Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 - All N64 Games

[Glen-i]

4 hours ago, Ashley said:

 

Yeah, very much going for the Rareware brand of humour there.

Didn't quite pull it off as well. Now Banjo-Tooie? That's a masterpiece of getting crap past the radar!

[Cube]

Destruction Derby 64
 

• NA release: 30th September 1999
• PAL release: 12th October 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Looking Glass
• Publisher: THQ
• N64 Magazine Score: 65%

Along with Wipeout, this is another Sony owned series that made its way to the N64, this time licensed out to Looking Glass Studios and THQ. Like Wipeout, this is another Psygnosis series that, despite a lot of love from fans, has been left abandoned by Sony.

Instead of being a port of the PlayStation games, this is a whole new game. It’s a bit more colourful than the PlayStation games, but I think that works really well.

Destruction Derby is a game about smashing other cars. There are multiple starting points on the track, with cars moving in opposite directions. To keep the game flowing, there’s a checkpoint system and a time limit. I usually hate this in racing games, but it makes a lot of sense in Destruction Derby. The goal isn’t simply to be the last person standing, but to score as many points as possible.

Your main scoring is from smashing into other cars and totalling them, although you also get points for reaching checkpoints, so you are rewarded for staying alive, but with diminishing returns, as you get less and less time the longer the match goes on. This creates a great risk/reward system, as you want to smash into others, but you also don’t want to blow up too early. Cars low on damage emit smoke, so you can target those specifically. It’s an immense amount of fun.

There are also some events that take place in small arenas. No time limit, it ends when only one car is left (although they may not have the most points). Lots of chaos here, although I personally preferred the races. There’s also a good amount of multiplayer modes.

One thing that surprised me is how good the handling feels. It’s kind of a shame that there’s no standard race option (where you can still destroy opponents) – this could have been a really great racing game as well. Still, this is a ton of fun.

Great

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But, even given the amusement of the bowls, DD64 is a bog standard N64 game. There are sparks of enjoyment throughout, but the concept is just too limiting and you can complete the one-player game in about half a da (and that’s with a couple of easily avoidable mistakes chalked up). Mildly fun, then, but pretty average.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

A new Destruction Derby would be great. I think it would work best with slightly cartoony graphics, and keeping the game simple and fun. More realistic games like Wreckfest just aren’t the same kind of fun.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Destruction Derby 64

[Cube]

Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
 

• JP release: 1st October 1999
• NA release: 12th July 2000
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Locomotive
• Publisher: Takara (JP), Bay Area (NA)
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Sometimes, when games are released on both N64 and PS1, they’re mostly the same game with some differences based on the hardware. Sometimes, though, they’re completely different games with a similar basic core idea. Both are 1 on 1 fighting games, but the PlayStation version tries to do something interesting: they take place in 3D arenas so navigation (and using vehicle mode) is important. The N64 version, on the other hand, is more of a traditional 1 on 1 fighter. And a complete mess.

The battlefield here is just a flat space with a 2D background. You can still move around in 3D, which really completely breaks the game as melee attacks don’t “lock on”, making it almost impossible to hit anything. Most of your projectiles will miss, too.

You can swap between different modes. Beast mode is melee only, so is useless for attack. Vehicle mode is very fast, but you’re not going to hit your opponent. Robot mode is the only one of any use, as the left C is a lock on shot attack that you can charge up for significant damage. Get a quick shot in at the start of the match, time your charges right, and you can wipe out anything.

To counter this, the N64 version introduces a new mechanic: if you stay in robot mode, a bar will deplete. When it’s empty, you can no longer attack in robot mode. The only way to recharge is to swap to beast mode. So the only valid tactic is shooting in robot mode, then switching to beast mode to run around until you can carry on shooting in robot mode.

Another notable change in the N64 version is the scale of the characters. In the PS1 version, they’re different sizes to account for power and manoeuvrability (and the actual show). For the N64, everyone is resized to be roughly the same size.

There are a few really simple minigames, but none of them are very good, with the best one being a simple quick draw. This might be the worst fighting game on the N64.

Worst

Remake or remaster?

If we can somehow get a collection of all Transformers games, then at least this can be part of something that has

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals

some good games.

[Cube]

Glover 2

• JP release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Interactive Studios
• Publisher: Hasbro
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

I had quite a few issues with the first Glover. The levels felt disjointed, being random platforms in voids of bottomless pits, and the entire game being an escort mission for a ball that was far to easy to lose or pop. It was still a nice concept, and could have been something good with another attempt.

After playing the prototype of the unfinished Glover 2, we very nearly got a game that alleviated my issues with the first, and would have been a great game. In the prototype, the first hour and a half of the game is fully playable, while a level select lets you see the rest of the game, with levels in varying states of difficulty.

Glover 2 starts with Glover helping his brother make a spell, by grabbing ingredients and rolling them over to a cauldron. As the game is no longer about escorting a crystal transformed into a ball, it frees it up to be more of an adventure. Gathering ingredients to create spells is one of the main methods of progression in Glover 2.

After the first spell goes wrong and the pages of the spell book are taken, it’s up to Glover to try and save the day. The first part of restoring spells is gathering runes, which are hidden across the map and as rewards from helping NPCs. After this, the ingredients are revealed, and you need to locate them and take them to a cauldron.

The first spell creates a bouncy ball, like the first game. You collect magical energy and can use it to spawn this ball whenever you want – losing it is not longer an issue (you can lose/break ingredients, and have to return to get a new one).

Glover can also use other objects he finds – a shovel to dig up onions, an axe for chopping trees, a lawn mower for racing, and a speedboat. This gives Glover a wide array of abilities to find and use throughout the game, on top of all the spells he can learn. One of these spells is a possess spell, which lets you throw an enemy into a cauldron to become them and use their powers (not dissimilar to Space Station Silicon Valley or Super Mario Odyssey).

One of the last areas you can get to naturally in the prototype is a gambling den, where you can play pool and snap to unlock goodies. Walking out of this area crashes the game, so it’s then up to using the level select to explore the rest of the game. Some of the later levels are very early versions, with placeholder textures, and many buttons and objects not working, but others are near complete. You can get a good idea about what the rest of the game would have been like.

After the Gambling den, you would move onto a boss in a sewer (who just bops up and down in the prototype), and lead to a farm. You need to reach a high up area by flooding the farm, by making a large wall cry (the farmer is not happy about this). This lets you reach parts of the runes, and more objects to use as ingredients, too. A harbour with a boat you can sink follows next, then a boss fight/race which is only partially complete.

A little town-like hub world comes next, which is where the rest of the game stems from. Here, there’s a large moving/twisting robot that you need to use to access different areas, and some NPCs with quests to complete. The textures aren’t finished, but everything seems to be working. There’s a museum area you can access, as well as a factory that seems to be a gauntlet for near the end of the game.

Another fairly complete area is a snow/village area. This is a group of maps where you get to transport bombs, take someone’s eye to a telescope, and rebuild a snowman, although there is a lot of empty space: more runes were likely planned to be hidden. There’s a minecart ride into a mine where the objective is to get a crystal and transport it for a spell.

One fascinating level starts with Glover being kidnapped and attached to a ball and chain. You can use Glover’s throw (which is much easier to use than the first game) and the ball will pull Glover up. After escaping a cell, you use a guillotine to snap the chain and revert back to normal. It would have been nice to use the ball and chain mechanic a bit more, but it’s just another example as to how the gameplay changes up throughout the game.

The final area of the game has you preparing a space ship to get to the moon, where you would encounter the final boss. There’s lots of markers in the boss room to give an indication as to what the fight would have been like, but no actual fight.

The game also has a multiplayer mode, with an area and races. You can also load into the main levels with extra players, although I’m not sure if that was something they were planning. It works fine with two people, but the physics go a bit crazy with four.

Glover 2 was shaping up to be a great platformer. The parts that work are a lot of fun, and the progression sounds interesting, as you’re always working to gain new powers, rather than getting a number to unlock a door. I do think that, if it was finished, it would have been among the best N64 platformers – and I didn’t like the first game that much. I felt that the concept had a lot of promise, and needed another attempt – and this is exactly the kind of attempt I wanted.

So why was Glover 2 cancelled? Well, the reason is both stupid and tragic. When the first game came out, 150,000 sales were a good amount for a well received first party title on the N64. Nintendo pointed out an offer where the cartridges were slightly cheaper if they bought 300,000, and an executive went with that. A year or so after the game released, Hasbro Interactive were stuck with 150,000 copies, and Glover was deemed to be a financial failure because of this, so when they were looking at gutting projects, Glover’s bad name caused it to get the axe, even though the development of Glover 2 was going nicely.

Great

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Glover 2 is currently in development with the team behind the original game, Interactive Studios. It’s set to pick up where the original left off, with more hand and ball moves, better graphics and plentiful improvements.

N64 Magazine #32

Should it be finished?

Yes, this game really deserves it. Sadly, Piko Interactive hold the rights to it and, while they promised to finish the second to boost sales of their terrible PC port of the first game, progress doesn’t seem to be happening and they seem to be too busy being rude towards others on social media than actually making it.

[WackerJr]

Wow, so Glover sells 150,000 copies and couldn’t get a second game, despite being decent from the sounds of it, yet Gex somehow shifts 15 millions copies and is rewarded with 3 games across multiple platforms?  It’s not just about the critics is it?

[Cube]

16 minutes ago, WackerJr said:

Wow, so Glover sells 150,000 copies and couldn’t get a second game, despite being decent from the sounds of it, yet Gex somehow shifts 15 millions copies and is rewarded with 3 games across multiple platforms?  It’s not just about the critics is it?

The 15 million units for Gex is a completely fictional bit of information. The 15 million "fact" was added to Wikipeida without a source, a random website read it on Wikipedia and posted about it, and then that article was added as a source for the original claim. 

There's no actual information on sales of the Gex games. 

[WackerJr]

15 hours ago, Cube said:

The 15 million units for Gex is a completely fictional bit of information. The 15 million "fact" was added to Wikipeida without a source, a random website read it on Wikipedia and posted about it, and then that article was added as a source for the original claim. 

There's no actual information on sales of the Gex games. 

Oh thank goodness for that!  I’m still not sure what the justice is in Gex having 3 entries and the, from the sounds of it, decent 2nd Glover game not getting a release.  At least it’s not down to someone somewhere having a ludicrous number of Gex discs/carts sitting in their loft!

[Cube]

Knockout Kings 2000
 

• PAL release: 10th October 1999
• NA release: 12th October 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Black Ops
• Publisher: EA Sports
• N64 Magazine Score: 82%

Shortly after EA entered the ring with their own take on wrestling, they also made a game of a different event that takes place in a similar kind of ring: boxing (although, like the sport itself, boxing rings have more differences from wrestling rings than you might expect). That said, while WCW Mayhem went for an arcade-style game, this goes for a much more technical route.

One interesting thing I found is that Wikipedia – and some other sources – claim that this was called Box Champions 2000 in Europe, but only the German version had that name.

In Knockout Kings, you have multiple punches and signature punches at your disposal, choosing the right one at the right time is important, as is blocking and dodging. The game is great to control, and there’s even a super simple control scheme where you just mash A for punching and the game will pick the kind of punch. The matches are a good length and don’t last too long, and are a lot of fun to play, more than I was expecting.

The main let downs are the create-a-boxer with very limited options, and the few amount of modes in the game. The singleplayer mode is a good idea, though, as you fight other random boxers to work your way up a league table. It’s not just about winning, though, as your performance is graded (pulling off special punches, accuracy of punches, successful blocks, and so on), and the amount of points you earn is important for success.

It’s a good start for the series, but the next few skipped Nintendo platforms – although strangely the final one, Knockout Kings 2003, was a GameCube exclusive.

Fun

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Admittedly, fighting doesn’t amount to hours of careful planning, but ducking and diving is a vital part of the game, as avoiding punches, especially head punches, can mean going the distance or going to ground before the bell’s even been rung. And, fortunately, it’s also incredibly simple to get into, with your basic moves on the A and B buttons, signature punching on the C’s, combo-lacing via R, and, best of all, ducking and strafing on Z. Ripper.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #35

Remake or remaster?

I don’t really know much about boxing video games to comment – there don’t seem to be many serious ones recently, though.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Knockout Kings 2000

[Cube]

Jet Force Gemini
 

• NA release: 11th October 1999
• PAL release: 29th October 1999
• JP release: 1st December 1999
• Developer: Rare
• Publisher: Rare
• N64 Magazine Score: 93%

Jet Force Gemini was a game I loved as a kid, yet was never able to fully complete. I loved it when I played it again on Rare Replay a few years ago, and I still love it now. I played the Rare Replay version again due to better widescreen (the original was just letterboxed) and the control options – the “Modern controls” make Jet Force Gemini play great, especially when manual targeting (which I did for 95% of the game).

Despite the passing of time, Jet Force Gemini still manages to feel fresh, there’s a mixture of classic video game tropes and more modern gameplay, combined with a sense of fun that makes Jet Force Gemini feel special.

You play as three space heroes – a brother and sister called Juno and Vela, and their dog Lupus. A race of little bears have been captured by Mizar and his ant army, so it’s up to you to help the Tribal King Jeff (I don’t know why I love that his name is just Jeff) rescue his people. The game is bright and colourful, and has a “kids cartoon” aesthetic about it. Then you start shooting and limbs, heads, and guts start flying everywhere.

There’s something oddly satisfying about this juxtaposition, as it’s just part of the game, it’s not for shock value or anything edgy, it’s just fun. This isn’t just applicable to the bug enemies, either, as you can end up blowing up the little bears if you’re not careful. Then collect their heads, which is counted in your inventory, for pretty much no reason (technically you can unlock cheats, but you’re much more likely to do that by collecting ant heads).

You start the game as Juno, but can play as Vela and Lupus as you meet up with them. They all have their own set of levels as they work their way to Mizar’s Palace. It’s mostly a linear path for each one, although there are a few secrets to find, and you may notice a few sections you can’t reach.

During Juno’s journey, you’ll also repair a flying robot called Floyd, who you can use for some on-rails shooting sections. A second player can also take control of him to help you shoot your way through the bugs (and possibly “accidentally” shoot the Tribals). If the game ended at Mizar’s Palace, it would still be a great game and a decent length, but that’s just part of it.

As Mizar slips away, you need a new ship to reach him. Jeff turns up with some upgrades for everyone – some jetpacks for Juno and Vela, plus Lupus now drives around in a hover tank. He also reveals a spaceship that you need to use to reach Mizar’s new base. There’s one problem – the ship is missing most of its components, so you’ll need to hunt for ship parts. Using the various abilities of each character (Juno can walk on lava, Vela can swim, Lupus can hover without fuel) and the keys they’ve collected, you now have to explore previous worlds to find new areas and routes to new levels that contain these ship parts.

For the most part, this is great, and there are lots of things to discover, including two different racing games – a 2D top-down one and a 3D one, both feel great – and new weapons to find. It’s also not just checking old places, as planets are made of multiple sub-levels, and the new routes lead to more. There’s a ton of stuff to find. However, there’s one ship part that causes the most trouble, one that King Jeff has, and he won’t give it to you until you’ve saved every Tribal in the game.

Whenever you finish a sub-level, everything is reset each time you return, both the enemies and Tribals. The issue with rescuing the Tribals is that you need to save all of them in one run of the level. Leave the area without finding them all, or have any die, and you need to start again.

This means you have to learn where they are and be careful. Not only are they in hidden areas, but sometimes they’re in the middle of fighting spots, next to explosive barrels. This is what halted my progress as a kid, but when I tried the game again when I got Rare Replay, I actually didn’t find it that bad, and didn’t take as long as I expected.

Jet Force Gemini is an immense amount of fun, and there’s something about it that just keeps you smiling. The game is surprisingly dark in moments, but the game never acknowledges it or points it out. For example, some enemies will surrender and throw their gun away. As doors are tied to the life of enemies, you have to execute them. Of course, if you do turn your back, they’ll throw a grenade at you.

It’s a lovingly created game that feels like everything is there because the developers wanted to do it. It’s also likely why this was published by Rare themselves instead Nintendo, but it works wonders for the sheer fun of Jet Force Gemini.

Fave

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How many times have you seen an enemy run away from you if you storm towards it, lobbing grenades in its general direction, only for it to pop out of its hiding place and shoot you in the head when you turn your back? Never in any other console game, that’s for sure. The Drones in Jey Force do all that and more. They find alternative cover if you blow up the box they’re hiding behind, they duck behind shields, scatter, return mob-handed, and even break off a battle to execute a prisoner – just to wind you up. The fact that they behave so naturally makes killing them all the more satisfying.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #34

Remake or remaster?

While the Rare Replay version is a great version of the game, I’d love to see a proper remaster. The controls could still do with a little adjusting, having a toggle for manual aiming and allowing you to jump while in that mode would be perfect. A reworked final level to let you choose who you play as (you’re stuck with Juno) would also be nice. Other than that, some slight graphical improvements to just improve the quality of the textures (but keep the style). And perhaps a better way to keep track of Tribals.

Official ways to get the game.

Jet Force Gemini is available as part of Rare Replay on Xbox One/Series.

Re-releases.

2015: Rare Replay (Xbox One/Series)

2023: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

[Cube]

BattleTanx: Global Assault
 

• NA release: 12th October 1999
• PAL release: April 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: The 3DO Company
• Publisher: The 3DO Company
• N64 Magazine Score: 81%

While the first Battletanx was only released in America, its sequel got a more global release. And by that, I mean it also came out in Europe. Just like the game itself which, despite the name, is only set in America, London, Paris, and Berlin. The first game has a surprisingly serious plot, while this just decides to throw in a villain with magical powers of mind control.

For the most part, it’s more of the same fast-paced tank action, although this one seems much faster and much jerkier. All the tanks feel like hovercars, which is suitable for the hovertank you can control, but not the many other tanks you can be. There are a lot of different tank classes, but the weaker ones aren’t much use on their own – it really feels like a system that would work better with big teams fighting each other, and not just four players.

The levels in this game feel more open, which would be nice, but the fog feels even worse as a result. In one mission, you have to destroy the Eiffel Tower, but you can barely see any of it. The levels are also more maze-like with a mixture of barriers you can and can’t destroy, and hidden tunnels you need to find and navigate, with the map not helping much.

From the singleplayer side of things, I didn’t like this as much as the first. The first felt like you were slowly building up your army as you worked your way across the USA. This is random events where sometimes getting a few hundred metres is a big task, but then you can just pop from Washington, DC to London in a post-apocalyptic world with no issues. The multiplayer, though, is much expanded with more modes and features, so is where the main enjoyment is.

Fun

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Sooo, then, there’s plenty to enjoy here, provided you’ve got some chums to share the fun with. As a single player game, Global Assault leaves little to be desired, offering only a lightweight Rage Wars-style sequence of fights, but 3DO have managed to fashion a multiplayer game that makes excellent use of the four controller ports on the front of your N64, and for that we applaud them.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #40

Remake or remaster?

A remaster that combines both games and adds online would be a lot of fun.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Battletanx: Global Assault

[Cube]

LEGO Racers
 

• NA release: 12th October 1999
• PAL release: 1st December 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: High Voltage
• Publisher: LEGO Media
• N64 Magazine Score: 70%

LEGO and racing is a combination that really works well together. The various LEGO themes (especially before they got into licensed stuff) provide a lot of different settings, and the customisable aspect helps give a bit of personality. In LEGO Racers, you can create your own driver, and also customise your car, starting with an available chassis and adding some bricks on top, unlocking more as you progress. The builder is a bit fiddly and limited, but does a good enough job.

For the racing, the courses are nice and colourful (although could do with more LEGO elements), featuring 13 tracks overall, with three mirrored cups, and one final race against Rocket Racer. The driving itself is a bit twitchy, but gets the job done, with coloured bricks for weapons (different colours are for certain items, like Diddy Kong Racing). The biggest issue with LEGO Racers is that each race has a runaway leader, and if you use all the various items and race normally, you’re likely going to be in a distant second place.

Really, the only way to succeed is with the white bricks. These attach to your items to power them up. But even with these, there’s only one that will actually help you: the green boost. When attached to three white bricks, you’ll get a wormhole boost that will warp you significantly ahead in the track. This is really the only way to win, so it’s generally best to ignore all the weapons and other racers, and just gather the white bricks and hope a green one has spawned.

It’s really a bit of a shame, as the game changes into more of learning which route have the white bricks and warping ahead, and the game turns from ridiculously difficult to immensely easy. The idea behind how the weapons work is a nice one, and should add an element of tactics on when you use the weapons, but the wormhole boost being so vital just reduces the tactics to only one valid method.

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The handling is twitchy and imprecise, so it’s annoyingly difficult to adjust your line to grab the right power-up, and the results of the three-lap races are usually determined at the start. If you mistime your turbo, it’s often impossible to catch the leader – you can race like Schumacher, but you’ll finish third or fourth, with the race winner almost a full lap ahead.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

I think it’s time for a new LEGO Racer. As long as they include some retro LEGO themes and stay away from the licensed stuff. There's enough "multiverse" stuff at the moment.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get LEGO Racers.

[Jonnas]

I played two distinct LEGO Racers demos back in the day (PS1 and PC), and I adored that one track I could play in. It's such a fun, inventive game, with a really creative power-up system (though like Cube said, green bricks were strictly better).

Would love to see it rereleased.

[Cube]

South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack
 

• NA release: 12th October 1999
• PAL release: 31st October 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Acclaim
• Publisher: Acclaim
• N64 Magazine Score: 83%

The second South Park game, this one is a quiz show with a handful of minigames. N64 Magazine loved it, yet it got panned elsewhere. One immediate problem with the game is that it allows you to play on your own, but has no CPU opponents. So you answer questions on your own, play minigames on your own, and win at the end because you’re the only person competing.

The questions are, for the most part, general trivia, with a bunch of subjects based on things mentioned in South Park. The problem is that this was still very early on in South Park, so there wasn’t a lot to choose from. This means a whole category of questions on things like Worcestershire sauce, even though it was involved in one episode and never mentioned again. Even better, one of those questions was wrong, as it claimed that “England” wasn’t where Worcestershire sauce was invented.

The minigames are a mixed bag. A couple are slightly fun, others are tedious. There’s one where you have to follow a bunch of directional presses that takes ages and is more a test of how long you purposefully mess up to end the game. And with only around 20, you’ll see repeats pretty quickly. It does a good job capturing the look of the show, but it’s not very funny – in the end, just a really basic quiz game.

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But, even with these problems chalked up, Luv Shack will still make a top grade Chrimbo pressie. It’s a triumph of simplicity and design, and offers a significantly different playing experience to Mario Party. In fact, it’s the perfect companion piece to Nintendo’s game and, as a bonus, has a fabulous South Park ‘feel’. As Cartman might say, this kicks ass.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

Jackbox gets the silly quiz show format down much better.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack

[Cube]

WWF WrestleMania 2000
 

• PAL release: 12th October 1999
• NA release: 18th November 1999
• JP release: 15th September 2000
• Developer: AKI
• Publisher: THQ (NA,PAL), Asmik Ace (JP)
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

After doing well with the WCW vs nWo games, AKI and THQ managed to get the big wrestling license: WWF. Focusing on the big WrestleMania event, AKI brought over everything they learned from their previous games and improved upon it, making fights feel eventful without dragging on too long, and providing a decent amount of modes and features, including a basic create-a-wrestler.

The main wrestlers have their intros, as well as a little, very compressed FMV for them, and they all look fine from a distance. When the camera gets closer, however, the wrestlers look like they’re constructed from parts poorly stuck together, and the faces look like masks, especially so in the case of The Rock, who has his eyebrow raised expression permanently pasted on the front of his face.

WrestleMania features a decent singleplayer mode – with you picking a partner for tag matches to mix things up – and a good amount of modes for multiplayer. One mild annoyance is that the female wrestlers are all locked away at the start, and the only way to create a female wrestler is to unlock one and copy them. Overall though, this is where wrestling games started to improve a lot.

Fun

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Attitude’s beat-’em-up style combos have been dropped in favour of a more simple tap of the action button and analogue pad, but this simplistic approach does provide hardcore fans with a more satisfying fight.

Oliver Hurley, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

I’m not sure what current wrestling games are like.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get WWF WrestleMania 2000.

[Helmsly]

I have a lot of good memories of playing Wrestlemania 2000, I remember I got to play it a couple of years after it came out and was annoyed at myself for not buying it day 1, because even though I played the Smackdown games on PS1 at the time, which were more popular, I much preferred this game.

You could tell AKI had a lot of fun making it, with loads of references and call backs to random story's that had taken place in the WWF before hand or changing a wrestlers music to an older theme they used on the past would be acknowledged with unique entrances.
 

Plus it was just a lot of fun to play and had plenty of modes to replay for hours.

 

The create a wrestler mode was also pretty good and had so many motion capped moves from wrestlers that were not in the games roster, almost all of the moves from their previous WCW games were in there so you could pretty much make any WCW or WWF Superstar. I think i spent a third of my time in this game game just making random wrestlers.

 

On 9/26/2024 at 8:16 PM, Cube said:

the faces look like masks, especially so in the case of The Rock, who has his eyebrow raised expression permanently pasted on the front of his face.

 

Yeah, even at the time this game came out, the graphics and character models seemed a little odd. Especially compared to the Smackdown games which also had full FMV of everyone's titan tron entrance, compared to Wrestlemania 2000s  3 frame, blurry gifs. But as us N64 owners knew at the time, this was probably the best AKI could have done.

The Rock permanently having his raised eyebrow was something I also found hilarious at the time, which was extra funny when he was getting knocked around

WWF No Mercy is the superior game of the two AKI made WWF games, but Wrestlemania 2000 runs better with a smoother frame rate, so its still worth going back to over No Mercy.

Edited October 25 by Helmsly

[Cube]

Noctiluca II: Murder Route
 

• JP release: 22nd October 1999
• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• Developer: Athena
• Publisher: Athena
• Original Name: Yakochu II: Satsujin Koro
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

I didn’t expect to be able to play much of Noctiluca II, as it’s a fairly simple choose your own adventure game with a lot of Japanese text. Google Lens did a decent job of translating the text, so I was able to discover multiple endings. There is an English translation of the game, but only in the form of a walkthrough on YouTube, so it doesn’t help that much with playing the game, unless you pick the same options – at which point you may as well just watch the video.

After an explosion on a passenger ship forces you into a lifeboat, you come across a mysterious ship, which you and the people sharing the lifeboat decide to board. Everything is dark, and it takes a while to find someone on board. Luckily, he’s the captain, unfortunately, he’s been poisoned and shortly dies. You’ll discover mysteries about this ship, the original ship, and the group of people on board.

The game is mostly comprised of static images and text, with the occasional sound effect and a couple of decent quality FMVs. Every now and then, you’ll be able to make a choice for your character, however, there’s not that many to make, and for some of them, the same action happens no matter what you put. On top of that, some of the actions may seem like nothing, but lead to a game over.

At a respite in the story, another character asked to play a card game. I felt like being polite and chose the option to play a game. It turns out that we’re both addicted to card games, along with a third person that joins us. We hear some odd stuff, but carry on (the choice to play was the last choice) until a recue team finds us. They inform us that, in the three days we’d been playing card games with no breaks, everyone else was murdered. Time to start again.

I did find out a lot more about what happened, who did it, and reasons why, and it’s quite an intriguing story. For the kind of game it is, it’s certainly an interesting novelty for the N64.

Fun

Remake or remaster?

The series would be a good basis for a game with better presentation – seeing the characters would be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Noctiluca II: Murder Route

[Dcubed]

Wow! That game sounds really cool!

Cant help but feel that the N64 was the wrong platform for that kind of game, what with it using an expensive and low capacity cartridge format (it would’ve been a much more natural fit for the PS1 or Saturn), but the concept seems really cool!

Love these kinds of text adventure games with abstract stories/ending paths

Edited September 28 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Carmageddon 64
 

• PAL release: 22nd October 1999
• NA release: 26th July 2020
• JPL release: N/A
• Developer: Stainless Games, Software Creations
• Publisher: Sales Curve (PAL), Titus (NA)
• N64 Magazine Score: 8%

8% is the lowest review score N64 Magazine ever gave, and it went to Carmageddon 64. It’s a bit of a shame, as the concept could lead to a good game, but the N64 version itself has lots of its own particular issues. It’s based on Carmageddon 2, but with some significant changes to be allowed on the N64. Carmageddon is a vehicle slaughter game, where one of the aims is to run over pedestrians for points.

For the second game, the pedestrians were renamed “zombies”, but kept the same. They still looked like regular people, they released a lot of blood, and they flew for ages after you hit them, bouncing off the ground. For the N64, this all had to change. The “zombies” are now very obviously zombies, and now turn into a green mist when you hit them. It completely lacks the impact and shock value the original had, which was the defining element of the game. Dogs and traffic were also completely removed from the game.

You have three ways you can complete missions: destroy your three rival cars, kill enough zombies, or simply drive around the track and finish. The first two methods get tedious fast, and the third is ridiculously easy (as you don’t really have to worry about other racers). The handling is also atrocious and it never feels like you have control of a car, all of them feeling like an incredibly cheap RC car. This, along with the dodgy physics, are the main things that ruin what was left of the game.

It’s a shame, really, as there a lot of tracks to explore, and plenty of vehicles to unlock – you can even change the zombies to dinosaurs. However, even if everything worked well, it would get repetitive quickly. It needed different kind of missions rather than just doing the same thing over and over.

Worst

Quote

A shocking travesty. If you see Carmageddon 64 in the shops, take it off the shelves, rip up the box and throw the cart repeatedly against the wall until it breaks.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

I think the concept is worth trying again.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get the N64 version of Carmageddon 64, but Carmageddon 2 is on GoG and Steam.

[Ashley]

Quote

A shocking travesty. If you see Carmageddon 64 in the shops, take it off the shelves, rip up the box and throw the cart repeatedly against the wall until it breaks.

Cartageddon 

[Dcubed]

16 hours ago, Ashley said:

Cartageddon 

Am I gonna have to break out the Boo This Man gif again!? Ahh sod it...

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Am I gonna have to break out the Boo This Man gif again!? Ahh sod it...

[Cube]

Super Robot Wars 64
 

• JP release: 29th October 1999
• NA release: N/A
• EU release: N/A
• Developer: AI
• Publisher: Banpresto
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Super Robot Wars is a series of turn-based tactical games very similar to Advance Wars (or Famicom Wars, as it was originally called). It’s a kind of game that I’m awful at, even when I can read all the stats and options. As a result, I only got a few missions into this before I was completely overwhelmed by the enemy.

Each turn, you move and/or attack with each of your units, choosing one of your abilities to attack while enemies defend themselves (counterattacks seem to be picked at random). Some of your units – all big mechs – can transform between different forms, and some can only move or attack in a single turn, not both.

One thing I thought was a nice touch was the backgrounds. The foreground area has some nice 3D areas, and the 2D backdrop will change depending on the scenery close to you, so as you approach a city, you’ll see it in the background.

That’s really all I can say about this one. There’s a nice visual style for the genre, but it’s not one I’m good at or know what makes one of these games good.

?

Remake or remaster?

A collection of the series would be nice.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Super Robot Wars 64

[Dcubed]

Real shame that we never got 64 Wars or Fire Emblem 64.  There was a clear demand for strategy games on the N64, which already had some heavy hitters like StarCraft, Command & Conquer and Ogre Battle 64 under its belt.

Ironic how the GameCube (a platform far better suited to the genre) basically got nothing outside of Fire Emblem POR.

[BowserBasher]

On 9/22/2024 at 8:01 PM, Cube said:

Jet Force Gemini was a game I loved as a kid, yet was never able to fully complete

Along with probably 99% of people. The objective of having to save all those tribals to get to the ending was just insane. Never did it myself and I've thought of giving it a go on NSO but that thought scares me.

[Cube]

NBA Live 2000
 

• NA release: 29th October 1999
• PAL release: December 1999
• EU release: N/A
• Developer: EA Canada
• Publisher: EA Sports
• N64 Magazine Score: 65%

Another average sports game. This one doesn’t do much to improve the gameplay of the previous year, and the CPU is far too perfect at the game, being amazing at both offence and defence while you struggle with both. It feels slow, clunky, and isn’t much fun to play.

The big selling point of NBA Live 2000 is the return of Michael Jordan to video games, with a 1-on-1 mode that you’ll have to complete in order to play as him. Something to appeal to people who are massive fans of Michael Jordan, but not something that makes the game better.

Poor

Quote

The last time we saw him was in Space Jam, the game of the duff cartoon movie, and most hoop sims feature a mysterious shadow where Chicago’s number 23 should be. But is the inclusion of the man himself enough to propel this game above the ordinary? Sadly, it isn’t.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #38

Remake or remaster?

There’s better basketball games to focus on.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NBA Live 2000