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New Japan Pro-Wrestling: Toukon Road: Brave Spirits JP release: 4th January 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Yuke’s Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 49% Another Japanese Wrestling game, Toukon Road: Brave Spirits doesn’t focus on real-life wrestlers, but instead creates its own brand new cast of wrestlers. Unfortunately, they haven’t really gone all out with creative or memorable designs, but rather tried to come up with “realistic” wrestlers. One thing that did impress me with Toukon Road was the animation, in particular how the ring bounces when wrestlers hit the floor along with the visible breathing. The gameplay itself isn’t bad and there are plenty of moves, but it also isn’t very gripping, either. Toukon Road is made to be fun in multiplayer and there are a fun options, but it doesn’t really do anything particularly unique in terms of how it plays. Remake or remaster? This game doesn’t need any special treatment. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get New Japan Pro-Wrestling: Toukon Road: Brave Spirits

Out of all of these, the only one I'm familiar with is Greninja. Partly due to being included in Smash Bros Wii U/3DS and partly because Ash-Greninja my main damage dealing pokémon for however far I got though Pokémon Moon - even with it disobeying orders due to being a high level (you got him at the start if you played the demo or something like that), it still performed amazingly well (really, it was kind of cheating). In Sun/Moon, the Greninja you get in this way is supposed to be the actual Greninja that Ash has in the anime. The final evolution doesn't even look that bad. Braixen and Delphox both look like evolutions more so than any of the other two sets of starters. That said, both designs do seem like they're from a cartoon with anthropomorphic animals than Pokémon - I could easily see Braixen chatting to Fox McCloud, while Delphox looks more like a wise, motherly character. Also, you haven't even gotten to what is by far the worst case of a middle evolution to final evolution of a starter Pokémon. I used an Everstone for that one to make sure it never reached its final evolution.

Augusta Masters ’98 JP release: 26th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: T&E Soft Publisher: T&E Soft N64 Magazine Score: 40% The second golf game on N64, and again it’s exclusive to Japan. This is a significant improvement over The Glory of St Andrews, but is still far from being a good golf game. Like St Andrews, this one also covers only one specific course. Augusta Masters doesn’t try anything new in terms of video game mechanics for golf, using the tried and tested bar system from Golf on the NES. There’s nothing wrong with it as it’s a good system, but the big flaw with Augusta is that it’s very, very difficult to correlate power to distance – it just never seems right. This is especially evident during putting, anything above 50% power is far too hard, and really anything over four tiny bars will cause the ball to spiral out of control. The balance for getting it right requires perfection, but you never know what level is needed. If you don’t land on the green very close to the hole, you’ll be adding 5 to your score. So with difficult gameplay, graphics that are detailed yet also extremely ugly and only one course, there isn’t much to this game. Remake or remaster? This game doesn’t need any special treatment. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Augusta Masters '98

Yoshi’s Story JP release: 21st December 1997 NA release: 10th March 1998 PAL release: 10th May 1998 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 86% Yoshi’s Story is an incredibly cute game that just oozes charm. On a quest to save their magical fruit tree from Baby Bowser, the Yoshi’s journey across a book across six worlds, eating a lot of fruit along the way. In each level, your goal isn’t to make it to the end, it’s to eat 30 fruit. Fruit is also health – apart from chillies, which the Yoshis hate (shame, they’re delicious). Getting the 30th one ends the level no matter where you are, so if you’re after finding the super hearts or just more points, you’ll want to hold off. The platforming is great (other than some blind jumps) and there are lots of little secrets to discover. The biggest issue with Yoshi’s Story is the game’s structure. In a similar style to Star Fox 64, you only play a portion of the levels – one from each of the six worlds. So reaching the Baby Bowser (who is ridiculously easy to defeat) does not take long at all if you’re munching up fruit whenever you see it. I feel like it does Yoshi’s Story a massive disservice, and many people will miss a lot of the game due to this. In order to unlock more levels, you need to search the levels for giant hearts – needing to find three each time if you want the fourth stage in each world. There’s also an additional challenge of only eating melons – there are exactly 30 in each level. This all adds to the replayability, but as much as I love the game, I just really hate its structure. Remake or remaster? A remake would be amazing. The different graphical styles (craft, wool, inflatables) would pop even more with added detail and they could provide different ways to play to change the structure of the game. Official ways to get the game. There is no way to buy a new copy of Yoshi’s Story, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-releases 2007: Wii Virtual Console 2016: Wii U Virtual Console 2021: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 PAL release: 20th December 1997 NA release: 22nd December 1997 JP release: 12th April 1998 Developer: EA Canada Publisher: EA Sports (PAL/NA), EA Victor (JP) N64 Magazine Score: 83% This game brings back a lot of memories from my childhood. I had this game on PC and played it a lot – even doing some 90 minute matches. I was into football at the time (I stopped caring not long after). After seeing how dreadful FIFA 64 was, I was worried that this was going to tarnish my memories. Luckily, it seems that this time, the N64 got a solid port. Every single thing has been improved upon from the previous year. The players actually look human now (in N64 style, anyway), the gameplay is fast and fluid and there is actually team management and a HUD that lets you know player names and a massive amount of both international and league teams. The N64 version does have some setbacks – Song 2 by Blur is cut back, and the commentary is heavily reduced, but the core gameplay is spot on, and it’s just a ton of fun. This version of FIFA also included a 5-a-side indoor pitch, for an even more frantic and fast-paced game and a lot fewer interruptions due to the ball bouncing off the wall. This mode solidifies the core feature of this particular FIFA: fun. The gameplay is relatively simple, but it’s just enjoyable. This extends into some of the “unrealistic” things you can do in the game. One of the tackle buttons is just an outright foul that you’ll never get away with, and you can even use it on the goalkeeper for an instant red card – however, you can set the referee strictness to zero. You can also pass back to the keeper and run as much as you like. Even though I’m not a fan of football now, I still had a ton of fun playing this. It may not be as technical as ISS, but it’s just enjoyable. Remake or remaster? While the genre has evolved a lot – I think a “throwback” game based on this one would be interesting to see, focusing on the same simple gameplay and sense of fun. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get FIFA Road to World Cup 98

Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Asmik Ace / AKI Publisher: Asmik Ace N64 Magazine Score: N/A This is mainly a Japanese version of WCW vs. nWo: World Tour. However, despite releasing in the same month as the original version, this has a lot more stuff in it. Most notably, it contains a lot more wrestlers, with 5 additional wrestling leagues included. The game itself plays the same, though. Another significant feature of this version is the wrestler edit. The features are quite basic – you can’t change anything about the wrestlers physical features, but there are 126 different costumes to choose from, each with two or three colours that you can change. These don’t make the game significantly better, but there are some interesting changes that differentiate it from the original version of the game. Remake or remaster? The genre itself has evolved. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Virtual Pro Wrestling 64

Irritating Eclectic Stick JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Yuke’s Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 65% Original name: Ucchan Nanchan no Hono no Challenge: Denryu Ira Ira Bo Do you know that kids toy where you move a stick around a metal wire and if you make contact with it it makes a buzzing sound? In Japan, they turned that into a game show, and that game show got multiple video games. Only one of them got a release outside of Japan, which is Irritating Stick on the PS1. The N64 game Ucchannanchan’s Flaming Challenger: Irritating Electric Stick (for the full translated name), however, remained in Japan. The game is incredibly simple: move a stick through a maze. There are some tight corners and moving obstacles, and you view the stick from the side so it’s just a dot (you can turn on an option to display the full stick as you tilt, but it gets in the way). The only control is moving the analogue stick. While it’s very simple, the game does what it sets out to do perfectly. The controls are 100% reliable, with the stick stopping the moment you let go of the stick, so there’s no delay or deceleration to worry about, it’s entirely down to your skill. So while the game is frustratingly difficult – the frustration is aimed at yourself, as it’s your skill causing you to fail. And I lack the skill to complete the game. Even if you removed the time limit, my precision is not good enough for this game. That’s not a fault with the game, though, just with me. Irritating Electric Stick doesn’t do much – and there are only six courses (they will take a very long time to master, though) – but it does what it advertises so well that it’s a surprisingly decent game. Remake or Remaster? A collection of Irritating Electric Stick on N64, Irritating Stick on PS1 and The Irritating Maze on Neo Geo, perhaps? They could even throw in some clips of the actual show. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Irritating Electric Stick

AeroGauge JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: 30th April 1998 PAL release: 1st May 1998 Developer: Locomotive Corporation Publisher: ASCII N64 Magazine Score: 10% A futuristic racing game, on the same lines of Wipeout, F-Zero and Extreme-G. N64 gave AeroGauge an abysmal score of 10% so I was expecting something especially dreadful from it, but I kind of enjoy it. There are some ways where it’s near enough broken and, like many N64 racers, is light on content, but this is close to being a good game. AeroGauge does have some extreme problems. The AI players are the biggest one due to how they’re essentially “perfect”, from all of them pulling off the boost start to just all doing the perfect route throughout the level. One slight mistake and you’ll spend the whole race in last place. The boost start itself is needlessly complicated (hold A+B before the race starts, let go of B when “go” is said) as well as the in-race boosts (hold Z+A, drift turn, then let go of Z+A and press A), both feeling like cheat codes more than part of the game. These issues fundamentally break playing against the computer. However, the racing itself is just a lot of fun. You don’t drive or hover, you fly through the levels. This separates it from the other sci-fi racing games, and the game managed to be quite exhilarating, even in the fairly pointless time trial qualifying rounds before each race. Oh, and one of the unlockable vehicles is a Nintendo 64 controller, which is a really neat touch – especially as the analogue stick moves as you tilt it. AeroGauge definitely has major issues, but there are some neat ideas here and it really needed a bit more development time. Remake or Remaster? I would like to see another attempt at this. Fix the AI issues to make them more like real people, sort out the various boosts and some more tracks. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play AeroGauge

Tamagotchi World JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Bandai Original Name: 64 de Hakken!! Tamagotchi: Minna de Tamagotchi World N64 Magazine Score: 79% Tamagotchi World (or Discovered at 64! Tamagotchi Everyone at Tamagotchi World for the full translation of the name) is a board game-based video game. Players take turns rolling dice, land on spaces which help or hinder progression and every now and then take part in solo or 4 player minigames. It sounds a lot like Mario Party, but before Mario Party – it’s even made by Hudson Soft. This isn’t just about moving around the board, you have to raise your Tamagotchi as well. After your move, you can input options based on the classic devices such as feed, play, heal and clean poop. You need to maintain your Tamagotchi’s status bars as well as gain points to level up – reaching the max wins you the game. Sometimes your Tamagotchi will refuse what to do, so you’ll need to discipline them. You also have limited credits, which are refilled once you get back to the starting point. It’s an interesting mechanic that gives you a lot more to think about other than rolling and moving. When players land on certain spots, a minigame will be triggered. There are only 10 minigames, but they wouldn’t feel out of place in Mario Party (one even has you spinning the analogue stick as fast as you can). This is an interesting precursor to Mario Party, and the Tamagotchi elements, while still entirely luck based, make it more than just a roll and move game. Remake or Remaster? I feel like this is an interesting little bit of video game history and should be preserved – a Tamagotchi game collection, perhaps? Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Tamagotchi World

I don't really know these Pokémon, but if I saw these designs out of context, I would have guessed that they were all early game Pokémon, not starters. Snivy alone I could see as a starter, but the evolutions just look odd.

Nagano Winter Olympics ’98 JP release: 18th December 1997 NA release: 29th January 1998 PAL release: February 1998 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 32% The first Olympic title on the N64 – and, curiously, the last one on a Nintendo platform until Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Olympic video games are usually collection of simple games based around Olympic Sports, often catering for multiplayer – and while Nagano does the first, it doesn’t really focus on multiplayer. There are 10 sports – some with a few variations and are slow and tedious at best, and outright uninteresting at worst. The Skiing and snowboarding slaloms are best, but they’re both slow with some slight turns as you go through gates. The halfpipe is probably the worst, which has you copying input commands before you jump and your snowboarder doing a trick. The AI is also insanely good at the game, so unless you manage to master the unclear and terrible controls, you’ll be happy if you make it to 15th place. The snowboard slalom is an odd exception, as I fell over a few dozen times and still won by a significant margin. The massive let down in the multiplayer side is the complete lack of any simultaneous events. You all have to take turns setting records. Speed Skating is against an opponent, but in multiplayer you all race against a CPU player. Only curling, which is a turn-based sport, has any kind of interaction between players. On top of that, from what I can tell, each player still needs their own controller. Nagano Winter Olympics is a shoddy sports minigame collection with poor controls and a terrible multiplayer mode. Remake or Remaster? Both older and newer Olympic titles have done a much better job than this. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Nagano Winter Olympics ’98

Flying Dragon JP release: 18th December 1997 NA release: 31st July 1998 PAL release: 25th July 1999 Developer: Culture Brain Publisher: Culture Brain (JP), Natsume (NA/PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 73% A fighting game that feels like it was built with home consoles in mind. This features a more cartoon style than most and adds RPG elements into the mix in the form of items to equip and upgrade. This is a very promising system, but ultimately the fighting itself lets it down. To progress, you repeatedly play tournaments. You’ll get experience for your items as well as money to buy new ones (which can include new special moves). While some of these include clothing, it only affects your stats, not the visuals of your character. As you play more matches, these will “evolve” into new items. It creates a good incentive to play the story mode repeatedly, even if it does feel the same every time – not even the text dialogue at the start of each match changes. There are a bunch of other modes, such as practice and multiplayer modes, so there are plenty of things to do – it’s just that the gameplay itself isn’t up to scratch for it. But Flying Dragon also includes a second fighting game. An additional mode, called “Virtual Hiryu” is also available as a much more traditional fighting game. This features a different cast of characters in a different visual style – more generic taller characters. This lacks the RPG elements but does have other features such as a “grading” system telling you what to do. The fighting feels very similar and still isn’t very good – this one felt even easier to cheese with button mashing, too. In a way, this feels like they didn’t have enough confidence in their main mode and wanted a “normal” way to play as well. Flying Dragon has some interesting features, and is essentially two games in one – the second containing more features and options than most other fighters so far on the N64. It’s just unfortunate that it’s not that fun to play. Remake or Remaster? In Japan, the “Hiryū no Ken” series that this is part of has many games, so a collection to preserve them would be good. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Flying Dragon

@Jonnas here's some more context if you want https://www.eurogamer.net/timesplitters-project-reportedly-began-life-as-battle-royale-pivoted-to-an-expanded-ts2-remake

I think this is where I reached the end of watching the show, so these don't have much meaning to me. Torterra is by far the coolest in terms of design and concept. Although large Pokémon have always been a bit odd in terms of the games, which is probably why scale isn't a factor in how the games are designed.

Snowboard Kids JP release: 12th December 1997 NA release: February 1998 PAL release: 16th March 1998 Developer: Racdym Publisher: Atlus (JP/NA), Nintendo (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 86% In the tutorial, Snowboard Kids makes it clear that this is a racing game without a brake button – it also lacks an acceleration button. Gravity does all the work, leaving you to focus on turning, items and tricks. It has a charming visual style and nice slopes to snowboard down. The turning mechanics are quite unique to Snowboard Kids, as tilting backwards allows for sharper turns. If you hold A to prepare for a jump, you will be unable to turn until you’ve finished jumping – you can also perform tricks to earn coins. These coins (along with those on the tracks) are used to collect weapons and items, and you have one slot for each. I quite like this mechanic, although I found them to be quite unbalanced – some weapons, such as the parachute, sends people flying into the air and keeps them there for a bit too long. There’s also an unavoidable pan item that squashes all of your opponents. This seems to create a situation where one player will often end up in front, with the other three pelting each other, unable to catch up with the leader. It’s a shame as I do like the game’s mechanics, as well as the levels. Instead of lots of similar looking snow tracks, Snowboard Kids mixes things up with other themes, with the cutesy style managing to not make snowboarding on desert slopes look odd. There are six tracks to start with initially, with three more to unlock. When you reach the end of the slope, a chair lift will take you back up to the top – however, the barrier will only open if a chair is ready. If second place isn’t ready, they’ll bonk off the railing just after 1st place enters and 3rd place can sneak in while they recover. It’s a nice little mechanic. There are a few minigames to try out as well. One has you rushing down a slope quickly using the hard-to-steer fan items, one is a target practice challenge and the last is a stunt run – although that doesn’t work very well. Snowboard Kids is a charming game. It’s not one of the best games on the system, but it’s still worth checking out. Remake or Remaster? A remaster of both games combined would be nice – perhaps even throw in the tracks from the very different DS game. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Snowboard Kids

The "remake" (or retelling) of TS2 was what they were trying to pivot to. The plan was seemingly to star off with a Fortnite clone that none of the developers wanted to make, get a budget, and then make the game they wanted to do. When it came to Embracer needing to cut costs, a studio that lied to them and spent years making something they invented to discard to make something else instead was probably an easy choice.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero NA release: 11th December 1997 PAL release: 12th February 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway, Avalanche Software Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 9% Traditional fighting games like Mortal Kombat aren’t platformers. In order to combine Mortal Kombat with a platformer, you’ll need to put in some serious work to bring out the strengths of both genres. Making B turn the character around does not solve any issues with trying to make a platformer out of Mortal Kombat. On top of being ridiculous for a platform game, it also makes fighting a nightmare. With the hassle of using up to jump, levels need to be properly designed around this compromised way of platforming. MK Mythologies doesn’t cater for this, though, instead taking the most annoying tropes of the worst NES platformers and adds some of its own. After you punch up the first enemy, you’ll walk down a corridor and be squashed by a pillar and be instantly killed. Fighting past the first enemy again, you’ll time your run and dash past it – only to be killed by a second pillar. The third time, you fight again and try to stop before the second pillar. It will clip you, but you’ll be alive – but the recoil will send you under the first pillar and you’ll be crushed and killed again. The game is a trial-and-error experience, getting a bit further each time. I used save states pretty quickly but it was still incredibly frustrating. And that’s just the first level – the second is much, much worse. Level two consists of lots of tiny platforms. The screen is too far zoomed in to see much, and the camera doesn’t scroll how you would like, so you have to make many blind jumps. Some platforms will also collapse. Another really frustrating things are platforms that move towards and away from the camera, so you can only jump on them when they’re in “line” with the 2D aspects – which is quite difficult to see. As you slowly progress, you’ll encounter doors that need keys. You’ll need to explore elsewhere in the level to find the keys. Sometimes, these paths are hidden off screen. For example, there’s a bridge that collapses when you stand on it, get past and carry on and you’ll find a locked door. To find the key, you have to jump into the empty space under the collapsing bridge – something that usually kills you. Oh, and sometimes getting to the door before finding the key for it means that you can’t go back to where the key is, so you have to die. Even using cheats, I couldn’t bear to finish Sub Zero. The level layouts are atrocious and there’s really no enjoyment to get out of the game and progression just feels like you accidentally stumbled on the correct path and doesn’t feel rewarding. This isn’t just one of the worst games on the N64 – it’s one of the worst 2D platformers. Remake or Remaster? While making games to expand on the characters of Mortal Kombat is a good idea, every aspect of MK Mythologies would need to be completely redone to have anything decent. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero

Chameleon Twist NA release: 9th December 1997 JP release: 12th December 1997 PAL release: December 1997 Developer: Japan System Supply Publisher: Sunsoft N64 Magazine Score: 70% While Chameleon Twist came out in America and Europe, I played a Japanese copy with an English translation patch. The western versions seem to be based on an earlier build, perhaps sent off to the localisation teams before the game was fully ready. The Japanese version has some more challenging rooms (for example, the screenshot above is just an empty room with collectables in the other versions), the multiplayer powerups added into the main game and some unlockable characters. The story is pretty much non-existent. A regular chameleon sees the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland jumping into a pot and decides to follow, turning into the big headed thing in the game. From there, you go through the levels, killing everything in your path. When you start the game, you’ll test out the moves. The tongue is very impressive as you can move it as it extends. I was expecting lots of puzzle use with it, but unfortunately the game isn’t very inventive. The tongue is used for four moves. The first lets you swallow enemies to spit them out as bullets Then you can latch onto poles, from there, you can pull yourself towards it or spin around. Finally, you can push yourself upwards for a high jump that’s very awkward to use. You don’t gain any extra abilities and it doesn’t have the usage of Mario’s move set to keep itself interesting across the game. Being able to move the tongue seems more like something added just to combat the terrible aiming in the game. The biggest difficulty in Chameleon Twist is the camera. Moving it twists it in really strange ways and it’s very difficult to judge jumps and to target where you’re shooting. The game itself is quite simple – especially due to how few moves you have – although to get the boss rush mode, you have to find lots of the crowns hidden throughout the levels. Chameleon Twist is a nice start for a game. The game needs a bit more variety and a much better camera – hopefully these are fixed in the sequel. Remake or Remaster? An enhanced collection of the two games would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Chameleon Twist

Dual Heroes JP release: 5th December 1997 PAL release: 12th April 1998 NA release: 5th November 1998 Developer: Produce! Publisher: Hudson (JP), Electro Brain (NA), Gaga (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 50% I don’t quite understand the name of this one – there’s no “dual” aspect to anything of this game. Did someone mistype “Duel Heroes”? Anyway, Dual Heroes is often stated as the worst fighting game on the N64, originally scoring 28% at N64 Magazine. However, Dual Heroes is quite fascinating as it has some really interesting features – which caused N64’s magazine score to bump up to 50% once they could understand what those features were in their English version review. Now, the fighting mechanics are pretty atrocious. Fighters don’t feel very different and they all look like rejected Power Rangers with inflatable butts, with rather ugly designs. Special moves don’t feel very special and it’s quite simple that two of the buttons can be “Punch and kick” or “kick and block” and you can still have blank ones. There’s also a 3D move – which isn’t just a fancy dodge like Midway’s fighting games, but holding the button lets you move around completely in 3D. However, it also breaks the game. When you move around in 3D, you move very fast. Human players will have difficulty landing a hit on you, and the AI can’t manage it at all. On top of that, in their attempt to try and hit you, they’ll often run off the edge of the map (if there are no walls). This means you can cheese any AI fight by running behind them, punching them and just running away until they throw themselves off or the time runs out. Dual Heroes does have some fascinating features that I think modern fighting games should use. One is a “virtual opponent”. These are a list of opponents to play the game against – you don’t fight them directly, they pick a character from a game. They all have different tactics and will play in different ways, rather than one set way for each fighter to react. On top of that, you can fight your own. There is a “robot” you can train by fighting against it – you have to teach it to use each character – and it will fight in your style. You can choose to have it fight the virtual opponents or (using memory cards) another person’s robot. This feature was implemented by the Super Smash Bros series, however it requires an amiibo of each character you want to use. With online systems now, this robot feature (and virtual opponents) seems like great features that will be much better off with sharing things online (not to mention in a better fighting game). Dual Heroes isn’t a good game, but it has some really great ideas that deserve to be tried again. Remake or Remaster? The game doesn’t need updating, but the ideas need to be tried again. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Dual Heroes

There's Olympic Hockey ’98. Exact same gameplay.

This one got generally good reviews. We'll get to the one that got ridiculed for being the same game shortly, it only came out a few months after this one.

Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98 NA release: 3rd December 1997 PAL release: 1st June 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Software Creations Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 70% Yearly sports updates are tricky things to review, as some can bring big improvements, some minor improvements and some just update the stats. The first N64 Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey was a decent game and this is no different – literally. Everything feels the same and there don’t seem to be any additional options or features for the main game. Other than player stats, the only thing I could find was that the practice mode has a few extra options, were you can choose between shooting, offence and defence. These just change how many players are on each team. If you want to try out one of the Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey games, you may as well play this version, but it doesn’t really offer anything over the previous. Remake or Remaster? Like with the previous game, a less serious ice hockey game would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98

Wheel of Fortune NA release: 2nd December 1997 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: GameTek Publisher: Take-Two N64 Magazine Score: 17% With a score of 17% from N64 magazine, I was expecting something truly atrocious from this. Yet, despite the wonky looking graphics, it does a good job at what it’s supposed to do. It’s your own episode of Wheel of Fortune in an N64 cart. Wheel of Fortune is essentially a fancy game show version of hangman. You spin the wheel and guess a letter. If it exists in the words, you’ll get the money corresponding to the wheel and if you’re wrong, play passes to the next contestant. The wheel is a big element of luck and some of them can make you lose a turn or take away all the money you’ve earned that round. The N64 version is a little bit ugly, but still creates the feel of a studio pretty well. With options for pass and play or having different controllers, it’s also an easy game to play with others, including non-gamers. I got quite a bit of enjoyment from this with my girlfriend, and she even asked to keep the game handy as it’s fun for a quick round every now and then. Remake or remaster? I’m surprised that there isn’t a Jackbox-style service for classic game shows. There could be some options such as different studio designs from the past (and region-specific) as well as choosing themes and adding your own answers into the mix. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Wheel of Fortune

WCW vs. nWo: World Tour NA release: 2nd December 1997 PAL release: 12th February 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Asmik Ace, AKI Publisher: THQ N64 Magazine Score: 70% It took a while for the N64 to get its first wrestling game, although it ended up getting a LOT after this one. It’s quite difficult to judge these properly as WWF No Mercy (the first wrestling game I ever played) essentially invalidated all the other wrestling games on the console and set the standard going forward. For the first on the N64, it does a good job. The gameplay works well enough, although putting the special moves on the control stick is a very odd choice (you move around with the D-pad). You punch, kick and grapple. That said, individual matches do go on for far too long – upwards of 20 minutes. But there’s not much to the game. There aren’t that many wrestlers and there are just a few basic modes, the first of which is a 5v5 where they duke it out one at a time. If one wrestler wins, they fight the opponent’s next. Remake or remaster? The genre itself has evolved. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get WCW vs. nWo: World Tour

Heiwa Pachinko World 64 JP release: 28th November 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Shouei System Publisher: Amtex N64 Magazine Score: 12% Pachinko, from what I understand is a “totally not gambling” gambling machine popular in Japan. It seems to be a mixture of a pinball machine, 10p machine and a slot machine. As you buy tokens and win prizes instead of cash, it skirts around gambling laws in Japan. You buy balls and then use a dial to aim them into the machine, where they tumble down and activate the various parts of the slot machine, hoping the hit the jackpot. You can walk around three pachinko parlours. Even though these are built in 3D, it controls like a Myst-style point and click game as you turn 90 degrees and only stand in specific locations. The graphics are terrible with really bad tiling everywhere and humans that look like barbie dolls with shrunken heads. The machines don’t fare much better. As they’re based on real machines and not designed specifically for the N64, they try to fit in far more detail so they just look like a blur. You can tilt them for a slightly different view at the vomit-inducing mess. Also, while pachinko is really simple, the controls are terrible. The only actual control is the dial, but all the variation is within one segment of the analogue stick, meaning you have very little control. And, at the end of the day, this is the kind of thing you’ll find in a crummy seaside arcade but with the tickets and prizes removed. What little fun is removed, the whole risk is removed and the whole point – winning prizes is just there. A game version could have cosmetics or something, perhaps a room to decorate, but there’s nothing. It’s a pointless game. Remake or remaster? No. Just…no. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Heiwa Pachinko World 64