>>> Part 17 of 19...
your feet with a little ripple effect.
Japanese Castle Stage:
        This looks like one of old fortresses that used to be all over Japan 
in the Shogunate Era. Even though it's very old it's still in excellent 
condition. The fighting area is set inside the fortress close to one of the 
main outer walls and the main fortified entrance. The portcullis is down so 
there's no obvious escape. This area has a number of graded areas with the 
height changing depending where you are. There are a number of large steps 
towards the entrance, a long inclined area (but not steep) and a long drop 
to one side where the floor drops to a lower fortress level. The stone walls 
floor slabs all have a weathered appearance with moss growing on the wall 
and weeds growing between the slabs. It's probably Autumn because there are 
plenty of leaves on the floor. There's no wind but these leaves a easily
disturbed. Merely walking on them causes them to shift position a little. A 
fast kick or turning action lifts them off the floor and they spin around. 
These leaves are 3D. Someone falling sends all the leaves around him flying 
in all directions. Once again the attention to detail is amazing with the 
leaves quickly rising off the ground but slowly floating down with a little 
zig-zag movement. And if there's another strong or fast character movement 
before they land they carry off again from where they are so, two 
continuously fast moving characters are always surrounded in moving leaves.
Great Wall of China:
        This stage has the most impressive scenery of all the stages. The 
magnificent view of the Chinese wall stretching into the distance with 
mountains in the background and the sharp drop of the hillside running 
alongside the wall gives a great impression of grandeur. Every guard post 
fortification on the wall has a giant banner fluttering in the wind. The 
movement is unbelievably accurate with the ripple effect changing slightly 
with the strength of wind occasionally. Each banner going into the distance 
ripples slightly out of phase to the others. In the distance the sun looks 
like it is rising above the land but has a slight blur due to the horizon. 
Between the hills and mountains a mist still lingers. Probably a crisp early 
morning. The wall goes up and down following the curve of the hills. You can 
go up and down the steps on the wall using them for tactical advantage. You 
can also use the small walls at either side of top to trap your opponent. 
Because the fighting area is long and narrow, occasionally the camera angle 
will put the wall in the way so you so can't see your character. However, 
the game realizes this and fades the wall to an opaque see-through wall if 
the viewing distance is far but as the camera eye gets closer and the 
wall begins to fill the screen it fades away leaving a clear screen. Wow!
Chinese Restaurant Roof Stage:
        This is the stage they're using for all the official screen 
pictures. Apparently the fighting area is on top of a slanted wooden board 
roof of a shop. There are a lot of Chinese signs around so it could be a 
shopping area. The curved roof gives a great feeling of depth and as the 
camera angle swings you can see all the other shops and houses and the 
streets below. In the distance are only more houses so you really get the 
impression that you're right in the center of a built-up town area. There's 
a iron bar fence to one side preventing you from falling off there and the 
slope of roof becomes steeper on one side making it look like you couldn't 
get up it if you tried, however, it is possible to fall of other side.
Waterfall Stage:
        Another excellently crafted stage, this time set in a small rock 
gully at the base of two small waterfalls. It's snowing and there's a small 
layer of snow on the floor and the gully walls are frozen with bits of ice 
and snow clinging to the crags. The whole area gives an amazingly chilly 
effect to this stage, in complete contrast to the Caribbean stage. The 
playing area is a little uneven with an irregularly shaped floor caused by 
the weathering of the mountain stream and a slightly sunk pool and a few 
streams of water flowing between the rocks. Once again the rock floor is 
smoothed off and dips into the water with a curved arc as opposed to a sharp 
drop. The snow isn't small white drops falling in front of the screen. It's 
3D! This means that the snow in the distance is smaller than the snow in 
front of the screen and as the camera angle swings so does all the snow. The 
snow will disappear if it goes behind a character and reappear again if the 
character moves or it falls past the body part obscuring it. All the snow 
flakes are different sizes so occasionally you get one of those big ones 
falling. The falling path of the snow is at a slight angle and as the camera 
angle changes the snow fall effect alters accordingly. In addition when the 
camera pans out away from the characters there's a slight misting effect (to 
simulate a lot of snow falling which would naturally obscure one's vision) 
which changes in intensity (strong-weak) depending on the distance. The 
waterfalls have a great downward flowing effect and at the bottom of the 
waterfall where it hits the water there's a realistic splash effect with 
white foam bubbling up and drifting away from the waterfall but slowly 
fading with distance. The ripples on surface of the water for the pool and 
streams flows with the current away from the waterfall. On this level also 
walking, jumping or falling in the water sends water splashing in all 
directions. Similar to other stages if the gully wall gets in the way the 
computer fades it out and then removes it immediate. No ugly polygon 
clipping here.
Cave Stage:
        At first this stage looks a little simplistic and a bit of a let 
down after some of the other stages but in reality it has some of the best 
effects of all. Set inside either the back of a giant cave or in deep 
underground cavern the only light comes from a large log fire in the 
distance. The fire crackles and spits with little cinders occasionally 
flying off. The flames twist and change with that characteristic roaring 
effect of a big fire. As the flames twist and dance the light on the walls 
flickers also. Sometimes bright, sometimes dim the shadows fade or darken 
accordingly. The brightness is good enough to pick up the detail of the rock 
strata and one can see some mold growing and the occasional mark where water 
has run down the wall side. Nothing is flat. The walls curve and bend around 
like a real cavern, there are stalagmites and stalactites in the distance 
and the floor is uneven, rising and falling in places. The fighting area has 
a few rock floor tiers rising on one side with a gentle slope running from 
one side to the other but rising away from the front towards the fire. At 
one-side of the stage there's large hole in the floor running away under 
the wall revealing another dimly-lit cavern filled with stalagmites and 
stalactites. All in all, despite the lack of immediately obvious graphical 
tricks it has a disturbing claustrophobic feel to it which needs to be seen 
to be believed.
Mountain Sumo Ring Stage:
        Set up high on the cliff-side at the top of a mountain with a steep 
drop to one side is a traditional Japanese shrine with the typical red 
wooden entrance arch so typical of Japan. A long narrow stepped path cut 
into the rock leads down from the Shrine underneath the arch and up to the 
fighting area, a huge circular rock Sumo ring. In the distance, on one side, 
one can see a cliff side path bending it's way around the mountainside and 
going over a small red bridge that straddles a tiny waterfall. On the other 
side you are looking away from the mountain and over the surrounding land 
with a beautiful skyline and impressive scenery. Anyone who's climbed 
Mt.Fuji will definitely come away with memories after playing this stage. 
All though high up it can't be too high because there a variety of hardy 
alpine plants growing. Especially that small, strong green bush that looks 
 >>> Continued to next message...
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]
--- Maximus 3.01
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