Electronic Gaming (August)

80 Pages·2006·12.559 MB·English

SPECIAL PREVIEW ISSUE • SPECIAL PREVIEW ISSUE • SPECIAL PREVIEW ISSUE
WWW.1UP.COM
ARMY OF TWO:
EA'S BADASS VISION
OF NEXT-GEN WARFARE
TOP 50 PREVIEWED:
• LEGO STAR WARS 2
• FINAL FANTASY III
E (OK, DON’T FORGET ALL SEQUELS...)
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COOLEST NEW GAMES KHIODW D AE 1V0-EYLEOAPR-EORLD
MADE AND SOLD HIS
FDOORWGNET T THHEE B SEESQT UOERLISG IANNADL LGIACMENESSE CDO CMRIANPG.. .YWOEU CRO WUANYT OWN VIDEOGAME
contents
issue 206 • august 2006
LETTERS
12 Ruffled feathers and opinions
galore from our readers
PRESS START
The best news, features, and
gaming tidbits on the planet
18 AMERICA’S LEAST
WANTED:JACK THOMPSON
How things went bad for
the controversial do-gooder
24 PREVIEW: LEGO STAR WARS II
Death Star attacks, wookies,
ewoks, and much more
30 GAME BANDS
The music—and
games that inspired it
36 MICROSOFT’S HANDHELD
Come on, you know
they’re making it
38 KID DEVELOPER
The best summer camp ever
40 PREVIEW: NEED FOR
SPEED CARBON
A sequel with a lot of horsepower
42 RUMOR MILL
A new Batman game and an 52
Earthbound compilation are among
TOP 50
the lies that just may be true
COVER STORY:
44 PREVIEW: FINAL FANTASY III
TheFinal Fantasy that
America never got
GAME OVER E
H
Don’t leave just yet T
98 SEANBABY’S REST OF THE CRAP
A look at the peripherals of the future
100 CROSSWORD/GRUDGE MATCH
COOLEST NEW GAMES
102 EGM RETRO
We look back at Castlevania:
Symphony of the Night
104 FINAL WORD
EGM’s rookies go toe-to-toe EA’s gritty, co-op-crazy Army of Two (check out exclusive details and
105 NEXT MONTH screens on page 74) is just one of 50 upcoming games we rank that
106 HSU & CHAN
aren’t based on the same old licensed crap or from the sequel factory
ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA GAME GROUP
EDITORIAL InternRosemary Pinkham HEAD HONCHOS PRODUCTION Consumer Accounts Tipler Ubbelohde
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10• ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com
EDITORIAL
Any time you get that urge
to head to the game store,
it’s easy to succumb to that
security-blanket feeling you
get by picking up the latest
Tony Hawk, Madden, or Ratchet & Clank title
24
instead of that unfamiliar but critically acclaimed
PREVIEW:
game next to them. And I can’t blame you. Those
LEGO STAR WARS II aforementioned games, which usually review
quite well, are all great titles, fine-tuned to near
The force is strong perfection in their respective genres. And if you
with this sequel played and enjoyed a previous edition, you know
you’re probably in for a good time. You probably
also know that you aren’t in for that first-time
thrill—and when it comes to grading a game’s
true value, that’s a problem.
Yearly sequels are a vital part of the industry,
no doubt (franchises like Splinter Cell and
34 Need for Speed give publishers the means to
TAKE THIS JOB: fund games like Beyond Good & Evil andArmy
of Two), and typically they are fine games.
BOOTH BABE
Hopefully, though, like us, you can appreciate
the difference between a game that innovates
What it takes
and responds to the always-evolving landscape
to be gaming’s of each genre and one that essentially serves as
eye candy a roster update or simply adds new levels and a
new move or gun, leaving the core gameplay to
show more beauty lines of age. I’ll leave it up to
you to figure out which you could easily pass up
for something more scintillating.
EGM is known for having the industry’s
toughest reviews (in fact, more than one game
company has told us that they feared our reviews
the most), which we take pride in. That’s also
why it should come as no surprise that we’re
38
taking a harder stance on sequels running on
the just-good-enough machine and grading them
KID DEVELOPER appropriately. If this pisses off some publishers,
so be it (we’ve been banned from some
We spend some time publishers’ lists before because we were too
with this mini designer harsh on a game). Ideally, it’ll encourage readers
to pick up games that would otherwise be
and review his game
criminally overlooked and publishers to release
sequels worthy of the new number or subtitle.
REVIEW CREW To see that this isn’t a load of puffy-chested
BS, check out our review of EA’s NCAA Football
(page 84). In years past, this franchise has
Xbox 360 Xbox Extra Stuff
deservedly taken home Game of the Month
84 NCAA Football 07 90 Crusty Demons: 95 Review Wrap-up
honors. This year, despite its jump to the Xbox
86 Lord of the Rings: Freestyle Moto-X 97 Review Archive
TMhied dBlea-tetlaer ftohr I I DS ■The Lord of the Rings: 3it6 d0i,d nin’ct rdeod iabnley tvhiisnuga tlso, wanodw suosli,d s go atmhee pslcaoyr,e
The Battle for Middle-earth II
88 Chromehounds 91 Point Blank suffered a bit for it—we want games to win our
88 Over G Fighters 92 Freedom Wings ■NCAA Football 07 ■Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Review Crew awards only if they truly deserve
them. Next, take a look at our cover story,
PlayStation 2 PSP which focuses on our top 50 picks for upcoming
89 Pirates of the 92 Astonishia Story
nonsequel, nonfranchise games. Will a majority—
Caribbean 2: 93 Blade Dancer: The
or even a handful—of these titles feature the
The Legend Lineage of Light
of Jack Sparrow 94 Valkyrie Profile: innovation needed to outscore the steadfast
90 Ruff Trigger: The Lenneth sequels this fall? I have no idea, but I can’t wait
Vanocore Conspiracy to find out. —Greg Ford, Reviews Editor
ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA INC. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
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please call 415-547-8000 & Secretary Game Group) Kristin Holmes (International Licensing) Stephen Veith (Enterprise Group Publishing without written permission from
(Contact anyone on this Gregory Barton Jim Louderback (Editorial Director, Michael Krieger (Market Experts) Director) Ziff Davis Media Inc.
masthead via e-mail using: Consumer/Small Business Group) Rey Ledda (Marketing, Researching and Monica Vila (Event Marketing Group)
[email protected]) Angelo Mandarano (Sales & Events, Game Group) Marci Yamaguchi (Sales, Game Group) is strictly prohibited.
All rights reserved.
ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 11
letters
macho role-playing, creepy kids, founding fathers, and videogaming
Ben Franklin: gamer House of 1,000 corpses first it was Sega versus Nintendo. As more
“God made videogames because he I was just thinking: Now that the next-gen systems came along, a bigger war began to
loves us and wants us to be happy!” Ben systems are coming out, what’s a cool develop. But I don’t see it as being bad. All
Franklin said that. Well, he was actually idea (of mine, of course) that’s too big for three systems have their honors. I’m hoping
talking about beer, but he would have current systems? Well, I had this idea for my opinion helped those out there stressed
said “games” if he were alive now. a game with, like, 1,000 houses. Your mis- about the gaming war. A battle may be won,
What kind of games do you think sion: breaking and entering. It’s a stealth but the war will never end.
Old Ben would play if he were game where you sneak into houses and —Chris Roberts
alive today? Probably Mario Kite attack. But the people might be home,
or something like that. Yeah, so you have to kill them before they Oh, no! There are various videogaming
electricity is cool! can call 911. Just think about break- products for sale! Run for the hills!
—DarkMandalorian ing into 1,000 completely different
houses on a 50-inch plasma! Please Real, scary war
From the portly por- ask someone to make this game, even Holy, flaming crap balls! In response to the
tmBdreeaavnigte sislc ohwapol eluay’lv dgre eo pasorneodeib mDna,aab atnley cd e Illustration by Sean Dallaskidd wIt’mhoou usldtgi lhol n1I l1py.r obbea gbolyo dw iof nit’ tw b—eer eaR byMlae-n rt aoDt uepdnla,l aya.v nIytd l[efeEovtoGetteMr yrp oaf#rnt2ore0om. 4lsM ]J :t yuhI tsgr’stoui nuny gsowh ta h bhroeoo riscsitno i“lgnec s ohztviaolelnnirnte l’hys ie noirn ueI rt aaf doqsrom” i nagll
Dance Revolution habit and lose Letters section has recently become quite Man, kids are really starting to creep city near the Syrian border, oftentimes all
a bit of that beer storage. But, knowing rude and hateful in his responses, antago- us out. Games are great and all, but day and all night. The typical amount of
his taste for the ladies, he’d probably nizing letter-writers who do not deserve it. there’s a limit. Go ride your bike or “downtime” we get ranges from four to
lie around eating Wal-Mart-sized bags —Ephraim Freed something. It’s summertime. eight hours per day. Yet, I have to agree
of Cheetos while playing Dead or Alive. with him—were it not for the escape from
Eat it, you fat virgin! No, wait.... We’re Fake, stupid war reality that videogames, literature, and
Thin-skinned and humorless sorry, baby—sometimes, we just get so A war is brewing, and we have to be bootleg DVDs provide, there would be a lot
I’m a longtime reader who generally crazy ’cause we love you, and we want prepared. There has always been a war. At of psycho soldiers on the loose with loaded ➤
respects the content of EGM, but I must to be with you forever, and when you
take issue with a rather distressing trend write us stupid letters, baby, we just
I’ve noticed in the pages of your publica- want to make fun of you till you cry.
tion: It seems to me that the editor of the But please, baby, don’t go....
LETTER OF Macho, macho man
“The Crying Game” [EGM #205] was a
THE MONTH really interesting article. I think that,
despite what many designers in the story
said, some videogames have achieved
Empathy simulator the goal of making gamers let their
guard down. I mean, who didn’t cry when
I recently read All Quiet on the
Sephiroth gutted Aerith in Final Fantasy
Western Front in my English class.
VII? Even Cloud did, and he is basically
The author, Erich Remarque, describes
the pinnacle of macho-ness.
the horrors of war in a way that would
—Christina Squitieri
send a chill down any Silent Hill
veteran’s spine. Scavenging for food
What about Cloud makes him so
and ammunition, fighting soldiers dur-
macho? Is it his androgynous facial
ing the day, and waging war against
structure, his baby blue eyes, or that
the “corpse rats” at night—it sounds ■ Cloud says: “Who used all my leave-in conditioner? I’ll be frizzy all day!”
carefully gelled and manicured hairdo?
like the premise for a great survival-
horror game. If a game like that came
out, it might influence the youth of POST OFFICE Rambling and ranting from our message boards, CONTACT EGM
boards.1UP.com (look for EGM’s forums)
our country never to start another war
without a purpose. It might allow us to E-mail us at:
“How do videogames make you feel?” [email protected]
look through the eyes of our enemies
and see that they are Or write to:
just like us. I’d like to BizzaroSephiroth: They make me UndergroundBob: Like I can press EGM Letters
play that game. feel like I should be doing some- the “unwreck” button when I hit 101 2nd Street, 8th Floor
—Phillip Strader thing more with my life. bicycle riders with my car. San Francisco, CA 94105
Thanks for the CAMO_FROG: They make me feel poor. Disappeared: Like I could save the For subscription help, contact:
musings, Phillip. Druz3: Gaming makes me feel world if only I had spiky hair. E-mail: [email protected]
For your Letter of like I’m naughty and I need to be PizzaBagel: Guilty, for murdering so Web: http://service.egmmag.com
the Month, you’ll be spanked. many Spanish villagers. Phone: [phone]
receiving a (probably
less interesting) game DaFro: They make me feel like tak- Gringo_Suave: ...like I’m back in To order back issues:
in the mail. ing the day off work. ’Nam. Did you hear something? E-mail: [email protected]
12• ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com
letters
problems than Grand Theft Auto. That is WIN GAME
all. —Mmethan85
GOODS
Casualty of intergalactic war
Why are gamers ridiculed and laughed We’ve hidden movie
at? Just last week I was walking to quotes in this
school when I saw a junior making fun of issue—spot one and
one of my fellow freshmen about being enter to win!
a “Halo nerd” because of his Halo shirt. Go to EGM-
He kept saying crap about the kid and QOTM.1UP.com
pushing him around. I got mad and told (note the new URL!)
the guy to f*** off. Well, then the junior where you can send
grabbed me and gave me a very painful us a message (sub-
dead leg. But this would have been OK, ject head: Movie
if not for my iPod Video. Once I took out Quote: EGM #206) with the quote,
my iPod, I noticed that the screen was the movie it’s from, and the page
cracked and wouldn’t work. number you found it on. Include your
■ Scientific fact: Only red barrels explode when shot. —Michael Haidar mailing address (no PO boxes!) and
your full name, and you could be one
If only you’d been wearing your home- of three lucky winners this month
➤weapons, grenades, rocket launchers, and Wank Hater made MJOLNIR power armor. The junior to receive an exciting arrangement
machine guns. —Sgt. J. I was not very happy with your response would have run in terror, his cheerlead- of game prizes picked out just for
to my previous letter [“Bathroom Break,” er girlfriend would have fallen in love you by us!
Whoa. Screw chocolate chip cookies EGM#204]. If you’re going to make with you, and one student in the crowd
and body armor—send these folks “wanking jokes” in the future, I don’t need would have begun clapping slowly
some games.... to see a full two-page visual of them. I until the rest of the auditorium joined just let them have their high scores and
don’t think any of your other readers do, in raucous applause. throw around all their money. Heck, these
Barrelof lies either. I was talking to a friend of mine gamers are creating business for game
I have to take issue with what Melody about this, and he told me that he had One dollar, one point developers, even ones that aren’t that well
Warbigton wrote [EGM #202] when she been using issue #201 as a visual aid When I look around online Xbox forums, known. People will spend $60 on a half-
complained about enemies seeking cover to show people in his parent-education I often see threads dedicated to bashing decent game just to get 1,000 points.
behind barrels clearly marked as “highly seminars what kind of crap the media was gamers with high gamerscores. I don’t —Simon Schmidt
flammable.” If videogame developers marketing to their kids. In case you forgot, understand how having a high gamerscore
were really concerned with realism, then the cover of issue #201 had a bunch of affects other gamers. It doesn’t take Why should we hate the overprivileged
they would realize that lead bullets do not Disney characters on it as part of your away any privileges or ruin anything for brats who purchase horrible games
spark. There are steel-core bullets that Kingdom Hearts II preview. This is some- people without all those points, so why are just to up their scores? Your Geometry
could ignite gasoline or jet fuel, but it’s thing that would appeal to small children. people hating on these few? We should Wars score is all that matters. P
extremely unlikely that this would happen. What a surprise their parents would have
Outside of using tracer rounds, the likeli- when they pick up this apparently kid-
GAME DESIGN-O-RAMA
hood of making a barrel explode by shoot- friendly magazine and find such a vulgar
ing it is low. It’s more likely the fuel would picture inside. —Jennifer Orr
Got proof that game design is best left to the pros? Send your
run all over the ground and be ignited from
concept (with art) to [email protected], subject: Design-o-rama
the muzzle flash of the enemy standing in Sweet, sweet Jenny. Don’t complain
it. I just wanted to point out something that when the media doesn’t make a good
Accordion Hero
has annoyed me for quite some time. baby-sitter. Raise your own children.
Hit all the right notes and get the crowd on their feet, waving their beer steins in
—Adam Ratmoko Meanwhile, just for reference, here’s
unison! You are an accordion hero! Includes all the great accordion melodies you’ve
that awesome pic again at the bottom
ever gotten really, really drunk to, from “In München Steht Ein Hofbräuhaus” to
What’s that? We were holding our of the page.
fingers in our ears and humming “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” Accordion Hero comes with one gloss-black accordion
“In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins Concise and to the point controller. Kirschrot (cherry red) controller sold separately for two-player squeeze
the whole time. We want to believe. A warning for lazy, self-absorbed, and/or action. Awesomely rad sticker sheet included. —www.phobe.com
Besides, we’ve placed barrels of just plain inattentive parents: All the
kerosene at strategic antiterrorist censorship in the world can’t make up for
points throughout the office as part of bad parenting. If your child is more influ-
our security strategy. If the terrorists enced by games than Mommy and Daddy,
hear you, we’re screwed. you and your offspring have much bigger
■ Wanking gamer says: “EGM turned me into a sexual deviant!”
14• ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com
press start
gaming news, previews, mega man rock operas, and other stuff
>> NINTENDO’S WII WON BEST OF SHOW FROM A CABAL OF CRITICS AT MAY’S E3 GAME SHOW. THE COMPANY ALSO WON AWARDS FOR BEST
18• ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com
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Moral crusader Jack Thompson was the big gun in the crusade against violent
videogames and a menace to the industry—until a gang of gamers fired back
E very good game needs a bad Senator Hillary Clinton’s camp allegedly
guy. Donkey Kong has the big consulted with Thompson before hopping
ape. Resident Evil has the Tyrant. on the bandwagon. For Thompson, it’s
Solid Snake has the severed hand of his more than a public service: It’s a personal
evil clone grafted onto a gunslinger, or crusade. “I’m a Christian,” he tells us, “and
whatever. In the real-life battle over what I believe my ministry of sorts is to fight
you play, there’s no enemy gamers love to battles with these people.”
hate more than Jack Thompson.
This gray-haired 54-year-old Miami Jack attacked
attorney is the Darth Vader of gaming and “These people” have a field day fighting
America’s most notorious crusader against back, crafting anti-Jack blogs and selling
violent and sexually explicit media. Since “I Hate Jack Thompson” T-shirts. Grand
suing rap group 2 Live Crew for obscen- Theft Auto fans made a free download-
ity in 1989, he deftly positioned himself able modification for the PC version
against every new perceived scourge of called “Defamation of Character: A Jack
pop culture. He got Ice-T’s “Cop Killer” Thompson Murder Simulator,” in which
yanked from shelves. He battled Howard gamers play as the attorney, nicknamed
Stern. Following the school shootings in “Banman,” on a killing spree. Jinx.com
Paducah, KY, in 1997, which some tied to pawns toilet paper emblazoned with his
the effects of violent media, Thompson has name. “The amount of energy put into try-
had a new favorite target: videogames. ing to destroy me tells me they know this (cid:81)Beaten at his own game:
From Columbine to the Beltway Sniper, is about something worthwhile,” Thompson Thompson as “Banman” in a
Doom to Grand Theft Auto, he’s the go-to says. But now, following his biggest Grand Theft Auto mod on PC.
alarmist tapped by CNN, the Today Show, battle with players yet, his enemies hope
and60 Minutes. When college campuses Banman’s game may finally be over. Interactive’s chief executive officer Paul Thompsonsoft and “consisting of three
want a debate on the effects of violent vid- The smackdown started last October Eibeler’s choice. “How about it, videogame alcoholics and a foreign-exchange student”
eogames, Thompson assumes his role (on when Thompson penned an open letter to industry?” Thompson challenged. “I’ve got designed and released a free game called
several occasions against this author). But the videogame industry called “A Modest the check and you’ve got the tech. It’s all I’m OK “based on Jack’s masterful design.”
Thompson’s rants are not just idle chat- Video Game Proposal.” In the spirit of a fantasy, right? No harm can come from Just as Thompson outlined, the game lets
ter. He has spearheaded lawsuits against Swiftian satire, he says, he challenged such a game, right? Go ahead, videogame players, in a campy and brightly colored
gamemakers, including GTA publisher Take someone to release a game for 2006 moguls. Target yourselves as you target virtual world, bludgeon through offices and
Two Interactive and Sony, for hundreds of in which a 14-year-old player murders others. I dare you.” arcades in a bloody rampage.
millions of dollars. He informs politicians the family of a fictional game developer. The “moguls” didn’t pick up the But Thompson, after seeing the game,
on Capitol Hill. After a secret sex scene In return for the game, he promised to gauntlet, but the gamers did. In January, wasn’t buying it. “They made a semifake
was found in GTA: San Andreas last year, donate $10,000 to a charity of Take Two a scrappy team of coders calling itself game,” he says. Because it wasn’t made ➤
HANDHELD GAME (ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS), BEST SPORTS GAME (WII SPORTS), AND BEST RACING GAME (EXCITE TRUCK).... >>
ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 19

press start
WHAT’S PLAYING
IN THE
egm internati nal
Guild Wars
Factions
Just over a year
Steal, kill, it’s all in the mind
after its release,
developer
ArenaNet’s fee-
■ PS2 free massively
multiplayer
KAMIWAZA
online role-
playing game
No more ninjas, samurai, or other sword slashers, Guild Wars
please. Thankfully, in the latest from Acquire (whose sits pretty at well over 1 mil-
output of action romps set in ye olde Japan rivals lion players—and the game’s first stand-
theTom Clancy series in pure quantity), you’re none alone expansion, Guild Wars Factions, does
of the above. Instead, you’re a washed-up old thief plenty to expand the game’s appeal.
named Ebizo, who comes out of retirement to steal The new Factions campaign unfolds
baubles from no-good magistrates to pay for his sick in the medieval Asian-themed land of
daughter’s medicine. Cantha, where—stop us if you’ve heard
So, it’s Thief with a bunch of bathrobes? this one—an ancient enemy returns and
Well, yes, actually, right down to the way you can heroes must rally to defeat him. Yes, the
throw stones around to distract guardsmen’s atten- plot gets predictable
tion. But a few stealthy features set it apart from
quickly...but it’s an
other hide-and-seekers—townspeople give you cover
easily disregarded
if Ebizo returns the riches à la Robin Hood, and his
backdrop to an
wanted posters start to look more accurate every time
otherwise excellent
he flubs his cover in front of a group of witnesses.
game. The original
Guild Wars steered
■Xbox 360 away from the
same-old-grind
BULLET WITCH
mentality of other
online RPGs, shut-
Are they even making 360 games in Japan any- tling you to the game’s 20-level cap rela-
more? We were wondering this ourselves, especially tively quickly and emphasizing aptitude
after Japanese exclusive Ninety-Nine Nights didn’t over hours played. Factionsfully realizes
exactly keep gamers up all night. Though Bullet Witch this philosophy: You can easily reach (or
(from new publisher AQ Interactive) has been far less come close to) the level cap before ever
hyped, it actually looks worthy of a shot—it’s a Devil leaving the tutorial island, which means
May Cry-ish action mash-up where you play as a wily more time spent pursuing skill acquisition
witch named Alicia who casts down demons in the and story missions (think Diablomeets
year 2013. Magic: The Gathering), and waging war
AQ? Should I care about them? Perhaps. The com- against other players in a handful of con-
pany’s the new Japanese publisher for developers like tested zones. If you didn’t play Guild Wars,
Cavia and Artoon, which have had their share of hits you lose nothing by jumping aboard here...
(Drakengard) and misses (Blinx). The twist: former Final and if you did play it,
Fantasy bigwig Hironobu Sakaguchi’s an AQ share-
Factionsprovides
holder, and he’s working on yet another new 360 game
a vastly improved
for the publisher, an action RPG titled Cry On.
experience.
The biggest
point of contention:
BY THE NUMBERS ■Check out the video Factions’ two new
here: www.gamevideos. professions, which
com/video/id/2690 join the original six.
Please Sit Patiently The frail-but-deadly
assassin gets a
lot of flak for being the “new fad,”
particularly since—despite the assassin’s
4.6
Millions of PSP units viability—most players don’t employ the
sold to date in the U.S. class very successfully (they’re not tanks,
people). The ritualist, Factions’ shamanic
350
Films, TV programs, and other con- spellcaster, embraces mediocrity with its
tent you can access on your PSP muddled jack-of-all-trades approach. A
100 letdown, yes—but hopefully nothing a few
Games currently available game balance patches can’t fix.
—Ryan Scott
6:28 Minutes it takes to load a match on
WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 as
Ryan Scott is the reviews editor for our sister
documented by a GameVideos clip publication Computer Gaming World
>> ONLINE GAMING SERVICE GAMETAP HAS UNEARTHED ANOTHER DUSTY RELIC—THEY RECENTLY ADDED THE JAPAN-ONLY SEGA SG-1000.... >>
22• ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com