Reheated Leftovers

"If Japanese developers are down to this level, I'd rather go line up at the hot dog stand outside." Electronic Gaming Monthly

The writer tossed his pen onto the table.

The screen lit up again.

Namco.

Namco's logo appeared in the center of the big screen.

An executive from Namco's North American branch, dressed in a dark suit, walked onto the stage.

He had not prepared some long-winded speech. After a brief greeting, he directly signaled the director to cut to the game footage.

Rousing orchestral music rang out.

On the screen, two 3D-modeled samurai faced each other on a stone arena.

One of them held a long katana and strode forward, the blade carving a half-moon arc through the air.

The other, a female warrior, raised a round shield to block. The sound effect of metal clashing pierced through the venue's sound system, sparks flying everywhere.

Soul Blade.

This game had only just launched in April on Namco's own System 11 arcade board.

The current presentation announced the arrival of the home console version.

"3D weapon fighting." A reviewer in the front row quickly took notes. "Stable frame rate. The polygon count is higher than Tekken 2."

In the demo footage, the female warrior used a sidestep to dodge a heavy chop, then swung her sword backhanded, forcing her opponent to the edge of the arena.

A shield bash sent the opponent straight off the stage.

Ring Out.

"The physical collision and hit feedback are very solid."

"The technical accumulation over the past two years really hasn't gone to waste," another hardcore media professional who knew the field analyzed. "The hardware specifications of the Systm

11 board are highly similar to the PlayStation's. This kind of interoperability keeps the loss from arcade-to-home-console ports to an absolute minimum. It doesn't