SCANNER
PLAYSTATION PREVIEW ' Bust A Move
Big in Japan. Three words often used for pissy British indie bands who couldn't flog a flexidisc in the UK, but inspire adulation in the Land of the Rising Sun. Such claims are often the invention of Machiavellian press officers who know that journos can’t check, but, in the case of one funky video game it's true: Bust A Move is huge in Japan, but you can't buy it
here yet.
Now, don't go getting BustA Move confused with Acclaim’s popular puzzler series of the same name, we're talking about a PaRappa The Rapper style game here. You play a dancer who must attempt to out- shimmy a series of opponents by skillfully following on-screen controller
commands.
Admittedly, this sounds a bit crap on paper, but so did PaRappa. The attraction here is in the music, the characters, the humour and the superb
animation.
Choosing to play one of ten available characters (everything from a breakdancing racing driver to a disco-crazed, white-jumpsuited groover), you execute increasingly complex moves from simple strutting to well- hard backflips. The backdrops are colourful and stimulating, while the mostly excellent music ranges from 705 funk to cheesy pop.
What's especially staggering about Bust A Move is its motion capture. This adds an element of realism which helps immerse the player in what could otherwise be a fairly limited game.
BustA Move is published in Japan by Enix, but is still looking for a UK release. Someone should snap it up and cash in on the breakdancing
revival. (Peter Ross)
Bust ' Move: PaRappa meetsflra o :
The player pilots a ’mech’ a huge and heaVily armOured tank on legs firing lasers and rockets at anything that moves in an attempt to complete missions
MechCommander takes this idea slightly further. Oh yes, it’s still about blokes called Beast, Lynx and Hunter in big tanks on legs, but there’s a tactical element that makes it a bit more brainy and a bit less brawny.
You play the remote commander of a mech squadron deep in enemy territory. You complete missions by ordering your mech warriors around With a nicely designed interface. Send them here, send them there, tell them to blow up the fuel dump, that sort of thing.
It's hard but it works well. Less graphic than most of the preVIOus games, what it lacks in Visual exCitement it makes up for in playability. (IG)
Unreal (GT Interactive) £40 4* at * tr 'Kiss your bland reality goodbye’ is the final line of the installation instructions It’s a neat touch in the tongue-in-cheek manual that accompanies this eagerly awaited release, but does the product live up to the hype?
The setting is a crashed prison-ship on an unknown planet. You are a
prisoner, whose taste of freedom is rapidly soured by the sights and s0unds of slaughter. You can't ignore the eVIdence’ the carnage didn't end With the crash itself.
Finding yOur way out of the ship, you discover a harmless indigenous population. Unfortunately, humans aren't the first Visitors. The occupying force, the SkaarJ, are far less friendly
USlflg a combination of mouse and keyboard controls (initially quite tricky) you explore the Unreal enVironment, discovering a colourful and beautifully rendered world. Gameplay, however, is exactly what you'd expect from a Quake-style 3D puzzle/combat game: your ObJCCIIVE‘S are to gather clues and weaponry, and thus cling to surVival in a hostile enVIronment.
Unreal lives up to its name, but only Just. lt’s sexy to look at and a hoot to play, but frankly, the basics are pretty familiar. (AB)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE: Andrew Burnet, lain Grant, Stephen Naysmith, Paul Owens, Peter Ross
STAR RATINGS
* * * t * Unmissable
tr *r t * Very ood
it 1* 1' Wort a shot
* at Below average
it You've been warned
Totall wired
The weird wor d of the Web
Godzilla Movie Poster Gallery
http:l/wwwchopperwarecom lgodzillaSA/posters/posterhtml
Covering all 22 GodZilla moVies, this site is basically a load of cool posters of the overgrown iguana domg battle With increasingly absurd opponents from huge bug, Mothra to metal lizard, Mec'hagodzilla Like, neat
Grand Royal
http://grandroyal.com/
What With the world gomg Beastie Boys crazy, now’s a better time than evei to Visit the Site of their hip Grand Royal conglomerate Ordering Hello Nasty and downloading the Video for ’lntcvgalactic' are only two of the cool actiVities on offer
3‘ J
Swedish Chef
http://www.almac.co.uk/chef lcheflchefhtml
Jerry Springer Drinking Game
http://serve.aeneas. net/aislkdaddyllbeerlgameO78.htm
Combine late night trash telly With stupid amounts of liquor by playing this game Take a drink every time something on the list occurs, for example when the KKK or Black Panthers are on the show, or when a guest who's dressed as a woman is really a man You’ll be pissed QUK ker than you can say 'But ma sister an me huV allus been real close, Jerry'
Remember the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show7 Well, here's a site all about him. There are pictures and sounds, but best of all is the downloadable programme which lets you translate text into his famous brand of mock
Swedish.
South Park
http:/leccentrica.orglcheesegod/ images/rshtml
There's an awful lot of stuff about the anarchic cartoon series online, but if it's related images you’re after, you could do worse than check out these pictures from Rolling Stone magazine's South Park speCIal. The one of Isaac Hayes dressed as Chef is a Winner.
Subliminal Messages In Windows 95?
m '
http://www.tcp.ca/gsblPC/Win9S-subliminals.html
One for the insomniac stoners out there. The bloke who created this site attempts to prove that the famous Microsoft flying Window logo contains Subliminal images of a rearing horse, a dark bird, a shagging couple and Jimi
Hendrix Does Bill Gates know about this?
i:
m
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9-—23 Jul T998 THE LIST91