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Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Beetle Adventure Racing - GGGAGGGGGA - 90% (10) (1 SR)
Gauntlet Legends - BGAAGAGG - 69% (8)
Mario Party 2 - GGGGGGGGGGG - 100% (11)
Nintama Rantarou 64 Game Gallery - BB - 0% (2)
Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry - BBAAA - 30% (5)
World Cup 98 - BGA - 50% {3}
Nothing too surprising here, though I thought Mario Party 2 would probably get at least a couple SRs. Also, Nintama Rantarou disappoints again. Despite basically being an early version of Naruto it sure didn't translate well to games.
Games for this topic:
Bio Freaks
Heiwa Pachinko World 64
Lego Racers
NBA Hangtime
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Shadow Man
Quite a few games I'm looking forward to replaying for this topic, particularly Lego Racers, which I liked a lot back in the day.
Bio Freaks - A
ReplyDeleteHeiwa Pachinko World 64 - A
Lego Racers - A
NBA Hangtime - G
Rayman 2: The Great Escape - G
Shadow Man - G
Bio Freaks is a weird fighting game. For starters, something I appreciate is that there's an option to turn on "game hints", which will help advise you on some of the game's mechanics as you play. It's not terribly detailed, but I think it's a nice idea. In terms of the actual mechanics, Bio Freaks is mainly a 3D fighter with some unique gimmicks, some of which work well and others less so. One mechanic that sets the game apart from other fighters is that pretty much every character has some kind of gun they can shoot at the opponent with a dedicated button. They are fast and accurate, but there's also a special mechanic to deal with them, where pressing back + shoot activates a barrier that completely negates all projectiles while it lasts. I feel like the shield is probably somewhat too powerful, as it makes ranged combat largely valueless. Of course, there are also regular attacks, and these can't be shielded, they have to be blocked normally. Blocking works as you'd expect by holding back, so at least they got that right, and combos feel okay for the most part, though there are some early 3D game oddities, like the fact that combos don't work properly on opponents who are facing away from you, which is lame. You can also activate a flight mode that is useful for maneuvering around the arena, but it sort of feels a bit like a filler mechanic due to the aforementioned power of the shield move. There are some other little things like some stages allow ring outs and you can also damage parts of the opponent's body with certain moves to disable some of their attacks. There's a lot going on here, but none of it feels especially well-polished IMO. It's not bad to play by any means, but it feels a bit rough.
Heiwa Pachinko World 64 is extremely similar to Pachinko 365 Nichi, to the extent that I checked like 10 times to see if they shared a developer or something (as far as I can tell, they don't). The general setup is identical, both feature a scenario mode of sorts where your goal is to strike it rich playing Pachinko, where you'll first choose a parlor, then walk around the 3D interior of the parlor to choose a machine and play. What differences they do have are largely in the interface. Pachinko 365 Nichi's interface is clearly better, helpfully marking buttons to press for various options with an on-screen display and just generally looking nicer in general, however Heiwa Pachinko World gives you more stats about the current game as you play, which can be helpful as Pachinko has all kinds of hidden rules that determine payouts. Overall they're so similar that you could easily go with either, but neither quite reaches the level that I'm hoping to find out of a Pachinko game someday.
I mentioned I was looking forward to revisiting Lego Racers, though I was also a bit wary because it's another one of those games that I quite specifically hadn't gone back to before, and it's not too hard to see why. I think the core idea behind the game, to create your own racer from Lego bricks, earn new pieces as you race, and have the way you build it affect its performance is incredibly cool. However, the game itself doesn't really live up to the idea. The core game physics aren't that great, the powerups and track design are mostly uninspired, and the actual vehicle building is very limited and it's not obvious at all how your creations will handle. This one was probably just a little too ambitious for a game of this era, as modern games have done this idea much better, most especially Robocraft (admittedly, it's not a racer, but it handles much better regardless). It's just too bad they haven't tried this idea again with Lego to the best of my knowledge as I still think it's a very appealing concept.
DeleteNBA Hangtime on the other hand, still rocks. The original NBA Jam was already pretty much perfect, and for a long time, I used to have mixed feelings on which was better between TE and Hangtime, but I guess I would probably lean towards Hangtime these days. The question largely boils down to the additions that Hangtime makes to the formula. Obviously, create a player is awesome and helps give a nice sense of progression to the game, and the new visuals and music are great too. As far as the gameplay additions, there are really 3 notable changes. The first is the spin move, which makes a nice counter to the push move, which was arguably somewhat too strong before. The second is alley oops and team fire. While I like Alley-oops, I think Team Fire is probably a bit too strong, and while it doesn't break the game, I don't mind the fact that it didn't come back. And the third change is that blocking shots and dunks works a little better now, which is part of a general trend for the series towards more nuanced defensive play that will continue in NBA Jam Wii / On Fire Edition and NBA Playgrounds. While I do think you can make the argument that those later games continue to improve the formula in significant ways that make them now the best choices for your 2-on-2 BBall, Hangtime still has great style, flair, and lasting appeal. This was the basketball game to beat for a long time, and is still one of the high points of the genre.
Rayman 2 also still holds up well. I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this game over the years, but ultimately I think there's more to love than hate. For starters, for its time, this is a very ambitious game, it's quite cinematic and also generally plays quite well, being one of the bigger and better platformer / adventure type games on the system. Something else I noticed immediately upon replaying is that its camera is actually quite good for the time, generally framing the action from useful angles and not getting stuck much compared to many of its competitors. I'm also not sure why people are slagging this version of the game, while it might not have quite as much stuff as the ones that came later it still feels very complete, looks great, and runs well. As for the things I don't like, the biggest one is that the game is a collectathon, but it's also somewhat linear, with each level having dozens of points of no return, often with little warning, which can make trying to collect everything a bit of a pain if you don't use a guide. Still, at least it's not like Yoshi's Island where you need to track down everything in one run (and in some levels, this isn't even possible), but scouring the levels to find that one yellow lum you missed can be a pain, as can some of the slide or vehicle segments that force you to get a lot of lums in one try (sometimes you can at least kill yourself to get another shot at it). Other than that, though, this game is very good and I'm surprised they didn't really make more like it. At least they ported it to a million systems I guess.
DeleteShadow Man is actually extremely cool, if I had known this was such a good game I would have given it top billing for sure. It's been compared to Zelda and Metroid, but on N64 at least, the game it most brings to mind for me is Jet Force Gemini, except that it's a vastly better game. Like Jet Force Gemini, Shadow Man is a generally serious 3rd-person shooter with nonlinear level design, though with a more macabre aesthetic compared to JFG's sci-fi theme. Like JFG, you'll earn persistent upgrades throughout the game that will allow you to come back and find collectables that you couldn't get initially, though thankfully, here all collectables are persistent and there's no requirement to get them all in one go. The first major point of difference is that the game controls vastly better than JFG. The game also involves platforming, but it doesn't feel nearly as stiff, first person aiming involves no obnoxious look springing, auto aim generally works better, and basically everything just feels much better. This does have the effect of making the game somewhat easier, particularly considering that if you die you simply go back to the start of the area and enemies don't respawn or even heal up, but the game is still fun and certain areas are challenging enough that I don't feel this really brings it down any. As far as the game's presentation, some parts of it are pretty cool. I like the general story and tone of the game, they feel unique, and there's a ton of voiced dialogue, which is a rarity for the system. Shadow Man's VA is quite good, too, although some of the others can vary a bit, he's the one you'll be hearing the most often and they do a good job with him. The game's visuals can be a bit more drab, and I was initially worried that I might find myself getting lost in the game's areas, but I actually found that wasn't really a problem thanks to the game's level design, which is quite varied and keeps the game from feeling samey or repetitive. There's also some neat attention to detail all throughout that I appreciate, for example, Shadow Man can hold things in both hands, but certain actions are unavailable if one or both of your hands are full (luckily, you can put your weapon away with a quick C button press). Overall, the whole game just feels very solid and unique and I'm surprised this doesn't frequently make people's top picks on the system. This is another game I'd probably consider for SR status if I had any to spare. I'm quite curious to see what they'll do with the remaster now.
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