| March-April 1998 |
Nagano Olympics
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami Computer Ent.
Release Date: January 1998
Best Feature: Realistic Events
Konami adds a new entry to its catalog of sports titles with Nagano Winter Olympics 98. Seeking to capture the thrills of the real Olympics events, developers painstakingly simulated twelve events in lifelike, fully polygonal fashion from ski jumping and speed skating to luge and curling. Choose from 16 countries and test your abilities with athletes that may appear completely unbeatable in your first five, or fifty, tries. Not unlike Track and Field, most events are won by quick button tapping. Others, like bobsled, begin with quick button combos followed then by pinpoint-accurate directional movement down the track. Move slightly too far and your sled will overturn, leading to disqualification. "Better luck next time!" Competing against the computer is tough and requires dedication to master tricky controls and inputs. Multi-player mode with friends is the best, most hilarious way to play this strenuous game.
Snowboard Kids
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Racdym
Release Date: March 1998
Best Feature: Competitive Fun
Slide down the slick and snowy slopes in Atlus' Snowboard Kids for the Nintendo 64, a lighthearted racer that mixes Kart-like speed with shooter action. Five cartoonish contestants face off in six unique courses, with three hidden tracks waiting to be unlocked, questing to win the Gold Cup. Beyond the cutesy characters and areas, this cart is enormously good fun. Beware of fellow snowboarders who will attempt to knock you out using various silly items. Pull off staggering stunts on each course to earn prize money to unlock boards with stronger attributes. Three single-player modes add some flavor to the mix, including Battle Race, Skill Game, and Time Attack - the latter two offering additional challenges and ways to build up cash. Multi-player is likewise solid with up to four player-controlled racers able to hit the slopes at once. Master SK's steep learning curve and you will shred like no other. A fine rental for a snowy day home.
Robotron 64
Publisher: Crave Entertainment
Developer: Player 1
Release Date: January 1998
Best Feature: Totally Addictive
Taking its stride in the same fashion of Midway's Robotron X, the 64-Bit update for Atari's classic coin-op may just be the finest home version yet. The key to success with any remake or rehash is staying true to the roots of the original. Robotron 64 presents itself on a 3/4 viewpoint atop a checkered platform, as opposed to the strict top-down of the original. Your mission is to survive wave after wave of robots, firing frantically at the baddies while rescuing human families from electrocution. Collect tactical power-ups like flamethrowers to induce greater damage as robots approach in all directions. Robotron is defined by its superb (optional) "twin stick" control scheme, accomplished by attaching two controllers at once - steering with the left stick and firing with the right. With hundreds of levels to conquer, players will be busy at this one for several nights. Thank goodness the devs implemented a save feature. Whew!
Punky Skunk
Publisher: Jaleco
Developer: Ukiyotei
Release Date: February 1998
Best Feature: Varied Play Mechanics
With its lively, cartoony style, Punky Skunk is a classic 2-D side-scroller that harkens back to the mascot platformers of the 16-Bit era. Players will control a mischievous skunk named Punky on his quest to rescue an inventor friend from a gang of opossums. The bright and energetic Punky is well-animated with several expressions a la Sparkster. His signature move is the ability to spray enemies with clouds of gas, which reaches enemies like a projectile attack, smacking them in the gob with good hit detection. Each stage presents its own power-up for ease of navigation, like roller blades to zip on platformers or digging claws to tear through dirt. Inter-stage mini-games break up the action nicely, and boss encounters are good fun as well. An exceptionally easy adventure, but there is charm in its old-school approach.
Skullmonkeys
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: The Neverhood, Inc.
Release Date: February 1998
Best Feature: Visually Stimulating
Offbeat, unusual, and oh-so-strange. No, not Paulie Shore. We're talking about Skullmonkeys, an eccentric platform game developed by The Neverhood. It follows Klayman as he works to save his home world from the diabolical clutches of the evil Klogg. He battles all breeds of villainy, namely the Skullmonkeys, across over 90 platforming levels. Straightforward, sure. The gameplay is standard platforming fare as well, aside from a key few odd power-ups and abilities. The stand-out feature with Skullmonkeys is its eye-popping claymation graphics. All characters, enemies, and the bulk of environments were modeled and animated with clay and stop-motion photography (Bizarro Gumby! -Jet). This, especially when combined with the developers' clever sense of humor, gives this title a surreal yet highly entertaining quality.
Broken Sword
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Revolution Software
Release Date: March 1998
Best Feature: Engrossing Story
Blending ancient history with a twisting plotline, Broken Sword is a brilliant PC point-and-click adventure game. Converted to the PlayStation, it drops a few pegs. This title takes the perspective of a Californian lad adrift in Paris. Upon witnessing an assassination involving a Medieval manuscript, he stumbles into a complex, cross-continental conspiracy. As good as the story is, the presentation is that much better. Graphics resemble a Don Bluth cartoon, painstakingly animated to the last detail. As a pointer-driven game, the user interface can be sluggish when using a gamepad instead of a mouse peripheral. Besides the standard smudgy pixelation that comes standard with console portovers, this version brings with it excessive (Endless, even! -Jet) loading screens. Get past that headache, and you will have a grand time solving the mystery.
Enemy Zero
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Warp
Release Date: December 1997
Best Feature: Suspense Galore
Imagine the terror of being followed by an invisible, bloodthirsty extra-terrestrial whilst trapped within a besieged spaceship. Sounds appealing? From the creators of D on the 3DO comes Enemy Zero, a horror-themed FMV title for Saturn and PlayStation. This game consists almost entirely of FMV sequences and a first-person perspective. The polygonal player character, Laura, must be guided through eerie enclaves and strange corridors at the risk of being mutilated at any moment by the aliens. Laura uses a VPS device that emits a radar-like sound to alert when enemies draw near. Ready for the beeping to increase in frequency, then defeat the foe once it jumps out. Fans of moody, atmospheric stories like the Alien movies will appreciate what Warp is up to, here. But if screams and gruesome sights send you shuffling for a new pair of drawers, Enemy Zero may not be for you.
Sonic R
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Traveller's Tales
Release Date: November 1997
Best Feature: Graphical Effects
Patient Saturn owners, having begged for an exclusive, 3-D Sonic title for years, have been met with ... a so-so racing game. D'oh! Sonic R is an action-racer built from the ground-up to take advantage of the untapped graphical power of the Saturn. Once you've chosen your character from a roster of four (plus five unlockable), the game shifts to the designated racetrack. Players will notice two factors from the get-go. One, the astounding visuals. R uses 12-layers of transparency which allows polygons to fade into view, thus dramatically reducing pop-in. Second, the horrid controls. Maneuvering racers as if they were giant vehicles, is a major chore. Drifting around tight turns and corners is seemingly impossible, not to mention the shoehorned platforming segments. Though it does include 2-player split screen mode, it sadly lacks any unlockable mini-games or battle modes to shake things up.
Warcraft II
Publisher: Davidson & Associates
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date: August 1997
Best Feature: Plenty Of Missions
Warcraft II is now available on home console with this brilliant interpretation for the Saturn. Warcraft, for those unfamiliar, tells the tale of a timeless battle between humans and orcs. Players can choose either camp with four total scenarios (52 missions), and leap right into this top-down strategy game. Developers made a hearty effort at making the presentation as compelling as they could, inserting FMV sequences and high-quality Medieval music to make the experience more worthwhile. Tutorial missions help ease players into the real-time chaos of this fantasy realm, teaching the basics of mouse-driven combat and mouse-driven resource collecting. Graphics are sadly smudgy and more pixelated than on PC, but new features like the ability to auto-build units make up for the clunkiness in the interface. No multiplayer support, sadly, nor will any Saturn mouse peripherals work.
Castlevania: Legends
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: March 1998
Best Feature: Classic Belmont Terror
As we patiently await the imminent release of Castlevania on the N64, Konami has blessed (or cursed!) us with a treat to hold us over: Castlevania: Legends. This iteration of the Transylvanian tumult brings in vampire killer Sonia Belmont to take on Dracula's Castle. She is a fearless hunter from the famed Belmont family, armed with the classic whip to eliminate the vampiric threat and his minions. Other than the ponytail, players will hardly notice much difference. The game still plays just as any Castlevania should, with all the side-scrolling staples well in tow. In the all-new Light Mode, Sonia will come equipped with a chain whip and fireballs from the start to make the journey that much easier. Beware of tricky platforming in the castle corridors. Miss by a pixel or two and Sonia will fall to her doom. Decent graphics, all things considered, particularly on the Super Game Boy.
Wario Land II
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Release Date: March 1998
Best Feature: Immune To Death!
The nefarious Wario is back and uglier than ever in his second foray on the Game Boy. Wario Land II is a traditional platformer same as the original, now with oodles of additional tidbits, humorous cut-scenes, and peculiar puzzle-solving. This eight-megabit Game Pak includes a revolutionary Zero Death gameplay mechanic - The first of its kind for Nintendo. Rather than losing a life, Wario will repeat areas until a puzzle is solved or a boss is defeated. Nifty! Another welcome formula change is the inclusion of total transformations rather than hat-based power-ups. Solving puzzles and accessing new locations will require turning into blazing Fiery Wario, spooky Zombie Wario, or pancake-like Flat Wario to name a few. When flattened and widened, for instance, you can traverse a crack in the floor and move onto the next area. Great presentation and spritework, and better yet on SGB.
Turok: Binosaurs
Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment
Developer: Bit Managers
Release Date: December 1997
Best Feature: Lots Of Weapons
Turok stampedes onto the small screen with an exclusive Game Boy variant titled Battle of the Binosaurs. This side-scrolling adventure features the heroic champion as he battles through eight intricate stages with tons of vertical sections. Leap, climb, and swim to best the dangerous environments and make your way through the treacherous jungles. Your objective is to secure three keys and a piece of the Chronoscepter weapon from each stage. Easy at first, but as the terrain becomes more complex and the jumps become more challenging, discovering these items may prove arduous. Many of the discoverable weapons match that of the N64 version, and though the itsy-bitsy graphics hardly hold a candle to the home console, it is not too shabby playing handheld. Adequate play control with no major issues to speak of. Sadly, no Super Game Boy benefits to be found.
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