Games and Internet
PLAYSTATION
Music (Codemasters) £34.99 at ‘k at a.
Music: stoner-tastic
We had a look at what pertained to be a mu5ic making game a few issues ago with Fluid where you controlled a Virtual dolphin to make tunes, but Music truly knocks its flippers off. This isn't even a game in the strictest sense of the word, but more a fun tool for creating credible $0unding dance tracks.
Music is surely designed with stoners in mind, With staggerineg accessible game play right from the start. Within a few minutes the bass drum is thumping, yOu’ve stuck a hi-hat over the top and the piano sample is banging away. There are 3000 instruments, back beats, perCUSSIOTT and sound effects to muck around With in styles from drum & bass to house, techno and trip hop, and some reasonably advanced note manipulation to tweak the sound as far as you like. There’s even an eight octave Virtual keyboard on which to compose your own riffs which really personalises the game, giving it infinite b0unds and longeVity.
They’ve included a Video option too, where you produce your own Video to match the music, spinning and morphing shapes and words in a impresswely professional way. Smart music making for lazy people. (RW)
X-Men Vs Street Fighter
(Virgin Interactive) £39.99 * t i There have been several recent
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128 THE LIST 17 Dec I998» 7 Jan 1999
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N64
Top Gear Overdrive (Nintendo) £44.99 * it it *
Last year's excellent Top Gear Rally was a big hit with N64 owners who got to grips with its massive cars, great tracks and superlative weather effects. The stakes are high, then, for this follow-up, which comes flying out of the pits just in time for the Christmas market.
Thankfully, with Top Gear Overdrive, developers Kemco have done themselves and their legacy proud. While Rally leaned firmly on the realistic handling side of racing sims, Overdrive moves towards a much more action-based arcade style complete with Nitro boosts, short cuts and much enjoyable argy-bargy.
Overdrive also boasts seven brand new courses. The range of settings includes ancient cliff dwellings, glacial peaks, muddy swamps and huge skyscrapers. As you might expect from Nintendo, the scenery is a joy to behold, but don't spend too long beholding it joyfully or you’ll crash and burn.
You can play with up to three human opponents which is fun when it comes to trying to knock each other off the road, but Single-Player Championship Mode is pretty cool in its own right. Each Championship begins with a choice of two modestly-powered cars and a challenging 12th place on the starting grid.
Top Gear Overdrive: a fun-packed, gleaming racer
Finish in the top four of a race and you'll win cash to spend on your car. You can also pick up cash power-ups which are lying around on the track. However you build your wad, be sure to spend it on up-grading your motor. You can improve your vehicle on four separate performance specifications — handling, acceleration, top speed and braking. You should also dish some dosh on Nitros, very useful speed boosts activated by the 2 button. Don’t spend all your winnings on upgrades though — save cash for higher performance cars which become available as you progress through the races.
This is a fun-packed game and a gleaming addition to the N64's growing stable of racers. (Peter Ross)
disappearances among X-tvlen and Street Fighters. Some blame it on Shadowloo while others reckon that it’s all the fault of Magneto. Who gives a monkey’s? Just pick your team and kick several shades of Shinola out of the other guys, for this is a straight- down-the-line 20 forum for smackin' yOur pix up.
As ever, careful chOice of characters can make all the difference between ending up cock of the walk or a chickenshit grease stain spread all over the pavement. For example, the Indian monk Dhalsim has unfeasiny elastic limbs ideal for keeping your opponent at a distance. On the other hand, Zangief, a lumbering, slow-Witted RusSIan giant, is as much use in a fast- movmg swedgefest as a limp blintz,
The advanced shit-kicker can turn an opponent inside Out With hyper
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Rival Schools: relive your violent youth
combos, aerial combats and one particular move which involves bombarding your opponent With assorted death rays until they give up the ghost.
In short, all the staples of a fighting game are there, but there is little to raise this arcade-conversion above the norm. (IT)
Rival Schools (Virgin Interactive) £39.99 ‘1! at t *
Re-enac't your youth With this beat ’em up. Remember how your schooldays were made miserable when you were assaulted by the drug-ridden sOCiopaths from the correctional institution that passed as a neigthuring school? Well, this is your chance to exact revenge by proxy. Alternatively, if you actually were one of those glue-crazed, D-Iist boys, those glory days can be here again.
There is a plot to Rival Schools but it doesn’t translate all that well from the Japanese and seems unfeasiny tedious anyway. All you need to know about the setting is contained in the title of the game and the rest is fist-story.
The game play is similar to that of Telclcen 3 in terms of the character movement and the 3D enVironment. Airborne punch-ups and the strangely termed 'burning Vigour' special attacks add piquancy, but the real ace in the hole is the tag team capability, When yOu really want to bust your opponent's balls, call in your tag pal and boot yOur enemy between you like a bloody rag.
The graphics are dune blocky but not distractineg so and fast forwarding thrOugh the largely irrelevant story sequences speeds play up. Entertaining. (IT)
TOCA 2: Touring Cars (Codemasters) £44.99 it ir *
The thing that makes T0uring Car racing more enjoyable than Grand Prix (apart from Damon Hill’s non- involvement) is that slamming into your rival speed-freaks every now and again is an important tactical aspect. The other cool thing is that, apart from souped up engines, tyres and chassis, the cars in these races are the kind that you could feasibly own.
All the more reason, then, to buy TOCA 2: Touring Cars, the follow up to January’s best-selling TOCA Touring Car, in Which you can charge around various Scottish and English courses such as Silverstone, trying to prang opponents in a ramped up Fiesta, Vauxhall and so on. It's Boy Racer City, but don't let that put you off.
In the battle between racing games like Ridge Racer and Motor/read where the emphasis is on arcade-style fun and realism-tastic sum of Which the epitome is Gran Turismo, TOCA 2 parks squarely in the pit stop of the latter.
The thing With this is Game IS that It's very hard, very realistic and yOLi’II have to stick With it. Make no mistake, this is an enjoyable challenge, but if you’re looking for unfussy kicks, look elsewhere. (PR)