2000 Rants

22nd December 2000

CHRISTMAS TIME IS NEARLY HERE!!

At last I hear you cry, Jace is getting in the festive mood. Well, actually I am, but that’s because I have lots to look forward to. I have spoken to a few friends on this issue, and they seem to agree that there is a common Christmas trait amongst gamers, of saving up games for the 25th. I have got the brilliant Christmas prospect of opening up such hot new titles as Samba De Amigo 2000, Keyboard Mania, and Banjo Tooie. Others are saving similarly hot titles, so their festive pleasure is more or less guaranteed. With big Christmas titles getting released earlier and earlier in the run up, it does mean you can be holding on to hot titles for over a month. So far I've resisted the urge, i’ve even wrapped them up so I don’t get to tempted. The UK Christmas chart this year is now confirmed, with Who Wants to be a Millionaire grabbing the all formats number one. While the game is unlikely to be played much after Christmas, it is being produced by a British company, Eidos, which is one in the eye for it’s big rivals like EA and Infogrammes. Last week WWF Smash Down 2 became the fastest selling videogame ever released in the UK. While this may show that our games market is far from shrinking, it does make you wonder who is actually buying the majority of games these days. I wouldn’t give a second glance to a Wrestling title, unless I suppose it was made by Rare or Nintendo and was so highly rated it made reviewer’s eyes bleed. The bottom line is that an average wrestling game’s sequel has smashed all records, the game was probably put together in a matter of months, while true classics like Majora’s Mask or Perfect Dark dropped out of the chart after a couple of weeks.

Are we going back to the situation where a license is worth far more than the skills of the people creating the game? I think at least in the mass-market games arena, we are there already. Pokemon continues to support Nintendo through hard times for the N64. With this years announcement that Europe is a bigger territory than Japan or the US, you would have thought they may begin to take the UK seriously. Of course not, Nintendo have delayed Banjo Tooie, Conker’s BFD and even the aging Excite Bike, giving them a release in the new year instead. US readers will find the situation laughable, especially when I tell them than Nintendo’s other big game for the UK this Christmas is Mario Tennis. A great game, but pretty much as un-seasonal as you could get. Meanwhile, Sega have almost honored all their promises, with MSR, Quake 3, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, and Sega GT all making it for Christmas. We’ll have to forgive them for the delayed Half Life and Phantasy Star Online. Of course, virtually zero marketing, and the impact of PS2 means there is currently only one Dreamcast title in the Christmas top forty. Sega deserves success more than anyone in the UK, bringing the best arcade experiences so far to our shores. I’m sorry, but the mass-market must be stupid. Let’s hope they survive long enough to bring the rest of the treasures to fruition, Daytona 2001, Crazy Taxi 2, 18 Wheeler, Space Harrier 2001, Sonic 2, and there are loads more. Then of course there is the white elephant which is PS2, with more demand on the street than hardcore pornography, but a software catalogue which will have many reaching for a sick bag. It may be big, but in my mind, Sony has the weakest software launch line up of any console, ever. You could argue that the Dreamcast wasn’t exactly blessed with tons of titles, but it did have Ready to Rumble at a time when it was truly groundbreaking. Not to mention Sonic. Once again, the mass-market must be deranged. I have had a couple of new PS2 owners come in the shop, and genuinely rave about titles like Midnight Club and Smugglers Run. It seems that Sony’s hype machine has erased their sanity chips. For those of you who have not got a PS2 yet, there is the most incredible demo disk included in the box. Incredible because no-one in their right mind would use a level from Wild Wild Racing to try and promote their console. This is without doubt the most pathetic 128 bit game I have yet seen, and an insult to the hardware. It shows how bad Sony’s current software is, that they chose to include it on the Demo. It would have been better to have nothing. Anyway, enough of this, I should be apologising. Thanks to losing a vital member of staff, I have not been able to complete Issue 22 of Retrogames, and so must apologise to all our subscribers who were expecting the issue before Christmas. Hopefully, when you finally receive it, you will think it’s been worth the wait.

On a final note, I’d like to wish all our readers a Very Merry Christmas. Hope you all get the games you are after!!

15th November 2000

BRING ON THE SEQUELS

As we cruise ever closer to Christmas, the big guns are beginning to release their best games of the year. Looking back at the year, you have to admit, there haven’t really been many groundbreaking games. Samba De Amigo immediately springs to mind as my favorite game of the year, but perhaps this is only because it is so far removed from the traditional videogame experience. Of course, Christmas is also the time of sequels, and despite Lara Croft being killed off at the end of last years Tomb Raider Episode, her latest game, which comes out in a couple of weeks time, is hoping to break all records. I am afraid I have a problem with Ms Croft. It’s not that I'm not glad to see a British company, Core, have huge success, indeed, as the launch of the original game, I actually remember thinking it was a shame the title didn’t get more publicity. Once the ball got rolling, it just wouldn’t stop, and now there’s a film coming out. The original game was exactly that, it was fresh and original. Casting a female star in the role of Indiana Jones was risky back in the mid-nineties. Today, she has become all I despise about videogame media. Sure, everyone knows who she is, from little kids to old age pensioners, but as all us hard-core gamers know, she is old hat. The games have not moved on from the first title, yet this image is paraded around as the highest level of gaming chic year upon year. I hoped the death of Lara Croft would mean the death of the games. Eidos aren’t the only one milking their favorite cash cow this year, if I see another Fifa Soccer game at the top of the charts, I'll go into prolapse. Surely there is something wrong with these people who have to upgrade the game every year, but they just keep on doing it. If EA are the largest of all games publishers, then it’s so incredibly sad that they are allowed to get away with this continual exploiltation of their licenses. EA know as much about moving gaming forward, as I know about teaching Japanese. It’s a very poor precedent for the rest of the industry to follow. One huge conglomerate, churning out the same old stale formats, and making the biggest profits. We should all pull together, and agree to never buy another Fifa/NHL/NBA/F1/FA licensed EA game, then watch them suffer. Hey, this really is turning into a rant today!

PS2 Vs Dreamcast - Let the games commence

Well., already there are huge fears about the amount of PS2s available for launch in Europe. Everyone already knows that there will only be one game worth buying at launch anyway, Time Splitters. Meanwhile, Dreamcast releases just about all the best games of the year, and offers it’s console at half the PS2’s price. Those after a console for Christmas will no doubt be desperate for a Playstation 2, despite the lack of decent games. In fact, all they care about is the name. We can only hope that Sega’s new games catch enough of the spotlight to help new gamers make the right choice. One thing is for sure, Sony’s launch is an important indicator in the direction the new war will go. Ideally, I’d like to see Sony, Nintendo, Sega with around 30% of the market each, perhaps the remaining 10% going to Microsoft’s X-box. Hard-core gamers will of course be happy to own all of them, everyone else will have their favorite. I am sure this percentage split will be quite different though, and from a gaming point of view, I'd have to say, I pray that bigger chunks of the market go to either Sega or Nintendo. Sony may have the biggest slice right now, but with very little internal game development, and a chip on it’s shoulder the size of Ben Nevis, they have got to the stage where they deserve to fail.

Their arrogance towards the launch of PS2 isn’t the only reason, perhaps it’s their dominance during the current era, looming gloomily on the horizon is the possibility that it could continue. Us Brits are famous for favoring the under dog. Sega have risen from the ashes, and have certainly changed my opinion with their games this time around. Back in the early nineties I despised Sega for crashing into the UK market, and destroying the Amiga in the process. Now, I am desperate for Sony not to do the same to the Dreamcast. We should mention X-box I guess. Is it me, or does the very fact that the machine is so well financed, by the richest company in the world, you can’t help but think “Boooorrrrring!!”. Microsoft aren’t exactly known for their brilliant games. They are not in a brilliant position as far as hard-core gamers are concerned, they have the money to buy a great games company, rumors of a Codemasters take over are doing the rounds, but if they do, we’ll all despise them for taking away their freedom. If I was running Microsoft, I'd have found a software partner before even disclosing my intentions. For example, if Microsoft had persuaded a software giant like Konami to join them, producing a range of dedicated games, perhaps the new Metal Gear PS2 game, well, then you’d have to take them seriously, at least on the games front. Console gamers don’t want RTS games, they want games like Microsoft has never produced before, I wish them luck.

24th September 2000

Jace at ECTS

I know, it’s been ages since I’ve written. Indeed, I wanted to report on ECTS ages ago, but have only just got round to it. The reason for my lack or ranting this time is Issue 21 of Retrogames, which is finally complete, so if you want a whole months worth of ranting, be sure to order your copy. Anyway, I’m going to start by talking about ECTS. Our overseas readers may not be aware, but this is the UK equivalent of E3 or the Tokyo Game Show. Well, I say equivalent, it is sadly just a poor imitation. This year Nintendo and Sony were the main fighters for the most floor space. Nintendo opted for a huge construction in the middle of the main hall, while Sony ushered visitors into a showroom like construction at the opposite end. Nintendo had some great games on display, the new Zelda, Banjo Tooie, Conkers BFD and Mario Tennis, which at the time I hadn’t played. There was no sign of Gamecube, even though every hardcore gamer there knew it existed. A huge section of Nintendo’s stand was closed off to the public, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether they were showing off their new console behind closed doors. On the second floor of Nintendo’s stand was demonstration of Gameboy Advance, with around fifty machines available to play with. The unit is small and compact, size wise more similar to Bandai’s Wonderswan than previous Gameboy incarnations. There has been much mooting in the games press of the machine’s similar specification to the old Super Nintendo, however now that i’ve played it, I would have to say that the graphics moved with more speed and fluidity than the 16-bit machine. In particular, the screen was excellent, requiring far less external light than GBC. Mario Kart was the most exciting game title on show, though Konami had a racing game so similar that you would never need to own both games. Overall, the machine was certainly a big improvement of the Gameboy Color, and it’s no surprise that gamers are getting frustrated by Nintendo’s refusal to release it until next Summer, especially as the units are complete and ready to go. Actually, I bet there weren’t many visitors to Nintendo’s display that didn’t consider cutting the metal cable from the back of a GBA and slipping it into their pockets.

Sony’s showroom should have been the exhibit most visitors were most excited to see. It’s layout of rooms meant you had to work your way around the whole stand. For some strange reason, Sony thought the display would work better if they provided minimal lighting, leaving several hundred people walking around in the dark. Most of the stand was dedicated of course to Playstation 2, with possibly the most exciting exhibit being a giant 8 foot tall model of the machine. Games on display should have provided the meat in the sandwich, unfortunately they were just the stale crust around the edges. Konami’s new Track & Field title had some excellent animation, but offered nothing we haven’t seen before. EA had a Formula 1 game on display, but again, there wasn’t exactly an awe of excitement about the title. Namco’s Tekken Tag and RRV were on display, and looking as dreary as ever. Fantavision once again dazzled onlookers, but you couldn’t help but think that people were just trying to work out why Sony would bother showing the game at all. On a happier note, Free Radical Design’s Time Splitters looked spookily similar to Goldeneye, with no visible slow down in multi-player mode. Elsewhere a demo of Konami’s over hyped Metal Gear Solid 2 was on display. Now, I watched the rolling demo from start to finish about six times, why I hear you ask. Well, I was just trying to work out why there has been so much hype and amazement about the game in the mainstream press. Metal Gear Solid in Hi-res, with weather effects. Mmmm, i’m sure it will be a great game, but surely not the “Destroy all other console games Killer Ap” it is being made out to be. Playstation One was on display, but without the screen. Another games company had a PSOne on their stall, along with a screen, but the screen was suspiciously marked, and had obviously been homemade for the show. The only other major company at the show were Konami, who, despite their recent form, had little of any interest on their stand. A raft of PS2 games looked simply like hi-res alternatives to their original Playstation games. Sega were absent, represented only by Gem, their UK distributor. Jet Set Radio was on show, along with Shenmue on a big screen, but the tiny cramped stand on the second floor of the main hall did little justice to the titles. The rest of the show was largely very dull. PC companies trying to push their latest peripheral, bigger companies promoting games which are already on the shelves, and the occasional female in short black dress trying to promote some internet related business opportunity. I remember the PCW shows of the eighties, they were public, and companies tried hard to gain their support. It wasn’t all freebies, I can genuinely remember seeing so many amazing games that I couldn’t remember all their titles when I got home. Perhaps it’s just another sign that flashy graphics no longer amaze us. Maybe it’s original concepts, or a return to traditional gameplay values (remember when we used to play for score) which will breath life into the next generation. If this years ECTS is anything to go by, that’s still some way off.

24th August 2000

Jace Feels Guilty

No, it’s true, I do really feel bad. It’s been over a month since I've written on this page, and I'm sure you’d all all like to know what I've been doing. (yes you do) Well, I've been away to the depths of Cornwall on a mini-holiday, I've played a few games, most of all I've worked hard. I know, boring. Still, it all means that there is plenty to talk about now. First, lets go back to my holiday. Like many UK readers who holiday at home, I regularly try to find classic arcade machines when I go to the seaside. Now, these aren’t usually found in the flashy arcades at the sea front, more likely in the run down, tiny arcades found at the edges of town. These places often smell, there is usually a man behind the change booth in a sweat stained pinstripe shirt who frankly looks too old to work. There are usually a few hardened fruit machine addicts in there, you know, the ones who have figured out all the secret combinations of buttons and when to press them. Occasionally, you’ll find some gems in these places. Now, most of the older arcade machines are housed in grotty standard cabinets, with featureless surrounds, relying on plug in Jamma boards for the games. These are fine, but to find a machine in original order, complete with outer decals, well, it’s like finding a fiver in your pocket when you thought you’d spent all your money. I was lucky enough to find a very nice machine while on holiday this year, Sega’s Afterburner. Not just the normal stand up one, but the full sit-in, complete with enclosed canopy, and while the inside was a little grotty, the outer artwork was immaculate. Pity the game hasn’t survived the test of time, eh! Something else I saw in the arcades was the game Dance Mania by Konami. Now, this is not as good as the Japanese Playstation game, as it has been shipped as a new Euro model, with patronising Euro-friendly songs replacing the classic disco remixes. However, I was astonished by the games popularity. The players I watched on it were clearly seasoned experts, and no, they weren’t Japanese tourists either. To see such a buzz around a machine is something I haven’t acknowledged in an arcade for many years, so come on Konami, get your finger out and release all those Bemani classics over here!!

21st June 2000

WHO WILL WIN??

We are in an uncertain time. As ever, us UK gamers hang on until Japanese companies feel we are ready to take delivery of what new technology they can spare. Last week the news came that sales of Playstation 2 in Japan had dropped by 70%. There is only one company selling more machines than it can make in Japan, and that is Nintendo, but not with it’s 64-bit console, instead the Gameboy continues to break sales records. In the UK we may have Dreamcast, but it would be a very good week if you were to see more than two games for the format in the top fifty. This is not because there are not good games for Dreamcast, as there are many, it is because the mass-market has been conquered by Sony, and it takes a revolution to shift this market onto another format. You put the Dreamcast up against the Playstation 2, and Sega’s machine is the clear winner. Sega have created a diverse range of well crafted games (not many of them have reached the UK yet) which deserve to succeed. The problem though, is that we have reached a plateau in visual technology. You put an original Playstation running Colin Mcrae 2 next to V-Rally 2 on the Dreamcast, and which one is better? Well, Colin Mcrae is a better game, but visually they are not exactly leagues apart. The Dreamcast’s improved resolution creates a smoother image, and sure, there are a couple of visual effects to give extra shine, but both games essentially play at the same speed, and provide a definitive rally game for their respective format. Throw the Playstation 2 into the comparison once a rally game for the format arrives, and it will compare in the same way. We are not moving from Snes to Playstation this time, the jump back then was enormous, often jaw-dropping, and big enough to persuade people new to video games to join the revolution. Sony did good work, they realised that they needed to market the machine to the kids who had grown up with videogames in the eighties, and sure enough, the rest followed. In some respects, it is easier to impress a hardcore gamer. They are looking for impressive visual effects, the lense flair as a sword is removed from it’s sheath, or the dust which lifts beneath your feet as you walk.

Casual gamers, which represent the vast majority of the mass-market, are looking at what the game is about, what makes it different from other games. The answer in the case of the next generation is, not very much. Playability is something which has been argued about for decades now, and it’s importance seems to have been appreciated by most games manufacturers. Creating it however is an art, and those artists are worth their weight in gold. Unfortunately, even playability isn’t enough to conquer the mass-market. Coming back to Sega, I think they have realised the problem of similarity between technologies, and to compensate are investing in outlandish new genres like Samba De Amigo, Chu Chu Rocket and Space Channel Five. While these are a breath of fresh air to hardcore gamers, are they really the kinds of games which will excite the mass-market? Perhaps Sega are trying to create a new social phenomenon like Pokemon. This is incredibly difficult to do, and best left to Nintendo. The next war is destined to be the hardest ever fought in the industry, and the most cynical amongst us may even be predicting a crash. The Playstation quenched a gaming thirst across the globe, and Sony seem to be relying on current users loyally upgrading without providing any true next-generation entertainment themselves. Most of the casual gamers I have spoken to about the machine have only been interested thanks to it’s DVD compatibility. When a games machine starts turning into a household electrical appliance, isn’t it time to worry? I personally can’t wait for Playstation 3 thanks to it’s built in washing machine?? If there is any justice, Sony will not win the next war, even at this early stage in their marketting campaign, they seem to be treating the gaming public as sheep. A racing game, an RPG, a Tomb Raider game, and of course a footy game for the UK, and they’ll be happy. Dream on Sony. With Playstation two out in the UK and US in October the war doesn’t start until this Christmas, and by then we will all know more about X-box.

Bill Gates doesn’t exactly create an ideal emblem for a console release. It will be difficult to disassociate him from the project, which despite all the previous promises, does seem to be a bridge between console and PC. Creating PC games for an older generation is completely different to capturing the minds of the young. Word is that Microsoft will buy code shops to support their machine, and with the companies huge wealth, the strategy might just work. The thought of Microsoft muscling in on the console market is enough to make any hardcore gamer’s blood run cold. There we have it then, Sega are on the ground and running, releasing great games to an unappreciative audience. Sony are to follow, with a similarly specified machine, worse games, but more marketing muscle. X-Box has a year to build it’s image and games, but despite promising a better spec than PS2, already has a certain ring of 3DO about it. Regular readers will know that I have my hopes firmly pinned on Nintendo. While we know nothing of Dolphin yet, it is worth noting that, other than the forthcoming Zelda 64 2, Nintendo have not released an in-house console game since the original Zelda two years ago. With all that game making talent, you have to imagine they have some amazing games hidden away for their new format. Let’s just hope that they don’t meet with the same market hostility as Sega’s Dreamcast.

10th May 2000

EUROPE IS BIGGEST FOR GAMES!!

It’s recently been announced, that for the first time, sales figures for games in Europe have exceeded those of both Japan and the US. This I must admit, is quite a satisfying statistic if you live here. Those of you reading this who live in the US or Japan have no idea what it is like to be treated so badly by Japanese games companies. We always get the latest console last, we always have to pay over the odds for imported games if we don’t want to wait six months and have black lines at the edges of our screens. We have to be patronized by companies saying what will and won’t sell in our country, though they have little idea of what gamers really want. While this statistic may act as some vindication to the hard-done-by British gamer, is it really going to change anything? (I highlight the UK specifically as it is the biggest consumer of videogames in Europe by quite a big margin) The reason that getting everything last is such a bitter pill to swallow, is because things used to be so different....

Once upon a time, there was a hardware industry which catered for the UK individually. Sure, we got a kick start from the US, when Atari finally decided to release the VCS over here in ‘79, but it didn’t take long for us to define our own road. Sinclair introduced home computing to the masses with the million selling ZX81, which in turn brought games computing to the masses with it’s sequel a year later, the ZX Spectrum. American giant Commodore virtually became one of our own, with the UK it’s biggest market by far. After eight years of 8-bit dominance, and over 15,000 games titles later, the 16-bit revolution came early in the UK, with Atari’s ST and Commodore’s Amiga. While these machines may have been released in other territories, it was British coders who led the way, making breathtaking advances in game design, and showing that we needed very little influence from either Japan or the US. Of course, in the early nineties the bubble burst. Commodore’s battle for 16-bit supremacy pushed Atari to the brink. Then Commodore went under in suspicious circumstances. We were stranded, left with what scraps Japanese companies (bittered by years of being unable to crack the UK/Euro markets) would throw to us. Make no mistake, the Megadrive only succeeded in the UK because there was no real competition left.

So, here we are. The Playstation dominated games world is a rather stale one, if we are all very honest about it. The new “mainstream” gamer seems to buy whatever new sports game is thrown at them, with the occasionally racing game to fill the time inbetween. These games now dominate our charts, and must give Japanese games companies an idea of what we want. The truth is, that the European market is very different to the US one (no disrespect intended), and more similar to Japan. What we want is variety, new experiences, not revamped old ones. Back in 1990 you could see new games for over ten different formats in your games shop, now even N64 games are being taken off of the shelves. The ultimate example is Konami, and their refusal to release Bemani titles in Europe. We have just had the official release of the almost three year old Beatmania in the UK, but instead of the great Japanese tunes of the original, we have been patronized with a European “famous DJ” version. If nobody releases experimental or revolutionary titles in our country, how on earth will they be able to judge whether it is worth releasing such titles in the future. What we will end up with, is Racing and Football titles.... Forever.

This brings us to X-Box, the new direct X console from Microsoft. The thought of Microsoft getting involved in the games sector fills me with dread, instant comparisons with Philips CDi or the 3DO come to mind. However, we have been promised that this is just a games machine, and possibly more importantly, that this console will be released at the same time in all territories, giving all of us an equal start. It’s strange that it has taken so long for someone to realise that a global launch is imperative if your machine is to gain a head start with hard-core gamers, and it’s even more suprising that Bill Gates is the one to address the issue. Lets hope this promise is kept, and that all the games creating talent we have in the UK and Europe gets an equal chance to get to grips with the machine. Who knows, we might even see a revival in some of the niche titles of old. A game of Oids anyone??

3rd May 2000

GAMEBOY HITS THE MARK

Readers are probably getting tired of my constant championing of Nintendo, but this week the one hundred millionth Gameboy was sold. In what has been an unprecedented history, the machine has notched up the biggest global sales figure for a console of all time. What makes this even stranger, is that the year 2000 is destined to be the biggest selling year for the Gameboy so far, with demand outstripping production accross the globe. The all new Gameboy advance has been put back purposely, thanks to the unquenchable demand for Gameboy Color. While this is bad news for anxious gamers, it’s good news for Nintendo. There is the risk however, that having a format waiting around for release, that it could become outdated before it even hits the shelves. The Gameboy Advance has not been seen by many people, a handful of developers have been signed to secrecy, and it’s obvious that Nintendo will produce the majority of launch software for the console. What has been said is that it’s hardware architecture produces games very similar in quality to the SNES. The SNES I hear you cry, hardly next generation! Indeed, I thought that the Gameboy Color was comparable to Nintendo’s 16-bit machine. With a predicted December Japanese only launch date, isn’t it a good idea to maybe re-think and really make the Gameboy Advanced? Many magazines have carried CGI mock-ups with pictures of Mario 64 on the screen, and I think that is the amount of power most prospective owners are expecting. Are these pictures a direct product of Nintendo’s marketing department, and if so, why do they want to raise expectation higher than the finished console can fulfill. And what about the competition. Well, firstly, flushed with their initial success in the arena, SNK are working on an all new version of the Neo Geo Pocket, complete with a 32-bit CPU and alliance with Sega and the Dreamcast. Probably the most frightening competitor to Nintendo though, is Sony, and ever-constant rumours of a new Playstation based handheld. There has been much talk recently of an all new Pocket-Station, a portable CD player sized handheld complete with flip up screen and full PS compatibility. You may assume that if such a machine did come to the market, it wouldn’t be cheap, an instant comparison with the PC Engine LT comes to mind. However, if there was ever a company capable of delivering such a piece of handheld kit at a reasonable price, then it’s Sony. Of course, if you had to pick a favourite to succeed in the long term, you would have to stick with Nintendo. When a game as simple as Pokemon can capture the imaginations of so many people, you’ve got to say they understand the market in a way Sony and SNK can only dream of.

13th April 2000

There was another new game I was hoping to review in this weeks rant, but unfortunately, on breaking open the seal on Driving Emotion, I found that the disk suffered from a large semi-circular scratch half way around the disk. It’s very unusual for brand new games to be faulty, especially singularly, so I expect many new owners of the game will be dissapointed. Another piece of PS2 news is the release of Dead or Alive 2, which is getting better ratings in Japanese magazines than Tekken Tag. Despite a Dreamcast version of the game being available in the US, and on its way to Europe, the Japanese version has been dropped in favour of the new superior PS2 version. This is bad news for Sega, if publishers are dropping completed titles for a machine with a bigger installed user base, in favour of PS2, then what hope have they got of persuading new publishers to the format.

Pokemon Fever is going to bring the strangest event in recent video game history, N64 outselling the Playstation. Pokemon is an amazing Nintendo founded phenomemon, you would have a hard job to survive a whole day without hearing about it. The launch of Pokemon Stadium (allowing Gameboy characters to fight it out in an arena) has seen sales of N64 in the US double those of the Playstation. 90,000 units were deployed for the UK launch a couple of weeks ago, and sold out immediately. The all new Pokemon Stadium and N64 pack will also help to boost sales dramatically. The Pokemon GB carts have gone back to the top of the charts, six months after their release, proving the longetivity of the theme. They haven’t even released a Gameboy colour version yet!! For over a year now, Nintendo have had to suffer the indignety of people writing off the N64, even to the level where HMV were to stop stocking games for the format. A complete U-Turn is about to ensue, mark my words, sales of the N64 this year will double or trebble those last year in the UK. Nintendo’s demise hasn’t been so hard in the US, where they retained their postition as biggest games publisher thanks to the success of Donkey Kong 64. Those of us who have cherished our N64s since its birth, may have had to wait until a kids collecting craze grabbed the torch, but it will be good to see the N64 finally clawing some sales back from Sony. And what of all these profits? Well, they will leave Nintendo in a fantastic position for the release of Dolphin. Remember, Nintendo haven’t actually released a game in their own right since Zelda, over two years ago. You can bet that all of that game production talent isn’t just sitting idle. With the PS2 letting down gamers on all counts at the moment, the future rests with Nintendo, and what an exciting future it’s going to be....

20th March 2000

PLAYSTATION 2 - WORTH THE ANXIETY?

Well, it’s here, after months of excited sweatyness, after all the magazine previews, all the national hype, I am now the prize owner of a PS2. I’ve had it for a week now, so i’ve been able to spend some decent time with the machine before writing these words. Mmmm, where to start...

The Machine Itself

Firstly, it’s black, which must be an improvement on grey. Now, I dont’ know about you, but I always thought the machine looked very odd in publicity photos, kind of lop sided, and quite detatched from my normal conception of a games console. On studying the machine in person, i’ve changed my opinion considerably. It’s kind of like the machine has grown up, dropped it’s youth-friendly plastic casing, and joined the ranks of hi-fi and TV equipment with its metal and black plastic surround. The Sony logo is bright and metalic, matching the ones found on their DVD players and TVs, and stands out brightly. The small Playstation logo can be found on the actual CD drawer, and those of you (like me) who wondered, it spins round to suit both upright and lateral positions. There are a few mysterious ports underneath the two controller ports, and next to them a grill, allowing a sneaky peak at the wealth of components inside. At the rear there is a giant fan, ideal for sucking out all that heat, but it makes the machine almost as noisy as a Dreamcast. Another interesting port is a digital out, which it is thought Sony will use to allow internet gamers to download the latest music tracks on the Sony label, directly to their Sony mini-disc.

With all these ports and options, you can’t help thinking that the ever-clever software pirates will easily find a way to abuse the new machine. The PS2 is also very heavy, at least twice the weight of a Dreamcast. The two buttons on the front have tiny LEDs which change colour when operated, a simple, yet nice touch. The use of a CD drawer is also an obvious advantage, those of you familiar with the 3DO will remember the backward step putting a CD on the Playstations spindal seemed to be. Booting the machine itself presents you with a futuristic space sound, similar to the one the original PS makes, accompanaied with some flying cubes and balls. Leave the machine to its own devices, and the sound of crashing waves will no doubt help you get to sleep.

One good thing is the ability to change all the Japanese front end into English, no doubt in an effort to keep the system the same through each country. There have been lots of problems reported with the machine, firstly that DVD play is grainy and poor, to be honest, it’s not bad, it is worse than my stand alone DVD player, but still good enough to be one. Believe it or not, the first version of the DVD software, which has to be downloaded from a utility disk onto the memory card to create a DVD dongle, actually allows you to play all region DVDs. All the Japanese original Playstation games I have, also work fine, in fact, loading in even quicker times. Those expecting enhancements may be dissapointed, as I didn’t notice any improvement in resolution over the original Japanese machine. At this point I would like to tell you about one problem I discovered. The reset button seldom works, often you reset, thinking the machine is loading the next title, and really it’s just sitting there in a black screen daze. While in most cases simply resetting again cleared the system, a couple of times, a power on and off had to be used. Perhaps this is just a small problem with the first batch. Anyway, roll on the games....

Games

I am lucky enough to have the full compliment of ten demo disks, as given away at the big PS2 show before launch. While I havn’t played the following fully, I can give you an idea of what to expect. Konami’s other games are slightly less inspiring. Baseball and Mah Jong are likely never to be released in the UK, and frankly who cares, however a new Gradius game compiles the classic 1985 coin-op Gradius 3 with a new for PS2 Gradius 4. Both games offer very familiar playability, and the newer game has some nice graphics, but firmly remains 2D. Honestly though, both games could have been replicated on a PC Engine, let alone a Playstation 2. Finally from Konami comes Soccer 2000, another in the popular ISS series over here, and without doubt, my favourite footy series available. However, the supplied demo version is appalling, far worse than the initial N64 version of the game. With poor button response, jerky animation, and no background crowd, it’s little surprise that this has been delayed form launch. The Next Demo disk is from From Software. Armoured Core provides a self running demo of robots blowing eachother up, which isn’t particlularly impressive.

Eternal Ring has some pretty graphics, but just when you think you’re seeing something truly amazing, you realise that the game has switched to a CGI cut scene. I thought the PS2 was capable of creating graphics as good as in cut scenes?? Finally on the From disk is Evergrace, a Castlevania styled RPG/Adventure which is playable. Graphics again suffer from high definition but not enough dirt, everything looks sterile and overly computer generated. Is this the emotion Sony promised? Anyway, i couldn’t find a jump button, so I didn’t play for long. The T&E demo disk provides a look at their Golf game, which while pretty, looks over complicated. It would take a magnificent effort to usurp Mario Golf as my top title in the genre. 0Story from Enix takes us back to those appalling film based games that lurked in Mega CD collector’s collections. Unlike Night trap, this game features two girls kissing, which while nice to see, hardly consititutes video game entertainment. I thought that point and click film games were a thing of the past, hopefully outside of Japan they will remain so. Koei’s disk ranks as the most unplayable, with Kessen providing very poor animation and acres of text based Japanese options.

The other games on the disk are completely uncomprehensible. Ok, apart from SFEX and RRV, there are three left. IQ remix provides a puzzle game where you have to destroy oncoming blocks of stone. While the graphics for your player are nice, this hardly represents a next generation game. Fantavision on the other hand is clever. Fireworks fly up from the bottom of the screen, and you have to whizz your pointer around onto as many as possible and press fire before they dissapear off screen. It’s very simple, and the explosions do look genuinely outstanding, with brilliant lighting effects bouncing off of buildings. I was confused when the game ended however, I couldn’t understand what i had done wrong, so English instructions would help. Finally, Gran Turismo 2000. I have recently finised GT2, all apart from four of the endurance races. I was therefore quite interested to see how they compared. The demo track is taken from GT2, which allowed for easier comparison. What is dissapointing is that they put you in a very slow car for the race, so you can’t really see how well everything moves. The cars are once again very shiny, and control is pretty much the same as the previous game. In fact, it’s all pretty much as the previous game, once again showing why launch was delayed. At the end of the circuit, just for a few seconds, something hinted at the power of PS2. From between the buildings in the distance, the sun shone through, momentarily blinding me during play. The experience was so natural, that I didn’t realise it happened straight away. It was a small moment, but the realistic way in which the sky had been handled was amazing, just for a second, my jaw almost gaped.

CONCLUSION

Well, that’s the launch over, and I suppose we have to wait and see what the Western release brings us. There certainly isn’t anything currently on release to compare with the cream of Dreamcast. In fact, in light of my PS2 experiences, i’d have to say that if Sega hit back with a UK/US launch of Shemui (or what ever it will be renamed) around the same time, then PS2 will have a run for its money. These words however will probably seem ill-advised in six months time, once the might of Sony has rounded up some software to really show what its machine can do. For now though, the PS2 is in waiting, when the first PS came out, I was staggered by Ridge Racer One, how could my favourite arcade machine of the moment be running on my console at home. There is no such awe this time around, quite the opposite. Definite dissapointment. Perhaps this is the reason Sony have clung to their rights on export with such hostility, worried that early foriegn adoptors could actually spoil their launch. It’s still early days, but if in the next few weeks you read reports and reviews to the contrary of what i’ve just written, then you’ll have to remember how much power Sony has over what you read in the games press. Those of you who thought that the launch of PS2 would make the future clear, are about to find it’s become all the more confusing.

9th March 2000

Sony Stings Hardcore Gamers

Playstation 2 may have captured the imaginations of virtually every mainstream games magazine, but actually getting hold of one seems to be a different matter entirely. For me, as with every new console release, my appetite is now overly wet, and while I will hopefully have my machine very soon, similarly keen gamers may have to wait for the official UK and US launches to be finally quenched. The problems all started when Sony restricted the amount of machines which could be sold to an individual customer in Japan. With a limited number of machines available at launch this has become common practice, however, severe restrictions on sending machines out of the country were also implimented. Anyone caught trying to send a machine out of Japan could be fined two million yen, and held in prison for five days. Additional documentation confirming these restrictions is included within the console’s packaging, and thanks to high profile marketing, Japanese gamers are well aware of the dangers involved in exporting the machine. Anyone who thinks these conditions are outrageous will find no argument with me. Previously, console manufacturers have been quite two faced about grey import machines.

To the established industry, they argue that these importers should be stamped out, as they are damaging sales intended for their regular retail outlets. However, they also acknowledge, that hardcore gamers who early adopt the machine, help to build product awareness before the official launch. There could be two arguments for Sony’s new tough stance on export. One, is that they sold most of the consoles themselves through their official web site, meaning that additional export sales may damage official sales in the next launch areas. While this may seem a strange argument, as they will get the sales in the end anyway, it stops a third party making additional profit, aswell as allowing true statistics of console ownership per country. The second reason for the export ban, could relate to the various arms treaties around the world. The PS2 is so powerful, that its export to China and similarly undemocratic nations is prohibited under a united nations arms treaty. The reason is that it is thought they could use this technology in the production of missile guidance systems and other technology reliant weaponary. However, for a company who expects to sell tens of millions of PS2 consoles around the world, Sony will certainly have its work cut out keeping track of all of them. There is a final point of note, if Sony manage to prevent even the most determined hardcore gamer from getting hold of their machine before the official launch, then the anxiety for the new machine is bound to reach an all time high, no doubt resulting in even bigger launch sales.

The PS2 costs around £170 in Japan, and it is hoped that the machine will launch in the UK at £199. Of course, there are a few machines floating around London on import, if you’re prepared to pay the price. Those nice blokes who’d never rip people off at CEX had a machine on sale this week at £1300, and I’m sure if you looked hard enough you could find similar deals in the capitol. Obviously, in a climate as financially hostile as that, i’d have to reccomend anyone desperate for a machine to wait, but then i’ll hopefully be recieving my machine next week, so I won’t have to suffer the same anxiety. . Rest assured i’ll be reporting the true story on whether the machine is worth all the hype, if the emotion chip is emotionally crippled, if the tendency to stop half way though DVD movies is just rumour, if only half of original Playstation games actually run on the machine, and if Ridge Racer V is indeed anything like the CGI intro to RR IV. Until then....

25th Feb 2000

Playstation 2 - Worth the effort??

No, I don’t mean is it worth Sony releasing a successor to it’s fine 32-bit machine, but is it really worth the rush to launch which has made it’s Japanese debut farcicle. First we saw the pictures, and wow, we were impressed. If we were to believe what magazines were telling us, then we can look forward to games of the same quality as current CGI intros. The launch was initially going to be very impressive, promising a supreme batch of titles, all capable of showing off the new performance of Sony’s console. Pick of the bunch of proposed launch titles had to be Gran Turismo, a game in development so early, it was used to show other developers what Sony’s hardware was capable of. Three weeks ago, Sony made the suprise announcement that the game would now be released in the Autumn, thanks to too many similarities to GT2 on the original Playstation.

Next up is The Bouncer, a amazing looking RPG/Arcade romp from square, which has without doubt provided the most jaw-dropping magazine pictures. So, you guessed it, it’s been dropped from the launch schedule with no replacement date. Ah well, at least there is the Namco games. Well, there would have been, except the hype machine rolling through the press forgot to mention that it has also now been delayed, to the thirtieth of March (for now at least). Some disappointment could be replaced in February, when Konami announced their latest incarnation of ISS Soccer would be a launch title.

Last week, Konami decided it would put back its title too. Let us turn to Sony, a company famous for not developing many games for its machines, and its only title, Fantavision, to accompany the machine at launch. This strange firework based puzzle game has had very little press, and does little to make the heart race, yet last week, Sony announced that it’s only PS2 title has been put back a week. So, what’s left. Well, the only possible triple A title is Ridge Race V, which looks great, and has yet to slip. There are a whole bunch of obscure sport games, billiards anyone?, as well as the obligatory Mah Jong game. One new title has been added to the list, Street Fighter 3 EX which promises to be the definitive 3D fighter of the series. Little has been shown of the game in the press, so we wait with bated breath. The final title of interest for launch comes courtesy of Konami.

Drum Club comes packaged with a specific playstation drum, building on the current popularity of Bemani in Japan. The game allows up to three players to contribute to onscreen music, with up to two drums, and the guitar controller released with Guitar Freaks last year. The thought of three of you crowding infront of the console, as a pseudo pop band, is rather exciting. I suppose there are a few redeeming factors, many delays are short, and if the games are better because of it, then we should be happy about it. However, those of you who thought that the Dreamcast had a shortage of quality launch titles, aint seen nothing yet....

17th February 2000

Gran Turismo Wow

Well, it had to happen eventually, Playstation got it’s lead game put back, but hey, we’ve been given GT2 to make up it, and what a game it is. It’s first weekend broke all records for Playstation sales in the UK, and has made a dramatic effect on the video game industry figures as a whole, putting this year’s sales already way ahead of those last year. But, what of the game, well, many of you have probably already played it, and i’ll admit that one of the reasons for my lack of recent rants, is my determined need to complete it. Having now won the world championship and almost all the peripheral races, I can confirm that this is indeed as good as the Playstation gets. Sure, the gameplay remains largely unchanged between this and its prequel, but with more tracks, and a phenomenal number of new cars, this game will keep you enthralled for months. I do feel that the game is easier than the original, or perhaps i’ve just grown better at it.

You can’t help but think that the difficulty level has been toned down slightly, to let you get your hands on as many new vehicles as possible. And what vehicles!! Now that Europe is included, you can feel right at home, and as before, you feel such a hero beating beefed up racing cars and touring cars in a tunes Renault Clio. Licenses are also far easier than before, and it won’t take long to complete your set, however claiming gold at each section is a different matter entirely. One area which is a bit of a let down is the music, the original GT suffered from having chart tracks chucked into it instead of using the original electronic music from the Japanese game. The same has happened, and the amount of races you need to compete in, makes the tunes monotonous. That aside, engine sound effects are excellent. Overall, a stunning driving game, which you won’t be able to beat, at least until Ridge Racer V. Jace Rates 9/10

Dreamcast Gets Caught

I think it just shows how mellow us gamers are, when we accept promises and delays as par the course. Perhaps it’s thanks to years of waiting for games which always get put back, or the machines we thought were going to change the world but instead just dented our bank balance. Dreamcast has now appeared on the UK consumer show, WatchDog, thanks to the lack of online gaming facilities in the UK. It’s an interesting point that the subject makes it onto prime time TV, for while we all know that the service has been delayed, and delayed again, we just accept it as the way of the games industry and don’t worry about it. Sega should have got this sorted, lets not make any mistake about that, it would be a vital weapon in the wake of PS2, and maybe we should all be making a fuss while Sega are still in a position to do something about it. Remember the Jaguar VR Helmet, I know several owners of the Jaguar who clung on to their machine dreaming of the peripheral. As we know, it never materialised. So, the moral is, lets get crazy, lets fight, let play online. Well done Watchdog for not ignoring the subject, even if we’re all to complacent to be bothered.

27th Jan 2000

Busy Times Ahead

I know it’s been a long time since my last rant, but it has been a hectic time at RG. Apart from the deluge of orders and enquiries, there are all the other life intrusions, like video games, writing articles, and of course issue twenty of Retrogames, which is already looking pretty impressive. Of course, it’s release is still to be announced.

Miss-informed Arcade

Anyone who has seen the latest issue of Arcade, by future publishing, may have been initially pleased to see the retro feature held within. That is of course before you have read it. Rather than provide any insights into the benefits of classic gaming, the feature concentrates on the prices things will fetch, and unfortuanately, is incredibly miss-informed. If you were to believe what is stated, which indeed the more casual gamer may well do, a Sega Gamegear is worth £60!! In my experience, you’d be lucky to sell one for £10. Things getconsiderably worse. An original Atari Pong unit is quoted as being worth £1000, for American readers, that’s a staggering $1620!! Yes, there is more, an original Famicom is quoted as being worth £300, a SNES at £50, Vectrex at £300, and an original Atari VCS at £150. There is also one example of an undervalued item, a Colecovision is apparently worth only £30, which when considered against their price for a VCS is frankly ridiculous. The magazine then goes on to state that there is a huge difference between prices of stuff between people who know what things are worth, and those that don’t. Is this their way of providing a get-out clause. A magazine which blatantly caters for more casual gamers does us collectors no favours by providing such a badly researched article, intent on exciting readers with big numbers rather than providing an honest depiction of the collector scene.

5th January 2000

NEW YEAR BLUES

So, here we are then, my Colecovision is still working, and my MSX is still convinced it’s 1983. I don’t suppose any of us were worried that our machines would expire on the first day of 2000, in fact, I don’t think I can remember a single retro machine that can remember the time, let alone the year. I suppose the Amiga fitted with it’s clock card may have been affected, but then anyone using an Amiga for important everyday use must be as mad as me! (he said pushing his Amiga based midi set up into the dustbin)

DONKEY WRONG

Yeah, i’ve heard the rumours of bugged DK64s infesting the US, but i’d already got half way through it, and hadn’t experienced a glitch. I’m sorry to say that the story is now different. After playing on level seven for about half an hour, the game completely froze up. I have also had problems with joypad locking, moving left all on it’s own. Particularly annoying when fighting a big boss. The only cure is to pull the pad out the machine and re-insert it. I suppose it could be the pad or machine, but i’ve never had the problem before. Those of you who read me regularly will know that I am a huge fan of Rare, and I think it is such a great shame that a couple of tiny bugs can tarnish not only the companies image, but also a brilliant game. Fingers crossed Perfect Dark is being polished very hard as we speak.

GAMES OF 1999

Hey, everyone has gone award crazy, so why can’t I. Here are my RetroMillenium Awards for the best of 1999.

(NB: These are nobody elses opinions but mine, if you think i’m wrong, tell me why!)

MUST HAVE GAMES OF 1999

Mario Golf - N64 - Incredibly simple and easy to play, even if you have no idea what golf actually is. Brilliant course structure guarantees the game will throw up surprises for months to come.

Pop N Music - DC - With the addition of its special controller, gamers get the chance to really feel like part of the music. Add to the mix some super-catchy Japanese pop, and you’ve got a surreal classic.

Driver - Playstation - Most gamers designed this game about ten years ago, in their heads at least. It may have taken some time, but 3D driving in complete freedom has now become a whole new genre.

Ready to Rumble - DC - Arcade giant Midway strike back with the funniest beat-em-up ever. Not the most challenging game ever seen, but the facial expressions will keep it in your games pile for ages.

Donkey Kong 64 - N64 - Maybe not as ingenious as Banjo Kazooie, but the best platformer released this year, complete with tons of humour, and bonus stages as good as games in their own right.

Um Jamma Lammy - Playstation - Ok, you don’t rap, but with the weirdest storyline to grace a console, music which ranges from funky to bizzarre, and addictive qualities to drive you mental, this proves games can be art.

Formula One - DC - Videologic update their N64 hit into the most realistic racing simulation yet devised. The more you play it, the more you won’t believe the detail in the graphics.

BIGGEST LET DOWNS OF 1999

Soul Calibre - DC - Despite superlative reviews, and more hype than accompanied the launch of Dreamcast itself, Soul Calibre turned out to be no more than a 64-bit reworking of the original. Almost identical controls and action do little to confirm the dizzy heights of gameplay we were all promised. It’s just another fighting game, ok, it’s a good one, but so what. (23/11/01 comment: Did I really write this!!)

GTA 2 - Playstation - DMA responsible for so much ingenuity and brilliant game design, decided to revamp Atari’s classic APB with the original, threw in some dubious content and liberal amounts of swearing, and created a million selling monster. Un-influenced by Reflection’s ground breaking Driver, the cash-in sequel adds very little to the mix, providing a jerky, largely unplayable console game, which games magazines seem to think is sublime in its genius. APB meanwhile, rocks.

Jet Force Gemini - N64 - Two years of Rare starvation, only to be served up a game which begs you not to complete it. Whether the task is too big, the action too simple, or the theme too childlike, I don’t know, but JFG just doesn’t cut it in the gameplay stakes. Amazing graphics, and the best sound on the system, yet something just isn’t right.

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR

NINTENDO - Nintendo have recieved the biggest kicking in the history of the games industry. Perhaps its the fact that they have been so successful in the past, but it’s just not fair. While Playstation owners have had over 350 new titles to get sticky over this year, Nintendo owners have had less than fifty, but name how many Playstation games I still play, and i’d say one or two, Nintendo five or six. It was their ideal when they started the N64 ball rolling, quality not quantity, and to the non-casual observer, that is exactly what they continue to deliver. The last month has seen confirmation that HMV will discontinue N64 in the Spring, and are dedicating less space for software in the meantime. (the current N64 range doesn’t exactly warrant tons of space anyway) Magazines continually report on Sony’s dominance in the games world, and their obliteration of Nintendo.

Hang on, Nintendo are more cunning than they are given credit for. Last year saw the biggest ever sales for Gameboy, shifting over twenty million more machines worldwide. Decline of the N64 may be self evident, but Nintendo have not given up, promising us two more Miyamoto titles for this year, one being the sequel to one of the best games of all time, Zelda 2. Excite Bike 64 is also supposed to be very special indeed. Rare are also yet to deliver their final trump card, Perfect Dark, which I predict will be their last 64-bit title.

I’ve not mentioned the real meat in this sandwich yet anyway. While everyone has been slagging of N64, and Nintendo’s ability to compete, NCL has pitched Pokemon, and in a marketing stroke of genius, introduced a brand new, world wide craze. We are not just talking about Gameboy games, but the lunchboxes, sticker books, cartoon shows, the movie, the soft toys. Pokemon is as huge as the Turtles were in their time. Anyone still thinking that Nintendo are on their uppers in light of Playstation 2 should consider where all this profit will be going. Nintendo 64 has brought the best games of our time. Project Dolphin will move the goal posts yet again.