“When I saw the cutscenes in Parasite Eve, I just gasped. The animation was so smooth, and everything looked amazingly detailed. That game showed off the real power of the Ultra Nintendo's graphics processor. With that game, the Ring already looked outdated.”
-Victor Lucas, host of The Electric Playground, in a 2004 episode of G4's “Icons” based on Hiranobu Sakaguchi
“Two ultra-violent games that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. The Ultra Nintendo's thriller Parasite Eve and the Saturn's shooter Arbiter of Sin, both featuring hyper-detailed graphics that make them two of the most realistic games ever made.”
-Anderson Cooper, on the ABC Evening News, December 15, 1998
“Well, that's how you make a movie-like game. Don't make it like a movie. Just make it a game that evokes the same emotions.”
-James Cameron, discussing Parasite Eve on the set of Terminator 3: Dark Angel in a January 22, 1999 interview
“The president is getting away with being a fornicator and now there is a video game where you're actively killing the angels of God. Ladies and gentlemen, this country is inviting God's vengeance upon us.”
-Pat Robertson, in a segment on the 700 Club on December 21, 1998
“Shenmue was perhaps too ambitious for the Sega Saturn, but the reception was so positive that I don't regret creating it when I did. Certainly, the next Shenmue game will be on a platform that can properly handle everything I want to do with it.”
-Yu Suzuki, in a December 1999 interview with Famitsu magazine
“Take Castlevania, Tomb Raider, and the song Werewolves of London, put them all in a blender, and you get Shadows of the Moon. Sounds awesome? You bet it is.”
-Peter Bartholow, in Gamespot.com's 9.5/10 review of Shadows of the Moon
“Aya...! I've always wanted to see you again...I don't have much time but you can stop this... you can save everyone, I know you can...you've always been my brave sister.”
-Maya, Parasite Eve
“I'm not gonna stop looking. That's what a coward would do. I'll find my father's murderers and they'll pay for what they've done. That's the truth I've always been guided by.”
-Ryo Hazuki, Shenmue
“So...tell me what I already know.”
-Tom Kalinske, overheard during a conference call on December 28, 1998
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“The worst foe lies within the self...”
-the tagline for Parasite Eve in both TTL and OTL
Parasite Eve: The Basics
Squaresoft's biggest project of 1998, Parasite Eve is a sci-fi roleplaying game based on a hit Japanese novel about a mysterious and terrifying phenomenon occurring in New York City. As IOTL, the game was intended by Squaresoft to be the first truly “cinematic RPG”, and the company pours massive amounts of money and resources into the game, even moreso than IOTL, as the game is not positioned near another major release (Xenogears) as IOTL. As a result, the game is considered to have the best looking cutscenes in gaming history up to that point, with the first truly OTL-Dreamcast quality CGI cutscenes that look better than anything else seen in a video game. The game's in-game graphics, though not quite as impressive, are still among the best of any game released in 1998, compared favorably to the year's other major hits and seen as a significant upgrade from Final Fantasy VII. The game's soundtrack, as IOTL, is composed by Yoko Shimamura, though the game also gets a significant sound upgrade from OTL in the form of voice acting in both gameplay and cutscenes. Jennifer Hale performs the voices of Aya Brea and her older sister Maya, while Susan Egan performs as the game's villain Eve and the opera singer Melissa Pearce. Other voice actors include Dave Fennoy as Aya's police partner Daniel, Michael Bell as Dr. Klamp, and Masi Oka, in his first OTL acting role, as Dr. Maeda (IOTL, he gets a job with Squaresoft's North American division instead of with Industrial Light and Magic, initially working as a localization specialist, he is noticed by one of Square's producers and offered a chance to audition for the role). The gameplay is changed somewhat from IOTL. While the combat is still largely turn-based, with an ATB meter and the battle stopping while you aim your shots, there is now a “timed hits” element to the combat, where you can increase the damage caused by bullets or spells by carefully timed button presses. You can also lessen damage from attacks by timing your guarding accordingly. Gun modding is largely similar to OTL, with Aya able to improve her weapons and armor by enhancing them via certain materials or by spending points earned by leveling up. The game is still largely linear, as IOTL, but a few more areas open up for exploration as you progress through the game, giving Aya the option of revisiting old areas or visiting sidequest-only areas to collect items and materials or even fight optional bosses.
The game's storyline also follows OTL's fairly closely, though the main story has been expanded, with the game taking place over a period of eight days instead of six. The Trueform Eve/Chrysler Building sidequest, which was an optional bonus dungeon in the original, has now become the game's final dungeon, with difficulty adjusted accordingly (it's still a very long and difficult dungeon, but not to the degree that it was IOTL). The game is slightly more cutscene/cinema heavy in order to show off the enhanced graphics. Due to this, Parasite Eve becomes the Ultra Nintendo's second three-disc game, following The X-Files from earlier in the year. Disc one ends after Day 4, while disc two ends after Day 6.
Day 1: Resonance
Aya and an unnamed date are attending an opera performance at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve. When the performer, Melissa, begins to sing, everyone except for Aya and Melissa bursts into flames as their mitochondria go into overdrive. Aya confronts and eventually pursues the singer into the sewers beneath Carnegie Hall, witnessing her transformation into Eve and eventually battling a giant sewer crocodile before emerging from the sewers with very little information about what has just happened.
Day 2: Fusion
In the aftermath of the Carnegie Hall incident, Aya and Daniel go to the police station to gear up before investigating Dr. Klamp at the Natural History Museum. Aya then goes to Central Park to try and stop Melissa, but she is too late, Melissa as Eve already having killed everyone in the park. After battling Eve, Aya passes out.
Day 3: Selection
Manhattan is being evacuated after the Eve attacks. Aya and Daniel end up meeting a strange scientist named Dr. Maeda who says that he knows the secret behind what's been happening. After a skirmish at a pharmacy, Aya and Daniel return to the NYPD precinct only to be forced to confront a monstrosity that's been attacking the police officers there.
Day 4: Conception
Aya goes to St. Francis Hospital, where Eve has come to retrieve a sperm sample to help her conceive the ultimate mitochondrial being. She battles more of Eve's monsters at the hospital before going down to the basement and battling a spider-like beast. After defeating this beast, Aya pursues Eve into the sewers, where Eve announces that she has successfully conceived the Ultimate Being, which will soon be born. After a multi-stage battle with Eve, Aya manages to escape the sewers, and Disc 1 ends.
Day 5: Evolution
Aya and Daniel search for the gestating Ultimate Being in the New York subway tunnels, eventually emerging in Madison Square Garden to fight an enormous scorpion-like monster. They realize that Eve has been getting help from Dr. Klamp, and return to the Natural History Museum to find him. Aya battles numerous powerful monsters along the way, including several dinosaurs and a T-Rex at the end. Aya finds Eve, but it is too late, as Eve is already about to give birth to the Ultimate Being.
Day 6: Absolution
Aya goes to the Statue of Liberty to confront and defeat Eve. After doing so, she is resting on a naval boat, only for the Ultimate Being to emerge and attack. Aya defeats it after another multi-stage fight, and the danger to the city is seemingly over, but when Aya, Daniel, and a team of military personnel return to the Statue of Liberty, they realize that Eve is not dead.
Day 7: Revelation
Aya and Daniel scour the city for clues about the origins of Eve, and in doing so, discover the truth about Aya's deceased older sister Maya, while also cleaning up the last of the monsters left in Eve's wake. Aya realizes that Maya's DNA is what is allowing Eve to sustain herself, and must track down Eve before it unleashes a plague of horror upon the world. Aya is attacked at her apartment by a monster, and though Aya defeats it in a boss battle, it nearly kills her before Daniel sacrifices himself to save her life.
Day 8: Liberation
Aya realizes that Eve is once again attempting to give birth to another Ultimate Being and that she has taken up residence on the top floor of the Chrysler Building. Aya climbs the building (unlike in the original, where every floor has to be completely climbed, this quest is more like the Pharos Lighthouse quest in OTL's Final Fantasy XII, certain floors are skipped over at certain points, it's still a long and difficult mission). On the top floor, Aya battles the powerful Trueform Eve, and after winning, Eve attempts to take over Aya's mitochondria to control her. It's then that Aya's sister Maya emerges, regaining control over Eve and telling Aya to be brave, restraining Eve and giving Aya the opportunity to overcome her and finish her off. With Eve finally defeated, the world is saved from the horror of Eve's mitochondrial machinations.
EX Game: World Trade Center
There IS a bonus mission ITTL's Parasite Eve, though it's not related in any way to the main plot. In an EX Game, you have the option of exploring deeper into the sewers, which gives you access to the complex below the World Trade Center. The entrances to the Twin Towers are blocked off, so the underground access is the only way to get inside. You'll start out climbing up the North Tower, then after a boss fight on the roof, cross over to the South Tower and climb back down to confront the game's ultimate boss, a powerful skeletal being composed entirely of mitochondria, in the South Tower lobby. The World Trade Center climb is significantly tougher than OTL's Chrysler Building mission and requires Aya to be nearly maxed out statistically. Even then, it's extremely difficult to win and is regarded as one of Squaresoft's most hardcore challenges.
Parasite Eve gets excellent reviews upon its December 7, 1998 worldwide release. As IOTL, the main criticisms revolve around the game's length, but the fleshed out sidequesting and expanded combat do dismiss some of those concerns a bit. The game is considered a cinematic revelation and is nearly as significant as the SNES-CD's Snatcher was in terms of storytelling and presentation in video games. Ultimately, the game's reception is somewhat like a slightly lesser version of OTL's Donkey Kong Country: a technical marvel praised as one of the year's top games at the time of release, only for its reputation to fade somewhat as video game technology progresses. Still, sales are excellent in both Japan and North America, and the game easily becomes Squaresoft's biggest hit since Final Fantasy VII.
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A Bug's Life
Dan: 5.0
Shawn: 7.0
Crispin: 4.5 (quote: “The graphics are real pretty, but there's not much to love about the generic gameplay.”)
Sushi-X: 4.0
Contra: World War
Dan: 8.0
Shawn: 8.0 (quote: “A nice port of last year's Saturn hit that gives the graphics a pretty noticeable bump.”)
Crispin: 8.0
Sushi-X: 9.0
Daikatana
Dan: 8.0
Shawn: 7.5
Crispin: 7.5 (quote: “John Romero's new FPS won't change the world like some of his previous games, but it's a lot of fun.”)
Sushi-X: 8.0
Fallout
Dan: 8.5
Shawn: 7.0
Crispin: 9.0 (quote: “The post-nuclear RPG plays fantastically on the Ultra Nintendo, though PC players may need some time to get used to the simplified controls.”)
Sushi-X: 9.0
Parasite Eve
Dan: 9.0 (quote: “It's a tad short, but the cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous and the combat is a treat.”)
Shawn: 9.0
Crispin: 9.0
Sushi-X: 9.0
Street Fighter III
Dan: 9.5
Shawn: 8.5
Crispin: 9.0
Sushi-X: 8.5 (quote: “Street Fighter is back on Nintendo! We missed you.”)
Shadows Of The Moon
Dan: 9.0
Shawn: 9.5 (quote: “This excellent exploration game isn't to be missed, this game does for werewolves what Symphony of the Night did for vampires.”)
Crispin: 9.0
Sushi-X: 9.5
Strange Seed: The Tree of Life
Dan: 6.0 (quote: “This makes a decent RPG but I think I preferred it as a quirky point and click.”)
Shawn: 6.5
Crispin: 8.5
Sushi-X: 6.0
-reviews of December 1998's Ultra Nintendo games in the January and February 1999 issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly
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The Ring's Second Wave: The Basics
The Sega Saturn's Ring accessory sees the release of three Ring-exclusive games in December 1998. Spare Parts and Arbiter of Sin are released on December 3, while Shenmue is released on December 17. All three games are considered to be among the Saturn's best games of the year, with particular praise going to Spare Parts and Shenmue.
Spare Parts is a 3-D platformer created by Naoto Ohshima and many of the same Sonic Team members who worked on Nights Into Dreams. The game's main characters are Zacki and Ella, a pair of robot children who are among the last beings still “alive” on Earth after a horrible cataclysm wiped out humanity. Though the game is somewhat depressing in terms of its subject matter (with one of the most beautiful and poignant soundtracks ever heard in a platformer), it has moments of hope scattered everywhere and some lighthearted comic relief to push the player forward. Zacki and Ella were created as friends for children who lost their siblings or friends to the disasters that had been befalling the world in the time of humanity. The two had bonded very closely to their human friends, and now are determined to recreate some semblance of the world they once knew, by rebuilding a city and finding other living companion robots to populate it. To this end, they explore areas such as the destroyed remnants of human cities, abandoned amusement parks, and some of the old wilderness places such as Yellowstone or the Himalayas. They travel between points of interest using the few remaining transporters still functional, which allow them to warp across continents with great ease (but whose invention helped to spread the pandemic disease that caused the death of many humans). While hunting for friends, Zacki and Ella must battle the Paranoia, strange beings created from the sorrow and despair of the Earth's living creatures as the great waves of death swept across the planet. They must also collect Shards of Hope, objects that can be used to power humanity's remaining technology and reactivate the robots left behind. These shards are used to power the transporters that open up new areas for exploration. Eventually, Zacki and Ella realize that there is one settlement of living humans remaining: The Sanctuary, buried deep under the Alps, where a few thousand human beings have gathered, including two of Zacki and Ella's old human friends. However, the Sanctuary has turned into a totalitarian dictatorship run by a computer that has become malevolent (an homage to the evil computer AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream). This computer is responsible for creating the Paranoia that now roam the planet with the mission of hunting down and killing anyone who threatens to discover the Sanctuary. Zacki and Ella, along with their robot friends, eventually penetrate into the Sanctuary and defeat the computer, liberating the last remaining humans and planting the seeds for humanity and robotkind to rebuild a new civilization. Spare Parts, though at its heart a collectathon platformer, is highly praised for its deep storyline, fun characters, and excellent gameplay, and is favorably compared by many to The Dreamers on the Ultra Nintendo. Not only is it the Saturn's best reviewed platformer of the year, it's one of its best selling games overall, with The Ring making its massive and gorgeous environments and huge game world possible. Spare Parts is the game that gets many families purchasing The Ring, and is perhaps the biggest driver of Ring sales during that year's holiday season.
Arbiter of Sin is a first-person shooter created by an American development team and published by Sega. The game utilizes the Ring to create a variety of battlefields, from wide open plains to dark, fiery tunnels, to futuristic laboratories, and everywhere in between. The game's weapon selection pales a bit compared to other popular shooters of the time, but it makes up for that by allowing the use of various powers in battle. These powers are a bit more simplistic than, for example, Bioshock's plasmids, they're used largely to enhance durability and attack power in battle to give the main character an edge over his enemies. The game is structured largely like Doom, taking place across 18 levels with pre-rendered cutscenes between them (and some in mid-level). The game's multiplayer mode is fairly basic but allows players to play in any of the game's 18 battlefields, giving a wide selection of arenas for deathmatch combat. The game's violence is extreme, with copious amounts of blood and gore, even moreso than what's featured in the Doom games, making it thus far the most violent console FPS to date, nearly scoring an Adults Only rating from the ESRB but ending up sliding in at Mature. The game revolves around a character named Mitch Atwater, a soldier in an unnamed modern war who has been fatally wounded on the battlefield. As he crawls in the mud awaiting his death, he cries out in desperation, only to be saved by a mysterious black-suited man who is implied to be an agent of Satan. This black-suited man heals Mitch's wounds in exchange for Mitch pledging away his soul to the devil. He gives Mitch weapons and powers and sends him back to medieval times through a portal, where Mitch uses his modern weapons to easily kill soldiers fighting for the Church in the Crusades. These soldiers are fighting alongside the Knights Templar, who soon hear of a man who is gunning down Christian soldiers with mysterious weaponry. The Knights Templar are far more formidable foes than the average soldier, but they go down nonetheless, until strange Templars with modern-day weaponry appear on the battlefield to fight alongside their downtime brothers. Mitch is eventually overwhelmed by these new Templars, but he is rescued by a mysterious figure and taken to what appears to be an underground facility where he is given modern medical care and worked on by various scientists who also claim to be working for the devil. While this is going on, we meet the Archdeacon, a man who works directly under the pope as the commander of the Knights Templar. In reality, he is the agent of the Archangel Michael, who we learn led a successful rebellion against God after Lucifer, who now rules Hell, failed and was cast down. While God believed in the goodness of humanity, Michael saw an opportunity to gain great power and after defeating Lucifer, was able to gain the trust of the angels and of God himself, giving him an opportunity to overthrow God and take command of heaven on his own. The humans who believe they are serving God are actually serving Michael, and the Archdeacon is his right-hand man, manipulating humanity in order to carry out Michael's will on Earth. To these ends, Michael and Lucifer have begun to wage war on Earth by pulling technology and people from across time, using the medieval battlefields of the Crusades as their battleground and manipulating people on both sides. Lucifer's intentions, however, are not pure by any stretch of the imagination, as he allows humanity freedom at the cost of their eternal souls, only offering servitude as an escape from the torments of hell. Mitch ends up allying with people on both sides as they eventually confront the Archdeacon in a huge underground futuristic complex beneath Avignon. The Archdeacon has been given angelic powers by Michael, but Mitch is still able to defeat him. After defeating the Archdeacon, Mitch is taken to Hell, where he is rewarded by Lucifer for his deeds. Lucifer implies that one day, Mitch will lead a charge into heaven to take down Michael himself. However, as the game ends, we see that Mitch is contemplating betraying Lucifer in order to free the souls condemned to hell, thus setting up a potential sequel. Needless to say, Arbiter of Sin receives extreme controversy for its subject matter and its violence. Many leading conservative figures claim that the game glorifies devil worship, and the game largely serves to stir up the cultural conservatives who were laid low by the Eric Rudolph incidents of 1996. While Arbiter of Sin isn't quite subjected to the same scrutiny given to Mortal Kombat and Doom in 1993, it's easily the most controversial video game since those days, and is the beginning of a new groundswell against offensive content in video games. Despite the controversy, it sells extraordinarily well, nearly as well as Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. The game's combat and the complexity of its levels are well received, even if the storyline is a bit convoluted (and despite many in the mainstream gaming media ignoring the controversy, some do criticize the storyline for being “edgy for the sake of edgy”), and compared largely unfavorably to the acclaimed comic series Preacher, which is still ongoing at the time. The game is touted as one of the best FPSes of the year.
Last but not least is Shenmue, an open-world adventure game created by Yu Suzuki. As IOTL, it revolves around Ryo Hazuki, a young martial artist who witnesses the murder of his father and swears revenge. An open-world game, Shenmue's events take place on an ongoing clock and events keep moving forward even when the game is turned off. Hazuki must get a job, attend school, and maintain relationships with friends while also tracking down clues and advancing the game's mystery. The Saturn's technical limitations do reduce the scale of the game somewhat from OTL's: there are slightly fewer characters, the town is a bit smaller, and the graphical detail of the game takes a significant hit. Despite this, the core gameplay remains, and the combat system is even slightly enhanced from OTL, taking more of a cue from the Virtua Fighter games in terms of overall complexity and offering Hazuki more chances to fight, there's even a martial arts tournament the player can compete in from time to time to earn money. Shenmue receives many comparisons to games like Race'n'Chase and the recent Ultra Detective Club and is easily considered vastly superior to either one of them, working within its limitations to provide a fulfilling gameplay experience for the player. In this game, there are three different girls that Hazuki can “romance” (though things never get too serious with any of them), including Nozomi (from OTL), Masuno (an original character with a bit of a quirky side), and Kagura (Kagura is somewhat tougher than the other two girls). The game changes somewhat depending on which girl Hazuki is closest to, if you're close to Nozomi or Masuno, for example, one of them will get kidnapped toward the end, while Kagura fights off the kidnappers and is put in the hospital instead, necessitating a slightly different final mission sequence). While Yu Suzuki was disappointed at some of the compromises that had to be made, both to complete the game on time and because of the Saturn's technological limitations, the game is ultimately a major success with critics, who praise it for being a truly engrossing open-world story and providing a deep motivation for its protagonist's actions. The game sells less than Spare Parts and Arbiter of Sin in North America but sells far more than the two of them combined in Japan, making it one of the Saturn's most successful games of the year and easily ensuring that production will begin on a sequel. At a time when the Saturn comes under fire for the content in Arbiter of Sin, Shenmue sort of plays the Secret of Mana to Arbiter's Mortal Kombat, showing that games have deep artistic value when created in the right way.
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“Preachers across the country are urging a boycott of Sega products in the wake of the recent release of Arbiter of Sin. The controversial game is drawing flak from all sides for its violent content and religious themes, which many view as offensive to Christianity.”
-Tom Brokaw, from the NBC Nightly News on December 7, 1998
“Oh yeah, the Great Sega Boycott of 1998. That was a pretty big story at the time, with Christians being urged to boycott the Saturn because of Arbiter of Sin. We took a bit of heat for that at first because some of our higher-ups thought it might eat into the profits of Sonic the Hedgehog 5. Hell, there was even that burning in Texas with people throwing their kids' Sonic dolls into a big bonfire. Can you believe that? Taking a toy away from a kid because of some stupid game your kid didn't even want to buy? I'm one to talk, I kept my girls from owning any Nintendo games for a long time, but at least I didn't take away the stuff they already had!”
-Tom Kalinske, in an interview with Kotaku about the book The Chase
“Can you believe it? A game where the devil encourages players to kill Christian soldiers? In this day and age? I never imagined such a thing could even be legal!”
-a concerned mother in an interview with a local news station, December 14, 1998
“It's just a game, man. I mean, I remember when Mortal Kombat came out and people were whining about that. You gotta chill out. It's just a game.”
-a teenage boy in an interview with a local news station, December 14, 1998
“This is the trend, folks. Morality in America is under attack and these games are at the forefront. That recent shooting in Arkansas last year, those two kids, I'm sure they got the idea from video games. That guy that shot up Beverly Hills last year, I'm sure he got the idea from a video game.”
-Jack Thompson, calling in to a Sarasota, Florida radio station on December 16, 1998
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And so while Battle of Despayre doesn't quite capture the grand sense of epic wonder that Shadows of the Empire did on the Ultra Nintendo, it remains a worthy entry to the Star Wars video game canon nonetheless. It takes a lot of its cues from great FPS games like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, while having a flair all its own. Taking down Stormtroopers has never been so much fun thanks to the game's fantastic aiming system, and the imminent destruction of the planet gives missions a real sense of urgency, while the time limits are generous enough so as not to frustrate even novice players. Really, there's not much reason to go off the beaten path in this game, which might frustrate fans of more open-ended FPS games like Turok, but which gives this title a brevity and pace that really lends to its action density. There's always something to do (or someone to shoot) in Battle of Despayre, and for those of you looking for a kinder, gentler alternative to the brutal and controversial Arbiter of Sin, this may just be your game. It also fills in a crucial hole in the Star Wars canon, addressing just how Princess Leia ended up with the crucial Death Star plans in the first place, making it arguably more important to the overall scheme of things in the Star Wars universe than Shadows. Battle of Despayre is a fun, if linear FPS, and Saturn owning Star Wars fans can't afford to miss it.
8.4/10
-from the Gamespot review of Star Wars: Battle of Despayre, posted on December 6, 1998
“And with filming having just wrapped on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the long and painful wait for fans is just about over. The film debuts in May, while speculation continues about the movie's storyline. We know the basic facts: the film will chronicle the beginning of Emperor Palpatine's rise to power, it will show how Anakin Skywalker first started down the path of eventually becoming Darth Vader, and the mysterious and menacing Darth Maul will be the film's main villain. We also know that Queen Amidala, the future mother of Luke and Leia Skywalker, is more complex than she initially seems, and shots of Natalie Portman, sans the queen's elaborate facepaint, wielding a blaster and fighting alongside Ewan McGregor's young Obi-Wan Kenobi show the queen's more assertive side. Will she mirror her daughter Leia in starting out as a damsel-in-distress but later turning into an action hero, or does she begin as an action hero straight away? And can Haley Joel Osment accurately portray the boy who would become a monster? The answers to these questions and more are less than six months away...”
-from an article in the December 1998 issue of Wizard magazine
“One of the things I've always been told is that I don't listen enough. That I should listen more. Well, I tried to keep my ears open while making this film. And hey, if it's a disappointment, I know who to blame! And if it's a success, I'll try to give credit where it's due!”
-George Lucas, in a December 11, 1998 interview with the E! Network
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While the arcade version of Street Fighter III tossed out many of the old characters in favor of new ones, the console Street Fighter III was an amalgamation of many of the gameplay improvements from 2nd Impact, while introducing several console-exclusive innovations for what many consider to be the pre-eminent version of the game, even moreso than the later 3rd Strike (which itself would be ported to the Ultra Nintendo and the Ring-enhanced Saturn in 2000). Street Fighter III returned ALL of the old characters including the fan-favorite Chun-Li, while also retaining all of the SFIII exclusive characters as well. This made for a combined total of 26 characters, one of the largest fighting game rosters to date. The game looked beautiful on the Ultra Nintendo. It wasn't quite arcade perfect, due to the Ultra Nintendo's limitations with 2-D, but it was still one of the most beautiful 2-D games on the system, and being able to use all 26 characters for the first time was a huge plus. The Ultra Nintendo also introduced a fun four-player tag team mode, where you could play with two teams of two players each. The tag mode could of course be done with one, two, or three players, but seeing a four-player tag mode in a fighting game was uniquely fun, and a big advantage Street Fighter III had over other games such as Killer Instinct Ultra.
Those who remember the history of Street Fighter know that it's always been a big franchise for Nintendo. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior made a huge splash on the SNES, and Street Fighter II: Arcade Edition was a major launch game for the SNES-CD, the first game that really showed off the system's arcade-quality graphics. Having Street Fighter III as an Ultra Nintendo exclusive was seen as a major coup for Nintendo, forcing Saturn players to wait until they got the 3rd Strike version in 2000. The game, however, wasn't as big a seller as the iterations of Street Fighter II had been, largely owing to increased competition in the fighting games market and a general glut of quality games for the Ultra Nintendo at the time. While sales for Christmas 1998 were big, they dropped off fairly steeply afterward, with SFIII never showing the real sales legs that Street Fighter II had done with its console releases. Still, while Street Fighter III wasn't quite what it was during the glory days of The World Warrior, the game still made the season a little brighter for the Ultra Nintendo's fighting game fans, giving them one up on the Saturn and its Namco exclusives.
-from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
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Electronic Gaming Monthly: The evolution of Daikatana has to be one of the most interesting stories in the history of game development. The game totally changed form from what it initially was.
John Romero: Well, yeah. The original idea for the PC had been something a lot more ambiguous, but when I started to design this game to play to the strengths of the Ultra Nintendo, things changed quite a bit. From 24 levels, we scaled back down to 15.
EGM: Which, you know, is still quite a lot.
Romero: Well, yeah. Not as many as Doom, but the original Turok had 15 levels, and I'm sure they'll compare the two games.
EGM: Was Turok the inspiration for the character Walking Waters?
Romero: No, though I was asked that by some of my own staff in the creation process. No, I think I just wanted a character who stood in contrast to Superfly Johnson, who was, you know, a lot more brash and outspoken, whereas Walking Waters is this wise shaman-like figure who teaches Hiro a lot about life and various other things. Turok didn't teach anyone about life, he just killed lots of dinosaurs.
EGM: *laughs* Point taken.
Romero: Anyway, the sidekicks were supposed to be a lot more vital to your success in the game. We were going to make it so that if your sidekick died, you failed the level. But that proved frustrating and hard to implement, so we just had them serve largely in a helper capacity. If they died, you lost their help for the level and you missed certain cutscenes but you could still advance.
EGM: And of course, to get the best ending, you need to keep them alive.
Romero: Well, yeah. No spoilers, but keep your sidekicks alive if you want to see the game's best ending.
EGM: Speaking of sidekicks, we've heard that early on, Mikiko was supposed to turn on Hiro.
Romero: I wanted to put a big twist in the game, like the one at the end of Doom, where Doomguy gets to Earth and everything's all fire and brimstone? Well, we put that Mikiko twist in there, but a lot of people on the staff really liked Mikiko. That she kind of had chemistry with Hiro and they wanted her to stay with him until the end. Now, I'm not gonna spoil what does happen to Mikiko at the end, but she does stay by Hiro's side with him. There's a new main villain and we liked that one a lot better.
EGM: Is it Superfly?
Romero: *laughs* It's not Superfly or Walking Waters, this is a villain who stays a villain through the whole game.
EGM: What did you enjoy working on the most in the process of making Daikatana?
Romero: The sword. Designing the sword, having this big f**kin' sword you carry around with you and swing at enemies, giving it special functions, I mean we just went crazy with the sword and all it can do. It's in the name of the game, it better be an awesome sword!
EGM: Let's discuss Ion Storm. Sorry you left?
Romero: Nah, I mean, I'm real happy for Tom Hall and everything they've done with Commander Keen. That game's his baby and he's done a hell of a job making that baby big and strong. I loved Mars' Most Wanted, I can't wait to play the next one. I probably would've just ruined it if I'd have been involved in it. No, I'm happy here and I'm happy working on the next Doom title.
EGM: And that would be Inferno.
Romero: Yeah, for the Ultra too. We're churning out something for the PC that should be out by the end of next year, but we've put a lot of time and effort into working on a new Doom game for the Ultra, it's gonna be something else.
EGM: The biggest Doom game yet?
Romero: With over 35 levels, and a great multiplayer mode. I was actually kinda hands off with it, we've got a lot of young guys here at id who are doing great work and I think Inferno is coming together really well. Can't wait to show it off at E3.
EGM: We can't wait to see it!
-excerpted from Electronic Gaming Monthly's interview with John Romero, part of the cover article of the January 1999 issue about all things id Software related
-
It's been said that Shadows of the Moon did for werewolves what the Castlevania series did for vampires. That's somewhat true, though Konami's game does stand quite firmly on the shoulders of giants, namely games like Eternal Night and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in its heavily 2-D reliant gameplay. However, whereas Shadows shares many similarities with those two titles, it has its own flair and style that makes it possibly the first “modern” Metroidvania...if it can even be called that. Shadows is much more “linear” than most Metroidvania games, giving players the option of backtracking and exploring but rarely requiring it. Instead, the protagonist Ariel is almost always moving forward in her quest to rid the city Lunapolis of werewolves, moving from one location to the other and frequently getting into furious fights with the creatures there. Ariel, of course, is like no protagonist in the Castlevania series. Emotionally tortured, yes, but always with a sense of good humor, she's more Lara Croft than Alucard and even when those she loves fall victim to the werewolves or their curse, she just flips back her long, black hair and puts a silver bullet in the bad guys' skulls. Ariel became so popular with gamers all over the globe that she's probably surpassed Disney's Ariel in popularity in Japan, and when an American video game or Disney fan posts online “I think Ariel's hot”, they frequently have to specify which of the two they mean.
Shadows of the Moon is known for dragging the Metroidvania genre kicking and screaming into the modern age. While even Symphony of the Night looked largely outdated on the Ultra Nintendo, Shadows of the Moon uses stylized 3-D graphics and looks like a game that came out five years after SotN and not just one year. The combat is much faster as well, Ariel deftly jumps back and forth over enemies and you can shoot them to remain in midair. The game also made much more use of skillful platforming than the post-NES Castlevania series did, though thankfully a missed jump only meant a deduction to Ariel's health bar instead of a death (unless you're playing in “Expert” mode). The game received a big marketing push from Konami upon its release, almost as big as the one Metal Gear Solid got, and it paid off bigtime, making the game one of the Ultra Nintendo's top holiday sellers. The great reviews the game got didn't hurt, with many outlets giving it an even better review than Squaresoft's Parasite Eve. Not only did horror fans finally get a “good” werewolf game with Shadows of the Moon, they got one better than they could've possibly imagined.
-from an article on Gamesovermatter.com
-
Alex Stansfield: Squaresoft's been all about horror this year, this game is freakin' scary!
Ted Crosley: Yeah, Parasite Eve has made me never want to go to the opera.
Alex: You already didn't want to go to the opera.
Ted: And now you know why. But yeah, this game is terrifying, suspenseful, and just a lot of fun. Customizing weapons can be a bit tricky but once you get the hang of it you'll be modding your guns like a pro.
Alex: And you'll definitely need to, there are some TOUGH bosses in this game. Parasite Eve definitely lived up to the hype. For me, it sets a new bar for Squaresoft and I think for games in general.
Ted: It's too short, that's the only problem I had. You CAN play through it again and there is a new dungeon but, um...
Alex: Yeeeeeah I had a hard time with the bonus dungeon too. If you LOVE being maxed out in RPGs, and have a lot of free time on your hands, the bonus dungeon is a challenging beast that will add hours...and hours....and hours of replay value to the game. Otherwise, Parasite Eve is a short but extremely sweet game and I'm giving it a perfect 5.
Ted: I have to dock half a point for it not being as long and epic as some of Squaresoft's other great RPGs, but it's still incredible to look at and I guess had it been any longer they'd have had to put it on five discs instead of three. 4.5 from me.
(…)
Ted: Arbiter of Sin is definitely gonna piss a lot of people off. For me, the things that pissed me off weren't the violence or the storyline stuff, but I thought the voice acting was lousy and the combat was kind of a slog.
Brittany Saldita: They definitely could've been a bit more creative with the weapons and powers. It's not a great game but it was really good and the graphics were fantastic. I liked the creativity of some of the enemies in this game, especially toward the end once you start fighting against demons and giant angel monsters and angels themselves. I thought that was pretty cool.
Ted: So you didn't have any problems with the content?
Brittany: Other than the fact that some of it seems to be deliberately provocative, no. Look, this game is fantasy, and if you can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, you have problems that go WAY beyond video games.
Ted: Well said. In my opinion, a really nasty, competitive four-player game like Ultra Mario Kart is WAY more likely to incite violence than a silly angel hunting game like this.
Brittany: *snickers* Yeah, how many times have I wanted to strangle one of you guys after having a green shell hit me in the ass?
Ted: Right, so I mean, if this game makes you want to go out and kill people...get another hobby, I guess? Underwater basket weaving? I dunno. But anyway, Arbiter of Sin is a solid, if flawed first person shooter, and I give it a 3.5.
Brittany: I'm also giving it a 3.5. It's pretty and fun but it's not the FPS that's gonna change FPSes.
-excerpted from the December 8, 1998 episode of GameTV
(…)
Gary Westhouse: Now, you may disagree, but I feel like Fallout is a game that's probably better off on PC. The way it works, the way you move, the way it's designed just seems tailored toward the keyboard and mouse.
Lyssa Fielding: Having played lots of computer games, including Fallout, I do respectfully disagree. But that being said, is Fallout the RPG of the year? No, far from it. I mean, I thought Shadowrun did this kinda game better.
Gary: You make an excellent point, Shadowrun back on the SNES-CD was a much better implementation of this kind of playstyle.
Lyssa: Yeah, and remember when it came out and people said it was gonna change RPGs forever? And then Final Fantasy V came out a couple months later and everybody forgot what they'd just said?
Gary: I don't think Fallout is a revolutionary game but it was really amazing on the PC. Here, you know, you move with the control stick instead of clicking where you want your guy to go. And I don't think that works because of the way this game is set up. You have to aim your weapon with the right stick and...
Lyssa: I liked that, I thought that aspect of it really helped me.
Gary: It was just confusing for me, it's so much easier to do everything by moving the mouse and clicking.
Lyssa: I think the new control system improves what was....kind of an average PC game. I liked the whole post-apocalyptic feel of Fallout but the game itself kinda bored me. Here, on the Ultra, it's faster and that's great! It's still a bit of a slow go though.
Gary: So what's your final verdict?
Lyssa: I give it a 4! I think the Ultra Nintendo's definitely the best way to play Fallout, but it wasn't a truly great game to begin with.
Gary: And I'm giving it a 3.5, I think it WAS a great game and now it's merely just a good one. Still a lot of fun though.
(…)
Adrian: Shenmue is definitely the most ambitious game the Saturn's ever had, and for all the challenges it must have been to put together, it really pulls everything off!
Alex: I agree, this game is just a masterpiece. It gives meaning to all the little stuff that you'd never think of a video game character having to do. Going to work, going out with friends, everything in this game has a purpose and everything leads up to that final goal, which, by the way, you don't have to reach.
Adrian: No, and that's another thing. The world keeps moving, but there's no time limit, you can take your time solving the mystery.
Alex: What I liked to do, every day, was talk to this old woman. She's always out in front of her house, planting flowers, and every day she had something different to say to me. I think they programmed her with like 250 different things to say. So I very very rarely had her saying the same thing twice. There are just so many amazing moments in the game that I can't help but just stand there sometimes, look up at the sky and be thinking how beautiful it is.
Adrian: The graphics aren't the best.
Alex: True. But every compromise they made made the world just a little bit bigger.
Adrian: Right.
Alex: I don't think this game could've been much better on the Ultra Nintendo. Because I don't think graphics make this game what it is. It's not a game so much as it's like a tiny world living inside your Sega Saturn.
Adrian: *laughs*
Alex: It's true!
Adrian: I keep picturing you opening up the Sega Saturn and looking for a bunch of little men and women that've crawled up in there.
Alex: It's just amazing to me how much they squeezed into it, even though they used four whole discs. I'm just blown away. Shenmue is a 5 out of 5 for me.
Adrian: Um, yeah, I agree. 5 out of 5.
*The siren goes off*
Alex: Hall of Fame?
Adrian: Yeah, Hall of Fame!
*The other hosts join Alex and Adrian as they go to place a framed copy of Shenmue up on the wall.*
Ted: You know, with all the great Ultra Nintendo games to come out this year, it's looking like the last truly great game is coming out for the Sega Saturn, and that really says something about the enduring appeal of the Saturn.
Alex: Well yeah, both systems have their must-play games. If you have the money to buy both, I think everyone here at GameTV recommends that you do it.
Brittany: It's a wonderful time to be a gamer, isn't it?
Ted: It sure is.
-excerpted from the December 15, 1998 episode of GameTV
-
SNES-CD Power Charts: December 1998 (this marks the final time that a Super Nintendo CD top ten would appear in Nintendo Power's Power Charts)
1. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
2. Chrono Trigger
3. Tale Phantasia
4. Super Mario World 2
5. Donkey Kong Country 4
6. Secret Of Mana
7. Tales Of The Seven Seas 2
8. Sphere Soldier
9. Kartia: The Word Of Fate
10. Madden 99
Ultra Nintendo Power Charts: December 1998
1. Killer Instinct Ultra
2. Final Fantasy VII
3. Tale Lemuria
4. Ballistic Limit 2
5. Super Mario Dimensions
6. Mortal Kombat 4
7. The Dreamers
8. Gran Turismo
9. Resident Evil 2
10. Goldeneye 007
The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart: December 1998
1. Virtua Fighter 3
2. Shenmue
3. Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil
4. Arbiter Of Sin
5. Sonic the Hedgehog 4
6. Star Wars: Battle Of Despayre
7. Spare Parts
8. Commander Keen: Mars' Most Wanted
9. Tekken 3
10. Tomb Raider III
-
“I want to thank the American people for keeping their faith in the presidency during this trying time for our nation. I know that I have made many mistakes, and I know that even tonight, many of my fellow Americans feel that I have not been completely honest with them, and that I have not made adequate amends for my mistakes. To those people tonight, I say this. I know I have disappointed you, and in the two years I have left in office, I will spend every waking second to restore your faith, not only in myself, but in the office of the American presidency. I will work tirelessly toward the interests of all Americans, and will work to be a better husband and a better father. I know I am asking a great deal of many people. I still want to be your President, and I will do everything in my power to do my job to the best of my ability.”
-President Bill Clinton, after being spared impeachment by the House of Representatives on four counts, including one count of perjury by just one vote (218-217), in a speech to the American people on December 17, 1998
-
December 22, 1998
Polly Klaas was largely silent as she watched her friend Eric Harris play his new Sega Saturn game, Arbiter of Sin. Eric would make the occasional yell as he blasted the head off of a particularly difficult opponent, but for the most part he was silent as well as he played.
Despite Eric having recently broken up with Polly's friend Caitlyn, he and Polly remained friends, largely due to their mutual friendship with Eric's friend Dylan and their shared enjoyment of video games...even if their tastes in games had grown apart significantly and Polly's enthusiasm for the hobby had diminished as of late.
Another reason Polly had stayed so close to Eric? She was concerned for him...greatly concerned. Though Caitlyn had cited Eric's emotional distance as the main factor in their break-up, there were other things Caitlyn had seen that had worried her, and thus, had worried Polly. Even though Eric had become significantly more popular in school during his senior year and had made several new friends, his demeanor remained dark...and at times disturbing. Caitlyn had never seen Eric act out violently, but he'd repeatedly expressed disturbing and violent thoughts to her, and while at first she'd dismissed them as mere jokes, a couple of them were a bit too disturbing for Caitlyn to laugh at, even in jest.
“Hey, Eric, this game...”
“Too violent?” Eric asked with a laugh, noting how squeamish Polly occasionally was at some of the violent subject matter of the games he enjoyed playing.
“No, it's...kinda boring,” said Polly. “You just go around killing things, and after a while even all the blood and guts are boring.”
Polly looked over at Eric's stack of games, picking one out and holding it up.
“I liked watching you play this one,” she said, holding up a copy of Commander Keen: Mars' Most Wanted.
“Ehhhh...that's kind of a little kid's game,” said Eric dismissively. He paused the game and turned to Polly, narrowing his eyes. “You can go home if you want to, I don't need you here watching me play.”
Polly let out a quiet sigh.
“He's being an asshole again,” she thought, “this is why Caitlyn broke up with him, she told me he was always being an asshole.”
But Polly was a bit more patient than Caitlyn, and shook her head.
“It's not that, it's not you, it's just...I'm worried about you.”
Now Eric was sighing, giving her a 'here we go again' roll of his eyes.
“I'm serious,” said Polly, reaching over and touching Eric's hand and looking sincerely into his eyes. “Caitlyn...told me about some of the things you said. And one of the notebooks you left lying around, it's got some...really messed up things in it.”
Eric just chuckled at Polly. If she thought that notebook was disturbing, he wondered how she'd react to his other notebook...the one where he'd begun pouring out the disturbing, violent contents of his twisted brain, the one where he laid out his plans for something that would put him in the history books forever...even if his friend Dylan was expressing doubts.
“Eric-”
“You know me, I'm always messing around,” said Eric, still smirking. “Hey, by the way, that offer still stands. I'm serious, too.”
Eric's 'offer' was one of the most disturbing things she'd ever heard him say. Out of all of her friends, there had only been two people whom Polly had discussed the horrific kidnapping attempt five years earlier with: Caitlyn and Eric. And both of them had offered their own solutions for the problem, solutions that reflected the innermost human beings both of them were. When Polly had told Caitlyn, just a few short months after first coming to Littleton, the two of them had cried together and Caitlyn had told Polly that if anything like that ever happen again, that she would throw herself at whoever was trying to hurt Polly so that she could get away.
“Caitlyn, you don't understand, he had a knife, he tied up my friends, there was nothing they could-”
“No, Polly, I would have thrown myself at him to keep him from hurting you, I promise I would. Even if he had a knife I would have thrown myself onto the knife so he couldn't use it on you.”
“Caitlyn...! Promise me you'll never do that....!”
“But Polly, you're my best friend...that's...what best friends do for each other right?”
But when she'd told Eric about what had happened, Eric's reaction had been...markedly different.
“When's that guy get out of jail?”
“Um....I think he's first up for parole in 2007...”
“Okay, when he gets out of jail I'm gonna find out where he is, and I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna torture him, and I'm gonna cut him up into little pieces and...”
“Jesus Christ, Eric, stop!”
And now, Eric was again offering to hunt down this guy and kill him.
“I mean it Polly, I could do it. I could do it for you.”
“Eric, no, just....Eric.... look....” Polly reached into her purse and pulled out something she'd been meaning to give to Eric ever since Caitlyn had told her about some of the disturbing things he'd said. “Eric, here. This...this is the counselor I talked to when I first came here and was still having nightmares about the guy who tried to kidnap me. She REALLY helped me out and I think she might be able to do the same for you.”
“What? Is this some kind of a shrink?”
“It's a counselor, Eric-”
“I don't need any fucking help, I don't need any fucking pills-”
“It's just someone to talk to! Someone who'll listen! Someone like me, but...but with a degree in psychology, someone who...knows how to talk to....”
“You think I'm crazy?”
“I think....I think you're gonna hurt yourself....and you're my friend and I don't want you to hurt yourself. You're just...you're always so angry, Eric... what's wrong? You've got friends now, people don't pick on you anymore, so-”
“Because of you.”
“No, Eric, you are...smart, and funny, and...and you're really fun to be around even when you're playing boring video games, and...and you're a good person. And I don't want to see you doing something bad to yourself.”
Polly was still tightly holding both of Eric's hands in her own, but he didn't pull away from her like he usually did. He just kept looking into her eyes.
“Is she...trying to hook up with me?” thought Eric, though he knew if Polly wanted to be his girlfriend she'd have already asked him...and that he wasn't the type of guy he'd seen her dating anyway. But still, for a friend, she seemed way too concerned for him, even more concerned than Dylan had seemed when the two had spent time together before. Eric knew one thing, he sure as hell didn't want to see any counselors or shrinks...but Polly was being so persistent that he figured he'd humor her. “Okay, whatever, I'll go see her. I don't think it's gonna do anything but whatever.”
It was a half-hearted answer, but at least he took the card from her. That was better than she thought he'd react.
“Thanks...” said Polly, slowly letting go of her friend's hands. “And promise me you won't ever do anything crazy if that guy gets out of jail.”
“I promise, okay?” said Eric, before unpausing his game and getting back into it. “I won't live long enough to see that guy get out of jail anyway...maybe I'll crash the plane into his cell block.”
-
“Furby might've created a brief hullabaloo for its wildly over-exaggerated artificial 'intelligence', but for the second straight year it was the Ultra Nintendo that topped toy sales this Christmas, generating widespread sellouts despite many more units being on hand at retail stores. Ultra Nintendo sales more than tripled that of the Sega Saturn over the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas, even with sales of the Saturn and its new Ring accessory seeing a boost from previous months. The Ultra Nintendo has now topped the Saturn in total worldwide sales with nearly 40 million units sold, a staggering number for a system that first appeared in Japan only a year and a half ago. In fact, the number of total Ultra Nintendo sales is now more than two-thirds the combined sales of the Super Nintendo and its popular CD accessory, with sales projected to surpass that benchmark by the end of 1999. Nintendo also saw hot sales for its new Pokemon brand. Its mascot Pikachu has become one of the most recognizable children's characters in the world, already approaching the awareness levels of Mickey Mouse and Nintendo's own venerable plumber Mario. The only brands that came close to selling as many toys as Pokemon this year were the X-Men and Star Wars franchises. X-Men recently saw a boost to its bottom line thanks to the success of the recent film and the announcement of a new animated series, while Star Wars is building momentum toward next year's release of the first new film in 16 years, The Phantom Menace.”
-from an article on Yahoo! News, posted on December 30, 1998
-
January 1, 1999
Shigeru Miyamoto had already created some of the greatest video games of all time, but nothing, not all the praise from reviewers or all the millions of copies he'd sold, meant more to him than seeing his 11-year-old daughter playing through The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time and enjoying herself. She was nearing the end of the Temple of Autumn now, and every room she entered, she'd tell him what she thought.
“That's the third time the hand almost got me...!” shouted Miyamoto's daughter as she had Link furiously swing his sword at one of the Wallmasters that had dropped down to eject her from the temple. “This is so difficult...!”
“Ah, but there's fun in mastering a level through playing it repeatedly, isn't there?” Miyamoto asked her with a smile. “Maybe you should let one of the hands catch you to see what happens!”
“I'm not going through all that again, no way!” his daughter replied, finishing off the Wallmaster. “I'm having fun, but not that much fun!”
Across the ocean, Tom Kalinske was watching his daughter Ashley play through the exact same game... taking careful note of the gameplay elements to understand just why this game had so much more appeal to people than anything on the Saturn. He wasn't going to blatantly rip off Temple of Time, but he was going to make sure Sega's creative staff took lessons from it. Ashley was swimming through an underwater area of the Temple of Summer as Young Link, making her way carefully through a narrow tunnel filled with Deku Babas.
“Dad...is Sega in trouble?” Ashley suddenly asked as she was playing, before getting flung back as she swam into a Deku Baba's teeth.
“No, no, we're just trailing in sales right now,” replied Tom, though his voice betrayed his worry and Ashley, like her mother, could immediately pick up on it.
“Dad....I saw the news, you guys got creamed big time.”
Tom groaned. He was tired of hearing about how Nintendo was killing Sega in sales, he especially didn't want to hear about it at home from his own daughter.
“It's not your fault, you know.”
“Yes, but Ashley, in the world of business, whoever's in charge, it's their fault.”
“Well, there's guys above you, right? In Japan?”
“Yes, and their jobs might be in trouble too,” thought Tom, remembering how Saturn sales had begun taking a sharp dive even in Japan, with only the huge Shenmue sales as a silver lining. “Well, honey, they're not very happy.”
“Maybe...they should play this game, see how good it is, and understand how hard it's going to be for you guys to beat them.”
“Well...you know how in basketball, how good Michael Jordan is?”
“I guess so?”
“Do you think that the coaches of the other teams, after the game, when they lose by 50 points, they go into the locker room and say 'well guys, we got our butts kicked, but Michael Jordan was just so good that there's nothing we could've done, good job guys!'?”
“....well maybe they should,” said Ashley, finally maneuvering Link through the tight tunnel and into a large, open room. “...besides, Sonic the Hedgehog 5 has to be better than this, right?”
“Yep, it pretty much has to be,” said Tom, leaning back on the couch and continuing to watch his daughter play. “Or 1999 is going to be anything but a happy new year.”
