Feature: Time Capsule - Sept./Oct. 2003

Soul Calibur II

If there's one thing the Internet is extremely bad about it's being able to just flip through random articles from months or years ago. An article sits on top of a page for a bit then seemingly vanishes, lost to the ravages of Time, which in some cases is hours after it's posted.

For those of us that hang on to magazines, I'm sure you can relate to sitting down on a rainy Sunday with a magazine four or five years old and re-reading articles or reading some of them for the first time. The Internet offers no such thing -- if you don't read something now, like, right now! then you'll probably never see it.

To combat this, we'll be running articles like this one to highlight content we've done in the past. Without further ado, here are a few links to content from The Armchair Empire that's a decade old. Maybe you won't cozy up with a coffee and donut, but maybe you'll remember briefly a time when things were a simpler and McFarlane Toys was pumping out action figures like Old Faithful.

Review: Soul Calibur II (Playstation 2)
While it's possible the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II received the most attention thanks to the guest appearance by Legend of Zelda's Link, Mr. Nash had plenty of good things to say about the Playstation 2 version.

Interview: Contract J.A.C.K.
We conducted an email interview with Associate Producer Jon Gramlich about the No One Lives Forever spin-off, Contract J.A.C.K., ten years ago. While the game wasn't well received by critics even if the game included a "machine-gun mounted Vespa scooter," Gramlich remains at developer Monolith in a senior position.

Nowhere near Kansas...

Action Figure Revew: Dorothy (McFarlane's Monsters)
There was a time when McFarlane Toys spun out new toy lines every other month, with follow-up series coming every six months. One such line was McFarlane's Monsters. Dorothy was part of the "Twisted Land of Oz" series, and, well, uh, the results speak for themselves playability was an issue. I noted in the review: "Dorothy and the Munchkins are less playable than a harmonica in the mouth of a squid."

Review: Virtua Figter 4 Evolution (Playstation 2)
2003 was really a high-water mark for fighting games, especially on Playstation 2. "Tolen Dante" scored VF4 Evolution a 9.7/10.

Anime Revew: Great Teacher Onizuka (Vol. 9) DVD
Great Teacher Onizuka is my favourite anime series. So much so that I pretty much stopped watching anything in the genre afterward. Why keep watching if you've seen the pinnacle? Vol. 9 is a particular favourite because of the focus on a school trip where anything and everything happens.

- Aaron Simmer
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