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Game Boy Advance Look for Scooby-Doo Original Mysteries based on feature film on Video and DUD. Available Now!

The gang is missing. Help Scooby find them before he gets hungry.

Featuring the Scooby-Doo cartoon Voice actors and special guests.

12 huge levels based on the original Scooby-Doo cartoons.

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Encounter 20 classic Scooby-Doo villains.

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IT’S ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN.

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call 1-800-771-3772

THE for Rating Information. : ERMINAI OR. TEE SISA She BE ELE TDR DEL, NETRA RINT DCU IDOLE NS = ® : PARADIGM ENTERTAINMENT ®

DAWN OF FAT EGE.

The Terminator: Dawn Of Fate, © 2002 Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment, S.A. All rights reserved. Developed by Paradigm Entertainment. Manufactured and marketed by Infogrames, Inc., New York, NY. The Terminator TM & © 1984 StudioCanal Image S.A., f/k/a Canal+ D.A. All rights reserved. Terminator is a trademark of StudioCanal Image S.A., f/k/a Canal+ D.A. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

, TREY

By FELIX COATES

RELEASED

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New York rides Giambi’s hot bat & to World Series

> Game 1 Tuesday in New York

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EVERYONE

Comic Mischief

Mild Language “ : SON ATED 3 “. PlayStation. said dua

CONTENTS

109,120 44 90-94

All-Star Baseball 2003 Battle Engine Aquila Beach Spikers

Blade Il

Blood Omen 2

Bounty Hunter Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

Clone Wars

Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller Crimson Skies

Dance Dance Revolution: Konamix

Dead to Rights

Deus Ex: The Conspiracy Dino Stalker

Downforce

Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku

Dragon’s Lair 3D Driven Endgame Eternal Darkness Everquest Online Adventures Final Fantasy XI Frequency Gungrave Headhunter Home-Run King House of the Dead 3, The Hunter: The Reckoning Italian Job, The Kakuto Chojin Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer Knights of the Old Republic Kung-Fu Chaos Lost Kingdoms Mace Griffon: Bounty Hunter Mario Golf Mario Sunshine Mario Tennis MechAssault Medal of Honor: Frontline Mega Man Battle Network 2 Minority Report Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Mystic Heroes NFL Blitz 20-02 NFL Fever 2003 Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Phantasy Star Online: Ep. | & | Pokémon Advance Quantum Redshift Rayman Arena Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc Resident Evil Resident Evil Gaiden Robot A.D. Reign of Fire Savage Skies Sega GT 2002 Shadow Man: 2econd Coming Shaun Murray’s Pro Wakeboarding Shinobi Smashing Drive SOCOM: Navy SEALs Spider-Man Spy Hunter Steel Battalion Super Monkey Ball 2 Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven Terminator: The Dawn of Fate, The arog The TimeSplitters 2 ToeJam & Earl Ill Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 & 4 Tribes: Aerial Assault Triple Play 2002 Twisted Metal: Black Online Way of the Samurai Wipeout Fusion Wolfenstein 3D World Series Baseball Ad Wrestlemania X8 I X-Men: Wolverine’s Revenge

June 2002 Issue 155

multiplayer action of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs would suggest otherwise. Turn to page 96 to find out why Sony chose this realistic war sim to lead their online assault and which games will follow. Also: how Nintendo and Microsoft plan to return fire. 5 ae Jango Fett might have found that 2a Pokémon are great for target practice, but as you’ll see on page 26, Pokémon Advance makes you Stick to just catching them.

LucasArts’ new Episode II games are streaming out faster than a gaggle of Stroomtroopers, er, Clones, and on page 41, we'll give you an exclusive glimpse at this next generation of Star Wars games.

Jango Fett? More like Jango Fatt.

It’s been years since Midway made “fatality” a household word. Turn to page 56 to see if Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance can recapture the series’ lost (blood) luster.

See why the new Castlevania proves that killing zombies is perfect for killin’ time on page go.

Departments

ne NORGANNON RREDNLABRADRROSSGABASRASAAAANRENSRA SAAS ANID NIRA NAN DOARCOOS BAA DRANDARANIA NORA. AeAnnaaAanatanamnnaninnana

Press Start

@ The Final Word

LCL OSOE LE LBA Abi ORD AONE EERER EERE CABG

Editorial 12 Letters 16 26

Square and Nintendo finally kiss and make up, Yu Suzuki spills his guts on Virtua Fighter 4 and beyond, plus the full scoop on Pokémon Advance and the exciting new Sega-made F-Zero sequel.

=re @ XK DR ¢ Previews 34

We have more sneak peeks than the hole in the women’s locker room. Our looks at Onimusha 2, Tenchu 3 and Medal of Honor: Frontline on PS2, MechAssault on Xbox, and TimeSplitters 2 on GameCube will surely make you break out the Wet Wipes.

Review Crew 108

We turned out the night-light to see if the GameCube’s Resident Evil kept that shorts-soiling magic, whether Kain still thrills in Blood — Omen (Xbox and PS2), and if Triple Play 2002's bat still has pop on PS2.

Tricks 126

Unlock classic characters in Virtua Fighter 4, be stronger than the Force in Jedi Starfighter, and open up a bunch of hidden pros in Tiger Woods 2002. Also: Become the king of NBA Street on GameCube.

130

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY (ISSN #1058-918X) is published monthly by Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals Class Postage Paid at New York, NY 10016 and additional mailing offices. Single issue rates: $4.99. The one year (12 issue) subscription rate is $24.97 in the U.S. and $40.97 outside the U.S. Checks must be made payable in U.S. currency only to Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Electronic Gaming Monthly, P.O. Box 55721, Boulder, CO 80322-5721. For subscription service questions, address changes, or to order, please contact us at: Web: http://service.egmmag.com (for customer service) or

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trademark and copyright owners. All materials listed in this magazine are subject to manufacturers’ change and the publisher assumes no responsibili

or such changes. The Canadian GST Registration

number is 140496720 RT. I'm gonna’ volunteer my leadership to this platoon. An army without leaders is like a foot...without a big toe. And Sergeant Hulka isn't always gonna’ be there to be that big toe

for us. | think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest bestest buddy...and big toe...Sergeant Hulka.

Printed in the USA.

Audit Bureals of Circulations

HISTORY IS IN YOUR HANDS. DON’T SCREW IT UP.

Blood

Violence

©2002 Pyro Studios. Published by Eidos Interactive. Developed by Pyro Studios. Commandos 2: Men of Courage is a trademark of Pyro Studios. The Pyro logo is a trademark of Pyro Studios. Eidos, Eidos Interactive and the Eides Interactive logo are registered trademarks of Eidos Interactive, inc. All rights reserved. PlayStation and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox Logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association.

ELECTRONIC Number 15.6

By Dan “Shoe” Hsu - GAMING June 2002

—— MONTHLY egm.gamers.com

Editor in Chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu © shoe@ziffdavis.com

Managing Editor EDITORIAL | ‘Dean a er ¢ dean_hager@ziffdavis.com | Executive Editor | Mark MacDonald ¢ mark_macdonald@ziffdavis.com | Features Editor i - Crispin Boyer ® crispin_boyer@ziffdavis.com News Editor a ‘ : Online: Ready or Not Chris “Cj” Johnston ¢ chris_johnston@ziffdavis.com Previews Editor : Sram pueda tase mca Steeeancadcaaaaalaeeanadieindee poy aes Sewart * greg_sewart@ziffdavis.com nline gaming is right around the corner. we like,” only then will we see a true shift in the | ce fongthan Dudiak sjonathan_dudlak@zifidavis.com When the PlayStation 2 Network Adapter industry. And if anything can turn the masses on PR Mimbo is released this fall, it'll let people connect to Internet gaming, it’s the oh-so-popular rede ee en ean MinGaiday com their PS2s to the Internet via narrowband PlayStation label. You know, the brand that james Mielke * james_mielke@ziffdavis.com ° , . Che Chou ® che_chou@ziffdavis.com 56K or broadband. That should change the face turned video gaming from a geeky Comic Book | Contributors of video gaming forever, eh? Guy hobby into something that “cool people” do? Chistian Not Gres Orne, eeriyege Wait a sec. Didn’t Sega’s Dreamcast let you do When the PlayStation met the mass market, the japanese conespandent all that too? In fact, wasn’t a modem packed in two changed gaming forever (it’s now big, big enter tae Onbycht with the system, so you didn’t have to buy extra business, and everyone wants a piece of the pie). cy ohn Ricciardi cadens hardware like this PS2 Network thingamajig? And They can do it for online as well. ests haven’t sales figures been telling us for years that And about that whole “having to buy a sepa- Senior Art Director __ consumers just aren’t willing to buy peripheral rate add-on” obstacle that | talked about Art ern Oe ore eid? add-ons for their gaming machines? So aren’t earlier...keep in mind that the PlayStation 2 North | Mike Reisel ¢ mike_reisel@ziffdavis.com Sony’s plans to take the PS2 online doomed from American installed base is “only” 9.1 million right | Managing Copy Editor “1 Jennifer Whitesides the get-go? now. Compare that to the 32.2 million PS1s over na No doubt early adopters and hardcore gamers here. That means, assuming the PS2 has as much | ee will buy the Network Adapter right away. After all, growth potential as the PS1, Sony still has plenty eee ee we can’t wait to tear it up online with our cover- of room and time to figure out how to make the | Pre Media Manager : : : Dave McCracken story game, SOCOM, like our PC Counter-Strike- Network Adapter an integral part of the Pre Media Technician ing friends have been doing for years. But early PlayStation 2 experience. Fifty bucks says the Pre Fab Construction adopters and hardcore gamers didn’t make Adapter, not long after its release, will be bundled PE ee Manager SegaNet a commercial success, and they’re not in with the PS2 hardware, even though that’s not | Teresa Newson . “cc . ” . *,* . i p . tL d going to make “PS2 online” one either. on the itinerary right now. After all, Sony needs to fe i snap deteioneeiedeilc carn It’s the general, more mainstream crowd who get them into consumers’ hands if they’re gonna . , : , - Vice President/Game Group will make the difference. If they give online con- reach that critical mass market for game makers + egadats Strang sole gaming a shot and say, “We like. Oh boy, do to want to support online play. Shoe | oe eveon Creative Director anecdotal ee cmon a ARTS Simon Cox ~ | Business Director _ _. Cathy Bendoff on rl as ors | Circulation Director

' — Joan Mcinerney | Circulation Director

Greg Orlando Shane Bettenhausen serial Neen dies Manage A modern-day Diogenes in a latter-day Shane lends his sagacious skills to EGM’s Don Galen

Gomorrah, ne’er-do-well Greg Orlando is known by his peers at Xbox Nation as the “editor-at-lunch.”

Ray LeWan

Ray’s one of our behind-the-scenes guys. This month he’s helping out with layout on our Previews/Reviews sections. He’s also contributed to our sister mag GameNOW.

Peter Felonk

Although Pete’s only been contributing for a few months, his tricks will be remem- bered long after he starts his new job as a secret IT agent. EGM wishes him luck!

Eat My

<i i i | Mary Gra Look around this issue for quotes from Many have entered, few have won in our Ultimate Console ary y : : "oe ; ; -547-8782 ® mary_gray@ziffdavis.com The Simpsons or a famous movie. Find Giveaway contest from EGM #148-#150. The lucky bastards are: | Regional Se 702 re, Yee elGays.60

les Manager/Southwest Territory one, e-mail it (and your mailing address) 2 Pac | Srand Prize \ Sia ed oe Se to us at EGM@ziffdavis.com (subject: Eat [RR y yt ERM eran sy 1.) Andrew Flor Senlor Account Secutive Southwest leritory My Shorts—EGM #155), and you may be = HEM EAEL nee 2.) Miles Goosens Linda es | one of five lucky winners (chosen at ran- 3.) Patricia Reinert Savidge 3.) Kyle Boberg Regibrat eaics Maney ee one dom) who will win a copy of this month’s 4.) Ryan Grubb 4.) Ryan M. Nguyen oe

San Francisco Territory Game of the Month. 5.) Ruth Arbelo 5.) Kevin Kashikar Marci Yamaguchi 6.) * | Accoun

15-357- ¢ marciy@ziffdavis.com 3 at Exectitive/Texas, Washington, San Francisco Territory Meighan O’Rourke

previews, reviews and features. He’s also SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE NUMBER: wormed his way into GameNow, OPM, steel sgt ae tat

Pocket Games and Gamers.com. WEB SITE: hittp:/ /<

PLEASE SEND ALL SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS TO:

Christian Nutt DO NOT CONTACT THE EDITORS RE: SUB. PROBLEMS Once again, we welcome Christian onboard to lend his expertise to our previews. Interested in more of his work? Check out our Gamers.com site or Pocket Games.

Jeremy “Norm” Scott

Creator of EGM’s popular Hsu and Chan comic series, Norm somehow succeeds every month in making us laugh, cry and feel like superheroes all at once.

Advertising Inquiries Contact: Game Group : o Beale, 12th floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Slepuone: 415-547-8783 Group Publisher Lee Uniacke : : : 415-387-4990 ¢ lee_uniacke@ziffdavis.com Regional Sales Manager/East Coast Territory Marc Callison : : : B50 sue oa4 ¢ marc_callison@ziffdavis.com District Sales Répresentative/East Coast Territory Tallie Fishburne : 617-354-0284 ® tallie_fishburne@ziffdavis.com Account Executive/East Coast Territory Emily Olman : : 15 457-5426 eemily_olman@ziffdavis.com_ | Regional Sales Manager/Pacific Northwest & Bay Area Peninsula |

eee a ee eee ee ccc ccs

lan Sinclair : imclair@ziffdavi 15-357-4925, © ian_sinclair@ziffdavis.com i Accourh Pedeities Pace Northwest & Bay Area Peninsula

sama encom

Just a few of the quotes from issue #154: e “These aren’t the droids we're looking for.”

De tok ining 15-357-4920 ® meighan_oro skebalfdavieckm or eee come aby man will rest...in peace!” 2.) Seth Mackert Senior Marketing Manager & Creative Director \ (Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, pg. 41. C’mon...we 3.) Kimberly Foster ey Ledda

22 H

oe i

€a8 ¢ | 115-547-8775, ® rey_ledda@ziffdavis.com

acs practically spoon fed this one to you!) 4.) Aaron Rice Adverfisng Codrdinator

Bes e “Worst...reader poll...ever.” 5.) * | beth ae ubbelbhde@tfdavic com |

SS6 (The Simpsons, pg. 18) Sales Aseetart ss

25° Issue #153’s winners of Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2): Cooma : pen gegen sos bia 6 vol kristeen laut@ziffdavi i

: foi : econ i 15-547- e kristeen_laut@ziffdavis.com /

¢ Chris Ritko—Johnstown, PA 1.) Benjamin A. Elpers sg Pome aiden sz, Salet ant : * Jay Stob II—Hudsonville, MI 2.) Jack Beauregard | | Cheryl Farrell oa y * Chris Peditto—Chicago, IL 3.) Chris Roberson 415-547-8783 © cheryl_farrell@ziffdavis.com | * John Briseno—Canton, MI 4.) Randall D. Hill e Alexandria Thomas —Jefferson City, MO 5.) Anthony Shaird Founder Steve Harris

| L

F ‘ : ti 5 rertroanic fanrr ne RA satis 12 EFT Tamers com rlectronic ua Mi id MIORUY me Bem Baliye Se EE

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‘The fighting is deep _and highly addictive. ” a : -— ign.com

“Every play is totally different; as close - to an “interactive movie” as you could

hope to get.” - GamePro

Stunning 3D combat lets you Master 40 different swords decide the outcome of and 200 fighting the adventure. techniques.

SEE THE GAME AT www.bam4fun.com

MATURE

™

entertainment

PlayStation.c CQUIRE

© 2002 Spike / Acquire. BAM! Entertainment, BAM! and the associated logos are trademarks BAM! Entertainment, Inc. “Playstation” and the "PS" family logo are reg- istered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All Rights Reserved.

P (the PRIX COONRSOR LBGAC Y?

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The Precursor Legacy

Jak & Daxter

i (THE FaGHTER) AND DAXTER (umm, THE OTHER euy). Jom THEM AS THEY VOYAGE TO DEFY THE

EVERYONE ®

CONTENT RATED BY ESRB

ea

ideal peeaiapeete

Congratulations Steven Sewell

You win an InterAct GameShark for PlayStation 2, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 or Game Boy Color.

Ex-Box Owner

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Non-line Gamer Gets Cut Off

| have been starting to wonder if online gaming is really such a good idea. Sure, it allows gamers to play with other people all around the world, but what about all the negatives? First, there’s the price. You have to buy hardware to get online, then there’s always a connection service to subscribe to. A 16-year-old (such as myself) with parents who aren’t willing to pay for yet another Internet service is out of luck.

Second, games like Final Fantasy X! are going to be playable online only. If | can’t get online in the first place, am | going to miss out on a lot of cool games because they don’t have a single-player mode? Couldn’t this lead to the death of the single-player- gaming genre entirely? Can you imagine not having games like Devil May Cry and Pikmin or having them cheaply modified for multiple players?

| think developers like Squaresoft Should reconsider the online gaming direction they’re taking. | already know | won’t have a way of playing my PS2 or

GameCube online unless their services are free, and that has already broken my gaming heart (no FFX/ for me). Steven Sewell Indianapolis, IN

We can all deal with the prospect of online gaming in one of two ways. We can take Grandma’s approach: Shut it out and retire to our bomb shelters until the Internet collapses on itself and covers the nation in black goo. Or we can embrace the potential of an online gaming world and hope that we don’t lose touch with the roots that gave it life.

Don’t get us wrong—we see your point. Your fears about the cost of network gaming are particularly spot- on. Younger and less wealthy gamers aren’t going to be able to afford the simple upkeep of an online gaming lifestyle. But we think costs are bound to subside once it’s established, and someday we'll all look back and laugh at our distress over connectivity. Then we'll get into our hover cars and fly down the vertical roadways to the local Spaceburger for a milkshake pellet.

We're OK with Final Fantasy XI (far left) going online, but if they take our Bedrock Bowling, so help us, some fools are gonna get messed up but good.

You guys seriously mislead me. You talked for months about how ultimate the Xbox was going to be and how it was going to thrash the competition, So naturally, | bought it. The games that suck the most on the Xbox are the ones EGM talks about the most, like Halo! Thank God | also bought a GameCube. Like always, Nintendo has filled my life with countless happy hours of joy and excitement.

Jason Mason

Hesperia, CA

Huh? We don’t remember saying the ‘Box was going to be ultimate or thrash anything. Yeah, we’re big Halo fans, but we honestly believe it’s an incredible game. Maybe you oughtta have a look back through some of our lower Xbox game review scores and the Xbox vs. GameCube feature, which we think did a pretty fair job of comparing the two consoles bit by bit. Yeah, Xbox got the nod in the end, but it was way too close to call that a definitive decision for all gamers.

| would like a picture of Jeanne Kim. Can you send me one? | Ben jefferson County Correctional Facility

Yeah, sure, Ben. You want we should, um... laminate it for you to keep it, ah...clean?

electronic Gaming Monthly - 16 - egm.gamers.co:

If you’re planning on sending in a letter asking how to unlock Sonic and Tails in Super Smash Bros. Melee, save your stamps. Like we told ya last month, IT WAS AN APRIL FOOLS’ JOKE. Over half our mail this month was about that little prank of ours; we're starting to regret doing it!

PSTunes

| recently found that my PS2 can play some music off of my old PS1 games without even entering the game (it plays the songs from the browser menu when you hit the Triangle button). But so far, the only games that | found to work are Bowling and Tetris Plus. | tried Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Gran Turismo 3 and ATV Offroad Fury, but none of them worked. Why not? Karl Althaus Des Moines, IA

Your PS2 (and PS1, for that matter) is basically a glorified CD player, and it has the capability to play audio CDs if they’re encoded correctly. Some game CDs have Red Book audio, which is a recording standard that allows their audio tracks to be understood by standard CD players. Not all games are done this way, and usually the ones that have licensed music you’d actually want to listen to (Tony Hawk is a perfect example) don’t give you access to just the tunes. But hey, if you can rock the sweet Bowling soundtrack, what do you care, right?

Sorry, Death Angel. We've found a new way to rock our voracious souls.

Keep it To Yourself

| am an avid reader who looks forward to your reviews a great deal. But when | see a review that gets a 9 from one reviewer and a5 from another, | get confused. This doesn’t really help me decide which games | should buy. If you think about it, your reviews kind

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Developed in England under superstar David Beckham's watchful eye, prepare yourself for the most complete soccer game ever created. Over 200 international and club teams compete for glory through multiple tournament and training modes, while spot-on commentary and advanced A.I. assure authenticity. Are you ready to step into his world?

GAME BOY ADVANCE ~<"~

PlayStation.

www.rage.com www.majescogames.com

Zee Games Limited 2001. Developed by Rage Games. Published and distributed under license from Rage Games Limited. © Majesco Sales, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Bet docontahe and the "PS" sue!

GO FOR? THE Ut TIMNATE SPL AT WWW .SOnY- CONVSBIGer 1a)

COLUMBIA

CONTENT RATED BY

Mateaniamnan,

Spider-Man, the character, TM & © 2002 Marvel Char ac’ 02 Columbia Pict strigs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Game Code © 2002 Activ Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, fi f % d ‘ Pla n 2 computer entertainment systems with the NTS trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Mic 0s ier registered trademarks or trade of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other cot and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintend®. All| he tatings ic stered tis Software Association. All other trad

Fight through stunning movie scenes and unique new locations, with all-new aerial combat and in-air features.

Battle the world’s toughest villains, including Shocker, Vulture and the Green Goblin.

Sees B a3'2 ¥52° 8 a2 oe Se seee ee ¥ veer >-

¢ Sereenshots taken from PC gameplay.

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Master web-slinging as you bank around corners, cut web- lines for sudden drops, and zip-line to adjacent buildings.

Fe — 717 FF i.

GO BEYOND THe MOVie=

activision.com

LETTERS

Just ask bitter old uncle EGM; he'll give you

the ugly truth.

Will the old Turbo Gr 'fx-16 Ninja

Youn

Can you please preview, then review, Warcraft 3 on the PC? real_azn_masta @hotmail.com

‘No,

| was wondering how hard it is to get a letter published in your magazine. gar2000 - @pacbell.net

Hard. Very hard.

| know PS2 is backward- | compatible with -PS1 games, but what about -

tonykaye21 — @aol.com

Is there any way to make my letter more noticeable to the people who might read it? — Princediamond1 @aol.com

Of course. And by that, we mean no.

Is it possible to play Game Boy Advance games on my Game Boy Pocket?

— andegoot34 — @hotmail.com

Hell, no. :

Eee ECONO T ATS SORES ISSUER SSE E SEE RTT ESSERE ESSE TS EEESEEE TTS ESSIEN

of just reflect the different opinions that all of us have. | think you should review games on the whole with one score rather than give several potentially misleading opinions. Danny Maka Salt Lake City, UT

We have different reviewers for most games precisely for the reason you stated: Everyone’s game tastes are different. Most of our readers can identify with a few members of the Review Crew, though, and make decisions based on how these individuals score a game. Sure, we all can recognize a killer game ora total crap pile when we see one, but our individual preferences are what account for the rest of the variation in scores.

It’s rare to see a title span four whole points between reviewers (especially if one score is a 9—that almost never happens). But when it does happen, it should actually tell you more about what kind of gamer would like or dislike the game. We’re just lookin’ out for your best interests.

Review Crew Rearranged

I’ve always loved anagrams. One day | got to working on finding anagrams for the Review Crew. Here’s what | got: Crispin Boyer: Is born pricey

Che Chou: Ecn! Ouch!

Jonathon Dudlak: Junk data on hold

Dean Hager: Eager hand

Dan Hsu: Uh...nads

Chris Johnston: John’s rich snot

Jeanne Kim: Keen in jam

Kraig Kujawa: | jaw rug kaka

Dan Leahy: A lady hen

Mark MacDonald: Rock lad, madman

James Mielke: Seek lime jam

Greg Sewart: Wag regrets

Shane Bettenhausen: He’s the bus

antennae or He’s beaten ’n’ the anus

Electronic Gaming Monthly: Intently

cool, charming gem black_and_gold@hotmail.com

Black_and_gold, you are truly a god among men, even though you spelled Jonathan Dudlak’s name with an “o” at the end. Jakal nano thudd forgives you.

The Best Game in the History of Mankind

Recently one of my friends lent me an Xbox-specific magazine to prove that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is actually better than Final Fantasy x. Upon reading the preview, | stumbled upon a sentence that read, “The experience and skills of developer BioWare and the unstoppable Star Wars universe combine to create an RPG so deep and so accessible that inferior games such as FFX can only watch in awe.”

The piece continued to say that this gale will ve more revolutionary than

If you’re wondering what this is all about, go visit the EGM message boards directly! Type egm.gamers.com into your Web browser, find the link that says, “Talk to the EGM editors online now!” and give us your

w EEE Ww thoughts. You could be our next Postmaster General!

-

OoNintendorkoO: Video-game Word Chain!

OK, it’s pretty mindless, but Nintendork’s word-chain game went on for nine pages by the time we went to press, and some of the games people pulled out to keep it going

were pretty original. How does it work? Someone gives a name of a console game, then the next poster uses the last letter of that name to spell out a new game and so

on. We were waiting for a chance to be mean and jump in with Wild 9, but the opportunity just never came up. Crud.

The best April Fools’ joke had to be the Sheng Long code for Street Fighter // in the April 1992 issue. You guys fooled the hell outta me.

soopermanlover33@hotmail.com

Sonic and Tails for SSBM was pure genius. The picture was pretty convincing, too. The best part was reading the letters from confused readers asking what they were doing wrong.

smforgc@hotmail.com

Personally, | liked your most recent trick. It was So hard not to laugh when my friends called me with frustrated complaints like the ones you guys got.

Aeosept@aol.com

| think the greatest one was Sheng Long in the arcade version of Street Fighter II. | remember going to the arcade and seeing lots of people get angry and cuss at the machine ’cause it wouldn’t unlock him. | was laughing a month later when | found out it wasn’t real.

Babineaux14@aol.com

| gotta admit that the best was the first. Your “Simon Belmont in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2” trick nearly cost me my controller. Nasty of you to make it exactly two button presses too long to be possible. DarkMage369@cs.com

That damn GoldenEye trick from April ’98, with which you supposedly could play as the former Bonds like Roger Moore and Sean Connery and unlock weird levels. You even had a screenshot that looked totally realistic. jasowisc@hotmail.com

Considering that your Sonic/Tails joke

Spawned over 150 topics on the gamefaqs

board alone, I’d say that one. ZombieBite@aol.com

Next Month’s Question of the Moment:

What movie would you like to see get made into a video game?

Send your brief, coherent responses to: EGM@ziffdavis.com with the subject heading:

Flick Pick

GAUNTLET DARK LEGACY

nice rack, dude!

crosoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft.

are trademarks of Midway Amusement Games, LLC. GAUNTLET DARK LEGACY is a trademark of Midway Games ameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks

and the Nintendo G

THE GAME WHERE YOU AND 3 BUDDIES ALL GET TO BE HEROES. ONLY THING IS, ONE OF YOU HAS TO BE THE CHICK.

®

© 1998 - 2000 Midway Games West Inc. All rights reserved. MIDWAY and the Midway logos of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Mi

c

Gauntlet Dark Legacy ¢ West Inc. Used by permission. Distributed under license by Midway Home Entertainment Inc. TM,

Get your friends together for the original, all-4-one, one-4-all, hack-and-slash, free-4-all. Gauntlet Dark Legacy brings all the excitement, fun and camaraderie of this

classic to Nintendo GameCube™, PlayStation®*2z computer

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2 2

Blood

PlayStation-c Violence

“LOE AAB ELAR EOLRD AINA BAIL CRED

Final Fantasy VI//. Can a journalist actually say that? They haven’t even played the game yet, but it has already made FFX inferior?! It upset me because | think Final Fantasy X is a very good game, and | haven’t even seen anything on this new Star Wars game yet. What’s your take on this? spunkymonkey87@msn.com

Well, we went down to visit LucasArts and see the game in action. At this early point in the game’s development, there isn’t any combat, lighting, dialog, story or character interaction even imple- mented, so about the only thing one can realistically compare between the two titles might be the concept art. We can’t account for other publications, but you can check out our feature on all three upcoming Star Wars games on page 40 for a few Knights screens and a look at what we know about the RPG so far.

What’s with all these mainstream gamers who have been popping up lately? They think Tony Hawk is the best thing to happen to video games and ask, “Who is that woman?” when they see the picture of Shigeru Miyamoto that | carry in my wallet.

I’m not the Jesus of video games, or even the Bill Cosby, for that matter. But I’ve been gaming for a long time, and I’m not out there buying every rehashed extreme-sports game that comes out. How many times can you go jumping off a ramp with a different number of wheels somehow strapped to your feet? What happened to hardcore gaming, the heated arguments over which Final Fantasy music is the best and the contests to see who can beat the original Mega Man fastest?