¢JAGUAR GAMEOLOGY - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE OVERPRICED¢by Daniel ODI Baverstock¢9/3/95 - Updated 11th May 1995¢¢¢ Well, you've got to hand it to Atari, they're certainly consistent. The only problem is that it's in sabotaging the Jaguar's chance of gaining a good reputation and staying around long enough to ultimately succeed.¢¢ Whenever Atari endeavours to create a successful system there is always a weak spot somewhere along the line. In the Jaguar's case it's the availability of worthy games.¢¢ Fair enough, there are titles already on the shelves and many others in the pipeline. However, unlike the Playstation, Saturn, 3DO and eagerly awaited Ultra 64 (with a distant 1996 release date), the majority of Jag games aren't in the same league as other next generation games. Excluding the current games DOOM, Iron Soldier and Alien vs Predator (despite it's flawed game play), the remainder of current and proposed new games hardly show off the capabilities of the Jaguar!¢¢ At this current point in advanced console development, the games produced for the other formats really look fantastic. While Atari has concentrated on bringing out the dated and uninspiring Double Dragon 5 and the unplayable Kasumi Ninja, the other systems' games have turned heads.¢¢ The Ultra 64 is already advertising their massive beat'em'up Killer Instinct long before it's release and it looks absolutely gorgeous!¢¢ Sega and Sony are coming through with the highly acclaimed new polygon beat'em'ups Virtua Fighter, Tekken and even Virtua Fighter II. All the time even these are being superseded by better looking and more impressive games.¢¢ While Atari is boasting about Club Drive (despite it's boring graphics and pointless gameplay) and advertising the sub-standard Checkered Flag, the other formats are storming ahead.¢¢ Trevor McFur's Crescent Galaxy may look good but it plays poorly and falls into the same league as 16-bit horizontal shoot'em'ups. (Although this isn't always a bad thing as many of the other consoles' new releases are similar.)¢¢ As for the Jaguar's other shoot'em'up, Raiden - compared with the PSX's (Playstation's) Raiden Project, the graphics are very poor and gameplay far inferior!¢¢ The 3DO has Road Rash and The Need for Speed. The Playstation has the eye-popping Ridge Racer, while the Saturn is pushing Daytona USA and the Ultra 64 has the arcade smash Crusin' USA. The graphics and gameplay in these games are outstanding!¢¢ While the Saturn has the graphically stunning Panzer Dragoon, Virtuoso is scheduled for the Jaguar, a not too impressive DOOM-style blast'em'up that has been on the 3DO for a while.¢¢ Platformers on the Jaguar include Zool 2 and Bubsy the Bobcat, both fairly standard and a tad long in the tooth. Yet the 3DO has the beautiful GEX on release, boasting 450 frames of character animation and fantastic colour landscapes and sprites.¢¢ The new Jaguar games seem to either fall into the first-person-perspective DOOM mould (Legion of the Undead soon to join them), the new generation simulator (Cybermorph, Battlemorph, Aircars, etc), or the straight forward 16-bit conversion. ¢¢ What any new console needs when introducing itself into the market is variety and a certain amount of originality!¢¢¢Jaguar - Pipped at the Post?¢¢ Further threats to the Jaguar include the planned released, on behalf of the computer giants Apple (in collaboration with toy giants Bandai), of the super console... the 'Pippin'! ¢¢ Bandai will release it as the 'Power Player' (a wise move I think!). It boasts a PC 603 chip and a quad-speed drive! Games scheduled include Rebel Assault, the strange MYST and Sim City 2000. No news of any original titles as yet.¢¢ The Japanese company SNK (behind the originally cart based Neo-Geo) have the now CD-based 16-bit Neo-Geo already out in Japan and gaining interest with a wide choice of arcade perfect games. These include the beat'em'ups King of Fighters '94, The Art of Fighting 2, Fatal Fury 3 and Samurai Showdown 1 & 2.¢¢ Sport simulators and shoot'em'ups are plentiful too, including the Super Sidekicks footie series of sport simulators and the shoot'em'ups Ghost Pilots, Aerofighters 2 and Viewpoint.¢¢ One major drawback with the Neo-Geo is the slow loading times due to only a single speed drive.¢¢ The Neo-Geo CD unit will soon be released over here, most likely in the beginning of the last quarter.¢¢¢CD-ROMS away!¢¢ Of course despite the obvious lack of realisation on Atari's behalf that their games aren't doing the Jaguar any justice, the main problem right now is simple. The current Jag games are cartridge based while all other formats are running off CD-ROM.¢¢ Thankfully, the Jaguar double speed CD-ROM drive has just been released and looks very promising. The retail price is cheaper than expected. With built in virtual light machine it's just 150 pounds!¢¢ If that isn't a good enough deal (what do ya want, blood?), it's being packaged off with a CD game (the excellent Blue Lightning - described later).¢¢ As you no-doubt already know, the CD-ROM drive can play audio CDs, Kareoke CDs and Movie CDs (with the MPEG cart plugged in). Just one CD can carry three whole hours of Full Motion Video, 24 frames a second!¢¢ The drive is out now so go and buy it as soon as possible.¢¢ A further great market decision has come from Virgin (about time!). They have bought up Rumbelow's bankrupt stock of Jaguars and are selling them for a fantastic 149 pounds! At this price, a combination of Jaguar and drive will still be cheaper than a 3DO and most of the other consoles (around 300 pounds).¢¢¢Good Show, Chaps!¢¢ At the Las Vegas C.E.S. show the Jaguar CD-ROM drive was plugged extensively. As well as the add-on, Atari have also plans to bring out a completely re-designed all-in-one cart/CD-ROM Jaguar. This exciting new revelation has grabbed the attention of initially sceptical reviewers and magazines who are finally starting to give the Jaguar due credit. An amazing 299 pounds price tag has been quoted and it's expected to be released at the end of the year, directly contending with the Saturn and Playstation releases.¢¢ Just in case you're wondering how high scores and level positions can be saved on CD in a similar way to cart games such as Alien vs Predator, a battery backed memory saver cartridge will be available, plugging into the in-line cart socket in the drive. No price is available at the moment.¢¢ A more recent ECTIS 95 computer show saw the under-represented Jaguar dwarfed by the Sony PSX stand. No CD games were on show, only a few demos, while the carts weren't exactly eye-popping. Why can't Atari get it right for once?¢¢¢Camera...and Action!¢¢ More good news! The MPEG movie cart will be available soon for 99 pounds, 100 pounds cheaper than originally priced!¢¢¢Responsibility¢¢ Despite all this great news, it still does little for the general poor quality of current and new cart games or re-released titles. Many CD titles are on the way but will be leaked in gradually thoughout 1995 which mightn't be enough for people to justify buying the drive.¢¢ The carts, therefore, have a reputation to uphold. While CD games are introduced, the carts have the responsibility to look, sound and play to the best of the Jaguar's ability. Sadly, this just isn't what they are doing. Nearly all the cart releases lack either in graphics, sound or gameplay - some in all areas! As I have mentioned in past articles, Atari seem to be simply filling up the shelves with as many titles as possible. A big mistake! To top that, they seem to be in no particular hurry about it!¢¢¢Embarrassing!¢¢ Double Dragon 5 was given a 23% review score and was criticised by many magazines as being, and I quote, "total crap!".¢¢ Kasumi Ninja has been heavily slated for it's lack of depth in gameplay, slow response and jerky animation despite having great graphics.¢¢ Club Drive was totally slated by all (apart from Atari publications... surprise, surprise!).¢¢ Checkered Flag was criticised for having "bland graphics and gameplay".¢¢ A definite comparison was made with Virtua Racer Deluxe at one time, which is apparently far superior on the Sega 32X! Oh the shame!¢¢ A skiing and snow boarding game called Val D'isere is blisteringly fast but gameplay is limited, needing a lot more variety according to those who are trying to play it.¢¢ Looking at games like Troy Aikman NFL Football and Aircars is, quite frankly, embarrassing!¢¢ World Class Cricket looks like it's a straight forward conversion of the 16-bit Amiga game. The graphics in the pre-production versions of the game are poor, neglecting a massive amount of the 16 million+ colour pallette.¢¢¢Old!¢¢ A few of the titles available or approaching release are simply re-hashes of old smash hits. Atari, like they did with the Lynx, are releasing redesigned smashes from the 1980s such as Battlezone (released as Hover Strike) and Tempest 2000. Star Raiders is back as Star Raiders 2000 (release date TBA) and the well known Commando (September) will be joining it on the shelves.¢¢ Dactyl Joust sounded suspiciously like the rather boring Joust, an early 8-bit game. Recent information shows it to be a first-person-perspective version of "the rather boring 8-bit game" where the player rides on the Dactyl's back! This is expected in June.¢¢ Although re-hashing dated and worn out game ideas is generally not wise (releasing games like Qix and Joust for the Lynx didn't do it any good) some game ideas do stand the test of time. The mainly Amiga title Super Stardust is an example. It's gameplay deriving from the Atari Asteroids format. However, this is heavily improved with stunning graphics, animation and sound effects (an important factor which Atari often neglects when re-hashing old ideas).¢¢¢The Re-released¢¢ In addition to old game re-hashes, games that have been out on many formats for a substantial period are now coming out on the Jaguar. Again, not exactly ground-breaking!¢¢ For example, the great game Cannon Fodder has been out for ages and the sequel is out already on other formats. Others include Hardball III (October), Sensible Soccer, Flashback, Theme Park, Zool II and Kick Off 3.¢¢ Alone in the Dark is out soon, yet PC users will soon be seeing Alone in the Dark 3 on their SVGA screens. Even planned CD titles like Space Ace and Dragon's Lair have been out for a long time.¢¢ These games may indeed be good, but they are putting the Jaguar on a lower level to the other next generation formats and placing it in the same position the CD32 has found itself, i.e. that of a machine which supports mostly conversions, and inferior conversions at that!¢¢ Many have been out for 1-2 years so everyone knows about them. Therefore, they aren't going to turn heads like the next generation games will. They're less likely to entice people to buy the Jaguar if the games are available on cheaper 16-bit consoles.¢¢ Besides, most were written for 16-bit computers and consoles in the first place. For example, Flashback hasn't been improved graphically for the Jaguar at all. Why? This makes it that much harder for the Jaguar to compete against the other next generation consoles with their brand new games.¢¢ Thank God the acclaimed Mortal Kombat III will be released. MK II, however, will arrive first.¢¢¢continued...¢
