Taz Express - All N64 Games

[Cube]

Japan Pro Golf Tour 64
 

• JP release: 2nd May 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Media Factory
• Publisher: Media Factory
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

The first – and last – third party game on the 64DD, made by Media Factory. It was available for sale for only two weeks from Nintendo of Japan’s website, with estimated sales between 3,000 and 10,000 copies. The gameplay feels like a more refined version of Seta’s early N64 game The Glory of St Andrews: you hold the stick back to the power level you want while a dot on the golf ball pulsates, then you have to time your swing down for when the dot is at its smallest for the most accuracy. Some sources say that Seta published this, yet the logo on the box and in-game is Media Factory. It’s still possible Seta developed it, or it was based on their engine, but their logo appears nowhere in the game.

One annoying thing is that your golfer then gently puts the club down before swinging. It makes the actual swing feel very detached from your actions. It’s a much harder system than the likes of Mario Golf, but isn’t too bad once you get used to it, but it never stops being a faff to use, making the entire game feel dull. Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 seemingly takes a quantity over quality approach, with a whopping 10 golf courses available at the start of the game, and a ton of tournaments and different modes to play through, including a career mode and “Network Competition”.

The online features of Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 are really poorly documented, with some places stating that it had online play, online leaderboards, and the like. However, the Network Competition mode could have worked in any regular N64 game. When you open it, you’re prompted with a password entry. Entering a valid password will then load up a specific course and settings. When you’re finished, you’ll be given a password which you would then enter into an external website to submit your score – the game itself never connects online. There are tools for generating and reading these passwords, so the function can be tested out.

It did, however, have one major Randnet feature: DLC. Using the Randnet disc, you could download an additional five 18 hole courses, then patch them into the game by swapping to the Japan Pro Golf Tour disk. While the DLC itself is lost, fans have have created a special N64 cartridge ROM for patching it into the game (which should even work with the real physical game on 64DD), using courses from a PS1 Seta golf game as an example, so all features of this game are fully usable.

That said, every single one of the 15 courses looks identical. There’s no background details (so no visible clubhouse or landmarks), everywhere has the same trees, and you’re always looking at the same hills in the background no matter where you are. It’s just another example of the game’s quantity over quality.

Poor

Quote

Well, it’s a golf game, but a very fine looking one. Although it’ll be hard-pressed to beat Mario Golf, Seta Golf looks set to knock the likes of CyberTiger into a cocked hat.

N64 Magazine #40

Remake or remaster?

The interesting features of this game are only interesting specifically for consoles of the time (although the Dreamcast was already doing stuff like this). The preservation efforts of fans is good enough.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Japan Pro Golf Tour 64

[Dcubed]

Ooh! There was an N64 game with DLC? I had no idea!

[Ashley]

2 hours ago, Cube said:

The online features of Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 are really poorly documented, with some places stating that it had online play, online leaderboards, and the like. However, the Network Competition mode could have worked in any regular N64 game. When you open it, you’re prompted with a password entry. Entering a valid password will then load up a specific course and settings. When you’re finished, you’ll be given a password which you would then enter into an external website to submit your score – the game itself never connects online.

I wonder if this is a change in semantics over time. I could see in 2000 playing a game and entering the score (manually) online could be classed as "online play"/"online leaderboards" in that "it can't possibly get any more technologically advanced than this!"

There might be other games from the time that prove me wrong, but I could see the meaning of those phrases adapting with technology. Kind of like how "high speed" internet used to mean something we'd now consider slow and thinking the N64 graphics would never be beaten. 

[Glen-i]

10 hours ago, Ashley said:

the N64 graphics would never be beaten. 

Excuse me!? Speak for yourself!

Seriously though, you make an interesting point here. 10 year old me would've probably be floored by that kind of worldwide interaction.
Then again, if I told 10 year old me that Banjo would get into Smash in 2019, he'd probably ask why the hell it would take so long.

10 year old me doesn't have the benefit of future sight, and that makes him an idiot.

[Cube]

Doshin the Giant: Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front
 

• JP release: 17th May 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Param
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Original Name: Kyojin no Doshin Kaihō Sensen Chibikko Chikko Daishūgō
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

This expansion to Doshin the Giant is truly bizarre. Essentially, it’s just a list of challenges for the first Doshin game, but the way it’s presented, and the disk swapping itself, is really quite strange. None of the stuff in this expansion was included in the GameCube version, and as this works in a unique way for an N64 game, I’ll talk about the process of playing the game.

The first thing you have to do when you launch the expansion is confirm that you have the first game. So straight away you’re told to eject the expansion disk (I’ll call it Disk 2) and insert the original Doshin the Giant disk (Disk 1). Then you have to swap back over to Disk 2 to finally boot to the menu.

Here you pick the “design” of your character – all of them are black silhouettes of kids with a few coloured accessories. You get told to go to bed (you can say no but nothing happens until you say yes), where you start dreaming that you get sucked out of the window and into the Doshin Expo of 1996, with Doshin chained up in the centre of it.

This is a circular area that you can walk around. There’s a heart metre that fills up from water dripping from the top of the screen. If the bar fills up, waves will crash onto the screen and you’ll wake up, watch the falling sleep animation again, and go back to the Expo. The only other button in the game – the Z button – will let you keep this meter down. Press it, and hearts will fly out of your character’s crotch in an arc. Yup, this isn’t water. It’s piss, and pissing on people and objects is how you interact with them.

The billboards are the main thing you need to focus on to start with. These display colours of tribes, as well as a monument type. Urinate on the sign and you’ll be prompted to insert Disk 1, then back to Disk 2. If you don’t have the required monument, then nothing will happen (you’d need to shut down Disk 2 and play Disk 1 on its own to complete it). If you do have the required monument (thankfully there was one for the only monument I was able to build), then you get to progress.

An attraction will be built in the park, of which there are 17 to complete. But that’s only the first part. After this is built, you’ll then be presented with a new challenge. This will be something like “find something” or “hop up and down a lot” – this a challenge for the original game. You’ll be prompted to insert Disk 1 and press reset, where you’ll boot up into the first game.

The game plays out just like normal (incidentally, I discovered that the system clock is used, and the villages will evolve when you’re not playing, like in Animal Crossing) and I don’t think anything is different at all, and there’s nothing to remind you of the current challenge. I played through a day and wasn’t sure what to do (I thought I failed the challenge anyway), so I put disk 2 in and hit reset.

Thankfully, that was the right thing to do. Not only that, but I had apparently completed the challenge (despite nothing telling me, unless it was the spoken Japanese voice). With this completed, you then get your reward.

Which is a short animation from a collection of Doshin the Giant shorts called “More than Giant”, which tell the story of Doshin and how he ended up imprisoned in the Expo. These were also released on VHS and have since been uploaded to YouTube, which also includes an N64/Doshin rap. This is the biggest part of the game, although there are a few more things.

Other kids will start appearing an the Expo. The ones that match your character can be recruited by doing the only action you can do. You will also encounter gangs of other kids, and need to defeat them by… yes, peeing on them. The ultimate goal of the game is to urinate on Doshin enough so he grows big enough to escape, and I think getting a larger crew helps with that.

And that’s Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front, a rather unusual game. When you free Doshin, the final cutscene is your mum cleaning your bedsheets, so this seems to be some kind of explanation regarding bed wetting – that bed wetters are on a noble crusade in their dreams, or something like that. It’s certainly an interesting way to add some very simple challenges to a game.

Poor

Remake or remaster?

I can’t see Nintendo ever re-releasing or referencing this in any way, and it was left out of the GameCube version. Challenges that unlock bonuses are a neat addition to god games, though.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Doshin the Giant: Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front

[Ashley]

 

[Cube]

Perfect Dark
 

• NA release: 22nd May 2000
• PAL release: 30th June 2000
• JP release: 21st October 2000
• Developer: Rare
• Publisher: Rare
• N64 Magazine Score: 96%

Following up from GoldenEye was a big task, but Rare decided that the best course of action was to come up with a brand new game using the same formula, instead of sticking to the Bond license. And they nailed it. Perfect Dark decided to add some sci-fi stuff to the mix, setting the game in the future year of 2023, allowing for it to have some fantastic weapons and some wonderful settings.

For this playthrough, I decided to not play my usual Xbox 360 version of the game, but instead the unofficial PC port that is closer to the original.

The singleplayer campaign ramps up in presentation all around, with much more elaborate levels, voice acting, and some nice lighting and shadows. They have the feel of being real buildings that could exist, rather than something that only exists for the objectives (well, except for the submarine, that one is a bit odd in layout), which I think is part of why Perfect Dark ages so gracefully, and is still great to play now.

The bigger focus on story and voice acting also makes the levels feel much more connected to each other, rather than just a set of individual levels. There’s even a couple of instances where you can impact the next level – such as providing an alternative exit or giving you a hoverbike. It helps the game feel like an epic experience.

The weapons are also a complete joy to use. There’s a lot of them, and each one includes a secondary fire mode. Some simple, like changing the rate of fire, some more unique, like a cloak that runs on ammo, a sentry gun, lock on, and scanners. On one of the Area 51 levels, I always enjoy blowing up a “necessary” explosive box that you’re supposed to take with you to blow up a wall. This will cause a “mission failed”, but the enemies in the level have a gun that self destructs, so you can use this in the correct location and the “failed” status will move back to “incomplete” before registering as complete. It’s very satisfying. Each gun also has a unique reload animation (apart form the renamed GoldenEye weapons, which reload in their original way) and they’re oddly pleasant, especially some of the alien weapons.

Once again, objectives get added when you play in different difficulties (personally, I wish you could mix and match difficulties and objective amounts), and one level even starts you off in a different place – on easy, you protect a hostage with a sniper rifle, but on the hardest difficulty, you are the unarmed hostage with no backup. Objectives are generally fun, although some can be difficult to figure out (such as blowing up three random computer terminals near a jail cell to shut down a starship’s shields).

But the singleplayer features don’t stop there. While on the main menu, you can back out at any time and walk around the institute, where you’ll be able to take on a few challenges, such as ones that train you on how all the gadgets work, and target practice, which has three levels of tailored challenges for all the main weapons in the game (everything except the bonus “classic” GoldenEye guns). After you complete a campaign level, you can also play it with a friend in co-op, or play a fun bonus mode where they control random guards in the level.

The multiplayer mode, which was a last minute addition for GoldenEye, has been given a massive overhaul for Perfect Dark, with a ton of new modes and features, along with a level of customisability which would still be amazing now. You can customise weapon setups, turn on one-hit kills for any game mode, and pick different bodies and heads for your character. There’s also the bots.

The bots allow for games of up to 8, so you can have four people take on a team of bots, or each have one to help you. There are six levels of difficulties, from pitifully easy to cheating, plus bonus ones with different personalities. PeaceSims will try to disarm everyone and hoard weapons, PreySims specifically target weak players, VengeSims will target the last person that killed them (even if it was friendly fire), and CowardSim will run away if you have the advantage.

One place where this shines is in the challenge mode – a set of 30 missions in the multiplayer mode that you can take on on your own or with friends, which makes the multiplayer side of things a significant singleplayer game on top of the main campaign and extra modes. And then there are a ton of cheats to unlock and more. Perfect Dark is a phenomenal game that builds on from its predecessor and improves upon it in every way. And I haven’t even mentioned the X-ray gun that shoots through walls.

Fave

Quote

The multiplayer mode is more than good enough to have been released as a stand-alone game, particularly as it makes Turok: Rage Wars look amateurish. The simulants are incredibly smart – much more deadly than any human players (well, we can’t beat the all yet). Just when you think you’ve got the measure of them in the challenges, you unlock an even more lethal sim that is guaranteed to leave you weeping in frustration. If you can’t face taking another beating from the computer, Perfect Dark is peerless as a four-player game. The arenas are excellent, and there are lots of them to choose form – once you’ve unlocked them playing the challenges.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #42

Remake or remaster?

The 360 port (included in Rare Replay) is great, but could do with being updated and released on more platforms. An option to have the original graphics would also be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

The Perfect Dark remaster can be purchased from the Xbox Store, either on its own or as part of Rare Replay. The original also available to rent via NSO.

[Dcubed]

I've posted enough about PD over the past year (as you all know, I recently beat the full single player mode with 100% completion from its recent NSO re-release), so there isn't much more for me to add.

This is the best first person shooter ever made.  End of.

It has yet to be topped, and it almost certainly never will be topped.

I suppose if there is anything else for me to add, it's that it was perhaps a mistake for Nintendo to release it at the tail-end of the N64's life... It probably should've been held back and ported to the Gamecube as a launch title.  Sales wise, the game suffered heavily from coming out during the N64's final Xmas period, and also from requiring the Expansion Pak (I mean, there's no way it could've ever been done on the stock hardware, its use of the Expansion Pak was absolutely justified, but it surely did impact on its potential sales).  Meanwhile, the game really did push the ol' N64 hardware a bit too far, frequently dropping down to single digit frames per second and leaving the poor thing screaming and gasping for air.

Just imagine what a difference it could've made if it ended up being a Gamecube launch title instead?  The Gamecube would probably have been a far more successful console, having a direct answer to Halo and a one ton gorilla of a title right there on day 1.  Meanwhile, the game would've looked and ran far better on Nintendo's dolphin powered cube, and almost certainly would've sold much better over the course of the console's life.

The road not travelled is a facinating one.

Edited December 15 by Dcubed

[Jonnas]

I know Perfect Dark gets everybody's attention and all, but reading about how the first Doshin expansion is all about tinkling toddlers has been a highlight of this series.

[Cube]

Legend of the River King 64: Ride the Salt Sea Wind
 

• JP release: 26th May 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Victor
• Publisher: Victor
• Original Name: Nushi Tsuri 64: Shiokaze Ninotte
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

The second Legend of the River King game on N64 is quite a bit different to the first, pulling back on some areas of the game to focus on the fishing a lot more. The sprites are also a lot more zoomed in, but I think the added detail makes the game look cluttered and messy instead, I’m not a fan of it at all.

Some of the non-fishing elements have been stripped out, which in a way is a good thing, as they were just a bit odd. Grabbing insects and picking flowers is now a case of walking into them and selecting yes from a pop up menu, although this makes walking past a bunch of flowers a pain, as it pops up as soon as you scrape a flower (it would be better if you needed to press A). The strange animal battling system is now completely removed, including the random encounters, so you just talk to the animals and they’ll make a noise.

The fishing is just as immensely difficult as the first game’s, and now made more complex with the addition of different kinds of fishing and lures that work in different ways. Some hook automatically, while others require you to move the lure around a lot in the water to get a bite. As a result, I wasn’t able to make it past the first island.

While you can still choose between different characters, they all have the same story (just with slightly different reasons): to go on a quest to find a special fish, located between some islands that you would get to explore later on.

Ride the Salt Sea Wind is likely a pretty good game, if you could understand it better.

?

Remake or remaster?

It would be nice to see a more modern take on these games, even using these stories.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Legend of the River King 64: Ride the Salt Sea Wind

[Cube]

International Track & Field 2000
 

• NA release: 28th May 2000
• JP release: 13th July 2000
• PAL release: 2nd September 2000
• Developer: Konami
• Publisher: Konami
• N64 Magazine Score: 86%

While Mario & Sonic took over for a while, the original Track & Field is probably still the most iconic game themed around Olympic sports. This is quite simply an N64 version of the button-mashing classic, although it has a lovely presentation, with the events looking like a professional sports event being shown on TV. Everything looks pretty good and the transitions are great.

I did, however, find it odd regarding which buttons were chosen to be mashed together – namely C-Left and C-Right rather than two buttons next to each other. It’s quite a distance to move your thumb over for repeatedly mashing, especially against the CPU players. You might think about using two thumbs, but even then you need to awkwardly have your finger on the Z button as well. Even mapping the buttons in a few different ways, I failed at absolutely every task due to how difficult the CPU is, coming last in everything except hammer throw, where I came 10th.

Where this game really would have shone was the multiplayer, as now everyone is on a level playing field, feeling the same exertion and RSI as a result of the button combinations needed. There, mistakes can be laughed at more as well, as the game poorly indicates when you need to stop running to make a throw or jump, and the changing camera angles make it even more difficult to judge.

Fun

Quote

As a multiplayer laugh-fest, International Track & Field gets the tumbs up. It’s incredbly polished – it looks wonderful, running in hi-res with an expansion pak, and the replays (complete with motion blur) are superb. The defiantly ‘old-skool’ (ahem) gameplay may be the simplest you’ll ever experience, but it just goes to show what a winning formula Konami came up with all those years ago – and they’ve done their legacy proud.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #41

Remake or remaster?

With Mario & Sonic and the latest Tokyo Olympic game, this genre is well covered.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get International Track & Field 2000

[Dcubed]

25 minutes ago, Cube said:

I did, however, find it odd regarding which buttons were chosen to be mashed together – namely C-Left and C-Right rather than two buttons next to each other. It’s quite a distance to move your thumb over for repeatedly mashing, especially against the CPU players.

That's actually quite thoughtful, stops players from mashing two buttons with one thumb.

[Jonnas]

I remember that in the PS1 version, me and a friend would just mash by laying down the controller and using two separate fingers for X and O. Some of the games required rhythmic mashing, too.

[Cube]

PGA European Tour Golf

• PAL release: 29th May 2000
• NA release: 15th June 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Infogrames
• Publisher: Infogrames
• N64 Magazine Score: 80%

Another Golf game, this one has four courses, and is otherwise very unremarkable. It has a few different ways to swing, with a traditional power bar method or an analogue stick swing like CyberTiger. What I found baffling was that the target line shows the ideal shot, but there’s no indication as to where on the power bar you should aim for. I either massively overshot or undershot on every hit, not figuring out how to accurately aim the ball.

Putting was also even worse for this, sometimes a 25% power shot will send the ball flying off the other side of the green, while a 50% shot will have the ball fall very short. It’s just a rather tedious golf game that doesn’t come close to Mario Golf, which strangely remains the best “serious” golf game on the system.

Poor

Quote

While PGA European Tour wouldn’t last five minutes in the PC market, where the only thing people want from their golf games is photo-realism, it has the depth of gameplay underneath its ugliness to make it a viable choice on the N64. We had fun testing it out in the office which is a lot more than we can say for Waialae Country Club and the dysmal, Jap-only Glory of St. Andres. Of course, there’s no way we’d recommend it over Mario Golf, but if you’ve played that to death and you’re looking for a playable alternative, it’s really the only other option.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #38

Remake or remaster?

There are better golf games.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get PGA European Tour Golf.

[Dcubed]

On that matter, I feel that it’s a bit of a shame that the Mario Golf series steered further and further away from realism with its sequels.  Toadstool Tour gives too much information to the player I feel (the rolling line that appears on the ground is a bit excessive), while World Tour on 3DS also gives too much away before your shot lands; robbing much of the suspense of whether or not your shot will land where you want it to.  Meanwhile, Super Rush’s camera changes are a complete disaster, making it near impossible to read the lie of the green properly, leading to some very frustrating gameplay (especially the putting).

Mario Golf 64 is still my favourite as far as the console MG games go.  I wish that Camelot would dial the cartoonish craziness back a bit to be more like the original.

Edited December 19 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Riqa

• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Bits Studios
• Publisher: Bits Studios
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Riqa was a game that was shrouded in mystery for quite a while. It was one of Bits Studios three big N64 projects. The other two – Die Hard and Thieves World – both ended up being relaunched into GameCube projects, while Riqa was fully cancelled, with only a few screenshots in magazines to show for it. However, in 2024 a developer uploaded some prototypes onto the internet, so we can finally see what it was like. Now that I’ve played it, it’s a massive shame it was cancelled.

Selecting the first level (which I don’t think was supposed to be the first level), it has one of the three main characters – Riqa – assaulting an enemy base. At first, I kept dying pretty much immediately until I got used to the controls, which feel surprisingly modern. Movement is similar to a 3D platformer (no tank controls), moving in relation to the camera while the c-buttons move the camera. Hold R to lock on and you’ll change into strafe mode, which lets you evade enemy fire. Once I had this down, the game became a lot of fun.

Going into the secret underground base, I was able to test out a few laser types for your blaster, including a cool shot that splits into three and ricochets off the walls multiple times. On top of the regular goons, there were also some little spider robots and some turrets. I opened a few ways with buttons and activated some machinery, but ended up not having anywhere to go. It’s difficult to know if I’m just missing something or it’s just not finished in a prototype, but there was a machine, a busted control panel, and an NPC I couldn’t interact with, so I suspect that had something to do with it.

Level 2 is a very detailed tutorial explaining how the various aspects of the game works, including grabbing ledges, and explaining that holding R to strafe also means that you can’t walk off platforms, with the negative of making your jump shorter. While locked on, you can also use the C-buttons to target special areas (for shooting switches), or line up your next target. We also get snippets of the main story. Your mission is to give a warning to a warlord that an assassin is after him. However, he has already received a message saying that, with the description of Riqa as the assassin, so you have to kill all his men (or, optionally, stun) to let him know the truth.

The area gets attacked, and there seem to be a few side quests in the game, as a prisoner asks you to deliver a letter to their mum, and there are some hidden emblems dotted around the level. There’s supposed to be a boss outside, but he never turns up.

The next level that works has a load of electrical fences, although I had to just jump on top (and get damaged) to get past them. I can’t find much to interact with here, so again, I may be missing something, or that’s all that’s done at this point.

Another level puts you in control of a new character – Kane – although he felt the same as Riqa. This mission involves going down a mine and avoiding sawblade machinery. I got a door opened and couldn’t progress any further – once again, there seemed to be an NPC that may have opened the way.

Kane also had a working boss, a giant mining robot where you had to shoot the tanks on the back of it, although the game crashed when I shot one off. That was it for the latest prototype, but I decided to check out earlier ones.

The earliest prototype is a small square room, and puts you in control of the final character, called Tak’ on the menu (with the apostrophe). You can blow up a statue of yourself, but that’s it. The movement still feels the same, and still fun to move around.

Another prototype loaded empty voids until I got to level 6, where I got a very different kind of level – a village hub world of sorts. There’s no jumping or shooting here, and the NPCs make references to terrorists that you defeated, so it sounds like you liberated them, so they can go about their lives. Some hidden chests contain credits for spending money.

The buildings on the left have a few shops and restaurants, along with an underground area connecting the two, with some teenagers complaining that the place is boring without the terrorists. The buildings on the right contain what seems to be a hotel lobby and a giant lift under construction. The building at the end of the street is a large office for the mayor of the town.

It really does seem like Bits Studios nailed the core mechanics of the game, such as the shooting and movement, which also includes a slide that feels great to use. There are different ammo types, different armours, and secondary weapons such as grenades and tripwires. It all feels surprisingly modern, and I think this could have been something special – it just needed a game around it.

Fun

Quote

We’re stuck with that single, non-explanatory picture, but – if everything goes according to plan – we should have something tasty for you in N64/42.

N64 Magazine #41

(Things did not go according to plan)

Should it be finished?

I’m curious enough by the design of the characters that I’d like to know more about them, and find out what story the game would have had.

[Ashley]

On 12/17/2024 at 8:20 PM, Jonnas said:

I remember that in the PS1 version, me and a friend would just mash by laying down the controller and using two separate fingers for X and O. Some of the games required rhythmic mashing, too.

Never played it but that is what I would do too. With the N64 controller rest it on your lap, hold it on the left side for support and then use two fingers on your right hand to mash the buttons. 

And I guess hold the controller upside down if you're left-handed. 

[Cube]

Indy Racing 2000

• NA release: 7th June 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Paradigm
• Publisher: Infogrames
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

I don’t know a great deal of Indy Racing, but from what I can figure out, it seems to be a racing event using Formula 1 cars (or one of the lower powered kinds) on short ring tracks. Indy Racing 2000 takes an arcade spin on this, with easy handling and generous collision.

And the generosity with the collisions is quite vital. The races begin with a rolling start, with a great sense of speed. However, it’s absolutely chaotic, with cars slamming into each other and spinning like crazy. This makes for an intense start of the race, which is far more exciting than the end, as the easy handling on the simple tracks means that there isn’t much to do.

But it seems that that section of the game (which consists of “single race” and “championship”) is just one portion of Indy Racing 2000. On the menu is a “Gold Cup” which is nearly dismissed as just a different kind of tournament to the championship. I was pleasantly surprised, then, that this is actually a very significant – and pretty great – separate mode. Almost a different game.

Here you work through different kinds of racing cars, from midget cars to sprint cars to Formula cars. However, the simple ring tracks are gone, and replaced with far more interesting tracks. They’re still nice and wide, but they feature some lovely background landscapes with some fun features like jungles and shipwrecks, and are a ton of fun for racing on.

It’s rather baffling that these tracks aren’t available in the single race option, as it would be nice to pick a track to race on. Still, it’s interesting that the best mode of the game is pushed down as a little bonus. If you like racing games that try to blend serious and arcade elements, this is a good example.

Fun

Remake or remaster?

A simple re-release to make it available in more regions would be fine.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Indy Racing 2000

[Cube]

Mario Artist Communication Kit
 

• JP release: 29th June 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

There’s not a lot that can be done with this software now, the main use for this was sharing your Mario Artist creations over Randnet. Without the internet, its main use is as a file management tool, providing a way to move data across the different Mario Artist games (although you could still swap discs for loading files within each game).

It does include a number of files made by Nintendo staff, that can be sent to the various Mario Artist disks to use and modify as you see fit. I am curious how many creations had been uploaded to Randnet before the service was shut down, and all the work lost. It also seemed that you were limited to the spaces across the various game disks themselves, as no blank disks were sold for additional storage.

?

Remake or remaster?

There are fans trying to restore Randnet services, called Randnet+, which would be great to see.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Mario Artist Communication Kit.

[Cube]

StarCraft 64
 

• NA release: 30th June 2000
• PAL release: 25th May 2001 (AU only)
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Blizard, Mass Media
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 78%

StarCraft is a big name in PC RTS games. The previous RTS port to the N64 tried to play to the console’s strength by completely recreating the levels in 3D, but StarCraft 64 takes a different approach, being a more direct port of the original PC game and the Brood War expansion.

For N64 owners at the time, this was a great way to play StarCraft, but it also means that there’s not much reason to try out the N64 version now. The controls are well done, and feel more intuitive than Command & Conquer, with easy access to build menus, and the R button allowing for easy selection of units, but it’s more a case that it works well enough for the N64, rather than a fully tailored experience.

But, while it doesn’t have anything unique about it, it’s not really a negative, as this provides the full StarCraft experience on a cartridge, and StarCraft is one of the all time RTS greats, with a detailed campaign with a gripping story and variation, as the game works well with just a few units or hundreds of units.

Fun

Quote

It’s laziness, pure and simple. Blizzard could have spent two years cooking up a real-time strategy game specifically for the N64, perhaps one that carefully utilised the unique specialities of the console. Instead, we get Starcraft. A conversion of a PC game, and a two-year olf PC game at that.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #45

Remake or remaster?

There’s an extremely well done remaster of Starcraft, keeping the core game exactly the same, and updating the graphics to be a cleaner version of the original style.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get the N64 specific version of StarCraft 64, but the original PC version is available on Battle.net for free, with the Remastered version also available to buy.

[Cube]

Army Men: Air Combat
 

• NA release: 18th Julu 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: The 3DO Company
• Publisher: The 3DO Company
• N64 Magazine Score: 83%

The Army Men games like to use different genres – starting with an RTS, then delving into 3rd person shooters, and now a vehicle shooter – but the green plastic style, lumped with the “living in a giant’s world” concept, keeps the games feeling like they belong together. Air Combat takes on the Desert Strike style of game, but keeps things simple.

But that simplicity is what makes Air Combat a lot of fun. Take the winch as an example: in Desert Strike, you have to carefully line it up to pick up objects. Here, you just lower the winch and it grabs onto anything, allowing you to move objects around with ease. The autoaim is also incredibly generous, although if you don’t pay enough attention, you may find yourself blowing up your own men.

Throughout the game you’ll steal some great looking weapons from the Tan Army – a tank, a UFO, a bear that shoots lasers out of his eyes… Sadly, you don’t get to use any of these (not even the UFO, which would work in a similar way to a helicopter), and it’s something that could have helped add a bit more variety into the game. Even so, it’s still a good laugh.

Fun

Quote

The series’ trademark sense of humour is thankfully backed up by some decent gameplay. The difficulty curve is such that you’ll easily pick up the controls, but it can soon become so frantic that you’ll run into problems after completing just a couple of the 16 missions.

Alan Maddrell, N64 Magazine #46

Remake or remaster?

A remastered Army Men collection would be great.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Army Men: Air Combat.

[Cube]

Mario Tennis
 

• JP release: 21st July 2000
• NA release: 28th August 2000
• PAL release: 3rd November 2000
• Developer: Camelot
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 91%

While this isn’t the first Tennis game bearing Mario’s name, Nintendo like to pretend that Mario’s Tennis on the Virtual Boy never existed (along with every other game on it) . This follows the same formula as Mario Golf – provide a great sports game that just happens to have Mario characters in it, rather than the more random and powerup-fuelled later Mario sports games.

And it really is a great tennis game. The characters have different kinds of swings, and you have a few basic shots. It’s not overly complicated, but it’s something you’ll enjoy playing for hours at a time. The only special moves are just stronger moves that require you to be positioned in advance, and that’s what makes is so great. There are a ton of courts to unlock by playing tournaments, and a good amount of characters, including newcomer Waluigi.

There’s also a few bonus modes, such as a mode where you have to hit the ball through rings and then win the point to score them, one where you have to return a ton of balls shot by piranha plants, and a bonus mode which is more like what you’d expect from Mario Tennis now – a tilting board with items to use. They’re all fun, and provide a great alternative way to play.

Mario Tennis is still incredibly good fun and still a great tennis game. There are some great little touches (such as seeing Lakitu fly away from a player after a close up), and a lot of charm that makes the game enjoyable without going crazy with the core gameplay.

Great

Quote

What makes the situation all the more surreal is that Mario Tennis is an absolutely fantastic game. Rather than just update Super Tennis, developers Camelot have created a new style of gameplay that is incredibly easy to pick up and offers experienced players greater shot-making subtlety than anything else available.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #47

Remake or remaster?

A remake of this, combined with the Game Boy Colour’s RPG mode in 3D, would be amazing.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no way to buy a new copy of Mario Tennis, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.

Re-releases

2010: Wii Virtual Console

2015: Wii U Virtual Console

2021: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

 

[Dcubed]

The craziest part of Mario Tennis on the N64 is that Camelot managed to make the game in just 9 months.  That’s 9 months from start to finish, from scratch! No pre-existing assets to work with here, no middleware engine, oh no.  Camelot made magic happen here!

And that’s really telling of a bygone era.  It’s amazing that a game of this calibre could be made so quickly by such a small team! How I miss those days…

Honestly though? It’s a miracle that Camelot survived the transition to HD and are still going today with a team not much larger than in the N64 era.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Honestly though? It’s a miracle that Camelot survived the transition to HD and are still going today with a team not much larger than in the N64 era.

It's sad to see them the way they are now. They were amazing in the SD era. I would love them to return to making JRPGs but I doubt they have the staff or budget to make one themselves.

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

The craziest part of Mario Tennis on the N64 is that Camelot managed to make the game in just 9 months.  

And 8 months of that was working on Waluigi.