On the N64, Acclaim were a pretty respected company. The original Turok showed mature games could be done on the console, while great sequels followed and more good games sealed their status as a qualty developer.

But things certainly aren't as rosy for the company this generation. First was when they began ruffling feathers with their Shadowman 2 marketing, actually buying space on peoples gravestones in return for paying for the funeral service. Then came the barmy "identity-marketing" for Turok, which pathetically tried to hide the fact that the game was a dissapointment. Then was, yet again, crazy (and dangerous) marketing for Burnout 2 which claimed they would pay for any speeding tickets. Oh, and don't even get me started on the sick "Rumbled" promo booklet they made for the game.

Don't expect to see this too much.

And this week, not one, but two, things didn't go their way. After losing Dave Mirra, the now-titled "BMX XXX" has some stores refusing to stock it because of its "explicit content". One must wonder why a store stocking games like GTA would refuse BMX XXX, but this is mostly because of Accliams themselves. Yep, Acclaim have rightly shot themselves in the foot by emphasizing the games "XXX" parts, instead of smartly concentrating on more marketable parts. My thoughts? It serves Acclaim rightly.

And as if that wasn't enough they have revelaed that Burnout 2 HASN'T been delayed as some people thought. No, because it WAS NEVER actually in development. That's right, despite previews on the net and even in GameCube mags the game was only ever going to be on (sigh) PS2. Sheesh, you think Acclaim could've said something instead of letting us go on thinking and anticipating the game. And why the hell isn't it on GameCube? Eh? The original was well-received on GameCube and the sequel would definitely was made profits. Stupid Acclaim.

Wave bye bye to Burnout, and blame the pillocks at Acclaim.

Everyone knows Nintendo hasn't been doing all that well in Japan, so it came as more than a surprise for find out that Starfox Adventures was in the No. ! spot for the second week in a row, and the next two spots were taken by GBA games, numbre deux being Nintendos own Super Mario Advance 3. As if that wasn't sweet enough, the wasn't an Xbox game in the top 20. Oh yes.

The Japanese will be seeing a lot of this.

I had previously written Starfox Adventures off in Japan, I thought the gameplay was too western for it to do well in the picky Japanese mareket. I'm glad I was wrong though, maybe we underestimated the Japanese. But given the topsy-turvy nature of the Japanese market we shouldn't be celebrating all that much, next week Nintendo would drop down the charts. Who knows, but it's certainly nice to see them doing well this week.

Xbox doing badly in Japan isn't surprising however. The console has failed to establish any appeal with the Japanese people. And they can't be fooled by huge marketing and reliance on graphics. I don't know if Microsoft know this but they do actually need original, fun, good games if they want Xbox to be a success. But Microsoft being Microsoft they probably won't any time soon.

Note: This Sundays Roundtable will be on the GameCube war against Xbox on the Japan front.

There is a worrying trend developing with GameCube games that are also released on other formats. And that is it them being released on GameCube a week or two after the other versions. It has happened with Timesplitters 2 (the GC version has been delayed even further despite it being out on PS2 and Xbox already) and it is happening to Reign of Fire (released today on PS2 I believe).

How hard can it be to get the games out on GameCube at the same time as their PS2 or Xbox brothers? Developers should make the effort and quit giving GC owners the short end of the stick.