Back To The Noughties
Nick finds himself in a time where Don’t Stop Movin’ was in the charts.
If the Official Playstation 2 Magazine is to be believed, April 2001 was a vintage month for Sony’s slow-starting console. The magazine dished out an 8/10 score for Sky Odyssey and three 9/10s – the first being for Quake III: Revolution. Despite the unsurprising lack of online play found in the other versions and the surprising lack of USB keyboard and mouse support, Play (90%) and Edge (8/10) also felt it worthy of praise – the latter declaring it “the best example of an FPS to have appeared on Playstation 2 to date”.
Praise was rather less unanimous for the other big hitters. The official magazine considered Konami’s mech game Zone Of The Enders to be “a near-perfect shoot-’em-up” that was
“as intelligent as it is playable”. Play was less impressed due to the game’s length (“a little shy of two hours”), giving it 80% and declaring it “one of the biggest disappointments we’ve seen so far this year”. Edge agreed that the game was “overly concise” and offered 7/10. Star Wars: Starfighter proved even more divisive. In the 9/10 review in the official magazine, Jamie Sefton described the game as “a hugely addictive space combat experience with edge-of-your-seat skirmishes, sublime controls, stunning graphics, vibrant sound effects and enough bonus missions and minigames to keep a wannabe Jedi knight’s midi-chlorian count sky high for months.” Edge was less impressed. Although it felt that the game “adequately captures the tension and visual flair contained in the films”, it awarded a 6/10 score due to its assessment that “in terms of game design and structure there is little ambition on show”.
Still, multiple noteworthy releases was more than most other platforms could muster this month. The original Playstation had to make do with just Time Crisis: Project Titan, Namco’s lightgun sequel – a game which Play awarded a 90% score to, judging it to be “up there with the best of them” in its genre. It’s fair to say that this was an unusually high score – Edge’s 6/10 was much closer to the critical consensus, with the reviewer claiming that the game “represents an enjoyable challenge, but not enough inventiveness to ensure AAA (or even AA) status.”
The N64 also had its biggest UK release in months, in the form of the foul-mouthed platformer Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Unusually, this was being published by THQ in Europe despite being developed by Nintendo-owned Rare – apparently, the console manufacturer felt that the game wasn’t in line with its family-friendly image. While it wasn’t Rare’s best N64 game, it was a typically high-quality affair – Edge judged it to be “refreshingly unique” and “a worthy swan song for the console” in a 7/10 review. N64’s Geraint Evans felt that “Conker’s redeeming quality remains its wealth of imagination” and that “despite the
constant frustration caused by the poor game mechanics, you just can’t help but love it,” ultimately awarding the game 89%. Import players were also treated to Paper Mario. “Combat criticisms aside, the Mario RPG world is inventive, gorgeous and rich with subquests and in-jokes,” said Edge in a 7/10 review, while N64 gave it 90% and called it “a first-rate title with no hint of a fault in the gameplay.”
Players would be forgiven for worrying about Black & White – Peter Molyneux’s PC magnum opus had suffered numerous delays resulting in a lengthy three year development period. Thankfully for Peter and his team at Lionhead, the effort paid off, resulting in a stunning debut. Edge greeted the god game with a 9/10 review, describing it as a “colossal achievement”.
Aspects singled out for praise included the game’s villagers, which were “substantially smarter than their brethren in other Rts/settlement sims”, as well as the colossal creatures that became the game’s signature, as “training them and watching them grow is a uniquely satisfying gaming experience”.
Dreamcast owners experienced mixed blessings this month, with a healthy schedule blighted by poor games – the likes of ECW Anarchy Rulz and Championship Surfer making for a very bleak month. Sonic Shuffle, a blatant attempt to ape the success of the Mario Party games, proved to be a major let down despite some pretty cel-shaded graphics. The UK release of Grandia II was a highlight, and the only other worthwhile release was Project Justice: Rival
Schools 2, Capcom’s sequel to the cult favourite fighting game. Official Dreamcast Magazine gave it 8/10, describing it as “such an accomplished package that it’s difficult to identify a flaw of any real substance”, but complained of “a bit of a hole where there should be a boss character.”
Lastly, it seemed that gaming’s next big console launch was already destined for success. Edge reported that a whopping 2.7 million Game Boy Advance consoles had been preordered ahead of the machine’s anticipated Japanese launch. Nintendo’s plan was to have a million units available for launch day, another million for the second week, and a million per month thereafter. Nintendo games were unsurprisingly generating the most demand, followed by those published by Konami – which had apparently relied on the Game Boy Color for 50 per cent of its software sales in the prior year. Join us next time to find out how it all worked out…