Hello all!

First off, this week saw several new releases in Japan. The biggest news of course was the long awaited release of Sonic Team's 3d title, Burning Rangers. Just as two years ago with the release of Nights, Sonic Team has again produced a stunning title for the Saturn. One that many said couldn't be done. The game uses tons of lighting and transparency effects at the same time. Along with lots of detailed textures, good polygon clipping and excellent level design, the game features huge levels which can be explored for hours if desired. The control in the title is similar to that in Nights when walking on the ground with Eliot or Claris. It can take a little time getting used to, but then...Nights took some getting used to also. The game also includes a bonus soundtrack CD. An excellent success, the US release is in May. Re:tokyo has put up eight video clips from the game (no audio). They can be found at: http://retokyo.com/games/images/003/index.htm

Next off are two shooters, Battle Garegga from Raizing and Stellar Assault by Sims. There are snapshots of these games on the site if you didn't catch them last week. Sega has also shipped their latest game in the Ages series, Power Drift. Hopefully a review of the classic racer will be up in a week or two. Masiya also released a 'cinematic' compilation of Langrisser 1 & 2 into a new title called Langrisser Dramatic. Essentially the game is a 'remix' of the previous titles. Other Japanese releases included Data East's horror/adventure title Doukoku Soshite. Finally Victor shipped an RPG/adventure game called Shiroki Majo.

There were no new releases in the US or Europe. While the US Saturn release schedule seems fairly dry, the European one is even more sparse. This month folks in the UK can expect to see two titles from GT Interactive, Atari Greatest Hits and Maximum Force. Other than those two titles there aren't any on official release lists. Strangely absent are big name Sega titles from the list. Panzer Dragoon RPG and Burning Rangers are expected however there have been no dates given. I've contacted Sega Europe and hopefully they'll be able to let me know what is going on. House of the Dead is expected 'around Easter' in Europe.

In news, VideoLogic and NEC have announced some details on their 'Highlander' chipset. The set is the 3D graphics chipset that is supposed to be used in Sega's next console due September in Japan. See the site for details on what the chipset can do. One thing: 1.2million polys per second...

Sometime this week I plan to reorganize the 'Nowout' area to make it faster loading and to move older titles into an 'archive' area. That's all for now, cya!

-Greg