First part originally posted Thursday, May 16, 1996.
Well, perhaps some of you remember my E3 reports from last year - hopefully in a positive light! Anyway, I liked it so much last year that it was one of the motivating factors inspiring me to move out here to LA. So here I am, one week in my new apartment in Hollywood, and off to my second E3:
I suppose I should mention a few things about myself so you know who's reporting all this. I am a video game addict who owns just about every system 8-bit and up (as well as a few earlier classics) and hundreds of games, including a few full-sized arcade games. I have worked in retail at a software/game store in State College, PA for the last few years, which is a fun way to keep up with new releases and meet other Gamers. Anyway, I think you'll find that I'm fairly unbiased, although I must admit to a slight favoritism for Sega products. For example, I have more than twice as many games for my Saturn as I do for my PlayStation, and have a lot more fun with the former product over the latter. I'm not saying one machine is better from an objective standpoint, just admitting that I have a personal preference for the one over the other. Well, that's too much about that - now I'm making myself sound more biased than I really am! On to my report:
One thing missing from this year's program that I did enjoy last year is the keynote speakers. It was informative to see what the head honchos of the 'big three' (Sega, Sony, Nintendo) had to say for themselves and their companies last year. This year, while there were conferences (which, however, were expensive, so I didn't register for those - and besides, there's not enough time to see everything on the show floor as it is!), there were no keynote speakers. So, let's get on to the exhibits! I should also mention that, while I try to hit everything that strikes me as important, the following is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of the titles on display for any system. Nobody is paying me to report this thing, so I'm mainly there for myself, and what finds its way into my notes is determined as much by my personal interests as by my desire to provide a useful account to those who could not attend for themselves. Also, I will either skip or say very little about games that are already available.
Being my favorite, I went to Sega's booth first. I say 'booth', but if you've never been to one of these conventions before, let me point out that this 'booth' covered approximately FORTY THOUSAND square feet! (Similarly, Sony's booth covered 27,000 sq.ft. and Nintendo's booth 47,000 sq.ft.) Prominently displayed in a front corner of this booth was Sega's new flagship game for the Saturn: NIGHTS. Nights is a 3D action-adventure featuring characters that walk or fly through a polygon world gathering crystals and navigating rings (as in SNES PilotWings). On first look, I would say that this game had a nicer overall look than Mario 64. Nights' world is fully texture-mapped, with a very nice 2D background which hides the pop-up by blending in very well with the rendered foreground. Nights was on display with Sega's new analog pad for the Saturn. Imagine a Saturn pad with a big, round front, leaving room for an analog pad above the digital one. Personally, I like this setup better than the three-prong approach introduced by Nintendo, though one still has to give credit to Nintendo for introducing the analog pad to the console world. The new Sega pad also has much nicer L and R buttons, which I thought were poorly implemented on the original Saturn pad. As I said, I liked the look of Nights better than Mario 64, however, I'd have to give Mario the nod when it comes to gameplay and control. The Nights character did not fly into or out towards the screen in a satisfying manner, and I often found myself frustrated by seeing crystals in the background that were hard to get to. Maybe this would improve with experience, but maybe not. There was also _much_ more to do in Mario than Nights, but Nights was still a very satisfying game in its own right. Mario is more of an adventure whereas Nights is more straightforward action. I did play Nights long enough to get to the first boss, which was a big fat guy that I threw at some walls which broke in a very nicely stylized environment. Overall an excellent title and probably a must-have for Saturn owners.
SONIC X-TREME was nearby, though the playable demo was limited. It was fast and smooth, and the video taped demos showed more varied levels. This looks promising, and seems to stay true to the Sonic 'look and feel' in a 3D environment. Speaking of 3D Sonics, there was also a SONIC 3D [I noticed the next day that I have the wrong title here, but I don't seem to have the actual title in my notes...] game for the Genesis, which was pretty much what you would expect if you crossed Sonic with Marble Madness. Competent for the Genesis, but not quite so impressive when you've just seen the Saturn stuff. Staying with the Sonic theme, nearby was a SONIC THE FIGHTERS arcade game. This looked like Fighting Vipers but with Sonic characters who knock rings out of each other when hit (as opposed to knocking each other out of the ring...) The characters have some Three Stooges-inspired moves and cartoony reactions to being hit. Cute and fun.
Now on a Virtua theme, VIRTUA FIGHTERS was there for the PC, looking very much like VF Remix for the Saturn in higher resolution but slower and not nearly as smooth. Virtua Cop is one of my favorite Saturn games, so I was delighted to see VIRTUA COP 2, which I've played a few times in the arcade. However, maybe it was still an early version, but it seemed slow and somewhat lo-res in parts. Maybe this is just because I'd never played the first one in the arcade, so I had nothing to compare it to when I got the home version. Anyway, the gameplay was there, and the gun seemed to work even better on this one than the first, though that could have something to do with the TV at the show vs mine at home. VIRTUA FIGHTER KIDS was there for the Saturn, which was pretty much on par with VF2, though I was a little disturbed by the way the big heads went through limbs etc in order to allow the moves to flow normally. (If that didn't make sense, just imagine how oversized heads would affect the gameplay in VF2 if they didn't allow things to pass through them.) VIRTUA FIGHTER 3 was only shown as a non-interactive but real-time demo running on Sega's new arcade system hardware. This was definitely impressive. Think of some of the best pre-rendered CG animations you've seen, put VF characters in them, and that's what this was like - but rendered in _real-time_! Very smooth, hi-res, detailed, flowing clothes, snow, intricate backgrounds, etc. VIRTUAL ON was also shown, not for the Saturn, but on arcade systems (hey, why does this game get an 'l'?) This was my first opportunity to see this game, and I was not disappointed. Imagine VF2 with mechs that run around a much bigger playfield and fire various weapons at each other. Oh yes, I also stopped for a moment at VIRTUA COP for PC, just to see how it compared. It didn't really look any better (I would have expected higher res), and the mouse worked well as a pointer for the gun, but it still doesn't match the experience of firing at your television screen with the Saturn gun.
Of course, I had to spend some time with one of my all-time favorite developers, Working Designs. I have every game these guys have put out, and made a point of telling them how much I appreciate the care that they take with everything from translations to packaging. Someday, if I ever develop the appropriate skills, I'd love to work for these guys. Anyway, they reporting selling out of IRON STORM, which looked nice, but even better looking was DRAGON FORCE. Man, the battle scenes on this thing were incredible, with literally hundreds of on-screen combatants and impressive spell-effects to top it off. This will be a must-have for strategy fans, and should be available in July. Before that, however, we should all be playing SHINING WISDOM, which although it didn't have overly impressive graphics did nonetheless have the traditional Working Designs treatment when it comes to the story. Which means, if you like WD humor, as most of us do, you'll like this, and if you don't, well, just pass on by, don't bug Vic and the crew... MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH was also showing, but was still completely Japanese as far as I saw. It's graphics did look better than Shining Wisdom, and I'm sure the translation will be excellent.
Other games which caught my eye in the Sega booth included: TOMB RAIDER, developed by another of my favorites, Core. This was also shown for PS and PC (actually, I didn't see the PS version, but I assume it was there.) This game exceeded my expectations, controlling very well and having a nicely rendered environment with big dogs to shoot and watery passages to swim through. In fact, I was most impressed with the PC version of this game, which was in higher res and seemed to have less polygon dropout than the Saturn version, while maintaining a surprising framerate smoothly. CONTRA 96 was also shown for both Saturn and PS, but I only played the Saturn version. This was a nice overhead shooter along the lines of Loaded but with a more developed 3D environment and typical Contra powerups. I don't know about the PS version, but the Saturn version had disappointing amounts of slowdown. GRID RUNNER has absolutely nothing to do with the Jeff Minter game with the same title, but was instead another game that looked somewhat like Loaded, but with different levels on the playing field, and more to do, including laying down tiles to form floating bridges between pathways, collecting flags, as well as of course, shooting things. This was also shown for both Saturn and PS, though I didn't notice any significant differences. One game that I had been hoping to see in stores before this is GOLDEN AXE: THE DUEL, which looked like a good fighter, though not quite up to par with the better Neo-Geo fighters, which, IMO, are yet to be beaten in the 2D category. (Unfortunately, SNK does not appear to be at the show at all this year - and I was so looking forward to meeting Mai again...) We've all read about Sega's acquisition of HEART OF DARKNESS which was indeed a sight to behold. Smooth animation, excellent cut-scenes, side-scrolling and Crazy Climber-like horizontal movement, a dynamic environment (things collapse etc as you pass) add up to a very promising title. This will definitely be one to watch for. BUG TOO looked better than its predecessor, with nicer textures and good level design. SACRED POOLS is one FMV game that even I might try. This was an FMV adventure with an somewhat eastern theme (I couldn't tell in the time I watched if it was supposed to be Egyptian or Indian or what...) and many scantily clad women. The scantily clad woman who was promoting it told me that it was running off of a Saturn, but it looked like a video demo to me, and none of the Saturns in front of it appeared to be running it. If it _was_ actually running on a Saturn, it would be the best FMV I've seen on any system, so I doubt it. LEGEND OF OASIS, GUARDIAN HEROES, and DARK SAVIOR were all showing right next to each other, which made me giddy to see them all at once. GH is out, so I won't dwell on that one, but Legend of Oasis and Dark Savior were both beautiful. The style of LoO is familiar to anyone who has played Beyond Oasis on the Genesis, but beefed up for the Saturn. LandStalker is one of my all-time favorite adventures, and DS is more than just a Saturn sequel. The 3D environment here is one of the best developed worlds I've seen, with lots to do and interact with. Objects can be manipulated, windows climbed through, etc. This will be a must-have title. GUN GRIFFON was a satisfying mech romp, looking much better than MW2 on the PC, though not as deep, but that's what console gamers expect and generally, I think, what they want.
There were some Genesis games around as well, but I didn't focus on them much. Let me just mention a few. For Preston's sake I must report X-WOMEN for Genesis, featuring Rogue, Storm and, yes Preston, Phoenix in their own game. So far, only Rogue was playable, and the game was a side-scrolling beat 'em up with a bounded environment (i.e., not continuously scrolling from left to right, but one big area in which you could go back and forth). X-PERTS (gee, lots of 'X-' titles in the Sega booth), was a disappointing side-scrolling beat 'em up with rendered characters but choppy scrolling. I was happy to see that Sega is doing a sequel to Vectorman, and VECTORMAN 2 looked as good as the first, with more varied level themes.
Ugh, I'm sorry, but it looks like this will have to be just a Sega report for tonight, as I'm getting tired rapidly, and I need to be back at the Convention Center bright and early tomorrow morning. I will quickly mention that I did also check out Nintendo's and Sony's booths today, as well as Panasonic's. I will report more fully later, but Nintendo had more 64 stuff than I expected, with eight playable games. Overall I'd say that the Nintendo 64, while not a quantum leap over the other systems, does indeed deliver higher res 3D environments with more detailed textures, less pop-up (more distant horizons), and a smooth framerate. Panasonic had only a few 3DO games on display, and no M2 because "It won't be available until '97". I probably won't have another report tomorrow, as I anticipate staying out late for the E3 internet party. But I'll try to report as much as possible on Saturday, when the show lets out early, and hopefully will have completed my report by the end of Sunday.
I hope this was interesting to some of you. If you have questions or comments for me, please hold off until you see me post from another account. I'll be calling long-distance to PA to post this from my old account, as I don't have local access set up yet here in CA. I hope to have my local account up this weekend, and then I'll be happier to spend more time on-line answering questions or responding to flames or whatever. I'm brain-dead for now, so until later....
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This part originally posted Sunday, May 19, 1996.
Well, it's Sunday, and I promised to write up the rest of my report today, so here goes... Thursday night, I left off with only reporting my sightings at the Sega booth, so next let's move over to Nintendo. Ok, here's where another of what you might call my biases kicks in, but I tend to feel it's rather an accurate perception of the industry than a bias. :) I've been more than a little skeptical about Nintendo's new system for quite a while now. I just think that objectively, it's too little too late. It's _not_ a huge leap over the other systems, there aren't enough games, and the ones that do show up will probably be too expensive. This doesn't mean that Nintendo won't do well - banking on their reputation, advertising, and customer loyalty. It just means that they'll have to come up with some _damn_ good games to get me to buy one - and coming from someone who buys _everything_ when it comes to video games, that's saying a lot. Anyway, this means I had a hard time deciding whether to check out the Nintendo or Sony booth next, but in the interest of seeing what's next, I decided on Nintendo.
Nintendo took a lesson from last year's Sony booth that I wish they hadn't. This was to set up their booth in such a manner as to send you through a show/demonstration area before getting to the displayed games. (Although to be fair, they also had a lot of machines outside of this show area. The entrance, however, was cool, sending you past a big lion head (from KI?) and a guy in a Stormtrooper costume with an appropriate 'move along' voice. You then arrive next to a row of projectors blowing hot air on you (this was not, I think, intended as a feature) showing a laser/slide/video show of Nintendo products, followed by a narrated projection of a guy playing Mario 64 live while explaining the features of the game and machine. After this, you were lead down into the main booth area, where attendants would show you how to play each of the games on display.
And the games were: MARIO 64: As I mentioned in my first report, I would Sega's Nights the nod over this title for sheer graphic impact, Mario 64 has it all over Nights when it comes to gameplay and control. Which you prefer will, of course, depend on what kind of game you're looking to play, but whereas Nights is more of a straight-forward collect-the-crystals action game, Mario 64's world is so complex and open-ended that it really comes of as more of an adventure game. You can go anywhere you want and interact with many types of objects in a lot of different ways. You can swim underwater, shoot yourself to a higher level with a cannon, talk to various characters (although for now, this was still in Japanese), etc. The overall graphical look of the game is somewhat simple, lacking the detailed texture maps found in so many other 3D games these days, but that is in keeping with the spirit of the Mario series, which has always kept a kind of retro/cartoony look even when more sophisticated graphics became possible. The power of the N64 is evident when one sees fairly far into the distance, not as far, say, as Starfighter on the 3DO, which has the best horizon of any game I've seen, but farther than most 3D games, and with a high level of detail maintained. Again, N64 does seem to run games somewhat more smoothly in a higher res with more detailed textures (when they're used), but not a lot more than other systems, and unless they come up with some _really_ killer games, or manage somehow to keep the price of the cartridges down, I don't think it will be enough to compete with the systems already available.
PILOTWINGS 64 was also on display, and if you liked the first one, you'll like this a lot also. Personally, the first one didn't appeal to me. I can fly around in a lot of games, and I need more action in my flight games to keep me interested. However, with the much nicer graphics of PW64, it might be enough to make the whole skill aspect of flight more satisfying. But again, since the graphics aren't _that_ much better than what you'll find on Saturn and PlayStation, I don't think it will be enough for me. There were lots of variations on the vehicles and missions/tasks, but again, this will only appeal to you if you're looking for a precision skill test as opposed to the speed/ action attraction of most console flight games. SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE was there, and included the ice speeder battle with walkers, a space turret mode, and they had video of a corridor segment, but it wasn't playable. Again, smooth, nice textures, excellent explosions, but no quantum leap over similar games on the other platforms. WAVE RACE was also playable, and controlled well. I especially liked it when you crashed and your character fell off the speeder into the water. The look of climbing out of the water back onto the speeder was very nice and really showed the power of the N64 to handle transparencies quite well. KILLER INSTINCT 2 was playable, and looked like the arcade game, but I've never liked this series, so I'm not really the person to comment on it. WAYNE GRETZKY 3D HOCKEY looked like a good hockey game. Whereas most console hockey games strive to look as much like the real thing as possible, this one definitely had a more colorful look, and included FOX-style puck enhancements. The characters were fully 3D and were well-implemented. CRUSIN' USA, which had supposedly been our first look at the N64 hardware in arcades some time ago, did not look as good on the actual hardware as it does in the arcade. This could, of course, change before release, but it was definitely choppy. I also managed to drive my car right through the walls of a tunnel and into the interior of the mountain (maybe this was the Buckaroo Banzai mode...), and noticed that, when your car flies into the air from a crash or ramp, its shadow stays with it as if it were still on the ground. The pop-up was not too bad, and had an interesting fade to pop quality where the background starts to fade in and then - pop, it's there.
BLAST CORPS was the only other playable game in the Nintendo booth, and the attendant said I got the highest score he'd seen yet. (Sorry, I just had to mention that...) Anyway, it was a fun driving game involving construction vehicles that you use to crash into various structures in order to destroy them. It controlled very well and was actually on of my favorite N64 titles. MARIO KART R was shown on video but wasn't on display. It appeared to maintain the same charm and mechanics as the original, but in a fully 3D world as opposed to the flat Mode-7 world of the SNES title. I also ran across a playable version of TUROK THE DINOSAUR HUNTER in the Acclaim booth. This was a well-done Doom-style game with a well-rendered and complex 3D environment. For example, the plants on the ground had individually rendered leaves. Everything looked and moved well, but then again, it was also _another_ Doom clone...
Overall, I'd say my general impression of the N64 was not changed by seeing it in person. It looks like a good system, and somewhat more powerful than the others, but it's still too little too late and with too expensive a format for the software. I'll pass and save my money for more Saturn and PlayStation games.
Before I move on to my PlayStation coverage, I'll mention the new Virtual Boy games that I saw. The signs said that the new MSRP for the VB is now $99, but I could only find three new games. If I hadn't bought my VB at Blockbuster for $30, I wouldn't have one, but I must admit to a special fondness for the system. It has a kind of retro-gaming appeal, and the 3D gimmick is fun. The games were: BOUND HIGH, where you are a bubble which must bounce on other bubbles to pop them or bounce them off of platforms made of blocks some of which disappear after being bounced on. This is done in a top-down view and had progressing levels of difficulty and variations. I liked this game and will definitely buy it when it's cheap. DRAGON HOPPER was another top-down game. This time, you're a little dragon character that hops on platforms to collect powerups and bounce on top of enemies as you advance on a quest aided by little fairies that tell you what to do. A cute action adventure title. And finally, THE DUCT RACE. Not as cool as Red Alarm, but if you've seen that title, you'll have an idea of what this vector graphics tunnel racing game was like. Good, but nothing outstanding. The other VB games that I saw were all already available. There were also a few SNES titles scattered around, but I didn't take any notes on them, as they were all either already available or didn't really catch my notice. While I still appreciate everything back to 2600 games, I was here to see the future, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to 16-bit titles anywhere.
Ok, on to Sony's booth. The big title that Sony was pushing here was CRASH BANDICOOT. This was a 3D action game where your humanoid/dog characters runs into, out of, or across the screen jumping on or over obstacles and collecting powerups in typical action game style, but in a _beautiful_ 3D world. The only thing I can think of to compare this world to would be the forest level of Panzer Dragoon Zwei - yes, it's that beautiful. The play mechanics were well-implemented, and included such elements as being chased down a path, towards the screen, by rolling boulders as you strive to navigate pits and obstacles and keep ahead of the boulder. I don't know if this will be a system-seller as Sony is clearly hoping, but it will be an excellent addition to any PS owner's library. BEYOND THE BEYOND was there, with its overly simplistic travel graphics but cool, pseudo-3D battle mode. EPIDEMIC was one of many Doom clones, although this one seemed to have something else going on (i.e. more than just run and shoot), but I couldn't tell what. JET MOTO played a lot like Nintendo's Wave Race, but the water effects were not nearly as nice. However, the swamp environment was more richly developed than the generic race course I played in Wave Race. JUMPING FLASH 2 was there, although I haven't played wither enough to really say what differences there were. In other words, it looked like more of the same, although in this case, that's a good thing. Sony had a few Neo-Geo arcade machines set up to show the games that would be coming from SNK, which was good because the versions of KING OF FIGHTERS 95 and SAMURAI SHODOWN III that they were showing were not very impressive. They were still early, but especially SSIII was so slow and choppy as to be unplayable. AQUANAUT"S HOLIDAY had a promising underwater 3D environment, but I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, and the attendant wasn't very helpful, evidently expecting me to be impressed merely by the fact that I was piloting some craft underwater and fish were swimming around. "Um, well, you _explore_ underwater..." Uh, ok...
Hmm... This happened to me last year also, I have a game in my notes that I can't remember: TUNNEL B-1 - my notes say "nice 3D environment, but I couldn't get past the first enemy". I seem to remember some other guys having trouble with it too, but I can't remember what kind of game it was - probably another Doom game. BOGEY DEAD 6 was a competent flight/combat game in the mold of Air Combat etc. There were several of these around, but none really stood out as being head and shoulders above the rest or piss-poor either. HORNED OWL was on display with a light gun. The graphics were nowhere near Virtua Cop, but I did like the way you can see your bullets travel into the screen. This allows for gameplay where you have to lead your targets rather than just blast them directly. ROBOTRON X was on display not only in the Sony booth on the PlayStation, but also in the Williams booth in an arcade cabinet. It was still an overhead game, but now with 3D polygon characters. I found it a little spastic and had a hard time telling friend from foe. The PlayStation version did, however, give me a chance to try out the double analog joystick, which had a good feel. Which reminds me: when I asked the Sony reps about the NegCon controller, they said to ask Namco, but when I asked the Namco reps, they told me that _Sony_ was going to bring the NegCon to the US, but they didn't know when. And speaking of Namco, I was pleased to see both volumes of their NAMCO MUSEUM on display. Bosconian rules!
Another entry in the 3D platform category was PANDEMONIUM. The polygon environment was not as rich as Crash Bandicoot's, and the gameplay seemed even more like your traditional runny jumpy, but neither of those things detracted from the fact that it was nonetheless a solid platformer. BLOOD OMEN LEGACY OF KAIN was there but crashing frequently. It also paused to load a little too frequently for my tastes, but when you did play, the character options were cool. You can morph into several forms, attack with weapons or spells, and best of all, suck your slain foe's blood right across the screen. Sony was also very proud of TWISTED METAL 2, which had an interesting new vehicle consisting of a guy strapped between two huge wheels. IRON BLOOD, the polygon fighter first announced for M2 was there, but also crashing frequently. The character design was good - I liked the wizard who floats above the ground. The gameplay seemed to be coming along well, but there's a flood of polygon fighters on the way for the PlayStation, so it's hard to say what it's going to take to stand out in this market. DISRUPTOR was yet another Doom clone, competent, good looking, but again, it's hard to say what it's going to take to distinguish one title above the others in yet another crowded genre. DIE HARD TRILOGY looked good. I liked the way the walls which would otherwise block your view of your character would fade to translucent. I also liked the level of complexity in the 3D world here. One title which stood out to me was also one which I had never heard of before: NANO TEK WARRIOR was a behind your ship shooter with the player driving into the screen down the outside of a tube/pipe spiraling off into the distance. You could slide around the outside of the tube, alter your speed, or hop to avoid obstacles, some of which could also be shot. There were, of course, also enemies firing back. The background was a little simple, and the boss took too long compared to the rest of the level, but I really liked this one and will be looking forward to its release.
TIGER SHARK was a fast shooter/sim in a water vehicle. TOP GUN was one of the many flight/combat games on display. TOBAL NO.1 was another of the many polygon fighters. The characters here were more cartoony than most, with less texture mapping. It looked fun. AEON FLUX was no longer just a video, but rather coming along nicely as a Fade to Black like corridor adventure with featuring the famous, nimble, scantily clad main character. The always excellent Strike series from EA comes to the PlayStation in the form of SOVIET STRIKE. The only vehicle I saw was a helicopter much the the one from the original Desert Strike, but given the full PS treatment. The textures in this game were definitely some of the best I saw in any PS game, and I'll be first in line to buy this when it comes out. One of my favorites from the 3DO, STARFIGHTER, was also showing for both PS and Saturn, but so far neither new version matches the original. As I mentioned above, the standout feature of this game is the horizon, and in the new versions have the same fade to nothing clipping we've come to expect in games like this. The developer on hand said they were working to get the distance back into the view as in the original, and if they don't these new versions will definitely remain eclipsed by the original, even if the textures are nicer, which they are. KILLING ZONE was one of the more promising entries in the polygon fighter category, featuring fantasy characters like a wolfman, Frankenstein, mintoaur, and a snake woman. It had lots of action in the background, with battles taking place on floating or falling platforms. Not quite Soul Edge, but very nice.
At this point, I'm actually into the part of my notes where I was visiting developer booths and randomly meandering rather than focusing on specific platforms, so let me switch gears and mention titles for Saturn, PlayStation, and PC rather than sticking to titles for a specific platform. So, we were actually just in the Acclaim booth. They also had IRON MAN XO MANOWAR (or something like that) which was your basic side-scrolling beat 'em up with a Clockwork Knight style pseudo 3D environment (i.e. 3D objects, but 2D gameplay). BATTLE MONSTERS, the Saturn fighting game that's been available as an import for some time now was there, and was messy but fun. I didn't like, however, the fact that it used a button for jumping. The new movie DRAGON HEART gets the typical movie license side-scroller treatment for Saturn, PS and PC, but it looked like they were doing a competent job - at least on the console versions, scrolling games just don't work on the PC. Namco was showing GALAXIAN 3 for the PlayStation, which looked pretty much like StarBlade. In the Interplay booth, one could find RED ASPHALT, Rock 'n Roll Racing for the PC, which was still early, but had some nice textures and backgrounds, and looked promising. It has, of course, changed from and overhead driving game to a behind the car polygon affair, which is only appropriate given the hardware it's on now. I actually overheard the marketing rep at this booth call it "the perfect marriage of Hollywood and technology", which, if possible, meant even less in this context than it normally does. Capcom's first polygon fighter was at their booth, in arcade cabinets but, according to the reps, running on PlayStation hardware. STAR GLADIATOR was a 4-button fighter, one of those being for block. It had good characters and backgrounds, looking more like Soul Edge than Tekken, which is good (sorry, I've always thought Tekken was ugly). Also at Capcom, I saw that MARVEL SUPER HEROES was coming for both Saturn and PS, as well as BUSTER BROTHERS COLLECTION, and WEREWOLF THE APOCALYPSE, an overhead 3D beat 'em up action game in the style of Loaded. You can transform from wolf to humanoid to human, with each form having its advantages and disadvantages in terms of strength, speed, and ability to manipulate weapons and objects. Psygnosis claimed to have over 50 new titles coming in '96 across all platforms, including CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, a Resident Evil style 3D adventure for PS and PC featuring a little girl for the main character. I liked their Saturn version of WIPEOUT better than the PS version for its improved control, but didn't think that DESTRUCTION DERBY looked as good on the Saturn as it did on the PS. In the BMG booth, I saw a nice SPIDER game, which was another Clockwork Knight 3D/2D scrolling platform game with, yes, a spider for the main character - but this spider could shoot missiles! The story was something about a nanotech scientist who put his consciousness into the spider to escape the bad guys who came to kill him. Anyway, it looked promising. They also had a Return Fire variant under the title MASS DESTRUCTION. While the basic game mechanics looked very similar, the graphics were better than Return Fire, and the game was mission based and more frantic. The developer I was talking to was called away just as he was about to tell me why he thought the Saturn version would be better than the PS version, so that's all I can report about that.
Ok, we're nearing the end here, so let me throw in a few more random observations. Scavenger's games looked really nice, especially their PC titles, but they were showing AMOK and TERMINUS for the Saturn. Anything from these guys will be a title to watch. Al their games feature excellent 3D and dark, stylistic graphics. MicroProse had STAR TREK: GENERATIONS in development for PS, but for now it was just video. They were also showing GUNSHIP, an old favorite of mine, which looked promising. MR.BONES for the Saturn had the best skeletal dinosaur I've ever seen -at first I thought it was fmv, but it was pre-rendered and fully interactive. However, it also had a very tedious sequence where you bounce your character on top of a skull to collect his bones. The main game looked like a good side-scroller. In the Sega booth, I also saw their new modem/internet peripheral. For $199, you get a 28.8 modem which doesn't come with a keyboard, but you can plug in any standard PC keyboard, and these can be found very cheap. They still hadn't decided on the browser software, but at least one of the options on display was a very promising browser customized for the particular needs of a console/TV as opposed to a computer/monitor. Westwood, Interplay, Virgin, Accolade, and GT were all listed as developers planning to take advantage of the networking capabilities of this modem in upcoming Saturn games, which means, yes, Todd, you should be able to play Saturn Command and Conquer in a multiplayer mode.
Well, that's about it for this year. I may type up a separate report on PC games if I'm up to it. Feel free to ask about anything I may have left out. It's harder this year than last for me to provide an overall perspective on the show. Last year there was a real sense of Sony's momentum in the then upcoming 32-bit race. It was also easier for me to pick Panzer Dragoon as game of the show. This year, without the keynote speakers, there wasn't really an easy way to gauge the different companies' momentum, but I'd say the Saturn is definitely gaining, and Nintendo shouldn't stand a chance, but may be able to leverage their name into a good next gen. Market penetration anyway. Sony seemed to be coasting on their early success, and 3DO and Atari were basically non-existent. I couldn't really pick a game of the show this year. Nothing stood out the way Panzer Dragoon still does to me, but even Panzer Dragoon Zwei didn't seem to stand out that way, probably because I've already been playing it at home, whereas last year I hadn't played any Saturn or PlayStation titles yet. Overall, the show wasn't as impressive to me as last year's, but then again, last year both Sega and Sony were introducing new systems, both of which had many more impressive titles than Nintendo's new system this year. Before ending, I should mention the internet gathering, and thank Marty for organizing it. Again it was fun to meet the people that we often see here on the net, and put faces to their names. Check out Marty's homepage (I don't have the URL handy at the moment) for pictures of the people who attended (including me), and you can see what your fellow internet geeks look like. I also ran into Scott and Stephanie from 4-play again (and, um, was it Tom? - who I hadn't met before), who said that Battlesphere will be available in about two months and that they will be distributing it themselves. They also reported negotiations with 'the Vorlons' and plans to develop for 'one or more of the other systems' - in other words, they're making arrangements to work on something next, but couldn't say what, for whom, or on what platform. They'd love to get the Babylon 5 license, but apparently EA bought it up and is sitting on it to prevent competition with their Wing Commander series.
Ok, that really is it for now. I will try to answer questions that people may have, but please, for now, post them (don't quote this whole thing!) rather than mailing them to me, as I'll be posting this long distance from my account in PA, but hopefully I'll be able to get on-line here in CA tomorrow. That way, if you post rather than mailing questions, I can reply to them without another long-distance call, whereas if you mail them to me now, they'll go to my PA account. I should be reachable at my new account soon, where I will be: jjustice@wavenet.com Try mailing me there if you really must mail rather than post.