Six months in review.

The first six months of the year have passed, and I thought it might be of interest to review them. All three systems had some heavy-hitters in their first two quarters of the year. Hell, even the PSOne squirted out some quality titles before moving on to the after-life of game-systems. All in all, I was disappointed with the way things started off in 2002. I’m being critical, however, due to the repeated delay of Star Fox Adventures (GC)—I can’t wait anymore, dammit!

The developer of 2002 (so far!) is Sega. I don’t think anyone can argue this point. Spinning on all cylinders, Sega had a high quality title on every system on the market. In some cases they had two or three.

Xbox had the too-hard-for-hardcore gamers action title GUNVALKERIE; a simplified version of the Dreamcast’s classic roller-blading title, Jet Grind Radio (some might say too simplified); and World Series Baseball, argued by many to be the finest baseball game ever created—I’ll back that statement.

The PS2 received some triple-A software as well. OK, one triple-A title--Virtual Fighter 4--and a B+ game in the hallucinatory on-rails shooter, REZ. VF4 might be the best console fighter since Soul Caliber, and while REZ was short, at least it was unlike anything we had played before. While I can’t give my opinion on the matter, many nice things have been said about Headhunter. Depending who you ask, PS2 hosted some great Sega games, maybe even the best of the three consoles.

“An influx of great Sega games has the Gamecube yet to see”, said Yoda to me one stormy night. Sad but true. Regardless, I’m still totally enthralled with Visual Concepts Soccer Slam. By far one of the best multi-player games to hit a console in a while, SS is just too much fun to miss. Xbox owners will get a chance to kick some balls this year. I suggest you capitalize on this fortunate turn of events. GOOOOOOOOAAAAAL!!!

Let’s get something straight: It was very kind of Sega to unleash their blue Hedgehog onto the most powerful handheld in the world, but Sonic for the GBA isn’t half the platformer Sonic CD ever was, or still currently is. With that said, it’s one of the best games to come out for the GBA in 2002. And, hey, at least it’s an original title, right? That’s more then some other esteemed developer has given its loyal fanbase.

So, thank you Sega for releasing some pure gems the first two quarters of the year. Looking over all the other games that we had to choose from, the store shelves would have been bare in 2002. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. Admit it though, the games weren’t exactly hopping off the shelves into your beckoning arms. In retrospect, I guess the first six months are always like this, as publisher’s gear up for the holiday season.

Kudos to Capcom for releasing some high quality games early on this year. They came out of the gate smoking with their 3-D platforming masterpiece Maximo. My game of the year (so far!), and knowing Capcom a new series in the making. Some of you may have heard of Resident Evil. This one seems to be popular with the kids. I don’t know much about it.

If I had some vegetables, I’d be winging them at Nintendo. Man, I love their games, but boy do they piss me off. No original titles for the GBA or Gamecube. Unacceptable! I believe Nintendo’s new strategy—forget hardware, focus on games, games, and games—will be crucial to their success. They need 15 triple-A games a year to look mildly respectable in the mainstream gamer’s eyes. This is especially true if the third-party support is going to be virtually non-existent, as it has been so far. If Rare defects from the big-N, as many people believe, that pushes this point even further. Was I the only one mordified to find out Banjo (GBA) and Saberwulf (GBA) were completely absent form E3? Where did all the Gamecube titles from last years E3 show go? I’m a big-time Rare fan, so this really hurts. Hopefully we’ll get some answers before the year is up.

Thankfully, no matter which system rests on the floor of your living room, quality games found their way into them. The next six months, as is always the case, are sure to kick ass. We can all gloat on a similar thread six months from now.

Looking over my top-10 of the year (so far!), I must reveal my hopes that come January 1st 2003, my list will have gone through some dramatic changes.

Just for shits and giggles:

10.Sonic (GBA)
9.Tactics Ogre (GBA)
8. Jet Set Radio (Xbox)
7. Hunter: The Reckoning (Xbox)
6.Resident Evil (GC)
5.REZ
4.Virtual Fighter 4
3.Socer Slam
2.Medal of Honor Frontline
1.Maximo

Of course your comments, opinions, questions, or nasty remarks are welcomed, wanted and, quite frankly, needed.

"Xbox had the too-hard-for-hardcore gamers action title GUNVALKERIE"

To hardcore for hardcore? I think not. More like cool as hell concept with some real control issues. If anyone besides Sega released this it would get bashed nonstop for sloppy controls but since it's Sega everyone says "you have to give the controls a chance" What? Since when do I have to do that. Controls on all games should be as intuitive as possible. I don't think they were in this case.


Let’s get something straight: It was very kind of Sega to unleash their blue Hedgehog onto the most powerful handheld in the world, but Sonic for the GBA isn’t half the platformer Sonic CD ever was, or still currently is. With that said, it’s one of the best games to come out for the GBA in 2002. And, hey, at least it’s an original title, right? That’s more then some other esteemed developer has given its loyal fanbase.

I will take Wario Land 4 over any Sonic game ever made. As for Sega games on the GBA don't even get me started on those great "franchise games" comming out that Sega whored out to shit developer after shit developer.


If Rare defects from the big-N, as many people believe, that pushes this point even further. Was I the only one mordified to find out Banjo (GBA) and Saberwulf (GBA) were completely absent form E3?

I could be wrong here but I don't think most people care if Rare jumps ship or not. The only great game they ever made in my opinion was Battletoads. What was that like 15 years ago? Goldeneye/Perfect Dark were nice but I'm not an FPS fan. Banjo is a halfassed rip off of Mario 64 and it's not even as good. The same can be said for Donkey Kong. I do however think Starfox looks really fucking good.
Sorry if I came off like a dick but I think that these 2 developers are seriously overrated. I'm sure I'll get alot of shit for saying that about Sega though.

Nevermind. I just realized you were talking about only the last six months.

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Originally posted by Saint of Killers

That's funny, 'cause here I thought Advance Wars, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and Warioland 4 were all original titles and all developed by Nintendo.

Look, I'm glad that Sega is your favoritest company ever and you think Nintendo sucks and all, but at least title the thread correctly ("I'm a huge Sega whore and here's why they're ten times better than Nintendo" would have been more appropriate) and get your facts straight.

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HAHA, you know what else is funny? All the games you mentioned came out in 2001.

Sega whore? I think not. Name a company that had a better lineup of games in the first six months of 2002? Go a head hot-shot. Hedgehog got your tongue?

In fact I whole-heartedly admit to being a total Nintendo fanboy. Hmmmm, maybe that’s why I’m so disappointed with their current lineup of games, or lack of in this case. My facts are perfectly straight. Maybe you need to re-read the thread carefully this time. I finished all the GBA games you mentioned last fall. I.E.—2001. Last year, not this year. Past not current. Old not new. See where I’m going now?

All you had to say was say "explain it like I’m a 5-year-old", and I’ll happily oblige. :)

Nigel:
To hardcore for hardcore? I think not. More like cool as hell concept with some real control issues. If anyone besides Sega released this it would get bashed nonstop for sloppy controls but since it's Sega everyone says "you have to give the controls a chance" What? Since when do I have to do that. Controls on all games should be as intuitive as possible. I don't think they were in this case.

I couldn't agree with you more, but given the high praise GV received from many sites, and on this particular forum, I thought it would be unfair to leave it out. Especially since I figured I just never clicked properly with the control scheme.

As for the RARE situation, I imagined people would care. If I was the sole owner of a Gamecube the news of Rare jumping ship would have been a terrible blow to have been dealt. Banjo-Kazzoie was a first-rate platformer, Perfect Dark was one of the best FPS shooters released for a console (choppy animation-boo-hoo), Jet Force Gemini is a massive adventure game that everybody slept on, Conker's Bad Fur Day was pure genius, and Donkey Kong was...total crap. Many of today's gamers seem put-off by Rare's massive adventure games. I welcome their 40-50 hour gameplay experiences. They proved resiliant on a cartridge based format that proved difficult to develop for. I believed they would flourish on the new disc format. For all those that can only afford one system, Rare is a citical component to their overall satisfaction with their GC.

Yeah, I took it down 20 minutes before you replied. Sorry. Sometimes I post without thinking.

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Originally posted by Saint of Killers
Nevermind. I just realized you were talking about only the last six months.

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I'll take that as "sorry for trying to make you look like a total tool on the boards for no good reason what so ever."

Quote:

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Originally posted by Saint of Killers
Yeah, I took it down 20 minutes before you replied. Sorry. Sometimes I post without thinking.

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It's cool, man, but don't you get pissed off seeing six months go by without a strong Nintendo title? I do!