Quote:REDMOND, Wash.--April 4, 2003--Riding the crest of three hit product launches, Nintendo of America Inc. currently claims the best selling console game, the best selling portable games, and the best selling hardware system in America.
Since coming to market within a week of each other in late March, The Legend of Zelda®: The Wind Waker™ for Nintendo GameCube™, Pokemon® Ruby Version and Pokemon® Sapphire Version for Game Boy® Advance, and the new flip-top, front-lit Game Boy® Advance SP portable system have leaped to the top of their respective sales charts.
The new Zelda game set a Nintendo record with more than 600,000 copies pre-sold to consumers before its March 24 launch date, and retailers now are quickly burning through the entire initial North American shipment of 1.1 million games. In the same period, sales rates for Nintendo GameCube hardware have jumped 20 percent.
With more than 4.4 million copies of Pokemon already shipped in Japan, more than 2.2 million games have now moved through to North American retailers, showing conclusively Pokemon is back with an exclamation point. The companion Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire titles have dominated portable software since their launch on March 17.
Finally, 800,000 Game Boy Advance SP units have blown through to North American retail, matching equally raucous receptions in Japan and Europe.
"While no one will know the champion of this season's college basketball tournament until next week, the winner of this spring's video game tournament is Nintendo," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America Inc. "Game Boy Advance SP, Zelda and Pokemon represent a three point play that players and retailers dream about."
"At what is traditionally a slow time of the year for video games, Nintendo has seized the sales initiative," says Richard Simone, video game buyer, Toys "R" Us. "With their blockbuster products Game Boy Advance SP, The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon, they're a big part of why video games are one of the truly bright spots at retail."
As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd. of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home video game systems. The systems include Game Boy®, Nintendo® 64, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 1.6 billion video games worldwide, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario™ and Donkey Kong® and launching such franchises as Zelda™ and Pokemon®. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere.
Bah. And just when I was starting to really like them (and I'll resume my really liking them after their GBA Zelda is shown):
Quote:Capcom Rethinks GCN Exclusivity
Resident Evil series to go multiplatform again, says Nikkei Business Daily.
April 03, 2003 - An article in the Nikkei Business Daily Friday stated that Capcom Entertainment is "loosening its ties with Nintendo" due to disappointing growth of the console on a global level. The trade also reported that Capcom would -- after Resident Evil 4 -- release future "survival horror" titles for multiple platforms instead of keeping them exclusive to GameCube.
Capcom also has recently come to the conclusion that it should be supplying more games for other consoles, according to Nikkei Business Daily.
The news isn't exactly breaking. Capcom previously announced that it would release Resident Evil Online for PlayStation 2, so it was assumed that the franchise would be available for other consoles in the future.
Quote:Closing Comments
Burnout 2: Point of Impact has a lot of what I clamored for last year. It has more tracks, more vehicles, a thicker single-player mode, extra modes to die for such as Crash and Pursuit, different weather conditions, pretty visuals, and a more impressive sound package. I can only highly recommend it to any arcade racing fan. It's definitely worth a buy, even if the single-player content can be experienced in five hours of less. Crash mode, the Custom Series Champsionship, which features more cars to unlock and all the tracks in reverse, and the multiplayer make up for it.
However, I'm also hopeful that Criterion does a sequel. I think there's still plenty left to exploit in Burnout. Let's have some licensed vehicles, more involvement with tuning the cars, random weather effects, more interaction with computer AI, and more brilliant mode additions like Crash. Most of all, I'd like to see a happier medium between skilled driving and the high-octane, heart-pounding arcade elements.
Few arcade racers can compare to what Criterion has pulled off. I hope there's more to come.
-- Fran Mirabella III
Presentation
All the trimmings, fast load times, a more simplified replay system, flashier cars, but still a lack of official licenses. 8.0
Graphics
This score may be the same as the original's, but the visuals are definitely improved. Standards change, but Burnout 2 is still a super-fast, beautiful racer. 8.0
Sound
Brought into the world of DPLII, it now features the separated whish of passing cars and echoing tunnel chambers. Soundtrack composition is also better. 8.0
Gameplay
Much faster gameplay, more cars, more tracks, more everything; king of high-octane racing. But the dumbed down, easier arcade gameplay isn't quite the happy medium we were hoping for. 9.0
Lasting Appeal
Incredibly addictive four-player Crash mode, intense two-player racing, and a far deeper single-player mode. Still missing randomized weather, but this is a great step forward. 8.0
OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 8.5
Everyone here better buy this game. Seems to be slightly improved from the PS2 version as well. Let's hope that there's online play in the sequal (even on the GCN!). It's still my favorite game of this generation.
It's back again! You should all know the rules, but just in case, here ya go. You pick one character and their color, if you so choose as well as a 1 to 4 letter name (if none is given, one of my choosing will be given). Then, pick one item you like to have turned on during the tournament, all unpicked items will be off. Then once we have enough to start, I'll put all of you in as level 9 computer players in tournament in Final Destination. The players will fight until only one remains, and he will be crowned Melee Champion!
Also remember, that more than one person can use the same character AND color. Nobody has to worry about being beaten to a particular color of character.
<font color="red"><b>Current Entrants</b></font>
EDEN (EdenMaster) - Normal Ganondorf - Hammer
PUNK (big guy) - Blue Link - PokeBall
HUD (Private Hudson) - Normal Young Link - Parasol
UOFI (DMiller) - Normal Bowser - Beam Sword
D.J. (Dark Jaguar) - Normal Samus - Heart Container
DLN (Dark Lord Neo) - Black Link - Motion Sensor Bomb
ABF (A Black Falcon) - Green Sheik/Zelda - Home Run Bat
WIFI (WhiteFleck) - White Link - Fan
BEAN (Sacred Jellybean) - Black Capt. Falcon - Bob-Omb
ARSE (Nintendarse) - Normal Pikachu - Maxim Tomato
NIKB (Nick Burns) - Normal Young Link - Cloaking Device
(Laser Link) - White Young Link - Star Rod
LAZY - Normal Samus - Red Shell
<font color="blue">OBVI (Captain Obvious) - Normal Mr. Game and Watch
NBV4 (NBv4) - Normal MewTwo
LESB (lesbiansex) - Normal Peach</font>
According to Megaman 8, Bass is said like the fish. That suits me find. Stupid audiophiles... If you are going to SPELL it like the fish, say it like that! Don't spell it one way and say it like the word base is spelled! If you are so upset about it, spell it base!
Back on topic, it's been a while since I played using the original Megaman, but it's good to be back. Following the style of Megaman Zero, this game is frickin' hard (Burner Man and Dynamo Man in particular are frickin' difficult). The levels sometimes are hard enough to take away most of your lives before you reach the end (a whole lot of jumps seem to be REALLY extreme with Bass in mind, so the non-doublejumping of Mega Man could make them hard on ya :D.
Instead of being able to select from 8 bosses in any order, or choosing from a list of 4, then another list of 4 once the first group is defeated, you have another system. You have 3 bosses to start with, and when you defeat any of them, you open a path to some new ones, depending on which one you beat. I like it.
Unline Mega Man X4, the two characters don't get seperate abilities from the bosses, but they behave differently so it's fine. Bass can double jump, shoot in any direction, and can dash Mega Man X style (mainly to extend his jump, the dash doesn't get you low to the ground to slide under enemy attacks and into small passageways). Bass's Bass Buster fires rapid shots when you hold it down. They are weak, but it's like a machine gun effect. Megaman has his standard Mega Buster, which has the ability to be charged, unlike Bass's weapon, for more power. He can slide, which unlike the dash, gets you lower to the ground for dodging and getting into small areas. He can also shoot while moving, unlike Bass who must remain stationary when firing (so he can aim). He also has the power of the "thumbs up" according to the display of pics of special abilities when you select your character :D.
They recycled two Mega Man 8 bosses, Tengu Man and Astro Man. Fortunatly, they have different battle strats and powers this time so they are pretty much new.
So why is Bass fighting? Some robot managed to get concious thought (a miracle Dr. Light and Dr. Wily are still trying to figure out) and decided to overthrow humanity, by taking over Wily's fortress. So, Wily sends Bass to teach this robot "King" a lesson. Bass actually wants to because he desires to be most powerful.
Anyway, fun little game. I think only EdenMaster will even care about this though... The rest of you will pop in post comments about not being interested in a series that's been done to death, and leave :D.
![[Image: BillGate.JPG]](http://www.tung.nu/downloads/BillGate.JPG)
