NGC Magazine Issue 81

Introduction

Issue 81 hit shops at a time when Matrix fever was really taking over, and for that reason it was centre stage, and Enter the Matrix took the cover space on the front of the magazine for the second time in four issues. The game was reviewed this issue, scoring 73%, with praise heaped on graphics, but there was still the underlying feeling that it lacked polish compared to other Gamecube games. Missing out on the cover was The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, it was the biggest review this issue and was scored a massive 97% by Martin, matching it with Metroid Prime as the best title on the Gamecube. There were a massive 21 pages devoted to the game in this issue, with a guide to all the dungeons.

There were several games previewed in this issue, with hands on multiple new games, including Sonic Adventure DX. Nothing scored more than 3 out of 5 in their anticipation ratings. In the news however was the mention of several big games announced by Nintendo, including the first look at Mario Kart Double Dash, Pikmin and Rogue Squadron III - which were all getting prepared for next month’s E3 show. They also asked the question about the Nintendo difference, and if it was really working in terms of selling games.

Also reviewed in this issue were two Resident Evil games, with the re-releases of 2 and 3 scoring 62 and 65% respectively - the main issue being that they were exactly the same as the aged PSone games. Splinter Cell scored a very decent 89% and Skies of Arcadia: Legends scored 90%. In the US, Soul Calibur 2 scored 92%, Geraint praising the Visuals and the use of the Gamecube hardware, despite the majority of the game being multi-format. Over on Game Boy Advance, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land scored 82%, the eagerly anticipated Sonic Advance scored a disappointing 73%. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire got a USA release this month, scoring a welcome 90%. In the gear section, they looked at the Game Boy Player, the significant add-on plugging into the bottom of the GameCube and allowing you to play GameBoy games on the big screen.

Other than the Zelda guide there wasn’t much more to report in the back of the mag. The compendium this month looked at another chapter about learning Japanese as well as looking at the evolution of video games based on movies.