"In terms of where the Jaguar was by the end of November 1995, there's no way to sugarcoat things here: It's a console that's now dead man walking, being supported by a manufacturer which has literally given up at this point, though not admitting it publicly, and while there are still two more games by third-parties set for release before Atari Corporation truly bites the dust, they're still technically co-published by Atari, so third-party support is more or less dead for a while; even the Jaguar CD is already on life-support, despite only being out for a handful of months."
It's now December 1995, a mere three months after the Sony PlayStation finally launched in North America, and the Atari Jaguar is, to put it simply, effectively screwed. Behind the scenes, Atari Corporation has given up, and might actually be considering transitioning from being a hardware manufacturer to being strictly a software company so as to possibly stave off going out of business; this will be important next time. Still, there are games for the 64(?)-bit Panthera of a console ready for release, so release they shall... and there's a new holiday season on the brink, to boot. Likely with hopes of taking advantage of the increased sales this season usually brings about, Atari Corp. decides to lower the price of the Jag once again, the second time in a single year (the last one was in March), now selling the "Core" package for just $100 starting December 16. That date was likely done on purpose, as over the course of the next two days four games would come out for the Jaguar, bringing an end to the console's most "prolific" year, at least when it comes to how many games came out in a 12-month span.
So, does 1995 at least end off with the Jaguar baring its fangs & claws in defiance... or will it be the whimper of a battered wild cat?
The day after the Jag's second price drop, December 17, saw the release of a single new game, I-War. Not to be confused with the 1997 PC game of the same name, which likely got renamed to Independence War in North America because of this Jaguar title existing first, I-War marks the end of a run that started all the way back with the Jag's launch in November 1993. Specifically, this is the final Jaguar game to be developed by Imagitec Design, the UK-based studio that had previously given the console Raiden, Evolution: Dino Dudes, Zool 2, Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales, & Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, all of which were ports of other games from other hardware; according to later interviews, internal conflicts ended Imagitec's relationship with Atari Corp. In comparison, I-War is a 100% original creation from Imagitec, though it wasn't actually first made with the Jag in mind. Initially, Imagitec had proposed a racing game to Phillips Interactive Media, i.e. a game for the CD-i, before backing out of the deal & eventually teaming with Atari, with the game initially being named the likes of "Redemption" (which it used when it was first shown earlier in 1995), "Dreadnaught", & "Netwar" before getting its finalized title in time for release at the very end of 1995. Also unlike any of Imagitec's prior Jaguar fare, I-War is 100% polygonal, instead of sprite based. Imagitec would wind up getting purchased & absorbed by Gremlin Interactive in early 1997, so let's see if I-War winds up being a proper final hurrah for one of the Jaguar's most reliable supporters, as Imagitec games literally comprise 12% of the Jag's entire cartridge catalog (6 out of 50).
In terms of gameplay, I-War is rather easy to grasp, as each stage sees you needing to gather a certain number of "datapods" (this takes place in cyberspace, after all) before the exit opens & allows you to move on, with later stages keeping some pods in larger "databases", which need to be destroyed first. You control a floating tank, essentially, and while you start off with just a basic laser blast with infinite ammo you do find other weapons (with limited ammo) that you can switch to at any time, while there's also a shield to activate. Unfortunately, while the general concept & gameplay of I-War is fine enough, if very simple, the main thing holding the game back is any sort of strafing; this a floating tank that's in cyberspace, so this could have been done. Instead you can only move forward or backward & turn left or right, so whenever you get into combat with enemies that shoot back at you you either have to constantly move back & forth to keep out of range of their attacks, or simply sit there & take the damage, using the shield to minimize damage, & hope you simply have enough health, lives, & secondary weapon ammo to survive. Had there been a strafing option (& this came out after the Pro Controller saw release, so 4 & 6 on the keypad could have been mapped to strafing for the shoulder buttons) I-War would have at least had some sort of proper strategy & kineticism to its combat, but instead what we get is kind of boring combat, with the game's generally lower frame rate not helping things out; it's not unplayable, but you can see the game chug fairly often. It's a shame, too, because just about everything else about I-War is appealing in a simplistic way, as the cyberspace setting allows for purposefully obtuse environmental design (& the flat, polygonal world actually works well here), the music is appropriately techno, and there's a real arcade-style execution here; you can even save your progress between levels. I don't want to say that I-War wasn't necessarily released without it getting finished, but it also is a game that feels like it's just a couple of extra steps away from being a bit of a hidden gem for the console, but as it is in its released state it's really more disappointing, since it feels more like unfulfilled potential than anything else.
The following day, December 18, saw the final three Jaguar games of 1995 get released, and all three feature a similar theme to them: Sports. So, aside from simply being alphabetical, let's start with the one that has the loosest connection to that theme, which would be Atari Karts. Developed by the seemingly Belgium-based Miracle Designs, in what looks to be the studio's debut work, it's easy enough just from the title (let alone the screen shot up above) to make an educated guess as to what kind of game Atari Corp was going for with this: A Super Mario Kart clone. However, where Nintendo already had enough memorable characters to fill out a roster for its iconic SNES game that pretty much singlehandedly created an entire sub-genre of racing games, the "Atari" brand wasn't really known for its memorable characters. Because of that, Miracle Designs pretty much had to create an entire roster of original characters to play as, though one Atari character did manage to make it in. Specifically, it was Bentley Bear, the main character of 1983's Crystal Castles, generally considered the first arcade game (or, at least, the first notable one) to feature a dedicated ending; what, no love for Major Havoc or even a Yar? Most notably, though, Atari Karts would wind up being the first entry in a spiritual series of kart racers, as Miracle Designs would later develop 2000's Merlin Racing for Nuon-enabled DVD players & the 2003 budget-priced tetralogy of Miracle Space Race, ATV Racers (both published by Mud Duck), Rascal Racers (published by Telegames), & XS Airboat Racing (published by XS Games), all of which were kart racers starring animals that came out on the PlayStation & may or may not be essentially the same exact game, only with different aesthetics & vehicles; the studio also helped port Ubi Soft's Hooters: Road Trip to the PS1. After those games, Miracle Designs seemingly went out of business, and with a catalog like that it's easy to see that "quality" may not have been a priority. Still, let's go back to where it all began with Atari Karts & see if maybe Miracle Designs at least started off well enough.
Atari Karts is best described as "straightforward", more or less. In terms of content you get four Cups (Borregas [named after the street Atari's original HQ was located on], Carleton, & Tempest), each of which is comprised of six five-lap races, and once you clear all three Cups you get access to a "Miracle Race", where you do a one-on-one race against a new character that you unlock to race as after beating them; rinse & repeat across the four difficulties. In terms of racing you have your standard accelerate & brake (plus some quick turning on L/4 & R/6), as well as a button to activate a temporary pick-up you come across (if it doesn't simply auto-activate), but don't go expecting Mario Kart-style weapons. Instead, it's all stuff for you that either help you (all-terrain wheels, turning without spinning out, speed boost, extra lives) or hinder you (speed down), but in an interesting twist these aren't randomized on the course & are actually one-time use for a race. There's also no jumping & drifting to be found here (though your character will perform a jump after finishing a race... what a tease), so racing in Atari Karts is focused more on strategic power-up usage, proper appliance of braking at points, & even a small bit of racing lines to adhere to. However, while this all sounds good... there's really nothing else to it. Sure, you get tougher AI on the higher difficulties, but these are extremely short courses, with individual laps taking no longer than 30 seconds (I even did a lap in less than 13 seconds on one course!), and while each Cup has its own unique tracks there are only six environments in total (minus the Miracle Races), resulting in a strong feeling of repetition throughout. At its core, Atari Karts is nothing more than a standard, if admittedly solid, little kart racer, though the fact that it does play at a locked 60 FPS is honestly cool & a true rarity for the Jaguar; for whatever reason, Europeans seemed to really understand the hardware. Had this game released on literally anything else at the time Atari Karts would be kind of underwhelming, but on Jaguar it actually winds up being one of the best racing games on the console, though I'd still easily choose Power Drive Rally & Super Burnout over this any day.
The second of our 12/18/95 trio (sort of) sees the return of the UK-based U.S. Gold, which had previously published the Jaguar port of Flashback back in August. However, this time around it's a port of a game that U.S. Gold had originally developed, Fever Pitch Soccer. Originally known in the US as Head-On Soccer, though keeping its European title for the Jag, this is similar to the previously released International Sensible Soccer, from back in April, in that Fever Pitch Soccer is a more arcade-style title than the sims that most soccer games tend to be. It originally came out for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive around June (a 32X port was planned but never released), followed by a port to the SNES done by Silicon Dreams Studio (which would go on to mostly make soccer games until its closure in 2003) a couple of months later, & then finally there was this Jaguar port done by Distinctive Developments (which would move exclusively to mobile development in 2001), so at least this game managed to come out not too long after it's original versions; that's admittedly a rarity for the Jaguar. Originally developed under the name "Red Hot Soccer", this final port was part of a push made by Atari Corporation UK, which got established back in January 1995 to help increase the amount of games coming out for the Jag by working with studios in the region, similar to how Super Burnout got released earlier that same year. Fever Pitch Soccer would wind up being one of the Jaguar's final sports games, & the last one to feature an entire team of players on the field/pitch, so let's see how it turned out.
Fever Pitch Soccer, much like Atari Karts before it, is a rather barebones game, as literally the only options you have are Tournament & Exhibition. As you can see from the image above, it uses an isometric overhead perspective, which was usually what soccer games at the time utilized, and the more arcade-styled gameplay means that it's rare to get a foul, though they do still exist. Unfortunately, while the gameplay in this soccer title isn't bad, it's also kind of bland. In terms of controls it's mostly a two-button game (kick/shoot & pass), though certain players on each team are "Star Players" & have access to special moves accessed with other buttons. However, I couldn't tell from my time with the game who was a Star Player & who wasn't, partially because the game's fast pace results in you not really having a lot of time to experiment. Due to its arcade nature this title actively encourages both sides to trip, kick, & slide into each other, and the ball can even be taken away simply by running up to it while it's being dribbled by an opposing player, which results in a surprisingly hectic game to play. That being said, though, it's that very looseness that kind of makes it tough to really get into, at least in my opinion, and the enemy AI is shockingly aggressive, even on Easy. Again, this isn't a bad game by any means, and it was rather positively received back in the day (even on Jag), but the simple fact remains that International Sensible Soccer is also on the Jaguar, and had been for a while by this point. To be fair, though, Telegames handled that title, while Atari helped distribute Fever Pitch Soccer, so I guess it wasn't quite as easy of a choice for Jag owners back in the day, as I can't tell if Telegames' offerings were ever really that readily available in stores during the 90s (if ever, honestly, as that company's kind of weird).
Finally, we end 1995 with what's often considered one of the all-time worst Atari Jaguar games ever released: Supercross 3D, though the title screen also calls it Tiertex Supercross X. As the in-game title states, this games comes to us by way of UK-based Tiertex Design Studios, which had previously done the Jaguar port of Flashback, which admittedly was a solid port, in & of itself. However, Tiertex is known primarily for one thing for its entire life as a game developer, and that's absolutely terrible games. While not everything that Tiertex developed was crap, it's notoriety today is more for the likes of 1989's Human Killing Machine for PC, Strider II: Journey into Darkness (both the original 1990 PC game & the later Genesis & Master System ports in 1992), & many massively poor or underwhelming early PC & Master System ports of titles like Street Fighter, Strider, Rolling Thunder, & Alien Storm, as well as a deluge of handheld ports in its later years. Eventually, Tiertex left games in the early 00s & made USB development boards & industrial displays, before finally closing up show rather recently, on August 5, 2021. Also worth noting is that Supercross 3D is the first of three Jaguar games (two cart, one CD) which were co-produced by an Atari Corporation employee named Vince Zampella... who would later co-found both Infinity Ward & Respawn Entertainment, creators of the Call of Duty series, Titanfall, & Electronic Arts' Star Wars Jedi duology; hey, everybody's got to start somewhere, am I right? So it's time to grit my teeth & see just how poorly the Atari Jaguar fumbles its most prolific year, right at the very end.
There's no other way to put it: Supercross 3D is complete & utter trash. Visually it's terrible, with poorly digitized sprites for the racers & their bikes racing on top of utterly barebones tracks. The audio's no better, with generic rock music that almost sounds as though they were made using the infamous GEMS sound driver that many Western-developed Sega Genesis games utilized out of convenience, and even after turning off the music with 0 all you hear is a sorry excuse for bike engine sounds. In terms of gameplay it's understandably simple, and to be fair there is a tiny bit of depth, as like other games that adapt this sport there is technically some strategy in how to take bumps & the like, such as pulling backwards with down to jump over rumble strips, instead of simply driving over them & losing time. There's also a decent variety of tracks, at 14, and it aims for a tinge of realism by having you race on the same track multiple times, a.k.a. practice, qualifying, & the final race itself. Unfortunately, actually playing Supercross 3D can be a bit of a mess, mainly because the game runs like crap. The frame rate isn't high to begin with and it never really feels consistent anyway, resulting in a very awkward first experience, and even after you get used to how it controls after a race it still never feels good, which when combined with a rather super strict out-of-bounds system (if you go off the track just a little bit you instantly crash & have to be reset), can result in you easily losing a good position instantly & with the awkward feel of this game there's no guarantee that you can recover by the end of the three laps you have, especially if it's late into a race; there's also the ability to perform tricks when in the air, but it's literally pointless & can just result in a crash if you do it at the wrong time. Had this game released early on in the Jag's life this would still be a trash game, but at least it could have been excused as an early release developed by a studio that still wasn't quite used to the hardware. However, it's now been two whole years since the Jaguar launch, and while Tiertex's solid Flashback port was likely due to the 68000 chip doing the majority of the work, there's still no excuse for a game this bad to have appeared on the Jaguar this "late" into its life. Supercross 3D is seriously down there with Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy, Checkered Flag, & Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls in how absolutely terrible of a Jaguar game this is.
However, while this marked the end of cartridge-based Jaguar games for 1995, there were three more games released for the Jaguar CD, to truly round out 1995. Christmas Eve saw release of both Battlemorph, the sequel to 1993's Jaguar launch pack-in Cybermorph (& often cited as one of the best games for the entire console, cart or CD), as well as a port of Atari Games' cult classic giant monster fighter Primal Rage. Amazingly enough, the Jag CD version wouldn't be the last port of Primal Rage, as the Saturn version wouldn't come out until mid-1996 (& early 1998 in Japan!). Finally, December 30 would truly mark the end of the Jaguar's 1995 with a port of the iconic Myst, though once again the Jag CD wouldn't be the latest contemporary port of what was then the "Best-Selling PC Game of All Time" (until The Sims eventually outsold it in 2002), as both the North American & European PS1 port (which was a different version than the Japanese version, which had already come out by this point!) & Europe-exclusive CD-i port wouldn't come out until 1996 (& for the Amiga in 1997!).
While the year 1995 was easily the Jaguar's most prolific year in terms of releases, and in all honesty most of it was either excellent, good, or even just decent, the final four games released for Atari's flagging console in this year wound up being a pretty lackluster send off. I-War felt like it was a few elements away from being good, Atari Karts was solid & enjoyable but otherwise bland, Fever Pitch Soccer was simply OK-at-best, & Supercross 3D was an abomination. By this point in time the Sony PlayStation was already unstoppable, the Sega Saturn was still early on in its own attempt to cling to life outside of Japan, & the Super Nintendo was getting a last burst of momentum that would give it the overall win against the Sega Genesis on the 16-bit front. In comparison, the Atari Jaguar already felt like it had gotten one of its four legs chopped off... but there's still another 12 games left to cover, and while 1996 won't exactly be anywhere near as prolific as 1995 was, it's going to be a bumpy ride, nonetheless.
Next Time: The first three months of 1996 see the ends of numerous secondary consoles' lives, all while Atari Corporation tries (& fails) to continue existing as planned. Four more cartridge Jaguar games manage to find their way to market during this time, but at this point it's not a matter of whether or not they're "too late to market", but rather it's a case of "does it even matter, at this point?"... so hopefully they're at least good games.
*All in-game screens sourced from AtariAge*
I-War © 1995 Imagitec Design (now Urbanscan?)
Atari Karts © 1995 Atari Inc.
Fever Pitch Soccer © 1995 U.S. Gold (now Square-Enix or Embracer Group?)
Supercross 3D © 1995 Tiertex (now defunct)
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