Well, IGN has pictures of WW's box art, and I must say they certainly have a nack for posting frickin' old yet irrelevent news sometimes. Seriously, who hasn't seen the box art in some display across the land? Eh, anyway, they seem to have a "wireless" gaming section there now. What happened to handheld? They just converted it to Game Boy only, and now when they have something to add to it, they give it it's own section. It's like giving Tiger electronic games their own section.
Anyway, as we all know, the cover is gold. The only news is the disk is gold, but in the worst way possible. They just made the color for the ink on the disk gold (the black area at the bottom is now gold, I guess that's kinda like doing something...). Nuts, this disk isn't different at all.
I picked up the game a few days ago at Circuit City for only $24, and so far I can safely say that's it a lot better than the previous game. The level design is better, the music is better, and it's longer and more challenging. I still don't think like it as much as the Genesis/Sega CD Sonic games, but if developer Dimps continues to improve the series with each installment we may have something as good as Sonic Team's efforts very soon.
New to the game is the character Cream, who is quite possibly the lamest video game character I've ever seen. She's even lamer than Amy (who unfortunately has returned for this sequel), but she does have some cool abilities so it's alright.
This is definitely the best original platformer for the GBA, so you guys should buy it while it's so cheap at CC. If only Nintendo would make some original GBA Mario games.
Quote:Bush Offers Ultimatum to Saddam in Address to Nation
Monday, March 17, 2003
WASHINGTON — President Bush gave Saddam Hussein an ultimatum Monday night -- step down in 48 hours or face war.
"All the decades of deceit and cruelty have now reached an end. Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing," Bush said from an area of the White House called the Cross Hallway.
Aides said the president was reserving the Oval Office as the setting for a later address when the moment of conflict begins, as everyone now expects it will.
"For their own safety, all foreign nationals, including journalists and inspectors, should leave Iraq immediately," Bush said in an expected warning to bystanders.
Already, several countries have urged their nationals to leave the area and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered out of Iraq the 155 weapons inspectors and support staff there.
In the 15-minute speech, Bush said that he regretted the U.N. Security Council's failure to agree on another resolution, but said that the war will be about liberation, and should not focus on the collapse of diplomacy.
"The security of the world requires disarming Saddam Hussein now," Bush said.
Speaking in the somber tone that he has affected of late, Bush said that he has every legal right afforded to him by Congress and U.N. Resolution 1441 to take action against Saddam. He cited two resolutions from 1991, still in effect, that said if Iraq fails to abide by demands to disarm, it will be subjected to renewed military action.
"America tried to work with the United Nations to address this threat because we wanted to resolve the issue peacefully. We believe in the mission of the United Nations," he said.
While not mentioning any nation by name, Bush also took a shot at some U.N. members, who still believe that Saddam would abandon weapons of mass destruction on his own.
"In the 20th century, some chose to appease murderous dictators whose threats were allowed to grow into genocide and global war. In this century, when evil men plot chemical, biological and nuclear terror, a policy of appeasement could bring destruction of a kind never before seen on this earth ... and responding to such enemies only after they have struck first is not self-defense. It is suicide."
Perhaps trying to appeal to the remaining third of the U.S. population that still opposes war, the president made one last effort to link Saddam to terrorists that would attack U.S. soil.
"The danger is clear: Using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other. The United States and other nations did nothing to deserve or invite this threat, but we will do everything to defeat it," he said.
Bush added that once war begins, Saddam will attempt to cling to power and in desperation may try to conduct terrorist operations.
"These attacks are not inevitable. They are, however, possible. And this very fact underscores the reason we cannot live under the threat of blackmail. The terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed," he said.
Bush spoke after deciding to raise the nation's terrorism alert from yellow to orange, the second-highest category of risk.
The president also sent a message to the Iraqi people that the United States will lead the effort to rebuild the country once Saddam is vanquished. He promised that any action is not directed at the Iraqi people but at Saddam and the United States will quickly provide food and medicine.
"We will help you to be free ... The tyrant will soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near," Bush said.
The president told Iraqi military units that if they want a free country, they will be given instructions telling them how to lay down their arms and avoid injury.
"It is too late for Saddam Hussein to remain in power. It is not too late for the Iraqi military to act with honor and protect your country, by permitting the peaceful entry of coalition forces to eliminate weapons of mass destruction," Bush said. "If war comes, do not fight for a dying regime that is not worth your life."
Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer declared that "the diplomatic window has now been closed." The comment came just 12 hours after Bush's return from an Atlantic island summit with his allies from Britain and Spain.
A quick round of telephone calls Sunday night and Monday morning confirmed what aides said Bush had concluded before the summit: The allies' U.N. resolution was doomed to fail.
He ordered the measure withdrawn to avoid an embarrassing defeat, then gave the go-ahead for a long-planned ultimatum address.
Aides said the commander-in-chief of 250,000 U.S. troops poised at the borders of Iraq debated with officials over making the offer to the Iraqi president, and chose to do so in case anyone challenges Bush that he didn't make every opportunity available to Saddam to prevent military conflict.
The president met with congressional leaders just two hours before, speaking to tell them about the ultimatum. None of the lawmakers emerging from the meeting said they thought Saddam would flee Iraq.
The American public, by a 2-1 margin, generally supports military action against Iraq to remove Saddam, a slight increase from recent weeks, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll out Monday. Opinion was evenly divided when people were asked about an attack without an attempt to gain U.N. backing.
Aides said the president was not using the speech as an opportunity to list which nations would join the U.S. in fighting Iraq, but the president said he has received assistance from Middle East governments who "delivered public and private messages urging the dictator to leave Iraq so that disarmament can proceed peacefully. He has thus far refused."
The list of nations offering military support would come only after the fighting had started, when the president would address the nation from the Oval Office, aides said.
However, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his nation would be offering military support. The Parliament in Australia, which has 2,000 military personnel in the Persian Gulf, was planning on voting on a non-binding resolution on support for the war, but whatever the outcome, the federal cabinet agreed Tuesday morning to agree to join U.S. military action.
White House and congressional sources said Bush intends to send Congress a bill seeking more than $70 billion to pay for the war.
Seven months ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell helped persuade Bush to seek U.N. approval for military action despite the objections of anti-Saddam hawks like Vice President Dick Cheney.
His diplomacy derailed, Powell sounded ready to turn to war. "The moment of truth is arriving," said the retired Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Persian Gulf War led by Bush's father.
Earlier in the day, Powell said the only way war could be avoided was for "Saddam Hussein and his immediate cohorts to leave the country."
He added that even an 11th-hour effort by Saddam to disarm wouldn't avoid war.
"I can think of nothing Saddam Hussein could do diplomatically," he said. "He had his chance."
Excellent. It's about damn time. It's about time we stop this useless charade with the useless UN, and do what should have been done years ago. Saddam's days are now literally numbered, and soon his threat will no longer exist, despite how much the French, Germans, Russians, Chinese, and anti-Americans love him, and harbor futile hope that he will never do anything. I'm willing to bet that he'll break out some of his chemical weapons during the war, which of course will prove that Bush was right all along.
The UN screwed up big time. This is the beginning of the end for them. And I say, good riddance. The world does not need an international organization that not only allows Saddam to stay in power but tries to stop us from removing him. They no longer serve the best interests of the world and it's time for them to go.
1 PS2 THE GETAWAY Sony
2 PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE Take-Two Interactive
3 PS2 THE SIMS Electronic Arts
4 PS2 YU-GI-OH! DUELISTS Konami
5 PS2 DEVIL MAY CRY 2 Capcom
6 PS2 XENOSAGA EPISODE 1 Namco
7 PS2 .HACK: INFECTION Bandai
8 PS2 DRAGON BALL Z:BUDOKAI Infogrames
9 PS2 MADDEN NFL 2003 Electronic Arts
10 PS2 SOCOM:U.S. NAVY SEALS Sony
11 PS2 T.CLANCY'S GHOST RECON Ubi Soft
12 GBA YU-GI-OH! DUNGEON DICE Konam i
13 PS2 NBA LIVE 2003 Electronic Arts
14 PS2 ATV OFF ROAD FURY 2 Sony
15 XBX T.CLANCY'S GHOST RECON Ubi Soft
16 XBX T.CLANCY'S SPLINTER Ubi Soft
17 PS2 DARK CLOUD 2 Sony
18 PS2 LORD OF RINGS: TOW ERS Electronic Arts
19 PS2 MORTAL KOMBAT: DEADLY Midway
20 XBX HALO Microsoft
21 PS2 TIGER W OODS PGA 2003 Electronic Arts
22 PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS Square EA
23 XBX DOA: BEACH VOLLEYBALL Tecmo
24 GCN METROID PRIME Nintendo
25 GCN MARIO PARTY 4 Nintendo
Source: CSFB estimates based on NPD Funworld data.
The following lists are ranked by retail sales (in dollars). The first number is the rank, the second number is the retail sales, the final number is the number of units. For example, The Getaway (PS2) is ranked #1, had revenue of $12,060,060, and sold 304,069 copies.
Top 10 Selling Games for PS2 for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 THE GETAWAY Sony 12,060,060 $ 304,069
2 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE Take-Two Interactive 9,079,400 $ 182,837
3 THE SIMS Electronic Arts 8,520,829 $ 171,142
4 YU-GI-OH! DUELISTS Konami 7,339,460 $ 147,493
5 DEVIL MAY CRY 2 Capcom 5,750,466 $ 116,067
6 XENOSAGA EPISODE 1 Namco 5,723,964 $ 114,896
7 .HACK: INFECTION Bandai 4,687,284 $ 95,066
8 DRAGON BALL Z:BUDOKAI Infogrames 3,955,401 $ 81,724
9 MADDEN NFL 2003 Electronic Arts 3,752,919 $ 75,419
10 SOCOM:U.S. NAVY SEALS Sony 3,568,924 $ 59,647
Top 10 Selling Games for Xbox for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 T.CLANCYS GHOST RECON Ubi Soft 2,898,458 $ 60,606
2 T.CLANCY'S SPLINTER Ubi Soft 2,891,552 $ 59,508
3 HALO Microsoft 2,608,724 $ 54,857
4 DOA: BEACH VOLLEYBALL Tecmo 2,357,513 $ 47,886
5 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 1,642,945 $ 33,521
6 INDIANA JONES:EMPEROR LucasArts 1,280,973 $ 26,131
7 MECH ASSAULT Microsoft 1,278,521 $ 26,689
8 TIGER WOODS PGA 2003 Electronic Arts 1,127,403 $ 22,725
9 MEDAL HONOR FRONTLINE Electronic Arts 1,050,845 $ 21,195
10 NBA LIVE 2003 Electronic Arts 1,049,792 $ 21,143
Top 10 Selling Games for GameCube for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 METROID PRIME Nintendo 2,035,031 $ 68,873
2 MARIO PARTY 4 Nintendo 1,993,635 $ 60,539
3 SUPER SMASH BRO MELEE Nintendo 1,585,663 $ 47,771
4 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 1,518,543 $ 30,600
5 ANIMAL CROSSING Nintendo 1,384,332 $ 27,813
6 SKIES OF ARCADIA LGND Sega 1,274,151 $ 24,881
7 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE Nintendo 1,176,820 $ 23,866
8 STAR FOX ADVENTURES Nintendo 973,251 $ 29,715
9 RESIDENT EVIL ZERO Capcom 915,378 $ 30,297
10 GODZILLAESTRY MELEE Infogrames 864,918 $ 19,885
Top 10 Selling Games for GBA for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Source: NPD.
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 YU-GI-OH! DUNGEONDICE Konami 3,418,645 $ 114,288
2 ZELDA: LINK TO PAST Nintendo 1,814,208 $ 59,520
3 YU-GI-OH! ETERNAL Konami 1,813,388 $ 61,157
4 KIRBY: N IGHTMARE Nintendo 1,646,332 $ 55,950
5 YU-GI-OH! DARK DUEL Konami 1,316,932 $ 47,534
6 YOSHI'S ISLAND:MARIO3 Nintendo 1,019,939 $ 33,538
7 SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 Nintendo 949,014 $ 30,993
8 METROID FUSION Nintendo 857,700 $ 28,686
9 SONIC ADVANCE THQ 800,565 $ 26,820
10 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 796,759 $ 24,775
Commentary:
The free game deal seems to have given GCN a boost in hardware sales, but the 103% increase over January was still not enough to outpace Xbox for the month. In addition, the spike in sales of hardware seems to be ephemeral (short-lived). A BestBuy employee that tracks sales of his retail chain predicts with confidence that "PS2>Xbox>GCN" in March.
On the software side of things, GCN titles are having a tough time breaking into the top 25. Only Metroid Prime and Mario Party have accomplished this in the month of February. With sales of 68,873 for the month, Metroid steadily moves past the 800,000 mark with 827,248 total sales. The average Metroid Prime sold for about 30$, which, assuming that Metroid sold for either 0 or $50, means that about 40701 of the 68873 titles sold for $50. That's actually an increase from last month's sales of around 36,000. Mario Party 4 is scratching at the door of 600,000 copies with a total of 595,177. Like Metroid, Mario Party isolated sales increased from 32,580 to 39,873.
Skies of Arcadia:Legends has sold a total of 44,574 copies. While nothing to celebrate over, it's nice to see that it didn't bomb like it did in Japan. I was quite scared after it only sold 20,000 units in January during the key first days of its release.
London newspaper Metro recently met up with Shigeru Miyamoto to discuss a number of matters.
Metro: You've been involved in games for three decades now. Why has it taken you so long to come to Europe?
Miyamoto: I should have come much earlier, but for years I have been barely able to leave the Nintendo buildings let alone come to Europe. But I'm here now.
Metro: Have Nintendo kept you locked up all this time?
Miyamoto: I like to be in the centre of the game-making process, so it's not the company, it's me.
Metro: At 50, aren't you getting a bit old for computer games?
Miyamoto: I don't feel like I'm too old to come up with new ideas. I'm often working with young creators but I don't get the feeling I'm much older than they are. I'm a Dracula-like person. Just like he was always trying to get his energy from the blood of young ladies, so I get energy by working with younger people. As to playing computer games, I must be one of the best 50-year-old game players around, and I really don't have any concerns about it because I enjoy it.
Metro: Universal accused you of ripping off King Kong with Donkey Kong. Was there any truth behind that?
Miyamoto: It surprised me that a big company like Universal ever accused Nintendo but it just showed how important a role video games now play in society. I didn't feel I'd violated anyone's copyright: Donkey Kong is completely different from King Kong. It was interesting that they claimed for more damages than the Donkey sales would ever generate.
Metro: You've been called the Spielberg of computer games. Have you ever thought of making a movie?
Miyamoto: No I haven't. What I make is interactive entertainment. This type of entertainment is the area where I can show the unique aspects of myself. If I tried to make movies it would be an insult to movie directors with the experience, skills and talent.
Metro: If I made a game about a Greek mustachioed electrician called George, would you sue me?
Miyamoto: As long as the game system is not identical, I won't!
Metro: How do you feel about the GameCube's first year?
Miyamoto: The current sales figures are not satisfactory. There is a lot of room for us to improve. But in terms of gameplay and the reception of those who own one, we are very pleased. That's something we can be proud of.
Metro: With Sony being dominant and Microsoft joining the competition, can Nintendo continue to compete in the console market?
Miyamoto: In recent years, what all three companies have been doing looks similar, at least to the eyes of the general public. But it's now becoming clear that we are doing things differently. Nintendo have created a family entertainment gaming machine with the GameCube, whereas the others seem to be using theirs to sell further gadgets as peripherals. For this reason, I think we can compete.
Metro: As a creative mind, do you find the confrontational nature of the games market - and talk of a console war - tiresome?
Miyamoto: It's not all about competition. We should be looking at who is offering a unique experience and who can create a new user base for the video game market. We all need to encourage people who are currently non-gamers to start playing. If all we do is talk about a battle between the three consoles, and which one is doing better, that will do nothing for the games industry as a whole.
Metro: Games are still developing rapidly as an experience. When will this level of improvement reach a plateau?
Miyamoto: In terms of the technology, we are already experiencing certain limitations. It is now going to be difficult to greatly improve the visual experience on a TV monitor. Also, whenever you make a technological advancement it increases development costs. So that's not the direction we should all be taking. In terms of creative and unique experiences involved with interactive entertainment there is still enormous room for improvement. That's the arena creators have to focus on. We are starting to realise that many games have become too complicated for ordinary people to even go near. In the beginning games were much easier so we are now trying to offer create games that are simple while being content-rich.
By the way, it's legit.
I thought the comment about unsatisfactory sales was interesting. But I guess when you expect Zelda to boost sales of GCN in Japan and it ends up selling less than 700,000 copies (with very little effect on console sales) so far, you'd feel unsatisfactory as well.
On this server is a rather extensive history of Tendo City (I.E. I saved every post from the UBB, but not in such a way that it could be imported). There are quite a number of threads from the Tendo City forum in particular that are just totally FUBAR. But there are also a lot that are not, and apparently every other forum was unaffected by this, to the extent that I've seen. I also still have every post that was in Rumble City as of February 16, 2001. There are at least 4,000 total threads by my estimate, between the two, and it is my goal to make a full archive of all of these. However, as you can tell that will be a hell of a daunting task for one person.
The good news is that the UBB's threads, those that are not FUBAR, are in mostly good shape and need little to no work. The bad news is that the Rumble City threads do need some work, fixing images mostly.
So what I'd like to know is if there are any brave souls here who possess a nice HTML editor (trust me, you'll really want to have it), and wouldn't mind helping me fix the pages that need fixing. I'll be honest, it will take a long time, because there are a lot of RC threads, but if that doesn't bother you and you're interested in helping me do this, let me know. I have all the RC threads saved locally on my PC and I can send them all to you. The old TC threads are still on this server, and can be accessed as thus:
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