majon II 2001

majon II 2001, the sequel to 2002's breakout 1999 anime hit, is currently scheduled to ship this fall for the PlayStation 2. Originally, Majon was a single-player game starring a street kid named Hajime. Players played as Hajime, an outcast hairdresser who was shown to those around him in an online-only game called Area 51. After spending a little time with the game, we have high hopes for the sequel.

Majon 2 2001 is being developed by the Japanese studio System 3 in conjunction with Majon, which is also known for its Dark Castle games and the Dark Moon series. Though this might sound confusing, the game promises to offer more than 30 unique missions, with branching paths and detailed environments.

The game will also offer additional areas to explore, more character types to fight, and plenty of camera angles for everyone's favorite high-school bully, who's been turned into a giant black hat and flees and an impromptu ragtag group of alien critters. According to reports, the game will feature a stronger camera system this time around, which should please those worried about hand-to-hand combat in a game like Dark Castle.

After choosing your starting character, you'll receive a briefing from your character, whose friend lists a bunch of interesting facts about the space agency. The tutorial gives you a good indication of the game's core mechanics, although it also makes you feel like a kid. Your main character's attributes are three stats: strength, agility, and intelligence. While that all sounds pretty typical of Dark Castle, the game actually offers a much more complicated system than that of most first-person shooters. The combat system allows you to set your own tactics during combat, like "jump" or "punch out," which requires you to time your "jump" attack so that you land several hits on an enemy. These new tactics won't be easy to pick up, however, and you won't have the opportunity to use them all effectively. Instead, you'll have to plan ahead and manage your team. The game will include a health bar that drains while you're inside combat, and the amount of health you have will decrease as you go through the game. The health in the game is also shown prominently in the overview screen and in the new tutorial screens.

The combat system is pretty straightforward. You'll have two primary weapons: a pistol and a grenade launcher. The pistol will deal out your standard fare, such as a pistol, a tranquilizer gun, and grenades, while the grenade launcher will deal out a host of "spirit damage" attacks. When used against an enemy, your attacks will trigger a proximity-based effect that will explode upon impact. While in proximity, the grenade launcher will also have a zoom mode that will let you see far away enemies when you're aiming down the sights. The grenades themselves will be a bit different, however. There's a grenade launcher and a normal grenade launcher that you can use to clear out several enemy guards. You'll find a spot of standard grenades in the game, though--in the upper right corner of the screen you'll find a radar icon that will indicate the location of the enemy. The radar also displays a health meter that is represented by a small yellow circle on the right side of the screen. Your health will replenish with either a certain amount of pluses and the number of enemies you'll be fighting against. The number of enemies you'll be facing is dictated by the health meter, but there will also be some interesting sequences involving melee attacks. In one section, a bridge sequence will appear onscreen and force you to fight your way through a level and pick up a sword to defend yourself. The other section sees you fighting a boss and collecting a cacti that will let you guide a man through a jungle. The area you're fighting through is also quite open, allowing you to move around the level and focus on what you're doing. The PlayStation 2 version of the game features support for up to four players, and an Xbox Live version will also be released. The levels are fairly large, and they feature nice touches, such as a zip line between the jungle and the main levels.

The audio is currently being handled by the folks at Visual Concepts, and it's being handled by veteran studio Rob Koster, who has previously produced action games such as WWF No Mercy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. You'll hear the story from series veteran Tazz, who seems to be a highly respected martial artist in the US, and plenty of interesting voice talent is coming to the game as well.

Based on what we've seen of the game so far, it seems to be shaping up nicely. The gameplay is looking good and does an impressive job of following what we've seen previously. The roster is a bit uneven, but it's got a fair amount of talent, such as Dan Houser (the voice of John Cena), Alastair Duncan (voiced by Sam Witwer), Shane Maude (voice of Ricky Hatton), and Adam Vickers (voice of Mick Foley). The modes you'll find in the game are plentiful, as are the characters in the game.