Cube

As long as they keep all characters, especially massive names like Danica Patrick and Football Manager. Although, on a more serious note, I would love if all characters from both games returned (especially Banjo-Kazooie, although that probably won't happen), along with a few new tracks. I quite liked the variety that the extra PC characters gave. If they do have to replace characters due to licensing (such as Wreck-It Ralph), I do hope they keep the car and find another suitable person for it. It's a wrecking ball, so Sega's Angry Birds would work.

Bass Rush: ECOGEAR PowerWorm Championship JP release: 28th April 2000 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Visco Publisher: Visco N64 Magazine Score: N/A The fourth N64 bass fishing game that I’ve covered, and it seems to be the most basic so far. Instead of being able to freely explore the lakes, you pick points from a menu, where the area is a flat water texture, a wall with a photo on it (which you can actually hit with your lure), and sometimes a few objects. You can’t rotate at all, only awkwardly shift slightly to the side. You do have a lot of lures and stuff to choose from (including lots of “PowerWorm” lures). Underwater is much nicer in terms of graphics, featuring some good looking fish and plants, and the view being obscured by the water is really well done. Catching a fish, though, is extremely difficulty, and I was unable to catch any. With so few features and just one basic way to fish, this is the least interesting of the fishing games on N64. Poor Remake or remaster? There are better fishing games. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Bass Rush

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask JP release: 27th April 2000 NA release: 26th October 2000 PAL release: 17th November 2000 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 96% The development of Majora’s Mask was a mess. Nintendo knew they wanted to build upon all the work they did on Ocarina of Time, but the main people involved had different ideas. Shigeru Miyamoto originally planned for a 64DD expansion that reworked the dungeons. Eiji Aonuma protested this, as he thought his original dungeon designs were great, so he was given an impossible task: create a new Zelda game in one year, while Miyamoto worked on his idea separately (which, due to the failure of the 64DD, ended up instead getting released as a bonus disc on GameCube). The development was brutal, and parts of that even make it into the game, with its dark and depressing narrative. Because of the rushed development, it seems that ideas were thrown into the game without being vetted. Really, Majora’s Mask should have been a disaster, yet something magical happened instead: all of these rushed ideas gelled together into something special. It’s still deeply flawed in some ways, but the uniqueness of it shines through all of that. While Ocarina of Time was a game that involved time travel, Majora’s Mask is a game about time. Link gets mugged by a skull kid wearing a mysterious mask, and ends up in the twisted land of Termina. Here, the moon is on course to crash into Clock Town in only three days. A lot of the core elements are built around the three day cycle, with things being reset at the end of the three days as you travel back in time to the start of the first day. This system allows for the characters to have a schedule. They’ll move around, and some side quests require talking to specific people at the right time. This makes the world feel much more alive, and the re-use of many character models from Ocarina of Time doesn’t feel like an issue as the characters now have personalities. To help keep track of this, you have a notebook which details important encounters. There are some frustrating elements to the system, though. Sometimes it can feel like you’ve wasted a lot of time by trying to complete a portion of the game where you don’t have access to everything you need, or you started the quest too late, as you then have to reset your progress in the quest when you travel back in time – consumables also vanish, so you have to waste a bit of time collecting some arrows and bombs each time. Rupees aren’t an issue, as you can store them in a bank (as your balance is written on your bank card, the bank remembers your amount), but losing other consumables doesn’t seem to add anything to the game. That said, it’s really only arrows that matter. Overall, though, I think the time mechanics of the game work wonderfully, and the flaws are an acceptable cost for the way it makes the world feel alive, and the unique way the game makes you think at handling tasks. I do think it leads to people looking up guides more, as there’s less room for figuring it out yourself when you have to worry about a time limit, particularly in dungeons. Majora’s Mask only has four main dungeons, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s another thing that contributes to what makes Majora’s Mask unique. These four dungeons do feel much bigger and more difficult than the ones in Ocarina of Time, and have some vast open segments, such as the second dungeon having a large central room. They feel like complex machines rather than a series of rooms, and a few side quests also involve the dungeons. Once you’ve completed the dungeon, the overworld area around the dungeon also changes – it does what people were expecting Zora’s Domain to do in Ocarina of Time. The area changes and there’s a lot more dialogue, some minigames, and additional quests. Because of the time reset mechanic, you’ll have to defeat the boss again to make the changes happen again, but you can skip right to the boss when you enter a dungeon after you’ve defeated the boss once. So much of the game is now in the overworld, which feels so much more like a living world. One large part of the game is masks, the key ones being the three main transformation masks. These allow Link to be a Deku Scrub, Goron, and Zora, each with their own movement mechanics and abilities. They’re all an absolute joy to use, with the Deku’s spin providing great movements, especially when hopping, the Goron’s roll being difficult but satisfying to roll, and the Zora’s swimming abilities making underwater sections an absolute joy – the swimming is so much fun, that the area you get it is a large ocean because they know people will just swim around for a while. The only slight annoyance is that these take up one of your three item slots, and there are far more items overall in Majora’s Mask. The version I’m playing adds the transformation masks to the D-pad (along with the Ocarina of Time), which is a simple but effective solution that would even be useful on an N64 controller. But there are also a ton of additional masks to unlock during the game, some are required, but a lot are optional. They’re very mixed in terms of what they offer. You have functional ones like the blast mask, which is a respawning bomb strapped to your face (and handily causes no damage if you have your shield up), and the bunny hood that makes Link run faster. Some are glorified keys, opening up doors and paths. A few can be used for a heart piece, and one in particular makes a single part of a side-quest easier, but you can’t get it without completing the side-quest first. That said, while some have little use, the journey of getting the masks is rewarding in itself, so it’s more of a unique extra reward rather than directly giving you a heart piece or rupees. You can also find new dialogue from each mask by talking to NPCs, so it’s all rather cosy. Majora’s Mask is a special game. It has some very interesting mechanics that, while flawed, provide an extremely unique and unforgettable experience. With a longer development cycle, I think some of this would have ended up being watered down, and the game would lose some of what makes it so great. Fave Remake or remaster? An official remaster would be amazing. Majora’s Mask 3D looks amazing, but messes up the movement of multiple transformations as well as a host of other unwelcome changes, and the graphics don’t always match the tone. Spruce up the original with some better textures, add camera control, use the d-pad for masks and perhaps add in a few extras (like more mask-related dialogue), but don’t mess with the core stuff. The two fan-made ports are brilliant. Official Ways to get the game There is no way to buy a new copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-releases 2009: Wii Virtual Console 2015: Majora’s Mask 3d (Virtual Console) 2016: Wii U Virtual Console 2022: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

F-Zero X Expansion Kit JP release: 21st April 2000 NA release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A One of the big possibilities for the 64DD was the ability to add new content to games. Each time the device got delayed, more and more of these plans were shifted. These projects ended up being abandoned, reworked into an N64 cartridge game, or transformed into a sequel (Mario Party was designed with the 64DD in mind, but the add-on eventually became Mario Party 2). As a result, F-Zero X ended up being the only N64 cartridge game to get an expansion via the 64DD. As I’ve gone over the brilliant gameplay before, I’ll focus on what was added in this pack. First up is the ability to make new ships choosing different body, cockpit, and wing designs, change colours and add some basic patterns, as well as picking the stats for the vehicle. You then have to replace one of the current ships with the new one (you can do this multiple times). It’s quite basic, but also a nice extra, and a feature that did end up returning for F-Zero GX. The colour of the ship didn’t seem to load during races for me, but that’s likely an emulator issue. The Expansion Kit also came with two new cups, featuring some great tracks. These tracks are challenging without feeling cheap, and also have some fun designs, such as a track shaped like Japan (with great Japanese-style music), a star, and one called “Big Foot” that’s…a big foot. They’re a ton of fun to race on, and seem to have a bit more spectacle, with parts of tracks crossing near each other. Another small but welcome addition to the tracks is that the Rainbow Road track in the original game now has new music, a wonderful rendition of the Mario Kart Rainbow Road music. But the key feature of this kit is the track editor, letting you create your own courses to race on. The editor is very fiddly to use at first, and not particularly intuitive, but once you get to grips with it, there is a surprising amount of stuff that can be done. All the different styles of track are here, including half-pipes, full pipes, and cylinders, and you can also add in loops and apply track types to that, alongside adjusting heights and widths of the track. It’s very robust. You can also add a bit of visual flair, picking the ground and sky designs, and adding billboards and buildings to the sides of the track, plus pick the music. You can then assign them to the six slots to create a cup to race on, and the tracks really do feel like proper tracks – the parts all blend together well, and it doesn’t come across as a bunch of parts one after the other. It’s amazingly well done. The editor also lets you do things that the game doesn’t quite like – I made a very wide cylinder and the camera went through it, and I also made a track with a very steep decline and all the CPU racers had died after the second time round. Still, it’s great that the editor at least lets you try rather than preventing you from doing it altogether. The F-Zero X Expansion Kit takes an already great game and makes it even better. The track editor is definitely a highlight, but the two new cups are also great, with the vehicle editor being a nice add-on as well. It’s a massive shame that Nintendo have never used the complete version of F-Zero X on either the Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online. Fans have made a combined cartridge version that runs on original N64 consoles, so it’s definitely doable without needing to emulate any 64DD features. I feel like Nintendo’s dislike of acknowledging its failures is the main reason this will never have an official re-release. Fave Remake or remaster? A re-release would be great. I think a remake of F-Zero GX with tracks and features from F-Zero X and this would be phenomenal, though. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get F-Zero X Expansion Kit

Rat Attack! PAL release: 21st April 2000 NA release: 12th September 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Pure Publisher: Mindscape N64 Magazine Score: 70% Rat Attack! is a very simple game. It’s a traditional arcade-style game where you control a cat and draw boxes to capture rats before dropping them off in a trap once you’ve captured a certain number of rats, you move on to the next level and repeat the process. It’s a decent concept and is enjoyable enough. The graphics are ugly in a way that’s hard to describe, and the 2D rats make it difficult to determine their position at times, meaning you’ll accidentally walk into them and lose health. As the game progresses, you’ll reach new areas, which introduce new obstacles like fans, dogs and the dreaded hoover. On top of catching rats, you also have to make sure they don’t eat all the objects in the room, if they do, then it’s game over. The game gets quite frantic and is very difficult at times. A decent enough game, even if there isn’t a lot to it. Fine Remake or remaster? With clearer graphics and a bit more variety, this could be a fun little downloadable game. Perhaps even a “demake” with a classic arcade style to it. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Rat Attack.

Rantarō the Ninja Boy 64 Game Gallery JP release: 21st April 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Culture Brain Publisher: Culture Brain Original Name: Nintama Rantarō 64 Game Gallery N64 Magazine Score: N/A Rantarō the Ninja Boy is a Japanese anime about a young ninja. The N64 game, based on the show, is a collection of simple puzzle games where you recreate pictures of animals and characters from the series. There are three main modes in the game. The main mode is a block-pushing challenge, where you move blocks onto the correct parts of a picture while avoiding obstacles. You can also use a hookshot to pull blocks towards you, adding a tiny bit of variety to the gameplay. Another mode features pieces of the image falling from the top of the screen, and you need to move them into the correct column. There’s also a basic jigsaw puzzle mode with a 4×4 grid of squares. As a simple puzzle game aimed at children, it serves its purpose. However, it feels more like a throwaway PC compilation rather than something that stands out. Poor Remake or remaster? Nothing interesting here. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Rantarō the Ninja Boy 64 Game Gallery

Yosuke Ide’s Mahjong Cram School JP release: 21st April 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Seta Publisher: Seta Original Name: Ide Yosuke no Mahjong Juku N64 Magazine Score: N/A This is the last Mahjong game released for the Nintendo 64, and it offers a polished presentation, featuring 3D graphics with your opponents standing around a table. It features a cast of characters to play against and a campaign mode that lets you unlock more opponents as you progress. Your opponents will also occasionally share their thoughts on their current situation or explain their next move, adding a bit of personality to each match. The interface is the most user-friendly of the Mahjong games on the N64. A helpful menu appears when you’re able to take a tile, clearly showing the sets you’re working on. Another nice feature is the ability to press a button for the top down 2D view you get in all the other mahjong games. The display of your tiles on the bottom part of the screen also match up with the 2D view, which is a nice little touch. Though I’m still not very good at Mahjong, this seems like a nice package for fans of the game. Fine Remake or remaster? Clubhouse Games will do the job for most people. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Yosuke Ide’s Mahjong Cram School

One interesting thing about the Concord one is that none of these characters were in the game. So either they came up with more characters, or these characters were planned future content (which is the more likely option). I think it would be the icing on the cake if people end up really liking the characters in this episode.

Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs NA release: 14th April 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Climax Publisher: Crave N64 Magazine Score: 73% Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs is a sort of port of the 1998 PC game Battlezone. It’s a hybrid of a vehicle-based first person shooter and a real time strategy. It’s very ambitious kind of game to port to the N64. However, it’s not a direct port, as the was mostly rebuilt for N64. It features the standard campaigns from the PC version and a short additional campaign of its own. The game’s menu is rather confusing, it has what looks like a difficulty menu of Arcade, Pilot and Commander; yet these are different moves. Arcade is its own separate mode of killing waves of enemies. Pilot and Commander follow the same campaign, but with objectives based on either driving or more focused on giving orders (although you still do a bit of both in each campaign). When it comes to piloting the vehicles, the controls are solid. You move using the C-buttons, aim with the analogue stick, shoot with Z, and use the jump thrusters (often used to slow down descents). Aiming is quite difficult, though, as your weapons are all quite slow, so you need to adjust your aim to try and hit your fast-moving targets. It does have a good sense of speed. You can also jump out of your vehicle and walk around, this is mainly to use the most powerful weapon in the game: the sniper rifle (which you carry on your person and has very limited ammo). For the RTS side of the game, you unfortunately don’t swap views to issue troop orders. You have to be close to what unit you command and issue orders with the D-Pad. It’s a bit out of the way, but it gets the job done. It is a limited system, as you can’t queue tasks or issue multiple orders at a time, which is definitely a faff when you have to drive away from the units to complete objectives. While it sounds promising and the core systems work well, the missions themselves are still structured like an RTS game, although a bit simpler. This means enemy units take time to build up and to get to you. So when you have to defend an area, you can be waiting 5 minutes for an enemy to show up. In a typical RTS, you’ll be doing multiple tasks at once so you’re not just twiddling your thumbs, but this is just one thing at a time. The graphics also get in the way. There’s an immense amount of fog, which is made worse by a useless radar (which is your only map). You have to follow waypoints which seems simple enough, but then a giant mountain will appear out of nowhere, and it can sometimes take half an hour to figure out the way past it. Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs is definitely an interesting game and the core gameplay was translated really well to the N64, but poor level design really hampers the experience. Fine Remake or remaster? There’s a remake of the PC version called BattleZone 98 Redux. Hopefully the N64 levels get added in at some point. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get the N64 version of Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs, but a remake of the PC version is on GOG and Steam.

There are already developer awards, such as the D.I.C.E. Awards. GoldenEye won the first Game of the Year award.

All-Star Baseball 2001 NA release: 31st March 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: High Voltage Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: N/A For All-Star Baseball 2000, I noted that the CPU didn’t seem way too good, a rare thing for a baseball game on N64. This seems to revert back to the unbeatable (to me) CPU players. Hitting the ball is once again incredibly hard outside of the hitting practice (it baffles me, how different practice is to the actual game), and the CPU will catch it almost every time. I did test out an easier batting method, where the aiming is removed. I was expecting the game to automatically assist you in hitting the ball, but it doesn’t do all that much. Timing is also not that important, as I decided to test it out with save states – no matter the timing of my button press, the ball always landed in the exact same place. Fine Remake or remaster? Newer baseball games likely do a better job. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get All-Star Baseball 2001

Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing JP release: 31st March 2000 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: HAL Publisher: Nintendo Original Name: Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 Kettehan! N64 Magazine Score: N/A Shigesato Itoi’s most famous contribution to gaming is the Mother/Earthbound series. However, he also loved the concept of a game that allowed fishing to be casual, but also needed skills of people who were into fishing. No. 1 Bass Fishing was originally on the SNES, with Satellaview compatibility to download extra content to take part in online tournaments, with some real-life prizes. The N64 version (sometimes referred to as the “Definitive Version”) is a remake that brings it into 3D. No 1 Bass Fishing is a game you play at your own pace. The aim is to collect big fish to amass acorns (currency) to buy new stuff, and you can do this at three difficulty levels. Easy makes it easier to lure and catch fish, but the bigger fish will be much harder to find. You can also pick between when you’re allowed to fish – either weekdays or just weekends, based on the in-game clock. You can walk around a little village, or take a boat onto a lake. The difficult part is finding a fish. You’ll need to learn about the lake’s conditions and where fish are likely to be, either from talking to the animal NPCs, or based on your own knowledge of fishing (which, for me, is zero). One of the marketing parts of the game is that it’s like real life fishing: a child can catch a few fish by being lucky, but it takes someone who knows what to do to be able to catch them consistently. Being a child when it comes to fishing, I was able only able to catch one fish. The controls are quite easy, and you don’t need to do technical stuff like managing tension. The lure camera helps you track the fish’s progress (as well as seeing around the lure when looking for fish). For what the game sets out to do, it does it well. It’s just that a game for families where the kids will play a bit and then get someone that knows about fishing to help them out is a very niche market. Fun Remake or remaster? With some more difficulty settings, this could do well on Switch – it has some Animal Crossing vibes. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing

Daikatana JP release: 31st March 2000 PAL release: 26th May 2000 NA release: 1st August 2001 Developer: Ion Storm, Kemco Publisher: Kemco N64 Magazine Score: 67% John Romero’s Daikatana was supposed to be the next biggest thing in video games. A new, much more cinematic, first person shooter from the creator of DOOM and Quake, without any higher ups getting in the way of his creative vision. This was more story-focused, with other characters fighting alongside you. Then it came out and it just fizzled away, with many claims of it being one of the “worst games ever”. The N64 version of the game is very different, including different level design. Music was cut back, and the voice acting removed. The characters that were supposed to fight alongside you just vanish when you have control of the game, only popping back up in cutscenes. Interestingly, the last change is seen as favourable – on PC they had very low health and were very dumb, meaning they would constantly die, and result in a game over. I played Daikatana on N64 when I was younger – I think my cousin had it. We got around two minutes into the game, and couldn’t work out how to get past a door that looked like you needed to crouch under it, but there’s no crouch in the button config – which is rather robust, and includes multiple aim options (such as turning off inverted aiming, and disabling the camera snapping back to facing forward). I encountered the same issue playing now, and when I looked it up, it turned out that pressing A and R makes you crouch. The most baffling thing about the game not explaining this, is that a few moments later you’re presented with a locked door and a button. As you approach, the game pauses to explain that the door is locked, and the button next to it can be used to open it. There’s a few other moments where you get an overly long cutscene explaining the obvious. As the main big ideas for Daikatana were mainly in the cinematics and presentation, the N64 is left with just a really, really boring Quake clone. The levels’ design is all over the place, with some over before you know it, and others that are maze-like with buttons that do things elsewhere. Even though this is a time-travelling adventure, the enemies are boring to fight, and the weapons – although very varied – are rather dull to use. You see, the weapons include sci-fi guns, crossbows, regular guns, and magic staffs. It’s really cool having weapons from different time periods, it’s just a shame they all lack a punch. How they managed to make an explosive ballista you carry around boring, I have no idea. One interesting note with the weapons, is that the PC version has one particular weapon that can be used throughout most of the game, yet on N64 you can only use it for a very brief period at the end of the game: the magical sword Daikatana. You still have it on you for most of the game, and will use it in cutscenes (which have some of the worst animations I’ve ever seen in a game), but for some reason you can’t use it in gameplay. Is Daikatana one of the worst games ever? It’s not even close. It’s just a game that was hyped up, and turned out to be painfully average. Fine Remake or remaster? There are some interesting ideas in Daikatana. It would need a complete remake, but I think it could be turned into something very enjoyable. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get the N64 version of Daikatana, but the PC version is available on GoG – be sure to get the unofficial 1.3 update as well.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards JP release: 24th March 2000 NA release: 27th June 2000 PAL release: 22nd June 2001 Developer: HAL Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 72% In terms of N64 Magazine, Kirby 64 is rather interesting in that it got two non-import reviews. They originally wrote a UK review ready for the September 2000 European release date, but at the last minute it was delayed until June 2001, a year after Japan and North America. Kirby 64 is a 2D platformer with 3D elements, with the 3D implemented in some fun ways, and never getting in the way of the gameplay. With this being a Kirby game (of which I’ve somehow played none of before), transformations are a key element. Swallow an enemy and you gain their power. In Kirby 64, you can also merge that enemy into a disc to throw at another enemy, creating a new disc that contains both powers for you to absorb, letting you create combinations of different powers. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many base powers, leading to limited combinations (with some of those feeling quite useless). It’s also trial and error to work out which enemies count as having special powers. There are enemies that have projectiles, a sea creature that shoots little lasers, a mole-like creature that digs through ground, and more that don’t class as having a power, yet a little cactus does. As always, though, Kirby has a lot of charm. The levels are lovely – if easy- and there’s a lovely sense of joy throughout the game. Each level has three Crystal Shards to find, usually with one well hidden (such as down a pit, or needing a specific ability to get to). Finding these will unlock the secret final boss. It’s a charming game, but I wish there was a bit more to it. Fun Remake or remaster? A remaster with official widescreen and a less intrusive HUD option would be nice. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to buy a new copy of Kirby 64, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-relelases 2008: Wii Virtual Console 2012: Kirby’s Dream Collection (Wii) 2015: Wii U Virtual Console 2022: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

Top Gear Hyper-Bike JP release: 17th March 2000 NA release: 27th March 2000 PAL release: 2000 Developer: Snowblind Publisher: Kemco N64 Magazine Score: 64% The last of the Top Gear games on N64, and the one that I found myself having the most fun with (despite not liking the catch-up style racing). While the game isn’t on futuristic motorbikes, it’s much more over the top than the Supercross games. The levels are fairly open with lots of shortcuts to discover, and a large part of the game seems to be working out the best route over the terrain, to skip corners and get to the next checkpoint. There’s an interesting sense of freedom. The controls are also fun, with them being responsive and easy to use. Steering isn’t an issue, and you can zoom around objects really well. You can collect boosts on the track to speed you up. The tracks are also nicely varied, and there’s a few bonus “regular” bike tracks to unlock as well – not to mention a space level. Hyper-Bike has a unique way of doing textures on N64, in a way that most emulators can’t replicate. In order to provide more detail than you usually get with textures on N64, it’s constantly loading in chunks, which looks messy in screenshots, but is surprisingly smooth while playing the game, and the speed of the game itself certainly helps. I do wish there was a standard race mode, but Hyper-Bike is good fun. Fun Remake or remaster? A Top Gear collection would be nice. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Top Gear Hyper-Bike.

Die Hard 64 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Bits Studios Publisher: Fox Interactive N64 Magazine Score: N/A After a good relationship with Nintendo for their SNES and Game Boy games, Bits studios put a ton of faith into the Nintendo 64, planning three massive games for the system: Riqa, Muzzle Velocity, and Thieves World, with the 64DD as a big focus. None of these games ended up releasing on the N64. Riqa ended up being cancelled, but I’ll speak more on that in a later article. Thieves World was a stealth-focused game, with the plan of having no weapons. Bits couldn’t figure out the gameplay, so it was eventually rebooted as Rogue Ops, which came out on GameCube, PS2, and Xbox. Muzzle Velocity was originally going to be a new IP, before getting a licence to use: Speed 2: Cruise Control. When that film was a flop, it then moved over to being a Die Hard game (although it’s interesting that Speed 2 was almost Die Hard 3). The plans of the game were originally colossal, with over 30 levels, before a new producer realised how large the task would be, and how long it would have taken. The prototype offers a bunch of levels to roam around, but doesn’t really show much about what you would be doing within them. From the design of them, it looks to be a more objective-style game, with some free-roaming levels. There’s a really neat level inside a science museum, which features some moving displays, and the Nakatomi Plaza makes a return – although there’s no story in the prototype, these levels were adapted into the GameCube version (although the science museum is oddly less impressive in the final game). There’s some test levels that let you play with more of the guns, which feel varied and fun to use. If you manage to get a headshot, you’ll also be treated to a slow-mo shot of the camera spinning around the bullet until it lands in the enemy’s head. Die Hard 64 seems like it would have been a good FPS game, if they managed to make it in time on the N64. However, as time crept on, the N64 was the least attractive platform for publishers, so like Rogue Ops, it was rebooted into another game for the GameCube (and other platforms), Die Hard: Vendetta. Fun Should it be finished? It sort of was, as Die Hard: Vendetta, but it would be interesting to see more of the original plans – especially when it was Muzzle Velocity, which involved a large world to patrol during a crisis.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater NA release: 15th March 2000 PAL release: 24th March 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Neversoft, Edge of Reality Publisher: Activision N64 Magazine Score: 86% This little game became a massive hit, with Tony Hawk’s games possibly being the most universally loved and well regarded sporting franchises. I personally started with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 on GameCube, and adored it (yet I’ve oddly never touched the franchise since), and I found it difficult to go back to this – it certainly doesn’t help that the N64 version features a gutted soundtrack. In terms of movement and tricks, that’s something that the series managed to pull off from the very start. The game still feels smooth and responsive, and landing tricks has the right amount of leniency. Stringing together combos is more difficult, due to the lack of features added later on, but the important part is that it’s all still fun. What I personally dislike, though, is the structure of the game. You get dumped into levels for only 2 minutes at a time, with five challenges to complete: two high scores to beat, find the letters S-K-A-T-E, smash 5 things and find a hidden tape. As the developers had to figure out how the core gameplay would work, it does make a lot of sense for the first game in the series. While I didn’t get on with the game overall, I can definitively appreciate it for what it did, and that it was a solid start that (for a time) Neversoft were able to build up from. You can see some interesting experimentation in the levels – such as the linear Downhill Jam level, which eventually became the basis for a Wii game – as they were figuring out what the franchise was. The important thing was that they nailed the feel of skateboarding. Fun Remake or remaster? Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater got an atrocious remaster. Thankfully, it then later got a wonderful remake in “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2”. Official ways to get the game. The remake of 1 & 2 is available on most modern platforms.

CyberTiger NA release: 8th March 2000 PAL release: 24th March 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Saffire Publisher: EA N64 Magazine Score: 72% Considering that Mario Golf was a surprisingly serious golf game, it’s appropriate that the Tiger Woods game on N64 is completely silly. This was developed after Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf on the PlayStation, so I guess EA wanted to experiment a little, with the N64 only getting CyberTiger instead of the more serious games. And CyberTiger truly is a strange game. If you select the free camera option, there’s a “Head Pump” option that makes your golfer’s head bigger, which is kept during gameplay. There’s no reason, it’s just there. Also surprising with the camera is the ability to fly over the entire course – not just the hole you’re on. This does mean that the game is incredibly quick at moving between holes, although I feel like they could have done something else with this (the ability to walk around, a buggy mode, speed golf). The controls are also nice and simple. Push the analogue stick up to charge as a percentage increase up to 100% (although it vanishes after 70%, so you have to time the final part yourself), then swing down. It works surprisingly well, far better than The Glory of St Andrews. It also makes the game incredibly snappy, making it surprisingly good fun. One thing that is fascinating, is how different this is from the PlayStation version of CyberTiger. The PS1 version is slow and flat – with sprites and not 3D golfers, and flatter looking holes. There’s loading between each hole as well. The PS1 version does, however, have six courses while the N64 has three. Oddly, one of the three kept is a Volcano course which can only be unlocked with a cheat code. That said, the N64 version being quick and snappy is what makes the game enjoyable. Fun Remake or remaster? I think a refined version could be fun – especially if they can add split-screen co-op with you all playing at once. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get CyberTiger.

Hydro Thunder NA release: 6th March 2000 PAL release: 14th May 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Eurocom Publisher: Midway N64 Magazine Score: 84% I’ve expressed my dislike of “catchup” racing games where it takes most of the race to even reach the leaders, yet sometimes, a racing game can be so enjoyable, that I can look past that part of the game and just enjoy the core racing experience. Hydro Thunder is one of those games. Hydro Thunder is incredibly fast, with very tight controls. Everything around you also moves swiftly, in a purposefully unrealistic way – large patrol boats will try to stop you racing, but will drift, take jumps, and be barged into the air just like all the other racers. Every moment is frantic and over-the-top, in a hugely enjoyable way. I think what makes Hydro Thunder work so well is the courses – they’re all well designed, with some interesting themes. Most of them are point A to point B races, and they really do feel like their own mini adventure, so much so that it feels you’re enjoying the level more than the actual racing. It’s an incredibly fun and smooth experience. Fun Remake or remaster? Take Hydro Thunder Hurricane, remaster that, add the N64 tracks, and you’d have a great game. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Hydro Thunder.

South Park Rally NA release: 28th February 2000 PAL release: 3rd March 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Tantalus Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 88% With how many low effort, dime-a-dozen licensed Mario Kart clones out there, South Park Rally deserves recognition for trying something new. Tracks in South Park aren’t circuits, but rather tiny open maps with multiple routes. Dotted across the map are checkpoints, which are in different places in each mode (and can be randomised as an option), meaning you may have to move back on yourself, and can take a different route from your opponents’. It’s a shame, then, that the minimap is so useless. In this game, the ability to quickly glance at the map, identify where you are and where you need to go, is vital. Unfortunately, everyone on a map is an arrow, with yours being slightly bigger, it’s not enough of a visual difference to be useful when you’re approaching a junction and need to quickly decide which way to go. South Park Rally has a lot of fun with its concept, as there are a ton of different game modes. There’s not a huge amount of variety in them – some involving collecting objects, some where you collect an object and then have to make it through all checkpoints, others have you all fighting for one object – but it’s a really neat idea that makes the game work well as a party game, especially as you all have the same map issues (unlike the CPUs, who know exactly where to go). Fun Remake or remaster? A mode like this in the next Mario Kart would be amazing. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get South Park Rally.

Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 NA release: 28th February 2000 PAL release: 19th September 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Acclaim Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 53% Not long after EA’s Supercross 2000 comes Acclaim’s Supercross 2000. This is very similar in terms of modes and features, but the handling feels quite different, with this being much easier to control. It also feels less “on rails”, even though it still has invisible walls to stop you going off track. There’s plenty of different stadiums to race in, along with some bigger outdoor tracks, and it feels fine. The sound is horrendous, though, with the bikes sounding like constantly farting flies. There’s also a simple, but restrictive, track editor. The freestyle stunt mode includes a moon level, which is an added bonus. Fine Remake or remaster? There are better motorbike games. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000

SimCity 64 JP release: 23rd February 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: HAL Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A As one of the three actual games released on the 64DD, SimCity 64 is a full fledged SimCity (and not a port, like SimCity 2000), in 3D for the first time. The graphics, while primitive, have a colourful and charming style to them, and the cities are rather vast, although you can’t zoom out as much as I would have liked. As with the SNES SimCity, Dr. Wright advises you on your journey as mayor of a new city. One significant feature of SimCity 64 is the ability to walk around your city. Cars drive around, while 2D sims walk about and do their jobs. I absolutely adore this feature, as it makes your city feel real, yet it still isn’t a main feature of city builders to this day. Cities Skylines had it as a hidden feature (the sequel doesn’t), but it’s not integrated into the gameplay. In SimCity 64, you can talk to your residents to find out what your city needs, and play hide-and-seek against some for extra cash. You can even create your own sims in Mario Artist Paint Studio and import them. On top of having lots of different landscapes to work from, there are also 15 scenarios to work through, giving you a lot to do with the game. And if you do get bored, you can always turn on a disaster and watch chaos. I do wish there were a few more Nintendo touches (there’s no Bowser attack), but for consoles at the time, it was a very impressive version of SimCity. Fun Remake or remaster? It would be nice to have a remaster of this SimCity, perhaps with better zoom and draw distance. Or even a new SimCity from Nintendo. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get SimCity 64.

Mario Artist Talent Studio JP release: 23rd February 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A This 64DD software is quite fascinating in that it’s actually an important step in Nintendo’s history. Miyamoto has always wanted to let players create avatars and do silly things with them, even since the Famicom Disk System, and this could have been something special, if done right. Not that it wasn’t done right in the software – it’s just that it was on the 64DD, too late into the N64’s life. There are three distinct parts of Talent Studio. The first part of Talent Studio is creating avatars. There are two different editing suites here: one for the face, one for the body. The interface is nice and simple, but the options are quite mind-boggling, with a ton of stuff you can edit, and that’s on top of being able to paint the face yourself. You can import elements from Mario Artist Paint Studio, connect a camera via a special capture device cartridge, or use a Game Boy Camera. Then you can add all sorts of hair and accessories. The body portion of the software has a lot of options to adjust the style of the body, as well as clothes which can contain patterns and designs (which can be imported). There’s a few Nintendo-related items in here, as well. You can also record your own voice for the Talent, although via a standard microphone plugged into the capture cart, and not the N64’s VMU microphone. In Show Time you can watch a load of animations showing off your Talent. They’re quite amusing, with your Talent being rather useless and pathetic, although there’s only one animation for a set routine. There’s a vibe of the weirdness of Tomodachi Life in this mode. Elsewhere in the package is a movie maker. While you can only have three “actors” (only one can appear at a time) and four backgrounds, you can apply a ton of animations, camera movements, effects, text, and sounds, to create simple little animated shorts. It’s quite complex software with a lot of elements to figure out, including a tool for making your own animations. For the Mario Artist’s dream of being a game creation suite, this was likely the character creation and cut-scene parts. Parts of Talent Studio were reused for a cancelled GameCube game called Stage Debut, where your character would share a world with Nintendo characters, then Miyamoto’s plans for an avatar system finally took off with the much simpler Miis on the Wii. Fun Remake or remaster? It would be interesting to see all parts of the Mario Artist Game Studio. Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Mario Artist Talent Studio

Randnet Disk JP release: 23rd February 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: N/A The Randnet Disk for the 64DD isn’t really a game, but I thought it was interesting enough to talk about. It’s a software disk that is essentially a web browser and email client. As the Randnet service is down, there isn’t a lot that can be done, but I was able to mess around a little with the menu, along with the help pages which use the browser. While you could use the N64 mouse and the N64 keyboard (which was sold separately alongside this disk), a good deal of effort was put into allowing text input on a controller. The stick is used to narrow your selection to a couple of letters, while you can use the A button and C-buttons to pick one of those letters, or a shortcut for something else (such as www. or .com). It’s a surprisingly nice way to input text, and it’s a shame this wasn’t used in other N64 games. The browser is basic, but most were at the time anyway. From the help pages, it does its job just fine. There were some big plans for this, such as online play, watching others play games, and a music streaming service, but as the 64DD was short-lived, so was this. I also think it shows how botched together the 64DD ended up being, that this wasn’t released alongside the system itself. ? Remake or remaster? A group called Randnet+ is working on getting Randnet to work, allowing for the sharing of items from Mario Artist, and letting the browser work. They’re also recreating some of the pages the Randnet Disk directly linked to, so we’ll be able to see what it actually did (it probably won’t be able to load most modern websites). Official ways to get the game. There’s no official way to get Randnet Disk.

It looks like no Expansion Kit music and no version from the F-Zero X Guitar Arrange Edition. I wasn't expecting them, but it would be nice to have comprehensive releases if they're only doing one a week.