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NFL Blitz 2001 NA release: 14th September 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Midway Publisher: Midway N64 Magazine Score: 78% More frantic American football, but also mostly indistinguishable from the previous year’s game. It’s still enjoyable even if you have no idea what’s going on, but this game takes a safe approach, although there is the addition of a few minigames. The minigames still use the same gameplay, so they are more like little challenges. There’s one focusing on attacking, one focusing on defending, and one focusing on passing, where you have to pass to the right player. Apart from these simple minigames, it’s the same game. Fine Remake or remaster? I think there’s room for new arcade style sports games. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to play NFL Blitz 2001.

Some renders that are being claimed to be the real design:

Madden NFL 2001 NA release: 7th September 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: EA Publisher: EA N64 Magazine Score: N/A While Madden 2000 looked like it was trying to revitalise the series, Madden 2001 just comes across as a more clinical version, with the smooth white UI still used today, and less focus on the silly elements (although some of the silly teams are still here). I also suspect that the bigger focus for Madden 2001 went towards the PlayStation 2 version, with the N64 version being seen as less important. Fine Remake or remaster? The genre has evolved. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to play Madden NFL 2001.

Grabbed a few things for a project I want to do in the future. Oddly, the Circle Pad Pro was much cheaper at CEX than on eBay. I have a Zelda Wii U so it never came with Nintendo Land.

I completed it yesterday. My thoughts: The first mainline Legend of Zelda game that features Zelda herself as the main character, while also taking some inspiration from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and incorporating aspects of those into a more traditional 2D Zelda, with the style of the Link’s Awakening remake and a map heavily inspired by A Link to the Past. It’s quite an amalgamation of different Zelda concepts, but it all blends together to form a lovely package. As Link falls into a dark void after saving Zelda, Zelda teams up with a mysterious entity called Tri to try and fix these rifts that are tearing Hyrule apart. Together, they have two main powers, Echo and Bind, with the Echo system being the core concept of the game – hence it being part of the game’s title. Zelda can scan various objects and any non-boss enemy (after defeating it) to add it to her collection of Echoes. After this, she can then summon it at will, with a certain number being “active” at any one time – summon another and the earliest one you summoned will disappear. There’s no recharge timer, so which opens up a lot of possibilities for how to use them – in ways, a few too many. Hold right on the D-pad and you get a colossal list to scroll. This was one of the big problems in Tears of the Kingdom and it doesn’t get any better here. It’s potentially even worse as Echoes are the main way you interact with the environment. There’s a few ways to sort, but they really don’t help. What Echoes of Wisdom really needed was to let the player create their own lists. For example, there are a few echoes such as the Strandula, Bombfish, a Carrot and a Wind Cannon which are more or less vital items that you’ll use every so often. If you play around with Echoes, they can end up quite a way down the list, which is not only a pain, but you can also easily forget their use. I would have liked to have made separate lists for attacks, platforms and items. Once you get used to the frustrating system, though, then they really are a joy to use and you can adapt them to suit your playstyle. Some people prefer to summon a few monsters and sit back, while I like to be a bit more active. If you’re targeting an enemy, your Echoes will start off by launching an immediate attack. With the more powerful Echoes, you can keep summoning new ones and have the old one vanish after one hit, making it feel more like you’re more active in fights. But at the same time, the openness of the system is also a bit of a flaw. It’s easy to get stuck into habits (especially as experimenting can make it a pain to scroll the ones you like) and some tactics just work a bit too well. On top of powerful enemies, some platform objects can make it easy to get around obstacles and the beds let you rest and recharge your health, even in the middle of boss battles. I found myself often tanking damage as environmental hazards are quite weak and just sleeping afterwards, a tactic which renders the smoothie creation fairly useless. The dungeons in Echoes of Wisdom take a more traditional, structured approach, with a few instances where you can go through a couple of dungeons in any order. I really enjoyed the dungeons in the game, as they provided some fun puzzles that make use of the Echoes as well as the Bind move, where you can grab and object and move it as Zelda moves (or reverse it so Zelda follows the path of the object). Some of the platform challenges can be cheesed, but there are still some good ones to be found. Bosses are one area where I use another one of Zelda’s abilities: being able to turn into Link for a short time. It starts out as just using a sword, but you add a bow and bombs throughout the game. Their tricks are easy to figure out and they usually don’t last long, but they’re enjoyable. You can use this ability at any point, but outside of bosses I just preferred using Zelda’s other abilities – it seems a waste to just resort to using Link’s abilities. The overworld itself is adorable, being based on the map of A Link to the Past but much bigger, with locations from that game now being ruins. There are a lot of things to find and a lot of people to meet, and the side quests are enjoyable to complete. This is especially important because the rewards for the side quests are dreadful, usually rupees or smoothie ingredients, which aren’t really needed that much. There’s a lot of charm and character throughout every moment of Echoes of Wisdom. It’s in the graphical style, the animations, the dialogue and the many enemy designs. It’s hard not to be smiling the entire time playing the game. There are lots of little details and touches all over the place and everything just works together really well. Despite some flaws and annoyances, I had an absolutely lovely time with Echoes of Wisdom. Everything about the game is adorable and there’s just a wonderful atmosphere. The Echo system does lead to some issues with letting you break the game and resort to some easy options, but the freedom is also amazing, especially in combination with the more traditional structure of the game. If I were to change some things about the game, it would be letting players categorise Echoes themselves, and add a few more accessories and clothing as side quest rewards. Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is an immensely cute and happy game. Gameplay Overworld Dungeons Sound Style Overall

Toon Panic NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Bottom Up Publisher: Bottom Up N64 Magazine Score: N/A The most interesting thing about this prototype is that there was little information about the game itself until the prototype was found on a dev cartridge, with only this and a few bits of concept art being all we know about the game. The game itself isn’t particularly interesting – an arena-based fighting game with an isometric view, a style of game that was quite popular in the early 2000s, especially for licensed games. The prototype itself is very early – the singleplayer doesn’t work and only one multiplayer mode does. Here, you’re trying to get control of a hammer to smash your opponent’s crystal. The characters, which are all fantasy tropes (and, oddly, a few have Final Fantasy VIII artwork as a placeholder), just have a few basic moves and they all feel the same. When Bottom Up were downsizing, they possibly noticed that some similar games with licensing were approaching, and saw that this didn’t have much unique to offer. Poor Should it be finished? Not really, we saw this sort of thing plenty of times.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion NA release: 6th September 2000 PAL release: 8th September 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Acclaim Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 82% Shortly before Turok 2 came out, Half-Life released PC, with a big focus on a linear, but more cinematic, first person shooter. This was too late to have any influence on Turok 2, but it’s clear to see the influence of Half-Life on Turok 3, very much to the detriment of the series. I played the Nightdive remaster, which has some nice QoL features (and the cut gore from the original restored) but is still the same game. In the previous games, story is more of a background aspect that you won’t see much of, if you just play the game. It’s front and centre here, with voice acted cutscenes. Joshua (Turok from 2, although he was featured in the box of Turok 1 despite not being the Turok in the game) gets killed, and one of his siblings must take up the mantle. You can pick between his sister (who can jump higher and has a grappling hook) or his annoying brother (who can crawl lower and use night vision), then get thrust into the first level of stopping Oblivion in a modern day city. Here, the Half-Life influence becomes immediately clear, as this level is linear, and features NPCs (which you can briefly interact with). It’s a really good Half-Life style level with set pieces and a lot of variety, it’s just very different to the previous Turok games. Later levels in the game are much closer to what you’d expect Turok levels to look like, with no friendly NPCs to interact with, but they’re still very straightforward and linear. The game gives you objectives which, instead of being something to figure out, are just something to guide you through the levels, telling you to press the required buttons or find the keys you need to progress. Another let-down in Turok 3 are the weapons. Some weapons are exclusive to each character, and there are more “regular” weapons, with very few that feel over the top, with the coolest being a spinning blade that you throw and it flies back to you (although I’m not sure if it actually does damage on the way back). The gunfights are propped up by some more varied enemies, but using your guns isn’t as exciting. Turok 3 is still a fun game, but it’s a game that has lost its identity by chasing trends, instead of sticking to what it was good at. Fun weapons would have helped bridge the gap between the two styles a bit more, or perhaps co-op would have helped a lot (no matter who you pick, the other character tags along in cutscenes, despite never seeing them in-game). Turok managed to be its own thing in a sea of DOOM clones, so its sad to see it sacrifice so much to be more like Half-Life. Fun Remake or remaster? The Nightdive remaster does a great job at making the game more playable, although it’s lacking the multiplayer. Official ways to get the game. The remaster of Turok 3 is available on GOG, Steam, Switch, Xbox One/Series and PS3/4.

San Francisco Rush 2049 NA release: 6th September 2000 PAL release: 17th November 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Atari, Midway Publisher: Midway N64 Magazine Score: 91% The third of the Rush games on N64, heading back to San Francisco, but given a sci-fi spin with bright neon lights and fast cars with wings. It’s another arcade racer whose best mode is still the “practice” mode, where you can explore all 6 tracks, hunt down hidden coins, and discover new shortcuts. The other new addition is the wings that you can bring out while in the air. The don’t grant the same level of control as, say, Mario Kart 7/8 gliders, but are rather much more subtle, slightly influencing your trajectory. It takes a good amount of practice to be able to use it properly, but you can reach some great shortcuts if you do. On top of the stunt mode returning with multiple stunt courses, there’s also an “obstacle” mode. Here, you have to make it through a long series of brutal obstacles within five minutes. It’s incredibly tough, but also great. San Francisco Rush 2049 is a really fun racing game, but it’s a shame there aren’t that many tracks. Fun Remake or remaster? A Rush collection would be nice. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get San Francisco Rush 2049

If you combine it with the shell photos, the front is pretty much identical other than the extra capture button on the right controller. The rails stick out slightly more with the player indicator lights facing forwards. Now, the interesting thing about this photo is the optical sensor, combined with the plastic "pads" at the top and bottom of the side (one of them has the sync button). Can these be used as a mouse?

I recognised Olive Snook from Pushing Daisies, my girlfriend explained what the cameos meant.

The vehicle aspect and exploration in Experimental World is leagues better than in Tears of the Kingdom. There's a great sense of progression, similar to the feeling you get in a good Metroid game.

Mario Artist Polygon Studio JP release: 29th August 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A The last in the Mario Artist series, and the final 64DD game. That said, it goes off on a high note, as this model-making software has some interesting bonus modes. The software itself is a bit finicky, and I found it difficult to fine-tune things how I wanted. For building your own models, you select from a large array of shapes (from basic, to vehicles, animals, and a Mario model), placing them and resizing them how you want. One problem I found was that, once you deselected a shape, I couldn’t figure out how to select just that again, as it just selected the entire model. There are also a ton of advanced features for moving individual points to create more unique shapes, as well as textures and animations. You can also build up a simple scene to show off a few models, with a host of different stages to pick from, including some “animated” stages, like a fish tank where your model swims around. You can also adjust the backgrounds, lighting, and apply some effects. It’s all rather neat. Polygon Studio also has a few additional games built into it, one of these is quite significant so I’ll go into these individually. Experimental World I very nearly missed this section of the game. You need to go to the scene setup, but via the expert menu, not simple. There is a conical flask called Experimental World. This isn’t just a simple minigame, it’s a fully fledged game about building vehicles and exploring a world. One thing that confused me at first was building the vehicles, as none would work. The building tools have a few different kinds of bricks, while there are wheels and the like in the standard blocks, these won’t work in Experimental World – you need the special power blocks. You only have a small number of these to begin with. Once you’ve got this sorted and your first simple vehicle is made, you can start exploring. Sentient toast will pop up out of toasters to explain how the game works, with the first rule relating to how anything other than power bricks touching the floor will slow you down. From here, you’re free to explore at your leisure – well, as much as your vehicle will let you. You can’t get far with the basic power bricks, due to steep slopes and other obstacles blocking your progress. As you explore, you’ll find more power bricks, starting with improvements to land vehicles, before expanding into parts for sea and air vehicles. You can add multiple kinds of parts to your vehicles and then toggle between four different modes (land, sea, and air power bricks, or all at once) so you can create transforming vehicles to navigate in different ways. The power increase is gradual. For example, the first flight equipment will only let you get a small height, so you can’t reach the main mountain. Once you’ve found most parts, you’ll just about be able to reach a floating sky garden, with even more parts to find there. It’s a wonderful game, and you’ll want to test out parts when you get them. It’s like an open world Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, with greater emphasis on exploration and navigating the world, with the parts allowing you to reach new regions. However, the game is free-form, so a clever build or daring jump can help you get a powerful part early. At the end of the game, flying around is extremely easy and quick, which feels immensely rewarding, zooming around the entire map which was incredibly daunting at the start of the game. This is a brilliant game in itself, and it’s a shame that it’s not just lost in the 64DD final game, but also an easy to miss mode, hidden inside a Mario Artist game. Polygon Studio also has a few additional games, although these are the size you would expect from extra games in Mario Artist. Chicken Race Chicken is a really simple game. Tap forward to “wind up” your model and let it go, hoping it reaches the end of the track without falling off. To make it more exciting, there’s some nice camera cuts and some simple filters. For how simple it is, it’s a surprisingly nice mode, although with only three stages. Sound Blaster Sound Blaster plays out on a boom box. It loads one of eight very short games, and you have to figure out what you’re supposed to do and complete the task in a matter of seconds. Your task is to complete as many as possible before your lives run out. If this sounds familiar, that’s because this minigame of microgames was expanded and turned into a full game: WarioWare. All of the microgames here were used in WarioWare Inc., with a few alterations (they don’t use your creation, for example), so it’s interesting that this small part of Polygon studio is the prototype of a beloved series of games. Polygon Studio is a fascinating bit of kit, the core creation tools are very deep, and there’s a full game that uses those mechanics, plus two additional fun minigames. This is one that’s enjoyable for people who have no art skills. Great Remake or remaster? The Experimental World would be a fun concept for its own game. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Mario Artist: Polygon Studio

I watched Wicked Part 1 tonight. I saw the musical itself last July and enjoyed it and the movie is a really good adaptation. They don't mess around with the story (just add a few background details), instead just using the advantage of film to display amazing environments and tell some stuff in a more visual way. I was most surprised by Jeff Goldblum, who was actually acting in this and not speaking in his usual elongated voice.

NFL QB Club 2001 NA release: 24th August 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: High Voltage Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: N/A For this year’s Quarterback Club (with its shortened name), Iguana took a break and gave the game to High Voltage Software. I would guess this was so they could spend a bit more time on the GameCube (and PS2) version of the franchise, with the N64 (and Dreamcast) approaching the end of their lives. This is very close to the disappointing version from the previous year. The graphics have been lowered to help with framerate, and there’s a slightly different kind of barge, but that’s really about it. Poor Remake or remaster? The genre was better before and after this game out. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get NFL QB Club 2001

I read The Singularly today, a companion piece to the Bear McCreary album (which is wonderful). It's enjoyable although feels a bit like you enter the story slightly too late. Has a ton of great art and lots of different artists. It's about a being that dies and keeps getting resurrected in new bodies in completely different settings, only now he only gets minutes in each life before the world is destroyed instead of the lifetimes he used to have.

I enjoyed it more than 3 and 1. Although I didn't like the first film because I had friends that told me every single detail about it before I saw it, so I couldn't get into it knowing so much about it. I also have a soft spot for Resurrection because the crew in it is made up of prototype Firefly characters.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys NA release: 18th August 2000 PAL release: 6th October 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Player 1 Publisher: Titus N64 Magazine Score: 66% Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is a TV show that people tend to forget even existed, so much that I always thought that Hercules was a spin-off of the much more popular Xena: Warrior Princess, not the other way round. Xena was a show about characters that grew, while Hercules was a dude punching stuff. That said, even if you had seen the show, I’m not entirely sure you would recognise this game as being based on the show, instead of just presuming that it’s loosely based on the Hercules legend, with a face that looks loosely based on Brendan Frasier (the Hercules show might have been much better with him involved). The initial impressions of Hercules is that this is a Zelda clone. The tutorial explains the concept of a context sensitive button (although it’s much slower to change to an action than Zelda), and when you reach the first area, it just looks like a cheap Zelda game. The trees and tufts of grass (which you can’t pick up), along with the bugs and dust flowing around, look like they’re based directly on Zelda, just far lower quality. However, it doesn’t play like a Zelda game. You do have a jump button, which is hilariously bad. It’s pointlessly high and doesn’t go far, with running jump distance based on the analogue stick. This sounds nice in theory, but there’s only one point this is used, and it’s for a jump that is at the perfect maximum distance possible, and requires such a perfect “full” tilt that even official controllers on official hardware are physically incapable of performing (unless the controller is in pristine condition). It’s that bad that the only guide for the game says to use a gameshark to moon jump over it. The rest of the movement is incredibly stiff and imprecise, and the animation doesn’t fit the game at all. Even equipping items (which have no gameplay use and are just like the trading items in Zelda) is a faff, especially as there’s no reason for the game to just not use the right item if you have it in your inventory, when you want to unlock a door or talk to someone. Combat is equally tedious. There’s a punch, a backwards punch, and a few basic moves. You’ll fight human-like enemies, dog-like enemies, and a couple of bosses. The human-like enemies will have different designs, but all act the same, so there’s no variety. This game is a great example as to why Z-Targeting was so important to Zelda, as the lack of it is very noticeable, making fighting feel incredibly imprecise. Thankfully, it’s quite easy to run past enemies, as you only need to fight them when you need to grind for money. And you’ll be running past them a lot. Hercules consists of a bunch of villages, a few long corridors to connect them, and three “dungeons”. There really isn’t much to do in each place, as there are no side quests or hidden collectables, everything is part of the main quest, even stuff like “I’ve lost my cookbook” or “I’m hungry” that seem like dull side quests. Dialogue is stilted, and NPC designs are repeated heavily – to the point where there’s an entire village of identical NPCs with no names, who say that this is because their father was in the hospital, was “released too early” and that his “time ran out”, which seems to be Player 1 calling out Titus for rushed development. There’s also a needless amount of pointless backtracking. Now, backtracking is inevitable for adventure games, but this game is just ridiculous. To demonstrate, I’ll explain everything you do from completing the first village to the first dungeon. The gate leading to the hub village is locked, so you need to go back a bit to an area with vines. Hercules can’t climb vines, so you need to swap to his sidekick to get up there. You go through a corridor section to the second village. Here, the mayor has been trapped in magic light and needs a magic gem to free him. If you speak to the NPCs, one will mention something glimmering in a pond. You can’t see this glimmer, but if you stand in the right spot, a prompt will pop up to pick up a key. You’ll need this later. A girl has lost her cat, so find and return it. She’ll then bake you a pie if you have flour (which hopefully you picked up from the first village). Take this pie to a hungry woman, and she’ll let you use her secret passage to get to a chest with the stone. Return to the mayor, and he’ll give you the key you need to get past the first village. Return to Hercules and use the key on the gate (this one door keeps re-locking itself, so you need to equip the key and read the same dialogue every time), go through the corridor to the hub village. Here you need to find the one NPC that isn’t a vendor. He sells you a cow hide, which you need to return to the first village to get made into a coat (you need to trudge through the long corridors every time). Unfortunately, this coat is too small for Hercules, so you need to swap to his buddy in Hub village. Now you can take the long corridor to the snow village. None of these people will talk to you, only Hercules, with the exception of one guy selling a deer hide. I think you can guess what’s coming. Trek back to Hercules, swap over, travel to the first village, then back to the hub village before going to the snow village. Here, you need to give a letter (which you hopefully got from a random NPC in the first village) to someone to get a special torch, which will open the dungeon in the hub village. Almost the entire game is just that: meaningless random fetch quests, and absolutely nothing compelling to learn or discover. The lack of side quests means that you often have to travel between villages to do a single action. It’s like the game world and engine exist (barely), but they forgot to make the actual game. The dungeons (supposedly all labyrinths from Greek mythology) don’t fare any better. The three of them are made up of brick corridors with no puzzles – unless you count opening chests in a specific order (with the number in their sequence clearly signposted) as a puzzle. They all have the same boss – a minotaur that you beat a bit and then throw into lava. The third also has a load of traps (which are glitchy and can lead to instant death). If you die in a dungeon, you go back to your last save – and you can only save in villages. So save states are pretty much mandatory. After you defeat all three minotaurs, you are ready to face the Titan. Not as Hercules, but a centaur lady you’ve never encountered in the game before. She has a bow and arrow, which you can use to attack enemies while Z-targeting. I couldn’t hit enemies while using this, and found that hitting them from a distance (when they’re just standing still) to be the only way. After getting through some enemies in this corridor, you’re thrust straight into a boss fight with the Titan. It turns out, the poorly explained Z-targeting is required to hit a load of targets dotted around the arena. I had to look it up elsewhere. You have to hold A when there’s a red bar on the arrow meter. Then you use the analogue stick to set a green bar to the exact level (you have to be really precise) in order to make a shot. The main rule for mechanics like this is to provide a safe way to get used to it before it’s required. Here, it’s the only major boss of the game. After this, you go to Mount Olympus (with a slight detour of fighting a dragon as the centaur, she has more unique enemies than Hercules) and fight the final boss , Ares, who is a regular-human like enemy with a bigger health bar. He sends a few waves of regular enemies at you, and then copies himself into three. This game was clearly rushed towards development, but while Superman 64 had some ideas that had potential, this has absolutely nothing. Hercules isn’t broken in any way (well, other than some dodgy hit detection for traps and the jump issue), which makes how bad it is even worse in a way, as it means it’s bad entirely on the merits of the game’s design, which has nothing exciting or interesting in any way. This is the worst game Titus have published on the N64. Worst Remake or remaster? I’m sure someone clever could port this game into the Ocarina of Time engine to give it better movement and combat, but even then, there would be nothing worth playing. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Hercules: The Legendary Journey.

Sega don't seem to care about their games vanishing, they've even put brand new games exclusively behind subscriptions and haven't bothered releasing them after the exclusivity wears off. They made a Chu Chu Rocket remake that was just deleted after a short time.

There is another comedy spin-off in the works, this time live action. All we know is that it's about some people on a resort planet who find out that their lives are bring broadcast, and that Tawny Newsome (who played Mariner) is writing for it. I do wish that we had more than 10 episodes of a classic "ship exploring" show every one or two years, but do like that they're experimenting. I'm quite curious about Starfleet Academy, which should be something easy for people who don't know anything about Trek to get into, but is then also set in the Discovery far future and has The Doctor from Voyager as a main character. If you want light hearted Trek that's entertaining, then Star Trek Prodigy is well worth checking out, and gets by with the strength of the characters.

Magazines and stuff even called it Super Mario RPG 2 until it got it's Japanese name (Mario Story). The first issue of N64 Magazine I had had the headline feature of four new Mario games for 1999: Mario Party, Smash Bros, Super Mario 64 2 and Super Mario RPG 2. Sydney 2000 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Attention to Detail Publisher: EIDOS N64 Magazine Score: N/A Another finished game that ended up getting cancelled on the N64. Sydney 2000 released on PlayStation, PC, and Dreamcast, and was due to be released on N64, but cancelled at the last minute before ordering cartridges. This is very similar to International Track & Field 2000, just nowhere near as polished. The biggest issue in Sydney 2000 is the controls. In the options, there are a few different control options with different button combinations, but none of them are intuitive in any way. The default is pressing C-Down and C-Right to run (at least they’re together), then A and B for performing an action, but it feels like it should be the other way round. The brief text explaining controls for each event just refer to “power buttons” and “action buttons”, and it just seems off. With only 12 events, there’s also not a lot here, either, and the arcade mode (where you select single events with 1-4 players) is rather strange in that, once you’ve done an event, you can’t select it again unless you restart the console or re-enable it from the menu. The other main mode is Olympic mode. Here, you can improve your athletes in various events by completing training minigames – like a treadmill or sit-ups. Some again have odd controls, such as having to tap the action buttons as you’re running on the treadmill, but at least the mode is a bit more involved than just playing all the main events. The whole of Sydney 2000 feels off, from the awkward controls to the naff presentation that were both done much better in International Track & Field. Poor Should it be finished? Well, it seemingly was, and there’s not a lot to show for it.

Considering that their contracts regarding music mean that they fully own the music written for their games, Nintendo are one of the companies that can legally release all this unused music, for cancelled projects or ones that were made for finished games but never used. But, unfortunately, Nintendo are one of the companies that would never release this music, so it just sits in a vault for nobody to ever hear (although someone in the comments of the Stage music says it was re-used in Labo Vehicle Kit).

Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck NA release: 15th August 2000 PAL release: 27th October 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Paradigm Publisher: Infogrames N64 Magazine Score: 75% This is the third video game based on the 1953 Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century short film, with the previous two omitting the “Duck Dodgers” name, and just being called “Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions” on SNES and “Daffy Duck” on Game Boy. On a similar note, in Europe, the title was swapped around to the awkward sounding “Daffy Duck Starring As Duck Dodgers”. The film is a sci-fi with Looney Tunes characters playing the various parts, which again is true here, with Donald Duck playing Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin being the bad guy. Duck Dodgers would later get his own cartoon series. Duck Dodgers is a pretty decent 3D platformer. The biggest problem is the jump, which has very strange momentum for its height, meaning sometimes you need to hop on the spot a bit to jump high enough, but this is only an issue a couple of times through the game. The rest of the time, it feels precise and has a decent camera (when you swap to “free” in the options). You’ll need to collect Atoms to unlock new parts of the level to get to the final boss. In some levels, you only need to collect some, while in others you need all of them, although you can’t go back to collect the rest. One thing that Duck Dodgers does really well is capture the style of Looney Tunes. The graphics are vibrant and capture the 2D cartoon style well in 3D, with characters and animations done really well. There’s also a lot of obscure references throughout the entire game, from minor enemies to various NPCs, some of which appeared in one specific cartoon. It brings the world to life really well, and the voice acting from the cast at the time (although repetitive) helps (although there’s also text-only dialogue). Some of the powerups, like the single-use jetpack, also move in a distinctly slapstick way, while also managing to remain controllable. While its not up there with the likes of Mario and Banjo, Duck Dodgers is a surprisingly enjoyable platformer, with a good amount of charm and use of the license. It does everything that Taz Express squandered, so it’s a shame it’s not a bit longer. Fun Remake or remaster? If there were a collection of Looney Tunes games, this would be a welcome addition, especially if they improve the jump. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Duck Dodgers.

Paper Mario JP release: 11th August 2000 NA release: 5th February 2001 PAL release: 5th October 2001 Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 90% Turn-based RPGs are not my kind of game, yet Paper Mario has so much charm, that I can still adore the game. My first experience of Paper Mario was on the Wii Virtual Console, where I remember getting to a lava boss. Paper Mario was originally conceived as Super Mario RPG 2, given to Intelligent Studios after Square went off to make PlayStation games, which turned into its own thing with a paper style. This first game doesn’t do a whole lot with the paper element (it becomes much more integrated in later games), but it does give the game a unique and charming style. The battle system is kept nice and simple, with HP and damage numbers kept low, and not going off to meaningless large numbers in the thousands. You have a jump attack and hammer attack, with badges that provide stronger versions of those attacks (with different effects). It’s also very satisfying to see the attacks physically connect with enemies. Mario also has a partner with him in battle, which provides another attack per round. To help keep things simple, the partners don’t have a separate HP bar, so all enemy attacks are against Mario. But there’s also an added element of interactivity and timing. When you attack, you can perform a quick time event to boost the power of the attack – press A at the right time, tap a button quickly, hold the stick to the left and time letting go with flashing lights. It helps keep you more involved in the battles, and the various badges you unlock and equip can even grant you significantly more damage with the risk of doing no damage if you miss. But what I love about Paper Mario is everything outside the battles. Mario is on a quest to defeat Bowser, but needs the help of seven kidnapped Star Spirits. The world is built like a simple platformer (just with no instant deaths or bottomless pits) with lots of secrets to discover and puzzles to solve. Enemies roam around and walking into one triggers a battle – so no random encounters. One really nice thing is the “first strike” mechanic where if you jump on an enemy or hit it with your hammer, you’ll automatically perform the attack on them before the first round (but enemies can also do that to Mario). Each partner you recruit also has a special ability to help navigate the world. Helping this out is some great writing, with plenty of funny moments. The chapters are also extremely varied in structure, so you never know what to expect yet. Some are dialogue focused, some focused on exploring, some with big dungeons, and so on. Each new area is a wonder to explore and discover what’s going on, with a ton of unique NPCs to talk to, most based on known Mario creatures, but with specific designs and personalities, which all adds to the wonderful charm the game has. While I don’t like the style of combat in the game, Paper Mario is still a lovely experience, and knows how to keep things interesting – like the intermittent Peach sections between each chapter. There’s just an immense amount of charm and joy throughout the entire experience. Remake or remaster? This needs the same treatment as the Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake. Official Ways to get the game There is no way to buy a new copy of Paper Mario, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-releases 2007: Wii Virtual Console 2015: Wii U Virtual Console 2021: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

International Superstar Soccer 2000 NA release: 3rd August 2000 PAL release: 6th October 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 90% For the core gameplay, ISS 2000 doesn’t change much over 98, and is the same core game as the Japanese J-League Perfect Striker 2. That said, it’s a very solid football game, and you have a few additional modes, such as custom tournaments and a new set of scenarios. The big new thing for this game, though, is a brand new RPG story mode – unless you live in North America, where that feature was cut. The career mode is very much in the same style as the story mode for the Power Pros Baseball games, although now that it’s properly in English, I can understand what’s going on. You have to build up your stats and your teammate’s trust, while also balancing your condition and enthusiasm. There’s a lot of juggle, and you can only select one thing do do each week: train, recover, relax, talk to your squad, or talk to a potential love interest. To start with, you won’t be in the first team, so you won’t play any matches outside of some practice matches. Improve your stats and impress your team (don’t forget to brown nose your manager), and you’ll get to be in the first team, where you can play matches. While your character is highlighted with an arrow, you still control all players like normal. But you can’t just focus entirely on football. Training will lower your condition, causing you to rest, but also make your teammates trust you less (which is a bit odd, and more to balance the different options). You’ll need to talk to them to make friends. There are also a few women you can go on dates with, which help you stay enthusiastic about football. Your ultimate goal is to make the national team in three years. I thought things were going extremely well: I had made the first team, won every match, had quite high stats, and my girlfriend was doing well as a pianist. Then it came to naming the national squad and…I didn’t make it. Then my girlfriend dumped me and I gave up on football out of depression. Still, it’s a very fun mode and doesn’t take too long to get through, so you can try again – it was my trust levels that were the problem. So, while the core gameplay hasn’t changed much, this adds some great additional features – especially in Europe. Great Remake or remaster? A collection of these Konami sport RPGs, all translated into English, would be nice. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get ISS 2000

Taz Express PAL release: 1st August 2000 NA release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Zed Two Publisher: Infogrames N64 Magazine Score: 27% At this point in the N64’s life, more and more third party companies were moving away from the Nintendo 64, some didn’t even think that they could even recoup the cost of printing cartridges, let alone development. This is most likely why Taz Express was cancelled in North America, making it one of the few PAL exclusive N64 games. And it’s absolutely terrible. The biggest issue with Taz Express is movement. While Taz is known for just spinning on the spot and moving around with ease while spinning, that isn’t the case here. Instead, you start off slow and have to run a significant distance to build up speed. If you steer more than a few degrees, then your momentum will stop and you’ll have to start again, and even moving from one polygon to another (on a flat surface) can stop Taz dead in his tracks. The biggest issue with this is that Taz can only spin once he’s built up enough momentum, which is required to break specific walls (easily identifiable by the stretched textures). Once you do spin, you lose a lot of control, as Taz wobbles from side to side as you move forward, so you really only want to spin right before hitting a wall. The game makes this an absolute nightmare, and I ended up giving up out of frustration on a part filled with cacti and jump platforms (if you get close to one of these, Taz will decide to walk on them and you’ll be thrown to the start of the section). As the jump platforms teleport between different locations, you have to run without turning much, while also timing it for multiple things at once. You can eat food to spin sooner, but it really doesn’t help much. This game is designed specifically to annoy you. But I haven’t even talked about the main aim of the game. Taz’s wife, She-Devil, has forced him to get a job. I find it interesting that they went with a character that was last used in the cartoons in 1957, instead of tying it in to the much more recent Taz-Mania cartoon. He ends up having to deliver a solitary crate to its destination, and naturally a lot of things get in the way. While holding a crate, Taz can’t jump and he can’t run, so you must slowly walk, and a lot of the game is about clearing the way forward, returning to the crate and slowly walking to the next section. To make it more annoying, you can’t just leave the crate anywhere, as many levels have enemies that will attack the crate while it’s unattended. There are some “safe” tiles where you can store the crate, but I’ve still had crates destroyed while there. If it takes a few hits, you’ll lose a life and it will appear at the last safe tile you used, although there are plenty of levels that avoid placing these tiles, so you have to risk leaving the crate unattended. One level also ends with spilling about 30 other crates that you have to pick up, one at a time, until you get the right one. This adds zero challenge, it’s just there to frustrate you. I found one positive thing about Taz Express: after blasting back to Earth from Mars, Wile E Coyote takes the crate and you have to get it back. Here, the level is a long, mostly straight repeating road, letting you get to a very high speed. Once it gets going, it does a great job at making you feel like Road Runner. I’m not sure if that’s exactly a compliment for a game where you play as Taz, but it was the only fun level. Once you finally finish the game, there’s a plot twist: the crate was actually a present for Taz, containing a costume. This lets you play through the game again, except there are now tiles to use the costume in a minigame. You’ll have to complete the game five times to see everything, which is rather ridiculous padding that Sonic Heroes would be proud of. Some terrible games can still be entertaining to play, while Taz Express has terrible mechanics and is also immensely boring. It’s frustrating to play, and possibly the most miserable N64 game, without even taking account how poorly this uses the main character’s abilities. Worst Remake or remaster? No. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Taz Express.