Back To The Noughties
Nick time travels so you don’t have to
Who had the big UK release of the month? Why, that would be Lucasarts, with Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic – and the Official Xbox Magazine had the exclusive review. Bioware’s licensed RPG scored a whopping 9.5/10 in OXM, which felt that it was “as significant as Halo”. The reviewer loved the freedom of choice afforded to the player, stating that you would “soon become deeply attached to your character”, and also enjoyed the freedom to choose your pace of battle, from traditional turn‑based to much more action‑oriented speeds. It’s a good job that it was good too, because the other major Xbox exclusive of the month, Dino Crisis 3, was not. Edge awarded the space‑based survival horror 3/10, saying that it “fails in practically every sense, from fine detail to basic tenets”. Similarly disappointed, games™ scored the game 4/10 and reserved special condemnation for the “soul‑destroying camera”.
What would other magazines do without the big UK release this month? Could they perhaps find a smorgasbord of lower profile games that could generate some buzz together? The answer, as you’ve probably guessed, is no. As a result, Capcom’s latest Gamecube game Viewtiful Joe secured prominent reviews in Edge, games™ and NGC, despite only being out in Japan.
The debut of the company’s new Clover Studio division drew from Japanese tokusatsu shows to deliver a supremely stylish cel‑shaded beat‑’em‑up. NGC felt that it was difficult but sufficiently innovative to warrant a 90% score. Edge, awarding the game 8/10, felt that its bosses best exemplified its key qualities – “aesthetic magnificence and structural intricacy” as well as “unremitting cruelty”. Viewtiful Joe also scored 8/10 in games™, which felt that it was “verging on masterpiece status” but noted that “certain sections do manage to simply stop being fun”. UK Gamecube owners were treated to Mega Man: Network Transmission, a 2.5D platformer that attempted to integrate aspects of the Mega
Man Battle Network series with mixed results. NGC described it as “really basic” in a 59% review, while Edge scored it 4/10 and complained that “Mega Man’s structure is as rigid as his body”.