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Last Topic's Ratings:
Asteroids Hyper 64 - AABBBB - 17% (6)
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling - BB - 0% (2)
Nuclear Strike 64 - AAGAAGG - 71% (7)
Paper Mario - GGGGGGGABAGGGGG - 87% (15) (1 SR)
Road Rash 64 - GGGGAAGGGG - 90% (10)
WCW Backstage Assault - BBGBBBAB - 19% (8)
An important note, JackBurton85 requested an SR on Road Rash 64 in the last topic, but they're out of SRs. If you still want to place this SR, let me know of one of the existing ones you want to remove (the list can be found in the N64 section of this site).
Games for this topic:
BattleTanx: Global Assault
Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko
Harvest Moon 64
Last Legion UX
NASCAR 2000
Razor Freestyle Scooter
An interesting crop of games this time. I'm looking forward to trying out Last Legion UX, it looks like a pretty interesting import title and I'd never heard of it until now.
BattleTanx: Global Assault - G
ReplyDeleteGex 3: Deep Cover Gecko - B
Harvest Moon 64 - G
Last Legion UX - G
NASCAR 2000 - A
Razor Freestyle Scooter - A
When we reviewed BattleTanx, I mentioned that the game was kind of fun and had some cool ideas but felt tremendously unpolished. Global Assault is basically just the same concept, but with significantly more polish. It's still not a perfect game, the camera has issues sometimes and I wish the draw distance was a little better, but it feels much more playable and as a result the strengths of the game are able to shine through much more. The simplistic controls still leave quite a bit of room for depth, as being able to maneuver and aim the cannon at the same time is challenging but feels satisfying when you're doing well. I also like the new Tank Bucks system, where your "lives" essentially represent money that you can use to buy a new tank when your existing tank gets destroyed, allowing you to gamble on using a bigger tank but potentially risk more if you get blown up, or stick to a cheaper tank if you think it can get the job done. There's not a lot to say about the plot of the game or anything, it's complete nonsense, it's mainly just an excuse to roam around big maps and blow up everything in sight, which is fun. There's a pretty decent multiplayer mode here too, with a ton of different modes for up to four players, and you can even play the campaign in co-op. This is just a great example of taking a promising concept and making it a lot better for the sequel.
Gex 3 is virtually identical to the previous game. Like Gex 64, it's still a really bad version of Mario 64, and almost no improvements have been made to that game's issues. The controls still feel stiff and janky, the level design is still really boring, and the fact that you get kicked out of the levels after every remote feels completely at odds with the rest of the game. If anything has improved, it might be the graphics, which seem to look a little better, but still not great. There's really just very few redeeming qualities to this series.
Harvest Moon 64 is a solid improvement over the first game. The original was very innovative, certainly, but it could also become repetitive due after a while because there simply wasn't a lot to do much of the time. The second game generally remedies that problem by adding more events and sidequests and also speeding up the pace of the game, in fact it now often feels like you simply don't have enough time to do everything you want to in a single day, but that brisk pacing helps keep the game interesting. For example, a change I like is that there are now more festivals and they tend to be more interactive compared to the first game. Gameplay-wise, one of the biggest changes from the first game is that you now have a backpack that can hold multiple items, which helps reduce the tedium of certain tasks dramatically compared to the first game. All of these changes let you feel like you can do more in less time, which is generally a good way to keep a game fun. Of course, the question remains as to whether there's much reason to play this version anymore now that there's been about a hundred more Harvest Moon and similar games since then. Certainly, I think Rune Factory and Stardew Valley make major improvements to the formula that generally make them preferred over the older games, and the more modern games have even more to do compared to this one, so maybe there's not a ton of reason to go back, though I think this game does get the concept across well enough and is still fun to play.
Last Legion UX is pretty cool. It's a mech fighter, in a similar vein to Virtual On and Custom Robo, though it bares much more resemblance to the former. The game features a pretty good selection of mechs, weapons, and arenas, which feel pretty varied and detailed. For example, the laser rifle weapon can perform a basic 3 shot blast that travels straight, if you lock on, it homes in but usually only the middle shot hits unless you're very far away, and you can also charge it for a super laser that is very strong but the charge is interruptible and it's hard to hit with. Conversely, the pistol lacks a charge up function, but it can shoot very fast. However, it can only store up to 6 shots that gradually regenerate, so if you shoot them all in a burst you're going to have to wait. Every mech also has a unique secondary weapon and a super weapon, as well as unique statistics and the ability (or not) to equip a shield. Overall, I like how it feels like there's quite a lot of nuance to the game, with most actions being useful but also having counters, and the general controls are pretty good too. Typical movement is tank controls, which is a bit slow, but you can hold R for strafing movement, which is fast but makes it harder to target, a mixture of both is necessary to do well. Double jumping is also available and useful, but you are immobilized momentarily upon landing, so that can create an opening if it's overused. Overall, this is just a pretty cool game and there's also virtually no language barrier. One of the more notable import titles on the system for sure.
DeleteNASCAR 2000 is a strange duck on N64. For starters, this is not at all the same game as NASCAR 2000 on PS1, even though they have similar menus, the driving engine is completely different. I believe this is actually a somewhat souped-up version of the PS1 version of NASCAR 99, which controls and plays similarly. Compared to NASCAR 99 on PS1, this version of the game has upgraded visuals and runs much faster, though it has lost almost all commentary and IMO the controls are also somewhat less precise. I guess the game's main "gimmick" is that even though the tracks are very simple, maintaining control of your car on the turns is more challenging than you'd think, pulling the car down from the top of the turns requires decent control of your speed or you'll hit the wall. I feel this actually works quite well on PS1, though on N64 I notice that I sometimes lose control for seemingly no reason, which is frustrating. Additionally, I feel the loss of commentary is quite a significant one, as the commentary is quite varied and detailed on PS1. They even use the commentary to give you general facts about NASCAR and how to play the game well, which I miss in this version. Overall, it's appreciated to have this type of game on N64, and you might be able to argue it's a step up from NASCAR 99 on PS1, but of the two I'd definitely recommend getting NASCAR 2000 on PS1 instead, as the new driving engine is a big improvement and really makes this version feel great to play, though we'll talk more about that when we get to that game on PS1.
Speaking of games that aren't as good as their PS1 counterparts we have Razor Freestyle Scooter. The game is basically just "Tony Hawk but with kids on Scooters", every aspect of the game is extremely derivative of Neversoft's series, but that's okay because it's actually a pretty good copy and the original Tony Hawk games rock. What isn't okay is that they also felt the need to copy the crappy control scheme from the N64 version of Tony Hawk 1, where you use the 4 C buttons as though they were a PS1 pad, which feels tremendously awkward. Of course, the N64 version has also lost the lyrics from all the songs, but at least the instrumental versions sound relatively decent. The only upside compared to PS1 is that this version looks somewhat smoother than the PS1 version, the level geometry and everything else is otherwise the same. I actually think this game is not too bad, and I like the idea that doing good combos of tricks gets you extra time, so I would recommend playing this on PS1 or Dreamcast to Tony Hawk fans, but on N64 I would stick with THPS2 instead.
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