Skies of Arcadia
Sega £39.99 Dreamcast ****
Typical isn't it? Just as the Dreamcast enters its death throes (Sega ceased production in March), the system is flooded with quality role playing games. Following on from Phantasy Star Online and Grandia 2 is Skies of Arcadia, a gorgeous epic that will thrill aficionados and newcomers alike.
From the off it's clear that Skies isn't your run-of-the-mill fantasy romp. OK, hero Vyse and pigtailed chum Aika are horribly clichéd, but take to the air in your ship and you won't care.
Yup, you get to command a pirate ship that flies, with most of the action taking place in the sky or on one of the numerous islands. This welcome blast of originality is heightened by a plot that turns from "rescue girlie" into a full-blown political epic.
Actually it is the sheer vastness of SoA that makes it so special; after 20 to 25 hours' play you will suddenly come across a whole new area.
Unfortunately there is a problem with the game; random battles. While combat is an integral part of the RPG - victory gives you the points that improve your character - the sheer onslaught here really detracts.
Whether it's on your ship or on an island, your exploration will be regularly halted by a turn-based battle. Yes, there is strategy, especially with team management, and welcome variety when fighting with the ship, but after the 900th encounter even the biggest devotee will flag. Amazingly, the sheer addiction and scope of the game soon entices you back in.
Guiding an airborne galleon, battling other ships and landing on dungeon-filled islands is as enjoyable as it sounds and when you throw in some of the best graphics this side of Shenmue you have an undoubted success. Skies of Arcadia is a fitting swansong to a criminally underrated machine. (GH)
Time Crisis Project Titan
Sony PlayStation £29.99 Namco/Sony ***
Time Crisis is one of those series that is brilliant in the arcades, particularly with two players, and not quite as good on a TV set at home. This is certainly the case with Project Titan, essentially a continuation of Time Crisis II, and exclusive to the PlayStation. So, did Namco exploit that by targeting the home player?
Sadly not - unless you count the omission of any kind of two-player mode, which removes almost half the fun. Still, the learning time is close to zero: plug in a G-Con gun, point the barrel at the screen, and begin.
The gameplay has not changed much from earlier versions, nor have the colour-coded enemies, which you have to mow down by the score. (Watch out for the red ones. They shoot straight.) However, the pace is frenetic and there are some challenging bosses to add a bit of novelty. There is also a time trial mode, to give the game more longevity.
Although presented as a 3-D action adventure, TCPT is basically a series of shooting galleries. The graphics are good, but not exceptional, given the game's static nature.
However, there is a lot of action, with baddies somersaulting out of doorways or descending on ropes, before pausing for a split second while you aim to kill.
On the whole, the result is somewhat disappointing. It's not that it's bad, it just doesn't take the series anywhere new. You might as well go for Point Blank 3, which is nothing more than a shooting gallery, but does have some humour.
If you already play Time Crisis, this sequel provides another excuse to get the light gun plugged in. If not, it probably won't make you buy one. (JS)
Worms World Party
PC CD-rom/ Dreamcast £19.99 Team 17 Software/ Titus SoftwareHQ **
Before anything is said in haste, let's get one thing straight: Worms is a classic. A hilarious, almost endlessly replayable orgy of wanton destruction.
Even the original version, with its wan visuals and miserly weapon selection, still gets a deserved outing from time to time.
Now for the nasty bit. What the hell were Team 17 thinking when they released Worms World Party? Here's a wild stab: "Money, money, money."
Well, if there's any vestige of justice in this world, they won't get a penny from this barely rehashed dead horse, which has been not just flogged but shot, chopped up into dice-sized cubes and burned.
Sure, there may be a couple of new weapons (the longbow, possibly, and maybe the petrol bomb). There may also be some new sound sets, the odd terrain, and a couple of new training missions: with all the incarnations this game has gone through, it's kind of difficult to keep track. On a more positive note, the multiplayer missions mode, whereby two teams compete to attain different goals, is definitely new; indeed, a lot more attention has been paid to the multiplayer experience generally, with competitive and cooperative missions, an online ranking system, and a sophisticated in-game chat facility.
But in terms of value for your money, money, money, that's as far as it goes.
The training levels are the same as those in Worms: Armageddon; the missions are new, but on such familiar ground as to make no difference. The graphics are identical, the sound effects and voices are identical, the armoury, game options and terrain editor all broadly the same.
The PC version still won't let you customise your command keys; computer-controlled worms still haven't figured out how to use anything more complicated than bazookas and grenades.
In short, Worms World Party cannot boast a single interesting development in interface, gameplay or tactics.
If you really, truly, honestly don't own a Worms game in any shape or form (if so, what planet have you been living on for the past 10 years?), then I suppose - and you'll be hard pushed to find any supposing more reluctant than this - you might as well get Worms World Party as any other version. But the moral here is clear: there's a fine line between classic car and clapped-out old banger, and Team 17 have brazenly leapt over it. (AB)
