Carbonated News (February 2003)

Okay, this whole movie thing is starting to get pretty obnoxious.  Apparently Samus Aran, female bounty hunter extraordinaire, has been the latest victim to the video game industry’s cinematic trend, as Warren Zide and Craig Perry (of Zide/Perry Entertainment) have secured the rights to produce a film based on the Metroid franchise.  Former flicks created by this duo include American Pie, American Pie 2, Cats & Dogs, and Final Destination.  As of now Zide and Perry are in the early stages of development, currently seeking out potential directors, writers and actors for what is no doubt fated to be a terrible film.  What’s next, Pac-Man: The Movie?  Oh wait..

At a Tokyo press conference this past month, Namco Ltd announced the triplatform sequel to their Dreamcast fighter, Soul Calibur 2.  To be released in Japan in March of this year, each version of the game will be given a different special character.  Xbox owners will be able to play as comic-book d00d Spawn, PS2 playas will get Heihachi (from the Tekken series), and GameCubers will be graced with Hyrulian hero Link.  The United States will be seeing this interesting title sometime around August of this year.

On March 23rd of this year, North America finally gets its backlit portable console — the Game Boy Advance SP.  With a new design that resembles a lap-top computer and featuring a built in rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery (which is good for nearly ten hours of play), this new GBA has a suggested retail price of $99.95, a good $30 more than the older version currently costs.  As is the case with all new Game Boys, the GBASP will be backwards compatible with all prior GB titles, giving it a starting library of thousands of hundreds upon hundreds of games.  When the flip-top of the GBASP is closed, the console forms a miniscule three-inch square.  Will gamers be willing to shell out another $100 for yet another portable Nintendo system, or will the Game Boy Advance SP go the way of the Game Boy Pocket?  Find out this coming March.

While it was already announced several months ago, Konami of America has made the dream official by revealing that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games will be released in October of this year.  Based on both the new cartoon (which hits the airwaves February 8th on Fox) and the old-school comic book, this hopefully awesome title will be available for Playstation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC-CD ROM, and Mac.  Gamers will play the role of the four fearsome fighting tens as they battle Shredder and the foot ninjas.  Wait, “foot ninjas”?  I thought they were always the “foot clan” or “foot soldiers”, never “foot ninjas.”  Oh well.  As long as the game knocks my socks off, I could care less about what they’re calling the damn things.