Console companies square off
By Dave Gerardi -- Playthings, 6/11/2002 9:57:00 AM
With Microsoft and Sony boasting at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo about the shear volume of games that will be available for their respective consoles by the fall (200-plus for Xbox and a staggering 400 for PlayStation 2), Nintendo chimed in at just over 150. Quantity, it seems, isn't everything.Ultimately, says Shelley Olhava, senior analyst at Farmingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, quality will win out. Nintendo's consoles have historically offered fewer games than the competition at Sony. But the gameplay in the titles from their first-party franchises, such as Mario and Zelda, has always been superb.
Come August, Mario hits the beach in Super Mario Sunshine. He finally takes a break from turtle-bashing for a much needed vacation. All is not as it seems, however, and Mario must blast away unsightly sludge from the tropic paradise with his new water cannon jetpack. The jetpack allows moves never before available in a Mario game. Nintendo's other major franchise, Zelda, gets the GameCube treatment in The Legend of Zelda, a fully immersive role-playing/adventure game with its best graphics to date. The result, says Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, is "you finally have your very own cartoon."
Microsoft, meanwhile, will debut Blinx: The Time Sweeper. Blinx, the protagonist in this multi-level platformer, has a time machine strapped to his back that allows him to manipulate temporal elements much like a VCR. Players can, for example, slow down, pause or even record and play back action in order to get past several obstacles. The bridge is out? Rewind time and watch the bridge reform from crumbled pieces.
Sony's long awaited SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs pits players against terrorists by focusing on teamwork rather than Rambo-style heroics. The included headset uses voice recognition technology to allow the player to issue commands to his troops. Alternatively, users can hook up via broadband Internet connection and speak to each other in an 8-on-8 wargame. The various missions include hostage rescues, reconnaissance and ambushes.
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