P L A Y S T A T I O N   2

- After From TV Animation: One Piece Grand Battle 2, Bandai will release another 2D fighting game for PlayStation in Japan this spring called Shaman King: Spirit of Shaman, the game is based on the popular anime / manga series Shaman King. In this game each character can summon a spirit to attack the enemy, just like the stands in Capcom's Jojo Bizarre Adventure. There is a two-level Synchronization Gauge in the game, which enables you to execute Shaman Attacks and the mighty Super Shaman attacks.....

Additional Images

- UNCONFIRMED: Sega is planning to port their latest arcade NAOMI 2 racing game Initial D: Arcade Stage to PlayStation 2, the PS2 port is expected to release in Japan by the end of this year.

- UNCONFIRMED: Sega of America announced a PlayStation 2 and XBox port of their GameCube sports game Soccer Slam.

- Capcom will release the US version of Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny for PlayStation 2 on August 27.

X B O X

- TDK Mediactive will release a new mech-combat action game called Robotech for XBox in US this fall. The game is developed by Vicious Cycle, currently 50% completed. Robotech adopts the cel-shaded graphics to make the game look like the classic hit cartoon of the same name. In this game you play as a transformable Veritech fighter to battle against the Zentraedi in a series of missions. You can transform into 3 different forms: Fighter Jet, Guardian and Battloid Robot. A two-player split screen mode will be included in the game as well. Some of the characters in the game include Lisa Hayes, Rick Hunter, Lynn Minmei, Lynn Kyle, Khyron, Azonia, Miriya, Max Sterling, Roy Fokker, Glaudia Grant, and Captain Gloval. A two-player split screen mode will be included in the game as well. Robotech is also coming to both GameCube and PlayStation 2.

H A N D H E L D

- MTO will release Advance GT2 for GameBoy Advance in Japan on April 26, for 4800 yen. Advance GT2 is the sequel of last year's GT racing game, this time the game will have a total of 97 playable vehicles and 32 different race courses, there is also a Replay function after each race.

M U L T I

- Konami announced that they will not be renewing the ESPN sports license, which has expired this year. The last Konami sports title to carry the ESPN license will be ESPN MLS Extra Time 2002, which is scheduled for release sometimes this year. The other ESPN games in development, such as ESPN Winter X Games SnowCross will have the ESPN licensed materials removed from the final product. It seems like the reason of dropping ESPN licenses is because the ESPN sports series were unable to meet Konami's sale targets in the past two years.

- Here are some of the latest Japanese game review scores:

- IBM, Toshiba, Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment announced they have reached an agreement to jointly develop the next generation processors using IBM's Silicon-on-insulator technologies. The new processors are expected to be cost efficient and capable to power a wide range of electronic devices from computers, videogame consoles, to home electronic appliances. It is rumored that this is a part of an earlier announcement regarding to Sony's 3rd generation processor "Cell", which supposed to be the central processor of Sony's PlayStation 3 project. The Cell allows 3D graphics, speeches, and game data to streamline over broadband network.