WIPEOUT MORTAL KOMBAT3
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PREVIEWS RETURN TO lORK DARK SAVIOUR LOADED
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REVIEWS WIPEOUT MAGIC CARPET STREETflGIITtII ALPHA
SHEllSHOCK VALORA VALLEY GOlf SHINING WISDOM GEX
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REGULARS NEWS IN DEVELOPMENT GOIN-OPERATED I.ETTBIS Q&A TIPS OUT NOW NEXT MONTH
SEGA RALLY TIME AITACK GOMPETITION
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Are you among the top ten Rally masters in the country?
RALLY GUIDE PART 2
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If not, consult the second part of our Sega Rally guide!
VIRTUA AGIITtII2 MASTERCUSS 88 And if fighting's your bag. then look no further than this!
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tIUIIdI. ...... _ ............... ~"'ar..wryCOMplllllht ..... WhIdIerorllOt thllwll ....... . . . . . . Inttle UK"""ns 10 bI ..... -1r'I unllMtythat _ 'I_wtl lI¥lM _pnIIpOrtioft.I5 J.-NllII.... ...... ftO lIIOMYonhl. . . Sltesar. ... L" - r , It-...s.senslbt. llIIteryto !looa.UK Satum SlIu, espedIUy 15 they . ,. betlnnlnr to Cltd! Up with ptl)'SUtlon. In the mnntlme t houlh, be SItls"-d ttIIt theR's pi.my of 109 qu.11ty Sltum titles on lhelr WIy to UK pmers owrtlM nut month or so, . tt of whic h you eln rud .bout In this very Issue. ptus, turn 10 p.,e 98 nowfor.n uc: ltlnl.n nouncl ·
VIRTUA FIGHTER 3... AT LAST! I'l l n_ ,h'nlet"rthlt Yu SUlukllnd (0 h..... enUdngth,J'p.nft' publl( (Ind the worldl) with hli flnillly bun unvelledl Previously, _ (ould only 5e. sepl"te putt of the (hlrleter In vlrlous preu releuft, but now thl new fllht' r 1'111 m.de.n 'ppe.r.n" In full.t the ",OU show (.n .rc.d, show In Jlpln) . Th. new (hnlder Is I Jlplne5. femlll fllhter nl med ",01 UmlnokCMIJI. Shl _.n. pink .nd purple kimono with S.kurll petal pltte,n5 on It Ind hokh I fan (whkh II no doubt u-t In her .ttacks). ", ch.rllete, profile hIS not bun rele.-t )'I!t, but the.e Wil5 I movlnl demo of thl ,hilnlete. It thl ADO. She ,
showed 5(lme blocklnl movement but It Is h.,d to detlrmln. whitt Ity10t of f1Ihtlnllh.wlllpoUIS5. other (h'nleten on show, _r. La u . nd DU rllt. Wh, .. u pl1lYlou5 Vf I"phlu 5uf· '-ted from visi ble Jol nlnl of t he limb., this time, the Chlnl .. mlSterlooktd like. rill pl!rs.on with no blocklnlSl wh.tlOlWrI Ho_r, It Dural thlt Itolt the show. She/it locKed Identkll to T lOOO from t he TI mOYIe. The metal surfacl ..fleeted the "Iht from the surroundlnl backdrops ilnd al n only be cteHribed IS .bsolut.1y brllthtaklnl. bpt<t to ... 101(:\5 mort on VFJ _ I
WI.
Ice hockey VIRGINS $ega's NHL Hockeywas reviewed In Issue 1of $ega Satum Magazine, umlng ~ rl!Sped:able78".Readytofaceoff~galnstitISVirgin·sPov.-erPiayHockey'96,an
NHL ~pproved gl~, melnlng all the tums II"Id stars Ire In there. Progr.mmed by Americ.an boffins, bdiall.thts ts shaping up nice!y. uSingSOl'l""ll!brelthtaking gr~phk:s II"Id Inimltion II"Id fe~turlng SOI'I""II! YI!f"j nst g~meplay. What's more. it's , being developed to ICcommodate Six playen SimulUneouslyl Doe out IfOUnd June. there's still some way to go before WI! Cln reilly estimate how good it is, but iookOtJlforlpteview innextmonth·s lsSUl!..
• • ~ SEGA SAruRN
STOP PRESS! PANZER UPDATE P~ru$ing
through the contents you'll no doubt notke our hnrer Drilgoon lwei show路
C;l5e. The version that w e had WilS Incomplete, lacking most of Episode 5and altof Episode8and a couple of bosses. But as is often the way In the chaotl(world of milSazlnl!'S, a complete version arT~ in the offkejust too late to be Included in the ShoWCiUl!. Not wanting you to lose out though, here's a loot; at ill the missing bits!
EPISODE 1: In our original version of the game, Episode 1was quite short. tt still isfillrlyshortbut now there's a lot more action. with more flying enemie5 espeo:lally. Episode 1doesn't h~ a boss however ilnd there are no plans to include one. Instead a cut out sequence sees:flu moving between the daws of a giant monster that looks a lot like the Ix::>5s of Episode 3
EPISODE 5: Episode Sis nowoompleteand it Iooh abwh,lIely stunning. Rather than Iotsofsmall enemies attacking, It concentrates on large foes which release a strange variety of projectiles, Includingthingswhichsplitintoaboutahundredothersthings and then come racing towards you. IsometriC shapes come searingoutoflhesflO'o'1'landsapeand dart about, unleashing spongy spheres which roll Ihrough the air in columns causing you to eilherdodgelhemorlry and shoot them down There's even stars which burst inlo firework trails. As forlhe bass.thisisablackmushroom.type thing except with spikes and an odd kindofgreen hexagonal shield. Bizarre indeedi Anyway. it路s bloody loughsobewarned
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EPISODE8?
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Soistherean EpisodeBIWell.yes and no. There's not an official Episode 8 in the sense that when you beat the bass In Episode 7you automatially goon 10 il. What we suspect though is Ihallhere is an e)C\/a stage;tyou complete the game with a high percentage of shooting accura cy. We shall see.
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DON'T BLAME US, BLAME THEM! Youwouldn't~lievetheomounto!phone,olllWf'
rtceivehorpingonoboutRFcoblel(orloc!co! them) PAL convenlons, pricelo!gomes-jult obout everything thot hOI onyfhing to do wlthSego. But lometimes we're jUlt not the ~It people to tollc to - ofter oil holl the time we're just 01 conluled by declslom os you ore. However, help is ot hond with theol/-newSegocustomerserviceline,creoted lpecificolly todeol with ollyourgomeondSoturn
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Cont",,), to populor Mllq, th~ SDtllm Unit-up cobl,"on tM WCIy, (lnd to provt It hrrr'f thr!int Ii"k up gomr! wboclrtn If currrntly only QVCll/oblr In Japan, although rumollf hOfltthotthrtlt/rw/llkop(HorirlgOVtr
Mninthrnrxtcoup/ro/monthf.Thr "duol gomrploy. pndictobly rnough, ronJidfo/rllnnl",,,/)(Jlltthtl~IJ,
Jhooting at your oppontnt, find ovrfCIlIl~ quitt, 11m, QvtfOgr,tolly. But, otlrcut It provrsthatthrllnlt·upcabltt.IJtJ, "Ithoug" ot lilt momrnt, t~n'J no othtf lilln which it elur be IIJtd with . .A UK
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Can you make split second decisions? Sorry, too late. One of the jets displayed on you r radar screen is an RAF Tornado interceptor. Should it identify, engage or destroy its target? It's your call.
You'~ c~w
..... orking so closdy with the Tornado
that you feel you're in the cockpit with
the m . Their lIVes arC' dependent upon the 5pe("(\
In
a co nflict slIu lOtion the re are no
seco nd chances. We 'Tt: describing the work of Fighter Controllers - the eyes of the RAE Using state-of-the-art radn they play a
vu~ l
advanced air dcfelKe systems III the world.
mobile tactical radn
dennnd~ nerve.
Howcvn. we don', upcct
Controller. the time has come for you to make your first dNmon. Conuct )'our local RAF
Ca~en InfonJulion
Office or simply telephone us on 0345 300 100.
you to bt uP-Io- speed fro m day one.
Wh leh
IS
wh)' you'][ receIVe me Illonths of tr~mll1g
IIllagmable. Some
you'll do on sophlstluted modem slnlUluors, the T"C'St you'll do for rul Until finally you'll fmd yoursdf Ihlllklllg
TIus could be: dee p underground III an Ops i
Obviomly. It'S a Job thaI
the most thorough
equIpment,
role openting one of the most
room. O r as pan of
RA Fs blest advanced warnmg atrenft. ~ kl l1 and mental agll,t)'.
and accur.llcy of your Judgement. HC(Juse
Or al ]0,000 feet on board a Scotry E-3D. Ihe
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futer than you would have thought possIble. If, by now. you're Illtnested 111 bn:onllng a F1ghter
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MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!
M~of t h,s yell we 'll be announcing the winners for the EMAP Golden JoystiCks Awa rds, where lOp g.lme com pillnies ale recognised for their best efforts in 1995 As ~r, t he majority of decIsions for cillegory wlnnersa re mad e accord ing to fudervotes. To vote. ali you have t odo is fi ll in th is form (or a copy of t his formJ and 5end it intouS There-S l ensub· script Ions to SeGA SATURN MAGAZI NE up for grabs for ta king part, so don't
Yep, it'S that time again, readers In
delilylenlrlesm u st bereceivedbyMafch30t h and~hovldbtstnllO
GOLDEN JOYSTICK AWAIIDS, EMAP IMAGES , PillORY COUIIT, )0')1
1 FAIIIIINGOON lANE, LONDON EClll )AU.
!132.arrGAaEOFTHEYEAR
i1 IUClHSED 32-BITGAaEOFTHE YEAR · ~1R-)
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SOFTWARE HOOSf OF lIE YUJI
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VIDEO'S UP FOR GRABS!
RWIER CHARTS We w~nt your ch:irtsl Send your top tens in to us It CHARTS, Sf CiA SATURN MAGAZINE, PRIORY COURT, )0 ' )1 FARRINGOON lANE, LONDON Eell! )AU. Three
readers uch months will be picked ollt of the bal. and will rIKelw .. bn.nd spank· Ing new Saturn glmel
" SATURN PRICE CRASH"
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Htrt at Stga Sahlin Magazlnt , out gentrosity knows no boonds, ~nd Jvst to prOYt it. wt'rt giving away a bunch ofvidtoS simply btcaustwt'~ In a good mood, Five sets of foor videos ~rt upfor grabs. all from Warner's Beyond Vision ~nd Tt rrOfVision r<lngt, ThIs quartet Includes RoIlerball lhe scl,fi diissic surfing the gnilrly Jilmes (ilan. two Hilmmer clilsslcs In the shape of Ffilnkensleln ilnd lhe Monster From Hell ilnd Frankenstetn Must Be Destroyed. both stilrrlng the Iiltt great Peter (vsh lng. ilnd TheOuttr Umits; VOlume 6, whlchftiltures tht story 'SOlditr' whichw~sthe
basis for TtrmlniltOf WeCiln hear)'OU chom ping at the brt illrtildy, so wrthootfurthtrdelilY, here's the qutstlon: Who wrott the book Frankensttlnl EilSY Isn't it. Send)'OUlanswersto WARNell VlOEO'S COMPO, SEGA SATUIIN MAGAZINE, )OoP
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thty'rtln)DI Actually,t'snotthattxcit,ngrtally" s,tl I .. ltmmlngsafl!'Cfl!'atIJrl!'5that)'Oul!'lthl!'flovl!'orhatl!' and wh'chl!'Vl!'fway, you stili 100000to hatl!' thl!'rn. But, )'Ou'vegot to hand ,t to thl!'m, thl!'y'VI!' cl!'ftalnly man· ~ . aged to get thl!'mSl!'lves on thespothghtOVl!'fthet<lst couple of months and have managed tochufflouta falflysuccl!'ssful Playstatlon title too. And of course, asyou'VI!' probably gUl!'ssl!'d by now {actually, wI!' did announcl!' it in a prl!'VlOUS Issue of SSM) the Playstatlon vel· sian of ll!'mmings will appear on Ihe Saturn wilhin Ihe next couple of months. Urn, thele's nol much else to say about It really, seeing as this is bound to bI!' a perfect conversion but It will fl!'atufe loads OfpUllll!'s, not 10 menllon some mlfld ' bI!'nd,ng. ha".pulhnggameplayCan"lwa,!.canyoul
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o doubt you will have already heard about this one somewhere down the line too, as It's already appeared on both the PC and the Playstatlon, Featuring the talents of novelist Terry Pratchett combined with the comedy gen Ius of Er!c Idle,Olsc:wofld Is an adventllfe game played out In the fantasy wor Idofthedlscworld novels, Based heavily on the Discworld series of novels, the Same takes most of its influences from point and dick RPG Sames (more popular on the PC than on con· sole). There's no overall quest to complet e, (we are dealinS with cre ativetypes here),but one of the tasks you'll have to complete is riddlnS the town 0farampaS' inSdrason. But,thafsjust thetipofthe icebers, After locatinsth edraSon,you'1i find much darker deeds afoot, with secret cults work· InS in the town, who are planninS some extremely darstadlydoinSs Althoushthis is stili very deep in development, it's pretty safe to say that t he final result will be exact· Iy the same as the oriSinal title, and should prove to be a popular Same for the Saturn-the PC version won numerous awards for its innovat lvegameplay. More news, or even a preview, next month
SEGA/PSYGNOSIS •
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release. Whyl Well, it sums as thollgh It's a tad on the obSCllfe side for most UK garners, bllt fear not, we reckon that someone will snap It lip any day now, Anyway. Skeleton Warriors will be released by Playmates in the US, and while it may boast an impressive death slayer intro: the gameplay is somewhat traditional. with the majority of Sameplay revolving around a traditional scrolling beat 'em up title, As menl ionedpreviously. there are some nice Sraphical touches in the levels, includingscal edbaddiesand the likes, which appear throughout the game, However. with much more innova· tlve products on offer, it's difficult to say how successful the title will be over here It should be out on import within the next couple of weeks, and we'll ke epyou posted on newsofa UK release dale,
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AUTU"N
fter hutily retreiltlngform the ~gil milrket sometime Iilst yur, Konilml seem to hilve hild iI chilnge of hurt ilnd in ilddltlon to illreelnl to pubilsh one more title on the Megildrlve, they've ilgreed to publish on the Silturn too . Luckily unlike their Iilst Iilme, hrodlus, this Is iI complete new project for the compilny, illthough it will ilppeilr on the Plilyshtlon first . Overkill is a 3D shooter, which poses the question "i s violence any good/". To which the obvious answer is "yes, actually". As partofa special forces t eam, you have been hired in to rid the environment of nasty enemies with the hel pofsome heavy machinery. Although there's not much to ~ on the game at the moment. the final prod· uctshould be a top party of blood and guts. and if past Konami releasesar eany thing to go by, it will be pretty innovative too. However. With most of the develop· ment t a~ing place in Japan, it will probably be a fair few months before we get to see any actual code, but as the Japanese version won't bechangedfor us blood fearing Europeans, f>Al conversion time will be as short as possible.
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ith the huvy·duty" console w ilrthilt 's going on ilt the moment, it's probilbly fillf to Sily thilt lesser mil,hlnes hilve lost out som ewh ilt . The)oo Is iI pilrticulilr eumple, and while It hils hild some gruttltles In the PilSt, hu been oversh il dowed In recent months by both the Silturn ilnd Plilystil tion. But, that"s not to say that there aren't any titles on the 300 that ar eworth seeing on the Saturn. In fact, developers Electronic Arts have decide dtoconverta whole bunch of 300 titles over the coming months. with the e~cellent Need for Speed heading the posse. This has probably Ileen one of the most successf ul3DO titles to date, achieving 90% scores from most multi·format magazines However. unlike the rallies and Wipeout's of this world, Need for Speed is actually a driving Simulation, sojust putting your foot down and hopi ng for the best Just won't work in this game. You can still reach some pretty highspeeds though. and the pile ups can be absolutely horrific. There'sbeennowordofane~actreleasedateforthistitle,although work has alreadybegunontheSaturnconversion~itshould be a fairly straightforward process as ifs unlikely that EAwili make any real changesforthis ve rSion.
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lokes todily, huh . All they wilnt 15 fut nrs, fut women ilnd t he Ilitzy hlSh life. Or soJVC would hiIVeyou believe If you took their ImpiICt RicinSSilmeserloudy. Already released in Japan under the title Wang Gang Dead Heat. we didn't really expect to see this leleilsed intheU K. ButJVC thinkthatitwillappealtoa certa in type of gamer over here, but seeins as it features busty babes wit h not very muchon,wethinkthey'remilkingthe"phwoar"noveltyfactor. Anyway. Impact Racing is a car racing game. in theory not dissimilar to Sega Rally. You get to choose a navigator (one ofa variety of scantily-clad girlies) and they will inevitably gUide you around one of the manycour5eson offer. Ithastobesaidthatgraphieally.thisdoesn'tmeasureuptothemightof Sega Rally,andevenasa novelty product it doesn't really offer anything we h aven't seebefore~ex(eptforsquealsofencouragementfromehosengirlie. But with rae· Ing games more popular than ever on console, it could prove to be fairly successful, especiatlyas it will no doubt be released during the quiet summer months.
~ SEGA SATlJr:<N
AM3 UNVEIL NEW ARCADE TITLE 路 LAST BRONX
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AM) title employs the Modell !>Nrc!, ~nd looks set tofurthef enlunce 5ega'freputation-sthebesttoin-opdew,lopenintheworidl Set some time In t his decilde in Tokyo. the title spotlights gangs of youths who fo.1m the Cityilt night In seilrch of violence and corruptio n.
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terfltory Instnd of their followers flghtlng httleskirmishes ilCrosS the crty. Who
will control Ihe Cilpitill ilt Ihe beginning of the 21St centuryl Well,lhilt's down to yotJ and your fighting skills, buddy Arl)1)ne who's ~n to Tokyo will recognise 'lOme of t he buildings feiltured in this 8i1me -In filct Sega tcolt gU~ilt cilre In recreating Tokyo for the gilme's bilek-
groond Thedeslgn.ers hilYt also sought to bflng reillism t o thechilracters by milk-
ingthem_ilrpresentdaystrtttfilshioninJapan. The cont rol method and the rulti for this p~rtl(UIM tItle haven't quite been decidedyet.exceptfOfthefilctthiiteilchfightwllitilkeplilceinsideilclosedoff ring so iI win un only be ilchleved by iI KO, The game will feilture 8 chilrilcters. ilil wielding weilpons ilS such ilS tonfils ilnd nunchucks. More on this one ilS info ilHives - there's flO word of iI UK relnse ilt the moment.
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SONIC GAME UPDATE hile thedetiliis of AMJ's ~fightlng g.1lme.ust 8ronx. is pretty Vilgue,lnto..m.1ltlon on the new AMl tItle is flooding in, The ~ Sonic gilme will employ the S.1Ime control method of the successful VF series (feilturmg ilJoystick and thret buttons in which to tilke your chilrilcter Into b.1lttle). AM2 howe illso stattd that there WIll be nme chilrilcters feilturcd in the g.1lme.AlongSide Sonic. t here's Tilils. Knuckles,Amy~, Fang, Espio, Metal Sonic,
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ilnd Egg miln "Thilt"s only 81-1 hear you cry. But don't worry. The ninth fighter is an ilil new AM2 charilcter At thiS moment. the progrilmmers ilre considermg whether to provide this new fighter WIth reililstic ilnlmiltion ilS in VF2. More detilils next
SEGASATUnN
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VIRTUA FIGHTER KIDS MAKES PROGRESS
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sVF Kids is~jmed ~ttheyo u ... getgenefation of gam en, there's plenty of departures from the traditional VF gilmeplay-and AMJ recently revuled some of these to the Japanese pren. Fora stilrt, there will be 'hit'marks' afteryou hit YOUf opponent, similar tothe marks seen In 10 titles such as SlrHt Fighter. Contrary to our report In the March IssLle of SEGA
II .i.
SATURN MAGAZINE, the game will ~ made using the ST路" board. A conversion to
Saturn would be very stril!lght fOfWilrd and has pretty much been confirmed. In a recent interview with the \IF Kids chief, Mr OSilkl Okamoto said that the Saturn version will haye utra modes from the Arude version plus openi ng and ending
,In
movleforuchcha'3ctu Sega predicts that this latest addition to the VF series will beagr eatsu((ess, and the merchandising for the title (ie soft toys for each character) is already available, It's certain to go down a storm in Japan,
AND THERE'S MORE... emember Track and field? How about Daley Thompson's DecOithlon ontheSpecttum?Well,forgetalithatrubbish,bei:auseSegaOirecreatingan all,new OIrcade sports gOime entitled DecOi thlete,ObYiously, it futurl!'S all tl!'n sports from thl!' dl!'cathlon eyent and can be pla)'!!'dln I!'ither singll!' or two plOlyl!'t mode, Thl!' gaml!' hOis thl!' saml!' control ml!'thod of prl!'Yiousdl!'cathlontitll!'swhererepeOited button prl!'sslngwill mOlkl!' you rathll!'!1!' do thl!' mo\ll!'S, It also futurl!'s sl!'Yl!'ral angll!'s from whlth to view your a!hll!'tl!', doseups, 01 two pl a)'!!'r option and a play back futurl!', Nl!'ws on a UK rel use datI!' soon-Oilongwlthl!'S$l!'nUaISaturnconvl!'f1londl!'bils,
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VIRTUA COP 2FOLLOW UP ftl!'rthl!'hugl!'SUCCl!'ssofthl!'lrprl!'YioustwogunbOisedgaml!'S, VirtuaCoplOind 1,Sl!'ga haYl!'dl!'cldl!'d to rl!'ll!'ul!' yl!'t OInother, Howl!'Yl!'r, this timl!', there's no OIppurOlncl!'S from Raygl!' OInd SmOirty, and w hat's morl!',you'rl!' not eyen 01 pollcl!'offlCl!'r, Nosir,you'rl!'a (few membl!'r of thl!' Cunbladl!' hl!'lIcoptl!'r, POirt of the Spl!'ciOiI Air Attack forcl!', GunbladeOlndlt serewhaYl!'bl!'l!'nOlsslgnl!'dtobkl!'outtheterrorlstforeethOit hOlYI!' tOlkl!'n OYl!'r thl!' UN Genl!'ral Assembly meeting In New York, Thl!' tl!'rrorists have tOiken the world luders within the UN and thl!' mOiny citizens of the city OIshostOigesOindOlrl!'maklngunrusonabll!'demOindsofthelntl!'rnatlonal community, In 01 normOiI situation, the NYPD would sufficl!'. but these terrorists havl!'anadYanbgl!'-thl!'yhOlyeandroldsoldlenthatwerl!'dl!'Yl!'lopl!'das the ntllt stl!'P In mllitarytl!'chnology, Thl!' fOltl!' of the world rests In your ha nd! Themachineitselfisadedicatedcabinetmadeon theModel) board, but is different from previous shooters as it comes equipped with recoil able
A
gunslwhensettorecoil.thegunwillkic~back,givingtheplayeraimpres颅
sionofcont rollingaverypowerfulweapon.Ano!herfeaturethatmakesthis game different from theVirtua Cop series is that you don't have to reload. So no more agonising deaths asyou stare at the enemy whilefranticall ytrying to reload your gun. However, one feature that has made it intothi slatest Sega game are the barrels and the abandoned cars that can be used to clear a cluttered screen of enemy characters. Gunblade is also the first 3D shooting game to feature enemies with Artificial Intelligence. Whilt this will do to t he game's playilbihty remilins to be seen butthis new development is certainly very interes t ing. At the moment, only two missions have been outlined MiniON 1: Release the UN headquarters from the terrorist siegel This mission is designed to let the player become accustomed to the game's features and controls. Scene 1 requires the player to atta cka batch of terrorists at the famous Times Square. MiniON 2: Fly amongst the t all buildings of near the Rockefeller Center whilst dest roying a f loating air fortress. However, expect to be hearing much, much more about this title in coming months, pl us details of special test Sites sometime in early summer
The original Alone in the Dark only appeared on the PC. It's sequel though has already appeared on the PlayStation and now it's due for release on the Saturn. But the big question is: who's Jack?
II
I
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;lCk is a plrilte. An Immortal plrilte in
f,lcl,And nota vtry nice one eithe r. So nasty Is he in fact th at he's decld· ed to kidnapped a small child and stowhef il w ayon his ancient
galleon shlp whkh Is moored off a bit of C.. tifornlan co.ut known .u Hell's Kitchen. To (ompllCilte miltters, a Private Detective hillS (o rne sniffing around Ihe mansion next to it and prompt· Iy found himself swimming wit h the fishes thanks to a milltvolent goblin a",d f emme fatale. Now
another Privale Dick,Edwud Carnby, e nten the scene,ilnd with iln tlI ploslon that bl;uts open the gaits of th e mansion this nolrlstlc RPCi kicks off. If you kr'low rlothinB aboul the original Alone in the Dark don'! worry about it because this isa story in its own right. It'S essentially a mixture of
••• ALONE IN THE DARK
1 CON·
TAINS SOME VERY COMPLEX AND CHALLENGING PUZZLES THAT
REQUIRE EXTENSIVE EXPLORATION AND NOT A LITTLE LUCK AND PATIENCE. traditional RPG and adventure game that sees Eddie moving through garden mazes, dingy corridors and oeaking ship cabins, occasionally stopping to check his inventory, shoot one of Jack's henchmen or admire the fine Cl,lt of his suit
Alotofcarehasbeenta kentoinvokeatmos phere in Alone in the Dark 2. something that makes itself felt in <III the expressionist camera anglesilnd the dedication in the depiction of the 1920'S decor. Behind th is impressive veneer. Aloneinthe Dark 2 contains some very comple x and challengins puz
ziesthatreqlllfeextensiveexplorationandnotalitt ie IllCk and patience. AII·important clues are dotted about the place, be they newspaper cuttings, old photos or mystical boo~s that spea~ of immortality and the powersofevil,Your ability to use combina· tions of pick· ups inventively is also t ested,Say for exampleadoorislodedwiththe~eyontheother
poke the key ou t like a pipecleanersay,anda sheet of paper to shove under the door and catch it. you've got the problem solved. It gets much tougher than thisthough,soyou can expect plenty of wandering back and forth in search of the the missing link Edward Carnby isn't the only cha racter players assumetheroleofinAloneintheDark~.Asyou
progress, you also find yourself in control of the kid · napped child,Grace, at certain points in the game Naturally this entails a d,fferen t approachtoth e action, giving up strength and aggression but find· ing in it s place an inconspicuous body capable of fitling into tiny spaces like dumb waiters Alone In the Dark is almost finished and it looks as if the conversion is more or less identical to the previous versions
side eh/Well,solons as you've sot something to
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I SEGA
I RPG
heA ep, this one is going to be big, No two ways about it. From the moment the first pic!ures.were released in
Japanese mag;mnes, absolutely
e~eryone went RPG crazy. And since then,althoughClimaxhaven'l released much more of the game's code, the games-
playins public have been absolul elygaggingfor more pictures of the title. And although Sega have had a tradition in the Pilst of not releaSing RPGsover
heredue t otheirsometimesobscurenature,lhey witl definitely be releasing Da rk Saviour in Ihe UK
unfortuna tely, it witl be some time after the Jilpaneseversionastheamount of text needed to be translated is staggering. However, despite the enormous amount of "story" which the same employs, we still managed lo f indout theseneral sistofwhat's soinson, For
YEp, THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE BIG.
No TWO WAYS ABOUT IT. FROM THE MOMENT THE FIRST PICTURES WERE RELEASED IN JAPANESE MAGAZINES, ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE
WENT RPC CRAZY some reason, you, (the hero of course) are called in togua fd a ship with a monster on board Unforlunately, thiS tllffid-a·like soon breaks loose and devours one of t he roush-loo kinssallor boys Now it's uptoyou torecaptufe the morrster. But first you'll have to find him.And let me tell you, Ihis ship is prettydarrred bis-bisser t han any ship we've seen before anyway. Plus, the mons ter hasdisappeafed,leavins a tfail of destruction behind him. al
Even though the Saturn has been out for well over a year in Japan, developers are still making RPGs that are more suited to the Megadrive more than anything else. In fact, maybe some of them were created for the 16-bitter in thefirst place. But, that's no excuse, is it?Just as well, then, that Climax have developed the first 3D adventure to be seen on thesystem. the same lime blocking many of th e pathsthata hero would normally take when pursuing a particularlycrossmonstel Of course, all this path bloclclngand minl·fire hazalds means that there's a heavy puzzlesolvins element tothetitle, and it's this part of the same· play that has currently been programmed In. There's no enemies to face at the moment. so unfortunately wecan'l brlnsyouanypicluresoflhe hack and slashtechniqueofouryoungwarrior, but we can say that the pre·pre· pre production version of the game is looking mighty Impressive In addition to the novel perspective of th e game, there's alsoa unique control mechanism for the proceedings Ifs possible to change the view in four directions, glVInS you a different ,Dangleparticularly useful when parts of an area are obscured by scenery It'S also possible to sweep an afea from topto bottom and sideloside, sothal more of the immediate playerlVironmenl is revealed This makes the same much more innovallve Ihan the traditionally non-ground breaking RPG,andof COurse is another feature that puts It at the top of theeagerly·awalted·sameslist AlthouSh this will be out in Japan within the next month,it's unlikely that it will do very well on the import scene, simply because the amount of Japanese lexl will preventeverrlhemosl ardent RPG·erfrom settinsveryfar into the same However,worryye not,becausesega have signed the same up for release in the UK for th e early sum· mer months. And we'll be bringing you updates on Ihetitle"sprosressasandwhennewvefsionsanive
,0
Emtrglncy! Hero f'lqulf'ld In t~1 kltcbens! Immedlltli1! No tlml forsl'lp ln thllpml,boy.
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There's the 3D angles .. And the sweepinlPhe·a rea angles 1001
• • &
SEGA SATURN
21
I
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IGR EPl LlN
_
I SHOOTING
____
! PlARCH/APRIL
oc.k'tmupandthrowawaythtkty, that's what I say, Or belttrstill, strln8 'em upl Yea, That's what they destrvtthose scum suckln8crlmlnals.ldon'tknowmuchbut lknow that life should mean life. Not fit to walk our streets I tell ya,To have the audacity to Ihlnk they could get away without payln8 th ei r TV Ucense!8urn 'eml Burn 'e m! Hum ane Itthal Injectlonl Hum ane lethal injection! Butfirstthln8flrst, 8eforewe So exterminating devianh in the namtofaroseyfuture,there'sstill ahugeand burdensome prison populatlon to deal wlth,Onlyone thing for it, Organise a cosy detention planet and then Jeltison the lot of them Into space.
L
CAUGHT ON AN ISOLATED
DOWN A BOWL OF COSMIC PORRIDGE IN FAVOUR OF THEIR FREEDOM . If only it was that easy though_I Loadedisanythinstogoby,sucha policy is a reCipe for disaster. Cal.lghtonanisolatedplanetdoins space bird,six inmates have decided tOlurn down a bowl of cosmic porridse in favour of their freedom.Thejustifications put forward by this marauding band are wrongful imprisonment and rl'vense on F.U.B.,the abstruse character who framed them.
We wanna be free! We wanna be free to, to do what we wanna do! And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we're gonna do. Should you ever need evidence of the way confinement warps those It inte rs, look no further than t hisperversesedet,Mammaisahugeblubberyguyinan~ppy,Cap'n Hands comes wielding a pair of archaic pistols, Butch has a fondness for women'sdresses,Bounc~ is,well,every bit as psycholie as a bouncer, vo~ is a t~nk-girl turned funk guru, and Fwank is not Ihat far from losing the first letter of his name. Despite these bizarre idiosyn craSies,lheyeachshare unlimitedagsressionand unlimited firepower, Cue then, the perfeci backdropforalop·down 3D shoot 'em up that sees our heroes movinsthrough rooms, corridors and prisonwastelands,blast· ing Dixie out of any th ins that dares move a half follicle There are keys t o collect alons the way, accessing new areas and brinsinsthem closer to escape, and naturallythereareamultitudeofpick. ups available that improve their enersyandarsenals And that's Loaded,althoush we musn'l forsel to mention that it utilises some brilliant graphics {every bit as impressive as those seen on the PlayStation) and moves at a breakneck speed, makins it Ihe Ideal same to vent all of those everyday frustra·
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There are still a few levels to be completed and the prosrammers arelweaklflg it to make it eveflfaster, bUI soing by what's already in place, Loaded looks set 10 be a great success. Expecllhe explosive review next month.
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hch of the ch~r~cters in loaded comes wllh theIr own ultra bomb.Thisisa uniquespecia I weapon tha t blasls every enemy on Ihe screen Into cosmic oblivion. Using all of the pbltpoweronofferthesearestunningto watch,andrefreshlnglyoriginal Forexampie, Mamma uses a wobble bomb that sees Ihe whole screen ripple, Vox unleashes an elegant spiral bomb,and Fwank sendsoulan army of homing teddies to fluff up any foes approachlngl
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23
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the reaoers 0 1 our maqal'ine, no rtl.1l1cr what you've gal to say. Wondcrtnq what lhe e.lact dlfY'lenSlOns 0 1 the packaqmq l or Titan wars art'') Then drop us a leller and well Ilvow II In the bIn' We won', print any old rubbIsh yOU see, but Ifs sl ln qOO<1 l o r a !.aug!\. Anyway. I' you've qot any old rubbIsh IlIlmq your brain, Clqlunqc II onlo a pICee 0 1 paper and send II In 10 Therc's a l u1l'''lle inf lat able Robol nik l or cller y member of t he " , axillan Xavanl c t'l be who wrll es In w ith some red half dye m.ldc ' rom pl.l nts.
BAZOOKATONE "CRAP" BOMBSHELL
I AM A THIEF AND A SCOUNDREL
DEAR OffICIALSEGA SATURN MAGAZ INE,
OEAR SEGA SATURN MAGAZ INE,
Congraluliitionson having the courilge 10 fubblsh Johnny Billookatone In Issue 4 of your estimable milgaz!ne My only criticism of your rev iew Is thillyou slipped upon the rating 5uletyyou meant to give it 13" ilnd no!
Berng the proud owner of iI MegildllYe 1, MegildllYe 2, oil 3ZX ilnd a Saturn and becoiluse I'Ye been reading games moilgs for severill years now, l thought I had enough rnsplraliontowfiteyoU a letter fllst let me e.ploilin why I own two MegildllYeS. Whilt I hilYen't mentioned yet is thilt I illso own iI copybo. And because I'm not proud of thoilt, I thought I shouldn't mention it In a sentencestoilrting with "Being the proud owner..:. Anyway, I've got a Megadrive1 to play games on my copy· box and a Megadrive Z for mypX,SOI don't hilve to SWItch all the time So why am I not proud about owningil copybo.1 Well not becoiluse it is immoral or something, but becoiluse it spoils the games you plilyon itilnd thus ones gamesplilYlng CoiIpoilbihtles. Just Ihlnkaoout it-doyou enjOYil gilme more if you boughl it wIth your hoilrd,eilrned money 01 if you copied it after renting itl When I first got my Megildrive si. yeals agol used to buy games and play them un!ill dropped. As such I used to be very good al them Afte.lhadooughtacopyboxlplayed newly copied gilmes only fo. a couple of days and then the interest wore off Dnlyafte'get, Irng a 3ZX for ChnstmilS iI yea. ilgo (yes I know I'm a spoilt gil, but I'm 001 complilining) I ilcluilllystartedtoplaygilmesilgilln, Andilfter buying iI Silturn last August I've become the games plilying freilk I used to be again Having just mentioned the 3zX brings me to another subject, pwple slagging the machine off. Admittedly the machine isn't as powerfu l as the other NextGen machines, but it's much more powerful than we have ~n up till now. It doesn't reallym;rtter beciluseit's thegilmeslhatcountilndlhe32Xooasts some fine examples Doom, III Deluxe, Star Wars, Virtua fighter ilnd Chilotix. while oot qUite amazing in Ihe graphl« department are ilil great games. It'S Just a pity there haven'l been more of them, but th en again it's the pwple slagging the machine off to blame for that ~ple like that obviously aren't familiar With the two, in my opiniOn, most important laws of gaming These are who glvt'\ a damn about the graphics if the playabilily is sreat, and It's the gilmes that count, not the specificati onsofa machine. I'm even looklns for a NES With a couple of clilnics before it's lost foreve.1 These two "laws· are the main reasons I've chosen to buy a Silturn and not a PlilySlation,lmustadmll that I 100 was fooled by the PlayStatlon bliiSw hich swept through Europe and to some degree still does. However I used my Insight of the games indUSlry, which I've obtillned by reildrng games milgs, ilnd resisted Sony's campaign Now I and many others cheer and PlaySlatlon owners weep, because the milin rei/sons to buy a a PlayStalion are Psygnasls' games, wh ich are now comrng to Saturn, f inally pwple are beginning 10 understilnd that Saturn is iI tab milchine. 51111, I'm happy Sony entered the games arena let's face iI, Sega
53'"
Occ~sionill1yl'lI bUyil gilmeilfter seeing one reviewofi!, and t iltmos! dldJustthat bilsed on what GilmePro milgazlne had to say ilboul the PlayStiition verSion. They loved it and gilve It 90". Hmm, I'm glild my local Video slore rents oul Sillurn games and I only had to pay £lOO for acou· pie of nights of playing this gilrbilgel Whilt were the play testers doing when Iheywere supposed to be eVillualing this particular tltlel Perhapslhe reason for my disenchant· menl with games in gene rill ~t the moment stems from the fac t thaI I should Imagine I'm Impatient as most people when it comes to waiting for new,e.cit ingand challenging games to be released . It saddens mesomewhat !O see that all the developers seem to be Interested In Is pumping out beat 'em up after beilt'em up. I don't mind seeing the Silmetypeofgamesreleased,buthasthere been anything new on the beilt 'em up scene since they turned Into 3D polygon affilirsl Now we seem to be going backw~rds towards 20 Streetflghterefforts,ilnd money spent on bonging us these old stylegilmes could h~ve been spent dreaming up something new, something that makes our 3Z'BITwonder consoles behave li ke they really are the latest stepforwilrd,no t a step into the recent 16, BIT past Sega rilily Championship is undoubtedly the best game for the Saturn to date, and when it's joined by WipEout and Destruction Derby the Saturn will have a really decent set of games In Its slilble. These games, while ilil feilturing a driving / rilC Ing theme are different enough to make it worth buying them all. II proves thaI even Ifdevelopersciln'tthlnkofa new game genre Ihey can ilt Ie ast come upwilh dlfferenl style of game within agen.e Tim /(t mp. Norwich, Norfolk.
~ :~I~~~~~IF~;~~; ~oilur~v~;~~v::O~~~~;;:~I~i~I ~:;~tl~~;~'t~~~en genre, and have ilbout ;IS much In common as l1:ally and WipEout , which Is prtcl ou s littl e. Games ilre progreul ng nlulyat the moment, and the cu rrentrt,work ingsofpopularn iches ;lfegenerililyofilh lghsliindard, You 'd never handle the number and si ze of sprites found In X-Men or Alpha w ith iI 16-BIT system, And remember, you don't hilve to buy ilny games you don't like, But we know where you 're com ing from Tim , and we like It ,
24
~
SATUr"N
games became very lame [What a good rhyming sentence-SSM] Indeed afte r Nintendo was beat · en in the 16·BITbiittle. Now after the arrival of PlaySl ation and Nintendo 64 due, Sega's games have improved umpleen times. Even Sonic is back on track, WIt h two new gamesl ThiS brings me 10 another subjeCI Amlthe only one to think so or have Sega destroyed the great things aboul Sonlcl I mean, at first Sonic, and later tallis. ~re drawn the way they should be. simple. Just as Mickey Mouse hasbeenforalitheseyears.Thiswasthebesllhingaboutsonicontheboxes of Sonic, and 2 YOu'll see he looks much better on Sonic 1. The same goes for the graphlc .. lstyteofthefirstgame:16colours,nottoomuchforegroundscenery, ne .. tly defined squ.. re pl.. tforms and play .. re .. and good looking colour schemes greatlnotthefUUy, roughatte mptsofth erestoftheselles I know SonIC has to beupd .. tedevery t lme,bu l Iheyshould have done It In a dIfferent way Thi sisnot the only re .. son I li ke Sonic 1 best. While a huge play .. rea Is supposed t obegre..!. Ifounditoff·puttlng In every game bul the first there were .. re .. s whIch you would .. Imost never see, where .. s in Sonic, you could develop a path to get all the rings In almost every act. tn fact, this Iswhal Somc IS all about, ring collect . ingllknowwh.. tl'vesaldaboutSonic's2,3etc .. lsocountsforChaotIK,buth,s,s I.. rgely made up for by the original control method One final th ing why do all m.. gs often consider 20 gamesoutdatedll think Ihe new sort of games Next Gen machines offer are a welcome addItIon to e~lst· inggenres, not substitu tes. An'f'Nay, con gratulat ions on your e ~cellent m"g,uy hello to every st.. ffmember for me and keep up Ihe good wo rk t RIIIC, Oordrecht, The Netherl" ndJ. ~
j
This Is possibly the longest letter we 've ever • re<:elved or printed,but It brings up some sa.lient points. Copying , like smoking, Is both evil ~nd foolish . It's .. grut ~y to slutlfy your Interest in g~mes, u RvK so rightly points out. In fact, he should be shot. Hoor.. yfor plracy·freeCD I AsforSonlc,tunactu .. lly .. gfeewithyouonthls, lt 'sacr~ pnos ·
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• However, like Mickey Mouse, Son ic h .. s h .. d to move with the times ~nd fan's Incruslng recognit ion of him , After .. II, Mic key shrted life ~s ~ stlck·lhin bl .. ck·~nd·white thing with two little doh for eyes, before transcending this form .. nd becoming the portly mlddle· .. ged·looking pink· f.. ced giggling rodent we know and love. Them's the bluks, kld do,
FRUSTRATED HOUSEWIFE WRITES OEAR SSM, In last month's m.. gazlntyou asktd for letters on love hves. Well I got marritd 0 n the24IhJ .. n'96[Congr .. tu lations-SSM] andl hreed ..yslatermyhusb.. nd a ndl bought a Sega Sat urn , I must say it.'s brilli.. nt. Theonlyquatm I have isi fsputpaid to my idea of a honeymoon. My husband has a bad case of Worms which keeps him up till 3 or 4 o'clock In the morning and I ha~ Decome a Bug .. kohollel know we did things .. round Ih e wrong way, we had the kIds and thtn got marritd ,butld,d· n't ever t hink our sex life would come se<ond best to any game (onsolt Roll on tht day when we con· quer these two g .. mes and our honeymoon starts A Very FruJttvted HQUJ_ije, Newbury. Serb.
#; ~~:;:~::~ :::: ~:~:s:;~::::r
::tilu:n Magstaffaren'tlnfutasadbu nchofglrlfrlend. len no·hopers, but an elite corps of cyber·braln· sex cutting edgefuturam.. studs. Ahem,
HYPE-NOGOGIC MIND MACHINE DEAR SSM, t amwnting to you about Ihe ever ongOing balttlt· zone which surrounds tht gaming industry between consumers and manufacturers alike
Iha~owfledvariousgameconsoles
beginning wIth the Atari lOOO tothe Sega Sa t urnlhavetoday and ha~amassedhun
dreds of magazines for the machines and otherinlerests I have, and stress I must point outsomethinglfind~ryhilarlous
Input from readers and consumers who have bought products from whatever Industry TV, VCR. HI FI, games system etc etc. the letters pages In magazines covellng these products are all ~ry much stereotype - "I've bought a Saturn Decau'>e I wanted to slag all my PlayStatlon·owning friends off" or "MIne's better than yours, so there" 'Fraid not. I spent my hard·ea rnedmoney on the games system of MY choice, I made thIS choice myself because I bough t It to please ME and not e~ryone else who would care to pass comment on it Now the point everyone's missing Is thIS; manufacture rs need this hype to a) sell products, b) develop better products and cj advertise the Industryconc erned Admittedly I am a Sega fan but I'm not bIased towards them. I enjoy playIng PSX games as well but please do not ridICule other formats wIthout con· crete knowledge of what you're talking about I have read so many lellers hke RobbIe Moore's In issue 4 and I un't help but laugh Where was his construc· tlvecrltlClsml Keep the hype gomg, whICh keeps the gamIng Industry In the pubhceye, bul don't be unhappy WIth the system you own - If you're happy WIth it who cares what anybody else thinks Simon Pe'rymlln, ("rlIJie, (umb,/Q.
..
~h~a~~aOnnd ::nd;h:es~::o~h:~;;:r~~:~~~:::;~~::nt:d~~~::=t ~~~~
Itlen le is ure time in which to indulge their Sega it stands to ruson some of them"lf complete doners who urn their money very very eully. The butards, Anyw"y, not a b.. d .. rgumentthereSI, butyou're .. bit of .. Ju nior cons piracy theotlst , It's more likely th .. t people exhibit the so·called ~Mlne 's better th~n youn" condition in .. n .. ttempt .. t self·JustifK.. tion. It 's illricky thing buying ~ (on· sole, one f.. lse move .. nd you 've wasted 1)00 .. nd you'll resent your decision. It's not too much to ask to .. lIow consumers to study their doubt s by voollsa.tlon. But you never know. An'f'Nay, fine eg~lIt .. rl~n sentiments al the end there , which 1 bellevewecan .. llle.. rnfrom,
I DEMAND TAILS' ADDRESS DEA R SI RS AND SI RE SSES I'll get str.. ,ght to the poln\. I reqUIre some inform .. tlOn, which will be of grt~1 v.. lue to me, and I know you dear fellows and ftllowtsses will be able to pro· VIde me WIth II. Htrt goes I .. m In desperate need of some b .. ckground history about Sonic's two·tailed or.. nge fox chum dudt. Pray ttll me, how dId the hltle guy obulfl hiS extr.. I.. il? WhICh zont did ht come froml And most Important of ~II, how dId he and Sonic mttt?1 would also be entIrely grattful if you wtrt to print out an address for Seg.. , alongwllh a detailed dtsCfiptiono fMlles' past Your slave forever, Anon.
PS I will remember you when I'm rICh and famous
=~~:;~!I~r::~~;1 ~~~se~r;:~~lth
• twofrukish t ails, Tailsw..s packed off .. t an urty .. ge to Professor X's 5(hool for Gifted An lmals, wherehewastr .. ined tousehlsposterlor .. ddl· tlonsto benefit .. nlmalklnd, Shortly ..ftergr.. duatingfrom Mut ant Kindergarten Tails abscond, ed to aid Sonic in his second fabled Moblu s'Silvingmission, Thetwo have been friends ever since, ilthoughromanticinvolvementis strongly denied by both par· tles. Seg.. llve .. t166·l70 Gu nnenbury Ave,C hiswick, LondonW4, PS You 's better, pa l.
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Howdy Sega pardners. n'S time Ie< US to answer some more of your feisty and Inquisitive questioneerlng. After aI, we've got nothing better to do all day than s;t aroUld lister*lg to you lot harp on about retease dates and all that rubbish. Honestly, you should listen to ycuselves sometimes. Yea, wei. anyway, If you've got a question you'd like answered pop ;t off to us at DESTROY TI£ STATE O&A, SEGA SATURN MAGAZI'£, PRIORY COURT, JO.32 FARRt<GDON lA/oE, lONlON EC1R JAU, w el do oor best to answer it.
CASE HEAD DfAR SATURN MAG, I am wfltmg to you hoping that A) you'll answer my questions and B) I'll get myleuer printed 1Could you please tell me where I could get a storage case for my Virtua Cop CD~ I bought it with Ihegunbutdldnlgetacaseandyoudowiththe
PS I've found out th~t if you shool Ihe hook above the ground In the warehouse on the first level ofVirtua Cop you get more points £very lime you fire at it you get an extra 100 points. MlrtynDavy, GreltYarmouth , l\Iorfoik.
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.They'realioutnow. JAll ofth~m , hOP'l'fully. J
~rSlOnswlthoutthegun
~ Notrnlly.The Vi rtuIStkk lJ okl)', butlt'shones
2W,II BaUleArena ToshlOden ever be available 00 a UK Saturn ~ TI'le Jap import is reumng at £S999 plus another £1999 for thecoflVtrtor 3 Wheo Will Mortal Kombat 2 and Sim City 1000 be available? You reviewed them months ago. 400lucasArtsplantoreleasePCgames5uch as Day of the Tentacle and Rebel Assault on the Saturnl S When will Destruction Derby be available on the Saturn and which olher PlayStatlon games are to
for counts. 4 It 'll come out thb yur. S Untrue, but I loodnlme, thou lh. 6They.re lndee<ldillpictu(fl. CG Is the sbndard term for computer·rendered 30 .riphlu ofl 'title o. Inlmated nature.
becon~rted~
6lnyouropiOionistheSaturncapableofrun· nlng a game such as Oomark's Championship man· ager 2, aod Will games such as th is be leleued 00 IheSaturn/ 700 you require a con~rtor to run American Saturn games on a UK system~ Also Will they run full sCll!en and full speed ~ 8IcurrentlyownVF1.Daytooa.VirtuaCopSega Rally. FIFA·96. Worms and Rayman. Could you sug· gest any other games to buyl Finally could you please make clear when fea · turing games which are UK. Jap, American etc and if theyarethefinal~rsions.
CHECK OUT MY BOX OEARSSM, Pleilse could you ilnswer these queslions for me? 1 Please could you plin t il pictureoflhebo~for VF2, be<ause I"~ seen two bo.es. 2 Will Sega be releasing an add-on fo,the SiitulObeciluseNlntendoarefortl'leU ltra6 4/ 3 Arty oews on a Some pliltform gilme?like ScnieSl 4 Is it worth keeping my Megadfl~ ilnd seiling myMega·CD~
Keep up Ihe ~ry good work. Olvld Ruddy, UIY, NI Wlullam, Willes. AI'.!i, IUkeltmaltllS. Oneofthemmlglltbean " lmport , soeheck l hlnatlonalilybeforl buy1nl · J That', I daft reuon for them to rlleut on~ . 3 Out briorltheendoftheyur. 4 YH.
about four years now and ha~ got a good collection of games Ineluding aU the Streetfighter games What I want to know Is why Stlulflghter Alpha is only on
This Isthe coolest and best mag around. Thanks. Riehird Cuu"(uxton, Chorley. L.anes.
SERIOUS BlOKE
BE CG FEAR DLUSSM, Your mag is absolutely, utterly brilliant Now answer myqueslions, please lWhenwilithesecolo-opsappeariolhe arcades: Man~ n, Fighting Vipers. lody SOO ilnd Vlrlua Cop 2 2 Will anyofthese games appear on the Saturn ~ 3DoyouthinkthattheArciide ~acerilndthe Virtua Sticl: give bettergamepaythan theordIOary jOypads~ Would you recommend me buying them? 4 Arty news on Virtua Fighter 3~ Sihaveheard a rumourthatSegililremaklng plansforanotl'lerNextGenerationgamessystem Irs supposed to be cillied the £clipseand to be released in 1998 Is this true? 6 What doestheCG meiln In Virtua Fighter 2 CG Portrait Disks? Are Ihe stills like photographs?
26
lWilitherebeasequeltoDilyton~USAI
I am a sefiOUS Megadfl~ owner and have been for
Hick Klnl, Hlndswortll, Slldfleld, N Yorks.
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mad Silturnfanl 1 1fAMJ.'sverslOOof SoniC does well do you thmk they Will release a Sonicl, and iftheydo.wlli it haveil newehillacter/ 3 Will Air (ombat which Is out on the PlilyStiitioncomeoutonlheSalurn? 4 Is there going to be a Clockwork Knight 3? 5 WiU there be a sequelfol Sega Rally, and If there ISWlIl there be more cars and tracks/ 6 Will there be any more Virtua games hecilUse there are already six. 7 Will there beilnymore games like Virtua Cop
Thilflkyou.
.. be out In the lhops by now. ) They,1\ou1d both be out by the time you rudthlJ. 4 Muul)'be, but not In the nur Iutur• . 5 It ',a 5Ife bet most Sony lnterlctlve, P'Ylno,I"ndtlllrd-party,ameswlllrnchSlturn. Derby shouldtakelnothertwo-thrumonth,. 6It ,hould be. 1 Yes. No. 8 GUlrdlln Heroes, X-Men, Strutfl.hler Alpha (In a little whl1e), Panrer J (ditto), load, mltl. We .lwlYS review flnal vlnlons.
WHERE THERE'S A WilL OEARSSM,
Please please couldyouansvmthese questions fofa
DEAR SIRS,
th~linyo~usmgagun?
SegaSaturnandnotonMegadfl~IDrlsilcomlng
out sometime soon on Megadrive? Youn,lnce.ely, 8enl.ehane,Waterford, lreland AI'.!i, Sadly It IppearJ thlt the Meladrl¥e Just IJn'l pow . . . erful eflO\/gh to h.ndle the ,pHd and complexity ofStrHtfiprterAlpila. Eltherthal or Capcom irl too !ary 10 put a lMIidrlve: wrslon ' n the pipeline. Take your pkk.
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1 OOES NOT COMP1JU z Maybe. J Oh no. 4
.g;jJP Probably, not counting Clockwork KnlghtPunle . 5 11'shllhlydoubtfuI.60hyes. 1Yeppltylndudlna.
DEMO CD TROUBlES DEAR SATURN MAG. The mag's great and gets my 'o'Ote l l<eep up tl'le good work I Pleaseanswermyquestions(pleasel) 1 When Will Bultfrog's un-licensedsuper·hero gilme. the lodestructlbles. be released? 2 The Aftermilth looks great. when will it be ouH 3 When will Deadly Skies be ouH 4 j sen t aWily fOf the demo CD your mag was offerlng.thatwasquite~whileagoandlstilihaven't
been sentmyCDand I haven't hild the cheque back. please could you explam what is going on? !ddll S.mme, Bristol. .I!!!£. .Hotsure, sorry. 1Ju,t " soon at lt '5 rudY3 ~ Nl!Vt!r lf )'Ou're""ryl\>Cky. 4If)'Our cheql.feh.,n'l bNnc"hed , It ', beciUl-e~'Yllrunout,$Orry. lflthas,
rln. our Marketing department on the number It till back of the ma • . Sorry about Ihat.
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~n unusu~1 one-an-one be~t 'em up is the f~ct th~t of threes. This doesn't mean that six fighters c~n ruck ~t once. These ~re t~g te~ms so the idea is to use the same fighter until they're utterly powerless ~nd then switch team members. If you're really hot stuff, you might be able to get through ~fI three opponents consecutively using only one fighter. Alternatively, if you're re~lly b~d, you might find ~II three of your ch~r~cters defeated by only one or two of your foes. KoF uses set trios, ~Ithough it ~Iso offers you the option to customise and choose any three you like. This method of g~me路
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ers ~nd thei r styles. As h~s been mentioned though, in traditional te~m play the fighters ~re ~Iready sep~r~ted Into teams. There ~re eight In all ~nd here they are;
KIM, CHANG AND CHOI Quite an odd bunch these three. Their fighting styles are all very Individual due to their differences in size. Kim looks about the most normal out of the
three of them and his attacks arefotirlyconventional,usinga kar ate style to pul!offlip kicks and the like. Chang on the other hand is a bit ofa freak, whilt with his ball ilndchain that he swings in on enemiesilnd his habit of powering up by head butting himself with it. likewise, the small and wily ehoi, a kind of crippled Freddy Kruger, performs somilsilults which act as combina-
tionattacks.
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ATHENA, KEN SOU AND CHIN Athena Is not the shop where you get those posters of huge muscle-bound guys holding babies. No sir! Athena Is In fact ill school girl. At least, that 's whiit you'd think until she flings It off and reveals herdiscodanceoutfi t underneathl Her main attack is a psychic fire ball,atthough she Isa IsocapiIbit of reneding att.cks. All members of this team use psychic attacks in one shape or .. nother. Kensou uses a lightning ball as his psychic weapon but he also sports a dr;lgon talon tear and a variety of roundhouse kicks. Chin Is the
by now standard drunk guy. Using his bottle of booze in OJ wupon, it swings out Into his opponents. He also pulls of iI (omicili lup that leaves him 8tilPpiing the head of his tnemy•
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1~(:J:IIMIU1~1 MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR »
So, putting it that wily, It doesn't §eem as though this is much of an eeo warrior type game at al l. But it is. It's just that, on tht s urface, it might sum as though you'reo a powe r cfazed w izard hell -bent on fUling the world. But, thilt's what you have to do these days if you want to get ilny ilttention fOf you r cause, And, when there's around 75 levels to De sorted out in all, t her e'sno doubting that you 're go ing to have to bit heavy-handed on t heweapo nryand even heavieronthe tyrann lcal,slightlyinsilne look that everydidat or should adopt. Practice yours todily l
SPEAK AND SPELL luckily, there are a few de vices designed to make your life consid erablyeasier. fo r a start, you're ilwlZilfd,righH And what do wizards do apart from (rta t ing powerful potions mildeout of frog s' fed? t hey cast spellS. luckily, the re's plenty of spells up for grabs in Magic Ca rpet , and they can all be used to combat both enemy wizard s a nd violent beasts. The spells range from simple firing weapons and castle building abil· ities to volcano instigators, walls of fire, meteorite showers and invisiblllty powe r. Most of the better spells only pop up In the later 1~ls of the game, but ge ne rally, spells are handed out as you need them, whkh makes th ings mlKh more interesting tha n if you were given all the spellS automatically at the beginning of the ga me. However, spells can be located in obscure places, and once you've spot· ted them, collection can sometimes trigger off traps -which usually entails millions of beast ies who will magically spring from nowhere and unleash thei r full powe r on you.
IF AT RRST_ Whe n you init ially play Magic Carpet, it may seem daunting, what with all t he men us you' re expected toaccessand~rythl ng,butpersevereawhlleand
you'lifindthatitismostenjoya ble. Sure, there·s been shoot 'em ups on the Saturn before, in fact Ihe re's evenbeensomehalfdecentoneslikePanzer Dragoon, but there 's been nothing like Magic carpet. After all , where else do you get to pillage castles and wreck villages without paying the con· sequences? In fact, If you think a bout It, Magic Carpetisamultl.dimenslonalga me-onone l~1
YOU're mission is to collect man, whi le on another you want to build a great castle, on another you're beating off wizards who att ack the moment your ~ck Is turned and yet another, you're expected to save t he world. Sound difficult ? That's because it Is... MAGIC CARPET IS MYSTICAllY REVIEWED ON PAGE 71 By Mttl n, tilt IrIIl OIl fin, you milJ ludWlrllRUy dull'1lY IReII)' creaturel - It till sa m. ti m. pitkl1lJ1pu lrlmllll.
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WhenyoufirstplOlyMOIgicCOIrpet, it mOlY seem OIS though collecting mOinOlOIndblOistingwormythingsis 0111 very good fun. And not too difficulteither. But hold on there gun-cruyfool,things OIren't quite thOit usy. After the first couple of levels, you mOly notice the presence of other wizOirds. At first, you mOly think it polite to try OIn mOike friends with these bOist lons of mOigickery, but fear not, they will soon become annoying beyond belief.Sp end an absolute age killing four or five worms and witness them swooping in tocoliectallyourhardurnedmanOiI Even if you try to blast them outof the aru, they will only return a minute or to later to pillage your stores once again. In fact, the only way to be sure that they won't nick your balls is to guard them until your balloo n turns up to collect them. And even then they will still hang around - they will even blast mana that the balloon Is collecting In an attempt to prevent you collecting more e nergy l So, the trick is don't leave them alone/or a minute. Of course, if this proves impossible. you could always follow your enemy around, let him do illi the hiud work. then stu I his mana at the appropriOite moment!
So,you'vegotthehilngofthecarpetandhaveevencompletedafewlevels with ease, seeing off a couple of wizards with no problem at all. Well. why not try your hand at something a little more compled Why not nip over to your enemy's castle and blast it to piecesl Sounds like fun? Of course it doesthis Is probably one of the most satisfying arus of the game. First,s neakup to the walls of the castle, then swoop in, blasting the castle's defenders with a burst from your machine gun_ Then, when they've ilil disappeared, carry on blasting until the castle spills out its mana. You'll then see a rather forlorn wizard appear from the mist, who will make a final effort to see you off. It doesn't take much firepower to make him disappear though. and you'll be satisfied in the knowl~ge that he'll have to build his castle up again from scriltchl One word of wunlng though: If you're going to get into this type of striltegy, expect the favour to be reclprocat~ when you're busy over the othersideofthelslOindl
Much as I like robots, and let's make no mistake I do love robots, there are certain things that I find hard to fathom concerning their behaviour. Let's explore the lighter side of mechanical engineering...with Rad.
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ouldn't life be great if we all had giant robot battle5ults instead of clothes? You'd have a diweet slimllne b.lttlesuit for weddings, unless you we re getting married, in which ~se )'OIJ'd wear a huge wrought baroque cont~ptlon with multiple missile launchers and a big chalnsaw. There'd be a power·dressing battlesuit fOf Important work meetings, with big shoulder pads loaded with na palm incendiaries. There's be little kiddie romper battlesults that would only be armed with weedy weapons like machine guns. Of coune, everything in the world would have to be ten times bigger to accommodate us all, and we'd alt have to have secret basement control centres where we'd get dressed. But it'd be a great boon to society. There'd be no more dlJtriminatlon because no-one would be able to tell who's Inside each suit. Low self Image would be similarly eradicated (unless)'OlJ had a cheap mech from Mille ts or something). There'd be a return to traditional values of politeness and good manners becilulie even tittle old Iildles would be able to blow you up. And If you equipped each war robot with pilot·sustainlng intravenous life support sylitems it would also put an end to world hunger. The world could unite under a common flag and set about expioring the stars -made easier because we'd all be able to breathe In space thanks to our mechanical outflts. Sadly though it would seem, as usua l, thatthe milit ary gets to keep all the best stuff,liketanks and high explosives. Such isthe reasoning behind Gungriffon. Whilst th is title does give you the opportunitytoseelifeasamechforyourself,sadly there's no pleasant trips down to Safeway's or any· thing to get you into the idea of an idyllic cyber. society. No, it's all war, war, war. The idea is that, as ~ in George Orwell's 1984, alt the continents of the world have united into massive uber·states and are having a bitofa humdinger over the world's energy resources,withtherebeingabitofanenergycrisis ~~~~~~"'!!!~ and all that. So what better way to settle things than to start a massive conflict with plenty of oil· guzzling tanks and 'planes and robots.Vourjob,as Robot 001, Is to storm numerous battlefields and destroy everyone else, apart from the few members of your team who you're supposed to protect. Still, it's more fun than just politely waving at your neighbours.
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Efficiency is the watchword of Gun griffon. You've more chance of exceed· ing your time limit or deserting the playfield in pursuit of the enemy than
being destroyed. Butdon'l let that make you Ihink it's iln eilsy life. Far from it, as the Exercise Mode demonstrates. This training/ranking facility
presents players with a straight blasting mission loaded with hos tile iI harsh chrono-ceiling. As usual your objective is todestroyall,butthetwooperalionsonoffer-Beginnerilnd Expertconcentrate on tilrgeting and blasting, set as they ilre In simple 5tralght forces and cursed with
(or fairly straight) strips of mission territory. Time is the most important ilSpect-kili all and hit the filr boundary in the least time and make the
high scores hble. This is it good way to familiarise yourself with the controls of your mech and an equally good competitive measure twillt you and your pals. But it's not a good way of completing the game, because you can't.
Of course the good thing about having a man-shaped robot is that you can make it do things that normal humans can't do. like play the plano underwater. Or wee around corners. But your big robot can do neltherofth esethings. Itcan, however, slide around without moving its legs. Alright,s o breakdancers and drunken tramps can do this too, but we did say normal humans . Anyway, sliding is a useful thing. It allows your mech to remove itself from harsh combat situations without turning its back on the enemy. It also allows you to manoeuvre more easily through crowded envi ronments, such as cityscapes. without trapping your bulky frame on the corners of bu ildingsor suchlike.
• • SEGASATURN
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IAMROBOT -HEARMEROAR! War robots arl! atl!-thf!y'lIf!got loads and loads of guns. And because Ciungriffon is an arcade game and not a simulation, whilst there is ammunition 10 worry about there's usually enough 10 go around. And hetk, if one of your weapons does run low on juice you'lIf! got another three to revert 10 (induding a mathine gun which nellf!r runs out).
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Ind~,somanygunsclutteruptheotherwise
beautiful simplicity of violence we're going to take thl! timl! to tI!ll you about all of them.
GIlt: Your main gun. imaginatively titled Ciun_1t fires quite powerful rockets, onl! of which is usually I!nough to send a tank or helicopter to its doom, and a couple of which aresufficienl grim reaping material for I!nemy robots. Whilst ammo is limited you start each mission with about eighty shots in your Ciun, which does the trick quite nicelyforthe bulk of the stage.
RPG:
Rocket Propefled Cirenades. About silt of these are used up with each firing of your rocket pods. but they're devaslating in their effect. These bombs shower OIIf!r the enemy, detonating whl! n they hit the ground (or your foe) and destroying all within the burst I<1dius. BI!st used against groups of tanks, or anyotherthingsthat make the foolish mistake of collating themselves too dose togethl!r. -
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The trusty never-runs-out-ofbullets option. This is the least powerful of your armaments. although it's stiU prf!tly handy against othl!r War Robot Mf!(h Robots Walkl!rs, buildings and other slow or non-moving things you can keep a bead on for a whill!. Does OIIf!ml!at with use, however. meaning it needs a rest every now and thl!n .
ATM: Automatic Transaction Machine, or cashpoint to the rest of us. Actually. that's not l rul!. Well it is true, but not in this case. You'd probably not get
far fighting giant war robots by chlKking cash machines al them. These ATMs are Anti Tank Missiles. You only get a few of these, because they're the most powerful weapons in thl! game. And strangelythf!y're best deployed against aircraft.
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LEAP OF STRAFE Monstersl Heathens! They came from the skoysl That's how an eleventh
century peasant might have reacted to some of the enemy forces in Gl.lngriffon, although you might know them better as aeroplanes and helicopters. Whilst essentially flimsy i n their construction - all the better to
become airborne with - aircraft ate a persistent and easily underestimated threat. Helicopten aren't so bad. They're slower and more likel ytohang around in one spot than 'planes and don't have the same level ofarma·
ment.Butthelow-f1yingairplanesarehorrible, sweepingoverthescreen and carpet bombing your terrain, causing heavy damage. Given their erratic flight paths, their speed and the limited angle of tilt youfguns are all owed aircraft are the hardest things to kill in Gungriffon, despite only wi thstand· ing a single hit before plummeting to the Earth. But thanks to modern tech· nology you can ~comefrom the skies" yourself. Your mech is equipped with a booster capability which allows you to jump high into the air and hoyer fora few seconds, thus putting you on the same plane asthe ' planes. Fr om here it's a far easier task to locate,lock'on and destroyaltitudi noustargets. HOweyer, jump boosts require a lot of rocket fuel , and your warcraft only carriesenoughforthreefiringsoftheengines-sousethemwisely.
British people like to talk about the weather, apparently. Either because ii's 50 unpredictable and amusing or because we're speaking to a complete stranger on the bus who we never asked for a conversation but are now forced to either talk to about meteorologkal conditions or listen to a lengthy tale about the troubles with their life. Anyway, it's funny that despite our predilection for Weather we hardly notice it's not there in ou r games. But that's not 50 with Gungriffon. Oh no. Before each mission you're given a swift status report on the conditions outside. Not 50 you've got 50mething to chat to the other 50ldiers about in quiet moments, but because it hasa re al effect on the proceedings. MiSty, rainy or snowy weather reduces yisibility, as does night (not, strictly speaking, a Weather). So what's a poor Mech to do? Why, switch on his infra.green night sight. Whilst this lends the sc reena detail·blihinggreen hue it does actually allow you to see what'sgoingo n. Even better, the screen lights up in real colours whenever there's an ex plo. sion, making the whole process as confusing as it would be in real life. Ace .
TIMMY THE TURRET We all know what turreh arc. They're them things you find at the tops of castles. Slyly borrowingad esignelementfromearlyfeudalar(hi. tecture, Gungriffon features turrets too. But,
updalingdefens ive mechanisms along with building materials, th ese turrtts don't havt
arrow slits, they have big guns, The same guns detailed in depth elsewhere in this Showcase. And also unlike stone turrtts these ones can move around , ln fact, that 's their very purpose, Pressing the co neel button in conjunction with left or right on the D-pad swings your turret (ie that part ofyaur robot above the waist) in the desired direction. Releasing either button or direction re- centres th e turret automatically. Th is means you can run past ene my forces to the side of you whilst still shooting th e m, blast pitstthe corners of buildings whilst sheltering, eitsily waste e vii forces surrounding you itnd run into litmp posts whilst showing off and not looking where you 're going.
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GO SPEED RACER Other than for the ace cyber aesthetics, there's no reason to buildwarr obotsin the shape of human beings. Otherwise someone would have by now and all tanks would look like a fearsome Barbara Cartland to scare the opposition. But that 's where we're wrong, so forget we said all of that. Human beings itre known for their adaptability, with our strange primate-derived bodies being surprisingly mobile over almost any v~riety of terrain. So, as you might expect, human beingshaped tanks have manoeuvrability as a strong point. Especially your one. Not only can it bestride lumpy ground like one of them colossuses, it's itl so kitted out with a handy turbo mode, which folds it into a more aerodynamic shape, brings out wheels instead ofcyber-feet and puts the pedal to the gas in nouncertitin terms. You can even drive backwards at this speed (or walk backwards if you want). Pressing accelerate once commences witlking and twice initiates turbo. Decelerating once or twice past standing still has the same effect in reverse.
T
hough the home conftnlons of the ultn路 popular Mortal Kombat Blmes have * n pretty excellent, there hasn't yet been one which c.apturH the t/'\le atmosphere of pI.),!"g the lame in 1M arcade. One of t he best rea sons for ~mpinl a few coppers Into the Ulblnet Is to get the adrll!nllUne rush from the
BIG 8rJ1phkf, the booml"! speech, the comlUil Kreams and the non-stop OW!r路the-top bang-nng'
biilnB ilctlon. The home 16-bit versions feiltured all ofthemOVfl,charJIctel1andfuturH,butunfOftu路 natel), all missed out on these bonuHi, meanl"s that the only wily to get a feal arUlde Mortal Kombilt fill W;lI$ to go to
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more ... Thanks to the extra power of the Sat urn, this version of Ultimate Mortal Kom bat 3 not only (on路 talns all of the featu res from the arcade, It manages to Cilpture t he unique atmosphere of the arCilde original. Mortal Kom bat hasn't just been standing around the b.lCk strffis all th~ )'tart, popping out ~rynowilndthentokeepthefanshappy, it's
been hard at work bec:oming one of the best beat 'em ups ilround, and this showcase alms to show you whilt it 's been up to since the distinctly substilndard P1ayStiit ion ~rsion.
KILLER KOMBATANTS
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to become twelve, then fifteen, and now an amazing twenty-two in this lat· est version! A bit of basic mathematics means that there are seven new char· acters to get your head around,and these are they;
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playable. Jade carries a Bostaffand throwing blades, and possessest he unique ability to ~(ome invincible to projectile attacks. Another useful move is her Johnny Cage Shildow Kick variant, which can easily be tagged onto other moves for an easy combo. Her staff features heavily in her fatalities, as
Jade eit her impales her victim on it, or sticks them on the end and shakes them to piecesl She can 01150 use her magnificent stilff 015 01 pogo stick when she's feeling friendly, ortrOinsform herself Into a kitten OInd spin around her opponent until theyeKplodel Tournament Prospects: Jad e's variety of projectile attacks makes hera difficult character to get near, and her invincibility can make Ittri ckytokeep her away. She has got some devOistating combo attacks, and they can be made worse by b«oming invincible, running in close and performing a 7-hit before your opponent can work out what's going on . as you'll find out if you ever plOly against a computer-controlled Jade! IIIl1ttJI ~
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KITANA Kitana Is more like her Mortal Kombat I character thOin any of the others, with no new special attacks to speak of. Her main weapons are still the good old ralor-edged fans, which are used as projectiles, as well as good head· chopping blades. Kitana can still kiss like no-one else, though th is time her unfortunate victims don't get fatter before exploding, they get taller! Hidden in her skin-tight costume is a bottle of bubble liquid,ascan be seen in her Friendshi p; while her AnimOility sees a tiny white rabbit mOlul her opponent to death - just like in that Monty Python film (you know the one). Tournament Prospects: Kitana's lack of enhancements doesn't make her as exciting to play as some of the other characters, though herexc el1entcorner juggle combos still work - and they can do loads of damage. Precise tim· ing is needed to activate them, but the practice is worth it as a few good combos can be enough to win.
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REPTILE He jumped from being hidden in MK, to being playable in numberl,only to disappear for MKl Guess whaU He's back again in uttimOlte, only this time he's got more moves than ever. His Suction Globe can now be launched quickly or slowly, and he's got a great new dashing elbow attack, where he trots past his opponent and smacks them in the back,sending them fiying. On the fatality side, Reptile un either eat his opponent slice by slice, or yak up acid on them, melting their skin away. One of the funniest moves in the game, however, is Reptile's AnimOility, where he morphs into a monkey and scuttles off after his terrified opponent! Surreall ToufnOlment Prospects: Reptile's strength is his ability to juggle opponents, hitting them many times before they touch the ground. Another bonus is his InviSibility, which is totally useless aga inst the computer, but a good wind up.
SCORPION It was obvious that one of the most popular characters would make it back into the se ri es after missing MK3,OIndbOickheis. Scorpion's moves OIre pretty much the same as in MKI,only he's lost the ridiculous leg Takedown move that no·one ever used. That trusty harpoon is just OIS useful OIS ever, and it's the perfect thing for setting up combos. Scorpion's hidden weapons are his axes which are used at close quarters, mainly in combinOitions. The boring old Flame Breath fatality is OIbout the same as it was, but his new fatality is excellent. Scorpion raises his arms, calling upon a load of undead clones who come out of the ground and kick his »
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» opponent to bits under the (over of darkness. What creature wou ld you expect S<orpion to turn into for an Animality? A penguin which lays exp lod-
Fed up of playing MK3's non-ninj a Sub Zero? Find t his old version of him and
i"geggs, ofeoursel Tournament Prospects: Anyone can playas Scorp ion because his special
youelln play exactly as you did in MKl. Yep, even the excellent floor freezing
moves ilfe so simple, yet effective. Even though his strengthS make him good for beginners, this doesn't stop him from being a useful charact er. The
Teleport Punch,for example, can be tagged onto t he end of an aeria l a ttack orcan be used to escape from th e corner.
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MORE TO KOME ... When you first plity UMK3 on the Sitturn, there will only be foureJrtrit ehitrite· te rs, as well as a playable Smoke· the others have to be accessed from the Ultimate Kombat Kode screen. This appea rs after the Game Over message and enitbles players to enter one of three hidden " kod e s ~ to access one of three hidden characters. Before you arcade freaks gel all e)(cit ed, the kodes are different as there are now only si)( symbol bo)(es itS opposed to the arcade's ten. Happy huntingl
MILEENA The MKl female done ret urns, and she's pretty much identical 10 last time. Her best new finishing move is where she eats a pot of nails, then spits the m across the screen into her opponentl
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KOMBAT KOMPLETE!
KONTENDERS READY? What's the most annoying thing ilbout one-on-one beat 'em ups1lt's the
way that you always have to play -winner sbys on~ when there ilfe more than two people about, which often leads to fights when one player decides ~I Wiuo't playing properly that round, rtt me have one more 80.-
UMK3 saves the world from squabblins gilmesplil~rs by including four-
plilyerilndelght.playermodes.
4 PLAYER 2ON 2 KOMBAT There ilfe two teams of two chafileters each. Four characters ilfe selected ilnd the flght begins. Characters I ilnd 2 flght until one dies, then the secon din thjlt team takes over. It's not hard to undef1tand,and It can also be ptayed with just two players, meaning that you un pick two characters !!iI,h.
8 PLAYER TOURNAMENT KOMBAT Eight plily~m each pick il chafileter. People fight ilnd the winner moves Into the next round. The l4ISt one left wins the tournament. Easy. It's great fun if you've got seven friends and Is an excellent way to prove that you're better than everyone In one go.
Another of the new Ultimate bonuses is this s<run, whkh appears whe n the game Is completed. It gives tourna· mentchamplonsthechancetoplck a reward from one oftwerve of Shao Kahn's treasures, meaning ~ . ,. ~ t hat there are more reasons to fin· Ish t he game thanjust to find out ~ what happens to each character. Prllesvaryfrom battles against rOQ I<UfOUWVlIf,"Ht"HU'III'JOUJ Of J/lIfO UH" hldde n characterstoademoofall fH~OIf r~1IlII ~l""'III'''''''Utr the finishing movesr
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UNHEALTHY KOMPETITION One of the feat ures of the first Mortal Kombat tournament was t hat fighters were required tobke on two fiBhters In one roun d, somethi ng that was left out of the next two games. These have returned in the Ultimate t ou rna· ment, only they are now harder than ever, with M4ISter level players belngrequlredtobcklethru fishterson a slnsle energy bart
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• .Q> SEGA SATURN
KRASH!KRACK!KERRANG!
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One of the best things about Saturn Mortalkombat 3 that it wasn't possible to do with the 16-bit versions is the arcade perfect sound. To make sun~ that Shao Kahn's excellent speech isn't fuzzy or bad quality, the phrases spoken between rounds (Scorpion wins, fatality, etc.) are on the actua l Co and are accessedseamlessly to give the same excelientsound as in the arcade. During fights, the arcade music is played from the CD and the crisp sound effects are handled by the Saturn's sound chip, though theyareofs uchhlgh quality that it's hard to spot the difference.
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The combos (combination attacks) in Mortal Kombat 3 were a milssive step up from those in MKl, as they enabled players to string together loads of hits Into a quick sequence, upon which a counter and damage reading would appeilrto confirm that a combo was performed. The system stays the silme for UMK3, only many of the existing combos have been Mtweaked~ to even the Kore out a bit, For example, one of Kabal's combos was so popular and so easy to perform that it hilS had its damage rating reduced drastkatly to discourage players from using it . Extra hits can also be gilined by starting the combos with air attacks, something not seen before In an MK game.
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UMK3 doesn't just bring back old characters from the dead, it introduces a few new backgrounds to go with them, Fight along the river banks, In the desert, in front of Shao Kahn's throne, along a thin ledge overlooking a swi rling blue portiill, or even in Hell itself. Hell Is one of the best stages, pilrtlybe<ause it's oneofthe interactive backgrounds -you ciln knock an opponent Into the lava In the distance. If you don't fancy fighting in Hell, simply uppercut your opponent into Shao Kahn's throne cave above and continue the flght there!
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EPISODE 3 From the desert scenes of Episode 2, we move to the lush greens of an idyllic forest, the sunlight creeping through the thick canopy to form pillars of light.
It looks a bit like Centre Parks, apart from the fact that even if the weather isn't going to spoil things, the multitude of enemies out for you death will. First among them are the small fighter planes again. Resembling small
whales, they attack from the flanks firing missiles if you let them liYe too long. Floating vehicles carrying cannons also appear and fire imme diately
forcing you to either dodge the projectiles or destroy them. Depending on the route you choose, you'll have to face either giant catapillars that bu frow under the ground then burst out weaving all about you, or floating ships thilt hoverilboveyoureleilsingthree.prongedmissiles. BOSS 3: This looks iI bit like something out of Aliens, whilt with its oblongheild and the manner in which it crouches on its hind legs. It's very fast and agile jumping behind,infront and either side ilt cunnin gspeed.lt lashes out with its clilws in ilttack, but the reill threilt comes from the smilll fluttering enemies that it releases. Sometimes it will float ilbove the trees, hiding in the canopy, but so long asyou cilntilfget it, it's still vulnerable.
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EPISODE 4 As adept as you r dragon may be at flying at great altitudes or great distances,
his talents of manoeuvrability are most essential in Episode 4. This is because rather than f eeling the expansive earth beneath you or t he da rkling woods
afound you, you're trapped int oa labyrint h of tunnels that seem to have more In common w ith sewage than anything else. There's a lot of water
about and that's where most of the enemies emerge from. Most of them look a bit likl! giant metallic hazelnuts, or else monkey nuts, Make no mistake though, these surreal nuts are very quick
toattack,us lngmint green laser beamsas weapons. At the end of eilchtunnel isa door
which opens ilutomatically sending you th rough ontoa different path , There are also various metal barriers that you'll want to be dodging if your dragon isto keep its wings. 8OSS4: Towards the end of Episode 4 you ' ll find yourself walking along a rampart surrounded by water. The boss appears on the scanner but there 's no sign of it. That's because the cheeky blighter is ci rcling you under water. When it bursts out, ilstrueimmensityrevealsitself. lt'sahuge mutant with elements offish anda scorpion type tail. It lashes out with its tail and then ducks back into th e water. Before you know it, the thing's behind you destroying t he very rampart your dragon is running on. Eventually it's destroyed it all and you're forced to float above the water.
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with We're used to seeing Death stalking the Saturn Mag offices, usually in his Warmed Up incarnation reflected on the faces ofthe staff each Monday morning. But Varnpire Hunter shows that death needn't be the end for garners••• hrOUlhout hIstory our nlghtm'fe, hive been pl'lued by the terrOfS of the undlld. Eu ropean UtJItUfes such illS Rom.nl.n nmplrel,
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Czech Goleml.nd British RIchard Judys. Egypt ian mumm ies. Africa's voodoo-reanlm.ted Zuvembl. warriors. Vengeful Chinesl! ghosh. George Bums. But none ('part from Georlt Butnl)II as tet-
t!tylng.s the (enlteplece of D.rkst.lkers - the sury Dononn. Apart from h.nlinl'found on Itreet corners drummlnB iii gullir and Ilnllnl JennIfer Junlperthe;uch.folkle hImself b.ttlel other undead ina brdto prove his supremacy over the re. lms of death. As the (utly-halred flower child finIshes his renditI on of Sc:.rborough FiIIlr and neckl some more LSD, other monsters cower In the <orner of the MythOJ Cafe. Not becaule they're JUred he' ll thump them. They're jUlt scared he ' liitart playinl Scarboroulh Fair alaln. Ind~d, so deep has the rift twid Donovan and his pals and the other members of the post-respiratory community developed that tempers have flared and the normally passive ranks of demons, devil s, succubi , s pirits, ghouls, assorted nosfe ratu and general m isplaced souls are at each others throats. Most of whkh have rotted away. Somethinl ha s to be done before the deadstart killing each other. Fortunately a m~hod of polklng discipline amongst the dissenting elemenfs of the damned has presented Itself, Why don't they all Just have a fight about It, following specific duel rules and using no weapons other than their own supernatural abillites. Of course, th is is the easiest way to de<ic:le whether or not DoflOViln should be allowed to release another novelty single with Trevor t.c Simon. And the results of this tournyofthe night Isthanks to the wonders of consumerist merchan dising- now available to you, the punter, in the form of Darkstalkers. Following the one·on·one beat 'em up formu101 so successfully initiated byCap<om, Darkstalkers l: Vam pire Hunter takes the dead out of t heir graves and Into the home (via your Saturn). Take control of you r chosen undead and use the ir un ique deathly abil ities to beat your foe Into submission over three round s. All the us ual arrayofpunche s, kkks, spe<lals, Super Special s, multiple characters and soon are In plilce. But what seperates Vam pire Hunter from the crowd? Well rud on and see, coffin.dodging dudes ...
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Viilmpire Hunter tells us thiilt the best wiily to defeiilt the evil undud is to whack them in the face with a biast of psychic energy. Well sadly this sort of resource is not otten available to human beings. So what should you do If you've got the undead In your house? Well first off, don't panic. Contrary to whiilt Morgue of the Zombies might have you believe, you've very IiHle chOince of being harmed by the undead. Plus it's commonly thought, by psychics Oind that, thOit most undeOid ftfll off the energy of negOitive human emotions. So try weOiring bright colours Oind singing hOippysongs.
SUPERGENIUS (apeorn afe starting to get quite good at this Super Speclills business these dil)'l. Darkstalkers also featu res the now ubiquitous Super bar underneath the regular fighting energy b,lIr. As is now the drill, the more att<lcks and (In
pilrticular) special moves you pull off, the more energy goes into the little Super bank. Once this Is filled you 're granted onl!' use of your Super Special
Aceness moves. The Super bar is pretty stretchy. and will hold up to three specials' worth of Super energy at anyone time, indicating numerically how many It's currently awash with. The Super moves themselves walk the line betw~n
entertilning ilnd devastiltlng. Some of them, such ilS Demitri's fire
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11iMil:'tj PART 1 I As a racing game, WipEout is very clffarent from yoor Ilaytonas and RaIys. F... a start, it's not pII\YId on tile ground, and tile breakneck ~ wt1ich can be achieved reqIire some very carefW ~ There's loads ups toactiwte on each coorse too, wt1ich is why we've put together His twopart guide - most of wt1ich has ""'"" straight from tile programmers! SAM HICKMAH is hare to guide you Urough tile first tIree courses.
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TEAMS filch (Illft In WipEout has very different ablht ies. However, the FEISAR craft Is probably the most popular cl'\oiCt. as although It can't leilchbreakneck speeds, the weight of the craft means that you tend to bounce off the side if the tra drather than spin ou t of control But, to get the most out of this team, you'll need to ut,llse all the speed up Icons on the track. AC systems are also a good choice for the begi nner, as although they haVi! a higher top speed than FEISAIt, the turning ilbihtyis superiof,and it's p05slbleto qUilhfyfOfilll six trilcks with thiscrilft AUI1:ICOM AND QlUX teams reqUIre rTIOfe Cilreful hilndling. ilS both of these craftSilrecoosiderilblyheiIVierilMilredlfflcult tohiindleBultheyunreilch greilter speeds If hand~ properly, illthough they un be frustriltlng at first. Genelilily though. the IIghtel crilfts seem to filre bener at the end of the dil)', slmplYils t hefeellssuperior.
AIR BRAKES Unlike other racing games where It's possible tOillmost Ignore the exIstenceofthe brilke. sllCcess In WipEout heitvllydepends on the use of the illrbrakes. Proper use ensures thilt comers ilre swung itroum!, tilt her thiln Cr.lshed into. To use the illr bfilkes properly, ilil you hitve to do is titP t hem - you don't need to hold the bunons down for very long. They're rTIOfeusrl"ul for making tiny adjustments so YOUCitn keep to the Iilcing tine while illso obtilln lng ilil the power ups dotted around the
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â&#x20AC;˘ ~ SEG."\ SATUR
it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Except two months ago it had never occurred to you to wait. The surprise Saturn release of the Spring, but could it be that it's surprisingly bad? Surely not?WeI read on, kidshJlteveryonewilnts tohur lsthilt Wipeout is bttttr on S.. turn th;an It i,
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ilndtheupdatelsmaybenot~swift
uillilmeinitsown,lght, lnstudof
ilS it could have been. Thilt"s nottosilY it'ssk!w;lndjertyandhasmasslveclipping troubles. becaust none of these statemenlSareapplicilble But the Silturnisupableofbetter,andthiswe have seen. It's not a miljor gameplay fault, be<ilUse Wipe:out is st,1I a fast andaddlctlVtrKerwlthilrefreshin g slant to the ilctlon. but It does hint ilt programming laz iness ln thefinalstilgesofproduct ion. The only real complaint we Ciln level at the actual game mt(haniCS Is the handling of the skimmers, which ~metimes seems a little heilvy considering these vehicles ilre supposed to be floating above the ground.However,havingneverdrivenareilifloating racin gcarpe:rhapsthafs justbeingpedilntk. In irs fallOUt Wipeout exhIbits illI the hillimarks ofa classic. Ifs tilsy to get Into. illthough the laler triICks requIre quite some e_pe:rtlse just to complete, never mind triumph over The conuols glVt you a fa ir amount of skIll potentlill to grow Into witMut being overly fussy. Heck,even the music isn't SO bad if you're into all that te<:hno business. Shame there's no split· screen two-player mode, reillly,be<ause it's a pe:rfect title for such carryingson. All in all WiptOut is a fine figure of a game, WOf · thyofilplace lnyoursof'twarecollection, sporting some e_cellent llisuals and a lengthy challenge. It'll
btingcompliredtoave,slononilnvill format Wipeout should be benchmarked ,IMJsldt Segl hl1y. So let', pretend Wipeout Is .. bnnd new piece of softwilrt which hilS neve, been SHn befort. It'sarac!n88i1me se1. in the'Mure, where
ufshilvtbetnreplactd by nippy floating pointy vehicleS,andno,mill flat{ish) tfilCks supt'rsedtdbytortuous mountalnytwlstlng rOoildslitteredwith
W1PMWtllabsolfttlJ...n..
powe'-ups.StetI1n8
It. It', MU rut .. ~....
brakes ilS rud~r control
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there arecertil lnly plenty of them to choose from . However, compared with Segil Rally Wipe-out 's graphics are slightly on the grainy SIde.
rehesnmUChonilir
contains some hilrsh uphillco,nersTheeffect ofilirbrilkingisnot unlikea powerslideln a cilr rilclng game. but twists your vehkle ilt iln ilcuteilngleveryqulckly (ilsyou'de_pectwlthil floating thIng). There'sno filulting the trilck design. ilS tilch courst hils Its own pe:r·
'<'..
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take~mebeiltingbeforeyouevengrilduatetothe
higher skIll level Rilpler (Iilss tournilment . SO stkk that in your pipe: and smoke it. And is itilsgood iuthePlayStiitionversiOnl Not
~nillityandunlquehil:'
quite. Thetrans~rencyeffect5i1reine_plkilblyless
ilrds. Thls IS the kind of gilmewhereewryone has a leilstfavourite
impressive and the music Isn't quite so Mt, but the gameplay has survfved In pe:rfectconditlon
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•
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1~ liJ"U'211 Despite being the most popular console in the UK acouple of years back, the Megadrive certainly missed out on agood few top quality titles. It just didn't have the power to handle them you see. But the Saturn, that's acompletely different bundle of bits. It can handle anything. Which is why all these PC hits of yesteryear keep appearing on it you see.
m • •
Ut.thilrsnotnecesSa,i'Yilbildthins
=':~~;~:~ :~:~:~~et~!I:st
PC titles around. In fact, at Its time of
release, Magic Carpel was not only Ihe
best game around,ltwasthe most origmal too.And,iostead of plump
ingfortheobviouslet's.just'gel.the-
converSlon-out-of·the·wayoptlon,
Bullfrog have taken the game back to the drilwmg board and made
essential changes to the title
For example, in the Saturn worsion of the gilme, there's 75 levels as opposed tothe So found rn the PC
version. There's also a rnore friendly
speli casting system and even a new spell 10 mess around with too But in a way. that's all by the
by If you haven"talready played Ihe PC version, why should you care about a few extra levelsl Nope, us (onsolekidsjuste~pecttheworldon
a plate NOW. So it's just as well BulifrOSde<idedtoindude everythinStheypossiblycould An'f'Nay, as a conversion, MaS'c Carpet is actually very Sood Asa same in ItS own nsht It'S niShon brilliant The basic aim is towhiu about on your maSic carpet. bUlldlnS castles and kiliinS enemies In order to restore the world's power equi· librium.Butofcourse,whenyou're playlnS the Same, it doesn't feel as thoushyou'repartofamoralarmy oranythinS Nope, you just want all the power for yourself, and all the other wizards in the game deferve to die Togainmorepowerand expandacastle,ballsofmana must be collected. These are dis· tnbuted whenever enemies (usual. Iy in the form of huge slugs, dragons,beesortrollsJaredestroyed Manacanalsobe stolen from other wizards (hang around while they're busy blasting enemies} arld transported back to your own castle This IS done via the balloon whiCh comes free of charSe with every new abode. Of its own accord il will fiy about collecting the manna and depositlnS it into your castle OnceenouShiscoilected,you'libe able to expand your empire and ultimately, take over the world I In all,there's 75 worlds to conquer and after the first few levels have been completed, the action becomes qUite difficult. with enemy wizards stealing your mana at every possible opportunity However,
72
there's plenty of spells to discover which counteract the difficult nature of the game, and If you're in any way partial to a bit ofstlategIC-type blasting. thele's no doubt that Magic Carpet wili suit you down to theSroundAndifilslooksareanythlngtogoby.it'S certainly up there with the best Saturn releases of the day. I'm still a bit dubious about those very con venient "mist"effectswhichdoa fine job in disgulsIngthe poor screen update, but for the most part, the graphics are really impressive,featunng huge sandbugs,deta,ledberbertownsandplentyofvar· ied landscapes. Music·wise, It'S pretty sparse, but it seems as though this is the way the music guys warltedit-Aladdln·stylesrlakecharmermuSlCsuits the action down to the ground Infact,ineverydepartment,MagicCarpetisa quahty and engrossing release. Theonlydlsappolnt· Ingfeature IS that there's no hnk·upoptlon or two player game-which was Orle of the best features In the PC verSion. However, the fact that this has been rephcated Orl the Saturn In most of Its Oflglnal Slory is reason enough to buy the title, although It should be pointed out that Instant gratification fans may find ita bit tedious 10 begin with,Butdon'twony aboutthat-It soon grows on you Of course, Magic Carpet remains an original concept on the Salurn, arld although there are games suchas Fllestorm that you can roughly com· pare It to, ther e's nodoubtlns that this is something of an essential purchase for all techno·hunSry Saturnowners.Atopquahtytltleirldeed
OuJct! Glt thlt bill of manl now, ot~erwilllt~ltt~idIIJOing to pilfer It! And watc~ OIIt fGr the If't~er on homHck too, othltwiN yo~'l1elld ~pllttln8 hit!
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<iii> SEGA SATIJI<N
1~ liJ'f'I'NI Wearing their primitive primate tendencies on their sleeves, the Alpha males (and females) of the World Warriors crew are making a wei· come return to the home gaming scene. Are they still top banana? hettfighttrllsthtlli(hilrd~ndJud)'
S
of the vide-ogames world. It's hard to believeit's been around on the s<enl! for so long ilnd still rttains such fer·
venlpopul;uitywiththesolme audlence, whilst still picking up new filns
illong the way. Indeed,it's OYer five years since the launch of the original Sbffiy 1 coln-op, and sincl! then'M!'V1! seen approx.imatelyten hundred billion
different updales and conversionsoflhe game spewIng themselves across arudeS;lInd home machines theworidover.SlnceStreetflghter2wufirst launchedtheAyatoli all Khomenlhasdled,the
Criminal Justice Act has been passed Into law and
hstEndenhas stilrted showing three tim es a week. Indeed,the only certilln certainty of the hnthalf·de<ade I\u been th at Capc:om would never get ,ound to reluslns a possibly mythbustins Streetfishter]. But,pe,haps rullsinstheir rather slillCk attitude concernlnsanewStreetohappening, (apcomh ave fln allyp'esentedbns w ith a much·,equestedfollow-up. Although st ridly speakirlS It's a leap billCkintothe mish oftime, set just before t he events of the popular sequel toth e unpopula, and completely fo,gott en prequel. It's ulled Strutfishter Alpha and it futures charaders from both p,evious SF sames, alons with particlpanhculledf,omoldCapcom fightinggamessuchasFinalFlght,OIr1d 01 sprirlkle of all-new chop socky p,aditione,s to sus· t ain the audience-defyins longevity of the series. Butit'snotjustthenewc~stthiitmakesAlphaa
departu,e f,om the classic SF2 fo,mat. This gilme has a totally new graphICal style, w,th far moreanrme· esque characters and far smoother animiltion. Indeed, the animation warrants a special ment,on, as it's far more realisticallythree·dimens,onal than old Streetflghter.Goneisthewalking·on.shppery.ice effectof~steryear,thesenewflghterswalk,flsht and
fall with a believable depth (fora20game) This spi,it o'newness extends far beyond the reachofmeremortalgraphics,too.Thegames~
has been upped,forcing quicker thought and reaction. There's a bunch of newgameplay options, includ ing a
• • 74
'N
smart Training Mode, which allows you to practice new combos and tact ics against an in~ctive dummy opponent And each of the existing SF mythos folh have been redesigned,with new moves added and familiar ones subtracted. If you're a b,tWOffied that all this sounds rather far·remO'>'ed from the familiar SF concept you know ilnd 1O'>'e,fret not. All the legend·estabhshing characteristics are rn place, but they've been nicely augmented for the modern g~mrng climate The action quotient is up, ilnd therearef~rmoreimpressivespecialfeaturesandvisu·
al effects to keep the eyes occupied As iI game, there's not much you can fault Alpha on. The graphics are greal. the sound's great. it plays very well. Indeed and it's tough enough to keep you going for ages even w'thout a second player to hand However, Capcom have done themselves the disservice ofputt,ng this pretty much head·to-head with X·Men, which is (albeit only slightly) the better game, t hanks to its wealth of extra new features, such as the Vector Theory proJectiles and Create a Combo rule fans of Alpha have basically got themselves a pretty much arcade perfect conversion, and we'd thoroughly recommend getting hold ofa copy. FaifWeather flghtfans, however, who are merely shopping for the best lOface·puncher on Satuffl,would probably be better off with Children of the Atom
11;11'.11,,,.,*1
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Yo dude. Word is, your ass is going down And don't expect your homies to stick by you. Nope, they outta here. Hoo-ee are you in a whole lotta trouble. I'mtelling you, in Derby, we ain't up for no Queens english. We talk like we from the Bronx. And if you ain't into that jive, we pump some rounds in you with our AKs. Word up.
m
erbYISinfaCllhehomeofcore Design, maslen of Ihe Mega ,CD, sui. lans of the Sega Saturn. They alrudy have a couple of Sal urn IItles lothelr name-Thunderhawk aand Virtual Golf,And actually,lheydon'l talk like gangsta rappe rs al ~II teally.ln facI, they're all very well spoken thankyou very much and they all dun behind theit urs every single day too, So there you go, • •
chafacters' mouth movemcnUdon"\ matchuptothe dlillogucatall;mdthC;lCCCSSlnlltlmebetweencon. versatlon responses is qUite painful-YOll can ilcWally hear the CO whirring away while it's attempting to
access the ned p.lrt of the conversation Plus, the VOi(esanddlalo8ueschosenaleabitwea~-lnter.
ludes ilbout the Origins of Bladerunner read out by Trewr McDermott doing homlC. But In a way that's all
by the by-justa mere extra tothe stonklnggilme· plo1)'.yes1£r.may~
As Shellshod: was devtloptd by the same com·
But,eventhoughth~'reallqulteposh,lheydo
know about everyday life on the street They rully do And It'S all because they've created Shellshock,a badass tank game wIth attl\Udeand plenty of slreeltalk. Based 10 an age where law has broken down, vigilante groups lake to Ihe streets to curb evil groups in tanks, hell bent on deslroyingJust about everything TheatmosphereisveryLAesql.lewlth srrens galore and plenty of bleak, bland landscapes Of course, you play the rooklewllh everythrngto prove 10 this adventure, and lake pole POSltlOrl 10 the tank. b1astrng every enemy that dares to stray rnto your path The area which Ihegame IS played.s actu· allyql.llte enormous and the player is able to crash and Clunch Ihelr way through Ihe levels 10 anyway they like (avoid IhewaterotherwlseYOI.I'1i drown). wllh an on screen radar alertrngyou of tanks Inthe area. AS you'd Imagine this IS initially a bfllhant laugh. espe<iallyasYOl.lrtank is able to reach qUltea respectable speed,feeling more hke a hovercraft than a Cl.lmbersomeheavythrng However. It'S after only a short tIme thaI II all becomes rather dull And contrary to the deSIgners' hope5. all the homle banter and movre,cut Interludes don't make for a tense atmosphere ~t all In fact. Ih~ haveatendencytobecomeratherlfrrtatlng-the
p'lnywhobroughttheamazlngFlrestormtOO\lISYS· tems.lt'sonlynaturalthat~expe<tedsomethlnga
bit special in Shellshock However, the finished goods areabitontheaverageslde.Whllethelandscapesare veryerm, urban, there's not mu(h detail on them, and the music used on each level doesn't rnduce much of anatmospheretotheproc~lngsPlus,although
there's plenty of tanks to unleash your mighty power upon, It feels hte there's not much todo In each level -as If there sho!.lld be somethIng more tocomple1e Also, your naVIgator only seems to relay informatIon when you're hIt by somethIng. making the game's almosphereseemr~therf1~t
But, at least th,s IS an attempl to bflng a next generation blast 'em up tothe Salurn. And if you're not 100 bothered about Ihe e~act movement s of a tank or reptrcatrng authentic soundsofshellfire and warfare, then Shellshockcould prove to be a worthy tl!le. However, It'S not In·depth enough for universal appeal,andcould have done wIth a much more chaotIC atmosphere with less emphasIs placed on attemptrng to be 0001- an element whICh has given the game a ralher cheesey aroma
,
• •
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76
<Go SEGA SATUf<N
1~ I:Ji!Jli''''1 Golf is experiencing a bit of a Renaissance on the Saturn at the moment Valora Valley Golf arrives determined to shake the whole genre up a bit, but bearing some remarkable similarities to one predecessor in particular, Is it a success? Or are we look" ing at a bit of a recycling trick?
m
(h~'"tss.whillw'lh
AS has been mentioned, t~ control method In Valora Valley IS b;lsically Identical to Pebble Beach Golf ThiS means that you'll need to make the usual adjustmentsfordrrectlon.choosingclubsandpreparingyourstanceWhenyoureachthegreenaglld appears to convey the contours and there's the famil· iarlrnleinfoboKtellrngyouthedlstaoceandslope Wh;lt's different IS the power bar and It'S something that seems a bit confUSing at first I<:iltherthandlspl;ly t~ yardage of a full power stroke, all It has are four mysterlOustags;frre,cyclone,warpaodpsycho.A5
gotfballs that turn into
yousoondlscover,th~comelntoplaywhenyouhlt
tornadoesandcour~
the power b;lr Just light Hit one of these on the rewrn andyou'lI pull off a special shot. The lack of ab,lity to gauge how far your shot is I,kelyto go seems frustralinS at first, but you quickly get used to Simply usinS your eye to judse eKactly how much power is needed One of the disappointments of Valor a Valley Golf is that there are no other courses to choose from
O'fs,mshilYebeen;UllvmgqU,tefre. quentlytotheSaturnofliiteWe'vehiid Pebble 8tach Golf. World Cup Golf. VirWal Golf and now, bringing the whole
pafade full circle isValofil Valley Golf. a
game that uses the same basic engmeas
Pebble8eitCh.Oon'tletthatputyouofftoomuch
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bNau~,
is qUite
good fun. Admittedly. some of this might be
father SUfPJISlngly, Villori! Valley Golf initsunlnlentoonill
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•
Themain~ntso
to speak. Is the Dev,l's Open which isan 18 hole journey Into some very challenging and bizarre courses that see you working )'OIJr w~ to a green sitting on the plateau of a mountaln,Of a green based on an Island,ornegotratlngvalleysandnastysandtfaps,Oftrylngtoweavebet~n
huge concrete pillars. Valora Valley Golf runs the rrsk of being a Irttle tooecceotfic, but It manages to aYOld becomlngfrustratlnglydifficuhbybalanclngthe blzarrewlththestandardcoursecharacterlsticslrke the fairway, the rough,and the traditional green (If a Irttlemorebumpyattimes)
Iblt
• •
A. till naml.llck hIgher 1ft tire dlstanct, OIr lalrlr contlllplat.. 1I.,t'llMlII~tlNlIIlI.trttMrto'M.t1lGIrtA,
Tournament PI;ly, It'S the same 18 holes. Another IS t~ rat~r useless chOICe of four golfers - two male, two female-whosed,fferent;lttrreandhallstylcsare poor substotutefor the fact that they all play the same. Even more polntlcss ,s choosing your caddy, althoughit"sqUtteamUSlngwhentheypopupsportinga cheesy grin to offer you a compliment Irke "nice par" or "great drive" Valora Valley Golf doesn't qu,te match the more playable Virtual Golf. but because Its courses are more unusual and thus more challenging It gets the bener of the other golf sames currently ava,lableon the Saturn, locludlng Itsearher Incarnation. Pebble 8each Golf. Not a classIC by any means. but golfing fans With aneyeforsometh'nsdlfferent,or~ngotfingfans
with a taste for the S;ltanlCwlli be sitting at the 19th hole satisfied
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the ball dots much the same thing except it travels along the ground.~ychoseestheb.1I1
throbbing. although what exact
differencethismakesisabitofa
mystery. Probably the best of the special shots is warp which causes yourb,lIltodisappearonlyto
rematefialiseon the green. Getting the knack of using these specials takes a bit of time, but when)'QU do it offers you
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• ~ SEGA SATURN
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• •
1 ~ I:Ji1Ii'~'1 The famous Megadrive series makes it to Saturn. But is the Shining concept getting a bit long in the tooth (ha ha, tooth, wisdom, you see?)? Or could this be the first popular Megadrive range to make a sensation on Saturn?
II ,
ssoon asthe Saturn (Olme out, mags
::t::r:Sa:~~n~Wa~;re;~:;;o:::~;~~h fayouriteMe8adri~brudshitting
3Z-B1T. Sonic, Streets of lIi1se and Shining Fo.ce being the main th ree
points of Inte.est. Weli it was onlYiI mattel of lime befo,e at lust one of them milnilged 10 make the
transition , andthis is thl!' end result. Notjustuoth.
e r Shining Fo.ce game, this is
iI
II!·vampofthe
Shining formula.
Set years afte, the events of the previous Shining games(likeanyone,ea llycaresabout t hetlmeframe) you play the son ofa great (and dead) knigh t, ready for his first day at the offiCI!. After nobly de<kingyour aged grandfather upon hiS own bizarre wishes ifs
timeto8uldelhewannabewilniortotheking'scastle,evadmBor knackingthe roarning beasties along thepath,lfsintheproc:essofdedmgsaidroammg beasties that the playt'r notices t he firsl advancement along the Shining path,The combat system,t,me-con· sumingwaf game-style badbone of previous Shinies has been replaced bya more arcade-fflendly pressand-slash goings-on, Immedia tely this increases the pace of gameplay about a hundredfold,Which means there's more game time to concentrate on that allimportantcentfepiet:eofanydecentRPG,theplot Obviously this could bea bad thing Afterall,lf you couldn't give a stuff what happens to Solric and his Elves you're unhkely to even wade through the reams of text, let alone tadle the pUlzles in a game But Shining Wisdom excels here on two levels, For starters, Ihe plot IS fast·moving and intflguing enough tosustainYOUf interes t. and secondly because there'ssuchahugedegreeofmteractlvlty,Non-player characters do waffieon a fa ir bit asyou'de~pect,but m Shinmg Wisdom you're gM"n the chance to reply (in affirmative or negatory termsj to all t heir questions ThiS means you've got more scope to change Ihe direction of the plot than by whether or not you wm a battle or find an object. Basically t his has t ransformed
the more stfategy-based Sh ining engine intoa more m-depthrole-plaYlnganimal hlstingshmmgForcefansshouldn'tbedlsappomted~afteralltheseflesbegan hfe as a first·per sonperspectivedungeone~ploratlongamecalled
Shining in the Darkness, which was crap. And it was the f,rst game I ever reviewed in my life, so I'd know What Wisdom represents is the kind of step forward required to ta ke Shining games Into 32-BIT. Obviouslyifyou'readie-hardantl-RPGcampaigner Shining Wisdom has li tt le chance of convertingyou, It hasn't got the amazing graphics ofDor the gore-centric risqueness of Snatcher to tempt t he more vicarious thrill-seekers over But It'S nowhere nea r as sedate as you'd believe, The plot evolves rapidIy,there'salotofrunmngaroundandfight mgmonstersandveryh tt lewaltmga round, Evenreadmg important clues and bits of plot is made more fun by bemgabletospe<iktotheothercharacters(a bitj HOpefu lly thIs IS the first of many Shining games tohittheSa t urnin t hefuture,asi t'sace,Thoughperhaps Sega could attract a wider audience by bringing out tiles based on the same engir"le bu t wit hout t he almost passe swords 'n' sorcery fairying about that puts a lot of players off,
From what I've gathered of the rumors. there's something wrong U.Jlth. the Princess we're guarding ..
SEG.l\ SATURN
r, "'v, do Ill'" a favo,' Be!o,e you go please ~how Me yo .... , A<-c;e/er af/or. ... kilt
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<G> SEGA SATURN
YOU'VE GOT THE GEAR, NOW YOU WANT THE ORIGINAl, THE BEST AND FRANKLY THE HIPPEST SEGA MAG. MEAN MACHINES. SORTED. #
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Ufe as a platform game is proving quite treacherous on the Saturn. Expectations are high but the realities are far from it Rayman's performance was lack lustre and Johnny Bazookatone's was utterly disastrous. Can Gex perform up there on the platform? -~.,. ••, fij ~ ,-'! ~"" ~,
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This Morning with Richard and Judy
andwhenthat'sflnishedlswltchoytr and watch Pebble Mill or whatever It', called these d,Y1 but It doesn't matttr so lonl u It', lot AI,n Tltchmil,sh or Judy Spirts In it and then I wilteh tilt one o'dock news, foliowN by Nt1lhbours ,ndthen It'saqull show like Turnabout orChilln Letters ilnd after th is thtrt'I ' bit ofa burtn patch fot, couple of hours unlen I'm prtplrtd to w,tch someofthturtyElghtltsAudralianlOlpiliktA (ountl)' Practice or The Young Ooctors and then things hot up again with the late afternoon qull showllwitchingfromoneonBBC2hodedbyPaui (ola to either Countdown or Fifteen to One, depend Inl on which It runninl,and after that it'5 lime for the Nellhbours rtpeat and then the news Ind then thttvenlnIKhtdulesbrtslnd _ blahbllh _.The BiU _ blah blah _ Gardeners World_ Sad isn't it? But TV slackdom is an ~asy thing to fall Into. and inthecaseofGex,such apathy has cost him ~arly Sucked into his TV by a mad insect profes· sor. no doubt out for retnbution for the amount offlles the voracious gecko has eaten as TV dinners, GeK flnds himself wandering through platform worlds In search ofa way out, The great Irony is of course thn all the routes of escape depend on the very TV's and remote controls that seem to dominate Ge)('s destmy On this plot Introduction alone you are no doubt alreadybegmnmgtomakealloftheusualassumptlonsregardlngaplatformgame.and,unfortunately,
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they're all likely to be fight Ge)(lsa platform game thaloffersnothmglnlhewayofongmahtyorsurpnses,The action Is setout over several worlds, each With its own theme like Graveyard world, Jungle world Dr - walt for it - Cartoon worldl Ge)( hilS to find remote controls to access new levels, beat up foes With his tail Dr tongue, collect golden flies and power· ups, and generally go about plily,ng the genre by the book. Inananempltojilzzupth~gecko.Gex features loiS of wacky silmples from TV and films, puttmg the lizard on thecullural pulse so to speak, in an effort to givehlmana,rofcred,bllitylnstead,Ge)(comes acrossasa character locked mthesappyanddated world of the 'boclacious dude' Irs ilnother example of
how Gex succeeds m mlssmg the boat, a b.»1 incidentililythat ought to be makmg its way to the less demandmg shores Of16 b,tdom To rt<lress Ihe billance slightly, I suppose I should pointoul!hatthegraphicsandanimatlonarepol. Ished,that thegilme moves at a decent pilce and that It'scertamlyplayable, but while this IS aU true, none of th~sethingsmak~upforth~uttelpledlctabihtyofit
.11 ll~e Johnny 8alOobto~ before It, Gexlooks out of place on Ihe SalUffl. Thafs not to say that platfofm games have no future in 32 bit gaming, rath~r that games as mediocre as this have no place anywhere
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8->---11
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LAKESIDE COURSE The liIkeslde Course fe~tures mote twists iIInd turns tlliln .. nyet ttle others, 0Inc! iI spe(~I mention must be made of the road width; this COUM features thethinnHt t~k· ways of all and your powersliding must be exKt;thtre is no room for mlsUkes! once again, DAVID HOOGSON is your guide.
After a swiftjauntaloflgthe initial
straight, you musl posrtionyourself on the left of the trad forlhe firsl easy risht. Strafe the right embank· ment before straightening upilnd slidingtowardstheleft.Swingyour vchicle around in a powersliding
frenzysoyoualmoslclipthesideof the third bend before driving to the right-hand wall and posiMning yourself up for the second set of
bends.
There are only two problem sections, blJtthe n'lffowroadways mean that extra vigilance and care sholJld betaken when approaching both corners. A rather natty sweep arolJnd the first corner to the right. followed bya SlJpremelyconfident left·handerisalithat'sreqlJired
FromYOlJr position on the right. hand side, a small skid IS all that is reqlJired for the first corner, and thenYOlJmlJstdrlvealongtheright side of the track before a sharp slide followed bya brake to fight yourself. Oncecompleted,there'sarapid straight to follow, beforey<llJ enCOlJnter another diffjclJlttlJrn ..
VOlJ mlJst fly rOlJnd this long left hand corner wilh only Ihe tholJght ofwmningony<llJrmind,Starty<llJr first powersllde inthe middle of the road,and conlinue with the tip of YOlJrbonnetnestlingtheleft embankment. Then swmgOlJt slightly to the right for the final left· handtlJfn.
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JACKY BRYANT Themostpopula,character ofVirtuJ RlhttflwilSJJlckyBry.ant,whoearnf(! himself many fans due to his eJSt of use and power. In the Japa nese VF tournament wh kh helped stupe the scenarloforVF2,hewutrounced byuuandSarlhplayers,soAM2 hue boosted what ht's Hst at
(use of use and po_rj for the ~ul!l.Thl!rl!sultlsaplllyerwho
iln too often bfl:omes superchtHy In the h.nds of the VF2 nOlllcl!. Th is Is bei:ause attacH of suchpowef(;lInbeactiY;rtedso
uslty th;rtewnsometllpel1s havetroub~"I,lnsthlm.
Another irritaUng factor about
JiJcky Is the fact that his pouncl! attiCk (up+Pj Is the fastHt of all the fightfrs and the slmplHt knock-down un befollo~ up effectively with this frustral · Inltec:hnique. Of (oursl!,;a1l of this Is pretty good news If you',e a Jacky player. However, If ever you want to lurn to use him property, you tullywilnt to make UIoI! of the enviable ~nge of com~ at his disposal. Uke Aklra , Jacky can rely on both 5tagger5and float5 In order to pull off 50me ellceptlonally dim. glng techniques. Unfortunately, he relie5 pretty much on a small range of move5 to do thl5 , For 5tasserins, It'5 th e elbow mOff (forwa rd.P) or the 5lde'klck (down /fo r. ward+K) and for combos it'5 nearly always the ubiquitous knee (forward+K). The comblnatloM _ 'ff sfl O1.It below show off both of thelol! types of combo and are esstntlal readlns for all Jacky pl.yers. The sad t ~ Stdy about this flshter Is that regardless of how good you are at combos and what·haft·you , In the end you realiy need to resort to chee5e In order to get anywhere with him (whenyou'replaylna In the bla leaaue).
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cheats leIs you access a few of the extra features In the game which would normal ly require playing the game. Ugh. Access Extended Courses - Go to the option screen, highlight "Ga me level" and press Now press the shoolder buttons in this order: R, R. L R,Il A beep noI~ will let you know that the courses are available Free Time Trials - Highlight '1lmetriar on the main ~nu ~r"Id press Right. I.dt Up. Down. Z. A beep noi~ will let you ~now that you can now hilve "Free" ti~ when in Timetrial mode Access Hidden Blke-Onceyou have collected the five extra bikes by winning the
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Cliff Reef track. The silver bonus bikeshoold be added to your collKtlon
Irn1Ehfil VIRTUA FIGHTER 2 To ma ke the staggering letters on the nil~ entry screen do strange things. follow these directionS. All of the buttons should be h6:I ilS soon ilS you complete the game 01' ~ in R:ilnklng oY.ode. and kept held through the "Now loiIding_" screen. Ltttersfight likl!'Shun - Ho!dUp, A ilr'ldZuntll the entryscfeenilppeilfs. Underwater Name Entry - Hold Y ilnd t until the screen ilppeillS letters Fight like DUfill - Hold l, Ii:, X,YandZ un t il t he screen appears.
Not only is it possible to summon t he Virtu", Bird to fly ilfound iI fight it's possible to milke it lift: you r player off t he saeen l To m ake it do th is. play through the gilme In one-plilyer mode until yo u rt ilch Jacky's sta ge, then press X, Van d Z on both controllers to cilil t he bi rd. Now lose t he fin al round w ith a R:in gOuland is soon as you bH ou t the ring. hold Up. Keep holding it untillhe ~ me Over message appealS and the bird Will carry you away! It definite ly wol ks w ith Jacky Of Dural. and it occasionally works with oth~r charact~ rs.
If yov ar~n't very good at th~ ga m~. try t his cheat out. It's pfObably hard~ r to do than actually compl~ting th~ gam~. For 10 continues - Pause th~ ga m~. press left and r~l~ase it. th~n press and hold A th~n C, th~n r~lease them In th~ sam~ Ofd~r Then press and hold l. l button and R button In that order, thtn r~l~ase t ~m In the samt ordtr Thtn press and hold X, Z and Up in that Ofdtr, thtn rtltast thtm inthtsamtordt r. Tht n
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W:~:/::r::e~:~~~;e~n;:,s ;.e;:~;:;~:y!:st::::n:~~;:C~::i:~eO~:~:~;ed_ nen of Accl~im enterhinment_ In fact, we werel"l't expectil"lg to see this title il"l theshopsul"ltiIJul"le,~ttheverynrliest.So,to s uddel"llybrll"lgthegame forw~rd by arou nd four months mnns that this top title h~s received a rather lowkey release. Bul,don'tletthatpulyouoff. AsidefromVirtu~Fighlerl,thi s i s the best bnt 'em upto appnronthe Saturn, even though ith~sl"l'tminagedto brnk into the 30 rnlms. Where X-Men games ha~e been somewhat gUIlty in the past of mls -representing thelf comic and cartoon counterparts, this is by far and away the best conversion ofwolvers and co. to date. And If you're an arcadefan, there'snodoubtthat you'll rewgnise it. as it's also an arcade tItle -luckily, as an arcadec on~ersion , lt measuresupconsiderably~lItOO.lnfact,there'sveryliltledifferencebelween
this and the original arcade game, but Ihat's pfObably because Capcom,thedevel OpefS of the Oflginal arcade tItle were also responSIble for the convel sion. Now, you'dexpecttheJapanesecovnersiontobeprettyspotonjustasamatterof ooufse,butCapcom havealsodonea bfillianl job on the PALconveflson t 00. The EUfopeangamerunsatexactlyth e samespeedasitsJapan~ecountefpartand
comes equipped wilh fu ll-screen play 100. However, it's not just a good game because the con~ersion is up to scratch, Nope, the gameplay itself should beenought toget any beat 'em upfan foam ing at the mouth. In additIon 10 a whole host of X-Men characters to choose from, there's litefallymillionsofspedal moves to learn and OfCOUfS e,theopportunity to master the 14·hit combo. And, as you'd expect from the beat 'em up ~ings,themovesafetfulyspectacular,thegraphicsare oftopnotchquahlyand , bl.mdled t oge t her,lhismakesfofane~cellentpackage - pefhapsnot impressi~e as Sega's own Virtua Fighter ciass of its own. An essential buy.
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qUIte as but as 2D beal 'em ups go, this is in a
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be ~n Ibsolute deluge of foot le glmet to follow In the nen couple of montht. But, for now, NFL hit the tt ul over eonl)'th lnl elst. Which Ictuilly, It no bad thl nllt, ~lthoulhltdotsn 'tenj oy th e " b l lname " attractlonoflitlestuchItJohn
Madden, It's a pretty good re pret entatlon of American Football. At wefe the Megadrlonand 3JX V1!ft lon t of a couple of montht alo. luckllythoulh, t heS~turn wnlon loob and feelt w ry dlfflerent from Its little ,6· blt coutlns' efforts - there't loads of camer.ll anglts to choote from , tome r.IIthef nicely thHned gr.llphln and of COUfst, KrHn upon KrHn of "vital" footb~lIlnglnfOfmat lon . ln hct, It would t.ttmlnltlallythatQuarterbackClubls a nigh on perftct fepfestntatlon of Vank foot Ie. And, for the most part It Is. But It dots suffer from I few mltglvln,s. Probably the most prominent Irritation factor comes from the CPU's tendency to pfedlctyouf passes for you, relultlngingamepiaythat'l flthermoreperfectthln It should be. But, In multl· player mode, this futurt bec:omel redundant, a ndu you 'd expect, th is II the best way to play the game. On the whole. although Quarterback Club is. for the most part. ~ j~lZed·Up glorified 16·blt ht le. It"S still an essential buy for anyone who's Int o Ameriun football WhIle it d~sn't rully expand o n the game genre. unless you want to dust off your Megildrive every time you fancy a bIt of John Madden, it lully is the only optIon.
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hdeilf. In fact , oh double du rwlth che rries on top. The non·apptilfan ce of MKII on the Saturn has bttn so meth ing of a n enigma, but luckily, a ll Is solond with Its appearllnee thi s month. In fad, th lt worb in two ways - b ns of the MK series wilt now be able to rush out and buy the title,although wh e n they actually come to play the game, they may find It very shocking Indeed. Unfortunately. this has nothing todo wIth the copius amounts of go re inthe game. fven less to do wIth the head-flpping. spine stflPplng moves eith er.lt"s more to do WIth the facI Ih~1 th,s is absolulely ~ppalhng. When we revIewed Ihe game b<lck in the V1!ry first issue of SEGA SATURN MAGAZINE, we were infOlmed (after 01,11 review) that the game was not to be relused and was being taken b<lc~ lothedrawins board for some essential alteratIons, By this, we Iho ughtthat f>robe/Acclaim meant th~tthey wele intending 10 add the finishing touches 10 Iheir game. But. what Ihey've act ually done Is make the same much wOlse than anyoflheverslonsseenonc~rtridgeformat Yep, gone are the fiuld boulsofyes· leryear.replacedinstudbyCiintankelous.j ltterygameplilyFor~Sllrt. thesound.
surely Ihe boone of CD gaming is ~bsolutely ~pl»lIing. and the lwdlng lIme bol' ders on the tragic - In fact, the entire tItle suffers from chronic slowdown tfevtlthelewas~llllethiiteclipsedthe currentMK backlash, thlsis itA mOle wheezing. fragIle glilndad old duffel convelsion you'd be hard pu shed to find.Thefactthat t hISd~sn'levenmeasureup toilcartlidsetltle should sell its utter in adequacy.
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h, now this k mort like it. Even thouSh O~rius mi)' look like i ooin-op thit Will ~u"ledoutofthe wron8 fndof thefI8htlfl,it'seisil)'o~ofthl!mOlit plipble gimes of this month. Funny then, thi t this bomb· ..· minute shooter should
feiltureflsh. YH,fish. 8ut,althouBhfisha.tgenlOlllyquiteplilcidcrti tures(iPilrt from Plhrinilsofcou.se),ln this Bamt, they'.equitt the most vicious buststhilt
rninklndhise'Oerhildtoface. 8utdon'lletth atputyouoff,bec.ilus.eth i t's tllttllillct Joy of playing Darius. There's Iiterilily millions of monsters to muh, most of whlth
ilppea. on K,een at onu, ind even though lhere's a rather glaring IKk olt he thi,d dimenslonlntheB;JImepli)"thegf1lphIUindchilllengl!i'l!l!xtremelysuperiofand
shouldprovldtisuperiof playfo.illishGOt'ernu pbns. With161~lslnall,plusadlffkuttyltvelthit'ealtywill{haliengealistaodards
of gamers. Darius IS the perfect choice for anyone who's Into pore gameplay As long as you're not golOg to moan that It'S not uSlOg the Satum's full potentlal,that IS
fte, a lack of shoot 'em ups at the time oflhe Saturn's launch, a few mOle s~m to wh~le thel, Wiy on 10 the milchine each month, although we',e yfl to SHone of any subslantlal p,oportlons, Basically, your obJective in this game IS to fly about in you r little toy ship ,nego,
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tlatlngl/alleysandthellkes,andshootinglots.Tobrea ~ upthemonotony,there's
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also plenty of nice FMVlnterludes, the cheesiness of which has no t beenseensince the days of Tom Cat Alley on the mega.CD, In fact, "Mega·CD" sums this title up very well If you need furthef evlde nce to support this theory, just take a look ilt the 3Dor even the anima tion on th eshlp It's a shame that equal amounts of effort weren't ploughed Into both the FMY sequences and the gameplay, asthe besl hilsn't been made of either part to war· rantelthere_tended play or a purchase of the title
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R:~ec::e:a':gt~: 1;::n~Oe:~~St~ ~:~~::: :~: :::~:~a:n~t~:~~c;:::~:~:;~:I' wo uld , The mosl obvious rea son fo, 11'1 15, is while Ihe arcade lIersion of HanK On was p,obablyone oflhe most popular arcade titles of the lut decade, the Sat urn ~conllerslon " Is unfo rtunatel), nothing like the coln·op ellef)'one goes all ml sty·eyedolll!r, Whats thefe 10 Its place Isn'l awful by any means- theil{\lon prOllides a plilyilbleenoughracer,allhoughalmosteveryfealureislackluslreinonedepart· ment or another F<lr Instance, while the graphics hilveade<entilmoun t ofl/ariety, the motorbike 100ksnothIOg like the real Ihing, has he_agonillwhee Is ilndverylrt· tie thought put into its appearance. And the gameplay, whilst almos treproduclOg Ihe effects of iI molorblke slm, feels almost dream·like -Ihere's no weight to the bite ilnd the controls are just way 100 sensitive Ofcoulse, If ,t wasn't for the appearance oflhe heilll)'Welghl Sega Rail y, Hang On may have Just about chugged ,IS way on to a decent sales performance But w'th such e_cellent t,tles aheady out there, there's no real loom for another racer Ihilt's not up to scratch
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