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Last Topic's Ratings:
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 - GGAAAABA - 56% (8)
Donkey Kong 64 - BBGGBAAAGAAGBGBAG - 53% {17}
Mario Golf - GGGGGAGGGGGGG - 96% (13) (3 SR)
NBA In The Zone 2000 - BAA - 33% (3)
Super B-Daman Battle Phoenix 64 - GA - 75% (2)
Supercross 2000 - BGBAB - 30% {5}
This was a very interesting topic, as you can probably tell by the three squiggle brackets. I was sure that DK64 had to have the most votes of any game to ever get the squiggle bracket, but actually that honour goes to Tomb Raider, it is the highest for N64, though. Supercross 2000 does have the lowest possible score that can get a squiggle bracket, in any case. I've also become the first person for N64 to run out of SRs, which is bad because we've still got a long way to go.
Games for this topic:
California Speed
Earthworm Jim 3D
Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 Ketteiban!
Shin Nippon Pro Wrestling: Toukon Road 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
WinBack: Covert Operations
I remember always thinking California Speed looked like a cool game but it didn't review very well. I'm hoping Earthworm Jim fared a bit better, at least. It's actually kind of surprising how many N64 games I read about but never played back in the day, probably because games were so expensive at the time.
California Speed - G
ReplyDeleteEarthworm Jim 3D - B
Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 Ketteiban! - A
Shin Nippon Pro Wrestling: Toukon Road 2 - A
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - G
WinBack: Covert Operations - A
Well, I should have known better than to listen to reviews, California Speed is actually way better than I expected. In many ways, it's extremely similar to Cruis'n USA (it is clearly using the same engine), but it is very different from Cruis'n USA's actual sequel, Cruis'n World. Generally, California Speed feels much closer to USA - the controls are fairly similar, it lacks the "special moves" of World, and the races are all point to point, like in USA. One thing that hasn't changed though is that the game is somewhat grindier compared to USA, whereas in World you had to do races over and over to get "points" so you could upgrade your cars, in California Speed the game is divided into various championships where your points are tallied over many races. This is not bad on its own (it's better than having to win every race to progress), though races repeat a fair bit, even within the same series, which can make things feel a bit repetitive. I still think this is better than World's system, but I can see how it might eventually become a bit tiring. Speaking of the courses themselves, the course design is easily the highlight of the game. I mentioned previously how I felt a number of USA's tracks were quite memorable, but Midway has really stepped up their game this time. Every track generally starts off normal enough and then gets wackier as it goes on, which does a lot to help them feel unique and memorable. It's impossible to forget the course where you race over a rollercoaster, inside a UFO, or drive over the supports of the Golden Gate Bridge. The soundtrack is also a surprising highlight, offering an eclectic mix of rock, electronica, and hip hop, and I think pretty much all of the tracks are good ones (it kind of reminds me of Sonic Adventure 2's OST in terms of its variety and 90s feel). One other area you might take some issue with is the controls, the cars have a kind of maximum turning radius that feels stiffer compared to other racing games, though thankfully the tracks are generally designed around it and thus it doesn't feel too limiting, but if you need to take a very tight turn you're going to have to hit the brakes pretty hard. Even still, I was able to adjust to it pretty fast and it feels responsive enough. One thing I'm a bit wary about is that I remember that the Cruis'n USA engine runs like greased lightning on emulators and I don't have the original cart to compare it to, so it probably doesn't run quite this well on original hardware, but I did try to compare to some videos taken on official hardware and it doesn't seem like an especially drastic downgrade. A solid game in any case, and I think it's better than Cruis'n World or San Francisco Rush.
I'm pretty much in agreement with KFHEWUI on Earthworm Jim 3D. The first, and probably only good thing I'll say about it is that the series' trademark madcap humour makes the transition to 3D intact, however almost nothing else does. One of the biggest problems with the game is that it feels very slow. Most games that transition to 3D from 2D have this issue, but EWJ3D feels especially slow and lifeless compared to the manic 2D games. Its environments frequently feel very sparsely populated and Jim moves quite slow, leading to a lot of time simply spent running from place to place while nothing really happens. Also, while I know it's a cliche to complain about the camera in an N64 game, it's especially bad here, as there seems to be almost zero effort for the camera to adjust itself automatically, it needs to be corrected near constantly and feels like it's always too zoomed in. That being said, the regular levels are somewhat playable and you could maybe make a case for the game being a low A if Pork Boarding didn't exist. Pork Boarding is, simply put, one of the worst things to ever be created in digital form. The controls are atrocious, the camera is atrocious, it's ridiculously tedious and frustrating, and it takes forever. It's not hyperbole to say that these segments are way worse than anything Superman 64 can muster, and every boss plays this way. If it was just the first one maybe you could say "okay, you just get past this atrocity and then the rest of the game is fine", but the fact that they crop up so often makes this essentially impossible to recommend. I can't believe anyone actually thought this was acceptable to include in a commercially-released game. Did anyone ever play this and think it wasn't the worst thing ever? You'd think they'd at least have the sense to put in a timer and make it so you have to have more marbles at the end to win. Or just replace the boss fights with a button mashing contest. Or just end the game after the second level. Anything would be an improvement. Either way, it's probably best to just try to forget this game exists.
DeleteI spent a pretty long time trying to figure out Shigesato Itoi's Bass Fishing, and I think I now mostly get it, though be warned that the localization barrier for this game is fairly high. Thankfully, there's a pretty good translation guide on this site that helped me get through some of it. In many ways, it's not drastically different from older fishing games like The Black Bass or something, but it has much better presentation and is generally a little easier to get a grip on. Something that's a bit weird about this game is that there's no way to see where the fish are in the water, you simply cast your line, start reeling it back in, and hope fish are around. Something nice is that there's a visual indicator in the top middle of the screen for a friend character, and their expression will change if you're doing a good job of attracting fish with your particular bait. As the way to attract fish with each type of bait or lure is different, I greatly appreciate the visual feedback. Even then, the best reeling in the world does little if fish aren't around, so landing a fish can still take a while, which is probably one of the worst things about the game (I've said before that the fun of fishing games lies in catching fish, not finding them). Once you actually do hook a fish, the actual fish fighting is fairly fun, you have to angle the rod towards the fish while reeling and also manage the line tension with the C buttons so it doesn't snap. As with most bass fishing games, bass and only bass count, so when other fish bite your line it's essentially a waste of time, which is lame, especially considering how long it can take to find a fish in the first place. Luckily, Bass do seem to be the most common thing to find, but it still feels like an unnecessary complication. When not fishing, you can walk around the lake in full 3D, choose spots to cast your line, talk to people, and enter shops, which is cool. You can also rent a boat, which is decent too, though it's too bad that all the other areas in the game other than the starting lake are accessed via boat only, and do not allow you to walk around. The game has a fairly detailed help system and tutorial messages appear frequently, but of course it's all in Japanese so it won't be a lot of help to those who don't speak the language. Overall, it's not too bad, it did hold my attention longer than most other games of this type, but I wish there were more areas to explore and the fish were a little easier to locate. More modern fishing games have wisely done away with a lot of the hunting around and have become better games for it.
DeleteToukon Road 2 plays almost identically to the first game, with the main difference being that the visuals have been given an upgrade and the game has a lot more modes to choose from. The gameplay is still simple and accessible and still feels reminiscent of No Mercy, and I still wish the game had actual health bars. Something I notice is that matches generally seem to go on very long, in particular damaging a wrestler enough to actually get a pin takes forever, by comparison submissions are extremely strong, being able to succeed when a Wrestler is only moderately damaged if performed near the center of the ring since they have to try to get all the way to the edge to escape. This feels kind of broken in a certain sense, you should probably just be able to escape the hold if you're not particularly damaged, though it is essential for ending matches in a timely fashion. The upgraded visuals are nice, the animations for the game are quite varied and well done, and I also quite like the music in the game. I do regret the loss of the goofy character select menu from the first game, though. In general, it's a solid game and a decent upgrade over the original, though I still feel it's slightly outdone by some of the top Wrestling games on the system. It's just a very crowded genre on N64.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a great first start, but there were clearly still a few kinks in the formula. Some of the stages were too linear or felt like there wasn't enough to do, and the N64 version of THPS1 features a very weird control scheme where it only uses the C buttons. THPS2 was basically the game where they completely nailed the formula. The stages are much larger and have more goals and secrets, the skating routes are generally better designed, and there's also some cool new features like the ability to buy various upgrades and see a checklist of all the gaps in a stage. The controls are also mostly fixed, A and B are now jump and flip trick respectively, which is good, though they somewhat weirdly use C-Up for grind and C-Right for grab rather than the more logical C-Left and C-Down (C-Left also does flip tricks and C-Down is unused, they might as well at least have made it a manual button or something), and you also can't change the controls, which is a little annoying. Unsurprisingly, the soundtrack has taken a big hit compared to the PS1 version, with only 6 tracks, though at least N64 has a unique bonus level if you 100% the game. Overall, this is probably the worst version of the game, but it's such a good game that it doesn't even come close to pulling it out of G range. Even today this game remains instantly compelling, trying to complete as many goals as possible in a short amount of time simply never gets old.
DeleteWinback is an incredible experience... for the first 10 minutes. It features a surprisingly fully-realized cover system, which controls well and is a technical marvel on N64. The problem is that beyond the cover feature there's basically nothing else to the game. Enemies have virtually no AI, they will simply move to a predefined spot and then sit there, occasionally ducking behind cover or shooting at you, but they'll never attempt to flank you or destroy your hiding place (you can hide behind destructible boxes but the enemies never think to shoot them). This means that virtually all encounters (and there are a ton, you'll be racking up a body count in the thousands) play out in almost exactly the same way, find some piece of cover to hide behind, pop out, shoot a couple times, hide again, and repeat until everything is dead. The only real danger is that enemies might spawn behind you, which happens occasionally, as any time the game expects you to backtrack through a previously-explored room, it will spawn new enemies. Speaking of which, the game is also extremely linear, and has almost no secrets to find. You might occasionally find ammo or a medical kit in an optional room, but as you are not allowed to carry extras of either you'll quickly find that all of these supplies are pointless if you play well. Alternatively, because enemies flinch when shot and medical kits are common, you can ignore cover almost completely and just run in guns blazing and conquer most situations with ease, as I started to get tired of the game I increasingly gravitated towards this playstyle to speed things up. I kept hoping that at some point the game would mix up the action or increase the difficulty, but it never really does, and it starts to wear thin even before the first level is complete. I even tried restarting the game on hard mode to see if the enemies would be any smarter and they don't seem to be, if anything you just seem to take slightly more damage when hit. This is clearly not a B game or anything but I'd be surprised if anyone had the patience to play through the whole game these days, the novelty is really just that it's a somewhat modern shooter running on N64. Too bad Mission Impossible didn't have this game's gameplay, with a little bit more mission variety this could have been a classic.