Ash has the toughest unlock method in the game (requiring players to beat single-player mode in Normal on a single life). This leads some players to come up with conspiracy theories stating that Nintendo wanted to drive up sales of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](and when Ash's unlock is included in the July 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Underground[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], they say it's to drive up Nintendo Underground subscriptions instead). It's not a major controversy but it is brought up time to time on online message forums of the day.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a major seller for Nintendo upon its release in North America, easily clearing a million copies there amongst a variety of players. The game doesn't get great reviews, but it's considered to be a solid game, a really good multiplayer title, and a must-own game for all fans of Nintendo's primary franchises. The game's popularity also leads Sega to begin working on a sequel to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fighters Megamix[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which is eventually released for the Saturn in 2000.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All Star Tennis '99:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “Solid graphics and accurate gameplay make this a good, if somewhat bare-bones, tennis game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.3 (quote: “We would've liked to see some real life courts but at least a few real pros are included.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Doom: Inferno[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “Doom comes to the Ultra Nintendo and the action blew us away!”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.1 (quote: “A tremendously gorgeous game with some fantastic level design.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Drakkhen II[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.5 (quote: “Old-school role playing translates moderately well to the new school Ultra.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 4.6 (quote: “This game stumbles in a number of ways. RPGs have come a long way since the original, this series clearly hasn't.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Grim Fandango[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.5 (quote: “Awesome puzzles and a witty storyline make this a can't miss game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.2 (quote: “What a great port! This game is a step ahead of Curse of Monkey Island in terms of ingenuity.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden II[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.2 (quote: “A beautifully crafted RPG with a long, epic storyline.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.7 (quote: “Some of the most amazing characters in recent memory, complete with a truly memorable villain.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.3 (quote: “It's a bit simplistic but you can't beat the fantastic character selection.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.0 (quote: “This game is definitely best if you have three friends in the room.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Thousand Arms[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.7 (quote: “The dating-sim elements are a bit unnecessary, but we liked this game's rather kitschy feel.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.6 (quote: “A classic RPG with an anime twist.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Triple Play [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.5 (quote: “EA put a lot of effort into the presentation, and it pays off big time.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.9 (quote: “It succeeds in several ways that last year's Ken Griffey game didn't, though the gameplay's not as authentic.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Vanguard Bandits[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
EGM: 7.0 (quote: “The mech-based action is unique, but the game suffers from a bit of a sloppy translation.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.8 (quote: “With a lot of fun characters, Vanguard Bandits might keep you hooked on the story even if the gameplay suffers somewhat.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You Don't Know Jack[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “The humor gets old fairly quickly, as do a lot of the questions.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.1 (quote: “Your first few play sessions are kind of fun, then this game quickly wears out its welcome.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “What starts out as a fairly play-by-numbers RPG with good voice acting turns into a heartrending character study that will attach you very deeply to these characters.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “It surpasses the original in every way even if there's nothing really innovative about the gameplay.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “Andrekah is back with a fresh coat of paint in this whimsical Ultra installment.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.5 (quote: “Few franchises' leaps into 3D have worked as well as this one's has.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]When The Sun Sets[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.2 (quote: “The jokes are cribbed straight from Buffy and ultimately this vampire thriller is just mediocre.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.4 (quote: “One of the funniest vampire games ever made, the gameplay's pretty straightforward but the script had us in stitches.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Felidae[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Some of the designs on this game's barely scary cat monsters are far more hilarious than they're supposed to be.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.9 (quote: “Laugh-worthy CGI and clunky gameplay drag down what could have been a decently good game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.8 (quote: “One of the best racing games since Gran Turismo.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.4 (quote: “The 18 tracks each have their own tricks and quirks, and the cars themselves look gorgeous on the Ultra.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saturn:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mortal Kombat 4[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “Looks really pretty on the Ring, and plays as good as the Ultra original.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.4 (quote: “Bloody good fun, on the Sega Saturn at last.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Namco's latest RPG is a fairly ho-hum effort, and I've seen better.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.9 (quote: “Dark and melancholy, with a unique plot, this goddess tale is one of the best RPGs in the Saturn library.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Whirlwind 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “While this platformer doesn't do much that the first game didn't, it adds some unique levels and thrilling boss fights to what was a pretty good mix before.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.7 (quote: “About as by the numbers as platformers get, Whirlwind 2 has some pretty animation but doesn't offer much new to the genre.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's going to be a big year of films for Warner Bros. In addition to their various superhero films, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Batman Triumphant [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Superman: The Man of Tomorrow [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]first among them, there's also next month's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Twister 2. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But the first highly-anticipated Warner Bros. film of the year is [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], the sci-fi thriller from the Wachowski brothers, best known for their 1996 crime drama [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bound[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is about a man named Neo who discovers that the world he lives in is a lie, and must risk everything to free humanity from oppressive rule. The film stars Brandon Lee, son of the late martial arts film legend Bruce Lee, and this is easily Lee's best performance yet. Best known for his work on the two [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crow [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]films, which did only middling box office numbers, Lee's been puttering around in martial arts action films for half a decade now. 1997's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Legend of the Dragon [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was supposed to be a major film, picking up where his father left off, but it was a poorly reviewed flop despite what critics described as a film-carrying performance from Lee. Here, Lee plays Neo as a complete, well, neophyte to the strange war he's been unwittingly dragged into, and even as he learns kung fu in what seems like an instant, it takes time for him to gain confidence, something Lee portrays extremely well. Lee's costar in the film is Lucy Liu, who plays Trinity, a woman who helps bring Neo into the strange world these characters are inhabiting. Trinity dismisses Neo at first, but over the course of the film, comes to realize his potential, growing along with him throughout the movie. Laurence Fishburne is superb as Morpheus, the leader of the band of heroes that Neo's been brought into. He serves as a guide to Neo, leading him on his journey and telling him everything he needs to know about the war he's getting ready to fight. Fishburne's work on 1997's surprise hit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Event Horizon [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has been widely praised, but his work in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is arguably better, and he's ultimately one of the strongest characters in the film. There are also strong performances from Joe Pantoliano (who previously worked with the Wachowskis in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bound[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]) and Hugo Weaving (who, as one of the government agents tasked with bringing Neo and his friends down, is a long, long way from his hilarious performance in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Priscilla, Queen of the Desert[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]). [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is both a thrilling action masterpiece featuring brilliant special effects and a thought provoking work of philosophy. It's one of the year's smartest blockbusters, and every film goer who loves great action films owes it to themselves to check it out.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3.5 stars out of four[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the Des Moines Register, April 7, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah's back and there's gonna be trouble! For the bad guys, that is! [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the first installment of the series to be released on the Ultra Nintendo, and Sunsoft's latest takes the fantastic spell-swapping gameplay of the SNES-CD and Genesis games and adapts it brilliantly to 3-D. This game is a fully 3-D adventure, where the young witch Andrekah is seeking her certification as a Master Witch. Unfortunately, only one certification is given out every blue moon, and Andrekah is competing with a fierce rival named Beatrice who is already two steps ahead of her! In order to win the title of Master Witch, Andrekah must learn the Six Secret Spells, which will require her to go to six different corners of the world to seek them out. The gameplay's been adapted for 3-D, Andrekah can now lock onto enemies and fire spells at them, which have a variety of effects. Some spells are for attack, others are for defense, and some help Andrekah find treasures or access secret areas. In addition, as you progress through the game, Andrekah will learn new spells and her old spells can gain in strength. The game has a lot of similarities with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mega Man Legends[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which makes sense, since the earlier titles had a lot of similarities with the original [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mega Man [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games. The game is also full of anime cutscenes, and features voice acting by an entirely new group than in prior games (if you've seen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Slayers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], you'll be familiar with many of the voices, including Rachel Lillis as Andrekah herself). While the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series took a bit of a left turn in recent games, becoming more shooter than platformer and crossing over numerous times with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Panorama Cotton[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], this game takes the adorable witch back to her roots, and it should be a big hit! [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is definitely one of the standout games of the spring, and if you love anime, you'll love this game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the June 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Animerica[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]While Ubisoft's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is this month's most anticipated RPG (ironically, it's the only Western-made RPG of the month), this is one of the biggest months for RPG fanatics in a long time, with no less than five games spread across the two major consoles. Ultra Nintendo is getting five, while the Saturn is getting two (Thousand Arms is going multiplatform). We've already told you about The Darkest Night, here are some brief summaries of the other four games.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden II: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Apart from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], this is probably the month's most anticipated RPG, after [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]became a cult hit back on the SNES-CD. This game steps it up in every way from the original. The graphics have improved (though don't expect something as pretty as the upcoming [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy VIII[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]), and the plot has taken a significant step forward. This game sees your heroic armies attempting to stop the conquests of the maniacal Luca Blight, perhaps the nastiest RPG villain since Kefka. Once again, over 100 characters are available to recruit, and the game features some exciting turn-based battles that will test all of your skills, with traditional battles being supplemented by one-on-one duels and huge army-based battles similar to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fire Emblem [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy Tactics[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Plus, if you still have your old SNES-CD save data from the previous game, you can import it into [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to boost your characters' stats, making the game somewhat easier (it's one of the tougher RPGs in recent memory).[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Vanguard Bandits: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From Working Designs, which previously worked on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tale Lemuria [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and will be releasing an updated [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lunar [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]later this year, this is more of a strategy RPG than any of the others released this month. Your characters will mount giant mecha suits and engage in combat on a large grid where you must carefully position them for maximum strategic value. While this game is hardly anything new to anyone who's played the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Front Mission [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series, the fun characters and voice acted cutscenes do add to the presentation value, and if you're a Working Designs fan, it's a game worth looking at.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Thousand Arms: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This game combines elements of RPGs with elements of dating sims, and is releasing for both the Ultra Nintendo (this month) and the Sega Saturn (in June). Romancing certain female characters allows your main character to wield more powerful weapons and magic, making the dating-sim elements a necessary part of the game. While this is certainly a unique feature, it can be somewhat annoying and frustrating for anyone who's never played a dating sim before, and as just a standard RPG, the game is relatively basic. Still, for those looking for a little romance in their RPGs, this game is right up your alley.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Apart from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mortal Kombat 4[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s long awaited port and the multiplatform title [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], this Namco title might just be the most anticipated Saturn game of the month. It features a girl named Solemn, born into poverty and slavery, who discovers her destiny: to become a goddess and save the world. However, in her 16 years of life, she's seen only the worst of humanity, and refuses the call, preferring that the planet fall into the hell she thinks it deserves. It's up to her companions, a boy named Kevin and a girl named Kyra, to convince her otherwise while cultivating her powers by battling both evil humans and powerful demons. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has one of the more intriguing power-up systems in recent memory, Solemn's skills are leveled up by the sacrificing of living beings. Sacrificing evil beings raises Solemn's skills slowly, but choosing to sacrifice good beings, while taking the story on a much darker path, will make Solemn a lot more powerful a lot more quickly. This is one of the more melancholy RPGs we've ever played, and at an M rating, one of the most mature as well. It's also right up there with the very best Saturn RPGs, and if you can handle a really dark story, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]could be the RPG for you.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article on the website GameRush.com, posted on April 26, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fuel Up With Supercar World Circuit![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is Tecmo's newest racing game for the Sega Saturn and the Ultra Nintendo. Featuring more than 30 of the world's most famous supercars and 18 of the world's greatest racetracks, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]takes you around the world and back on a high-octane racing challenge that will test your skill and courage.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Unlike most racing titles, including [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gran Turismo[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]doesn't make you race over and over again to unlock the best cars. All 34 cars are available right from the moment you first turn on the game. Instead of dangling unlockables in front of you, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]presents increasing levels of challenge as you win more and more races. From the initial Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty modes come four more modes to unlock as you progress through the game's challenges: Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Super. Beat all the game's challenges in Super mode, and you'll get a special code that you can actually send to Tecmo to purchase a special t-shirt bragging about your skills in the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]features several racing modes, including:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Single Track: Battle it out on any of the game's 18 tracks against a selection of opponents. You can also play with up to 3 other human players in this mode.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Racing Challenge: Take on a variety of challenges with numerous stipulations, which can involve handicaps, weather conditions, mirrored tracks, or other special rules. There are 80 different challenges to complete, with many of the challenges available in different variants depending on what difficulty mode you compete in![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Racing Circuit: Compete in a 3, 6, 9, or 18 race season on a variety of tracks. This is the game's main racing mode, where the toughest challenge can be found. Winning an 18 race season on Super mode is considered to be the toughest challenge in the game, and only racing experts need apply![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]will be released on April 6 for both the Sega Saturn and the Ultra Nintendo.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Game Informer [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]previewing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit was designed for the racing game fan who wanted a 'purer' experience than Gran Turismo. It dispensed with all the collecting and unlockables from that game and simply boasted one thing: the different levels of challenge it offered to players of all types. The Easy and Normal modes were great fun for players new to the racing game genre, and most casual players rarely got past the Hard mode, which was challenging enough. The Super mode was on another plane entirely. If I recall correctly, only 29 of those t-shirts were ever awarded, out of more than a million people who played the game across both platforms. The game was designed to never ever give up the code if any alteration via GameShark was ever detected, so it was impossible to cheat your way to that shirt, and Tecmo only gave it out until the end of 1999. When one of those things went up on Ebay, it went for about 500 dollars ($470.50 to be exact). While most reviewers didn't consider SWC quite as good as Gran Turismo (it wasn't quite as realistic and the graphics were a step down), for racing game purists who wanted a challenge, it was the best thing out there.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Stephen Totilo, in an article on Kotaku.com, posted on July 11, 2012[/FONT]
The second title [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] written by John Acrudi and pencilled by Doug Manhke focused on Kyle’s then-love interest Jade and John Stewart who became Earth’s new Green Lanterns after Kyle’s departure. Both arcs ended with the restoration of both the Green Lantern Corps and Central Power Battery on Oa was well as the revelation the power behind the yellow rings was Mongul who made reference to an “Emotional Spectrum.” An idea pitched by then production assistant, Geoff Johns, who would briefly take over the main title four year later.
Sales of X-Men saw a noticeable bump, though not to as great a degree as Green Lantern since Uncanny X-Men was Marvel’s best-selling title. However, the success of the X-Men film and upcoming anime was the impetus behind the Magneto War, which evolved into a company-wide crossover that included [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Avengers, Fantastic Four,[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and (believe it or not) [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Spider-Man[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. The premise was a relatively simple one, Magneto reverses the Earth’s magnetic poles and issues an ultimatum to the UN for a mutant homeland, which forces the X-Men and Avengers to team up to stop him while Fantastic Four and Spider-Man dealt with the consequences in their self-contained episodes.
"The Magneto War" is significant in itself because of the final confrontation where Magneto threatens to intervene with the X-Men/Avengers plan to use Polaris and Magneto’s clone, Joseph to realign the poles. When Xavier’s resolve falters when he momentarily neutralizes Magneto, Wolverine decapitates the longtime X-Men foe in revenge for killing Storm. The consequences were far reaching for the X-Men franchise because Wolverine’s actions splintered the team into two camps: Xavier/Cyclops faction, which advocated a peaceful coexistence and cooperation with humanity, and Wolverine’s, which took a militant stance against mutant extremism.
Meanwhile, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fantastic Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] was riding on the hype generated by both “Heroes Return” and upcoming film. Marvel went to great lengths to make the title its flagship title once more, even integrating the retired Parker Parker into its supporting cast as Reed Richards protege. Similarly, Johnny Storm frequently crossed over Ben Reilly’s Spider-Man titles as member of his supporting cast. This cross-pollination between the titles bore some fruit and bumped up sales as well as produce memorable stories like Scott Lobdell’s “The Return of the Bombastic Bag-Man” where a crisis forced Peter Parker to don his humorous alter ego to rescue the Fantastic Four from the Mole Man (no joke!) While it did not placate fans of Peter Parker as “the one, true Spider-Man,” it at least gave him a prominent role the Marvel universe while Ben Reilly headlined the comics and video games. Unfortunately, Fantastic Four was fighting an uphill battle since not only had Warner Bros. scheduled [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Batman Triumphant[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] for release that summer, the sequel to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Last Son of Krypton, Man of Tomorrow[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] would shatter box office records that November to say nothing Fox’s other sci-fi epic, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Star Wars: Episode I[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].
1998 was also the year that [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Justice League[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] writer Mark Waid, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Legion[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] writer Grant Morrison, and relative unknowns Tom Peyer and Mark Millar pitched their polarizing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Superman 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] relaunch to DC Comics. Though incoming editor Eddie Berganza gave the rubber stamp to proposal and fired regular writers Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway in preparation for the new creative teams, but found resistance in DC Comics VP Paul Levitz. Company policy at the time disallowed A-List talent on its Superman and Batman titles. Levitz would have squelched the proposal had Man of Tomorrow not been scheduled for release that November. Pressured by both DC and Warner Bros. marketing departments, Levitz eventually greenlighted the revamp for April 1999.
The revamp was not without controversy; message boards across Internet erupted into a firestorm when they learned that after sixty years, Superman would be dropping the red shorts. Similarly, the mainstream media picked up on the story, brings the general public into the debate. “RUINED FOREVER!” Fans cried on Comic Book Resources forums, however, sales saw a dramatic increase. In fact, the newly-rechristened Superman Now would court further controversy later in the year again drive up sales to where the first time in decades, Superman outsold Batman.
“The Final Night” (or derisively known as “the Super-Annulment” in some circles) proved to be the biggest base-breaker in the company’s history. Essentially, the story started strongly with Lex Luthor and Brainiac teaming up (again), and reveal Superman’s secret identity to the word, placing his supporting cast and Lois Lane in particular in danger. Many fans draw parallels between this story and Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” except that the new Luthor/Brainiac team’s plan now threatened even the Fifth Dimension, forcing Superman and Mr. Mxyzptlk to team up. Despite its initial good reception, fans decried the aftermath.
In an act of uncharacteristic spite, Brainiac alters Lois’ brain chemistry so that the memory of Clark and Superman being one in the same literally became a poison that would kill. Faced with no other options, Superman turns to Mr. Mxyzptlk for help. Since, the imp is only permitted to do mischief in the Third Dimension, he can only “reset” reality so that Lois never knew and that they would never have been married. Longtime fans, especially one of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Superman, rose up in arms, accusing DC of pandering to Silver/Bronze Age fans. The furor became so great that [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Superman[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] received attention from the mainstream media when [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Batman Triumphant[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fantastic Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] duked it out in the box office.
In spite of the criticism it received, “The Final Night” is the defining Superman story of its generation. It had action, suspense, romance, and most of all tragedy. As distasteful as the idea of magically annulling the marriage was to fans, Morrison, Waid, et al. treated it with gravitas and gave it one hell of a send-off. Their waltz among the Aurora Borealis was a particularly well-rendered scene and their final embrace under the Daily Planet globe where Lois whispers that they find each other again as the sun sets. A statement that would prove prophetic as DC would later reverse the decision after Morrison’s run on Superman ended.
Though it hardly received any media attention outside of industry trades such as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wizard[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] Magazine, WildStorm Productions’ sale to Disney was probably the biggest story in comic news in 1998. Since the collapse of the speculator’s market in 1993, Jim Lee had been looking for a buyer. While DC Comics expressed interest, Disney outbid them after the successes of the superhero films of the mid to late 90s, which surprised industry insiders as rumors persisted that Disney was interested in purchasing the rights to Valiant Comics properties from Akklaim Entertainment. Granted, Wildstorm’s stable of characters was comparatively small, it gave Disney a toehold in the comic book market.
Disney originally had laissez-faire policy towards its acquisition, as the case was for Warren Ellis’ [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Authority[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Planetary[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], but the staunchly anti-establishment Alan Moore immediately broke ties with WildStorm the moment the sale took effect on January 1, 1999. Likewise, creator-owned titles like Kurt Busiek’s [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Astro City[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Joe Madureria’s [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Battle Chasers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and J. Scott Campbell’s [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Danger Girl[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] remained property of their owners. However, Disney took a more direct role in WildStorm-owned properties like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gen13[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which they transformed (and cleaned up, considering the source material) into an animated series in 2000. However, with a limited stable of characters to choose from and Disney’s appetite for a larger market share, the company not only sought more studios to purchase, but also properties to license after the success of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Legend of Zelda[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] animated series on the Disney Channel.
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the blog "The Musing Platypus" by B. Ronning, January 20, 2015[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
--
Apologies for the brevity of this post. However, I would like to note that the Superman 2000 proposal is real and quite an interesting read. Since Paul Levitz gave Waid, Morrison, et. al the keys to the "family car" we can assume such seminal Superman works like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Birthright, Red Son,[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All-Star Superman[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] never come into existence TTL but elements from them will appear in TTL's Superman titles (Action Comics, Superman [Adventures of Superman and Superman Vol. 2 folded back into one title], Superman: Man of Steel, and a now-monthly Superman: Man of Tomorrow.)
As for Disney's acquisition of WildStorm, I will try to elaborate on that more later.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hmm, how's this sound for a [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gen13[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] cast list?
Caitlin Fairchild- Lyssa Fielding (for reference, I imagine her voice sounding a lot like Kate Mara's, so...think something close to the voice Kate Mara uses for Chrysalis in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Moonbeam City[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif])
Bobby "Burnout" Lane- Rider Strong
Roxy "Freefall" Spaulding- Grey Delisle
Sarah Rainmaker- Irene Bedard
Percival "Grunge" Chang- B. D. Wong
John Lynch- John de Lancie
-
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If I can get players to feel many different emotions while playing this game, I've done my job properly.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Hideo Kojima on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in an interview on the February 23, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No, Metal Gear Solid isn't the greatest game of all time. But it's absolutely the front-runner for Game of the Year.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the March 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameInformer[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shenmue and Parasite Eve had some of the most movie-like stories in recent memory, but Metal Gear Solid is undoubtedly the most cinematic game ever made.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from Dan “Shoe” Hsu's 10/10 review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electronic Gaming Monthly[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Releasing the similar title Dead Midnight in the leadup to Metal Gear Solid might seem like sales suicide, but there's definitely enough here to distinguish this game from Konami's game.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from a preview article on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the January 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Next Generation [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The way you approach a console game has to be different from the way you approach a PC game. Can great PC games be ported to consoles? Absolutely. Can great console games be ported to the PC? Absolutely. But if you're designing a game from the ground up for a particular console, you've got to take an entirely different approach.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Will Wright, in an interview in the February 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh, I had nothing to do with Harry Potter. That wasn't my call! I make game machines, not movie decisions! But if it was my call, absolutely I'd have gone a different way! No doubt about that!” [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Ken Kutaragi, in a January 26, 2006 interview with UGO.com[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I do remember being in the room for one of those Nintendo meetings, but I didn't have enough knowledge about video games at the time to make any kind of informed decisions. My kids weren't even old enough to play back then. The one video game I've ever watched that I enjoyed watching being played was Syrielle. Brilliant characters in that.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-J.K. Rowling, speaking at the 2005 PotterCon[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age Of Empires[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.3 (quote: “A very capable port, though I still somewhat preferred playing this on PC, where more units can appear on screen at once.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.5 (quote: “Definitely optimized for the Ultra, it's one of the better strategy games on the system, though it still pales in comparison to some of the great PC strategy classics.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Aliens vs. Predator[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 5.0 (quote: “Everything that I loved about the SNES-CD game was removed from this one and in its place is a stunted, repetitive FPS rife with glitches.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.8 (quote: “This was one of the more anticipated games of the year, it's a shame that it's such a dull shadow of our expectations.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Darkstalkers: The Dreaded[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “A really fun port of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Darkstalkers 3 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that works great on the Ultra and adds in a few exclusive characters to really mix things up.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “Just a really fun and clever game full of quirky twists and even some black comedy.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]King Of Fighters '99[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.3 (quote: “Another year, another spiffy SNK game. It's the series' first turn on the Ultra, and it looks really great.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.4 (quote: “The series is wearing a bit thin, but it's a pitch perfect port with some of the Ultra's best animation.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 10 (quote: “An astonishing masterpiece that grabs your attention from the moment you first turn it on and doesn't let you go until the end of the credits sequence.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.7 (quote: “There has never been a better stealth game and it's hard to imagine there even will be.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Slug X[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “A really exciting run and gun that takes this series to fantastic new heights.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.6 (quote: “The sheer variety of weapons and animation quality make this a must play for action junkies.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Need For Speed: High Stakes[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “We would've liked a little more track variety to match the graphical polish.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.8 (quote: “A few of the modes from the PC version are missing, making this a fairly pedestrian game rather than an instant classic.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince Of Persia: The Jade Queen[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “The series' transition to 3-D isn't perfect, but the puzzles are very creative.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.6 (quote: “The production values aren't so hot (no voice acting?) but the game itself is really fun to play.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.2 (quote: “While it's probably the worst of the three Tomb Raider games, Lara Croft's latest adventure is still a great thrill ride.”)
Gamespot: 8.0 (quote: “We wish there were more upgrades from Tomb Raider II, but the quest itself is undoubtedly fun.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Phineas and Ferb[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Ultimately it's a very ho-hum collectathon.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.7 (quote: “Fans of the show will dig the jump to 3-D.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “This game simplifies things but at the same time captures a lot of the fun of the SNES classic.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.6 (quote: “Some players won't like the dumbing down from SimCity 2000, but fans of the original SNES game will see this as a true sequel.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wild Arms 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.2 (quote: “It's more of the same, but the jump to Ultra did this series a lot of good in the graphics department.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “Cliches are everywhere, but it's still a solid RPG.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]X-Men: Apocalypse[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.3 (quote: “A fairly uncreative effort that at times seems to be just going through the motions.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.5 (quote: “A supremely fun beat-em-up that fans of both the classic comics and last year's film will love.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Deadman Sam[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.5 (quote: “The leap to 3-D brought some great graphics but some really uninspired gameplay.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.0 (quote: “The Deadman Sam series has gotten worse with each game and this is definitely the worst yet.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra World Championship Boxing[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.8 (quote: “The story mode is definitely a ripoff of Rocky but I played the hell out of it anyway!”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “While we're still waiting for an announcement of an Ultra Punch-Out! game, this more realistic boxing title is still a worthy diversion in the meantime.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.7 (quote: “With a really deep plot and some excellent gunfight mechanics, Dead Midnight is one of the most rewarding shooters I've played in a long time.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.5 (quote: “The plot is a bit convoluted, but the action and gunplay are superb.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Multiplicator[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.8 (quote: “This game can get extremely hard to play when all four players have hundreds of guys on screen at once.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.1 (quote: “This fun competitive puzzle race is the most fun you'll ever have playing as dozens of characters at once.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saturn[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.8 (quote: “The Ultra Nintendo version is prettier, but this is a more than capable adventure on the Saturn.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: N/A[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “The multiplayer mode takes a step back to the single player adventure, which has its moments but not nearly as much competitive flair.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.2 (quote: “It's Bomberman, what else is there to say? The single player mode is more robust than any yet seen on the Saturn in this series.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force IV[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.5 (quote: “An outstanding, epic, brilliant RPG that feels like the culmination of this entire series. We've been waiting for this for a long time.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “Quality gameplay is marred by a reall convoluted plot.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mr. Driller[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “It's Dig Dug, but modern Dig Dug and one of the most addictive puzzle games we've played in a while.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.3 (quote: “This great update of an arcade classic just works perfectly on the Sega Saturn.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Infernal: Dark Reality[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.5 (quote: “It's kind of a bore, but it has its moments.”)
Gamespot: 7.7 (quote: “The powerups and enemy variety make this action RPG a worthy quest.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III: The Basics[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the third game of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series and the first to get a simultaneous release on the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Saturn. ITTL, it doesn't have a subtitle like it did in OTL ([/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Adventures Of Lara Croft[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]), but as in OTL, the gameplay improvements are somewhat small (which becomes a criticism of the game. Lara gains a few new moves, the swimming system is improved, and there are some added weapons (including a sword and an explosive shotgun). The sprint from OTL [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]also makes its first appearance. The Save Crystal system from OTL does not appear in TTL's game, instead, there are defined save points within the missions. The graphics have received a boost, a minor boost on the Sega Saturn and a significant, but not major, boost on the Ultra Nintendo, so that the Ultra Nintendo version of the game now matches up with some of the better looking games on the console. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]In [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Jade Bessemer, the villain from TTL's original [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, has returned to running her company after escaping from the collapsed ruins of Xanadu. However, Jade's near-death experience has left her physically scarred and somewhat mentally unhinged, making her actions increasingly erratic and deranged as the game goes on. She plays a role in this game somewhat like a combination of Dr. Willard and Sophia Leigh from OTL's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and the basic plot of this game is somewhat similar. Jade has poured her company's resources into hiring a private army to find an ancient meteorite that once struck Antarctica in the distant past and is said to have great powers. After the game's tutorial level, Lara is seen exploring an ancient Japanese temple, once owned by a powerful shogun. Things are easy enough at first, but soon Lara comes across some armed thugs and must evade them to reach the center of the temple and the ancient meteorite fragment within. As she claims it, she is ambushed by some of the thugs and is nearly killed when she is suddenly rescued by a brash young adventurer named Gillens. Lara discovers a piece of evidence on one of the dead thugs and traces it back to Jade's company, indicating that her old rival is going after the meteorite pieces. Gillens wants Lara to thank him for saving her life, but she refuses and she eventually tracks the second meteorite piece to an ancient temple in the Amazon rainforest, where she discovers a completely deserted village and some tough wild animals to beat. She takes down the animals and eventually comes to a river, where she gets on a speedboat and makes her way to the temple. On the way there, she's set upon by more thugs and must jump onto one of their speedboats after her own is about to explode. She reaches the second temple and claims the second meteorite piece. On her way out, she is confronted by Jade, who taunts her with the third meteorite piece already in hand. After a brief fight in which Lara wins but Jade summons some thugs to keep her busy as she flees with the piece, Lara makes her way back to London to infiltrate Jade's corporate headquarters to snatch the third piece. On the way there, she stumbles across a lab in which Jade's thugs have taken some of the villagers from the Amazon hostage to perform experiments on them. She also reunites with Gillens who is revealed to be one of Jade's hired thugs. He captures Lara and takes her to Jade. Lara furiously denounces Jade for experimenting on the villagers. Jade says that she'd kill Lara but Lara is needed to open up the fourth temple, which is on Easter Island. As Lara is being flown to the island in a plane, she manages to escape and takes out a few guards before causing the plane to crash, separating Lara, Gillens, and Jade. While dodging dinosaurs and thugs on the island, Lara discovers that Gillens is actually a government agent whose job is to infiltrate Jade's operation. However, Jade discovers this too, and has Gillens taken prisoner. Lara must choose between saving him and stopping Jade from collecting the fourth meteorite piece. Jade manages to get all the pieces, but Gillens reveals that there's a fifth piece that Jade needs and that it's being exhibited at a casino in Las Vegas. This leads to a big showdown between Jade and Lara in Vegas that ends in a dramatic casino shootout, and also ends with Jade getting away with the fifth and final meteorite piece. The final level of the game takes place in Antarctica. Lara and Gillens must team up to stop Jade before she can use the power of the meteorite pieces to become an unstoppable god. Jade manages to activate some of the meteorites' power, but thanks to Gillens' interference, Jade remains in a form that Lara can fight. After the final boss battle, in which Gillens sacrifices himself to help Lara win, Jade, reverted to normal, is left on the ground, apologizing and promising Lara she'll change. Lara looks like she's going to spare Jade, but then we see Lara point her gun at Jade's head, the screen going black just before we hear a gunshot. The credits then roll.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]February 8, 1999[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is released for both the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Saturn. Though the Ultra Nintendo version of the game is graphically superior, the Saturn version has a couple of very small bits of extra content, including a skimpy wetsuit for Lara in certain scenes and a bit of added dialogue, including Lara saying “shit” in a cutscene toward the end of the game. Sega markets these extra bits of “mature” content as evidence that the Saturn version of the game is superior (which somewhat contradicts their concurrent marketing push of family-friendly platform games). Initially, sales of the Ultra Nintendo and Saturn versions of the game are about equal, though in the months after the game's release, the Ultra Nintendo version begins to pull away, due to the system's larger install base. The game's reviews are good, but not quite as good as the previous two [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]titles, siting the lack of gameplay innovation and the somewhat derivative plot as evidence that the series is starting to run out of ideas. Still, sales are quite strong, even if the game would soon be largely overshadowed by [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s release...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It may have seemed crazy at the time to release a game like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the Ultra Nintendo so close to the release of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Indeed, the game not only released a mere two weeks away from Konami's massive game, but on the same day as the release of the third [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, another mega blockbuster. Still, Capcom put a heavy marketing push on their title, with commercials highlighting the game's rapid-fire gunplay, complex storyline full of fascinating characters, and excellent graphics as selling points. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]took place in America in the year 2019. The country has been ravaged by a series of terrorist attacks, and now it's been discovered that rogue cells of terrorists are planning several more. A special operations unit led by Steve Sheckert is deployed to hunt down and take out these terrorists before any of them can strike again. Sheckert's team consists of a group of highly specialized and highly skilled operatives, including Divebomb Grey (a reckless agent who takes huge risks but gets results), Marie (a lovely French woman who can break people's necks with her legs), Alex Frier (a computer hacking whiz who's also highly trained with knives), and Raya Mystic (the first woman Navy SEAL, an intense commando who also happens to be the mother of two 17-year old fraternal twins, Derek and Darla, who she's training to follow in her footsteps). The game vacillates between taking itself highly seriously and offering up copious amounts of comic relief, and though you only control Steve through the course of the game, you can take up to two of your team on missions with you, while giving orders to everyone left behind. The game's villains, a team of seven dangerous terrorists, are as interesting as the heroes. Rather than serving one nation or ideology, the terrorists are each working for their own separate cause, working together to cause chaos and havoc all over the world, and though they each must be taken down, each of them has their own sympathetic backstory (except for the lead villain, Raymond Fatal, who's just a genocidal dick). The game plays out over 14 different levels, with each villain getting two levels a piece: one level where you have to find their staging ground or lair, and the next level where you have to infiltrate and take them out. Each level takes place in a different American city, and once you've neutralized the threat in one city, you move on to the next. But here's the thing: the game plays out like Mega Man in that, for the first six cities, you choose the order in which you go after the bad guys. While there IS a recommended order for new players (some cities and bosses are definitely tougher than others), there's a lot of freedom in how the quest plays out. Also, at least for the first six terrorist leaders, you can choose to spare all, some, or none of them (but the option to spare them only comes up if you perform a certain action, such as bringing a certain operative or collecting a hidden item).[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Playing out at a much faster pace than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] (with stealth recommended in some levels but completely optional), [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]carved out a fanbase of its very own, and joined [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Victory[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] as one of Capcom's most successful original franchises of the latter half of the decade. It sold more than enough copies to be a success even with the stiff competition, and its review scores in most publications topped those of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dead Midnight [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]wasn't a guaranteed success by any stretch, but its performance justified Capcom's decisions to promote the game heavily and release it into such a crowded month.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*A bunch of police are crowded around a building, there's some kids outside complaining.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Officer: Nobody can go in, there's been a bomb threat![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Boy: But my Saturn's in there![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*The crowd parts to make way for Segata Sanshiro*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Segata Sanshiro: *glares at the officer*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Officer: Sir, there's a bomb in there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Segata Sanshiro: *looks up at the building and says in Japanese* I will take care of the bomb. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*He walks toward the building*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Officer: You can't go in there without protection! *offers up a huge bombproof suit*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Segata Sanshiro: *waves his hand and enters the building as he is, he makes his way to a room on the top floor where there's some ticking sounds coming from, he enters the room and crosses his arms over his chest*
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*A large explosion noise is heard. The crowd gasps and looks at the door. Segata Sanshiro comes out, looking like he's been in an explosion with messed up hair and ripped clothing, and some dirt marks all over his body, but unharmed.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Segata Sanshiro: *thrusts forward a Sega Saturn and a copy of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]* Sega Saturn, shiro![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Scenes from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]play on the screen as the narrator begins to speak.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Narrator: The Saturn gets a lot more explosive with the all new [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Take on your friends in the arena, or jump into the brand new adventure mode to tackle eight huge worlds with only your wits and your bombs to help you. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], only on the Sega Saturn. Get ready to take cover.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Segata Sanshiro is seen playing the game with several heavily armored men from the bomb squad, there's another explosion noise and all of them get blasted across the room.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Bomb Squad Officer: *clutching a Saturn controller, he does the Sega! Scream*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Action Is Here [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](the Sega Saturn's new slogan, introduced in 1999 to promote the console's action games, it appears in many of their game ads that year)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-a commercial for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that aired in February 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]does a number of things right, but in many aspects it's a step back from 1997's amazing Saturn [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, especially in the multiplayer department, which drops the ability to play with more than four players at once and also reduces the number of multiplayer arenas available. Instead, the game largely focuses on its single-player mode, for better or for worse, in an attempt to follow the success of the two Ultra Nintendo [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, which themselves heavily pushed their adventure modes. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s adventure mode does allow Bomberman to properly jump for the first time, but many of the levels are uninspired and repetitive, and while there is fun to be had, there are many levels that are a chore to get through. The cutscenes are quite silly (since when has Bomberman needed a personality?) and as far as the Saturn's recent action platformers go, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is arguably worse than all of them. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman'[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]s always been at its best as a fast-paced puzzle title or a frenetic multiplayer partyfest, not a wannabe mascot platformer. It's a solid title and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]fans should pick it up, but it's not going to rewrite any of the series' longstanding rules.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Score: 7/10[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bomberman Universe [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the February 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Official Saturn Magazine[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Another month, another pair of RPGs to add to the Saturn's library. The console currently boasts an impressive collection of great RPGs, including games like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Panzer Dragoon Saga [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Windborn[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and even [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sonic [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Virtua Quest [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]have gotten in on the action. Of course, the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series has been a stalwart for Sega, and in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force IV[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], the Saturn might have its best one to date. Continuing right where [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]left off, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]IV [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]consists of the remaining two scenarios focused on the characters Medion and Julian. Julian in particular is of crucial importance to this game's plot, as he realizes his destiny as a hero that can lead an army to take down the evil Bulzome. While the tactical gameplay is familiar to anyone who's played a [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game before, it's the game's epic plot, which ties up all the loose ends from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining Force III, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that really makes this game a standout. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Infernal: Dark Reality [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]may some of you of last year's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Angels[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] for the Ring, but this game is a far more straightforward RPG. You play as a priest who must go around slaying a demonic invasion of nearby villages, and while this sort of gothic-themed game is fairly cliched, the battle system, where you must manually aim at enemies with a magical gun, with damage determined by where you hit them on their body, is fairly innovative and makes battles a bit less boring. Atlus has made some excellent RPGs in the past (as evidenced by the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shin Megami Tensei [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series), and while [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Infernal [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]isn't an all-time great, it's still a fun, if thematically simple, RPG.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article on RPGamer.net, posted on February 27, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]In February 1999, a month which saw several excellent Ultra Nintendo releases (including [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]), the Ultra Nintendo saw its first [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia: The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was perhaps the most hyped game yet in the series, but somewhat disappointing reviews and its release into a crowded month of games diminished its potential somewhat. Released by Activision, which had purchased Broderbund shortly after the release of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Where In Space Is Carmen Sandiego? [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the SNES-CD, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was the company's first [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game, and the company tried to emulate the 3-D platforming style of recent hits such as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Mario Dimensions [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Dreamers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. The result? Collecting, collecting, and more collecting. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince Of Persia: The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]saw the titular prince needing to venture across a vast desert filled with palaces and cities in order to collect various golden artifacts in each location. The desert was ruled over by a great and powerful dynasty which built a massive palace of pure jade from which to rule. As legend had it, the Jade Queen was trapped within the palace, and a warrior of pure heart and great courage who penetrated the castle walls could rescue her. Of course, in a somewhat predictable twist, the Jade Queen didn't need rescuing...she was the villain, and collecting treasures imbued her with limitless beauty and power. She'd been luring heroes into her trap for centuries, and now it was the prince's turn. Of course, the prince's love interest, Shana, a peasant girl in one of the cities the prince visited over the course of his journey, was able to break the Queen's hold over him, and eventually the prince battled her in her throne room as she entered a giant golden bird statue to do battle with him. While [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Jade Queen'[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]s puzzles were creative and its platforming mechanics were solid (and indeed, future installments of the series would achieve great success by building on this tight platforming), the game itself was a bit of a bore, criticized for requiring the player to revisit certain areas in order to re-do already completed puzzles just to earn another piece of treasure. Ultimately, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Jade Queen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was merely the framework of a great game rather than being a great game in its own right. Still, it sold well enough to easily justify the creation of a sequel, and by that time, Activision had learned what worked and what didn't when it came to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Prince of Persia[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The differences between the Ultra Nintendo's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]are numerous. In fact, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Sim City [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in some ways has taken a step back from the level of customization available in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], instead presenting itself as a successor to the Super Nintendo's early [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]title. Like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] takes a more stylistic approach, bringing back Dr. Wright and the colorful animations and vibrant musical themes from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. However, the game does contain many of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s enhancements, allowing mayors to pass city ordinances and build with much more detail. Traffic options such as bridges and subway tunnels are included in the game, though the complex water management system of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] has been removed, and arcologies are also a no-go until the player's city reaches a certain level of development. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]includes ten different population levels for the player's city to achieve: hamlet (up to 500 population), village (between 500-2,500), town (between 2,500-10,000), municipality (between 10,000-30,000), city (between 30,000-60,000), capital (between 60,000-150,000), conurbation (between 150,000-400,000), metropolis (between 400,000-1,000,000), megalopolis (between 1,000,000-5,000,000), and global city (5,000,000+). Each level has its own theme song, though in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]you have the option to change the background music. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is more simplistic and easier to learn than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 2000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and certainly moreso than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. It's been optimized for the console player, which is both a good thing and a bad thing, but in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s case, mostly a good thing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameInformer[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s 8.5/10 review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Nintendo Power: And are there currently plans to bring [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to the Ultra Nintendo?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: Currently there aren't, but if demand is there and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra SimCity [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]pulls in good enough sales, it might be an option. Certainly the complexity of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SimCity 3000 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]doesn't lend itself well to consoles, but the Ultra Nintendo has the power to handle it, so if players are willing to play it, anything's possible.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Has the recent acquisition of Maxis by Electronic Arts limited your creativity?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: Absolutely not! If anything, it's enhanced it, I've got more people around me now and they largely let me do my own thing. In fact, I'm working on a “virtual people” project that's coming to computers next year and certainly could come to the Ultra Nintendo, again, if there's enough demand for it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Besides the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sim [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series, what other games are you currently working on?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: Right now, all my attention and time is going into my “virtual people” project, but certainly if the opportunity arises I'd love to try my hand at another genre entirely.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Have you had any time to play the Ultra Nintendo? Has anything impressed you?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Will Wright: I really loved what I got to play of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Temple of Time[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra World Of Color [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a really fun game to play with my daughter. I love the strategy behind the game and how easy it is to pick up, she certainly plays a lot better than I do! And I also like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Clash[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], since I build combat robots in my spare time. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power: Thanks again for the interview!
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an interview with Will Wright in the February 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For the second straight year, a recently deceased artist won big at the year's Grammy Awards. This year, it was Celine Dion, whose tragic death in February of last year generated a wave of grief in the music world and a massive wave of success for her Titanic theme song, “My Heart Will Go On”. The song won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, but the night's big winner was Lauryn Hill, whose album [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]won Album of the Year, while she took home Best New Artist. The night's biggest live performance saw Selena, who's been touring with recording artist Santana for much of the past year, perform a portion of Santana's classic “Black Magic Woman” before launching into her own newest collaboration with Santana, “Say What You Want About Me”. The song is one of three joint Selena/Santana songs that will be appearing on Santana's newest album, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supernatural[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], set to debut later this year. Latin artists made numerous appearances at this year's Grammys, in addition to Selena and Santana's much-lauded performance, Ricky Martin, formerly of the boy band Menudo, made a major impression with his live performance of his new single “Livin' La Vida Loca”. Tupac Shakur won a pair of Grammys for his hit album [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fender Bender[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], with the hit single “You Can't Kill What You Can't See” taking home the award for Best Rap Solo Performance. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from a Grammys recap posted on Yahoo! News on February 25, 1999[/FONT]
(Authors' Note: This next Backstreet Boys article was inspired by a PM sent to us by Moe Satyr! Thanks for the tip!)
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hype Builds For Backstreet Boys' [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Millennium[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Backstreet Boys have been one of the hottest bands in recent memory, and their album [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Millennium [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is set to drop in just three short months. While most of the songs on the album have already been recorded, two of them, including the much anticipated single “I Want It That Way”, are being re-recorded this week after what the band's manager describes as “lyrical tweaks”. Regardless of what lyrics make the final cut, the album is already being heavily promoted, and is set to have one of the biggest debut weeks ever when it's released this May.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The band is set to appear on both [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Total Request Live [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to promote the album on its release date, May 25.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an update on MTV's website, February 27, 1999
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid: The Basics[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the sequel to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Developed over four years by Konami and Hideo Kojima, the game was initially conceived for release on the 3DO, but after the failure of that system, Kojima briefly considered releasing the game on the Saturn before switching to the Ultra Nintendo after being impressed with the system's development kit. The gameplay remains as IOTL for the most part, it's heavily based on stealth, with direct enemy confrontation only recommended as a last resort. Snake has a variety of ways to achieve stealth, such as hiding under or behind certain objects, or in certain environments, merely crouching in the shadows. TTL's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has the addition of a stealth meter that indicates which enemies are liable to be able to see Snake in his current position. The codec is also more integrated into gameplay, appearing in real time rather than in a separate screen, though the player has the option of pausing the game to receive codec messages. The graphics are significantly improved from OTL's game, which was already one of the most graphically impressive games on the original Playstation. Characters and backgrounds appear in great detail. Perhaps the greatest presentation enhancement is in the game's music and sound effects. Due to the Ultra Nintendo's powerful sound chip, Kojima's plan for dynamic music is fully realized in TTL's game. Music changes in real-time based on what's happening on the screen, and individual character themes can also dynamically change to suit their current mood, making for hundreds of different musical motifs that are possible in-game. The game is fully voice acted as IOTL, with most of OTL's voice actors, including David Hayter, Debi Mae West, and Paul Eiding performing as Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh, and Colonel Campbell respectively. Mari Devon appears as the voice of a major character, Lyra, and the TTL-exclusive members of FOXHOUND, Silicon Leech and Serrated Panther, are voiced by James Arnold Taylor and Cree Summer respectively.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The basis of the game's plot, about a group of rogue special operations forces seizing an Alaskan island, hijacking the experimental weapon Metal Gear REX, and threatening America with nuclear bombardment remains the same as OTL, but many details about the plot and a number of future plot threads are heavily changed, and the overall flow of the game widens somewhat in scope from IOTL's game. The early part of the game, with Solid Snake infiltrating an island and finding DARPA chief Donald Anderson, who dies suddenly while conversing with Snake, also remains the same. However, after Anderson dies and Snake meets Meryl, Meryl informs Snake of a third hostage, in addition to Donald Anderson and tech CEO Kenneth Baker: the United States Undersecretary of Defense, a 32-year-old woman named Lyra Marin. She was being given a classified tour of the facility when the FOXHOUND takeover took place, and is considered the highest value hostage at the facility. After a boss fight against Revolver Ocelot, Snake is able to find and free Lyra, who tells Snake that the man she was touring the facility with, a general named Martens, may be behind everything, a suspicion that grows once Snake discovers information about the connection between Martens and Liquid Snake. Snake and Lyra then locate Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, the designer of Metal Gear REX and an expert computer hacker. Otacon has been engaging in a covert cyberspace war with another hacker at the facility, a man who turns out to be FOXHOUND tech expert Silicon Leech, who Snake needs to find and kill if he is to progress any further. Snake has Lyra remain with Otacon while he goes to hunt down Silicon Leech, but on the way he is confronted by Psycho Mantis (who has the same psychic abilities as in OTL, the same controller trick works on him and he has some very interesting comments if the player has Mario games on their memory card!) and must defeat him. Snake and Meryl must then make their way through an underground maze which is controlled by Silicon Leech remotely. After getting through the maze, Snake kills Leech, who coughs up some information about Lyra before he dies: that Lyra is the true enemy in all of this. Before Snake can contact Otacon about Lyra, he and Meryl are forced to flee from the bullets of Sniper Wolf, who eventually wounds Snake and renders him unconscious.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Snake awakens and is confronted by Liquid Snake before being tortured by Ocelot, which, as in OTL, prompts the player to press the A button rapidly in order to resist the torture. Unlike IOTL, however, submitting to the torture does NOT effect the ending (ITTL, Masahiro Sakurai expressed frustration that the player could only get the best ending via a very difficult button mashing challenge, and convinced Kojima to change the “reward” somewhat). Instead, successfully refusing to submit to the torture earns some cool bonus cutscenes during the latter part of the game (including an awesome Meryl rescue scene and another bonus scene with Otacon) but does not affect whether Meryl lives or dies. Whether or not Snake submits, he escapes, and learns that Metal Gear REX has already been moved out of the facility to another island. Lyra and Otacon are both gone, but Mei Ling tips Snake off to the fact that there's another ship heading to that island, and Martens is on it. Snake must infiltrate the ship, but before he can reach it, Serrated Panther cuts him off in her motorcycle. After inflicting enough damage, one of two things will happen: either Meryl knocks Serrated Panther off her motorcycle (if Snake didn't submit to the torture) or Snake sets a trap for Serrated Panther that knocks her off the motorcycle. Either way, Panther gets up and engages in one-on-one combat with Snake. An expert with a brutal hunting knife, Snake must keep his distance from her because getting close to her is certain death. After Snake takes out Panther, he and Meryl have a brief conversation before Snake catches the departing ship. He climbs up to the control tower to confront Martens, only for Martens to be shot dead by Ocelot. After a brief tussle on the boat (that involves Meryl coming to Snake's rescue, this time in a helicopter), the two tumble into the water together, both heavily wounded. The two of them crawl onto shore and another battle begins, quick but brutal. Snake seemingly kills Ocelot before collapsing on the shore. He awakens in a small shack with Lyra sitting near his bedside, tending to his wounds. Snake tries to attack Lyra, who frantically tries to defend herself both physically and verbally. She gives Snake information about Liquid Snake, including the fact that Liquid and Solid are brothers and that Liquid is really working for the government, that Martens, Kenneth Baker, and Donald Anderson were all working with FOXHOUND and that the information she's discovered could potentially bring down the entire government. Snake still believes that Lyra is lying and he holds a knife to her throat, he's going to kill her when Otacon tells him to back off, that Leech was lying and that Lyra's telling the truth about everything. Lyra tells Snake that when she was a little girl, she became privy to a piece of information. One thing led to another and eventually, when she first got to college, that she would work her way up to a powerful enough position in the government to discover the secrets she knows it's hiding. Otacon tells Snake that he has to go and stop Metal Gear REX before the missiles are used. Snake works his way up to Liquid Snake's base, battling and defeating Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven along the way. He reaches Liquid Snake, who reveals that he and Solid Snake are both clones of Big Boss, a legendary agent from the Cold War, and that after a virus implanted in both the FOXHOUND members and Solid Snake is activated, all of them will die and the government will be able to go in and retrieve Metal Gear REX. Snake then battles Metal Gear REX before taking on Liquid Snake atop the disabled machine. After Liquid Snake is defeated, Snake reunites with Meryl, who joins Snake as the two flee the base. Liquid pursues them and is about to kill them when he keels over and dies from the effects of the virus. Snake then contacts Colonel Campbell, who tells Snake that both he and Lyra are going to be considered fugitives from the United States government and that the two of them should go into hiding. Otacon tells Snake that he already made sure Lyra got out safely, and that she told him that she would continue working from the shadows to uncover more of the government's secrets. Snake and Meryl share a kiss as the two drive off into the wilderness together, Snake's days seemingly numbered due to the Foxdie virus.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
After the credits, Ocelot, recovered from his seemingly fatal wounds, is seen talking to the President over a secure codec. He confirms that the Metal Gear specifications have been safely retrieved, and then it's shown that he's pointing a gun at the head of a captive Lyra, whom he captured some time after Otacon saw her off (it will be revealed in a later game that the Patriots had been tapping into Otacon's communications the entire time). The President tells Ocelot to kill her, and he says that he'll do it, but after their communication ends, Ocelot tells Lyra that “they” have other plans for her, before injecting her with something that renders her unconscious. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]February 22, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is released for the Ultra Nintendo, to universal critical acclaim that nearly matches what [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]had achieved the previous year. The game sells enormously well in its first week (a bit less than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye 007 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]did in its first week of release), and due to the outstanding critical reception, easily becomes one of the Ultra Nintendo's best selling games of the year. The game is seen as living up to the hype and then some, and becomes a benchmark for both cinematic game design and technological achievement. Numerous characters, including Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Meryl Silverburgh, Otacon, and Lyra, become fan favorites, and once again, sales momentum swings back to Nintendo. Hideo Kojima becomes an instant celebrity among game fans, and his previous works, including both [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Snatcher[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Policenauts[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], all see a bump in sales due to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s release. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex Stansfield: And while [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]isn't groundbreaking like the previous two [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, it's still a great deal of fun and Jade Bessemer's return as the villain is truly welcome indeed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany Saldita: Now, if you're wondering whether or not to get it on the Ultra Nintendo or the Sega Saturn, if you're lucky enough to own both, definitely get the Ultra Nintendo version.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Right. It looks better, the control scheme is better, it's just the better version of the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: In fact, if you're lucky enough to have both systems and have to choose between the Ultra version or the Saturn version, always pick the Ultra version! We'll let you know if you ever need to pick the Saturn version![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Well, in the Saturn version of this game, Lara gets a sexy wetsuit *Brittany rolls her eyes* and there's a few more cuss words.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: It's not like you can't hear cuss words on Nintendo games. Didn't they say s(bleep)t 17 times in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit 2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: You counted?
Brittany: Somebody did and that's the number they gave. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: But yeah, a wetsuit and a few cuss words aren't worth losing the superior graphics and sound effects of the Ultra game. If you have only the Saturn, it's definitely a good game on there though. I give it a 4.0 out of 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: A solid 4 from me too. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomb Raider III [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is another fine adventure from the awesome Lara Croft.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa Fielding: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mr. Driller[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s quirky anime graphics and super addictive gameplay make it one of the best puzzle games I've ever played! I couldn't put my controller down![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian Fry: Yeah, I gotta say, it's a surprisingly addictive game. There are so many quirky characters and you never seem to run out of things to drill![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Lyssa: It's like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Armageddon[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], but without angry Bruce Willis or the fate of the world hanging in the balance.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: Hey, that might've made this game a bit more interesting! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: It doesn't really need a storyline, although it does give you a really cute one that makes you really fall in love with all the characters you get to meet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: So Lyssa, what's your final verdict?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Lyssa: Oh, an easy 5![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: Wow, you loved it that much?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: Without a doubt! I told you, I'm super into this one![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: I give [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mr. Driller [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 4. It's a really fun ride but it DOES get repetitive after a while, and the multiplayer isn't as fun as some of the other great multiplayer puzzle modes.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the February 9, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary Westhouse: In the end, while I think [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age of Empires[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] is a solid port, it doesn't have that really killer hook that would've really gotten me into this game like I've done with other strategy titles.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: Yeah, for an Ultra Nintendo game, one, it really doesn't look very great, two, after a while it stops being fun. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Civilization II [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]never stopped being fun for me, I can go back and play that any day of the week. But [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age of Empires [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a somewhat lesser [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Civilization II[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and I disagree with you that this was a solid port, it's way more fun to play this one on PC.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Gary: There was some hype for this game, when it first got announced for the Ultra. Was that hype justified?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: It wasn't a very good computer game, so I don't know why they thought it'd be better on the Ultra. It's worse. Not much worse, but still worse.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary: Without the custom scenarios from the PC version...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: You CAN actually make custom scenarios and save them to your memory card, though they take up a ton of space that could be used to save better games, like [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Then you can take them to your friends' house and I guess play them there?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary: Would you?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: No. No no no.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gary: Well, I give [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Age of Empires [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the Ultra Nintendo a 3 out of 5. It's a decent strategy game but it is missing a few of the best things from the PC version.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: And I'm giving it a 2. Stick to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Civilization II, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]or even wait for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Starcraft [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for your Ultra later this year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted Crosley: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the perfect example of a “complete” game. It's all there. The graphics, the music, the characters... the care they put into all the characters. Nobody's in this game without a purpose. EVERYBODY's in the game for a reason.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Every character has their own theme song, and VARIATIONS of their own theme song! Ted, I'm gonna demand MTV for our own theme songs![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: You and me both, when I walk into a room I wanna hear something badass playing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: The music sets the tone for this game. And then the vibration of the Rumbleshock on the controller...I won't spoil it but there's a moment when you're with a certain character and you can feel the tension in your hands because of that subtle rumbling.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: The Psycho Mantis fight is a masterpiece.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: This whole game is a masterpiece and I feel privileged to have played it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: And this game, it was in development WELL before the Ultra Nintendo was released. It was designed even before we got [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]here in the States. Which, by the way, if you haven't played [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear 1+2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], you can get them pretty cheap on the SNES-CD and play them on the Ultra. If you liked this game, definitely play both of them.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: If? If you like this game? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: *laughing* I know, hard to imagine how someone could hate it, right?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Is it better than [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Temple of Time[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I say yes. You?
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: It's real close. I gotta say though, I'm giving it a 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I'm giving it a 5 going away.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*The siren sounds*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], joining the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hall of Fame, let's put it up on the wall![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Ted and Alex make their way over to the Hall of Fame wall, joining the other hosts as they mount a framed copy of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]up on the wall*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Completely deserving of the honor. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is one incredible game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: And on that note, we wish you good night and have a ton of fun playing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Metal Gear Solid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the February 23, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo Power Charts: February 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Final Fantasy VII[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Killer Instinct Ultra[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Super Mario Dimensions[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Gran Turismo[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Tale Lemuria[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Ballistic Limit 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Brave Fencer Kyuriadan[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Ultra Mario Kart[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. Metal Clash[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart: February 1999[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Virtua Fighter 3[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Zodiac World[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Shenmue[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Sonic the Hedgehog 4[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Shining Force IV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Arbiter Of Sin[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Spare Parts[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Warner Bros. Acquires Harry Potter Film Rights[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Warner Bros. company recently acquired the rights to a future film adaptation of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], after engaging in a brief bidding war with Sony before that company backed off and did not match Warner's bid. The book series, which is set to release its third book, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], later this year, is growing rapidly in popularity with children and adults alike. Sony had submitted a joint bid with Nintendo that would have given the latter company the rights to all future video game adaptations of the books, while Sony would have been in charge of producing the films.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Variety [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine, March 5, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]So why didn't Sony acquire the Harry Potter film rights? In hindsight, such a move would seem like a no-brainer, but at the time, a number of factors made the company think twice about their initial plans to adapt the popular book series, and in the end, it was Warner Bros. who scooped them up after Sony dropped the ball. Sony's initial plans for the films were extremely ambitious. They envisioned a grand CGI animated adaptation of the books, jointly produced by Dreamworks and Squaresoft (under their Square Pictures label) and directed by Steven Spielberg, with Nintendo doing a game for each book in the series. Why an animated film and not a live-action adaptation? Two reasons: one, Spielberg and Dreamworks preferred animation, believing it would best convey the film's magical reality. And two, Sony was working on an adaptation of the game Ballistic Limit at the time, and didn't want to have two major live-action productions going on at once. Remember, at the time, Sony was just starting out in the film production business, and even though they were flush with cash from the success of the Ultra Nintendo, they didn't want to take the risk. Harry Potter? A risk? Even then, many believed that adapting Harry Potter into a film series would undoubtedly be a cash cow, and Warner Bros. was all too eager to purchase the rights once Sony backed out. But even though many within Sony itself could see how big Harry Potter was going to be, most of the ones in charge, including Norio Ohga, could not, and it was Ohga who ultimately made the deciding call in favor of backing off the pursuit of the Harry Potter film rights. Perhaps it was for the best: Sony and Nintendo were already dominating the video game world due to the Ultra Nintendo's unprecedented success. Adding Harry Potter to that would've been like adding Len Bias to the 1985-86 Celtics (at least before he overdosed): just too good to be true. In retrospect, considering the massive success of the Harry Potter book and film franchise, it's probably the dumbest move a gaming company had made since Atari declined to work with Nintendo in the mid 1980s. However, unlike Atari, Nintendo and Sony were more than able to absorb even a colossally boneheaded move like throwing away the Harry Potter franchise. The Ultra Nintendo kept right on truckin', unaware that it had just raced past a few billion dollars lying on the side of the road.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from “Ask Alex” on Alex Stansfield's blog, April 17, 2014[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The job's easy when 99 percent of it is already done for me. Rare makes great games, and it's not a challenge getting people to buy great games.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Reggie Fils-Aime, discussing his work as the VP of sales and marketing at Rareware in the June 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Next Generation [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We were determined not to let Ape Escape become 'just another platformer', and I'm pretty sure we succeeded.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Masamichi Seki, director of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot had always been kind of our third wheel, so we hoped that this spring release would give him a chance to shine. The problem was, of course, that our hearts laid with our other franchises, and so Crash was never going to be a marquee mascot.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Mark Cerny[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “A unique platformer filled with so many great mechanics that it really distinguishes itself from the Marios of the world.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.1 (quote: “A colorful, unique game with some of the best play controls we've ever seen.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men: Sarge's Heroes[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “It's a decently fun shooter, but it doesn't do anything groundbreaking.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.4 (quote: “These army men aren't even close to being the next great game heroes.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Carmageddon[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 4.5 (quote: “The violence is the only thing that really stands out about this car combat game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 4.1 (quote: “Running people over gets old really fast.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “Builds on the previous game but doesn't really do anything new.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.2 (quote: “The tight platforming of the last game returns, and Crash 2 is decent but doesn't stand out.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]R-Type Delta[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.8 (quote: “Old-school shooters haven't gone out of style, but R-Type isn't always a blast.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.8 (quote: “Superb graphics and some brand new power-ups make this a brilliant update of a shooter classic.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Snowboard Kids 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.5 (quote: “Still a really fun game, the new tracks and power-ups are a welcome update.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “This cutesy title might be the best extreme sports franchise around.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Shadowgate[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.3 (quote: “It has some strong points, but it's very clunky at times and doesn't take full advantage of the Ultra's capabilities.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.0 (quote: “A capable old-school adventure game, but is weighed down by the awkward controls.")[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]WCW Nitro[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 4.0 (quote: “The controls are atrocious and this is actually inferior to WCW/NWO Revenge by quite a bit.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.0 (quote: “A decent enough roster update but it definitely could've used more updated gameplay.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Boom Island 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
EGM: 5.8 (quote: “While the original game was cheesy fun, this game is merely cheesy and not very much fun.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.4 (quote: “Clearly the makers learned nothing from the excellent platformers of the last couple years.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.3 (quote: “This puzzle stealth title is still a ton of fun and the brand new multiplayer mode is hilarious.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.7 (quote: “Another series to make a successful Ultra transition, the new Klepto is superb in its simplicity.”)
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Cyringe[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.2 (quote: “If you can look past all the weird fanservice moments, there's a really fun platformer here.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.7 (quote: “The main character is quite lovely and you'll have a lot of fun sticking enemies with her giant syringe.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goat Gruff Bluff[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Are we ready for a goat game mascot? Probably not, but there's nothing really terrible about this platformer.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.5 (quote: “It's decent enough, but the controls could be a lot less frustrating.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rock [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 5.5 (quote: “As generic a shooter as they come.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 2.6 (quote: “The plot is a complete ripoff of the movie Cliffhanger, which wasn't the best plot to begin with.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saturn:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 3: Siren's Sorrow[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.5 (quote: “Yuna returns in a fun little title that adds some interesting mini-games.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.1 (quote: “A bit light on content, but the characters are extremely lovable.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “A difficult RPG that has some fun moments but is mostly pretty plain.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 3.8 (quote: “A deeply flawed game with atrocious graphics and frustrating battle mechanics.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.7 (quote: “As far as fighting games go, this one is pretty nifty.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.2 (quote: “You'll love the cast of characters and the really polished controls.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If there's one thing Reggie Fils-Aime has, it's great timing. Having joined Rare in March 1998, just as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye 007 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was being released worldwide, he didn't have anything to do with the success of that game, but was immediately put to work on the promotional effort ramping up for that fall's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which would go on to become the biggest console fighting game hit of the year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rare had told me how disappointed they were with the sales of the previous game and asked me how to make the sequel a huge success. I just told them, 'let's show everybody what the Ultra Nintendo can do. Let's show them how gorgeous this game looks and how fun it is to play.'”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The ad campaign began early and ramped up over the summer in preparation for the game's September release. Fils-Aime directed Rare to emphasize the game's revamped combo system and to show off the game's impressive visuals in advertising material. Nearly every video preview for the game was showing off the furious combo moves. The impressive promos got the games media interested and from there, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was positioned as a major hit.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]By the end of it all, I wasn't surprised at the sales numbers we were pulling in.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Fils-Aime is himself a fan of video games, having played many of the classic Nintendo arcade titles in his youth, and once he became an adult, he continued to play games as an occasional distraction from the demands of his career in marketing and sales.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I've started playing again a lot more since taking the job with Rare,” says Fils-Aime, who previously worked at Procter&Gamble and Pizza Hut. He'd been working for Pizza Hut when he got the job offer from Rareware, who had impressed him with their sales pitch and by showing him the work they'd done on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. “When I saw what Rare was doing with the James Bond license, I knew this was a company that was extremely serious about video games.”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fils-Aime's marketing push for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was a success, and now he's working on the company's next big push. In addition to a brand new [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong Country [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]title scheduled for later this year, Rare is also working on a sequel to their SNES-CD game [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blast Corps[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. There's also another shooter. While Rare turned down the opportunity to make a game based on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tomorrow Never Dies[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], the company instead elected to create a sort of spiritual successor to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], a game based on an original storyline conceived by Rare, rather than adapting an existing property. When we asked Reggie about the new game, titled [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Velvet Dark[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Reggie was excited but fairly cryptic.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A lot of people are waiting for news on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Velvet Dark[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], and we're excited to see that, but I've been instructed not to give away too much about it until E3,” said Reggie, referring to the big annual video game trade show taking place in May. “All I can say is that it's going to make [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Goldeneye [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]look like a tech demo!”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Reggie was also fairly quiet about Rare's next platformer project, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Conker: Twelve Tales[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which is scheduled for release sometime next year.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]On the one hand, with all these big projects I'm going to be pretty busy, but on the other hand, these games of Rare's really do promote themselves.”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rareware's been on quite a roll, and Fils-Aime seems more than happy to be along for the ride.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electronic Gaming Monthly[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sony's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was released on the Ultra Nintendo in March 1999, accompanied by quite a bit of hype at being quite possibly the best original Ultra Nintendo platformer title since [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Mario Dimensions[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. While Sony was initially reluctant to make a monkey-based game (due to the success of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong Country [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series), they eventually proceeded and were even able to release the game sooner than initially anticipated due to their experience working with the game [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](which shares an engine with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], believe it or not). The [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong Country [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]similarities encouraged Sony to differentiate their title from the game somewhat, they added a bit more stealth and also more gadgets, both of which were things that the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]DKC [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series lacked for the most part. The plot of the game involves a boy named Spike who is given the task of hunting down dozens of monkeys after they're set free by an evil villainess named Queen Saranya, her pet monkey Specter is the boss of the runaway monkeys in the game and serves as Saranya's right hand pet, so to speak. Saranya has dispatched the monkeys, altering their minds with her Pipo Helmets so that they can change history to make her arch queen throughout the ages, Spike must capture the monkeys and free them from Saranya's control. With its emphasis on capturing and by giving the monkeys a variety of different temperaments and personalities, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was able to set itself apart from being just a typical platformer and was nearly as successful for the Ultra Nintendo as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Zodiac World [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]had been for the Sega Saturn. While the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]characters weren't quite memorable enough to become mascots for Nintendo, the game itself became one of the more highly regarded franchises put out by Sony, and at least one sequel would follow.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article on Gamesovermatter.com[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]had some stiff competition in the platformer department, with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]being released for the Ultra Nintendo that very same month. Still, the first game had been one of the better selling launch titles for the system, and it was hoped that [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], with its larger world and more compelling villain, would surpass the first and would establish the series as one of the Ultra Nintendo's top franchises. It ultimately fell short of those goals, despite being a quality game. The problem with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is that unlike [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which it was inescapably compared to upon its release, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]didn't innovate in its genre at all. It stuck to the same basic platforming gameplay of the original, with only a few relatively minor graphical improvements. Instead of rehashing Dr. Cortex as the main villain, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]instead introduced Crazy Wing, a maniacal giant bird who commanded an army of evil anthropomorphic animals to conquer Crash's world. While the boss fights were fairly fun, the levels themselves were fairly lacking in innovative gimmicks, and the game itself was largely seen as a rehash of the original. Ultimately, while [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]sold relatively well, the game's sales paled compared to Naughty Dog's other highly successful franchises, and ultimately the game was the last in the series to be released for the Ultra Nintendo, as Naughty Dog largely moved on from the character after that. The rights to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]would be sold later on, leading to a revival of the character on future consoles, but the promise that Crash Bandicoot held as being one of the Ultra Nintendo's great mascots went up in smoke with the mediocre performance of the second game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot 2 And Beyond: Naughty Dog's Impressive Lineup[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]As Naughty Dog celebrates the release of the second game in the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crash Bandicoot [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series, the company now looks forward to the summer and its big upcoming release: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dog Dash 3[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. The game sees friends Clark, Woofle, and Selkie entering a fully 3-D world to rescue their friends from the evil General Catsmeow and his feline army. Boasting some of the year's most impressive visuals, with gameplay that looks like a perfect transition to 3-D, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dog Dash 3 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is sure to be a major hit. Of course, Naughty Dog is also working on a pair of games for the year 2000, one of them being the third title in the acclaimed [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tales Of The Seven Seas [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
The third [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tales Of The Seven Seas [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is said to be significantly more storyline-heavy than the two titles that came before it, and just as the first game focused on Erick and the second game on Dona, this third game has already been stated to focus heavily on Victoria, the noble girl-turned-pirate, who, according to the game's director Mark Cerny, must “make a major decision” in the upcoming game. While Victoria will be the main focus of the game's plot, Cerny assures fans that you'll still be able to play as all seven of the beloved main characters in the new title, and that there will still be lots of freedom to perform a variety of different tasks and jobs. Naughty Dog's other upcoming game of 2000 hasn't been revealed yet but is said to be a “war” game that will be a bit more mature than their previous titles. We'll see if there's any announcement at E3 concerning this unannounced game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article on Gamespot.com, posted on March 22, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]One of the year's most successful arcade titles, Duelists has been a surprise hit for Sega, which initially viewed the game as somewhat of an afterthought. Featuring ten fighters ranging in age from 14 to 19, the game's heavy basis on the character's backstories and difficult single player AI has forced players to deposit many, many quarters to see how each character's story plays out, and fights have broken out at arcades when human challengers have interrupted players' quests by putting in their own coins.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-from the June 1998 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electronic Gaming Monthly[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Following its console release in Japan last November, the arcade hit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has come to the Sega Saturn as [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. While the game's combat is fierce and smooth, the game's main draw is its cast of young fighters. Sega's arcade hit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Raigeki [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was fairly wild in terms of its character backstories, but [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]takes itself a lot more seriously, with some of the stories being quite dramatic and the characters largely grounded in realism. The most popular character in Japan is 14-year-old Lily, a schoolgirl who begins fighting in order to teach her rival, Maitreya, leader of the school's powerful student council, a lesson. Maitreya herself is another playable character and she fights in order to uphold her family's honor, while keeping her dark secrets hidden from Lily in the guise of domineering bullying. Each of the game's player characters has a rival, and with ten characters in all, that adds up to five rivalries (though one of those, the rivalry between Veil and Kraig, is also probably the game's most enduring romantic couple). Every battle has meaning in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], every character has some sort of relationship with every other character in the game. There's no defined “final boss”, the final battle is with your character's rival, and the result of the battle determines the ending your character gets (yes, if you lose, there's no “game over” or “continue”, you get your character's “bad ending” and must start over if you want another try at their “good” one). This “story based” approach to fighting games has become somewhat of a trend on both major consoles, we just saw [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killer Instinct Ultra [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]take that approach somewhat with its adventure mode, and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mortal Kombat [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Street Fighter [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]both have a ton of story-related tie-ins outside the main games. With the main draw behind fighting games still largely their competitive multiplayer nature, such story modes seem fairly extraneous, but if companies are trying to sell fighting games to players who have few real life friends or are unwilling to put in the time needed to become good at such games, these single-player story modes might indeed raise sales, and there's a good chance we'll see them expand in the future. Whether or not [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Duelists [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the beginning of a trend is at this time uncertain.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from an article in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameInformer[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
(Authors' Note: All the info on Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 3 was given to us by the user Cataquack Warrior, who's done some excellent work for us so far!)
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Woman: Hey! I'm Stacy Grenna and it's time for today's Here and Now segment! As always, Here and Now is where I take a look at a game I've played in the past, and I have somebody else who's never played it before spend some time playing it for the first time, and then we compare notes! Today's Here and Now game is [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 3: Siren's Sorrow[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], a fun little title from a few years back on the Sega Saturn. I'm a big fan of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Galaxy Fraulein Yuna [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, and I enjoyed this one a lot, so I asked our own Mindy Kaling from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]G4 Weekly News [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to play it this week! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Mindy joins Stacy on the screen.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: So Mindy, you played [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna 3[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], what did you think?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Well, it's one of those weird anime games...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: I know, isn't it fun?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: For a game, there's not a lot of actual...game, is there?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Stacy: Ah, there's plenty of game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Like the slot machine where you get to choose what ultra-revealing outfit Yuna's gonna wear this time? *as the slot machine shows on screen* “Come on, Daddy needs a new pair of high-heeled shoes!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Did you like the game where you got to save the puppy?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Mindy: I never understood how saving a puppy could be so hard. I don't see why Yuna can't just jump in the river and save it. With the kind of game this is, you'd think a wet outfit would be the least of her problems![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, the river WAS moving really fast.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Isn't she supposed to be some kind of hero or something? Anyway, with everything in this game that didn't make sense, I liked the trial sequence and how every decision you make plays into the outcome of the trial. It kind of reminded me of the trial from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Chrono Trigger[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], but even more complex than that. So that was a part of the game I liked.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: For me, I just love all the great characters. I think Yuna is really funny and really inspiring, and her little dialogues with Elner throughout the game are a nice treat. I thought [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna 3 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was better than either one of the first two games, the plot was a lot better and the fact that they actually had a lot of animation instead of just a bunch of still screens was also really nice.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Wait a minute, the last games only had still screens? How lazy is that?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, the technology wasn't there for animation just yet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Mindy: Imagine if this game just had slides showing off what was happening in the game. It'd be like visiting your relatives, only if they were weird anime characters. *screenshot of Yuna's mech digging in the ground for ingredients* And here's where we hunted for buried treasure on the beach. I just wanted to use a metal detector, but my husband insisted on breaking out the giant robot. *screenshot of Yuna being spied on in the locker room* Here's where we visited Pervert Canyon and experienced the thrill of voyeurism for the first time! *Yuna watches the puppy drown after failing to rescue it* Here's where Spot went swimming in the river, all the way to a nice old couple's farm! At least that's what we told the kids. *Yuna is shown chained up in a prison cell* Here's what happened when we got caught stealing from the souvenir shop at Disney World. They take that sort of thing very seriously.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: So did you like the game at all?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: It wasn't bad. I don't think I like it as much as you did, but as far as weird anime character games go, it was decent enough. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s kind of an acquired taste. It's not the most popular series out there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: How'd it end up doing?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Stacy: Believe it or not, it actually sold a decent number of copies! Even more than the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yuna Anthology[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which itself sold better than expectations. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Mindy: Anthology? They made a boxed set of these things?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Well, technically it was only the first two games.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: That's not an anthology. That's like...two games. That's like Wrigley calling Doublemint Gum a “gum anthology”. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Mario All-Stars, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that's an anthology. The [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy Collection[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], that's an anthology. Two games...is two games. Call it a double pack or something.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stacy: Anthology sounds fancier![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mindy: Put it in a little tuxedo! Don't call it something it's not, that's false advertising. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-a segment from an episode of the show “Focus” on G4, originally aired on December 3, 2003[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And the release of WCW Nitro for the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Saturn coincides with this Sunday's pay-per-view, Uncensored, which will see Goldberg defending his title and his nearly 200 match unbeaten streak against the Nature Boy, Ric Flair. Uncensored marks the final day of Flair's 90-day control over WCW that he won last December, and has used this power to challenge Goldberg for the belt, despite supposedly being Goldberg's friend in the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view. Uncensored will also see Booker T face off against Hollywood Hogan for the first time, though Booker T now has Bret 'The Hitman' Hart in his corner, making for an interesting match dynamic, as Hogan will have to keep both eyes open during the match, especially since both Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are to be escorted from the arena after the conclusion of their tag team championship match against Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, and won't be able to help Hogan in his match against Booker T.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]excerpted from an online news report on WCW Uncensored 1999, posted on March 10, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saving Private Ryan [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]dominated the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director for Steven Spielberg, and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, his third such award in six years. That was the big story of this year's Oscar ceremony that proved to be a largely “by the numbers” night, with no major upsets to speak of. Though [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shakespeare in Love [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was speculated to be a dark horse Oscar pick, and did several Oscars of its own (including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench), it was unable to take down [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saving Private Ryan [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the big award of the night, despite a fierce pre-Oscar campaign by Harvey Weinstein to promote the film. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Deep Impact[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which was nominated for several major awards (including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman), failed to win any of the big prizes, but did manage to win the Best Visual Effects Oscar. Celine Dion won another posthumous award to go with her Grammy when her song “The Prayer” from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Quest for Camelot [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]took home the award for Best Song, beating out “When You Believe” from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Prince Of Egypt[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] among others. It was, once again, Spielberg's night, though the director did give a bit of time during his Best Director Oscar speech to send well wishes to his friend and colleague Stanley Kubrick, who's currently recovering from the heart attack he suffered several weeks back. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from a Yahoo News! report posted on March 22, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The games have been getting better and better, especially lately. I was very impressed with the most recent Zelda game, and I got my hands on Metal Gear Solid, and that was extremely impressive as well. These games, they're definitely becoming a lot more movie-like, and so with Medal of Honor, I'm hoping to give the player the same type of experience they might've had when they were watching Saving Private Ryan, only now they've got a controller in their hands and they can storm Omaha Beach. It wasn't easy in real life and it's certainly not going to be easy in the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Something I'm growing to appreciate about the world of games is that the games that win the big industry awards and the games that win with the fans are usually one and the same. You'd be hard pressed to ever see the Oscars and the MTV Movie Awards pick the same movie as their Best Picture, but that's what happened with the Interactive Arts and Sciences Awards and the MTV Video Game Awards, both of you picked The Legend of Zelda. I think in the world of video games, the best games are oftentimes appreciated more than the best movies necessarily are in the cinematic world. And that's an encouraging thing for video games going forward.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Steven Spielberg, in an interview in the June 20, 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Parade [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany Saldita: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s single-player mode was really solid, but...Ted, I gotta say, I got REALLY into the multiplayer![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted Crosley: Yeah, it was a ton of fun for me. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Okay, so in the multiplayer, there are several different modes. My favorite mode was the competitive mode because in this mode, basically, one or more players is the thief, and they're going up against one or more players being the security guards. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: And basically, if you're the guards, you get a nightstick and a flashlight, and if you're the thieves, you gotta try and sneak past the guards.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: Because if you're the guards, you can just...whack the crap outta people! Look at this![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*A video from the game's multiplayer mode shows a comically over-exaggerated animation of a security guard pummeling the crap out of a thief with his nightstick*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: He's getting beat on, and his eyes pop out of his head and go bouncing around the room before he disappears from the screen![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: How the HELL did this game get an E rating? Yeah, there's no blood or anything, but look at the bouncing eyeballs![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: So if you manage to sneak past and get the treasure, and get it back in time, the security guards...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: They start crying like little babies![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: The animations in this game are pure gold, and the SNES-CD games never really got this silly with the animations.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: The multiplayer modes are so much fun. Not just the competitive mode, but the co-op mode, which basically is “cooperative until it becomes funnier to mess with your teammates”.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Right, you can screw your friends over so badly in this game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I loved finding all the myriad little ways I could mess with Brittany when we were trying out the co-op mode together.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: You spent more time laying traps for me than actually playing the game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: *snickering*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
*A brief video is shown of Brittany's character getting caught in one of Ted's traps for the fourth time while they're playing the game together*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: You did that on purpose![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: ...no I didn't.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Brittany: That was four times in a row! Ted![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: I swear, that was an accident. *he's laying another trap for Brittany while he's “apologizing”* I am so sorry.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: *steps in another trap* (bleep)! You (bleep)hole![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: *laughing hysterically*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
*the video ends*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Ted: So yeah, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]mixes a really fun and challenging single player mode with a fantastic and hilarious multiplayer mode for plenty of long-lasting fun. It's the best game in the series and I'm giving it a perfect 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: Wow, you liked it that much? I'm giving [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Klepto [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 4.5, the single-player mode could use a bit of work but that multiplayer mode is one of the best on the Ultra and I agree with Ted, this is the best game thus far in what's overall a pretty quality series. Nice work.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the March 2, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](...)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex Stansfield: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]combines some really unique gameplay with cutesy characters and visuals for one really solid platforming experience.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Right, it's just a really fun game. The plot's a bit silly but I can forgive that, catching apes is a lot of fun.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Who came up with the idea of putting siren hats on those little monkeys' heads?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Not me but damn if it's not adorable.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: You add monkeys to anything, it makes it better. True or false?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Well, I'm not sure if [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saving Private Ryan [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]would've been better with a little chimp soldier going around...it might've been a lot less depressing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Oh yeah. Seeing them walking around bombed out towns, and then they cut to this monkey sitting against a tree, maybe smoking a cigarette? Instant laugh.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: Or at the somber graveyard scene, he starts crying but then we see a monkey just sitting on one of the tombstones? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Alex: Well, video games are definitely better with monkeys. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Donkey Kong [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and now [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Some of the levels DO get a bit repetitive, even when the apes get new gadgets to help themselves out, that was my big complaint about the game. Is it a valid one?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I think it's reasonably valid, I mean, you can only catch so many of those apes before they all start to kind of blur together. So it's not the best platformer in the world but I think it deserves a 4.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Alex: Yeah, I agree, I'm giving [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 4. Some parts are a bit of a slog but for the most part it's a unique and really fun game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from the March 16, 1999 review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ape Escape[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
(…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa Fielding: Oh my god this game was crap.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian Fry: I have no idea why you hated it so much![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa Fielding: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men: Sarge's Heroes [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the most unimaginative, derivative, uninspired and boring shooter I've ever played! If not for the fact that you're controlling plastic army men, there'd be NOTHING special about the game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: The graphics are good, the gameplay is solid, why don't you like it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: The level design is the most basic a game can possibly be. The voice acting is terrible. The plot is so cliched. It's like, “okay, here are the green army guys, and you're fighting the tan army guys!” Literally a three year old could come up with that. Literally, that's what a three year old does when he plays with his army men.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Adrian: It doesn't need a great plot, it's just a fun shooting game where you run around killing the other army. Look, I thought [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was refreshing. It is a bit simple, but you know where to go and what to do, it's easy to pick up, you have a decent variety of weapons...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: None of which do anything special, it's as basic as it can possibly be.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: There's destructable environments. They put a lot of thought into the visuals of the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: And yet when your army man gets hit he just falls over. The trees can be damaged, the buildings can be damaged, but army men are either knocked down or they disappear. There's no army man limb injuries or anything like that. For an Ultra Nintendo game, the graphical detail is lousy. I'm giving [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]a 0.5 out of 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Adrian: Oh man, that's a really low score. I'm giving it a 3.5. You didn't even like the multiplayer mode?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lyssa: Not at all. Just not a fan of these [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Army Men [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games, and this was the worst of the bunch.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the March 23, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](…)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: So while I appreciated [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers' [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]difficulty and what it was trying to do, this game didn't really work for me from an overall standpoint.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: As far as RPGs go, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is definitely different, but I felt like it could've done a lot of things better.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: You REALLY have to manage your items closely in this game, and while it's not the first RPG to make you start leveling all over again in every dungeon, that was still an aspect of the game that I felt really slowed it down.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: It did have some nice Easter eggs from previous obscure Sega titles. If you played [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shining in the Darkness[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Pyra from there is in here. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: You played that back in the day?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I did! Have you ever played it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: No, but I did play [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sword of Vermillion [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Phantasy Star [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]back in the day. This game, while looking a heck of a lot prettier, is not nearly as good as those.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I think I'm gonna be a bit less harsh on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Time Stalkers [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]than you're being, I thought it had its moments and the graphics aren't so bad. For the Saturn, they're decent, if a little bit blocky looking.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Brittany: The pacing is really bad. This RPG slows to a crawl at times and without a compelling plot to keep you going, what's the point? I'm giving it a 2 out of 5.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ted: I'm giving it a 3. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-excerpted from the March 30, 1999 episode of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]GameTV[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo Power Charts: March 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Parasite Eve[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Final Fantasy VII[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Street Fighter III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Super Mario Dimensions[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Killer Instinct Ultra[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Daikatana[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Shadows Of The Moon[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Ballistic Limit 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. Fallout[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart: March 1999[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]1. Tomb Raider III[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]2. Virtua Fighter 3[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3. Shenmue[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]4. Mortal Kombat 4[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]5. Sonic The Hedgehog 4[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]6. Zodiac World[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]7. Duelists: Swift Strike[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]8. Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]9. Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]10. WCW Nitro[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]March 31, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly Klaas looked out the passenger side window of her friend Caitlyn's car as the two headed back to Caitlyn's house after school that day.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm gonna miss high school,” said Caitlyn, smiling wistfully at her friend. “But it's gonna be a lot of fun rooming together at Stanford, right? God, I was so nervous waiting to see if I got in. I mean, I knew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]you'd [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]make it, but I was biting my nails the whole two months since I applied!”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They don't look like it,” Polly replied, smirking as she glanced back at her friend Caitlyn's flawlessly groomed nails. “Unless those are falsies?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Pfffffftt....” Caitlyn snorted, slapping the steering wheel. “But yeah, I mean... have fun learning psychology. Maybe after you graduate you can figure out what's wrong with Eric?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly's friend Eric had become further and further withdrawn, though the two had continued to speak even as Eric withdrew further into himself over the last few weeks. He'd stopped having Polly over at his house, and his comments about others and about himself had gotten increasingly dark and disturbing. He'd gone to see Polly's therapist...once, and never again. [/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Did he say anything else to you?” Polly asked Caitlyn.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nothing,” Caitlyn replied, shaking her head. “He's said...nothing to me since we broke up. When we pass in the halls, he doesn't even look at me. Is he still hanging out with Dylan?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No...I don't think they're friends anymore,” Polly replied. “Has Dylan told you anything?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dylan doesn't even [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]mention [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Eric anymore. Actually...the last time I did mention Eric to him, he looked kind of...scared.”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I know they used to be so close,” said Polly, shaking her head. She wondered if she was the only friend Eric had left...if Eric even saw the two of them as friends anymore. Even when other students reached out to him, he seemed to pull back or lash out, as if he didn't want anybody around. Sometimes Polly wondered if Eric just...hated everybody. But that couldn't be true, because she knew he didn't hate her. “I told him if he ever feels like he might hurt himself to call me, that I'd be there for him.”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And if he feels like hurting other people?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly just stared straight ahead.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly, if he shows any signs of that-”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Once I do that...he'll...he'd never forgive me if I got him in trouble.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This isn't about you, or him. Polly, if you think he'll do something to hurt anyone, himself or anyone else...you have to tell the school counselor, or something. I mean...I know you can't go to the cops just if you think he's gonna do something bad, but...”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I know...I know, I....”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Polly sighed and bowed her head. As much as she felt a need to help Eric, now she was regretting ever meeting him in the first place. She'd gotten a weird feeling from him from the moment they first met, and now...now every time Caitlyn brought up the possibility that Eric might hurt someone, she got a shiver through her spine.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...I'm sorry,” said Caitlyn. The car was pulling into their neighborhood now, and she could tell just how distressed this was making Polly. “I didn't mean to bring that up, now you're.... let's talk about college again, okay?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yeah...I'd rather talk about that,” said Polly, a smile returning to her face. “So you're definitely thinking about law school?”[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Maybe. Like, I REALLY want to do entertainment law, but I'm trying to figure out if it's something I actually want to do or if it's just so I can meet celebrities.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Across town, Eric Harris was sitting in his room, flipping through a magazine. He saw an ad for next month's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Doom: Inferno [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]for the Ultra Nintendo, and his eyes lit up.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That looks fucking sweet,” [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]he thought, eyeing the advertisement which was filled with detailed screenshots from the game and emblazoned with artwork of the game's demonic monsters.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Then his eyes glanced at the release date, and he let out a long sigh.[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Too bad I'll never get to play it.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
The game's release date? April 20, 1999.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
Here are some more details on Yuna III: Siren's Sorrow. A big thanks to RySenkari and Nivek for allowing me to contribute.
Production
Siren's Sorrow, called Yuna FX IOTL, was initially intended just as a limited edition bonus and as the basis for a parallel set of OVA specials. However, the popularity of the Anthology led Hudson to turn the material into a full game. As a result, the new version of Siren's Sorrow has a more complex plot, and the anime was likewise extended to three OVAs instead of two. Even so, there were some flaws in the design. A particular source of criticism was that some of the OVAs' scenes were taken straight out of the game. Still, the game was a considerable improvement over the previous two games, and had a fair amount of success.
Gameplay
The game plays similar to the previous games, but there are more choices for Yuna to make and more exploration available. Plus, there are more mini-games, from saving a puppy to being on a game show. As for the scenes, the graphics have improved, with animated scenes instead of stills.
Also, as expected in the series, Yuna III has an extensive bonus section filled with various special content for fans.
Plot
In the prologue to the game, Yuna is participating in a galactic cooking championship, and is using her mech to search for a rare Star Swallow Egg (much to Elner’s frustration, as she hardly appreciates Yuna using her and the Matrix of Light for such frivolous ends). However, she is suddenly attacked by an enigmatic, monstrous mech called Anderope. Yuna manages to defeat it after a battle, and hurries back to the judging center, where there is a short mini-game to win the competition with her sunny-side up omelet. However, afterwards the scene cuts to a mysterious figure watching a playback of Yuna’s earlier fight. The figure concludes that all of the information is prepared, and that soon the Guardian of Light will fall.
Next comes the main plot. After being woken up by Princess Mirage’s bombardment alarm (she literally has the Eternal Princess open fire on the house to wake Yuna up), Yuna and Yuri hurry to school. Yuna’s class has a new transfer student, a stoic girl named Misaki who seems especially interested in Yuna but actually seems to avoid direct interaction with her. Yuna thinks that Misaki has a crush on her (and has various fantasies), but Misaki is actually a police agent for the Galactic Alliance, codename Siren. Her superior Fraulein D. has sent her to investigate rumors that Yuna is actually using her powers for evil.
Instead of Mai releasing the class early as in the OTL OVAs, you end up going through the full school day, with chances to interact with your many friends and participate in mini-games such as sports-related ones with the Erika 7. At lunch, Yuna and Yuri get into an argument about food (Yuri ate all of it), and Misaki intervenes, thinking that Yuna was bullying Yuri before getting the details straightened out. Later during P.E., Yuna is late getting changed in the locker, and accidentally stumbles on someone spying on her. Caught in the act, Lika gets into a fight with you. Lika is a ninja and uses classic ninja moves such as throwing ninjas stars. However, when other people arrive, she pretends that Yuna was bullying her and escapes in the confusion. The other students believe Yuna’s side of the story, but Misaki appears suspicious.
After school, Yuna goes shopping with Yuri, but then finds a trail of Polylina cards leading to the far end of town. In the process, Yuna gets caught up in finding and rescuing a lost puppy; one of the mini-games involves saving the puppy from drowning in a river. Yuna then tries to find her way back home; she convinced Yuri to collect the rest of the cards while she looked for the puppy, so she’s on her own now. She ends up encountering Lika again, along with another suspicious character named Lucia. Yuna is wondering what’s going on, and the two enigmatically comment that they managed to keep her busy long enough. Yuna is actually more concerned with the revelation that Lucia made all of the cards herself for the trap, meaning that they are all counterfeits, something unforgivable for the number one member of the Polylina fan club. You now have to fight both of them. Lucia is an artist and uses her sketchbook to attack. They manage to give Yuna the slip, so Yuna goes home. However, she gets ambushed by Misaki and knocked out.
Yuna wakes up chained down in a prison cell. Misaki enters, and despite Yuna’s erotic misinterpretation of the situation, quickly makes it clear that Yuna has been arrested as a criminal. Yuna is taken to a trial committee and shown a news video of her attacking the main part of Neo Tokyo when she had been busy in that other part of the city, without a solid alibi. A trial mini-game commences as you try to defend yourself against the various charges laid against you – from attacking Neo Tokyo to destroying a government prototype (Yuna expresses confusion about this charge, but does not receive an answer) – all serving as evidence that you are plotting to take over the galaxy. The trial is a farce, but if you handle your defense well enough, the Alliance counselors have enough doubt to delay the judgement until more evidence can be gathered. You are returned to your cell to wait, your future still bleak, but Polylina breaks in to save you. After sneaking past guards and getting into a fight with Misaki, you escape the facility. Even so, you are now a wanted criminal, and need to clear your good name.
Yuna decides to first contact the independent news reporter and investigator Mashe, who filmed the attack on Neo Tokyo; hopefully Yuna can learn more about the robot and give her own side of the story. You travel to a news studio and have to sneak in by participating in a game show. You manage to get a private interview with Mashe, but she reveals that she was actually working for the same purpose as Lucia and Lika. Mashe uses her camera as a weapon in battle, and can use its powerful flash to temporarily stun you. Security forces you to retreat, but Mashe lets slip the next location that the Yuna impostor is going to attack: a massive dam on a mountainous planet that is the only thing keeping the capital from being flooded.
You hurry to stop the attack and arrive ahead of time. Along the way, you have to complete a lumberjack challenge to get a ride to the dam. However, Misaki has tracked you down. You end up having two consecutive battles – first against Misaki, and then against the fake Yuna when she arrives. After the fight, the artificial Yuna retreats, but you find evidence that she was constructed by Red Factory, a company employed by the Galactic Alliance. While still wary about Yuna, Misaki is now aware that there is more going on than she thought, and teams up with Yuna to investigate.
You now have to investigate Red Factory’s headquarters. There are a couple of mini-game puzzles to solve along the way, such as one that involves controlling conveyor belts to take an item to a specific point. While exploring the factory, you get into a fight against three Anderope mechs. It turns out that the mechs and other soldiers are part of a special government project that is intended to replace Yuna once she is convicted. You reach the central office of the factory, and Misaki and Yuna come up with a plan. Yuna approaches the factory chief Aira and pretends to be the fake Yuna, in need of repairs and a new assignment. Aira falls for the trick and reveals that is part of the conspiracy to frame Yuna, but says that there are no more missions for her now, and tries to activate her self-destruct programming. Yuna naturally does not comply, and Misaki bursts in to arrest Aira. Aira desperately summons the fake Yuna to fight you, but the copy rebels. She had been told that once Yuna was gone, she would be the new hero, but now she realizes that she was meant to be expendable from the beginning. Deleting the safeguard protocols from her programming, the artificial flies off, leaving Aira to fight you herself. She has a cold, managerial personality and avoids physical conflict; she instead uses the factory’s defense systems against you. After her equipment is destroyed, she considers fighting you herself, but then decides to call it quits with this operation and escapes.
You still have not figured out who is behind all of this, but you have enough evidence to clear the charges. Misaki contacts her superior and mentor Fraulein D. with her new discoveries and arranges a private rendezvous. However, it turns into a trap, and both you and Misaki are arrested. It is revealed that D. was behind the framing all along. D. tries to convince Misaki to just return to her work and forget about Yuna, but Misaki refuses. With some regret, D. gives Misaki the same sentence as Yuna: to be sealed within a black hole for eternity.
However, just as the execution is about to take place, the Alliance Headquarters space station is hijacked by a rogue communication being broadcasted across the galaxy. Mashe has had a change of heart, and now unveils a new broadcast that clears Yuna’s name. All of your friends defend you, and you are shown to have been saving the puppy when the alleged attack on Neo Tokyo took place. On seeing this, the council members withdraw their support for Fraulein D. and realize that they were deceived.
Although the first part of her plan failed, D. goes through with the second stage of her plan. The trial and execution of the Guardian of Light required all key members of the Galactic Alliance government to be present, and D. uses her assembled army – along with more from the black hole – to launch a coup and still carry out your execution, even without official sanction anymore. Fortunately, Yuna’s many friends such as Polylina, Yuri, and Princess Mirage (among many others) arrive to free you, and you chase down D. while they handle her army.
After dealing with Lucia and Lika again, you catch up with Fraulein D. Misaki is shocked and betrayed that D. is doing all of this. D. reveals that she is in fact the “Devil Fraulein,” banished to a black hole by a previous Guardian of Light. However, she was in fact innocent of the accusations at the time, but due to a misunderstanding was sentenced to imprisonment regardless. After escaping by giving in to darkness, she decided to have revenge by showing the current Guardian of Light the despair she felt when the galaxy turned against her. Yuna points out that D. made new friends and a new life for herself, but she is throwing it all away for revenge. This makes D. hesitate, but she still fights you. After a fight against her in her regular form, D. becomes a demonic behemoth vaguely resembling Giratina from Pokémon.
Yuna manages to defeat D. by transforming into the super mech El-Line Noi, but then there is one last surprise. As D.’s power starts to dissipate, artificial Yuna suddenly appears, stabs D. in the back, and absorbs the darkness into herself. She saw D. as her mother, and is enraged that she was nothing but a tool in the end. On realizing how she has committed some of the same sins she hated the previous Guardian for, D. has a breakdown. The copy then confronts Yuna for a final battle to determine the point of her existence. Whether she dies as a villain or triumphs as a hero, she will create her own destiny.
After one last battle, Yuna defeats her copy, but shows mercy. She tells her that she can be her own person, and choose her own path in life. The copy renames herself Anuy (“Anny”), and reconciles with her mother, with both of them reforming. Also in the aftermath, Misaki apologizes to Yuna and offers to take any punishment she decrees; Yuna replies that Misaki’s “punishment” is to become her friend. Everyone then has a party to celebrate Yuna’s victory.
Reception
Yuna III proved popular like its predecessors, but the continued criticism of certain aspects of the game convinced Hudson that it needed to take the series to a new level. Fortunately, the second set of OVAs in store, as well as the Yuna Tactics project, would fulfill that goal in the coming future.
-
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I've never been opposed to putting third party characters in Super Smash Brothers. Nintendo, at first, was reluctant, but I think they realized what I already knew, that these other companies have been an important part of our success and are as much a part of Nintendo as Mario and Link! And of course, the added sales draw from these characters doesn't hurt either!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Masahiro Sakurai, discussing third party characters in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in an interview with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Famitsu [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]magazine in March 1999
[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's always gratifying to please our fans! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this game!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Satoru Iwata, discussing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]at a panel at E3 1999[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This is the kind of game you just can't do on the Sega Saturn. It's our first next generation Doom game, we haven't even done this on PC yet. The Ultra Nintendo's getting the first real 3-D Doom, and it's a deserving platform to get it.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-John Romero, discussing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Doom: Inferno [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wat an asshoel, u had no prolem putting quake on saturn, wtf man”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-an anonymous poster on an InsideTheWeb.com forum, discussing John Romero's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Power [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]interview, posted on April 29, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I guess video games were an inspiration for The Matrix. I mean, we're both big gamers, but they weren't a huge influence. We'd love to do a more video game-ish film later on, though.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Andy Wachowski, fielding a question about [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]at Comic-Con 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I think I wept openly after reading that part of the script. We had to stop recording for about ten minutes until I could compose myself.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Sara Bareilles, answering a question from a fan at a music festival in 2008 about what it was like to work on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Don't underestimate me!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-One of Rebecca's two victory quotes in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hohoho....hahahahahaha![/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fire and blood, burn...burn burn burn, all of you BURN! I'll see your bones ripped from your flesh before the day is done!”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Luca Blight, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden II[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm always here, Kris. And I always will be. No matter what.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Etienne, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For something like that to happen on the release date of that huge Doom game, I mean...you shudder to think about it.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Adam Sessler, discussing the April 1999 incident at Columbine High School on a video game podcast on April 20, 2009[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu, and Donkey Kong, played by people in giant plush costumes, are skipping happily through a field of flowers as “So Happy Together” by The Turtles plays. Suddenly, the four of them come face-to-face with Fox McCloud, Shad, Captain Falcon, and Link. The two groups stare at each other from across the field, then charge at one another, punching, kicking, and bashing one another with a variety of weapons.*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
Narrator (Don LaFontaine): Something's gone wrong in the happy-go-lucky world of Nintendo. Introducing Super Smash Bros., where all your favorite characters duke it out in one epic four-player star studded slamfest.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*Donkey Kong bashes Shad over the head with a giant mallet*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Narrator: Only on the Ultra Nintendo.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]*The Ultra Nintendo logo is shown, along with Nintendo's current slogan: “Ultimate Fun”*[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-the North American commercial for [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which was shown on TV during the spring of 1999, based on OTL's commercial seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K783SDTBKmg[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.: The Basics[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a four-player fighting game created by Masahiro Sakurai and HAL Laboratory and featuring 18 of Nintendo's first, second, and third party characters. The gameplay, in which characters brawl and fight, racking up damage until a character is knocked out of the arena, is almost identical to OTL's game, and like OTL's game, this first installment is fairly bare bones in terms of features, with a single player arcade-style mode where players fight a progression of battlers until they reach the final boss, a giant gloved hand named Master Hand, or a versus mode in which players can battle either the CPU or other human players in 2-4 player fights under a variety of rules. The biggest change from OTL comes in the form of additional characters included in the game. Unlike OTL's game, which featured eight characters and four hidden characters, TTL's game features 12 characters and six hidden characters, which are unlocked via a variety of methods. The only character from OTL's game that doesn't appear in TTL's game is Jigglypuff, which is butterflied away due to Jigglypuff having a slightly smaller role in the Pokemon anime. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
The twelve characters available in this game from the outset are: Mario, Yoshi, Link, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Samus, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Shad (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Squad Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]) and Woofle (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Dog Dash[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]). The six unlockable characters are: Cloud Strife, Simon Belmont, Ness, Luigi, Rebecca (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Squad Four[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]) and Ash Beckland (from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]). Of the characters that don't appear in any of the OTL Smash Bros. games, here's a quick overview of their fighting styles:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shad (a somewhat slow fighter who specializes in the use of his laser gun, he's somewhat more of a bulkier Fox McCloud)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Woofle (Romps around the stage pouncing on people and licking them with his tongue, he's surprisingly quick for his size but can be knocked around easier than other heavy fighters)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Cloud Strife (A bulky sword fighter who can deal a lot of damage with his blade, think a bulkier version of OTL's Ike)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Simon Belmont (specializes in whip fighting and is fairly agile, sort of like Zero Suit Samus but without as many kicks)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rebecca (uses her twin blades for quick, furious melee strikes, she's fast but her attacks don't pack much punch)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ash Beckland (fights a lot like OTL Solid Snake but is a bit more accessible for newbie fighters, uses bombs, guns, and powerful melee blows)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Of the six unlockables, Luigi and Ness are acquired identically to OTL. Cloud, Simon, Ash, and Rebecca can be unlocked one of two ways: either via game saves (with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania: SOTN, Ballistic Limit 2, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and the as of yet unreleased third [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Squad Four [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]game respectively) or via in-game methods, Cloud and Simon's are fairly easy, Rebecca's is a bit trickier, and Ash has the toughest unlock method in the game (requiring players to beat single-player mode in Normal on a single life). This leads some players to come up with conspiracy theories stating that Nintendo wanted to drive up sales of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ballistic Limit 2 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif](and when Ash's unlock is included in the July 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nintendo Underground[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], they say it's to drive up Nintendo Underground subscriptions instead). It's not a major controversy but it is brought up time to time on online message forums of the day.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is a major seller for Nintendo upon its release in North America, easily clearing a million copies there amongst a variety of players. The game doesn't get great reviews, but it's considered to be a solid game, a really good multiplayer title, and a must-own game for all fans of Nintendo's primary franchises. The game's popularity also leads Sega to begin working on a sequel to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fighters Megamix[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which is eventually released for the Saturn in 2000.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Nintendo:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All Star Tennis '99:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “Solid graphics and accurate gameplay make this a good, if somewhat bare-bones, tennis game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.3 (quote: “We would've liked to see some real life courts but at least a few real pros are included.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Doom: Inferno[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “Doom comes to the Ultra Nintendo and the action blew us away!”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.1 (quote: “A tremendously gorgeous game with some fantastic level design.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Drakkhen II[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.5 (quote: “Old-school role playing translates moderately well to the new school Ultra.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 4.6 (quote: “This game stumbles in a number of ways. RPGs have come a long way since the original, this series clearly hasn't.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Grim Fandango[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.5 (quote: “Awesome puzzles and a witty storyline make this a can't miss game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 9.2 (quote: “What a great port! This game is a step ahead of Curse of Monkey Island in terms of ingenuity.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden II[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.2 (quote: “A beautifully crafted RPG with a long, epic storyline.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.7 (quote: “Some of the most amazing characters in recent memory, complete with a truly memorable villain.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Super Smash Bros.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.3 (quote: “It's a bit simplistic but you can't beat the fantastic character selection.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.0 (quote: “This game is definitely best if you have three friends in the room.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Thousand Arms[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.7 (quote: “The dating-sim elements are a bit unnecessary, but we liked this game's rather kitschy feel.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.6 (quote: “A classic RPG with an anime twist.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ultra Triple Play [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.5 (quote: “EA put a lot of effort into the presentation, and it pays off big time.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.9 (quote: “It succeeds in several ways that last year's Ken Griffey game didn't, though the gameplay's not as authentic.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Vanguard Bandits[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
EGM: 7.0 (quote: “The mech-based action is unique, but the game suffers from a bit of a sloppy translation.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.8 (quote: “With a lot of fun characters, Vanguard Bandits might keep you hooked on the story even if the gameplay suffers somewhat.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You Don't Know Jack[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “The humor gets old fairly quickly, as do a lot of the questions.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.1 (quote: “Your first few play sessions are kind of fun, then this game quickly wears out its welcome.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 9.0 (quote: “What starts out as a fairly play-by-numbers RPG with good voice acting turns into a heartrending character study that will attach you very deeply to these characters.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.8 (quote: “It surpasses the original in every way even if there's nothing really innovative about the gameplay.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “Andrekah is back with a fresh coat of paint in this whimsical Ultra installment.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.5 (quote: “Few franchises' leaps into 3D have worked as well as this one's has.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]When The Sun Sets[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.2 (quote: “The jokes are cribbed straight from Buffy and ultimately this vampire thriller is just mediocre.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.4 (quote: “One of the funniest vampire games ever made, the gameplay's pretty straightforward but the script had us in stitches.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Felidae[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Some of the designs on this game's barely scary cat monsters are far more hilarious than they're supposed to be.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 5.9 (quote: “Laugh-worthy CGI and clunky gameplay drag down what could have been a decently good game.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.8 (quote: “One of the best racing games since Gran Turismo.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.4 (quote: “The 18 tracks each have their own tricks and quirks, and the cars themselves look gorgeous on the Ultra.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Saturn:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mortal Kombat 4[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 8.0 (quote: “Looks really pretty on the Ring, and plays as good as the Ultra original.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 8.4 (quote: “Bloody good fun, on the Sega Saturn at last.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 6.0 (quote: “Namco's latest RPG is a fairly ho-hum effort, and I've seen better.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 7.9 (quote: “Dark and melancholy, with a unique plot, this goddess tale is one of the best RPGs in the Saturn library.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Whirlwind 2[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]EGM: 7.0 (quote: “While this platformer doesn't do much that the first game didn't, it adds some unique levels and thrilling boss fights to what was a pretty good mix before.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gamespot: 6.7 (quote: “About as by the numbers as platformers get, Whirlwind 2 has some pretty animation but doesn't offer much new to the genre.”)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's going to be a big year of films for Warner Bros. In addition to their various superhero films, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Batman Triumphant [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Superman: The Man of Tomorrow [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]first among them, there's also next month's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Twister 2. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But the first highly-anticipated Warner Bros. film of the year is [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], the sci-fi thriller from the Wachowski brothers, best known for their 1996 crime drama [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bound[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is about a man named Neo who discovers that the world he lives in is a lie, and must risk everything to free humanity from oppressive rule. The film stars Brandon Lee, son of the late martial arts film legend Bruce Lee, and this is easily Lee's best performance yet. Best known for his work on the two [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Crow [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]films, which did only middling box office numbers, Lee's been puttering around in martial arts action films for half a decade now. 1997's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Legend of the Dragon [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was supposed to be a major film, picking up where his father left off, but it was a poorly reviewed flop despite what critics described as a film-carrying performance from Lee. Here, Lee plays Neo as a complete, well, neophyte to the strange war he's been unwittingly dragged into, and even as he learns kung fu in what seems like an instant, it takes time for him to gain confidence, something Lee portrays extremely well. Lee's costar in the film is Lucy Liu, who plays Trinity, a woman who helps bring Neo into the strange world these characters are inhabiting. Trinity dismisses Neo at first, but over the course of the film, comes to realize his potential, growing along with him throughout the movie. Laurence Fishburne is superb as Morpheus, the leader of the band of heroes that Neo's been brought into. He serves as a guide to Neo, leading him on his journey and telling him everything he needs to know about the war he's getting ready to fight. Fishburne's work on 1997's surprise hit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Event Horizon [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has been widely praised, but his work in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is arguably better, and he's ultimately one of the strongest characters in the film. There are also strong performances from Joe Pantoliano (who previously worked with the Wachowskis in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bound[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]) and Hugo Weaving (who, as one of the government agents tasked with bringing Neo and his friends down, is a long, long way from his hilarious performance in [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Priscilla, Queen of the Desert[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]). [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is both a thrilling action masterpiece featuring brilliant special effects and a thought provoking work of philosophy. It's one of the year's smartest blockbusters, and every film goer who loves great action films owes it to themselves to check it out.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]3.5 stars out of four[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Matrix [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the Des Moines Register, April 7, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah's back and there's gonna be trouble! For the bad guys, that is! [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is the first installment of the series to be released on the Ultra Nintendo, and Sunsoft's latest takes the fantastic spell-swapping gameplay of the SNES-CD and Genesis games and adapts it brilliantly to 3-D. This game is a fully 3-D adventure, where the young witch Andrekah is seeking her certification as a Master Witch. Unfortunately, only one certification is given out every blue moon, and Andrekah is competing with a fierce rival named Beatrice who is already two steps ahead of her! In order to win the title of Master Witch, Andrekah must learn the Six Secret Spells, which will require her to go to six different corners of the world to seek them out. The gameplay's been adapted for 3-D, Andrekah can now lock onto enemies and fire spells at them, which have a variety of effects. Some spells are for attack, others are for defense, and some help Andrekah find treasures or access secret areas. In addition, as you progress through the game, Andrekah will learn new spells and her old spells can gain in strength. The game has a lot of similarities with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mega Man Legends[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], which makes sense, since the earlier titles had a lot of similarities with the original [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mega Man [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]games. The game is also full of anime cutscenes, and features voice acting by an entirely new group than in prior games (if you've seen [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Slayers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], you'll be familiar with many of the voices, including Rachel Lillis as Andrekah herself). While the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series took a bit of a left turn in recent games, becoming more shooter than platformer and crossing over numerous times with [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Panorama Cotton[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], this game takes the adorable witch back to her roots, and it should be a big hit! [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is definitely one of the standout games of the spring, and if you love anime, you'll love this game![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-from a review of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Andrekah: Witches' Brew [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]in the June 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Animerica[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]While Ubisoft's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is this month's most anticipated RPG (ironically, it's the only Western-made RPG of the month), this is one of the biggest months for RPG fanatics in a long time, with no less than five games spread across the two major consoles. Ultra Nintendo is getting five, while the Saturn is getting two (Thousand Arms is going multiplatform). We've already told you about The Darkest Night, here are some brief summaries of the other four games.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden II: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Apart from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Darkest Night[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], this is probably the month's most anticipated RPG, after [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]became a cult hit back on the SNES-CD. This game steps it up in every way from the original. The graphics have improved (though don't expect something as pretty as the upcoming [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy VIII[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]), and the plot has taken a significant step forward. This game sees your heroic armies attempting to stop the conquests of the maniacal Luca Blight, perhaps the nastiest RPG villain since Kefka. Once again, over 100 characters are available to recruit, and the game features some exciting turn-based battles that will test all of your skills, with traditional battles being supplemented by one-on-one duels and huge army-based battles similar to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fire Emblem [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Final Fantasy Tactics[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]. Plus, if you still have your old SNES-CD save data from the previous game, you can import it into [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Suikoden [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]to boost your characters' stats, making the game somewhat easier (it's one of the tougher RPGs in recent memory).[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Vanguard Bandits: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From Working Designs, which previously worked on [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Tale Lemuria [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]and will be releasing an updated [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lunar [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]later this year, this is more of a strategy RPG than any of the others released this month. Your characters will mount giant mecha suits and engage in combat on a large grid where you must carefully position them for maximum strategic value. While this game is hardly anything new to anyone who's played the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Front Mission [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]series, the fun characters and voice acted cutscenes do add to the presentation value, and if you're a Working Designs fan, it's a game worth looking at.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Thousand Arms: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This game combines elements of RPGs with elements of dating sims, and is releasing for both the Ultra Nintendo (this month) and the Sega Saturn (in June). Romancing certain female characters allows your main character to wield more powerful weapons and magic, making the dating-sim elements a necessary part of the game. While this is certainly a unique feature, it can be somewhat annoying and frustrating for anyone who's never played a dating sim before, and as just a standard RPG, the game is relatively basic. Still, for those looking for a little romance in their RPGs, this game is right up your alley.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn: [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Apart from [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Mortal Kombat 4[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'s long awaited port and the multiplatform title [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], this Namco title might just be the most anticipated Saturn game of the month. It features a girl named Solemn, born into poverty and slavery, who discovers her destiny: to become a goddess and save the world. However, in her 16 years of life, she's seen only the worst of humanity, and refuses the call, preferring that the planet fall into the hell she thinks it deserves. It's up to her companions, a boy named Kevin and a girl named Kyra, to convince her otherwise while cultivating her powers by battling both evil humans and powerful demons. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]has one of the more intriguing power-up systems in recent memory, Solemn's skills are leveled up by the sacrificing of living beings. Sacrificing evil beings raises Solemn's skills slowly, but choosing to sacrifice good beings, while taking the story on a much darker path, will make Solemn a lot more powerful a lot more quickly. This is one of the more melancholy RPGs we've ever played, and at an M rating, one of the most mature as well. It's also right up there with the very best Saturn RPGs, and if you can handle a really dark story, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Agni Solemn [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]could be the RPG for you.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article on the website GameRush.com, posted on April 26, 1999[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fuel Up With Supercar World Circuit![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is Tecmo's newest racing game for the Sega Saturn and the Ultra Nintendo. Featuring more than 30 of the world's most famous supercars and 18 of the world's greatest racetracks, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]takes you around the world and back on a high-octane racing challenge that will test your skill and courage.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Unlike most racing titles, including [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gran Turismo[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]doesn't make you race over and over again to unlock the best cars. All 34 cars are available right from the moment you first turn on the game. Instead of dangling unlockables in front of you, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]presents increasing levels of challenge as you win more and more races. From the initial Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty modes come four more modes to unlock as you progress through the game's challenges: Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Super. Beat all the game's challenges in Super mode, and you'll get a special code that you can actually send to Tecmo to purchase a special t-shirt bragging about your skills in the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]features several racing modes, including:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Single Track: Battle it out on any of the game's 18 tracks against a selection of opponents. You can also play with up to 3 other human players in this mode.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Racing Challenge: Take on a variety of challenges with numerous stipulations, which can involve handicaps, weather conditions, mirrored tracks, or other special rules. There are 80 different challenges to complete, with many of the challenges available in different variants depending on what difficulty mode you compete in![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Racing Circuit: Compete in a 3, 6, 9, or 18 race season on a variety of tracks. This is the game's main racing mode, where the toughest challenge can be found. Winning an 18 race season on Super mode is considered to be the toughest challenge in the game, and only racing experts need apply![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]will be released on April 6 for both the Sega Saturn and the Ultra Nintendo.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
-excerpted from an article in the April 1999 issue of [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Game Informer [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]previewing [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit[/FONT]
“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Supercar World Circuit was designed for the racing game fan who wanted a 'purer' experience than Gran Turismo. It dispensed with all the collecting and unlockables from that game and simply boasted one thing: the different levels of challenge it offered to players of all types. The Easy and Normal modes were great fun for players new to the racing game genre, and most casual players rarely got past the Hard mode, which was challenging enough. The Super mode was on another plane entirely. If I recall correctly, only 29 of those t-shirts were ever awarded, out of more than a million people who played the game across both platforms. The game was designed to never ever give up the code if any alteration via GameShark was ever detected, so it was impossible to cheat your way to that shirt, and Tecmo only gave it out until the end of 1999. When one of those things went up on Ebay, it went for about 500 dollars ($470.50 to be exact). While most reviewers didn't consider SWC quite as good as Gran Turismo (it wasn't quite as realistic and the graphics were a step down), for racing game purists who wanted a challenge, it was the best thing out there.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]-Stephen Totilo, in an article on Kotaku.com, posted on July 11, 2012[/FONT]
