Cube

Mario Party 2 JP release: 17th December 1999 NA release: 24th January 2000 PAL release: 13th October 2000 Developer: Hudson Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 87% I’m really not the best person to talk about Mario Party. I really personally dislike the board game parts of it, especially the roll and move aspect. That said, I can clearly see that Mario Party 2 is much improved from the first game in many areas. For the boards, there is a bit more interactivity and routes to take, plus item shops so you can buy items to boost future turns. One thing I did find odd is that the Stars seem to be placed much closer to players, especially at the start of the game. One new addition to the boards that I hated was the Koopa Bank. If you move past the space, you lose five coins, and if you land directly on it, you get all the coins. What I particularly disliked was that it was generally plonked right at the start, so people will tend to lose coins on their first turn. One really nice touch, however, are the costumes. For each board (except the final, unlockable one), characters will wear outfits that matches the theme of the board – it’s a shame this lovely feature never cropped up again. What Mario Party 2 excels in, though, is minigames. The minigames involving spinning the stick have been completely removed, while some of the better games from the first game make a return; sometimes with some visual or mechanical changes, sometimes exactly the same. One nice touch is that some minigames are also altered for the singleplayer minigame mode. That said, a few of the duller minigames really felt like they went on for far too long. Toad in the Box (jump up at an extremely fast spinning box and hope for five Toad symbols) and Honeycomb Havoc (collect 1 or 2 fruit, avoid honeycombs) feel like they should be much shorter. At the end of the day, Mario Party is a great way to spend a couple of hours with friends, as the randomness and taking turns means that people of different skills (and people not fully paying attention) can get a good laugh out of it. Mario Party 2 is still considered by many to be the best Mario Party. Personally, I would still love Mario Party to have a more involving board mechanic. Fun Remake or remaster? A perfect Mario Party collection would include all the boards, have different rule sets, and let you mix and match minigames. Official Ways to get the game There is no way to buy a new copy of Mario Party, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. Re-releases 2010: Wii Virtual Console 2016: Wii U Virtual Console 2022: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

Bassmasters 2000 NA release: 16th December 1999 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Mass Media Publisher: THQ N64 Magazine Score: N/A Looking at other reviews of the fishing game Bassmasters, it got a few high scores, but then IGN gave it a 3.1. Quickly reading a few of them, I think I know why: IGN had played In-Fisherman Bass Hunter 64, while the others haven’t. This feels like a very primitive game after Bass Hunter, from the graphics to how the game works. The biggest issue with Bassmasters is finding fish, a task even more difficult than in Bass Hunters. The biggest issue is that you can’t see them from above the water, due to the water being a mostly opaque, flat texture. The fish finder also feels useless in the game, as it would detect fish, but when using the underwater view (which you can’t use while driving the boat), there would be none in sight. The one time I did get close to a fish, it felt entirely unresponsive. It doesn’t react to the lure, it just casually swims through it and attaches. Then it never seems to fight, there’s no pulling involved, the fish doesn’t jump out of the water, it just strangely glides towards the boat. You’ll get a much more realistic and involving fishing experience from Ocarina of Time. Oh, and the one fish I did find wasn’t a bass, so it didn’t count. There are a few bonus modes, such as a casting minigame where you have to aim for moving rings, and one where you fish from shore. Here, there are fish nearby, but even then it’s a massive pain to aim for them (as you can’t see any of them), and they don’t move around that much or react to the lure. This would have been a poor game on its own, but after Bass Hunter 64 (and the minigame in Ocarina of Time), this is just atrocious. Worst Remake or remaster? There are better fishing games. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Bassmasters 2000.

The smoker. Ribs are either oven cooked (BBQ) or deep fried (salt and chilli)

Roadsters NA release: 14th December 1999 PAL release: 17th December 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Titus Publisher: Titus N64 Magazine Score: 80% Roadsters is very much a refined sequel to Automobili Lamborghini. You can tell it’s built upon the same game engine, and many elements feel incredibly similar – including the very odd mix of realistic and arcade elements. Roadsters, however, feels much smoother and nicer to play. While Roadsters includes real cars, they weren’t able to get all the licenses they wanted, so the game also includes obvious rip-offs of Porsche and Ferrari cars. In the singleplayer mode, you start off only being able to afford one of the more basic cars, starting out in C class. Opponents are in better cars, so winning is a big struggle. As you earn money by playing rounds of six tracks, you’ll be able to afford upgrades and better cars. The difficulty then becomes staying on the track, as brushing the grass or edge will very quickly slow you down to a halt. You’ll also have to cope with weather conditions, using the pits to swap tyre types. While everything sounds like a very serious racer so far, the tracks feel like they belong in a different game, with settings like Area 51, an old castle, and driving into volcanoes. They’re all really enjoyable tracks, and you’ll need to learn every inch of them if you want to beat your opponents. Roadsters is a fine game, then. There aren’t that many tracks, but they make up for it in variety and enjoyment. They’re not quite in the same league as Beetle Adventure Racing, but they are unique when combined with the more serious nature of the rest of Roadsters. Fine Remake or remaster? Like Automobili Lamborghini, it could be included in a Super Speed Racer compilation. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Roadsters

Asteroids Hyper 64 NA release: 14th December 1999 JP release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Syrox Publisher: Crave N64 Magazine Score: 53% Considering that the original Asteroids just consisted of a simple black background with a white outline, it’s a very impressive feat that the N64 version of the game manages to look worse. The background is a dark and generic starfield, there’s a planet in the corner, and as the asteroids are “realistic”, it’s often difficult to spot them against the background, especially once they get smaller. Asteroids Hyper 64 uses the same throttle forward and spin around as the original, as you blast asteroids into smaller chunks until they’re completely destroyed. This adds some simple power ups, as well as new asteroids types which, despite having abilities like being able to regenerate, you’ll be very glad as you can actually see them clearly. It really doesn’t provide as much variety and new additions as Space Invaders does, and feels more like a side mode of a game, rather than its own complete game. It gets dull very quickly. You can unlock the original Asteroids, which is by far the best part of this game. Poor Remake or remaster? Not for this version, although I think Asteroids deserves it’s own type of game like “Pac-Man: Championship Edition”, a bit closer to the original game than Asteroids: Recharged is. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Asteroids Hyper 64

It runs Doom.

Shockingly, I'm out at a bar. A video game bar in Manchester. Family dragged me out.

It's not quite as simple as that. The core gameplay of N64 games was built around the loading times. There's a prototype version of Super Mario 64 for the 64DD (I won't be covering it separately as it's just Super Mario 64) and the game hangs up for a moment as it tries to find the right animation for basic movement. And the 64DD discs are still much faster than a CD. Ocarina is the same, it wouldn't function on a CD without mid gameplay pauses. With different limitations, these games would have been designed in a completely different way, and may not have been as influential as they were.

(I'm out for the weekend, so I'll post two games) Mario Artist Paint Studio JP release: 13th December 1999 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Software Creations Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A As this is the first 64DD game, I’ll talk a little bit about the device itself. It was an add-on to the N64 which would have provided a slot for a new kind of media: 64DD discs. These were sort of large floppy discs, 64MB by default – the same as the largest (and most expensive) N64 cartridge. One key element was that there was a lot more space to save data, allowing for much more complex stuff that could be saved in a game. It was also going to come with an Expansion Pak to increase the N64’s RAM (which ended up getting released on its own). But it kept getting delayed, and many projects (such as Ocarina of Time) were changed from being 64DD games to regular N64 games. It finally released in Japan only via a subscription (with a later limited release on its own), ending up with 10 games – and that includes a web browser, a disc for sharing creations online, and two expansions. Even though they first talked about it in issue 1, N64 Magazine ended up not covering it that much, with it getting a whopping 3 and a half page article once they got their hands on one. Mario Artist Paint Studio was one of the two launch games bundled with the 64DD, being a sequel to Mario Paint on the SNES. Like the SNES game, it also came bundled with a mouse. I’m awful at any kind of art software, and this is no different. It offers a good amount of features – including a lot of backgrounds and stickers (including Nintendo and Rare characters), but it feels a bit cumbersome and sterile, lacking the fun nature of the original Mario Paint. There are a few touches here and there that harkens back to the original – such as the fun animations representing the cursor speed and music options – but it all feels more muted. One colossal advantage it does have over the original is being able to save multiple pictures. It can also connect to the Game Boy Camera to insert some photos. There are some interesting additional features, such as the 3D worlds. Here you can watch three scenes play out – an underwater world, dinosaurs, and strange robots in space. You can play with the camera, watch different creatures, make the image full screen to watch, or even enter the world as a little man to explore and look around. You can also mess around with the worlds. Once you’ve selected a creature, you can then edit its texture, either by picking from a load of colourful random textures, or loading up the texture itself in an editor and manually editing it. It expands Paint Studio into something that’s also a basic introduction to how textures work in video games – the whole Mario Artist series seemed to be aimed at different parts of creating games, which would have likely culminated with the announced but cancelled Mario Artist: Game Maker. One thing about the 64DD is connectivity between games, so Paint Studio would gain more usage as the different parts of the Mario Artist series cropped up, as your creations could also be imported into that, as well as SimCity 64. It was an ambitious project, and it’s a shame we never saw the final result of the entire package. However, there’s one more interesting thing to talk about, something that was completely removed from the final game, but was later found in an earlier build. Just start creating a drawing then click on the “coffee break” icon. Now you can play a new version of Gnat Attack, the flyswatter minigame from the original Mario Paint (which had versions in some WarioWare games and Super Mario Maker). There are four stages that take place in a few rooms of a house, with the last being a boss, before the game loops. It’s really good fun, and I have no idea why it was taken out of the final product, as it seems to be complete. Fun Remake or remaster? I would love to see a fully realised version of the Mario Artist package, but without the cancelled parts of it, there’s not a huge reason to re-release this. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Mario Artist: Paint Studio -- Doshin the Giant JP release: 13th December 1999 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Param Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A The second 64DD launch title was Doshin the Giant, a game that got a bit more attention when the GameCube version came out (and made it outside of Japan). The various Doshin projects are the works of developer Param, who made nothing else. The purpose of Doshin the Giant seems to be to show how the 64DD could enable a game’s world to change over time, allowing you to manipulate it and watch it grow without needing a memory card. You start Doshin the Giant as fairly small yellow giant. The tribes on the various islands you discover will request you to do things for them (usually bring plants over, or create more land for them), which will generate hearts, allowing you to grow. As you help the tribes out, they’ll start to develop buildings and eventually build a monument to you. Controls are simple, as you can grab objects to move them (keeping A held down, or else you’ll throw it straight away), as well as holding onto land and pull it up, providing it’s lower, and stop to lower land. At the end of each day, Doshin will die (I think) and you’ll get some stats before being booted to the main menu. Start a new game, and you’ll be a new Doshin at the starting size, however, the world will be the same as how you left it at the end of the previous game. The game is quite freeform in what you can do, however, I found that it got more and more difficult to impress villagers, so I was unable to achieve the size I got in the first day. Although it’s not all about being good – it’s entirely up to you. While you can cause some damage (such as accidentally squishing villagers once you’re a certain size) as regular Doshin, you can switch to an evil version of him, which gives you a different set of powers. You can send out shockwaves and demolish land, and causing terror will make you grow just as hearts do. Interestingly, evil Doshin also has better powers at manipulating land, as you can easily lower and raise vast amounts of land at ease, but it can be difficult to use this to help out, as the villagers fear you (note: after playing the expansion and GameCube version, I now know that good Doshin can do the same thing). There’s a checklist of different monuments to get the villagers to build, but I could only get them to build the same one over and over. I’m probably missing something, as the text is quite fast and hard to use Google Translate for, so I’m looking forward to discovering more when I play the GameCube version. Overall, Doshin the Giant does come across as more of a tech demo to show off what the 64DD can do, but it’s still a wonderfully unique and charming game. Fun Remake or remaster? I’d love to see a new Doshin game. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Doshin the Giant.

Worms Armageddon PAL release: 11th December 1999 NA release: 23rd March 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Team17, Infogrames Publisher: Infogrames N64 Magazine Score: 85 The PC version of Worms Armageddon is a game that Team17 have never been able to live up to. Many Worms games have come and gone since, yet Armageddon still lives on, with the last official major patch released in 2020, and a complete overhaul is being worked on (albeit very slowly). The PC version is easily the best version of the game, with better graphics, far more weapons, more levels, and a ton of additional support (both official and fan) over the years. Yet, despite all that, my preference still lies with the N64 version. A lot of it is nostalgia – it’s probably my most played N64 game as a kid – but I think there’s another important reason: the controller, which I’ll explain in a bit. Worms is a game of strategy with a bit of luck thrown in. There are teams of worms (usually four) across the map, and you take turns to move around and use one weapon to attack your opponents. The genius is that the weapons also blow up the landscape, so the space available to the worms gets smaller and smaller as the game’s going on, with worms falling into the water dying instantly. The weapons are brilliantly made, some require precise aiming and taking into account the wind, some amusing, and others seemingly pointless but perfect for the right situations (like prod). These weapons aren’t just satisfying to use when you get them right, they’re also great when things go wrong. Which brings me to the controller. The PC version has much better controls using a keyboard, being more accurate and having lots of shortcuts to access weapons quickly. When playing online, it’s certainly helpful. But, to me, Worms is best as a local multiplayer game, something that makes it a wonderful experience when you do mess up, and a controller is simply much easier to pass around than a keyboard and mouse. Worms Armageddon lets you use one controller for four players (although you can use more if you want). While you can try mapping a controller to keyboard inputs for the PC version (despite many updates, it still doesn’t offer controller support), it’s not quite the same as the properly crafted controls for N64. Outside of the brilliant multiplayer, which offers specially designed levels and randomly generated levels, there’s also a bunch of singleplayer missions and training modes, some of which are a ton of fun, such as the Ninja Rope training. The Ninja Rope is an immensely fun item (which doesn’t count as using a weapon) to get around levels, with lots of risky tricks you can try and perform. I had a ton of fun with the Ninja Rope training, taking it in turn to play it with friends. Worms Armageddon is a great game, and the N64 version is still worth playing for its ease of multiplayer. Fave Remake or remaster? A lot of work has already been done for the PC version, but it still needs controller support. A remaster has also been released for home consoles. Official Ways to get the game The remaster is available on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.

If they can add some difficult to find stuff (like the F-Zero GX story mode cutscene music) then this would be quite neat.

Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. NA release: 9th December 1999 PAL release: 17th December 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Acclaim London Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 76% When Starship Troopers became a big hit, Acclaim wanted to cash in on its success. Instead of trying to work out a licensing deal, they looked at their comic catalogue and realised one of them was a sci-fi marine comic. The comic didn’t contain bug-like aliens, so they invented new ones for the game. Running on the same engine (and controls) as Turok 2, it seemed like a recipe for success. But Acclaim didn’t seem to pay attention to why Starship Troopers was successful: personality. The film took some very dry source material and made it into something special. Armorines, on the other hand, is utterly devoid of personality. The bugs in Armorines aren’t scary. They don’t react to gunshots like enemies in Turok and they don’t act in any smart kind of way. As a result, killing them isn’t satisfying, which is a major issue in an FPS game. There are different types, but it generally means that bigger ones need more shots to go down. The weapons don’t help matters, either, as there’s nothing quite as fun as the weapons in the Turok games. Selecting weapons is also unintuitive. You hold A and move the control stick in a direction – the same as the great weapons wheel previously used in Turok games. Except there’s no weapons wheel. You press different directions to cycle to different groups of weapons, meaning you have to memorise the direction and order of the weapons. Not that it matters much, as you’re going to be using the default weapon – a shotgun if you pick the male character, or the much more useful machine gun if you pick the female character – most of the time anyway. While the default gun certainly has advantages, such as having infinite ammo (as opposed to very limited ammo for other guns) and being good enough to handle most enemies, their main use isn’t for killing enemies. It’s for the ability to see. Many areas of Armorines are extremely dark. Again, this doesn’t make the game scary, it just makes it hard to see. You can get IR goggles to see enemies clearer, but they don’t help a lot in navigating the confusing levels. So, most of the time you’ll be firing your gun just to have a light source, because your futuristic super special power armour doesn’t have a torch. This is the main reason why the machine gun is better than the shotgun. It’s a shame, as Armorines had a very solid foundation and inspiration – the gameplay of Turok 2 was great, and the satire nature of Starship Troopers could potentially have worked well for a video game. Unfortunately, many aspects – such as the weapons, enemy AI, their reaction to being shot, and any personality – are downgrades, and it ends up being a game that is functionally fine, but is really dull. Fine Remake or remaster? Despite its flaws, it would be nice to see this running on Nightdive’s Turok 2 engine. The darkness could be fixed, and more satisfying enemy AI and reactions could be added – they could even add a bit of personality with some new cutscenes and dialogue. I doubt that it would sell enough to make doing that profitable, but there’s a solid foundation to work from. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness NA release: 8th December 1999 JP release: 25th December 1999 PAL release: 3rd March 2000 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 75% Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is a bit of an odd game. It’s sort of a new game, but also isn’t. In a way, this is an attempt at re-doing Castlevania 64, listening to feedback from that release, and addressing it without creating a full sequel. The levels feel a lot more simplified, less routes to get lost in, and it’s generally a more linear experience. There are also save points everywhere, and the game lets you move the camera, albeit using the D-pad, which is a bit awkward on the N64 controller. But there is a ton of new stuff as well. At the start, you can only select a new character called Cornell, although there is a variant of the Konami code (only discovered in April 2024) to unlock all characters. His story is set 8 years before the first Castlevania 64. Once you complete his story, you can play the original two campaigns, Carrie and Reinhardt, who have re-worked versions of their original campaigns, along with another new character called Harry, who has a shorter game that you need to complete in fewer than 7 in-game days. Because the original game cut me off before the end of the game, due to playing on easy (which, thankfully, no longer stops you from playing the full game), I really didn’t realise how many levels at the end of the game focused much more on platforming, and Cornell’s journey even more so. The second half of his game feels completely different from the first, and the game’s wonky jumping and grabbing edges is one of the issues that hasn’t been addressed. The first game focused on combat and puzzles, while the first time playing this will be mainly platform-based. If you’re going to play a version of Castlevania 64, it may as well be this one. Fun Remake or remaster? A remaster that improves upon this and also gives the option of playing Carrie and Reinhardt’s original levels would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness.

The large problem with Tooie is that it's bigger while having less stuff, making it feel empty. The main cause of this is reducing the number of notes per level from 100 to 17.

Custom Robo JP release: 8th December 1999 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Noise Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 83% Every now and then, a game I would have never expected to like will surprise me, making me very glad that I’m doing these playthroughs. I always dismissed Custom Robo as the kind of JRPG that I don’t like, and magazines that reviewed it made a lot of comparisons to Pokémon. However, I ended up loving Custom Robo, and would absolutely love for Pokémon to try this style of combat. Custom Robo was only released in Japan, as well as its sequel and the GBA game – it wasn’t until the fourth game, on GameCube, that the series made its way elsewhere (and only the most recent game on DS was released in Europe). Luckily, there’s a decent fan translation to play the game in English. The main story is mostly what you’d expect – walking around a 2D environment, speaking to other people to battle. However, Custom Robo’s story is very linear, with no side quests or exploration, so each playthrough will be fairly similar. The story is a simple story about a young boy who gets a Custom Robo – a tiny robot designed to take part in friendly battles – competing in tournaments within his town (which handily is home to the main Custom Robo tournament). There are some additional stories, and the characters you meet along the way are interesting, so there’s a lot of charm here. The main greatness of Custom Robo, however, is the battles. In Custom Robo, you control your tiny robot in holographic arenas. The robos are fast and nimble, and you automatically face your opponent at all times, which means you can focus on manoeuvring and dodging. Your abilities include your gun, your “pods” which launch a kind of homing missile, and a bomb that you automatically aim where your opponent is (although you can manually adjust it to account for them moving). You also have a high jump, and can perform a few dodges in mid-air, there’s a lot of options at your disposal, but with extremely simple controls. The arenas themselves are also important. Hiding behind obstacles and popping out or jumping up to shoot, getting high ground, circling around moving obstacles or dangerous areas to impact your opponent. The arenas start off simple and get more imaginative as you go on – with the best being the “unofficial” ones your encounter along your journey. Another interesting element is that when robos recover from being knocked down, they have a brief invincibility period where they can fire – preventing anyone from being permanently trapped in the combo, and letting them go on the offensive. What I especially love about Custom Robo is the lack of levelling up or grinding. Every robo’s health is 1000HP, with different body types (which you unfortunately don’t get to use in the main story) having their own abilities. What you do collect as you go on, however, is different weapons. But there’s no “best” weapon. Your main gun, for example, fires in different ways. There’s a powerful magnum that does a ton of damage, but fires in a straight line and is quite slow. There are some homing weapons that aren’t as strong and aren’t useful if you need to defend yourself as they take a while to hit. My favourite weapon wasn’t particularly strong, but fired in an arc and could hit over walls. The bombs and pods are equally varied, with some relentless but slow pods, or fast ones that require a quick dodge to avoid. Some weapons also hit next to an opponent, with you planning on them dodging or moving around. Because of all this, everything feels balanced in a wonderful way, and you’ll encounter opponents that will force you to rethink your strategy. In a single battle, one combination may have an advantage, but there will be other combos that will in turn have an advantage over it. However, it’s never hopeless, sometimes you have to rethink your strategy and use what you’ve picked in a different way. As an example, I favoured a weapon where I could do a short hop near a wall, and hit an opponent behind another wall. Then, I encountered an opponent that had bombs and pods that exploded above my head, which I kept jumping into. I had to go for a more hit-and-run approach to win the fight. It’s nice that you can outright see the advantages, instead of it just being numbers. The setup for each match is also worth mentioning. When you carry them around, your Custom Robo is in a little cube. At the start of each match, you aim a little cannon to try and land in a section of the arena you want, while also reacting to where your opponent is landing on. Your robo, in cube form, is then fired out. Each side has an icon to show the orientation of your robo, with a face signifying the top, and feet showing the bottom. You have a bit of control over your robo to try and land right side up, as this means your robo will be able to start quicker – with robos landing on their head starting stuck in the ground, and having to wiggle to make a start. The combat in Custom Robo was something that I never got tired of doing. It avoids everything I personally dislike about combat in a lot of JRPGs, and I really like how customisation works in it. In the story mode, you get drip fed these parts as you progress, letting you experiment a bit on your journey, and at the start of each battle, you can pick your setup and try it out before starting the fight. There are some other modes, though, such as a challenge mode and free battle (which supports multiplayer). These let you pick different robot bodies for even more possible combinations. I do wish the story itself was a bit more free form, but that’s only a mild issue with how much I enjoyed playing the game. Fave Remake or remaster? It still plays extremely well. A collection of the five Custom Robo games with official translations for the first three would be amazing. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play Custom Robo

Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate NA release: 7th December 1999 PAL release: 28th February 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Saffire Publisher: Titus N64 Magazine Score: 81% In 1999, two Xena games were released. The PlayStation got a hack-n-slash adventure, while the N64 got a fighting game. The plot of this game is easily what you’d expect: there’s a powerful object, and random characters have to compete for it. This means that Xena (or your character of choice) will have to slice her way through friends in order to win the object. One small touch with the characters is that when Xena faces Gabrielle, Gabrielle is renamed as “Hope” (who is Gabrielle’s half-demon evil daughter that magically aged and looks exactly like Gabrielle), but none of Xena’s other friends get the same treatment. It’s also strange that this also happens when playing as Gabrielle – you’ll just be renamed when you fight Xena. The Talisman of Fate is a fairly simple fighting game. This isn’t a bad thing, though, and manages to turn this game into something quite enjoyable. Instead of trying to be a deep fighting game, it instead focuses on speed and excitement, giving you jump and duck buttons for more movement options. It does mean that button mashing works quite well, but it works really well for a tie-in game that will likely have a more casual audience. The game’s biggest weakness is lack of modes, although still not as lacking as some N64 fighting games. One thing that they did attempt to do was create a 4-player mode, but changing target (pressing A) is a bit clunky. It’s a nice try, even if it doesn’t fully work. Xena is a decent fighting game, which makes it one of the better fighting games on N64. Fun Remake or Remaster? How about a collection of Xena (and Hercules) games? Nothing special, just a re-release of the games. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate

The issues for the XBLA version are immensely minor. It has better loading and smoother controls, especially the camera. Until a better port is made (either officially or unofficially), it remains the best way to play to play both games.

Top Gear Rally 2 NA release: 3rd December 1999 JP release: 4th February 2000 PAL release: 28th February 2000 Developer: Saffire Publisher: Kemco N64 Magazine Score: 90% While I’ve spoken about Saffire games before, their earlier N64 games had all been ports, making this their first fully developed N64 game (with their second coming out a week after this). While it’s called Top Gear Rally 2, it bears no similarities to the original game, this being much closer to a rally sim than the original arcade-style game. Top Gear Rally 2 features a damage system where bad driving will completely wreck your car. I was so bad at the game, that I couldn’t even finish a single race due to damage, but I think I’m more at fault than the game there. The handling has a lot of customisation and feels quite good, although the car is oddly “magnetic” in that it sticks to the ground, making it jerk around in an odd way on bumpy sections. Something that really bugged me was the tracks, as there was something really off about them – a strange sense of déjà vu, as I seemingly kept encountering the same obstacles again and again, sometimes the same sections repeated in the same race. As I looked it up after playing, it turns out my feeling was right: there are no properly designed tracks in the game. There are four different “themes” and, for each race, the game stitches various parts together. Specific combinations of these parts act as “tracks” in the game, while you unlock a “random track generator” after completing the game. The training mode is, strangely, the best mode in the game. Here, you’re set into lots of driving challenges while avoiding cones. It’s definitely more compelling than the random tracks. Top Gear Rally 2 is a good rally game, but would have been even better with specifically designed tracks, and having the random tracks be a bonus, like in F-Zer Fine Remake or Remaster? A collection of the various Top Gear games would be quite nice. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Top Gear Rally 2

Puyo Puyo~n Party JP release: 3rd December 1999 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Compile Publisher: Compile N64 Magazine Score: N/A Also known as Puyo Puyo 4 (I can only guess that the ~n is partly due to Japanese superstitions about the number 4), this brings the core gameplay back to Puyo Puyo 2, and adds in character-specific special abilities. Unfortunately, unlike Puyo Puyo Sun, this one does not have colourblind options, so, like in Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean machine, I made a ton of mistakes. The party part of the name refers to some 4-player modes, which make the beans smaller and even more difficult to distinguish. These include a 4-way battle and a hot potato mode, where there’s a bomb that gets passed around by performing chains, with you aiming to not be the one with the bomb when the time ends. ? Remake or remaster? A collection and official localisation of the earlier Puyo Puyo games would be nice. Official ways to get the game. While there are newer Puyo Puyo games, this particular version is not available anywhere.

I still listen to the full version of Herald of Darkness form Alan Wake II on a regular basis.

Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! JP release: 3rd December 1999 NA release: 29th May 2000 PAL release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Hudson (JP), Vatical (NA) N64 Magazine Score: 52% While Bomberman Hero was distantly different to Bomberman 64, being developed as a separate project entirely, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack is a direct sequel. What’s surprising, then, is that this possibly has less in common with Bomberman 64 than Bomberman Hero, making it much more like the classic Bomberman gameplay. One key thing that helps bring back the feeling of the originals is that the bombs once again explode in their distinctive “plus” shape, making it much easier to judge the shape and distance of how they’re exploding. The camera is also stationary (no stuff annoyingly hidden out of view), with a top-down perspective. As you defeat bosses, you’ll also gain more types of bombs which have different effects. Ice bombs will freeze enemies, while wind bombs can be used to help Bomberman cross paths. These are used for both combat and puzzles. Joining Bomberman on his journey is Pommy, a small, round creature. He can stun enemies and can be used for puzzles. Unfortunately, unless you have a second controller, he does what he wants, so the few times you need him to stand on switches for puzzles, it’s a massive pain to get him to remain on them long enough. The puzzles overall aren’t too bad, with some stretching across multiple rooms. What turns them into a massive chore, however, is how enemies respawn as you re-enter rooms, and many doors get locked again until you dispose of them all. It’s a decent game with some interesting worlds and characters, although I never got to the end of the game due to how the kick works – I had to create a path of ice platforms in lava, but couldn’t get the distance right, any kick would leave a gap. I also hadn’t found a throw power in the level, and really didn’t want to trawl the level (due to respawning enemies), hoping one would spawn somewhere. This ability and part really needed some fine-tuning. Still, this is a big improvement over the first, and gives Bomberman his identity back. Fun Remake or remaster? It should still be in a Bomberman collection. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Bomberman 64: The Second Attack

New trailer announcing platforms. It will be on PC, Xbox Series, PS5 and....Nintendo. With some googly eyes resting on the Nintendo logo. This seems to be what multiplatform games have been told to do by Nintendo for announcing titles coming to the next console. Edit: On their Discord, they specifically say "Nintendo (More on that as soon as we can!)"

I don't know how I manged to miss Bear McCreary's album The Singularity, as its my favourite composer creating a load of rock/metal songs. It's a 25 track album (including an intro and some spoken word track, including one with Lee Pace, The Piemaker) with a bunch of different artists contributing. It's also got a sci-fi and nordic vibe about it and some experimental stuff, so it's pretty much my music tastes all combined. A few of my early favourites: The first main song, has Serj Tankian (System of a Down) providing the locals. One of the songs sung by the composer's brother, Brendan McCreary. He's pretty good at pulling off different styles. I really like the energy and sound of this, seems like it would fit in with a Shadow the Hedgehog game (even the lyrics work). Scottish Gaelic Slam Poetry Metal (with Bagpipes) about the erasure of the Scottish language. Performed by Billy Boyd (Pipin). It's a great album. I'm going to get the graphic novel that was released alongside it.

Space Invaders NA release: 30th November 1999 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Z-Axis Publisher: Activision N64 Magazine Score: 73% Like Paperboy, this is another sequel to a classic game that annoyingly just uses the original name – although in this case it’s only outside of Japan, where it was called Space Invaders X (on other platforms, the N64 version wasn’t released there). This Space Invaders has a lot of features not present in the original, while still keeping the core gameplay very similar to the original. One large difference is special abilities for both enemies and you. Different enemy types, which have distinctive but hard to remember designs, will react in different ways – some shoot quicker, others dive bomb you when they die. More are introduced as you make your way through the game. You also have special abilities. Hit four enemies in a row and you’ll power up for a bonus shot (which is picked at random), which causes effects like the missile moving sideways after hitting one invader, lasers that take out whole rows, and a “kamikaze” attack which sends your tank flying upwards to smash through enemies (before safely landing on the ground). As you reach each new planet, a new power is introduced, which you’re most likely to get each time you charge up your special attack. On each planet you’ll play through 10 rounds, each with a new layout of enemies and shields. After 5 rounds, you’ll play a bonus minigame of shooting down UFOs for points and power ups – including vital shields to stop you exploding in one hit. The different special abilities of both you and the enemies do help keep things interesting. After the 10 rounds, you’ll reach a boss fight. The bosses contain the most variety. Some require spamming your slow missiles as fast as possible, others require careful aiming, and others needing frantic dodging. I also love how the final boss (unless you play on higher difficulty levels for a few bonus planets) is the strange alien monster from the artwork of the original game. This version of Space Invaders is a solid variation on the original game. Fun Remake or remaster? This hasn’t been included in any Space Invaders collections, and it really should. Perhaps rename it to Space Invaders X for clarity, though. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get this version of Space Invaders.

Nuclear Strike 64 NA release: 30th November 1999 PAL release: 3rd March 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: EA, Pacific Coast Power & Light Publisher: THQ N64 Magazine Score: 82% The [BLANK] Strike series of isometric helicopter shooters was a big part of my early childhood, playing games like Desert Strike and Jungle Strike on my Mega Drive. They were great to play around with for a while, but I don’t remember having long sessions with them – more something to turn on every now and then. With Urban Strike, the series made the leap to 3D on the Saturn and PlayStation, with Nuclear Strike being released on PlayStation a year later. It took a few more years for the game to be ported to the N64, with clear graphics, but the game not taking advantage of the system, as there’s no analogue movement. One thing that is nice is that you can hop into different vehicles – such as a hover craft, tank, plane, and other helicopters. These play similar to the helicopter, but the slight differences make them feel like a nice change of pace, even if you are doing the same things. This is a great game to play a scenario a day, or something like that, but not great in long spurts. I did find that the graphics have aged poorly, due to the heavy reliance on textures. It makes the game feel like you’re playing with miniatures atop a blurry printout of a satellite photo. I can’t help but think that a simpler graphical style would have worked a lot better. Nuclear Strike is an enjoyable, albeit repetitive, game. Fun Remake or remaster? A new game in the series – as a lower budget digital game – would be great. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Nuclear Strike