Glen-i Posted Tuesday at 04:21 PM Posted Tuesday at 04:21 PM 23 hours ago, Cube said: You can toggle a rather ugly looking map that overlays the whole screen. Well, at least there's that. I guess when you've played as much PMD as I have, you learn to live with the map. Because you likely won't be living without it. For what it's worth, the HD games don't have the map cover everything. It occupies one corner. It's not as slick as the DS/3DS ones, but at least they're putting that resolution bump to work.
Ashley Posted Tuesday at 06:42 PM Posted Tuesday at 06:42 PM Cube back in 2023: "I'm going to start a thread about N64 games" Glen: "No, we must discuss Pokémon Mystery Dungeon! Every thread must discuss Pokémon Mystery Dungeon!" Cube: "anyway, N64 games..." 1 2
Cube Posted Wednesday at 12:46 PM Author Posted Wednesday at 12:46 PM Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue NA release: 27th September 2000 PAL release: 8th December 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Mass Media Publisher: THQ N64 Magazine Score: 9% Like games such as Transformers Beast Wars Transmetals and The World Is Not Enough, this is another game where the N64 and PS1 versions are completely different games made by different developers. Lightspeed Rescue on PS1 is a decent beat-em up, Lightspeed Rescue on Game Boy Color is a decent side scroller, Lightspeed Rescue on N64 is…whatever this is. Lightspeed Rescue looks abysmal. The levels are very simple designs, yet have bad repetition and warping of textures. The camera is stuck in the same position where you can’t see much (even with me having an advantage due to expanding the view into widescreen), and the movement animations are hilariously bad. The levels are sparsely populated and fairly empty, and the people you rescue – who don’t move and are simply in the position specifically chosen by the developer – clip into the floor, because the developers weren’t given the time or resources for such simple tasks as making an NPC stand on the floor. Lightspeed Rescue is also abysmal to play. Power Rangers are known for their martial arts and varied moves, so of course you only have two attacks: shoot sparks forward or shoot sparks backwards. The movement is very simple in that, despite this being made specifically for the N64, you can play the whole game with the D-pad. You slowly run around these levels shooting respawning enemies (with even worse walking animations) that just run into you and disappear, and following the compass until you run into the right thing to shoot or rescue (which is just walking into them). There are very few maps that are re-used multiple times and, other than the brief seconds of laughing at the animation, absolutely no fun to be had at all. The game isn’t just this, there are some other types of gameplay. In driving sections, you move slightly up and down as the level scrolls past at a set speed. Sometimes, you have to shoot objects (the first one has you blowing up cars that are on fire to “rescue people”), drive over objects, or even, in one case, just drive for four minutes. Each driving level uses the same repeating buildings, the same road, and all take place at night. There is a small amount of fun to be had here. If you drive into other vehicles, they spin around and float upwards until they’re out of view. This damages you, but the game is so easy that you can do this a decent amount of times on purpose. Megazord fights are first person, and involve shooting your opponent in a first person view that is terrible to control. Powerups randomly appear. You have standard missiles to shoot, and a power attack that requires charging. If you get close, you’ll do a pathetic punch instead of shooting, so make sure you don’t get close if you don’t want to waste more time slowly depleting your opponent’s health. Incidentally, both your and the enemy health bars recharge. Most of the enemies are incapable of shooting regularly enough to ever deplete your health bar. You do get a whopping two arenas, and this mode is the basis for the multiplayer. The third mode actually looks fairly decent: flying around a 3D city. The controls are rather odd, and it’s only used twice: once to pick up other Power Rangers (you’re never given their names), and once to pick up boxes (some of them are stuck inside buildings). It’s the same map both times as well. Lightspeed Rescue is a game that was clearly allocated very few resources, and was massively rushed. Even the people making the box knew the game was bad, and used screenshots from earlier, very different, builds to try and make the game look better. Worst Quote This ‘game’ comprises four different styles of play, eash as chronically substandard as the last. The ‘Ranger Rescue’ mode is the most notable, featuring a Power Ranger stumbling about like a string puppet, firing at constipated man-wasps and wandering from one blip to the next on the otherwisde barren radar. But, for your £40, you also get an uncontrollable hoverjet race, a left-to-right driving section that would have looked laughably primate 20 years ago, and jerky first-person battles against Lego-like robots with names like ‘Lectronic Trembler’. Mark Green, N64 Magazine #52 Remake or remaster? No. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. 1 3
Glen-i Posted Wednesday at 04:16 PM Posted Wednesday at 04:16 PM 3 hours ago, Cube said: Remake or remaster? No. I don't know why this made me laugh so much. 1
Cube Posted yesterday at 02:38 PM Author Posted yesterday at 02:38 PM Stunt Racer 64 NA release: 3rd October 2000 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Boss Publisher: Midway N64 Magazine Score: N/A This is a relatively unheard of game due to its rarity – due to missing deadlines, it ended up only releasing in North America, exclusively to Blockbuster (although, from what I can tell, it was available for sale, and not supposed to be rental-only like Clayfighter: Sculptor’s Cut). This is a fun arcade racer with a retro-sci-fi style and some amusing levels. The singleplayer mode is extremely difficult. Not so much for the actual races, but for the qualifying event. Here, you have a checklist of things to complete: collecting money and bonuses, performing stunts, and hitting 150mph, the latter being more difficult than you’d expect, as you need to use the turbo boost at the right time and not hit anything for a decent amount of time to reach the speed. This is made much worse than it should be, as you not only have to complete all of them within three laps, but you also have to hit checkpoints before you run out of time. There’s a lot to do in a short amount of time. The racing itself, however, is quite solid. Steering is fun, although not quite as precise as I’d like for collecting coins, and there’s a load of twists, turns, and jumps in the tracks. The tracks themselves have some fun themes – such as some toy-based tracks, a haunted house where you go inside it (it reminded me of later Mario Kart tracks), a space level, and an underwater race. Stunt Racer 64 ended up being the last game that Boss Game Studios finished, with them being approached to make Xbox games but never finding a publisher to release them. It’s a shame, as they made some decent racing games for the N64. Fun Quote Currently, Stunt Racer isn’t due for release until November. However, even at this relatively early stage in development, the game is superbly playable and incredibly ‘together’. Plainly, there’s a lot to look forward to here – and Stunt Racer, with the not-inconsiderable help of Turok 3, Zelda Gaiden and Conker’s Bad Fur Day, looks set to give the N64 it’s best Christmas yet. N64 Magazine #41 Remake or remaster? A re-release would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Stunt Racer 64.
Jonnas Posted 23 hours ago Posted 23 hours ago Lightspeed Rescue was a cool season for Power Rangers. Shame that it got such a poor game. Blowing up cars in order to rescue them sounds hilarious, though. 1
Cube Posted 7 hours ago Author Posted 7 hours ago Blues Brothers 2000 PAL release: 13th October 2000 NA release: 17th November 2000 JP release: N/A Developer: Player 1 Publisher: Titus N64 Magazine Score: 28% Considering the games that ended up getting cancelled on the Nintendo 64, it’s surprising that this one made it all the way to release. It’s a tie-in to a two year old film that performed poorly (both with critics and the audience), and an exclusive to the Nintendo 64 when many developers and publishers were focusing elsewhere. That said, the publisher (Titus) wasn’t one to care about quality, as seen in games like Carmageddon 64 and Hercules – the latter made by the same developer as this. The most surprising thing is that Blues Brothers 2000 isn’t utterly terrible. Now, it’s still a bad game, but there’s at least some variety and entertainment to the proceedings. It’s a 3D platformer where the main goal is to collect golden notes across the game’s four levels. The jumping is functional, and aiming where you land isn’t an issue (unlike worse platformers, like Earthworm Jim 3D). Competent is probably the best way to describe it. There’s also a few gameplay styles to add in to the mix. There’s a few 2D sections along with a (fairly long) Crash Bandicoot style section in the graveyard level. Blues Brothers 2000 never really gets exciting, but at the same time, it isn’t tediously dull either. The levels are quite ugly, though, and the graphics would have been considered bad early on in the N64’s life. It also doesn’t really relate to the film all that much, either, as you could replace the suited man (who is supposedly Dan Akroyd) with any character and it wouldn’t change the game. There are a few power-ups dotted in the levels (including one that’s a reference to another Titus game), such as a faster run, higher jump, or more powerful attacks, but these also are just…competent. There are some really annoying moments. When you’re hunting for the last few notes, you’ll re-enter previous areas to find them reset, which is a big issue in the first level (a jail) where you need to complete the minigame again to carry on. While there’s nothing terrible about Blues Brothers 2000, and it probably doesn’t appeal to anyone, there’s far worse out there. Poor Quote And that sigh should be the only audible sound, since the in-game music only increases the feeling of annoyance – you’ll quickly want to turn it off. Otis Redding and the other sound greats whose tunes have been butchered would doubtless be spitting blood were they to hear the appallingly-rendered parodies that BB2000 boasts. We’ve knocked up better efforts on a rusty Major Morgan. The other notable sound is the annoying boinging noise that erupts from Elwood’s pants when he jumps – it must be a source of constant embarrassment. Alan Maddrell, N64 Magazine #46 Remake or remaster? Nothing for this one. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Blues Brothers 2000.
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