N64 Week - Day 4: FIGHTING TOUGH!

[mr_bogus]

My impressions after playing the 1 fighting game i own and scraping the bottom of the barrel for another that may possibly be shoehorned into the fighting category...

 

Mace: The Dark Age

This game, strangely enough, has not aged as badly as expected. The menu system is simple & nippy, the characters are easy to control, and the game allows sidestepping around the other player, as well as some fairly advanced moves which effectively let you swap sides with each other (eg. swinging them around on your weapon, or picking them up and throwing them). The music shows its age, reminding me of early, low quality mods on the Amiga. Graphically, the characters are nicely detailed, and background scenery is a basic 3D arena, sometimes with elements which damage the player (electric water, rotating blades, etc), and a flat bitmap behind as the horizon. The framerate isn't totally smooth, but doesn't really affect gameplay.

 

Rampage World Tour

This game is pretty much as you'd remember - nothing special but not bad either. The controls feel ok, graphics are decent to watch with some nice animations, and music and sound effects are well fitting to the atmosphere of the game. Rampage World Tour won't keep you playing for hours on end, but gives an enjoyable quick fix of destructive arcade action. Watching the attract mode demo showed me a few scenes I'd never actually reached in the game (thought this was "World Tour", what are they doing on the moon?)

[tapedeck]

Nice impressions Mr Bogus, I'll be getting my Smash on laters and play Fighters Destiny. I'll have a look into town to see if there are any cheapo N64 fighters too. It's game time!

 

... Now I've got to tear myself away from Perfect Dark

[mcj metroid]

I thought I posted here already..

Anyway the n64 was one of the worst console's for beat em ups or even 2d games in general.

 

The controller made it very difficult. Smash was really the only decent one.

 

Mortal kombat 4 was better on the ps1 although still good

mortal kombat trilogy was better on the snes and ps1 and DIRE on n64

killer instict gold wasnt great in fairness. snes and arcade were WAY better.

 

There is really not much . No street fighter game to speak of.

Ps1 really won in this department.

[tapedeck]

Yeah I totally agree on those sentiments Metroid. Even Sega had Virtua Fighter. Smash Bros went some way to rectifying the situation but the "serious" fighter was sorely missing. Those who tried to bring the genre to the system weren't good enough neither.

 

Fighter's Destiny was the closest to a Tekken/Virtua Fighter the N64 ever got. And although a decent game with some astounding animation and decent characters, its lack of depth was its demise.

 

But yeah, the N64 can't have it all. After the first few days of nothing but praise today could be the day that the N64 doesn't get so much love. No console can be perfect afterall.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Oh boy oh boy, today is No Mercy today.

 

To celebrate, I'm going to do some of the following matches:

 

The Hardys vs The Dudleys or Edge and Christian in a Ladder Match.

 

The Rock versus Triple H in a one hour Iron Man Match on the highest difficulty. (with interference, disqualifications)

 

Chris Benoit versus Chris Jerricho versus Kurt Angle versus Ken Shamrock in a four way way Submission Match. (to do this, select royal rumble, 4 participants, and set all the rules to off apart from submission. One opponents gets eliminated at a time).

 

Mankind versus Triple H in an First Blood Match.

 

Can't wait! About a dozen others, hahahahhaha.

 

This should cheer me up after the shit day I've already had.

[ShadowV7]

Only fighting game I have for the N64 is Smash Bros then Pokemon Stadium, though I played Smash not too long ago. Wouldn't hurt to go play it since i've played Brawl since then.

[nekunando]

Fighters Destiny

 

I still remember the information provided in the directory of N64 magazine which stated that Fighters Destiny was "In a very real sense our Tekken". In a way that is quite a true statement but having fired up the game this morning it is in many ways an injustice to the N64 fighter.

 

 

Ryuji winds up the knockout blow for the dazed Ninja

 

While Tekken provided straightforward hand-to-hand combat with the goal of depleting the opposition life guage, Fighters Destiny worked on a points system (illustrated by stars under your characthers health). Points could be obtained by knocking your opponent out (Knockdown: 3 Points), throwing an opponent to the ground (Throwdown: 2 Points), knocking the other player off the fighting arena (Ring Out: 1 Point), countering the other fighter's attack (Counter: 3 Points), performing a special move (Special: 4 Points) or, if the time ended, the player who performed better during the fight (Judge: 1 Point). The default number of points required for victory was 7 Points, but this value, along with the the number of points given for each criteria, could be altered as well as changing the dimensions of the fighting arena!

 

I felt this brought a fresh experience to the genre, also evident in a great game mode the game had to offer. As well as the typical 'Arcade Mode' (VS Com) and the '2-Player Mode' (VS Battle), Fighters Destiny had the Master Challenge.

 

Master Challenge was a mode where it started with a screen showing 12 opponents in a circle (8 being 'The Master' and 4 being 'The Joker'). The cursor rotated around the circle at a very high speed and you had to stop it on the next person you would fight. The aim of the game was to win each fight against Master which would provide you with a new move to perform, and this could be saved to the Memory Card! You could end the mode after each fight to keep the moves you have obtained though if you wanted them all you would have to beat all 8 Master opponents. The interesting part of the mode, apart from obtaining great new moves, was that if you fought the Joker, defeat would result in you losing all the moves you had gained! Risk vs. Reward!

 

Survival, Time Attack and Rodeo were the other game modes provided. Rodeo put you in the ring with a Cow fighter and it was all about seeing how long you could last in the ring (over a minute resulted in unlocking the Cow as a playable character)

 

So, Fighters Destiny had some very interesting inclusions but what was the actual gameplay like? Surprisingly good, if a little slow (though this made it a lot more tactical!Button-bashing didn't get you very far)! A and B are your attack buttons but there is a good variety of moves to perform (all available to view in the command list at any time, including Knockdown moves that could knock your opponent out in one hit) and there is also a 'Block' and and 'Hirari' (Sidestep in and out of screen) Button. There is also a nice effect whenever you make contact with the other fighter (particularly with a Special move, though these were generally only performable when you had depleted the opponent's health guage resulting in them being dazed, though they would recover after a few seconds!)

 

There is a good selection of characters, each with their own stage and music. The music in the game was actually pretty good along with everything else and, as you can perhaps tell, I seem to be rather fond of this game! I was impressed going back to it!

[Fierce_LiNk]

Good impressions, dude.

 

I'm doing the Ladder match. Hardys against Edge and Christian. All matches to be played on expert.

 

I've gone as Jeff Hardy. Oooo, Matt was climbing the ladder and Edge knocked him over. I've just nailed Christian with the Twist of fate and the swantom bomb.

 

No fucking way! Edge the cheeky bastard snuck him there when I was outside the ring and he's won it...

 

Next up: The Iron man match!

[darksnowman]

In No Mercy, what you don't want to see happen is your custom made characters attributes be wiped.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Aye, it's a shame when that happens.

 

Won the Ironman Match with the Rock 18-15. Got disqualified on purpose a few times. :p

 

I took the lead with the Rock, and then Triple H came back and bought the game to 3-1. And then I got back to 3-3 and then he took it to 5-3. It was just like Judgement Day, haha.

 

I'm going to do the Fatal Four Way now.

 

Won it with Benoit. What's next?...OH YES! Mankind vs HHH in a first blood match.

 

Mankind won, piledriver onto the steel steps.

 

The one thing this game is missing is a hell in the cell. Otherwise, it's perfect.

[Eenuh]

Oh man, I hope I can still get to play a bit today, as I decided to clean my room entirely from top to bottom, so it's a huge mess right now. =O

Not even sure I can play Pokémon Stadium without the transfer pak and my GB games...

[Fierce_LiNk]

Oh man, I hope I can still get to play a bit today, as I decided to clean my room entirely from top to bottom, so it's a huge mess right now. =O

Not even sure I can play Pokémon Stadium without the transfer pak and my GB games...

 

That was a bit of a silly thing to do, wasn't it?

[Eenuh]

That was a bit of a silly thing to do, wasn't it?

 

Yeah it was... but I had this sudden urge to be productive! =O

Maybe in an hour or two I can pull out my N64 again to take a break from all my hard work.

[darksnowman]

My thumb is wrecked from KI Gold.

 

Kuh-kuh-kuh-kuh-kombo breaker!

I was straight into KI Gold and that's no surprise, seeing as its still played when we get some multiplayer gaming going. I ripped through the single player mode this evening with a couple of characters such as B. Orchid, Kim Wu, Jago and Uncle Tusk. KI Gold is my favourite fighting game because I think its got the best system going. The first one, on the Snes, introduced me to the flowing and logical combo system, putting Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat to shame. KI Gold cranks things up by tweaking some moves and allowing you to put the speed up to ludicrous- the only way the game should be played.

 

The graphics aren't the greatest but there is some good sprite work and some nice special FX and particle effects that bring each fight to life. The death moves aren't that amazing compared to the brutality of Mortal Kombat. Theres still nothing like stringing the combo's together and finishing it with an ultimate.

 

Myeh-myeh-myeeeeeeeh. What. The. Rock. Is. Cooking.

The N64 had a wealth of wrasstlers, and No Mercy was the cream of the crop. I played most of the wrestling games (if not all) through borrowing them and renting them but No Mercy is the only one I own. The graphics are big, blocky and downright ugly but that just adds to the manliness and machoness of it all. There are too many options and match types for me to fully go back through them all this evening, but the brief return I made to the squared circle was nonetheless time well spent.

 

I was happy enough to find that it wasn't too hard to get back into- in No Mercy its all about the grappling. I chose the Rock, beat the others down with all the wrestling moves he has (can't remember the names of the moves anymore! ) and at the end unloaded with the People's Elbow... or was it the Rockbottom? Still as good as it ever was. Tis a pity that no other wrestling game since No Mercy has managed to replicate its quality, but at the very least, the grapple system lives on through the Def Jam games.

 

Smashing... Live!

The original Smash Bros. is the one I've put the most time into, and got the most fun out of. Back when it came out I remember I used to play it daily but unfortunately Melee on the GameCube never captivated me in the same manner. My return to Smash Bros. was an indifferent one. The graphics are just butt ugly and I was shocked at how few characters there are to choose from! Nevertheless, once I chose Pikachu and got to playing through it, I could see why the game was so good.

 

Its fast, frantic and compact. The biggest levels in Smash Bros. on the N64 are tiny in comparison to the big ones in Melee. It keeps everyone in the fray and means theres no games of cat and mouse- nowhere to run, nowhere to hide!

 

------------------------

 

Thats my blogging for today. I could maybe get some Pokémon Stadium in if need be but it looks like Eenuh and/or Coolness will cover it. I bought it (like Podracer) from Cex for like a pound, but I haven't played it. Well, I played other peoples back at the time so I'm not missing out (Missingno ) but my cartridge could do with a test... and the Rattata mini game is an absolute classic... hmm!

 

Also, note that theres no mention of Brawl in my Smash talk. Thats because I'm Brawless and won't be bothering to get it for atleast the forseeable future... I just didn't get much out of Melee, so Brawl can wait. Indefinitely. : peace:

 

No one got Dual Heroes?

[Fierce_LiNk]

WWF No Mercy

 

So far, we've had days dedicated to Goldeneye, F Zero X and Super Mario 64, and today was the turn of brawler WWF No Mercy.

 

And, by god, today was the greatest day of them all. There's a reason why I come back to this game whenever I am in close proximity to my beloved Nintendo 64 - the fighting system is supreme, and still reigns head and shoulders above everything else.

 

I've played a fair few wrestlers in my time. So far, No Mercy is still the closest to replicating what you see on tv but in videogame form. The characters feel meaty, and it actually does feel like you are in control of a wrestling superstar - it does not feel like your character weighs about 3 pounds and is part cereal box, part paperbag. You do feel every single punch, or throw or bodyslam in this game. Every suplex is accompanied by a crunch on the canvas, every smack with the steel steeps is greeted with that inhuman sound of metal upon man. And, I love every second of it.

 

The Ladder Match in particular is one of my highlights. It's not just tacked on for the sake of adding an extra match, because the developers have clearly thought about every single detail. Such as the careful positioning of the ladder in order to reach the prize, the sounds that it makes, the fact that players are left vunerable whilst holding the ladder or climbing up it. What's more, if you're really daring, you can perform a set of acrobatic tricks using the ladder. Such as climbing to the top of it and performing an array of acrobatic moves on your opponent. For my match, I was Jeff Hardy, and it was the Hardy Boyz versus Edge and Christian, and boy...did I have fun with the ladder in that game!

 

The one thing that this game is sorely missing is the Hell in a Cell match. I won't need to explain why, because as other fellow wrestling fans know, the Hell in a Cell match is brutal and violent, and would have fitted in rather nicely next to the Ladder match in this game.

 

Still, this game has too many plus-points to become overshadowed by a small problem. The depth in the roster is fantastic, allowing players to play as The Rock, Mankind, The Undertaker, as well as your household favourites such as Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, and even Earl Hebner. I've been giving the Championship mode a go this afternoon, and it still feels as fresh as it did all those years ago.

 

If you have managed to play this game before, you will know for sure why I'm ranting and raving about this masterpiece. If you haven't, then you are truely without a soul.

[tapedeck]

All updates done on the main site. I got some Smash Bros in yet couldn't get Fighters Destiny nor any other brawlers. Shame. (Damn work too!)

 

At least we got a good range of games. Thanks again everyone!

[Coolness Bears]

Pokemon Stadium

 

Strictly not a fighting game, I managed to bend the rules as there are elements of fighting in it. (the Pokemon attack each other! )

 

Thinking I'd have to search High and Low for my transferer pack I was pleased to find both in the draw nearest me and so I immediately set to work!

This is the first gameI played on the N64 so hav much love for it!

 

"PIKA!!!"

 

I was met with this sound followed by the awesome music immediately kicking in behind which got me completely pumped for some Pokemon action!!!

 

I have to say the this game is chuck full of the classic tunes from the game and straight away with out realising I had begun to sing them.

 

I went straight to the Gymn leader's Castle and selected my Pokemon which were:

 

Alakazam

Vaporeon

Flareon

Snorlax

Jolteon

Charizard

 

from my Pokemon Red Cart and faced Brock and his gang.

 

The fighting was at first insanely easy as all I had to do was use Flareon to take down his minions weak selection of grass Pokemon with fire blast and eventually got on to brock. In between this when you win it comes up with a great screen where it puts a giant red cross through the fainted Pokemon in the most overly dramatic way, It was great.

 

Brock was a bit harder, i lost one pokemon, but again still easy. I then went onto the Pokemon Stadium for the Prime Cup which offered much more of a challenge but still nothing too difficult. I Don't think I have ever found the game hard though as I was shocked to find I had won every cup!

 

I still think it is a great game however and despite the easiness I was having great fun. Maybe it was nostalgia setting in but I was enjoying every minute of playing this game again. The actual battle simulation is great and I still feel the 3D models of the Pokemon still hold up today and I never realised that they have such great facial expressions while being attacked. Particularly Gloom when hit with a Firespin!

 

The moves animation still hold up well considering they haven't really made a big improvement over them on the Gamecube or Wii! :p

 

Another thing that brought a smile to my face was the commentator with his hilarious cheesy lines which fit in well with the whole mood of the game!

 

TAKEN DOWN IN ONE HIT!!!!

 

SPARKS ARE FLYING IN THIS HEATED MATCH!!!

 

Being two of my favourite. The way he says it as well is fantastic and oh so manly.

 

Having battled it out for quite sometime I thought I'd check out the other options this game had too offer apart from fighting. It was a great Idea for you to be able to play Red version on there and although I only had a brief go earlier I remember playing Red through this way a lot as it had a special mode where you could speed up the game and i'd get to places much quicker.

 

I was suprised the Transferer pak still worked and I didn't find any faults with it. (didn't have to use ye old blow technique)

 

The final and GREATEST mode in this game is the Minigame mode. 9 mini games each one more amazing than the last. I cranked it up to hard, put onto 3 Wins and began to get excited in anticipation as to what the computer would choose first.

 

Snore War was the first to appear. I never really understood what to do in this and had never one it EVER! but today goes done in history as the day I won at Snore War. I finally got what to do. : peace:

 

Next up was Rattata run which was insane! I bashed A to get my Rattata running and as it built up speed so did my adrenaline build up as I made it jump graciously over each hurdle that was place in our way. It was an amazingly close game and as the tension mounted so did the pace of my button mashing. I came first though and sat back pleased with my win.

 

Finally the last Minigame I tried out today was Dig Dig Dig. I have never lost to anyone in this game and I'm greatly relieved to announce that that fact still remains to this day. I cleared this minigame with ease and watching the victorious Sandshrew bask in his water hole of glory never gets old!

POKEMON STADIUM YOU ARE THE CHAMPION!

[tapedeck]

The timing is awesome coolness :p (back to HTML heaven I go)

 

Awesome impressions

[darksnowman]

I see you made a meal out of mine with some thumb remarks added in. :p

 

Also, great stuff Coolness but two things... what's a draw eh? And secondly, I'm gonna have a go on this before bed purely because you reminded me of the commentator in your write up. I need to hear the mayhem once more!

[Coolness Bears]

The timing is awesome coolness :p (back to HTML heaven I go)

 

Awesome impressions

 

Hehe Thanks!

 

Sorry for messing you about a bit! HTML scares me. : peace: My impressions took longer than I thought. (and got a bit carried away with the game. )

 

I see you made a meal out of mine with some thumb remarks added in. :p

 

Also, great stuff Coolness but two things... what's a draw eh? And secondly, I'm gonna have a go on this before bed purely because you reminded me of the commentator in your write up. I need to hear the mayhem once more!

 

Hehe, I mean Drawer.

 

My inability to spell and form sentances is my main weakness! (and I'm taking English for A2! :p )

 

Woo! I'm glad I've got you hyped up for playing the game again.

 

Now all I have to do is get you to like Miltank....

[tapedeck]

I see you made a meal out of mine with some thumb remarks added in. :p

 

I remember how KI: Gold messes with your thumbs. The intolerable pain only makes you realise how soft you are in comparison to a warewolf, glacial monster or Maiyan hardnut. (Ray Mears dream woman.)

 

Great, great impressions today everyone

 

Tomorrow promises epic-ness!

[Eenuh]

Super Smash Bros.

Ah, one of my favourite N64 games. This game received a lot of play time back in the day, when my sisters were still young and didn't mind playing a game with me.

I was wondering how this game would hold up, after Brawl being recently released. One of the first things I noticed were how ugly the characters looked! Sure it worked back in the day I guess, but right now the models are really not very nice to look at (especially Donkey Kong). But that's a flaw we can easily forgive. Another thing is the small amount of characters to pick from (12 in total) and the stages (9 in total).

 

It didn't take me long to get into this game. The moves are pretty easy to get the hang of, and during the sequels they have pretty much stayed the same (except for improvements of course). I grabbed Pikachu and started the single player mode, battling my way through the different battles and bonus stages. The battles were fun and frantic, especially since pretty much all of the stages are quite small and don't allow you to run away from your opponent (though you really shouldn't if you want to win!). Master Hand was a nice challenge as well.

 

The VS Mode only has a couple of options, basically letting you play Time or Stock matches, each on their own or in teams. Limited options yes, but you really don't need much more to get some good fights going! I got to try out some more characters, namely my favourites Pikachu, Kirby and Link. The fights against the computer were fun and even made me laugh when for example Donkey Kong kept falling in a hole again and again. Silly ape.

 

In my opinion, this game is still great to play, but after today my attention will go back to the newest version in the series.

 

 

Pokémon Stadium

Pokémon Stadium, the first game to let you see your Pokémon in beautiful 3D! The models actually still look pretty nice up to this day, and the effects for the different moves are pretty good looking as well. Too bad the rest of the game couldn't hold my attention for very long.

 

After much trouble in getting my Transfer Pak to work and the game to recognise my GB game (I had to play it again and go save at a Pokémon Center), I finally got some battles going with my great party of Level 100 Pokémon (with my dear Raichu!). I did a few battles in the Stadium first, followed by some fights in the Gym against Brock and his gang. All the fights were pretty easy actually; I don't know if it's because of the game's difficulty or my Pokémon simply being so good though!

 

While the visuals are okay, the rest of the fights seems pretty boring. The music is your typical Pokémon tune repeated over and over, with some sound effects for the moves. The Pokémon themselves only make some weird noises when they get thrown into the battlefield. Only later did I found out there is actually an announcer, but I regretted turning that option on as his voice annoyed me to no end, as did the cheesy lines he said.

 

So I quickly gave up on the fights and turned to the one mode I played like crazy back when the game came out: the minigames!

Even to this day these are still quite fun to play, if you're into this sort of thing. You can run around as Lickitung and grab the most food, or thrown Ekans around a Diglett for points. These minigames had me a lot more entertained than the rest of this game, and they would be the only reason for me to come back to Pokémon Stadium.

[tapedeck]

All impressions posted. thanks Eenuh, that's some excellent impressions right there! We got a lot of similarities on Smash bros (yours and Darksnowman's especially!) and I liked how your Pokemon impressions differed from Coolness'.

 

Nice writing everyone *pats everyone on the back and winks at their N64's*

[Eenuh]

You're welcome! Sorry for being kind of late though. I'll try to post earlier next time. =)

[tapedeck]

No problem. I'm glad you had some N64 gaming again

 

I've been enjoying playing these classics all over again. The console definately has so many classics!