The calm that has followed the storm that was the Tokyo Game Show continues — even so, on this MGT Report there's some interesting information about forthcoming Dreamcast conversions and an in-depth look at this week's chart.

Mario Sinks Birdie. Further information has been forthcoming regarding the Gameboy Color version of Mario Golf, which not only looks great, but is also viewed from a behind-view 3D perspective. Camelot, the team working on both the Gameboy and N64 versions of Mario Golf, has turned out some interesting coding. (The team is also responsible for the Playstation multi-million seller Everybody's Golf). Mario Golf does follow the increasing trend of being Gameboy Color exclusive — it just won't work on a normal Gameboy.

There's a link-up between the Gameboy and N64 versions of Mario Golf that will allow exclusive characters to be unlocked, which is good news for all those Pokemon fans who bought their GB Pak to play Pokemon Stadium and haven't had any other decent games to link between their N64 and Gameboy Color. And, with RPG modes in Mario Golf GBC itself, Camelots look to be onto another big hit. The N64 version is out next month with the GBC version to follow a couple of months after that.

Soccer Magic! The lack of a decent (or indeed, any) Dreamcast soccer game is about to be addressed. Although spectacular 3D soccer footage has been showcased at several recent shows, including the Tokyo Game Show, the footage wasn’t actually playable (you can only watch the action). But finally, it appears the awesome Virtua Striker series is beginning to wander the way of the Dreamcast. Apparently, the latest version of the series, Virtua Striker 2 Limited, is testing in Tokyo, and it's running on a Naomi board. If this is correct it means a conversion to Dreamcast should be relatively straightforward, and this is great news.

Gamespot reports a rumor that Genki is handling the conversion to Dreamcast, but it's unclear whether that's Naomi to Dreamcast or whether the company has done the version currently playing in arcades, too. As some of you may know, Genki was responsible for the Virtua Fighter 3 conversion to Dreamcast. The conversion was reasonable, but not perfect, so let's hope they make a good job of this particular title.

DC AM conversions ASAP? :) Following on from this, Famitsu is reporting a conversation they had with the AM divisions (presumably in an informal capacity), in which they rated the chances of certain Sega arcade titles being converted to Dreamcast. Virtua Striker 2 was rated at 120 percent (!), which implies that it's already done, and the other highest raters were Daytona USA 2 at 80 percent (mm, a great game and an excellent candidate for conversion), and Fighting Vipers 2 (a good, if somewhat niche, Sega-styled beat-em-up) at 60 percent, with Scud Race (a.k.a. Super GT) and Spike Out at 50 percent. So, it looks like a number of conversions are planned, and hopefully there'll be some official confirmation in the next couple of months. Strangely, in one of the lists I saw that Crazy Taxi was rated at only a 5 percent chance of conversion, even though it's already a Naomi title. Hopefully this is just a misprint?

Soul Calibur Extras Thrill. Soul Calibur from Namco is now due for the Dreamcast on July 29th, and new features confirmed for it include a picture gallery and new CG. Considering that the intro to the original Soul Edge is perhaps one of the best CG intros ever, this an added bonus to what already looks to be a must-buy Dreamcast title. (Oh, and speaking of Dreamcast beat-em-ups, Dead Or Alive II still doesn't appear to be out, after AOU footage showed it to be ridiculously good-looking. Hopefully, Tecmo will finish it off soon and release it on Naomi, then Dreamcast soon enough.)

Hybrid Heaven from Konami is finally confirmed in Japan for July 1st. As quite an adult Resident Evil styled-adventure with real-time combat — but still in quite an RPG style— Hybrid Heaven is the kind of title that the N64 needs to bolster its image for classy adult titles in the West. It's also the kind of action game that may sell better in the West than Japan, so hopefully Konami will waste no time in translating it.

A lot of people seem unaware of this, but the 4MB expansion cart for the N64 is still unreleased in Japan. It'll come out this June alongside the Japanese version of Turok 2.

Taito has confirmed Densha De Go 64 for release on the N64 in July. Is no computer or console free from the train simulation horror?

Konami's Air Force Delta for Dreamcast is tentatively confirmed for September, and should be very interesting, since Ace Combat from the same company started the trend for arcade combat games more than 5 years ago. The only Dreamcast flight game so far, Aero Dancing, is a little disappointing, despite having excellent graphics in places, so this will be an eagerly awaited title for the Dreamcast fan.

NCSX reports that 3rd party Dreamcast controllers will finally be available in Asia later this month. Considering the analog triggers on the underside of Sega's pad are already getting a bad reputation for breaking, especially after a hammering in 6-button games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom (a friend claims to have got through three already!), it's difficult to hold out much hope that the 3rd party pads will be sturdier, since they're generally, umm, not. This is a shame, because analog buttons like this, flirted with on Namco's Negcon and Jogcon, are rather a cool innovation.

As mentioned in the previous column, Pokemon Pinball came in straight at No.1, and has now dropped to No.3. Pokemon mania is even starting to invade here in England, with the cartoon on heavy rotation on cable/satellite TV, but the games themselves still aren't out, only being available on import. This is a far cry from Japan, obviously, where Pokemon Silver and Pokemon Gold are awaited by literally hordes of fans, and seem to have been somewhat delayed. But when they finally surface, it wouldn't be surprising if they sell two or three million each almost immediately. I choose you, Pikachu!

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