Sega Genesis Collection

Whereas Midway Arcade Treasures 3 stuck to racing games and Taito Legends 2 brought us plenty of previously import-only curios, this thirty-strong collection from Sega is pleasingly wide-ranging. Content spans from 1988’s Super Thunder Blade right up to 1996’s 2D version of Virtua Fighter II. That wasn’t the last game for the Mega Drive – …

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Hamsterz

It may have a hateful ‘z’ in the title, but this wasn’t originally anything to do with Ubisoft’s dire Catz and Dogz games. Love Love Hamster is the name it went by in Japan, and it has simply been rebranded to fit into the French publisher’s pet pampering portfolio. Over in the US it has …

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Poor Boris

It’s Internet law for us to mention Boris Johnson’s Telegraph column decrying that computer games rot the brain. It’s all too easy to criticise the piece, but there are a couple of genuinely intriguing points. For one thing, Boris clearly thinks that he’s making an original, outrageous point – “it is time someone had the …

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Halo and goodbye

A few years back there were rumours of Halo appearing on Game Boy Advance. Certain websites laughed at the idea, but not us: an isometric shooter set in the Halo universe would have worked just fine on the handheld. Plus, when the rumours emerged, Mircosoft were readying a Game Boy Advance version of Xbox launch …

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Two to touch

Despite being reviewed months ago, Micro Machines V4 has finally managed to make it out onto Nintendo DS this week. Our best guess for the delay is that Codemasters thought all the lucky people who received a DS for Christmas will go out and buy it. The only other game out is another Codemasters effort …

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Power Stone Collection

By the time Sega were ready to release the Dreamcast in Europe and the US, a decent launch line-up had amassed. Sonic Adventure wasn’t the first 3D Sonic game, but it’s still arguably the greatest, Virtua Fighter 3 was almost arcade perfect, Toy Commander put a neat twist on war games, and Hyrdo Thunder was …

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NBA 2K7

Although we didn’t review them, we are well aware that EA managed to balls up – no pun intended – this year’s NBA Live updates. One reviewer even reckoned that it was “literally” impossible to stop opponents from scoring. Wait just a second. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of 2K Sports coming to …

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Still got time to write a line

Paul ‘Mr Biffo’ Rose, former Teletext pixel-art master and all round nice guy, has finished penning his 288 page book Confessions of a Chatroom Freak. Extract-me-do: VWXman: hey there LoopyLisa21f (Biffo): Hello, dear. VWXman: so wot do u do then?? work, play, student, mummy, housewife?? LoopyLisa21f: I’m training to be a school teacher, and at …

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Cars and football – again

Need for Speed Carbon has been toppled from top of the chart to #3, with Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and FIFA 07 taking places #2 and #1 respectively. Wii Zelda – which was at #11 last week – is out of the Top 40 entirely. In fact, there are no Wii-exclusives in the chart at …

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Predictions for 2007

» The PlayStation 2 will become a dumping ground for crap, with Little Britian: The Videogame in particular being a steaming festering pile. » Sony will finally get around to releasing some PSP games that people actually want to play. They will also launch a new version of the PSP, with built in microphone, camera …

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2007: Reasons to be Cheerful

Okay, 2006 ended on a hugely cynical note, so let’s start 2007 with a dose of unrealistic and unjustified optimism. First, PlayStation 3. The launch line-up might be depressingly familiar, but imagine if something were to come along in 2007 that actually justifies the £400 plus price tag. Just imagine how good that game would …

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2006: Quiz of the Year

Do you remember 2006? “Of course I do.” Ah, but do you? Do you really? Science has determined that there is only one way to find out: by taking our needlessly cynical end of year quiz. Microsoft charmingly ignored the original Xbox entirely in 2006. This left the Xbox 360 with: A lot to answer …

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OBE for SCi

It’s 2007 New Year Honours time, and there’s a new member of the games industry OBE gang, which currently counts among its members Argonaut founder Jez San (2002), Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux (2005) and former important man at Eidos Ian Livingstone (2006). It’s SW19’s Ms Jane Cavanagh, SCi founder and effectively the woman who put an …

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Arthur and the Invisibles

You probably know all about Atari’s money woes. Things took a turn for the worst around a year ago, prompting them sell a handful of studios and flog a few of their franchises, such as Stuntman and Driver. But rather than shut up shop for good they’re sticking to their guns, hoping to be back …

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It’s another games show

As executives try to find ways to make programmes for ever less money, ‘user-generated content’ is slowly turning television into the Internet but without the less rubbish bits. MTV Flux is leading this erosion of the already dubious quality of digital TV. And they’ve only gone and done a games programme. Up Up Down Down …

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