Cube

Indy Racing 2000 NA release: 7th June 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Paradigm Publisher: Infogrames N64 Magazine Score: N/A I don’t know a great deal of Indy Racing, but from what I can figure out, it seems to be a racing event using Formula 1 cars (or one of the lower powered kinds) on short ring tracks. Indy Racing 2000 takes an arcade spin on this, with easy handling and generous collision. And the generosity with the collisions is quite vital. The races begin with a rolling start, with a great sense of speed. However, it’s absolutely chaotic, with cars slamming into each other and spinning like crazy. This makes for an intense start of the race, which is far more exciting than the end, as the easy handling on the simple tracks means that there isn’t much to do. But it seems that that section of the game (which consists of “single race” and “championship”) is just one portion of Indy Racing 2000. On the menu is a “Gold Cup” which is nearly dismissed as just a different kind of tournament to the championship. I was pleasantly surprised, then, that this is actually a very significant – and pretty great – separate mode. Almost a different game. Here you work through different kinds of racing cars, from midget cars to sprint cars to Formula cars. However, the simple ring tracks are gone, and replaced with far more interesting tracks. They’re still nice and wide, but they feature some lovely background landscapes with some fun features like jungles and shipwrecks, and are a ton of fun for racing on. It’s rather baffling that these tracks aren’t available in the single race option, as it would be nice to pick a track to race on. Still, it’s interesting that the best mode of the game is pushed down as a little bonus. If you like racing games that try to blend serious and arcade elements, this is a good example. Fun Remake or remaster? A simple re-release to make it available in more regions would be fine. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Indy Racing 2000

I got a Steam Deck in Jan. It was mainly for my girlfriend, though, and it doesn't track UPlay games (she's mainly been playing Assassin's Creed games). My PC has mainly been used for emulation. Quake II was for the remaster of the N64 version.

Riqa PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Bits Studios Publisher: Bits Studios N64 Magazine Score: N/A Riqa was a game that was shrouded in mystery for quite a while. It was one of Bits Studios three big N64 projects. The other two – Die Hard and Thieves World – both ended up being relaunched into GameCube projects, while Riqa was fully cancelled, with only a few screenshots in magazines to show for it. However, in 2024 a developer uploaded some prototypes onto the internet, so we can finally see what it was like. Now that I’ve played it, it’s a massive shame it was cancelled. Selecting the first level (which I don’t think was supposed to be the first level), it has one of the three main characters – Riqa – assaulting an enemy base. At first, I kept dying pretty much immediately until I got used to the controls, which feel surprisingly modern. Movement is similar to a 3D platformer (no tank controls), moving in relation to the camera while the c-buttons move the camera. Hold R to lock on and you’ll change into strafe mode, which lets you evade enemy fire. Once I had this down, the game became a lot of fun. Going into the secret underground base, I was able to test out a few laser types for your blaster, including a cool shot that splits into three and ricochets off the walls multiple times. On top of the regular goons, there were also some little spider robots and some turrets. I opened a few ways with buttons and activated some machinery, but ended up not having anywhere to go. It’s difficult to know if I’m just missing something or it’s just not finished in a prototype, but there was a machine, a busted control panel, and an NPC I couldn’t interact with, so I suspect that had something to do with it. Level 2 is a very detailed tutorial explaining how the various aspects of the game works, including grabbing ledges, and explaining that holding R to strafe also means that you can’t walk off platforms, with the negative of making your jump shorter. While locked on, you can also use the C-buttons to target special areas (for shooting switches), or line up your next target. We also get snippets of the main story. Your mission is to give a warning to a warlord that an assassin is after him. However, he has already received a message saying that, with the description of Riqa as the assassin, so you have to kill all his men (or, optionally, stun) to let him know the truth. The area gets attacked, and there seem to be a few side quests in the game, as a prisoner asks you to deliver a letter to their mum, and there are some hidden emblems dotted around the level. There’s supposed to be a boss outside, but he never turns up. The next level that works has a load of electrical fences, although I had to just jump on top (and get damaged) to get past them. I can’t find much to interact with here, so again, I may be missing something, or that’s all that’s done at this point. Another level puts you in control of a new character – Kane – although he felt the same as Riqa. This mission involves going down a mine and avoiding sawblade machinery. I got a door opened and couldn’t progress any further – once again, there seemed to be an NPC that may have opened the way. Kane also had a working boss, a giant mining robot where you had to shoot the tanks on the back of it, although the game crashed when I shot one off. That was it for the latest prototype, but I decided to check out earlier ones. The earliest prototype is a small square room, and puts you in control of the final character, called Tak’ on the menu (with the apostrophe). You can blow up a statue of yourself, but that’s it. The movement still feels the same, and still fun to move around. Another prototype loaded empty voids until I got to level 6, where I got a very different kind of level – a village hub world of sorts. There’s no jumping or shooting here, and the NPCs make references to terrorists that you defeated, so it sounds like you liberated them, so they can go about their lives. Some hidden chests contain credits for spending money. The buildings on the left have a few shops and restaurants, along with an underground area connecting the two, with some teenagers complaining that the place is boring without the terrorists. The buildings on the right contain what seems to be a hotel lobby and a giant lift under construction. The building at the end of the street is a large office for the mayor of the town. It really does seem like Bits Studios nailed the core mechanics of the game, such as the shooting and movement, which also includes a slide that feels great to use. There are different ammo types, different armours, and secondary weapons such as grenades and tripwires. It all feels surprisingly modern, and I think this could have been something special – it just needed a game around it. Fun (Things did not go according to plan) Should it be finished? I’m curious enough by the design of the characters that I’d like to know more about them, and find out what story the game would have had.

There's something very....late Arrowverse about that trailer, especially with the costumes/designs of the additional characters. So Clark is inspired by Frodo and Superman is inspired by Kelvin McCoy. Meanwhile, Luthor is a mix of Shinzon of Remus and Agent 47.

Belgium doesn't deserve that much credit, it's just an anti-video game law rather than something to protect people - that kind of predatory stuff is still allowed in kids toys (and is quite rampant in it, using all kinds of addictive tactics to increase sales). Any laws regarding loot boxes should apply to the sales method in all mediums, not just video games. I think the main problem Balatro faces is how it has specific poker hands in it, so it has to tell you how they work. PEGI are being a bit too strict on this, really. For lootboxes, with various governments saying that they're not that big a problem (like the UK), they can't really decide for themselves that they're harmful. They don't need to accept bribes as, unfortunately, the law protects lootboxes in this manner. It's all that PEGI don't want to face a likely pricy lawsuit where they have to prove the harm caused by lootboxes to win.

PGA European Tour Golf PAL release: 29th May 2000 NA release: 15th June 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Infogrames Publisher: Infogrames N64 Magazine Score: 80% Another Golf game, this one has four courses, and is otherwise very unremarkable. It has a few different ways to swing, with a traditional power bar method or an analogue stick swing like CyberTiger. What I found baffling was that the target line shows the ideal shot, but there’s no indication as to where on the power bar you should aim for. I either massively overshot or undershot on every hit, not figuring out how to accurately aim the ball. Putting was also even worse for this, sometimes a 25% power shot will send the ball flying off the other side of the green, while a 50% shot will have the ball fall very short. It’s just a rather tedious golf game that doesn’t come close to Mario Golf, which strangely remains the best “serious” golf game on the system. Poor Remake or remaster? There are better golf games. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get PGA European Tour Golf.

My attempt at starting up exercise again earlier this year went well.

I tried my best to like this, but the item management just frustrated me far too much. I understand having limited space for all the stuff related to survival, but for the puzzle items, it causes a lot of extra backtracking (and backtracking is already an issue without this anyway, I hate it when movement isn't enjoyable). I ended up throwing in the towel.

International Track & Field 2000 NA release: 28th May 2000 JP release: 13th July 2000 PAL release: 2nd September 2000 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 86% While Mario & Sonic took over for a while, the original Track & Field is probably still the most iconic game themed around Olympic sports. This is quite simply an N64 version of the button-mashing classic, although it has a lovely presentation, with the events looking like a professional sports event being shown on TV. Everything looks pretty good and the transitions are great. I did, however, find it odd regarding which buttons were chosen to be mashed together – namely C-Left and C-Right rather than two buttons next to each other. It’s quite a distance to move your thumb over for repeatedly mashing, especially against the CPU players. You might think about using two thumbs, but even then you need to awkwardly have your finger on the Z button as well. Even mapping the buttons in a few different ways, I failed at absolutely every task due to how difficult the CPU is, coming last in everything except hammer throw, where I came 10th. Where this game really would have shone was the multiplayer, as now everyone is on a level playing field, feeling the same exertion and RSI as a result of the button combinations needed. There, mistakes can be laughed at more as well, as the game poorly indicates when you need to stop running to make a throw or jump, and the changing camera angles make it even more difficult to judge. Fun Remake or remaster? With Mario & Sonic and the latest Tokyo Olympic game, this genre is well covered. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get International Track & Field 2000

Watched the second batch. The Outer Worlds and Concord are the highlights from this one. The Outer Worlds was a complete tale told really well with some lovely imagery, really in keeping with the "Firefly meets Fallout" vibe of the game. Concord has some really enjoyable characters, some nice emotional moments and shows enough of the story instead of just having a narrator of sorts speak out for it. Honor of Kinds is also really good as a standalone thing, it's like an imaginative take on the board game Go. The game is seemingly a colourful mobile MOBA game, so the short itself isn't representative of the game at all, but that's probably why it works as a short. Mega Man is good, but has the issue of others where it feels like the end of a pilot episode for a TV show. I'd love to see events leading up to this, as well as what comes after. Doesn't great work as a standalone short, but could make for a great series of its own. Exodus is just strange. Tries to explain what is happening via narration but the time dilation really doesn't make sense as the other character should be going through the same. Spelunky is OK. Some nice animation but fairly meaningless. It could really be about any roguelike game. The Sony episode...utterly dreadful. It's like one of those strange adverts Sony used to do, but just boring. Terrible use of characters, who just inconsequently appeared for no reason. Random guards from Killzone (I think) did the most. Edit: I've written up my thoughts on each episode and ranked them in order of how much I liked them: https://djcube.co.uk/secret-level/

Legend of the River King 64: Ride the Salt Sea Wind JP release: 26th May 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Victor Publisher: Victor Original Name: Nushi Tsuri 64: Shiokaze Ninotte N64 Magazine Score: N/A The second Legend of the River King game on N64 is quite a bit different to the first, pulling back on some areas of the game to focus on the fishing a lot more. The sprites are also a lot more zoomed in, but I think the added detail makes the game look cluttered and messy instead, I’m not a fan of it at all. Some of the non-fishing elements have been stripped out, which in a way is a good thing, as they were just a bit odd. Grabbing insects and picking flowers is now a case of walking into them and selecting yes from a pop up menu, although this makes walking past a bunch of flowers a pain, as it pops up as soon as you scrape a flower (it would be better if you needed to press A). The strange animal battling system is now completely removed, including the random encounters, so you just talk to the animals and they’ll make a noise. The fishing is just as immensely difficult as the first game’s, and now made more complex with the addition of different kinds of fishing and lures that work in different ways. Some hook automatically, while others require you to move the lure around a lot in the water to get a bite. As a result, I wasn’t able to make it past the first island. While you can still choose between different characters, they all have the same story (just with slightly different reasons): to go on a quest to find a special fish, located between some islands that you would get to explore later on. Ride the Salt Sea Wind is likely a pretty good game, if you could understand it better. ? Remake or remaster? It would be nice to see a more modern take on these games, even using these stories. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Legend of the River King 64: Ride the Salt Sea Wind

I watched the first batch of episodes. Many of them are so short that you don't know the characters well enough to care about what they're going on. The 40K one is the worst example of this, just mindless, boring action. Dungeons & Dragons feels like a "sneak peak" at another project. The characters seem like they could be interesting, but the short focuses on the most boring one. Armoured Core is similar, it feels like part of a longer journey, the episode just tells you what's happening as it gets revealed. They really don't work as shorts at all. The same stands for Sifu, it has a great style, but the message it is trying to convey doesn't work in such a short thing. Unreal Tournament has enjoyable action and manages to create the most emotional character in the series (kind of ironic), and it works as its own standalone story. Pac-Man is just strange, and it's even stranger that this one was an actual teaser for a game. The best one of the first bunch is, strangely, New Words. It's light-hearted, entertaining and quite funny. It also works really well as a short, you don't need to know anything of the world to understand what is going on. That said, it works so well as just a short that I still have zero interest in the game. Overall, though, it's kind of fine.

Perfect Dark NA release: 22nd May 2000 PAL release: 30th June 2000 JP release: 21st October 2000 Developer: Rare Publisher: Rare N64 Magazine Score: 96% Following up from GoldenEye was a big task, but Rare decided that the best course of action was to come up with a brand new game using the same formula, instead of sticking to the Bond license. And they nailed it. Perfect Dark decided to add some sci-fi stuff to the mix, setting the game in the future year of 2023, allowing for it to have some fantastic weapons and some wonderful settings. For this playthrough, I decided to not play my usual Xbox 360 version of the game, but instead the unofficial PC port that is closer to the original. The singleplayer campaign ramps up in presentation all around, with much more elaborate levels, voice acting, and some nice lighting and shadows. They have the feel of being real buildings that could exist, rather than something that only exists for the objectives (well, except for the submarine, that one is a bit odd in layout), which I think is part of why Perfect Dark ages so gracefully, and is still great to play now. The bigger focus on story and voice acting also makes the levels feel much more connected to each other, rather than just a set of individual levels. There’s even a couple of instances where you can impact the next level – such as providing an alternative exit or giving you a hoverbike. It helps the game feel like an epic experience. The weapons are also a complete joy to use. There’s a lot of them, and each one includes a secondary fire mode. Some simple, like changing the rate of fire, some more unique, like a cloak that runs on ammo, a sentry gun, lock on, and scanners. On one of the Area 51 levels, I always enjoy blowing up a “necessary” explosive box that you’re supposed to take with you to blow up a wall. This will cause a “mission failed”, but the enemies in the level have a gun that self destructs, so you can use this in the correct location and the “failed” status will move back to “incomplete” before registering as complete. It’s very satisfying. Each gun also has a unique reload animation (apart form the renamed GoldenEye weapons, which reload in their original way) and they’re oddly pleasant, especially some of the alien weapons. Once again, objectives get added when you play in different difficulties (personally, I wish you could mix and match difficulties and objective amounts), and one level even starts you off in a different place – on easy, you protect a hostage with a sniper rifle, but on the hardest difficulty, you are the unarmed hostage with no backup. Objectives are generally fun, although some can be difficult to figure out (such as blowing up three random computer terminals near a jail cell to shut down a starship’s shields). But the singleplayer features don’t stop there. While on the main menu, you can back out at any time and walk around the institute, where you’ll be able to take on a few challenges, such as ones that train you on how all the gadgets work, and target practice, which has three levels of tailored challenges for all the main weapons in the game (everything except the bonus “classic” GoldenEye guns). After you complete a campaign level, you can also play it with a friend in co-op, or play a fun bonus mode where they control random guards in the level. The multiplayer mode, which was a last minute addition for GoldenEye, has been given a massive overhaul for Perfect Dark, with a ton of new modes and features, along with a level of customisability which would still be amazing now. You can customise weapon setups, turn on one-hit kills for any game mode, and pick different bodies and heads for your character. There’s also the bots. The bots allow for games of up to 8, so you can have four people take on a team of bots, or each have one to help you. There are six levels of difficulties, from pitifully easy to cheating, plus bonus ones with different personalities. PeaceSims will try to disarm everyone and hoard weapons, PreySims specifically target weak players, VengeSims will target the last person that killed them (even if it was friendly fire), and CowardSim will run away if you have the advantage. One place where this shines is in the challenge mode – a set of 30 missions in the multiplayer mode that you can take on on your own or with friends, which makes the multiplayer side of things a significant singleplayer game on top of the main campaign and extra modes. And then there are a ton of cheats to unlock and more. Perfect Dark is a phenomenal game that builds on from its predecessor and improves upon it in every way. And I haven’t even mentioned the X-ray gun that shoots through walls. Fave Remake or remaster? The 360 port (included in Rare Replay) is great, but could do with being updated and released on more platforms. An option to have the original graphics would also be nice. Official ways to get the game. The Perfect Dark remaster can be purchased from the Xbox Store, either on its own or as part of Rare Replay. The original also available to rent via NSO.

I should give the trilogy a go. I played the GameCube one recently and thought that better made version of it could be enjoyable.

Doshin the Giant: Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front JP release: 17th May 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Param Publisher: Nintendo Original Name: Kyojin no Doshin Kaihō Sensen Chibikko Chikko Daishūgō N64 Magazine Score: N/A This expansion to Doshin the Giant is truly bizarre. Essentially, it’s just a list of challenges for the first Doshin game, but the way it’s presented, and the disk swapping itself, is really quite strange. None of the stuff in this expansion was included in the GameCube version, and as this works in a unique way for an N64 game, I’ll talk about the process of playing the game. The first thing you have to do when you launch the expansion is confirm that you have the first game. So straight away you’re told to eject the expansion disk (I’ll call it Disk 2) and insert the original Doshin the Giant disk (Disk 1). Then you have to swap back over to Disk 2 to finally boot to the menu. Here you pick the “design” of your character – all of them are black silhouettes of kids with a few coloured accessories. You get told to go to bed (you can say no but nothing happens until you say yes), where you start dreaming that you get sucked out of the window and into the Doshin Expo of 1996, with Doshin chained up in the centre of it. This is a circular area that you can walk around. There’s a heart metre that fills up from water dripping from the top of the screen. If the bar fills up, waves will crash onto the screen and you’ll wake up, watch the falling sleep animation again, and go back to the Expo. The only other button in the game – the Z button – will let you keep this meter down. Press it, and hearts will fly out of your character’s crotch in an arc. Yup, this isn’t water. It’s piss, and pissing on people and objects is how you interact with them. The billboards are the main thing you need to focus on to start with. These display colours of tribes, as well as a monument type. Urinate on the sign and you’ll be prompted to insert Disk 1, then back to Disk 2. If you don’t have the required monument, then nothing will happen (you’d need to shut down Disk 2 and play Disk 1 on its own to complete it). If you do have the required monument (thankfully there was one for the only monument I was able to build), then you get to progress. An attraction will be built in the park, of which there are 17 to complete. But that’s only the first part. After this is built, you’ll then be presented with a new challenge. This will be something like “find something” or “hop up and down a lot” – this a challenge for the original game. You’ll be prompted to insert Disk 1 and press reset, where you’ll boot up into the first game. The game plays out just like normal (incidentally, I discovered that the system clock is used, and the villages will evolve when you’re not playing, like in Animal Crossing) and I don’t think anything is different at all, and there’s nothing to remind you of the current challenge. I played through a day and wasn’t sure what to do (I thought I failed the challenge anyway), so I put disk 2 in and hit reset. Thankfully, that was the right thing to do. Not only that, but I had apparently completed the challenge (despite nothing telling me, unless it was the spoken Japanese voice). With this completed, you then get your reward. Which is a short animation from a collection of Doshin the Giant shorts called “More than Giant”, which tell the story of Doshin and how he ended up imprisoned in the Expo. These were also released on VHS and have since been uploaded to YouTube, which also includes an N64/Doshin rap. This is the biggest part of the game, although there are a few more things. Other kids will start appearing an the Expo. The ones that match your character can be recruited by doing the only action you can do. You will also encounter gangs of other kids, and need to defeat them by… yes, peeing on them. The ultimate goal of the game is to urinate on Doshin enough so he grows big enough to escape, and I think getting a larger crew helps with that. And that’s Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front, a rather unusual game. When you free Doshin, the final cutscene is your mum cleaning your bedsheets, so this seems to be some kind of explanation regarding bed wetting – that bed wetters are on a noble crusade in their dreams, or something like that. It’s certainly an interesting way to add some very simple challenges to a game. Poor Remake or remaster? I can’t see Nintendo ever re-releasing or referencing this in any way, and it was left out of the GameCube version. Challenges that unlock bonuses are a neat addition to god games, though. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Doshin the Giant: Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front

Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 JP release: 2nd May 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Media Factory Publisher: Media Factory N64 Magazine Score: N/A The first – and last – third party game on the 64DD, made by Media Factory. It was available for sale for only two weeks from Nintendo of Japan’s website, with estimated sales between 3,000 and 10,000 copies. The gameplay feels like a more refined version of Seta’s early N64 game The Glory of St Andrews: you hold the stick back to the power level you want while a dot on the golf ball pulsates, then you have to time your swing down for when the dot is at its smallest for the most accuracy. Some sources say that Seta published this, yet the logo on the box and in-game is Media Factory. It’s still possible Seta developed it, or it was based on their engine, but their logo appears nowhere in the game. One annoying thing is that your golfer then gently puts the club down before swinging. It makes the actual swing feel very detached from your actions. It’s a much harder system than the likes of Mario Golf, but isn’t too bad once you get used to it, but it never stops being a faff to use, making the entire game feel dull. Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 seemingly takes a quantity over quality approach, with a whopping 10 golf courses available at the start of the game, and a ton of tournaments and different modes to play through, including a career mode and “Network Competition”. The online features of Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 are really poorly documented, with some places stating that it had online play, online leaderboards, and the like. However, the Network Competition mode could have worked in any regular N64 game. When you open it, you’re prompted with a password entry. Entering a valid password will then load up a specific course and settings. When you’re finished, you’ll be given a password which you would then enter into an external website to submit your score – the game itself never connects online. There are tools for generating and reading these passwords, so the function can be tested out. It did, however, have one major Randnet feature: DLC. Using the Randnet disc, you could download an additional five 18 hole courses, then patch them into the game by swapping to the Japan Pro Golf Tour disk. While the DLC itself is lost, fans have have created a special N64 cartridge ROM for patching it into the game (which should even work with the real physical game on 64DD), using courses from a PS1 Seta golf game as an example, so all features of this game are fully usable. That said, every single one of the 15 courses looks identical. There’s no background details (so no visible clubhouse or landmarks), everywhere has the same trees, and you’re always looking at the same hills in the background no matter where you are. It’s just another example of the game’s quantity over quality. Poor Remake or remaster? The interesting features of this game are only interesting specifically for consoles of the time (although the Dreamcast was already doing stuff like this). The preservation efforts of fans is good enough. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Japan Pro Golf Tour 64

Not sure about the Steam version, but the Xbox version was an arcade port, which was also used in a Yakuza game.

Virtua Fighter 2 was still available on PC and Xbox until a couple of days ago. Today (two days after delisting it), they've announced that it will be an overpriced and overly long-pre-order from the scammers at Limited Run Games (Xbox only). A load of other older titles have recently been delisted on most platforms.

It's also the fourth generic western-developed dirtbike racer on the N64.

Turok: Fortnite Edition. The 3rd person footage really does look like a Fortnite game mode. Looks like Disney's Turok will no longer be the worst one. It's not like the Turok brand is super marketable, this could have been a brand new IP with very few changes.

Considering Shadow's car is the same one one from Sonic Team Racing, I think this is a console version of the mobile version of Sonic Team Racing (which removed the team aspect), perhaps with a few extra stuff.

I skimmed though a few trailers. The whole event can be summed up with "that meeting could have been an email". You wouldn't miss out on a single thing by reading a bullet pointed list.

Excitebike 64 NA release: 2nd May 2000 PAL release: 8th June 2001 JP release: 23rd June 2000 Developer: Left Field Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 90% The Excite games are known for being a bit arcadey and a bit silly, but Excitebike 64 takes a different approach, being a much more serious game, complete with sponsorship deals with makers of Motorcycles and motorcycle equipment. That said, the original Excitebike is a very tactical game, as your bike positioning is hugely important, and Excitebike 64 very much keeps like that, using the analogue stick to adjust your bike in mid-air, and timing your turbo to get the most out of big air, which helps you maintain speed while cooling off your engine. One thing I like about Excitebike 64 are the tracks, with a good amount of tracks, and a mixture between stadium-based dirt tracks and more traditional video game courses in a varied array of environments, with multiple routes, shortcuts, and the like. These courses had some difficult turns (including some on cliffs) and some very big jumps that you need to be going full pelt to make it over. I did find the game to be extremely difficult, though, and even on the low difficulties you need to master all the game’s mechanics to be able to do well against them. There’s no easing in to the game, other than the game having massive rubber banding on the two CPU racers at the back, which feels more like the game taking pity on you more than anything. Stick with it, though, and you’ll be able to progress. One place where I think Excitebike 64 shines is the “special tracks”, which sounds like it would be some silly tracks but are instead different game modes entirely. There’s one in a vast open desert where you have to race to checkpoints, forming your own path through the sand dunes; another is an extremely difficult hill climb, showing off the physics of the game. There’s also a football game and a stunt arena. Also included is the original Excitebike, as well as a 3D recreation of the original game, which is a lot of fun. Rounding things off is a decent track creator, which gives Excitebike 64 a lot to offer. I do wish that the special tracks and stuff had a bit more to them, to turn them into more fleshed out game modes with some more arenas and tracks, but they’re still a wonderful addition, and give you a lot to do in the game. Great Remake or remaster? A sequel in this style would be great. Especially with more fleshed out bonus modes. Official Ways to get the game There is no way to buy a new copy of Excitebike 64, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-Releases 2005: iQue 2016: Wii U Virtual Console 2023: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

Power Pros Baseball 2000 JP release: 28th April 2000 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Diamond Head Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: N/A Another year, another Power Pros. This time, they’ve ditched numbering the sequels in their own way, and are doing the standard sports thing of naming it after the year. It mostly feels the same, although fielding feels and looks more natural. It has the standard features, including the RPG, but one new mode (unless I managed to miss it in previous years), which is a kind of management mode where you listen to dialogue and play matches. Fine Remake or remaster? They just need to add the story/RPG stuff to the latest game and translate it. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Power Pros Baseball 2000