Recently Nintendo had the brilliant
idea to gather a bunch of video press
geeks and "typical" gameboy enthusi
asts and ship them from NY to LA via
the friendly rails of AmCrap.
While being confined to a box with a
mob of zombles (and a minimum of
bathroom facilities) for four straight
days may sound like dream come
true, it didn't quite work out that way
On the way to Seattle we discovered
The Legend of Zelda is a massive surán
ng quest that sends you at the ehem
Link, through every nook and crancy of a
picious island if you get off on searching
your entire house for your keys whip late
you really get off on this cart
A Chicago layover provided an all-to-
briel respite where the sona enthusiasts
balled the king ship Everyone not too
busy kissing corporate booty blew
Dodge on the swanky luncheon to bomb
the local mega-mall chow on a bitetre
Texmox buffet and tear into BettleTech
BATTLETECH
NO GUTS NO GALAXYI
Battle Tech is a virtual reality theme park
where you pilot huge two-legged tanks
called Battle Mechs into raging combat
After a mood-setting briefing you 210
locked into a sealed pod and confronted
by the massive array of buttos and joy
sticks required to control your behemoth
Next, you and a gang friends or strangers
e dropped into a digital world to battle
to the death Massively disorienting at
first but supremely addictive, The com
pany keeps your custom catanie on file
for future sessions, so go for it again
Through North Dakota, Montana,
Idaho, etc, it was hard to decide which
was mere boring, staring at an infinite
array of fat fields or playing Zelds for the
hundredth straight hour. Inspired by
BattleTech someone found a classic cat
that saved the trip. Faceball is a must-
have if you're cursed with a Gameboy
and the fentendo's four-player adapter is
STATIC
Insane in the N Train
must-have your're going to get the
total Facebal experience, Concept: You
and three of your buds are big floating 3-
D happy faces like the maniacat 70's
Have A Nice Day pinal You cruise around
this mate and when you find each other,
you kill The Firefights are hairy and you
may find yourself firing blindly while
retreating just to keep that stupid grin on
your face only to back straight into a
compadre just waiting to oblige you with
death shot between the eyes. Like I
reale the first one with ter kills wine
Also on the BattleTech tip is Mach
Warrior (SNES), a cool incarnation that
brings the blaring missiles and seating
lasers of a metal manbot to the home
screen, Downright playable, but like the
SNES version of Faceboil it's hurting for
jack of head-to-head conflagration
GANG WARFARE
The more the merrier is the delimito
wave of this future for vidgames Every
one from Sega to AT&T is trying to be
first on the interactive cable scene, but
unel Sega ships its telephone cable adap
tor allowing you to streetfight with your
in on the opposite coast and send ma
and pa to the poor fem with the phone
bist or whichever corporate monster
blows the scane to paels with an interac
tive Hustler channel, you'll have to settle
for the new 4-player adapters available.
for both the SNES and Genesis systems.
The SNES version is made by Hudson
Soft, who also makes the best game to
go with it, Super Bomberman Two dif
furent adaptors are available for Gewesis
one by Sega and one by Electronic Arts
The initial offering of gangland games for
the G system is significantly superior
From a bloody battlefield brawl called
General Chaos where you machine gun
ame throw grenade and fisticuff your
friends into disheveled skeletons, to
sports titles like NHL Hockey '94 and Bill
Walsh College Football, where you can
all be on the same team for ultimate con
trol in computer ass-kicking: Also check
out the arcade classic Gauntlet, which
looks and plays pretty much exactly like
ts quarter commuming namesake
For the Test couple of years the acade
scene has been ruled by two machines,
StreetFighter in its many incarnations)
and Mortal Kombat. Both are now avail
able on home systems and now you can
avan play Street Fighter II on your IBM
clone, Gulle's shattering sonic boom
move and all soven of the other world
warrior's maneuvers are at your disposal
The killer game of the season for the
Mac is Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, a
flight simulator with everything from
WWll classics like the P 511e modern
mayhems with the MIG-21. Full-on 3.0
polygon graphics and multiple perspec
tive play make this the stratosphere
you've been seeking Scope these titles
while your teacher parents think you're
studying hard at the computer
The jury is in on the best home version
of Mortal Kombat and the verdict is
GameGear! With an amazing degree of
control using only two buttons (three f
you count the stan" buttons and all the
bloody fatalities of the Genesis version,
this cart goes beyond must-have status
straight to must cheat/steal/k-to-have
status for all proud owners of the vastly
superior Sega GameGear system
SONIC SPIN-OFF
On similar status is Sega's latest
exploits of the little blue hedgehog with
tude, Sonic. After a disappointing outing
in the rehashed best-seller sequel Sonic
2, the ultimate ripper is back to what has
got to be the best cart of the season,
Sonic Spinball. Our hero is propelled
through inultiple levels of mayhemina
world gone pinbait You control the flip
pers that help him pursue power umer
alds and the twisted Doctor Rebotnik
You also control the blue one himself in
the acquisition of rings from the toxic
Sower in level one on up
Last Xmas, the cart to bug mom for
Was Super Star Wars, this year the lead
ing contender may well be Super Empire
Strikes Back This sequel based on i
sequel continues in the excellent varied
perspective format that includes both
side scrolling battle and first-person laser
blazing flight simulator
Guilty pleasures are things you really
dig, even though you had to admit it.
Games that are blatant blows for com
mercial products are supposed to suck,
right? Wrong. The 7 Up trademark, Cool
Spot, is coming out with a GameGest
000300 Sale
cart this season after hugely popular out
ngs on both major home systems. This is
one of the hottest playing and looking
gemas ever. What gives? And with even
greater guilt, admit MacDonald's Global
Gladiators was one of the biggest sleep-
ors that deserved to be a keeper last
year. You can probably still find this PC
(as in politically correct side scroller in
the bargain bin of your favorite depot
FUTURE SHOCK
Going into 1994 videogames are all
about licenses Who is authorized to take
the flavor of the month and build a game
around it? And will it suck? Movies are
being rewritten at major Hollywood sta
dios these days to accommodate the
Impending vid vart to follow for visa versa
as in the case of RoboCop 3, where the
cart predated the movie by a good yuar
Not surprising, since video games make
about $5.3 million year, some $400 mil
on more than movies. America's sweet-
heart Charles Barkley has his own bas
ketball cart coming out after Xmas in his
bid to replace MJ at the top of the en
dorsement beap and MTV and Accolade
have revived Speed Racer from Japanese
Fanimation hell. Who's next.. President
Clinton's Cat? Yes, look forward to Socks
from Kaneko this Xmas Brad Dostand