The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
After we had to bear witness to almost three years of non-stop talk about hardware, next generation consoles, and their chances and possible market shares, the discussion is back at the core of this industry: games, and of course not to forget, from time to time we are still talking about consoles, this time about the fancy new toys which are already praised for being 100,000 times more powerful than the current ones and might come round in 2005. And I thought we wanted to talk about games.... Right there, games. Everyone expecting an avalanche of spectacular announcements in the period between the end of the last fiscal year on March 31st and E3 in mid-May must still feel like he or she has sipped too many bottles of high-percent alcoholics the previous night and wakes up the next day with a super-deformed head. Most companies resorted to surprise sequels, prequels or spin-offs. If you are looking for original, and dare I use the word innovative, titles you will have to take a really good look just to find ... Onimusha 2? Nope, sorry, that's another sequel. For an example, look at the already infamous Tetsuya Nomura-directed Disney RPG from Square, Kingdom Hearts. Or Bandai's brain-dazzling project .hack: A game that pretends to be an online RPG, while in reality being an offline RPG which takes place in the world of an online RPG. Got it? Since everything from racers over dancing games to horror action adventures and H-adventures (OK, admittingly the latter two genres are bad examples) will be cel-shaded, we should better skip this topic (or write another editorial on the issue in particular). Still, the writer may be forgiven for daring to mention his personal favorite cel-shaded game here: developed by a company whose name seems to come out straight of a Beavis and Butthead episode, Sucker Punch. SlyCooper and the Thievius Raccoonus looks like a truly nice game (just too bad, that my skills in playing platformers are mediocre at best).
As for the sequels, there are two categories: a large number of games whose predecessor(s) weren't released a long time ago, and then we have series that receive an update after slumbering for years, most prominently Sega classics a la Shinobi or Panzer Dragoon as well as Nintendo's Metroid, or Tecmo's Rygar and Ninja Gaiden. As you can easily figure, the first group is much larger. Onimusha 2, Final Fantasy XI, WildARMS Advanced, Legaia Duel Saga, Grandia Xtreme, Suikoden 3, Devil May Cry 2, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Zelda, Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil Zero, Popolocrois 3, Dino Crisis 3, House of the Dead 3, Crazy Taxi High Roller, Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II, Sega GT 2002, Torneko 3, Tekken 4, Castlevania White Night Concerto, Tomb Raider Dark Angel, not to mention the usual annual update for all sports games you can possibly think of (or don't even want to think of). In short, the usual critics, who constantly remind you of how this industry lacks creativity will have a lot of ammunition at their disposal, and publishers, much like Conker in Bad Fur Day, will have dollars, dollars and more dollars (respectively yen or euro) in their eyes.
Despite a slow start, several of this year's releases seem to have a lot of promise. RPG fans will finally get a solid offering of games on the next generation consoles this fall, with Kingdom Hearts, Grandia Xtreme and Legaia Duel Saga all being available as well as Suikoden 3 and WildARMS Advance being released in a few weeks on this side of the Pacific. By December, importers and Japanese fans might as well already play Unlimited SaGa, Dark Chronicle and RPG Maker 5 on their PS2s, Shin Megami Tensei NINE on Xbox, Eternal Arcadia Legends on GameCube and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on their GBAs.
So, will this year be interesting or yet another boring year with few games to pick up and even fewer to enjoy? Looking at the release schedules should be enough for many fans, in particular Nintendo and Sony fanboys, to get excited. Big N has three big aces up their sleeves: new incarnations of its two biggest franchises, and finally after years of waiting, a new Metroid game. Add Biohazard Zero to the bunch and there you have a great year for a company that after 50 years, saw the resignation of its almighty President and verbal Yokozuna, Hiroshi Yamauchi. With him gone, Tecmo producer and Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki will easily win the award for the most outspoken industry VIP.
Despite the initial problems that accompanied the launch of its ambitious online service platform, Square should be back in the black by the end of the fiscal year, thus finally recovering from the aftershocks of the commercial disaster that was Final Fantasy The Movie.
And the games? Oh yeah, it was supposed to about games in the first place. Call me insane, but for the first time in years, no RPG will hold the title for the best selling game of the year in Japan. Odds are that this year's best selling game will either be an action adventure (Onimusha 2, Biohazard The 0th Pre-prequel or the new zel-shaded Zelda) or God forbid, a soccer simulation (Konami's Winning Pro Soccer Eleven). In the meantime, each and every developer of PC hentai adventures will cut the major selling point out of its game and then port them over to the good old Dreamcast (just too bad for DC users, that Sega has abandoned the infamous yellow and red labels from the Saturn age, which made interesting games easily recognizable).
So will it be a special year or yet another slow year, you ask? Well, depending on your perspective, it will be either both, either or neither. As always some people will jump for joy, while others will continue to rant about the lack of innovative software. I would just put it this way: After the heated introduction phase of the current generation of hardware, we will just have a "normal" year, with software not hardware being once again at the center of attention. But what is normal again?
As for the sequels, there are two categories: a large number of games whose predecessor(s) weren't released a long time ago, and then we have series that receive an update after slumbering for years, most prominently Sega classics a la Shinobi or Panzer Dragoon as well as Nintendo's Metroid, or Tecmo's Rygar and Ninja Gaiden. As you can easily figure, the first group is much larger. Onimusha 2, Final Fantasy XI, WildARMS Advanced, Legaia Duel Saga, Grandia Xtreme, Suikoden 3, Devil May Cry 2, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Zelda, Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil Zero, Popolocrois 3, Dino Crisis 3, House of the Dead 3, Crazy Taxi High Roller, Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II, Sega GT 2002, Torneko 3, Tekken 4, Castlevania White Night Concerto, Tomb Raider Dark Angel, not to mention the usual annual update for all sports games you can possibly think of (or don't even want to think of). In short, the usual critics, who constantly remind you of how this industry lacks creativity will have a lot of ammunition at their disposal, and publishers, much like Conker in Bad Fur Day, will have dollars, dollars and more dollars (respectively yen or euro) in their eyes.
Despite a slow start, several of this year's releases seem to have a lot of promise. RPG fans will finally get a solid offering of games on the next generation consoles this fall, with Kingdom Hearts, Grandia Xtreme and Legaia Duel Saga all being available as well as Suikoden 3 and WildARMS Advance being released in a few weeks on this side of the Pacific. By December, importers and Japanese fans might as well already play Unlimited SaGa, Dark Chronicle and RPG Maker 5 on their PS2s, Shin Megami Tensei NINE on Xbox, Eternal Arcadia Legends on GameCube and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on their GBAs.
So, will this year be interesting or yet another boring year with few games to pick up and even fewer to enjoy? Looking at the release schedules should be enough for many fans, in particular Nintendo and Sony fanboys, to get excited. Big N has three big aces up their sleeves: new incarnations of its two biggest franchises, and finally after years of waiting, a new Metroid game. Add Biohazard Zero to the bunch and there you have a great year for a company that after 50 years, saw the resignation of its almighty President and verbal Yokozuna, Hiroshi Yamauchi. With him gone, Tecmo producer and Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki will easily win the award for the most outspoken industry VIP.
Despite the initial problems that accompanied the launch of its ambitious online service platform, Square should be back in the black by the end of the fiscal year, thus finally recovering from the aftershocks of the commercial disaster that was Final Fantasy The Movie.
And the games? Oh yeah, it was supposed to about games in the first place. Call me insane, but for the first time in years, no RPG will hold the title for the best selling game of the year in Japan. Odds are that this year's best selling game will either be an action adventure (Onimusha 2, Biohazard The 0th Pre-prequel or the new zel-shaded Zelda) or God forbid, a soccer simulation (Konami's Winning Pro Soccer Eleven). In the meantime, each and every developer of PC hentai adventures will cut the major selling point out of its game and then port them over to the good old Dreamcast (just too bad for DC users, that Sega has abandoned the infamous yellow and red labels from the Saturn age, which made interesting games easily recognizable).
So will it be a special year or yet another slow year, you ask? Well, depending on your perspective, it will be either both, either or neither. As always some people will jump for joy, while others will continue to rant about the lack of innovative software. I would just put it this way: After the heated introduction phase of the current generation of hardware, we will just have a "normal" year, with software not hardware being once again at the center of attention. But what is normal again?
FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> http://www.rpgfan.com/editorials/2002/10-09.html
You clever you! How do you find these things?
> http://www.rpgfan.com/editorials/2002/10-09.html
You clever you! How do you find these things?
I wish people wouldn't do that. It takes the fun out of GAD, when things are copied. It makes it even worse when they win.
Dirty Copier
http://www.rpgfan.com/editorials/2002/10-09.html
After we had to bear witness to almost three years of non-stop talk about hardware, next generation consoles, and their chances and possible market shares, the discussion is back at the core of this industry: games, and of course not to forget, from time to time we are still talking about consoles, this time about the fancy new toys which are already praised for being 100,000 times more powerful than the current ones and might come round in 2005. And I thought we wanted to talk about games.... Right there, games. Everyone expecting an avalanche of spectacular announcements in the period between the end of the last fiscal year on March 31st and E3 in mid-May must still feel like he or she has sipped too many bottles of high-percent alcoholics the previous night and wakes up the next day with a super-deformed head. Most companies resorted to surprise sequels, prequels or spin-offs. If you are looking for original, and dare I use the word innovative, titles you will have to take a really good look just to find ... Onimusha 2? Nope, sorry, that's another sequel. For an example, look at the already infamous Tetsuya Nomura-directed Disney RPG from Square, Kingdom Hearts. Or Bandai's brain-dazzling project .hack: A game that pretends to be an online RPG, while in reality being an offline RPG which takes place in the world of an online RPG. Got it? Since everything from racers over dancing games to horror action adventures and H-adventures (OK, admittingly the latter two genres are bad examples) will be cel-shaded, we should better skip this topic (or write another editorial on the issue in particular). Still, the writer may be forgiven for daring to mention his personal favorite cel-shaded game here: developed by a company whose name seems to come out straight of a Beavis and Butthead episode, Sucker Punch. SlyCooper and the Thievius Raccoonus looks like a truly nice game (just too bad, that my skills in playing platformers are mediocre at best).
As for the sequels, there are two categories: a large number of games whose predecessor(s) weren't released a long time ago, and then we have series that receive an update after slumbering for years, most prominently Sega classics a la Shinobi or Panzer Dragoon as well as Nintendo's Metroid, or Tecmo's Rygar and Ninja Gaiden. As you can easily figure, the first group is much larger. Onimusha 2, Final Fantasy XI, WildARMS Advanced, Legaia Duel Saga, Grandia Xtreme, Suikoden 3, Devil May Cry 2, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Zelda, Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil Zero, Popolocrois 3, Dino Crisis 3, House of the Dead 3, Crazy Taxi High Roller, Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II, Sega GT 2002, Torneko 3, Tekken 4, Castlevania White Night Concerto, Tomb Raider Dark Angel, not to mention the usual annual update for all sports games you can possibly think of (or don't even want to think of). In short, the usual critics, who constantly remind you of how this industry lacks creativity will have a lot of ammunition at their disposal, and publishers, much like Conker in Bad Fur Day, will have dollars, dollars and more dollars (respectively yen or euro) in their eyes.
Despite a slow start, several of this year's releases seem to have a lot of promise. RPG fans will finally get a solid offering of games on the next generation consoles this fall, with Kingdom Hearts, Grandia Xtreme and Legaia Duel Saga all being available as well as Suikoden 3 and WildARMS Advance being released in a few weeks on this side of the Pacific. By December, importers and Japanese fans might as well already play Unlimited SaGa, Dark Chronicle and RPG Maker 5 on their PS2s, Shin Megami Tensei NINE on Xbox, Eternal Arcadia Legends on GameCube and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on their GBAs.
So, will this year be interesting or yet another boring year with few games to pick up and even fewer to enjoy? Looking at the release schedules should be enough for many fans, in particular Nintendo and Sony fanboys, to get excited. Big N has three big aces up their sleeves: new incarnations of its two biggest franchises, and finally after years of waiting, a new Metroid game. Add Biohazard Zero to the bunch and there you have a great year for a company that after 50 years, saw the resignation of its almighty President and verbal Yokozuna, Hiroshi Yamauchi. With him gone, Tecmo producer and Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki will easily win the award for the most outspoken industry VIP.
Despite the initial problems that accompanied the launch of its ambitious online service platform, Square should be back in the black by the end of the fiscal year, thus finally recovering from the aftershocks of the commercial disaster that was Final Fantasy The Movie.
And the games? Oh yeah, it was supposed to about games in the first place. Call me insane, but for the first time in years, no RPG will hold the title for the best selling game of the year in Japan. Odds are that this year's best selling game will either be an action adventure (Onimusha 2, Biohazard The 0th Pre-prequel or the new zel-shaded Zelda) or God forbid, a soccer simulation (Konami's Winning Pro Soccer Eleven). In the meantime, each and every developer of PC hentai adventures will cut the major selling point out of its game and then port them over to the good old Dreamcast (just too bad for DC users, that Sega has abandoned the infamous yellow and red labels from the Saturn age, which made interesting games easily recognizable).
So will it be a special year or yet another slow year, you ask? Well, depending on your perspective, it will be either both, either or neither. As always some people will jump for joy, while others will continue to rant about the lack of innovative software. I would just put it this way: After the heated introduction phase of the current generation of hardware, we will just have a "normal" year, with software not hardware being once again at the center of attention. But what is normal again?
As for the sequels, there are two categories: a large number of games whose predecessor(s) weren't released a long time ago, and then we have series that receive an update after slumbering for years, most prominently Sega classics a la Shinobi or Panzer Dragoon as well as Nintendo's Metroid, or Tecmo's Rygar and Ninja Gaiden. As you can easily figure, the first group is much larger. Onimusha 2, Final Fantasy XI, WildARMS Advanced, Legaia Duel Saga, Grandia Xtreme, Suikoden 3, Devil May Cry 2, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Zelda, Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil Zero, Popolocrois 3, Dino Crisis 3, House of the Dead 3, Crazy Taxi High Roller, Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II, Sega GT 2002, Torneko 3, Tekken 4, Castlevania White Night Concerto, Tomb Raider Dark Angel, not to mention the usual annual update for all sports games you can possibly think of (or don't even want to think of). In short, the usual critics, who constantly remind you of how this industry lacks creativity will have a lot of ammunition at their disposal, and publishers, much like Conker in Bad Fur Day, will have dollars, dollars and more dollars (respectively yen or euro) in their eyes.
Despite a slow start, several of this year's releases seem to have a lot of promise. RPG fans will finally get a solid offering of games on the next generation consoles this fall, with Kingdom Hearts, Grandia Xtreme and Legaia Duel Saga all being available as well as Suikoden 3 and WildARMS Advance being released in a few weeks on this side of the Pacific. By December, importers and Japanese fans might as well already play Unlimited SaGa, Dark Chronicle and RPG Maker 5 on their PS2s, Shin Megami Tensei NINE on Xbox, Eternal Arcadia Legends on GameCube and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on their GBAs.
So, will this year be interesting or yet another boring year with few games to pick up and even fewer to enjoy? Looking at the release schedules should be enough for many fans, in particular Nintendo and Sony fanboys, to get excited. Big N has three big aces up their sleeves: new incarnations of its two biggest franchises, and finally after years of waiting, a new Metroid game. Add Biohazard Zero to the bunch and there you have a great year for a company that after 50 years, saw the resignation of its almighty President and verbal Yokozuna, Hiroshi Yamauchi. With him gone, Tecmo producer and Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki will easily win the award for the most outspoken industry VIP.
Despite the initial problems that accompanied the launch of its ambitious online service platform, Square should be back in the black by the end of the fiscal year, thus finally recovering from the aftershocks of the commercial disaster that was Final Fantasy The Movie.
And the games? Oh yeah, it was supposed to about games in the first place. Call me insane, but for the first time in years, no RPG will hold the title for the best selling game of the year in Japan. Odds are that this year's best selling game will either be an action adventure (Onimusha 2, Biohazard The 0th Pre-prequel or the new zel-shaded Zelda) or God forbid, a soccer simulation (Konami's Winning Pro Soccer Eleven). In the meantime, each and every developer of PC hentai adventures will cut the major selling point out of its game and then port them over to the good old Dreamcast (just too bad for DC users, that Sega has abandoned the infamous yellow and red labels from the Saturn age, which made interesting games easily recognizable).
So will it be a special year or yet another slow year, you ask? Well, depending on your perspective, it will be either both, either or neither. As always some people will jump for joy, while others will continue to rant about the lack of innovative software. I would just put it this way: After the heated introduction phase of the current generation of hardware, we will just have a "normal" year, with software not hardware being once again at the center of attention. But what is normal again?