Onegai Monsters - All N64 Games

[Dcubed]

Great multiplayer game, but I do have one big issue with it… the camera is just too far zoomed in; you just don’t get a wide enough field of view to react properly… something that could be nicely resolved with a new HD game…

… no, not that one, and not that one either.  Kindly one that isn’t a steaming pile of goat shit, thank you.

Edited July 16 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Triple Play 2000
 

• NA release: 24th March 1999
• PAL: release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Treyarch, EA Canada
• Publisher: EA Sprots
• N64 Magazine Score: 50%

Yet another company trying their hand at a baseball game, although this series had already been on the PlayStation (some reviewers pointed out that this is based on Triple Play 99 on PlayStation, rather than 2000). This baseball game does stand out from the others on the N64 – for both good and bad reasons.

The game offers an immense amount of options, such as different camera views for different parts of the game, assist features for various parts, and it really lets you customise a how the game plays. One thing you can’t change, however, is batting. This is incredibly simple (no aiming required, just timing) yet feels imprecise. It’s not fun at all.

One thing the game does really well is fielding. There are indicators to help move your players, and the ones you don’t control move into good positions. There’s also indicators for where the ball is going to land for you to get your player in position. This is the first baseball game where I’ve felt like I was actually in control of fielding.

But, ultimately, the rest of the game lets it down. The graphics look dreary and most of the gameplay is really dull.

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The cosmetics round off the whole uninspiring package – the commentary and crowd noises are awful, there’s an intensely irritating Carry On-style comedy noise with each foul shot played, and the animation is jerky, blurry and just plain wrong in some places.

- Mark Green, N64 Magazine #29

Remake or Remaster?

There are better baseball games to focus on.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Triple Play 2000

[Cube]

Power Pros Baseball 6
 

• JP release: 25th March 1999
• PAL: release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Diamond Head
• Publisher: Konami
• Original Name: Jikkyō Pawapuro Puroyakyu 6
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

I’m not really sure what else I can say about this franchise – it was a yearly release in Japan and the core gameplay never really seemed to change much.

One thing that does seem new in this version is a kind of management mode, where you choose which kind of training your team will take part in. There doesn’t appear to be any direct team management, but it’s extremely text-heavy.

The RPG mode also returns, although it features characters that seem to have more detail than the regular Power Pros style – yet these extra details with no mouth or nose is very off.

Remake or Remaster?

It would be nice if the new game can get a new version with these RPG and management modes (in English, there is now a new full game out in Japan).

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Power Pros Baseball 6

[BowserBasher]

Just jumping in to say I still have my N64 and Beetle Adventure Racing. If I ever am able to set up a games room that will be in the console again. I loved that game. 

[Cube]

Super Bowling
 

• JP release: 26th March 1999
• NA: release: 15th January 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Athena
• Publisher: Athena (JP), UFO Interactive (NA)
• N64 Magazine Score: 72%

There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of information on Super Bowling – it’s the first game I’ve found that seems to have no guides or proper cheats, the main notable thing about it is that the US version is a rare game, due to being Blockbuster exclusive. I will also note that emulators have a tough time with this game, with many not displaying the right screen. For the one that did work, I had to turn the resolution back down to the original N64 resolution for it to run smoothly.

Super Bowling is a pretty decent bowling game. It uses a power meter similar to many Golf games, which determines your power and accuracy, and once you get the hand of it, it plays really well. When playing on your own, the right screen shows a separate camera angle.

There are a few additional modes as well. Golf Mode presents you with sets of pins and you have to knock them down in as few balls as possible. There’s also challenge mode which is similar, but you only have one shot to knock everything down.

To unlock new characters (and their respective lanes to play on), you need to challenge them. When playing with two people (AI or human), you both bowl at the same time and at your own pace, which eliminates the downtime (other than at the end) and is a really nice way for bowling to work in a video game.

Quote

The game might tend towards the worryingly wacky at points, but for the most part developers Athena treat you to round after round of fast-moving and enjoyable skittle-topping, which manages to give Super Bowling’s only rival, the dreadful Milo’s Astro Lanes, a thoroughly-deserved kick in the teeth.

- Mark Green, N64 Magazine #54

Remake or Remaster?

This doesn’t need anything doing to it.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Super Bowling

[Cube]

Lode Runner 3-D
 

• NA release: 30th March 1999
• PAL: release: 21st May 1999
• JP release: 30th July 1999
• Developer: Big Bang
• Publisher: Infogrames (NA/PAL), Banpresto (JP)
• N64 Magazine Score: 70%

Lode Runner is a long-going puzzle series that still has the odd release now, although most seem to be updated version of the original. The N64 version brought the franchise into 3D, but decided to stay true to its roots and just add an extra dimension to it. It got some middling reviews or doing so, but I think it worked out well.

The basic concept of Lode runner is that there are blocks that temporarily vanish when you shoot them, but you can only fire your gun in a downwards diagonal. You can also only jump down where there are arrows. The objective of each level is to collect gold and reach the end of the level to be transported to the next. Throughout the game, you’ll encounter deadly monks, bombs and special blocks.

It is, however, a little bit too east to mess up and get stuck, having to restart the entire level. This is more of an issue if it happens at the end of a particularly long level. There are also other things to find, such as gems to unlock bonus levels, extra lives and keys to unlock the next world.

I can see where reviewers of the time are coming from – people expect big adventures from high priced games, rather than a nice, simple puzzler. But these kinds of games can get a bit more time to shine now, and this would be a nice digital game now.

Quote

Those of you that remember the original Lode Runner will find that, despite the polygon-filled graphical flourishes, this is pretty much the same game that was first seen well over a decade ago. The rest of us, however, may wish to be distracted momentarily by an absorbing little puzzle game that still charms through an intriguing, time-defying premise.

- Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #29

Remake or Remaster?

An updated version (perhaps with undo/rewind features) would be nice.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Lode Runner 3-D.

[Cube]

Rampage 2: Universal Tour
 

• NA release: 30th March 1999
• PAL: release: 21st May 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Avalanche
• Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL)
• N64 Magazine Score: 22%

In terms of gameplay, Rampage 2 doesn’t do anything to improve of its earlier N64 game, and it wasn’t particularly entertaining back then. It’s something that can be fun for a short burst in an arcade, but the novelty wears thin very quickly.

Rampage 2 does have slightly better backgrounds than the previous one, with more cities having backgrounds showing off famous buildings. That said, other than one or two select exemptions, you can never smash these iconic buildings – they are just background buildings, which is a rather strange choice, as it might have provided some slight variety to the building shapes and provided a bit of temporary fun. The unique backgrounds also get less common as you move on, with Asia having very few backgrounds – apparently the Taj Mahal is in multiple cities.

The game does have more of a structure than the previous, too. You’ll see your monster move across the map, and you’ll travel the world (rather than random cities cropping up in between all the US ones). I was very surprised when I saw that there was a stop in North Wales, but that turned out to be Dublin. Once you’ve rescued all your monster buddies, aliens will invade.

Alien buildings will crop up, and alien vehicles will replace human ones. They all function exactly the same as the human ones, so the gameplay doesn’t change at all. Even when you go into space and fight your way to the alien homeworld, only the last building is any different.

The backgrounds and structure make this slightly better than the first, but still isn’t very good.

Quote

There are some phenomenally irritating bits of gameplay. The screen doesn’t scroll until you walk right up to the very edge of it, and sometimes a tank will trundle along the bottom of the screen and shoot at you, making your monster fly backwards and land on its backside. Pick yourself up and the tank does exactly the same thing again, and again and again. When you finally manage to catch up with the infernal thing and kick it into oblivion, it just gets replaced by another one. It’s crap.

- Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #29

Remake or Remaster?

It should be part of some classic arcade compilation.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Rampage 2: Universal Tour

[Cube]

Charlie Blast’s Territory
 

• NA release: 2nd April 1999
• PAL: release: 18th June 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Realtime Associates
• Publisher: Kemco
• N64 Magazine Score: 52%

I’m going to start off by talking about a seemingly unrelated series of games: The Crazy Castle games. They started off with a Roger Rabbit maze game in Japan (with Mickey Mouse quickly replacing him), but Bugs Bunny replacing him outside of Japan. The games have also been Woody Woodpecker, Garfield and Ghostbusters games. One of them, however, didn’t use a license outside of Japan and the throwaway mascot Kid Klown was made.

Kid Klown appeared in some of his own games, one of them being The Bombing Islands, a bomb pushing puzzle game that was a sequel to the Atari game Bombuzal. It was released in Japan in 1997 on the PS1. When it came to the N64 version, it was handed to a different developer, who completely remade the game from scratch, with a new main character. Incidentally, the Charlie’s Blast Territory did not come out in Japan, and The Bombing Islands was released on PS1 outside of Japan after Charlie’s Blast Territory on the N64.

I did find that it was very easy to accidentally push something when you were trying to jump over it, but thankfully the game has an undo button (which only allows to go back one step). You also have a lot of control over the camera, so you can try to look at the game from a different perspective.

With 60 puzzles and a simple but fun multiplayer mode, the game is a little bit short lived, but I did enjoy my time with it.

Quote

Charlie Blast’s Territory screams ‘unpolished’ at evert turn. The camera controls are all wrong, the world themes are helplessly derivative, the password system is needlessly irritating, and the levels themselves lack both variety and ingenuity.

- Mark Green, N64 Magazine #30

Remake or Remaster?

A re-release would be nice for this game. Perhaps with some nicer looking water.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Charlie Blast’s Territory.

[Jonnas]

The moment I looked at that screenshot, my literal first thought was "Huh, this looks like that awful bomb-puzzle game on the SNES NSO, the one that was called

12 minutes ago, Cube said:

Bombuzal

Yeah, makes total sense.

Thank you for that minor tidbit of gaming history

[Dcubed]

Interesting, never heard of this one.  Has some neat history to it too!  Cheers for the neat story behind this one! 

[Cube]

NHL Blades of Steel ’99
 

• NA release: 5th April 1999
• PAL: release: September 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Konami
• Publisher: Konami
• N64 Magazine Score: 69%

Another ice hockey game, and this one is rather drab. Everything seems very washed out, and the “ice” looks like a strange mottled grey carpet rather than ice. This dull feeling extends to the gameplay, which is rather slow and clunky.

Turning is also a nightmare, many times my controlled character would just refuse to do so, other times they’d stop in the ice. I checked if this was an emulator issue, but an IGN review mentioned similar issues. I also found that the time a goalkeeper can hold the puck before it causes a penalty is far too short, and will happen every time he has the ball, even if he’s in the process of standing up before he can pass.

Quote

Most of the time, it’s easier to simply charge goalwards like a loon with a cry of “Coming through!”, leaving your team-mates wondering when you last took your lithium suppliment.

- James Price, N64 Magazine #27

Remake or Remaster?

There are better Ice Hockey games to focus on.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play NHL Blades of Steel ’99

[Cube]

All-Star Baseball 2000
 

• NA release: 8th April 1999
• PAL: release: 1st May 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Iguana
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 80%

With the many N64 baseball games, I now have a routine: start a game, try batting, fail, start again, repeat a few times until I hit the ball, watch the CPU catch it every time, try pitching, CPU hits nowhere near my places, fills the bases then gets a home run, then check out extra modes and cheats.

So I was surprised with All-Star Baseball 2000 when I could actually hit the ball reasonably well, and it wasn’t caught instantly. I actually had some fun with it.

The pitching also worked quite well, you line up your target and can move slightly when you throw to try and catch them off guard. Fielding also has some targets, but you’re rarely in control of the player you expect to be. while pitching, I also somehow kept throwing the ball to my other players and had to mash buttons to pass it back to the pitcher.

This is the most enjoyable of the baseball games so far.

Quote

But if you love baseball then you’ll find just enough glittery new stuff to make ASB 2000 a worthwhile purchase. And we can’t wait for All Star Baseball 2001, which will be set on a spaceship winging its way towards Jupiter, and come complete with spine-chilling commentary from HAL. Perhaps.

- Mark Green, N64 Magazine #28

Remake or Remaster?

I’m not familiar enough with newer baseball games.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play All-Star Baseball 2001.

[Cube]

NBA In The Zone ’99
 

• NA release: 8th April 1999
• PAL: release: 3rd June 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Konami
• Publisher: Konami
• N64 Magazine Score: 52%

Compared to the previous NBA In the Zone, this feels slightly smoother in terms of running around with players, which is useful as passing is pointless and running close to the net and scoring is the best tactic. Any shot from further away will always result in a miss…at least for players you control.

The CPU, however, will score three pointers with relative ease, making it very frustrating. The players still look naff, and there’s not that much enjoyment to get out of this one.

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Remember how Mido blocks your route to the Deku Tree in Zelda by rotating in a semi-circle around an entrance to restrict your progress? Pro 99’s AI-controlled defenders do that, too. It gets you thinking, believe me. You sit there pondering on how it would be great to have Navi point out where the ball is. Or how quickly you could remove Dennis Rodman’s motion-halting arm with the benefit of Z-Targeting and the Master Sword.

- James Price, N64 Magazine #27

Remake or Remaster?

There are better basketball games to focus on.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play NBA In The Zone ’99

[Glen-i]

Quote

Remember how Mido blocks your route to the Deku Tree in Zelda by rotating in a semi-circle around an entrance to restrict your progress? Pro 99’s AI-controlled defenders do that, too.

OK, this is a fantastic visual explanation! I can picture it in my head!

[Cube]

Onegai Monsters
 

• JP release: 9th April 1999
• PAL: release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Bottom Up
• Publisher: Bottom Up
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

In the world of Onegai Monsters, when kids turn 10 years old, they can become a monster trainer. They collect their first monster from their local professor. These monsters are part of different elemental types, and will fight each other in turn-based battles before gaining enough experience to evolve into a new form. The concept sounds interesting and I’m surprised nobody else has tried to do something similar.

Onegai Monsters has a fairly impressive overworld map, and it looks like there is a lot to explore – unfortunately, you don’t get to do this at all, as you can’t leave your starting village. Instead, you send your monsters out to explore for you and watch them move around the map, only having input when a battle starts. While I had a lot of translation issues with the game, I know that this is something that is true. So if all your monsters are out, all you do is wait (especially when they sleep) – although luckily there is a fast forward feature.

The battle seems interesting, although far too complicated for Google Translate to handle the job. While for the most part it seems similar to Pokémon, however you can move forwards and backwards, which likely has some meaning and tactics to it, although there is an “auto” button to let the computer decide what your monster does. Defeating a monster will also add it to your catalogue, so you can try and discover all 500 monsters. The ones I encountered seemed quite decent.

But, unfortunately, there’s a lot of text. I was unable to figure out how to get more eggs to hatch new monsters. I bought stuff from the shop I got my first one from, and I sent my blob called Bob out on adventures, yet never got an egg. There are other aspects, like matching food colour to element type to have even better stats.

It’s an interesting looking game, but I’d need a translated version to be able to understand more.

Remake or Remaster?

The concept of sending monsters out seems more suited to a mobile or idle version of this.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Onegai Monsters

[WackerJr]

On 7/24/2024 at 10:59 PM, Cube said:

All-Star Baseball 2000
 

• NA release: 8th April 1999
• PAL: release: 1st May 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Iguana
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 80%

 

I’d never played a baseball game before, but got quite excited that this was coming out (to this day I’m not really sure why!).  HMV used to show me the release dates and when I went in to pick up this newly released title… well it has disappeared from the list and no-one had any idea when it had moved to.  Months down the line I spotted it in the wild and I found a similar experience to you. It was alright, and while it could end up anywhere I was able to get bat on ball.

The major issue I found, which I really should have known, was that it was still just baseball.  Nothing more, nothing less.  No bells and whistles, so while I played a decent enough game, matches weren’t quick and got repetitive quickly.

I haven’t bought a baseball game since.

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, WackerJr said:

I haven’t bought a baseball game since.

Not even Wii Sports?

[Ashley]

11 hours ago, Cube said:

I sent my blob called Bob out on adventures

Not sure if admins should be bullying @bob like this