Review by: Jonathan Hynes
Published: May 10, 2003

Back in the Eighties, a struggling game designer named Hironobu Sakaguchi worked on what he believed might be his last project. Employed by Squaresoft, a small, unsuccessful company on the verge of collapse, he gambled on the still infantile role-playing genre. Given that this might’ve been the company’s final foray into the video game industry, it was appropriately dubbed Final Fantasy and released in Japan in 1987. Fortunately for Sakaguchi, Squaresoft and future generations, the title was a hit and ensured the company’s survival. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: November 1, 2001

With its fantastic, yet mildly plausible premise that the human race is on the verge of evolving into wildly new forms, the X-Men comics have a legion of followers. Hot on the heels of X-Men the movie, Activision jumped all over the franchise to release X-Men Mutant Academy, which blended a crisp “realistic” look with the comic book characters we all know and love. Recognizing that you can never get enough of a good thing, Activision set out to produce X-Men Mutant Academy 2, and our preview had high hopes for this arcade fighter. Now the official copy has graced this writer’s PS One, and we’ll see whether the new characters and revamped graphics will be enough to attract fighter fanatics and X-Men fans alike. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: October 18, 2001

The infinitely quotable Oxford English Dictionary defines “mania” as a “mental derangement marked by excitement and violence,” or, “great and excessive enthusiasm.” Depending on your point of view, the entire sport of Motocross could manage to fill both of these definitions with ease. Certainly Take-2 Interactive and developers Deibus Studios think so, and they’ve set out to prove it with a release for the venerable PlayStation aptly entitled Motocross Mania. Hoping to capture the relative insanity of flinging yourself into the air on a lightweight and powerful motorcycle, this release is the latest entry into a swelling field of extreme sports titles. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: August 22, 2001

Back when the PlayStation was still a twinkle in Sony’s eye, survival horror had already been introduced to the gamers of the world in the form of the original Alone in the Dark. While Resident Evil and its offspring were the breakthrough titles for this genre, their PC predecessors had already laid the groundwork and established the formula by which almost every one of these games operates. Perhaps realizing that it’s time for the originator to show the upstarts how horror is really done, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare has been developed for both the PC and, giving rise to this review, the PlayStation. Will the ancient master scare the bejeebers out of Capcom fans, or will it succumb, Obi-wan Kenobi-like, to its protégé? ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: July 3, 2001

Perhaps it was inevitable that after it played such a prominent role in American Pie, someone would put together a video game based on lacrosse. While certainly not the most widely viewed sport in North America, lacrosse does enjoy a certain frantic energy and wholesale violence that makes it a phenomenal spectator sport. Better still, it’s more accessible than hockey, since it doesn’t require an iced surface, and with the heavy padding the players can dish out punishment on par with a football linebacker. Of course, the real selling point for violence-loving fans is that these gladiators come armed with sticks, allowing them to perform some amazing passes, deliver massive checks and accelerate a small ball to dangerous speeds. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: June 27, 2001

Amidst the fervor of reality TV that’s swept the entire North American continent, a favorite subject has long been that of the thin blue line of police officers that protect society from absolute chaos. With Cops as the pioneer of these mini docudramas, there have been countless imitators, but none have managed to capture the imagination in quite the same way. Perhaps recognizing that people wanted more of the same theme, but not the same execution, Fox’s executives set to brainstorming another way to present police action. Given the continent’s rapt fascination with OJ Simpson’s white Bronco as it tore down the highway, it seems perfectly understandable that a show like World’s Scariest Police Chases would come into being. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: June 13, 2001

In the world of video gaming, there are very few dynasties. In a fast-paced and constantly evolving landscape of technology, most consumers recognize that references to the past are best interpreted as indications that a title is dated before it even hits the stores. There are a few exceptions to this generalization; the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy series are clear indicators to gamers the world over that the next installment will be a well designed and fleshed-out game that leads its particular genre. This reputation doesn’t come easily and can be removed with a single poor release, but once acquired it can mean substantial rewards for the publisher. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: May 11, 2001

After twelve seasons on the air, The Simpsons has proven that an animated sitcom can do as well, and in most cases better, than their real life counterparts. Part of the hypnotic charm Springfield’s favorite family has had over North American culture can be attributed to the surprising freshness of the plots each week. Since the action is animated, the artists and scriptwriters behind the show can push the boundaries of reality just far enough to ensure that the series avoids becoming too stale. Most of the time these trips into the realm of the abstract are fairly conservative, but every once in a while, such as the annual Halloween episode, the barriers are dropped and chaos ensues. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: April 20, 2001

Earlier this year, EA Sports became a major sponsor of the real-world Supercross circuit, and, in turn, scored an exclusive licensing deal with SFX Motor Sports Group. This is a lucrative position for the famed game developer since it gives them access to just about every aspect of the sport, including its top personalities. Never ones to overlook such a golden opportunity, EA Sports set about their eternal goal of making sure that “it’s in the game.” This year’s result of their efforts shipped for the PlayStation under the moniker of EA Sports Supercross, which is a bit of a deviation from the normal nomenclature of adding the franchise’s year to the end of the title. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: April 4, 2001

As it turns out, Douglas Adams was on to more than just a hilarious plot item when he proposed that the Earth was being observed by a group of Pan-Dimensional beings that happened to look like white rats — he just had a few of the details wrong. Well, according to Sheep at least. This whimsical game, published by Empire Interactive and developed by Mind’s Eye for the PlayStation, proposes that our wool-bearing friends were actually highly intelligent beings who belonged to a group consciousness and were left behind on Earth to observe the native inhabitants while posing as innocent animals. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: March 29, 2001

While the etiological whitewash of political correctness has done its best to remove any religious overtones to the English language, certain terms can’t be completely separated from their roots. Take, for example, the difference between an epidemic and a plague: the former is a sterile term to describe a widespread medical or social problem, while the Oxford dictionary still partly defines the latter as “a great affliction.” Implicit in this definition is the sense of a higher power causing this affliction, and thus it is with some confidence that this reviewer introduces the main plot device of Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix as a plague upon humanity. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: March 22, 2001

For some, the beach brings back memories of sand castles, shell collection and the phrase, “It’s warm once you get in!” Others, however, view the beach in more of a functional sense and realize that you can fit an awful lot of Volleyball courts along a single shoreline. The members of the latter group are most likely fans of the sport that replaced beach blanket bingo as the activity of choice by the waterside: Beach Volleyball. Unlike traditional indoor variations of the sport which pairs off two teams of five, the sandy surface of Beach Volleyball means that a single person can dive with abandon and thus cover significantly more area of the court from any given point. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: March 15, 2001

As a rookie contender, HBO Boxing has some hard work ahead of it, since it’s going toe-to-toe against the established heavyweight champion of PlayStation boxing, the Knockout Kings series. Fortunately, Acclaim Sports, who handled the development of this new franchise, and HBO, the network known for excellent coverage of the sweet science, have more than enough moxy and bravado to take their team all the way to the top. Of course, there are some significant obstacles on the way to the console boxing championship; the most notable of these is a spotted history, which tellingly indicates that pugilism is a notoriously hard sport to translate into the digital realm. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: March 3, 2001

Growing up and learning to drive in rural Ontario, I have a low-level understanding of the difficulties faced by Rally drivers. My summers included regular trips to neighbor’s farms, the vet, and other exotic locales, all of which involved many kilometers of travel on loose gravel roads. Winters required a whole new set of skills, as unpaved roads were either completely covered in snow or coated in an even more treacherous layer of mud. Needless to say, one quickly learned the same skills used by the Rally driver: speed control, smooth slides and careful steering. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: February 28, 2001

The art of fighting with one’s fists has been a part of just about every culture in history. There are indications that the Ancient Egyptians treated pugilism as a sport; with leather thongs wrapped around the participants’ knuckles and wrists, the activity was added to the ancient Greek Olympic program in 688 B.C.E. In the 1700′s, England gave rise to a codified set of rules that came to roughly resemble the sport we know today, including the division of fights into rounds and the introduction of “mufflers” or gloves for the combatants. ( read more… )