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As per tradition, the BF sales have started and so it was time for my yearly spending spree and pick up some games that I've been waiting to drop in price. Never played an SMT game before (3DS one has been sat on the shelf for years) and figured I would give the new one a whirl. It was only £15 at Smyths. Jurassic Park collection I've mainly bought for the Mega Drive and SNES versions of the game. I have fond memories of playing both as a kid. Helldivers II is one I've been interested in since it launched but never got around to playing it. With it being £20, as well as all the awards it won at the Golden Joystick, I figured I would give it a go. Sonic, Outlaws, Metaphor and Steller Blade were ones I knew would drop in price during this sale and was happy to wait for this to happen.  Having played and loved Star Ocean First Departure R this year, I was more than happy to give the sequel a chance. Shame that the first game never got a physical release. This year has been nuts for releases. There are still games like DBZ, Silent Hill, Dead Rising, Lego Horizon Adventures and Warhammer 40K that I would like to buy and play but they have yet to be discounted.

A couple of 2025 calenders have been added for 350 platinum coins each. https://my.nintendo.com/news/cc363f7b0f6c2a64 https://my.nintendo.com/news/9c7f794e6df9111b  

The 2024 Nintendo Winter catalogue is now available to look at in English. https://www.nintendo.com/jp/software/feature/magazine_2024winter/sp/index_en.html?page=1&device=sp  

SimCity 64 JP release: 23rd February 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: HAL Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A As one of the three actual games released on the 64DD, SimCity 64 is a full fledged SimCity (and not a port, like SimCity 2000), in 3D for the first time. The graphics, while primitive, have a colourful and charming style to them, and the cities are rather vast, although you can’t zoom out as much as I would have liked. As with the SNES SimCity, Dr. Wright advises you on your journey as mayor of a new city. One significant feature of SimCity 64 is the ability to walk around your city. Cars drive around, while 2D sims walk about and do their jobs. I absolutely adore this feature, as it makes your city feel real, yet it still isn’t a main feature of city builders to this day. Cities Skylines had it as a hidden feature (the sequel doesn’t), but it’s not integrated into the gameplay. In SimCity 64, you can talk to your residents to find out what your city needs, and play hide-and-seek against some for extra cash. You can even create your own sims in Mario Artist Paint Studio and import them. On top of having lots of different landscapes to work from, there are also 15 scenarios to work through, giving you a lot to do with the game. And if you do get bored, you can always turn on a disaster and watch chaos. I do wish there were a few more Nintendo touches (there’s no Bowser attack), but for consoles at the time, it was a very impressive version of SimCity. Fun Remake or remaster? It would be nice to have a remaster of this SimCity, perhaps with better zoom and draw distance. Or even a new SimCity from Nintendo. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get SimCity 64.

Donkey Kong Country came out 30 years ago this week, which apart from making me feel very old, made me go back and re-watch this video which Nintendo gave out on VHS to promote the game: In America this VHS tape was given free to Nintendo Power subscribers. In the UK, if I remember correctly, it came free with a Football magazine and a friend at school got it that way and gave it to me. (It didn't come with Nintendo Magazine System as I brought that each month). To state the obvious, this came out at a time when there was no internet to see game trailers and you only saw a game actually running if it got a commercial, appeared on Gamesmaster or your local gaming shops had them running on a Kiosk or demo unit. So to see footage of a game running before owning it felt special. I was so hyped for this game that I must have watched this tape more then 50 times! The novelty of seeing the game in action added to that excitement, plus of course, the game looked incredible and fun so I couldn't wait to play it. Weirdly, the tease of Killer Instinct at the end of this video was removed from the UK version and replaced with some commercials for the Gameboy, which featured a talking brain in a jar.