Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 - All N64 Games

[Cube]

Mario Golf
 

• JP release: 11th June 1999
• NA release: 26th July 1999
• PAL release: 14th September 1999
• Developer: Camelot
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

These days, you expect wild and wacky things form Mario’s sports titles, but it wasn’t always like that. In Nintendo’s early days, Mario appeared in sports games that weren’t named after him, with Mario’s Tennis on the Virtual Boy being the first "Mario" sports title, which was mostly ignored. Mario's sporting adventures properly started with Mario Golf, appearing on both N64 and Game Boy Color.

But Mario Golf isn’t a wild and wacky golf game – there’s no crazy powers or abilities, no silly clubs or balls. It’s just golf….but really good golf.

In the previous 3 golf games on the N64 (none of which were available in all regions), each one only had a singular golf course each. Mario Golf, on the other hand, has six full 18 hole courses, starting with fairly regular golf course designs (with Mario-style background elements) to more unrealistic courses with big cliffs, lots of islands and some themed after characters. They’re all nicely detailed in 3D and many manage to look visually interesting as well.

To unlock the courses, you’ll need to earn points by gaining XP, winning tournaments, beating other characters and generally doing anything in the game. Interestingly, winning a tournament is enough to get the next course on its own, so it’s nice to have an alternative method to get them.

The main golfing mechanics take a “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” approach, using the tried and tested system Nintendo used in NES Golf. Press the A button and the bar will move, press A at the right point for power, where the bar will move back and press A to get as close to where you started for better accuracy. You do have to account for different terrain types and the wind, as well as your character’s own abilities.

That is my main complaint about Mario Golf – characters hit different distances, and many drift to the side when swinging. I found the game to be easier to stick to the “straight” characters – which meant using a couple of characters made specifically for Mario Golf. With no way to improve stats of characters, I would much prefer to have all characters be equal, but have different sets of clubs make the difference.

On top of multiple ways to play golf – tournaments, head-to-head, speed golf – there are a few additional modes, such as the extremely difficult ring mode where you have to hit the ball through rings, and also some minigolf courses for putting. I found that judging distances while putting was very difficult, not just in minigolf but in the regular mode as well.

There’s an immense amount of stuff to do in Mario Golf, but even with this, some great courses and some solid gameplay, it’s not the best Mario Golf game released in 1999. The Game Boy Colour version of Mario Golf featured a great RPG mode and a way to improve your character’s stats (which, incidentally, you can import into the N64 game).

Great

Quote

The courses get tougher and tougher, finishing with the deadly Mario’s Star course, in which the greens are little more than tiny mounds and the fairways are brush strokes on giant portraits of characters from Super Mario 64. What all the courses have in common is the amount of thought put into designing each one.

- Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #34

Remake or remaster?

A remake that combined the courses and features of both the N64 and GBC Mario Golf games would be amazing.

Official ways to get the game.

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

Re-releases

2008: Wii Virtual Console

2015: Wii U Virtual Console

2022: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

[BowserBasher]

Ah Mario Golf, possibly the reason why we can’t taunt or cheer in the newer games, right @Dcubed, @Glen-i, @S.C.G ? I can’t quickly find any of my highlights from NSO nights where all you hear is “FOoooooooUuuuuuuR” or “excellent” when a player hits it in the bunker. 
 

Great game though. We need another round guys. 

[Glen-i]

12 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

I can’t quickly find any of my highlights from NSO nights where all you hear is “FOoooooooUuuuuuuR” or “excellent” when a player hits it in the bunker. 

I've got you covered!

 

[darksnowman]

I still like Mario Golf 64 because it is just a good golf game—something I feel the series has moved away from. I've a preference for first two courses as they provide a normal setting. The other modes are nice inclusions. 

[BowserBasher]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

I've got you covered!

 

Exactly the clip I was looking for…or should I say FOUUUUR.

[Cube]

Zool: Legend of the Beast Tamer
 

• JP release: 11th June 1999
• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Pandora Box
• Publisher: Imagineer
• Original Name: Zool: Majū Tsukai Densetsu
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Not related in any wat to the Chupa Chups platformer, Zool: Legend of the Beast Tamer is a Pokémon-like game involving taming and battling monsters. It’s much more story focused than similar games, as instead of someone that gets given a monster on their 10th birthday, you instead play a mysterious boy with a flute, living in an orphanage. Only certain people have the ability to properly tame monsters, and you end up taming one right as a couple of shady characters are looking for one for their boss (who captures them and uses them for things like fighting tournaments).

After rescuing Bob (my name for the first monster) and returning home, you can then explore the town and speak to residents. The town maps are more like menus, you select a house and speak to the people inside – with a lot of repeated NPCs. Eventually, you’ll help a farmer protect his crop from another monster, getting the attention of the bad guys, who kidnap Bob – but when you go to rescue him, the boss is interested in seeing what you’ll do and how far you’ll get escaping the house.

For dungeons, the game takes a more 3D view as you wander round rooms finding looked doors, then looking for keys (which are inside item bags). A lot of rooms in this first dungeon seem fairly useless and every few steps, you’ll be thrust into a random encounter.

Battles in Zool are very simple, your monsters will do their own thing and you can use your flute to give simple commands: attack, defend, special (this seems to generate attack power) and flee. You have a limited amount of flute “power”, but even giving four monsters instructions isn’t a huge problem. For the most part, though, you can leave them to their own choices, making battles feel a bit detached. I do like that they’ve gone for a different style that isn’t quite turn based.

After escaping, it’s time to leave the orphanage and explore the wilder world, looking into your past. Here you get to explore a vast overworld and I had no idea where to go. Even in Japan, this was quite an obscure game, so there’s no guides or anything online. There is a video walkthrough, but as you need to talk to specific people and go to certain areas, I’d just be following their actions, so I figured this was enough to get a taste of the game.

Zool does seem like it’s aiming at a younger audience than Pokémon, and for that it seems to do a decent job. The battling is perhaps a bit too simple (young kids could handle the complexities of Pokémon just fine), but I would be curious to try a translated version as Google Lens struggled with the text for this one.

?

 

Remake or remaster?

An English translation would be interesting to judge the game properly.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Zool: Legend of the Beast Tamer

[Dcubed]

Zool looks pretty neat, I like the art style.  Reminds me a bit of Suikoden.

At least it’s a bit of a different take on the typical Pokemon knockoff, and also a rare RPG for a RPG-starved platform

Edited August 9 by Dcubed

[Cube]

World Driver Championship
 

• NA release: 15th June 1999
• PAL release: November 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Boss Game Studios
• Publisher: Midway
• N64 Magazine Score: 91%

In my previous reviews of the more serious kind of racing games, I said that they’ve aged far less gracefully than arcade racers. This seems to be one of of those examples, as I couldn’t get into it at all – or even finish a race higher than 7th place. World Driver Championship got some very high reviews when it came out, so it was well regarded.

World Driver Championship’s graphics are really nice for the N64. When played in higher resolutions you can see how they do this (with heavy use of level of detail models), but this would be well disguised when played on an actual console. The game also offers a high-res letterbox mode, although this does provide very big black bars. The high res mode is impressive for not using an expansion pack, but it does make you wonder how it could have improved by having optional Expansion Pak support.

The handling is the main thing I had an issue with here, with cars sliding about rather than actually tuning. N64 Magazine says that you need to get used to this method of driving, but I just couldn’t get the hang of it. To make matters worse, the CPU racers will just plough right into you, and whenever you’re in the pack, you bounce around like a dodgem car. While they feel overly aggressive, I feel like it’s more that they just aren’t programmed to react to your car.

The championship mode does have some interesting ideas. You pick a racing team and you’ll have access to their cars. You can stick with them to access their better cars, or swap to another team – although some teams hate each other so much that you’ll won’t be able to join one if you joined the other. With these teams, you’ll compete in cups across the rather nice tracks (10 different locations, but some different routes in each).

While I couldn’t get into it at all, I can definitely see why some people would have loved this, and the ideas to make the championship mode more interesting are good ideas.

Fine

Quote

There’s so much here that, if you’re even the slightest bit interested in throwing a wheeled metal box recklessly around a right-angled corner, we’d advise you to buy this game immediately. It’s beautiful to look at, wonderful to play, frighteningly engrossing and will take you plenty of time to finish. Bear in mind that it’s a game that takes time to love but, when you’ve tamed the beast, you’ll have the greatest time.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #32

Remake or remaster?

It could be included in a collection of Midway racers – it would be a lot of variety in one package.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get World Driver Championship

[Cube]

WildWaters: Extreme Kayak (Prototype)
 

• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Looking Glass
• Publisher: Ubisoift
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Looking Glass Studios were working on multiple N64 games when they shut down, this being one of them. The prototype itself was made for E3 1999 and was very early in development, only shown behind closed doors. It consists of one level (two are listed in the menu, but only one works), but you can select between three characters.

The main thing the WildWaters demo shows off is the water effects, which were great for the time. The game would have been one of the few to require the Expansion Pak due to this. That said, it clearly isn’t finished, with water going up walls at times and the texture stretching oddly in places. The trackside scenery also only lasts for the first portion of the track, with the rest being a short amount of side and seeing the black void if the game.

The final game would have had five modes: Arcade, Time Trial, Championship, Finals and Versus Battle. It would also feature six characters and three kinds of kayak. The thing, other than the water, there isn’t much else about the game. The controls work fine, but the gameplay itself is very boring.

Should it be finished?

This was an example of what could be done on the N64 at the time, with the game itself not very interesting.

 

 

[Dcubed]

Interesting… never heard of this one.

Just checked out a video and yeah, the water effects look pretty good for the ‘ol 64.  Not Waverace 64 level impressive, but still amongst the best looking water effects for the console.  Shame it never ended up coming out.

[Cube]

All Star Tennis 99
 

• PAL release: 25th June 1999
• NA release: 31st August 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Smart Dog
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• N64 Magazine Score: 68%

Surprisingly only the second tennis game on N64 – and the first one to be released in America (although Europe is the only place that got both). Sadly, this isn’t as good as Centre Court Tennis, and that one was just an OK game to begin with. All Star Tennis is simply awkward to control, and it feels like the player you’re controlling has a mind of their own.

This tennis game is all about getting to the right spot – directly to the side of where the ball is going. Then you have to press your shot at the right point, then use the stick and Z/R for spin and power. It’s a lot to deal with, and your character may just decide to ignore that and flop over with a pathetic dive instead. I’m awful at sport, yet I am better at real tennis than the tennis in this game.

Another strange thing is that while the game give you a ton of actions for hitting the ball, serving is more basic than any other tennis game I’ve played: press the A button one and the game will handle the rest, no timing your swing or anything like that.

All Star Tennis also has a few extra modes on top of singles, doubles and tournaments. There’s a bomb tennis mode which leaves behind a bomb wherever the ball lands. This is actually easier than the main mode as the CPU doesn’t quite know how to move around when there are bombs on the court. You can also turn on special shots, which I expected to be hard to hit shots with a bit of flair, but they have fancy effects involving wormholes and teleportation.

This game doesn’t know if it wants to be series or silly, and ends up being awkward. The presentation also doesn’t help. While the graphics are fine, the sound consists of music that a lift would be ashamed of, male or female grunts and an Umpire who gets really annoying, particularly when he’s shouting “be quiet please” to the crowd because a very faint mobile phone had gone off.

Poor

Quote

The speed of the game is all wrong too. The players are quick to move around the court but frustratingly slow when it comes to swinging the racquet, meaning that you have to start a shot almost as soon as the ball crosses the net – meaning that due to the very unhelpful artificial intelligence ‘assistance’, you’ll find your player diving when you wanted to perform a running shot, or blocking when you wanted to smack the ball into your opponent’s face.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #26

Remake or remaster?

There are better tennis games to bring back.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get All Star Tennis 99

[Dcubed]

Really makes you appreciate what SEGA accomplished with Virtua Tennis.  As far as realistic (i.e, non-Mario) tennis games go? It just utterly blew everything else off the court and into space.

[Cube]

Neon Genesis Evangelion
 

• JP release: 25th June 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: BEC
• Publisher: Bandai
• N64 Magazine Score: 61%

I know nothing about the anime of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but from this game I can figure out the basic premise: giant creatures are attacking cities, and humans have created giant robots in response. Pilots get psychically linked to the machines, which is a huge strain. It carries many similarities to the later Pacific Rim. For the most part, the N64 game is a very simplified fighting game.

With the controls being basic, and seemingly no combos, it feels more like an interactive show. Enemy attacks are extremely long, with multiple locations. Get damaged enough and you’ll get angry and pull out a weapon to better attack you opponent. This is something that can be exciting in a show, but in a game, it’s just annoying to not be able to access items for no good reason. While they do capture the feeling of controlling something massive, it’s also unbelievably slow.

After a few battles, there was some kind of quick time event I couldn’t complete, so my game ended there. There’s also a “simulation mode” which is a first person target range. This is probably simple enough for fans of the show who aren’t into games to enjoy, but there isn’t a lot to it.

?

Quote

It’s actually quite neat, in a restrictive, if graphically flashy, kind of way, but ultimately Neon Genesis Evangelion is more of an intriguing curio than a true game, and is thus recommended purely to fans who happen to own an N64.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #34

Remake or remaster?

I have no idea how the other games in the franchise stack up.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Dcubed]

Have actually heard really good things about this game.  If you’re a hardcore NGE fan (which I am not), supposedly this is one of the best NGE games ever made.

It does some pretty neat things, playing out like an actual episode of the show.  Supposedly it’s like a prototype version of Asura’s Wrath; so if you like that game, and you’re a NGE fan? Give this one a look!

[EEVILMURRAY]

19 hours ago, Cube said:

Neon Genesis Evangelion
I know nothing about the anime of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but from this game I can figure out the basic premise: giant creatures are attacking cities, and humans have created giant robots in response. Pilots get psychically linked to the machines, which is a huge strain.

I bloody wish that was what the anime was about.

[Cube]

A couple of updates: all my previous stuff is now on the main site, you can browse though all 227 games here: https://www.n-europe.com/features/

Secondly, @Jonnas has kindly offered to do some much needed proofreading, so there will be fewer grammatical errors and mistakes going forward.

Command & Conquer
 

• NA release: 29th June 1999
• PAL release: 30th July 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Westwood, Looking Glass
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 75%

I’ll be honest: I didn’t play a massive amount of the N64 version of Command & Conquer, I’ve played the game before on other platforms, and I’m not a huge fan of it personally. That said, Command & Conquer is a much loved real time strategy game. The N64 version, in terms of how the game plays and the levels you’ll encounter, is pretty much the same as the PC version, yet at the same time, this is still another strange case where the N64 version is a bit odd.

This is mainly due to the “Full 3D” (according to the box) nature of the graphics. This means that, instead of the lovely sprite work of the original, you get lower quality polygon models (although soldiers are still sprites). The odd thing is that the game doesn’t utilise this in any way – there’s no different viewpoints or angles, it’s just the same perspective as all the other versions. It feels like it’s just been made 3D just for the sake of it.

The N64 version also loses the FMV sequences (which you’d expect), although it does keep an impressive amount of voice acting for the briefings.

Controls also make this worse than playing on a PC – although at least the analogue stick makes it better than the PlayStation version. Selecting units is much, much slower, and selecting the wrong things is much more common. Some levels have been made easier to account for this.

The N64 version does include the full game, plus an add-on pack and a few bonus missions, so there’s plenty here, and it’s still a mostly functional way to play the game if you don’t have anything else to play it on.

Fine

Quote

And never are the problematic controls more aptly demonstrated than when you’re in the middle of a battle. Because you have to ‘drag and select’ your men, and because a lot of the time different sections of your men are fighting different enemies, it’s almost impossible to select just, say, three soldiers and send them somewhere else.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #32

Remake or remaster?

Command & Conquer Remastered is a great version of the original C&C game.

Official ways to get the game.

The N64 version isn’t available officially, but the remastered PC version is available on Steam and whatever EA are calling their store this week.

[Dcubed]

Wahey! We've gone official!

Congrats on the promotion @Cube and cheers goes to @Jonnas and @S.C.G for making the miracle happen! 

Edited August 15 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt
 

• NA release: 29th June 1999
• PAL release: 10th August 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Realtime Associates
• Publisher: THQ
• N64 Magazine Score: 48%

Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt (or Rugrats: Treasure Hunt) is a simplified clone of another N64 board game – but it’s not Mario Party. Bizarrely, this is heavily based on the Japan-only Detective Club 64 [Kira to Kaiketsu! 64 Tanteidan]. It features three modes, two of them based on searching rooms.

Like Detective Club 64, you spin and get to move that amount of spaces. You can pick which direction you want to go (except backwards), but you want to aim for the magnifying glass spaces.

Here, you pick a random object from the room to search, hoping to get an object you need. You can also find items to help you in your quest, such as the ability to search twice every time you land on a search space, and the ability to turn around at the start of the turn. Other items can also just be junk.

Other spaces include gaining and losing cookies (which are used to buy cards), a space to buy cards, one to recover energy (run out and you’ll miss a turn), and spaces that send you to your crib, but you can pick which room to warp to on your next turn.

The first board is a co-op mission where the babies have to find all their pieces before Angelica does (NPCs move around at the end of each round), while the second is competitive, with each baby trying to collect a set of treasure. If you land on a spot with another baby, you can fight them to steal one of their pieces. I described the battle system in Detective Club 64 as a kind of “rock, paper, scissors”, but this is just rock, paper scissors.

The third board is unbelievably tedious. This ditches the search mechanic, and the board is a series of circles, removing all choice. Here, you have to collect three kinds of sweets, but you need an immense amount of them (and can lose them), so it goes on forever, with you having zero say in what’s going on.

The first two boards might keep young kids occupied (and you can choose the size of the board to adjust length), as long as they don’t get bored from repetitiveness, or annoyed that it’s entirely luck based, but this is just a poor licensed game.

Poor

Quote

Like South Park, seeing your favourite TV stars come alive on the N64 (no matter how hopelessly) is fun for a while. But there’s nothing here to justify spending £40 on, especially when you can find Ludo in the Argos catalogue for a sixth of the price.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #33

Remake or remaster?

This game is nothing special.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to buy Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt

[Cube]

Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2
 

• PAL release: 29th June 1999
• NA release: September1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Ubisoft
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• N64 Magazine Score: 87%

With football games, you have the license-heavy FIFA competing with ISS and its “R. Gibbs”. It seems that Formula 1 games were also having a similar competition, with Ubisoft’s Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 coming in without driver names, competing against F1 World Grand Prix. As it can’t provide as authentic an experience, it attempts to make it easier to play.

And in a way, it is. The “arcade” handling is much easier than the “simulation” handling, but at the same time, the game also lacks assists like raving lines, so it’s still quite challenging for someone like me. The tracks are based on the 98 season of Formula 1, but the track names are missing and, while some look great, there’s just an inauthentic air about the whole package. Unlike ISS where you could ignore all that when playing the game, this just feels a bit off everywhere.

My biggest issue was the CPU racers. Blocking is a big tactic in Formula 1, but it’s not something you can do in Monaco Grand Prix, as it’s one of the racing games where the CPU doesn’t seem to be aware of where you are – going as far as barging through you and making you spin out while they zoom off ahead. It’s something that sours the experience somewhat.

This just feels like an inferior version of F1 World Grand Prix, without the polish.

Fine

Quote

Despite such faults, though, Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation 2 is a rattlingly good game. It’s the brash and enthusiastic younger brother to F1 World Grand Prix’s deeper, sober, older sibling. It certainly delivers in the F1 thrill stakes but, crucially – and ultimately – it’s unable to compete with the depth, complexity and challenge that Paradigm’s game provides, leaving it to coast as a close second.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #27

Remake or remaster?

Newer games do a better job.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to buy Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2

[Cube]

F1 World Grand Prix II
 

• PAL release: 2nd July 1999
• NA release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Paradigm
• Publisher: Video System
• N64 Magazine Score: 72%

F1 World Grand Prix II is an example of two mildly interesting things. For starters, it’s the first of only a few PAL exclusive N64 games, as the first performed really well, getting a Player’s Choice version in Europe.

The second one is that it’s an example on how difficult it can be to score games. N64 magazine flat out states that this is a better game than Monaco Grand Prix, yet it scored lower. Why? Well, because it offers very little over the first game (which, as stated, got a cheaper Player’s Choice version).

The biggest difference is that this game is based on the 1998 F1 season, so you can have track conditions match those races, along with the racing teams. The problem here is that the game came out in the middle of the 1999 F1 season, so I don’t think people are as bothered as the game isn’t fully up to date. The challenge mode does have new challenges, again based on the 1999 F1 season, so there is a bit of new stuff there.

The other new feature is “broadcast” mode, with the game bragging that you can watch the matches of the 98 season from any perspective. N64 Magazine took a look at a few and found that, while the results were correct, the events during the race were nothing like the real ones.

For Formula 1 fans, this is definitely the best F1 game on the system (at this point, at least), but there’s not much reason to buy it over the original.

Fun

Quote

We’re all big F1 fans at N64 Magazine and we can understand the fanaticism that Video System hope to tap into to sell this version of last year’s game. It seems odd to not give, what is clearly the best F1 game on any system, anything less than the 93% the original achieved back in N64/20, but if Nintendo re-released Mario with the same levels and some very minor tweaking, we’d be forced to do exactly the same.

James Ashton, N64 Magazine #32

Remake or remaster?

Newer games do a better job.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to buy F1 World Grand Prix II

[Cube]

Quake II
 

• NA release: 7th July 1999
• PAL release: September 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: id, Raster
• Publisher: Activision
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

The first Quake didn’t sell that well on the N64, as it was mainly just the PC version with slightly altered levels. Instead of ignoring the N64 for Quake II, id Software looked at what did work: DOOM 64. The conclusion is that N64 fans wanted a more catered experience with new levels and story. So for Quake II, developers Raster created a whole new experience – although confusingly, it was still just called Quake II. The more recent remaster of Quake II also includes this game, renamed as “Quake II 64”.

The core gameplay is recreated extremely well, even on the original N64 version of the game (which used its own game engine), so it is really all about the new levels. These were much smaller than the PC version, but I enjoyed this game a lot. While you still have to navigate levels to find switches, they’re not nightmarish mazes, and have visual cues to help you figure out where you are. The buttons and switches are also much more intuitive, with text popping up saying what’s happening. Switches are often in sensible places, such as in control rooms with a window looking at what it activates, or when it’s activated something you can’t see, it’s always something that was an obvious barrier.

This means no aimlessly wandering empty levels (due to killing all enemies) looking for a tiny thing that has changed. This simple difference meant that I liked this much more than all the other DOOM-based games. The levels themselves do look a bit repetitive, but they flow in different ways. I did have to look up how to get past the second to last level, as you need to take a strange path.

One complaint I do have is the bosses. There’s one main boss half way through the game, but after fighting a bunch of (quite powerful) enemies, I was waiting for a big final boss, only to realise that the game was over.

Quake II 64 is a highly enjoyable game, and was well received when it initially came out (especially for its multiplayer mode). The N64 had a lot of DOOM-like FPS games, and this is the best of the lot.

Great

Quote

Quake II has provided us with some of the biggest lunchtime laughs we’ve had in ages. Whether we’re rebounding a grenade around the corner for a sneaky gibbing, narrowly avoiding someone’s carefully-aimed rocket, or using the invisibility power-up to creep up on some unsuspecting fool, every deathmatch bout is sheer joy from start to finish. In fact – whisper it – it’s probably even more enjoyable than four-player GoldenEye.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #32

Remake or remaster?

Nightdive have remastered Quake II and it’s a brilliant package. It includes the PC version, mission packs ,and Quake II 64.

Official ways to get the game.

The remaster is available on Steam, Xbox One/Series, PS4/5 and Switch.

[Cube]

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
 

• JP release: 14th July 1999
• NA release: 5th October 2000
• PAL release: 26th March 2010 (Virtual Console)
• Developer: Quest
• Publisher: Nintendo (JP), Atlus (NA)
• N64 Magazine Score: 87%

The third game in the Ogre Battle series – and also the final one in the main series (there were some handheld spin-offs), this was the first one to not be multiplatform. The games are a bit like real time strategy games, but focus heavily on preparing your tactics before battle. This consists of unit training, levelling up, and picking formations. Person of Lordly Caliber (the first subtitle in the series to not be a reference to a Queen song) is a great example of how the N64 can do great 2D graphics.

The story is quite fascinating: you play as a promising recruit that chooses a job far away from the capital of the country. You fight rebels who try to kidnap the prince. However, things aren’t black and white: the rebels have good reason, although Magnus thinks that their attacks and killing are too far. The prince is also sympathetic to the cause, much to the dismay of his bodyguard (who is trying to train his sympathy out of him, due to orders from his family). Magnus is conflicted with his orders, and does offer to spare the lives of the rebels.

During the story, you’ll take charge for many battles. The battles take a top down view, with you ordering your leaders into positions. Health will recover if they’re in towns, so you’ll often fight for control of them, with your main goal usually being the enemy stronghold. It took me a while to get used to the interface (it took me far to long to figure out how to get more troops into the battlefield).

Once you encounter an enemy squad, a battle will take place. These are all automatic, with you only having control of select special abilities. The placement of your squad, and how their powers compliment each other, is very important. One thing I did find odd is that many fights would end prematurely. This made sense for enemies fleeing, but when I was fighting an enemy in a stronghold, I’d be winning, be pushed back, and have to attack again.

Between battles is where you will do a lot of organising: training up units, placing new troops into groups, reorganising those groups, and so much more. There’s a lot of depth to the system, and I found myself interested by the kind of troops, along with the overall world and story. Unfortunately, I’m really quite terrible at games like this and it wasn’t long until I couldn’t get past battles. I attempted to use cheats so I could see more of the story, but those caused glitches that prevented progression. It’s a shame as the world and characters were fascinating.

Fun

Quote

It’s an excellent game which took Japanese developers Quest an eternity to put together, and all of that effort shows. The expense of the hefty 320Mbit cart it fills and the fact that publisher Atlus’ wonderful Snowboard Kids 2 never made it to Europe suggest that we’re not going to see a PAL version of Ogre Battle 64, but it’s definitely worth getting hold of on import. There’s nothing else like it on N64, and it’s more than big enough to keep you playing for most of the two years it’ll take to write the sequel.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #50

Remake or remaster?

A remake/remaster collection of the Ogre Battle series would be great for fans of the genre.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, not even on Nintendo Swich Online, despite the game releasing on the Virtual Console.

Re-releases

2010: Wii Virtual Console (also the first release in PAL regions)

2017: Wii U Virtual Console

[Dcubed]

Ogre Battle 64 is a badass game.  Badass story, badass characters, badass gameplay, badass music and (especially) a badass metal AF subtitle (Queen would be proud).  It was a big win for Nintendo in Japan, as one of the very few major 3rd party RPG releases the system ever got (there’s a reason why Nintendo published it themselves; despite it being an Enix/Quest title).

Have it on both the Wii & Wii U VC and it’s a great game! I actually quite prefer the Ogre Battle games to Tactics Ogre/Final Fantasy Tactics; the Grand Strategy approach just works.  Despite you not having direct control over your units in battle, the strategic gameplay is strong, with an emphasis on wider battle strategy over ground-level tactics.  It stands out as something totally unique in the genre compared to the likes of Fire Emblem and Shining Force.

If I have to levy any complaint against OB64 though is that it’s kinda slow, and battles take a bit too long to complete (though still a big improvement over the original SNES game; I do find myself pining for an extra fast speed up option).  This is something that the Wii U release helped to remedy somewhat with the inclusion of save states, but battles can still go on for over an hour; which makes failure really sting.

Also worth noting, this game released on the largest N64 cart at the time (320 mbit/40MB), the second largest cart ever made available for the N64 (I believe Paper Mario is the only other game that uses a 40MB cart).  It shows across all of its excellent presentation.

Shocking that it’s not available on the Switch NSO.  It needs to happen.

Edited August 20 by Dcubed

[Cube]

PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 
 

• JP release: 16th July 1999
• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Bandai
• Publisher: Bandai
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Ultraman is a very popular Japanese franchise, although I don’t really know anything about it other than that. With a very rich history to pull upon, PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 has you getting random monsters/characters from a capsule machine (or import them from the Game Boy games), and fighting waves of enemies.

The fighting is a very simple turn based affair with very limited options, and each battle takes far too long due to boring and repetitive animations.

I may be missing something due to translation, but it seems all you do is tell your monsters to randomly roam the island you’re on, with the aim of protecting it from alien invaders. Your characters will level up and you’ll get money for more random ones. There doesn’t appear to be a lot to it, and it’s incredibly boring, mainly just waiting around for something to happen, and then taking part in a tedious battle.

Poor

Remake or remaster?

Nothing important for this.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 

[Cube]

J.League 1999: Perfect Striker 2
 

• JP release: 29th July 1999
• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Konami
• Publisher: Konami
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

The second J.League game from Konami, and this one doesn’t make significant changes from the last ISS game. The game is still focused heavily on passing, and there’s still the issue that your players don’t like following you into the box.

While the gameplay is similar, there’s also a brand new EPG mode where you create a player and work through a career – although instead of struggling with the version in this game, I’ll take a proper look at the English translation of it in ISS 2000.

Fun

 

Remake or remaster?

Konami definitely need to revisit these games.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get J.League 1999: Perfect Striker 2