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If you're a long-time reader of Master Gamer, you've probably figured out by now that it takes a lot to impress me. Most of the games that get a lot of hype from other publications aren't exciting to me in the least bit. So when I actually am excited about a particular game, you know it must be pretty damn promising. This feature outlines all of the games set for release this year that I'm excited about. Some of these games are intriguing because of their high level of ambition, some of them are intriguing because I loved their predecessors so much, and some of them are intriguing because of the novelty of online gaming on a console. All of the games are listed in random order. PlayStation 2 Games -Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee will probably be even more involving than its predecessors due to the advanced Artificial Intelligence found in the enemies and the Mudokons. Game Speak and Game Emotion will supposedly be expanded as well. It's amazing how excited I am about Munch's Oddysee given that it's still not entirely clear just what the hell it is that you do in the game. But with Oddworld Inhabitants behind it and with the high level of ambition that they bring to the project, Munch's Oddysee is sure to be far more original than most other PS2 games. -Madden NFL 2001 will almost certainly see a huge leap in graphics similar to the leap between Madden '98 and Madden '99. Hopefully there will also be a big leap in gameplay like there was between '98 and '99, although I can see how the new graphics engine could cause EA to focus on graphics over gameplay. Let's hope that EA also expands the Franchise Mode to make it even deeper. If Madden 2001 has an expanded Franchise Mode and NFL 2K1 doesn't have any Franchise Mode at all, that could give EA enough an edge to counter-act NFL 2K1's online capabilities. -Kessen is an intriguing game because it will hopefully take Koei's classic strategy game formula to the next level. The addition of an in-depth story line and other RPG elements should help make it even deeper than Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. It also doesn't hurt that Romance of the Three Kingdoms looks like an NES game and Kessen is graphically amazing. There is a lot of Japanese text that needs to be translated into English, so let's hope that Koei doesn't under-estimate the importance of a good translation. Dreamcast Games -I'm very excited about Shenmue, if for no other reason because it's one of the most ambitious games ever created. It's a very appealing concept to play through a huge game in what appears to be a living, breathing world. Shenmue is set to have the largest and most detailed virtual world found in any game, which will either be a blessing or a curse. It could be a blessing by making the game completely non-linear and wide-open. It could be a curse if Sega uses the big virtual world as an excuse to forget about having any flow or pacing to the gameplay and the story. The Japanese-to- English translation will be a big key in the success or failure of Shenmue. -Believe it or not, I am very excited about NFL 2K1. You might find this puzzling if you're one of the readers who was angered by my NFL 2K Review, but it's true. The original NFL 2K came very, very close to being a truly great game. It could have been everything it was hyped up to be if only Visual Concepts had balanced the running game. More than anything else, though, it's NFL 2K1's online capabilities that intrigue me. Even if the gameplay itself still can't quite surpass Madden, NFL 2K1 could still have more replay value just because of its online options. -Quake 3: Arena is another Dreamcast game that I'm excited about mostly because of its online capabilities. If it didn't have online capabilities, there's no way I would be excited about it. But playing the game in a recliner will be much more comfortable than playing it at a desk, and so it might be a lot easier to relax and enjoy the game. Being able to play the Dreamcast version of the game against PC players will also add an interesting dynamic to the gameplay. -Black & White is also looking very promising, and this case I'm talking about both single-player and multi-player modes. Any Peter Molyneux game that's this ambitious will definitely be worth a look. Like Munch's Oddysee, it's not completely clear what exactly you do in the game. At its simplest level, you respond to the prayers of little villagers and mold your Titans to your personality in order to get as many people to worship you as possible. How exactly you go about doing this from an hour-to-hour basis is anyone's guess. There are lots question marks surrounding Black & White, but one thing is for sure: If the game ends up failing, it won't be due to a lack of innovation. PlayStation Games All of the PlayStation games that I'm excited about are RPGs: Wild Arms 2, Lunar 2, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy 9. In every single one of these cases, I'm excited about the games because their predecessors were classics, and I have no reason to believe that they won't be too. Wild Arms 2 and Lunar 2 look to extend upon the classic gameplay formulas found in their predecessors, while Chrono Cross and FF9 look very different from their predecessors. FF9 appears to be going back to Final Fantasy's roots in terms of being fantasy-based and less dark, while Chrono Cross is going in the opposite direction. It doesn't seem to be anything like Chrono Trigger, but I'm still putting my trust in Square and believing that they won't disappoint. After all, if any company deserves the benefit of the doubt, it's Square. Nintendo 64 Games I'm not really excited about any N64 games, but if I had to pick one that stands out above the rest, I'd pick Perfect Dark. Perfect Dark looks like it's going to be as good as a first-person shooter can possibly be without online capabilities. The things that make Perfect Dark so promising are the huge amounts of multi-player modes, the incredible variety of options, the addition of computer-controlled bots to the multi- player modes, and the fact that my friend Andy Reiner is actually in the game as a boss and playable deathmatch character. Overall, 11 games made the list for this year (not counting Perfect Dark since it pales in comparison to the other games). Of those 11 games, four of them are for the Dreamcast, four are for the PlayStation, and three are for the PlayStation 2. It might seem strange that the PlayStation is right up there with the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, but not if you take a look back at the last platform transition. In the year that the PlayStation and Saturn were released (1995), the best two games were actually for the Super Nintendo (Chrono Trigger and Donkey Kong Country 2). If I had to break the tie and choose between the four PlayStation games and the four Dreamcast games, I would definitely choose the four PlayStation games. Most of my anticipation for Quake 3 and NFL 2K1 stems from their online options, which may or may not be enough to carry the games on their own. Black & White and Shenmue could revolutionize gaming, but there is also a chance that they could fall flat on their faces. The four PlayStation games are much more reliable choices because they're RPGs from companies that know better than anyone how to make great RPGs. I'm sure that some of the games listed above are going to be disappointments, and I'm also sure that there will be some great games released this year that aren't listed above. Ultimately, we won't know until the year is over whether the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, or Dreamcast takes the crown for most AAA games in 2000. However, it's clear from taking a look at the games listed above that all three systems will be well worth owning. Then things are really going to get crazy when the X-Box and Dolphin are released in 2001... Send your thoughts on this feature to ivan@mastergamer.com
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com