Dzrous NOA*GameCibe*PSone*PS2*XboxeDreamcaste ha CONKER’S BAD FUR DAY MEE He NE BANDICOOT, (AS Pedy td deSeekbebot beh HUGE REPORT ON) | THIS WEARS MOST) Wert rer CNS IT WAS LIKE THE EM r WEwUs STAs srs are —> Fake f.7? : Display until May 8 VG? PANY RS 8 Ro or? | PlayStation. 2 4) | We ve given you control. What will you do with it? 20 Cameras Showcase the Action PlayStation.c Also available on PlayStation® www.989sports.com NBA ShootOut is a trademark of NBA Properties, Inc. The NBA and individual NBA member team identifications used on or in this product are trademarks, copyrighted designs rights reserved. 989 Sports and the 989 Sports logo are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. PlayStation version designed and developed by Killer Game. spicata ser says aan yan! and other forms of intellectual property of NBA Properties, Inc. and the respective NBA member teams and may not be used in whole or in part without the prior written consent of NBA Pr PlayStation 2 version designed and developed by 989 Sports development team. © 2001 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Fami ries, Inc.© 2001 NBA Properties, Inc. All Draper be y logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. — nba.com Comic Mischief Mild Language PlayStation.e 15 TRACKS. 108 CARS. AND TOP SPEEDS IN EXCESS OF 190 MPH. THAT WASN'T YOUR LIFE THAT FLASHED BEFORE YOUR EYES, IT WAS A MADMAN IN A ROCKET SLED STEALING FIRST PLACE. LEAD THUMB? @®) Over-active adrenal gland? Weak or non-existent braking instinct? Problems controlling acceleration? You may be a Speed Freak. If so, Rumble Racing is the game for you. Tear through fantasy worlds sniffing out short cuts and power-ups at the speed of light. Trigger asphalt-melting nitro boosts with big-air barrel rolls and corkscrew flips. Because in this turbo-charged race, if you're not lightning fast, you're already finished. © 2001 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, EA GAMES and the EA GAMES logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the US. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. EA GAMES™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. Licensed for play on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems with the NTSC U/C designation only. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Manufactured and printed in the U.S.A. By John Davison ¢ john_davison@ziffdavis.com EDITORIAL The rash has a new keeper. Sony hasn’t ground, it seems clear to me that he’s going to be been holding his leash for a while, and a feeble competitor for Sonic and Mario when while Crash Bash was an interesting (if they start to flex their muscles later in the year. somewhat insignificant) diversion and Aside from our cover story this month we have an indication of what other developers can do some very interesting news from Nintendo, most with him, it wasn’t as important a project as the notably the shake-up happening around Retro next “proper” Crash game; a successor to Studios and the fate of Metroid. It seems that Warped. His journey to PS2 seems an obvious this popular franchise is causing a lot of trouble one to make, but now that Naughty Dog isn’t in the Mario camp and has been the subject of involved in any way at all, you have to wonder great debate among gamers for the past month. how successful it will be. It’s certain that a “true” Log onto any Nintendo chat forum, and word of Sonic game would never be developed by anyone Samus’ first-person exploits are being discussed other than Yuji Naka, and that only Miyamoto (in a particularly heated manner) by all. would ever steer the true fate of Mario...so does Firm Nintendo news is extremely hard to pin this mean Crash isn’t in the same league? down at the moment. We fully expect to get We spent some time with the new developer and some solid news on things for you in time for tried to get a feel for what they plan to change, next issue—but here are my predictions. This and how they will keep him on top of his game. isn’t based on any secret knowledge that only The message seems to be clear...there’s a formula I’m privy to, it’s just an educated guess based for successful Crash games that shouldn’t be on rumor and gossip. Expect GameCube in messed with. And that’s either a good thing, or a October, for $199 and with six games at launch. bad thing depending on your point of view. Will Expect Zelda in summer 2002...and Luigi to be he remain an icon? That remains to be seen...he’s the hot launch game. Talk about sticking my still a tremendously recognizable figure, but neck out, eh? Marc Saltzman Marc, who wrote our how-to-get-a- job-in-the-game-biz feature a few issues ago, is a freelance journalist for Playboy, USA Today, Yahoo! Internet Life and more than 4o other mags. This month, he scoured the Net to profile two of the fiercest opponents you'll face online. John Ricciardi After a year of the money, wild par- ties and fast cars of “dot com” life, John is now broke and homeless. OK, it’s not that bad. He’s actually living in Japan now, where his lady resides, and he’s back doing what he loves—writing for EGM. David Kushner David braved the new frontier of online-console gaming to deliver our in-depth report. He hails from New York City and is a frequent con- tributor to Rolling Stone, The New York Times and Spin. Oh, and his NFL 2K1 name is CptLint. 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 55722, Boulder, CO 80322-5722. For subscription service questions, address changes, or to order, please contact us at: Web: http://service.egmmag.com (for customer service) or http://subscribe.egmmag.com (to order); Phone: U.S. and Canada (800) 779-1174 or (850) 682-7624, elsewhere (303) 604-7445; Mail: Electronic Gaming Monthly, P.O. Box 55722, Boulder, CO 80322-5722 (please include your mailing label with any correspondence as it contains information that will expedite processing); Fax: U.S, and Canada (850) 683-4094, elsewhere ((303) 604-0518; E-mail (please type your full name and the address at which you subscribe; do not send attachments): egm@neodata.com. The editors and the publisher are not responsible for unsolicited materials. Without limiting the rights under copyrights reserved herein, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the the prior written notice of Ziff Davis Media Inc. To reuse any material in this publication, obtain a permission request form at www.icopyright.com/ziffdavis/, or have a form faxed or mailed to you by calling (425)430-1663. © 2001 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Electronic Gaming Monthly and EGM are trademarks of Ziff Davis Media Inc. TM and © for all other products and the characters contained therein are owned by the respective trademark and copyright owners. All materials listed in this magazine are subject to manufacturers’ change and the publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. The Canadian GST Registration number is 140496720 RT. Printed in the USA. Agdit Bureau of Circulations cr ELECTRONIC Number 14.05 carne May 2001 WWww.ztinet.com/egm Editor in Chief (actin : ; : John Davison ¢ john_davison@ziffdavis.com Managing Editor é ; Dean Hager * dean_hager@ziffdavis.com Executive Editor ; : Mark MacDonald ¢ mark_macdonald@ziffdavis.com Features Editor ae ; : . Crispin Boyer © crispin_boyer@ziffdavis.com ews Editor Chris “C]” Johnston ¢ chris_johnston@ziffdavis.com Previews Editor d ; Greg Sewart © greg_sewart@ziffdavis.com Senior Associate Editor : : : Kraig Kujawa ® kraig_ kujawa@ziffdavis.com Associate Editor f Sam Kennedy * sam_kennedy@ziffdavis.com Assistant Editor : ; : _ Jonathan Dudlak * jonathan_dudlak@ziffdavis.com Tricks Editor . Terry Minnich ® tricks@ziffdavis.com West Song ao tors ielke@ziffdavi ames Mielke * james_mielke@ziffdavis.com yan Lockhart F an near ndeve ten Contributors: : im Cordano, Ethan Einhorn, Marc Saltzman, ay LeWan, Jeremy “Norm” Scott, David Kushner, Che Chou, John Ricciardi, Gary Steinman Japanese Correspondent Yutaka Ohbuchi European Correspondent Axel Strohm Senior Art Director: : : Cyril Wochok ® cyril_wochok@ziffdavis.com Art Director. : : : Mike Reisel ¢ mike_reisel@ziffdavis.com Managing Copy Editor jenn er Ruseices Production Director Carlos Lugo | Senior Production Manager Anne Marie Miguel Pre Media Manager Dave McCracken | Pre Media Technician Mike Vallas | Advertising Production Coordinator Wen ; aws | Assistant Production Manager Teresa Newson Project Leader M ark LeFebvre © mark_lefebvre@ziffdavis.com | Customer Support Analyst Peter Felonk ¢ peter_felonk@ziffdavis.com Vice President/Game Group Dale Strang | Creative Director : Michael Stassus ¢ mstassus@ziffdavis.com | Business Director Cathy Bendoff Circulation Director Joan McInerney Circulation Director hirley Viel Senior Newsstand Sales Manager Don Galen SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE NUMBER: WEB SITE: ervic be PLEASE SEND ALL SU BSCRIPTION QUESTIONS TO: DO NOT CONTACT THE EDITORS RE: SUB. 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It helps a | ou a | «| lift dirt and oil from your a : 4 skin while you shave. "So you get great skin care without thinking about it. yA i ih Ny MN ff AM aii mi Ki Hi i tt Hin fay HN a a 225) ‘the a) ae i ANN i 3 . Fa i NE HRA \ a AN A NRA eae zi " : aN i } a i Hii ie Vue a Nh AN we ATEN iN Ba cn RA in 4 ne ca 1s ai) wigan SSE io ue space combat in in a series of harrowing the Naboo N-1 plus a variety of never-before-seen craft—through stunningly real worlds in 14-plus air and space missions. m* RC ON Haan f bie CONTENTS 109 79 75 75 62 71 103 105 73 48 73 103 66 48 107 78 71 60 72 77 78 106 74 45 103 64 72 74 50 109 107 76 49 71 68 78 70 73 108 66 49 104 72 106 68 108 109 70 106 107 70 108 104 107 75 109 73 rid 79 104 58 Adventures of Cookie & Cream Air Trix Aladdin in Nasira’s Revenge Arc the Lad Collection Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance Batman Charge N Blast Conker’s Bad Fur Day Crazy Horse Crazy Taxi 2 Crispin’s Quest Daytona USA Network Racing Dead to Rights... Floigan Brothers Ford Racing F-Zero Advance Gauntlet Dark Legacy Grand Theft Auto 3 Guitar Man Halo Heart of Darkness High Heat Major League Baseball 2002 Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth Hundred Swords Iron Aces Legend of Alon D’ar Maken Shao Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX Metal Gear Solid 2 NBA Hoopz NBA ShootOut 2001 New Legends Ooga Booga Prisoner of War Project Eden Rayman Red Faction Remote Control Ring of Red Rumble Racing Segagaga Sega Smash Pack Shadow Hearts Strikers 1945 Test Drive Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 Toki Tori Tokyo Extreme Racer: Zero Toy Story Racer Triple Play Baseball 2001 Tsugunai Unison Unreal Tournament Vanishing Point Volfoss Warriors of Might & Magic Wendell Wiggles Wild Riders Worms World Party Zone of the Enders May 2001 Issue 142 Crash Landing Universal Interactive Studios is readying Crash Bandicoot’s upcoming PS2 installment without the help of Naughty Dog, Mark Cerny or Sony. So will the game be any good? We look at both sides of the issue in our cover story. Page 82. See You Online Thanks to the Dreamcast and SegaNet, online gaming has finally taken hold on the consoles. We examine this revolution, find out if it’s really here to stay, and tell you how you can get involved in the growing online community. Log on to page 92 for the full scoop. Metal Gear Solid 2: First Hands-On What game showcases just how much the PS2 can do? Metal Gear Solid 2, of course, and there’s no other game we’ve been this excited about in a long time. We’ve gotten some hands-on time with Solid Snake and pals, and we’re here to show you what it’s all about. page 50. ACO EOD © Editorial 4 Letters 14 News 22 You’ve got Nintendo questions, we've got answers. Read what N- Boss George Harrison has to say about the GameCube, N64 and Game Boy Advance, plus the inside scoop on the new Metroid. Also: the first Sonic GBA Shot! Gossip OM = sLGaRnEx® Previews 44 The PlayStation’s most famous mullet returns in four pages of Metal Gear Solid 2 coverage followed by Z.0.E. and Red Faction for PS2. Review Crew 102 Our reviews of Unreal Tournament and Worms World Party for the DC let you know if they’re worth logging on for. And if you want to play someone at home, we’ll tell you how good Triple Play 2002 and High Heat 2002 are. Finally, is it worth buying a DC for 12 old Sega games? Find out in our review of Sega Smash Pack. 36 Z.0.E. Don’t let the Metal Gear blowout keep you from noticing our Z.O.E. coverage on page 58. This sweet-looking mech shooter is almost as breathtaking as Konami’s tactical espionage action. 110 118 > Tricks @ The Final Wort So we finally got our hands on Metal Gear Solid 2—what do we think of it? Check out the lively banter on the game everyone’s waiting for. = «9 AOU Arcade Show The Pacific Ocean, despite its best efforts, couldn’t keep us from a © Dreamcast getting the dirt on . Japan’s AOU arcade es ne Nintendo 64 expo. Foreign oe mare PlayStation 2 correspondent Yutaka , Ohbuchi and Captain a ab PlayStation John Ricciardi report on i cock Game Boy Color the latest games on : es eee =" Game Boy Advance their way to arcades, L including Virtua Fighter Xbox 4! page 22. § Arcade ed Sky Blue Gold ‘not available Black YVAMLOOJS OOS OUVNN «3H ONOS = NOILONNA ONDA XAldWOIONIS “SUMO a J1ay 40 Aqiadosd dU} GJ SYJBLUAPRJ} 494j0 jiy SGI a4i Jo yseWepes} parajsiBe, e si ofo| shunei ay, G1) ‘sesisdiajuy eas jo syewapey 10 syrewiepen palajsibes Jayla ase SoBo} jseoweeiG ay} puke jseowealg ‘ebas “auj JUAaLUIE}a}UJ JajNdWOg AUOS Jo syreWAape parajsiba gue O60} AjWeY .Sd, aul pue , UONRISARd,,, “OU ‘SawWey oId3 jo SyRWEpeN aie SoBo| jealuf) al} pue jeaiuy) “y's JustWUIELA}UR SaweIHojU) Jo syJRWaped a7e OfO| SeluesBojuj ayy pue saweiHojuj “guj ‘sauresHoju) Aq paysigng “sawesxq jeNBig YM UOLesOgRII0I Ul “DU ‘saWeD IId3 Ag me ‘pansasel syybu jy “oul ‘SaweD 9143 OOOZE JUewWeUINO] ,,,jRaup _ PlayStation.c @ Get up close and personal in the first-person perspective with over 10 weapons of destruction! Go eee errs up to 8 players on your are — Dreamcast. Or play 2- or 4-player split screen = in your face intensity. ; : 2 Experience dazzling eraphics and a multitude of / maps and weapons — allina frame rate so fast f it’s Unreal. iN E LU D ; D = Unreal” loan s fast and furious, online multiplayer experience comes to life on Sega Dreamcast™ Lead your team of virtual teammates against the deadliest gladiators in the galaxy. Mind-blowine realistic 3D graphics. High- octane gameplay. Totally Unreal combat action. Just be sure not to lose your head. Students Fear For The Safety Of Their EGMs Quite a few years ago now, around issue 70, | signed up for an EGM subscription. | was skeptical at first, but grew attached to you guys quickly. Now EGM is a part of me and my friends’ everyday lives. | told Congratulations. You win an InterAct controller. You will be receiving a Barracuda (PS), an Alloy Arcade Stick them all about you guys and they all (DC) ora subscribed too. We carry them around SharkPad Pro school with us all day waiting for the 64° (N64). moment to open up to the article we Sep page 120 tor didn’t finish reading and the cover story official rulas. we want to read again. Recently, we had a bomb threat at our school. They took us into a large your precious issue. Tough Little GBC Weathers The Storm About three months ago, at my grandma’s, my brother bent over to pick up a snowball, and in the front pocket of his coat was a Game Boy Color which fell out. It fell into the cold hard snow unseen. My brother found out it was missing after he got home; he just figured it was in grandma’s house somewhere. During the following three months bad weather followed. First it warmed up a bit, then the snow all melted. Then it got cold and all the compact snow turned really hard. This cycle occurred a couple of times. One night | walked out of grandma’s First of all, we are very glad to hear all turned out OK. Second, no matter how much you love our magazine, we do not recom- mend, endorse or sponsor running into a potentially hazardous scenario to retrieve magazine. house. It was a warmer day, probably in the mid 30s. There was rain pouring down, washing away the rest of the snow. | looked down at the ground and saw the Game Boy; all the time we were looking inside, it was outside. | picked it up, expecting everything in it to be dead, including the Pokémon Gold game inside of it, and turned it on. Everything worked. | played my brother’s saved game from three months ago. Jacob Knoblauch wimbledong9g@excite.com Very “cool” little story, Jake. Those boys over at Nintendo know how to put ’em together, eh? One question: Did you tell your bro you found it? 14 assembly room and didn’t tell us anything. We figured it out quickly because they had the State Police with dogs sniffing someone’s locker that was making a beeping sound. They didn’t let us take anything with us to the assembly room so, naturally, we freaked out. If there was a bomb, OUR EGMs WERE GOING TO EXPLODE! We even thought about trying to sneak out and get them back. Obviously, it wasn’t a bomb or else it would have been all over the news. It was a giant relief to us. Thanks for making such a great Vincent Gmerek VinceMaclsBack@aol.com We print lots of them, and you can usually order back issues if one were, to say, get toasted. However, we are flattered that in your hour of need, we were high on your list of priorities. Keep reading, and be careful out there. Oh yeah, what was the beeping sound? “| picked it up, expecting everything in it to be dead, including the Pokemon Gold game inside of it, and turned it on. Everything worked. ” e Phantasy Star Online letters: 46 e Letters about frozen Game Boys: 1 ¢ Unsolicited game ideas: 635 ¢ Unsolicited game ideas passed on to developers: o ¢ Foreign countries heard from: 17 ¢ Letters from Civil War re-enacters: 4 Appetite for Expansion | am not sure if you have figured this out, but as a fan of Guns N’ Roses, | realized that the bosses’ names in Mega Man x5 are variations of GN’R members’ names: GN’R’s Rose: He makes his own gravy. Grizzly Slash—Slash [lead guitarist] Duff Mcwhalen—Duff Mckagen [bassist] Squid Adler-Steven Adler [ex-drummer] Izzy Glow-Izzy Stradlin [rhythm guitarist] Mattrex—Matt Sorum [drummer] Axel the Red—Axl Rose [vocalist] Dark Dizzy—Dizzy Reed [keyboardist] Do not tell me this is just a coincidence or a figment of my imagination. Hariram T. Rajah leathernazi@yahoo.com Ah, Hariram, alas we are torn. On the one hand, we must commend you for cracking this elaborate code. But on the other tobacco-stained hand, we have to severely reprimand you for freely admitting to still being a Guns N’ Roses fan. One must question the judgement of such an admission. It is 2001 after all. Oh well, at least we finally had a reason to run this pic of Axl. P.S. What’s up with your lame-o e-mail nick? ©2000 Nabisco, Inc. PG Owner Wants To Frag DC Owners | recently purchased a PC with Quake Il] Arena. | used to own a Dreamcast. | contacted Sega on how to play Quake with Dreamcast owners through my PC. They told me there was a patch that they didn’t endorse that would enable PC players to play Dreamcast players in the arena. Can you please tell me how to access this patch? | am desperate. Thank you. Louis Cajigas hognut@sega.net Well, “Hognut,” a two-pronged answer to your query. PC gamers who want to play Quake III Arena against DC owners will need to patch their game with the most recent patch, as well as download the Dreamcast Map Pack. Trouble is, it’s still not out yet. Keep checking the media section of the Quake III site at sega.com for its release. Or just buy a Dreamcast again. They’re under a hundred bucks, and you could grab a bunch of great games for cheap too—not to mention get sucked into the world of PSO like several other readers who wrote in about it this month. April Fool's And Rocket- Powered Armadillos You almost had me fooled, almost. | totally believed the Sega Neptune story until the last two words, “Virtua Hampster,” and it was a dead giveaway. If you didn’t put it there | would have been fooled once again by the great gag minds of EGM. Brian W. Actually, that wasn’t part of the joke. Virtua Hamster really was a one- or two-player “action/puzzle” cart, well into development for the 32x when Sega pulled the plug. Seriously. Honest. We swear! If you still don’t believe us (and given the whole idea of this game, we wouldn’t blame you), Producer/Designer EGM@ziffdavis.com Send us your thoughts, your wishes, your innermost weirdness. ..or your pictures, crazy screenshots or photos of bizarre game-related Eric Quakenbush has more design sketches and screenshots on his Web page. Check it out at www.gq-design.com. And yes, that is a rocket-powered armadillo. Reader Feels He Was “Kicked In The Junk’ Oh, go ahead and get me razzed about a rare video-game collectable, then poke me in the eye with a salted broom handle. Yeah, really funny. If | had a glass of milk, and | was drinking that glass of milk when | went to the Web site, the milk would not be spouting out of my nose, because the “April Fool’s joke” was not humorous. You should change the name from EGM’s April Fool’s Joke to EGM’s Happy Fun Month’s Craptacular Kick In The Junk. It was almost as funny as the GoldenEye codes. Jay Doherty YerEvillwin@aol.com Sorry, Jay. No junk kicking or eye poking intended. We just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to slip one under the radar last month. If it’s any consolation, you were among thousands of others who fell into our clutches, including the author of moments. ROTOR LLL LLL LT LN NO II of milk, and | was drinking that glass of milk when | went to the Weh site, the milk would not be spouting out of my nose, because the ‘April Fool’s joke’ was not humorous.” What are your thoughts about the death of the Dreamcast? | am disappointed that Dreamcast is being phased out, but if it will show gamers that Sega is #1 |’m all for it. kurtz83@netzero.net Where did Sega go wrong??? djoy4@hotmail.com Deadcast? Don’t kid yourself. Not by a long shot! The Sega Dreamcast is the best system in the history of video games. All Sega has done is relegate it to eternal cult status. hawkinsg@axxent.ca SONY says, HAAHAAA HAAHAAAHAAA HAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAAHEEEEHEEEHEE EHEEEHEEEHEEEHEEEHOOOHOOOHOO OHO OOO. OH. OH. He, heheh. Lumpygumby@aol.com I’m not upset; | will still love my Dreamcast. Plus | am 100 percent happy that Sega has chosen the whole platform thing. avrett.c.m@worldnet.att.net Dreamcast? What’s a Dreamcast? Is this an April Fool’s joke? dfosbinder@hotmail.com Not dead...just in a coma. thesman27@yahoo.com | knew the Dreamcast was dead as soon as it was announced. | am not the least bit surprised by the way the young Dreamcast has begun its flaming descent into the center of video-gaming hell. What does surprise me is Sega’s move into creating games for other systems. | thought that Sega would keep on trying until the creditors padlocked the doors. SNAKEYEZZ1@aol.com Next Month’s Question of the Moment: N64 owners: What are your thoughts about your system lately? Send your short but sweet responses to: EGM@ziffdavis.com with the subject heading: My 64 G © 2001 THQ Inc. Red Faction, the Red Faction logo, THO, and the THO logo are trademarks of THQ Inc. CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Violence B d and Gore www .redfaction.com ™! You can write EG at: EGM Letters P.O. Box 3338 Oak Brook, IL 60522-3338 e-mail: EGM@ziffdavis.com Please note: We reserve the right to edit any correspondence for Space purposes. If you don’t want your name, city/state or e-mail address printed, tell us so (but please include your phone number and mailing address for Letter of the Month consideration). Also note: although we can only respond to a few letters each month, we read and appreciate (most) all of them. So keep ‘em coming, eventually you might see your handy work turn up here! the previous letter. What will we dream up next year? Hmm... “Madd Propz” for David Hello All, Here is David’s recent school picture. 14 years old and looking it!!! He has a size 10 shoe and is taller than | am. OK, So that’s not so tall to you, but it’s Strange looking up to him! HA! Love Always, Christine, Charles and David We’re not sure why we were updated on David’s height, shoe size or how accurately he is representing his age, but we were updated. So we pass the savings on to you, the consumer. Actually we were probably in David’s family computer e-mail address book, unbeknownst to his parents. When they copied the whole list to mass mail to family and friends, we tagged along. Sorry, David, we couldn’t resist, but congrats on the shoe size. Apparently We're Crazy, Laughing And Whacked Out Hey, have you guys seen the new Taco Bell commercial where they are eating the grilled steak tacos and they call each other names and end up with | SHORTS This month we’re featuring some legit questions instead of the usual silliness... What the frig happened to Devil Dice 2?!?, davehenge @hotmail.com It was released in Japan, but since the first game didn’t sell jack in the U.S., it won’t come out here. ls there ever going to be a Final Fantasy Tactics 2? Fanboy, toejam25o1 @home.com No word yet on FFT2, but check out Hoshigami on page 74 to hold you over until we hear something. Matt Steele Georgetown, TX Congratulations! Your prize is on the way- an ASCII Specialized Control Pad for the PlayStation. It features rapid- fire controls for all buttons and. slow motion for those intense moments. Put your creative skills to the test by decking out a #10 envelope (the long business type) with your own unique touch. Send your letter art to: (All entries become the property of Ziff Davis Media Inc. and will not be returned!) RRR SRS TRIN HO REN HOO EE “Fluffy”? That’s kinda what | imagine the EGM environment to be like. Lots of humorous name calling, and some crazy Oriental guys laughing, all whacked out. Take it as a compliment if you wish. dart533@cs.com Some of us have seen the commer- cial, and some of us have not. As of this printing, it was not up on AdCritic.com yet for us to peruse. Although there is this series of undercover robot commercials that are pee-your-pants funny. However, the environment here is nothing like the commercial you describe. It is, in fact, very humorless, sterile even (fart jokes being the exception). The whole “wacky staff” image is a ruse forced upon us by unscrupulous management types who think it makes us more “relatable” to the “kids,” or at least males age 18 to 35 with a median disposable income of $10,000 in any given fiscal year. We much prefer curling up with a good book and a hot cup of cocoa to bandying about a round of tawdry insults as you suggest. Good day, sir. EGM Letter Art PO Box 3338 Oak Brook, IL 60522-3338 Close, but no controller Bad luck to these guys... better luck next time. Feel free to e-mail us artwork as well. Roland Sabalza | Seattle, WA Man In Clutches Of “Phantasy” Devil | am addicted. | can’t stop. Phantasy Star Online has me in its clutches. | have been up ’til midnight every night playing this game that some hail as a godsend. | call it the devil. When | am not playing it, | am thinking about it. When | am not thinking about it, | feel a sense of longing. | love this game but at the same time hate it. It is truly amazing. | haven’t been hooked ona game like this since Super Mario Bros. for the SNES. The thrill of charging into battle with my buddies excites me anew every time | do it. If you haven't played this game yet, DON’T!!!! STAY SAVE YOURSELF!!! l[AmABoyGenius@aol You speak the truth. Many of the staffers have been struck down by this vile temptress called PSO. You know a game is addictive when the edit staff plans after-hours online rendezvous during deadline. It’s a sickness, an itch that can’t be scratched. Brian Seufert Tampa, FL ECM Lie ART PO BOX 3333 KAR Onde % 60522° 3333 PHOTO iG DAVEMIRRA Beer ig Tadila steameniete “ep eepond param Sk Ge ha 00 Seger Fase ts Gear Chop: Calionia EIGHTEEN-FOOT RAMP. NINETEEN-FOOT AIR. ONE WORLD RECORD. CARL MYNDM, LOOK FOR DC SHOES AND DAVE IN THE UPCOMING VIDEO GAME: FEATURED MODEL: MAXIMUM ReMix THE TRUTH — SE any DC SHOES ARE AVAILABLE AT YOUR A) WRAPAROUND PAL AB2001 HEEL SUPPORT LOCAL SKATEBOARD SHOP. ® SHOCK ABSORBING HEEL AIRBAG E) HIGH ABRASION STICKY CLEAR RUBBER TO FIND A LOCATION NEAR YOU, SEE THE LATEST NEWS, ©) ACTION LEATHER OR HEAVY DUTY NUBUCK UPPER F) TRIPLE-TONE BOTTOM Www.besHoscousacox =p) PROTECTIVE LACE LOOPS AND HIDDEN NYLON @) INTERNAL ELASTIC TONGUE STRAPS LACE LOOPS FOR STABILITY : he ranks in : aver Wnt a Uatht ny iN ANN Ipiece r 48S sing \ NN i) WANA WN ANS SUMAN FEATURING BMX'S TOP PROS: ESCAMILLA / HOFFMAN / KOWALSKI MCCOY / NASTAZIO / ROBINSON _ TABRON / THORNE SOUNDTRACK FEATURING: PENNYWISE — ois eal -AGENTORANGE ~~ ee BAD'BRAINS | a Oe _ OUTKAST = eee Mano heer ~ Ye Re é, © 2001 Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. Published and Distributed by Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Developed by Runecraft, Ltd. Developed by HotGen Studios Limited. Activision is a registered trademark and Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX and Pro BMX are trademarks of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Mat Hoffman is a trademark of Mat Hoffman. The ratings icon is a trademarkof the Interactive Digital Software Association. Licensed by Sony Computer Entertainment America for use with the PlayStation game console. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Game Boy and Game Boy Color are trademarks of Nintendo of America Inc. © 1889, 1998 Nintendo of America Inc. Licensed by Nintendo. Nintendo of America Inc. All rights reserved All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. af Blaectorch PlayStation Animated Blood Mild Animated Violence ACTIVISION. By Chris Johnston chris_johnston@ziffdavis.com & Jonathan Dudiak jonathan_dudlak@zifidavis.com VF4 Ushers In Sega's New tra sega Gives a Glimpse of its Arcade/PS2 Fighter, and Other News from Japan’s AOU Expo t precisely 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 23, hundreds of anxious industry insiders gathered around the event stage in Sega’s booth at Japan’s AOU arcade show. Cameramen stood on stools to get a good view, eager press hounds pushed and squeezed their way forward to get closer to the stage, and a foursome of scantily clad J- Pop wannabes at the adjacent booth undoubtedly wondered why nobody was paying any attention to their crude croonings. Why all the fuss? Three words (well, two and a number): Virtua Fighter 4. Three weeks after Sega dropped the bomb that they’d be going multi-platform and that a PlayStation 2 version of VF4 was in the works, the arcade game was unveiled for the first time at the annual AOU Amusement Expo in Japan. The expo featured entries from all the top coin-op manufacturers in Japan, and served as a showcase for tons of innovative and downright weird new ideas. Despite the absence of highly anticipated titles like Soul Calibur 2 and Tekken 4, the AOU still managed to capture the attention of arcade gamers looking for the next big thing. Just about all of them found it in Sega’s Virtua Fighter 4. While only about two minutes of game footage were shown for VF4, it was enough to leave showgoers itching for more. As you can see in these screens, the characters and especially the backgrounds have been enhanced significantly since VF3, and from what we saw, movement is as fast and smooth as ever. One battle featured a flock of birds flying around in the background, while another took place amidst a big snowstorm—all without a hint of slowdown. Despite the improvements, the “wow” factor isn't quite what it was when VF3 was first introduced, but nonetheless we came away impressed. Suzuki and Co. revealed plenty of early details about the game. VIRTUA FIGHTER 4 First off, there will be two new characters in VF4, one male and one female. The female character has yet to be unveiled, but the male character, currently nameless, was shown to be a bald, Chinese monk who practices a variation of Shaolin fighting known as Rakan Ken. Returning characters coniirmed so far include Akira, Aou, Jacky, Jeffry, Kage, Lau, Lion, Pai, Sarah, Shun Di and Wolf. In addition to the classic outfits from past VF games, each character will sport new alternate costumes. In terms of gameplay, Virtua Fighter 4 returns to the three-button layout of VF2, ditching the Escape button that was At the AOU show, Sega showed off their new dog-walking game, Inu no Osanpo (“Walk the Dog”), with several hot models dressed in skimpy poodle outfits. These custom- _ made outfits came fully equipped with wagging tails and a whole lotta skin. Bow wow wow, baby! Soul Calibur 2? Tekken 4? Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper? These and other titles were fabled to surface at AOU, but alas, the cupboard was bare. Here’s a rundown of what’s still coming to arcades (allegedly) but didn’t materialize at the expo. Don’t give up hope, they may not have shown at AOU, but the soul still burns... CAPCOM Resident Evil: Fire Zone Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper Mobile Suit Gundam Not a huge deal game-wise, but it was surprising not to see one of the biggest arcade-game creators totally non- represented at the show, with the exception of their joint venture with Banpresto (see next page). SEGA House of the Dead 3 F355 Challenge Sega/Square Action-RPG Sega’s Tetsu Kayama promised the unveiling of Sega and Square’s joint RPG 4 eral “s Date 3 ae Be - > Be igi hag introduced in VF3. This time around, however, the game features an eight-way directional stick, which, according to Suzuki, means game control will no longer be limited to a 2D plane (think Soul Calibur). Most interesting of all, VF4 will support network features (Suzuki referred to this as “Virtua Fighter Net”). Using your cell phone, you can plug in and share data over a mobile network. For example, let’s say a famous VF master is on a big winning streak at another arcade. You can find him with your cell phone and then head on over to challenge him based 3D golf game; Super Major League, a yourself. In addition, the game will support a Naomi CD title that uses the WSB 2K1 engine; adventure at AOU, but it never happened. yet-to-be-specified storage medium (Suzuki and Wild Riders, an action-packed motorbike F355 was also on the docket but got axed simply called it a “card”) which will allow you getaway game with cell-shaded graphics. for the show, apparently. to save your game data and Stats to use on Amusement Vision showed off Virtua different VF4 machines. Striker 3, the latest in their long-running NAMCO No release date has been announced for the soccer series, and Monkey Ball, an odd new Soul Calibur 2 arcade or PS2 versions of VF4. An Xbox version action title. In it, players use an analog banana Tekken 4 __: . is rumored to be in development, but Sega will controller (really) to guide a monkey encased Soul Cali 2 is on eve aS S mind, and neither confirm nor deny these rumors. in a ball through courses littered with bananas with two years passed since the original, and Marble Madness-style slides and pits. who can blame ‘em? Neither of these high- ALSO AT SEGA Also at Sega’s booth was Club Kart: profile brawlers were shown at the expo, Sega unveiled several new games at AOU, European Session, a go-kart racing game with sadly. the most interesting of which was Wow Entertainment’s treadmill-based fitness game, Inu no Osanpo (“Walk the Dog”). With leash controller in hand and treadmill at feet, the object is to keep pace with your dog and guide him through the neighborhood as . he avoids obstacles, chases the local cat and “does his thing” by the curb. Similar to DDR, Walk the Dog has a fitness counter that keeps track of calories burned. Wow also showed Dynamic Golf, a trackball- Putting fruit to good use, a young gamer takes Amusement Vision’s Monkey Ball for a spin. We found it most a-peeling. Cont. on page 26 23 a full-size kart seat as part of the cabinet. The game features a Card System that allows players to save their game progress as well as custom driver and car information. NAMCO With Soul Calibur 2 nowhere to be seen, Namco’s focus was on Vampire Night, the new PS2-based System 246 arcade light-gun shooter developed by Sega’s Wow Entertainment (Wow developed Sega’s House of the Dead games). Vampire Night is basically House of the Dead 2 on steroids, with much improved graphics, more plot diversion and vampires instead of zombies. Namco also showed off four other titles: Mr. Driller G (“Great”), an enhanced version of Mr. Driller 2 with six different characters, new items and two new modes; Photo Battle, a “camera battle game” with 24 different picture-snapping mini-games (our favorite involved getting “panty shots” while a bunch of girls in skirts stood on top of a wind vent); Master of Taiko, a DrumMania clone with Japanese taiko drums; and GaHaHa, a collection of mini-games that are played with two analog sticks. KONAMI As usual, Konami’s booth was littered with Bemani games. To list every one would take about three pages, but highlights included Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix, Guitar Freaks 5th Mix, DrumMania 4th Mix and Keyboard Mania 3rd Mix, the latter three of which can now be linked together for multi- session play. The big K also unveiled Mambo a GoGo, a conga game with themes (and some songs) ripped from Samba de Amigo. The two titles Konami hyped the most were Football Masters, with its misleading title and all. Rereverreeeeereeceyccerstetrerecrrererectetertretrenrternrenrtnrerersrtter etreereerttrenterteeeter SPO MAIOONIONIOH IAIN ANNAN PIN NIONI NINA AIINAIHDANODIONOSIDNAIDNOSISAIRIPAAIAIININDOAAINADISANIODN Hopefully Moc better than the Sega Activator. Mocap Boxing and Monster Gate. Mocap Boxing uses motion capture sensors to track your movement—when you move, the screen moves with you— making for a realistic boxing experience. Monster Gate is a Torneko-like dungeon-crawling RPG with a unique card system. By purchasing an Entry Card for 300 yen, you can create your own character and then attempt to conquer any of the game’s many dungeons. Doing so will make you the dungeon champion—until someone else comes along and tops you, that is—and earns you medals for use in other Konami machines. Elsewhere in Konami-land, we saw Silent Scope 3, with an improved rifle, enhanced graphics and more action stages; Private Shot, another camera-shooting game, this one Starring Japanese “super idols” and J-Pop stars; Muscle Ranking: Football Masters, a Stand-up soccer game based on a popular Japanese TV game show, where you kick a real ball on a string into the screen; and new updates of GunMania (GunMania: Zone Plus) and Thrill Drive (Thrill Drive 2). THE REST Other AOU highlights included Banpresto =i Mambo a GoGo in all its glory. Ricky Ricardo must be salsa dancing in his grave. = are ead ap Boxing works _ Ah, the very first arcade game. Pong was originally tested in a tavern back in 1972, _ and fetched as many quarters as it did _ competitor rip-offs. It’s a far cry from DDR _and Silent Scope, but this is where it all _ began, folks. Winning those stuffed arcade prizes was never so elaborate. and Capcom’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zion, a Virtual-On-like two-on- two mech fighting game that takes place in the Gundam universe. Aruze, the pachinko giant that gobbled up SNK, showed Sengoku Denshou 2001 and Nightmare in the Dark, two games that, while fun, could’ve easily been released 10 years ago. To add insult to injury, the only new franchise title on display was Samurai Shodown S—a slot machine with SamSho characters, proving once again that absolutely nothing’s sacred. th -lohn Ricciardi and Yutaka Ohbuchi A more tangible, possibly satisfying version of the arcade boxing game. { Real life too boring to photograph? Fear not, Private Shot has you covered. Silent Scope 3, one of Konami’s few non-musical titles. a RST aatoayarere TS gtiAen Animated Violence Comic Mischief Suggestive Themes ee) INTERACTIVE IM activision.com Software Aasocation Licensed by ue Computer Entertainment America for use with the aise log game console: att ane the Plytation os are ester rademars of Sony congas Entertainment. Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the aigaeie: of their Je aati owners. = smesnneneennsemnee learned from the last two ma generations of machines, “ it’s that Nintendo is full § hardware limitations and the cartridge format, they’ve been a formidable Nintendo’s force in the industry. George Harrison. We won’t know their exact plans for the rest of 2001 until E3, but EGM spoke with George Harrison, Nintendo’s Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, to get a glimpse of what we can expect. EGM: Sega said at the end of January when they made their big announcement that hardware isn’t where the money is, and that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to make a hardware platform successful. You’re introducing two hardware platforms this year. That’s got to be a huge undertaking, isn’t it? George Harrison: Yeah it is. | don’t know if we’ve ever introduced two hardware platforms in a year before. The first one out of the blocks, Game Boy Advance (GBA); we’re building on strength. Normally we’d be launching a new hardware system when the old one’s declining in sales and popularity, like the consoles normally are. In the case of GBA, we're launching with a huge strength. Game Boy Color was very successful in 2000. Between 1999 and 2000 we sold almost 15 million hardware units of Game Boy. For us, that’s critical and it’s the first step in what we call a one-two punch. It’s critical for us because Game Boy represents more than 50% of our business right now and we’ve got to protect it. We’re not taking anything for granted even though we’ve got a 99% market Share. We also believe that GBA can be a Trojan Horse to get people excited and GAME BOY ADVANCE knowledgeable about GameCube (GC). Everybody who buys a GBA is a potential future customer for GC. We’ll be giving them information and talking about how those systems have the capability to link, share gameplay and data exchange. EGM: Sega’s move to software-only makes them one of the first old- school companies to leave hardware. Is there a point where Nintendo would make the same decision? GH: | don’t think it’s likely. The only reason that we’re in the hardware business is that we believe we can do a better job of delivering machines that are gamer- and developer- friendly. Short of marketplace rejection, there’s no reason that we would not be in the hardware business. EGM: Now that the June date has been decided for GBA has anything changed in regards to GC? GH: No, the plan for GC is still summer in Japan and then fall in the U.S. We're still going to go as early as we can in the fall. EGM: Nintendo has never launched a hardware platform head-to-head against another system (in this case, Microsoft with the Xbox). What are you anticipating the market to be like when that happens? GH: There’s no doubt there’s going to bea battle of titans in the fall. Everyone sort of presumed that Sony would have a great headstart with PlayStation 2, but they haven’t really capitalized on that lead at this point. The real deciding factor is going to be unique software —what software can you only get on what hardware system. In the case of GC, we believe we’ve got the strongest lineup of exclusive software. Not only from our own internal development, but from all the time and investments we’ve made in second-party developers like Rare and others. As we look at Which of the following Sega series do you most want to see come to the Game Boy Advance? Phantasy Star 35% Shinobi 28% ee Crazy Taxi 20% Other 11% Out Run 4% Space Channel5 2% “The only reason we're in the hartware business is that we helieve we can do a better job of delivering machines that are gamer- and developer-iriendly.” Microsoft, they have great technical specs and a lot of financial wherewithal, but they don’t have a lot of great exclusive product. EGM: Speaking of Sony and their troubles with PS2, is there anything that you learned from their mistakes, that you don’t plan to repeat? GH: First thing is to make sure you’ve got adequate hardware —a challenge in the Startup of the production of a new chipset. The other part of that is to make sure that your marketing plans are in sync with what’s possible. We expect to have a big pre-sell campaign for GC and get consumers very excited, but we don’t want to disappoint them. We don’t want more people signing up and reserving product than we can deliver in the “..Game Boy Advance can be a Trojan Horse to get people excited and knowledgeable _ Last month we reviewed InterAct’s new Mobile Monitor for the PS one. Right after going to printwe discovered they had re-launched the product with a new, rectangular screen. This new screen is great, _ with an excellent sound system and lots of on-screen picture tuning options. On our review scale, we’d give this new screen an 8.0 (instead of a 6.5). Be careful, though. The box still has a picture of the old, crappy Mobile Monitor, not the cool new one, so open it up and check before you buy. COROLLA ONO NNN RTE ARON LOOSE COSNOOOR EADS N ENE LOSERS DEEN tt first 30 days or so of the launch. EGM: What’s the future of N64 after GC comes out? Will it fall flat? GH; It certainly won’t be immediate. | think it’l| sort of seek its own course, we'll just try to manage it closely and see. We were able to Sell several million units of Super NES after the launch of N64. We did that by lowering the hardware price to $49. We don’t know if that’s desirable or possible in this case with N64. EGM: N64 games have been coming out on a one-title-per-month basis. Is that going to continue? GH: We hope so. We haven’t really finalized the lineup from May forward. | think it’ll be April before we announce anything for the Summer, and until E3 before we announce the second half. But, like everyone else, we have development resources to allocate between GBA, GC and N64. So we’re going to have to get real creative to keep the flow of new titles coming for N64. EGM: Are there any specific N6q titles you can mention that are past the release of Mario Party 3 in May? GH: No. EGM: Is there any chance the GC’s specs will get beefed up now that Xbox seems to be more powerful? GH: At this point, | would say the answer is no. Partly because from when you finalize the design of your chip, it takes a substantial amount of time to manufacture it. We’re kind of curious that Microsoft says they’re still tinkering with the design of their chip. At some point, you’ve got to take it out and try to produce it, and that takes time. Which leads to the rumors of are they or aren’t they going to make it. In terms of technology by itself, we Rare’s Dinosaur Planet (above) and Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness, once Nintendo 64 titles, could be moving to GameCube. believe that you’re starting to reach a point of diminishing returns. Graphic quality is getting to be so perfect in this generation of machines that the edge is not necessarily going to be gained by having a small technological advantage. The edge is going to be gained by having a great game of some kind. Pokémon Silver, Pokémon Gold, Pokémon Yellow—these are 8-Bit games with fairly crude graphics. Just great graphics are not going to necessarily win the day. EGM: We've heard a rumor that Nintendo is trying to keep GC priced really affordably — with $149 as a possible price. What’s your feeling on that? GH: | can’t comment on that price point in particular. But certainly, it’s our goal to make it a dedicated game machine. Not only to keep the retail price as attractive as possible, but also because we don’t believe the multi- functional aspects of these machines actually helps. One of the problems Sony has had is it tried to create a machine which had more than one function. As a result, you see developers Struggling to make good games for the system. We think the same thing is a potential risk for Xbox. EGM: Are there any examples of developers who sat out during the N6q days that are coming back for GC? GH: | think you can look at most of the third parties. Clearly the N64 financial model with cartridges was not attractive. It was hard for them to feel like that was a really attractive economic model that they could make money on. As a result of that, we had tepid support. Did we have EA games? Absolutely. Was it a priority for them? No, not at all. But we believe that we have an attractive machine now that’ll be developer-friendly. And the playing field has been economically leveled with the digital disc ($39-49 MSRP for GC games at launch), so have the cost of goods, the retail pricing, the inventory issues. EGM: Are games like Dinosaur Planet and Eternal Darkness still coming for N64? Or have those changed at all? GH: They’re still in development. | guess we won't really know until E3 where they’re going to show up. They’re exciting games, but they’re games that were also very large. That causes a challenge with Nintendo 64 in terms of a reasonably priced cartridge. So | think we’ll just have to wait until E3 to see. EGM: Have you heard of projects that have started on N64 and been changed to GC? GH: | think some of them have. | couldn’t tell you any specific ones—or at least, I’m not allowed to tell you the specific ones. But it takes quite a while to develop a great game. As many amazing titles as have come for N64, they’ve always been a challenge to try to compress it down to get it onto a cartridge and have it reasonably priced. So, we know that the developers are looking forward to the freedom to do what they need to by having that capacity of the digital disc. a Up, Launch Titles Announced Just before we went to press, Nintendo announced that GBA will launch in the U.S. on June 44 for an MSRP of $99.95. Two Nintendo titles will accompany the launch— F-Zero: Maximum Velocity and Mario Advance. Games will be priced between | $29.99-39.99. Launch titles from third | parties include Army Men Advance (3D0), Pitfall (Majesco), Dodge Ball Advance (Atlus), ChuChu Rocket (Sega), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (Activision) and Rayman (Ubi Soft). Sonic Team also released the first _ screenshot of their first game for GBA, Sonic _ the Hedgehog Advance (below). >. 4) Dut QYMLBNO LboALz Jkt JO YATYM FB)ID42G0 f 7 / * 7 ] 2204) PMOPLONG = Pug jaiAun YON Ohi) / FPN} LJLG j A)JCMD / 7 Fa roa Rar ere BIOUJPOLIP PUD e Yj] # / Jiaide pup PUM FY] Gn 5/2} ip ? GYM LO1LLOM OY) AG P)09NA) PAN AL) / if Udi: § / JO21ENO B Bug 44 PAP YeIM vedM — sewrin » SPsopseyy PLONE JZOOMDYE BY 20 »” oF / AVG? 20 BI ‘ = 4 © a i 4 oO vs a) =e pw oo E a oO Lae] = » pa co tad Blood and Gore Violence Saving Samp <| The WViurky History of Retro studios’ GameCube \ietroit amus Aran might have been able to survive hordes of aliens and oversized brains, but her most dangerous challenge may be getting to the GameCube in one piece. Reports from sources inside and outside of Retro Studios shine a troubling light on the project that raised eyebrows last summer when Nintendo decided to have their Japanese-born franchise continued by the unproven American Start-up developer. Conceived as a Nintendo second-party, like Rare, Retro immediately began work on its first titles in 1999. One of them was described to us as an “adventure game Starring three female leads,” according to a reliable source. This early project, which would eventually become Metroid, faced an uphill battle from the beginning, with setbacks caused by a subpar game engine created for Retro’s four games. This engine “had to be rewritten from scratch as the game progressed and development was further hampered by inadequate development kits.” To speed up development so that the game would be ready for the GameCube’s launch, Nintendo asked that it be redesigned as a first- person game Since third-person games are typically harder to fine-tune. Retro’s designers fought the change, but lost. Enter Metroid Months after the game was up and running as a first-person game, Shigeru Miyamoto visited the Austin, TX-based Retro during April 2000. “It was like the Emperor visiting the Death Star.” said our source, who then added, “He didn’t seem to like any of the games very much, especially the racing title, which was probably our best-looking.” Miyamoto spent most of his time with the action-adventure game, and “the impression was that he wasn’t too thrilled. Nintendo would come down about three times a year and rip on most of the games, except football, which was under the radar.” Then, weeks before SpaceWorld in August, Nintendo PEE T a {2 REDSHINS SS + > WAS: BR. Gannon 21-23. 2H6 vanos. 2 TD Min: JBEED S REC. 100 Yanos. TD | METROID | Retro Studios - a science fiction story | Copyright (c) 2001 by Retro Studios, Inc. } All rights reserved. | You see a Metroid(tm). >shoot metroid |You shoot the Metroid(tm). ‘You see another Metroid(tm). 30 MIKE KRAHLILIK AND JERRY HOLKINS decided to crown Retro Studios with the Metroid license and the action-adventure game was transformed. “They wanted to make a splash,” commented a former Retro employee. “We had some Metroid fans in the office who were both thrilled and scared. Retro realized it was a great license, but we were also worried about the backlash from making it a first-person adventure game. We didn’t want to be known as the studio that ruined Metroid,” said our source. SpaceWorld was right around the corner, and Retro scrambled. “It was crazy because Nintendo wanted a bunch of movies showing Metroid off,” Said a source close to the project. “Retro scrambled to come up with Samus running down a hallway—it was created very quickly. Just a movie, no gameplay.” With all of these distractions, technical hurdles and redesigns, the first-person Metroid fell behind. “! doubt it will be out by the system launch,” says our source, “even if GameCube is pushed way back.” Apparently, Retro agreed and they took action. Sacrificial Lambs In January, two of Retro’s games were put on “permanent hold”, thus freeing up resources for Metroid: Thunder Rally, a Carmageddon-style racing game that “looked cool,” according to our source, “but lacked substance, though it could have been a great online game if Nintendo knew what they wanted to do with it.” The other was tentatively named NFL Football 2002, and was an action-oriented game that “Nintendo never seemed serious about.” With franchises such as Madden and NFL Quarterback Club slated to “,..Wwe were also worried about the backlash from making Metroid a first-person adventure game. We didn't want to be known as the studio that ruined Metroid.” 30 _ This is probably the first and only _ time you'll see a screenshot from _ NFL Football 2002, which was a _ GameCube launch game in development by Retro Studios. _ Unless the game gets taken out of | _ its permanent holding pattern, _ this is the last you'll see of it. LINES-010 00831 os You know “\j what would be really cool? If I was dead. A appear on the GC and the possibility of NFL 2K2 appearing because of Sega’s emergence as a third party, the market for Football 2002 had diminished. “It definitely had promise,” said someone close to the project. “The game was coming together and was finally on track.” Many of the staff from football and Thunder Rally were reassigned to Metroid and Retro’s other project, an RPG with “typical Dungeons & Dragons stuff that wasn’t looking very good,” said our source. “The CEO (Jeff Spandenberg), is a big RPG fan, so that’s one reason why that survived. The car game was in better shape and made more sense market-wise.” But it’s not all bad news. There’s still plenty time for the projects to improve, and when asked about the situation, Nintendo reaffirmed their commitment behind the studio, and one of Retro’s ex-employees had glowing comments about the reassigned people. “Some of the artists and programmers moved over were really good and should be able to help both projects quite a bit,” said our source. “And they know that they’re being watched and that Metroid has a huge following.” Nintendo is well aware of it too. In an interview with EGM, Nintendo Marketing Vice President George Harrison mentioned that “(Metroid) will have to go through Nintendo’s stringent ‘Mario Club’ testers before it hits the market” and added, “it will not be released until it’s as good as it needs to be.” Retro Studios refused comment. With the project’s newfound reinforcements, and a little luck, there’s still hope that Metroid can meet fans’ lofty expectations, despite the bumpy road Retro has traveled thus far. “I think maybe [Retro] is an untested studio, but not untested individuals,” said Harrison. “The track record of some of the people in the studio is very attractive to us.” And now Samus will put that very record to the test. —Kraig Kujawa tt es Sponsored by the Lorillard Tobacco Company's Youth Smoking Prevention Program. www.buttoutnow.com © Lorillard 2000 DEVELOPER PROFILE Developer Profile: Melbourne House Year founded: 1980 Location: Melbourne, Australia Web site: www.melbournehouse.com # of people: 100 Wovs= our nem PANEOS Meros S Previous games: The Hobbit (C64), Way of the Exploding Fist (C64), Usagi Yojimbo (C64), Star Wars (NES), Hunt For Red October (GB), Shadowrun (SNES), True Lies (SNES), KKND (PC), Dethkarz (PC), GPs500 (PC), Looney Tunes: Space Race (DC), Test Drive Le Mans (DC). Current project(s): Le Mans 24 Hours (PS2), and a few other things... During late-night programming sessions ~ we: Often head down to 7-11 for slurpees. Our favorite game to play in the office (not by us) is: Counterstrike, Quake II, Virtua Fighter 2. Favorite snack food(s): Either pizza or Nandos chicken burgers. Music that inspires us around the office: Everyone likes different stuff, so we have Herbie Hancock and Moby battling it out with Rancid and Bolt Thrower. Story behind our name: Hmmm, we’re in Melbourne, and we’re a software development group...seriously though, we were originally called Beam Software and our publishing arm was Melbourne House. We were Beam Software for almost 20 years until we became part of the Infogrames group, at which point we were renamed Melbourne House. Want to cover any other racing genres? How many Formula 1 or rally games do we really need? The beauty of sportscar racing is that there are huge differences in the characteristics of cars that compete in races. You have your massively powerful prototypes racing against Vipers and 911s. With our current technology we could doa great GT-style game in terms of car collection and tuning of the game. ioe rises from the ashes Feel that modern games lack the passion of yesteryear? Then you may have something in common with Lars Batista and Sean Vesce. These two accomplished designers (MechWarrior 2, Interstate ’76) decided to take matters into their own hands and bring retro- gaming to the next level—by raising an entire company from the dead. “At one point | was getting so frustrated with the direction that the industry was taking that | realized there weren’t any companies | wanted to give my blood and sweat to,” Batista told us. So instead, he and Sean left their jobs to resurrect one. “We always believed that Cinemaware, as our favorite games developer, had died too soon (1991). The new platforms coming into the market (PS2, Xbox) gave us a good opportunity to show off what these games were all about.” So in late 1999, after the rights and licenses to its 11 titles were obtained, Cinemaware was reborn in Burlingame, Calif., with Batista as Cinemaware’s first title in a decade will be Defender of the Crown for Xbox and PS2. 32 | © NES: Defender a of the C pee The Three Stooges, Rocket Ranger | | _ © SUPER NES: Wings 2: Aces High (this was done by Acme interactive, founded by Cinemaware veterans.) ¢ NEC TurboGrafx 16: Lords of the Rising Sun, TV Sports _ Football, TV Sports Hockey, It Came from the Desert. ¢ Philips CDi: Lords of the Rising Sun, Defender of the Crown _ © Genesis: It Came from the Desert (this was a REALLY bad port hey sae a Bp neatert) RevenaNs as A= =naeiael) CEO. With only 10 employees on its payroll, this developer is as grassroots as it gets. The Staff is small, but they’ve got additional help from two members of the original Cinemaware team, hired as consultants “in order to make Sure we are following the right footsteps,” according to Batista. Their flagship title, Defender of the Crown, is fitting as it was the game that put the original company on the map. By bringing it to Xbox and PS2, they hope to avoid the fatal mistake that a decade ago doomed their predecessor, which put its product on niche platforms such as the Amiga and the TurboGrafx-16. Now they will “be able to realize many of the things that were only dreamt about back then,” Batista surmised. A remake of The Three Stooges, a comedy-driven action game, is also well under way for the GBC and GBA, as is Wings, a World War II action-flight title for the GBA. Both of them have been upgraded over their Amiga predecessors, and it’s a novelty to see a game once heralded as state-of-the-art now running seamlessly on a handheld. Since announcing their first game in November of last year, Cinemaware’s Web site has logged over 4.5 million hits, and 11,000 users have signed up to play free Java mock- ups of their classics and access their archives. This groundswell of support hasn’t gone unnoticed. “We are definitely aware of the expectations,” says Batista. “We know this is a big challenge, because in essence we are competing with people’s fond memories of these games, and that is a tall order.” —Kraig Kujawa al int H i Point Blank® 3 and @ f you’re a hardcore gamer, chances are you also like to play with dolls—or “action figures,” sorry. At the International Toy Far 2001, we caught a look at some of the polygon heroes and villains you'll soon be seeing soon: Bandai Bandai’s lineup of Final Fantasy figures will continue this year, not only with the FFIX figures that are already in stores but with FFX figures too. They had prototype figures for Tidus (with his water sword) and Yuna, which will be available simultaneously with the game’s release. The company’s also doing a full line of figures and vehicles for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which hits theaters July 13. Palisades Marketing Already available are Palisades’ House of the Dead (series two on the way) and Mortal Kombat figures (and they’re looking nice). Out soon will be Space Channel 5 figures of Ulala, Pudding, Space Dancin’ Ulala and Evila. They’ve also got 12-inch action figures, vinyl and resin statues of Resident Evil series characters like Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, Nemesis and the various zombies from the games. Twelve-inch figures, mini-resin busts and resin statues of characters from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within are also scheduled to hit the market around the time of the film’s release. Final Fantasy IX Bandai’s Final Fantasy Movie figures. ] = : me > x prwetires it Acero _ McFarlane Toys couldn’t show us all of their planned figures for Metal Gear Solid 2, but they did show _ silhouettes of two figures, known only as _ “operatives.” Their identities will be revealed closer | to the game’s release. aoe a ctr eben RRA GA ae eee aes cesnanDMAORARONNN ene = Solid Snake, Revolver Ocelot and Olga MGS2 figures are coming from McFarlane Toys. characters will be available in Vinyl statue form later this year as well. For more info, visit www.palisadestoys.com. ReSaurus A third series of Street Fighter II figures will head to stores in the second half of this year, including Guile, Dan, Ibuki, M. Bison and Dhalsim. The fourth series will follow, with the new versions of Ryu & Ken based on Third Strike. Tenth Anniversary Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Adventure 2 figures will be released around the same time. Blue Box Toys Characters from Sony’s Dark Cloud, Devil King and |, Eidos’ Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (including figures of a pre-fallen Raziel, Raziel and Kain), and SNK’s King of Fighters 2001 (Mai, Kyo, lori among them) make up Blue Box’s video- game toy lineup. Manley Toy Quest Manley has a Ready 2 Rumble Round 2 interactive boxing ring ready to go for later this year. It’s similar to Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, but you use a boxing glove to wirelessly control your fighter’s actions. McFarlane Toys After the excellent job they did with the first game’s figures, McFarlane Toys is bringing out a series for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The six figures include Solid Snake, Revolver Ocelot and Olga. Three additional characters will be revealed closer to the game’s release. Each of the six figures will come with a piece of a smaller Metal Gear Ray. om Bi Playmates In addition to all their great new Simpsons figures (and wow are there a lot of those to go broke on), Playmates nabbed the action figure license for Tomb Raider The Movie. At least four different styles of Lara Croft will be available (each with an arsenal of weapons), along with robot and Mayan statue enemies. it How are you gentlemen!! All your base are belong to us! You are on the way to destruction! You have no chance to survive make your time! Ha ha ha ha! http: //www.overclocked.org/zerowing.mov First Online RPG for Xbox Chicago-based Epix Interactive is developing a massively multiplayer online RPG for the Xbox entitled Fate. “Since it’s a fairly new genre to console gamers, q we’re definitely keeping their needs and expectations in mind,” says lead designer Jeremiah Slaczka. Epix added that Fate will feature several mini- games in addition to its primary adventure, and is currently slated for a late 2002 release. Flex Backs MTV Music Generator 2.0 Codemasters has signed renowned D] Funkmaster Flex to endorse their first PS2 installment of Music Generator. “It’s exciting to be part of something where everyone can make hot, studio-quality tracks,” Flex says. Flex is probably best known for his work as a DJ on MTV, but has worn many different hats in the hip-hop community to date, including producing records and running his own label. MTV Music Generator 2.0 comes to stores in April. Survivor on PS2 Reports that a Survivor game for the PS2 and possibly other next-generation consoles have surfaced this month. Though we can only guess who'll be stepping up to release the game at this point, those of you familiar with the board game (that’s all of you, right?) should expect it to play something like that. The only question that remains is, for the love of God, why? Pack up your stuff, Infogrames is inviting you to become a Survivor on PS2. Activision to Release Pro Surfing Title Eight surfing pros have been enlisted to appear in Activision’s Q4 PS2 release, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer. Lisa Andersen, Tom Carroll, Tom Curren, Nathan Fletcher, Bruce Irons, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Donavon Frankenreiter have all signed on to the game, which aims to encapsulate the look, Styles and culture of each Surfer. Using a specialized wave engine, Pro Surfer should maintain a realistic feel as it simulates several Surfing hot spots around the globe. Acclaim Does Sega for UK Acclaim has not yet confirmed their porting Crazy Taxi and 18 Wheeler to PS2 for the U.S., but a spokesperson did confirm the two titles for the European market. We imagine an announcement for the U.S. release is just around the corner. @9) Oo Sega Toys to Make Robotic Humanoid Perhaps taking a cue from the popularity of the Robotic Dog, Sega Toys Ltd. will begin making humanoid versions in Japan come this May. Three models, the M-Bot, C-Bot and W- Bot, will range in price from 1900-4000 yen, and stand less than a foot tall. Similar to Sega’s recent robotic wonder dog “Poo-chi,” these bots will have a limited range of motion, from simple limb movements to walking and dancing. They’ll be able to show facial expressions and display messages on an LCD, as well. Sega Toys hopes to move a total of 1.5 million units by the holidays, and if the Furby taught us anything, it’s more than likely. TECINO 00% sames o=i-=a ‘Eon loialavalatairaien | L aa i i +f ly =paq $523 eee ioe oer | & . fe a * 24a8 (SS : ‘i r, ¥ wd by “ x. iP « # GER PTE GING GER GHEE eG ED _ Import Pick of the Month: Konami’s | latest Castlevania series game, _ Akumajou Dracula: Circle of the Moon for Game Boy Advance. PlayStation 3/29 Beatmania: The Sound of Tokyo, Konami (Music) Ganbare Goemon, Konami (Action) Techno Bi Bi, Konami (Puzzle) Time Crisis Project Titan, Namco (Shooting) | 3/29 | 4/26 4/26 _ PlayStation 2 3/22 Bio Hazard Code Veronica Complete, Capcom (Action) Super Galdelic Hour, Enix (Misc.) Kessen Il, Koei (Strategy) Gallop Racer V, Tecmo (Racing) Gran Turismo 3 A-spec, Sony CEl (Racing) Guitaro Man One, Koei (Misc.) | 3/29 | 3/29 | 3/29 | April | April _ Dreamcast | 3/22 Bio Hazard Code Veronica Complete, Capcom (Action) | 3/22 Sakura Taisen 3, Sega (RPG) | 3/29 Sega Gaga, Sega (Simulation) | 4/12 Sports Jam, Sega (Sports) | 4/19 Neon Genesis Evangelion Typing Challenge, Gainax (Typing) Game Boy Advance 3/21 Akumajou Dracula: Circle of the Moon, Konami (Action) F-Zero For Game Boy Advance, Nintendo (Racing) Konami Wai Wai Racing, Konami (Racing) Kuru Kuru Kururin, Nintendo (Puzzle) Mario Advance, Nintendo (Action) Napoleon, Nintendo (Strategy) Rockman EXE, Capcom (Action) 3/21 3/21 | 3/21 | 3/21 | 3/21 | 3/24 - *Schedule subject to change without notice. Consult your local import game store for the latest release information. “| am a lawyer who represents the parents of the three girls shot and killed in Paducah Kentucky by a video gamer trained to kill efficiently by the hyperviolent games he played.” —Attorney Jack Thompson, from Brill’s Content | i ee aa eae ee ae cn AND ULTRAVIOLENCE Apparently the military is missing out on some great, inexpensive | training for its troops. It’s a sad day when an individual can make a painfully far-fetched statement like this, conjure a case around it, and watch it get accepted by a public who prefers an arbitrary scapegoat to the reality that they’ve done a poor job of raising their own children. Take heart, gamers, and ponder this instead: | http://www.theonion.com/onion3707/video_game_ violence. htmt ARCANE URI SHR RRR RN RRAR BEBO ARENA BIRR AE NARS RBRREAERIBRIL RS BNACARSAB DNS ERESAAASSASE NDAD AACA SABBSALD! COBBBMNBN SOMBRERO ANN BASLE SINEAD ENE SPESSSAALESE SEEN DDN DEEN LESSENS BLISEIAEOE ISIE BARE SLID SNES SDSL RBDENODDBENDE SEA DDSESAS Quartermann - Game Gossip) & Speculation elcome to my nightmare, gossip- hounds! As yours truly puts fingers to keyboard, we’re but days away from the Game Boy Advance launch in Japan. Can you smell that? It’s smoke, cuz this baby’s red hot! ...Soul Calibur 2 wasn’t at the recent AOU Show in Tokyo, but rest assured friends, it is on its way. We may start seeing the first information on it this fall, followed by a Japanese release in the arcades ‘round wintertime, and finally, a PS2 version. |t’s been too long since The Q has gotten his Soul Cali on...Speaking of arcade troubles, Midway’s just shut down their arcade business, moving existing teams to next-generation console games. It goes without saying then that Mortal Kombat 5 will never hit arcades. Fatality! Twisted Metal Black for PS one is more of a “kiddie” title with superdeformed racers...cool! ...We’ve already seen Shadow, the new “dark Sonic” from Sonic Adventure 2. But here’s a spy picture | was able to smuggle out of Gotham of a female bat that will show up in the game, aptly named Rouge (at right)... ... Sony’s. got a new Warhawk game for PS2 coming...cCome on beybee!...Also coming very soon from Sony is a futuristic bike racing title called Kinetica...Pokémon Online? That’d be a Surefire way to sneak GameCube into the homes of unsuspecting GBA owners, don’t you think? Thought so. Speaking of GameCube, word is Rare’s at work on about a half dozen projects for GC right now. Add to the roster two new additions—Conker's Other Bad Day and Grabbed by the Ghoulies...Ghoulies another “adult” game? In England, ghoulies is another word for the “berries” as in “twig and berries.” As in...oh my. Hmm, this was a short month. Remember to send all your love, hate and rumors to quartermann@ziffdavis.com —see ya! THE VIEW FROM JAPAN To coincide with our AOU coverage, | thought I’d spend a little time in this month’s column talking about the current Japanese arcade market. | According to the : ty numbers compiled by = m@@ &. Japan's arcade industry trade organization, Sales have shrunk two Straight years in a row, and that trend is expected to continue this year. Even without seeing these numbers, you can tell the industry is suffering because you'll see an arcade close down every now and then. Aside from a long, dragged-out economic slump, some people say the industry is hurting because of a lack of hit titles. Others say it’s because game consoles are more powerful than arcade machines. Once- popular Print Club (remember that fad?) and crane games/UFO caches are past their prime. Music/rhythm games like Konami's Dance Dance Revolution are still relatively popular, but only with hardcore fans. How many people will still enjoy those games after there have been five or six sequels in just a few year’s time? Whatever the reasons are, one thing is for sure: People don’t play video games at arcades as much as they used to. In order to drum up gamer enthusiasm and hopefully prop up the ailing industry, several companies made big announcements in February aimed at generating excitement. First of all, two arcade giants, Sega and Namco, announced that they’ll work together on the distribution of new arcade games — Vampire Night being the first (which uses Namco’s System 246 PS2 arcade board). Speaking of PS2, Sony CEI announced that they would join forces with Sega and Namco to develop new broadband arcade architecture for amusement centers nationwide. Sega’s also developing a cell phone link-up for Virtua Fighter 4. What purpose that'll serve remains a mystery. Many people in this industry hope that Sega will be able to deliver the goods. Even though Sega has stepped down from the home-console hardware market, the company will take a major role in the arcade market. After all, that’s been Sega’s biggest Strength for many years. | —Yutaka Ohbuchi kest Way To 1C The Qu s Heart... t Gian A April GameBoy Color Batman Racing —Ubi Soft Racing Frisbee Golf—Vatical Entertainment Sports Hercules —Titus Action High Heat Baseball 2002—3DO Sports Jimmy White’s Cue Ball—Vatical Ent. Sports Land Before Time, The—Natsume Action Monster Force— Konami Action Return of the Ninja— Natsume Action SeaDoo Hydrocross 2001—Vatical Ent. Racing Snoopy Tennis—Infogrames Sports Trouballs —Capcom Puzzle Ultimate Surfing— Natsume Sports VR Powerboat Racing —Vatical Ent. Racing PlayStation Blast Lacrosse—Acclaim Sports Blaster Master —Sunsoft Adventure Deep Sea Fishing—Acclaim Sports Digimon World 2—Bandai RPG WDL War Jetz—3DO0O Action Kasparov Chess — Interplay Misc. PlayStation 2 Cool Boarders 2001—Sony CEA Sports Crazy Taxi—Acclaim Action Roadster Trophy —Titus Racing Super Bombad Racing—LucasArts Action Supercar Street Challenge—Activision Racing Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero—Crave Ent. Racing Twisted Metal Black— Sony CEA Action —— Dr. Mario 64—Nintendo Puzzle SeaDoo Hydrocross 2001—Vatical Ent. Racing VR Powerboat Racing—Vatical Ent. Action Dreamcast 18 Wheeler— Sega Racing Exhibition of Speed —Titus Racing Half —Life—Sierra Action Mars Matrix— Capcom Action Stupid Invaders — Ubi Soft Adventure Woody Woodpecker Racing—Konami_ Racing May GameBoy Color Kirby Tilt n’ Tumble— Nintendo Misc. Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX—Activision Sports Max Steel — Mattel Action Portal Runner—3DO Action Razor Freestyle Scooter—Crave Ent. Sports Xena—Titus Action PlayStation Batman: Gotham City Racer—Ubi Soft Racing Inspector Gadget —Infogrames Action Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX—Activision Sports NASCAR Racers— Hasbro Racing Ronaldo V Soccer—Infogrames Sports Roswell Conspiracies— Red Storm Adventure SeaDoo Hydrocross 2001—Vatical Ent. Racing Sheep Dog & Wolf—Infogrames Action PlayStation 2 Champs F1 Racing— Bam! Racing Commandos 2—Eidos Action Dark Cloud—Sony CEA RPG Gauntlet: Dark Legacy — Midway Action Giants: Citizen Kabuto—Interplay Adventure Gundam: Journey to Jaburo—Bandai Action Herdy Gerdy— Eidos Adventure Jungle Book R&G— Ubi Soft Misc. Paris Dakar Rally—Acclaim Racing Portal Runner—3DO Adventure Project Eden—Eidos Action/Strategy Red Faction—THQ Action Soul Reaver 2— Eidos Adventure Ultimate Sky Surfer—Crave Ent. Action WDL War Jetz—3D0 Action Nintendo 64 Mario Party 3— Nintendo Misc. Dreamcast Armada II: Exodus — Metro3D Strategy Commandos 2—Eidos Action Conflict Zone—Ubi Soft Action Crazy Taxi 2—Sega Action Dark Angel— Metro3D Action Dragon Riders— Ubi Soft Adventure Floigan Bros.—Sega Adventure Gorka Morka—Ripcord Action Legend of the Blade Masters—Ripcord Action Ooga Booga—Sega Strategy Shrapnel: Urban Warfare —Ripcord Action Soldier of Fortune—Crave Ent. Action Sonic Adventure 2— Sega Adventure Compiled By Jonathan Dudiak jonathan dudlak@ziffdavis.com PORN OPPOSITE IES TTT ITE eT UR PEYOTE EIFS ES PE TD AERP SOUS Soul Reaver 2— Eidos Adventure June —— Alone inthe Dark 4—Infogrames Adventure Arc the Lad Collection— Working Designs RPG Playmobil Hype—Ubi Soft Action Rayman 2: Back to School—Ubi Soft Action Time Crisis: Project Titan — Namco VIP—Ubi Soft Action PlayStation 2 Shooting 18 Wheeler—Acclaim Action Barbarian—Interplay Action Bloody Roar 3— Interplay Fighting Cart Fury— Midway Racing Clive Barker’s Undying—EA Adventure Dinosaur —Ubi Soft Action Ephemeral Fantasia— Konami RPG Fa Racing Championship — Ubi Soft Racing Gran Turismo 3: A-spec— Sony CEA Racing Ico—Sony CEA Adventure Le Mans 24 Hour Racing—Infogrames Racing Lotus Challenge—Interplay Racing Motor Mayhem—Infogrames Racing NASCAR Heat— Hasbro Racing Seven Blades — Konami Adventure Test Drive Off Road —Infogrames Racing Top Gun—Titus Action The World is Not Enough—EA Action Dreamcast Alone in the Dark 4—Infogrames Adventure Evil Twin— Ubi Soft Adventure Heroes of Might & Magic III—Ubi Soft RPG OutTrigger—Sega Action World Series Baseball 2K2—Sega Sports July — Digimon Card Battle — Bandai RPG ineiiiimmemtor ie ‘SMO Ss z Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 WWW interplay com for more info. F ; DIKTIHE MHYHEM STUDIOS BY GAMERS. FOR GAMERS.” Giants: Citizen Kabuto: Copyright 2000, 2001 by Planet Moon Studios. All Rights Reserved. Planet Moon and the Planet Moon logo are trademarks of Planet Moon Studios. Giants, Giants:Citizen Kabuto, Interplay, the Interplay logo, “By Gamers. For Gamers.”, Digital Mayhem and the Digital Mayhem logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. All Rights Reserved. Exclusively licensed and distributed by interplay Entertainment Corp. All other copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The Top 20 best-selling Games of January, 2001 secaaaclaadiiaaaeamaeaaniiaaatadammanenanmetaaneananmamnenmemmtmmmammenamarmanmnmmmmassmmmmnmtantcscansnence Ass Bents 1- Pokemon Silver Bi 2! There hasn’t been one month since Gold & Silver hit stores that 8. a | 9. 0 43 @ eg they haven’t occupied the top two | “mak | ‘Chris sg! sales slots. Some cynics may say bth Poké-fever is dying, but you’d 8 5 have a hard time convincing | at | | Stispin place to go is down. Not surprisingly, Nintendo’s other Pokémon game has only swapped ue NBA Live 2001 ew | Peat cli , mm Wow! The highest debut of a PS2 mh aa By title since its release comes from | 8 7 f¢ Electronic Arts. NBA also marks Kraig | Dean live up to its potential? Deas | The only PS2 mainstay on the bellyaching about shipping more 9 | Maddens than there were systems | : during the botched launch. Bn | Nintendo of that. 8.59.0 positions with its counterpart. It 4 the first PS2 game to ever crack _ — charts finally claws its way into 0 - WWE SmackDown! 2 zy 2 - Pokemon Gold Mark Chris gets tough to write about these the top five. Could this mean the _the top 5. Electronic Arts must be The game isn’t finished quite yet, | 8.0 Got CHIKORITA? | i When your're at the top, the only games month in and month out. me] | 7 #5) PS2 market is finally starting to | | | pretty happy, even despite their as THQ’s PS one brawler stubbornly holds onto fifth place m in January. We can smell it. i wrestling fans tighter than a crippler crossface. ia. | AST ONTH Driver 2 ) Infogrames 1) Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 7 Activision | fork ion on scinieniamemanieatens Nintendo — Final Fantasy 1) XK _ Square Electronic Arts | tast Monte Electronic Gaming Monthly legend of Zelda: MajoraS Mask = Nintendo 11 Mario Tennis Nintendo Fra on ? Sony CEA | 13 Madden NFL 2001. Electronic Arts Super Smash Brothers a Tony Hawks Pro Skater Activision 16 | The World Is Not Emeat - Electronic Arts _ 1% : 18 Tekken 3 SSX Electronic Arts | 2 Driver | GT Interactive niesibbenes eneiimenne eunsenvenencsenens wen Source: NPD TRSTS Video Games Service. Call Kristin Barnett-von Korff at (516) 625-2481 for questions regarding this list. Top 5 game descriptions written by the EGM staff. Onimusha Warlords : Capcom ee Pokémon Crystal Nintendo Yugio Duel Monsters 4 Ronnent Donkey Kong 200 7001 Hipgendo El BANANAS It’s no Surprise to see Dragon Quest II| near the top of the list considering the GBC and PS2 ie currently own the Japanese sales charts. | E | | | | | Aan 20 RCOBOODORS Kikou-Heidan J-PHOENIX Takara ECCI OEE EE EAE EAE EERE ERA E LASER AAERRH Dragon Quest Ill Enix RRA AN RNID POA DOAN A SRA RAE ARR RISN RAR SANA SAAN ARRON DNR RIE Hajime no Ippo ESP ‘Headed Seach ences 1 4 us wall | 5 2 | | | i ‘ Ji d i ‘ ee — 4 : i 9 Pokémon Stadivre nile rl Even with the announcement of Disadions y Dreamcast’s demise, Sega’s | gen a ie lkecin j Hundred Swords is still selling CRI » wellin Japan. Check out our : i Srriemar apa eae preview on page 45. ‘Weekly F Famitsu, u, week € ending 2/18/2001 Eno | scatahasanantiakansdtaneiaanabhsasamakebaabasasniemamaoanatanommemmaneaammmonareemmmmanniteoecuieticasrie ore www. koeigames.com = = ¢ apuony pres | ifeljeyiejsir| clijye (2 Center. In just-3 hour Sethe high -feon WEADUNS Saleune willlstabe = | again. It's yourgtb ToNfabesuregiansugesn t. _ oS istered trademarks of Sony CoMiputer.Enteftainment Inc. The ratings icon is a tradéifiagh.Of the Int@rarngeemigital solivae ASSOCiation, TV al TMS 7 3lexplosive stages with 3 different endings <> 4-Player Deathmatch with 28 playable characters : $e 000 KOEI Corporation. All rights reserved. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family lago are reg 9 4 Ltd \7 Precision laser-sighting aiming mechanism 2 1 and 2-Player,“BOT" modes Animated Violence sn PlayStation.c WINBACK is a trademark of KOEI Corporation and KOE! Co g": gr’ ’ $r" IN OUR LAST EXCITING EPISODE, HSU AND CHAN WERE TOSSING WATER BALLOONS AT PEDESTRIANS WSO — CHAO wis net “DER WHEN A TERMINATERESQUE ROBOT SHowED UP AND TRIED To kit THEM, WHICH THEY NARROWLY “BACKSTORY!” PNOIDED BY FIRING A CHIPMUNK FROM A POTATO CANNON, AT WHICH POINT NONE OTHER THAN THE we LONG-MISSING SUSHI-x SHOWED UP, AND... AND. Tris ISNT MAKING ANW SENSE, 15 IT? - | HE SUSHI SAGA! A ¢ es, 7 & 68, { ( a3 ooo Cat i: DUST GO ORDER A BacK 1SS0E e e Ae SORRY, STILL 7 WE BOUGHT THE SORELY You RecoGNnizé THE SuREYoU SUSHI-X! WISAGE OF... YOUR OLD BROTHER NOT RINGING THIS ISN'T HOUSE FROM A IN ARMS! A BELL. THe Foust . / RESIDENCE, TED Fus! AND YEARS AGO, EVER ONE OF US SHOULD NEED THE OTHER, WE HAD BUT To CALL THEY LIVE IN TAMPA NOW- YVE SPENT THE LAST SEVEN WEEKS TRACKING You Down --£ THE WORLD IS \N GREAT DANGER !! VY ALL STARTED ABouT A Year AND AHALF AGO... 1 WAS A WINTA EDITOR, STEALTH FULLY REVIEWING VIDEO GAMES IW THE GooD HEAVENS, MAN! NOT ON OUR GOOP CARPET! NOW TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON! YOU GUYS HAVE ANY RITUAL KNIVES? HaAYE To Go commit SEPPUKYU. Sa, uM... WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THIS ROgoT GUY? HY Dr , papal sn mere ANCIENT, TRADITIONAL MANNER ,.. CHECK THE wae HE WASNT HALL 2? AFTER You, HE AS | Look BACK, THE WORLD CLOSET WAS AFTER SEEMED A BRIGHTER PLACE THEN... THE HOUSE. A KISS BYE, LUNCH EVERY DAY... You SuSsT GOT isi 1TS WAY... Ke 4 HEY CAN ONE OF Pam] |= YOUSPARE AMUNUTE? an eee bic Se 7 Og ta |NEED SOMEBODY Ta ee ie ; CHOP OFF MY HEAD. THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED... You za 1 Tv SEEMS THAT THos REMEMBER THaT Movie “CLOAK AND AT THOSE WHO HAD DONE THIS HAD FiGURED ATIC Sorin (Y/ Fus wasan SOIMPORTANT 7 TOLD ME HE HAD Some SORT OF ELECT ROMAGNET I< DiIskUPTOR STORED AwAY WERE... THERE BEFORE ME WAS SPELLED OUT THEIR ENTIRE PLAN OF WORLD DOMINATION BY USE OF HUMANOID ROBOTS! DAGGER.” WHERE SECRET PLANS WERE NOBODY 'D BOTHER PLAYING HIDDEN IN A GAME CARTRIDGE? 1 WAS A GAME THAT BORING FOR HANDED A TAMPERED Copy OF ONE OF THOSE MORE THAN HALE AN HOUR. | RAMPAGE” REMAKES THEY WERE RELEASING AY A RATE OF ONE PER WEEK BACK THEN... | WAS TORN BETWEEN MY DUTY TO THe MAGAZINE AND WHAT 1 KNEW WAS... HOLD tT-- ‘ THEIR ENTIRE PLAN 1S TO TAKE OvEeR THE WORLD WITH ROBOTS ?! (t's A SHORT Comic. LAT OFF. THEY HADN T FIGURED ON GAME RENIEWERS ! | BUT THAT WAS YEARS AGO- HE PROBABLY TOOK IT WITH HIM WHEN HE MOVED, AND BY THE TIME WE TRACK HIM Dow, (Tk BE TOO LATE! ITS HOPELE:: NOw THAT WE HAVE IT, WE NOW-- To : ACTUALLY, WE'RE