Cube

Or at least some complete editions, like Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8 and the Splatoon games.

I'm not as familiar with the newer Pokémon like these, but I have seen the anime that covers them. In terms of designs, the initial evolution of each one is great. Chikorita has some good evolutions, and from what I remember, had a full arc in the show. Bayleef razor leaf is a great aspect of the design, and this middle evolution is far more iconic than any of the other middle or final evolutions of these starters. Cyndaquil's evolutions...exist. They're both very boring. And as for poor Totodile, he has some really ugly designs to look forward to.

Extreme-G NA release: 27th October 1997 PAL release: 9th December 1997 JP release: 29th May 1998 Developer: Probe Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 87% This is one I played a lot when I was younger. An extremely fast futuristic racing game on tron-like sci-fi motorbikes. It’s a proper competition-based racing game (where all the racers start at the same place, not an overtaking arcade racer) and has a bunch of weapons thrown into the mix. The biggest criticism about Extreme-G is probably the handling, which does not manage to keep up with the speed of the bikes. To counter this, the developers added a bunch of things to ease the frustration. Walls don’t slow you down that much (they do slightly damage your shields) and the sides of the track have a kind of “energy barrier” that keeps you on the track. Respawning after falling off is also very quick. Even using the cheat to make the game even faster, making mistakes in races never feels annoying. There are weapons dotted across the track that you can pick up, which come in lots of slight variations. These have a smaller immediate impact on racers than the likes of Mario Kart, but do whittle away shields (you also have a laser you have access to at any time to do extra damage to shields). However, the weapons are difficult to use effectively and ones like the cannons are more likely to harm you than your opponents. Extreme-G has a good amount of tracks (compared to other racers at the time on N64, at least), although they do tend to blur a bit together due to the winding nature of them. There’s a track set around some lava games that’s the most difficult track in the game (by a massive margin), and the final track is a futuristic forest with Santorini-inspired buildings and UFOs flying around and looks absolutely gorgeous. On top of the standard league mode, there’s time trial, practice and a shoot-’em-up mode where you have to blast drones. The multiplayer also has a battle mode in unique arenas, so there’s a good amount of stuff to do in the game. Extreme-G is still a lot of fun, and manages to feel different to both Wipeout and F-Zero. Remake or remaster? An Extreme-G collection would be wonderful to see. Just do some minor improvements like properly implemented widescreen and customisable controls, perhaps even add weapon icons to the HUD. Unfortunately, IP owners Throwback Entertainment seem uninterested in the franchise, only re-releasing the poor PC port of the second game, lacking analogue steering or proper controller support. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Extreme-G

Microsoft announced today that four games, all over a year old, will be coming to Switch. Two are more "indie-like" and two are live service games. Very likely Hi-Fi Rush, Penitent, Sea of Thieves and Grounded. Hi-Fi Rush is a lot of fun, but I'd love for Sea of Thieves to get a proper offline mode. The game looked amazing on my old PC, so it should look great on Switch.

Unfortunately, yes. It counts as different enough. Madden Football 64 NA release: 24th October 1997 PAL release: December 1997 JP release: N/A Developer: Tiburon Publisher: EA Sports N64 Magazine Score: 92% So, American Football. I know almost nothing about it and this is my first proper experience with it. While Baseball is quite easy to understand (especially based on Rounders and Cricket), American Football seems to have very specific rules and even my basic knowledge of Rugby did not help me out at all. I can understand why sports games mainly target fans of the sport, but considering this game was released in Europe, I do find it odd that there’s no proper introduction or tutorial to entice new people into the sport. That said, I did learn some new things. American Football is very stop-start. Every couple of seconds, with a bad pass or with a single tackle, the game stops, players regroup, discuss tactics, pick a plan and then wait for a new kick-off. You never seem to be able to play long enough to get used to the controls or actually enjoy the gameplay. I also found it interesting that wasting time by waiting as long as possible to choose tactics is a key part of the game, as the CPU player did it to me towards the end of the match. American Football players also seem to spend most of their time just standing around, while the referee runs with the ball far more than the players. Even in this game (where you would expect that to skip these bits), I seemed to watch the referee more than the players. He’s clearly the most athletic person on the pitch. It also seems that flopping over is a huge skill. Any slight touch will cause anyone with the ball to hit the ground instantly. Even if I barely scraped an opposing player (who does not make any kind of tackle animation), my player will pitifully fall over. I’m not sure if that’s the sport or if that aspect of Madden 64 is just broken. N64 Magazine seemed to think it faithfully recreated American Football, though, rating it as one of the best games on the platform. I didn’t enjoy anything about this, but I found this more difficult to understand than any of the Japanese-only games. Remake or remaster? These games evolve over time. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Madden 64 --- NFL Quarterback Club 98 NA release: 24th October 1997 PAL release: December 1997 JP release: N/A Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 86% Another American Football game released on the same day as Madden 64, and it feels mostly the same. This done does seem a bit quicker without having to watch the referee as much, and all tackles looked like actual tackles instead of players just flopping over for no reason. Based on that, I would say that this is better, but I don’t know the sport at all. I did get some enjoyment out of this one, too. The cheats add some quite funny options, such as making players move like old electronic American football games, making them spin around or making them all bum shuffle. I have no idea if this is a good American football game, but I got a couple of laughs from it. Remake or remaster? These games evolve over time. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get NFL Quarterback Club 98

ClayFighter 63⅓ NA release: 23rd October 1997 PAL release: 19th November 1997 JP release: N/A Developer: Interplay Publisher: Interplay N64 Magazine Score: 24% The Clayfighter series are parody games that supposedly make fun of other fighting games. Previous entries made fun of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, while this one tackles Killer Instinct. When I think of a parody fighting game, it brings up the idea of a creative and funny game that has over-the-top moves that is enjoyable but likely quite simple. Clayfighter 63⅓ is none of those things. Clayfighter aims for a claymation style, but this is completely spoiled by the very low quality sprites and extremely poor animation. On top of that, none of the characters were anything I wanted to play with, being a mixture of generic things, things 6 year olds find “gross” (fat, snot) and racist caricatures. Oh, and Earthworm Jim. Every character also has extremely annoying voice clips, a complete waste of the talent they hired (which includes legends like Frank Welker, Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Rob Paulsen and Dan Castellaneta). The arenas are slightly more interesting than fighting games. They’re not as deep as Mace: The Dark Age, but you can hit your opponent through doors and reach other arenas. Unfortunately, the camera is terrible and you can end up fighting behind scenery. The fighting itself is also really dull, being incredibly slow and clunky, with button mashing working very well. The game is also very light on content, with just one mode of fighting random opponents (with no attempt of putting it inside a story) and…options. No practice or additional modes and not very many options. It’s an atrocious game devoid of anything fun or amusing. Remake or Remaster? No. A remake was in development for DSiWare and WiiWare, but never made the light of day. Thankfully. Oh, and it was going to be called “Call of Putty” so you know the humour would have been non-existent. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get ClayFighter 63⅓ --- J.League Eleven Beat 1997 JP release: 24th October 1997 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 52%? The fourth different football series for Japan, this one has a much more cartoony/anime style, and I think it suits he N64 quite well. It’s much better than Dynamite Soccer but at the same time, because it’s simply a decent game, there’s really not a huge amount to say about it. Eleven Beat keeps things nice and simple, but also functions quite well. The CPUs mistakes in this game felt more natural than other football games and you have a few different kinds of passes and shots. When defending, you do control two different players, but at least you have a cursor to show which ones. The modes are just a few basic ones, along with a practice that’s just got your team on the pitch. There’s also a “Red Vs Blue” mode where each team can pick the players they want from all the teams, or let a lucky dip decide. Eleven Beat is a simple but fun football game, but not much more than that. Remake or remaster? I do think a fun anime-inspired twist on Football could be fun to see today, especially as games can fully pull off the anime style now. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get J.League Eleven Beat 1997

Tommy Thunder (Prototype) NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Player 1 Publisher: Player 1 N64 Magazine Score: N/A Tommy Thunder was a game in development by Player 1. It eventually moved to the PlayStation before getting cancelled. A fan or Robotron happened upon an open FPT while trying to find out when Robotron 64 was released and found some files, eventually cracking them 10 years later and discovering this very early prototype of Tommy Thunder. This prototype mainly seems to be a test of the level design, as you can just move around and enemies don’t harm you – you also walk on water. That said, the level itself is very impressive in scope, with a few underground areas. This map was also just one “block” and the developers were trying to figure out a way to load new chunks of the level on the fly – this is something open world games do now, but was extremely ambitious for the early N64. From the very few quotes about the game, it seems like this game was going to be a 3D, open world Metroidvania. You would find weapons as you explored, and equipment (such as anti-grav boots) would alter how you can move throughout the environment, opening up new areas in previous sections. The game never made it past prototyping stages and the company eventually closed down after putting all of their eggs into the Sega Dreamcast. Should it be finished? With retro-inspired games for this era gaining popularity, it would definitely be interesting to see a “what if” take on if the developers could pull off what they wanted with Tommy Thunder.

You can just about make out a "DJ" on the back of the car in some images. I have zero artistic talent.

Top Gear Rally NA release: 30th September 1997 PAL release: November 1997 JP release: 5th December 1997 Developer: Boss Game Studios Publisher: Midway (NA), Kemco (PAL/JP) N64 Magazine Score: 86% Top Gear Rally was loved so much by N64 Magazine that they dropped Multi-Racing Championship’s score from 81% to 71%, claiming that it was scored high because it was first. As much as I wanted to love this, this just felt like it had the same kind of “early days” bias as it’s still another arcade style racer where you work from the back of the pack with very few tracks. The racing itself feels pretty decent with a lot of options to change to alter the handling of your vehicles, and the graphics are very nice for their time, with some nice water effects. In championship mode, you play through a bunch of seasons as you race across the same four tracks multiple times. The weather does change and, while the effects are quite lovely, the rain and slow just make the handling a nightmare. In total, you play across these four tracks a total of 21 times – and then again in mirror mode. There are some nice touches to the game, for example, you can create custom paint jobs for your cars in a surprisingly nice (for the time) image editor. There’s also “arcade” mode where you can have a 1v1 race against the CPU or another player. The music on the jungle level is also absolutely lovely, although the rest of the music is quite poor. There’s also a hidden track. If you play through the whole 21 track season and win every single race, you’ll unlock the final track. You can’t race this in the main mode, only arcade and practice. When N64 Magazine wrote their review, they knew it existed but had no idea how to unlock it, it’s that much of a pain to do. Yet it’s easily the best track of the game, with a ton of interesting shortcuts. It’s strange how the best 20% of their game is locked away so hard – another fun vehicle would have been much better, and would allow for a bit more variety in the game’s main mode. One other thing I noticed is that it doesn’t feel like the other racers have any kind of AI – it just feels like they’re on a set path. They don’t react to you and if you get in their way, they’ll barge you away without slowing down. If you try to crash into them, they’ll be unaffected. They’re more obstacles than opponents. Top Gear Rally is a fun game, but shows its age with its arcade nature and lack of content. At the time of release, it was definitely the best car racing game on the system. Remake or Remaster? A collection of the various Top Gear games would be quite nice. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Top Gear Rally

Mace: The Dark Age NA release: 30th September 1997 PAL release: December 1997 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway Publisher: Midway (NA), GT Interactive (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 81% Most of what I said about War Gods remains true to Mace: The Dark Age. It’s another bare bones Mortal Kombat clone with a small amount of 3D movement, once again with extremely generic stereotypes for characters, this time based on medieval times. The one stand out character to me was the training dummy character from the basic practice mode, called Spanky. Mace does have two points in its favour, though. First are the graphics, which look great for the time. The 3D models for the characters are very well made, with detail in the model itself rather than pasting on photographs. The detail also extends into the stages, with impressive detail. On top of that, the stages aren’t just backdrop. While it’s awkward to move around the stages, you can try to use the different layers to your advantage. Some stages even have hazards that cause damage. It creates a feeling that you’re actually fighting in a location, instead of fighting in an empty void with artwork pasted behind you. As I’m not skilled at these kind of games, I’m not really sure how the fighting itself compares – it felt just like War Gods to me – but N64 Magazine rated it highly, so there must be something more to it. Remake or remaster? With War Gods, this can be re-released as some kind of Midway fighting came collection. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Mace: The Dark Age

I love all of the starters here, and the final evolutions are great. The middle evolutions are a bit of a letdowns, with Ivysaur and Wartotle being forgettable. Chameleon is by far the most notable of the three, having by far the coolest design and having a significant personality in the show. Squirtle is the best first stage, Chameleon is the best middle and Charizard is the best final evolutions (sorry Bulbasaur, you're still great).

Bomberman 64 JP release: 26th September 1997 NA release: 27th November 1997 PAL release: 3rd December 1997 Developer: Hudson Publisher: Hudson (JP), Nintendo (NA/PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 50% Bomberman is a much loved multiplayer game, and with the Nintendo 64 having four controller ports built in, an N64 version seems like a no-brainer, you could even have 8 players by having players sharing controllers, one using D-pad and L and the other using C-buttons and R. Bomberman 64, however, leaves multiplayer to be an afterthought, focusing instead on a 3D puzzle-platform game. The start of Bomberman 64 is immensely more difficult than the rest, with the main challenge working out the mechanics of the game. The controls feel extremely imprecise and the game gets you to use the barely-working method of dropping a bomb and then pressing b to pick it up – except if you get close to a bomb, you’ll kick it and it will slide away. Then, after you’ve completed the first world, the game tells you “oh, if you press A and B together, you’ll hold it straight away”. It’s strange that the game lets you struggle with it before telling you the proper way to play. Little frustrations plague the game. From thin platforms that aren’t suited to the game’s controls, the game hiding objects in places where the game’s bad camera struggles to see and that once you’ve figured out the main mechanics, you realise that there aren’t really any puzzles other than roaming around, hoping you’re going the right way. Your bombs also explode in a circle, with the blast radius increasing slightly every time you collect a power up, which makes it very difficult to judge how far your bomb will explode, although even at the maximum, it’s nothing compared to the + shape explosions we know and love from Bomberman, one that is integral to the gameplay. To get to the credits, there are 5 zones, each with 2 levels and 2 bosses. The bosses are quite tedious and not exciting, and Bomberman can only take one hit. There are also golden cards to collect. To collect these, you have to search every nook and cranny, as well as attack bosses in certain ways – with no clues for any of them. If you find all 100, and fight the boss again, you’ll unlock the secret final world, but when the game is so tedious to play, is more even a good thing? Bomberman 64 is slow, tedious and the transition to “3D” has taken away everything that made Bomberman fun and enjoyable. It’s no surprise that Bomberman ended up returning to its 2D gameplay. Remake or remaster? There are much better Bomberman games to focus on instead. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Bomberman 64

@lostmario The 2018 Battletoads game starts off fine for the first hour or so, but the rest of it is atrocious. The fighting levels stop and you have - Discount Rayman Origins levels that are very simple and not enjoyable. - A really boring vertical scrolling space shooter with multiple levels. Followed by a terrible minigame where you have to repair something by hitting random buttons.

J.League Dynamite Soccer 64 JP release: 5th September 1997 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: A-Max Publisher: Imagineer N64 Magazine Score: 66% The third Japanese football game has a very different feel to both Konami and EA’s games. On paper, this is easily the worst football game I’ve played so far (and not just on the N64) and yet…it’s oddly enjoyable. If you paid money for this game, you would no doubt be annoyed, but giving it a quick blast to see how bad it is truly is quite fun. You may notice that there’s no cursor showing who you are currently controlling – that’s because you never control any individual players. Instead, you control a random assortment of players who are near the ball, all moving in the same way. Even when you have the ball, the other players will “kick” an imaginary ball at the same time the player with the ball does. The a and b buttons are different kinds of kicks, these are just in a general direction and not a proper pass – that’s on the C down button, and you have no control over who you pass to (it often goes to a player behind the current one). The goalkeepers are also amazing at what they do, and the CPU even struggled to score when I gave them lots of chances. Fouls are very loose in the game, as sliding tackles rarely result in a foul. There is a shoulder barge button that does usually give a foul, and I had a lot of fun seeing how many players I could get sent off the pitch. It turns out that after four players are sent off, you can no longer get cards. And even with four players sent off, the absence of a defence didn’t make a huge difference due to the goalkeeper’s skill. It also helps that the sprite-based players are also funny to look at, often looking like gingerbread men. The graphics combined with the way you control multiple players at once, it feels like a hybrid of football and foosball. This is a wonderfully dreadful game. Remake or remaster? This isn’t worth buying in any way, just emulate it (with the English translation patch) to see how enjoyably bad it is. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get J.League Dynamite Soccer 64.

Now the next one was the right game at the right time. Goldeneye 007 JP release: 23rd August 1997 PAL release: 25th August 1997 NA release: 25th August 1997 Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 94% The legendary game GoldenEye. This is the game I got with my N64 and I spent all day searching around the dam level for bungee rope as it wasn’t in my inventory. It was a landmark game for not just first person shooters, but video games in general. GoldenEye had the brilliant idea of adding objectives that were more than just pushing buttons then going through the level again to look for something that has changed. You had to protect certain people, blow up certain objects and find objects. On higher difficulty options, you have more objectives to complete. The praise of GoldenEye has been done countless times before, but one aspect I think is overlooked is the level design, in terms of how the levels feel like actual places and buildings and not a nonsensical string of rooms and corridors. Part of this is due to how the developers made the game: the GoldenEye team had never made a video game and was a risky experiment from Rare to throw people who had never worked in the video game industry to see if they would come up with unique methods. It’s quite shocking that they were willing to do this with an IP like James Bond, but it paid off. Typically, the objective and player path is made first and then the level is built around that, but for GoldenEye, the levels were constructed and then they added the objectives and decided where the player would start. This meant that some rooms are essentially “pointless”, but it helps makes everything feel real. The muiltiplayer was another huge surprise – a few of the developers started it with 6 weeks of development left and without getting permission to do so first. It was simple, but at the same time extremely enjoyable and is still one of the most famous multiplayer modes in a video game. Some aspects of GoldenEye haven’t aged well, particularly the controls (although there are dual analogue options hidden in the settings, requiring two controllers), but sort that out and it’s still an absolute joy to play. Remake or remaster? There was an XBLA version of GoldenEye that was nearly finished. You could swap between old and new graphics (although the “old” graphics weren’t fully finished) and it played great on a modern controller. Finish that version and release it, as it’s what GoldenEye deserves. Official ways to get the game. You can buy the game by purchasing a digital copy of Rare Replay on Xbox One/Series. It is also available for subscription as part of Xbox Game Pass or Nintendo Switch Online

Tetrisphere NA release: 11th August 1997 PAL release: February 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: H2O Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 69% If you thought that Tetrisphere is a Tetris-like game that is played on a sphere then, surprisingly, you would be wrong. It didn’t even start out as a Tetris licensed game, but rather a game called Phear on the Jaguar, before ended up going to the N64 instead and published by Nintendo with the Tetris branding. I remember playing it as a kid and being confused, but the tutorial explains the game quite well and it’s quite simple. You’ll see a shadow of your next piece. You have to line it up so it connects to two or more matching pieces, they’ll disappear – get rid of large amounts and you’ll get power ups. There are different modes, but the general goal is to clear enough of the inner sphere. While the starting pieces need lining up exactly, the more complex just seem to need one part touching a matching piece, which ends up making them much easier to score combos with. The power ups come in different types, but seem to be just different animations for removing large amounts of blocks. To help with combos, you can also drag pieces around by lining them up with the shadow and holding B. Tetrisphere is quite relaxed for a puzzle game, and the failure state is making three mistakes, although the shadow showing your target handily shows if your placement is good or not. It’s an entertaining puzzle game, although while it has a lot of modes, they all still feel like the same game. The game doesn’t mix things up enough, so ends up feeling a little bit basic. Remake or remaster? A re-release is fine for Tetrisphere. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Tetrisphere.

Microsoft will probably officially announce the next Series X hardware revision (the one with no disc) at the same time.

Power League 64 JP release: 8th August 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 42% I had no idea that the Japanese loved American baseball so much, but this is the third Japan-exclusive game on the N64. This one has a more “realistic” art style, but the lack of faces make the players look absolutely horrific. Control is similar to the previous baseball games, except this time the batter has no aiming reticule, so you have no idea how close you were to hitting. When fielding, you also need to move your players more, although throwing to the bases is a nightmare as it never goes to the person you want it to go to. I did learn something about baseball from this game: seemingly a big part of the game is the pitcher deliberately throwing an “out” ball, as if the batter swings, it doesn’t count as out. The CPU in this game loves doing difficult shots as it knows about the lack of depth perception in a video game, and the minute screen space between in and out. If you do manage to hit the ball, the CPU fielders will catch it most of the time, so it doesn’t really matter much, while the CPU will manage to fill the bases and then get a home run. It’s a miserable experience. There is a mode that I thought could help practicing batting. It’s a home run competition where you try batting 10 times to get as many home runs as possible – except that this is completely unlike batting in the real game as it’s easy to hit the ball and you seem to get a home run every time you hit it. Remake or remaster? It’s a bad sports game, so doesn’t really need anything. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Power League 64

For me, it's Xbox or nothing. I'm not sure if the PS5 will ever get a price drop to a place where I can afford it. If there's no Series S equivalent next generation, I'll likely be shifting to getting second hand consoles when the generation after releases.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon JP release: 7st August 1997 NA release: 16th April 1998 PAL release: 18th April 1998 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 90% I remember seeing the scores for Mystical Ninja in N64 magazine, but it didn’t seem like my kind of game. I was very wrong about that – Goemon’s first N64 game is kind of a hybrid of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, mixed with edo era Japan and a gloriously absurd plot of musical performers trying to turn Japan into their stage. The game starts out in a Zelda-style town, but what’s impressive is that this is from before Ocarina of Time. You can swap between Goemon and Ebisumaru (plus more you meet along the way) at any time, each with their own set of weapons and abilities. These are uses sparingly throughout the game, so for the most part you can play as who you prefer. Connecting each town is a large overworld with some nice locations. The first one I encountered brought back strong childhood memories as I recognised the music from Krazy Konami Racers, but the rest of the music in the game is also great, with lots of great tracks throughout the game. I was bopping my head to quite a lot of the music which mixes classical and modern instrument sounds. Dungeons also play a big part in the game. While there are map/compass items to collect and keys to find, they’re a lot more platform-oriented than Zelda dungeons. One downside is the game’s camera (which can be turned holding R and using the c-buttons), but it’s something you get used to. While there are some bottomless pits, other areas just have you fall to a section where you work your way back – although one handy thing is that there’s no fall damage. There’s also a variety of other sections, including multiple giant robot boss fights, which treat you to a song each time you use your giant robot, Impact. Each starts off with an arcade-style section to build up your health and ammo before taking a first person perspective as you shoot and punch your opponent. It’s a lot of fun, although they do become more frustrating the longer they go on. Goemon is an incredibly charming game that’s still a ton of fun to play. Some of the puzzles do have a sign flat out telling you what to do, although these mainly relate to Ebisumaru’s camera item, which reveals hidden things, so I would probably get stuck without being reminded that the object exists. Even with that, the main story is amusingly silly and the game likes throwing new things at you. It’s a great game. Remake or remaster? An updated version of Mystical Ninja would be great, with a better camera and fine tuned controls. A bit of extra side content would also be welcome. And perhaps a quest log as instructions are a but unclear at times. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon.

Mahjong Road 64 JP release: 25th July 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Art Publisher: Video System N64 Magazine Score: 69% Original name: Jangou Simulation Mahjong Michi 64 The N64’s third Mahjong game and I’m running out out of things to say about Mahjong. The interface improves a little bit over Mahjong 64, but still isn’t as clear as Mahjong Masters. The main mode of Mahjong Road 64 is a competition where players are racing to be the first to earn 10 million G form playing Mahjong. You select from a pool of 16 anime-style characters and chose locations and characters to complete against until you earn enough money. It’s quite freeform in that you can choose who to play against. Another mode I’ve not seen is a 2-player mode (still only against an AI) on top of the traditional 4 player Mahjong, so it’s a bit of variety. You can change a few settings and one nice thing is you get a close up of the winning hand at the end of a round. Remake or Remaster? Another Mahjong game with nothing particularly special. Other options exists. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Mahjong Road 64 --- Mahjong Drifters Chronicles Classic JP release: 1st August 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Alpha Unit Publisher: Imagineer N64 Magazine Score: N/A Original name: Mahjong Horoki Classic Right after Mahjong Road 64 is yet another Mahjong Game. However, this one is a little bit more interesting as it’s a visual novel as well as a Mahjong game. For the core UI, it’s nice that the tiles are more 3D, and it’s the second best interface after Mahjong Masters. You can play matches on their own or as part of the story. When I first booted up the game, I was quite baffled. The music on the menu, as well as the sepia-tone drawing of a woman made me think of old, seedy bars. Turns out that they managed to nail the atmosphere of the game with just the simple menu because that’s exactly where the game it set: in gambling dens in Japan just after WWII. Surprisingly, the game starts with a content warning saying that the game is set in the “chaotic period of the war” and that “there may be some areas in which the methods of copying and expression do not fit in with modern conventional wisdom”. Mahjong Drifters Chronicles is based on a novel (which previously had a film adaptation) by Takehiro Irokawa, and is based on his own past. The short version: After struggling to make ends meet working in a factory post-WWII, Boyatetsu (a fictional name, but based on Irokawa) ends up getting involved in Mahjong gambling dens and getting addicted to meth. It’s a brutal story as he tries to quit and make a life for himself (the real person eventually straightened out after getting a job for a newspaper). Throughout the story, you have to play mahjong, ensuring you don’t run out of money. There is also a “cheaters” mode. Here you learn specific tricks as you play and unlock passcodes for certain tricks which can be used in the story more. This mimics a way of cheating in Mahjong done by stacking the tiles in a certain way to ensure you have a strong starting hand, but now this issue is solved by shorting machines. As far as the Mahjong games on the N64, this is quite fascinating due to being based on a novel and featuring a grim story. Remake or Remaster? Out of all the Mahjong games, this one is probably worth a re-release in Japan for the unique story. It probably wouldn’t sell well enough for an official translation. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Mahjong Drifter Chronicles Classic

MRC: Multi-Racing Championship JP release: 18th July 1997 NA release: 4th September 1997 PAL release: October 1997 Developer: Genki Publisher: Imagineer (JP) / Ocean (NA/PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 71% If you need to explain your acronym in the title of the game, don’t use an acronym. “Multi-Racing Championship” is fine on its own. This game has an interesting review history in N64 Magazine as they gave it an impressive 81% in their import review but then dropped to 71% for the UK review, stating that it scored high simply for being first (that wasn’t Crusi’n USA). In their directory towards the end of the magazine, it dropped even more to a 1/5. I can see why. The core racing mechanics of Multi-Racing Championship are decent, with a focus on tracks with different routes, one off-road and one for sports cars, and decent handling. The tracks themselves have a lot of variation within themselves, too. It still very much an arcade racer as it has the really annoying timer and checkpoint system and you start in last place with other racers far ahead of you. The major issue with the game is the amount of tracks. I’ve shown three screenshots so far, which encapsulate all the tracks in the game. Yup, there are only three tracks in the game. You can unlock backwards versions of the tracks, but that’s it. Winning is also down more to car choice. Pick the Kingroader (which actually has “This car is the best car” written on the side, which probably wasn’t readable on the N64) and you’ll breeze the medium and hard tracks – indecently, the first track (labelled “easy”) is actually the most difficult. There are a couple of cars to unlock, but there’s not much reason for doing so when there are only three tracks. This definitely had the advantage of being the first on the system and for taking advantage of the analogue stick, but throughout the N64’s life, racing games evolved a lot. Remake or Remaster? The concept of the game is worth revisiting. A rating game with different routes for different vehicles. They could even add additional options, perhaps a more dangerous route for motorbikes. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get MRC: Multi-Racing Championship

https://roddenberry.x.io/ The Roddenberry Archive is back, you can walk around digital recreations of a load of bridges (plus the Promenade/Quarks from DS9).

Dark Rift NA release: 8th July 1997 PAL release: 30th July 1997 JP release: 27th March 1998 Developer: Kronos Publisher: Vic Tokai N64 Magazine Score: 69% The N64’s early life was filled with disappointing arcade ports, but Dark Rift was the N64’s first fighting game that was specifically created from the ground up for it, so you would expect this to be more suited for home consoles, building upon what Killer Instinct Gold did. Unfortunately, this is another bare bones fighting game. One thing that did impress me with the game was how well the flat square round and the 2D backdrop merged together, creating a more fluid looking environment – even if it made the levels feel like they took place far away from the distant objects. You have tournament mode and practice, and that’s it. The practice mode is also more basic than Killer Instinct. The characters aren’t very memorable, but also aren’t as dreadful as War Gods, with a few interesting ideas. The actual fighting has special moves, which are often slow-moving projectiles which can be easily avoided by dodging (while the game never brags about being 3D, it works similar to War Gods). The main trick seems to be the c-buttons and mashing these and blocking at the right times seems to be the way to win. While incredibly bare bones, this is slightly better than War Gods simply due to the characters being fine. For something specifically built for consoles rather than arcade, it still feels like just another poor arcade port. Remake or Remaster? It doesn’t really deserve anything. Pico Interactive own the license, so that ensures we won’t get more than a terrible re-release. Official ways to get the game. Dark Rift is available on GOG and Steam, however reports from players indicate that it doesn’t run on Windows 10 or 11.

Mischief Makers JP release: 27th June 1997 NA release: 1st October 1997 PAL release: 12th December 1997 Developer: Treasure Publisher: Enix (JP) / Nintendo (NA/PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 90% Mischief Makers is a 2D platformer from respected developers Treasure. It received glowing reviews for its originality, including a 90% from N64 magazine. Unfortunately, the game didn’t click with me, but I can definitely see why people would love it. Mischief Makers is made up of lots of short platforming levels, each one focusing one a single gimmick. What’s impressive is that these levels are extremely varied and feel unique. The main move that levels are based on are Marina’s ability to grab and shake objects – mainly NPCs, enemies and balls. These will cause various actions that you need to figure out how to use to progress. There’s also a secret gem hidden in each level that’s very difficult to find, unlocking the final cutscene if you get them all. The biggest issue I had with the game was the controls. Most of Marina’s movement abilities are performed by double tapping the D-pad. At first, I praised the game because the c-buttons were used as shortcuts to these abilities, providing a great extra way to perform these abilities, but then discovered that the c-button versions are less effective than tapping the d-pad, which is probably why I struggled with some basic jumps. I would love to see an updated re-release of Mischief Makers, making the c-buttons function the same as double-tapping the d-pad, plus higher details sprites. The game definitely deserves a new version. Remake or Remaster? A remake would be great. The game still feels unique and a new version would be lovely. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Mischief Makers.