Count_Zero

This week, once again, we’re filling another gap in my archive of EGM recaps, with issue #42 for January of 1993. Our cover story for this issue is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyper-stone Heist for the Genesis. Our editorial column for this issue relates to CD Rom systems. In particular, Sega’s got the Sega CD, and while it doesn’t have a lot of great software, at least they have software. Nintendo’s CD system is still promises in the ether, yet they’re still attacking Sega’s system in press releases. Well, Nintendo of America is anyway – I haven’t finished reading Game Over, but thus far, Nintendo of America is the one that most often seems full of bull. Letters First up are questions about whether anyone other than the SNES is getting Street Fighter II – well, aside from the Genesis, several home computer platforms are getting releases – notably Atari ST, Commodore 64, and the Amiga – but only in Europe (so if you hunt these down, then I hope you’ve got a PAL monitor). Also, in Japan arcades are putting out specially licensed Street Fighter II tokens, some of which are gold, or with holographic images. We also get a letter about Tengen Tetris, and letters about the costs for disk games. Ultimately, while disk games are less expensive to manufacture than cartridge based games, studios have sunk the manufacturing savings into development, allowing them to develop more elaborate games (occasionally involving FMV). We also have a very perceptive reader who must be a software developer, noting that Sega has apparently re-discovered a coding trick for graphics from the Amiga and is using it with Genesis games. I did not know that. Review Crew The crew this issue is, as from last issue, Steve Harris, Ed Semrad, the man who calls it right down the middle – Martin Alessi, and Sushi-X. Magical Quest Featuring Mickey Mouse (SNES, Capcom): So, this platformer gets 9s across the board because of the dynamic gameplay. Overall: 36/40 and it gets Game of the Month and the Editor’s Choice Platinum Award. Cybernator (SNES, Konami): Mecha action game. The game gets 8s across the board. The game apparently has a moderately steep learning curve to it, but it’s got some deep gameplay and a lot of fun graphical tricks, so it apparently makes up for it. Overall: 32/40 and gets the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. X-Zone (SNES, Kemco): Light gun game for the super-scope. The crew feels that the game really is the killer app (no pun intended) for the Super Scope. Steve gives it a 7, with the rest of the crew giving 8s. Overall: 31/40. Gods (SNES, Mindscape): Action-platformer with a mythological theme. Ed and Steve consider this a good side-scrolling action-platformer with some puzzle elements and they give the game 7s. Martin and Sushi aren’t as impressed, having some problems with unresponsive controls, and not liking the poor sound. Martin gives a 5, and Sushi gives a 6. Overall: 25/40. Pro Quarterback (SNES, Tradewest): I shouldn’t need to tell you what kind of game this is. The Mode 7 graphics (and how they’re implemented) cause some problems with passing. The degree which this hurts the game depends on the member of the Crew – but in seriousness, this is the biggest complaint everyone has with the game. Ed and Martin gave the game 7s, Steve gave it a 6, and Sushi gave it a 5. Overall: 25/40. Chester Cheetah (SNES, Kemco): Platformer licensed from the snack mascot. Remember when snack foods had mascots? Anyway, Steve finds the game too slowly paced, and gives it a 6. Everyone else is considerably more impressed with the game. Martin and Sushi give the game 8s, and Ed gives the game a 9. Overall: 31/40. TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist (Genesis, Konami): This is a slightly re-done version of Turtles in Time. The game is applauded for it’s detailed graphics, though Sushi found it way too easy and gives it a 7. Everyone else gave it 8s. Overall: 31/40. Road Rash 2 (Genesis, EA): The second game in the series now includes split-screen multiplayer, though the crew isn’t too impressed with it. They like the rest of the game though – Martin gives the game a 7, while the rest of the crew gives it 8s. Overall: 31/40. Jerry Glanville’s Pigskin Footbrawl (Genesis, Razorsoft): You may recall that back when I was bothering to recap issues of GamePro, they actually interviewed Glanville about this fantasy twist on football, and how he did all sorts of input on the game. Well, it either wasn’t very useful, or they ignored him, or both, because this game doesn’t do so hot. Everyone agrees that the game has little to nothing to do with football, and they’re kind of wondering why Glanville endorsed it – outside of wanting some of those sweet dollars that Madden was raking in. The game also isn’t particularly very fun if you’re not playing a two-player game. Anyway, Ed gives the game a 7, Martin gives it a 6, Steve a 5, and Sushi a 4. Aquatic Games (Genesis, EA): We have a James Pond Track & Field Game. It’s precisely as “good†as you think it is – meaning it’s pretty mediocre – one of those games (as the crew describes it), that’s clearly aimed for kids in terms of it’s play style, visual style, and control, except the game is balanced for older players, who wouldn’t play this game. Ed and Sushi give the game 6s, while Martin gives it a 5 and Steve gives a 4. Overall: 21/40. Exile (Turbo Duo, Working Designs): This game was covered a few issues prior (and last issue in particular, come to think about it). The crew likes the game for its story, though they’re not too fond of the game’s music. Ed gives it an 8, and the rest of the crew give it 7s. Overall: 29/40. Time Cruise (Turbo Duo, Face): This is a pinball game with something of a sci-fi theme. The consensus is that while the game takes advantage of the fact that you’re not dependent on physical space to have large boards, it’s still a rather bland game. Ed and Martin give the game 6s, while Steve and Sushi give it 5s. Overall: 21/40. Shock Man (Turbo Duo, TTI): This is very much a Mega Man wannabe. Sushi really likes it though, and gives it a 7. The rest of the crew, as you make your way up the list, finds it progressively more dull, with Martin giving a 6, Ed a 5, and Steve a 4. Overall: 22/40. RoboCop 3 (NES, Ocean): One of a series of 3 licenced games (not all by Ocean) coming out for the NES this month. The crew considers this the best of the RoboCop games – though that’s still not saying much, as it’s merely decent instead of godawful. Sushi gives it a 5, with the rest of the crew giving it 6s. Overall: 23/40. The Jetsons (NES, Taito): Now this game, on the other hand, gets a fairly solid review score. Everyone likes the game, with Ed giving it a 8 and the rest of the crew giving 7s. Overall: 29/40. Swamp Thing (NES, THQ): This one didn’t do so well. The graphics and animation are bad, the pacing for the levels are terrible, and the graphics are awful. Ed gives it a 4, and everyone else gives it 3s. Overall: 13/40. Terminator 2: Arcade (Game Boy, Acclaim): This is an adaptation of the light gun game for the Game Boy, where you move cross-hairs with the D-Pad. Sushi gives the game a 6 (as while he thinks the game is solid, it’s still a Game Boy game), and the rest of the crew gives the game 7s. Overall: 27/40. Dig Dug (Game Boy, Namco): Portable version of the Namco arcade game. Everyone finds it pretty solid, though kind of average, with Sushi giving it a 5 and everyone else giving it 6s. Overall: 23/40. Mega Man 3 (Game Boy, Capcom): Sushi considers it one of the best Game Boy games in the past few months, but he still wants a higher resolution, color Game Boy and gives it a 7, and Ed and Steve gave it 8s, with Martin giving it a 9. Overall: 32/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. Prince of Persia (Game Gear, Tengen): The game gets very sold reviews, except from Sushi, who considers it an lackluster port, and gives it a 5. Martin gives the game a 7, and the rest of the crew gives it 8s. Overall: 28/40. Super Off-Road (Game Gear, Virgin): The crew isn’t very impressed with this port, because of the system’s small screen, Ed gives it a 6, Steve and Sushi give the game 5s, and Martin gives it a 4. Overall: 20/40. Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop (Lynx, Atari): While this is a good looking adventure game on the Lynx, it doesn’t review great. Steve gives it a 5, Ed and Martin give the game 6s, and Sushi gave the game a 7. Overall: 24/40. Gaming Gossip The 3DO console has been code-named the “Operaâ€, though it later becomes known simply as the 3DO. There’s also a look at the Sega CD’s starting lineup (including Virtua Racing). Finally, before there was the Madden Curse, there was the Sega Curse – Evander Holeyfield apparently lost the title shortly after getting his own boxing game. Also, Tecmo Super Bowl is getting delayed to 1993. News According to reports in Japanese newspapers, Sony has finally dumped Nintendo and their planned CD-ROM add-on, and is planning on working on a system of their own, to be called the PlayStation. Nintendo is planning on attaching themselves to the Phillips and their CD-I instead. Atari is also planning to price their next-gen system, the Jaguar at $99. At CES, Sega’s planning on introducing a whole bunch of new add-ons for the Sega CD and the Genesis, including a 6-button controller, a two-button mouse, a multi-tap, and a karaoke add-on. Leading Edge First in the arcades, Street Fighter II Turbo Championship Edition or just Street Fighter II Turbo. Basically, there are some new attacks, and it’s faster, but otherwise that’s it. Irem has R-Type Leo. Capcom also has the brawler Destruction of Heaven and Earth 2, which looks kind of pre-cursor of Dynasty Warriors-ish. Game Doctor We get questions about game collection (currently not widespread, but give it a few years) and, using a cartridge as a buffer for a CD-ROM game (the Turbo Duo’s already doing that). International Outlook We have a new Ultraman fighter, based on the Ultraseven TV series. Sunsoft has the RPG Albert Odyssey. There’s also the brawler The Fang of Edo from Telenet. Human also has the RPG Dragon’s Earth. There’s also Mazin Saga featuring Mazinger Z. There’s also a portable version of Shining Force for the Game Gear. Hudson has the cute mascot-based shump Cotton. The Sega CD has a Cyborg 009 game. Next Wave We have a look at Flashback from US Gold, as well as the Alien vs. Predator brawler from Activision. Sega also has their X-Men action-platformer, along with Chakan: The Forever Man. The Duo is getting Bomberman ’93, and the NES and Game Boy are getting Yoshi’s Cookie. Features We get a featured preview of Road Rash 2. The article goes into several things they wanted to include, but couldn’t for technical limitations – stuff like weather and Harley Davidson style motorcycles. We also get a look at the making of Phantasy Star IV. Previews The titles of note that we get a look at are Bubsy, The Lost Vikings, a Wayne’s World game, as well as a look at the Cool World licensed game. Ocean also had a Lethal Weapon 3 licensed game. There’s also a look at California Games 2 and Skuljagger. We have Battleclash, another light gun game for the SNES. EA has Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs as well. On the Genesis we have our preview of The Hyperstone Heist, along with a Superman game from Sunsoft, and then Double Dragon 3, along with a port of Out of this World. There’s also a look at Ecco the Dolphin and Sunset Riders. Taito has a sequel to Chase HQ as well. EA has the racing game Lotus Turbo Challenge with two licensed cars. Tradewest has Championship Pro-Am, which is in the same series as RC Pro-Am. There’s also the cyberpunk adventure game Rise of the Dragon. On the Duo we have our look at Lords of Thunder, the next big shump for the Duo. The NES is also getting a sequel to RC Pro-Am, along with NES versions of Alien 3 and The Terminator. On the Game Boy, we get a look at Super Mario Land 2, and Adventure Island 2. The Game Gear gets Super Space Invaders. On the Lynx we have Dracula: The Undead and Joust. EGM Lifestyles We get our first look at Babylon 5, as well as information about Coppola’s “Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein†film, along with Disney’s “Hocus Pocus.†Additionally, we get an article about the Star Trek official Fan Club magazine. Unfortunately, the fan club no longer exists in the united states. Bummer. We also get an article about the hip new trend spreading through the comic industry – variant covers. This trend will ultimately nearly kill the industry, and end up destroying several lesser publishers. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Get "In the Electric Mist" from Amazon.com As a quick note – I’m reviewing the US release of the film. The European Union cut of the film is several minutes longer and is the director’s vision for how the film would turn out. The way that crime thrillers and mysteries have been adapted to the big screen has kind of changed over the years, more or less. While TV series like Peter Gunn and Bones try (and succeed) to provide a “knowledge chain” sort of like a chain of custody, where the audience has access to the same pieces of evidence that the people investigating the crime(s) has, and they see how the conclusions are drawn, and they usually figure out who solved the crime around the same time the detective does. Films, and in particular In the Electric Mist, don’t do it that way. The film follows Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux (played by Tommy Lee Jones). While he investigates the brutal murder of a prostitute, he comes upon (with the help of an actor in town as part of a movie shoot), the body of a black man he saw murdered when he was a young man. Robicheaux decides to investigate both the new murder and the old murder at the same time. My main complaint with the film is how it handles the investigation. To be specific, the film gives some lip service to the first murder (and subsequent related murders) in the first half to three quarters of the film, and then it casually forgets about it, focusing on the murder that Robicheaux witnessed as a young man. I don’t have a problem with the movie spending time on the older murder. What I do have a problem with is that the movie forgets about the big series of murders. The film establishes that there are at least a dozen murders related to the one that’s started at the beginning of the film (possibly making it a serial), and the film lets it slide. We do get some vague, possible closure over who might have done those murders, but it’s not satisfactory. On the good side, the film’s acting is excellent, particularly Tommy Lee Jones’ performance as Robicheaux. Jones does an excellent job getting across the character’s emotional torment over certain plot points (which I won’t get into), without overacting. When all’s said and done though, I can’t recommend a purchase of this film. It’s an enjoyable film to watch, but I wouldn’t buy it. However, I would recommend giving the film a rental, if you come across it in a RedBox, or in a video store, or on Amazon VOD, or it pops up as a Netflix recommendation. Filed under: film, Reviews Tagged: DVD, film, review Source

I’m sorry, but I have to admit that I wasn’t able to get past the first level of this one. The game sends a never-ending string of enemies at you in the first level, and I wasn’t particularly able to figure out a pattern for the first boss, so I wasn’t able to get past it – at least not within my self assigned deadline. This is not a game I would have been happy to spend money on. Pass on this game unless you don’t have any problems regularly running into a brick wall. No, seriously – if you’re looking for a run-and-gun (as that’s all this game really is), hunt down a SNK or Metal Slug collection instead. If you want a Star Wars game, pick up one of the Jedi Knight games, or Republic Commando, or Knights of the Old Republic. There are much better Star Wars games out there. Filed under: Quality Control, Video games Tagged: Quality Control, review, SNES, Video games Source

We’re continuing with our Nintendo Power Recaps, with issue 42 for November of 1992. Our cover story for this issue is Super Star Wars for the SNES. Joe & Mac Guide The first major cave man platformer has come out for the NES, and the art on this preview fails anatomy pretty badly. We get maps of the first 4 levels of the game, as well as notes for fighting the various bosses. Crash & The Boys Street Challenge Guide This is, essentially, a Track & Field game with a River City Ransom skin. We have Hammer Throw Golf, Water Slaughter (a swimming event, where both competitors can fight underwater if they so choose, and they do choose), Skyline Scramble (pole vault between the roofs of buildings), and Judo (straight-up fight). Mega Man 1 Guide It’s been some time since Mega Man 1 came out, but they’re gonna take a moment to revisit it for those who didn’t subscribe to the old Nintendo Fun Club newsletter. We get maps of the stages for Bomb Man, Guts Man, Cut Man, Elecman, Ice Man, Fire Man, and Dr. Wily’s castle. Legend of Zelda Comic Roam defeats the multi-headed serpent, and Zelda is freed. Link and Zelda and Roam escape the fire temple before it explodes. Roam then says that he’ll be the one to defeat Ganon and sets out on his own. Zelda tells Link that while a magic arrow is what it takes to defeat Ganon, Roam’s attitude will likely be his downfall. As they’re about to enter the castle, Roam appears, and his negative emotions summons spirits of the various enemies Link has defeated, including Aghanim. The spirit of Aghanim overcomes Roam, and they merge into Ganon! To Be Continued. The Flintstones Guide Last issue we got a guide for the Jetson’s game. This issue we have a guide from the Flintstones game. We get notes for each of the levels in the game, but no maps for the levels. Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins Guide We get notes on the various zones in the game, but not maps for the various levels in the game. Track & Field Guide The Game Boy has a track and field game of its very own now. We get a run down of the events in the game. WWF Superstars 2 Guide Another wrestling game for the Game Boy. We get a run down of 3 of the 6 wrestlers who appear in the game, Hogan, the Undertaker, and the Mountie. Super Mario Adventures Comic The wedding of Bowser and Peach has arrived! The ceremony begins and Mario makes his dramatic entrance right at “Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peaceâ€. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest Guide Instead of getting Final Fantasy V, we’re getting this incredibly simplified RPG. It’s probably even more linear than Final Fantasy XIII was accused of being. We get maps of the dungeons and information on where to go (though, having played the game, I can say that it’s really hard to get lost.) We get maps of the forest dungeon, the earth dungeon, and the water dungeon. Super Star Wars Guide We get maps of the levels in the game, and some power up notes. It looks like while the graphics are better, they have made the levels a little smaller, and have dropped some of the more non-linear elements of the original, which is for the best. The notes for the levels continue on to the poster, covering every level in the game. Shooter Feature We get coverage of two shooters this issue, one is Axelay, which was an Also Ran that became a Quality Control pick several issues ago, and Space Megaforce from Toho. Space Megaforce is a top-down shooter like Xevious, but with Gradius & Thunder Force style weapon upgrades. We get some notes for areas 1 through 8 in this game. For Axelay we get notes on the various weapon upgrades, as well as on the first 6 stages of the game. Faceball 2000 Guide The SNES now has a First Person shooter, and a tame one at that. We get some notes on the gameplay and little else than that. Top 20 While Mario still holds the top spot on the NES and the Game Boy (with the first Super Mario Land), Street Fighter II has bumped Legend of Zelda and Mario from the top spot on the SNES side of the list. The Celebrity Player Profiles are now no more, replaced with a crossword puzzle. It’s the end of an era. Nester’s Adventures This issue Nester is playing “Out of this World†and he has some difficulty controlling the hover vehicle. Now Playing We have a special guest reviewer, Jade Hall, who won an earlier contest. This issue, I’m going to be sticking with reviews that particularly catch my attention. Jade likes just about everything except for Amazing Spider-Man 2 for the Game Boy, the space sim Out of Gas, and shump Starhawk (all for the Game Boy). As far as Rob and George go, they’re split and Crash & The Boys Street Challenge and Rocky & Bullwinkle. Not too much else caught my eye. Pak Watch Of note this issue is Spider-Man & The X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge from LJN. Vic Tokai is working on “Super Conflict†a turn based (hex base) strategy game based on Operation Desert Storm. My Quality Control pick for this issue is Super Star Wars, as I said I would pick several recaps ago. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: Nintendo Power, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

This week we’re going back to fill another gap in my archive. Specifically, issue 41 for December of 1992. Our cover story for this issue is Road Rash 2 from EA. For those unfamiliar with the series, Road Rash is a motorcycle combat racing game series. Our editorial column from this issue is from Ed Semrad, hyping the changes to EGM. Basically, the magazine is now bigger and better. No information about whether it’s more badass. In the letters column we get several letters about whether or not there is a boss code for standard Street Fighter II. Capcom says there isn’t, but Capcom also says that there isn’t a character vs. same color character code either, and they’re running that code this issue. That said, I don’t see why you’d want to both be playing characters of the same color, because then it’d be harder to tell which character is yours. We also have a letter hoping for more Star Wars games, and another letter from a reader who figured out, entirely on his own, why the names for Vega, Balrog, and M. Bison were switched around in the American version of Street Fighter II, and he wants to check to see if he was right (he was). Review Crew We now return to the classic lineup – Steve Harris, Ed Semrad, Martin Alessi, and Sushi-X. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis, Sega): The crew likes the game, but Steve and Martin feel that the game is too linear and give the game 8s, without more options for exploration. Ed and Sushi-X though feel that the multi-player makes up for it, with Ed giving a 10 and Sushi giving a 9. Overall: 35/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award and Game of the Month. Death Valley Rally (SNES, Sunsoft): This is a kind of speed based platformer (ala Sonic), where you play as Road Runner. That the style of platformer certainly lends itself to some of the more speed based Looney Toons characters. Steve, Martin and Sushi find the game really good though Martin and Steve found the controls a little sloppy and the gameplay a little too fast, and they give the game 8s. Ed absolutely loves the game, particularly with how they use Mode 7 for the Coyote falling sequences, and gives it a 9. Overall: 31/40. Desert Strike (SNES, Electronic Arts): So, Sushi X’s response to the game can best be described as “America, FUCK YEAH!â€, and gives it an 8. Steve and Ed give it 7s, finding the control a little choppy (get it, choppy – it’s a chopper game, yeah), though they otherwise like the game. However, Martin is a little less impressed with the graphics and gives it a 6. Overall: 28/40. Q*Bert (SNES, NTVIC): Ed was concerned about the game’s control, but he’s satisfied with the game and gives it a 7. Martin’s also a little satisfied and gives it a 6. Sushi finds the game repetitive and tedious and gives it a 5, while Steve isn’t fond of the controls and gives it a 4. You know, I suspect that Q*Bert would work great for something for Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live’s Game Room, with online leader-boards and challenges. Overall: 22/40. Super Valis IV (SNES, Atlus): Gets 7s across the board for not having the same sound quality and cutscenes as the CD-ROM versions of the game, but it’s still a solid action platformer. Overall: 28/40. Spider-Man and X-Men in Arcade’s revenge (SNES, LJN): It’s a Marvel licensed game from LJN. They’ve been hit-or-miss in the past. Ed and Sushi like this game, thinking the controls are good and the characters have excellent variety and give it an 8 and a 7 respectively. Steve and Martin are a little less impressed with the lack of the ability to select your character, and they give it 6s. Overall: 27/40 Mega Man 5 (NES, Capcom): Another year, another Mega Man game. Steve thinks the series really should have gone to 16-bit, and gives it a 6. The rest of the Crew agrees, but they still think the game merited a higher score than that, with Ed giving a 9 and Martin and Sushi giving 8s. Overall: 31/40. Batman Returns (NES, Konami): It’s a Batman themed Beat-em-up. They consider it a little more iffy and repetitive than Sunsoft’s earlier Batman games, with Ed giving a 7, Martin and Sushi giving 6s, and Steve giving a 5. Overall: 23/40. Madden ’93 (Genesis, EA): It’s Madden, and it’s 1993. It’s well executed, though Ed is a little uncertain about whether this annual roster update and minor gameplay tweak thing will work out. *Looks over at his shelf of games and his copy of Madden ’09* I think Madden will fare just fine. Steve and Ed give the game 8s, while Martin and Sushi give the game 9s. Overall: 34/40. Crue Ball (Genesis, EA): It’s a glam metal pinball game with Motley Crue’s music. The main complaints are with the sound quality – Martin says this game would be a better fit with the Sega CD, because of the capabilities of the Sega CD. Martin and Steve give the game 6s, Sushi-X also gives the game a 7, while Ed liked it and gives the game a 9. Overall: 28/40. BioHazard (Genesis, Sega): New Shump from Sega. Unfortunately, it’s a little lackluster. Ed and Martin give it 6s, while Steve and Sushi give it 5s. Overall: 22/40. Sewer Shark (Sega CD, Sony): The crew’s kind of split on this one. Martin and Sushi find it a FMV game with very shallow gameplay, and they give the game 6s. Steve likes it a little more and gives the game a 7. Ed loves the game and gives it a 9. Overall: 28/40. Black Hole Assault (Sega CD, Bignet): This is sort of a mecha fighting game. Sushi finds it just average and gives it a 5. Steve thinks it works okay for two-player, but isn’t so good in single player, and gives the game a 6. Ed and Martin liked the game a little more and gives the game an 8 and a 7 respectively. Overall: 26/40. Night Trap (Sega CD, Sega): Before Grand Theft Auto 3, a series of mods for Doom, and then another mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas would bring video game companies to Congress, Night Trap brought them to Congress to answer for the horrific depictions of women hung on meat-hooks that the congress-critters had been told were in the game by trustworthy lobbyists and other people in the moral majority. Anyway, Steve, Martin and Sushi aren’t too impressed, and give the game 5s, except for Martin who gives it a 6. Again, Ed likes considerably more, and gives it an 8. Overall: 24/40. Cobra Command (Sega CD, Sega): This is a on rails FMV action game which they like considerably more than Sewer Shark, possibly because the FMV is more executed. Ed, Martin and Sushi give the game 7s, and Steve gives it an 8. Overall: 29/40. Loom (Turbo Duo, TTI): The Lucasarts adventure games has been ported to the Turbo Duo, with CD Audio and everything. The crew enjoys the game, with Steve, Ed, and Martin giving the game a 7, while Sushi gives it a 6, as he doesn’t find it very exciting and would prefer to wait for the sequel (which never comes). Overall: 27/40. Dead Moon (Turbo Duo, Natsume): Another shump for the Duo. The crew thinks this is a solid shooter among many solid shooters on the Duo. Steve, Martin and Sushi give it 7s, and Ed gives it an 8. Overall: 29/40. Hit the Ice (Turbo Duo, Taito): This is a hockey game. The crew is kind of split about whether it’s a mediocre hockey game (Steve and Martin) or a great hockey game (Ed and Sushi). Steve and Martin give the game a 5 and 6 respectively, and Ed and Sushi give the game a 8 and 7 respectively. Overall: 26/40. Alien 3 (Game Gear, Ocean): I can’t imagine this sort of pseudo-Metroid style game working on the Game Gear, but the Crew think it works well. Martin gives the game an 8. Steve, Ed and Sushi give the game 7s. Overall: 29/40. Bonk (Game Boy, Hudson Soft): Hudson’s mascot comes to the Game Boy. Aside of Sushi, like normal, hating it because of the limitations of the Game Boy platform and giving it a 5, the rest of the crew liked it. Martin gives the game an 8, and Ed and Steve giving the game 7s. Overall: 27/40. Ren & Stimpy (Game Boy, THQ): Again, Sushi gives this a 5, as he didn’t like it or the platform. The rest of the crew finds it a bit more mediocre, with Martin and Steve gives it 6s, while Ed gives it a 7. Overall: 24/40. Pit Fighter (Lynx, Atari): I’m not impressed with the graphics in the screen shot – it’s slanted toward red – like Virtual Boy red. Aside from Steve giving it an 5, but the rest of the crew liked it. Ed gives it a 6, and Martin and Sushi give it 7s. Overall: 25/40. Gaming Gossip Development has begun for games on the 3DO. There’s also an ad in Variety for the Double Dragon movie, which Q-Mann think looks nice, but we all know that it’s total absolute crap. EGM Express We have sketches of Sony add-on for the SNES, where they become the PlayStation after Nintendo kicks them to the curb. We also have information on the launch of the Sega CD. We also get notes on the launch titles for the system (including Time Gal and Rise of the Dragon). Leading Edge We get a look at the arcade version of Golden Axe III, as well as Street Fighter II Tournament Edition, which now lets you play the bosses. Dogyuun is also an interesting looking shooter, there’s also Lethal Enforcers, and the semi-3D polygonal shooter Space Lords. International Outlook Konami’s working on Gradius III, with even more freaky bio-mechanical enemies to blow up. There’s also Road Blasters FX for the Mega CD-Rom. Media Rings is working on the racing game Zero 4 Champ II for the TurboGrafx CD-ROM. We’ve got Annet Again, featuring the return of Annet Evans. Unfortunately it doesn’t get a US release. Misawa Entertainment has the bizarre shump Christopher Columbus, where instead of steering a space ship or a witch on a broom, or a flying potentially homosexual bodybuilder, you’re piloting a sailing ship. There’s also the first Ranma ½ Fighting game and Cosmic Fantasy 3 (which has already been licensed, with the licensed version being advertised in this very issue). Speaking of anime licensed stuff is Gunbuster for the PC Super CD-ROM (the Turbo Duo). Konami has Snatcher, the latest big project for Hideo Kojima, which I wouldn’t mind seeing getting a new release in the US. There’s the game Super HQ, the sequel to Super Chase HQ for the Genesis. Special Preview We get a big special look at Bubsy, which considering the big behind-the-scenes series of articles we got in GamePro from about the same time, shows that the developers and publishers of the game are doing their best to hype the hell out of this game. Next Wave Of note in this issue is a Jaguar licensed racing game for the Sega CD. Batman: Revenge of the Joker is getting ported and up-rezzed for the SNES. There’s a bad licensed Dracula game (based on the Coppela movie) for the Sega CD. We have a sequel to Smash TV titled Total Carnage for the SNES. EA has the Turbo Lotus Challenge racing game, which much like the Jaguar game features licenced cars, but only from Lotus. Feature Articles We have an article with their wish-list of what they’re hoping for in Street Fighter 3. I’ll be considering this in context with Street Fighter 3 and Alpha, as opposed to the long iterations on Street Fighter 2. First, they’d like to see some faces return from Street Fighter 1, specifically mentioning Birdie, Adon, and Gen, who we all get in the Alpha series. They’d also like to see some super-moves and/or desperation moves, which we also get later in the Alpha series and the Street Fighter 3 series. The writers would prefer that holds become harder to pull off, which doesn’t happen. They’d also like to see some sort of tag match, which we don’t really see until the Versus series of games. Previews Of note this issue, we get a look at the new brawler Rival Turf 2. Konami has the mecha action game Cybernator for the SNES. We finally get a screen shots of Power Moves, after they have gone quite some time without screen shots in the very ads for that game. There’s also a side-scrolling platformer adapted from Dragon’s Lair. I suspect that if the disk add-on for the SNES had been released, we probably would have gotten a proper disk-based version of this game. Ultima: the False Prophet is also being released for the SNES. Koei’s putting out their business strategy game Aerobiz for the SNES. Titles for the Genesis of note (aside of ones featured in the reviews) is Shinobi III. There’s also World of Illusion. There’s also also Road Rash 2 for the Genesis (which is featured on the cover). There’s also a look at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist, which is essentially a re-skinning of Turtles in Time. There’s also a Captain America & The Avengers brawler, which features a fair number of members of the Avengers’ Rogue Gallery in the boss roster… and a Sentinel, which I find odd as none of the Avengers in this game are Mutants. On the Duo we get a preview of Exile, which is a disk-based RPG for the Duo. There’s also Samurai Ghost, which looks a bit like Altered Beast, with swords instead of punching. The NES is getting Robocop 3. The NES has Best of the Best: Championship Karate. The Neo-Geo has the isometric shooter Viewpoint. The Game Boy has Spot’s Cool Adventure. The Game Gear has a port of Prince of Persia, along with Super Off Road. EGM Lifestyles Disney is working on Aladdin, those shoes with lights in the heels are brand new, the Sci-Fi channel has been launched to wider audiences, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has been launched as well. Dark Horse has launched the Alien vs. Predator series of comics, and the Super Soaker has just appeared on the market for the first time. As a kid who lived in an apartment complex as a kid, I always wanted one of those, since the rest of the kids in my complex also had squirt guns, and having the super-soaker would be like bringing “Old Painless†from Predator, or even Tony Montana’s M-16 from Scarface, to the gunfight at the OK Corral. Finally, Image comics has launched, and now Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld can write and draw about whatever they want, giving us Spawn and Youngblood, starting a new wave of absurdly grimdark across the comic landscape. However, we wouldn’t have Witchblade, The Darkness, or Danger Girl without them, so I’ll cut them some slack. Well, I’ll cut Todd some slack. Rob Liefeld still sucks. We wrap up the issue with advice for beating everyone in Street Fighter II in Single Player as Ryu or Ken, and the ending cutscene in Soul Blazer, which is nice to see as that was a Quality Control pick. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Get "The Soul of a New Machine" from Amazon.com About 6 years ago, a sort of scandal rocked the gaming industry related to a blog post by a woman known as “EASpouse”. The blog post criticized EA’s labor practices at the time, which required employees to work massive amounts of unpaid overtime, as they were salaried employees. By massive, I mean about 12-16 hour days, 6 days a week, regularly. This was a big deal among gamers, because very few of us had ever had the opportunity to peek behind the curtain like this. It was likely that most of us viewed game development with a variation of the way that Roald Dahl as a child imagined the inside of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory near the boarding school he attended (which later led to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory). The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder shows that such working conditions are nothing new. The book follows the development process of Data General’s micro-computer (sort of like a rack mounted server, except it’s the size of the whole unit, but essentially only being one of the server nodes), that would be a successor to their Eclipse line of microcomputers, code named the Eagle, and later released as the MV/8000. The book goes into both the personal and technical aspects of the development process, profiling the various men (and a few women) involved in the project, and giving a description of the technical aspects of the process for the layman. While the technical bits (pardon the pun), are enjoyable, the book’s strength, and where it spends most of its time, is in profiles of the people. The book paints a bleak picture of the inner workings of Data General. The working conditions at Data General, particularly on this project, are brutal. Much as with EA Spouse, employees are salaried, with no overtime pay, and work 12-16 hour days, 6 days a week. As the project goes on, project leads and younger employees are worn down. Often, employees at Data General observe that the company brings in a lot of new fresh recruits, and few stay at the company after they turn 30. Many of these new recruits drop out for various reasons, and often employees discuss the company’s sweat-shop like working conditions. As the project moves into the heat of summer, the air conditioning breaks, turning their windowless basement office into a sweltering oven, which they can’t even leave the door open for, for security reasons. Only after the employees strike do they fix the air conditioning. By the end of the book, several of the project leads, themselves burned out, leave the company, and while some of the employees on the Eagle team stay on, many more have left. Tracy Kidder got an impressive amount of access at Data General when he wrote this book, and while he’s honest and truthful about what happened there, Data General, at least to my 21st century mind, comes out of this book smelling like shit. I base this solely on what Data General does, and I know this because Kidder doesn’t whitewash – he thankfully calls it right down the middle. While the book is never accusatory, it makes clear that Data General is a predatory employer. It preys on young, semi-idealistic college Engineering graduates, who don’t have a lot of job experience and are looking more for interesting problems to solve, interesting work to do, than a big paycheck. They promise them interesting problems, and briefly, very briefly, warn them that there will be long hours and possibly a limited social life, that this job will become their life. To meet the deadlines required of them they will have to give up friends, family, and the outside world, living only the job, for months or years at a time. Plus, because they’re salaried, despite all the hours they get that would be overtime, they’re only making their standard pay grade. It chews up 22-24 year old kids, and spits them out at 30, burnouts who had great potential, but were consumed by their jobs. They don’t say if many of these former employees stay in the industry, and some certainly do – Ray Ozzie, creator of Lotus Notes and current Chief Software Architect at Microsoft is a Data General veteran. However, those who leave the industry with a sour taste in their mouth will probably leave worse off then they would be if they worked somewhere else. Had they been actually paid overtime, they could have possibly built a nest egg that could have allowed them to retire early, or to at least take their time looking for work elsewhere. While some poor decisions related to processor architecture helped to kill Data General right before the dawn of the 21st century, it is my suspicion that the boom in Silicon Valley may have inspired a brain drain. Nicer weather, a less oppressive corporate culture. For people who wanted more money, there was the change to come in on the ground floor of companies which had the potential to be worth millions and get significant stock options. For those who preferred challenge, they could face whole new challenges when designing new systems and new architectures at the new companies in the Valley. In summary, the book is a high resolution snapshot of the early days of the computer industry, before the internet started to permeate our lives in subtle ways – computerized tax processing, credit cards, ATM machines, and so on, leading up to the more overt ways it would later find its way in – Bulletin Board Services, E-Mail, and finally, proper web pages. People interested in the history of the computer industry will certainly find this fascinating. People who don’t care about the history of computing can still find something in the profiles of the people in this project, and how the project’s process slowly wears them all down. Filed under: Books, Reviews Tagged: Books, review Source

Get Axelay from eBay When it comes to reviewing the also-rans in Nintendo Power, the reasons for picking that game as a Quality Control title are different from the reasons why I’d pick a game that was featured prominently in the magazine (say, with a guide). With the games that get a guide, I’m looking for a game that’s generally not a classic, and attempting to see if it was worth the consumer’s time. The assumption behind this is that the customer is more likely to buy a game that gets a guide over one that doesn’t. When I’m picking an also-ran, I’m looking for a game that the consumer would likely overlook because of the lack of a guide, but would be worth picking up. A diamond in the rough, if you will. That brings me to Axelay. The game had stood out to me earlier based on how well the game had fared in reviews in Electronic Gaming Monthly – getting 9s across the board due to its quality of gameplay, and its graphics (and being chosen for Game of the Month). However, when I came to this issue of Nintendo Power, the game was considered an also-ran, and was negatively regarded by the only two people at Nintendo Power who are their “critics”. Thus, it seemed to me to be the perfect Quality Control pick. The Premise: The solar system of Illis finds itself besieged by an invading alien armada. After their defenses are overrun, a lone pilot sets out in the D117B “Axelay” starfighter to fend off the enemy attack. The Good: This game has some of the best uses of Mode 7 graphics in shumps. By means of explanation – the game has, like Lifeforce, top down stages and side scrolling stages. However, with the top down stages, the backgrounds are done in Mode 7, giving the illusion of skimming the surface of some alien world. This also allows level designers to have enemy space ships fly below the player’s ship before coming up in front and attacking, as well as giving some distant hints that enemy ships are coming. This in turn gives the player a bit more information about what is going up – which is better level design. The Bad: I’d be nice if we had some “preview” footage of each weapon being used, so we could find out which weapons work better under what circumstances. Additionally, the homing laser feels like a “pew-pew” gun in terms of the amount of damage it does. The Ugly: Like with Thunder Spirits, when you get hit by enemies bullets you lose your active weapon. However, unlike Thunder Spirits, there is no way to get your active weapon back. The game needs a way to earn back the weapons you lost, otherwise the mechanic just locks the player into a death spiral. The Verdict: This game is worthy of the praise heaped upon it in Electronic Gaming Monthly and, frankly, I would have preferred if this game had gotten a guide in this issue of Nintendo Power, instead of a brief mention in the Now Playing section. Filed under: Quality Control, Video games Tagged: Nintendo Power, Quality Control, review, SNES Source

Moving on with the Nintendo Power Recaps, we have issue 41 for October of 1992. Our cover game for this issue is Super Mario Kart, which would go on to spring a very long series of cart racers (and, if you really think about it, also bringing about the Wipeout series). This issue’s letters are all on the topic of how readers got the money for their NES (aside from, you know, asking your parents). Adventure Island 3 Guide Master Higgins is back. We don’t get complete maps of each area, but we get maps of at least half the levels in the first two areas, as well as strategies for beating the final boss (which is part of the important part, as well as notes on Stage 3 through Stage 8. Power Blade 2 Guide The second installment of the series adds various suits of powered that the character can wear that bestow various abilities. We get a run down of what they are and what they can do. As with the Adventure Island guide, we don’t get complete maps of the stages, but we do get partial maps of sections which (I guess) they figured were some of the harder parts of the stages. We also get strategies for beating the final bosses for stages 1 through 4. Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six Guide We get a run-down of Spidey’s moves, as well as maps of stages 1 through 4, and strategies for beating each member of the Sinister Six. Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past Comic So, Link has learned that the Princess Zelda can be found a Turtle Rock, so he needs a map with directions on how to get there. Thus, he’s going across a tundra on, essentially, a sled with a sail, traveling to the Ice Tower, where the map can be found. He reaches the tower and beats the maps guardians, and thus learns how to get to Turtle Rock. He arrives and finds himself facing a multi-headed serpent that breathes both fire and ice. Just when all seems lost, Roam arrives, possibly for the rescue. Bionic Commando Guide This is for the Game Boy version of the game. The levels look fairly similar to the NES, except the fights between zones are side-scrolling instead of top down. We get maps of areas 1 through 8. </p>One of the level maps from Tom & Jerry Tom & Jerry Guide Another Tom & Jerry game, with the player playing as Jerry this time. We get a run down of what the power-ups are, and maps of the first four levels, which look pretty big, in my opinion. Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game Guide Double Dragon is desperately trying to hold on to relevance in this era of Streets of Rage & Final Fight. This is their attempt to continue hanging on for dear life on the Game Boy. We get maps for all 5 levels plus strategies for the boss fight. Super Mario Adventures Comic Mario and Luigi continue to square off with the semi-moe Boos. Fortunately, they manage to provide the Boos with some psychotherapy and resolve their trauma, allowing Mario and Luigi to escape so they can go break up a wedding. Super Play Action Football Guide A new console generation, a new first party football game. I’m kind of disappointed by the fact that even before EA got exclusive video game rights for the NFL, Nintendo didn’t continue the Play Action series onto the N64 and the Game Cube. In particular, considering how poorly football games from 3rd parties have turned out on the Wii, I would have been interested to see how Nintendo themselves handled making a football game. Anyway, they take us through a Super Bowl in Play Action Football with the then defending champion Buffalo Bills taking on the Redskins in a rematch of Super Bowl XXVI. The result is pretty much the same, the Redskins win. The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare Guide We get guides for each of the little mini-games in this collection. I’ve played this game and I really wasn’t too fond of it. Super Mario Kart Guide I’ve already gone into how influential this game is. We get general driving tricks and race tricks (like shooting banana peels out in front instead of behind you). We also get maps of some of the tracks. Out Of This World Guide This is something of a precursor to the Oddworld Inhabitants games. We get maps of stages 1 through 6. Nester’s Adventures This issue the Nester is playing Prince of Persia, and we actually get some advice for swordfighting, sort of (I’m not convinced it’s useful advice). Now Playing First game getting reviewed by George & Rob is Legend of the Ghost Lion, an Dragon Warrior style RPG aimed more for girls. George and Rob were split on this, but the fact that the game wasn’t really intended for them probably doesn’t help. They also like the strategy game Overlord, which sounds like it’s got a bit of an 4X aspect to it. They also really like Power Blade 2. George and Rob aren’t too impressed with WWF Steel Cage Challenge, Double Dragon 3, and Return of the Sinister Six. Roger Clements MVP Baseball for the Game Boy had a bit of a learning curve, and they liked Tom & Jerry and Track & Field. Not too surprisingly, they like Bart’s Nightmare (they tend to say favorable things about games that are featured in the magazine). They also like Axelay (as did EGM’s staff around this time), along with Robocop 3 and Super Double Dragon but they’re not too impressed with King of the Monsters. Top 20 Mario has regained the top spot on the Game Boy (and still holds the top spot on the NES), with Metroid II and TMNT III holding the #2 spots, respectively. On the SNES Legend of Zelda holds the top spot, with Mario holding #2. Celebrity Player Profile This issue we have an interview with Ken Griffey Jr, who is back with the Seattle Mariners, where he belongs. Now, Ken has been a long time gamer, and still (as of this interview) plays video games. So, what I want to know is this – Ken, if you’re reading this (which I doubt), Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, or what combination of the above? Pak Watch Well, we’re not getting Final Fantasy V. Instead, we get Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. EA’s bringing Desert Strike to the SNES, and Accolade is working on the space simulator Warp Speed. In Japan they’re working on the RPG Kaeru, which features a cute frog as it’s main character. My Quality Control pick for this issue is going to be Axelay. The game got 9s across the board from EGM when they reviewed it (back when they really didn’t give games 10s), Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: Nintendo Power, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

My original intention for my next EGM recap was to do a recap of issue #117, but my copy of that issue was incomplete. So, I’m moving on to issue #120. Our cover story for this issue is WWF Attitude, and it’s autographed by Stone Cold Steve Austin even. Now, while this is EGM’s 12th year, they’re calling this their 10th anniversary issue. That doesn’t quite make any sense with me, but I’ll leave that aside. Our editorial column for this issue reflects on another of the string of school shootings the nation was contending with in 1998 and 1999, and the worst of the shootings at that – the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. On the one hand, while this was the worst of all the school shootings, to my knowledge any school shootings after that point either didn’t get any media attention, or they didn’t happen. However, this shooting, being the biggest, and because the shooters listened to heavy metal music and developed custom levels for Doom, brought the anti-video game hysteria to a pitch above that caused by the Night Trap hysteria, and wouldn’t be seen again until the Hot Coffee controversy. Thanks to some poorly informed and in poor taste remarks from Littleton’s sheriff that were jumped upon by the New York Times Magazine, it even threatened to resurrect the anti-D&D hysteria, that had died when Patricia Pulling had been discredited. Fortunately, this game industry appears to have weathered this storm, though some of the consequences have yet to be resolved. As I write this, California’s video game sale restriction legislation is going to the United States Supreme Court, having been overturned as unconstitutional at all lower levels. If the Supreme Court declares the law constitutional, then we can finally move past the video game violence controversy, and we’ll finally be able to move out of the shadow of Columbine. If the Supreme Court upholds the law, then the dark shadow that Klebold and Harris shall forever linger on this country, and those two psychopaths will have obtained an immortality that they do not deserve. Letters Unsurprisingly, much of the letters in this issue of the magazine are also about the video game violence debate that has once again come to the forefront after the Columbine shooting. Being that this is a video game magazine, the letters are universally anti-censorship. Which is fine. We also get few letters defending wrestling fans, particularly of the “Smart†variety (who tend to watch a bit more ECW than WWF, and who later become early members of Ring of Honor’s fan base). There’s also a letter about the Cho Aniki series. Press Start (News & Features) You have three guesses to find out what the first article is about, and the first two don’t count. Seriously, I’d say that the political and media reactions to the Columbine shooting (and other school shootings) was the event that built the most political apathy in my generation, which kept a great deal of inertia until Barack Obama ran for President. Rare is the situation where the media and most elected politicians are able to essentially insult an entire generation of young people, who aren’t old enough to vote so they can’t make their displeasure known by giving the people insulting them a swift kick in the rear – thus instead breeding a massive amount of voter apathy. We also get a sidebar developer profile of Silicon Knights, listing as their two projects in the works as Eternal Darkness for the N64 (which is later released for the GameCube), and Too Human, which doesn’t get released until the current console generation, and only on the Xbox 360. Speaking of which, Nintendo is expected to unveil their Project Dolphin at E3 (the system later becomes the GameCube). We also have an interview with Jenny Stigile, who does the voice of Luna in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, and she hasn’t done much since then, at least not in terms of voice acting, or acting on the screen, judging by her IMDB profile. She may have done some stuff on the stage, but I have no record of that. Quartermann’s rumors for this issue are that Capcom’s already working on titles for the PlayStation 2 (which is possible). Another rumor suggests the next Metal Gear Solid is going to come out for the Dreamcast. Q-Mann also suggests this one is probable, but it is ultimately shown to not pan out. There are still rumors going around about a N64 Metroid game, but no such game comes out. We do, however get the Metroid Prime series for the GameCube, as well as a new Metroid game for the Game Boy Advance when it comes out. Previews The Dreamcast is getting an arcade-style boxing game (ala Mike Tyson’s Punch Out) with Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, featuring the voice and likeness of Michael Buffer (the guy who brought you that phrase). As an aside, considering how much TNA wants to be WCW at times, I wonder why they haven’t hired Michael Buffer yet, especially considering that Buffer was probably one of the best celebrities that WCW ever hired. For that matter, I’m surprised WWE didn’t hire him after WCW went under either. Michael Buffer doing ring announcing for the main event at Wrestlemania has a certain appeal to it – especially since Howard Finkel has retired from active duty. It's Thinking (whispers) Oh, and by the way, we have one of the 9.9.99 “It’s Thinking†ads for the Dreamcast. I kind of like the way the Dreamcast was marketed. Throughout the Genesis and Saturn eras, we had the Sega Scream and the attitude that came with it. The Dreamcast turned that on its head by switching from a shout of defiance to a sneaky whisper. The Dreamcast is also getting the survival horror game Carrier, about an outbreak of a virus that (wait for it) turns people into horrible monsters on an aircraft carrier. We get another interesting ad, for the fighting game Evil Zone from Yukes for the PlayStation, which is an anime style fighting game, presented with the structure of an anime series. However, much to my surprise, it doesn’t get a spin-off anime series. I’m interested to see what critical response it gets, and then I might even consider hunting down a copy of the game. Anyway, the N64 is going to be getting Pokemon Stadium, which is also one of the first games for the N64 to feature connectivity with the Game Boy. 3DO is also working on a new Army Men game for the system, sub-titled Sarge’s Heroes. This one is more of a 3rd person action game, then the real-time strategy game the first title in the series was. The game looks absolutely nothing like this. It also doesn't come out for another 10 years. On the PlayStation, we have R-Type Delta (which I’ve reviewed for Bureau42). We also get a look at the PlayStation version of Too Human, which doesn’t particularly appear to have any of the Norse mythology trappings that the final version of the game has. We also get brief mention of Fear Factor, a survival horror action game which features some lesbian characters, as well as Suikoden II, along with Final Fantasy Anthology, which compiles Final Fantasy V and VI, both of which have since been released for the Game Boy Advance. We also get a look at a semi-aerial fighting game Psychic Force, which takes some inspirations from Katsuhiro Otomo’s work, like Akira, as well as his earlier Mai: The Psychic Girl, and other stuff from around that time. As far as the Game Boy goes, we’ve got a couple titles of note. In particular, we have Revelations: Demon Slayer, which is another of the games in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It’s not a core title in the series, and it doesn’t have the same degree of demon summoning that, well, the Demon Summoner games or core games in the series has. We also get Oddworld Adventures II, which features Abe as a protagonist. Meanwhile, in the arcades (remember them), Tekken Tag Tournament is coming out, along with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, which ends up being tied with Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the title of “Best Street Fighter Game†until Street Fighter IV, and now Super Street Fighter IV, come out. There’s also SNK’s fighting game Buriki One, which is one of their early attempts at a 3D fighting game ala Tekken. It has never gotten a home console release. Feature Articles Our first feature this issue is about the WWF (now the WWE). Now, this article isn’t going to be a complete shoot, but it does take the half-shoot/half-work style that the WWE’s used for some of their more recent documentary works. For those unfamiliar with the terms I just used, a “work†is something that maintains the fiction that everything you see in the ring is “real†and not planned in advance – wrestlers gimmicks are their real personalities, finishes aren’t booked in advance, that sort of thing. On the other hand, “Shoots†take the audience behind the curtain – they’re more inside baseball. Gimmicks are just personas that wrestlers put on to perform. They’re not trying to actually hurt each other, and the winners of the matches are planned out in advance. Anyway, this leads into inside information about the development of Acclaim’s last WWF title, WWF Attitude, as well as notes on where the series is going when THQ takes the reins after Acclaim (Aki developing the Wrestlemania series on the N64, and Yukes developing the Smackdown series on the PlayStation). We get a 10-year retrospective about where EGM has been. Now, if you’ve been following my recaps, you kind of already know where it’s been. A few notable things – Acclaim was the first publisher to pull advertising from EGM over the bad review score they got for Total Recall. Review Crew For the first time thus far, Sushi-X is absent from the Review Crew. Instead, the lineup this issue is Crispin Boyer, Dan “Shoe†Hsu, newcomers Che Chou and Chris Johnson. Chou has since become Community Manager at Turn 10 Studios (developers of the Forza series), and Johnson is currently working on the Player One Podcast. John Davison, John Riccardi, and Shawn Smith are still on the Crew, and in the course of the gap the crew has added Dean Hager. I don’t know what Dean’s been up to, if anyone has that information, please feel free to let me know. A Bug’s Life (N64, Activision): Licensed game based on the Disney movie, developed by Traveler’s Tales (who have since gone on to develop all the Lego games). They’d probably rather that we forgot all about this game though. In particular, this game has problems with character and camera controls, though the graphics look good. Chris gives this a 5, and Shawn, Crispin and Dean give it 4s. Overall: 17/40. Hybrid Heaven (N64, Konami): This is a kind of odd mix of survival horror, 3D platformer (ala Tomb Raider) and RPG. The crew has some problems with the camera and the framerate in widescreen mode, though the story and the controls seem to be enough to compensate for this. To be fair, most games during this period had terrible cameras, so at the time you just had to role with them. Chris gives this an 8, Crispin and Shoe give it 7.5s, and Shawn gives it a 7. Overall: 30/40. Ken Griffey Jr’s Slugfest (N64, Nintendo): While the game is an improvement from prior games in the series, it still has some significant problems with bugs in the game, particularly related to fielding and base-running. Dean gives it an 8, Shawn a 7, Che a 6.5, and Shoe a 5.5. Overall: 27/40. Monaco Grand Prix (N64, Ubi Soft): Formula 1 racing fame without the Formula 1 license. The game is pretty solid, with the main complaints being more design philosophy related. John Davison gives the game a 6.5 because it’s too accessible, while Shawn gives the game a 6 because it doesn’t let you do some of the things that arcade style racers let you do, like ram opponents into walls and cut off road, because that isn’t the Formula 1 way. On the other hand, Che and Dean enjoy the game much more, and give the game 8s. Overall: 28.5/40. Quake II (N64, Activision): This version of the game has simpler level designs than the PC version, but apparently the four-player multiplayer is still good (which is important). However, there are still some significant problems with single player. In particular, there are no mid-mission checkpoints, and you can’t save anywhere, so you have to complete the level in one go, including the boss. Shawn gives the game a 9, John Davison and Shoe give it 8s, and Crispin gives it an 8.5. Overall: 33.5/40 and it receives an Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer (N64, Nintendo): One of the better parts of Episode One gets its own racing game. There are concerns with the speed of the game outpacing the responsiveness of the control. Otherwise they like it. Crispin and Dean give the game 9s, Chris gives it a 9.5, and Che gives it an 8.5. Overall: 36/40 and it gets an Editor’s Choice Gold Award, along with Game of the Month. Superman 64 (N64, Titus): Here’s a stinkburger if I ever saw one, and the scores demonstrate this. This game is terrible in literally every single possible respect, from controls (both in terms of the player and the camera), the level design, the mission objectives, the story, the graphics, everything. John Davison gives the game a 0.5, Shoe gives a 1.5, Dean gives a 2, and Chris gives it the incredibly high score of a 4. I wonder why John didn’t give the game a zero? Overall: 8/40. World Driver Championship (N64, Midway): This is a sort of Gran Turismo racing game, but without the licenses for the cars. The game is also lacking the sense of speed that the Gran Turismo games have (sort of). Che gives the game a 6.5, Shawn gives a 7, Dean gives a 7.5, and John Davison gives the game an 8. Overall: 29/40. Castrol-Honda Superbike Racing (PlayStation, EA): You really don’t get a lot of dedicated motorcycle racing games in general anymore. This one runs into some problems in the review scores, because of the limited number of licensed bikes, mediocre graphics and AI, particularly with some framerate problems. John Davison gives it a 6.5, Dean gives it a 5, Che gives it a 3, and John Ricciardi gives it a 4. Overall: 18.5/40. Centipede (PlayStation, Hasbro Interactive): Basically this is Centipede with 3D polygonal graphics – which is the game’s main problem, because the graphics aren’t good, and the camera angle shows of the graphics instead of being the ideal angle for gameplay (the original game has a top-down camera angle). Chris gives the game a 2.5, Che gives it a 6, and Dean and Shawn give 3.5s. Overall: 15.5/40. Croc 2 (PlayStation, Fox Interactive): While the graphics for this 3D mascot platformer are good, the camera and the controls are very unresponsive. John Davison gives this a 5. Crispin and John Ricciardi give this 5.5s, and Chris gives this a 4.5. Overall: 19.5/40 High Heat Baseball 2000 (PlayStation, 3DO): Basically this is a pretty awful baseball game, with terrible ball physics and animations. John Ricciardi gives the game a 1, Dean gives it a 2, Shawn gives it a 3.5, and Shoe gives it a 4. Overall: 10.5/40 Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PlayStation, Working Designs): This is the last port of Lunar from Working Designs. I mean it (the later ports are by other people). This version has been given a much needed overhaul, and the scores reflect it. Now, the PlayStation Portable version has further been overhauled, but it doesn’t have all the extra features that this version has. John Ricciardi and Crispin give this 9s, Chris gives it a 9.5, and Che gives it an 8.5. Overall: 36/40, and it gets the Editor’s Choice Gold Award and Game of the Month. Monaco Grand Prix (PlayStation, Ubi Soft): PlayStation version of the racing game that also got released for the N64 (see above). The scores, and the justifications thereof, are the same as the N64 version, except Shawn’s is half a point higher. Overall: 29/40. Star Ocean: The Second Story (PlayStation, SCEA): I actually owned this one, but for some insane reason I traded it in. I’m still kicking myself over that – I need to hunt that game down again. Anyway, the players like the multiple story perspectives and many ways you can go through the game, with multiple characters and multiple endings. Not enough JRPGs have that anymore. It’s odd how Western RPGs have taken up that sense of consequence instead, particularly with games like Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Some one at Square Enix asked a writer at 1up about why Mass Effect was so popular – it’s because decisions matter. They need to go back and look and see how character decisions were handled in Chrono Trigger & Star Ocean 2. Anyway, the Crew likes this game, particularly the game’s story (as I’ve gone into), and the game’s combat. John Davison and Shoe give the game 8s, Crispin gives it an 8.5, and John Ricciardi gives it a 9. Overall: 33.5/40 and it receives and Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Warzone 2100 (PlayStation, Eidos): This is a Real-Time Strategy game. Chris isn’t an RTS guy – he just doesn’t like the genre, and this didn’t change his mind, so he gives it a 5. The rest of the crew (Shoe, Crispin and Che) thought this was a decent RTS, and give it 7.5s. Look, you have the rotating Crew for a reason, to avoid situations where the guy who hates RTS ends up reviewing a RTS and messing with the average & overall scores. Overall: 27.5/40. We’ve also got a few games which didn’t get the full Crew Treatment. These are Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 (which, much as they’d later give the series the Scarface and the Boys ‘n The Hood treatment, they give the The Long Good Friday treatment in this game) and Ultimate 8 Ball for the PlayStation, and WWF Attitude and All-Star Baseball 2000 for the Game Boy Color. The Final Word for this issue comes from John Davison, Dan Hsu, Chris Johnson, and Shawn Smith on one topic – the importance of explaining what the ESRB ratings mean and why games get the ratings they receive. Fortunately, we have gotten some significant strides in clarifying the ESRB rating system, both what the ratings mean, and why they’re handed out. For example, my copy of Dissidia that I picked up recently says on the back that the game received a T rating – which is defined as meaning “Teenâ€, and that it received it for “Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and Partial Nudityâ€. Now it needs to take the next step, by giving a numerical Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Get The Punisher: War Zone from Amazon.com I have a love-hate relationship with Frank Castle. As someone who got into the pulps, especially characters like The Shadow, before he really got into comics, I never really had a problem with a comic book character who killed criminals. Thus, the Punisher appealed to me a little, as the character had a lot in common with characters like The Shadow, in terms of being a grim or mostly silent vigilante who gunned down gangsters. While I recognized that he had to coexist with various Marvel Super Heroes, I’d kind of figured out the sort of “rule of tiers” that the Marvel U operated on, and I figured that Spidey was generally more occupied with the more dangerous super-villains that Frank couldn’t go up against. The hate part of the relationship comes from the writer whose currently in charge of writing the Punisher in the Marvel Max books-which is when they’re keeping the character at his street-level feel (sort of). I’m referring to Garth Ennis. Garth Ennis writing style feels like he goes for the shock value too often, and he goes for the low brow too often. His writing style also gives me the impression that he hates super heroes. No work shows this better than his run on The Punisher before he went to the Marvel Max version. After the first arc of the Punisher (Welcome Back Frank, which I almost liked), he proceeded to take a dump on every Marvel character he could get away with. He had Frank use Spider-Man as a human shield for The Resurrected Russian when Spidey could have pretty easily taken him. Frank blew Wolverine’s face off and ran him over with a bulldozer. He continued humiliating Daredevil, Wolverine, and Spider-Man in fashions that I would normally connect with a 13-year old kid who doesn’t like the Punisher because the roots of the character go back to Secret Agent G-7 and The Shadow, but because he kills people in a really gruesome fashion, thinks Rob Leifeld and Todd MacFarlane are the best artists ever, Spawn is the best superhero ever, and that The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is the best thing Marvel had ever done. Finally, the last straw that convinced me that Ennis is a pathetic hack was when he had the Punisher come across Bruce Banner, drugged and being auctioned off by various organized crime groups as the ultimate weapon, and had him unleash the Hulk on the Marvel Knights, who were trying to bring him in again. I set the comic down in disgust and never looked back. I bring all that up when I talk about The Punisher: War Zone, because The Punisher: War Zone wants to be a Garth Ennis comic. Seriously – that’s the mark the director was going for. The problems with the film can be summed up by the Director’s explanation for why she had the Punisher pick off a Parkour practicing courier for the bad guy, Jigsaw, in mid air with a grenade launcher, causing him to explode into bloody chunks – “I was sick of all the parkour crap and I know my audience was too”. It’s the same thing that pisses me off with the commentary in Terminator 3, with the director and actors talking about the fights between the Terminators, dismissing martial arts as “Hong Kong Phooey”. It’s dumb, it’s crass, it’s dismissive, and considering that most of the world’s biggest practitioners of Parkour are ethnic minorities in their countries, it’s arguably a little racist. Besides, there’s no parkour glut anyway in films – I can name 4 films in the past 10 years that featured parkour notably – District B-13 and its sequel, Live Free or Die Hard, and Casino Royale. That’s it. The movie isn’t all bad. Ray Stevenson is the best actor who has ever played The Punisher, ever. He brings the role the pathos it deserves (and the script is willing to spend the time on that pathos, as is the director). Wayne Knight does an excellent job as Microchip. Considering that in most of the other roles I’ve seen with Knight his role has generally been “the fat annoying guy”, this is an excellent change, and I hope to see him in more roles like this in the future. In fact, every member of The Punisher’s support network is excellent. The fight scenes in the film are fun and over the top, and while they have the insanely over-the-top gore that Ennis’s run is known for, they don’t linger on it to the same degree that the comics end up doing (just by the nature of the comic medium). The fight scenes are also more dynamic then the fight scenes in the earlier Thomas Jane film were. However, the film just wasn’t able to keep from pissing me off. If you are one of the people who actually liked Garth Ennis run on the Punisher, give this movie a rental. If you’re looking for an gory action movie in the variety of the 80s and early 90s, give it a rental. But, for God’s sake, don’t buy it before you rent it. Filed under: comics, film, Reviews Tagged: blu-ray, DVD, film, Marvel Comics, review Source

Get Soul Blazer from Ebay When I was recapping issues of Nintendo Power prior to the release of the SNES, I did a Quality Control review of Willow for the NES, a game which took the action RPG elements of the Legend of Zelda, and combined them with a level & EXP system, like the Y’s games. I thought it was pretty decent. Now that Nintendo Power has brought us to the 16-bit generation, and presented a 16-bit Zelda-alike, I figure it’s time to revisit the genre to see how it’s progressed in this generation. The Premise The forces of the Freilian Empire has imprisoned all of their own people in a dark realm, under the control of the dark lord Deathtoll (called Dark Gaia in the Japanese version). The King and Queen having done this to get control of Deathtoll’s great power. However, the Master (Gaia in the Japanese version), takes pity on the people of the world, sending the player character to free them from their imprisonment, and defeat Dark Gaia. The Good The controls are pretty solid, and most of the puzzles in the game aren’t too obtuse. Additionally, as you go through the dungeons and clear monster lairs (Gauntlet-style monster generators), your successes will have a visible effect on the world around you. Literally – some switches unlock pathways through the dungeon. Others free townspeople and thus the towns you pass through will grow to their former glory as you clear dungeons. The Bad I said most of the puzzles aren’t too obtuse. Some, however, are pretty darn obtuse. There were several occasions where I got stuck based on not knowing where to go. Fortunately, in this age of the internet we access to GameFAQs, as opposed to waiting for advice on where to go in an issue of Nintendo Power Magazine. The Ugly The game is actually pretty linear. One of the high points of the Zelda games is the degree of exploration involved in the games, and the fact that you physically travel from place to place – going through everywhere in between. With Soul Blazer, aside from a town and its connected dungeon, when you move on to the next area, you’re essentially teleporting there. This takes away the sense of place that most other CRPGs have (even Willow). Even while Arcana was essentially one dungeon crawl after another, the game still did a good job of getting across that you were traveling across these great distances, and how you were traveling across those distances. Instead, here you step into a temple and are teleported to a temple in the next area. It provides a degree of disconnect that I don’t think was needed, and I think which was only done so you they could set up a series of dungeons in disparate environments – the Water Dungeon, the Forest Dungeon, the Cave Dungeon, etc. The Verdict Despite the faults I mentioned, this is an enjoyable RPG with some serious character to it. I’d recommend trying to add this game to your SNES library if you have a SNES or a SNES-alike. Filed under: Quality Control, Reviews, Video games Tagged: Nintendo Power, Quality Control, SNES, Video games Source

We continue on with the Nintendo Power recaps with issue #40, for September of 1992. The cover game for this issue is Felix the Cat for the NES. I find it interesting that so soon after the launch of the SNES, we still haven’t gotten many SNES games on the cover of the magazine. Most of our letters this issue are about where you’d like to take your Game Boy. Felix the Cat Guide We also get complete maps of the first 3 stages, as well as power-up notes and notes on stages 4 through 6. Prince of Persia Guide Jordan Mechner’s classic acrobatic game has come out on the NES. For those unfamiliar with the game, are the unnamed prince. You have one hour to rescue the Princess from the evil grand Vizier before he either forces her to marry him or kills her. We get maps of levels 4 through 14 and the end of the game. Little Samson Guide This is a fantasy platformer from Taito. We get detailed maps of the first 6 stages, as well as notes on stages 7 and 8. </p>They're watching you Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past Comic Link frees the princess at the water palace, and soon afterwards hears Zelda crying out to him from across a desert. He travels across it and finds a swamp, but is caught by a hag who tries to feed him to a creature made up of hundreds of eyes (which is probably pretty disturbing to kids). The Jetsons: Robot Panic Guide This Game Boy game has a series of mostly unrelated levels where for each level you control a member of the Jetsons family. I have a hunch that this game had a first life as something else entirely, and then had the Jetsons franchise plastered on top of it. We get maps for levels 1 through 3, as well as notes on levels 4 through 6 (which are all in the Cogswell factory. Dr. Franken Guide As a reminder – Dr. Frankenstein and his monster weren’t the same thing. This Game Boy game ignores that in favor of this exploration-based platformer, where you play as the monster, Dr. Frankenstein, attempting to find all the pieces of himself. Yeah. We get maps of the first 6 floors of Frankenstein’s castle, plus some notes on the 7th floor. Kingdom Crusade Guide This is an odd little action-strategy game, that looks like a mix of Tactics Ogre and Legend of Zelda. You move units on a map grid like the Tactics Ogre series (and Final Fantasy Tactics) – but the map grid is really an overworld. When you reach your destination square, you get a Legend of Zelda style sequence. There’s also a guide for a barbie game after this, but I’m ignoring that, because there has never been a good Barbie video game. Super Mario Adventures Comic Mario and Luigi find a mysterious house in the woods, that looks abandoned and very spooky. Naturally, they investigate. The house is, of course, haunted by Boos and is a cunning trap by Bowser. I still love the Boo’s reactions when they’re looked at, though they could be considered as prototypically Moe. Nester’s Adventures The game this time is Wings II, and again there are no hints to be had here. Dino City Guide Basically, the premise of this platformer is based around the concept of the portions of Super Mario World where you rode Yoshi. We get maps of Acts 1 through 4, continuing onto the back of the issue’s poster. Soul Blazer Guide This is an action RPG game (ala Zelda) from Enix. We have maps of the first few areas in the game. We get strategies for the bosses of those areas, as well as notes on some of the items and weapons. Parker Brothers Games Guide Monopoly and Clue have gotten ports to the SNES, and they get semi-strategy guides. Super Bowling Guide We have notes on the different game types in the game, as well as some useful strategies. Yes, there are some strategies to video game bowling, as you have a little more control over the balls. Now Playing George and Rob consider Adventure Island 3 to be more of the same. Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat, which is like Super Off-Road except paved. They like Little Sampson. Tecmo Cup is actually an RPG take on soccer, which rubs them the wrong way – but which I think might work better on a portable system (and apparently the success of Inazuma Eleven proves this to be the case). They like the port of Dig Dug to the Game Boy. The second Spy vs. Spy game has also been ported to the Game Boy as a System Link game. I’m not sure what to think about that. Part of the fun with the Spy vs. Spy games has always been a certain degree of schadenfreude – planting a trap, and seeing your opponent trigger it, because of the split screen. They like Dino City, and were split on Monopoly. They also say that Soul Blazer is a slow burn. Another shump makes the list of also-rans today, with Strike Gunner – and George and Rob are running into shump burnout. Top 20 This month Mario only retains the top spot on the NES. Legend of Zelda holds the top spot on the SNES, and Metroid II holds the top spot on the Game Boy. Celebrity Player Profile We’re taking a step away from people who actively play video games this time, in favor of more recognizable people. The subject of the profile is Tim Allen, who apparently doesn’t play video games at all. As far as what Tim Allen’s up to, Toy Story 3 is coming out later this year. Pak Watch This issue, the games on their way to players (of note) include Super Star Wars, Bart’s Nightmare, Wing Commander, Dragon Warrior IV, and in Japan Ogre battle is getting released. My Quality Control pick for this issue is Soul Blazer. I liked Willow, which tried to be a Legend-of-Zelda-alike in the 8-bit generation, it’s time to take a look at the 16-bit take. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: Nintendo Power, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Before going further ahead in my EGM Recaps, I’m going to fill another gap in my archive – the gap for issue #110 for September of 1998. Our cover story for this issue is Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation. The cover art isn’t too bad in my opinion. The editorial column for this issue is by John Davidson, and addresses the semi-maturing of games, in terms of the sexuality of characters, though not necessarily the maturity of the stories or the character designs. Well, there are some ways to go until we reach some of the more mature stories we have now, in terms of Mass Effect and Dragon Age (particularly their treatment of GLBT characters), but the game industry has to get the Moral Majority to a point that you can show two men kissing in Dragon Age without having congressional hearings. Our letters column (no, I’m not giving them a separate header), includes empathy for having to to go through all the letters from readers who try to be witty. We also have a question about what happened to Kelly Rickards (he left for personal life reasons). There’s also a call for Sega to put a lot of thought into how they design and promote the Dreamcast and the software they put out for it, so they don’t run into the problems the Sega Genesis (and CD and 32X) and the Saturn ran into. There are also complaints about the use of “Mario 64 clone†to describe 3D platformers. We also get a letter about GamePro’s advance review of Banjo-Kazooie, which EGM’s staff explains, adding that GamePro wasn’t reviewing a finished version of the game. There’s also a letter complaining about glitches in Acclaim’s All Star Baseball, which weren’t mentioned in the review. The staff passes these on to Acclaim. Supposedly the bugs were related to 3rd party memory cards and peripherals. News In the wake of the Jonesboro, AR, and Springfield, OR school shootings, Florida is the first state to seek anti-video game violence legislation. At this time, the name of Jack Thompson is not mentioned, though you can bet he’s behind it. However, Doug Lowenstein of the IDSA is mentioned, as part of the opposition to this. We also have the first rumors of and upcoming Tomb Raider movie. There also are plans in the works for a House of the Dead film, with Jesse Dylan (son of Bob Dylan) slated to direct (though, as we all know, he’s later replaced by Uwe Boll). However, this version of the script does have the rave that becomes the driving plot point of Boll’s film. Previews I’m sticking with titles which are of interest to me here, rather than just all titles in general. We’ve got a look at Wipeout 64, which has a rather nice looking draw distance, though they’re also working on the draw speed. The game plays so fast that the player can get ahead of the track. There’s also some notes on Madden 99 for the N64. Infogrames has their new racing game GT64, which has improved physics from their prior racing game Multi-Racing Championship. We’re also getting a Bomberman themed platformer in Bomberman Hero. Also of note from Nintendo is the F1 racing game F1 World Grand Prix. On the PlayStation we have the survival horror RPG Parasite Eve, which is adapted from a Japanese horror novel, and also introduces the battle system that’s used later in Square’s Vagrant Story. It’d be nice if they’d included it in Crisis Core as well, but that’s just me. There’s also some coverage on Colony Wars: Vengence. We have another nice looking ad for Parasite Eve, by the way (Square tends to have excellent ads). The PlayStation also has the action game Wild9 (which we’ve already read a review of). 989 Studios is working on NFL GameDay ’99. There’s also a look at Duke Nukem: A Time To Kill and we learn the game takes a cheap shot at Tomb Raider by having Duke quip that Lara’s outfit is skanky. Really? Of all the game’s to take that shot at Lara, it’s a Duke Nukem game? Pot, meet kettle. There’s also a look at Heart of Darkness, from the creators of the Flashback & Out of this World games. We get a peek at Thrill Kill, which is all most of us will get, since the game is never officially released (though prototype code has slipped out). On the Saturn, there’s a look at that system’s version of Symphony of the Night, subtitled Nocturne in the Moonlight. Features We have a feature article about Metal Gear Solid, including some notes about the stealth gameplay mechanics, and about the game’s screenplay and dialog (and I will admit that the dialog is pretty good, though it gets kind of silly at points). We also get some bios of the game’s characters, though the game lays the false hope that Big Boss will be an active character in the game, instead of a McGuffin. The article is incredibly in-depth and, were I a younger man and eagerly awaiting the game’s release, I’d eat this up – as while it doesn’t go in depth on the plot, it does go in-depth on some of the early cutscenes. They make it as far as the first appearance of Psycho Mantis, but they don’t get to see how Psycho Mantis reads the saves on the player’s memory card. We also have an interesting article on women in the video games industry. We get discussion of the glass ceiling, and also some discussion from women about their philosophy of game design. For example, Sherry McKenna of Oddworld Inhabitants is anti-animal testing and is pro-environment, and also feels that communication is important to social progression. That leads to some pretty notable effects on the gameplay of the Oddworld games that feature Abe – the importance of communicating with the fellow Mudokans to solving puzzles, the industrial motif of the enemy controlled areas, and the premise of the game’s plot. As far as bringing women to the industry, the problem is kind of twofold – if women don’t like to play video games, they won’t want to make games. Guys who try to make games deliberately to appeal to women don’t necessarily work well, though there are exceptions. By the way, the article is written by Lauren Fielder of GameSpot TV, which makes me wonder if there was a companion video piece. Anyway, Lauren, whose real name is Lauren Gonzalez, which is also the name she writes under, has gone into literary work now, instead of tech writing, which I hope she does well at, as if she writes nonfiction and fiction as well as she wrote this article, I can see great things in her future. There’s also an article about all the tricks you can pull with the Game Boy Camera. Review Crew For this issue, on the crew is Crispin Boyer, John Davison, Dean Hager, Dan “Shoe†Hsu, Kraig Kujawa, John Ricciardi, Shawn Smith, and Sushi-X. Bamjo-Kazooie (N64, Nintendo): Everyone likes the game, though there are a few complaints about sound effects, camera control, or the fact that you lose all your items if you die. Shawn, Crispin, and Dan give this platformer 9.5s, and John Davison gives the game a 9. Overall: 37.5/40 and it receives an Editor’s Choice Gold Award and Game of the Month. Flying Dragon (N64, Natsume): Fighting game. The game tries to do everything, but from everyone’s reviews, it fails at all of them. In particular, the game’s controls, graphics, and sound are terrible. Dean gives it a 4, John Davison gives it a 3.5, and Crispin and Sushi give it 3s. Overall: 13.5/40. Iggy’s Wreckin’ Balls (N64, Acclaim): I have no idea what kind of game this is – whether it’s Marble Madness style racing game or what? Well, nonetheless, Dan, Kraig and Crispin think its fun, though they note that it requires some rote memorization, with Dan giving it a 7.5, and Kraig and Crispin giving it 7s. However, John Ricciardi really doesn’t like it, finding the sound annoying, the game-play not captivating, and just not having fun playing the game, and he gives it a 5.5. Overall: 27/40. IS Soccer ’98 (N64, Konami): This is Konami’s soccer series that eventually becomes the Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven series. The Crew (of John Davison, Ricciardi, Kraig and Dean) are generally impressed with the game, though Dean encountered some slowdown in 4 player. Davison and Kraig give it 9.5s, Ricciardi gives it a 9, and Dean gives it a 8.5. Overall: 36.5/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. Virtual Chess 64 (N64, Titus): The consensus is that this is a decent chess game with insanely corny animations. This kind of makes me wonder why nobody’s written a PSN version of Chessmaster and I don’t mean a port of an older version of Chessmater, or a version for the PSP. I mean a version to be played over PlayStation Network. For that matter, does 360 have a chess game? The main thing affecting people’s scores appears to be the implementation of 3D, and the corny animations during captures. Dan gives it a 7, Crispin gives a 6.5, Shawn gives a 6 and Kraig gives a 5.5. Overall: 24.5/40. WWF Warzone (N64, Acclaim): The crew is more or less impressed with the game, and generally enjoyed it. However, what really blows their minds is the Create-a-Wrestler mode. Shawn has some problems with the games’ controls though, particularly the responsiveness to the C buttons. Shawn gives the game a 7.5, John R. and Dean give the game 8s, and Dan gives it a 8.5. Overall: 32/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. C: The Contra Adventure (PlayStation, Konami): Konami tries to make a 32-bit Contra game with 3D, and fails, complete with repetitive levels and terrible explosions. Shawn gives it a 4.5, Crispin and Kraig give the game 3.5s, and John Davison gives the game a 2. Overall: 13.5/40. Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Retaliation (PlayStation, Westwood): This has the first Red Alert game and it’s expansion. It also has controls that are nowhere as good as mouse & keyboard. Nonetheless, the game gets good reviews for its implementation. John Davison gives the game an 8.5, while Kraig, Dan and Crispin give the game 8s. Overall: 32.5/40. Crime Killer (PlayStation, Interplay): This is an offensive driving game that is (pardon the pun) offensively bad. It’s so hard that John Davison ended up throwing his controller on the ground a few times, and everyone else had similar problems. Dean and Kraig give the game 5s, John gives it a 4.5, and Crispin gives it a 4. Overall: 18.5/40. IS Soccer Pro ’98 (PlayStation, Konami): The crew feels this game isn’t quite as good as the N64 version of the game, though the crew still likes it a lot. The main complaint is the AI’s too easy to score on. John Davison gives the game a 9, Dean and Kraig give the game 8s, and John Ricciardi gives the game a 7.5. Overall: 32.5/40 and receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Kartia (PlayStation, Atlus): The game is lauded by the crew of being a solid tactical RPG with great character designs (by Yoshitaka Amano), despite some linear game-play and a lack of real distinction between the characters. The description reminds me a bit about what I’ve heard about Eternal Poison. Anyway, Dan and Crispin give the game 8.5s, and Shawn and Sushi give the game 8s, for essentially the same reasons. Overall: 33/40 and receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. MLBPA Bottom of the 9th ’99 (PlayStation, Konami): That is the longest title for a baseball game I’ve seen in my life. The crew is a little split on the importance of having the team and stadium licenses or not. While the team has licenses for the players, it doesn’t have the team and stadium licenses. John Ricciardi thinks the team licenses are important, and gives the game a 6. Kraig, Dean, and Shawn think the game holds up without those licenses, and give it a 7, 7.5, and an 8 respectively. Overall: 28/5/40. NCAA Football ’99 (PlayStation, EA): Since the last installment of the series, EA has given their NCAA games their own dev team, and according to the Review Crew, the results are palpable with this game – nothing bad is said about it (save a comment from Dan about some sluggish graphics) and to the contrary, the graphics, AI and controls are improved after the last installment in the franchise. John Ricciardi and Kraig give the game 9s, Dean gives the game an 8.5 and Shoe gives it an 8. Overall: 34.5/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Pocket Fighter (PlayStation, Capcom): This is their super-deformed comedic fighting game. The consensus is that the gameplay isn’t too deep in this game, though the degree that this is a problem varies depending on the person. Sushi and Dan give the game 7s, John Ricciardi gives it a 7.5 and John Davison gives the game an 8. Overall: 29.5/40. Turbo Prop Racing (PlayStation, SCE): Boat racing game – you don’t see a lot of these anymore. I wonder why. Dean considers the water effects to be not quite as good as the effects in Wave Race 64, plus some of the courses were a little narrow, and he gives the game a 6.5. Crispin had some serious problems with the game’s control, particularly with the controls sending the boat in the wrong direction, and he gives it a 5. Shawn and John Davison give the game 4.5s for similar reasons. Overall: 20.5/40 WarGames: Defcon 1 (PlayStation, MGM Interactive): This is a sort of Return Fire style game, but with the license of the WarGames movie, which makes no sense to me. There are some complaints about the game being a dumbed down strategy game, and the missions being repetitive, but there is still some fun to be had in the game. Shawn, Dan and John Davison give the game 7s, and Kraig gives it a 7.5. Overall: 28.5/40. WWF Warzone (PlayStation, Acclaim): Basically, the views on this game are the same as the views on the N64 version of the game. John R and Shawn give the game 7.5s, Dean gives it an 8, and Dan gives it an 8.5. Overall: 31.5/40. Shining Force III (Saturn, Sega): This is the first part of a 3-part trilogy to conclude the core Shining Force series – though we only get the first installment in the US. The crew loves the game, though they hope in vain that Sega will bring the last two installments out in the US. John R, Crispin and Sushi give the game 9s, while Shawn gives it an 8.5. Overall: 35.5/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. The Final Word for this issue comes from Kraig Kujawa, and the topic has to do with controller designs. Nowadays, with the exception of the Wii, controller layouts are almost literally created equal. The main difference between the PS3 controller and the 360 controller, in terms of layout, is stick placement. However, prior to this most controllers varied between systems. The Genesis had 3 face buttons plus a Select and Start Button. When they switched to a 6-button version, rather than having shoulder buttons, like the SNES, they had the buttons in a row, like an arcade layout. This worked well for fighting games, but not well for, say, shuffling between menus like in a RPG, or for using them to bank around corners like in Wipeout, or for shifting gears like in a racing game. These are examples I came up with, not them. They’re bringing this up because the Dreamcast controller has 2 buttons less than the Saturn and PlayStation controllers, and they’re concerned about how this will effect gameplay for other systems. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Get Election (2005) from Amazon.com The Triads are a bit of an odd duck in terms of how they decide their new leaders, at least in Hong Kong anyway. While in the Mafia, the second in command (Underboss) ascends to the top spot when the boss dies, retires or is imprisoned, and other organized crime groups determine succession based on family ties, or just having the head of the organization hand-pick a successor, the Triads, at least in this film, pick their new head by a vote of all of the heads of the various crews. That sets up the backstory of this crime thriller which owes more to The Godfather than to A Better Tomorrow. The two candidates for election when this story begins are the violent, hotheaded Big D, played by Tony Leung Ka-Fai (A Better Tomorrow 3, and several other Johnny To films), and quieter, cunning and devious Lok, played by Simon Yam (John Woo’s Bullet in the Head, King of Killers/Contract Killer co-starring with Jet Li, and the first 3 Young and Dangerous movies). The winner getting not only control of the Triads in Hong Kong, but also the Dragon Baton, a powerful symbol of ones control over the Hong Kong Triad. However, in the Hong Kong Triad, elections are obtained with not only money, but blood as well. When Big D refuses to accept the results of the Election, the race is on to find the Dragon Baton in it’s hiding place in mainland China, and much blood ends up being shed. However, Hong Kong, real Hong Kong, is not a place of the gun ballets of John Woo. Instead fights are with machetes, martial arts, and any other thing that’s handy. They’re brutal and horrific. They also aren’t frequent. I brought up The Godfather for a reason. This is a film where there is a lot of political maneuvering is done, a lot of backroom deals in gambling parlors, in restaurants, and even holding cells. This is not a film for someone with a short attention span, or someone who needs a lot of action scenes. That said, the action scene we got (a martial arts fight in an ally) was pretty good, but also kept the film’s dark and brutal tone. The rest of the deaths in the film though (and there are several), are very much in keeping with the movie’s Godfather tone, violent and brutal executions, including a few where characters are simply beaten to death or choked to death with whatever is handy. Beaten with a log or a rock, choked to death with a branch. So, if you think Hong Kong crime cinema begins and ends with action films, hopefully Election will change your opinion, and will give you a new take on the genre. Filed under: film, Hong Kong Action Movies, Reviews Tagged: film, gangsters, review Source

Get Casino Kid 2 from eBay Normally, for my Quality Control picks, I don’t like to pick sequels to stuff I haven’t played. For Casino Kid 2, I decided to make an exception, as from a storyline standpoint, I’m not missing anything. Plus, as I’ve been playing a few Texas Hold ‘Em Poker games, recently, so I’d like to see what a NES gambling game is like. The Premise: Casino Kid, the protagonist of the last game, has beaten all the best gamblers in the United States. However, the world remains. Now he must travel the globe, beating some of the best gamblers on Earth at the Roulette wheel, at Blackjack, and at Poker, before facing the King of Gambling at all three games. The Good: This is probably one of the best implementations of Blackjack in that, in theory, you could engage in card counting and it would be a feasible strategy – not a lot of other casino games work as well at this. Additionally, with the Roulette game, your “opponent” gives you a tell as to where the ball will land, so the game isn’t entirely based on pure chance, which would have made it the most obnoxious part of the game otherwise. The Bad After playing Texas Hold ‘Em games for the past year or so, going back to Five-Card Stud is difficult. In particular, with Texas Hold ‘Em, the multiple rounds of betting give you an opportunity to feel out your opponent and their hand, whether face-to-face or online. With Five Card Stud, as implemented in this game, we get only 2 rounds of betting, which removes some of the strategy, making it no better in some respects than a LCD poker game like those you can get at most drug stores. The Ugly: While early on they try to give the poker players some sort of tell, the top two players and the King of Gambling don’t have tells, so, once again, you might as well be playing Video Poker. The Verdict: The implementation of roulette is essentially done to give you a bank-roll so you can build up some cash for later games. However, the implementation of blackjack here is probably one of the best ones I’ve seen for casino game collections. That said, you’d probably be better off getting a collection of Casino Games for your current gen system of choice, and if you do want to play this, I’d recommend emulating it over buying it. Filed under: Quality Control, Video games Tagged: NES, Nintendo Power, Quality Control, Video games Source

We continue our trek through 1992 in Nintendo Power with issue #39 for August. Our cover game for this issue is Mario Paint. It’s safe to say that it’s not definitely not going to be my Quality Control pick for this issue. The letters selected this issue are about parents who play Nintendo games (some even from the parents in question). Not surprisingly, there are a lot of them, and they tend to prefer puzzle games. There are exceptions – we have one gentleman who has beaten Zelda, Startropics, Crystalis, and Final Fantasy. Gargoyle’s Quest Guide So, the spinoff to Ghouls & Ghosts has gotten a sequel. Ghouls & Ghosts, technically, has not. We get maps of the overworld map as well as some of the significant levels (including the training level – yes, there’s a training level to help you get the hang of the controls, which is rather progressive for the time). We also get maps of the areas leading up to the first castle. Casino Kid 2 Guide This is another casino game with boss fights. I’m kind of tempted to give this a try. The game has Poker, Blackjack, and Roulette. While Roulette is more chance based, there are some betting strategies for the game, and since Roulette is new to the series, they give notes on how to do well at Roulette. Additionally, the game gives you some hints as to what spot the ball will land on, which I find odd. As an aside, the version of poker being played here is stud poker, not Texas Hold ‘Em or any of the variants. I wouldn’t mid seeing someone do a re-make of Casino Kid with Texas Hold ‘Em. Contra Force Guide This is the first Contra game which lets you chose your trooper. We get maps of all 5 stages, plus the final boss fight against a super-soldier with a helicopter backing him up. Really – that’s it. That’s really pathetic compared to all the other Contra games. Legend of Zelda – Link to the Past Comic Last issue, a mysterious figure challenged Link to fight for the Master Sword. This issue he states his name, Roam, and battle is joined. Link defeats Roam, and learns he was a knight of Hyrule, who was trapped here while investigating the disappearance of the 7 sages.. Roam reveals that the silver arrow is needed to defeat Ganon, and sets out alone to retrieve it, because that’s how he rolls. With the help of his fairy companion, Link learns that another princess is being held in the Swamp palace. Link heads there to find her. The palace in the Dark World coincides with a fountain in the real world. Link uses the Comfork to communicate with people in the real-world, and got them to turn on the fountain, which in turn caused the swamp palace to fill with water. To be Continued (on a nice two-and-a-half-page spread). Kirby’s Dream Land Guide Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Nintendo’s fourth mascot! We already had Mario, Link, and Samus Aran. Now there’s Kirby. In the late 90s they’ll get number five – Pikachu! Anyway, this is Kirby’s first appearance, on the Game Boy. We get notes on all the power-ups in the game, as well as the enemies in the game. We also get maps of all the stages, leading up to the fight with King Dedede. Lazlo’s Leap Guide This is a hand-held version of Peg Solitare (the original version – the kind that uses a Fox-and-Geese board). We get strategies for some of the puzzle layouts in the game. WordTris Guide This game is, well, like Tetris, except we have falling letters that you have to turn into words. Summer CES ’92 Notes Summer CES has come and gone, and we get information on some of the games that were shown off at the event. Not so much screen shots as just mentioning what games were shown. Super Mario Adventures Comic Bowser is beaten, our heroes have won, now it’s time to go back to the Mushroom Kingdom – except that Bowser manages to capture the Princess again, and our heroes must go after her again. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV Guide The Turtles latest arcade game has come to home consoles, with added levels and boss fights to take advantage of the system’s support of Mode Seven. We get notes on some of the new game modes for the SNES Version (like a fighting game style versus mode), along with notes on some of the levels. We also get detailed maps for every level in the game except for the last on the issue’s poster. Wings II: Aces High Guide This is a World War I combat flight sim like the Red Baron series. We get notes on the different types of missions, as well as instructions on how to pull various dogfighting maneuvers (like the Split S), and information on reaching the final (and only) boss fight in the game – a dogfight with Baron Manfred Richthofen – the Red Baron. Mario Paint “Guide†This isn’t so much a guide as a description of the various things you can do in the application. Nester’s Adventures While the game this issue is Street Fighter II, I’m really not seeing any strategies here. Now Playing George & Rob like Casino Kid 2, Gargoyle’s Quest II, and Contra Force, and the other games that are featured in this issue. They’re more split on some of the other games, like Ultimate Journey and Miner 2049er. They did like WordZap for the Game Boy and Clue & Wheel of Fortune for the SNES though (though they’re disappointed with the graphics for Vanna when she’s turning the letters on the game board. They’re kind of split on Super Bowling. Top 20 Link to the Past has finally bumped Super Mario World off the top spot for the SNES. Super Mario 3 and Super Mario Land still hold the top spots on the NES and Game Boy though. For the NES and Game Boy, Mega Man IV and Metroid II hold the #2 spots, respectively. Celebrity Player Profile Now here we have a profile of someone whose gone from B or C list celebrity straight to A-List. Our profiles here of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – Will Smith. The setup for this one is a little different then others – Nintendo sent them a console and games, and then asked them what they thought about it. Smith liked Zelda, while Jeff liked NCAA Basketball, and both were hooked on their respective games. I wonder if either one still plays games. Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s going on with Jazzy Jeff, he still collaborates with Will Smith on occasion, and he contributed some mixes to DJ Hero. Pak Watch Of note in the games in this isssue is a SNES version of Monopoly, Konami’s shump Axelay, and in the Japan watch they have a few screen shots of Parodius. That wraps up this issue of Nintendo Power. My Quality Control pick for this issue is going to be Casino Kid II. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: Nintendo Power Source

On to issue #113 of Electronic Gaming Monthly for December of 1998. Yeah, that’s another gap in my archive, but that’s okay. Our cover story for this issue is The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time for the N64, which is still one of the best regarded Zelda games of all time, on par with Link to the Past. As a note, the masthead for this issue now includes James “Milkman†Mielke, Ryan MacDonald, and Mark MacDonald. Our editorial from John Davidson for this issue is on some of the spectacular games they’ve gotten to play at EGM recently. Aside from Zelda, they’ve also gotten to play more of Metal Gear Solid, and they’ve gotten to play Virtua Fighter 3 on the Dreamcast. Letters The Letter of the Month is from a Girl Gamer who really isn’t that offended by the depiction of buxom bad-ass babes like Lara Croft in video games. Basically, her argument is that as long as the games are fun, she’ll play them, even if they feature women who are sex objects, so long as they’re not passive sex toys, or depicted in a misogynist fashion. Besides, girls get their guys who are sexualized ideals too, like Cloud, Squall, or any of a number of bishounen (my word, not hers). However, she says that if you don’t like the current crop of video games, then games probably aren’t for you, and you shouldn’t ask for games that fit your taste. I disagree with that statement. Video games should be, ideally, someplace where all walks of life can come and play together on common ground. What I mean by that is that no matter who you are, what gender you are, what kind of music you like, what ethnic group you are, what income class you are, there should be something that you’ll like. This doesn’t mean that all video games should appeal to everyone – but there should be something for everyone. Anyway, we get a bunch of other letters from girls as well applauding Lara Croft as a positive role model for girls. I also notice that they’re publishing readers E-Mail addresses. That seems like a bad idea nowadays, particularly considering that they don’t publish readers home addresses for privacy reasons. It kind of shows something about how privacy on the internet has changed over time. On other notes, we get letters responding to the cancellation of Thrill Kill, saying that EA was in the wrong to cancel it (no, they weren’t – they really, really weren’t), and another arguing that if EGM prints a letter they must agree with it, thus they hate Sonic and are horrible people (in response to a letter printed in an earlier issue). I don’t get that at all. We get a letter asking if your video game console can damage your TV (it can, if you leave a stationary image on the screen for too long). There’s a companion column to letters that I’m going to lump in with the main letters section, titled “Ask Sushi Xâ€. The questions Sushi gets this issue are about his impression of Ehrgeiz (he likes it, and considers it a good successor to Tobal No. 2). There are questions about importing games for the Saturn, using a 4-in-1 adapter. Of particular note, there’s a question about why EGM hasn’t written a review of Turok 2 yet, even though an unnamed competitor has already written a review, in their September 1998 issue. I wonder who that is. To my knowledge, the only magazines that EGM has beefed with were GamePro and DieHard Game Fan, though it’s entirely possible that they could end up beefing with Gamers Republic, as it was founded by DHGF alums. I’ll have to find out who reviewed it. Anyway, EGM hasn’t reviewed the game because the game isn’t done yet – which means the people who reviewed the game weren’t working with a finished verison of the game. This is significant because they gave the game an extremely favorable review. Now, any review score wouldn’t be fair, because the game isn’t done. However, this is reviewing a game which is quite possibly very bugged, and assuming in your review that all the bugs would be fixed, when it’s quite possible that there are some major ones that won’t get fixed, for various reasons. Press Start The Dreamcast launch is almost upon us – Sega has boxes of systems coming into warehouses, and have finished disks ready, with box art and everything. The Dreamcast is also going to be the first console that’s going to ship Online enabled with a modem available at launch (as opposed to the NES and later consoles, which released Modem add-ons later). Also, as was mentioned in the letters section, Thrill Kill has been canceled by EA, who still owns the engine, which they’ll use later for Wu-Tang Shaolin Style. Meanwhile, Japan’s annual Arcade Machine Show features Konami’s latest rhythm game, one which sets the world on fire, at least for a time, Dance Dance Revolution. Also, Pokemon has been released for the Game Boy, and the animated series is out too, and has been released in the US. I’ve heard that the Japanese versions is actually funnier than the US version, even for Western audiences, but I haven’t been able to find fansubbed versions of Japanese episodes. Also, Tokyo Game Show has come and gone. Among the highlights were Sony announcing their PocketStation (which was never released in the US). We also get a look at Sega Rally 2 and Virtua Fighter 3TB (Tournament Battle). SNK is also getting into the portable market with Neo Geo Pocket Color. In Quartermann’s column, we have reports that the PS2 will be announced end of 1999, and that it won’t have backwards compatibility. I’ll give them the first half, as it’s announced in March 1999, which is ahead of expectations, but they’re dead wrong on the second half. Infograms is rumored to be working on new Alone in the Dark game, which becomes Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. We also get a column from Nikki Douglas of GrrlGamer.com (now defunct), about what girls like in video games – which contradicts everything we read in letters from girl gamers in the Letters column. For example, girls get turned off by sexualized females in games – specifically citing Lara Croft. According to Nikki, girls also don’t like games with no plot. Nothing’s cited here, but the implication here is Doom & Quake. “They†(according to Nikki) also don’t like it when you don’t get to choose your character’s gender (which leads to some plot limitations, but I’ll leave that aside). Also, “they†don’t like bloody gory games. I’m tempted to run Nikki’s claims past RPG.net to see what they have to say about it, since we have a considerable number of Girl Gamers on the site – well, we’ve got a reasonable sample size. Previews I’m just going to stick with the games I find notable or interesting. First up is a rather freaky looking bowling game called Milo’s Astro Bowling, which is a sort of fanciful sci-fi bowling game, which looks interesting. Interplay’s working on Earthworm Jim 3D, which isn’t being worked on by the developer who created the game, Shiny. That’s not a good sign in my book. 3DO is working on the tank combat game BattleTanks for the N64. I had a strategy guide poster for the game on my wall for some time as a kid – even though I didn’t own the game, or a N64 for that matter. We also have an incredibly optimistic preview of Superman 64, in that they’re confident that ll the game’s control problems will be cleared up before release (they’re not). We also get some screen shots of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, which looks good, and Castlevania 64 which doesn’t. Meanwhile, on the PlayStation front, we get a look at Twisted Metal III, which I played and I thought was more or less okay. We also get some information about Tomb Raider III, and a bizarre 3D version of Asteroids that Activison is putting out. There’s also a look at R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, Namco’s response to Gran Turismo, which in turn kind of reminds me that I haven’t unlocked all the cars in Ridge Racer 7 yet. We also get our first look at Guilty Gear, which is being published in the US by Atlus. I haven’t played the first Guilty Gear, but XX Reload is one of my favorite fighting games of all time, and I really need to pick up the PS2 version of the game. Also, Activison is publishing the PlayStation port of Quake 2. There’s also a Xena: Warrior Princess game due out for the PlayStation, and 989′s own Techno-thriller action game Syphon Filter is previewed. We also get a few screen shots of Final Fantasy VIII and Silent Hill. We also have some previews a Saturn title that will probably never see a US release – Shining Force III – Scenario III. In arcades we have Area 51: Site 4, Gauntlet Legends, and Star Wars Trilogy (just in time for the release of the Special Editions). We also get screen shots of House of the Dead 2. We also get a series of ads for some of Square’s upcoming games, particularly Parasite Eve, Bushido Blade 2, and Xenogears. I actually owned Bushido Blade 2, but in a fit of insanity I traded it in and I’m still kicking myself over that. Also, I’d really like to play Xenogears eventually, if I can ever find a copy. They’re really nice pictures too. I’ll just post ‘em all. Square's Christmas ad for Parasite Eve Square's Christmas ad for Bushido Blade II & Brave Fencer Musashi Square's ad for Xenogears. Feature Articles We get an article here about how to mod your console so you can import games. This article is a little dated now, in one major sense – modding your console is now, after the passage of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, a felony, which could get you some serious jail time, and practically make you unemployable. Depending on your state it could even cost you the right to vote. So, don’t mod you system, import a Japanese console instead. Or you could just get a PS3 since PS3s aren’t region coded. That said, there still is some useful stuff here, such as information on the difference between Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, as well as a useful Katakana chart. Now, this doesn’t help you with basic Japanese stuff like sentence diagramming, or anything that would really help you make head or tail of a RPG or Dating sim, but it might help you with a fighting game or a shooter. For those, if you don’t know the language yourself, they recommend GameFAQs.com, which (thank God) still exists. We also get some recommendations for sites to get Import games from, most of which still work – EB Games doesn’t sell import games anymore (now that its become GameStop), and TheRage.com is no more. We also get some recommendations of some Saturn Titles to import (including Grandia, which gets a PlayStation release, and Radiant Silvergun, which is also finally getting a US release really soon). They also recommend R-Types and the Final Fantasy IV & V collection, along with Tobal No. 2. Our second feature is a run down of all the gadgets in Metal Gear Solid, checking to see which ones exist in real life, all photographed on the woman who modeled for Sonya Blade in the Mortal Kombat games – Kerri Hoskins. She’s also a former Playboy Playmate. Most of the gadgets apparently do exist in real life, aside from stuff like the cloaking device, the CODEC, Nikita Missiles, and of course, the Metal Gear. That’s not a bad track record, to be honest. We also get a feature article about Ocarina of Time. EGM staff got to play for two day and night cycles of the game, and see what it was like. In short, they love it. In addition to running down some of the environments they encounter, they also mention the mysterious character of Shiek, and how they have no idea who he or she is. Ohhhh, what I would give to have a look at their face when they found out who Shiek is. We also get some comments on the Character design for Old and Young Link, as well as Zelda and Ganondorf. Basically, they love this game in almost every possible respect. We also get a retrospective of the Zelda series up to now. There’s also a little compare and contrast article, featuring WCW/nWo Revenge and WWF Warzone. While Warzone has less wrestlers, it has a proper Create-a-Wrestler mode. However, Revenge does better in most other categories, including control (Warzone requires you memorize Ryu-esque controller movements for various wrestler’s moves). However, even at this time, the Fire Pro Wrestling franchise leaves both games in the dust. Six-Man Scramble had been released in 1996 for the Saturn, which meant it could be imported without the need of a mod-chip. Anyway, interestingly, both games have Bret “Hitman†Hart, which is interesting because the Montreal Screwjob happened a year prior. I wonder how the inclusion of Bret worked out. Review Crew The rotating crew for this issue is even larger than before. Crispin Boyer, John Davison, Dean Hager, Dan “Shoe†Hsu, John Ricciardi, Shawn Smith, Sushi-X, and Jay Silvey (who is getting to be a guest member of the Crew thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation). Crusin World (N64, Nintendo): If you’ve played Crusin’ USA, then you know what kind of game this is. The general consensus is that the game is an improvement over USA, particularly with the addition of Championship mode, though Arcade Mode is too easy. Dean & Crispin give the game 6.5s, John R. gives the game a 7, and Shoe gives the game a 5.5. Overall: 25.5/40. NBA Live 99 (N64, EA): Dean and John R give the game 8s, commenting that while the game is fun and a solid addition to the N64′s library, the AI is an absolute pushover. Sushi gives the game a 7.5 for a similar reason. Shoe gives it a 6.5, adding that the animation is choppy due to an erratic frame rate. Overall: 30/40. Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA (N64, Midway): Shawn finds this racing game dull, generic, and boring, and gives it a 4.5. John Davison likes it a little more, finding the game-play better, though the controls are totally wrong and there are some notable graphics problems, and he gives it a 6.5. Dean and Dan enjoyed the game considerably more, and give it an 8 and an 8.5 respectively. Overall: 27.5/40. Top Gear Overdrive (N64, Kemco): Going from the single screen-shot here, this racing game doesn’t look that bad. Shawn considers it one of the best racing games for the N64 and gives it an 8.5. John R and Dean give it 7.5s, generally agreeing with Shawn, though they find that there are some problems with your cars blowing up at even the lightest tap with something in the environment. Sushi also had this complaint, though he found it big enough that he gave it a 6.5. Overall: 30/40. Twisted Edge Snowboarding (N64, Midway): Shawn, Dean, and Crispin agree that this downhill snowboarding racing game, with Shawn and Dean giving it 6s, and Crispin giving it an 5.5. John Davison is considerably less impressed, and gives the game a 3.5, particularly due to the slow game-play and the pathetic “attitude†the game puts forward. Overall: 21/40. Wipeout 64 (N64, Midway): The Crew loves the game, though they disagree about how bad the game’s pop-up issues are, which in turn leads to the variation between scores. Shawn gives the game an 8. John Davison, John R, and Shoe give the game 7.5s. Overall: 30.5/40. Activision Classics (PlayStation, Activision): It’s a collection of various Activision games from the 2600 era that haven’t aged well. Crispin gives this a 5.5, Dan gives it a 4.5, John R & Dan give it 3s. Frankly, a lot of these classic arcade collections work better now as now they can add in online multiplayer, or even just online leader-boards. Overall: 16/40. Assault: Retribution (PlayStation, Midway): 3D third person shooter, in the Contra vein. Dean finds the game fun, though it gets monotonous over time, and gives it a 6. Shawn considers the game too easy and too short, giving it a 5.5, while Crispin gives it a 5 for similar reasons. Sushi is a little less impressed and gives the game a 4. Overall: 20.5/40. Backstreet Billiards (PlayStation, ASCII): Pool simulator with a rather lame story. Dan gives it a 7, considering it the best pool game on the market at that time, though it’s not great. Sushi gives it a 6.5, wishing that the AI had been a little bit tougher. Shawn & Dean, on the other hand, wish the game hadn’t been quite so hard, and give it 6s. Overall: 25/40. Bomberman World (PlayStation, Atlus): Another console generation, another Bomberman game. This one tries to add some 3D with an isometric camera angle. Considering the fact that everybody on the Crew for this game cite the camera angle as one of their problems with the game, I’d say they didn’t pull it off. Shawn gives this a 7, saying it’s closer to classic Bomberman than most revivals, though it’s still not great. Dan gives it a 6.5, finding it disappointing, and considering the Saturn Bomberman game superior. John Davison gives the game a 6 for a similar reason. John Ricciardi gives the game a 4.5, accusing Hudson of running the franchise into the ground. Overall: 24/40. Bushido Blade II (PlayStation, Square): While Bushido Blade itself was highly regarded, the Crew is more split on the sequel. Crispin likes the new two-button control scheme more than the controls on the original, though he doesn’t like the pop-up and smaller arenas, and gives the game an 8. Sushi also likes the game more than the original, even liking the decreased music and ambient noise in environments, though he doesn’t like the removal of location based damage and the ability to fight on the ground, and gives it an 7.5. John Davison and Ricciardi give the game 6s, as in their eyes the game doesn’t quite appeal to them. Cool Boarders 3 (PlayStation, 989 Studios): Dean likes the this game more than the original, though he finds doing tricks too easy, and gives it a 7.5. Shawn & Crispin give the game 6.5s, Crispin finding the game-type getting stale while Shawn has faults with the difficulty of doing tricks, as well as the game’s collision detection. John Davison considers it just another boring snowboarder, and gives it a 5. We’ll see what they think of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999. Overall: 25.5/40 Dead Ball Zone (PlayStation, GT Interactive): This futuristic sports game (kind of a mix of Soccer & Hockey) is highly regarded by the Crew, with John Davison giving it a 7.5, while Crispin & Dan give the game 7s due to the game’s depth and the degree of customization available to the player. Dean isn’t as fond of the game due to the lackluster single player, giving the game a 5.5. Frankly, I’d like to see more futuristic sports games take this level of depth on modern consoles, particularly through services like XBLA and PSN. Overall: 27/40. Dragonseeds (PlayStation, Jaleco): This is a monster breeding and battling, one that the Crew doesn’t like too much. John Davison, Shawn, and Shoe feel that the game leans more to the mediocre, with Shawn and Shoe giving the game 6.5s, as the combat isn’t so hot and Shawn doesn’t like the monster raising thing. John Davison gave the game a 6 for similar reasons than Dan. Sushi-X on the other hand, gave the game a 2. Sushi considers the combat to be an absolute joke, the monster designs atrocious, and the graphics pathetic. Overall: 21/40. Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (PlayStation, GT Interactive): Since we’re not getting Duke Nukem Forever, this game and it’s sequel are probably the only chance you’re getting of getting more Duke. This game isn’t a first person shooter – it’s instead a 3rd person shooter/platformer ala Tomb Raider, with the addition of two-player co-op. The game does have some pixelation and control problems, but Shawn thought it was fine, and gives it an 8.5. John Davison gives the game a 7.5, saying that the game has a strong Duke vibe, and the game’s issues are relatively minor. Sushi gives the game a 6.5, due to mediocre sound, grainy visual, and the attitude tamed down. Shoe is hardest on the game, because of it’s floaty jumps, sluggish and unresponsive controls, which also makes the game’s two-player co-operative mode practically unplayable. The only thing he likes about the game is the graphics (which everyone else thought was grainy), so Shoe gives it a 4. Overall: 26.5/40. The Fifth Element (PlayStation, Activision): A licensed game based on the awesome Luc Besson movie. Unfortunately, the game turns out poorly. Everyone agrees with Crispin’s opinion on the game, the main difference is the score – so I’ll just run down the main arguments against the game. The game’s built using the engine from Nightmare Creatures, which was a piece of crap anyway, so it’s already off to a horrible start. The characters (you can either play as Corbin Dallas or Leeloo) control horribly, basically having tank controls. It doesn’t help that it takes multiple button inputs to block or walk slowly instead of running. Enemies get incredibly cheap hits in, because of those controls, yet the AI is dumber than a bag of hammers, making the punishment you take more aggravating. The “puzzles†are hunts for keys and switches, the camera sucks, hell – there is nothing good about this game. If Crispin could give the game a 0, he could – but he can’t so he’s giving it a 1. Shawn gives it a 2, Dean gives it a 2.5, and Sushi gives it a 3. Overall: 8.5/40. Guilty Gear (PlayStation, Atlus): Sushi isn’t going to call this the best fighting game on the PlayStation, as he likes Alpha 2 more, but number 2 isn’t anything to sneeze at. He doesn’t like that the instant kill moves are too easy counter, because the screen flashes red – but I consider it a good way of balancing the moves. Speaking of which, he’s concerned about the balance problems, though I’ve also noticed that games like Guilty Gear do a great job of balancing the characters out by not trying to balance them, and let the players pick fighters they like. So, because of that, Sushi gives the game a 7.5. Shoe gives the game a 7 for similar reasons. Shawn thinks that veteran fighting game players would find it too simple, and John Ricciardi agreed – Shawn gives a 6.5, and John gives a 6. I never found the game too “simpleâ€, and if Street Fighter II has shown anything, it’s that players will find depths of game-play that the designers had never intended in the first place. Overall: 27/40. Hardball 99 (PlayStation, Accolade): The consensus on this game from the Crew is that Accolade is trying to play catchup to all the other major baseball franchises and failing due to poor graphics, sound and control. Dean gives it a 4.5, Sushi and Crispin give it 4s, and John Ricciardi gives it a 3. Overall: 15.5/40. Lucky Luke (PlayStation, Infograms): A platformer aimed for kids. Shawn likes the game, giving it a 7, saying it’s easy, but not too easy for younger people. John Davison also thinks it isn’t bad, but probably too simple for some younger kids (though if you think about it, Mario’s a pretty simple game), and gives it a 6.5. Dean had fun playing the game against his better judgment, and gave the game a 6. Crispin finds it too easy for most young gamers, and gives it a 4.5. Overall: 24/40. Medievil (PlayStation, Sony Computer Entertainment): This is a sort of comedic horror themed action platformer (if that makes any sense). Crispin and Shawn give this game 8.5s, due to the game having some serious character to it, which is more than a lot of contemporaneous platformers have had. Sushi gives it a 7.5, and Dean gives it a 7 for similar reasons – though Dean had some problems with the camera. Overall: 31.5/40. Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation, Konami): In short, they love this game. How much do they love it? The Crew (Crispin, John Ricciardi, John Davidson, and Shoe) give the game 10s across the board. Overall: 40/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Platinum Award and Game of the Month. NHL ’99 (PlayStation, Electronic Arts): While the animations, control and lots of other major things have improved from the previous year’s iteration, it runs into a problem with it’s frame rate – because they improved the ice effects. That’s right, because they did the ice better, the framer4-ate drops. How about that. Anyway, this is the main thing that leads into the game’s scores. John Ricciardi & Dean give the game 8.5s, while Shoe and Sushi give the game 7s. Overall: 31/40. NHL FaceOff ’99 (PlayStation, 989 Studios): The crew generally feels the game compares strongly with the NHL ’99, but it’s still a bit behind in some major respects. John Ricciardi,2 Dean, and Sushi give the game 7.5s, and Shoe gave it a 7. Overall: 29.5/40. O.D.T. (PlayStation, Psygnosis): I have no idea what ODT stands for. Dean finds this a very ambitious game, but it fails in realizing it’s ambitions, and gives it a 4. The rest of the crew expands on this, adding that the game has poor control, and even worse graphics, so Dan, Crispin, and John Davison give it 3.5s. Overall: 14.5/40. Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus (PlayStation, GT Interactive): This is a semi-sequel to Abe’s Oddyssey. The Crew really likes the game, with Sushi and Shawn giving the game 9.5s, and Crispin and Dan giving the game 9s, for keeping up the good work. Overall: 37/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. Pool Hustler (PlayStation, Activision): Another pool game. Sushi and John Ricciardi say that this is one of the best pool games on the PlayStation, giving it 7s. Crispin however points out the game’s steep learning curve, and gives it a 6. Dan isn’t impressed, finding the control scheme unintuitive, and being disappointed by the lack of different game types, and gives it a 5. Overall: 25/40. Running Wild (PlayStation, 989 Studios): It’s a running racing game featuring anthropomorphic animals. Fortunately, furries haven’t gotten any form of mainstream visibility, so we don’t have any cracks against furries in the review. As someone whose gotten so tired of the stupid cracks about furries that I automatically dismiss the arguments of anyone who adds a crack about furries to a theoretically more “serious†criticism, particularly in reviews of stuff like Avatar or even recent Sonic games (there are enough real flaws with those games that you don’t have to add the “flaw†of the game’s appeal to furries to build a case against it), I’m pleased by that. Anyway, the main complaints about the game relate to it’s generic gameplay. Shawn gives it a 6.5, Crispin gives it a 6, Dan gives it a 5, and Dean a 4. Overall: 21.5/40. Small Soldiers (PlayStation, EA): Action platformer based on the movie with some significant hit detection problems, as well as some clipping problems, leading into stuck-in-a-wall problems, plus tank controls. Consequently none of the Crew is impressed. Shawn gives it a 4.5, Crispin gives it a 4, Sushi gives it a 3.5, and John Davison gives it a 2.0. Overall: 14/40. Streak (PlayStation, GT Interactive): This is sort of a mix of a snowboarding racing game with Wipeout, by which I mean it’s on hover-boards. Sushi finds the hit detection a little sloppy, but otherwise thinks the game is incredibly fun, and gives it an 8. Dean & Crispin also enjoy the game and think it’s fun, and gives it 7.5s. John Davison is getting sick and tired of all the extreme sports games and doesn’t want to see any more of them, and gives it a 5. Look, this is why you a rotating Crew of critics, so you can take the guy who doesn’t like extreme sports games in general, and put him on something else, and put the guy who either is knowledgeable about extreme sports, and/or likes them (or at least is indifferent about them), and let him review the game. This is the same problem that EGM had back in the early 90s and late 80s with their reviews of Wizardry-style RPGs. Overall: 28/40. Test Drive 5 (PlayStation, Accolade): I remember playing this as a teen, and I remember hating the rubber band AI – I could never win a race in this, but I could win races in Gran Turismo. In part because I’d wipe out, and the AI Racers would get so far ahead of me that I wouldn’t stand a chance. This is the same problem that Dean has with the game, but it’s not enough of a problem for him to give it below a 7.5. The Johns give it 7s, though Davison found the game more dull than Ricciardi did. Shawn finds the game pretty poor because of the unforgiving AI, and various graphical problems, and gives it a 6.5. Overall: 28/40. Xenogears (PlayStation, Square): Square’s probably most infamous RPG, in part due to the fact that, well, they didn’t have time to finish the story properly, so had to have someone feed exposition to you. Sushi gives the game an 8.5, and Johns Ricciardi & Davison, along with Crispin give the game 9s. Overall: 35.5/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Wild 9 (PlayStation, Interplay): The crew for this game features our Special Guest Reviewer, Jay Silvey. As a quick mention, Jay is, last time I checked, still doing fine, recovered from his kidney problems, went to college to study game design, and managed to guest on EGM Live for December 17th, 2007, which can be found here. Jay and Shawn gave the game 8s, with Jay enjoying the many ways in which you could torture your enemies, though he found a few problems with controlling your character and his “rig†at the same time. John Davison and Shoe give the game 7.5s, faulting the fact that you have to get 99 Gears in each level to get a continue, which means if you miss so much as one gear, you’re SOL. Overall: 31/40. Pokemon (Game Boy, Nintendo): John Riccardi and Sushi find this to be one of the best games for the Game Boy, and just a solid game in general (and Sushi, as we all know, hate’s the Game Boy). John Davison and Crispin give the game 8s because of the strategic gameplay and the massive amounts of game-play in the game, from collecting and training Pokemon, to earning all the badges. Overall: 34/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Before there was X-Play, there was Gamespot TV We get an ad for GameSpot TV on ZDTV – the show, hosted by Adam Sessler, later becomes Extended Play, and then when ZDTV becomes Tech-TV, then merges with G4 and becomes G4-Tech TV, the show becomes the X-Play that we now know and love. The Final Word in this issue comes from Crispin Boyer, talking about how even though the Dreamcast is on the horizon, we could see some significant increases of graphical quality on the N64 and PlayStation, as we get more games designed using the PlayStation Analyzer and the N64 expansion pack. Well, and there’s that whole matter of the PlayStation 2 coming out in 1999. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Superhero movies tend to do better on the second installment than on the first installment. The Dark Knight was better than Batman Begins. X-Men 2 was better than the first X-Men movie. Part of this is because the writer no longer is saddled with having to set up the hero’s origin story, while also setting up the origin story for the villain as well, and laying down the rules of the setting, and establishing all the characters you’re introducing. Come movie number two, and you (and the audience) already know what the rules are and the hero’s origin. Now you just have to establish a new villain, possibly involving his origin (though, as The Dark Knight showed, not always), and plot the character growth for the returning cast. I’m not saying it’s easy. I am saying it’s not necessarily as hard as the first outing. In Iron Man, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has revealed himself publicly to be Iron Man, making him one of the few superheroes in film to have a public identity, and in this installment, Tony now finds himself facing some of the consequences. Congress wants the Iron Man armor to be turned over to the Federal government, and Tony’s refusing. Meanwhile, the arc reactor that’s keeping Tony alive is slowly killing him by leeching palladium into his system, leaving Tony to try to build up a legacy that will continue to make the world a better place, while making himself dispensable enough that when he drops dead it will all keep going, and while trying to fullfill his semi-personal bucket list without tipping off Administrative Assistant Pepper Potts (Gweneth Paltrow) and Happy Hogan (Director Jon Faverau) Meanwhile, Tony faces two opponents who are both connected to him personally, and both couldn’t be more different – business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a slightly less competent version of Tony, who aspires to take Tony down a notch, and Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the son of the man who designed the Arc Reactor with Tony’s father, who wants revenge for his father being disgraced and deported from America. If I could summarize the theme of the film in a word, it would be “legacy”. Tony Stark knows he’s dying, and wants Stark Industries to continue down the path he moved it on in the last movie after he dies. However, he also wants to the company to be able to operate completely without him after his death, so he acts to deliberately push everyone from his life away, so when he dies he hurts them less. Justin Hammer represents the legacy Stark probably would have left if he’d continued to be involved with weapon production, and if you look at the conflict between Stark and Hammer, it’s over the legacy of Iron Man. Tony envisions Iron Man as a symbol of peace. Hammer’s goal is a series of mass produced “Iron Man” knock-offs which would turn the technology into a symbol of war. The ultimate faceless soldier. Finally, Ivan Vanko’s origin is, unintentionally, part of the legacy Tony’s father, Howard (John Slattery in an excellent role) left (by unintentionally, I mean that the character didn’t intend it, not the writers). Because Howard had Ivan’s father deported, he ended up dying in poverty, and Ivan himself ended up living the hard life he did, driving Ivan to seek revenge. So, Ivan becomes a dark mirror of Tony Stark. While Tony knew wealth, privilege, and all the finest schools, Ivan Vanko knew poverty, crime, and hardship, but managed to nurture the seed of his intellect, but for a darker reason than Tony did, for revenge. This leads to the film’s conflict – Tony trying to build up his final legacy, as forces conspire to destroy it utterly. No, they don’t explicitly spell it out in the film. Really though, they don’t need to – I picked up on it. I give this film a full recommendation. The acting is great. The writing is great (as you could probably tell by my gushing over it), and the visual effects are excellent. If you have an Imax theater near you, see it there. It’s worth it. Filed under: film Tagged: comics, film, Marvel Comics, review Source

Get Thunder Spirits at eBay For this week’s Quality Control, I’m going with my second “also ran” from the the pages of Nintendo Power – the Technosoft shump Thunder Spirits. The game is the third game in the Thunder Force franchise, and the only game in the series to get released on the SNES. The Premise The forces of the Galactic Federation are not faring well in their century long war with the ORN empire. The Empire has installed cloaking devices on 5 their planets that harbor major bases to shield them from Federation forces, and they’ve designed a special defensive system called Cerebus to keep major fleets from searching for them. The Federation’s only hope is the new LEO-03 “Styx” starfighter, which is small enough to slip through Cerebus’s defenses, but has enough firepower to destroy the Cerebus system and the cloaking devices. The Good This is a fun shump. I never felt overwhelmed by the number of projectiles on screen. I did die a lot, but the deaths were ones that I could avoid, with one sole exception (and even then, I still think I could have avoided it). Additionally, when you die you only lose your active special weapon, instead of all the special weapons you’ve unlocked. The Bad The game does have some slowdown problems when you get a bunch of enemies and shots on screen, particularly when you’re firing your spread shot, and your options/”funnels” are firing their spread shots, and a bunch of enemies are coming on screen and maybe getting a shot off before they blow up, and others are in the midst of blowing up, and you can see how things get sluggish. The Ugly For all the game’s strengths, there are still some elements of trial-and-error gameplay here. In particular, there are some obstacles blocking the path in levels that can only be destroyed with certain weapons, instead with all weapons like in games like R-Type or Gradius. However, you won’t be able to tell what weapons work against the obstacle until you try the right one. Additionally, some of the levels which have you going through narrow areas quickly have some dead ends which you won’t know are there, until you get there. The Verdict This is one of the best shumps for the SNES, and one of the most approachable as well, in my opinion. If you have a SNES, or one of the SNES clones (which are easy to get), I would recommend picking up this game. Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Nintendo Power, Quality Control, SNES, Video games Source

On with the Nintendo Power recaps. We’re on to issue 38 for July of 1992. Our cover story for this issue is Street Fighter II for the SNES. I will not be doing a Quality Control for that game unless everything else stinks, because it’s Street Fighter, we all know it’s good. We’ve actually got some decent cover art this time, with Guile hitting a high kick. The letters for this issue are general slice-of-life stuff. Panic Restaurant Guide This is a bizarre little platformer for the NES, where you play a chef trying to beat up food and other cooking implements. It’s different, and I have to admit that most game designers wouldn’t take chances with such a surreal concept for a modern game – even in the independent scene. We get a map of every level in the game and the final boss fight. Capcom’s Gold Medal Challenge Guide This is another Olympic events game for the NES. We get information on each of the programs in the game. Some of the choices for the events in each program seem odd. For example, Program 1 has the 100 meter dash, the long jump, and then the 100 meter backstroke. That’s 2 track & field events and one swimming event. In between each program you take part in, you’ll also run a leg of the marathon. Anyway, we get advice for all the programs and all the events. Might & Magic Guide American Sammy has ported the PC role-playing game to the NES. We get maps of the first city and instructions on the first quest. I’m not going to make this my Quality Control pick, though if I did, I’d play the PC version of Might & Magic – since I’d purchased it from Good Old Games a while back and I still haven’t gotten around to beating it. I’d want to get the manual PDFs printed off first though, so they’re in a format I can reference more easily. The Great Password Giveaway We get password for a bunch of video games that have been covered previously. Legend of Zelda Comic After rescuing the fairy from monsters, the fairy leads Link to a Zora – one named Zora – Zora Exposition. Zora explains the state of the world to Link. Zora informs that several princess have been kidnapped, and one is held in a temple nearby. Zora also gives him a mask to use as a disguise. Link infiltrates the temple, beats the guards and rescues the princess. In the process the temple is destroyed. After he receives the “comm-fork†from the Princess, a rat faced man appears, demanding the Master Sword. To Be Continued. Toxic Crusaders Guide This is a platformer for the Game Boy based on the children’s animated series based on the the film The Toxic Avenger from Troma. I still cannot quite wrap my head around the idea of anything from Troma becoming something marketed for children. Anyway, we get some level maps of the first act and notes on the enemies in the game, as well as some general notes for later levels. Jeep Jamboree Guide This is a racing game from, basically, a first person perspective. I’m not to interested in this one, particularly because of the lack of peripheral vision. Wave Race Guide This is the predecessor to WaveRace 64 (or one of the predecessors). We get strategies for beating the various race types. Centipede Guide The most you can really get for a strategy guide for Centipede is advice for surviving levels – which is what we get here. However, you’re still stuck with a D-Pad instead of a track ball. Super Mario Adventures Comic Peach has come to the rescue. We get various cartoon slapstick antics as the Koopas and the Princess company clash. We even get an Ojo-sama laugh from Princess Peach. By the way, Princess Peach looks pretty good in overalls. I’m just saying. Anyway, this chapter ends with the bomb the Princess brought in going off while Mario & company are dropped down a trap door into the basement. Technology Update We get an run down of a bunch of new pieces of technology being used in upcoming SNES games. Of note is digitized images (to be used famously in Pit Fighter & Mortal Kombat, among other games). They show how the assets are made, using examples of the source images and the final results, from such games as Out of this World. Magic Sword Guide This is one of the games included in the Final Fight: Double Impact collection. It’s a fantasy brawler, with some platforming elements. I’ve played and beaten the arcade version in MAME, but I haven’t played the SNES version, but I can’t imagine it’s too different. We get items and power-up notes. We also get maps of the first 30 stages, going into the poster, as well as notes for the bosses on floors 36, 49, and 50. Street Fighter II Guide We get bios, move lists, and strategies for every fighter. Now, we don’t get combo notes, because, basically, combos were a piece of emergent game-play that came up as the arcade scene around Street Fighter II, and eventually the tournament scene was built up. We also get some advice for beating Vega, Balrog, and Sagat – but no information on M. Bison. They don’t even mention him at all. Sneaky. NCAA Basketball Guide Being that this is a sports game, what we get are general strategies for playing better, including notes on what plays to use when. We also get notes on the five conferences that are included in the game. Pac-10 and Big Sky aren’t included, so I’m gonna snub this game for Quality Control on general principle. Nester’s Adventures This issue, Nester tries to fly a Dragon in Dragonstrike. I really can’t see any hints here, nor can I see any connection to the Dragonlance universe. Now Playing This issue tweaks the format of the column a little – with clearer definition of when the review of one game ends and another begins. This also causes the column to lose some of its stream of consciousness feel. They think Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge is an excellent racing game and Might & Magic has too steep a learning curve. There’s a debate about Turbo functions on controllers are cheating in the review of Gold Medal Challenge ’92 (which also shows that the game is essentially a button mash fest). They think Panic Restaurant was fun, and they laud Knight Quest‘s inclusion of the ability to evade monsters if you’re weak. They find Jeep Jamboree a little frustrating, and Centipede was a good arcade port in their eyes. They also compare Wave Race favorably to R.C. Pro Am, and Toxic Crusaders to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They also applaud the inclusion of two-player co-op in Rival Turf, find Magic Sword a nearly arcade perfect port, bemoan the lack of strategy in Super Battletank, and they enjoyed Spanky’s Quest and Thunder Spirits for the SNES. Oh, and they loved NCAA Basketball and Street Fighter II. Top 20 Mario still holds all the top spots this time, with Battletoads holding the #2 spot for the NES, Legend of Zelda holding the #2 spot for the SNES, and Metroid holds the #2 spot for the Game Boy. Celebrity Player Profile This issue we have a profile of Tori Spelling. Apparently there’s a lot of Mario being played during down-time on the set of Super Mario Bros. 3. Pak Watch We get a look at Super Mario Kart, Dinosaurs (a SNES platformer unrelated to Jim Henson sitcom), Super Star Wars, Super Double Dragon, Minor 2049er (a port of an old Atari 8-bit game for the Game Boy), Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy. In their import notes section they also mention the Dragonball Z RPG for the SNES which uses something of a card battle mechanic. For my Quality Control pick for this issue, I’m going with something from the Now Playing column – Thunder Spirits for the SNES, a shump. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: Nintendo Power, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

We have another gap in the EGM archives, which takes us forward almost a year, to issue #107 for June of 1998. Our cover story for this issue is Turok 2, and this issue also gives us some very nice cover art, in my opinion. Our editorial column for this issue is from John Davidson, who is now EIC for GamePro, which he has significantly re-formed. The editorial column is, as columns often are, about the shape of things to come. The Game Boy Color has been announced, and Sony has introduced some new technology to allow developers to push the PlayStation hardware even further then they had previously. Letters So in the several issue gap lay 1997′s April issue, and it’s April Fool’s Day joke, which was one of the most legendary jokes in EGM since the Sheng Long cheat – the All Bonds cheat. For those who are unfamiliar, the cheat was a fake cheat that let you, unlocked a series of skins for Goldeneye 007 for every single prior official James Bond – Connery, Lazenby, Moore, and Dalton. This issue has a series of responses to the “cheat†both positive and negative. You've got something on your upper lip. This is also the era of the Milk Mustache ad, and this issue has one featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar from the hot new series “Buffy: The Vampire Slayerâ€. Let it not be said that the milk council can’t recognize when a new series is going somewhere. Now, if only we got a milk mustache ad with some of the ECW guys during the original run of ECW. Also in the gap was Ed Semrad’s departure from EGM, and we have some letters from readers wishing him a fond farewell. Press Start Tokyo Game Show has come and gone, recently enough that they’re printing news from it. The first being that Sega is phasing out the Saturn in favor of their upcoming “Katana†console (which later is released as the Dreamcast). They’re releasing the last titles that were in the queue for the system (including Magic Knight Rayearth from Working Designs – which was hyped as a launch title, by the way), and then they’re done. In other news, Acclaim picked up the South Park license and would go on to put out a string of incredibly crappy games using the license. Sega’s donated a Virtua Fighter cabinet to the Smithsonian. We also get an article about the upcoming Game Boy Color. Quartermann’s column has also been shrunk down and included into the news section, so I’ll address his rumors here as well. According to Q-Mann, we’re going to get a new Ridge Racer game in December 1997. Well, we do get a Ridge Racer game, titled Rage Racer in May of 1997. I’m not sure where he gets the “December is Traditional Release time for Ridge Racer†though. R-Types, R-Type Delta, and Thunder Force V are set to get US releases – which is true (and the first two on that list are available on PSN). Previews We have our (as in the people reading my recaps) first look at NFL Blitz for the Nintendo 64 – Midway’s arcade-style football game. We also get a look at Mortal Kombat 4. It’s not a final build of the game (as shown by footage with Scorpion fighting Goro, but Goro’s life bar reading “Cageâ€). EA’s also working on a N64 version of Madden 99. Psygnosis is working on a Formula 1 racing game titled World Grand Prix. The game right away is pretty notable because it has an actual cockpit view, as opposed to a “camera strapped to the front bumper view†like most other racing games. You can even see your driver’s hands. Ocean is working on a stealth spaced spy game with the licence of the first Mission: Impossible movie. Acclaim and Taito are also working togeather to port Bust a Move to the N64 – I could see that game working well with the N64′s stick controlling the angle of the bubbles. On the PlayStation we have a look at Metal Gear Solid, which has significantly more impact on popularizing the stealth action game than Mission Impossible did. However, it’s nice to see that Ocean’s attempt did attempt to try something new by including stealth. Psygnosis is also working on another combat space sim in Colony Wars: Vengence. Capcom has the super deformed fighting game Pocket Fighter, which I’ve played and IMHO it’s pretty fun, though you’ll probably never play it at the tournament level. Capcom also has the semi-3D fighting game Rival Schools, which uses polygonal graphics that hasn’t aged well. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing a current-gen version of Rival Schools using the Street Fighter IV engine. There’s also a look at the PlayStation version of Madden 99 and the THQ’s port of the JRPG Granstream Saga. Acclaim is also putting out WWF Warzone, which is all well and good, except that Acclaim’s wrestling games used arcade fighting game controls, which means it takes, say, a QCF plus grapple to do a suplex. Command and Conquer: Red Alert is getting ported to the SNES. Hasbro Interactive is porting their PC version of Risk to the PlayStation, which actually should be alright – the PC version wasn’t very button intensive. There’s also looks at two of Square’s upcoming games – Bushido Blade II and Brave Fencer Musashi. On the Saturn, among the last games for that system are Burning Rangers, a game where you play fire-fighters in power armor that uses the Nights Into Dreams Engine. At the arcade, Sega is putting out Sega Rally 2. Feature Articles We get our look at Turok 2 – Seeds of Evil. The engine has been improved from the last game, so the draw distances are further, and the textures and particle effects are better. Turok also has a female supporting cast member, and showing how much games have progressed since this issue of EGM came out, the game’s designers are particularly proud of the character’s ass. I’m not talking about a donkey either. Seriously. Review Crew We have now, finally, addressed one of my complaints about the Review Crew in prior issues – we now have a rotating roster, so people who cannot stand certain genres don’t have to review them, and thus in turn we get a legitimately useful review. Our Crew is Crispin Boyer, John Davidson, Dan “Shoe†Hsu, John Ricciardi (working on localizing US games for the Japanese market), Kraig Kujawa (currently Director of Design at Capcom USA), Kelly Rickards (who I can’t find anything about), Shawn Smith, and Sushi-X. John Ricciardi will be listed as “John Râ€, and John Davidson as “John Dâ€, because that’s how EGM does it. 1080 Snowboarding (Nintendo, N64): Shawn, The Johns, and Dan are on this one. The crew loves the graphics, but they all think the game needs more – except for Shawn, who thinks it’s fine as is, and gives it a 9.5, and John D, who says the game has an excellent total package and gives it an 8.5. John R is disappointed with the limited track selection and gives it an 8. Dan gives it a 7.5, wishing there was more multi-player, especially 4-player multi-player. Overall: 33.5/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. World Cup 98 (EA, N64): The Johns, Dan, and Kraig are on this one. John D gives this an 8, saying that the game’s gotten a much deserved re-working from the prior game in the series, particularly with the slide tackles. Additionally the game includes a new historical game mode, complete with black & white filters over the screen. However, John D isn’t too impressed with the passing system in this version of the game. Dan is considerably less impressed with the changes, giving the game a 7, due to the insignificant (in his book) changes, adding that if you own FIFA Road to the World Cup 98 you should subtract 7 from his score, which is rather impressive to say. John R and Craig also agree that if you don’t have Road to the World Cup 98 you should get this, but otherwise don’t bother – they both give it 8s. AGH: Atari Collection 2 (Digital Eclipse, PlayStation): This is one of the arcade collections that made Digital Eclipse famous. Dan, Crispin, Kraig, and Kelly are on this one. Dan found the collection incredibly fun and it provoked a bunch of nostalgia, though he suspects us young folks wouldn’t appreciate the game the same way, and he gives the game a 7. Crispin and Craig are disappointed with the controls – in the sense that they can’t replicate the arcade controls for games like Millipede, Marble Madness, and Crystal Castles as they use a trackball, and Paperboy used, essentially, bicycle handlebars, so they give it 6.5s. Kelly’s a little more forgiving and they give the game a 7.5. Overall: 27.5/40. Blasto (Sony, PlayStation): This is a behind-the back shooter/platformer with a cartoon look. Shawn, John D, Dan & Kelly are on this one. Shawn is not impressed with this game, particularly due to the game’s sloppy control and limiting the player to one save slot per memory card, and he gives the game a 5. The rest of the crew is more forgiving, with Dan & Kelly giving 6.5s – both of them aren’t pleased with the camera (and how it effects judging jumps), and Kelly feels that the main character moves to slow as well. John doesn’t find the jumping to be as much of a problem, and he loves the AI, giving the game a 7.5. Overall: 25.5/40. Breath of Fire III (Capcom, PlayStation): Crispin, John R, Kraig & Shawn are on this one. Crispin isn’t impressed by the game’s ending though he likes the game’s story, finding it gripping, but not epic like Final Fantasy VII and Wild Arms, though he does like the sheer amount of stuff to do in the game (not including grinding), giving it a 8.5. Kraig also gives it an 8.5, finding it long and satisfying, but not mind blowing. Shawn liked the game’s mix of 3D & sprites, along with the game’s story and gives it an 8. John gives it a 7.5, calling the story not as good as FFVII, but better than Wild Arms, though he doesn’t like the boss AI for some of the bosses, and the writing could do with some polish, though he liked the battle system. Overall: 32.5/40. Deathtrap Dungeon (Eidos, PlayStation): This game has been heavily advertised in EGM for over a year, and now it’s come out, and it’s crap. Kraig, John D, Kelly, and Sushi are on this review. Kelly found struggling with the game’s camera to be a chore, considering it enough of a problem it give it a 6.5. John liked the camera even less than Kelly did, giving the game a 5. Sushi takes things even further, pointing out the choppy animations, poor textures, and bad enemy design, giving the game a 4.5. Kraig adds in to everyone else’s complaints that the game has poor level design, poor controls, poor combat, no animations at all for some character actions, bad character design for the heroes as well, and gives the game a 3.5. Overall: 19.5/40. Einhander (Square, PlayStation): This is Square’s semi-polygonal shump. Kraig, John R, Crispin, and Dan are on this one, and they all agree that it is one of the best shumps for the PlayStation. Kraig and Crispin gave the game 9.5s, and John & Dan give the game 9s. Overall: 37/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. Hot Shots Golf (Camelot, PlayStation): Craig, Crispin, Shawn & Sushi are on this one. This is a more arcade-style Golf game. Everyone just likes it and doesn’t really have anything bad to say about it. Shawn gives it a 7.5, and everyone else gives it 8.5s. Overall: 33/40. MLB 99 (Sony, PlayStation): John R, Kraig, Shawn & Sushi are on this one. Aside with some complaints over the batting they liked the game. Shawn & Sushi give the game 7.5s, John & Kraig give the game 8s. Overall: 31/40. Pitfall 3D (Activision, PlayStation): Kelly, John D, Kraig and Crispin are on this one. Kelly likes this one, giving it a 7, with his sole complaint being that Pitfall Harry’s commentary can get annoying. Crispin and Kraig give the game 4s, because of bad camera angles, bad level design, and bad control. John Davidson has the same complaints and then some, ripping the game a new one, and calling Activision out for crucifying a video game icon like Pitfall, and he gives the game a 2. Overall: 17/40. Powerboat Racing (Promethian Design, PlayStation): The Johns, Kelly and Sushi are on this one. Kelly find the courses narrow and confusing, and the gameplay generally boring, giving the game 4.5. John R and Sushi give the game 4s, because of pop-up problems, terrible control, and bad control. John Davidson gives out his second 2 of the issue, finding the game utterly unplayable. Overall: 14.5/40. Rascal (Traveler’s Tales, PlayStation): Dan, The Johns and Shawn are on this one. Shawn & Dan give this platformer 4s, saying that the game has great graphics but terrible gameplay and a worse camera. The Johns agree, with D & R giving the game a 3.5 and a 3 respectively. Overall: 14.5/40. San Francisco Rush (Climax, PlayStation): Kelly, John R, Kraig and Crispin are on this review. Kelly gives the game a 5, finding some problems with pop-up and with failure actually being advantageous at times. The rest of the Crew doesn’t take to it as well, giving it 4s (though a few of the members of the crew are pleasantly surprised, though considering that they gave it 4s, that isn’t saying much). Overall: 17/40. Tekken 3 (Namco, PlayStation): Crispin, the Johns and Sushi are on this review. In short, they love the game. Sushi gives the game for 9, as he’s more of a 2D guy than a 3D guy. Everyone else gives it 10s. Overall: 39/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. Theme Hospital (Bullfrog, PlayStation): This is sort of the Tycoon games, but with a hospital. John D, Dan, Crispin, and John are on this one. Crispin & Shawn give it 6.5s, finding it okay, and John & Shoe give it 6s, as they enjoy the construction part but not the administration part. Overall: 25/40. Warhammer: Dark Omen (EA, PlayStation): John D, Dan, Kraig and Sushi are on this strategy game. John D comments that the game’s control isn’t precise enough to pull off the strategies you need to do to succeed and he gives it a 6. Kraig gives it a 5.5, as he finds the game boring as it proceeds. Sushi gives it a 5 for the same reason. Dan gives it a 4.5, saying he lost interest in the game as soon as he started the game. Overall: 21/40. House of the Dead (Sega, Saturn): We’re coming up on the last wave of Saturn titles. Kelly, Dan, John D and Crispin are on this one. John and Dan give the game 7s – Dan feels that the graphics are a step down from Virtua Cop, but he likes the multiple paths the game lets you take, and John likes the additional gameplay modes. Kelly finds it fun because it’s always fun to kill zombies, and gives it a 6.5. Crispin is not impressed with the visuals at all, and gives the game a 5. Overall: 25.5/40. Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sega, Saturn): This is the last Panzer Dragoon game until Panzer Dragoon Orta for the Xbox. Dan, Kraig, John R and Crispin are on this one. They agree that this is one of the best games for the Saturn. Dan, Kraig and John give it 9.5s, and Crispin gives it a 10. Overall: 38.5/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Gold Award. Bomberman GB (Hudson, Game Boy): John R, Shawn, Dan and Crispin are on this review. While Shawn is disappointed by the size of the arenas, he finds it to be a solid Bomberman game and gives it an 8.5. Dan generally agrees with Shawn and gives it a 7.5. Crispin finds the AI to be a little too easy and gives it a 7. John gives it a 6.5, finding battle mode impractical and considering and commenting that the power-ups are just re-hashes of stuff from prior games in the series. Overall: 29.5/40. Legends of the River King (Pack-In-Soft, Game Boy): Think of this like Harvest Moon but with fishing instead of farming. Crispin, Shawn, Sushi and Kraig are the crew on this one. Crispin, Shawn and Sushi give the game 4s, and Kraig gives it a 2 for the same reason – the RPG plot comes up to the player’s ankles, and the fishing is boring as hell. Overall: 14/40. Mystical Ninja (Konami, Game Boy): This is a new Legend of the Mystical Ninja game, but with more of a Legend of Zelda camera angle. The Johns, Crispin, and Shawn are reviewing this one. John Davidson and Crispin give it 3.5s, finding the game incredibly monotonous. John R and Shawn agree, adding that the control is bad, and the difficulty curve is high, giving it 3s. Overall: 13/40. We wrap up this issue with “The Final Wordâ€. That’s right, we’ve got two commentary columns per issue now. This issue’s column is from John Ricciardi, who talks about the games he played as a kid before getting to his point – Nintendo has been making some bad business decisions. They’ve stuck with cartridges when every one else left them behind. Further, they’ve toned down the difficulty for some of their major games, such as the recent Yoshi’s Story game for the N64. Riccardi’s argument is, essentially, that Super Mario Bros, Super Mario World, Zelda and Metroid were games worked for people at multiple difficulty levels. You didn’t necessarily need a lot of hand eye coordination to beat those games, just time, patience, and thought. Riccardi’s complaint is that Nintendo is dumbing down it’s games. The arguments that John puts forward here will ultimately lead to the modern argument that Nintendo no longer understands the hardcore gamer, and no longer is trying to appeal to our market. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

Get The Beatles: Rock Band from Amazon.com So, a while back I played, and reviewed, the first major rhythm game to be based around a particular rock band – Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. I reviewed it almost a year ago, and I didn’t think it was all bad. Well, this year I’ve picked up Harmonix’s take on the concept. With the game I reviewed a year ago, Neversoft took the Guitar Hero series, took some of Aerosmith’s hit tracks and put some relevant tracks by other artists around it. Harmonix’s philosophy of game design has a fundamentally different style. Instead, they’re picking some of the best of the best of the band they’re building their game around with DLC for other songs by that band. The band in question? The Beatles. The game’s story mode basically follows the Beatles career from the first concerts in the Cavern Club to the final rooftop concert. Like Neversoft’s Aerosmith game, the venues they performed at are recorded faithfully, which isn’t hard considering that most of the Beatles concerts (except maybe for the Cavern Club) were faithfully recorded. Where things get interesting, though, is after their Nippon Budokan concert. For those unfamiliar with the band’s history, the Beatles stopped touring and performing live for over half their career. They put out promotional videos for some of their songs. They put out movies, but they didn’t perform live. So, how do you, as a developer, depict what’s going to be about half your game in a fashion that’s visually interesting for your players? What Harmonix did is they built dreamscapes. With each song during what I’m going to call the Studio Years–because it’s less insulting than the “shut-in years” (and Paul McCartney was a dog person anyway), Harmonix developed a fanciful backdrop for the band to perform in. The song begins and/or ends in the recording studio at Abbey Road, and in between the studio turns into a bizarre environment that’s appropriate to the song. For example, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds has a psychedelic dreamscape, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends starts out with the Beatles in the Sgt. Pepper outfits performing on a bandstand, before the bandstand turns into a hot air balloon, with the Little Help From My Friends segment being performed in the air. Octopus’s Garden & Yellow Submarine are performed underwater (with the titular Submarine surfacing in that song for the final few refrains being performed on the ship’s hull on the surface for that song). Not only does this work, but in my opinion it works better than the execution for the Aerosmith game. The Beatles have a catalog that’s big enough to fit a game of this size, one of the few bands that do (the others that come to mind being Pink Floyd, Rush and Van Halen, off the top of my head). Further, the Beatles story has a definite narrative to it, and the structure of the game fits that narrative well. While all the songs are unlocked from the start, there are photos and video clips you can unlock by getting 3 and 5 star ratings on songs, which tell you more about the band. There are additional bridging video segments between chapters which you unlock by playing all the songs in a chapter. Additionally, when each song loads, the game plays some audio clips of the band warming up for each recording session for the Studio Years, and some of their stage banter during the concert tours. This really helps get across some of what the Fab Four were like at the time. However, this game has it’s bumps. Firstly, because the tracks are organized chronologically, instead of by difficulty, and they’re going by notable tracks instead of by difficult tracks, you’ll find that early on in the game you’ll find yourself playing some very hard tracks. That said, if you’re playing on easy, the game puts you in no-fail mode by default, and this also won’t prevent you from getting a high score. Still, if you’re trying to beat the game on hard right off the bat, you may be surprised by getting hard tracks early. It also is of note that the game wants you to calibrate your guitar when you put the game in for the first time. On calibrating the game, I ended up unintentionally mis-calibrating it and ended up having to re-calibrate it later. I wouldn’t particularly mention this, except you get an achievement for calibrating your guitar (even if you mis-calibrate it). For someone playing the game for the first time, this could turn the game into an exercise in frustration. Be warned. Still, this game is about The Beatles, one of the best bands in the history of music. Not one of the best Rock bands in the history of Rock, or one of the best Pop bands in the history of Pop or whatever. They are one of the best Bands in the history of Music. Period. This game accurately conveys their music, and their career. If you consider yourself a fan of the Beatles at all, you need to get this. If you’ve wanted to really get into the Beatles music, you need to get this. Finally, if you are new to the Beatles, you really need to get this. (As a bonus, the Gresch Pro Jet replica that was made for The Beatles Rock Band is really awesome looking. I’ve been meaning to get one but I haven’t found one yet). Filed under: Reviews, Video games Tagged: music, review, Video games Source

Get Arcana for the SNES from eBay The problem with picking RPGs for Quality Control picks is I often don’t have the time I need to give it the consideration it deserves. Normally, when I’m reviewing a platformer or some other, more traditional game, I’m able to beat the game in an emulator in a day – or at least get far enough in the game that I can get a pretty good feel for the game. Not so with most RPGs – so I basically had to play this game over a weekend (though you can’t tell, because I wrote this in advance). The Premise Many years ago the land of Elemen was torn apart in a bloody war between the forces of Light, lead by the Card Masters, and the forces of Dark, lead by Empress Rimsala. At great cost, the forces of light triumphed, and the Empress Rimsala was sealed away – imprisoned forever (or so everyone hoped). Decades later, Elemen had been split amongst many kings, and over time these kings started warring amongst themselves. The leader of one of these kingdoms, King Wagnall of Lexford was overthrown by Galenon, his court magician. Galenon, now usurping the throne, sent out his armies to conquer all the neighboring kingdoms. However, he had a darker and more sinister agenda – to destroy the Card Masters and free Rimsala from her imprisonment, so she can rule the world. The player plays as Rooks, the son of one of the last Card Masters, as he seeks to prevent Rimsala’s awakening. The Good The problem with a lot of Wizardry clones (and Arcana is a Wizardry clone) is, in some form or another, the game lacks an automap. The player has to bust out some graph paper, a pencil, a ruler and a clipboard, and map the dungeons by hand. The problem is, going from personal experience, it’s really easy to mess up the map, partially because it’s really easy to lose your place. This is even more likely when you have to set down the game for a week or two because life has gotten in the way. Fortunately, Arcana includes an automap feature, which makes the player’s life much easier, and taking the challenge off of the act of mapping the dungeon, and onto dealing with the dungeon’s residents. Additionally, the game has an enjoyable story. Most Wizardry-style games have a minimal story to them, while Arcana not only has a story, but cut-scenes which carry the story along, while using the Tarot Card motif that the game sets up. The Bad The game’s translation isn’t great. There is a fair amount of Engrish in the game’s cut-scenes, though it didn’t effect my ability to comprehend the plot much. While the game’s story is good, the interface in which the story is told (using the card sprites in the rather small gameplay window), doesn’t have the same sense of characterization as sprite-based cut-scenes in Final Fantasy IV (and later VI). The Ugly The game has a limited inventory management system, no in-dungeon checkpoints, though there are items you can purchase that allow you to quickly escape from the dungeon. But, again, you have only 42 item slots in your inventory and duplicates of items don’t stack. The Verdict This is a surprisingly good Wizardry style RPG, which conveys it’s narrative very well. If you own an SNES (or a SNES clone), I would strongly recommend picking this game up, if you can find a copy. I managed to find a Let’s Play for this game on YouTube. The guy doing the Let’s Play doesn’t have a great microphone voice, but it does have narration, which is better than nothing. Filed under: Quality Control, Video games Tagged: Nintendo Power, Quality Control, SNES, Video games Source

We’re continuing on to Nintendo Power #37 for June of 1992. Our cover story is Lemmings. No, not the lead singer and bassist of Motorhead, that’s Lemmy – I meant Lemmings. Clean out your ears. The call for letters this issue were for feedback about the changes in the magazine. The responses are generally favorable, though we do get a complaint about the George Column, saying that it’s wasted space that could used be for more strategy guides, adding “I don’t care about two guys opinions on video gamesâ€. I hate to bust your bubble mate, but that’s the future of games journalism. The same guy also complains about the comics too. Another letter complains about all the coverage the SNES is coverage – again, I hate to burst your bubble but despite what Nintendo was saying several CES events ago, 16-bit is not a fad. Lemmings Guide We get a run down of the different Lemmings and what they’re capable of (which is important, because you’ll need to know what they can do on the fly). We get some maps for some of the trickier levels, like Fun 13, 19, 21, 22, 25; Tricky 5, 7, 20 (which has a title that references Blackadder), 23, 25; Taxing #2, Mayhem #1. DragonStrike Guide This is the guide for the port of SSI’s Dragon Riding Combat Flight Sim. We get maps for the first 11 stages because, basically this version of the game turns it into a shump. Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston Guide We get a run down of the items in the game. We also get some notes for levels 1 through 8, but not maps. Legend of Zelda Comic Link defeats Aghanim by deflecting his magic back at him with the Master Sword. Unfortunately, this sends Link and Zelda to the Dark World with an almost two-page spread. Here Link learns of Ganondorf, who, in this world, holds all of the pieces of the Triforce and with it has plunged the realm into darkness. Link saves a fairy from a group of goblins to wrap up this issue’s installment of the comic. How's that for a 2-page spread. Metroid II: Return of Samus Guide We get maps (not screen shot maps, but more drawn maps, which is fine, because the environments are big) of areas 1 through 9 and the final boss fight. Star Wars Guide This is for the Game Boy version of the game, which doesn’t look too dissimilar to the NES version actually, aside from the basic visual differences, such as Greyscale. NBA All-Star Challenge 2 Guide Since this is a sports game most of the detail in this guide is spent on what athletes are in the game, like Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and, representing for the Portland Trail Blazers, Clyde “The Glyde†Drexler. Super Mario Adventures Comic We see Peach and Mario at the chapel, about to marry, when Bowser carries off Mario and is about to take Peach as his own, before she wakes up from her nightmare… in Luigi’s outfit. Okay, so who precisely undressed Peach so Luigi could follow in the footsteps of Darcelle last issue. However, Peach figures out what’s going on, and gets brought up to speed by her retainers. On the inside, Luigi still in disguise, gets the signal to Peach and her retainers, managing to get the Trojan Pizza Delivery person into the castle. You know, if this story had been done more recently, I would hope we would get the following exchange. Peach: Well, it looks like we got hear in the nick of time. What does that make us? Toad: Big Damn Heroes, Princess. Peach: Ain’t. We. Just. At the Arcades Nintendo Power tends to ignore the Arcades. That’s kind of reasonable – it’s a magazine dedicated to a specific company’s home console and portable systems. However, they’re going to take a moment to talk about the big games at the Arcade. Most of these have already gotten covered in the EGM recaps, so I’m not going to go really in depth about what the games are like. We start out with Street Fighter II Champion Edition (with Street Fighter II for the SNES getting covered next issue), along with Capcom’s 6-person X-Men arcade game (which doesn’t get a home release – so you either have to go to an arcade that has it like Ground Kontrol or get it on MAME). We also have a sequel to Smash TV titled Total Carnage from Midway, as well as a football game titled Super High Impact. Namco has the racing game Driver’s Eyes, which uses 3 screens to the driver some of the peripheral vision that most racing games lack. Arcana Guide There’s a new RPG for the SNES. This one has a bit of a first-person perspective thing going on, with a 3rd person world map. I’m kind of interested in giving this a try. I could be wrong, but it looks like it’s got a bit of auto-map, instead of needing to bust out the graph paper. We get a map of the first dungeon in the guide itself, and a bunch of additional maps in the posters. Top Gear Guide No, this game doesn’t let you control the Stig. It also doesn’t have licensed cars. We get maps and notes for 12 of the courses in the game, with potentially 6 more courses to come in the race series. F1 ROC: Race of Champions Formula 1 Racing game with a potential death spiral option if your winnings don’t earn enough to cover damages to your car over the course of the race. We get maps for 5 of the courses. The Simpsons – Krusty’s Super Funhouse We get a map of the hub plus 5 of the sections of the game. Nester’s Adventures This time Nester is playing RoboCop 3 and the hint is basically that you need to grab every power-up you possibly can… which I already stated when I discussed the guide an issue or so ago. Now Playing George and Rob think Baseball Stars II is okay, if you never played the first game. They also liked Casino Kid 2, which is a casino game with boss fights. They kind of like Defenders of Dynatron City from Lucasarts. They also kind of liked Power Punch II, though they thought it was pretty hard. In their opinion, the Game Boy version of Pit Fighter was superior to the SNES version, which is rather impressive. Top 20 Metroid II has regained the top spot on the Game Boy, while Mario retains the top spot on the SNES and NES. Celebrity Player Profile This issue we get a profile of David Faustino, who was at that time appearing on Married with Children, and since that show ended he’s basically just had lots of guest starring roles. Pak Watch So, the only upcoming title that I find notable is Out of this World from Interplay. That wraps up this issue of Nintendo Power. My Quality Control pick for this issue is going to be Arcana. That’s right, I’m going to try another RPG. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to beat it, but I could be surprised. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: Nintendo Power, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source

We continue on with Electronic Gaming Monthly #98 for September of 1997. No, I still don’t have issue number #100 – I wish I did. Our cover story for this issue is Tomb Raider 2, and they’re playing up the game’s sex appeal pretty heavily. Right inside the cover we have a gorgeous two-page spread advertisement for Final Fantasy VII, of the big cutscene with Sephiroth removing the Jenova statue. While the graphics haven’t aged incredibly well, I still think it looks nice. It’s also one of the few two-page advertisements to heavily and prominently feature an actual screen-shot at that large of a scale. Our editorial column this issue relates to the fairly heavy coverage that EGM has had of the Tomb Raider games. People are writing to complain because they think they’re, well, under-sexed. However, what Editorial Director Joe Funk brings up is that Lara Croft is one of the first really major video game franchise to feature a female protagonist. Yes, there was Final Fantasy VI – but to be frank that was more of an ensemble piece. I also wouldn’t consider the Valis series for this either, as it’s not a major franchise – as much as I wish it was. Probably the most impressive print ad for Final Fantasy VII Press Start EGM has put out their report card for the Nintendo 64, and they’re not too impressed. Their main places where they’re falling down is third party support (due to the cost of manufacturing N64 cartridges). There are also some complaints about Nintendo’s media relations, due to a lack of transparency that borders on complete opacity. Both Nintendo and Sony are working on force feedback support, with Nintendo planning on an add-on pack for their controller, and Sony just working on a new controller. However, they’re both running into patent problems with some former Atari employees who apparently patented such technology in 1991. Meanwhile, Sega is working hard on the Dreamcast, which is currently code-named Black Belt. A third party is also working on an add-on pack for the N64 that incorporates an LCD screen, with the idea being that if you’re playing a sports game, you could select your plays without opponents knowing what play you were picking. Gaming Gossip Nintendo didn’t show the N64DD at E3. No surprise there. Reportedly, Sega had the Dural/Black Belt/Dreamcast at E3, but did not intend to show it unless another major competitor was showing something major at the show. That kind of makes sense. You don’t want to reduce consumer and retailer confidence in the Saturn if you don’t have to (since said confidence is now in the septic tank), and currently nobody has anything quite ready to show yet. Additionally, the competition doesn’t know what your next big thing is, they can’t respond to it. Speaking of which, Sony is rumored to be showing off the PlayStation 2 at Tokyo Game Show. Except it’s not the PlayStation 2 that we know of. It’s actually an upgrade for the existing PlayStation. The real PlayStation 2 is known as the “PlayStation 64â€. Confused yet? Good. Previews We get a first peek at Rare’s new 3D platforming games, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Quest. The first eventually is released. The second is not and instead we get Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Interplay is working on the sequel to Rock & Roll Racing, titled Red Asphalt and slated for release on the PlayStation. Speaking of racing games, Sega’s working on the semi-cart racing game Sonic R for the Saturn. As a considerably bigger deal, Konami is showing off Metal Gear Solid, and Midway has the arcade version of Mortal Kombat 4. Namco’s working on the 2-1/2d platformer Klonoa. By the way, this issue of EGM has the first time to my knowledge where a game played in a two-dimensional fashion with three-dimensional environments to provide depth of field has been referred to as two-and-a-half-dimensional (or 2-1/2D or 2.5D). They’re also working on the first game in the Point Blank series of light-gun games. SECA is also working on the English language release of PaRappa The Rapper, which is shockingly not on PlayStation Network yet. If anyone from Sony is reading this, that needs to be rectified. Speaking of games on PlayStation Network, Final Fantasy Tactics is in the midst of translation and localization. THQ is also still working on the Ghost in the Shell game. Review Crew The Crew is still Shawn, Dan “Shoe†Hsu, Crispin and Sushi. Warcraft II (Electronic Arts, Saturn): Yes, Blizzard wrote and created Warcraft II, but EA published the port. Shoe was a big fan of the PC version of the game, and he’s got his problems with the Console port. For the first part, the graphics are a step down (the game doesn’t support SVGA), and second the controls aren’t very good. However, this version does have the core game and the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion. Additionally you can set buildings to auto-upgrade or auto-produce troops, plus you can select more than 9 units at a time. However, you can’t hot-key, the AI isn’t great, and there’s no multi-player in any form. Still, what they get is still good enough for Shoe to give it an 8.5. The rest of the Crew also gives the game 8.5s. Overall: 34/40, plus it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award and is Game of the Month. Tetrisphere (Nintendo, N64): Basically, it’s Tetris, but on a sphere. The problem is that with the camera angle (looking down at the surface) setting up combos and all the other stuff you do when you’re playing Tetris doesn’t work very well, because the Camera angle actually provides you less information. Nonetheless, Dan had enough fun with this to give it a 7. Everyone else is considerably more impressed with this, with Shawn & Crispin giving 8.5s and Sushi giving a 9. Overall: 33/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Sky Target (Sega, Saturn): This is a sort of After Burner style jet-fighter-rail-shooter. Sushi isn’t impressed with this game at all, finding it monotonous and boring, and gives it a 4. Dan also gives a 4, adding that the game can’t even get by on looks. Crispin finds the game somewhat generic, except for the bosses and gives the game a 5. Shawn finds the game kind of fun, and that some creativity went into it and gives it a 6. Overall: 19/40. Albert Odyssey (Working Designs, Saturn): This is a sprite-based RPG, without a lot of fancy 3D graphics, and the crew is fine with that. The game is generally rock solid, though they do have complaints with the game having too much combat, though the combat isn’t too difficult. Crispin, Dan and Sushi give the game 8s, while Shawn gives the game a 9. Overall: 33/40 and it receives the Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Clock Tower (ASCII, PlayStation): This is a sort of survival horror game, but with mixed with a slasher movie. Sushi finds the game incredibly easy to beat and gives the game a 6. The rest of the crew enjoyed the game a bit more, and thinks that it does a really good job at building tension, with Shawn giving it an 8.5, and Dan & Crispin giving the game 8s. Overall: 30.5/40. Disney’s Hercules (Virgin, PlayStation): Licensed game based on the movie. Be warned that the game has spoilers, if you really care about that sort of thing (and to be honest, do you really care about spoilers for most Disney movies). Anyway, while they found some of the levels to be pretty difficult with some cheap hits slipping through and the controls are kind of mediocre. However, they still liked the game, with Shawn giving it a 7.5, Dan giving it an 8, Crispin an 8.5, and Sushi a 9. Overall: 33/40 and it receives an Editor’s Choice Silver Award. Darklight Conflict (Electronic Arts, PlayStation): It’s a mix between Wing Commander and an on-rails turret shooter. While Shawn thinks they pull off the game pretty well, giving it a 7.5. Everyone else finds that the ease of difficulty negatively effects the game experience, with Crispin giving it a 6 and and Dan & Sushi giving it 5.5s. Overall: 24.5/40. Ogre Battle (Atlus, PlayStation): Port of the SNES game for the PlayStation. Crispin isn’t too impressed and gives the game a 6.5. Sushi was a bit more pleasantly surprised with the quality of the port and gives it a 7.5, and Dan and Shawn give it 8s, with the two being incredibly impressed by the game’s depth. Oh, and by the way, I’d consider this our first big slip that the person behind Sushi-X has changed over time. Overall: 30/40. Felony 11-79 (ASCII, PlayStation): Vehicular race combat game. It also only has 3 tracks. The Crew enjoys the game, but they the problem with enjoying a game that’s too short is you end up getting disappointed. Shawn gives it a 7, Dan and Crispin give it 6.5s, and Sushi gives it a 6. Overall: 26/40. Syndicate Wars (Electronic Arts, PlayStation): Up to this point this is the last game in the Syndicate series. It’s also an RTS, and it also hasn’t been adapted well. Crispin gives it a 6.5, Shawn gives it a 5, Dan gives it a 4.5, and Sushi gives it a 5.5. Overall: 21/40. E3 Coverage Another year another E3. The worst in show for this year is Virgin’s fighting game “Slaughter & Mutilation†which I don’t think sees the light of day. Working Designs announced that they were no longer exclusive for Sega, which means they jump ship to Sony. The Expo also had Tekken 3 and Street Fighter III tournaments. We also have interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto & Howard Lincoln. Shigeru discusses game design, and Lincoln discusses Nintendo’s upcoming plans. I’d prefer the master of the Bow Tie himself, Howard Phillips. There are also interviews with Ken Kutaragi (discussing RPGs) and Bernie Stolar (discussing Sega’s future plans). Tomb Raider 2 Feature The article discusses, briefly, the game’s plot, as well as some of the game design changes, including fighting more human enemies. The game engine also now allows for dynamic lighting, which leads to the inclusion of flares in the game. We also get an interview with Andrew Thompson at Core Design about the design process of the game. Next Wave Do you have this shirt? It might be worth something. We have our first look at Goldeneye 007 for the N64. There’s also a peek at the arcadey flight sim Aero Fighters Assault. Sega’s working on the fighting game Last Bronx (which also features in-game ads). The Saturn is getting a new Bomberman game with 10-player multi-player. We also get more info on Final Fantasy VII. There’s also a peek at Crash Bandicoot II. As an advertising aside, apparently Sears offered an exclusive Final Fantasy VII T-Shirt. It’s not particularly fancy, but it might be worth some money now. We get more information on the (ugh) Dragon Ball GT game. Tecmo has the falling gems-style puzzle game Tecmo Stackers. Psygnosis has the sci-fi combat flight sim G Police. Letters We get a question about whether we’ll see a PlayStation version of Lunar. Yes, yes we will. Apparently also issue #96 had multiple covers – one for Fighting Force, one for Gex 2, one for Apocalypse. All of them probably didn’t deserve to get covers. There are also some letters bemoaning the lack of quality in Street Fighter III. Wait until the Double Impact and Third Strike versions come out – they’re much improved. The Letter of the Month for this issue is a response to a letter from #96… which I haven’t read yet, so I can’t really judge the argument in the letter. Maybe after the hole that #96 is occupied is filled in my archive, I’ll be able to judge this letter’s argument a little better. There’s also a question about whether games have actually gotten more fun or not. Frankly, I’d say that they haven’t become more fun – they’re still at the same level of “fun†but for different reasons. Game design has certainly improved though. We also get several letters complaining about them printing the address for the Nude Raider page. The response from the editorial staff is, essentially, 1) It’s just pixels, and 2) they didn’t display any of the site’s content, nor did they explicitly condone the site. If you chose to visit it, it’s your own decision – the site was listed because it was notable. Filed under: Video games, Where I Read Tagged: EGM, video game magazines, Video games, Where I Read Source