It's tempting to try to put Perfect Dark Zero in perspective by spending a lot of time on topics other than what makes it such a terrific action game. One of the highest-profile Xbox 360 launch titles, this near-future first-person shooter is the long-awaited sequel to a highly acclaimed Nintendo 64 hit, and it happens to be one of the biggest games to be released by veteran developer Rare since its well-publicized acquisition by Microsoft several years ago. Perfect Dark Zero's sci-fi theme, together with the circumstances surrounding its release, also means it's destined to be compared to Halo: Combat Evolved, the game that defined the Xbox (so yeah, no pressure). But let's stick to the point: Perfect Dark Zero's stunning presentation, excellent assortment of believable weapons, exciting tactical firefights, and fully featured single- and multiplayer components combine to make it easily one of the best first-person shooters this year and one of your best options in the Xbox 360's starting lineup. Despite some minor shortcomings, the game is still a tour de force for the Xbox 360, and it's just a thrilling experience that pushes the already-extremely competitive first-person shooter category still further forward.


Perfect Dark Zero is finally here and it's amazing.
You don't need to be familiar with Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64 to easily get into Perfect Dark Zero, starring the spunky red-haired hired gun, Joanna Dark. Though she and her dad are technically bounty hunters, the game has got more of a high-tech superspy feel to it, from the futuristic weapons to the fancy gadgets you'll get to use. Perfect Dark Zero's story spans more than a dozen big missions, and may be optionally played through cooperatively with a friend. The campaign is longer than average at about 12 hours, and its multiple difficulty settings, unlockable weapons, and the outstanding co-op mode should keep you coming back to it after you reach the conclusion the first time. Perfect Dark Zero also features a "combat arena" mode that contains most of its multiplayer options, some of which may be played with and against computer-controlled bots in addition to (or instead of) other human players. There's a wide assortment of different modes supporting up to 32 players online, including conventional free-for-all and capture-the-flag modes, as well as some great Counter-Strike-inspired team-based match types. In short, this is big game with a lot to it.

However, it's not just all the different modes of play, but rather the sheer attention to detail that separates Perfect Dark Zero from other first-person shooters out there. It's a gorgeous-looking game, especially if you play it on a high-definition display, and the beauty's more than skin deep. Most every weapon in the large arsenal of available pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, and heavy weapons looks extremely authentic, right on down to their steely sheen and white-hot muzzle flashes. You've never seen a better-looking assortment of guns, and the near-future setting gave the designers license to include lots of familiar hardware, with some surprising special abilities. What's more, some excellent character animation helps make the guns feel as powerful as they look. Enemies recoil realistically depending on where they're hit, no matter if you hit them in the hand, the foot, square in the chest, in the back, or wherever else. And the vast levels are as varied as they are beautiful to behold, setting you loose in jungles, city streets, high-tech industrial compounds, and more. Bullet holes shred the scenery, armor pieces fly every which way under a hail of gunfire, blinding explosions rock the screen, and your enemies' bodies litter the corridors once you're through. Gorgeous lighting and an impressive motion-blur effect that kicks in whenever you make a sharp turn further enhance the quality of Perfect Dark Zero's visuals, resulting in a game that at times could easily be mistaken for a big-budget action movie. Credit is also due to the outstanding audio, which features some heavy-hitting weapon effects, as well as a fantastic, moody soundtrack that gives each mission its own pulsing rhythms. It's a diverse array of electronic and rock beats, and it's all very catchy.


Scratch that gun fetish with Perfect Dark Zero's wild assortment of wonderfully true-to-life weapons.
From a gameplay standpoint, Perfect Dark Zero is highly refined. It doesn't stray too far from convention, but it features some interesting twists in weapon and enemy design, making for a much more entertaining experience than the average shooter. You can carry up to four different weapons, but larger guns take up more inventory space, which means you could pack several pistols but only one machine gun at a time. It's a good system that makes sense, though it's tough having to choose from all the great options that are available. Even the pistol you start with boasts an optional silencer, a scope, and a flashlight attachment, making it extremely versatile and plenty deadly. But chances are you'll want to replace it soon enough. One of the assault rifles you find later on may be converted into an automated defense turret, helping you tear into the enemies' ranks. There's a pistol that fires madness-inducing projectiles that turn foe against foe (in multiplayer, this causes the victim's teammates to appear as enemies). One submachine gun even projects a diversionary holographic image of you. Many of the guns are scoped, and smaller weapons can be wielded in pairs, doubling your stopping power. A couple of the rifles have grenade-launcher attachments, letting you seriously damage groups of foes both in story missions and multiplayer, and making these particular firearms seem especially dangerous. But in the end, your choice of guns may well come down to personal preference. There's a lot of cool, lethal firepower to choose from.

The type of weapon you're carrying influences your running speed, which is something to consider. There's no jump button, but you are given some tactical options, like taking cover behind obstacles and executing quick rolls at the touch of a button. The cover system is implemented quite well, letting you take position behind any barrier or at any corner at the touch of a button, while seamlessly switching your perspective to a third-person viewpoint, which gives you more situational awareness. You automatically peek out from behind cover when you fire, and it's a deliberate-enough process that doesn't feel overpowered. As for the evasive rolls, they're great for quickly ducking out of harm's way, but you'll take extra damage if you're shot while rolling, so you'll have to think twice about tumbling around too much. And if an enemy gets in your face, you can always bash him with whichever gun you've got equipped. These are all great-looking moves, made all the better since they're powerful. What's more, you can even disarm opponents by ripping their guns right out of their hands, provided you've got room to carry another. It's hard to imagine a more satisfying way to take out some dude on Xbox Live than by using his own weapon against him (preferably the butt of the weapon, for that matter).

Perfect Dark Zero's winning combination of pure run-and-gun action and tactical realism is also captured in the well-designed health system, which lets you soak up a good amount of damage but doesn't let you get cocky about it. Each time you're shot in succession, your health drops just as you'd expect, though Joanna can take a surprising amount of punishment at the normal difficulty setting. If you avoid taking any more damage for a couple of seconds, your health meter instantly jumps back up. This seems like Halo's recharging energy shields at first, but the difference is your maximum health gradually gets depleted the more damage you take. So, typically, the later into a mission you are, the more carefully you'll need to tread.


Expect serious resistance during the game's missions, which are even more fun if you play them cooperatively.
That's especially true since you'll often have to start a mission over from the very beginning (or maybe from a checkpoint halfway through) if you're killed or otherwise fail. You can't just quick-save your progress after every few steps like you can in many shooters. There are a couple of missions that are demanding of some trial and error, where the lack of an in-mission save feature might be frustrating (there's one particularly punishing late-game mission that forces you to complete your objective in a certain amount of time or start over). But this design choice mostly just forces you to stay on your toes, and it also helps extend the length of the story mode without feeling cheap. If you do find yourself stuck, thankfully you can adjust the difficulty independently for each mission.

The story missions offer a lot of variety, both in terms of mission objectives and tactical situations. You'll experience plenty of up-close, in-your-face shoot-outs that are perfect for shotguns and high-powered pistols, not to mention melee attacks. But the game also packs in lots of medium- and long-range shooting, sometimes pitting you against surprisingly large numbers of entrenched foes. There's some hacking, lock-picking, and demolitions thrown in there for good measure, each involving its own quick little minigame. There's a good bit of stealth, which lets you get the drop on your enemies before all hell breaks loose. Before each mission, you get to select your starting weapons based on the guns you've collected up to that point in the game, which is a nice touch that invites you to revisit earlier missions with later weapons. Some missions let you fight alongside some computer-controlled comrades, who'll do a thoroughly competent job helping to keep your foes at bay, and who may well save your life a few times. There are also a couple of entertaining but brief vehicular sequences in Perfect Dark Zero, featuring a jetpack and a hovercraft that you can pilot around. These look great and are fun to drive, but you don't get to play around with them for very long. Most of the combat arena maps and modes don't have vehicles in them either, so vehicles are one of the aspects of the game that noticeably could have been more fleshed out.

The foes you'll fight throughout the missions in Perfect Dark Zero won't necessarily shock you with their tactical prowess, but they do a pretty good job of weaving to avoid your fire or just keeping their heads down. In general, they believably behave like action movie fodder, creating danger often just through sheer numbers. What's interesting about them is that many of them are armored, clad in helmets or full protective gear. Anyone who has been playing first-person shooters for a while is by now accustomed to aiming for enemies' heads, and while headshots in Perfect Dark Zero are as deadly as you'd expect against unprotected opponents, helmeted foes can withstand a couple of shots to the noggin before going down. Even at the standard difficulty, your foes tend to be highly accurate at long range, which would seem unrealistic were it not for the scopes on their weapons. And they'll do a good job of tracking you down if you try to run from them. Your foes will use all manner of different weapons against you, and that, combined with the different environments you'll be fighting in, keeps the combat consistently fresh. It helps that your foes have a lot to say in battle--you'll catch them urging their comrades to press the attack when you're reloading, cursing you if they're shot but survive, and so on, and you'll rarely hear any of the dialogue repeat.


The plot of Perfect Dark Zero is mostly just an excuse to put you in a series of intense shootouts all around the world.
It's fortunate that the action is as good as it is, since the story in Perfect Dark Zero--which involves a power-hungry businessman's search for some sort of powerful artifact--feels surprisingly tacked on. A combination of voice-over mission briefings and rather unimpressive cutscenes using the in-game character models try to drive the plot forward, but it's easy to get lost in the details, and it's harder to care. Despite some good voice acting, the characters just aren't developed much, not even Joanna's relationship with her gruff father. The story takes a few decent twists, but it seems to be kept down to a minimum so as not to get in the way of the shooting action. It's too bad, though, since a better story would have helped make the mission mode more cohesive. As it stands, the missions are generally excellent, but they do feel somewhat disconnected, especially since the game pushes you back out to the mission-select menu in between each one. A very brief ending also prevents Perfect Dark Zero from having much impact from a storytelling standpoint. But on the plus side, there's a good chance you'll want to dive right back into the campaign as soon as you've finished it for the first time.

Perfect Dark Zero's cooperative play mode is easily one of the best things about the game. You can play through the entire campaign cooperatively online or in a split screen, and the tactical shooting is even more fun when you're coordinating with a friend. However, what's really great about the co-op mode is that it does more than just throw a carbon copy of Joanna Dark into each level with you. Instead, player two will control some other character, who may begin the mission in a different place and be forced to overcome different obstacles from player one. For example, one early mission has Joanna high up on some rafters overlooking a city street where her father is fighting for his life. When playing solo, you must defend Jack Dark by sniping at his enemies and cutting a path for him to proceed. But in co-op, player two controls Jack directly.

These types of scenarios don't fundamentally change the fact that the both of you will end up running and gunning side by side, but they help keep things fresh and they also foster communication between the players. What's more, the headset support works great, letting you speak to your partner without interruption during missions and in between them (during the relatively brief loading times and everything). And the game is still plenty challenging in co-op mode, offering both players a lot of targets to shoot at. Should one player fall in combat, the other player can revive him just as long as the coast is clear. In one nice little innovation, you'll always be able to find the other player in a co-op game just by following some yellow waypoint markers to his or her location. For that matter, similar waypoints also appear to help guide you to your next objective. At first this seems like cheating (and you can toggle it off if you want), since you're clearly shown where you're supposed to go. But it's a great feature that's simply there to keep you from getting lost in some of the big levels, and it's justified in the context of gameplay by how Joanna's off-site support staff is able to frequently bring her updated intel and status reports.


Lots of different multiplayer variants are available, including all the usual suspects as well as some fun new game types.
Whether you play solo or cooperatively, the mission mode presents some of the game's greatest thrills. But the combat arena mode offers plenty of fun and variety as well. Multiplayer matches in Perfect Dark Zero aren't wildly out of the ordinary, but the excellent weapon selection, flexibility of options, high-quality maps, and smooth online performance (we never experienced any lag in several days of playing online) make for a rock-solid competitive shooter. Game types are split up into "deathmatch" and "dark-ops" themes, each of which features a number of unique variants. The deathmatch variants all let you play with bots, and that includes killcount and team killcount for your typical multiplayer shoot-outs, as well as capture-the-flag and territorial gains, the latter of which forces players to fight for control over certain key points on each map. You can determine the weapon loadout, number of players, and many other variables for each match.

As for the dark-ops variants, these all feature a Counter-Strike-style rounds system, so you'll earn money as you play and will get to spend it on armor and the weapons of your choice in between rounds. Eradication is the simplest dark-ops variant, pitting one team against another in a fight to the finish. Onslaught puts one team on offense and one on defense, and the defensive team must make a stand in a fortified position. The defense team may purchase weapons, while the offense team may not. But members of the offense team respawn if killed, while members of the defense team only get one life. The infection variant is kind of similar, but it's a free-for-all in which human players must fend off infected players who look like skeletons. Human players can purchase weapons, while infected players are stuck with whatever they can get their hands on. But any human killed by an infected player joins the infected...making it that much tougher for any remaining humans to survive the round. Finally, the sabotage variant tasks the offense team with trying to incur as much collateral damage as possible by damaging key objects in the environment, while the defense team must prevent this by any means necessary. You can only play dark-ops matches with other human players, though the bots found in the deathmatch variants seem like they could have been smart enough to handle these slightly more complicated battles, too.

Not every combination of map, game variant, and number of players leads to spectacular results, but many of them do. The killcount and capture-the-flag modes, being the most conventional, are probably the least remarkable, while the more-novel modes like onslaught and infected are really quite fun, offering tense but fast-paced thrills. All modes benefit from giving you a helpful onscreen map and radar, which briefly detects foes that fire their weapons in your vicinity and lets you get to where the action is. The game records your progress as you play successive matches, and many of the unlockable achievements are tied to long-term multiplayer accomplishments, like playing 1,000 deathmatch games. And since you can heavily customize any multiplayer games you set up, down to which combination of weapons will be available for players to choose from, Perfect Dark Zero should have plenty to keep you busy over the long haul.


Holding out for an Xbox 360 just got tougher.
As mentioned, Perfect Dark Zero is very impressive from a visual standpoint, but some of the multiplayer match types do bring out some of its graphical rough edges. Team-based matches color code friends from foes, but the monochromatic uniforms look rather garish. You'll also see some downright crazy rag-doll death animations, like when characters are killed sometimes they'll bounce or slump in impossible ways--effects that are likely to be just as amusing as they're distracting (but they do detract from the presentation slightly). You might also see the game's frame rate take a dive during particularly hairy multiplayer shoot-outs, though this also happens on occasion in the mission mode. Other visual details in Perfect Dark Zero really stand out, like the stylized gouts of blood that spurt out whenever you score a headshot, or the way killed enemies' weapons leave their grip and clatter to the ground. The game performs about as well if you're playing alone or in a split screen with three other players, and it still looks fantastic on a standard-definition television. The audio has no real weak points apart from a few hokey voice acting performances, but the weapon fire and musical score easily drown this out. There's no music during multiplayer matches, though, unless you provide your own using the Xbox 360's slick custom soundtracks feature. Also, if you've got a surround-sound system, you'll enjoy the tactical advantages of hearing all the great audio happening all around you.

Taken as a whole, Perfect Dark Zero is decidedly one of the best, fully featured Xbox 360 games so far, and it's a compelling reason to spring for the system if you've been on the fence. While the game doesn't reinvent the first-person shooter, which has been a mainstay of action gaming for more than a decade, it delivers one of the most highly refined and spectacular examples of this brand of gameplay to date. From its ravishing good looks and totally first-rate audio, to the believable feel of its outstanding weapons, to its wealth of single- and multiplayer options, Perfect Dark Zero delivers just about everything you could hope for from a first-person shooter.

I like Mega Man Legends. I like it a lot. It's probably one of my favorite PSX games, and one of the more underrated games on my roster – it's certainly got a lot more heart and soul than overrated PSX junk like Final Fantasy VII. Although the gameplay itself is simple in design, it's the perfect melding of the action and RPG genres – as well as a good story and likeable cast of characters – that makes the game so enjoyable, at least from my perspective. After a couple of years of building my seal of approval, Capcom announced that it was planning on releasing a port of the game on N64 (which had always been my favorite of the two competing consoles) in the form of Mega Man 64. That seemed like good news – I liked my N64 and I liked Legends, and although I had played through the original adventure several times I was more than willing to give it a shot on Nintendo's 64-bit console. Little was I aware that Capcom did nothing but disappoint fans of the original.
In short, Mega Man 64 sucks.
Okay, maybe that's not entirely fair. After all, this is still the entire original game ported so all those N64-only owners who missed the adventure the first time around could experience this great little title first-hand. And I suppose that if I hadn't played the original PSX game several years beforehand, I might have enjoyed this version a bit more. But then again, maybe not. Not only is Mega Man 64 an appalling port, it also takes little advantage of the N64 hardware itself. Mega Man 64 was released in 2001 during the final days of the underrated console's life (when its greatest hardware assets had already been uncovered with such gorgeous games as Banjo-Tooie and Majora's Mask), as well as the arrival of two far more powerful consoles (Dreamcast and PS2) and yet the pathetic port still proceeded in making the game feel dated and totally outclassed in every sense of the word.
Before I get into the wretchedness of this port, let me just fill in the blanks for those of you who have yet to play either the PSX original or this N64 redux. Legends takes place in “a world covered by endless water” where the people who inhabit the planet must “eke out a living on the small patches of land that remain above the sea.” Many of these inhabitants work as Diggers, who scour ancient mines and ruins for age-old treasures, including Refractors, a key power source. You are Mega Man, a half-boy, half-robot Digger that excavates said ruins. Mega Man travels the world with his lady friend Roll, her grandpa, and a mysterious little mechanical monkey named Data. When you boot up the game, you're crossing the ocean in the Flutter, Roll's own airship. Something goes haywire, and the ship crash-lands on Kattelox Island, a small but fairly well-populated island that's covered with ruins and may contain the legendary Mother Lode. Then the pirates (also known as the Bonne Brothers) come and attack the island and it's up to you to save the day and blah, blah, blah. It's not a bad story but you've heard it all before.
Mega Man 64, though (or rather the original Legends), does have a sound concept that, with the right execution, works very well. You'll be exploring the island throughout the majority of the game. There's a central city and several other key points, and often times throughout the game you'll have to fight through the Bonnes' attacks in some pretty thrilling sequences. On top of that, you'll also be given the chance to excavate ruins at various points of the game to either progress the storyline or hunt for parts that can be used to upgrade your buster gun or provide a host of interesting secondary weapons. Although such RPG-like elements are present, Mega Man 64 is essentially an action game, with a real-time battle system that has you studying enemy movements and attacks and countering them with your own set of weapons and evasive movements. There's also a lock-on system, though you can't move while locking on.
So what's the problem with Mega Man 64? Simple: It's a sucky port. Think about it this way: Legends gets released on PSX around 1997 or 1998 (I, sadly, do not have my facts straight). Three or four years later (and after a sequel to said game that contains some logical improvements), Legends gets re-released on a more powerful system, yet actually looks and plays significantly worse than the original, and contains absolutely no new content whatsoever. What the hell is that? How does something like that happen? It's rarely enough to simply port a game to another system with no changes. Capcom took the PSX version and released it for a console that's roughly twice as powerful, but they didn't take advantage of the fact that they were working with better technology. From the looks of this game, in fact, I believe that Capcom thought the N64 was actually less powerful.
The original Legends was certainly no visual masterpiece, even for its time. The characters and environments were extremely blocky, the textures were messy and low-resolution, and the animations were stiff and unattractive. But good lord – Mega Man 64 looks even worse, and this was released three years later on a more powerful console! The characters are unimaginably clunky and choppy in their movements. Textures, thanks to the N64's blur filter, don't look nearly as sharp, and the color palette has been toned down several notches. The game's draw distances are also impressively worse that those of the original (which makes absolutely no sense). To top it all off, the game's camera, which had its fair share of messiness in the first game, is absolutely ghastly. As Mega Man lurches and pivots around the screen, it constantly stays at a fixed position behind him, clipping through walls and objects that come between it and the Blue Bomber. Please, we don't need to see this.
The game doesn't play much better than it looks. The original was fine for its time because it made use of the d-pad (without need for analog) for movements and the shoulder buttons were for strafing and dodging. The Dual Shock controller felt like a decidedly nice match for the adventure, and made the game playable even if the controls were a little goofy at first. The same can, unfortunately, not be said about the N64 controller. You can use either the d-pad or analog stick for moving around, and they both suck in terms of control. The d-pad was used in the first game so that's the obvious choice, though the N64's d-pad is very stiff and uncomfortable, especially for a game filled with such constant intensity. But what about the analog stick? You can use it, sure, but Capcom decided not to incorporate analog control into this title, despite the fact that it was becoming very much a standard by 2001 (and after Legends 2 had full analog sensitivity). So, while you can use the analog stick, it feels terrible, as there's no level of sensitivity and only eight directions in which you can walk.
The game's structure is entirely the same, but that's not to say it's up to 2001 standards. Legends was a good game back in its days, but between the release of that game and this eye-straining port, we've not only seen the sequel add various improvements (such as analog control and a full-fledged targeting system) into the formula that are suspiciously absent from Mega Man 64, but we've also seen the arrival of two new consoles and many evolutions of the action genre. As a result, Mega Man 64 is a very dated game. The dungeons, once intriguing and complex, are now simple and somewhat mindless. The targeting system (which forces you to stand in place and randomly cycles through enemies) is just awful, especially after Legends 2 introduced a very Zelda-like system that made the game easier but worked better. This version of the quest doesn't even have any new content – even the menus are identical! What's the point?
Pros
+ It's a port of the once-great Mega Man Legends.
+ You might have fun if you never played the original.
+ Story and characters are still kinda fun.
Cons
- A horribly lazy port that adds nothing to the original.
- It actually looks worse than the PSX game!
- The N64 controller just doesn't work as well.
- Dated design.
- Absolutely no new content.
Overall: 2/10
Mega Man 64 is a pointless game, as there is no reason to get it other than if you absolutely refuse to buy a Sony console. Not only is the original game much, much better, it's also cheaper and can't get away with laziness factor on the developers' part since it was an entirely original game. If you really want to get into these games, then simply buy a PSX if you seriously don't already have one. That way, not only can you get your hands on the better-looking, better-playing Mega Man Legends, but you can also check out the exclusive sequel that never made it to the N64 lot. Legends was, as I said in my review, a surprisingly well-made game that presents some really interesting concepts and a lot of solid execution to go along with it. Mega Man 64 spits in the original's face. Avoid this contagious disease of a game.

Having celebrated its triumphant third anniversary in Japan, one had to wonder how long the immensely popular Pokemon licensing steamroller could continue to trundle through the charts. Originally slated for the vaporous 64DD, Pokemon Snap was first met with some skepticism as a game concept, and even more after it was suddenly ported to the Nintendo 64's aging cartridge format. Put all fears aside - Pokemon Snap is a game like no other, melding originality, fun, and creativity with Nintendo's new flagship license.

Pokemon Snap is by definition a weird game - you assume the role of a young adventurer trying to capture the elusive Pokemon, Mew... on film. Our friend's search lands him in Professor Oak's lab on Pokemon Island, which is virtually festering with 63 species of Pokemon. In what feels like an amalgamation of Sega's Panzer Dragoon and National Geographic, you ride "on rails" through seven bustling environments and snap pictures of the Pokemon contained within. After you return to the lab, Professor Oak rates each picture based on a number of factors: the size of the Pokemon in the picture, whether it's facing you, how well centered it is, and whether it's performing a special move. Special moves and other interesting poses will net you even more points for your picture.

Snap's gameplay continually unfolds to reveal new features in traditional Nintendo style, providing a fair amount of replay for the game's seemingly limited seven courses. For example, you start out with only a camera at your disposal, but you will eventually be able to throw apples and gas-filled "Irritating balls," speed up your cart, and play a Pokeflute. Each of these items opens secrets, reveals new Pokemon and their special abilities, and helps you coax the wild beasts into ever more photogenic poses and situations, which help you continually develop your photographic scores. The best photograph of each Pokemon is saved on the cartridge for future reference. While the rating system generally works well, it is possible for the more aesthetically pleasing pictures not to get representative scores, so Nintendo threw in the photo album, which lets you store an additional 60 pictures. In a delightfully quirky little feature, avid photographers can flag four photographs that can be printed onto photo stickers at Blockbuster Video stores nationwide.

As fun and quirky as it is, the game's life is rather short. You will get the first 50 or so Pokemon in only a few hours. While the remaining creatures are generally harder to capture, you can probably expect to spend a maximum of 20 hours playing Pokemon Snap before running out of things to do and maxing out your scores.

In keeping with Nintendo's highest production standards, Pokemon Snap sports some of the best graphics and sound the N64 has to offer. The character models are detailed and full of personality. The environments are equally lush and detailed; they sport a level of graphic variety rarely seen in Nintendo 64 games while keeping up a healthy frame rate. The soundtrack suffers from the same lack of instrumental richness that just about all the system's games suffer from, but the melodies are appropriate and catchy. What really boosts the sound's score are recordings of all the Pokemon's cries, taken directly from the TV series. Clearly recorded and used often, they bring the Pokemon mystique to a head and complete the environments.

Pokemon Snap is a refreshingly unique game on a system in dire need of the very same. Despite its ephemeral nature, Pokemon Snap is a must-buy for fans of the license and probably warrants interest from those that aren't

"The pinnacle of US wrestling games"

Rarely have I been so hyped up for a game that I literally burst down the gates of my local video game store when the date of the game's release finally arrived. But one of these rare ocassions was the impending release of WWF Wrestlemania 2000. The Revenge engine had been my preferred choice over the Attitude engine, and the WWF had been my preferred federation of choice over WCW and ECW. So I was thrilled at the chance of finally playing a WWF game on the great Revenge engine instead of the crappy Attitude engine. So when I finally got my hands on the game and went home to play it, was i disappointed? Oh hell no. This could damn be my favorite video game of all time, and I actually prefer this game over WWF Smackdown because the gameplay and create a wrestler are both better.

WWF Wrestlemania 2000 is not a perfect game, but it is still a lot better than WWF Attitude and WWF Warzone, in my opinion. Why? Well, I prefer the type of gameplay and control system that Wrestlemania used more than the type of wrestling engine featured in WWF Attitude and WWF Warzone. For instance, the game seems to run a lot smoother. Attitude and Warzone were marred with shoddy collision detection and the control was not perfect. The moves were kind of difficult to pull off, also. It was really difficult to push 4 buttons just to do a samoan drop. But Wrestlemania 2000 is different. The control system has been improved dramatically over previous WWF games. Now, moves are simple to pull off, as all you have to push is grapple and then up, down, etc. It really is quite simple, and the game is easy for newbies to get into and play.

Now on with the review!

Graphics (7.8/10)
The weakest part of the game, in my opinion, are the unrealistic and super deformed graphics. I swear Stone Cold Steve Austin's head looks like a sharpened pencil in the game. The character models are a bit iffy but the other graphics are good, the detail in the titan tron videos are great. I will now run you through the important part of a wrestling game's graphics.

Collision Detection: One of the main problems in WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude that I encountered was the shoddy collision detection in the games. For instance, moves would travel right through the wrestlers. But Wrestlemania 2000 is different. The gameplay is fast and the moves travel smoothly and connect well. No more polygon tearing when fighting an opponent. Overall, the collison detection is superb, especially when compared to the previous WWF games on Nintendo 64.

Character Models: A major problem with the graphics, in my opinion, are the character models. The character models in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for Nintendo 64 could be viewed as the game's major flaw. For instance, Stone Cold Steve Austin, when viewed up close, looks like his head was sharpened by a pencil sharpener. The other character designs don't look that great either. They can be telled apart, and Im sure that the WWF fans out there will be able to tell the wrestlers apart, regardless, but the character models could have been much better. Overall, the character models are not that well done and could be viewed by many as the game's major design flaw. As well as the entire game's major flaw.

TitanTron Videos: The amazing part about WWF Wrestlemania 2000, in my opinion, is the fact that THQ got some titantron videos in there. The Nintendo 64 cartridge was not designed to hold a lot of Full Motion Video space, due to the memory of the cartridges (something like 10 times less than that of a Playstation CD) so it is really quite a feat that THQ got so much videos in the game. I mean, think about it, all those wrestlers. Now the quality of the Titan Tron videos are terrible, and they only play for about 5 seconds total each, but its the thought that counts, right? The videos in WWF Smackdown (for the Sony Playstation) may be of better quality, and the game may have longer video time, but still, I am quite amazed at the feat that THQ was able to pull off with WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64. Overall, the Titan Tron videos are not that great but at least they're there.

Other Small Details: The ring details in the game are fabolous. It looks like you are really watching a real, live World Wrestling Federation event because the ring looks so realistic. The crowd looks great, as well, and thats important because you'll be looking at them a lot when you go to pull weapons out of the crowd. The crowd doesn't have that cardboard look to them, they look (gasp) kind of realistic. Overall, the crowd and ring looks very realistic and I am glad of this.

Overall, the graphics in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 are pretty good. They could use some work, especially in the character model department, but overall the graphics in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 are pretty well done. Great job, THQ, especially with the great variety of Titan Tron videos!

Music/Sound (9.1/10)
Who needs commentary anyways? Mostly every great wrestling game ever has had no commentary. The music that plays during the match is great, and the wrestlers theme songs sound much better than they did in Attitude. The music in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is great. There is a great variety of songs to listen to during gameplay, and most of the songs are great. The game features all of the wrestler's theme songs, which play during the wrestlers entrances (well, right after the little clip of the Titan Tron video is played).

Sound effect wise, some would say that the lack of commentary in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is a disappointment. I, on the other hand, do not totally agree or disagree with these sentiments. On one hand, the inclusion of commentary into the mix would have been a great idea that may have added to the overall feeling of the gameplay. But on the other hand, the inclusion of commentary would have meant that other important features of the game would have been left out, like the Titan Tron videos. Also, the commentary in WWF Attitude was only decent. If THQ had used commentary similar in quality to that commentary featured in WWF Warzone, then I would have been perfectly happy. However, I doubt that THQ would have had quality commentary like that. And I would have missed out on the Titan Tron videos. So, I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that WWF Wrestlemania 2000 features no commentary. All the other sound effects are great, ranging from punch and kicks to the sounds made when a low blow is registered.

Overall, the music and sound effects in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 are not perfect, and the game does not feature any commentary during gameplay, but overall I feel that the music and sound effects are perfectly acceptable.

Gameplay/Control (9.4/10)
Wrestlemania 2000 doesnt have complicated controls which makes it a very easy to get into game. It is a great party game since anybody at any skill level could pick up a controller and play. The gameplay's a lot quicker than in Attitude, and theres an Attitude meter, when it fills up you can perform your finishing move. Great!

The control system in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is also pretty good, in my opinion. First off, the moves are much easier to pull off than the moves in a game like WWF Warzone or WWF Attitude. The control system is very similar to that in WCW/nWo Revenge or WCW/nWo World Tour, which is not surprising because the same company that produced those two great games also produced WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 (Asmik). Bascially, the game uses a very cool and very unique grapple based system. So, all you really have to do is strong grapple, then push Up and A to do a regular move. This is much better than pushing 4 or 5 buttons in a row, in my opinion. The collision detection is also much better, which in terms helps the control in the game significantly because the moves register a lot more quickly and a lot more effectively. Overall, the control in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is great and very easy to do moves! Newbies will have no problems, and that makes this game the ultimate wrestling party game!

WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 also features great gameplay, as well. The game is a lot like WCW/nWo Revenge, which was one of my favorite wrestling games, and still is to this day. This is not surprising because the same company produced (Asmik) and published (THQ) WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for Nintendo 64. WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 features lots of outstanding wrestlers, ranging from Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock all the way to Jim Ross and Jerry ''The King'' Lawler. Classic wrestlers like Pat Patterson and ''The Heartbreak Kid'' Shawn Michaels are also available to choose from! Of course, all these wrestlers are not instantly selectable. Nope. You start off with about 40 top notch wrestlers, and as you move through the game (Road to Wrestlemania) you get more and more wrestlers. This adds to the replay value significantly. For instance, my favorite female Stephanie McMahon is not instantly selectable. However, playing with test in the road to Wrestlemania, she soons begins to come to the ring when with you. When she does, she becomes a selectable wrestler. At least 12 wrestlers can be unlocked like this, which is great!

The create a wrestler mode in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is not as great as expected, but the mode is still pretty decent. There are lots of options to choose from, and creating the ultimate wrestler is easy to do. Of course, there is no pre season mode like there is in WWF Smackdown, so after you create a wrestler you really can't do much with him/her because there is nothing to do in terms of getting more and more abilities added to the wrestler. However, the create a wrestler mode is so in depth that I was able to create a Triple H lookalike called ''The Game'' who was accompanied to the ring by ''Stephanie McMahon Helsmley'' who looks a lot like the current look of the boss's daughter. Not only is there a create a wrestler mode, but there is also a create a BELT mode! Yes, you can create a belt, then have wrestlers wrestle for it! It is really quite an innovative idea! The create a wrestler mode may not be as good as the mode featured in WWF Attitude, but at least THQ and Asmik Ace added a create a wrestler mode (WCW/nWo Revenge did not feature a create a wrestler mode). The create a belt mode only adds to the fun. Overall, the extra options are very good!

Another great part about WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is that it is such a great party game! Plenty of mutliplayer fun, and unlike Attitude and Warzone even newbies can get right in and start going against the veterans, because the control system is so easy to learn and master. Also, no matter who your favorite current wrestler is, chances are that that wrestler is in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64!

Overall, words cannot express how big of a fan I am of this classic and incredible game from THQ and Asmik! The control system is simple to learn and to master, and the gameplay features a lot of modes. The create a wrestler mode may not be perfect, but at least there is a create a wrestler mode!

Replay Value: High
The replay value in WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 is great as well, because of the unlocking of all the secret wrestlers! For instance, to unlock Stephanie McMahon you have to play through Road to Wrestlemania with Test. But to get Mick Foley's other 2 personas (Cactus Jack and Dude Love) you have to go through Road to Wrestlemania with Mankind. There are also a lot of modes you can get, like Inferno matches (beat Road to Wrestlemania with Kane and Undertaker), Hell in a Cell matches (beat Road to Wrestlemania with Mankind, Cactus jack, and Dude Love) and more! The game is quite addicting!

Challenge: Medium
WWF Wrestlemania 2000 for the Nintendo 64 may not be the most challenging wrestling game ever made, but it is definetly a decent challenge for sure. The computer AI is top notch, especially in the damn Roayl Rumble and King of the Ring modes!

Overall (9.7/10)
The best damn wrestling game ever made. Take all of the basic elements of the classic game known as WCW/nWo Revenge, add a create a wrestler mode, add WWF Wrestlers instead of WCW wrestlers, and add several new play modes, including a ''create a pay per view mode'' and more, and you have a classic game! God bless THQ and Asmik for making such an incredible game!

Nintendo has finally released the anticipated follow-up to Yoshi's Island -- but unlike the excellent 16-bit platformer, Yoshi's Story won't find its way into the hall of fame of Nintendo classics.

Still, Yoshi's Story is a fun game. At its best, the level design is right up there with the original Mario games and it impresses with innovative control, great graphics and original levels. But at other times, Yoshi is an unchallenging romp through levels that reek of recycled game ideas, derivative layout, and clueless enemies.

For the US release, Nintendo cleaned up the graphics a little and added some superficial elements such as fences and egg-boxes in colors corresponding to your Yoshi of choice (the original only featured green boxes). Also, some of the item locations were changed from the Japanese version, and Nintendo added a few new secrets, such as coins that spell out letters, and a slightly different ending when you only munch on honeydews. Another addition is a save feature in the Story Mode, which lets you pick up the game where you left it off. The additions are well-received, but they don't change our original opinion that Yoshi's Story is an extremely fun rental for a weekend, devoid of challenge.

Of course, it's easy to slam the game for its cloying cuteness and lack of challenge -- but that means leaving out the fact that the game is geared toward kids, who will -- and there is no doubt about it -- absolutely LOVE this title.

But what if you happen to be an experienced gamer? What if you had no problem finishing Super Mario 64 or Star Fox in a few days? And more importantly, what if you are a big fan of Yoshi's Island on the Super NES and expect a worthy follow-up?

Gameplay: Yoshi's Story sometimes comes close to the classic Nintendo gameplay on the NES and Super NES. The only problem is that despite fantastic analog control and a "sniff button" that enables you to uncover hidden goodies, there really isn't anything ground-breaking here. As one of six differently colored dinosaurs (there are also two hidden ones) players run, jump, swim, bounce and crawl through 24 lavishly rendered 2D levels trying to find (and eat) 30 pieces of fruit. The stages are standard side-scroller fare, including water, cave, cloud, and snow levels, and the typical Nintendo castle stage. But unlike other 2D classics, Yoshi's levels don't have an end: You finish a stage by chomping up the 30th "super happy tree fruit."

Since each fruit gives you a certain amount of points, you don't want to eat just anything you find, but rather selectively choose a) the lucky fruit of the day (which is randomly determined before you play), b) your dino's favorite fruit (the green guy likes melons, the red guy likes apples, etc), or c) honeydew melons (all Yoshis love these -- and they give you the highest points). So although it's quite easy to finish a level by just eating any fruit you see, finding the 30 melons and collecting them is the real challenge. Also, you can change the colors of your enemies by stomping the ground -- you guessed it, the green Yoshi gets higher points for eating a green enemy, and so on.

Sounds good so far, right? The only problem: There is little reward for doing well in the game. Back in the old days of Donkey Kong and Defender, playing for hi-scores was the way to go, but whether you like it or not, nowadays we feel horribly cheated if we don't get anything special for succeeding. The same holds true for Yoshi's Story. You will carry on playing the game hoping to uncover an additional world or more levels, but in the end you will grow bored of the tedious melon search. Which brings me to another problem with Yoshi: Length.

When compared with its predecessor, Yoshi's Island, this game should have been called "Yoshi's Short Story." The original had more than twice as many levels, and you were forced to play through all of them to get to the end. In the 64-bit Yoshi, Nintendo brought back the one thing everyone complained about with Star Fox 64 -- the annoying multi-path level structure that only lets you play a limited number of stages each time. Since the game design is based on a children's pop-up book, every time you play Yoshi's Story you can only play six stages; one for each page. There are multiple pathways depending on how many hearts you gather in the individual levels, but they are quite easy to find.

The game also features a Trial Mode in which you can play single levels that you've already finished. Your high score in these levels is saved to the cart (with your name). This does admittedly lengthen the play value of the cart as you can compete against your friends' scores, but it doesn't solve the lack of challenge and the short quest.

Control: After playing Yoshi's Story, one has to ask why so many companies shy away from using analog control in 2D sidescrollers. Thanks to the analog stick and an intelligent button layout, Yoshi can easily run, jump, duck, stomp the ground, float (for a short while), stick out his tongue, crawl, sniff for hidden goodies, push boxes (combine two to unveil hidden melons), and throw eggs. While there are no "real" bonus levels, a number of special challenges, such as balancing crates or racing for melons are a welcome addition.

Compared to Yoshi's Island, however, Yoshi's Story reveals a surprising lack of depth when it comes to some of the dinosaur's moves. For example, the gameplay of the original was pushed over the top by the ability to bounce eggs off the walls to get to certain items, you had a choice whether to turn enemies into eggs or spit them out, you could spit fire or melon seeds, morph into different forms, and ride a dog. These abilities are all missing in the sequel and the addition of sniffing, making eggs burst into fireworks, or the option to use an umbrella in some levels are just not enough to make up for it.

In the end, Yoshi's Story comes across as a game for beginners, and if you look at the N64's demographics in Japan, you know why. The game is for the kids -- who make up the majority of N64 owners in Japan. It's easy, it's cute, it has memorable characters, and it's fun to play.

Graphics Yoshi's Story has the same beautiful pre-rendered look as Donkey Kong Country. But instead of another unoriginal entry into "mascot with an attitude" gaming, Nintendo's artists created worlds based on different materials, such as wood, paper mache, rubber, and denim. The levels are alive with movable objects that rotate, shake and wobble, and some of the reflections and "gooey stuff" effects are a joy to look at. And then there is the stage map. For each of the six worlds, the Yoshi's Story picture book flips a page to unfold a new pop-up diarama. The thought and design work that went into this minor detail is a perfect example of why the whole world watches every time an NCL game hits the market.

Yoshi and co. are animated extremely well and sport some great cartoon antics such as jumping with joy when he finds an item or snarling at his enemies. But the real stars of the game are clearly the larger creatures such as the squishy sea anemonies, flying dragons or piranha plants. The effect of the moving tentacles or stems is almost hypnotic. Toss in a frame rate of 60 frames per second, and you know that Yoshi's Story is one of the best looking 2D side-scrollers around. I would have wished for more parallax scrolling and some polygonal effects, but there's no denying that this is a fine-looking game.

Sound: Sound effects and music are equally impressive, with a few exceptions. Most of the stereo tunes are superb, but the title tune and in-between levels song are instant annoyance. Imagine Disney's chipmunks chanting "Eeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaa Ooooooooooow" and you get the idea (no, they're not saying "Nintendo").

And the worst part: You can't skip the most annoying song which plays in between the levels! Take it from me, while the graphics and game design are cute to a degree that you can actually enjoy them, the title tune has never failed to annoy even the most hardened Western Nintendo afficionado. Play it loud, and your neighbors will hire someone to kill you. But these two tracks aside, the music is memorable and well-composed, with rap tunes, guitar lullabies, reggae, and even a hint of Tschaikovsky in the castle levels.

Sound effects are used very well throughout and go beyond the usual "background noise" offered in many games. For example, even if you can't see them, you can hear hidden hearts ringing from far away. Using the analog stick, you also need to tread lightly without making a sound to get past beehives or blindfolded ghosts with huge ears, and Yoshi himself even gives you clues as he goes "hmmmm?" when you sniff a spot close to a hidden item.

Options: The solid Rumble Pak support lets you know when you hit an obstacle and as in most games actually adds to the experience. Next to the standard sound options (stereo/mono), there is the above mentioned Trial Mode, and even a practice mode to help you figure out the game controls. Controls are non-configurable. By the way, before you start playing, be sure to switch off the "fruit display" with the L-Button. It's the only way to play.

Data Management: You can save in the Story Mode and once you have finished a level you can access it in the Trial Mode. The game saves hi-scores internally, without the use of a memory pak. The Memory Pak is not supported.

Overall: Yoshi's Story is a fun 2D platformer that is a joy to look at and provides a fair challenge if you're into competing for high scores. But nobody can deny that when you leave away the better control, vibrant graphics, and quality sound, Yoshi's Story is in essence just a stripped down version of Yoshi's Island.

Shigeru Miyamoto's lack of involvement with the game shows (he is only credited as supervisor), as many of the puzzles are overly simple and lack originality. Compared to many other side-scrollers, Yoshi's Story is definitely a quality title -- but it falls short when compared to Nintendo's best. Although we realize that the game is aimed at kids, the low difficulty and short quest knocks it down one star in our rating. The whole idea of using cutesy characters was to make games fun for everyone, but when a game is this easy, the whole thing backfires as a large part of the N64 population is being ignored. A difficulty option that would leave out some of the numerous opportunities to replenish your health (such as flowers) could have worked wonders.

THE VERDICT
If you absolutely suck at playing games or you're a 2D newcomer (or you're six years old), this game is a must-buy. Everyone else, save your money and rent it for a weekend. Two days is unfortunately enough to see everything the game has to offer.

Yoshi's Story will most definitely sell many many copies based on the reputation of its predecessor. But there will be a lot of unhappy gamers once they discover that Nintendo's mantra seems to have changed to Quality over Quantity of Levels.

Trust us: You'll love it when you rent the game, but don't buy it. You'll finish it in a weekend -- but don't quit playing until you have seen the fourth level on each page..

You'd expect Resident Evil 2 on the Nintendo 64 - a port of a game that came out nearly two years ago on the PlayStation - to feel dated. Heck, the third game in the series, Resident Evil 3 Nemesis, was released on the PlayStation two weeks ago, and the fourth installment, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, is due out for the Dreamcast in Japan in a few months, with a US translation trailing only a bit behind. Somehow, though, RE2 doesn't feel old or tired at all. And it's as impressive today on the N64 as it was in January of '98, when it first debuted on the PlayStation.

Part of that is due to how impressive it is as a port. The game takes the contents of two PlayStation discs - including all the FMV sequences and the bonus Hunk and Tofu missions - and fits it into one 512-megabit N64 cartridge, which ends up being twice the size of The Legend of Zelda cart, for the record. The only thing missing in this edition is the extreme-battle mode from the Dual Shock edition of Resident Evil 2 on the PlayStation, but the omission is made up for by new features, such as a randomizer (which shuffles items around after you've played the game through once) and files (which you can find to learn details about the Resident Evil story, some of which have bits that tie in with Resident Evil 3 Nemesis and Resident Evil: Code Veronica). You can also change the blood color from red to green or blue, or set the violence to low, medium, or high.

Sure, and the gang's all here. You play as Leon Kennedy, the rookie cop who has reported for his first shift on the day the T-virus outbreak turns the whole town into zombies, or as Claire Redfield, who has come to Raccoon City to find her older brother, the male lead from the first Resident Evil. To make matters worse, the creator of the T-virus has developed a more perfect virus, which he ingests when the nefarious Umbrella Corporation sends in troops to steal it from him. (In the process, he's become a monster that could even give RE's Tyrant pause). Yes, as either character, you end up in the middle of company politics and a lot of sharp, gnashing teeth.Resident Evil 2 on the PlayStation was full of moments that made you sense that something was going to pop out and attack you (and invariably, something did as soon as you stopped expecting it), and that's reproduced perfectly here. The sound effects are fantastic, whether it's the moan and shuffle of a zombie that's just around the corner or the crunch of your footsteps as you step over broken glass. And save for a slightly tinny quality, the sounds and the dramatic score of the game are just as good on cart as they were on CD.

The graphics are even more of a wonder. If you use the N64 expansion pak, the visuals are bumped into hi-res mode, making them look even better than those in the PlayStation version. But even without the pak, they're still very impressive. Sometimes, the backgrounds look washed out while the characters remain brightly hued, making them stand out strangely, but it's a very rare occasion when that happens. The game's frame rate also slows down a bit when numerous monsters are onscreen at once, but not enough to affect gameplay. And though the computer-generated FMV sequences look grainy in comparison with the PlayStation version, they still look fantastic considering the cart format.

Of course, the same complaints relevant to the PlayStation original still apply to the N64 version. You'll find that the camera is your worst enemy: When you move into an area of the room that you hadn't been able to see before you'll get ambushed by several zombies that were standing just into the next screen. Or when you're blasting away at a boss or sub-boss, the recoil of your weapon will knock you into another screen, and you'll get killed because you don't know which side you're going to be attacked from. And you'll continue to believe that the strange inventory system should've long since been changed to something more like Diablo's "smaller items take up less space/big items take up more space" system.

But even with those few detractions, Resident Evil 2 is still as much an experience as it is a game. A huge improvement over the first title, RE2 succeeds in making you feel as though you're in the middle of a horror film - one in which you'll jump many, many times. If you've already played the PlayStation or PC versions of RE2, there's really no reason to buy this game, but for N64 owners who haven't tried yet, it's an absolute must-have.

While there have been numerous titles developed in Spider-Man's name, most people would agree that modern console gaming hasn't given Spider-Man the treatment he deserves. Those who've had a chance to play the horde of 16-bit titles (almost all of which are derivative beat-'em-ups or awkward platformers) can attest to the fact that Spidey isn't represented very well in those games. And with good reason - the re-creation of a character with such a dynamic range of motion and an equally dynamic set of powers may have been beyond the scope of previous technology.

Neversoft's recent effort on the PlayStation, though, pleased Spidey's fans and set a new standard for comic-based games. Not only did it provide an excellent framework around which to build future Spider-Man games, but it also proved to be a great experience in itself. Spider-Man was built around the engine that powered Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and that engine's ability to effectively render expansive environments was vital in creating the playgrounds in which Spidey and his loathsome villains duke it out. The game's systems - from Spider-Man's arsenal of abilities to the camera that follows him - are all wonderfully functional, but, of course, they're not without their warts. Edge of Reality's recent N64 port of Neversoft's game is a direct one.

The developers obviously went to great lengths in their attempt to faithfully re-create Spider-Man's various powers. As per the timeless theme, Spidey can indeed do anything a spider can - spin his web in a variety of ways, adhere to flat surfaces, and even detect danger, when his spider sense goes atingle. Spidey's webslinging ability plays a large role in the game. He uses it to shield himself from enemy blows, swing from rooftop to rooftop, and entrap his foes. His web attacks are divided into two categories: combat related and mobility related. All of the webspinner's combat functions revolve around the use of the upper C button in tandem with the analog stick. Hitting the button on its own, for example, will shoot a trap web that entangles foes, while hitting up and the button will issue forth impact webbing, which bludgeons them. Other tricks include the webshield, which protects Spidey from attacks before exploding and subsequently damaging all foes within its area; punch pads, which augment damage; and the webyank, which allows Spidey to pull and tug enemies in a desired direction.

Outside of combat, though, is where Spidey's webs play their most vital role. The R and B buttons, respectively, allow Spidey to either swing to an adjacent platform or zip instantly to the ceiling (or floor, or opposite wall - depending on his originating point). The zip line is one of the game's coolest features, as it is accompanied by a dynamic camera change. For example, if Spidey zips up to the ceiling, the camera will realign itself to his capture his new position, allowing clear sight of the floor, which is now below his head.

Unfortunately, therein lies the source of the game's imperfections. First, it must be noted that the developers did an admirable job with the camera - to have anything even resembling a working camera following a character whose perspective changes so often and so drastically is nothing short of amazing. When Spider-Man's camera is functional, the play experience is right on, and you honestly do feel like you're the webhead - crawling, zipping, and brawling your way though the Big Apple with all the corresponding power fantasies and feelings of euphoria intact. Sadly, though, the camera occasionally misbehaves, swinging a bit too wide during a brawl or focusing slightly behind where it should during a wallclimb, capturing a piece of wall instead of the webhead crawling on it. Most frustrating, though, is when the camera inverts your perspective after the use of a zip line - while it may seem as if nothing's amiss (as the subtle change in perspective will surely evade your notice), the controls will be reversed, causing "up" to mean "down" and vice versa. Fortunately, these instances are few and far between, though prolonged play will undoubtedly yield some deaths due to them. While one is tempted to think that a camera-refocusing function would have solved this problem, the feature would have been too problematic to use in cases when Spider-Man isn't on the ground, which, as it happens, is a good portion of the game experience. Again, it bears mentioning that the developer's ability to tame the camera as well as it did is quite an accomplishment.

In yet another symbol of Nintendo's persistence to create sequels to its 16-bit games, StarFox 64 takes the never-say-die shooter genre to new levels of complexity, sleek design, and gameplay control. StarFox 64 represents the next leap in the evolution of Nintendo games, with full-speech samples, FMV-animation and fantastic production value, a challenging branch system, and multiplayer gaming all in one cartridge.

Staggered throughout the game is the use of full-motion video animation, eloquent cinematic sequences that wrap the gameplay up in a rich storyline, setting each mission with the right mood. Boasting a remarkable amount of voice sampling for a cart game, each team member's former burbles are turned into live voice samples. While not a CD-ROM killer, StarFox 64, like Super Mario 64 before it, demonstrates to second- and third-party developers what can be achieved on a single cartridge. StarFox 64 is an 8 megabyte cartridge containing almost 3 MBs of straight sound, and each of the 23 characters has, as it were, something to say.

An exceptional shooter that's only improved since its original 16-bit inception, StarFox 64 is deep with gameplay, strategy, and calculated level progression mechanics. Much like StarFox on Super NES, Slippy the frog, Peppy the hare, and Falco the falcon join Fox McCloud as they fly through space in their patented 'Arwing' fighters in forward-scrolling fashion. Players will also pilot a rather clunky submarine and a unique tank (with hovering capabilities), depending on the various mission they encounter. But what differentiates StarFox 64 from its past version is that gamers will play in both forward-scrolling levels, found in latter-day shooters like Sega Saturn's Panzer Dragoon, while newer missions enable full 3D movement, usually couched in a closed spherical environment. In each, the Arwings are capable of relatively quick acceleration, quick hard braking, Immelmans, loops, barrel rolls, and a wonderful control system that's as responsive, and as smooth as silk.

As many as 15 interconnected levels are playable in the single-player mode, each with the most amazing looking bosses seen in a long time. Ranging from a humungous clam in Aquas, to a lavish molten lava-monster in Solar, to an amazingly animated monkey head and hands in the easy ending, these bosses are fantastic in design and graphic execution. A clever set of paths are opened when players kill a specified amount of enemies, follow an unusual path, shoot subtle objects and enemies, fly through special constructs, or beat certain bosses. (In one level, if players fly through a set of blue rings they'll enter into a psychedelic bonus level that's the closest nod to Galaga we've seen in quite some time.) There are also a handful of paths in each level. This branch system, unlike the chooseable paths of the 16-bit StarFox, makes this often formulaic game a bit more challenging.

Multiplayer Modes The four-player, split-screen action deepens the game's overall value, with chooseable variations, like team-play, or all-out 'death-matches.' And it's a blast. Plus, after meeting certain requirements, you can play on foot, with laser cannons on your shoulders. For beginners, a practice mode is also available in one-player mode. And let's not forget that the Rumble Pak, bundled with the game, adds an unusual burst of arcade ecstasy to the game.

There are a few disappointments, however, and these start with gameplay. With gameplay nods to Wing Commander (and cinematic references to a few recent sci-fi movies), the play is great, but not terribly innovative, nor altogether new, and with a few exceptions, it's a just a good update from the original StarFox. Second, this game, like all shooters by their very nature, is extremely repetitive. Almost all of the little details have been sorted out throughout the game, except the incredibly muddled and dark submarine level (Aquas). The music could also have been improved as well, and may have suffered due to the abundant sound samples.

There are several possible reasons for creating sequels to puzzle games, and Mario isn't exempt from any of them. One is to use the sequential version to lasso new fans while satisfying old ones by keeping the overall structure intact, yet at the same time implementing changes and adding new features. This sort of sequence can go on forever, and in cases such as Tetris and Bust-A-Move, it does. Another is to satisfy fans by offering lateral improvements to buy time until the real McCoy is ready--the game that developers wanted to push out the door the first time around, but couldn't due to deadline and resource constraints. Hudson's Mario Party 3 seems to be a combination of both.

While the disparity between the original Mario Party and its immediate sequel, Mario Party 2, was slim but noticeable, Mario Party 3 is as much a stand-alone game as a sequence can possibly offer. The concept is the same (a turn-based, random activity board game played with real or computer opponents), but the feel is sufficiently different from the two previous games. The cel shading and the battle-driven, more directly competitive gameplay featured in Mario Party 3 largely lend to the expansion, and whether you're a fan of the other games or if you've never played them before, you're likely to enjoy the experience just the same.

Mario Party 3's battle royal mode offers the sort of gameplay that most people commonly associate with the Mario Party series. You and up to three other players (human or computer) compete on a variety of boards, where your goal is to collect the most stars and coins. Random events can switch your placement on the boards, steal your coins, or change the direction of paths abound. You can also gain items to skew these factors in your favor. At the end of every round, contestants fight against each other in one of 70 different minigames. These are made up of challenges such as chasing a fleet-footed chicken, racing through a tunnel on sleds, rolling and throwing snowballs at each other, guessing what objects a player has hidden behind, jumping up and down on a boat and making waves that your opponents have to jump to avoid, and shooting bad guys with foam bullets. While the minigames in Mario Party 2 were very similar to the ones in the original Mario Party, those found in Mario Party 3 are much more original. In fact, Mario Party 3 has some of the best minigames that have appeared in the series yet, although it does have a few stinkers.

The biggest difference between Mario Party 3 and other Mario Party games is the introduction of the duel mode. In it, you and one opponent (again, human or computer) play against each other on game boards, where you claim spaces by landing on them. Land on an enemy space, and you have to pay them coins as you would by landing on another's property in Monopoly. Land on one of your own, and you gain coins. Unlike in the battle royal mode, you play only minigames if you land on a specific minigame square, rather than at the end of every round. This makes Mario Party 3 feel more like a traditional board game and also speeds things up significantly--which is appreciated because even a short game of battle royal can take a lot of time. At the outset of duel mode, you're provided a partner, who you can decide to put in front or behind you, and you later earn another, who will protect your other side. If you catch up to an opponent, the partner closest to him or her will attack. If the enemy's side that you attack is unprotected by one of his or her partners, that opponent takes damage. If it is protected, the enemy's partner takes damage for him or her. Different partners have different skills. For instance, Toad has low attack power but prevents coin theft, while Whomp blocks attacks well but has no attack power. Your partners get paid a salary at the beginning of every round, and if you run out of money, they leave. You ultimately win duel mode by having the most coins and heart pieces at the end of a set number of rounds or by taking all of your opponent's heart pieces.

Another difference between this and earlier games in the line is the inclusion of a single-player story mode. It places you against three computer-controlled players in a series of battle royal maps, but with a finite end. None of the Mario Party titles have ever been the kinds of games that you wanted to play by yourself, and this single-player mode does practically nothing to change that. The duel mode, however, makes Mario Party 3 the sort of game you'd be willing to play with one other person rather than having to hold out for two or three.

Beyond gameplay, the graphics in Mario Party 3 are very similar to those found in the previous games in the series, except for some cel-shaded effects, as seen in Sega's Jet Grind Radio. On one hand, the visuals look as good as they need to for this kind of game, but are certainly not going to win it any awards. The soundtrack has also taken a slight turn for the better and has become even catchier. It's still cute, but in a pop music sort of way, rather than the saccharine sweet of before.

While pure innovation may not be king in the Mario Party world, Hudson's dedication to solid, addictive puzzle gaming that makes for a wholly enjoyable multiplayer experience is apparent. Mario Party 3 is fun, different enough from the early games due to the duel mode, and full of enough value to make the purchase worthwhile, even if you now play the other two. Still, it's clear that Hudson has probably exhausted the possibilities for this kind of game with Mario Party 3 and that the premise is beginning to wear a bit thin. Nintendo might want to let Mario take it easy for a while--to take a break from this life in the fast lane and go back to more leisurely pursuits, like playing more golf or tennis.

If Mario is Nintendo's Luke Skywalker, then it's safe to say that Donkey Kong is Nintendo's Darth Vader. Originally cast as the primate villain in the Donkey Kong arcade game back in the early '80s, Kong and his many descendants have stepped away from the "dark side" and become forces for good. While it's genetically unlikely that Kong is Mario's father, it's been well documented that Kong and company have been enlisted to rescue Nintendo in times of trouble. Remember when the Super NES was "threatened" by Sega's 32-bit/CD add-on hype? A game called Donkey Kong Country came out, featuring prerendered graphics never before seen on a home console. Not only did it breathe new life into the Super NES' sales, it spawned a profitable series that kept Nintendo's 16-bit scene alive for years to come.

Fast forward to 1999. Sega and Sony again threaten the Nintendo 64 with superior game consoles, and once again Nintendo calls on Kong's descendants to breathe new life into its 64-bit system with Donkey Kong 64. While this much-anticipated 3D adventure game has high-quality gameplay and plenty of variety to fuel Nintendo's sales this holiday season, it lacks enough "wow factor" to exert the revolutionary influence that Donkey Kong Country had.

Donkey Kong 64 starts with a well-worn storyline: Donkey Kong's isle of paradise faces destruction by an invading K.Rool and his crocodile Kremlings. Donkey now has four friends to help him defeat K.Rool: Diddy Kong, his perennial sidekick; Lanky Kong, an ape with super-stretchy limbs; Tiny Kong, a teenybopper who can shrink to fit into small holes; and Chunky Kong, a muscle-bound lunkhead who can lift boulders and smash down doors. Veterans of the Donkey Kong series will also note the return of old-timers like Cranky, Funky, and Candy, all of whom upgrade the Kongs with new abilities, hints, shooting weapons, and musical instruments that help unlock hidden areas. For the most part, Donkey Kong 64 is an explore-and-collect adventure. Those who obtain perverse pleasure from collecting every last coin and item in this type of game will be titillated - and those who don't will be frustrated. The main thrust is to find 200 golden bananas in the main world and in the seemingly standard individual stages: an underwater level, a forest level, a jungle level, an industrial level, etc. As expected, almost none of these bananas are in plain view - multipart puzzles and obstacles impede the way to these treasures. However, there's plenty more to collect: regular bananas, fairies (which you must take pictures of with a camera), banana medals, super-secret Rareware coins, blueprint pieces (found by defeating certain enemies), crowns (to unlock multiplayer games) and boss keys (to unlock new areas on the island). Now, factor in that each of the five characters must find some of these items individually: Devoted gamers will see this as added replay value, while others will see it as a royal pain in the Donkey derriere.

If that weren't enough, it seems the developers threw every gameplay style they could think of into the mix. This gameplay variety is perhaps this title's main strength, although the quality of the games varies. For starters, the game has a separate two-to four-player mode, with games such as a battle arena, where Kongs can beat up each other in a circular ring, or a GoldenEye-type shooting game. In the adventure mode, you earn golden bananas by completing mini-bonus games. Some are true games in their own right, such as a racing track, race-boat water course, or mine-cart roller coaster - all of which look impressive in 3D. Some of these games are less visually impressive but are entertaining nevertheless, such as a maze where the Kong must avoid enemy detection, or a bug splattering stage. The remaining games - such as a simple target-shooting session or a slot machine - are either run-of-the-mill or too easy to sustain long-term interest. Finally, a couple of bonus games are direct translations of old-school titles, including a partial version of the original Donkey Kong arcade game that'll bring back memories for some.

Since the Kongs learn unique abilities as the game progresses, some Kongs have special stages, as well. Remember the barrel-blast levels in the 16-bit games? Donkey now plays them in 3D with a target sight. As the barrel moves, you can shoot Donkey out to other barrels. Diddy gets a jet pack that lets him complete some flying stages, while the other three characters learn other impressive skills, such as shrinking (Tiny), climbing up steep slopes (Lanky), and lifting or breaking heavy objects (Chunky). If that weren't enough, some characters can transform into animals, such as a rhino or a swordfish, to break into boxes or secret areas and kill bothersome enemies. Hands down, there's probably no other game currently on the market that's filled with as much gameplay variety as this title. But at its core, this game is a 3D adventure in the vein of Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. Just like Mario, Donkey Kong translates well from 2D into 3D. The rendering of the huge levels and dimwitted enemies seems directly lifted from the 16-bit games - with the expected improvements resulting from technology upgrades.

The most obvious upgrade? Donkey Kong 64 is the first title that must be played with the memory expansion pak, which is sold with the game. Graphically, the high-resolution detail is immediately apparent (there's even an optional widescreen mode), but the jump in quality isn't far above any recent well-made Nintendo 64 game. Even with the pak, the graphics have limits that hamper gameplay: For instance, when a Kong stands above a tree to look around, many faraway objects and icons fail to show up, making it difficult to survey where missing items might be located. In rare instances, there's even slowdown in the frame rate, such as when a large boat is added to a portion of the underwater level. Still, the well-crafted graphics look as good as anything else on the Nintendo 64, and Rare has to be applauded for special graphical details that add flavor to the game, such as special animations for getting bananas from an invention-minded weasel, and little references to earlier Donkey Kong games (for example, pictures of old enemies from the 16-bit games inside a sunken ship).

As the Kongs learn more skills, the controls get necessarily complicated. While the control itself is intuitive, aspects of it do detract from the game. With the exceptions of Diddy and Tiny, the Kongs run slowly. This makes exploration a bit tiresome in levels where that Kongs search for the last golden banana. Fortunately, the game uses teleports to whisk characters from one area to another - but a slight speed boost for the big Kongs would've helped. Otherwise, the responsive control works just fine in most situations. What does fall short - and what is likely the game's biggest flaw - is the camera. This is a game where the enemies and bosses won't kill you, but the camera angles will. This is especially true in some swimming sequences, where the camera flakes out when you're close to walls, and in at least one boss battle, where the camera's fixed location prevents you from seeing the boss half the time - and wild camera swinging makes it a pain to jump accurately. In some cases, when a Kong's behind an object, the camera gets confused and flutters wildly. But 95 percent of the time the camera works decently enough - and since no 3D game has yet to offer a "perfect" camera, it's unfair to hammer this point home. Suffice it to say, the camera is the one aspect of the game that could use improvement, and you will just have to accept the frustrating five percent. The game suffers from other minor flaws. The GoldenEye-type multiplayer mode, while serving up extra gameplay styles such as tag and survival, loses its luster rather quickly. This is mainly because some Kongs move slowly, and there's a woeful lack of weaponry to spice up the destruction. The other multiplayer modes seem a bit too trivial to sustain long-term enjoyment as well.

All flaws aside, strong gameplay reigns throughout Donkey Kong 64, mainly because Rare has preserved the Kongs' cooperative spirit from the 16-bit titles. Simply put, one Kong must complete several tasks (such as activating switches) so other Kongs can complete their quests in that stage. This process gets rather complex in later levels, and you must keep thinking creatively to solve the game's many puzzles. This truly adds to the "cerebral" gameplay aspects, in addition to the jump-and-shoot reflex testing already prevalent in the game's levels.

For those with a high-quality sound system, this game will prove a delight, with the Dolby surround sound effects adding to gameplay - audio clues can help gamers find certain items such as fairies. The audio filters that kick in, such as when a Kong's underwater, are also impressive. Although there's plenty of audio for the intro, it would've been better to add some talking audio for animals or supporting characters within a level, rather than plain text and sound effects.

To best summarize this game is to flip-flop a popular catch phrase of the day: "Don't hate the game, hate the player." Had this game been released with the Nintendo 64's launch, gamers would've gone bananas (sorry, I couldn't resist at least one monkey-related pun) and hailed this game as a gift from the video-game gods. Nowadays, 3D adventures seem to be a dime a dozen, and despite all the exhaustive gameplay Rare has thrown onto this game's plate, jaded players will probably aim "been there, done that" criticism at the title.

That said, this reviewer feels Donkey Kong 64 offers too much solid gameplay to warrant such criticism, even though it's not the technological marvel that Donkey Kong Country had been in its heyday. Those of you who remotely liked Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie will be excited to the point of numbness by this game. However, for those of you averse to the "collect everything" gameplay mentality, this game might come off as a chore to complete. In any case, Donkey Kong 64 has high-quality adventure written all over it - despite its camera flaws - and it gives you many reasons to see the good-guy Kongs thrive in 3D.

Nintendo has come a long way since it refused to allow blood in the SNES version of Mortal Kombat. For better or worse, this sort of content decision has earned Nintendo the reputation as the Disney of the video game industry. While parents know they can trust Nintendo to provide good clean fun for their children, the spend-happy over-18 market has instead found solace in the PlayStation's wide selection of games intended for adults. Hoping that it's not too late to change public perception, the Nintendo 64 now features the most boundary-pushing piece of software ever to hit a video game console: Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Conker is a squirrel that looks just like any other character from previous Nintendo games. But underneath his cordial exterior lies a trash-mouthed rodent with a penchant for booze, wild women, and lewd conduct. Conker's twisted tale begins at his local bar, where he tosses back a few too many drinks with his war-bound friends before stumbling out into the rainy night. Drunken, confused, and vomiting profusely, Conker becomes lost and eventually blacks out. When he comes to his senses, he finds himself in a world unlike he, or anyone else for that matter, has ever seen before--a world full of gutter-mouthed cogs, LSD-dropping demons, bosses with giant testicles, and a panther king that rules minions of seemingly inept weasels. It's a demented world, and Conker's only desire is to somehow escape and catch up with his girlfriend, Berri. While little more than just a setup for the game's content, the story makes no sense until the end of the game, when several plot twists help to explain things a bit.

In the early going, Conker's BFD indulges heavily in lurid situations that provide some genuine belly laughs. Throughout the course of the game, you'll see an opera-singing boss made entirely out of crap, graphic depictions of morose scenarios (like a firing squad), and furry creatures being ripped in half or blown to bits. At first, it all seems surreal. After the initial shock wears off, the humor becomes contrived at times. Nonetheless, Conker's BFD is like a good book. You can't wait to turn the page and find out what happens next. Blood, guts, feces, and swearing dominate the subject matter, and the game's design is targeted squarely at adults as well as children. Instead of having to collect exorbitant amounts of items and figure out where to use them, context-sensitive pads give them to you when you need them. Standing on the pads and pressing the B-button awards Conker with one-use items, special costumes, and extra abilities. Although you may meander virtually anywhere you choose, the game progresses in a linear fashion.

Another one of the game's aspects, which will appeal to the older crowd, is the dead-on movie spoofs that pop up with alarming regularity. One portion mimics the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan right down to the soldier-looking-for-his-arm bit. Scenes from The Terminator, The Godfather, The Matrix, and many more also get the Conker treatment. While it's really nothing new for the genre, the gameplay variety in Conker's BFD is excellent. In addition to the traditional jump, climb, swim, fly, and attack staples of 3D platformers, there are first-person shooting levels, racing levels, some simple puzzle elements, and plenty of minigames. The game reveals its heritage through some of the objectives, like carrying objects through gauntlets, which would be right at home in Banjo-Tooie. The platforming elements can be difficult at times thanks to a stubborn camera, but the majority of problems come from figuring out what to do instead of actually doing it. When compared with games like Banjo-Tooie, the linearity of Conker's BFD cuts its length considerably.

Maximum Carnage is one of those games that tried to do too much. It wanted to be based on a comic, but it also wanted to be a side-scrolling beat-em-up. Neither of these are done well at all, and what we're left with is an astoundingly mediocre game.

Maximum Carnage came in a red cartridge with a big picture of the titular character plastered on the front. I'm pretty sure that red color alone was enough to get kids to buy it, but the red cart was discontinued after the game didn't sell and it switched back to the standard grey.

As a young boy, I had no idea about the reputations of various game developers. Thirteen years later, looking at the bright red cartridge in front of me and seeing LJN's awful rainbow of ruination on the cover, I realize it was truly impossibly for this game to come out well. And believe me, it certainly did not. So here we go.

-Graphics- (5/10)
For the Super Nintendo, Carnage's graphics aren't bad. Everything looks like what it's supposed to be, and the characters all animate pretty fluidly. The problem is that the presentation is just boring. Aside from the hero characters and the bosses, the thugs you fight are just palette swaps of a few different models, which gets old. Besides a few strange robots in one stage, the enemies never really change. The levels aren't much to write home about either, with thrilling names like "Manhattan Street 2" and "New York Street" and environments that largely stay the same. You're either fighting in a city street or a park most of the time, which can get pretty old. The city backgrounds do show noticeable deterioration as the game progresses, which I thought was a nice touch.

-Sound- (6/10)
The music for Carnage was recorded by a rock band called Green Jelly, perhaps in an attempt to get their name out there with the Super Nintendo crowd or something like that. While the music sounds good enough, like the graphics, it's largely nondescript. The same four or five tunes play in most of the levels, so you start to ignore them after awhile. The character noises are just a collection of grunts that aren't worth mentioning, and the allied heroes have little jingles that play when you call on them for help. Some of these are suitable while others, such as Black Cat's, are so ridiculous that they detract from the experience.

-Plot- (4/10)
As this is a beat-'em-up, you shouldn't expect much story, and Carnage doesn't exceed those expectations. Carnage gets out of prison, rounds up a posse, and then starts making trouble. As the amazing Spider-Man, you've got to stop him. You can switch to Venom part of the way in, but it doesn't change how the story turns out, and most of the time the cutscenes seem to assume you're playing as Spider-Man. To the developers' credit, the story is largely told in animated cutscenes, some of which were supposedly taken from the comics the game is based on, which was a new thing for its time. The reason the story gets such low marks is that it forces you to lose numerous times to keep with the plot. Sometimes you have to lose at specific times though, so you can still get killed and lose lives, even though the ultimate objective is still to get your teeth kicked in.

-Gameplay- (3/10)
Oh boy here we go. I've been going easy on this game until now, but the gameplay is where everything just falls apart.

When you think of Spider-Man, what do you think of? Epic battles with Green Goblin? That one good scene in the third movie where Spidey kicked the tar out of Sandman in the subway tunnel? How about 50's throwback women hair-whipping the webslinger to death and fancy boys with umbrellas poking him into oblivion? No? In Maximum Carnage, this is the norm. You spend the majority of the game fighting hooligans who, for some inexplicable reason, have nothing better to do than beat up on Spider-Man and his pal Venom. They come in relentless waves, and the plot barely touches on why every Tom Dick and Coley wants our heroes dead. In fact, the first boss you face isn't even a supervillian, but a pair of women who are faster than you, do more damage than you, and have more health than you. Can someone explain that, other than the fact that LJN needed extra bosses? Last time I checked, fat guys with billy clubs, goofballs with umbrellas, and the cast of Miami Vice weren't part of Spidey's rogues' gallery.

Also, let's talk about those boss fights. When you're not beating on random thugs, you're fighting Carnage and his cronies. Again and again. You may not know who in the world Shriek, Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Carrion are, but by the end of the game you will. MC's definition of "hard" involves throwing these guys at you in waves of two and making them faster and stronger each time. I'd like to have some of what they've been eating, because by the end you can barely even touch them. It seems like every other level you're once again taking on Shriek and Doppelganger, who are only as hard as the level design is atrocious. Near the middle of the game you can start calling other heroes in for backup, and you'll need all the help you can get. To make matters worse, some bosses can only be hurt by specific allies. Carnage can only be hurt by Firestar or the Sonic Gun, but at the end of the game the gun doesn't hurt him anymore. And unless you have someone who can shoot Demogoblin out of the air or take care of that flying nuisance Carrion, you're basically out of luck.

Another glaring omission is the lack of a two-player mode. Maximum Carnage is singleplayer only, despite having both Spider-Man and Venom as the main characters. A game this hard begs for a second player to join in, but you don't get to. I don't see why this was omitted, except perhaps to keep to the plot, which isn't exactly necessary in a beat-'em-up like this.

Another thing that gets annoying is your health. Most of the time, you get a full health bar at the beginning of every level. Sometimes though, whenever the game feels like it I expect, your damage carries over. Beat a boss with a tiny sliver of health to spare? Sometimes that pitiful sliver will be all you get in the next level.

-Control- (3/10)
Gameplay and control often share each other's successes and failures, emphasis on the failures. In MC's case, the controls aren't terrible, except for one heinous flaw: the grabs. Other Carnage reviews have mentioned the Force Pull esque grabs, and it wouldn't be fair if I skipped over them. Have Spidey or Venom walk anyway near an enemy, and you'll grab that enemy. This wouldn't be a problem if punch combos weren't far more effective than grabs, which also have the added effect of leaving you utterly defenseless. When five guys are pummeling you into submission (something this game frequently does) the last thing you want to do is accidentally grab someone so the thugs can get some more free hits in.

Spidey and Venom have all of their usual abilities, but besides one level in the beginning, you never use them. Most of the time you just walk right and punch things. The webslinging mechanic (used by pressing X) is mostly an afterthought, and it's incredibly clumsy to use. Prospective webswingers will mostly find themselves falling back to the ground, so it's not really worth it. Pressing A will get you a shield that protects you from a very select group of attacks, (the umbrella guys have no trouble going through it) and tapping it allows you to shoot a strand that webs garden variety thugs up. Pressing A and hitting forward allows you to shoot out a webline that pulls enemies to you so you can grab them, and it can be useful. The special moves (used by hitting Y and B) only seem to work sometimes, and have the added bonus of hurting you. I guess it's not an LJN game unless something you do hurts you for no reason.

At least the differences between Spider-Man and Venom aren't merely cosmetic. Spider-Man is faster than Venom, but Venom is stronger. Also their power hits, which they gain from hitting enemies in a row without missing, are different, Spidey's being a powerful kick and Venom's being a ground pound that hits everyone on screen. Personally I prefer Venom, because by the end of the game everything's outrunning you anyway.

-Overall- (4/10)
While Maximum Carnage was an interesting attempt at porting a comic book story to the Super Nintendo, it just didn't work. The game sticks too closely to the plot at times (forcing you to lose and fight the same bosses again and again) and some of the cutscenes are just filler material. The gameplay is rage inducing, with endless waves of generic thugs that surround you and eat your lives like candy, and the graphical and sound departments are largely uninteresting. The lack of a multiplayer feature also hurts, because this game is asking for another player to join in. If you're looking for a two-player Spider-Man beat-'em-up, play Separation Anxiety. It fixes some of this game's glaring problems and adds in a multiplayer feature. Avoid this one unless you enjoy losing

Introduction: In 1994, Acclaim decided to release “Spiderman and Venom: Maximum Carnage” on to the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. It was unique for a couple of reasons, one being that the game pitted two hated foes against each other to take out a much more despised and deadly foe. Another reason was that, for all that was right with the game, Acclaim decided to take the “Final Fight hits the SNES” way out and make it only one player (but I guess Capcom was guiltier, considering the arcade version did have three characters and two players). But over them two reasons was the fact that Acclaim took the high road and made the game an original release, like LJN did with a couple of the Spiderman and X-Men games on the old NES, but I say that because there was an arcade version of Spiderman released in Japan by Sega.

Then, in 1995, Acclaim came back with a sequel for the red colored cartridge game entitled “Spiderman and Venom: Separation Anxiety”. Now, let it be known that Acclaim made SOME improvements from that game to this one, but for the most part, seemingly everything else not mentioned as I forge ahead rolled downhill.

Gameplay: Okay so, in keeping with what Acclaim DID get right from the first game to this one was the most obvious, and that was the addition of a two player function (although to a point, one player HAD to be Spiderman and the other Venom, you could only switch the controllers after you flipped a coin over the issue) but it was a start. Also, Acclaim was nice enough to include passwords, which came after so many levels (you didn't get them after every level, but at the toughest stages you would find them) and were there long enough for you to copy them.

But THAT is where the improvements end, and everything else falls apart from here on. I don't even know how to describe it (but I will try my damn hardest) but if you looked at this game and the prequel, you wouldn't even know they were supposed to be related unless you knew that from the adverts or the game manual.

Basically, the story is that a mysterious group known as the “Life Foundation” has somehow managed to capture Venom and they extracted symbolites from his costume, creating five “children” to the black suited anti-hero. Now, if this was the Venom of “S&V: MC” fame, he probably could have wiped the floor with the ENTIRE group: however, starting the game and seeing how both Venom and Spiderman fight, it's no wonder Big Tough Eddie got captured: it's honestly more surprising how the suddenly tough guy-turned-pansy got away. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to make them fight like slow moving twerps, but I sure hope that person was promptly hazed and fired.

And if it isn't bad enough that Spiderman and Venom seem to have about one half of the fighting ability that they did in the previous game, the AI now is suddenly a LOT smarter and a LOT cheaper. Yes, Acclaim said they wanted to make this game “original” and “not Maximum Carnage-lite” but can someone explain to me why they kept the SAME DAMN STANDARD ENEMIES FROM THE PREVIOUS GAME? I mean, the ONLY difference is how they are drawn, much like your characters: the thugs, the trench coat guys, and the overgrown girl scouts are all back, albeit only for the opening level. Because after that, you face the “Life Foundation soldiers” who are cheaper than a bubblegum machine ring: they shoot you, they drop little “fart bombs” and they kick you down low, but look like they are break dancing. Oh, and the game brings back the “Floating orbs that look like soccer balls and omit strange lights” while also including a little robot which looks like a cross between a scrap pile of garbage and a mouser from TMNT fame.

But it gets worse, because one of the problems I mentioned with “S&V: MC” returns here with repeating boss fights, and these guys make Shriek and her gang look like pop icons. Amongst them are two variations of a toy soldier, one in blue in white and the other green and white that flies around on a hover board, a guy who attacks EXACTLY like Shriek does, and a guy who is an EXACT copy of War Machine from Iron Man fame. In fact, the last one is a total JOKE considering that Marvel CREATED said character, and then allows Acclaim to turn around and rip it off: nice going kids. Oh, and let's not forget the “Five unwanted Children of Venom”, which range from one who looks JUST like him, to a little brown Venom with Carnage claws, a green little Venom with weeds sticking out of his back, and two girls, one red and orange and the other purple who loves to break dance.

What is a LITTLE bit interesting about the game is that some stages contain maze sections, having you go in the right door or “Ventilation duct” to continue. While some of them are good, (like in the jungle you can find dead ends but they give up valuable items) others are just a PITA (like the aforementioned Duct stage, which has the player as confused as the blonde girl in the corner in the circular room joke).

As with the previous game, Superhero help is available, but while the characters are more well-known, they limit you to only FOUR of them, those being Hawkeye, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and the returning Captain America: talk about originality.

When we were all younger, and hanging out in the smoky arcades, we could almost find this game. We would marvel at the neat graphics, and the neat sounds coming from the machine, but we never knew why there would never be anyone playing it. In our local arcade, I was the only player.

Imagine my thrill when I found this game for $10 at a local pawn shop. ''Wow! Now I can play free!'' However, it wasn't exactly like I thought it was. It was close to the arcade version, but so many different aspects of the game turned me off for a while.

What drew me back? The characters. The Vision, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and good ol' Captain America himself. To briefly stroll off-course, let me say that I love Disney games the most due to the fun I can have roleplaying the characters. Anyway ... these four characters drew me toward the game again some years later. The Red Skull, Whirlwind, even the X-Men's soldier enemy ... the Sentinel. They were all great. Even my hero Namor the Sub-Mariner was there! This game had the basic “hero against villain” storyline, but it was sort of different.

On the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, instead of all four Avengers battling the evildoers together, only One or Two players could play. This isn’t the game’s fault, because at that time, there wasn’t a Four-Controller adapter. But the lack of the 3rd and 4th player made this game excruciatingly difficult to the younger gamers. It was a nuisance sometimes for me as well. Enemies were harder, and staying alive was the same. How much fun can a person have losing all the time? It’s apathy, man. People don’t have patience. This means that not many a person would even attempt to defeat this game. There was an option for more lives, but it still doesn’t help all that much. The 100 damage system is terrible in this game as most attacks will inflict 10's of damage. This is definitely the game’s downfall.

The storyline as earlier stated is quite decent. The Red Skull is trying to do something evil to the city, and it’s up to Captain America and the Avengers to find out and stop him. In between levels, they try and develop the storyline by throwing in dialogue and comic book-style graphics. This doesn’t look half bad, other than the fact that the dialogue is a little unoriginal. The whole first level is revealed to be a set-up! How many times have we seen this happen before? Sadly, this storyline isn’t enough to pull any non-Marvel enthusiasts into the game. The reason I say that, is because I’m a huge Marvel fan, and that’s why I enjoy the storyline somewhat. I surveyed regular gamers, and they all hate the storyline. This isn’t my opinion, but the general gamers. Fair enough?

Another factor which is a bit of a pet peeve is the audio. Surely sound can’t make a game worse. Especially when the music is good, right? However, the music isn’t what drives me absolutely insane. It’s the sound effects. The punching, arrow-shooting effects are fine, but when Captain America and his gang are hurt via the enemy’s attacks, they are too repetitive, and they actually hurt your ears. Two words: Incredibly annoying. The music is fine, but the effects are terrible. I can’t be any more blunt.

For an early Super Nintendo game, the graphics were superb. You could easily tell which enemy was which, and which character you were controlling. Everything looked pretty crisp considering the technology we had back then. The backgrounds looked good, and exactly as they did in the arcade version. Sure, some things looked a tad out of place, but there wasn’t anything they could do. The graphics were detailed, and I happen to enjoy them a lot. I just wish there were more sprites for the Sub-Mariner . . .

The replay-ability factor is always hard to judge, and this is no exception. I rarely play a game after I beat it, and I must admit, I never did beat this game. After you get far into the game, and you lose, you do not want to try again. You want to put the game down and leave it for months and/or years. Should you beat it, it’s the same thing. The only time I ever wish to play this game is when I have absolutely nothing to do, and I’m not in the mood to play any other games, or I just want nostalgic memories. This game isn’t terrible, but it just doesn’t appeal to me all the time like some of the other games I own. Maybe you’ll be able to play it non-stop for hours. Who knows? Give it a shot.

All in all, this is an all right game. It’s decent, and I recommend it for anyone who is a hardcore Marvel fan. Of course you should get it. If you aren’t a Marvel fan, maybe you should think twice. If you are creating a collection, you might as well grab it. Just don’t spend more than $15 Canadian on it. (Although I don’t know anyone other than me who would pay that much for any Super Nintendo game in the first place.)

"Great game. But could have been better."

The SNES game Super Off Road is a simple game that has versions on the arcade, pc, and others. I only had this game and Street Fighter II back in the SNES days, so replaying it once in a while is good even if only to hear the sound tracks. But let's get to dissecting the game.
DIFFICULTY / CHALLENGE: 2/10
This game is just too easy. If you've played games such as "Super sprint" or "Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat" you'll see this game was made to please the people who weren't good at those other games. You can easily finish the race (5 laps) while the computer controlled cars didn't finish even the 4th lap, and there's no difficulty setting to adjust. You can max out your car in a matter of minutes. And then there's nothing else to be done with the game as it loops forever. Perhaps setting personal records on each track would be a good goal if there was a time attack mode where you could choose which track to play and start out with 99 nitros. But the way the game is, it's just pointless. You will only have some real fun in 2 players mode, but really, what are the odds of having 2 people enjoying this game in the same town? unlikely.
CONTROLS: 10/10
Simple. You press right/left to steer, B to accelerate, Y to nitro boost and L/R to help steering faster. The game works wonderfully and if you lose it's your fault. You will not find yourself cursing the controller. Never. This one gets a perfect score from me.
MUSIC / SOUND TRACK: 8/10
I love the sound track for this game, it's very well made and there's a good variety in it. Excellent quality i would say, it's SNES after all. It only does not get a 10 because it gets repetitive, but that's more the gameplay's fault than anything else.
SOUND EFFECTS: 5/10
There's nothing special with the sound effects, they do their job but the game could very well use some voice samples to spice up the race a little.
GRAPHICS: 6/10
The graphics work well too, the animation is strange at first with the truck jumping excessively but there are many key frames on the animation. And the scenery is well drawn. Every screen in the game is well designed but nothing too fancy.
RE-PLAYABILITY 3/10
This is the main problem with the game. It's endless. So playing it once means replaying the same tracks over and over until you get tired of it and forget about it for a long time.
OVERALL SCORE: 5/10
They could have easily made this a great title with some more effort put into it, but the same can be said about many games. So check out this title if you like this kind of game, but if you don't, you're not missing anything.

The Super Nintendo was not without an incredible number of simulation games to prepare America's next generation for the continued use of UN mandates, no fly zones, and the occasional counter-terrorism and regime changes. Turn and Burn: No Fly Zone is actually a very modern game for its time in terms of the concept of what this combat flight simulation is all about. Turn and Burn is well developed and includes sixteen missions that mention your objective support of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six and maintaining a "No Fly Zone" in a sector. Can you say Libya? One could easily relate this game to the recent geo-political events that have taken place in the world with Libya and other matters and I seriously doubt these terms were as popular or notable in 1994 as they are now.

Being a flight simulator, the game does not give you a detailed story about why you have to be the only F-14 fighter pilot out there to hold your own against several enemy fighter jets. The game does start off with a scene of the USS Dwight D Eisenhower (CVN-69) steaming towards a sector to enforce a "No Fly Zone" over an unnamed country. All of the enemies in the game are not identified but range from terrorists operating bomb plots at major European airports to arrogant dictators who have made their airspace so hostile that even a poor butterfly wouldn't make in the air. You start out by going Top Gun on some MIGS that seem to have an unreasonably close range on the aircraft carrier so this game tends to turn into an old fashioned dog fight style combat mode at times.

Turn and Burn does not have any major glitches to the game play unless you count the enemy subs and aircraft being way too close to an unprotected carrier. Landing is very easy to do. Your view is always from the cockpit but you can hold down the L and R buttons to look behind you and watch chaffs launch. The views will switch around as you close in on certain areas like the aircraft carrier and you enter a landing mode. All you have to do to land is reduce the throttle all the way down and line up to the runway. Everything else is automatic. Also you have the opportunity to try refueling in mid-air and have to line up to the gas line from the support jet.

While in the air you can switch to a radar screen that will show you exactly where all current enemies are and this helps to quickly find and hunt down targets and bogeys. Packing a few missiles you can dispatch enemy aircraft fairly quickly with lock on markers. However, if you run out of missiles you will usually have to resort to the machine guns and ride some MIG bumpers until they blow up. Dogfighting is so World War Two when a simple sidewinder can knock a MIG out before you ever see it.

Ground objectives will sometimes be available to attack and are a part of the missions. You can also land and refuel and rearm during most missions as fuel and weapons seem to run out quickly. I had a lot of fun with Super Strike Eagle for SNES but Turn and Burn also brings its own style to the type of 2-D screen play that these particular simulations offer.

There are sixteen missions that you can play on two different game modes. I don't think anyone has ever tried to beat this game on Ace mode as I have not seen the passwords for the Ace levels. The codes you see on here are for the novice missions. And of course beat the game on novice and all you get is a little encouragement to play the game on Ace. Ace mode is rather challenging.

I think there is only one music track on this game but the sound effects are very decent. Graphics are also great with the special screens you can switch between. The missions are not too detailed but are set in different types of the day and feature the dark and light horizon to mark what is air and raw earth.

Giving that the no fly zone must be enforced by you and only you, you will have plenty of challenges in this game. There is no historical basis to the game although some notable things are featured such as the the number 69 on the aircraft carrier you fly from and the mentioning of the SEAL Team Six in a few of the missions. The F-14 Tomcat is now retired since 2006 but sadly enough the US sold Iran some F-14s in the 70's and had to scrap those that flew in squadrons due to fears of Iran getting their hands on spare parts for the ones they now own. The F-14 was replaced by the F-18, but this fighter was definitely a model in a lot of kids' rooms in the 90's.

The story, in a Koopa shell: Our hero, Mario, receives a note from Princess Toadstool inviting him to Toadstool Castle for a cake...but when he arrives, the castle is deserted and a nasty, disembodied voice tells him to get lost. Yes, Princess Toadstool has yet again gotten her royal keister in the sling, and the bad guy gang of Bowser, Boo, et al, have overrun (and apparently redecorated) Mushroom Castle - hanging a collection of magical, wobbly-membraned paintings/portals that portray scenes from the fantastic worlds to which they're connected. Via Mushroom Castle's enchanted murals, players will find vast alternate worlds: Snowing planes of slippery ice slopes; mist-shrouded lagoons containing sunken ships; archipelagos of airborne islands; haunted castles wrapped in perpetual midnight; and red, seething expanses of lava-flooded obstacles. These worlds are slowly filling with monsters, the Princess herself is missing, and only one man can set things right.

Now somebody out there is probably thinking, "Mario, again. Mama mia!"

But wait....

The measure of a video game - one of them, rather, for they are legion - can be taken by the degree to which it provides an entertaining challenge, breaks new ground, and/or overcomes current designs, assumptions, and prejudices. If a game can best those that came before it in some way, that's good; if it can do this while offering a wholly new type of experience, that's great; and if it can so irresistibly draw a picky, opinionated, jaded game reviewer (like Yours Almost Always Perfectly Truly) into deep, emotional concern for the well-being of one dumpy little plumber, whom he never cared much for in the first place...well, that's revolutionary. Hard-core, demento gamers and media types knew it a year before its release, game deity Miyamoto-san certainly knew it as even as he designed it, and the collective mind of Nintendo (who essentially launched the Nintendo 64 platform around this title), knew it before anyone.

Mario 64, the prime product for the commercial maiden voyage of the Nintendo 64, puts the player into the magical world of Mario (where the streets are paved with gold stars) as never before. The engrossing, immersive cinematic viewpoint of the player-positionable "Lakitu-cam" is largely responsible for this. (It follows Mario and lets the player view the true 3D action from almost any third-person angle - including up, down, and all around.) And what a world we have here.Mushroom Castle is vast, with chambers sealed by doors requiring certain amounts of Star Power to open. Initially, only a few rooms are accessible to Mario. Inside these opening rooms, and scattered throughout the various realms, are signs that explain the basic moves or relate helpful navigating hints. After these are perused, a simple jump into a painting teleports Mario into a new world filled with dangers, puzzles, and stars to collect. Once in each new world, expect anything - the cosmos of Mario has a new look and feel, with vast, fully navigable mountainsides; castle strongholds; islands in the air; surreal, 3D moving-platform courses in underground chambers; walking bombs that trundle up and say boom; scary-looking eels that swim silently through wavering underwater environments; objects to climb, pick up, or throw; cannons to climb into; narrow suspension bridges to cross; and breathtaking, don't-look-down drops to avoid. One particularly psychedelic realm is accessed only when the player takes control of the camera and looks up at the castle's main hall ceiling. An artificial sun of sorts washes out the scene in a blaze of light. And when the blinding indoor sunburst clears...Mario is flying, looping, and banking through wide open skies occupied with clouds, rainbows, rings of spinning coins, and a handful of impossibly tall towers. It's a jaw-dropping scene straight out of REM sleep; a child's dream of flight in candy-colored polygons. Players may find themselves going back to this world again and again just because of its feel. It's that good.

Mario - who has apparently been spending a lot of time with the Russian Olympic team - is in new and top form. No longer content merely to run and jump, he sports a whole gaggle of new moves, including punch/kick combos, the aforementioned flying abilities, fairly graceful swimming techniques, a breakdancing-style foot-sweep, a running long jump, a somersaulting pound-the-ground attack, a wall-kick rebound that would make Jackie Chan proud, a belly-slide attack (reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies), and a truly spectacular standing double-gainer backflip - which wouldn't have been out of place in The Crow. Like I said earlier, I'm not the biggest fan of Mario the character, but the sheer range of his control options have made me at least a follower. As a side note: A nice gameplay touch is the thoughtful use of the versatile Nintendo gamepad. A very slight forward pressure on the controller lets Mario tiptoe oh-so-quietly forward - who knows who or what might be trying to sleep? And in Mario's universe, there are definitely some Whos and Whats that shouldn't be woken up until Mario's ready.

Everybody knows that somewhere in The Good Book of Games there's a common law stating that the play's the thing...but I'm going to commit a mortal sin here and tender a little heresy: Even beyond the sheer gameplay, the experience is the thing in Mario 64. With realms so vast and detailed, and yet so graphically clean and simple, one instinctively wants to go exploring: What's just beyond that rise? Who's peeking at me from behind that wall? How can I get to that far ridge, that seemingly inaccessible platform, that island floating unsupported in the air? Mario 64 is a game that rewards the curious, the original, and in some cases the bludgeoningly stubborn and tenacious. If Mario 64 is even a rough indication of what's to be expected from Nintendo, or from games in general, then we just might have a revolution of sorts in our very hands.

The Nintendo 64 had a slow start with only two launch games and not much variety in its early months. Luckily, Rareware came along and brought a kick-butt action title based on a popular movie license, which is most definitely rare. Goldeneye was a pioneer for console first-person shooters and helped win over a few Playstation and PC fans to the N64 as well.

Few movie-to-game translations turn out to be games that are actually good, and so not much hype was built around this game. The game turned out to be a real surprise and stood out as one of the best first-person shooters ever. For those who have no knowledge of the movie, and do not plan to acquire any, the story revolves around her Majesty’s top spy, James Bond, who has to stop an evil syndicate called Janus stop from firing a detonation of the Goldeneye satellite that looms in the earth’s orbit.

While a bit blurry, the N64 has rarely seen graphics this realistic. The way the game looks as it moves along is exceptional. There are so many animations to the characters you face, from ducking, rolling, and the huge array of various death animations that the game features. There are also a variety of textures to the stages and the objects in them. Crates, barrels, computers, vehicles and more litter the stages and make the levels look really great, especially when looking at the blander levels of other first-person shooters like Doom or Hexen. There are a bunch of different enemy models and faces for each level, so each time you play your not seeing exactly the same guys you see all the time. The weapons look fantastic as the bullet casings fly out realistically and muzzle flashes look very realistic and are different for each gun. Simply put, the levels look great. Not one is similar to the other, and each one looks straight out of the movie. An interesting feature that this game also has is that the actors’ faces from the movie are digitized to their game counterparts, so you not only feel like your Pierce Brosnan, but you look like him too. The frame rate is average, running smoothly overall, but chopping up a bit when things get hectic, especially in multiplayer when the pace really starts to pick up, but thankfully, it never slows down to the point of being unplayable.

The music in this game is arguable the best on the N64, with great remixes of the classic bond theme, and some very original pieces that fit the mood of the game and the levels that they are played in. The sound effects are great as well. The weapons all sound realistic and powerful. Little touches are peppered throughout the game, like the sound of the bullets hitting the enemy or even you can be heard, and this is but a small example of the great ways that this game utilizes its unique sounds effects.

Solid, innovative gameplay is the real kick in this game. Instead of the usual shoot-and-kill-anything-that-moves gameplay of many FPS, Goldeneye actually gives you varied mission objectives, and if you play the game again on a higher difficulty, there will be additional, or even completely different objectives that add a lot of replay value. The game throws you in situations that require stealth, and not just blasting in a room, guns blazing (which is completely alright as well, though certain ways are easier using one method than another.) You even have to watch for mission failures for killing civilians, so you’ll always be on the edge of your seat until the end of the level, making sure you don’t make a dumb mistake. These things make the game extremely enjoyable, and because the levels are short enough that you wont have to worry about save points or anything, you will experience much less frustration if you screw up. A small but cool bonus is that even when you fail a mission objective, the game still lets you go on playing anyway, so if you want to kill all the civilians and make it to the end of the level, you can by all means do that, but will not be able to progress to the next level. This game has some of the best gunplay ever seen in a game. The auto-aim is great and not too forgiving, requiring you to still aim despite the added accuracy it gives you, and a nice little touch is that you actually can see your gun move to auto aim in a certain direction, so then you can make quick decisions at what to shoot at and not waste bullets. The weapon variety is incredible, with pistols, rifles, and the like, and also some varied explosives, some remotely detonated, some proximity activated, and of course, rockets and grenades. And let’s not forget the ol’ Q gadgets that Bond gets to use, like the watch laser and door decoder, just to name a few.

The control is great as well, with accurate manual aiming by holding the R button, and smooth analog movement. Using the C-buttons for strafing movement is a must to dodge the gunfire of the harder enemies and your friends in multiplayer. Opening doors is a cinch, and can be done while running fast so you can make a quick entry and bust a few heads of some surprised guards. Reloading is a cinch, without any long animations that leave you open to hits. Also, being able to hold two guns makes the shooting even more fun, and the damage done even gives even Lara Croft with her dual pistol gameplay a run for her money. There is no jump feature, which may irritate more twitch gamers but it overall makes you feel stealthier. After all, Bond doesn’t go hopping around in the movies when he’s trying to infiltrate an enemy compound.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of the game is in its multiplayer modes. Up to four players can take arms and blast their buddies in the standard FPS modes like CTF and Deathmatch, but the modes are cleverly named after Bond movies. Special modes like ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ features 4 players battling each other and the man with the golden gun can kill in one hit, so it’s a scramble to see who can find and keep the golden gun longer. Or you could make the golden gun obsolete by playing ‘License to Kill’, where all the guns can kill in one shot. The actions chops up a bit when explosions and other effects get a bit heavy but the auto-aim really makes up for it so it is still playable. The multiplayer levels are varied and each provides a different atmosphere for, well, killing your friends. One great and often overlooked feature is the fact that the respawn points are throughout the level and the game makes sure your at a somewhat safe distance from an enemy when you respawn, and if it’s not safe, it goes to the next spawn point and you start there, eliminating a lot of cheap kills where you don’t even get to put up a fight.

Another great aspect to this game is its boatload of unlockable features and codes. Each level, in one of its difficulties, has a secret to be unlocked, and which can only be unlocked if you complete the levels in a time limit. These can be challenging but are definitely worth it, and add TONS of replay value to the game. There are also two unlockable stages, which are just as fun as the main levels of the game, and they provide a lot of fun for James Bond buffs.

Overall this is one of the top N64 games ever made and a total must-own title. Do not let your worry of licensed games sucking keep you away from Goldeneye, because this game will leave you truly shaken, not stirred.

My first experience with the Splatterhouse was flipping through a Gamepro magazine during 1993 and seeing a full-page advertisement for Splatterhouse 3, flaunting the ultra-violent nature and demonic setting of the series with the enlarged box-art of a muscled, shirtless Rick wielding an axe against some bulb-headed monster. I came to acquire the 2nd and 3rd game of the series over the next few years, although I wasn't willing to play them through without experiencing the original Splatterhouse (which would sadly remain arcade-exclusive in its original state for over a decade to come). Now that the new Splatterhouse remake has gone the distance of including the uncut classic trilogy as an unlockable package - I needed to wait no further to sink my teeth into a franchise I had been eager to embrace for many years. This review is based on the emulated version included in the 360 variant of Splatterhouse (2010), and all contents within are to be judged as if they were coming straight out of my old Sega Genesis.

Story 10/10

It's been five years since Splatterhouse 2 concluded with Rick rescuing Jennifer from the eternal torment of the underworld, and things have been going quite well for the couple. Rick landed a job on Wall Street, raking in enough money for Jennifer (now his wife) and David (their young child) to live comfortably in a mansion. One night, Rick is sound asleep when the distant memory of the horrors he endured spring to life when the Terror Mask materializes in his dreams and warns him of an incoming horde of demons. The monsters are after Rick's family, needed a psychic link to a dormant artifact that will grant a terribly evil entity its powers that were long ago sealed away. Rick's cozy mansion begins to sink into another dimension, exaggerating its size (seriously, the place is bigger than a castle in the game) and filling it to the brim with mindless fiends seeking the taste of Rick and his family's flesh. Now Rick must once again don the Terror Mask to battle through the warped halls of his home and into a frightening world beyond - desperate to protect Jennifer and David from becoming a human sacrifice. Splatterhouse is by far the most cinematic of the original trilogy - with constant creepy cut-scenes showcasing what events are unfolding within the mansion, and unlike the previous games - there are multiple endings depending on your action.

Graphics 10/10

The visuals here are quite impressive - as Splatterhouse 3 showcases a larger environment than the two previous installments and manages to make it even more grotesque. The walls of the mansion are constantly slathered in human or demon remains - some rooms you enter are simply shrines to the violence that took place earlier, with severed limbs, torn-open rib-cages, and all sorts of gook caked onto the floor. The enemies this time around are utter abominations, looking like skinned corpses (animal? human? I'm not entirely sure if you can discern between them) fitted out with savage claws and gnashing teeth. Not only are they hideous to look at, but they actually show the injuries you inflict upon them (quite a rare thing for a 1993 game). Sometimes its as low-key as blood and bile seeping through their bruised flesh, but then you get the occasional foe that has half of its face tumble off with a delightful crunching sound that accentuates the image of discarded bone and tissue splattering onto the floor. After literally getting the hell beat out of them, the some of the undead will violently spasm on the floor and all of them meet their end by erupting into a puddle of molten flesh and rancid fluid. The addition of wounded monsters is not just a cosmetic thing - some of them display new abilities (like the bulb-faced monster on the box-art, which has an addition arm that will reach out of its now-exposed throat to flail at you once its upper skull has been destroyed). Rick has gotten a makeover for himself - with his trademark jumpsuit getting swapped out for overalls to emphasize his chiseled physique. The Terror Mask now resembles some kind skeleton implant onto Rick's face, and when he transforms into his "rage form" - his entire head is enveloped by bone ridges kind of along the lines of a Predator's face without dreadlocks. With the Terror Mask on, Rick is already pretty beefed up - but when you use those power-up orbs, his muscle density sky-rockets and he looks like some juiced-up character from The Fist of the North Star. "Rage Form" Rick has enhanced abilities I will cover in the game-play section of the review, but I like the visual flair of these flesh-like stalks that sometimes protrude from his chest like something out of Hellraiser or that Nightmare on Elm Street movie where the trapped souls stretch out against Freddy's skin. The animation has improved and sheds most of the stiffness apparent in the first two games, which is tied into Rick's much extended array of combat abilities and the reactions of the enemy bodies he tosses around with those new moves. The cut-scenes during and between stages lack any kind of pixelation or rigidness you typically see with early 90s console games attempting to be theatrical. You can see with haunting detail the expression of horror on Jennifer's face and the aura of innocence around David as they are stalked by the ravenous beasts that have overwhelmed the mansion. Even the "game over" screen is worth mentioning - choosing to quit the game will have Rick's illuminated limp body dissolve into a pool of dissolved meat and naked bones. Despite being made only a year after Splatterhouse 2, the third installment raises the bar a good few notches against the previous game's graphic splendor and tops it in almost every aspect.

Sound 8/10

While the original Splatterhouse still has my favorite soundtrack in the series, the third game improves upon the score of the previous title with more distinguishable tracks to set the mood of the frantic action and the threat against Rick's family. The sound effects here are solid as well, as Rick's attacks have the typical thudding noises you'd expect from a brawler as well as a variety of grunts and groans as he takes damage and dies. The demons offer up a healthy serving of crunches, splats, gasps, and gurgles as they make their presence know and are reduced to bubbling piles of goo when killed.

Control 10/10

Splatterhouse 3 surgically removes the two biggest problems from the previous games' handling issues (platforming segments and enemies attacking from an aerial position), making it play just as smooth as any respectable early 90s console beat 'em up.

Game-play 9/10

Namco went out and overhauled the entire Splatterhouse combat mechanic core, replacing the single-plane Kung-Fu Master approach with a more complex 3d movement scheme along the lines of beat 'em ups like Final Fight. Rick now has a variety of combat skills at his disposal - including a headbutt, pile-driver, and throw which feel as natural as anything out of Streets of Rage 2. As I mentioned earlier, platforming was stripped from the equation - meaning that all your time will now be rightfully spent caving in ghouls' faces and transversing the mansion (which reminds me a bit of what Resident Evil might have been like if made during the 16-bit era). Another major chance is that you now collect health orbs (instead of earning extra lives from points) and power-ups that can trigger a "rage mode" Rick now has. "Rage Mode" soups up Ricks basic attacks - breaking apart enemies with greater ease and throwing objects with incredible force instead of using them in-hand. You have to be strategic with "rage mode", because sometimes you'll happen to come across an abundance of power-ups (meaning you've been too stingy with the ability), or on the opposite side of the spectrum - you'll run your reserves dry and wind up not being able to activate it when you're in a bind. One thing that kind of sucks about "rage mode" is that no matter how many bars you have filled up, you will be reset to empty if you clear a level with the ability active. This means that you'll often have to choose between using one bar at a time (instead of stockpiling), or gamble that you can secure enough new orbs between now and the next boss battle or difficult wave of enemies. Weapon pick-ups make a return in Splatterhouse 3, although they aren't as abundant as in the previous games (I don't believe there is even a single shotgun in the game) and handle a bit differently. You can carry a weapon for as long as you'd like in a stage, although the first time you take damage you drop it and a ghost carries it off into oblivion (I would have preferred a more traditional method where the weapon can damage so many enemies before breaking). Although these weapons, like always, can give you a significant combat edge in battle - the enemies in this game won't die from a single hit, and you can no longer smear them across the walls home-run derby style. In addition to the revamped fighting system, Rick now has to make his way through his massive estate room by room - with you keeping an eye on the stage's timer (which ties into the events of the plot) and carefully selecting which route would be the most effective depending on how you play the game. For example, I tend to hoard all the power-ups for boss battles or against the extremely powerful obese demons with the shark-like gaping mouths that can drop you down to 50% health. Other people might like to be more liberal with the "rage mode" and focus on keeping as much health and lives stocked up by over-powering the common enemies with the "Hulk" version of Rick. If you find yourself in need of more items than the most direct path offers, you can detour into the various side-rooms or backtrack a bit - although you risk running out of time and you have to re-fight enemies from previous rooms. Splatterhouse 3 is also the first game in the series to offer a choice of difficulty levels - but make no mistake, even on "easy" you can get caught up in a combo and have your life-bar drastically reduced in a moment's notice. The series carries on its legacy of being no walk in the park - but the inclusion of a password system and unlimited chances to restart a floor of the mansion mean that its never too frustrating to find yourself on the receiving end of death. I do enjoy the overwhelming majority of the game's new feel, and it stacks up quite well against the other major Sega Genesis beat 'em ups. Even over 17 years after its initial release, with the pressure of hype set against it from me having to wait all this time to really get into it - Splatterhouse 3 stands out as one of the best hybrids of fast-paced action and bone-chilling horror I've experience to this day.

Replay value 7/10

While the earlier Splatterhouse titles offered nothing different per alternate play-through aside from the option of taking the high or low ground on certain stages, the third installment of the series offers quite a few incentives. The mansion has roughly a dozen rooms per floor, and you can pick and choose your route from the starting position to the boss's lair - meaning you'd have to beat the game at least twice to explore the entire estate under the time limit for each level. Beating the clock will get you the happier endings, although that means having to fight harder and faster without any kind of backtracking for weapons, health, or power-ups. Of course, you can take your time and play it safe in terms of combat, but will you be able to live with yourself if something happens to Jennifer or David? Your choices will decide between four possible endings - which is a nice departure from the linearity which guides most beat 'em up games. There's also a password system to select a certain level and/or family status if you have to take a break from the game or just can't beat a boss. Splatterhouse 3 packed in a nice bundle of replay incentive, which is nothing to scoff at for a game which doesn't have different characters to play as, co-op, or any kind of experience or upgrade system.

Overall 9/10

Having now gone through the entire series (including the new remake, which I will be reviewing next) I have to say that Splatterhouse 3 impressed me the most of the entire franchise. The violence is brutal without being comical, the atmosphere is tense and bleak, and there's enough content to keep you occupied without ADHD kicking in. Whether you pick up a copy of this game on the Sega Genesis or get the entire bundle in the PS3/360 game - it is a must-play entry in both survival-horror and beat 'em up action that older and younger gamers should enthusiastically seek out.

When it comes to sports video games, the Sony PlayStation has always been regarded as the leader of the next generation consoles in that area, with the only exception being the sport of baseball, where Sega Sports and their World Series Baseball games have been considered the cream of the crop. Sega Sports is back again this year with their third baseball game for the Sega Saturn, World Series Baseball '98. And unlike the first two World Series Baseball games for the Saturn, World Series Baseball '98 features an all-new 3D polygonal engine, plus new batting and pitching interfaces, and more simulation like features.

Like all baseball video games should be required to have, World Series Baseball '98 comes packed with the Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association licenses, which means that it has all the real Major League Baseball teams and players. This also includes the two future expansion teams, the Arizona Diamond Backs and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Of course, since those two teams don't have players yet, they are filled with fictional players. In addition to the real teams and players, World Series Baseball '98 is also packed with all 30 real Major League Baseball stadiums. That is the stadiums of the 28 current Major League Baseball teams, plus the stadiums for the expansion teams, Arizona and Tampa Bay. The stadiums are modeled after the real stadiums and have most of the major features like Boston's green monster in left field, the apple in Shea Stadium and the warehouse behind the right field fence in Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

There are four different play modes to choose from in World Series Baseball '98, all of which seem pretty standard in all of today's baseball video games. The play modes are: Exhibition, Pennant Race, Playoffs and Home Run Derby. The exhibition is like a quick play mode where you can either play against the computer, against a human opponent, or have the computer play against the computer. The Pennant Race mode is the season mode where you must choose a single team that you want to use and you then play that team's 162 game season based on this year's real schedule, which includes inter-league play. The Playoff mode is a mode that puts you straight into the playoffs, as if you have already finished the entire regular season. And finally, the Home Run Derby mode allows one or two players to battle to see who can hit the most home runs. In the Home Run Derby, you can choose any player from the entire list of Major League Baseball players and have them hit in any of the 30 ball parks.

In all the modes, you have three difficulty levels to chose from, which are rookie, veteran and all- star. In the exhibition mode, you can also select to have the DH rule turned off or on, while in the Pennant Race and Playoff modes, this option is determined by the team that you are using. In all the modes, you have the option of using either of the two future expansion teams, but in the season mode (Pennant Race) if you decide to use an expansion team, you must remove one of the current teams from the league.

One of the options that was seriously lacking in the World Series Baseball and World Series Baseball II was the statistical tracking. Sega Sports has finally heard the cry of many Saturn baseball fans and have done a pretty good and thorough job with the statistical tracking in World Series Baseball '98. League leaders for both pitching and hitting are kept, as well as the individual stats for all the players in your league. For pitchers, stats are kept for ERA, games, innings pitched, earned runs, wins, losses, saves, hits given up, home runs surrendered, strike outs and walks. And for the hitters, stats are kept for their batting average, at bats, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, runs batted in, strike outs, walks, stolen bases and errors. While this is a huge and welcome improvement over the previous two Saturn World Series Baseball games, it still isn't enough as they have failed to include statistics, league leaders or even the standings for players and teams in the league that your team is not a part of. This might not be considered a problem for many gamers, but for the diehard baseball fan, who wants to know how teams and players in the other league are doing, this is a huge thing to leave out, especially considering that you play teams in the other league in the regular season.

Besides the horrid stat tracking features in the previous two World Series Baseball games for the Saturn, the other features that were sorely missed were the lack of the option to create players and the total lack of player management in terms of trading, signing and releasing players. Sega has once again decided to ignore these important features. You can bring players up from the minors, but it is from a list of players that were on the team when the rosters were expanded or some made up players that don't exist. The lack of the create a player option is sorely missed as you aren't able to create players on your current team that have just been brought up from the minors and are new to your team.

While leaving out the create player option is somewhat forgivable, the omission of an option to trade, sign or release players is totally unforgivable. Casual baseball fans might not see the big deal with this option, but for baseball freaks like myself this is a must in any baseball game or any sports game for that matter. Trading players really helps the replay value of the game in that you can have and play with a roster of players that reflect the current roster on the real Major League team. For instance, when playing World Series Baseball '98, I'm stuck with the likes of Eric Davis, Rocky Coppinger and Jerome Walton, while I should be able to trade for or create players currently on the Baltimore Orioles roster like Geronimo Berroa, Harold Baines or Rick Krivda. I understand that Sega is probably scared of doing this because it might hurt future sales, but that just isn't true as the die hard fans that want these kind of options are also the people that will go out and buy the best baseball video game available each year, and if Sega keeps leaving out these options, World Series Baseball might not be the game that they decide to purchase.

Even though the options and features are a large part of what makes a great baseball video game, the most important thing to consider is the actual gameplay, and thankfully World Series Baseball '98 excels in this department. First of all, the hitting interface is one of the best that I've seen in any console baseball game. When you first come up, you have the option to look for a pitch in one of four areas of the strike zone; top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right. If you decide to look for a pitch in a certain area and the pitch is thrown in that area, the cursor will light up and your chances of getting a good hit are greatly increased. But, if the pitcher throws the ball in another area, you will have to move your cursor from the area, that you chose to look for the pitch in, to the area where the pitch is thrown, making it a bit tougher to get a hit. You also have the option to not look for a pitch in any area, in that case, the cursor will start in the middle and you can move from the start to where the pitch is thrown. Another neat little aspect of hitting is the hot and cold areas of the plate. Depending on who's at bat, the four areas of the strike zone will be either red, blue or clear. If it is red it is his hot zone, if it is blue it is his cold area, and if it is clear he is neither hot or cold in that area.

When the ball is pitched to you, there will be a cursor that lights up showing you where the pitcher has aimed the pitch. Of course, the ball won't always go directly to that spot as it depends on whether the pitcher hits his location or the type of pitch that is thrown. For instance, if the pitcher throws a split finger fastball, the ball and cursor will dip downwards as the ball approaches the plate. And where the ball ends up from where the cursor is aimed is totally reliant on the pitch thrown, which makes it a bit tougher to guess when facing pitchers with a larger arsenal of pitches at their disposal, just like in real baseball. And while fastballs usually end up exactly where the cursor is positions, the pitcher will occasionally get wild and miss the spot entirely.

Your final option in the batters box is to bunt. If you decide to bunt, you just simply press the Z button and use the D-pad to guide your bat and try to aim the bunt. Unlike most other baseball games, bunting doesn't seem to be such a huge offensive weapon in World Series Baseball '98, as the computer controlled players seem to know exactly where the ball should be thrown. In most cases, the defense will simply go for the sure out at first base, which is a huge improvement over most other baseball video games where they have the fielder go for the lead out, even when they don't have a chance to get them. This is a problem that plagued most of the previous baseball video games, where if you had runners on first and second, you could simply get on base, by sending the runners and bunting the ball because the computer controlled infielder would almost always throw the ball to third base in an effort to get the lead runner, even if he has no shot to get him. This doesn't happen in World Series Baseball '98 as the infielder will just throw the ball to first, unless he has a great shot at getting the lead runner.

This leads up to one of the most impressive aspects of World Series Baseball '98, the AI of the CPU controlled defense. Of all the current baseball games on the Sega Saturn, World Series Baseball '98 has the best computer AI. I've played through about one quarter of an entire season, about 39 games, and not once have I noticed the computer throw the ball to the wrong base. And by not throwing the ball to the wrong base, I mean the computer has thrown to the bases that a real Major League Baseball player would throw to in a real game. For example, when there are less than two outs, you have a player on second base, and you hit a slow grounder to the second baseman, the computer will simply throw the ball to first base and get the sure out. At the same time, if the ball is hit to shortstop, the computer will make a decision based on what you do with the man on second. If you have him run and the computer has time to get him out, he'll throw the ball to third, but if you had the player on second moving with the pitch and the chances of the shortstop getting him out are slim, the computer will have the shortstop get the force out at first base. I have never played a console baseball game where the computer AI has given me the impression that the players are actually thinking of what they are doing. This is even more noticeable when compared to the recently released Triple Play '98 for the Sony PlayStation, a game that probably has the worst AI of any game that I've ever played, as you'll notice bad decisions by the computer controlled players about two or three times per game. And as I stated earlier, I haven't noticed a really bad decision made by the computer controlled players in any of the 39 games that I have played.

Although I feel the computer AI is pretty close to perfect, it does have one minor complaint. This complaint is when there is a pop up in the middle infield, where the computer will have the pitcher catch the ball about 99% of the time. While this may seem right because the pitcher is the closest player to the ball, it isn't the case as Major League pitchers are taught to let the "real" defensive players catch the pop ups. Of course, some pitchers in the majors do catch their own pop ups on occasion, so this is really a nit pick and not a major problem.

The last positive aspect of the hitting that I will cover is the realism in the types of hits that your players gets. If you play on hard, you will still get more home runs that a real baseball team would get, but it is substantially less than the previous two Saturn World Series Baseball titles. Also, you pretty much get all the his that are in real baseball and are sometimes missing from video games, like ground balls up the middle, high choppers that go over the infielder's head, ground ball hits down the first or third base lines, and bloopers that fall in between the outfielders and infielders. In addition to that, for the most part hits that should be singles end up singles and hits that should be doubles end up doubles and so on. Although, certain hits down the lines that should be doubles with the faster players on your team are fielded too quickly and you get stuck with a single.

When it comes to base running, you have complete control over all your players. You can run them all at the same time, or control each individually. The only real problem with the base running aspect of World Series Baseball '98 is the fact that it is incredibly hard to score a runner from second on any type of single. Even if you have the man on second running, you will get yourself thrown out a high percentage of the time if you send him home on base hits that should score him rather easily. But, with tag ups on fly ball outs to the outfield, the runner seems to be able to score from balls hit to distances that should score him and he gets thrown out at the shorter distances that shouldn't score him from third.

Next up is the pitching and fielding aspects of the game. When you the batter comes up to the plate, you must first decide which pitch you are going to throw. You will have a variety of pitches depending on what that pitcher has in real life, or pretty close to it. For instance, some pitchers will just have a fastball and change up, while others will have four or five different pitches to choose from. Once you select a pitch, you must then select the location of where you want to aim the pitch, keeping in mind that certain pitches will move away from that spot. You must also consider the batter's hot and cold areas and try to keep away from his hot area, but still throw it there enough to keep him honest.

The control of the defensive players is pretty solid like all of the other aspects of the game. When the fielder catches the ball you have two ways of throwing the ball to specific bases, you can either used the D-Pad in conjunction with the C button, or use single button press that are assigned to each base (X for third, Y for second, Z for first, and A for home). Both ways work very well, and it's really a nice option to be able to choose either method.

The one major negative with the defense in World Series Baseball '98 is the lack of simulation features in positioning your defense and warming up your pitchers. You do have the option to have your infield set up for a bunt, play deep, play shallow, or normal, but that is nowhere near enough. You should be able to move your outfield varying degrees left/right and in/out. Plus, you should have more options for your infield as well, also in varying degrees. The lack of having to warm up your pictures takes some of the thinking and thus the realism out of the game. I want to have to make decisions on when to start warming up my pitchers, and be helped our hurt based on whether I made the correct decision, this is a large part of real baseball, but is left out of this game.

While the gameplay is probably the best feature of World Series Baseball '98, the graphics are probably its worst feature. The polygon players are animated fairly well, the batters have many of the real player's actual baseball stances, the pitchers have many of the real wind-ups, and the stadiums are pretty accurate to the details of the real stadiums, but that is pretty much all of the positives. The players are nowhere near as smooth as the players in either Triple Play '98 or MLB '98 for the PS and neither are the stadiums. The players are animated fairly well, but the swings aren't as fluid as the other recently released polygon baseball games, and those aren't exceptionally fluid either. And the stadiums, while detailed, are pretty low-res and have flat and inactive crowds There are also some polygon glitches in the batter's swings and in the stadium walls on deep fly balls to the outfielders.

The sound in World Series Baseball '98 is pretty much like the previous two games. You have your standard crowd noises, no vendors yelling out, the announcer calls balls, strikes, strike outs and different types of hits and you have music for the national anthem and seventh inning stretch. The announcer if pretty average, as he calls everything pretty quick and his voice is crystal clear, but it doesn't seem like he has that wide of a variety in what he says. He tends to say things like low and outside on strikes and will say the ball was crushed on weak pop outs to the infielders. Also, on high pop ups to the infield, he will say, something to the effect of "he hits the ball high in the air", something that I've never heard an announcer say. A simple, "he pops it up" would have been much better. The sound effects are pretty good, as in many cases you can tell how hard of hit the player just got based on how it sounds off of the bat. Balls hit on the inside of the bat sound like they are hitting the inside of the bat and balls hit cleanly sound pretty solid off of the bat.

Overall, World Series Baseball '98 is probably the best baseball game available for the Sega Saturn, and one of the top baseball games for any video game console. If it were not for the omission of certain very important simulation type features like player management, complete control over your defensive positioning and having to deal with the process of warming up pitchers in your bullpen, World Series Baseball '98 could have been a must buy game. But as it stands, it is still a very good game and one that should be considered by anyone looking for a quality baseball game for their Sega Saturn.