NINTENDO SEGA PLAYSTATION PC MAC ARCADE INI mewwmef t Microsoft (ntcrosof* icrosoit.com/games/ ©1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft is a registered trademark Storm HP 9725 Inc468 //, /*T\ XJ HERE'S THE DEAL.I e? TAKE YOUR OLD JOYSTICK, GAME PAD OR MOUSE TO ANY LEADING COMPUTER RETAILER AND YOU'LL GET UP TO $40 OFF THE LATEST EQUIVALENT MICROSOFT HARDWARE.’ I ANY MAKE OR MODEL. ANY CONDITION, FOR A SHORT TIME YOU CAN REPLACE IT FOR A WICKED PRICE. BUT DO IT NOW, ‘CAUSE THIS OFFER IS ONLY FOR A LIMITED TIME. THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO MAKE A KILLING ON SOME BRAND NEW MICROSOFT HARDWARE. _ RilJfil Trade in any like for Ike product and save up to $40 on the estimated retail price. fT v ~'F MICROSOFT SIDEWINDERS STANOARO ■ Designed for all Windows* and MS-DOS* based games. • High-speed throttle precision. • Maximum control in the fastest games. Microsoft Microsoft sidewinder I Microsoft Sidewinder 3D pro 30 PRO WITH HELLSENOER | SIDEWINDER DAME PAD Includes Game Microsoft sidewinder gamepad * SEGA YIRTUA FIGHTER ■■■ MICROSOFT ERGONOMIC MOUSE 1 Digital-optical joystick with throttle control, multiway hat switch and 3D rotation. • Gives you the precise control and agility you need to win. • The perfect bundle of Sci-fi action-shooter adventure with digital precision and deadly accuracy. • The ultimate experience in full-on air combat. 1 Amazingly comfortable and durable design. 1 Advanced programmability. 1 Full-function multipad gaming puts you way ahead in the PC arms race. • The ultimate games package. ■ One on one 3D action fighting game. • Absolute victory - total control. • Award winning comfort and reliability. • Enhanced support for ergonomic comfort • New innovative software, adds extra productivity. A In terms of performance and number and quality of games, no other video games system comes close to this powerful CD based giant, it delivers arcade perfect games, CD quality sound, fast high resolution graphics and over 200 games. OVER 200 GAMES FOR THE ULTIMATE GAMES SYSTEM DESTRUCTION DERBY 2 TOBAL NO I FORMULA I A true 3D beat‘em up that includes the revolutionary quest mode. The sequel to the all time favourite that was the first to blow console gamers away. DD2 is better. FINAL DOOM CRASH BANDICOOT TEKKEN 2 The ultimate DOOM experience.You’ll need a PLAYSTATION Mouse to get through this alive. A 3D platform that is extremely addictive and graphically beautiful, CRASH BANDICOOT takes you on a wacky adventure. A proven favourite in the fighting genre - Tekken 2 is a MUST for your collection. RESIDENT EVIL WIPEOUT 2097 TOTAL NBA‘96 A hammy horror game with lots of blood - exclusively for PLAYSTATION BB The original was fast, S! WIPEOUT 2097 is fe twice the speed and ultimately a more I satisfying game. The I st release from the internal Sony team revolutionised this genre to a new standard. OVER $10 000 MEGA FILTHY PRIZES YeHcken ESPN EXTREME GAMES RIDGE RACER Race through urban streets and rural scenery on rollerblades, skateboard, mountain bike or street luge. BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN AIR COMBAT MORTAL KOMBAT 3 An excellent fighter from Takara with excellent graphics and gameplay. A flight sim with stunning graphics and addictive gameplay. The arcade favourite perfectly converted to the PLAYSTATION. A must for MK fans! CLASSIFICATIONS ARE: f Tobal no I • MIS+Medwm Lev«l Animated Viotance. D«trucoon Derby 2-G.Formub l-G.FINAL DOOM-MAI5+ High Level AnimatedViolence. Crash Bandit oot-G, Tekken 2-MI5+ Medium Level Animated Violence. Resident £vil-MAI5* Medium Level Animated Violence. Wipeout 2097-G. Ridge Racer Revolutxxv-G, Total NBA .96-G. Coof Boarders-G. Twisted Metal2-G8+ Low Level Animated Violence. Jet Rider-G. 2Xtreme-Ga* Low Level Animated Violence. Ridge Racer-G.Tekken M15*Medium Level Animated Violence. Battle Arena Toshinden-M 15+ Medium Level Animated Violence, Moral Kombat 3-MISMedium Level Animated Violence, ESPN Extreme Games-G8* Low Level Animated Violence. Air Combat-G8 Low Level Animated Violence. The PiaySlatlon end BAVDFCOOT BOARDERS TWISTED METAL 2 JET RIDER TVTeT5L~> Road Ra * e 1,1 . 2XTREME Wicked game to test your snowboarding skills on. Fast, stylin. cool fun! An all terrain Jet Ski takes you on a James Bond-like adventure - chicks not included! Choose your equipment - rollerblades. Mountain Bike. Skateboard. Snow Board and race through wicked locations from around the world! PlayStation An arcade quality .. The 1 st racing game ♦ \ - fighting game that was released on t "> 4 * . » earn - ' )t deemed the best of PLAYSTATION is a it’s class. . nrirrr.- direct conversion from the arcade machine. 1 * 3- r ^/.tCI3IL»a ■jh ;fr* 1 sK* M , \ 4 4 4* r r r t ■ jr K "* r ^ If ■ t n r i [g/JP Iffj3P 4 u ■ j ± ^ 4 Wr j|Ep +- f* f WjrWjt'j* v9Ud)^S t H f h#j ft ♦ t» *> 4- 4 - J _ *%V «|f |T 4 H r i f f ^4- 4** ’ill. jrpgjKjpM r 4 Jj 4 » 41 4. #£jg 4t 4 4T 4* |ff J* * frjjrj* Jp % a Ji BQOrjr> ** ' f HHjt tr 3 4 J** 4 I* n .. * .. t ^y LA.*/ IfcvSr 4 WW1 t r * ^ ,t t 4 .-Tityishcf^Hip Kelr - ./ 4 . ‘ . ^a' ■ fW’DaHoov ' i 1 4 ♦ ^j 4 * ihi (Un^or^atfc :* 4 f* :•;. * 8fpiIiyf(!iiiT (#qnie^iHNo T 4/,' T 4 • -I .! ♦ f" * (fttspT ^*4*1: Jaffa JMMfOGlF r y a . finffll^iij»ir!m:^j^K , \v # il < TTt^(/| , ^ ^dlicnij S^NfiKPnif Vlpvpliiisgn^ : C tfvrrthiRQti-iiuijsr li-ln JtaRhvDkZj y . .t jl 4> s • t 111 ■ 4drpfJi\lii^^>nr«i:ii:4nwjeti £ rtfiuft.uMliiiipna.HinfclniK^ it)H 15^ /ffllj* » 4 4 it ^Mlaimfi^wqpr: hiding " , & r rr 4 4 "^ ,4!yMifiMliW^hPaijjp * : Spt>\mp(ijit\: j{ithtIJiiic / Tmirlbdiirt; HioifKIi,Ma* Aulutovfa ^ * 4 y Niiwo lufey Wifidbyliffl iPyy. gj ft' t » Marrti tejnuk ijidT’frlfnUk r * V*!-' 1 4 RK’ &rp^tifnWto ** ; , . u . . y* • '4 *%i “• Wnlwftiyr^iyip totour jT ^ 1 JLr ^piTdiinni fty. IV a Uvnw.u ^ I^ 4 |iiMu|)im«i!t»y \w k. ! , )}9‘)li j. ^ " Wl loivyriQhfv rp\frypt! hy ^ > 4 ^4 j. ' KmPuWRte^Pirlid ' ^ . .,- r V i. 'V :‘ 4 wmiuflWrti * v 4 VV 4 • - - * •V* .VujwfcpmHilH^^i?^. 4 * r .^4 lax- W?i M I #5 ‘ . Vr‘ J 4l!ypf!hMlC : lifc?!JirHrt * J.. ~.. 'f vail;irpdj^rpop^pjft afo as art - r- (/> -o 9 3* O M IO 00 O w cu o ** £* a * M ft -► “ o. £ n J W 3 3 3 Z 3* q. ; »HYPER II c w s 00 £ Q. (D a X 3: Well, no doubt a bunch of .you are misting Stuart already, and are wondering what that evil Dan chap is going to do to HYPER? Well. I’m changing the scoring ... which lately has been getting a bit Silly, so check out my explanation on scoring and changes on this page so you know wot’s hot and wot’s not The biggest news this issue is that within a tew weeks , the Nintendo 64 will finally make its way to the shelves and the next generation console war will be in full swing. We’ve got a news page on what’s available for the Nintendo 64, with some specs. and a list of titles in development for the new system. We’ve got reviews for Wave Race, Pilot Wings and of course the long awaited Super Mario 64 Sega’s two arcade gems. Virtual On and Virtua Cop 2 have made it to Saturn. and are both very spifty titles indeed. PlayStation owners who liked the look of Wave Race have something to cheer about, with the arrival of Jet Moto. There’s something to dribble over for the sports fans, as we put NBA Live 97, and NBA Jam Extreme through their paces. We also have a preview of Namco’s Soul Blade far the PSX, which looks very impressive indeed. We’ve also sat down, scratched cur heads, and come up with a PC & 3 2 bit Collectors guide, made up of our favourite games, check it out! It seems the PC games market has gone ape over fantasy stuff again. Diablo and Heroes of Might 6 Magic 2 should be more than enough to keep the fantasy freaks happy for a while. Heck, there’s something far everyone this month... so check cut my blurb on scoring, kick back, and enjoy! Dan What’s The Score? That’s the number at the end of each review, but that’s not important right now... Well, actually, it is important, and there’s been a bit of a change here at Hyper. When new systems come out, everyone gets all excited, and the first games on the new hardware tend to score very highly. The problem here is that when the next wave of games that come out that are even better than the last games that scored a high mark, it gets really hard to make it clear that the new game is b igher mark. The answer to this problem is simple... Hyper are going to be getting a little tougher on review scores from now on. The whole scale from 0 to 100 will be used, so a score of 50 is average, not bad. here’s a bit of a guide for you: 95+ : One of the best games of all time 90-94: Outstanding 80-89 : Very good 70-79 : Good 60-69: Above Average 50-59 : Average 40-49: Below Average 30-39: Bad 0-29 : Very smelly indeed The scores are a reflection of how good the game is considering the quality of games over the last couple of months. Remember, sometimes coming up with a score is tough, so read the review and the score so you get a better idea of what the reviewer really thought of the game. Next issue we’ll probably drop the Longterm score, since we really can’t do anything other than guess at what the longterm appeal of a game is, in the few days we get to spend on a game. Sure, we can get an idea, but to give that idea a numerical value is quite wishy washy. We will of course still talk about long term appeal in our reviews, so you’ll still know if a game is too short, or wears thin quickly, etc. We are probably also going to incorporate a new "Hard Core" factor, which will help you all know how much into the genre of a game you need to be to find the game appealing. Tetris for example is not hard core at all, since everyone can get a grasp of it straight away. AH64 Longbow, however, would have a high hard core factor, since you really would need to be into helicopter flight sims to appreciate it. Why these changes? I figured the most important thing about the review scores are how informative they are, and taking out a "predict the future” mark, and putting in some info on what sort of gamer the game is suited for is a good way to go about it. Other changes to Hyper are that we ll be too pages till further notice, which can only be a good thing, right? The preview section will be a bit bigger from now on. so you'll have a better idea of what’s coming up in the future. Lastly. I'm not going to print any more "my console is better than your console” letters after this issue, they're pathetic. If you're happy with your console, great. If you have a letter that is about console comparison that actually deals with facts and figures, and not just personal opinion about which games are better etc. then it might go in. For those dying to know what the editor of Hyper owns and plays. I own a P166. a Saturn, and a PlayStation... and before you can cry ”bias against Nintendo!” I'll probably get myself a N64 once my piggy bank fills up a bit more, and they're available. I'm concerned about games, not systems, j/ou don't play systems, you play games, enough of my rambling... indulge in the rest of this month’s Hyper! Competion Winners Tomb Raiaer Rachel Leigh(WA) Rita Skwarzow(VIC) Irene Saharov(NSW) Mitchell Sobol(NSW) Aurore Kham(VIC) Tunnel B1 M. Ward(QLD) Anmary Essex(NSW) Scott Goodall(WA) Simon Raditch (QLD) Jeremy Johns(VlC) The Crow Tom Walker(NSW) Michael Cambell(NSW) Veronica Kirkham(QLD) Samantha Hodgetts(TAS) Peta Cowan(NSW) Syndicate Wars Justin Qubrosi (VIC) C.P.(NSW) Josh Onikul(NSW) Daryl Brooks(NSW) Cary O’Sullivan(QLD) Chris Seeto(NSW) Neverhood Nathan Costello(QLD) Yen Ong(VIC) Kym Holmes(QLD) Paul Marciono(WA) Daniel Wong(QLD) Michael Metham(NZ) Stephen Bunt(NSW) Gavin Harriss(NSW) Errol Quitoriano(VlC) David Cinnamon(TAS Nascar Andrew Tate(QLD) Liam Hogan(NSW) Christina Schimming(QLD) lan Weier(QLD) Cameron Linton-Mann(NSW) Oliver Sheridan(TAS) Clinton Hines(QLD) Scott Bray(VlC) James M.(QLD) Broken Sword Peter Farrar(VIC) Chris Clarke(SA) James Brooker(SA) R Shaman(VIC) PSX Mouse Winner - M. Polglase(QLD) ETflMPIONsn? ifwm e rggi J22 B =tsfvEE fi] Ecj>] 10 »HYPER Mews i know about the finger Goose... Here’s your big chance to feel like Uncle Tom. InterAct are a new name in the world of PC peripherals and have entered the cluttered joystick market with a budget stick-throttle combination that gives the gamer almost as many buttons and knobs as the Thrustmaster system for around a quarter of the price. The Flight Force Pro joystick is your basic 'four buttons and a hat' number with a slightly unusual layout, all four buttons (There are actually five but the two smaller ones are situated to be used by either a right or left handed person) are positioned for thumb use only, no pinkies. The Flight Force Pro’s base is nice and heavy and has one big suction cup to hold it in place. The hat is a little far forward on the top of the stick though and would only be perfect for someone with long thumbs. To get the most out of the Flight Force Pro it must be combined with its sibling-the Flight Force fire control system, which gives the Thrustmaster WCS a decent shove because of its $89.95 price tag. The Flight Force FCS houses the throttle, five buttons and a hat all of which are fully programmable using the provided software. This is done very simply by hitting the keyboard key you wish to assign and then the button on the FCS that you want it to correspond to! The FCS also has the big suction cup to hold it firm and comes complete with all the cables and bits you need to get gaming. Unfortunately no Win95 drivers are supplied with these new toys which makes them unuseable for anything but DOS based games, hopefully this situation will be remedied by the time you’re reading this. FLIGHT FORCE FIRE CONTROL STYSTEM PLAYSTATION DUAL ANALOGUE CONTROLLER FLIGHT FORCE PRO JOYSTICK Yet another chance to feel like Uncle Tom, but this time for PSX owners. This one’s a mutant beast from hell, Sony’s new dual analogue controller thingy looks a lot like the front panel of an arcade tank game with two nicely weighted sticks of joy sitting side by side on a very large base. This gizmo is meant to be used as a single unit and even though it looks a little over the top it is very comfortable to use and provides excellent controll for all types of flying and driving games as well as a convenient weapon for subduing over boysterous siblings who insist on sticking their face in front of the TV while your playing. The two sticks each have four buttons and the right hand also has a four way hat to control cockpit views, rudders or whatever. Now Playstation owners can enjoy games with the sort of complexity only seen before on the PC and that can’t be a bad thing at all. hate it when that happens... i PADS ★ SEGA MEGA CD ★ SEGA MEGADRIVE ★ SEGA SATURN ★ S E G A 3 2 X ★ NINTENDO GAMEBOY ★ SUPER NINTEND ★ IBM C MAIL OKI)LIES FREE CALL 1800 801 047 (Orders only) MMEGAlpO KEGAISATURNI UP.ERVMIIMTEIMDO AME4B0Y 50%OFF ALL 3D0 TITLES LISTED INCLUDING SECOND HAND GREAT PRIZES ASK ABOUT OUR MONTHLY COMPETITIONS IBMGAIWV EOAIM EGjfVDR IV E ALSO BARGAIN 2nd HAND GAMES FOR ALL SYSTEMS THE FUTURE IS HERE UouM bue Oja Qtoiw PERTH LOCATIONS CANNINGTON 1/1236 Albany Hwy Tel: 09 451 1340 1N N A LOO 377 Scarborough Beach Road Tel: 09 445 7744 MORLEY 6a Progress Street Tel: 09 275 7700 MYAREE Unit 6 Marshall Road Tel: 09 330 8313 NORTHBRIDGE 94A Roe St Tel: 09 227 9991 ROCKINGHAM 2A Livingstone Road Tel: 09 592 8033 WOODVALE 923 Whitfords Ave Tel: 09 309 9627 COUNTRY LOCATIONS BUNBURY 22 Arthur Street Tel: 097 916 620 BUSINESS HOURS (WA) Mon-Frid 9am-6pm Sat 10am-4pm Sun 12pm*4 pm Some stores may operate extended trading hours Please call your local store to verify Franchise Stores available Australia Wide Ring 09 227 9991 and ask for Bruce for details TO TRADE: (Sega/Nintendo Cartridges, Saturn. Sony Or IBM CD Software) Perth customers • please call your nearest Hitech World (See below for phone and locations). 1 Mail order customers call (09)227 9991 for trade value 2. Use this value towards purchase of any thing we sell 3. Pack your software, with your name, address, phone number and software selection and mail to us 4. On receipt of your games, your order will be despatched TO BUY SOFTWARE Perth customers • please call your nearest Hitech World (See below for phone and locations). 1 Call Toll Free 1800 801 047 (Strictly orders only) 2. Credit card payments despatched same day. 3. Payment by cheque/money order must include name, phone, address, order. (Allow 7 days for cheque clearance) DELIVERY CHARGES Under $50 ($5) $50 to $100 ($2.50) Over $100 (free) Delivery usually 2 days by courier or registered mail. HARDWARE: Standard delivery charge will apply. OVERSEAS AIRMAIL DELIVERY: APPROX-SIO.OO POSTAL MAIL ORDER ADDRESS 94A Roe Street. NORTHBRIDGE WA 6003 SOFTWARE TRADE-IN QUOTES & QUERIES 1 Call (09)227 9991 Fax Orders: (09) 227 1114 Some items may not be available or be out ot stock at date oI printing No rainchecks on sale items. All software new & used carries a 30 day warranty Dealer enqutnes welcome We reserve 1t>e nght to refuse any sale or trade Prices sub|ect to change without notice Some items may not be available at some stores ★ Hundreds more titles available on all formats ★ Best prices ★ We trade & sell used Sega, Nintendo, Sony Playstation, 3DO & IBM CD ★ Hardware and accessories ★ Friendly service & expert advice ★ Toll free order line ★ Orders from New Zealand. Asia & the Pacific are welcome & delivered by air mail. TITLES ANDRETTI RACING. 49 95 AUSTRALIAN RUGBY LEAGUE 49 95 JOHN MADOEN 96 . 79.95 NBA LIVE '96 . 79 95 NEWMAN HAAS INDY CAR. 79.95 NHL HOCKEY 96 . 79.95 NHL HOCKEY *97 .. 79.95 SHANE WARNES CRICKET.99.95 SONIC 3. 69.95 SONIC COMPILATION. 69 95 SONIC & KNUCKLES. 69 95 SPOT GOES TO HOLLYWOOO 99 95 THEME PARK . 99.95 TOY STORY.. 99 95 WORMS .. 69.95 Call for any title not listed SHINING WISOOM 99 95 SHOCKWAVE ASSAULT. 79.95 SIMCITY 2000 . 99.95 SLAM N JAM 96 . 99 95 STARFIGHTER 3000 . 99 95 STORY OF THOR 2 . 8995 STREETFIGHTER ALPHA . 99.95 STRIKER 96_ THE HORDE ....._ THEME PARK . THUNDERHAWK 2 TITAN WARS. TOSHINDEN REMIX . 99.95 99.95 99 95 99 95 99 95 99 95 FREE MEMBERS CARD Simply purchase a control deck, hand held unit or spend $300 Members are entitled to 7 -10% off Software. (Sale items & specials not included.) CRICKET '96..49 95 CYBERMAGE DARKLIGHT . 49 95 DUNE 2..29.95 FIFA INTERNATIONAL SOCCER29.95 NOCTROPOLIS .24.95 PGA GOLF '96 . 49 95 PGA TOUR 486 . 29 95 RAILROAD TYCOON .19 95 SIM ANT.39.95 SIM EARTH.39.95 SIM LIFE.39.95 SUPER KARTS.19 95 ULTIMA VIII 29 95 WING COMMANDER 3 . 49 95 ALL BOLD TITLES COMING SOON UST COWSCT AT TH® Of PANTING SUPER NES DECK.. 99 95 AV CABLE. 29.95 ATMOSFEAR . -9 95 . 79.95 BEDLAM__ 99 95 BROKEN SWORD .. 99 95 BUBBLE BOBBLE 2 09 95 CIVILIZATION 2 99 95 CLOSE COMBAT. 69.95 COMMAND & CONQUER 99 95 COMMAND 4 CONQUER 2 99.95 CRICKET 97 . 79.95 CRUSADER NO REGRET 79.95 CYBERIA 2. 99.95 DARK SEED 2 99.95 DEFCON 5- 49.95 DESCENT 2. 99 95 DESTRUCTION DERBY 2 . 89 95 DIE HARD TRILOGY .99.95 DINOTOPIA. 99 95 DISCWORLD 2.... 89 95 DUNGEON KEEPER.. 79.95 THE ELK MOON MURDER . 69 95 F-22 LIGHTNING 2 . 79.95 FI MANAGER ...79.95 FIFA *97 . 79.95 FIRE FIGHT______79.95 GENDER WARS. 79.95 GENE WARS...79.95 GRAND PRIX 2 .99.95 HELLBENDER .....79.95 HERETIO'DEATH KINGS . 69 95 JAGGED ALLIANCE DEADLY GAMES 99 95 KRAZY IVAN . 89 95 LIGHTHOUSE ... 89 95 MADOEN '97 . 79.95 MW2 MERCENARIES. 99 95 NEED FOR SPEED SP ED 49 95 NHL 37. 7995 NINE. 99.95 PRIVATEER THE DARKENING 79 95 QUAKE .99.95 RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP . .. 79 95 RETURN FIRE.79.95 ROAD RASH . 79.95 SETTLERS II. 99.95 SIM COPTER WIN 95 . 99.95 SIM GOLF WIN '95 .. 99.95 SIMPSONS CARTOON STUDIO 59 95 STRIFE. 89 95 SYNDICATE WARS..79.95 THEME HOSPITAL . 79 95 TRIPLE PLAY 97 89 95 U S. NAVY FIGHTER 97 79 95 VIRTUA FIGHTER PC. 79 95 WARCRAFT2 . 89 95 W.C.: THE KILRATH SAGA_49.95 Z.99.95 JOYSTICKS & SPEAKERS JOYSTICKS FROM... 29 95 30 SURROUND SOUND 249 00 POWER TOWER SPEAKERS 329 00 Limited quantities No rainctiecks or laybys Delivery charge apples No further discount IBM BIOFORGE .. 19 95 BLOODNET. 19 95 CIVILIZATION . 29 95 CONTROL PADS FROM CANNON FODDER CUT THROAT ISLAND DIDOY KONG QUEST DONKEY KONG 3. DOOM 29 95 79.95 10995 99 95 99 95 11495 DRAGON VIEW (RPG) 99 95 EARTH WORM JIM 2.119.95 FIFA SOCCER 97 . 99.95 KIRBYS FUN PARK 79.95 MADOEN ‘97.99 95 MECHWARRIOR 3050 99.95 MEGAMAN 7 . 99 95 NBA 97 .. 99.95 NHL HOCKEY 96.. 99 95 NIGEL MANSELL. 49 95 PGA GOLF 96 . 109.95 POWER PIGGS . 99 95 SECRET OF EVERMORE (RPG) 79.95 SPAWN. 10995 SIMCITY. 49 95 SUPER INT CRICKET . 99 95 SUPER MARIO ALLSTARS 79.95 SUPER MARIO WORLD . 49 95 THEME PARK . 11995 TOY STORY.99.95 URBAN STRIKE... 99 95 WARIOS WOOOS.99.95 WILD GUNS. 99 95 WORMS.-.109.95 YOSHIS ISLAND..99.95 POCKET GAME BOY..99.95 mciuding case 4 batteries GAME BOY INCL CASE 4 BAH 79.95 ASTEROIDS'MISSILE COMMAND 29 95 CENTIPlDEMILLIPEDE . 29 95 DEFENDER/JOUST. 29 95 DONKEY KONG LAND. 59 95 DONKEY KONG LAND 2 . 59 95 DRAGONHEART__ 69 95 IRONMAN X/O.69.95 KILLER INSTINCT 44.95 MICRO MACHINES 2.69.95 MORTAL KOMBAT 3 .. 59 95 PACINTIME . 39.95 PRIMAL RAGE 69.95 SPACE INVADERS . 29 95 STREETFIGHTER 2 . 44.95 SUPER MARIO LAND 2 . 59 95 VEGAS STAKES.44.95 WARIO S LAND . 58 95 WORMS. 69 95 ZELDA LINKS AWAKENINGS 44 95 Can tor any title not listed. CO PLUS ADAPTER.99.95 BATMAN 4 ROBIN .89.95 BLOODSHOT .99.95 MICKEYMANIA 89 95 NFL GREATEST TEAM 89.95 RDF GLOBAL CONFLICT.99.95 STARBLADE .99.95 Cal lor any title not listed SEGA SATURN . 399.00 Includes Demo CD RACING CONTROLLER WHEEL 159 95 MEMORY CARD.99.95 AV CABLE.49.95 CONTROL PADS FROM .29.95 CONTROL EXTENSION CABLE 29.95 6 PLAYER ADAPTER.. 89 95 PRO ACTION REPLAY 139.95 VIRTUA STICK . 89 95 BIG HURT...99.95 BUST CHAMBER. 99 95 BUBBLE BOBBLE 2.99.95 BUMP IN THE NIGHT. 99 95 BMG BASKETBALL..99.95 CLOCKWORK KNIGHT 2 . 99 95 CRIME WAVE..99.95 CYBERIA.99.95 DARIUS GAIDEN .99.95 DAYTONA USA .79.95 DEADLY SKIES...... 99 95 DESTRUCTION DERBY . 99.95 DIE HARD TRILOGY_99.95 DIGITAL PINBALL 99 95 DISC WORLD . 99.95 EXHUMED. 89.95 EXTREME PINBALL. 99 95 FIFA SOCCER 96 ... 99 95 FORMUU 1...89.95 GAUXY FIGHT.99.95 GEX 99 95 GUARDIAN HEROES . 89 95 GUN GRIFFON . 99 95 HI-OCTANE.99.95 HIGHWAY 2000 99.95 IMPACT RACING.91.95 IN THE HUNT 89 95 JOHNNY BAZOOKATONE 99 95 KEIO 2: FLYING SQUADRON 99.95 LEMMINGS 3D. 99 95 MADDEN NFL '97 . 99.95 MAGIC CARPET. 99.95 MORTAL KOMBAT 2 99 95 MYST 89.95 NBA ACTION. 99.95 NEED FOR SPEED.99.95 NBA JAM T.E.„. 99.95 NHL HOCKEY . 89.95 OFF WORLD EXTREME . 99 95 PANZER DRAGOON 2 .99.95 PAROOIUS.99.95 PGA TOUR INVITATIONAL 96 99 95 PRIMAL RAGE .. 99 95 PROWLER.99.95 QUARTERBACK CLUB'96 . 99.95 RAYMAN. 99.95 RETURN FIRE. 99 95 REVOLUTION X..109.95 RISE 2 99 95 ROAD RASH.99.95 ROBOPIT. 89 95 SEA BASS FISHING .99.95 SEGA RALLY . 99 95 m\'i ; ■ TRIPLE PUY BASEBALL 96 . 99.95 TRUE PINBALL . 99 95 ULTMATE MK3..TBA VELORA VALLEY GOLF. 99 95 VICTORY BOXING .99.95 VIEWPOINT ^ 69 95 VIRTUA COP MCL VIRTUA GUN 14895 VIRTUA COP 2.99.95 VIRTUAL GOLF ..99.95 VIRTUAL HYDLIDE... 89 95 VIRTUA FIGHTER 2 . 99 95 VIRTUA FIGHTER KIDS .89.95 VIRTUAL RACING. 99 95 WATERWORLD.... 99.95 WING ARMS .99.95 WING COMMANDER 3_99.95 WIPEOUT.99.95 WORLD CUP GOLF . 99 95 WORMS ... 99 95 WRESTLEMANIA ... 99 95 X-35... 99 95 X-MEN CHILDREN OF ATOM 99 95 KOLOBRI. 99 95 NBA TOURNAMENT 99 95 SUM CITY (CD). 99 95 SUPER MOTORCROSS 89 95 WWF RAW 99 95 NEED FOR SPEED...99,95 NBA LIVE 96 SPECIAL..49.95 NBA LIVE “97 99 95 NBA TOURNAMENT EDITION 109.95 NFL GAME DAY. 99.95 NHL FACE OFF. 99 95 OFF WORLD EXTREME. 99.95 OLYMPIC SOCCER. 99.95 PANDEMONUIM . 99 95 PANZER GENERAL . 79 95 PENNY RACER..89.95 PETE SAMPRAS EXTREME.99.95 PGA TOUR 96 SPECIAL_ 49 95 PGA TOUR "97... 99 95 PHILOSOMA. 99.95 PO'ED. 99 95 POOL CHAMPION.109.95 POWERSERVE TENNIS. 99 95 PRIME GOAL .. 99.95 PRO-PINBALL.89.95 PROWLER. 89.95 PSYCHIC DETECTIVE . 99.95 QUARTERBACK CLUB -96 . 99 95 RAGING SKIES 99.95 RAIDEN PROJECT 99 95 RAVEN PROJECT.109.95 RESIDENT EVIL 99 95 RETURN FIRE.99.95 RETURN TO ZORK.99.95 REVOLUTION X . 109 95 RIDGE RACER REVOLUTION 99.95 ROAD RASH . 99 95 ROBO PIT.69.95 SENTIENT. TBA SHELL SHOCK . 99 95 SHOCKWAVE ASSAULT.. 99 95 SKELETON WARRIORS . 89.95 SLAYER .. 109.95 SMASH TENNIS . 99.95 SOVIET STRIKE ... 99 95 SPACE HULK. 99 95 STARBLADE ALPHA .89.95 STARFIGHTER 3000 .. 89 95 STREETFIGHTER THE MOVIE ... 99 95 STREETFIGHTER ALPHA. 99 95 STRIKER SOCCER_99.95 SYNDICATE WARS_99.95 TEKKEN 2 . 99 95 THEME PARK SPECIAL..49.95 THUNDERHAWK 2. 99 95 TRANSPORT TYCOON_TBA TRUE PIN8ALL . 99 95 TOP GUN .... 89 95 TOSHINDEN 2.. 99 95 TOTAL NBA . 99.95 TOTAL ECLIPSE TURBO. 79.95 SEGA GAME GEAR_179.95 LARGE RANGE OF NEW 4 USED GAMES BIG HURT. 6995 I CUT THROAT ISLANO 6995 | MORTAL KOMBAT 3 < 6 BUTTON CONTROL PAD 29 95 I PRO ACTION REPUY MK2 9 ADAPTOR (US CONVERTORl 29 95 I CLEANING KIT. 29 95 SONY PUYSTATION 399.00 SONY CONTROLLER 49 95 CONTROL PADS FROM 29.95 NECON CONTROLLER .89.95 SPECIALISED JOYSTICK. 99 95 DOUBLE ANALOGUE JOYSTICK 119 95 ASCII CONTROL PAD. 69 95 CONTROL EXTENSION CABLE 29 95 STEERING WHEEL W/PEDALS 159 95 LINK CABLE FROM ..39.95 MOUSE...49.95 MEMORY CARD 39.95 MULTITAP 89.95 ACTUAGOLF .89.95 ACTUA SOCCER. 99 95 ADIDAS POWER SOCCER . 99 95 A.I EVOLUTION..99.95 ALIEN TRILOGY. 99.95 ALONE IN THE DARK 99 95 ANDRETTI RACING. 99 95 AQUANAUTS HOLIDAY 89 95 ASSAULT RIGS. 99 95 BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN 2 99 95 BUM MACHINE HEAD .. 99.95 BIG HURT. 99 95 BLAZING DRAGONS.99.95 BROKEN SWORD.99.95 BUBBLE BOBBLE 2 99.95 BUST A MOVE . 99 95 CARNAGE HEART.99.95 CHEESY...99.95 CHRONICLES OF SWORD_99,95 CRASH BANDICOOT..99.95 CRUSADER NO REMORSE ..99.95 D.-—... 99 95 DARK STALKERS.99.95 DESTRUCTION DERBY . 99.95 DIE HARD TRILOGY.99.95 DISC WORLD 2.-. 99 95 DOOM . 99 95 ENTOMORPH... 109.95 ECSTATICA.99.95 EXHUMED.00/05 EXTREME PINBALL SPECIAL .... 49.95 FADE TO BUCK . 99.95 FIFA SOCCER 96 SPECIAL. 49 95 FIFA SOCCER '97 .. 99 95 FINAL DOOM . 89 95 FORMUU 1 (FI)._ 99 95 GAUXIAN 3. 99 95 GEX 99.95 GUNSHIP. 9995 JOHNNY BAZOOKATONE 99.95 JUMPING FLASH 2__89.95 KILLING ZONE 99 95 KRAZY IVAN . 89 95 LEGACY OF KAIN. 99.95 LONE SOLDIER.. 99 95 MADOEN HFL97 . 99.95 MAGIC CARPET SPECIAL_ 49 95 METAL JACKET... 99.95 MORTAL KOMBAT 3 99 95 MOTORTOON 2 . 99.95 I NAMCO MUSEUM PIECE 1 89 95 MYST--99.95 TWISTED METAL 2.99.95 VIEWPOINT 09.95 VIRTUA GOLF . 99 95 WARHAMMER... 109.95 WARHAWK .99.95 WILLIAMS ARCADE . 8995 WING COMMANOER 3 SPECIAL 49.95 WIPEOUT 2097 . 99.95 WORLD CUP GOLF. 99 95 WORMS. 99 95 WRESTLEMANIA ARCADE 109 95 X-35 . 99 95 X-MEN CHILDREN OF ATOM 109.95 ZERO DIVIDE. 109 95 BUDEFORCE.79.95 BRAINDEAD 13 . 109 95 BUST-A-MOVE.. 99.95 DAEDALIUS ENCOUNTER 119 95 DRAGON LORE 99.95 DRUG WARS. 109.95 FLYING NIGHTMARES 109.95 NEED FOR SPEED . 99 95 PERFECT GENERAL 109 95 ROAD RASH .. 99 95 SLAM N JAM . 99.95 SHOCKWAVE 2 .99.95 SPACE HULK.99.95 WHO SHOT JOHNNY ROCK . 69 95 Z * NOIlVISAVId 12 »HYPER Mews Okay, using the pun again was probably a bad move, but who cares, the third Iron Fist game is on its way! At this stage everything is so up in the air that we can’t really give you any solid info, just rumours. Firstly, Tekken 3 looks to be set twenty years after Tekken 2, and this means those characters that have survived the journey from Tekken 2 now have a few more wrinkles. For those that care about the plot (and it’s amazing how many people do care about the plot of a fighting game), )un somehow got pregnant to Devil Kazuya (probably the result of too much Saki and a very dark room), and the product of this musty interlude is a new character named Jin. The early word is that many of the old Tekken characters we’ve come to know and erm.. beat up, will not be present, and that we’ll be seeing a fairly new line up for Tekken 3. As you can see, the graphics have really tekken a shot in the arm and besides the flat combat area, it looks very similar to Virtua Fighter 3, which can only be a good thing. Before all you PlayStation owners peak, there’s word that Tekken 3 may require some sort of hardware assistance to run on the PlayStation (maybe something in the serial port?), just like the Saturn is going to have a cart to help the machine handle VF3. This is not a preview, as none of the information is concrete... and everything we’ve seen thus far is to do with the arcade version, not a console game... but you can rest assured we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with Tekken 3 over the coming months. m D.i.Y Anime? Anime has a pretty darn strong following in Australia now, and something that a lot of people have cried out for is some sort of Anime entertainment on their PC. Well, ask, and you shall receive. Eagle Peak have released what could really best be described as the first interactive Anime movie available for PC... Takeru, Letter of the Law. How does it all work? Well, essentially, you are Takeru, our fearless hero with the shocking haircut, who starts the movie/game as a bounty hunter. It really starts as a point and click adventure, till you find the place where your intended victim is hiding, where you start to get some Anime action, in something which is a cross between a cartoon and a comic. At first some will be distressed to find there’s no save function, until you realise that you can’t actually die in this interactive movie... you can only be halted by puzzles, which can all be solved with a bit of persistence and logic. Our hero Takeru is a pretty hilarious character, particularly when he announces that he’s fallen in love with the Princess whom he’s just seen 3 seconds ago, to the woman he was about to do all sorts of sweaty things to... whom he of course forgets immediately. If not taken too seriously, the whole experience is quite entertaining, and does end up taking considerably longer than it does to watch your average Anime flick. After checking out part 1, which contains the first three chapters of the story, I definitely wanted to check out part 2, which is really the sign of wether or not the whole thing is a success. Not one for those that are after their next adventure game, but rather a cool new product for those into Anime that own a PC. RRP: $79 95 Rating: M 15 + ni overflow There's been talk of the Saturn graphics looking "granier” than the PlayStation graphics, and that’s definately true... assuming you’re using the stock standard RF connector that comes with the Saturn. However, if you go to the trouble of buying an AV cable, you’ll be doing yourself a big favour. Up to this point (including this issue), we’ve been using an RF cable whilst taking grabs of Saturn games. As of next issue, we’ll be grabbing using an AV cable, and hopefully you’ll notice the difference in the screen grabs as much as we noticed the difference on screen. Tomb Raider has turned out to be an immense success, to the point where it’s going to be one of those games that end up becoming an animated series, and then a movie. Yup, Eidos have been signing deals that could result in Lara Croft gracing your screens every Saturday morning, and then the big screen down at your local cinema. Once it actually happens we’ll mention it again... of course you could always just keep looking in your TV guide too. RPC fans will be a tad miffed to know that Ultima IX may come out as late as 1998! The reason for this? Well all but three of the development staff have gone over to help on the Ultima Online project, so as to get it done ASAP. This hopefully means we’ll be seeing Ultima Online pretty soon, but we don’t suggest you hold your breath. Shock, horror - The Business Software Alliance and the Software Publishers Association has released the results of their first jointly funded independent survey into software piracy and guess what? There’s heaps of it going on. Based on data concerning 27 different business applications worldwide software piracy cost that industry over $13 billion in 1995. That’s a lot of dollars out of developers pockets and in the end it’s the legitimate user who ends up paying for it in higher prices at the shop. 2D fighting games are still hot property according to Capcom and Sega who’ve announced an exclusive release for the Saturn in the form of X-Men v’s Street Fighter. The three round match system has been scrapped in favour of a ’tag team’ approach in which the player controls two characters until both are defeated. The game also features special two character moves to allow the player to use this new system to the full. Sega claim the game will be near arcade perfect (they would, wouldn’t they?) but aren't saying anything about a release date just yet. Still on Sega news Bug Too!, the sequel to the sucessful but rather dull Bug!, is taking shape as you read this and looks like being a big improvement over the original. The souped up Bug Too! will have over 50 levels, a bunch of new heroes and a more finely honed funny bone. A lot of Bug Too’s levels are spoofs of well known fims like Evil Dead and Lawrence of Arabia and they use the abilities of the Satrurn to better effect adding translucent mist effects and scaling 3D. We’ll keep you posted on how things develop. 1 Using the latest development techniques, the game will redefine the technical and gameplay standards for racing games. A fully texture mapped and light sourced rendition of the Porsche Boxster has been made available by using 3D model data supplied by the car’s designers. Real time lighting effects bathe the car in the sunlight, while environment effects like leaves flying in the slipstream and mud splashes add to the realism. Incredible attention to detail makes it possible to see the dashboard features including the stereo! Porsche Challenge includes a unique “interactive track” system that provides additional features and short cuts via in game events. For the “not so fast” racer there is an intelligent catch-up feature which keeps the racing close and exciting to the finish line - although only the best drivers will win the race! If you have ever dreamt of driving a Porsche, this game is for you. Porsche Challenge features Porsches prestigious new sports car, the Boxster. Under an exclusive license deal with the world famous German sports car maker, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has created a unique racing game for PlayStation. In addition to the amazing graphical detail, the game also features realistic handling and driving characteristics based on the road car. This has been achieved by using an advanced real time simulation of car dynamics. J AVAILABLE APRIL/MAY For hints *n tips call the: PlayStation PowerLine 1“902“262~662* * Calls are charged at a rate of $1.50 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. 9 and Porsche Boxster are trademarks of Porsche The and PlayStation are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Seven unique characters have been created for the game - each individually motion captured and animated.The player can race against these characters, each with their own driving style - or choose the two-player split screen mode for the ultimate head-to-head challenge.The action takes place over five courses with a total of 25 possible different track combinations - including an ac curate rendition of the legendary Stuttgart test circuit. For the ultimate driving experience Porsche Challenge is compatible with the Negcon & the Analogue Controller. Proudly Distributed by A 14 »HYPER news The Wait is Over... Well, okay, there’s still a couple of weeks to go, but that’s just some extra time for you to peak and buy party supplies for the launch of the Nintendo 64. Well, we thought we’d take a little bit of an overview of everything happening with the Nintendo 64, so you can all sit there in sweaty anticipation, and so you can also get an idea of what you need to save your pennies for, so you can have the lot. Firstly, the machine itself: NINTENDO 64 Price: $399 Release Date: March 1st, 1997 (will pack with an AV cable, not RF) Main CPU: 64bit R4300i (running at 93.75MHz) FPU: Reality Co-Processor (running at 62.5MHz) Memory: 4MB RAMBUS D-RAM (that’s real good folks) Resolution: Up to 640x480 (flicker free interlaced) Special Features: - Z Buffering (which in English means it thinks about what will be seen, and thus avoids spending time working on graphics that are actually out of view.) - Tri-Linear Texture mapping (To make sure the textures look right at different depth perceptions, three textures are done of the one object, for use at varying distances. This is why things looks so smooth close up on the N64) - Anti-aliasing (when a game runs at a lower resolution, this smooths out the jagged edges a bit) Sound: 64 Channel stereo sound. Dimensions: 26 x 19 x 7.3 cm Weight: 1.09kg There’s also the upcoming ’’Bulky Drive” which is now simply known as the 64DD. It is rumoured that it may also end up being the Internet peripheral for the Nintendo 64, and it may be possible to download patches, etc for existing games! Here are the specs. 64D D Price: TBA Release Date: Late 97 (in Japan, no confirmation wether to expect delays over here or not) Features: - 64MB read/write Magnetic disks (101 x 103 x 10.2mm disks) - 810 Kps data transfer - 75ms seek time - will come with 1 or 2 MB of N64 RAM Expansion (actual amount of RAM not yet confirmed) Dimensions: 26 x 19 x 7.9 cm Weight: 1.6 Kg Other upcoming goodies that will immediately available are extra controllers, at $49.95 each (in a bunch of different colours). Also, memory cards to plug into your controller will be available for $29.95. There’s also some very neat upcoming peripherals, like the Force Pak, which you plug into your controller. What does it do? It vibrates (woohoo!), which may not sound so special, but games will be developed to actually allow for this, so when you fly your plane into that hill over there, you’ll know it... physically... and that is special. Another one which all you firearm fanatics will be chuffed with is the planned light sensor attachment which will turn your normal Nintendo 64 controller into a light gun. lust hold the controller by the centre bit and the Z trigger is already at your finger. Lasty, the big argument about the machine not having enough games on it can be quickly smashed with this list of games scheduled for release between March and June (there may be a few more 3rd Party games that might sneak in too) Pilot Wings 64 Wave Race 64 Blast Corps Kirby's Air Ride Starwing 64 Tetrisphere Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire The Nintendo 64 will move like hot cakes, so make sure you’re quick if you don’t want to have to wait for restock, like a lot of folks in America did. Of course you could always try to win one... Nintendo have given us a Nintendo 64 to give away... check it out on page 16! m Super Mario 64 Killer Instinct Gold Cruisin' USA Super Mario Kart 64 Golden Eye 007 Turok - Dinosaur Hunter charts SATURN __ 1. Tomb Raider 2. Daytona Champ Edition 3. Sega Rally 4. Virtua Cop 2 5. Fighting Vipers 6. Street Fighter Alpha 2 7. Guardian Heroes 8. Virtua Fighter 2 9. Virtual On 10. Sea Bass Fishing PLAYSTATION 1. Tomb Raider 2. Die Hard Trilogy 3. Crash Bandicoot 4. Command S Conquer 5. Mortal Combat Trilogy 6. Tekken 2 7. Pandemonium 8. NBA Live’97 9. Wipeout 2097 10. Formula One PC CD ROM 1. CSC Red Alert 2. Need For Speed SE 3. Warcraft 2 4. MW2 Mercenaries 5. Syndicate Wars 6. Lords of the Realm 2 7. Leisure Suit Larry 7 8. Quake 9. Tomb Raider 10. AFL Finals Fever MEGA DRIVE 1. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 2. Worms 3. NHL Hockey ’97 4 . Fifa '97 5. Mortal Kombat 3 6. Toy Story 7. Madden ’97 8. Mario Andretti Racing 9. Earth Worm Jim 2 10. Theme Park snes 1. Yoshi’s Island 2. Donkey Kong Country 3 3. NBA Live’97 4. Ultimate Mortal Combat 5. Donkey Kong Country 2 6. International Cricket 7. Earth Worm Jim 2 8. Theme Park 9. Super Mario Cart 10. Terranigma HYPER S GAME CHARTS SUPPLIED BY HI TECH WORLD N IM AMtMED MQUNQ LOWlML COMStLANGUKt 25 muscle cars with over 20 dynamics based on actual vehicle physics! lethal weapons! Super-realistic Activision is a registered frodemorfc and Interstate 76 » a trademark of Activision. Inc © 1996 Activision. Inc Al other tradem a r ks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners All rights reserved CHECK OUT THE VILLAGE - www.vlUage.com.au Prntuih distributed liy ROADSHOW V INTERACTIVE Drive freely through unrestricted environments! Multi-vigilante action over LAN or hood-to-hood combat via modem! 30 Nitro-burning missions! Customize Actually, we wouldn’t mind one in our bedrooms either! But, we’re not as lucky as you this month, because we can’t enter this comp and win one., but you can! Yep, this shiny new Nintendo 64 could be yours! imagine it... the latest gaming system in your very own home... new friends... a better carreer... and eventually world domination! Well... maybe you won’t make new friends, but three outta four ain’t bad! This is all thanks to the most excellent people at Nintendo, who were dying to celebrate the launch of the Nintendo 64 with a Hyper giveaway. Of course you’ll need a game to play as well, so they’ve also kindly thrown in a copy of Super Mario 64! The new system, the best new game... what more could you want? Nothing, so answer this question and be in the draw! Name three Nintendo 64 titles other than Super Mario 64. Send the answer off to: I want it so bad Comp HYPER, PO Box 634, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 L win win win Dance with the devil... This is not a suggestion to start bootscootin* with Satan, but it is a suggestion that owning the fabulous new Blizzard action/RPG Diablo would be an extremely spiffy thing indeed. This looks to be one of the best RPGs yet, and four of you lucky readers will soon own their very own copy! This of course is all due to the amazing generosity of the wonderful people at Dataflow, who want you to have a chance to love the game as much as we do! To be in the draw, just answer this simple question: Name another game by Rllzzard Entertainment, send the answer on or in an envelope to: Just call me Satan, in the morning Comp HYPER, PO BOX 634, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Crazy Gumby Jam! NBA lam Extreme is a hoop game with all the right moves and, despite having the word extreme in its title, we think it’s pretty spiffy. This ain’t no simulation, just a down and dirty hoop fight where almost anything goes and the referee doesn’t even have to get out of bed. NBA Jam Extreme is the third in the series and has a whole new look and a bunch of new moves and features and thanks to those double dribbling fanatics at Roadshow we have five copies to give away. So if your partial to a bit of elbow swinging, sky kissing, ’nad splitting, slam dunkin’ action... put the answer to this question on the back of an envelope. What are the names of three NBA teams Send it to : Extreme Marmalade Comp. HYPER, PO Box 634. Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Great Gundam Batman! No, this has absolutely nothing to do with Bruce Wayne... but it does have a lot to do with big robots running around at a zillion miles an hour and blowing the crud out of one another., and quite frankly., that rocks! This one scored a Big Rubber Stamp this issue, and is one of the best games of its kind. Actually, it’s the only game of its kind, but you get the idea. In a violent fit of generosity, Sega Ozisoft have sent us five copies of Virtual On (for the Saturn of course), and we, amidst a shower of tears must pass them on to five lucky readers that can answer this question: Which amazing programming team made Virtual On? Send the answer to: Ciant Robos Comp HYPER, PO Box 634, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 PEP3I-CO That other cola brand has a pretty damn good website currently detaining many a net-surfer. It’s packed full of lava, RealAudio and prefers a Shockwave compatible browser... but there is a low-bandwidth version you can load for slower modems. There’s all sorts of bizarre pages like "Innerface" where you can create faces using Java. Or how about "La La Land" which features stuff on the latest films and TV happenings, including P-TV which boasts Pepsi’s own anime sci-fi saga. The URL is http://www.pepsi.com/ ...pretty simple, eh? MORE WARS Now that the Star Wars Special Edition films are showing throughout the world at all good cinemas... Lucas Entertainment have started their own official site for fans to visit. It’s at http://www.starwars.com/ and has everything from colouring-in with Yoda to answering Star Wars trivia to crack an imperial coded message. It’s a hot looking site, and a must for any self-respecting ledi-wannabe. MORTAL KO M BAT LIVE Yep. You read it right. Mortal Kombat - Live. You’ve played the game, seen the film, and if you lived in the USA... you could go and see some clever people dressed up as the Mortal Kombat characters beating each other senseless (or at least pretending to). The show fea¬ tures the real Sonya Blade too... or at least the woman who posed for the digitised Sonya in Mortal Kombat 3. Visit http://www.webcom.com/shownet/mktour/ for the lowdown. We like to think of the Net as one Ions, never-ending road winding out into the future... and ELIOT FISH is just a lone traveller stepping to check what’s stuck to the soles of his shoes... GAMEBOY Not many people really believe it’s true... but the Nintendo Cameboy has some truly fabulous games, and it’s still going strong (especially with the new Cameboy Pocket floating around). If you’re at all techy-obsessed, then you’ll be dying to know what’s inside the thing and how to make games for it. Drop in at http://freeflight.com/fms/CameBoy/Tech/ and read all the speccy specs. PINBALL The Pinball machine will probably never die. It’s just such an awesomely FUN hunk '0 metal to pour your coins into, there’s no wondering that some freak has gone and put together an entire database of every single pinball machine around. I mean, did you know that the machine "Honey” was the first to feature a kicker-hole blocked by a drop target? Wow. http://www.lysator.liu.se/pinball/ THE S0’3 We all have fond memories of the 8o’s, whether it be TV shows like The Createst American Hero, The A-Team or games like Pacman and wrestlers like Hulk Hogan! It shouldn’t be so surprising that there’s a website devoted to 8o’s everything. It has a simple little URL... http://www.8os.com/ and it’s guaranteed to provide you with hearty laughter. The hair! The white puffy jackets! It’ll just remind you how sad you really were. IRON G BLOOD It’s the AD6D fighting game all your Ravenloft freaks were waiting for... shame it wasn’t spectacular. However, it’s good enough to generate web sites...and here’s an absolute corker. There’s everything you’d need here, from secrets and boss codes to info on the magic and artifacts, http://www.westol.com/rickhall/ N*4 This is an awesome new Nintendo 64 site to satisfy all you hungry gamers who’ve bought the new kid on the block. As usual, this site is packed full of info, screens, sounds, reviews, links and all the news. There’s even a reader’s corner. Some of the upcoming games look HOT. http://www.n64hq.com/index.html 20 »HYPER arcade Wave Runner SEGA What is it with the arcade Corp pumping out jet ski racing sims this summer? Who is really insti¬ gating the revival of motorised watersports from the hedonistic late eighties? Do the Japanese computer companies have shares in the jet ski industry? Does Sega Wave Runner suck? Apart from the bad press asso¬ ciated with the increase of speed¬ ing jet ski to innocent swimmers head type accidents, the sales of jet skis have also increased. You can see the advantages of riding a bike on water than on concrete- except for the fact that you don’t drown on the road or sidewalk - unless you land in a swimming pool or drive off a pier or are knocked unconscious and skid to a halt face down in a puddle with one of those half face type hel¬ mets. Otherwise as a rule you can have big stacks and fall off all the time without a scratch- unless of course you fall into a large flotilla of angry blue bottles and you just happened to be skinny skiing at the time (always have scissors gaff taped to your bikes hull so you can cut your way out of situations such as these). It’s true, Wave Runners predeces¬ sors were kinda lame, some were actually so lame they were kinda good. Wave Runner-well this ones kinda good for the right reasons. Let us think of it as the Daytona of the jet ski sims, with the ’ski’ inter¬ face being excellent. Otherwise it is standard stuff really-three tracks to choose from, all varying in level of difficulty. View point change - choose the 'on board’ camera angle for most occasions but switch over to copter cam for jumps and when you can’t see where the course is going. Most importantly, master¬ ing the throttle is the key to correct cornering as you use it to power out (key word being out) of corners ie the cycle will take a wider arc in turning if the throttle is depressed- You can throw the machine into sharp corners with no throttle and once the front of your machine has reached the correct exit angle- hit the accelerator. All three courses are visually stimulating and if these courses existed in reality you would defi¬ nitely want to hang out there and go snorkelling in one of those grot¬ tos. Definitely worth checking out. X X X X <51 Red earth CAPCOM It is the year of our Lord 13XX. Something (tragedy) has occurred which has pissed you off. Naturally you ain’t the type of person (swordsman, magician, mar¬ tial artist or ninja) the forces of darkness should piss off. You are a tuff guy /gal on a mission. Whether the mission is one to wreak revenge or to save innocents or loved ones, it is one which will set you in a state of chaotic turmoil for the duration of a video game. Feeling like the mystical long lost cousin of Streetfighter II, R.E has brought the novelty idea to the fighting sim genre of being able to save your characters ’experience level’. Experience points are accumulated by a) kicking the butts of the undead/ about to be dead or b) collecting cash in the form of treasure which is found on screen during one on one battle as well as the challenge stages located every third stage. It is with these experience points (like in Dungeons and Dragons) that your fighting proficien¬ cy increases (you get bonus moves/weapons to bash your opponents). At the conclusion of your game, a password appears. If recorded properly (make sure you have a pen and paper handy), this code will ensure your character will start the game at the high¬ er experience level- but not the ’higher’ stage. Unfortunately one only attains one new move every 3 experience levels, and apart from these new moves, there are not so many other special attacks offered. For example Leo the Swordsman at level 3 earns him¬ self a bronze sword, and at level 6 he gets a shield at level 9 he gets a new move called the Achilles rush. Your opponents are a colourful array of perfectly ren¬ dered monsters straight out of ancient mythology. Each demon will have to be defeated in a different manner as all their attacks are unique to that character. You can choose to do battle against a friend though it seems one is not awarded experience points for doing so. Another thing to help you in your battle are gemstones. Whether the stones be ice fire wind etc, be aware they can fall into enemy hands, so try to use them at critical moments such as at the end of a combo attack. One other thing, after defeating an opponent, you only receive partial restoration of your 'hit points’ (see injometer). So if you are mortally injured and barely defeat one opponent, your chances of surviv¬ ing battle with the next opponent are quite slim. Another Street Fighter II imitation? It seems assured that the only new improvement in the fighting game genre will eventually be V.R head goggles with arm/leg pads and sensor pad targets but until then it looks like a regurgitation of previous successes into the ’new’. Though don’t bother with this futuristic rhetoric, ’cause Red Earth feels fresh in any case. X X X X arcade GTI-CLUB (rally Cote D ’azure) KONAMI Herbi goes to Monte Carlo -But in a mini any¬ one? Deliciously wrapped with killer in store promos-minis careering through street cafe’s, down steps, across a tram intersection, CTI Club is the latest driving sim to hit the arcades. Not only does it look cool, but it has several new innovations which make the game stand out from the hordes of other sims vying for pole position (and your cash). Ever driven a mini? In case you haven’t, the best features of a mini are the excellent handling capa¬ bilities coupled with the fact that you can HAND BREAK into corners whilst keeping the peddle to the metal as the timeless mini is of course a front wheel drive vehicle. Mastering the handbrake in CTI CLUB is critical to your success. Although there are four different types of races in ’Club’, all share the same basic Mediterranean seaside resort course. The differences occur in that you can do the course in reverse order (mirror image-V hard) or attempt to find short cuts through the side streets- Medium or the ho hum basic course or . drum roll and fanfare please.... a game of tag in which you compete against human opponents. This is the stuff which we have been waiting for. At the start of the tag race, one of you have a bomb on board. The idea is to pass the bomb onto your opponents by crashing into them. The last person holding the bomb when the time expires blows up!! This is definitely the highlight of the game but only attempt this after you have mastered the course and cars handling abilities. So what if it doesn’t drive like Daytona or Konami’s other most excellent latest release 'Winding Heat’ because as a standard race game it is well kind of, standard- but in tag mode the game becomes quite hilarious as you send a friend careering into a curbside cafe or a tram, just make sure you don’t get suckered in (like I did) to pay¬ ing an extra credit for the use of the yellow Contache as it wasn’t designed for this type of racing at all. X X X X JB> PlayStation Cluck out tie awesome from Sony and yon cnnll le a winner! Are you a shreddin’ maniac or a lump in the snow? WIN 5 days at Perisher Blue with 3 of your mates! Road Rage in your lounge room - choose your vehicle to get to the end any way you can! WIN a SONY Hi Fi and CDs from the Sony Music GRUNT range! An all terrain Jet Ski takes you on a James-Bond-like adventure - chicks not included! WIN a trip for 2 to the Whitsundays with 5 days Jet Skiing! Choose your equipment - Roller Blades, Mountain Bike, Skateboard, Snow Board and race through wicked locations from around the world! WIN a pack of extreme gear! EXPECTED CLASSIFICATIONS: G8+ Low Level Animated Violence For PlayStation Game Info call the PlayStation PowerLine: 1-902-262-662' «r Gs- * ITM catts are charged at a rate of $1.50 per min A higher rate applies from pubfcc and mobile The -4 and PlayStation are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All product titles, publisher names and brands and associated imagery are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respective owners All Rights Reserved !♦! 1 22 »HYPER dhime Project A-KO 2? "Plot oh the Daitokuji Financial £ 2 Group” X ® "What the hell is going on?” 3 The question I ask myself while watching this weird arse title. < Girl called C-KO right? This annoying little schoolgirl that's somehow attracted intergalactic aliens from the other x side of the universe to claim her as their long lost princess. Another schoolgirl called B-KO right? She’s somehow 2 desperately trying to "Go out" with C-KO in some weird homicidal way. Only problem is that A-KO, a super strong, super fast and super cute red haired schoolgirl has already claimed C-KO as her own. Still with me? Okay, B-KO is ^ also a full on genius weapons designer, light years ahead of all the technologies Earth has to offer. B-KO uses her talent in developing new devastating ways to eliminate A-KO, so she can have C-KO all to herself. However, B-KO’s own father steals his daughter’s plans and uses them to invade the alien funpark in order to steal all their tech¬ nologies. The two transvestite aliens in command of the Alien ship, however, just wanna leave Earth and are not only unaware of B-KO’s fathers plans, but also the thousand wanna-be cold warrior spies hiding in their ship. It just gets weirder as the tape rolls on. If you liked the first Project A-KO (as I did), then you’ll like this, the sequel. I like to pride myself on having seen a lot of weird and trashy stuff come out of Asia, but PROJECT A-KO is in a class all on it’s own. Generic animation, lame jokes and stuff so bizarre that it’s almost permanently scarring, PRO AKO-2 takes the all time crown for TRASHIEST ANIME EVER! (Sorry Mad Bull fans, them’s the breaks!) So repulsive, yet so attractive.... 7.5/10 DISTRIBUTED BV POIVGRAM VIDEO. RATED PG ®The Wind oh Amnesia ....sorry...what was I talking about? Uh yeah, that’s right, this cool anime called "The Wind of Amnesia". See. it’s about this stinky wind that sweeps over the planet and suddenly, bang! The memory of every living creature is wiped; only instinct remains. For animals, well, this doesn’t really make much of a difference, but for Humankind? Well. Computers still exist though. In fact, most of all the computerised security systems still operate. Pretty weird seeing all this high tech stuff move around amongst humans who have reverted back to the stone age! Enter Wataru, the Japanese word for traveller and one of the few humans with "surviving" memory. His mission? To journey through post apocalyptic America with his female companion in the hopes of re-educating the remain¬ ing human survivors. What he finds is a land where the machines have become gods, madmen priests, and human puppets dancing at the end of wires connected to some sort of computerised mind. The Wind Of Amnesia is a slow paced but entertaining anime, much in the vein of greats such as Wings of Honneamise and Patlabor. The level of animation itself is great, with a great script and characters which support a beautiful and haunting environment.er.what was I saying ? 8/10 RATED M I5‘. DISTRIBUTED BV POIVGRAM VIDEO ® Judge Check this out....This office guy in Japan, see, he sort of is the office nice guy, but everyone takes advantage of him. His bosses continually push him around, and even his girlfriend wonders "Why she screws someone as weird” as him! So that’s what our Japanese Clark Kent does by day...guess what he does by night? Yep, you guessed it, He flies around with a book made from human skin dicing out his own brand of Justice; FOR HE IS THE JUDGE OF DARKNESS AND EVILDOERS WILL PAY!!! This is weird territory indeed. Judge is sort of like LA Law meets Go Nagai’s Devilman...literally. A lot of the crimes committed are based on some heinous corporate deed of some sort, which eventually leads to murder. This passes for unspeakable evil in Judge’s world, and it’s his job to condemn these evil doers to Hell. That’s the plot, honest! The Attorney of Darkness, the ten Judges of Hell, weird, goggle eyed badguys that make you giggle eveytime they appear, a magic parrot and one of the worst and most naive scripts to come out of Japan. JUDGE is quite possibly the Anime to avoid for the year. Very few redeeming qualities. 4 . 5/10 RATED MI5' DISTRIBUTED BV POIVGRAM VIDEO. ^ Ghost in the Shell Double Pack SUBTITLED VERSION WITH PRODUCTION REPORT Haven’t heard of Ghost in the Shell? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, MAN?!!! Ghost was the biggest anime event of 1996, and was touted as the biggest pants creamer since AKIRA! Now, the lads at Siren Entertainment have released the double pack! You get... 1) The subtitled version of Ghost! That’s right, for all you hardcore fans that always attend the Sub vs. Dub, your wish has come true. GHOST, in it’s original form without the annoying English speech! 2) The Production Report! A look at behind the scenes of the making of Ghost. With interviews with Director, original voice cast and crew. Like me, if your into this kind of thing this video is a valuable resource to be had (no matter how cheesy you actually find it), and is brimming with information, just in case you wanna one day make your own Anime! RATED Ml5*. DISTRIBUTED BY SIREN ENTERTAINMENT. puff johnson And remember, you also gel the next twelves issues of Hyper for a hell of a lot less money than normal... and you can watch your dog maul Postman Pat as he delivers it to you... Neat huh? Fill out this coupon and mail it to HYPER, Reply Paid 634, PO Box 634, Strawberry Hills, NSW. 2012 Name ___ System _ Address Suburb/Town Postcode Enclosed is my cheque/money order, or debit my credit card for $44.95 (1 year/12 issues) Bankcard j J Mastercard j J Visa [ Expiry Date _ Card No Signature IIARYFACE FUGEES HU MAM MATURE J AMIROQU Al »r* - ulsiuuy) kuimgjfrflj «Y? IW ..WKuii ft Cl JACKSON HIS TOKY r L % n fi A 1 i r i in? kn «l I n KCWTATSSO A liimnnifni The Super Sony Sweeps... Looking for a little extra reason to subscribe to Hyper? Sony have always been pretty damn generous to the readers of Hyper... and they’ve often been particularly generous when it conies to saying hi to new subscribers. Well, this month is no exception, with some lucky subscriber walking away with an absolutely Firstly there’s five games for the Sony PlayStation, including: \ , GJ Npp r But wait... there’s more! Funky CDs from Sony Music, including the latest stuff by: PlayStation Preview the carnage at www.bmg.com.au 26 »HYPER previews LAf» 11^] ^ Mario Kart 64 Nintendo 64. AVAILABLE: 1ST march CATEGORY: RACING PLAYERS: 1-4 PUBLISHER: NINTENDO Of all the Nintendo 64 games that we get asked about, Mario Kart 64 has been the one that has been far and away the most eagerly antici¬ pated of the lot. For those of you not fortunate enough to know why this is a big deal, Super Mario Kart was one of the most popular games ever released on the SNES, and many gamers with access to supe¬ rior systems still play it today. The game made it big due to it’s fan¬ tastic multiplayer action which so few racing games ever deliver properly. Mario Mart 64 will be allow four players to play at once, with a four way split screen mode. Three players will have the same screen as in four player mode, with the spare quarter devoted to track name, etc. Unlike the old Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64 will not be split screen in a single player game. It looks like Nintendo have simply taken what was a great game, and just done very simple and obvious tweaks to make it even better, so it’s doubtful we’ll be hearing cries of, "Oh no! They’ve ruined it!". Such an example is the addition of a 3D landscape, rather than main¬ taining the old flat tracks. Other features of the tracks include hills, tunnels, and even stairs (ouch!). Not to put a powerful graphics processor to waste, Mario Kart 64 will have fog and transparencies to help give just that extra bit of real¬ ism. However the karts and drivers are just sprites, with the tracks and environments being made up of polygons. There’s more to the game than just the track, there’s also things like falling rocks, falling cow (obviously the aliens were finished with them), railroad crossings, busses, snowmen, and much more... Fans of Super Mario Kart must wave goodbye to Koopa and Donkey Kong Jr, as they have been replaced by Wario and Donkey Kong (Senior)... but all the rest of the old gang will be back for the 64 bit sequel. For those that thought spin¬ ning out was rough, you’re in for worse... you can flip kart over com¬ pletely if you push it a bit too far, which should look pretty cool. Should have a full review next issue, for what will probably be the second biggest selling N64 after Super Mario 64. as ? MIL0616? WiO US r ~- i-z. A new MILO CD ROM game guaranteed to drive you mad. 50 bucks worth of wicked PC action for just $9.50. skating game “The Fuel Run" can be yours. Just grab a can of MILO, Malt MILO or packs of See MILO packs for details. But hurry, MILO Dairy Snack and the latest seven level CD this crazy offer won't last. YOU’VE GOTTA BE MAdE OF MiLO. 28 »HYPER previews ELAPSED n i 'nn' i n One thing a gaming system can’t do without, it would seem, is a game with bloody fast sports cars and ridiculous¬ ly windy roads, well, Sony have Ridge Racer, Sega have Sega Rally and Daytona... and now Nintendo have Cruis’n USA. Due to the ana¬ logue control stick on the Nintendo 64 controllers, it would be fairly safe to say that the Nintendo will be a fairly good platform for racing games, consid¬ ering everyone who owns one will be able to play any such games with analogue steering, without having to go out and buy a special controller. Cruis’n USA is about as straight up as racing games get... You pick a car, you get out on the streets, and you try and win some races. It’s a bit of a Cannonball Run scenario, where you’re racing from coast to coast across America. To reach each new stage you simply have to come first, by what¬ ever means possible... and completion of the whole race from coast to coast unlocks faster cars for you to race, etc. Should be a big seller with those that don’t like "Cute” racing games like Mario Kart. Full review next issue. ® Cruis’n USA Nintendo 64 AVAILABLE: MARCH CATEGORY: RACING PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: WILLIAMS libiz MANUAL ® Killer A bunch of aggressive people with wash¬ board tummies, thighs like tree trunks, and a lot of violence... yup, it’s Killer Instinct The Nintendo 64 version is called Killer Instinct Cold, why gold? we don’t know either., but apparently this version has more combos, and more combos of com¬ bos than any other KI game thus far. For those that have had their head in the sand, Killer Instinct was an amazingly successful arcade fighting game, which ended up becoming a big hit on the SNES too. The game plays like a 2D fighting game, but the arena behaves in a 3D manner, with the viewpoint moving around a bit. There’s« comprehensive training mode, so you can master all those combos, which really is the essence of Killer Instinct. For the freaks, there are 70♦ hit combos to leam... Sure., your opponent will probably be dead by the 17th hit., but hey, why stop when you’re on a roll? This one could be a really impor¬ tant title for the N64, since a lot of gamers nowadays are primarily into fighting games. Full review next issue. Instinct Gelt Nintendo 64 AVAILABLE: march FATEGORY: fighting PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: RARE WARE M 15+ MEDIUM LEVEL ANIMATED VIOLENCE THE ULTIMATE MANGA ROLE PLAYING BUICH1 TERASAWA’S LETTER OF THE LAW CONTAINS CHAPTERS 1, 2 & 3 AVAILABLE AT LEADING COMPUTER RETAILERS imam 30 »HYPER previews ® Sonic Blast 3D Saturn AVAILABLE: march CATEGORY: platform came PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: SEGA Well, if Sega had to sum up their success on the MegaDrive in one word, it would have to be "Sonic”. That wiry little blue critter was responsible for a gaming craze, and a hell of a lot of money for Sega worldwide. This more than any title really, is the one that so many people have been waiting for on the Saturn... the first Saturn Sonic game. What’s been happening with this game? Well, there were some Saturn based Sonic projects in development, the most notable of which was Sonic X-Treme (Ugh!, there’s that word again). However, Yuji Naka (the head of the Sonic Team) took one look at the work in progress of Sonic 3D blast on the MegaDrive, and was impressed to the point where he halted all other Saturn Sonic projects, in favour of converting the MegaDrive game across ASAP. Sonic is up against his old arch enemy, Dr Ivo Robotnik, in a search for the all powerful Chaos Emeralds. The bottom line is, you have to run around various isometric levels, freeing these little bird critters called Flickles, from the robotic prisons Dr Robotnik has imprisoned them in, and take them to the exit of the are. There are seven zones in Sonic 3D Blast, and three levels in each act, making twenty-one levels of game to jump, roll, run, and whatever through. There are bonus stages, which include some much more 3D like stages. The Hyper crew are praying that the old screen shots we saw of Sonic X-Treme are either going to be implemented into the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast, or at the very least, be used in another Saturn game, because in our humble opinion, they look a bit cooler. Sorry, no grabs of Sonic 3D Blast for Saturn, but full review next issue. m V J 1 i Y* v ^ S3 ■w 18 fate 23 --JP i S . ' jgLaSsSSISis ^Turck Dinosaur Hunter Nintendo 64 AVAILABLE: march CATEGORY: f sx person action PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: ACCLAIM There seems to be a fixation with 1st person shooting games when it comes to how good a system is. For some reason, a lot of people feel that need to be able to play a decent Doom clone on their console. Well, Nintendo 64 owners will have a pretty good 1st person shooter available to them by mid-late March, in the form of Turok - Dinosaur Hunter. Plot? Bah! However, for those that give a stuff, the game is based on the comic of the same name, by Acclaim Comics. As far as console Doom clones go, this one rocks. We played a beta version and it looked really impressive, in fact it’s the most impressive 3rd party title thus far for the Nintendo 64. What makes Turok so cool from the outset is the amazing graphics, which utilise a motion capture that makes the animation in Quake seem crude in comparison. The frame rate is very high, and the character tex¬ ture mapping is near perfect, and it’s safe to say that no other game of this nature has opponents that look so real. They even die the right way, with limbs coming to rest on the ground, as opposed to hanging in space like they do in so many games. Your opponents range from sim¬ ple spear wielding natives, through to huge armoured mechs, dinosaurs, and all sorts of monstrosities. If you thought the guns were big and phallic in Duke Nukem 3D, well you ain’t seen nothing yet. Turok’s ear¬ lier weapons are quite simple.... a knife, a bow and arrow, a pistol, etc. By the end of the game however, you’ll be toting huge pulsing metal thingies that fire off shots not dissimilar to a nuclear explosion. The level design is reminiscent of Hexen, having lots of little intricate details here and there, as opposed to straight walled corridors, etc. Really nice touches to your environment include mist rolling along the floor, and a realistic lens flare when you gaze up at the sun. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but feel good once you've run around for a while, and it’s a lot easier to do circle strafes and tricky manoeuvres with the analogue pad than you’d expect. Should be a huge hit with N64 owners who want a game that isn’t cute, or 0 \r ^>7 /V/V Choose between Race Mode, Time Trial or Combat Mode via link cable to race against your friends in this graphically stunning true-to-life kart-racing game. Ayrton Senna Duel is the ultimate kart game experience! This product is rated G. Where Man and Demon meet is where the heavens and underworld wage war. Eight battles on eight planets. Here's the hottest fighting action in the Galaxy - prepare for Hyper Battle Action! This product is rated G8+. For dealer enquiries call: MARKETING RESULTS Distributed exclusively by Phone: (02) 9899 5888. E-mail: mresults@mpx.com.au JUNJDFT PolyGram Technical Advise by ©YAMAHA, SunSoft is a trademark of Sun Corporation. Product licensed by Ayrton Senna Foundation. DUNLOP, ©Petrolub International. ©1996 Sun Corporation ©1996 Gaps Inc PlayStation and PlayStation Logo are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc 32 »HYPER previews ®Scul Blade PlayStation AVAILABLE: march/april CATEGORY: FIGHTING PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: namco With the success of the Tekken games, Namco can claim to have the knack when it comes to spitting out a good 3D fighting game. Namco weren’t blind to the fact that many fighting game enthusiasts out there have a thing for weapons in fighting games (like Toshinden or Samurai Shodown), and as a result we saw the arcade release of Soul Edge. Naturally being a 3D fighting game, Soul Edge is more like Toshinden than anything else, with emphasis on weapon based combat and frequent use of dodging and cir¬ cling around your opponent... howev¬ er the level of graphical detail is far more impressive, being more on par with Star Gladiators. Namco have being slaving away to produce a per¬ fect reproduction of the arcade game for the PlayStation (like they did with Tekken 1 6 2), and now they’re almost there. The PlayStation version, which has been renamed to Soul Blade (for legal reasons apparently), should be the most visually impressive fighting game for the PlayStation thus far. Soul Blade features highly detailed characters, stunning backgrounds which look to be the best for a 32 bit console thus far, and most outstandingly (from a fighting game enthusiast’s view anyway) the ability to disarm opponent with relentless attacks. There’s a "go com¬ pletely berko!’’ combo attack for each character, which should keep those Tekken fanatics happy. There’s also counter strike manoeuvres, guard break techniques, and that classic locked blades, face to face situation (like in Samurai Shodown) where the combat¬ ants try to muscle their opponent’s weapon out of the way. Soul Blade looks to be a good 'un with all the usual fea¬ tures you’d expect in a 3D fighting game, and just a few more. The thing that really looks to set Soul Blade aside from the other fighting games is the "Edge Master" mode, which is kind of like a "quest" mode. Each character has their own different quest path which they take on their way to acquiring a whole mess of new weapons. This also sets up a whole bunch of inter¬ esting fight scenarios, like having to defeat your opponent only using throws, or having to hit them whilst they aren’t in contact with the ground (tricky stuff folks!). This also provides new ending sequences, so it’s kind of like being able to finish the game two different ways with each character. This one looks to be kinda special so stay tuned... or SOULEDGE 99 - SOUUDGE ifc/iJ -L I£l2l3l2 VLLllfi . AVZULALiLU l=t AIMD YOU THOUGHT l\WAS OVER IXINING. IT'S JUST THE BE MIDWAY rami I httbiyiwwwjcgaozisott.com.au 11 L I 1 H) fl 11 ipi-p m 34 »HYPER previews ^Bushido Blade Playstation Lystat BIE: JUN CATEGORY: 3D FIGHTING PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: SQUARESOFT A company that looks to be in that "We can’t do anything wrong." bracket, would have to be Squaresoft. They've wowed us with Tobal No. and their upcoming RPC Final Fantasy VII looks to be a real hoot. Continuing their exploration into the realms of 3D combat, Squaresoft have gone for something a little different this time. Instead of the generic scenario where two warriors belt the snot out of each other till one just can’t take it anymore, Square’s upcoming title, Bushido Blade, focuses upon traditional japanese sword fight¬ ing... where one hit is usually enough to finish your opponent off. There are no health meters and no time limits... just two opponents with a couple of pointy things. The game is said to have more interactive backgrounds than we’ve seen yet in a 3D fighting game, and word is that the whole experience is based a lot more on tactical deci¬ sions as opposed to controller skills. The combat arenas themselves are large, so a battle could start on a road by a bridge, and end up making its way down into the stream under the bridge, which is going to be very impressive if Squaresoft can pull it off properly. Another feature which might draw some interest is the ability to choose from multi¬ ple characters, and multiple weapons, and possi¬ bly the ability to craft your own weapon as well. Should be a good one... stay tuned. dt 28 Porsche Challenge PlayStation AVAILABLE: march CATEGORY: RACING SIM PLAYERS: ONE OR TWO PUBLISHER: sce The programming team that gave us Total NBA ’96 has felt the need for speed and have decided to live out their fantasies strapped to the inside of a beautifully rendered Porsche Boxster. Porsche Challenge is cur¬ rently under development by Sony Computer Entertainment and promises to push the PSX to the limit of its polygon crunching abilities. Boasting a variety of real-time lighting and envi¬ ronmental effects such as mud splashes, flying leaves and a gleaming duco Porsche Challenge promises to immerse you in the high speed world of performance racing without the need to rob a bank or sell your neighbours into slavery. Five courses in all will be available with each one having numer¬ ous ’interactive’ shortcuts and detours to keep things interesting. Sony have also added some¬ thing they call an intelligent catch up feature to stop slower drivers getting hopelessly left behind! Personality has been added in the form of seven unique driver characters each with their own favourite moves (?) and tactics, or if you feel like relating to a fellow human being you can go head to head in split screen mode. Sony say that Porsche Challenge will rocket along at 6ofps, the beta we had sent to us certainly looked smooth! We’ll keep you posted as things develop further. es & “The most fun since I created the earth. Nintendo 64 isjwell, 64 oit. Which means it’s three times more powerful than any other system. Miglmer than most home PCs. And the hand controller has a joystick, so I have complete freedom to move around in the 3D universe. Praise be.” 36 »HYPER previews ®Lands of Lore 2 - Guardians cfj Destiny PC AVAILABLE: APRIL CATEGORY: RPC PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: WESTWOOD Came developers that don’t suck... Westwood is one of 'em. They really seem to have the Midas touch nowadays, with titles like Red Alert, Dune 2, The Legend of Kyrandia, and of course Lands of Lore behind them, it really seems that they can do no wrong. For those RPC freaks that thought Lands of Lore was spe¬ cial, Lands of Lore 2 - Guardians of Destiny is com¬ ing to turn your dribble ducts on. Complete free¬ dom of movement in 3D environment is reported to be a key feature to Lands of Lore 2’s impressive¬ ness. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the Quake-like control system and inter¬ face that is offered in Elder Scrolls 2 - Daggerfall. Another similarity to Daggerfall is the implemen¬ tation of multiple plots, and the ability to play as a noble hero, or to perform acts of evil as you see fit. Unlike Daggerfall, Guardians of Destiny will run in 640x400 SVGA graphics (or low res on a slower machine), which should be make an awesome dif¬ ference. There also looks to be more pre rendered cut scenes to help enhance various parts of the sto¬ ryline, which as you can see look quite impressive. Monster AI is reported to have been improved sig¬ nificantly since the previous Lands of Lore game, with monsters now doing sensible things, like retreating when you’re in danger of killing them, etc. Like so many games, these stills don’t do the thing justice, and the whole thing really looks to be a bit of a cinematic masterpiece. Could it be the RPG of '97? Time will tell... dt Shadows of the Empire Nintendo 64 AVAILABLE: march CATEGORY: action PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: LUCASARTS Talk about hotly anticipated, this is it! Shadows of the Empire is the first Star Wars game for the Nintendo 64, and will no doubt be one of the sys¬ tem’s biggest selling titles in the first year of N64’s release. What is Shadows of the Empire about? Well, it sort of fills in part of the story of what goes on between "The Empire Strikes Back’’, and "Return of the ledi", following the heroic exploits of one hotshot smuggler, Dash Rendar. Rather than being one big game, you could really say that Shadows of the Empire is a collection of little games which all follow a plot. The various levels include things such as the battle of Hoth, where you pilot a snowspeeder, trying to buy the rebel base some time for evacuations. There are various first person "Doom style” levels, where you can come across some well known baddies, like IG-88 and the leg¬ endary, Boba Fett. Of course the game wouldn’t be complete without a few space combat bits, and a speeder-bike stage as well. Full review next issue, a must see for all Star Wars freaks! dt previews Myth PC AVAILABLE: tba CATEGORY: strategy PLAYERS: 1-NETWORK PUBLISHER: BUNG IE lust to prove that the fantasy genre is going to continue to plague... I mean be with us for a while longer, Bungie have given us a glimpse of what looks to be a very impressive real time strategy game... Myth. A slightly different angle is taken in Myth compared to other real time strategy games such as Red Alert and Warcraft 2, with all the graphics being in a continuous customable 3D view. Besides the fact that the game is set in a fantasy environment, Bungie look to have taken great care to ensure that Myth is an exceeding¬ ly realistic game, with a supposedly in depth physics engine built in, to ensure that heads roll downhill, that explosions actually knock units off their feet in the right direc¬ tion. More importantly the physics should help to create a better wargame, and not just something that looks pretty... like taking into account that units on higher ground can fire missile weapons further, and unit speed is increased when moving downhill, or that different surfaces have different traction, that sort of thing. For those that love a bit of blood and guts, Myth looks to be gory enough to keep such folk grinning from ear to ear. We know everyone seems to claim it, but Bungie ensure us that the AI will be outstanding, with missile troops firing over hills in the attempt of hit¬ ting melee opponents, or units mak¬ ing an active effort to outflank their opponents to try get the upper hand. Myth looks to be very multiplayer friendly, with modem, LAN and Internet compatibility all taken care of. Bungie’s MetaServer should make playing over the Internet a breeze (like Westwood chat for Red Alert), which seems to be the way a lot of PC games are headed nowa¬ days. There will also be a be multi¬ ple multiplayer game objectives, like Assassination, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and more... which is something none of the other pop¬ ular real time strategy games have featured thus far. Myth may howev¬ er not be of instant appeal to the Warcraft and Command 8 Conquer fans, as the game is reported to be less about development and resources management, concen¬ trating on the combat alone. Only time will tell if this holds true. If this one ends up playing as good as it looks, it should be a huge hit for Bungie... stay tuned. or 37 »HYPER w A wizard's protege. A deranged jester. And you. It's gotta be Pandemonium. I % Preview this and all our games at www.bmg.com.au PlayStation 40 »HYPER £ "2 I I DAN T00SE - Editor of Hyper Our daggy dancin’, long haired git of an Editor... Me. I'm probably is the most eclectic gamer of the lot, enjoying games in virtually every genre except for platform games, as I can’t manage to get any of fun out of collecting coins and pieces of fruit., go figure. I’m the 3D fighting king of the Hyper office, being unfortunate enough to be able to remember obscure special moves more easily than the names of the women I try to pick up. 1. Quake pc Whilst not being a great long term single player game... Quake, in my semi-humble opinion, is the best multiplayer action game ever. Every night I log onto one of the Sydney based Quake servers, like QZone, and go at it against players from all over the place. Extra things like Capture the Flag games, and Quake Clan matches (Go clan Onslaught!) make the experience all the more funky. GEORGE SOROPOS - Deputy Editor of Hyper The new kid on the block, and not. George has been writing for Hyper for ages now, but this is his first issue as Deputy Editor, scoring my old job (the lucky bastard)... mostly due to his inate ability to write a bloody funny review. George is a PC games wiz, being a strategy game expert from way back. He’s also our "Doof" expert, being an old member of Clan Analogue. His games are all PC (poor boy doesn’t own a console yet!). 1. Command & Conquer - pc Dune II was my very first PC addiction and I waited for its' sequel the way a dog waits for a bone. And the good thing about Westwood is that they delivered! CGC is one of the greatest sequels of all time, managing not only to invent and cement a whole new genre but also to get heaps of people on-line who might otherwise have waited years longer before doing so. A true classic. 2. Wipeout 2097 - PlayStation The most professionally produced video game ever, this one is my all time favourite racing game. It’s the only racing game I’ve ever played where it actually feels like you're doing 340 kph when it says so on the speedo. Best video game soundtrack, and the Designers Republic artwork helps make it the techiest, most polished piece of gaming software in the world. I gotta practice and try and beat Malcolm. 3. The Ultima Series pc Yeah, I know, it's a bit of a cop out saying "series", but the series has run so long, that the whole thing is really one phenomenon. Richard Garriot succeeded in creating the only RPG series that really conveys a stronge feeling of character, and a complete world. Epic games that take ages to complete, but always heighten in intencity as you play them, as opposed to becoming boring. Best RPGs ever without doubt. 4. Tomb Raider - Satum/PlayStation/PC This is one of those games that’s hard to put down once you've started. While it only took me four and a bit days to finish, they were some of the best times I can recall whilst playing a video game. It's got a truly unique feel to it, and you really feel like you're in some sort of epic adventure film whilst playing the game. This one captivated the entire office. 5. Virtua Fighter 2 - Saturn Although a few games have popped up with more moves and more characters, I keep coming back to VF2. Sega’s knack to come up with cool characters, and a very playable game, really shines through here. It's one of the few fighting games that I find challenging at the hardest difficulty levels, which is a big plus. The most fun I’ve had with VF2 though is attempting to humiliate the rest of the office. 6. Tekken 2 - PlayStation 7. Virtual On - Saturn 8. FIFA 97 - PSX/Satum/PC 9. Warcraft 2 - pc 10. Daggerfall - pc 2. Masters of Orion - pc An addictive masterpiece of galactic megalomania that did much to suppress my feelings of adolescent inadequacy and took up so much of my time that I didn’t even notice my girlfriend had left me, my house had burned down and a tumor the size of a Volvo had grown out of my neck. The sequel is also very good but as they say, it's never the same as the first time. 3. Crusader: No Remorse pc Guy in red pyjamas with big guns and bad attitude goes on rampage. Should have been the story of my life but instead was made into this ground breaking and wickedly cool game. The variety of weapons, moves, enemies and tactical possibilities made this game almost as much fun as owning a device which can instantly make women allergic to clothes. 4. Archimedean Dynasty - pc I’ll openly admit to never having finished a Wing Commander game, even though I've started playing all of them (except for the first) By the time I got half way through any of them I'd gotten so bored I started chewing my leg off in between missions to liven things up a bit. That's why AD is so cool. Even though it's a similar sort of game, I just couldn’t stop, I played through on easy, then average and then hard and when I'd finished I was still ready for more! 5. Ultima VII pc My first serious RPG, and what a game it was! The character development, magic and combat system, and the huge world were almost a home away from home for quite some time. Ultima On-Line where are you? 6. Quake pc 7. Civilisation - pc 8. Daggerfall pc 9. Jagged Aliance - pc 10. Grand Prix - pc mmmmm MARK GOWING - Art Director of Hyper Most folks don't relise how important Mark is to Hyper... since he has to attend to every bit of the magazine. Mark also sees and plays more of the games than most of our contributors, and is a natural gamer himself. Being an old school skateboarder, and an indy- rock addict. Mark’s the most fun loving guy of the bunch, and as a result tends to go for the fun orientated games, as opposed to the hard core nitty-gritty stuff. 1. Sega Rally - Saturn "Hey buddy! Wanna go a quarter-mile?" Sega rally split screen brings out the petrol-head in everyone. But this game goes deeper than a wizz around the track with friends. In championship mode it gets hard, real hard. But as the competition gets tougher, the struggle is not just to remain on the track, but to keep the perfect line, at the perfect speed, in the right gear, with just enough acceleration for the right amount of traction and slide. Sega Rally is the only racing game with enough subtlety to give you total control but not end up a boring driving sim. Sega Rally rocks! 2. Wipeout 2097 - PlayStation Aaaaaghhh! Sensory Overload!! This game makes my brain fuzzy. Everything about Wipeout is cool: The DR graphics, the sound track, the concept, the track hurtling beneth me at an ever-increasing rate... aaghhh! Pay attention. Wipeout 2097 will make your eyes bleed! 3. Virtua Fighter 2 Saturn Freeep! Is Shun a Stand-up comedian or a drunken master? Whatever he is, he sure is cool. As a matter of fact all the characters in Virtua Fighter 2 are designed with simple, appealing style But it’s the subtle gameplay that makes Virtua Fighter 2 so good. With no I'oblockable kill-em-with-a-tripple- somersault-ulazing-sword-to the head moves, two skilled players can turi VF2 into a block-fest battle of wits. I've even been k *wn to beat Dan from time to time, "loser does a nudey run!" 4. Tomb Raider - Saturn/Playstation/PC I am continually astounded by the depth of level design in Tomb Raider. Combind the size of some of the chambers, with the apprehension of facing the critters that are actually in there is enough to instill fear in the heart of the most hardened gamer (well at least coution). Big Brown Bears rule! 5. Virtual On - Saturn This game is fun! With style second only to Wipeout, Virtual On presents real Manga-paced Gundam combat with graphics to drool over: 5 metre tall mechs, rendered in blinding shades of pink and green, firing day-glo weapons that explode into a jagged flame covering a few acres. Find an apponent equal in skill and a v’s match can last for days! 6. Quake pc 7. Jumping Flash - Playstation 8. Nights - Saturn 9. Sega Worldwide Soccer Saturn 10. Thunderhawk Satum/Playstation ANDREW HUMPHREYS - Music Editor of Rolling Stone Quite possibly the wittiest and funniest guy on Earth... well maybe in Mosman anyway, Andy's the former Deputy Editor of Hyper, and still to this day a gaming freak. Andy has that ability to judge a game very quickly and get it right, and also has that ability to wander up and beat people at games when he has no idea what the hell he's doing. 1. Quake - PC (Mac real soon, we hope) Quake, as freak-boys around the world shout loudly across the Internet, rocks. The game engine is smooth and capable of great variety, the atmosphere is dark and oppressive and the monsters (thanks in part to the killer AI) are genuinely frightening. As a one- player game. Quake is a masterpiece of design. As a multi-player game it’s something else again, the most fun you can have without getting arrested. 2. Virtua Fighter 2 - Saturn Still the greatest one-on-one fighter doing the rounds. Why? Style and feel. Tekken 2 has its fans, but, to me. can’t compete with VF2 S range and subtlety. Probably the game’s greatest achievement is its finely balanced gameplay. no character is "better" than any other; a skilled player will use the distinct strengths and weaknesses of all of the characters to his or her advantage. The game is also fast and fluid, not to mention hi-res. Besides. Wolf is cool. - 3. Sega Rally Saturn I hate driving games, but 1 love Sega Rally. Visually, it’s impressive, pushing a bunch of nicely textured polygons around at a more than adequate frame rate. What makes Sega Rally great is the way it plays, the physics are nothing short of perfect, so it really feels like you're hurtling around the track at 180 k’s an hour, fangin’ out the back end just to look cool. Plus, it's got a great split-screen head-to-head mode. 4. Tomb Raider Satum/Playstation/PC Tomb Raider is an amazingly well-made adventure epic. In the spunky Lara Croft, Core have found a character with definite star appeal for boys and girls (a rarity in the games’ world). Both the plotting and level-design are excellent and the 3D engine works beautifully on all formats. The game's pacing might prove too slow for some, but for anyone with a taste for exploration and adventure. Tomb Raider is a must. 5. Wipeout 2097 - PlayStation Psygnosis push the Playstation's considerable graphics abilities to the limit in this visually stunning futuristic racer. Wipeout 2097 may well be the future of video games: a big budget production with music and advertising tie-ins and lashings of style from the Designers Republic. Thankfully, Wipeout 2097 is also an excellent game, with deft controls, blinding speed and an arsenal of devastating weapons. 6. Warcraft 2 - PC/Mac 7. Virtual On - Saturn 8. Nights - Saturn 9. Fifa Soccer 96 - Satum/PlaystationPC 10. Panzer Dragoon 2 - Saturn 2. Tomb Raider - Satum/Playstation/PC George Lucas would do well to include this game’s heroine. Lara Croft, in his upcoming Indiana Jones movie, judging by the reactions of people after seeing Tomb Raider: "look at her jump" and "look at her blast that alien centaur thing" and "she’ll have someone’s eye out with those". The first true (ie. you could go anywhere) 3D platformer with excellent puzzles, storyline, character design and a life size T-Rex. 3. Virtual On - Saturn Gundam (those huge Japanese anime robots) are one of the coolest things in the world, and so this game of one-on-one Gundam duels is by default one the the coolest things in the world. Virtual On has the right amount of strategy versus dumb big-gun blasting, and has that great "Made in Japan by Sega" look to it. 4. Virtua Fighter 2 Saturn The game that spawned as many clones in 3D as Streetfighter did in 2D has still got more lasting appeal than most, ages after its release. I’m still trying to master the moves of just one character, and it’ll take at least two lifetimes to become as good as Dan, but this is another game where hard-good. Perseverance is the only way to acheive greatness, grasshopper. 5. Street Fighter Alpha 2 - PiayStation/Satum The Streetfighter series is sort of like a soap opera where new characters and developments come and go and not much seems to change, but you still watch it faithfully. The latest version to come to the home consoles is always the best, and SFA2 is closer to a manga cartoon than ever. Also wins my "Best use of a Japanese School girl in a video ga *e" award. 6. Nights Saturn 7. Tobal No.1 - PlayStation 8. Warcraft 2 PC/Mac 9. Quake pc 10. Tekken 2 PlayStation MALCOLM CAMPBELL - Art Director of PC PowerPlay This guy is a freak! Malcolm is one of those "quiet guys in the corner" who steps up and displays a stupid amount of talent at whatever he does... including gaming. He won the Sydney Wipeout 2097 contest, and will probably go on to win other comps if he bothers to enter them. Another eclectic gamer. 1. Wipeout 2097 - PlayStation The original Wipeout was the sole reason I wanted a Playstation when it was released. It had the two things a 32bit game should have: Great 3D graphics and design (the Designer's Republic are Gods) and excellent audio, but most importantly it played beautifully, and was hard as hell. Then 2097 was released and everything good about the original was ten times better, making it still one of the only games where all the elements come together perfectly. HYPER» 41 r .1»jCy ■ '' He's large and in charge on the hardwood floor. And he's wearing our Authentic Michigan uniform as a not so-subtle reminder of those days when Juwan Howard began his habit of absorb ing more than his fair share of victory. till Mill Mil ; 1 IT? III! Ill] II M 1 lti i i ■ Mil 1 i 1 f 1 1 m i it Mil M 1 1 1 1 Ml! Ill 1 1 1 M 1 M 1 II 1 II 1 II II 1 | 44 »HYPER review Nintendo 64 Super Mario 64 It’s the same everyone’s been waiting tor... NINO ALEGEROPOULOS was lucky enough to not have to wait so long ter Super Mario 64. WOW....DROOL...GASP! This will be your natural response when you first lay eyes on Mario 64. Why?... Because it’s flippin’ amazing!! Everything you have heard about this game is true, and then some! It could well be the quantum leap in gaming that we have all been waiting for. No other game in history has ever looked or handled quite like this. Let’s begin with the graphics. We all know that the Nintendo 64 contains the most powerful gam¬ ing hardware to date, courtesy of Silicon Graphics Inc, (the guys behind the visuals of Jurassic Park 6 Terminator 2.). We also know that Nintendo used the most advanced 3D tools and software for Mario 64, courtesy of Nichimen Graphics Inc. Finally, we also know that Nintendo had the famous game designer. Shigeru Miyamoto, leading the develop¬ ment of the game. So with such a conglomeration of game-creating muscle, the end result simply had to be a jaw-dropping game. Well gladly, Mario 64 is a jaw-dropping game, easily setting a new standard for 3D entertainment. You really have to see it to believe it. It looks and moves infi¬ nitely better than a cartoon! Probably the first thing you’ll notice about the graphics, is the elim¬ ination of pixelisation or "blockiness". In this game, nothing gets blocky. You can walk right up against a wall or object, and the image will remain clear and sharp, no matter how close you are to it. It’s amazing. Another incredible graphical achievement is the elimination of pop-up or draw- in. There is virtually no pop-up whatsoever, except for small instances where huge objects have to be drawn way in the distance (but this really isn’t even worth mentioning). The screen resolution is very, very high, giving a sharp, crystal-clear image which is comparable to a SGI workstation. The frame-rate is just as high, meaning that the images on screen move more smoothly than any game before. Many special effects have been incorporated into the game which are by far the most impressive seen on any platform thus far. There are transparencies such as glass, smoke and of course, water (which looks and reacts just like real water!). There are reflec¬ tive surfaces such as mirrors, multiple warping £ bending effects, plus lots of great lighting effects. Also there is the trademark '’liquid-metal" special effect that has become so popular since Terminator 2. However, it's not just the technical break¬ throughs that makes Mario 64 a gorgeous game. The level and character designs are also excep¬ tional, and are largely responsible for the beauty of the game. Each of the levels are beautiful and immense. Their designs are varied, and totally non-linear. Some levels take place in lush outdoor settings filled with trees, green pastures, rivers and mountains. There are also indoor levels such as the haunted, ghost mansion, which is just ooz¬ ing with atmosphere. Some levels take place in huge under-water areas (with realistic air-bub¬ bles), while other levels take place in the clouds. Definitely no lack of variety here. Other levels include an icy snow stage, a sandy desert stage with pyramids, and a lava filled stage which takes place inside a volcano! In addition to the levels, the characters themselves are also beautifully designed and extremely detailed. Right from the cute little Mario, to the enormous Bowser(Koopa) (who is huge and fills the whole screen when he first appears!). Graphically, this game is just amazing! Nintendo couldn’t have come up with a better looking launch title. This has to be the best looking console game to date. HYPER» 45 46 »HYPER 46 m * 45^:4 |f |J MSR... MARIO IN THE SkT WITH DIAMONDS... fronts ro the wall... mario s on the trawl... saa&gSl 1 ,r, WHAT CAN’T THIS MAN DO? Playing the game is quite sim¬ ple, since most of the time you simply guide Mario with the 3D stick, but there are also around 20 different moves that Mario is capable of, and all of them have to be used at one time or anoth¬ er. Among other things, Mario can jump, punch, kick, fly, swim, butt-stomp, leap, back- flip, crawl, climb, pick up objects, and shoot out of a can¬ non! Plenty of moves to keep Mario occupied. The majority of Mario 64 is obstacle-based, meaning that there will be some frustrating times when you fall off ledges or miscalculate your jumps, but this is what Mario has always been about. In all, Mario 64 plays like a dream. It has sim¬ ple yet addictive gameplay that will appeal to everyone. Many people may have trouble coming to grips with the analogue stick, but this is natural. It does feel quite awkward at first, but give it a chance. It really does work. YE OLDE PLATROME JUMPE m %*Z **34 ■ WW .5*4 1 r ***$-'-jwraa' i/Vv*. .-rT | felt'. * 4* % JL, REMOVING THAI IISSIGHTL\ BUMFLUFF krSB** I W AS DORN ON A PILE OF SHIT V~; ; SWING N LIKE A GATE ANY LAST REQUESTS? MARIO TRAINING FOR TOMD RAIDER... DEVELOPING PILES.. Groundbreaking Gameplay While being extremely simple, the gameplay of Mario 64 is also a technical achievement, putting to full use the new analogue stick on the N64 con¬ troller. Being a true 3D game. Mario 64 allows you to walk in any direction whatsoever. The analogue stick is what makes this possible. lust point the stick in any direction and Mario will move in "precisely” that direction. No other game has ever had this level of control before. Mario 64 offers complete freedom of movement. Up, down, for¬ ward. back, left, right, under, over...Total free¬ dom to go anywhere in a huge 3D world. There are a total of 15 courses to get through. They are all huge and totally unique, providing you with hours of exploring to accomplish. A fun "bonus" game is contained within some of the levels, which takes the form of a driving game. Mario slides down a long winding slippery-dip, and you have to steer him along the path, just like in a dri¬ ving game. These sections are way cool. Throughout regular parts of the game, you get multiple viewpoints of all the action. The view is constantly changing with the camera panning around Mario, always giving you the best possible view in any situation. The view can also be changed manually to zoom in or out, or rotate around Mario. The only feature of Mario 64 which doesn’t break any new ground is the sound. That’s not to say that it is bad in any way, or inadequate. It’s just as the "Wave Race” commentator would say, "nothing special". The music is typical Nintendo, which is perfectly adequate for this type of game. Some of the sound is actually very appropriate, such as the creepy organ music when you are about to face Bowser (Koopa), and the carousel music in the ghost mansion. Also impressive are the ambient sound effects which add real atmos¬ phere to the levels. Another example, when the game just begins, you are standing outside the Princess’s huge castle. It is an open grassy area filled with trees, hills, birds, a river and a water¬ fall. In this area you can hear birds chirping, wind blowing and water running. These sounds really do make you feel like you are "out in the open". The graphics are phenomenal. The play mechanics are top notch. As for the replay value, it might be a little low, but it’ll take you ages just to get through this game the first time round. Especially if you want to collect all 120 stars. Plus, rumour has it that a Mario 64 upgrade/sequel will be developed for the 64DD add-on drive, which will give this game even longer term value. Overall, this is a game you simply have to experi¬ ence. It’s going to sell by the truckload, and it's a perfect showcase title for the Nintendo 64. You’ve probably already ordered your copy... WHAT’S WRONG? So is there anything wrong with this game? Surely there’s no such thing as a perfect game... Well certainly, there are some aspects of Mario 64 that you may not like. Some people may not like the way the camera moves automatically to provide the best view. (You see, sometimes when you are in the middle of crossing a narrow ledge or jumping a ditch, the camera will move and throw you off. This can be a bit annoying at times, but really isn’t even worth mentioning). Some people may not like the "cute" or childish nature of the game, and would prefer a more serious theme, with more serious characters. (Perhaps something Doomy or Tomb Raiderish....). Some people may not like the touchy controls, and will have lots of trouble getting comfortable with the "true" 3D feel of the game. Finally, some people may feel that there isn’t much replay value in the game, because it is a platform/action game, meaning that once you finish it, you won’t be going back. Sure all of these points may be argued, but ultimately, Super Mario 64 rocks hard. It is probably the closest thing so far to a perfectly developed game. After all, it took sooo damn long to make! AVAILABLE: MARCH 1ST CATEGORY: 3F) PLATFORM PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: NINTENDO PRICE: *99.95 RATING: G VISUALS 94 Very simple, but VERY clean with tons of style. Amazing. SOUND cS9 Loveable Nintendo music, pretty cool with great sound effects. GAMEPLAY 95 Simple, but revolutionary. Analogue control offers great freedom. LONGTERM 94 This will take you ages to get through. Whether you'll come back??? OVERALL 95% A benchmark in videogaming. N64 finally delivers the goods. REFER TO PAGE % FOR SCORING REVISION review Nintendo 64 Pilotwings 64 Once ANDREW IREDALE strolled into the office wearing a we knew he was the man for Pilotwings 64. flying cap. If asked to give one word which describes this game, it would have to be 'freedom’. Freedom in the sense of being able to go wherever you damn well please. So many games put you in tantalising environments, but prevent you from doing anything outside of the defined rules. But in Pilotwings 64 there are no rules, your only constraints are the laws of physics set out in the 3D world and these are surprisingly realistic. All you have to worry about is crashing into things. On a wins and a prayer... Sure, to complete objectives properly and get enough points to move on you have to perform the tasks impeccably, but the beauty of this game is that you don’t have to. Should you miss a ring or exceed the time limit, you don’t lose a life and get sent back to the start, rather you are allowed to keep going on your own accord until you decide to end the game. At worst you may be forced to land when you run out of fuel, but even then you still have a chance to make a safe touch¬ down if you know what you’re doing. It’s very hard to get bored of Pilotwings. It’s one of those things in life that, like shopping malls and Hyper magazine, really does have something in it for everyone. You may well be able to give Bruce Spence a run for his money in the gyro¬ copter (though you can’t drop snakes on people), but have you sat down and mastered the hang glider? And when you do finally master a vehicle or device, then you can really start to have fun pushing it to its limits as you explore the well crafted 3D landscapes. Pilotwings 64 has been brilliantly designed and is a joy to play, whatever level of skill you’re at and, as such, it’s very hard to find fault with it. It is a pity that there aren’t more active objects to deal with, particularly in the shooting department (duelling gyrocopters could have been fun), but otherwise Pilotwings 64 is comprehensive and highly enjoyable with enough depth to keep even hardened flight sim freaks engrossed. The only folks who might be disappointed are those that require big explosions and the like to keep them entertained. Gyrocopter You may think that a gyrocopter is an odd choice, but it actually turns out to be the perfect mode of transport for this game. Although it doesn’t quite reach warp speed, it manages to convey a real sense of flying and many hours can be spent just buzzing around admiring the scenery, or trying to do silly things like landing on boats. Your objectives are either to fly through a series of rings, or shoot rockets at spe¬ cific targets. That’s right, you can shoot things! This is a Nintendo game, however, so you can’t actually destroy parts of the islands or their inhabitants, but it’s jolly good fun nonetheless. Hans Glider Mastering the hang glider is probably the least popular yet most rewarding part of the game. It may seem slow and boring to the casual observer, but for the experienced pilot it can provide one of the most intense challenges of the game. The thing is that you’ve got no power to pull yourself out of danger, the only way to gain height is by flying through ther¬ mals. The obvious rule is to not get yourself into trouble in the first place, but that’s not that easy when you’re concentrating intensely on getting through the rings or trying to take that perfect photo. Rocket Pack Man has always looked to the sky and wished for the flight of a bird. Icarus tried glu¬ ing wings on, but that didn’t work. So NASA scientists came up with the next best thing, strapping a couple of rockets onto one’s back and letting rip... and who can resist? Just try not to be too high when the fuel runs out! As well as the standard ‘fly through the rings’ bit, there are a couple of highly irregu¬ lar tasks to perform. One is bouncing a gigan¬ tic green ball half way across the islands, another asks you to pop more bouncing balls by dashing head-long into them. Odd, but strangely compelling. Bonus stases First up is the cannon. Pick whichever char¬ acter you hate the most, stuff 'em down the barrel and send 'em skyward. Or into the side of a cliff, if you’re feeling particularly spiteful. Next is the sky diving. You’re given a minute or so to link up in a series of aerial formations with three of the other characters, then it’s free fall time. Remember Huckleberry Hound’s words of advice. "Just count to three and pull the rip cord." For those skilful enough to successfully com¬ plete the P class, the bizarre Jumble Hopper awaits. Your character leaps around incessantly and all you can do is take a rough aim and tem¬ per the trajectory. Very weird, very Japanese. Hyper reader challenge: get stuck in a bam CUKkiff FUfcL CAVING FOR THE FINANCIALLY GIFTED. THE RESULT OF A DODGY PLANE TRIP REFER TO PACE S FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 53 54 »HYPER review Nintendo 64 Wave Race 64 We’re getting cur first taste of 64-bit gaming. MARCH STEPNIK sees if it was at all worth the wait... I had my reservations about Wave Race. I mean really! A racing game with jet-skis as your mode of transportation. Woo-hoo! Extreme sports! Urn, yeah. Let me get back to knitting my tea cosy. Let’s just say I wasn't terribly drawn into the whole thing. The same goes for the Nintendo 64 .1 was keen and excited when it was first announced, but during the months of delay my passion for the N64 has waned substantially. To the point where the games released for it would have to be something special to grab my attention. Well this one most definitely has! Wave Race is a brilliant game, no less. Behind all the razzle dazzle and glitz of the graphics and the fact that there’s a 64 whacked at the end of the title lies a racing game. On jet-skis. Scattered throughout each course are buoys (or gates) which you pass. This makes the race feel a little more proper. Rule-wise, Nintendo have gone for fun rather than realism. Imagine having to stop and turn around every time you miss a buoy. Doesn't sound like a real blast, does it? So essen¬ tially, you don’t have to pass each buoy to contin¬ ue. To compensate, you have a limit of 5 buoys which you can miss, and a power meter to keep you vigilant. Every time you correctly pass a buoy, you get a power boost. After five, you get Maximum Power - which gives a higher top speed and slightly better handling. There are four game modes: Championship, Time Trials (totally self- explanatory), Stunt Mode and 2 Player Versus. Championship gives you a choice of three skill levels - easy, hard and expert. These phrases are actually true. Expert can only be attempted by a veter¬ an player. A great challenge. Stunt Mode is a whole lot of fun. The aim of this one is to get as many points as you can. Points are awarded for barrel-rolls, for¬ ward flips, handstands, reverse riding, and a few other dangerous but very nice looking manoeuvres. A few rings (through which you go) are also there to keep you busy. So far (besides the graphics), you wouldn’t be far off from assuming that Wave Race 64 is a somewhat average rac¬ ing game. This is where the water (and it’s effects) and the Nintendo controller come in. Initially, you’ll find it hard to get into Wave Race 64. Thanks to the analogue thumb-stick, a much higher degree of control is now possible. This can be a little daunting at first, but immensely satisfying as you master jet¬ skiing. Highly responsive is an under¬ statement. You can literally turn on a copper in this one. The water is what makes Wave Race so special though. It looks beautiful, but feels even better. Racing through choppy water feels amaz¬ ing. It effects your technique so much that you’ll be praying for favourable con¬ ditions. Literally. The water is calculated in real-time, so that it behaves slightly different every time. More so than any¬ thing, you actually feel like you’re jet¬ skiing. Not many games can claim that they feel like their name-sake sport. There isn’t much wrong with Wave Race 64. If I had to get picky, it’d be that the options in terms of two player mode are a little too meagre. It’s just pick a course and go. Also, because of the power need¬ ed to process the water, the detail drops a little. It still looks great but it's worth a mention. A brilliant game, and it’s knocked Mario Kart (for SNES) as my favourite racing game. WHAT? IT ISN’T REAL? The visuals of WR 64 are amazing! Everything looks like it’s real counter-part. The first thing you will notice is the water. It looks so realistic that you're going to find it hard not to just sit and stare at it for a few moments before you do anything. It’s got a mas¬ sive array of colours and types. For example, there’s the tranquil clear blue water (this water is so clear you’ll be thinking our save the beaches campaign really has worked - not a used condom or syringe in sight!) of Dolphin Park, the games first, practice stage. One stage sees the water a purpley/pinkish hue, as the race is run during sunset. Marine Fortress is set during an overcast day, where the water is very choppy and dark blue in colour. Another race takes place at night, with neon signs showing the way. Not only does the water look great, but just about everything else too. Especially the riders themselves. These guys (and gal) look absolutely stunning. Gently change direction and the racer will shift their entire body so as to change the centre of gravity. You can even see the hands twist the throttle when speeding away. But the true wonder is the way they are animated. Every move, every position possible flow on from each other so well, that the end result is amazingly realistic. The courses also get top treat¬ ment. Highly detailed, visually stunning. Take a look for yourselves. What you can’t see are the ducks and sea gulls flying off into the distance after you disturb them, or the helicopter that circles the course, filming you. Nintendo have outdone themselves. - - w wuv 100 * t * HYPER» 55 56 »HYPER review saturn YOU'RE PRETTY ARMLESS... Sega Ozisoft have decided that most folks wanting to play Virtua Cop 2 will be fans of the original game, and will already own a light gun. Sega are selling the game with or without the gun, which is a good thing if you already own one, so you don’t have to pay for another gun. Of course you can buy a gun separately in the event you want another so you can play two players. You can use a normal controller to play Virtua Cop 2, but any¬ one buying the game with¬ out the intention of owning a light gun should seek med¬ ical advice. Buying the game and gun together is cheaper than getting them seperately so keep that in mind. Virtua Cop 2 These pistol toting lawmen are back with a vengeance... and a redhead. DANTOOSE clutches his revolver and faces cM against Virtua Cop 2. How long have light guns been around? For years... in fact there was even light gun games on old Hanimex ’’Pong” machines, and that’s close to two decades ago. Since then gun games have been very popular in the arcades, and the arcade con¬ version of Virtua Cop saw the light gun grace the Sega Saturn. Virtua Cop 2 looks to be another perfect AM2 arcade conversion, which can only help the Saturn’s efforts in the 32 bit console war. There’s really no point in defining a plot for Virtua Cop 2, because the game is really a series of three missions. The first mission is a big chase, following the robbery of a jewellery store. Mission two sees our intrepid gun slingers attempt to save the Mayor from a bunch of tourists who are making off with the Love Boat, and the third mission involves a rail¬ way chase and a confronta¬ tion with a modified tank. Walking On Rails? One can hardly be annoyed at the fact that Virtua Cop 2 is on rails, because let’s face it, how can you control your movements when all you're holding is a gun? Actually, just holding the gun in your hand just makes the whole experience that satisfying that you really won’t notice much about the way the game runs. Visually, Virtua Cop 2 is pretty astounding, and as mentioned before, is arcade perfect. Essentially you see through the eyes of a Virtua Cop as they make their way through various crime scenes, assisted by a target sight that locks onto all the baddies, changing colour as they get closer to firing at you. The game isn’t entirely on rails though, because you can interact with your environment by simply blowing things up. Crook hiding behind a computer terminal? Just blow it away. The baddies actually go down according to how you hit them... If you sink some lead into their legs, their hands will immediately clutch at their thighs, etc. Player movement is even real¬ istic, with the screen jiggling about whilst the players are in a train, which really helps simu¬ late the obvious difficulties one would have in lining up a shot in such a situation. EVE* THE GARDENER IS PISSED cvrorrn Big Man With A Big Gun You’re not just limited to using your trusty six shooter, which is a good thing considering you’re trying to take on hundreds of crims in a ten minute stretch. Other weapons are hidden inside various objects that you can blow up. such as barrels, pot plants, computers, you name it. These weapons include an automatic (holds more ammo), a shotgun (larger hit area), a machine gun (rapid fire), a rifle (three round bursts), and a magnum (more powerful shots). You can also find extra health points this way, but these are few and far between. There are bosses at the end of each stage, and a final boss in the event you can get through all three stages without running out of continues. You can calibrate your gun so it feels just right, and there are three difficulty settings, which unlike a lot of games, are quite good at offering the right sort of chal¬ lenge to suit the gamer’s abilities. Virtua Cop 2 is an enormously fun game, which is instantly playable by practically any¬ one. It’s a little bit easy to see everything that VC2 has to offer, but playing through without adjusting the game to make it easier will prove to be a great long term goal for most gamers. A draw card for the Saturn. MARK’S OPINION AM2 Rock! They have been responsible for some great games. VC2 is no exception. It has that distinctive Sega style that makes their games so appealling. The environ¬ ments have loads of attetion to detail. So if you think the game wont last long, try shooting everything you see as well as the bad guys. For example: in the kitchen, shoot the pots Z pans, fruit (especially the watermelon), bottles, cans. Other scenes have phones, signs, com¬ puters etc. All of these have their own reactions and sounds which makes for great fun. And that’s what will make you keep playing. LONGTERM 70 A great long term challenge if you play fair, but who does? Great for casual gamers. OVERALL 90 % It's been done before, but never H this well. The 32 bit ■ gun game to have. ■ REFER TO PAGE S FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 57 58 »HYPER review salurn Virtual On - Cyber Troopers The arcade game that made Cybersled lock like a joke new makes it's way to the Saturn . DANTQOSE pulls on the neural headware and prepares for Virtual On. If you had to point at the Sega Saturn’s best feature, it would have to be its arcade conversions. It would seem that anything done by the AM2 group is simply outstanding, and Virtual On is no exception. Virtual On is somewhere between being a 3D fighting game and a tank sim, with the typical array of various characters and bosses, and the control system which is based upon using a twin joy¬ stick control. Big robots fighting in big arenas... and why? Well a mining expedition uncovered a derelict alien base under the surface of the moon, and found a whole mess of robot technology there. Whilst examining this technology, the dimwitted scientists have somehow reactivated the base’s security systems and now a virtual pilot is needed to control one of the available mechs and take out the alien threat. In real terms this means you have a whole bunch of simulated opponents to work through, then the real missions where things are considerably tougher. Is this Anime? Once anyone who was a die hard fan of the Robotech saga sees Virtual On, they will instantly be reminded of the video game Max Sterling played in the arcades. The graphics are bold and crisp, with very little texture mapping, but lots of polygons. Despite a somehwat simplistic edge, the visuals are fantastic due to the amazing pace of the game, and the ultra-techy appearance. Like all Sega games, the character design is nice and clear, with that classic stylised Japanese finish. The views are set up in such a way that really lends to a cinematic feel for the game, like when your mech kicks on the turbo jets whilst fly¬ ing through a volley of laser bolts, and returns fire with napalm blast... it just looks like magic. It’s very easy to lose sight of your opponent, so many may find the visual experience a tad confus¬ ing at first, but a bit of practice and the whole thing makes per¬ fect sense. Whilst not being a masterpiece of audio entertainment, the music in Virtual On suits the style of game quite nicely, keeping that feel of a high pace duel going throughout. The sound effects of the weapons, explosions and retro jets are very cool, and like the music, really suit the game well. Even the speech is ultra techy, which helps add that futuristic feel to things. Fighting Game Format ... The overall feel of the game is far more like that of one of the AM2 fighting games than anything else (like Virtua Fighter). Rather than this being the game of senseless explosions and firepower (which of course there is great potential for with this sort of game), it’s more a game of tactics, of choosing the right moves to take out your opponent. Each character/mech has three weapons, each of which can only be fired so much before they need to be recharged. Some mechs have immense firepower and bulky armour, while others have lighter weapons and armour, but much better speed and handling. It’s not all just "Guns-a- blazing" though, with characters having melee attacks, so they can hack and pound their opponents too in the event they’re close enough. The actual controls are quite simple, using the D- Pad to run around, the shoulder buttons to turn your view, a button for each of your three weapons, a button for dash, and a button for jump. The biggest problem most will have with the game is losing sight of your opponent and getting confused. Once you learn how to keep your opponent in sight, which is really easy once you figure it out, the whole thing is immensely enjoyable. There are eight mechs to choose from, and a mid boss to take out (which you can earn the right to play as), and of course the final monstrosity. With a ranking mode for those that love a challenge, and the option of using the special twin joystick controller if you’re freaky enough to get one on import, this is one of the best arcade conversions yet for the Saturn, and should keep any hard core gamer very happy. BRING A FRIEND & RELIVE THE GLORY Virtual On has a versus mode for two player gaming, which allows you to choose from either vertical or horizontal split screen gameplay, which is a nice option that most games don’t offer. The horizontal split screen works much better, and doesn’t detract from the usual gameplay at all. For those that just love watching themselves, there’s the option to record your battles and watch them again whenever you want. If that’s not enough, you can also pause the replay and play the game from that point on! So you can really test out how taking a certain situation with different tactics will work. VISUALS 90 Wonderful use of simple polygon graphics. A somewhat cinematic way of watching a fight. SOUND 83 The music sets the mood and the various SFX are tres cool. GAMEPLAY 9 / A game with a truly unique feel... A wonderful blend of strategy and raw action. LONGTERM 84 Should prove to be a long term source of amusement. OVERALL 9 /% One of the best arcade conversions to date... Great stuff. REFER TO PAGE S FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 59 60 »HVPER review playstation JET RIDER VS WAVE RACE 64 Sure, the comparison is probably unfair, but 1 thought you’d be interest¬ ed anyway. While Nintendo’s superb title places great importance upon the stunts you can perform, and is as terrifi¬ cally entertaining just playing around on one of courses (trying as many tricks as you can and sim¬ ply enjoying the feel of the way your jet-ski han¬ dles) as it is as a full-on racing game, Jet Rider is far more a pure and sim¬ ple racing kick. Obviously, which you like is just a matter of taste, but, equally obviously, Wave Race is the game with more depth (pun intended), and yes, Wave Race looks much better, too. Those horribly com¬ plicated mathematical routines Nintendo used to generate Wave Race’s realism, make the "rec¬ tangular blue stripe" waves on display in Jet Rider seem decidedly sec¬ ond-rate. Though, as I said in the main review, for the Playstation, Jet Rider is impressive. JIT RIDER Jet Rider We needed an extremely sick, crazy, gumby hellman tor Jet Rider... but we couldn’t find one, so DAVID WILDGOCSC did it instead. First impressions are that Jet Rider is a jet-ski game, just like Wave Race. But, as we all know, first impressions can be mislead¬ ing. And, in this case, that saying holds true. Jet Rider is, indeed, more than a jet-ski game. 1 guess it’s a bit of a giveaway when the first race begins on land, don’t you think? Although all the vehi¬ cles look exactly like jet-skis and, while in the water, act exactly like jet-skis do. they can, in fact, also operate across land. Quite how this is possible remains a tight-lipped mystery, though I suspect it may have something to do with an incredible technique called "hovering" (probably not the precise scientific term, but you know what I mean - levita¬ tion and stuff like that). However it is done, it doesn’t really matter much. Instead, what does matter is how darn useful these amphibious single-seater crafts are when the water stops and the only place left to go is up onto the beach. Sticking determinedly to the course set by Super Mario Kart all those years ago, and followed by every decent racing game since, let Rider structures its play in the timeless fashion of let¬ ting you compete in a few basic tracks to start with, but halting progress on to any others until you have succeeded in the championship. And novices (or even average players) may find themselves halted for some time. It’s pretty tough to get any¬ where at all, to be honest. In a normal race there are 20 drivers (including you) and you really should be consistently finishing in the top three to give yourself any chance whatsoever, ludicious use of the generously supplied turbo boosts (you get four at the start of a race and a top-up every lap), and discov¬ ery of the occasional imaginative short-cut, will be necessary if you want to get close to even winning a race. Yes. it’s hard, but that’s just the way we like it. Competition for places is ferocious and the actual racing feel is almost spot-on. Best of all, the computer drivers don’t appear to cheat, and have access to the same number of turbo boosts as do you. The controls are very nice, with several methods of turning and steering to compensate for the lack of an analogue joystick.. The four top L and R buttons allow you to tilt your ski and shift your weight to either side. Using these in conjunction with the normal left/right direction buttons (which steer your ski left and right, natch) gives you total, and not forgetting very comfort¬ able, control over your land-and-sea transportation. But it's really the ingenious track design that makes let Rider so good. The way every corner hides a new surprise, every turn reveals a eye-widening delight, every course simply packed with invention. Two of the first few tracks you’ll come across (I don’t want to spoil too many surprises) provide a couple of good examples. Suicide Swamp will give you the fright of your life when, after having zipped through a lake full of treacherous tree stumps, you tackle a hairpin bend only to find yourself motoring directly back the way you came, straight through the rest of the pack that were trailing behind you. Or when you lean through a sharp series of "esses” in Blackwater Falls, before leaping gracefully over the very top of a gigantic waterfall into the crystalline river below. Sometimes this game will take your breath away. Imagine Wipeout meets Wave Race 64, and you will have pic¬ tured something like let Rider. Sadly, it’s not as wonderful as the best combination of those games could be - it doesn’t feel as perfect as Wipeout nor is it as drop-dead gorgeous to play or look at as Wave Race - but it’s still damn good fun, nonetheless. i LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG AND LEAVE A CORPSE IMPALED ON A FENCE PALING I reckon IG Ballard was right when he wrote the seminal (or is that semen-al?) classic "Crash". If you didn’t already know, it’s a book about people who - well, how can I put this delicately? - get "excited” about seeing and experiencing car crashes and the resulting wounds and injuries. It’s a film now, and if you’re over 18 you ought to see it. Anyway, what has this to do with Jet Rider? Simple really, this game has some of the best crash sequences of any racing game ever. Hurtle headlong at high speed into an oncoming opponent and be prepared to be thrown from your ski, arcing a perfect parabola through air, your limp body landing several hundred feet further away down the track - it’s very cool. Better still, use a turbo boost when approaching the dam wall ramp on Blackwater Falls and get decapitated mere sec¬ onds after leaving the jump. They’re so good, they make you WANT to crash everywhere just to see what happens. AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY. RACING PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: SONY INTER ACTIVE PRICE: TBA RATING: TBA VISUALS 73 Fast, smooth and colourful, but occasionally it gets a bit cluttered. The odd glitch here and there, too. SOUND 79 The Pulp Fiction-esque music is a hoot, while the cries of agony from the riders will keep you amused. GAMEPLAY 84 Top racing excitement with a genuinely competitive edge. Some fiendish tracks keep you on your toes. LONGTERM 80 Two player races are fun, but it s the toughness of the championships that provides the real hook. OVERALL 8 OX A clever and thrilling racing game that rewards persistent play. REFER TO PAGE 8 FOR SCORING REVISION H Y P E R » 61 62 »HYPER playstation saturn NBA Live’97 Dribbling, and large sweaty black men in loose fitting silky shorts... GEORGE S0R0P0S wouldn’t miss it for the world. NBA UVE 97 VS TOTAL NBA EA have had a long time to catch up with the previ¬ ously undisputed master of Basketball on the PSX-Total NBA...so how do the two games compare now? NBA *97 is noticeably quicker on court. The sprites move very fluidly and there are no, not even tiny, baulks or pauses during play. However, with all things considered I still have to put Total NBA in the top spot as it is still the most realistic feeling and play¬ ing Basketball sim on the market. The grace of the players around the court and the spot on ariel work are both better represented in Total NBA and it shows how good Sony's develop¬ ment team really are, con¬ sidering that it was their first ever game. Dribbling is something that generally doesn’t generate a lot of excitement, especially in crowded elevators or executive board room meetings but this hasn’t put the folks at Electronic Arts off one little bit and their relentless effort to dominate the sports sim market continues with the latest edition to their huge catalogue-NBA’97. The fanatical attention to detail that EA are renowned for is here in full effect with all 29 NBA teams being represented in complete statistical detail. You can check out the Shaq’s rebound per¬ centages and free throw accuracy or find out the drag coefficient of his eyebrows. A simple compar¬ ison feature also allows you to quickly see how your players stand up to the competition. This detail extends through every aspect of the game, particularly on the court itself. The usual pass, jump and steal moves are there along with more esoteric ones such as cross dribbling, dekeing, gooseing and tip-ins, nothing’s more rewarding than going for the goose on an enemy player when he’s in mid flight for a dunk or lay-up and seeing the look of complete surprise on their face when they hit the ground (OK I’m being silly). Those of you who’ve played NBA ’96 will notice that EA have done a lot of work on the 3D engine for ’97. The players no longer seem to slide across the floor like Torvil and Dean and their movements around the court look much more natural. Dunks and lay-ups are now more spectacular with the addition of a few twists and reverse moves but EA still haven’t implemented bounce passes a-la Total NBA. What they have put in is a rather nice behind the back pass which is very handy for deceiving your opponents and getting the ball to the net unopposed. The standard of refing has been improved too, you won’t be able to dribble out of bounds behind the net without getting caught any more and the fouls make a bit more sense. If you’re one of those gamers that likes to cus¬ tomise and fiddle about with teams and players Live’97 lets you do just about everything possible apart from conducting genetic experiments - Choose your players position, name, religious per¬ suasion, height and weight, preferred hand, how many years they’ve spent as a pro, skin tone/hair style/hair colour/facial hair (?), the range that they feel comfortable shooting from and even which College they went too! Players can of course be traded to other teams if you don’t like them or if there is some player that you just have to have, and you can also sign on players from a Free Agents pool if you so desire. The EA programming team have added some new camera angles to view the action with and you can now also customise your own if you aren't happy with the presets. The new graphics look great from close up but it’s easier to keep an eye on all the action from a more normal distance, even though from such a viewpoint the players don’t look a lot different from those in NBA’96. If you own NBA’96 and are wondering if an update is worthwhile my opinion would be yes. Uve’97 is a definite improvement over ’96 in a lot of ways and is much nicer and more fun to play. The more realistic movement of the players on the court and the improved motion capturing helps get you further into the experience which in turn makes you enjoy the game more. Unfortunately the production team they still haven’t, in my opinion anyway, managed to topple Total NBA from its pedestal as the PlayStation’s top Basketball title, maybe next time. AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: SPORTS PLAYERS: 18 (MULTITAPM PUBLISHER: ELECTRONIC ARTS] PRICE: *99.95 1 RATING: G VISUALS 82 The new 3D engine has a much more realistic feel and the players look a lot better too, the spinning dunks are a hoot to watch but I still think Total NBA looks better. SOUND 80 The commentary is much improved over NBA 96 but not a scratch on FIFA '971 Still not enough squeaky court sounds to impart a more authentic atmosphere. LONGTERM 85 There's more than enough detail here to keep any Basketball fan happy for a good while. OVERALL 80 % A good game and a definite improvement over its’ predecessor but I think that the EA team working on it were hampered by the need to make a PC version whereas Total NBAs production team had no such restrictions. REFER TO PAGE 6 FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 63 64 »HYPER review playstation NBA Jam Extreme ELLIOT FISH takes it to the hoop and slams it home in this continuing NBA Jam saga... Acclaim's NBA jam was one of the most popular and entertaining basketball games to appear in the arcades, and the resulting home conversions on the SNES and Mega Drive were equally as brilliant. Playstation owners have experienced the beefed up Tournament Edition and now it’s time to burn up the court with the official home con¬ version of the bizarre 3D follow-up, NBA Jam Extreme. Even though the first two games were hugely popular, Acclaim threw a span¬ ner in the works by releasing Extreme with fully rendered, three dimensional players with actual scanned images of NBA players mapped onto the polygon heads. Of course this means a whole new game engine which they’ve had to build totally from scratch and yet retain the feel of the first NBA Jam titles. Does it work? Does it still rock hard? Do the controls still have that precise, speedy response? Well. This is an excellent conver¬ sion, there’s no doubting that... but I think the 2D format actually provided a faster and less confusing game. This is two-on-two Basketball. You can’t have the full five players on the court, though when selecting your team, you can choose from six of the top players from each squad and delegate your computer partner to the NBA star of your choice. Not only does each player perform with the same strengths and weaknesses as their real-life coun¬ terparts, but out there on the court they look iden¬ tical too. You can get a good look at their photo¬ realistic faces after they perfom a spectacular dunk and do a funky moonwalk or swivel their hips into the camera - just to get up your opponents’ nose. Cute. The motion capture looks great and was taken from footage of NBA player Juwann Howard (though I doubt they managed to get him to exe¬ cute the triple-somersault dunks and superman¬ like stunts hidden in every character). As with the previous NBA lam titles, a whole stack of secret characters must be hidden away amongst the NBA players too. so the game is guaranteed a long life expectency regardless of the game of b-ball that it provides. Even though the 3D engine looks great, I don’t think it plays as well as the classic 2D NBA lam. At times it's confusing as to where your play¬ er actually is, and the controls don’t feel as "sharp” (due probably to the processing power it takes to push a 3D engine around). It’s still a fast game - but it feels a little sloppy. I feel the need, the need, tor speed... Now this may review may sound all dandy, and you might be thinking - "hey, it’s another hot NBA lam game!”. But wait. For NBA lam Extreme is "extreme” in more ways than one. Frankly, I've never had to wait so damn long for a game to load. The game loads "out” to the stats and then "in” to the court action after every quarter and just when you’re getting into the flow and excite¬ ment of the game... you find yourself sitting hopelessly in front of a loading screen - and it’s sloooowwww. As far as I’m concerned, this totally ruins the experience, and hey, it put me off wanti¬ ng to boot up the game again. I just went back to my copy of Total NBA. If you totally loved the arcade machine - then you’ll want a copy. If you’re an NBA Jam T.E. lover, proceed with cau¬ tion. Alley oop... er, I mean... all up, it’s a good, humorous, solid game of b-ball - if you don’t mind long loading times. CRAZY FRESH GUMBY JAMS... As with all good 3D sports titles, the camera angle zooms in and out of the action and is especially dynamic when ridiculous dunks are performed, which of course is the whole point to NBA Jam. Intense dunks... Stupendous dunks... Extremely silly dunks... They’re all here - and with the sim¬ ple press of the turbo button (or the new Extreme button), it’s as easy as pushing over a sleeping cow (which is easy by the way). As with the NBA Jam tradition, you can score three baskets in a row and become "on fire", which allows you to goal tend and shoot with a higher accuracy. A cool addition is that defending players can now go "on fire” if they block three baskets in a row! /UltM JACKtil HYPER» 65 66 »HYPER playstation Disruptor Many people associate Disrupter with a teddy bear with its innards blown out... DAVID WILDGOOSC has been known to rend childrens toys limb from limb, so he sot the job. THEY MESS WITH YOUR MIND Disruptor’s main gimmick - and one and only stab at innovation - comes in the form of Psionics. Before a mission, a small device is injected into lack that allows him to harness the full power of his mind. These Psionics. as they are called, act essen¬ tially as special weapons or spells, capable of both destructive (like Shock or Blast) and restorative (Heal) force. It's really nothing new though, and I can’t help thinking that they would have been better off incorpo¬ rating the features of the Psionics into the actual weapons themselves. Since, as you will have read else¬ where, the standard weapons aren't especially attractive. Sometimes, Mr Came Designer, you can be a bit too clever for your own good. non- f — a Zl< * ‘ ■■Mi| BEEN RANGIN' AT THE HOMER SIMPSON WEIGHT LOSS CENTRE? REARIN' OFF TO THE HYPER UNRERGROUNR RETENTION CENTRE... 31 * m*i OH NO THE WHIRLING RISC OF OEATHI OH NO THE SPIHEY RAIL OF ROOM' It would be so easy, I suppose, for me to simply tell you that Disruptor is just Doom - but nowhere near as good. So I will - "Disruptor is just Doom - but nowhere near as good”. There’s obviously nothing intrinsically wrong with a Doom clone. What counts against Disruptor is that the designers dis¬ play only a basic understanding of what made Doom such a classic and compelling game. For a start, there is very little atmosphere worth mentioning. This is mainly caused by the unrelentingly featureless scenery. The levels tend to arrive in two shapes - the space complexes (with lots of shiny metallic walls and walkways) and the barren wastelands (with grey or red dirt). Things improve somewhat during the later levels, but, if you’re like me, then you’ll be struggling to maintain interest for that long. Monsters, too, are disappointingly ordinary. The first ones you meet are silver spheres that just head straight towards you. generally in a line, as if they are queuing up to be shot. Then there are the shopping trolleys with chainsaws attached - these also just head directly for you. making them easy to pick off. Green mosquitoes tend to buzz around fairly aimlessly, while the black robots and demon-type things (which look vaguely like baby Shamblers, but it’s hard to tell since they’re drawn so poorly) simply walk around hurling the occasional fireball in your vicinity. Again, all three provide little trouble for your Plasma rifle or AM launcher. Eventually, however, you will meet soldiers who have their own Plasma rifles and these disgustingly fat, slobbery men who seem to be wearing Wallace 6 Gromit's "techno-trousers” and wield the best weapon in the game. It’s a shoulder-mount¬ ed gun that has a targeting sight protruding out into the mid¬ dle of the screen - the sight turns red when it locks onto some¬ thing and fires these homing spheres which track down the enemy and explode on impact. Not so effective at close-range (the explosions damage you, so watch out!), but over medium or long-range it cannot be beaten, and is quite probably the best video game gun since Duke Nukem’s RPG. Sadly, the rest are pretty mundane. In an ill-conceived attempt to add some strategy and variety to the gameplay, each weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses (the AM launcher, for example, is slow to fire but can do some nice damage to a number of ene¬ mies). Needless to say, it backfires and most of the weapons never seem all that satisfactory. The quality of Disruptor’s weapons, then, are, dare I say. a bit hit and miss. Worse still, one mission explains that, due to some technical fault, the transporter beam can only send you to the destination and not your weapons. This is simply a poor excuse to make you begin the level without any guns, presum¬ ably to increase the difficulty. Instead, it only succeeds in being very, very annoying. you have no choice My biggest gripe with Disruptor is that the pacing is all wrong. Each level tends to be reasonably linear. Basically you have a room then a corridor then another room and so on, with usually only one direction to go. What normally happens then, is that all the monsters hide behind the doors and you often find yourself opening a door, shooting all the creatures in the doorway, and entering a now empty room. This situation occurs so regularly throughout the game, that the surprise ele¬ ment of discovering a few monsters awaiting you on the other side of a door completely disappears. In fact, it is more shock¬ ing when you find nothing upon entering the next room. The allocation of health bonuses is too generous, while extra ammo seems exceedingly limited. Rarely will you find yourself at much less than 100% health, until, that is, you run out of bul¬ lets and have to resort to bashing monsters with the butt of your gun. Then you die pretty damn quickly. Perversely, it seems easier on the Hard difficulty level because, although there are more monsters, you are supplied with relatively even more ammo than on the Regular setting. Work that one out, kids! Disruptor is a mediocre 3D shoot ’em up. It lacks the wit and flair of Duke Nukem 3D, has none of the tension and atmos¬ phere of Alien Trilogy, and possesses little of the imagination and compulsive thrill of Doom itself. I cannot recommend it. HYPER» 67 68 »HYPER review P c Heroes of Might & Magic New World Computing return with the sequel to the exceedingly popular Heroes of} Might and Magic... GEORGE S0R0P0S checks things out. Lord Ironfist - ruler of the territories, opener of all chastity belts and royal patron of the Codpiece Polishers Guild has carcked it. Fortunately, for the king¬ doms undertakers, he left behind two heirs - Roland and Archibald. Prince Roland is good, his skin is fair, his eyes are bright and he always smells wonderful. On the other hand however Archibald is bad. He twirls his oily moustache in an insidious manor and often goes out of his way to frighten small children, usually by showing them the rotting corpse of his long dead uncle Horace which he keeps on a chain around his neck. Obviously one of them had to go, even more obviously it was Roland, tricked into leaving the castle by Archibald who cunningly asked him for a cup of tea, knowing that they were all out of milk. And so began the succession wars that would determine the fate of the kingdom. Would the people live content¬ edly, spending the rest of their lives knitting doilies and humming along to Cliff Richard songs or would they live in misery, oppressed under the stiletto heels of Archibald’s Busty Girls in Leather Underwear secret police? Heroes II is the mutant fourth cousin of New World’s adventure series ’Might and Magic’ and is consequently set in a medieval world of Castles, Knights, Trolls and bad teeth. As you can probably tell from the screengrabs on these illustrious pages it is also a top down resource management/strategy game of the turn based variety and that it looks very much like Heroes I. In fact it looks exactly like the original game, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and if you’ve played the original you’ll be able to jump straight in and get the hang of all the new elements without even opening the manual. y*?*--- . ... •p IfPI; |» ll I ' T JftJ ' riBLg Building a better castle., and killing folks. It might be obvious that Heroes II, like a lot of other games before it, is about build¬ ing armies and squashing your opponents, but the trick is always how you go about doing it. Heroes II uses a relatively simple management and combat system, which can be picked up very quickly, but is very hard to put down. Most scenarios start out with your forces in control of one or two Castles and a small number of troops. The types of troops you have and the kinds of buildings you can construct in your castle depends either on which brother you chose to support at the beginning of the cam¬ paign game or the type of hero you selected for a stand alone scenario. There are six hero types in the game: Knight, Sorceress, Wizard, Barbarian, Necromancer and Warlock who each command their own unique creature and warrior types. These units can only be hired from their own par¬ ticular castle and it is possible to get them as additions to your own army by capturing it. Each castle has a unique set of structures which can be built within its walls. Most of these house the different types of troops that make up your army, some help earn income, increase moral, spy on your ene¬ mies and teach spells to your heroes. These things don’t come cheap of course and var¬ ious types of resources are needed to build them, not just money and timber. Fortunately there are mines, cottages and specialty shops where these things can be obtained as well as caches of goodies which lie around all over the place at the start of every game. We could be heroes... To collect all this stuff and to lay claim to your mines etc. the player needs a hero. Heroes lead your armies, impart their attack and defence skills to the troops and cast spells as well. They also gain experience points from victories in battle to improve their skills even further and to enable them to cast more powerful spells. Your heroes also lay siege to castles, which is a good thing as this is how you win. And so on to the gory bits. Combat in Heroes II takes place in a large tub of jelly. Well on a medium sized paddock really. There’s nothing sophisticated about it, simply put it’s just a matter of best using each units movement and attack characteristics to best advantage and throwing in a few spells for good mea¬ sure. Although it’s primitive it does have a certain charm which is hard to explain, you’ll have to try it out for yourself to see! Heroes II isn't for everyone, to some its’ strategy won’t have enough depth and to others its’ combat system will be too simple, but those negatives can become positives if done the right way and there will probably be an equal number of strategy gamers who will enjoy it immensely, either against their PC or against their friends head to head or networked. W'J5KIP onlaurs do IB damage. 6 halfllng^ perWh NEW FEATURES OF HEROES II On the surface Heroes II looks no different from its forbear but there are a few interesting changes to the design worth mentioning. The most obvious are the two new hero types, the Wizard and the Necromancer. The Wizard’s units consist of magical critters like golems and mages and are strong on ranged attacks while the Necromancer commands the undead but not quite alive brigade of vampires, zombies and mummies. Spells are now learned permanently from the guilds but are limited in use by a spell points system, there are quite a few new ones (Cold Ray, Death Ripple) and they are now organised into five levels instead of four. Some of your troops and creatures can now be given a face lift too, with an upgrading of their support structures, making then stronger, more confident and unafraid of heights. VISUALS 70 Bright and pretty with nice green bits but identical to the original game so no marks for effort there. GAMEPLAY /X Very shallow learning curve gets you into the game quickly and something keeps you wanting to have one more turn, it’s a hard game to ditch out of. LONGTERM 70 A two sided campaign game, scenario editor and network/modem support should see fans playing for quite a while. OVERALL 75 % A spiffy sequel to the much loved Heroes. Shame they didn’t improve the engine, but still good stuff. REFER TO PAGE 8 FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 69 70 »HYPER review pc Diablo After what seemed eons, Diablo has arrived... and DANTOOSE tightens his grip on the pommel of his sword and prepares to take on this monster RPG. YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS FAN 00 10 HELL... No, really, this one is dif¬ ferent to other RPCs, in that you can play a multiplayer game, and explore the depths of Diablo’s realm with up to three other peo¬ ple. You can do this by playing over modem, LAN, or with a connection to the Internet, you can log on to Battle.net and hook up with people from around the globe! The best thing about this is that the game will keep going as long as there’s still at least one per¬ son playing, so the person who starts a game up, can have other players join, then he or she can leave, and the game doesn’t just end. You actually develop multiplayer characters too, and you can take them into anyone’s game, so you get the chance to have something to show for yesterday’s efforts. This, hopefully, is a taste of more online RPCs. Blizzard are best known for their exceed¬ ingly successful strategy games, Warcraft i 6 2. They’ve come up with what could be described as being something of the same theme, but of a completely different style of game. Diablo is a real time RPC that really emphasises the ’’real time’’ bit by constantly keeping you on your toes, sending all man¬ ner of demonic nasties coming at you out of the depths of the dungeon of Diablo. Sign ct the Devil Dude ... Being a RPC, plot is somewhat important, and Diablo's plot is pretty cool. The cut down version goes something like this: Heaven and Hell duke it out; man springs into existence; some men side with Heaven, some men side with Hell; big demons of Hell decide that men are the key to victory; little demons think that plan is a bit wussy, so they take over Hell and banish the three big demons (Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo) to the mortal world; holy order imprison the three demons in gems after they wreak some havoc; the holy order dwindles away over time; new King settles on burial site of gem holding Diablo; Diablo almost possesses King; Diablo ends up possessing King’s son and starts drawing his power together to do some really mean shit. In summary. Satan is down the bottom of this huge dungeon under the local church, and it’s up to you to stop him from going berko and killing the world. you handsome devil ... The first thing one notices about Diablo is how damn picturesque it is. There’s been wonderful attention to detail, in and around the town where you start. Just as impressive as the backgrounds are the characters them¬ selves, who move in a way that looks star¬ tlingly good. True appreciation of the graph¬ ics in Diablo come to the fore the instant you enter the dungeon, and realise how well the light sourcing is done. You start off only being able to see a short distance, with your vision becoming proportionally more obscure the further away from you things are. This adds tons of feel and atmosphere, especially when a horde of little demonic nasties can be vaguely seen, scurrying in the shadows, preparing to swarm over you. The coolest way to remedy this is to cast a fireball or something and watch it light up the shad¬ ows, it looks great. The layout of the game is quite simple. You play a hero who takes various missions from the town where the desecrated church resides. The town has all the standard RPC town type things there for you, like a weapons shop, a healer’s place, a magic store, an inn... but that’s about it, since all the troubles lately. The interface is about as dead simple as you could possibly want in an RPC, you click on where you want to go, or what you want to attack. You can also pull up your spell book, character screen or inventory and it splits the screen, so you can keep moving whilst you adjust things, etc. There are three classes to choose from: Warrior. Rogue, and Sorcerer... all of which have their advantages and disadvantages. The Wanior is great in hand to hand, but takes ages to develop any magical skills, the Sorcerer is great with magic, but quite lousy in melee combat. The Rogues, however, seems to be quite balanced, and their spe¬ cialty with the bow makes them great at overcoming opponents before there’s much risk of death at all. So Diablo is not a predictable experience every time you start a new game, Blizzard have cleverly decided to go with a random level generator, which simply adds certain fixed quest bits into an otherwise random game. This is particularly useful with multi¬ player games, where some friends can get together and tackle a new dungeon any old time they want. Another example of sensible game design is evident in the immediate introduction of the ’’Town Portal” spell, which allows you to zip back to town from any point in the dun¬ geon, but it also leaves the portal there, so after you’re done in town, you can step straight back down into the spot you left the dungeon, rather than having to descend through a stupid amount of levels that you’ve cleared out. All manner of quests, magic items, mon¬ sters and special opponents are there to make it a proper RPC, but it’s all so much more user friendly and visually rewarding than your average RPC, so it will appeal to folks that aren’t normally into the genre. A truly polished and top notch action RPC that has been well worth the wait. HANG AROUND HERE LONG ENOUGH ANR ALIENS WILL COME... YOU WATCH NOW LOOK... I M NOT INTERESTED... REALLY... NO... YOU CAN'T RUY ME A DRINK, THE LAUGHING STOCK OF HELL... THE POOR DEMONS THAT ENDED UP YELLOW, AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: RPG/ACTION PLAYERS: 1-4 PUBLISHER: RUZZARR PRICE: $89.95 RATING: MIS-*' REQUIREMENTS: PENT 60MHZ, 8MR RAM (16 FOR MULTIPLAYER), WIN 95 VISUALS 90 Lovely graphics, with super smooth animation and great light sourcing SOUND 90 The : music is very well composed, and the SFX and speech are top notch. GAMEPLAY 92 So thoroughly addictive it’s scary. Extremely playable and fun. LONGTERM 92 One player it might not turn out to be a big stayer, but play this one online, and you’ll be back for more. OVERALL 92 % The most readily playable RPG ever... another Rliizard masterpiece. REFER TO PAGE S FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 71 72 »HYPER review pc SOME RACISM... There are fifteen different races to choose from in M002 and they all have their own special abilities. For instance, the Psilons, my favourite at the moment, are brilliant sci¬ entists and receive very handy research bonuses. On the other hand, the Mrrshan are excellent fighters, thanks to their Warlord heritage, and gain a big ship-to-ship attack bonus. Which one you pick will depend on the style of play you wish to adopt. If you don’t like any of the existing fifteen, you can also customise your own race, adjusting each bonus or penalty to your heart’s content. MOO2 is a very flexible game. Master of Orion 2 Once asain the galaxy needs conquering, and DAVID WILDGOOSE was the one to don the Star Trek uniform and boldly review where no contributor has reviewed before. Colony Leaders Ship Officers '•«V /^j • Admiral Slith \i/ ' i Helmsman +2! •* ST a ' or jaf 'V Ordnance Si'* (jyf Weaponry l 1*1 Admiral Diablo ol * I Ordnance % i Weaponry f i Assassin Al Commando % “ '• s pv Master _ Admiral Dalan ^ 9 Fighter Pilot* i Helmsman* R. ^ ; 51 Ordnance* Ifc t i Weaponry* ftRTEON^ 81 Ka,,,0US * _ Admiral Loknar / H Fighter Pilot* ) * v - jf Galactic Lore* l« ” ‘ | 1J& H* 1 v ^ I ** | Z' m [i*» A :K r - J Ih» K .. J# It ** l£ m j Set 1: W JL^ ,J| Ft# d —.—i. yH* 1 f* 1' *** m j %m i ( ; fej U <- [jH Avenger 0 ' Helmsman* * /J Ordnance* ; Weaponry* ♦37 | 0 *37 L— +371 • jj . - +371L- - ♦37 K t FLEET OPERATIONS mm mzzsm . i i I iCTT-.T.' 1 ! IS THAT IIATMAN? ir irri' 1 BJi j . TECH REVIEW i"i ^EEI In ll JJ il_It .. . . jifeaiii GREEN IECHV SMII... AIRIGHP Warning! If you’re scared witless by arcane and end¬ lessly complex strategy games then please, for you own good, look away now. Master Of Orion 2 is a highly sophisticated, resource management space combat inter- galactic conquest (whatever) type of game. It’s big, it’s black, it’s very, very scary. The plot or background sounds really exciting and, like all great science fiction, relies upon the our fascina¬ tion with the unknown. Two ancient, almighty civilisa¬ tions warred for centuries, hurling star systems across the universe, until the Orions eventually triumphed. Savouring victory perhaps a touch too sadistically, the Orions decided to imprison their defeated foes, the Antarans, in a "pocket dimension" outside of time and space. Then suddenly, the Orion race vanished, leaving only the Guardian to watch over their rich, but empty, home world. The great question is - what happened to the Orions? Also, what became of the Antarans? And, more worryingly, will they be back? As Emperor of one of the existing races in the galaxy, you are battling for control of what the Orions and Antarans have left behind. At the start of the game, you can choose all sorts of different starting options - from the size of the map and the age of the galaxy to the technolo¬ gy level and possibility of random events. For most games, though, you will begin with a single colony (your home planet) located randomly in one of the numerous star systems on the map. Initially there’s not a hell of a lot to concern yourself with, since you have only one colony, few people, little technology, and barely a handful of ships. Yes, MOO2 can be extremely slow going for the first few, urn, hundred turns. Each colony splits its population into three sections - farmers, workers and scientists. Assigning colonists to these three groups will determine, respectively, how much food, industry (mainly buildings) and research (building and weapon technology) that colony produces. To expand your empire you need to build colony bases and ships, so plenty of workers might seem like a good idea. But then you realise you need to research ways to improve your spacefleets, to discover things like Ion Drives and Neutronium Armour, and for that you need more scientists. And yet, you also have to continually upgrade your existing colonies with such use¬ ful things as Atmospheric Renewers and Robotic Factories, which means more workers. By now, you’re probably run¬ ning out of food and should be thinking of investing in some more farmers or perhaps a Hydroponic Farm. Except that you’ve also just used all your available colonists, and have to concentrate on increasing the population growth through Housing or Cloning Centres. But these require more research and workers, too! Aargh! MOO2 is great, believe me. Essentially it’s very similar to games like Civilization, but in space. It has less imme¬ diate appeal than Civ - basically because all that techy sci-fi stuff (Class M Red Giants, Low-G Radiated planets, Neural Scanners, Tachyon Communications, etc) is less familiar - but it ultimately offers more variety and game- play depth. The reason for this, I think, lies in the bril¬ liantly-conceived Diplomacy feature. In most other games, this is often little more than an afterthought, but in MOO2 it is the crowning achievement of an already superb game. Once you have come in contact with anoth¬ er race, you can enter into valuable trade and research treaties, forge alliances, exchange technologies (v. Useful), placate foes by offering them gifts, send in spies on espionage or sabotage missions, and declare war. Best of all, you can make various reasonable and not-so-rea- sonable demands (to make peace or declare war on some¬ one else, to stop them spying on you, or for a tribute or star system in return for leaving them alone) of any other race. Though, of course, they won’t always oblige. If you like using your brain, you will love Master Of Orion 2. 3547 3 ) ' -T Tl i • : ♦ 20? BC ^ ♦‘144 (305)., * * M . ■ ♦ B6C0G>'_ J ~4 turns , 24".860 HP J * s ±1U. f . f t. -u- J J 0 *±, u + i: '■ 'l[j l- Iiinxi TAUREANS... THIS MONTH YOU LI MEET EXCITING NEW PEOPLE. AND PROBABLY HAVE MANY SLEEZY ENCOUNTERS... OH... AND YOU ALSO GET TO KILL THINGS! Combat, in MOO2, is almost an entirely new game. And one that I’m not really sure goes together with the rest of it. When you enter a fight the game to a 2D grid, upon which the battle is played out, with you issuing commands over where each ship should move and who they should shoot at. It’s not particularly exciting, but maybe, given a bit more time, it will grow on me. You can choose to switch this "Tactical" combat mode off, if you wish, and just concentrate on the resource manage¬ ment side of things. I did just that, for most of the time, and didn’t feel like I was missing out. Doing this, how¬ ever, will mean you cannot design your own ships for construction. Whatever, it’s up to you. REFER TO PAGE S FOR SCORING REVISION HYPER» 73 issues back Wif&m HYPER» URBAN STRIKE MOkE MK2 SCCKCTS Sofum No home is complete without the complete collection of HYPER. But don't despair. For a mere $7.50 an issue deluding«„■ becaute what we have here it tome very teriout thooting game challenges Forttartert. it t not jutt like you have a tew timple t^ing pattemt to remember, becaute there are a total ot twenty-one ditterent thooting garnet within Mighty Hitt.you come acrott thete garnet in random pattemt at you play through garnet in one ot three ditticulty levels It’t hard to tay wether it t a good thing or not. but whiltt playing through the game, you'll come up againtt ttaget ot wildly varying ditticulty right next to each other. The good tide ot thit it you get a mixture ot challenge, and that teeling ot being "da man’’ (or da grrl). The down tide it. you can be coatting. then get an impottibly hard ttage to complete. Such ditticult tatkt include nailing three twinging eloekt with one thot. by waiting till they're all lined up. giving you a good., oh I'd tay 0.3 ot a tecond to react. Another tough one it trying to get tome guy to land on a ratt. by thooting hit helium balloont at the right pace and balance to he tallt at the right rate. Convertely. there are ttupidly eaty ttaget. like a tcene ot tour bottlet on a wall... one popt it't cork, and you thoot it... ta da! All in all. thit one it really tor the teriout gun fireak only. There t a tew thingt in here that will tett even the bett marktmen. although it could be argued that the tight gun needt to be calibrated very caretully to get any true accuracy out ot it. you're really better ott with Virtua Cop 2 tolks DAN TOOSE 55 53 aA ME PLAY 69 62 * ACCGI^Jjl jgj Now golfers can create their own courses, play against golfers across the room or around the world, and challenge golfing legend lack Nicklaus on one of his own signature courses. Jack Nicklaus Golf 4 delivers a golfing experience that sets new standards for game play and course realism. PC CD-ROM PC HARDWARE REQUIRE MENTS Windows '95 ■ IBM 486 66mhz or compatible, 8 meg. RAM, 2x CD-ROM drive, . . sound card, mouse www.accolade.com • v. ' Proudly distributed by V UMf f b D 476 78 »NYPER byte size AIO Cuba! PC MAX . Mechanized Assault G Exploration PC Eternal Darkness PC AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: combat flight sim PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION PLAYERS: 1-8 PRICE: >89.95 RATING: G 8 ♦ AVAILABLE: now CATEGORY: TURN BASED strategy PUBLISHER: INTERPLAY PLAYERS: 1-4 PRICE: >89.95 RATING: G 8 AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: QUAKE ACCESSORY PLAYERS: 1-NETWORK PUBLISHER: ACTURA PRICE: TB A RATING: Ml 5* Several attempts have been made at Aio Warthog simulations and all of them suck. Activision’s latest title Aio Cuba!, despite the overtones of U.S. imperialism in its title, probably sucks the least. Casual flight simmers be warned though this is definitely NOT a seat of the pants experience, and I don’t necessarily mean that it won’t cause fibrillations in your bladder or anything, just that it is a simulation in the true sense of the word. The first thing you notice about Aio, or rather the first thing you don’t notice, is a complete lack of texture mapping on the terrain graphics. It’s almost a nostalgia trip seeing the generic polygon landscape stretch off into the distance when you take to the air and in some ways it’s also a bit of a disappointment in the sense that the Aio is a ground support aircraft and tends to spend a lot of its mission time near or rather close to the dirt. Therefore it would be nice to fly over interesting dirt instead of featureless boring dirt but I suppose that’s a matter of taste. Where Activision have put a big effort in however is in the implementation of the Aio’s flight characteristics, avionics and weapons control. Aio Cuba is a boffins delight. Careful attention has been paid to all of the aircraft’s systems to make sure they are as ’realistic’ as possible, you can even manipulate most of the important cockpit controls manually with your trusty mouse if your into that sort of thing. Individual weapon characteristics have also been implemented with an eye for detail, although the designers have probably been a bit generous with regards to the accuracy of the Warthogs laser guided munitions, as statistics from the Culf War prove that they aren’t as good as the U.S. Airforce would like everyone to believe. If you’re a combat flight sim freak that digs authenticity and doesn’t mind a lack of super duper, up to the minute graphics technology Aio Cuba! could be the experience you’ve been craving for, and if you have access to a network or modem you can even try dogfighting in one of these beasts. 70 74 75 GEORGE SOROPOS Wanted, enthusiastic self starter who loves his work. Must be healthy, sinsle and available immediately. Duties include maimins . crushing, controlling large amounts of destructive military hardware and polishing the silver on Wednesdays. Applicants should contact MAX headquarters immediately, your missions, it application is successtul. will involve capturing disputed worlds tor your masters so that they may exploit the poop out ot them and get rich at tat and grossly ugly. At your disposal is an impressive array ot land, sea and air based vehicles and weapons, built with the latest techniques and employing all ot your masters scientitic know how. These machines ot destruction also need structures to create and support them and resources to fuel those structures. All ot which can be tound and exploited by your loyal robotic minions. Combat will take place simultaneously or turn by turn across the varied terrain ot the disputed worlds and no one will be allowed home until a victor is declared. M.A.X. quite a big game, lots ot units, buildings and variety, in terms ot tactical options. The designers have tried to create a game which combines the immediacy and excitement ot a real time challenge with the added depth ot a turn based system and haven't done loo badly at all. The graphics are pretty cool and one thing I like in particular is the way that you can zoom in and out smoothly to set the game screen exactly how you want it. Resources don't have to be mined a-la C&C but simply built over, the mining station will do the rest. Power stations provide the energy your factories need to build new units and to keep your defensive installations on-line, your military farce is quite a formidable one. made up of various types of aircraft, ships, tanks and other such goodies, each with their own methods of attack and defence. While not having the character of a Red Alert or Warcraft 2 M.A.X. wilt give gamers who tong far a bit more depth than those titles have to offer a decent run for their money white still being accessible and fun. GEORGE SOROPOS 82 70 78 The longevity of Quake lies in its multiplayer gaming. Many will find however, that other than the levels in Episode i, and the specified Deathmatch levels, that unless you have a dozen people playing at once, there aren’t many suitable levels to play multiplayer Quake. Now while there are several map editing programs floating around there out on the Internet, most people don’t have the time or patience required to get into making Quake levels, and a disc full of combat arenas could be just what they’re after. Well, it was inevitable that someone was going to do it, and Actura software have been the first with Eternal Darkness. This compilation is really just a hundred extra levels to use whilst playing Quake. The levels are in no way linked or sequential. In fact most of the single player levels are really just a dozen rooms or so (sometimes not even that), with about twenty monsters to take down. Why so basic and small? Well if you hunt around on the Internet, you’ll find a lot of these levels that have been done by various folks from around the globe. Yeah, you can get all this stuff for free. In fact the box even states that you are paying for the CD, distribution, and the two door luxury sports car of the head of Actura Software... and that you are NOT paying for the levels. The big strength of Eternal Darkness is that anyone who doesn’t have Internet access, who happens to want to play on some small Deathmatch levels can get everything they need to give them many hours of deathmatching pleasure. The only other thing on the CD are a heap of QuakeC patches, which due to some very bodgey coding, overlook your own .CFG file. So yes, you can use the guided rockets patch, but you’ll need to reconfigure your controls once you load it up, and this goes for every patch on the CD. In summary, this is a bunch of levels and patches which you can get free off the Internet, which aren’t even set up in such a way to be user friendly. Only useful for Quake nuts that don’t have Internet access. The scores are a reflection of how the levels and patches rate. DAN TOOSE 50 AVAILABLE FROM: NSW The Gamesmen, The Games Wizards VIC Blockbuster Music QLD Game X Press SA Game Guru WA Hi Tech World and leading software retailers. World Wrestling Federation and its logos are trademarks ot TitanSports, Inc. © 1996 TitanSports. Inc All Rights Reserved. Acdaim is a division and registered trademark of Acclaim Entertainment. Inc. ® & © 1996 Acclaim Entertainment. Inc. All Rights Reserved 80 »HYPER b y 1 e size Goosebumps: Escape From Horrorland PC (Win 95) AVAILABLE: mow CATEGORV: INTERACTIVE ADVENTURE PL AVERS: ONE PUBLISHER: DREAMWORKS PRICE: f 59.0 0 RATING: G 8 ♦ Wages of War PC AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: STRATEGY PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: NEW PRICE: TBA RATING: Ml 5* Death Rally PC AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: action PUBLISHER: APOGEE PLAVERS: 1-4 PRICE: TAB RATING: Ml 5 * WORLD COMPUTING if from at the very beginning of sitting down to Goosebumps you acknowledge that this is indeed a game for the very young, you can pretty much guarantee that’ll you’ll have quite a bit of fun playing it. it’* based on R.L Stineis Goosebumps* best-selling books. So who the hell is this Stine character? I had no idea, so I mentioned the name amongst some friends children. My ears are still ringing from the high-pitched squeals of delight that followed. 1 suppose you could say Stine is the Enid Blyton of the nineties, with a much more contemporary feel. And no Noddy equivalent. As you can derive from the title, Goosebumps (the game) is set in Horrorland, a place well covered in One Day at Horrorland (the book). As for the plot, the games main character, Lizzy, was baby-sitting her younger brother and his friend before some cataclysmic storm whisked them away to Horrorland. You’ve got to get the adventurous troupe back to middle suburbia, it doesn’t get more simple than that. Played in first person, Goosebumpsi photo-realistic environment looks very impressive. The only complaint would come from the digitised actors ’pasted’ on - still a little too stiff to look convincing, but sometimes there are some very nice touches, like realistic lighting on Lizzy’s face whilst she’s standing near a fire. The speed and quality of the animation from screen to screen is excellent, the game runs smoothly as a whole. The adventure bits are fairly easy too, perfect for the children. To keep the younger players interested, there are two side quests - collect 777 coins (well, they couldn’t have 666) and 10 trading cards. The story is compelling, the adventure addictive. Children will love this, as will their parents. While this title may be a whole lot of fun, it’s not really worth the cost if you are outside of the 0-12 age group, if you’re over twelve, subtract 15 from the overall score. MARCH STEPNIK 86 SOUND 82 8 / 80 82 Wage* Of War ia Aubtitled "The BuAineAA Of Battle" not becau&e it'd a hard-boiled, no nonden&e. AeriouA combat Aimulator. but due to the tact that it'd a wargame all about money. The back of the box hyperboli&ed that WOW (and what an inappropriate acronym that is!) is an "Interne Atrategic blend of tactical troop warfare and high-AtakeA buAineAA Aimulation". And. godh. it that doeAn't get you all wet and excited I don't know what will. In actuality, you run a minor league mercenary operation from out ot Sydney (the guerilla capital ot the world, apparently). Hardly what I would call "high AtakeA buAineAA". but maybe thatA juAt me. The telephone ringA in your office and Aomeone offerA you a contract (redcue Aomeone. Ateal Aomething. or juAt Ahoot lotA ot people). Accept it and you'll have to do a Apot ot reAearch about the area, betore aAAembling your team ot mercA and fitting them out with all AortA of projectile weaponA. you can take a break from all thiA by calling your "Mom" or dialling out for a pizza (an irrelevant, but humorouA touch). Finally, you ought to arrange your flight detailA. Though, um. quite why a mercenary outfit would book a flight on a normal commercial airline iA utterly beyond me. I AUApect the ridiculouA plot might have told me. but it woa ao awful I gave up reading halfway through. Onto the miAAion itAelf and you are in tum-baAed iAometric Atrategy territory. Make your little camouflaged boyA and girlA wander around the place, taking cover behind theAe freed, crawling beneath open windowA. kicking in doorA and Apraying bulletA, keeping track of your movement pointA. all that Aort of thing. The twiAt with WOW iA that. inAtead of Aimply completing the miAAion at hand, you have to do it in the moAt efficient, money-making way pOAAible. you even employ an incredibly irritating accountant to tell you to Atop waAting money all the time. There’A nothing fundamentally wrong with WOW. it'A juAt a bit boring really and nothing that Jagged Alliance didn't do better Aeveral yearA ago. 68 59 70 DAVID WILDGOOSE Shareware kings Apogee are masters of simple and addictive gameplay and nothing shows it better than Death Rally. There aren’t any polygons in sight here, no light sourcing or shading but I’ve probably spent as much time playing Death Rally as I have Grand Prix 2 and, dare I say it, had a lot more fun. The player starts out with a Volkswagon Beetle (?), a small amount of cash and a driver ranking at the bottom of a very long list. The aim of course is to get to the top of the list where you can slug it out with 'da man Duke Nukem himself. Your not going to get any where near that far with the Volkswagon so, when you’ve got the cash, you can upgrade to something a little spiffier. There are six cars in all with each one being more expensive than the last as well as faster and better armed. The better cars also cost a lot more to repair so you have to be careful about the timing of a new purchase! These beasts have got guns too, as well as mines, and winning a race by being the last one left alive can earn you a nice little bonus. Occasionally unscrupulous operators will ask you to do a drug run or to wipe out an opponent in exchange for a fat wad of cash but be careful, if you fail to do the deed your ’Sponsor’ will send everyone against you in your next race, making life rather difficult. Of course each car can also be individually souped up with various doodads - engine upgrades, armour, tyres and such. But they cost money too, as does sabotaging your opponents cars! Racing takes place on quaint top down 2D tracks against three opponents (computer or human) and although this might sound a bit dated it’s actually lots of fun. The computer drivers can be nasty little buggers and sometimes just finishing is an achievement no matter what you placed. All up Death Rally is perfect for gamers who like their learning curves to look like the top of a pool table and who appreciate frivolous fun. GEORGE SOROPOS 70 SOUND 65 *75 70 70 IALLENGE : REE official Rally Challenge T-Shirt with every purchase significantly better than ‘Rally Championship” -PC Powerplay, January, 1997 CHALLENGE Proudly distributed by ROADSHOW ^ INTERACTIVE www.village.com.au www.5iiveriightning.com ©Copyright Silver Lighting Software 1996 ' \ 1 1 f m 1 1 1 L j ■L Hi * 1 m iill if i i , E 1 Ml? jfl i jT 82 »HYPER byte size Dark Forces PlayStation AVAILABLE: ?? CAIEGORV: ACTION PLAVERS: ONE PUBLISHER: LUCASARTS PRICE: s 8 9.95 RUING: MIS* Rebel Assault 2 PlayStation miUBlE: NOW CATEGORY: action PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: LUCASARTS PRICE: s 89.9 5 RATING: C 8 ♦ Space Jam PlayStation AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: SILLY SPORTS PLAYERS: 1-6 (WITH MULTITAP) PUBLISHER: ACCLAIM PRICE: s 89.9 5 RATING: G Ohhh, I've waited long and hard for this one... Dark Forces seems to have been forever pencilled in on the Playstation release schedule. Finally LucasArts have delivered the goods, and 1 can’t help but feel exhilarated all over again... and yet sadly disappointed. Just the thought of how they could beef up the graphics and sound on Sony’s 32-bit baby had me in an itchy sweat... but for some reason, Dark Forces just hasn’t been given the enhancement it deserves. Final Doom on the Playstation was a similar disappointment. Messy textures and slow-down are apparent in both, and although Dark Forces doesn’t suffer from the "sticky” controls that plague Final Doom, it seems to have an even worse frame rate in some of the larger sections of the levels. The conversion is by no means a bad one, just a little disappointing when you consider the fluid engines achieved in shooters like Alien Trilogy and Descent. You’d expect Dark Forces on a PSX to run at full detail with a whip-fast frame rate, but it just doesn’t. However, looking at the bigger picture, these are but small niggles. Dark Forces is one great game no matter which way you look at it. There have been some minor enhancements in regards to colour, detail and sound - just nothing to write home about. Most of the time the game chugs along nicely, with all the awesome aural effects and splendid action that had everyone salivating the first time around. There are no new missions, but all the old ones are just as exciting the second time around. It’s still a single player game, and all the PC keyboard commands have been well implemented into a PSX control pad layout. There’s really nothing bad you can say about Dark Forces on the Playstation except that it plays like it’s being run on an average PC. But hey - bet your PC never had a 62cm monitor! ELIOT FISH 74 79 85 ONQTIRM 82 79 When Rebel Assault first appeared on the PC, it wowed the world with it's scintillating graphics and none of us really cared how basic the gameplay was. Hey man, this was Star Wars! By the time Rebel Assault 2 burst onto the scene, gamers had grown tired of games packed with FMV and zip-all gameplay. Sure, the quality of the in-game visuals in Rebel Assault 2 are astoundingly good at times - but the gameplay was the same point and click snooze-fest that was the major downfall of the first Rebel Assault. With a Playstation conversion in the works, everyone was hoping that some major changes would be made to improve the gameplay. Well, it just didn't happen. The graphics have been tweaked, with some tidier-looking backgrounds and crisper Full Motion Video - and the programmers have included new polygon-spaceship chase cameras to the cockpit shoot 'em up sections. Unfortunately, this outside view is extremely difficult to use with any accuracy and unless you're up for a major challenge, you’ll be switching straight back over to the cockpit view. Minor improvements aside, there's nothing new about the gameplay, and at best. Rebel Assault 2 will raise a smile but certainly not a sweat. Undoubtedly, the best thing about the game is the newly staged Star Wars FMV which has been executed incredibly well - and yeah, it really makes you feel part of the Star Wars universe. Maybe it’s just the simple fact that you get to play this version on a big TV, but it's a thrill to watch the Star Wars world exploding in front of you. You'll enjoy watching the plot unfold, the special effects and the thundering John Williams soundtrack (which is CD quality of course), making this a treat for major Star Wars fans and collectors of all things Jedi-related. Don't buy it for the game. ELIOT FISH 87 87 17 To 62 Normally, gamed based around a movie are really just a money making scam, with a big name being used to sell a dodgy game. However, when the movie in question is a cartoon, about basketball, it's quite obvious as to why a game based on the movie could be a good idea. Not only does this basketball game feature the amazingly popular Looney Toons characters, but also the even more popular. Michael Jordan. The deal is. the Looney Toons characters are up against the Monstars (big nasty toons with the powers o0 famous basketballers). and they've called on the help 00 Michael Jordan to try and ensure that they win. The game itserf is a three on three basketball game, with very simplistic controls. There's a shoot button, a pass button, and a turbo button, far that extra burst 00 speed when you realty need it. Performing some sick dunks is really quite easy, as the game is really not a hard core basketball sim at all. Instead what we have is a rather cool Looney Toons product which is designed to amuse rather than satisfy your fetish far realistic NBA action. It's not just all about basketball though, as there are numerous challenge stages in Space Jam which are kind 00 like little sub games, which you can use to help improve your team in the real game. Some 00 these stages include a shooting gallery (shooting balls, not guns), a shootout contest, a space race with Speedy Gonzales, and two stages where you search far some 00 MJ's unifarms and gear. 00 course this wouldn't be the same without the ability to play as the bad guys, and you can. both on the court, and in the bonus stages. The graphics are nice and smooth, and not surprisingly, very cartoon-like. The sound is pretty good actually, with commentary throughout, nothing like FIFA 97 or NBA LIVE 97. but it stilt adds a bit to the game. This is 00 course a game aimed at the younger gamers out there, and as a result isn’t the die hard basketball fanatic’s dream game, not having the depth ofl gameplay that such a gamer desires... however, it’s still a good tittle game that should put a smile on the face 00 an.y Looney Toon or MJ fan out there. 0 A N TOOSE VIIU All 73 70 “ 7 / To 7/ byte size Blood & Magic PC AVAILABLE: NOW (ATEGBRV: STRATEGY PLAVERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: INTERPLAY PRICE: A 9 9.15 RATING: G Captain Quazar PC AVAILABLE: now CATEGORY: SHOOT 'EM UP PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: STUDIO 3DO PRICE: f49.95 RATING: Ml 5* Simcopter PC AVAILABLE: now CATEGORY: EVERYTHING PLAYERS: ONE PUBLISHER: maxis PRICE: TBA RATING: G The entourage of real time strategy game continues, this time from Interplay, with a TSR title, Blood 8 Magic. The box has "Advanced Dungeons 6 Dragons” plastered on it, but I’m stuffed if I know why, because other than the fact that the various unit types in Blood 8 Magic happen to also exist in AD8D, there’s really no similarity to the game whatsoever. Blood 8 Magic is essentially a strategy game with five scenarios, where you can play as either side in the conflict and progress through three stages in the scenario... so there are thirty missions all up. What makes for a good real time strategy game? Well, gameplay is an obvious feature. You need some depth and options to make the game interesting. Oooops, Blood 8 Magic is possibly the most bland real time strategy game thus far. This is how the game works... You have this centre of power, called a Bloodforge, which absorbs mana, so you can cast spells. You use the Bloodforge to create basal golems, which generate mana for you. To make actual combat units, you send a basal golem off to a building (one of only five types), and invest a bit more mana in having it mutate into a creature. If you wish to build a new structure, you have to find a building foundation (that’s right, you can’t build a structure in that perfectly good field over to your left), and send some basal golems to mutate into a building. There are magic items scattered around the place, for you to improve your units. The selection of items is good, but having them just sitting around is really quite ridiculous. The graphics are really quite plain, with the units having no real character to them at all. Despite the fact that the graphics could not possibly be stretching your processor, the game runs at a dreadfully slow pace, and there’s no option to change that at all. Just a few simple things could have been done to make this a much better game, like a few more building types, etc. The multiplayer option is a plus, but it only allows for two players, which is quite lame compared to virtually every other real time strategy game out there nowadays. Not a bad game, but certainly not one to write home about. OAN loose 53 62 "58 66 56 Quasars are these small, intense objects in space, yet they radiate far more light and energy than much larger galaxies. Scientists are baffled as to why this is the case. Quite how it all relates to the man himself. Captain Quazar, is something i cannot explain, but I just thought you'd like to know, anyway. First appearing on that collapsed star of a games console, the 3DO, last year, Captain Quazar is a fairly simple isometric shoot 'em up. The graphics have a nice cartoon feel about them, all bright colours and clean lines. My appreciation disappeared quickly though, when I realised how horribly 2D and poorly animated everything is. Captain Quazar can only move in eight directions, and when you go from one to another he flicks around like a cardboard cut-out. A control method like the one from Relentless (another isometric game), where you spin around on the spot and can then move in any direction you wish, would have served much better. Worse than that. Captain Quazar is an overwhelmingly boring game. You walk to left and shoot a few guys, walk to the right and blow up a rocket, walk up and destroy some crates, walk down and shoot a few more guys. It rarely gets frantic or exciting. It goes nowhere near generating the same kind of white knuckle intensity of similar shoot 'em ups like Robotron or even good old Gauntlet. And neither does it possess the brilliant tactical edge of Soviet Strike or Seek ft Destroy, instead, it just falls somewhere in the middle with nothing to sustain your interest for longer than a couple of goes. And because it only runs under Win95, you'll need a ninja computer to avoid playing at a snail’s pace. Captain Quazar is very dull and I cannot bring myself to write another word about it. OAVID WILOGOOSE 49 63 50 30 45 yeah, yeah. I know it had that dreaded prefix "Sim” in its name - and. yed. I agree that every "Sim” game dince SimCity (and SimCity 2000) had been mind-bogglingly dull and completely anal in approach - and. yed, I realide that you have probably already turned the page in didgudt at the thought ofi yet Another One - and. yed. I am redigned to the tact that no matter what I day in thid review, there'd little chance ot anyone actually buying thid game - BUT. SimCopter id a VZty GOOD GAMC. So. SimCopter id. believe it or not. a dimulation ot helicopterd. But that'd only the beginning, you are a helicopter pilot, trained and equipped to tty middiond ot civic duty within a SimCity created metropolid. The game begind with you dtanding outdide your copter'd hangar. Watching yourdett trom a third-perdon 3D view, you climb aboard your dual-propellered filying machine and take to the dkied. Ot courde. it you widh you can dimply take a dtroll around the city on toot to get dome exercide. It id actually tun to do. and you dhould detinitely try it once. While in the air. you will receive dome kind ot meddage. almodt like a didtredd call. There might be a trattic jam domewhere in the city, or a building id on tire, or a criminal id on the loode. or even a tult- on riot may be taking place. Badically all the problemd you had to deal with in SimCity (except the alien invadiond. untortunately) can dtrike in SimCopter. It id. then, all up to you and your helicopter to dort them out. you'll be carrying udetul thingd like a dpotlight. a water cannon, a tear gad launcher, and a redcue hamedd, to addidt you throughout each middion. And that’d it. How you complete the tadk id entirely lefit to your didcretion. I like that in a game. you can aldo create your own middiond by porting acrodd any city you dedigned yourdelfi in SimCity 2 000. when you become bored ojj the 30 citied provided with the game. An original and rewarding game. DAVID WIIDGOOSC 74 66 JS To 76 HYPER» 83 84 »HYPER p I a y g u i d e Red Alert Strategy Guide This guide is mostly aimed towards helping you improve your multiplayer Red Alert abilities. However, all the tactics in this guide are perfectly valid for single player gaming, but individual mission constraints can often make the winning tactics for that match quite unique. We ve included some general tips that work for either side, and also some tips that are specific for the Allies and some for the Soviets, including key units, and some ideas for attack and defence. Good luck! The Allies have proven to be the better force for those quick enough to utilise their technologies, while the Soviet forces are perfect for those looking for a simple, more straightforward battle plan... as a result the Allied section is a tad longer. GENERAL TACTICS First Steps - The first thing you should do is send out a rifleman or ranger to scout out the map, especially the enemy base. Knowing where things are. and what the enemy is up to is essential for victory. - If you want to spread your base out a bit, simply build your power buildings on the edges of your base, since the area within which you can build things is determined by the proximity to your power sources. This helps against nuke attacks. - Once you’ve established a bit of a force around your base, make sure you don’t forget to put in some defensive buildings. They can take more punishment than your average unit, and as a result can sometime be the deciding factor in the outcome of a fairly evenly matched base battle. - A lot of people feel this undying need to build the most technically advanced units ASAP, so they go and spend all their cash on building up a very advanced base. This is a huge mistake, since the early stages of the game are the most critical ones. Who cares if you’ve got a tech centre and a missile silo if you don’t have any troops or tanks to defend them with? The Fields - Controlling the ore and gem fields is a good way to win the game. You need money to buy forces to kill your opponent, so if you can deny them access to these fields, you will win. If you send a group of tanks into a mineral field, you can often hold that field for the duration of the game, as long as you send in a few other units to help mix the defence up a bit (like rocketmen for use against air troops). - Something that annoys even the most coolheaded players is to attack their ore trucks. Whilst sending a few tanks in can do the job. this is easy to counter with other tanks. A more effective way is to send in a group of air units to pick on an ore truck, since they need to have units that can defend against air units at hand. It’s better to wait till you’ve got a force than can do the job in one go rather than let them get away and repair the truck, undoing all the work you did. - Gemstone fields generate much more income than ore fields, so it’s worth making your harvester travel that little bit further to reap the benefits. - More ore trucks means more money. You should be looking to have several ore trucks as soon as you can afford them. General Tips - Don’t make half arsed attacks. There’s no point in sending in a force that doesn’t look like it will easily accomplish the job you’re giving it. For example, sending a few tanks and half a dozen troops in, will cost you thousands, and most likely just end up dying very quickly. Of course don’t be afraid to send in a smallish force if your enemy has no defenses whatsoever. - If you’re attacking with a group of tanks, it’s worth using one to drive around and squish your opponents. - Don’t get overawed by Tanya’s abilities to the point where you think she’s the answer to everything. Having multiple Tanyas in defence is quite useless, since you need to give her an order for her to do anything. Keeping one or two in p I a y g u i d e your base is handy in the event you see an infantry group making a move on you, or if the enemy captures one of your buildings and doesn’t sell it in time for you to let Tanya blow it up. Assigning a hot key to Tanya for immediate use is a good idea. - If you really want a unit to perform in combat against a slower enemy unit, the best way is to use the Control key to begin force firing on the target, and use the Q key to set up waypoints for your unit to follow (this isn’t in the manual). For example, a light tank and potentially take down a mammoth tank if this is done right, but don’t count on it. - If you’ve got more than 5000 credits spare, you’re doing something wrong. What you’re doing wrong is not spending your money. It’s better to have 30 tanks and a vast array of troops under your command than an unguarded base and a big bank balance. You should constantly be churning out tanks and troops. Once you get that cashflow happening, spend it all. - Protect your important buildings from Tanya and Engineer attacks. This can be done several ways. Setting up defensive buildings (pillboxes, flamers, tesla coils) is a good idea, since if you’ve failed to notice the enemy sneaking in, these buildings will be alert to the problem. Dogs are also handy, since they can take down Tanya or an engineer in a single bite. If Tanya is attacking a building, and you’re quick enough, you can sell the building and watch your new infantry units blow Tanya to bits. - It’s always a good idea to have excess power, for two reasons. Firstly, having excess power makes your A-Bombs prepare much more quickly (building more silos does not). Secondly, and most importantly, it protects you from being left helpless in the event you lose a power station or two. Not having enough power makes you build units and buildings at a rate which leaves much to be desired. - Putting rocketmen-amidst your tanks makes the whole force twice as strong. If your opponent spends time squishing your troops, they’ll be taken down at the same time by your own tanks. - Keep an engineer or two in your base in case you either have to reclaim a captured building, or you need to make emergency repairs. - Having more war factories greatly increases the speed at which you can churn out tanks, which can ultimately decide who wins. - Force Destroy bridges if it’s in your tactical interest. Of course, defend them if they're of benefit to you. ALLIED SPECIFIC TACTICS Units. Rangers - Other than a quick scout of the map early on, quite useless Artillery - Okay if you’re playing against a novice, but way too easy to take down Destroyers - Whilst being a more powerful unit than the Gunboat, their lack of speed makes them less effective against taking out those subs, and as a result, a much less useful unit. Rocketmen - The Soviet forces have much better tanks than yours, so you need these guys to ensure your tank forces don’t get slaughtered. Longbow - Since the Soviets usually have you out gunned in a tank battle, having some Longbow choppers hammer them from above at the same time can give you a fighting chance. Attacking 1. The Allies have a good chance of pulling off a surprise victory if the enemy base is reasonably close to water. Using the Chronosphere. you can send a Cruiser right near your opponent’s base and hammer their construction yard in two shots. Things to do just before this are: - check that area of water with a gunboat or two, to ensure you won’t get monstered by a bunch of subs. - Send in a token force to arrive just before you teleport the cruiser in. If your cruiser is their only target, you’ll go down fast. Sending in an empty APC and a few light tanks will fool most players, and will discharge their Tesla coil (if they have one), which is very important if your cruiser will appear within its range. This, of course is not easy, and is not worth working towards if your enemy is well dug in. 2. Don’t bother trying to Chronosphere an APC with anyone in it, as it kills all the passengers. 3. If you Chronosphere a radar jammer right next to your opponent’s radar dome when you’re about to attack you can confuse and frustrate your opponent. 4. Sending a ranger or rifleman in at the front of a base assault can be handy against a tesla coil. Better to lose a ranger than a tank. 5. When encountering a mammoth tank that is escorted by heavy tanks, take out the heavies first, as they’ll be wearing you down much faster than the mammoth actually is. 6. It’s going to be hard to match it with a Soviet opponent in their own base with tanks, so make sure you have plenty of air support... or even consider an entirely air based attack if the enemy is not set up to defend against it. Defending 1. Use gunboats to defend against subs. If you keep your gunboat moving it will be too fast for the subs to hit with their slow torpedos. Using the Q (waypoint) key is the easiest way to keep moving. 2. To keep your ore trucks from getting taken out by air attacks, you can get a GAP generator to follow your truck around. The air unit can’t see it, so it can’t attack it. 3. Your tanks can stand up to the Soviet tanks if you have a decent number of rocketmen helping them. This also helps them from getting worn away by air attacks. 4. If you’re up against a Soviet player who uses the common tank rush tactic, use a couple of minelayers to make it that extra bit harder to come at you. 5. A particularly sneaky move to use against Soviet forces is to invest most of your efforts in building a group of troops, and a MCV, then after they’ve found you, sell your construction yard, and replace it with a fake one. Then, haul off and start a new base elsewhere, where your opponent is unlikely to bother exploring. This works best against players who are into building up a big force for that "big attack”, since they tend not to keep checking on your base. Using a few units to defend the fake base can help fool them. 6 . The best anti-Tanya defense is to build several pillboxes around your important buildings, they’re more reliable than anything else. 7. Completely conceal your base with GAP generators. A confused enemy will usually end up taking silly risks. This should be an early priority, unless you’re up against an early tank rush. Take time moving towards the enemy base, building war factories and refineries and GAP concealing them as you go. If the enemy starts using spy planes, put a few AA guns along their flight path. SOVIET SPECIFIC TACTICS Units. Dogs - Not to be underestimated. Easy to defeat alone, but a pack of dogs are often way too fast for a bunch of troopers, especially those pesky rocketmen. Great for stopping Tanyas and engineers. Grenadiers - The fastest of the troopers, and the best at taking out groups of enemy troopers. Very handy against rocketmen. Heavy Tanks - Usually the way most Soviet players win. If you can build a force of these babies up fast, you can usually walk over your opponent. V2 Rocket Launchers - Not a good front line unit, but handy if used late in an attack. Most useful if you can get them to sit secure behind other forces. Mammoth Tank - Scarier in defence than in attack. Migs - A squadron of these can be used to pick on a target a long way away in a very short time. Attacking 1. Tanks, tanks and more tanks. Your heavy tanks will decimate allied ground units. Just send a horde of these at your enemy’s base and you’re gonna hurt them bad... or win. 2. Use the Iron Curtain for specialist raids. The most effective is the Chinook helicopter attack, lust load your Chinook with Tanyas and/or Engineers, place it halfway between your base and theirs (very important), Iron Curtain it, and get it into their base ASAP. Park it right next to the building you want to destroy/take over. This is a killer attack method. 3. Nuke your opponent’s power stations, then send in the Migs. Their air defences will be down, so they’ll have a free run. A sizeable squadron can take out the construction yard fairly quickly. 4. The Allies biggest advantage over you is their GAP capabilities, if you can take out power strucutres with tank rushes, followed by a decent Mig strike to destroy the buildings in the area, you can halt that shroud of black that keeps creeping towards you. 5. V2 Rocket Launchers can take down power buildings very quickly, and these slow moving units can sometimes be easily missed as they make a casual approach to an enemy building that isn’t well defended. Don’t forget to use their range advantage. Defending 1. Playing against the Allies, it’s essential you have a sub force to take down enemy cruisers. If you don’t, expect to get hammered every time you near the shore. 2. Mammoth tanks are a great defensive unit, since they can blast the hell out of most vehicles very quickly, and are also effective against infantry units and air units due to their missile capabilities. Don’t rely on just having a couple of them around though, because they’ll be singled out in most attacks. 3. Don’t just use the Iron Curtain in offence. If your enemy is concentrating all their efforts on one building or unit, Iron Curtain it, and let your units get in free hits whilst the enemy wastes ammo. 4. Be careful not to let a GAP generator creep up on your radar dome, as this will usually be all the Allies need to launch a very confusing raid on you. HYPER» 85 cheat mode SEGA SATURN TOMB RAIDER 99.99 VIRTUA FIGHTER KIDS 99.99 FIGHTING VIPERS 99.99 VIRTUA ON 99.99 VIRTUA COP 2 99.99 STEERING WHEEL 129.99 PLAYSTATION NBA HANG TIME 99.99 DUKE NUKEM 3D 99.99 CRASH BANDICOOT 99.99 DESTRUCTION DERBY (2) 99.99 M K TRILOGY 99.99 FINAL DOOM 99.99 STEERING WHEEL (MADCATZ) 139.99 ULTRA 64 (COMING SOON) STAR FOX 64 STAR WARS 64 DOOM 64 ALIEN VS PREDATOR DONKEY KONG FANTASY FIFA SOCCER 64 M K TRILOGY LEGEND OF ZELDA 64 NBA HANG TIME 64 KILLER INSTINCT GOLD CRUIS'N USA 64 ALSO AVAILABLE GAME BOY ATARI LYNX SUPER NINTENDO CD-ROM TRADE IN YOUR GAMES NOW!!! VIRTUAL REALITY GAMES 568 Oxford St, Bondi Junction Tel: (02) 9369 5700 409 Gardeners Rd, Rosebery Tel: (02) 9317 4506 Megarace 2 PC Enter in these on the command line. SPEED - Faster car MONEY - 99.999 Money when you start a new game MAP - Shows map of the track while racing CAME - Skip the intro NOLANCE - Skip Lance Boyle if you want to enable all the cheats type in MEGARACE SPEED MONEY MAP CAAAE NOLANCE to run Megarace. Virtua Fighter PC PLAY AS COLD DURAL: In the Character Selection menu, press Down, Up, Right then DEL + Left You should hear a sound to confirm the cheat working. PLAY AS SILVER DURAL: At the character select screen, enter Down, Up, Right, DEL + Left You should hear a sound to confirm the cheat working. ADD DURAL TO RECORDS SCREEN: At the "Press Start" screen, press Up 17 times then ENTER. Co to the options screen and you should hear "Ring Out.” Dural’s stats will now be on the Records screen. RING SIZE AND STAGE SELECT: At the "Press Start” screen, press Up 12 times then ENTER. Co to the options screen and you should hear ”K.O.” Move the cursor down to Exit, then press down once more to make the cursor disappear. Press DEL and a second options screen will appear. SLOW MOTION REPLAYS: At the end of a round, press and hold DEL*END*PgDn and the replay will be in slow motion. CHOOSE THE VICTORY TAUNT: Hold either DEL, END, or PgDn before the character does his/her victory stance and you will be able to select which one you see. Street Fighter Alpha 2 Saturn AKUMA IN SUPER TURBO OUTFIT 1. Co to Akuma 2. Press Start then let go. 3. Co to Adon. Cen, Sakura. Rose, Sodom, Dan, Guy. Rolento, Sakura, Rose, Birdie, then back to Akuma A. Press and hold Start then press either the punch or kick buttons. CHUN LI IN SUPER TURBO OUTFIT 1. Press and hold Start on Chun Li’s icon. 2. Press either the punch or kick buttons. Johnny Bazookatone PC LEVEL PASSWORDS Level 1: ZARTACLA Level 2: RINCMYBEL Level 3: SCRAMBLED Level 4: ANASTHET 1 C Level 5: ETACSLLEH SkyNET PC Hold ALT and at the same time to be able to enter these codes: CARBLE - Cheat enable toggle ARNOLD - All weapons SUPERUZI - Get the Super UZI ILLBEBACK - Skips to next scene ICANTSEE - Show viewscreen WHOAMI - Shows your name COUNTERS - Shows current co-ordinates HELLO - Shows message: Hello? Syndicate Wars PC EXTRA CREDITS: Add the switch /m to the PLAY.BAT file so it will read a)main /w /g /m When you are in the game just hit the . key when you’re equipping your agents to add 10,000 credits to your account. You can hit it as many times as you want. Skeleton Warriors Saturn Pause the game and enter any of the following. Invincibility: C,RICHT,A,Z,Y,LEFT,A, RICHT,DOWN,B,A,B,Y. Infinite Lives: B, A, Down, B, A, Left, Down, Right, Y, Up. Infinite Crystals: Left, A, Z, Y, C, Right, A, B, B, Y, Down, A, Down, Down, Y. Daytona Championship Edition Saturn MIRROR MODE: Hold X ♦ Y ♦ Z while selecting a track. PLAY WITH DAYTONA SUPER CAR: Place first on all five tracks in Normal mode. PLAY AS UMA: To race with the Uma (horse), place first on all five tracks in Hard mode. PLAY AS UMAz: To race with the silver UMA2, use the Uma to finish the game in Normal mode. Virtua Cop 2 Saturn BIG HEADS: On the third option screen there is an entry with all question marks. If you play the game 58 times (why 58?) it will turn into Big Heads. CHARACTER SELECT: At the stage select screen use control pad to enter the following codes: Rage - Press X to select your starting stage Smarty - Press Y to select your starting stage Janet - Press Z to select your starting stage Note: You can select the same cop in 2-player mode. FICHT END BOSS: When you select the stage you want, rapidly fire at the little arrow pointing the first stage until time runs out. You should be fighting the end boss. Tomb Raider Playstation ALL WEAPONS & FULL AMMO: Call up the inventory screen and press Li, A, R2, L2, L2, R2, O, Li. Worms Saturn NEW WEAPONS: At the weapon options screen press C ♦ Z together 9 times. If you did this right, new weapons should appear. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Mega Drive CHEAT MENUS: On the main menu, press B, A, Down, Left, A, Down, C, Right, Up, Down. Three new entries will appear on the screen.If this doesn't work, try A, C, Up, B, Up, B, A, Down or C, Right, A, Left, A, Up, C, Right, A, Left, A, Up. PLAY AS HUMAN SMOKE: Select the robot Smoke on the character select screen. Before the fight screen comes up, hold High Punch ♦ Low Punch ♦ High Kick ♦ Low Kick. Continue to hold these until Shao Kahn announces the round. Destruction Derby 2 Playstation CODEZ All Tracks: MACSrPOO Animated Credits: CREDITZ! FMV Credits: ToNyPaRk For more hot tips and expert technical support call. Sega 1902 555 444 CaU$ charged at a rate of.gsc per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. cheat mode Time Commando Playstation SECRET LEVEL: At the password screen enter: COMMANDO. This takes you to a boxing ring to fight several enemies. RESTORE HEALTH: During play, press pause and highlight Sound FX. Press X, A, A, O, X, A, A, O, □, □, X. You should hear a noise. Your life bar should be full. This trick can be used at any point in the game. Donkey Kong Country SNCS Before the Came Select Screen appears, quickly press Down. Y, Down, Down, Y and you can practice the Bonus games. 50 LIVES: Co to the Game Select screen and highlight the "Erase Data" option. Press B, A, R, R. A, L. Now select a file and start playing. Caution! If the "Erase Came" option is flashing after you’ve entered the code, then the erase option is active and you’ll erase whichever file you select. Press Reset and try the code again. Christmas Nights Saturn PLAY AS REALA: Set your Saturn’s date to 4/1/97 (April Fools). This will add an extra present in the present screen to always play as Reala. Primal Rage Mega Drive EXTRA OPTIONS MENU: At the start/options screen, enter Left, Up, Right, Right, Up. Left, Right, Right, Left, Left, Up. Rise of the Robots SNCS QUICK START: Player Select screen (1 Player/2 Player/Options) press Left, B, Right, B, Down, Left, Right, B. PLAY AS THE BOSS: On the Player Select screen press Up, Right, Down, Left, B. Now start a two-player game, and press Right until you can choose "Supervisor." You will be able to play as the boss. INVINCIBILITY: On the Player Select press Down, B, Up, B, Down, Left, Right, B. There will be no indication that the code has worked other than the fact that your robot will no longer take damage. Blast Chamber Playstation INFINITE LIVES: At the main menu screen press □, Left, □, Right, O, Down, O, Up. In the games menu choose Sole Survivor mode. Return to the main menu and begin your game. Creature Shock Saturn LEVEL PASSWORDS: Level 2 - 2866 Level 3 - 9830 Level 4 - 8180 Level 5 - 6581 Level 6 -1322 Namco Museum Volume 2 Playstation CROBDA LEVEL SELECT: When the Crobda title screen appears, hold Li + L2 * Ri ♦ R2 then press Start. Die Hard Trilogy Playstation Pause the game, hold R2 and enter any of these: ANY CAME: Infinite Lives - Left,Right, Up,Down, □ Skeleton mode - A 10 times, Right 4 times DIE HARD 1: Cod Mode - Right, Up, Down, □ 50 Grenades £ 5 bullets - Right, □, Down, O Terrorists float when shot - Left, O, Down, □ Unlimited Shotgun shells - Right, Up, Down, Down, □, Right DIE HARD 2: Loads of ammo - Right, □, Left, O, A, Down. DIE HARD 3: Floating car - Right, □, Left, A, X, □, Down 999 turbos - O, O, □, □, Down, Down, X, X Sky cam mode - O, Right, Down, □, A, Left Infinte Lives - Left, O, Up, Down, □, Right * Sony * Ultra64 * Sega Saturn * Megadrive * SNES * GBY * * Hardware * Accessories * Large range of up to date Sony Playstation $394.95 0) Sega Saturn $394.95 games for all systems for Controllers from $35.00 Controllers from $39.95 hire. (A Memory Cards from $39.95 Ul Memory Cards $99.95 RF Units from $39.95 Arcade Racer $149.95 Sony & Saturn Hire Ul Cobra Gun $69.95 Infra-red Controls $89.95 $20 overnight + 3 games «j Bag bundles $89.95 < Photo CD $49.95 No Deposit Link Cable $49.95 MPEG Video CD card < Hardcore 4x4 $89.95 $299.95 FREE MEMBERSHIP Destruction Derby 2 $89.95 U# Tobal N9 1 $89.95 Ultimate Mk3 $99.95 Megadrive & SNES The Crow $89.95 Blast Chamber $89.95 $10 weekly + 1 weekly Jet Rider $89.95 4mm Alien Trilogy $89.95 game > Cool Boarders $79.95 fir Dragon Heart $89.95 W 2 Xtream $89.95 Mam Space Jam $89.95 PSX & Saturn Games z Twisted Metal 2 $89.95 D Tunnel B1 $89.95 • $5 overnight or A Tomb Raider $99.95 ■ Mech Warrior 2 $89.95 • 3 for $10 overnight O Resident Evil $99.95 Incredible Hulk $89.95 • $10 for 3 nights Broken Sword $99.95 < Sega Rally $99.95 • $15 weekly V# Command & Conquer 99.95 Sega Ages $99.95 Die Hard Trilogy $89.95 (f# Virtual Cop 2 + gun $149.95 Get your points up! Mech Warrior 2 $89.95 For every 5 points you get a FREE PSX or Saturn Hire and 3 games overnight Hundreds More Titles for all Systems including Game Boy and Game Gear Phone or Mail Order Games and Accessories Call your nearest store for details Franchises available now throughout Queensland. Call Kevin on Freecall 1800 675 215 7 days. Bring your old Games and Systems to trade, swap or use as a deposit for New Games or a New System! QUEENSLAND STORES Caloundra ...(07) 5492 7722 Minchinton St (next to Metway) Cairns...(070) 337 330 504 Mulgrave Rd, Earlville Caboolture...(07) 5495 5922 Shop 15 Caboolture Park Shopping Centre Maroochydore... (07) 5479 0499 1/44 Aerodrome Rd (opposite Sizzler) cheat mode Madden NFL '97 SNCS HIDDEN TEAMS: Select "Play Now," and enter the buttons below at the "Team Select" screen. Highlight the existing team, enter the code, and the hidden team appears. L and R are the top Buttons. Arizona Cardinals 1975: Y, R, A, L, L. Atlanta Falcons 1980: A, L, L, Y, R. Baltimore Browns 1986: B, Y, R, R, Y. Buffalo Bills 1990: B, Y, L, L, Select. Carolina EA Sports: Left, A, R, R, Y. Chicago Bears 1985: A, L, L, R, B. Cincinnati Bengals 1981: B, L, A, R, A. Dallas Cowboys 1977: B, A, R, R, Y. Denver Broncos 1986: L, L, Y, A, Y. Detroit Lions 1952: Select, Y, L, L, Y. Green Bay Packers 1966: Select,R,B,A, Y. Huston Oilers 1993: R,Select,R,Select, Y. Indianapolis Colts 1970: B, R, Select, Select, Y. Jacksonville Tiburon: Select, Y, Select, R, L. Kansas City Chiefs 1969: L, Y, R, R, A. Miami Dolphins 1972: A, L, L, B, Select. Minnesota Vikings 1976: B, R, R, R, R. New England Patriots 1985: B, L, Y, Select, A. New Orleans Saints 1987: L, B, L, B, Select. New York Giants 1990: B, Y, R, L, Select. New York Jets 1968: Y, Y, A, L, L. Oakland Raiders 1976: B, R, A, L, Y. Philadelphia Eagles 1980: B, A, L, B, Y. Pittsburg Steelers 1978: Select, L, A, Select, R. Saint Louis Rams 1979: L, R, R, A, Select. San Diego Chargers 1994: Select, A, L, L, Y. San Francisco 49ers 1988: B, A, Y, Y, R. Seattle Seahawks 1978: A, R, R, Y, Y. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1979: Right, R, L, L, Select. Weasington Redskins 1982: B, L, L, R, R. All Madden NFLPA: A, L, L, A, L, L. Blast Chamber Playstation INFINITE LIVES: Go to the Main Menu screen and press the following: □, Left, □, Right, O, Down, O, Up. Now go into the Games option and choose Sole Survivor. You’ll have chosen the one-player mode, but your lives will never go down. Street Fighter Alpha 2 Playstation DAY-GLO VEGA £ WHITE DHALSIM: Enter training mode and do a teleport move. Pause the game in mid-warp, then go to the menu and select a normal game as Vega or Dhalsim. ORIGINAL ZANGIEF INTRO: For Zangief’s original arcade intro, hold Select before the bout begins. This only works in versus or training mode. SECRET STAGE: To fight in Sagat or M.Bison’s secret stage, hold Start, then highlight either Sagat or M.Bison for 5 seconds. SUPER AKUMA: Highlight Akuma, press and release select. Then press Down, Right, Right, Down, Left, Down, Left, Down. Right, Right, Right. You should end up on Akuma again. Hold Select and press any button. When the fight starts, there should be a sign on top of Akuma and he’ll look black for a second. Mario Andretti Racing Mega Drive PASSWORDS: Fully decked out Indy car and a swag of cash - 2VP8 ZLFE WKDN CSXH Sprint circuit car loaded to level 5 - EUJQ QFUW SDBY AMAF 3MAA Stock car with loadsamoney - "KVUE WLDZ WQC6 BAVH TJAA For more hot tips and expert technical support call... Disney Interactive 19020 957 770 Calls charged at a rate of ,95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. For more hot tips and expert technical support call... Sega 1902 555 U 4 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. hyperactive http://hyperactive.com.au GAMES ONLINE WANTED THE BEST SEN FIGHTERS THIS SIDE OF TEEES TOD DOT B HUNKERIN' FOE REVENGE? Bz-marshal James Anderson lived a qniet life with his wife and daughter. One Black day that life was shattered by a fancy- dressed, greed driven land baron intent on plowing down his farm to make way for the railroad. Now Anderson’s driven by revenge, which he’ll enact in a spray of gnnfire. A notorious collection of the west's tonghest outlaws stand between him and the man who destroyed his family. There's nothing “on" about Anderson anymore. Exclusively distributed by: THE OLD VEST STAMPEDES INTO CYBEBSPACE WITH MULTIPLAYER OUTLAWS rM AVAILABLE AUTUMN 1907 © 1997 LucasArts Entertainment Company. All Rights Reserved. Outlaws is a trademark of LucasArts Entertainment Company. Dark Forces and the LucasArts logo are trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorisation. jwnruwi jnwru luaun* _ ma- jfgt RESTRICTED Mil ,|i M .(Ml KiAlJsm VIOLENCE _ - — Hi cheat mode Burning Road Playstation MIRROR MODE: Select Practice (unfortunately it doesn't work in a Championship), pick your track, car and transmission. Now as soon as the race starts, turn your car around and go the other way. As soon as you pass through a checkpoint you'll be placed in first, and the other cars will turn and follow, although it’ll take them a little while to catch up. Madden NFL '97 Playstation HINTS: To get the secret teams in Madden 97: Co to User Records and enter TIBURON as the user. Then retreat back to the team selection screen and the teams (AFC, NFC, 50-60, 70, 80, EA, Madden All Time, 8 Tiburon —Others?) should be available. Or you can just use the random selection until they pop up 8D CINEMATICS To view all the cinematics in Madden 97: Press Li and Ri together at the begining when you first turn it on. At the Sony symbol, Hold Li and Ri until the cinematics screen pops up. Instead of going to the intro it will go to a screen that says cinematics. To view them just click on to them at the bottom. Tomb Raider Playstation LEVEL SKIP: During play, press Select to go to the inventory screen. Enter this sequence: L2, R2, A, Li, Li, O, R2, L2. You'll know it’s worked when you hear Lara sigh. Now press Select to return to the game and you'll instantly complete the current level. Rlatii! Machinehead Playstation LEVEL PASSWORDS: Level 02: SQDZFO5TII. Level 03: HYM7GODECM. Level 04: WFHIHOPOIC. Level 05: I54FHOD5BF. Level 06 : E94FHOLLKI. Level 07: MHLFHODTCM. Level 08: ALLFHOXGPU. Level 09: BDNIHOLLPU. Level 10: 8IGIHO9B4V. Level 11: E9CGHOJIQH. Level 12: 9F0ICOLZID. Level 13: SKAGHO9P4O. Level 14: H0BNN9FCM. Level 15: EYWIHOP7BF. Level 16: IQNFHOT7BF. Level 17: 7G9DAOMOCE. End Sequence: 6H9DAOQI2F Wipeout 2097 PlayStation NOTE: Press Li ♦ Ri ♦ SELECT while entering cheat codes IN THE MAIN OPTIONS SCREEN: X,X,X,X f O,A,D - The piranha team A,A,A,0,0,0 - Phantom class □,0, A,0,D - All 8 tracks PAUSED DURING ANY GAME: A,D,0,X,A,D,0,X - Infinite time □,o,x,m,o,x,A - Machine gun A,X,D,0,A,X,D,0 - Infinite energy X,X,D,D,0,0,A - Infinite weapons (Use CIRCLE to select weapon) WHILE THE GAME IS LOADING: Animal Teams: Li + R 2 + START + SELECT Normal team crafts are exchanged for a bee, snail, UFO, pig and shark. ■■■■■■■■■■■ TT * c y LjST » _L i _ t _ * _ m _ For mere hot tips and expert technical support call... Disney Interactive 19020 957 770 Calls charged at a rate of.osc per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. For more hot tips and expert technical support call.. Sega 1902 555 444 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Protect yowU/Orftf from the evil Pussy. lie’s hack, and this time lie’s hmi(jhl This. $ Anticipated Rating G8+ ©Copyright Earthworm Jim™^994 Shiny Entertainment Inc.™ All rights reserved. Virgin is a registered trademark of Virgin Enterprises ltd. All right reserved. Available on Sony Playstation + Sega Saturn NOVEMBER 1996 ^■and Playstation are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sega and Sega Saturn and the Saturn logo are all trademarks of Sega Enterprises, ltd. PlayStation Windows CD ROM pc Internet: http//www.ubisoft.com © 1996 csi Sen C 1936 image P aystaticr - ina *#* are uacemar«a cf Serf Ccmjsultr Emetainwtm ncSaga ana Saga Setgm are trammer** a< Saga 92 »HYPER They AmcI now Namco are wowwed the PlayStation world with Tekken 2... back with their latest 3D fighting masterpiece... Soul Blade It’s got our vote for best intro on a console game yet... The game’s not half bad either... Full review next issue HYPER Letters PO Box 634 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Fax: (02) 310 1315 E-mail: freaksceMe@next.com.au FREE SPEECH NOW! Dear HYPER. "Too many games now on the market this holiday season are more violent, more antisocial and generally more disgusting than ever,” said our old friend, bad penny US Sen. Joseph Lieberman Yeah here we go again, another technology illiterate old FART talking about things he doesn’t understand. He has attacked the following games: Doom, Fighting Vipers, Killer Instinct, Krazy Ivan, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, Resident Evil, Revolution Z, Street Fighter n, Virtual Cop and Virtua Fighter 2, ATF, Crusader No Regret, Daggerfall, Doom, Duke Nukem, Mech Warrior 2, Mortal Kombat, PTay for Death, Quake and Warcraft 2. Totally ignoring the fact that these games were written for older gamers he has called for them to be banned. THIS IS IN COMPLETE DISREGARD TO THE AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION AND YOUR RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH, i.e the American constitution "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances". Amendment 1(1791) A similar quote can be found in the English BILL OF RIGHTS [1689]. "That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament". Plato said a similar thing back in 360BC; "How brave a thing is freedom of speech, which has made the Athenians so far exceed every other state of Hellas in greatness!" These basic rights have being in place for over 20ooyrs AND WE SHOULD NOT LET THEM BE VIOLATED. It’s about time the gaming community stood up and told the world that we ARE NOT going to sit around being good little Nazis by sitting back and watching whilst this violation of human rights goes on. KILLJOY26 Right e n. Mere people need to voice their annoyance at the current state of censorship jor something to happen. Take the trouble to write to both local and state government concerning this issue. Petitions are great, but a steady stream of mail regarding a particular topic can also be effective. If anyone is confused as to why such a conservative approach is taken when it comes to video game censorship, the most common theory is that politicians can win the support of the illinfcrmed by Taking a stand against harmful material that cur children are being subjected to. This of course sounds like positive action to the many voters out there that really know nothing about the subject. Take the time to explain things to those that don't know that there is no R classification, so even adults are not being given the choice of wether or not they can play a game that hasn't made it through the OFLC like Phantasmagoria 2. Having classification is definitely the right course of action, but not having an R classification Is ridiculous. If the politicians believe they can win more public support by forcing an R classification, you can bet they'll make it happen. UNBIASED Dear HYPER, I would like to contribute to the Playstation, Saturn reader war. I do not have either unit, I own a PC. But I do, however work in a computer games store. This gives me a non vested interest - unbiased opinion. This letter is not for people who have a Playstation or a Satum and want a letter supporting one over the other. I leave the "my consoles better than your console" to the ten year olds in the school yard. I will give some facts to people who are thinking of getting one or the other. I will not include the N64 in the debate. A console actually has to be out in Australia for me to consider it. Technically, the Satum is a better unit, it has the extra graphics processor and better sound capabilities. * It also has some great games that are only available for it. Sega Rally, Virtua Cop. Please be careful though, it is very dangerous to by a unit just to play one or two particular games, because no matter how good the game is, sooner or latter you are going to get sick of it. True the Satum is the better unit, but then again, so was beta (smaller tape, better picture quality). Now people that bought a beta are looking at a top loading, $400 clock. At the moment in Australia (that’s what we’re worried about). The Playstation is out selling the Saturn 6 to i. ThatOs is from independent sales figures, not Sony’s (SonyOs figures place it at more like 10 to i). There are more games for the Playstation, and the way things are going the Playstation has it’s neck well out in front. If you were looking to get a console, I would recommend the Playstation. For no other facts than there is a better games selection for the Playstation and it will last longer. After all, you don’t want to by a console to have a top loading, $400 CD player. GARETH It's t^nny how many Independant” sales figures comparisons are (loafing around. We've heard everything trem ic to 1, through to 3 to 2. Reasons ter this are that sales figures actually vary greatly with geography. Cven certain areas 01 a city can be pro one system, and anti the other. For those concerned about buying a system that is going to die. you really shouldn't be. Whilst Sega has been behind in sales here in Australia, the support ter it overseas (particularly in Japan) has been huge, and that's where the games come from. There will always be games coming out ter the system (till Sega's next console comes along of course), and your decision on your choice ct system should be based on what games you like, not which system is technically superior, or even the biggest line up. Let's (ace it... just because a system may have a wider variety ct games, it doesn't mean the games are any better, and. do you intend to buy them all? A MOVIE BUFF Greetings to the Hyper team. Many people have been bagging FMV recently and Im sorry but I’m going to have to defend it. Look at W’O" 2097’s intro, a work of art. Look at Tomb Raiders FMV sequences, they set the atmosphere perfectly. Look at Red Alert’s storyline, brought to life by live action video sequences. When used properly, FMV can set the tone and atmosphere in a game in a truely stylish manner. After checking out N64S Shadows of the Empire one realises just how much of a difference FMV makes. Shadows’ features poor quality cartoon-like stills that, while not really affecting the gameplay, give it a second (3rd) class presentation, may seem like a minor quibble but even the worst games these days are well produced and slick. While I’m here I’m going to question just how revolutionary the N64 is (gasp)! I’m not saying its crap, or even bad, i just dont think its anywhere near as revolutionary as they would like to have you believe. Ask yourself seriously; was it really worth the wait (approx. 3 years)? Better graphics? I suppose...but the difference is subtle. Compare Tekken2 with KI Gold, W’O" 2097 with Cruisin' USA, Turok with Tomb Raider. Analog controller? Sure... but I liked Sega’s better and Sony’s just looks ridiculously cool. "What about Mario64!?" I hear you all scream. It’s a fantastic game, it should be because thats where all Nintendo’s attention has gone. Bottom line: I think I'll keep my N64 money and buy lots of the great games that are available NOW for the PlayStation. I’m not biased against different companies, 1 like GAMES in general regardless of the system but Nintendo have broken the golden rule, they kept us waiting too long and Sony just landed a king hit on the ol’ N boys and I’m laughing. Now i’ll ask some questions (sorry), 1. Any decent VR headsets coming out for PSX? 2. Will this rather cool sounding x-files (FMV) game be coming out on PSX? LEON STATION Valid point Leon. The concern a lot o( people have with FMV nowadays is probably more due to some cruddy games relying upon It. Let's not forget the ditterence between FMV (Full Motion Video), and pre rendered cut scenes (computer draim animations). FMV tends to involve b-grade actors twaddling on aimlessly, while cut scenes tend to be brie( and look techy. Also a valid point about the N64 not having the ability to play FMV. One has to wonder what the HD64 is going to do (or the N64 in terms c( FMV. i( anything. As (or breaking the golden rule... what golden rule? Actually, they proved there is no golden rule about not coming out last with the SNCS. which sold truckloads and went on to be an exceedingly successful system. even though it came cut well after the MegaDrive. One way to think of this is to actually think of the N64 as the FIRST of the 64 bit machines, rather than the last of the current next-gen consoles. If Sega & Sony’s next machines aren’t 64 bit (or higher?) I’ll eat my hat. 1. No news of anyone developing such a peripheral for the PSX, but you never know what might happen. 2. Once again, no real news on that either... but you can rest assured we'll be letting you know once the beans are spilt. JUST A TAD -PRO SEGA" Dear Hyper, I am going to show you in this letter how superior the Sega Saturn is to that pathetic excuse for a console, the Sony Playstation. My friend recently purchased a (dare I say this horrible word,) PlayStation and was constantly complaining to me how he couldn’t save anthing on most games because he needed a memory card. All I would reply is "Saturn comes with built-in memory.” He was also telling me how he couldn’t use the Playstation on his older T.V. because he didn’t have the RF unit and that he would have to buy one. Once again all I said was "Saturn comes with an RF unit.” The Sega Saturn has all these things built-in and sells for $400 and the Playstation has none of these and sells for $400. It would cost the average person $500 dollars to get a Playstation an RF unit and memory whereas go and buy a Satum and get all this for $400.1 rest my case! BEN SPEARE Right thou art Ben. the Satum does have those two features over the PlayStation. However, for those wondering about the RF connections... yes. any old TV can take In an RF input, however, the quality of signal is ncticably lower compared to AV. you can buy an RF adaptor for PlayStation, and yes. you can buy an AV cable for Satum. Anyone owning a Satum who hasn't got an AV cable should seriously ccnisder in buying one, as it makes everything that much crisper and brighter. AV cables for Satum aren't all that cheap (no where near ticc though), sc shop around a bit and haggle, because it's worth it. A TRUE NUTTER To Hyper, I don’t want to waste any of your time to suck, etc, etc. 1 just wanted to ask a few questions that I’d like answered by people who are mostly correct. 1. Any news on SF-Gaiden/3 yet? 2. Can we send cash for subscriptions? 3 .1 copied a Saturn game onto my computer a few days ago and I was wondering if I had a CD-writer and made a copy of it, would it still work on the Satum? 4. Can I have the Predator light gun if you have a spare that you don’t mind giving it away? It’s a matter of life and death to a lot of baddies. Thanksamillion FROM SOMEONE SILLY Okay "Person who's name I've changed sc they don't get hassled by the cops”... 1. Well out o( the confusion came a few answers. SF Gaiden is a 3D Street Fighter game, and SF3 is another 2D game (Just when you thought they quit eh?). Some of the new characters for SF3 are Alex (dude from Manhattan), yun &yan (Chinese Kempc masters from Hong Kong). Sean (Shotckan hero). Ciena (a black girt). Dudley (Heavyweight boxer from England), and Ibuki (the token Japanese school girt who just happens to be a master Ninja). There's now a dash feature, and the screen can scroll vertically. 2. you CAN send cash, but sending cash in the mail is about as sensible as pouring water over your computer and turning it on to see what happens. I'd send a cheque if I were you. as cash has a habbit of going missing once it’s posted. 3. Are you completely bonkers!?! I don't know the answer to your question, but I’m sure if you went down to your local police station and told them about what you’ve been trying to do. they'd be REAL interested. 4. It’s confirmed... you are bonkers. Do you think we get showered in peripherals and gobs of free shit by the distributors all the time? Please excuse me while I hop into my helicopter and fly off to my mansion at Vaucluse... Sorry, no... we got ONE gun for review purposes, this ain’t Santa's toy factory. HYPER» 93 94 »HYPER letters DECISIONS DECISIONS To the legends at Hyper, Soon I shall be looking for a new next-generation console, but I seem to be having trouble knowing which one to buy. I enjoy racing and fighting games, and am a shooting fanatic (Virtua Cop, Time Crisis). My head is slowly turning to the PlayStation, but I’m still not sure. What do I do?? Regards. THE FREAK! Well Freak, firstly you really need to look at what games are available on the various next- gen consoles. For shooting games, the Saturn’s probably out in front with Virtua Cop i & 2. For fighting games, both the Saturn and PlayStation have great fighting games. At this stage the N64 only really has Killer Instinct Gold, but you can be sure that’ll change over time. Racing games... PlayStation has the amazing Wipeout 2097. and So rum has the arcade classic. Sega Rally. The N64 has Cruis’n USA. and Mario Kart 64 .1 haven’t helped much have I? That’s because all I can do is tell you what's out there. It’s up to you which games you like best. Don’t think of this in terms of "which system is best?”, think in terms of "which system has the games I moat want to play?". A RATHER CUT DOWN LETTER... (An enourmous 6 page letter with 29 questions that got cut down to this..) Hyper, Qi. Not thinking of dropping reader review are we? Because my Buck Rogers (Space RPC classic game) MegaDrive review is nearing completion. 2. Why did you drop those most popular games lists (anual look back you did once for each system and overall)? 3. Will the top 100 ever make another appearence in your fine mag? A. How many other Aussie mags choked and died on your proverbial dust? 5. Why no 3rd Birthday celebration? 6. It was PC Powerplay that put the Kibosh on your cover CD plans eh? 7. Why did you mention the Aussie Rules game was a possability and then suddenly it’s in the shops without a preview or review by you guys. 8. Is Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Virtua Fighter going to appear on the SNES and MegaDrive respectively? SCOTT A. P. SPENCE NSW Scott. Sorry we couldn’t print all your letter and questions, but most of it was about stuff that died a long time ago. Here’s a few answers for ya. t. Well, it often has a lot to do with how much news we have. If we got lots of news to print, there's less room for a reader review. Up to date reviews are the most likely to get printed. 2. I've been thinking about doing one of those sometime soon, it’s been kind of pointless doing it the last few months since so much comes out around Christmas. We’re reviewing Christmas time games in this issue because that's when we were making the mag. and there were still good titles yet to be reviewed. 3. Maybe, but probably not for a long time. 4. A few. 5. Stuart mentioned it in the editorial of issue 36. We scrta went "Oh yeah., so it is..". It was just another day. 6. What makes you think PC Powerplay affects us? 7. It got sprung on us. Every once in a while the distributers just drop a game on us with no prior press release or warning... this was one of those cases. We did the review last issue. 8 .1 doubt it. but Capccm and Sega will probably go ahead and do them just to make me wrong. ADVICE FROM THE BAR To all the beautiful people at Hyper. 1 would like to give my opinion on two letters from issue 39. First, Ryan Baxter's concerns that the Nintendo 64 may be "blown out of the water by sony”, due to its late launch date. Well as a seasoned gamer who has every game console since the Atari 2600 .1 personally have been through all this before. Now if you would like to step in my patented time machine called my memory. 1 will take you back to the day of the Super Nintendo's launch. At the time Sega had a good base of games for it's Mega Drive, as well as a strong number of units sold. The SNES was in the same position as the N64 will be in. OK step back into my time machine and we will go forward six months. And what do we have? The SNES walking out the stores faster than the MD. So it seems the Big N is used to winning uphill battles. I hope that eases your concerns Ryan, and have fun. Now I will move across to that infantile letter from KKK Bitch. 1 ask you this, Are you happy with your Playstation? I assume your answer to that question is yes. OK, is a Pro Sega Fan happy with his Saturn? Again, I would say yes. So where’s the problem. I feel that no body has the right to abuse people because of their choice of entertainment. Do you get my point KKK Bitch. Be happy with yourself, and let everyone else be happy with themselves, OK. Happy gaming and Peace NOE Peace love and mung beans Mce. Like Mce says, anyone worried about the N64 not being able to cope due to the delays/lateness of the whole thing really needs to reconsider. Firstly for every disgruntled person cut there whe’d bitching about the delay, there’s another two that are getting progressively more excited by the whole thing. Secondly, if you want evidence of the way the machine is going, the machine sold cut in America within a few days of its launch. The Nintendo factory in Kyoto has also shipped 4,000,000 N64S in the first six months. Sega and Sony shipped 1.000.000 in the first six months of the Saturn & PlayStation. This doesn’t mean the system will slaughter everything here, but those who are doubting the system, give it a month or two and ycu'U probably find it harder to call the system dead, yup. no more "anti other system " letters from this day on. I really can’t see the reason anyone would go to such lengths to point out faults in another system unless they were realty just trying to convince themselves that they made the right choice, you bitchers really should be worried about why you feel the need to give other people crap about what system they have, as opposed to being worried about wether you’ve bitched sufficiently and convinced the world to think as you do. This also goes for other silly arguments, like Quake vs Duke... if you spent all that time practising the game, instead of trying to make a silly war out of it all, then maybe you might make a better deathmatch player. HEAD Dear Hyper Magazine, I would like to ask about whether or not there will be an up coming release of Quake, Duke Nukem 3D and Hexen on the Playstation and if so when will it be available in Australia. I would also like to ask whether Die Hard Trilogy requires a gun for the second section (Die Harder). 1 would like to thank you for the early release of the news on the new Hexen 2 and will there letters be another release of a Tekken game on the Playstation or is that idea completely used up. yours with thanks. ANDREW STEADMAN. Okay. Hexen is definite, in fact you may even be able to buy the game by the time you’re reading this. We have a beta version, but it was way too "betaish” for review. As for Quake and Duke Nukem 3D... There's been word floating around that Sega are gunning for Quake to be a " Only on Sega Saturn ’’ game. At this stage we haven’t been given a release date for either Quake or Duke on any console, so Hexen may have to be your choice for the moment. Also. Die Hard Trilogy does not require the gun. As for another Tekken game, check cut our news blurb on Tekken 3. That’s only an arcade version, but you can bet work is already being done on a PlayStation version. OF COURSE WE HAVE ONE! Hello all you people at Hyper. I’ve got some questions I hope you can answer for me. 1) How many tracks, cars and classes are there for Wipeout 2097 2) Why haven’t you done a review of Burning Road for Playstation, I know its a daytona clone, and it’s out now but you won’t review it so 1 don’t know if it’s good or not. 3) Can a memory card stuff up your playstation so that some games pause uncontrollably eg: Wipeout 2097. MK Trilogy? You see 1 bought a 120 slot memory card off a friend and it was made by a company called Blaze. It doesn’t have a Playstation logo on it or box, but that shouldn’t matter should it? Any way, I was wondering if the card was the problem, if so can it be repaired or replaced free of charge as it is still under warranty? Thanking you in advance. TRISTAN NSW PS - someone I know who is well informed about certain things says the Nintendo 64 will be released here for about $600. Is this true, and why don’t you guys have one? Geez, whatever happened to the chit chat at the beggining. eh? 0 There are eight tracks, five " cars’'. and four racing classes in Wipeout 2097 2) We have, but is was probably being done while you were writing this letter. For those wondering why we don't review some titles, the most common reason is that if we get a game when it's released, or sometimes Just before... by the time you are getting the mag. the game can turn out to be a couple of months old. and that means we won't be current. The only games guaranteed of being run when they're running late, are big games, like Virtua Cop 2 and Virtual On this issue (which came out just before Christmas). 3) Well, try playing the games without the card, and see if you still get the same problem. Also, try using a standard Sony card from a friend, and see how that goes. If there’s no PlayStation logo, there’s probably a legal blurb In the instructions which says that it’s not endorsed by Sony and as far as getting a refund, that'd be up to the store it was purchased from. PS - Someone you know is terribly informed... It's been $399 or $40© for a while now... and what on Carth makes you think we don’t have one? Nintendo kindly gave us one after they were launched In America. IT S WINNIE HIMSELF! Dear Hyper, Greetings from a faithful Sega Worshipper, I am writing in about the game NIGHTS. Its the best damn game I’ve ever played. I play it so much I’ve got blisters on my fingers from the controller! But one thing concerns me. There is only four levels to each character! Making a total of 8 levels. Sure, this game will keep someone going for a while but it could have been way better. The real reason I wrote is about the new Sonic (may he live forever) game. Will it be short blast like NIGHTS, or a damn good game? Here are some questions for you to answer. 1. ) How far is VF3 away from the Saturn 2. ) Is there going to be a Nights 2? 3. ) Could you bring your posters back to the size they used to be, because I’m sure many people will agree that they were better before. MR POO. Dear Mr Pheccal WelL we did a preview on Sonic 3D Blast this issue didn’t we? Why so small a preview? essentially we only got the MegaDrive version a few days before our deadline, so we really haven't had much to go on at all There’s a bit of speculation as to how good this game will be on the Saturn, it’s not quite as fast as the old Sonic games, and that might upset a few people, but before you go run off crying... Sonic X-Treme was another Sonic project for the Saturn, and it got put off for Sonic 3D Blast to be finished, and that locks pretty dam amazing (from the screen shots we’ve seen anyway). Sonic 3D Blast wasn’t actually done by the Sonic team, it was actually done by Traveller’s Tales... so it's probably not the game that many Sonic freaks are expecting (which is what Sonic X-Treme probably is). 0 Most likely late this year. 2) Well, there was Christmas Nights, which sorta arrived without any warning whatsoever. It’s SO similar it didn't really warrant a review. 3) We'd love to... Unfortunately the reason we stepped printing the large posters is that they were costing us an absolute fortune to print. Just the whole mag-making process has become more expensive (hence the recent price increase), and to do something like print the big posters again would probably force ANOTHCR price increase, and the amount of readers that would be prepared to wear the price increase for a big poster is nowhere near the number that would rather keep the price the same. Do you want a New Game every 14 Days? ■ Here's How • A New Mail Order Swap System with no waiting and instant access to ^ a huge range of the hottest titles available for PcCd Rom, Saturn, Playstation, Sega Mega Drive 6 Super Nintendo, Plus you get your Games back • • This is the Ultimate way to play a diverse range of titles at an astoundingly small price • • A monthly membership fee covers all postage, handling S adminstration • • Modem link up exclusive to members of Swapco Interactive Entertainment • • Forget overnight hire at excessive rates. Call us now! * For a free information pack just return the coupon attached or Call us on: Phone: (07) 5529 2612 « Ph/fax: (07) 5529 2980 *CT TO BE CLASS*® STTKOWCEOf RUIAMDbTBATUW CLASSIFICATION Fnutiiiv JttfTiiwtcd by ' ROADSHOW */ INTERACTIVE www.village.com.au TUROK DINOSAUR HUNTER ©1997 Acclaim Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. TUROK: ®&© 1997, GBPC. a subsidiary of Golden Books family Entertainment All rights reserved. Acclaim is a division of Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. Nintendo 64 and the 3-0 ¥ logo are trademarks of Nintendo of America Inc. 1997 Nintendo of Amenca loc. >l«laim ypermart FOR SALE Mechwarrior 2, Pentium Edition for $25. Ph Lucas on (065) 628 368 Saturn (PAL) includes one controller. AV cable. VF2. VF. Fighting Vipers, Tomb Raider, Bug!, Ray Man. Good Condition, worth $940, will sell for $700. Call Toy on (09) 386 4854 C£C:Red Alert $60, Gene Wars $50, Quake $50. Toonstruck $60, Tomb Raider $60. Warcraft2 $ 35. all boxed as new. PC CDROM. PH. David on (047) 335 ‘ 414 - Great deal (play)!!!! Twisted Metal, Extreme Games and Tekken for $50 each. Crash Bandicoot for $60. All for $i75~between Sydney and Newcastle only. PH:(o43)88i 852. Ask for Luke. For sale: Atari Lynx2 with 3 games, carry case, discount vouchers for games and heaps more. In excellent condition for $85 o.n.o. Also 3 SNES games (MK3, Lethal Weapon and Addams Family) All three games for $65.00 o.n.o. Call Daniel on (07)3341 ii 94 Now I’ve got you lookin’ I’ve got a Super Nintendo with 4 games for $170 ono; Super International Cricket, Street Fighter 2. Mortal Combat 2 and Star Wing. I will seperate if needed. I’ve also got IBM games for sale from $10, titles like Terminal Velocity. If interested call (046) 284919 and ask for James. Killer Instinct plus CD for $55 ono, Super Metroid $40 ono, SF2 Turbo and Super Tennis $25 each ono or all for $120 All games boxed with manuals. PH (06) 2415084 ask for Trevor after 4pm weekdays or anytime on the weekend. PC for sale: word processor/small games machine; ideal for uni. student or computer enthusiast. 286 processor with 2Mb. RAM and 20 Mb. hard disk. 14” VGA monitor. Win 3.1, Word2 * games, keyboard and mouse PLUS colour 24 pin dot matrix Brother printer. $350 neg. PH: Vernon Lewis (08)83574331. Pentiumioo, 32MB EDO RAM, 850 Mb hard drive. iMb PCI Video, 1.44Mb floppy. SB16, 14" Phillips monitor. Kboard, mouse, Win95 - $1100 ono PH. David on (047) 335 ’ 4 i 4 CD Rom game: Warcraft 2 $50. Phone Lucas on (065) 628 368. PC CDROM - Fatal Racing unopened - $40 Call Richard on 341722 or 355647 PC CDROM games - Warcraft2 $40. Crusader: No Remorse $30 PH. (02) 96182862 CD ROM games - Space Quest 4$i5, Where in the world is Carmen Deluxe $15, Jones in the Fast Lane $10 all in single CD case. Also NBA Live 95 $25, Might £ Magic Trilogy (3,4and5) $30, The 7th Guest $20 All are boxedand in g.c PH: Dale on (079) 782669 after 4pm weekdays. SNES - with 2 controllers and 20 games including super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, MK3 and Super Street Fighter. Most still boxed with instructions - $900 ono call (069) 472674 For sale: Mega Drive II with auto fire control pad and stick plus Road Rashlll, Mortal Kombatl £ III, ARL, Alex the Kid and Columns $150. PH: (063) 683304. Came Gear with A.C. adapter and Crash Dummies, Donald Duck, 4 in 1 and Columns. Used ten times $130 PH: (063) 683304. NES with Zelda, Dr. Mario, Asyntax, Crash Dummies. Marble Madness, Crackout. Also a 15 game-pack, 4game-pack, NES 4- score and 3 controllers. $60 ono PH: (07) 55297355 . SNES, 18 games, pro action 3, plus 2 control pads, 100’s of cheats, heaps of mags (about4o). New cond., all boxed, all instructions. DK 1 and 2, Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Pitfall, Blackhawk, Sup. Metroid, etc. will not separate. $60 PH. 51 55 3883 or email macklin b150.aone.net.au or write J. Macklin 1/5 Barkes Ave. Lakes Entrance - Vic 3909 Playstation Games for Sale: Alien Trilogy and Zero Divide $45 each or $80 for both. Please contact Dominic on (02) 698 7342 after business hours. Gameboy with 2 games, night Sight and 4 player adaptor for $80 ono. Ph (079) 793400 QLD ask for Bruce. Gladstone area only. Commodore 64 £ Amstrad CPC 64 with a box full of games and accessories the lot for $100 ono (079) 793 400. QLD Gladstone area only. Cheap PSX games, Tekken $50, Destruction Derby $50, Alien Trilogy $60, Total NBA $60. NFL Gameday $60. All PAL. Boxed in PC. Or will swap for other PAL games. Ph. Alex (051) 431142. Nigel Mansell’s World Championship racing (in good condition) with box and instructions. Ring Geoffrey on (03) 9808 4531 (only $21) Melbourne buyers preferred. Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! 1 Megadrive 8 in 1 cartridge (not the usual one), 1 Sega Pro magazine and 1 200* page hint book. Sell for what you offer if reasonable. Phone Matthew on (02) 871 4620. Games: Playstation- Toshinden2 $65, Destruction Derby $60, Wing Commander $35. SNES- NBA JamTE $60, MK2 $30, MKi $20. Gameboy-Zelda IV $25, Ms. PacMan $25, Space Invaders $20. Swaps considered. PH: (02) 9674 5092. SNES for sale with 3 control pads (one arcade style) A scope with 6 games, 5 great normal games including: Killer Instinct with all the fatalities, International Cricket and Donkey Kong Country. All of this for $250. PH: Bryce on (091) 921 936 or write to PO Box 1514 Broome WA 6725 with your phone number. PlayStation Games - Ridge Racer Revolution $50, International Track £ Field $55, Destruction Derby $50 or will swap 2 of these for Tomb Raider. Call (070) Ask for Steven. Sega Saturn with 3 Saturn arcade games, light gun, and steering wheel. Only $550 O.N.O. Perth and surrounding area only. Ph (09) 534 8618. WANTED Save Me! Will do anything for these Gameboy games: Spy Vs Spy, bart Vs Juggernauts, Fortress of Fear, Rolan’s Curse, Final Fantasy Legend 3. Please call Natasha (03) 9 772 7808 Commodore Format magazines issue *46, *47, *48, or photocopies of the Machine Code sections of those magazines. Phone James on (06) 251 4627 Playstation Discworld, Wing CommanderlH. Will pay $45 each or swap Resident Evil for both. Call (03) 94>73572 and ask for Kane aft 4pref. Tomb Raider (on PlayStation), will pay money or will swap games. Please phone on (070) 382321. Ask for Steven. Wanted: level codes for Cyberia (on PlayStation). Ph (068) 747 736, or write to Sid Marsh, "Brindingabba" Stn, Bourke, NSW 2840. Desperately wanted! The Syndicate and Theme Parck for SNES. Will pay reasonable price. Only in Sydney area. Ring Grant on (02) 98311762 32X Games. I require Doom and Virtua Fighter for the Sega 32X. Will pay $50 for the pair if in good condition. Please send, COD only. Ph (067) 712208 Superplay Nintendo magazines. Issues 1-3, 5-11,14-38, 40-42. Phone 903) 947 i 1854 and ask for John. SWAPS I will swap MD games: FIFA Soccer, General Chaos, The Chaos Engine, E.A. 4 Player Adaptor for good gameboy games. Phone (070 334 i 0047 I will swap magic carpet plus on c.d. ROM for Sam and Max or any other good PC game also Tekken 2 on Playstation for anything half decent call (07) 3207 9878 and ask for Dominic any time. I will swap my copy of Ridge Racer Revolution for johnny BazookaTone on Playstation for Crash Bandicoot or any other Playstation game. Ph (03) 6383 9017 and ask for Declan. Will swap Desert Strike, Magic Carpet 2 £ Bart Vs The Space Mutents for any good game or sell for $70 ono. Ph (079) 793 400 QLD Gladstone area only. PlayStation Games: Tekken 2, Ridge Racer Revolution, Warhawk, Wing Commander 3, for something half decent or will sell seperately (all PAL). Phone (02) 528 6079 Street Fighter Alpha on PlayStation and/or Syndicate Wars on PC for Resident Evil on PlayStation. Must be able to pick up. Call Aurore on (03) 9579 0071 Metal Combat for SNES. Swap for any other SNES game or sell for $25. Call (047) 878 310. Will swap Air Combat or ALien Trilogy for Need for Speed, Destruction Derby, Tekken 2, Ridge Racer Revolution or any other good games. All swaps considered. Ph (071) 233 918. Ask for Stuart. PEN PALS I am looking for penpals aged between 16-25, 1 like watching movies, listening to most music and going to the cinema, playing games on all systems and surfing the net. Write to Paul at 14 Flower Street, Elizabeth Downs 5113 S.A. or e-mail me at aced adel.sanet.com.au Attention all Saturn owners, I’m looking for a penpal between 14- 17 to write about music, movies, life but mostly games and I want’em now! Urn... please? Go on write to Ben at 12 Dunoon St. Taree, NSW 2430 Howdy, my name is Tony and I’m looking for a penpal, male or female 13-15 years old. If you have a Playstation and LOVE the X-Files then write to me at unit 8, number 8 Doyalson Place Helensvale Qld 4210 Hi, I’m Andrew. I’m 12 years old and looking for someone (M or F) who likes computers (PC’s) I need a penpal so write to me!!! Write to 56 Rodda Street, Morley, Perth WA or e-mail me at davidc faroc.com.au Hi, my name is Nick, I'm 15 and looking for a female penpal between the ages of 14-16. I’m into blading, bodyboarding, and have a PC and MegaDrive. Write to Nick, 12 Mannix Place, Quakers Hill, NSW 2763 Hi, I'm looking for a penpal M/F any age. who’s interested in PC’s, NES, SNES, Mega Drive or Sony PlayStation. Write to 2 Richland Dr, Bannockburn, QLD 4207. or email at ktrinder ozemail.com.au We had heaps of HYPERMART ads this issue, and many ads could not be included. Sorry. To maximise your chances - keep them UNRER 30 words and LEGIBLE. Advertising in HYPERMART is free for private advertisers, and make sure you include your phone number (inc. area code). Send them to: HYPERMART, PO Box 634 Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 WE BUY AND SELL all computer games • The largest range of used games • 800 TITLES NINTENDO • SEGA • IBM • 3D0 • CD • GAME BOY • SONY PSX • SATURN ACCESSORIES • A BIG VARIETY OF RPG • FIGHTING • ADV • OLD & NEW CASH MONEY FOR YOUR GAMES, SEND YOUR USED CARTRIDGES. MAIL ORDER FROM ANYWHERE IN AUSTRALIA Located near the Station <-<-4- a flO 7Q^ TTI1T Cav fl9 TQ^ TTOT 99 OLD TOWN PLAZA BANKSTOWN 2200 LA U4 f 9U I IUI ■ dX U4 f 9U Hill r the Air Zoom F iicht Five IS LIGHTWEIGHT, WHICH MEANS YOU'LL MOVE FASTER. ITS GOT FULL-LENGTH Zoom Air m cushioninGjVjhich means it's low to the GROUND AND RESPONSIVE. IT PROVIDES ULTIMATE LATERAL STABILITY, WHWtfMEANS YOU'LL CUT, SPIN AND TURN better. It's what Jason Kidd w£ars, which means HIS OPPONENTS HAVE EVEN MORE TO WORRY ABOUT. H0U1 COP VOU RESIST THIS? PLAYS MUSIC CDijjMg Grab your favourit es album and play itf through the PlayStation FUTURE PlayStation 1 Lri 1 ■ i 1 uTTkim 3TT TTj j| i'li TTT Ifclljlij son iieqT qT [i[j 11 MM Mi TifiTi wl