their character! An "extreme" button can triple player capabilities or be used to initiate over 30 new slam dunks (including helicopter style and flip dunks).

ATARI was showing the kit version of their chart-dominating Area 51. They have already sold gobs of them, said the factory reps. The kill-orbe-killed shooting action combines with a clever "alien takeover" and advanced aviation R&D storyline to create the title's proven appeal.

Capcom reprised its most successful title once again in yet another sequel: Street Fighter Alpha 2. Shipping now as a B-board conversion, full kit (A & B boards) or dedicated upright, it features brilliant animated backgrounds, 18 selectable characters (including five new ones and all the previous "Alpha" heroes) and 3D sound effects. In an industry first, players can use a new 1-3 second "recordable Custom Combo" feature to design and execute their own unlimited special-combination moves. Capcom says this will promote faster and more varied action.

Konami's Run & Gun 2 is available in dual and single kits for their Run & Gun basketball video plus in dedicated units. It's on the market now.

digitized graphics. Character size is rescaled as Batman and Robin move through various levels, battling the Riddler and Two-Face. Acclaim boasts about the game's advanced audio, with

good reason: 12 simultaneous soundtracks of solidstate digitized music, speech and sound effects! Acclaim believes this title will get its strength from gameplay which mirrors and expands on the plotline of the movie which inspired it. It began shipping at the show.

Acclaim's other video, NBA Jam Extreme, ships this month. Using a license from the National Basketball Assn., the two-on-two vidgame uses Acclaim's motion-capture technology to achieve fluid and lifelike moves for the onscreen characters (Washington Bullets forward Juwan Howard was the "moving model" for this process.) Character's faces represent digitized images of 170 real NBA stars. Fun features include a "smokin"' mode where players on a hot streak find smoke trails

rising from the sneakers of ics. They also had their NBA Hang Time basketball video game at ACME.

CAPCOM has blasted out with an aerial fighter called 19XX which is another addition to their CPS-II system series. Planes, weapons, guns and bombs. Awesome. It's on

the market now.

Their Dungeons & Dragons caught

good comment on the ACME show floor.

See this ancient idea in a hot electronic

package now at your Capcom dealer.

DATA EAST has a new vertical kit called Skull Fang, which is actually a jet fighter with four different planes and player's choice of auto-scroll or variablethrottle "chase" modes. Eight power-ups and imaginative hidden flight techniques add to the fun.

Data East also showed a cute cartridge game for the Neo-Geo system, called Magical Drop II. They or SNK will release it this spring; at presstime it was unclear which. In either case, this puzzle game is worth looking into for its unusual hybrid of gameplay genres. The strategybased, head to head competition combines elements from fighting games with puzzle appeal. How? Well, your joystick controls a clown who has to sort of "juggle" ascending and descending balloons of various colors. Object is to fill the screen with explosions of color as you burst balloons by lining them up in proper position.

FABTEK showed a two-player horizontal puzzle kit with four games in the software. Licensed from Semicon and priced attractively, it's called Sports Ball Match and is available now.

JALECO has Tetris Plus, a horizontal kit, coming in mid-April. Extra touches could rekindle interest in this now-classic piece.

KONAMI previewed a fascinating spin on the sports simulator concept with Wave Shark, a prototype which was 37% done at showtime. This standup unit has the player pretending to ride a jet ski, and four player stations may be linked for racing. Finished units should be on the market by August. We heard lots of positive comment at the show about this one,

Page 98

April 1996

RePlay Magazine