|
|
 |
 |
 | | | | |
 |
|||
 |
||||||
 | | | | | |
|
 |
 |
||||
|
Rumble in Roppongi Playstation 2 Rumor Mill: Never-ending? No doubt the rumor and gossip will continue right up until the Tokyo Game Show in September. Then, Sony may release concrete details about price and release date for the PSX2. The latest information coming out of Asia is that it's coming out on December 3rd for ¥49,000 (£250, $375), including launch games Tekken 4 and A-Train VI. Sony has officially denied this, but then, the company can officially deny it on the basis of any one of the facts being slightly wrong. (And, even if the facts aren't wrong, Sony could probably officially deny it anyhow.)
My take is that the price is right, but the date is still slightly in doubt. It's possible that Sony would like to launch in December, but if the launch titles aren't looking strong enough at that point, the company might delay until March. As always, conjecture rules. In a related note, some companies are now coming out with announcements and screenshots of actual Playstation 2 software, indicating that some games have actually been in development for quite a while. To add to screenshots from A-Train VI released a few weeks ago, another company, Koei, announced Kessen, with a budget of over four million dollars. It's a beautiful looking feudal Japanese battlefield tactical game, and if the graphics really look that good on PSX2, we'll all be in videogame heaven come next year. Capcom Dreamcast Support Blossoms Seems as though Capcom's dedication to support Dreamcast with a set of decent fighting games continues with the announcement of not one, but two new titles for DC this autumn.
The enhanced versions should be great, though. Star Gladiator 2 (the sequel to the game that actually got an early Playstation release and is vaguely reminiscent of Soul Edge) promises greatly enhanced graphics, new modes and rumble/VGA support, and a release date early in September. There are similar enhancements for Tech Romancer (a robot beat-em-up, if you haven't seen it), as well as new CG movies.
More information has appeared on the title that could make the Bandai Wonderswan so much bigger than it currently is. It's the fanboy's dream, SNK vs. Capcom. It's due to come out first as a card-collecting title this fall, and there's going to be two carts out simultaneously, the SNK Supporter Version and the Capcom Supporter Version. You'll need to trade and get cards, and like Pokemon, some things will be exclusive to one of the carts. There should be a Naomi coin-op fighting game to follow, but this first title could easily sell millions, and is probably the first killer app for the Wonderswan. But then, the Game Boy still has the new versions of Pocket Monster coming out, and they're more mass-market than the relatively fanboy King Of Fighters, and so on. Still, both should be massive. Keep an eye out! Other News The official
announcement for Nintendo's
SpaceWorld, held August 27th-29th, has now gone out. The to-be-exhibited
titles are much as I predicted in previous issues of the MGT Report. One
thing that several people have pointed out is that Super Mario 64 2,
the sequel to the all-time-great N64 platformer, is now no longer shown
as a release for either the N64 or the 64DD. Does this mean it's been
shelved, only to reappear as a In a collaborative effort, Namco and Honda team up on Tekken Tag Tournament which features an as-yet-unreleased Honda sports car, the S2000, in both the intro and one of the end-sequences. Good golly, product placement is getting ever more engrained into game design, isn't it?
Finally, a mention for what's probably the craziest game announced since the last MGT Report. Due on Wonderswan this fall from Banpresto/Red, The Grapple Cooking Legend challenges you to become the best cook in the world. You have to travel looking for recipes and battle against other chefs - you can even link up to another videogame cook for two-player battles. Umm, nurse, the medication, please?
The Japanese Top Ten (for the week ending July 4th)
Capcom's very own take on Jurassic Park gets catapulted into top spot this issue, with a massive 390,000 copies sold in the first week. Unfortunately, import game players have had a hard time with Japanese Dino Crisis, since new protection means that it's even more difficult to play on chipped/adapted Playstations. But if you have an unmodified Japanese PSX, enjoy what must be one of the best Playstation titles released this year, and a handy big-hitter for Sony this Christmas in the West. The Dreamcast won't have a title in this genre as good as Dino Crisis this year, excepting possibly Shen Mue (and who knows what genre that's going to land in?). Ape Escape camps out in 2nd place, and the clever use of the Dual Shock controller (along with ingenious game design and quirky looks) means it's much more endearing to the Japanese than Western markets. Again, what looks a little saccharine for anyone apart from kids and the young at heart in the West, is slap-bang in the mainstream in Japan. Further down the chart, Grandia, the massive and critically acclaimed Saturn RPG, makes a successful conversion to the Playstation, and is selling steadily, if not spectacularly. Having been picked up by Sony for American release, it'll be interesting to see how it does over here. It should at least pass first base because of having 3D backgrounds. Two others are also worth a mention. The three-CD Metal Gear Solid Integral is selling reasonably at a budget price (the original wasn't such a big hit in Japan as you might think, and sold more copies by far in the States and Europe), and the very Japanese RPG, Persona 2, is also shifting reasonable unit-age. There's only one Dreamcast title in the Top 10, now, but the leading titles are shipping reasonable numbers. King Of Fighters 99 and Tokyo Highway Battle have both sold more than 100,000. Simon Carless is a game designer/project director at a UK games developer. His game credits include design on PC and Playstation titles for (amongst others) Eidos and GT Interactive. He can be contacted at h0l@mono211.com. Simon would like to thank Magic Box, Re:Tokyo, Gamespot, FGNOnline, Core Magazine, and his other Japanese sources for the information that helps to write this column. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
News
Analysis 
Mind
you, for the casual observer, neither of the games (Star Gladiator
2 and Tech Romancer) is too famous. Have you ever played either
of them? But then, if you look at recent Capcom fighting games, there's
not a lot of 3D fighters you can name, excepting perhaps the 3D versions
of Street Fighter. 
SNK
vs. Capcom: The Grudge Match! 
Dolphin
launch-title? One can only speculate, but a new Nintendo console without
a new Mario game would be crazy, so it seems likely (unless Nintendo WHQ
has unlimited resources and the company can do both versions.)
A
Shen Mue Limited Edition version? Apparently, some Tokyo retailers
have started taking pre-orders for it, but there's been no official announcement
of it and no hint as to what goodies it might contain. We'll keep you
updated.
