8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 2, 2000 'Teenager' an astute, critical look at the next generation "ry-"° C"l 0 I. By Geoffrey M. Anenberg For the Daily The same question is asked, over and over again, by one adult generation of its successors. Today, of course, the question is no different: What is wrong with these The Rise and Fall kids? In his of the American "The Rise and Teenager Fall of the Amer- Thomas Hine ican Teenager" Grade: A- Thomas line Avnos answers. Author of three other books, Hine is also a regular contributor to The New York Times among other publications. This book is no surprise. Hine delivers the facts, extensively, with a style and refresh- ing insight one should expect from In accomplished writer. The work is trung together by countless anec- dotes, social commentaries and stud- ies that span the decades, even cen- turies, in tracing the path of American youth from its origins to what we now call the Teenager. line gives a number of in-depth reports including the 1931 account of the Scottsboro boys, wherein two white transient teenage prostitutes sent several black youths to prison on alleged, yet fraudulent, rape charges. Another is the 1997 incident of a high school girl giving birth to and dis- carding her infant son in the restroom at her senior prom. Without further research, one can easily conclude that crime has successively become more gruesome, as teenagers today are kept safe thousands of miles away from any military threat or economic hard- ship, unlike the many generations before it. Crime rates, particularly in larger cities, have statistically improved from the '80s, though public opinion doesn't seem to take that into account. Hine explains that, "depend- ing on who the observers are, what they're looking for, and what they expect to find, the coming teens appear to be monsters, or saviors, or anything in between." It's not some national anxiety that keeps American youth out of trouble, for the late '30s early '40s youths that had under the looming fear of being shipped off to war the next day were having more sex, staying out later and breaking all the rules in general America's youth has undergone a wild and rapid evolution from the time when 16-year-olds were consid- ered men. With time the conditions changed that delivered youth from the "jazz age" and "dead end kids" of the '20s and '30s to the "Goths of Tomorrowland." Dine believes that today, "Young people are'exposed to all the violence and economic insecu- rity of society at large, but, unlike their predecessors, have few avenues for bearing real responsibility to improve their situation." As always, the game has changed. The reigns are getting tighter and kids are reacting the only way they can: Ferociously. 'Rumble' leaves a r Ke a;desired By Matt Grandstaff for the Daily When the Sega Dreamcast launched in September of 1999, one of the hottest selling launch title was Midway's over the top arcade boxing game, "Ready 2 Rumble Gainers were given a light hearted boxing game with amusing charac- ters that brought back memories of King Hippo and Super Macho Man in the 8 bit Nintendo classic, "Mike Tyson's Punch Out." Now the sequel, "Round 2," becomes the first boxing game for the new Playstation 2 con- sole, along with an encore for the Dreameast. The strongest selling point of "Round 2" is its comical cast of box- ers. The majority of the characters from the original game return, including favorites Afro Thunder, Butcher Brown and Angel Rivera. In addition, new characters including punk rocker Freak E. Deke, hippy Freedom Brock and Robox Rese-4 All of the characters have hilario trash talk comments and special relate to the per- Grade: C+ sonality of the Ready 2 Rumble character. In all there are 23 Boxing:Round 2 total characters, Pi ysiuion/reamesl including ne Midway celebrity play ers. All of the characters are beautifully rendere and animated on the Dreamcast a Playstation 2 game engines. You can actually see the fat rolls on Mam Tua jiggle. As far as game play is concerned "Round 2" is very similar to th original. Boxers punch and duc until one opponent goes down three times. The highlight of any match m this game is when one opponent spells out "RUMBLE" by landing major blows on the opponent. When it this is acdomplished, special moves can be activated that will bring your opponent to the canvas in no time. This is updated in "Round 2," fo if a boxer spells "RUMBLE" three times, a special move can be dcliv- ered that will throw the opponent out of the ring. In addition, boxers can now go for cheap shots after an opponent is about to go down, which make the opponent go into a graph cally impressive dizzy spell. Unfortunately, aside from fun characters and wonderful graphics, "Ready 2 Rumble" is only fun for short periods of time. It is fairly easy to roll through computer opponents in both exhibition and career modes in attempts to get new characters. Also the two-player mod becomes annoying as the boxer wI knocks down his opponent first us ally goes on to win the match. Like the ring announcer who promotes the game, Michael Buffer, "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2" becomes stale after a few fights.