Started weekly record 07/29/2001 -- 08/04/2001 Salamander I'm obsessed with this game, so of course I'd get it. It's about time too. I got this for around $30 off eBay, and it's in great shape. It's so wonderful to play this game on the portable GT. The game itself is pretty faithful to the original. The only thing it doesn't seem to have done perfectly is the graphics, but we're talking real close here. The music isn't exact either, but in some cases it almost sounds better than the original. The only oddity about this game is that it plays like Gradius. Well, in the sense that when you die you're brought back to a certain point to start over with nothing. Heh, no more trying to snag your multiples before they fly off screen... Maybe there's a code... Rockman 2: the Power Fighters The sequel to the CPS1 and CPS2 charged Rockman: The Power Battle. Never was released in the states (most likely due to the poor performence of the first). In this game you get to control Rockman, Blues, and Forte, as in the original, along with newcommer Duo from Rockman 8: The Metal Heroes. New boss characters in this edition include Elecman, Bubbleman, Airman, Stoneman, Diveman, Quickman, Shadowman, Pharoahman, and the Mech Dragon boss from Rockman 2. In this game the characters have an uppercut move that's performed by holding Up while releasing a full charge. This is also where Rockman's "Rock Upper" from MvsC originated. Final Fantasy X Finally, a reason to buy a PS2... Well, maybe. This game is absolutely gorgeous, whether you're talking about the amazing close-up character models, or the always improving Square CG movies. However, it's made by the Final Fantasy 8 team, so if you don't like finding endless amounts of items just to upgrade your stats, improve your weapons, and teach your Summons spells not quite to their nature, then maybe you'll be turned off. It is miles farther than the oddity known as FF8, so even though there's a great deal of change, it still feels like FF...er, slightly. You don't earn EXP in this game, instead you earn AP and use it on a Sphere Board, a huge board game, which is used to grow your characters. Interesting. Oh yeah, this is the first FF to use spoken dialog for the characters, and it's done quite nicely. I need an Auron action figure.

08/05/2001 -- 08/11/2001 Batman (Euro) Yay, the cart fits in my Genesis no sweat :). Although short, this game is sweet (super cliche combo!!). Playing this game makes me want to go back in time and buy all the Genesis stuff I sold for who-knows-what from......my younger self before I sold it. The thing about this that really hit home with me right away was the tunes. Ah, the memories of 10 years ago (10? ...yikes). Sunsoft really had some great composers, especially when you refer to this title and the Genesis sound chip. Oh yeah, and there's a game here too to go with the music :b. The grappling hook is nice for all us Shinobi fans, and the vehicle stages are very fun. A great action title. They don't make 'em like this no more... (track 7 in the music test is my fav)

08/12/2001 -- 08/18/2001 Gradius II: Gofer's Ambition Right off the bat, you get the normal Gradius II front cover as seen everywhere, but flip to the other side of this PCE CD title, and you get an amazing render of the Vic Viper. Wonderful 1992 artistry here. It's just too good. I'm impressed. Open up the booklet, and there's even more ultra snazzy Viper shots. But wait...it's not a CG render......it's a model!? Eeeek!! Those Konami rat finks teasing me with this incredible Vic Viper model they built just for these pics. How dare they... The game itself uses redbook audio, but unfortunately there are no arrangements, just straight arcade recordings. The game's opening, much like the SNES Gradius 3 opening, is completely new. It shows detailed schematics of the ship (no doubt aided by that model...) and the compartments where each weapon goes. All animated by the way, and is pretty cool. The intro ends with the Viper launching off into adventure, and the title comes in. Let the game demo loop, and eventually you'll get the arcade original opening. Nice. With all my past experience with Gradius II on Saturn Gradius Deluxe Pack, I was sure I was in for a nightmare. You see, even on the lowest setting, Gradius II was quite a challenging beast. So you can imagine my shock when I find this rendition the total opposite. Very easy, I must say, and quite refreshing as well. Not so easy to be a bore, mind you, but that chewy caramel center of toughness. INNOVATION -- This is the first Gradius game to give you the choice of weapon selections before you take off into action. Although you can't totally mix-and-match anything you want as in SNES Gradius 3, they at least give you four different weapon arming choices for your ship, and the choice of shield -- Gradius, or Salamander. It was also the first to feature the Boss Stage, where you fought a gauntlet of about 4 enemies and then a real boss. In this game you fight several Salamander boss' and then some original ones. Finally, Gradius 2 featured for the first time, the now staple, speed stage. Speed-up, my friend. NEW STUFF -- Besides the new intro, Konami's home ports of around this time always featured something completely new. This game doesn't disappoint. Here we have included a brand new stage that was never in the arcade Gradius II. Talk about money's worth. Straight arcade port, new intro, all the music recorded on the CD for your listening pleasure, and a new stage. Can't beat it. King of Fighters '96 My KOF CD collection is complete at last. What a step up this game is from 95. I think it's secretly my favorite KOF, although 97 is a much better game in terms of moves and innovation. But this one's got Geese, and argueably the best KOF soundtrack of all time. Plus you get all the nifty CD exclusive sprites on the loading screens. This game looks awesome in RGB. Dynamite Headdy It's about time.You can't go wrong with snagging a Treasure game for $10 off eBay. It took me an extra week to receive this title because the seller can't keep track of their own stuff (selling 385 things at the same time'll do that...), and I got a VHS instead. *sigh* Well, I have it now, and having it makes me wish I had a Genesis 2 RGB cable that works. It's a pretty fun platformer, and it's Treasure-tough, meaning that you've got to finish it the first time, or it's back to the beginning for you. No silly saving or continues here. Only the strong need apply. *ahem* Anyway, I will say this -- you know you're playing a Treasure game if you can't figure out how to injure a boss character. Wow, that cat boss in the opening had me confused for a good 7 minutes. >:b Sin and Punishment Two Treasure games in one week, you can't complain about that. Right off the bat you realize that your japanese import is speaking english. Bonus :). The graphics here are very good, considering this is an N64 we're talking about. It seems that since you mostly see your character's backside that not too much went into the characters themselves, especially in the face. Very low poly count, and their pretty damn ugly too. But, everything else looks fine (nice actually), and how often are you going to watch the cutscenes? The game is incredibly fun. It's a cross between the walking parts of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and a gun game. You control both your character, and their gun at the same time. It's pretty complicated at first, but I'm getting better at it. Your gun can be switched between two different modes, manual and lock. Lock will stay aimed at an enemy while you dodge, jump or whatever, and manual is totally free but stronger damage. If an enemy gets too close, by tapping the shot button your character will ignite their gun's sword and slice at the foe. This is also used to bounce back enemy missiles to whatever your cursor is aimed at, which is without a doubt the coolest part. There's even a small sword fight halfway through. The game gives you a save option when you die, and your location and number of continues remaining will be stored to the cart's battery. I assume I'm at least most of the way through, and so far the battle against the aircraft carriers is the best. Besides the occasional blurry texture, it's hard to believe this is an N64. Non-stop action. Alien Front Online

08/19/2001 -- 08/25/2001 No new additions...

08/26/2001 -- 09/01/2001 Devil May Cry A cross between the gun-heavy BioHazard, and the melee action of Onimusha. Throw in some combos, big speed, and bad camera angles, and you've got Devil May Cry. What is it with me and camera angles?? Well, if I'm fighting a BOSS, and it's completely off camera shooting me with projectiles, it stinks that I can't see them coming. Just seems wierd that in a game with a full 3D environment that there can't be a roving camera that keeps both Boss and Dante in the same shot. I've only gotten about 4 stages into this game before my file got corrupted, but here's an early breakdown. As mentioned, the game world isn't of the traditional survival horror design. It's divided into stages. Each set with one goal for completion, upon which you're graded and awarded appropriately. Throughout the game are orbs of various kinds which can be found in the open or after an enemy is defeated. These orbs are how you upgrade Dante's fighting abilities, similar to Onimusha. Also strewn throughout the world are weapons. So far I've found a shotgun in a desk :P. You just chop up the desk with your sword and the item appears. Shooting is done like BioHazard--hold R1 and press square. You can swing your sword with triangle, and naturally you can combine the two. Do an uppercut with the sword, then juggle the enemy with several gunshots. It's quite fun. Dante controls like Solid Snake, so when you press left, no matter what angle, he'll move left. So it's not like the remote control car feel of Bio (push up to go forward no matter the angle), but this doesn't go too well with the multiple camera shots. Sometimes you'll be running right (holding right), then the camera angle will change and you're facing front or back. If you continue to hold right during the camera switch, you'll continue to move in your original direction, but it's just so odd and confusing. The game is fast, as said before. Having to deal with stages versus a go-anywhere type deal helps keep it action packed. Monsters will regenerate if you return to a room some were in before, and you can use this to build up you orb stock. Very fun game, and the english dialog is really good and can be skipped by pressing select (Wish FFX had that ;_;). Stretch Panic Wow, this game is not meant for the mainstream gamer. No in-game explaination at all. This will leave most enraged, but that's what manuals are for, right? After a really nifty, yet goofy intro ("this is an unusual story of an unusual little girl" :P), you're thrown into the Museum of Agony, a place between real life, the afterlife, and also the place where you can access the game's EX stages and bosses. Right off the bat you start off with zero points, and the only doors you can open are of the two EX stages. Inside are the only variety of enemy besides the bosses, Zaku, those hugely breasted women. There are three basic types of attack, and three types of damage inflicted. Blue damage (normal stretch, from any point), Yellow damage (after doing your special headbutt move), and Red damage (attack the enemy's weakspot). Red damage will earn you 1 point, and is ultimately what you need to progress in the game. Each boss door has a number value which is the number of points required to enter. If you lose to the boss, you need to gather enough points to enter again. Sounds pretty simple, but that's not all. Not only do you have to defeat the bosses, you have to perform an exorcism during the battle on the boss to free your sisters from themselves. Doing this requires you to use a special attack, the Scarf Bomb. Doing this requires 5 points, and you have to keep the attack going until the demon is released. This can be interupted if you don't pick the right time to act, so be cautous and don't squander your points. I played this enough to defeat about 6 bosses, then I lost my file. It's a fun game, and I won't mind doing it again. The point gathering gets tedious however. Some really great tunes in here and good voices too. "Funky". McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure I won this off eBay, and it's taken over a month to arrive because I had to send a PostalMO to Thailand. Like Strider Hiryu, I need either a converter or Geme Genie to play this game. So into the pile it goes until I get one. Typical japanese color manual which is very nice. Infact, if it wasn't for my own fingerprints on the manual, I'd say this entire package was brand new. Capcom Vs SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001 This is a fantastic game. A million times better than the previous. It finally feels complete at last. I played this yesterday for 14 hours straight, until finally hunger beat me into submission. The game's resolution seems to be arcade perfect from what I can tell. No abnormal stretching. The game seems to load in-between rounds (I wonder if the DC one will?), which is OK, but I absolutely hate it when it happens when you're playing a "Single Match". Ugh, that's just lazy programing there. Why would the machine need to load characters that are already in memory? Because that's the routine of the Ratio and 3 on 3 matches being used. So lazy. There are two things of this title I can't stand -- 1) the music for the iceberg stage. (whoever wrote that needs to be shot) 2) Cammy's voice. WTF?? Now she's a baby? Don't see how that happened. Sounds retarded. Awesome game though. Can't wait to play more. This one goes on the "top 10" list for this year. Forgotten Worlds Every port of a game on CD should have arranged music. It should become a staple of game making. Perhaps is was back in 1992... As you can guess, I find the music on this disk great. Very pleasing to listen to. The game itself I ran on the MagicEngine emu, and unfortunately no sound effects would play. Hm, I need to get a Duo... Fun game. R-Type Complete CD Tried this on the emu as well, but with zero results. (I REALLY need a Duo) So the only thing left I could do is to give the redbook audio a listen. Music is cool, but mostly in a techno style which is iffy on some tracks. The 1st stage music has a guy saying "R-Type" in a rapping fashion. Ugh. Thankfully the later stages music doesn't seem effected by this, and they are just normal good arrangements. All the audio for the cutscenes is on the disk too. They sound cool. Can't wait to check 'em out someday.

09/02/2001 -- 09/08/2001 Time Crisis 2 The visuals are excellent. Everything is nice and solid, which is tremendous when you remember the PSX versions. However, in the visual department, this game does not rival House of the Dead 2. HotD2 has sharper textures and brighter colors. I also think it comes from the future, but that's just me ;). Also like Sega and HotD2, Namco isn't shy about putting a boatload of options in here. A variety of shooting galleries, a practice mode, a link cable 2 player mode, and a single player double gun mode. I only have one gun (err...somewhere...) so I can't check out what sounds interesting in the double gun mode. Hell, I always played Saturn HotD with 2 guns :). There's also some "?"'s next to some of the modes, so who knows what else is in store. I need to get a new memory card real soon. Zero Gunner 2 OMG! A Psikyo game that's VGA box compatible? Oh wait. All Psikyo 3D games are VGA compatable :P. Speaking of 3D, the models, textures, etc are amazing. A very pretty game indeed. On par with Giga Wing 2 visually. You get the standard Psikyo comedy, with the lowest difficulty setting being "child". A personal Psikyo fav :). Similar to Cannon Spike, this game has 60 second stages (some bigger), and even quicker boss battles if you use a bomb. Every destroyed foe releases fuel for your bomb guage. The guage itself is divided into levels. Once a level is obtained, you can fire off your craft's bomb. And again like Cannon Spike, they're incredibly powerful and can take a boss out in one shot normally. The game's trademark feature is the ability to turn 360 degrees at any time, like Capcom's Forgotten Worlds. When you press B, it's like your craft is placing an anchor into the stage, and moving the directional pad while B is held rotates your direction. Pretty cool, and easy.

09/09/2001 -- 09/15/2001 Shadow Man Got this at Best Buy for $10. ECM is always ranting about this, and says this is the version to snag. I hope he's onto something. This game has an excellent chance of never coming out of the wrapper. Evolution 2: Far Off Promise Got this at Best Buy for $10 in the same trip as ShadowMan. This one might get unwrapped just to investigate the Grandia II free music CD offer. The back of the package says the cutscenes use the original japanese voiceovers :).

09/16/2001 -- 09/22/2001 Capcom Vs SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001 The first batch of this release comes with a "fan disk". It contains a save file for every Capcom DreamCast fighting game up until now with everything unlocked. You can also examine all of the character portraits used for the Capcom Vs SNK series. But what is the most appealing are the 20 replay save files for CvsS2. These include combo exhibitions, and extremely high level play. I can learn a lot from these :). Each replay save is 30 blocks, so unfortunately you can't copy them all at once. To make life easy for myself, I already recorded all the replays onto a VHS tape for easy future viewing. The game itself is a bit different from it's PS2 counterpart in the visual department. The sprites are much smaller. Now whether this was to remedy the ugly scaling problem found in every Capcom 2D DreamCast port, I don't know. Perhaps the DC has a slightly higher resolution than the PS2. We may never know. On a sadder note, this title is Capcom last 2D fighter for an unknown period of time, both for arcade and home console. As kind of a parting word, written on the spine card in japanese is "2D will never die". ;_;

09/23/2001 -- 09/29/2001 Silent Hill 2 Can anyone really say they've been truly scared when playing a videogame? Yeah yeah, the dogs jumping through the windows in Biohazard. Everyone says that. But I'm not talking about a one second scare here. I'm talking about an overwhelming feeling of utter dread and discomfort for an extended period. Play this game with the lights off and big sound, otherwise you're missing the entire point. Ever walk through an overly dark hallway in an unfamilir place? Not very nice, is it? You get the same type of sensation here. This game is designed from the ground up to be discomforting, and it suceeds. All the building interiors are incredibly designed, graphicly. They all immediately give you that lived-in look. Actually, a more accurate description would be dead look. All of the walls and furniture look like it's been sitting there for a hundread years. Yes, very dead looking indeed. A very important part in the fear factor. One moment I clearly remember in the game's first "dungeon" (if you will) was finding a room full of moths flying around, along with an errie red and green glow coming from the walls. Why were the walls glowing? Very unusual, and a perfect fit into the mood of this game. The other highly important part of the fear factor is the sound. The man responsable for this game's soundtrack needs to be doing movie soundtracks. The music, again, is just odd and very scary. At some points it's incredibly loud, and can quickly build up a moments tension. The first night I played this, I had to actually stop myself. I remember a friend doing the same thing when he got to the Hospital in the game and writing to me, "Fuck, it's scary". XD ICO The PS2 is starting to have a good year at last (in September...lol). With the release of this title, and a small handful of others, I've finally had a reason to turn on the PS2 again. This is one of those games that we'll look back on in years and have happy thoughts about. Hopefully the same can be said for several others before the year is out. ICO is an action/adventure game that heavily relies on puzzle solving to attain your goals. Your goal is to escape the fortress, and bring along with you the, also imprisoned, girl Yorda. You find her locked in a cell suspended high above the ground shortly after your own escape, and once you free her, evil spirits emerge out of dark portals in the ground to reclaim her. Once you fight off the monsters, you learn of Yorda's most important ability and why she's needed in your escape. She has a power which is capable off unlocking all of the Idol Doors in the fortress that block your progress. The only unfortunate part is that Yorda does not share ICO's ability for acrobatics, so getting her to hard to reach doors to unlock is where the puzzles come in. ICO can climb chains, pick up objects, shimmy on ledges, use bombs, and fight off enemies, while Yorda lilkes to play with birdies :P. In order to get Yorda out of the fortress, or to the doors for that matter, you have to lead her by the hand (literally). It's not as bad as it sounds. Towing her around is actually a big chunk of the game's charm. As stated before, she's not very agile, so you'll find yourself leaving her alone while you open up an easier path for which she can travel. You don't have to always go and fetch her. In some cases she can come to you if you call out to her. This is done with the R1 button (the same button you hold her hand with). With this you can also reach down to her from a high ledge and pull her up, or catch her from a long jump. You have no health meter in this game. The only way to lose is if you fall from a high enough place, or if Yorda is captured by the dark spirits and completely dragged into one of their portals. The characters are cel shaded, and have some amazing animation. The attention to detail here is truely astounding. It's even funny seeing how Yorda gets jerked around if you make several rapid sharp turns while holding her hand :P. The game itself uses the blurry technique as seen in the cutscenes for Metal Gear Solid. This gives the environment a much more rounded-out look, and ends up appearing more realistic as well since you can't quite make out the polys. When interviewed, the producer said the main reason for this graphical effect was to make the game look like it is a dream. He also said that the reason Yorda's speech isn't translated is so that you can imagine what she's saying as whatever you want. There is no music throughout the bulk of the game, just background sound effects such as birds, wind, rain, etc. Perhaps this is also part of what makes the game more dream-like. The only parts that have music are the cutscenes and the final boss encounter. The final battle is one of the better ones I've played in quite some time. Great special effects as well. We could have a game of the year here... Garou: Mark of the Wolves Holy... Talk about going out with a bang. Not only do we have here the last 2D fighter on the DreamCast, but also SNK's last DreamCast game, and in my opinion, SNK's best fighter. Immediately I'm impressed that the game is VGA box compatible, and is quite nice to behold running through that wonder machine. There is an arranged soundtrack selectable from the options menu, but not of the Neo CD calibur. In other words, SNK's in-house band didn't record the music in a studio, the music just uses better sound samples. Still nice that one of SNK's staples wasn't an afterthought in this game's development. The game also comes with an art gallery, ending gallery, and the two bosses Grant and Kain playable right away. Resolution-wise, the game is perfect. Unlike the poka-dot madness of LB2 (>_<), the graphics are as clean as they should be, and there's no Capcom-esque stretching used here. The game's res is just doubled in order to fill up the screen, and yet still keep the aspect correct. This causes two black borders to appear on both sides of the screen, but hey, it's better than Capcom "jaggies" (I hate that word). The game itself seems 100% intact to me, but I'm not a Garou expert. Some people online have complained that the game is missing frames, the color isn't right, and that it has 3D backgrounds (WTF?!). More internet comedy :). The only thing awry I've detected is that the sound effects for some actions are off by a second, and that the win music stops when your portrait is displayed, whereas it played in the arcade versoin. But that last one's due to loading and excusable. An awesome game that I still suck at :P.

09/30/2001 -- 10/06/2001 Ninja Gaiden You'd automatically think that this is a port of Ninja Gaiden the arcade game, but no, it ain't. I was shocked to discover that it was infact a port of the NES game. So with that in mind, I snagged it. The sprites are unchanged, but much more color is added. Some of the backgrounds have big improvements such as the rocky flooring of the cliff in stage 3. It's a pretty cool game, but disappointing in two aspects. 1) I noticed that when you have the Fire Wheel activated, you're not completely invincible (WTF!?), and 2) the music is different. I can't put into words how broken and battered I feel without the original NES tunes arranged. I will attempt to finish this sometime, but maybe not until after I score a Duo. Playing on the GT is real annoying. Especially when the power cuts out due to my loose AC connection. Sneeze, reset. Blah. Winds of Thunder update 05/02/2002 I don't know why this isn't unwrapped yet. I must be insane. Phantasy Star Online version 2 I didn't even know this was out until my conversation with some folks on Tuesday. They explained about how several people had trouble getting copies, which worried me into rushing out and grabbing one right away. It wasn't necessary, as EB was fully stocked with them. But it's one less trip in the future. This time around, it costs $15 for 3 months to play online. Not too bad. Unfortunately I had to go through Very Hard mode again in order to unlock the new Ultimate mode. Everything here is palette swapped (if that's the correct term). The lobby is brighter, and you can see blue sky out the windows. The forest area is at sunset, and every other area is supposed to have some color/graphical improvements. I don't think I'll be seeing anything else too soon, as my lv71 HUmar had too much trouble dealing with the first two monsters in the first room, let alone the whole forest. The only damage I could get out of the two monsters was from my Holy spell. My weapons did nothing. Actually, my weapons MISSed. A friend agreed to give me some of his hand-me-downs, but he is having major troubles getting online with his BBA. Seems MediaOne customers are having difficulties. Online, you can't create or join an Ultimate game until you've reached lv80. So I'm bored right now with this title.

10/07/2001 -- 10/13/2001 No new additions...

10/14/2001 -- 10/20/2001 One Piece Mansion Fray CD This is an overhead view action/adventure title, with a blue-haired girl (Fray?) as the main character. She can jump over dangerous obstacles, and charge up her main weapon like power shot in R-Type. So it's got a bit of shooter elements in it as well. There's quite a bit of voice here. Every boss encounter or midway point seems to have a bunch. There are a bunch of laughs too. Need to play this on a Duo cause the emu ain't playing it 100%. Legend of Xanadu

10/21/2001 -- 10/27/2001 No new additions...

10/28/2001 -- 11/03/2001 Advance Wars Rockman: Mega World

11/04/2001 -- 11/10/2001 Gun Survivor 2: Biohazard -Code: Veronica- Ugh, nightmares of the first. This game is trash. If it was made to play like House of the Dead, and the graphics updated then you'd have something here. But the graphics are lifted straight out of Veronica. Not even a slight improvement. The only good looking thing is Nemesis since he's made from scratch. This game tries to be a Quake/Doom clone but falls quite short, and the zombies are so incredibly outdated looking. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the amazingly grotesque zombies in the Biohazard remake for GameCube... Um, no I'm not. This game is filth. Gradius Galaxies Quite an improvement over the GB Gradius/Nemesis games >:b. Great color, cool bosses, excellent graphics, and hey, you even get the Gradius Gaiden ships here too. While all this is nice, some stages in the game are too stale. That fire stage sure looks nice, but man is it boring. Interesting thing here to note is the "Hint" section. This becomes available in whatever area you're in and shows you how to properly navigate and triumph. Can't really say much for the tunes. They're very GameBoy-sounding and the sound effects were dominating it. There are voice announcements for the power-ups which is nice, and the big brain at the end of the game looks fantastic. The only things I miss are the classic boss tune, and the boss stage. Maybe one of these days Mobile 21 will make a Contra game... Gradius Yes, finally my PCE connection got this back in. And what a great version. Actually better than the arcade. Graphics are perfect, music is better than the arcade (in a non-CD game I might add), and of course the extra stage. Just like Gradius II, there is one extra stage included that slightly remsembles a stage in Nemesis for the X68000 computer. Now if I can score Gradius II for Famicom, my Gradius collection will almost be complete. Sidearms Special

11/11/2001 -- 11/17/2001 Vampire Night Wow, forget about all the vampires and just call this House of the Dead 3 :P. After the debacle known as Gun Survivor 2, I really needed this to flush that experience. The package and the title might say Namco, Sega, and Wow Entertainment, but this game is 100% Wow Entertainment and what we've come to expect from Sega gun games. Seriously, everything I dug about HotD2 is here and done better. The graphics are super sharp and high res, the music is excellent (gotta love that 1st boss tune), the enemies are designed wonderfully, and the voice acting is as corny as ever :P. Head Hunter (Euro) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Two words.... Production Values. Yes, you can feel right away that a ton of work went into this one. The character models are amazing, visuals are very sharp, stunning soundtrack, crazy plot twists, lots of humor, and actually good english dubbing (shocker). It's got everything to the point where it's almost funny. The sheer amount of voice acting in here is ludicrous. Seriously about 5 different recordings done for every situation. I think there are 6 different dialogs from Otagon alone if you try to save without a memory card. And once you gain control of Raiden, the cool factor just jumps sky high. Being able to see the "real" Solid Snake doing his thing, or getting advice from the legend himself is really cool. At one point if you're fast enough, you can get to a place were you see a guard knocked out, and Snake sneaking in a cardboard box (LOL). That's great. You can even call him during this situation and he'll explain this classic trick of his to you. "Take care of your cardboard box, and it'll take care of you." A riot. Besides having a nice solid game here, you get about a ton more cool things included like the one mentioned above, Todd McFarlane and Zone of the Enders boxes scattered throughout the game, a Vucan Raven McFarlane toy that shoots BB's, Policenauts posters, Gradius Moai statues hidden in various places, and about a ton other goofy things that can happen or you can do. I couldn't contain myself the first time I came back to Strut A, running full speed to get to my next objective, and slipping on bird crap. HA! Or how about being outside in the rain during the "Tanker" episode too long giving you a cold? You'd think that hiding behind a locker is a terrific hiding spot if you can find one arranged with a space behind it. It isn't if the guard's about to leave and you give out an incredibly loud "Ah-Cho!" XP. One thing this game made me aware of is that the PS2 buttons are analog. If you're inside a locker and press the R1 button, you can get closer to the locker door to either look outside or, er, for some other reason I won't bother to mention. If you hit the button really hard, you'll slam your head into the locker door XD. Lots of fun to be had, indeed. The only complaints I have are the entire Liquid's arm thing, and the multiple plot changes near the end. The whole Liquid factor could've easily been left out, or Ocelot could've had his seizures without us knowing why until next game. The rapid plot changes got pretty annoying at the end. I mean how many lies are there? We're talking about one revelation being made, and then 5 minutes later another one that totally negates the first, and so on. The plot itself is very interesting and detailed, but it's just that a lot of it could've been saved for later. This is Kojima's last Metal Gear that he's directing, so maybe he just wanted to somehow throw in all his ideas. Possibly one of the coolest parts of the game happen towards the end when the Colonel becomes "crazy". He's an AI, and the virus you installed into the new Metal Gear is affecting him because that's where he's originating. He starts quoting older Metal Gear lines, or tells you that the entire mission is just a game and to turn off the game console because it's a failure. Really great stuff here. "...Infiltrate... ...the enemy fortress... ...Outer Heaven! ...Destroy... ...the final weapon... ...Metal Gear!" (a movie of the original Metal Gear [1987] is playing) "I noticed this a while back, but you have far too many Game Overs. Sorry to be blunt, but you really stink at this game." (if you have continued 99 times at this point) Here are two of the best "crazy" Colonel conversations... Colonel: "Your role -- that is, mission -- is to infiltrate the structure and disarm the terrorists -- Raiden: "My role? Why do you keep saying that." Colonel: "Why not? This is a type of role-playing game. The point is that you play out your part -- and I expect you to turn in a perfect performance!" Raiden: "Colonel, I just remembered something. That I've never met you in person. Not once." Colonel: "Complete your mission according to the simulation!" Raiden: "Colonel, who are you?" Colonel: "No more questions. We have Rosemary." Raiden: "What do you mean by that!?" Colonel: "Over and out." Colonel: "Raiden, turn the game console off right now!" Raiden: "What did you say?" Colonel: "The mission is a failure! Cut the power right now!" Raiden: "What's wrong with you?" Colonel: "Don't worry, it's a game! It's a game just like usual. You'll ruin your eyes playing so close to the TV." Raiden: "What are you talking about!?" (LOL)

11/18/2001 -- 11/24/2001 Nintendo GameCube console Luigi's Mansion No way I thought Nintendo could make a full game out of this tech demo, but they did. Once again, the system controller is designed specifically for Miyamoto's launch game (same as the N64). It works great. The left analog stick controls your walking, whereas the yellow "C" analog stick controls your upper body. It works well. The vacuum is activated with the R trigger, and by tilting the C stick in the opposite direction of the ghost you're trying to reel in, you get extra leverage and sucking power. Catching the ghosts is an interesting challenge. In Miyamoto's world, the ghosts are scared by bright light, so you need to shine your flashlight at them to give them a spook. Once they are scared, their heart appears along with a number, and they are frozen for a second. In this brief amount of time you must hold down the R trigger to begin sucking up the ghost with your Poltergust 3000. The number is a countdown and as long as you keep the vacuum trained on them, the counter will slowly decrease. Some ghosts have big counters so you might find them breaking free from your hold. This is where you need to get that extra leverage. This will decrease the counters very rapidly. Sounds pretty easy, and it is, but it's also lots of fun too : ). As you progress into the game, you will encounter ghosts that will not reveal their hearts to you so easily. The first one of these you'll encounter is in a rocking chair, and you have to wait for him to yawn to nab him. For another you have to open the blinds in the bedroom and allow the cold air to come in and give the ghost a chill. Whatever method it takes, your goal is to remove the ghosts from every room in the entire mansion and locate Mario. You'll know that a room is clear when the lights suddenly come on, and you're rewarded with a treasure box or a key to another room. The game is filled with cool visual effects. This is mainly the glowing of the ghosts, but there are some other more subtle effects you'll find if you play around. My favorite has to be the movement of the sheets or curtains while you have your vacuum aimed at them. If you get close enough and pull back hard, you can remove them, but just the flapping of the cloth is a great thing to watch. One of the game's funniest moments has to be a part where Luigi answers a phone several times. Just a really funny voice. Also, if you press the "A" button while not near an object (you would otherwise shake), Luigi will call out for Mario. The more you do this the more variations of the name he does. Once you finish the game, you unlock the "Hidden Mansion". So far I haven't found out what's different about it yet. I've beaten the first boss, and to me, it's the same. I'm very happy with the music in this title. There's a room with instruments, and eventually they'll play old Mario music. The game has changed somewhat from it's E3 incarnation. For example, your vacuum had a gauge that would deplete the longer you kept it on. Once the meter emptied, there would be a backfire effect. Another thing that was removed was the timer. There would be a clock on your GameBoy Horror. I suppose that you had until dawn to finish the game or the mansion would vanish or something to that nature. We'll never know. I guess these features made the game too hard. Wave Race: Blue Storm Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II This game, not being a first party title, was available sometime before the actual system launch. This has become something popular over the last couple of systems. Companies just trying to get the jump on each other, I suppose. For a launch title, it's impressive. The ship models are super detailed, but not identical to the models as seen in the Special Edition movies (as I was told constantly at E3). Sound effects are clean, and the game almost runs at a constant 60fps. A good start, but from there it's a mixed bag. Music is both good and bad. There are some missions that use redbook audio, and this is taken directly off the soundtracks, but all the new music is absolute garbage. The music for the title screen alone is horrid. It's too bad you have to hear it every time you boot the game up or lose all your lives. I almost jumped out the window. Thank god there is an option to turn down the music volume for those "bad" missions. I think the musician failed GameCube sound chip 101. The visuals, as stated before, are super detailed. For the surface missions like Hoth, you can see ground troops running all over the place. A really nice touch. Places like Bespin or the Death Stars are littered with buildings. And I'm not talking about a big fat texture used to represent the presence of buildings, but actual 3D structures that you can collide with. Sure you can see the cut-off point on the Death Star, but it's still convincing. Same as the music, the missions are also a mixed bag. Any mission that's straight forward is fine, but later on you will have missions that simply ask too much of the player, or are overly difficult. The first Star Destroyer mission, while cool, is insanely hard. It's like every single gun emplacement on that thing is trained on you. I think that you shouldn't have to find the secret power-ups hidden in each of the game's missions to complete the game, but so far I've needed everyone I've found. I can understand making the game difficult so that you can't finish it in one sitting, but man, I think I was stuck on one mission for a week or more. It's just that they don't make everything obvious. In a particular mission, you're told via the game's spoken dialog to destroy the SD's hull, but meanwhile your troops get killed and the mission ends. It's very aggravating. This one mission I was having difficulty with at one point I got to crash. Best thing about this was that I had the mission complete, but instead got a black screen of death. Argh! One factor I've found difficult in dogfighting, was trying to actually see the TIE fighters. It's almost impossible because of some of the background scenery. Try to see TIE's, which are colored gray, against the gray Death Star surface. Sure. Well, Factor 5 has addressed this problem, and this is where the Targeting Computer comes into play. Once activated, primary targets become colored yellow, and secondary targets purple. Makes things very obvious. Only problem is, I find myself using the TC all the time. It's too hard to see certain things, and the more you use the TC, the lower your chances of getting a medal are for that mission, and unfortunately the medals are the only way to unlock the game's hidden ships and features besides a passcode. In the end, the game's difficulty can make it unenjoyable. Currently I'm stuck on the final mission. I don't see myself finishing it anytime soon, unless some helpful passcodes come around. Super Monkey Ball Gunbird The Game Paradise! It's a vertical shooter with an arcade theme. And by that I mean you're fighting against various arcade or videogame type objects. For example one stage all the enemies are 8-bit, another you're inside a UFO catcher, etc. There are several wacky characters to play as, my favorite being the flying pig who's simply called "Pig". :P Prikura Daisakusen Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

11/25/2001 -- 12/01/2001 Rockman X6 Dragon Warrior VII

12/02/2001 -- 12/08/2001 Super Smash Bros. Melee In a game where 95% of the music is hyper-god arranged, why oh why is the F-Zero music just a rip from the N64 game? Ugh. I was not a big fan of the first version (to say the least) and since this is almost a 1.5 version, I almost didn't get it. The thing that did attract me was the one player mode. Sure it's nothing to write home about now that I've played it, but first time through it's pretty cool. Running through stages of Mario Bros, Metroid, and Ice Climbers is nifty. I'm slowly figuring how the game functions, and it's causing me to slowly get more enjoyment out of it Pikmin Dungeon Explorer II Tracks 07, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 22, and 27 are arranged Dungeon Explorer 1 tunes. That's a great start in my book. Nectaris Blaster Master: Blasting Again Yes, the same game that I played, and didn't care for, at E3 two years ago finally makes it out. Crave Entertainment releases this as a super budget title for only $10, but thanks to some tips I scored one at Circuit City for $5 brand new. I opened it to check out the manual, and it's in color to my surprise. We'll see how long it takes to actually put the disk into a PSX and give a damn.

12/09/2001 -- 12/15/2001 Guilty Gear X Plus DX pack Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike -Fight for the Future-

12/16/2001 -- 12/22/2001 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty -Premium Pack- NCS seems to have screwed me out of my reserved copy of this Limited Edition, so I had no other choice but to locate one on my own. EvilBay provided the answer, but naturally at a almost doubled price. The pack is incredible, much like it's predessesor. I believe the box is an identical size to that of part 1's LE, but black. It comes with the game, a black figure of Solid Snake that you can piece together, a "premium disk", a book that contains many designs, scipts, interviews, etc, and the "making of" DVD. It was descibed in the auction that the game would be opened but in perfect shape. This is true, but I'm now confused. In several pics of this set, the game package is red, whereas this one is blue-ish, like the way the import game looks sold alone. I think the regular one got switched with the LE. Guh, EvilBay, like I said. As I go back to that auction, there is a picture of the blue game in the box. I was just unaware of the difference. So in a way, I do not have the complete LE. Sad. The premium disk is probably my favorite of the two disks. It contains all the different trailers and commercials for the Metal Gear Solid series. Cool stuff. Eternal Eyes Another super budget PlayStation release from Crave ala Blaster Master. Looks like a kind of Final Fantasy Tatics type of game. I wonder if it'll ever get opened... Final Fantasy X

12/23/2001 -- 12/29/2001 King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood Maximo A 3D action game that takes place in the Makaimura (Ghost n' Goblins) universe. Not seeing how throwing spears in 3D would be easily accomplished, Capcom opted for a brand new, sword wielding character, Maximo. First off, the game looks brilliant. Very vibrant coloring, incredible lighting effects, great tunes, and very large worlds with lots of hidden areas. The game's worlds break down to an initial stage, and once completed you enter that world's central hub where the rest of the stages can be accessed in whatever order you wish. Once you finish all the stages, a new passage opens in the hub that brings you to the boss of that world. Defeat the boss and your given 3 choices, of which you can only choose one. They are saving your game, a kiss, and an armor icon (raise your armor level). You can earn a different ending if you can collect all the kisses. I've yet to do that. The only way to continue once you lose all your lives is to earn red tokens. These appear once you collect 50 spirits. The spirits are found in various objects in the stages that have a blue glow about them. There is a ghost enemy that releases your spirits if he makes contact with you. It can be annoying but if you have the power-up that gives your chield the ability to vacuum up coins and spirits, they're easily regained. Maximo himself has a life gauge that's broken into segments depending on your armor level. When you find armor, your gauge gets an extra segment. When the meter of one of your armor gauges falls to zero, that armor breaks off (just like Makaimura) and the gauge is erased. If you can manage to get 4 armor gauges (you can later upgrade the max number) you get the golden armor that, in this game, makes you invincible for about 20 seconds. When Max's down to one life/armor gauge, he's stuck running around in his briefs :P. A Makaimura staple. The sword can be powered up as well. I've encountered fire, ice, lightning, and dark swords. These have their own gauge. Everytime your sword makes contact with an enemy, the gauge depletes. When extinguished, the sword reverts. The other item Maximo carries with him is his shield. Hit the R2 button and Max gets into a defensive stance. The shield has it's own gauge too, and every attack parried decreases this gauge down a notch. Also Maximo can throw the shield like a bommerang (once you earn the abiity). This also damages the shield when it comes in contact with an foe. Those are the basics, but as you defeat enemies you find medals that give you extra moves like rapid slashes, spinning slashes, letting your shield vacuum up coins, boomerang shield, projectiles from your element sword (if you have one), a longer sword blade, a powered-up downward attack, and so on. So what's the point of the coins? Throughout the stages are items you can purchase for the right amount of coins. These can be anything from armor, swords, health drinks to ability medals. Some are even random. The last items you'll see around are the treasure chests, and keys. Chests can contain money, armor, medals, and keys. There are also two kinds of keys, red and gold. The gold open up part of the stage for you, and red are not required to proceed (if they are they're given too you) but unlock various areas which usually lead to treasure chests or secret paths, or can be used to open a special chest that usually contains armor. And yes, there are trap treasure chests here too that try to bite you, or a magician pops out of one when you get close and will transform you either into a baby or old man. If you try to make the old man swing the sword or use the shield he'll say "ow, my back" and can't complete the action :P. The game's boss' are rather dull. I was hoping for much more grandious enemies, but they're boring and uninspired. The stages are HUGE, and can get rather tiresome as well.