Cube

NHL Breakaway 98 NA release: 25th February 1998 PAL release: 25th February 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 62% Graphically, NHL Breakaway looks much more “real” compared too Wayne Gretzky, with human-shaped proportions and an ice rink that has reflections (although not of players). It also seems to be more in-tune with a proper Ice Hockey viewing experience (I presume) with organ music playing American sports tunes. Unfortunately, that’s where the good points for Breakaway end, as it’s nowhere near as fluid or fun to play as Wayne Gretzky. It’s all stiff, with some unresponsive controls and bad camera angles – I couldn’t find a single one I liked. Similar to Igunana’s American Football game, NHL Breakaway also ahs some cheats, although none are as amusing as their previous one and they don’t really make the game any more fun. This is just a bland sports game. Remake or Remaster? Sports games constantly get refreshed. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play NHL Breakaway 98

Jeopardy! NA release: 25th February 1998 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: GameTek Publisher: Take Two N64 Magazine Score: 9% Similar to Wheel of Fortune, this got a scathing review from N64 Magazine and, once again, this is just fine. There’s not much too it, but it gets the job done. That said, it does have a few problems not present in Wheel of Fortune. One odd thing I noticed (which isn’t really a problem) is that the menu music is a remix of “I’m a little teapot”, which is a bit random. Jeopardy is a trivia game where everything is worded awkwardly so that the answers start with “what is” and the questions don’t have question marks. It doesn’t change the nature of the questions in any way, it’s just a pointless novelty to make them seem more interesting than they are. You pick from a list of categories and difficulties – if you don’t know much about one of the chosen categories, tough. Typing out on the N64 is particularly awkward. It helps you by filling in the “what is/are” part so you just put in the answer (making it more obvious that it’s just a regular quiz show). You can set it to accept incorrect spellings or to show you potential answers. On the flip side, computer players type so fast you can’t see what they’re doing. It’s a basic trivia game – but that’s all it’s trying to be. Remake or Remaster? Like Wheel of Fortune, classic games should be in a Jackbox-style collection. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Jeopardy on N64, but there are various versions of the game on other platforms.

Olympic Hockey ’98 NA release: 23rd February 1998 PAL release: April 1998 JP release: July 1998 Developer: Software Creations Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL), Konami (JP) N64 Magazine Score: 60% In December 1997, Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98, offering no notable improvement over the first (pretty solid) game. Two months later, Olympic Hockey ’98 is just another version of Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey, just with the American teams replaced with those from the Olympics (although most of the players are generic and not based on real ones). IGN had a particularly scathing review, giving it a 0/10 and saying “We’ll post a new review when Midway releases a new game.” (that’s not a quote, that’s the entire review). The biggest difference between Olympic Hockey and Wayne Gretzky are the default settings, with Olympic Hockey having everything set to simulation and strict. I realised I hated strict hockey, especially the ball going behind the goal resulting in a penalty, but change some settings and you can have fun again. This isn’t a terrible game, it’s just a cheap cash-in. Remake or Remaster? This game is pointless. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Olympic Hockey 98

If you ignore minigames, Sonic Shuffle trounces every Mario Party (well, apart from the cheating AI).

Fighters Destiny NA release: 31st January 1998 PAL release: 1st March 1998 JP release: 11th Decemver 1998 Developer: Opus, Ancho, Genki Publisher: Ocean (NA), Infogrames (PAL), Imagineer (JP) N64 Magazine Score: 86% Even though I’m not a fan of fighting games, I can tell that this one is something special, at least compared to all the tedious ones released before this on the N64. This has some interesting ideas and feels like it was designed for a console due to the modes it included. The key part of Fighters Destiny is the point system. You have to be the first to seven points and different methods of defeating your opponent gets you different points: pushing them off the giant block you fight on top of nets you 1 point, a throwdown move gets you 2 points while preforming a special mode (via a ridiculous combination) get you 4. This means people are trying different tactics rather than just whittling down health. There are also a bunch of different modes to keep people interested. There’s a rodeo where you have to keep in the fight (against a cow) for as long as possible, a survival challenge and a timed mode. There’s also Masters Challenge, where you can earn more moves for each character (on top of the already immense amount they have) and can move these via controller pak to a friend’s house. It isn’t for me, but Fighters Destiny stands out above the other fighting games on N64. Remake or remaster? A collection of both games would be nice. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Fighters Destiny

@Dcubed a fresh team worked for GoldenEye, but I imagine Konami's method was just randomly assigning a new project when a team has finished a previous one. @Jonnas thanks for the info! SimCity 2000 JP release: 30th January 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Maxis, Genki Publisher: Imagineer N64 Magazine Score: 83% I didn’t touch this one that much. For the most part, it’s a straight port of SimCity 2000 on PC, but completely in Japanese (even with Google Lens, it’s a nightmare to play). On top of that, the joystick moves a cursor and is really not suitable for this kind of game. I did try to get somewhere with it, but I couldn’t even attract a single person to my city. This version of SimCity 2000 does have some additional features I never got to, mainly in the form of minigames. You can bet on horse races, breed monsters (to defend your city from other monsters), defend your city in a Sci-fi shooter and take part in a dating sim. I am curious to see what they’re like, but the barrier is just too high – I’ll save my SimCity effort for the N64’s other, more custom, SimCity game. (Note: There was never a UK release of SimCity 2000) Remake or remaster? It would be curious to see the minigames in another version. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get the N64 version of SimCity 2000. The PC version can be bought from EA.

@Hero of Time are you going to play the Octo Expansion? The DLC is much, much better than the standard campaign.

NBA In The Zone ’98 JP release: 29th January 1998 NA release: 16th February 1998 PAL release: April 1998 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 71% With ISS64, Konami gave the N64 a solid start with Football games on the N64. Their take on Basketball is the first serious take on the sport on the N64, so you would hope for similar results. Unfortunately, NBA In the Zone 98 (or NBA Pro 98 in Europe) bounces off the basket rim and just misses the mark. Everything in NBA In The Zone feels slow and clunky, even swapping players seems unreliable. Helpful AI-controlled teammates are also an important part in sports games, and for a game like baseball it seems vital, but anyone you don’t control may as well not be there. From what little I know about Basketball, getting your players in a defensive position is a necessary part of the game, especially as you can’t tackle directly, but defending may as well not exist in this game. After FIFA 98, the players also seem extremely outdated, with stick arms and legs, looking more like abstract monstrosities than human. The courts and crowds also look rather flat, resulting in a game that’s just janky and ugly. Remake or remaster? Sports games have evolved over time. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get NBA In The Zone 97

Robotron 64 NA release: 5th January 1998 PAL release: June 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Player 1 Publisher: Crave (NA) GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 75% With the advent of digital downloads, games like this have a great place now. But back in the N64 days, arcade-style games were sold on a cartridge the same price as much meatier games, making them difficult purchases. Robotron is an update to the original Robotron 2048, but the arcade mode of going though the 200 waves (or taking turns with another person) is really all there is. Robotron 64 is a really good update of the original arcade, now in a new perspective with a camera that mostly does a great job at showing the action. You can either use the analogue stick to move and c-buttons to shoot, or use two controllers to use two analogue sticks. The gameplay is solid and a lot of fun. Although with the camera moving and all the flashing effects, it can sometimes be difficult to see what is happening, with the projectiles of the brain enemies being particularly difficult to see, resulting in some unfair deaths. Robotron 64 is a lot of fun, but it really could have done with more modes and features. Remake or remaster? I’m quite surprised that there has been no XBLA style update for Robotron. It’s still a well respected name and an update could be great, potentially having new styles plus including options for the previous three: 2048, X and 64. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Robotron 64

New Japan Pro-Wrestling: Toukon Road: Brave Spirits JP release: 4th January 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Yuke’s Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 49% Another Japanese Wrestling game, Toukon Road: Brave Spirits doesn’t focus on real-life wrestlers, but instead creates its own brand new cast of wrestlers. Unfortunately, they haven’t really gone all out with creative or memorable designs, but rather tried to come up with “realistic” wrestlers. One thing that did impress me with Toukon Road was the animation, in particular how the ring bounces when wrestlers hit the floor along with the visible breathing. The gameplay itself isn’t bad and there are plenty of moves, but it also isn’t very gripping, either. Toukon Road is made to be fun in multiplayer and there are a fun options, but it doesn’t really do anything particularly unique in terms of how it plays. Remake or remaster? This game doesn’t need any special treatment. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get New Japan Pro-Wrestling: Toukon Road: Brave Spirits

Out of all of these, the only one I'm familiar with is Greninja. Partly due to being included in Smash Bros Wii U/3DS and partly because Ash-Greninja my main damage dealing pokémon for however far I got though Pokémon Moon - even with it disobeying orders due to being a high level (you got him at the start if you played the demo or something like that), it still performed amazingly well (really, it was kind of cheating). In Sun/Moon, the Greninja you get in this way is supposed to be the actual Greninja that Ash has in the anime. The final evolution doesn't even look that bad. Braixen and Delphox both look like evolutions more so than any of the other two sets of starters. That said, both designs do seem like they're from a cartoon with anthropomorphic animals than Pokémon - I could easily see Braixen chatting to Fox McCloud, while Delphox looks more like a wise, motherly character. Also, you haven't even gotten to what is by far the worst case of a middle evolution to final evolution of a starter Pokémon. I used an Everstone for that one to make sure it never reached its final evolution.

Augusta Masters ’98 JP release: 26th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: T&E Soft Publisher: T&E Soft N64 Magazine Score: 40% The second golf game on N64, and again it’s exclusive to Japan. This is a significant improvement over The Glory of St Andrews, but is still far from being a good golf game. Like St Andrews, this one also covers only one specific course. Augusta Masters doesn’t try anything new in terms of video game mechanics for golf, using the tried and tested bar system from Golf on the NES. There’s nothing wrong with it as it’s a good system, but the big flaw with Augusta is that it’s very, very difficult to correlate power to distance – it just never seems right. This is especially evident during putting, anything above 50% power is far too hard, and really anything over four tiny bars will cause the ball to spiral out of control. The balance for getting it right requires perfection, but you never know what level is needed. If you don’t land on the green very close to the hole, you’ll be adding 5 to your score. So with difficult gameplay, graphics that are detailed yet also extremely ugly and only one course, there isn’t much to this game. Remake or remaster? This game doesn’t need any special treatment. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Augusta Masters '98

Yoshi’s Story JP release: 21st December 1997 NA release: 10th March 1998 PAL release: 10th May 1998 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 86% Yoshi’s Story is an incredibly cute game that just oozes charm. On a quest to save their magical fruit tree from Baby Bowser, the Yoshi’s journey across a book across six worlds, eating a lot of fruit along the way. In each level, your goal isn’t to make it to the end, it’s to eat 30 fruit. Fruit is also health – apart from chillies, which the Yoshis hate (shame, they’re delicious). Getting the 30th one ends the level no matter where you are, so if you’re after finding the super hearts or just more points, you’ll want to hold off. The platforming is great (other than some blind jumps) and there are lots of little secrets to discover. The biggest issue with Yoshi’s Story is the game’s structure. In a similar style to Star Fox 64, you only play a portion of the levels – one from each of the six worlds. So reaching the Baby Bowser (who is ridiculously easy to defeat) does not take long at all if you’re munching up fruit whenever you see it. I feel like it does Yoshi’s Story a massive disservice, and many people will miss a lot of the game due to this. In order to unlock more levels, you need to search the levels for giant hearts – needing to find three each time if you want the fourth stage in each world. There’s also an additional challenge of only eating melons – there are exactly 30 in each level. This all adds to the replayability, but as much as I love the game, I just really hate its structure. Remake or remaster? A remake would be amazing. The different graphical styles (craft, wool, inflatables) would pop even more with added detail and they could provide different ways to play to change the structure of the game. Official ways to get the game. There is no way to buy a new copy of Yoshi’s Story, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-releases 2007: Wii Virtual Console 2016: Wii U Virtual Console 2021: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 PAL release: 20th December 1997 NA release: 22nd December 1997 JP release: 12th April 1998 Developer: EA Canada Publisher: EA Sports (PAL/NA), EA Victor (JP) N64 Magazine Score: 83% This game brings back a lot of memories from my childhood. I had this game on PC and played it a lot – even doing some 90 minute matches. I was into football at the time (I stopped caring not long after). After seeing how dreadful FIFA 64 was, I was worried that this was going to tarnish my memories. Luckily, it seems that this time, the N64 got a solid port. Every single thing has been improved upon from the previous year. The players actually look human now (in N64 style, anyway), the gameplay is fast and fluid and there is actually team management and a HUD that lets you know player names and a massive amount of both international and league teams. The N64 version does have some setbacks – Song 2 by Blur is cut back, and the commentary is heavily reduced, but the core gameplay is spot on, and it’s just a ton of fun. This version of FIFA also included a 5-a-side indoor pitch, for an even more frantic and fast-paced game and a lot fewer interruptions due to the ball bouncing off the wall. This mode solidifies the core feature of this particular FIFA: fun. The gameplay is relatively simple, but it’s just enjoyable. This extends into some of the “unrealistic” things you can do in the game. One of the tackle buttons is just an outright foul that you’ll never get away with, and you can even use it on the goalkeeper for an instant red card – however, you can set the referee strictness to zero. You can also pass back to the keeper and run as much as you like. Even though I’m not a fan of football now, I still had a ton of fun playing this. It may not be as technical as ISS, but it’s just enjoyable. Remake or remaster? While the genre has evolved a lot – I think a “throwback” game based on this one would be interesting to see, focusing on the same simple gameplay and sense of fun. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get FIFA Road to World Cup 98

Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Asmik Ace / AKI Publisher: Asmik Ace N64 Magazine Score: N/A This is mainly a Japanese version of WCW vs. nWo: World Tour. However, despite releasing in the same month as the original version, this has a lot more stuff in it. Most notably, it contains a lot more wrestlers, with 5 additional wrestling leagues included. The game itself plays the same, though. Another significant feature of this version is the wrestler edit. The features are quite basic – you can’t change anything about the wrestlers physical features, but there are 126 different costumes to choose from, each with two or three colours that you can change. These don’t make the game significantly better, but there are some interesting changes that differentiate it from the original version of the game. Remake or remaster? The genre itself has evolved. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Virtual Pro Wrestling 64

Irritating Eclectic Stick JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Yuke’s Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 65% Original name: Ucchan Nanchan no Hono no Challenge: Denryu Ira Ira Bo Do you know that kids toy where you move a stick around a metal wire and if you make contact with it it makes a buzzing sound? In Japan, they turned that into a game show, and that game show got multiple video games. Only one of them got a release outside of Japan, which is Irritating Stick on the PS1. The N64 game Ucchannanchan’s Flaming Challenger: Irritating Electric Stick (for the full translated name), however, remained in Japan. The game is incredibly simple: move a stick through a maze. There are some tight corners and moving obstacles, and you view the stick from the side so it’s just a dot (you can turn on an option to display the full stick as you tilt, but it gets in the way). The only control is moving the analogue stick. While it’s very simple, the game does what it sets out to do perfectly. The controls are 100% reliable, with the stick stopping the moment you let go of the stick, so there’s no delay or deceleration to worry about, it’s entirely down to your skill. So while the game is frustratingly difficult – the frustration is aimed at yourself, as it’s your skill causing you to fail. And I lack the skill to complete the game. Even if you removed the time limit, my precision is not good enough for this game. That’s not a fault with the game, though, just with me. Irritating Electric Stick doesn’t do much – and there are only six courses (they will take a very long time to master, though) – but it does what it advertises so well that it’s a surprisingly decent game. Remake or Remaster? A collection of Irritating Electric Stick on N64, Irritating Stick on PS1 and The Irritating Maze on Neo Geo, perhaps? They could even throw in some clips of the actual show. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Irritating Electric Stick

AeroGauge JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: 30th April 1998 PAL release: 1st May 1998 Developer: Locomotive Corporation Publisher: ASCII N64 Magazine Score: 10% A futuristic racing game, on the same lines of Wipeout, F-Zero and Extreme-G. N64 gave AeroGauge an abysmal score of 10% so I was expecting something especially dreadful from it, but I kind of enjoy it. There are some ways where it’s near enough broken and, like many N64 racers, is light on content, but this is close to being a good game. AeroGauge does have some extreme problems. The AI players are the biggest one due to how they’re essentially “perfect”, from all of them pulling off the boost start to just all doing the perfect route throughout the level. One slight mistake and you’ll spend the whole race in last place. The boost start itself is needlessly complicated (hold A+B before the race starts, let go of B when “go” is said) as well as the in-race boosts (hold Z+A, drift turn, then let go of Z+A and press A), both feeling like cheat codes more than part of the game. These issues fundamentally break playing against the computer. However, the racing itself is just a lot of fun. You don’t drive or hover, you fly through the levels. This separates it from the other sci-fi racing games, and the game managed to be quite exhilarating, even in the fairly pointless time trial qualifying rounds before each race. Oh, and one of the unlockable vehicles is a Nintendo 64 controller, which is a really neat touch – especially as the analogue stick moves as you tilt it. AeroGauge definitely has major issues, but there are some neat ideas here and it really needed a bit more development time. Remake or Remaster? I would like to see another attempt at this. Fix the AI issues to make them more like real people, sort out the various boosts and some more tracks. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play AeroGauge

Tamagotchi World JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Bandai Original Name: 64 de Hakken!! Tamagotchi: Minna de Tamagotchi World N64 Magazine Score: 79% Tamagotchi World (or Discovered at 64! Tamagotchi Everyone at Tamagotchi World for the full translation of the name) is a board game-based video game. Players take turns rolling dice, land on spaces which help or hinder progression and every now and then take part in solo or 4 player minigames. It sounds a lot like Mario Party, but before Mario Party – it’s even made by Hudson Soft. This isn’t just about moving around the board, you have to raise your Tamagotchi as well. After your move, you can input options based on the classic devices such as feed, play, heal and clean poop. You need to maintain your Tamagotchi’s status bars as well as gain points to level up – reaching the max wins you the game. Sometimes your Tamagotchi will refuse what to do, so you’ll need to discipline them. You also have limited credits, which are refilled once you get back to the starting point. It’s an interesting mechanic that gives you a lot more to think about other than rolling and moving. When players land on certain spots, a minigame will be triggered. There are only 10 minigames, but they wouldn’t feel out of place in Mario Party (one even has you spinning the analogue stick as fast as you can). This is an interesting precursor to Mario Party, and the Tamagotchi elements, while still entirely luck based, make it more than just a roll and move game. Remake or Remaster? I feel like this is an interesting little bit of video game history and should be preserved – a Tamagotchi game collection, perhaps? Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Tamagotchi World

I don't really know these Pokémon, but if I saw these designs out of context, I would have guessed that they were all early game Pokémon, not starters. Snivy alone I could see as a starter, but the evolutions just look odd.

Nagano Winter Olympics ’98 JP release: 18th December 1997 NA release: 29th January 1998 PAL release: February 1998 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 32% The first Olympic title on the N64 – and, curiously, the last one on a Nintendo platform until Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Olympic video games are usually collection of simple games based around Olympic Sports, often catering for multiplayer – and while Nagano does the first, it doesn’t really focus on multiplayer. There are 10 sports – some with a few variations and are slow and tedious at best, and outright uninteresting at worst. The Skiing and snowboarding slaloms are best, but they’re both slow with some slight turns as you go through gates. The halfpipe is probably the worst, which has you copying input commands before you jump and your snowboarder doing a trick. The AI is also insanely good at the game, so unless you manage to master the unclear and terrible controls, you’ll be happy if you make it to 15th place. The snowboard slalom is an odd exception, as I fell over a few dozen times and still won by a significant margin. The massive let down in the multiplayer side is the complete lack of any simultaneous events. You all have to take turns setting records. Speed Skating is against an opponent, but in multiplayer you all race against a CPU player. Only curling, which is a turn-based sport, has any kind of interaction between players. On top of that, from what I can tell, each player still needs their own controller. Nagano Winter Olympics is a shoddy sports minigame collection with poor controls and a terrible multiplayer mode. Remake or Remaster? Both older and newer Olympic titles have done a much better job than this. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Nagano Winter Olympics ’98

Flying Dragon JP release: 18th December 1997 NA release: 31st July 1998 PAL release: 25th July 1999 Developer: Culture Brain Publisher: Culture Brain (JP), Natsume (NA/PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 73% A fighting game that feels like it was built with home consoles in mind. This features a more cartoon style than most and adds RPG elements into the mix in the form of items to equip and upgrade. This is a very promising system, but ultimately the fighting itself lets it down. To progress, you repeatedly play tournaments. You’ll get experience for your items as well as money to buy new ones (which can include new special moves). While some of these include clothing, it only affects your stats, not the visuals of your character. As you play more matches, these will “evolve” into new items. It creates a good incentive to play the story mode repeatedly, even if it does feel the same every time – not even the text dialogue at the start of each match changes. There are a bunch of other modes, such as practice and multiplayer modes, so there are plenty of things to do – it’s just that the gameplay itself isn’t up to scratch for it. But Flying Dragon also includes a second fighting game. An additional mode, called “Virtual Hiryu” is also available as a much more traditional fighting game. This features a different cast of characters in a different visual style – more generic taller characters. This lacks the RPG elements but does have other features such as a “grading” system telling you what to do. The fighting feels very similar and still isn’t very good – this one felt even easier to cheese with button mashing, too. In a way, this feels like they didn’t have enough confidence in their main mode and wanted a “normal” way to play as well. Flying Dragon has some interesting features, and is essentially two games in one – the second containing more features and options than most other fighters so far on the N64. It’s just unfortunate that it’s not that fun to play. Remake or Remaster? In Japan, the “Hiryū no Ken” series that this is part of has many games, so a collection to preserve them would be good. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Flying Dragon

@Jonnas here's some more context if you want https://www.eurogamer.net/timesplitters-project-reportedly-began-life-as-battle-royale-pivoted-to-an-expanded-ts2-remake

I think this is where I reached the end of watching the show, so these don't have much meaning to me. Torterra is by far the coolest in terms of design and concept. Although large Pokémon have always been a bit odd in terms of the games, which is probably why scale isn't a factor in how the games are designed.

Snowboard Kids JP release: 12th December 1997 NA release: February 1998 PAL release: 16th March 1998 Developer: Racdym Publisher: Atlus (JP/NA), Nintendo (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 86% In the tutorial, Snowboard Kids makes it clear that this is a racing game without a brake button – it also lacks an acceleration button. Gravity does all the work, leaving you to focus on turning, items and tricks. It has a charming visual style and nice slopes to snowboard down. The turning mechanics are quite unique to Snowboard Kids, as tilting backwards allows for sharper turns. If you hold A to prepare for a jump, you will be unable to turn until you’ve finished jumping – you can also perform tricks to earn coins. These coins (along with those on the tracks) are used to collect weapons and items, and you have one slot for each. I quite like this mechanic, although I found them to be quite unbalanced – some weapons, such as the parachute, sends people flying into the air and keeps them there for a bit too long. There’s also an unavoidable pan item that squashes all of your opponents. This seems to create a situation where one player will often end up in front, with the other three pelting each other, unable to catch up with the leader. It’s a shame as I do like the game’s mechanics, as well as the levels. Instead of lots of similar looking snow tracks, Snowboard Kids mixes things up with other themes, with the cutesy style managing to not make snowboarding on desert slopes look odd. There are six tracks to start with initially, with three more to unlock. When you reach the end of the slope, a chair lift will take you back up to the top – however, the barrier will only open if a chair is ready. If second place isn’t ready, they’ll bonk off the railing just after 1st place enters and 3rd place can sneak in while they recover. It’s a nice little mechanic. There are a few minigames to try out as well. One has you rushing down a slope quickly using the hard-to-steer fan items, one is a target practice challenge and the last is a stunt run – although that doesn’t work very well. Snowboard Kids is a charming game. It’s not one of the best games on the system, but it’s still worth checking out. Remake or Remaster? A remaster of both games combined would be nice – perhaps even throw in the tracks from the very different DS game. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Snowboard Kids

The "remake" (or retelling) of TS2 was what they were trying to pivot to. The plan was seemingly to star off with a Fortnite clone that none of the developers wanted to make, get a budget, and then make the game they wanted to do. When it came to Embracer needing to cut costs, a studio that lied to them and spent years making something they invented to discard to make something else instead was probably an easy choice.