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Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Banjo-Kazooie - GAGGAGGGGGGGGAGAGGGGGG - 91% (22) (6 SR)
Flying Dragon - ABGAA - 50% {5} (1 SR)
Monster Truck Madness 64 - BBB - 0% (3)
Nagano Winter Olympics '98 - BBBBB - 0% (5)
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - GBAAAGAAAGAAAAGAA - 59% (17) (1 SR)
Uchhannanchan no Honoo no Challenger - GGBAA - 60% {5} (1 SR)
This was a fascinating topic to read, there was a pretty significant back and forth on almost all of the games, and four different games all got at least one SR. I hope we get more of these.
Games for this topic:
Golden Nugget 64
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Puyo Puyo Sun 64
Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Virtual Pool 64
I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks the constant barrage of headlining games in these topics is ridiculous. It's not any kind of ploy or anything, though, I'm probably going to run out of lesser-known games before I run out of the well-known ones.
Golden Nugget 64 - A
ReplyDeleteMystical Ninja Starring Goemon - G (SR)
Puyo Puyo Sun 64 - G
Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers - A
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - A
Virtual Pool 64 - G
There's been a lot of talk about Golden Nugget 64, but honestly it's a pretty run-of-the-mill casino game. The list of games is pretty decent, and so are the production values, but that's about it. Unlike, say Vegas Stakes, there's not a lot here to elevate the experience beyond just "watching your numbers get big". There's multiplayer, but many of the best games can't be played this way (I guess because they had no way to fix the "other players can see your cards" problem, they just disabled multiplayer), so it's a bit of a bust. I feel like a key mechanic for Gambling games to reach G is that there needs to be some kind of progression system. Even the system in the Simple 1500 Casino game where you could buy furniture for your room kind of served that purpose, it would have been cool to see something like this in Golden Nugget, considering the opulence of the casino in question.
People who know me might already know that Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is my favourite game of all time. I remember being completely blown away by the seamless feeling of the game's world when I first played it, when compared to games like Mario 64, which is comprised of completely disconnected worlds that you access via warps, it just felt so much more organic and interesting to explore. I've also long considered this game to be far superior to Ocarina of Time and often cited it as the main reason I could never really get into that game. In many ways, Ocarina of Time and Mystical Ninja are fairly similar, they're both follow-ups to very good SNES games (Link to the Past and Ganbare Goemon 3) that aim to transition the series in 3D, but I feel that Mystical Ninja does a far better job. One big area where I like Mystical Ninja a lot better is the aforementioned world of the game, Ocarina of Time actually features a vastly smaller overworld than Link to the Past, with only a handful of outdoor areas, at least 85% of the total area of the game is inside dungeons, which simply aren't nearly as interesting to explore. Mystical Ninja has a far more reasonable overworld to dungeon ratio, and generally has much better pacing in general, owing largely to faster general movement and fast travel being unlocked much earlier in the game compared to OoT. Both feature similar amounts of overall polish and production values, Mystical Ninja has great controls, tons of charm, an amazing soundtrack, and a camera that at least does a good enough job that it doesn't significantly hamper the game. To this day, I still completely love the musical sequences and impact battles, they're just such a crazy edition that really helps push this game over the top. Of course, Mystical Ninja is not completely without its faults, most notably the game is much too easy, there's absolutely no reason to ever buy any of the healing or protective items because most enemies simply don't do relevant damage (OoT has this problem too, though), and the framerate is questionable in a few areas, though most N64 games have similar issues. There's also a lame trading sequence for the final magic item that really shouldn't exist, though at least it doesn't take too long. Overall though, I still think this game is pretty much exactly what a 3D Adventure game should be, and to this day I'm hard-pressed to think of any that do it better. It hooks you in right from the start and pretty much doesn't let go until the end. I've finished this game at least a dozen times and yet I was still pulled into it again instantly when I booted it up for this review.
Puyo Puyo Sun is almost exactly the same game as on PS1, it's just has a couple minor audio downgrades. The music is of lower quality due to not being CD Audio (and this kind of sucks because the soundtrack is very good) and there's no longer voice acting during story mode scenes. Neither of these is really a huge deal and the game is still pretty solid, though the PS1 version is the one to get if you have the option.
DeleteShadowgate 64 is a tricky game to rate in a number of ways. For starters, despite the change in controls and perspective (it's now a fully 3D game with explorable environments), gameplay-wise it is still a pure adventure game somewhat similar to the original, there are no added action elements beyond the need to walk around the various environments. The 3D perspective is interesting in a certain sense and I do appreciate that you have free movement and camera control (unlike, say, Myst), though the graphics are a bit drab, especially the textures, which often make it difficult to pick out important items from the surroundings. Compared to the original game, it's also a much more relaxed experience, there are no more torches to run out and enemies and deathtraps are few, which might make it a bit more comfortable to play but feels somewhat inauthentic to its inspiration. Still, the story is not bad and the game has a decent level of polish overall, it just doesn't have quite the same hook that the original had IMO.
DeleteTurok 2 is much better than the original game in almost every way. For starters, it looks vastly better. The visuals have seen a massive increase in fidelity and the draw distance is much better too. The environments are also larger and generally feel better designed, and the audio has also seen some nice upgrades. The part where I'm still not particularly a fan is the controls. They're a bit more customizable now, which is nice, but I still find it impossible to craft a scheme that feels good. One of the biggest offenders is that stick sensitivity is not customizable, and it always feels much too sensitive regardless of which control scheme you use, making precision aiming a chore. You can somewhat alleviate this by enabling auto-aim, but it feels like a bit of a cop-out. I also really hate the way the camera shifts while climbing, it feels immensely disorienting, and you do it very often, I can see how this game could give people motion sickness for sure. That said, I do have to praise them for the weapon quick select, this is fantastic and will be duplicated by later games for good reason. It's definitely a big step forward for the franchise, but I wouldn't yet put it in the top eschelon of N64 FPS games with the likes of Godleneye, Perfect Dark, Quake, etc. However, the series continues to improve with each game so it may still get there.
It wasn't intentional, but there's an interesting comparison to be made between Virtual Pool and Golden Nugget 64. Both games feature a pretty decent wealth of options and good presentation but are fairly limited in terms of progression. I would usually consider it to be nearly-impossible for a progression-less game to be G (and I mentioned this when discussing Golden Nugget), but in Virtual Pool's case, it does everything else so well that I think it just barely makes it, particularly due to the relative novelty of 3D Sports games at the time. It has basically everything you could want or expect in a pool game of this time. It looks good, the sound is great, every ruleset imaginable is available, there's a lot of customization, and the UI is also pretty good. For example, I like that you can skip shot animations or view replays of them at any time. The only minor complaint I have is that the control when rotating the camera feels overly sensitive, the game does allow you to adjust sensitivity but it still always feels too high. Luckily there's never any time limit when lining up your shot, so it's not a huge deal, and pretty much everything else about the game feels very good. Definitely a solid pickup for its time and in a certain sense it still feels a little impressive for an N64 game.