There's a great line-up on the way from Capcom in the next few months, and the several variants of their titles should be more than enough to please the Xbox, PS2, GC, and GBA folks (everyone).
Disney's Aladdin, a port from the SNES version, looks to be very promising, taunting with bonus stages in every level in addition to the rich original title. The colorful Egyption scenery looks great on the backlit GBA SP screen, and it plays just as smoothly. Keep an eye out for that in January.
Disney?s Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey and Minnie is another neat title based on Disney's Magical Quest 2 for Super Nintendo. In this game, you are allowed to play as either Mickey or Minnie to explore the various puzzles and eradicate the various enemies. They have different costumes in each level and supposedly wearing the right costume at the right time produces desirable effects. Expect Disney?s Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey and Minnie in October.
Perhaps more anticipated are the plentiful supply of Mega Man games on display - and there's no better time then for Mega Man's 15th anniversary.
Mega Man X7 for the PS2 is planned to launch in October, and it is very tasty. Mega Man X7 has brilliant, detailed graphics and from the few moments I played, surprisingly fluid animations and scene rendering. The player has access to three characters: Mega Man, Zero, and Axl, and he/she can choose two of them for each level and use them tag-team style at times when a specific ability is needed. Axl, the mysterious new character, has an ability that, when used upon a reploid, replicates it. The storyline, aided with anime cinematics, is said to be much more serious and Axl is never really understood or quite trusted until much later into the game. Similar to Crash Bandicoot, the in-game perspectives are subject to change during or between levels. These range from the traditional sidescroller view to the following camera view to the God's eye strategy perspective.
Mega Man Zero 2 for the Gameboy Advance is also set to release in October, and isn't anything really new, holding onto it's predecessor's strengths. As in Mega Man Zero, the player will be able to strengthen Mega Man's abilities in areas he/she deems important and use them later. Supposedly, interaction with "cyber elves" has been improved.
Mega Man Network Transmission for the GameCube follows the traditional Mega Man sidescroller style, but with an upgrade in the graphics department. The colorful backgrounds and characters are an eyeful, and it uses the popular chip system from Mega Man Battle Network. Be on the lookout in June.
That brings us to Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue and White, which are a blast. As before, you can assemble chips to get certain weapons, and the battle system is totally new, set in a cyber world where the main character can go meet his friends and enemies outside of the real world. This fun RPG is expected to release in June on the Gameboy Advance.
But as great as Mega Man is, my personal Capcom booth favorite is Viewtiful Joe, an entirely new game on the way to the GameCube in October. Viewtiful Joe has extraordinarily brilliant colors and the cel-shading gives a cartoony feel to the game and totally aids the comic-book superhero feel that is portrayed in the storyline. Also the game has "Slow Power" and "Mach Speed" moves, which pulls off the Matrix-style stop-time with flying colors. In Viewtiful Joe, you are a regular Joe who is forced to follow and rescue his girlfriend who was zapped into a TV set during a favorite super hero movie. In the effort, Joe becomes a super hero himself, and develops new powers throughout the game.
Well I'm sure you are interested in what's next with the popular survival-horror Resident Evil series. Targeting the PlayStation 2, Resident Evil: Dead Aim is the first of the series to combine the third- and first-person perspectives for exploring and shooting. The GunCon2 light gun controller works beautifully with this game, and controlling the character movement doesn't take long to get used to with it, either. Expect this action/puzzle game in June.
Resident Evil: Outbreak, also on PS2, is the very first version of the game that isn't entirely survival horror - don't get me wrong, it'll probably still scare you off of the couch - but this time the makers are trying to expand upon the story that was popularized with the games and the Resident Evil movie and introduce it into the online world. The scenarios are generated for the player as the storyline branches off in the direction the player chooses, so players will have their own unique stories to tell. The game is under production and is expected this Winter.
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X is to be the third conversion of the RE series to be available on the Nintendo GameCube. In it, the player starts with Claire and after finishing the game, can start with Chris Redfield. What makes this one different is that the puzzles, items and ammunition, opened doors, etc. are left as they were when Claire left them in for the second time around, adding to the games realism. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X is expected to release this fall.
Chaos Legion for the PS2 has some promising features. In many ways similar to Onimusha with its soul-suckin' and fighting style, Chaos Legion has beautifully rendered scenes and objects and no noticeable framerate issues in particularly complex scenes. I noticed a walking animation is being used when the main character is moving quickly, but I fully expect that problem to be fixed before it's ship date (July 2003).
Maximo vs. Army of Zin, a big surprise to PS2 users, is on the way and looks very similar to the first Maximo. Planned for a fall release, Maximo vs. Army of Zin continues where the original story left off, 8 months after the failed search for Sophia. Maximo's boxers actually have a use now, as collecting them allows you to unleash the powers of "Treasure seeking" and "Boxers of burning vigor." With over 30 combat motions and combos, this has a potential of being a deal better than the first.
For the Xbox users, Steel Battalion - Line of Contact is on the way and is scheduled for release this winter. Over 10 new mechs can be obtained, and this time Steel Battalion boasts online support via Xbox Live. The 40-button controller designed for Steel Batallion is the same used on Steel Battalion - Line of Contact, and online collaboration is supposedly centerfold (which leads me to assume there will be voice-over-IP support).
Gotcha Force for the Nintendo GameCube looks like an okay game, but there are some real efficiency issues that need fixing before it's fall release. Basically you can control different robots with many abilities and strengths and use them to either fight through 1- or 2-player cooperative story modes, or battle modes. Unfortunately the input response is way off and the game just can't handle the split-screen battle scenes very well at this stage.
To finish up, there were a few other titles shown on the floor, and word is out that Onimusha 3 for PS2 is coming up sometime next year and boasts such actors as Jean Reno and Takeshi Kanshiro, and director and action star Donnie Yen to join the project - very neato. Pro Cast Sports Fishing for the Xbox is probably one of the best fishing games I've ever seen, and Onimusha Tactics will be an interesting rival to Final Fantasy Tactics on the Gameboy Advance.
Stay tuned!
