Hello all,

First off, a minor correction from last week's newsletter. I had stated that Capcom's Strider 2 was to be using Sega's Naomi board. I based this information on several sources all citing the same info. Now, another source, Magic Box has stated that Capcom has confirmed the game will run on Namco's System 11 board while a PSX version is set to appear by years end, with a Dreamcast version sometime shortly thereafter. I apologize for any confusion I've caused. On with the news....

Sorry for the lack of updates on the site during the past week. School is giving me much more work than usual, and probably will continue to do so up through finals. Four new Dreamcast games are coming up this week, as is one Saturn game. On the site I've updated the Dreamcast release dates as well.

Two DC games came out last week, they are Capcom's Power Stone, and Konami's Pop 'n Music. Both games have recieved pretty good reviews. The general consensus about Power Stone is that the game is great once one gets used to the full 3D gameplay (with attacks coming from all directions). There are images on the site of Power Stone if you wish to view them.

Saturn fans have been waiting a very long time for this one...back in January 1998, in this newsletter Capcom stated they would have D&D out by Summer 1998. Well, now it is March 99, and finally Capcom's Dungeon's and Dragons collection is due to come out in Japan this Thursday. The game is on two discs, one having Tower of Doom, and the other Shadow over Mystara. The first game doesn't require the 4Meg RAM Cart, but the second does. One known game using the 4Meg RAM Cart is set to follow: SF Zero 3. No date on that one has been announced.

For the Dreamcast, four new games along with a peripheral will be coming this week. They are: Aero Dancing, Mahjong Rally 2, Psychic Force 2012, and Puyo Puyo. All three games earned close scores in the Famitsu with: 30, 28, 28, and 29 out of 40 respectively. Aero Dancing is a flight sim letting one choose from ten different planes from fighters to bombers. It has several modes including missions, free flight, a mini game, and versus modes. The game supports 1-4 players but from what I can gather I don't know if the four players are simultaneous or not.

Koei's Mahjong Rally 2 is another puzzler as is Compile's Puyo Puyo. Psychic Force 2012 is a 3D fighter from Taito. Taito claims the game to be a perfect port of the arcade version. It features expected play modes as well as a CPU v. CPU watch mode.

The peripheral I am referring to is Sega's Puru-Puru pack. The add on plugs into the VMS slot and works similar to Nintendo's rumble pack by adding primitive force feedback while playing games that support the peripheral. The item also ships this Thursday at a price of ¥1800 or about $15US.

There are some reports that Shenmue has been pushed back from an April release to August of this year, but there has been no confirmation of such a delay. The only hint of a delay is a commend from Yu Suzuki doubting whether the game would be ready for April or not. More news will probably be available at the Spring TGS later this month. There are two more unconfirmed release schedule adjustments for Sega releases: House of the Dead 2 is said to have been moved forward one week to March 18th, while Blue Stinger was once again pushed back to an uncertain date. When some solid info comes, I will make the appropriate changes.

Again, sorry for the lack of site updates....school is just taking too much of my time from dEX. Many thanks for your support, see you next week!

-Greg