South Park Rally - All N64 Games

[Cube]

Randnet Disk
 

• JP release: 23rd February 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

The Randnet Disk for the 64DD isn’t really a game, but I thought it was interesting enough to talk about. It’s a software disk that is essentially a web browser and email client. As the Randnet service is down, there isn’t a lot that can be done, but I was able to mess around a little with the menu, along with the help pages which use the browser.

While you could use the N64 mouse and the N64 keyboard (which was sold separately alongside this disk), a good deal of effort was put into allowing text input on a controller. The stick is used to narrow your selection to a couple of letters, while you can use the A button and C-buttons to pick one of those letters, or a shortcut for something else (such as www. or .com). It’s a surprisingly nice way to input text, and it’s a shame this wasn’t used in other N64 games.

The browser is basic, but most were at the time anyway. From the help pages, it does its job just fine. There were some big plans for this, such as online play, watching others play games, and a music streaming service, but as the 64DD was short-lived, so was this. I also think it shows how botched together the 64DD ended up being, that this wasn’t released alongside the system itself.

?

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Instead of popping down to the local games store and picking up a 64DD, the only way to get hold of one is by ordering it online via a novel pay-as-you-go scheme costing ¥2500 (around £12) per month for the first year – after which the 64DD is yours to keep – and a further ¥1500 (£7) monthly subscription fee thereafter. For that price you get to use Nintendo’s Randnet service, which features emial and Internet access, multiplayer gaming and the ability to download demo versions of forthcoming titles.

N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

A group called Randnet+ is working on getting Randnet to work, allowing for the sharing of items from Mario Artist, and letting the browser work. They’re also recreating some of the pages the Randnet Disk directly linked to, so we’ll be able to see what it actually did (it probably won’t be able to load most modern websites).

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Randnet Disk.

[Ashley]

37 minutes ago, Cube said:

it probably won’t be able to load most modern websites

I know just what site should be fine though. 

[Cube]

Mario Artist Talent Studio
 

• JP release: 23rd February 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

This 64DD software is quite fascinating in that it’s actually an important step in Nintendo’s history. Miyamoto has always wanted to let players create avatars and do silly things with them, even since the Famicom Disk System, and this could have been something special, if done right. Not that it wasn’t done right in the software – it’s just that it was on the 64DD, too late into the N64’s life. There are three distinct parts of Talent Studio.

The first part of Talent Studio is creating avatars. There are two different editing suites here: one for the face, one for the body. The interface is nice and simple, but the options are quite mind-boggling, with a ton of stuff you can edit, and that’s on top of being able to paint the face yourself. You can import elements from Mario Artist Paint Studio, connect a camera via a special capture device cartridge, or use a Game Boy Camera. Then you can add all sorts of hair and accessories.

The body portion of the software has a lot of options to adjust the style of the body, as well as clothes which can contain patterns and designs (which can be imported). There’s a few Nintendo-related items in here, as well. You can also record your own voice for the Talent, although via a standard microphone plugged into the capture cart, and not the N64’s VMU microphone.

In Show Time you can watch a load of animations showing off your Talent. They’re quite amusing, with your Talent being rather useless and pathetic, although there’s only one animation for a set routine. There’s a vibe of the weirdness of Tomodachi Life in this mode.

Elsewhere in the package is a movie maker. While you can only have three “actors” (only one can appear at a time) and four backgrounds, you can apply a ton of animations, camera movements, effects, text, and sounds, to create simple little animated shorts. It’s quite complex software with a lot of elements to figure out, including a tool for making your own animations.

For the Mario Artist’s dream of being a game creation suite, this was likely the character creation and cut-scene parts. Parts of Talent Studio were reused for a cancelled GameCube game called Stage Debut, where your character would share a world with Nintendo characters, then Miyamoto’s plans for an avatar system finally took off with the much simpler Miis on the Wii.

Fun

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The second delivery, in February, contains Sim City 64, Talent Studio and a capture cartridge which will allow you to connect a digital video camera to the N64.

N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

It would be interesting to see all parts of the Mario Artist Game Studio.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Mario Artist Talent Studio

[Cube]

SimCity 64

• JP release: 23rd February 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: HAL
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

As one of the three actual games released on the 64DD, SimCity 64 is a full fledged SimCity (and not a port, like SimCity 2000), in 3D for the first time. The graphics, while primitive, have a colourful and charming style to them, and the cities are rather vast, although you can’t zoom out as much as I would have liked. As with the SNES SimCity, Dr. Wright advises you on your journey as mayor of a new city.

One significant feature of SimCity 64 is the ability to walk around your city. Cars drive around, while 2D sims walk about and do their jobs. I absolutely adore this feature, as it makes your city feel real, yet it still isn’t a main feature of city builders to this day. Cities Skylines had it as a hidden feature (the sequel doesn’t), but it’s not integrated into the gameplay. In SimCity 64, you can talk to your residents to find out what your city needs, and play hide-and-seek against some for extra cash. You can even create your own sims in Mario Artist Paint Studio and import them.

On top of having lots of different landscapes to work from, there are also 15 scenarios to work through, giving you a lot to do with the game. And if you do get bored, you can always turn on a disaster and watch chaos. I do wish there were a few more Nintendo touches (there’s no Bowser attack), but for consoles at the time, it was a very impressive version of SimCity.

Fun

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This excellent conversion of the PC favourite now allows you to zoom right in and explore your city at street level. Being able to create huge monuments of Mario is a nice touch, too.

N64 Magazine #40

Remake or remaster?

It would be nice to have a remaster of this SimCity, perhaps with better zoom and draw distance. Or even a new SimCity from Nintendo.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get SimCity 64.

[Cube]

Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000
 

• NA release: 28th February 2000
• PAL release: 19th September 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Acclaim
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 53%

Not long after EA’s Supercross 2000 comes Acclaim’s Supercross 2000. This is very similar in terms of modes and features, but the handling feels quite different, with this being much easier to control. It also feels less “on rails”, even though it still has invisible walls to stop you going off track.

There’s plenty of different stadiums to race in, along with some bigger outdoor tracks, and it feels fine. The sound is horrendous, though, with the bikes sounding like constantly farting flies. There’s also a simple, but restrictive, track editor. The freestyle stunt mode includes a moon level, which is an added bonus.

Fine

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Jeremy McGrath is as stolc a game as you could ever hope to play, principally because it offers no sort of challenge, but also because visually it seems to have had all of two minutes lavished on it.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #40

Remake or remaster?

There are better motorbike games.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000

[Dcubed]

One thing to keep in mind with Simcity 64 that you probably didn’t experience yourself @Cube, since you played the game on an emulator, is that it runs like an absolute dog on real N64 hardware.

Look at that framerate CHUG!

Edited Saturday at 08:54 PM by Dcubed

[Ashley]

I didn't realise The Pokémon Company made that game. 

[Cube]

South Park Rally
 

• NA release: 28th February 2000
• PAL release: 3rd March 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Tantalus
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 88%

With how many low effort, dime-a-dozen licensed Mario Kart clones out there, South Park Rally deserves recognition for trying something new. Tracks in South Park aren’t circuits, but rather tiny open maps with multiple routes. Dotted across the map are checkpoints, which are in different places in each mode (and can be randomised as an option), meaning you may have to move back on yourself, and can take a different route from your opponents’.

It’s a shame, then, that the minimap is so useless. In this game, the ability to quickly glance at the map, identify where you are and where you need to go, is vital. Unfortunately, everyone on a map is an arrow, with yours being slightly bigger, it’s not enough of a visual difference to be useful when you’re approaching a junction and need to quickly decide which way to go.

South Park Rally has a lot of fun with its concept, as there are a ton of different game modes. There’s not a huge amount of variety in them – some involving collecting objects, some where you collect an object and then have to make it through all checkpoints, others have you all fighting for one object – but it’s a really neat idea that makes the game work well as a party game, especially as you all have the same map issues (unlike the CPUs, who know exactly where to go).

Fun

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Initially, the exercise doesn’t seem to have worked all that well – you’ll probably dismiss South Park Rally as an annoying, unnecessarily complex version of Mario Kart after your first few plays – but once you’ve become familiar with the maps, weapons and styles of play and then gathered some friends in the same room to share the experience with, it becomes blatantly obvious that Tantalus’ dabbling with the format has paid handsome dividends.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #38

Remake or remaster?

A mode like this in the next Mario Kart would be amazing.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get South Park Rally.