We are slowly – but surely – trying to get caught up with where we are in Nintendo Power magazine.

Cover: Can Sega turn the state of the Saturn around with their upcoming arcade titles?

Industry Interview: We have an interview with Ken Kutagragi of Sony on the state of the PlayStation. We have a bunch of discussions on how well the PlayStation is doing in Japan & Europe. The interviewer tries to get Kutaragi to spill some of the beans on the upcoming PS2, without success. He does, however, throw a bunch of shade at Nintendo’s performance in the Japanese market.

News: Sega & Bandai’s merger has fallen through, with Bandai’s Tamagotchi giving them more stability. Worse, some high-profile Saturn titles either don’t have publishers (Legacy of Kain) or have been cancelled (Tomb Raider 2). Sega is also working on their next console, code-named “Black Belt”, which I believe is going to be the Dreamcast. If that is the case, they sadly will not be advertising with Segata Sanshiro.

We get a transcript of a roundtable at a Japanese trade show with Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, Yu Suzuki of Sega, and Yoshiki Okamoto of Capcom. The particularly interesting notes in this discussion is Miyamoto and Suzuki talking about what influences their game design. Suzuki mentions that he sucks at playing games, so he likes to make games he enjoys playing. Miyamoto says he’s inspired by whatever didn’t work or otherwise failed on his last project.

Video Game Packaging: We get a discussion of what goes into the design of game packaging, starting with the game’s cover. Or, to be more specific, starting with the platform & line trade dress, followed by the actual cover picture and the game’s logo. On the back, we get the choice of what screenshots to use, how to describe the game, hardware requirements, and pull quotes. There’s also mention of what marketing materials are provided to the store.

Alphas (Previews): We got a look at what Sega’s AM2 studio is up to, including a licensed arcade game based on The Lost World. Speaking of which, we have an interview with AM2’s only female producer at the time, Mie Kumagai, who is the designer of the Lost World. We also have a look at Top Skater, which looks like it’s going to pre-date Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. We have an interview with the game’s designer, Hisao Oguchi. Finally, we have a weapon-based fighter with Last Bronx.

In terms of other publishers, we have Zork: Grand Inquisitor from Activision, Eidos has Tomb Raider 2 and Psygnosis has Colony Wars. However, bigger than all of this – is Half-Life. The game is still in a very early phase, with not yet finalized character designs, with a particular. A particularly dramatic change is Gordon Freeman with a mountain man beard.

The Way Games Ought To Be: This issue’s topic – the barriers to natural language conversation in video games, before moving on to general player expression.

Finals (Reviews): We have three N64 titles, two well-regarded – Starfox 64 & International Superstar Soccer – and Hexen is not well regarded.

On the PlayStation, we have the original Dynasty Warriors, which is a standard weapon-based fighting game. There’s also Wild Arms on the RPG front and Ridge Racer for racing.

The Saturn only has one big title, with Metal Slug.

The PC also has a few heavy hitters, including X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, and Emperor of the Fading Suns (based on the tabletop game franchise).

Letters: In the letters column, we have an argument for the importance of an independent developer scene, same as in film and music, and how this could come to be.

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