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Winter Heat
"MELTDOWN" It was about time Sega released an in-house game in 1998 for their faltering Saturn in the States; unless I'm very wrong, this is the only SOA title released on retail so far this year (behind EA's lackluster "NHL '98" and the Netlink compatible "Daytona CCE"), not including the PC versions of "Sega Touring Car Championship" and "Last Bronx". "Winter Heat" tries to capitalize on the lackluster hype the CBS coverage of this year's Nagano Winter Olympics has generated, and that hype is the fuel that might propel the sales of this game and Konami's officially licensed PSX/N64 titles. I'd like to say that this game was worth the wait, and that is a classic triumph of Sega gameplay over the evil and unjust marketplace forces on the side of Konami. I can't. This game, like "Myst" or a KOEI strategy game, appeals to a specific type of gamer that puts multiplayer and button-mashing as top priorities. Taking 36 units of memory from the internal RAM memory, "Winter Heat" provides the player with eleven Winter events that are part of the roster of Olympic sports. You also get eight characters from different countries (most of them European), in a quest to get the highest scores and beat the game in the shortest time possible. Your ability to mash buttons in the fastest and most timely fashion will determine if your character gets eliminated/disqualified, gets the gold/silver/bronze or maybe even break a world record. If it all sounds familiar, then you probably have played this type of game before in the form of Konami's popular "Track & Field" series (dating back to the arcade and NES), or Sega's 1996 game "Decathelete". And if you have played them, then you know that the arcade-quality of this sports genre makes it ideal for multiplayer gaming that doesn't require much brain power but lots of concentration.
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: A Some of the best and sharpest graphics to date on Saturn can be seen on "Winter Heat", which is not surprising considering the game is a modified version of another Sega visual masterpiece, AM1's "Decathelete". Although some spots in the surroundings are pixelated as hell (most notably the crowds, the mountains and the snow), the high-res look of the game puts it on par with such recent success stories as "Last Bronx", "Dead or Alive" and "Sonic R". The ice can reflect the skaters, the "Sega Sports" logo looks three-dimensional and the atheletes (most of which are returning from "Decathelete") look and move like the cast of "Virtua Fighter" wearing winter coats. The artistic style of the characters is stellar, and wouldn't be out of place inside a comic book; all eight characters have a winning, losing and disqualification pose, as well as a special winning stand for beating a world record (kinda like the special "Virtua Fighter" taunt after beating a character without getting hit). The game moves at a steady frame-rate (looks like 30 per-second, but it could be higher) with only the slightest amount of slowdown from time to time. The only possible fault I could see in "WH" is that the locations and design of the courses are ficticious and don't resemble the Nagano locations seen in the Winter Olympics (Konami's PSX/N64 games do look like the real locations, since they have the official license). Another winner is the interface and menu screens seen in "WH"; they are high-res and look solid, conveying adequate information like play mechanisms, world records, the official Olympic logo, profile of the characters, etc. There is a wireframe model recreating the sport you select, as well as occassionally helping you in certain sports (in Bobsleigh, the wireframe will help you push the vehicle). The blazing speed and resolution of the game is what separates the triumph that is "WH" over the failure that is Konami's "Nagano Winter Olympics '98". The scenery and detail in the locations of Konami's games are outstanding, but the slow-as-dirt speed and choppy frame-rate kill any excitement or fun the game aimed for. I'd like to send some shout-outs to AM1 for keeping the game looking dope, and the speed of the events phat (just in case you were wondering, I saw "Get on the Bus" last night on Cinemax).
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: C The music is really crappy, with a repetitive fanfare playing during the menu screens, after the event is won/lost, placing the initials, etc. Even the main theme from "WH", which plays during the lackluster and unimaginative intro (no FMV, a static background followed by demos of the eleven games), lacks any spark and jingolistic flavor whatsoever. And the voices and reactions from the atheletes in the game makes me nauseous: China's Li Huang has this extremely high-pitched "All right" when she does well, and a cry of pain when she doesn't do well; Japan's Joe Kudou has a similar vocal style. The same goes for the other characters, some with more/less amusing reactions than others; although he's British, B.B. is and sounds (even looks) like the son of Jay Leno and Elvis Presley... not a pretty sight!
GAMEPLAY / FUN FATOR: C+ Although it isn't mentioned on reviews or in the back of the box, "WH" supports the 3D analog controller that worked so well for "NiGHTS" and "Touring Car Championship"; for those events that require the D-pad for gameplay, the ability to switch from digital to analog control enhances the control of the characters tremendously. Take Snowboarding or Downhill, play them with the D-pad and then replay them with the analog controller, and then see what that does to your world records! People at SOA must be still recovering from the battering the company received over the last couple of months for a detail like the analog-compatibility to slip unmentioned in the box and the manual. Or could it be the shock of the new 'E' rating? Here's where me and "WH" part company and decide that it'll be best for the two of us to go our separate ways. This game is just no fun once you realize that timely pressing buttons on one event, and then mashing them as fast as possible for another, is the simple rules to make or break the records and require no skill whatsoever. The multiplayer mode can be fun and interesting (I actually lured a cableless friend over to my place with the promise of free beer and "South Park", and kept him afterwards to sample the Two-player mode), but only if there is genuine interest in these kind of winter sports. I don't care about the Winter Olympics in the least, and neither did my friend. If you dig Skeleton (Louge head-first...very smart!), Aerial Stunts, Speed Skating or Cross-country, then "WH" on the Saturn is the best videogame representation of these sports to date, easily outscoring the lackluster "Nagano Winter Olympics '98" games from Konami. Here's a breakdown of the eleven "extreme" winter sports featured in Sega's latest arcade conversion (the instruction screens with the joystick pretty much give away the fact that this was released as an arcade game in Japan, using Sega's Titan arcade board):
-Speed Skating: the equivalent of the men's 100-meter run
during the summer Olympics, you tap the speed button as
fast as possible; By far the best events in the CD are Snowboard, Downhill and Cross-country (any event that involves moving a character that doesn't allow the use of the pad, like Slalom and Speed Skating, are by far the worst of the bunch). Cross-country combines the movement of the character with the intensity of button-mashing, simultaneous Two-player mode, and keeping track of the stamina of the characters; it's like a thinking-man's version of "Sonic R", and I like it a lot. Snowboard and Downhill could give Namco's arcade machines ("Alpine Surfer" and its ilk) a run for their money; these events are that good. Although there is only one track for Snowboard and Downhill (they are, after all, part of a larger Olympic environment), the sense of speed and control when shredding down the mountains is outstanding. A word of advice to Sega of Japan: lose the multi-event format and tweak the engine into a snowboarding game (ala "Steep Slope Sliders" or "1080 Snowboarding") to give Saturn gamers a few more thrills on the slopes. Shame that most of the games in the CD don't live up to the high standard of these three events; most of them rely on either mindless button-mashing or wait-your-turn games (nothing ever beats a good Two-player simultaneous competition). The game has plenty of Options for the player to tweak at their heart's content: 1-3 attempts, Easy to Hard(est) difficulty levels, 11 Event Heat (all events, with cumulative point accumulation), Arcade Mode (8 events over two days, with the qualification on one the ticket to the next event), Custom Heat (select your favorite 8 events), Individual Match (your favorite event), Hall of Fame (5 highest scores on each event), etc. The eight selectable atheletes have different weights, heights and skill levels, which gives the game some sort of depth. Germany's Karl Vain (whose behavior lives up to his last name) and France's Ellen Reggiani are experts at Alpine events, while Russia's Aleksei Rigel and Norway's Johann Stensen excel at Nordic events. Rick Blade (USA) and Japan's Joe Kudou are still (like they were in "Decathelete"?) the best all-around characters for all events. In the end though, the same analogy that reviewers apply to the current phenomenon that is "Myst" and its sequel "Riven" must be applied here. If you loved "Track & Field" and its ilk, then "Winter Heat" will rock your boat and make your $39.99 investment seem productive; it is the best winter sports game released in the genre, easily making the Konami N64/PSX Nagano games look like a poorly-developed third-party Saturn game (Ha, Ha, H... WAIT A MINUTE??!!). For those who didin't like "Track & Field" and slept through "Decathelete" back in 1996, this game is boredom central and a return to the store where it was purchased is almost a given. I can appreciate the effort and quality that went into making "WH" excel, but this one just doesn't work for me; hopefully the scores will reflect that this is a good game in search for a player that can appreciate its qualities. Me? I'm going back to "Resident Evil 2", "Turok" and "Sonic R" to end the misery that was this weekend, yet another mindless waste of time trying to forget the long-lost love of my life that walked away from my torrid and passionate sexual libido because of the infection located on the lower left side of my testicl... was I talking and typing again? How silly of me, he he he! :-)
OVERALL: C+ "Shining Force 3", "The House of the Dead", "Burning Rangers" and "Panzer Dragoon Saga" are the titles from Sega that will send the Saturn to heaven with a better track record than the Jaguar, 32X and 3DO. Some will like to include "Winter Heat" in that select group, but I'd rather play "Robotica" or "Steep Slope Sliders" than go back to this world of the agony of defeat and thrill of victory. Once the hype of the Nagano Winter Olympics dies down, so will the sales and shelf-life of "WH". Live hard, die young and quick (just like "The Blues Brothers 2000", but I digress!).
NeXT!!!
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