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GAMES YOU'LL
WANT |
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GRANDIA
(JPN): Refine everything that was great
about Lunar, then remove all its lesser qualities, and
you'd be left with one fantastic RPG. That
RPG is Grandia.
MARVEL VS. STREET FIGHTER
(JPN): The sequel to X-Men vs.
Street Fighter is more fun and lighthearted than its
predecessor. Dan is in top form
here.
METAL SLUG (JPN): Saturn
fans can't live on Capcom fighters alone.
Luckily for them, there's Metal Slug, an
intense military shooter with a touch of dark
humor.
MIDWAY'S ARCADE CLASSICS VOLUME
1: Six flawlessly emulated Williams games
are brought together in one exceptional
collection.
NiGHTS: This was an
unexpected surprise for Saturn owners. Instead of
a sequel to Sonic, they got NiGHTS, a gorgeous,
imaginative game that defies
description.
NIGHTWARRIORS:
This clash of classic movie monsters is arguably
the best fighting game ever. The graphics are
superb, and it plays as good as it
looks.
PANZER DRAGOON SAGA: In
a world of generic role-playing games, it's nice to find
something that doesn't shamelessly steal all of its
ideas from Squaresoft.
PANZER DRAGOON
ZWEI: If you can imagine how exhilarating
it would be to ride a dragon, you can imagine how
exciting it is to play this superb
shooter.
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA
2: To this day, there isn't a game in the
Street Fighter series that has surpassed this one.
I even prefer it to the loud and flashy Alpha
3.
VIRTUA FIGHTER 2: Although
it's been eclipsed by two sequels, Virtual Fighter 2 is
still a marvelous game in its own right. I'd
choose this over any of the
Tekkens. | |
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GAMES YOU
WON'T |
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BATTLE
MONSTERS: It's kind of like playing a
Harryhousen movie. Actually, that's only half
true... it's nowhere near as innovative, but every bit
as antiquated.
CLOCKWORK
KNIGHT: Admittedly, this isn't
terrible... it's just so bland and uninspired in
comparison to other, better side-scrolling
platformers.
CRITICOM: Sadly,
the characters (including a wrinkly alien nerd in a
metal diaper and a possessed dominatrix) aren't the
only awful things in this futuristic
fighter.
CROC: Like dozens of
other 3D platformers, Croc desperately wants to be Super
Mario 64. It doesn't even come close thanks to
lousy control and tiny stages.
DARK
SAVIOR: Surprisingly, the sequel to
Landstalker is dark, depressing, and dull... the exact
opposite of the game that inspired it.
ELAN
DOREE' (JPN): You'll have more fun
doing el laun-doree than playing this simplistic,
frustrating fighter, which features a cast of
dragonriders.
MIGHTY HITS
(JPN): This obscure light gun game is the
Saturn's rough equivalent of Point Blank... and when I
say "rough", I'm not kidding.
RACE DRIVIN'
(JPN): There's nothing slower than the
cars in Race Drivin'... and nothing faster than your
hand reaching for the Saturn's eject button after you
play it.
RISE 2: RESURRECTION:
They made a sequel. I just can't believe they
actually had the gall to make a sequel to one of the
worst fighting games ever made.
SHINOKEN
(JPN): The operative word here is
"no." The Neo-Geo's failed Killer Instinct
clone is no better on the Saturn. The
computer rendering is completely
awful! | |
REVIEWS
It's an unwritten law that every
post-crash video game system must have an obnoxious mascot to go
with it... the Genesis has Sonic, Nintendo's systems has Mario, the
3DO has Dana Gould, er, Gex, and the Saturn has Bug!. He's your
typical wisecracking anthropomorph, sort of a computer rendered
Bubsy with antennae and a thorax, and he does your typical
mascottian things- stomping on enemies, hunting down power-ups,
making smart-ass remarks, et al. There's one big difference,
though... Mario and Bubsy were stuck on one plane of perspective.
Bug!, however, is less restricted and can take off in any one of
four cardinal directions (toward the screen and away from it as well
as left and right as is typical in games in this genre), provided
that there is in fact a pathway in the direction he chooses. Walk
from left to right and the game plays like any other in the genre,
but take one of the northern or southern paths, and the Saturn
responds by scaling the screen inward or outward in an impressive
display once thought impossible on the system. It's a little
disorienting at first, but hey, that's the price you pay for neat
3-D eyecandy... :) That aside, Bug! is just your standard
side-scrolling Sonic and/or Mario clone, without nearly enough new
ideas to set it apart from better games in the genre, like Ristar
and the clearly superior Jumping Flash!. I'd recommend a rental, or
better yet, purchasing the $5 Saturn demo disk with three rounds of
the game as well as a stage from Sega's overrated 3-D shooter Panzer
Dragoon.
Truly one of the classics in the Neo-Geo's otherwise derivitive
software library, Bust-A-Move has arrived on the Saturn with dozens
of new puzzles, a Vs. mode for one player as well as two, and even
an edit mode which guarantees to keep the game fresh even after its
many modes have been beaten. It goes without saying that this very
well-rounded package is a must-buy for fans of the original.
However, I do feel it important to note that Bust-A-Move 2 is,
despite its candy-coated cutesy setting, one of the most
frustrating games you can buy for your Saturn. The puzzle mode isn't
so bad in this respect, but the Vs. mode against the computer...
aargh! In it, you're pitted against twelve bizarre characters
ranging from ethnocentric little girls to the undead to cast members
from Bubble Bobble, and the difficulty of each battle varies wildly
from character to character. For instance, Beluga (the purple fiend
from Bubble Bobble) isn't too hard to dispatch, and the blue snake
woman in the middle of the game makes ridiculous mistakes which cost
her the match in a matter of seconds, but the girls... yeesh! You're
forced to take on a very young African tribesgirl in the third
stage, and dispite her innocent wide eyes and fondness for the color
pink, she really knows her stuff and can literally flood your side
of the playfield with bubbles if you're not quick. The same applies
to the little girl who waits for you at the Great Wall of China. She
looks like a two-year old Chun Li, but does enough damage to
her opponents to make the Super Street Fighter 2-era M.Bison
jealous! This wouldn't be so bad if these two characters weren't
such sore winners. The pink tribesgirl in particular leaps up and
down with her fist outstretched squealing "Do do do, do do do!"
EVERY TIME she dumps a load of bubbles into your playfield, and this
gets absolutely maddening after the seventh time. You can
turn down the sound effects in the options screen, buuut I'm not
really willing to do this because there are some great voices in the
later stages that I'd rather not miss. I would be a lot happier if I
had the option to just shut her up...
This isn't as inconsequential as you'd expect, but is
nevertheless not too tough to ignore when you consider the overall
quality of the game. One thing that could be the deciding factor in
whether or not you'll want Bust-A-Move 2 is its high level of
cuteness. Bubble Bobble fans will adore the opening screen and the
cartoon introductions in the Vs. CPU mode, but anyone with a low
tolerance for doe-eyed, extremely Japanese characters will
want to think twice before picking this up. However, everyone else
who loves puzzle games just has to have Bust-A-Move 2. I can't wait
to try Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo next!
I probably don't have the right to review this, since I've only
played one round of Daytona:CCE on the Sega Screams game sampler,
but what the hell... I fully admit that I haven't had much
experience with this game, so I'll make this review short. The first
Daytona on the Saturn was a fine game in its own right, but was
quite laughable in comparison to Ridge Racer, with a low frame rate,
excessive pop-up, and some of the most intensely dumb music ever in
any video game. Sega realized that Daytona was somewhat of a misfire
on their parts, and decided to release this championship edition as
an atonement of sorts as well as an attempt to capitalize on the
popularity of the Playstation's flagship racing title. The graphics
in CCE are smooth and have a slicked over, high-tech look, just like
in Ridge Racer, and the cars themselves are more compact this time
out and smack of RR's vehicle design. It's plainly obvious, even
from the single round I'd played on my demo disk, that Daytona:CCE
wants to be Ridge Racer. It succeeds in copying RR in most respects,
but not in the most important one: control. Even with a digital
controller, Ridge Racer controls beautifully, but to fully enjoy
CCE, it must be played with Sega's 3D control pad or steering
wheel. Playing the game with a standard controller is an exercise in
frustration... the gameplay is unforgivably stiff, and if you try to
use both gas and break pedals at once (an accepted procedure in the
first Daytona), the breaks lock up and you're left sliding out of
control! Arrrgh!!! If you kicked yourself for buying a Saturn after
playing Ridge Racer, and own a 3D controller, CCE is worth a look.
Otherwise, stick with the first Daytona.
First, let me get one thing off my chest: "Why the HELL did Sega
completely ignore the fact that this game was designed by
Treasure!?" Like most Saturn instruction booklets, a gaggle of
American playtesters and marketing losers were given sole credit for
the creation of the game, and the name Treasure is nowhere to
be found in either its own manual or Battle Arena Toshinden Remix's,
where Guardian Heroes was advertised. Even in the game itself,
Treasure's glorious spinning violet logo has been reduced to a
cheesy static picture, and you're given no clue whatsoever as to who
designed Guardian Heroes until you actually finish it. I guess it's
to be expected from the same company who would have us believe that
they released the first consumer video game system six years after
the 2600 was introduced...
Anyways. I've been a huge Treasure fan since the advent of the
cult hit Gunstar Heroes, and was naturally expecting big things from
this odd cross between Golden Axe and Street Fighter 2. I can't say
I wasn't disappointed, as Guardian Heroes offers the most
frenzied fighting action this side of Street Fighter Alpha 2, but
the game has various annoying quirks which set it a notch below the
game which (didn't) make Treasure famous. Sega of America is to
blame for some of these (ie the crappy Treasure logo, no music in
the character select screen), but most of the game's flaws can be
directly attributed to Treasure itself. For instance, the storyline,
while competantly translated and reasonably clever, gets old fast
and has a tendency to bog the game down in otherwise intense
moments. Guardian Heroes' characters are remarkably long-winded, and
their conversations are more difficult to speed through than they
should have been (you're forced to press the right shoulder button,
then the C button, to skip through each line of text. Oy...).
While it's true that Treasure wanted GH to be considered a fighting
RPG, endless lines of text was not the way to justify this
catagorization.
Secondly... the characters are rather quirky, and there's simply
not enough of them to use in the quest mode. Oddly, half of the
enemies you'll beat up in an average game of Guardian Heroes have
magic points and special moves just like the title characters, but
you can only use them in the versus mode after you've defeated them.
A survival mode with an abbreviated story line and a larger
selection of characters would have greatly bolstered Guardian
Heroes' playlife, but alas, that was not to be. Instead, you'll have
to settle for the versus mode, which allows you to have a six
character battle royale with the ability to select teams and several
of the locales from the actual game. It's a nice addition
(especially since up to six human players can participate in this
mode!), but playing as unique fighters like the Muscle Heads and the
Undead Soldier just makes you wish you could use them in the Story
Mode all the more.
OK, enough complaints. What Guardian Heroes does have
makes it more than worth the purchase. The gameplay is as I'd
mentioned before an odd mixture of Golden Axe and Street Fighter 2,
with the basic attacks and magic of GA and the special moves and
combo system of the latter. There are all sorts of breakable
objects, plus the combos can get into the eighties or higher if you
cast spells at the right time (HA! Try topping THAT, Killer
Instinct!). Also thrown in for your pleasure are elements from
nearly a half-dozen Neo-Geo games, including intense super special
moves and a three-tiered playing field which allows you to switch
planes if things are getting a little too hot to handle in your own.
Very cool stuff. It doesn't stay fresh for long, since the selection
of characters is so thin and the fighting action isn't quite as
indepth as it is in Street Fighter Alpha 2, but it's still fun to
jump into the game with someone who hasn't played it. They'll be
overwhelmed by Guardian Heroes' incredible graphics and chaotic
battles.
Guardian Heroes is, like most Treasure releases, a game you
simply have to have in your collection. However, it doesn't touch
the ceiling of Saturn perfection as Capcom's best fighting games
had, and isn't even as revolutionary as Treasure's first Genesis
efforts. But considering the way that Sega had treated the company,
is that any surprise?
Back in 1993, a humble Genesis game named Gunstar Heroes shook
the very foundations of the video game industry and shattered
misconceptions about Sega's often maligned console with its
jaw-dropping special effects and terrific gameplay. A half year
after its release, it was sold at clearance for $19.95 at most
retail outlets.
So why is it even more depressing that NightWarriors, easily one
of the best titles ever released for the Saturn, is selling for the
same ridiculously low price at most stores? If you've played both,
the answer is clear: Gunstar Heroes had everything you could
possibly ask for in a video game- intense action, innovative level
design, two player simultaneous action, wonderful graphics- but this
didn't change the fact that it was at its heart just that- a video
game. NightWarriors, on the other hand, is a work of art. What else
can you call a game with hand painted, museum quality backgrounds
and characters which animate with more fluidity than those in any
Saturday morning cartoon?
This, of course, is not to say that NightWarriors falls short as
a video game. In fact, it excels here as well, with the rock-solid
gameplay we've come to expect from Capcom. However, much of the
game's charm stems from the vast imagination of its creators. Before
the Darkstalkers series, nobody expected much from fighting games
with monsters and aliens as the main characters, because the
characters in these games weren't too much different than their
human counterparts. Darkstalkers legitimized the concept of
vampires, werewolves, and yeti duking it out, because their
interpritations of these classic movie monsters were fresh,
innovative, and in some instances better than those of their
creators. It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but I feel that
Brahm Stoker and Mary Shelly would be quite satisfied (or, at the
very least, very amused) by Capcom's reinventions of Dracula and
Frankenstein's Monster. One thing that could be said with absolute
certainty is that the creatures in the Darkstalkers series far
outclass their movie counterparts. The emaciated mummy in
Universal's cheesy black and white flicks doesn't hold an incense
candle to Anakaris, a towering Egyptian pharoah who can transform
his wrappings into massive poisonous vipers and drops fourty foot
tall coffins on his victims. Similarly, the merman Rikuo could swim
circles around the Creature from the Black Lagoon, with his
incredible agility and the power to transform any part of his body
into that of other sea creatures.
Nightwarriors builds on the success of Darkstalkers' personable
cast of characters with two newcomers, Hsien-Ko and Donovan.
Hsien-Ko is charming as a Kyonshie (remember the hopping Chinese
phantoms that made up 95% of the population in the corny NES
beat-'em-up Phantom Fighter?) with enough tricks up her sleeves to
make Moose from the Ranma 1/2 anime' and game jealous. As for
Donovan, he seems to take some inspiration from the title character
in the mediocre animated feature Vampire Hunter D, but is more
likely a parody of Simon Belmont, much as Street Fighter Alpha's Dan
was of the title characters in SNK's The Art of Fighting. In
addition to these characters, the bosses Pyron (an imposing human
flame) and Huitzil (a Mayan contraption with over a dozen crushing
and slicing weapons as standard features) are now playable, which is
a nice- if somewhat extraneous- feature. Truth is, the bosses are
absurdly powerful and throw the game's balance off to such an extent
that it's unlikely that anyone will use them more than a few times.
OK, now to the gameplay. It's great (would you expect anything
less from Capcom?), but there are a few quirks which keep
Nightwarriors from being as balanced or as playable as Street
Fighter 2 and its many sequels and upgrades. For starters, the
attacks are easy to perform but tend to have illogical and downright
bizarre trajectories. I find it incredibly frustrating when, as
Felicia, I attempt to counter a grounded enemy's attack with a
ducking fierce punch, only to wind up leaping straight into the air
with a claw flail and landing on the foe's extended fist. Huitzil
and Pyron are even worse in this respect, as the range of their
projectiles are affected greatly by the strength of the buttons
pressed. Pyron's Red Dwarf Sun immediately curves upward and rockets
off the screen if you initiate it with a Fierce Punch, and has a
standard trajectory if it's started with a Jab Punch. It would have
made far more sense if the angled attacks had been assigned to the
weaker buttons, as these are naturally associated with weak,
short-ranged hits.
Not that that's a big deal, of course. In fact, there are several
features in NW that are sorely lacking in the Street Fighter series.
My favorite is the enhanced special attack system... provided you
have enough energy stored away in your power bar, you can greatly
improve your character's special moves by pressing two punch or kick
buttons when initating them. For instance, Sasquatch's already cool
Typhoon Twister Kick creates a large, snowy tornado which encases
enemies in ice when enhanced, and Bishamon's Katana Toss forces
enemies to commit seppuku on themselves in its powered up form. And
if that weren't enough, there are extremely impressive and
uproariously funny EX moves which can only be performed with a full
power guage. Street Fighter Alpha fans can say what they like, but
I'd rather slamdunk my opponent through a demonic hoop or drop them
into a frozen lake with an angry whale than perform a tired jumping
uppercut which hits enemies eight times instead of the usual two or
three.
It'd be redundant for me to call NightWarriors a must-buy for
Saturn owners, since it's already obvious that I think quite highly
of the game. But is it worth buying a game system with next to no
third-party support, that's likely to be obsoleted by another Sega
console in the next two years? If you absolutely must have the full
Darkstalkers experience, yes. If you're willing to accept anything
less than a perfect translation of this arcade classic, feel free to
pick up the pared down version of Darkstalkers for your Playstation.
However, true fans of the series will be more than willing to plunk
down $120 for a used Saturn and a copy of NightWarriors. Hell, this
game not only convinced me to buy a Saturn, but was purchased weeks
before I actually picked one up! That's strong testimony coming from
someone as jaded as myself.
After being inundated with hype from both the
professional game rags and fanzines, I guess it was in my destiny to
buy this. I wasn't too happy about having to pay $45 for the game
(as $20 is usually my self-imposed limit for Saturn purchases), but
at the time, I could either buy it, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, both
Tunnel B-1 and Criticom, or go home emptyhanded. MKT was out of the
question, because, well... if you'd read my review of Ultimate
Mortal Kombat 3 on this web site or in Video Zone you'll understand.
Tunnel B-1 fits in the dreaded Doom rip-off category, and Criticom
was renamed Criticrap by most gamers, so I decided to pass on both
games. And going home without any Saturn games would have been
stupid, so I made an impulse buy and brought home Resident Evil.
Was I glad I did? Not at first. In fact, I absolutely
hated the game for the first fifteen minutes... the characters,
while admirably well rendered and texture-mapped, move like robots,
and the weapons system made absolutely no sense to me. I had to
force myself to really get into Resident Evil, but the effort paid
off in the end. After thirty more minutes, I couldn't pull myself
away from the game. Resident Evil presents the player with constant,
nagging questions... "What's in this room?" "Is there something
around this corner?" "What do I do with this thing?" And every time
you answer one question (usually with the business end of your
combat knife), three more pop up. Like a good horror movie, Resident
Evil is loaded with tension... you never know what could happen
next, and if you drop your guard for even a moment it could spell
your demise.
However, like any garden variety slasher flick,
Resident Evil is filled with aggravatingly arbitrary situations
that'll make you feel as helpless as the blonde bimbo that's running
from Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street films. For
instance, you're offered a variety of weapons as you progress, but
ammo for these sidearms is hard to come by, and if you waste it,
tough titties... you either have to do without when you need it most
or start from an earlier point in the game. And believe me, Resident
Evil's flaky control makes it tough to make every shot count. You
have to hold down the right shoulder button on the Saturn joypad to
draw your weapon, then use the D-pad to aim, then press the B
button before you can actually fire. By this time, the game's
tougher opponents (such as the demon dogs sprinkled throughout the
courtyard) will be all over you like hemoglobin on blood cells.
Resident Evil would have benefitted greatly from analog joypad
support, but in a final crushing blow, no such support is offered,
forcing owners of the controller to suffer just like standard Saturn
joypad users.
As long as I'm nitpicking, may I add that the puzzles
in Resident Evil are by any measure ridiculously easy? For instance,
there's a shotgun in the game which is perched on a lever that
triggers a falling ceiling. Instead of doing anything especially
clever to keep the lever from lifting, you simply replace the
shotgun with a broken one to escape with the weapon. Oooh, that's a
real brainstrainer. Other puzzles in the game are similarly
uninspired... the toughest of the lot are a security panel which
plays the game Lights Out in reverse and an art gallery with
paintings of people in various stages of life. These aren't 7th
Guest quality brainteasers, folks.
So here's my verdict... I admire what Capcom has done
with Resident Evil. The game is certainly diverting, with a long
quest and some eerily realistic enemies that, if you'll pardon the
expression, blow up real good. However, there's plenty of room for
improvement. Here's to hoping that Resident Evil 2 has analog
joystick support, better puzzles, and fewer arbitrary deaths than
its innovative but somewhat flawed forebearer.
Yes, I spent good money on this. Don't ask me
why... I hated the original Rise of the Robots on the Super NES, and
after reading tons of negative reviews on the Internet and in
fanzines, I knew this sequel wasn't much better. But damn it, I just
have to try every damned fighting game ever released for the Saturn,
no matter how lousy it is! This morbid curiousity led me to
waste my time and money on stinkers like Criticom (the words "That
didn't hurt!" still ring in my ears to this day...), Toshinden
Remix, and Battle Monsters. What can I say? I'm sick...
I need help.
But anyway, about Rise 2: Resurrection. It
sucks. Specifically, it's not even slightly fun. It's
not fun to play, it's not fun to look at, and it's not even fun to
ridicule, because the characters, the backgrounds, and most likely
the designers have no personality at all. Everything in this
game is so lifeless that you half expect to catch a whiff of rotting
flesh every time you play it.
I'll make one itsy bitsy teenie weenie (yellow polka
dot bikini... that she wore for the first time today... oh, um,
sorry) concession. You get a lot more options in Rise 2:
Resurrection than you did in the rather bare-bones Rise of the
Robots. There's a combo system, super moves, fatalities, and
fourteen characters to choose from, each with a wide selection of
alternate colors. Unfortunately, this just gives you even more
reasons to hate the game. The mechs are so small you could
mistake them for nanoprobes, the alternate color schemes would
embarass Earl Schieb, and the dull metallic backgrounds are next to
impossible to tell apart. The entire game is about as pleasing
to the eyes as a severe case of glaucoma, without the marijuana
high. Even the ultrahyped soundtrack by Queen's Brian May
comes up deuces... I've never heard an electric guitar sound so
bored. Of course, starring in a game like this, who could
blame it?
As for the "new and improved" gameplay, it's new, but
it sure ain't improved. All the characters have three seperate
punches and kicks (instead of the one punch and kick that would
animate more slowly depending on the buttons you press), and you can
get a little combo action going if you're quick, but Resurrection
still has that icky Rise of the Robots feel to it. Computer
opponents have no trouble beating you into a corner (unless you've
got a character with a Blanka-style electrical shield move, in which
case you can mash the buttons until your fingers fall off to keep
him off your back), and even if you do manage to land a blow, you
don't "feel" it connect. Because of this, you're forced to keep one
eye on your enemy and the other on his life bar to make sure you're
damaging him.
So why would I bother buying a game this awful?
Well, I don't really consider Rise 2: Resurrection a game. I
prefer to think of it as a towering, hand-chiseled monument to the
unfathomable stupidity of Acclaim in the mid 1990's. It's an
important piece of video game history, and just like the
Constitution or the Mona Lisa, it's best kept behind a thick glass
case with plenty of security guards and infra-red sensors, to ensure
that nobody ever touches it again.
"After all my work in ER and 'The Joy Luck Club',
you had to show them this..." An embarassed Ming-Na Wen to
Conan O'Brien, after watching a clip of her work in the Playstation
version of Street Fighter: The Movie
I haven't talked to a single gamer who can tolerate this cheaply
produced cross between Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat (and
judging from the above quote, the actors were equally unenthused
about starring in it), but y'know, I must admit that I have a
certain admiration for the original designers in that they had the
gonads to alter the eternally popular SF2 engine and risk pissing
off fans of the series in the process (and boy, did they! :). And
hell, it was about time someone tried to incorporate Street Fighter
2's precise, intuitive controls into a fighting game with digitized
graphics... who's idea was it to release Mortal Kombat with a block
button, anyhow!? Urf... But anyways, here's the deal. Capcom went
through the original game as designed by GameStar, took out the
storm trooper and most of the Mortal Kombat-style moves, and
replaced these features with better control and characters more
familiar to the series, like Dee Jay and an unfittingly scrawny
incarnation of Blanka. They sold the rights to the new and improved
game to Acclaim (who'll apparently buy the rights to anything that's
been on a film reel), and smash boom bang, we have Playstation and
Saturn versions of a title which could very well have been released
on the Genesis and SNES.
In fact, the dull digitized characters aren't even as detailed as
the vivid sprites on the 16-bit versions of Street Fighter 2, or
even the 8-bit Turbografx version, if you're willing to go that far
back. Their outfits look like second-hand wardrobes from the
Goodwill Thrift Shop for Needy Fighting Game Characters, with drab
earth tones and butt-ugly reds and oranges, and the actors
themselves are nothing to shout about. They're stiffly animated, and
many of their attacks are clumsily performed (as one would have to
expect from a digitized version of a game with superhuman
characters). The voices are pretty silly, too, but are especially
bad on the Playstation, where Jean Claude VanDamme announces the
beginnings of rounds and the characters' names. If you thought the
scratchy vocals on the Genesis version of Street Fighter 2 were bad,
try deciphering phrases like "Roun' Wan" and "Yeew Ween"...
Things aren't all bad on the Saturn version, though. Its access
time is nearly half that of the Playstation's, and the control is
much better thanks largely to Sega's nifty six button pads. Even the
full motion video is better... it's very blocky, but it moves at a
much smoother clip than the full-mo on the Playstation version (and
I thought that system had compression hardware especially designed
to handle the stuff...odd...). So if you've got to have a copy of
this game and own both systems, the Saturn version is definately the
one to get... that is, if you find it on clearance and can't afford
X-Men, Night Warriors, or Street Fighter: Alpha. Otherwise, it's
only worth renting once. Coincidentially, when you DO rent it, have
a friend who loves Street Fighter 2 come over, and pop this in when
he's not looking. Watching him wince at every special move and sound
bite is in itself worth the three clams... >:)
Like I've said countless times, I'm not fond of 3-D fighting
games. Nevertheless, I was very pleased with Virtua Fighter
2, as it does two things people never thought possible... 1. It
proves that the Saturn can hold its own against the Playstation in
respects to polygon manipulation, and 2. It made a fan out of me.
I'm undecided as to which of these feats is more amazing, but this
much is obvious... if you own a Saturn, you've gotta buy this game.
It's expensive, but believe me, it'll end up saving you money in the
long run if you loved the coin-op. Even if you didn't, it's still
worth having, as it utilizes the Saturn hardware more effectively
than any other game for the system.
(Apparently, Sega felt the same way, since you can get a free
copy of the game alongside two others when you buy a Saturn. The
only minus is that it comes in a cardboard sleeve that doesn't
exactly make the CD shatter proof. Be sure to pick up a few jewel
cases if you plan on doing something crazy like purchasing a brand
new Saturn from Toys 'R Us)
Y'know, the concept of battling mechs seems like it would lend
itself well to the video game medium, but I personally have never
played a truly memorable game with fighting droids. Take Heavy Nova,
for instance. From the back of the box, you'd think that it was one
of the best Genesis fighting games ever released, but its overly
complex control scheme and excruciatingly slow characters make you
wonder why you ever bothered to graduate from Rock 'Em Sock 'Em
Robots. Or how about Cyborg Justice? Its gameplay was surprisingly
smooth, and the characters could augment themselves with all kinds
of deadly weapons, but its overall presentation was, in keeping with
most American-designed Genesis games, cheap and unsatisfying. I was
hoping that Virtual On would reverse that trend, and for the first
ten minutes, was totally convinced that it had... On's complete
freedom of movement and lightning fast gameplay gives you the kind
of adrenaline rush that was sorely lacking in games like Heavy Nova,
and its graphics and sound (while not superb) add a touch of intense
realism to the game's white-knuckled battles.
However... that was just the first ten minutes. I was really
enjoying myself when the CPU threw me mindless chumps like VR
Temjin, but like Super Mario 64, once I really delved into the heart
of the game, I found it much more frustrating than it needed to be.
And unlike SM64, I wasn't willing to return to give the game
one more try after losing dozens of times to a particularly annoying
challenger like VR Dorkas. After the second round, the computer gets
unbelievably good at hiding behind barriers and hacking you into
little bite-sized morsels with its close-range weaponry, and it's
absolutely maddening how, no matter what you do, it's next to
impossible to draw a bead on the CPU's character with your own
attacks. If you try to hide behind a barrier and squeeze off some
shots, your opponent will do the same thing or worse yet try to
sneak up on you and deliver a close-range blow which will rob you of
over half your energy. If you decide to leap into the air and fire a
volley of blasts, he'll simply send a homing device up after you and
force you to make a crash landing. And if you chase after your hated
nemesis, he'll mercilessly pound you with devastating special
attacks until you're reduced to a flaming pile of scrap metal. It's
because of On's infuriating one-sided nature that most matches
against the CPU will be reduced to a game of cat and mouse, with you
running for your life trying to stave off an inevitable defeat for
as long as possible.
As frustrating as Virtual On is, however, you do have to admire
the game's freedom of movement. It gives On a Street Fighter 2 meets
Cybersled kind of feel, with the ideosyncratic characters of the
former game and the frenzied, paranoid action of the latter. With
two players (in the somewhat cramped split-screen mode), I could
almost imagine the game to be a lot of fun, but if you're going it
alone, it's strongly recommended that you pass on the full release
and just play the Virtual On demo included with the Sega Screams
game sampler. |
