Linkstew

My anticipation for the Gamecube is building, and being the list monger I am, I felt like breaking down my anticipation. And I think these are some rather revealing lists, really.

• Gamecube:
  1. Super Smash Brothers Melee - This is my number 1 most anticipated game, and that's all there is to say about that. *
  2. Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 - This game looks fantastic, and though I don't like generic shooters, Star Wars shooters are a completely different story. *
  3. Wave Race: Blue Storm - The original Wave Race was the first game I played on the N64, and I played it quite a lot. Basically, I'm a sucker for quality racing games. *
  4. Pikmin - So cute, and so original! *
  5. Luigi's Mansion - This game looks to have good graphics and original gameplay, and besides, I'm like Luigi way more than I like Mario. *
• Game Boy Advance
  1. Golden Sun - This is looking to be a fantastic little GBA RPG. *
  2. Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Holy Hell! How did they fit this game onto the GBA?? As long as the reviewers confirm that it lives up to the legacy, I'm so there.
  3. Sonic the Hedgehog Advance - I like Sonic, and I like the Game Boy Advance.
  4. Super Mario Advance 2 - Wowie, a remake of the SNES's Super Mario World for the GBA? I can't believe how much the GBA is capable of.
  5. ...
• Xbox
  1. Halo - This is a Bungiegame, damnit. Oh, the anguish! **
  2. ...
  3. ...
  4. ...
  5. ...
• PS2
  1. Final Fantasy X - This game looks to have great graphics, and good god, it's got some of the hottest final fantasy chicks yet!
  2. Metal Gear Solid 2 - Tactical Espionage Action! Based on the demo, this game can't possibly go wrong. *
  3. Soul Calibur 2 - You know, this is a cross platform game, and I fully intend to buy it for the Gamecube when the time comes. I just put it here because my PS2 release calendar is a little bleak, and I didn't want to bump any of the GCN games coming out in the first two weeks for something that might be coming out before my birthday.
  4. Xenosaga - So this might be out before next Christmas, but whenever the time comes, I want to play it.
  5. ...
• Mac:
  1. Myth 3: The Wolf Age - It doesn't look like the non-bungie developers broke the game, so I'm looking forward to it. All the same, I'll read the reviews before I buy, just to make sure. *
  2. Uhh... ***

Now, admittedly, I could have filled in five games for the xbox, but Halo is the only xbox game I really feel a burning desire to play at the moment. I tried to limit the lists to be the games that I really want to play. Of course, the Gamecube list is much longer, so I limited it to the top five (I'm also anticipating Super Monkey Ball, among a few others) games coming out before Christmas (otherwise Zelda would have bumped Luigi off the list, for example).

Now what's the point here? First of all, I'm obviously a little more interested in one console than the others. But second, check out IGN's top 10 year 1 PS2 games. All of the games I'd include in my top 10 list are in their list, except several of the games in their list are so obviously a stretch (having to include that many sports/racing games in such a list is just a bad sign), and my top 10 list would have been a top five list instead. What's interesting, though, is if I make a retroactive PS2 anticipation list:

1. Zone of Enders/MGS2 Demo - Z.O.E. turned out to have been a huge disappointment, and the MGS 2 demo was way too short.
2. Gran Turismo 3 - Good game, but I found it frustrating.
3. Star Wars Episode 1: Starfighter - This is the game that got me to buy my PS2. It wasn't bad, but I haven't played it since I beat it.
4. Devil May Cry - I only really started anticipating this game about a week before it came out, after reading some advance reviews. For some reason, the early previews didn't do it for me.
5. ICO - I didn't want to play it until I'd read some reviews. However, it's a game I would have only rented if I weren't borrowing it from my co-worker. Not something I'd want to buy.
6. Onimusha - Another one I didn't want to play until I read the reviews, and once again, I only plan to rent it.
7. Silent Hill 2 - And another one I didn't even know about before it was out.

The moral here is: There are almost as many games I'm anticipating for the Gamecube that come out in the Gamecube's first month as I wanted to play in the whole first year of the PS2's existence. (Though I fully acknowledge that SSX is a great game, I didn't actually desire to play it. It came as part of my bundle, and so it was only an accident that I discovered its greatness) For that matter, if you only count the games I anticipated ahead of time, the GCN wins over the PS2 hands down. Of course, we'll see how these GCN games live up to my anticipation, because my PS2 anticipation was pretty misplaced. Just check out my top 5 year 1 PS2 games:

1. Gran Turismo 3
2. SSX
3. Devil May Cry
4. ICO
5. Oh, wait, I've only played 4 good PS2 games so far... =) (I haven't played Onimusha or Silent Hill 2 yet. Gotta deal with ICO and Devil May Cry first.)

Hm, I wonder what's going to suffer more: My bank account or my final grades. Hm. This so isn't good.

* - due to be released by Christmas. Holy hell there are a lot of them. I have no clue how I'm going to make time for all of these.
** - due to be released by Christmas, but there's no way I'll be playing it any time soon. Damn you Microsoft. You go to hell and you die. You stole Halo and now I have to wait for a Mac port, if it ever happens.
*** - Mac games? Haha, yeah right... There's a reason I'm such; console whore: Mac games don't exist.

Well, I said I'd eat my hat if this happened, but I don't have a hat... I'm really kind of amazed. And sad. And miffed. I feel let down. Things will work out, though. They're just a company, even if I liked them a lot, and their name was one of my nicknames... Buggrit. Millennium Hand and Shrimp. Check out this article here... From the article, it sounds like this will be good for them, but I can't help but question what will happen. We'll see. We... Will See.