H A N D H E L D S

- Nintendo of America announced a price drop for GameBoy Advance, the new retail price of this 32-bit handheld system will be $79.99 beginning on February 1, 2002, reduced by $20.

- TDK Mediactive is working on a new GameBoy Advance side scrolling action shooter called Robotech, which is based on the classic anime Robotech / Macross. In the game you play as one of the veritechs to battle against the Zentraedi.

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- RUMOR: Square has registered two new copyrighted names, they are "Unlimited Saga" and "Chrono Break", which seems to be reserved for the possible sequels of Chrono Chross and Saga Frontier, or new anime series based on the two games.

- Here are some new screen shots of Enix / GameArts' upcoming PlayStation 2 RPG Grandia Xtreme, scheduled to release in Japan on January 31, for 7800 yen. In this game there is a battle system called Synchronize Flash System, which allows up to 3 characters to combine their power to unleash a mighty attack, such as the Shin-Thunderbolt Sword attack. There is also a Cancel system in the game, if your character attacks an enemy in a turn before it initializes its attack, then there is a chance that the enemy's attack is being canceled by your attack and the enemy will not be able to attack until the next round. However, the enemy may also use the Cancel system on your party. Sometimes when you attack the enemy, you will gain an advantage over the enemy, at this time you will have two additional commands: Combo or Critical, "Combo" allows you to attack the enemy more than once in a turn, and "Critical" allows you to give the enemy a critical blow.....

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G A M E C U B E

- Here are some new screens of Ubi Soft / Sting's GameCube RPG Evolution Worlds, the newest sequel to the Dreamcast dungeons RPG. The game contains a mix of elements from part 1 and part 2 in the series. The two lead characters are Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon, they will once again explore the randomly generated dungeons to search for the mystic ancient CyFrames, and battle the enemies in the same turn based battle system. Evolution Worlds is scheduled for a spring release in US.

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- Here are some new screens of Hudson's GameCube fighting game Bloody Roar Extreme, the game is based on Bloody Roar 3 for PS2, with two additional characters. There is a new two-tier beast meter, once it is full you can double your attack power for a limited time. It is also possible to destroy the wall boundaries at anytime in the battles, instead of having to wait until the end of the round. Activision will publish the US version of the game under the name Bloody Roar: Primal Fury in March.

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A R C A D E   /   M U L T I

- The Japanese arcade magazine and developers have selected the best arcade games in the year of 2001, here are the results:

Japan 2001 Best Arcade Games

1. Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation Vs Zion DX (Capcom / Banpresto)
2. Virtua Fighter 4 (Sega)
3. Capcom Vs SNK 2 Millionaire Fighting 2001 (Capcom)
4. The Keisatsukan: Shinjuki 24 Hours (Konami) (aka The Policeman 911 in US)
5. Taiko no Tetsujin (Namco) (Japanese drum music game)

Japan 2001 Best Arcade Games (Voted by Readers)

1. Capcom Vs SNK 2 Millionaire Fighting 2001 (Capcom)
2. Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation Vs Zion DX (Capcom / Banpresto)
3. Virtua Fighter 4 (Sega)