GAMEINFORMER Magazine SLAMS the Jaguar

[Geeknout]

I got a subscription to GameInformer magazine as a gift last year. They have a section in the back dedicated to classic gaming (3-4 pages long). I was suprised to see that they reviewed two jaguar games in the March 2003 issue. They rate games on a 1-10 scale and add a little review.

 

ULTRA VORTEK: rating- .5 (thats ZERO point five)

 

KASUMI NINJA: rating- 1 (ONE)

 

Here are some excerpts from the reviews.

 

"Perhaps if the game's cosmetic appeal went even slightly beyond that of fecal matter, we could have atleast enjoyed the undoubtedly hilarious designs of such characters as Dreadloc. Fortunately, since UV received little press at the time and released close to the Jaguar's death, most gamers were spared this agonizing reminder of how poor Atari's self-proclaimed 64-bit system was".

 

"Torture to a fighting game fanatic: Condemn him or her to a lifetime of playing only Jaguar titles".

 

Believe me, the rest of the review was just as unflattering. Keep in mind, that this was in the "classic gaming" section of the magazine. I guess they did not have a copy of Tempest 2K or Battlesphere laying around to review.

 

Ive read this magazine for an entire year and it seems that if it aint Japanese, it sucks (according to them).

[+Sauron]

The only things I really disagree with are the score for Ultra Vortek (it's a MUCH better game than Kasumi Ninja) and the comment about the Jag being a poor system. The rest of the things they said, though, were spot on. Would you really recommend a Jaguar to a fighting game fanatic? Neither would I.

[Punisher5.0]

I don't like to read modern video game magazines for this reason. Unfortunately, my subscription is taking forever to end with EGM. In their latest issue they rip on Yak . That pushed it way too far.

[Thunderbird]

I don't like to read modern video game magazines for this reason. Unfortunately, my subscription is taking forever to end with EGM. In their latest issue they rip on Yak . That pushed it way too far.

 

What did they say about Yak? I can't imagine anyone having a harsh word for him. This is pretty crummy of them!

[Thunderbird]

Ive read this magazine for an entire year and it seems that if it aint Japanese, it sucks (according to them).

 

Funny... I can't really get into ANY of the japanese titles they drool over. The games I've most enjoyed over the recent past were all made by the U.S. developers. Even EGM's top awarded games of they year were all US titles. GTA, Splinter Cell, and Metriod Prime...

 

Hmm.... Halo (Game of the century) was a US title too!!!

[JagAttack]

From EGM:

 

We don't know whether to laugh or cry. Peter Molyneux, the famed designer whose muchhyped lionhead Studios has promised many console games but has yet to ship one, and Jeff Minster, prolific programmer of multiple versions (on failing systems) of the arcade-classic shooter Tempest, have joined forces. Ther mission? To create a GameCube music-and-light show that's also a game called Unity. Based on their track records, expect it to suffer delay after delay until it is abruptly cancelled in favor of a llama picture-taking game.

[jaysmith2000]

I got a subscription to GameInformer magazine as a gift last year.  They have a section in the back dedicated to classic gaming (3-4 pages long).  I was suprised to see that they reviewed two jaguar games in the March 2003 issue. They rate  games on a 1-10 scale and add a little review.

 

ULTRA VORTEK:   rating- .5 (thats ZERO point five)

 

KASUMI NINJA:    rating- 1 (ONE)

 

Here are some excerpts from the reviews.

 

"Perhaps if the game's cosmetic appeal went even slightly beyond that of fecal matter, we could have atleast enjoyed the undoubtedly hilarious designs of such characters as Dreadloc.  Fortunately, since UV received little press at the time and released close to the Jaguar's death, most gamers were spared this agonizing reminder of how poor Atari's self-proclaimed 64-bit system was".

 

"Torture to a fighting game fanatic:  Condemn him or her to a lifetime of playing only Jaguar titles".

 

Believe me, the rest of the review was just as unflattering. Keep in mind, that this was in the "classic gaming" section of the magazine.   I guess they did not have a copy of Tempest 2K or Battlesphere laying around to review.  

 

Ive read this magazine for an entire year and it seems that if it aint Japanese, it sucks (according to them).

 

Game Informer sucks. I can name 10 fighters that are worse on other systems. I agree the fighting games are not top notch by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn't mean the system is lousy. The idiots that reviewed those two titles probably just played them right before they wrote the article. In other words, they were comparing UV and KN to Tekken Tag, Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive. Well, no shit they're going to suck. Give me a break....Glad I don't subscribe to that lousy magazing.

[JagMX]

did they mention Shadow War of Succession for the 3DO? that has to be THE WORST fighting game EVER made - its worse than double dragon V, its friggin awful -

let the ill informed magazine writers say what they will, the jag had great potential at the time and we all kno it, but when the cd based saturn and psx came out, everyone just jumped on sega and sony - i do believe if atari didnt step up to the plate BIG TIME back then the video game industry wouldnt be the same.

hail jaguar

[MegaManFan]

From EGM:

 

We don't know whether to laugh or cry.  Peter Molyneux, the famed designer whose muchhyped lionhead Studios has promised many console games but has yet to ship one, and Jeff Minster, prolific programmer of multiple versions (on failing systems) of the arcade-classic shooter Tempest, have joined forces.  Ther mission? To create a GameCube music-and-light show that's also a game called Unity.  Based on their track records, expect it to suffer delay after delay until it is abruptly cancelled in favor of a llama picture-taking game.

 

Okay, that's EASILY more insulting than the Jag reviews in GI (which I find humerous based solely on the fact they never play the good games like Rayman or AvsP or Battlesphere).

[chrisbid]

i dont understnad why they wasted their ONE page of classic reviews on games they find to be very poor. aside from the two jag titles, they also reviewed Marky Mark for the Sega CD (which deservedly got a zero rating) and Rise of the Dragon for the Sega CD which was a mature themed point and click game that got an average score. Its sometimes funny to joke about a bad game here and there, but if theyre only going to do four reviews a month, why waste all of them on bad games. Review the good games for the Jag for cripes sake. I only got GI since it comes with a 10 percent discount on used games, but since gamestop is going to drop NES and Genny games, im not going to renew

[MegaManFan]

i dont understnad why they wasted their ONE page of classic reviews on games they find to be very poor.  aside from the two jag titles, they also reviewed Marky Mark for the Sega CD (which deservedly got a zero rating) and Rise of the Dragon for the Sega CD which was a mature themed point and click game that got an average score.  Its sometimes funny to joke about a bad game here and there, but if theyre only going to do four reviews a month, why waste all of them on bad games.  Review the good games for the Jag for cripes sake.  I only got GI since it comes with a 10 percent discount on used games, but since gamestop is going to drop NES and Genny games, im not going to renew

 

Damn straight. 10% of nothing equals nothing as far as I'm concerned. I will miss GI though, it's really the only video game magazine I find worth a shit to read any more.

[goatdan]

I think that GI has been overrun by Barnes & Noble, who now want to push the stuff Gamestop caries (since B&N now owns GameStop and the plan is for all corporate stores to get rid of everything pre PS2, GC, XBOX and Gameboy Advance...) The reviews reflect this.

 

Just one year ago, I knew three or four people who worked there and they wanted to make a trip to the Midwest Classic to give out GI mags and sign them, but couldn't due to the fact that something else ended up happening that weekend. I recently tried emailing them with some pretty big news, and no one cared to reply.

 

The Jaguar scores don't surprise me... *sigh*

[Clint Thompson]

Yea, that's pretty screwed up!

 

Ultra Vortek is probably the best fighting game on the Jag! (At least IMO)

I played that game and me and a friend of mine was 'hooked' on playing it for like 2 days str8 and that pisser beat it before I did!

 

Very fun.....

 

Screw GI... The last magazine I read was EGM about a year ago, it had a MGS cover on it and talked shit about the Jag. I'm positive I set it on fire and smiled in it's hellish burning.... burnn.... bastards, burn!!!

 

Clint Thompson

[patters98]

Edge Magazine in the UK (the only one worth reading) has a decent look at a retro console most months. They're likely to feature the Jag soon I reckon. They always mention T2K given the chance, and BattleSphere. Recently in fact they awarded it the accolade of probably the most collectable game ever. Mind you apparently NeoGeo cartridge games can be worth several thousand GBP each...

[someguy]

All the various magazines slammed the Jaguar back in the day.

In a way who can blame them? A lot of the early games were either 16-bit ports - or were just plain crap. For every Tempest 2000, there were 2 or 3 bad games that the reviewers could point at and laugh, especially early on.

 

And the bad rep continues on... most people who have just casually tried playing a Jaguar have been stuck playing something common (and mediocre) like Checkered Flag or Kasumi Ninja, rather than something good but less common like say AvP or Missile Command 3D.

[Gunstar]

I think it's just human nature (of the lowest kind). You could compare it to people who put-down or cut-down other people; the truth is they do it because the feel, in their heart of hearts, inferior and worthless, with no self respect, so to make themselves feel better (and they think, to make them look better in other peoples eyes), they talk trash about others, focusing on the other's weak spots and hammering hard. This is true also with consoles; someone supports a certain console, or promotes it, and they naturally have to go out of their way to make the other console(s) look bad to make their's look better and like they made the right choice. They (GameInformer or other mags) couldn't possibly review a good game, or if they do, they make it look as bad as they possibly can, by focusing on the worst aspects of the game/console no matter how insignificant. They can't possibly turn around a say how good a particular game is on a system they've been trashing for years, it would make them look stupid, or look like they are admitting error if they did. It's envy, plain and simple. If I don't care for another system or game, I may say so once, or even twice, just to say how I feel, but more than that, or going out of the way to make the system/game look bad every chance I can get (which appears to be exactly what GameInformer [and other mags that do the same thing] are doing), it must be because I know in my heart I'm wrong and am afraid others will see this, so I distract by pointing out the worst in something so people won't notice the worst in me. Psychology 101 people, that's all it is...VERY sad. There is another name for this in the political and marketing worlds, it's called "Spindoctering." Anyone with half a brain can see right though it for what it really is, but unfortunately, most peole use less than half their brain (and I'm not refering to the 10% theory in any way, but half of what IS used by all humans), and this is what politicians and Sales&marketing reps. count on. If you see/hear a lie enough, you will start to believe it is truth, even if you knew originally that it was a lie. This is human nature, and it's what politics and marketing use to get you where they want you...and video game mags in their own little universe...

[RJ]

I like GI & personally found their reviews quite accurate (except for Silent Hill 2 & Fatal Frame) & even told 2 of the editors when I met them at a Mpls club. The classic reviews are likely included for a nostalgic look back at how games were. I find the "Classic GI" section enjoyable & maybe the best part of the mag! If you ever read the rest of it you'll find most of the comedy is sarcastic & shouldn't be taken so seriously. They even have a fake "Game Infarcer" annual feature. They're simply poking fun at the Jag, which obviously its fanbase (myself included) won't agree w/. You must admit, we know the Jag rocks but back in it's "heyday" much of the gaming world didn't think so...

[LinkoVitch]

Ive read this magazine for an entire year and it seems that if it aint Japanese, it sucks (according to them).

 

Funny... I can't really get into ANY of the japanese titles they drool over. The games I've most enjoyed over the recent past were all made by the U.S. developers. Even EGM's top awarded games of they year were all US titles. GTA, Splinter Cell, and Metriod Prime...

 

Hmm.... Halo (Game of the century) was a US title too!!!

 

Isn't Metroid Prime a Japanese game?

[t.skid]

I don't know..... this guys must follow talking about PS(u)X, and don't bother reviewing Jaguar games.

 

Ultra Vortex is a good game (personally, I say that it's GREAT, but I don't wanna talk like a Jag Fan now ), and Kasumi Ninja is a fair game too, even if I could understand that it's not a big game.

[+davidcalgary29]

All that unfounded criticism sounds like a severe case of system envy to me. After all, why would anyone waste excessive amounts of vitriol on a system that's been out of production for about 6 years... unless they secretly saw it as a threat?

[kevincal]

My favorite magazine by far is GAMEFAN. They were really juiced about the Jag when it first came out, even gave Cybermorph scores in the 90's! They also covered a couple of Songbird releases such as Hyperforce and another I can't remember, and last but not least, they covered the release of BATTLESPHERE! Too bad GAMEFAN isn't around any longer

[Punisher5.0]

My favorite magazine by far is GAMEFAN.  They were really juiced about the Jag when it first came out, even gave Cybermorph scores in the 90's!  They also covered a couple of Songbird releases such as Hyperforce and another I can't remember, and last but not least, they covered the release of BATTLESPHERE!  Too bad GAMEFAN isn't around any longer  

 

That sounds like a cool magazine company. I'd be awesome to hear what they had to say about BattleSphere.

[kevincal]

Damn, wish I had a scanner or a digital camara ...... I'll go dig out those mags and put a couple quotes they said of BS and the others in a bit......There is a dude I know who shares my passion with GAMEFAN and has a cool website and has pictures of every issue, check it out it's www.millartime.com , and there is a bunch of other cool stuff on his site as well.....

[Thunderbird]

Isn't Metroid Prime a Japanese game?

 

Nope. It was developed by some good 'ol boys from Texas, U.S.A.

[Thunderbird]

They always mention T2K given the chance, and BattleSphere. Recently in fact they awarded it the accolade of probably the most collectable game ever.

 

Are you serious? Nobody ever mentioned this before. It is indeed an honor. Can you point me to an article or issue where they said this? I'd love to show it to Scott and Steph!