NBA In the Zone 2000 - All N64 Games

[Dcubed]

5 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Yup, me too. Completely unaware. Now I wanna try it.

@Dcubed, remind me. How's Ubisoft's track record for licensing games for NSO?

Err... non-existent?

Then again, Ubisoft have very few pre-PS1/Saturn/N64 console games in their back catalogue anyway (I believe the original Rayman was actually their first ever internally developed console game, as they were primarily a PC publisher until the early 2000s); so it's hard to tell if they'd be happy to license out anything for NSO... but I don't imagine that they'd say no to having RROW on the N64 NSO service if Nintendo wanted it.

To be honest though... I think Sony would be a bigger problem in this case... given that Sucker Punch Productions made this game (this was well before they were acquired as a first-party Playstation studio).  I don't know if they would have any control over the rights to this game, but if they did manage to wrangle them somehow? I can't imagine that they'd be happy to share what is essentially a first-party Playstation Studios game with Nintendo...

Edited October 15 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Yeah, unfortunately, a re-release seems unlikely, and I don't expect Sony/Ubisoft to ever do a remaster on PlayStation, either. An unofficial PC port, perhaps. 

 

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
 

• NA release: 17th November 1999
• PAL release: December 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Red Storm, Saffire
• Publisher: Red Storm
• N64 Magazine Score: 87%

While there were some games based on Tom Clancy’s work before this, Rainbow Six was the first major* game that used his name as a brand name. Published by Red Storm Entertainment (who were bought out by UbiSoft a few years later), this adapted one of Tom Clancy’s novels into video game, starting a massive franchise spanning multiple genres (although mostly shooters). The first Rainbow Six is a tactical-based shooter for PC that was ported to other platforms.

*The very first video game with the “Tom Clancy’s” name was Tom Clancy’s Politika, a digital version of a board game heavily inspired by Risk.

I remember playing this as a kid, and never got past the first level, being confused by one large component of the game: the planning. Before each mission, you get a layout of the level, as well as enemy placement and hostage locations. You can set waypoints for you and your team so you can plan your mission, ideally so you and the other squad can enter difficult rooms from different sides at the same time. Although I could never accurately plan anything.

The levels are quite small and compact, and it feels like the developers had higher ambitions than what the hardware could handle at the time – you can tell that they were going for some lovely looking areas, but the attempt to do so much detail just makes everything look blurry and ugly instead. The HUD fares better, with a really awesome map taking up a large corner of the screen (you can make it take up the full screen, or turn it off) that lets you see where enemies are.

Ultimately, though, I found that on easier difficulties, I could ignore the planning and shoot everyone, with some very generous auto aim. A lot of the time I didn’t even need to shoot, as before I could react, my teammate had already killed the enemy. In one part of the game, I walked around a river for a bit before heading up to a bridge, all the enemies were dead with a hostage kneeling in the middle of them. I had no idea who killed them all. The most difficult parts of the game are when enemies are above or below you, as the auto targeting only works horizontally.

In most levels, your objective is to rescue hostages, either by leading them to the extraction zone or taking out every enemy. On some of the more complicated levels (such as one that takes place in a theme park boat ride building), leading the hostages out of the area can be an issue due to them getting stuck on walls or objects, so I had to abandon my original plan and take out all the enemies instead. There are a few other missions where you have to download data instead, and one where you can’t be spotted at all.

On the N64, Rainbow Six feels a bit unfinished. The story is really poorly presented, and it really does feel like they’ve left stuff out instead of adapting it to the N64. The PC version is probably the one to play.

Fine

Quote

It’s not all sweetness and silencers, though. Some of the missions are unexpectedly and disappointingly quick thanks to the CPU team polishing off their objectives – and yours – in a matter of minutes while, conversely, sometimes they just go completely haywire and take it upon themselves to wander into a roomful of terrorists and compromise your mission. hey also have a nasty habit of following right on your heels so that, when you end up at a dead ends, you turn around and find them right on you, often so close that you get stuck and have to plug them yourself, just to get them out of the way.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #35

Remake or remaster?

A remaster or remake of the first few games combined would be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

The PC version is available on GoG and Ubisoft’s PC store.

[Cube]

Donkey Kong 64
 

• NA release: 22nd November 1999
• PAL release: 6th December 1999
• JP release: 10th December 1999
• Developer: Rare
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 93%

After doing a great job with Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, Rare were given the job of bringing Donkey Kong into 3D. Instead of transforming the style of Donkey Kong Country into 3D, however, they instead went more into the style of Super Mario 64 and their own Banjo-Kazooie. This time, though, there are five playable characters, which is both one of the game’s strong points and the game’s weakest point.

With five characters come a lot of abilities. Thankfully, all the Kongs control roughly the same, even with their differences, meaning you can move to a new Kong and not have to re-learn the basics. That said, how the basic jumps and attacks are performed by each Kong is different, so there is some variety in simply how they move.

A few of the special abilities are also shared, each has their own gun and musical instrument that mostly work in the same way, while they have a crystal-powered ability that is unique: Lanky can run on his hands really fast, Diddy gets a Jetpack, Chunky becomes massive, Tiny becomes tiny and Donkey Kong becomes invincible. And that’s just one of their unique abilities.

Where the main issue lies in, though, is how so many collectables (and there are a LOT of them) are colour-coded and can only be collected by the Kong they’re tied to, so you’ll see some bananas in the wrong colour and need to make your way to a tag barrel to swap. However, I do think this problem is overblown, and it isn’t such a colossal hassle as some make out – and I have to make extra trips due to being colourblind (I can’t see the difference between the stuff for DK/Chunky or Tiny/Lanky). I’ve collected everything (which isn’t required to see the end of the game) a couple of times, and the biggest issue is some of the barrel challenges, rather than the collectables.

Some Golden Bananas – the game’s main collectable (although there are also regular bananas, banana medals, fairies, coins, blueprints, crowns, and keys) – are locked behind barrels containing minigames. What bananas these are seems a bit random – you’d think they’d mainly be easily accessible, but some are difficult to reach and then you have a minigame.

I think the minigames are more of a hindrance than the collectables are, very few are much fun, and some can be extremely difficult. Some were also designed with the N64’s poor framerate in mind, and are almost impossible on the Wii U virtual console (and emulators) without repeatedly pausing. It’s my least favourite aspect of the game.

The basic movement also feels off to me, and I find it more difficult to cross a thin path in DK64 than in games like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. The camera is also often a burden, but that was common in a lot of games of this era.

Still, despite these problems, the game is still an immense amount of fun. The levels are complex, and take a while to properly explore for the first time, with a ton of stuff to see and do. Donkey Kong 64 will take a significant amount of time to beat for the first time – that’s if you can beat it. When I was kid, I did everything except beating the original DK arcade for the second time, so I collected 101% of the Golden Bananas, but never saw the wonderful final boss.

Some levels also make use of lighting quite a lot, featuring dark areas lit up by torches, with fireballs flying over to temporarily light up the path. It seems like something basic now, but for the time it wasn’t common for lighting to be used in this way.

Donkey Kong 64 is a wonderful game, just one with some frustrating flaws. There’s a ton of wonder and imagination with a lot to discover, but the frustration with the thin platforms and the minigames does hamper the experience.

Great

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Then, like the sparkling ray of sunlight that signifies the end of the storm, this arrived. Donkey Kong 64 is everything a platformer, should be: vast, complex, beautiful to look at, and impossibly involving. While lesser games cower in the corner with their half-hearted controls and linear play, DK64 presents intricate puzzles, sprawling levels and magnificent sights that perfectly reflect how much real effort has gone into its making.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

A good remaster would be outstanding. Refine the controls and camera, add some options to help with collectables (remove the specific Kong requirement or give the option to swap Kong anywhere like a popular ROMhack does), and rebalance the minigames to work with good framerates.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Donkey Kong 64

Re-releases

2015: Wii U Virtual Console

[Hero-of-Time]

Annoys the hell out of me that this isn't on the Switch yet. Maybe they'll release it just in time for it's 25th anniversary....

[Helmsly]

I appreciate that I am in the minority here, but I didn't like DK64 at all.

At the time it came out, I was looking forward to it because I was such a huge fan of Donkey Kong Country and I enjoyed Banjo Kazooie too, so on paper this should have been perfect. But it just never gelled. Controlling the Kongs never felt right to me, nor the camera. Even back then when I could sit and play a game for hours and try and get 100% in them, the sheer number of collectables was so overwhelming that I remember thinking there's no way that I will attempt collect them all. Mini-games were also quite bad from what I remember too, as Cube mentioned.

I found nothing about it was enjoyable and it was the first game I ever owned that I never finished, despite returning to it about 5 times.

If it ever does show up on NSO, I'd like to have another go.

Edited October 16 by Helmsly

[Ashley]

46 minutes ago, Cube said:

This time, though, there are five playable characters

 

15 minutes ago, Helmsly said:

despite returning to it about 5 times.

I'm sensing a theme

[Glen-i]

15 hours ago, Helmsly said:

I appreciate that I am in the minority here, but I didn't like DK64 at all.

I stand with you. Your good taste will not be alone!

How Banjo-Tooie gets lambasted to hell and back for being too sprawling, when this exists is beyond me! It also has far better mini games!

When this eventually comes to NSO, I will do the bare minimum to unlock the multiplayer things, and then bail. Cannot stand the idea of doing all that again.

Edited October 17 by Glen-i

[Cube]

Turok: Rage Wars
 

• NA release: 23rd November 1999
• PAL release: 26th December 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Acclaim
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 87%

Taking a departure from the usual single-player focused Turok games, Rage Wars is focused entirely on multiplayer, with a large amount of deathmatch arenas and multiple game modes. And in this game, you can finally be the raptor and claw up your enemies. There’s also a giant bug creature that you can play as, swiping or using a long distance acid attack.

In terms of singleplayer, there’s no proper campaign, however there is still an immense amount of stuff you can do, as long as you’re fine with fighting bots. Each character has their own set of scenarios to fight through, leading up to unlocking a new character (until you have them all). It’s a lot like Unreal Tournament.

The bots are passable, but limited in options. Higher difficulty bots just have more guns and ammo, and they’ll ignore some stuff (like mines). The real meat of the game is the multiplayer, but there’s still a good amount of fun to have on your own.

Rage Wars did end up being very lucky in a way: it was originally going to compete with Perfect Dark (which had a more sophisticated multiplayer, deathmatch scenarios, and a singleplayer campaign), so it ended up getting a Christmas period as the main multiplayer shooter.

One other interesting thing about Rage Wars was that it initially released with a bug that made one of the models impossible to collect, however, a revision was released and Acclaim offered the opportunity to send the game back for a replacement.

Fun

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So it’s in the multiplayer game that Rage Wars really comes alive. For all the side-stepping, missile-ducking ability of the bots, they can never match the conniving brilliance of a fellow human, and the amount of time spent on Rage Wars’ controls and level layouts means it lends itself perfectly to countless hours of enjoyable deathmatching. The Monkey Tag, in particular, is hilarious, with longs periods of silent, tension-fille monkey hunting tempered by chaotic, all-out battles for his hide. And until you’ve watched a monkey’s body parts fountain into the air, you haven’t lived.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #35

Remake or remaster?

Nightdive allowing their Turok engine to be used for a remaster would be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Turok: Rage Wars

[Dcubed]

Hey look! Two games that really need a Switch NSO release!

DK64 is a very uneven game with some highs and a lot of terrifying lows.  It also doesn't really feel much like a platformer (at least not past the first couple of worlds), but rather more like a Zelda-esc Action Adventure game.  There's nothing wrong with that, but there's a lot of "dead space" where you're kind of just walking from one set piece to the next without much engaging gameplay going on; and really, I don't need to say anything about the ridiculous amount of collectables.  This game is utter torture to get 100% on.

But I don't think it's a bad game at all.  There's certainly a lot to like, but I think that its biggest issue is that it doesn't really feel much like a DKC game at all.  No, its biggest sin is that it's essentially discount Banjo Kazooie; and both BK and BT pull off the concept far more convincingly.

It's also a surprisingly good multiplayer game! While I wouldn't say that the multiplayer suite is quite as extensive as Banjo Tooie's? It was clearly the inspiration for that game's multiplayer.

DK64 is well worth playing, as what is essentially the red-headed stepchild in the unofficial BK-DK64-BT trilogy.  Just... don't bother trying to 100% complete it, for the sake of your own sanity.

As for Turok Rage Wars? I've never played it, but I did always enjoy Turok 2's multiplayer (however simple it may have been) and this is, from what I understand), essentially a fleshed-out version of that very same multiplayer mode from Turok 2 using the same engine, done very quickly as a way of making use of Turok 2's existing assets.  While I doubt that Nightdive Studios would ever bother to remaster this one, I'd be very glad to see it come to the Switch NSO service.  The more multiplayer fun, the better! And an NSO release would also skirt around the one major flaw that always held this game back... the fact that it is essentially a multiplayer-only game (a tough sell, even in 2024).

Also worth noting that this was the first game produced by Acclaim Studios Austin, the studio that Iguana had turned into after most of the Turok 2 staff had already left to found Retro Studios in early 1999.  A few remaining holdouts stayed at ASA until this game was finished, including one of Retro's most important staff members... Mark Pachini (the director of Metroid Prime 1-3; who later attempted a coup before departing Retro in 2008 alongside Todd Keller (Lead artist) and Jack Mathews (Lead engineer) to found Armature Studio); who joined their colleagues in moving to Retro Studios as soon as Rage Wars was done.  So this is the last game in the series to retain any of the DNA that defined the original Turok 1 & 2, as well as the Metroid Prime series.

Edited October 18 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Namco Museum 64
 

• NA release: 29th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Namco, GCC, Mass Media
• Publisher: Namco
• N64 Magazine Score: 70%

At this point, Namco Museum was a series with multiple volumes on the PlayStation, each featuring six classic Namco arcade games. The six chosen for the N64 are a particularly strong selection, with some very popular games – not having a volume number is also an indication that this was intended to be the only collection.

One thing that makes a compilation strong is what it does outside of the games. On PlayStation, the Namco Museum Volumes include a 3D museum to walk around, with plenty to look at and read about. It’s a great presentation that makes the package feel much more alive.

On N64, you have a grey menu with the six games to pick from. That’s it. You can adjust a few settings within each game (with a little nice touch where you can see what DIP switches you’d need to set on the actual arcade), and nothing more. It’s extremely bare bones. So, the games, then.

Pac-Man

Pac-Man features a large frame which is a bit too busy and distracting, having far more colour than the game itself. I’m no Pac-man expert, but this feels like Pac-man, and seems like a good conversion. I don’t think I need to explain much more, as everyone knows Pac-man.

Ms. Pac-Man

The sequel to Pac-man, with some more varied maze layouts and cleaner graphics, so it’s just a slightly better Pac-man. This game is now missing from more modern Namco arcade collections due to rights issues, with the character being replaced in other Pac-man remakes.

Galaga

The placement of Galaga on the menu is strange, as it’s a sequel to Galaxian, but it’s placed first. This takes the first space shooter game and turns it into more of its own thing, with enemies that move a lot more, and some more distinctive patterns. The fire rate is also massively increased.

Galaxian

A shameless rip-off of Space Invaders. The biggest difference it has going for it is that some enemies will break formation and come at you on their own.

Pole Position

One of the original racing games, first complete a qualifying map, and then try racing. I always found that I kept overtaking people but still didn’t last long.

Dig Dug

Dig around to hunt for enemies, making them explode with your balloon pump weapon. You can also use rocks to take out enemies or, if you’re not careful, yourself.

—

If you only had an N64 and really, really wanted to play these arcade classics at home, then this was an acceptable option. However, this was an incredibly bare bones collection, especially when assets they could have used already existed in other Namco Museum collections. On top of that, it couldn’t even save high scores to the cartridge – you needed a Controller Pak. This was likely done for the same reason why so much stuff was missing: to fit the game on the cheapest cartridge possible.

Poor

Quote

It’s difficult to see how they could fail with six such ground-breaking arcade titles packed onto the cart. Gloriously simple maze-’em-ups Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man need no introduction. Pole Position wasn’t the first 3D racer, but its speed and colour easily made it the most exciting. Galaga and Galaxian took Space Invaders and – impossibly – made it better. And Dig Dug provided primitive 2D monster-squashing action. The N64 conversions of all six are nigh-on perfect.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #44

Remake or remaster?

There are much better collections of these games.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Namco Museum 64.

[Dcubed]

Thank you for pointing out the publisher cost cutting here, because it is pretty egregious.

Namco were in 100% “Nintendo is the enemy” mode during this era, but Mass Media were doing ports for multiple platforms at the time (culminating in the surprisingly excellent Pac-Man Collection on GBA) and they were starting to throw Nintendo a couple of bones by licensing out Ridge Racer to NST for Ridge Racer 64.  Namco Museum 64 is a bare minimum viable product, that just barely fulfils a contractual agreement.

Edited October 18 by Dcubed

[Cube]

HSV Adventure Racing
 

• PAL release: 29th November 1999 (Australia only)
• NA release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Paradigm
• Publisher: EA
• N64 Magazine Score: 81%

Unfortunately, this is not a sequel or new instalment in the Beetle Adventure Racing series, but rather an alternative version. EA had found success in modifying the available cars for different regions in the Need for Speed franchise, so they decided to have a go with this.

In Australia, the Beetle doesn’t seem to have the same nostalgic value as in other countries, so they replaced the Beetles with cars from an Australian brand called Holden Special Vehicles. What’s fascinating is that this wasn’t done when the game first came out, but much later – so in Australia you could pick up Beetle Adventure Racing and HSV Adventure Racing.

Outside of a different shape of car (the stats are all the same as the original) and a very enthusiastic Australian announcer, this is entirely the same game as Beetle Adventure Racing. Which means that it’s an incredibly fun game, there’s just no reason to choose this over the original. Still, the fact that it exists is still interesting, and it’s great having an excuse to play Beetle Adventure Racing again.

Great

Remake or remaster?

I still think a remastered “Adventure Racing” (even with generic cars) would be great.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get HSV Adventure Racing

[Ashley]

There's something very on brand for Australia to have an upside down version of something. 

[Cube]

Elmo’s Number Journey
 

• NA release: 30th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Realtime
• Publisher: NewKidCo
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

With this, I wasn’t expecting any differences from Elmo’s Letter Adventure and, while the game is mostly the same, I was quite surprised by the actual differences.

For starters, the environments are much more 3D, with some having ramps you can jump off (with Elmo sometimes performing an animation of a stunt). It doesn’t change how the game works, but it does make it feel slightly more involving.

The aim of the game is still to collect lots of what you’re told (just numbers instead of letters), however, this time there are groups of items, and you’ll need to collect groups of the right number as well – so there’s actually some counting involved. This increases the difficulty to a level where it’s understandable that someone of the target age would be able to play a game like this.

The bonus stages also include sums, with addition and subtraction. You have to throw the right number of balls into the mouth of a large clown head, which is a lot more advanced than finding the first letter of a word (with the characters saying what letter you’re looking for).

Of course, it’s still incredibly basic, even for an edutainment title, with no settings to adjust the difficulty of the tasks (just how many you have to collect). It’s still immensely short, and there’s still no reason as to why these games were split up instead of being a single package.

Poor

Quote

The dreaded concept of edutainment reared its pre-teen head this month, with the confirmation that a series of Sesame Street titled will be heading N64-wards later this year, thanks to NewKidCo.

N64 Magazine #25

Remake or remaster?

Nothing needed for this.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Elmo’s Number Journey.

[Cube]

NBA Jam 2000
 

• NA release: 30th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Acclaim
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 80%

Sports games evolved as the N64 got older, with more realistic looking players, better animation, smoother gameplay, and better visual effects. NBA Jam 2000 didn’t get the memo, and brings us a clunky game with gormless players that don’t look like they’re even standing on the court.

On top of that, the first message that pops up when you start the game is a notice: this game requires two Controller Paks to save properly – and each mode uses the entire 123 pages of an official Controller Pak, so neither can be used for any other game.

That is due to a proper “Jam” mode, which brings back the 2-vs-2 arcade style, similar to the older NBA Jam games. In the previous N64 NBA Jam game, it was just the regular game with different settings, now it’s more of its own thing (but still not a good excuse for the Controller Pak issue).

Compared to NBA Showtime, which came out before this, this is antiquated in both looks and how it plays, being slow and clunky. Showtime didn’t get released in Europe, so I think N64 Magazine were much kinder to the game due to that.

So while you have the “deal” of having two games in one, the “sim” mode is nowhere near as good as the NBA Courtside games, and the “Jam” mode is embarrassing next to NBA Showtime. And is it really a good deal once you add in the cost of two Controller Paks?

Fine

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NBA Jam 2000 gets full marks for value then. The two modes Sim and Jam, share some of the same elements, such as the basic control system and graphics engine, but just about everything else feels different. The Jam players have more detail; the Sim players have more moves. The sim game is filled with stats, sober commentary and TV-style presentation, whereas the Jam game is faster, has no rules, and says ‘boom-shack-a-lack’ rather a lot.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #37

Remake or remaster?

Better basketball games exist

Official ways to get the game.?

There’s no official way to get NBA Jam 2000

[Dcubed]

Ahh yes, another one of the fake NBA Jam games; not made by any of the people who made the original series, before Acclaim stole the series name and trademark from Midway in 1996.

This is essentially the 90s equivilent of the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons debacle in the early 2010s, with NBA Showtime being the real NBA Jam.

Edited October 22 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Nuclear Strike 64
 

• NA release: 30th November 1999
• PAL release: 3rd March 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: EA, Pacific Coast Power & Light
• Publisher: THQ
• N64 Magazine Score: 82%

The [BLANK] Strike series of isometric helicopter shooters was a big part of my early childhood, playing games like Desert Strike and Jungle Strike on my Mega Drive. They were great to play around with for a while, but I don’t remember having long sessions with them – more something to turn on every now and then.

With Urban Strike, the series made the leap to 3D on the Saturn and PlayStation, with Nuclear Strike being released on PlayStation a year later. It took a few more years for the game to be ported to the N64, with clear graphics, but the game not taking advantage of the system, as there’s no analogue movement.

One thing that is nice is that you can hop into different vehicles – such as a hover craft, tank, plane, and other helicopters. These play similar to the helicopter, but the slight differences make them feel like a nice change of pace, even if you are doing the same things.

This is a great game to play a scenario a day, or something like that, but not great in long spurts.

I did find that the graphics have aged poorly, due to the heavy reliance on textures. It makes the game feel like you’re playing with miniatures atop a blurry printout of a satellite photo. I can’t help but think that a simpler graphical style would have worked a lot better.

Nuclear Strike is an enjoyable, albeit repetitive, game.

Fun

Quote

The game’s best moments, such as the missions in which you have to escort convoys and protect key personnel, are involving enough to make you feel like you’re engaging in a real life military game. You get three life bars (armour, ammo and fuel) which you must replenish separately, so you have to be pretty sharp with your tactical thinking when flying into heavily guarded areas. You can easily lose two or three lives in quick sucession, because if ou crash due to a lack of fuel your health and armour gauges won’t be refilled. Some sections can be frustratingly tough.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #39

Remake or remaster?

A new game in the series – as a lower budget digital game – would be great.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Nuclear Strike

[Ashley]

15 hours ago, Dcubed said:

This is essentially the 90s equivilent of the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons debacle in the early 2010s, with NBA Showtime being the real NBA Jam.

And Harvest Moon making the real jam.

I'll be on my way. 

[Cube]

Space Invaders
 

• NA release: 30th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Z-Axis
• Publisher: Activision
• N64 Magazine Score: 73%

Like Paperboy, this is another sequel to a classic game that annoyingly just uses the original name – although in this case it’s only outside of Japan, where it was called Space Invaders X (on other platforms, the N64 version wasn’t released there). This Space Invaders has a lot of features not present in the original, while still keeping the core gameplay very similar to the original.

One large difference is special abilities for both enemies and you. Different enemy types, which have distinctive but hard to remember designs, will react in different ways – some shoot quicker, others dive bomb you when they die. More are introduced as you make your way through the game.

You also have special abilities. Hit four enemies in a row and you’ll power up for a bonus shot (which is picked at random), which causes effects like the missile moving sideways after hitting one invader, lasers that take out whole rows, and a “kamikaze” attack which sends your tank flying upwards to smash through enemies (before safely landing on the ground). As you reach each new planet, a new power is introduced, which you’re most likely to get each time you charge up your special attack.

On each planet you’ll play through 10 rounds, each with a new layout of enemies and shields. After 5 rounds, you’ll play a bonus minigame of shooting down UFOs for points and power ups – including vital shields to stop you exploding in one hit. The different special abilities of both you and the enemies do help keep things interesting. After the 10 rounds, you’ll reach a boss fight.

The bosses contain the most variety. Some require spamming your slow missiles as fast as possible, others require careful aiming, and others needing frantic dodging. I also love how the final boss (unless you play on higher difficulty levels for a few bonus planets) is the strange alien monster from the artwork of the original game.

This version of Space Invaders is a solid variation on the original game.

Fun

Quote

The original Space Invaders coin-op is a true classic – the game that proved so popular in Japan, the country ran out of 10 yen pieces. So, when Activision revealed they’d be attempting to give the game a ‘fresh look’ for the new millennium, we expected the same gut-wrenching feeling that came with watching ITV’s ‘Secont-rare Celebritires Sing The Beatles’. Thankfully, Space Invaders is much better than we expected.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #44

Remake or remaster?

This hasn’t been included in any Space Invaders collections, and it really should. Perhaps rename it to Space Invaders X for clarity, though.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get this version of Space Invaders.

[Glen-i]

Woah, you unlocked a memory I had all but forgotten! I've played this game! It was when you listed some of the powerups, specifically the one that rockets the ship upwards, that it all came back to me.

I think it was the PlayStation version I played, because I don't remember there ever being an N64 port. I was rubbish, so I never got very far.

Edited October 24 by Glen-i

[Cube]

Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! 
 

• JP release: 3rd December 1999
• NA release: 29th May 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Hudson
• Publisher: Hudson (JP), Vatical (NA)
• N64 Magazine Score: 52%

While Bomberman Hero was distantly different to Bomberman 64, being developed as a separate project entirely, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack is a direct sequel. What’s surprising, then, is that this possibly has less in common with Bomberman 64 than Bomberman Hero, making it much more like the classic Bomberman gameplay.

One key thing that helps bring back the feeling of the originals is that the bombs once again explode in their distinctive “plus” shape, making it much easier to judge the shape and distance of how they’re exploding. The camera is also stationary (no stuff annoyingly hidden out of view), with a top-down perspective.

As you defeat bosses, you’ll also gain more types of bombs which have different effects. Ice bombs will freeze enemies, while wind bombs can be used to help Bomberman cross paths. These are used for both combat and puzzles.

Joining Bomberman on his journey is Pommy, a small, round creature. He can stun enemies and can be used for puzzles. Unfortunately, unless you have a second controller, he does what he wants, so the few times you need him to stand on switches for puzzles, it’s a massive pain to get him to remain on them long enough.

The puzzles overall aren’t too bad, with some stretching across multiple rooms. What turns them into a massive chore, however, is how enemies respawn as you re-enter rooms, and many doors get locked again until you dispose of them all.

It’s a decent game with some interesting worlds and characters, although I never got to the end of the game due to how the kick works – I had to create a path of ice platforms in lava, but couldn’t get the distance right, any kick would leave a gap. I also hadn’t found a throw power in the level, and really didn’t want to trawl the level (due to respawning enemies), hoping one would spawn somewhere. This ability and part really needed some fine-tuning.

Still, this is a big improvement over the first, and gives Bomberman his identity back.

Fun

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This could have been an average platformer with an okay multiplayer, but it’s let down by frustrating gameplay and uninspired level design. Attempts to drag Bomberman into the 64-bit era have hit quite a few stumbling blocks, and perhaps it’s time for Hudson to admit defeat.

Alan Maddrell, N64 Magazine #45

Remake or remaster?

It should still be in a Bomberman collection.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Bomberman 64: The Second Attack

[Ashley]

9 minutes ago, Cube said:

Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! 

 

[Dcubed]

Second Attack desperately needs a NSO release.  It’s SO expensive on the second hand market!

The fact that the Wii & Wii U VC got Bomberman 64 and Bomberman Hero, but not Second Attack is maddening!

[Cube]

Puyo Puyo~n Party
 

• JP release: 3rd December 1999
• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Compile
• Publisher: Compile
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Also known as Puyo Puyo 4 (I can only guess that the ~n is partly due to Japanese superstitions about the number 4), this brings the core gameplay back to Puyo Puyo 2, and adds in character-specific special abilities. Unfortunately, unlike Puyo Puyo Sun, this one does not have colourblind options, so, like in Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean machine, I made a ton of mistakes.

The party part of the name refers to some 4-player modes, which make the beans smaller and even more difficult to distinguish. These include a 4-way battle and a hot potato mode, where there’s a bomb that gets passed around by performing chains, with you aiming to not be the one with the bomb when the time ends.

?

Remake or remaster?

A collection and official localisation of the earlier Puyo Puyo games would be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

While there are newer Puyo Puyo games, this particular version is not available anywhere.

[Cube]

Top Gear Rally 2
 

• NA release: 3rd December 1999
• JP release: 4th February 2000
• PAL release: 28th February 2000
• Developer: Saffire
• Publisher: Kemco
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

While I’ve spoken about Saffire games before, their earlier N64 games had all been ports, making this their first fully developed N64 game (with their second coming out a week after this). While it’s called Top Gear Rally 2, it bears no similarities to the original game, this being much closer to a rally sim than the original arcade-style game.

Top Gear Rally 2 features a damage system where bad driving will completely wreck your car. I was so bad at the game, that I couldn’t even finish a single race due to damage, but I think I’m more at fault than the game there. The handling has a lot of customisation and feels quite good, although the car is oddly “magnetic” in that it sticks to the ground, making it jerk around in an odd way on bumpy sections.

Something that really bugged me was the tracks, as there was something really off about them – a strange sense of déjà vu, as I seemingly kept encountering the same obstacles again and again, sometimes the same sections repeated in the same race. As I looked it up after playing, it turns out my feeling was right: there are no properly designed tracks in the game.

There are four different “themes” and, for each race, the game stitches various parts together. Specific combinations of these parts act as “tracks” in the game, while you unlock a “random track generator” after completing the game.

The training mode is, strangely, the best mode in the game. Here, you’re set into lots of driving challenges while avoiding cones. It’s definitely more compelling than the random tracks.

Top Gear Rally 2 is a good rally game, but would have been even better with specifically designed tracks, and having the random tracks be a bonus, like in F-Zer

Fine

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And that’s not all. Top Gear Rally 2 has a driving school, different weather conditions and CPU opponents who drive properly, making mistakes as well as being darn good. It’s fast, the tracks are splendidly designed, the graphics are more detailed than Top Gear Rally’s, and – almost inconceivably – there’s a brilliant random track generator (á la F-Zero X’s 5th cup) that’s opened up when you complete the game. Genius. One thing, though – do make sure you play this with a steering wheel, if you can.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #38

Remake or Remaster?

A collection of the various Top Gear games would be quite nice.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Top Gear Rally 2