Cube

Crazy that you will be able to buy Croc on the Switch, but not Super Mario 64. Even crazier is that Croc is getting a much better treatment than the version of SM64 that was temporarily available on Switch.

Rally Challenge 2000 JP release: 6th August 1999 NA release: 30th June 2000 PAL release: N/A Developer: Genki Publisher: Imagineer (JP), SouthPeak (NA) N64 Magazine Score: 61% Released in Japan as Rally 99, Rally Challenge 2000 is a racing game with a rally theme. While it is an arcade-style racer, it features some simulation-like elements, such as how parts of the car can become damaged, which alter turning and speed. You can play in arcade mode (where other racers start far ahead of you) or compete in a tournament for the best time – although there are still CPU racers in that. However, their performance in the race does not reflect a time – you can overtake someone who started before you but still lose to them when looking at the times after the race. The most notable thing about Rally Challenge 2000 are the reflections on the car windows, which reflect the world around them, on all of the windows. It looks impressive on the N64, but was less noticeable in the game’s original blurry form (many games note how it was unusually blurry, even for an N64 game). It is a bit too clean looking, but still impressive. Plus, I could drive a car advertising Sony MiniDiscs. Fine Remake or remaster? Nothing special for this one. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Rally Challenge 2000.

Even though the PC version has a ton of extra features, I always preferred the N64 version just because passing a controller around is far more suited for pass n play multiplayer (even with all the updates the original got over the years, good controller support was never added to it). So this is a very welcome release.

Hybrid Heaven JP release: 5th August 1999 NA release: 31st August 1999 PAL release: 24th September 1999 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 83% Hybrid Heaven was hyped up a lot – while the PlayStation got Metal Gear Solid, Konami were also developing Hybrid Heaven for the N64 for its big action game featuring a complex plot. Hybrid Heaven didn’t perform anywhere near as well as Metal Gear Solid, though, and is not more of a cult classic, and even gets overlooked when people talk about RPG games on the N64 – as the game itself is a hybrid of action parts and RPG fighting. The game starts off with a confusing cutscene, introducing what seems to be the main character before someone else shoots him. You start the game as Mr. Diaz before an early twist reveals that you’re actually the original Johnny Slater – the guy you killed in the opening cutscene while disguised as him. An alien has betrayed his people and is creating improved clones to take over the world, however there’s a lot more depth and nuance, and your actions have the clones (called Hybrids) questioning various things about themselves and humans. There are many revelations and twists, and it’s a fascinating story. That said, I don’t think the personality of the characters shine through as much as they could – even the box art does a better job at that. While roaming about the levels, you’ll encounter robots that you can shoot. Your gun feels like a peashooter, and you just have the single gun throughout the game. The enemies also respawn, so I found that the best thing to do was to quickly zig zag and run past them. Some of these enemies (all various robots) are positioned to shoot your instantly as a room loads, before you have time to move. It’s all quite frustrating. Luckily, this isn’t how you fight the main enemies of the game, the Hybrids. These Hybrids can look human, but most you encounter are various alien designs – using DNA of animals and other aliens to create “bio weapons”. All of them have been imbued with the knowledge of wrestling, as this is the main form of combat used – but it’s not like any typical wrestling game either, as it’s much more tactical and sort of turn based. You move around in real time as a bar fills up, past a certain point you can start an attack, but wait, and you get more power behind your attack (later on in the game, you can store multiple full bars to perform combos or attacks in quick succession). There are a massive amount of punches and kicks for you to select, and if you grapple, you can perform other attacks like headbutts and suplexes. When an enemy attacks, the game pauses and you can select a form of defence you want to try. It’s a fascinating system, and extremely in depth, but…each single fight takes 5-10 minutes. It’s exhausting, and you’ll likely enter the next room and have to do another. Each fight is very similar, and as pretty much every room is an empty square, the environment doesn’t change anything about the fight, either. Each battle feels almost the same, with the main differences being a few enemies with annoying habits, like ones that heal (you can’t see enemy health) and ones that turn invisible. There’s an impressive amount of levelling up to do as well, each body part levels up independently (with separate stats for offence and defence), you have an overall level, and you have a chance to learn a new move when an enemy uses it on you. It’s all extremely well made – it’s just a bit too much. The biggest problem with the game, however, is simply navigating the levels. It starts out fine, with a fairly linear structure, but it seems the developers use the level design to play tricks on you. In the second chapter, as you’re running away from a large creature, you encounter a narrow platform and a bottomless pit – the first in the game. As you’re running, the camera changes and you will fall into the pit. Luckily, platforming isn’t a huge part of the game, but this is the first example of the game messing with you. When you have to hunt for the “navigator”, there are two nasty examples. First, there’s a section with a rounded area with lots of similar rooms. One huge problem in the game is that rooms look similar, and after a fight, it’s pretty much a guess if you’re going to pick the next door or the one you came in through. So you go through this section with similar rooms, use a lift, go back and forth shooting switches, then use another lift. I then found myself in the exact same rooms as before and presumed I got turned around – but no, the entire section just repeats again. There’s also a section where the camera suggests going through a door. There’s a lot of traps and enemies to avoid/shoot (with a camera positioned purposefully to make them hard to see). You then encounter a room with two locked doors. Go back to the starting room and there’s another door that was hidden behind where the camera was looking, here is where you get the keycard, but there’s also a locked you can now open door right next to the keycard – which leads right to the room you needed to get to. The long corridor with traps is just to waste your time. Hybrid Heaven is a fascinating game. It has a great story and a very deep combat system – it just also comes with a lot of annoyances. I think the combat would be more special spread out more, and the navigation and shooting could have been much better, Fun Remake or remaster? This could be amazing as a complete remake. Alter the story a bit, make the level design make more sense, perhaps let people hotkey abilities to make the combat flow quicker, and perhaps up damage/lower health with more regular checkpoints so fights don’t go on for quite so long. And make the shooting much better, with multiple weapons. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Hybrid Heaven

The New Tetris NA release: 31st July 1999 PAL release: 15th October 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: H2O, Blue Planet Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 88% The “big” Tetris game for N64 starts off extremely promising. There’s a great opening video to a slowed down version of THE Tetris theme. Then you start and you’re presented with a Mayan theme background and a few rules changes – ones that take a simple game and overcomplicate it in unnecessary ways. This is the New Coke of Tetris. Oh, and get used to that background, as you’ll be staring at it for a very long time. Tetris doesn’t need visual flair, but some is nice. In The New Tetris, every line you create adds to a running building a “wonder”, complete it and you’ll move to the next one (so another background to star at for ages), up to completing half a million lines to finish the final one. This isn’t really a challenge, it’s just playing the game for an unbelievably long amount of time. Each theme also comes with some utterly atrocious music, and the only other track is the slowed down Tetris theme, which you can select as the music for your game (although you can’t change music mid-game), but it doesn’t fit the flow of the game. Mute the music and play the original music instead. In terms of gameplay changes, the one that has stuck around is the ability to “hold” a piece for later up. This version also shows you three additional pieces, which is a bit too many. The score is also entirely gone, focusing entirely on lines – which is where this game’s most awkward mechanic fits in. If you create a perfect 4×4 square of complete blocks, you’ll form a “super” block – silver if you use different pieces, gold if you only use one kind of block. If you use these to form complete lines, you’ll score bonus lines. This is an unnecessary complication for the game, and it means there’s no bonus for completing two or three lines at once – although you do get a single extra line for clearing four lines at once. The New Tetris has a few slight variations that feel the same, although the multiplayer does support four players. Overall though, the other N64 Tetris games – Tetris 64 and Magical Tetris Challenge – are both much better variations on Tetris than this. One thing The New Tetris did give us, though, are all the wonderful rants slagging off the producer hidden in the code. Fine Remake or remaster? While I don’t like it, new Tetris games should include specific rules sets like this. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get The New Tetris

Monster Truck Madness 64 NA release: 30th July 1999 PAL release: 29th October 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Terminal Reality, Edge of Reality Publisher: Rockstar N64 Magazine Score: 66% Quite a few people were involved in the creation of this game. Terminal Reality developed the original PC version while Edge of Reality ported it to N64 (they spent their first few years developing N64 ports, most notably the Tony Hawk series). Microsoft published it originally, but got Rockstar to publish in on the N64 (incidentally, Rockstar only published one other N64 game in North America). There’s some impressive names in there, so it’s quite amazing that they’ve somehow managed to turn Monster Trucks into something incredibly boring. Monster Truck Madness 64 has one idea that could work: you are free to cut corners as long as you hit the desired checkpoints, driving up mountains or through water. However, the controls and physics completely and utterly spoil this. The trucks jerk around and turning is erratic, so it never feels like you have any control. In one moment, a tiny nudge of the stick makes you do a 90 degree turn, while other times it barely moves you. The physics are equally wonky, you can never predict how a jump will end up, and an enemy colliding with you can make you slowly float across half the map. It’s very broken. The one time that the game does control well is when you get a flight power-up – it’s strange how smooth and precise turning and going up and down is with this power-up. Other power-ups are quite boring, some missiles and oil slicks are useful against enemies, but any boost or jump ones will just mess up your race. The graphics are also bad. Everything feels like it’s in a different scale and so many parts of the game feel like they belong to completely different games. The trucks themselves also feel like toy cars – when they’re supposed to be the big proper machines, as they license real monster trucks. There’s also absolutely no spectacle. There’s no satisfying noise or visual effect when landing, no splash when going through water. There’s not even much to smash – just a few fences. This is a Monster Truck game, there needs to be spectacle, destruction and mayhem. This game would play no different if you replaced the trucks with a milk float or scooter. There are a few interesting multiplayer modes. There’s a football game where cars bash around a giant football into a futuristic goal (I’m surprised nobody else has tried this concept), as well as a hockey. Oddly, these let you select them with just one player, but has no CPU players, just giving you the ball and an open goal. There’s also a king of the hill mode which does have CPU players, and a few 2-player only chase modes. These might provide a bit of enjoyment for someone renting it, but it doesn’t make up for the entire game being a wreckage. Worst Remake or remaster? A monster truck game could be a lot of fun, but not this. The football mode could be turned into something interesting, perhaps replace the monster trucks with something crazy like supersonic acrobatic rocket-powered battle-cars. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Monster Truck Madness 64

In-Fisherman Bass Hunter 64 NA release: 30th July 1999 PAL release: 22nd October 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Gearhead Publisher: Take Two N64 Magazine Score: 67% I’m really not sure how much I can say about a fishing game. This one is certainly well made – and has nicely detailed graphics and a nice split-screen, but it’s also extremely boring – but only because it aims to be accurate (even if still heavily sped up compared to how long it could take in real life). Finding fish is a big part of catching fish. While driving around the lakes in your boat, a Garmin Fishfinder (some kind of sonar device) will help you detect fish. Where the bass are will depend on the year and weather, sometimes preferring shallow waters sometimes hiding out in the deep (the instructions for each tournament will give you an idea), although sometimes you can still drive* around for a very long time before finding something. When you do get some fish markers on your sonar, it’s time to stop and fish. *I looked into the use of what word to use here, with options for sail, steer and pilot, however it seems that “drive” is the most appropriate for using a small motorised boat in this manner. A lot of the controls feel quite similar to fishing in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with waggling the stick to entice fish, reeling and pulling to the side to get them closer and so on. There is more in-depth stuff – you have to pull back to hook and set tension, but it really does highlight how much Zelda got right in just a small bonus part of the game. Which kind of bring us to the game’s biggest flaw: Ocarina of Time’s fishing is just more fun. Bass Hunter has a lot more depth and detail, but that’s tedious stuff, and I suspect people who enjoy fishing also like the whole outdoor nature of it. In Zelda, you can just get straight to the fishing (well, once you get to the fishing pond), and there’s even a hidden fish to try and catch. In this, the hunt for fish is just slow and boring, without the enjoyment that comes with the environment around you in real life. Fine Remake or remaster? More recent fishing games likely do more. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get In-Fisherman Bass Hunter 64

Let’s Go By Train 64 JP release: 30th July 1999 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: A.I. Publisher: Taito Original Name: Densha de Go! 64 N64 Magazine Score: N/A Densha de Go! (which translates to “Let’s Go By Train” is a series of Japanese arcade games about driving a train. There’s nothing crazy or over the top here, it’s a fairly serious train simulation game. I was expecting this to be fairly relaxing, but then I realise that this isn’t a British railway where trains can turn up whenever they want, this is based on Japanese rail networks where the trains have to be there at the exact second. This is a very brutal and unforgiving game. You could also buy an additional train panel-style controller instead of using an N64 controller. You pick an area and a route, and you get told which stations you need to pass, and which ones you need to stop at. You then have to abide all the signals – which are pretty clear for the most part. When passing a station, you don’t get punished for being early, but you do get a bonus for reaching it at the exact second you’re due to pass. Meanwhile, if you are late, every second counts down your allotted “penalty” time. I also found it difficult to slow down in time for speed limits. Without using the emergency break (which messes with your score as it sends passengers flying), it’s sometimes impossible to slow down enough between being told about the speed limit and it being enforced, giving you penalty time. Stopping at stations is more difficult than you would imagine. As you have to slow down gradually, it takes somewhere between 700-500m to stop. You also have to aim for a very specific point in the station, slow down too much and you’ll stop before it, and then have to accelerate to stop it again. Not only will you lose a lot of time, but you’ll get an extra penalty for accelerating while stepping. Overshooting also carries a penalty, and your train will be halted if you go too far. Let’s Go By Train also supports the N64’s VMU microphone. With this plugged in, you can gain extra points by saying the names of signals and speed limits as they crop up. This doesn’t control anything in the game, so it’s just the bonus points. The fan translation also translates this aspect of the game. While I was shockingly bad at this, and could barely finish any routes, I still enjoyed it a lot. There’s something oddly captivating about it. Fun Remake or remaster? The series is still going, with more modes and features. They just need to be localised. The Switch version also has a new controller. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Let’s Go By Train 64.

Even though I thought the game was awful, this is a great thing to do at the end of a mobile game's life. Sega did it with Sonic at the Olympic Games.

J.League 1999: Perfect Striker 2 JP release: 29th July 1999 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 90% The second J.League game from Konami, and this one doesn’t make significant changes from the last ISS game. The game is still focused heavily on passing, and there’s still the issue that your players don’t like following you into the box. While the gameplay is similar, there’s also a brand new EPG mode where you create a player and work through a career – although instead of struggling with the version in this game, I’ll take a proper look at the English translation of it in ISS 2000. Fun Remake or remaster? Konami definitely need to revisit these games. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get J.League 1999: Perfect Striker 2

All the prices for the newly announced Mario Kart and Animal Crossing sets can be found here: https://n-europe.com/news/new-mario-kart-and-animal-crossing-lego-sets-revealed/

I might check out the Pac-Man and Mega Man out of curiosity (even though I've only played one Mega Man game). Perhaps The Outer Worlds to see if they capture the Firefly feel (at first, I thought he worked on Firefly, but that was someone with a similar name, this guy apparently worked on Shadow the Hedgehog). A few of them I only know by name and nothing else and a some (Crossfire, Exodus, Honor of Kings, New World: Aeternum) I've never heard of before. Concord seems like it's only there so they can use other PlayStation properties.

PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 JP release: 16th July 1999 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Bandai Publisher: Bandai N64 Magazine Score: N/A Ultraman is a very popular Japanese franchise, although I don’t really know anything about it other than that. With a very rich history to pull upon, PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 has you getting random monsters/characters from a capsule machine (or import them from the Game Boy games), and fighting waves of enemies. The fighting is a very simple turn based affair with very limited options, and each battle takes far too long due to boring and repetitive animations. I may be missing something due to translation, but it seems all you do is tell your monsters to randomly roam the island you’re on, with the aim of protecting it from alien invaders. Your characters will level up and you’ll get money for more random ones. There doesn’t appear to be a lot to it, and it’s incredibly boring, mainly just waiting around for something to happen, and then taking part in a tedious battle. Poor Remake or remaster? Nothing important for this. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64

Looks like we're getting levels from Forces and Frontiers.

One small thing: the N64 games with video feeds include Doshin the Giant. Nintendo are actually acknowledging the 64DD. Also, I wonder how easy it is to press the Z button on that giant N64 controller.

It looks really cool. Apart from not being able to do everything due to a limited "coin" system. Not that I'd ever be able to go.

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber JP release: 14th July 1999 NA release: 5th October 2000 PAL release: 26th March 2010 (Virtual Console) Developer: Quest Publisher: Nintendo (JP), Atlus (NA) N64 Magazine Score: 87% The third game in the Ogre Battle series – and also the final one in the main series (there were some handheld spin-offs), this was the first one to not be multiplatform. The games are a bit like real time strategy games, but focus heavily on preparing your tactics before battle. This consists of unit training, levelling up, and picking formations. Person of Lordly Caliber (the first subtitle in the series to not be a reference to a Queen song) is a great example of how the N64 can do great 2D graphics. The story is quite fascinating: you play as a promising recruit that chooses a job far away from the capital of the country. You fight rebels who try to kidnap the prince. However, things aren’t black and white: the rebels have good reason, although Magnus thinks that their attacks and killing are too far. The prince is also sympathetic to the cause, much to the dismay of his bodyguard (who is trying to train his sympathy out of him, due to orders from his family). Magnus is conflicted with his orders, and does offer to spare the lives of the rebels. During the story, you’ll take charge for many battles. The battles take a top down view, with you ordering your leaders into positions. Health will recover if they’re in towns, so you’ll often fight for control of them, with your main goal usually being the enemy stronghold. It took me a while to get used to the interface (it took me far to long to figure out how to get more troops into the battlefield). Once you encounter an enemy squad, a battle will take place. These are all automatic, with you only having control of select special abilities. The placement of your squad, and how their powers compliment each other, is very important. One thing I did find odd is that many fights would end prematurely. This made sense for enemies fleeing, but when I was fighting an enemy in a stronghold, I’d be winning, be pushed back, and have to attack again. Between battles is where you will do a lot of organising: training up units, placing new troops into groups, reorganising those groups, and so much more. There’s a lot of depth to the system, and I found myself interested by the kind of troops, along with the overall world and story. Unfortunately, I’m really quite terrible at games like this and it wasn’t long until I couldn’t get past battles. I attempted to use cheats so I could see more of the story, but those caused glitches that prevented progression. It’s a shame as the world and characters were fascinating. Fun Remake or remaster? A remake/remaster collection of the Ogre Battle series would be great for fans of the genre. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, not even on Nintendo Swich Online, despite the game releasing on the Virtual Console. Re-releases 2010: Wii Virtual Console (also the first release in PAL regions) 2017: Wii U Virtual Console

Quake II NA release: 7th July 1999 PAL release: September 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: id, Raster Publisher: Activision N64 Magazine Score: 90% The first Quake didn’t sell that well on the N64, as it was mainly just the PC version with slightly altered levels. Instead of ignoring the N64 for Quake II, id Software looked at what did work: DOOM 64. The conclusion is that N64 fans wanted a more catered experience with new levels and story. So for Quake II, developers Raster created a whole new experience – although confusingly, it was still just called Quake II. The more recent remaster of Quake II also includes this game, renamed as “Quake II 64”. The core gameplay is recreated extremely well, even on the original N64 version of the game (which used its own game engine), so it is really all about the new levels. These were much smaller than the PC version, but I enjoyed this game a lot. While you still have to navigate levels to find switches, they’re not nightmarish mazes, and have visual cues to help you figure out where you are. The buttons and switches are also much more intuitive, with text popping up saying what’s happening. Switches are often in sensible places, such as in control rooms with a window looking at what it activates, or when it’s activated something you can’t see, it’s always something that was an obvious barrier. This means no aimlessly wandering empty levels (due to killing all enemies) looking for a tiny thing that has changed. This simple difference meant that I liked this much more than all the other DOOM-based games. The levels themselves do look a bit repetitive, but they flow in different ways. I did have to look up how to get past the second to last level, as you need to take a strange path. One complaint I do have is the bosses. There’s one main boss half way through the game, but after fighting a bunch of (quite powerful) enemies, I was waiting for a big final boss, only to realise that the game was over. Quake II 64 is a highly enjoyable game, and was well received when it initially came out (especially for its multiplayer mode). The N64 had a lot of DOOM-like FPS games, and this is the best of the lot. Great Remake or remaster? Nightdive have remastered Quake II and it’s a brilliant package. It includes the PC version, mission packs ,and Quake II 64. Official ways to get the game. The remaster is available on Steam, Xbox One/Series, PS4/5 and Switch.

F1 World Grand Prix II PAL release: 2nd July 1999 NA release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Paradigm Publisher: Video System N64 Magazine Score: 72% F1 World Grand Prix II is an example of two mildly interesting things. For starters, it’s the first of only a few PAL exclusive N64 games, as the first performed really well, getting a Player’s Choice version in Europe. The second one is that it’s an example on how difficult it can be to score games. N64 magazine flat out states that this is a better game than Monaco Grand Prix, yet it scored lower. Why? Well, because it offers very little over the first game (which, as stated, got a cheaper Player’s Choice version). The biggest difference is that this game is based on the 1998 F1 season, so you can have track conditions match those races, along with the racing teams. The problem here is that the game came out in the middle of the 1999 F1 season, so I don’t think people are as bothered as the game isn’t fully up to date. The challenge mode does have new challenges, again based on the 1999 F1 season, so there is a bit of new stuff there. The other new feature is “broadcast” mode, with the game bragging that you can watch the matches of the 98 season from any perspective. N64 Magazine took a look at a few and found that, while the results were correct, the events during the race were nothing like the real ones. For Formula 1 fans, this is definitely the best F1 game on the system (at this point, at least), but there’s not much reason to buy it over the original. Fun Remake or remaster? Newer games do a better job. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to buy F1 World Grand Prix II

Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 PAL release: 29th June 1999 NA release: September1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Ubisoft Publisher: Ubisoft N64 Magazine Score: 87% With football games, you have the license-heavy FIFA competing with ISS and its “R. Gibbs”. It seems that Formula 1 games were also having a similar competition, with Ubisoft’s Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 coming in without driver names, competing against F1 World Grand Prix. As it can’t provide as authentic an experience, it attempts to make it easier to play. And in a way, it is. The “arcade” handling is much easier than the “simulation” handling, but at the same time, the game also lacks assists like raving lines, so it’s still quite challenging for someone like me. The tracks are based on the 98 season of Formula 1, but the track names are missing and, while some look great, there’s just an inauthentic air about the whole package. Unlike ISS where you could ignore all that when playing the game, this just feels a bit off everywhere. My biggest issue was the CPU racers. Blocking is a big tactic in Formula 1, but it’s not something you can do in Monaco Grand Prix, as it’s one of the racing games where the CPU doesn’t seem to be aware of where you are – going as far as barging through you and making you spin out while they zoom off ahead. It’s something that sours the experience somewhat. This just feels like an inferior version of F1 World Grand Prix, without the polish. Fine Remake or remaster? Newer games do a better job. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to buy Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2

Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt NA release: 29th June 1999 PAL release: 10th August 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Realtime Associates Publisher: THQ N64 Magazine Score: 48% Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt (or Rugrats: Treasure Hunt) is a simplified clone of another N64 board game – but it’s not Mario Party. Bizarrely, this is heavily based on the Japan-only Detective Club 64 [Kira to Kaiketsu! 64 Tanteidan]. It features three modes, two of them based on searching rooms. Like Detective Club 64, you spin and get to move that amount of spaces. You can pick which direction you want to go (except backwards), but you want to aim for the magnifying glass spaces. Here, you pick a random object from the room to search, hoping to get an object you need. You can also find items to help you in your quest, such as the ability to search twice every time you land on a search space, and the ability to turn around at the start of the turn. Other items can also just be junk. Other spaces include gaining and losing cookies (which are used to buy cards), a space to buy cards, one to recover energy (run out and you’ll miss a turn), and spaces that send you to your crib, but you can pick which room to warp to on your next turn. The first board is a co-op mission where the babies have to find all their pieces before Angelica does (NPCs move around at the end of each round), while the second is competitive, with each baby trying to collect a set of treasure. If you land on a spot with another baby, you can fight them to steal one of their pieces. I described the battle system in Detective Club 64 as a kind of “rock, paper, scissors”, but this is just rock, paper scissors. The third board is unbelievably tedious. This ditches the search mechanic, and the board is a series of circles, removing all choice. Here, you have to collect three kinds of sweets, but you need an immense amount of them (and can lose them), so it goes on forever, with you having zero say in what’s going on. The first two boards might keep young kids occupied (and you can choose the size of the board to adjust length), as long as they don’t get bored from repetitiveness, or annoyed that it’s entirely luck based, but this is just a poor licensed game. Poor Remake or remaster? This game is nothing special. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to buy Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt

A couple of updates: all my previous stuff is now on the main site, you can browse though all 227 games here: https://www.n-europe.com/features/ Secondly, @Jonnas has kindly offered to do some much needed proofreading, so there will be fewer grammatical errors and mistakes going forward. Command & Conquer NA release: 29th June 1999 PAL release: 30th July 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Westwood, Looking Glass Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 75% I’ll be honest: I didn’t play a massive amount of the N64 version of Command & Conquer, I’ve played the game before on other platforms, and I’m not a huge fan of it personally. That said, Command & Conquer is a much loved real time strategy game. The N64 version, in terms of how the game plays and the levels you’ll encounter, is pretty much the same as the PC version, yet at the same time, this is still another strange case where the N64 version is a bit odd. This is mainly due to the “Full 3D” (according to the box) nature of the graphics. This means that, instead of the lovely sprite work of the original, you get lower quality polygon models (although soldiers are still sprites). The odd thing is that the game doesn’t utilise this in any way – there’s no different viewpoints or angles, it’s just the same perspective as all the other versions. It feels like it’s just been made 3D just for the sake of it. The N64 version also loses the FMV sequences (which you’d expect), although it does keep an impressive amount of voice acting for the briefings. Controls also make this worse than playing on a PC – although at least the analogue stick makes it better than the PlayStation version. Selecting units is much, much slower, and selecting the wrong things is much more common. Some levels have been made easier to account for this. The N64 version does include the full game, plus an add-on pack and a few bonus missions, so there’s plenty here, and it’s still a mostly functional way to play the game if you don’t have anything else to play it on. Fine Remake or remaster? Command & Conquer Remastered is a great version of the original C&C game. Official ways to get the game. The N64 version isn’t available officially, but the remastered PC version is available on Steam and whatever EA are calling their store this week.

Neon Genesis Evangelion JP release: 25th June 1999 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: BEC Publisher: Bandai N64 Magazine Score: 61% I know nothing about the anime of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but from this game I can figure out the basic premise: giant creatures are attacking cities, and humans have created giant robots in response. Pilots get psychically linked to the machines, which is a huge strain. It carries many similarities to the later Pacific Rim. For the most part, the N64 game is a very simplified fighting game. With the controls being basic, and seemingly no combos, it feels more like an interactive show. Enemy attacks are extremely long, with multiple locations. Get damaged enough and you’ll get angry and pull out a weapon to better attack you opponent. This is something that can be exciting in a show, but in a game, it’s just annoying to not be able to access items for no good reason. While they do capture the feeling of controlling something massive, it’s also unbelievably slow. After a few battles, there was some kind of quick time event I couldn’t complete, so my game ended there. There’s also a “simulation mode” which is a first person target range. This is probably simple enough for fans of the show who aren’t into games to enjoy, but there isn’t a lot to it. ? Remake or remaster? I have no idea how the other games in the franchise stack up. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Neon Genesis Evangelion

All Star Tennis 99 PAL release: 25th June 1999 NA release: 31st August 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Smart Dog Publisher: Ubisoft N64 Magazine Score: 68% Surprisingly only the second tennis game on N64 – and the first one to be released in America (although Europe is the only place that got both). Sadly, this isn’t as good as Centre Court Tennis, and that one was just an OK game to begin with. All Star Tennis is simply awkward to control, and it feels like the player you’re controlling has a mind of their own. This tennis game is all about getting to the right spot – directly to the side of where the ball is going. Then you have to press your shot at the right point, then use the stick and Z/R for spin and power. It’s a lot to deal with, and your character may just decide to ignore that and flop over with a pathetic dive instead. I’m awful at sport, yet I am better at real tennis than the tennis in this game. Another strange thing is that while the game give you a ton of actions for hitting the ball, serving is more basic than any other tennis game I’ve played: press the A button one and the game will handle the rest, no timing your swing or anything like that. All Star Tennis also has a few extra modes on top of singles, doubles and tournaments. There’s a bomb tennis mode which leaves behind a bomb wherever the ball lands. This is actually easier than the main mode as the CPU doesn’t quite know how to move around when there are bombs on the court. You can also turn on special shots, which I expected to be hard to hit shots with a bit of flair, but they have fancy effects involving wormholes and teleportation. This game doesn’t know if it wants to be series or silly, and ends up being awkward. The presentation also doesn’t help. While the graphics are fine, the sound consists of music that a lift would be ashamed of, male or female grunts and an Umpire who gets really annoying, particularly when he’s shouting “be quiet please” to the crowd because a very faint mobile phone had gone off. Poor Remake or remaster? There are better tennis games to bring back. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get All Star Tennis 99

WildWaters: Extreme Kayak (Prototype) NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Looking Glass Publisher: Ubisoift N64 Magazine Score: N/A Looking Glass Studios were working on multiple N64 games when they shut down, this being one of them. The prototype itself was made for E3 1999 and was very early in development, only shown behind closed doors. It consists of one level (two are listed in the menu, but only one works), but you can select between three characters. The main thing the WildWaters demo shows off is the water effects, which were great for the time. The game would have been one of the few to require the Expansion Pak due to this. That said, it clearly isn’t finished, with water going up walls at times and the texture stretching oddly in places. The trackside scenery also only lasts for the first portion of the track, with the rest being a short amount of side and seeing the black void if the game. The final game would have had five modes: Arcade, Time Trial, Championship, Finals and Versus Battle. It would also feature six characters and three kinds of kayak. The thing, other than the water, there isn’t much else about the game. The controls work fine, but the gameplay itself is very boring. Should it be finished? This was an example of what could be done on the N64 at the time, with the game itself not very interesting.