Googleshng:
You know, when I first saw the GBA, I thought the same thing. It makes SNES ports a bit of a challenge. After thinking about it though, maybe that's the point. The GBA is a 32-bit handheld as I recall. Twice as powerful as the SNES. Still, the fact that in can handle SNES games is just seen as an open opertunity for developers to port games right over. By taking out two buttons, the eliminate that kind of quick port job, forcing people to either rework games while porting them (hopefully taking advantage of the superior power and passage of time to make improvements), or make totally new honest to goodness 32-bit handheld games. I'm really excited about the thing myself, short two buttons or not. For the record though, there really aren't that many SNES games that use EVERY button. Most games either ignore X and Y or L and R. Personally, I always set dash to R in Mega Man X. Makes it a lot easier to dash-jump-shoot.

Googleshng:
OK, while I haven't finished it yet, I am under the impression that the actual story of PSO is very short, passing through a small number of VERY detailed locations. Either that or it's long passing through a large number of VERY detailed locations. In any case though, there is a VERY large number of optional side quests, most of which in fact have more interesting stories than the main plotline. There is also an option to dowload new sidequests like these, so depending on how much Sega keeps up with it, you COULD see a LOT of replay value. There are no difficulty settings, but when you're playing offline, you rarely have any computer controlled characters with you, which at times can make things VERY hard. So, to seque into your last question, if you like hard dungeon crawls, then you'd probably get something out of it solo. Everyone I know who imported is.

Googleshng:
OK, from the top. PSO basically has three races: Human, Android, and Numan (cat girl). It also has three basic classes: Ranger (Guns), Hunter (Swords), and Force (Magic). Between these, there are 9 character types, two android rangers, one human one, a hunter of each race, two numan forces and a human one. The three choices within any given class have slightly different stats, mostly derived from numen being naturally good with magic and androids not being able to use it but making up by being TOUGH. After picking one of these, you get to customize your appearance to an AMAZING degree, and there's a lot of different strategies you can use in game for all of them. The graphics are entirely 3D. Like I said last letter, there's basically just the one no nonsense town and a lot of interesting wilderness. 4 people can play at a time, and yes, there is a plot, and yes, you can win. There, now that the PSO stuff is out of the way, I have never, and will never touch any Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. Not only can Megumi Hayashibara sing, she sings pretty darn well if you ask me, and sings the themesong for pretty much every anime she does a voice in, including every season of Slayers and LU, which no, I haven't seen any of yet, or Lupin. Finally, Vanguard Bandits is a really great game, and I'm still trying to figure out why so many people overlooked it.

Googleshng:
Well, when it comes to game rental places, giving you what you want DOES make them money. The problem is, they have no idea what you want. So, they just get the games that have a lot of advertising out there, assuming those are what people are looking for. Only thing I can suggest would be to talk to the manager of your local rental place, and suggest that they make a little suggestion box, so that the gamers in the area can voice what games they want to rent when they come out. Depending on things your circumstances, you could also just find a bunch of other people with the same tastes as you and start a gaming pool, where you all chip in to buy every game that looks interesting and circulate them around on some sort of schedule.

Googleshng:
Well, games like Valkyrie Profile and Koudelka prove that if you seem a game in the mythology and stylings of any given culture, you get something nice and refreshing. Still, FF10 hasn't managed to grip me at all. A lucritive franchise can be a really bad thing in artistic terms.

Googleshng:
Well, simply put, a decent number of people on the message boards whined about the background and font size, so to make them happy, it was changed as you see. Now, personally, I've been going EWW all week. Come to think of it, I meant to suggest this back on tuesday, but today, when you send in letters, if you have any opinion either way on this little new look could you do me a favor and stick it in a little P.S. at the bottom?

Kee hee hee! I'm back, and better than ever!
Sweet-o! Victoria's Secret is having a sale!

~Happosai
"Dirty old man!"

Am I the only one that thought Kuja was a woman when I first saw (him/her)?

Hey Goog, did you see the Daily Show last night? There was an extremely funny story making fun of Bill Gates and the X-Box, in which they showed off X-Box's graphics ability by showing a demo of the first Pitfall. Funny, huh?

Kaiser

dear google,
æææææplease excuse my ignorance, but could you please enlighten me as to what a haiku is?

æææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææææthe wandering lancer

Hey Googster,
What's your opinion, if any, of Outlaw Star now being on Cartoon Network?
-Esquire J

The Last Laugh: