By Carlos McElfish

KOEI is most widely known for kicking out strategy games. So the last thing this reviewer was expecting from them was an extremely entertaining music/rhythm game. KOEI has managed to not only avoid the common pitfalls of breaking into a new genre but also manages to kick the entertainment value up a notch or two — or three.

Gitaroo Man is the story of a kid named U-1, who, despite his highly original name, is constantly picked on by his classmates and picked over by the girlies. What no one knows (including himself) is that U-1 is the last of the legendary “Gitaroo Man.” Aided with a psychotic-looking guitar and a sarcastic, talking, transformable pet dog, U-1 is charged with saving the planet of Gitaroo from the clutches of the sinister Gravillians family. Along the way U-1 will learn to believe in himself, fall in love with a Bajoran and save the universe with the sound of music.

All in a day’s work.

Gitaroo Man is a musical-rhythm game along the same lines as Um-Jammer Lammy, or Space Channel 5. However, this game goes far beyond simple ‘hit the corresponding button at the appropriate time’ philosophy. When you are playing, because of the intricate motions that you have to go through to make your guitar sing, you feel as if you really are a skilled guitarist. You feel as if the awesome sounds being emitted from the TV should somehow be credited solely to you. KOEI has done a terrific job in keeping the transcending feeling of creating music intact.

There is a girl named Kirah who U-1 finds on a foreign planet and attempts to serenade her. The game’s manual describes Kirah as “shy and reserved with the heart of a warrior.” This suspiciously named girl is wearing a dress, on which the Star Trek Federation Communicator symbol is blatantly embroidered.

Graphics are cartoon styled, but not flat like Parappa. As you are engaged in musical-combat the action will evolve into a crazy, beautiful, 3D rendered cartoon. Having to pay undivided attention to making sure you are hitting the right buttons, and pushing the left analog stick in the proper direction makes it easy to overlook the wonderfully rendered on-screen action. Watching someone else play the game can be nearly as entertaining as actually playing it for that reason. Perspective changes around like a wild 3D cartoon hopped up on an illegal substance but can be most closely likened to a Parappa-view.

Gitaroo Man’s soundtrack is definitely it’s crown jewel, the music in the game sports some of the most catchiest tunes ever to grace a video game. The Japanese music group COIL produced the musical aspect of the game. Everything from heartfelt, catchy, guitar riffs to happy-happy J-pop is in attendance. There are 12 songs in total. You cannot help but bob your head in rhythm with the music along with Gitaroo-Man and his entourage. At times the grooves are so jammin’ that you will find yourself making a complete ass out of your person by providing auxiliary sound effects, sporting crazy guitar-playing-facial-gestures, and trying to get that trademark guitar “twang” by shaking the dual shock.

Voice acting is unique and fits the theme and style of the game flawlessly. From the high-pitched voice of Panpeus (the game’s equivalent of Glass Joe) exclaiming, “The Gitaroo is mine! Can I eat it?” to the leader of the Gitalline people of the planet Gitaroo who sounds nearly identical to the obnoxious old man in Ninja Scrolls or Goku’s mentor in Dragon Ball.

There are three different phases per round: Charge Phase, Battle Phase and Final Phase. The Charge Phase is your chance to increase the life-bar of U-1 by using the left analog stick along with the ‘O’ button to perform various guitar riffs. The Battle Phase will have you executing the same tricky-stick combinations but instead of charging your strength it will damage the enemy, also in Battle mode the enemy will instrumentally attack you so you must hit the correct sequence of buttons to defend. The final phase has you laying down the block-rockin’ beats to perform an aural fatality on the opposing character. It may sound complicated but believe me, after 10 minutes you will be kicking out the jams like a pro. What it all boils down to is that if you play good then you deal the enemy damage. If you play poorly, then you take damage.

One annoyance with the game though is that when you hit pause for whatever reason, you are forced to restart the level from the beginning.

Finishing the game once through on normal mode will open up “Master’s Play.” Master’s Play will take you through the same 10 levels but this time around you will be required to shred your axe in rhythm even faster, and enemy attacks are more devastating as well. There also seems to be some minor modifications to the levels as far as background characters and various on-screen goings-on.

Aside from the standard single player mode KOEI included a few additional modes and bonuses to extend the life of the game. Vs Play is a worthy addition, allowing you to play against a human opponent. The gameplay dynamics are the same, allowing you to charge your energy, attack, defend, and deliver a finishing blow. This mode screams ‘on-line play’ but as we all know, internet connectivity is not something Sony seams to want to deliver on until they can get a system up and running that they can charge for. You can also assign your opponent in VS mode to be computer controlled if all your friends are on vacation. The other bonuses are Theater and Collection. Theater allows you to view all the CG cinemas you have witnessed thus far. Collection offers up illustrations of characters and vehicles in the game, complete with bios. You will have to beat the game on Master’s Play in order to “catch’em all.”

Gitaroo Man is a surprising, welcome, diversion to the as-of-lately stagnant music/rhythm genre. Fans of previous rhythm games will eat this title up like a kid in a candy store, and even casual gamers who rarely enjoy games of this nature will surely find a place in their heart for Gitaroo-Man. Quite simply, Gitaroo Man lays the funk down on all competing musical games currently on the market with enough left over style to put a particular K9 back in the doghouse

Surprisingly, and to the shock of many veteran gamers, there is an entire generation of up and coming electronic ball busters that are not familiar with the origins of Maximo. It’s a sad-but-true fact that I’m sure many of us would rather just as soon turn a blind eye to. But think about it, this new generation of gamers is going to be raised on an entirely new caliber of quality, and soon new will be old. And the absence of old knowledge will perpetuate Moore’s Law. I don’t mean to go all Hideo Kojima on ya’ll, but the passing on of knowledge is what causes great games like Maximo to be created in the first place.

Maximo was originally intended to be released on the N64, then after the development team realized that the limitations of the N64 hardware would interfere with their creative freedom, they turned their focus to the Dreamcast. After Sega declared the DC DOA, the game was optimized for the PS2 hardware. I’m sure Capcom will make a pretty penny because of this decision, but we’re left thinking Maximo could have been released on the Dreamcast. It brings an oversized Japanimation tear to my eye.

Many gamers have become spoiled with features that are often taken for granted. Back in my day we did not have save-anywhere features. We had to traverse the entirety of a level aided with nothing but our wits and a 2-button control pad. I come from a generation where continues were not passed out like candy at Halloween, we had to work for them! And work we did. Do you know what its like to progress through 80 percent of a game only to be informed that you have to start over again due to lack of continues? Well if you don’t, you will. Maximo throws out the idea that gamers should be hand-held or spoon-fed during the course of the game. While not anywhere near as difficult as Ghosts N’ Goblins, Maximo still retains that old-school ‘if you want it, be prepared to work for it’ philosophy. Luckily, Capcom keeps the experience incredibly entertaining, lubricating the all too common annoyance of having to restart a level (or in some cases the entire game) with smart level design, slick visuals, and an overall feel that brings us back to the good old days of pizza-greased joy pads that would inevitably be thrown on the ground in frustration — only to be immediately picked back up to give it one more shot. Enter Maximo.

Maximo sports some impressive visuals. It’s hard to imagine that Capcom Digital Studios created the foundation of this game to run on the lowly N64 hardware. What may be even more surprising is that they have created this game to load entire levels into the measly 4 MB of video ram of the PS2, it seams developers are finally getting a true sense of the system’s intricacies. You can literally eject the CD from the disc tray and continue playing the game right on to the end of the huge levels; animations, sound effects, secret areas, all intact.

Huge draw distances, reflective metal armor, and an almost cinematic approach to perspective are some of the things you should expect from Maximo graphically. Zombies will abruptly sprout up out of the soil in classic G&G style, ghosts will appear out of the woodwork, and huge environments will violently modify themselves drastically, and without warning. Imagine playing Ghouls & Ghosts on the SNES, now give the game a beautifully rendered 3D makeover, throw in a bounty of new graphical nuances and innovations, set to puree and you’ve got a basic understanding of what to expect from Maximo in the visuals department. This game pays homage to the 8 and 16-bit era of the series while also realizing the potential of the current state of the art.

As expected you will see a lot of Maximo running around in his skivvies, which looks particularly nasty in the Ice World stage of the game. You may find it interesting that Maximo can buy different styles of under garment, everything from the infamous red-heart pattern currently being pimped out in all of Capcom’s advertising attempts to a simple-yet-tasteful cow spot design. The different kinds of underwear have absolutely no effect on anything, and merely serves as an aesthetic diversion from the default boxers.

You may recognize many of the game’s tracks from previous G&G games. Those old-school beats are back in a big way; retooled, tweaked, and modernized for your enjoyment. The music compliments the detailed, eerie, visuals subtly enhancing the overall enjoyment of the game, and doubly so for those who are familiar with the series’ heritage. As many people already know, the memorable soundtracks in the previous games made up a large part of the experience and often would kick around in your head long after you stopped playing, fortunately the same can be said about Maximo.

Sound effects are surprisingly realistic. Swinging your sword at a tree will result in a thick organic ‘thunk’ sound, striking metal will have a clanging, reverberating, realistic metallic sound to it. Supporting the oft-overlooked positional stereo sound, enemies can sometimes be heard rustling in the distance, hearing the direction that monsters are coming from is particularly useful for staying alive.

Character movements are sharp and precise, and death can sometimes be a matter of a few microns. Gameplay is based on the same simple dynamics found in the original game; jumping, double jumping, attacking, and throwing your shield are all executed with ease. Because of the immediate familiarity with the control scheme, you will find Maximo is very easy to pick up and play. So when you die, the blame can rarely be placed on anything but your slippery thumbs. The camera can get distracting on a few small spots in the game but luckily you can kick it into FPS view at (most) any time and look at your surroundings as viewed by Maximo by holding R1. You can also line the camera up with your POV by hitting the L1 button.

Multiple elemental sword power-ups are available to aid you in your quest. Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Armageddon are all available, which increase the potency and effect of your attacks. Fire attacks are particularly devastating on the ice stages — each elemental property has different results on enemies depending on the current atmospheric situation.

Maximo’s levels are huge, requiring multiple attempts to fully explore. Luckily you’ll come across check-points as you progress through each level that are activated by performing a downward stab deep within the soil, allowing you to re-spawn at that point in the event that you come across an untimely death.

Collecting Death Coins is a necessity in furthering your progress of the game. For every 50 Spirits you collect you’ll be awarded one Death Coin, spirits are accumulated by destroying tombstones and various other objects. If you die and have no lives left, you will be sent to the underworld where Death Coins are the only form of currency that the scythe-wielding Grim will accept. At first all that is required to continue is one Death Coin, but every other time you run out of lives the price goes up. If you are unable to ‘pay the Reaper’s toll’ then its game over.

Throughout the duration of one life you gather various power-ups that fill slots in your inventory. You start out with a 3-slot capacity, that number increases by one for each set of levels you complete. Power ups that are locked into a “slot” are permanently saved, however you can utilize as many power-ups as you can get your hands on, but when you die only the ‘locked’ power-ups will remain. It gives an added sense of appreciation for the preservation of just one life. When you find a heart (one free life), you are filled with an urgency to retrieve it by any means necessary. And believe me, this game does not making retrieving free lives easy. You’ll be walking a 2 inch plank on a swaying pirate ship, double jumping over bottomless pits, and for the most part pulling off acrobatic feats that would otherwise only be suitable for a super hero.

Make no mistake, Maximo is a challenging game, luckily it stays consistently entertaining throughout. Every level offers an experience that is unique and challenging, giving you a real sense of accomplishment for progressing. Its possible to blast through the game in just a few hours if you know exactly what your doing at all times, but expect to invest around 15 hours of well spent time your first time around the block.

After defeating an end-boss you will be given the opportunity to; fully power up your armor, save the game, or receive a Sorceresses Kiss. Collecting all the Sorceresses Kisses (4 in all) will unlock an art gallery where you can check out illustrations of characters and designs from the game. Completing the game with 100% of every level explored will open up “Mastery Mode.” In Mastery Mode you will play through the opening level of the game, but this time around you will have to do it backwards with item and enemy placement changed. The monsters are hugely abundant in this mode and require skill and strategic planning to defeat.

Like some of the best side-scrolling platform games of yesteryear, Maximo requires calculating precision to successfully navigate. Keeping you on your toes is something this franchise has always flawlessly executed, and I am happy to report that this reputation is kept firmly intact with Maximo. Uttering foul language and slamming the controller down on the ground in frustration has not been this fun since the SNES days. Long live the double jump!

Force 21 is far from your normal real-time gtrategy game. You don’t have a base where you begin — mining resources, building buildings, which in turn allow you to build certain units. No, it’s nothing like that. Force 21 doesn’t try to be that. It’s something much better.

Force 21, set 15 years in the future, has you in the middle of a war. I know that you may be thinking, “Oh, no. Not another futuristic WWIII scenario,” but this actually seems to be possible. China, thriving off of its economic boom in the 1990s, has become short on natural resources and raw materials. On the other hand, Russia, economy falling from the breakup of the USSR in the 1990’s, is almost on the brink of collapsing. China, taking advantage of this, invades the Republic of Kazakhstan, for much needed materials.

“NUKE ‘EM” is what you’re probably thinking, but that won’t happen. Apparently, missile defenses have been researched so much, that nuclear weapons have become obsolete. The only practical way to fight is by conventional warfare. China, obviously having the advantage over the tumbling Russia, was predicted to barge their way through the Russian army no problem. But the United States of America, trying to get in the middle of it, sends some forces into the area, hoping that they may dissuade China from invading. China decides to attack anyway. That’s where the game begins.

You can either choose to be the invading Chinese army, or the defending US army. Either way you decide to go, you have complete control over 16 different platoons from each army. These platoons are made up of tanks, surveillance, recon, helicopters, artillery, APC’s and electronic warfare units. In some missions, calling for air support is also permitted.

Each side has 15 missions in the campaign, with a briefing before each one, showing you the objectives. Next, you look at what units you are going to bring into the fight. You are also given approximate locations of where the enemy is. As nice as this can be, don’t set up an entire attack based on it. Always scout ahead. The enemy is prone to move around the area.

After all that is done, you are now in the game. You will find your units sitting nice in pretty in front of you. If you have ever played a RTS before, then you already know the basic commands. The only frustrating part of the setup of the game is that you can’t just click on a tank, or any other unit, and order it to do something. If you want to move just one unit around, you must separate it into it’s own platoon. While this is not a big thing to do, just a drag and drop, it gets quite annoying when, in the heat of the battle, you need to move just one unit around. Unlike most RTS games, you just can’t see anything on the map by clicking there. Your point of view is what the commander of the platoon would see. An interesting twist in the game is that requires that you do more recon than in other games.

Now, the grits of the game. The sound is quite good, but the voices of the units get repetitive real fast. The sound detail and quality make you feel like your there, but to take advantage of it, you’ll need a good set of speakers. The graphics in this game are absolutely superb. The detail of each unit is incredibly realistic, which add to the total realism of the game. Explosions are well done, not cheesy looking like a lot of games do. One of my only complaints with the graphics of this game is the distance that you can view off into the horizon. There always seems to be a layer of fog, limiting your visibility range. Sloppy work there takes away from the playing experience. I mean, if you were sitting in a tank, on relatively flat land, I would think that you would be able to see a little further than a couple of hundred of feet. Other than that, kudos to Red Storm on the realism.

The replay value of the missions is not the best, as the missions are mostly the same time after time, the only difference is the exact location of the enemy units.

The single player experience may be the best part of the game. Due to the unpopularity of this game (caused by a bad release date) there is a very small multiplayer base to play against. This is too bad, because this is the kind of game that’s really fun to play with a group of friends. The fact that there is hardly anyone to play with is very odd, seeing as how both Mplayer and Microsoft Gaming Zone support play for the game.

Overall, Force 21 has enough to satisfy both the people who like to sit down and play a realistic war game and those who just want to blow shit up. The ease of play is what really makes this game work. Also, I found absolutely bugs in this game, which is becoming more and more rare these days with companies over hyping games, then throwing crap programming in a box just to get it out.

Turn to page 2 if you want to see how the game ends. We also have a cool game demo available for download.

For all intents and purposes, Napster died nine years ago today

Judge Marilyn Patel, of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, granted an injunction filed by the record industry against Napster, forcing it to cease all operations.

That was the death of Napster, though two days later an appeals court granted the peer-to-peer file sharing service a stay of execution, which ended on February 12, 2001, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit announced a decision in A&M Records v. Napster, which upheld the RIAA’s injunction saying Napster was participating in copyright infringement.

Napster’s legal counsel tried to argue the VCR case, citing the Audio Home Recording Act and throwing out phrasaes like “fair use.”

They failed.

The following article appeared on ReviewCenter.com on July 26, 2000.

Here Today … Gone Tomorrow — Is Napster Really Dead?
By Christina Warren, Review Center Staff

On Wednesday, a Federal Judge sided with the Recording Industry Association (RIAA) of America, and ordered a temporary injunction on the popular music program Napster. Napster allows its users to share music files in the form of MP3s without regard to copyright.

When the program gained astounding popularity, the recording industry and a group of vocal artists took exception and filed suit against the company, alleging that the trade of MP3s violated copyrights held by the artists and their recording companies.

“Napster is enjoined from copying or assisting or contributing to the copy or duplication of all copyrighted songs and musical compositions of which the plaintiffs hold rights,” US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered at a hearing in San Francisco federal court.

This ruling will no doubt shock the many users of Napster, as well as supporters who did not think the program would be shut down so quickly.

“When the infringing is of such a wholesale magnitude, the plaintiffs are entitled to enforce their copyrights,” Patel said. Patel ordered that the injunction go into effect at 12 a.m. PDT on July 28, 2000. Patel’s ruling in favor of the RIAA strongly suggests that the trial that will take place against Napster at the end of the year will also find in favor of the RIAA.

The creator and CEO of Napster held a live web broadcast at 7 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, addressing the courts ruling and the future of Napster. Essentially, the message was that while they adamantly opposed the ruling by Judge Patel in the hearing, they would comply with the court’s order. What does that mean?

This means that as of midnight on Friday morning, Napster will basically cease to function as we know it.

The question then becomes for Napster’s users, “What next?” Programs like Gnutella sprouted up as soon as the RIAA filed suit against Napster in December. These programs are even more dangerous to copyright holders, because they allow not only the transfer of music, but of video and text files as well.

It will be hard for anyone to stop people from sharing files. The MP3 format is hardly new, even if it has been making a lot of news with the advent of Napster and the subsequent trials. MP3 files were around before Napster, and they will continue to exist in the wake of this judgment.

Websites are already in the planning stages of trying to keep Napster alive. www.napigator.com has already started posting un-official Napster servers that can be used with the current Napster clients. This will allow Napster users to continue to use Napster after the Friday injunction, but without logging onto “official” servers. As these services become increasingly popular, it is going to be difficult to shut Napster down completely.

Users will have to await a final ruling when the case against Napster goes to trial this fall. The RIAA represents major acts like Metallica and Dr. Dre and represents companies such as Universal Music, BMG, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI.

Although 989 Studio’s Cool Boarders 3 is a very good snowboarding game with great graphics and outstanding sound quality, it didn’t quite live up to its anticipations or expectations. After Cool Boarders 1 and 2 paved the road people were expecting more out of the third component of this trilogy. It’s fun to play, but unfortunately it’s also a letdown.

The improvement of graphics are what save CB3. No other snowboarding game can even be compared to Cool Boarders 3 without looking like a NES game. The tricks looked very realistic as well as the hills and the scenery.

Another great aspect of Cool Boarders 3 is the many modes available on the game, like downhill, half-pipe and slope style.

Downhill is a regular race down a hill that takes into account time and points. The half-pipe, which was drastically improved from Cool Boarders 2, is a great test of your ability to pull of crazy tricks and stunts. Slope style is basically a snowboarding park with many apparatuses filling the slope. All can be used to help perform massive trick combos and to get maximum air time.

There are only five hills to share over the three game modes, however.

There is also an avalanche mode that is probably the most unique part of the game. A helicopter drops you onto a hill, seconds before an enormous avalanche. Your goal is to get to the bottom of the hill without being flattened by boulders of snow.

Another unfortunate change from CB2 is that you can’t pick the background music. The same ol’ song plays through all the modes, on all the hills.

All and all, Cool Boarders 3 is a pretty cool game. The graphics are higher quality than most sports games and it is extraordinarily realistic. Cool Boarders 3 is a great game but I recommend buying it used or waiting until the price comes down — $50 is a little too much.

For us, it all started with The 7th Guest for the PC. We were indescribably intrigued by this game at the time. The ability to journey through a beautifully rendered haunted mansion (as good as you could pre-render n 1993) via a first person perspective was something that, at the time, was unprecedented. Bill Gates himself commented on the game saying something to the effect that it was “the future of multimedia.”

After 7th Guest, it was Mansion of Hidden Souls for the Sega CD. It also featured an explorable mansion, and to our recollection, it too was haunted — with souls trapped in butterflies. What a concept.

When I heard that a sequel was in the works for the Sega Saturn I was giddy with glee, unfortunately the game never saw the light of day in America. Then came Trilobyte’s 11th Hour, the sequel to 7th Guest. While 11th Hour was technically superior to its predecessor in terms of a technological standpoint, it just did not hold the same sense of wonder and awe that the original game did.

Enter Fatal Frame, the most impressive 3D haunted-mansion explorer simulator known to man. Tecmo has taken all of my favorite aspects from the past super naturally charged Mansion haunts and combined them with technology that would put the 33mhz SX computer I originally played 7th Guest on to shame.

Fatal Frame puts you in the role of Miku, a teenage girl who is in search of Mafuya, her brother. Mafuya went to the mansion in search of Takamine, a famous novelist who ended up missing after doing some research for his book at the Himuro mansion.  Both Miku and Mafuya are cursed with the sixth sense; they can see ghosts, scarrrry. Takamine helped Mafuya to cope with his ghoulish affliction through various books that he wrote on the subject.  Mafuya too ends up missing after searching for Takamine at the mansion.  Two weeks pass and Miku resolves to go searching for her missing brother, this is where you will come in.  As Miku you will uncover the secret, disturbing past of the mansion through clues you will uncover over a 4-night one-person manhunt for your brother.

The graphics in Fatal Frame are just short of astounding, for a system that can only render 1-pass bump mapping the visuals are surprisingly rich and detailed. Interactive backgrounds, freaky grain-film filters, impressive Luigi’s Mansion-quality dynamic lighting effects.  Every object casts a realistic shadow on the background resulting in an almost frightening level of immersion.

Pre-rendered cut scenes are done up in a black and white, tattered film-like package that allows for both a realistic depiction of past events and an underlying documentary-ish feel. The lighting in the game allows for a believable atmosphere that gives you the sense that anything could happen at any time. The various apparitions that you will meet will be depicted in a terrifying flickering presence, usually contorted in positions that are painful just to look at. Perspective is primarily represented via a third-person view, the multitude of camera positions adequately follow you around to the point where POV is rarely an issue. The non-ghoulish characters in the game are rendered very well, with detailed, diverse clothing and realistically animated facial gestures that serve their purpose flawlessly.

The sound in Fatal Frame is composed mainly of an organic-ambiance and strange ritualistic chanting music that would scare your little brother to death if you were to record the samples onto a mini-recorder and put the device under his bed and hit play at full volume while he is sleeping. Ghosts will scream in agony as you film them and taunt you in the instances when they have the upper hand. Super-natural objects will resonate with a spooky hum as you close in on them, faint voices can be heard through long corridors, footsteps sound suitably different depending on the composition of what your walking on. All this equates to an audibly impressive, realistic experience that reverberates with resounding effect.

The fact that we’re still talking about PlayStation 2 and still talking about new games being made only for the PlayStation 2 in the 2008 holiday season speaks volumes about what this console did for our industry. Today nearly 100 percent of children and teens play video games on some level.

Here at Blast, we’re big into nostalgia, but we don’t necessarily look to Pac Man and Space Invaders for our retro fix. PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64 and PC games from the 90s have given us a litany of content to draw from, especially with the entire reviews and news database from ReviewCenter.com.

Here is The Review Center’s PlayStation 2 Launch Guide from February 2000
By Tom Carroll, Review Center Staff

If you haven’t had the chance to play all 28 PlayStation 2 launch titles, now you don’t have to. Nobody has the disposable income to invest in crud, so we’ve taken the liberty of snagging a bit of the cream from the skim. We’ve got the skinny on which titles are phat and which fall flat.

Refreshingly (and unlike the Dreamcast’s launch, which was mostly made up of driving games of dubious distinction) the PS2 launch has a few candidates from each of most popular genres: action, sports, racing, and, surprisingly, RPG.

We also realize that no one wants to read too much at launch. Full reviews of each launch title will follow in short order. For now, strap on your helmet, grab the ol’ dual shock controller, and get ready to have your horizons expanded:

Armored Core 2
Agetec
From Software
Action
1-2 Players

The PlayStation’s main mech, or AC, is back in action with the best-looking ACs ever in a game of this sort. Armored Core 2 is the fourth in the series, but the true sequel to the first game, and the first of the series on PS2. With literally hundreds of parts to improve and alter your mech, and dozens of single player levels to battle in, players can enjoy lone play time, or they can venture into two-player split-screen action. While it plays much like previous games in the series, Armored Core 2 looks fabulous.

DOA2: Hardcore
Tecmo
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you’re only going to buy one fighter for your PS2, this is the one. It has more of everything than anything else out there. You want characters? It’s got ‘em. You want costumes? Ditto. You want arenas, breakaway walls, dramatic falls, slaps, punches, kicks, combos, tag elements (that leave you breathless), well, DOA2: Hardcore lives up the hype and continues shoveling it on long after the others have quit. This game is the sine qua non (for those of you classically challenged, that means, “the bomb”) and it easily tops Namco’s best efforts to date.

Dynasty Warriors 2
Koei
Action
1 Player

If you like your action fast and furious, DW2 may just be the game for you. You take on the persona of one of eight ancient Chinese heroes, each with different skills. Navigating via a huge map, you get to ride a stallion, battle bad boss guys, and formulate a strategy that leads to success. No other game will have as many characters simultaneously on screen, which may be frightening at first. This explains the furious part; the game is also a tad short in terms of gameplay — which explains the fast.

FantaVision
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Puzzle
1 Player

When Konami wanted to have one of its teams learn the PS2 development environment, it said, “Make an update of Gradius III and IV,” which is what happened (the game will be released within the month). When Sony Computer Entertainment International (SCEI) wanted the same thing for one of its teams, it said, “Make me a colorful puzzle game that involves fireworks.” Fanta Vision is the result. You link together same-colored fireworks as they fall from the sky to achieve various point totals. It is a beautiful game and one that will keep adult gamers interested for roughly the same time as a first-run movie. You do the math — movie = $8.50; Fanta Vision = $53.00 (tax included). See you at the movies.

Eternal Ring
Agetec
From Software
RPG
1 Player

Eternal Ring is a Japanese game in search of a US following. Its story involves science and magic, but the uninspired story makes it difficult to imagine that anyone will stay engaged long enough to plumb the more than 100 spells that are available. Less than inspired visuals and localized voiceovers drop this title to the bottom third of the bunch.

ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding
Konami
KCE Osaka
Sports
1-2 Players

While SSX is the snowboarding king, it is a fanciful look at the sport. For the serious snowboarder who wants more realism in his/her gaming, there is ESPN WXGS (that’s Winter X Games Snowboarding, but we’re tired and we’re not typing that out any more). This game has the real deal: trademarked boards; signature riders; courses modeled after real terra firma. While the controls for this game don’t disappoint and the tricks are the bomb, there are times when you wish this game would just bust a bit more loose. Kudo to the Create-A-Boarder feature; it’s a winner.

Evergrace
Agetec
From Software
1 Player

Now that RPGs are back in vogue for console systems, isn’t it nice that the PS2 gets a capable one at launch. Darius and Sharline are the two main characters in Evergrace. They get involved in some pretty dark deeds, but it’s the game’s unique “Free Growth System” that stands center stage. Using the FGS, you can allocate experience points to any of a number of abilities. Not to be outdone, the game’s “Full Dress System” allows the player to dress his/her character from head to toe prior to battle, all of which affects the way the character fights. While Evergrace is the only true RPG in the launch bunch, you wouldn’t be disappointed if you gave it a try.

Gun Griffon Blaze
Working Designs
Game Arts
Action
1 Player

This should actually be called Fun ‘n Gun Griffon Blaze, becaue it’s a fast start boullion of battles and blasting. The worlds aren’t going to set your hair on fire (because the geometry and textures are somewhat simple, but what a rush it is to fly at one opponent, blast it into smithereens, then jet over to another hotspot and start blasting. You’ve also got a cool zoom feature for targeting that involves speed blur and such. Hot action; cool tech.

Kessen
Electronic Arts
KOEI
Adventure
1 Player

PS2’s launch lineup has room for everyone and everything, it seems. Even Kessen. One of the few original launch titles in Japan, the powers that be must have gone through some real gyrations before deciding to localize it for Western tastes. The results are generally good: the graphics and cinemas are first-rate; the strategy portions, while competent, are a bit tedious. If you measure your gaming pleasure in hours instead of emotions, Kessen may just pass muster.

Madden NFL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Electronic Arts’ Madden 2K1 is one of the most sophisticated games to launch with the PS2. It has to be. It’s football, for cryin’ out loud. But this is one console that goes much deeper than a new coat of paint and some new spark plugs in the engine. The amount of precision that you have to have to compete has been increased (now you have to not only hit the open man, you have to hit him when his head is turned back toward the passer when the ball is in the air). Skill, fatigue and injury are more of a part of this game than any before because the engine and graphics renderer have the ability to actually turn concepts and theories into gameplay actions. By making launch with more than just a collection of pretty helmets, EA has served notice to Sony’s own that an ordinary GameDay 2K1 will just not do.

Midnight Club: Street Racing
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

Somebody once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” Perhaps this is true of Midnight Club. At first the visuals and audios impress one as less rather than more. The opening movie is a shambles; the vehicles shine as though they were carved from blocks of plastic. Play the game for a while, however, and the personality of the thing starts to show through. The taunts really do get under your skin; the challenges are easy enough to catch your attention but become tough quickly so as to hold it. If Midnight Club succeeds at all, it will be because substance triumphed over style.

Moto GP
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

It’s a shame that some games have to betray their roots as quickly as they do. Moto GP is a game that can be mastered in no time, which makes it a disaster for the home market. Such a shame, too, because you’ll never see a prettier game on any platform. The bikes are sweet; nearly every surface is awash in somebody’s logo; tracks are totally trick. If Moto GP succeeds (and racing games are often more popular than they deserve to be) it will be because style triumphed over substance.

NHL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Both Madden and NHL 2K1 show EA’s desire to deliver more of the “good stuff” right out of the gate. The problem is that sometimes higher polygon counts and richer textures mean a gummed up renderer unable to cope. Such is the case, especially with NHL 2K1. It’s a pretty title, to be sure, but the lack of snappy moves and an AI that’s too cagey with the difficulty setting ramped up will surely doom this game — fast in the past — to a slow start out of the PS2 gate.

Orphen
Activision
Kadokawa Shoten
RPG
1 Player

Orphen tries to be a hybrid of RPG and fighting game. Taken singly or as a whole, it is a failure. Orphen is an unappreciated and underrated sorcerer trying to make his way in the world. He joins up with various folks for various reasons, ultimately taking him (and them) to Chaos Island for some showdowns with various bad guys. The game looks nice, but the battling system is repetitive and boring, making an otherwise engaging story not worth the bother. Save your yen for a better game about some other lost cause.

Q-Ball Billiards Master
Take 2
ASK
Sports
1-2 Players

This game is pool as it’s often played: by the book and with little panache. The physics are steady and the player is given more than enough control to attempt any shot, even if they aren’t all accomplished. If you’re looking to play a bit more fast and loose with the “sport,” try Konami’s Real Pool.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Midway
Sports
1-2 Players

If you liked the first game in series (on whichever platform you played it on — wasn’t it ported to play on cell phones?) you’ll love the PS2 sequel. All the previou modes are retained; added are a tournament mode and career mode. You can also fight against a teeny slate of celebs — which was better for pre-launch marketing teasers than it actually is in the game. While R2R Boxing: Round 2 won’t be the only boxing game on PS2 forever, it will always be tops in kooky fun.

Ridge Racer V
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

Namco is guilty, guilty, guilty — of a little bad judgement. The company decided to take a luke warm PS2 J-launch title and seve it up even colder to US audiences. The game lacked antialiasing and had problems with framerate flickering when it was being played in and around Tokyo (and in our office, too, of course). Such techno bugaboos could have been eradicated for the US launch, but Namco decided to put its efforts elsewhere. RRV is a good racing game, especially for those who’ve fallen for past incarnations of the game. However, front end be damned (and the game’s start, selection, and option screens are drop-dead gorgeous) can’t cover over this game’s warts.

Silent Scope
Konami
Shooter
1 Player

A gun! A gun! My kingdom for a gun! This stiff, ultra-formal remake of the arcade hit is just that . a remake of an arcade hit. It suffers mightily from control, as the sniper rifle that made the arcade version so infectiously fun isn’t anywhere to be found (and don’t look for some desperate hardware manufacturer to make one on a whim, either). If you enjoyed the arcade title so much that you want to burn up $53 to have it at home, you won’t be disappointed. If you played all the way through the arcade shooter, you probably don’t have $53 to your name any more . but you really won’t need to bother with it either.

Smuggler’s Run
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

This game is getting good word or mouth because you get to be a smuggler and haul illicit cargoes around various (somewhat) scenic locales. It’s getting good media attention because the environments are humongous and the game’s draw in distance (the farthest point you can see without needing fogging, etc.) is so far. Smuggler’s Run seems to be selling because of both of these reasons, as well as because it’s well crafted and addictively fun. Smuggle one home yourself — if you can find a copy…

SSX
Electronic Arts
EA Canada
Sports
1-2 Players

SSX (we assume that stands for Super Snowboarding Extreme) is the hottest of the 28 launch titles. It’s highly original and addictive. The character and track designs completely blow away everyone else in the pack. The boys (and girls) at EA Canada are to be congratulated on creating a game that will play just as fresh in Boulder, Colorado, Heidelberg, Germany, or Yokahama, Japan. You take you place at the starting line as one of six contestants from far-flung corners of the world. You have to master each course’s layout, flesh out your own skills as ‘boarding and trickstyling, while finishing in the money at the end of each race. Along the way you’ll unlock other characters, new courses, and better equipment. There isn’t a game around (since MTV Snowboarding of a few years back) that allowed you to catch such air and flip out over the tricks like SSX. The game should become one of (if not the) top seller for EA Sports because it has equal appeal for women as for men. Watch out Madden, this one’s gonna leave you stuck in the powder.

Street Fighter EX3
Capcom
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you read any of the reviews of the uninspired PS2 J-launch title, this game ain’t changed much in the interim. Fans of the title’s other better efforts will no doubt pick it up so they can have them all on the shelf, but don’t look for this fighter to set anyone’s knickers on fire.

Summoner
THQ
Volition
1 Player

Summoner is a sprawling mass of RPG gaming. It may have a good story line, but it shows its feet of clay by not being able to render large terrain objects that are really amazingly close to your action. Because of the nasty draw in distances and insane fogging, the summoning part of this game should have been your character summoning huge masses of hillside to appear and dissapear merely by walking toward and away from them. Interesting game design … bad implementation.

Swing Away Golf
Electronic Arts
Sports
1-4 Players

Swing Away Golf is to the game of golf what cotton candy is to a filet minion steak. To say it’s golf lite is to demean the word “lite..” All this having been said, it is a fun little romp with anime characters and a mean little physics engine that really does the job. Other than the game taking a nasty little hop when going from when you use the swing game to the time your character actually swings, it’s all pretty sweet. One word of advice, choose the knowledgeable and sympathetic caddy characters; the others are grist in te wheels of life — at least as far as Swing Away Golf is concerned.

Tekken Tag Tournament
Namco
Fighting
1-2 Players

While this game ain’t no DOA2: Hardcore (see above), it is the best Tekken game ever made. It’s doubtful that Namco set out to set the gaming industry’s collective hair on fire with this one . they just had to give the gamer all the Tekken they wanted without messing up the look, the controls, or the framerate. In this, they have succeeded and this title will sell well because of it. The US version of the game is essentially the same as the Japanese title, allowing Namco to devote its resources to other titles that will appear at or near launch. Caution: If you’re looking for something more out of this game than “Just Plain Tekken” you may be disappointed. If you just want an update and a new coat of paint, it’s the game for you.

TimeSplitters
Free Radical Design, Ltd.
Eidos Interactive
First-Person Shooter
1-4 Players

In the wake of the PS2 launch, TimeSplitters is one game that’s getting noticed. Speed kills and TimeSplitters delivers it at Mach 10. Modelled a bit after GoldenEye and Perfect Dark (no surprise since most of the developers are ex of Rare), this game allows you to be a free radical (pun intended) running and gunning around throughout the halls of history. Split time, not hairs — this is a fun game to play, with or without your friends.

Unreal Tournament
Infogrames
Epic Games
Action
1-4 Players

You want it, you got it, Sony. A launch with a bunch of no-name titles isn’t as much fun as inviting a few of the big boyz to join in. Unreal Tournament (along with Madden 2K1, Tekken Tag, and Ridge Racer V) fills the bill nicely. It’s a lush implementation of the original PC game with bows made to console controls. Various configurations are available, including keyboard and mouse set-ups. Have a lot of spare TVs around, hook up four units, four games, four TVs via I-like and you’ve got a UT party. You don’t even need the Planter’s Peanuts.

Wild Wild Racing
Interplay
Rage Software
1-2 Players

Tired of the same old modified ovals? Ready for a game that has some real off road teeth? Wild Wild Racing is the anti-Ridge Racer … it’s so good at times that it’ll shake you. Interplay’s staff modified the game’s Japanese control setup to emphasize power sliding. The result? You can fly around these off road race courses and hit the turns without

X-Squad
Electronic Arts
Action
1 Player

Inevitably, for every SSX there is an X-Squad. This game really needed a little more time in the bullpen to make it a more complete player. The game has some flashes of competence, but a monster contingent of weapons plus a minimum amount of fun inter- and intra-squad play doesn’t make for a complete game. Visual style aside, the art also needed to be much better to compete with other games (including EA’s own) in the ultra slick PS2 launch lineup. More later on this one . but you really get the picture in a paragraph.

Tom Carroll was one of the top gaming writers for ReviewCenter.com. If you’re still out there, Tom, Blast needs you!

We reviewed the PC version, but ti was also released on PlayStation. Click here to download the original demo!

Taylor’s review

When I first saw the box for KKnD 2 Krossfire, I thought “Wow, this game doesn’t look that bad!”

Little did I know how wrong I was. Installation was probably the best part of this game — smooth and quick with no restart afterward.

Even the opening movie was informative and actually looked good, but this is the only part of the game that has good graphics. The rest of the game did not impress me at all.

The graphics, in my opinion, were no better than Command & Conquer, which is 3 or 4 years old. Why they didn’t try to the improve graphics is beyond me. With such games as Command & Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun coming out soon, you would think that they would want to get an one up on the competition.

KKnD2 Krossfire ran exceptionally well on my system, probably because of such of its low quality graphics etc. Levels took only a moment to load while the movies would only take a few seconds.

The Sound for KKnD2 Krossfire was nothing special. When you click on an unit, it makes the same sound every time you click on the unit. Not to mention that it makes the same sound for every unit for your race. Now, I don’t mean to complain, but hearing the same marine saying the same thing over and over and over again gets on my nerves and I found myself often turning down the sound because of this.

The gameplay is quite boring. There are almost too many units in this game. You cant even figure out what you are making as a unit sometimes. It’s such a stupid design for making a unit. You click on “Constructibles” then a submenu pops up and you choose a base (small, medium, huge) then pick parts. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what these parts do however. Then there is the control factor of these units. To select a unit you left click on it. To move a unit you left click where you want it to go. This is okay, except if you have a lot of units together, and you try to move a unit away from enemy fire, but accidentally click on another unit, the unit is toast.

Despite the genre, this game requires absolutely no strategy to play. It’s just get money, build units, die, build even more units, more, more, more. You get the idea. There is no balance in the units. It’ll take a million archers to take out one sentry gun. The only way to win is to mass-produce units from the very start.

There are only one or two units that can attack air units, so air dominance is key in this game. It kinda makes the game unfair because if you have air and the other person is still researching things to make anti air, they will never win.

To sum it up, if you really want to play a game that bores you, and needs no thinking at all, this is for YOU! If not? go play StarCraft, a much better game. 2 out of 5 stars

Stormy’s 1998 analysis/preview

I guess this must be a pretty popular game cause it comes in several languages, they are English, German, French, Spanish & Mandarin. (I think that is the first time I’ve seen a game available in Mandarin!)

There are two CD’s, one containing the installation and Survivor missions, the other containing the Series 9 and Evolved missions. When you start the game with disk one in, you must pick a Survivor mission. If you pick either one of the other two, the game will bounce back to the desktop, and that’s that. The only way to play the other two missions is to start with disk 2 in the drive, BEFORE you choose the mission. There will be no “please insert disk 2″ prompt, which of course surprised the heck out of me, I thought the CD was broke.

The folks that wrote the instruction manual are aware that a lot of people don’t like to read manuals, so they wrote it humorous. Unless you already know how to play, you ought to get a kick out of learning how to play this game.

The game has 51 missions, and your objective is to gather resources to build your own buildings and fighting units while looking for the enemy so you can crush everything he’s got, in some of the missions, and in some of the missions your only objective is to kill. You can kinda tell right away, either you have the stuff to gather resources, (oil rigs, tankers, buildings, etc) or you don’t. If you don’t have all the extra stuff, then you gotta figure out how to kill the enemy with what you got, cause you can’t build any more. However, there are surprises lying around, there is buried 21st century goodies, and during a mission where I found myself with just one fighter, (he was a nasty one, but not invincible) suddenly I found a repair bay out in the middle of nowhere (thank god!) You can play this game alone or 2 people over Modem and Serial connections, or up to eight players on TCP/IP, or IPX.

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 133 or faster
• 16MB RAM
• 4X CD
• 2MB DirectX compatible video card
• DirectX compatible digital sound card

Official website

Your adventure begins in the year 2100. Your job: colonize a hostile and unforgiving planet and save the future of mankind.

The problem: six other factions are out to stop you at any cost.

In Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, you play as one of seven ideological factions, battling against six others. Choose from The University of Planet, a science and information related faction, or Morgan industries, a faction bent on economic issues. You can also play as Gaia’s Stepdaughters, an ecology related faction, or the Spartan Federation, led by a great military power. You can also be the Lord’s believers led by Sister Miriam, the Human Hive, or the Peacekeeping forces of Brother Lal.

Every faction has its strengths and weaknesses. You really have to find your niche in this game, and that can take time. In Alpha Centauri, the follow up to Civilization II, Sid Meier has created the ultimate colonization and battle game.

We’ve never seen graphics as stunningly good as these in any game. The 3D rolling terrain is awesome. The military units are well shown, and the videos are just as good. Each faction fights for technical superiority, and we’ve never seen a tech-tree as cool as this one. All the technologies are based on ones today. Make your way up the tree, as you concentrate research in different areas. You reach your peak when you make Transcendence: The next step in human evolution.

This game is infinitely playable. There are so many variables available. You can choose from one of many levels of difficulty, randomized terrain and map sizes. You can pick your faction and even design your own map. I think that this game is difficult, yet fun. It offers a challenge to all those who get bored playing typical build and conquer games. Games can last lots of time. I found myself immersed in a game for over ten hours one day. This game is truly a step above and beyond typical games.

Another good element to this game is Diplomatic Relations. You must maintain a constant balance between friends, choosing allies and enemies carefully. You must vote on different planetary issues, including the UN Charter, planetary governor, and whether to salvage the ship you crashed on. This element of the game is very difficult, and makes the game even more interesting.

The units in this game are simply amazing. They range from simple conventional troops with conventional weapons to specially trained amphibious marine troops that can drop out of the sky that carry chaos guns. You can choose from infinite variables to design and implement your own troops or naval units. Use these troops to crush your opponents or defend your borders.

I totally recommend this game, for those who own high-end Pentium based computers. Although I did play this game on my minimal P133, I recommend at least a P266. The graphics are infinitely better, and the game play is much faster. You should also have a computer stocked full of RAM. I again recommend at least 32 MB.

There is only one true gripe I had with this game. You could only quit when it was your turn. This leads to waiting a few minutes before you can quit. If you have your own PC, great, but if you share it with a family, they’re bound to get mad at one point or another. But, in my experience, I have never seen a better build and conquer game than Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 133 MHz
• 16 MB RAM
• 60MB hard drive space
• 2MB video memory

Your uncle has apparently committed suicide, leaving you a mine on Luna Crysta, which is “booming” like a California town in the late 1800s. You travel to Luna Crysta to do something with your new mine. After you start meeting people, from the suspicious manner in which everyone acts, you start wondering about Uncle Jake’s “suicide.”

You meet a beautiful woman, (wow, that’s a plot twist we didn’t suspect, did we?) a sinister man, an oily official, a belligerent cop and an oh-so-accommodating bartenter. Your girlfriend whines on the phone, and your sister talks like she wants you dead. And that’s all in the first couple of hours! You do manage to meet two friendly faces, an older female miner, and a young Cephid child, both of who have heard all about you from your uncle, and seem willing to help you.

You have very little money to start, and you might be thinking of selling out. A trip to the casino shows you that beautiful woman is a blackjack dealer, who is welling to cheat for you, (at least until her boss shows up). This gives you a little money to start building up a “kit.”

All the while, people are out to get you. The oily official says he’s sorry out one side of his face, and suggests you pay for the damage uncle Jake’s death caused. The belligerent cop can’t wait for you to misstep, so he can “get” you. The sinister man reveals your darling sister hired him to get your claim — and the words “one way or another” run through your mind while he’s talking. The oh-so-accommodating bartender offers you a price that you “just can’t refuse” on any ore or crystals you find. And the beautiful woman? She’s been hired by the boss to get close to you and watch you.

Boy, do you ever need a friend, huh? Do you feel like you’re in the middle of an afternoon soap? Well, just wait until the game really gets started.

Dark Side of the Moon is mostly a puzzle solver, although there is plenty of opportunity to get killed along the way, so trust me kiddies, save, and save often! This is not a game you want to space out and forget, even if you think you’re safe because no monsters have pounced on you yet.

There are several mysteries to solve, (like starting with what REALLY happened to your uncle,) and various puzzles to solve. Very early on, the sinister man gets blown away, and of course, they think that you did it, so you become a fugitive, which makes for many opportunities for you to get blown to smithereens. That is cool too, if you get killed, you see your atoms floating in the cosmos, you state that while you are dead, you can’t stay that way, you have places to go, and people to see; and the big programmer in the sky-gives you another chance! How many games ya played that returns you close to where you were zapped-and doesn’t even penalize you?

Now for the bad points. There are 6 CD’s and you will spend a LOT of time swapping them. I would have liked it if they could have grouped some stuff you had to do more on the same CD. When you are talking to someone, as good as the graphics are, the action gets somewhat jerky, and I think the jerkiness shows up even more because the graphics are so good. If you don’t like “tongue-in-cheek” acting, you might be tempted to say that the acting is poor. I prefer, the sinister man is very sinister, the oily official ‘drips’, etc.

The movement and conversation are somewhat controlled. About half of the conversation on your side goes down without your control, when you are offered a choice of comments to make, I noticed that it didn’t seem to matter what you asked first, you will have to check every comment to exit this screen. As far as the movement, when you click the mouse to move, and you stop; look around, cause you only stop when there is an intersection, or when there is something next to you to look at. The reason I mentioned this as a bad point-this opinion will vary from player to player. Some people won’t care, some people that are used to having more free rein in the games they have played might feel this is confining.

The big bad point however — the game tends to lock up. When I first started to play, I got stuck in the same spot a half a dozen times; and I mean locks-up-need-to-hard-boot-your-computer lock-up. I finally had to uninstall, re-install, and start over so I could get past that one screen. I did some research on the web, looking to see if there might be a patch, and I did find out that it wasn’t my system. Enough other people mentioned it that it has to be a universal problem. I also noticed that I couldn’t play for too long, maybe a half an hour to 45 minutes at a time, and then Norton started to interrupt with messages saying that my memory load or CPU load was too high. I had to quit the game. My CPU usage was 97 percent and my memory load was 95 percent. I might mention at this point that I have an 8 MB video card, and a 450 P2 with 128 MB of RAM.

OK, so now you’re going to ask why bother since there were so many bad points, and I’m going to tell you why. Some of the bad points won’t be considered bad by everyone. As far as the lock-up glitches, I’m hopeful that SouthPeak, after working on the game for 2 years, will have a fix for these bugs soon. You don’t put as much work into a project as was obviously put into this one, without being willing to clean up those stupid bugs that crop up after production, though some beta testing might have helped.

I just would not let a few lock-ups keep me from getting this game.

The graphics are gorgeous, the sound is great and the story is quite good. If you like RPGs, or science fiction, or you just want to check out something different, give this game a try. I think you’ll be very pleased.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Southpeak Interactive
Developer: Southpeak Interactive
Platform: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: Nov 30, 1998

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 166 MHz
• 32 MB RAM
• 8x or faster CD-ROM
• 60MB hard drive space
• 2MB SVGA graphics for 640×480 resolution
• PCI or AGP video card with 2MB RAM strongly recommended

There are several ways to play. The championship game is the primary game mode, pitting you against 19 other computer controlled cars, looking to win the for the season. There are 6 seasons per year, and this game does include weather to ruin your year. There is also Time Attack, which is a single player game, for bettering your time by racing against a previous race or recording a new race; or Quick Race, which pits you against a single computer controlled opponent, and allows you to practice and/or get used to the different options you have available.

There are 3 driving perspectives, cockpit view, chase and first person. You can also select an automatic or manual transmission, change your tires and shocks to better control, steer and ‘grip’ the road, depending on conditions. You need to pay attention to that, cause at some point you will be racing in the snow! You also have a lap counter, a lap speedometer, a regular speedometer and more on your screen while you are racing, and if these things bother you-you can shut them off.

The game suffers from serious control issues, however. The cars and courses are fake too. You’re also limited to two cars and courses when you first start out. This is supposed to be an arcade racer, but you have to spend hours unlocking all of the arcade game features.

If you really like racing games and have the right touch to get past the control issues, you might want to give it a try.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Southpeak Interactive
Developer: Boss Game Studios
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Racing
Players: 1
Launch Date: April 30, 1999

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• P2-233MHz
• 32 MB RAM
• DirectX 6.0
• 60MB hard drive space
• 16-bit sound card
• 4 MB video memory

WCW/NWO is one of the best wrestling sims THQ has come out with. Featuring up to date rosters and an excellent array of moves, Revenge is a welcome addition to your N64 game library.

Control in Revenge is easy once you get the hang of it. The game is very similar to THQ’s last wrestling game, WCW vs. NWO: World Tour, with some updates. It’s the type of game that just doesn’t get boring — especially on multiplayer.

There are several modes of play including championship belt competitions, exhibition matches, handicap matches, battle royals and tag team contests. There are also six Pay-Per-View arenas including Bash at the Beach, WCW Starcade, Super Brawl and WCW Monday Nitro.

Another nice little feature in Revenge is that many wrestlers come out with their corresponding girls/managers. For example, Macho Man Randy Savage comes into the ring with Elizabeth, and DDP comes out with Kimberly. And of course, who could forget The Mouth of The South Jimmy Hart who comes out with Meng and Barbarian. The wrestlers come out with music and strut into the ring where they show off their stuff before the match.

The various organizations of the time are also included in WCW/NWO revenge including NWO Red and White, Raven’s Flock and the DAW and EWF wrestling organizations. All this adds to the nice amount of realism that is in this game.

There is also a very nice arsenal of available weapons that you might find if you exit the ring and walk up to one of the guardrails and press C-UP. These weapons include Sting’s Black bat, a metal bat, a trashcan, stop sign, briefcase and a large wooden plank. Get the opponent out of the ring and beat him senseless with a weapon. Try using the more popular wrestlers also, because less popular ones tend to not find weapons as easily.

Overall I seriously liked Revenge. It is enjoyable and addicting to play with a nice array of wrestlers, weapons, bells, whistles, and all kinds of other things. (Make sure you watch the intro video at the beginning, it is probably the best I’ve ever seen!)

Ups

• Lots of wrestlers
• Several addicting play modes to choose from
• Stunning moves, great graphics, and high caliber sound

Downs

• Computer AI wrestlers are way too easy to defeat

Quick hits:

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Asmik Ace Ent.
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Wrestling/Sports
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

The Intellivision collection was relaunched on the last generation of consoles — Xbox, PS2, GC — in 2004 to mixed reviews. You have to give Keith Robinson, who runs and basically is wholly responsible for the survival of Intellivision, for keeping these games alive! See the bottom for a few old, old Intellivision commercials.

By: Tom Carroll

This is going to be a very “to the point” review. If you have ever hankered to return to the old days of video games, the days where you didn’t worry too much about a story line or character depth or polygon count or frame rate, buy Intellivision Lives. It’ll get you there faster than the twister delivered Dorothy to Oz.

This game consists of 50 of the best Intellivision games made, and they are true to the originals down to the square pixels and goofy “period” music. There are action games, sports games, kid’s games, and space games and even 21 games that were never released. How can you beat that?!

An added bonus is the extra material that comes on the CD. This is historical material, pictures, video and text-based biographies. Much of this was put together by Keith Robinson, original Mattel Electronics staffer, survivor and now a co-founder of Intellivision Productions, Inc.

Robinson originally joined Mattel Electronics in 1981 after a brief stint in TV and film special effects. After working on TRON Solar Sailer, a game based on a movie that was based within a video game, Robinson became manager of applications where he supervised the programming and graphic design of numerous Intellivision games.

Because Mattel was adamant about its programmers remaining in the shadows, the group was collectively called the “Blue Sky Rangers” in a TV Guide article about Intellivision. The name stuck.

For Intellivision Lives!, Robinson collected a bunch of the wacky videos and interviews that employees participated in during the studio’s heyday.

That’s the good part of the story. When Mattel pulled the plug on Intellivision, Robinson presided over several waves of layoffs. Because of Mattel’s attempt to avoid a media circus atmosphere, Robinson poured gasoline on the situation by handing out pink slips in a clown suit. Mattel Electronics closed its doors in 1984.

Although Intellivision lived on briefly in another incarnation, INTV Corporation, Intellivision was essentially dead.

But now, through the efforts of Robinson and others, the games and the times can live again. Intellivision Lives is a thoroughly entertaining buy and is well worth the cost to anyone who wants a good historical time capsule to keep on the shelf and play whenever the current crop of losers and clones fails to entertain.

Ups

The games look exactly like the originals!
Tons of fun games to play through
A chance to explore an age that will never be seen again

Downs

The games look exactly like the originals!
A list of games isn’t part of the documentation.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Developer: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Platform: PC CD-ROM, PlayStation
Genre: Action/Game collection
Players: 1
Launch Date: April 30, 1999

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

By Tom Carroll

You would have to live in a cave in Northern Siberia to not know there was a new Beetle on the scene. Volkswagen pulled out all the stops in publicizing the debut of the ’90s Bug. In fact, there still may be a waiting list to own one. That’s why it’s good that Electronic Arts introduced Beetle Adventure Racing (BAR) In BAR you have the best of all worlds: a racing game that is truly worth paying cartridge prices for, and no waiting for the test drive.

BAR lets you leave the road behind and drive anywhere you want, well, almost anywhere. The game offers Single Race (good for beginners or lonely people) but it’s much more fun to take on a friend in Duel Mode, then jump into a Championship Season to uncover hidden tracks and bonus surprises. If you prefer smashing to dashing, duke it out with up to four players in a Beetle Battle where the fun is in total free-for-all annihilation.

Naturally, the cars are cool. They’re Beetles; what more do I need to say! But the game allows you to choose one that suits your own driving profile. I wanted one that was reasonably fast but would stay put on the road and not skid all over the place. That’s what I got. If I had wanted more speed and less traction, so be it (or vice versa).

The tracks are littered with bonus crates. Smash ‘em for points or to borrow a kickin’ nitro boost for a mile or so. By the way, the crates look like they should slow you down, but they don’t. Smash them with complete abandon.

Giant jumps launch your car into the stratosphere. If you keep yourself reasonably lined up with the road just prior to the jump you should have a happy landing. If not, you’ll wind up at the bottom of a ravine or under water. Glub, blub! Naturally, drivers who can’t stay on the road incur a time penalty in exchange for becoming road worthy again.

The games designers lavished time and talent on BAR’s tracks and they are what I loved most about the game. In fact, the circuits in BAR are so richly detailed and spacious that they resemble environments for racing more than just tracks. There are short cuts all over the place. Entrances to exciting detours are often hidden by foliage or obstructions; have fun, explore, smash through stuff! Oh, if you’re worried about time penalties then use the Time Trial mode to explore without fear.

I docked BAR points for Cost. Naturally, I always think that N64 cartridges are too expensive (I can just hear Nintendo suits muttering, “What does he want us to do, give ‘em away?”). I also dinged the game for sounds; although I liked the music tracks (they tend to stick in your head) they are a little too cute, tame and predictable.

Beetle Adventure Racing is an amazing racing game and a must have for any N64 owner. Although it is going out on a limb so early in the year, I nominate Beetle Adventure Racing for pole position in the race for 1999 racing game of the year.

Ups
Superb graphics
Spectacular racing tracks and jumps
Extra smart track designs

Downs
Music tracks lie somewhere between 808 State and Lawrence Welk

Quick hits:

Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: Paradigm
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: February 28, 1999

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

Konami’s Metal Gear Solid is the most intense stealth game for any system. Not only has it completely revolutionized stealth/action games, but it has raised the expectations of all games. In other words, this could be the best Playstation game ever!

As one of the first full length stealth games, Metal Gear Solid provides an exciting adventure through a nuclear warhead disposal site in Alaska. Along the way you sneak around with your character, Solid Snake, fighting only when necessary. This may sound boring, but your heart races throughout the entire game. Your ultimate goal is to destroy a top-secret weapon named Metal Gear. But before you can do that, you must fight a series of bosses — maybe even some family members.

Metal Gear is a nice change up from the typical 3rd person shooter games. The view in Metal Gear is normally an overview, however, pressing “triangle” makes you see in the first person.

Throughout the game, you encounter different kinds of fighting and torture. Two examples are a fight with a sniper rifle and resisting death on a torture machine!

When you are hooked-up to the torture machine, the enemy tells you press “O” repeatedly to regain your strength. Konami should have found a more tasteful way to relay a message to the player.

For an early PlayStation game, Metal Gear Solid has outstanding graphics and sound quality. Some of the movies are so realistic its like you’re watching television! I strongly recommend buying this game. You’ll begin to love the complicated twists-and-turns of the intricate plot as well as the intense and invigorating game play.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Konami
Developer: KCEJ (Konami Japan)
Platform: PlayStation
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: September 30, 1998

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

As you read this article, you may not think much of the 20 and 40 watts tat the ACS48 runs on. After all, basic home theater systems today run on 100+ watts. But on a computer system, you just didn’t see much in the way of power.

This review was originally produced by The Review Center in 1998.

This kind of thing is always a joy to review. Not only was it easy to set up, but it was especially fun to turn up the sub-woofer as loud as possible and blast some music!

The award-winning ACS48 system was much more than we bargained for with an under $100 system. A few quick facts about this well deserving 5-star system include:

• Volume Controls Adjust All Three Speakers Simultaneously: just 1 volume control
• High quality, high performance three-piece system
• Powered speaker satellites are electronically controlled and magnetically shielded
• Powered subwoofer extends the low frequency response to add realism and bass

Electric power is a must have on a computer speaker system. We were all happy to see this included in the unit. Overall, this is a great system, boasting a 40 watt subwoofer, 20 watt satellite speakers.

The wood subwoofer is an ingenious add-in. It really brings out the true quality of the sound. Plastic is not as high quality as a genuine wood base. The wood really makes the sound rich and vibrant. The subwoofer is just perfect — it’s not something that you hear in a car that sounds like a nuclear device going off, but instead, its adequate 40 watts make it a perfect music and gaming speaker system. It might not be the best choice for an office, though.

If you really want to get crazy, Altec Lansing also makes the ACS251, a standalone powered subwoofer that you can wire up to any other speaker system.

Overall, the PowerCube Plus ACS48 is one of the best computer speaker sets we’ve seen.

Technical specifications:

Drivers (per satellite): One 3″ shielded full range driver and one 3/4″ high frequency tweeter
Drivers (subwoofer): One 6 inch long throw woofer
Satellite Power: 20 Watts per channel RMS at 0.8% THD
Subwoofer Power: 40 Watts at 0.8% THD
System Response: 35 Hz – 20 kHz
Input Impedance: >10k ohms
S/N Ratio: >65dB

Quick hits:

Company Name: Altec Lansing
Price: $99.99

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

By John Guilfoil

Command Software pretty much created a winner with this one. Command Antivirus with F-PROT Professional is an affordable, high quality mercenary that will set out and battle any fiendish viral vermin that threaten your beloved system.

The software is packed up with the latest features including detection of Macro and Polymorphic viruses, detection of 100% of known viruses with a user friendly interface and Y2K and Windows 98 compliance.

Command Antivirus works on a multitude of operating systems and is rather easy to install and run. I recommend it highly, especially for computers with net access.

All computers should have Virus protection and Command Antivirus is one of the better among the many good ones out there.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Command Software
Developer: Command Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Utility/Antivirus

Technical Requirements:
Works with most desktop and server configurations including Windows, Unix, Solaris, OS/2 and Linux

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

After many battles, a former kingdom has been divided into many small principalities and earldoms. The king’s troops were pushed back into one last royal province, and the rulers of the other provinces waged terrible, destructive wars against one another. The whole land fell into a state of chaos and now the former royal capital itself is under siege by the armies of the rebel lords. You belong to the last remaining group of loyal king’s men, and have been commanded to go to the king in view of the imminent attack.

In my reading of a latest magazine, I had found that it had given Knights and Merchants a poor review. In the advertisements and previews I had seen, however, I found it to be a game deserving of a much higher rating. That is why I rushed to review it, to prove that magazine wrong, or at least to try.

Well, I was right. Knights and Merchants gets a four star review from me. If the game were less complicated, it would have been perfect. The game’s battle system is very complex. A setup like that ought to be its own game. When you throw in the kingdom management, the game becomes very frenzied. Otherwise, it is the greatest detail I’ve ever seen in a game. Until it, Age of Empires was the best. But in Knights and Merchants, your little people do exactly what they should be doing. My favorite was the farmer on the vineyard. He put a basket on his back, walked out into the fields, and he picks the grapes off the vines. Then, he gets back to his house, pours the grapes out into a huge well, removes his shoes, and stomps on the grapes, making wine. That is exactly the kind of game that this is. Everything makes a whole lot of sense. Soldiers and servants need bread, sausage, and wine for food, and the serfs are expected to bring everything to them. Builders require wood and stone as they are working, and they will stop until they get these things from the serfs.

Another good thing about the game is the amount of people needed. In traditional RTS games, there is one servant/peon that will do all your day to day tasks. In Knights and Merchants, serfs only bring commodities to building sites, food to hungry troops, and other things like that. Then, builders only will construct your needed buildings, which are also very numerous. For wood, you need a saw mill; for bread, a windmill and a bakery; etc. There are so many different variations in this game. However for people who don’t like these complicated games, I wouldn’t recommend Knights and Merchants, but if you want a new style of Real-time Strategy, go buy Knights and Merchants.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Interactive Magic
Developer: JoyMania
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• PC Pentium 133
• 7 0MB Disk space
• 24MB RAM or more
• 28.8 modem for net play

By John W. Fletcher

Messiah is probably one of the more unique games I have seen in the last few years — being completely original by not only how it is played but an amazing array of new quirks you have never seen on the PC before.

In this game you are a cute little baby angel named Bob. You have been sent to earth, quite against your will, by God to fight the growing evil of Father Prime.

Despite his cute appearance he can be as much of a bastard as your inner devil wants him to be.

There are some quirks. He has a limited ability to fly — which can get you out of some tight situations. Second, and my favorite, he can possess anybody! You can fly into the back of any unsuspecting victim and take over his soul, forcing him to do whatever hideous evil you want him to do (don’t get any ideas you pervert).

Since there is a massive array of characters the game can get extremely interesting. To get certain places or better weapons you have to possess certain people, which can be good and bad (you’ll see when you play). For instance: As a weak scientist you can’t hurt people for shit but you can get into a needed-entry room. As the biogenetically altered 8-foot tall behemoth you can tear anybody a new asshole.

You can get a lot of gameplay out of this since it is a two-disc game. It took me a long time to beat it. The levels are huge and the difficulty of all the possessing and everything can drive you kind of nuts after a while.

As you proceed you have to do these kind-of maze-like paths to get where you want to go and possess a lot of different people. You even have to possess a rat! It’s difficult because if they see you they will kill you and if they suspect you they will kill you. It’s not as easy as it seems. You have to do a lot of flying puzzles to get places and that is difficult with little, chubby baby wings.

All the weapons you can use are awesome too. You have things like a bazooka you can use, or a harpoon that spears your enemies to a wall! It’s disappointing that Bob himself can’t kill anybody but the fact that you can be a pimp in a club and beat somebody to death with your cane — it’s all forgiven. Overall, it is really fun but very confusing.

You get to all of this in amazingly created and huge levels which are incredibly realistic and make your experience just that much better. I strongly suggest usage of a very fast computer. All of the characters have amazing detail and the scenery is pretty cool too. In the game you are playing from a third person point-of-view which you can toggle close or far. It has an interesting sound system by that there is no music and only fx until you get into fights — when it starts blasting Fear Factory so you can barely here the fighting itself! However, you can here some pretty cool tracks if you pop into your CD player. As for controls it is very good and you have to use a mouse-keyboard combo which can be slightly annoying at times.

Now the bad news. NO multiplayer — sorry, it’s strictly single player. Also it can drag on and on after a while. All the puzzles get really annoying and somebody is always killing me. When you are a cop none of the other cops seem to like you and will kill you if you do so much as sneeze wrong. It seems you can never survive too long — maybe this is just me, somebody try it and tell me because I can never seem to survive in some guy for more than 3 minutes. You always seem to be walking through a war zone in some areas where there are opposing factions and you are always on the wrong side.

I guess that’s part of the game but it just gets to me by the 20th reloading.

Overall it is a very unique and good game. I suggest you give it a spin.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: The late Interplay
Developer: Shiny Entertainment (David Perry’s outfit. They also made Earthworm Jim)
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: March 31, 2000

Playability: 4.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Support: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 2000

An evil force by the name of “Spooky” has been unleashed by those dastardly ghosts and it’s up to everyone’s favorite pepperoni-slice shaped yellow hero to make sure Pac-World is rid of this ancient evil.

The objective of the game is to collect various “Gold Fruits” Once you collect them all you will be able to do away with Spooky by ways of sealing him in a…er…tree. Ok, so the storyline isn’t that great, but c’mon, this is PacMan we’re talking about here; PacMan don’t need no stinking storyline.

Munching power-pellets and chomping ghosts is what PacMan is all about. How, you ask, was this simple concept used to create a wildly entertaining 3D platform game? With a little help from our good friend innovation. This arcade-turned-platform game borrows from a few different game designs and successfully integrates them all into one solid, respectable title.

PacMan World 2 feels like it was influenced from games like Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario World, Sonic Adventure, Klonoa and even Super Monkey Ball. What is surprising is that Namco was able to extract all the fundamentally entertaining aspects of these games without botching the project along the way. Not to say that Namco has a tendency to churn out poorly executed titles, but even the most respected companies sometimes set they’re sights a little too high — State of Emergency and Ehrgeiz for example. The only detrimental thing that this game has inherited from its predecessors is the sometimes in-the-way camera issues.

Every stage comes complete with a uniquely animated and entertaining loading screen, although it hardly seems necessary since the loading times are practically non-existent. But it does go to show that Namco’s development team did not at any time rest on their laurels, so to speak, during the creation of this game. While the visuals are fundamentally simple, the series basic design looks appropriately evolved on the current hardware that it runs on. Which is to say that PacMan is incredibly cool looking.

Real-time rendering is colorful, well animated, and boasts some impressive visual techniques on top of its already sweet looking cartoon graphics. Every atmospheric element that the game offers is equally good looking, the visual quality is consistent all the way through. There is not much in the way of cut-scenes, outside of the cool looking opening cinema there are only a few instances where dialog transpires.

In some respects the game’s sound is blissfully retro, at times using the same exact sound effects found in the arcade original. Music consists of around 20 original musical scores, which effectively give an added sense of immersion into the game’s beautifully rendered universe. Each track was specifically composed to compliment the stage that they appear in. The Haunted Boardwalk level sports spooky Halloween-like music while the stage “Volcanic Panic” includes tribal-influenced tunes. Namco did a great job in the sound department.

PacMan World 2 is an adventure game complete with a Super Mario Bros 3 type world map. The in-game play control style is fully 3D but is also similar to SMB3 in the sense that it offers top-notch, well thought out, running-and-jumping dynamics. What keeps this game from being in the same league as the classics however is its unbalanced difficulty and short life span. For how well the game looks, it is pleasantly surprising to find gameplay that is equally appealing. PW2’s nagging camera issues are somewhat diminished by the fact that the game actually lets you know when the camera is only partly functional or completely inoperable, by means of an on-screen notification.

PacMan is equipped with a few cool maneuvers to assist him on the journey, like the ‘Butt Bounce’ which launches Pac into the air like a super-ball, and the ‘Rev Roll’ that propels him forward — not unlike Sonic’s dash ability. He also has a flip kick that you can perform by pressing the B button while you are in the air, although this particular move is rarely required and seems like it was thrown in as an afterthought. PacMan will run, jump, scale ledges, and tiptoe across rope-thin bridges Monkey Ball-style. PacMan World 2 is about far more then just running around and jumping, you’ll don a pair of ice-skates and be set loose down a steep, winding mountain of ice while avoiding hazards and collecting items, equip a pair of flippers and get down with some aquatic action, and even pilot a PacMan shaped submarine. Namco has really put PacMan through his paces in this title, pitting the little yellow sphere in situations that Lara Croft would think twice about.

There is an arcade on the first stage that you can go back to at any time. In the arcade you will find a slew of emulated PacMan iterations of the past. The roster reads like this; PacMan, Ms. PacMan, PacMania, PacAttack, and a custom PacMan World 2 Maze game. An entire collection of fun games is at your disposal, assuming you have collected enough ‘Tokens’. Tokens are strewn throughout each stage, and as you collect them more Pac-Man games will be unlocked. This adds considerably to the replayability of Pa-Man World 2, as you will inevitably go back to previous levels to collect more tokens.

It’s quite apparent at first glance that this game is wicked enjoyable. PacMan World: 20th Anniversary was a great platforming game for the PSX and was somewhat overlooked in its time, hopefully this game will not suffer from the same fate. Assuming your down with platformers, you’ll be thoroughly entertained from beginning to end.

This brings me to my next point; the time it actually takes to get to the end is far too short. Expect to complete the game in around six hours. But I am not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, what is there is fun — and fun is fun. The included arcade mini-games just sweeten the deal. PacMan World 2 exonerates PacMan from the horribly disappointing PacLand games and the freakishly wrong cartoon on which the game was loosely based. If solid, entertaining, platforming action floats your boat, you would be well advised to pick this title up.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Platform: PS2, Gamecube
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: March 13, 2002

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Support: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 2002

Myst is a classic adventure game created in 1994. The journey begins on a mysterious and somewhat magical island world that seems like a ghost town, but despite the lack of inhabitants the isle contains several buildings and a hidden ship in the harbor.

The game is a puzzle/adventure novel in which you have to solve different mysteries. Myst is completely made up of several Quick Time movies and was one of the first games to incorporate actual movies into a game.

I found the game, intriguing, yet desolate. There are almost no actual characters or enemies, and the puzzles take forever (or a hint guide) to solve. I also found the game play to be way to slow to keep up with today’s rapidly unfolding game plots. The adventure takes too long to become an adventure. This is rather unorthodox of a computer game, because most games start an adventure or action sequence early on in the game, and some games start the adventure in a hostile world with instant action, but this is one of the reason why Myst found a niche in the adventure realm.

Despite the age, Myst is still a classic adventure game, and there are more people that like Myst than there are critics. I recommend this game to the slow paced adventure fan. Myst has a lot to offer to the experienced gamer.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Broderbund
Developer: Cyan
Platform: Windows/Mac
Genre: Adventure
Price: Varies, often bundled with new PC’s

Performance: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Support: 3 out of 5 stars
Cost: 4 out of 5 stars
Ease of Installation: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars

Ratings were determined in 1998

By John Guilfoil

PC Desk is a Personal Information Manager for DOS. It is a very handy and smallin size utility that will keep track of events, dates, holidays, and contacts.

Its features include a day planner, week planner, monthly calendar, yearly calendar, and address book. There is no sound, and the graphics are only 16 colors, but a PIM really doesn’t need to have good graphics and sounds, especially a smaller DOS-based program.

PC Desk is a nice, handy, and convenient PIM that is especially useful for small businesses.

The user interface is very friendly, and you can navigate through the program with just the click of a mouse. Installing the program is very easy, as long as you have a Zip utility (WinZip, Pkunzip, etc.) Registration for the program costs $25, and if you find the program useful, then you should really consider purchasing the full version

Updates from the previous version of PC Desk include:

• Improved the Main Screen Graphical Interface
• Enhanced the Yearly Calendar Display
• Various Internal Modifications
• Added a Windows Icon, PCDESK.ICO, to the Files
• Removed the Utility CONVERT.EXE to Convert Old PCDESK Address Book Formats (Before v6.0)
• The Shareware Version is Now Fully Functional

Quick hits:

Publisher: Robert Lindsay Wells
Developer: Robert Lindsay Wells
Platform: PC Dos
Genre: Personal Information Manager
Price: $25

Performance: 5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Support: 4 out of 5 stars
Cost: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease of Installation: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars

Ratings were determined in 1998

By Carlos McElfish

I was not expecting much when I brought Agent Under Fire home and lazily plopped it in my PS2. I did not expect to recapture the Bond-magic that GoldenEye so gracefully purported, nor did I assume the storyline would be at all good. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Agent Under Fire is actually an entertaining, albeit short, video game.The graphics are nothing to go screaming buck-naked in the streets about. There are some nice reflection algorithms but thats about it. What this game does offer however is a solid, entertaining experience. A game can have all the bells and whistles in the world but if its not fun to play then it might as well be good for nothing. This is basically a good game, composed completely with power cords. So while the visuals in Agent Under Fire could for all intents and purposes have been carbon-copy-ported straight to the Dreamcast, the “fun-ness” it offers more then makes up for its lack of stunning visuals.

The soundtrack for this game is worth mentioning, due mainly to the fact that (aside from the obligatory Bond Theme) there are original tunes and innovative implementation. The music gets more intense as the on-screen action heats up and slows down to a more surreal and calming tone accordingly. It’s nothing new and has been used in high quality games in the past, but it’s a nice touch nonetheless.

Electronic Arts is doing the honors this time around and have, for the most part, given the series fans little to complain about. You guide James Bond through a myriad of different tasks and man the turrets of a tank, chase down objectives in tricked out automobiles and plow down baddies with a multitude of weaponry.

In “Agent,” James Bond looks like a mix between Pierce Bronson and Jet Li. The game is not based on any Bond movies so don’t expect to recreate your favorite theatrical moments.

Agent Under Fire is about two parts FPS, one part Silent Shooter and one part Spy Hunter. Each mode is well executed and mostly enjoyable. You can pretty much plow through the whole game in right around 5 hours, so you might want to think twice about laying down a 50 spot for it (although the multiplayer mode does vastly extend the life of it’s usefulness). The only time you will have any trouble with the difficulty of the game is the notable, but rare, times where it is uncertain how you are supposed to proceed.

When all is said and done Agent Under Fire does come through on many levels. Gameplay is smooth, and transitions between game type are surprisingly good. The Spy Hunter/GTA3-wannabe sequences (complete with bystanders and high-speed matrixed out stunts) offer up the most adrenaline rushes.

The control in FPS mode is nice and tight (with config mode 3) and delivers the most fluid and precise action this side of Halo. Short of a mouse and keyboard your not going to find play control as silky smooth as this in a home console FPS. But again, as is the Tao of Ying and Yang, you will find that the freedom of movement and range of motion is very linear.

At the end of every mission you are scored on severeal criteria including “Bond Moves.” You will have different opportunities in each mission to pull off maneuvers that somehow conform to the stereotypical Bond-stunt. Your overall score will determine what medal you receive: gold, silver or bronze. You are able to unlock different weapons and features with gold medals.

Sadly , the game suffers from uninspired artificial intelligence and yawn inducing gadgetry. Most of Bond’s “stealth” maneuvers are limited to using the “Q-Laser” to open a lock or the “Q-Claw” to grapple yourself from point A to point B — not exactly Bond’s most shining moments. All the stereotypical Bond cliché’s are duly covered, and all the cheesy PG rated female encounters are lubricated with a nice slick trademark Bond retort. “Oh Bond, I don’t know how to repay you” — “I’m sure we can figure something out” — queue instinctive eye rolling. And the development team attempted to integrate (key word: attempted) some sort of “jiggly” sub-routine for the uniformly well-endowed female characters of the game.

On one hand, I really like this game: good solid shooting entertainment, nitro injected driving sequences, head-to-head and cooperative multiplayer modes. On the other hand, the gaggle of faults in the game makes this one a tough sell. The most compelling reason to play it after you have beaten it is the multiplayer mode (which requires the PS2 Multi-Tap to get the most use out of). Overall, I would say this game will be worth every cent you pay for it, for an overnight rental of course.

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: T -Teen
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: 2001

Technical Requirements:
Playstation 2 with Multi-Tap for 3-4 player modes

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Rock Slide is a Tetris clone puzzle game. The program runs pretty good, except for a slight bug that involves the “Rocks.” If you hold down to get a rock to fall all the way down, then the next group of rocks will automatically fall straight down also.

The graphics that are actually not as good as Tetris’, and there is only one sound effect and no music.

The installation program is just plain bad. You can only install the program to the default directory, which is C:\Rock. This will clutter up your root drive, which will eventually degrade your system performance, slightly.*

The program is pretty user friendly, and there are some cool features like a high scores list. Overall, it’s not worth $10, and if you are satisfied with Microsoft’s version of Tetris, or any other Tetris-style puzzle game, then there is no need to download or buy this software, however, if you really like challenging puzzlers, then you will like to play this game…for a little while.

*Newer versions of this game have corrected the installation problems.

Download the shareware free from Blast!

Publisher: AGCrump Software
Developer: AGCrump Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 2 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

By John Guilfoil

Don’t be scared off by the name. Virus the Game is a challenging and very addicting arcade puzzler. This is one of the few games where you get to be the bad guy. In Virus the Game, you ARE the virus.

The object of the game is to move around the screen, exposing parts of a hard drive sector looking for data to “eat.” Beware, the anti virus is on the hunt, and if you get into a fight with him, he’ll tear you apart!

The new version of Virus, 1.5 features faster keyboard response as well as sharper graphics than previous versions. The game runs very well on just about any system.

I definitely recommend downloading the shareware, and you might even want to consider purchasing the full version. The full version features 30 levels, 3 secret levels, lasers that track on to you, a top ten scores list and the newest version of Virus whenever it comes out.

The shareware version of Virus lets you to get a taste of the game — you get to create virtual hard drive rampage in the first two levels.

Download the shareware free from Blast!

Publisher: DynoTech Software
Developer: DynoTech Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Strategy/Puzzle
Players: 1

Technical Requirements:
386 or faster CPU, 4MB RAM, Windows 3x, Windows 9x, or OS/2 Warp, 256 Color VGA, Mouse or Joystick, Sound Card (optional, but recommended).

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Hangsim is a highly realistic flight simulation that was created to simulate flight in hang gliders, paragliders, and ultralights. This game is like flight simulators from around the world, but the difference is that it uses a different category of aircraft. They are tricky to fly because of their low stall speeds and their unwillingness to move fast — no afterburners here.

When you start the game you are presented with a list of options that lets you choose what you want to fly, where you want to fly it, and what kind of flying you will be doing. The game gives you realistic terrain and weather conditions including mountain wind, clouds and fog.

There are four flight options to choose from. Free flight allows you to take any aircraft up and give it a test run. Then there is challenge mode, where you learn how to fly your aircraft in different situations. A competition mode lets you race opponents around aerial race courses in the mountains, on beaches, etc. The last flight option is the Just for Fun option. This option lets you fly against many other competitors and shoot them down with air-to-air rockets. That is pretty fun!

When you play the game, you will notice how good the graphics are. I believe that the good graphics are there to make up for the poor game play. After about 15 minutes, I wanted more things to do, and there wasn’t anything else. Yes, the game is fun and is very realistic, but it does not hit the spot for flight simulation games for me. Maybe I’m just used to combat flight sims with campaigns and missions, but I found Hangsim boring after a while.

Like I said before, the graphics of the game are superior to any other flight simulation game that I have ever seen. When taking hard turns, there is no delay/buffer in the screen that shows that the graphics processor is behind. It feels that you are actually there! When I play games, there is nothing more impressive than good graphics.

I was very impressed with this game, despite the lack of different scenarios. This game would be a more interesting one if they created an expansion pack that had more scenarios and aircraft in it.

Hangsim has many benefits. It uses the latest technology in 3D graphic acceleration through Direct X 5, it uses the 3D graphics accelerators 110% to create the best graphics possible, and the aircraft have easy to use instruments.

Download the demo free from Blast!

Publisher: Wilco
Developer: Wilco
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Flight simulation
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1999

Technical Requirements:
Pentium 166, Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, Sound card, 100Mb free hard disk space.

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

By John Guilfoil

Nam is a 3D action game that sets you in the middle of the Vietnam War. Your war machine arsenal consists of the M60 machine gun, M79 grenade launcher, M16 rifles, flame-throwers, C4 plastic explosives, a sniper rifle and more.

You play a roughneck marine in the middle of the war with the aid of medics, soldiers and radiomen. The radios that you will find throughout the jungles and city levels will be most useful as they are used to call for air strikes! This was an exceptionally clever aspect of the game that adds to the realism and overall effect of the game.

The sound effects are excellent and seem to place you in the middle of the Academy Award-winning film Platoon (Best Picture, 1986).

The graphics and controls are exactly the same as Duke Nukem because Nam uses the Duke Nukem 3D “Build” engine.

There are 34 single and multi-player levels and the finale of the last campaign is an extraction of soldiers from the besieged city of Saigon at the very end of the war.

Overall, I recommend this game to all 3D gamers who are looking for something interesting, action-packed and different.

Editor’s note (10/12/07) – As I sit down to look over all these old articles and reviews from “the good old days” I realize that I used to go way too easy on video game developers. In fact, there’s a sporting chance that I was the only reviewer to give Nam a favorable writeup. But I was 10 years younger in 1998.

Between 1998-2000, GT Interactive Software was starting to slip away from relevance — Doom was six years ago and the Duke Nukem franchise entered into what would become the great video game boondoggle.

It wasn’t so much that Nam was a bad game — it just should have been released for $9.99 as a Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack — it was the best that could be done with the terrible Build engine. At the end of the day, Nam went down with the rest of the worthless tripe that GT put out before Infogrames bought them in 2001 and basically eliminated the brand. You know Infogrames today through its American brand: Atari.

Publisher: GT Interactive
Developer: GT Interactive
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: 3D Action/Adventure
Players: 1 (limited multiplayer available)
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars