A Mega Man that could be good, and still more...

Conspiracy

I just thought I'd throw you all an extra little tidbit reguarding the PS2 that our company found out about today. Apparantly on top of the already apparant shortage, the first PS2Smalls had a technical defect that caused a lot of them to break.

If this is true, it can be assumed that Sony would've to had to stop their production lines to fix this glitch, which depending on how big it is, could have shut down the lines for a while.

However, as of now, Sony is sending out the minimum stock to every company so that they can supply some PS2's, but there's no signs of our company having an abundance of PS2's anytime soon...

Hope this helps you all a bit with disgruntled e-mails!

-- Daniel

Thanks, Daniel
We haven't had any e-mails about the shortage as of yet, but this is sure to be a problem as the holidays get closer. That bit about the technical defect is a little disturbing, however. So far we haven't heard anything to that effect, but we'll keep our eyes open for it.

-- Ed

Slimmer is Better

Hi there, I've never owned a sony system yet (still faithful to nintendo) but i really like the new slim ps2. I want to buy one, but i'm wondering if it will overheat due to a lack of a fan. Do you reccomend going for the older model or the newer one. Thanks.

-- Al

The new PS2s can get hot, but there's still a fan inside them. To keep things safe I'd recommend against putting any items on top of it as it's probably a bad idea. On my own desk I have a slim PS2 and it's been working fine even after being on all day or left on overnight.

If you want to save money you can find a used fatty model for much less money and if it's a recent model, then it should hold up fine. Since there have been shortages for the new PS2 this might be a better option if you want a cheap entry to the PS2 catalog.

-- Ed

Don't Look, Don't Find

I know that, if there were any news or media regarding "Spy Vs. Spy," you guys would gladly share it with us. My question is simply if you've heard anything about its actual existence, as you have no info on the game from this entire calendar year. You still list it as coming out next month, but I don't see that as actually happening.

-- Mike

There's no info about this game and from what we've seen you're probably better off not knowing anything at all. Since game companies like to show us stuff that, oh, makes a game look good or playable it's safe to assume that Spy Vs. Spy is still working towards that goal.

As for it coming out next month, I don't think anyone sees that happening at all.

-- Ed

Lost is Right

I was deleting various videos from my hard drive yesterday, when I came across a couple from games that seem to have disappeared; Fear Effect: Inferno and The Lost. It seemed to me that the last I heard was both games were nearly done, but it's been some time now and neither game is to be found on any release charts. Any idea what's going on with them, or should I just forget they ever existed along with Duke Nukem Forever?

-- Niven

When in doubt about a game, check our database and the chances are we explain exactly what happened to it in the game description (Sadly, I'm the poor sap that does 90% of the database building for the PS2 games). Anyhow, Fear Effect: Inferno was completely finished and ready to be released but its original publisher Eidos decided that it wasn't up to quality assurance standards (which means it must have been pretty bad -- just look at ShellShock '67 for proof). Afterwards, the developer Kronos shopped the game around to other publishers like Ubisoft, Crave, and a few others but nobody ever took the bait and it was never bought. Sadly for Kronos, it had spent all of its funds on developing the game and without a buyer and publisher went out of business.

The same exact thing happened to The Lost. Originally scheduled to come out years ago, the game was taking too long to make, changed directions too many times, and was becoming too expensive for its publisher Crave to justify. Making matters worse is the fact that it's not really clear who owns the rights to The Lost -- Crave, Irrational, or somebody else. Either way you look at it, it's a mess -- and will likely never come out, ever.

This is what spending too much time building a database will do to you.

-- Jeremy

Revived

THE ONLY GAME I WOULD LIKE TO REALLY SEE COME TO THE PS2 WOULD BE STREETS OF RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEN IT COULS SHOW THE BOUNCER WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AND HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE!!!! ALSO MAYBE SPLATTERHOUSE FROM THE OLD SEGA DAYS AND ENDURO RACING GAME AND ROAD RASH DONE PROPERLY. THIS IS IT FOR NOW KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!

-- Robert

Actually the Bouncer was initially Ergheiz 2. In fact, it was announced as Ergheiz 2 at the Siggraph Convention back in '99. Once word got out that most of the features, gameplay elements, and other such ideas that Dream Factory had planned wouldn't make it in the game in time to make launch, it was quickly paired down into the bare bones beat 'em up that eventually came out renamed to The Bouncer. There's a little fun fact for you.

Another fun fact for you is that Road Rash was in development for the PlayStation 2 and was almost completely finished before getting scrapped. A sad but true story of ye old videogame graveyard.

-- Jeremy

Ivan on Mega

Hey Iv' mind if i call you Iv'?. . . . ok good. i was reading your responses to the other letters and got me afraid to write to you in fear that you will bite my head off or something. Anyway getting back to the subject at hand, What do you think is wrong with the Mega Man series? I mean as other older action platformers have made great, heck even awesome strides in gaming history (i.e Metroid Prime for Cube) Mega Man fails to go anywhere. In fact the only good Mega Man game that came out so far was the compilation and the rpg. Any wishful thinking on how capcom could pull MegaMan out of this slump?

-- Tricky

It's funny you should ask, Tricky. Just today I wrote a second take of Mega Man X8 for Jeremy's review. It reads,

Wisdom tells me that 8-bit games played like 8-bit games because technology had not yet advanced to the point where they could play like anything else. This is why Predator on the NES was not Half-Life 2. This is why 8-bit games existed over a decade ago. Want to travel back in time to when things were all 8-bit and stuff?
While X8 is an improvement over X7 (in that it offers more stuff), it still boasts the same "retro is cool" design that appeals to pretentious hipsters who spend their nights cuddling Moon Patrol. This is a problem because the retro is cool design describes a repackaged 8-bit game, limitations and all. And I thought we were 15 years past that? Now that we've advanced beyond the confines of cartridges and use controllers with more than two buttons, it'd be reasonable to assume our beloved franchises would also advance. Now why won't someone tell Mega Man to get with the times?
X8 plods along trying to be retro -- trying to remind me of why I liked the series and my youth. It's trying not to change so that I don't casually disregard it as different and forget my A button, B button heritage. Unfortunately, the end result doesn't stir up some golden remembrance of why gaming was once so good, but instead reminds me plainly of why I never play my stupid NES anymore.
I don't care how many polygons are tossed onto the screen, the underlying gameplay of X8 is beyond old, it's dead. Mega Man should advance. Since it has not, I find myself wondering what makes this iteration any better than the 40 or 50 that have been released since the series' conception so long ago. The answer is absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing makes this game better than 40 or 50 other Mega Man titles, so why bother?

I too am obviously not happy with the direction of the series. Did you know that there have been literally 40 or 50 Mega Man games released across all platforms since the series first began 17 years ago? Jeremy estimates that the number is more likely around 70, but 40 or 50 for sure. And still we're playing the same 17-year-old game! It's absolute nonsense.

If Capcom wants to change Mega Man it has to get creative. We have to see something new and different. Why we're not is a mystery. It's certainly not because Capcom is afraid of being original or changing. Resident Evil is changing, Okami is unique, Viewtiful Joe was original, and Steel Battalion was a frickin' beast of an idea... Capcom is a company with ideas and talent, why Mega Man isn't on the receiving end of any of this is beyond me.

So how do we gamers fix it? Well, we know the series has always been about shooting, platforming, and upgrading. We need to develop all three of these components and take them into the 21st century.

Let's start with a 2.5D world similar to Klonoa and add in some linear forward scrolling platforming action the first Crash Bandicoot made famous. The game would seamlessly transition between these styles. We'll then use Ratchet & Clank as a basis for what we want our Mega Man to look like, but we're going to follow the very basic styles of the first Mega Man, which was a bit Astro Boy-ish.

Simplicity is important, so we'll keep the story at Mega Man vs. Some Random Jerk and his army of robots, but it's not going to be separated into chapters or missions. This time it will be one straight shot from start to finish, like Jak 3 or Half-Life. The controls also won't ever get too fancy since the game will transition from forward scrolling 3D to side scrolling 2.5D. Because of this we'll keep Mega at being able to run, jump, roll, grapple, and shoot. Grappling is the only real addition and it'd allow Mega to grab enemies and items and throw them around in a fashion similar to Wild 9.

Aside from grappling, the game's big gimmick would be the upgrade system. Instead of upgrading at the end of every level, Mega would be able to steal the powers of any enemy in any level, at any time. He could grapple an enemy, pull him in (or throw him around), steal his powers, and then use these new powers for as long as he wanted. The powers would not overwrite what Mega was already capable of, though. They'd just expand his abilities, but then no two robots could be used at the same time.

As an added touch, stealing the powers of another entity in the game would change the way Mega perceives the world. For instance, taking the powers from a lowly worker robot would change the gameworld into a monochromatic green wire frame model complete with MIDI music since that enemy is so primitive. Absorbing the powers of a ninja robot might make the world seem to move slower, be more peaceful, and seem clearer (higher in contrast). Other robots would all have different effects. The missile launcher guy might see the gameworld as radar blips and sonar waves. The flamethrower guy sees smoke and ash and hears fire crackling. And so on and so on.

The grappling system adds to the basic jump/shoot combat and the power thieving ensures the game is constantly changing. Combine those with a seamlessly generated world, classic design, and a lot of "wow" moments and we'd have one terrific game. The key is making sure Mega Man is always fast paced and that the wow moments are consistently amazing, like running down an exploding mountain and then transitioning to a hug firefight in a crumbling village or something. The only other thing I'd add is an assortment of mini-game driven puzzles. Hacking computers, breaking locks, operating cranes, and all of that other crap would all be based on mini-games that were rips on just about everything inside Wario Ware.

I could go on for a few more years about how to make a new Mega Man good, but I'll leave it there for now. Who knows, perhaps I'll add a little bit every day.

-- Ivan

Till Next Time

Well folks... I'm late for a party! Since Jeremy and Ed both did their mailbag responses today (Hell is freezing as I type), I'm going to cut and run.

-- Ivan "Deez Nuts" Sulic