TV Guide Issue #2489 (December 9-15, 2000)
I've been cleaning my room (or at least trying to), and I came across this old issue of TV Guide that I had bought only for the fact that it featured Shenmue on the cover. You see, I was (and still am) a huge Shenmue fan, so I bought nearly everything that had Shenmue on it...which actually isn't much if you live in America. But how often do you see video game characters on the cover of TV Guide? Pretty much never. And how much more awesome is it that they chose Shenmue as one of the six variant covers for that week? I'll tell you: it's super-awesome!
But, what exactly does TV Guide know about video games? Surprisingly the articles, while brief, take a balanced and fair look at all the video game consoles and upcoming games. At the time, the Playstation 2 had just been released, and the Dreamcast was getting into the swing of things with some of its greatest games. The main article, "For the Love of the Game" by Robbie Frasier, looks at how more and more Americans are becoming gamers and segues into how better technology makes games more accessible to the general public. At the end of the article, a handy chart shows the pros and cons of the available and soon to be available systems at that time: the Sega Dreamcast, the Sony Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and Microsoft's Xbox.
TV Guide ends their video game special by giving us a 4-page "User's Guide" which is basically their top game picks for various genres. Props to TV Guide for listing some great games--even ones that aren't as mainstream as say, Madden. Examples? Jet Grind Radio, Samba de Amigo, Space Channel 5, MTV Music Generator, and even Seaman make the list!
