No015Jan97

SEGA SATURN MASAZ/NE 15 _

COIN · OPERATED _

90 1996 JAMMA SHOW REPORT

----. ............. ..

..,..-...0- __ _ ~ ~--

Sega's flagship character comes 10 Sattrn! In ttis orlgM isometric 30 a<Nentll"e the spiky hedgehog IS once agaJI lXtted agmsl the evil power of Il1O Robot'*! We've got the one and OOyexclusrYe, so c:heCa It out!

'-M .... ., ........

_1-"'_.............. ............-

MMVtint_....

"-

aaa... _

warn. 10 know aI about the hOnest arcade mactfts youl be pIayq in the near tunre?

Go 10 0Lr mega JAMMA report now for detaisonaltheexciti'egatneSalttis prestigious Japanese event! h's an arti::ie you ta11 rrissifyoireintocoin-ops.like weare..

The AM3 robo-battler Virtual On has rmt; arrived on SallrTl and of co.rse, ~ from

~"-

thoseprestigioosdeYelop!n.il'SnippirC

~

inaedibIe!"ltluta1p1ayiConW'CO\Ief'(iscIO get a ~ and then move on 10 W' feanre to see sorre 01 the game's other,ina'edibIe fealtreS..GetlTlClYing!

(dilorWC....ud ......,c-,

_

.........

J.a-.~_".a..

~~-~

-~-

....

~_tooIo:pNI.-irl-....the

~"'the

........... ....u-I ..

thiI.

~the~.-_hdoIl8f'O'O"

COMMAND AND CONQUER

. . . . . _ · ·_ _ ~tNII....,ow.- ·

portIaoAooIyif ......... ...,.. .. u..

CUtehao¥weOOy;.spttisforreview when it's w in the Shops as we wrile isa bit

~-~ ~ ............... ""poo<I ..... houtpolor

.........

--"_"-'the~iJ ...

--

lMAI'~"'Sorp.ufl'

__

~

-~"'''-'~-,s..p

_ --

s.I .......... _~Ttwedil~

-_ ------tIpo ..-

. .hiootiJ~"'_~_

....... ..

10 lEST All SOFTWARE

-

->-

olamyst~AestasslSedlhough.there'sno

rit"'

SEGA SATuRN

Sega of Arreica rellrTl WIth theIf" own flagship dlafacter, Bug The orenaI game was IRtty good, but the 5e(JJI!I ttreatens to biow it out 01 the water, wrth far St4)eIiOr IJ1tPI'iCS. ITIOr1! vanety. IORS more stageSandp6entylTlOr1!bescies(IikeItreeOf·

ferenlcharacterslooontrol). ForUreasooageaslo~itrealyissorruchbetler,

go 10 page 18 now!

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

dodgy-release it before it's I"IlYievrIed" tricker'y going on here· Command andCorl(JJl!ris ace.

As you 'tII'Odd expect from Westwood Studios, one of the lop two American deYeIopen; (the other's id soflwMe).

CHRISTMAS NiGHTS After W' tantaisWC two page featln last month we ta1 ~ the U power 01 the Sof'Ic Team's briiant Orislmas package.. Ttis special version or NiGHTS is packed ,.. or loYeIinessandhardcoregarrqaction.Alis revealed here,incItdn£the Sonic mode!

.. .£33.00 . . . . ErI,e £46..OO . . . . z.. 1.£13.00 Eft £46.00. r.. ............ _

......

SUBSCRIPTION / BACI ISSUES ENQUIRIES ...... ~ lower house,lathkl street, ~ Port. Market ~ L.eics.IHi9Ef. (01858) 435350

11

;J

'"

': )lit. ;, /,/

_

REVIEWS _ _ _ __

66 61 70 72 74 76 71 10 12 14 16 11 _

VIRTUAL ON BLAST CHA.BER NHL HOCIEY ' 97 CO •• AND AMD CONQUER SEGA AGES .IGHTY HITS TETRIS PLUS IRElIPOINT IIllY IVAN TUNNEL 11 JOHN .ADDEN ' 97 JEWELS OF THE OllCLE REGULARS _ _ _ __

6

NEWS LETTERS Q+A TIPS OUT NOW NEXT .ONTH

_ PLUS! SUBSCRIBE AND GET CHIIST.AS NiGHTS FREE! TURN TO PAGE 64 RIGHT THIS .INUTE!

W~~~On~~~\:!~::~~:~:~:I=:E;;~ !:'~i::aS~;~~t maguine (and him diSOlppeOlring for oil w~k to do the awesome CVG History of Videogames), but we've sti ll m,milged to produce §(line grtat stuff. As well iIS getting the first IooIt at Fighters Mega Mill. we've got st unning news about VF3. Ust Bronx and of course X-Men versus Street Fighter. I cIo heilrtily fKOmmend Virtua l On <ond CommOlnd .md Conquer - two games thilt you shoold go out and purchase right now. I've al§O finally -got into· Tomb bide. as w ell · a Saturn ,':lIne you MUST own. Oddly enough, two of t he three games rYe Just Il'H'ntionrd an be

:tIEW S CAPCOM'S LATEST EXCl found on our spectKul,1r demo diS( · which ~1)'Of1e gris to umple t his time. SEGA SATUR N MAGAZI NE: the

~ ~outt here. 8<J r none. ~ ............

~..::::=:;::::::::_

&IIt..

ilpcDftlteamedupwitfts.eptopthtlftOStesdtingpres$

C

bundloIthe)'eK.Natrriy_~MqaMilI-*d

J

withVFJandUsta.-~forCDrftll85iontosatum, \ butUpmmaholtqlpedintothe.w,gto~tfgtX-Mal

Ysws street ~iI a SATURN EXCI.lISNa At the: now !egend;IIY Power-Up press confe<ence on NooIembeJ 6, Junichi Nagai. te.lm milnaga of the Glpcom market ing group announced their intention to bring their liItest 20 fight ing game to ~urn only.

1f)lOU missed the Coin.()pemed leport a couple of issues ago in SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE. we'VC' S«Il fit to print a load of ilrcade ~ (~pect iI neill-idef!tiGIllook for the Saturn game) ilnd ~11y fill)IOU in a bit about what the gilme's about.

Basically speaking. X·Men I.4elsus Str~ Rgntl':l is like a aoss ~ MilrveI Svper Het'oes and Stn!d Ftghtl':l Alpha 2. combining ~tsofboth.

The em~ is fal more on action though. ilS opposed to the techniGIl natureofSfIu.. The~ of the gilme is ton fastl':l than Alpha. with Il"IO\o'eS being mudl easirr to pull off. SpeciilI Il"IO\o'eS are also fal more spect.iIocUIaI. with some enormous sprites on screen which dearly thePlaySbtioncan"thandle(chcckoottheno-~ofX-Men(ilpparently

canned 1'01 good) and the lacklustre Dar\Stalkcrs CDIlYrfsion).

Wll'S IT AI1_ MilrveI arch ·villain ApoGlIypsc lives by one ~ge that only the fittest must SUIvive..Having been around for r:Ii'ef a thousand yealS, he'sconvinccd that the risoeof the mutants will mntinlH' u~withtheweak hUlTlilnsevent.uaIIyOVC'lwhelmed bytheewlution of the mutanl gene.1-Iowevl':I. the antics of the Str~ Rghters has aught his attention. un these mere humans really match up to the superhuman powers of the genetic mut .. nt X-factotl He kidnaps iI bunch ofStfm Ftghtl':lS and X·Men and derides to aIry out some painful research on them.

Putting aWr all of their diffnl':lKes. mutants and Street Ftghtl':lS come togd:hl':I to take d!M-n Apocalypse. ~asing that a DOe-<Wl-orle battle with ApoGlIypsc is ne.11-suiddal, thecharacters team up into pairs and go into battle - fur some leason . .lg.. insteac:hotherl

lIElUIISIIIII:n.

The best thing about X-Men I.4elsus Str~ Rghtl':l is undoubtmlythe fact that you actwlly h_ cont,oI Ooel TWO charxtl':ls. On the charxtl':l seIa:t screen, two ftghtl':lS an be: chosen (from eight X-charxtl':lS 01 nine SftiS). IOto the gilrTle ilnd lhe Ih,ee:-lound ~ch system has been scrapprd. Basically the match is now r:Ii'ef when both of YOU' characters haYe ~n defeated. Switch betweeo them by using the heavy punch and kid buttons si mult.lneousty. Ifs itS simple itS th;lt reall)t _lT1D~

""I~_""~AldII

SlnItf\lMrl· _

~

..............

## SEGA SATURN

a- U . . . . . . . .,..., ill tnllCJIL....

a..........,.. s.-

~

...... ..,.....

~OIming

Super Moves (01 X-Attacks) is pretty mudllike X·Men, Children of the Atom. Mostly it comes d!M-n to iI fireball motion with all three: punch buttons.

~r.lnX·MenV\"fsusStrff'tfight~r, jt'sposSlbletohOM!!bothch<l~ersusc

their S4.1pers at onc~1 This results in some mtne most wanton c;unil~ you'ye e...et witne-ssed In iI 20 fighting gilmel When chilract~rswith outra~s· looIClngilttiICts get t~hcr, thes(feen is piKke:I with ~normous sprites. For ~xample, iI C~Iops/Ryu combination produces two ilbsoIut~1y huge lilser·styIe attiICU thilt til~~ up the ~ntir~ screen.

Another ilddrtion ilr~ the T~ilm Counters, Simil,ll to the AI~ Counters in Street fighter Alph,l, these ,ll~different in that whilst)'OOl ~in ch,l~er bkx:ts. )'001 scwnd comes on,lOO perlorms the counter S4.1pertati...e stuff.

IIl1I_TOO As)'OO Coln s.ee from the scrttnShots, X·Men W,WS Stleet fighter f~atures some new chilracters to get to grips with. finotlly, Colpcom hOM!! inctlJded th,ee of the X· Men's most popul,lr Ch,llilct~fS in the fOSt~r, G.olmtHt. m,lst~r athlrt~ .ind ca~bIe od empowering ob~s with kinrtic ~~rgy is in,llong With the ~ of his life, Rogue, She's super·strong. Coln fly, and ciln absorb the powers and melTlOl'iC's of othe,s, ~sic,llly this nle,lns that sh~ Coln st~,ll fi.~b<l1I ,lttiICks (and ~n's naming o..~ Punchl). Not,lble X.vill,lin ~bretooth holS illso bttn incllJded. He plays simi~rly to the Hulk In ~ryel Super Heroes, but he's illot.lot filster. And meaner.

In the Street Fighter Mpilrtment ther~'s nothing new, iI!though Colmmy finally rc1ums (,lnd she's in the thrall of8ison).

Obviously this gilme Is going to be diffKutt toeonvert.. whyr Well, Capcom have had problems getting illltheani~tionfortwo ch<lractersin~at

With X· Men Wrsus Street F"tghler, this is doubled Since there ilre twK~ ,ls fTIiIny fighters in memory at once, We can only think that this is the game that Capcom finaltyUSCil ~Colrdfor, ~milar lowh,lt SNK hOM!! done with King ofFighlers '95;md filul fury ~ilJ Bout. upcom have Qid in the piist thilt they wiU onc~.

~thesystem. butit·s )'c1tobeconfilfT~jfthis~

the game that will do it. Hopriulty wt"U hiIYe some firm answt'.s soon.

~ SEGASAnJ~N

~

...·

.

--~

;;r

""~?~ ,). i!;

,

r

~-:.

-_ ~

-

.

I

•

~y ~. ~-'

VIRTUA FIGHTER 3 FINALLY CONFIRMED! IV. the map Ja~~ pr~$mnmenc:~ wtuch I~aled r'8hter~ MegaMu.; 10 theworid b the first tllne. Vu Suzu~1 akoannouncftl tlut VirtlJ,1 Fighter 3 would CE~AlNLY ~

<lppNnngon ~ Saturn.

Mf Suzuki. !4M2'S drstmguMlrd Ie~ told the .la~nes.e pr~\ that 1>M2 ~alch twd ~ studyl"8 the ModrI J tu/dwarf' and VF) p'O(!:ram fOl' ItMo last kw months 10 determine whcthef it'sCYefl POSSIble to bring the gillTle tothe ~Ufn In "drT<Jvat. sh.lpe 01' form.

Speaking ill the f'I:lwef Up press cooference, he uid ihequestlOn was. 'can we actuallydoitr' 8ulilfteltheresultsilU.JlnedfromSludymglhematterfOlthret" months we have conduded that t~hnka"y the possibility is then', Department AM2 a ndlh_lhto-r~bihtyofmatIn8Ihlsposslble.soplea~C'lIpectthe~l·

Mr SUlutl', announcements Wl':re vague enough to bung out a huge swell

of spewlalion as to how the 5.ltUfn would be .. bit to cope wllh Ihe power of Virtua fighter ]. SPKr.. 1df«ts aside, the game has walls like Fighting Vipers,

plus dlffe"~!lt levels of tellaln which h;ls huge Implications on both the look ar'ld t he 8amtplay The good money iJ slli! on some klfld of 3D oiICCt.'ltf;1lor chop belflgl!ltroduc:ed In;l ",rtridge;1nd be;IfI!l81n mind that.:tweSOl'l'll': spec foul meg~bytt RAM 3D boiIrds ~rt ;w.tibble for PC iII;1round $129 in the st;1tes. it's dt;1I th;1t some kind of cart woold be prettye~y tolTlitSs-Pfoduc:e(~ndthusboostthtSOltUfn'sptlformanetw;1y;1hl':;1dof PI;lyStatlOnand~nN64)

But t his is all sptCulahon on the poirt of super tXClted Journalists hpect con crettOelail;1gtC/lll':fthtne)(tfewrnonlhs

WHAT IS THE MYSTERY AM2 SATURN GAME? Rgtrt~

Met:OIMi. _;Ill know OIbout, but Vu SUluk l hOls 0I1so OInnouneed t he of OInothef ~ pro;ect uduslveto ~OI SOIturn. Just whilt is it, uxtlyl Mr Surukllsn't letting on, uylng only thOlt - 1t .... iII be OIS surprising OIS Rgnten Met:OIMI . ... Some new uuge for the V1rtuOl Cop engine is the most ukt~e

Hkelyondld;ate;atthistime,but~OIrekeeplngthelruo,dsclosl!tothei'

,hest. Tht only othef piKe of informOltlon reyuled Oil this time is tlIe bpOlnesl! reteHI': dOltt of -this s.eOlSon", with some JOIpOInHe milgnines believing thOlt the gilme: will be out TMIS YEAR! Hopefully the mystef)' will ~ been deOl ,ed up by lhe l ime the next kwe of SfGA SATUR N MAGAZINE hits the StOlndS.

INTRODUCING..

DRACULA DETECTIVE

SHAMELESS PROMOTION

A new game currently doing leallywdl in Japan is Oracula Detectille from the ASCII COfporation. Thfo, game is a 3D d~l ic aa.enture game which U~ the latest computer gr.lphks technology to Pfc:Mde some awesomt', inYOlving muak. ASCII draftl!d in Mr Hideki ~ (famed for his work on map Japa~ TV animation scrics) t o produce the plot and 'l£ript. which is as much comedy as it is s~.

The game basically involves)OlJ ta king on the mantle of a Space-Time Detective who goes b<Kk to Grrmany '939 to stop a scientist gone m.ld. He h<tStilkenrefugcaboardagiantairship - the lDreIri - and you. iKComPilnil!d by lfonel.w.il (thescientisl'sdaughler) and)'OUr partnrr k:eman board the ilir-

Ship. Suddenly.l~ dj~ppeil~ and the airship cn..ngo direction. What's going

on? who know.; ?

RIGHT HERE!

rt's not of'tetI th3t SEGA SA1\JIN MAGADNE loweR ibetfto f'""""linB: our sister EMAI' ngpzinn (tMt's what: '-ne ads aRfor). but this time it's justifiedl • highIJ rKDmmend that}'DU died: outttw:~Nitionatcvc;rlthasilklo¥ely

Chrlstmils NiGHTS~).midl comes bundled.mt.ilbriltiiJnt,shinyM)O~bookon

ttw: histaty at Yideopmes! Written by hut Gbnce,whojusthilppenstobtillNlp SSMmntributorilnCldesignedbyour~

own 0 - KmilI, it f'eilRy k brillbnL MiIybe betlHthilnthl!lNI8{Justjokingf).

• wouldn't ra:ommend this if it _ iI.".thins Ies thiIn ttw: Mmen;' work. but notonIJisitbriltiiJnt,wel-writtenilnd infonniItivr,it's ilhoflEE (.mt.ttw:mac).

Gofortt.ilndpu~in~

..... _.

ft.

CHPUTElAlI CANES

•

THE TECMO UVE GAME SHOW! In Jilpan. it's common for ilrade manufilcture'rs to stage> their own

~

to pro-

mote' their garTle'S. CajXOm's Summer Festival is a brilliant annual eo.oent that s~­ uses both home and arcade gilrTle'S. Well now Tecmo are' geotting in to the iICI ilS lheyreadytheirnewcoin~ releilses.

IT'S TERRA FANTASTlCA! Seg;I Europe ~ announced an RPC which will go on ~Ie sometime in.,.,.,.

Tffl3 PNonbstiu is kind of like Shining foru in th3t it Is a comNt+Styled ~A!p~Deeponp6otanclcomNt, T~~_thoegrid

system of comlm to prvmvle bctics and

~ We

"-'1 really P'¥d

this_etMNIghyettOgdfNllyfi~l>pilboutit,butwithplM5likethis

.. nd[b"~OfttM~,it·s c\@Mth3ttMSatum wttefIitCOf\"l6tD~repmes.

•

SEGA SATURN

is them.o1ld>ineafchoice

Dead or Alive you might hiM! heard aboot - it's a new arcade 3D fighting g.me5 noteWOl'thy in that it uses Model 2 Sega technology.nd is pI.nned for cooversion onto Saturn in the futu re. Other Tecmo titles showased included G.11op RiKe'r (01)0 horsc-rac:ing gal'TN!!) and Tecmo's Super Bowl.

Theeo.oentitsrlf wasagreat!.lJoCcess. replete w ith competi tions.gal'TN!challenges. achals~anda live

concert_But best of all, gamers finally got the chance to get their mitts on Oead or Alive - a game' which t he Japanesc press hiM! beenravingaboot for monthsl

AM3 UNLEASH BRONX CHEER ltt6tf1afNcJftmberWHabisdayforSlWmfi&htincfMIs.Sep'sAMlW o\MJprosr3II'IftIinltmmsalled .. Pft5S~in~toannounce

T

ttmtt.y_workinaansaum~oftwodthegrutestarcade

beil bugger to ptOgraml MrAberuefullymnrufS. "Trying to get the collision detection perfect looks to be the tlardest part of the deYelopmcnt. Not beingal*tooothe same f'Io.Jtingcombosas the ;lfOdc version would h~ ruined the(~rsion:

but'emupsafalltime,VIrtmRghter)andLKBronx.,Z!i __ ali_~

SIWm fightIna pnw. fichters MepMDr. wtIidI o:wnI:Ifted dDrxten from _ _ _ _ 'pestJbn;'fromotherV'irtwpneJ-

RghtIna:VIpen,~Rghtets

You'll flnd more detaihon Rghtets Mepmix In the ComInJSoon fNtureon ~ 14A ~d<lYS afteof the monumenul conferrnc:~ Mr Abr" AMl'S deYelopment dir~Of who Ird fu!o te'am r~ponsiblc! for the coin-op W!u,ion ofUst Sroox. spote to tht'Jap"~pr~silboutt~S;JturncortvefSion . Hc!·sconfidc!ntofproducinganear

perfccttranslationoftheoriginaL Converting such a powerful arcade ga~ to tne Saturn presents quite a chal· ~n to the original iHcade programmers. though. "Considering we're using Sf·V technology, it's a fir~ for us to create a game of th is ffi<lgnitude on such iI tech noIogy,"saysMrAbe lenge

Go\I&UY~ The 'attilck ancels'. that rompktely nelltralise an opponent's IllOYeS, are also prcII/ingdifficulttoconvertbelAusetherearesomanypossibilitiesth<lthavelobe catered for, but they too should be in the COrIII'efsion. li~. the we<lpons. com plete with after·images. 1he reason we used the after-image: Mr Abe explains. "was because we found the weapons rrIOII'ed too f3st and muldn-t really be seen. FOf that reason we think ifs very important that we put those in the~ion too." n looks like Ust Bron~ will follow in the footsteps of other Sega arGtde conver sions. with all -new game modes exclusive to the Saturn COO'o'ersion.

~DO MYT1IIIG SlUI&!

At the moment, though, the team h.wen-t decided what they might be. On the subject of new characters for the Saturn conversion, Mr Abe isnl too keen. "So many games h.we an original character_ but with ust Bron~ this is a problematic point. The game was designed to be quite realistic, with realistic style and peopIe ust Bronl( characters wear clothes ~sed on current Tok)u street f3shions. So if we create an original character there-sthe possibility that it would destroy the style of the game_If pI<l)ers think this character doesn·t fit the whole exercise would be meaningless. There must be a lot of players out there who think to themselves.

'Please don't do anything strange with the gamer:

l l E _ TEUlAlEIDIIIT But woah. woah_WOAH-HO-HO-HOI Was it wis.e to ask the arGtde programmers to produce the Saturn conversion if they were so unf3miliar with the hardwarer Mr Abe thinks they would be the only people in the WOIId qualified to produce the spot-on (OrIIII!rsion that Saturn players would demand. "When we were making the arcade III!fsion." he explains. "we wanted to push the MoOd 2 technology to its limits.

An example was toanimate even the smallest of things like thedothes on the char.Kters and make the mo.oement generally smoother_T1lese ale the difficun touches we wanted to ac:h~ in the game, so)<lU can imagine t hat if we didn't h_ the original team WOIklng on the home III!fSion we would be in trouble. Also. wedidn't want t he atmosphere to change in anyway. If the original artist didnl do the graphicsforthe~ion. the graphics for the c:onversion the gr.lphics would differ in somewiJ'j and thaI's not what wewant for the Saturn version. The d1aracters in I..lst Bron~ are very populal so if the feeling of the game dlange(! in some way there would be hell to payI"

CIIAIM:TEI~ Howwell will those d1arad:ers translate tothe s.rturnr At t he t ime of the interview MI Abe's team were working on exactly that problem. "Obviously we can't port the d1afilcter data directly to the Saturn," Abe ~ "so we're in the process of cutting down the number of poIygonshereandtheresothechafilcterscannmore freedom to mo.oe slowly: That's not going to be the only problem Abe's team will face. though. what about the f3mous midair 'Floater' combos that the game is f3mous forI Surely the ooIlision-detection required for such moves would 0YeI

. , S EGA SATURN

BLACK

ITEMPEST 2000 We might laugh at the tragedy of Jaguar owners, but they've always exclusively owned one of the greatest games ever made - Tempest 1000. Except now it's coming to Saturn. Poor old Jaguar owners, hahahahaaa!

2

b NTERPL AY

_

IrSA

_ I SHOO T

' EMUP

_ I J ANU ARY199 7

MAELSTROM MUSIC! Jaguar Ternpest 2000 has some oflhl! brst tunes of any video game - a mix of superb Prodigy-style RW tReks. Howe~r. they Wl!Je streamed off .. cartridge. Thanks to Its CO format the SatUI'JI has gone one better, with re mixed version of the music. MOle outlandish sound·effects and Amples all feature!

innovative(oln·op5 ever made.Atatimtwhenvtc·

tors were the mostadYolnced vis uals you could get, Atan used them t o duzlngty stylish effect - ( Tuting

ilge nuine!yalie nlookinggameinstudoftryingto poortyrepfl!Sent re-cognln ble ships or lands.c:.. pes.

The rMult is one of the most fiendishly hardcore shoot 'em upsdevisedl With Tempest woo, Minter kept all the super· stylish vectors that made the original ~ounique Rather than spicing up the graphics with poortextures, he demonst rated theadYolnce in te<hnology by upping the vector countl More laser lines, exploding particles and all·new fantutical spluhes of warping colour turned it into a game as brilliantly unique as the original was in its day.

What's more, we have to concede that it was the Jaguar hardwa re t hat made the game possible.

The Jaguar's most

. . SEG ..o. SATURN

Forrtl... rlJla

(~bOllr Ol'l"), JOII"lorI&I.aITttllPllltoo!

Believe it Or not, the Jaguar featured some impressive custominternalsthatmadeitacinch todo t hewarp· ingoilyeffectsandmulti·particlegraphicsofTempest 2000. We can concede this fact because High Voltage, the developers of the Saturn version, have managed to replicate the effect to nigh·onperfect effect through sheer programming powerl By combining the Saturn's 3D polygon handling prowess wit h its phenomenal sprite-shifting a bility, they've reproduced all the dallling effects ofthe Jaguarorigina!. And if you've ever experienced Tempest 2000 before, you'll know what that means.

playable game blasts its way onto Saturn... and it's an audio-visual apocalypse of epic proportions!

11:I1:J i111~'. 搂11

POWER UP! One big update to the original coln-op format, was the addItlon of JIO'ftr-ups to Tempest Certain enemies reieUl! tubes which nCl! up the tunnel. Collecting these provides rapidshot weaporu:, Jump facility (essential on later levds for avoidinglethaJ.enemies), AJ-Ih"oid (asdsb in shooting) an, after all these have been collected - a wup. These IIZe the most important part of thl! pme. COllKt tluH of these and you get sent to a hypnotically-mmning bonUJ ltagl!. WI! can't show you it though, because it un'! in the $;atom venion ydt 1000.

We can bcsldesc,ibeitilsbclngilkln to flying through a skybornc lasc r-ligh t showdurlnSilcenten aryflrcwork display, whilc Ming aUacks Eilrth with holhall and IlghtSOlbcrsarc t hrown at yoI.I. Something ti kcthat

anywayl Mlnd -blowingilsthescgfilphksarc, they'dbelittie more than iI r..ncy Kre-enuver if the gilmeplilY wOIsn'tupIOS(fatch. Wcll , up-to-scr;Jtchlsanundcrcstimatlon of Tempest ~ooo's 8i1meplily. lt's one of t he

most perfectly honed blasters crcated. There a rc 99 levels of g... duillly inc' tilslng difficulty. And they milke for a super addictive. reflex-pushing hlghscorechal .

Icngc. All the 1~ls have Oilrudr been progl'iimmed Into the Silturn version, ;lnd even though they've yet to bc fully fine-tuned, they'rc alrudy n10fethan on路 course to mat ch thc challengc of the Jilguilr origlnOlI. NeKt to the likes of Virt uOl fighter 2 OI nd QUlke, there Ire mlny people in this office t hOlI co nside r Tempesl 2000 10 be onc of the gru t est gOlmcs c~r mOldc. If this (on~rsion makes t hc grOldc - which lookshighlylikclyOltthls stagc-ltmunsOlnother klllcrtiUcforthcSaturn. Re<kon w c'lIfindoutncKt

V

SEGA, S~TURN

1~1:;.t:JI'AII'.'AI

IAREA 51 Okay, you bought Yirtua Cop last year and it wasseriously brilliant. But since then theoldYirtua Gun hasbeen left out of the action, with next to no support from the Saturn developing community. Apart fromChaosControl (snigger).

E

I S EGA

_

'PB A

_

! PUZZLE

_

IDEC E"BER

T

h l n8s ha."e (ert a lnly cha nged OYe rt ~

coun e of the lut couple of months. Fin t of 01 11 we hOld Ihe brillia nt Virtua Cop 1, then we got Mighty Hih

(reviewed th is issue) iIInd now we h;lft Aru SI . a con~nlon of the little known coin-op, which hu been bought up by WilUa ms

conversion of the coin-op. alt hough the FMV window holS been squeezed a bit in Its trilnsi!ion from the arudes. The basic plot sees you Infiltriltl ng th e infamous Area 51 (if you holven'tseen Independence Day. t his Is whe re the US gove rnment Is su pposedly studying all~n UFO technology olndmilkingthelr ownnying S;"J<~rS).olndbolskolllyshoot ·

andun lelllSh~ by thepo_r

ingeverythlng ... 3polrtfrom yourtum·mates.

Thln k VirtuolCopin l D. or maybe iI more oldvanced form of Konaml's Let hill Enforcers a nd t holt'S what yo u have here. Hil rdly state of t he art,yetdrangelyinterest ing

of (jT lnt~r3ctiYe.

So.wholfsthedull Basically.it·stim~tojump

ontothelasttrolinloFMV Central.b~uusethat·s e~ actly whiltAreil5 ' lsilll

about. The on·screen olctlon Is depicted with the joys of full· motion video. using cunningly OYertolid sprites for you to shoot at. A o.. .r u..bIj"......witltMM fIIIVUtln lt tN'acl tUt

CaM._

_ _ .....I .......

similareffectwols usedonth~latter

andmoreto t h~point.qulte

enjoyable. Theorlglnollil rudegilme did vef'jwell in the Stoltes olnd corn· molndSilprettysizeolbtefollowing. soit's

SHOOTING YOUR LOAD

FMV titles on the Megol·CD olnd it was abysmolL tholnkfully. the Saturn is more than colpilbte of producing sprites whkh blend inseamlesstywith the bilckgrounds (olPilrt from the day·glo dothes.that is) so what we have here Is a virtuillly arude·perfect

There'. bee n I levele d n rth of software 1.11mB the excelle nt Virtua Gun, with only the le mi· nal Vlrtua Cop making use of th e peri pheral.

U... til now. Area Sl iJ just one of an Increasing

"Despite the smaller fMY window (and the fence stuck to your fac~), Area 51is remarkably close to the COlO-OP original."

11II...,.......,......,....Iool ~ u

,.".. H * wtta.

(aboft).

boUndtodopretty wellwithth~Silturnfrolternity

over there. Stoly with SEGA SATU RN MAGAZI NE for more UK detolilsl

number of title. to appeaz recently offering full compa tibility. Other tiUet: to look out for indude Cop 1, Mighty Hits and Die Hlrd Trilosy. Another tiUe NOT to look out for it (ha.,. Control, w hich if reviewed

I... Out Now

... . t ,... r... MCNII.. lMttllly ...·t lrit (..tikltlll't"II1... r..,...,.,- IIIIoa!:I..

_

V

S EG ,~ SATU~N

itsl. ""'jat tllN 1II1II "'" Nu stl.kIq pip WP.

1~ I:I1iJ"II'l,,'1

BATMAN FOREVER

I

Love it or loathe it, Batman Forever was the most popular bat-flick of all-time. Probably because of the inclusion of be-wonderbra'd Micole Kidman (insert your own bat-pole gag here). Unfortunately the delectableMrs Cruise h~sn 't made it into this game. Boo!

2

I ACCLAI M

_

IT BA

_

I FIGHTING

_

ITBA

CUYOUlctUlltysowllat'.

WIII,lIItrkatou,y,lt'IU

!Gi1lg1Nl1II1'I~

111-OItnpUlllfl"my.

ber pllftd StrIItJ (If Rage or f lul f l&Jll' Wen, ~," Mull)' lft.lleaI,jut .it~.beljl"""powtr- .p, •• d"';oulblllorlprit.-Klli ... trlc:ull.&s)'Oll about, pel'Clntage IJlIIboilljlptlr 10 sltow yotIitow mllC~ lIMIr1)'11MIttppOftllltlhi'ltieft.

ENTER ••• THE RIDDLER Rather than concoct any riddles as such., the Riddler tends to throw mystery Ico ns Hound the playing uea. Some of these have good effects on the Du): Knight , others bad. Worst of all must be the super-shri.nker which reduces Bats toha}f-sl%t , His fighllng abWUes rtmain Ul'Iimpaifed Iho\l8h, making for a I1I.thel bizarre spectacle. That seH-same power-up can be reversed and used on your opponents, makIng them easy to tue out.

s11j111,. lIIuRln

cclaim are a pretty resourceful sef.of chaps you know. Not only dothey release videogames for just about every videogamessystem underthe Sun, they've al so started out on producing their own a rcade games. Thelrfint, a conve rsion of Balman Forever, didn 't rea lly have much a presence In the UK. Undaunted, Acclalmhavecon vertedittobothSatu rn and

A

Ions of foes to beal up as you to ntin ueyour steady progression towards a confrontation w ith th e final bou(es). In this cilse, the Riddler il nd Hilrvey TwoFilce. Coo.justli kelhefilm Thegame'scertain ly a ci nchlogetit lnto, probablybecilusel here'sj uslth ree buttonstogetto grlps with: ilttilck,jumpilndsu perilttilck;vilriouscom binil· lions of which produce vilrlous responses. It reili· Iylsverysimlla r intermsof ga me playto w hat has come before, although t he grap hics ilreilll-new,usi ng Acclaim's patented molion capture routi nes and cha racte r di git isation melh -

od, Iheysaytoyou?Well, itwouldn'l surprise us

The lechniques il l Balm an and Robi ns'

ifthephrases - ~a t 'emup" and 'side

nrolling" mysteriously appeared In your mind. Probably be<ause tha\'s exactly what this game is. Yes Indeed. Bat m,m ForeYerfollows in the footsteps of such hallowed lilies ilS Streets of Rage, Final Fight and Double Dragon by giving you

d is~algene ra lly

come down lo a series of milrtiill ilrts moyesactivilted wit h iI combi-

THE BAT SHARK REPELLENT Every so often, on his trips tluough the duk street. of Gotharn, Batman happens to chance across Sat equipme nt mysteriously materialisIng uound the place for no good reason (maybe Allied's In command of some kind of Bat Tnnsportu). Unfortunately. thue', no Bat Shark RepeUent from the 60s film (not that there', actually ilIlY sharks), but you do get ilIl assortment of Bat goodies including the eS5ential Balarangs (and Super Batuangs If you're luclcy).Sothat 'scool.

1"III · towlrcll~ or · I.Q~ ff'OIII IIII Kf'ttn.

~ 5 EG_A. SATURN

SonIt ,yll(:~f'OnIMd"'t­

aatllll.powen~p altd ltt.

dnf.nM:tilllll

jnt a bit pertlrMtl.

II:I;J 111111 ~I

THE DYNAMIC DUO!

~ I1jl"

";' 1

It! t I

I

-f - I "/::..

I, ' ~

~

"

' .

-

it , ' 4<:.::.-.

•

~ . ~~.-

-. t

",

_

.

,

"" •.lSur -Z.,'I' -

,-

•

~

41',

~ 'f

It', dynamic duo team-up action all of the way with Babnlln FOleftr Arcadel At the beg1nninJ of the lame, you see a pretty damn utellent chlll1l.cter Hled10n scnen, allowing you to chOOft between BatmllIl and, er, Robin.

However, to live arguments on who', who, you can both be the same charadel should you 10 wish. To be honnt, there'. not much to choose between them. BooI You'd think Batman would be fu harder than c:lm.... orphan boy Robin. Fans of the "Soy Wonder" milht be dinppointed to Itun that there', no martial arts laundry-hanginglubaame in thU release. And no canoodllna with Chase Meridian for Batman.

' . a

V

..

0

n, It latau', dIHt.,.1IoI H dfJ.,lIIsP

l, tPCItkr",.. rA kllponrMtc.,.

TMtt', tM IatlllObill. Jut

Acclaim's little-know coin-op

debut gets the Sega Saturn treatment!

But is an arcade perfect conversion good enough?

meter blOlsts Into ovtrdri~. Gr~bbing ~ fot by the scruff of the n«k OIlIows for some head-b~shlng OInd throwingOlctlon - JustllkeFln~IFight{OIndSlreetsof R~ge). Aiding your att~,king is the Incl usion of ~ VOIst arrayofcolieetlbles.rangingfromtxtrabat ·equlpment to powe r-ups which allow t ht DOIrk Knight 10 pull offSlreet fighter Alpha 1 style Custom Combinations.

As you might Imagi ne, bthind Ihe all-new visuals lurks a pretty well-known gOlme·style.

801tman fo.eversucceeds in bringing the arude game home -I n fOlet, It's prob<lbiy one of Ihe closest Iranslatlons eYtr sttn on the Sega system.

JUST LIKE THE FILM As you misht lmapt, the game" thanaen and sctn.arlos art taken pretty much 41rectly horn the turn. However, as you mI&ht lmagine. so me Uberties have been talten with the bld:pailfuls in o rder to m.ab them fit into the

side-Klolllng fighting game Kenario. Seenes lilte the streets of Gotham City, the tiddler'. lair and the d.rC:U1 ue well leplnented (although you fight .. Bats in the litter, not Bruce Wlyne .. in the film). The gallery of vll· Wn. flclng you Includes just about everyone horn the film (such .. Two-Face'. g1.rlfriend.

Sugu and Spice) .. well .. some new c:h&rac· ten made H peclally fOl the glme.

Thequestlonls,dots theoriginatgamelt~tf hOl~then«essarydepthande~(ittmtnt tomake

it a worthwhile purchase tn tt s new form as a home gOlmel Such answers cou ld welipresentthemsel~slnilforth­

coming Issue of SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE when we review tht fintshed produet. Until then, look OIt the sc:reenshols and Imagine whallt 's like.

~

SEGA SATURN

'_7__

1~ I(,JiJi1A1'NI

IDOOM it's the 9ame that launched an entire genre. And now, after muchummin9, ahhin9 and basic procrastination, it's finally about ready to appear onthe Saturn. The 9ame? Why · it's Doom of course!

2

IGT INTERACTIVE

.....

ITBA

_

IDOO"-SIYLE

_

IOE CE "BER

ANALOGUE ACTIVITIES On~

thing Rage Software have done 10 take this beyond PlayStatJon Doom Is to Indude fUpport for the analogue controller (whkh you bought with NIGHTS). Doom was always far more intultivl! when IIH'd with. mouSII! on PC a.nd you get:l. dmllar feeling with the NiGHTS pad on the Saturn. The analosue contJoller allows

you to walk or run dependins on how much pressure you put on the pad. SlraHngltft and right i. achieved with the shoulder buttons.

Thil 11 a lot better than IlSlng the ordinary pad.

I'IelrlebrullJltt __ ~ul"I""I"""'Itt'·Iet_) .. tllHl DMII, Imh. 0.1" ~ IrisiNI Mria IIDM11 t/tlts, DMII, WU.., fit ~ ....... - _MU.,, __ 1... 1111........... , filii 0...

~

ln199J,id!.OftWaleUnleashedwhatwas

10 become a global phenomenum. Doom was the nameoflhe game Ihal !.Old mOle 486 PCs than anything else.CombiningawesomefilJlptlson ptlspectivegtillphkswithultlavlolent gillmeplilly and the fail old smattering of blood, Doom was a gaming levelalionthalall others tlied to copy. Only Duke Nukem3D(alguably)sul' passedit,ilIndbythillttime,ld hilldQuillkejustillboutludyfor release.

ThrSatu,"has~n

IT'S DOOM AND DOOM 2!

Being iI "Sped&1 Edition" of Doom, you can

uped a .mattering of Jewu horn "try ftl l ion of Doom bu the final edition. You begin your dHtructJvl! qum with l"e1l from the origina1 Doom, befo re movinS on to the male complu environs of Doom~. The final Rction of game includes Jectioru of Ultimate Doom· an txtentlon to the original vel'ion. There are also some conlOle-lpeclfi<: levelt Included loo..

~ SEGA S ATUR N

hideously ~llooked when It CilIme to COflverting id's clillssk. Only now hills ilIveuion become ilIvililillble ilf'tel months of d~lopment ... getting on fOI THREE YEARS ilIf'trl the PC Ofiginilll was first rrlruedl/t 's about flipping time leally, isn't iH

Awhole three

The good news is that this Saturn game Is a con· version ofrvrry PC Doom variant Irlrilsed to dilte (bar thr last word , FinillJ Doom). Thai mrans you grt ill smatteling of levels from all versions along with the Doom 2 engine, which inc!udes the Supcr Shotgun weapon.which wa sonly lnlhe sequel.

Otherwise, il'S business as usual in Ihe Doom unlvene.

You're the lone marine caught on Mars when th e demons of HeU decide to invade Earth.

CUliously. you're the only guy availablr for duty (unlrss you manage to get hold ofil link·up cable and pay it In Cooperative Mode with your mate). Using a villflrty of ~apons. it ·s your job to baskally gun down ~rythinginsight.findingkrystoopendootsillnd

s.olvingcunningpuzzles (ilIhhoughtMrr 's nolrully

years after the ori9inal PC release, there's finally a Doom conversion for the Saturn.

11 :t1:J ilfA 1iI'i ' ~I

~_~i.: .. ,

mlKh aflhe I~ttef). Doom Is getting on ;l bit now ;lnd the whole Ktn;l'lo Is bKomlng somethlnll of iI cliche.

The question Is how good Is the conversion? Well.

every aspect of Doom I hil! WilS In Ihe PiayStalion ve,sion (bar the spKiill 1ightlng efftcts) Is Included and

everything looks pretty cool. The o ... ly problem Is that Rage Software appc,H u ... able to get the game movi ... g uptothesortofsmooth ... ena ... df1uldityyou·dcxpccl . a ... y o ... e e~pccti ... g a game as smooth or as good· loo~ l ... g as Exhumed Is i ... for a bitter dlsappoi ... tme ... t.

All cyes are 0 ... Rage Software ... ow to deliver the goods. If the finat versio ... of Doom doesn't cut the mustard. we suSpcCl that gamers across the cou ... lry witlbcrightlyoul rag~a ... ddema ... dthiltRage ... C\ler touch a grade A product like this agai .... Still. we like tothl ... k we·,e optimistictypcs.somaybeRlgewill be able to get the gamc upto s~· stick with SEC;A SATURN MACAZINE for the full

' ;-'0--

READ THE REVIEW BEFORE BUYING At the time of writing. $",turn Doom lndudH all of the gameplay of the PtaySlatiOR ventoR but looks mort likt the PC original - although.

it'. laddng a lot of the finer detall of the very tint "nlon (a fault of every console wrslon II!'«!' lncluding id's own Jaguar "nlon). The big problem with the gOHne ls the ' pHd - It', extremely Jerky at the moment and thi, ruins a lot of Doom', timeless playabUlty. 1t could 10 either wily: If the game speedJ up to immense· ly, It could be ucellent. How~r. we \USt you 10 fead the review before you put with your mon ey b«aust fluidity in a game like Doom b all·lmporta nt, believe us.

1. 1:11 jll'A 111, 11

IDlE HARD TRILOGY By the time you read this PlayStation Die Hard Trilogy will finally be on the shelves, with the much vaunted Saturnversion literally weeks behind. January 24th. That's when it'll be out. Honest.

2

! FOX IN TERA CT I VE

_ l lIBA _ ' V ARIO U S

_ ' JA NUA RY

Die Hatd -JoiII McCla.., wtt"hll .ld 1I ..... nisalMll • ••uIHIIPlau.

YIPPEE KAIYAY! nat JOM MCClane is a bit of a foul-mouthed. penon. After all. how m ilny people ha. he de. patched to Hade. with the lnlmltable cry of "Ylppee Katyay Mothe' ·····ul. WeU. thl. bet.nl Yideolame. la nd. things are a bit more ..ni· tisecl.Sothere 'l not mothe'.... · · . ellentlally.

Such witticisms as "Now I have . machine 1fWl" are also p~nt (althouJh. he actu.ally wrote that. rather than sald It). Still. the voice empl~ is pretty.inUlarto M.rBfUce Wi.I.l.is.

Ifatadmufflecl.

A

Oic"uHt' - ""'N c.,-stJItP.ac:u.. kl tllt 6epat1Irt ......... t u .

s it is, th ls ls the fint we '\'eSH:nof t he Salurn ve.slon of Ole Ha,d T, ilogy.

O,is inally we thoughtth, ttheg. me might nol evt n makt it. But it has. And here it Is. About t ime ru lly. Still onto the game.

As you should probilbly

~ now

by now, Die HiUd

Trilogy is actu.ltythree games in one · . Thrillogy, if

Oic "AIi: Wi~ J.'. . . . . . - I_ tlIe t. . . . kIoslJ lI . OII y.wtSldtly.

there's obviously a third gilme to look to. This is in facI Ole Hard with a Vengeall{e. Or OIl least a bit of it (thefilmj. Spe<ificallythebll wh ele McClanecommandeers a taxi and drives around New York In search of a bomb. Only in the game there is more than just one task fOI MtClane to perform. Again, Ihls is pretty oool · theactionisfast and prettyflenetlc"nd the

yoo will. The first Die Hard Is iI kind of toaded l Fade

lameplay lsmosten~ble. tf)'Ollfancytheldeaof

to BI;lck style shoote' bau:d In thtfuturistic skysc/aper Ih;lt is the Naulomi Piu • . As yoo might

running people down but don't like the real life Impll. cations (prrson, loss oflicense, luiltyconS(lell{e),this ;,;thegameforyou.

OfcourSC', if you haw:' seen Ihe PlayStatlon verslon, the question you'll be asklnl now Is - Just how ctoselstheSaturntrans lation. Well,asfaraswecan see, It's pletty nigh-on identical. Certainly, Ihe gameplay remains identical. The otherquesllon is, of courSC',lsitanygood/Welt.obvlouslyslnce thlslsa preview, we can't really say. yet. That"s not to say tha t the fult weight of 01,11 reviewing pIOwe-sS won't be brought to bear next issue. 8ecause It will. Oh yes.

Until then, look at these pictures and tremble.

imagine,there's plentyof8erettil, grenadeilndUli ilction-just like the film In filct . Th ls is actually a pret-

tycool game In its own right.

Die Hard l : Die Harder t,kes John M(Clane into Virtua Cop territory. Now a lot of the PlayStation mags ha~ been going on about how this Is suppos· edly"superior"andmore"intelllgent" thanVIrtua Cop. Well,wa~eupand s melllhecoffeeguys, itJust

ain'l even in the same league. AI all. However. it remains pretty good fun as McClane traverses lAX alrport gunningterrorisU down like stinking pigs.

But hey - this Is a trilogy . which means that

Die Hard Trilogy is actually three games . in one - aThrtllogy, if you will.

~.

"' " ' ;nn'7'7I:"''''

_

r

~

-:

I(~ ~

r.,.datnc:t\oII .

•

S EGA SATURN

.

11

7"

1~ liI1ill!jIINI

IDARK SAVIOR After what seems like millenia of waiting, we can now reveal analmost totally complete version of Dark Savior, which should be on the shelves by February at the latest! Hurrah!

2

!CLIMAX

_ I IBA _ I ACTIQNADYENTURE

____

IENP

OF

JANUARY

THE PARALLEL SYSTEM In cue you mit:Md th~ Coming Soon, Duk

Savior b quite amulngln its PanUel Sc:enario J}'Jtem. At the beg1nnins of the gunt you're tnppe4 on a lhip and. how you handle this sU· uation cUdatn which "pualle1", or Roryline you follow. There are five in total, and each

puallel can cllffer depen4in8 on yow actions during the game. Apparently thert art well over 100 clifftrtnt tndlnJI_

EAGLE-EYED In Duk Savior, you ale cut a. Garla ... • .. bo\ln· ty hunter with seemingly myrtlca1 power. which mean. he always get. hil man. Blocldng Mm lip are a bunch of differl!nt-colour~ ngl ...

Mystaria,Shinins Wisdom,S tory ofThorlandnow... DarkS;avlor. lf youhiYrn'tbernfollowinsthrcovrr· asr inthr m;as, all you nrrdto know is th;at th is same is byCiimu - the propie responsi ble for the iesend;ary LandsblkeronMes;ad rive.

Whenyoufirsl boot up the same you c;an seethe landslalker Influencr. For the most part, the same is viewed in isometric 3D,althoush brcausethesurroundinssarem;adeupoftulured poiysons, you can look around and twist the pr.spective 10 set a Sood view ofrvrrythinS. That's theotherdifferencew,thO;arkS;avlo•. Notoniy does it look 3D, it truly Is. That means some huse

rtyltch.uadtn. lack I. the bluebird who U Garian'. constant companion. He don very lit· tle bu advancing the plot and nring Garlan horn plunginSlnto WSI! holn. Kaiser b the black eagle who report. your findings to the main bureau (ie till' "Yes yow position) whllit red eagle Itgina b native to the lsland and dOft little bu fWapplnS dlocolate for point •.

IHlllttwtMrNItI.

~ SEG '" SArur<N

thesamrcamr up out in Japan, wecan safrlysay that DarkSavlo •• eallydoes benefit f.om the EnSlish i - th e sto ry is vrryderp and invoived. wh ich Is just what you'd expect from an RPG ,really.

What we have noticed is so me chans es. The he.o Ryu-Ya is now called Gari an with his main vill;aincalled Bil;an (chansed from the rather obvious ~\liUain"). Also, cisa rettes (usrdto b.ibe prison inmate s) h;ave been ch;ansedtochocolatrIAnother amusingch;anSe Is the Japanrse ch;aracter Seas;al. who now

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Fighting is very cool in Dark Savlor, kind of lib Strel!t Fightl!l. Sort of. Buically, il 's the H stof Inn!! round, a s you and your opponent battle it out. A range of three or so moves are indud-

ed per charact er, including a Super Move you have to cha rge up. The good thing about Dark Savio[ is that hero Garlan can capture h is foes in the lut round and ~ become~ the m in later battles. This Is pretty gteal u rly In the game where Garlan Is pretty weak. However, if you use a nother chillade r,l! appeill5 that you can'l

becomes lance (three guesses which action "hero" he looh Iikel). Also,a Frid ay 13th Jason-stylecharacterhas had the "ye-holes taken out of his hockey mask路 how he manages to see when he attacks you is beyond usl This is all p,ett y unimportant stuff

though and certainlydoesn', ruin~nyenjoymentof the actual game. It's ju~t ~ bit odd sometimes All in ~II thouSh. we would pretty much So with the view that O~r~ Savior is the RPG of choice for ~1I Saturn owner~. Although the puzzles are pretty~impleonthefirstparallel,thinssgetvery

toush later on and the innovat ive multiple scenario system means that ifyoudon'l get weeks and weeks of enjoyment out of this game,there'sobvlously~ometh i nswrongwithyou.

As you might suspect,Oa,1I Savior is very quickly coming upforlhefull review and showcase treatment. In fact, a PAt version should be material-

ind~d a lot faster In the reillms of Duk Sanor. So U you haven't bought NIGHTS, do so.

~ SEG.4 SATl..JRN

letter~ We tried to find some appropriate and tasteful way to mourn the passage of erstwhile missive-meister, Radion Automatic, into the sinister realm of music journalism . But then it occurred to u s that, while we slaved ovet baking consoles with only Terence Piper Hot Liquids to sustain us, he was probably off in Monte Ca rlo scooping the both off a cappuccino with Louise while they re-enacted the video for ' Naked' but with less dothing. Maybe. So we thought stuff him, the spawny, successful, highly-respected, well-paid, jet·setting get. Still, why not write to THE NO· LONGER·AUTOMATIC BUT MANUALLY·OPERATED MAILBAG, 5EGA SATURN MAGAZINE, PRIORY COURT, 30-32 FARRINGDOH LANE, LONDON, EC1R 3AU.

WRISTUNG' WITH TH! TRUTHI DI .... SIG ... S...TU.NMAc: .

I haYe b«n a fOin ofSegOi for sometime now. but not nearly a s long as I'veb«n a fanofthephenomenonthatistheWorldWrestlingFederationandamYery Oinnoyed when your magand that other mag persist to trash it Yery time you reyiewit.

Making remarks like how depressing il is and how it's a load of gOirbage paded w ith leotard-wearing, fal, muscle-head pOinsies.lf Ihat's the cue why is the WWF mag selling more th an the SS m;lg, ;lnd ;llso is on a world·wide bOiSis more popu· lar\hOin SegOi and Nintendo. I tHotyou wou ldn't say that craplo their taces. Atleast they get out and meet people un like you computer nerds stuck in 0111 dayg awking Oi taTVmonitor.

Do any of you get women throwing themselves at you or get cheered for every dayl I don't think so.

The WWF willtHo here long after Sega reaches its demise Wreslling is Oin art. 11'5 in our blood Wily tHofore Jesus Christ, back when man tHogan. The video game Is okay but has tittle pilssion to it, and Oi lso may I remind you sir that your crown je_l, a certain VIR· TUA FIGHTER, bases all its moves on w restting.1 don't care if their official style is KarOite or ninjitsu or whatever. Eilch and everyone ofthefighlers uses wrestling Oind to prove il the move known as the Frankensteiner from Wolf was named that by the WWF and it5 reOiI name is the HurracarOi na (sic) so SegOi must hOive done research on WWF to get moves so when you plOiY VF you're bOisically plOiying a wrestling game,sothere.

Louro WhitIl! QndSteV<!unord,London, EJ ..6!;.. Worshipping superfidal &nel out-d.atl!d ~ media eru" c&n be fun, c&n't iU Judsing by your letter. Laura &nd Steve, the time has com. for you to start that secr.t cult you· .... alwa,. lalked. about. R.m.mber. though, that aWfl:dve reau.ltmtnt practiC" may r...ut in potentially hannfuJ publidty, &nel certain ritu.al JaaifiCft: ate rtI.l1 consiel.red illegal in this country _ eh«k with your local Citizen', A6"t'tce Bureau for furthu el.tails. Lots of luclr.1

screen would win the competition, Ben just-so·happened to whop the pants of everyone's score with an ayerage 109 (the highest on the day with the standard padJ and was then told they were adding an extra round after I though tBenhad won .

4. The competition was now running late and we were in fear that we would miss our train and Ben alsohadsom ephotographerstickinghislensin h is face. To make matters worse 0111 the scores from the first round had tHoen scrapped 01 nd 8en messed up and had nothing to show for it at the end of the day.

5. We knew I (Ben) was easily the tHost on the day OYerall and should haYe won as no·one else sOlid they could (continuous) link Oiny other courses t hroughoutthe game.

We felt the competition would haYe b«n run a lot smoother if someone was there to represent the Saturn comp. I am not that bothered Oibout the p rizenow as I don't really want to turn into some skln-diYing ch~sy wuss boy with ten mil· lion TwiK wrOippers sluffed in his cartridge portl But a few games would haYe tHoen nitel By the wOiy, where were you lot/ Enn Whittington ond JomeJ Clementf

. You know, the one who came third In the Emap ImagesfTwiK Junior Gamesplayer Of The Year finals in London. Just writing to SOiy it was a cool even Oind was great fun, so do it Oigain neKl year (neKl time Doubtfire, you won't tHo so lucky, HAHAHAHAHAHAhaha he he ... eahJ. Oh, and how Oibout a Daytona CCE or 01 ManK n time trial competition like the Sega Rally competilion you did?

Ben Brotchel',Purley ~ well we're pad to see that at least SOMEBODY hael a good time thing. Who knows JIUI what wonel." next year'. competition will holel? If &ny.

~ at the Twi:&

JOBIRCRACDRS; GOOD OR BADl As you corrffily pointed out in issue 13,fancying games characters like

TWO 'INGIRS ...

PhiIFlippingFurnessdidi~verysad.But'amafraidthatgamesdevel·

Df .... SSM, We Oi re writing in about the re<ent Nights comp Five m ajor points that reallypissed us off, 1. We hOid to play the game with a standard Saturn ljoypad and even though everyone protested they wouldn't let it be changed.

oper~arenoteKacllytryingtopre~ntthishorrificcrimebymaking

Thech~kygitsevenridiculedtheSaturnbysayingthatalluslot

thought itsjoypad WOiS pants, 2. The rules were chOinged several times asthe hosts were obvl· ously unfOimiliar with th e Saturn Oind Nights Oi~ no-one had a clue how to de<ide the competition 3. After all the fuss about the rules il wasde<ided that the plOiyer who scored the most links on Frozen Bell within the time limit on

women characters a little too ilppeOiling.

For eKample thOit lilSs out of Tomb Raider. Now I don't want to get tastele ss here but don't you th ink herbreastsarea littletoobigll mean how is she supposed todo her Oithletic Oiclivit ies inthe gamewiththemonherchest1 I could name a few more but you'lI know what I mean. EV<!n that other lass that was mentioned In that letter. Candy. she looks 01 bit outrageous and like thOit Ius in Tomb Raider, a little too appealing Now please don't tell me that I am sad for noticing the featulesofthOitlOissinTombROiiderorOinythlnglike

that bfiause they're not that h'lfd to miss.

Please print this letter. even If it has the word ·b.easts· in it. I am sure you're allowed to talk sensibly about such things without getting tasteless which I hope this letter hasn't become. jomeJA. ThcHrrpJon, Hul/ ~

UyolI're worried abollt It, Jamu. try to thinlF: of it lille lhis: Ulame ~ prodllten didn't emph.,lH the .econdary lUll&! dluuteristiu of theil fem..ale charadell and .tuck to Itall.tic proportion', the relaUvely CfUde definition allowed by vector Iraphk. would make them all look lille blokH with biB peu. And where would the fun be then, eM Anyway, Jame., the very fact that YOII wrote thb letter indicatet that YOII an less toncerned about the .exu&!eqllaUty of women than yOIl ue about lookinlat theu bre.,tt.So,infact,youaresad.

Formul~ I, Resident (vil , TunneISI. The~gamesarebrilliant . Anddon·tsivemethe"butthe Saturn is more powerfu!- routlne aSaln as that's all very well. but if there aren't I' nouSh Sood Sames to play on it then what's the point .. _Okily, everyone knows that the AM depirtments produce the best Simes. but thal's ~bout it and these games only appear a few times a year. COffect me if I'm wrong. but wasn't NiGHTS about the last same produced by SeSal Intermsofthlrdpartycompanies.allthet itles Sl'l'm to have previously bttn PlayStation titles that end up beinS Shl mon thslate and pithetlc les WipEout - too slow; Alien Trilogy - not as well presented and too late; Destruction Derby - enouSh said). And what about Doom (not knowlnS at the time of writing whether Its even out yet!) - this is old newsl Duke Nukem and Quake on the PC are far superior and these have been out for a while no w.

Talking of de tayI'd releases. I like SeSa's way of adm ittins that gam esippearin Japan months before they do here by use of their TV advertisements - "Herl' In iapan the overhud flick isold news".

ware compan ies producinS for the machine). Games such as

Idon'lliketocomplaln.lthlnktheSaturnise~cellentandlamnotgolnstopart

I DON' T LlKI TO COMP1.AIN, BUT...

Du•• SSM. l·mhavingdoubtsonthefutureofmySesaS~turn . SeforelboUShtmySaturn liSt June. I really had a toush lime to make up my mind on which console to set.

PlayStation or Saturn. The.usons for my de<ision were that I always be lieved SI'Sa is Ihl' company who knows how to m~kl' Innovalive Saml'S. 1'8 NiGHTSI They are also Ihl' leadl'rs In arcade games. Thl'reforl', I'm always looking forward 10 gel· ting all the m~rvellous 'Hcadl' conversions f.om Ihl' AM groups which ale always exctusivelyforS~turn .

Sut now my confidl'ncl' in S~turn Is ~ bit sh~ky. Whyl When '10011. at the rl'Cl'nt development in ~rcade convenlons for Saturn, I can clurly see the limitations of the machine. It un't handle transp'lfenq I'ffects, the rl'solution is alw.ys bl'lng cut down to speed uptheon-SCfttn action, I'g Fighting Vipers. Virtual On, etc. Nobody can doubt th.t the technology In the arcade Is just moving too fast for a home console to catch up with. For Inst.nce. I rully doubt that Vf} can be convert I'dperfectly-nlcely,maybl'. but not perfectly.

On the other h.nd. the PlayStatlon Is ina beUer position than Saturn .

It can handle all the special effects, such as nice e~plosions and transparenq. Though Sonycan'l producl' thl'lr own arcadl' masll'rpil'Cl's they always have all thl' best orlSlnal home video sames. eg.

Resident Evil. Fade to Slack. Formula One. WipEout 2097 and Crash Sandicootl Ithink It Is because Ihe console is more poweriuland more popular amonS the developers. therefore, PlayStation alway s setsthe'firsl·hand'products,thenweSaturnownershaveallthe crappy. secondary products - ume Sames but poorer quality and sraphlcsl lam frustrated about the whole situallonl lamaSegafanandl rully believe in the potential of Saturn. but I'm now really startins to think maybe I should sell my5aturn and gel a PlaySt ation instud. How sad it is for me 10 think in that way. That's why I'm writing to you guys who are the top Saturn supportl'rs and yet impartial to Sive ml' your sincerl' opinions. Please convincl' ml' one more time before it's too late.

MlkryT

.#Z. Well, yuh, Mikey. But you may be letUnla bit carried away here. ~ Thoulh mOll! PlayStation tiUe. ue (Ominl out every month, it's not ., U every one of them It an umtoppable fl'X nuchlne of a lame. In fad those YOII've named, load tholllh they ue. ue the best releaus of the p.,t sever&! month.. U YOII think about it there have probably been jUlt as many really load Satum lames releaud over the . ame period. Whal about NIGHTS, Daytona CC!, Virtua Cop 2, Street Fishier Alpha I, 'IShUnS Vlpen.

Tomb ilaJder and Sesa Worldwide Socterl Jusl beuuse the PlayStaUon can handle a few more Iraphle&! effects doe.n 't mean the Satum It doomed. If you"1 worried about the quality of Saturn Virtua Fllhler J jllst remember that la) AM2 ue hudly lillely 10 disappoint with a (onvelllon of their own lame, and (b) you will only be able to play this same onthe Satulft.

with it, especially with Virtua Cop 2 and Daytona CCE on the way. Sut maybe th is will hetp persuade software companies that we devotl'es can gl'l .. little impatient ChriJ Nlght/ngg/e. Luton

,1'3 And well JOu .hould not consider parting with your Saturn! It'. true ~ that it can be an.noyinB to He load gamH appe&rinl on tompetlnl s,stem. while the Saturn it loinl throulh a dry paid\.. Some of the thirdputy tiUe. may not be a'load., they oUlht to be, but bear in mind that there are plenty of Sela-prolramml"d lame. which are world·beaten with· in their lerun, or at least nutch up to the belt IOftwue on any other platform.. .or example.

World·WideSocctr.whlchyou mention,ilcu:nenUyll!cogni.ed ., the but IOCCtr lame uound.

Thoulh you nuy be right to ..y that Doom illettinla b it Ions in the tooth, you 'll no doubt have been plea.ed to lead in last IlIue that Quake 11 aheady being (Onveried to Saturn lall lolnl well).

And there's plenty more .tuff to look forwud to in 1997 - how abolll FlghUnI Melamix, Sonk 3D, Virtu&! On, M&rue n and Hexenl Just kttp the f&llh. b aby!

PlAYSTATIOIf PROCTOLOGISTS DI .... SSM, I was wanderlnS round my local games store a while back when I spotted i Sillurn. I decided to have a soandlhavetoYylwas pretly impressed with whit I saw. so fm cons iderinS buyinS one. There's one thing thit'S sot me a little worried however. Th is kid I know land don't particulirly like) was II'IIinS me about his brother's new PlayStatlon and how It was so srut. 1ml'nlioned thal I was thinkins of buyinS a Siturn and he said I stlouldn't becausl' production of Sa tu rn Sames was Solng to stop In about a ye.r because 51'ga could not cope with the competition from Sony. He then droned on about the PlayStation's expand able memory or something or other I don't h~ve a clue abouI. He said it would be even worse for SeSi when the N04 1s released. All of this sounds likl' a load of maggot· Infested poop to me. There's no truth bl'hlnd il is therer If not I will get his brother'sPlayStatlon and personaUy shove it up his arsefor being such a prat .

Anonymous

.L.;:;. That .ound.like a load of mallot-Wetted poop to us. If there ~ weren 't laWlalaln.t 'Indtement to Vlolente' we would happUy So alonl with your playful dosinlltntiment.

I AlSO DON' T LlKI TO COMP1.AIN, BUT••• OluSSM, I have a rather serious point that other ruders may possibly asrC"e with . Iamserl· ouslyconsidl'ringbuylnSaPlayStitlon. Yesyouruditcorrectly. 1have gradually come tothls decision on the basis that thePlayStatlon appe.rstoh. veamuch sruterselectlonofsamesavailible lalso partly due tothe manythir dpartY'lOft -

WHAT YOU'VI.UN waITI_G BOUT THU MOJfTH

We want mo re covt r CDsI Is "'"llctlU' F1. t olllLi.al Ollt for Saharaf I'm thi nk mS of buy!nS a PliyStatio n_ Whirl thl beU it Maax TT? We want more ga mes NOW bb........ up••tI Ohnoit isn·t l (Y"itil . Jtitb)

.>

SEGA SATURN

3 'i

Another month, another N, hosted as ever by your editor, Richard Leadbetter with able assists on the Sega bits by le fromage grande Mark Maslowicl. This month'smailbag was quite dull actually. Please think of some interesting questions, preferably not involving Psygnosis' Formula One or Manx TT Superbike. Send those extremely courteous and thought'provoking missives on their way to: lET THERE BE NO DOUBTS ABOUT MY SKillS N, SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, Priory Court, 30·31 Farringdon Lane, London EC1R 3AU. Once again, please be interesting. I'm dying here.

SPEED AMD YlOUNCE ADDICT On. SSM, I am a very proud Sega Saturn owner and am a beat "em up and droVing game addtct. SO cou ld you please answer my quest,ons1 Oh, your mag IS brilliant. fimtastlC etcetera 1 On your TounnsCa' feature In Issue'3,1 notlcedSega Saturn logos In the bac~ground of the car ~elect Kreen Does this mean that ,t's planned for a Saturn release 1 l.Any news on the conversion of Virtu a Fighter lonthe Saturnl Many people say It can't be done but I amongst many saturn owners would be dlsappolntea If AM. did n't even try lWhen is Marvel Super Heroes due for release and how much WIll it cost?

4 Why IS the Saturn superrortothePlayStatlon In terms ofgamequality,ytt dOIng s.o poor In compaJlson asfar as sales are concerned? slstheremuchpointbuyingVirtuaFlghte,Kidsifyou al,eadyownVFll

§

Priu Video). They sell them. As fot whether it', thl.! the Silt\lrn ~ould b.. upgraded with, say, a new worth It, personally. I'd save up any extra (itso and video 30 procenOI and . Ull b.. superior to N64 g.-I a LastrDisc player, but finding discs fot that despite .tU! btolng I. 31·bil machine. 1. Ilh lnk you' re (espedally In the UKJ Is jusl as hard. I get m.lne from referrins to the hullltt· move In I. direction, qukkly the Stilte. (If you 're on the net look at www.ken·moveintheoppositedi rectionandthenmoveb.. ck then prus B. 3. 11', dmple. 11', because, like you, we cranes.com) love games, and Silurn games In particular. Couplf' 11 AlE MOT lCTUIllTSlCA thit wllh tons of up<!rlence In journalism plus tak· Ing pride In Our work and there you have It. OUfSSM, Asyou"rethehottestgamesm<lgaround"plea~eanswer

my questIons to put my mind at rest , Could you please tell me what football game I should get· Worldwide sacCf'r '97 0' wait untIl FIFA "97 comes

'0'

2 Will Mortal Kombat TJllogy be coming out on the Saturn? lWillyoueverlnventatruck,aclnggame' 4 AreJVC maklngaVlCt0'YBO~Ing2' SAnychanceofbflngrngoutapoolorsnookergamel Lee Davies, County Durham

~ ~~~t:'s~;:::~::~c:IIF~;rS;:;!;:th::f'

~~~::~~:~~:7: ::;~~~i~:I;~~:~~::

Touring Car Championship wili come to Situm inthe latter part of '97 even though It hasn't been officially confirmed yet. 2.Yes, AM2 have confirmed that Vf3 will come to Salurn In lale '97. Incldenblly, Last Bronx hu also been unounced for nerlyea r. 3. Try March 1997.• , in lapanll'd say it wiU be a Summer game for us, 4. this Is a question I've often pondered.

I (Rich) own both machines, get all the games for free, and I think the Saturn's a 101 better. Just about the only garne I've played on PS rt.:f'ntlyand enjoyf'd has been WipEoul 2097. Wherealon $aturnl've had Vlrtua Cop 2, Daytona CCE, Virtual On, Exhumed ... I reckon people juSl belleve Ihe hype too rudlly.

Having sa id that, that's probably the same rtason why huge amounl$ of peo ple bought Megldrives 1

the \;utvef$lon to <!'Ven gf't nur to the Sega effort. 1 Yes, Willlams have confirmed It. 3. Probably not me p<!rsonally, although Gremlin have Hudcore 4"4 (reviewed last bsue). 4- Hop<!fully nol. S. Any chance would be very sUm Indeed.

OIOU'"SUCIIM' ToSSM, Youarepuregcnius.evengod·"~e.amarrng.rntf'restlng

anddever. An'fNay. enough sudlng up. here are my questIons 1 I know the Saturn doesn't need upgrad,ngt064·blt, but IS Itposslblf'1 2 HOw do you flick upwllhyour heels on SWWS "971 1 How do you guys get~ur mag so damn goodl Vincent Str~tfu', London

Ido not want to gIve my name In case some YF2fan beats me up, but I hve In Aberdeen. Scotiand. Earth

~ ~:~::s:~:~ I::~;::.t::;~:~ ;::~

::r.

All

graphics and no garneplay· dohl How much rent do you ply in that dreamworld you live 1nl Addreulng yourqueries,luggernauthas been taken out of PAL X·Men. As for Digitiser, it does seem a bit odd. Sf A Satum Is superior In every regard· speed, loadl ng time, the whole works. The difference between SfA. to Saturn and PlayStlt10n Is even greater.

SHOOTlMGOUEIIES

few~al$ago·s·lfyou'rearabldAM.fan,yes.

otherwise, nolrtally.

I. Did you know that the Super NES was an B·

~ bltmachine(allhoughascapableasaI6.blt

IIOED-CDIS lJSEIIIs(

One like the Megadrive)? How many bits does not cor· respond to a machlne 's power, It's the cleverness of the cuslom audio-video chlps. What I'm saying is

DearSSM, Srnce I pur~ha~ed IheSega Salurn,l have wanted tobuy the MPEG VIdeo c~rtfldge. unfortunately I haven"t ~een

OnrSSM, Please answer these qUe5tlons for me ,. HOW IS Die Hard T"logyshaplng upl l.Wlllyou be able to use the Vlrtua Cop gun on DIe

3 HOW many FPS IS Yirtua Cop 2 runnrng at and how

~nyoftheVid~oCDsonsalf'.onlyoneortwohe,eand

there However, see,ngthe "Out Now" sectIon rn your ace mag.lwasledtobellevethatthey·rest'lIrnprodu~tlon

ADElUDED FOOL Illm De" SSM, lamaSaturnowncrandhaveYirtuaf,ghter2andpe' · s.onallyl don't think It"s that good. Most ofthe spel:ial movesrnvolvesplnnrngkicksorpunchf's-borrngllt"sall graphics and nogameplay. The characters don't have the feel that you know them, Fo,cxample.Ryu is a fasl. smarl, hard bloke, but who·sCage·just some nlnJathat"s walked ,n off the street I don't know why it got the Gilmeof th eYearawil,d I would also hketo compl ain about D'gltlserIt hadSt'cet FIghter Alpha for PlayStatlOn at number, and SFA on Saturn at numbe'7 What's the dIfference apart from a better loadrng message on PlayStatlonl By the way, how do you get Juggernaut on PAlX·Men, because the cheat

I

wouldg,eallyappr~ciateltthcrcforelfyoucouldtellme wherctobuy~nyofthesa,dVidcOCDsandlfyouthink

good iI conve'Slon (rom thca,cadc IS itl 4 Whcnwillthcmodembeoutl S Do you think the p"ce of the Saturn wIll havecomf' downforChflstmasl Pete. Collins, Harp<!nden, Herls.

it"s worth It anyway.

Reuben Chambers, Student MMU

~ ~~:c:O:u:h:~:g~~~~~~:I:;:::~O::~:f maUordercompanles whosellVldeoCDs, Falling t hai, get your ass down to HMV or Virgin MegaS tore For smaller towns, try PlayHouse (used to be Our

~ :~ :~::~;.t~',: :,e.::!; :~;~f~::::;:r ::~ ond and It', an AWESOME convef$ion, Buy it now.

4.HopefuUy around Easter next year. S. It's not very likely. However, <!'Vcr major multiple chaln store has Ihel r own Saturn value pack, We r<!'Vlewed them all

(O\.C) " WIlLWORK "n<

HTtE....,<;TE><S'f;

"a,statlon ' IIG ' deal Formula I (OHldall, lekhn. 11cI1Jll1otef'. Memory (01d and ht,a IoJPad a_allable with 0\ F1NAtfG !Phone $CIlel an 0127' '00204 far details)

WIN AT CONSOLE WITH THE • COi\'SO LE GAl\IES FOR SA LE • ALL TOI'TITLESAVA ILAIILE • I'LAYSTATION & SATURN COi\'SO LES FOR SA LE '0' K':Qt-'_"" • EXCHANGE YOUR EX IST Ii\'G GAl\ IES (FROl\1 [5.(0) • DELl Vt-: RY WI TlU N 48HRS C,I 1-1- J)AV";ON.-

TEL:O I21 24JQ9 10 o. (19766971 16

FINISHED IT'! DON'T LIK E IT? BORED WITH IT'!

THEN SWAP IT FOR ADIFFERENT ONE

£5

L:S I~G OCR C~ I QUE svsn:.\ 1 IT IS POSS IIILE TO PL A \' 1;1' TO TE~ I)IFF"ERE~T GA.\lES FOR THE PRIC t: 01·' O:\E I~OL(;HTOFFTHt: IH G II STREET!!!!

SVV.A.PS £5

PRICE I~CLL: lJ ES: 24 hr DESPATC H O~ STOCK ITDIS ALl. POSTAGE & PA C KI~G r------, I'ERSO~A L SERV IC E

PLAYSTATIO~ nr.~9EiJnr.EiJIr;- ~~i8\'~~~~

SATURN

\1[GA)I.\RIP.O. BOXI1CRAHX.mls.SHROPSHIRLS\'7 9WH. \\ t optrdlt w ,j",pl~ price b;lndirl ~ .~" I t m . OtTer appl ies lu used ga",... "ilh;"lhe salll<' priu ha"d.

CONSOLE HELPLINE 0891·JlS400 ..__ .I NFOR.... ATION LI NE " INDEX 0891·J1S-401 ..__ .PLAYSTATlON CHEATS I CODES I HELP 0891·n8-102 .......ULTl MATE MORTAL KOl\HIAT I SATURN 0891·)IS-40J._w.ADVENTURE GAMES FULL SOLUTIONS! 089J.JI&-4lH .__ MEGADR IVE CHEATS I GOLDEN OLDIES 089J.)18-I05 ....... S0NlC I" 11 HINTS, TlPS, CHEATS 0891·)IS....0L.... GOT A MODEM? CALL THIS NUMB ER FOR 1000'S Of CHEATS 0891·)18-107 ___ \E IV RElEASE L1NE, CHEATS, HELP " TIPS 0891·l18408._._.MEGADRIV ECHEATLINE (LOADS OF GAMES HElP HER El 0!I91·118-409 ....... SEGA SATURN CHEATS, TIPS, HI~'TS 1II91·J1&-110 ....... SEGA SATURN &: MEGADRIVE GAME HELP 1IIJI·31&-1I1 .w._.PLAYSTATlON!!! 190 CHEATS" TIPS THE WO RKS 1I9l·31&-112 .......GOT A MODEM? CALL THIS NUMBER FOR 1000'S OF CHEATS 1I91-318-41J ....... 1\10RTAL KOMBAT III, CODES. CHEATS, TIPS " MOVES 1In.JI8-414 .... _.CHEATS ALL KINDS OF CONSOLE GAMES KO MBAT 11, CODES, CHEATS, TIPS" MOVES

-:::::::::::::::~~~:~~~~;~NEW RElEASE CHEATUNE ' ...-EIV RELEASE / CHEATS I H I ~'TS I HELP

..

TemJln Is the Ryu or Ken of the Vlrtull On ballledrolds. He's quite fast in terms of speed ~nd mobility. but Is lacking In comparison to the huvier Virtuaroids when I1 comes to armour. Consequently. he takes damage prettyeas By. In terms of comb~t. Temjin is a very good all路round fighter. with decent ranged wupons. However. he cln be excessively dangerous In the area ofclose-qu~r路 ters combat. A powerful robot, Temjin's only rul wukness Is his lack of suml路 nl Ind his very poor performance at air attacks.

80MB Seemingly quite dull. this wupon has excellent defensive capabilities.

The blast takes out all enemy bum proJe<liles in its radius, butdoesn 'taffect your weaponry. Ergo. you cln use it asa shield to launch your own offen slve.

~ ~ BEAM RIFLE Fires off a single belm pulse if used on its own. Boosting sideways fires off four bolts. whkh aren't very strong. R~oyery time on boosting attacks with this weapon are most unimpressive. In a forward boosting scenario, Temjin fires two more powerful bursts

Oorkas may not bto the m~t mobilf' of Virtuarolds, but hf' is (f'rta inly thf' m~t stuldy short of somf' of thf' boss ,obots in thf' g~mf', A vast, huvily ~,mOUIf'd fOltlf'ssofa'lold,Oolkasspf'cialisf'Sinbombardmghlsopponf'ntswlthanf'al constant barragf' ofhlgh ' ylf'ld e.plosivf's. His nur slow路 motion activitif's c~n makf'hlmabitofasittlngduck,andhisboostc~pabilitif'silrf'short ' livf'd(hf"s

also rubbish at air attacks), butthf' shur powf'r at Oorku' disposal , couplf'd with thf' V,Ht rangf' of boost wupons options make him a Vf'ry good charaClf'1

HAMMER This has huge rangf', hor'nf's in and flif's O'o'f'r buildings. rifectiYely nullifyIng w.oer.It's alsotlst f'nough to usewhf'n smashing foes who ale r芦OYering afief a boost orjump. The various boostoptionsavailabletothf'hammel alf'n't so u!.eful.

B 9 ... ~路 ~

=

,, ....... .

=

:: "t;;:::! ' ~,, ~

~

. -/

- -~ '- , --

, '"

74 ... "' .... 路

~

.,..~ ~ = I ..I

-:.:'~_"Y:~t~~- ,:,

Conceivably. flel.Yen Is the only ~femille- In the Virtuafoids on offer in Virtuill On. She's illso thoe filstest fighter in the game. but illso the lust ilrmoured. meaning thilt she takes a huge ilmount of damage coml»fed to the huY)l hitters. What is intriguing though is her ilbility to shift into Hyper Mode. After tilking half·dam· age. she chilnges COIOUf and illl of her WfOilpons are powered up into filf su perior versionsofthebilSltilSSilultordinilnce. HerHeart8eilmilltackinpilrticulilris now cilpabl~ of som~ truly horr~ndous damilge.

BOWGUN Probably F~i ·Y~n·s least impf~ssive wupon. This bow fires a single plasmil arrow which hon a long range (and good recovery time). Boosting pro· ducesdoubletheilmountofshots. filirlyd«entilSilbiltk·up. f.·.

~

;!~~ ...; ---=~ ~

..

~.~

n.

~

ifi.

_ _ __

, i

/

~

Along路rOlngeOlttOlc.VR,bOlr;edontheROIidenexos.eleton,butequip~with;1n

entlrelydifferentrOlngeofweapons, Althoughofmedium-build,Belgdor's highyield weaponry mOlkes him 01 slow Vlrtullold with very unimpressive boost cOIpOlbllltles,HehlsanattlckforjustOloouteveryocclslonandintheright hOlnds he Is a dangerous force, The key is In using attOlck OIS a good defence, OInd going forward from there,

NAPALM Napalm is a very powerful tool for Belgdor to use. It strikes oPPOnentseven when they're behind cover. It only fires In a straight line (even when used with I boost). so it is best to stiek to forward boosting here. The blast rOldiuscOln be most lelhaL

Viper Ills ~

f~st,yet fund~ment~lIy f1~Wi!d Virtu~rold. There ~re no compl~inb the power of his wupons. The 7-w~y missiles ~nd the homo ing be~m are Immensely powerful in the right hands, with the VlJlun being useful fOf gr~du~lIy wuring down ~n opponent's energy. Uofortun~tely, Viper 11'5 main problem is his propensity 10 t~ke huge ~mounts of d.m~ge due 10 his we~k ~rmour. Ahhough a char~cter with some potential he is inherently we~k. wh~tsoever ~bout

7W MISSILE 7W st~nd for seven-way firel A gre~t wupon ~t close range, but must be used In concert with the homing be~m for long r~nge strikes. Forw~rd boosted 7W Is ~ hugely powerful strike whilst sldew~~ ~lIows you to arc missilesoverobst~cles.

~~ ~ -

,,/

it

.

~ 4l~/

. ...., ,

--

-.~-,-

~ .r.~ .. , ~ .~

.. .

-~ ,

,

â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘ -" ' - of-. , " -'.

Being large and slow usually means that a Virtuaroid tends to be ve ryresilient to damage. This isn't Ihe case with Bal -Bas-Bow who remains very weak regardless.lndividually.hisweaponsarealsoqllilerllbbish,bllt for the way this 'roidoperalestheydothejobprettywell,Hismaintacticistoabsorbenemy fire with the aid of the ring faser and then retaliate. Bal路Bas-Bo w gotS down in I\istory as the ieast poPlllar character in the game, which is as mllch todowith his preferred tactics as itistohis rather bizarre,porcineappe arance.

FMINE "F" stands for floatingl They ha~ a路class homing capabilities and will always hit provided yougi~ them a fairly decent aim to begin with. Boost optionsprovidemoremines,blltil's best to use solo mines to build pressure.

Apharmd is character similar in appearance and weaponry to Ihe Virtual On staple character. Temjin. He has a bomb just like Temjim and his plasma sword is similar as well. deployins beam cutters at ranse ~nd belns powerful OIl close ranse. However. Apharmd benefits from a more powerful super·allack. with the Tongfer belnsa mosl Yersatile weapon. This character has been madew ith speed and stamina In mind. AlthouSh some of his weapons seem to work a bIt stransely. he can stIli bea most formidable force.

BOMB He can throw Ihe~ further than Temjin. but overall their use remains the same. Use the blast radIUS as a shield and fire your own weapons Ihroush it. AI'iO. with the boost enSilSed. the bomb can be lobbed OYer buildings.

R> 7M61

=

;1;11

~~.­

~§i~

~~Iden Is the prefeHed"~ for beginners just getting into Virtual On. Far from being a b~l~nced Vlrtuarold, In ~ctu~1 f~ct he is a powerhouse of destructionl It's possible to mnsacre most of the CPU opponents by st~rting every round by firing off your lasen, Most foesdon'l get out of the way quickly enough, Bye bye so" of your energyl The bazook~ and laser ~,e horrendously powerful, but this is kind of balanced by the very nature of the G Bomb, which is about as useful as ~ one路 legged m~n In ~n ~rse- kicking contest.

GBOMB Two words best sum up the G Bomb ~nd they ~re ~oh路 ~nd ~du(', Although the blast takes out beam weapons, using it like this is next to impossibje , It'sbestusedtoc~atesomee)(ploslonsandputthewindupyourenemyabit ,

"

---

~

DIFFERENT ROUTES

TROOPS, TOWERS AND TIBERIUM

CommandandConquertriesitsbestnottobeatotaliylineargame. Assuen alt hough thert a re around'5 missions 10 wmplete for the GOI or NOD, your pe rfor mancein key areas can takl:'you onlodifferent luh.In all,lhereareoverSo missi~ns to wade through, so finishins Ihl:' gaml:' with both the GOI and t he NOD isn't t he end to the game's lasta bllltY'lhere's lots more to discover byre-playingth!!

Commillnd illnd Conqu e r baslully boils down to three different types 0 fjob.

lIame again and aga in. Now that's impressive

MISSION SUCCESSFUL! GOT AMMUNITION AND JEEPS! In Command andConque,'s precursor, Dune Ii: Battie for Arrakis. the objectives of most missions were pretty much identical. Build a bilse. find the enemy and put

th emtothebullet .l n C&C,thingsareawholelotsop"isticated.T"erearet"e enjoyablesearc" and eliminatemissions,ofcourse,buttherearebunc"ofot"ers too such as commandeering a small task force in order 10 take out a specific target or 10 brea k oul some prisoners or w"al-"ave-you. T"e fact t"at t"e NOD and GDI have different melhods also has a huge bearingonthemake·upoft"emi ssion

DARK FORCES Start the game and you'll notice that everything is in the dark. Apart from a small amou nt of landscape showing aroundyouf soldie,s, everyt"ing is "idd en. The key to seelngw"at's w"at Is to adva nce YOUf forces. Whefevef they go, the landscape appears around t"em. Getting a communications (enlfe gives you an overview mapofall Ihe land you've uncove red. It a lso s"ows all of you r unitsanda nyenemies in this a rea loo. Sometimes it's a good idea to sacrifice some smaller units in ofder to revea l more of t"e map. T"ls can "elp you get more of a warning when t"eenemypreparesitsnextonslaugM

BASES LOADED As well ascommandingyouf unih,there'sa great deal of construction involved in Command and Conquer. Organising a base to create newlroopsand harve stthe surrounding Tiberlum is a carefully balanced act that is especially critical on the later leveh;. Should you inved your cas" in a top-notc" Tibe rium "ar vestlngopera· tion a nd hope the enemy hold off long enough for th e investment 10 come in~ Or s"ouldyouconcentrateontroopsflrst/lt all depends on th e mission, re ally.

1. CONSTRUCnO."TE TIle lII0I1 lrrlportut buUdl~8 Ifttllepml. TbtCollltrvctlon sltllalltld toutat.aUotber bulldlnp.tt'.hTtpIacublt.

2. MlYAllCEOPOWlI'LUT " ortalfvlUlCtdltthnolll81 f'lqulmjtlltltponr. Hlnct tlltc".Uoaol'tIII'lnba",1CI P"etfacUit)'.

3. WUCU

6. ADYAIIClO CO.... UIIIC.mONSCEIITRE

ThI.plml la ~.trvc:tICItG

Morlllul,lO thlalla partlc.u'arlynoloriGu. II ODt • .,.t.

I. GUUOTOWER

bullclllldtraln J1lUrroouoldltra.Sulldfllorttolnl:ftl.M tllt.,moftrwpproclucUon. 4. WUPOIISfACTORl' Thi. tlcllit)' il tllt ~&rd.1lrt Iqulnllatof tlM k mu:b, pI"O'Iidlll3th11ttthnoioD 10 erutl aJl_ner ofll&htand IInfJunlll, bottl for IIM JI'OIInd ud air.

5. COIIIIUIlICATIONS CENTRE KMpajOOclloMattilloft"" all/fIIII.tth tlM l lclof thl. uIlnIwllk:htn.cQalluRlb I. IIlId that Iw IIMR rmailCl. GII till. wIIIR till

1fIOIIIY'.rtaII1ro1l,na ....

MltNIWan -baQd utlllltl t,,~nolGD

I. th' _IY to thl. bulldlnl, ·hleht. ....lltlll

1101 1 IlulldlnlJ1lU CI RutI t•. Thll 1I thl IIoml of Tibllrlulllltl'RUstDt

I'Hd u IIIIIY ' f"'OIIndlh.

ICIlllofGDI IM.HI,thl l IRI"'~II I.ad d.. t~ ItlnY IIOOlntlf'lollll'S. II. 'DYAIIC~DGUUOTOWER IR.tndofle~d, lIIl. coR­

It".cl," UH. rvc:k. bto IIhoylbGlhgraund u d llr rorc., III.td a" . ttack. lG. REPAIRfACllln You canuH up )'Ourc" dlb by"pl lrlnld.m ... doflllo )'Our unit. with 1111 I.l~ orlllls r"ility.It'la stow afldcndItl-Intm lwl jobthowl h.

l.PlIWERPlAn Yo~ Ilnd powtr 1ft order to cOftltruct any thlllillH. This Ilalwa,ylthe flrstthlngYIMI build arter lleployllllyour ConltructloftSlt•• 2. HllIoof NOD Tlpically .n.r~urP_r

PlantYQllbul16the Handof NOD. lhlsbulldlnSlllppllll NOD tl"lMlpS. Build mllfll Ihln onetocrtat,troollSqwlcur.

3. TEIrIPlEoF NOD The lernpl, of NOollthe equinlenttotheGDluIII' rnu.lcatlonlcenlr •• G!ylS you I b. tllr strategic ,I•• ofth,rnap.

4. nlUIUIrIPROCESSOR This Is the centrepiece of yourTlberlulIIHa",IUng oPll'lltlon. Blry 0111 and yo~ get t~llIarvISUrfl'll.

5. SilO Thl Proceuor can o_ly hold 11)(1(1 cl'lditl' worth of the pl'tcioulol't.Thlsllolenlir-le ylMI tOltockpll1 1500crtdill mllfll.EISIInlill.l'lally.

UNITS UNITED Regardless of whether you're GOI or NOD. the attacking forces at your disposal can be split into several diffe renttypes. The keyis tolurnthestrenglhsandwuknenesofeachandusing them in concert to best effed .

SOLDIERS

SEA·BASED TRANSPORT

On the earlier missions with the Iow tech·levels. these form the main bocly of your forces. They come in various different types depending on whether yourGDI or NOD. Mini-gunners are the basic soldier for ooth sides. moving on to the likes of Grenadier and Bazookasonthe ne Ki:tech-level.

Some of the missions see you on the edge of the coast, and he re you get some assistanc e fromyoursu -basedvessels. lndeed, th e GDI start off th e gam e with the Patrol Boat inflict ing miss ile -death on NOD scum, patrolling from easl to west . Also of note is the hove rCfaft

Unlike Dune 11 you have full control of air unib and there are a vast amount of the m on offer including Al0 tank busters, transport helicoplers and other types of flying menace. These guys only .eallycrop upon the later levels. but ifyouwalCh the GDI demo you get a great vi ew of the powe r of the airoorne forces. They can get anywhe re at great speed,and although they aren't too huvily armoured, the re's little that can really touch th e m (apart from SAM missiles).

~ SEGA S .4TU R N

~ SEG.~ S.~T\Jr,;;N

6~

~ SEGA SATURN

Sonic 30 features a total ofZ4 pieces of top quality music created by none other than Sega Europe's main music man, Richard lacques, who produced the better tracks in Ihe recently released OaytonaCCE(amongstothe r things). For Sonic 3D, the man Jacques has out-done himself with a range of amating music, ranging from dancey Sonic-style music through to more hardcore techno. lt's all rather excellent stuff. What's more you get different music for every stage, changing slightler per acl. There's even some great over路the-top dastardly music for Robotnik's entrance This time, Richard Jacques has produced the entire soundtrack, makIng for a far more cohesive sound throughout the entire game, as opposed 10 Ihe clashing styles of music in Oaytona CCE. Hurrah.

Date: Postcode: Telephone: Annual Subscription Rate,: 12 months UK ÂŁ33 Offer Code: 11 2 Air Europe (46 Signed : Airmail Zones 1&2 (73 (parent or guardian's signature if under 18 yrs) Source Code: 1111 All subscriptions will be processed as quickly as possible, but you should allow 28 days for the order to be processed and upect to receive the first available issue after that.

From time to time EMAP IMAGES may send you infonnation that could be of interest to you. Tick here if you do not wish to receive such infonnation. 0

Full money back guarantee of un mailed issues if you are not satisfied.

11\%1~NINf.ilJim~ml"m ~1

RESULTS!

Afew months ago in SSM, we teamed up with TWIX' and began our search to find the greatest NiGHTS player in the country. This culminated in an enormous challenge held at the Virgin Megastore inOxford Street as we strove to find the TWIX' ........... .. "" Junior Gamesplayer of the Year!

IJ

emembtr our appeals 10 find the grutestSatu r" , .. mer a few months ago in this lIer), magnine? We asked our super-talented rudersh ipto gtt t08rips with NiGHTS and send in their highest Unkscore on Ihe Frozen Bell aru of this Incredible gamel Quite lit· erally WI! wtre deluged with responses oiler the nut few "Inks u hturn garners iltte mpted to miSter this most competitive ,u u of the game.

Out of the manyentril!s receilltd,only these elgM bravegilmers pr Oiled themselves worthy: Bt'n Bratchell from SUfrey. Rober! Doubtfire from Kent, Malthtow Griffiths also of Kent, Rober! AlIsop from Dl:'rby. Maleo Vilo of Bournmouth, Edward lee of Worthing, Edmund Hodge of London and Ben WhittingtOl1fromOsselt.

•

BEN WHITTlNGTON: 51 LINK ROBERT OOUBTFlRE: 98 LINK

EDWARD LEE: 55 LINK BEN BRATCHELL: 51 LINK

TAking a brnk after the first round and powerlng themselves up with a trusty TWIX·, the contestent$ sat down for th e final confrontation! Some pretty Iterling performanees all-round, but Robert Doubtfire streaked to victory with a frankly unfeaslble 98llnkl To the victor, the spoilsl

The finals wen held at the Vir81n Me8astore on Oxford Street on Saturday 2 Novembe r. As the startin8 time for the tournament drew closer, the store be8an to fill to brimming with rapt onlookers. Hosting the event was Rick Henderson (from GamesMaster) a nd Chds Knight from Maxis software. The game set· up was simple. The challengers had to get as high a link as possible in two minutes.

THE EIGHT CHALLENGERS BEN BRATCHELL: 41 LINK MATTHEW GRIFFITHS: 13 LINK MARCO VITO: 31 LINK EDMUND HODGE: 15 LINK

ROBERT DOUBTFIRE: 51 LINK RICHARD ALLSOP: 11 LINK EDWARD LEE: 57 LINK BEN WHITTlNGTON: 109 LINK

~ SE-.3.'; S .';TUR N

IVIRTUAL ON So ... Fighting Vipers, Virtua Cop 2and Oaytona CCE aren't good enough for you eh? Well, try this all'new AM3 arcade conversion of the excellent two-player battler, Virtual On.

DUAL PLAYER ACTION Vlrtual On was originally designed as a twoplayer garne in the arcades. Indeed, it's ONLY a two-pla~r

game and as such it's a pretty

expensive coin-op and thul only found in big ucades. That being the can, II has to be nid that the Saturn vu.ion really is far, far better when played agaiNt. human opponent.

There', very little more satlsfyinB than using skill and strategy to totally oulquaff, outgun and bulcally outdo your opponent In every single way. It's mOll! of an enclosed one-on路 one arcade fest than say, Doom Of Quue, but It', veI}', very cool. And $ltalegk too - hence '" ~oO+ pagt play guide available in Japan.

Virtual On is the deepest, most strategic tw.o-player.game to hit Saturn sincethe legendary Vlrlua Fighter 2, High praise indeed.

Take the huntef路~illef aspects of Doom, mi~ and match with some Street Fighter and CyberSled and you hilveVirtual On -deceptively simple. but very deep and extremely exciting A choice of eight robots is initially at yourdisposal (the roster is boosted once the secrets have been activated) and each has a different range of weaponry. along with differing speed and agility.

Each combatant 15 armed with a plasma sword for

II:J4'AI4,,,A ~1

You can't beat a bit of AM] arcade gameplay can you~ After the brilliance of ~ga Rill.Iy Championship and now Virtual On. we've come to expect only the very best from this prolific d eveloper and their pals in the CS gam e developme nt d epartment. The next title to lu ue forth from the same stable is Lut Blanx. It" a 10 fighting game that uses the same GUARD· PUNCH-KlCK controls as Virtua Fighter but features completely different gameplay, most notably In that the characlers use weaponry. It's Just ~n announced that Last Branx will be one of the most

The two· player

mode is absolutely amazing . . especially with the verltcal split· screen.

devastating close range combat (th ese are byfal the mosl powerful weapons and are favoured by the faster robots) alongwilh th,!:'e difftrent range weapons.TypicaUyoneismOl,lntedperarm,witha "mesa attack" activated by usinS ooth weapons simultaneously. Each rooot also Ilas booste r capabillties with which to speed around along with the useful jump feature, which allowsyoutoleaph igh Inlothe airandscopeyouropponentoutthere.

The sheer scope in eaCh of the robots·capabill· ties allows for some action which teshtheold grey matteraswellasthearcaderefle~es.Andthat's

really where Virtual On comes into It own. Each combatant has an AChilles Heel which must be ruthlesslyexplolled Inorder lobe successful. The thing Is, your opponenfs vulnerabilitles are oflen e xposed jusl as they're fl rlnS off their most devastatlng attack I

overlotheSalurne~tremelywell.ln fact. as arcadetranslalions go, it's really difficult to fault this game. It may not have quite Ihe resolution or flu· Idityofthearcadegameandsomeof theconflagra. tionsaren'l quite as Impressive. but the fact Isthal they're good enough. Coupled with the gameplay, It makes Virtual On an esse ntia l Saturn uperience Virtual On mlShl look a bit weird. but it's just brilliant. There's always room in the market fora new, excellent Iwo·player game and this title hits the spot perfectly. Sasically.yet anolher superb rea· sontobuyaSaturn-theAMdepartmentshave

R ICH

1~ 1:II'Ullill

I

BLAST CHAMBER

Ask any spectator at amunicipal fireworks display and they'" te" you that nothing beats a good bang. But if that's the case, how come this explosion-based game isn't more fun? _

I ACTlVISION

_

1拢44.99

_

I FUTURESPORTS

with the mighty Blint Chamber. We ll, I say 'mighty', but tnat's only because it sounds good. In fad,

IIJIR'

I DECEI'IBER

'mighty'lsn'tthemost approp.iate adjed;ve 10 use in

I

t takes iI certain sort of person to enjoy a futuristic sport set inside ilglan! rotilting

(ube, and Activi sion hilve set Dui to cornerthi s particul 'Hsedorofthemarket

(onnection with this game, but before we get onto that,lel'sfind oul what Ihis game has to offer Ihe

everydaygamesplayerinthestreet.

Blast Chamber is a game that can be played tWD ways,asa sort ofevery路miln路fo.路 himselffuture sport, andasapulzle game. lnthe firstvariiltionyoufind yours!'lf trapPf'd in of cuboidular chamber with thr~ other blokes(omputeror - bythe power of multi -tap - human-controlled).Allfourcontendersaredressedin (oloureduniformswithtimebombsstrappedtothelr ba(h.AII four contenders also have their own tim ers, which,whentheycountdowntolerO, detonatethe bomb and blast the wearer into slimy fra8ments There is only one way to save yourself from becoming a firework . A 810win8(rystal appears in the

middle of the floor and you have to try to grab it, shoving your opponents to thede(k if they 8et in your way. With the (rystal in your possession you have two choi(es. You (an either slam it into your own base, thus addin82Ssecondstoyourti mer,or brin8your opponents 20 seconds doserto disintegration by droppin8itintooneoftheirbases (omplicating thin8s somewhat is the fact that the bases are all situated around the walls and the ceilin80f the (hamber so they're not readily reachable to our 8ravity-bound 81adiators, The only way to 8et to them is to walk into one of the gfeen arrows in the corner of the chambef and thus spin the whole room through 90 degrees, This also sends your opponents tumbling, and ifone of them has possession of the crystal when the chamber twists, he drops it and you getyourchance todaimil.

If you're playing the tournament mode the explodees are reintegrated almost immediately after detonation, and at the end ofa time l imit, whoever has gone ban8 the least is declared th e winner, If you're playin8 elimina tlon, th OU8h, there are no sec-

Amost original future sport indeed, but does BI~st Chamber succeed in the all-Important gameplay department?

bomb,trappedto}1lgrbodyblntl }1llllntolilmilliOllpilC!S!Ar-hu-har-lw-!

ondchancesandlhegamekeepsgoinguntilthere's only one player left.

This may well sound thrilling in anold·fashloned. simple-mlnded,Speedball kind of way, but whereas Sptedball was entertaining and required some degree of sic ill, the game play herei'i moref.ee·form;tnd sh;tmbolic.Thep.oblem.ullylitsinthew«dysp.ltes which. when they come togethe. in a bundle. sudden. lyb«Omtlndistlnguish;tbleandunmanageable.Vou can shoye ;tway;tl you. opponents ;tnd sometimes it SRms to work ;tnd sometimes it doesn't. They bill Theysprawll8utwhoh;tstheball!10.crysul,evenl tt·ssohardtoteIl18ah.thisbil is no fun.

Saving 81ast Chamber from loul emb;tffaSSment, Ihough,is the second gameva.ialion. Here you find you.selfalonein;tch;tmberfullofplatfo.ms,stal.us· es.splkesandelev;tto.s.Hiddeninsomeout·of-the· way,hard·to·.uch pl;tcethere'sacrystal,and It's up to you to work out how 10 cI;tim it then get il back to you. b;tsebefo.eth;tt nuty bomb time. hits le.o Thestltvelsstartouteuybutlheysoongetvery t.ickylndetd;tndafterafew.oundsyoun«dtowork out complex foutes across ptrilousaffays ofl.aps, disapptaring bridges and bounc1ng boxes. Power·up pods also appear to boosl you. jumping abilily Of Ume lim it so you also need to work how best to U'ie these to complete the level.

Clever though this part of the game is, It too is dogged by problems. 81ast Chamber's rontrols are a touch too vague 10 give the pre<ise,against-the·clock milnotuv.,ng requirtd for a time-limited. platformpuzzle gilme. Also, the 3D viewpoint dotsn't illwilYS give iln ilccu.ilte Indication of where you a.e Inthe cube so you sometimes find yourstlf wasting pre<ious st(ondsjump,ngiltplatfOfmsthiltil.en·twhefeyou

Ihoughttheywe.e.Onse-veralocusionslwilspushing al the ilffOWS on the Willis trying to .ohle the chilmbe. but with no effe<t-untll t nudged my little guy couple ofpixels to the left o. right. How annoying. lunimagineBlilstChilmber'sdesignersbelitv· ing they hild come up with iI grul gilme iduthat madeilcleve.ilndunusualuseoflheSalurn·S3D graphics ha.dwa.e. In p.lnclplelt Is iI good Idea-o. ilt lust the puzzle pil.t of the game Is· bul all thesmilrt th in king has been undermined by some dodgy execu· tion.Withilbitmo.eplily·lestlngilndtweakinglhis could have be'en.espectable, bUI u it slands 81;tsl Chambe.isadampsquib.

PAUL

GLANCEY

1~ liJI111~III

NHL HOCKEY '97

I

Electronic Arts initiate their barrage of sports titles on the Saturn· here'sa conversion of one of their most respected of Megadrive titles ... And it's all in 3D!

_

I"

_ 1 0999 _ I HOCKEY _ I OUTNOW

WHAT THE PUCK?!?

Upon loading NHL Hockey '97 yD\> are Immedi-

ately bewildered with a vast anay of options 10 wade through after an impressive fullmotion video intra. The first order ofbuslness is to choose exactly what kind of game you want to play. NHL has it all · an entire season (which you can save off to memory and resume later), play-offs and shoot-out contests.

Pretty Impressive stuff. You can even engagl! in a bit ofgambllns in the volatill! playel tralUfer market or ernte yOUl own players.

Tbe playln dOH I. for tht finl fIC, -off. remember wh en EA Hockey fint arri~d on the Meg"dri~ , wnuy back in the u rl y da)'S of my reviewing career. It was a rtvtlation. finat1y, someone had been able to lncorporatethespol!ed,skiUandrampantviole nce of Ice Hockey inlo a Megadrive game. Coming from the home of John Madden footb all, it's nOI sllrprising that it was brillianl.

After nllmerolls seqllels (most of which weren't as good as the originall. EA have moved onto the 32bit systems and this whole seqllel bllsiness looh set to begin again. Still. since this is the first Saturn ver· sionwecan at least benefil from an all·new game engine In this regafd as well, NHL Hockey is pretty damn good actually. EA have managed 10 upgrade Iheir Virtual Stadillm technology from last year's FIFA title and have created a believable 3D environment that aclually moves fairly smoothly and at an acceptable speed. This is essential fOf slIch a high·velocitysport

I

The control system is very

AIMl It'II80lljnllnlrlilmlnulu oflcllHlckIYlclioa! as Hockey, soat least Ihe basics are there for a game Ihat improves on Ihe realism and enjoyment of th e original16-bitgames Being EA Sports thefe's the IIslIal pfesentation guff - a whole bunch offllll·motion vid eo seqllences designed 10 lead you in to the game and enhance the atmosphere. The quality hefe Is adequate, bllt since us UKgamersdon'tfeallygivethatmllchofatossaboul this frippery and more often than nOI,the START blltton is used to get usstraighl into th e aclion. More useflll presenlation takes Ih e form of the usual SUpol!ranal EA Sports oplions and stats. EA afe notofious fOf

similar indeed to the original EA Hockey on Megadrive . which isn't too shabby, ~.~ -:r1J

J~

ThI3Dup-clal.llwerylml>Othlndeld.

Till IRII IIIgentcamt rlwlew.

1II1t1 the whole Ihlllt pi togelherfllt)' well.

Aarwal dill of camera wlewl Ira OR offer, lSyGy hUI coml IOllpecl froma. £A Sporll tltle. ThldeflYllwlew 1I IMlt though (11 11 prtll1much alwl1lthICIM).

11:11"III"' ~1 TO THE GAME PROPER Just whe n you think the options frenzy Is over (In that you've pressed START to get p ast the flut rang e of seiectables), man of the buSSt" ap~&I on-sc reen for your perusal. These ue the actual In-game options, Incorpo raUns thingllllte time duration, auto goalies (on/off), fighting (again on/oH) and three skill ll!'vels. There's even a preslmtatlon sub-menu

.Muth scrambliftj . boutonthe def.nslwllItheffillrepoel . full-oftllrik.fram lhe

DptHlsllljte.m.

The EA Sports Virtual

I thlnkJGu'" 80t Iht Idea...

.•• Bulh.".rtllllml mDrt.••

Stadium technology provides afast and smooth

3D environment.

, lIIthllwlllbtlrwth.rofthoMr.tI-ofTllhlft.

being super-prNise in terms of turns, n~mes and game varialions and Ice Hockey nuts are unlikely to feel really let down nere.

Thething is, here inthe UK,we're more concernedabout gameplay over and above t he stah and what-have-you. And in this regard, NHL Hockey works pretty well. The feeling of skating over t he ice i5just as good as the Me8adri~ original and the control method is pretty much the same. That makes it very easytogetintoforpeoplewho'~playedtheori ginals

The bottom Hne is, does NHL really waHant purchaselAdistinction of EA titles is that they're usually first into the market - but not t his time . Virgin ha~ entercd the fray with PowerPlay Hockey ilnd although the EA effort is probably superior in terms of prcsentation and optionary, I have to say that I prefcr thc Virgin title (ever-so-sllghtly) when it comes down to graphics and gameplay.And in thc final analysis, that"s what·s morCimportant

.u If YOII h. dn 't 8l1tu ed, hlMl J Arnott ha. ~oMld,

Surt ly .ot a fICI- Otr1'

4iP SEGA SATL:Rl'\.

1~liJi11'I"11

I

COMMAND &CON~UER

Don't be fooled by the simplistic graphics. This gameisone of theall·time greats' aclassic release right up there with thevery best of Saturn titles. Command and Conquer isa revelation.

.-

.. t -

,.~v ,,~

IT'S ABIT LIKE...

When I fiut sat down to play Command and Conquer, I thought that being_ strattiIY same It would take a," to gn Into. Not so. In actual

fact the game bun an incredJble rese mblance to another WH twood title, Dune 2: Ba ttle for ArraIds. Thil.1's nobad thlng, be<:alUe that game was one of the m ost accessible and enjoyable titles tver reie u ed fOI the 16·blt m achine. C&e is much the li me, just with . greater range of I.slu a nd minions, alon8

~Jtcl 10 ut., 1111 GOI.1Id ,"'re klllltdilltIJ I' row. IIto till IlIIck of till .ctlOll. T.-.opslrriYI m .... •Id lt'l JOW jo(I to .... IIIIMto uter.illted 1100

tll"l"ll"iltllYerloIMleft. flllllloltllollsel.IIt"U/IftI)tI.

C

om ma nd a nd Co nq uer is one of thosl! gaml! (once pts t hal defies lechnology. To IH! pe rfec:llyfril nk. a n almos l Identical

with far supe rior presentation - as befits a ) 2'

alof the FM::~~o::::~~:!~~euwith

bit machine iike th e Satum.

could probably be

done on the Mel"·( O. The gril phics are sm.1I • ndwl!lI ·. n l m ~ted , bul

Tile fM' Is. bit II"tlIJ COlll~.ttd 10 till likn of'lrllIl ChI.1III GIll Grlffl)ll.

~

SEGA SATU-;:N

kt I..... Hqu_ lA IN abMI ."..cl.. lilt , IIM"Y. WtlIc. theJ do 01 ...111111 well.

/

ilnd click

I nterfau~

.-

is except ionally easy to use, even

with~Joyp a d . Ta ~ ingcont rolofcntirebatta li on sand

sctting up individual comman ds for individual sold icrs Is as easy as massing a crilck attack forcc ilnd send ing them off to crush the enemy once and for all .

This Is all made even easier by the Inclusion of som e e xcellent a rtificial Intelligence. If your soldiers are atucked and you're busy clscwhere, your troops think forthcmsclves, rctaliating or lunning dcpendln g on their strength. Thai sel f-same AI Is illso rcsponsible for someexcellenl and involving baules withlheCPU·

lwo ... n.,rln 10 ...11111... TI.,.,rI,1II -.!"'It,II.

IliJI'AIII.'A ~1

l.ad.rIIIlpl4,., EIflcIl.c,~·tklt'I IIc~.lI ripl.

Asimple game yet utterly absorbing, Command and ~onquer . . is simply a massively addlcllve videogame.

A'ft1'J badlJ CO"structt d bllt bel'lto th. left. Tu!

tI.ally different l&mu thert', neveranydbc·n¥llpping.

Inltead, youjustchOO511: which tide you want to be when you choose youreD.Easy. And Indeedpeasy.

CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN one of the rntolU why Command and Conquer Is to ace Is b«.use as well ., the fllhtinl elements, there is also. kind of sUn City . tyle bit to It. On most of the levels, your task Is to buUd up. bu!! of operation. and ule It to create troop. and ~t the IllIToundlng arel of value minerals. Good base conltructlon and prio ritising whldl bits to add to It at what timet u. the marks of a good C&C player.

controlled enemy forces. The Silturn.led for(ts are no push ·o~r, therl! ilft missions which you'll spend d~~ at atlmegetting a handle on. And that's the other Joy with Command and

to what is already a supremely las tabl e lIame.

In fact, th e only slight moan I have (apart from the grating sound effects which do become

obvlOt.lsly ~ huge ~moun t __..........""_. of time dtvlslng evtry asptdofthe minions in thegame·tvenlheealliel,simplelasslgnmentsale classy whilst the latteltasks ilemasterple<esofgaming design. That's something extremely rare to behold on a videogameCfeated outsideofJapantheseda~.

Thefe is very little to complain about with this game - as the box·out on this page states, you evtnget to chooseyouf side with each havingtheifown,angeoftasks·addingstillfurthef

RI CH LEflDBETTER

1~ liJln'I~11

ISEGA AGES Sega's latest arcade conversions finally hit home! So what do we have? VirtuaFighter 3? Gun Blade NY? Last Bron! perhaps? No. Try timewarping back into the last decade and checking out the delights of Space Harrier, Afterburner and OutRun!

SPACE HARRIER Releaseclln 1985. Space Hurler revolutionised arcade graphics. With ib distinctive cheq\ltr· board iandKapes and incIMlble (for the time) Icallng.prltu, this game was the ultimate coln-op - enhanced. by a brilliant hydraulic (abIM! kt)'fll to the responSH of the Joystick.

In thl. rtl_rd, Space Hurler set the preceiitnt for brllllant arclde cabinets.. A sim ple blast by today'l.tandards, but in iu time Sp.Ct Harrier was C\ltting edge technology · the VlrtUll Fighter) of the mJd-eighties, lfyou will

On Saturn, you Btt. rn· tulllyldtnticillconventon. Everything b

present and conect includlnglesolution, • peed. and pllyabUlty. A

mlsterfWconveulon ofl game stll1 Jtrangt1ycompeUing despite the Incient g&meplay.

·5

egahaveledthea.udefield since the days of FroBBtr ilnd Turbo, twoepoc:h -

vldeoglmes. Ho_r, the compOlny's proiiflc R&OI,cOIdedepOIrtments m~klng

'eOIUyc~metothefolewlththedevelopme ntof spri te-sc~ l ingtechnologywhl(hallowedforsomeof

the most Imnlng "30" srlphlu ever seen .

Whilst oppcning companies were still shovelling out scrolling shooters and platform titles, Segl took the glme tothe next level, toUUyoutquaffingeverything everyone else was doing at the time. Just IS they Ire now with the new Model 3 te<hnology.

The Segl Ages pack (volume one) takes three of the most popular arcade games of all-time and shovt'\ them onto one CO. What you get for your forty quid are vlrtuaUy arcade·perfect representations of Space Harrier, Afterburner and Outrun.

Tht former two games have bttnconverttd prt t· tywtll to Mtgadrive and j2X in the past, and as such, reaUydon· t mtritsomuchattentlon. Sufficttosay that Space Harrier is totally arcade·ptrfKl, still playabltand still worth a blast. Afterburntr is just shortofarcade-perfe<t, bu t again,lt'suncannllysimilar tothe original. Ukethtcoin-op, there's little depth

In their day, these games were the equivalent to YF3 in terms of technical innovation. And they were produced by AM1 as well!

OItRI.

wu" Sln tl'l

filUtlloltr IMfon 'tirtn lIacl...

~ SEGA S~rurcN

Jntllu tlM ,""w!

IliJ'f'I'i,,' ~1 OUTRUN RKogniled 11 being the most .UCCHSfu) coin· op oflhl! ei,htlH, OutRun took the SpacI Harrier ~Super Scaler" hclmology and a41ptl!1!. it for use in I driving gunt. Not .urprulngly, the gfaphies amazed all who n w them, but the fullnnovatlon wu 1n the JOundtnek, whk h wu bued on Yu Suzuki'. dHln: to Stt rtudio-qualltymlHlc lntovideosatrlH.

Inncrvattonlnlhegame· play (such II dKent power drlftllndoppotingclr. tl1lvellingIt dlffefent apedl) cou pled with

. hl!l!ratmo.phere made OutRun. dnervl'ddu.ic.

The Saturn venlon it as ciose to uClde perfect as you would expect and

.. 1111111111

~o--

EngaSlnsthe.ponymou• • n.rburne ....

aelOldandltf:tml)l'tmiu llu.

dod&lll& lacoml", ...my l1li1.· IlInl~"".rbtI!'IIlr.p.rtlc,·

l.tlytnlattrAagu.

Of thethreegames, OutRun still shines as an excellent game, with SpaceHarrier and Afterburner providing the buttheild.enallnrushisstilitheft. Afte,bulnefwu .. lw .. ys~n .. f"YOuriteofmine, .. nditstillis.Suffice tos ..y.whentheJ~p .. ntseimportturnedup~couple ofmonths .. go,itmysteriously·vanished".

Sut OuUuneh? Evtryone old enough to remem· btrthe19S6cl~sslch .. sfondmemoriesofthisbrllllant game, and It's g rtat to see th at thl' gaml' stili holds its own. Sure, It"s noSega Rally, but the game stili has legions of fans and this Saturn vtrsion is thl' ciosest vt.sion EVU. And it"s about timl'.

Like the Subble Sobbll' p.. ck l'I'Vil'wl'd a couple ofmonths"go,it'sclearth.. tthiswon'tbtevtryone's

L E A\) SET TER

(ut.r llludllltutl . trlbl

Sp.lUHlmtt"rldeflnedt.... read. lJ.illrillKt .ltttIit ... rlJ..M4 I11 It14 -it.COIt.....-

TlrHr flrll Spau Hurltt" tMI...

extra value.

cup oftta. These OlIren't the g .. mes you bought your S.. turn to pl.. y. Howtver, there's something .. boo.rt these old g .. mts th .. t I Iove, .. nd you do get your v.. lue here (in bp.. n.the g.. mts were sold sep.. r.,tely,b!'litvt itornotsoEuroptang.. me.s .. ctu~lIybtnefitfora ch.. ngl'lj. Thl'bottom line is, these bygonl'clusics are still pretty ace games and Ifyou'.e a longtime arcade pla~ •. you·regoingtolovethls·hen(emypersona l .e<ommendation, which the pack would hivt got fo.

Outltun .. lonrl RI CH

rtriel"ftl'l 2D, VlpIIlClI\y"lOphlstlcattll titll •. Stp hid . tart.d I mtlrtlH.

like all of the SeSI ASH lamH, It'. all loaded.1ona, fOno COacctSlIHunah.

AFTERBURNER In catchinl tile ima&fnation of aIcadt-loen, !te" turned tIIeif eyes to Hollywood and UHd

tile Super Scaler technology to bulcally brtn, Top Gun to the atcadu. The most adrenalinepacked lame of the time, Afterbwnu was "ain an ludio-Yidto feast combined with what was the ultlmate hydnaulic cabinet of tile time. Limited in term. of l ameplay, AfterbumerwII . tillan

1~ liJ'tU"ill

I

MIGHTY HITS

the Virtua Gun renaissance continues. As if Virtua Cop 1 wasn't enough, Sega have seen fit to support its plastic sharp-shooter with Mighty Hits, an intriguing collection of games that may well make your head hurt.

2

ISEGA

_

1拢2 9.99

_

'SH OOTING

_

IDE CE P1B ER

l lone stranger rldulnto tOWllon hlstomedle steed ...

... alHitl'1shu lhl jolnt. JohnWaynlllt1011rhllrtlHlt. Th e sub ' sam esareadisparatebunch,asyoucan see from the box outs. so a scenario of sorts isprovid edtotie italltogether,Astheg~meoriginatesfrom

Mighty Hits t akes a refreshingly new approach.

It's not as easy as il sounds and I'VI!' never

Instudofjustoffering.eientlenblutingaction, Mighty Hits conlains twenty sub-gimes which offer

got this one right..

relentleu blast ing action. Adm ittedly some of them

Ntver. Not that I' mcnp at gaml!5 or anything_

a.eslighllymorece.ebral, butthl!bl;utingbitrl!mains a ctrlt.al theme. This is a Good Thing. bfl:ausl! otherwisl! it would mak e for a pretty pointless VirtuI Gun game. And we wouldn't want that.

Clearly abright.

Japan. you can expect weirdness. bul in Mighty Hits the programmers haye out done themselyes. Coming on like an lSDfuelle d Weste rn, the intro shows assort edcartooncharacters in them idstofasaloonheist.

The hold-up is hatted as the cast literallygoto pieces and the bar collapses on top of them. Mad. Thecharaclersintheinlroalsoserveloguide you through th e game,bygiYinginst ructionsoneach game and then uinging as you foul it up horribly. At

vibrant piece of software with some nice 3D but is Mighty Hits worth any more than a cursory investigation?

point. Since there aren't many red ones, just shoot the lot an d you'U win anyway.

OntroypicIYnfl'llmnli keth . ...路, nolomortOw.

K ... ln upd.tll. But lean路t ... memberwhlchltem. Dug.

the start of each 'IOl.lnd'yol.l select three stages by shooting at cards that lapidly flipthlol.lgh the available games. As the level ofdifficl.llty increases, sodo the time limits and nl.lmberof points reql.lired,l.lnti1 Yol.l reach a point where it's almosl impossibletosl.lc, ceed. Get throl.lgh to the end and y<ll.l get to play the perilol.lsfinal stage. which involves a ball and eight sewnds to shool it to pieces. No missiles, or tanks. 01 anything. Jl.lsl the ball.

Mighty Hits is a decent enol.lgh idea, bl.lt when it comes down to it, it'sjl.lst not all that fl.ln. Sl.lrethe atl raction of something different for the Virtl.la Gl.ln holds your Intelest for five minl.ltes, bl.lt onceyol.l路ve played all the games and pl.ll1edyol.lrhairol.lt at the ridkl.llol.ls time limils there's not ml.lth incentive to keep playing. Theonly slighl redemption is the two playerversl.lsmode,bl.lteventhatisn'tabl.lnd leof lal.lghs; real two player hi路jinks are best left to propel pl.lulegames like Bl.lst路a路Move 2. It'snolterrible,bl.lt it is plettyml.lch pointless. Rather lacking inthe point department,actl.lal1y.

STEPHEN

FULLJAMES

you can't JuslshlHlt

Ihlcklwn.

~ SEGA SATLRf'\.

1~ lili1A1'i"ll

IIEIRIS PLUS It's Tetris, that simple-yet-brilliant block-arranging puzzle game_What more can we possibly tell you? Y'know, Tetris, that game that everyone can whistle the music to. It's Tetris for chrissakes. Read on.

2

I JALECQ

_ 1 0999 _ ! PUZZLE _ ! OECEMBER

RAIDERS OF THE LOST CAR PARK Our intrepid puzzle mode explore" ue dead .et on dJ.coveringthe world'lIltatestJost tre llure., whether the h euw e. want It 01 not. A. you can ne from thb In tl O seque nce, 11

.et. thing' up marvelously for tach game, but .trangely enough It's the ,am e plot wherever in the w orld th e Irch.uologically minded duo are . U'. a fIlnny old world, b n 't iH

The greatest

fterynrsofbe lnB(onfinedtothe t iny. plastic shell of the G.mdoy, Tel ris hu fi nally broken frH and legg!'d it for Ihe relat ive comfort of the Saturn. But what (iII n the dual pronu on and ol her b ncy whalnot of Sega'S]l-blt be;ut do for a game that is, in euence, Just. few blocks mO'llnl down the K rHn1 To be quite honest, not HUll much. Un~n you t ... ke ... r;adlc ... lIy dif. ferent"'ppro;ach , likt t htrtctntSuperNESTttris Att ... ck, Tetrlswi1l;alw ... ysJustbe,well, Tetris. But h;av· Inlnldth ... t, thtre;a,e ... n;a ssortmentof pl;aymodtS to kttp yo u ouu pltd thro ulh t hostlo nl winter nllhts For stirttrS thtre 's Clisslc mode. wh ich Is your bog·stindirdcommonorl;ardtnTetris. Fitthefalling blocks togtthtrto m;akt lints . The more lines you get it once, tht mort points you scort. As you get more lines tht ict ion g,;adu ... lly speeds up unt il tvtntu;a lly you'repl.ying ... t;afrtntticp;act.lflheblocltsre;ach Ihe top of the screen. i1 's g;ame over. Although it is possible to have Iwo player games in this mode, your actions do nol affect Ihe stale of your opponent's win· dow, which Isabi l stup ldrully. There is. full blown

A

puzzle game of the Nineties arrives on Saturn...

But was it really worth the time and effort?

Ttt", .. lkSaI.,.e~1 1I"

lIOIlbIodlde.lMIt ...

~ SEGA S.n.ruRN

... Bnt-. -MO'I'I 2 .lMIllh IIb.re

.I)f't eiVoJUl•.

"I•••,...·.tkpIIllllMM. TII';. ~a1IOWl1J01t11crell'J1IIIr "l

"U'H

I""

loo, a/tkIIp If bel', uyboQ elst _l1li t. soIII tItt. It'. I bit poIllltU. Iwo·pl ...yt:'r mode, bUI more on Ihall ... ter.

Nelrt upwe h;lVe the Punle mode, which has probibly betninduded in an effort to keep up with t he Joneses, or In this case. Iht Busl· ... ·Move series This mode Inlroduces a cartoon professor and his ;asslst... nt . They are exploring archeologlc ... 1siles ;around Ihe world. but every lime they seem to come up ... g;a lnst ... fiendishpu u leb ... sedonlotsoffalllng blocltsln ... welllypeillr... ngement. Crlm inylltsounds Just likt Tetrls. The basic object of these g ... mes Is to rescue Ihe Prof bycluring a s,;agewlth a preset arr ... ngemenl of blocks. As you drop more blocks, the Professo,ci imbsupontopof l hem, ... ndlospictup the proceedings. ... whi rling blade of duth slowly descends Into Ihe st age, mincing blocks and errant explorers alike. Should Ih e Prof get pureed,II'sgame over again .

Thetwopl ayer mode Is based on Ihe puzzle mode, In that it uses the same Iype of playfleld,with the P,ofessor, whirling blade of doom. and p,esetcol· lect lons of blocks. This timt. howevtr, uch line you m... ke c... uses more blocks loappe.r on your opponents side. SO if you get a Tetris, expect howlsofderi·

TbI,I, morlllkllt, Tt lris .. It SHOUlD III pl..,td.

Here"thefutl rana-OfoptllHl,.nd stu"IRTlt riS Plus.

What',.llthll ml np ltulT?

sion from the other player as his or her Profgets rapid· Iyshoved bladewards. The thing is, two player game never last too long, because ofa combination of the larger blocks used inthe puzzle mode and the descending blades. This means that if you're after a drawn·out tactical battle, you'll be disappointed, But there's yet morel Tetris Plus also contains an Edit mode, where you can create you r own fiendish puzzle stages with which to infuriate yourself and friends alike, You can store up to ten of these home· made stages in the Saturn's memory at one time, and you can specify every possible parameter; from the position and colour of the blocks, to the starting positionoftheProf andthewhirli ngbladesofdeaththat IneviUbly formh isunlimely demise Soon th e face of it, it would seem that Tetris Plus offers everything a puzzle fiend could possibly desire But in reality, ifs not quite as peachy, Somehow a game that was fasl and playableon the GameBoy is slightly jerky on Ihe Sal urn, It's only a smidgcn ofjcrkincss, but it'scnough to putyouoff,andthc'lag' between a block hitllng bottom and sticking there isa liltletoo long, so you oftcn cnd up shifting it left or

Tetris Plus is well-presented and ~I~vable but . it"s just perhaps abit too long In

Ohdelrohdllr.

the tooth for Saturn owners.

right when you really meant to be moving the next block, Then there's the puzzle mode. which isa nice idea, but is slightly Icss than grcat for the samc reasons, And a couplc morc, The blocks used in this mode a quite a lot bigger than in Classic Mode, so obviously less of them fit on the screen and games don't last as long, Then there's the Professor/Blades of Death double act which starts to get on your nerves pretty quickIy. As the blade falls, it destroys any blocks In its way, mea ning that you can never foul up by reaching the top of the well. The Professor always climbs up thc ta llest pileofbloch,as ifhe wants to get gel minced; and as you have no control over hiS actions, you oftet'l feel a bit cheated The game also looks basic, and while flashy graphital effecb are not really a prerequisileforpuzzlegames, it's simply not as pretty as Bust-a-Move2 The Professor and his sidekick are cut e but titchy, and the whole imp ression you get looking at the game is thatit'ssimply·okay~.andcertainlynothing t oget

Tltrllgaml_,lrwlllOtlplr· tleularlylRlertsUngonelftbl

excited about ,

tMlthllltold.

~ SEG .~ S .A.TUI'7<N

7~

BREAKPOINT

I

Sports simsof all descriptions are nowflooding the Saturn market... except Tennis ones that this. As you can see from this page, Ocean have seen fit to rectify this matter in amajor way... _

IOCEAN

_

I£TBA

_

' GUESS

_

I OUTNO W

DOUBLE YOUR FUN Being a pretty proficient Tennis simulation, Breakpoint caters for just about every Tennis

eventuality, bar screaming at the Umpire for a bad decision (because unfortunately there aren't any). Top of the list Is the inclusion of dou bles. Now you might imagine that twice th e amount of motion captured playen stml tin g their stuff would slow the game down.

Not so. The game e ngine works extremely well dH p lte nearly doubling the amount of tu;. lured polygons. Not bad...

I

t's aboutl ime rulty, butfi nalty t he Saturn hilsa de<entTennis simulal ion. Unlike lhehofrible Accla im effort Virtu al Te nnis

~:~~ci~~: :~~~,V~esiu~: ;r~a~e~~~:1s ::~_

. . .-

...._

ally il fun , mcmorablc and playable rend ition of th c sport. It's a sha me it wun 't timed to be released with Wimbledon, but hey - who cares if the ga me's a ny Sood, Which Breakpoint is, The basic dcal is Ihat ifs one of these simulation type affairs, The whole game is in full 3D with texturfil polygons being used 10 create a very.ulistic Tennis court, arld motion captu.eemployed to animate the players. Just about every shot you can imaSinehas been .ecorded and included in thegame-forehand. backhand,Wllleys,lobs-you name it (just don't name cross-court Wlllcysthough-more

~:;;;;=~;~;~~,"~'~h'~"'~"~'I';Th~eoveralleffectismost

I

the slow side. but this is just abollt the only thingtodistinguishthisfromthertal thing.

Being a sports Simulation, I bet you're

o~~~~:a~~;~ ~~i~ ~~I~!::kb:h: ;~:;:ay.

" Well Breakpoint is refreshingly sparse in this regard (the re's no·chanSe the colour of the umpire's facial hai r" frippery) with a decent ranSe of diffe.ent tournaments, courts, and of COUrse singlcs ilnd doubles action, Even the range of camcra anSles is kept to a minimum Which is a good thins - there's no completely useless US Spy Satellite view, for instance. What you get are views which let you see what's going ( riticisms/Well.unfortunalely,B.eilkpoinl isagamethat's not without its bild points. For st arters, the sourld isa bitcacky-a dis in teres tedStephen Hawking soundalike stands in for the umpi.e, providing really quite poorsto.es (a real umpi.e from the Lawn Tennis

The action'sjust

abit too slow to succ~ssfully • sport like TenniS.

simulate a fast

~--~ =

-,

"lJ=._ tI'; SEG.~ S ATUR N

COME TO COURTS A vast UTay of different courts are on offer for you to play on, each with a diffe rent rangt of intue sttng background lice nery. AI you might imagine, the surfaces of each provide different dynamies for the tennis play. For ex~ple. a clay court is bound to have better bounce than the Wimbledon-style gtaSStry.

AssoxiationwouldhavelH'f'ngreat),lhe crowdare\urprisinglymu t ~andsome

wmmentarywouldn'thavegoneamiss (Barry Davies,Jo Durie, Virginia Wade anybody - would havelHof'n good)

Also,fromaplayabllilyslandpoint.

Breakpoint suffe rs in Ihal the motion capture is given precedence over controllability. A real

is an e~ceptionally difficult task. resulting in a series of boring ·ping pong" play that ends when one of you forgets to press your button at the righ! time. However. despite

tennispla~rcan5tarlashot.realisethey've

allofthese(ritici§ms,Breakpointdoesimpro~dra­

made a mistake and adapl. Not so in Breakpoint. Thistakesalotofthespontaneity and action outofa sport that

matically the more you play it. Dogged determination todowelleventuallyovercomesthelackofinstinctual controls and when you reach this point. Breakpoint becomes all riSh! . The thins is. if someone showed me Breakpoint and Super Tennis on the Super NES. I know which one I'd want to play... and unfortunately. it wouldn'tbethisbrandspankingnewSaturntitle playability.eallydoesrule

thrives on it. It also takes some of the pace out of it - again. an aspect that makes the sport so interestingtowatch. I also had trouble with the cont,ol method. Ves, just about allthe §hots appeared to be present and correct. but directing where your shot's going is just not as intuitive as it should be, That being the

R I CH

LEADBETTER

1~ lillnMI

IKRAZY IVAN Big robot plus big gun equals big success, according to Psygnosis. But maybe not, necessarily. Right here is where we find out the truth behind this recentlY'contrived gaming adage.

2

! PSY GNOS I S

_ 1 09.99 _

! SHO OTING

_

! OECEMB ER

I

t seems like It WilS onlyyest erd ily when

the prospect of a loopy Ruuian with a 'liIunch Missiles Now' button unde r his thumb would have se nt th e en tire populalion oflh e western world running for Iheir nurest municipal bunker with SO-yt!ilfS '-

worth of cling puches,il tin opener

::~:h::~:d~~::;~::;~:';:: :~:::h"

upon by low-grade rlKkeltrolliesandairborntogurl' shipslhalattackinpairs.Thesearf'smatlfry,though. a mere shin-grazing annoyance that quickly yield 10 your Iwin cannons, spilling out hostases, weapon and shield recharges and power-ups for you to collect lvan'srocketlauncherandself.targeting laser are even more devastating but ammunition is in short supply, so

rlrlllll"""'1

theselu~uryweaponsarebestkeptin

ilct erSCiln silfelybe m;ilde flgu,e s of

fun , ilS ind lUd they hilVe been in K.uy Rather than being a genocidal psychotic·whowould have been no fun at all,let'sfaceit-thestarof this 3-0 shoot·zem·up is more of an eye·rolling Rooskie buffoon with a gen· erous spirit and a huge robot death machine, which positively bristles with

--.J ...........-

:~~:s at:~.:::;·:;~~u~i:.i;'~h:u~a:~~o ' - _ _ _ _J l razylnntendltoljltclalllflnratb. r !argt,albeltbklCky ulllosiona.,uthllplctul'lllOgraphlullydelllonl trattl.

isout to even the score In five of the wolld's trouble spots, where mysterious enemy forces have overcome local defences and kidnapped the citizenry. possibly for some kind of deviant e~periments launched into the battle zone. you barely have time to work out the tricksy controls before you're set

reserve to deal with the real mission ta rgets The map at the bottom of the screen indicates whele these objec tives are to be found. After a short robo·march across the hilly land· scape you come across mighty mecha·bosses. modelled attel some Ealthcleaturesuchasaspider,gorilla or jellyfish. Or robot. Stomping into

t~:;i;!~:~\:;:I: ::t~:~ :~~ t~~i::~n

special brand of rockets and death rays. These behe· moths shouldn't cause too many problems in Ihe early stages,though,because l hesimpletacticofrepeatedIy side-stepping, turning and firing seems 10 f1ummo~ their low-grade batlle compulers and you can often fool them into shooting al where you were rather than

Does this PlayStation port-over make up for the extremely poor Destruction Derby?

THE KRAZY GANG Notable ;unong Kr.I.zy Ivan's delights Is Its luuy intro sequence in which we Ut inhoduced to Ivan and his buy gro1.lf\d Jaew as they aIe driving theu robot路launching trude. through the Siberian tundra. Inn, who has been stuck in his lobo-cockplt for stven ffeudn ' hows,lives up to his name and suddenly deddes he"s had enough sitting around and unexpectedly Initiates the launch sequence. His little helpen just manage to get the la\U\chel Into position before he blows them all to kinlr:dom (ohm, then off he

It's got the graphics

and the speed to match the PlayStation original but does Krazy Ivan match the excellent Gun Griffon?

where you are. As of level th.ee, thouSh.you need to

{ome up with something more cunning as the bad guys tend to do nasty things like dive underground and spring up elsewhere, and they're often accompa路 niedbysomeoftheirmini路drone

matesthatlakedlstractingpotshots at you Onceyou'Vf'pasted these charlies the primary missionobjectiveisrevealed,acentralinstallationsurroundedbya spinning shield. To finish the level you have to dodge all sortsofrocketryforlong enough to blast through the shieldanddestroytheglowinS orbwithin.Thesamedodgeand-fi.e tactics wo.k here as elsewhere and. for the most part, these final confrontations aren't terriblychallengingprovidinsyoucanbebothe.edtogo through the motions of repeatedly side-stepping,turningandfi.ing.

Extensive research reveals that this slight gameplay f1aw dogged the Playstation edition ofKrazy Ivan, released by Psygnosis last year. I didn't find ittobeloomuchofa p.oblem with the Saturn game, though if you do use this tech路 nique il does.educe the early part of the game toa se.iesofsameyconfrontations. By the time you get on to the later levels, though,the odds do start to get

overwhelming and there's too much weapon-swapping, weapon-aiming and mad evasive manoeuvring to let you get away with such foppish play.

The visual experience of playing Krazy Ivan isn't bad,thoughthere isn't a lot of variety between stages -e~pectmesasandvalleysinvaryingearthtones

and fiVf' shades of Sullen for the sky. HiUs tend to pop into view shortly af\er whateVf'r is standins on them. so you occasionally getf1oatinsrobotsappearingonthe horizon. but the animation onthe robots

the gameplay but not enough to lift it above beins a fairly simplistic blast. If the visuals had been a bit more exciting or there had been more variety in the scenarios. the p.og.amme.scouldp.obablyhavecovered up this flaw and it wouldn't haVf' been such an issue. But what was very nearlyafull-on.robo-death-blastwith napalm, blood and snot comes across as being frenzied but not terrific fun. If YOII're anything like me, aftertwo-and-a-half levels YOII'H be (a) s!ightlyfed up with it and (b).ealising you'vestil!gothalfthegametogothroughbeforeYOII can comfortably allow yourself to buy something else.

$' ~ SEG .~ SATURN

8~

[UN EL 81 So ... Descent meets Doom meets WipeOut eh? That's what we'd been totd to expect with the now legendary Tunnel BI. Well it isn't that, but it's still not bad ... ! OCE~ N

~rsthough l itextreml'l)'duII.AndYl!'t asb rl

u w, dl'spil e lh e contro~ rsy(.ond so me ye 'Y ne giltive

second commenh) it on ly m anolged one duff score in

Ih e whole ga mes magaz ine ind ud ry.

Well,I'm not going to indulge in any TlInnel bilit路 ing today. because I WilS actu;allyquite impressed w ith this new Ocearl game. The big question on everyone's mindis:howd~sitcomparetothePlayStationver颅

SiOrl/The original Sony version used just about every

technical 'rick in the PlayStatio,l's repertoire and it's well~nownthattheSaturndoesfjndjtdifficultto

copewilh Ihe transparendes and suchlike that were used wilh gay abandon in the firsl version Well,thegoodnewsisthattheSaturnversion Slilllooks pretty cool. The detail is pretty much on a par with the PlayStation ve.sion but more importantly the speed and fluidity a.e nish-on identical. The lighting has been toned down slightly, but it's still mightily

impressive, Unfortunately, the transparencies are replaced with the usual pixel meshwork,but it's still preUycool. What aren't so great aretheexplosions,Again,notranspa.encies so it's ajaunt tOO.ange Puff Central.

The g.aphics are the main pulling point , because in actual fact the gameplay is very pedestrian, Skim along the tunnels blowing things up and dodge enemyfi.e, locate various power-ups and objeds and find the e~it (sometimes to a time limit). It would be better ifall of this was a bit more exciting. The ene路 mies seem 10 move in slow motion (and your firing rate is also slow. so that makes things even) and responsetoyourconlrols is also a tad on the slack side. The lack of variety continues on to later levels althoush the timed levels are nice and there is some decent variation inthe backs.ounds.Enemies are great too: when you first get a good look at the enemy helkoptergunshipsyou'regoingtobeimpressed路 even more so when you shoot one down and watch it spiral towards the ground,where it explodes again It's this that makes you keep playing the game

Hats off to Neon for avery clllse conversion . graphically, Tunnel Bt is bordering

on the superb,

like thil tllit ImpreUIII tlte most.

Kill All futurb tle C5s!

4i' SEG A

S.~TURN

quic" ybeflH'tltheytuNlradlolcUvelllld tOlstyou.

II:Ji'AI:M~1

.......

-

v-no

•

.. I

'~~ --.30 ~/ " ~

.

-.

SOlllt ort •• lllwsic_lId,rathtrlibtlM: NII"dtratkrrom " Th.SpyWholmd".~!

get 10 grips with. the control method. The default controls relllly have to be chilnged. The game start. with. forwud u button A and backward, as down on the joypadl We l«om·

mend swapping aro\llld the accelerate and weapons )o<:k-on buttons and the game

h'~dtarthilt

code,s Neon Ire doing things

with the h,lrdware thilt is well ilheild of

othef8amesinthescnfeandYOI/redyingto set' what comes nut. Compare Ihe (currently) slow, jerky morose· looking Doom on Salum 10 this and Neon's te<hnicill mllStery becomes obvious But the bottom line is, you can't help but think

Ihat far, far mOfe ccruld have been done with a game engine of this ulibre. OfCOUfse, this is being promised for the forthcoming Vi~r (.. Iso from N~n ilnd using thtsamttt<hnology),bulthtrt'snortasonwhyNeon couldn't h~vt just ripped oft ~sctnt, which would h~vt betn much mort prtftr~blt 10 wh~1 this ofttn.

But judging this gilmton its own mtrlls,lhavt toadmitlhatltnjoytdBlf~rmortthanlthoughll wouldb<lstdonprtvloust~peritnctwithlheeilrly

PlayS tationversion.lt"sedremelychallenging{and frustraling at times) butslill pretty rewarding. Plus Ihereis an tdralevtlandenemlesexclusivttothe S~turnvtrsion,whichis~grtalbonuslh<llgoessome·

w<ly 10 m<lkmg up for the RICH

visu~1

LEADBETTER

compromises

I~ 1jJ 111 I~III

I

MADDEN '97

Finally, the Megadrive grid-iron guru makes an appearanceon the Saturn. Oh, John Madden, you cuddly giant of American Football, wherehave you been all our lives? Was it thecake shop, perhaps?

Heeeere's Johnn ! lohn Madden', lugtr-tlu.n·hwnan·lIft penon· ality comes across superbly In the block·bust· Ins rendered Intro to Madd en '91. It starts oH with a . hot of his bejeweUed. ring - I Superbowl ring. no less· wh ich spin. and sparldH, then fades Into a Superbowl XXX] logo on a bWboud poster. The camera pull. back and hulb off down. city sbm before

flying In through the roof of I nearby sports

Ulllik._otlMfl9Ol1J ..... tbtb".liIIioIIdirr.,...tr.!lCJelIllltI1I

stadium to catch the kick-off of. football game. The hudcore gridiro n action Is Intercut wit h the Mad den logo, then the bl, guy hlm· RH appears, juggling iI footbaU that bunts Into flames and flies out of the screen at youl

uaIn. lII!Ht oI'tllllll","". " add.. 'sr, nryias 'II...IIIOd".1'1I all ~.,.. pltttty.$l.bk t. tb! 'jlnt ·lik.·btill&·~"· r..~.,. 11 tlle .....bott

Heads up. sports fansl

,lid,"

... MI till diapul Nw,

"'"e

N I" nplll"llbe 'Cbuk Madell.' ritw5.

fthere's one heavy-set fellow who knows his American football,you un bet your goddamned limey ass it's John Madden.

A living legend to Megadrlve owners, his games converted many a Tommy En glish sO(cerlover into a Yankee Doodle Dandy gridiron guy, with their cootthree·dimenslonalgraph lcs and vast rilInge of

D

plays.forsomeruson . Saturnownershave~n

denied the Madde n Experie nce and have had to make do with Aulalm 's sUghtly iffy Quarterbatk Club. .. but not any morel EA Sports hn finally got around to.nocking upa Saturn version ofJM's latest Incarnation. wh ich futures all the frills and enhancements. the swoopinS camera angles and the vast arrays of options, that have become the haUmark of EASN's recent PlayStation and PC titles, as well as the full breadth of gameplaythatmadetheorlsinalMegadrivegames such dassits. Weli,the first two It least.

rules of this strange importcd sport, hmml Perhaps you don't realise that the object of the same Is to collectthe baUand place it in youropponent"s 'End Zone' atthefarend of th e field. It IS entirely poss ible that you are not aware that you get four attempts, or 'downs', within which you must move the baU ten yards closer tOYOUI opponent's end of the field by use of runnlns or passing plays. And there would be no shame In admitting your ignorance of the fact thlt biluretoma.ethatten-~rdgainwithlntheallotted

downs results in 'a turnover', when the othertum gains possession. The chances are, though,that if you've rud this far in a review of an Amer ican Football game, you know this stuff alrudy. So I won't tell}'(lu.

These are the merest basics of American Football, though. Over the decades, playing it has been reflned into a science, with a level of slrl teglc subUety be}'(lnd that of any other sport. EA Sports have pulled out all the stops to ensure that Madden'97 does not skimp

W~lclIlI4 Itll'll, trve !/elin,",," I " _ ,trat.lhtptrftcloffellfiYtplQ.

The only way to

att.', IN Will M(lW IN qurttrbactjnt UI loq.ictly~u'ltto' PllJtrC'.

NI rtcfiYll IN INIIIIN ca. _ liS It IP IN n, ld, CllftriIllJlrdlftltJlrd.

tI'"

Of CDW'M, laclic It ftrltU, IN rntI'\'II of SCM"'-5IICtllllcbllllNlp. MotlMII lIaddullet.

really play Madden is against other people, and inthat respect Madden '97 seems flawless.

on thHe subtleti~ in any way, and th~t il r~reat~ Ihe full grld·lron experience For a start·off. the game features over lOO NH leamsofthep~standpresenl,aswellassomeseClet

teams, featuring real·life players In their real·lifeposl· tlonswllh their real·life abilities, and even their real· life faces appearing on the sc.een. Vou can pit them against each othe, in a full NFLseason 's·worth of games, In play·offs, a Superbowl or a Pro Bowl tourna· ment, playing in digitally modelltd versions of all 30 NFt stadiums. And the whole thing looh extra·realls· tic~ausealloftheplayersprltesarebuiltfromplx·

elsmotion·capl ured f.om aC\llal playtrs, and you can watch the action from anyone ofeighl 3D viewpoints.

Plus, there·sin·lIamecommenlaryandposl·quarler anal~is from Madden himself, along with the sort of slallstical overload that American football is famou'l for (but i'l met bysup,eme indifference by us lot).

Asidefromtheobs~siveattentiontode1ail,

and nimble·fingered arcade aetion. This too has been perf~tedandcarriedacrosstotheSaturngame. At

each down. you can inst.uctyour players to re·enaet one ofsoo different defensive and offensive plays designed bytheBI8M himself.

Once you've setlhem in motion you 8et Incrtdi· ble cont.ol ove. your players. Try a passing play and you'lI find the quarlerbacll can now send the balloul 10 any of five team · mal~. All th is sets Madden ' 91 up 10 be the most complete American Foolball8ame yet, butthe,eisaOyinthelinament. Whenyou'reonlhe offense against a computer team you can beat them every time wilh one play. the Double Flag. A bit diup· pointing, Ihal,as it can provide an easy way out If you find yourse lf in d ire score Slraits with the time, ticking down.

Having said that , lheonly way to really play Madden is.andalwlyshasbeen. agalnslotherptOple, and In thal respK\ Madden '97 seems f1awl~s.

thoullh,the IIreat thing about the Madden Megadflve games was th e pe,fect blend of play· calli nil st,ategy

..~

ill

~ SEG.!l.. SAT\...!RN

-

IJEWELS OF THE ORACLE Who is the Oracle? And what's the big deal with his jewels? It's a baffling mystery that only you - YES, YOU! - can solve! Ho, there'sno getting out of it, so just sit down, shut up and gel on with it.

C

I SU N SQ fT

_

10 9 99

_

!PUZZLE

_

I DECEMBER

TRAFFIC LIGHTS OF THE ANCIENTS Here', one of t lte few conllndnlms In Jewel. of the Onde that Is actually soluble by member. of the lenus homo IQP/ens, iU opposrd to the luper-evoluUonary beings who appeaz on IS To I . The clue - "~ as per.lstent as the tiny erea· huts beneath your feet" - dearly give. it away as a slidinll block punl"ln which you must rellTange Jumbled tUe. which bear the Images of four (olowed circles. Though the number of Ill" and the s hape of the frame makes It look compliated, It', actually easier than most other such pu.nl", simply ~ilUU thue five empty SPilC" wl\ich give you plenty of lOOm to manoeuvre.

.,e

TIle VH.-tiPP'~'/TOW pGi.tlllle QJ t~fOIIIIIllllllillll nllibllll, toward, tile 1II)'11lcal pOIII llIal """Ill " . ,.~tralllatl of JOur qMUt. Prtll _ of the ItoRn .,.,....nd tile pool to lIP\Il th, rout. to thnl r,te/MI bral.-tea"" that hid, untold riches.

F

edupwithyourcurrentcountryofresl· den(elPerh~psyoudon't u re forthe

wuther l Or the I~(k of qu~lity television pfOlf~mme$l Or the f~ct th~t you (~n 't find ~ decent 14·hour upholsterer due 10 ~ ridiculou s ~nd outd~ted law made in the lilte ,6oos1 Perhaps, then, you might have found happiness in the land of Nisus, an ancient realm in the Middle Eas\.where cverythlng was nice. The problem with nice places, though. is that everyone ends up wanting to go thefe. They end upgettingove" rowdcd , the dra ins get clogged up and the whole place turn s Into a disgusting pit of human ordure In their wisdom, the rulers of Nisus fOf~aw this cventuality. and to save thelf landf.om fepellent flmks they set upa rlgo.ous vetting p.ocedu.e for ne w citizens. Toente. Nisus, prospt<tive Immigrants would have to complete 14 mindbending punles, the like of whiCh would never be found anywhe.e else on th is planet.noteven i nthemoste ~ penslveof(hristmas

cracken. Thus did only the most enl ightene-d humans gain ildmittance to Nisus, and for manyycars the lilnd thrived as the ancient world's number one summer resorlfortedlousbramiacs.

The citi zens of Nisus would nodoubl have gone on to found a shining world empire founded on peace. intellect and smugnClOs, but fate took il diffe.enl course. Adcvastiltmg urthq uake buried their land. leavmg no trace of them or theirCiviliSiltion... until now. Archaeologists hOlYe une~pectedly unea rt hed the Girsu Ca tcs which stood ilt the entrance to Nisus. The incredible trCilsures of il los t world bec kon, but the giltesstCildfastly refuse to open until someone corn· pletes those sclfSilme 14 pUlzles As everyone elsc seems to hilvesuccumb to some ilncient curscthilt fOfCClOt hemtospendhalfthedilysqUilWngovcr il hole in the sand clutching a toilet roll, you figure, whilt thehell,1'1I have a go. So you do. And so it begins.

Press START on yourcontrolle. and you enter a pfe·rendercdworlddepictedinletter·bo~ full·mot ion

videoilndcontrollcdbyasmilllbrus·effectcursol. The tip of the cursor glows green when it pnsClO over an object 01 possible cxit, and when you make a sclec· tion , ashortilnimaliontilkesyoutothenexlpilrtof the game Once the quest hils begun you findyoulself inside the buried gateway to Nisus ilnd you r o nly

To enter Nisus prospective immigrants would

have to complete 24

mindbending puzzles" .

•

~-~

~ .... -._... , '"'"

Ihapes ift till halls and kllp

~ S E":;.~ 5 !\TL!RN

t~1

cokHIn

Hparatl ~?

lIu atmospheric I MlPIMIII.

,.

TlMllllllttllliHllHIllltofallllt.iISab· ... R· It:tlt pme, Ilurll\lI 11ow· ..."ift8 betl".

If the tasks were easy the whole Qame would be worthless but you can take complexity too far. routeludsyoutOilstone~ltilronwhichstandsil

goblel containing coloured gems. Touch the goblel andthegemstH-gintoswirl,thentheydisappC'arina

do with thrsr rxamplrs, thoullh. Othrrs ~rr madr rven morrtrstinllbythrirobscurity. In onr room you'rrconfron tedbyatablebrarinlladozenobJrcts

blaze of light. A lugubrious voice emanates from thin

~ndlttranspiresthatYOl.lhavetopairthrmupaccord·

air teUlng you, in a roundabout way, Ihat you have to fKO\IC'r the gems by solving Ihe punles of the Orilcle.

Thencewitl)'O\lbeiillowedilccesstolhelostlft.lSUreS

11'111 tosomr common factor Fortun~telylhadthrbrn· rfitofa solution shretto re-YeillthrtrnUOl.Isllnks brtwrrn thr objrcts (u wrll ~s ~ I~rlle diction~ry to

of Nisus.

1e-Ye~lwhata'qurm'lsl,butrellulalpuntrrswillhave

Steppingouhide, you come ilCfOSS a mysterious pool of Wilt er SUHounded by stones, Press iI stone ilnd a symbol deplcling some kind of puzzleeerily appea's in the pool. If you then step Into the pool you're trans-

portedtoafoomcontainlngoneofthe24challenges.

MostofthepUllleSilrtva,lationsonfilmiliilf

to make do with thr CryptIC Or~cular tip that

toSo.08~n .stylrblock.shovin8, ~lIofwhich

a tad loo tricky for Sillum ownrrs who h~ve thr stan· dardmodrlblilininstallrd.

In ,in attempt to makr Jrwrls of thr Or~clr morr populist the prOllrammers have Inclu ded an easy mode which simplifies some of the pUllles. but Ican't

ch~lIrnllr.Thrmazrpuzzlr,forrx~mplr,rrquirrsyou

to 1I"ldr ~ m~rblr Ih roullh a v~U m~zr tha t covrrs ~II six f~crs of ~ cubr. A tilr.splnnlnllllamr in which)'Ou h~ve to alilln horsr pictosr~ms suddrnly brc:omrs ~ nrw form of IQ·trst torturr wl"lrn)'Ou rralise th~t thr tilrs un br shufflrd on thrir IIrld ~round ~s wrll as rotatrd.

At lrastyou havrsomr Initial Inklinll of what to

•

f~r.Whilrthrpuzzlrs~reperfrctlysuitrdtoMrkon· hradrdllrniusrockrts<irntlsts,Isuspedthrym~ybr

haYr brrn donr out in an Ancirnt Mlddlr E~strm motif. hmlli~r thoullh thry arr, thry prrsrnt ~ formid~blr

··~

~ppears

whrnthryclickonthetrlanllul~rstoneatthetopof

the screen.

Of {oursr, if thr t~sh werr rasy thr whole lI~mr would brworthless· but you can ukr complrxity too

themes, vilrying from tile·swiveliing to maze-solving

lIamrthatnrrdsthcthoUllhtpattf'ms~ndhulle ittf'ntion·sp~n

of ~ milJOf IcallUf' puzdf' m~ste. lenc.

humanlinllsneednot~pply

PAUL

. ... . '"

GL ANC E Y

~*= ir'

•

..

I ...

I

• ... .1

srrthatmakinll~lIrutde~lofdiffrrence.lt"sstilla

1rO

n"

.

~1IOI.r CQIII~" I. tire am... 'POrt of 1Il1-lrru&i... 11".

IItlltrlikltHCryital M1H,tlliI,IsI't it?111ld 1f.

~

• •

- .. '""i~

El tertltrr Drnl.'. Chllllbet" Itop), brelk hit bowl of.ltlly belli. (.. Iddl, ) and tate a t rip tbrvul b .lllu~~ll of WORdl" (bottoml . .-.....,~ ,l;~ , .... ~ IW~1

h.'" ....

• , ,, ,no>

m ,<1.,..'

_1d . .e r _ i••HflII.

How Wf'OllS t.ty all wtrl.

~ SEG.';' SAT'--"RN

.~ SEGA SATUI<N™ tips To celebrate the official release of Street Fighter Alpha 2- the greatest 2D fighting game ever - SSM brings you amassive list of cheats and secrets for it. Dn top of that, we've got the first cheats for two of Sega's Christmas biggies: Daytona USA CCE and Virtual Dn. We think you'll find them most amusing, boyfrieeeeeend ...

STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2 Select TralnlnS Mode, and on the Character Select screen hold lShift and Start. Now choose a charac ttr and keep the buttons held until you reiKhthe OptlOflS menu, When you start the game and m,· hate a Custom (ambo, the shadows behind Will neverdls..lppearVou'lIillsobeilbletojump.ilnd won', alwiI)'S be rushing forward This lets you practice Custom Combos for a5 10nB as you wantl Do the 5ame as the previOU5 cheat. only hold ~ Shift and Start when selectlnB a character and YOU'll have rapId-fire attacks when you begin ThIS means you can hold a punch and repeatedly do fireball motlOOS to throw lots of projectIles acrossthescr~n

If you do both cheats at once, by holding lShlft,R Shift and Start when selecting a character, you'll havtrapid·fireattacksandever.lastingCustom Combos at once l By domg th,s, you can get someone in thecOlller and hold an attiKk buttoo tok~pjulllllingthemfor~r99hltsl

These secret character cheats can only be entered In Arcade, Training or Survival modes ToaccessChun·li in her original Street Fighter l costume. h,ghhghl.egular Chun·li and hold Start Now wait fOf 5 seconds. and pick her by press,ng any button. The only other d,fference is that her fireball now has to be done as a charging motIOn ralher than a half·corcle forward ToplayasEvllRyu,gettotheCharacter~ll!1:t

screen and highlight rellular Ryu Now hold the Start button and ~ R'lIht to Adon. then Up to Akuma, Down to Adon aga,n, then Left back to Ryu Now select h,m while stoll hoIdmg Start EVil Ryu can do a Super Dragon Punch (double fireball motion and any kick). and Akuma's "flll!1:racker" m~ (LP, LP, F. L)(. HP vtryquickly). He is also much better atJugghngand hnk· Ingattacks

highlight regl,llarlanglefand hold Start Now move to S~gat. Sodom. 8irdie, (ha/he, OhalSlm,

l1yu, Adon, Guy. Ken, then Zanglef again Now select him While stili holding Start Orlgonal Zangief does·

nl havt a super bar and can only btforethe two ongmal spec'.J1 moves - the Spinning

Piledllve'.lndtheSponnln8uflatH,srange is rnuch better than the regular version To a"e55theorilllnal Street FiBhter2 vtrsion Dhalslm. hlllhhllht regular Dhalsimand hold Start. Now rTI()Yt to Zanglef. Sallat. (ha rite. then Dtlalslm again Now select hIm while stIli holdlnll Start Ong,nalDhalslm ha5n'tBotitsuperbarandcanonlydoa Yoga Flame, Yoga F,re ilnd Yoga Spear To play as Super Akumit (also known as Shln·Gouki). h'ghl'ghtregularAkuma Now hold Start and press Down. Down, RIght. Down. R'ght Down. Down, Down, left. Down,left, Down, then select h,m WIth any button. Super Akuma can throw double air f"eballs, hasextra·fast teleports and "firecrack er",and is by far the best character available We re<ommendyoudon'tplayashlmtoomuch,ashe makes the game too easy AllofthesechariKtetscanbeplayedlnvetsus mode by entermg them m ooe of the other modes, thenplaymgVersus OntheVsCharacter~lect screen. hlllhhBht someone and hold Start 10 make the" name change colour Now chose them to get thenewvtrsion For 6 new Sakura COloo15 in Surv,val Mode only, highlight regular Sakura. hold Start and pre5s Up. Left. Down, left. Down. Right Right. Down, left. left. Down, Down. Down, Right Up. Up, Right You'lIbeonRyu~lecth,mw,thanybutton

while stili holding Start for one of6 new colours For player 2 you must do the same as with player 1, but press Up, left, Down, Left, Down, Right Down, Left, Left,Up, Right. Right. Up, Left. Up, Right. Right Instead

l1IaINWbrIw...tllt'llIOtlt,.,..kI.

90

~ SEGA S.!\Tl...rRN

DAYTONACCE ~ry much to (I ifford Bonne)' from Oxford for sel"ldln8 thH t J.euetslnfirl t.

Thanks

Togcta hidden mirror mode, you must first finish all of the trach on Harddrfficulty Then go to t he track selection screen and hold X+y+Z and pressAorCto fhp the track. When you filce now, the ~rythm8

WltI be r!M'lsed, sothat all fight h;lnd bends hilYe be<omelefthandbends. etc

To get the ofl8mal Daytona Hornet car, finish aUof the tracks on Medium d,fficulty In flrst place. The newcilr is brilliant in every

To get the first horse ((allt'<! Umil) you must come In first place on the first two tracks. on H.ud difficulty In an Endurance Mode Iilce The horse loses no s~

at all on the grilss To get the s«ond horse (ulled Uma 2, funnily enough). you must come In first place on all tracks play'ngaslhefirsl horse {Umaj All of the options should

be

on their default settings for this

HI...·I

MlITOI' Modl wlM'tl.. to full .ff.cl...

VIRTUALON

ALIEN TRILOGY

While playing Virtual On, you can get different ,amera angles by presSing X+Y+Z at the same time. The view Will instantly SWitch to an overhead view, then to a side view when pressed again Press them together once more to get back to theoriginalbehind.the·characterview

These excellent ,hut modes are accessed by entering t h~ codes as passwords Ofl the sta fldard password efltry screen, AS you'll flotlce. some of the letters are replaced with numbers to make up for the fact that the pass· WOrd5(feefldoesfl"thavetheeotuealphabet Onceyou've entered a code. a message will appear to let)'OU know that the cheal has WOfked

TO get all of the characters In their alternate costumes. go tothe mode select 5(reenaod select whatever you want to play by presSing and holding the l Sl'lIft button, Now everyone will be In their second colours to be picked AnelctrawhlteverSionofTemJinandRaidencanbeaccessedbygOingtothe title screen and holding Up, then pressing lShift and R Shiftatthesametlme You'lI hur a nOise to let you know it's worked, and both Characters will be in

For a level select, enter Ihe code-FLYTon",but replace the "//" with the level flumber t hat you want to warp to. EXit the password screefl and beglfl a flew game,

TO mike )'OUrself Iflvincrble, eflter the code "FVNKYG1BBo N". start the game aod you'lI ta ke no damage

Now

To play as the penalty boss. Jaguaral'ldi,finish the game as any character 0 n Hard level and you'lI then be able to play as him in Arcade ;lnd Versus modes by moving to the rrght of Ralden on the (haracter Select 5(feen AneaslerwayofplaylngasJaguarandi IstogotothetitlesCfeen and hold Down. then press both l Shift and RShift at the same time You'll hear a noise If it has worked, and he'll be selectable by mOVing off to the rrght of Raiden on the (har<l<terSelect5(reen

• t. f"

I. I. I

'

W •• l '

••

1 ,

...."

0;"

J , S , 7 •

,--

~

'Iu",l

'~

"',:1(

,

•

...

I

•

WORLD SERIES BASEBAU 2 hpnuJ.,X·Y·ZattlMr

prmr.,x.y.Zapl.

.... tJ. ., JOICU

WJtlll It to. IIH-OII

i*llIaI4t.lltAI••Id4 ••

JWItC.tlMr't'lnlollrl."

•••It" lt·•• ~ttkQ...

,.JllIWllftIIllllllfit.

UMtlMrdlut.lMrl"lto

Just a tiny little tip you may not have noticed When playing in Homerun Derby mode. you can get different camera angles SImply by presSing the RShift button whenever the ball is in the air. That's it

4; SEGA s.·a;rURN

COl This year once again saw the greatest in arcade shows, with the 34th Amusement Machine Show (JAMMA). At the Makuhari Messe, outside Tokyo, the world's gaming elite gathered to display their latest coin-ops to the world.

I

f wha t you 've bee n used to sums like the limit of gaming_chievement, prepulI':to be bluledaWlllY by the rell1 power of the altade:

Every major arcade manufacturer h u embarked on a battie for arcade l upT emacy by n u etly developing it's own state -of-the-art h igh·!echnoloIlY hardware! The full forcl! of JAMMA '96 Is the like of which you have never sun befofe! With power to torch all home syste m . lo uhes thu e games aren't like ly for con· version any time soon. So . t."dby for action as th e super -game systems of the hlhut battle for the .ccob.de of Ultimlote Next ~ner<llion Game!

Let', look .t the competition:

CAPCOM STRIIT lIGHTER IX

RED EAllTH lAMMA proved to be the first rea l opportunity 10 savour a neal complete version of Red Earth-the Westem ~r1lon of War·Zard which we featured In Issue #179. Significant because it is Capcom's first title powered by the new CP·System III tech '

SEGA

Hardware: Model J

Also on display at Capcom's stand was the much antici pated 3D polYllon variation on the Street Fighter theme. Thisllame is beinll developed by a learn called Arika, whose Inlervlew we prin ted In the last Issue. First Imp ressions were sUghtly unsu re because graphically It's stili quIte basic compared to othe r 3D lIames available. However, all those who played It ag reed Ihat thellame· play was something quile special and Indeed seelnll your favourite zO Street FIghter charac· te rs fighting In 3D isan amazlnllexperlencel The cont rol method remOllns fai thful to the SF se ries: eight-direction joystick, plus six buttons.

As you can see from the profiles, all the popular moves have been retained and - from what we

Games : Virtu. PichteJ ). Supel'ca:r Still the best game around in the form of VF3. The finaiversioninallltsmagnificencewascertainly the focal point of the show - a clear demonstration of the future of arcade gaming.

KONAMI Hardware: Cobra Games: GTI Club, Pf573 Project As well as the brilliant Gn Club, Konaml had a pre· demo ~rsion of a 30 fighting game, with graphl· cal power at least equal to Sega's Model 3 board.

CAPCOM Hardware: CP-SYSTEM 3 Game,: Red-Earth, Sheet lilhter 3 Provinll sprite technology can advance Just as much as 3D polygons, Capcom finally showed the future of fightlngllames with the amazing Red·Earth.

TAlTO Hardware: TOP-SECRET Game': G-Dadas Taito were also showinll a demo of their first game to unleash the power of their new board. The next In Ihe series of the lncred, Ible Darius sefies 15 now In)OI

nology, we now ha~ a better idea of the plot details. OInd all-important play mechanlC"S. This game Is still unfinished, 50 there may still be chanlles. However It Is shaplnll up to be MON· STE R excltingl A full report comi ng soon, but suf· fice to say that thllgame has the power and the concept to redefine sprlte·based fillhting lIamesl

X-MEN VS STRIIT-lIGHTER You only have to look at the name to know this g;une offers more action than you ever thoullht posslblel Boastingsuperlatlve ::::P">-="", game play and graphics

/ .....- . .t. thca;.~~::;elf::~~g limit. X· Men vs Street Fighter becameoneof lhe

SNK Hardware: TOP-SECRIT Game' : TOP-SECRIT Imagine how some of SNK's bMt fighting games of all time would look If they had even more power to run t heml Well SNK's new board Is comlngsoonl

NAMCO Hardware: TOP-SECRET Game' : Tekken 31 To everyone's surprise Tekken3 wasn't unveiled at the show, so we can't re~al much but we'll all bet, tlng that Tekken 3 will be the fiut game on it! this Is rumoured to be running on Namco'sequiva· lent to the Model) board.

.Q1 S EG..o. SATURN

more human Street FIghters.

Graphically. every· one was stunned Ih.althey'dbeen abletosqu~Iea

gameasgreatasthiJ oftheCP·Systemll.

or11llnal feOlture5. Beu In mind that me m bers of the Arlka team created Street Fighter 2. So what'. okay with them Is fIne wIt h us! While nodetaill are available on the kInd of ha rd· ware beinll used to support the lIame, the result s ue nonet heless spect acu lar. It is gen· ulnelyexcitinll to see Street FIg ht er favour it es Ryu. Ken. Ch\ln Li. and Zangld prese nted In thhnewway.

Since the last issue we can confirm that two new cha racte rs hOlve entered the mix· one of them Is Guile maklnll his 10nll'lwaited retUfn to SF. The other is an all-new characte r.

VIRTUA FIGHTER J Although there wer e obviously several long rows of these units set up at the Sega area they also had the units scattered around the entire hall so as you walked around you Just kept bumping in VF31 There were long crowds around the main projector showing the open·

Choose your favourite car from the fourfuU production cars available and race them on original circuits with "new dynamic realism"1The new specially arranged BGM music ·Oead Heat" was composed by AVEX TRAX (one of the coolest dance music labels in Japan at the moment) with a variety of other characteristic club musicians All the engine sounds are faithfuUy reproduced with state·of·the·art sampling from real cars.

This game from Sega came as a complete surprise and everybody was amazed at how 800d Se8a's first attempt was. Obviously competin8 with Namco'sA!pine Racer 2 there are manysimilari· ties however until we have further details the Jury will have to wait

WAVE RUHHIR Workln8 with Yamaha, Sega have developed a super realistic jetskl 8ame. They wanted to 8et it perfect sothey choose the standard ridin8 version (as opposed to Namco's standin8 version). Due 10 their close cooperation with Yamaha the feedback of wave bounces and landin8 in Ihe water after going over a ramp is really powerful You really fed lilceyou'reontheocean

n.", ..", alw""lII.uI'ft Cl'OWdllNl~ndlhlllllll', Ew.~tllOJ'lICItplQiasc"kI.qjoylb' JlIII.ult'.1O

optnart6frtt tllatt_. pla,yl"alwI,PMt.. tGtak.totally ~wuptCtldl'Glltes. CertIJnl)',tlllbll_ltofth.show!

roads, you can freely choose any course across them. Weaving between the other vehicl~, cut· ting across the lraffic {one picture sees you cut· ling up a huge bU$), you can even go the wrong way down the roadl Basically you have total free· doml GTI Club appears to have redefined the car racin88ameforyearstocomel

SOUR ASSAUlT GRADIUS For all of Konami's fans who've been dreaming about the latest version of the Gradlus Series, the wait is over. We're unable to 80 into 8reat delail at the moment bul in general the game is a behind view 30 shooting game. The scale is big with huge 30 objects bein g moved around the sc reen. There's a power·up gauge and collectable capsules to power it up. Along with the ever popular "Vie Viper" {armed with missile and laser) Is the equally famous "Lord Brillsh" (armed with spread bomb and cyclone laser).

~ SEG.-"\ S.A.TURN

1~ lclolI

N O-",;",...I

PUZZLE BOBBLE J Punle Bobble Is backl Choose from eight unique characters and battle against a friend or the computer over a massive range of bubble iayout varta路 lions (30 stagesls60 rounds)1 There are several exciting and fantastic ntow feat\lres: New TKhnlqut: ~flect from the ceilins as well as the sides New Item: the Rainbow Bubble - burst a bubble next to the Rainbow Bubble and it changes to the colour of the burst bubble. New FeaturePuzzle Mode. where some kind of bubble puzzle slowly advances down the sc reen Brilliantl

lIGHTERS' IMPACT

an amazing combol 4. The Shift button allows for a number of special evasive manoeuvres with the lever. Worth Investigating.

SIDE BY SIDE A race gil.me in which TAlTO go for realism - nol Just In handling. but looks as well. Alll'ight cars in SIDE BY SIDE aIC' based on marketed cars. two cars from each of four manufacturers-Toyot a .

Nissan. Honda and Malda. The performance of each CaT reflects that of the real car so some are quicker than others. depending on the course you choose. Each course represents one of the four seasons: SPRING - a high speed course suitable for beginners. in which cherry blossoms lining the road. SUMMER -a slightly more challenging course perfect for intermediate drivers. set

Proving once again that they have plenty of good ideas up their sleeves SNK had a number of attractions at their booth. The MFX2000 Is a simulator ride seating six people with a huge 7l路lnch screena great experiencel SNK also had a curious game which Involves you moving a metal bar around a course. All the edges to the course are eleclrified. so if you touch the side a buzzer rings. sparks fly and smoke bellows out. Finally, SNK's new cabinet design now contains a video camera and iV screen!

It's connected directly 10 your opponents cabinet so that you can sei! each other while you're playing_ Great fun when you're with a friend because you I pull stupid faces when you beat theml Also on show was their football game, Ultimate 11.

SAMURAI SHaDOW. IV Not much Info on this yet as It's still under development. It's the next sequel to the hugely popular Samurai Shodown series. This time there a re 12 characters from Samurai Shodown 3. another three characters from even older versions of Samurai Shodown, and two completely new characters making a total Of17 player characters! Both the effective路 ness of the weapon and level setting are selectable so both beginners and experts can enjoy playing it.

TECMO wholerangeofspeclal features to make It rather unique: 1. Latest motion capture Ie<:hnology for added realism. l. All eightcharactershavethreecholcesoffighting style (except Yukiwo who has only one) 3: Build your own originalcombo,where certain attacks in the

~ SEGA SArur:<N

DEAD OR ALIVE series of tricky corners which characterise this leafy forest.

WINTER - for super-experts, requiring a whole range of new driving skills in th e snow. The option is great fun too. enjoyment

At the show it still wasn't quite finished as Tecmo w ere still In the final stages of fine tuning. however. allhe Tecmo Game Uve show (see main news section) they unveiled the final version. Japanese dedicated Arcade magazine Gamest has been avidly following this fightlng game for the past few months, so expect the final result to be awesome.

Tecmo also unveiled thei r 3D ho rse-riding game. Gallop Racer.

KlZUIfA INCOUNTER: SUPER TAG BAnn sequel to last year's Kizuna Encounter, this time with an all new game system: One player can choose two characters (the tag system). On a IlOrmal MVS only one player can control at a time, but on the Specla!

MVS version you can have lP+lP VS 2P+2P and 2 play路 ers only have to put In onecreditl Some of the other combinations are IP+lP VS 2P. IP+1P VS COM etc. The control system uses one lever and 4 buttons' Punch, Kick, Weapon, and Tag. Tagging Is fairly simple: So long as you are in your tag area then when both characters touch they can tag to change places. Where there are two players in learn the waiting character isn't left Idle. While lapping on the button he can increase his health by restoring your life gauge. However, the more times you tag the effectiveness becomes less and less. There Is also an emergency tag, operated by thewaitingcharacterifthr~conditlonsaremet:l.

Your partner's bar is almost empty 1. your opponent's bar Is over half full. and}. your partner is in your tag zone. Needless to say Super Tag Battle is packed full of special combat moves and techniques such as Sway, Guard Cancel and Rushing Combos etcetera.

Probably the best 'Iag'game available al this time.

NEO BOMBERMAN At last he's back in the arcade! There are two modes. In the Normal Mode everything you could imagine from the Saturn version is there, but the scale is much bigger with even more indepthgame play.Therearetentypesofvehicles which are spawned from defeated enemies. Also, If you rescue your companions who are !rapped In a ce1l. they can fight along side you. When all have been helped to safety you win! This time all the e nemies have artlfidallntelligence to refine and improve their fighting $Irategies depending on your tactics and skill This is done to make your Ufe more difficult as their increasing smart路 ness will be a source of great annoyance. In total there are 5 $Iages to be completed. All your favourite characters are here with their real voices straight from the Japanese lV commercials!

SECOND EARTH GRATIA Proving that there's still life In this gerue of olden days Jal芦o a re fighting back with th eir latest offering, Second Earth Gratlal With incredible ships and background design they've generated a brilliant 3D effect to the game. By utilising the latest high quality 3D graphics technology they've U1ted the typical horizontal scrolling game so that it's got true depth and perspectivel This makes playing the game a lot easier and much more fun - judgIng angles, distances, and the size of objects is much more intuitive, so your shooting is much more precise. However. to make up forthls, aU the enemies are harder so it's still a challenginggame

month, this IS NOT Daytona Reml~. The CS Team (responsible for Sega Rally) ha~e opted not to reconvert the corn·op as we suspe<:t mosl people would have hked them to do. Instead they have pro ducedtherr own sprn on the incredible AM2c1assic In someways,thegameisa great success. Overall. the graphICs do look far, far bet\erwlth a f .. lI-screen, full-speed PAL dIsplay

STREET RACER

BY UBISOFT, PRICE £44 ,99 RATING 8l%

purchase, Far Cl start, it's a stu nningly c/ose conve rsion . 1t might not be quite ClS c/ose ClS the ariglnal (which was a/Clr leu ambitious coin-op) but when comprHed to Cop l It Is paclred wlth/armoredetailandhodlaads' mare variety. The chaice o/route through the latter hal/o/the/irst twolevelshosbeen retolned,plus AM2 hClveadded in an CllternCltive

original SFA wIth a far larger character rosterandnumerousgameplay enhancements desIgned to make thIs the ultImate combat title The new CustomComboandenhancedAlpha counter features add tothe already bril_ liantStreetFighterAlphaengine.Truly thisisthemosttechn icallyaccomplishedandsupremelyplayable fighting game out there The new characters are ace too: DhalSlmand Zangieffinallyarrlvern the Alpha serIes, plus the FrnalFightconnection continues wIth the incluSion of Rolento From Street Fighter I we have Ihe amazrng Gen and those after an all new creatIon can revel rn the wanton violence of schoolglrlSakura l Plus, WIth better graphics, faster loading, more animatIon and loads more hIdden characters, Street Fighte, Alpha 20n Salu ,n is far superIor 10 the decent enough PlayStationverslon alsoavail able this monlh

the arcode original.

So, it wauld appear that this fs something 0/ a "hats o//to AM2" scenari%rhanding in what is undoubtedly an awesome game. PAL owners can buy In con/ldence too: AM2 have done us proud with a /ul/screen, /ull-speed disploy malring thisjust as good as th e Japanese original. This only misses out an th e Game o/the Month accolade due ta the competitive spirit af SFA2, yet stilldemandspu rchasel

DAYTONA CCE

BY SEGA, PRICE £44.99, RATING 90% ThIS gamt is stIli a s.. bject of hot debale rntheEMAPoffiets.Aswesaidlast

One 0/ Ihe greatest games o/al/·time Is Super MClrio Kart. Th ere,I've sClidit,ldon'tcare I/Iameditoro/the a//icialSaturnmag-

roadingisn't

~~(IIIIii""1(}spor\.granted t~~;:::! ~~~~ But It is krndofessentialforadriving videogame, and as such Hardcore 4x4 is justa bIt lackrng in the excitement department W,th a smoother frame rate, higher speed or more excltrn8 terrain this could ha~ebeen ace As it is, Hardeore 4JC4fallsdistinctlyintothe-notbad,b .. t cerlarnly not essentIal" category

should result in a triumph o/a gam e. As it is, Strut Racer isn't bad atoll.

From a technicalstandpaint, it's tlCcellent. It's the/ir$lpolygonalJD racer to run ot arcade spuds (60 /ramesosecond),and/eatures EIGHT. PLAYER simultaneous play.

It's allpreUy cool actually, with anlya series 13/ minor problems stopping this/rom getting a very hIgh rating. Foremost amongst the quibbles Is the/act that you sum to be contralling tht road as apposed to thelrart, which doesputyouo//, In these types 0/ game it', playability that's all-important and technical issues aside, games lilre Sega Rally and Daytona are still streets ahead.

Still, 1/ Vivid Image were to use this techn%gyonamorereo1/st/cracer, we cauld be infar something awe·

VIRTUA COP 2

BY SEGAlAM2, PRICE £49.99, RATING 9S%

The Incredible quality afSega Saturn AMl titles Is becoming a bit 0/ a c/lchethesedays,Asyau might Imagfne, I'm abaut to be heaping

HARDCORE 4x4

BY GRfMlIN, PRICt £44,99, RATING 76% Thebattleoftheroadraeersishotlrng upthlsChrlstmas.lndeed,threeofthem areftat .. redinthisOutNowsection

Th e last couple o/manths have cer· tainlyseen an upsurge In the amount afso/tware using the old Vlrtua Gun after months and months 0/ Virtua Cop being the only compatible sa/two re. Chaos Control was the/irst "atherHgame to use it and it's out now. Hawever, don 't buy it,Please.

Fora start rathtrthan using eluellentJD/o rthe main visuais, Chaos Control uses/ull-motlon video with overlaid sprites. This gives the

gamea distinct "could have been daneonMega-CD"qualityand althol.lghtheFMVisobviouslybet· ter, the laclr o/interClctivity is still omnipresent. As Rab so deftly put It when reviewing this game last month, "You might be desperate/or

gamll!sthatutillSll!yourVirtuaGun butChaosCantrolisonll!travlI!sty that will havII! you pointing your gun at yourSll!lf fo r bll!ing fool II!nough to buyit~. Am ll!n to that.

tion. And the scrolling's perhaps a bit too jerky too.

CrlmeWave is worth a look. but don't expect anything too earth·shal· tering

CRIMEWAVE

BY El DOS, PRICE £39.99, RATING 13"

BLAZING DRAGONS

BY BMG, PRICE £39.99, RATING J3"

After the triumph of Tomb Raider. Eidos unleash their Saturn·exclusive game CrimeWave upon us. And it's not too bad. essentially. First of all ,I he game is actua llyquiteoriginal.the3D is used to present a kind offreeform isometriC perspective which changes with the action. Quite impressive. The basic objectivehasyoudrrvrngthrough t he streets. chasing down villarns in their cars and gunning them down Competitionwmesintheformofnval vigilantes, plus you have to be careful not to harm the innocent civilians On paper this all sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately. CnmeWave isn't tot ally without its faults. The action essentially boils tochase·car·k,lI·it·find another·kill·that·oneandsoon.Pretty repetitive stuff actua lly. The control methodcanalsoleadtosomefrustra·

As you can Sll!lI!from thll! rating, BlaJlngDragon sisprobablythll! worst gamll! offldally aval/ablll! on

thtSaturn.Ctrtalnly, bylooltlngat thtscorts to tht right, you would btlltvtl t.

BlatlngDragons Is brsf dll!scribll!dasa Irlndofad vr nturll!RPG thing with cartoon styltgraphics. It fallsf/atonltsfaer!n thatth tcon· troll ntll!rfacrlss ub,Sil!Crll!tof Monlrll!Y Is/a nd,thrpuulrsarll!morll!acaSll!of holding thll! right obitct at tht right Hmt (as opposll!d to logically thought out solution s} and th t amount of t/mrsyoucharactutil!l/Syou, ME can't do that hll!rll!" drlviI!J you uptht wall.

A cartfully thought out plot and II! ntut a lnl ng script would Impro vr matttTf, but Blating Dragons laclrs t itht r. lnfact, lt'sontofthtslI!castJ

ALSO OUT NOW ACTIlAGOlf WENTRILOOY o\I.DNEIKTHEIlAR1 2:JACI'S BACl ATltLffiIINGS WUWUoUIl1W. BWI!IIIACIIINEHlAD BIG HURT BASEB.U.L IUIW 80IW f'ACI[ BUG! ClOCIWORIINIGHT ClOCIWORIINIGHT2 CYBERIA CYBERSPEEDWAY D DARIUSGAIDEH DAYTOHAUSA DEFCON5 DESTRUCTIDNOERBY DIGITAl PINBAll DlSCWORLO EXHUMED EURO '96 FIFA '96 nGHTINGYlPf:RS FIR£STORM GAUCTlCAnACl( GU GOlDENAXE: THEDtJEL

£44.19 £44.99 £39.99 £44.19 £29.99 £44.99 £44.99 £29.99 £49.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £29.99 £49.99 £44.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £44.99 £44.99 £39,99 £49.99 £44.99 £39,99 £39.99 £39.99

d 8~

5N !IO'oio 13~

84% SS% !12"1o 8'1%

GIWIDI.lNHERO£S GUNGRIFFON HAKGON 'SS HEBERElE'S POPOITO HIGHWAY 2000 THE HORDE IIIPACTIUCING JOHNNYBAlOOUTOHE JVC YlCTORYBOXING

l"'IlAGICClRP(T (O

II.lIISION Of HIDDEN SOllLS MYSTARIA

wh ere thll!y'vII! trlll!d so hard to bt funnybutinsttadhavtc rta tll!dwhat Is morll! Irritating th an amusing.

PIII!asll! avoid this, It'siustnot worth adding toyo urcolliI!Ctlon undu any ci rcumstancII!s.

PGA TOUR GOLF

BY EA, PRICE UBA. RATING 6B% You could argue that the success oflhe Megadriveover the Super NESwas down to the quality of its sports simulations as much as the clever marketing of yo re, Electronic Arts d,d Sega owntrs proud Wit h awesome hockey, American Football and golfgames.ln particulM, the latter. PGA Tour Golf was ace in everyone of its myrrad incarnations As such it particularly pains me to seethatEAhavehandedinwhatisa most unremarkable 32·bit translation of what is their most celebrated of golfing t,tlesThtgraphicsareflatanduncon.

vincing. but most ofilll. EA hilvethrown away Ihe amazing gameplaythat made thtMegildnveorigrnal{s)amust·have title on that system. Certainly. t'd prefer plilying PGA Tour Golf 3 on Megadrive thilnthls.As it is. I don't have to.

£39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £44.99

£44."

W ... £44.99 £39.99 £39.99

64%

Mm

83% m;,

NBA JAM TE £39.99 THE HEED FOR SPEED £39.99 NflQUJ.RTERBACI £44."

NHlHOClEY £44."

NIGHTS £59."

IHGHTW.lRIIIlIIS:OfJtlSTAllEIISREYEJIGE£44.99 OlYMPICSOCClR £39.99 OPERATlONBLACIFIRE £39.99 PAHlERIlIUGOON £49.99 £49,99 PlItZERDRAGOON 2 PEBBLlBUCHGOIJ £39.99 PRO PINBALl: THE 'KEB £49.99

66% 78% 79% !IO"i

mt.

68% 59% 72% 93~

SO% 79% 94"84%

mir 71% 15~

,,,...

REYOLUOON X ROBOTICA SEA BASS flSHIHG SEGARAlLY SHElLSHOCI

.

.... ........ ...,,,,

£44."

£44." £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £49.99

£44."

""' .". ""' "" "" ,,,. "" 58%

83% 58%

"" ,,,. "" ,,,. '''' ,,,. "" ,,,.

15%

,, ~

15%

"..

mI 7Il% 59% 40%

"" "" ""

13%

because Grem lin have produced the rat her fine Actua Golf for the Saturn, so I'll have that instead,And so should you

3 DIRTY DWARVES BYSEGA, PRICE £39.99. RATING 65" SlI!gaSoft's first foray Into thll! world of Satu rn softwarll! finally arrivII!s and ... It's a b/t crap actually. Thrll!lI! Dirty Dwarvll!' Isn't SOmt Irlnd of particularly sordid porn vld · Instll!ad It's a sldll!ways scro!lingplat· form fighting gam ll! thingy. Kind of IIIrIl! Guardia n HII!roll!S, only not as dupor t ntll!rtalnlng.

Thll!scrll!lI!nshots tll!lla sad, mou rnful story of undll! rwh ll!lmlng

graphics, but what you can't rtally "llppriI!Ciatll!" Is thll! monotony of tht gamll!play. Thrll!lI! Dirty Dwarvts rt al· Iyfsborlng·pril!lll!ntinga ntar,con· stantprociI!Islonoftirrsomrmtanlts tobtatup.TTurrnough, thrfll!aturr ofswlfchlng dwarvts(and thus wraponry} is qultll! an innovlltivt !dta, but In no way dors it mah for th ll! rll!stofthll!ga mt, wh !eh i ust Isn't worth thr bothn.

SHINOBI ·X SHDCI WAVl ASSAULT SIMCfTY2000 SUM 'NJAM SI'ACf:HUIJ STARFIGHTER2000 STREET FIGHTER ALPHA STREETFIGHTER THE MOViE STRIKER '96 THUlEPlRl nMEWlRNER'SYIRTUAIUCING mAN WARS TOMIRAlDUI TOSHIHDENREMIX TRUE PINBAlL lILnMATtIlORt.u.IOIrWT3 VAlORAYAlLEYGOlf WIlDS YICTOIIYOO.lI. VIITU4 . .

"""'''''''''

YIllTUA FlGHID 2 YIRTIJAFIGIIillIUlIX YIRTUAOPEHTENNIS WlNGlRMS WIPEOUT WORLD CUP GOlf WORLD SERIES BASEBAll WD1tUlWlDE5OCCf..

WORMS WWF WRESTlUWl1A NIEJI: ClUlDIIEJlOFnlEATOII

£39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £JUII £39.99

£44." £44." £44." £44." £44."

........ ,,,. "" "" "" ,,%

.".

15%

""

53,. .... .. '''' £44." "" .". ...... ,""""... ....... '''' ...... ...."" ...... .... .. ""'''' ".... ",. "" ,,,. "" ...... ,3\."" "''''.. ...... "" "" £39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £39.99

£39.99 £39.99 £39.99 £49.99 £39.99

149.99 £39.99

~ SEG.~ SAnJRN

9~

SUPERCAR M2 have finally reualed their second Model) project for the arcades ... and it's th e official coln·op sequel to the c1uslc Diy ton.

US AI Cummtly entitled ~Sup.rCar ~ (althoush this mlSht change).

A

Ii~

~~ . _~

}I

'1~1l I

\

I

- ~~ ~

.!f~$

nt

~1IW.r

...-....

unchanged.

The wu ploduced ovedemo r 18 . . . . . . .. . . .~I month s ago, which just goes to show how !ong AMl h ave bee n planning th e t his Daytonaseq uell There's li ttle more

of 1101111 3 pr"ld .. I~. M'lt

'Mull••rcdtdri,lnluptrltln

this amuinglooking game looks like being the mOll stunning ddvins Bame ever leen anywhere!

As far as we can tell, the sameplay looks like being quite simil;u to the c1assic Dayto na. The re;l.dou tS;l.nd score panels are nigh·on identical (just rendered in a supe rio r fashion). However, II has been re vealed t hat key members of the SuperCar development team have spent time racing the real-life equiv;l.lenls of the machines in the game, including Fenari Fsosl You can be guac;l.nteed that the handling of the game will be Just u clever ;l.nd as rnlislic as Daytona USA and Vlrtua Racing were in thei r d;l.y.

Rnders of the old SEGA MAGAZI NE might find one or two upects of SuperCar familiar. Bdore coding VFl for the S;l.turn, AMl released a full· motion video demo showing lady racing through a coliseum that exploded Inlo lIS component polygons as he raced through it. Well, both the vehicle and the coliseum h;l.ve made It InlO SuperCar virtually

",r. ht

thrtHlod •• btlboftthpowuof SIp'. It•• rCld, ttchololJ. W. en Hly ....... thllil" AII 2 Ut tll, Mutl,.. btlllld"'I.,•• plc, tilt mpIQ

,u.••

screens hotss how. mai nly because AM z have relnsed very litt le In the way of detail. They w;l.nt Ihe pictu res to speak for themselvesbefore l heprtsSC;l.n get t heir c\;l.mmy hands on the game proper_ We think that the aforementloned pictu res do the job quite well.yesl

... 'I ...Htlulllookl. lf"t.or.....

'11'.'11 h"MOrt d.laUIuIIM.11 Ih y' rt "Iu..d.

....

-

h my view, Sl:GA SAT\IIf MAGAZIE Is the areatllt monthly pdIIcation il theworidlndlwantJOU ')'fIS YOll . toputlt asldl

for me on amonthly bub, Incue thty're d stoMn.OrbcKlghl OrabtilctedbJ "'cr ~

NAME _ _ ADDftESS _ _

MIMhI 3 uutn till IIOltplll_aal rnilrC PIIImrtlmMll-Mpttlldl.,tllllllCttdl.... OQ1:IIU.U$AaIHIStpRal\J CWnpio.Pip. IfUQ it "- far OQ1:11U Us pro~lh,..utotlll ... tlC_lIOIoO. 1011 UI otIJ WCNMIlr for tu.ph.lnt how cooI'tirtnCo(l3w111b11'"2 •• d"odIl3

1'1111 thlrudn!

Incredible â&#x20AC;˘