Back To The Noughties
Nick Thorpe is crossing the time streams to bring you all the latest retro news (although it was just news then)
The Playstation 2 finally became a reality for North American and European players late in November, although supply problems blighted the launch – 500,000 were shipped to North America and 165,000 were made available in the UK. While Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament took the lion’s share of attention, both were blighted by poor PAL versions. Instead it was the new exclusives that were the strong points of a sparse launch line-up. SSX (9/10 Official Playstation 2 Magazine, 5/5 CVG) was spectacularly improved from its dismal early demos, and Edge considered Timesplitters (8/10 Edge, 4/5 CVG) “one of the most obsessively playable and instantly rewarding FPS experiences” – not that this should have shocked anyone, given the former Goldeneye talent at Free Radical Design. Of course, critical success was only ever going to be a nice bonus on top of Sony’s near-guaranteed sales bonanza. Sega wasn’t about to give up without a fight, however, with a barrage of fantastic Dreamcast games sent forth to shelves for the Christmas season – all of them self-published. Metropolis Street Racer (Edge 9/10, CVG 5/5) finally arrived after numerous delays and proved to be excellent, only to be marred by bugged early production runs. Jet Set Radio (CVG 4/5, DC-UK 9/10) was a fantastically fresh blend of extreme sports and platform game, with a distinctive cartoon look thanks to the ‘cel-shading’ technique. Shenmue (Edge 8/10, Gamesmaster 92%) offered an incredible recreation of a mid-sized Japanese town and offered a modern take on the RPG genre, though some would find it too slow-paced. The conversion of celebrated PC first-person shooter Quake III: Arena (Edge 8/10,
CVG 5/5) wasn’t an original property like the other games, but Edge felt that, “Sega has come good in its promises of online gaming” – something which had been a long time coming. It was a great time to be a Dreamcast gamer, so long as you blissfully ignored Sega’s financial status at the time. The company announced revised forecasts for the
2001 financial year, with an expected profit of $130 million becoming an estimated loss of $204 million.
Playstation owners weren’t forgotten, as a set of high-profile sequels got players through Yuletide. Tomb Raider Chronicles (10/10 Official Playstation Magazine, 4/5 CVG) gave Lara Croft a worthwhile Playstation send-off, though
CVG noted that, “Lara simply must undergo some serious life-changing experiences if she’s to make the grade in future.” WWF Smackdown 2 (5/5 CVG, 93% Gamesmaster) even managed to appeal to non-fans, thanks to ridiculous ladder and tables matches. Spyro: Year Of The Dragon (10/10 Official Playstation Magazine, 4/5 CVG) completed the Playstation’s premier 3D platforming series and Driver 2 (92% Gamesmaster, 4/5 CVG) added on-foot action to the brilliant car chases of the original. Lastly, Would War 2 first-person shooter
Medal Of Honor: Underground (9/10 Official Playstation Magazine, 4/5 CVG) was described by Official Playstation Magazine as, “Not a huge leap forward from the original, but easily as much fun.”
Over on the N64, releases were thin on the ground. The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (Edge 9/10, N64 96%) was the clear highlight of the season, with its time-looping take on the formula considered to be “a hair’s breadth away from perfection” by N64 Magazine. The console did also receive a couple of high profile licensed games. 007: The World Is Not Enough (CVG 3/5, N64 88%) didn’t quite live up to Goldeneye but gave it a damn good go, and WWF No Mercy (Gamesmaster 90%, N64 92%) offered the greatest grappling ever to grace a Nintendo machine – and some would still argue any machine. Unfortunately, it also shipped with a bug which repeatedly wiped save data. Game Boy Color owners got an impressive conversion of SNES favourite Donkey Kong Country (N64 5/5), with N64 Magazine judging that, “Managing to squeeze everything they have onto one small cart is nothing short of a miracle.” Other notable releases this month included 16-bit conversion Cannon Fodder (N64 5/5) and cult favourite Monkey Puncher (N64 4/5).
Over on the PC, annual sporting obsession Championship Manager (Gamesmaster 92%, PC Zone 93%) was ready to wreck even more marriages. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows Of Amn (Edge 8/10, PC Zone 85%) was a treat for RPG fans, with PC
Zone commenting that, “The plot is much better, the range of characters and equipment is awesome and the whole thing looks the business.” Microsoft’s Midtown Madness 2 (Gamesmaster 87%, PC Zone 84%) delighted racing fans with its stylised cities and carefully crafted carnage.
The high-profile console conversion
Metal Gear Solid (Gamesmaster 90%, PC Zone 82%) rounded off a solid month for computer gamers.
Of course, there was hardly time to digest this gaming feast, thanks to what was to come in 2001 – Microsoft and Nintendo were to enter their respective hardware into the next-generation console fray, after all. The Game Boy Advance was set to revolutionise handheld gaming, but Korean manufacturer Gamepark had also just announced its competing
GP32 handheld. What’s more, we had the returns of Gran Turismo, Pokémon, Banjo-kazooie, Daytona USA, Sonic and more to look forward to. Get ready to relive it all starting from next month!