Recaps

At the industry summit, Hattori warned against exploiting game franchises with shoddy products, while Frank promoted Silicon Valley Online’s global network services for online games. After the summit, the Game Critics Awards named winners across the industry, and players rushed to preorder Sega’s award-winning Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

• Hattori cited the Atari Crash and urged industry leaders to protect consumer trust by making quality games and merchandise.
• Frank presented Silicon Valley Online’s network infrastructure and SDK as a way for developers to run online games without maintaining their own servers and global connections.
• Reporters described Hattori and Frank’s summit speeches as a coordinated strategy that positioned Sega and its affiliates in both merchandise quality and online services.
• GamePro and EGM published the inaugural Game Critics Awards, naming Half-Life, Homeworld, Baldur’s Gate, and other games among the winners.
• Sega’s Jurassic Park: The Lost World won best console game, and online discussions drove players to hurry to retailers to preorder it.

Kenta and the other regulars at Yamada Game Shop received the second batch of GP2 games, including Super Robot Wars, alongside a coordinated Gundam Sentinel anime and model-kit release. After discovering the S Gundam and the unreleased Deep Striker design in the game’s setting guide, they went to Ishikawa Kenji’s apartment to watch the OVA and learn the story behind it.

• Mr. Yamada opened the shipment of new GP2 games, and Kenta bought Super Robot Wars while the fat guy bought Ace Attorney and Pokémon Adventure.
• Kenta started the game and encountered Ryou Roots, the S Gundam, and its ALICE control system, while Ishikawa Kenji explained the Gundam Sentinel setting.
• Ishikawa showed Kenta and the fat guy the Sentinel OVA release, and A-Watari arrived with a newly released S Gundam model kit and details about the tie-in promotion.
• Ishikawa advised Kenta to review the story behind the game and showed him the Deep Striker design, which had never been built in the original setting.
• Kenta, the fat guy, Ishikawa Kenji, and A-Watari went to Ishikawa’s apartment, where they watched the OVA’s opening scenes of Federation soldiers and postwar political disputes.

Kenta unlocked the Deep Striker by preserving the GP03D, joining the Albion route, and building Ryou Roots’s kill count. After the Deep Striker survived the Zod-iac’s attack and destroyed it, ALICE became a permanent copilot, leaving Ryou to adjust to her interventions.

• Kenta diverted the falling colony instead of fighting the Delaz Fleet, saving the GP03D intact and preventing the Solar System from firing.
• Kenta chose the Albion route to Pezun and used Ryou Roots’s S Gundam to build up his kill count.
• Before the assault on Pezun Base, a hidden event combined the GP03D’s preserved parts with the S Gundam to create the Deep Striker.
• The Deep Striker survived the Zod-iac’s beam with only 800 HP remaining, then destroyed the enemy flagship with a critical hit.
• ALICE permanently reconstructed herself as the Deep Striker’s copilot and gained Spirit Commands, including Love.
• Ryou Roots complained about ALICE’s overprotective interventions, while she warned him to stop drinking caffeine.

Kenta and Ishikawa revealed the hidden Deep Striker route in Super Robot Wars, sparking a buying frenzy among Akihabara model kit fans and boosting interest in the GP2. A game company's executives then examined Sega's sales strategy and found that the handheld was attracting many users beyond traditional core gamers, including young women who favored Plants vs. Zombies.

• A-Watari and Ishikawa discussed the Deep Striker's hidden route, and Ishikawa photographed its unlock details and posted a guide on Silicon Valley Online's forum.
• A-Watari collected the limited Deep Striker conversion parts, and Kenta showed nearby shoppers the unit running in Super Robot Wars on his GP2.
• Model kit fans crowded around Kenta's handheld, and several began buying GP2 consoles and Super Robot Wars cartridges.
• In late June, Famitsu's sales charts showed rising GP2 shipments after Sega's second batch of games.
• President Suo and his staff reviewed Sega's varied game lineup and survey results, which showed that many GP2 users were outside the usual core-gamer demographic and that young women often played Plants vs. Zombies.