February 1998
February 1998
The Ultra kept chugging along with more additions to its library. The main ones include of Xenogears, Battletoads 3D, and 1080° Snowboarding.
Xenogears is a 3D RPG directed by Tetsuya Takahashi and released by Square. It follows Fei Fong Fong and other freedom fighters as they fight a corrupt system on Soraya (after Takahashi’s wife’s pen name; Soraya Saga), a planet raging with war. They also uncover the truth behind the mystical forces in their world.
The game hints at it being set in a post-apocalyptic future in which humans were forced to colonize other worlds due to multiple causes including pollution.
The game has 65 chapters (including an epilogue) in total.
It faced controversy due to sensitive religious issues, and was almost never released in North America.
Battletoads 3D is a 3D beat ‘em up game by Rare, and the sixth title in the Battletoads franchise. The Dark Queen is at it again and has now captured Rash and Professor T. Bird. It is up to you to travel the world, find them, and save them.
The 3DO company also got around to releasing a new Gex title, Gex 2: Enter the Gecko for the M2 (which had been released in September of 1997). It was one of the M2’s only major games.
Though not groundbreaking, it was a decent game and got decent scoring, averaging around 67% at best.
The M2’s time was seeming to run out, with 3DO starting to run out of revenue and its games getting generally poor reviews and sales, it seemed the end was nigh.
In a surprise turn of events, JTS (who was running out of cash) sold the Atari intellectual property to Namco for $7.5 million.
SEGA also debuted their new console, the Blackbelt, for a price of $300. It launched with the titles of Panzer Dragoon Saga, Bug Three!, and a port of Virtual Fighter 3 among others.
Panzer Dragoon Saga revolves around Edge, a young mercenary and defected private, as he battles an empire with the help of his dragon companion, Andro. Along the way, Edge encounters a strange girl from a vanished civilization. It blended the series’ previous shooting elements into a 3D RPG. Though it was not a perfect mix of the two.
It was praised generally for its graphics, gameplay, story, and music. And went head-to-head with Xenogears, in the fight for sales. It generally got high scores, getting a 90% from GameRanks*.
Bug Three involves Bug, who’s now a movie director, directing a mystery movie, when suddenly all of his actors disappear. It’s up to you to find them and find out who kidnapped them. The game is a 3D open-world platformer with five main worlds/“sets” (with three sub-worlds in each). In the four of the main worlds you find the four missing actors. And in the final world is the game’s main boss.
Two of the worlds include of Selva Angeles and Kingston Flies.
The first world is Selva Angeles, a Terminator-based jungle world in which you have to save actor Linda Hamuli from the Chameleonator.
The second world is Kingston Flies, a Gremlins-based world in which you have to save actor Zach Glossagan from the Red Gremlants.
The last world is Overgrown Manor, not based around any specific movie but played off of classic horror movie tropes. Its boss is a large bat, Drucas, you have to find a way to clog its ears so it falls down allowing you to attack. After defeating it, you learn that Drucas kidnapped your actors because they wanted to use them for their own movies. At the end, Bug hires Drucas as a writer for his movie, combining both of his and Drucas’ ideas together.
In the video game credits, it is revealed that their movie was a critical hit.
The game generally gets good reviews, averaging around 79%. It went head-to-head with Gex 2: Enter the Gecko in terms of sales, easily beating it.
The Blackbelt was generally well received, but was criticized for a low amount of launch titles. It sold over 1.5 million units in its first month. The future looked bright for Bandai-SEGA.
_____
*GameRanks is OTL GameRankings.
The Ultra kept chugging along with more additions to its library. The main ones include of Xenogears, Battletoads 3D, and 1080° Snowboarding.
Xenogears is a 3D RPG directed by Tetsuya Takahashi and released by Square. It follows Fei Fong Fong and other freedom fighters as they fight a corrupt system on Soraya (after Takahashi’s wife’s pen name; Soraya Saga), a planet raging with war. They also uncover the truth behind the mystical forces in their world.
The game hints at it being set in a post-apocalyptic future in which humans were forced to colonize other worlds due to multiple causes including pollution.
The game has 65 chapters (including an epilogue) in total.
It faced controversy due to sensitive religious issues, and was almost never released in North America.
Battletoads 3D is a 3D beat ‘em up game by Rare, and the sixth title in the Battletoads franchise. The Dark Queen is at it again and has now captured Rash and Professor T. Bird. It is up to you to travel the world, find them, and save them.
The 3DO company also got around to releasing a new Gex title, Gex 2: Enter the Gecko for the M2 (which had been released in September of 1997). It was one of the M2’s only major games.
Though not groundbreaking, it was a decent game and got decent scoring, averaging around 67% at best.
The M2’s time was seeming to run out, with 3DO starting to run out of revenue and its games getting generally poor reviews and sales, it seemed the end was nigh.
In a surprise turn of events, JTS (who was running out of cash) sold the Atari intellectual property to Namco for $7.5 million.
SEGA also debuted their new console, the Blackbelt, for a price of $300. It launched with the titles of Panzer Dragoon Saga, Bug Three!, and a port of Virtual Fighter 3 among others.
Panzer Dragoon Saga revolves around Edge, a young mercenary and defected private, as he battles an empire with the help of his dragon companion, Andro. Along the way, Edge encounters a strange girl from a vanished civilization. It blended the series’ previous shooting elements into a 3D RPG. Though it was not a perfect mix of the two.
It was praised generally for its graphics, gameplay, story, and music. And went head-to-head with Xenogears, in the fight for sales. It generally got high scores, getting a 90% from GameRanks*.
Bug Three involves Bug, who’s now a movie director, directing a mystery movie, when suddenly all of his actors disappear. It’s up to you to find them and find out who kidnapped them. The game is a 3D open-world platformer with five main worlds/“sets” (with three sub-worlds in each). In the four of the main worlds you find the four missing actors. And in the final world is the game’s main boss.
Two of the worlds include of Selva Angeles and Kingston Flies.
The first world is Selva Angeles, a Terminator-based jungle world in which you have to save actor Linda Hamuli from the Chameleonator.
The second world is Kingston Flies, a Gremlins-based world in which you have to save actor Zach Glossagan from the Red Gremlants.
The last world is Overgrown Manor, not based around any specific movie but played off of classic horror movie tropes. Its boss is a large bat, Drucas, you have to find a way to clog its ears so it falls down allowing you to attack. After defeating it, you learn that Drucas kidnapped your actors because they wanted to use them for their own movies. At the end, Bug hires Drucas as a writer for his movie, combining both of his and Drucas’ ideas together.
In the video game credits, it is revealed that their movie was a critical hit.
The game generally gets good reviews, averaging around 79%. It went head-to-head with Gex 2: Enter the Gecko in terms of sales, easily beating it.
The Blackbelt was generally well received, but was criticized for a low amount of launch titles. It sold over 1.5 million units in its first month. The future looked bright for Bandai-SEGA.
_____
*GameRanks is OTL GameRankings.
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