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Everything posted by Cube
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Getter Love: Panda Love Unit JP release: 4th December 1998 PAL release: NA NA release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Hudson Original Name: Getter Love!!: Chō Renai Party Game Tanjō N64 Magazine Score: ?? (their score in their review box was “??”) I’m an avid board gamer and one important aspect of them to me is choice. One game mechanic that removes a lot of choice is “roll to move”: roll a dice and move that many spaces. Unfortunately, most video games that take on the board game concept use this method, which is why the game itself is more of a way to pad out time between minigames. I was surprised, then, that Getter Love appears to be a game with rather complex board game mechanics. Getter Love is a Japanese exclusive digital board game with a dating sim theme. Thankfully, there is a complete English fan translation, so I can understand the game. A group of lads have challenged themselves to get a girlfriend, with a time limit of six weeks. You do this by chatting to one of the available girls, going on dates with them and “confessing” you love for them and having them accept you – if you have enough love points. It sounds a bit skeevy, yet the game manages to not come across as such when you play it, with an almost childlike view of dating and romance of simply getting to know each other and talking. The game takes place over a maximum of 14 “days” with each having three turns: Morning, Evening and Night. You start each turn by picking a destination, and you will start travelling there. Timing is very important, as you sometimes need to get somewhere before characters, and sometimes after. Everyone moves at the same speed, but you have to uses of “speed up” and “slow down” per turn to try and time when you reach somewhere. The girls of the game have schedules while other NPCs also move around. You can get given hints as to where some will be, or they’ll phone you and let you know if they like you. Once you’ve arrived at your destination, any relevant events will happen and then you can choose an action – usually talk to a girl if one is there. You can also ask them out on a date where you can pick a time and a place – you’ll need to try and remember when other players have dates with them as you want them to be free. On top of managing your time, you’ll also need to keep track of style, stamina and money. These can be increased by going home and washing, sleeping or working. There are luck-based elements. One of the roaming NPCs will give you advice and a free card (which grants you a one-use power), while Reika will cling to you, spread lies about you and chase other girls away. There are other random events, such as a man in a superhero costume challenging you to a fight, a very aggressive cat and an older women who offers you money for something which is censored (after which, bad rumours spread about you). Of course, there are also minigames, but these are attacks on other players. There are only four of them: a quiz (about the people in the game), a basic first person shooter in a level that looks a bit like Block Fort from Mario Kart, a phone where you’re fighting for control of a microphone and a 3v1 game where three players spawn “thugs” to ruin the other person’s date. To activate these, you must be in the same place as another player and choose to battle – they’re not a common occurrence like Mario Party. Meeting up with a girl, going on dates, giving presents and choosing the right dialogue options and even talking to their friends will get you love points. If you think your points are at a high enough level, you can confess your feeling for a girl – but if you’re not ready, you’ll lose a ton of love points with them, so it isn’t a risky element as you can’t always tell if you’ll be fully accepted. Not including adaptations of actual board games, the actual mechanics behind the board game are some of the best I’ve come across in a video game. There’s a lot to analyse, plenty of choices to make and you need to adapt as you play. It’s a lot more than I expected from what some people describe as a “competitive dating sim”. Remake or remaster? The English translation makes it playable enough to try out. Still, more video games with a board game theme should have better systems like this. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Getter Love!! Panda Love Unit
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NBA Jam 99 NA release: 3rd December 1998 PAL release: December 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 83% After playing a few Basketball games on the N64, I don’t think that the proper rules of basketball translate very well to a video game. It’s focuses on blocking with any attempt to get the ball off an opponent counting as a foul. The standard mode of NBA Jam is not much fun. Luckily, NBA Jam has a second mode (called Jam) that allows for a more arcade-like experience and the ability to tackle. This mode is a lot more enjoyable, although not without major flaws. You can keep doing the same tactics again and again to score hoops, and the game seems to be aware this and comes up with its own solution to balance this: CPU players will score almost every time they try to score, while players you control will miss. A lot. Even if they’re on their own right next to the hoop. NBA Jam is a competent sports game, with a couple of extra minigames also thrown in, but it doesn’t reach the level of NBA Courtside. Remake or remaster? There are better sports games to focus on. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get NBA Jam 99
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Yeah, it doesn't look like Perfect Dark, but at the very least it looks interesting.
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Mario’s Photo Studio JP release: 2nd December 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Nintendo, Datt, Fuji, Tokyo Electron Publisher: Tokyo Electron Original Name: Mario no Photopi N64 Magazine Score: N/A Mario’s Photo Studio (or Mario no Photopi) is a photo editing software for the N64 that was exclusive to Japan. It used a special cartridge that had slots to insert SecureMedia cards, which were presumably popular with digital camera in Japan at the time. In terms of emulation, there’s no way to load photos in to the game without the actual physical cartridge (even using an EverDrive on real hardware), however a modified version has been made that lets you test out the features without opening images. The main part is editor. Here you can load images and manipulate them. You can add different layers, draw and add some renders of characters from Super Mario 64. Some of the menus also use sprites from Yoshi’s Story. Another feature lets you create a slideshow, and another saves your creations in a format to use in Fuji prating machines found in stores. There’s a minigame that cuts up an image into squares and you have to put it back together by clicking two to swap them. However, it’s not as simple as it initially looks as swapping two will also flip them, so you have to get them in the right place and the right orientation. You can use the title screen image or (if you have the actual cartridge) load your own photo in to the game. Mario’s Photo Studio is fairly basic software, built around the editing of photos to make fun postcards rather than an artist’s tool (the 64DD games are for that). If you wanted to do some basic things to photos and didn’t own a PC, this would have provided that service. Remake or remaster? This is just an interesting novelty. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Mario’s Photo Studio
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Freak Boy (Prototype) PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Zono, Burst Publisher: Virgin Interactive N64 Magazine Score: N/A Virgin Interactive really wanted to get onto Nintendo’s “Dream Team” – a group of developers that got special treatment because Nintendo were interested in their projects. However, they could not come up with anything that they thought was special enough. One member of staff had a friend that was about to pitch an idea to Sony, but Virgin managed to get him on board and sent him to pitch his idea to Nintendo, who were impressed by the concept alone that Virgin Interacted were granted “Dream Team” status. The developer, William Novak, and his team, Zono, were put to work with Burst studios to develop the game. Freak Boy was planned to be a 3D platformer with puzzle elements. It centred about Freak Boy, an alien that consisted of three parts. He could absorb powers that applied to his legs (well, tail thing), torso and then head – each power having a slightly different function depending on where it was applied. The goal was to use these powers to get through 25 different levels. For a simple example, the drill power would let Freak Boy drill downwards if applied to his feet, break through objects in front of him if applied to his torso and drill upwards if applied to his head. A shooting power up would fire projectiles in different ways based on where it was. An armour power was just protection (usually a single hit would make you lose your highest part) and a bomb power would do nothing until discarded, when it would explode. Unfortunately, internal problems at Virgin Interactive caused the project to be changed and restarted many times. As other projects at Burst got cancelled, staff were moved onto Freak Boy in what Novak called a “revolving door of producers”. Lots of interesting ideas, artwork and concepts were scrapped by various producers and the hodgepodge meant that the code became an unstable mess. Virgin Media also went though multiple owners at this stage. Eventually, Burst studios were sold to Electronic Arts (and were renamed Westwood Pacific) and Freak Boy was finally cancelled. A prototype of the game surfaced in 2015, and so the basic idea can be seen. The prototype is definitely a rough one, as you would expect form its troubled development. There are little boxes that fire out the powers for Freak Boy to collect, and he moves around and hovers in a satiating way. There are a few small areas in the prototype and a few powers to mess around with. The idea is really nice, and a large point of the game would be about using the different powers to navigate the levels. Freak Boy himself has quite a unique design. It’s a shame that the development did not go well. Should it be finished? It would be lovely for the designers to get a chance at fulfilling their original dream. It feels like it could have been a fun 3D platformer.
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I'd love a sequel, but the first definitely deserves a second chance. A few gameplay tweaks could help a lot. One thing really annoying about the original was that you could only have one Tonic, but the better roll and longer stamina bar were both extremely vital (and if you wanted any fun or cosmetic stuff, you had to turn them off), so even the small change regarding them allowing multiple tonics (which is mentioned in the Steam description) is a big plus. I kind of hope they just have an option for no stamina bar in the accessibility options. It's more of an annoyance than something that adds challenge, and the game would be much better if you could roll everywhere.
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Golden Nugget 64 NA release: 1st December 1998 JP release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Westwood Pacific Publisher: EA N64 Magazine Score: 52% I was very intrigued to see Westwood when this game booted up. Looking it up, and this is the first game developed by Burst Studios after EA purchased them and rebranded them as “Westwood Pacific” (they would later make Red Alert 2). This is a casino game based on an actual casino, and you can even have a tour of the hotel with a slideshow of a whopping six images. This is a collection of casino minigames, starting with Blackjack, which N64 magazine says is more known in the UK as pontoon (looking it up, apparently pontoon is very similar but completely unrelated – I knew it as Twenty-One), although that’s definitely changed now. It’s not relevant to the game itself, but I found it interesting. Personally, my favourite version of “draw cards and try to get to 21” is Pazaak. You register at the casino and start with $1000 to gamble. Outside the games themselves, there’s nothing to unlock or spend money on. You pick your game and play for as long as you like, or until you run out of money (although you can just re-register to reset to $1000). You can’t walk though the casino, you just pick a game and it loads an individual table. Random names are given to your opponents. The games work well, but there isn’t much to them, all simple and mostly just choosing things at random. The pure luck ones I feel are the worst, just place your chips and watch the roulette or wall wheel spin. There’s no atmosphere or excitement of winning or losing due to the nature of this being a game (and even more so by money not having any use in it). The same with the slot machines – I just personally don’t get why people would enjoy digital versions (although if they can somehow satisfy their addiction with a digital version that doesn’t use microtransactions, then I suppose that’s a good use). The best game by far is Texas-Hold-Em. Golden Nugget doesn’t do anything special with it, it’s just an acceptable version. Of course, this one is limited to singleplayer (an option to hide cards and let players tell others to look away and press a button to see them would have been nice), the same applies to the other poker variants – which means the actual competitive games aren’t available in multiplayer, just the ones where you’re all betting individually. When this came out, the main novelty of the game was that the games took place on 3D tables, which isn’t really needed to enjoy them anyway. They could have perhaps set it apart by having it be a casino you could explore (has that been done yet? The same idea could also be used for seaside Arcade-style minigame collections, where you can join a lobby and move between games while your friends play something else there), but this is just a basic minigame collection of regular casino games. Remake or remaster? There are better collections – Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics has the best games from this and much more variety. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Golden Nugget 64.
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Bust-A-Move 3 DX PAL release: November 1998 JP release: 5th March 1999 NA release: 30th April 1999 Developer: Taito Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 82% Known as Bust-A-Move 99 in the USA and Puzzle Bobble 64 in Japan, this is a home console port of the third Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move game. Like Bust-A-Move 2, I still had issued telling the colour apart, as while they use shapes, they don’t stay still. The rules have been tweaked a little bit, and there are two options: 2.5 and Normal. These change which kind of special bubbles appear and how the bubbles move down the screen. The various modes from the previous game returns, along with some new ones. There’s a challenge mode which gives you specific objectives before you move onto the next match, a mode where you battle endless opponents and a create-your-own mode where you can create your own puzzles – or play one of the 1025 submitted by fans. This version also has a brand new four player mode, although N64 magazine said that it was difficult to play on most TVs due to how tiny everything was. Remake or remaster? All the options in a new game would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Bust-A-Move 3 DX
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Nightmare Creatures NA release: November 1998 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Kalisto Publisher: Activision N64 Magazine Score: 57% Nightmare Creatures is a port of an earlier PlayStation title that really is a bit too authentic of a port. When this was released on the N64, it already felt very dated and really needed improvements. It’s a horror slash-’em-up set in 1834 in London. You play as one of two characters, neither of which have any backstory, personality or dialogue in the game (if you want to know, it’s in the manual). The story itself is told by little snippets of text at the start of each level that scrolls through part of the screen. On some levels, including the starting level, there are enemies at the start and they’ll attack you as this text scrolls past. The gist of it is that there’s an evil man called Crowley that runs away from you the entire game and a load of monsters in your way. The controls of Nightmare Creatures are really poorly implemented tank controls, where you turn left and right to turn, forwards to go forwards and backward to go backwards. The camera makes matters worse as it’s usually behind your character, but tries to be at an angle for fights, and then some areas have their own camera angles – the first boss has a high up camera that really messes with your brain when trying to move. To make matters worse, the game has platforming sections where missing a jump means instant death, as your character can’t swim, so water means instant death – apart from a few sections where the water is shallow and you have to walk through it (the shallow water looks no different from instant death water). This control scheme may have felt more natural on a D-pad (the original came out before the PS1 got analogue sticks), but it feels very wrong on an analogue stick. The levels themselves are also mostly bland, and it’s easy to get lost due to everywhere looking the same, as well as the black “fog” to hide loading. They’re also mainly long corridors with a few optional areas and some hidden switches (many of which blend into the walls). Missing switches can also be very deadly, due to the “adrenaline bar”. The manual explains that a virus is turning people into monsters, and the hero you play as is infective. Adrenaline keeps it at bay, and you keep this topped up by killing monsters. If you take too long before killing monsters, your health will start to drain. If you didn’t read the manual, then you’ll just start losing health with no warning (the mechanic isn’t explained in the game). This means that if you kill all the enemies but need to hint for a switch you missed, you’ll likely die multiple times. Supposedly this was a last minute addition to “fix” an issue where a player could potentially run past all the enemies. I really can’t blame anyone for running past the enemies, either. The combat is tedious. The game lets you mix things up with lots of combos, items and spells to use, but combos rarely work and once you hit an enemy, their recoil means you can just mash the attack button until they die. That said, I did end up using cheats to see more of the game and I couldn’t defeat the final boss as you can only harm him with combos, and seemingly the basic B-B-B one doesn’t count. The story in the manual paints a setting that could make for a really good game, but none of it is translated into the game. Remake or remaster? I think a new game in a similar setting could be a nice idea. The Order 1886 did something similar (but with a more steampunk vibe). Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Nightmare Creatures
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Yeah, more RPG games with stuff other than battling would be great. NHL Breakaway 99 NA release: 30th November 1998 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 64% NHL Breakaway 98 was a very bland ice hockey game that paled in comparison to Wayne Gretzky – plenty of room for improvement, then. The second game updated the roster and…that’s it. This makes no effort to improve upon the first, and so little has changed that you can even select the original roster in the menu. Remake or remaster? There are better sports games to focus on. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get NHL Breakaway 99
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Legend of the River King 64 JP release: 27th November 1998 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Pack-In-Video Publisher: Victor Interactive Original Name: Nushi Tsuri 64 N64 Magazine Score: 56% Nushi Tsuri is a series of fishing RPGs that were released between 1990 and 2007. A few games have received western releases under the name Legend of the River King on the Game Boy and Game Boy Colour. Some of the later games were called River King in North America, but Harvest Fishing in Europe, to try and market it as a Harvest Moon spin-off (the mainline games of both franchises were made by Marvelous, but River King was first). While the N64 version of Legend of the River King was marketed for a western release at some point, it ended up getting cancelled, so we’re left with a Japan-only game, which heavily relies on Japanese text. Google Lens is fine for rough translations, but is unfortunately not quite up to the task for specifics like translating fish names and other technical things like baits and lures. Still, I tried out what I could. ] The game is presented as a top down 2D RPG and it looks lovely in motion, especially the water. Movement is surprisingly unrestrictive as it seems you can climb up any surface and swim through the water – there is one section where you’re blocked that’s part of a lengthy quest to reach the main objectives. The setting seems to be based on the British countryside (my girlfriend even commented on the look without seeing the red post box or football field), but with Japanese buildings. The game stars a large family, and you get to choose which one to play as. While most of the game is the same for each, they have their own end goals. The girl I picked wanted to find a rare fish that uses a nest because it’s something her fiancé wanted to see. Along the way, you need to hone your skills by catching fish in order to get better equipment and win tournaments. While the game is pretended in a cute and lovely 2D format, it changes completely once you get a bite on your rod. You are presented with a 3D view of the very nicely detailed fish. You need to use the analogue stick to make the fish think that the bait is real (it’s very difficult to figure out the tight motion) and use the a button to reel in. If the rod starts to strain, you’ll feel a rumble and you’ll need to let go until you see enough slack on the line to start reeling in again. I found the fishing to be very difficult, even after reading tips online, and still struggled with the little indoor fishing that lets you fish as much as you want without using resources. You need to keep your eye on both your supplies and the quality of your rod. Exploring the areas of the game (that I could access to – I never got the bridge repaired to access the blocked off areas), I did manage to find an old man that talked about the fish my character was after, as he laments that the species is now incredibly rare due to pollution. I did attempt to fish in this area on the off chance that I would find one, but I couldn’t even get bite, even trying lots of different bait. I imagine that the information needed to figure out what kinds of rods, lures and baits you need to use in different locations is somewhere, but as Google isn’t great at translating those kinds of things, it’s lost on me, so this was kind of the end of my adventure. I did manage to catch a few fish, and you fill out an encyclopaedia with information – and you can make the model of the fish move its mouth by pressing A, so I had fun making it sing along to the tune of the music. There is also more than just fishing. Wildlife will also attack you, either form you walking into them on the map or random encounters. Everything – seagulls, mice, eagles, cats, starfish – is out to get you, and you have three options: placate them with food, attack them or run away. On top of catching fish, you also collect bugs and flowers. With bugs, you find them on the map and use your net to start the “battle” phase where you use a net or your bare hands to collect the bugs in a first person view. Cutting flowers is a bit more simple. ] Legend of the River King seems like a nice and relaxing game, and it’s a shame that the language barrier makes it difficult to fully play and enjoy. I do really like this kind of RPG where the “combat” is something that isn’t a battle system, such as the handheld Mario Golf and Tennis games. Even though I couldn’t get very far in the game, I enjoyed the time I spent with it. Remake or remaster? It would be nice to see an English translation of this game – and perhaps a Story of Seasons fishing game. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Legend of the River King 64
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Milo’s Astro Lanes NA release: 24th November 1998 PAL release: 25th July 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Player 1 Publisher: Crave (NA), Interplay (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 38% Milo’s Astro Lanes sounds like a fun concept. Take the quick and speedy game of bowling, add some elements of the just as nippy mini golf, add some power ups and mix it all in a retro sci-fi aesthetic. I also remember seeing this game a lot in advertising in N64 Magazine. Sadly, Milo’s Astro Lanes squanders the potential for fun. The biggest issue with Milo’s Astro Lanes is how slow it is. It takes far too long for the ball to reach the pins, something that was likely decided due to how the power ups work. The power ups can make your ball faster, stronger, larger or other tings like creating two clones. When it’s not your turn, however, you can use these power ups against your opponent, which hinders them by slowing down or shrinking their ball. I think the intention is that there was time for a back and forth battle of power ups, but in reality, you’re best off waiting until the final moments anyway. As a result, the game is extremely slow, and very boring as a result. One aspect I was expecting the game to do well with was the silly animations you get when bowling, mocking you for causing a split and fun things for spares and strikes. To my surprise, there’s pretty much nothing. You don’t even get the word “STRIKE” – just some incoherent mumbling (due to bad audio quality, it’s supposed to be actual words) and a little bit of confetti. It makes an already boring experience feel extremely lifeless. The initial concept of Milo’s Astro Lanes is good – with the lanes getting more difficult as you progress, but it’s not enjoyable to play at all. Remake or remaster? The concept would be nice to see attempted again – perhaps with a few sports instead of one, but done from scratch. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Milo’s Astro Lanes.
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I personally dislike lives systems in games, I like replaying parts on my own terms rather than having an arbitrary amount of attempts before redoing earlier parts. I think Super Mario 64 is an early example of a truly pointless lives system. When you lose a life, you get booted out of the level and lose all your progress. It's quite a severe punishment, but it works for the game. If you lose all your lives, the punishment is just trivial: you get booted out of the game and have to walk through the hub to the level. It's a big example of the "waste your time" side of things as that's all there it, you don't have to redo any difficult sections, it's just walking (there are a very small number or exceptions). One interesting example is Sonic Unleashed. If you hit a checkpoint and lose a life, you start at the checkpoint. Lose all lives, you start at the beginning of the level. The problem is the whole system is easily trivialised as it's immensely easy to build up your lives by collecting them in the hub worlds. The are a few sections where the game puts easy lives before difficult sections (including one right after a checkpoint that's impossible miss). So the system just feels pointless, like many games where you can redo an earlier level to build up lives. That's the HD version, though. On the Wii, things get smarter: your lives aren't shared across the game, but rather just within each level. You start each level with three lives, so you just can't grind easy lives. Instead, you can complete optional stuff to up your starting lives. It's a really good system for lives in video games.
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Top Gear Overdrive NA release: 23rd November 1998 PAL release: 25th November 1998 JP release: 19th March 1999 Developer: Snowblind Publisher: Kemco N64 Magazine Score: 79% The Top Gear series of racing games is a bit like Need For Speed in terms of how it can cover a variety of different racing game styles. While Top Gear Rally was a more simulation-based racing game, this is more on the arcade side of things – and unfortunately that includes having you starting in last place with all the other racers already racing. The racing itself is quite smooth, especially once you earn cash to upgrade your car. There’s a good sense of speed, but the cars also feels a bit too light an fragile, with your car flying over a turn or exploding when grazing a wall. Parts of some objects can be destroyed, but other things can be smashed through and it isn’t always clear. There’s a good variety of cars, including some fun silly designs to unlock, and they’re all really nicely detailed, including also having a basic interior with see-through windows. The tracks also look nice, with detailed “skybox” backgrounds and a good amount of detail – plus zero pop-in. It’s unfortunate, then, that this has a similar problem to a lot of other racing games on the N64: the number of tracks, with five main ones and one bonus track. Overdrive does take the same “seasons” approach as Top Gear Rally, where you play through a few courses to complete a “season”, then play through variants (mainly different weather) before reaching the “new” course of that season – eventually adding mirrored versions into the mix. Top Gear Overdrive is a good racing game, but there’s nothing particularly special or spectacular about it. Remake or remaster? As mentioned previously, a Top Gear collection would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Top Gear Overdrive
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Fox Sports College Hoops ’99 NA release: 23rd November 1998 JP release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Z-Axis Publisher: Fox Sports N64 Magazine Score: 25% Instead of opting for the fully professional basketball teams, Fox Sports instead went to the various colleges and universities to include their teams (but the players are all fictional). I personally find college sports being watched nationwide to be a bit of an odd thing, but it’s very popular in America. College Hoops starts out with some extremely epic menu music, which is far too good for the game. Once you get past the menu and into the game, the only good part of the game – that music – is completely over and all you’re left with is the mess. The game itself is hideous, each player looks out of proportion in a different way and you have an ugly wall of a crowd to look at. The gameplay doesn’t fare much better as it’s slow and unresponsive. Defending barely works and anything I tried resulted in a foul, I had much better luck by simply not taking control of any of the defending players. You can hold the Z button to bring up button prompts to throw the ball to specific players, but when none of them get into good positions, the ability is wasted. I really struggled to get the ball through the hoop, with it bouncing so often or the opposing players forming a brick wall, so I could completely trashed. College Hoops is definitely one of the worst sports games on the N64 so far. Remake or remaster? This adds nothing to the genre. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Fox Sports College Hoops
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I called out my local Tory MP candidate on social media and he blocked me instead of responding (it was a claim that we'll be saving money on energy this year due to lower rates when trustworthy people have stated that it's going up even more in the winter). One day into the campaign is a new record. In Wales, the Tory strategy seems to be moaning about devolved stuff that has nothing to do with the election. They're not even trying to state how they plan on improving anything. The only thing they can offer is removing options for 18 years olds, making it much worse for poorer teenagers. It's almost as if they don't plan on winning this election but they know it will take longer than one term to sort out their mess. So their moaning about Labour is more preparation for the next so they can claim "we told you so". I'm not a fan of how Labour have changed in the past few years, though, but at the moment they seem to be the only option. Especially in Wales, the other parties have some significant policies that I can't vote for.
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time JP release: 21th November 1998 NA release: 23rd November 1998 PAL release: 11th December 1998 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 98% Often heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, I really don’t need to go into great detail as to what makes Ocarina of Time so amazing, as it provided one of the first epic adventures in 3D in a way that felt real. For this, I played a fan made PC port of the game that is a very faithful recreation. I used a few enhancements, such as camera control and the ability to assign items to the D-pad, plus a texture pack which added detail but still kept the feel of the N64 original. The game starts out in Kokiri Forest, which serves as a tutorial hub that manages to not feel like a tutorial. This is a small playground that lets you play with aspects of the game’s control and targeting systems, the context sensitive A-button, but all the lessons are completely optional and are for the player to find. This kind of discovery was a great feeling as a kid, and the starting area is designed in such a way that if you know what you’re doing, you can very quickly grab your sword and shield and get on with the game. I feel like Kokiri Forest is overlooked for how well it introduces Ocarina of Time, as a lot of the stuff is now just second nature in video games, but Ocarina had to teach everything from scratch. Even simple things like pots respawning to collect more rupees is taught by the rarity of rupees and the need to buy the Deku Shield, and the little pond areas introduce how jumping is done in the game. Dungeons are a big part of Ocarina of Time, and the game eases you into them with the Deku Tree, while also showing off the verticality possible thanks to the N64’s power. There are a few little tricks like trapping you in the slingshot room until you use it. Unfortunately, Navi does decide to butt in by explaining specific actions like moving blocks and diving, running the freedom of the starting village, but as you the action for interacting with a block changes based on if you’re still and moving, I can see people missing one of the actions and getting stuck. The game directs you upwards to perform a big jump to get to the lower areas of the tree, and uses deku sticks to activate torches and remove obstacles, showing the kind of ways that you can interact with in the game. After the Deku Tree, we get a significant gap until the next dungeon as the game opens up to a large expansive world, a technique still used in games today. You’ll be directed towards the castle by a really annoying owl (with confusing did you not hear me or did you not not hear me? yes or no questions), but the size of Hyrule Field is specifically designed that (without knowing the way and rolling to move faster) night will fall, a way to introduce how time works in the game, and how it moves in certain areas. Castle Town is filled with NPCs to talk to and side quests that are hinted at for you to start later on – although first is the obligatory stealth section, but with a fixed camera to make it easier (was Ocarina of Time the start of the forced stealth section trend?), where you’ll meet Zelda as you learn the quest of the game. Once the “main” quest starts, you need to start figuring out things yourself, with the first big hurdle figuring out what to actually do in Goron City, which is likely where a lot of kids got stuck for a while, as the solution lies in revisiting somewhere across the map. Dodongo’s Cavern waits to introduce its name until you reach the main central room. Here you can see a lot of paths, both on the current level and upstairs, but this guides you far less than the deku tree as you have to figure out how to navigate the dungeon yourself. It also presents an added danger as your deku shield can be destroyed by fire enemies – you are no longer in a kid’s world, and this dungeon does a great job at portraying that. After this, you have access to even more of the world, as you’re directed to Zora’s Domain. You also get introduced to magic beans, which let you plant in patches of soft dirt – they’ll take years to grow, so this is the first in-game hint as to what will happen later on. Zora’s Domain also teaches you about bottles (although if you do side missions, you can get some before here), which are used to collect certain items for later on, as well as letting you carry a fairy to revive Link. You also need to go to Lake Hylia, where you can find the wonderful fishing minigame. After solving the puzzle to get inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, you enter the next dungeon with pulsating walls and dangerous electric jellyfish. This one is very difficult to navigate first time round, and you have to use Ruto to activate switches as she accompanies you for part of this dungeon – a concept revisited in Wind Waker. I like the style of this dungeon, but it’s definitely my least favourite. With all three spiritual stones in hand, you head to the Temple of Time – grabbing the Ocarina of Time from the fleeing Princess Zelda along the way as Link gets hold of the Master Sword, only to wake up after 7 years in slumber. He’s now an adult, and the world outside is much darker, with a destroyed Hyrule Market overrun by Zombies. A mysterious new character, Shiek, is on hand to guide Link towards the temples he needs to visit to awaken the sages of the land. You get directed to Kakariko Village, where you need to use clues given by NPCs to find one of the coolest objects in the game – the hookshot. The Forest Temple is the first dungeon as an adult, and has some very unnerving music (the music is amazing across the entire game) and some really neat ideas of manipulating the dungeon itself – something else that would be revisited in more detail in future Zelda games. Here you get the adult equivalent of the slingshot, the bow and arrow. It’s a very unnerving dungeon, and ends with a practice for the final boss of the game. You can do the temples in different orders, although some optional areas may be locked off – the map for the fire temple, for example, needs the bow. The fire temple also needs a special tunic that you need to get first (although people have completed the dungeon without it), here you get the Megaton Hammer, which is used to activate rusty switches and smash harder rocks, before fighting a fire-breathing dragon. I like to use the Giant’s Knife here, which is a powerful sword that can only last a few hits (a permanent one is a reward for one of the longer side quests of the game). The Water Temple has a really bad reputation, and I can see why. It’s not as outrageously hard as its reputation, but it does a few things differently. The biggest difference is how it treats small keys. Usually they’re on the way to close to the locked door they’re needed for, but the Water Temple is a bit more open ended, with keys hidden all over the place. One in particular (under the central room) is very easy to miss. You also need to change the water level a lot, so exploring it can be a faff. Lastly, the iron boots needed to be constantly equipped and removed, and could only be done so from the pause menu (luckily the version I played, like the 3DS version, lets you assign it to an item button). Eventually, you’ll be unable to progress as adult Link and will have to return to the past as child Link – something alluded to by the man in the Windmill complaining about someone playing a song on the ocarina in the past (and then teaching you the song, which you will then teach him in the past). The game ups the horror vibes a lot and, if you wait until this point to go back in time and head to the well, you’ll also feel much more vulnerable due to not having access to a lot of your items. This is to get the Lens of Truth, needed for the Shadow Temple (technically you can do it without, but you need to know the game extremely well). With lots of creepy vibes and invisible enemies and objects, the Shadow Temple really freaked me out as a kid – to the point that I backed out after getting the hover boots and did the Spirit Temple, and I even stopped playing the game, only returning after completing Majora’s Mask years later. It seems really tame now as I know what to expect, but the unknown really was too much for me back then. This temple – and the next – are much more linear, although with really fun bosses. The Spirit Temple is fascinating as it needs to be completed in two parts – one half as a kid and the other as an adult. You get a really nice shield which is used to reflect light and certain attacks and, like a few other items from the adult dungeons, it’s a shame it doesn’t have much use elsewhere in the game. After this, you then have access to the final dungeon, which consists of mini challenges loosely based on the various temples, before you take on Ganondorf. Of course, there are still side quests to complete. The hunt for heart pieces is the most significant kind of collectible, but the trading and mask side quests are also great. Hidden throughout the land are also 100 Gold Skulltulas, many of which only appear at night. The rewards for the first 50 are pretty good: bigger wallets, a heart piece and a special stone that rumbles when you’re near a secret. The final 50 only grants you 200 rupees which, while you can collect it multiple times, is completely pointless at that point in the game as you’ll spend most of the game with a full wallet anyway. A gold coloured tunic would have been a better option (perhaps it can have protection for fire and water so you don’t need to change tunics). The lack of things to use money for is probably one of the bigger weaknesses of the game. The dungeons and overworld have bonus puzzles, most leading to money or the Gold Skulltulas. It feels like a waste when the reward you get is completely pointless, but that’s only a minor issue. Ocarina of Time is still a wonderful game. The world does feel a bit small by today’s standards, but for its time, it was phenomenal, and in many ways, Ocarina of Time showed how 3D adventures could and should be done. It’s an important piece of video game history that is still great to play today. Remake or remaster? Something similar to what the fan PC port offers would be lovely for Ocarina of Time, combined with some of the enhancements of the 3DS version. Official Ways to get the game There is no way to buy a new copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.
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I only really want a few small bits form this (mainly the Ocarina figures and equipment). I hope there will be some smaller sets.
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Magical Tetris Challenge JP release: 20th November 1998 NA release: 14th January 1999 PAL release: September 1999 Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom (JP/NA), Activision (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 51% One week after the previous Tetris game comes another officially licensed Tetris game – this one starring Mickey Mouse, even though the title surprisingly lacks any mention of either Mikey or Disney. This isn’t just a regular Tetris game (although standard Tetris is an option), but takes on more of a Puyo Puyo format as you battle an opponent. As you clear lines, you’ll send “bad blocks” to opponent, which can be countered by them quickly clearing a line, going back and forth until left alone for long enough. These will then cause non-standard Tetris pieces to appear, consisting of more than 4 blocks. These are awkward to place, with some being large squares, to mess you up. However, it’s not all bad. Filling up your power bar will erase everything above a certain line, while doing well will reward you with a straight 5 block piece, which can be used to score a “Pentris” by clearing 5 lines at once. It’s a hectic back and forth, but one I quite enjoy. You get to play the story from the view of Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy, with Tetris used to resolve disputes. These are done on “Tetris machines” which fit into the classic Mikey aesthetic surprisingly well, with nice animation on the top and characters operating the controls. On top of regular Tetris, you can also play “Upside Tetris” (which is one of the letter “Types” in other Tetris games) where blocks will appear at the bottom as you play. I can definitely see why some people wouldn’t be keen on this version of Tetris, due to all the awkward blocks, but I personally like it a lot. Remake or remaster? The Magical Tetris mode would be nice to see in a newer version of Tetris. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Magical Tetris Challenge
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Resident Evil may be getting remade again...
Cube replied to CrowingJoe79's topic in General Gaming Discussion
It was a fairly poor AI upscale with some bad lighting added, so it probably didn't cost much to make. I had a look at both as I'm planning a playthough of GameCube games and I'm opting to play the GameCube version due to nicer looking graphics. Anyway, it looks like the next two remakes will be Zero and Code Veronica. https://www.ign.com/articles/resident-evil-zero-and-code-veronica-remakes-reportedly-in-the-works-at-capcom -
Extreme G 2 NA release: 17th November 1998 PAL release: 4th December 1998 JP release: 10th September 1999 Developer: Probe Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 85% Racing sequels typically take the same formula, refine it and have a bunch of new tracks, but XG2 feels a lot further apart from its predecessor than I expected. While I can easily see people preferring this, the differences are not ones I like. The biggest ones are due to the tracks. The originals were colourful, but also fairly simple, allowing you to remain full speed throughout most of the game. In XG2, they’re very dull in colour and work against the speed of the game, requiring a lot more care to navigate. Contrasting the lack of colour are the extremely out of place billboard for Diesel and Storm – with Storm even getting a permanent place as the lap timer on the HUD. They really don’t gel with the style of the game, and there are far too many of them. There is a a good umber of levels this time, and there are different variants that take different routes – annoyingly, though, the barriers blocking the routes used in the different versions are incredibly gaudy and, like the billboards, detract from the tracks. The game is still a lot of fun, with an immense sense of speed when the game lets you, yet it feels a bit more clunky from the original and there’s just something that feels missing that I can’t quite figure out. The preference of the first or second game is entirely down to each person, though, as some of the things I disliked will be reasons that others enjoyed this one more. Remake or remaster? A remastered Extreme G collection would be nice. Official ways to get the game. Extreme G 2 is available on Steam, however, this is a re-release of the old PC version, with minute support for modern systems. Controllers don’t work well with it, and this version of the game lacks any kind of analogue movement. It also has a different soundtrack.
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Glover NA release: 16th November 1998 PAL release: 24th November 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Interactive Studios Publisher: Hasbro N64 Magazine Score: 83% I have quite fond memories of Glover from when I was a kid, but upon trying to replay it, I discovered that I barely saw anything in the game – just the initial level. I wasn’t prepared for just how difficult this game is, and not entirely for the right reasons. In Glover, you play a wizard’s glove as he tries to restore the magic crystals that were protecting the kingdom, turning them into balls to protect them. You have to get a crystal to the end of each world, trying not to lose or break it along the way. Glover has a lot of charm going for it. The controls are unique and fiddly, as you bounce the ball to gain height, throwing and slapping it to move it around the level. On top of this, you can transform the ball though a few different types for different attributes. If the game’s levels worked in conjunction with Glover’s moveset, it could be a great game. Instead, once you get past the stating level, the game tries to work against you as much as possible, filled with bottomless pits, awkward platforming, unclear ways to progress and just a general sense that the game wants you to suffer. This is made even worse by the game’s camera, which throws you off narrow platforms by suddenly moving to try and give you a better view. I ended up using a level select cheat to see as much of the game as I could, and all levels from the second onwards are like this. On top of getting to the end of the level, there are also collectibles to find to unlock some bonus levels, such as a Frogger clone which controls horribly. A lot of these are found on branching paths, so if you’re just trying to find the exit, you can end up wasting your time on the wrong route. The concept of the Glover is great, and there’s a lot of charm to the simple world of the game. Unfortunately, the platforming feels imprecise and the level design hinders the experience rather than compliments it. It’s a great memory, but one of those best left as memory. Remake or remaster? Glover needs a bit more. He needs a new attempt at the game, taking the concept and building something completely new from it. Such a game was very far into development before being cancelled, but I’ll be looking at that in a lot more detail separately. Official ways to get the game. Glover is available on Steam, however this Piko Interactive port gives you the option of playing the inferior PlayStation version in a badly configured emulator, or an incredibly broken PC port. Definitely avoid this version. There's also an official emulation of the N64 version on Evercade, although without any analogue control. Finally, Glover is one of four ROMs that are officially sold on the EverDrive64 X7 at StoneAgeGamer.
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Tetris 64 JP release: 13th November 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Amtex Publisher: Seta N64 Magazine Score: 42% Tetris 64 is Tetris on the Nintendo 64. The main mode is basic Tetris. No bells or whistles, just a slideshow on in the background and acceptable background music. The thing is, everyone already had Tetris on the Game Boy, which was portable so much easier to just play a round and it had the amazing classic Tetris music. There are a few options in the regular mode, such as one where rows of bricks come up from the bottom as time goes on, so it does a decent job, but it has a few more, one silly and one rather interesting. The silly one is Giga Tetris, where you have to place a mixture of giant tetrominos (one “block” is the same as a regular 2×2 tetromino). The variation is not particularly good, and it doesn’t feel like you can do that much planning. The interesting mode is unfortunately one that I can’t play as it requires an additional piece of the hardware. You know the infamous Wii Vitality Sensor that never released? And how people said that it could be used for horror games or something like Tetris? Well, the latter already happened on the N64, using the Bio Sensor that plugged into the N64 controller and clipped onto your ear to read your heartrate. Despite how interesting this sounds, N64 Magazine stated that they didn’t notice much different in this mode. The Bio Sensor wasn’t included with the game, yet it was the only game it was compatible with. Remake or remaster? There are better Tetris games. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Tetris 64.
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Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding NA release: 11th November 1998 JP release: 18th December 1998 PAL release: 12th March 1999 Developer: Boss Game Studios Publisher: Midway (NA), Kemco (JP, PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 60% The first emulator I booted Twisted Edge in didn’t have the sound working. After moving to one that worked better, I regretted it due to the game’s utterly dreadful music. I even checked YouTube videos just to make sure what I was hearing wasn’t an emulator issue, but it sounded just as terrible. Twisted Edge is a snowboarding racing game similar to 1080° Snowboarding, but massively lacking the kind of polish that Nintendo put on their games. The biggest weakness of Twisted Edge are the tracks. They all look too close to each other and mostly feel the same. There are a few short sections that are noticeable, such as a bridge and the inside of a pipe, but at the end of the game I would have guessed that there were only three tracks (with some slightly longer versions), but it turned out I raced on seven. The tracks are also very boring, mostly wide open and not much to interact with. The inside of the pipe I mentioned? Whenever you see one of those, your first instinct is to do all loop, but the side is essentially a flat wall and you’ll fall over if you get too close. Your recovery speed is also the main difficulty of the game. Fall over and it takes ages to reach top speed (which still feels slow). This also counts if an opponent touches you. When the main movement is quite dull, having to restart due to one mistake (or even an opponent flying into the back of you) is just frustrating. The best part of the game so far is the game’s announcer saying the odd move names like “tuna salad” or “stale fish air”. Remake or remaster? There’s nothing interesting enough in this game to re-do. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding
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But it has so many other important N64 characters: Wario, Lakitu, Kirby, Virus, Charizard, GoldenEye Guy and Zelda.