Virtua Fighter 3: Sega unveils 1996's hottest game, page 14 layStation Saturn «3D0 Nint OM Arcad 1 j|i HI l'7'l 111 if* rilil Wilirili mI mm [ [ijmIIiUKi] Mr Scared of Nintendo? Not Sony. Psygnosis' second-generation games push 32-bit to the max $4.99 U.S. $5.99 CAN 0 Tenka: the up-and-coming PlayStation title from Psygnosis that promises to rival Id's Quake as the game to rejuvenate the first-person shooting genre NEXT Contacts Next Generation Imagine Publishing, Inc. 150 North Hill Drive Brisbane CA 94005 Subscriptions 415. 468. 4684 (E-mail: [email protected]) Advertising 415. 468. 4684 Editorial 415. 468. 4684 ( E-mail: [email protected] FAX 415. 468. 4686 Editorial Neil West editor-in-chief Douglass Perry managing editor Trent Ward reviews editor Chris Charla features editor Jeff Lundrigan associate editor Eugene Wang associate art director Richard Szeto associate art director Colin Campbell editor, A/G Online So Howard, what's the excuse this time? Eric Marcoullier new media editor Next Generation didn't have to go looking for Nintendo of America's president and CEO Howard Lincoln co grant his third Christian Svensson The Swede™ interview in nine months. This time, he personally came to see us. The topic? Three guesses, and the first two don't count Editorial Contributors Patrick Baggatta, Nicolas di Costanza, Chris Crawford, Mark Ramshaw, Mike Salmon, Chris Sherman, Marcus Webb, Mike Wolf, Bernard Yee Photography William Faulkner, Mark Koehler Artistic Contributor Quintin Doroquez Advertising Doug Faust ad manager Aldo Ghiozzi account executive Simon Whitcombe business development Melody Stephenson ad coordinator Subscriptions Gail Egbert subscriptions director Julia La I las customer services Production Richard Lesovoy production director Kimba Smith production coordinator Get a Grip! Joysticks: past, present, and future Imagine Publishing. Inc. All electronic games have one thing in common: some device by which players interact with the game. Next Generation examines Jonathan Simpson-Bint publisher controllers past and present, then looks to the future to see how new technologies may change the very way you play games Mary Keeney marketing coordinator Maryanne Napoli dir. single copy sales Doug Haynie circulation analyst Bruce Eldridge newsstand sales manager Tom Valentino vice president/CFO Chris Anderson president Next Generation (1SSN# 1078-9693) is published monthly by Imagine Publishing, Inc, 150 North Hill Drive, Brisbane, CA 94005, USA. Second-class postage paid at Brisbane, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER send changes of address to Next Generation, PO Box 53680, Boulder, CO 80322-3680. Newsstand distribution is handled by Curtis Circulation Company. Subscriptions: one year (12 issues) US: $34. Canada: $48. Foreign: $58. Canadian price includes postage and GST (GST# R 128 220688). Entire contents copyright 1996, Imagine Publishing, inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Produced in the United States of America. Next Generation shares editorial with the UK-based magazine EDGE, and is not affiliated with NeXT Software, Inc. Next Generation is the official magazine of Weasel & The Swede™. Welcome to Earth, Alphas: 15 games previewed Chloe (8 lbs, 10 oz). God bless Sue, Alistair, An exclusive look at Tenka and Formula One, two new PlayStation projects from the company that brought you Destruction Derby and and Sarah. And Trent, is this really good • • bye? Say it ain't so, buddy (you Lemon) Wipeout An interview with Capcom's Japanese software chief Plus, Red Baron II, Power Play Hockey, 3DO's Decathlon and more ng 6 talking So tell us Howard, what's the excuse this time? Not only has Nintendo 64 been delayed {again) in the US, but also in Japan. So what's the story? News All the latest developments in the world of gaming 24 Movers & Shakers (business news) 26 Arcadia (coin-op news and updates) 28 Generator (word from the developers) 32 subscribing Save cash and time Tired of paying those high newsstand prices for the same exact product you could have delivered? 34 ng hardware Joysticks The humble controllers you use every day are about to affect you in ways you can barely imagine 47 ng software Alphas A report from the dark, Cheetohs-strewn depths of the industry's top developers: Power Play Hockey (PS- X); Devil Summoner (Saturn); Time Gate (PC),Time Commando (PC); Tomb Raider (Saturn); Eurit (multi); Decathlon (3DO); Magic Knight Rayearth (Saturn); Red Baron II (PC); Die Hard Trilogy (PS-X); iron Rain (Saturn) 90 rating Finals The good, the bad, the ones that put us to sleep, and Virtua Fighter 3 and Sega's long-awaited Model 3 board debuts • Next Generation reports on what could be the last Jaguar reviews we ever run the ACME arcade trade show • Saturn and PlayStation sales figures — who should you believe? Ten full pages of industry jobs. We have a pool going on what percentage of readers look here first 123 corresponding Letters Once the normal letters are sorted from those by the "sanity challenged," it's a short list to answer 126 theorizing The way games ought to be Chris Crawford on why most game stories have unhappy endings, and how sad that really is Finals: 31 games reviewed Next month... Reviews the way you've come to expect them: no coddling, no soft punches, no compromise. NEXT Generation #18 arrives on newsstands on If you want to know what to spend your hard-earned money on. start here or get burned May 21. Find out how to subscribe on page 32 It's deja vu. Again. In NG 8, Next Generation asked Nintendo of America's President Howard Lincoln to explain why Ultra 64 (as Nintendo's 64-bit console was known at the time) had slipped from a 1995 release to April of 1996. Now, it's April '96, and there's still no sign of Nintendo 64... So Howard, We're talking about making games in a 3D environment — and some of our third party publishers have had some difficulty with that talking what's .the excuse time? "[pi |3 alking about Nintendo 64's delays is ever done a simultaneous launch before, but we becoming an increasingly boring, yet thought we could do it. But, when we measured necessary, part of every videogame the demand after the show, particularly the magazine's duties. Because of this demand in Japan — which we had a way of month's last minute Virtua Fighter 3 me;measuring — it just became very apparent coverage, and the fact that — to be that if we were to stick to a brutally honest — Nintendo 64's simultaneous launch simply because delay isn't the most scintillating of we had said that's what we were topics, this month's interview is a shooting for, we'd end up shooting meager three pages long* ourselves in the foot. Of course, we're being a little NG: Why would it be shooting cruel to Howard Lincoln and yourself in the foot? Nintendo. The bottom line is that Howard: If we had stuck with the Nintendo is completely correct in waiting April launch in all three markets [US, Japan, until it's properly ready before launching Nintendo and Europe], I think we would have ended up 64. It's just more than a little disappointing, that's dribbling out a little bit in each — with not all. And the news of Nintendo 64's delay in Japan enough to meet the demand. This would cause all to June 23 was a surprise, even to those of us sorts of aggravation, not only on the consumer who had made the prediction that an April US level but at the retail level, which is equally launch would be impossible. important to us. The retailers don't like a launch So why the delay? And, as PlayStation and with not enough product because then they get Saturn games continue to improve, will Nintendo into arguments with us about fair allocations, 64 offer any improvement over its competition "Well, why did he get this? I saw this at Toy R Us. when it finally does appear? Next Generation met with Howard Lincoln, once again, to find out. Albert Einstein could start programming Manufacturing problems for Sega and Sony and they're not going to NG: So why has Nintendo 64's launch been be able to make [Nintendo 64] games delayed until September 30? Howard: It's primarily a production problem — How come I don't have any?" That kind of stuff. just a supply-and-demand problem. I think the And because of our relationships with those main problem is in the production of an adequate retailers, we can't afford to do that in any market. supply of the two key chips in the hardware: the NG: Are you hinting that you don't want the 64-bit CPU and the reality coprocessor. Getting same problems that Sega had, with its surprise that produced in quantities sufficient enough to launch of Saturn in May of last year? meet what we regard as explosive demand in the Howard: Sega made a calculated decision to do Japanese market is difficult. it did, but feedback says that a lot of NG: You must have anticipated a large demand? what my retailers were not too happy about it. I'm sure Howard: When we went into the Shoshinkai Sega had reasons for it did, and I'm not Show, we were shooting for a simultaneous launch good what taking shots at Sega, I'm just saying that it's an [in all countries at the same time]. We'd never e exciting affair, as Microsoft's founder Bill Gates quivers in the glare of Next Generatio talking example of what can happen if the launch is not NG: And are you confident that these delays, and well done [i.e.