Late Night Consoling

August 5, 2003 8:00 PM

Steve beat me to the punch this afternoon with this story at CNN/Money regarding Nintendo's financials, but it deserves a mention here as well, because the article speculates that we could see price drops from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in the very near future. Given Nintendo's slowing sales this does make sense, and for what it's worth, another reason for an unusual August price drop from Nintendo is Soul Calibur II which is due out at the end of the month. Nintendo arguably has the best bonus character of the three versions, and a price cut (especially if they keep the current free game deal) could make a GameCube + SC2 a very attractive possibility for a lot of gamers who still play the original Soul Calibur regularly.

	Capcom All-Stars Dead (For real this time!) According to GameSpot, Capcom Fighting All-Stars, the planned 3D fighting game for arcade and PS2, has been canceled again. Reports of its demise first surfaced some time ago, but were debunked. This time around the news comes straight from Capcom's web site, so it's reasonably safe to assume it's dead for good this time.
	Unity Revealed! GameCube Europe has posted some early, shaky-cam footage of Unity, the upcoming GameCube title from Tempest 2000 creator Jeff Minter. This offers the first look anywhere at the game, and what it shows is stunning indeed, looking something like FreQuency by way of F-Zero and Space Harrier (if that makes any sense at all). Thanks Games Are Fun for the tip.
	Front Mission Revealed, Final Fantasy III, Secret of Mana 2 for PSOne? The Magic Box has posted the first screenshots from Square's upcoming remake of the original SNES Front Mission. Along with those shots comes a rumor on their news page that Square is planning on porting Final Fantasy III and Secret of Mana 2 to the PSOne. If that happens, I'll be willing to bet we'll get another Final Fantasy compilation over here like Final Fantasy Chronicles, which contained FFIV and Chrono Trigger, despite the fact that CT is totally unrelated to the FF series.
	GTA Meets Mario Party? Computer and Video Games has a scoop with the first details from Criminalympics, a bizarre game that contains a group of multiplayer party games with the same depravity that made the Grand Theft Auto games so much fun. Details on some of the games and preliminary screenshots are all up at the site.
	Wither goes thou, shmups? A good article is up at Gamers.com tonight, offering a sort of status report on the state of the 2D shooter genre. The article takes a look at each developer of shmups and mentions their most recent projects and any announced titles that are on the way.
	I-Ninja Xbox Bound Namco announced today that I-Ninja, already announced for both GameCube and PS2, will be headed to the Xbox as well.
	New XGRA Release Dates As noted in this story over at IGN, Acclaim announced new release dates for XGRA today. First out of the gate will be the PS2 version on September 5th, with the Xbox version to arrive on September 12th and the GameCube on September 16th. The game was originally supposed to come out this month, but was slightly delayed.
	Space Channel 5 SE Announced Agetec has announced Space Channel 5 Special Edition, a two-disc PS2 release that will contain both the first and second Space Channel 5 games. It will be released later this year.
	New Releases This Week New in stores this week are Freaky Flyers (GC, PS2, Xbox), Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild, Chaos Legion and Silent Hill 3 (all PS2) and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder for Xbox.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has new screenshots from NFL GameDay 2004 (PS2), Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (PS2, Xbox) and Futurama (PS2, Xbox), along with new impressions of Spawn (GC, PS2, Xbox) and ESPN NHL Hockey (PS2, Xbox) and a first look at Cyclone Circus (PS2). Over at IGN they have a report from Nintendo's Fusion Tour and new media from Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (GC, PS2, Xbox), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (GC, PS2, Xbox), Need for Speed Underground (GC, PS2, Xbox) and Mega Man X7 (PS2). They also have the box art from Super Mario Bros. 3: Super Mario Advance 4 (GBA) and a new trailer from Final Fantasy XI (PS2). Elsewhere online, GameSpy has a new preview of FIFA 2004 (GC, PS2, Xbox), The Magic Box has new shots and details from Drakengard (PS2), Dynasty Warriors 4 Xtreme Legends (PS2) and Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg (GC), Computer and Video Games has the first screenshots from the Xbox port of Unreal II and a crapload of new shots from Colin McRae Rally 04 (PS2, Xbox) and Gamers.com links to a new trailer for Rent-a-Hero No. 1 (Xbox).

Console Game of the Evening: Bangai-O for the Dreamcast. "An absolutely great, and often overlooked, 2d 'blow-everything-up' game from Treasure. The game is worth it for the engrish and continue screen alone." (submitted by sputnik_1).

jason bergman

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