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Last Topic's Ratings:
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker - BBBBBBB - 0% (7)
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour - AGGGGG - 92% (6)
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest - GGAA - 75% (4)
Mario Party 3 - GGBGGGGGGGGGG - 92% (13)
San Francisco Rush 2049 - GAAGAGGAA - 72% (9) (1 SR)
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense - AAGAAGG - 71% (7)
It's very funny to me that Batman Beyond is the second-lowest rated game in the N64 GAB. What's the lowest? Superman 64, of course. Batman vs Superman, rivals for all time.
Games for this topic:
Bomberman 64 (Japan)
Madden NFL 2002
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark
Rakuga Kids
Rally Challenge 2000
Although the title should make it obvious, this is not the same game that released in North America under the title Bomberman 64, but a completely different Japan-only game that plays more like the traditional bomberman games. We also have Mickey's Speedway USA, which I've wanted to revisit for some time.
Bomberman 64 (Japan) - A
ReplyDeleteMadden NFL 2002 - G
Mickey's Speedway USA - G
Perfect Dark - G
Rakuga Kids - A
Rally Challenge 2000 - A
It's kind of funny how even though the Japanese Bomberman 64 is intended to be a return to the classic mechanics, it's in many ways the strangest of the Bomberman games on the system. For starters, there's the regular Bomberman mode. This plays a lot like the Super Bomberman games, albeit with less content. There's the standard "arcade-style" mode, where you travel through stages and then fight a boss at the end, however, it's vastly shorter than normal, consisting of only 10 stages, then a single boss. I sort of like the idea of how the stages are laid out on a branching path, but it does make this mode very short and it also doesn't allow you to play with 2 players, which most of the Super Bomberman games did. Then, of course, there's also the standard Bomberman VS mode. This mode is pretty much fine, though it's a little weird that you start with your bombs having only a 1-block explosion instead of a 2-block, this makes it essentially impossible to kill anyone unless you find a flame. Obviously, if this is all there was this would be wholly inferior to the SNES game, but it's only scratching the surface of what's in the package. The next mode is a completely different game entirely, being a falling block game that bares a little bit of resemblance to Puyo Puyo. However, in my opinion it's not really very good. The biggest issue is that there's a lot of RNG, bombs are constantly falling and clearing out your blocks, which makes making combos annoying. There's another mode where the game instead plays like Bejeweled, the screen is initially full of pieces and you try to clear them. This mode is okay but games like Sailor Moon Kurukkurin and Afro Dog do this better. Finally, there's the strangest mode of all, the Bomberman Park mode, which is a minigame compilation where you walk around a park, talk to people, and do minigame challenges for medals. None of the minigames are particularly fantastic and this mode only supports 1 player, so it kind of feels like a missed opportunity as well. Overall, while I kind of respect their effort to add variety to the game, the entire package feels slightly half-baked. If you want a traditional Bomberman with a lot of gameplay variety, the game to get is Bomberman Generation on Gamecube, which wouldn't release too long after this game and is vastly better.
When we reviewed Madden Football 64, I mentioned that the game kind of felt a bit off, most particularly due to the fact that blockers simply don't do their jobs. This is no longer the case, the game now plays "properly" and feels like what you'd expect from Madden. The game obviously looks a lot better too, though a huge deal is that in this version the commentary has been almost completely axed, all of the team and player-specific quips that Madden makes during the game in other versions are gone and this is a big loss as the commentary in the Madden series is a big part of the appeal. Without the commentary, I feel this game pales significantly to Blitz, and I would actually even prefer VR Football 97 to it, but it's still probably just barely enough for G. Just don't get this version if you have other options.
Mickey's Speedway USA is a game I'm always surprised doesn't get talked about more. It's very similar to Diddy Kong Racing, and features the same tight gameplay mechanics you'd expect from Nintendo or Rare. Compared to Diddy Kong Racing, I suppose it's a slightly scaled back affair, there are only cars this time, and the weapon upgrading system from DKR is gone, though to be honest I don't miss the latter, as it was responsible for most of the gameplay imbalances in DKR. As you'd probably expect, the game looks and sounds great, in particular I'd like to draw attention to the game's voice acting, which IMO really goes above and beyond for this type of game. The characters in this game talk constantly (in fact, you might be able to argue it's slightly too much), and in particular they have voice clips for hitting and being hit by most of the other characters, which I always thought was really cool and I don't know why other games haven't done this. I also like the end of lap voice clips, besides just being kind of cool it helps you keep track of the position of the opponents, overall I just think this game's presentation is really good. On the gameplay side, as mentioned, it's basically a slightly scaled back version of Diddy Kong Racing. The track design is pretty solid, I think there's some pretty creative tracks here (as a random example, I like the way the path is constantly splitting in the Grand Canyon level). There's also a lot of content, in particular trying to earn all Platinum Cups and beat all the time trial ghosts gives this one a lot of replay value. Overall, this is just a really solid game and another great addition to N64's racing library. I guess if anything, its only issue was that there's so many good games on N64 of this type that maybe another one wasn't needed, but these days when Nintendo has gone almost a decade without making a new Mario Kart it might be worth going back to.
DeleteI'm glad we did TWINE in a recent topic because it makes an interesting comparison with Perfect Dark. Obviously, both are follow-ups to Goldeneye, but while TWINE generally sticks closer to the original formula, Perfect Dark is a lot more ambitious. The most obvious example of this is that there's simply a lot more content here compared to Goldeneye. Besides the main campaign and multiplayer mode, there's now the Carrington Institute (which provides a number of challenges that can unlock cheats) and the new Challenges mode, where you take on a series of multiplayer matches against bots. As far as the campaign is concerned, this is actually the element of the game I like the least. It still features the same objective-based gameplay as Goldeneye and TWINE, but I'm not at all fond of the level design. Compared to Goldeneye, levels are vastly bigger and more labyrinthine, and many levels feature a ton of samey-looking corridors that make it super easy to get lost. The game also features performance issues throughout (this is one major contrast from TWINE, which runs very well), but they tend to be especially bad in the campaign mode. You can play the campaign in co-op now, which is a plus, but I'd generally rather play the other modes. Luckily, the other modes are a lot better. My favourite is the new challenges mode, which sort of plays like a discount version of Unreal Tournament. It's not nearly as fleshed out, but you can do all of the missions with co-op for up to four players and generally it's just a pretty cool mode that helps you get a lot more value out of the multiplayer maps, which, incidentally, are better designed than those found in Goldeneye, and the game has much better bot AI than TWINE. The firing range challenges in the institute are pretty fun too, though they seem a lot easier than I remembered (maybe I just got way better as I got older). Then of course, there's also just the core multiplayer mode, which is also pretty good, though I'm really not a fan of the distortion effect that occurs when you get punched, when combined with the frequent slowdown it's very disruptive. Overall, I do think Goldeneye is a slightly better game and I even prefer TWINE in some ways (particularly the campaign and game performance), all three of them are still easily G-level games.
DeleteRakuga Kids is a very weird fighting game. For starters, it's a 6-button fighter featuring hand-drawn graphics, by which I don't mean "hand drawn spritework" but actually "graphics that look like they were drawn by hand, probably with a crayon". Its visual aesthetic is certainly the most unique thing about it, characters have all manner of completely bonkers attacks, frequently transforming or contorting in insane ways that could only be done with a cartoony style like this. Beyond the aesthetic, there's actually a surprisingly traditional fighting game under here. It has the standard 3 punch and 3 kick setup, you block with back, throw with forward + a button, there are chain combos, special moves, supers, launchers, etc. One oddity in the game is that due to the visual style many attacks feel "weird", for example many normals have absurdly little range, which can make doing combos difficult, while certain others have almost oppressively large hitboxes. Another strange mechanic is the way juggles work, any time you get hit in the air you get put in a juggle state, but only momentarily, after which you flip out and become invincible until you land. If you hit with an air to air, you can usually double jump cancel into another air attack for extra damage, but following up a grounded move is often very difficult, and if you hit with a launcher vs an airborne opponent, they usually get sent too high for any follow-up. Slightly odd mechanics aside, the game is still fun in a wacky sort of way, but I can't really give it a G in good conscience with all the amazing fighting games on PS1, to which this game really doesn't stand up in any way whatsoever. It's an entertaining novelty but not a lot more than that.
DeleteRally Challenge 2000 is not great. I feel like this game's main issue is that it just lacks identity. Gameplay-wise, it's a pretty fast game with twitchy handling, car damage that doesn't last between races, and there are rival cars on the track you can pass, which makes it feel like it's going for a more arcade-style rally experience, but at the same time your final position is based solely on your time (so the rival cars actually don't matter) and car damage is quite obnoxious which clashes with the arcade-style gameplay. The way damage is handled is especially irritating, it's virtually impossible to avoid damaging your shocks, and if the shocks on one side of the car are damaged more than the other, you start to drift constantly while driving, requiring you to constantly correct it. It's certainly doable, but it's also certainly not fun and you'll be dealing with it for like 95% of the time you play the game. The best thing about the game easily is its presentation, which is actually pretty top notch for a racing game of this era, and that likely saves it from the B range, but I'd much rather play any of Rally de Africa, Top Gear Rally 2, or Colin McRae Rally than this.