Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 - All N64 Games

[Cube]

Rayman 2: The Great Escape
 

• PAL release: 29th October 1999
• NA release: 6th November 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Ubi Pictures
• Publisher: UbiSoft
• N64 Magazine Score: 73%

With how both Rayman 2 and Tonic Trouble were developed by UbiSoft and released so close to each other, it’s amazing how different they are in terms of quality. It seems like the Tonic Trouble team spoke about everything they had trouble with during development, and the Rayman team were able to fix all of that, not sharing anything they did with the Tonic Trouble team.

Rayman 2 resolves all the issues from Tonic Trouble regarding dull characters, messy incoherent graphics, random level design, bad controls, and poor camera for a thoroughly enjoyable platformer.

Rayman 2 is much more linear than some of the other 3D platformers on the N64, but I think that it works in its favour, it helps give Rayman 2 a more distinct feel, with tightly made levels and some incredibly fun platforming along the way. Of course, there are still collectables in the form of lums and cages, so there’s still a lot of side passages to find – some can even take you down an entire new route that’s as long as a lot of levels.

Rayman’s main attack surprised me at first, as he shoots out a ball of energy from his fist, instead of sending his fist flying. However, the more I played the game, the more it seemed right with the pacing of the game and combat. Rayman automatically locks on to enemies, and you can hold R to strafe. Jumping is extremely precise, and the game makes it clear where you’re going to land. The camera also works really well, getting into good places when needed, and allowing you to adjust it for most of the game.

Rayman 2 also has a lot of action sequences to mix things up, such as water-skiing, riding on strange rocket animals, a mission where you get infinite flying, and some chase sequences. These are all enjoyable and keep the game exciting, with new things to discover throughout. The levels are also nicely varied, with some more puzzle-orientated, some about fast puzzling, some focused more on combat, so the game keeps itself fresh.

Rayman 2 is still an extremely enjoyable game, with a lot to find and discover. Returning to levels for the final few lums is a bit annoying as you can’t quit the level once you find them all (you need to reach the end of the level), but it’s an overall great experience.

Fave

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Rayman 2 isn’t all that bad, then. But for every involving moment, there’s another screamingly difficult or hopelessly linear section hiding just around the corner. As one of the few platformers to get its controls and camera near Mario standards, it’s worth a look, but it’s a stark reminder that only a few people in the world are able to make platform games which are truly special. And they don’t come from France.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #35

Remake or remaster?

Rayman 2 has a lot of different versions. The Dreamcast version is considered to be the best of the original versions, and adds a hub world, while the game also got a remake on PS2 with debate over if it’s better – some people say the much larger hub world was too large. That said, it’s strange that there’s no modern remastered release. It definitely needs one.

Official ways to get the game.

The PC version of Rayman 2 is available on GoG and the UbiSoft Store.

Re-releases

2000: Rayman 2: The Great Escape (Dreamcast / PlayStation)

2000: Rayman Revolution (PS2)

2005: Rayman DS (DS)

2011: Rayman 3D (3DS)

[Cube]

Paperboy
 

• NA release: 31st October 1999
• PAL release: March 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: High Voltage
• Publisher: Midway
• N64 Magazine Score: 62%

Sometimes, a poor choice in name can give the wrong impression, and can lead to your game being forgotten. On Wikipedia, the N64 Paperboy game is buried as a footnote for the original Paperboy. Even though it shares the same name, it’s a completely unique game, and the third main Paperboy game (the only ones we got after were mobile games). They really should have called this Paperboy 3 or Paperboy 3D (or, if they really needed to, Paperboy 64).

Paperboy is a silly and over-the-top paper delivery game. Your main task is delivering newspapers to certain houses, but that’s not all you do – throwing your newspapers at pretty much anything will get you points. People, animals, objects – committing assault and vandalism is very important. Some of these will not even get you points, but also bonus coins in order to unlock bonus modes. If you deliver all papers, you get given more houses (and time) for your next attempt.

The controls take a bit of getting used to. Holding R or Z will bring up a targeting arrow (starting in different directions), and then you can fine tune your aim. Once you’re used to it, it works really well. However, if you start off the game on easy, you’re in for a horrible experience, as you’re stuck to a thin “path” and can only move slightly to the side (like the original game), and can’t turn around.

But get to the later levels (or pick a harder difficulty), and you can now roam around the levels how you wish, and the game is much more enjoyable.

The game doesn’t really have much depth to it, though, and compared to other full priced N64 games, this really wasn’t a good option at the time of release. It’s still a fun little game, though, and feels like something that would have been great on the XBLA (that just got the original game).

Fun

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But when you look beyond the pointless extras and the funky new Ren & Stimpy graphics, it’s the same old Paperboy at heart. If you liked the arcade machine and don’t mind putting up with the fact that you’ll probably finish this in a couple of evenings, this is a reasonably competent, but extremely short-lived update.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

A re-release would be quite nice.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get the N64 version of Paperboy.

[Cube]

Resident Evil 2
 

• NA release: 31st October 1999
• JP release: 28th January 2000
• PAL release: 9th February 2000
• Developer: Angel, Capcom, Factor 5
• Publisher: Capcom (NA, JP), Virgin (PAL)
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

Resident Evil 2 was originally a game with the PlayStation in mind. It came on two discs, with heavy usage of large textures and full motion video. So it’s a marvel that Angel Studios, with help from multiple Capcom teams and Factor 5 (who did wonders with the N64 and GameCube hardware), got the massive 2-CD PS1 game onto a single 64MB Nintendo 64 cartridge.

Of course, as a result of this, the Nintendo 64 version isn’t the ideal way to play Resident Evil 2. It does have a couple of exclusive things that weren’t included in later versions: extra written story files to find (which links to RE3, Code Veronica, and Zero) and a randomiser (which alters the location of objects), but for the most part, it’s heavily compressed port of the original.

That said, it’s still Resident Evil 2, and it’s still a really good version of the game. It’s a classic survival horror game, and I’m absolutely atrocious at it. I read up about the difficulties (as some games I’ve played remove a lot of content on easy), and saw comments about how it’s very easy on normal – yet playing on easy, I died a lot and struggled to find enough ammo.

There seems to be a lot of useless extra routes in the game. For example, the burning helicopter on the roof of the police building. You go on a long search and find a valve, using a load of ammo on zombies, then use the valve to put out a fire, getting…a box of handgun ammo, less than what I’d used up. I’m not sure if I missed anything else there, so I found it a bit odd.

But for what it does, it does it very well. The pre-rendered backgrounds look great, and the tank controls aren’t too bad due to the camera angles. The controls are nice and simple, with the analogue stick alone letting you swap between walking and running. There’s a lot of hunting for objects and finding where they go, and the story and characters are very interesting.

Resident Evil 2 is a really good game, but the N64 version is not one that you should choose to play. It’s fascinating, due to how much of a challenge it was to make it possible, so it’s an amazing game in terms of that, but you’re better off with the GameCube version.

Fun

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But not even hammy acting can dampen the thrill of Resident Evil 2’s many shocks and scares. Your enemies are genuinely frightening – zombies which make sudden lunges as you sprint past, cockroaches which envelop and kill you if you pause for a second, dogs which won’t run unless you do – and they’re topped off by some of the most hair-raising moments in gaming history.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

The game has had a complete remake and a few different versions of the original, but a new “Resident Evil 2 classic” combining features of different versions would be really nice. The GameCube version was considered to be the best accessible version, although there’s a newer Japan-only PC port that has mods for making it English.

Official ways to get the game.

The classic version of Resident Evil 2 is available on GoG, based on an older PC version. It lacks the additional stuff from the N64 version.

[Cube]

Supercross 2000
 

• NA release: 31st October 1999
• PAL release: February 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: MBL Research
• Publisher: EA Sports
• N64 Magazine Score: 76%

The Supercross series had been released on PlayStation for a while, with this being the first one to make its way to the N64. Even so, out of all the games I’ve played before (including multiple ports of PS1 games), this is the first one that distinctly feels like a PlayStation game. I’m not entirely sure what, but something about the graphics and controls just comes across as a PlayStation game.

Supercross 2000 is a bike racing game. There are lots of jumps for you to gently float upwards from, thanks to the really moon-like physics, and the track is more of a “tunnel” of invisible walls that glide you down the correct path. The game as a whole feels really slow and clunky, and like you don’t have much control – which isn’t helped by how you can’t drive off the course by mistake. There is one nice touch in that the mounds of dirt get damaged as you race, but the floaty physics negate that a lot.

The best tactic in Supercross 2000 is killing your opponents. The game massively favours you in collisions, so ramming into your opponents will send them flying with little impact on you. While the sport itself is on tight tracks to cause more collisions, I don’t think this is an accepted practise. Still, it’s the main thing that works in the game.

There’s a surprising number of tracks in the game, alongside a stunt mode where you perform tricks in an arena, but the clunkiness and floatiness of the game makes it really dull to play.

Fine

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So, yes, the game can be maddening at times. But with practice comes reward, and once you’ve got used to the complex turning system – a balance of acceleration, braking and juggling the clutch – and the fact that the bike and rider move as two entities rather than one, Supercross starts to come alive.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #39

Remake or remaster?

Nothing special for this game.

Official ways to get the game.?

There is no official way to get Supercross 2000

[Cube]

Earthworm Jim 3D
 

• NA release: 4th November 1999
• PAL release: 17th December 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: VIS
• Publisher: Rockstar (NA), Interplay (PAL)
• N64 Magazine Score: 68%

Earthworm Jim is known mainly for his two mediocre 2D platformers on the Mega Drive/SNES. These were both elevated due to their style and sense of humour, with lots of new stuff happening all the time. A completely new team handled his jump to 3D and brought about their own take on the franchise.

In Earthworm Jim 3D, the titular Jim is in a coma, so you play as a representation of himself within his own mind, trying to find his marbles and save himself. You’d expect all sorts of crazy stuff happening inside his mind.

Instead, we have a collection of uninspired levels: a few barns, a haunted house, a graveyard, an alien ship, and a beige death valley. The only one of any note is a level made from food, with lava baked beans – although even then, it’s not clear what most aspects of the level are supposed to be.

This goes on in the level design too, with immensely bland levels that are both large and empty. There’s nothing fun to see. The levels are linear and the objectives are straight forward, with having to occasionally backtrack across areas now devoid of enemies.

The platforming is equally tedious. Earthworm Jim is extremely slow, making the large, empty spaces take forever to get across. The jumping is extremely imprecise (and his hover move doesn’t even last a second) and it’s extremely difficult to judge where you are in relation to other objects. The terrible and unresponsive camera doesn’t help, either.

The only decent point of the gameplay is that there are some interesting weapons you can use.

The boss fights are especially bad. In these (they’re all the same), you race around on a pig that’s an absolute nightmare to control. Both you and your opponents are collecting marbles, and hitting your opponent will make them lose five of theirs (with the same happening to you when you get hit). The controls make it extremely frustrating to collect anything, let alone avoid the barrage of rockets fired at you. Even the final boss is the same thing.

Earthworm Jim 3D is a deeply unimaginative platformer that gets the controls and camera wrong, and brings nothing new to the table to try and make up with it. The incredibly annoying sound clips from Dan Castellaneta (half of them are just his Homer voice) certainly don’t help matters, either.

Worst

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It’s just sloppy, really. Also, death happens far more frequently than it should, due mainly to the unhelpful camera, and some random jumping. Pressing A makes you jump, and tapping A again will cause Jim to glide for a short while, courtesy of his helicopter-spin head. Unfortunately, this double-tap actin doesn’t always work, which isn’t too great when you need to get to the other side of a deadly sea of baked beans.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #35

Remake or remaster?

If they’re going to throw together a collection of Earthworm Jim games, then sure, but there’s nothing really worth playing here.

Official ways to get the game.

A buggy, glitchy PC port is available on GoG and Steam.

[Cube]

Hanafuda 64: An Angel’s Promise
 

• JP release: 5th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Altron
• Publisher: Altron
• Original Name: 64 Hanafuda: Tenshi no Yakusoku
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Nintendo has a long history with Hanafuda – they produced cards long, long before video games existed. While it doesn’t directly link to this game, it’s still worth noting. I have my own deck of Nintendo Hanafuda cards, and they look lovely, even if I have no idea what to do with them. Hanafuda are a type of playing card used for multiple games, such a set-matching card game where you are trying to build “seasons” of four cards. I didn’t quite get the hang of it, and there are lots of visual aspects of the cards – the printed ones look stunning.

The main mode is a story mode. I didn’t get far due to my lack of skill at the game, but it involves a guy returning to a city based on a promise he made years ago. The first person he meets has a broken bike, so you fix it and she asks if you play Hanafuda. When you lose, you do get a little cutscene (she accuses you of going easy on her), which is nicer than just a game over. I presume that the story will eventually go into a romance direction, and it’s one of those where you have to win every time to progress.

Outside of story, you can play different types of Hanafuda against CPU opponents, with various options you can change for each type. It seems to be a very well made Hanafuda game, especially with the main story.

?

Remake or remaster?

For digital versions of Hanafuda, Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics is a good version.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Hanafuda 64: An Angel’s Promise

[Cube]

Pro Mahjong Soldier 64: Mahjong Parlor Battle Challenge 
 

• JP release: 5th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• NA release: N/A
• Developer: Culture Brain
• Publisher: Culture Brain
• Original Name: Pro Shinan Mahjong Tsuwamono 64: Jansō Battle ni Chōsen
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

The translation of the title is a tricky one. Tsuwamono (ツワモノ) strictly translates to “soldier”, but from what I can tell, it’s also slang that, in this context, means something like a “strong or stubborn player”. Anyway, this is another Mahjong game on the N64, and the least interesting one so far. It’s the second one to feature 16 real players (this time including female players), and is just visually very dull.

In terms of playing, this is the most awkward one. When you can take a tile, there’s a very slight fade on the tile for a limited time, so it’s very easy to miss taking one. The modes are also limited, with the main one playing six matches and seeing how well you do. It’s the weakest Mahjong game on N64 so far, and there’s only one left to go.

Poor

Remake or remaster?

For digital versions of Mahjong, Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics is a good version.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Pro Mahjong Soldier 64: Mahjong Parlor Battle Challenge 

[Cube]

NBA Courtside 2 Featuring Kobe Bryant
 

• NA release: 8th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Left Field
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 87%

This is the best basketball game on the N64, and I don’t expect it to be beaten by any of the ones I’ve got left to play. Yet, despite that, there really isn’t a huge amount to say about it. This is a smoother, more refined version of the previous NBA Courtside, but doesn’t do that much new stuff.

There’s an easier control option which automates some of the stuff you can do, but the “pro” control method was already simple enough to be easily understood. One significant addition for some is the ability to create a player and go through a whole season with them.

It’s a great basketball game, and if you don’t have the original, this should be the one to try to get. Unfortunately, it was only released in North America

Great

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NBA Courtside 2 plays a cracking game of basketball. You’re unlikely to come across anything else this polished and playable until whatever Left Field dream up for the second sequel on Dolphin, so it’s definitely worth importing. The reason it doesn’t store as highly as the first game is because it doesn’t quite have the same ‘wow’ factor, given that we’ve already seen a lot of it a couple of years ago. But with enough new features to warrant a repeat purchase and a star player named after a type of steak, Kobe Bryant’s second N64 outing represents the stats of the art in basketball games.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #44

Remake or remaster?

I’m not sure what current basketball games are like to compare this to.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NBA Courtside 2

[Cube]

40 Winks
 

• NA release: N/A
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Reproduction Release: 15th April 2019
• Developer: Eurocom
• Publisher: GT Interactive
• N64 Magazine Score: 71%

40 Winks is fascinating more for its cancellation than the game itself. I remember being really interested in it when reading about it in N64 Magazine, and I was excited when I read the review, even though it wasn’t an astounding one. Then the game never came. The PlayStation version came out first, and the initial sales were so low, that they cancelled production on the N64 version right before release.

As review copies were quite timely (I do wonder what happened to those cartridges), this led to something interesting about the box art for the PlayStation version. Instead of choosing a quote from a review of the PlayStation version, it had a quote from a preview of the N64 version: “Move Over Mario…” from Nintendo Official Magazine. Very clever (but obviously didn’t help).

40 Winks is a 3D platformer that, unlike quite a few on the N64, gets the basics right. Movement and jumping feel good, and the camera allows for a good degree of movement, while also doing a good job at showing where you’re going. It’s a very solid starting point, but unfortunately 40 Winks doesn’t do a lot with it, keeping things very simple throughout the game. That said, it does have a lot of charm.

You play as either Ruff or Tumble, as you have to save the dreamworld from the HoodWinks, who have captured all forty of the Winks and made Dreamland unsafe. You’ll need to get through the six worlds, each with its own hub and three levels, in order to make dreaming safe for everyone.

This is achieved through three main collectables. The 40 Winks are the main ones, but are generally on the route along the linear levels. Along the way, you’ll need to collect cogs to unlock doors, which are the main way of progressing through the levels. The hardest things to find are the Dreamkeys, with four hidden in each levels. These unlock the boss fight, which you need to beat to get to the next area.

The levels have some generic themes, but they’re also charming at the same time: spooky, underwater, alien, prehistoric, castle, and pirates. The levels are fairly straightforward, but keep things constrained, so platforming segments and enemies are all close together – no long walks across empty areas. So while the game is simple, it also isn’t frustrating, and is enjoyable the whole way through, there’s just nothing groundbreaking.

You have a few attacks at your disposal. There’s a basic punch, a roll attack, a ground pound, and a “scream” attack which sends some light slightly forward. This special scream attack uses ammo but is absolutely useless, which is surprising considering the game makes a big deal (and its own type of collectable ) about it.

Throughout the game you’ll find jack-in-the-boxes that give you time-limited costumes, such as a ninja, superhero, fairy, and caveman. These provide additional powers, and have switches with their icons on them. Quickly navigating levels to get to a switch or obstacle before your costume runs out is the main type of “puzzle” throughout the game.

The N64 version did have a few exclusive features. The biggest one being 2-player co-op, which lets you play the full main game with another person (which makes a lot of sense for a game about a brother and sister – the one you don’t pick just doesn’t appear in singleplayer). It works really well, but has the downside of massive black bars.

Another feature is anamorphic widescreen, although this is strangely only toggled via a cheat code. It works really well, and gives you a bit more of a view in co-op. The N64 version also supports the Expansion Pak for higher resolution and better lighting effects. It does lack a few small things, such as the opening FMV replaced with an in-game cinematic.

40 Winks isn’t really anything special outside of its cancellation, but it’s still a simple but enjoyable platformer, and doesn’t have major issues like a lot of platformers had at the time.

Fun

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40 Winks is more than competent – in fact it’s towards the upper end of the 3D platform game evolutionary scale, in which Gex represents a Cro-Magon knuckle-dragger, Banjo is a 20th century man (Forrest Gump), and Mario is a kind of telepathic superbeing from the distant future. It’s alright, but in that kind of company you might be better off sticking with what you know.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #35

Remake or remaster?

A proper re-release based on the N64 version with the FMV from the PlayStation version would be nice, with widescreen as an actual option.

Official ways to get the game.

The N64 version is available with the purchase of an Everdrive from Stone Age Gamer. The game is also available on Steam, except that it’s just the PS1 version in a badly configured emulator, one that doesn’t have memory cards set up so you need to use save states. But that’s what you get from games being held hostage by Piko.

[Ashley]

I don't think I ever knew it was cancelled for the N64. I remember the box so vividly from magazines. 

[Jonnas]

I remember playing a demo of 40 Winks for the PS1. Felt like a really fun game.

[Helmsly]

21 minutes ago, Ashley said:

I don't think I ever knew it was cancelled for the N64. I remember the box so vividly from magazines. 

Yeah same here, I just assumed it came out as I remember the reviews for it at the time

[Dcubed]

Seems like a decent little 3D platformer.  That splitscreen co-op feature is very impressive considering the hardware it's running on.

I wonder how the PS1 version compares to the N64 version; given that free-roaming 3D platfomers are pretty rare on the PS1 (though given that it's a Eurocom game, I'd assume that the PS1 was the lead platform in this case).

Edited October 10 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Elmo’s Letter Adventure
 

• NA release: 15th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Realtime Associates
• Publisher: NewKidCo
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Elmo’s Letter Adventure is a Sesame Street themed edutainment game, and one that’s rather quite bizarre due to how overly simplistic it is. The objective in each level is to find the same letter over and over again. You walk over and press any of the face buttons to select and repeat it. What makes no sense is how the skills required to play the game – even for how simple it is – far exceed the extremely basic letter recognition that is the game’s only task.

The game tries to dress itself up in different settings and give Elmo different vehicles, but it doesn’t change the game in any way – you just move around on a flat plain (no moving up or down) until you find all the letters. Even the underwater levels are no different. Most levels are long corridors, but there are couple more “open” ones. Here is where the pop-in becomes an issues, as an area may look empty, but there are letters there.

Once you complete a section, you’ll get a bonus game where you have to find the first letter of a word – the most advanced section of the game. You still get told what letter you have to find, though. Once you’ve completed all three missions, which takes a combined total of 20 minutes, you’ll get the end credits. The big problem is that the entire game is simply matching a letter to the one on-screen (or matching the sound of a letter), and by the time a child is old enough to work a games console, they’re already far past that stage. My 2 year old son has more advanced jigsaw puzzles than the level of education this offers.

The few Sonic edutainment games I’ve played – including an unfinished one on the Master System – are far more advanced educational tools than this, featuring different categories, as well as catering for a wide amount of skill levels. They’re also much more enjoyable games than this. I couldn’t find any details on the pricing of this game, but considering the expense of N64 cartridges, I would guess a minimum of $30.

And it doesn’t end there – soon I’ll be looking at Elmo’s Number Journey, which is this game with numbers. So not only was the game immensely simple – but they had to split it into two games for that extra greed.

Worst

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The dreaded concept of edutainment reared its pre-teen head this month, with the confirmation that a series of Sesame Street titled will be heading N64-wards later this year, thanks to NewKidCo.

N64 Magazine #25

Remake or remaster?

This is some of the worst shovelware on the N64, so no.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Elmo’s Letter Adventure

[Dcubed]

17 hours ago, Cube said:

Elmo’s Letter Adventure

 

I hope they thought the letter options through when they made this level…

[Cube]

NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC
 

• NA release: 16th November 1999
• PAL release: N/A
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Midway, Eurocom
• Publisher: Midway
• N64 Magazine Score: N/A

While there have been “NBA Jam” games on the N64, they’ve not been much like the original NBA Jam – instead, the actual gameplay sequel to NBA Jam was NBA Hangtime. Following on from that is NBA Showtime, which brings the format into 3D. This can often be tricky, especially for such a fast-paced game, but the developers did a great job at recreating the feel in an extra dimension.

This means a very fast-paced, frantic arcade basketball game that manages to run extremely smoothly. While I wasn’t a big fan of Hangtime, I can appreciate that this keeps the same style of gameplay, and doesn’t need to compromise anything for making the game 3D. The features are still extremely light – with a basic create a character (or more choose from a list of characters and name them), and nothing outside just playing matches.

Fun

Remake or remaster?

I think fans would like to see it return. A new game with the same kind of style, called NBA Superstars, been released in arcades, but there seem to be no plans for a home release.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get NBA Showtime.

[Cube]

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
 

• NA release: 16th November 1999
• PAL release: December 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Midway, Point of View
• Publisher: Midway
• N64 Magazine Score: 81%

A boxing game centred around the famous “lets get ready to rumble” boxing/wrestling catchphrase. This starts off with a song that samples the original line (not the Ant & Dec song unfortunately), and takes a far more cartoony approach to boxing, with a big group of fairly stereotypical characters and a couple of inventive ones.

Despite its looks and the colourful cast of characters, the core gameplay of Ready 2 Rumble seems oddly normal. You have a few punches and weaves, and filling up a “RUMBLE” metre lets you do a flurry of punches, but I was really expecting a lot more crazy stuff. It’s still decent, and something that’s fun in multiplayer, but it doesn’t quite fully gel with the style of the game.

For singleplayer, the main mode is championship mode, where you pick a character and try to become the best, which includes taking part in some training minigames to boost your stats. A character creator feels like it would have been very welcome here, especially as the game suits odd designs.

Ready 2 Rumble is a decent boxing game, but feels like it could be doing more with its premise.

Fine

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Despite Ready 2 Rumble’s ‘crazee’ nature, though, the game sticks to the rarely-broken golden fighting game rule – one-player games just aren’t any fun. With moves restricted to identical-looking fist jabs, hammering away at your rival soon gets tedious, and while the ability to duck and weave looks good, it’s easier to avoid other player’s firsts by simply scampering to the opposite end of the ring.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #37

Remake or remaster?

Perhaps a collection of the games in the series.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Ready 2 Rumble Boxing.

[Cube]

Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!
 

• NA release: 16th November 1999
• PAL release: 4th February 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Traveller’s Tales
• Publisher: Activision
• N64 Magazine Score: 71%

There are some amazing film tie-in games, there are some terrible film tie-in game, but for the most part, they’re mainly alright but dull games – and Toy Story 2 is no exception. The nicest idea is something you’ll see very early on – the first person aiming mode from inside Buzz’s helmet (you can even sometimes see a reflection of his face), but outside of that, it’s just an average, clunky platformer.

Toy Story 2 is split up into a bunch of simple levels. None of them have any sense of wonder or exploration, which is a massive shame as the perspective of playing as a small toy should easily lead to something special. Instead, each level consists of repeating most of the game objectives. Each level has four Planet Tokens to collect (with no story justification or explanation), but four are the same for each level: find 5 toys, collect 50 coins, destroy a boss, and complete a platforming challenge.

The final one is usually a little puzzle, a race against RC, or collecting 5 objects in a short time, so there’s not much variety in the final one. It makes the game seem very dull and it just drags on. On top of that, you’re just playing a game that has places that look a bit like the places in the film – at no point does it feel like you’re playing part of the movie (even though a simplified version of the film is shown in stills). The whole game just lacks atmosphere.

That said, the platforming functions just fine, and there are a few extra moves to find along the way – and in some cases, you need to unlock the ability and return to a previous level. The graphics look really ugly in some levels, but nice in others, however pop-in is always an issue. Toy Story 2 is acceptable as a film tie-in game, but it just feels like going through the motions.

Fine

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It’s entirely unoriginal, of course, but Toy Story 2 is competent and playable, with proper analogue control and a camera that, even if it has trouble keeping up with the action, centres behind Buzz pleasingly quickly.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #37

Remake or remaster?

Perhaps in a Disney 3D platformer collection.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

[Dcubed]

 

Wow! Who would've thought that Travellers Tales got Metroid Prime up and running on the N64!

[Ashley]

I always remember my mom asking me if I wanted this game when I was younger and buying it and thinking it was a bit of a random one to buy but then as an adult realising it must have been on offer and she just thought I'd like it. 

[Jonnas]

I have fond memories of Toy Story 2 on the PS1. I appreciated how they turned a bunch of locales from the film into involved levels with collectibles, quests, and such. It also showed bite-sized clips of the film for added context, which was quite novel at the time (something that is unfortunately lacking in the N64 version).

I admit it's been a long time since I played it myself, too.

On 10/10/2024 at 10:38 PM, Cube said:

by the time a child is old enough to work a games console, they’re already far past that stage

Also, a bit late on this, but I really appreciate that you review Edutainment games based on what they're supposed to be. Magazines and online gamers have approached this sub-genre with such derision while I was growing up, and it always felt mean-spirited (not to mention, a form of gatekeeping that stunts the growth of the medium). I feel like these mentalities wouldn't start to change until the DS arrived.

Basically, I just appreciate that you're a reasonable mature adult about these types of games. Elmo's game shouldn't be lambasted for existing, it should be lambasted for being a poor education tool.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Jonnas said:

Basically, I just appreciate that you're a reasonable mature adult about these types of games. Elmo's game shouldn't be lambasted for existing, it should be lambasted for being a poor education tool.

There are a few edutainment games that are at least revered by the public at large, such as Granny's Garden, The Oregon Trail (in the US at least) and Where in The World is Carmen Sandiago? (hell, she's even getting a brand new game early next year!).

Good edutainment games can be done.  Unfortunately, most developers only make the games that they are personally interested in making (or, sadly rather commonly, make games that resemble the movies that they'd rather be making instead).  Nobody in the western gaming industry actually wants to make games for children, or for anyone outside the typical 15-35 year old male demographic (which is a big reason why, outside Nintendo, the console industry has failed to expand over the past 20-ish years and is actually continuously contracting).

Edited October 14 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Rocket: Robot on Wheels
 

• NA release: 17th November 1999
• PAL release: 17th December 1999
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Sucker Punch
• Publisher: UbiSoft
• N64 Magazine Score: 88%

When developing their first game, Sucker Punch had a lot of faith in Sprocket (the original name for Rocket, before trademarks got in the way). When pitching the game, they impressed some publishers, including EA who wanted to take them on board to make a PS2 game, which would mean getting rid of their earlier work. They stuck with their original plan and showed the game themselves at E3, with UbiSoft picking up the game for publishing.

Unfortunately, it’s kind of a forgotten game. It was released in a period where the N64 got a lot of 3D platformers, in between big names like Rayman and Donkey Kong. Which is a shame, as it’s a fantastic game.

Rocket: Robot on Wheels takes place in a futuristic circus theme park. You play as a simple unicycle robot who’s left in charge of looking after it, the night before opening. Unfortunately, a sly racoon called Jojo, who is fed up of being cooped up in a cage and being second fiddle to the star of the park, escapes and wreaks havoc. It’s up to Rocket to fix things before the park is over. Naturally, this includes lots of collectables across the game’s seven levels (plus the hub world, which is a level in itself).

Rocket has an interesting move set. His wheeled movement feels good and is precise to control, with one key feature being his anti-gravity arm. He can use this to pick up objects and throw them around, which is a key part of puzzles. Throughout the game, you’ll unlock a few more abilities – although I was hoping for a few more. This does give the game a very unique feel, which extends to the rest of the game.

The one major issue, though, is the camera. It moves a set amount each time you press a button, but if a wall is in the way, it will jerk around a much bigger amount until the wall is no longer in the way. If you try to adjust in a corridor, the camera will likely to a 180 turn. It’s frustrating at times, but the game is strong enough that it’s worth putting up with it.

What Rocket excels at is giving you new stuff to do within each level. Not only does each level have a different structure and feel, but there’s lots of variety within each level as well. Take the first level – which is a quite small (but open) theme park.

The outer ring of the level is a beach. There’s a couple of platforming segments – such as one that introduces Rocket’s ability to grab onto grapple points and swing- but the main important thing is the car you can find and drive around. Up the ramp is a building that houses a linear platforming challenge, and nearby is a roller coaster you have to repair.

What’s great here is that, once you repair it, you can create your own rollercoaster. You can add heights, dips, loops, and even cross over parts of the track. There’s a challenge to get through five points in the correct order, plus other setups you have to do to collect tokens. The innermost part of the level houses some minigames (good practice for the throw ability) and a giant t-rex that needs to be repaired. There’s a lot packed in, and more than what I’ve described here.

One big aspect of these levels is finding seven parts of a machine which will fix part of that level, which then has various effects. In most levels, it opens up a new significant part of a level, but others can have interesting effect, such as unlocking night/day switches that completely change the level from a lovely green area to a nightmarish lava filled world. Getting the machine parts and completing the challenge that follows will net you tickets, but there are a lot more.

Each world has 12 tickets to collect. These are lettered A – L and the pause menu will give you hints on how to get them. There’s a lot of interesting things to do. The last one in each world, however, is trickier. For that, you need to collect 200 tokens in each world. These often come in sets of 5 and 10, but individual ones also exist. I was very impressed with how Rocket remembers which ones you had (a lot of games at the time reset the collectables), and as the levels don’t overstay their welcome, mopping up the remaining ones isn’t too much of a chore, making this a great game to 100% complete.

There’s a ton of stuff I haven’t touched on (such as how unique each vehicle is), because there’s a lot of elements to Rocket: Robot on Wheels, but it all fits together extremely well. It’s a brilliant game, and especially amazing when it was this developer’s first ever game. It’s a shame that this got massively overlooked when it first came out, as it deserves way more attention.

Fave

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What’s most surprising, though, is that Sucker Punch are first-time developers, so, if Rocket is anything to go by, they’ve got a bright future ahead of them. A game in the mould of Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, Rocket is inventive, imaginative and stuffed full of rewarding and enjoyable activities.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

Rocket would massively benefit from a remaster. Just spruce up the graphics a little bit (without changing too much), fix the camera, and perhaps add an slightly better finale to the game.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Rocket: Robot on Wheels.

[Jonnas]

This one really surprised me. I had never heard of it before, but your review made it sound like a real gem. Loved to learn about it.

[Glen-i]

Yup, me too. Completely unaware. Now I wanna try it.

@Dcubed, remind me. How's Ubisoft's track record for licensing games for NSO?