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SfGA SATURN MAGA27NE20 _ _
Can it be true? Has a game arrived to finally dethrone Virtua Fi8hter 2asthe greatest 32·bit fighting game title in exis·
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tence? last Bronx combines mega AM3 gameplay with
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12 LAST BRONX
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super hi-res graphiCS! You MUST see this monster in action! It's another killer Saturn exclusive!
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BIG IN JAPAN _ _ __
58 CYBERBOTS Another import title Is championed for European release by us hearty SSM writers! Cyber"bots didn't gel much of an arcade release over here, but it truly is a most entertaining fighting game.
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Remember that 3D platform game we were raving about in the last Issue? Well,this Is the part where we shOw you how utterly COOl the &ame realty is! Check out our coverage of Pandemonium and prepare to be impressed!
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22 METAL SLUG ~ Soon? If art/. Takilg Japan by storm is SNK's P{aPticaI. ty&.perb 2D side-saoIrli bIa:stil! game. It's a 1riiantgame har1cenIlg back to the t6-bitdaysofganqyorean:lisan nstant tit v.ith the SatLm Mag posse. Fm out why right here.
26 ACTUA SOCCER CLUB EDITION Curren~ Wor1dWlde Soccer rules the roost when it comes to Saturn footban games. Now along comes Gremlin with a revamp of Euro '96. A potential championship contender? We examine oear·final Saturn code?
It's a sad fact that ports from the PC are usuallyabsysmal (Doom)orjustaboutokay (HexenatthOughthe game itself is still cool). For MechWarrior, ActMsion completely redesigned the game and the graphics for the Saturn-andguess what? It's pretty excellent. As you shall discover...
53 SHINING IN THE HOLY ARK When a new "Shining" game comes along you know you're in for a brilliant adventure experience.WeIl,ShiningtheHoIyAr\(isbetterthan you'll ever believe· the king ofRPGs no less!
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IXIII10lBY SURROUND I
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REVIEWS _ _ _ __
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FIGHTERS MEGAMIX KING OF FIGHTERS 95 PANDEMONIUM MR BONES MECHWARRIOR 11 SCORCHER SHINING THE HOLY ARK REGULARS _ _ _ __
06 NEWS 38 VIRTUA WRITER 40 74 96 98
Q+A SMALL TIPS OUT NOW INTRODUCING .. ,
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TIPS SPECIALS _ _ __
78 FIGHTER MEGAMIX PART I 92 DIE HARD PART III 86 HEXEN PART I
h(" Tokyo Game Show was hailed as one ofllle most important videogames events in
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IIEWS
tygilrl'\e'S. Llst Bronx,G'ilndia. TouringCOiIlandp,lOlf:,RPG showed the world that when it comes to great gilmes, you can't be"t sega. And t here's more to (ome: Sega stole the show wilhoutevenshowlnganythlngofVirtuaFlghte'3 0r Project Sonic · the t wo games that EVERYONE wants to see,regardlessofwhlch machlne theyactuallyown. Hopefully all will be n:ve"led at this year's El show In
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3D GRAPHICS TO DIE FOR•••
SONIC'S BACK!!!
ANEW AGE OF SATURN EXCELLENCE BECKONS he Tokyo Game Show SprinS '97 wu held at the "Tokyo Big Slte~ from Friday AprU 4th to Sunday AprU 6th. OUI man in Japan, WlITen HlITod., thtre to bring SEGA SATUU MAGAZINE readen the very latest gaming news and gOll.lp, As POSSibly the largest computer game show in the world there were over lOO companies exhibiting a total of 500 titles which were almost all playable on the 1200 consoles available for those lucky enough to get In, Over 120,000 garners managed to make It despite the pouring rain and the truly mile-long queues, For Saturn owners the show promised to be full of surprises and Sega certainly didn't disappoint. Throughout the day, some of Japan's greatest game deslgnersl programmers were live on stage at the Sega booth to talk about their latest projects and what a line-up they had! Without a doubt some of the most impressive games coming out this ~ar will be on the Saturn and just like Sega's stage theme said, Lhis is cool!" These were the main game announ~ments,
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The biggest news of the showl Despite gossip that Project Sonic was the name of Sonic Team's next game it is in fact something much bigger, Project SoniC Is a major project throughout the whole ofSega and willlnvolvt- much more than simply just another new game. Mr Vuji Nab was at the show to explain a little about this new project. Phase I of Project Sonic Is Sonic lam,acompllatlonofseveraloldSonlc games that have been combined with a new 3D Sonic World. The games included are Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog 2, SOnic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. However. thesec!assic Megadrtve title IIuII)' IQ d~"" SoIIc'. W1.. ~ aren't simple ports as there have been several Improvements. For exam ple, you can now do a Time Attack on --~ ' ~ ;; ~ every stage, a Spin Dash can be done even on Sonic I. there's a special mode where you can just play the specl,d stages .. nd the "lock-Qn System" (which used the extra c.. rt) has been inc!uded .. swell. >< As If this news wasn't exciting
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08 SEGASAlURNMAGAlINE
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enough, the addition of the 3D Sonic World impressed all who saw it. Although not strictly a game in itself, this section of SOnic Jam is essentially a 3D polygon world where you can move Sonic around a large valley with bridges, trees, a rive r and a variety of other features, There's no pop-up orglitching andeven though Sonic seems to have taken a leaf out of Mario 64'S book, the sheer smoothness and potential of this section will astound all Saturn owners. In this world you can activate a kind of "Digital Manual" (a similar feature was used in the PlayStation Namco Museum series) which gives you information about vari ous aspects of the SOnic world, From the entire Sonic CD FMV intro to sounds and artwork this additional section looks set to be the ultimate Sonic archive Sonic Jam was about 88% complete at the show The main reason for Sonic Jam being developed is to introduce Sonic to the many new garners who have never really known this character. By releasing this compilation Sega hope to build up Interest in SOnIc before they reveal Phase 2 towards the end of the year
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SEGA TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP This was not playable at the show (it's only 5% done) although It should be ready for the E3 show in America in June_ Although it isn't known at this time just who IS undertaking the Saturn conversion, we do know that the assistant producer in charge of the project is from AM Annex so you can be sure it's going to be great! A small amount of video footage showed the Saturn version ofTourtng Car In action and only a small drop in frame rate and resolution made this look any dIfferent from the arcade versionl No CPU cars had been included at this point, but as we said_, it's only 5% done. Touring Car is confirmed as one ofSega's big guns for E3 so look out for our report coming soonl
Continuing Sega's domination ofthe Tokyo Game Show, the company showe d the first work on their conversion of the eagerly awaited Last Bronx. This game man· ages to capture the imagination of newcomers with its stylish visuals as well as satisfy the gamers with its depth of play Regardless, the Saturn version looked absolutely spectacular, combining the hi-res visuals ofVirtua Fighter 2 with the walls of Fighting Vipers_ a major achievement for the Saturn. AM3 also announced that all of the backgrounds would be 3D as well· something that neither the Saturn or PlayStation has achieved before Last Bronx is going to be a majorrelease __ andyoucangettheinsidetracron this hot game by turning to page 14 right NOWI
30 ba~tgropnn Ind . mu lAS _I-rei wl'PlI, 1
bpttt . III-.!or BnMll '1llMInelment 1.0011!
ENTER... THE GAME DESIGNER NETWORK GO-Net Is ill Jill pill nese iIIssociilltion of the hottest Sillturn coding teams, heillded up by Treu ure iIInd Gillme Arts, responsi ble for the likes of Guardiilln Heroes iIInd Gun Griffon respectively. Their newgillmes look even hotter ill Syou shillll see...
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GRANDIA This is the game that EVERYONE is talking about· the role·playing game destined to out·Final Fantasy Final Fantasy VIII The game was on dIsplay in video form only at the Game Show, but looked absolutely sensational, What Grandia was doing with real·time 3D edipsed the FMV sections of Final Fantasyl As readers ofSSM should know, Grand!a brings together George Lucas's Skywalker sound with Game Arts' very greatest 3D technidans, Add a host of games designers and you have what should be the best adventure game ever. We're talking super-smooth (around 30 frames per second) textured visuals, along with f:'If!ry 3D effect ever seen - brilliant lighting. transparencies, the works l Game Arts are releasing a demo of the game some time soon in Japan in a simi!arto ploy to Square with Final Fantasy VII. so we should get a look at this in action really soon
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GUN GRIFFON RETURNS! The under-rated Gun Griffon returns to th e Saturn in what promise s to be a spectacularvideogame, Take the original. add in 30fpS visuals wit hgouraud shading and Iight-souTang, mix in four different mechs to control along with link-up cable action and you should have some idea of how cool this game will bel We've got high hopes for this one
SILHOUETTE MIRAGE this Is a name that should gladden the hearts of the Saturn's staunchest fans This game is only the foHow-up to Guardian Heroes· a sprite based action festival from Treasure - the masters of the 2D game! Silhouette Mirage is basically an even more lunatic rendition of their already classic Gunstar Heroes and looks like being one of the most spectarular blasting games ever l
CAPCOM UNLEASH THE HEAVYWEIGHTS Capcom's booth was the second best booth at the show. Du lgned ilJound the theme ofRockman (or MegilInan as he's known in the West), Capcom paid tribute to theu star character's lOth Anniversary. Roclunan fint debuted way back on Decembell'7th 1987 on the Famicom. Since then he's spawned JeVeral series on myriad s}'1teml. Capcom are making swe he's keeping busy...
ROCKMANX4 With possibly thegrealest graphks you've ever see n. this has to be the best verSion yet of any Rockman game. With two characters to control along with some absolutely gorgeous graphics Rockman X4 finally brings Ihe character inlo the 32·bitgenerationl
A combination of high quality animation and gripping adventure game action The game features three stories conlaining a tolal of 90 minutes of original anime. Depending on your chOices al certain points in thl:' story there arl:' differ· ent events and plots. Over 20 boss characters make an appearanCl:'
RESIDENT EVIL UPDATE A 50% complete version was on display and it was looking pretty hot indeed Saturn owners shouldn't have anything to complain about when this horrorfest arrives at home. The frame rate's there, the garneplay's thl:'re ... although thl:' pro· posed enhancements Capcom are putting in are not ... yet i More news soon l
MARVEL SUPER HEROES We've had to wait a long timl:' but it's finally here. Although still at an early stage, Saturn owners were finally able to play a semi'complete version of oneofthe most highly anticipated arcade conversions of all time There's good news and bad news. The good tidings are thal the game plays identically to the alcade · even though the game was only 50% complete, it managed to replicate even the most sublime air combo! The bad news is that a fair amount of the coin·op·s animation was missing, Back to the good news: for starters. it's better than the PlayStation verSion with bigger char· acters and more animation, and it's also compatible with the RAM cart used to power Metal Slug. Cyberbots and King of Fighters '96 . ml:'aning t hat most of the lost animation is recla imed if you have the technologyl This game's looking very hot and we hope to have a full feature next month.
DYNAMITE BASEBALL ANNOUNCED Sega Amusements re<:ently held a press launch in Japan to celebrate the arrival of two new games in the arcades as well as to announce an all·new project. Dynamite Baseball '97 is an all-new creation from the currently hot AMI (responsible for the bur-illiant House of the Dead which SSM rerommends you go out and play NOW) Dynamite Baseball runs on the Model 2 board and is qUite possibly the best repre-
sentation of the sport we've seen to date. What is quite Interesting is the implementation of the cabinet· there"s a kind of swingable bat you can use to put power on the ball as it's chucked at you. Good stuff. Look out for more in Coin-Operated soonl
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THE BRONXERS GansludeIS aim to brinj: an end. to Tokyo UJban warfare by jo1n1n1 togethtrforabIJ8ght toumaml9\t. The winner oftherompetition
claims the Tokyo undeground as their priul Here are the combatants.
TOMMY Although he'slnta thrash metaJ and snowboarding, thh juvenile gllngieaderbamaster of the Battlt Stick. A
greatlonlllllngecombatant with amuing stick-relatedagUlty. Has a love-hate lI!lationshJp with Usa (sht'. got the hat tend).
JOE Formerly number two In the SOul Crtw POSSt, Joe'sa ch.arlsrruatic
leader who fonned his own gang. He UJeS his nunchuka in his right hand and karate power with his left. Expect the nunchuka to change for the UK vtnion of the Satumgamel
KUROSAWA A mystertoUl fellow
without doubt, no-one knows his background. And no-one uu_. unless they want a wooden JWold to their
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ening opponent, Klllosawa has an awesome level of accwacy andpowerl
USA Armed with steel doubleJticlts(onefoluch hand). Usa has a ('\Ite high school chHrieadel look countered by her sheer power and skW with her weaponry. Her skWs allow her multl pie attacks at high sPffd. combined with deft footwork.
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S((llSATUANlU.GAZINE 15
NAG! Leader of the women-only gang Dogma, Nagi views all men as pawns to be controlltdl A hysterl路 calsadistatheart,$he has a pairofSais used to deadly ends, with stab-
bing and p;mying attacks. Strangely drawn totheboyish Yoko_
YUSAKU Leader oflhe Neo Soul gangland crew, he Is the hero of Last Bronx. He UStS a staff split into three sec:tions for hb aHacks,allowinghlm to strike with power at Jurt about any range. Also a master of the shoulder taclde and one
of the btst fighters.
YOKO Almon manly in her
po$hlre,looksand attacking power, Yoko U$l!'Sapairoftonfafor her bloody fights. A powerful fighter, Yom is further driven to victory by an indomitable spbil'M
as well as an unbeatable range of lethal kicbl
ZAIMOKU One of the most distinc路 tive fighteu in the game, Zaimoku fi!!hts with an enormous lump-hammer style weapon which hits with unbelievable powerl He Is more interI!stedin protecting his workers than he Is in the gangland battle. 16 SEGASATURNMAGAZINE
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SEGASATURHMAGAlINE 25
When looking for Biactol, now look for Biactol from Clearasil.
IDUKE NUKEM 3D SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE has been at the forefront of Lobotomy Software's endeavours to bring two of the best PC games ever across to the Saturn. The Duke update continues this month with these incredible pictures! I SEGAlLAB OTo.n ! ÂŁIBA
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I SEPTE!!BER
SUBMARINE ACTION! The l ubmarine stage is the most easlly recognis able level of the first epllodt and ....0 o ne of the mOlt difficult to connrt hom PC to Saturn. The na50n I1 that the submarine resides in an enormously open canyon. It', .reil Uke this that Lobotomy have had to recode their engine to cope with. The engine doe, lt without any klnd of cllpplns or miltin, effectl (as IHn in preproduction N64 Dukel) and looks absolutely brllllant. It'. thll kind of Ituff that makes the Saturn ven lon of Dllke . o technically ground-breakingl
blel~phlcJenlllneandarl!nowlntheproc:eJSofconÂ
verting aC fon the maps from PC to S<rturn. As you 5H from our S(fHnshots (wh ich for the
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fint time ever show lewls other thill" the fint onell. lobotomy's conversion Is Iook lnl seriously. seriously cool. Some mllht say that with the superior lilhtlnl effe<b It actually looks brlter than the PC orlllnall The company promised as much In their Int erview with SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE In Issue #18 and now we have the evidence on th is pale to show th at they have lived up to their word , Bottom line: Duke Nuk em )Dlookiamazlnl' Despite less th a n ten weeki of hard coding, lo botomy are already well on the road to compl~ ion a nd Duke Nukem 3D is slated as one of.he high , points of the forttKomlng E3 in Atlanta in June, where
an as-near-as-dammit finished version wi1l be the centrepolntofSega'simmensestand, SegaofAmeriCiI seektoafflrmtheSalllrn'sstalllsasa PlayStatlonbeating alterniltive to other ne Kt generation machines and wll h games li ke th is on dis play, it's going to be a g reat show for t hem (part icularly ilS Sat urn Duke loo ks better t hilnlhe N64 version,andthat 'snoliel), Quake loo should help Sega's cause no end and it's clear Ihal SoA have a greal deal to t hank lobotomy fori Still, backto Duke Nl.lkem, Lobotomy's ace programmerEzraDreisb achhascompletedhls enhanceme nts to the hhumed eng ine, ilnd Duke
Saturn Duke just gets better and better -marvel at these awesome graphics! Lobotomy are on course to produce a spectacular rendition of the PC classic!
30 SECASJflJIINMAGlZINE
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No matter how complex the original Saturn Duke replicates it! Huge open areas are no problem for Lobotomy's enhanced remains Just as smooth as Exhumed was-despite the huge open spilces and the enormous gre at wall s. SeCA SATUR N MACAZI NE can gu a rante e that thi s Is gol " gtobe a really ground -breaki"g ga me ... It's going to be amni"gl lobotomy a recurrently o"thelaststfalght withregardstothisconverslon. They'vegot the engine to go as fast as It 's going to a"d the Duke Nukem ga me log ic Is all present and correct. There's perhaps stili a little too much I"e rtl a on the chafacter(moreExhumedincontrolas
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from the screenshob. From the city streets of Los Angeles IntothedesertandthebrllliantsubmarirM:~I,ifs
an tnell' to Stt right hell'in front of you.
The light ing rift'ds (the lut piKes of the map lobe Included,barthedestruc路 tiblescenery) also look absolutely spectilwlar. Thls partofthe gamelnpart lcu.
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light-sources (s uch ,U overhead strip lights and what-have路)'Ou) doing their th ing . The overall look is excellent and when you see Just how bst th is all moves, yOU'll be stunned, The Saturn has never done anything li ke t his before (well actua lly Exhumed got close, but the levels we re fa r slmplerJ and It's a greilt taster for the mach ine's unrivalled 30 powerl We're going to beta. lng a bit of a rest from the CNke Nukem coverilge over the next couple of months. letting lobotomy get on with completing the game_ and the n we'll be back with a vengeance l Rest assured, you've hardiy seen anything yet. This ga me will rulel
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SEGA SATlIRNM.w.2"IN( 31
IJONAH LOMU RUGBY Imagine the scene if you will: Arain-soaked pitch plays host to two teams of talented sportsmen. With time running out and only one point separating the victors from the losers, weary mud-splattered players frantically scrabble for possession of that all but elusiveball. ICODEMASTERS
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VITAL STATISTICS
LomuRugby.Whlle(ert~lnly
Born: Auklancl, New Zealand 1915 Plays: Wing
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Welght: 19 stone
their first 31·blt sports slm. Although rugby m~y be! the st<:ond most popul ~ r tum game in the UK, no dtVl!loper h~s yet ~ttempted to t~ke t he ru l
Speecllo.8 second, over 100 mt'trH ~ the nu player of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Jonah Lomu', rise to Itilldom has bftn nothing . hort of milaculous. TonglUl by nationality, Jonah was born and niHd down under in Aukland New Zealand where his formativl!
sporting yun uw him win.nJ.ng numflO\UI . print running trophies· a talent that has propelled him to the formont ofrugby. At the age of23 he has played:t4 matches forthe All Blacks and scored 17 tries. Jonah Lomu was also
the youngest rugby international to play for the All Bbcb when New Zealand fa~ed fran~1! in 1994, at the ageofjurt Igl
lifemechanl(s ~nd(omp!i(atedrulesofthls
sportandproduce a titleth at successfl.lllyup· tl.lres the mood and ucitement of the game. Enter Birmingham bned Rage Software who are busy putt ing the finish ing touches to Jonah Lomu Rugby, ~ title they're dtVl!loping for Codemasten andonethathas~ninproductionforwellovera year.Rageareconfidentthattheyundel iver~n ~ccu·
rate, playable game that will appe al to both fans of the sport andSatl.lrn owners used to the highs and lows of recent footle titles. With ~ number of soccer games I.Inder th ei r belt, inciuding Str iker and FIFA '97 conversions for EA, Rage are defin itely thetum to
handle this project. As hge's hud honcho Trevor Wllllams says: W We wanted a game that stayed truetothe rules, but was usyto pick lip and play wlthoul a complete understandingof a ll t helns andOl.lts.lt'sdefinltelyturnedoutasan arude style game · lots of movement and simple controls. We also thought it Impor· ta nt though, that all the rutesare in there, andlhatpeoplewhoknowthegamewill Ihink it's an aCCl.lrate simulation of the sport.w Alt hough the game feat u res a whop ping 12 inte rnational team s, ranging from the masters of the sport, New Zeala nd, Austr~lIa and England. to less prominent squads, sU(h as the USA, the presence of man -mounta in Jonah Loml.l adds a vital sui of approval tothe game. As the world's most powerful flanker,andrepl.ltedly t he mostdlfficult player In t he le ague to tackle, Jona h's presence showsthecom· mitmentthat both Rage and Codemaslers have to producing t he highest qu a lity rugby title. Obviously keen to keep the game as accurate as possible, Ra ge have also employed t he vocal t alents of renowned sports commentators, Bill McCla ren and Bili Buumont . Furtheraddingtothegame'ssenseof re~l ·
ism
~re dyn~mi(
weat her conditions prOViding players
"We wanted agame that stayed true to the rules, but was easy to pick up and play without acomplete understanding of all the ins and outs." - Trevor Williams
JOA~'.WdylHl-IC"".CCHlltoIproIIIpl.
n...te lh'lII"rlM'ltnat"'ftIln~llt.
12 SEGASATUIINIII,I,CAlIME
As the world's most powerful flanker Jgnah'spre~ence shows t.he commitm~nt that both Rage and eDdies have to prodUCing the highest quahty rugby btle. with mud-$Oaked pitch/:,1, rain effects ~nd even floodlit nlsht mOitdlcs. ln k«ping with the slick Sky Sports
style coverage afforded many console footbilll titles, J.onah Lomu Rugby also fealurcs a handy replay option enabling fast forwarding and rewind·
ing of milten footallC complete with scratchy video tape interference. The game itselfofferSiI number of play modes illlowing sports nuts to
wade through Friendly, TOUrr'lilment, World Cup, TerritoriesCup-including
FiveNaUons-andall·timeClassi, Match~. However, the complex rules and speed of the game have proven chal· lenSlns for RagC' as proll rammers Tony MC(ilbe and Arllonlo Argel'lllerl explain: "In f ootball
you only need one player model, butlnruBbyth~r~ar~ all th~ diff~.~nt set·plec~s: st.ums, mauls, passinB plays, Vouhavetohavearontrolmodelandintelli· BencemodelfOfeach."Theset·upofa.ugbyteamis
HoldJIIJ down UII Xbtltton pmkiu I momlntll'l bul"lt of ."..d IllowJIIj P!lYt rs to nip put thl oppo.ltlor.'. Hrlntl •.
also more comple~ for the progra mmers, "A rugby team has specialintlon. You won't Bet winBen movinB Into the st.um unless they really have to,sowe·ve prOBrammed them to avoid getting into situatiOns which don't suit their style of play. The Bame enBine Is just about the re, a lot of the time we hil~ left will be spent wor klnB ontheplayerlntelllgence." With nanlmated characters on streen at once.fou. detailed stadiums to play In and the Bame'sstop·start nature, it's obviou'i that RaBehave taken ona real challenge. Fortunately theresultssofarhavebeeneJrtremely promisinBwlth the PlayStat ion version
Hey,lt'. I_lblllllu~IIIIMtnJonlb Lom.' • ..,...ntlinlh. &amlglvtl NewZ. aJud ld.finltltdglIlYlr oth.r lllm •.
receivinBglowinBpralsefrom t h~speCialistpress.
Hopefully,R:.agewill btabletotweakandtightenthe Saturn venion of the gam~ and Pfoduce one of the premier sporb titles of '97-
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WEATHER WITH YOU Jonah Lomu IlIgby oHers some of the most realistlcplay1ng conditions ever l een in a sport. game courtesy of its Dynamic Climate feature. There are fOllr All Weather Stadiums to choose from · Tallyfleld, Hagley load, Alton 1000d and Ballydown Puk. By adding IlIth eHect. as intennitt~nt rain showers, I now, wind, lightning and dramatic liShtinS ~Hectl, Rage hope to cater for ~ry pOIlibl~ match .~I up. If this attention to detail Isn't impr~,.ive ~noush, you '11 undollbt~dly be pl~.. ~d 10 l~am that mud thrown up by scrums and tacltl~1 ~n soU. playell' .hirts. You dirty buSS~tl l
I /
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Stltctrromth,..lnrltdtlmlnlnlitl. SEGASATURNltAilAlINE 33
1~I:lJi11111NI
ISKYTARGET So you want to know what the next big arcade conversion to the Saturn is going to be, eh? Last Bronx maybe? Touring Car perchance? None of the above. Try SkyTarget, a good oldfashioned shoot 'em up if ever there was one.
-...2
I S EG A
A
I ÂŁT SA I S HOOT
'EM
UP
I JUlY
fewmonths. go)'OUm;ilyrffallwepre-
viewed a Yf:ry u rly S~urn conversion of Sqa's Model ! coin-op SkyTargtt.
Followlns in the footsteps of the recent Manx n . the game wa sn't being program med by
Se,.
themselves but by the ~ple responsible for Megil Drive hit Ecco The Dolphin. WeU since we tut u w it the converslonworkhu bftn progresslng~iln il miltlng
rate. SO much so In hid that we'vejusttaken dellYery of an almod (omp~e verslon l The Wilit Is almost OYfrl SkyTarget is perhaps one ofStga's Its~r known coin-opswhichhadalimitf:dreltil~atthtbackendof
1995. The game was rtgilrdf:d by many as the Afterburner for tht Nineties and Indeed bore more tniln
a passlngresemblancetotheclassicblast erofold. As bplotioulbound u thllll8l11,flg/Itlrpllnllll"lllllllldoul Df'lh"Q CoMrttIJ af)'GllrlllpplyDf~olllln. llllu1l...
CHOCS AWAY! Using the wonders of 3D. Sky1'arJtt lYWI.I.l " to incorporate two diffHmt penpectIvn on the action,activ.J.tedthoughC\llUlini\Uofofthe Z button. Both of the vitwS on offer are chaJe.style perspectives, one quite close to the tail of your 'plant and the other further off, gtving . more panoramic view of the sunoundings. When It
actually comes to playing the game though, the standu d tail view is the better of the two.
you've probably deduced f rom Ihescreen shots, SkyTafget Is an Into-l he-SCfeen shool 'em upfocusslng more on arcade like t hrills t hanlhemonotonyof fl ight Slms. Your mission is to fly int o enemy airspace In your staleofthtart alrcfilft and oole and dtstroy a stolen prototype fighter. How~ that sounds a hundred more cornplexthan it iKluallyis, as tsstntially Ihe idta is to slmptyblowl!Ytrythingoutofthtskyl The flC'ar cornpiete Satum version appears to be doing a fiflC'jobofrtUeating t htcoin-oporlglnal. ImprovingontheAfterbumtrformula~at, a choice
offourfigtTter planeshavebeenincludf:dlnSkyTarge'l. each of which diffl!r in lermsof manotUVT3bility. The F-14 Tomcat made fa mous in t he Top Ciun movie Is In there, as Is t heF-' 5< t htF-16 stu nt fighter plilf\tilndtheFrench
Regarded by many as the Afterburner for the Nineties, Sky Target bears more than a passing resemblance to the claSSIC blaster of old.
lot
SEGASATURMMAGAZINE
strategicmlsslonflghtertheRafale M.Eachcarryasignlfi. (ant amount of ammo inc.luding Balkan bombs, a Vulcan cannoo and homing missiles wtlich are unloaded using thekxk-onsighttolilrgetenemiesbeforeblastingthem out of the sky. Most of the time)'Ol.l flnd )'OI.Irself dog fighting with huge SWilrmsof enemyflghters but there's a!soanunhealthyamollntofbombers,surface--tO-illrmissilesandgroundas~ultveh~tocontendwith.
All of the levels nowappeartobe present in the gilme with multiple routes being the ordef ofthe day adding tothe IongevityofSkyTarget, sornething desperately lacking from Afterburner.
AWESOME BOSSES
Whether you'reflyingth rough theg~ n
ery·festoftheJunglesetting,thedimlylit city scape, the rocky canyons Of the snow cappedmoontalns.they'recertalnlyvaried and graphically pl"etty good too. There's alsoilratheroddlevelwtlichhils)'OIJrplane nosedivingnbreilk·neckspeedstOWilrdsthc eilrth shooting all rNnner ofStealth bombers ilod the likeillongtheW¥'j. Wheflyou·yereilchedtheendofeoKh level and fended off the hoJdes offighter planes, a huge bosschar.lcterthenawaits)'Ol.l.Theseilregigantic,heiIVI. Iy armoured flying fortresses which preo.oent your progres· slonthrough to later levels unless defeated in the tight time limit. Not an easy task at all. As Is the Cilse with all ool n·op conversions some
the arcade sospectilwlilr hasoblliously been difficult to replicate on the Saturn with thetr.lnsparenteffectsloolcingslightlyropey. Itmudalsobe~idthatsomeofthein·game musicisa~mal, wtlethefitbethe strangewafblings
of a frustr.lted opera singef or the even str.lnger demented Ofgan playing, it really Is quite bild.On a brighter notethough, a Saturn specific fankingmode featufe has been added to SkyTarget giving it a whole newscofeattackelement.CoolI Judging by the quality of the competition, it would seem SkyTargetshould doquitewell upon its release around July time. That means th.Jt all things going well we should have the dcfinitive fev;ewof5kyTargetjust in time forthevef)' nelCI issueofSSM. 8c sure not to miss it.
Haring played SkyTarget most of the way through we can t ell you that it feature. .ome awesome Panzer Dragoon·style bossel Uuoughout. AI the camera panl uound you get a good Idea of how puny your craft loo.. in comparison, with It being a dot on the JCIeen next to the gigantic proportions of the boss. The vadety of them Is most impressive too, ranging from the huge alrship fortress on the first l~l, to stealth bombers later on and even Itray nuclear m.Jssile,'
SEGASATURNWAGAlINE15
IRELOADED Further showing us their commitment towards Saturn gamers, Gremlin are readying the sequel to their immensely popular gore·fest that isloaded. The somewhat wittily entitled Reloaded.
,
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~ 1n. CGnsumer, IQ callld beeau" of her f,U.~ for nn ll. Go- Ir!
TlMgood allterlnleuhnhlrlftllllllllagn. UII1 WUjlGR.
Tlleultn-wioll lllspeelaltrUpO.,hlnlllad,lttotheMquel.
SHED ALITTLE TIER The delign of the leveb in Reloaded b JUperio, to that of the original, at a tier J)'Jt:em hu been added enabling the action 10 take place on sn· eml different leveb. This b undoubtedly at a 'elutt of the criticbm Gremlin receiftd over the flat ~·un envil'onment of Loaded. Rathtf
(,
Sister Maul. the ps)'chotlc Run I. one fA In new characltn.
So what's new? Well it's clear from playing ponitsrelease, lo4ldedcilused il bitof a sensalion with its mightily Impressive Reloaded that the prosrammers have taken on board the Brilphlcs il ndultril·vlolenlno-nonsense criticisms of the original and madea serious stab at rec· tifyins t hem. Whereby before all the action took place gam eplay. SO It wu only a m.tter of time before a seque l eme rged on one level,forthe sequel all manneroframps and elevated sections have been added look· promising more gore and mOfe Indepth gilmeplay than the first. :~~.I~ ins quite impress1ve. UkewiseC;remlin have made an attempt to address the Il'petitive EolerReloaded. gameplay byaddinga puzzle element to the The original Loaded was set in game. Previously the idea was merely to in a maximum security prison where a group of six homicidal maniacs blast everything and find the exit keys, whe reas Reloaded varies byrequirlns play· were attempllngto break out. Presuma bly they made it,ufor the ers to find diffell'rlt objects on every level. C;raphicallythe game has also under· sequel four of the original cast memgoneabitofanoverhaul.featu ring bers and two new addilions are gun· improved light-sourcing and far moll' variety ningfor revenge against the guy that in the levels instead of the single theme set them up. CHUB. Set some time in thefuture,Reloadedfeatures t wo reservingJudgmerlt on this one new characters 1nthe form of 51st er forlhetime beins, as it really is too early Magpie, a psychotic nun on the run to comment on how ifs likely to turn out from Ihe ver· and the Consumer, who has an unhealthyappetitefor sionwe have re<:eived. You'll just have to wait until next humanflesh,ln similarfashlontothe prequel the idea month when we'll have all Ihe latest. isto battle through the levels killing hordes of people who gel in your way.
U
Poor old MI IIIIII' . HI, o. rycrlllllwutllltlle nmrl/"tw up lik' other kid. did. lilt tllqllt'IUNnl Petu Pan lojlll did Ihty?
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38 SEGAUTUIIKMAIlAZINE
£5
US ING OUR UN IQUE SYSTEM IT IS POSSIBLE TO PLAY UPTO TEN DIFFE RENT GAMES FO R T HE P RICE OF ONE BOUGHT OH T HE HI GH STREET!! !!
PRICE INC LUDES: 24 hr DESPAT CH ON STOC K ITEMS
O8IJ1-l18-400.'HHINFORMATION LINE" INDEX 0Itl·31H01 .. _.PLAYSTATION CHEATS I CODES I HELP 0891-311-402 ___ ULTIMATE MORTAL KOMSAT I SATURN oett-31J.403 •.__ ADVENTURE GAMES FULL SOLIJIlONS 1 1ft1.-31I-IIH _ MEGADRIVE CHEATS I GOLDEN OLDIES
=:::=~;I~~~~~~~~~~~H~~~8ER fOR '''''''OF'''''''' I
l
r -- - - - ,
~~~s6,~;t~~R~~~iKING
£5
PLAYSTATlON (\f)~9Eil(\f)Eillrr ~~~\~~~ P.O. BOX l~ CRWENARMS,SHROPSHIRF.,m ' \I'll SATURN MEGA~tART, operale a slmple prl« banding system. Offer applies to w~
uSfdgames,,·ithinlhe SIUt.eprkeblnd.
" -31ND'7 -NEW RELEASE LINE, CHEATS, HELP .. TI PS
iiE~~[~ra~CH~EA~n~'NE
CHEATS, TIPS, HINTS tLOAOS Of GAMES HELPKEIEI "MEGAORIVE GAME HELP
.! 190 CHEATS ok TIPS THE WORKS
THIS NUMBER FOR 1000'S OF CHEATS
~~~~~~~~~)~~5~~~~~~TIPS"MOVES !" GAMES c-;;; :::;~-:.;;:,,; CC.;::.:.::C ~~~~[~~ps &: MOVES
TRADE iN YOUR OlD CONSOLES + CASH FOR A NEW ONE ! PLAYSTATION SEGA SATURN NINTENDO 64 SUPER NINTENDO GAMEBOY. MEGADRIVE SWAP GAMES FROM £7.00
inc postal.
CONSOLE EXCHANGE
You really are a gullible bunch aren't you? We deliberately missed out on the April Fool "hilarity" last month knowing that It would only upset you and cause us a lot of unnecessary phone calls. Not so (VG however, damn their eyes' We have noticed a severe rise In OUI leadeu' intellects ovel the last few months, Judging by youl letters though, so keep It out. Let's have some heated debate. passionate controveuy and what have you. Oh go on. Wute to: VIRTUA WRITER, SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, 37' 39 Millhalboul. Isle of Dogs. London E14 9TZ. Do it NOW! A POOL WRITIS... OUII55M I think your mas Is fab and keep up the Sood work. I haveachtatforTombRalderlhatwlllmakeyour~
.. ~
I AM wm.L l!XPIItIl!Ncm
out of this asSega are exchanging the two best games on the Saturn and in fact the two best game-s on any
OUI~5SM
lamwrltlngtoyoutoexpressmyopinlonsoncertaln
PAL system forcomparatlvtlystCOnd rate games. Please say ft ain'tsol
asped.sofyour masazine and of the Sega Saturn In general. I havt owntd a Sega Saturn for over,6 months
Gavi"B~sby, l..ndj
pop out of your head. I have a cheat to make lara run
now and havt a colltclion of about S6 samesso Ithlnk lamwellexperienced.
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/In N ~ k ed . lar~
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My first point is about the VF3 UPllrade. Vou constantly inform ptaple not to believt anythins about this uPllradeuntil VuSuzuki says so. What I would like to know is why haven't you Of other magazines mentioned the statement from Andy Met (Dirtclor of
RinldntI mtnll1't. This Is another (VG April Pool and you fell 10, it in lOIN! kind of sad, puanold, SIp-lib fuhion. Now ,0 · 01 JUHer my wrath. JOUIIImln-RlOf
r-------- --- -------1"------------1 f BOOK W1NNIR
i IMPORTAJIT
: MATTlRS... : WHICH NUD TO : BI UlSIDI : O£,uSSM : This isthe first time we have
!
:
: : : :
: : :
,
L_____
!
: ---T.J
Marketingandsales~SegaUK).tnanlntervltwcon.
ducttd
by the now defunct Mean Machines Sesa,
whtn asked about tht VF3 UPllradt ht stated that it will happen. Surely this is proof enough that there will be a Model 3 standard UPllradt cominS to the Saturn. Mr Met also went on to mention that the uPllfade will be packaged with VF3 and should cosI n.o less than f80 (hopefully). The main pointtamtryingto make is thattam rather surpristdthatnoothermilsazinehasmentiontdMr Met's comments about this uPllfade.
around levels in the NUOEI All you have todois this:
: ever written to iI computer magazine, but we felt
oncontrolleronepresstheBbuttoninabeat(lfound it easy to do to Wannabe's beat). Then on controller
: we must as we have some Important matters : whichneedtoberaised.Wehavefullybacked , Sega all of our IIvtS but about a month ago the
My next point concerns your maga zine's policy only to review official games (or that's the way it Sf:ems). The
: Saturn seemed to be slipping a little and with the , releaseoftheNintendo64,ourloyaltysllppeda little too. We discussed dumping Sega for the powerful machine. That Is until we managed to borrow a copy of Ch,lstmas NIGHTS and of
and it means you could review sames a lot earlier. At thetimeofwritingyou are the only magilZinethal I know of not to have reviewed Fighters MegaMix. Qne major concern t have is the future of the Salurn. In cast you haven't notictd Sony have dropped the prke oftheTrainstationtofllg.ggwhiItSegahaven·tdone
two press left: and rlSht for about two minutes and some disco IIShts should appear. Then il will resello leveloneandshewillrunaroundlnthenudeforthe rest oflhe same. When you Set a wolf it will howl, the sorlllawillbeatltschestandtheT-Rexwilldropdead T~worstbltlsthatlilrsonlsnaktdaswell(ldidn't
questionlasklswhy~Thereisn't reallymuchdlfftrence
like th~ bit). Also could you tell me who to set in con· tact with for someone to hilve a look at my plans for a
course read the latest edition ofSSM. We were delighttd to see Ihe Saturn fighting back with
computer same. GeMn McCtvth, {Uar, ~frr1udQnd
titles like Resident Evil and Duke Nukem 3D. Anyway ~ were amilltd at Christmas NIGHTS. We own NIGHTS but this is somtlhlns else. The
SpacestationsarevastlyoutselllngSaturnsandlam SUrt this move will only serve to in<fease tilt sales gap. ThatcoupltdwithSony'snewbudgttprker;llngecould
presents are the best Idea ever and so was the
only spell troubltfotSega. Haveyou any Idea ifSqa ilre planning a simitar pricing str;ll\egy btcause unless thty bring out tilt upgrade soon tlltrt may bt no hope
pltJglDtisL UE} Bimtlll9hDm
•
Rippllt&offanothumaauin.'.tipsand
f<lctthatyouCilnchanget~samebyadjusting
pudnftlwnoffas}'O\U"~Jsnot.,ood.
the clock. We were onlydlsappolnttd with the
ldu. ...)ltwuanApril·ool,UJOJOUanth. fool and b} the puticular mqulne JOU blatantly ripped off Is proctu.c:H RCI more than fin yudJ: .way from my cln.k. AruI if}'O\U"idta 101" «Imputer pme Is "orlcbW .. your Up, rd fors" !t. W
A WO:RJlDD POOL WRITIS_ Ou.ISSM FirstofallmaylconSr.ltulateyouonmaklngSlKhabril. lIantmilgazlneandforyourunbellevablybrllliantdemo disks. t can't wait for Sega Flash 4. Anyway, tothe point. While sklmmlns through a copy ofCVC I came upon a rather su rprising same cillltd "Ulti mate fighting Universe" which Is iI combination of VirtUil flshter l,Flghtlng Vipers, Tekken land SOul Ed~lIlmaglne my horror upon seeing this as the MAl beat 'em ups art the main rtaSOll we can Sive Sony a swift. two fingers. SUrt Teklten 1 and Soul Ed~ art good game-s, but l>M2.'s crtatlons plss all over theml I think th~ we Saturn owners art getllns a bum deal
anything. It is alrtadycommon knowltdgethat
fact that we did not know how good it reilllywu. SureSSMsavtitgoodeovtrasebtJtSesa'sadvtrtisingcampaign is virtually n.on·existent. We
forSega. Thank you for letting megttSOlTltthlngsoffmychtst, I look forward to your rtply. Sttphtn (ii/Jbon, CumbriQ.
~reilstonishedtoseethemOYleslnthepre
sents. Sega could have used those as they would havtmadegreatadvertsl One last thins, Sonic Into Dreams on Christmas NiGHTS is great. We ftel that Sesacould uselhal ::
~~:~:~:f:lI~ C:~;I~U:e;!::~g these high
i
quality titles and are sorry we ever doubted Sega. :
Phll Read Qnd AdQm Caltman, Unn
!:
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And then there', un"!n,lOftwu. comln, : out eltheJ exclu'M to s.twn OJ first by many : months Nth as_ vp), Mantel SuptJ HuHt,
:
L~:~~~~'_~~~'_~~:~~_______ J
~ To use your badly plagiaris.edand unam\a-
~ inBwttticism,tht'"Trainltation"hu
dropped in prlC1! as has the Saturn to an aU time low priee of £16g.99 with any two out of Vlrtua fishter 2, SepllaUyaZl4WorldWide5occft.LEI Abo, whm you considn that you set • SCART lead and internal memory with. the Saturn {alons with two of the bestpmH ever)youfind. tbtthe Sega
madWle often flU' JUperiorvalue for money. You've pt to be a lunaticnotto own. Saturnl N to your otheramunents... well here_lo. We don't review import games because we'!t offId.al. We ZMew the pmK you're lloing to play. So what lfPighten MepMixhua Tekken-ttyle PAL tranJIation, reduc· lnJit to . shadow ofitsHTSC Mill You would want to krww. Abo, it would pmt.aJM be goading our readers {most of which own offldal rnach1neJ) to tell them tosoout and buy. game they can'town formonths.AndalJointhl!caaeaf~thI!UX
ver.Ion benefit. from enhanC'emmts none of you wouldburw about if we hadrninncl. the game when we had it inJanuary. So there you go. By the way,And:y Mee wuteWnsMMSofhlsviJionfot VP3 - chancesut itwWcometopass,butallthe RltDworkil:bdnsdonebyAM2IOWlUlwehear from them, you can't take anythJns for panted. But muk my words, it will be lnatd(bltl R101
OVIR·RArID A LOT OP GAMIS Du..SSM 10 my opinion Ithinkyou have overrated a lot ofgall"leS for the Saturn. X-Meo is one of the games which has
TORMBNTS OPIXHUMIID DU,RSAruRNMAG, In issue #17YOU had an Exhumed Players Guide so hav· ins completed the same I decided to So for the dolls. So two weeks and eiSht hours later I had all 23 and sot the bodyofRamses ·lwas thinkinssreatlflisht mode /death tank so doing what you said I overwrote my go only to find there was nofl iSht mode or death tank. I am very ansry aOOut this because now I have no savedga~. Whatdid l dowronsINothins!Please
explain or write back or something. SNnBurlfe, Oortford
., =!e~!:~=:~~=:::'I
with no problems (and It mows what an awnome vemon of Descent Lobotomy «Iuld. program U they wanted. to). I've done it and it wolks. ApoIoaiH are due &om both WI and Lobotomy for goading you with DeathTanlt. As we aaid.in the featun It works on the Japanese and US venions, butit'. not in the UK game beause: Lobotomy le1eased that version fInt (and DeathTank wasn't finished. then). Sega, Lobotomy and SSM ue tIyin8 to IOrt out a way of getting the game to you... Stay tuned.. Oh by the way, I imow I have championed Exhumed H\OUp, but you MUST own uu. game. I have newt" felt such ....tisfaction from a pme as I did after getting thO$l! la.st three team dolh (the la.st one in puti(l1lar lJ ex«ptionally toush). Rio{
,
BRIEFLY••• What are Sega doinSI Why don't they back the Saturn the way Sony and Nintendo back th elr machineslSonyhavebackedtheirmachineto the hitt constantly lowering the price of t heir consol e and a budsetranseofsa mes.W hat have Sega don el Nothing.l t hin k it'sa bout t ime theystartedtodosomething. SECA Curtis,
~e(ldlng
PlayStations havesone down to f ug whic h is bound to be a big blow to Sega but it could get even worse ... although I haven'tseenany sames on it t hat have given the machine a boost. Hopefully VF3 wlll do this for Sega just like Sonic did for Mesad rive ... Lloyd B(ldH(lndWriting, Bristol
I'd like to know ifSega are going to drop the price of the Saturn and itssames li ke Sony have for the PlayStation ... Terry Murphy, Sydtmhom
Wow what a month. The N64 is la unched and Sonyannoncethe PS will be f130from March 24. Hopefully the Saturn will unde rgo a price cut to keep it incompeUtion . some decent advertisingpleasel Cheers·earsl
beenOllerrilted.Whenlplayedthega~itcertainlydid
n't live up to the 92%, it d~rved about 60%. Tomb Raiderwasanothergameoverrated,thegameistoo slowfromstarttofinish.OutofallthegamesSakuBaku AI1imal Is also ridiculous. lwouldn'tpaylspfor it let aioneilSIDaytonaCCEwasoverratedbyatleastlo%.
Dr~obotnlk
:::: ~:~: :~:V:t:::se:::~na~~e
ComparedtoSesaRallyit'sabsolutelyshitl You have underrated Die Hard Arcade by almost 20%.1 own the game and find it excellent. the same is wkked. it's one of t he best. I WOIJld havesiven it 100% notBo% Can't someone with so~common sense Sive the same ratings from now onl Km n Esworth~ Colchester
. . . Khhmmm. By and large, jWIt abouteVl!l}'One else apeed with OUIratinp.1O USU111i.na: that most people have common sense it would appear that it is in fad you who are Adly benft of it. By your geniWl-level arithmetic, Die Rant Ascade should have been awanted ual1no$t" 100"- Now take a reality pill and begone - you have ansered me beyond. measure! RlOI
and Chun U's and Cammy's etc etc. That's why we boushta Saturn. We compared all boobies on both Sesa Saturn and PlayStation and found the Saturn had more and better·looking ones. We we re ple as· antly surp rised,and that's an undershtement, to see a Candy centrefold in your February issue. How aboutaVirtuaboobieposterlneverymasfrom nowonl In fact, skipthe reviews and stuff in lots of boo biesinstead. ~VM, DAV~, Ki ng Of to the Third, Net her/on dJ .
. , ::
:~t~Ot~::'~lgB~~~~!~~:g~!:! you
letter I've managed to Include four mOte tU , thilllluelRlCH
.. thlsluue. Whal lscleulsthaISegahaveperh aps let Sony talte the Initiative in this muket loo many tlmeJ and alwa~ Jeem to play calth-up. Salum£399, PlayStationh99· PlayStation £199, Satum £199. Now the issue appean to h ave been fudged further - Sony'. £129 machine Is selling really well, delplte Sega offering what Is clearly a superior quality package. The Saturn doesn't need a memory cartridge like the PlayStation does (that', £10 saved already) plus you get £95 worth of In credible quallty . oftware- being able to choose two oul of VF2, Rally and WorldWide Soccer Is a frankly incredible offer when bun· died with the Satum for £170. Sega need 10 malth the £119 bue level mathlne and really n eed to start telling pI!Ople Ithu thebe. t gam n. I've expressed ama,ement at how cool the upcomlng software , ltuatlon Is fOI the Saturn come Christmas time ... what is there for PlayStaUon and indeed Nlntendo 641 Sony'l greate. t games, Final Fantu y VU and Tekken 3 aren 't likely to make It until 199B! And what about Quake and Dukd Again these a ren 't going to bI! until 1998 (probably) and even then we haven't a due about thell quali· ty whereas we Saturn owners have a ctually seen these games and know they will be incredible. And t hat', without the exclusive Sega arc ade «Inve rsions (Touring Ca r, VF3). Saturn hu a huge cue against Sony,ltleally doel. Sega jufl n eed to find enough money and the right way 10 expuss It... R.lCH
,, ,, ,, ,, , , ,
______________________________ .J
David Hurst, Chester. Richard Jonson, Liverpool. Craig Jones, Blackpool. David Smith, Leeds. Four letters from the same person ... but with different names (obviously losing originality by the time he got to "David Smith"). As if I wouldn't notice, the crazy fool! That's the highpoint of an otherwise dull N . Write some interesting letters, please. No, PLEASE! I'm dying here! Write to: I REALLY HAVE AN INTERESTING QUESTION N, SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, 37'39 Millharbour, London E14 9TZ. Be interesting or be binned! TIOUBUIIG OUESTlONS Please ~nswer my t roubling questions 1. can you plea se gil'l' me IDme Saturn specs? 2.1'1 the Model 3 upgrade really possible as a Model 3 board
1. You said your ReSident Evi l shots Weft World Exclusives
be awesome. 2.11's I1keSoul拢d.ge withQuW graphics.
How come when Iwas in Berlin t he followm8w~k I saw a two page showcase packed with Saturn shots in .. German magi
And by allatcOWlts It'. nevergolng to come out. lAnswer: not much. SWWS btar, farsupuior. 4- Exhumed z~hapsl5- There'sCore'sFight!na Foroe, o:oming
2. With Quakl' and Duke running on the same engine which
in Autumn.
an handle7so,ooo-1 million polygons?
doyouthmkwillcomeouttop?
3. Whydon'\ programmers even toy todot ransparenciesl
l Most of us Saturn owners had losell our MegadrlVl's not
4路 Wh ich AM department is doing House oflhe Dead and is it coming to Saturn? S. Will Micro Machines V3 come to Saturn? 6. Anychanceof AMis Virtua Striker l coming to Saturn? 7 What about AMj's Sega Ra11y1997? OImetrelltmajan, Somewhere
because we wante<i to but b/!(ause we had to_ Don't you feel there's any scope for compilatIOn di5<:s? 4. Still no news on Heart of Darkness? S. With the release of the N64 and the PlayStation's newprice tag isn't it time Sega cracked on with the 3D accelera tor chip and show them what a real console can dol JonathanWilllams,Stockport_
..
~f:=:::c:!:a!::n~:=:r~~::
~will tell).
Hmmm. Try Pandemonlwnor Exh\lltled..
they have transparmdes. Unfortunately, it's euler to do the old mMhworl< thIng.4- AMl M~ done It and It's pos. sible it will hopefully appeu sometime In 1998. ~ YM, within the neJ<t few months hopefully. 6. No. 7. No bo!c:J.w,e youelther misheard or made It up.
un,._
~ ~~!::n::=!~;:;::::::::2. I've always been a Qualee man myself, but with Duke's multlplayer options and Lobotomy's all-round brilllanCf' Iwon't mw a decision WlW I've seen both gamM finIshed. But both WILL be awesome_ ). 11 tould ~ll MP. ~n. 4- It's a ppuenUy$tlll1n development! s. Ultimately it's gamM that count and Sega's line-up Is uguably the
MOIITOI AC110II The monitor I use for myArchimedes A3000 is an Acorn ReS monitor with a SCART socket on the back. I waS\o\o'Ollde.-ing. could you safely connect mySaturn to my monitor safely? Thiswool<! mean I wool<! nolonger have to usean RF unit. I am reluctant totry in case it damages the Saturn or the monitor CharleyColeman, Middlesex
..G HmmmlreeillphigglngmyoldMegildrivelnto :gjjP a monitor exactly lI):e yours. There Is no problem at all - MSoentWly SCARf is SCARf. It's a standard.. There's no pombillty gf hum to either your madUne or your Satum. phlg Inwith c:onfidenc:ll!)'OWI8 and the benefits that only afull-on RGBsignal prcwid"1
So
man enjoy
n wool<! be sorted if you could answer my questions. Why is Sega licenSIng out their arcade conversions? Is to sllowotherthird party developers what can bedonewlth
1.
2_ A lot of my fr;ends own Saturns and we are wondering aboutthelink-upcable.Anyklea when it isout1
3-How many Saturns can be linked upusingthecable? 4_Aswe'reonthesubject,whatgamesarecurrenllybeing developedtosupportlhecablc? S. When will wc see screenshots of Sega Touring Carl 6. tftheSaturn upgradeCilrtdoescomesaboul.willthird parties also use it? 7. I see-Naughty Nick-Patersonhasj04nedtheteamfrom MM5. Will Angus SWiln bedoing the same? We ll Ihat's it. Thanks for)'OOr time and Ihe mag is looking brilliant (as usual). Dan Abnrms, Great '(eldham, Esso
mongest of the lot. New hudw.ue is a long way off $tlIl.
Still, gameplay-wiH the gamM are a lot different. VF)1s an exen:lse In prKision garnin8 - Megamix Is a lot looser, a lot more of a ~fun" garne. AMl would not have released MeglLMix If it was going to affect VF)sa1es.VF3Ismorell):elytosuper~VF2.
WIOI TIf IlOOOI 10115 IT? ~ight.
No pansying aboul,l want ansWl"rsand Iwant them
damnquick(ooh,getyou-~ich).
2 What's this NTSC switch you mentionl Does it really speed up PAL games/
lEversinceissue#13Ihavebeenwaltrngontenterhook~to ~ L Manx11went to Psygnosls fordevdopll\H\t (who mntracted it out to hrfect who In turn used Tantalusl) ~use they're dotnathe PC version too and Sep" teams WHe bu5y.,. When there Is sufficient toftware to support It. You can get It now from importen but why bother?). lust the two. 4- Doom \I.RII it. Hexen apparenUy does too. Duke Nul<em Is slated to use it too. S. Soon. 6. Surety you've heard the Tomb Raider z nunoun? ApparenUy>,". 7. No.
IIOTntllISUIIClAPllatUlllOIIT
hearnewsabouttheallegedlygreat-looI<ingGrandla.Well. WHERE THE BlOODY NORA IS IT? ~. What kInd of game is Into The Shi>dows and when Cilnwe cxpcct to sec itl 3-AreyouexpectinggreatthlngsfromFIFA'97or~houldlget
WorldWide Soccer? 4.lworshipLobotomyWhalhavetheygotplannedaf\er Duke Nukem and Quake?
40 SEGASAruaNMAGAZINE
:::~o~~~:t=I:::ot::t
SlwasdisapporntedwlthOieH~rdA<Cilde.Anychanceofany
othergameslikethis(sidescrolhngfightlnggames) COrl1lngout?
3.ls Formula One/Destruction Derby 2/WipeOut 2097 comrngtoSalurnl
AIf.S. LlIshouldbeouttowardstheendoflheyfluln , . , lapan,a couplegfmonths later here. Ifs going to
>'" to all three. And nowe haven't seen them yet?
Pleaseprintmylr;vialquestionsa~ t heyarefarmore intere~ting t han the usual crap you churn out in your supe rbmag
..
NT5C system. The up~n: poor PAL convenlons bec:ometull路screen,full路speedwithafllcltofa switch. ~bye borden. The downen: any warranty you N~ bec:omH Invalid- and you need a SCARf TV that can handle a 60Hz signal, ItF doesn't cui it. SegaadviseagaJnstswitches.
.. ::~::~~;m:OI!:;:So
J wish to subscribe to Sega Saturn and I enclose a cheque I postal order, International money order or by Mastercard I Visa payment and made payable to EMAP Images Ltd for £
Mastercard/Visano:
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UK 12 months £33 Air Europe £46 Airmail Zones ll!u £73 Source Code: IhB
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Full money back guarantee of unmailed issues if you are not satisfied.
D
he thollsands ofhuman-occupltcl worldl of the Inner Sphere wert onc. bound together in a glorious, prosperou, Star ~agut. With the fall of the League, a Dark Agl! descended, I. each of the five surviving . tar emplru waned for dom inion. 'or almost three centurlu, the HOII.e Lords fought among them.elves in the conflict known I. the Succenlon Wan. Opposing sides devast ated world after world with armies of BattleMec:h.: gigantic, humanoid battle machine. bd.tling with enough firepowtr to leve l . city. H\llt enough to crush anythins in their path, thelt walkln, tanks ruled the battlefields of the 31st century-untO the Inner Sphere met the Clan juggernaut. With their superior wu machines, thes!! warrior descendants of the lo ng-vanllfted 5tu Le ague
48 SEGASATURNIitAG.lZINE
Sphere. By forsln,_ precarious union, the five5ucculorStatu m a naged to defeat the Clans. Now, In the yen :1058 , they have rebuilt their armies with ~ap足 tured Clan te~hnololY and stand ready to fight If the Clans renew their invasion. But old rivalries dJe hud, and new ~on足 fllds Uueaten to revive the age-old stru88le betwHn the Houlel of the Inner Sphelt.~ MICHWAJ.RIOR liS RIVIIWID ON PAGI 61 .
t~f'1WIPiltO •• dlt~f'1WIp tlte IIIl)11lter-Pf.ctd form!
54 SEGASATURNlIOOJ.ZiNE
THE PLOT TN'ClUS••• nl....rI 101 IoolIqIOOll fGrlkShllll.,poJM.Tht 'Gr'l:Q of n11"ft POutUN t ... klllAw .. ltllllllroa "ft",uJlolforllodllll ••• sicHI. ArlIHrlIIIOIIrI
Iy."""·
Irll? ll t..... rI .. tlrlofll""lbtlpclWlr IMIi; 1~lso .. ewlllrll."H? CIIIH ofI'tfInJ I~foMII.lkI.lhltIJI
rlIIOrlpllc.l nd trlllqullilJ 10 tile Il~d?
1ยงiI:JI'AIINI
I
FIGHTERS MEGAM IX
Six months after the Japanese release, European Saturn owners finally get to appreciate the latest and some might say greatest 3D fighting game. Yes, Fighters MegaMix is finally here.
ThecenlrepieceofFightersMegaMixhasto be the Virtua FighterS,A$regularreadersofSSM know, these characters have the vast majority of j
techniques from arcade Virtua Fighter3,giving
plentyoflimeto praclisethe moves for the forthcomingSaturrlconversionorindeedlhe arc"deoriginal. AMlhavedeliberalelyleft
out some tedmiques to keepVF3fresh though, andm0'5toftheothershavedifferenteffectsin
MegaMix. So yes, wh ile most oflhe moves ,ifI' there the facl is that MegaMix plays nothing likeVF3-
c:===J= r~
.
~,.
...
.~,~~ ,:...:
..
H<lgeti Un,hl. SGukohou: Slun Palm or Doom! 60 SEOASATURNMAGAZIHE
- -(l1 _ t ~' '- ~,~ โ ข " El .'$' ~ , ~,--, Kase unleUbu a Oragon Punth on San mu!
PAL CONVERSION: THE FACTS
Fighters MegaMix combines Vipers and VF to awesome effect! Atitle with huge amounts of depth and super-playability awaits! So what does itplaylikee~actly? It's certainly a completely different experience to any of l he Virtua Fighter series, despite the inclusion of Ihe characte rs. I would also add that Virtua Fight er 1 should be in yourCDcollectionalongsideMegaMi~beca usethe
two games play so differently. Fighters MegaMix has far more in common with
FightingVipers.Theengine,althoughslighllyrefined, remains the same but the basic bare路bones of t he
amounts of similarity bet ween Vipers and
game play remains the same too. Vipers could almost be
a bad move
considered ajuniorvefsion ofVF in that moves are a lot
easier to produce, the pace is faster and the movement is a lot "Iooser~, allowing more complicated (ambos to be produced with less effort. It's fair to say tha t players of less skill will get a lot mo re out of t he VF characters in MeSaMi~ than they will in VFL or VF3 for that matter. The bottom line is that because of the huge
MegaM;~.
translation of Fighters MegaMix to turn up, you'd think that AM2 would have handed in a conversion that truly Is of virtu a Fighter 2 calibre. Oddly, VF2 still rules supreme as the best PAL translation ever (even though AM2 had less time to do it) as PAL MegaMix does have a slight degree of speed-loss and slightly bigger borders_ However, within minule5, we got used to the speed as it is and it really doesn't have that much of an impact at all. Compared to the slow motion Tellen translation of PlayStation, this translation is clearly light years ahead. What we will say Is that Sega :Europe have done wonders in extending the longevity of the game. I completed the Japanese version on my fint go, but newcomers will find the going a lot tougher in the PAL game. Similarly the ten sec路 ond round option has been removed - and rightly so_In the Japanese version you could just hit your foe and nm away for the rest of the round. Perhaps the b6t news about the PAL translation Is the elimination of the , lowdown that plagued the Japanese version no end. Although it very, very occasionally rears ils uglyhead,it'sfar su perior to what it was - and significantly better than Fighting Vipers. This added smoothness really adds to the profenionalism of the game. So all in all, there are many benefits to owning the PAL game - It's cool!
Ihelattergameleallydoesma~ebuyinstheformer Theothelquest;on_'~beenhealinSis.should l
buy Mega Mi. if I own VF21 Well, as mentioned earlier, t he Sames a re worlds apart in sraphics and execulion. I have to admitlhat despile t hinkinS MegaMixto be superiOI in my inilial few weel<s wit h the Same, I now prefer Virtua FiShier 2 due to ils moreconlrolled sysle mandsuperiorhi-resgraphics. Whatlastability Fighiers MeSaMix offers in lermsofcharacters,VF2 matches with superior depth of gameplay wilh the lesseramounl of r.ghte.s on offer. But MegaMi. really is awesome fun. The combination of myriad Saming styles byincludinS the Vipers and theVFe.s in one game really isa unique proposition Ihat simply MUST be e xperienced. These<ret char actersarereallycooltoo-JanetMarshall'smovesarea sub-set ofAoi's from vf3 (more good practisethenj and the inclusion of the Sonic Fighters is probably the only limeyou'lIe~rbe a bletoplaythesecha ractersonthe
Saturn (since the main game isn't likely 10 appear now) And despite my commen ts earlier about VF plOS bemoaning the loose controls, it actually allows fOI some truly incredible combinalions Add in the FightinS Vipersl Virtua Fighter rules option, the chance to pick one of 32 different badsrounds. and the vast amount of little secreh to dis(Overandwhatyouha~iswhatcanlrulybe
describedasaonce-in-a-lifetimevideogame, whichl beseech you to go forth and purch ase
Shun', VF3 teehnlqun mah him even more unpredlGtable. SEGlSATUANMMlAZINE 61
Iw l:111141i'l
KING OF FIGHTERS 95 Issue#6 01 SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE featured this game on the front cover. Now, in issue #20, we finally review it • yes, it's King of Fighters 95! But is it too little too late, or is KoF an everlasting classic? ISNK
I
I UBA ! BEAT
'EM
UP
n Jilpiln, the Klngof FIghters series Isone ofthl!mo5tfl!\ll!r~se'lesof\lidl!'08ilmH
ever created. I... 1994,KoFg4 KOOped
Famitsu T5 ushln'sprestflllol,ls Gilmeof the Vear award {FT Is thetop-seUing multlformilt mag In Jilpiln). In 1995, the sequel was runnef·up. Both times, SNK succenfully out·trumped ~ry other fighting game, 10 or iD. Now thilt's !.Omt iKhie\'e·
ment conslderin. tM likes of Vlrtua Rghter ilnd SI,«t FignterAlpha_reilroundiltthetlme... Thl!thingls.thl!~tl!'nworldilppearstoh;rve
a bit Ofil chip on it s shouldef ilbout SNk titles, which I!~plain s thl!irrl!t.ltivelylowpop·
ularity. The IfJ)th of the matte. is thatalthoughCap<omreinvent. ed the fighting same genre
with Slrel!t Fighter 2,it has bcenSNKthathavcbcenlhe real innovators. See those ~ce SupcrCombosinSHSNKdld it lilerallyyean urlier In their fatal fury and Art of fightingfr~n'hisM.
SU.rtl'tlfrtldla bllllitl_t\oIIalwi\.tMk-f!&Wm!
WhalKingofFlghlersdoes is bring together th e various SNK fighting game seriM in the guise of one killer game. Just about everything fromtheirothertitles(barSamurai Shodown) makMitway inloKoF ... ~ndlh ensomelKlngofFighte rsis far, f~rdeepcrthananyoftheStrut
IT'S THREE ON THREE! Perhaps the most noticuble cUfference between King of Fighter, and other beat 'em up. Is the Team Select system. The charader, In King of Fighters are split up Into team. of three, with fights being one round elimination contestl. In t he 9 4 edition (which n ever made It to Saturn), you couldn't customise your teams. In 9S (and Indeed 96) you can mix and match the multitude of charaden as
62 SEGASATUR NMAG.lZINE
Agame revered
by true fighting fanatics King of Fighters has never been taken seriously by the average gamer...
things are awesome, despile the ridiculotls comedy speech. The CD music remains some of the best available on Salurn. Ofcourse, King of Fighters' appeal rest s on its pl ayabllityand that's where the bone of contention lies. SNK fans swear blind that King of fiBhters is far superior to Street Fighter Alpha (and ih sequel) simply because the element of skill required is that much louBher路 ma king the rewards that much
sweeter. The majority of us are unlikely to reach that
CARTING ABOUT Klng of Plghte~s 95 is nigh-on arcade perfect, thanks to the supplied ROM cartridge, which doubles the amount of memory on-boilld the Saturn to a whopping four megabytesl This means tiny loading times and virtually no compromi$e from the illude original. It's probably down to the age of the game, but the good neW1i Is that despite no price being announc ed at this time, it's virtually certain that King of Plghte ~s 95 will retail at much the same price as other new games, despite the cart's inclusion.
pinnacle ofskil1, soo page players guides (which you can't get in the UK} or not
King of Fighters 95 didn't re<eive many de<ent
reviews on its import release, but the fact is that if you',egood enough,it remains one of the greatest fighting games of ~II-time. As to whether the import 96 versionisbetter,wellthi~i~onecasewherethesequel i~ actually a completely different g~me rather than ju~t an enhanced version of the previous year's game (ElectronicArtstakenote),and both are incredible. Ifit was a bit more user-friendly (like Strut Fighter is),KingofFighters would be a classic the world over, but regardless, it's great to see a game of such distinction available on Satum.
SEGASATUIINM AGAZINE 83
1" liJlt.IINI
PANDEMONIUM
I
Another second rate conversion of aPlayStation game on the Saturn? Is it chuff. Pandemonium isamongst the new breed of games showing just what the Saturn is capable of when competently programmed.
TRANSPARENT TRICKERY So the Saturn can't hillldle Uanspaztndes ehl Well, no. 11Iis is all set to change as
Pandemonium features some impressive trans¡ parency effects, curling smoke clouds and lran$plll'ent shields ate in abundance and with news
â&#x20AC;˘ ~
fthedelugeofplatformgamestoadornthe
~':::~al:~ ::;;:::s:;:~:,.::
tven the debut appear;mce of Sonk WilS goo<\ enough to attain iI score In the nineties. Wellthat'sallsettochilllgewiththeimminent release of Pandemonium, a conversion af the criticallyacdaimed PlayStation platform game. So impressed were Segi with the conversion wortc: being undertaken that they snappeduptherlghtstothegame from BMG to releilse it themselves over here. But we're not ones to fall fofallthathype, insteildpreferringtojudge eachgameonitsindi-
Therein Ihestorytint' is explained wit h the Iwo main characters.FargusandNikki,gettinglhemse lvesina Spol of bother. Whilsl cast ing spel ls, t hey accidenlally summon up a huge monster with destruction and mayhem ensuing. Naturally. the only way to stop Ihe monster is to finish Ihegame. You can play as eithe r of Ihe two characters, whose abilities differslighlly inlhat NikkicanJumpsome way higher than Farguswho inst ead employs a spinning attack with which 10 defeal smalle r enemies. Once selected I he game begins proper. The aim of Pandemonium is simple enough,pragress almostconstantlyto l he right of eachl ~ lalonglhe variousplatfofmsunlilyoureach
vidual strengths and weaknes5e!i. From the moment you load up Pandemonium you
Ihee~ it.There a rearoundtwentylellels awaiti n gyou
krlowyou'reinforatreatasthecoolFMVintrokidtsin.
with treasure littered along the way to <olIect. The
The graphics are the game's biggest selling point. The visuals are 3D with abright colour pallete and look most spectacular indeed.
64SEGASATURNMAGAlIHE
in glorious
DYNAMIC CAMERA One of the most impressive things you'll notic e whilst playing Pandemonium Is the way the floa ting came ra automatically zooms about , giving you the best possible panoramic view of the action. This is done in such a way as to give players just enough field of vision ahead to allow them to see and react to any approaching e nemies, but not too much as to take away th e element of surprbe. Cor, aren 't those Cl)'stal Dynamics folks clever7
a mount youretri~isshownas a percentagesooreat theendofea(hl~lwiththeaimbeingtocollectall
loo%of t hetreaSl,lre.lfonlyrtthatwerethatusy though,asallmannerofbi zarrepolygoncreatures inhabit each of t he levels and attempt to thwart your
progressionasbesttheycan,tikeallgoodplatformers these are dest royed by bouncing on thelr heads or if playing as Fargus by using his Sonic-style spin-dash attack_In addition_ power-ups are collected which allow eith er of t he two characters to fire beams which have I he effect of shrinking or freezing enemies making progressftlnlhrough Ihe level atad simpler, Every so often you'lIcomeacrossahugebosscharacterlodefeal before progressing ont o Ihe later levels, SUdl as the Shrooml.ordwhom,ifgiven t heopportunityfires, smaller mushroom projectiles at you. Admlttedlythis hardlysound s original,but then you'll fi nd very little that is in Pandemonium. However, what Pandemonium doesdowell,istakeall t heciassicelementsofth e billions of platformers before it and combineslhem 10
The graphics however, are possibly the game's biggest selling poinl. The visuals are in gloriOUS 3D with a bright colour pallete and look most spectacular indeed. However, this proves somewhat misleading as Pandemonium is essentially a lO platform game with the player only being able to move the character left or right through each level. Unfortunately, this linear style gives you a distinct lack of freedom when playing despite the multiple routes but thisisoneof Pandemonium's few shortcomings. Each of the levels is magnificently designed and incredibly varied featuring some ofthe most spectacu larcamera angles courtesy of the "floating camera". Polygon glitching is also barely noticable. The bottoml i neisthatPandemoniumisan e ~ce ll entcon
version ofthe PlayStation original that easily surpassed our previous e~pectations. The graphics are e~cellent,thegameplayisfastandvariedandproves
tobeamost enjoyablepackage.
..ovusuch u hl. tralkl ..arturtfrbeelaltlck andJuler- hladlllmagic • • nd. SEGASATUANMAG.I.lINE65
IMR BONES If you've read this issue in any kind of order, you'll no doubt have read the Pandemonium review by now and have seen that it pretty muchhasthe platform genre sewn up. Enter Mr Bones as alate contender for the crown.
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S<orcher. Llke Segasoft'sMrBonesth ey~re
PRE-RENDERED GRAPHICS Much of the graphics in Mr Bones are pIe-Iendeled which are blended in with the sprites in the foreground to make some of the lenls appear quitl!' stunning. The huge skeletal remains of the dinO$aur guazd.ian in the chy mote levelat'e particulazlylmpr~M.
68 SEGASATU RM MAGAlIME
ilnnounced forthe Saturn right at t he ve ry beginning and all three looked mightily Impress lvt , But that was the n and this is now. Inevitably as programmers
become more famili ar with the Saturn, new doors are open ed which allows forblggtr il:n d better games
making t he older on es look a til d dated. Btrtwe're pre· paredtogivt!'Mr 8on~a fa l r cril ck ofthe wh l p ilnd
cilstilslde illlpreconcelvednoUonsand missulded as persions w e may have previously been hilrbourins. It certainly appears as if a lotofeffort went Into makins Mr Bones, God knows they had enoush time. Each and every one of the twenty something levels are different from the last , combining totally different
styles of gameplay into one massive game. I say massive because it comes on two COs, due in no small part tothehuseamountofFMVsequencesthathavebten packed int o it. Yep,thoseCfa~yAmericansreallylove their story telling FMV sequences. The game begins with the frankly appalling graveyard chase level which is off-putting to say the least and doesn't bode well for t he rest of the game. Playing as Mr Bones, you are chased through a ha~a rdous graveyard by a bunch of marauding skeletons leaping over grave stones and avoiding dit ches. After that the levels get more and more bizarre as you stagger through them attempting to keep your limbs togethe r. You see,beinsa skeleton your body is vulne rable to enemy attack w hich sh eds various parts of your skeletal anat omy. Luckily Mr Bones can reform himself back to his original state to allow you to continue through the game. As I've already mentioned,each of the twentysomething levels are completely different from the last and some are genuinely original. Whether it·s belting
11:lj!Jlj~" .1
BONE JOVI One of the more bizarre level$ of Mr Bones requUelI ow platform hero to blast out some nifty rock ' n' roll riffs lntime to the background rhythm guitar through a series of Joypad button presses. If the vast and hostile audience of skeletons like what they h ear, thell: eyes will glow blue and they wave thell: lighters In the air. Once you 've won them over, it's on to the next level. Cool dudel
out guitar riffs toan audience of skeletons, or swimmingttlfoughtheTombRaider·esqueunderground caverns, smashing through pane glass windows or eventellingjokes bymakingrandom button presses. ~WhydidthecowcrosstheroadlTogettotheudder
sldel" And so forth . You get the general idea of the kind of sad American sitcom sense of humour we're talking about here. With the exceptionofthejokes though,originality and variety Is one thing Mr Bones isn't shortof,the problem being however that each of the levels plays like a bonus level from a platform game rather than the game itself. The differing game ronceptsjust don't fit together properly even with t he massi ve FMV sequences which attempt to hold the thing together. Sure the same idea of having different ga meplay styles in one game worked with Die Hard Trilogy, but to my mind that isthe only such example. Mr Bones comes across as a bit of a mismatch. Half the time you're not aware ofwhat Is required tosuccessfullyrompletetheieveluntil it's too late, which is frustrating to say the least. Graphically, it's pretty hit and miss with Mr Bones. There's no de nying thal some of the pre-renderedlevelslookquitestunningwiththeoverlald sprites blendingquitewell,Justcheck out the huge dinosaur creature guarding thedrymote and you'll see whatlmean.otherlevelshowever,suchasthe very first graveyard level are extremely poor lookingdistinctly16-bitintheirappearance. The most obvious downsideto Mr Bones however, is that it was made with an American audience in
mind. That means the standard soft-rock guihr sound· trac k,cheesy FMVsequences, te rrible voice overs by struggling actors and a sense of humour that makes Cannon and Ball look like comic geniuses. The bottom line is that MrBones isanotherclassic example of loo little, too late. Who knows, a ~ar or two ago Ihis may have gone done quite we ll. There's certainly a lot of variety in there and Icanevensee younger children enjoying this. if the idea ofa de<om· poseil skeleton game doesn't appear too macabre for parents. But essentially we demand so much more from our games these days than a series of short bonus gam e·like levels strung together by endless amounts of cheesy FMV sequences. Hopefully Segasoft will put Ihis one behind th em and concentrate their efforts on bringing us some decent software. By the way, if you read the American import mags you're probably aware that they love this game over the re. But bear In mind these are the same people who gave Bla ringOragonsaveryhighmark,sotreattheirop in· ions with th e contempt they deserve.
LEE
TIle tJpit.lllly Innoylna Amllit.lln ... .. or'humour' rul'l its ully hlld In III r Bonll lntbe jobtlillnsllnl.
NUTTER
SEGASAI1IRHMAGAZIHE 87
I
MECHWARRIOR 2
From Pentium PC to Sega Saturn, the MechWarrior series successfully strides from system to system, But is Aclivision's armoured avenger really the titanium-plated tyrant it's made out to be?
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Impress those Silturn owners tlIpectlng il!nactlon -packed,clashofthetitans-
style shoot 'em up, Activislon'sI.testPCto-console offering more than makes up for Psygnosis' paltry effort. For those of you notfilmi liar with the fASAcreated fut uristitworld of BattteTech, MechWarrior 2 offers players t he opportunity to pilot
a towering mobile JlSSilUIt suit
TECHNOLOGICAL TERRORS 31St centuzy combat is explosive to say the least, as opposmgClaru face off against tach other, pOoting annoured. Batt1eMed\s. These lumber1ng madUnes represent the rutting edgt of military hardwaze and as such pack state-of-the-art firepower. There Ut a total of twelve accessible MedI's to choose from ranging horn the hit-andrun capabilities of the Flremoth to the slow, yet powerful WarhawL Selecting the right machine for the right minion is esuntial Success is imperative, the Clans will not tolerate failwel
~ nd t~ke
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ly~dornedforcu fro m opposlngCI~ns.
Sticking closely to t he RPG g~ me of t he s~me n~me, the MechW~rrlor se ries has evolvedfromihhumblebeginnlngs~s ~ turn-b~sed comb~t simu l~tion
- with em loyl ng mebl figures, mult lple·slded dice ~nd encyclopedia-length ru le books· to ~ highly pr~ised multlpl~yer PC g~me. With the S~tu rn version of the game, developer Digital Dom~in h~ve pl~yers
produced~su premelys~tisfyingstr~tel!Yshoot gu~r~ nteed to tu both your milit~ry mind Itchy trlgger finger. By producing a customised Saturn same, Activision have essentially taken the very best mi\\ion\ and Mec:hs from the orisinal PC version, ensurins that players face a realvarietyofcampaisns andopponenb in their quest to c1aim the galaxy. You see, in the explosive world of Mec:hWarrior 2. warrins Clans battle for supremacy by ensaging each other in violent, hiSh·tec:h
'em up
~ndyour
combat. However, the ground·based battlesofoldhavelongsincebeen superseded,with both sides now e mployingBattleMechs·essentiallywalking, multi-ton mec:hanoids piloted by bravt warriors.AftersignlnsonasapotentlalMech pilot, players may opt to fiSht for either the WotfClan or Jade Falcon Clan, two opposinS factions bent on each other\destruction.SelectingaClanr~uilfiplayersto
undertake one of two campaigns: Trial of Refusal (16 missions)ora further eight mini·missions·created exdusively for the Salurn game· which are only to be attempted by experienced pilots. Before plunging head· long into the smoke and destruction of battle though, warriors must first choose a Mec:h for their ne>ct mission
Digital Domainhave produced asupremely satisfying strategy shoot 'em up guaranteed to tax both your military mind and your itchy trigger finger,
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While each Mech ill ~rtainly a fonnidable foe, then mechanical marvels are still prone 10 malfunctions. Por combat pilots, keepinl their machines in optimum condition 15 paramount Sustained firing of any weapon will overheat the device causing It to shutdown momentarily. With primary weapons off line, wanion are often required to switch to seconduy syrtems whllethelrtruedestructivecapabllities recharge. WhIle recharging, Meclu are vulnerable to enemy attacks whJch can disable the machine's IyStemsfurther,resultinl in I lack of movement and their untimely destruction.
one player adventure. MechWarrior Zstands head and shoulders above its peers. An essential purchase.
from an initially limited s!:'lection, Completion of each campaign, and progression thfough the Clan's rank$,
jumpjetsenablingairborne assaultstobeundertaken. While the sheerwealthofoptionsand multiple
provides access to faster, fiercer Mechs such asthe
armoured cratt on display are impressiYe enough. MechWarrior's intuitive control system makes the game ajoyto play. While the PCempl~ a sometimes clumsy
Dire Wolf and Warhawk fachmisslonrequlreswarriorstooompleteaset numberofobjectives, detailed in Ihe pre-mlSSforl briefing. arld survive the encounter in one plece.Campaigrls range from providirlg oovering fire for civiliarl convoys to all-out assaultsorl enemy territory. While these tasks maysourld straightfofWard enough,cocky pilots will soon learn that some degree of skill is essential in order 10 avoid an early battlefield grave. Forturlately, MechWarriorl's handy Training mode provides novice players with a crash cou rse in M«h handling, weapons usage, basic hunting and even a trial-by·fire irlitiation test Irlorderlogetyour skills up to speed. The Mechs themselves are armed with a Vilriet)' ofoffensiveanddefensiveweapc)J"Islrlcludirlg Ptilse Lasers, Autocannons and Missile Laurlchersallofwhichmaybeoombirled andfiredsimultarle<)usly.Furthermore, certain Mechs arealsoeq uippedwith
c.nn.lalminaof.lIOOftlisrt(juiradlohltdlltlllCe4 ll rgetl.
mouselkeyboard set-up, the Saturn's perfectly designed joypads easily handle Ihe ga me's many vital COtltrol func· tions. When campaigns become oomplicated and light-
ning-likeref)exes are required,ifscomfortingtoknow
that your retreat and/or advance won't be hampered by a misplaced trigger button. Likewi\e,those critics of the Saturn'sl«hnital tapabilitieswill be silenced once they see MechWarrior 2 in motion. Smooth scrolling back· ground<;, gloomy alien landscapes and minimal pop-up combine to make this a thoroughlyenjoyilbleyet intredibtytesting 3D shoot 'em up. Fans of the original PC game will find little to gripe about here. the game's muchheralda:l strategy elements having been retalned,whileSaturnownerswillgainyet anotherchallengingtitlethat,unli ke many rec:ent releases, won't be complet· ed in just a few hours. Sadly,MechWarrior'sbiggesl downfall has 10 be its lack of multiplayer options. There's no split-screen two player versus mode, link table option or even a Netlink offerin g. While It's accept· able for Activision to claim that a lack ofdevelopment time has meant that the game's multi-player options have fallen by the wayside Ihere's no denying that this addition would have ensured MechWarrior l's winning status. As it starlds, Saturn owners have been robbedofyetarlotherpoterltialmulti·playermaSler· piece but as a skilful one player adventure, MechWarrior 2 stands head and shoulders above its peers. "' ATT
YEO SEGASATURNMAGAZIHE 89
ISCORCHER Piloting an anti-gravily lorcefield bike through deserted post-apocalyptic urban wasteland Iype 01 games are an area largely overlooked on the Saturn with the notable exception 01 WipEout. Until now that is_
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GREASED LIGHTNING Graphically speaking, Scorcher, mOle so than most other games, demonstrates what the Saturn. ill capable of. Processing more polygons
at a higher resolution than just about any game you can think of and running at 30 frames per ~ond It really is the dog" bollodts. One of the best graphical touches though ale the amazing lighting effects which featw:e throughout the game and look stunning.
F
or those people who haven't picked up a
video games maguine in the last few yea rs, Scorche r is a futuristic race r from those people at Scave nge r, though by the time Itfinallygeh released it could we Ube a prese ntday 'a(er. Why~We IlScorch er ha s beenkicking
.round in one form o r anoth er for years now and was originally plilnned f or the lII·fated 31X. Coded by Dan is h progra mmen Zyrlnx (the people tes ponslble for the Megadrive hitSub-Terrania and the seq ue l Red Zone) they produted some Jaw-dropping de mos, but ala s nothin g came of it. A format change later and ea rly demosof a same cali ed Ve rtlso on the Saturn e mersed and wowed trowd s with some awesome hires su pe r-smooth vi suals. So impressed were >e sa that th eysento utpre-re lea~dcoples to e ncourage
US deveiopers to produce s ames for thei r syste m. Then Su ve nse r di sap peared and rea ppeared at random over the next couple of yea rs showins off th eir newlytitied Scorcher which has see med nea r to com -
pletlonforthe la styearorso.Monthsagowerana preview onitbelievl ns ittobeJustilboutreotdyand waited and waited. What seems like an eternity later we finally have a reviewable copy, but after liter.lllyyearsaf hype could 5corcherposslbly live uptoexpectationsl There's no denying that Scorcher isvisualiyone of the most impressive sames to appea r on the Saturn. Running at 30 frames per second,with lightsourcingandcleverdip.mas kinghidinganyuglypop. up, it's hard to find fault with the graphics. Visua liy it'satleastona par with Raliy, maybe even surpass· ingit.ButunfortunatelyforScavengergraphicsalone do not make a good game and this is where Scorcher's shortcomings are revealed. The game itselfisa racing gam e where you pilot a n anti-gravity bike of some sort through six different post·apocalyptictracks against three oth e r oppo· nents. There are three different racing modes; Championship, where you have towln each race to progress tothe next track ; TIme Attac k,which is just
Scorcher is visually one 01 the most impressive games to appear on the Saturn. running at 30 Ips. with light-sourcing and clever clip-masking
10 SEGASATURNMAGAZINE
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POWER-UPS Although your craft moves at a fair rate it becomes n ecessary to collect speed boosts in a similu vein to WipEout H you want to win any races. There all~ two different kinds of these, the glowing prisms which once collected. boost your speed (when you activate the boost button) and the green pads which (once you run over the m) extend down the load boosting your speed U you follow their path.
Scorcher is a game that I've been looking forward to for years and will go down in video games history as one of the biggest missed opportunities ever. you.1gainst the clock; and Practice Mode. The latter two options ilowtver a re only accessible after sueceuful completion of the Championship mode.
Para llt:'lscan be drawn with WipEout in that powerups can be collected which boost your speed considerablyuntilyoucollidewithanopponentorobstacleto slow you down again. There arl! two different kinds of these, the slowing green prisms which mllst be smashedthrollgh, andwiththellse ofthe boostbllt· Ion increases)'Qllr speed. The other is a green padon Ihe road which, when)'Q1I rlln over it, extends down the road and following ib path boosh)'Qllrspeed. What makes Scorcher differen t from other racers is that the racing often takes place on mllltipleplat· forms,hencetheinclusionofajumpbuttonwhich aIlOWS)'QlltoswitchfromoneleveltotheneKt. Va rious obst acles also litter your path inc1udi ngholes in the road which mustlM:-avnided and barriers which YOII can smash through.The mllsicfeatllred thrOllgh· olltthe game is pretty good too in a thumping techno ki ndofwayandfitsquitewellwiththefranticnature ofthegameplay. However what could well have been an excellent
was the large range of options, the clever and varied track design and the amazing amount of control YOII had over YOllr ca r. None of the aforementioned attributescan be seen in Scorcher. The options are very lim· itedwith only three racing modes, no two player, no vehiclestochoosefrom , theoneyougetisn'tcus· tomisable, you can't change th e numlM:-r of laps or even have manllal gears. The track design is terrible, whoever thought of combining a platform game w ith a driving game should IM:-shot. It simply doesn't work. The i nclusion ofobslades and holes in the road only serves to slow the aclion down. The six tracks are also remarkably similar and indistinguishable from one another and have a dull grey ki nd of appearance, though I presume that's what a post·apoca lyptic world looks like. The amount of control you exhibit over your vehicle is negligible with YOllr vehicle rico· cheting all overthe place. The clipping is okay as most of it is cleverly hidden bul some is still appar· ent as isglitching here and Ihere. Not only that but there is anabllndanceofslowdown which detracts from the gameplay i mmensely and happens even when you're alone on t he screen. Which leads on to possibly the biggest gripe I have with Scorcher. you're alone for most of the race as there are only three other competitors, which makes racing boring 10 say the le ast. Scorcher is a game I've IM:-en look· ing forward to for years bul wlll go down in video games history as oneof the biggesl missed opportunities ever. The graphics engine is obviously excel. lent, it's just a shame that not much thollght went inl o the gameplay. MaylM:Scavenger should have done Ihison the Playstationinsteadwheregraphicsovergame · play win every lime and sell by the bucket load. Those of us who want a racer tllars good to play should avoid tll is and get holdofManxn now.
LE E NUTTER SEGASATURNMAGAl INE 11
ISHINING THE HOLY ARK When it comes to deep, involving role'playing games, you can't really get much better than the Saturn' now playing host to the latest in the great "Shining" seriesof role' playing games! There Is certainly a hUlleamountofstuff to txplore and enjoy in Shining the Holy Ark. The ll00d th lnll Is that Ttil m Sonic have taken the btst bits of Shlnlnll w isdoma nd innovat tdtveryth ln ll elst tocre. ate a n evtn bctt er experie nce, So it's goodbye 10, hello teKturtd polygon 301 The graphics have bttn givtn a Sf:Verefacelift, wit h eve ryt hingnowbeingamiKtureof poIYllons and sprites. Ithastobesajdthatthemain ~mtatand
I
hate RPGs, l,ully do. It's not dow n lot he games tnernRlvts, It'$ what hap-
pens to mysOoulled Ilfeasa
LET THE FIGHTING BEGIN!
fesult of playing one ... In that it seems to diSllppe3remlndy. tt happened with
The key to makins yow character ,tronler and. mon poW1!rful is through the acqublUon of experience poinb, whJch you get by vanqu!lhlng the meanies that populate the vad ow levels. Combat Is a turns based Iyltern· each chuadel lashes out oncl! per round, fol· lowed by the appropriate responle from the meanies. Uterally. the party left dandlftg at the en d h thl! win ner. After that you can pinch.ll their money and belonglng.1
ClimOilX'sbri11l;lIntOa~SoIylofandltha$hp
72 SEOASATURNMAGAZIN£
pened aB .. ln with Turn Sonk', latHt RPG epi<, ShlningtheHolyAtil.AJKJOn;ulst'lII't plilying, l un't stop. Hours fly by when I'm ,up~tobeeditlngthl!magazlne,trav
eUinllhome,eitlnll dlnnerandllolnllto btd. But no, I'm stili playlnll Shlnlnll the Holy Ark. Sothit'swhy l hate ItPGs - the genrtcaptlv;rtes meand keeps me suptr·glued to the console tothe detriment of evtrythlng elst.
drink· of the gafTlt,the artils you rtillly nted tOtxplofe· t hesearen't really that good lookinll. A tunnel is a tunnel is a t unnel. after that's where you spend your first hour of It's notexaclly t he most promisi ng of st il rts, but th ings soon pick up. Where the graphics really do look supe rb Is in t he villages t hat conncctthe various levels. All of t hc plot progfcsslon ta kes placc hCfC and it's herc t hat you mttt the maJofltyof t he game's cast. lu.ckilythese aspeetsof thellamcilrcreallywtll representtd thanh to t hcbriltianceofthechar-
EOUIP YOUR TROOPS
The greatest Shining adyen!ure yet is ut\erly ama.zing! Avast game of intrigue and tacllcal cunning awaits you! Don't miss it! In these levels,gameplay is split into three distinct sections. There is the walking (or running) about, e.amining Ihe location to find hidden treasure, or tak·
ing on the monsters that jump out to accost you. As is the RPCtradition, taking out the meanies gives you gold and e~perience points that you use to gain levels andpurchasebetterequipment.Jt'salsosomethingof a "Shining" tradition that you can't really turn a corner without indulging in some form of combat. This is easitythe most repetitiV1! area of the game, but the filct is that it comes with the territory - Shining Wisdom was the same. luckily Shining the Holy Ark manages to keep things interesting with a wealth of different adversaries, each with different capabilities that make each confrontation a different tactical challenge. A5 you would imagine, there are a huge array of magical spells and different weapons to look out for too. Yes it might seem to get a bit repetitive, but the combat system is
~ey
As well as sa1nins mort experience points, you can improve yOUl chanctus' fighting effectiveness by kittin8 the m out with better weapons and superior annour. You find this dotted around the levels, but really you need to spend the gold coins you get horn the defeated meanies in the various villages between the levels on new wafts. Yow fighting power i l also increased wit h better m agic spells, and these lUll! leuned automatically upon gaining new ltvels of power.
to the entire game. As well as the game system,
RPGs thriV1! on having a decent storyline to follow. Now having played this with Japanese text for the last few monlhs,lcanhonestlysaythatunderstandingexactly what's going on really makes a difference. The premise is certainly cool: your band of mercenaries are originally hired to track down an outlaw hiding in an under ground network. However, a !aV1!-in causes your prey 10 suddenly develop amnesial That being the case he decides to team up with you lot to find out who he is and what he's doing, as welJ as help you to locate a missing team member who was possessed by an evil spirit as he lay unconscious after the caV1!-in. Got thaH Good. Well obviously things get a bit more complicated as the game progresses. Over 16 hours of my last w~k endwerespentonlhisonegame(s~theshowcaseto
see the extent of my travels). The bottom line islhat Shining the Holy Ark is the bestR~rV1!playedinages.Thecombinationofgrip
ping story, huge exploration potential plus excellent fighlingactionmakesita great buy-oneofthose gamestnat offers weeks of compelling play, tne sort of tille tnat MUST be played rignt tnrougn to its conclusion.1 know it's an RPG and so won't gain mass acceptance, but rest assu red: this game Is just .. EPICI
Rodl(ltft)lIlt nrst loUr lftllll)" _uIUlneclultyfol"i:u hlm to becoll1l your alll !
RICH
L E ADB ETT ER
SEGASATURHMAGAZIHE 73
SEGA SATU~NTM tips There hasn't been many games released over Ihe past month or so has Ihere? Which will probably show in out tips paijeS this rnootfI, there aren't any spectacular tips this month but Iam sure you'll be pleased w~h tile ones we have printed tIlis month. Iam very sorry for tile "Duff" Tomb Raider tip printed last month, the supposedly hot cheat came from Core themselves so we didn't print tile tip based on rumours. P1ease keep sending your tips and cheats to: Tips Section, Sega Saturn Magazine, 37-39 Millharboor, Isle Of Dogs, London, E149Tl
TOMB RAIDER Okaypeople,lcalled upon Core again and spoke directly to the programmers to check out the level skip cheat and this is what
Here's a nice little tip to gain eKtra stock cars in Andretti'SRacing In the care-er mode enter your name as GO BRUINSI for 6 secret stock cars or if you want 7 secret stock cars enter your name asGO BEARSI
they save me, If these cheats do not work,you can stamp on my
privates ... Phil. (rll be takingyou upon that-Rich). Stage Skip While playing, pause the game and gotoyour passport. Flip to
the last page. Press Z. V, Z.Y. X. X.X,START,and you should hear a sound. Now use the exit page as If you were leaying the game Instead of going batk to the title screen, it shouldshowyouthesoeenforfinishingthe
''''' FuliAmmoCheat While playing, pause the game and goto your passport. Fliptothe last page. Press X,y, x.Y,Z,Z,Z,STAIn,Yollshollldn'theara sound. Then enterthelevels~ip codefrom a~.OnthenextlevelyoushouldhaVf'allof
the weapons
GUN GRIFFON
NHLHOCKEY
lamstillgettingqueriesabolltthisgame,sotoput your minds at ease I dllg up a few old cheats
alallgh,Wellalaughofsortsanyw~,
Unlimited Ammo AI the title screen pressB, B,B,C,STA~T InvindbllltyCode Press LfFT. RIGHT,B,C ,C, START at the tille screen.
Astrangesetofcheats here,tl)'themYOllrselfand have During the 2 player (skatingl introductions press the X, Y. Z bllttonsand the Left and Right buttons simultaneollSIy. Then during the National Anthem press the following for different results land Rbuttons for "Big Players' AandXbtrttonsfor"TheGravitySink'(puckgoestothe centre or Ice) Aand B buttOfls for "Midget Fatboys" AYl Buttons for "Upside Down Dudes" XY~ bllttons for "Bouncy Puck" Also.somecodescanbecombined,sllchasAYl,thenLR Build a perfect pl,lye r cod e Are you setting
a bit
bored with the way the players
are in this lacklustre so-tailed Simulation of the game I.G~--''''--~:-----'''-I that is Ice Hockey. Well here's a tode 10 thange all of that right herel When buildinsa player. when setting the player attributes press A-B-C-X-Y-Zlo allow the player to be perfect in everycategol)'. And away you go. HaVf'some funnwithlhisone ...
,. SEGASATURNItlAGAZINE
MRBONES Atthe Startmenu.pressll:.L~.ltLII:.L L II:.LR.
R. Then choose 'level select' which will now be highllghtedjust.as if you h.ad completed the
game Slily Mr 80nes
ULTIMATE MK3 Play Human Smoke Playefl: After5eleetingthe robot hold lefi+HP+BlOCK+HK+Run Addit ional VS KombatCodes 390-000 Player 1inflicts half damage 000-390 Player 2 inflicts half damage
On any of the stages where you can blow off
390-390 Both Players inflict halfdamage
yourbodyparts.doso,andusedifferentcombinations of X, V, and Zto put yourself bad togeth er in differe nt ways
32'-789 Super Run Jumps
722 -722ComboSystemEnabled SSS'Ss6SpecialMovesOisabl ed 688'433 Quick Uppercuts 040-404 Real Kombat 024-689 Super Endurance
975-3'0 Regeneraling Power bars Ultimate Code (Debug Menu) AtthttitlescreenhitC,Rightshift, A.Z, Y,C,Y, Right shift,A. X ( Crazy Cyrax) Hit Upon the main options to reveal the? ~ymbol
WORLD WIDE SOCCER Itha~tobesaidthatSegaWorldWideSoccer i s
NEED FOR SPEED Warrior Car and Lost Vegas track Enter the tournament mode, put in 'TSYBNS' as your name, then exit the tournament mode, You shouldnowha~e the WarriorCarandLostVegas
trackselectable, RaceonOlrtRolllds Whileselectingyourtrack,holdinthelandR buttons, and you'll get a dirt road version of the selected track,
undoubtedly the best soccer simulation on Saturn bya huge chalk, We printed a largeamountofthe spe.:ial moves inthelasteditionofthemagazineandJust about the only remain ing move is now printed right here for your fun and enjoyment So without anyfurther ado, let's get on with the Rainbow Kick movel hinbowKlck LEFT, LEFT,DOWN, DOWN, RIGHT路DOWN,
TwoN_VieW$ After playing for a while, pause the game, go into the Instant Replay option, and change the ~iewtothe highest.Th en, pressplay, exitwhile
holdingBand pressthechange~iewbuttonfi~e times very quickly. It's tough to do, so it may not work the first time. Change the Speedometer At the Title screen, hold X+Y+Z on Contfoller 1
SEDASATURNltAG.I.ZINE75
FIGHTERS MEGAMIX
DOOM
CRUSADER NO REMORSE
Now the game has been officially u~lled we can fMal the cheats and stuff. Ther("s plenty of hidden gear in this M'tAZING gamt so let's stop arslng
Invincibility Yes, we. know it's poor, but those of)'Ou who did
These arrived at the last minute and should provt hilndyfof ilnyone stuck on EA"s Isometric shoot-
buy this travestymighl find this code rather
'em-up.
aboutand~loworkIWe'refClleillin8~chtats
handy - if only to get to the absymal Club Doom level. l'iIuse the g~mt. and ty~ in: Down, Y, X. 11:, l1:ighl, I.. L.eft, 8. tfthe milrlne'seyes light up, the cheat has worked.
this month and some in the next issue. Just to keep )Ulinterested. Se<retCh.irxtl!n I'rettyotMoos.really,ThetensectetchilfOlcterSOlIre
ilccessedbycompletingeachoftheooe-player COUfses. For new the School Girl Candy. simply press x when seltcting her once you've completed the Novice course, However. before you steam through all of the different routes, perhap5 you should ta~e noteofthe~xttip_.
PiltlenceCilrdGarM Complete all of the one-player courses. EXCEPT the last one. Now get OYer l0000Ks on the Training Mode and now go to one-player mode and select the final oourse using the lb-utton on theoontroller. A new minl路game is foundl AfterburnerPlaM On BM's stage with a two-player game. have both players hoIcI dow-n their X buttons before Ihe match begins. The AfterbtJrner pla~streaksoYer.
Mulkon TfillnlngMode You'relikelytospend a lot of time in Training Mode and that music can really grate. Press Startandusethel
LugueMode At the title screen, pressB,A,C, Up.B,A.C, Up. You should hear voi<es shout ing if the code worked Go to the main menu and there will be a new option, "league Mode".
78 SEGAUTURIIMAGlZIIIE
VIRTUA FIGHTER KIDS
Q&A TIPS CENTRE
Fight SilwrDUflIl Highlight Akira on the character select screen and pres5 Down, Up, Right Left and A. To get golden Dural, press Down, Up, Left,lnght and A
! ~~tC;h:g:::~:~:~::~;:n~::~~~:; !~t~tlp I their most difficult gaming problems. Nam e a gameyou'restuckat,des<rlbetheproblem andwe s ha ilsol~ltforyou . It's thatslmple . Justwrite
away NOW to Q+A TIPS CENTRE, SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, 37-39 Millharbour, Isle of Dogs, London E149TZ. We btse&hyou not to phone us up with your tips queries: If we took all your calls you'd never get a magazine in timt l We will endevourto replytoALltipsqueritslnthetipspagts. Hence the name.
Play as Fish Bowl Dural After entering the Dural
select code, press and hold Cwhenyouchoosei>etween
NormalimdKidsrnode.and ~pjthelduntilthematch
begins. Dural's heild should
be transparent, and have a fish swimming around inside it. Hilariousehl
TheBestCodeE~rrWeWish ••• ThiS only happens to be one of the most excitins
codes we've ever printed ... and in many ways one of the most disaplXlinting. This Hexen code open5 up every single cheat mode you can imagine· the abilitytowalkthroughw~lIs.godmodeforinvin
cibility... and what"sthis ... LINK-UP MODEII
Wiltch Mode Camera Angles While in Watch mode, hit X to get a random camera angle. After doinS so, you can \,lse;myofthefollowing to switch camera angles: L 11:. X. V, Z. A. B,C Special Win Poses rfyou win with a Time Over with either Jackyor
Shun Di,you get a special 'Java Tea' pose. Combo Master Mode AfterchOOSingyoorcharacter, then when deciding between Normal and Kids, press Up ten times. The words 'Combo Master Mode" should appear near
the bottom of the screen.
still,here·sthecode.Enteritontheoptions screen: Up. Down.left,ltisht y. Y. Z. Z, A, X, Up. Down. C, B. We have to admit to being super-excited about the potential of linlc·up gameplayl Hexen was one of the best multi-player games on PC until Quake turned up and we were gagging for a go. Once we appropriated the link-cable we sat down and got to work only to discover the following ... it only just works. Frame rate changes with the tide. you can't restart once you've died and also the game loses synchronisation, meaning that the two of you aren't communicating properly. leading toa crash Oh weil,it"s a great cheat any way and since hard· Iyanyofyou have a link·upcableanyway,it"s unlikely to affect you. However, it"s a shame that the majority of the work (DeathMatch only objects) has been put it. Very frustrating. Probe Software. you've let us down
Julie Hasweil's problem: Getting past Karnack Sanduaryand Sobek Mount.ln Shrine The other camels at the Karnak Sanctuary and the SobekMountain Shrine can't be reached until you collect artifacts later in the game. Togetthe Symbol of War in the Nile Gorge, run along the platform opposite where you can see the Symbol. and jump off the edge. Hold the jump button down to float around the corner and you'll reach a ledge leading to the Symbol Glenn l.angrldge's probl em: Can't get past Amun Mines in Exhumed Fool. After destroying the creature in the Set Arena, head for theArnun Mines and drop down the huge shaft in the middle of the level. Now you have the Shawl of Isis you can float down to reach the exit tothenext level. To be honest if you'd looked at the brilliant Ellhumed map we printed in issue #13 of
SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, you would have instant- I Iy have seen that the shawl is needed to progress. We'regoingtohavetodoadecentbacki5suesad for the next issue. obviously. Mr A Bagl e's Problem: No good at Blaml Machlnehead Here we go, I have compiled the complete list of passcodesforthis rather hard game. I hope you find them useful. To answer the problem that you had,you might have copied the passcodewrong. therefore when it was re-entered it was invalid Still.rm giving you the personal Phil Dawsonguarantee that these tips will work. so iftheydon't feel free to phone meupand Sive me the most rampant abuse imaginable. (please do any way-Rich) 1.1 Q58NM LDZCQ 4HWGE 1.3 TOM75 UH80T Xo6BE 1.4 V01PP JCP6V H4UU Z.l oFzoF oHXBY OE9SW ~.z4ZW]TJGK-PSK5H1 ~.3 VR4h 6EZDs SHCMM Z.41N8CX CXVI6 PA]K1 z.S ZFoXD Y5KXJ Q1NGZ 3.1 vrVSDAHOj.l SlMFp WoJBH ]Y8-D -1FRU
H THYDH oMZDU 3CZFK
! !'.~ ~~l:~~~::~s: : 4 .z QZ9lH UDUY411FSD
: 4-3 WS1V6 HQPIW 80FGK : 4.4 2RH1C4 RB9RU ZlIT~
L~~~~~~O~~~_R~~~3~ _______________ _ SEGASATURIIMAGAZINE
n
acter,Janet'sbone-rendins techniques make her an extremely popular flshter_just don't bother beinS c:he6Y with the Virtua Gun, pleasel
Sonic Fighters never really received a proper arcade release outside of Japan, with only minimal support inthe United States andhard.ly any路 thing at all happening in the UK, D'ohl Whilst Sonic himself hasn't made It Into Flghlers MegaMix, Bark (one of AM2'S own creations) has, NotasversatileasBean,butpos, sessedofa numberofeasy,lo.master combinations which are cool. We'll have Bean's moves In the next Issue of the mag . lack of space this issuel
While the future of Sega's arcade titles may lie with the power of Model 3, there's still life left in the Model 2 board yet. SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE straps on its novelty safety pads and helmet and prepares to surf concrete! herecentAOUArnusementExpo,h.eid In Tokyo earlier this yur, JaW anum· berofexdtinsucade productJbeing umrelledfortheflrstt1me. While • many of these were merely UpgradH of uUting titl" (DarkStalken 3. Virh!a Striker 1)
there were certainly pJenty oflnnovatfve coln-ops on mow. with ,kilns and mowbouding gamrs e nJoyIng a wave of popularity at the moment it . hould have come as no surprUe then to learn that Sega's AM) division had been busy dlNelopln8 ••lmilaJ the mtd game. As the name IUggnts, Top Skater attempts to slmulatethe adnnalln<ha.r&ed feelinS of sbteboardina complete wfth Mdeck", aIlowinl players to OWe and Kick·Flip with the best oflhem. Top Sutcr is pov.rered by Sega's trusty Mode12 arcade board wl\ich provides incr~ble s~ and polygon handling. two aiterl.a essential for accur.ately portraying the (potential) breaknedr nature ofthi, popular sport. In an effort to further enh.mce the
game'lsenseofrealism,thesixselectablecharacters and two playable tracks have the been plastered with
92 S£GASATURNMA(lAlINE
promotional stickers and losos from such notable skatingcompanles as Airwalk and Vans. The main aim of the game Is simple enough: to bt the coolest skateboarder possible. All you have 10 do Is to select eithe r the Beginner or Expert course and then choose from one
courses attempt· Ingasmanytrlcks as possible, play· ers will soon get the hang of the game·suserfriendlycontrob and smooth boilrd response. As Top Skater utilises a skateboilrd peripheral. the actual control method certainly takes some getting used to. By movlng and dipping the board,playersare able to pull off all manner of cool stunls and tricks includ· ing such classics as So-Sos, Ollies and Tail Grabs.
TRICKS 0' THI nADl During the garne you earn points by travelling around the cowse and doing triw.ln additiOn, there are also a variety of obstacles on the course as well including metal drums, cones, ralling1 and low walls. Not only cart you Jump over them to avoid collisiOns but by bounCing off the top of the drums and sliding along the top of ralllngs you TM cangetextrapolnts. However,most of your tricks are dont when you Jump off the ramps. Depending on your control. of the skate· board you can do different tricks, earningyou different point scores depending on their difficulty. In addition, as you get dostrto the edge of the ramp, the more trick: points you get. However, if you go too far, and go over the edge before you do your trick, you'llcrash(l"rick:.MI5S). As well as the ramps you can also Jump off the banks and pipes to do tricks as wtll. Since there are no oppontntsto race against, the almofTopSkateris not to finish the course In the fasttsltImtposslblebulto doas manycoolmcks as you can and still finish with· » In the tlme limit.
R
SEGASATURIIIUGllLIIE93
Although there are only two courses to test your skateboarding skills on, each hack offers plenty of variety and potential tricks. Novice players will undoubtedly want to make it through the tracks with the minimum of hassle while more experienced skaters will feel more confidant in pulling off flashy tricks. By combining speed andskill,even average pJayers shouJdbe able to rack up some impressive scores on either course. Asln real life skateboarding, taking chances and attempting over-ambitious stunts are more like· Iytoearnyouhigherscores.
#1 Skater's Session (BeBinner Course) This competition is held four times a year (each season) and is open to all levels of skill from from amateur to professional. This long course is on a West Coast beach. and the track clocks in at a massive 3,506 metres. The event is held over three days with those qualifying ina day's event proceeding to the next day.
#2 Stunt Tracker's Trophy
(Expert Course) This competition is held only once a year. Only the number one skaters from around the world participate on this course which takes place at night in the city area. Although the track is only 2,990 metres long It Is stili a blgcourseconsiderlng It's difficulty rating. Held over two days, this course Is for those only really to be attempled by those who have mastered the Skater's Session competition
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94 SEGASATUIINMAGAZINE
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8.t.CIGROUIIO: Ash ilan Ind8jH!ooentminl!ed,fl'8l Iplrltldteenlllet.Htbellevel lhat he iI 1111 numbar 0118 skateboardet80he'lenllltinl t\lecompetitionju$ttGprtMI it. The IIIlngil,wIth bil IkllIs, talents 'n'tricb,hl coold well be rlght. •.
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Providing the game's thumping soundtrack are US rockers PelUlywise. The group started up as a punk band in the latter half of the 80s. Their album "Bad Religion" on an Indie Label had a major following wtth surfers at that time. Afterthat, they signed up with Epitaph and released their Debut Album "PelUlywise" in '91, their second album "Unknown Road" in '93, and ~About Time" in '95. Their latest album "Full Circle" was released this year. The band have now gained a large following amongst the boarding oommuniti~. Top Skater contains tun~ from all their albums and one original trackl
SATURN SKATlRSl While there's certainly every possibility that Top Skater may appear on the Saturn some time in the future,Segaareobviouslyremainingtight-lipped regarding any possible home conversion. One of the main stumbling block would undoubtedly be how to overcome the game's unique control methodl Fortunately,theSaturn'sanaloguepadshouldbe more than capable of handling the required smooth motion of the coin-op's skateboard peripheral and, as Manx TT showed, theaccuracyofthisjoypad would be essential for atlempting the game's many stunts and Iricks. For more on whal could be the coolest arcade sports game of the year, make sure you check out next month's CoinOperated as SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE will be bringIngyouanexc1uslve interview with Top Skater's creators, the
SEGASATURNIIIAGAZIHE 95
CRYPTKILLER
and cheesiness of the arcade original but also looks excfssively ugly on a
The Virtua Gun gains yet another com· pat,bletitlewllh the release of this con vers,onofKonami"ssprite-basedtilfget shooter, Crypt Killer was only a minimal success in the arcades and that was down to the novelty gun on the cabinet - a great pump action shotgun! The actualgame,tselfisnoisyandcheesy and certainly doesn"t stand up tothe likes ofVirtuil Cop L 50 you can imagine how ,t fares in the form ofa homevideogame. Crypt Killer retains the noisiness
anyfunyou m'ghthavewlth the game instantly disappears. And unlike say VirtuaCop2,thereislittletobringyou back tothe game once it is completed
8Y KOMUII £44.9946%
you perform a really cool chain. t he super-deformedJapanesemanga characters proouce moves from therrrespectiveS<lmeslt'saniceeffect a l1dsomeofthegraphicsa reace All in a ll , SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE was very impressed with this exce ll e nt t itle.Certainlynotama instream re lease.bu t verygood toseeitset\ing an offic ial release.
home screen ... and without the shot gun
On the plus side, EA have outdone
RETURN FIRE BY GT £44.9980'10
themselves with the presentation (as
Indeed,theonlyamusementwe glear.edfrom this game was its name in
usual) including a really helpful menu you Ciln pull up to explain the myriad options at wilL It also makes excellent use of the NBA license, so everyth ing is present and correct when it comes to thats,deofthmgs But forme, the real crux of the matterhastobegameplilYilndint his regilfd,NBALivejustdoesn 'tdOitfor me. The 30 grilphics might look quite ,ealistic, but the jerkiness of the update makes keeping up with the ball near imp05sible. Bang goes the playability. And with that. the interest in this par· ticularproduct EA Sports reached yet another high with the recent John Madden '97 bu t some bucking upof,deas is required here I fancy, ..
Here we are in one of those "sreatest gamesofa ll-t im e"scenarios,asyet anotherbr ill iantsameofyorecomes to the Saturn. Thistime it's the 300'5 finest hour: Return Fire. This is one of the bes t two·p laye r experiences money can buy. Or at least itwasonthe PlaySta tio n and indeed 3DO.The basic
SUPER PUULE FIGHTER 2
aim is simply to infilt rate theenemy"s camp, steal theirfiag and then get it backtoyour ba se, It sounds simple. but Return Fire's use of four differen t vehicles (each used to perform d'fferen t tash) made the game deep involving and fran~ly brilliant unfortunately what we have here is clearly a PlayStation/3DO port with very litt le effort put into it to keep the speed of t he Saturn version up. NMs's excellent Mass Destruction showed that Ihesaturn ca n handle super ior visuals tothisat6oframespersecond,but Return Fire isanabsolute jerkathon in comparison-especially intheall·impor· tanttwo·p laye r mode. Oon"t set us wro ng, Return Fi re is still good fun (and the one·player mode isn't tooje rky),thus t he score, but you c<!n't help but detect yet another missed opportunity.
Japan.thesinisler-sounding"Henry
Explorers·,
Crypt Killer
provided minimal
laughs in the arcades when you stumped upsopforthe privilege of
playing it. AI this price it's outrageously bad "value",
NBA LIVE '97 BY EA £44.9961%
11
Ar'ldNBAlive'97issLJchacase
(which isn't exactly hard)
Another EA Sports litle, anothercie ar (perhaps blatant) PlayStation port When EAis good,it's re a lIygood-w,t· nessSoviet Strike which is superior to the PSgame-butwhen EA'sbad,they produce some really average games.
BOMBERMAN
BY HUnSONSOn £44.9990%
Bomberman first mat erialised on NEe's (iassie PC Ensine console in 1990 and has since prosressed to Just about eve ry con· sole solns from NES through to Mesadrive .. , and beyondl Now Bomberman arrives on Se sa Saturn and the same simple formula remains as fresh and addictin as ever. The object of thi s same Is very simple: plant bombs and hope that e nemy sprit es (or other human-controlled Bombermen) plunder into the explosions leavinS you victorious, The scen ery is used to guard yourself from the vadous bomb blasts and is abo blown away to reveal power-up icons. The (really) good news regardinS Bomberman is the sheer excellence of th e multi-pl ayer options. Using two multi-taps it is possible to have a simultaneous tenplayer same, and Bomberman makes sreat use of the Saturn's hish-resolution graphics to make all of this possible. Look,the bottom lin e is it's Bomberman and It's ace -
BlCAptOMHBA86%
It's always a joy to review a Capcom game. The Japanese company goes from strength to st rength,corneringthe market when it comes to 20 brilliance (and maybe the 30 market too when Resident Evil finality appears). Perhaps when it comes totherr Saturn wares Capcom have limit ed themselves to their arcade games a bit too much,but they've shown a bit of diversity by releasing this cool puzzler. ThegameplayisveryColumns·
SWAGMAN
BY C!lRE [44.9988%
esquewith a healthy dose of Baku Baku Animaladdedinforgoodmeilsure.but Cilpcomhavequitecunninglyaddedin characters from their award-winn ing fishting game franchises. So yes, for somereason,Ryu.Gouki,Felici~and companyhavetr~dedintheirphysical
confron t ~tionsformorecerebralbat
tlingYeah.risht. What this does mean is that when 96 S{CASUURNMAGAlIHE
Core Design return to the Saturn w ith anolherorisinalsame.swasmanis Soins tobeoneof thoset itlesyou either love or hate, Core have forgone what has given the Saturn the success it has enjoyed (awesome 30 graphics) and re tu rned tothe rootsofgaming w ith this 20 overhea d adventure title. In ma ny ways. swasman is highly rem· iniscent of Zelda and Zombreson Ihe Super NES, albeit wit h some nods to
thtpowtfOfp·bitttchnologyand thtrt'sctrtainlypltn tyof samtin t hereforYol,lincll,ldrnsso metwochar. act er team'l,IpsitIJat ions la ter on Pe rhaps the only thins against Swasmanisthtfactthatthtthemtof thtsamtisn'tqurttasstronsastht 16·bit IItltS mentrontd tarlitr. (ort have stnvtd tocomt upwrth a great storylmtbthindthtsamtbutptrhaps it's just a brt tooconvoluttd and down· rishtwtirdtocapturtthtimaSination of t hta~raStsamtr·ashame
btcal,lstthisisacoolga me
BLACK DAWN
BYYIRGIM£34.9986%
Vi rgm·s sttadystrtam of Saturn product continutswrththrsfollow·up to
FIFA '97
BY EA £44.9916% _m-for a fad. that a lot of you. haYe been waitintI for thilr one_ and aftn all, why noU On the Mepdrtve, PIJA_an_pme.Ofcoune, tlwpmehun'tfuedso-nintlw ~fmmI6toJ2.-bll..other
PlayStaliOn Agrlt Warrior. Thistrmt insttad ofprlotmg somt stealthy kind of atroplane.you·re at the contlols ofa hrgh· techhtlrcopterarmedtotheteeth wr thall ma nntrofmissiles.ca nnons andwhat·havt·you For this samtdtvtloptrs 81adOps havttritd to mtrgt thtfun of tht shoot ·tm upwrth thtsophrsticatron and fas· cinatroo of tht fliSht simulation and rn many ways theyhavt sllCcetdtd. Ttltrt art also htalthy slicts of Sovrtt Strrkt stylt mission structures too. which can·t be bad Ptrhapsthega me is a brtone·not e graphlca lly, butga meplay wiseVirsrn havtdonewell intakmgthe ThundtrHawk2idea a step further wrth thrscrtd,tablerelease.lnvtSigatefur.
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SEGlSATURNIrtAllllINE 'I1
Introducin ...
DRAGON FORCE
PGs are massive in Japa". A console', fat e Is more often than not Judged on the streflgth of s uch ,amu ovtr tnut, which if doubtless why the Saturn Is booming_ Just check out S'8." a wesome lint -up with the ground-br eaking Grandl. not fat horn completion , Shining the Holy Ark on its wa y a nd now the mlShty Dragon Force. It would appear that thing. are lookinS rosy Indud for RPG fan •. Dragon Force is the latest RPG to eml!T~ from Sqa and It's gOing to be mas· sive. The game Is set in the tranquil world ofLe~ndra which las fallen prey to the evil terror oflhe demon Madruk. The once peaceful land tw reduced to a place of horror and treachery. with the only hope of redemption resting finnly on your
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shoulders. As one of eight powerful warlords, yourtast Is to gathertogether your fellow warlords into a united army to defeat once and for all the evil.Madruk. Cue the opportunlty for some huge battle sc:ene5 via the Command and Conquer·style point and clltk $)"SIem. The battle sc:enes are awesome with the camera swooping about as up to 200 soldiers engage in battle at once with you in complete control of the _ _. .- ___ ensuing action. [fyou don't Uke the way the battle Is g<ling you can change your tactics at a moments notice . Whether you decide to send in more archers, recall the infantry or even send in the magicians to cast a few spells, the choice is yours. Win and you'll become rulerofthe land of Lc~ndra.1ose and the MI. Madruk will decimate the land. Here at SSM we've just tilken deltvery of the American version of the Dragon Force, which means that the muslve amount of translation and so forth has already ~n done. Whether Stga license this version from the US based Working Designs (who did thetranslatlonj remains to be seen, but having 11 game like Force arriving for us Saturn owners can only be good news. an update SOOrL
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lown.Saturn. Thertl'waaldit. TIIatbeinCthecua,theN ls only 0lIl monthly magaDne for me and u.at'. SW SATURN IilAGAlIIEIYouhearmePSEGASATURNIilAGAlIIEIPutltasidfl contlnualyonlmonthlybulsandllhdbelTlOltgratefuL
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NEXT MUNT ...
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At the moment plans for the next issue of SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE are only in their formulative stages. You can expect us to chase up the hottest Saturn stories: Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Resident Evil and Last Bronx... and maybe we might find something out about Sega Touring Car on Saturn! Additionally, we have a cool AM3 interview lined up with the firm discussing their latest arcade game, Top Skater... Oh, and maybe a cover-mounted CD too. No promises, mind.•
UNISEX liOILET
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