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Last Topic's Ratings:
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes - AGAAGAAG - 69% (8)
F-1 World Grand Prix - AAAGGA - 67% (6)
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine - AAGB - 50% (4)
Kobe Bryant's NBA Courtside - GAGAGGGA - 81% (8)
Star Fox 64 - GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG - 100% (20) (11 SR)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - AAAGAGBGAAAA - 58% (12)
To say that Star Fox 64 did quite well in the ratings would be a bit of an understatement. I think what's most impressive is not only that it got a 100% score from 20 people, but also that more than half of those people gave it an SR. This makes me really curious about what will happen when certain other highly popular games appear.
Games for this topic:
Bust-A-Move 2
Castlevania
Mario Party
Off Road Challenge
Power League 64
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
It seems kind of inherently insane to have Mario and Castlevania in the same topic, let alone one that also has Bust-A-Move. I feel like even Ready 2 Rumble Boxing would have made the topic title under normal circumstances. The N64 library really is an embarrassment of riches.
Bust-A-Move 2 - G (SR)
ReplyDeleteCastlevania - A
Mario Party - A
Off Road Challenge - A
Power League 64 - A
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - B
Although it's maybe debatable about whether or not it still deserves this reputation, I've always considered Bust-A-Move to be one of the most prominent franchises in the Puzzle genre, mostly based upon Bust-A-Move 2. Bust-A-Move 2 retains everything about the original game that worked well, but vastly expands it in pretty much every way possible to create an incredible product with tons of play value. One of the most important changes to the game is the increased focus on the VS mode, which now features a wide variety of different board layouts, drastically increasing its longevity. There's now far more opportunities for trick shots and varying strategies that you can employ, which really highlights the strengths of this franchise. There's tons more single player boards as well, as well as the addition of the new time attack mode for even more single player goodness if that's your thing. One might question whether this game or Bust a Move 99 (aka Bust a Move 3) is better, but I feel that the changes made in that game (mainly differing character drop patterns) generally detract from the core experience rather than add to it, this was always the one I went back to for multiplayer. I might eventually steal the SR from this but it was one of my most-played N64 games for sure and it still remains instantly engaging today.
Castlevania 64 is a very highly ambitious game for its time. It attempts to turn Castlevania into a 3D action game, and many conventions that will later define the genre are already present here, such as auto lock-on, ledge climbing, mid-level cinematics, and dynamic camera angles. Certain parts of the game definitely feel fairly impressive, such as the boss battles and some of the set pieces, though unsurprisingly, the camera is often a problem, most especially when verticality is concerned. In the first level, for example, there are sequences where it is necessary to descend a chasm, which works fine on the way down, but when you need to go back up, the camera often refuses to show you the platforms behind you, forcing a blind jump that is instant death if not done properly. The lock-on in the game is also a little finicky, which is one of the things that is most improved in the sequel. Speaking of, it's almost impossible to discuss this game without talking about Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, this game's pseudo-sequel / expansion pack. It's often said that Legacy basically contains this game, featuring the same stages and characters, but this is not quite true, although the stages take place in the same environments and use some of the same set pieces the structure of the levels is fairly different, in a certain sense it feels more like a "Master Quest" version of the game rather than a remake. That being said, the sequel is clearly more refined in some ways, in particular the lock-on system works much better and the frame rate is better, plus there's also more content, though the camera remains a significant issue for both games. I feel like the original game is fairly clearly A, though .
I can't believe we've had this much discussion on Mario Party without mentioning one of the most significant issues with the game, which is the godawful stick rotation minigames that break both your hands and your controllers. I was initially considering B for this game because I consider it to be functionally unplayable due to this issue (Nintendo has also never re-released this game in any form because of it), though I suppose this is somewhat unfair as many of the other aspects of the game are actually quite good, it's just that one massive flaw that brings it down. I assume pretty much everyone knows the basics of Mario Party, but it's kind of impressive how much they got right with the first game. The boards and general gameplay feel right and many of the minigames are a lot of fun (I particularly like the music game and the bumper balls), and there's also quite a lot of content and unlockables to the game as well, if they would re-release the game with the stick rotation games either removed or altered this could easily be considered a classic, but due to that issue it's much more recommended to get one of the sequels instead.
DeleteOff Road Challenge reminds me of Off-Road: The Baja, except that it's fully 3D. As with Baja, this game nominally carries the Super Off Road license but apart from the fact that you can upgrade between races it has nothing to do with the original game. The game has many similarities to Cruis'n USA, though Cruis'n USA is clearly better, having more tracks and generally better controls and gameplay. This game is still kind of okay, but many aspects of it feel very cheesy, obstacles come out of nowhere to hit you and make you lose speed and the AI will blow past you on straightaways, often requiring you to get lucky with them hitting obstacles to place well. This was clearly an arcade game and was designed to munch quarters but unlike Cruis'n USA it wasn't significantly adapted to N64. At least the tracks are pretty decent, they feel varied and have much more verticality to them compared to Cruis'n.
Power League 64 is a completely acceptable Baseball game that gets all the basics down, but there's nothing special about it. Controls for both batting and fielding are fine, but they're very much in line with what you'd expect from games from the previous generation, none of the innovations seen in Ken Griffey are present here. The one little nuance this game does have is that you can shift your stance slightly when batting, which is necessary to hit balls in various parts of the strike zone, which helps a little, but this is still a very basic affair. The graphics also definitely feel a bit weak for N64, with the players sporting a very low level of detail, though at least the game runs smoothly enough.
I constantly see Ready 2 Rumble Boxing compared to Punch Out, but I have no idea why, the games have nothing in common with each other other than the fact that they both involve boxing. Ready 2 Rumble allows full movement around the ring and has almost no focus on counterpunching. The correct comparison would actually be that K-1 game we reviewed in the PS1 GAB, as they have some similarities, but K-1 is an infinitely better game in absolutely every way. Both games feature a stamina bar, for example, but the bar in Ready 2 Rumble is effectively irrelevant, it refills so fast that there's never an issue of running out, and there's no penalty for running out of stamina either. The punches and the movement of the boxers is also much faster here, which makes it nearly impossible to react to specific attacks and far too easy to run away from the opponent (this effectively renders the RUMBLE mode pointless). There's also a build-up mode, though it mainly consists of lame simon says minigames that become boring several seconds in, the K-1 approach is drastically better here too. The one thing this game does have over K-1 is that it has a bit more personality to it, but it's definitely nowhere near worth the tradeoff in gameplay.