2002 Overview
For the United States, 2002 would see the continuation of the political shake-ups that started in 2000. The Republican Party has saw more than half of their holdings go to the Federalist Party, especially to fresh faces in the political sector. Other Republicans switched parties to try and maintain some relevancy in their careers while others did it because they saw it as what is gonna be happening in the future, so why stay on a sinking ship? As such, many predict that the Grand Old Party would not last over to 2004 for a presidential election. Their counterparts in the Democrats have held well, with some shining stars like Senators Paul Wellstone (who, approaching the end of his term of Senate, has considered running for governor) and Russ Feingold, but it was unknown if they would have anyone approaching presidential material. Additionally, there was also the same questions over relevancy being asked about the Democrats as with the GOP prior, albeit at a slower rate. For the United Central Party though, they would be adding a bit more and cementing their hold over though the rise of other parties, including some House victories for the Greens, would be quite fascinating. For the most part, President Clinton has been doing well, focusing more on keeping the economy growing with the tech sector and balancing out some bumps along with enforcing the rules given the concerns over of accounting fruads and white collar crime. Tech continued to grow and setting the scene for what was to come. Sun Microsystems would purchase Be Inc and their assets from NeXT Inc, resulting in Sun Microsytems getting attention in potentially becoming another big player, especially with Microsoft's division. Meanwhile, NeXT could focus over on incorporating their software into the revitalized hardware, with NeXT announcing their own MP3 player in the form of the NexPlei*. Perefectly compatible with the NeXTunes software, the NexPlei would be NeXT Inc's first piece of hardware in a while, along with the rumors of an upcoming new Mac computer, showing the Mac would live on through NeXT Inc. The NexPlei would quickly rise to become one of the most popular MP3 players thanks to its intuitive design and the preparation of support behind it. Meanwhile, space would become the focus for a growing number of nations, especially with the creation of the SpaceX company by Elon Musk for private space faring operations. Powered by the hopes of streamlining the production and launch of rockets, various people were drawn to that vision, most notably founder and head of Akashica, Jeff Bezos. 2002 would be seen as the beginning of a new wave of growing technology and its influence, especially with other news like Napster surviving and aligning with a new website in ArtistShare, pioneering a new way to enjoy music in support and distrubution, and opening some new flood gates for the potentially of the Internet.
2002 would see the first year of the Arabian Civil War and with Saudi Arabia launched into a period of conflict and troubles, the global economic would take quite a jolt from the petroleum shake-ups. It poured fresh fuel to the ongoing fire of moving away further from petrol usage. Coal was already phased out rather heavily and in other places, stll in the process, but progress was progress. Politically, it was also seeing another one of the remnants of the Cold War battling for its relevancy and what the path will be for the region as well as ideology. Many also hoped that with this, the Middle East could finally begin going forward in a path of peace. At the same time, there was concern about the future leadership, especially with the Neo-Baathists and what they would do. That said, they have been doing well to cultivate a strong positive image in wanting to reform and modernize the region while also transitioning from fossil fuels regarding economic dependence, diversifying their economy and moving forward from there. Other places saw peaceful developments, such as the Koreas coming together to rebuild and cooperate after the dangerous typhoon, Ziyang and his growing ambition over in bringing democratizing reforms over to China during the last years of his reign or the growing number of trade blocs and the like going in the world. Overall, it was a continued display of growing global peace and unity. At the same time, it was a fascinating time of change. Newer political parties were seeing themselves get into power thanks to the growing desire for change along with the prosprity brought about by the post-Cold War social democratic order. Additionally, there was the need for the generational gap. While the baby boomers and the like settled nicely into power, they were also be joined up by the more raucous brightbangers.
Film would see plenty of fun and potent releases in the year. The big hit would be
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the second of the Peter Jackson trilogy that would continue to be a spectacle for audiences and help push epic and heroic fantasy to the forefront while the other big film in terms of ratings and adored by critics would be
Chicago. Science fiction would see a continued presence such as with the standout hit with
Minority Report while
Men In Black II would see the action continue there and of course Bond would continue on with
Die Another Day. M. Night Shyamalan would release
Signs as part of the trend of strangeness. Animation meanwhile would not be left behind ove in the lurch either. Disney would release not one, but two different films, also being themed in space, showing how much the astronomical influence was present. One would be the found family story over in
Lilo & Stitch, which would be quite unlike anything seen before and would delight audiences. The other would be the more adventurous
Treasure Planet, a sci-fi reimagining of "Treasure Island" and perform quite well thanks to a good marketing team. Of course, Dreamworks wouldn't be left out of the running as Bluth and Katzenberg would release the animated film
Satyrday, which was an animated adaptation of a book of the same name. And most of all was a reminder of the growing influence of Japanese animation with the legendary
Spirited Away, which helped further cement what America's friend across the sea could do and what animation could really me like. Other films include
Austin Powers: Goldmember which would see the trilogy end with the reveal of a third Austin as part of a legacy of Austins Powers (which many believed was a affectionate parodical shoutout to Dr. Who and James Bond) and the like. Overall, it was a wonderful time to go to theaters while rumors sprend of upcoming films.
Titan A.E. would get a preview over and many were wondering what laid ahead with Disney, with some saying a sequel to
Atlantis 2 while others were wondering of other fairy tales or even something unique. One speculation was linked to a planned
Spider-Man film in the works over by Paramount, though little was known, including whether or not it would be live action or animated.
Television would come with its fair share of surprises. The big news would be the final season of
The Simpsons airing this year. Many attributed this to a decline in quality in the last few seasons, due to a change in writing staff along with the increased focused over on
Futurama and even Groening noting how the America that the
Simpsons was made in no longer matches now, hence why the call for ending the show. But it went with a bang with the reunion of the writing staff, various revelations and tying up character ends and even having the series finale have the family save the town on Bart's 11th birthday. Beyond that, various other prominent television shows would be ending such as
The Ellen Show, Daria and
X-Files, all of whom prominent shows with noteworthy influences. But at the same time, new shows would come in to fill the void. Shows such as space western
Firefly, Latino sitcom
The George Lopez Show, historic crime drama in
The Wire, a more esoteric crime show starting the eccentric
Monk and various others. Cartoons and other youth's programming were not exempt from this as well, given the release of
Power Rangers Wild Force, Chalkzone, Jimmy Neutron- Boy Genius, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones and
Mucha Lucha! The most predominant one would be
What's New Scooby Doo, which would reinvent the Scooby gang over to the modern day, taking inspiration from the DTV films, from giving Daphne major chops with her athleticism and martial arts while fleshing out Fred's leadership skills and his motivation for it. Meanwhile, Disney would also launch the first of a new era of animated series with
Kim Possible, the teenage girl superspy. Contrary to rumors, it was not based on Nick's
Constant Payne (who was also differentiated by their different setting and tones, with Disney being more comical).
Kim Possible would also gain a fair bit of attention with Monique, a prominent supporting character who was samgen (as a result of her voice actress Raven being the same) and being Kim and Ron's 'normal' friend. Raven viewed it as a important to inspire kids there were people like them and that it was not a big deal along with fostering friendships (such as how Monique's relationship with Kim is completely platonic , her even joking that
Ron would be more her type if Ron was a girl).Overall, the cartoon scene was changing as they were settling on new patterns, what with Kids WB, Cartoon Network, the Disney channels, the Nick channels and MetroKids. It would be unknown what would happen due to the flux of these channels, especially as the release of the
Justice League animated series was renewing interesting in superheroes. Nick would be no doubt focused on making cartoons based on Marvel properties while other productions would look to see what to make. After all, Dark Horse with
Wildstorm were still around and Disney may be planning their own thing, but are secretive as always.
Video games would also get alot of attention. The holiday release of the Nintendo GameCube and its strong launch games let it overcome it being the last of the consoles of the generation to come out. From
Super Smash Champs Melee being a phenomenal sequel, to a new franchise over in
Pikmin where one plays an astronaut guiding plant aliens to recover ship parts to even bold and new introductions to current franchises, such as
Super Mario Sunshine adding FLUDD,
Metroid Prime revitalizing Metroid with it being first person and then the intrigue of the upcoming
Legend of Hyrule: Wind Waker, with its unique cell-shading and more cartoony style. Overall, it was looking to show it had not run out of charm. The same was said of the Super Game Pal and its own successful titles. While it would have some fun in remaking NES and SNES titles over onto the SGP such as various Mario and Hyrule games, unique titles also were coming out.
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire saw the franchise take another leap graphically and with gameplay with the introduction of new mechanics while
Metroid Fusion also evolved the franchise with its darkest iteration yet and moving the story in a fascinating new direction.
Wario Land 4 would do quite well as a launch title and show that classic charm in playing as Mario's counterpart. Of course, the other consoles were doing impressive as well. Playstation 2 kept moving forward in diversifying their content and would become quite memorable for one of the big surprising hits:
Kingdom Hearts. The result of a chance meeting between Squaresoft and Disney heads, the result would be a mysterious JRPG set in the worlds of Disney films and starring a young man named Sora with a keyblade in hand and to stop the oncoming darkness. While not completely surprising given how Disney and the Japanese have a close working relationship, this was another step in that would be causing the gears to turn in the heads of some Disney execs down the line. Beyond the various sports simulators, including the still-in
Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, new attention would be seen with the rise of
Ratchet and Clank. The Abox was also stll going strong as it would find its footing with its own titles. From
Crystal Castles Chronicles being a twist on the platforming collect-a-thons of old by incorporating RPG elements for Bentely Bear to power up and gain magic to the rebirth of Swordquest as a franchise with "Swordquest Neo", with the release of the first title
Swordquest Neo: Epic of Earthworld, combining aspects of games like
Ocarina of Time with more problem solving skills with the mind and occult themes. All while having similar titles in sports such as the Playstation 2 did. Lastly, the Dreamquest is the underdog with plenty of SEGA favorites such as
Jet Set Radio and
Panzer Dragoon Orta, it was clear that despite it and the headstart of internet connectivity, it was a losing battle. PS2 was beating it heavily in terms of competition and the Abox was superior when it would get its internet network up. They were not giving up yet though and would compromise with the reveal of not just porting Sonic games onto the Nintendo GameCube, but also making exclusives for the Super Gamepal. Meanwhile, computer games still saw prominence with
Elderscrolls III Morrowind, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Neverwinter Nights and so much more.
