N64 Time - Duke Nukem 64

[noobish hat]

Well, I finally nailed that boss. Probably the hardest first boss in any game I've ever played. I've fought some end of game bosses that weren't as hard as that! Satisfying to beat him though, I guess

[importaku]

Cant believe you struggled on troublemakers it really isnt that hard, it just takes timing. Back in the day it was pretty fun but as with most 64 games its aged pretty badly.

[dataDave]

LOL! It sounds like you get proper hyped when reading each month's copy. Imagine if you'd NEVER touched an N64 until now? What a treat that'd be.

[noobish hat]

Full set of N64 Magazine and its follow up, NGC, on ebay right now. Last time I saw an auction for complete N64 Mag, it went for about ?250, so might be one to watch.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALL-120-N64-NGC-MAGAZINES-38-OF-THE-WALKTHROUGH-BOOKS-/281036343467?pt=UK_Magazines&hash=item416f1248ab

[noobish hat]

URGH. I just typed out a whole post about Trouble Makers, and it just disappeared somehow. FFS. Let's just summarise.

-Game is shorter than I thought, only 5 worlds. This is a good thing, I like short but sweet games.
-Typical of Treasure to make a game based around a gimmick. The 'grabbing' gimmick works in Trouble Makers, but I'd have liked to have seen more interactive items as a gameplay focus (like enemy weapons), rather than environmental navigation.
-The graphics are not as good as games on 2D based consoles, maybe because I don't like 2.5D. They're hard to make out and covered in jaggies etc.
-The controls are still lacklustre, especially when trying to boost up and left/right without losing altitude.
-It's a bit like DK King of Swing but probably not as good.
-N64 Mag were pretty much right when they said it's nice how the game keeps coming up with new ideas only to discard them in favour of something different for the next level (like missile surfing and lava-escaping tricycle races).

[noobish hat]

I've finally put Yuke Yuke Troublemakers to bed. It's a decent game. I don't think I'd agree with N64 Mag's generous 90% score. Maybe more of a 7 or 8 out of 10 for me. What's interesting is that you're limited in how many scenes of the ending you can actually watch, based on how many of the hidden yellow gems you collected throughout the game. I don't think I'm going to bother going back to get them all, not least because the boss stage gems can only be obtained by beating them without taking ANY damage. The boss stages are mindlessly difficult on an ordinary run through! Especially the Radiant Silvergun style battle. There are far too many cheap ass attacks that continually paralyse you whilst causing damage, allowing the enemy to get in successive attacks and literally drain your entire life bar. Screw that. I'll probably get the PAL version when it comes out so I can enjoy it in a more relaxed way (not having to read a veritable novel of Japanese before each level would be nice), so I MAY go for all yellow gems then. I certainly won't be going for S Ranks, because I've seen them on youtube, and they are for people with mental issues.

So now on to...



Multi Racing Championship, AKA MRC! On Japanese import, of course. Now I've been looking forward to this for a while now, for some reason. It's basically the N64's first real racing game. I've only played it for less than an hour, but everything about it has impressed me. The focus of the game is on the handling of the vehicles, the different driving surfaces, and the weather effects, hence the title MULTI Racing Championship. With only 3 tracks, it needs to pull of these subtle variations in gameplay well. It's this attention to detail that I'm so impressed with. The handling really is different for all of the vehicles I've tried so far (or 'machines' as the game calls them, in English for some reason). Each track has various different road surfaces included, with harder surfaces being used for shorter sections of the track, meaning if you're skilled you can take shortcuts. Gravel, for instance, will change how much the car skids, it changes the sound effects, it changes how much vibration you get from the rumble pak. The sounds even change realistically when you go into and come out of tunnels. Attention to detail! Fantastic! I've not seen rain or snow yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing it, and more importantly, feeling it. The fog that appeared when I was racing looked great. When you get gold on a track, you also get to play it at night, so I'm off to try that out now

Oh, that stick has been implemented brilliantly too. Maybe it's my lovely Hori pad, but I don't think I've played a racing game that uses the stick so well (when I play the likes of RRT4 I either use the d-pad tapping method, or I use a jogcon/negcon). You feel totally in control of the car, and pulling all the way to one side lets you take tight corners easily.

[noobish hat]

Beat the three main tracks last night, which wasn't quite as easy as N64 Mag made out. That unlocked Match Race which allows you to race against one opponent, and if you beat him on all three tracks, you unlock that car. I think there are two opponents to beat. I've won against the first one on two of the tracks. It's incredibly tough. Like, I don't know if I'll ever be able to complete it with my limited skills, and he's only the first opponent! It's a shame because beating them both also unlocks mirror mode.

I've spent a lot of time tweaking the cars in order to meet my very narrow skillset, and believe me, this is 100% necessary to passing each stage.

Surprisingly, after N64 Mag's score of 80%, I've found that pretty much everybody who comments on this game on the internet hates it. A common complaint is that the controls suck and its too hard (funny, when one of N64 Mag's only gripes was that it's too easy). I'd say the controls are very difficult to get to grips with, but if you pick the right car for you, and tweak its stats, you can find something that fits your style. I personally find it a difficult game because rally is not really my preferred genre of racing. I like things that are less 'strict', the sorts of games where you don't ever have to use the brake!

What I found interesting was that even N64 Mag mentioned Sega Rally as 'possibly the best racing game on any system'. I think I have a copy of it, but I'm trying to decide if I should play it now, or save it for a Sega Saturn Magazine odyssey... It was less pleasing to read more harsh comparisons to Cruisin' USA (even going so far as to badmouth the designer by name), which I find a bit too much, since it wasn't unplayably bad. Compared to how they hold up Turok as some sort of high watermark for FPSs when it was a frigging horrendous game, it's particularly galling.

Anyway, seeing as MRC is only about 99p for a loose cart, I'd urge anybody to try it out. As I said before, it has a fantastic level of detail, from animals running across the track, helicopters flying overhead, birds scattering from distant trees, to the reddening sky and dust flying up from tyres. There's even (moderately good) voice acted navigation! That's not to mention the details more directly related to the actual driving. When you're driving over snow, the vibration from the rumble pak combined with the handling and sound effects make you really feel like you're driving over snow. This one gets a pretty high score from me!



I'm going to keep playing this, hoping to beat Match Race and unlock mirror mode, and maybe beat the ghost cars too. After that, I think that's pretty much it for this month, as I'll be skipping the US import titles and waiting for the PAL releases of Hexen and Dark Rift. No idea what's out next month, and neither did the writers - even the back page declares next month will feature "Reviews of some games - flip knows where we'll find them."

[egparadigm]

It's another January with Rare on the N64 for me. After sorting out the horizontal position on my new retro monitor (Sony Trinitron 14"), I have picked up DK64 again. What I have said about it before still holds true ? they really undermined the whole game by separating all the different skills out to different characters, unlike Banjo-Kazooie which handled this very nicely with the duo. It means a lot of back and forth between areas with different characters. Also the actual tasks set for retrieval of Golden Bananas is generally quite underwhelming by comparison to say Mario 64 or other 3D classics of the genre.

Still a solid game, though, and good to ge the time to explore an N64 game I don't know well. How confusing is Frantic Factory!? I must have traped those corridors from head to toe ten times, and yet I still can't tell its respective arse from elbow.

Playing the Donkey Kong arcade cabinet reminds me of the fun I've had with a number of 2D platformers over the years ? all the restarts and constant practising. The jumps required really are pixel perfect on there ? totally uncompromising. I wish I had the energy and free time to dedicate to some more platformers. It's too addictive and exhausting to really delve into.

[DJ Sack]

I love this thread, i just wish i had the time to go back and enjoy these games to the full again. In fact i think just being older means i'd be able to understand the games better. I notice now that as a kid some games felt massive to me, and almost hard to understand how the worlds all join up. But now i know when im nearing the end of a game or how many hours i put on or how the game worlds work.

[Kit]

It's another January with Rare on the N64 for me. After sorting out the horizontal position on my new retro monitor (Sony Trinitron 14"), I have picked up DK64 again. What I have said about it before still holds true ? they really undermined the whole game by separating all the different skills out to different characters, unlike Banjo-Kazooie which handled this very nicely with the duo. It means a lot of back and forth between areas with different characters. Also the actual tasks set for retrieval of Golden Bananas is generally quite underwhelming by comparison to say Mario 64 or other 3D classics of the genre.

Still a solid game, though, and good to ge the time to explore an N64 game I don't know well. How confusing is Frantic Factory!? I must have traped those corridors from head to toe ten times, and yet I still can't tell its respective arse from elbow.

Always been intrigued by Donkey Kong 64 as I'm a big fan of the Banjo Kazooie games and I recall one of the main criticisms at the time being DK64 was 'too much' like Banjo. I tried to play it a few years ago via project64 but it barely ran. Maybe this is one of those games that needs to be played with a proper setup? Shame it never made its way to the virtual console.

[noobish hat]

Shrewd readers may have noticed that the planets have not exactly been aligning for this project; it's been three years now, and I'm only on issue six. Original plans to maybe even outpace real time seem completely laughable. I've moved house five times since I started, twice internationally. I've been more determined this time though, and took pains to make sure my N64 collection went with me, via the most incompetent shipping company on the planet. From the above picture, you can see that it finally arrived a few days ago, meaning that after many months I can continue my odyssey.

Unfortunately, I recommence in the midst of the severe drought in games the N64 was suffering in 1997. Things are looking to improve just around the corner though, I think. This, though, is possibly the very lowest point. If the N64 library were the Star Wars trilogy, September 1997 would be the end of the Empire Strikes back. I would have been slightly worried. This month, in terms of actual new games, we have nothing. We have the US releases of Wayne Gretsky's 3D Hockey and NBA Hangtime, which were originally reviewed waaaay back in issue one, and which I will not ever be playing. Then there's the US release of Starfox 64, which is of course excellent, but I'm waiting for the PAL version before revisiting that title for the novelty of English voice acting. Finally, we have the Japanese-exclusive, rumble pak-enhanced rereleases of Mario 64 and Wave Race 64. These are the two that I shall be partaking of this month.

I've actually played through Mario 64 about 3 times now, with different friends, and it's been a joy on each occasion. I've not touched it for a while now, and to be honest I've been wanting to return to it. Now is the prefect time, especially after feeling the difference that the addition of rumble made for Starfox and MRC.

Wave Race 64 was somewhat lambasted in the mag for it's lazy 50 Hz conversion. I've never been one to notice the difference between the two, to be honest, but this is the first game I'll have played the 50 and 60 Hz versions of, so we will see.

At any rate, this month should be over fairly quickly.

[Tetsuo]

Wave Race 64 was somewhat lambasted in the mag for it's lazy 50 Hz conversion. I've never been one to notice the difference between the two, to be honest, but this is the first game I'll have played the 50 and 60 Hz versions of, so we will see.

Be prepared to be shocked, then.

[SUMIRE]

I really like the idea of doing this. It is an interesting read.

[noobish hat]

We have the day off work in Taiwan because of typhoon Soulik, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to finish off Shindou Super Mario 64. I just beat Bowser and completed it with 70 stars. It's a timeless game of course, and brought back great memories of the last time I played it. I was shortly to leave Japan and my housemate and I played through it, staying up all night taking it in turns on Cool Cool Mountain, while our other house mates watched. What I love about the game is how big it is. You can spend a whole week playing it to the end and not see much at all of certain areas. This time, for example, I only got two stars each from Dire, Dire Docks and Big Boo's Haunt. The first time I ever played through Mario 64, I didn't even realise places like Tick Tock Clock and Tall Tall Mountain were in the game until I saw them in the end credits! This means that if you want, you can create a different experience with a different focus each time you play it.

But I digress; this time it's the rumble version. Is it worth getting? Err... I guess. N64 Mag complained that it rumbles in pointless places, like when you start a level, but I think it's now commonplace to have rumble effects in those sorts of places anyway. I do agree with the mag that it's somewhat overused. It rumbles for every collision and almost every jump, which as you can imagine happens a LOT over the course of the game. Really, though, it's just that it doesn't add as much to the experience as it did in Starfox 64, because of the nature and feel of the game. For the average gamer, the disadvantage of not being able to read any of the text (this is a Japan exclusive, remember) easily outweighs the advantage of rumble. The bonus of it being 60 Hz depends on whether you can actually notice that. Perhaps it's more noticeable in racing games, but I really didn't notice any difference at all in that regard. Perhaps it will be more obvious in Shindou Waverace 64, which is up next...

[charlesr]

Have you got Top Gear Rally 2? I was a big fan of the handling model in Top Gear Rally (you could keep the accelerator button nailed the entire time) and am wondering if I should try and pick up the second one. However looking at vids on youtube, it doesn't look nearly as "floaty" and fun And there's some massive popup.

edit: just read this in a review:

Top Gear Rally 2 plays nothing like Top Gear Rally 1. Whereas the original featured a realistic physics model with a very slippery feel, TGR2 handles like Beetle Adventure Racing in the dirt. Like the Beetles in Paradigm's racer, the rally cars in this game don't feel very heavy at all and virtually turn on a dime, thanks in part to the inclusion of a handbrake. Also, you can't flip your car this time around and the four-point suspension system is gone as well.

Sounds a bit ****e.