Late Night Consoling

January 24, 2003 8:30 PM

As was reported here last night in my absence, Nintendo has confirmed plans to get a new system out alongside the next-generation of consoles in 2005. This obviously will come as some relief to those scared by a two-horse race next time around, but I personally was most pleased to see this statement: "When we withdraw from the home game console, that's when we withdraw from the video game business." Whether or not you like Nintendo's games or the GameCube, competition of any kind can only be good for gamers in the long run. Which, oddly enough, is why I won't be thrilled if Microsoft purchases Vivendi Universal as has been suggested. VUG is a huge entity, and most of those properties mean more for PC gamers than anything else (Sierra's never been able to crack the console market, and Interplay's only had minor successes there). I for one want to see someone who doesn't own an operating system and/or console pick up VUG. Someone like EA or Activision is ideal...keep those companies as third party developers, not first or second. The less direct influence one company has over any substantial portion of the industry the better. Sadly, the insane asking price for Vivendi is what may leave Microsoft the only one at the negotiating table. But we'll see. Nothing's been announced as final yet, and anything can happen.

	Capcom vs. SNK 2 Xbox Live Impressions With only a few more weeks to go until this game's finally released (yay!), GameSpot has posted their hands-on impressions playing Capcom vs. SNK 2 on Xbox Live. Everything here sounds great...you can choose when creating a multiplayer game to only play people using arcade rules (preventing anyone from using the EO controls), there will be weekly, monthly and total global rankings, and best of all, GameSpot reports a lag-free experience.
	F-Zero GC Details Also at GameSpot are some brief new details regarding the GameCube version of Sega's upcoming F-Zero game. The game will allow for four-player simultaneous competition, and gamers can bring their GameCube memory card to the arcade to share data (although what that data is is unknown).
	Metroid Prime²? According to Cube.IGN, Retro Studios is in the planning stages for a sequel to Metroid Prime. Well...duh. With the engine and all that technology already done, I guess that means Jack can sit back and relax this time around, right? Or...maybe not.
	MadCatz Buys GameShark MadCatz has announced that they have acquired the GameShark brand from Interact for $5 million. Phantasy Star Online users take note: you now have a new company to hate.
	Sega's New Strategy Sega has announced some kind of convoluted new business strategy that organizes their properties into five different categories. They also have said they still plan on becoming the #1 sports developer (dream on), but they're a bit more realistic: now they intend to do it by the next generation of consoles. Also confirmed is that they will be revealing the N-Gage handheld gaming system/phone with Nokia sometime next month.
	Soul Calibur 2 Movie (Brief) A brief new movie showing off Soul Calibur 2 (including a look at Heihachi and Link) is up at IGN, taken from Famitsu TV.
	New GameCube Player's Choice Nintendo has announced that Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin and Super Smash Bros. Melee have all been added to the GameCube Player's Choice lineup, and subsequently now retail for $29.95. As a nice side effect, this drops the price of used versions of these games even lower.
	Misc. PS2 Previews A new preview of Rockstar's Midnight Club II is up at GameSpot tonight, while IGN has a new preview of Clock Tower 3 online.
	Misc. Media Lots of stuff tonight...we've got new trailers from the Xbox and GameCube versions of Red Faction II, a trailer from Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (PS2), the opening movie from RTX Red Rock (GameCube), trailers from Lost Kingdoms II and Summoner: A Goddess Reborn for GameCube, new shots from Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven (PS2) and the first shots from Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5 and Jet Grind Radio for GBA. Computer and Video Games also has a bunch of stuff up from Fable (Xbox).

Console Game of the Evening: Defender 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. Jeff Minter's other Jaguar game (the VLM doesn't count) is certainly worth picking up if you have a Jaguar, but it's nowhere near the classic that Tempest 2000 is, and doesn't quite live up to its own potential.