WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINED: What you're looking at is an episode of Countdown w/ Defunct Games published before 2006. As you can tell, something has gone horribly awry. I won't bore you with the technical details, but it has to do with the old layout being incompatible with the new. Eventually, we would like to retrofit these old episodes of Countdown, but that will require a significant amount of time. As Defunct Games has only a limited staff, we aren't sure when we'll have the chance to fix this article. If you absolutely need to know what this article said, get a hold of us on Twitter or leave a message in the comment section below. Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you will enjoy the episodes created post-2006.

#10 Why is Outlaw Golf on the GameCube and NOT PlayStation 2? Even though they had a demo of the Xbox version, and announced a special GameCube edition, Simon and Schuster was adamant about not releasing a PlayStation 2 version. So, the question stands: why a GameCube game of this extremely risqu? golf simulator and no PlayStation 2 port? After all, the PlayStation 2 is really more of the audience the company is aiming for. Of course, I should note that the game wasn't all that impressive, but still, I ponder the question. #9 Why does Nintendo keep releasing nothing but ports of Super NES games on their GameBoy Advance? And it's not just Nintendo, Konami is releasing Contra Advance, which is, surprise, Contra III for your GameBoy Advance. Nintendo was a bigger offender, though, with both a remake of Zelda III and Yoshi's Island. And not to be outdone, Capcom has Super Ghouls N Ghosts. Sure there are a couple original games on their way, but frankly, the remakes out number the original content. When asked, Nintendo said it was because people demand these remakes, but you know, something about that doesn't sound right to me. And even if it were the truth, do you REALLY think people were demanding Yoshi's Island instead of Super Mario Brothers 3?? Me thinks not. #8 Where's the hard drive? Sony announced the modem, they showed off a bunch of games, and they offered up hope for people who want to talk to their opponents and not type everything out. But there's one thing they still haven't addressed: where's the hard drive? Are we going to need it to play Final Fantasy XI? Are you going to be able to use your own, or use your computers? Is it going to be a third party product? Please, somebody, tell me what's going on. #7 Why can't anybody recreate the greatness that is Tony Hawk? Not even Activision, who is struggling with Wakeboarding, snowboarding, and biking videogames, can seem to give us the same feeling as when we open up each new Tony Hawk game. This year the Simpson's tried, Acclaim tried, Solid Snake tried, and a dozen other companies tried, but none of them are worth a nickel compared to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Why is that? I mean, what is the secret ingredient Tony Hawk has that so many other games do not? Maybe we'll never know. #6 Is Capcom fully on board the GP32 or not? I don't know if you remember this, but about five months ago Capcom (one of their Asian branches) announced they intended on supporting GamePark's newest portable, the GP32, with Street Fighter Zero 3. GamePark even updated their web site accordingly. But since this announcement nothing has been said. And while at E3 I asked just about every Capcom rep I could find. I found one that knew what the GP32 was, and even they didn't know Capcom had made that announcement. I'll be kind, after all it is an American expo, but there are plenty of American gamers interested in seeing the side by side of Street Fighter Zero 3. #5 Why does Capcom insist of the old Resident Evil controls? Things could change between now and the release of both Resident Evil Zero and Onimusha 2, but as it stood at E3 both of these games controlled in the same archaic way the original controlled all those years ago. Capcom seems to be reading the reviews with very foggy glasses, or perhaps they are afraid of change, but most critics have brought up the fact that the control has got to go! Devil May Cry has done an excellent job of showing that Capcom actually CAN give us great control, now why can't they convert it to fit the Resident Evil world? You can even keep an option for the old school game play, I don't see why not. Please Capcom, for the last time, please!! #4 Why is Nintendo manufacture a modem for a game they don't intend to publish? And what's more perplexing, however, is why Nintendo is the only company to not embrace on the online technology. Sure they are making the modem, and Sega is publishing Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II, but Nintendo hasn't made any indication that they want to make any other games available online. Even Sega seemed skeptical about their online plans on the GameCube. So why even make a modem? And then, it brings up this important question. #3 Why Phantasy Star Online on everything BUT the PlayStation 2? Heck, it's going to be on everything including the GameBoy Advance (well, not the online one, but still), but no plans on Phantasy Star Online for the PlayStation 2? The Xbox, okay, at least Microsoft has a plan for getting online, but it's the only GameCube game going online. Sony has a plan, and a bunch of high quality titles to make use of their plans, but Sega seems to have no plan on releasing this Dreamcast port on the PS2. Perhaps there are too many PlayStation 2 users and it would clog SegaNet. Hey, if they're not going to answer my questions, then I'm going to just have to assume! #2 Where is Final Fantasy III, and will it be on the WonderSwan Color? While at E3 I asked a half dozen Square reps, some of whom even looked like they knew what was going on, but there was no luck. No luck at all. The best I got was, "wow! You imported the WonderSwan and played through them in Japanese?" But there's a serious question here, you see, Square has released Final Fantasy I, II, and IV, but still no part III. Since the release of Final Fantasy IV Square has signed a deal to make games on the GameBoy Advance. Not to be outdone, Bandai announced plans for an updated WonderSwan, called the Swan Crystal. So, what will Square do? And even after E3 I still don't have a clue. #1 Why aren't there more Jewish video game heroes? Alright, I confess, I didn't ask too many people around E3, but the ones I did ask each came back with a variation of this: "is it an issue? Who really cares?" And that leads me to believe that the videogame market is anti-Semitic. I've wracked my brains for hours looking for a plausible Jewish hero (one not based on a movie), and still I can't think of one. Even though video games don't generally tap into religion, it seems a bit strange to completely avoid a whole segment of the population. Weird, huh? Question: What's the silliest reason to not show a game at E3?? According to Take2's rep, Grand Theft Auto Vice City was not shown on E3's floor because "it's not a game that can be experienced in just a few minutes". He continued that too many people originally ignored Grand Theft Auto III last E3 when it was debuted, and they didn't want to make the same mistake. Behind closed doors there was more information, but frankly, as an excuse for not debuting it at E3, this is one of the silliest. There were plenty of games that were hard to get into in a matter of minutes, Suikoden III, Grandia Xtreme, and that Star Wars RPG, among others, but leave it to Take2 to take our feelings in mind when choosing what not to show the show goers. But hey, they did give me a shirt, and that's cool.