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More in Store for PS2
by Steven Kent for Gamers Today
Sony deserves credit for putting on a brilliant show at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). After six months with only two genuinely great games in the PlayStation 2 library, Sony's programming partners have finally unlocked the console's most perplexing mysteries and a flood of good games appear to be just beyond the horizon.
Everybody in the game industry seems to have their personal favorite PS2 game. Mine is Maximo, a new 3D revisiting of Tokuro Fujiwara's 1984 Capcom arcade classic Ghosts 'n Goblins. For you young bloods, Ghosts 'n Goblins was a game in which players helped a knight run through a side-scrolling 2D world in search of his girlfriend after she is whisked away by demons.
Maximo, the eponymous hero of this new 3D game, finds himself in the same situation -- running, jumping, and battling a host of brilliantly funny monsters of all description.
No need to worry if comic demons are not your cup of steam, Sony has a huge library coming out this year and there will be something to fit every taste.
If you prefer your monsters a bit more serious, you might try Devil May Cry, a revisiting of the Resident Evil style of survival horror made faster and more exciting by adding an inbred, low-down, sword-carrying, pistol-slinging, half-demon hero who's clearly bigger and badder than any previous game star. Past survival horror games have been about helping terrified victims survive. Devil May Cry is about hitting these devils where they live.
And the PlayStation 2 smorgasbord continues. If you like fast-paced action adventures, you will likely be impressed with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Jak and Daxter brings the running, jumping, Mario/Crash Bandicoot/Sonic style of gaming to PlayStation 2 with a flare. It's got vast worlds with lighting that changes to represent different times of day, a gallery of enemies, and a charismatic hero.
One of the biggest surprises at the show was Kingdom Hearts, a collaboration between Disney and Square Soft, makers of the world-ruling Final Fantasy games. In this case, both companies' heritages come through.
Kingdom Hearts will be a role-playing game in which players help a Final Fantasy-style human character as he teams up with Goofy and Donald Duck and goes to battle with enemies from recent Disney movies. This game may still be a long way off, but it looks well worth the wait.
In the meantime, Metal Gear Solid 2 is near completion. For those who have not played Metal Gear Solid, these are brilliant games in which players help a mercenary hero named Solid Snake as he infiltrates enemy strongholds, slips past or kills hundreds of terrorists, and ultimately gets into hand-to-hand combat with a King Kong-sized giant robot.
What could be better?
