THE LATEST NEWS FROM JANUARY 2003

After a troubled development at Retro Studios, the Gamecube exclusive Metroid Prime finally emerged – and the firstperson adventure received glowing reviews in its US import form. Samus’ first adventure in over six years received a 10/10 score in games™ – the first in the young magazine’s history – with the reviewer praising it for feeling like Super Metroid and integrating series staples like the Morph Ball that “you’d never expect to work in a first-person game”. Edge’s 9/10 review lauded the retention of player agency, noting that “although you’re guided as to what your next move should be, you rarely pay immediate attention to this, choosing instead to embark on exploratory missions”. NGC scored the game 96%, praising the graphics for displaying “more effects than we ever imagined the Cube was capable of”.

With high-profile PAL releases thin on the ground, the US version of Resident Evil 0 was another of the month’s key Gamecube releases. Set before the first game in the series, it paired Rebecca Chambers and fugitive Billy Coen on a journey towards the Spencer Mansion. Edge gave the game 7/10, and NGC scored it 86%, opining “while it’s introduced an excellent new two-character system, it has eliminated very few of the increasingly obvious flaws that have haunted previous Resident Evil titles”. Also arriving via the United States was Sonic Mega Collection, a compilation of Sonic’s 16-bit adventures. This earned a surprisingly miserly 71% in NGC – though with revelations such as, “Kittsy was disgusted by the sight of it,” and minus points like, “If you loath Sonic this will make you feel ill,” it seemed as though the Nineties never ended.

Over on the Game Boy Advance, Metroid Fusion saw Samus being stalked by a deadly doppelganger known as the SA-X, and reprised

Super Metroid’s 2D formula. The game scored very well, earning 92% from NGC and 8/10 from Edge. It also received 8/10 from games™, which noted the controversial addition of mission briefings. “Some hardcore Metroid fans will feel that they take away some of the skill needed to play the game,” the reviewer conceded, “but they actually remove the need for the aimless wandering that the SNES game featured so heavily.” It was a good month for retro gaming fanatics on Nintendo’s handheld, too. FPS

sequel Doom II earned 82% from NGC, Bubble Bobble Old & New got 7/10 in games™, and Game & Watch Gallery scored 77% in NGC.

The Playstation 2 was also host to a gaming comeback, thanks to Sega’s reinvention of Shinobi as a 3D hack-and-slash. “While it may be short-lived, it’s great fun while it lasts,” opined games™ in a 6/10 review. Edge was a tad more impressed, stating that the game’s fast, combo-heavy action “affords players the opportunity to feel very, very cool”, and awarding it 7/10. The heavily hyped cockney crime caper The Getaway scored 7/10 in games™ and 6/10 in Edge. The latter said that the PS2 exclusive was “not the revolution we were promised” and “morally repugnant”, but also an enjoyable game that “everyone wants to hate” – a position it felt unjustified. First-party effort Sly Raccoon, which blended cartoon platforming with stealth elements, received a similarly mild reception. Writing for the Official Playstation 2 Magazine, Ryan Butt felt that it was an “enthralling and well-crafted game”, but that there was “precious little here that hasn’t been done before” and that the game’s style “dupes you into believing you’re playing something more original”. Edge and games™ each scored the game 6/10.

It was a quiet month for Xbox owners. Namco’s multiplatform outing Dead To Rights earned 7/10 from Edge and 6/10 from games™ based on the Xbox version. The latter magazine praised additions to the PAL version such as difficulty selection and improved balance, but complained that “too often problems with the camera or connection between characters makes it all feel cheaper than it should”. Toejam & Earl III: Mission To Earth earned 5/10 from games™, with strong characterisation failing to make up for a lack of “depth, variation and ingenuity”. On PC, Simcity 4 earned 8/10 from games™, which praised its quality but expressed frustration with a lack of evolution, stating that “there’s little to demand repeated updates of what is essentially the same game”.

So Edge was left to drag up interesting games on some of the less-celebrated formats. Sega’s first (and last) original Playstation game, Minimoni Shakka To Tambourine, scored 6/10. When judged against predecessor Samba De Amigo, Edge found the percussion-themed game to be “visually inferior, less instinctive, much worse aurally” but still “a wonderful party game”. Also reviewed were two Neo Geo games, with the first being run-and-gun sequel Metal Slug 4. The game earned 7/10 for its “solid core gameplay” but Edge wasn’t too pleased that “many of the innovations in the third game, such as multiple paths through levels […] have been cut down or dropped completely”. 2D fighter Rage Of The Dragons also earned 7/10, with the reviewer feeling that by implementing various innovative systems, “Evoga is teaching you new ways to play one of the most primal gaming genres.”

Join us again next time as we chuck Nick back in time to February 2003.

[Gamecube] Thanks to its first-person perspective, Metroid Prime conveyed an even greater sense of atmosphere than its predecessors.

[PS2] It wasn’t the longest or prettiest game, but for all-out action few games could touch Sega’s Shinobi revival.

[GBA] Though less revolutionary than its Gamecube sibling, Metroid Fusion was still an excellent adventure.

[Neo Geo] Evoga’s spiritual successor to Double Dragon was a good buy, for anyone with £300 to spend on one game.

[Xbox] Namco’s high budget action game wasn’t quite as polished as it should have been, but still offered some thrills.

[PC] All this landfill and smoke would greatly displease Greta Thunburg, who was born in January 2003.