NGC Issue 73 (November 2002)

NOVEMBER 2002

The full magazine is available for download here - http://kiwis.world/index.php/component/jdownloads/download/269-ngc-magazine/2813-071

*REVIEWS*

90%+:

75-89%:

50-74%:

30-49%:

0-29%:

Some great games this month. It cannot be stated how big a deal Timesplitters 2 was in a post-N64 world - it just had so much to do for solo players too. The platinum trophies feel like what inspired Sony's PlayStation trophies system, the massive roster of wacky characters is still impressive and the humour for an FPS is something the game industry misses, particularly on non-Nintendo platforms.

Discussion in the news about price cuts for the PS2 and Xbox (£170 and £160 respectively) while Nintendo kept the Gamecube at £130 reminds how late I was to pick up a Cube (when they hit £99). This was a few months after the Dreamcast was in clearance sales at Dixons (£50 for the console), but still, £130 for a Nintendo console is something I do miss. The Switch price is the main hurdle stopping me jumping onboard and the Cube era feels like the last time you could affordably purchase two consoles (Wii seemed to maintain it's value and the Wii-U rarely dipped below £200). Obviously, inflation will affect some of these figures. Did anyone have a Cube as their lone console? I kind of envy you if so as I never went balls deep on Metroid, Wind Waker or even Sunshine, because of Other Formats.

Nevertheless, Timesplitters 2 is a gem and Sunshine is on the ol' Xmas list as I know my 5 year old will enjoy it too (she can't really play Galaxy with them there Wii controls, despite enjoying the game itself).

Sunshine is the first game I'm firing up when the GCVC makes its debut, so I can dive back into the sun-kissed beauty of Isle Delfino and kick the butt of those Void levels. A bold experiment that pays off.

I'd also quite like to get in on this 'Timesplitters 2' that I've heard a bit about.

I would have got Sunshine and Super Monkey Ball 2 (When it came to the UK), TimeSplitters 2 I would have got on XBOX as it supported system link plus it would been a better version.

I had all 4 systems that gen as they where pretty well priced (I think this gen is cheap part from the Switch which is new and in reflection to 3DS & VITA launch is, and now for the price of the Xbox One at launch you can get a PS4 & One pretty much with money left over) but I could easily just be a gamer on Cube or Xbox post Dreamcast.

What a week to be alive! Mario Sunshine, Timesplitters 2... Super Monkey Ball 2 only being the third best game.

And I can confirm, after taking a punt on it for cheap, Tetris Worlds achieves the seemingly impossible and makes Tetris unplayable.

Jimbob wrote:

Tetris Worlds achieves the seemingly impossible and makes Tetris unplayable.

In a weird way I'd love to see that. I'll report back after I've squeezed something out of The YouTube.

Ubisoft must of copied that version of Tetris for the recentish one on PSN.

gjones wrote:

Did anyone have a Cube as their lone console? I kind of envy you if so as I never went balls deep on Metroid, Wind Waker or even Sunshine, because of Other Formats.

Aye, Cube was my only console after I broke my PS2 at the start of 2003. I remember the GameCube wasn't selling that well (even at £130), and all the major shops were basically clearing out of all their related stock. GameCube was my sole console because of this, and I was able to go balls-deep into several of the games reviewed in this NGC issue because they were so cheap. I rattled through so many games that year - I can remember Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, Smuggler's Run Warzones, MX Superfly and UFC Throwdown quite well as I beat them after picking them all up for basically hee-haw. It got to the stage where you could buy some of the games for about the same price as it would cost to rent them for a weekend from Blockbuster. Cheap Nintendo is something I miss too.

I'll read the issue another time, but my immediate thoughts on those review scores are that Super Monkey Ball 2s is a little bit high, and Magical Mirror should be about 20% lower. No joke, it's a good shout for being the most boring game I've ever played.

I had the opposite problem as the Cube wasn't that popular, to get games you had to preorder and get on day one or you weren't getting them.

I know Zero has had similar problems now with 3DS.

GameCube definitely wasn't popular at all. I think most of the shops around me overestimated the demand for it, and it wasn't that long after launch that stuff was being heavily discounted. I remember getting Timesplitters 2 - a proper gem indeed - and Tony Hawk's 4 for Christmas, both of them on GameCube for the price of one of them on PS2. We've got the Switch Tax in 2017; in 2002, it was like a GameCube Tax Reduction.

It felt the same for the N64 and later the Wii U, around here just couldn't get games for them and I guess the 3rd party games like you bring up also wouldn't be popular due to the whole Nintendo fans don't buy 3rd party stereotype.

Now we've got a similar issue with Switch as the N64, cartridge tax and likes of 2k skimping on cart sizes.