WITH: WORLD CUP GOLF KING OF THE FIGHTERS VIRTUA FIGHTER 3 TOH SHIN DEN LEGEND OF THOR SEGA RALLY HI-OCTANE CYBER SPEEDWAY FIGHTING VIPERS X-MEN
Get a load of Off-~
Interceptor11.! ExtTeITB, 111e chaotic deatb- capjde featurirlS illd:ed 4:.:4s am a blo<rl-thirsty arsenal. Red-line across 111e !JIlaxy' s roost :intense, texture-maPr"d terra:in , S'<litcl~ an 111e fly bet,;een am chase vie-" .Careful , ~ . GmbbirlS
32-bit
cockpit
massive all'
could crush a l::idney. Or t;;o.
P.vailabl e on the
Se~ SatlUn~' ~
consol e .
ClfflO'n!> "'"_Jl,"'............ ,....,,, ... t_. __. . '""t'"'''''''' ....
c.,mIo,o."" • ... C/)<l"D,oa<....... O"'-... ~ _ _ to1 ....... I' ......... ' .. C'Ym''''''."''
Stp ...
soc.Sot...... U.-.... tlStp I...",...
_ _ ""'.'Plf_IO"'SI ....
Please eomatt yoor local
U.~,
~SW61}Or
BMGleoffll:~IOIlu rtherdetalls
o,..~«
~
DYNAMICS
WORMS THEHOARDESOlAR ECUPSEIBlAZING DRAGONS WORlD CUP GOlf
22
24 26 28
REVIEWS VIRTUA GOP VIRTUA RGtmR 2 RRESTORM HI-OCTANE VICTORY BOXING GOLDEN AXE: THE DUEl MANSION OF HIDDEN SOULS HEBEREKE'S POPOITO CYBER SPEEDWAY
70 72 74 76 78 BD 82 B4 86
REGULARS NEWS IN DEVElOPMENT
LEmRS Q&A TIPS OUT NOW NEXT MONTH
EARTHWOIIM ... 2 GARFIELD
89 90 90
SUPER SUJIWIlS PHANTASY STAR IV
91 91
ZOOP PACPAIIC
92 92
1JIS
93
IIOIJIIII
~
AURICOM
FE.SfIfI
RESEARCH
All Images Cl SONY INTERACTIVE Ali pictures taken from Plillystatlonverslons.
SHOCK NEWS!!! WIPEOUT TO APPEAR ON THE SATURN!!! J
us! illS Sel~ Saturn Miliguine WilS going to press, it was, ft,
shaliwesily, diJCovtrtdthatmoslofPsygnosls'lilmes devel·
oped for the Sony Playstiltlon will (,e making their wily 10 S;liturnlnthturtymonthsof19961 The official line on this Is that Ihe gilmt, WIll NOT be pu blished under PSYlnOs]s' own label (tummtlyafflIIatedcompleteiywithSonY);lStheyhilVt!anl!Xduslve contract with Sony Interactive. How!yer, it is quite likely that Ihe titles will be developed by PSYlnosis (illthough Wipeout is currently being developed In Jlpan) and published undttilnothernilme. So, thiS muns that you could be playing an awesome COOvtl110n ofWiptout on your Saturn as early ,H March. Industry sourcts havt alr~ady wltntsS«4 th~ g~me in action and it's already Inafilirlyadvanc~state-earIYlndicationsarethatltwllibeevtry
bit as good as the Playstillton orlglOill Of course. If g~mts such ilS WlpeolJt are due for the conversion treatment, l1"s also fair to say Ihilt most of Psygnoslf other htlts will also appeilr on lhe Saturn too. ThiS Includes hits such as Destruction Derby, 30 lemmings and
'; '
Oiscworld. all of which are out in Ihe shops now. as well as AdidilS flower Soccer, Crazy IViln, Sentient and Assauft Rigs, most of which are lIolnllthrOUllh Ihe playtestlOlI process (on the Plays tat ion) a t lh~ moment Naturally.anyonewho'se~pressedevenapassinllinterestin
the Playstation will be aware that the previously mentioned titles are amonll the most excitinll and innovative games that Sony has to offer (10 fact, IfsALl they have to offer in terms of ground.breaklOlI gameplilY) andseelOgasyou'libeexpefiencinllbrilhantronversions of thtse AND other company's games such as Namco's Ridge Racer andTekken(alibelngwell,afcour~).ltralsestheva!idquestlon
that Sonylnleractlvt may not qUite have the p·blt war well and tlulysewn up after all. In fact, If you can get all of these brilliant games for the Saturn In th~ near future (and we are talking mere months he,e), you might be wondeflnll whether it's worth Ihe bothe, shelhngoul three hundred odd qUid for Sony's Playstatlon at all
..
'-r- . .,.:: " t~'
.
16 /
...
.;..
70
,,,
~."
f!I;tJ /,,-..
70'"
- .... -
~
~
--' . ~
•
• . . , SEGA SAT\..JRN
07
• •
Cl SNK
NEO GEO SIGN UP Yep, prl!Ylously only ;lY;lIl;lble to g;lmes fruh with too much money to spare, ~II of SNit's be;lt 'em up hits will be converted to the S~turn over the next few months, hlurn t itles will ;llso appear on Ihe Neo Geo In Ihe not too dim ;lnd distilntfulure. Th lsdealwnclinchedafttrS NKrulisedlhal _ _ _ . ._ there W;lS a huge demand forlheir g;lmes to be convert!'d on to olher m~chlnes, ~llhough;lt Ihe momenl, the S~t urn Is Ihe onlymlChlnelhatS NK will convert 10. Allhoughlhecomp;lnywon'lbedeytloplngSalurn· .~..,~.,;.. spedflcg;lmes, bolh F;ltill Fury) ;lndK lngoflhe Flghltu '9swlllbe~mo nglheflrstb;ltchofg;lmeslo;lppe;lron
S;llurn. Following these titles will be N@OGeohll, Pu lstilr. tthnnotyelbtende<lded whtlhtr SNK's own progr~mmen witlworkontheconverslonsorlf~g;l 's
lums will work on Ihe proJe<h, bul il has been rl!Yl!aitdlhallheSalufnYen lons m;ly eonl~insome extr;lg;lmepl;lyoptlons. MorenewsonlheSl!lttles nextmonlh , whenhopefullywe 'lIbtable lorl!Yl!al when Ihe lames will be surfacing In Ihe UK.
Virtua Fighter 3 HOTNEW5!
..................... .....,............. .,. .......................... ,
...
~~ ,.~~--~":,",
.. ......................... ...... AMn
-'dRt ... -SUMO~ . . . . ..
aIthouppnwfttlJthe)t ... "IYInI .... ,...... wlth t he Jumpl"l-'SOhe....,. not ....... ltto Ih."n.I ••,.... Thlrewlll.lsobl_t.Pln"" Mmalt eharad.r, ;llthoulh 11,ln, no more clNll, haYlbunreluStdilS,..I, Anoflht ..Jsllnlcharac. lerl from Ihe p.eYious two ,lmt1 wlllallO appea.ln the third e pllodt, ;lnd uch fllhter will be Updllted wilh ntw mOYls II _11111 I n upa'lId,ln IInimlillon . AMahlven'llnnounced linoffk lll lr.l.u.dlll.for Ihe glm.,..t, bI.Il_'d t1timltt th,t It will probably be finished InIrOlmdf()U rtosl. monlhs-theSllum yenio n will no doubt follow I ftw months Ifter th;lt .
<Iii' SEGA SATLJr.N
HOW UN·PC Shockl Horrotl Virtua Fighier Rtmlx and Panzer Dragoon art to appear on the PC before Ihe end of this ~arl What II the world coming 101 Actually. ifs not all that bad really Tt<hno-types NVIDlA have developed a 3D accelerator card specially designed 10 cope With the conversions (It WIll only work WIth top of the range PCs) and the board comes packilged With Virtua Flghler Remix. Saturn joypads will also be compatible wllh Ihe accelerator card Some of Stg~'s 16·bit products will also be making their way 10 the PC,including ComiK Zone and Tom CiitAlity Stga will il lso be developing specific titles for Ihe PC. ilnd will rtlta seallof theirlllll!iunderihe labelSegaPC.
Basildon , Birkenhead, Birmingham, Brighton , Bristol, Bromley, Chatham, Chester, Clapham , Coventry , Crawley, Croydon, Dudley, Huddersfield , Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Lewisham, Manchester, Nottingham, Plymouth, Preston , Sheffield, Strewsbury, Slough , Swindon, Thurrock, Turnbridge W ells, W akefield, W arrington, W olverhampton , York .
Free witL a pair of LA. Ugltts
The race is on! In odd/floll to many olhef PC titles (such as Heart of DarknfisJ, Virgin will also be bringing Ihllr smash-hit Indyeor 1 to the Sarur" In the early months oj nelCt yeor, Touted OJ ont oftht mt racing titlts on the PC, it's ~ry differentjrom Stgel's own 'ndycor soo orcodt title (a/so due to appear on the Soturn) but it is of outstandingly high quality and tmjoyed ",vitw marh of over go" when It wos fr/eoled on PC. The PC to SotUrI! co,wen/on should be 100" fojfhful to the original gome ond moy tve''' have' some odded
tlrtraJ. although ogo/n, nothing's bttn confirmed~. It's Cllso been u'lCOIIfirmtd how for the programmers 0"' IntothtfinIJhtdproduct,butthtU~O'tthtfirstSQturnJhotstoQPptoro"the
tit/e. Mort ntxt month.
Virgin sign up Capcom titles
Although there's Jittle ovtr rwo wtth
bt!ortVirtuoCopisrtltostdintht UK, thtrt's still tlmtfor you to tnttr this bd/liont compo to win thtjirst
""1IiI.~_. copy of V;,tuo Cop In thtcountry;plusoVlrtuoguntogo with It. Thtrt's no sptclol qutJtionsoronythingfor thiJcompo,juJtJtndin yournomtondoddrtn tousbythttndof Dtetmbtr_ Thtjirsttntry to orrivt to UJ will btstntthtgomt onthtsomtdoy-olmoJtowttk btfort 011 your motts will bt obit to go ond buy it. Stndyourtnt, its to VIIlTUA COP COMPO, SEGA SATUIlN MAGAZINE, PRIORY COUIlT, 30-31 FAIlIlINGDON LANE, LONDON ECIR JAU. Lib now. Oh, ond
First ~n on our p,eview video last month, WWF WI~Uemanla is set to appe~r on Saturn in the e~rty part of next year Con~rted flom the hllalious coln-op, lt will feature all the elements from the hit arcade title. and will bea multi'playelgame At the moment, distributors Acclaim are busy working on the PAlcon~rSlonofthetltle(it'salreadyavailableonthePlayst~tlon颅
I mportonly)andarehopingtoha~afinlshtdvtrslonofthetitle
ready by Christmas. although it won't sllrface In the shops until a month 01 so later H~r, althollgh WWF games In the past ha~ betnab,tbelowPill, thls is absolutely brilliant fun, wrth an abundance of muttl路hit combos, and
In the hunt Yet anotherofCapcom's arcade titles. Vamplfe Hunter (an Incredibly successful btat 'em up). will bt released on the Saturn towards the end of this year (Japanest streetdilte De<ember 29th). The title Is the follow up to Darkstalkers, iI huge arCilde hit. and there will bt a couple of new characters inthe Saturn version as
Not only dMS Ellrthworm Jim hilI'( his vfry own cllrtoon show In thf StotfS, his ownfrJ, ShlnyEntfrtlllnffifnt,hllVfIl/Jocffatfdll wholf /lnf of Ellrthworm Jim toys lind other doobrlfJ. Fons of fit~rofthfgomffwlll
fftognlsfoll thf/r
favourltf chllradffJln thff/gurfJ, ondthfrf'S
wordllftowhflher thff/guffswll/oppfor o/flc!ollyovfrhfrf, Olofhowffiuch thf)'wlllcostfjthf)'do,butWffifonf') bound to snop thfffi up for distrlbutlon-osuff-/lffhltthq wllllHlndud.
well as few new moves fOI some characters. At the moment. the title Is around 70" complete, andCapcom ilre hoping fOf an arcade-perftct convefslon.Expectthetitletoberelustdovel hele by Virgin In early路9D. More news soon.
Cyber-Conversion If you
ever owned iI Mega-CD. Sn~ tcher will ring more thiln iI few
bells-Itwils probilblyoneof the best ilc!V1!ntures ever to ilppeilron Ihe formal Anywil'j, Konaml have Just ilnnounced thilt they will be bringing this cyber-adV1!nture to the Silturn ilnd;llthough the story
ilndgilmeplilywiliremillnthesilmC,thcgfilphlCSwillbetreatedto ilnupdateilndtherCffiaytleilnextfilep,sodefor»turnowners (illthoogh it's undecided ilt the moment), Although this probilbly
Isn't the mostt)((lt,ng nl!'WS In the world. h does hold hope for thl!' future, both In terms of Konaml releasing lIilmes onthe Saturn and illsolngameplayterms,Vousee,Snatcherillreadyhasiisequel cillied Pollcenauts, which is currentlydolns the rounds on thc 100 HOpefully. this brilliant adventure will ilppearlnll on the Satum too. ~lthou8h
It's II~ety that It will probably be relused by someone
otherlhinl(on~mllfltdoes.
ROLLING START!
tjyou're still thlnkmg O/buymg 0 Sorum. there~ a lpeclol pockjun released which bundles Daytona with the Sorumfar £349 Thert you go.
HAS FIFA BEEN .......,.... ",...' N wlHMl.rln, whllt'. ,oln, CHI with 1M s.tllm c_n/oft of "fA Socc.r, wo", no mON, MuIlM _'v.JIlIlItad _Ihllt It lSontM . .YIIWI.lIoulcllM ovt hi IM.,.'y Doc.mNr loth. It_mod Ihllt 1M p"'Iram_n_N_rtdn. to set tM Piqlbtlon clHI'I'UJlon ovt flnt, Itvt _ ' v. JIlIt Non Infonnocl tMt tM Sat.. rn v.nlon I. ""lib". to hit tM tho,. CHI tho 11_ 41)' II tho PlI"tatlon nrHon 4on, whkh In4Hcl.lIoulcllM truo of molt IA , 1 _ c~14 1M down to tho t.d thllt Sony h......... n "41f'f1n11t" IIIout 111ow1n' ..... /opoN to set th~r ,llYIfllpp' O'f'odwtlkh ha. hlnchNd4..,.lopon. or It could IMthllt tho ~p_ntt'lm h..... th.'r t~Mnt..othOf In4 flnl.hod tho s.tllm v.nion In tllM. Who k _ l
'nI'.
,ot
Virtua Fighter 2And SEGA Rally release news! A/thollgh Segl Europe h~ye m~nlged to let Virtu. Cop out In time for eh rlstm~s, It', looking Yery unllkelylh.tellherSeglbllyor Vlrtll~Flghterlwlli .ppearlhls.'deof,g9s·Howeyel,fret~nol,1$
Ihele'•• perfectly lood ruson for Ihl •. After ,ettlng somewhat panned forlhe conwrslon of Oaytona, SegahaYedecldednotloreluselnyPAlYerslonlof gamesuntlitheycange1:lhemnnUltothe Japanese orig'nall 1$ p<ISslbl•. And that mun, full Kreen, full 1pH'd conYll!nlons. Yep, Vlrtua Cop Is full Kreen and sowll1 III of Sela's other stir Iltlfs be
.
''', ::'::, '''t .:
~ ~.
===--=--§
SEGA SATURN
Unfortunately, this may mun thlt you'll hlye 10 w.lt. couple ofelClrl weeks before you can go and bllythe glme, but Sell fftllh.llt',betterlo gel I perfect cMYfrslonlnlolhelhopl rather Ih.n rushing the limes pure/yto get them out In lime for Chrlstmls.So, Iheprellml·
100.
n.ry reluse dale for Vlrtua FIIh!er2 IsJ.nulry 8Ih, Ind Sela Rally should follow II Ihe end oflhe month (Ihll won't eYen be ollt In Jlpan until December
':,:;:);;~:~:::~:~~; may be slllh!· rudeuhoplngto •• m •• lnlhll'homes
/y'
"m"'''"~
bylhe end of thl~II,
Se",re working rllily hard to lei European
tlml asJlplnlse onl., Ind they rully are making prog,en on Ihll,l/thou,h there alw.ys will be a certaln.mountofwl/t· Inltlmepure/ybecluwthe,'mll haYf 10 be reconfllured for PAl. mathlnlli. So,full KrHn, full spetd limes GUARANTEEDI 8rlllllnll
------------"""''"'-,
......'"' ' '
•
In 8" Once
ound up all tho•• tltl•• which ar.
currently in development and may, or may not see the light of day as official releases in the UK. We'll also be taking a look at how some of the more advanced titles are changing as they get closer to Beta stage, and there's even a sneak peek at a few obscure Japanese titles that probably won't make it over here in any form.
T ~:t~~~nt~:tn:a!~r:~~;~!~~et:oll~::::faon
th e
Playslalion-only game. 9ut, although il 'srccciving father a lot of atte nlion at the momenl-mainlyina can-the Saturn-handle- il kind of way, it's quite jfonic,bc<ause itwils nevcr completely ground breakin8inaVirtua- Fighte r.~ind·of.wilywhenit
wasrcleased
originally anyway. In fact, Sega still
aren'tsu.e whetherlhey',e
.eleasingitover herc,butlhe Japanf'se willhave it in the shops by the f:O nd of December. Anyway, for those of you who don't know anything about TohShinDefl. basicallyifs another one of those one on one fighting8 ames But it'S not like VirtuaFighteroranythin8 Nope. it's more ofa weapons with special moves affair. However, the Salurnwill benefit from somechan8estothe origmal title-there will bean as yet undisdosed amount of newcharactef s,makin8 the game structure different from the origmal Ifs difficult to tell at the moment just how dose t he general Saturn converslonofToh Shin Den will be to t he Playstationoli8mal.bul it's not because the Saturn can't handle the game's power or anything like that Infac\. it will be down tothe developers' ability to programme the machine more than anythmgelse. Here's a few eariy shots
,
I
,
- , ~ f\
I fthenilmerin8Sil bell'it'sprObabtYbecause itwun'tt:;.~tI~o"~g~!!~~~~~~~~~~i~iiii~11 ilgo when Thor Wil5 doing the rounds on the humble Megildrive ,
And here It is, bilc k ilg il in, in illi its souped,uPll -bit
glorydom. In fact , th is (Duld ponibly be Ihe very first
fnglish I;lnguilge RPC to appeil ron the Sillu,n (sorry, but Virtual Hydlide and Mansion of Hidde n Souls don't even qualify). Ll.lckily, it looks ilSthough It will be ofrully high qUillity too, with the silme elements from the 16路bitvenion ported ove r to Saturn, although of course, the graphics will be completely upgraded, ilnd thef'f s iI different storyline too. tegend of Thor was Inuedibly popular on the Megadnve
'.usety due to lIS mI. of beat 'em up gameplay, arude actIOn ilnd adventurestoryhne, milkmg II iI more m路depthvtlslOfl of Streets of Rilge thiln ~nythlng else Which wolked blilhiintly, ilS It surely will ontheSiltufn At this stage on development. there's very hUleofthe ilctuil lgamepl~ytosee,butSega areoonfiden t thiltltwlllappc!ar
on the machine by around Easter time. The shots shown here were taken from a 40"" complet e verSiOn, but already the title IS lookong preUyi m preSS lve
SEGA
5
. . ... ,..
!i.::,.. " .,. ...
.~ 1'_ ~: ::
.....
"
~
. . r,
L.J
=......;. .~
orry, It'S another updateforthisgame_Buthey.don't blame us blame t hose laly programmong types who obv,ously haven't got off t heir behondsand bot hered to do any more work on th e PAL conversion Hats off to the t rans lat ors t housh,because at least most of the EnSlish teKt has now been programmed onto the game Hurrahl Now~canunderstandatlea5thalfofwhat'sgolllgonl Nothong mlKh has changed from a gameplay perspective though, so with any luck. thiS will make It to the review sectlOfl next month
..'
c路 - ~ ==
'-'- -
p ::b:~ ~;;:It=~ =~~~~:~~~~~~~t~~~es gUIStOfOIRobotnlk'SMtan8eanM~chlne),Puyo PuyoenJoyedm~ssl~successwhen't
wilsleleasedonthe16.bitacoupleof yeals ilgO, But you can't go and con~ltthee~istingtltletothefal
superioISaturn,canyouIWtll,tl, maybfoyou can. But you can't dolt alongw,ththee~lstlngOIRobotnlk
hcence,that'sfolsult OOhnO,that's Just fal too 16·b,t and hn too many Somc associatiOrls as well So,outwlth theoldtattyMegadrl~stuffand,n
w,th thiS all·new sequel No fat old trouts to play agilmst (unless you're in multl.playelmodeofcoulse),just loadsmoreofthesame,brolliantiy addicti~aClionAndcomton,th,s
just hOI tobfo rtltasedovelhele-sureIYI!'ssome· thmgeverySaturnownelwouldwant.evenlflllsa leallySlmplegameconcept
p us
,.
c. .. •••
.
980e "'--S
-";~f
--------
J :-
----
GOLD
•
"
OECE " BER
eadersofourlastissuewillnodoubtremembfor the news story run on Johnny Bazookatoneplatform hero eJrtlaold,naore,takmggames mlo Ihe nt~1 d,mension and beyond 01 somelhlng k,nd of likt that Anyway, the code fOf the gamt IS almost complete.and US Gold ha~ set a release dalt for mld·Otctmbtr.Thegamefeatulesrtndtrtdchalac·
R
lersandeachl~lislhemtdalounddlfferentmuslC,
wllh loads ofcharaClels playmg spt<lfic parts Intht gamt Anyway, as we said, thiS is almost finished, and has t>ten sent toSega fOI approval
Blk D ::=Id~n~~~;~~~; ~~~~h:O;r:;;:~f~~hd~~~S;~; :~~n the new year Therc"s not realty much explaining to be done here -Ihc giJme speilks for itself It's ilnother Puyo Puyostyle tl!le, c)(Ccpt
In
thilt this lime there's no cute little beans or penguins orilnything-
instcadyou hiJvttomiitch up monkeys. b:anann and all manner of mammals Into ncal little rows, And th aI's about It. but hcre's some
SEG "
T ,
ohdearie me, Shall we just, er,let bygones be bygones7Okay, telspvi ii another way. CanweforgellhallllctoryC;oaleverell.lSled1 It'sjusll hit, well,ll wasn't very good Will 117 It may have been a minor lu<cess In Japan, bvt owr here, peopte are hyper·crlt lnt offoolle titles and In terms ofga mepllY, IIlctoryCioaljustdldn'tmakethemark. Whlchlsa damned shame really, because until FIFA makes lis way on to the Saturn, lhls Is the only footle title ilVillllble for Saturn owners, Bvt hey, It's not all bad news. You see. Ihe creators of Victory Goal were more than aware of t he same's short· comlnss, so they took the same's enslne back to Ihe dfaw, ins board andslarted loworkona new, upc!a led version of the title The programmers are working on new AI for
O
thepla~rs.there'sloildsofnewteamsandthegraphlcs
have been reworked 100. This Is another Iitie that's already out In Japan but at the moment. there are no plans to release It owr here, as there could be more Interest,ng fOOtietlllesonthewayl
R~~I~:~c~!I~~~cr::c:~ni: ~f~'lrrC~h~:E:go;~:r;~ ~~~ tel form the scre-enshots, this is another Shining Forcc type gilmcwith some rather 1000cly graphics. In fact, It's even crutfll by the highly acclalmedShlnlngForcctnmthemselves, JOyoucani>epretty much guaranteed th .. t the g"meplay and story will betop notch. This hn alfudy been released In Japiln, but ilS thcrf's a prctty
hCiJ"')' ilnd compllciltcd storyline, it's unllkelythatyou'd be ilble to understilndlhelmportverslon. Sega'stranslallon dep artmenl are looking at the title the moment.bul as yet. It's been undecided whether the game will be released In the UK. In fact, In fairly unl,kely that It will appear, u Sega have loads of other RPGs lined upforfelenelnEuropenext~ar.
.' '. ~
-.
...,. __ :!,--,.-, • •
!,. I
'i.!
-- -
- --
I
."OU ".VIJIII'TGU .... DYIT ..OMTHI.ICTU.II,SJ( ~ ~ . Gun',the more mobile F" 5,the stunt I fighter f-16, and the French MOlT 'AMOUI COIN ' O" 1'1'.1 - An ••• UIN.I. strategic multi· mission fighter-
r ...GIT II MODIUIO ON _AT.I "OIlIILV SlG ..•• AI WITH THI LlC.NOAItV .L....
n. O. OLD, SKY
Ralale M .
r....CITI....III II' · To-THI". . . . . . HOOf'IMU ..
ANY IOI'Ne n::;C:I::'~:: ::,:::~:;:G. .:~OOJIIIU::T:~:~~~;•• lTo.y
STAY ON TARGET!
0 111 ... M in ION TO OIlTIO'I'''' ITGUJIII ".OTon,"•• IGMn., YOU ...... <AUy HAVI
Thanks to the Model 2 board's Incredible graphical abilities, Skylarget pits you against the kind of enemy craft that
TO IHOOT "'II"'HIIIIIG 1l1li liGHT. SWAIMI 0' "GHTII "LAIIII", GIOUIIIIO A"AULI .,I HItUf, IIIII.MY IUILOIIIIIG' - IUIT ILOW THI LOT AWA., WITH .,01,11 HOMIIIIIG MlnlLn,
would hilYe had Tommy from Afterburner soiling his under· crilckers. There's the usuill
'AL " AIIII 10M.' AIIIIO MACHIIIIII GUIIII. YII', THI I"IIIT 0' "'''IIUIIIIIII HAl InUIIIIII OI
miluofenemyflghtersyou
CHOCKS AWAY! Of course. while Sky Target m ight sound to be. In
• •
essen ce. just a rehilsh of Afterburner. It prom ises to be iI fu super ior beut. For starters. It uses the Model l bo a rd ilnd we all know what th ilt means. Su pe r s mooth , t exture·mapped polygon graph ics turn a simple s hoot 'em up into a re alist ic look ing flying exper ience. As you 've come to expect from a lmost every game nowadays, Sky Target allows you t o switch betwee n fou r differe nt viewpoints throughout the game, from the full-Kreen view, o r the In·the · cockp it pe rspect ive, to exterior followlng.the· plane views. Adding to th is expansion of the Afterburner the me , the gilme also allows you to select your fighter plane from four differe nt types of craft . There 's the F-14 Tomcat from Afterburner and 'Top
..'. . .... "
2.J1.=-
SEGA SATURN
SkJ Tl/1tt "" S... ·. I'""'II'" lIodtl2 beNil"ll. wltlclllI",1I1 JUPlir-llIIOOt~
PO/Yl" ,,",phlc..
ciln 'Iock·on ' to with your missile sight. but the big I!lIent of uch level Is The 80ss1Found at the end of each stage. these monstrous enemy craft are more than ten times the size of your own plane. It 's at about thi s point that you can experience the judderlng feedback of the Joyst ick as your crilft endures 100" dilmilge ilnd pl ummets to the groundl
LOWERING LANDING GEAR! Sky Target proved highly successful when unveiled at the September JAMMA show In Tokyo and s hould make it Into British arcades very soon, when we'll all be able to g ive the gilme a thorough playtesting. After that. all things going well, the g a me could be slated for Saturn convers ion. although Sega have yet to make any comment to that effect. We 'll just havetowaitand see.
.. .... ... .... .
m
NV.IUD""H ••• ClliljTJAMMA SHOW HUD IJIII TOI(YO , WA.
AM2 '. NIW COM
I.' fin. ,
FIGHTING
V." •••. ALTHOUGH THI
GAMI WON" II "" " .. IING IN THI ••CAO" OWII HII. '01 " ( DU"LI 0' MONTH', SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE (AIIII .flU .IING 'I'OU THI MotT
AND 'H . . .
v, TO DAn IN' OIM ...'ION ON THI Tin"
·.n...... nw WOIol 0l1li THI IUIIICT D•• leT '10M
GUlu. AMl I Alt hough FIghting Vipers is nttle more th~n 70" complete, the jctuOII 83me wu on free play to all punters at the JAMMA show, and charilcters were completely playable. Scheduled for a December fetuS!! In JilpOIn, Eutern gilmers 3rt already going completely bonkers over the title ilnd AM~ themselves ,He putting the finishing touches on the presentatlonthis even Indudes add ing more moves to each character. Anyway, If you can't tell by now, Fighting Vipers 15 a one on one fighting g~me, ~nd It w~s developed using the ume g~me engine developed for Vlrtu~ Fighter 1. 9~slc~lIy, it's the ume g~me concept ~II round except th~t there 's new ch~r~cters ~nd millions of new moves. Unlike Vlrtu~ Fighter there's no ~ rlng out ~ option - inste~d the fight ing ~ren~ Is surrounded by ~ fence th~t fighters c~n be sl~mmed Into. All of the ch~r~cters in Fighting Vipers we~r a suit of ~rmour which wears out as the fight progresses. P~rtlcularly dramatic clashes between fightersareplayedoutfromthreedlfferentperspectlves~ndthedegreeof d~m~ge
to either ch~r~cter will be shown
~Iongs l de
their strength g~uge.
INTRODUCING .•• - - - - - - - - ,
In ~II , there's ten fighters, ~nd as you would expect form AM2, there's blurte (h~r~cter explan~tion to go with each. And here they ~re ...
, . , SEGA SATURN
~
I TEAM
17
moment, don't they? lEDuW.nll'fGD has already made his
I £TBA
I SHOOT
."
UP
second attack on the ,6-bit market, and now thousands of the blighters are preparing to take over the Saturn. And if you're not careful, they might just L£I!ilIl1tIJ'll too.
ous~,Wormscouldveryeilsily
Y
become the surprise hit of the yur. Combinlngthewickedpunles of Lemmings with simple shooting action, Worms is one of the most addictive gilmes we've seen In ages. Why, grown men hilve been seen crying ilt the demise of their invertebrale nation, while olhers have been scruming with glee ilt the prosped of blowingtentonsofdynamiteintolheir competitors. WhICh. we do appreciate. may be a littlediffi wlttotelifromthesescreenshots.Wehavetoadm't that they don't exactly show the game off very well Butthat"s because Worms doesn't rely on the sraph ical content of the game to entice the player Nope, irs all 100% sameplay here, sir, Up to four teams
WORMS DOESN ' T RELY ON THE GRAPHICAL CONTENT OF THE GAME TO ENTICE THE PLAYER.
NOPE, IT'S ALL 700% GAMEPLAY HERE, SIR.
take,t intutnstodropbombsoneachotherinthe eventual hope that they'll wipeout their enemy"s team, It'S poss ible to build brodses. tunnel throush thelandscapeandevenbunseejumpinan attempl 10 reach enemy worms. and a different landscape is senerated every time you playlhe same, with a total of 12 billion possible same areasinall.There'salsoasaveopt,onenabhnsyou to save any favourite particular landscapes, and the whole same is played under tim e constraints of up to fifteen minut es_If there's still worms hangingaroundbythattime,thenifsstraight inl o a sudden death mode where each worm's life is reduced tojust one poinl -in whkh case, the first team 10 kil l a worm wins the same There's Iwenty different weapons to collect In all,andwlth so many different ways of play inS ,t. It's just possible that this could be one of the most last able games ever - it's ruthless bombinsacllon certainly makes ita much better bet than puzzle daSSic,lemminssBl.lt,ifyou'reafteradefinitive opinion, we're afraid you'll have towail for a while Altho uSh the game version shown here is almost complete, the prosrammers are still workins on a few details on the title, which mear"lsit WOr"l't be completed fOf a couple of weeks, NeKtmonth, however, we'll defir"llt ely have the review for you
~
•
SEGA SATU1<N
,
-
-
' .
"
/. ~ ,.;,
-- -,
" ,..-,
~.~-
" . .. " ~
~
.
.
,., . ~
.....
~
....'"
. ," ,., ...
--
\
~---
~-
.
. . . SEGA SATUI<N
'-'--
1,--=-_-.1. .•1.;114+1 I,,,
£
BMG's initial Saturn tranche of releases are conversions of
_ ! £TBA
Crystal Dynamics' games first released on the 300 format last
_
yea r. And an mmn:mmmllltttH hey are too, with the Horde
!STR ATEGY
in particula r not fitt ing neatly into any category. That's because there isn't, to our knowledge, another game that expects you to
T
he game Issplil Into four phans, one of which Is action, two being tactical
..
and the fourth a strles of FMV
sequencesthilltpropeltheplot along.Thtlutoflhestlsprobably the most binrre: shrting with the enactment ofa fUst, YOUf chafacter Is bestowed
~~
lands by King Winthrop, and given a sword,
.
Grimthwacker, with which to defend them. hler FMV sequenu's art a mixture of ... ndam ntWl
". ]..:~":.
-'l~,,ItI""",.
.eports, ads,ulm ;ated sequences ilnd spoofcilble
Thl younithapplllnlb. FIIV thot, I, a.p~red bl' lif. by thlklnl(aner,toppln8 hilidt/lnlllfromtboklni on brot~) . nd II promptty rtpaldbyhulnlanenormoultu bill dumped Oft hJiII1,lIolt unfalr,mn If It dotlimulalirtalllf.,
news reports. The fifst tactical scene follows, giving you a portion oftirne to spend Yol,lr Income on voilrious projects in and around youfvillage. These range from plantlns trees and buylnsciittletodefenslvl! measures like pits, fences.lnd wails. Your defences
A GROUP OF
.
. . . . . .:~!....-::' ,
MONSTERSJ
HORDELlNGSJ ATTACK FROM ALL DIRECT/ONSJ DESTROYING CROPSJ BUILDINGS AND GOBBLING UP THE VILLAGERS .
come into play in the next phase-the action sequence, A group of monsters, Hordelings, attack th e vi ll age from all directions, destroying crops, buildmgs and gobbling up th e viliagerS,YOlirarmed charactercandestroythem,andwell·developed defences will hinder t hem, AI the end of th is phase, damage is assessed and your income and village ooth prosper by limiting the aUack of the Hordelings Gradually, the alternating tactical and aclion phases become more complex - your village sprawls into Sl.moundmg territory and YOllr enemies become more powerful
MeyMy! It'll eow! lou ~lYIlo buy pltnty oftbem
I
.
.
.
In tbilpme, and uepln& hold of them ml1 not bt QultlueuyuYl)U'd
.....- ,.
~r
Ihlnk,Thly kuPSIttil8 attaekld by all iII1.nftlr of ruthlesshord.lln,-typel )'1IMSflI,
O(casionaily,afmalphasewhereyoupayta~es
totheKmg'snefariousexchequertakesplace,which also gives you the chance to purchase items of particular value , stone wails to feplace fences, meat with which to distract the altackers This somewhat complicated ~rview belies the real simplicity at the hearl of the game, which actually fits intoa select genre known as 'panic sames', Theseevillitt letitleshavescenarioswhich aim to overwhelm you With tasks and difficulties, where only a cool head and methodicalsameplay will see YOli throush , Whether Saturn owners wish to be panicked by The Horde's hordes remams to be seen, We'll becalm and collected for the review next month,
1
..
.
:
-, ~··" ....1''::-.: 1\)1,,,.,,.-.
..... \1i\.\~-:.:,.:
.....
What . prim...ampll of IIIlnhooci thlltbappll II, I'm turw)'1ltl.11 IIplrw 10 be liuhlm, lIotlt.11 dlllllstlntlH'fOllllnanf .~.
4i> SEGA SATURN
.
THE
Sim City with! ef! cows? What on earth!s going on?
hln to build u~
In'l'lronm.nt.tro", "nthl"..
thul..",thlminthlhlndloflh·IH.,N tOlpuk. Tb..... llrtoflh.Slm.~"' •• ln bulldlllJuplnlmpll'll.trat,glcllly,lOIbat
YOM'rtnotl,nopeRtolltlckfrollll.lnuty tIoNIelinp.
.
" ~ ___..::~~,:
. ,j~ !1'
, . , SEGA SATURN
'-'----I
• •
Late last year, BMG delivered a QJ;mm.n4'JI4QiiU.t$1 to all
magazines which contained all of the forthcoming year's products. But since then, very little, in fact, NOTHING has been heard of the company.l'j'!jmJitlillim'l!.lilllU!l1iilW What have they been doing? Well, it 's pretty easy to find out - they've completely fiiELh&!illl4ii.J,himumt.UJtm, have disbanded all
m .i.
•
mOngthel'flfStb~tChoftltlesUPfor
relust iJre both Solar Eclipse and Bluing Drilgons. Bothcfnted by
Crysta l Oynamlu, both havt illrudy enjoyed some succeu on Ihe JDO. In fild, CrystOliIDynilmlcshOllveiln
enormous reputation in the video game Industry, mllinly ilS they were responsible for some of the
urlySiliconGraphicsdtmostoutedaftwyears bilck, But,ilsJlnyprogrilmmetworthhlssaltwili know, crutlng gil mes IS il whole different bundle of SC iut Iuds, so to spu k. And so far, It 's probablyfillr to say that Crystal Dyn a m!cs are stili finding their feet. However, all of their titles hilve been remas· tered for the Silturn, so with any luck,bythetlme they're finlshed, they should be preUy good. Hell,Itwassosuccessfuionthe3DOthatan animated series of the game has been scheduled to appear on lTV in early 1996. BlazingDragonstakestheplayerbacktothe bygonedaysofKlngArthur.exceptthatthelables ha~e turnedandtheevildragonshavebecome
knights,whileArthur"strustymenaremereslaves
IT'S DIFFICULT TO TELL WHAT THE FINAL VERSIONS WILL BE LIKE, ALTHOUGH IT'S FAIR TO SAY THAT THERE'S STILL A LOT OF WORK LEFT TO BE DONE.
So. the gameplay is more focused around the dragons than anythlnS else, and there·s one in particularwhosetrlalsoflifeyou·llfollow-Fllcker He·sabitofabumblinsldiotreally.andyou·llha~e
to steer himthroughalisorlSofmishaps in order to prevenlhim form running into his arch·rival. the Black Dragon (an evil mecllanical contraption) Solar Eclipse however, couldn"t be more differenl.ln fact. it harks back more to traditional gameplay. being the 3D shoot ·em upthat it is. Adually. the code we·ve seen is still very early. so ifs difficult to tell what the final version will be like. alt~ough irs safe to say thaI there still is a lot of work left to be done on the game·s presentation and grapllics.Asfarascontentsoes,thisisyourstandard blaster-there·s loads of levels, plenty of power ups and masses of huse enemies and bosses that popup out of nowhere. Atthe momenl BMC can't give any official details as 10 when these lilies will be released. but with so much development time already spent on them. we·d halard a guess that theyll be out within the next two months. look out for more info next issue.
. . , SEGASAn...rr.<N
~'!:f \",...-,
"
~tS;:
.
/) ..:." .
.
.'. . .
~ " \' "
. ' .,
'
..
\~ ' ' '\ . !:,::. '.... ,-:~-
-
.
Number one 300 hits make their way to the Saturn!
.- ~
..!'-~---:.
.~"
- --
~;:
,!: ,~"'"
'" --~,I ,
I
•
30lboal '1 m ups, WI IluthoH,Alot. If tbly'ttSI)Od,lbatll .
.-
.-
.~ ~.
'Ii '¥: -
'-:
1/1 SEGA SATURN
~
Ius
IDECEMBER
•
After the mttIilHMltithat was
@ftftfti:Mibffltl it's hard ly
surprising that most people have
1m" iltltttf! ! in Golf games.
Whatever happened to the classics of the genre such as the
il4iiillhiNU,,·ii41i4i Why aren't they on the Satu rn?
m
I
•
GOLD
I nBA
ell,eV'dent,Y"tseemsyou do, A,most everyone who's ever owned iI console h;nmorethilnllkelyownedilgolf gilme of some deuription, It's a kind of Interdependent relationship. Uh cheese and wine, Or something like thilt. But, the golf game has hildil bitofa rough tlmeoflt slnce t heSiiturnwilSunlushedonthe public iI h!w months aso, Fora start, no one seemed very Interested In developing a solfsame for the nutseneration miIChlne, Except for Sega that Is, who promptly developed the rilthertrilgic Pebble Buch Golf-which received something of a panning when It was reluud In September, Still, it seems as though developers are getting round to crutlng golf sames-even EAare bringing their legendilry golf series on tothe Saturn In the not sodlstilnt future, But whilt of now 1 Where;He we to fmd our golfing pleasures inthe mean time 1 Well ,actually, you won't hilveto look toofilr beciluse US Gold have finally reared their rather liHgeand important head and come upwitha rather nifty golfing game, entitledWorldCupGolf,Encompassingnoneofyour
ENCOMPASSING NONE OF YOUR MADE UP GOLF COURSE RUBBISH, THIS OFFERS YOU THE CHANCE TO PLAY ON ONE OF THE WORLD's
FINEST GOLF COURSES. made up golf course rubbish,this offers you the chance to play on one of the world's finest golf courses-Ihe Hyatl Dorado 8each course in Pl.Ierto RicO. As you'd expect, all the course graphics are taken from Silicon Graphics renders and there's a hole·by·holecommentarythroughout thetille World Cup Golfhas already appeared on PC earlier in the year, but the Saturn version has had many improvements made to it in fact, producerGaYinCheshlre~ngoesas
fartosay,"Therearealotofgolfgames that playwell,and others that look great but play like dogs.Wltheightmonthsoffurtherfinetuningofan already supelbgolflng engine, linked to the massive power of the Saturn, World Cup Golf stands head and shoulders above the competition." We'll see, Gav, we'll see World Cup Golf Is almost 8o%complete and is scheduled for a Oecember/January release,sowe should be able to bring you a full review in time for next month .
, . , SEGA SATIJRN
J .' POS
I\AMI: v
JI DR'!
KObE
P~R
.JP
If.;"
I
________________________________-Ji~.i..II.4i~'~i1~i~ga~+~I~~~路III
,-
H)
\ 1 1
4iP SEGA SATURN
'_9__
DEAR SSM, Flrstlyl'dhketosilycongriitulatrons.WHfYHfYanda verywelldonetoantxctlltnffirnissuelaunch,and ane_cellentpromovideo_ Gr~lIin8oye r lwouldjustliketoask
where is the hints 'n'tlps guide for the Saturn and are you going to be publishing one inthe near future/ Ifposslblepleastcouldsomeonehelpme on Bugl,l'm stuck on Splot xenel ilS I Cilnnot get past thefwe f10iltlng bubbles. When I rang theStga Helplme(hil ha) they rephed no-one was ilVilllable to give help as they don't have trme to test all games and they don't give t iPS out Afterspendmg £400 on Stga Saturn ilnd £300 on gilmes surely Stga should milke time to help us novice ga merswho a re stili around. Ithink it would be Interes tms to heaf how many more people have hildil negatIve answer from Stsa elmy on tht good SSM , Kflrl Swfln, lllffln, Bt dl.
4jI :~;:r ~:~~::~;~~~~h~:~~;~to77t~I:h~ n:~~~ !:!:I~;:r:.h~~~~~
if enOllgh people ilsk them nictly they'll $ft one up. We might publish some kind of tips guide In the future,bllt there ilren't rUllyenough gilmes ilround to Wilffant it light now. But there is il level stlect for Bug in this month's lips sWlon, so it's not all bad newsl
SURPRISED I DIDN'T WIN DEAR SEG A SATU RN MAGAZINE, Firstly I would hketosaytha t yourmagaz lneisthebestandl hillft every Issue Now on totht main reason why I'm wlltmg m, Whole I was look· m8 at the fesults oflhe Virtua F'ghttr (Ompttltlon In Issue n I was surpllSl'd and dlsappomted Ihat my character wasn't among the ones that you printed Now 1don't want to ClltlClst any of the entlles as some of them were act but I thmk thilt my character, Tyrol Slilr. was just as good as. Of better than thl' best of those efforts, Although the historywasmaccu· rate (I found out that Du ra l was a robot not a human after I had sent it in) it was quite Imag. inativeandreally,that wa swhatyousaidyou were lookmg for After working on It just about everyday for a month I feel as If I have wasted my lime, especlililysrncel should have used illl ofthilt time dorng my homtwork [Thilt's not our filult -SSM).lamCUffl'nllylnmyfinal)'f!arofsec. ondaryschooland I hilve fa llen a bl t behrndon
30
...>-
':>f GA SATUkN
~ Well you seem 10 be lacking somewhat In the Imilginatlon depilrtmenl, having not been able to il) think of somtthingmortconilructivetodowithilmonlh'sworthofevenings illYOllr ilge, or b) foresee the enSiling detrimentill effects to your eduu . lion. Just Ihink,yoU could hilve fillien behind by going out ilnd sniffing glueorjoyriding, ilnd Instud you spent tht time on a competition. That's why YOII didn't win. Still,l blilmt tht pilrtnts. PS We un tell you what the other reilden think. They don't cale,
FRENZIED BOX OPENING I fe<entlyfound myself in the nice posItion of actually havins some money left at month tnd. So, off I went 10 my loul computer store and bought myself a Saturn plus RF leild (my televiSion does not have a SCART socket) However, after a frenZied 00_ openrng session whl'n IgOI home. I rud thl' Silturnhandbookonlytodlsc~r
thiltldldnot nl't'dan RF Iud as the Saturn can be run through my Video NOW,SUfl'ly"fthlsisaviabll' optIon for peopll' WIth SCART·free television, why was It not madl' more widely knownl I,and many othersalli::e, have bought a hslead that I don't need Surl'lyrnformalronas Slmpll' aslhlscould have better publrcISl'd by Sega orarl' they too rnttnt on maklngmonl')'att~e_ptnstof
the already over·payms end ustll BBt thtl, Twyford, Btrlcs.
~~ :.a~:~: ;:~I~~r~::s::: :~~~ill~e,
.., dearer thilt ilny old SCART socket Inthe houst would run your Silturn for you, blltthen, so could Oi_ons. Maybe milnufilcturers jUlt auume iln un,ullstlcleveloftechniCillfamltlilrltyon the partoflheircustomers,ButflltllreSilturnowners bewilfntd-videoSCAIlTsockttsilreptrfectfol YOUI consolt, so no RF required.
MUMMY_ I'M SCARY DEAR SECiA SATURN MACiAZINE, Firstly I would I,ke 10 congra l ulateyou on havinglhe
DEAR SSM, I have r~ad many magalin~s over th~ last f~w w~~ks and I h<lYe notICed that many
besttOII~lreadrnthe(Ountry,Norea lly,it'sACE
Informative and could be classed as humorous-if you hkelhatsortoflhlng!
peopl~areslagglOgoffth~Salurnlnmany
w."
HavlngJUSlpurchaseda~gaSaturnlamhavlng
For
exampl~. 10 on~ magazin~
troubl~Wlthth'Slealrtylark-thtre'SJustnobuttons
thley
polntedoutlhallnlheyearto(om~the
out ther~ In th~ real world and not enough blood'CUI, dhngactlOni Onethlnglwanttoasldoyouknowiflhere's gorngto be a flight Simulator for the Saturn like F29 RetahatofforlhePC(bulobviOl.lslywllhbettergr,1ph.
Saturn would struggle a lot (Om~tlng ilsalnslSony'smachlne.Whatarethey saYlnglTheydon'tevenknowwhatSega hav~ hn~d upy~t I have also read thaI Sony'sSam~shavebeenprogrammed
ics)wh~reyoucanfly aroundqu lte~acefullylhenlf
uSinsmanydlfferenllibraries,lho~that
youf~llrkeltyou,anshootth~hvingCfapoutof
S~ga
something 1 Well, that's my dnbbl~ oYtf I Will s~ak 10 yol.l soon With my tlmt'S fOf th~ Daytona Challenge Big 101ft, MIlttHosklng,Clifton, Bristol.
Rally, Virtua
Fight~12and
many othel gam~s mad~ and released by S~ga uSing th~lr hblarl~S outshine the PlayStallOngames Youlmagalln~lsexcelientlnevery a5p«t-VlrtuaClty'sgr~atl PSWhtre'sth~postersyouusedto
•
glveawayl Jllmef Crou, Hille Village, Unrpool,
AI!S: The Saturn hasanace new library, ~ theSCilOSinfact_Youcarlrud
GET A NEW CAMERA
mor~
about this fascinating development and other interesting and inspiring
DEAR SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE ,
insillhtslntoth~futureoftheSaturnin
Iboughllssue220ftheSegaMagazln~llooked
mSlde and I saw what 1 thmk was the most imprt'SSlve gametocomeoutontheSatulr'I,itwasapfevicwof FIFA Soccer '96 I looked at the plcturt'Softh~lI'Itroof the game and I thought 10 myself "the graphiCS look really good" But wh~n 1saw pictures of the actual game being played il looked li ke a Master System ver· sionofFIFA ISllyour(amera t halmakesth~picture
our special future on the subjec1 elsewhere In this issue. PS: They're upon your wall.
WHAT A RRP OFF DEAR SEGA SATURN MACiAZINE, Ohdear.Sesaareatltagain,lhav~alwaysbeenaloyalsupport~r
but r~ently I w,n verydisgust~d In lal~ Sept~mber I Slroll~d down to my local comput~f stor~ and purchased a n~w shlnySalufn and a copy of Daytona al a RRP of £399
ofs~ga
ItwasonlyonthatSaturnadvertlnotlcedthatth~RRPhadbeenreducedto
fl99 to battl~ With th~ PlayStatlon I had signed up 10 a buy now pay lat~f sch~m~ I tak~ hom~ th~ Saturn and am expected 10 pay £399 n~xt April. Cool,l thoughl that's a hundred qUid In my pock~t But wh~n I ch«k~d th~ contlact "Th~ sum at Ilm~ of sal~, du~ In April". Oh d~arl I have never f~1t so sick In all my hf~.l was told th~r~ Will be a few I~ductlons wh~r~
InprlC~,butlhlslsahundredflipplngquld,lcouldhaveboughtaM~gadnYewlth
that H~r~'s my advlc~ 10 people wanllng a Salurn 11'115 ChriSlmas - walt untillh~ Winter sales. thley'li be gIVing th~m away in boxes of (~real. S~rlously Ihough, I r~c, omm~nd you walt. you wi ll sav~ a forlun~ Terry Cocking, Blundeston, Suffolk, You've remained admirably calm fOl' someone a ton 01,11 of pocket ther~,
~ Terry, and for Ihat you must be applauded. However, whilst a pre-Chrimbo pricereductionwas ineviuble, theseventyoflhecutisdependenlonbothlhe weakening Yen lowering Import costs and the fact Ihat Iht h99 machine comes without a bundled game - so customers have to shell out fOl' Virtua Fighter, whkh hopefully you didn't , Still,it doesn't give you your hypothetical hundred back, So rry, Maybe you could try suinllihe shop, or havlnll a scleam. Or murderinll commuters.
~~:~tk:I:::f ;o~u~:;e~':s t;:'nT:e~::;~~:~~;s
you could apply the same philosophytolhls · reality· of which you speak.
blurryoriSlttheactualgam~itself1lfltlslhecamera
I think you'd better change ,I because It Will makepeopie thrnk Ihat Ihe sraphics are path~tlc and therefore won't buy the gam~ Anyway. thiS IS Ihe only complaint I have got I think your magazll'l~ for th~ Saturn IS great K~p up the good wofkl MichoeIGoI/iJ,Glasgow,Scotlond. ~ Sometim~s. when lames ale really early on in development, _ can't actu· ~ ally get a (Opy of the game into our offk~s and have to take our pictures from grotty demos or videos. We'd r~lher have these in the mag Ihan not show Ihe lame al all,but Irue enough they're nol il lways of our usual pri sl inepicture standard,Butquityourwhinlngoryou'1i get nowt,
THE SATURN IS DEAD OEAR SATURN MAGAZINE , I am Willing 10 you, oul of concern for my new wonder console The Saturn. by $ega Sega IS a company for which I have always had a lot ofresp«t,unlll I recent . Iy read m anoth~r mag Ihat an AmeflCan company called Lockheed Martm were developlngtheSaturn2,andthatth~Salurnm~prematurelyupgfadedofeven phasedoutaltogeth~rl
So after all Ihat hype, all thai money (some £700+) I have purchased a dead l,along with everyone else Ihat invesled rn Ihe Saturn, Ihe add-ons and Ihe games- - "SHOULD BLOODY WELL HOPE NOT"
consol~
LAUGH AND SCOFF IN HIS FACE DEAR SSM, I was gettrng a IlttI~ bit worrred about my Saturn and future g~mes That is unlill got the fr~ Yid~1 Wowll Just Wish to say THANKS The futur~ looks very Impres· SIVe Ind~d, so now I'm off to my "PlayStatron mates hous~" 10 laugh and scoff In hisface.HaHaHa! Corl,Blrm/nghllm
.!Ji.' Why nol poke him In the eyes while you 're ~I It?
Ihav~illwaysre liedonyourmagforinfoandinSlghtintopresentandfuture
developmentslnlhewofldofSegagames.add-onsandconsoles,andaboveilill find your mag IS the only magto get for all things Sega, MorcFosttr, Crtgogh,Bt/fost,
.1; ~1~U(~n~~t=~::':~~~an!:'~I~!==:re's hardwirre until the end of 1998 at tht very urllest, Although obYIousIy Mure machines are always in development;lS they aft for Sony, AUn and 300.
•
•
Despite the wealth of information at your eyetips in eve,y Issue 01 SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, some of you still have a thirst for MORE. KNOWLEDGE. Providing this is the purpose of Q&A. If you like a question or two answering, make sure it's interesting and send it in to: YOU ARE A FOAMER, Q&A, SATURN MAGAZINE, PRIORY COURT, 30-32 FARRINGDON LANE, LONDON ECIR 3AU. LITTLE TOMMY SPEAKS DEAR SATURN MAC;, I am a Megadrlveowner and I wal'lt to get a new game Could you put this list In ofder, best to worst -Theme Park,MlcroMachines 2,Virtua Racmg. (Offil. Zone, Gunstar Heroes
2.1 want to upgrade to 32·BIT-should I buy a
31X or sell my MegadfiYeand get a Neptunel 3 When isthe Neptune gOing to be released officially? 4 If you buy a 32X from S~clal R~eM' as fealur~ in your magUlne WOuld you stili get the fsoworthofvouchersl Pleaseans~rmyqueshonSOfrll.rll.er.rll-oh
neve.mmd TomG 'sPuppet, LongsIBht, Manchesler.
.., ;', ~~;~:rp~~~;::;:n~~~:~;::'r: :~::~~'
IS IT WORTH IT? DEAlt SATURN MACi. This isthefi rstt imelamwfl t ing toyou Iwondefed whether il would be worth It because In recent mag· azines peop le have wfluen a nd complained thai some of t heir leuers have not been published and answered. I only have a few questions that I would like you to answer llhavea5egaSaturn,lndlalsohaveOaytona USA. Do you thmk for ChfistmiiS I should get another game like Virtua Cop or get the Arcade racerl l Virtua Fighler Cilme With my Siturn. In the VF l1:emlx andVF2 can you still ilCCesS Ourilll 1 rve seen the reportsofBugl ilnd they seem to be extremely good but 15 the gilme ilS good as II sounds? 4 Do you have any more b~c~ Issues as I missed number2oof5egilMilguinel PS For a ll the peopiewhowliletothemagaline ple~setrytomakeyourleners
JL.): S"lIyplion1fortheEII,ope:anlaulKh
oftIleNeptunehaftlH!en1he~ l ndefi·
nitely. It's hlShly unllhlylhe mach ine will
evtfsHlhel'shtofdayontheseshores, soyou',e ilesl off loins to. a normal 3lX. 4 , H'd be a bil (rip If you dldn·l. Try .Inglngtht m and alklng .
POOR OLD SONIC DEAlt SSM, I havejust bought your number one edition of the SEGA sATU~N MAGAZINE which Is oul of thiS world. so to speak. but there is one review thatyouprmtedwhlchlentlrelydisagreewlth.lfs Street Fighter The Movie Vou only gave II 49" overilll ilnd 51" for grilphlcs. Why such a low Kore? OK there ilrethree other Street Fighter games around,ls thilt why you KOled ,t so badly? I mean. if It wasthe first streetfighter game. then I would thmk t hat ,twould be a different storywouldn'l III whoca'eswhal)'Ol.l rate It as. I enjoy Ihegame, I enJOJ playmg It and don't say I'm a sad person·Ciluse,·mnot.l·veplilyed VirtuilFighter as well and 1Ciln'twa,tunt,IVF2IS out' Plus.edon·tslagoffilgamcbecaus.elt'sbeen done befole. poor old Somc never gets slilgged off. does he? J Newman, Chilndlen Fo.d. Hanh.
easier to understilnd for the people who don't know much about this sort of computer Because In the last Issue (num· berone) there was a leuer whiCh read "In Issue 21 some· one asked a question I would like to know the answer to. Is Daytona soing to be l1:emixed With the new AM2 sGL 051" Now I don't know what that means and I'm sure oth e'readers don't either. so can you eKplainit pleilsel Simon Bu.netl.Chlnno•. Oxon. 4/!i11: GOforthe l ,me. TheAIC,deltlCe, llonl)'ln)' ...,e Ifyo ...·yt sot 10acl,ofclrlylnggamH to keep yo ... occupied. }:Oha~.
) : H'lcertlinl), not bad. In flct . It'lvtry lood , 4: TryuliinsoBsB468888 PS The A.1 SGL OS II a blind new Opelltlnl S)'ltem
(hence the OS) fo, the Sat ... ,n ..... hlch mlkult eillerto producebliltianttntule·mlppedpot)'lonl"phin . And brllllantthe)'lre.Keeprtldlnsthemaslolll~lb.ellt
ofthesetrkkyq ... ant ... m leapi In ttchno!otY and amaze you. friend$..
fHbleanlmallonandlenerllcl°l · nellofllisamtpla~ Ihalu.ntdlllhe kl(klnlllqulle'I,htl~delervel.
... ,.1
Jonathiln Walker, a ...gh Htlth. Su"fY. ~ 'Er_ lncertlin(~.II',bom.erlhlnl'l'lOltPCi,
~ nceptthtYtf)'¥fryexpemiveonti(booo+). z Ktyboard: perhaps.. Writlnl prognim: Iorclk-. )llilf. 4 Gamel~" Sim City 1000 and Theme ',rillre port-ovt<1 ofdauk PCgamH. Expect lotl_ofth,t type ofthlnl.
sNot ... nlitt99fl~thtYtf)'tlr1iet. 6It'I,pollibility. butlhe.ea'i!fI'tanycotKrdeplanlln publichandl)'rt 1 DOES NOT COMPVTlI B Pemapi)'OU could lha.e It wilh you. cI,d Ind penuade him nol to bu)' I PC. 0.. coIlite blackmalt material I,alnlt you. brothe. and uw It agalnll hlmln malicloul wa)'l-Ot kill him,
NUMBER ONE FAN DEAlt SSM, This is you r no. 1 filnCh ris Baker, please could you answer these questions. 1: I Wilnt 11 Saturn for Christmas. However, the back of my TV has no SCART lead connector Is it true you need an RF lead and doyou lose picture Of sound quahty with onel 2. Will Virtua Fighter 2 be out on Saturn before Chllstmas? 3 Is Mortal Kombat 3 coming out on Saturn beforeChnstmas? 4 Will a virtualreahty mask come out for the Saturn? 5 Will a Saturn version of the Playstatlon skate· boiIrdstlCkeve,be,eleasedl 6. Will there be a releil'it!ofa full·motlOn vtdeo Cilrtlldge.ifso.when? If you answef these IfII really help Thilnksl Chlls baker, Church Village, Mid Glam, 5 Wales
Q&A IS ACE!!!
,~ Sl'HlfilhterThe Movlt wJsn 'tcritidled for lh
-=-'" late·(omlnlllot lntheSlrHlfishterllnule. Afte.all.lhe.earen·tANVStrHtfl,hle"amelforlhe Salu.n.Hwa,lhe llow·down , poo,cll,lllledlrlphICl,
on the Saturn? 71nthesamesclubthatlamamemberoflhe Saturn is £l99.99 but In one of your isslJesyou said it wouldn't go below £loo. How can this be? 8 I maybe able to get a Saturn fOf Chltstmas but I'll have to share it with my brother who Will bring all hissnotty·nosedfllendsroundtocrapitupashehas done to my Megadllve too milnytlmesl Pluse could you give me some suggestiOns of ways around Ihisll BEGVOUI
DEAR 5EGA MAG,
Vour milg is great and isthe best one ilfound and the Idea ofhilV1nS a Q&:AstCtlOfl IS ace so pleasecould)<lu p"ntthls.i\'sthefirst t lmclhilvewltteninPleilsel 1: My dad isjust about to buya PC but I say the graphics are beneron the Satum Am I right? lWilitherebeakeyboafdwlthmaybeilwlltins program on the saturn l llsit possibletogett helatestfeleastSOnthe Saturn soch as Sega Rallyon the PCl 4 The games 0fI the PC seem to be copies of Saturn games eKcept you have 10 read an endless man· ual before you start. Will there be such compliCat ed games on the Saturn fOf bonng old people (my dad)? 5 Hov.oIoogWill it be until Segabflngout a fltW gamescoosoie? 6. Will there bean Internet sortofthingaVilllilble
:~::I~~~:;:;~)'~;~;:o,~::r;: Saa:t~'~o
r.. n • It throulh ,yideo(molt VCRI h,ye , SCAItT lOCket In theback). lfyoudon'tgotone,~I)'ou'lineed~nR F
lead,andyuthere ..... iII be 'Ililht 1011 In plcturequ'llt)'. Sorry, z:Dh~l,
3,Ohno. 4: l.et'l hopt not. 5:Er... ltmilht . 8I1tll'lnotuactl~golnstohavea wealth of IOftware lupport,lllU And un you Iml,lne trying 10 pia)' Virtua FI'hte...... ith Itl Vo ..·cI break you. dlmnfoolntclt. 6: Wetl you c!on·t.ully need an fMVca.d for games th,nks 10 the s.at .. m being ;ace. alit If you're wonderlnl about .... nningVideoCDl,lhe5atumVldeo(.l.cllsal~ady Inthtlhoplpric:ed h}'O. And it'. p<ettyBOOd.
I ~lWA(f {'-tAN My FACE. WItH OXY "I/() PAPS. -t'He ~()vtill fiRe. pl/ipp (PIItf.
'It
~ ~ fp~s. "-/"IM! "1'116 M/£PJC;trEI 51'vFF /"r1i1E" .f'I~JotrTtI $/~E 't .~ 1iIA1tAvJe, sptJf5 • Wllkf'$ HilK,£, ~ (t~~~\\~ /f ~1Ar5 ~N YUVp., S/(IN AN/) I<.E.IEIJf (W IYfi~I</N4 PdP,I/#/I/<,s.
t \~\R\\\t
v-""
I vf/; evEl/ f'.1oMIN4 AH{) I$VENI/'If WI1Hov-r fAIf,.Yof) tAt-!
CALl. M~ /'/(Eblcfi,'Le , ~1'I~ilTiN.JA../..., WH,(feVEK, .
Stb''''''Y. SFD?? ? tJXYt,t!Te ffl WiTil b)'Y 11!
6Vf VIti tlll'l,,!" cAl,./... ME
I
,xy 101l,ClifM£IIT F!~ W (P/1AINl MNlJJYL/'!1t¥'/I( 'AMAri Rf1IJ1iIt t.AltL·oxr AIU WUfft ir/'Nl.1i<Al/.W/II;I.
th@badguyswithajustic@shot. This basically shoots th@gunfrom theirhandbe,for@th@ygria chanc@tous@it,thu5@arningsoo points.AbuUs@y@(hittingth@bad guylnth@mlddl@ofth@targ@t) will coll@ct more points. Shooting atarg@tmor@thanon(@willalso rack you upa high score, and will send your oppon@ntspinningand r@@lingalioverth@plac@1
Yes, In time-honoured t~dition of ;llIgoo<l shoot 'em ups, Virtua Cop comes with its very own two player mode. which of course means you'll need two guns to get the most out of It. And, er, it also means that it might end up as a rather expensive affJlr. 8ut, enjoyment It definitely delivers-If there's one way you shou1d definltely play the game, this has to be It. In fact, playing Cop with the guns makes life much easier as, it has to be said,that playing with the joypad can be quite cumbersome at times. Anyway, as for the two playergame - it's the same as the one player game e)(cept that you play It with two people, which makes things loads more exciting1
If you've never played Virtua Cop before, you might be wondering what all the funny circles on the sc:reenllre. Well,it'sfllirlysim. pie. When the target is In two halves and showing green, It meanstheEVl cronieis preparing to shoot you. When it turns amber there's still time to shoot before he man-
<t; SEGA SATURN
Ollt I" f ..11 foreo .t tho 'MO"t I......... re.do . h_ hold ." .bo h.M to t.,k to tIM I.'..... .1NNrt the d.veI.,......f Vlrt... c.,. H.,." ..... ,hlef dewolopet, T.u... ' ..... had t. h•
I.,.", Alb ..,.
,res,
0"
• roc......,."... .... .,....... .
la,
A: We need to complete the endlngofellch sceneilS Inthe ilfcadevefsion. FOfeICilmple,the bones who ilre ilrrested ilppeilr with Rilyge ilnd Smarty (that's the nil me of the two cops) ,then drive off in iI pollceeilrat the very end . We ilre trying to develop the ending for all three scenes. Each ending should take less than iI minute. [This hils now been completed . SSM).
A: They will be u:ilctly like the ilrCiide version . The sound effects will be built into the milchlne, whereas the bilck· ground music comes from the CO. The SGM is slightly longer In dura· tion.
A: We ilre trying to keep to the quality
oftheilreilde. lfthreeofusagreefor improvement, then we try to modify the grilphlcs. Effech such as the change of light when one moves from outside, which Is dilrk, lnto the pilrklng lot, which is bright, is copied on tothis version too.
A: We ilre aiming at ill00" (perfed] Silt urn conversion, but we are filclng some difficul· ties at this st .. ge. We wilnt to keep to the level of leaving bullet holes in the wall. We .. re trying our best.
A: The volume of Diltil for Virtua Cop Is known to be hnvy. Each rndingofthe diltil takes 4' 5 seconds, but there is no read· Ingofdiltil In one stage.
Inc/dentally. Vlrtua Cop can also be played with the Srga mouse, which although not OJ much fun as the guns, ;s loads jaster than using ajoypad. Howevrr. there 's still been no officIal word as to when It • will be rrleased over here.
Virtua Fighter I boasted eight different characters (nine if you include Dural) and over 700 different movements. For Virt ua Fighter 2, the ch aracter roster has gone up to eleven (again count ing Dural) but the includes over 2,000 motion.captured moves - an incredible achievement for t he Sa t urn con vers ion. It would requi re about Sao pages to show off each individual move for each fighter, so we're concentrating inst ead on w hat's new.
AlURA YUKI Humiliated by Kage in the fi rst Virt u. Fighter tourn.ment, Akira has trained hard.nd boasts the lion's share of the new moves. Just like tlte.fttst game, Akira co ncentrates on clo.!搂.;.!ange combat and super-powerful fTUlves . Also of-no~l he plethora of new throws that Akira In his ~pertoire. He now has two throws tt!.a t enable him to get behind his opponents before he strikes.
PAl CHAN Paiwas always the character,hatspeclaJisedIn Jightning fast combo-orlentatell surgical strikes, and this again has been fortified in Virtu a Fighter lwit h a fra nkly huge array of different PPPK combinations.Her abilitytocounter-a ttack, turn inga foe's attack again st them with a t hrow has also been boosted in t he sequel,maki ng Pai quitea powerful opponent.
lAUCHAN Lau was t he champion of the first Virtua Fighter tournament and defends his title in style in Virtua Fighter 2. His combo skills remain second to nonein fa ct, they are now even more powerful - his ability t o "float" a foe is now even more pronounced. Faster and armed with even more deadly moves, Lau Chan isagain a hot contender of t he Virtuafightertournament.
JEfflIYMcWILD The Australian fishe rman enters the second Virtua Fighter tournament for the pri ze money alone,
with w~i ch he wa nts to buy a new boat after his last one was destroyed. Extra th rows are the order of th e day for Jeffry, who can drain huge amounts of energy with just one attack. Similar to Wolf, bu t faster and deadlier, Jeffry is devast ating in the right hands.
WOlF HAWKRElD Wolf has entered the championshi p to show how accomplished his wrestling skills are, and like Jeffry, he intends to win mostly through his incredible throws. He's been given plen ty more of them, along with techniques to pound t he oPPOnent once they're on the ground. His lumberi ng nature mily be t he only obstacle between him and th echilmpionship.
K.lGE-MARII Although he defeated Akira in VFI, Kagedi d not succeed in infiltrating the sinister J6 syn dicat e, who he holds responsible for the untimely deaths of his parents. Armed with a vilriety of new tec h路 niques which give him a move for every occasion, Kage is a dynamic fi ghter who is secon d only to Akira in overall effectiveness in this sequel. Put simply-a deadly opponent.
JACKY BRYANT Having been involved in an Indy Car cras h for which the J6 Syndicate were res ponsible, Jacky believes this is what stopped him from winning the first VF tournament. Now restored to total health,Jacky's fiercely proud of his speed an d his
ve rsa til ity. Alt hou gh somewhat monotonou s t o pl ay, Jacky can prove to be exceptionally dangerouswhen playedbythe expert VFmilster.
SARAH BRYANT St ill brilinwilshed by t he J6 Synd icate ilnd still out t o ki ll Jilcky, Silrah hils spent th e months between tournaments honing her own incred iblY ilggressive fig hting style to its ve ry lim its. Extremelyfilst and gifted with powerful techn iques, most of Sarilh's innovations are in her leg work,whlch is now far more versatile and unpredictable. A favourite choice in the VF co mmunity.
UOII RAfAI..E Son of a powerful French industrialist, Lion is the faster of Preying Mant is Kung Fu-a swift, unpredictable art t hat's ve ry, very d ifferent to t he style of th e other Virtua Fighters. Lion is young at lsyearsof age, meaningthilt he isn't very powerful , buthisspeedmorethan makesupforthls. One of the morevisuilily pleasing chara ct ers in th e new game.
SHUNDI An old martial art s instructor who enters t he tournilment on a whim, curiou s to see how his drunken antics measure uptothe competit ion. Shun enjoys a drinkthroughout the proceed ings and allows th e aicoh ol to retax his body, while keeping a shilrp mind (that 's th e idea any way). Again,li ketion he is extremety difficuttto anticipate. He's atso quick t o rise when knocked over.
24 March: The Seg.. Gr.. phics libmy is showntotheJ .. p.. nesepreU,with .. n incredible texture-milpped Pili uvortingilround in 60frilmes a second. The graphics routines form the basisofVFl'shi路ruvlsuals .. nd
July: The data compression has ~n completed and the deSigners try out their S.. turn versions of their newVFl ch"racters In the Tokyo Toy Show demos. August: The b.. sic game engine is complete, all of the characters ' movements .. re present along with first versions of the fighters ilnd their b.. ckgrounds. Shown in Berlin tFA .. nd london EeTS shows to ilmazement Septembet-: Hit recognition is included - VFl is now in .. playable stilte .. nd gotS on displ .. y at the Tokyo JAMMA arcade show, where AM2 giluge reliction to their work and make adjustments accordingly.
October: General tidying up takes place, the replays are added and work begins on the Saturn-specific options. Adjustmenhand play.testi ngare also taking plilCeatthis point.
November: The final licks of polish .. re milde to the gameplay and the Saturn-specific modes. The final music Is added and the game is nigh-on ready for its December llilp.mese release . Japanese pre-orders alone totilll路Smiliionunitsl
Virtua Fighter l'S options screen Is huge, offering various different game variations. 5EGA SATURN MAGAZINE takes you through what's on offer.
AllCAllEMOO< A near arcade· perfect version of the original Model Two arcade game, with only tiny compromises made. "MOO< The simple two·player mode first premiered in Virtua Fighter 1. Much the same as two players being at the console in arcade mode, but here even the winner can change character after vanquishing his foes.
The computer judges your performance as you play through the normal arcade mode game. and evaluates your antics. Boring, repetitious moves cost you points whilst variety In your gameplay reaps the rewards.
One of the more exciting features. The CPU notes and retains any inc~i· ble techniques or combinations that it thinks will add to its own intelli· gence. This was a hidden mode in the coin·op original. An on·screen indicator shows when the CPU uses a tech·
You'll also find £5 oR PC CD-ROM software vouchers in the December issues of NMS, Playstation Plus, PC Review, CVG, Maximum and the January issue of Mean Machines_ The more magazines you buy, the more discounts you can get! J~JIJI
~---~-
MENZllES
YOU'D BE SILLY NOT TO!
PLUS GREAT DEALS ON SATURN AND PLAYSTATION SOFTWARE AT JOHN MENZIES COMPUTER DEPARTMENTS
~And
don't come b.llCk, yil lousy bum". But then no-one In this country
should reilily hilve given iI fig, Silve for those
~lIlmport
owners trying their
hardest to undermine the worldwide Segil hleruchy In the nilme of ilnuchism. Sadly though, as happens with these things, the press were ilil too ugtr to pounce on the nascent 3l-BIT m.llChine In the Interests of ill story iIInd begilln billndylng their prophecies of doom for the Sonic wrillnglers. Of course, this wouldn 't hillve been iIIny story If it weren't for the Imminent iIIrrhfilllofSIIturn's big rlvill,the PlillySbtion. In the interests of continued
St~s ueo.d""VlaISal'I'II~llIlSwlllafler
..
ne.~ilerdepl'ofplifthanOiyt'IaIlS"and
l.eV<!p.lt$ wlllba,a.pltl el)oiweso.e l
And while they mily hilve docked up liome illrlght iilles, It wilsn't perha ps the rampant Juccessthey could hilve hoped for. The rUJh launch mig ht have been a good Idea, but they forgot to tell anyone they were doing It. This meant the press didn't have time to gear up or start previewing the offlclill Joftwilre lists ilnd retilliers didn't hilve the time to hype t he new wonder machine on the block. Sothe Silturn lillpped out quietly In June with most people none the wiser - ilt il price point regrettably Inflated by iln unusuilily high Yen (w hich cilused flnilndill ChilOS In Jilpiln ilnd emergency currency-type meetings ilcrOIii the globe). Poor old Sega. And then whaddya know, Sony with their huge megil-corporiltlon budget go and launchilcoupleofmonthslaterwlthafully-hy pedmachine,carefulIy selected~bestofJilpilnese"lamesselectloniln d hlgh-proflleildum. palgn. Thebasts. Butslncethen,thlngsseemto hilveevenedout. Selil's ilwesome ilrtilde reputiltlon exceeds eYen the celebrity ilnd loyalty afforded them by the Megadrlve, and lots of players realised thilt th e lilmes they wilnted to see ilnd plilY In their own homeli were mostly produced by iln AM div ision. Dilytonil willin't l!lCilCtly pretty, but has sold outstandingly weU onthe back of its depth of playabUlty, something sorely lacking In Its closest PlayStation competitor Ridge Racer. Panler Dragoon Is asVlliUillly litunnlng illiilny "next generatlo not game seen sofilr.Vlrtuil Fighter, the bundled game, Is stili the belit beat 'em up on the market. And then the new SC;l 05 ilrrlved.
FIVE 1 ~
J
4 S
LIES
ABOUT
THE
tan'thandle textu.emappong It', crap wIth pol)lcons All the offICIal games are letterbox format The VIdeo CD picture qua hi, ISpOO. You can makelo;"t WIth II II
SATURN
people with it. They've already got a good (hopper pedigree, having produced the original Mega·CD Thunderhawk. Thunderhawk saved the Mega· CD. E)(cept it didn't really. But if anything could have saved the M ega·CDit wou ld have been Thunderhawk.lt was ace, and it was also the first game to actually use the capabilities of the machine to do something which wasn't an FMV intro. The Saturn sequel follows a similar formula (although it's not quitesojaw-dropgroundbreakingon32-BIT).Thegamethrowsyouinasa last hope for eight military world policing campaigns across the globe. Whith of these hotspots you fly to first is upto you, and the only wayyou'U find out which are the hard onesistotrythem aU. Each campaign is dividedupintoa numberofsub·missions. Each sub-mission has two major combat considerations. The first isthe Primary Target or Targets. These are buildings/enemy units/whatever that you're required to destroy before leaving the area. The second point of interest is the Mission Objective. This is the perhaps less important bonus purpose of the sortie, and could be anything from rescuing an important hostage to breaking a siege whilst escorting an aid convoy. In reality only one of these operations needs sorting before hitting the trail in order to still qualify for the ned level. Indeed,if you're in danger of dying and don't reckon you can do either you're stitl able to flee the scene, but it costs you a demerit. Three demerits and you're court-marshatled and grounded. Which sounds like a pretty good idea with all these wars on. I mean, you 're better off in prison than flying alone and unsupported over crisis flashpoi nts, waitin gto be shot down and kill ed. haven't the programmers ever read Catch n for God's sake~ Anyway,thatisn'tthepoint.lt'sonlya game after all. Although the complex:ity of the controls may convince you otherwise. Vouraircraft is capable of all the flying tricks ofa real-life machine. So you can increase or decrease your alti· tude or move forwards and backwards with upand down on the D-pad (and theCandZbuttonsinthecaseofaltitude). There are also two ways of making sidewards movements. Banking swings your helicopter around like an aeroplane, circling inthe requested direction. However, a regular press of the D-pad simply slides the rotor-booty totheflank,keepingthenoseheading in the same direction. And if you're lazy and can't bearsed moving at all,why not just hover, and use the am azing skills oftheV bulton and th e trusty D-pad to swing around in a rotat ion· styleel The possibilities are endless. Just remember you meatheads - the only good sprite isa burnt sprite.
, . SEGA SATURN
Thl DIItllde"riewloourelllycool, and mikes certllnbltsmuchluler.
-
" ::;.-0---
.
,
•
..
a.t(iJ....~
Your cockpit display is a complkated animal. As wtll as the usual status rtadouts )'Ou'd txptct for ammunition, armour, compass and so forth there art a number of handy dtftnsive aids. Tht map Is useful for stlecting targets (all ground objms art indkattd, Primary Targtts highlighted) and watching out for tM mission boundary so)'Ou don't look likt a destrttr. At least not by accidtnt. Tht radar Is mort useful in combat, as it shows, in a variety of colour路rodtd dots, all groond-bastd, airbornt or missilt-esqut thrtats in short rangt. Possibly tht most useful oftht lot though has to be tht Radar Dttection Warning Display. Guns what it dotS. Go on. No, )'Ou'rt wrong. n ttlls)'Ou whtn an t~my weapon has iocktd on to your htlicopttr, by beeping incessantly OInd flashing tht word lOCK on-scrten. This is a good timttotaktshaky路twistytvillsiveaction.
b,. ...........
',..t.... u.ts,aI ... uctuiftact ........... CIIIIc: 11Mb 11m ..m..I ......,...lIJ\eItn.... t...
57
lUue Team Is the most batHeexperienced mut.nt In the pme and as such, he's quite a whlu at hand路to-hand
combat. Curiously enoup, tt looks as thoup he's been taldnl some lessons from Ryu and Ken as he can pull off a pretty mean drap pundl, known In this pmt as the",,,,1 His mut.nt powers Involve liberil uses ofhls optic blasts 路 ruby-Nd beams of pure COncuHiYe force that can pulYerlse IdlmanUurn. He can tIM his optk blasts in Just ilbout any direction In the prne. 'tWO ~ aN
_......,..,
it his dlspoul - iln iIWftOme fixed direction
rnep-blHt.nd. cIrectkInII
The most popullr X-Mln Is
...._ ...,,!",.
~~
represented In thIS pme before the unfortunate Incl路 dent when MOIlntto used his powers to remove WoMe'f Id.mantlum skeleton. An adept: fllhter {In fact, _blyt.. _ " .......
.."~~!:~
~~.Ii~
to-handcomNt,
WoIYerinels bybrthe most flthter In the pme.ndjult about all of his moves on be........ chained taptMr, Atthoush hb six foot-klnl adamantlum cInws IN polent ~ this Isn't the basis of WofverIne'f mut.nt powers.. As well as hIfIhteMd ani mal-lite Instincts. Wotverine pouesteS a mutant hull"l factor whkh ... an Invoke ilS a super move. Also, twotypn of befstrtatr rate can be oiled upon In an emerpncy.
~, ablurrelnclclenta
few yeilrs ilgo caused her
body and soul to be metpd with a female Japanese ninja could only happen In the
en
X-Men).
AIthoup her ninja Itilis pe her an InaedRIit ItMItkIsm and attacidns skills, PsyIocte's lUI power CDmeS In the form of t.r psychic powers. As well as being an accomplished tetepIth. P'JykxlDlIl c.peIIII 01 summonlngfotth psychic powet' to confuse her opponent. or ~ just to fry their brains. Tothlsend.shehlS.varlrllyol ......... ....,..., orIerrtatedsuper-1TtO\Ift.
d
d,ieiSi4,.. ~LOSSUS Another of Profes50r X's secondse ne ratlo n X-Men, Colossus huthe muta nt ability to turn his body Into an al most Inllu lnerable form
<8tLVER SAMURAI This suy IsJ ust one In iI Ions line of super-IIlllillns who hilveilblttervendettil ilgillnstWolllerine.IClUedout inil protectille suit of si!lIer ilrmour(hencethenilme), thlsSuyhuilhuseriinseof milrtiillilrts reliitedmOllesln his repertoire. Most of them ilrecentredilroundhlsucredsilmurillblilde,howevt!r,SlIlIerSamuralhas also been known to throw the odd shurlken about. AlthouSh slow In relation to other characters, Sillier Samurai Is stili quite fut conslderlns his huse bulk.
<8MEGARED AlthouSh relatillely new to theX-Menunlllerse,hels~t
OMEGA DESTROYER"! ~ ~
-- " ~ . ..
,- ..
,
j
4- HIT
• ..
anotherofWolllerlne'sblood enemles,burnlnswlth ----------~ ~,' venseilnceafterWolllle's actions left him burled six , ~ feetunderfor]oyears. ~ Originally des igned to be a Russli1n Super Soldier, Omega Red Is constantly fighting against his mutant duth factor. He can release this Into the atmosphere to subjugate his opponents or he can up his opponents' life force with the ilid of his carbonadlum tentacles. It is these tentacles (with their enormous reach) which makes Omega Red one of the most powerful fighters In the game and his super-mOlle - the Omesa Destroyer Is one of the most Inc redible in the game, upping huge amounts of energy evenlftheopponent blocksl
INTRODUCING MARVEL SUPER HEROES Thll new coln-op is a direct follow-up to X-Men: Children of the Atom. The game is based on an old Marvel cros5Oller series catled the Infinity War which featured heroes from 0111 Oller the Marvel Universe coming together to fight iln enemy of Immense cosmic power. What this bulcally bolls down to Is more one-on-one combat ga me action from Capcom, this time futurlng heroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and Cilptaln America. Some of the characters from the Children of the Atom coln-op halle iliso made their wily across Includi ng the ubiquitous Wolverine, Psylocke and Magneto (who Is a cont rollable character, not Just a boss this t ime). Also Included In the game are iI whole-host of weapons dependent on the character you halle chosen. Of cou rse, old Spidey uses his trusty web-shooters and Capt ain America makes good use of his shield. Iron Ma n Is kltted out with ilil kinds of technological wonders and the Hulk hilS been know n to chuck t he odd asteroid at his opponent In the new ga me. This all sounds rat her excellent and it's bound t o bea hot cont ender
•
• <t; S EGA S ATUR N
BAD TO THE BONE Upon first IOilding the game you might be slightly shocked ilnd disilP' pointed by the spouse quantity of pre-genefilted boxers on offer (two) ilnd the
fact they don't have proper names or lists of hobbles or s芦ret origins like other bnt 'em up games. Well quit whining, because the point with Victory Boxing Is that you create your very own boxer, ilnd nurture their careerwlth loving care, The actual m芦hanicsofrunnlngupyourcombatantared etalle:d elsewhere in the this Showcase:, so here we 'll deal with how you actually but ~pleup.
It's not the standard gilmut of left/right / left/block lD action you might be used to. Indei!d, the moves on offer to your boxer depends on what fighting style they use (which In turn depends upon their height ilnd weight). Choose from straight jabs, hooks, uppercuts, long swings, body shots of as many vari eties and a gamut of special moves (which we talk about somewhere else). Defence is equally varied, with low and high blocks, body swerves and side steps to keep you out of trouble. The idea Is, obviously, to combine your skills for Victory. But the height and reach of your character affect how your boxer works too, giving you a minimum and maximum effective fighting distance. Plus there are your three stat pipes to consider. These are tubes containing viscous blue stat power liquid. Each of the three stals (power, speed and stamina) Is equally important In different ways, affecting how fast and hardy ouunhit and move and how many hits you can suffer before hitting the deck. It's possi路 ble to up the ante on these mothers, but it takes hilrd work and lots of fights. The object of the gilme Isn't just to !ilke Joe Anonymous to the top of the table, it's to hone your own geeler to a point where they're not just world chilmp but ilre illso euily Cilpilble of storing themselves on your memory Cilrt and pilsting all your friends too- although the milin one-plilyer prize should be first on your ilgenda. However, it's a lot hilrder thiln it looks. You hilve to think tiICtically, stick ilnd move etcetera, as ilil the computer opponents have their own wily of fighting which you hilve to suss Individually. Plus they hit hilrder ilnd make fewer mls!ilkes than Johnny Human. Put simply, there's illot more to Victory Boxing thiln wading in and waiting for the right time to use your mega -uppercut (which is whilt these gilmes ilre usually ilbout). You 've got to think on your feet, tilke ildvantage of the twelve plilyer-selectilble cam路 era angles to know what's going on, keep your punch power high and wait for the right i your mega-uppercut.
62
. , SEGA SATURN
b wmplelf Ik bPIa1 tptlOllS ulml,. tlM.n (IOSitlOfllq CHlroi. CkoM lI)'.qIt JOIIllk.
rF'Olljltlt.bHt .hln.r dlstlKt IIr .Imtloll JOIIli".
JVC DAI LV NEWS ~: =r:t...
=:::
) ~.
-~::--r • i_\ ;!
II
¥" ~
. ~t. ~~'.::" II ;l
11¥"
THEMEPARK Togcl B" llr' (>I: '
~ .. r1 () w '
p .. , k
w ,lhIQ.ldo. of ilood"d'"nd
•
th,n"'JlI.nt"y,,,,,,,,,kJ' '' ' • "
•
md< I ,,~() n
",,,i
..>-
'JfrJ
{
Sf-.
) .- J
•
. •
0"
1''' .:.' '' ~nd l~ ""U ,
th .. ", .J ~" .. ( n
l<>L'f'th' r IhJt" ,lItb.,.,
. Or
D l AI.I
Krecn, Press tci'tor II:lghtto select
ilnyleveluptog", thenprenStilrt.
To gfi ~ II~." ",." ,,>toth< scrC'efl with the press Righl Up. left.. Up. i Down, Up, Left, Up, left. Up. The levtl name will appear. Nowprt!5S Upordown to select a room and pressXtocyclethfoughtheseparate st~gt1 TO get 999 lives. go to the title sc~n~ndpressRight,Up,left.
Down. tight. Down, Right. Up,left.. Down. Right. Down. St~rt as usual andyou'lIh~illlthelivcs
To see the game's end scquence, go to the title screen and press Right. Up, left. Up, Down, Up, Right. left, Up, Right, left.. Down. Stilrtthe usual to stilrt it up.
STREET FIGHTER: THE MOVIE
:'
TofightagalnsttheSC(retboss,A~uma,fightthroughthegameuptoSison
without 105mg a round and A~uma should be there fOf the fighting We'vc al50 heard thOit while fishtins asainst him, if you press Start on cont rollerl you can fight as him, Therc'Sa simpler cheat to playas Akumainthcsamcas well. When on the Street Battle charactcr select screen press Up, B, Down, Z, Rlsht,X,left.YandAkuma'sblackoutllneshouldilppcarlntheplaceofyour char~cter, meaning that you'vc highlighted him Now press C to select him
f, .
t
I
~.
,1
I
, / ...
'
(.
:'
Th. fo llo wing
RoUth~pildfromh(k
Pr~$sForward s,Down.
Down/forwards ilnd
toh(kliindpr~SSiiny
Pr~u FOfWlIIrds, Down, Down/ Forwilrd s lind
pf~uanypunch.
kick.
ilnytwopunc h~s.
.0\l ~ S
'"
only b.
SUPf.R FIREBAU Roll the pild from Down to ForwilrdSiind press ilil three punches
. ••
.......
.:.
to forwlllrds lind press any punch.
do n ~
wh~n
your
Rollth~pildfromDown
Sup~r
Pow ~
r
b"
... -
."
...-.
Roll the PlIId from Down toForwlllrdsandpmslIIny punchwhm Jumpinl·
;, full.
SUPER HURRICANE KICK · Roll the piid from Down to Bilek ilnd press ai! three bcks
.
t•
I':. !~i
,1 ,
Aswe'rel(M!ly,hefeareallofhismovcsas~1I
Roll Ih~ pad from Down to FofW~rds and pr~ss lIInypunch.
.
SUPER COMBO FIREBAll - Roll the pild from Down to Forwilrds th~n Down to ForwiIrds ilnd pr~ss pUfI.Ch ~
•
•
~
"
~
SEGA SA-UPI'-l
1,/
,
Another lil1lEill1liiiiI'W title, this one a glorification of all things mlf!i!il'mlfi!jl1l But does Virtua Cop have enough stamina to last a
IU.J,.ij"''bt31... U
rude gun gOimes were dud before
A
:::;;::t~;IOi;;:do~~::~:e~°:C'e';t:;~t
of VirtuOi Cop. Who's bothered Oibout spendi ng a quid to fire Oi big plOi~tic swivel·mol,lnt machine gl,ln at some bOidly·digitised Oicton or I,Inconvincing alien spritesr Let's fue it,the noveltyvOilue wore offlongOigo,andonlytheincredible innovOition s of Cop cOl,lld l empt most regl,llOir arude·goers to pick I,IpOigl,lnagOiin. Bllttemptitdid,Thereasons forCopssuccessaremanifold,The area-sensitive polygon graphics allowed players to shoot to kill or WQund as desired,wlth differen t results for different hits (arm grasp· ing,collaps,ng to the floor w,th a dodgy leg, spmn irog arourod dead) The game isro't roearlyso static as othertitlesoflhis kirodeltheryour cops explore t he terrain of each level fully, runnmg around and progressinglhroughlheland· scapesof each level as II blows up and collapses around them, And you don't see thollsands of enemies popping up from behind exactiythe same barrel, elther, as theamoun t ofcQver provided IS laken into aCCOllnt when placmg sheltered hostile forces lro fact. YOll won'tseeenemiespoppmgllp from behmd ba rrels at all that much,asyourfoes arrive on screen in far more interestmg ways - ruroning out from buildings, rolhng across Ihe floor, sliding down conveyor belts,leapmg ouloflru,ks,you name it-if it's Starskyand Hut,hslylelt'sinthere Of course, the gameplay challenge is pretly linear.lt'satarget·shootinggame,whichtestsyouraim and YOllr reflexes, as well as your target-assessment techniques and general capacity for mass slaughter (although only ofvillams,donl shoot the hos t ages, remember), Shootmg your enemies more than once
~ SEG.!l. SATU R N
and watching t hem tWitch and convl,Ilseasyour polygon slugs slam into their criminal bodies isenor· mouslysatlsfying, but sometimes you have to forego such bloodthirsty pleasure to take out another tar· get But there are lots of little touches which add depth to the mayhem, Shoot a barrel of fuel and the resultmgexplosion takes out all nearbynastles. along with any surrounding sceneryorvehides_Blastingaperp in the right location disarms them, awarding bonus points and making you look cool in front of your matei. Basically ifsone of the most stress·satmg shoot 'em ups you'll ever play Of course it's best If you shell out the dough for two guns The actual hardware is we ll -balanced and feels exactly like an arcade shooter, But if you're not that bot heredabout reahsm you'll not be disappointedbythejoypadcontrois. The two cursor movement speeds allow you to shift your sight across the screen In plenty of lime and also aim perfectly, plus reloading is made just eroough ofa faff toemlliate t heoff·screen reloading procedure of the pistols But It'S urohkely aroy real fan of t he arcade will deroy themselves the full ·onexperleroce PuttmgitSlmply,VirlllaCop is up there with t he best of the p BIT games. It's got more depth than you'd imagine but isslill mindless enOllgh 10 prove freroetlcally playable_Even oroceyou've com pleted it (and perfected Ihe additioroal Trairoing Mode option) you'll stlliwanttogobad,Not necessarily to beat your high score, just for the sheer fun of it, Sega have once agam shown that their formidab le arcade diVision isthe perfect breedinggrOllnd for classic home games Buy ten copies
TbiIII Ki.g,lbelevlltWflbGss,III'INlaJlydimculttadlful, mainly beUUM he ~u IIIlIIs of other biddies helping hllll OIl\. Bu l dlfn ted In Iwo-playu modi.
STAGE SELECT SIRSE ~
I IIRGI i,S 2.... , SIRGE
II ... :~ "
~~,:
.
: c
, -.oj . " ', ..
..
FRIE PIRY PRFSS SIRR Jull:lfkethearcadl,then'llhne ltlgl.inlh,$ilur.nrslon ofYlrtua Cop, and there', the Saturn-only orl&l~lllIIode too, whlc~tWflp.layel'1uneqjoy.
짜lrluaCop
Ibebe$lf,ameyelon lheSalum)
Could 'IIell be illhouRb JOu II need 1'110 ~uns 10 get the most oul of II
71
• •
Virtua Fighter is widely acclaimed as one of the most
QjI!'i3jpnpmwm!J$i'''4J4''9', revolution ising the genre with stunning polygon graphics and 3D movement. The sequel's here and as expect· ed,
"I4Vi'ij,jMmmm are needed to sum up
its qualities. Can we find them? Read on ...
V
Irtua FighterlWaSanawesomegame - lettherebenodoubt. Manywere Ihe nights wt'd all day late after
the machine The "reality" that madeVirlua fighler 1 such an
workindulgingintheold ~winner
In the first game you punched an opponent and he either dropped backa bit or fell over. The sequel is far more sophisticated,wlth a range of different falls,
stayson ~ scenario.whichinevitably
drew howls of frustration, sadness,
enormoushilisalsofarmoread~ancedinthesequel
woe and genuin e agony from poor old Tom Guise. Oh
temporarystunsand~ariousstagger ingmotionsThis
yes, VF was an awesome game, although was some doubt about the Saturn's capabilities.
time,whenyoutripanopponentover,itlookslikea trip Coupling this level of realism WIth the unparalleled graphicsmakesVirtua Fighter 2 by far and away the m05t compelling combat game ever seen The range of moves is also second to none. Every character benefits from over twice as manydlffereflt techniques aswas seen in the first game Juslabout all of the original moves return ,making the gameinsl anlly accessible to any one who's played theorrgrnal (al though there's much, much more stIli to
If the machine had trouble coping with
VF, howwoulditcope withthe far more advanced sequell Now the same Is here and the answer to the aforemenlioned question is "Really rather well,consid· ering" and indeed howls of defeat and
angLlishonceagamrtwundthrough the office after hOUfS, Vf2 istechnicaliy superior to anything ever seen on a home machlnt In terms of 30. VOI.l w,mt super-smooth 60 frames a sec·
ondaction (well,500nthe PAlver· sion)IYou got It. You wantnoglitching and fullytexture.mapped fighters? No problem. And every move and every character converted onto Saturn? To usethevernaculaJ;sorted,mate Virtua Fighter 2 is so ad~anced, comparrngit loitspredece5sor ishke contrastrngtheperformanceofa FeJlariF40 t oall:eliantRobin(without any wheels) In Its super hIgh resolution glory, Virtua Fighler 2 does an uncanny impression of the 20· tlmes·more·e~pensive Model Two arcade machine· evefl improving on it in one or two regards. And no, there is nothrng remotely close to this on any other system Fealureswhichwouldseem inap· propflate to the arcades are perfectly at home in the, er, home. Casein point the Team Battle Mode, which enables you to choose five fIghters and square them offagarnst an opponent'sgroupingForamoredetailedlistrng,examine the Showcase. Suffice It to say that the game does everything possIble to draw you in and keep you at
musjcorthesuperb~ictory
t aunts of each fighter). but the tact remains that this Isan incredIble game oneverylevel,redefining my expectations of what a next generation product should be. vou could take so many features away from the game and it would still bean absolutely fantastic release You don't know howcloselcametogi~.
ingthisgame 99%
lau and Aklr. ,et down to buslntll I" thl, a.tSGml cORv .... loROrVIr\u. flg/lttr2.
Gor blimey, it's the old irnmmllllj'!Hr'lIjll~. Thunderhawk flits onto the Saturn,rll4iilli'lilliiE41'ilJ1miilii1B!liillll
m
t'icoPhfSarttht,ust_p'Undtftd rul-life inspiralion for games with themostobviouspolenlial.They'rl! very venatile in the air,theyC'lrry IOildsofwuponandthey'rl!usedto shoot ate things like tanks and people. Sut udly most games developers seem to spurn our old airborne friends in favour of space ships or special moves. 6ut If you're in helicopters you could hardly hope for a better helicopter title th.m Firestorm, Whilst the controls, in
numberandseemln8complexlty, might hint at a simulationy play style
Firestorrnisreallyatopnotchshoot 'em up, It's ba-;ed,mlssions-wise. on the classic Mega-CD prequel,but with moreobjectllleS, more enemies. bigger
play areas and generally loads and loads of extras designed to make it pretty much unrecognisable There's ~Iso~ lot more depth in the chopper control,whichmakesfirefightinga moreflexibleandenJoy~blepastlme.TheVirtual
Cockpit deserves a mention for being nICe, espeCially thanks 10 the Virtual Ned, which means )'Our pilot's headoc(asion~llyturnsautomatlcallytothesideto
trackaf>rimaryTarget But possibly the real stars of Firestorm are the graphics, Not only are the enemies, backgrounds and
bUlldlngsallexceptlonallywelidrawn~ndreahstlc,
they're also blessed with top notch texture mapping Fly~s dose ~s you hketo anythlng)'Ou fancy and take a good look at it -there's not a spot ofpi~ella足 tionlobeseen.Evenonlhehttlemenesc~pingfrom thewreck~geoftherrvehides
Of course, sreat graphics (and sound,whichis bnlliant)can'ttotailyrepiacegamepl~y,butinthis
case they certainly enhance II sreatly Whilst Frrestormpossessesadmirablestratesicqualities, throwinsahundredobjectlvesintothefaceofthe player, the main focus oflhe Same is on destroying DestrOYlns almost evefythlng except friendly convoys. And the slick and adaptable controls of the hehcopter, together with the huse guns, mean once )'Ou'vefamiliarised)'Ourselfwiththehandling, ravaging the environment isa piece of cake If)'Ou'reafanoftheoriSinalThunderhawk there's not much doubt)'Ou'li enJOY thiS too The visual splendour is most impressive (and far more colourful,obviously) and there's somethlnS satlsfylnS abouttheconsiderablechalienSesetWitheiShl c~mp~igns, each With numerous sub-operations and each sub-operation With multiple objectives there's plenty of action In store The variety level is upped by nishtmlssions.watermisslonsandjustseneral mayhem missions. Well worth Investlsatins. partkularly for fans of mindless demohtlon
.lllOtherKtne ofiliau "Itruetlon eourttly ofthtwaeky Flrestormsame f!'1ll11 Core Oesisn, 1t'. loweiy.
. . . S EGA SATURN
75
" ..e. . . •
0 '
.'1 '. It ~ on the PC, but Hi Octane is now ready to hit
the Saturn. Is there room on the shelves for another racer? How goa are the Illm!l'ImmmmJjFlIm:RA
m
iOctaneisasamewhichdemonstrates,desp,teits
~uality,justhowincredlbletheseniuSofAMlreally
IS.Makenomlstake.HIOctanelsabnlliallttltle, from the same people who brOUSht the stupendous award,wlllmns MaSICCarpet to th.e PC Buttv'!'n they haven't matched the sraphlCal finesse of Sesa's flasshlp stable Although,tobefalf,HI Octane has been produced without the aid of the AMl SGL OS But enough of the punditry Just what IS this Hi Octane busi· ness and should you buy it? Well It"sa futuristiC race game lIlaSlm· ilarvein to Wipeout on PlayStation Vou, the player pilot a floatingcar·thlllg However, t here's a large andvanedchoiceoffloatlllgcarthingVoucould have an incredibly fast and light floatlllg spiky car thing,ol a slow but well·armoured bo~·like floatlllg car thing But why would you want to chClOSl!' a slow vehicle in a raclIlg gamer Why because HI Octane alsocontaillsplentyofscopefolabsolutemass destructlon,lnd~"ftheraceleaguelsn'ttoyour
taste there's a whole sub·gamededlcated to Simply blastlllg vaflOUS computer {or human) foes into vapour, And as If t ha t weren't enough there are enough Iwo.player modes to fulfil all your wildest multl·player fanta sies that don't involve more than eightpeopleofse~ The flrst IS an ImpresSive spirt, screen game which doesn't show the e~pected sign of slowdown These<ondlsantvllchasegame koown as Hot Seat. whICh hands each player (up to a maximum of eight) only a limited amount of time In control of their vehicle Th.en a countdown appears on·screen and lh.ejOypad IS handed on to th.e next player The idea IS to frag or out·race all the other partICipants III the twenty set:onds or so each turn at the controls allows you Ace fun So you're familiar With the good ideas Which don't stop Ihere, thinking about it There are weapon plck·up points, fuel levels to monitor,se<ret shortcuts, set:ret bonus sections hidden in destructible areas of scenery and all kind of other stuff we don't have the space to wflte about Right, so now you're familiar With the good Idus Most of them, But what about the gameplay? Is II good? Or bad? Well, II's good hch oflhedlfferenl floahngcar Ihlngs handles III a unique fashlon,soyouhavetoplaywlthonekinduntllyotJ'reusedloth.e controls or you'll ntv'!'f negotiate the steepness of the learnlllg curve, The good thing is that they do all behave Irkefioatlllg cars of some weight. slrd lng around nicely With back·end momentum, or sliding up {and back down) slopes on the track The game speed, whilst pe rhaps not of turbo shag-head sta t us, is qUick enough to be e~cltlllg And the graphics are most passable, With some e~cellent course graphICS, but slightly less e~cellent cars (Ie they're a bit bor· Ing) Anyway, the Saturn is now stuffed to the gills With bfliliant race games And whilst Hi Octane doesn't compare With the magIC of Rally, It"S worth havlIlg a pop at If you fancy a change from roadbased chase fury,
' AD 76
~ SEGA SATURN
--- ....
... ---
.
-
~
-
if ~.
-..z.." _ J
.~--~
~~
.. "!!I
.If '
I"'"
J
" """" . r'"
'
-ti
..
\,'" I
..,
41
..
'. ~
.• ,
<f# SEGA SATURN
77
Many games have ImP, but few have succeeded in translating the ilJ.lillEij;mn of thumping to the interactive screen . Can JVC buck the
m • •
trend? ~ Eh?
O.,n 8 iI Brut,ilIndilIlCilllisforitlo
~ilI~:~~:~;:::tp~a:i~~:~·:;I:e~thlng
:~:~:~~~~~n~I':;i~l: :~~~~Se~:~t
other. Butwouldn·tltbee~nbetter
if those blokes werf ilIdorned with ralor·shililp rnors
all overlhelr bodies, thus widening the scope for g.... tultous bloodletting? Well now thillt drum nurs futisiltlonwith Victory Bo)(lng, for the prohgonish In this gamt iIIfe mOllde oul of polygons, giylnl them plenlyofOilngl.llncorne,,;Indshillrp.edgedmusc:les. SadtyJVCh.. yesklmpedonthecillel,butfromthls tiny OiIcorn sUfely iI mlghtyOOlkof rul-life gouge'n' gilshsports ilc1ion can be grownl C;od. bo)(ing shouldn't be outlilwed-itshouldbe compulsory. AtfOfstplilyVictory
Bolllngs«msabitsiow andcrantyButpersevef-
ancelsthekeytogammg nifVilniiTheonlyreason the game secms slow and cranky IS because youruntramednovice OOKer IS slow and Cfanky. It takes a bit of time and trammgbeforeyoustart yleldmgpropergameplay results Andlt'sfIOtjusta c.aseofwaltmgfor)'OlJr stats tormprave so you
and fingertips in almost rehglousspifltua l harmony The addition of the specia l moves and combos Isa minor mas terstroke Your fighter Isn't eKactly hmlted to start wlth,bu t the super-powerful (blJt hard to time) extra techniques you pick up along the way reqlJlreafairlyd~pknowledgeofthegameto
Implement seamlessly mtoa strategy And given that some big dude is battermg away at you constantly all the while you're trymg to figure out how to get back at them this doesn't make for an easy task Thethr~damagebarsareprobablythereal
stars of the show_ though Where most boxmg games rely on a smgle energy bar (hke marhal arts beat 'em ups) the tnumvlrate of conSiderations foistedupontheplayerbyhtsdefence.punchmgand averallstatsforcestheplayertoknowwhentobox, not lust how If your punchtng bar tS low you'll find tt ntgh·<m tmpossible to floor your opponent no matter how many blows you land,and If your defence rs low It'S best to block and retreat to Silve yourself from a deckmgAndtt'snouseJuststeammgmandratnmg down punches indtscnmmately-tfanydoconnect they'll do nowt and you'll also ttre your boKerout. leaving htm (or her) open to a quick flooringwtth a single htt, no matter how highyotJI overall energy The great gameplay is backed up perfectly by the rest of the package The graphics are well drawn and move convmcmgly, plus each figh ter has thetr own indtvidualappeilfanceilnd(mosltmportantly) ftghtmg style which ildds some chilrilcter The sound isa httle spilrse, but the punchtng effects arereahstte andtheoccilsionalcommentilryilddsiltmosphere The only possible balk is tnthe Iilstilbthtyballpark Once you've reached the top there's nowhere else to go,unless)'OlJ'vegotilp!enttfulsupplyofhumiin chilliengers watttng to take up the gauntlet However,reachmgthetopmthefirstplilcelSiin admtrilbleenoogh feill. and a thoroughly entertil,nmgoneiltthilt
YtII WI f1pt .. Dr ",llISt relllile oppoMlt., wttlc:~ JOlt .Ipt liklIfJOl'rtaft.ulistDr_kildrllitQ'wlrl-!Mat.r.
'.
~
JL - ...:! =-=
--EXIT
~ SEGA SATURN
7_9_ _
In these tw;;t!ii.ilbi.M of the Saturn, arcade-perfect conver-
sions might be common place. But it wasn't so long ago that you couldn't hope to get a
~
replica of an
~ on
a
home system. 50 when the then new-kid-on-the-block Megadrive, produced a near- erfect conversion of 5ega's brilliant Golden Axe coin-op, everyone went wild! And so history repeats
Dl •
fCOI,I'Se, thl.'ilSl.'d GOlde nAx eCOinop would look pretty unimp.essiW!' b)'today'ssbndards.Andlnd~d,
thenot-so-close-i1s-we-,emembe,ed Megadriveconversion is now
tragically dated (as some IlIcky
puntef$will find out this Ch,idmu when they gel a Megad riveandSega'sMegagamepack),Soan arcade perfect convenion on the Saturn dlM!sn't sound like such a grnt prospect at all ,ully, does iH Ah,but worryye not. because Saturn Golden
AJ<.eisn'tactuallyaconve,sionofthec,ustyoldcoinopatali,butinfact a conversion ofa much newer AMI-designed coin-op known as Golden Axe The
Duel. Whafs more, it's not Just arcade perfect. ,t's
the barbarian (prev iously known as Ax Battler). Milan Flare (the swordswoman formerly known as Tyrls Flare)andGilliusThunderheadlhedwarf-areallm there As is Oeath Adder, amazmgly enough as a selectable character Addmg the most novel element to the game though,thelittleimpfromGoldenAllescampers onlo screen, And as in the oroginal game. he releases magIC potions when whacked Collect a full complement of these potions and your character can becomemaglcallYlmbued.pulhngoffspectacular screen-sized magicattads. providing you know the secret key combinations to unleash Ihem Performing these devastating magrc attacks soon becomes obJective of each fight
arcadeEXACTI Vou see. The Duel com-op is i!ctually a T,tan80ardgame,whichme<lnSltusesthesame
GoldenAlle TheOuelmightnotcompeteon the same graphical terms as 10 fight games such as
hardwMe as the Saturn, In olher words, ifsa straight coin·op to Saturn port over, Just hkeVF RemlK Andjustlikel1emiK,lfsaone-on-onebeat'em up, Yep, gone are the scroll,ng battle·fitled quests of Orlgmal formula Golden Alle, now replaced by, fights Choosing from one often warriors, you have to fight each of the others to wm, Or, in two·
VE There is however. no doubt thaI Itssprite·based graphicsaremightilyimpreSSI\lt,Largeweli. animatedcartoonycharacters, lush backdrops and plenty of speed·lines and blood splashes. all accompanied by great sound effects and music make The Duel a flashygameindeed,And. perhaps more,mportantly. Its Street Fighter·style range of
player mooe you just fight your opponenfs selected warrior It's the usual one·on·oneroutme, but With Ihe added Golden Axe flavour
moves provides some very addictive combal,Golden Axe The Duel is definotely an enjoyable game, all the more so if you're a Golden Axe fan, The problem is, VF2 and X-Men: Children Of The Atom are Just around the corner, Bothofwhicharevrrtuallyguar anteed to provide beller fightmg action I'd be Inclined 10 spend my money on one of those
, . , S EGA SATURN
8_'__
Devoted Sega fans may remember'.'짜lefir:rm;GUHHqiIT:mr, from a couple of years back, when it appeared on the ~ But a lot has happened since then, and you'll be glad to hear that this puzzler has been given the ffi!l;UKm!j'jlj1j!!to bring it into the ~!!iIjIilm(!'Z1!rn!I thutobeS;lIldth;lltwhenitw;lIsfird relused on the MegJ-CO, M;lInslon of Hidden Souls did receive somethlngof;llh;llmmerlng, malnly i)e(;lIuse the FMV window W;ll$ ;lIbsolul elyliny, and Ihe g;llmepl;lly W;lIS jud far 100 usy - in f;llel we m;lln;llged 10 nuk the g;llme In IIttleoyer;lln hour. At first glance though. it seems as though at least OM of these pfOblems has beensortt'd-the FMV window IS much larger and although the qU;llllty of moving Images ille shU;lI bit rope)', Irs;ll v;lIstlmprQVementonthe16 -b,tvers,on-botttlen thafsonlytobee_pected Youralmlsto,nvest'g~te the cause of the full red moon whICh ~ms to be turnlngmostoftheinhilbltilntsofthecrttpymanslon a bit doolally Well, actually, they're all bit doolalIyanyway, because they've all decided that never stepping ou t side t he house is much better than IIvingouttheir prI!Vlous lives in t he real world By talkingto each character in every room you'll dlSCQVer vitill clues;llnd purlolO obJects that Will help you to uOf;llvel the eerie mystery that surrounds the house The;lldvl!nture is also set agamst the clock, and ;lIlthough)'Ot.l can save your g;llme, If you runOl.lt of tlme,)'Ot.I Ciln only replily II with the Silme amount of time left from when It WoilS last silved luckily, this doesn't make much difference, as the proceed ,ngs are for the most part,falrlyusy, However. It is stili nICe to go through the motions anyway, purely to see some of t he rooms 10 the house, unfortunately though,desplte being set in ghostsville, you never feel very eKclted about wha t 's gomg on - iI's just not moilcabre enough and there's no rul tenSion mvolved in the gameplay. apart from the riKe against the clock. ThtSIS prCM."d even further when you mterilel with some of ttle charilcters In the g;llme Some of them are supposed to be genuinely scary, but the chOice of VOICes for each person is h,laflOl.ls, The gun. man soundshkea Playschool plesenterand most of the ot hers are Just pool James Earl Jones flP of(s Stlll,thisistheonlygameofi t stypecu rrently available on the Sa t urn, and it is fairly entertJifling Ifsjustnotln-depthenoughtoeltherlilstverylong, or satlsfyilny fans of puzzle type games Plustocap It;lllloff,thestcnylineisabitoutdilted-surelywhilt we: want from this type of game IS iI cyberpunk style thriller - not Jackanory ilfter;ll cOI.Iple of bad PlOtS
I
.
.. "
4"
', '
.
.
"
~
8_'__
Live the life of a ImrnrnmlE'iJ'il'iIjl with Hebereke's Popoon. An everyday story of ~ and their
eMrll!ke is Uf. He 's like
H
~
littlefllghtleu fowl thing
with~tinylittlec utebeil k .il ndilnh lsfrlendsilre
equally enchanting sq uirrel thlng1 or Shosh or aliens. They're ilU uceptlonally sweet and lovable. I have Heberl!'ke fridge mign etson my oven at home, such Is my il ffect lon for the littlefellowilnd hlt p;lIs. Bul dtsplt e his adorabllity I find II vt!ry diffkull 10 play his games. hi s first outing on the - boo hiss - SNE S was qultt' good. All his appe.m,nces sln(e then have lefi me dlnppolnttd. Bul thiS, Hebereke's Popoon. is the S,llu," ,o~fsjon of that initlalt,tle.ll'Ie,artthatl~tomyfillhn8InIO'o'twlthHebelnthl!'
first place SO surely It must be good Pleil~ let 1\ be good, Sun~f\. for I 10'0't HeberC"ke morC' than hfe 'Isclf But hilf~. what dilrk thlough yonder window brtilks? This Isn'l a cO!lYerslonoflheoflg.nal Popoon atall,butarevampcdedltlonoflhetweeMean8ean Mach.necioneTheldeaoflhegamelslomatchup four Popoons (little blobby jelly things which drop in pairs from the top of the screen) of the same colour, either in any adjo.n.ng formatIon ofstflctly by straight hne status (depend.ng on your dIfficulty sett.ng),whereupontheydlsappearTomakelife harder t.ny effigIes of the maIn Hebmelstercharacters (known as PoroPoros) Sit suspended.n mldalf, jltter.ngaround on.e space left to rIght or up to down Each character has thell own COIOOI, and the only waytodestroythesegla~nHebeleke(orOhChanor
Sukelaemon) idols is to match them up with three or more Popoons of the correct hue. The removal of all these Mini Pops images is the aim of each level of the one-player game The two路player game introduces special attac芦s, which are acl,vated by popping more than one Irne of Popoons wIth one blob路drop So it all sounds pretty straightforward And wIth a game that stralghtforward,followlng such a trusted formula, It must be ImposSIble to screw up Butthat'sexactlywhatSunsofthavedon.e HavIng the PcroPoros awalt.ng destructron at the outsetofthelevellsabadth.ng,notbecausert makes the game harder (whrch rsn't a badth.ng) but l!ecauseltjustconf"sestheplayer,especiallyasthell mobrlrtymakes It impossible to plan ahead Theone player game iserther way too hard (wrth straighl line Popoon matches only) or laughably easy (with any quartet allowed) And the two-player goilme suffers by mak.ng the special moves too hard to achieve, except by fluke, If you're really really Into this sort of game you might Irke a look. as It's the only example of the genre cUllentlyavarlableforthe5.aturn.ButasuperrorTetnscionecoiln't behrbeh'nd
~ SEGA SATURN
, . , SEGA SATURN
8_'
_
hlsorigjn~tly;lppearedinJapinwlth
T
theunintentionillyhllirlousn;ame of Gran (hner, If on ly
~8i
Uk hilld
hildtheprtsenctofmindtokupthe title and ditth tht gilme ittilChed to it. Imagine i game whkh usl, you asaretthomefep, chilsings.enlorcitilensaraund their bungalows with a big nel,attemptlns to
Jetsons. But why wait another three hundred years for
ensnare them ilInd cilrtthem offto)'oul TwlllBht Pastures home. Or some binr.t abstriltt/surrulist pltCf whefe a man ina bar follows upuch bee. with i shot of gran. Althoushthit might not m;llke such a good gilme.
But no·onelhinh like Ihat in
technology to catch up with your desires when you can drive a
business No. they just kept the
floating ca r in ~ with your Saturn? Perhaps
ilndchilng~thenilme.Sowhiit
because Cyber Speedway ~ We investigate.
,ace gilme staf'lng some f1wtlng cars And you. the lucky player,illl!
e~~nslvety·p'oduced{ommodlty we·releftwllhisCybf:,S~wi)'.iI
InVI!Wto drive one a,ounda senes of race· track· type race Iracks Indeed,one of your fnends IS inVited too, if you fancy a bit of spht.screenhead·to·headaction Of course, this miSht seem prettytemptons Af\er all. Daytona IS resolulely dual'playfree. But hold your horses ttiere tlserchances are you'd feel worse off Pilrtons with cilsh for Cyber Speedway unless yoU're the hardest ofhilrdcorefllend.smilmg enlhuslastswllh a permanent Speedway partner by your side. The trouble is, whilst Cyhtr Speedway IS a good enough concepl Ihe m«hanlcsoflhehandhnghaven'l bef:nthoughlthroughlt'sallvery well hilvlngyour car float ilOOve theground,butlfyou'regomSlo do Ihillyou've got lothmk hoverClaf\, not icy roads. As It standsthevehiciesinCyber Speedway behave lII:e they have no traction, as opposed to act,ng hke they're powered by massive big retro·thruster thinss which keep them levitated The dflft of the machmes and the pull of momentum havebef:n pretty much oYerlooked, whICh may dlsappo!ntphYSlCsfans tt's not all bad, though The course designs are pret!y sWlsh,vaned In both grilphlCill style and tOrtUOSity. There's plenty of racing s~llIchallengestobemetoneachtrad(eJ(ceptthe
computeropponenls) There's also plenty of scope to customiseyourfloatmgcarthingand mount big weapons on your bonnet with whICh to atomise the competltlon.Andlt'svlftuallyctipping.fr~lnfact,
the truth IS that IfCyhtr Speedway wasn't so crap, it'd probably be brilliant All the elements ilre there. butthehilndhngofttiesklmmersandgeneralf~l.
mg of not·much·gomg-on mean It's nowhere neilr the quality of Daytona 01 the forthcommg Scga !tilly
."
' ~."' ~'. :
......,~'\
AnolhIrOIll. EwIRbtUlr.
8_7_
_
hlny Entll!rta lnment have estOlbll$htd
S
themselvlI!siSsomtlhlngipedalln vidl!'Ogamll!i,wlth only two p.ojects unde, lhelr belts. lucky old
Inlerplay, who have now snilpped Ihem up. Virgin should however be consoled with gettlng oneof lhe bed MegildrlvII!
sames this yur to dun up at (hristmu. Jim, t he super路empowered garden worm, is
ba(~
w,thilvef'lgear'1Ce.Hlsfurtherad~nturesareJustas.
\0 employ a hackneyed ttrm, 'zilny'uthose before. but the gamut of action IS much wlder路ranging, wllh tht style of game chanSlnll on a level by level basIS
And everyone,
In
every way. isslCkemng'ywell
Implemented
For the clutch of convent ,ona I platform levels, Shmy have tilken an&lIglnal approach on each. Vou start by dropping pigs down a chute,lIraduate to carrymgda,rycattletothemllklngsh~sto'atterly filesheilvesof~perlnkIUercabinets.lnbetween,
the game meanders down shoot 'em up paths and a hllafioussub.gameWhereyou bounce PUps off a huge marshmallow There IS no part of the game whICh does not utlhse the fuU potential of the machme, or mdeed the potential of the () player There aretllals for theformel ~ " With amazing graphICs manipulation
Jl
~'\..... - ontheLoren:o's50II,andtestsforthe
latter with the trICky meltial control ofthe bhndsalamanderButeverythmghna relaxed and confident tone-theyeven flfld !,meand space for a spoof game show Earthworm Jim 2 is no! Ihe hardest game ever produced,bu! is far from being the easiest and is Just so poten tly playable thaI every moment of play feels like good valueformoneylfyou'reseflousaboulhavinglhe besl iflyour Megadllve games collKllon, then you have noopl,on but to add this ANGUS
SWAN
dALlal.lib
Megadrive !16 -Bit
..... riousothtrne't rdowells through reruns of the old films still bLilIingOiround the circuits.
Once you've overcome the novelty of elkltmg any movement
",t.. d.m.",m.",tm,,",",-
N
thing to you. tt'sthe plogramming
t u m that brought you Eccothe Dolphin, one ofthemostsu(Cessful ilnd ilcdaimed game s for Ihe
Me gadrive. It 's iliso th e tnm thai
,
now offer you KoHbrL
Strangefish,KohbrLActually.Kolibriisahum. mingblfd,which I.lnt,1 now have had litlle Impact on Yldeogames. Novotrade haVf obviously set out to
crealesomet hln8 unusual. Toads, tfrrnites and ladybirds make their debuts as game denizens
InanintroremmiscentofEcco(manypartsof the game are) Kohbri txperiences a distressing shift
in nature, with allthegood hummingblldsiI,edflW'n away by a plasue offlasty iflsectS. Your job IS to bflflS back colour to the flowers and anflihllatethe buss This is ~chieved by flYlflsacross a couple of dozen levels and takins part ifl a shoot'em upof some scale. Kolibri. behifld its sumptuous pastoral sraphicsafldweirdsettIflS.lsanhonest-to-sod blaster. offerlflg a serious chaliense Thinss aren't qUit e that simple, with forcedscrollins levels and less linear sameplay as the same
'~'
" -- "-
~ _ NrtM!~it prosressesKohbnentersamazeofcavemsandfaces Ecco路esque puzzles before he can proceed. The latter areas of t he same wlli chaliense diehards. and some of the nicest parts of the same Iflvolve wicked enemies. like plants who sud you up like a hoover. Large and complex. Kohbri offers value for money. buta certain duliness and insipidi ty accompanies It
h~t some 8~me publishers would glye to undflStand how CodemaslefS, i minnow com paled to iome In the busineu, un regularly topthl! charts with their Melladrlvl!
W
titles, when eVi!n the most
ulravagant mOirketlnB campalsn for an upenslve arude conversion (;mnot enSUfe a big hit. The truth isn't Ihat eluslYe-they produce 8ameshkeSupt'rSkidm~rkssh .. melesslyrootedin gilmep1olY,whrlstiidoptlngshckpresentat,on.ilnd
offefm8 iI genuine new gilmlngexpeflence Skldslsa raci!rlhaloffeumorethan a nodtothe massive sue· cessMlCloMilchlne5,especlallyw,thrtsfouf-player optlonthiitutlhsesCodemiisters'clcverJ-Cilrt Progrilmmed by New Zealanders, Acid Softwilre, Super Sk,dmiuh uses iI sophisticated isomellrc v,ew for Its stock-car setting Although th~ selten stills arereliltlvelyunilssum,"g.t~shildlngilndcurvilture
on the dirt trilcks IS ImpreSSive on·screen, iIS IS the ilmmilt,onoftheCilrsel"lhill"lcesthlseff«tilsthey bounceerlilhCilllyilroul"ld Iheplilyfield The ChilmprOl"lshlp IS set ilcrOSS four scel"llC
lenseTheolherisasetof computercarsthathilve surelyp.Jssedthelf .Jdv.mcedlesl Be,ng a Cod,es prodlKllOl"l,thele'sil clulch of cheats, and a pJsSWOrdOpllon, This Includes the 'cows on wheels' opt,on, where Ihe players race turoo-chargedcilttleIn plilceoftneregularCJrs SuperSkldmJrksisJnexcellenlly,cOI"Istructed and enjoyable game, and while flOt possessing the same ~tlque of M,Clo Machines, II should find r.omefaflatlCdlsupporters
16 -Bit I Megadrive <L", PO
,
R
•
•
I}] •
rln1in1thtfourthinstilllmtntin
~!: ~P~~:I:~nf!rRt:: S~:ililrm of :~~ ~;;:~:~T~::I:n:~~;~::t:;f
_II htrt u IhtyJrt In Jilpiln, AhhoughthtUShilddontlhtlranslaUonwork, thtSKondconsldtJ3tion, IhecostofJhult14MtgJbiturt, brought further reservJtlons, NowthedKISlon 10 go ahead has beentaken,thewlnners~rePh~ntuy Starfilns,who~retreatedtoilvilst
chunk of action, thaI takes the plot well beyond Ihe first three games Thegameplay-conlrollinglnventOfles, arming combiltaflts ilfld using spells-is flOt to everyofle's tilste But the game succeeds by creating chmactlC momefllS, introdUCing new chJracters and powers. 3fld taking maflywelfd and wonderful plot turns A flew feature IS the combo attacks. where various spelisafldpowenprodlKedevastal,nglesults Al"lyone new to the geme mJy find II neavy gOing
espt<lally as the game plays on the established PhafltasyStar mytholOIlY 24 MellS may seem par for the course in Ihese days of mega carts, but beM ifl mind that Ihis employs the memory ifl game afld plotafld flOtOfl graphlCsandr.oundThesavefuflct,ofl,sequJllylilV, ,sh,wlththreesepilrilleposlt,onSilvilllilble Pretty I! is not, but the mysteroes of Phantasy Stilr IVw,1I cOfltlnUe to fox you well after the likes of Thor ilfld SOlellhavebeenputtoon-es'de
. . . S EGA S ATURN
0000300 "'''' ~
~t.' ... .,0
...
fI
ManiltisstilidassedaSilment.. 1
simplistic puzzle same, that borrows some of the plot from Tetris and adds a fairdashoforiginahty.
Placed in the centre square of the screen, you
attempt to arrest the progress of advancing shapes by shooting them with your cursor. Whether they comply is down towhat colour your cursor is. Add a few bonus items with limited power and you have
Zoop In its favollf,Zoop plays beUerthan itlooh,and
ithasthecuriouscompulsivenessofTetristoa desree.ltiSjustrlOtthesortofgamethatisbfost suitedtoe~pensivecartrldges,especiallywhenthere
is flashier and more developed fare around,Zoop mania may turn out to be short-lived. Just keep your Wits about you
hen Pac·Man first appeared. Maggie Thatcher had just just become PM.
W
theAuriVc~wasthenextgeneration
home machine and game carts were about !30 each. Well. some things don't change! FIf\eenyeilfS on, the cult of the rotund. canary·yellow Namcostar IS wear· ing rather thin, But not sothinthat Philips can't find SpiKe for a budget cart starring Pac in a Tetris clone. PacPanicbearsa 1993 copy right, and e~tremelysimplisticgame play, but for all that, it's really rather fun. Blocks and ghosts fall into your verticaltrough,withtheoccasional pac·manoffered to gobble them up in sequence The concept is support· ed by three modes of play: a single· player game of ever·increasingdifficulty:aloolevel puzzle mode which al lows you a limited number of Pacs to clear the screen. The final mode is a two-player battiegame, Not much elsetote!i; the graphics are clear, the sound is good and if It had come out two years ago it would have cleared up, Fortwen· tyquidnowit'swellworthconsidering ,
" o!o!
oopManla seems to be sweeping the (onsole industry if the review scores this game has attracted are to be believed. To us It looks like they have Indeed lost control of their senses.
debility in our medical handbooks. Zoopisnoless.~nd certainly no more than. a
II
.....!::" ~".
•. . "'0'" I~. .r "'"
.
. 04
0
• •
.
.~::~ ~~"""'f
. :~ i~ _ * u, •• :.~ .
#.:
'
. " ., - -8 - - - ,-
SjU~:?a:U~;;~~~:~~:g~a~~:::r:!~eS~:,~~~~ ~~d~~: t~;':~~so~n the PC eireUlt untold times And there's just one ,eason fo,this-ifs really addictive stuff BUild your own elty and take responSibility fo, everythmg m It. from the water supply to the town's unemployment levels, This Saturn version has all the features flom the ongmal PC yerSlon, plus a few e)(lfa thrown in for good mea, su'e, making It oneofthe best striltegygames iIyailable on the Sat urn.lt'sa shamethatthlsverSloniSSlowerthanitSPCeounterpart,buts~mgasyou ' linttd
th e patienee of iI saint to bUild up a good elty anyway. a few more seconds Will t shouldn't make that muehdlfference
_09 . 99
."'-
N~:~~mesh;: ~eS~;::~::~a~~/~~~:~:~::~t~:~;t~~r;:~_k~:~y~~h:ai~'
SO one of the best versions of the title, and being arcade peffect, If s verydi fficul t to find fault with any aspect of the game Graphically of course, it's well w ithin t he Saturn's capabihties, so the fact that It comes with super smoot h visu alsplusa ll the secret characters and cheats IS Just about par for the cou rse, Ag a in, not a title we can get hugelye)(Clted about. but If you don't al.eady own a copy of Ja m in some form, this is your best bet
~.
~
....
-- ----~-, ' .,
. " II. ...
.
'
0 9 99
****
A
nother one that's spht the Sega camp, On one hand It could be said th at this IS the best baseball game eve. toappea. on a console, Yet on the ot her, you could say that ifsjus t the same as every one ofthe othe. hundred -or-so sims that are already out the.e, albeit on inferro. machines What this does ha ve over other titles of the same Ilk though,is brilliant randomised speech that actuallydoesn't.epeatltselfcompletelyevery tensecondso.so The gameplay Is pretty Imp.essive too. with sw~ping camera angles and Ioadsofdlffe.ent game options, Not sUi ted to everyone. Simply as the sport only has an obscure followrng over here. but It'S pretty addictive, especially in multi playef mode
~ SEGA SATURN
H
ockey was always really successful on the Megadflve, ma inly due to EA's SUCCfSSlon ofhlgh-quahtyS lms_Sofar. they haven't released ilny de tails
rega rding a Satu rn version, but In the meantime. this homes/own Sega version of event s should do nicely AS you'd eKpect t here's tons and tons of optl ons, the usual million-or-so stats. a mu lli pla~r mode, and. come to think of ii, the gameplay's not bad eit her It doesn't qUite have the staymg power of EA:s own hockey,but seeing as that's not hkely to surfacf until next year, thiS will plea seeveryone eKcept the most
"'S8Iy. trilinspottery of hockey fans_ Good
stuff
mmm. Nowlhis is a bit of a tricky one. Ra~man is the kind of game that )'Qu'll either love or hate_ Unfortunately, the majority here at SATURN MAGAZINE fall intothe latter category. Ifsnot tha t Rayman is an appalling tit Ie by any means -Infact t here's lot s of neat touches in there that at first give the Impression that )'Qu're really going to be in for a treat However, after piayingitforanyiengthoftimeyou'limore thanlikelydiscoverthatit's srossly imtatinsand actually, not much fun at all,Althoushsomeofth e platformins levels are designed reallywell,mostofthem arenish-o n identical wi th very httle implemented to spice up the run-hl t -mn action Plat form ins fans will probably love It an'/Nay, but the majorotywill fi nd itdull.andhishlyunoriginal
H
notheftltlethafsalfea~yappeafedOnaSegafOrmatbefOre,The~eParkhas to be one of the most highly <lcdalmed games of all lime. The object of the game is to build an amazing theme park up from nothing, and find a way to ma ke an obscene amount of money, There's plentyofwaystodothis-elth erprovide the best service possible or rip everyone off down the line. The scope and lastabihtyofthetltle is enormous and as well as being a bit ta.inga ttimes,it's
A
alsoreallygoodfun,Pfobablynot themoste~cit,nsoftitlesjustbecausethe
name has been around fOf so lorrg, but easily one of the highest qual ity.
····0··········· ~ ...... PRICE! CHOICE! QUALITY! SERVICE!
G~ MEP~ ~ ~ fi!!iNI!ti!.K~wV.ti!mmWiUi\fi11J SEGASATURN
1P!.'@'!!'!!'.!!.£ti! @ 1'!J.!'!!'&.!E"!*'!+2tlJ'.!1!tf!!'.!W!'£$!+!".
fG···A···M····E··n~~n ~~~~~:h~Sl~~=ro';;,
I I
IZI :.!1~~it~t. .t.I'dW'[ItMlM AllOIME~fW,fS
IJI
: I
1Zl ~!~?s'~~~SfJ<l;l I
NMIE:. .. .. ..
-.~. .
£ £
~
.. .. . ..... ... ......•..................CUSTOMER No: ............................
.....
.
5i..~~~OO~
... .. ........ . SIGNATIJRf:..
PosrCOOf TEL
MAC~NE P,~E i
ITEM
BATlEY, W. YORKSHIRE WF17 8lL
....... ....
~"" ~~~NVEICft.FOJ I C~~~······'· I
r71 'S'cv.s.5C6Mn'flff Of OWGl
lLJ
LlI
....•.....• ... . FAX:.
CHEOUE
__ _
~=[1=jStft L.~~=.:.
POSTAL ORDER
n
'hr-l
CARO
0
...! _ _ _ _ ~ __
"--<Ioopoodo.
~ ..
P&P £
TOTAL £
Cheques poyoble to 'Gameplav',
I I
: I I I I
.:!S.y:TE:~~ ~~O~~ _!y!ttJ ~ ~
",.mtou OC1Q1 .... oI l1O'flglOp' ... 'f:&OE
))))))))))))))))))
.--.-.... .... .--.-.... .... .--.-.... .... .--.-.... .... .--.-.... .... .--((((((((((((((((((....