Roadsters - All N64 Games

[Dcubed]

Midway really were the N64’s biggest 3rd party publisher, weren’t they?

Their output on the console is kinda bonkers.  And most of it is at least semi-decent to boot too.

Shame that they didn’t last much longer after the 5th Gen.  They fell off their peak like a lead balloon as soon as we hit 2001 and as they exited the arcade business.

[Cube]

Madden NFL 99
 

• NA release: 22nd September 1998
• PAL release: January 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: EA
• Publisher: EA Sports
• N64 Magazine Score: 88%

A yearly update of a sports title I didn’t really understand. One of the biggest changes is that this version of Madden has the official NFL license and teams in the game, and has also had a bit of a graphical update.

The gameplay itself doesn’t seem that much different, although it does feel much more like your players are being properly tackled and not falling down with the slightest touch. Other than that, it’s still very stop and start and you have to watch the referee fetch the ball every time.

Quote

Madden is more of an arcadey game. It doesn’t have as many different moves to learn, and consequently it’s much easier to pick up and play. But what it gains in ease of use, it loses when it comes to the satisfaction of pulling off a spectacular play.

- Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #23

Remake or remaster?

I don’t know enough about American Football games to comment.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Madden NFL 99

[Cube]

Buck Bumble
 

• NA release: 30th September 1998
• PAL release: 18th December 1998
• JP release: 18th December 1998
• Developer: Argonaut
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• N64 Magazine Score: 70%

Buck Bumble is a insect-based flying shoot-’em-up. It’s set in a small area of a rural English down, where the land has been polluted, creating the rise of evil robotic super wasps poised to take over the insect kingdom. The game really surprised me when the main theme kicked in – a garage song about the biggity Buck Bumble. The developers, Argonaut, are particularly notable for creating the Super FX chip and Star Fox for the SNES.

My biggest complaint with Buck Bumble is the level design and graphics – its supposed to be set in the garden, but other than the very occasional sight – like a bench – it doesn’t really feel like you’re a small creature, and you just get to see lots of ugly browns and greens and there’s an immense amount of fog due to the poor draw distance.

The gameplay, however, is a lot of fun, with an impressive amount of different enemies getting a wasp-like makeover that you’ll need to content with. The controls are smooth and flying around is a lot of fun. The difficulty ramps up very quickly, though, and when you die you start the mission from scratch (the lives are for the pointless score system). You will find different weapons throughout the game, offering you lots of ways to dispatch your foes.

The game offers 19 levels. Most involving killing all enemies in an area, activating a switch for a door, while others have you transporting nuclear bombs. The levels do blend together a lot, though, with the game also throwing more and more enemies at you.

That said, Buck Bumble is an enjoyable game.

Quote

Buck Bumble is average in too many ways. Playable yet unspectacular, and rather workmanlike in execution, it’s a pleasant enough to wile away a few hours. Bur ‘Bee’-rilliant? Hardly.

- James Price, N64 Magazine #20

Remake or remaster?

A remaster would be good, although a sequel with more “giant human world” stuff would also be great.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Buck Bumble.

[WackerJr]

27 minutes ago, Cube said:

The game offers 19 levels. Most involving killing all enemies in an area, activating a switch for a door, while others have you transporting nuclear bombs.

I had to re-read that last line a couple of times to make sure I’d read that right!  Was there a story reason for the nuclear bombs to be transported through the garden? 😂. There doesn’t need to be, I’m just curious.  I never played Buck Bumble and I also didn’t realised Argonaut was involved so thanks for this.

[Cube]

1 hour ago, WackerJr said:

I had to re-read that last line a couple of times to make sure I’d read that right!  Was there a story reason for the nuclear bombs to be transported through the garden? 😂. There doesn’t need to be, I’m just curious.  I never played Buck Bumble and I also didn’t realised Argonaut was involved so thanks for this.

They're bug sized nukes, you're either moving them away from your base or nuking the wasps.

[WackerJr]

Aha. Thanks!

[Glen-i]

Today, I learned that there's people out there who, despite being alive during the N64 era, were not aware of the Buck Bumble title theme.

Best fix that, just in case you're not the only one.

Wait, what? Hang on... Huh.

So, when going to get this theme, I just found out that the composer uploaded the full version to YouTube. A month ago...

Creepy timing, that.

Edited May 12 by Glen-i

[Cube]

Body Harvest

• PAL release: 30th September 1998
• NA release: 20th October 1998
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Gremlin (PAL), Midway (NA)
• N64 Magazine Score: 91%

Body Harvest was originally going to be a large collaboration between DMA Design and Nintendo, but Nintendo ended up pulling out, leaving DMA to work it all out on their own. Despite this, DMA turned out something impressive in size and scope.

This game was the birth of the current open world modern-day open world games – many people associate it with GTA 3 on PS2, but many aspects of that can be found in Body Harvest. Of course, both were made by DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North), but it’s amazing how much of what they did started on the N64.

Alien bugs keep harvesting humans and, as humanity are on their last legs, the hero Adam and his assistants (a woman in a skimpy outfit and a robot) are sent back in time to stop multiple invasions to save humanity.

Roaming out of your time ship, the game feels like a 3rd person shooter – the controls are pretty good for the time, with a big help from autoaim. However, before you encounter your first enemies, you’ll come across a car, that you can hop in.

The vehicles are very odd to control by today’s standards, but you can get used to them. There are a massive amount of vehicles in the game – and not just cars, but tanks, planes, boats, helicopters and more. Some have their own weapons and special abilities, while all essentially act as armour for you – you don’t lose your health while in a vehicle, becoming vulnerable once they blow up.

The vehicles aren’t just for getting to places, ether, they’re all part of the “puzzle” of each area. The open world isn’t just a backdrop for the game, but is integral to the design of the game. You’ll encounter many roadblock and will need to figure out how to get past. It’s something that I feel a lot of open world games lack and you’re constantly thinking about how to get about the landscape.

The first area itself is impressive in size and scope, and that’s just one of the maps. There are four main areas – Greece 1916, Java 1941, America 1966, Siberia 1991 – that have unique looks and vehicles, all with its own puzzle to figure out. There’s also a final mission that takes place on the alien comet, but it’s a more straightforward combat mission.

I did find some parts of Java and America a bit too difficult to navigate, and sometimes a harvest will happen in an inconvenient location – as humans are eaten by the large harvester bugs (one of many different types of bug aliens), a bar will go up and losing too many humans will result in failure -and every so often a mutant will be created to hunt you down.

The difficulty of the game is very unfair, especially due to how the game saves. Each location has 3 or 4 alien processors and you can only save at beacons placed after these have been destroyed. This means that there can be a very long time between saves and messing up a fight can cost you hours of time.

On top of that, the game unfortunately has technical issues. Vehicles can sometimes get stuck, and some are required for progressing. Making a wrong turn when exploring can also lead you to a place where you can’t return, meaning you have to reset. These issues make it a pain to play the original version of it, so I highly encourage playing in a way that utilises save states.

While it certainly shows its age, Body Harvest is a phenomenal game. It’s simple, yet expansive at the same time, and the open world is designed around the gameplay. This game gets overlooked a lot, yet it was definitely an important step in the evolution of video games.

I also do wonder how different Rockstar would have been if Nintendo properly supported this project – would GTA3 had become a GameCube exclusive?

Quote

Body Harvest is magnificent. In many ways, it’s the ultimate 3D shoot-’em-up: packed-to-bursting with aliens, peppered with explosions, awash with blood and innards and rollicking good fun. Get it in.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #22

Remake or remaster?

Body Harvest is perfect for a remake. there are four amazing levels to recreate in higher detail, sort out the issues with saving, add some bonus challenges (perhaps let people return to previous levels to explore fully), better driving mechanics. The game’s world is wonderful, it just needs updating.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Body Harvest

[Cube]

NHL 99

• NA release: 1st October 1998
• PAL release: 30th November 1998
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: EA, MBL Research
• Publisher: EA Sports
• N64 Magazine Score:75%

While we got plenty of versions of EA’s other sports on N64, but for hockey, this was the only one. EA’s NHL games on the Mega Drive were quite legendary, but for N64 it’s just another ice hockey game. This doesn’t feel particularly broken, but it also doesn’t do anything interesting or special.

One issue with NHL 99 is the passing and the AI of your team – they’re awful at getting into positions, and passing can sometimes send the ball where you don’t intend, meaning the main tactic is to never pass and run at the goal when someone gets the puck.

Wayne Gretzky remains the NHL champion.

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Rather than team-based moves, players are almost encouraged to make solo dashes towards their opponent’s goal. Miss, and it’s a simple case of re-gaining possession, before repeating the process again. Now, this isn’t an entirely woeful way to pass the time, but we’d prefer a more measured approach that, despite its on-the-fly tactics, NHL ’99 just doesn’t deliver.

- James Price, N64 Magazine #22

Remake or remaster?

There’s better Ice Hockey games to focus on.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NHL 99

[Cube]

Centre Court Tennis

• JP release: 9th October 1998
• PAL release: February 1999
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Hudson
• Publisher: Hudson (JP), Gaga Interactive (PAL)
• N64 Magazine Score: 67%

The first tennis game on N64, and one that never came out in America. It’s a fairly simple tennis game, but is unfortunately plagued with control issues – the depth perception on the ball during serve (you throw the ball far too high in the air) is poor and it’s extremely difficult to aim where you can hit.

The game has a create-a-player mode (which lacks options like hair colour) and the “challenge” mode works alongside this as you challenge the pre-made characters to matches, betting your equipment and clothing (so a kind of strip tennis). This is how you unlock more customisation options, which is a really nice touch – just a shame that the head/hair options are so limited.

If it wasn’t for the control issues, this would be a decent little game, but there will be better tennis games later on in the system’s life.

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Often the game just doesn’t do what you ask it, which means matches against the computer are endlessly predictable. They play a shot, point scored. You play a shot, maybe there’ll be a point scored, maybe there won’t. It’s that random, regardless of the quality of your shot.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #25

Remake or remaster?

There’s better tennis games to focus on.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Centre Court Tennis

[darksnowman]

5 hours ago, Cube said:

There’s better tennis games to focus on.

Looking forward to seeing what these will be. I'm drawing a blank beyond Mario Tennis and the Michael Chang one.

[Cube]

Space Station Silicon Valley

• NA release: 21st October 1998
• PAL release: November 1998
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Take-Two
• N64 Magazine Score: 91%

Space Station Silicon Valley is a mission-based puzzle platformer where you reanimate the corpses of dead animals (don’t worry, they’re all robots). It was developed by DMA design (makers of Lemmings, GTA and Body Harvest) and is an immense amount of fun. The game did ship with a bug that meant that you couldn’t pick up one of the collectables, but I played a version that had been patched by fans that fixes the issue.

You play as Evo, a robot that loses its body as he and his hero-for-hire partner crash into a mysterious station that’s on a course for Earth. Evo ends up as just a chip, but discovers that he can take over the bodies of deceased animal robots.

In each level, you must complete multiple objectives, usually done by killing the animals, taking over their bodies and using their various abilities to complete what you need. It all sounds horrific and disturbing when trying to explain it, but the game manages to be incredibly charming throughout this, with happy music that is played through the station speakers (which you can destroy to shut them up).

Discovering how each animal moves and how to use them is one of the main things I love about Space Station Silicon Valley. They all have different kinds of movement – some are like a typical platformer, others are like cars and some can only move when jumping – and the powers have various uses that aren’t just needed to solve the puzzles of the level, but to find all the collectables. This concept was also a large part of Super Mario Odyssey, so my like for this is probably why I loved that, too.

Each level has 15 power cells hidden in it to find, some are in plain view, others are hidden extremely well. A few of them can be quite frustrating to get to, such as some high up ones requiring using a vulture’s awful flight to get there. The game’s dreadful camera also doesn’t help matters, as you can never get a good look around and the cameral often likes looking downwards.

The other kind of collectable is a hidden trophy in each level, which is found by doing a secret objective. Sometimes these are obvious, such as the second level having a racetrack, and often killing everything will yield results, while others are very tricky, such as listing to penguins make sound and recreating it on a keyboard (being tone-deaf, I looked that one up).

Still, even with these annoying ones, it was a joy to collect everything. I’m not 100% completing every N64 game, but this one was one where I wanted to do so.

At the end of each of the four regions, you’ll encounter a level where you find a piece of Evo’s original body. These are quite different to the main gameplay, featuring different events. For example the second area ends with a Jetski-like race called Walrace 64 where you have to win a race as a robotic walrus boat.

Once all these are done, the final mission is defending Earth against invading robots, but unfortunately is probably the weakest level of the game. Still, that slight downer is just the end of a wonderful experience.

While the difficulty is more of a rollercoaster than a curve, you do get used to some of the techniques the game uses, and the wild and wacky robot animals are always an absolute joy to discover – each time you see a new one, you’re eager to kill it and give it a spin.

Space Space Station Silicon valley is a wonderful platformer and one I think more people should try out.

Quote

The important thing, though, is that you’ll keep on coming back to it until you’ve found every animal, explored every single nook and cranny, and beaten every bonus game. It’s compulsive, addictive and most important of all, it’ll have you grinning like a rabid chimp while you play.

- Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #22

Remake or remaster?

A remaster would be great for this. Have it adapted into widescreen, give it a new camera and fix a few things here or there. A few bonus levels would be nice, too.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Space Station Silicon Valley

[Cube]

Detective Club 64

• JP release: 23rd October 1998
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Pandora Box
• Publisher: Imagineer
• Original Name: Kira to Kaiketsu! 64 Tanteidan
• N64 Magazine Score: 60%

While the name may sound similar to Famicom Detective Club, this isn’t related to it in any way. This is a virtual board game from Imagineer, themed around kids solving a mystery in a spooky mansion. It came out shortly before Mario Party, however it has no minigames.

There are three game types in Detective Club 64: Theft, Lost Item and Bomb Hunt. They all involve searching around a mansion, but are slightly different. In Theft, you have to find three items and get to the front door, bomb hunt you need to disable bombs and hand them in while lost item you need to find items and return them to the correct people.

You take turns rolling the dice and moving. You can chose which direction to go in. The main space you’ll be looking for is the magnifying glass, which lets you pick objects in the room to search. These either contain cards to be used as abilities, or the special objects you need to win the game. Some special objects have duplicates, while one of them will only have one copy.

Other spaces make you gain or lose health and money, buy items and some alter your stats. NPCs will also be walking around, some you can talk to for clues, while others will trigger a battle, as will landing on the same space as another player.

The battle is a kind of “rock, paper, scissors” where certain abilities work against others. The loser is stunned and will miss the next turn. The system isn’t awful but, like with the rest of the game, is entirely down to blind luck.

Other than slightly different modes, the game doesn’t have any variety. Even the different mansions are just made up of the same randomly-selected rooms. It’s a very bare-bones release and isn’t even fun in the first place. The deceit part is just window dressing, with the game being more like a very slow version of Neil Buchanan’s Finders Keepers.

Quote

Even the shortest game of Kiratto takes over an hour. When you start, a flappy little angel comes on screen to tell you this, but jiggling with the options can extend your game time to such a degree that you’ll get the more amusing comment ‘I don’t know how long this game will take. Is that okay?’ Er, yes, okay.

- Max Everingham, N64 Magazine #25

Remake or remaster?

This game doesn’t need any special treatment.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Detective Club 64

[Helmsly]

I always wanted to try out Space Station Silicon Valley, i remember reading the review for it in N64 magazine at the time and thinking its exactly the kind of game i'd be into. I beleive it was re-released on the PlayStation in 2000 under a new name of Evo's Space Adventures, although it sounds like an inferior port going by what the Cutting Room Floor have to say:

Quote

missing some of the levels from the Nintendo 64 original, more than half of the framerate, and uses a completely different soundtrack. At the very least, however, it fixed the 100% completion bug.

Also I thought I would post this as you might find it interesting. Edge magazine gave away a CD-ROM with a bunch of trailers on it back in 1997 which had some early footage of Space Station, which I uploaded to youtube years ago. You can see some things that were in there during development that didn't make it to the final game:

 

 

Edited May 17 by Helmsly

[Cube]

WCW/nWo Revenge 
 

• NA release: 26th October 1998
• PAL release: 30th November 1998
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Asmik Ace, AKI
• Publisher: THQ
• N64 Magazine Score: 75%

There isn’t a lot to say about this wrestling game, it’s WCW/nWo World Tour again, this time sped up a little bit. After WWF War Zone, the graphics of Revenge now look extremely dated, and the create-a-wrestler options are severely limited, consisting of picking an existing wrestler, renaming them and changing their outfit.

If you like the wrestlers of this game (and there are a lot), then it does a good job, but not much has been done to change the game since World Tour.

Quote

With a bit more thought and time, THQ could have turned this sequel into a Warzone-beater, but, to be honest, they’ve been a bit lazy. And they should be punished for their idleness. So go and buy WWF Warzone instead, do you hear?

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #22

Remake or remaster?

This game doesn’t need any special treatment.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get WCW/nWo Revenge 

[Cube]

O.D.T.: Escape… Or Die Trying
 

• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: FDI
• Publisher: Psygnosis
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

ODT was an action game that released on PlayStation and PC. An N64 version was in development, but was cancelled. N64 gave a little blurb saying that it was due to Psygnosis having financial issues (not long after, they were absorbed into Sony), although N64 magazine stated “Not much of a loss as far as ODT’s concerned. Shame about F1, though”.

When a ROM was eventually found, the most surprising thing was that the N64 version was finished, and there were even specific NTSC and PAL versions of the game. However, the poor reception on PlayStation and PC combined with the cost of making cartridges probably influenced the decision to not release it.

ODT is a game clearly inspired by Tomb Raider, but set in a futuristic Jules Verne sci-fi mashup (your ship is called the Nautiflyus, which is just stupid). However, it completely lacks any charm, clever level design or fun that the Tomb Raider games had. Instead, it settles for clunky, low and tedious.

The controls would have been bad when it came out (as reviews on other platforms point out), and feel even worse now. Movement has you turning left and right with the analogue stick, holding a c button to slowly sidestep. The camera does not play nice at all, always at an odd angle behind you, to the point where you can’t see holes or gaps (in the image below, the “floor” has massive gaps) with no way to manipulate it. In some rooms, the camera becomes fixes and the movement feels completely wrong.

The shooting is also just bad. Your gun (you do obtain different kinds of ammo that act differently) sort of homes in on enemies, but not very well and the manual aiming is atrocious. The game also starts off with bat-like enemies that are the most difficult to hit.

There is a magic system in the game that does work well – hold R and press a C-button to use the assigned spell. It’s a while before you properly unlock one, so you’re already fed up before you get to use the spell system. You can also level up your characters and guns, but it’s not very interesting when the gameplay isn’t enjoyable.

The level designs also don’t help. They’re maze-like and mostly made up of small box rooms. You wander around, killing enemies, come to a locked door, backtrack, find a key, go back to the locked door and repeat far too many times. It does sometimes mix it up by having a switch instead of a key. While good games lock the entrances to areas, this game just locks the end, letting you progress through multiple long winding paths before letting you know you went the wrong way 20 minutes ago.

The levels also have platforming sections. With the poor camera and the terrible jumping (sometimes your main character jumps too short) they’re bad enough, but the game then adds crumbling platforms and moving platforms, which the controls aren’t equipped to begin with. To make matters worse, you can get through a gruelling platform section only to encounter a locked door, and you need to go all the way back.

ODT certainly had ideas of ambition. There are multiple characters to play as (including unlockable ones), the magic and upgrade systems are potentially good ideas and the world could be interesting if it wasn’t so ugly. They tried to to far too much with the controls that they ended up sacrificing the main movement of the game.

Sadly, ODT is a game with promise that just ended up squandering it inside far too much tedium.

Quote

With a CV comprising adidas Power Soccer and, er adidas Power Soccer International, Psygnosis’ French studio hasn’t got the most dazzling of gaming histories. However, with the fantastic ODT, it’s fortunes are about to take a rather rosy upturn.

- ODT preview, N64 Magazine #20

(Note: the developer was shortly shut down and absorbed into Sony)

Should it be finished?

It was! N64 owners certainly didn’t miss out on anything by this version being cancelled, but it is interesting to see the finished port.

Official ways to get the game.

The PC and PlayStation versions are available on Steam, however, I do not recommend these at all. This is from PIKO Interactive. The PC version is just a re-release of the original, no resolution/widescreen options. The game crashes a lot and the music flat out doesn’t work. The PlayStation version is set up poorly in an emulator (the Steam reviews even suggest using the ROM in a different emulator).

PIKO have said that their license includes the unfinished N64 version but, like Glover and 40 Winks, don’t expect much other than an overly expensive release with Limited Run games.

[Cube]

NBA Live 99

 

• NA release: 4th November 1998
• PAL release: December 1998
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: EA Canada, NuFX
• Publisher: EA Sports
• N64 Magazine Score: 64%

As EA’s first basketball game on the N64, this isn’t the disaster that FIFA 64 was, but it also doesn’t come close to FIFA 98, resulting in a game that’s just passable.

The menu for this one is quite odd, starting you off with choosing an exhibition match and the options are off to the side. You can change rules settings (including letting you tackle opponents) and there’s a very limited create a player option.

The game feels very clunky. There’s some interesting ideas with the controls – such as holding R to activate a mode where you can pass to a player of your choice with the C-buttons, but passing and shooting don’t feel smooth. It’s not atrocious, it just doesn’t feel very good.

The graphics are similar. The court itself looks very nice, but the players are hideous with broken-looking limbs and extremely boxy.

With NBA Courtside around, this can just be ignored.

Quote

The graphics are clean, crisp, and gloriously free of fuzz, but, rather disappointingly, play host to the Incredible Stick Men. Jerkily skipping from one end of the court to the other, their anorexic and inscect-like limbs are more suited to the undernourished characters that invariable populate awkwardly animated PC games. Like Sunny Delight, they’re simply unconvincing and, well, unnatural.

- Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #24

Remake or remaster?

Sports games had already evolved when this game was released.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NBA Live 99

[Cube]

Wipeout 64

• NA release: 4th November 1998
• PAL release: 5th February 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Psygnosis
• Publisher: Midway
• N64 Magazine Score: 88%

It’s always a shame when you know a game is good quality but you just can’t seem to gel with it. I enjoyed playing F-Zero X for the first time, even though I played F-Zero GX first, so I was hoping the same would be true with Wipeout 64, as I had played Wipeout 2048 on Vita. Sadly, I really could not get the hang of this game at all.

What I think is throwing me off is the camera. It’s not in line with your vehicle, it seems to be instead stuck to the track or something. Your racer is often towards the side of the screen, appearing at an angle. It looks fancy in screenshots, but I think it’s messing with my ability to judge turns. You also seem to “hit” the sides before it seems like you should be doing.

Instead of just having a series of races, there are challenges in multiple categories: racing, time trial and killing enemies. When you’ve completed all these, you then unlock a “super combo” mode where you have to win races while killing enough opponents.

It’s a good idea for extending the singleplayer, especially with only 7 tracks, I just wish I found the gameplay itself to be fun.

Quote

To start off with, Wipeout 64 is one of the most irritating games you’ll have ever played and, even when you’ve mastered it, it still penalises you for errors that F-Zero X and this month’s XG2 would be quite happy to let pass. But, in doing so, Wipeout 64 has secured itself as a bit of a rarity on N64: a racing game that you won’t have completed within a week of buying it. Not a perfect racing game, admittedly, but still a thrill-packed slice of racing brilliance.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #23

Remake or remaster?

A Wipeout remastered collection really should be done with the PS1 games, Wipeout 64 and the PS2 and PSP games. Even if they end up renaming Wipeout 64 as Wipeout 2098 or something.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Wipeout 64

[Dcubed]

Ehh, Wipeout has always been a bit pants when it comes to gameplay.  It's not even a poor man's F-Zero, it's actually a poor man's Mario Kart.

It's absolutely dripping with style though, and that's what really sold the series back in the late 90s/early 2000s.  It was exactly the right game at the right time, as it successfully tapped into British club culture and helped the Playstation brand to supplant SEGA's position amongst older game players.

Still, Wipeout 64 is one of those neat little weird anomolies from just before Psygnosis got absorbed into Sony proper (who later became Sony Studios Liverpool; before being made defunct in 2012 after being turned into a F1/Wipeout games factory for around a decade beforehand).  Something that supposedly Sony weren't too happy about; in fact, they actually tried to sell Psygnosis in 1996 after they got their hands on Psygnosis' real crown jewel (SN Systems), but eventually weren't able to, so they ended up reigning Psygnosis in and eventually absorbed the company proper.

Indeed, Sony's treatment of Psygnosis isn't that dissimilar from how Microsoft would end up treating Bethesda.  Both were similarily prolific publishers in their day too.

Edited May 21 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Knife Edge: Nose Gunner
 

• NA release: 10th November 1998
• JP release: 27th November 1998
• PAL release: November 1998
• Developer: Kemco
• Publisher: Kemco
• N64 Magazine Score: 42%

Knife Edge: Nose Gunner (or just “Knife Edge” in Europe) is a lightgun shooter game that doesn’t come with a lightgun – the N64 itself never had a lightgun, either. A large part of the enjoyment of lightgun games is the manual aiming and firing, so this loses a lot from just moving a cursor and holding down fire.

Spectacle is another big part of them, and this also misses there. The locations are rather bland and lifeless, with very little colour. The camera whizzes around the map, jerking around randomly with unnatural movements, and you have very little time to shoot anything.

There are six short levels, although the game does provide replay value by offering you the option to select a different route at the start of each level. The game is so incredibly dull that you’ll have no desire to actually do this, but at least it’s an option.

You’ll encounter some bosses, which do require you aim for certain parts, but this is mainly solved by wiggling the stick wildly while shooting and seeing what part of the boss flashes. That’s as advanced as the tactics get in the game. There is a dodge option, but the camera just slides slightly to the side so you have no idea if it’s actually done anything.

If this was in the arcades with a proper lightgun, it might provide some entertainment, but would still be a very boring lightgun game.

Quote

You’re the nose gunner in a futuristic helicopter spaceship sort of thing and your mission is to fly around Mars shooting down aliens until: a) you die, b) they all die or C) you fall asleep. Outcome C has so far triumphed in the N64 office.

- James Ashton, N64 Magazine #24

Remake or remaster?

Nothing special needs doing with this game.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Knife Edge: Nose Gunner

[Cube]

NFL Quarterback Club 99

• NA release: 10th November 1998
• PAL release: December 1998
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Iguana
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

While this is another American football game, I was pleasantly surprised about this one. I still don’t fully understand (or like) the sport, but I managed to have some fun with this.

It felt like I had more control over the players and the game and players didn’t just flop down at the slightest touch, meaning I could actually breakthrough and score a touchdown (although a touchdown always looks anticlimactic, but that’s the sport’s fault).

This seems to have been achieved without sacrificing the realistic nature of the game. There are more tactics than previous games (you choose starting position and then movement) and it’s still all the real teams and stadiums. It also has some nice little touches, like a half time show.

I wasn’t expecting to get enjoyment out of a game like this, so this must be doing something right to be able to do so when I still don’t fully know the rules of the game.

Quote

Quarterback Club has made more significant changes, most notably in the running game, which is more solid.

- Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #23

Remake or remaster?

Sports games have evolved since this.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NFL Quarterback Club 99

[Dcubed]

Once again, Iguana maintained a near spotless record.  Even with a sport as rubbish as American Handegg.

[Cube]

Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA
 

• NA release: 11th November 1998
• PAL release: 4th February 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Atari Games
• Publisher: Midway
• N64 Magazine Score: 73%

Rush 2 is better than the first game in every single way. The handling is now great, letting you turn at last minute amongst the twists and turns, the levels are more expansive with a ton of shortcuts to find, and it feels like a full video game rather than a full conversion.

The tracks feels fairly simple to begin with but as you explore them in the games best mode – practice – you’ll discover a massive amount of connected shortcuts, with multiple paths – not all of them helpful. Exploring the levels and figuring out which routes help you is a big part of the game, and the encourages this even more by hiding a ton of keys (and other collectibles) across the expansive maps.

Just driving around is a ton of fun, and the “reset” when you crash is much more suited for this mode – in the original, it tried to put you back “on track”, sometimes warping you across half the map – while this resets you close to where you exploded.

There are a bunch of tracks set across the USA, but the best ones are the ones not based on American locations. My favourite is the Midway level, which is set in a giant office building filled with computers and filled with various arcade machines of other Midway games, which also have billboards throughout the game along with adverts for magazines, like EGM and Nintendo Power (no deals were made for Europe, though, so the PAL version still has the US magazines).

There are also three stunt tracks. Two of these are suitable for racing on, while the third is a large skate park-like arena for you to have fun in.

Rush 2 takes things that felt like bolted-on experiments in the first game and brings them into focus. It’s a really fun racing game and one where just cruising around the levels is extremely enjoyable.

Quote

What also leaves Rush 2 as a bit of an outsider, as the game that goes against the system (the car game version of Wolf from Gladiators, if you like), is its tendency to toss the laws know as gravity right out the window. As a result, the game’s numerous shortcuts and unlikely multiple branching (via subways, rooftops, sewers and casinos) tend to see you and your car being sent miiiiiles into the air.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #24

Remake or remaster?

A remaster of the Rush games would be great.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA

[WackerJr]

On 16/05/2024 at 9:00 AM, Cube said:

Space Station Silicon Valley

This was one of my guilty pleasures on the N64.  Apart from that bug (which later it was revealed that the final level could be played via a cheat code I believe) I loved this game!  

It shouldn’t have worked, and had so much against it, from the fairly basic graphics to the camera you mentioned, but the puzzles were good and the bizarre robotic creatures had so much character.  From the moment you crashed landed and immediately landed upon the romantic partner of another  robotic sheep, only to take over its lifeless body you knew exactly what kind of humour you were going to get.

Creative and fun.  Talented game designers have the ability to make this kind of thing work.  Glad to hear others liked it too!

[Ashley]

On 21/05/2024 at 7:37 AM, Dcubed said:

Still, Wipeout 64 is one of those neat little weird anomolies from just before Psygnosis got absorbed into Sony proper (who later became Sony Studios Liverpool; before being made defunct in 2012

You missed an obvious trick here.