Black Falcon Games

Mega Man in Dr. Wily’s Revenge (GB) Review – Despite some flaws, Mega Man got off to a good start on the Game Boy!

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Brian

This review, from fall 2001, might be the first one I posted on the internet. Today I’d give the game a slightly higher score — probably a C+ or B-, reflecting that it is a good game and I do love the series, and that considering its early release date I under-rate the games’ graphics (the flicker is bad, and the later games are more detailed, but it still looks pretty good!) — but I won’t change the review, I think it still holds up well. Comparing these old reviews to my more recent ones, I followed a much stricter review formula in the older reviews. I’m not sure if my newer style is better or worse than this one, it’d be interesting to hear thoughts on this.

Game Name: Mega Man — Dr. Wily’s Revenge
Developer: Minakuchi Engineering, Inc. for Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: 1991
Review Date: 10/19/2001
System: Game Boy

Synopsis: Mega Man 1 for Game Boy is a fun, if dated, game. While action game and Mega Man fans will like it, most of the later games in the series for any platform have more features, levels, etc. and are better than this one. Even so, its a good game and a good buy if you like the series.

Game Overview: Mega Man– Dr. Wily’s Revenge, otherwise known as Mega Man 1 for Game Boy, was the first Game Boy Mega Man game. It was released very early in the Game Boy’s lifetime, and in some ways it looks it. Even so, it is a Mega Man game so if you know anything about the series, as I think everyone does, some things can be taken for granted, like the fact that it is a action shooting game where killing bosses gives you a new weapon that you must use on other bosses later to be successful. This one has less of the features that the later Mega Man games have, though. While it may be more primitive than later games on the Game Boy in many ways, its still fun, and as the first Game Boy Mega Man game, it sets some standards that the later ones on the system follow. Now, on to the review.

Gameplay: First, the differences between this Mega Man game and most of the rest of the classic Mega Man games. First, Mega Man himself. Unlike most Mega Man games, in this one Mega Man can’t charge up the Mega Buster (basic pellet shots are all you get), he can’t slide like he can in most Mega Man games, and Rush the dog is absent (Instead, Mega Man can create temporary floating platforms). Second, the game structure and difficulty. There are only 6 stages in Mega Man 1– four initial levels with bosses, just like all GB Mega Man games, a Dr. Wily’s Fortress level, and a final Wily’s Space Station level. There is a second set of four bosses, but they are bosses only, no levels, and you play them all at once at the end of Wily’s Fortress. However, the basic Mega Man game mechanics of you having to find out what order to play the levels in order to use the right weapons against each is intact.

Other than that, there are a few things to say. First, the game has good play control– there is no hesitation between your button press and Mega Man’s action. Sure, control could be a little better and more precise, but it has a style that you’ll get used to. Overall it’s fine, but may take some getting used to. There is one annoyance: the main game uses passwords. The passwords are a 5×5 grid with 5 dots in it… a lot easier than later Mega Man games which use a larger grid with every block in it filled with numbers or pictures, but still annoying to copy, as a grid is harder to copy and is larger than a normal letter password like most games. Oh well.
Score: 8/10

Single Player: The single player gameplay is described in the sections above. In the game, you play the first four levels in any order you wish… until you figure out which order is best. Until then, you may get a little frustrated at getting all the way through a level only to be easily killed by the boss because you donâ€™t have the weapon that is his weakness. Once beating these four bosses, you get the last password in the game… the last two levels must be done in one sitting. That gets very annoying, but for some reason all Mega Man games do this for the last few levels. In the end of the next level, there are four bosses to fight… and like the first four, you must find the best order to fight them in in order to beat them. After that its just gameplay until you reach and try to beat Dr. Wily.

Mega Man is a fun game, but it has a few problems. One is that because there are so many weapons and so few levels, some of them are really not used because you get them near the end when they only have one use. Another is the lack of a password for the last level. Even so, overall the game is fun, if a little too hard. The challenge level is quite high in this game, as I said before. It may not be the longest game in number of levels, but it makes up for it in challenge. Even without most of the added features from later Mega Man games, the game is fun.
Score: 7/10
Multi Player: Like all Mega Man action games, there is none. Obviously, there is no score for this category.

Graphics: Mega Man has graphics that, while OK at parts, are clearly old for the Game Boy. When you compare its graphics even to other later GB games like Mega Man 4 or 5, it just can’t compare. It has low detailed backdrops, for one, and the sprites are not as well done as later games’ sprites. They look simpler and less detailed than many other games. Also, once in a while there is a lot of flicker, even on occasion when only one enemy is on the screen. This is sometimes a problem, but its not a game-killing flaw. Between its mediocre graphics and flicker, this game has graphics that are not that good.
Score: 5/10

Sound: The sound in Mega Man 1 is ok. While not as good as some games, the music is fine and the sound effects right– Mega Man’s gun is his gun, etc. Nothing really to complain about here… the music and sound are pretty well done for the Game Boy. Not much to say for this category.
Score: 7/10 (this is comparing it to other original Game Boy games, not any other platforms… otherwise a GB game would never get more than a 4 or 5 except for very rare occasions)

Other Info: This is the first Game Boy Mega Man game. If you like it, try to find the newer games in the series, namely Mega Mans 3 to 5 for GB and Mega Man Xtreme for GBC. Mega Man 2 GB is not worth getting because it can be beaten in under 2 hours flat.Â I know this because I played it for the first time once at a cousin’s house and beat it less than two hours… that’s not good, especially when you consider the fact that MM games don’t really have any replayability!

Scores:
Gameplay: 8/10
Single Player: 7/10
Multi Player: N/A
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 7/10
Total: 27/40 or 67.5 % (not the final score– this is just the total of the parts)

*Final Score: 76 % (not an average)* – C

Posted in Classic Games, Full Reviews, Game Boy, Reviews | Tagged Capcom, Game Boy, Mega Man, Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge, Review | Leave a comment

Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Mysteries of the Sith Review (PC) – The expansion to the best FPS ever is as great as the main game!

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Brian

This review was originally written in January 2004, but as I said I’d like to post all of my stuff in one place, so I am posting it on my site as well. I will post more of these in the coming days.

Title: Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Mysteries of the Sith
Platform: PC (Windows 9x)
Developer & Publisher: Lucasarts
Released: 1998

Jedi Knight. A great and, at the time, innovative FPS. I am a huge Star Wars fan, so I loved the game. Mysteries of the Sith is the add-on for Jedi Knight, and is a very worthy follow up. Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith is my favorite FPS.

Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith are very similar, as is expected from an add-on. But in this case that is a good thing because Jedi Knight is an extremely well done game. It does not add much to Jedi Knight’s formula, except for being able to use both the dark and light force at the same time, and adding more guns, but that is okay because Jedi Knight was already among the best in the genre in this category. Jedi Knight is unique, and has a good engine that can display large areas competently and does so often. Yes, by today’s standards the graphics are badly out of date, but if you can look past that you will see a game doing the best it can with the graphical limitations of the engine it is in. And besides, I like the game’s look. It is a nice representation of Star Wars and, as I said, does large outdoor areas very nicely, unlike most engines from when it came out. Quake is painfully bad at doing outdoor areas and even Quake III, whose engine is used in Jedi Knight 2 and 3, had problems here… none in this game. You are frequently in areas which stretch into the horizon. This sense of scale helps make the already brilliant level designs of JK/MotS even better. To me, while they have many strengths, the best part about Jedi Knight is its brilliant level designs. Level design is key to gameplay, and Jedi Knight succeeded brilliantly. Mysteries of the Sith continues that tradition, with more levels in the same style of Jedi Knight. Some are even better than the best ones in Jedi Knight, amazingly, given how good some levels are in the original game.

The last three levels, especially, are very memorable. I would say that that group of three still has yet to be equaled in any FPS… they are just that good. The only gameplay problem I can think of would come in here, however. The first 11 levels are good, but do not prepare you for the challenge and uniqueness of the last three. When you reach them, you will be in for something of a shock as the difficulty suddenly jumps up several levels and you lose all your guns, for good. I truly loved this part of the game, however, so I think that perhaps they should have reduced the doing small quests part in the middle of the game and expanded the final segment. It would have been great if there had been more than three levels on the planet, given how unique they are… Large, quite long, very challenging levels are the hallmark of Jedi Knight and they are fully in evidence here. They also can frequently be confusing and make you search the levels for where to go next all the time, and with frequent (but admittedly mostly switch-based — though not all. Some are inventive.) puzzles. but again, I like this aspect of the game. It is a refreshing change from your average FPS where it is nearly impossible to get lost. Of course the automap helps greatly here. Without it the game would definitely be a lot harder, and having it is a major plus. I think all FPSes should have automaps and am sad to see now few of newer FPSes have them. The level design in these games stands out especially well when compared to Jedi Knight 2 or 3, who have better looks but simpler and less complex level designs that just do not compare at all to the original JK. The gameplay gets a definite 10.

Graphically, as I said, the game is unmistakably old. Low poly, not that great texture detail, amazingly bad water… no one would play this game for its looks, and if you can’t get over that you will not like the game. But I like it because it presents the Star Wars universe very well, and allows for that massive scale. I give it an 9, considering when the game was released. I’d like to give it a 10, but even for then the engine was not exactly the best looking one out there. Based on today’s graphics of course it looks very bad, but judging old games by the graphical standards of now is not fair. And anyway, none of those better looking competitors could make levels as massive and lengthy as this one.

The game’s sound is very good. All the sounds sound very similar to the movie sounds, which is great. And the music can be really good. Yes, it is mostly just remixes of the movie music, but it is presented very, very well. I especially like the music in the last level, perhaps because of how much time I spent confused in it before figuring out how to progress… Nothing to complain about here. 10.0

As other reviews have mentioned, the story is admittedly weak. The game is broken up into groups of levels that are each stories but only have some things in common with eachother. It does feel like a group of mini-missions at times. It does have a story, though, and that story is better if you have read some of the Star Wars books, particularly Timothy Zahn’s popular, and great, trilogy of books that the games draw greatly from. If you haven’t read those books, however, a lot of things in the game just won’t make as much sense. It explains things well enough ingame, but it makes it more interesting if you know the backstory. Still, each of the level groups really does have a separate theme and story that only carries over on some issues. This is definitely the biggest flaw in the game, and don’t get this if you want a great and deep plot. It is good enough, however, and I have read the books so I loved seeing things from them in a Star Wars game — that does not happen very often. 7.0.

The final major aspect of JK:MotS is the multiplayer. It is essentially the same as the multiplayer in Jedi Knight, just with some more characters and levels to choose from. Still, given how good the multiplayer is in the main game, again, the best thing for them to do was not change things much. Also, some of the new levels are great, and the added force powers make things interesting since force is one of the most unique and fun aspects of the Jedi Knight series. 10.0.

In conclusion, Jedi Knights: Mysteries of the Sith is a brilliant expansion to one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time. Especially if you’re a Star Wars fan, certainly, but it has enough good things about it that everyone should try the game. The graphics haven’t stood up to time very well, and plenty of other games have done scripted events and puzzles, but Jedi Knight and its similar expansion have held up great.

And those last three levels… wow. Completely unique gameplay. Without spoiling anything, the final level of this game is one of the greatest FPS levels of all time, I would say, and is a true work of art. It is a hard and frustrating games at time and getting lost or stuck not knowing where to go is easy, but it is well worth it to get to the end. Also, if you buy Jedi Knight these days Mysteries of the Sith is included in the box, so they work as one long game. A true masterpiece, and it’s too bad that Lucasarts didn’t keep this team together to do a sequel. I’m sure they would have done a better job than Raven.

But if you aren’t a hardcore gamer, keeping a FAQ handy might be a good idea for this game.

Overall Scores
Gameplay – 10
Graphics – 9 (by the standards of the day; by today’s low, a 4 or 5 maybe… but I do love the style and size of the levels…)
Sound – 10
Multiplayer – 10

Overall – 9.9. And still among the best FPSes ever! This game gets an A+ and deserves it.

Posted in Full Reviews, Modern Games, PC, Reviews | Tagged Jedi Knight, Lucasarts, Mysteries of the Sith, pc, Review, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith | Leave a comment

A History of Midway Games (and related companies)

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Brian

I first got interested in Midway because they made many of the best arcade games of the ’80s and ’90s. They were one of the best publishers on the Nintendo 64 as well, and that is, of course, my favorite console. But after the N64 Midway entered a steep decline, and went out of business in early 2010. They were not able to recover from the death of the American arcade, sadly. Midway and the companies connected to it have a very complicated history. I can’t mention every game Midway made here, so I’ll try to just focus on the highlights.

As for sources, this was mostly written based on Wikipedia, Klov, and GameFAQs information, though often I had to do some research into game credits, accurate publishers or release dates, etc — a lot of the publisher and release date listings on online sites can be inaccurate. Perhaps I should have fully sourced this article, but I didn’t. If someone has any questions about something please ask. I do link the more important articles I used that aren’t from those three sites listed above.

The Final, 1997-2010 Midway Logo (from Wikipedia)

The Beginning, the Arcade Glory Days, and the Crash: 1958-1987

Founded in 1958, Midway Manufacturing was initially based in Franklin Park, Illinois. Midway was originally a developer of carnival midway games, as their name suggests. They soon became a major pinball table manufacturer, and later arcade game manufacturer as well. Midway was initially independent, then was bought by Bally Entertainment in 1969. Midway was a major producer of pinball games from the 1960s until 1999, and arcade games from 1973 to 2001. During this time Midway was perhaps the most prominent American producer of pinball and arcade games. In arcade games they had no equal outside of Japan, and in pinball their main competition was Williams Electronics. Williams was a nearby Chicago-based company, and Williams and Midway had a long, close relationship.

Midway, Williams, and Bally were all in the arcade or gambling machine business founded in the 1950s or 1960s, as Bally and Williams both made casino gambling machines. After being bought by Bally, Midway would not be a separate company until 1998, and that would not last long before they were purchased again. Along the way it bought numerous other companies, but first I will focus on these three. Bally/Midway and Williams would both enter the arcade and pinball game businesses early. Initially, in the ’70s, Bally made pinball games, Midway arcade games. The two studios merged, but the naming and staff split remained. The Bally name was the top name in pinball, so they kept it even after the games were being developed by Midway and Bally itself was not involved in videogames or pinball anymore. Williams made just pinball at first, but then in the late ’70s started up an arcade division as well, headed by the great Eugene Jarvis. His first game was the all-time classic Defender. Williams’ arcade division was small compared to their pinball division, but released some of the top early ’80s hits. Other top Williams games from 1980 to 1984 include Jarvis’ Robotron 2084, Joust, Sinistar, Bubbles, and Defender II (aka Stargate). Meanwhile Midway had its first hit when it became the US publisher of Taito’s Space Invaders in 1979. Midway also distributed Pac-Man in the US as well, and was the original publisher of GCC’s Ms. Pac-Man (yes, Ms. Pac-Man, the arcade game, is American and not Japanese). Unfortunately, Namco and Midway had a split over the rights to that game, as Namco claimed that Midway did not have the rights to make its own Pac-Man games. In the end Namco got the rights to Ms. Pac-Man and Midway’s other Pac-Man game as well, and Midway and Namco’s relationship was over. Midway also made games internally, such as the aforementioned Gorf, Satan’s Hollow, and Wizard of Wor in the early ’80s. Midway’s 1983 releases SpyHunter and Tapper would be even more successful.

In 1977, Midway, while a division of Bally, developed and released a console, the Bally Professional Arcade. The first machines launched under the Bally Home Library Computer name, but it was quickly changed to Bally Professional Arcade. The system released shortly after the Atari 2600, and even though it was quite substantially more powerful than the 2600, its high price put it out of reach for most people, and Bally’s marketing was poor; they sold it mostly in higher-end stores, not consumer electronics shops. Also, the system has reliability issues. As a result, despite its power Bally’s console sold poorly, and Bally/Midway stopped supporting their system in 1979. Midway’s game library for the system is small, but does include good ports of Gunfight and Space Fortress. The system had a second life when the rights to the console were purchased by a small company called Astrovision. They relaunched the console in 1981, first titling it the Bally Computer System and then later the Astrovision Astrocade, and supported it for the next few years. Astrovision did not have the rights to Midway’s arcade games, though, and Midway would not have its own home console game development division until 1996, so despite being a Midway console, it doesn’t have as many of Midway’s games on the system as you would expect. The only Midway game on the system from after 1979, ported by Astrovision and not Midway, is Wizard of Wor, retitled to The Incredible Wizard here. It’s a great port of a good game, but it is too bad that other great early ’80s Midway classics like Gorf or Satan’s Hollow do not have Astrocade releases. Still, Astrovision did return the system to stores, until its final discontinuation in 1983. This is Midway’s only attempt at a home console, and they would not make home console games between 1980 and 1995. All Midway home ports during that time were externally developed, usually by Acclaim in the early 1990s.

In 1981, Midway’s arcade release label was changed to “Bally/Midway” instead of just Midway. Pinball tables mostly kept the Bally name alone. In 1983 the great video game crash destroyed most of the home console gaming market in the US. This hurt Midway and Williams because the size of the US arcade game market shrank at the same time; arcade revenues in the US peaked before the crash. While arcade revenues leveled off for a while, and even saw a small boost in the early ’90s, ultimately they would decline again, and that time the decline did not stop. But returning to the first crash, as a result of it, Williams scaled down the size of its arcade division; Jarvis’ recently-set-up Wiz Kidz division closed down in 1984, and Williams released only one arcade video game between 1985 and 1987, 1986’s Joust II. Midway, however, never stopped making arcade games. They were surely less successful than in the years prior, but Midway kept releasing games anyway, including the hit game Rampage in 1986.

The Successful Williams Years: Williams Buys Midway (1988-1995)

Williams restarted arcade game development in 1988. Also that year, Williams (who had changed their name to WMS Industries in 1987; they still use this name) purchased Bally/Midway, that is, the pinball and arcade game division of Bally. Williams moved Midway to Chicago, where it stayed. At this time Bally exited the pinball and arcade games businesses, but Williams-Midway (sometimes called Williams-Bally-Midway) got the rights to continue to use Bally’s name on arcade pinball titles because of how well-known the Bally name was in pinball. Williams would merge the Midway (Bally) and Williams pinball divisions but continue to use both names on their tables, and with the merger Williams dominated American pinball; other manufacturers like Stern, Sega, or Gottleib were much smaller. Williams seems to have merged the divisions, adding on Bally’s design staff to their own. I’m not sure if the two design studios were immediately merged or if that happened later. For manufacturing I have questions too, but my best guess would be that Williams moved manufacturing over to their plant after buying Bally-Midway. Even so, tables using pre-merger Bally back-box designs released until 1992; after that, Bally tables used backboxes just like Williams tables had, but with the Bally name on them. (Source) Unfortunately, it was a declining market, as the history of pinball in the ’90s shows. Still, “Midway” never appeared on a pinball table, only Bally or Williams, while Bally-Midway vanished from arcade games in 1991. It would be nice to be clear on the manufacturing question, that thread linked above is helpful but I can’t find anything to clarify this point. I’m a videogame fan, not a pinball fan, though, so I don’t know pinball history (or where to look to find more about it) like I do videogame history.

Unlike pinball games, Midway did return to using only its own name on its arcade games after the Williams purchase. Bally’s name was dropped from Midway’s arcade games in 1991, and replaced with just Midway. Evidently they had confidence in the Midway name for arcade games, at least. After the merger Williams seems to have merged the Williams and Midway arcade game teams into one studio, except unlike pinball, here Midway was the larger, so they got the Williams people. This label merger happened in 1991, so between 1989 and 1990, arcade games were released under both labels, but what isn’t clear is when the two groups were moved into the same studio — was in 1989, or 1991? Between 1988 and 1990 Williams made NARC, Smash T.V., Hit the Ice (hockey), and High Impact (Football), while Bally-Midway did Trog, Pigskin (Football), Arch Rivals (basketball), Tri-Sports, and Blasted. It may be that the two studios stayed entirely separate, but Mark Turmell says that Trog, Smash TV, and Strike Force were in development when he joined Williams. Trog, of course, was released under the Bally-Midway label, not Williams, which suggests that the two had been merged to some extent by that point. Strike Force was a 1991 release, so it of course was released under the Midway label; Bally-Midway and Williams had both been replaced with Midway. Either way, though, in 1991 they dropped the Williams name. From 1991 to 1998, when Midway separated from Williams, the Midway name is on all of the company’s arcade (video) games. From 1991 on WMS would only use the Williams name on the Williams pinball tables and its casino business. It’s interesting, though, that they merged the arcade game labels, but kept two names for pinball machines.

In 1994, Williams bought the Leland Corporation, a company formed when Tradewest bought Cinematronics. Cinematronics was behind the arcade hit Dragon’s Lair, but Midway did not get the rights to that game, or to Tradewest’s games either as far as I can tell; Don Bluth kept the rights to his games, while Tradewest mostly released outside titles like Rare’s Battletoads or Japanese games. The only Leland game Midway has ever re-released is Super Off-Road, I believe; they surely got the rights to at least some others, but those games have not reappeared. Leland’s biggest hit was the arcade racing game Ivan Stewart’s Super Off-Road. This is why the game is found in Midway Arcade Treasures 3. Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat, another similar game from Leland, has sadly never re-appeared; perhaps its license is harder to strip off, as the Ivan Stewart license was removed from the version of Super Off-Road found in MAT3? Leland also had set up a new home console game side as well before being purchased, and who developed a few games for Williams, such as Kyle Petty’s “No Fear” Racing for the SNES. The Leland name was soon dropped, but their staff joined Midway, since that was Williams’ videogame division. Buying a studio with its own home console development team must have helped push Midway towards releasing home console games of its own. Several more reasons to do this would appear in the next few years.

In the early ’90s Midway made many hit arcade games, but the most successful of these were Cruis’n USA, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam. Midway most likely peaked in popularity between 1992 and 1995 thanks to those games and their sequels. All three were sensations, some of the most successful games of the time. Cruis’n USA was published in partnership with Nintendo, who helped boost the game in return for the IP rights. The game had a “Nintendo Ultra 64” logo at the start, even though it runs on a Midway board, in order to promote the coming Nintendo 64. This created unrealistic expectations for N64 graphical hardware; it could never have matched a multi-thousand-dollar arcade board. The Nintendo connection also brought Midway distribution rights for Rare’s three arcade games from 1994-1995, the two Killer Instinct games and Battletoads (Arcade), and continued on on the N64 once Midway started home console development. Midway also made a couple of successful lightgun games. Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the first one, and it’s always been a favorite of mine, both in arcades and the (Acclaim) home ports. Great game, and it was quite successful as well. They followed it up with the cheesy Aerosmith-licensed Revolution X, which released three years later but clearly runs on the same engine.

All of the games listed except for the Nintendo-published Cruis’n USA were published by Midway’s usual partner, Acclaim. However, in some cases, NBA Jam for example, Acclaim was making more money off of this deal than Midway was, and because Acclaim released the home ports of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, some people identified those games with Acclaim instead of Midway, which of course did not help Midway as much as it did Acclaim. Then, Acclaim managed to get the IP rights to the NBA Jam name away from Midway through some corporate skulduggery. As a result, Midway lost the NBA Jam name after the second game, 1994’s NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (T.E.), and had to call its next basketball game “NBA Hangtime”, while Acclaim made the completely different, and not as good, NBA Jam Extreme game for home consoles and its even worse successors. Hangtime and its successor NBA Showtime were successful, but not as much as NBA Jam had been. This soured the Midway-Acclaim relationship, and in 1995, Williams/Midway set up their own home console division. Mortal Kombat 3 released on consoles that year published by Williams, not Acclaim. In addition to the financial reasons, perhaps Williams was worried about something happening to Mortal Kombat like had happened to NBA Jam; MK was Midway’s biggest hit at the time.

Midway the Home Console and Arcade Developer (1995-2001)

In 1995, Williams decided to get into home console game development and publishing itself. Instead of licensing out its popular arcade games, they would make them themselves. Initially, the Williams name was used — Williams was on the initial Nintendo 64 “Dream Team” developer list, for instance. They developed Cruis’n USA, which Nintendo published through a deal which had given Nintendo the Cruis’n series IP rights in return for them helping to market the game and get it as an exclusive for their system and supposed arcade showcase for what the Nintendo 64 could do. Some games in 1995-1996 were released under the “Williams” label, such as the aforementioned “No Fear” Racing game for the SNES, or Williams Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for SNES, PS1, and Saturn. In late 1996, though, they changed over to using Midway’s name on home console titles. Buying Leland may have been Williams/Midway’s first home team, but the next item provided a big boost to Midway’s arcade and home console divisions as well.

In 1996, Williams/Midway bought Atari Games, the California-based studio who were the arcade division of Atari that had split from the home console division of Atari back in 1984, when Warner Bros. got out of the videogame industry for the first time after the crash and sold off Atari Consumer (Atari’s home console and computer divisions) to the Tramiels. Atari Games became independent in 1986, and for a while was lucky compared to the travails of Tramiel’s Atari Consumer Corporation (I won’t get into that here, but they had many problems.). It kept its staff and was in decent shape until the late ’90s. Atari Games only had the rights to use Atari on its arcade machines, not home console machines, but in 1987 decided that they wanted to do their own home console ports, so they had to come up with a new name for the home division. Thus, Tengen was born. In 1989, Time Warner Interactive (yes, Warner again) bought Atari Games. Tengen lasted until mid 1994, when Warner decided to use the Time Warner Interactive label on Atari Games’ home videogames, instead of Tengen. Thus, the Tengen name was retired. TWI did not last long, though, because Time Warner sold Atari Games to Midway in mid 1996. At this time, these home ports went under the Williams name, and then Midway by the end of that year. San Francisco Rush, Atari Games’ first title as a part of Midway, was a fantastic game and very successful. It’s one of my favorite arcade racing games ever. This purchase also got Midway, and thus WB Games now, the rights to the incredible 1984-1996 Atari Games arcade game library, including the classics Toobin’, Paperboy 1 and 2, Vindicators, Gauntlet I and II, Rampart, Marble Madness, Pit-Fighter, Super Sprint, Championship Sprint, Xybots, A.P.B., Cyberball 2070, and 720 degrees. Midway would soon start making its own new Gauntlet games, and including the others in compilations.

Midway continued releasing popular games in the late ’90s. My interest in Midway peaked during this period, so I have more to say about their games from this era than the others. Also, Midway was releasing its own home ports now, which meant more releases. Midway’s games in the late ’90s were so much better than anything that came afterwards that the difference must be explained. Trouble was right around the corner, but many gamers like me didn’t see it coming. NBA Showtime and NBA Hoopz were successful but did not regain NBA Jam’s smash-hit status, but they did make some good arcade hockey and football games. Midway had made arcade sports games before, such as Hit the Ice, but Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey (1996, arcade and Nintendo 64) and NFL Blitz (the next year; for arcade, N64, and PS1) did better than past non-basketball Midway sports games had, I believe. Both games started out in arcades, but soon were ported to home consoles. NFL Blitz became particularly popular, as its brand of violent football action resonated. Another popular series around this time was the rebirth of Gauntlet, with Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet Dark Legacy. I personally really love these two games; they’re some of my favorite action-RPGs ever, hands down! Midway’s Cruis’n series was also hugely successful in arcades; though the home console ports never did as well as the arcade versions did, the three Midway Cruis’n games are among the most successful arcade racing games ever.

The home ports of all these games did well also. Midway also became a home console publisher, and published other developers’ games. Midway released games on all popular consoles from 1995 on, especially the N64 and Playstation, but saw particular success on the N64. Atari Games’ N64 titles were all exclusive (that PS1 Rush port was external and terrible), the Cruis’n games were N64-only because Nintendo owned the rights, Mace: The Dark Age, a quality 3d fighter, saw its only home release on the N64, and Midway published some significant external titles as well. Midway published all four of Boss Games’ N64 games, for example, including Top Gear Rally, Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding, the fan-favorite World Driver Championship, and Stunt Racer 64. They also published Wipeout 64 for Psygnosis and Body Harvest for DMA Design after Nintendo dropped that game. For a while Midway made more money from the N64 than from any other console. By 2000 the N64 was fading, though, and Midway’s PS1-only efforts, such as Assault: Retribution (another externally developed title), Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (this started out as an N64 game before being canned and moved to PS1; good move, N64 gamers expected some level of quality from Midway), and Rampage Through Time were not nearly as the level of their N64 games. Midway did try branching into handheld game publishing as well, but none of their handheld games were particularly great. Acclaim’s GB Mortal Kombat games had not been good, but Midway’s were no better. Another GBC Midway game, Cruis’n Exotica for the GBC, looks nice, but has badly flawed gameplay.

Midway also started releasing classic compilations in the mid ’90s. In the ’90s, Williams/Midway owned the rights to now only all of the other games described here, but also some pre-1984 Atari games. Those rights would later go (through a sale I presume, or because it was a temporary license?) to Infogrames, which became the new “Atari”, but for a before then Midway released several collections on the PC, PS1, Saturn, and SNES which include pre-’84 Atari classics on the discs. They did two collections of pre-’84 Atari games during this time, and two of other Midway/Williams games. The first ones have Williams’ name in the title, the later ones Midway. There was a further collection of mostly Midway games on the PS1 only.

Despite being a part of Midway, Atari Games/Midway Games West (as it was later called) maintained separate studios and a separate identity as long as it lasted. Atari Games’ home ports were, as under Tengen, often done internally — the SF Rush games for N64 were done by Atari Games itself, for instance, not Midway. Atari Games also developed the N64 version of their arcade game California Speed. Some games that were outsourced, like SF Rush for the PSX, were terrible. Midway did outsource more games though anyway, such as Hydro Thunder, done by Eurocom on the N64 and DC and Blue Wave on PSX. Atari Games was successful for its first few years under Midway, but after the turn of the millennium, the continued collapse of Western arcade markets helped doom the studio, and later Midway as well. Still, the company went out on top; its last released arcade game was San Francisco Rush 2049. Their home port of the game is, in my opinion, the greatest game ever made in which you control vehicles. Midway Games West had another arcade racing game in development when it was cancelled in 2001 thanks to Midway abandoning arcade games. I’d still love to play it someday.

However, despite these successes, overall arcade revenues were declining, and pinball, as mentioned earlier, was doing even worse. Midway was a successful home publisher at this point, for their home ports of arcade games were doing well, and they published some good home-exclusive titles as well, but there must have been concern for the future. Williams wanted out. So, in 1998, halfway through the release history described above, WMS Industries (Williams) spun off Midway. Midway was still doing okay for the moment, but with declining arcade revenues industry-wide, Williams was done. Midway kept all of Williams’ back-IP rights to console games, though; this is why WB now owns the rights to games such as Defender. Despite this, Williams and Midway stayed close, and continued to share a board member for as long as Midway survived. Williams got out of arcade and video games, going to just pinball and slot machines. At this time Sumner Redstone, Viacom’s owner, started buying up Midway stock. He started out with 15% of the company in 1998, and became majority owner in 2003. He oversaw Midway’s decline and fall. Midway sold most of its pinball assets to Williams and then abandoned pinball in ’99, finally ending the use of the name Bally outside of casinos. However, Williams didn’t last much longer in pinball than Midway — after the failure of its “Pinball 2000” line in, well, 2000, Williams followed Midway out of the pinball business, leaving only little Stern still making pinball tables. Like Bally, WMS Industries has been successful in their surviving business, casino games.

The Fall of Midway (2001-2010)

In 2000, Midway was the fourth largest videogame publisher. They would drop precipitously from that position in just a few short years. In 2001, Midway stopped making arcade games. This is where Midway’s quality level started to precipitously drop; the company never recovered from this move, as much sense as it seemed to make at the time. Midway had always been an arcade game developer, and the shift over to home console gaming went badly. Midway never quite managed to entirely adjust over to what console gamers wanted, and game quality suffered badly as a result. As something of a Midway fan after their great years in the ’90s, it was a sad time. In 2003, Midway Games West (Atari Games) was shut down. Midway Games West only made one console game between ’01 and ’03, the 3d platformer Dr. Muto for PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. It’s a good but not great game, but the teams’ lack of experience in the genre shows — the team had never done a 3d platformer before, since those do not work in arcades. The game must not have done well enough, and so one of gaming’s oldest developers, one with a direct history to the original Pong, closed. Things got even worse for Midway afterwards.

That really is the story of 2001-2010 Midway. Midway still made some good games here and there. Mortal Kombat had begun declining after MK Trilogy, but MK: Deadly Alliance was a bit of a boost for the series in ’02, after some down years after MK4’s relative failure. It saw two sequels by ’06, on Gamecube, Xbox, PS2, and Wii, but while successful, the new MK wasn’t the phenomenon that the original game was. They were among Midway’s most popular games of the period for sure, though. Among other games, the new classic collections for Gamecube, Xbox, PS2, and PC were pretty good. Many classic Midway, Williams, and Leland games appeared again in the Midway Arcade Treasures line in the ’00s. Those collections include everything Midway still had the rights to from their PS1 discs (so, everything except for the pre-’84 Atari stuff), and many more games besides. The first collection even includes all of the developer interview videos from the original PS1-era collections, though it’s missing the Atari ones of course for rights reasons. Midway also continued bringing back classic franchises with new games. Their 6th-gen SpyHunter reboot was successful, and led to two sequels. The first one’s pretty fun! I also really like the highly under-rated Defender reboot, Defender, also for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Midway mostly let its arcadey racing game dominance die with its arcade divisions, stupidly, but they did make the good, and also under-rated, kart-ish flight racer Freaky Fliers. The TNA wrestling games were popular, though. Midway had some other good games as well. However, otherwise they were getting far off-base, and it’s not hard to see why they were failing financially. Midway mostly left Nintendo behind in the early ’00s, thanks to the Gamecube’s lacking success compared to the N64, but it didn’t help. Games like LA Rush and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, both for PS2 and Xbox, were debacles that ruined some of my favorite franchises and failed to sell well also. Midway’s sports games in this period abandoned the arcade sensibilities that had made them successful in the first place in favor of more simmish designs like everyone else, but Midway wasn’t quite as good at that as EA or the other top developers, and so Midway just couldn’t quite hold on in the genre. The third of the new SpyHunter games was a disappointment as well. The NARC reboot was also bad. Later Midway handheld games like Cruis’n Velocity and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for the GBA are no better. Midway had never been great at handheld games, but they definitely did not improve in the ’00s.

In 2005, Midway bought Ratbag Games, only to close the studio four months later because the next generation was coming and rather than pay for Ratbag to become able to handle next-gen development, they shut them down. Closing studios you bought is not uncommon, but such a short time between purchase and shutdown is pretty cruel, and a pointless waste of money. Midway continued to decline. By 2006, Midway was the 20th largest video game publisher, down 16 places from only six years prior. People who remember this era’s Midway forget that only a few years earlier Midway was one of the biggest publishers in the industry.

The next generation brought even higher costs that Midway could not afford. Some games did okay, but the last generation was a generation of the destruction of the midsized publisher, which is what Midway was by 2006 because of how badly they had contracted from 2000, when they’d still been one of the big publishers. Midway published some good PS360 games, such as Epic’s Unreal Tournament 3, but costs were too high, particularly for a company barely surviving as it was. Midway poured a lot of years and money into the open-world game This Is Vegas, but it never materialized, until finally dying with Midway when the company went under. The PS3/X360 game John Woo’s Stranglehold did release in 2007, and is an ambitious, decent to good game, but it cost a lot to make and sold poorly, so it was something of a financial disaster. The game is sometimes mentioned as one of the final blows to the company, sort of like BMX XXX was for Acclaim, though I doubt it reaches the level of THQ’s PS3/X360 UDraw debacle that ultimately destroyed that company. Midway did see success from the Touchmaster series of casual motion and touch minigame collection games for the DS and Wii, but it wasn’t enough.

In 2007 Sumner Redstone owned 87% of Midway, but the company was losing a lot of money every year. Even someone as rich as he was would eventually get tired of large losses and no gain. Midway closed two smaller studios in 2008. Later in 2008, Sumner Redstone, facing large losses in both Midway and his main businesses of Viacom and the National Amusements theater chain, sold Midway for nearly no money. Later that year Midway entered bankruptcy as a result. Despite this, in 2009 Midway released games, most importantly a Mortal Kombat reboot which became very successful, sparking a rebirth of a franchise which had faded in the late ’90s. It could not make up for all of Midway’s losses, but it showed that that team, at least, could still make great, and successful, games. However, Midway’s end was not delayed long. A lawsuit from stockholders against Redstone for his management of the company did not help either. The company finally closed in mid 2009 and was officially shut down in 2010, after Redstone got tired of losing so much money.

Aftermath: WB Games and Conclusion

After this Midway did not exist anymore, but its legacy does. After Sumner Redstone allowed Midway to go bankrupt, its assets were sold off. THQ bought the San Diego studio and the TNA license, only to shut it down several years later as they headed towards their own bankruptcy and dissolution. Warner Brothers, perhaps interested in part because they had previously owned Atari Games twice before (as described above) and Midway owned that company’s back-catalog rights from 1985 to 2003, bought the main Chicago studio, the Seattle studio Surreal Software, and Midway’s name and game IP rights. The other two smaller studios Midway still owned shut down. Many people lost their jobs in Chicago as well; only one team, the Mortal Kombat team, survived the culling. In the last year of its life everyone at Midway either left, or desperately tried to attach themselves to Mortal Kombat as best they could, since everyone knew that that was the only IP, and team, with a chance of survival. Some made it, others didn’t. The resulting studio, part of WB Games, is now known as NetherRealm Studios. NetherRealm makes Mortal Kombat games, and some other fighting games as well such as Injustice: Gods Among Us, and has seen a rebirth in popularity. Surreal had been working on This Is Vegas, but WB abandoned the game, and instead merged that team into their other Seattle team, Monolith, a first-person-shooter focused studio. It’s too bad the game never finished, it could have been interesting.

In addition to NetherRealm and the staff from Surreal, WB Games also used the Midway back catalog in the 2012 Midway Arcade Origins collection for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The collection, as with all Midway collections since the mid ’90s, is a mixture of Williams, Vid Kidz, Midway, Atari Games, and Leland titles. Midway owned all of those back catalogs by the mid ’90s, and now WB has them. Midway didn’t make all of those games, but they did make some.

So, Midway lives on as a part of WB Games, both in a library sense and a development sense. However, Midway the independent developer, and most of Midway’s teams and staff, are gone. Midway went from being one of the more successful developers around, back in the early to mid ’90s, to a money-losing failure. This really shows how quickly the technology industry changes, and how hard it can be for companies to keep up with the changing marketplace and audience. Midway’s downfall was the decline of arcades in North America. Arcades declined because computers and consoles were getting more powerful, and the price of arcade machines was too high to support their reduced revenues. Arcade machines could have done better graphics than home systems just because of their higher costs, but people thought that home computer and video games looked good enough. Also, the growth of the internet further hurt arcades, as people turned to online play for multiplayer, instead of gathering in arcades.

Midway tried to adjust with the changing times by moving to console game development, but the company was designed to make arcade games, and it just could not adjust well to console development. Midway was one of my favorite N64 publishers, but by the next generation they were barely even on the list by the end of the generation, thanks to how far their games had fallen. And many other people weren’t even as kind as I; Midway became something of a laughingstock, like Acclaim, another company I kind of like, despite its faults. That’s sad, but I’d rather remember how great Midway was up until the early ’00s. They had their faults for sure, but all publishers do, and Midway published some of the best games of the ’90s. Nobody should forget that just because they could not keep that up once arcades lost their importance outside of Japan.

Today, WB Games owns parts or all of the back-catalogs of games published by the following companies and labels:

Midway Manufacturing
Bally Entertainment
Williams Electronics / WMS Industries
Bally-Midway
Leland Corporation
Atari Games / Midway Games West
Midway Games
Tengen Inc. (Atari Games division)
Time Warner Interactive (Atari Games years)

Posted in Arcade Games, Articles, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Modern Games, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Research, Saturn, SNES, Xbox | Tagged Articles, Astrocade, Atari Games, Bally, Bally-Midway, Company History, Gauntlet, Leland, Midway, Mortal Kombat, rush, Sumner Redstone, Tengen, Time Warner Interactive, Warner Bros., WB Games, Williams | Leave a comment

Rolling Thunder 3 (Genesis) Review – The Flaws of a Still-Good Sequel to a Classic

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Brian

Title: Rolling Thunder 3
Platform: Sega Genesis
Developer & Publisher: Namco
Release: 1993 (US-exclusive title)

Rolling Thunder is a side-scrolling action series from Namco. The original Rolling Thunder released in arcades in the late ’80s, and it was amazing! The game feels like a slow-paced run&gun inspired by Elevator Action, but I think any Rolling Thunder game is far better than anything from that in my opinion slightly boring series. This game, Rolling Thunder 3, isn’t quite as good as its forbears, but it’s still a good game. I should start with the first game, though, for those who don’t know it.

Rolling Thunder (NES) title screen

The first Rolling Thunder was a true classic. The game is a modern spy-movie type game, inspired by James Bond and the like, and you play as special agent “Albatross” who has to slaughter his way through an army of evil cultists as he tries to rescue his female partner “Leila”. So yes, it’s a rescue-the-girl game. The cultists all wear hoods, which makes them look more menacing. You have limited ammo, and if you run out are in deep trouble, so conserve, and only shoot when you have to. If you run out of bullets, that’s it; you have no melee attack. Rolling Thunder is a strategic shooter, essentially. You need to duck, jump, or jump between platform levels to avoid fire, while shooting precisely to take out the enemies. Some doors (see the Elevator Action element above) have weapon recharges in them, or rarely health ups. You have eight hit points, but getting hit takes away half of it, and getting shot pretty much kills you, so watch out. Die and it’s back to the last checkpoint. It’s unforgiving, and a bit slow paced as you carefully edge forward and take out the enemies, but it’s a fantastic game. I first played it back in the ’90s in the arcades, and while I couldn’t get very far, I liked the game a lot. The game also has a pretty good NES port which adds in a badly needed password save system. It was released on other platforms as well.

Rolling Thunder 2 (Genesis) gameplay

Rolling Thunder got two sequels before the series sadly stopped. I didn’t play either sequel until within the last decade, but the second game was released in arcades and on the Genesis, and it’s a great game. It lets you play as either Albatross or Leila, adds bosses to the series, is just as hard as the original, and has a two player co-op mode, which is great to have. The level designs don’t feel quite as good to me as those in the original game do, but it’s still great. The third and last one here, which this review is for, was released for the Genesis only. This is the only console-exclusive game in the series. Overall though it’s a great series, and I wish that it’d come back; make a new (still side scrolling of course) digital-download Rolling Thunder game, Namco! It’d be great.

Rolling Thunder 3 Title Screen

Now, on to Rolling Thunder 3. This time you play as Jay, another special agent for the same group as Albatross, and you’re out to beat the evil villain Dread and destroy his sinister organization. Your mission apparently is happening at the same time as Rolling Thunder 2, which is why Albatross and Leila are unavailable. There’s also a woman who is the usual female voice in your ear character; as I said above you can play as her with a password, but she has no story, just the levels, and plays identically to Jay, though that I would expect; Albatross and Leila played the same in the second game, too.

Overall, while Rolling Thunder 3 is a good to great game, I think that it’s disappointing and the worst of the three games for multiple reasons. First, the game is easier than either previous title. On Normal difficulty the final boss of this game is very challenging, but the rest of the game before that really isn’t so bad, once you spend a little time memorizing it. Second, the great co-op mode from the second game is gone for no reason. And on that note, by default, and in the story, you only play as a male agent again this time; there is a female one to play as, but only through a special password, and she has no story. It’s better than nothing though. The game also gives you a special weapon in each level (except for level 9), which might sound good, but really it’s maybe a bit too much much firepower for a game that is supposed to be more about thought and careful action than it is about running around guns-a-blazing. Rolling Thunder 3 also has less interesting level designs than the previous titles, except for the final bosses’ final form easier bosses than Rolling Thunder 2 (the first one didn’t have bosses, remember), However, the game does have mostly great gameplay, the diagonal firing ability is great and was a very welcome addition, despite the flaws the game is plenty of fun if you’re a fan of the series, it’s is the only Rolling Thunder game with actual cutscenes between levels that tell a continuing, if generic, spy action movie plot, and it has some decent and varied graphics and sound too, so anyone who likes this series at all should definitely play Rolling Thunder 3. Just don’t expect it to be as good as the previous two games.

As the list above suggests, the most important thing to know about Rolling Thunder 3 is that it’s a consolized game. The story scenes between levels, changing locations, simpler level designs, heavier weapons in your arsenal, and more all add up to simplifying and consolizing the series. The special weapons are emblematic of that change, I think. You can choose from nine different weapons before each stage, or you can choose to not take one with you, and if you choose a weapon before a level, you can’t use it again in the rest of the game, unless it appears in a door as a pickup. So, you need to conserve your weapon choices, and have the right one left for the final level, for instance. I recommend the Bazooka! It’s an interesting mechanic, but the special weapons in general aren’t needed, and give you a feeling of power that doesn’t really fit with the Rolling Thunder series’ theme. A bazooka, in Rolling Thunder? Really? Sure, the weapons have limited ammo and you are rewarded a bit for not taking one, as you can then use any for the final stage and also you do have a knife weapon if you don’t have a special weapon equipped (it does two bullets worth of damage per hit) and also if you go into a special weapon ammo refill room without one you’ll instead get healed (or have 1 added hit point added, if you have full health), and that’s great. Really, I think this game is the most fun when played without special weapons, except for that bazooka to help against the final boss. Take them if you want, but they’re not needed.

An early level in Rolling Thunder 3

In terms of length and level designs, the game isn’t any longer than the first two games; on the contrary, thanks to its lower difficulty level, it’s shorter, and even without that, it’s not that long. Rolling Thunder 3 has ten levels, three of which are somewhat short special stages, and most of the rest are straightforward. When compared to the previous games, and the first game particularly, in terms of level designs and weapons Rolling Thunder 3 tries to make things simpler and more actioney. Level designs here are not as complex as they often were in the first game. Levels just go to the right, or occasionally up or down a single screen at set points. There are no large areas multiple screens tall for you to go through, as the first game had from the beginning. Don’t expect anything like that big staircase in the first level of Rolling Thunder, either. That’s disappointing. There aren’t even interesting set-pieces like the sections with all those tires in Rolling Thunder 1! There are some nice scenes to be sure, like that one time that enemies jump at you from a helicopter, or the explosive gas tanks, but those are in the first two levels,… and then nothing like either one happens again for the rest of the game. Yeah, this game is like that. That level with the gas tanks you can blow up also has a very bland design; it’s mostly just walking to the right and shooting, simple as that. The later levels get harder, and there are almost always two platform levels later on, but the game just doesn’t have those unique level design challenges like the ones that fill the first game from the first level on. No, Namco, having every level take place in a different place, often with a different set of (similar) enemies, doesn’t excuse how bland the levels are once you take off the new paint jobs.

This game has many fewer doors than the previous games, too, so when you see a door, there’s an odds-on chance that something is actually behind it. The level designs this time really are too simple and bland. Most of the time you’re just on a one or two level sideways path. The only variation is in the environment — and this game has many, as befitting its action-movie theme, as every level has a new setting — and in which areas have that second level of platforms and which don’t. While playing this game it’s easy to forget this problem, as the game is fun and simple, but play this and then the first or second ones, and the problem becomes apparent. There was plenty of imagination here in the settings, but not much in the level designs.

Compounding that issue are the three special stages, which are levels 3, 6, and 9. In the first one you are on a motorcycle, the second on a jetski, and the last in a hijacked airplane. The first two are isometric, not side-scrolling, and they’re simple but fun. Don’t expect much challenge, but they are entertaining diversions. That airplane level is a real pain, though. You aren’t allowed a special weapon in this level, and there are no alternate levels of play either; it’s just one long flat floor. There’s no way to hide here. As a result it’s somewhat frustrating, and doesn’t feel like something with any place in a Rolling Thunder game, either. At least the level isn’t too long; still, use the knife a lot, or you’ll run out of bullets. Learning that is the key to the stage.

Scene from the intro

There are some good things about Rolling Thunder 3, though. Most obviously, as I said above, this is still Rolling Thunder at its core. They put in too much actioney stuff, but the Rolling Thunder core is still here, and it’s a lot of fun. First, that diagonal firing ability is just great to have. It’s no replacement for the co-op mode in the second game, but still, it makes things more fun in single player mode, for sure. Also, the game may be easier than the first two games, but there is an unlockable Hard mode you get after you beat the game the first time, and given how crazy-difficult the first two games get, making a somewhat easier Rolling Thunder game isn’t all bad. I mean, I can actually beat this one… it’s satisfying to finish a game. Also, that final boss was a fun challenge. Sure, it took me dozens of tries, several days, and innumerable replays of the final level (yes, I got pretty good at it) before I finally got past him, but once I did it was quite satisfying. I only wish that the game had more unpredictable challenges like that one, but it doesn’t; the first three bosses, and the first form of the final boss, have basic patterns that should be easy to learn. Either that, or you can just beat them by moving in and attacking until they lose, it varies from boss to boss. Still, at least the final form was hard.

Also, the levels which are more traditionally Rolling Thunder in style, like levels 8 and 10, are both moderately challenging, and are quite fun to try to master. At first they seem tough, and level 10’s boss is, but other than that, with practice I learned how to get through them without too much trouble. Memorization is of course key, but that’s par for the course in this kind of game, and I don’t mind it. It’s unfortunate that the game takes so long to get good, and that the levels stay bland in layout and design, but at least they do manage to get more fun as you go along even if the floor layouts never match the original title. And finally, the graphics are nice, the music is good, and the story, if simplistic and generic, is solid for the genre. The ending is fitting for the genre as well. I only wish that the female character had an ending, but ah well. I like that they added cutscenes to the game; they’re decently done, and don’t go on for too long.

Overall, Rolling Thunder 3 is a very good game that I quite enjoyed playing through. I’ll probably come back to it and try it at least partway through on the Hard mode, too. However, it’s just not nearly as good as either of its predecessors, and overall, as a Rolling Thunder game it’s a moderate disappointment. Still, it’s sad that the series ended with this game; it’s a great series, and deserved to continue. Ah well, at least there were three good games. Overall, definitely play this game, but consider it an intro to Rolling Thunder, and move on to its superior predecessors after spending some time with it. I’m not sure what score I’d give this game, it’s honestly hard… a B or B-, probably, maybe a C if I was being hard on it, but choosing one rating is tough. On the one hand it’s fairly good as a standalone game, but on the other hand, it’s moderately disappointing compared to the incredible original game. That makes it tough to precisely score. Anyway though, overall, Rolling Thunder 3 is a good, but not great, game. I liked it a lot, but I would have liked it even more if it’d been more like the original. I guess I give it a B; I do really, really love the original. Make a Rolling Thunder game again, Namco! A 2d one would be great.

Posted in Classic Games, Full Reviews, Genesis, Reviews | Tagged Genesis, Namco, Review, Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder 3 | Leave a comment

Avenger (Turbo CD) Review – Under Defeat’s under-rated, and great, TCD spiritual predecessor

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Brian

Title: Avenger
Platform: Turbo CD (PC Engine CD)
Developer: Telenet Japan
Publisher: Laser Soft
Release: December 7, 1990 (Japan only)

Intro

The Turbo CD is a great, and important, console. Designed by Hudson and sold by NEC, it was the first ever CD-based gaming platform when it released in Japan in 1988. While I love cartridges too, that is an important advance. I finally got my Turbo CD drive repaired in late summer 2013, and the system has been my most-played TV console since then. This is the first Turbo CD game I finished (Alzadick aside, but that’s a special case), so it got my first full review. The Turbo CD is awesome. I wish more Western gamers in general knew about its greatness. The TG16+CD, or PC Engine and PCE CD as they were known in Japan, have some dedicated fansites, but very little awareness outside of that hardcore base. Given the system’s low sales in the West, and thus low availability here, that is sadly unlikely to change, but it should. Anyone who likes 3rd or 4th gen gaming really should play more Turbografx! It’s really good.

Background

The box does a good job of showing what the game is like.

Avenger is a shmup from Laser Soft, which was one of Telenet Japan’s many divisions, along with Riot, Reno, Renovation, and Wolf Team. Telenet supported the Genesis and SNES as well, but while they did make cartridge games, they were also an early pioneer in CD gaming. From 1989-1994, they supported the Turbo CD and then Sega CD as well. Telenet was the first third party to support the Turbo CD, which was the first ever CD-based gaming platform. However, several years later, Telenet fell apart. By 1995 Telenet was collapsing; Wolf Team was bought by Namco (they became Namco’s Tales Studio). Renovation, their American publishing arm which had focused almost exclusively on Genesis and Sega CD games, was bought by Sega. At the time they were just starting to support the SNES, so they released only one SNES game. Renovation never supported the Turbografx, sadly. Too bad. NEC released a few of Telenet’s TG16/CD games, most notably Valis II and III, but Avenger, like most of their games, stayed Japan-only. The rest of Telenet either shut down or became a shadow of its former self, as Telenet itself devolved into being pretty much a gambling games only studio from about 1995 on, and closed in 2007. Looking at their games from their 1989-1994 time as a major console games publisher, Telenet’s games are often flawed, and are not as polished as, say, Nintendo’s, but they made quite a few but while they lasted they made some interesting games.

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Review
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Title Screen

So, on to the actual game. Avenger is not one of Telenet’s more popular releases, for sure, but I at least think that it is an under-appreciated, quite high quality game. This review will cover all major elements of the game, including the gameplay, weapons and upgrades, cutscenes, ingame graphics, options, and music. Lastly, final thoughts and a grade for the game (since I have finished the game, so I think scoring it is reasonable).

Game Design

The city level (level 3 or 4) is the best-looking level in the game. Also note the angled fire from your copter.

Avenger is a vertical shmup clearly inspired by Toaplan games like Kyukyoku Tiger/Twin Cobra, but it has one key original design feature: the aiming system. Your helicopter rotates as you move right or left, and fires at the angle it is facing. You can aim up to about a 45 degree angle in either direction. By holding the II button while firing with I, your futuristic helicopter will lock at the angle you’re currently firing at, so that as you move around the screen you continue to fire in the locked direction while moving wherever. This is the key design decision Under Defeat would reuse, over 15 years later. That game is certainly better (and much, MUCH better looking) than this one, but any Under Defeat fan should find Avenger interesting. It’s important to note, though, that you must leave the Turbo switches on your controller OFF for this game, or the controls will not work right! The lock won’t work with the switches on. You have autofire anyway, so it’s not needed.

From the last level, this is one of the harder parts of the game, if you’re not at full power… but I did eventually figure out how to get through this corridor safely. Watch those bullet patterns!

Apart from that, though, Avenger definitely feels inspired by Toaplan games and other major ’80s shmups like, perhaps, Raiden, though this is not a “Raiden-style” game like Cyber-Core (TG16) is. The game is a vertical-scrolling shooter, and feels somewhat like Kyukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra), except not quite as hard, and better looking than that game is. The game has about eight stages, but is somewhat nonlinear — you will play all of the levels every time, but can choose which order to play the middle levels in (2-3, 4-5, 6-7). You choose one or the other, then will go to the other stage next. It’s a minor, but nice, addition. Avenger heavily relies on memorization. Each time you play the game you will get better and learn more, so your first few times through the game might be tough. This isn’t the hardest shmup, though, s stick with it and it is doable. Even so, the game can be challenging in that classic shmup way because of how it demands memorization, and also punishes you for dying. I think the difficulty level is balanced very well, though. This game is not nearly as hard as Kyokyoku Tiger/Twin Cobra, thankfully. I completed the game after some practice, and I’m definitely not the best shmup player around. Overall Avenger isn’t easy, but it’s not super hard either — it’s just right. While many enemies shoot at you, bosses and some certain enemy types shoot preset patterns instead. These are not bullet-hell-impossible, though; with a little practice, and watching, I could figure them out. There are often safe spots in a pattern, so look for them. I like the bullet pattern design in this game for sure. It’s good.

Weapons and Upgrades

Level 2 or 3, the canyon. Hit the sides and you will blow up! Only some levels have instant-death walls, but this is one of them. So watch out.

Avenger lets you choose which weapon/item you want for each of your copter’s three slots: main weapon, secondary weapon, and special ability. Helpfully, the weapon-select screen is entirely in English, even though the between-mission story text is in Japanese. There are three things you will unlock in each category over the course of the game; at the start you have no choices, but by the end, or if you use that “unlock all weapons from the start” code you can find on GameFAQs and elsewhere, you have some choices for sure. The three main guns are a machine gun, a laser, or rockets. I like the rockets at first, then lasers later, though all three are good. You don’t start with a secondary weapon, but will get homing missiles at the start of the second level, and then later get a directional gun (useless) and side gunpods. I find the homing missiles and gunpods both useful in different levels. For special abilities, you start with one which destroys all bullets on screen (3 uses per level). The other two come much later in the game. One is a one-time-use invincibility item, and the last a two-uses megabomb (finally!). You also have shielding on your copter which can take 5 hits before you are destroyed, which is very handy.

As in Toaplan games, or others, one enemy ship type drops powerups when destroyed. The drop will cycle between different letters. “R” restores one hit point (up to a max of 5). The others upgrade your main weapon and upgrade your special weapon (only appears in level 2 and on). You cannot upgrade or restore your special item, so use them carefully. Your secondary weapon maxes out with only a couple of powerups, but the main gun takes four or five to hit max power, so try to stay alive. If you die, though, you get game over and will have to continue and start the level over. You have infinite continues in Avenger, but can’t save your progress, and this game can get hard at times if you die, due to losing all of your powerups. This is an oldschool game, and getting reverted to base power HURTS. Even though you can take multiple hits, which adds an very helpful margin for error to the game, it’s easy to take damage quickly once the hits start coming. Some skill will be required, though again, the difficulty here is reasonable overall. Tough, but reasonable. Overall, the weapon and upgrade systems are classic, and work well. It is very annoying how once in a while the upgrade icons will fly off the screen before going to the powerup you need, though, so watch them carefully and try to destroy the ships carrying them as far up the screen as you can!

Cutscenes

Beginning of the intro. Poor city… it is doomed, just in order to give you a game to play.

This game released in 1990, still in the early years of CD gaming. So, the cutscenes here are important. Telenet did a nice job with the presentation in Avenger. Unlike some early Turbo CD shmups (Legion, Daisenpuu Custom, Sidearms Special…), the game has not only CD-audio music, but also has voiced introduction and ending cutscenes. The voice acting is in Japanese, but the basics of what is going on are simple enough to understand: with our high-tech futuristic helicopter, defeat the badguys attacking your country. Beyond that, apparently the story is about a military commander from your nation who became a traitor and is trying to take a large carrier, which was supposed to be your helicopter’s base, to the enemy. You have to stop him, and the carrier. As with most Turbo CD games the intro and ending are “animated” in a very limited fashion. The Turbo CD has only 64KB of RAM by default, and this game released before the RAM-expanding Super or Arcade Cards, so animation in cutscenes is limited and cutscenes have frequent black screens for loading. Still, the two cutscenes look nice enough.

Options

Avenger has no options or settings, unfortunately. This is a common issue in Turbografx games, and probably comes from NES-era design since most NES games work like that as well. The game does have cheatcodes, but only to let you have all weapons from the start or for invincibility. That first code is nice, though, for trying out after you’ve beaten the game. Beyond that though, all you can do is start playing.

Ingame Graphics

Beginning of the first level. Yes, it looks bland.

Once you get into the game, you see what is perhaps the most-criticized element of Avenger: the bland in-game background graphics. I first played this game, emulated, several years ago, because I heard that it controlled like Under Defeat for the Dreamcast, a game I absolutely love. Well, I saw how bland these graphics look compared to other, later Turbo CD games, and didn’t play this much at all. After finally getting my Turbo CD fixed, though, I made Avenger one of the first import games I bought, because it was something I wanted to play for sure, once I had the actual system. I’m glad I did; the game is fun, despite the mediocre background art, and it’s cheap too.

Once you look beyond the backgrounds, however, Avenger actually looks okay. I think that the ship designs are good, and while the ingame ship graphics aren’t quite at the level of the cinema scene ship graphics, they still look nice. Look at the ship designs in the various screenshots above; this is no Nexzr, for sure, but I think they look okay to good. The various laser bolts and bullets are well-drawn and large as well. I think Avenger gets something of a bad rap for its graphics — play it for more than a couple of minutes and you’ll see that there are some nice things here, graphically. Get beyond the first impression and there is more here. The gameplay is definitely the biggest draw here, but Avenger doesn’t look THAT bad. As I said earlier, the game at least looks quite a bit better than Kyukyoku Tiger’s TG16 port, and some other HuCard shmups besides. The best looking level is definitely the level set in a city at night; that one honestly looks nice. Unfortunately there are a few too many bland desert levels, but still, I think the game looks okay.

An end-level screen. These are nice. Static, but nice. Each level has a different one.

While there are no cutscenes between the beginning and the end, there are Japanese-language text-only briefings befor missions, and nicely drawn static-image cinema scenes after them, with a fanfare, showing the level you just blasted through. The “game over” screen is also nicely drawn. Looking at reviews of this game these screens receive praise, but the ingame graphics are often harshly criticized. And while it is true that many of the environments are bland, I think that the art design of the ships is pretty good, and levels like the city or final level look decent as well. There are also some interesting boss designs, and nice big flashy lasers sometimes too. Avenger‘s graphics aren’t the greatest, but they are better than some of the critics suggest.

Audio
Avenger has a CD audio soundtrack, and it’s good. I don’t know if I will really remember most of the songs in the game, but some of them are quite nice songs with do a very good job of backing the action and keeping the game more exciting. I like the soundtrack, it’s solid early-game-CD music, and I love this kind of stuff! I will definitely be listening to this soundtrack sometimes in the future. Composers who previously had only worked on sound chips suddenly had access to CDs and could do higher-quality music, but still were often thinking in terms of videogame music. The results are often unique, and it’s really unfortunate that the days of getting such soundtracks passed in favor of generic licensed soundtracks and the like. Well, at least we still have stuff like Avenger. The game doesn’t have one of the best TCD soundtracks, but it does have a solid, good one. The sound effects are average; nothing special, but most games have okay sound effects I think. Overall, the game looks okay and sounds good. Youtube musical selection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNAYv0z50yk

Final Thoughts
Avenger is a good game that I liked quite a bit. Despite the frustration some of the harder parts of the game induced, I kept coming back to this game anyway until I finished it, which says something for sure! I have probably thousands of games now I haven’t finished, but this is one of the ones I quickly knew I’d be playing to completion. It took a few weeks, but I accomplished that. I am sure that I will replay this game, too — it’s quite fun, and I am certain to play it again, probably in the near future. Avenger may not have the best graphics around, though they are better than, say, Kyuukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra) on HuCard, but it has addictive, quality gameplay, and the game is well worth playing. I’d highly recommend this to any Under Defeat fan, and recommend it generally as well. This is a solid, fun, under-rated shmup. B+.

Warning! Ending spoiler.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/screen/full/2/9/2/195292.jpg

Yes, in the ending, you learn that your helicopter’s pilot is a woman. This was secret up until the end. The “twist” was probably inspired by other games of the time that did similar things, I assume, but it’s a nice touch. At the end you’re shown the “use all weapons from the start” password, but this comes first.

Finally, here’s a Youtube LP someone did of the game, for anyone interested in seeing the whole game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE9SYKDGPMU

Posted in Full Reviews, Reviews, Turbo CD | Tagged Avenger, PC Engine CD, reviews, Telenet Japan, Turbo CD, TurboGrafx-16 | Leave a comment

Hexcite review updated! Also site updates

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Brian

So, I worked on the Hexcite review again, and added some more details, fixed the images, improved the review, and particularly added more to the review of the PC version. Go check it out and look up this incredibly highly under-rated classic!

Hexcite: The Shapes of Victory (Game Boy Color & PC) Review

Also, I’m going to be updating this site more frequently for a while, as I upload a bunch of older stuff I never posted here to the site. Work on new content is slow (I am working on a Gamecube Game Opinion Summaries article), and the reviews coming up have been posted on forums or GameFAQs before, but they’re new here, and it’d be great to have all of my reviews in one place!

Finally, I updated the look of the page. I stuck with the same theme, Twenty Ten, but actually chose a custom color and top-bar images, and changed the order and contents of the righthand sidebar items as well. I like the look of the site a lot more now. The three rotating top-bar images are my own pictures, of some of my games.

Posted in Updates | Tagged Hexcite, updates | Leave a comment

Game Opinion Summaries: TurboGrafx (Turbo) CD / PC Engine CD – An Amazing System!

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Brian

System History
—
The TurboGrafx-CD, also known as the PC Engine CD, was the first ever home gaming platform that used CD-based media. The only even remotely similar predecessor is the Japan-only MSX Laserdisc drive from the mid ’80s, but that was mostly just used for games which played video in the background while putting MSX graphics on top, I believe, and had very thin support and an extremely high price. The PC Engine/Turbo CD was pricey, but was within the realm of possibility for normal people. When Hudson first thought of the idea of a home system with CD media in the mid ’80s, it was a crazy-advanced idea. When the system released in late 1988 in Japan hard drives were far too small to fit all of the data from a CD, so they had to use very expensive setups in order to test games — and to try a game, you’d have to spend a lot of money to get a CD made. This was long before CD-Rs. But after NEC released the PC Engine, a year later they followed it with the PCE CD, so despite an initially extremely thin game library, the CD drive released. The launch games were Fighting Street, a fine port of the bad arcade game Street Fighter (1), and NoRiKo, a “game” about an idol singer popular at the time.

The original Turbo CD and PCE CD are in the form of a two-part addon, one a base unit that your TurboGrafx or PC Engine attaches to (the two regions have different designs, but the same internals), and the other a CD drive that also attaches to the base unit (these are identical between regions except for color and language text on the shell). It’s a somewhat odd system, but it works. The base unit has the added hardware in it, including a capacitor-backed save memory chip that allows games to save data to the system and a tiny 64KB of RAM to load data from the disc, plus another 64KB of RAM meant for audio loading, though some games used it for more data, if they could squeeze the audio into a smaller space. The base unit also has composite AV output jacks on the back, for better video quality than the RF that the original TG16 or PCE support. Hudson and NEC would later release many more models, and two more CD formats, the Super CD system card (with 256KB of RAM onboard) and the Arcade Card (with 2MB of RAM onboard), but with addons the first system can play any CD games. The Turbo CD and Turbo Duo (combo system with Super CD and HuCard systems built in to one unit) were miserable failures in the US, selling an unknown but not out of the tens of thousands number of systems. In Japan, though, it was a successful format, and had game support from its release in late 1989 until early 1997, followed by one final game in late 1999. The Turbo/PCE CD is probably the most successful console addon ever compared to the amount its base system sold, probably in no small part thanks to the Duo line getting CD drives into the hands of most everyone who bought a PCE from late 1991 on. However, because of how badly it did in the US, only a small fraction of the systems’ library released here. Many games have language barriers, but thankfully, unlike TurboGrafx-16 HuCards, the CD system is region-free, so import CDs work fine on any system. I do have a region-modded TG16, but still, not having to get the CD drive modded too or something is great.

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Notes
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This list seems to have the most text per review of any of the threads in this series yet, I think… but even so, they’re not quite as long as full reviews — compare that Avenger review thread I made recently to the Avenger summary below, this one is shorter. Still, some are not short. I had fewer games to cover, so I put more time into each one, and also a bunch of these games are imports which a lot of people probably don’t know all that well or have never heard of at all, so I spent more time explaining stuff. I hope it helps.

For one last starting note, I only have the regular Turbo CD system so far. I got the CD drive repaired, by PC Engine FX’s Keith Courage, this past summer, but only had a US system card 2.0 at the time, and haven’t gotten anything better yet. I think I’ll get a Super System Card pretty soon, and more Super CD games to go with it, but I wanted to do this thread as it is first, before I go into those games as well. The CD drive mostly works, but still has some issues, worse with some games than others — Avenger almost always runs fine for instance, but the sound very often fails early in level 1 of Daisenpuu Custom. There’s clearly still something not right with this drive, which is a bit annoying given that the laser is new (replaced with the repairs). Ah well, at least it usually works, and that’s fantastic, I love the system despite the occasional music-failure annoyances.

Of course, as I said above, so far I can only play regular CD titles on my Turbo CD system, so that’s all I actually review; I’ve played other games elsewhere, but I almost always only review games I’ve played on the original system in lists like this one. Super and Arcade CD games usually have better graphics than regular CD titles, since they have more RAM to work with, but these are what I’ve played so far, and some of them look nice. There are quite a few regular CD titles, so there’s been plenty to play.

[Later Edit: With some help from Keith Courage of PCEFX I finally found the correct CD drive laser pot settings within a few months of posting this article, and it has worked fine since.]

One last thing: if I don’t say what region of the game I have, it’s the US version (Japanese titles are marked). Also, for simplicity I just call the system the “Turbo CD” or TCD no matter what region the game is from. It’s all the same system after all.

Here normally I list my favorite games for the platform in question, but I’m not sure if I can make a list with much confidence yet, but I can mention some games I definitely like: Alzadick, Avenger, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Shanghai II, Splash Lake, Ys I & II, and Efera & Jiliora. There are more games than those that I like, though; it’s always hard to choose, and there are so many more games than these that I need to play, too… I’ve played some in emulation, but far from all!

Table of Contents
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The Addams Family
Alzadick: Summer Carnival ’92 (J)
Avenger (J)
Bikkuriman Daijikai (J)
Cosmic Fantasy 2
Daisenpuu Custom (J)
Deko Boko Densetsu (J)
Down Load 2 (J)
Efera & Jiliora: The Emblem from Darkness (J)
Final Zone II (J)
Gulclight TDF2 (J)
Hihou Densetsu: Chris no Bouken (J)
Jantei Monogatari II: Uchuu Tantei Deiban: Shutsoudouhen (J)
Jantei Monogatari II: Uchuu Tantei Deiban: Kanketsuhen (J)
Last Alert
L-Dis (J)
The Legend of Xanadu (J)
Legion (J)
Mateki Densetsu Astralius (J)
Pomping World (J) [J ver. of Buster Bros.]
Prince of Persia
Puyo Puyo CD (J)
Ranma 1/2 (J)
Record of Lodoss War (J)
Road Spirits (J)
Rom Rom Stadium (J)
Shanghai II (J)
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
Side Arms Special (J) (aka Sidearms Special)
Splash Lake
Super Albatross (J)
Ultra Box Vol. 6 (J)
Valis IV — The Fantasm Soldier (J)
Ys Books I & II

==
TURBO CD Game Opinion Summaries
==

The Addams Family – One player. The Addams Family, from Icom, is a TCD-exclusive, and US-only-released, 2d platformer based on the Addams Family. Ocean also made Addams Family games, released on many platforms, based off of the movies from around that time, but this game is not Ocean’s game, it is entirely different. As with most of Icom’s platformers, though, the game has issues. Icom could make good adventure games, but their platformer abilities had more mixed results, and you can see that here. The Ocean games are also kind of mediocre, though, so I don’t know which is better. So, in this game, as you would expect from an Addams Family game, you play as… their greedy lawyer. Yes, you do not play as any of the Addams’s in this game, but instead play as their lawyer, armed with an umbrella which can shoot bullets, who is at the mansion attempting to collect some money from their safe, because apparently they owe it to him. As usual on the Turbo CD, the story is told through static images with voiceover behind them. This game does not have actual cutscenes or voice actors from the movie in it, but instead has static images and its own, lower-budget, cast. It’s good enough to do for a game. Your character’s job won’t be easy, though, because the Addams Family will not just allow him to go in and take the cash, he’ll have to earn it, if he can stay alive. It seems like a strange choice of characters to me, as the Ocean games all have you playing as Fester, Gomez, or Puggsly Addams (no, no games for the female characters, Ocean was sexist clearly), but I guess it works. You have several lives, but no continues, in this game, so it won’t be easy to complete. As with all of Icom’s platformers I’ve played, the game has somewhat suspect collision detection; they just never quite got it right. This game rarely demands super-accurate platform jumping, as you’ll probably be doing more shooting than jumping, but still it is annoying. The graphics and music are okay. They’re not high-budget work, clearly, but they’re acceptable and look better than some Western movie-licensed games. There are some nice details at times as well, such as areas where one of the Addamses is hitting golf balls at you from the background that you have to avoid, a fight against psychically controlled toys in Wednesday’s room, and more.

This game starts out with a linear stage where you go to the mansion, but once you arrive, it gets a bit more open-ended. Your goal in the mansion is to search for keys that let you go in doors, so as to explore more of the mansion and eventually find that money. Again, you do a lot of shooting in this game. Bosses take a lot of hits to defeat, and even normal enemies need a few shots, and you can’t jump on enemies to hurt them, that’ll just get you hurt. Level designs are okay, but nothing great. Because of the loading for each area, it’s annoying when I go through a door only to find a single-screen dead end room, because that means right back to the load screen… oh well. This game is on the short side if you know where to go and what to do, but it will take some practice before you get good enough to stay alive and go to the right places. I’ve gotten partway through it, but haven’t gotten more than a third of the way into it so far, I think. It’s an okay game, I guess. My first impression of this game was poor, but once I got used to the way the game plays, with having to avoid the enemies and shoot them, and also learning where to go at which point, it started getting a bit better. This game isn’t too expensive, so if you have a Turbo CD and like platformers, give it a try; it’s average at best and probably isn’t quite that, but there are much worse games out there, and this game does have some unique elements to it, such as all of the exploration required in this game that you didn’t usually see in platformers in 1991.

Alzadick: Summer Carnival ’92 (J exclusive) – One player, saves to internal memory. Alzadick is a time-trial shmup, or space shooter, designed for a contest held that summer by its publisher Naxat Soft. This game doesn’t really have a normal full single player game; there is a “Story” mode, but there are only two levels there, and they won’t take long at all to complete. Instead, it’s just got a 2 minute score attack mode and a 5 minute time attack mode on one level (it’s got two bosses, one at 2 mins and one at 5), and a 2 minute score attack practice mode on a second level that has no bosses. And that’s it. As a result of the extremely limited content, reviews of this game are usually harsh or dismissive. However, after trying teh game in an emulator, I quickly came to love this game, and I had to have it after I got the actual system, too. And yes, I’m still playing this game regularly. It may have only five minutes of content, but this is my favorite TG16/CD timed-mode level that I’ve played so far. Alzadick has great graphics for a regular CD title too, and even has some parallax scrolling! Very nice. The next shmup Naxat Soft published, the exceptional Super CD game Nexzr, looks better, but even so, Alzadick does a good job and looks great. The level designs are great as well. As you would expect from a CD title, Alzadick has a great CD audio soundtrack. That is really the only thing here that makes the choice of a CD necessary, but this electronic-music soundtrack is fantastic and easily justifies it on its own! I like Alzadick’s soundtrack a lot. There aren’t many tracks, but what there are are great. I wish that the game had more levels, of course, but the two that it does have are both good, very well-designed levels. Alzadick isn’t a pushover, either; it took me some time practicing until I was able to complete the 5 minute mode. The game actually requires some skill to complete. The game also saves (to the system) your best score in each of the three score-attack modes, which is nice.

Alzadick is a fairly traditional 4th gen shooter. Your ship has four weapon types, each of which is a different firing pattern for your gun. I prefer type 3 myself, since that gives the most forward and side fire coverage. Try not to get hit, since hits will reduce weapon power, and reduced weapon power will greatly decrease your scoring potential. If you get hit at minimum weapon strength you lose a life, and three deaths and you lose. With a little practice game over will be quite rare, but getting hit a time or two and losing weapon power happens, and ruins games. That’s okay, though; this game does require skill, and that’s great. I wouldn’t like this game nearly as much if it was easy. You also have a superbomb, but only have ONE per run and there are no pickups for more. You choose one of four firing patterns for the superbomb before you start each game. Each of the four patterns has advantages and disadvantages, but I think I like the six-lines-up or swirl styles best. I find the bomb most useful at the midboss (2 minute point boss), myself. Graphics and enemy types repeat often, but there is enough variety to keep things interesting. Each enemy wave usually waits until the previous one is done before entering the screen, which is a key strategic element — killing waves faster will fit more waves into the limited time. There are also some hidden bonuses, of course.

Naxat Soft based its 2 and 5 minute modes in this and their other shmups on Hudson’s 2 and 5 minute modes popularized in the Star Soldier series (from Super Star Soldier on), but unlike Hudson, where your goal in either mode is simply to score as many points as possible in the set time, Naxat changes the rules. Two minute mode works like Hudson: Your goal is to score as many points as you can in the set time. The applies to both the “Practice” mode, which is just another 2-minute mode just without a boss at the end due to that level not having one, and the regular 2 minute mode, which takes the first two minutes of the main 5 minute stage and has you play that. In 5 minute mode, however, your goal is actually to see how quickly you can score one million points. Once you score a million points, the game ends. If you fail to reach a million before the five minute timer runs out, you lose. In addition, you must meet a mid-point score requirement too. Oddly, while nothing else in this game is configurable, you can set the time and points needed at this midpoint score. The default requires 500,000 points at 2:30, which is challenging but possible with some practice. Avoid getting hit much! You can easily make impossible goals of course, too. Want to set it to requiring 900,000 points in a minute? You could never succeed, but it lets you set it to that anyway if you want. This is kind of a weird feature, though, considering that you cannot change the overriding 5 minute timer and 1 million point overall victory condition. Still, it’s kind of neat to mess with, for making things easier while you’re still learning the stage, or harder after you’ve played the game a lot. As for the “Story” mode, the two levels there are one for each of the two stages. Before and after each level there’s a screen of Japanese text telling you the story. I don’t know what it is. The levels are the same in Score Attack or Story mode, though, except in Story mode you only get one ship, so if you die you lose and will have to try again. The first stage (“Practice” in Score Attack) still doesn’t have a boss, unfortunately. Otherwise I like that stage, though; it’s a cool looking big red ship. The second stage (2/5 minute modes in Score Attack) is much longer and better designed, and has those two bosses, but the color scheme is more muted.

Overall, I really, really like Alzadick. The game is expensive — expect to pay $50-plus for the game — but I, at least, think that it’s great. The game has limited content, and playing it over and over will eventually reach diminishing returns as the game, like most 4th gen shmups, does not have a complex scoring system so all you can really do is try to kill more of the enemies and panels faster in order to get a few more waves to appear, but even so, this game is just so much fun to play through that I don’t really mind that. Alzadick was one of my most-played games in TG16 emulation, and now I’m playing it quite a bit on the actual system too. The game is one of my favorite regular-CD titles on the system, and is a great game to sit down with and play for ten minutes here and there.

Avenger (J exclusive) – One player. Avenger is from Laser Soft, which was one of Telenet Japan’s many divisions, along with Riot, Reno, Renovation, and Wolf Team. Telenet released many Turbo CD games, including this 1990 title, but faded mid-generation, and by 1995 Telenet had fallen apart. Wolf Team was bought by Namco (they became Namco’s Tales Studio), Renovation’s American publishing arm was bought by Sega, and the rest shut down or became a shadow of its former self; Telenet’s 1995-2004 (their last year) release library consists exclusively of pachinko, slot machine, and mahjong games. While they lasted though, Telenet made some interesting games. Telenet supported the Genesis and SNES, but they released the first third-party game for the Turbo CD, and supported the Sega CD for several years as well. Avenger is not one of Telenet’s more popular releases, however, but I think it’s an under-appreciated, quite high quality game. This game released in 1990, still in the early years of CD gaming. The game has a Turbo CD-style introduction (with mostly static images and a voiceover on top) and ending, which is nice; unfortunately the story before each stage is just told in Japanese text, but still, the intro is nice. Many other early, regular-CD Turbo CD shmups don’t do that and are just expanded HuCard games with CD music. In between levels there are also some nice static images with a fanfare, showing the level you just blasted through. These recieve praise, but the ingame graphics are often harshly criticized. And while it is true that many of the environments are bland, I think that the art design of the ships is pretty good. I think this game looks okay, really — the ships look nice enough and are well designed, and the action is fast, furious, and sometimes flashy. The CD audio soundtrack is also reasonably good. It’s not one of the system’s best, but it’s good and does a fine job of backing the action. Overall the game looks okay and sounds good.

In terms of its gameplay, Avenger reminds me a bit of a Toaplan-style game (like Twin Cobra or so) in design, but the game has one key original design idea: your ship, which is a futuristic helicopter, can rotate left or right, and by holding the II button (I fires; leave the Turbo switches OFF for this game or the controls will not work right!), you can lock your turret. With Turbo on the lock won’t work, so leave it off. You have autofire anyway. You can aim up to about a 45 degree angle in either direction. You also have a “bomb” attack and secondary weapons, and have a shield which can take 5 hits. One ship type drops powerups when destroyed, which then cycle between upgrading your main weapon, your secondary weapon, or giving you a hit point back if you’ve taken damage. There are three of each type of weapon, which you slowly unlock over the course of the game (though there is a code that lets you use all of them from the beginning). It’s a solid system, and I like the different options you have. The health is important too; it’s easy to get hit in this game and if you die you start the level over, so the health system gives you some margin for error. Also, the weapon-select screen options are in English, which is nice. The aiming-lock system is highly reminiscent of the design used in the much later title Under Defeat for the Sega Dreamcast. I absolutely loved that game (it’s my second favorite Dreamcast shmup, after only Ikaruga!), and then heard that this one does something similar, and that made me want to check out Avenger. The bland graphics left me initially unimpressed, but after getting my Turbo CD repaired this year I decided to buy the game anyway. I’m very glad that I did, because as I said, I think this game is good. I really love the aiming-with-lock controls, they are what makes the game so interesting I think. Avenger is a challenging game which will require practice to beat. YOu get infinite continues, but because you lose all powerups when you die, and there are some very challenging parts where having more power will be a big help, memorizing the game enough to stay alive is important. Some enemies shoot at you, but others shoot in patterns you must learn the safe points in. The last level can be very frusterating after you die the first time, for instance… but that’s how shmups worked back in 1990, I don’t hold that against the game. It just made beating it that much more of an accomplishment, anyway. Avenger lets you play some of the levels in different orders, which can add some variety, but you’ll need to play all the levels anyway in order to complete the game. Despite the frustration some of the harder parts of the game induces, I keep coming back to this game anyway, which says something. Avenger may not have the best graphics (though they are better than, say, Kyuukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra) on HuCard…), but it has some addictive, quality gameplay, and the game is well worth playing. I’d highly recommend this to any Under Defeat fan, and recommend it generally as well. This is a solid, fun, under-rated shmup.

Bikkuriman Daijikai (J exclusive) – One player, password save. This isn’t really a game, and I’m not one who can “play” it. Bikkuriman Daijikai is bascally a fan/data disc, full of character descriptions and such, all in Japanese of course, and not much else. The only “gameplay” is some trivia questions, which is where the passwords come into play… though why a game on a system with internal saving has password-only saving, I have no idea. THis was one of Hudson’s earlier discs for the system in 1989, so at the time that they could do something like this at all — a disc full of images and audio clips and such — was very original, but it has aged very badly and tehre’s no reason to touch this today unless you know Japanese and are a serious Bikkuriman fan, which I’m not on either count. I have this because it came in a lot with some stuff I was interested in. Obviously the quiz questions are impossible to answer unless you know Japanese and know about Bikkuriman, too. I don’t know either one.

Cosmic Fantasy 2 – One player, saves to internal memory. Cosmic Fantasy 2, by Laser Soft (Telenet) and translated and published in the US by Working Designs, is a traditional JRPG. It’s a very simplistic one, with Dragon Quest-inspired but even more simplified combat that has basic, special attack, critical hit, and miss-free combat, but it is an RPG. The game has cutscenes (with minimal animation as per usual on Turbo CD), nice in-game graphics with decent-sized sprites and some nice graphical design, and a story that is part cliche, part original. The extreme simplicity of the battles may seem bad, given that even bosses will just do a set amount of damage per hit, every turn, but you get used to it, and the good graphics and decent, if initially cliche, story keep you going. As for that story, you are of course a boy from a medieval village who has to rescue his childhood friend/female love interest after she gets kidnapped because she is actually a princess. Yeah, zero points for originality there, even back in the early ’90s. It gets a bit more interesting later, though — as per the title, this isn’t a pure fantasy game, but does have sci-fi elements and a darker side to its story. I’m not all that far into the game, but honestly, even though I didn’t really expect to, I’m liking this game. The encounter rate is annoying, but it could be worse, and the presentation helps as well. Also, even though the combat is extremely simple, that isn’t all bad. Sure it means there isn’t much variety, but it also means you can plan what will happen quite nicely. I do like that. Cosmic Fantasy 2 got at least one US magazine’s “RPG of the Year” award in 1992, and I can kind of see why — between the then-impressive CD elements such as CD music, cutscenes, etc (this was the first menu-based RPG on a console in the US, after all), the good graphics, and the simple but decent gameplay behind that, it’s an okay package. I would have liked to see more complexity for sure, and don’t know if I have the patience to get all the way through this game, but still, for what it is, with good graphics, a decent story, okay gameplay, and more, it is good and was worth getting. Also available on Sega CD, in Japanese only, in the “Cosmic Fantasy Stories” collection.

Daisenpuu Custom (J exclusive) – One player. Daisenpuu, or Twin Hawk as the Western arcade release was called, is a vertical shmup from Toaplan. The game is somewhat like Twin Cobra (aka Kyuukyoku Tiger), but has several unique elements, most notably its allied-fighter system and its complete lack of any aerial enemies. In this game only bullets can kill you, all enemies are strictly land or water-bound. Indeed, almost all enemies in this game are tanks or ships. There are a lot of different kinds of tanks, but at first the very limited enemy variety can get repetitive. I got used to it after a while, though, and it does make the game unique. The idea is that your nation has planes, while the enemy in this World War II-analog world has only ground forces, tanks and ships particularly. So, you’re going in to stop them. You gain greater firepower yourself with some powerups, but it just adds more guns; there are no alternate weapons. This is a simple game. The allied-fighter system brings six fighters onto the screen when you press the other button. This replaces the megabomb many shmups have. These fighters will fly straight ahead and shoot, too, so they will increase your firepower. However, if they get hit by bullets, they’ll go down. They will shift left and right slightly if you move left and right, but you can’t really maneuver them much. Still, they can help kill enemies, or protect you in key moments if you plan ahead, since it takes a little while for them to fly onto the screen. Daisenpuu has lots of bullets to avoid, and is a challenging game as always from Toaplan. Daisenpuu isn’t their hardest game, but it is a good challenge.

This version, however, is Daisenpuu Custom, the CD release. Most reviewers are very harsh on the CD version, and say that you should play the HuCard version instead. Well, I have that version as well, and honestly, I like this CD version more. The biggest difference between the two versions is, of course, that the CD version has CD audio music. Unfortunately this was clealry a very low budget port, so there aren’t any cutscenes whatsoever, but at least it does have a quite nice CD audio soundtrack, which is a massive improvement over the poor, annoying music of the HuCard version. Toaplan could do great cartridge music, but Daisenpuu doesn’t show that at all. Fortunately though, this CD version exists as well. Second, the CD version adds one all-new level, and has new bosses for the first and last levels as well. Also, it breaks the game into levels, instead of being one always-scrolling game as the cartridge versions are. This was necessary because of the CD medium, but some people might dislike it. I don’t mind, though, and like the new bosses — the game fills in some areas where the HuCard has bizarre gaps, where I expected a boss but there is nothing. The new level is nice as well. However, and this has gotten a lot of criticism, they did change some things, and reduced level variety in some areas. So, the flooded-city section in level 2 is gone, replaced with more generic streets. Level 1’s bridge is gone, replaced with a rock bridge that matches the rest of the area. Some other areas later in the game are altered as well. This was likely done in order to give each level a more consistent visual look beginning to end for RAM-restriction reasons; remember that regular CD titles have only 64KB of RAM to work with. It’s not much. I do wish that that flooded city section had remained, but overall, I think the complaints about the graphical alterations are overplayed. The actual gameplay is exactly the same, after all, and there IS more content overall thanks to those added bosses and that new level, where you go through a desert city. Overall Daisenpuu Custom is a simple but very fun shooter that I think is pretty good. This game is not visually complex and doesn’t have much depth, but the simple fun of flying along and shooting tanks and ship turrets with solid Toaplan shooting design behind it holds up. This is another good, under-rated game. It can’t hope to compete visually with the later Super CD shmups, but the gameplay is good. Daisenpuu Custom is an arcade port with added content, so this version is TCD-exclusive, but the original Daisenpuu is available in arcades, Genesis (Japan only release), and TurboGrafx-16 (Japan only release).

Deko Boko Densetsu (J exclusive) – Five players (with multitap). Deko Boko Densetsu is a racing game from Telenet (yes, again!) that was clearly inspired by the Moto Roader games for the TG16. Essentially, Dekoboko Densetsu is a somewhat cutesey and simplified Moto Roader clone. The game is a top-down racing game where all cars are always on the screen together at all times, as you’d expect, and you have to complete a series of races. If you win, you move on to the next race; otherwise, try again. There are five racers per race, and each can either be a human or an AI, as in Moto Roader. Unlike that game, though, Dekoboko does not have car part buying or different course options. Instead, you just play through one championship, that’s it, and go straight from each race to the next. The part-buying element to Moto Roader added some strategy, but as it basically ended up being a frustrating puzzle minigame (in Moto Roader, you need to buy parts in the correct order if you want to have a serious chance at winning races), that’s not all bad. Losing the different circuit choices is unfortunate, though. To mix things up a bit, the game does have some weapon pickups, which is nice. As with Moto Roader though, if you’re at the forward edge of the screen, and thus ahead in the race, you have almost no forward vision. This means that either you must memorize all the tracks, or stay farther back on the screen until late in the race. You get used to it, but it can be frustrating sometimes. There are also obstacles and traps to avoid on the course. If a car takes too much damage it will explode, so try to avoid them if you want to have any hope of finishing even the first race — this game is challenging at first. With practice you will get used to the game, but there is a learning curve. As for the visuals, I like the graphics. The game has an amusing opening which starts out trying to fool you into thinking that this is some serious racing game before revealing the cute reality underneath that. Not bad. Ingame, the graphics are simple, but competently drawn and reasonably varied. The music is decent as well. Overall Deko Boko Densetsu probably isn’t as good as the Moto Roader games, since it is simpler and has less content, but it is a decent little game worth a try. Even though I find Moto Roader kind of annoying, I do think this game is alright.

Down Load 2 (aka Download 2) (J exclusive) – One player. Down Load 2, aka Download 2, is the sequel to NEC’s great HuCard shmup Down Load, and it’s an interesting game. Flawed, but interesting. Both games are cyberpunk-themed shmups with a decent story and good graphics and gameplay. As with the first game, Down Load 2 is a horizontal shmup. This game is easier than the first game, and indeed the low difficulty level is probably this games’ greatest flaw, but with some good cutscenes, solid gameplay, and good graphics with some impressive effects, Down Load 2 is a good game anyway. While you play as the same guy from the first game, this game changes the game system significantly from the first one. In the first game you had a health bar, but if you died you started the stage over. Also you could choose from two of each of your two weapons at the start of each level (which you were then stuck with for the stage), and had a speed-select button. This time your ship is larger — it’s a ship, not just a bike — and you can switch between your four weapons at any time. The weapons themselves are different, too. Also it now has speed powerups instead of letting you choose, and most importantly, you die in one hit this time. You do get multiple lives now, though, and most levels have some checkpoints. The reduced difficulty means that it’s much easier to avoid taking damage than it was in the first game, though; the removal of the health-up item, as there are no extra lives in this game, is really not a problem at all.

Now, for a HuCard game, Down Load had a lot of cutscenes. In a longplay where the player doesn’t die, cutscenes took up 17 minutes of DL1’s 45 minute length. DL2 is 50 minutes, but 25 minutes are taken up with cutscenes this time, so overall this CD game actually has several minutes LESS gameplay than its HuCard predecessor does; disappointing! Also, this time each level is about the same length. In the first game one level had only one section and was over in a minute or two, while the last had four stages and took over seven minutes. This time, all levels are two to 2 and a half minutes long, and have only one stage each. There is a boss at the end of each level. Some are easy, others are hard; this games’ difficulty balance could have used some work. Harder difficulty settings are badly needed too, since some bosses are way too easy. Ah well. The graphics in this game are fantastic, though. TG16 games, and regular CD titles in particular, rarely use any parallax scrolling, but this game is FULL of it! And it’s not only the basic “different vertical strips of the screen scroll at different speeds” stuff, either; this game has some real “scrolling plane behind the playfield” parallax too. Awesome. The visual themes are interesting, too. The first two levels look very similar to some stages from the first game, but after that it branches out as you start using your VR/computer to travel through time as you chase the villains. The cutscenes look nice; though the character art is by a different person from the first game (another change!), it looks great. Your main character guy sure has a lot of nude scenes in this game… As always animation is limited, but they did a good job with the system. Of course the voice acting is in Japanese, so I don’t really know what was going on, but the basics are easy enough to figure out. For one mild spoiler, yes, at the end of this game, you fight a reborn infant-Hitler-monster thing, on a level full of red biological stuff and Nazi imagery. Yeah, really. Killing Hitler once again? What could be better, for a videogame story? Some of the earlier levels, as you travel through time, are very cool as well. The Rome level is particularly interesting. I thought it was quite clever how the background “pictures” attack you. The Hindu-themed level looks great as well, though it was too short.

Overall, Down Load 2 is a good game, but don’t expect it to last very long at all. This game is short and isn’t very hard, and as with far too many TG16/CD games, there are absolutely no modes or options in this game; it doesn’t even have cheat codes! And since you have infinite continues, unless you artificially limit yourself by not continuing, getting to the last level will be easy. I had a bit more trouble with the final boss, and he did take some effort, but still, this game left me wanting more. I like the game system here — it’s different from the first game but is also good — but while the first Down Load is probably one of the best HuCard shmups I’ve played, this game is not quite on that level. The game isn’t cheap, either — expect to pay $25 to over $30 for this. If it was cheap I’d probably be more forgiving, but it’s not. Still, this IS a good game. I like the graphics and gameplay, and I’m sure I’ll replay it. DL2 is a decently good game, and a nice technical accomplishment for sure.

Efera & Jiliora: The Emblem from Darkness (J exclusive) – Two player simultaneous (with multitap), saves to system ( blocks). Efera & Jiliora, from Brain Grey, is a clearly Ys-inspired top-down fantasy action-RPG starring a pair of female warriors, one a mage and the other a fighter. This game has a somewhat dark story, good gameplay, two player co-op multiplayer, and good graphics, as well. Indeed, Efera & Jilora looks FAR better than Ys I & II does, with both a larger play window and larger, better sprites too. Very nice. The gameplay probably isn’t quite up to Ys’s level, though. While this game is pretty good, it can be frustrating at times — your melee weapons have a very short range, and this game does use a button to attack instead of Falcom-style bonking (see Ys below), so be careful. Grind is also required in this game, just like in Falcom games; after reaching the first town, for instance, the very next combat area is quite tough. Fortunately, like Ys, you can save anytime. Also, naturally, language is a factor here. It’s nice that the gaem does have voice acting in many cutscenes, and the cutscenes look good (even if, from the beginning, the story is not exactly happy), but there’s text as well, in towns and the like. Most of the time this game is easy enough to play, but you will need to talk to everyone in town, and then wander around as well looking for where to go next, if you can’t read the language as I can’t. Figuring out how to buy items takes practice too; stand on the little platforms in shops to buy. There are no walkthroughs in English for this game, so you’re on your own. Make sure to talk to EVERYONE, and explore the towns thoroughly. This game is manageable, as it’s reasonably linear, but I did get stuck sometimes starting early on, and had to explore and/or grind more in order to progress. The good gameplay and graphics made me want to keep going, though. I wish that someday this game gets a translation patch, and that would be really awesome, but it IS playable with a little effort — and that effort is worth it! Despite the occasional frustration, I definitely like this game more than Ys I & II. It looks better, and when I know what I’m doing it plays just as well or better, too. It’s also very cool that it has two player co-op! In single player you have to play as either Efera or Jiliora (I prefer playing as the mage, myself), but with another person, both can go through the game together. This is a relatively long RPG, so of course this will take a while, but if you have someone to play this with, go for it. Recommended! This game is sometimes overlooked, probably because of the language barrier, but it’s a great game that I really like, and it’s well worth getting.

Final Zone II – Final Zone II is a top-down run & gun developed by Telenet and released in the US by NEC. It’s considered somewhat average, but I like it. This game is the sequel to a Japanese computer game which was not released here; “Final Zone” on the Genesis is actually a version of the third (and last) game in this series. Final Zone II is one of the earlier CD releases in the US, which means, yes, horrendously bad voice acting! Somewhat like Last Alert, Final Zone II has comically bad voice acting its cutscenes which make even the tragic moments (such as the intro) kind of funny. It’s not all bad, though; this is “so bad it’s funny” stuff sometimes for sure. Final Zone II is a fairly simple game: get through the eight levels, all linear, vertically-scrolling stages, and you win. The graphics are good-sized and look pretty good for an early CD title. No complaints there. The music is decent to good, as well. The game has a sci-fi story, as you play as a small group of soldiers in powered armor suits who are teh only survivors from their ship and have to defeat the enemies and escape from the planet they crashed on. You start with only one guy, but unlock more as you progress. The female characters are in pink armor, of course, and there are some pretty sexist moments in the story, sadly. Fortunately, the actual gameplay is a lot better than the story. Yes, I like this game! Final Zone II is a simple game, and does not have Last Alert’s great strafing controls; instead, more like a Commando game, you simply shoot in the direction you’re facing, can use a special attack with the other button, and that’s it. The levels are well-designed and can be challenging at times, which is great. With enough replay I’m sure this game gets easy, but I think it has a good difficulty curve, and die regularly even on the first level. It’s not impossible though, just a solid challenge — which is great, compared to way-too-easy Last Alert. This is a simple, classic shooting game, and it’s a reasonably good one. I can understand why it gets some criticism, but I think its gameplay is a bit under-rated — I found myself having a lot more fun with this game than I expected to. Final Zone II doesn’t quite have Last Alert’s flash, as it has many fewer levels, simpler, more dated controls, no saving, and not as many cutscenes, but it does have solid gameplay, and it costs a lot less than Last Alert, too! So yeah, pick it up for a few bucks. It’s worth it, if you like action games (but if you don’t and can’t speak Japanese, then probably don’t bother with the TG16…).

Gulclight TDF2 (J) – One player, saves to internal memory. Gulclight TDF2 is a very basic, and flawed, turn-based tactical-style strategy game from Data West. This is an incredibly simplistic top-down sci-fi strategy game where you control a fleet of warships which have to defeat an alien menace. There aren’t any cutscenes here, though; the only story to be found here is the Japanese-language manual and the sentence or two of Japanese text in each mission briefing. The story is that you control the T.D.F. (Terrestrial Defense Force), Earth’s defense force of planes, land vehicles, and mechas who have to save the world from the evil Plea alien monsters. Production values don’t get much better ingame. Indeed, this is one of those games where the only thing justifying its choice of CD media is its CD music. The music is decent to good early-CD-videogame stuff. I like the opening-screen theme, and the ingame music is nice too. As for the graphics, the sprite work is decent; it’s average early ’90s mecha and monster stuff, which is a plus if you like that kind of thing. There are little “battle” animations between ships, when they fight, but they’re nothing a HuCard game couln’t have done. Military Madness’s are better, in fact — those actually have a custom background. Here, larger versions of your and the enemy’s ships appear with the stage map as a background, nothing more. And those stage backgrounds are not too thrilling. The first level is supposed to be a city at night, but it just comes across as a blue map with little rectangles and stuff on it, with no variation. The second level is better, with trees, roads, and hills (plus your units can move farther on roads than through the trees, too), but still the graphics are basic, and it doesn’t get better. This game has to have been made on an extremely limited budget! It is interesting that your units change from mission to mission, though. You are not following one unit, or one person’s, story, here, it seems. Instead, you’re just following the TDF’s battles in this war against the Plea.

As for import-ability, while the gameplay is too simple, this game is at least easy for the English-only speaker to play. The main screen displays and ingame menus are in English. Only the manual, mission briefing screens (there is nothing important on them), and ship and weapon names are in Japanese. Ship stats? What stats? All you can see is each TDF or PLEA ship/monster’s name, location, health bar, “Lv” bar, and movement range. Yes, this game is really stripped-down. Also, all units attack the same way: left/right/up/down only, and only to the next space. There are no ranged attackers here, no units that can use special abilities, heal the other ships, etc. Each one of your ships IS different — the weapons they are armed with (each unit has one or two weapons, but which ones each unit has vary) are not the same, and max health and movement ranges vary as well — but still, since all units operate and attack the same way, the game feels samey. Enemies have a similar lack or worse of variety — generally each mission has only a couple of enemy types. Since units don’t have real strength stats, levels, or anything, it’s hard to know exactly how strong any ship is, which is frustrating. On that note, as for that “Lv” bar, I’m not sure exactly WHAT it means. I’d to be able to read the manual to know that, and I can’t read Japanese, sadly, and there is no information about how to play this game online. I can tell that it changes based on which weapon you equip, though, so my only guess is that it represents max weapon power, or something along those lines. Lv is definitely not much of an indicator of unit strength. For instance the enemies on the first level have low Lv levels, but are much stronger than your individual ships anyway. This lack of numbers really is an issue. Imagine playing something like Fire Emblem, except your specific potential damage range and hit-chance percent are never displayed to the player! Yeah, it’s a pain. Those numbers have to exist, but you aren’t allowed to see what they are. Awful design there. All you can do is just look at how far the enemies’ health bar goes down, or doesn’t if it was a miss as it often is.

On the note of damage, at first I thought this game was broken and impossible. Looking at the two bits of “review” this game has online in English that I could find, at Mobygames and GameReviewDen, both comment on how hard this game is. And indeed, I lost badly my first handful of times I tried the game. The first level pits five of your ships against six enemies, and as I said earlier, on a one-on-one basis you are outgunned. Even though all units heal a bit every turn, I lost badly, rarely even managing to take out one enemy before being wiped out, or losing my lead unit; if your leader, the unit in the center of your starting group, loses, it’s an instant game over. I didn’t give up on the game, though, and eventually through luck and experimentation managed to figure out the key to the game: You can stack units! Specifically, you can put two units on a space. Then, if you tell one of those two units to attack, your first unit will attack, then the enemy will attack your first unit, and then your second unit will attack, become the “top” unit (swapping with the other unit). The enemy cannot attack that second unit, which is really important because they CANNOT stack like you can. There is one thing to be cautious of, though: your other units cannot move through a space which currently has two of your units on it. In the first mission this is irrelevant, since it’s in the air, but in land-based mission two, for example, this matters. Also, since you often seem to start with five units, you don’t start with an even number of units to group. Still, with this strategy, I was able to get through the first mission in only a couple of tries. Since luck is such an important factor in this game, both in hoping for enemy attacks to miss and for yours to hit, victory took a few tries, but this made it possible. What was my reward? A screen, in Engrish, saying “Congratuation”, of course! I could expect no better. However, I WAS surprised to see that the game saved my progress afterwards! The game does not initially create a save file, you see, so I thought it didn’t save… until I hit reset after losing a few times at mission two, and I found that yes, the game does indeed then create a file, so you can continue from any level you have reached. That’s fantastic. I also liked that mission two has a somewhat more strategic map, as I described earlier. So yeah, the very few things I’ve read about this game in English call it a terrible game, but it’s not THAT bad. The game is too simple (not much variety here!) and definitely has flaws, but I kind of enjoy it anyway, and will continue to play it once in a while for sure. It may or may not be worth a look, if you like this kind of game.

Hihou Densetsu: Chris no Bouken (J exclusive) – One player. Hihou Densetsu is an okay, but not great, platform-action game from Arc Co. Ltd, now known as Arc System Works. Yes, they did not always make good fighting games. Hihou Densetsu clearly was inspired by sources such as Indiana Jones, Ghosts n Goblins, Ys I&II, and other popular platformers and TG16 games. The game stars Chris (or something like that; the game has absolutely no English text either in the manual, CD, or ingame, so that’s just the best guess at how names should be spelled), a girl (yes, she is a girl, even though her sprite design and costume are somewhat androgynous) who is searching for her father, an archaeologist or something, who is missing in South America. So, she’s off on an adventure to go through tombs, kill Indians, villains, monsters, and the like. You know, it’s your usual racially insensitive adventure story through jungle tombs. There are a few twists along the way, though if you can read Japanese you’ll be spoiled for them, since apparently the manual describes every one of them in detail! Yeah, great idea there… or not. The story is told by cutscenes, and there is a cutscene between every level. They are done with TGCD-standard very limited amounts of animation. This game has even less animation than most games on this system, though; usually it’s just got a sequence of stills with a voiceover. The art design is solid, though. It’s nothing great or original, but the game is decently drawn. Don’t expect anything fancy like parallax here, though, and the graphics could look better, but aren’t awful either. Overall, the graphics are probably average. The games’ sound is also average.

Hihou Densetsu is a somewhat short game, but it makes up for its length with its difficulty. Please note, this game does NOT have saving. You do get unlimited continues, but have to start the game over if you turn the system off, always a very unwelcome “feature”. Each level in the game is made up of two stages and a bossfight at the end of the second stage, and the saving is between levels, not stages; run out of lives, and you start the level over. The stages in this game are short, but there is a clock and the time limits are even shorter, so it will take practice and memorization in order to get through each level. Thanks to the traps and tricky jumps this game really is memorization-heavy. The game is linear, though — there are very few times when you’re doing anything other than moving straight along a set path, so there isn’t really exploration. I don’t mind that, myself, and honestly kind of like the level designs, but some dislike the games’ fairly simple, linear stage layouts. The environment often is more of a threat than the enemies, but you will need to fight them off along the way as well, and learn boss patterns at the end of each level. One hint: The first disappearing platforms in the first level won’t disappear if you are standing on them, so after jumping on one don’t rush to try to get to the top quickly — you’re in no danger of falling. By level three or four the game won’t be so kind, though, so don’t get used to it. I haven’t managed to finish this game, but it’s decent enough that I expect I will eventually. Thanks to all the traps, memorization, and frustration the game sometimes stops being fun, but I do want to see the rest of the levels, and the game is decent enough to certainly be worth a try, at least for platformer fans. There are very few non-Super CD Turbo CD platformers outside of the Valis series, but this is one of them, and while nothing above average overall (and perhaps below it), it’s decent enough that I kind of like it.

Jantei Monogatari II: Uchuu Tantei Deiban: Shutsoudouhen (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system. Jantei Monogatari, published by Atlus, is a series of mahjong games. Yes, Atlus’s longest-running TG16/CD production was a mahjong series. As with most mahjong games, you play as a guy and play against various girls, with fanservicey scenes your reward for victory. This game has more story than just that, though — as the title (detective something) suggests, this is a sci-fi game. You play as future detective Deiban, and with your female sidekick have to stop various female villains before they can accomplish their villainous plots by beating them at mahjong. You start out defending some children who are in trouble in their school thanks to one of the villains’ underlings, for instance. The story scenes play out with limited interaction — you don’t just watch all the time and then finally play mahjong, but do make choices. There are two choice wheels at the bottom, with eight total options, but this is a simple game and trial and error will get you through even if you don’t know the language, fortunately; just keep trying options until something works and progresses the story. There is plenty of voice acting, which helps as well. The visuals are nice, too — the cutscene/adventure part of this game looks good for a regular-CD title. Once you get to a mahjong battle, your guy faces off one one one against the opponent. Yeah, this is 1-on-1 mahjong only, no full four-player games unfortunately. Also the game fills up a bit too much of the screen on my HDTV, so the bottom half of my tiles is cut off — very annoying! It does display the whole picture on my CRT, though; must have a smaller cut-off area around the screen (my HDTV is rear-projection and not new…). Also, if you are successful in the battles, there are some special options you can buy with points between rounds. The options are all in Japanese text, though, so good luck figuring out what they do. You can also transform into super mode, for a slight power boost I presume, but only do so if you have a good hand I would expect.

Beyond that though, this is a mahjong game. It is important to note that like most such games, this game game does NOT explain how to play. The manual has a several-page-long comic, some basic control and interface descriptions, and that’s it; nothing at all about how the game plays. You’d better already know how to play two-player mahjong. I don’t know the rules very well, and aren’t any good at memorizing what winning hands are, so I haven’t managed to win rounds of this game. I don’t know poker, and with more tiles in your hand and a great many complex rules, mahjong is a lot more complex than that game is to learn. This game will not help you with that in any way. I’ll return to this after I manage to learn some more about how to actually put winning hands together in this game. Overall though, with good visuals in the story scenes and okay mahjong action, this seems like a decent mahjong game. The system has a lot of them, though, so I have no idea how it compares to the others.

Jantei Monogatari II: Uchuu Tantei Deiban: Kanketsuhen (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system. Released a couple of months after the above title, this second volume of Jantei Monogatari II is very similar to the first, except with a few additions. Most importantly, the story is new, and you fight new opponents. Also, this game adds a Mahjong mode in addition to the main Story mode, if you want to go straight to the action and do some one-on-one fights against five opponents from the game. This is a welcome addition for sure. The interface graphics have also been improved a bit, particularly in the story scenes. The game does reuse a lot of animations from the first game, though; even though the story is new, the hero’s transformation scene, the overlong die-roll animation, etc. all are reused from the first volume. The gameplay is just the same as the first one, too, with no changes. The few improvements it has, though, put this as slightly better than the first volume of JM2.

Last Alert – One player, saves to system. Telenet’s Last Alert is a top-down run & gun action game. With many cutscenes, lots of levels, some variety in level designs along the way, and that the game saves your progress as you play, Last Alert is a pretty impressive game for 1990, when it released. The gmae also has fantastic controls — unlike many run & gun games from its time, this one has a strafe-lock button, so you can lock your firing direction with ease! It makes shooting easy. Controls are good, as well. The game has some flaws, though. Most notably, the voice acting in this NEC-published US release is absolutely abysmal, to a comical degree. Also, the graphics are small, there is no multiplayer, and the game is easy and sorely lacking in challenge. This game gets a fair amount of praise from Turbo fans, and it deserves some of it, but the downsides are real. In Last Alert you play as Guy Kazama, a muscular ’80s style action hero. You’re off to beat a series of villains who want to take over the world, naturally. The game has cutscenes between missions, with the usual Turbo CD-style barely-animated-scenes-with-voice, and conversations with each boss once you reach them. However, the story is generic action/spy movie stuff, and the voice acting really is awful. That bad voice acting is entertainingly bad at times, though, so there is that. Also while the story’s far from great, a game, or even movie, in this genre rarely does much more. Back in 1990, just having voiced story cutscenes in a game was a pretty big deal, of course. Now it’s not, but the story here is mostly fine. Gameplay is what matters the most in games, anyway, and the plot sets the scene for each of Guy Kazama’s exploits.

Last Alert has 23 levels spread across a sequence of missions. Each mission is made up of several levels, and sometimes you can choose the order you play a missions’ levels in. The game will also autosave after you complete a mission, which is great (it does not seem to save after each level, though.). Levels are reasonable length in Last Alert, and you get experience as you kill enemies. As you level up you’ll get more health and unlock more guns. However, as I said earlier, the game very rarely provides much challenge. I’m not the greatest at games, but I do not die very often in this game, that’s for sure. Honestly I find the game getting tedious after a while, thanks to the low difficulty level and long length of the game. Sure, the controls are great and wiping out the enemies is usually easy, but it’s often TOO easy. You can also often shoot through cars, which is weird. The games’ internal rules for which things you can shoot through and which you can’t don’t make much sense, and more obstacles to your fire probably would have been a good thing. And as with many TG16 games, like a NES or SMS game don’t expect to find any difficulty level options here, there are none. The game does have a few different level types, though. The variants don’t change much, but in this genre anything is nice. In most levels, you’re navigating through a fairly linear level, looking for the boss and wiping out the enemies along the way. A few missions have you instead “infiltrating” a base trying to rescue prisoners. Here, the amount of enemies you face depends on how often you shoot your gun. So, arm your machine gun and fire away if you want to face endless waves of respawning foes, or use the pistol and have an easy time of it. There are also some levels where you have to explore around an area, finding all of the bombs to disarm for example.

The basic gameplay of going around and shooting enemies as they appear never changes, though, and nor do those small graphics. HuCard games in this genre like Legend of the Valkyrie or even Bloody Wolf probably look better than this game. This game does show off its CD format by having a lot more levels than those games do, of course. The game also has a decent CD audio soundtrack. Overall, Last Alert is an okay game. The firing-lock button makes moving around and shooting where you want easy, and the game is plenty long and it is a fun game, at least for a while at a time. The game costs quite a bit more than the other Turbo CD topdown run & gun, Final Zone II and I don’t know if it’s a better game, though. Since it saves you don’t have to play the whole game all at once, though, unlike that game, and that’s great. Still, slightly bigger graphics and some difficulty level options would have gone a long way here. Still, Last Alert is reasonably good, overall. It’s worth a look for sure.

L-Dis (J exclusive) – One player. L-Dis, from NCS Masaya, is a hard cute ’em up-styled horizontal shmup. This game is reasonably well regarded I think, but isn’t one of the better-known Turbo CD shmups. For a regular CD title, though, this game looks and plays great. L-Dis has a very basic sexist videogame plot: you play as a boy who has to save the girl he likes, who has been kidnapped by aliens. Yeah, this plot again. Fortunately the game is a lot better than the story, though. You pilot a cute little ship, flying through six or so several-part levels on your quest. L-Dis is a very tough game, and beating it will take quite a bit of practice; I haven’t gotten even close yet, so far. If you run out of lives you can continue, but you start the whole level over, which is quite cruel when you’ve gotten to the final boss. Most levels do have obstacles to avoid, and of course the level designs get even tougher as you progress. The game has a powerup system of course, with floating powerups some enemies drop. There is a problem here, though: unlike almost all shmups, the powerups here are Japanese text boxes. So yeah, memorize which one is which, or else you’ll have problems getting what you want. It’s kind of annoying, but with some practice you will get used to it. The text color tells you which of the two different powerup types the powerup will give you, weapon or ship, so that’s a help. Weapon powerups give you different weapons, while the ship ones can give you helper ships (like Gradius Options), a shield, and and such. You can have a few (but limited) options, and have to choose between either option helpers or bombs which do nothing until you use them as screen-clearing superbombs. The weapon system works well, as long as you can figure out what you’re getting.

L-Dis is a pretty good looking game. The game does have some parallax scrolling, though not in every level. Still, on the Turbo, any parallax is great to see. Backgrounds are well-drawn as well, and the sprites are done in a nice cartoony style which looks quite good. The ships all have big eyes on them, which is a nice touch. The game makes use of the CD format to have some enemies, and the bosses, talk during your fights with them. It’s a nice addition and gives the game more personality. The music is good, fitting stuff as well. Overall, L-Dis has graphics and sound about as good as you can expect from a regular-CD title, and plays about as well as it looks, too. L-Dis is a hard game, but it’s well worth the effort, and I will definitely be going back to this one as I try to get farther. This is one of the better Turbo shmups I own, though it’s hard to choose when they’re almost all so good… but even so, it’s one of the better ones.

*The Legend of Xanadu (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system, Super CD game. This is another Super CD game, so I haven’t played it yet… and from what I’ve read about it, I’ll have a hard time once I do. The Legend of Xanadu, from 1994, is a later release on the system from Falcom, and it’s one part Ys I & II, one part Ys III, and one part confusing, apparently. This game has top-down Ys-style action with somewhat small sprites but actual fullscreen gameplay (unlike all previous Falcom games or ports of Falcom games on this system), along with side-scrolling levels that have nicer graphics. However, it also apparently has some pretty tricky puzzles which are very, very hard to figure out for those like me who don’t know Japanese — you need to talk to people then go to specific places at specific times, since this game has an ingame time system, in order for some things to happen. There is a partial walkthrough for the game, but it’s far from complete; hopefully someone works on it soon. Even if I don’t get oo far though, I’m very interested to play this game, since it looks pretty good. The gmae has a sequel, LoX II, which has some of the system’s best graphics. That one is apparently a lot shorter than this game (people say 30+ hours for this one, maybe half that for the sequel), but it sure looks nice. This game does have one thing that game doesn’t, though: it comes in a dual-jewel case, and comes with not just a slightly thicker manual, but also a map/poster that was one of the reasons why I got this. On one side, you have the poster with art for the game. It’s very ’90s anime-style stuff, but it’s kind of amusing. On the other side, there’s a map of the floor layouts for all of the floors of the apparently very tricky dungeon at the end of the game. That’d probably be very useful, once you get that far.

Legion (J exclusive) – Two player simultaneous. Legion is usually regarded as being one of the Turbo CD’s worst shmups, and it’s easy to see why. This game is not without any value, however. Legion is by Telenet, and was released the same year as Avenger. This game is a far cry from that great should-be-classic, however. Legion is a brutally hard, unforgiving game with average to subpar graphics and lacking music. This game is mostly for masochists and people who really want another two-player co-op shmup for the TG16/CD, since there are so few on the platform.

Legion is also interesting for having English-language voice acting telling the story. The art design is okay, and has that Telenet look to it, but clearly did not get the budget of even Avenger. This game doesn’t have parallax, of course. This cut-rate game has no actual cutscenes, but it does have audio logs from your ships’ pilot which play over the level, all voice acted by a native English speaker. Is he the same guy who did one of the voices in The Ninja Warriors on Sega CD? I’m not sure. Anyway though, the story is somewhat amusing, and some of the lines are weird. You’re a space pilot sent to defeat an enemy ship fleet threatening your planet. However, it comes at the cost of CD audio — this game has none! Instead, the actual soundtrack is chiptunes, and don’t sound as good as Turbo CD shmups usually do as a result; the TG16 can do some good music, but it doesn’t have one of the best audio chips of its time. Still, the music isn’t all bad. It’s very repetitive, but some of the songs are kind of catchy, such as the between-levels space map tune. Others are just annoying. Ah well.

As for the gameplay, this game is about trial and error above anything else. Sort of like Telenet’s Valis games, the enemies zoom in at you from off the screen, and if you’re in the wrong place you will get hit. As a result you will die, and die often, and hopefully memorize everything as you do so. This game is reasonable-length, too; this isn’t one of those 20-minute shmups. That will be the only way to survive this frustrating game. When I can manage to stay alive for a while the game can be fun at times, though. You do respawn where you were when you died, but those lives will go away quickly, and you have limited continues, so finishing this game is hard. You lose all of your powerups when you die, which in this game is a SERIOUS setback — you start out quite underpowered, and being reverted to nothing will surely cause more deaths. Try to avoid taking any hits, somehow! In order to add some replay value, the game does have some branching paths, where you can choose between multiple stages. That’s nice. In two player mode killing the enemies will be easier, but you share credits and environmental obstacles and hard-to-dodge enemy fire will still take you down sometimes, so the game is still hard. Overall, I don’t entirely hate Legion. The game has okay controls, decent graphics for its time, and certainly provides plenty of challenge. If you don’t mind frustratingly difficult games, go ahead and give Legion a try if you find it for quite cheap. Otherwise pass. I don’t regret buying it, since there is some fun to be had and sometimes I like a challenge, but it’s definitely not one of the better Turbo CD games.

Mateki Densetsu Astralius (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system. Astralius, from IGS, is a traditional-style JRPG that is pretty much hated by the few people outside of Japan who have played it. I got this as a part of a lot, and unfortunately, here the critics are right: this game isn’t good. I do like the graphics and story, though. Astralius has decently good graphics for its time, good-sized sprites for an RPG from 1991, and the art design and enemies look good enough, when you’re looking at them. The monsters could look better, but it’s not too bad. This game is no Square or Enix title, but it looks fine, much better than I expected given its reputation. The problems are almost everywhere else. First, load times in this game are long and very frequent. Every battle has a long load, and you can’t even see the enemies on screen at first, either — you only can look at them through a menu option, or after you’ve chosen your strategy for the round. Argh. Some people also dislike that the game does not retarget if a characters’ target dies before their turn, but I don’t mind that; the GBA Golden Sun games worked that way, and it was fine, and added some strategy. Still, the slow-paced battles, with their odd menus-only-while-selecting-moves design and load times, slow this game down to a crawl. Your movement speed on the overworld is far too slow as well, and the random battle encounter rate is very high. That is not a good combination, and gets me to either stop playing games, or stop trying to explore in games, which is awful since exploration should be one of the more fun things to do in this kind of game.

As for the story, Astralius uses the classic story concept of having a group of normal Earth people who are pulled into a fantasy world. In this case, you play as a musician guy, and your three musical group members are the other party members. No, not a rock band; the main character is a flutist, and the game starts on an ocean liner where you are supposed to entertain the guests, before you get sucked into another world of course. In the other world, you naturally turn out to be the hero who will have to save the world, as expected. You’ll eventually gain music-based magic attacks for each character, fitting with the games’ theme. The game has a few cutscenes, and some voice acting, but also plenty of text of course. Use the walkthrough ( http://www.unlimitedzigworks.com/149…pc-engine.html ) if you don’t know Japanese, it’s essential. Or just don’t play the game. I haven’t gotten too far into this one, and can’t see myself sticking with it long enough to finish it, but I will get at least a bit farther, I think; I’m not too far into it, and while it definitely is frustrating and I’m sure I’ll lose patience with it eventually, I do at least like the basic story. That “modern person pulled into another world” setup is a good one, and it’s one only infrequently seen in RPGs.

Pomping World (J ver.) [aka Buster Bros.] – Two player simultaneous. Pomping World, or Buster Bros., is a port by Hudson of Capcom’s arcade game of the same name. This game has a US release as ‘Buster Bros. Collection’, but I have the Japanese version because the game is the same and this was cheaper. The original arcade game was called Pang in Europe, so the game has a different name in each region. From the second game in this series on, in Japan the series also took on the “Pang” name, but here it stayed “Buster Bros.”. So yeah, why that title, “Pomping World”? I have no idea. Whatever you call it, though, this game is decent fun. I don’t love this game, but it’s alright to good. Buster Bros. is a single-screen shooting/platform game. Unlike a lot of single-screen platformers from this era, though, this game is nothing like Bubble Bobble. Instead, it’s more of a shmup. Each of the players — and yes, that this game has two player co-op is awesome — can move around the bottom of the screen, or up ladders to higher platforms if there are ladders in the stage in question. Each level is just one screen, but there are 17 stages full of levels and limited continues so the game is plenty long. The attacks in this game are unique: you can only shoot straight up. The enemies in this game are bouncing balls, which get smaller as you shoot them, but much like Asteroids, as they shrink they also break into multiple parts. Instead of a gun, your default weapon is more of a grappling hook gun, or something — if it hits the ceiling or a platform above you, it creates a rope which will damage an enemy (ball) if the ball bounces into it. This will destroy the rope and let you fire again. However, when one of those is out, you can’t shoot, so be careful with your placement! Also, since you have to stand under or right in front of enemies to hit them, the game requires quite a bit of risk, and can be frustrating when you’re down to a few tiny balls which aren’t bouncing very high, giving you very little margin for error. This is a one hit and you die game. There are some weapon powerups that can make things a bit easier, but you still fire upwards only. That’s what makes this game unique, but I do find it kind of annoying sometimes, and I wish I could shoot sideways too. Ah well, you do get used to it. The game has a variety of backgrounds as you progress, and new obstacles and trickier stage layouts appear as you get farther. The basic gameplay stays the same, though. Overall this is a decently fun game, but I do have some issues with the design (always firing up only, most importantly), and there’s no enemy variety either, just lots of balls, balloons, or whatever they are. I also dislike how you can get stuck sometimes if you didn’t do things right in a level. Still, the game can be addictive and definitely is a solid and mostly well-designed challenge, and the two player co-op is pretty cool as well. I can see why this game was successful enough to get a couple of sequels, though they didn’t come to this system. The first three Buster Bros. games were all included in the Buster Bros./Pang Collection for the PS1. All three titles are also included in the Capcom Puzzle World collection on PSP, along with Super Puzzle Fighter II and one other game. There are also European ports of this game on some computers (Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, PC, and Atari ST). There is a SNES port of the second Buster Bros. title, but not the first. I haven’t played that one.

*Prince of Persia – One player, saves to system, Super CD. I haven’t played this yet (Super CD…), but as for PoP in general, it’s not a game I played much of at all as a kid, and I haven’t gone back to it much either. The game seems okay, but that time limit… maybe I’ll try this one someday and actually play PoP for once, I don’t know.

*Puyo Puyo CD (J exclusive) – Two player simultaneous, Super CD. Haven’t played this yet either, but Puyo Puyo is a pretty good series.

Ranma 1/2 (J exclusive) – One player, password save. Ranma 1/2, by NCS Masaya, is a side-scrolling action-platformer beat ’em up game with lots of cutscenes. The game is based on the first season of the classic anime, and many scenes from the anime appear in this game. Or, well, a few do — this game is quite short, in terms of actual content. The game tries to make up for that with long cutscenes and a steep difficulty level, and while that adds frustration, it does work; while this game would be excessively short if you got through it all without dying and skipped the cutscenes, it feels longer thanks to how many times I have to replay each level until I beat it. The cutscenes are entertaining and fun, too. I really liked the Ranma 1/2 anime, so even though this is in Japanese I have a solid idea of what’s going on — there’s nothing new here, it’s all based on stuff from the show. For those who don’t know, Ranma 1/2 is an action/comedy manga and anime from Rumiko Takahashi about a martial artist boy, Ranma, who turns into a girl when water is poured on him. There’s a silly cast of characters, some of which can also turn into other forms when doused with water, his love interest Akane, and more. The anime was very successful and lasted a long time, and I’ve watched almost all of it. In the game you play as Ranma, sometimes only in boy form, sometimes only in girl form, and sometimes, in levels with water present, in either form. Girl Ranma is faster and can jump higher but doesn’t do as much damage, so they are different, which is good. In a nice touch, in levels where you can transform back and forth, the game actually changes the end-level cutscene depending on Ranma’s gender, so you will see the scene with girl Ranma if you’re female, or boy Ranma if you’re male. I wasn’t expecting that, but it’s there! Of course as usual the cutscenes are mostly static, but that’s the best they could do here.

Gameplay is simplistic. In each level or section of a level, you either walk to the right while avoiding obstacles (if there are any) and beating up the enemies which come at you, or do a 1-on-1 fight against a single opponent from the show in a smaller arena. The first type of level generally are short, and don’t go on for very long. These generally seem to be the easier part of the game, at least earlier on that is; they do get harder. The 1-on-1 fights, however, can be hard right from the start. You’ll have to learn the controls well in order to win, since your opponent has more health than you do, and if it’s a fight in a level which also has a first section against normal enemies, you might enter with only partial health. The controls and hit detection are not too well thought through. Essentially, you only hit a specific distance forward with each hit, so you can cheese some enemies by standing on them, jumping up, and doing the “land on head” kick, for instance. And time your high kicks (down+attack) well, because they only hit at a certain distance. In better games you would not have these problems, but Ranma games were not exactly all great — the first few SNES Ranma games are no better than this either. Lose a life and you start at the fight again, but at game over it’s back to the start of the stage. You have infinite continues, but if you choose game over instead, you’ll get your password for the level. These passwords are in the form of a head, body, and legs of various Ranma characters, with three parts each from a different character, so they’re kind of annoying because they’re purely visual. Identifying some of the characters from just their legs can be tricky. I had to memorize what the part looked like then go scrolling through the password screen sometimes, because there it’s easy to tell which part goes with which. Couldn’t they have just supported saving to the system? At least this is better than not having saving, though! This game may be short, but it can be frustrating and I’m happy to not have to replay all the levels every time. Overall, this game really is only for side-scrolling beat ’em up fans and Ranma fans. I don’t like side-scrolling beat ’em ups all that much, but I do like Ranma, so I like this game despite its serious flaws. It’s fun to play a Ranma game which goes through the first and best season of the anime, and the game is playable even if it’s not the greatest. I also like that this is a sidescroller, considering how very few of those there are on the regular Turbo CD. Non-fans may not like this game, though, I would guess. But I think it’s alright. It’s flawed, annoying at times, and could be a lot better, but despite that I find it at least a little bit fun.

Record of Lodoss War (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system. Published by Hudson, Record of Lodoss War is an RPG based off of the popular anime series of the same name. This game may be an anime license, but it’s a big, ambitious game. This game comes in a dual-jewel case, and has a decent-sized manual and a nice spell list/poster as well in the box. The poster is a quite nice image of Deedlit, but that spell list on the other side is also useful (particularly if you know Japanese). Unfortunately, it’s also got a lot of language issues for those like me who don’t speak Japanese. I have watched, and mostly liked, the Lodoss War anime, but apart from the characters, that isn’t much help here; the basic setup is somewhat similar, but the game itself is very different from the anime. So, you play as Parn, a human warrior type guy who will of course end up saving the world. You will eventually gather together a party of six, all of them from the party in the anime. I haven’t gotten nearly that far, but I have played it enough to figure out the basic menus, which took a while because of all the language issues. This game is more complex than Astralius, and doesn’t have any kind of guide online, either; hopefully someone makes one sometime, because some help, particularly for where to go, is badly needed! This game is not linear, you can wander all over the map. If you don’t know Japanese, you won’t be able to read the people telling you where you should be heading, so you’ll end up just randomly wandering around, fighting random battles, until you bump into the right place. That does not sound like much fun. This game has constant loading, too. Loading for menus, loading for the camp screen, loading into and out of each battle, etc. This game is already slow, and the loading slows down the pace even more, that’s for sure. This is a slow, slow game. You’ll need patience for this one.

Fortunately, the battle system is fairly good, and the game has some great music as well. The graphics aren’t as good; this game has small sprites in the overworld, and even Astralius looks better. The art design is good, but everything is small in both the overworld and battles. Battle screens are very bland visually apart from the sprites, as well. Also, as with most of Falcom’s TGCD games, the game plays in a bordered window; there’s a border around the viewing area, and your characters’ stats are permanently on the right side of the screen, as well. The play window is larger than it is in many Falcom games, but still, I wish it was fullscreen. I believe this games’ sequel is, which sounds good. The towns are done as static images, though, instead of regular explorable “JRPG towns”, so they look better; the static-image art in the cutscenes and towns is done well. In the town you have a little map letting you choose which place you want to go to, and then once you go to a location that place appears on the screen. In the first town, there’s a town square where you can access the menu, several houses you can go to to talk to people, a temple where you get Parn’s first ally, Etoh the priest. Then it’s best to go to the market to buy Parn some equipment and get some healing items. Etoh starts with equipment, but Parn doesn’t. In the market, there are six sellers to buy from. The bottom one sells items, of which there are four kinds in the game. The first one heals your LP (health), the second heals your MP (magic), and I’m not sure yet about the other two but I assume at least one is a resurrection item. The five weapon/armor sellers are trickier to buy from, since the game only tells you who can equip each item and not what it is. Either try to translate stuff yourself, or save beforehand and try stuff out until you find what you need then load and buy the right thing, I think. The third menu option on the weapon/armor sellers’ list lets you equip things, and the last lets you give equipment to other party members — handy things to have there. While I wish that the game showed what type of weapon or armor each item is, I do like that the shops at least tell you who can equip each piece; that is handy. Newer games usually also tell you how it’d change your character stats, but this game doesn’t have that unfortunately. At least it has something.

As for the camp pause or town square menu, the first tier of this menu has a heal/item view option as the top option, go to Camp screen as the second option, and change party order as the third option. In the Camp screen, it shows how much of each of the four items you have and your money total on the screen. You can save in this menu at any time, so you don’t need to go back to town or something — very handy! This makes the game playable, I think. I strongly prefer RPGs to let you save anywhere when not in battle, and this game does. Just know that Save is the THIRD option on that screen; the second is Load. Don’t mix them up. The first option is Equip, I’m not sure what the fourth does yet, the fifth and last is for battle options. I don’t know what they do. In battle, the game goes to a top-down map of the single-screen battle area. Instead of your standard “you stand on opposite sides of the screen and hit eachother” battles, Lodoss War have a strategy element, as you can move around the battle area at will. Very nice! I always have preferred strategic battles to just plain “stand on opposite sides” stuff. The pathfinding for movement is sometimes iffy, and the game doesn’t tell you movement ranges, but you’ll get used to it. It’s kind of like Lunar, except you can tell people to move to a specific point on the field, something not possible in those games. Like Lunar though, the parties generally start out out of range for melee attackers, so you’ve got to move first. I like it better this way. Those tiny sprites are kind of hard to make out much detail on, though… ah well. At least they are well drawn. In the battle menu, the top option goes to the attack menu. Below that (in order) you can change your character turn order, ???, use auto-battle (note: you can’t disable this once selected until the battle ends!), go to that battle options screen here too, or last run away. Once you choose to attack you can use your normal weapon to attack the selected enemy (you will move towards them automatically if out of range), move to a selected spot, use a spell or item (menu: spell, item, item? Not sure what that last one does, yet.), or defend. Each character has different spells, so try them out and figure out what they do. Enemies can take a little while to kill, but they, or you, will go down eventually.

Naturally, being an old RPG, this game is all about fighting lots and lots of battles. Save often, because this game is hard; I’ve gotten killed not too far from the first town. You basically have to grind right from the start… argh. If this wasn’t a Lodoss War game, I’m not sure if I’d try; sure this game is good, but it’s not usually a kind of game I stick with, grindey top-down old RPGs that is. But it is, so yeah, I will play this more, until I run into a wall of not knowing where to go, I imagine. Overall though, while the graphics aren’t the greatest, the gameplay here is solid. The game has a fairly good battle system, a large world to explore, and more, and it’s mostly playable once I figured out the menus, too; the main issue is just not knowing where to go. Even just a basic guide telling you where to go at each point would be fantastic… I want one! Ah well. Even as it is though, for Lodoss or classic RPG fans, this game is definitely worth a look, and shouldn’t cost much either. The game has a sequel, which is on the Turbo Super CD, and is different from the other Lodoss games at the time on Japanese computers and the Sega CD.

Road Spirits (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system. Road Spirits, from Arc System Works (then Arc Co.), is a good-looking but sadly vapid racing game. This game was clealry inspired by Outrun, as just in Outrun you drive towards the horizon in a “scaler-style” linescroll racing game. You have several sports cars to choose from, and there are over a dozen tracks in this game beginning to end so it will take a good while. The graphics are quite good, as well. The menus and interface look decent, the game saves your best time on each track (nice!), the cars are large, the environments beautiful, and trackside objects are present as well. There are very, very few racing games on the Turbo CD, and this is just about the only behind-the-car one (apart from the scattered racing bits in Zero 4 Champ II, this is about it I think), but visually it makes a good impression. The music is pretty good as well, and is nicely varied. I like it. The gameplay, however, is seriously lacking. Specifically, this game is brain-dead easy. Your only opponent in this game is the clock; other cars are just traffic to avoid, and avoiding them is not difficult. Staying on the road is just as easy, as it won’t be until almost the end of the game that you finally reach tracks that even begin to challenge in terms of the actual turns! Most of the game consists of about two minute long races that are absent of any serious chance of failure. You’re given plenty of time, and the track won’t turn beyond your ability to easily respond. There aren’t any difficulty level options in this game either, of course. It’s really sad, because the game could have really been something, but by making the game so excessively easy, it makes this game kind of hard to recommend. It’s a cheap game though — import-only, but cheap — so it might be worth a pickup because of how few racing games there are on this system, and for something easy to play through sometime you want to play a game but not actually have any chance of losing. I just wish that they had made the game a bit tougher. Something in between this and the extreme challenge of Victory Run (TG16) would be perfect, I think. That’d probably be Outrun, but OutRun (HuCard) costs a lot more than this game does. Anyway, Road Spirits is okay, I guess, but could have been a lot better if it wasn’t near-impossible to lose.

Rom Rom Stadium (J exclusive) – Two player simultaneous, saves to system. This is a baseball game from NCS Masaya, and sadly it’s not a very good one. Rom Rom Stadium is an early TCD release, and it shows: like most of the earlier HuCard baseball games on the system, this has a strictly overhead view and looks barely improved over NES titles visually, too much of the time. The sprites are very small, and the field is too. There also isn’t a full season mode here, just a pennant-chase as you try to beat the other teams with the one you select. At least the game will save your progress between games. You can also create your own custom team, and load it to another persons’ game by a ridiculously long (like, hundred-plus-letter) password you can view… though with passwords that long, it’s not worth it. The teams in this game are based on the real Japan League baseball teams, but I doubt it has a real license so it’s just clone teams. I love baseball, and it is interesting to see what has to be one of the first ever CD-based baseball games, though, so I do find the game kind of interesting, even if objectively it’s definitely a bad game. The graphics are only the first problem with this game. It also barely makes use of its CD medium, and the baseball mechanics are flawed as well. The only things reminding you that this is on a CD are clearer voice samples than you’d find on a cart or card game, some little “cutscenes” where an anime-style girl wearing various outfits, who is watching your game on TV, cheers or criticizes you during and after games (depending on how well your team is doing), and… well, that’s about it. There are no cutscenes here apart from those bits with the girl.

As for the gameplay, the game has the overhead field view, and a behind-the-batter view for the pitcher/batter duel. Once you manage to get the timing down to hit the ball, the main problem is that runners are much faster than the ball. Good luck trying to keep people from getting, or staying, on base… the computer may do fine at it, but human players will find that difficult. There is no field indicator as later top-down baseball games have, either, so you’ll just have to watch the ball to figure out where it’s going. Good luck trying to line up fielders who are off the screen with the ball flying towards them… or getting ground balls that get past your infielders, since who knows where the outfielders are. I don’t care for those later top or isometric view with minimap baseball games much either — Hardball III (PC/Genesis) completely spoiled me and I just can’t get used to any other kind of classic baseball game — but those games are at least a lot better than this. So, yeah, this game is challenging, and the computer probably cheats. It does make some mistakes, such as frequently throwing away the ball while trying to throw to first, though… but that’s more bad than good, when you think about it, because of how stupid it is. Exploit this anyway, though, because scoring in this game can be tough. Find a human to play against if you want to have “fun”, and even then the slow ball will annoy both of you, and the ugly graphics won’t impress anyone. Rom Rom Stadium may be one of, or maybe the, first CD-based baseball games, but that doesn’t make it good.

Shanghai II (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system (scores/settings), passwords (for direct access to puzzle layouts). Shanghai II, by Hudson, is the second version of this classic solitaire game using the Mahjoing tileset. It’s a good game with outstanding music but limited variety. I first played Shanghai clones on the PC back in the late ’90s, and it’s a great fun concept which can be challenging. There are four of each tile type somewhere in the field, except for special tiles like the dragons, flowers, and such, which you match with the others in their category. With a little practice you get used to what is what. The game works by matching similar tiles, but you can only remove tiles which have a fully uncovered (not touching another tile) left or right side; tiles in between other tiles cannot be touched. Because the tile patterns have multiple layers, luck is a huge factor in this game; losses will not always be your fault, there’s no way to know what is underneath the stacks. Of course, card games always have a luck factor, and mahjong tiles are essentially the same thing as cards in terms of function. This game has six different board layouts, each named for a different animal, and each one has probably a thousand possible tile layouts within it. Later Shanghai games have many more than six board layouts, and add new game modes, multiplayer, and more, but this is one of the earlier ones, so it doesn’t have any of that. The Saturn and Game Boy/GB Color Shanghai games I have do have those options (I review both in their respective system summaries), so I wasn’t sure if I would really find this game worthwhile because of how much less content it has than those games. Well, it is. The graphics are simple but effective, but I really have to say how incredible this games’ music is! I read that the Turbo CD Shanghai games (Shanghai III also has a TCD release) have great music, and that is absolutely true. Even if the gameplay here is lacking options and features compared to newer games like this, the music is so great that I’ve been playing game a lot, and surely will continue to.

The basic gameplay here is classic Shanghai done well, and that’s good. The game has four different tileset options, though it doesn’t have the number or symbol options you commonly see in newer Shanghai titles and clones; all four in this game are standard Mahjong characters only. I recommend the fourth one, since it has some color, which really helps differentiate the tiles. I also would hightly recommend using the fastest cursor speed; in the timed game, every second counts. There is also a difficulty level option, but Easy is hard enough, I haven’t tried the harder ones. Once you choose your options, the only other thing to do is start the game. The game sends you to the Tiger board first, but you can access any of the six from the menu, which you open by hitting Start. The middle menu is the board select. The names there are in Japanese, but once you choose a board it says the name in English on the table, so it’s easy to figure out.). The lefthand menu lets you take back a turn or reset the board. Again the menu is in Japanese, but it’s no problem. The righthand menu lets you start the timed challenge game (top option), view your high scores in timed mode, or enter a password to go to a specific table layout. There is no scorekeeping in the main game, unfortunately, only timed mode. Newer Shanghai games or clones would keep track of your best scores whether or not you won the game, but this game is more basic. It is disappointing, but at least the timed game has a leaderboard, and that high score table is saved to the system. The timed game is quite difficult, as the time limit is tight and finishing each table before you run out of time will be a real challenge. Also, actually getting a good score will be even harder, given how much luck is involved in this game. Takebacks are limited too, so you can’t just take back every mistake. You can retry tables if you fail, but your score resets if you do so, so the only way to really beat the game would be to complete all six tables without any failures. After completing each table, there’s a simple but nice little congratulations scene, slightly different for each tables’ animal. I haven’t managed to beat all six in one go yet, it’s quite hard. I’ll keep trying for sure, though! As for the passwords, the first two digits set the table (TI for tiger, etc.), the next is difficulty I believe, and the last group is the table layout. This lets you access any of the many, many variants, if there’s some specific one you want to try; by default the game randomizes which one you see. Overall, Shanghai II is great, and I love it. The featureset may be limited, but what’s here is done very well. Other versions of Shanghai II are on plenty more platforms, but none have this versions’ awesome soundtrack. I’ll have to get Shanghai III for Turbo CD (the first game wasn’t on CD, just HuCard, or Sega Master system, for console releases). The third game looks like it has a lot of nice additions.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective – One player, saves to system. See my Sega CD summary of this game — this is the exact same Icom FMV-heavy detective game as that one, just on Turbo CD instead of Sega CD. This was the first console port of the game. Yes, Sega was so desperate for a game with video in it that they included as a packin with their new Sega CD a third-party game which had already been released on the competitions’ system the previous year. The Sega CD version changed the graphics some, and might look slightly better, but the gameplay is the same, and overall the visuals are just a bit different, more than anything. This version looks decent, just about as okay as the Sega CD version. Unfortunately this means that the video is very low quality and plays in a small window. I was hoping that maybe the higher-color Turbo CD could put some more colors in its video, but if it does, I can’t really tell. Ah well. I guess it was probably hard enough to manage to squeeze video playback into the regular TCD’s 64KB of RAM. Unlike the Sega CD, the Turbo CD has very, very few games with live action video in them, since most such games, including this one, were Western-developed and the Turbo CD of course was quite the failure here. As such, while the game isn’t the most exciting thing, it does stand out more on the Turbo CD, which has so very few games with live-action video, versus the Sega CD. As for the gameplay though, this is a video adventure game. You watch videos, read newspaper articles, book segments, and the like, and slowly try to figure out what is going on in each of the three cases on the disc. You can’t pick up items in this game, but instead have to figure out who to talk to or where in London to go at each point in the case. Time matters, as the faster you finish the case the better your score at the end, but along the way this is a slow-paced game which requires careful reading and viewing in order to uncover the truth in each case. The game can be fun, once you get into it and take your time. I did enjoy trying to figure out what had happened. However, there is almost no replay value since each case is always the same, so this game won’t take long. Still, this is an okay game. Also on PC (DOS), Sega CD, and iOS/Mac/PC (Win6+). The latter three releases are a modern re-release with better video quality than the old ones.

Side Arms Special (J exclusive) – One player. Side Arms Special is an enhanced CD edition of the TG16 HuCard version of this NEC-developed console port of Capcom’s arcade horizontal shmup Hyper Dyne Side Arms. This game was an early release for the CD system, and it shows, but it is a pretty interesting game even so. The HuCard version got a US release, but this CD edition did not. Side Arms is one of Capcom’s shmups which lets you fire in multiple directions. First was Section Z, then Side Arms, and then last Forgotten Worlds. Forgotten Worlds lets you rotate and fire in any direction, but this game is simpler: I fires right, and II fires left. It’s simple, and it works. Just make sure to turn up both of those turbo switches for this one, most of the time, it’s needed. When you die you respawn right where you were in the main game, but have almost no invincibility so one death will often become three, or five, before you recover. That’s painful, when you’re only given two continues to complete the game with. Memorization is key! I’ll go into more detail about the original mode in this game when I do a TG16 summaries thread, but Side Arms is a great shooter with a few annoying issues. The game has five different weapons, and in the main game you can switch between them on the pause screen. Apparently in the arcade game you are just stuck with the last weapon you got, but here they improved things by letting you switch. The three-way gun and shotgun are my favorites, though the MBL is best against most bosses. There are hidden powerups, so shoot the walls and memorize their locations! These include point orbs, extra lives, and most importantly the super-mode powerup. When you get that, an orange ship (the player 2 ship from the arcade game) come in and merge with your ship to form one stronger unit. Now you’re in robot form, and shoot eight shots at all angles with every shot you fire. This will last until you get hit and lose the powerup, and the extra shots will really help keep you alive so try to avoid that. Normal powerups appear from one specific enemy type, and give you more weapons and increase their power; change the pickup by shooting the powerups to cycle through the options. Note that POW actually increases your ship speed, not weapon power. Odd choice of words there, that confused me for quite some time. The reverse POW decreases your speed. Apart from the respawn problems, this is a very good game. The game feels a bit lacking in color, but the arcade game looks the same way, so this is just being accurate to the original. Unfortunately the original arcade game’s two player mode is absent in both TG16/CD releases. Another issue is that the bosses repeat a lot — you’ll fight the same three or four bosses over and over, until finally you reach a new boss at the end of the game. Ah well, it’s fun anyway, and I did finally manage to beat the HuCard version of this game earlier this year (in 2013). I do like that bosses have health bars on the screen, it’s very handy. When compared to the HuCard version of the game, there are two major changes in the CD version. As in Daisenpuu Custom, there aren’t any cutscenes in this game, despite it being on a disc. There is a CD audio soundtrack though, and it is a great CD-audio version of the games’ music. It’s very cool to hear CD versions of the songs.

The other addition is even more interesting: in addition to a perfect (exept for the added load times and change to CD audio) copy of the HuCard game, there is also a second game mode available, called B.C. mode. In B.C. mode, the levels are shorter but harder, since in this mode you are sent back when you die; no respawn-where-you-died this time. While the levels are cut up versions of the original modes’ levels, the enemies in B.C. mode are mostly new designs, and the bosses are all new here. The weapon-switch and boss fight mechanics are different this time as well. You cannot switch weapons at will in this version; instead, you’re simply stuck with whatever weapon you last pick up. Instead of shooting the powerup orbs to change their powerup, they will now cycle between the different options automatically. This is as much good as bad, as it can take a while to cycle. There are only four weapons in B.C. mode, and all four are new. The best one feels like a hybrid of the shotgun and 3-way laser from the original mode, as it has the shotguns’ short range and many shots, but does not destroy enemy bullets, unlike the original mode shotgun but like the other weapons. There is again a straight laser as well, and a weird ball shot which rebounds forward and back. I think the original game has stronger weapons, but some of these are interesting. The powered-up robot mode is gone, and with it the 8-way helper fire as well. Instead, you can pick up some helper ships, which will protect you from hits (that is, act like a limited shield) and shoot out a bit, Gradius Options-style. Keeping these is important, as they’re your only hope for staying alive later on in the game. As for the bosses, bosses in B.C. mode do not have health bars anymore, so you’ll just have to shoot them until they die. They are more varied than in the original mode, though, which is good, and once again all of the boss designs here are new. You have to fight these bosses differently from the original mode bosses, though: B.C. mode bosses will only take damage from charge shots, not any normal fire! You’ll have to charge up and fire at their weak points to hurt them. This can be quite difficult by the later levels, and as a result B.C. mode, while being shorter than the original mode, is much more difficult. With new enemies, new weapons, new bosses, and perhaps slightly altered background graphics too, though, this is a very interesting game that any Side Arms or classic shmup fan should play! Despite the wealth of shmups on this system, Side Arms Hyper Dyne is a fantastic game and is one of the better US-released HuCard shmups. On CD it may not stand out quite as much, but the B.C. mode is great and makes this game definitely worth a purchase, whether or not you have other versions of Sidearms. No other version has B.C. mode in it, after all. The original Sidearms is on arcade and PS2/Xbox in one of the Capcom Classic Collection discs, but the TG16 version is TG16/TCD only, and B.C. mode is TCD exclusive.

Splash Lake – Two player simultaneous, saves to system. Splash Lake is a puzzle-action game, and it’s nice looking and plays great too. In this interesting title from NEC (and distributed by TTI in the US, since this was a later 1992 release here apparently), you play as a pair of cute, cartoony, legless ostriches which for some reason have to walk… er, bounce, rather… over floating pathways infested with hordes of monsters. This game is entirely playable in two player co-op, which is really awesome! One button jumps and the other button pecks. You can jump one or two spaces forward, but as you’re an ostrich, you can’t fly of course. You can defeat the monsters by pecking the bridge’s floor tiles. There are two main types of tiles, bridge pillar tiles and bridge floor tiles. Pillar tiles cannot be pecked, and will always be on the map. Floor tiles, however, can be destroyed. When you peck a bridge tile once, it cracks. Once you have cracked all tiles in an area which touch a solid tile, cracked two tiles next to eachother, or cracked enough tiles to cut off an area from the rest of the level, that area of the bridge will collapse, sending anyone on it into the water, both player or enemy. After a couple of seconds, the dropped bridge will reappear. Early enemies are easy enough to drop into the water with simple traps by pecking tiles behind an enemy and then waiting for them to approach you. Later on, however, enemies will get trickier, gain their own limited flight, and even require you to peck out long stretches of bridge all at once in order to kill them. There is also a boss at the end of each of the games’ six 10-level worlds. As a result, the game has a good difficulty curve, starting easy but gradually getting more challenging as you go along. Even so, 60 levels isn’t that long, and the game may seem to be short. However, there are two full additional hidden 60-level sets in this game! Yeah, they should have unlocked each after beating the previous, or told you abot this in the manual, but the only hint to their existence is a cryptic line in the story section: “We can even discoer items hidden behind teh pillar which will be a bonus point for both of us.” “Behind the pillar”? Huh? That’s not a very useful clue! How it works is that in order to unlock the second set of levels, you have to find the hidden fruit in each level in the first set. You find this by pecking three times on each bridge pillar until you find the one with the hidden fruit in it, and picking it up. Do that again in the second set of levels, and you unlock at third and final one. It’s great that there is more to this game, because Splash Lake is pretty good and can be a lot of fun. The game saves your progress as you go, unlocking levels in the level select as you reach them. Your best scores and options are also saved.

Splash Lake has a lot of options, on that note. You can choose from four ostrich colors, two bridge-drop types (all at once or one tile at a time), the number of lives per game (3 to 10; you have infinitne continues of course, but this matters if you’re playing for score!), whether you have 3 hit points per life or one (the game is much harder with one hit deaths!), whether you can pass through the other player in two player games or if you have to jump over them, how much time you get per level (the default is generous), the background color and bridge pattern, music on/off, and finally whether you want to view the amusing little in-between-area “ostrich theater” scenes which appear after you beat each boss. They’re all silly and amusing, so don’t turn them off, I would say. The options menu is great, I like being able to choose the menu background color and ostrich color. The music in the game is reasonably good as well. This isn’t one of the most memorable soundtracks around, but it’s a light, fun soundtrack that perfectly fits this kind of game. However, the CD audio is pretty much the only reason why this game is on a disc. Unless the game data takes up more than 8KB, which may or may not be the case, this game otherwise would be fine on a HuCard — there aren’t any videos, voice acting, real cutscenes, or anything in this game. Just fun gameplay. However, the good music is good enough excuse to put this on a disc, I think. Overall, Splash Lake is a pretty good game which I highly recommend anyone with a Turbo CD should track down! The game is great with either one or two players, and has lots of levels too if you find the hidden fruits. The game has a US release, too, which I have; it shouldn’t cost too much, for a Turbo CD game, but there’s also the import version of course. Either way, play Splash Lake, it’s good.

Super Albatross (J exclusive) – Super Albatross is an early CD golf game. By Telenet’s Laser Soft division, Super Albatross tries to use its CD format well, but has some seriously questionable gameplay mechanics. I generally find golf games very boring and almost never play them, but I was willing to give this one a try after looking at how it wasn’t just a golf game, but also has a story mode with cutscenes and everything. There are several modes in this game, including a single game on one of the courses in the game against several human or computer opponents, solo practice, or the story mode. In practice or single game modes, you can play as any of a variety of characters. In the story mode, though, you play as the guy on the cover. The intro cutscene explains his tragic past; the voice acting may be in Japanese, but it’s easy enough to see what’s going on. As usual animation is limited, but I like the effort — golf games did not have things such as this back then! Even now, a full character story mode in a sports game is uncommon, I think. The story explains how our hero’s sister (I think) dies of something or other, so he’s taking up his golf club to continue what she started… or something. I haven’t gotten past the intro, because this game is hard and I’m awful at golf games. One of the playable characters in single game/practice mode is a cyborg, so later on this game must go in a sci-fi direction.

But as I said, this game is not quite a normal golf game. Unfortunately, that isn’t a good thing. As with most golf games from the 1980s, this is a strictly top-down game, and does not have a behind-the-character viewpoint like most later golf games have. The graphics are okay, but apart from using more colors, this isn’t too much of a step over what the NES can do. In that respect this isn’t much different from other early HuCard golf games on the TG16. What is different is how you hit the ball in this game. Normally, golf games have a meter. You press the button several times with the right timing in order to swing. In this game though, there’s no meter; instead, how hard you press the button down determines how hard you hit. Yes, really, and it doesn’t work very well because without a meter, hitting the ball precisely, as is of course required, is quite difficult. It will take quite some time to get used to exactly how hard tyou have to press the button in order to go each distance you need. There is some essential help for this in the manual: the back cover of the manual shows you the maximum hitting distance each of the characters in the game will get with each club type. You’ll need the manual for this, because this is not told to you ingame, but have the manual and use that chart if you want to hit the ball the distance it needs to go! It’s the only way to have a chance. I couldn’t find anything of note about how this game plays online in English, but yes, this is how it works. Overall I can’t really say what I think of this game because I’m awful at golf games in general, but the odd, simplified control scheme makes me think that it probably isn’t exactly some lost classic. I do like the inclusion of a story mode, though.

Ultra Box vol. 6 (J exclusive) – One player, some games save to system (see below). Ultra Box was a digital magazine series. I think this is the last ‘issue’, unfortunately; it’s interesting. Really though, while it calls itself a magazine, this is more of a mini-game collection, or magazine cover disc but full of of original content instead of demos. The disc has five games on it, plus a variety of extra stuff. I’ll cover each of the games separately. All games are one player only though, so I won’t list that each time. They are all surely short games, though the length varies somewhat from title to title.
–Jangken & Fairies – Saves to system. This game is a rock-paper-scissors RPG. Rock-paper-scissors is called “jangken” in Japanese, and I believe you have to rescue some fairies, so the title is descriptive. This game looks like a very basic NES-esque early TG16 RPG, as you start in a town and are on a quest, except you do rock paper scissors for battles. Yeah, it’s weird like that.
–Alice in Flagland – Saves to system. This menu-based adventure game stars a girl named Alice in a weird somewhat Alice in Wonderland-themed world. The game plays like Snatcher, so you don’t move a cursor around, but instead just select options from the menu. The game is entirely in Japanese, of course, so I didn’t get far before hitting a game over screen, but there are amusing pictures and some voice clips that made me want to keep going anyway. I imagine this game isn’t that long, but it’d probably be fun if you know the language. And yeah, it’s weird!
–Dokikoki Driveland – No saving. This is a little minigame of sorts, and is shorter than the three main games on the disc (above and below). This game is a topdown racing game, and it’s a pretty fun one; I wish there was a full game based on this engine, but I don’t think there is. This game is also a bit “ecchi”, in that if you’re successful in the game eventually the two girls on the games’ title screen will remove their clothes one piece at a time. The game is a timetrial title, so you have a set, tight time limit to get through each course. It’s tough, short, and fun.
–“Henai” Lecture – No saving? This is a little dating sim/quiz game, I believe. I can’t get anywhere in it, given that it’s a game where you have to answer questions in Japanese, but you control some guy who seems to be trying to date a girl, maybe? Anyway, a girl is asking you questions. Given that ‘Henai” is in the title, I imagine that it’s some kind of love-related thing. I don’t know though.
–Cusuto Special – Saves to system. Cusuto Special is probaby the longest game on this disc; I played it for maybe an hour, but didn’t finish the game. This game starts with a long, fully-voiced sequence of cinema scenes. This part features an archaeologist and his daughter, I belive it is. The animation is limited as always on the system, but given that there is so much other stuff on this disc, it’s impressive that this could all fit. There’s the expected nude bath scene with the girl, badguys chasing them, etc. Eventually you end up in a maze with a first-person view, and have to get them through. Fortunately it’s not too hard. After that, the game shifts to a different guy, and becomes a menu-based conversation/adventure game. You’re going around town, looking for the now-missing archaeologist I think, and have to talk to quite a few people along the way, all in text-only Japanese. I don’t know if you can actually fail this, as I didn’t despite just choosing stuff at random, and eventually I stopped playing during this section. I don’t know how long the game continues on after this, but I’m sure I’ll try it sometime, since this seems like a fairly ambitious title, and the graphics and voice acting are high-quality stuff for a regular-CD title.

There are also a few non-interactive things on a second screen of the menu. First, there’s a huge software database with information on 340 PC Engine (HuCard, CD, SuperGrafx, etc.) games that had been released up to December 1991. It has cover art, game information, and I think a little review (from a magazine I assume?) for each title, and you can sort them by price, format, genre, release date, and the like. From here you can also access a menu with some images that have voice clips behind them. A few seem to be previews for upcoming games, such as the never-released Marble Madness, but I’m not sure about the rest. Second, there’s a large fanart gallery with REALLY weird, crazy art on its title screen. Going through this (press “down” to go to the next picture) takes a while, and getting through the whole thing was tedious, but the ending was interesting — the last three, probably the winners, have little voice clips with them. Also it’s not just PC Engine fanart; you’ll also see Sonic (yes, really), Goku, and Dragon Quest art, for example. Last, there’s a menu with a text message from the editor and a few other text blurbs. Overall, Ultra Box 6 is interesting. Most of the games have major language barriers, but even so this is pretty neat stuff to look through, and I”d like to get the other Ultra Box volumes in the future. I only have this one because that’s the one that came with the game lot I got.

Valis IV – The Fantasm Soldier (J exclusive) – One player, saves to system. Telenet’s Valis II, starring Japanese-schoolgirl-turned-magical-warrior Yuko, was one of the earliest platform-action games to release on the Turbo CD back in 1989. The series started on Japanese computers (and the NES), and there are also Genesis and SNES cartridge versions of all four Valis games, but the Turbo CD releases are probably the best known. They aren’t just platformers, but are games full of voice-acted cutscenes, something very new at the time. Valis IV is, chronologically, the last Valis game. After 1992’s Valis IV they made the SNES port of this game, a TCD remake of the Genesis remake of Valis 1, and then the series died, as Telenet stopped making platformers after ’92 and then broke apart a few years later. Because of how big of an impact the idea of a game with a story and fully voice-acted cutscenes was, though, the Valis series is at least somewhat remembered. Valis IV’s story is okay. It tells a new story with new protagonists, but is connected to the earlier games as well. It’s mostly cliche stuff as usual, as you will have to defeat the evil forces and such, but has some good moments in it. As usual on the Turbo CD the cutscenes have minimal animation, but at least there is some, unlike some games. Ingame graphics are great — this game has parallax-scrolling backgrounds in many levels! On the SNES or Genesis that would be nothing, but on this sytem, it’s impressive. Sprite work and bacakgrounds all look good as well. The soundtrack is also good. The voice acting is in Japanese, so I don’t entirely know what’s going on, but that doesn’t affect the gameplay, and you do get some sense of it.

However, all of the games have gameplay design issues, and this one is no exception. As usual with Telenet, the games are definitely not without their flaws. One constant in the Valis series is that the designers love to have enemies zoom in on you from all directions, necessitating either good reflexes, or memorization. Valis level designs can be very annoying due to the constant traps and flying enemies that you won’t be able to predict until after you’ve seen them already. You have a health bar, but it’ll frequently be being chipped away. Valis IV does have some good-sized levels with solid layouts, though. Most levels are linear, but some let you explore along the way as well. The game has decently good controls, and there are powerups to collect that increase your health, increase weapon power, and fill your magic meter, which can be used for special attacks or charge shots. When you get a game over you can continue, but from the beginning of the level, and with weapon power reset. By the middle of the game, this is a significant setback. Even so, it is great that the game saves your progress as you go. The previous two TUrbo CD Valis games also do so, but the rest of the series do not. Saving helps immensely in this game, and makes it much more bearable! At least after getting through a level in this version I don’t have to replay it if I give up later on in the game, unlike the SNES or Genesis Valis games… or TCD Valis 1, I think.

The game has three playable characters, much like Valis III did, except all three of them are new here; none of Valis III’s characters return in playable form. The game also has the Valis series’ only male playable character, though the guy is a large alien thing, not a human. The other two are girls, the main character a warrior-type and the other more a magic-type. The main character in this game is kind of weak, though; her attacks aren’t that strong, and the other girl has a great double-jump too. I much prefer to use her, and fortunately this game lets you switch between all three of them (once you have them all) whenever you want… most of the time. There are some areas where, annoyingly, the game forces you to use the main character. I wish it wouldn’t, but it does have a story to tell. Overall, Valis IV is a decent to good game that is definitely fun for a while. I do think it’s well worth getting. Even so, when I think of playing Valis games, ‘frustrating’ is probably the first word that comes to mind. This might be the best Valis game I’ve played, but it still can be frustrating. Still, the game has decently good graphics, a fair amount of levels, multiple characters, and more. Valis IV also has a SNES port which also got a US release, but that version removes all story cutscenes except for the intro and ending, and only has the main character playable, not the others; they aren’t in the game. Also of course you can’t save your progress. Levels have been redesigned, making them larger than they are in this version, so the game might take longer, but being stuck with that weak weapon of the main characters’ won’t help either. The game does have an enhanced powerup system which lets you pick up, and switch between, multiple weapon or ability powerups, and it’s a great addition, but it’s not nearly enough to make up for the cuts. This is the better version.

Ys Books I & II – One player, saves to system. Ys (‘ees’, not ‘whys’) I & II is probably one of the Turbo CD’s most popular, or at least best-known, games. The two games on this disc, which you must play in order, are both top-down action-RPGs from Falcom. The game uses Falcom’s signature combat system, where instead of having to press a button to attack you simply run into enemies to attack them, as with most all TCD Falcom titles. It is a simple game, focused on combat, exploring, and grinding above all. Some people compare Ys to Zelda, but the two games have very little in common — Ys has almost no puzzles. It does have save anywhere, though, as in all Ys games I know of, which is fantastic. You get five save slots. In this game, and in the Ys series in general, you play as Adol, a red-haired warrior who goes around from place to place and ends up saving the day and discovering every local mystery in every place he seems to visit, as usual for a videogame hero. In these games he saves several places while discovering the mystery of why, as the subtitle goes, “Ancient Ys Vanished”. Ys is a lost ancient civilization, you see, but there are rumors that it’s still out there somewhere, hidden away. Ys I & II has okay graphics, but not great. As with most Falcom-derived TCD games released into 1994, the game runs windowed, for some reason or other, and I find that annoying, as the game window is a little small. There is a large status bar on the bottom with your health, experience, enemy health, and money, and a thick border around the rest of the screen. This leaves you with a vertically narrow play window. I know that the regular Turbo CD has only 64KB of RAM, but why is the play window on the Sega Master System version quite a bit larger than this next-gen port? It has smaller status bars and a much thinner border. The ingame graphics in the Turbo CD version are improved compared to earlier versions, but still are small and limited in detail. This game looks okay for 1989, but it doesn’t look great. Of course though, the main new feature in this version, visually, are the CD elements. The game has a few cutscenes, high-quality voice acting, and some great CD audio music. Ys always had a great soundtack, and you see that in every version of the game I’ve played (even the SMS version sounds good), but this is one of the best renditions. NEC did the US release of this game, and unlike most titles after it, actually got good voice actors for this one. I’m sure that in 1989 this was amazing, but even now the game sounds great and has a good intro. The voice acting adds to the story during the game, as well.

Gameplay in all Ys games is grind-heavy, and this one set the standard, though this version is easier at the beginning than earlier versions are. The game does have some basic objectives along the way, and occasional story scenes, but the “quests” generally amount to excuses for you to grind and that’s about it. You need to grind enough money to get item X for person Y, explore/grind in the dungeon in question until you find what you need, and then go to the next location to grind in. Until you find the heal ring, you won’t recover health in dungeons, and will have to go back outside to heal; there, just stand still to do so. The game is a bit nonlinear at times, so you will need to explore, and I found myself looking at a guide a few times because I didn’t know where to go next. Sometimes going down in the current dungeon isn’t the right path, but instead after getting to a certain point you need to leave and go elsewhere next. That’s alright, though, as you’ll figure this out quickly — the harder areas will kill you fast, and it gives this simple game a little complexity. As for the level designs, level layouts get mazelike quickly, and this game does not have a map. That dungeon where you can only see a few feet in front of you is an interesting challenge! The TGCD version redid the dungeon maps versus older versions, so the game is not exactly the same as it was before. Future remakes would do the same thing again. On the whole Ys is no Zelda, for sure, but it is somehow fun despite its simplicity. On the issue of levelling, Ys I & II on TCD has maybe ten times more character levels than the Master System version had for the same amount of experience, so you level up significantly more times, but the end result, that you will spend most of the game grinding, is the same. You spend most of your time with this game working your way towards the next level so that you can go a bit farther and fight the next tier of enemies. Combat in Ys works by running into enemies, and it’s actually a pretty interesting system. You don’t want to always just run into them, but should pay attention to where you are running into the enemy, or vice versa — enemies are much more likely to hit you in head-on collisions than when you hit them on the sides or back, and you will probably take a hit if you get hit on the sides or back, so protect yourself. Now, I first played Ys seriously in the Sega Master System version, which I got a couple of years ago. That game has a much lower gameplay speed than the Turbo CD version, changing the feel of the game so that everything takes longer and carefullylining up angled attacks is easier, and vital. The game works at either pace though, so I don’t think speeding it up made the game better, just shorter. On TG16, you run around rapidly ramming enemies. On that note, the SMS also seems to punish you much more for head-on attacks. The basic combat is the same on both systems, but I just played the beginning of both games. In the SMS game, I died twice, in a hit or two each time, when I tried to ram front-on-front into the swordsmen on the first screen. On the TG16, I wiped them out no problem, and only took about a third of a healthbar of damage. At first I thought the difference was that the higher game speed made off-angle attacks more difficult, but no, they still happen; it just doesn’t punish you as much for running straight into enemies, it seems, and that really disappoints me. I like the challenge of having to be careful when approaching enemies! It adds strategy into the game. There still is strategy on the TG16, as if they hit you on the sides or back it’ll hurt, but from the front it feels different. I could be wrong about this though; what do people who have played the game a lot more than I do think? The first boss is definitely much, much easier on the TG16; it went from hard to a joke. Probably the designers wanted to get Ys I out of the way more quickly to make room for the bigger and more varied Ys II, but going through the game so quickly feels unsatisfying in comparison to how it is on the dedicated releases. Ys I & II is not an easy game though, to be sure, and starts getting harder in the temple, once you have to watch your health. And anyway Ys I may be quite a bit shorter than it is on SMS, but there’s also Ys II on the disc. Still, my first reaction to the TCD version’s combat was not good.

Overall, Ys will never challenge Zelda, but as Zelda is my favorite videogame series that’s kind of too bad; anyway, Ys doesn’t try to do that, and instead does its own simpler thing. I haven’t gotten far enough in this game to say anything definitive about it, because I stopped playing partway through Ys I out of disappointment and hadn’t gone back yet until I played it a bit for this summary, which actually would have been much more negative if I hadn’t done so. Between the too-easy early gameplay, seemingly reduced strategy in combat, and smaller gameplay window, I might like the SMS version of Ys I better than this one. Even so, Ys I & II for Turbo CD is a pretty good game. Ys I & II has decent graphics, great music and voice acting that were groundbreaking at the time, and good gameplay that still does hold up alright. Gameplay matters the most in games, and Ys’s gameplay could be better, but it is fun to explore around and run into enemies. But which version of Ys is the best? I don’t know, I haven’t played most of them nearly enough. There are many newer versions of Ys I & II, each with its own differences. Ys I & II, in various revisions, is available on the TCD (this one), PC (several versions, one US-released), PSP, DS, and PS2 (Japan only). I have the PSP version; it adds some new stuff to the beginning of the game, and has all-new graphics, but at its core it’s still Ys. Overall that might be the best version of Ys I/II that I’ve played. The original Ys I was released on the NES, SMS (only US version), and many Japanese computers. Ys II was on all of the same platforms sans the SMS. Ys II saw its first US release in this TCD compilation.

Posted in Classic Games, Game Opinion Summaries, Turbo CD, TurboGrafx-16 | Tagged game opinion summaries, Hudson, NEC, PC Engine CD, Turbo CD, TurboGrafx-16 CD | Leave a comment

Game Opinion Summaries & System Review: Magnavox Odyssey 2, my first 2nd gen system. Especially featuring UFO! and Turtles!

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Brian

I got a Magnavox Odyssey 2 in August 2012. I only have seventeen carts, with 21 games on them total, but it’s a start at least. It’s an interesting system; I’d never had a working second gen machine before the O2, so it was a new thing for me. I got an Atari 7800, which I’ve played many 2600 games on, in 2013, but I got the O2 first. I’d been unsure for years about how much I really wanted to get into pre-NES gaming — the NES is the console I knew as a kid, so this stuff is somewhat foreign to me. Games were different before the NES, with so many endless games, multiplayer-only titles, and extremely short games… very different styles of gaming from what would develop starting from 1985 and afterwards. Overall I have mixed feelings about this system; it does have a pretty small library, and a lot of really short or not so great games. Still, the few good games are interesting enough that I feel like it was worth the purchase. You can’t play O2 games anywhere else, legally, either — there are no collections of O2 games on newer systems, something not true for the 2600 or Intellivision. That’s unfortunate, since some of these games are good.

Table of Contents
—
Hardware Review and Background History

Favorite Games
Some of My Top High Scores So Far

The Summaries

Alpine Skiing!
Bowling! / Basketball! (2-in-1 cart)
Blockout! / Breakdown! (2-in-1 cart)
Computer Golf!
Football!
K.C. Munchkin!
Out Of This World! / Helicopter Rescue! (2-in-1 cart)
Pick Axe Pete!
Pocket Billiards!
P.T. Barnum’s Acrobats!
Speedway! / Spinout! / Cryptologic! (3-in-1 cart)
Thunderball!
Turtles!
UFO!

Very cool box, wish mine came with one!

System looks okay to good. There are several revisions, but this is the model I have.

Hardware Review and Background History
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The original Magnavox Odyssey was of course the first ever home videogame system, released in 1972 and designed by Ralph Baer. This system wasn’t designed by Baer, however, but it was the first videogame console that is a successor to an older one. After making some dedicated Pong-style systems in between the two consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey 2 was Phillips Magnavox’s second videogame console and their first with true rom cartridges. It is a second generation machine and released in 1978 in the US, so it released over a year after the Atari 2600 that was its main competition. In the US, it was supported from 1978 to 1983. In Europe, where it was called the Phillips Videopac G7000, it lasted from 1980 to 1984. During that time, the system amassed a small, and almost entirely first party, 45-50 game library; the O2 had minimal third party support. In fact, even the first party stuff was mostly by one single guy — Magnavox didn’t have a large staff to make games for its new system to say the least, so basically this one guy had to do a lot of them. He ended up making 24 games, a majority of the games released for the system during its lifespan. This results in a lot of games with definite similarities — there’s a reason for that beyond the hardware design, many are by the same person. The system has one addon, the voice addon The Voice. It was only released in the US, and adds English-language speech effects to the nine games that support it (plus homebrew titles; most of them support it too). No games require it, however, unlike the IntelliVision’s IntelliVoice voice addon; it’s optional, flavor-speech stuff.

The Odyssey 2 has somewhat unique hardware inside the box. The O2 was the first, and one of the only, consoles ever to use an Intel CPU. Programmers were unfamiliar with it at the time, so it probably hurt in terms of getting third party support, but I think it’s pretty cool that it has Intel in the box. The CPU is faster than the Atari 2600’s, but it isn’t nearly as hackable. As a result, O2 games have little graphical variety. First-person or behind-the-car/ship viewpoints are impossible on the O2. Sprite “scaling” effects such as in Solaris or even Outer Space on the 2600 cannot be done, and nor can third-person racing games. The system also has some limitations on sprite variety, as I will explain. However, what you get for this is zero flicker. Unlike the 2600, which has many games loaded with flicker, O2 graphics are rock-solid and never flicker. What it can do, it does flawlessly. O2 games don’t seem to ever have any slowdown either.

To go into more detail about graphical variety on the O2, the system also, uniquely, has a built-in character set that includes a lot of graphical elements. You can see many of them in the screenshots posted throughout this article. It is not a coincidence that so many of the games have the same “small person”, “large person”, “tree”, and such sprites; instead, those are all taken from the system’s built-in character set. The system is designed to easily use sprites from that character set. Using custom sprites is more limited; I think that it can only display a few of these at a time. If you look at O2 games, you’ll notice that you never see more than a couple of sprites at any one time that aren’t from the standard character set. Some games get creative here, such as how O2 Demon Attack uses the “tree” sprite for your spaceship, or UFO! and Turtles blinking between two symbols, such as a circle, X, or +, quickly in order to represent an enemy. It works, actually. It is unfortunate, however, that the O2 has such limited graphical variety. It’d be nice if it could do things like Solaris or Enduro on the Atari 2600. Still though, it’s a good console with good games, and you get used to its graphics after playing the system for a while.

http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/AVERETT.HTM – An interview with Ed Averett, the guy at Magnavox who made 24 of the O2’s games

The Odyssey 2 was supposed to have a successor in 1983, the backwards-compatible Odyssey 3. However, because of the videogame crash that started that year, the US release was abandoned while the system was still in testing. Some prototype O3s exist, but it was not released. This system was released in Europe, however, as the Phillips Videopac+ G7400. I’ll call it the Videopac+. The Videopac+ has three exclusive titles, and twelve more games that were released in Europe as dual-mode titles. These games play the same on either a Videopac or Videopac+, but have high-color backgrounds behind the playfield on the Videopac+. Those three exclusive games use the upgraded graphics hardware in the foreground too. Unfortunately Videopac+ systems and games are all entirely PAL region, so you can’t play them in the US unless you have a PAL television to play them on. Many O2/Videopac games do work on either PAL or NTSC, but the Videopac+ console itself will not. O3 prototype systems cannot run Videopac+ games without modification, either. Homebrew O2 releases often have Videopac+ backgrounds, but I don’t know of any that require it; that’d cut off almost all of your American audience, after all. The system does seem a bit more popular in Europe than here, but still, homebrew games just support it, and The Voice, they don’t require either.

So, the Odyssey 2 may have a small game library, and only a relative few of those are good, too. And on top of that, many of the better ones are games inspired by more popular arcade or Atari titles. Even so, I find it an interesting system with some fun games; I don’t regret buying this, actually. The system’s graphics are simple, but actually in terms of hardware power it’s actually more powerful in many ways than the 2600, even if you can’t always tell by looking at the games. The system uses an Intel CPU, rare at the time, so programmers weren’t too used to it. Some of the homebrew titles released in recent years show that the system is actually capable of much better visuals than are seen in most of the titles released during its life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcD6qczYIJY – Here’s the trailer for the 2012 release Mage: The Enchanted Crystals. This trailer has the Videopac+ background, but apart from that it’d look the same on O2. The music might be from The Voice. Looks like a decent game, and it’s in a genre that the system doesn’t have much of, action/adventure games. There’s a cancelled and thus unofficial-release-only release of Tutankham, this, and not much else.

As with was normal for the era, many O2 games are two player only titles. This is, of course, frustrating today, but that’s how games were. This means that some games are more playable than others with only one person, excepting the one player only games of course which are fine. Also there’s no saving of anything, so it’s vital to write down your scores for the games — apart from sports games everything else here is score-based, and without any other form of saving, writing down scores is the only way for the games to mean anything.

Beyond those usual basics, though, O2 gameplay has some idiosyncrasies, some of which surely result from one guy making so many of the system’s titles. Most (first party, but almost all O2 games are first party; there are only 5-8 third party releases anywhere) O2 games seem to fall into one of five categories. First, sports games (Football, Baseball, Bowling, what have you). Second, games which use the keyboard (there are analogs of Simon, Hangman, Concentration, and more.). Third, action games where you have one life, and start a new game after dying once (the KC games, UFO, Pick Axe Pete, etc.). Fourth, competitive games where you play to ten points (usually against a human, sometimes a computer; examples include Alien Invasion Plus, Out Of This World, etc.). And fifth, timed games, where each game is 2-3 minutes long. Few games don’t fall into any of these five categories, though I guess a couple of the racing games could be a sixth category, racing games that aren’t timed but instead end after you go through enough laps/gates. Yeah, the O2 has some unique game design elements, most notably in the one-life stuff.

The system also has three boardgames with O2 videogame components. I am very interested in two of these, Conquest of the World and Quest for the Rings. Both sound pretty interesting, regardless of how good they are. The games have a boardgame element, where you move around or strategize on an actual, physical board, and a videogame element, where you avoid enemies, fight eachother, and what have you. Obviously these are multiplayer only games.

As for hardware design, the system looks like something out of its time. That is, it looks very late ’70s to early ’80s. I love some of the box art design — the flying letters and logos look really cool. The box art of the system and games is a real highlight of the system, and is one of the reason I’d always recommend getting complete copies of games, or at least copies with the manuals (all of which have the box art on their covers) — it’s great stuff! Sometimes the box art and manuals are better than the games, that’s for sure… I’ll post some examples of box arts here. Really cool stuff. The cartridges themselves all have handles, which preclude the use of end labels, but the boxes make for good storage devices anyway, with the flap covers, so that’s alright.

The system itself is well enough designed. It’s nothing amazing looking, but it’ll do the job. The built-in flat keyboard is a nice touch. Some games play on the keyboard, so you’ll need the system close. Of course, with controller cords as short as second-gen cords all are, you’ll need the system close anyway. On that note, the controllers are basic, Atari-inspired controllers, but they’re not the same as Atari joysticks. Unlike those these have more throw, so you can move them farther in each direction. They’re eight-direction sticks, too, with notches cut out of the sides of the well, so that you can lock the stick into any of the eight directions. This is handy in many titles. It is a digital stick and not analog, but that’s okay. Like with the Atari, though, the system has only one button. One more might have been nice… oh well. The system I have has black, hardwired controllers, and a flat keyboard. Six models of O2 systems were released in the US, but the one I have seems one of the most common kinds. I just got it a few weeks ago, and it’s working fine. The system attaches to the TV via an RF box. It has twin leads on it, but fortunately they are attached to a small box with a normal (UHF) cable plug on it, so I don’t need to buy a special adapter to use it with my television, since of course no TVs from the last 25-plus years have those two-prong plugs on them. It does have one of the old-fashioned slide switches, though, so you need to manually switch it to game mode; it won’t autoswitch like the NES and beyond can do. The antenna out part on the switch IS twin lead, so instead of using an adapter I don’t connect this system directly to my TV, where the cable input is, but instead hook it up to the VCR. That works well, and I can leave the switch on “on” that way too and not have to keep messing with it. Unfortunately the RF box is hard-wired, so I do need to remove it when not using the system — and unlike all my other consoles, I can’t keep this one plugged in all the time. The system is pretty large and needs to be right at my feet, where my pile of controllers for other systems is… The power supply plug is removable, but the RF and controller plugs are not. (except for inside the system, of course.)

I got the system locally and paid $50, which might have been a bit too much, but I thought it was worth it because it was guaranteed to work, returnable, and came with six games (mediocre games mostly, but games), and all of the games were complete, too. Not bad, I love the boxes as I’ve said. Honestly with less cool boxes, I might well have passed… but it does. The manuals are all in full color, and are printed with white text on black paper, just like the boxes. They look very stylish, and are full of art, full color screenshots, and very detailed descriptions of how to play the games. The writing is often silly stuff — whoever worked in O2 marketing and manual-writing were marketing geniuses! Seriously, O2 games trumpet things such as “digital scoring”, and the sports games all talk about how “extremely realistic” the simulations of their sport they are. It’s great stuff. O2 game boxes are cardboard in the US, plastic in Europe. The cardboard ones are fine, I think. They have flip-open covers, sort of like the IntelliVision. This makes accessing the game in the box easy.

Wow is that amazing boxart!

I have seventeen games as of the writing of this article, those six, plus some others I got from EBay. All are complete. I want to have the great boxes for these games!

Favorite Games
—
1. UFO!
2. Turtles!
3. K.C. Munchkin!
4. P.T. Barnum’s Acrobats!
5. Blockout! Breakdown!

Honorable Mentions: Speedway!, Alpine Skiing!, Out Of This World!, Pick Axe Pete!, Spinout!

(Oh, before I begin, yes, all titles have exclamation points at the end of their names. It’s just a thing Magnavox did.)

Some of My Top High Scores So Far:
UFO: 170
Pick Axe Pete: 99 (starting from screen 1)
Acrobats: Mode 3: 657. Mode 0: 637. Mode 6: 430. Mode 6 (I think; could be wrong): 897. With moving balloons, modes 0-2 are no shield, 3-5 are a stationary shield, and 6-8 are random shield. The first of each listed range is for is one player, the second is two player team, and the last is two player alternating. Stationary balloons are modes 9-A-B, C-F, and F-H, in the same order as the others. I prefer moving balloons. And yeah, the game actually is kind of fun with a random shield.
Thunderball: 38,840
K.C. Munchkin: Mode 1: 317. Mode 2: 144. Mode 3: 189. Mode 4: 110. 1-3 are the easy, normal, and hard preset maps; 4 is normal random maps.
Turtles: 8590 (reached screen 5 of 8, loop 1)

The Summaries
—

Box

Game. The left player has missed gates, the right hasn’t yet.

Alpine Skiing! – 1979, Two player simultaneous racing game. Alpine Skiing is a very simple ski racing game where two players ski down a mountain. One player is on each side of the screen, and this is a two player only game so either you play on your own, or against someone, but either way both skiiers will be on screen (even if the other is doing nothing). There are three courses in the game, Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Downhill. Each course has a different gate layout, with different spacing between gates as you’d expect from those different events. There aren’t really any turns in Alpine Skiing; instead, you just go down. The only turns will be to get through the gates. That doesn’t mean that the game is easy, though. Quite the opposite, Alpine Skiing is a hard game. The primary reason for this is that if you miss one gate, it’s game over. The only way to get a finishing time is to go through all 44 gates on the course; otherwise, all you’ll be told at the end is how many gates you missed. As usual on the O2, once both players are down the hill, the game will lock, requiring a press of the Reset button to continue. The graphics are extremely basic, with the usual O2 “man” character, on skis this time, as the players. The gates look like gates, and that’s all there is to the visuals. You have good control of your skiier with the stick, as left and right turn while up and down adjust your speed. Alpine Skiing is a simple game, but if you want to finish in a good time, you’ll definitely need practice in order to finish without missing gates. Alpine Skiing isn’t a great game, and it is too bad that there’s no computer opponent (of course, such things were normal back then, but still, it’s too bad), but at least you can play for time with one player. This is an alright game, really simplistic but not too bad.

It’s another classically awesome O2 cover… and it reflects the gameplay well, too!

Ingame screen. The left player (on the top bar) is currently the paddle, as that “-” indicates (no, it isn’t a negative score), while the right player is the wall guardians, as the little guy indicates. The ?? spaces by them will be filled in by their best scores once there are some. The timer is in the middle.

Blockout! / Breakdown! — 1980, One or two player. Blockout! / Breakdown! is, as the name suggests, a Breakout-inspired game with its own twist: it’s all two player! Despite the unique elements, it is clearly Breakout-inspired at a glance. Notice how “Break” is in one mode’s name, and “Out” is in the other… clever, huh? Anyway, as the name suggests there are two modes, but the basic game mechanics are the same in both. Released in 1980, this game is from before the Challenger Series, but, despite its simplicity, it is one of the better games from the first half of the O2’s life, that is, the 1978-80 part, when the games were simpler and often not as good as the later ones. This game is an exception to that. The game also has both single and multi player support, so this is NOT a multiplayer-only game, fortunately — there is AI. You can even have the computer play itself if you want.

And on that note, yes, the most unique element in this game is that the game is a versus game. It’s not one paddle against another like Pong, though; instead, one player is the paddle, and the other one defends the wall. So, even though there are a million Breakout clones out there, and many are on systems that Well, this game is limited in longevity, as both modes are timed — there are 60 seconds max per round for one mode, 90 max for the other. Now a full round really is twice that, as you play two separate phases, each that length, but still, each “game” is 2-3 minutes long, or less. That’s all you get here. Fortunately the game is pretty good, so the replay value is high, but still, there’s no Breakout-style infinite score-based mode, only these two timed versus challenges. The games graphics are decent, but are good enough. I like that the blocks are large, and close to the paddle; the original Breakout’s huge field of tiny blocks, far from your paddle, is tough to deal with, and the fact that you’ll only ever hit one block each time the ball goes up the screen in that game makes playing it VERY tedious. I love Arkanoid, but find Breakout incredibly boring. Fortunately, this game entirely avoids that issue. It does have its own block-hitting quirks, as I will describe, but it is a fun game.

There are two different modes in this game, as the title says. Each game in either mode consists of two parts, where each player plays one round as the paddle, and one as the wall’s demon guardians. Both modes are endless — this game has no defined end, unlike the “to 10 games” O2 multiplayer games which do end. As usual in such O2 games, the manual tells you to decide on a number of games to play to, and call that the “end” once you reach it. Oh Magnavox writers, you’re so good at what you do…

Anyway, Blockout! is the main mode. In this mode, the ball bounces off of the blocks when it hits them. The way this works is quirky, though — the ball only bounces away if it hits a block from the bottom. If you hit blocks from the top or sides, the ball will continue through the blocks as if they weren’t even there, though yes, they will be destroyed as it passes through. It’s interesting and makes the game a bit different; I don’t mind this. It’s better than Breakout’s “passes through and goes down without breaking them” tedium, by far, and it’s fun to destroy more blocks. The round ends if the player controlling the paddle gets through the wall and reaches the top of the screen. Yes, in this mode you don’t need to destroy all the blocks to progress, you just need to get through. You have 90 seconds to do this. If you succeed, your best time so far will be displayed on the screen, with the other player (or computer)’s best time on the other side. Note that these scores are for the player as the paddle only — the player as the wall demons doesn’t get an individual score, but instead is trying to make the paddle player fail to get through. I will address how, exactly, you defend the wall below, but essentially, as the picture shows, each of the four rows of blocks has a separately controllable demon on it. Move to the edges of the screen to start blinking and get the power to fill in a space, and move into a gap while blinking to replace that missing block. If a demon is knocked off the screen, that line will be without a fixer for a little while, before a new one comes on. The defense controls are confusing and take getting used to, but work reasonably well once mastered.

In Breakdown!, the goal is for the player as the paddle to break all the blocks on screen. Unlike in Blockout, in this mode the ball doesn’t get stopped when it hits blocks; instead, it passes right through them. So yeah, it’s like one of those Arkanoid bonus stages, or when you get the powerup of that same effect. The ball, and the demons, both move twice as fast in this mode as they do in Blockout, so it’s a much more frenetic game. You have 60 seconds to clear all of the blocks on screen. The controls and visuals are largely the same as the other game, though. The game’s tougher than it may sound, as hitting every block in such a short time isn’t easy, when the wall is also being rebuilt at the same time. Destroying a row doesn’t get rid of it for good, either; after a little while the block on the right, and the demon in it, will respawn, so you’ve got to hurry to win this. Your score is based on how many blocks remain when time runs out.

One of the most important issues any blockbreaking game is how the paddle controls. Now, as anyone who knows the O2 (or has read my summary above) would know, the O2 has only one controller, its digital joystick. It’s a good stick, but it isn’t a rotary or mouse/trackball controller, it’s just a digital stick. Don’t expect analog precision from the controls. However, you do get used to it, and paddle controls here work about as well as they could, given the limitations; the paddle is a bit slow, but it works otherwise, and the game does have the ball bounce off the paddle at different angles depending on where on the paddle it lands, which is great. There are also some design elements that help out in making the game work better than it could have. Most notably, you have infinite balls; the only limit is the timer, not a life counter. As a result, if you miss the ball because you couldn’t get there because of the slow paddle or poor paddle positioning or what have you, don’t worry, just press the button and get a new ball.

When playing as the demons defending the wall — and yes, the manual makes clear that they are called demons, even though it’s the usual O2 “little person” sprite — as I’ve said above, the controls are odd. First though, remember that the O2 joystick has notches cut into all eight corners, so that you can easily hold the stick in any one of the directions. This game relies heavily on that fact. In order to move the lowest-tier demon, push the stick to the lower-left or lower-right corners to move left or right respectively. To move the second from the bottom level demon, push left or right. To move the third row up demon, push up-left or up-right. And to move the top row demon, press left or right while holding down the button. Yeah, it’s about as complex as one-button-and-a-stick controls can be, but thanks to the notches in the joystick well it does make sense, after some practice. Expect to do badly at first on defense, but you will get better. Just remember to always go to either edge of the screen to get a block; walk out with one of those guys while not flashing, and you’ll just fall off and lose that row’s guy for a while.

Overall, Blockout! / Breakdown! is a simple, short, and fun game. I know I wrote a lot about a very simple game, but it’s pretty fun, and a unique and original take on one of gaming’s most popular second gen era game concepts, so it’s worth the time. This game is cheap, too.

Okay cover, though somewhat average for the system.

Bowling.

Bowling! / Basketball! – 1978, 2-in-1 cart.
Bowling! – One to four players. Bowling is a horrible bowling game, and might be the worst bowling game I’ve played before. The graphics are extremely simplistic, but worst is the physics — the pins don’t move around after being hit, in this game, so there’s almost no possible way of dealing with a split, for instance. To play, the ball moves back and forth along the bottom of the screen. Press the button when you want to roll the ball. Once it’s moving, you can adjust its movement with the stick. The game is for one to four players, but of course in one player mode you’re all by yourself, there’s no computer opponent. The gameplay certainly isn’t anywhere near good enough to be something you’d want to play with others, either, not with this complete lack of physics or graphics of note. Don’t bother with this one.

Basketball

Basketball! – Two players required. Basketball is a two player only side-scrolling basketball game. I haven’t played it properly yet, but it looks like a pretty mediocre game that might be amusing for a few minutes. The graphics are extremely, extremely simple; this is an early O2 game, and looks it. The baskets are barely recognizable as such. The game is side-scrolling 2d, and the controls work like this: So, one player starts with the ball. The other player will take the ball if they pass through the first player. You can shoot, however, with the button. You can’t adjust the shot power or trajectory; it’ll be random, pretty much. If it goes in the basket, you get 2 points. The takeaway ability is kind of amusing, and that’s the only hope that this game has to be any fun at all, I think… I’ll have to try it. I’m not expecting much to say the least.

Box. Note the map of the course.

Gameplay isn’t quite as bad as it might look.

Computer Golf! – 1978, One to four players. Computer Golf is a simple topdown golf game. The game plays on a nine hole course. Each hole has a different design, and you’ll have to avoid the sides of the hole and the trees as you try to hit the ball towards the green. Trees and the sides are the only obstacles in the game, but it’s enough. Once on the green the screen will zoom in to a green view, where you try to hit the ball into the hole. The game is slow paced, as your character walks slowly and the ball isn’t too quick either. Hitting the ball also will take a little practice; read the manual and practice, because it explains which direction the ball will go in from each character position on screen. It’s not entirely intuitive just by looking at it, but you’ll get used to it. You’ll often have to rotate around in order to hit the ball in the direction you want.

Overall, this is a bland game, but I don’t like golf in general, so considering that it’s not too bad. I do like how the cover of the box (and the manual) have a map of the nine holes, showing how they actually arrange into a connected course that you never see in the game — nice touch! The manual also gives you par numbers for each hole and the course, which is good to know. This is a slow, simple golf game, and of course you’ll only have opponents if you’re playing against another human, but it was entertaining to play through once, at least.

Nice box.

Gameplay

Football! – 1978, Two players required. This is a very basic single-screen football game that I haven’t yet played. I don’t like football, and this isn’t exactly the two player game I’d want to play for sure. The players are all your usual “small person” O2 figures. Decent box though.

The box is really cool looking! I love this box.

Gameplay is just as good.

K.C. Munchkin! – 1981, One player. K.C. Munchkin is the Odyssey 2‘s best known, and most popular, game. The game is most infamous for being banned from sale after Magnavox was sued over how much the game is like Pac-Man. Magnavox lost, but ironically, this game actually has some real differences from Pac-Man — it’s not just a straight clone. I think the courts got it wrong. Fortunately the game was on sale for long enough before being banned that plenty of copies are out there, so this is not a rare game.

K.C. Munchkin is indeed a game working from the Pac-Man playbook, but it does some of its own things, as I said. First, the game plays on a strict, 7×9 grid. This really is a tile-based game. Press the stick in a direction, and K.C. will move one space that way. You can’t stop moving halfway into a space and turn around if enemies have moved into it; you’re doomed if that happens. This is somewhat restrictive, but it does work. The upside of this is that this grid system allows for any possible wall configuration — unlike Pac-Man, this game does not have only one maze, it has near-endless mazes, within the rules. But more about that later. The other major difference from Pac-Man are that there are only twelve dots to eat in each level, three in each corner of the map at the start, and they move. And not only do the dots move, but as you collect more dots, the remaining ones speed up. The last dot on each level will move at the same speed you do, so you’ll have to strategize a bit and cut it off. Nice. After a couple of screens, the game will speed up and dots will occasionally go through walls, making things tougher, so it does get more difficult over time.

As you’d expect, there are enemies trying to get you, called Munchers, though only three instead of four like Pac-Man has. With the small playfield, it’s plenty. Four of the dots are power pellet analogs which allow you to eat the Munchers. Once you do this the Munchers will change color, and can be eaten. Eaten Munchers will flash white and won’t be a threat again until they go to the center block and stay there for a few seconds; only then can they return to life. This takes a while, so often you’ll finish the level before they return. Munchers you don’t eat will turn back to their normal dangerous state after a couple of seconds, though, and this game is one of the O2 action games where you only get one life (like in reality!), so one slipup and it’s game over. K.C. Munchkin has three built in mazes, an easy, medium, and hard one. It also has a random maze option which creates a maze for you. Unfortunately this maze won’t change between stages, so once you’re playing on it it’s set, but still it’s a very cool option. The other four game modes are for invisible maze versions of the first four options. In the invisible modes, the map can’t be seen while you’re moving. If you stop or hit a wall, the walls will appear. Needless to say, this adds quite a bit of challenge. Cool feature.

Lastly, the game has a map editor, so you can create your own map. You cannot remove the rotating thing in the center of the screen where the ghosts start (and on that note, this rotating block is interesting and makes for some great game mechanics in some stages; too bad you can’t move it or add more of them), you can’t change the one warp (where you travel from one side of the screen to the other), and the dots will always start in the four corners of the screen, but you can put the walls wherever else you want. Of course you can’t save custom maps, so the random map mode is probably more useful, but still, for 1981 this has to have been a very cool feature. K.C. Munchkin deserves its reputation as one of the O2’s best games; this certainly is a very good game. It’s better than I was expecting, too, after having watched some gameplay videos of the game. It may not look like too much in videos, but it’s actually a lot of fun to play. Since you have only one life per game games are short, and the game keeps you coming back for more, trying to get a bit higher score next time. All the different maps mix up play quite a bit, too.
Gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J0jrd_kuHI

Box. Great cover art! And note how it only reflects one of the two games in the package… that’s saying something.

Out Of This World is decent.

Out Of This World! / Helicopter Rescue! – 1979, 2-in-1 cart.
Out Of This World! – Two player simultaneous. Out Of This World, completely unrelated to the other Out Of This World game released much later, is a two player gravity spaceship sim game. It’s in the “first to ten wins” category of O2 games. In this quite challenging game, your goal is to connect your spaceship with a floating command module ten times. Think Apollo moon lander modules taking off and connecting to their command modules above before the return to Earth, that’s the idea here. However, you have very limited energy (fuel), so getting anywhere near ten connections, and winning the game, won’t be easy. You start with just 50 energy, which the manual says is measured in megajoules. When you hold down the button, you’ll burn energy at a rapid clip. However, you need to do this, because you have to land very carefully and slowly, or you’ll crash. Crashing takes away 10 energy, while landing successfully will score you 20. Meanwhile, the Command Module zips by overhead again and again. You need to touch it again, just right, in order to connect and score a point. If you miss, and you will… well, too bad. You’ll probably be too low on fuel to continue, so get your timing just right, every time! That’s easier said than done of course. If either player does connect, both are reset to 50 energy (provided that they are alive that is, and the process starts again until either one player scores ten points, or, more likely, both players run out of fuel and lose. If one player runs out of fuel the other can keep going, but scoring a point won’t bring back the one who has failed.

The game has three modes of play, each with a different gravity level. There’s a very low gravity mode (the Moon), a medium gravity mode (Mars), and a high gravity mode (Jupiter). The manual says that higher gravity should be harder, but I found it a bit easier, because it’s a bit easier to hover in place with the tighter controls you get in higher gravity. Of course fuel will burn more rapidly, but control is better. Overall, I liked this game. It’d be fun to play against someone, I think, but even with one player it’s got some play value, until you’re good enough to connect ten times of course that is. It is of course very simple, but well, second-gen games are like that. This game could be better, but it’s not too bad.

Helicopter Rescue, however, is atrocious.

Helicopter Rescue! – One player only. Unlike the other game on this cartridge, Helicopter Rescue is a completely atrocious, abysmal waste of time. This game is one of the timed games, and it has no modes or options — there’s only one mode of play, and it’s brain-dead simple, two minutes long (literally), and has almost no replay value, either. Yes, this game is that bad. You can tell that it’s kind of just thrown on here, because the game box and cartridge only have Out Of This World art on them. Even in the manual, there’s no Helicopter Rescue art, only spaceships and such. Even marketing knew that promoting this game didn’t make sense… but really, they probably shouldn’t have released it at all.

The problem here is that the game has nothing to it. This is a single screen rescue game where you fly a very large helicopter across the screen, pick a person up from the other building that is apparently on fire (you can’t tell, ingame, that anything’s wrong with it), fly back to your base, drop them off, and repeat until the two minute timer runs out. Each pickup or dropoff is accomplished by raising or lowering a basket, and this takes some time. You’ll probably score about five or six points in this game. The scoring shows double digits, but I don’t know if it’d be possible to score ten points. I don’t think it’s worth trying out. There’s absolutely no reason to play it any more and try to get better. The one and only draw here is the rotating chopper blade, which is nice for the second gen I guess, but the “game” is so, so limited that it’s kind of amazing that this was actually shipped.

I know it’s from 1982, but it’s so ’70s it hurts!

Simple graphics, okay gameplay.

Pick Axe Pete! – 1982, One player only. Pick Axe Pete is a challenging platform action game. It’s an okay game, but not great. It clearly took its largest inspiration from Donkey Kong, but it goes off in its own direction in several ways, so this is not just a clone. At a glance it might look like one, with a screen made up of lines, spheres bouncing around you have to avoid, and a little guy with a swinging weapon, but the actual gameplay is quite different. This isn’t a game where you just go to the end of a level; instead, it’s a more freeform title. The game is difficult and has a fairly high learning curve for a second-gen title; this isn’t one I was good at right away. The 16-page manual is essential, too, as it goes into detail about all of the game’s systems.

Essentially, this is a score-based game. As you’d expect, yes, you get only one life per game, so expect short games and low scores, like in other O2 action games. That’s alright, the one-life thing is more unique than bad, I think. The graphics here aren’t anything new; as usual on the O2, most of the sprite work is reused from other games. I’ve certainly seen this “person” figure before, multiple times. Passageways are just colored squares, too. Yeah, bland graphics. Oh well, it’s not too bad. As for the gameplay though, there are six ways to score points in Pick Axe Pete. First, avoiding a rock via jumping or ducking will score you a point. Next, hitting a Gold with your pick gets 3 points. Getting a new pick gets 5 points. Getting a key gets 10 points. Last, going through a door gets 20 points. While you have a pick, you’ll destroy rocks with ease. However, the picks are timed, so after a fairly short amount of time you’ll lose it. At this point, you’d better polish up your rock-avoidance skills. To jump in this game, you press a direction with the stick, and then hit the button. Pete will jump, or duck, in the direction you pointed. So, diagonal up will make a flying leap, left or right a longjump, or straight down to flatten yourself to the floor. Pete will point his arms in the direction you’re going to jump, before you press the button. The manual shows all the signals. This gives you a lot of different moves, but using them well, and effectively avoiding the rocks, is quite challenging.

In order to get keys, or new picks, you’ll have to wait until rocks hit each other. When two rocks run into eachother, there’s a chance that the collision will create either a pick or a key. Picks will fall to the bottom level of the field; keys will go to the top one. Both will only stick around on the screen for a few seconds, so the best way to get one is either to stick around the top or bottom of the screen, or to try to get in position to grab it as it goes up or down the screen towards its resting place. If you do get a key and go through a door, you’ll go to the stage that the color you went through represents. The game has ten different stages. You can start from any stage, by pressing different keys (0 through 9 will start on each different level), but you won’t stay on the one you choose; the keys warp between levels. The levels are all similar, except for the placement of the holes in the platforms, but still, it’s a nice touch. Oh, and unlike Mario, Pete doesn’t die if he falls; you can fall down holes no problem. Also, ladders appear regularly, but at random, for you to climb up or down levels. The manual suggests that if one appears right under a door, you can get up to the next level anyway (since you cannot pass through doors without a key but have to jump over them) by getting on the ladder and then doing a diagonal jump, which will take you to the next level. This does indeed work.

Overall, Pick Axe Pete is a somewhat complex scoring-based, Donkey Kong-inspired platform action game. It’s tough, and I don’t know how much fun it is, but it certainly isn’t a bad game, anyway, once you get used to it.

Decent box.

The gameplay however is may be even more bland than it looks.

Pocket Billiards! – 1980, two players required. Pocket Billiards is another pretty awful O2 sports game. As usual it has a great cover, but the contents sure aren’t great. This game is a basic game of pool for a couple of players. You have to play with two people, unless one player plays as both players of course. This is a slow, and extremely bland, pool game — rotate around the white ball, press the button to hit it, and watch it inch along at a slow speed. You don’t get much speed control here, and hitting the balls into the pockets is neither easy nor fun. Really, play a different pool game instead of this one, on some other system. The basic graphics have some charm, but the game is so slow, bland, lacking in ball physics, and tedious that it’s not really worth playing. It’s fairly comparable in quality to Bowling, except here the balls at least do move around when hit, unlike those pins, so it’s slightly better than that one.

Box. Very ’70s costumes…

Good fun game, with decent graphics.

P.T. Barnum’s Acrobats! – 1982, one or two players, The Voice enhanced. Acrobats is, in a few words, a Circus Atari clone with some almost painfully ’70s acrobats on the cover. Just like that game, in Acrobats you play as two acrobats on a seesaw springboard in a modified game of Breakout. One starts on the seesaw and the other on a platform. You have the one above jump down, land on the empty part of the seesaw, and send the other one flying into the air. Your goal is to break as many balloons as you can before you run out of tries. There are three rows of balloons in the air, and if you pop all ten in one of the rows, that row will be replenished. Where the acrobat lands on the empty end of the seesaw determines how high the other one will be flung into the air — the closer to the end he lands, the higher the other one goes. Watching the little guys bounce around is fun.

Unlike most O2 action games, this one actually gives you ten tries, so it’s not another one-life-and-done game. This is perhaps because of how tricky the game is — in Acrobats, or Circus Atari, in order to keep the game going and not lose a life the clown in the air has to land exactly on the end of the empty, raised part of the seesaw. If you miss, and he lands on the ground or too close in on the seesaw, you’ll lose a try and the guy will climb up the side back to one of the starting platforms and you’ll continue from there (though, again, this will NOT reset your score, the game won’t end until you’ve missed ten times). So yeah, it’s exactly like Circus Atari, as far as I know; I haven’t played that one myself, but this game is an obvious clone. The game is pretty fun, and the graphics are solid — unlike in Circus Atari, the balloons in this one actually look round, and not square, because the O2 does have better graphics than the 2600 when programmed for well. This game is one of only nine officially released titles that supports the uncommon, and US-only, The Voice speech unit addon, too, for some voice bits here and there. If I ever get one, I’ll have to see if it adds anything. It’s the only The Voice game I own so far.

Acrobats has a good number of modes, too. You’ve got six basic modes, with two basic variables. First, there are either stationary bubbles, or moving bubbles. Second, there can be no shield, a static shield, or a shield which appears in a new, random location each time one of the acrobats springs off the seesaw. This last one is quite tricky, needless to say — the shield is a hindrance, not a help, as it creates a platform somewhere above the field that the flying acrobat might hit. And if he hits it, he’ll bounce down, and probably then land on the ground and cost you a try.

The game has two two player modes, too, in addition to the one player game, and each can be played in any of the six modes. First, you have a standard mode, where each player plays until they lose a guy, at which point it switches to the other one. Second, you have a much more challenging sounding co-op mode where play switches every time that an acrobat springs off of the seesaw. So yes, after every hit the other player will get control. Might be interesting, might just be frustrating. Overall, while Acrobats is just a clone (a clone with a well-known license, but a clone all the same), it’s a good one. This is one of the best O2 games I own — I’d probably put it in fourth, after UFO, Turtles, and K.C. Munchkin.

All three games are represented on the boxart.

Speedway. Simple but fun.

Speedway! / Spinout! / Cryptologic! – 1978, 3-in-1 cart released as a pack-in with the system at launch.
Speedway! – One player only. Speedway! is a timed game. Each game is two minutes long, no longer. The game has two modes, Practice (1) or Race (2). On the slower speed, the game’s pretty easy. In this game, you control a car which is driving along a straight, endless (until time runs out) road. Your goal is to avoid hitting all of the cars coming down the screen at you. On difficulty 1, this isn’t too hard; max speed isn’t too high, so getting a perfect game, getting through two minutes without hitting anything, won’t take long.

Difficulty two is another story, however. This one is clearly the main game, and it’s a lot more challenging. Speedway has about the simplest graphics around for a racing game, with no animation on the cars and only dashes on the sides of the road to show the environment, but it’s a fun game that I enjoyed playing. This is a fun one to put in and play a couple of minutes of. Of course, the game ends after two minutes, but you can always try again and try to master it. Maybe if I manage a perfect game at the faster speed (should be somewhere around 6,000 points, I think) I’ll stop playing, but that’ll probably take a while… it’s hard to avoid all of the cars coming at you at the high speed, and when you crash you stop getting points until you start moving again, so each hit results in a sizable point reduction. Oh, and your score is tied to your speed, too — you get points based on distance, so the faster you drive, the higher your score will increase. Speedway is an incredibly basic racing game, but it’s fun. As usual on O2 games which end, once time runs out the game freezes. You’ll have to press Reset to try again, but I guess it’s nice to give you a chance to write down your score first.

The basic Spinout track.

Spinout! – Two players versus (required for anything other than time-trial). The box claims that this is a one or two player game, but it isn’t; this is a two player only game, unless you’re just trying for a lap time or something, and don’t mind having to race as both players for the race to actually end. Spinout is a top-down racing game, along the lines of an extremely basic Super Sprint. There is one track with four variants. The base track’s a loop with a bump on it; it will always be the same, underneath. The variants add some walls you’ll have to go around, and obstacles to avoid. There are two different modes in this game, three lap or 15 lap. I haven’t played it in multiplayer yet, but it seems like an okay, if unexciting, topdown racing game. I like top-down racing games, of course, but without anyone to race against it’s a bit boring. Of course, it doesn’t help that there’s only really one track. This game doesn’t have car controls either, really — instead, the car goes in the direction you point the stick. Holding the button down gives you turbo speed. When you hit the other car, it spins out, hence the title of the game. This game is alright for 1978, but there’s little reason to play it for more than a few minutes over other, much better top-down racing games. Still, I would say that this 3-in-1 cart is worth getting; at least you’re not paying for this one on its own.

Cryptologic has … basic … visuals.

Cryptologic! – Two players required. Cryptologic is the only game I own that actually uses the keyboard. There are a bunch more that do, but I don’t have them yet. As I don’t have another person to play with I haven’t tried this game yet, but it’s an extremely, extremely simple Hangman-style game, except without a visual hangman. To play, one player types in a word. Then, the computer scrambles the letters, and the other player tries to guess what the word is. The game keeps track of how many tries it took to guess it, and displays which parts you’ve got right too. And that’s really all there is to the game. Yeah, give this one a pass. I mean, anyone with the system surely has it on this extremely common cart, but don’t bother playing it, I don’t think.

The promise

The reality

Thunderball! – 1979, One player only. Thunderball is a subpar pinball game. You get five balls per game in this title, and can score in the tens of thousands of points, so it breaks all the rules of O2 games, probably in the name of being more accurate to the type of game it is supposedly representing. Unfortunately, the actual pinball table in question isn’t anything to speak of. The game has a rectangular “table” that fills the screen. Various targets are arrayed around the screen, and you whack the ball up and try to keep it going as it randomly bounces off of them. There’s virtually no skill here that I can tell; the only real “strategy” is “keep the ball alive, and hope it hits stuff for points”.

Thunderball has one unique element, which of course the O2 marketing people trumpet on the box. (I mean, if “Digital Scoring!” is such a big point, this is sure to make the box!) That is that you can move the paddles left and right slightly, within the center of the screen. This is somewhat helpful, but certainly not enough to make this game interesting or all that fun. Oh, the button activates both flippers at once; you don’t have independent flipper control. The best thing about Thunderball by far is the very cool box art; the actual game’s boring and not very fun at all.

Decent box. The art is silly.

Game screen, the first map. The player is on the right. The six ? spaces are marked. The small x in the center is the bomb refill spot. Placed bombs are also xes, but differently colored. There are three beetles, in blue mode, on screen. Bottom bar, left to right: Lives Remaining, Bombs, Points, Turtlets Saved (total), and Level (that you are currently on).

Turtles! — 1983, One player, The Voice enhanced. Turtles is one of the last US-released O2 games, and it’s Magnavox’s only internally developed arcade port, too. That is, this game really is a port of a Pac-Man-style arcade game from Konami, not a game inspired by, but not a port of, an arcade game, like the rest of their arcadelike games are. The back of the box claims that it was a “superhit arcade game!”, but that’s a blatant lie; Turtles is quite obscure, and like many people, I’d never heard of it before looking into the O2’s library. If Turtles was such a “superhit”, then why is the game only on home consoles on the O2, Arcadia 2001, and Entex Adventurevision, and not on any of the most popular consoles (2600, 5200, Colecovision, Intellivision… no for all four.)? Heh. So yes, there are several ways that Turtles stands out among Magnavox’s O2 library: it’s their only direct port of an arcade game, it’s one of the only arcade-style O2 games where you get multiple lives (you get four lives per game here, plus an extra life every 5000 points), too. And on that note, scores here will be much higher than in your usual O2 game. It’s also got a different intro from anything else they did on the system, as I will explain below. And of course, as one of the last releases for the system here, it’s interesting for that reason as well.

Fortunately, though, even if it was not popular, Turtles IS a quite good game. This game is easily in the upper tier of O2 games. It’s a classic example of second-gen game design across the board: it’s simple, repetitive, addictive, challenging, and fun. The game has very little variety, but more thank makes up for it with its high challenge and fun factor. This is the kind of game that second-gen fans love; I’ve never been one before, and I do find this game very repetitive, but I must admit that I can see the attraction. And while it’s in the Pac-Man genre, this is its own game; the goal isn’t just to pick stuff up, but to get things (turtlets) and bring them to the houses that randomly appear on the sides of the map. Also, you can drop bombs (mines, really) behind you to attack the enemy with. Only one bomb can be on screen at a time, but still, being able to fight back like this is great, and the strategic thinking of where to place the bomb at any given time helps add to the fun, and the challenge.

In Turtles, you play as a mother turtle who has to go into a large house, or hotel, or something, in order to rescue the many kidnapped baby turtlets which have been brought there. In your way are evil bugs, which are trying to stop you from rescuing them. The building has eight floors, so each loop of the game is eight levels long. There are simple little “going up a floor” scenes between levels, too, a nice touch. Getting to the end of a loop will be no easy task, though, that’s for sure — this game is hard! Hard but good, though. It even starts with a little intro scene, something almost never seen on this system. It’s a very simple one where your turtle walks across the screen and into the building, but it works. That intro is here in lieu of a “Which Game?” screen; yes, this game doesn’t have that. Just press any direction on either joystick to play. It’s a one player only game, but you can play with either controller.

One important note: Unlike KC Munchkin, this game is NOT tile based. That is, you have free movement, and aren’t stuck with that game’s simpler “press the direction to move to the next square” design. This is great, and really helps with your control over the action. So yeah, in the game, your goal is to navigate the maze, dealing with enemies along the way, as you try to rescue all the baby turtles. The game starts with three or four enemy bugs on screen, but more can be added later. The six questionmark spaces are always in the same place in all four levels, so your goal locations are the same. Similarly, the bomb refill item is always in the center. In order to play, first you go to a questionmark space, then quickly retreat — some contain enemies! If there is a turtlet there though, go back and pick it up. Now, a house will appear somewhere on the edge of the screen. You will need to get there, without dying, in order to rescue the turtlet. If you do die, it will be reset to its space. You clear the level once all turtlets in the current stage have been saved. The map changes every other level; the second map is quite similar to the first, but the new stage design in level 5 will really be quite a shock, the first time you get to it — it’s a very different, and MUCH more challenging, layout. Good luck getting through the second half of the game, you’re going to need it! Unfortunately this game does not have a map editor, unlike KC Munchkin,

One more unique element is the way the enemies work. They start out blue; blue enemies will just move around randomly. After a little while, though, they will turn yellow. Yellow enemies can now see you along straight lines, and will usually chase you on sight. Finally, they will later turn red. Red enemies can see around a corner, to home in on you from even farther away. If you hit a bug with a bomb, though, it’ll be reset to blue, and will be momentarially stunned so you can pass over it. You cannot permanently kill enemies. When there are five enemies on screen, all moving around in different directions, some chasing you, as you try to get to a house, the game gets crazy. Fun stuff.

For graphics, your turtle does look like a turtle, and the green background is decent, but the bugs leave something to be desired. They’re just circles, which occasionally blink over with +es. That’s it. I know that enemies like this are common on the O2 (see UFO!, etc.), but still, come on, couldn’t they have drawn something with legs at least? The graphics definitely are basic; the maze looks about on par with KC Munchkin, but the circle/+ enemies aren’t as visually interesting as that game’s baddies. Your turtle does look nice though, and does animate, which is cool.
Also like KC Munchkin, this game uses a 9×7 map, as far as the wall layout goes. The original Turtles arcade game had a 9×9 square playfield, but the O2 version is cut back a bit. The level maps are different from the arcade game, though. Other than the smaller field, there are also now only six questionmark points where turtlets can be, instead of eight like the arcade game, and the level designs are all altered as well. They are recognizably similar to the arcade levels, but are not the same. At least it does still have four different mazes, like the arcade version, though; this game isn’t one of those cut-back arcade ports, like the O2’s single-screen-only version of Popeye. There are two different basic floor layouts, with two variants of each, but the arcade game is similar in that respect.

As for the sound, the audio is your basic O2 stuff, as expected. The “Warning!” tone when you have no bombs is annoying, but helpful — it’s good to know when you’re out. There is one interesting thing here, though: Turtles makes innovative use of the O2 The Voice addon to make music. Without it there’s no music, as usual on the O2, but with it, the game actually does recreate the arcade machine’s music. Very cool!

Overall, Turtles is a great game with plenty of challenge and depth. As it was a late release this game isn’t cheap, but it’s not overly expensive, either; be patient and you should be able to get a copy for as little as $10, maybe $20 on the high end. Turtles is highly recommended! This game may be obscure, but it’s a great game, and this is maybe the best home version of it around.

Cool box

Simple graphics, but it’s a very good game! There are usually more enemies on screen than this. Also, you can’t really see the circle around the player’s ship; it blinks, so screenshots won’t catch it.

UFO! – 1982, One player only. UFO! is a space shooter, and my favorite O2 game of the ones I have. UFO has only one gameplay mode, simple graphics (pluses, ovals, and such represent enemy spaceships), only three enemy types, and absolutely no options, but fortunately the one mode it does have is incredibly fun and addictive. (Oh yeah, and the box art is amazing too, as expected from the O2!) The game’s a “one life and you die” game, as expected, but you do have a shield on your ship, so there is some protection. This game is an original and unique take on the single-screen shooter genre.

The game is always mentioned as having been primarily influenced by Asteroids, and I see the comparison, but that comparison ends with the basic visual look of the screen. In terms of actual gameplay, this game is entirely different from Asteroids, and in fact is well ahead of its time. Indeed, if it hadn’t been completely forgotten, I’d say that later titles like Robotron 2084 or Every Extend Extra might have been taking a few notes from this title. Yes, essentially this is an arena shooter. Now, in Asteroids, you control a spaceship which flies around a field of rocks, and you shoot them. Alien ships appear every so often, and shoot back, but the regular rocks just fly around. Shooting rocks breaks them up into smaller rocks, which fly around faster and are harder to hit. Your ship has momentum when you move, and you rotate when you press turn instead of moving directly in the direction you press, so careful movement is required. You also have a warp which places you in some random location on screen.

UFO! takes a few ideas from that, but not many. First, in UFO you have a shield. When you press fire, or when an enemy hits your ship, the shield goes down momentarily. You only have one life of course, as I said earlier, so be careful while firing — you’re vulnerable during the moments after shooting. Second, in UFO, your ship moves in the direction you press — no Asteroids-style controls here. Firing is entirely different from the norm too, and that’s why I mentioned the later title Robotron — while UFO does not have full twin-stick controls, it has something about as close to that as I’ve ever seen from a pre-Robotron title — you shoot not just in the direction you’re pointing, but in the direction that the white dot on the shield ring around your ship is pointing. The dot rotates, one point at a time, clockwise only, towards the direction you are currently moving in. This takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get it, it’s easy to hit targets. The key is understanding which direction the firing cursor is currently pointing in versus where you’re trying to hit. If you’re moving left and it’s full left, it won’t move. If it’s one point south of left and you move left, though, it’ll spin all the way around the ship until it reaches left. If you stop moving, it’ll stay where it is until you move again, so you’ll be able to fire in the direction it’s pointing as much as you want while standing still. This is, of course, really, really handy, and incredibly unique. I love this single-stick take on a twin-stick control method, and this is from 1982 too, several years before Robotron! Really cool stuff. And also, there’s one more thing — when you kill an enemy, they shoot out three small pellets, one each at a diagonal up left, diagonal up right, and straight down direction. If those pellets hit another enemy ship, it’ll destroy that ship too in a chain reaction. You don’t get bonus points for these beyond the regular score for each kill, unfortunately, but still, it’s really cool to set up chain reactions (and yes, this is what made me think of Every Extend).

For the three enemy types, the first one are randomly drifting shapes which simply float across the screen, the analog of Asteroids’ regular asteroids. One point to kill one of these. The second kind are Hunter-Killers, which follow you and try to ram your ship. Three points each. Last are the Light-Speed Starships. These nasty guys come out of the corners of the screen and shoot straight at you with fast-moving bullets. These guys can be hard to avoid getting hit by, so most games of UFO will end when you get ambushed by some Light-Speed Starship fire.

The game will speed up a bit as you stay alive, so it does get somewhat more challenging over time. There aren’t any more enemies, or modes, or anything, though. That is disappointing — this is a great game, but some alternate play modes would have been cool. The game is certainly lacking in variety, no question. Still, UFO is incredible for a game from 1982. I love arena shooters, and this is a very early, forgotten arena shooter that most people have probably never even heard of. Well, now you know. Go play it! Oh, the European version has Videopac+ support, so it’s got a color background. The background is black here, but the gameplay is the same.

Here’s a gameplay video. It shows the game off well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIplxrAVouU

Posted in Classic Games, Game Opinion Summaries, Odyssey 2 | Tagged game opinion summaries, magnavox, odyssey 2, phillips, system review | Leave a comment

Game Opinion Summaries: Sega CD (Mega CD) – The Genesis’s Good Addon

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Brian

Platform Summary and History
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Ah, the Sega CD, Sega’s first disc-based platform. The Sega CD was released in late 1991 in Japan, fall 1992 in the US, and 1993 in Europe. The system attaches to the Sega Genesis, and, as the name suggests, plays CD games. The system also has save memory in it, and some additional hardware as well — in addition to some more RAM, the Sega CD has hardware scaling and rotation support, unlike the Genesis. The additional RAM makes video fairly easy, though hardware restrictions, and the Genesis 64-color limit, mean that video often has only 8-16 colors in it. It is real, moving video, though, which was an accomplishment at the time. Games which use the scaling and rotation hardware often look quite nice, as well.

As I mentioned, The Sega CD has 8KB of internal rechargeable battery-backed save RAM for game saves, and also has a memory cartridge, the Sega CD Backup RAM Cart, for a much larger save space — it’s 128KB! Unfortunately almost no action games support any kind of saving; it’s mostly only used by FMV games, sports games, and RPGs. Unlike the Turbografx CD, there are no shmups or shooting games which support saving your high scores to the system, for example. It’s disappointing. Still, for the games that do support it, the very large size of the memory cart is fantastic. You’ll really only ever need one.

Sega CD Model 2, the kind I have.

The Sega CD was Sega’s answer to the Turbografx CD (PC Engine CD in Japan), which was successful and gaining in strength when the Sega CD released in 1991. It was also a pre-emptive strike against Nintendo’s upcoming [but never to be released] SNES CD. Sega failed to take over the CD market in Japan, and the TGCD easily won there, but it did do well in the US. Sega’s newer system has some hardware advantages versus the Turbo CD… advantages which Japanese games did not always take advantage of. The Turbografx CD, the first console CD addon (it released in Japan in late 1988), didn’t add any new hardware features other than the large disc and some internal save memory, but the Sega CD has hardware scaling and rotation, which is a huge plus. The additional RAM when compared to the original Turbo CD also makes video much easier; on the Turbografx cutscenes are more often than not inanimate stills, even for many games that require RAM-expanding system cards, but on Sega CD, video is easy. The Sega CD is limited by the Genesis’ 64-color limit, however, and when playing video, that 64 color limit is restricted even more. As a result, video on the system is often using only a handful of colors. It … can look bad. Even so, it IS video. I know that some Turbo CD games have [animated or live action] video (particularly on Super CD), but many titles do have only animated stills, while animated Sega CD games generally have video. Overall, compared to the TGCD, the Sega CD is more powerful, with easier video support and hardware scaling and rotation, but is severely limited by that 64-color limit. The TG16 can display hundreds of colors (even though both systems have 512-color palettes), so it wins in that for sure.

Now, the library. The Sega CD saw its greatest success in the US. Of the up to six million Sega CD systems sold, 2.5 probably million sold in the US. We do not know actual Sega CD sales numbers, and even a good estimate has eluded us, but it’s somewhere between 1.5 and 6 million systems, anyway, and was most successful in the US. That 2.5 million number, if accurate, is more than two and a half times the probable total of TG16 plus TGCD plus Turbo Duo systems (about 900,000 TG16s plus ~20,000 Turbo CDs and 20-60 thousand Duos are the best estimates I’ve seen), and it’s significantly more than the Sega Saturn sold in the US as well — that system only managed about 1.5 million systems sold here. It’s highly likely that the Sega CD did indeed outsell the Saturn in the US. And going by game availability I’ve seen around here, I believe that the Sega CD outsold the Saturn; I’ve certainly seen more Sega CD games around than Saturn games. In fact, the TG16 plus addons’s worldwide total is in the same ballpark as the Sega CD’s sales total! The system didn’t do as well in Europe, but still, a solid majority of Sega CD systems sold in the West. Of course, that the Genesis sold tens of millions of systems in Western markets, while in Japan they finished in third place, obviously was a major factor behind that as well. The Japanese game library for the Sega CD is, overall, underwhelming. There are some great games in the Japanese library, including six shmups, several great strategy games and RPGs, and some more, but Sega of Japan itself failed to capitalize on their own hardware. There are almost no Japanese SCD games which make good use of the scaling and rotation hardware, for example; there’s the Sonic CD bonus stages (average, looks like SNES Mode 7), the disappointing After Burner III, the impressive Formula One World Championship, and not much of anything else. And those latter two titles were outsourced, and not actually developed by Sega, even though Sega did publish them. For third party Japanese titles, Night Striker is about it; it’s solidly done. Most of the games which pushed the scaling hardware are Western, though, primarily titles from Malibu/Clockwork Tortoise and Core Designs. The Japanese title Silpheed looks amazing, but ther than that, most of the most impressive looking games on the Sega CD are Western.

One major problem with the Sega CD’s library is that Sega of Japan simply did not put the effort into supporting their CD system that NEC and Hudson did with the Turbo CD in Japan, and it shows. While NEC and Hudson moved the primary format for their system over to CDs, Sega of Japan mostly stuck with carts for the top games, and left the CD for enhanced ports of games from other platforms (mostly Turbo CD or Japanese computer games) and only a handful of internally developed top-tier efforts. Some games which did start on the Sega CD, such as Phantasy Star IV and Outrun 2019, ended up being cartridge releases. And Sega released the 32X in late 1994, only a few years after the Sega CD, and the Saturn at the same time as well. While the Sega CD released in 1991, Sega of Japan had almost no first-party software at first. The whole next year saw no improveemnt. You can see this when you look at the US launch, 9-10 months after the system released in Japan. Sega of America had so few options that they were forced to make all of their packin games in the first year of the systems’ life be third-party titles, including first Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (a game also available on Turbo CD and PC) and Sol-Feace (later also released on cartridge; it’s a port of a Japanese computer game), and later Sewer Shark (later ported to 3DO). The situation improved somewhat in 1993 as Sega of Japan did release some high-quality major Sega CD titles in 1993 and 1994, most notably Sonic CD but also including Shining Force CD, Dark Wizard, Panic!, and more. Later Sega CD and CDX models in the US were packed in with Sonic CD, for example. However, at the end of 1994, with the 32X and Saturn releases Sega of Japan essentially abandoned the Sega CD. All of Sega of Japan’s first-party releases in Japan in 1995 were Western titles, and they didn’t even release all of them there. As a result of this, the Sega CD’s first-party Japanese game library is singularly unimpressive. There are some hits, but far too many ports of B and C-tier games from other platforms (many of these never released in the West), and almost nothing that made any use of the scaling and rotation hardware, either.

In comparison, Sega of America put serious effort into supporting the Sega CD between 1992 and 1995. These efforts are often unappreciated today, as the largest part of their release library went into games full of live action video, but in 1992-1995, that kind of game was popular and highly desired, so regardless of how questionable many of the titles are as actual games, I think that SoA’s decision to focus so much on live-action video FMV games was a reasonable, defensible choice. That FMV-game library is the primary reason why the Sega CD sold as well as it did in the US, after all; games like Sewer Shark, Night Trap, and the like sold a large number of those systems. I know many people hate FMV games, and I’m not much of a fan of them myself (I dislike a lot of them), but it was the right decision at the time. I do think that this was a factor in the Sega CD fading in 1995, as that year FMV was being replaced with polygonal 3D as the thing everyone wanted to see, but still, it brought it a level of success for a while, which is something. It would have been nice to see more platformers and action games from Sega of America on the Sega CD, but ah well… at least they did a few. Sega of Japan’s library, Sonic CD aside, is extremely heavy on the RPGs, adventure games, and such, and very light on much of anything else. Those are games which work better on a CD than a cartridge, certainly, but it wasn’t the kind of library that had made the Genesis successful in the West and wasn’t going to sell here, and didn’t succeed at making the Sega CD equal the Turbo CD in Japan, either. Continuing to support the Genesis was a good idea, but Sega needed more stuff on the Sega CD as well. Of course Sega was overloading themselves with far too much hardware, and thus supporting any one platform enough was a problem, but they should have been able to see that. They didn’t until too late.

Regardless of that, largely thanks to third party efforts both Western and Japanese, I do like the Sega CD’s library. Both Sega branches produced a few lasting classics for the system, and third-party companies like Core, Working Designs, and more made some great games as well. The Sega CD is a good console well worth owning. The library is only moderate-sized (100-something, in the US), but it is far larger than the 32X’s library, and games like Silpheed, SoulStar, Battlecorps, and F1 World Championship are quite impressive looking (and playing!) as well. The Turbo CD is the better platform for CD versions of games that could have been on cartridge (minus the cutscenes and music), but the Sega CD has a clearly distinct library. Overall the Turbo CD IS probably the better platform, but the Sega CD is much cheaper and more affortable, and its top titles include some great classics, and some of the best shmups playable on the Genesis, too. Any serious Genesis fan should absolutely get a Sega CD. It has enough great games to definitely be worth it, even if Sega didn’t capitalize on it as much as they could have.

There are several models of Sega CD. First, there is the original model, with a tray-load drive, which sits below the Genesis and was designed to match the original-model Genesis. Next came the side-by-side top-loaded Model 2 Sega CD, pictured above. It is more reliable than the model 1, and was designed to match the model 2 Genesis best. The last first-party model was the Sega CDX, a small Genesis and Sega CD combo unit which also works as a portable CD player. There are several third-party models as well, including the Sega PAC for the LaserActive, which can play regular Genesis and Sega CD as well as LaserActive-exclusive Mega LD games, and the JVC X’Eye and its Japanese equivalents, the Wondermega line. The X’Eye/Wondermega systems are all-in-one Genesis plus Sega CD clone systems licensed by Sega.

I bought my Sega CD in June 2006, one month after I got a [model 2] Genesis. I was very lucky, and found a Sega CD, attached to a model 1 Genesis, with one power supply and no controller, for $5 at a local pawnshop. It’s the only time I saw a Sega CD for sale there, and it was really cheap! It was untested, though, so I was taking a chance, but when attached to my Genesis 2, not only did the Sega CD work, but it’s worked flawlessly ever since. It even still had save files on the system when I got it, somehow! That Genesis 1 attached to it never worked, however. The power light turns on, but nothing else happens. Oh well, I have a Genesis 2. At first I did play quite a few games on CD-R, since the system has no copy protection, but over time I’ve bought a good-sized library of actual titles. The Sega CD is a good system worth having. It’s not as good as the Genesis, and the Turbo CD is better overall even if it very rarely manages actual moving video because it’s got more great games, but the Sega CD is still a very good console with more than enough good games to absolutely be worth owning. It’s also an interesting piece of history, thanks to its huge FMV-game library, but there ARE great non-FMV games on the console as well.

My favorite games for the Sega CD
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1. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
2. Sonic CD
3. SoulStar
4. Dark Wizard
5. Keio Flying Squadron
6. Silpheed
7. Robo Aleste
8. Shining Force CD
9. The Adventures of Batman & Robin
10. Popful Mail

Honorable Mentions: Battlecorps, Snatcher, Rise of the Dragon, Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco 2: The Tides of Time, Mickey Mania, Flink, Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit, Night Striker, Wirehead, Lodestar: The Legend of Tully Bodine, Star Wars: Rebel Assault (kind of), Lunar: The Silver Star

Worst Games: Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Double Switch, Supreme Warrior, Tomcat Alley

Table of Contents: Games Covered
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Sega CD
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4-in-1 Classic Arcade Collection
5-in-1 Classic Arcade Collection
The Adventures of Batman & Robin
The Adventures of Willy Beamish
After Burner III
AH-3 ThunderStrike
Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm
Annet Futatabi (J) [Annet Again]
Battlecorps
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Brutal: Paws of Fury
Chuck Rock
Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck
Cliffhanger
Cobra Command
Dark Wizard
Demolition Man
Devastator (J)
Double Switch
Ecco the Dolphin
ESPN National Hockey Night
Fahrenheit (SCD) (CD/32XCD two-in-one)
Flink
Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit
Ground Zero Texas
Jurassic Park
Keio Flying Squadron
Lethal Enforcers
Lodestar: The Legend of Tully Bodine
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
The Mansion of Hidden Souls
Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse
Midnight Raiders
Mortal Kombat
Night Striker (J)
The Ninja Warriors (J)
Panic!
Popful Mail
Racing Aces
Revengers of Vengeance
Rise of the Dragon
Robo Aleste
Sewer Shark
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective — Volume I
Shining Force CD
Silpheed
Snatcher
Sol-Feace
Sonic 1 Megamix (PD)
Sonic CD
Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin
Star Wars Chess, The Software Toolworks Presents
Star Wars: Rebel Assault
StarBlade
Stellar Fire
Surgical Strike
Third World War
Time Gal
Tomcat Alley
WireHead
WWF: Rage in the Cage
Yumimi Mix (J)
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Sega CD 32X
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Fahrenheit (32XCD) (game is CD + 32XCD two-in-one)
Slam City with Scottie Pippen
Supreme Warrior

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There are about 62 games covered here. Games do not save unless I say so (listed after the number of players). The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart is the system’s only memory card. It goes in the Genesis cart slot, and has a lithium cell battery in it (not a CR2032, though; it’s a higher-density battery than that). The Sega CD itself has only 8KB of save space, which goes fast, but the Backup RAM Cart has 128KB. Not all games support saving directly to the cart, so for some games you have to transfer files back and forth in the Sega CD system menu, but either way, the Backup RAM Cart is an essential accessory. They’re kind of pricey, but a must have. I also list it if games support the 6-button controller, and would mention the mouse if I had any of the few games that support it. I also mention the Cyber-Stick joystick/XE-1AP analog controller the few games that support it. It’s an analog joystick and gamepad (both work the same way) that was only released in Japan, naturally. I list this as “XE-1AP” but the Cyber-Stick works with those games too.

As always, I only cover is only games I’ve played on actual hardware, not in emulation.

Summaries – Sega CD
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4 in 1 Classic Arcade Collection (contains Golden Axe (new version), ). This disc was a pack-in with the original US release of the Sega CD, and includes a slightly redone version of Golden Axe and straight, unaltered ports of three Genesis games, Revenge of Shinobi, Columns, and Streets of Rage. Yeah, it says “arcade collection”, but it’s basically a Genesis collection. Golden Axe’s graphics are from the Genesis game, but two changes have been made, one good and one bad. On the good side, the game has CD audio, which is great. I like the CD audio mix of the soundtrack. On the bad side, for some bizarre reason the game was made single player only. Very disappointing! Multiplayer is one of the major reasons why beat ’em ups are fun, so with no multiplayer it’s just not nearly the same. Still, this is worth considering if it’s cheap, for the CD music. My copy of this is a dual-case game with the 4-in-1 on one side, and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective on the other, as it apparently came in the original packin. (The other pack-in game with the original Sega CD 1 release, Sol-Feace, came in a separate paper jewelcase.)

5 in 1 Classic Arcade Collection – This is the same as the above collection, except with one game added to the collection of straight Genesis ports on the disc, Super Monaco GP. Otherwise it’s identical to the first version. My copy of this is a dual-game paper case with the 5-in-1 and Ecco the Dolphin CD as the other disc. This Ecco and 5-in-1 dual-pack apparently was the pack-in with the Sega CDX, though I don’t have a CDX; I got this by itself. And yes, Golden Axe is still single player only, but with CD audio, just like with the first version of this collection.

Impressive graphics, and good gameplay too.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin – 1 player. The Adventures of Batman and Robin is a later Sega CD title (1995), developed externally by the same awesome but very short-lived team, Clockwork Tortoise, that also made the Genesis Adventures of Batman & Robin game. Sega published both titles, though the team had come from Malibu Interactive, who had made Batman Returns, Ex-Mutants, and some other games. Malibu had a great engine for SCD scaler games, as you can see in the Sega CD versions of Batman Returns, Hook, and Cliffhanger, and Clockwork Tortoise inherited it. The Adventures of Batman & Robin has the great graphics and solid gameplay you might hope for from a later release. This game is one of the best-looking Sega CD games. Unsurprisingly considering its developer, the game is a sequel of sorts to the Sega CD version of Batman Returns. Specifically, it is a sequel to the driving levels in that game, and it runs on the same engine, I think. Like that game, it’s a “3d” (though sprite-based), scaler driving-shooter game. Some stages are in the Batwing, so they’re straight-out rail shooters, though the whole game plays in that style. Unlike Batman Returns for the Sega CD, though, this game only has driving levels; once Batman reaches his destination, you see a cutscene instead of gameplay. The cutscenes are awesome, though. They look just like the cartoon of the same name as this game, and that cartoon, for those who haven’t seen it, was probably the best Batman TV show ever. This game is essentially a “lost episode” of the TV show — in total, there are 15 minutes of fully-animated cutscenes in the game, all fully voiced by the real voice actors from the show. As in the show, there’s some dark imagery here sometimes; the scene of Batman and the plant monster has a memorable ending, for instance. Eerie.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin has fantastic graphics ingame, too. It makes great use of the Sega CD’s sprite-scaling powers. It’s really too bad that so, so few Japanese Sega CD games actually make use of the systems’ sprite scaling power, but at least some Western games do, and this is one of the best. There’s more to say about the game, but in short, The Adventures of Batman & Robin is a definite must-play Sega CD game. It’s gruelingly hard, but keeps you coming back again and again, as the game is incredibly fun to play. You’ll die a lot, and get game overs, but will keep coming back. The difficulty is something I need to say more about though. First, as with almost all Sega CD action games, the game does not support saving. I have no idea why almost no action games on the Sega CD support any form of saving (even just for high scores would be awesome!), but they don’t, and this one is no exception. The game has limited continues too, and a very, very high difficulty level. Even just getting past the third level will be a very serious challenge, and I have never finished the Joker’s cyber-world stage. It’s a crazy-hard maze of dodging and shooting. Relentless, brutal stuff. But even if you can’t beat it, as I can’t, definitely get this game! It’s a visual standout, it’s connected to a great ’90s cartoon, and the game plays great, even if it’s unforgiving. Highly recommended!

The Adventures of Willy Beamish – 1 player, saves (to system only). Willy Beamish is a Dynamix (Sierra) adventure game from the early ’90s. It’s a good classic adventure game where you play as a “normal” fourth-grade boy, Willy Beamish, and have to go through various adventures in your town. You start out in detention, because you played a prank on the teacher, and ahve to get out, and try to get home before your bad report card does. Yeah, I can’t relate to that much, but it’s a solid setting for a fun adventure game. However, the game has a problem: the frequent long load times makes this version hard to justify playing today. The game itself is a fun, interesting graphic adventure from a great adventure game studio, but those load times… argh! I actually find most Sega CD loading tolerable, but in this game they’re just so frequent (every screen!), and so long, that it is a problem, unfortunately. Still, the game is a good cartoon-style game. And yes, the game may start out normal, but it gets weirder farther on. This version is a port of the PC original. It’s a lot like the PC game, except here it’s on a CD, so of course it’s fully voice acted, something you won’t find in the floppy-disk-only PC game. The voice acting is okay, as usual for Sierra adventure games. I like Sierra adventure games, and this is a fun one, so it’s cool to have for Sega CD. There’s only one problem, but it’s a really bad one: The load time are horrendous and frequent. If you play this game, you will spend a LOT of time staring at loading screens. In 1993 that was probably tolerable, but now? I do recommend playing this game, but play the PC version if you value your time. Fun stuff… if you can survive the innumerable loading screens. Overall though, I recommend playing the other Sega CD port of a Dynamix adventure game, Rise of the Dragon, instead; it’s also a good game, but isn’t crippled quite as badly by loading screens. That’s a very different kind of game though, of course. Much more serious and adult. Anyway though, Willy Beamish is good classic adventure-game fun, but I just can’t take the waiting. Also on PC, Mac, and Amiga (in Europe only on Amiga).

After Burner III – 1 player, supports XE-1AP analog controller. After Burner III is a port of a Sega rail shooter. While it has the “After Burner” name on it, this game is much more like a subpar predecessor to G-LOC than it is a sequel to After Burner, unfortunately. The game is a home port of Sega’s arcade game “Strike Fighter”, so the After Burner name was tacked on for greater sales of the home versions. The home ports were actually outsourced, too — though Sega made the arcade game, the home versions were done by CRI. and they did a mediocre job. Yes, Sega’s only first-party-IP Sega CD scaler-style game is a highly disappointing, bland, oursourced port. Sega of Japan’s Sega CD release list was … quite weak, and Sega of Japan never did do much of anything with the scaling and rotation powers of the system, Sonic CD bonus stages excepted. And compared to Wetsern stuff like SoulStar or The Adventures of Batman & Robin, those bonus stages, or this game here, look awful. It’s really, really disappointing that Sega of Japan didn’t put any effort into making action games for the Sega CD. They did some RPGs (mostly ports of Japanese computer games), sports games, and a handful of (2d) exclusives mostly in the RPG, strategy, and adventure fields, but not much like what you’d expect from Sega. I think I could make a good argument that there are more good great exclusive Sega of Japan games on the 32X than on the Sega CD, strangely enough, considering that they mostly dropped the 32X after like six or seven months, but supported Sega CD for three years!). Anyway, yeah, this game’s actually by CRI, and it has very bland graphics. The objects on the ground are small and uninteresting. The game has limited motion, as in G-LOC — you can’t fully fly around like you could in After Burner I and II. You get used to it, but it’s not quite as good. Also as in the aforementioned G-LOC, which released later, this game has you flying in the cockpit of a fighter plane, as you shoot down all of the planes coming at you. The graphics are just so, so bland, though, that the game quickly gets boring. I liked G-LOC (the arcade game, at least), but this one isn’t much fun. I don’t know if Strike Fighter is better, but I imagine the better arcade graphics, and a flightstick controller, would make this a bit more fun. Even in arcades, though, this surely was never After Burner’s match. The arcade game isn’t the greatest, but does look better than this, and the system can do better. This game is just decent enough to maybe be worth getting for a few bucks, but only get it if it’s very, very cheap, and have very low expectations. If you want to play a great After Burner game on the Genesis, get After Burner for 32X — it’s a fantastic port of After Burner II, and it’s a great game. This is not. It could have been had Sega cared about making good action games for the Sega CD, but they didn’t, so it isn’t, and Sega’s attempts at publishing ports of arcade scaler games on their first system with scaling and rotation chips ended here. Pretty pathetic, that. Ah well, at least After Burner and Space Harrier made it out on 32X… though I badly wish Outrun had as well! Also on Fujitsu FM Towns (FM Towns Marty compatible, Japan only) and in arcades. Apparently the FM Towns version is just as bland as this one.

AH-3 ThunderStrike – 1 player, saves (to system only). AH-3 ThunderStrike is the first of Core Designs’ three scaler action games on the Sega CD, and it’s the only one of them that supports saving, stupidly enough; the two later games, Battlecorps and SoulStar, are better games than this, but it’s really frustrating that they removed the save system from those games that this one has. This game was successful and popular, unlike those two games, and became a lasting franchise — the game has two sequels, one on the Saturn and Playstation, and the last on Playstation 2. ThunderStrike was clearly successful. The game is a helicopter action game. You fly around, shoot at stuff, and win the mission once all of your objective targets have been destroyed. Unlike, say, Desert Strike, though, here you control the copter from a third-person view directly behind your vehicle. The game is a fairly simple shooting game. You fly around, use your different weapon types against their appropriate targets, and try to stay alive. There are military-style briefings before each mission that tell you your objectives. I don’t find this game nearly as exciting to play as Battlecorps or SoulStar, as I prefer the deeper gameplay those games have, and like their sci-fi settings more than this modern-military setting as well, but still, ThunderStrike is definitely worth getting. It’s a good game, first and foremost. It’s not the best Core Design game for the Sega CD, but it’s a fine one, and it’s definitely fun enough to be worth playing at least some of. And with that save system there, you won’t have to play it all in one sitting, either, which is great. Try it.

Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm – 1 player. Android Assault is a horizontal shmup. In this game, you control a plane that can transform into a robot, as you fight to save the universe from evil etc etc. The intro cutscene is solid, but predictable. The plot comes from Macross or Gundam or something like that, and the gameplay is a hybrid of Gate of Thunder (for Turbo CD) and the Thunder Force games (for Genesis). Don’t expect any original ideas in this game, you won’t find them. It’s a clone, through and through. The game is a good game, it’s well made, has good graphics, solid robot designs, and some solid level designs as well… but I can never shake the feeling that this game is too derivative to love. I just can’t entirely respect this game; they clearly didn’t use any original ideas when designing it. The game does have some areas which are a few screens tall, but Lightening Force has that, so that wasn’t first seen here either. The weapons are good, but the green laser can be tricky — it shoots a column of narrow beams, so hitting enemies with it requires precise placement. Still, with good graphics, fine level designs, and plenty of fun, Android Assault is a pretty good game, it really is. It’s probably my least favorite of the Sega CD shmups that I’ve played (and I’ve played all of them except for Lords of Thunder, which is probably better than this), but still, it IS a good game; the Sega CD’s six or seven shmups are just all very good games. Android Assault isn’t particularly expensive, and is a fine, quality shooter, so absolutely pick it up. I would recommend playing better games like Lightening Force or Gate of Thunder over this, if you have to choose, but still, Android Assault’s worth playing sometime too, for sure.

Annet Futatabi (J) (Annet Again) (Japan only release) – One player. I don’t own this game right now, but I did play and complete the game on my Sega CD several years ago. I’ll get a copy eventually for sure, even though it has issues. Annet Again is the third game in the series that includes Earnest Evans (GEN/SCD), the first game, which starred adventurer guy Earnest Evans and is generally considered to be poor, and El Viento (GEN), the second game, which is a good platformer. This one’s entirely different from the first two, though, as it’s a beat ’em up this time. As with El Viento, you play as Annet here. This time she’s gotten involved with some evil neo-Nazis, or something, at a castle in Europe I think. The story is decent, as usual in the series. Unfortunately, the game has no multiplayer, which is never fun in this genre; one of the best things about a beat ’em up is always playing them co-op with others! You can’t do that here, sadly. Otherwise though, it’s a serviceable beat ’em up. It’s not one of the greats of the genre certainly, but isn’t awful either. Perhaps the most annoying design decision is that you can’t use your super attacks during boss fights. The super meter charges up, and when full you can unleash a powerful blast against everyone on screen… as long as you’re not in a situation where you actually need it, that is, in a boss fight. Actually letting you win bossfights without tedious frustration? That’d be crazy, these designers seem to have thought! Argh. And when you die in a level, you start it over; no continuing where you died here. You do get infinite continues though, at least, and the levels are on the short side, so it’s not quite as bad as it sounds, but it is frustrating. The graphics are decent, and there is CD music of course. The game also has plenty of cutscenes which are fully voice acted in Japanese. Even though I don’t know what’s being said, with the pictures and vocal words (as opposed to text), I can get some of the sense of what’s going on. The story and cutscenes are well-done, I wanted to keep playing in order to see what would happen next. Still, I’d like to see a translation sometime. I think that the game doesn’t exactly end in the most conclusive of fashions, but unfortunately they never made another game, so this ending will have to do for the franchise. Maybe someone will bring it back someday… okay, likely not, but you never know.

Battlecorps – 1 player, 6 Button Controller supported. Battlecorps is Core Designs’ second Sega CD scaler action game, and this one’s quite the game. Battlecorps is a first-person mech shooter. It’s got a cool futuristic theme, and looks and plays great. First, a guy explains what your mission is. The speech is kind of hard to understand, but fortunately the game is pretty straightforward. You walk around in a mech, exploring around a nice variety of levels, killing enemies and finding your way through the stage. Some levels have bosses to fight, so kill those too. You have six weapons, and can switch to them with X, Y, Z, and Mode plus X, Y, and Z; the 6-button controller is highly recommended for this game, it makes switching weapons much easier. The graphics are fantastic; this is one of the better-looking Sega CD games around. The mech cockpit looks very cool, and the “walking” sound you make asy ou move around is awesome. You can choose between three playable characters in this game, too. They have different stats, but also act as your lives — after each dies you choose one of the others, and then lose all three and it’s a game over. This game is hard, and long too; this really needed a save system! You had one in ThunderStrike Core… bah. At least there is a level-select cheat code. I recommend using it in lieu of that badly needed save system. Regardless, definitely, absolutely play Battlecorps. With great graphics, a nice variety of environments, lots of challenge, and plenty of reasons to come back and keep trying, Battlecorps is a must play Sega CD game. And fortunately, it’s cheap and fairly common as well! Pick it up for sure. It’s one of the system’s best, and Core’s second-best game on the console as well.

The background graphics are the only good thing about this bad game. Also, note the final boss’s health bar there, at all times in the game.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula – 1 player. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a FMV platformer. Note that this is a Sega CD exclusive; it’s not a port of any of the other “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” games on other systems. Unfortunately, it might be even worse than what I’ve heard of the other games. So, you control a digitized actor-sprite, and walk to the right hitting bats and rats on your “epic” quest to stop Dracula. This game is a complete disaster of a game; the background graphics are great, but the “gameplay” is so bad that it’s not much of any fun to play. The first problem is that the controls are very stiff and aren’t any good. Your actions are restricted, perhaps because it’s a digitized sprite of an actual actor. Good control? Yeah, you won’t find that here. The gameplay is repetitive, simplistic, and seriously subpar, as well. This was one of the first Sega CD games I got, and man am I glad that I also found Battlecorps early on, because this game is quite the opposite of that one in quality. I do like the FMV backdrops, which get interesting a few levels in, but the gameplay… avoid! The game has very little enemy variety, too. Bats, rats, and not much else, a lot of the time. Hit kick to stomp on the rats, punch to punch the bats, and jump to attempt to jump over pits. Good luck with that; fortunately you don’t die if you fall in them, only take damage, but still, they’re annoying. Later on more enemy types appear, but this game doesn’t have much variety. You can tell that the design was questionable once you notice that on the lower left of the screen, there’s an enemy health bar… the FINAL BOSS’S health bar. Yes, that “Dracula” bar will sit there, full, all the way until you get to the very end of this tediously unfun game. I didn’t stick with it long enough to get that far, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do either. It’s not worth it for the bad video clips, the bad controls, the bland and uninteresting gameplay, or much else either. Awful game.

Brutal: Paws of Fury – 2 players, 6 Button Controller supported, Password Save. Brutal: Paws of Fury is a slightly enhanced port of the Genesis cartridge version of this not-very-good fighting game. They added CD audio and adds one new character to the SNES/Genesis original ten. The game was apparently popular, because it got released on not only the Sega CD but also later had a 32X cart release as well, but it’s not good on any system. This is a bad European fighting game inspired by the fighting game craze of the early ’90s, which means think Mortal Kombat, but with comic-book-style animals as the fighters, and a WHOLE lot worse. The game isn’t irredeemably terrible, admittedly, as the graphics are okay, the writing amusing, and the fighting average at times, but it’s definitely not good, either. The characters are moderately entertaining, but once you actually get into a fight, you’ll see how bland and lacking this game is. The game has a few unique features, including that you have to actually earn your special moves by winning matches, and some decent story bits in between fights too, but while that RPG element is kind of interesting, it also makes the early matches even MORE bland, as you don’t even have special moves to use early on! And even once you get them, moves are hard to use. Argh. The password-only save system is also incredibly lazy. I know some other games do this too (Earthworm Jim CD, both Ecco CD titles…), but it’s never forgivable, and these passwords are long! Have a password option too if you want, sure, but support save files on a system which can do it! Ah well. Overall I had low expectations for this game, given what I’d heard about Brutal, and unfortunately, the game lived up to my expectations: it’s not that good. You can certainly do much worse than Brutal, and there are worse fighting games even on Sega CD, but you can do a lot, lot better, too. There isn’t a whole lot of reason to play any version of Brutal, honestly, unless you really like the concept (anthropomorphic animals in a fighting game) or character art, or something. This game is an enhanced version Sega CD exclusive, but it’s a slightly enhanced version of Brutal for the SNES, Genesis, Amiga, and Amiga CD32. The final version was the 32X version, Above the Claw, which adds two more characters to the game, but sadly removes one of the few good things in the Sega CD game, the story scenes. So yeah, if you MUST play Brutal, maybe try this version (Sega CD). It’s below average at best, though.

Chuck Rock – 1 player, Password Save. Chuck Rock is another Core Designs game, but unlike the two Core games earlier on this list, this one isn’t a Sega CD exclusive. Instead, it’s a port. This game is one of the many Sega CD gaems which is simply a Genesis game with CD audio and a few video sequences added. Chuck Rock was a moderately successful 2d platformer, and was released on many platforms. This version is the same as the others, except it has pretty entertaining cartoon animation sequences added in at the beginning and end of the game. The intro’s pretty good, and is well worth watching. As for the game, though, whether you like Chuck Rock or not depends somewhat on how much you like classic Euro-style platformers, because that’s what this game is. In the game, you play as caveman Chuck Rock, out to save his kidnapped girlfriend. Yeah, zero points here for story. The gameplay has a few original elements, though. You don’t just walk to the right and hit things here, Bonk-style; instead, this game has some puzzle elements. You have to figure out how to progress through the game, and there are some puzzles to solve, as well. Chuck has a … large belly … and can bump things in front of him with it. You can interact with stuff this way. Unfortunately, that is also Chuck’s main attack, so your main weapon requires you to be at very close range. I think the game is alright though, with decent sprite work, a solid musical score, and okay gameplay, but it doesn’t grab me and keep me coming back, and you can get stuck in this game, unless you use a guide, since it does have the puzzle elements. The game does have password save, but that they didn’t toss in save files shows that it was yet another lazy port, even if they did those animated cutscenes. Still, it’s an okay to good game. I can see why it was successful, even if I don’t love it. Because of the animated scenes, this probably is the best version of the game. Without the animated parts, the game is also on SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, Game Boy, and, in Europe only, the SMS and five or six computer platforms.

Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck – 1 player. Chuck Rock II is actually fairly different from the first game. While it is another caveman platformer, this time it’s a more conventional game. In this game you play as Chuck’s baby son, who has to rescue his father, who got kidnapped this time. He has a club, so you’ve got more attack power in this game than in the first one. The levels are also more straightforward, though there are still some puzzles, where you hit things around with your club. Unfortunately the save system was removed from this game, so there aren’t even passwords. Lame! There is another nice animated cutscene at the beginning, though. As with in the first game, it’s entertaining and worth watching, even if it is cliche. It’s even better than the first games’ intro, and is good length too. The CD version has more animations than the cart versions do, as well, and there is some use of voiced sound effects in the game also, as in Mickey Mania. Pretty nice. Overall Chuck Rock II is a fairly generic platform-action game, but it’s decent to good, and I think I like it a bit more than the first game. It’s nothing original, and may not hold your interest all the way through, but is decent fun for a while anyway. Pick it up if it’s cheap. Also on Genesis, Game Gear, and in Europe only SMS, Amiga, and Amiga CD32 as well (without the CD extras on all but the last platform of course).

Cliffhanger – 1 player. Cliffhanger is another Genesis-to-Sega CD port, but this one has enough added content to definitely make it worth considering. Cliffhanger is a licensed game, based off of the Stallone movie of the same name where he plays a rock-climber guy. I’ve never seen the movie, but it involves guns and thieves or something. Unsurprising. The game is mostly a very mediocre, but overly difficult, beat ’em up. Expect to die a lot, run out of continues on a regular basis, and keep having to start over because the game has no saving on top of those limited continues, of course. This game has some long movie clips on the disc; many Sega CD games have only short movie clips (the ones in Bram Stoker’s Dracula are only seconds long, for example, and may be new and not from the film), but a full 20 minutes of video from the movie were crammed onto this CD. The video quality is poor, of course, but still, it’s impressive that they fit so much on the disc. In addition to the movie clips and some CD music, the other major addition is a scaler-style snowboarding section. The isometric snowboard levels of the SNES and Genesis game are gone here, and replaced with something much more impressive. Malibu Interactive made the SNES, Genesis, and Sega CD versions of this game, so they got their guy who’d done the Batman Returns scaler levels and had him do something like that for this game as well. The results are pretty good; it plays great and looks even better. It really shows off what the Sega CD can do when people who knew how to push it programmed for the system. There is a downside, though: it’s HARD. The snowboarding levels come all at once, instead of being spread out through the game, and are a grueling, almost nightmarish ordeal of pain and suffering. Did you like how hard The Adventures of Batman & Robin quickly gets? Then this is a must-play too! You’ve got to dodge lots of stuff coming at you, and don’t have much time to do that in given how fast you move in this game. The speed is impressive, but makes the game harder. I actually gave up before finishing the snowboard levels, myself… it’s just so hard. Still, this game is absolutely worth getting; whether or not you get through the snowboard levels, they’re a definite showcase for what the Sega CD can do, and the game is well worth getting on those grounds alone. And they are fun to play, too, when you’re not hating them for their difficulty. Unfortunately there’s no “snowboard only” mode in this game, unlike Batman Returns, so you do have to also play the mediocre beat ’em up before the snowboard section, and for the rest of the game after if you get farther than I did, but still, it’s good. There are some little mini snowboard courses you can directly access form the main menu via a cheat code, which is cool. Try them out. This game is based off of the SNES and Genesis versions of Cliffhanger; though the snowboard section is entirely different, of course, and video clips were added, most of the rest of the game is the same. On one final note, Malibu also added some scaler parts into their other Sega CD game, 3 Ninjas Kick Back. I haven’t played that one myself though.

Too soon?

Cobra Command – 1 player. Cobra Command is an animated, Dragon’s Lair-style QTE FMV game. It’s actually a Japanese game, though it’s dubbed here of course. In the game you have control of a helicopter, and have to do various missions to save the day from terrorists and the like. The first level’s set in New York City, too. Yeah, it’s ahead of its time! As it’s a Dragon’s Lair style game you have to press the correct direction, or the button, when prompted. This game does tell you what you should hit, but that doesn’t make it easy, for sure. This game is tough. Is it fun? Eh… it’s not awful, but this is definitely not my kind of game. The graphics are decent and the art and animation are nice, but the simplistic Dragon’s Lair gameplay gets old fast, as it does with every game in this genre. I kept playing for a little while, to try to see more areas, but eventually got frustrated with the game and gave up. I’m not the greatest at this kind of game, and the interaction definitely is limited. Still, for its genre, decent effort here from Wolfteam. Arcade port.

Dark Wizard – 1 player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). Dark Wizard is one of Sega of Japan’s best releases for the Sega CD. The game is an outstanding, deep, and relatively complex fantasy strategy game. The game has anime-style character art and a generic ’90s fantasy anime setting and art style, and it looks pretty good. The story is a fairly generic one of heroes who have to save the land from the ancient evil lord, but hey, at least there’s no princess to rescue; just defeat the demon lord, and save the world. Simple enough.

However, while the story may be predictably average, the game isn’t at all. A lot of effort clearly went into Dark Wizard, and it’s awesome that it got a US release! This game is more complex than some others from its time on consoles, and it’s a pretty interesting game. First, you have four different characters to choose from, two male and two female, and each with a different story to play through. If you want to beat all of them, there’s a lot of content here. The four stories do eventually merge, but still, there are enough differences, particularly in their unique beginnings, to encourage repeat play. You control your chosen main character, and an army of troops that you can take from mission to mission as well. Yes, leveling up units is important, because some of them do carry over between missions. On that note, each mission takes place in a specific area of the world, but it really is one big map. Units can also become new classes once they reach high enough levels, too. But perhaps most importantly, the game uses a hex grid, instead of the usual square one. This was a just fantastic idea! Squares are okay, but hexes allow for more strategy, which is why the most serious strategy games, wargames, almost always use hex grids. It’s very rare to see a Japanese fantasy strategy game with hexes, but here one is, on the Sega CD. The game has some complexity to it, too. As you send your army out around each mission, there are various secret things to find, as well as the main objective of simply defeating all of the enemies. The game also has various cities around each mission. If you take cities, you will then get additional income from each one. You can then buy items and such for your army with your income. Castles can only be taken by your leader, but cities can be taken by any member of your forces.

As for negatives, there really aren’t many. I guess I can mention a few things, though. First, if you turn on the attack animations, the load times for those attacks is tediously long. Fortunately the designers realized this, and you do have the option of turning off attack animations. The only other real issue is that some of the secrets, in that classic JRPG/Japanese strategy game tradition, will be near-impossible to find unless you play the game with a guide. That kind of game design is always annoying, even if Japanese games do it all the time… ah well. Do make sure to talk to everyone, of course; some quests or conversations won’t trigger until you talk to the right person, or unless you have the right item in your inventory, or unless you say the right thing. Some solutions are quite obscure. Whatever you do find though, may be helpful; this is a challenging game, and having a strong party is important. Overall, Dark Wizard is an absolute must-play for any strategy game or strategic-RPG fan. It’s an outstanding game, easily one of the best on the console. Get Dark Wizard. It’s one of the best console strategy games of its generation, hands down.

Demolition Man – 1 player, Password save. Demolition Man is a port of the Sega Genesis game of the same name. Yes, this is another cart-to-CD port. This game isn’t as much enhanced as Cliffhanger or Mickey Mania, though; this is pretty much just the Genesis cart game, but with CD audio, CD cutscenes from the movie, and that’s about it. It’s yet another annoying game with password-only saving on a console with internal save memory, too. Even if it doesn’t make the best use of the medium, though, Demolition Man is actually a pretty decent game. Yes, even 4th gen licensed games published by Acclaim could be okay. Demolition Man has good graphics (as with the Genesis game), decent controls, and solid action. The game has ten levels, mostly side-scrolling but a few top-down isometric. In either perspective, the game is an action-heavy game. This is an action game through and through, and you’ll do a lot of shooting. With fine controls and decent, if average, level designs, though, the game’s fun to play. I went into this game with low expectations, but it exceeded them. The game is a cartride title with CD audio and FMV cutscenes from the movie, so if you have a cart version this may not be worth getting, but for those without any version of the game, definitely consider Demolition Man for Sega CD. That CD audio soundtrack is good, and regardless of platform, the game is a fun, solidly above-average run & gun action shooting game which I certainly recommend playing on some platform. Also on SNES and Genesis. Apparently the SNES version might be slower than the Genesis and Sega CD ones, so they’re probably the better choices.

Devastator (J) (Japan only release) – One player. Devastator is a side-scrolling action/shooter game based on an anime of the same name that I have not seen. Devastator was yet another giant-robot-mech anime, clearly, because that’s what this game is too. There are cutscenes, probably from the film, in the game every so often. They’re well animated and look decent for the system; though they aren’t quite as nice as, say, The Adventures of Batman & Robin, they’re fine and add a bit to the game. I don’t really know what the story is, but I do know that what you do in this game is simple enough: use your mech to defeat all the badguys and save the day. Devastator is a bit short, with only six or seven moderate-length levels and an average to low difficulty level, but the last two stages are tough, so the game will take a little effort to finish. The level designs are good, though, so the game kept me coming back until it was over — I definitely didn’t want to stop playing! There’s also no saving, so you do have to play it in one sitting. Still, this game is definitely not going to last all that long, unfortunately. While it lasts, though, it’s a pretty fun side-scrolling action-platformer/shooter. Devastator has decent to good graphics and fun gameplay, until you hit that hard part. The game is mostly a scrolling run & gun style game, but there is a flying level or two which feel more shmuplike (though it’s mostly not autoscrolling). You’ve got several different weapons, and plenty of enemies to shoot at. It’s simple, straightforward stuff, but fun. Devastator is too short, and when I was over I was left wanting more, but still, while it lasts, this game is good. I’d recommend playing it, but do try to find it cheap; the short length is a drawback. I wish this was in English so I knew what the story was… the cutscenes are voiced, so I can get the idea of the tone of voice and such, but I don’t know what they’re saying. Ah well. Overall, I like this game. The shooting action is good, the graphics decent, and it’s fun to play. It’s too bad it didn’t release here.

Double Switch – One player, saves (to system only). Double Switch is, in terms of gameplay, the sequel to Night Trap. The gameplay is the same as that “classic”, and the game is from the same developer, Digital Pictures. Now, I don’t own Night Trap, and haven’t played it, but I have played this game, and I absolutely hate it. So, I think I’d hate Night Trap too. But why do I dislike this game so much? From what I’ve read, it’s supposedly better than Night Trap is, gameplay-wise. Ouch… if this one is this bad, and it’s actually IMPROVED… seriously, why DID that game ever get popular? It’s not like ALL of the live-action-video games were as bad as this one and Night Trap are, they aren’t. But somehow that game succeeded. Ah well. But anyway, in the game, you have to trap thieves who are trying to break in to an apartment building that you are defending with a security system and traps. As in Night Trap, there are several different rooms in the building, and you have to monitor all of them at the same time. Now, the thieves usually appear in empty rooms, not occupied ones. So, just like in the first game, you have to spend most of your time looking at empty rooms, while FMV video scenes that you might want to be watching, but can’t because you will lose, occur at the same time in other rooms. It’s brain-hurtingly bad design… why have all that video there, and then not let you watch it? Really, really stupid. And beyond that, trying to trap the thieves is frustrating too. You have to hit the right button to activate the right trap while the enemy is over it, and timing things correctly can be frustrating. I don’t feel much satisfaction from getting things right, either, honestly. This game is painfully horrible, one of the very worst “games” I own for the Sega CD. I can’t think of anything good to say about it, not one thing. And once people finally realized that about Digital Pictures’ games…, that’s probably when they went under. Also on Saturn and PC.

Ecco the Dolphin – One player, Password Save. Ecco the Dolphin was a very popular game on the Genesis. The game’s a brutally difficult, and very weird, undersea action-adventure game where you play as a dolphin who has to save the world from aliens, or something like that. Yeah, the plot starts out normal, but then gets very strange… and unique. With a difficulty level as high as Ecco’s, though, only the best players got to the end. I haven’t, myself. I keep meaning to put some serious time into this game sometime, but still have not. The few levels I have played I really like, though. It’s a confusing, frusrating, and original title, as you swim around under the sea, try to solve puzzles, use your sonar, and look for air (since, as a dolphin, you have to breathe of course), but it’s brilliant, it really is.

As for this version of the game, Ecco CD is a slightly enhanced cartridge port. The CD version adds six more levels (so 33, instead of 27), enhanced sound, two live action FMV videos of real dolphins at the beginning, and adds checkpoints to the levels, which is very nice. It’s unfortunate that htye didn’t add saving to the system, though. The sequel, Ecco 2, has no such enhancements, but does add animated CGI cutscenes telling backstory; they’re good, Both games’ CD versions also add one other major thing: those amazing CD soundtracks. Ecco CD’s other additions are nice, but the music makes it an ABSOLUTE MUST OWN for anyone who likes electronic music. The Ecco CD soundtrack is absolutely exceptional. It perfectly fits the setting, and is just really, really good undersea atmospheric electronic sound. Awesome stuff. Buy Ecco CD, and get Ecco 2 CD too. (I haven’t reviewed it here since I still don’t own it, but I’ve listened to the soundtrack, and it’s just as good as this games’ is.) Also on Genesis and PC.

ESPN National Hockey Night – Two players, saves (to system only). ESPN National Hockey Night is a bland, generic, and mediocre hockey game from Sony. This game isn’t awful, but there’s nothing really to recommend it, either. I see that it got solid reviews, but I can’t find this game fun at all. With average at best graphics, average at best controls, nothing original or interesting about the game at all, pointless CD addons like random little videos that it stupidly inserts at random points during play (with the expected loading screens too, into and out!), and more, there’s no reason to play this game at all, unless you really, REALLY like 4th gen hockey games. Even if you do, though… play EA’s NHL ’94 for the Sega CD instead. That game is actually good, quite unlike this one. I only paid a couple of dollars for this game, but really, I don’t think it was worth it; it’s not fun, not worth playing, and not really worth owning either. Also on SNES and Genesis. Those versions are probably slightly better, but really, being slightly better than a bad game is not saying much positive. Pass!

Fahrenheit (SCD) (CD/S32XCD two-in-one) – One player, saves (to system only). See my review of the 32X CD version, below, for my coverage of this game — this is the same thing, pretty much, just with worse video quality and fewer colors. In short though, Fahrenheit is an adventure game, pretty much. It’s an okay game, for an FMV game… but man is it frustrating.

Flink – One player. Flink is a European side-scrolling fantasy platformer from Psygnosis, and it’s a great, highly under-rated game that should be a classic. Flink is a young apprentice wizard, and in this game he, and thus you, is the last hope to save the day from evil forces with, as you expect from a videogame, your platforming skills and magic. In addition to jumping on enemies and shooting them with spells, you also can collect items, in order to create new spells. There’s a puzzle element to this part of the game, and if you don’t look up the combinations, figuring out what will create what will take trial and error. If that frustrates, though, just look up the combinations. I did some of that myself; Flink is great, but I do like knowing what I should be doing, and looking for. And with a game as hard as this one is, you need the help.

Flink is yet another cart-to-CD conversion, but this time the cartridge version was only released in Europe, so if Americans want to play this game without importing, you’ve got to buy it for Sega CD. Fortunately the CD version is better than the cart. In addition to the expected CD audio and intro cutscene, it’s also got enhanced sound and some added level segments in this version as well, so it’s a bit longer. Also, having an intro is nice; the cart version doesn’t really have one. As for the game though, Flink is a beautiful Euro-platformer. The cartoony graphics look fantastic, and the game controls quite well for a Euro-platformer too. The game is mostly linear, but the puzzle and spell-component-collection elements add some exploration to the game as well. Overall, as I suggested, Flink really is a fantastic game, and I highly recommend it! The game has only one flaw, its very high difficulty. That flaw is a potentially significant one, as this is a long and grueling game with many levels and even more areas. Since there is no saving allowed at all and not even any continues, beating Flink will take practice and serious effort. Well, unless you use the cheat menu, that is; I haven’t. I think it’s worth the time, though: this is one of the better Sega CD platformers around. Pick it up. The developers of this game went on to make the possibly even more obscure The Adventures of Lomax for the Playstation. It’s a platformer with graphics very similar to this one, except you play as a Lemming and thus have Lemming skills, instead of magic. Look for that game as well. Also on Genesis, Amiga, and Amiga CD32, all in Europe only.

Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit, known as Heavenly Symphony: Formula One World Championship 1993 in Japan, may have a very long name, but it’s also a very interesting game. This game is one of the very, very few Japanese Sega CD games which actually push the hardwares’ scaling and rotation powers. There’s this, Night Striker, and not much else of note. Fuji Television directed and produced the game and did the videos, but Sega programmed it. The game has some flaws, most notably its very slow, tedious pace that will turn off most people who are not serious Formula One racing fans, something I am most definitely not. So, yes, I find this game incredibly tedious, boring, and dull. However, even so, the game is an extremely interesting one on technical grounds. Formula One World Championship’s graphics engine really is great. This game really is in true 3d, and has a smooth framerate as well. Sure, everything is made out of sprites, but you’re in a real 3d world, and the tracks in this game are laid out just like the real tracks are. No other 5th gen racing game could say the same; even Mode 7 games on SNES don’t have anything on this in terms of accuracy. I badly wish that Sega had taken this engine, or team, and had them make an arcade-style racing game too; it could have been fantastic! It’s really a big missed opportunity. With an engine this good, it’s a real shame that it was only used for a hardcore sim.

Now, some people take issue with this games’ controls. If you want the best controls in this game, you will definitely need to customize the car settings, and know what you’re doing with them too. I don’t, myself, so I can’t really do that. I’m horrible at this kind of game anyway, though, so I doubt it would help very much. I do wish that you could skip the practice and qualifying before every race, though. By the time I get to the actual race, I’m pretty bored; you have to do quite a few laps around a mostly-empty track before you finally can race against actual cars, which, for me, is the only fun part. Ah well. Yeah, this game really isn’t for me, but because of its technical accomplishment, I gave it a serious try anyway. I think it’s worth playing, seriously. Play this game, watch some videos of the actual tracks, and be impressed at how accurate this game is. No linescroll game could ever, ever even hope to match this. I think that racing games benefited from 3d more than almost every other genre; sure, I love stuff like Micro Machines and Top Gear, but 3d gave racing games options that just didn’t exist before. Other genres struggled to adapt well to 3d, but racing games took off on it from the beginning, and this game is one example of that. Give it a try, whether or not you find the subject interesting.

Keep your trigger finger ready, you never know who’s actually an alien…

Ground Zero Texas – One player, saves (to system only). Ground Zero Texas is a two-CD-long live-action-video FMV shooting game. The plot is that aliens, who are disguising themselves as humans surely for budget reasons, have invaded a small Texas town. Well, you’ve been called in to shoot them all dead. This is another Digital Pictures game, so when I put it in the system, I was expecting the worst. Well, I didn’t get it. While some people hate this game, I actually think that it’s the most fun of the Digital Pictures games that I’ve played. Objectively it’s not exactly a great game, but it’s worlds more fun to play, and competent as an actual game, than dreck like Double Switch or Supreme Warrior are, in my opinion anyway. The acting manages to be fun-bad, which is nice; some Digital Pictures stuff is just awful, but this one’s amusing. As for the game, Ground Zero Texas is a light-gun style shooter, except it has no gun support. Wait, don’t leave; it’s actually decent. As with Night Trap and Double Switch, in this game you’re watching four cameras at once, and have to shoot the bad guys. Except, this time, you actually get to WATCH the videos! Yes, sometimes you do have to look away and go through a shooting gallery segment in an empty area, but most of the time, you actually get to watch the actors this time. It makes a huge difference, actually being able to watch the thing that the game exists for. But you need to pay attention, too, because during each video, at some point someone will turn into an alien. It’s not always exactly the same, as there are some variants of many scenes, so you need to pay attention and react quickly, in order to shoot the alien once revealed, before it can hit you. It’s a tricky game, but it is some fun. The game is tough, and beating it will be a challenge, but it’s fun enough to be worth playing for a while, anyway. With two CDs full of video to play through this game’s got a decent length to it, too — the case boasts that the game has over 110 minutes of video, though you will not see all of that in every playthrough of course. On that note, I love two-CD Sega CD jewelcases… that additional plastic part where the second disc goes is great. It’s very cool that they can fit a second disc without needing a special larger case. So yeah, Ground Zero Texas is fun. It’s got entertainingly cheesy acting and simple gameplay. This is not exactly an objectively great game, but for a 4th gen live-action-video title, it’s decent. Try it, I think. Also, unlike many Digital Pictures titles, this one is in fact Sega CD exclusive — can’t play it anywhere else.

Jurassic Park – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). Jurassic Park is a first-person graphic adventure game. The game is all hand-drawn art, so it’s not FMV. Don’t expect any video from the movie in this one; it’s not there. Instead, what you get is a very tough Myst-esque graphic adventure game. The game is good in concept, and good in exceution as well, except for its difficulty level. You see, you have a timer in this game. You have about twelve hours to beat the game. If you go over time, you lose and have to start over. The timer is strict, so some replay is quite likely. I hate timers in games… argh. It’s a real issue here. Other than that though, or if you don’t mind timed games, this really is a pretty good adventure game. You have to scour every screen looking for items, and then explore around and figure out where those items can be used in your quest to escape from this dinosaur-filled island which you have found yourself on. The music’s good too, and keeps you on your toes with dinosaur sounds as well. Jurassic Park for Sega CD was made by a Sega of America internal team, Sega Multimedia Studio. The studio was something of a disastrous money pit, as Sega spent a huge amount of money to set up the studio, only to have it release only two games (this and Wild Woody) before being shut down, but at least both games they managed to release were pretty good… that’s better than some teams, certainly. Jurassic Park for Sega CD is a pretty original game for a Jurassic Park title; it’s one of the only JP adventure games, and it’s a good one. Definitely play it if you like graphic adventures. And yes, needless to say, this game is Sega CD exclusive, and is ENTIRELY different from every other game on other platforms with the same name. None of the others are even in the same genre.

It’s a good old fashioned 2d shmup, in cute ’em up form. Great, even.

Keio Flying Squadron – One player. Keio Flying Squadron is a cartoony shmup, and it’s a tragically rare and very expensive game; it’s surely the most expensive game to buy of all the games on this list, if you get the US release of the game, anyway. That’s really too bad, because this is a fantastic game! Keio is my favorite Sega CD shmup, in fact, just edging out Silpheed and Robo Aleste in greatness. The game is a very anime-styled game, and is a cute ’em up through and through. The game has a completely silly alternate-world plot, and you play as a young witch in a bunny-girl outfit (leotard, bunny ears, the works), who has a very, very frustrating day ahead of her. Nothing goes well, and you’ve got lots of enemies to shoot down as a result. She flies around on a dragon, and you can power the dragon up with powerups. The enemies are all cute cartoon anime designs; it’s a fun, well-drawn game. The level designs, graphics, enemy patterns, and gameplay in Keio are all top-notch stuff. The game has a good difficulty balance too, as it starts out easy, but gradually gets more difficult over time. This game’s just plain fun through and through. The cutscenes are quite entertaining as well; the story’s completely absurd, but that’s what makes it fun. It’s all lighthearted stuff as well; the whole “young girl in bunny suit” element is a bit creepy-anime, but there’s nothing objectionable here beyond that. It’s just such a silly, silly game; she takes on everything from the US Navy and Russian Army to endless legions of an evil raccoon-god militia. The good graphics, music, and design all combine to make a great game that I highly recommend. It’s just really, really too bad that it’s so stupidly expensive… ah well. At least you get a great game for your money.

Lethal Enforcers – Two player simultaneous, Genesis Justifier Light Gun supported. Lethal Enforcers is a port of the popular Konami light gun game of the same name. Lethal Enforcers was a light-gun game with digitized actors to shoot at. This game was also on the Genesis among other platforms, though, and honestly, I can barely tell the difference between this and the Genesis version. The graphics are decent, but doesn’t look better than the Genesis version, not by much. I guess it has more speech and maybe some minor visual enhancements, but seriously, they could have done more with this — it feels way too much like a cart game on a disc. Even the music is mostly cart stuff. As for the game itself, Lethal Enforcers is okay, but honestly, it’s aged. This game was kind of cool back when digitized characters were the new, awesome thing, but they aren’t anymore, and without that, all you really have is a very average light-gun game. This game is set in the modern day, so you’ve got endless waves of bank robbers and the like to shoot down. Lethal Enforcers is an okay game, but I almost never go back to either this game or its sequel, which I have on cart. Still though, if you haven’t played Lethal Enforcers before and, preferably, have the Justifier and a CRT to use it on too, pick it up. It’s not a bad game, just very (too) average, and the near-complete lack of enhancements in this CD version is disappointing. The game’s also hard, of course; avoiding damage is tough, and I doubt I’ll ever beat it. Overall, it’s alright, but nothing special, not now. Also on arcades, Genesis, SNES, and PS1.

Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine – One player, saves (to system only). Loadstar was the first game from Rocket Science Games, and it’s an FMV game, predictably. This game is esentially a bigger, better, and even harder version of Sewer Shark. The game starts with a fairly well-made intro video with live actors. The acting and video quality are well above average for the Sega CD. You play as Tully Bodine, rocket-sled driver in the future. You’re on another planet, and have to get through networks of rails to your destinations, without crashing into oncoming sleds or blocked paths. Because of some troubles you had in the intro, though, you’ve got a time limit, so move quickly! Meanwhile, you also have to shoot enemies which fly around and shoot at you. You’ve also got a shield you can activate which will absorb a certain amount of enemy fire. The ingame graphics are pretty good. There’s almost no graphical variety, but the rails look great, high-quality stuff. However, the game has a problem: navigating is INSANELY hard. In order to beat each level, you need to reach a destination. The problem is, all rails look the same, and there’s no map, so figuring out how to get where you’re trying to go takes a mixture of extreme patience, great luck, and repetition. The only real way to tell where you’re going is to look at the on-screen compass and figure out which compass point, or building in the horizon, you should be turning towards, because the background does turn as you do. Yeah, it’s not exactly precise navigation, to say the least. Your robot copilot will occasionally tell you which way to turn, but this is very rare. If you manage to reach a recharge area you know you’re going the right way. I’ve honestly never managed to beat the first level of this game; I drive around endlessly, shooting enemies and maybe once in a rare while managing to bump into the recharge station, but I never manage to get to that goal. If there was a map I’m sure I could get there easily, but in this game you have to do it all based on near-blind reckoning. And even if you do head in the right direction, sometimes an oncoming sled will force you to take a long detour. It’s all incredibly frustrating stuff. If you ever do manage to beat a level in this game, though, it does save your progress, unlike Sewer Shark, so that’s great. The game has only four levels, but beating them will be quite tough. Still, despite its incredibly high frustration level, I kind of like Loadstar. It’s more fun to play than most Sega CD FMV games, I think. Also on PC.

Even back in 1995, long before I had much interest in anime or JRPGs, this ad caught my attention…

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). This game is the second of Game Arts’ great Sega CD RPG series, and it’s my favorite 4th gen traditional console JRPG as well. Lunar 1 was a pretty good game on Sega CD, but for several reasons I prefer the PS1 remake (because they added Luna as a playable character in the early parts of the game, because of the visible enemies and added puzzles in the dungeons, and such; there are also some not so good changes, like removing random battles in the overworld, but overall I think it did more good changes than bad). The original version’s great too, but I haven’t bought it because I’d rather just play that one on PS1. Lunar 2, though, I think is better for Sega CD, so this one I have for the Sega CD… and a great, great game it is. Lunar 1 is a very good RPG, but it’s got a much simpler plot than the sequel. Lunar 2 is a deeper and more complex game, and I like the cast more too; they’re still all stereotypes, but they’re quite different ones from the characters in the first game. For instance, how many JRPGs have the main healer character being a gambler-addict man? Well, Lunar 2 does. Lunar 2 is the story of Hiro, initially a self-styled treasure hunter. He’s got a bit more character and personality than Lunar 1’s hero does, and that’s a good thing. He meets a mysterious girl, Lucia, who has great powers, Lucia, and naturally gets drawn into a quest to save the world from evil, as usual in games. The story is decent to good and the characters entertaining. Much like how Hiro is more interesting than Alex, Lucia is a far more interesting character than Luna, and actually travels with you through the game, too. The other characters include that priest I mentioned earlier, a dancer/martial artist girl, and a mage girl, as well as Hiro’s flying dragon/cat Ruby, of course (who is kind of annoying). Lunar 2 has good graphics and music, fun cutscenes, a good story which has some interesting parts and some twists that you may or may not see coming, the same great semi-strategic battle system that the first Lunar had, and more. I haven’t said much about the battle system, but it really is very good. The characters actually have to move around in combat in order to reach eachother, so the game requires a bit more thought than the simple menu-based battle systems of too many JRPGs. I love that, the battle system is great. Lunar 2 is a truly exceptional game and well deserves that accolade I gave it in the first sentence of the review. Working Designs’ translation does have a few silly ’90s references tossed into the script here and there, but I don’t have a problem with that. I also don’t mind that in the US version you have to spend upgrade points to save; you have enough upgrade points (points you spend to upgrade your magical skills) to both upgrade all the magic you need and save on a regular basis. Plus, as always in Lunar games, the save-anywhere system was maintained. That all Lunar titles have save anywhere really is another one of the best things about the franchise, and it makes the games tolerable in ways that many JRPGs are not. No more frustration in losing hours of progress because you’re far from the save point! If you lose a lot of progress, it’s entirely your own fault. That’s much better design.

Now, I would like to spend a while comparing the PS1 and Sega CD versions of the Lunar games, and Lunar 2 in particular. The PS1 remake of this game is more similar to the Sega CD version than PS1 Lunar 1 is to Lunar 1 for SCD, but unlike that game, the main story changes made in Lunar 2 made the game worse, not better. The PS1 version messes up Lucia’s character in several ways, for one thing. I really like her character in the SCD version, but while the PS1 version is similar, a few of the changes really don’t make sense. You see, Lucia is a complete innocent to the world. She comes from teh Blue Star, and knows nothing of the ways of humans. One major plotline in the series is trying to make Lucia understand humans more. It’s a good concept, and it’s executed quite well, on Sega CD at least. The PS1 version is close, but makes a few changes that don’t make sense. On Sega CD, Lucia’s character is consistent, and she shows gradual change over the course of the game. On PS1, though, some stuff is just weird. For one thing, the game adds a pointless, but fanservicey, bath scene early in the game; this scene does not happen in the SCD version. However, The SCD version also actually has more total cutscenes than the PS1 remake! Yeah, they added in that thing, but cut out (or turned just into in-engine dialog) other, better cinema scenes. Disappointing. Another change was to the other bath scene, the one that IS in the Sega CD game. In the SCD version, Lucia’s reaction in the scene is consistent to her character and makes sense. On PS1, though, it’s completely over the top and kind of stupid. Not good. I’m sure I’d have more complaints if I’d played farther into the PS1 version, but I haven’t. I just can’t do it, I always end up playing the better Sega CD version instead. On that note, while I said above that I like PS1 Lunar 1 better than the SCD version, and I do, I do admit that in terms of overworld design, the Sega CD is far better for both titles. The Sega CD Lunars have random battles in the overworld, but on PS1 that was removed. Without the battles, the overworld feels kind of pointless — which they clearly eventually realized, since the GBA and PSP remakes of Lunar 1 remove the overworld entirely and just have a map screen you select locations from. Lunar 2 has no remakes since the PS1, unfortunately, but still, the direction is clear. And as much as I like PS1 Lunar 1, Sega CD Lunar 2, with its larger, harder to navigate, battle-filled overworld is, quite simply, the more challenging, and more fun, game to explore. Random battles are frustrating, but just wandering around everywhere with no opposition isn’t really better… ah well. As for the dungeons, there the Sega CD games have larger dungeons with more mazelike layouts, but the PS1 versions have visibile enemies and occasional puzzle elements. I think that one of the worst things about JRPGs is that they almost never have puzzles in their dungeons (yes, that Golden Sun actually has puzzles is one of the best things about the series, honestly!), but the PS1 Lunar games don’t have enough puzzle elements to completely make up for the shrunken size. I still think that the other enhancements make Lunar 1 a bit better on PS1 (GAH the sewer area early in the game is so hard on Sega CD, with no healer!), but for Lunar 2, it’s a pretty clear-cut case: The Sega CD version, with its more complex, more challenging to navigate dungeons, is the better version of the game.

In addition, the US Sega CD cover art looks just AWESOME! I really, really love this games’ cover; it’s almost certainly my favorite cover for a Sega CD game. I was disappointed when partway through the game Lucia changes outfits, that outfit she has on the cover is so much better… ah well. At least the cover’s as it is. When this game released in 1995 I didn’t care about anime at all and hadn’t really watched any (and wouldn’t until about 2002, either), but even so, I remember seeing an ad for Lunar 2 for the Sega CD, and thinking that it looked pretty cool and wishing that I could play it. And yeah, the game is, and so is that cover. Lunar 2 is my favorite game for the Sega CD. This version is Sega CD exclusive, but there’s also a remake for the Playstation and, in Japan only, the Saturn.

The Mansion of Hidden Souls – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart), supports Sega/Mega Mouse. Mansion of Hidden Souls is a first-person adventure game, in the genre inspired by games like Myst or The 7th Guest. In the game you’re a boy who’s traveled to a mysterious mansion, looking for your sister, who was chasing butterflies. Apparently in traditional Japanese lore butterflies can represent the spirits of the dead, and those are what you will run in to in this haunted, creepy mansion: butterfly spirits. Your challenge is to try to get out again alive. Unlike those other games though, this game isn’t so much about solving set-piece puzzles, as it is finding items and figuring out where to go with what. It’s a very simple game — you have no cursor, and simply can try on each screen to interact with something, if there is anything there to interact with. Generally screens will have zero or one thing you can interact with on them. Yeah, don’t expect Myst-like depth from Mansion of Hidden Souls, you won’t find it. The game is short, too, if you know what you’re doing. However, despite that, I do think that it’s a good game. This is definitely not a game for everyone, as it’s slow paced, and yet so simple and small in scope; you spend most of the game in a small mansion. There are people (well, butterflies) to talk to, simple and yet sometimes frustrating puzzles to solve, and the like. You’ll either like it or you won’t, but those with an interest in first-person adventure games should definitely check this game out. The game has a sequel for the Saturn, which was, confusingly, given the same title in the US; it’s not a port though, it is a new game. The developers also made a third game with similar gameplay, Lunacy for Saturn. See my Saturn thread for my review of that game; it’s got a wider scope than this game, and is also good. This game is a LOT cheaper than that one, though, that’s for sure, so start with the first game.

Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse – One player. Mickey Mania is a multiplatform platformer from Traveler’s Tales Traveler’s Tales made some good games and some not so good ones, but this game is widely regarded as being one of their better ones for sure, and this is the best version of the game. Mickey Mania is, for the most part, a straightforward, and traditional, platformer. The game doesn’t do anything particularly new, gameplay-wise. What it does do is have great controls, level designs, and presentation. This is a Mickey Mouse history game, and each level is set in a different classic Mickey cartoon. You start in Steamboat Willy, with black and white environs, and gradually move into color as you progress through the game. It’s very cool. The Sega CD version has additional audio, too, which makes it feel even more like the cartoon. Those added audio elements are the main reason I’d recommend this version over the cartridge releases; they are also pretty good, but the presentation here is even better. The great, traditional platformer gameplay is the main reason why this is such a good game, though. Mickey Mania is challenging fun, with increasingly tough levels and obstacles for Mickey to make his way through as you try to get through each cartoon. There’s not really all that much to say about this game; it’s just a great traditional platformer, from late in the great age of 2d platformers. Apart from its irritating but all-too-common lack of saving, the game has no major flaws — no jumping puzzles full of leaps of faith, no questionable controls, no bad level designs. The game is a definite challenge, but it’s a challenge well worth facing! Mickey Mania is recommended to anyone who hasn’t played it already. Other versions of the game, without the CD enhancements, are on the Genesis and SNES. There is also a Playstation version released only in Japan and Europe.

Midnight Raiders – One player. Midnight Raiders is a live-action-video FMV shooting game published by Sega. The game has a light-gun-game style, but does not support any guns, or even the mouse; instead, it’s gamepad only. That is not a good sign, and the game lives up to those low expectations. Really the only value this game has is entertainment value for those looking for some comically awful video. The gameplay… is not so good. You play as a hotshot helicopter pilot on a Gulf War-inspired mission to stop a Middle Eastern madman from using his chemical/biological weapons arsenal. At first, the game seems okay; the acting in the cutscenes is ridiculous in its “so bad it’s good” FMV goodness, and the shooting works. In the first of the games’ three levels, you’re in your helicopter. You move the cursor around the screen, and have two fire buttons, one for anti-air missiles (for air targets), and the other for air to ground missiles (for ground targets). Yeah, you’ll need to be careful there, to use the right button for the right type. In Normal difficulty you only barely have enough ammo. I recommend Easy; this game is still extremely hard even in “Easy”, and it gives you extra ammo. If you get hit, you have two backup helicopters (extra lives). The second level is the last one I’ve reached myself. In this level, you land and go in to the facility on foot. Here you hvae only one life. Get hit once by a bullet and it’s game over and you start the whole game over from stratch. Period, no way to get around it. Yeah, it’s brokenly unfair, horrendous design! This decision alone completely wrecks thegame, in my opinion. The first level is amusing, but no way is this game good enough for me to put the time and effort in that would be required to master level 2, much less get to the third level. According to the manual, in the third level you have to get to a jeep and then escape the area in it before the plant blows up. Overall, absolutely get Midnight Raiders! It should be extremely, extremely cheap, and the silly-bad acting is quite entertaining. It’s not worth playing enough to actually finish, but it’s worth watching some of at least. There was supposed to be a 32X CD port of this game, but unfortunately it was cancelled. Too bad.

Mortal Kombat (1993) – Two player simultaneous, 6 Button Controller supported. Yes, it’s Mortal Kombat, on Sega CD! This port of the super-popular arcade classic starts up with an original intro that is an expanded version of the great TV ad for the console release of Mortal Kombat. MORTAL KOMBAT! I’ve never been a big Mortal Kombat fan, but that intro’s great anyway; go watch it. Beyond that intro, the main changes between this and the Genesis cart version are that this time you don’t need a code in order to see red blood; instead, the blood’s red by default. Nice. Behind all that “SNES has no red blood” controversy, people forget that you had to enter a code even on the Genesis to see the red blood. That’s not true here. The game also has some other minor visual and audio enhancements. However, the load times are annoying, particularly for Shang Tsung’s morphing. There’s an option that restricts his morph to only the two characters here (so he could only morph into your clone) if you want to cut the during-matches loads that are otherwise required. The loading is annoying, but despite that, overall I do think that this is a better port of Mortal Kombat than the Genesis version. It’s quite similar, but a bit better in almost every way. Mortal Kombat is a real classic, and while this is definitely not the best version of the game around (perfect ports of the arcade game can be played on many modern consoles, after all), it’s one well worth owning if you’re a Sega CD owner. Also on almost everything.

Night Striker (J) (Japan only release) – One player, supports XE-1AP analog controller. Night Striker is a rail shooter from Taito, and it’s one of Taito’s two Sega CD releases; the other one is below. You play as a guy in a well-armed flying car, and have to save the day. In most levels your flying car is in the air, but there are a few where you’re on the ground only, instead. Night Striker’s Sega CD port is pretty good. The game gets mixed reviews, but I like it. Night Striker is a short but fun rail shooter. The game has very blocky graphics on this platform, and all stages are flat (so there are no “hill” elements), and it’s got no added content unlike the later, better (and also Japan-only) Saturn port, Night Striker S, but it’s fun while it lasts. “How to play import Sega CD games” issues aside this is also a perfect import, because the game has absolutely no Japanese text ingame; the story (it’s text-only, not voice acted), menus, and game interface are all in English text. I think the graphics look good; blocky or no the game has good art design, and it shows. Night Striker is a simple, fun rail shooter. The game has branching paths, Outrun-style, which gives this very short, only moderately challenging game a bit more replay value. It’s a good game, and even if the presentation is basic — why doesn’t it even have voice acting for the story? — the good gameplay and hardware scaling clearly show why this was a Sega CD game.

Walk right, cut things.

The Ninja Warriors (J) (Japan only release) – Two player simultaneous. The Ninja Warriors is a good port of a mediocre arcade game. The Ninja Warriors is a side-scrolling beat ’em up. You walk to the right, Kung Fu style, and hit everyone as they approach. Walk, hit, duck, repeat until bored or you win or lose. It’s simple and repetitive. However, even if the game itself isn’t the best, this game is the best version of it you’ll find. The game has good graphics, an outstanding soundtrack, some entertaining added story sequences, full English voice acting for all cutscenes (with Japanese subtitles, and the two player mode is intact, too! The other console port of The Ninja Warriors, which is a Japan-only Turbografx-16 game, has worse graphics and sound and is single player only. This is far better than that. The original arcade machine, like the first two Darius games, used a triple-wide monitor, so this single-screen port is necessarily zoomed in, but it works. You can see far enough to get by. The game has limited continues and no saving, so beating the game won’t be easy and will take practice. It may or may not be fun enough to be worth the effort, I’m not sure. Playing with two people helps a bit. The graphics aren’t amazing, but are decently good, for a port of a then several-years-old arcade game. The two titular “Ninja Warriors” who you play as are actually robots, and as you take damage parts of their clothing/”skin” tear off, revealing the robot underneath. It’s a nice touch. The fully English voice acted intro, ending, and Zuntata Mode backstory cutscene sequence (separately watchable from the main menu) all are decently done. It’s weird that this Japan-only game has English voice acting, but it does, and it’s by native speakers too. Why did this not release here? It’s stupid! It should have, and Night Striker too.

On the note of Zuntata, The Ninja Warriors has a fantastic soundtrack from Zuntata, Taito’s sound team. It’s a classic work of early videogame CD music, from the days when cart-style music was just being adapted to CDs. Great stuff, it’s one of my most-listened-to Sega CD soundtracks. Zuntata Mode is a weird little 6 minute or so long cutscene, fully voice acted in English with Japanese subtitles. It tells the backstory of why the “Ninja Warriors” were chosen for their mission, and is done in the style of a noir film, I think. It’s pretty weird and interesting; do watch it! Unfortunately it’s made up of stills, not moving video, but still, it’s interesting. The visuals are of live actors (members of Zuntata, I believe, playing the roles?), not animation. It’s a weird extra that you’d only see on an early CD game like this, I think. So yeah, overall, The Ninja Warriors is worth getting, probably, even though the game itself is bland. Also in arcades and on the Turbografx-16 (Japan only). The game has a sequel, which was released in the US on the SNES as “The Ninja Warriors”, but is “Ninja Warriors Again” in Japan. The game has much better, much more varied gameplay than this one, but sadly cuts out the multiplayer mode. See my review of it in my SNES thread.

Panic! – One player. Panic!, aka Switch? Panic!, is an animated FMV-style game from Sega. At its core, this game is Dragon’s Lair-esque. Basically, in each section you’re presented with various switches you can press. Pressing each one will cause something to happen, but only one (or a few) is the correct answer. This is a weird, crazy, and very Japanese game, but it fortunately did get localized here. Panic! is a very genre title, and has limited “gameplay”, but it’s amusing to mess around with for a while, pushing buttons and seeing the silly things which happen as a result.

Popful Mail – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). Popful Mail is a great fun, cartoony side-scrolling action-RPG from Sega. It’s a remake of a game from Falcom, the same company which made the Ys and Legend of Heroes franchises, among others. This game is their only Sega CD release, but it’s a good one. Unlike those long-running series, this game unfortunately was a one-off title; they should do a sequel sometime, it’s a great game! The game plays somewhat like earlier Falcom titles like Faxanadu or Ys III, but this is one of the best games in the genre, with good graphics, good music, a silly, entertaining plot, good controls, solidly animated and voiced cutscenes, and a reasonably long, and challenging-but-not-too-hard (in the US version at least) quest to work your way through. In the game you play as a team of three characters, but the lead is the female elf warrior Mail. The comedic fantasy tone with a female lead makes me think of Slayers, which is a good thing; I love that franchise. I like that the game has a strong female lead. The comedic tone works great as well; this can be a funny game at times. The other two characters are a male human mage and a (male) baby dragon. They definitely have their uses, though Mail is overall the best. You can switch between the three characters at will, and as each one has their own strengths and weaknesses, and their own health bars too, you will need to do that. The baby dragon can jump/fly much higher than the other characters, for example, and the mage has magic (obviously). It’s a good system; the separate health bars is a particularly nice feature. The game is broken up into levels, with a basic world map (level-select style), and sometimes you may have to revisit an earlier stage to go to a specific store, go to a new area, and the like. The game is mostly linear, so it’s not too confusing, but it has just enough depth to add a bit to the game without making it complex or dated. I love that Popful Mail isn’t a grinding-heavy game, unlike, say, Ys III; you will need to grind a bit, particularly in the US version since Working Designs made it harder, but it isn’t an Ys game, and you can mostly keep moving forward. That’s how games should be! And the silliness, varied environments, and great gameplay all kept me coming back, too. Popful Mail has save anywhere too, which is fantastic, and fits with Falcom tradition.

So yes, Popful Mail has cute anime art and solid side-scrolling action-RPG gameplay. The characters all look cute, the baby dragon particularly. The Sega CD version of Popful Mail is a graphically enhanced remake of earlier Japanese computer versions of the game. The original Japanese computer game also has a console port on the Turbo CD. The game is a Japan-only Super CD game with Arcade CD enhancements, and is a straight but enhanced port of the computer game, so it’s got very small graphics in that classic Falcom fashion, and plays in a border in that annoyingly usual (Legend of Xanadu excepted) Turbo CD Falcom fashion. As usual for Falcom games, there’s no attack button; you just run into enemies to attack on the Turbo CD. Sega changed that on the Sega CD, so this version has an attack button. The larger, redrawn graphics of Sega’s Sega CD port look much better overall, even if fewer colors are used, and the more traditional control scheme on the Sega CD is an improvement as well; Ys is great, but I do like having an attack button. In the cutscenes, the animation is much better on Sega CD, but looks different — Sega drew the characters looking a bit older than they do on the computer/Turbo CD version. Both versions are good, but Sega’s has the edge overall (despite lacking colors) because of the much superior animation; as is common on the Turbo CD, animation in the cutscenes is limited; the Turbo CD cutscenes look great in screenshots, but don’t animate nearly like the Sega CD ones do. The basic level maps are altered in the Sega CD version, but they are clearly enhanced versions of the computer original. Looking at the Sega CD and Turbo CD games, many levels look similarly, major graphical differences aside. Sega CD Popful Mail is a great game, must-play stuff for any action-RPG fan. There was also a SNES version, also Japan-only, but that version redoes the level maps, so it’s really a complete remake, not an enhanced port/remake like this version is — the SNES levels are entirely unrecognizable compared to the other versions, they’re all new. The SNES version does have quite nice graphics though, but sadly restricts saving to inns only. Hopefully it gets a fan translation patch someday, though. The Sega CD version was released in the US by Working Designs, and, as they often did, they made the game harder. It’s quite doable and fun, though; it’s definitely not too hard. Just fun, and occasionally challenging. This version is Sega CD exclusive, but other versions are on the NEC PC88 and PC98 computers and the Turbo CD for one version, and the SNES for the other, though this Sega CD version is the only version of the game released outside Japan.

Racing Aces – One player, saves (to system only). Racing Aces is a 3d airplane racing game, with sprite-based planes in polygonal environments. Yes, it is a highly ambitious game; it’s one of the only Sega CD games in a polygonal, fully 3d world. Many worlds, in fact — this game has a huge amount of content. However, the game is as flawed as it is ambitious. On the one hand I want to like this game, but on the other hand, the horrendously low framerate is a serious issue. Yes, the framerate is this games’ biggest problem. Now, polygonal 3d games on the SNES and Genesis almost always had framerates just as bad as Racing Aces does. However, the Sega CD is more powerful than the Genesis alone. The developers probably didn’t get everything out of the system. And regardless, if you can’t do a game like this well, I’m not sure if it was worth doing. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t… I like that it exists, but I’d be much happier with it if the game ran faster. Now, Racing Aces is, as I said, a plane racing game. The game has minimalist presentation — there is no video intro here, you just go straight to the menu and then the game. First you choose one of a variety of airplanes (there are at least a dozen pilots here), then the main game or a single race on one of the game’s substantial track selection (there are dozens of them!), and take to the sky. The game saves your progress, if you make any, which is nice. Controls in the game are simple, and that’s one of its other flaws — you don’t really have any speed control here! Seriously, I really wish I could get going faster, but you can’t. It’s frustrating. The problem might be having to make a game that will run on the 3-button Genesis controller, and all three buttons are used, but the game really needs better speed control. Also, this game has weapons — you can shoot guns and other projectiles out of your plane. Hitting things can be tricky, though, as you might expect given the framerate issues. Still, it adds something to the game for sure. You collect powerups by managing to fly through them. Good luck… but actually staying on the track is the harder challenge, often.

In each race, you have to try to get around the course enough times to complete it, and in a good finishing position too. Between the framerate, the lack of speed control, the other planes trying to get you, and the course designs — each level is a large open area, and you are NOT railed on a path, you just need to try to follow the correct line — this is a very challenging game. To make matters worse, the game has an upgrade system in the main game, and getting enough money to upgrade your plane enough so that it is competitive is a serious problem — you’ll lose a lot at first, and it’s not fun or well designed. I admit, I’ve never gotten far into it; I like the concept, and I think it’s a very interesting, ambitious game that’s well worth trying, but it either isn’t programmed quite well enough, or just was trying to do more than the hardware could manage. Any racing game fan should try the game anyway though, it’s one of a kind.

Revengers of Vengeance – Two player simultaneous, saves (to system only), 6 Button Controller supported. Revengers of Vengeance is a fighting game RPG with some shmup elements. Yes, this game tries to be a lot of things. The cover is fantastic work, but unfortunately, the game inside has some problems. The presentation is pretty good, though. This game doesn’t have the best graphics around, but they’re decent enough to do. Still, the system can do better than this; this game is just somewhat mediocre. After you choose a character and watch the nice introduction, you start in the town. The graphics are somewhat ugly, but there are a few things to do, including buying stuff, getting shmup missions if you have enough gold, saving, training your skills, or going to the overworld to fight a fighting game match. Unfortunately, things don’t get better in fights. The graphics are better than the town, certainly, but the fighting is bland and generic. Each character has a few moves, and your character will get better over time as you win fights and train, but the fighting game here is nothing above average, certainly, and probably is a bit below that. The moves, action, and characters in RoV are nowhere near the level of, say, Street Fighter II, that’s for sure, or even Mortal Kombat. Fighting in this game is slow and simplistic, and lacks depth and strategy; spamming exploitable attacks can work well. The RPG system also is annoying at times. This isn’t a linear game. Instead, you have one year to beat the boss, Venum. Your goal is to train enough in that year to be strong enough to beat him at the end. Each action, whether it’s a fight or training, takes up energy, and you only have so much per day. This system is often seen in dating sims, I believe, but here it’s in a fighting game. So, you go around fighting people, and can fight any of the other characters any day, so some fights will be near-impossible to win because of your level, but you won’t know that until you’re in the fight. Now, when you lose it’s not game over but instead you just get sent back to town, but still, losing repeatedly is frustrating, and once you get better at the game, it’s far too easy to win with cheap moves, too. Yeah, this game is flawed. As for the shmup element of the game, those levels are fun. If you have the money, at one of the buildings in town you can go into some shmup levels, where your character walks up the screen and shoots down all the enemies which appear. These levels are basic, but fun enough; I only wish that they looked better and that there were more of them. Still, the shmup parts of RoV aren’t bad. They’re a bit better than the fighitng game, I think. However, they really are a sideline here; most of the game will be spent in the town or in fights. And for that reason, Revengers of Vengeance is, despite its great cover, a disappointing game maybe worth passing on, unfortunately.

Rise of the Dragon – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart), supports Sega/Mega Mouse. Rise of the Dragon is Dynamix’s other PC-to-Sega CD adventure game port, following Willy Beamish. The game has hand-drawn art and is fully voice acted. This game is a cyberpunk adventure game, and you play as a detective in this cyberpunk world, initially investigating a suspicious death. The game is quite good. It has very good art design, a solid story, decent to good voice acting, and plenty of puzzles to solve. The game is heavy on inventory puzzles, as you’d expect, but that’s fine with me. Rise of the Dragon was censored a bit on the console, as a few thing were cut out of the PC original, but most of the serious themes are still here, and the game is absolutely worth playing. The game defintely has dark themes, including murder, drug use, and more. This game may get overlooked by people who only focus on Snatcher, but while obviously thematically somewhat similar, the two games have important differences. For one thing that game is entirely menu-based, while in this game you have a cursor. That makes the games play quite differently. This one also doesn’t have action scenes, and is a Western game instead of Japanese so it has a different style. It’s nice to see a Western game that natively supports the Backup RAM Cart, too; that was oddly uncommon. I don’t want to say too much about this game because I’d rather not spoil the story or the puzzles. Instead, play the game for yourself! This is a good classic adventure game anyone who likes adventure games or cyberpunk should definitely play.

Robo Aleste – One player. Robo Aleste is Compile’s Sega CD shmup. The game released in 1992, the same year as Spriggan mark 2 for the Turbo Super CD, but this game is nothing like that side-scrolling game; it’s a vertical shmup. Sadly those games were Compile’s last 4th gen shmups; after them all they did were two 8-bit games in 1993 (a Game Gear game and a Master System game), then years passed before Compile’s last shmup, Zanac X Zanac for the PS1. It’s really too bad that Compile abandoned the shmup market not too long after releasing this game, because this is one of their best shmups ever. In its basic gameplay, Robo Aleste comes from the style of MUSHA (Genesis) and the first Spriggan (Turbo CD), except with a completely different setting and story. Like those two games though, you collect colored powerups which give you different weapon types in various combinations depending on which ones you have. Compile had several different shmup styles, including this one, the one seen in Blazing Lazers and Space Megaforce, and the simpler style of their earlier titles, and each has its strengths and weaknesses, but of the three done in this style, I like this game the most. Spriggan and MUSHA are very good games, but I think Robo Aleste is better for sure. It’s got better graphics, a more interesting story, and improved gameplay and level designs as well. The game is a little on the easy side, and I’ve beaten it repeatedly, but there is a difficulty level selection if you want it harder, and the game is great fun regardless of how hard it is. The game gives you infinite continues, which makes completing it easier, but doesn’t support saving sadly; none of the Sega CD shmups do, not even for high score backup. I know, I’ve said this before, but it’s stupid!

Returning to the story, one thing that’s different about this game from Compile’s earlier shmups, but is somewhat like Spriggan mark 2, is that the game has much more story than their earlier titles. The game has regular cutscenes between levels, and there are conversations between your character and the bosses at the end of each stage, too. The game is set in a fantasy version of Oda Nobunaga’s Sengoku Japan, except with giant robots of course. The plot has some twists and turns, but the end results aren’t surprising. You play as a guy out to defeat the other warlords in Nobunaga’s quest to unite Japan, but Nobunaga has some dark secrets of his own as well. The story may be predictable, but I think it enhances the game. The high-quality graphics and good art design help as well. I like all the character portraits of the various Sengoku characters. Some people prefer MUSHA’s graphics to Robo Aleste, but I’m absolutely on the other side of that one — I think Robo Aleste is significantly improved, visually, over MUSHA. The game unfortuantely doesn’t make much use of the Sega CD’s sprite scaling and rotation powers, as is true with most all Sega CD shmups not called Silpheed, but the game does have a few little bits of scaling here and there, which is nice, even if it makes me wish for more. Ah well. This US release also had one cutscene with a bath scene in it removed, but it doesn’t hurt the game much at all. All of the actual gameplay is entirely intact. The bath scene isn’t really any more explicit than the intro to Sega CD Lunar 2 though, and that was left intact in the US, so it’s too bad that they removed it. Minor point though. Robo Aleste is an outstanting game! With good graphics, great, extremely well polished game design, fast-paced action, great level designs, and a decent story, Robo Aleste is one of the best shmups around. The Turbo CD may have more than six times more shmups than the Sega CD, but individually, the Sega CD’s shmups stand up to anything on the Turbo CD in quality, and this is one more reason for that.

Sewer Shark – One player. Sewer Shark is a railed first-person shooting games where you fly through tubes shooting sewer creatures. It is also, of course, a FMV-heavy game with many live-action video cutscenes. Sewer Shark was an early hit on the Sega CD, and was a pack-in with the system for a while too. Despite that, the game isn’t very good. I think that this game was popular because it was unique, as one of the earlier video-heavy Sega CD games, much more so than for actual good gameplay. Sewer Shark has a cheesy sci-fi story, mediocre acting, and lots of sewer tunnels to fly through. Yes, the visuals in the actual game are not thrilling. Get used to shooting rats, you’ll be doing a lot of that in this game. The other major issue with this game is that, much like its spiritual successor Lodestar, navigating can be frustrating. This game is not as hard as Lodestar, and you won’t get lost quite as much, but unlike that game Sewer Shark doesn’t support saving, so you have to play the whole thing through in one sitting. This is a real pain; there’s only so much annoying getting lost in identical looping tubes that I can take before I turn off the game. The story and acting aren’t as good as Lodestar, either. The control issue where your targeting cursor is also your movement cursor is here too, unfortunately. Yes, it’s very easy to accidentally go the wrong way while you are just trying to shoot some badguy. This game can be had for very cheap, and might be a nice nostalgia trip for some, but the gameplay hasn’t held up very well. Only get it if it’s very cheap, and even then, think twice. It’s mediocre at best. The bad acting is kind of amusing I guess, and the gameplay could be worse — this is a lot more fun than Night Trap! — but still, it is by no means a good game.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective — Volume I – One player, saves (to system only). Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective was a series of adventure games from Icom released in the early ’90s. There were three games in the series, and this first one was one of the very early CD titles with video in it. The game first released on Turbo CD in ’91, but was ported to Sega CD and PC in ’92. As I said at the top, this game was a packin with the Sega CD when it launched. The game may not make a good first impression, as you just read or watch stuff and do not interact otherwise and the videos all play in a small, fuzzy window, but if you stick with it and take your time, I do think that the Consulting Detective games ar quite decent. First thing, the acting is actually decent. They got competent actors for this game. Each game has three cases, and there’s next to no replay value here, unfortunately; that is definitely the games’ biggest flaw. Everything will be the same every time. The actual gameplay of each case is slow and deliberate. You are first given your case, and then have to go about figuring out how to solve it. This is not a linear puzzle adventure game; instead, for each case you’re given a few issues of the newspaper, a list of people you can go talk to, and a list of people with descriptions. I recommend reading through the papers thoroughly, vital information will be in the articles. It takes time, but it’s worth it. Also talk to everyone you can, and pay attention to the video clips. By talking to people and reading stuff, you can make progress in the case and maybe get more people to talk who hadn’t before. If you can get into it, trying to figure out the mystery of each case can be compelling. This is a slow game, with limited interaction and a lot of reading and listening, but still, I do think that it is a good game worth playing. The game may be slow, but the cases are well thought through and interesting, and the challenge of trying to figure out who did it kept me through to the end. The developer has been trying to re-release these games (including a failed kickstarter), but the original release was on DVD (version you’d play with your DVD remote), PC, Mac, Sega CD, and Turbografx CD.

Shining Force CD – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart; Backup RAM Cart required in order to see all content). Shining Force CD is a strategy game in the long-running Shining series. This one is mostly a port/remake of the first two of the three Game Gear Shining Force games (the last one released after this game, so it could not be included), with some original content added on at the end. This may be a pair of ports, but these are hugely enhanced ports. With better graphics, voice acted story scenes, more content, and more, this is the best way to play either of these games for sure! Unlike the Genesis Shining Force games, the Game Gear games, and thus Shining Force CD as well, are somewhat simplified strategy games. In particular, you do not explore an overworld yourself in this game; instead, towns are just menus, and you straight from town to mission to town. In towns you can buy stuff for your group members, save, etc, the usual things. Fans of the Genesis games may be disappointed, but I like this setup; I prefer strategy games to RPGs overall, this gives the game a more strategy-focused feel compared to the Genesis Shining Force games, which are somewhere in between strategy and RPG. The battles here are as good as ever in the franchise. It’s a turn-based strategy game, and you move your characters around the map, trying to defeat all of the enemies. The game has RPG levelling and inventory systems, and as I said earlier you can buy items in the towns, or maybe get stuff from enemies sometimes. There is a lot of content here, too, with two games and two unlockable bonus modes to play through. Each Game Gear game is not as long as the Genesis games are, but both combined, plus the exclusive bonuses, adds up. This will keep anyone busy for a good while.

Shining Force CD has only a few issues, and none are major. But of them, first, the load times for battle animations are, as in Dark Wizard, annoying. Also, this game isn’t nearly as ambitious as Dark Wizard. It’s a great game, but most of the content isn’t Sega CD exclusive, and the game is simpler than that game is as well. And last, Shining Force CD pretty much requires the Backup RAM Cart, which most people don’t have. Each games’ save file takes up the entire system memory, and you must have complete files from both games in order to unlock the two bonus modes. There are no third party memory cards for the Sega CD, or alternate backup memory options, so in order to play the whole game, you must buy a memory cart. Fortunately they are worth owning for reasons beyond this game, so just go get one. They aren’t cheap, but are worth it. Overall, Shining Force CD is a great compilation with exclusive content, and absolutely is one of the better Sega CD games. Play it!

The game has such impressive visuals for the system! And good gameplay, too.

Silpheed – One player. Silpheed is a vertical-scrolling shmup, and it is one of the Sega CD’s most visually impressive games. It’s also one of the system’s better games, as well. Silpheed is a great visual accomplishment, and has the good gameplay to back up its great graphics. The game has a slightly angled playfield, some audio chatter playing during the levels, polygonal ships (or sprites emulating polygonal ships; it’d be hard to tell the difference), and a prerendered CG “polygonal” FMV backdrop. Yes, the background is video. It’s very impressive video, takes up most of the screen and is hard to tell from real-time polygon graphics except for that it’s putting far more polygons on screen than the Sega CD could ever handle, but it IS video. The overall effect is very impressive. The backgrounds zoom by, as in the many levels in this game you pass through fleets, asteroid fields, hyperspace, fields of hexagonal pillars, and more. Most of the background is non-interactive, but there are some areas here and there where your ship will take damage by hitting background objects. Also, of course, there are the enemies and bosses to deal with. You do have a shield in this game, so you can take multiple hits, but you’ll need it! Your shields don’t fully recharge between levels; instead, you only get a few hits back each time. Also after each level you can re-equip your ship, and you unlock new weapons as you progress through the game. You’ve got a left weapon, a right weapon, and a special to choose. You can make a nice variety of fire types with them. If your health gets low, uniquely, you have a few more hits — the first hit after your 6-hit shield is lost will take out one weapon, the second will halve your speed, and the last will finally destroy you. So, you have a total of 9 possible hit points in the game. Silpheed isn’t an incredibly difficult game, but it is challenging, and doesn’t let you save (of course) and has limited continues as well. Given the games’ length, it is easy to run out of lives late in the game and have to start over. If you want though, there are cheat codes to get around that. Silpheed is a must-play game, as it shows off what the Sega CD’s hardware can do better than almost any other game on the system. The enemy ships, bosses included, are a bit small compared to the size of background ships, and maybe the gameplay isn’t quite as amazing as the visuals are, but still, this is a very, very good shmup. I really love it! Very highly recommended, this game is one of the system’s best. It’s got great graphics, an impressive and great use of the systems’ hardware to pull off something unique, very good gameplay, good level designs, some impressive stages (that hex-block level is particularly cool!), a fun challenge level, and more. Silpheed is a Sega CD exclusive, but the game is part of a series; the first game was for computers (released in Japan on MSX, in the US on PC and Apple IIGS), this is the second, the third is for PS2 (Silpheed: The Lost Planet; it’s sadly mediocre compared to this one), and the last is a 3d space combat game, Project Sylpheed, for the Xbox 360. It’s decent to good. The Sega CD game is the best game in the franchise, though.

Snatcher – One player, supports Genesis Justifier light gun in , saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). What is there to say about Snatcher? It’s a legendary classic, really. The game is a menu-based cyberpunk graphic adventure by Hideo Kojima. The basic concept here was clearly inspired by Blade Runner, because your character is a detective looking for humanoid robots. The game has drawn art for graphics, and has voice acting for the story, of course, and the voice acting is well-done. The game has a pretty good Japanese cyberpunk story, reasonably interesting characters, good graphics, a great sense of mood and atmosphere, and good music, but only decent to good gameplay. Indeed, the gameplay is a little weird — instead of having a cursor in this game, instead you just choose options from a menu, exclusively. You see a picture of the current location on the upper part of the screen, and your options below. As this is a port of a Turbo CD game, animation is limited; the game is mostly stills. They are well-drawn, though; that good art helps this game for sure. The only time you aren’t just choosing items from a menu is during the shooting sections, where you can use either the light gun or gamepad. And even there, the gameplay is still basic — you just aim at one of the nine parts of the screen, and shoot when enemies appear. It’s very simple, easy stuff. You get used to it, and it makes the game move quickly, but I do think that removing the cursor element of the adventure game was a mistake. And it’s not like you have a text parser here instead! No, you just choose menu options. It makes the game a bit too streamlined and easy; just ask everyone everything, investigate all the menu options, and you’ll get through. There are some puzzles, certainly, but they aren’t as hard as the puzzles in a more traditional adventure game would be, I think. With no text parser and no pixel hunting, that’s not surprising. Despite this though, for its well-told story and decent gameplay, Snatcher’s definitely worth a play. The game has a good length; they partially compensate for the simple controls by making this game longer than some adventure games, though it is not a really long game; online reviewers put it at 6-12 hours. Not too bad. Because of the simple design though, you will rarely be challenged much along that length. It’s a compelling game with a good story to tell, but the challenges of adventure games, such as item puzzles, environment puzzles, etc. are only in limited display here. There are definitely some puzzles, but they are infrequent. This game is somewhere in between visual novels and true true adventure games, unfortunately. I much prefer the latter to the former. You are frequently making choices, but it’s mostly just going through menus, not being challenged. The game has a great setting, story, writing and voice acting, music, and visuals, but the gameplay is minimalistic, unfortunately. The question is, which do you care about more?

So, is the game worth buying? Probably… but it is a question, thanks to the absurd prices the game sells for now. Honestly, considering the price, I don’t know if I recommend this one or not… the only game on this list that costs more than Snatcher is Keio Flying Squadron, and I absolutely love that game and have to recommend it. This one, though? Well, for Hideo Kojima fans, it’s an easy buy of course. But for everyone else, and this would include me; I’ve never cared much for the Metal Gear games? Well… maybe, maybe not. It’s a good adventure game, it’s just a bit too straightforward because of the menu-only design… and those shooter segments really are disappointing, particularly when played with the gamepad. The game does a great job of increasing tension, making the situation feel tense and the threat dire… and then it turns into a basic shooting gallery. Lame! It’s much better with the light gun I’m sure, but with gamepad, it’s not great, even more so than usual for lightgun games because of the extremely basic “nine-point targeting” design. I still enjoyed them, because of the great presentation and story, but the actual shooting is far too easy compared to the level of tension the story raises things to. Snatcher was first released on Japanese computers (MSX2 and NEC PC-8801), with no voice acting of course, but this Sega CD release is a US-exclusive port of the Japanese-only Turbo CD remake of the game. There’s some minor censorship in the US version (of two scenes of partial female nudity), but otherwise everything else is intact. Yes, as usual, the sexuality is cut from the US version, but the violence is entirely intact. There are also later Japan-only Playstation and Saturn versions of the game.

Sol-Feace – One player. Sol-Feace was another one of the original pack-in games with the American Sega CD, but as I said at the top, it is a third party game, and actually is a port of a Japanese computer game. The game’s decent to good, and I think it gets under-rated; this game often seems to be considered the worst of the Sega CD shmups, but it’s actually a good game. I like it more than Android Assault, anyway, though there aren’t really any bad Sega CD shmups — they’re all good games. Sol-Feace is a simple, straightforward horizontal shmup, but it’s got good gameplay, good controls, and some fun level designs and decently good graphics with plenty of good ship and vehicle designs. I like things like the moving arms that try to grab you, too. These probably are done in software, not Sega CD hardware, since they look the same in the cartridge version of the game, but regardless, they’re cool. I like the CD audio music too, and the game has a nice voiced introduction at the start. Sol-Feace has only seven levels, but they get hard by the later stages, so this won’t be as easy to finish as it might initially seem. The difficulty balance is done just right, I’d say. Overall, Sol-Feace doesn’t have Android Assault’s multi-screen-high stages, multiple ship types, innovative graphical design like that in Silpheed, or Compile’s greatness, but even so, it’s a great traditional shmup from the high age of great classic shooters, and that’s awesome. I was surprised at how much I liked this game after I got it, but it really is quite good. The game should be cheap, too. Get it. Sol-Feace is also on the X68000 computer and, under the name Sol-Deace, later got a port on Genesis as well. The cartridge version is similar, except it doesn’t have the CD audio or the introduction and ending, of course.

Sonic 1 Megamix (PD) – One player, saves (to system only). Sonic 1 Megamix is a player-developed game that you can burn on a CD-R and play on your actual Sega CD console, or an emulator of course. No, it is not for sale. The game is built in the Sonic engine, but is definitely not an official release, and isn’t a port either — the level designs here are new. Stages use familiar themes, but the actual maps are original. There are a bunch of playable characters in the game, too, which is cool. Most characters play very similarly, but still, it’s nice to have some choices. Sonic 1 Megamix doesn’t really do anything that the Genesis game didn’t, but it’s not supposed to; being similar to the original, but with new fanmade content as the actual levels, was the goal of this project, and they succeeded. Try it out, the game’s decently fun, and it’s very cool to see a fanmade game on actual hardware, not just modern PC or something.

Level two, the water level, rail-shooter segment. The free-roam section after this is hard…

SoulStar – Two player simultaneous, 6 Button Controller supported. SoulStar is the last of Core Designs’ scaler action games on the Sega CD, and it’s probably their best as well. SoulStar is half rail shooter, half free-roaming vehicular combat game in open levels. With great graphics, decent controls (with the 6 button controller, particularly), multiple gameplay styles, a fantastic soundtrack, and some pretty good level designs as well, SoulStar is fantastic. The game is a sci-fi game, as the title suggests. You control a spaceship which can transform into three forms, one plane for rail shooter stages, one plane for the open-area levels, and a walker mech for other open-area levels later in the game. SoulStar has some of the best graphics on the system, and has both good art design and great hardware scaling. The game has a multiplayer mode too, though player two only controls an additional cursor, not a whole ship. Still, it can be extremely helpful. However, the game does have some issues. The first thing you see in the game is a rail shooter stage. It looks great, and is only moderately challenging. Fantastic level. Once you get to the end, you move to the first open-area area, which is the second half of the first level…

And probably proceed to die quickly, because the free-roam levels are far harder than the rail-shooter ones. And even if you don’t die, this area can be confusing, because it has three exits, and the one you choose determines which difficulty level you’re selecting for the rest of the game. Yes, this is how you choose your difficulty, not a menu. Whichever one you choose though, this games’ difficulty balance is not quite right, why are the open levels so, so much harder than the railed ones? I seem to get hit more and die more in the open stages. Another issue is that the game doesn’t let you save. Sure, there are only six to eight levels, depending on which difficulty level you choose (each higher difficulty adds a stage), but with a difficulty level this high, beating any of them will be a serious challenge. Core knew how to include saving in games, and it’s unconcionable that SoulStar and Battlecorps both don’t let you save. And last, the on-screen interface is confusing and cluttered. Sure, it looks kind of nice in a spaceship-ey way, but it’s not too functional, and figuring out exactly how much health you have left is kind of tricky. Your health bar is this small angled bar, and starts at about the one-third level, which is odd. The cancelled Jaguar CD port of the game has a much-improved on-screen interface, but no luck here. Even so though, despite those issues, SoulStar is a fantastic, fantastic game, and it is an absolute must play game without question. Levels like the desert level (Hard path exclusive stage) absolutely must be seen! SoulStar is exceptional, flaws or no. The game is Sega CD exclusive; 32X and Jaguar CD ports of the game were cancelled, unfortunately. There’s a beta rom of the Jaguar CD version out there, but all you can play is the first part of level one.

Sonic CD – One player, saves (to system only). Sonic CD is, of course, the Sega CD’s Sonic platformer. The game was designed by Sonic’s original creator, and Yuji Naka didn’t work on this one. As a result, it has a distinctly different style from the Genesis games, and some people like it, while others don’t. For some time Sonic CD was considered this lost classic, this one great game on the Sega CD that hadn’t been ported anywhere (other than the PC, but that version needs Windows 9x to run competently). However, the game finally got a port in the Sonic Gems Collection, and now is available on many modern platforms. So, today, this isn’t really a system seller for the Sega CD itself like it was in the past. Despite that, though, it’s still a great game, and if you get a Sega CD, definitely pick up Sonic CD. Sonic CD is pure Sonic — you play only as Sonic, and have to get through various worlds on your quest to stop Robotnik. This isn’t just a linear platformer though, as I will explain. Amy and Robo-Sonic make what I think are their first appearances, but for other characters that’s it. Sonic CD also has a good soundtrack. The game has two soundtracks, as many know; the US version replaced the original music. I have the US Sega CD version, but I think the soundtrack is great, so no complaints here. Both soundtracks are good, really. The animated introduction is good as well.

As I said, Sonic CD is not like other Sonic games in gameplay. Instead of just having to run to the end of the level, or get to the end while finding bonus game areas like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in Sonic CD, the game has the element of time travel. There are four different versions of each stage — the Present, the Past, the Bad Future, and if you unlock it, the Good Future. The level map is the same in each version of the stage, but the graphics and music change. Now, in order to get Sonic CD’s good ending, you have to do one of two things: First, you can beat all of the bonus games and get the Chaos Emeralds that way (the bonus game here is a Mode 7 style area you run around). Alternately, you can go back to the Past in every level (well, every X-1 and X-2 level; the third area of each world is just a boss fight and does not have time travel gates), search for the machine in the stage, and destroy it. Once you destroy the machine, the Future map in that stage will change from the default Bad Future to the Good Future, and you should then go to the end (in the Good Future). With this method, you must find the machine in every single stage in order to get the good ending, but it’s the method I chose, because I find having to beat all of the bonus games harder; the only SOnic game I’ve ever actually gotten all of the Chaos Emeralds in that way was Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and there the save files were key to helping out. Here though, I went with the more interesting route, and did the “go to the past” way. Now, every Present level is full of “Future” signs, but has only a few Past signs. If you hit a sign and then run fast enough for a while, you will time-warp. Each sign is one time use, so if you try but fail to warp with a sign, because you hit something or an enemy hits you or something before you’ve gotten far enough to warp, you’ll need to find another sign. That there are so many fewer Past signs, but so many Future signs you need to avoid, is a part of the challenge. I liked the challenge of having to do something other than just running to the ending each time, it made the game a bit longer, and once I got used to it, was pretty fun.

However, the game does have a few oddities. First, the environment stuff for all four versions of each level are all on top of eachother, so you’ll often see coins you can’t access, random pieces of walls that mean nothing cluttering up space, etc. It give sthe game a somewhat randomly-laid-out feel, even though it’s not. Some people may not like that. Also, early in the first level, there’s a part where you run up a giant ramp, rotate, and go flying into the air. It’s pretty cool… but is almost never repeated. What a waste of a cool use of the hardware scaling! ALso, while the time travel mechanic is interesting, it feels kind of wasteful to have four versions of every level, when the game itself is only average-length. I understand why they did it, but I wish that the game was longer, and if you’re playing the game correctly, you’ll probebly almost never even SEE a huge amount of what they designed. The Bad Future levels are to be completely avoided, the Good Future ones you’ll only see for moments, the Present you want to get out of quickly, etc. They put a lot of work on each stage into making stuff that most people will never see. Perhaps the game could have had a few more levels, instead. Ah well. Sonic CD also has a different method of spin-dashing than Sonics 2 and beyond on the Genesis. You’ll get used to it. Overall, though, Sonic CD is a quite good game. It’s not the best Sonic game ever, but it is a great, and interesting, Sonic experiment. I definitely recommend it. Sonic CD has been ported to the PC (twice), PS2 (Japan and Europe only), Gamecube, cellphones, Ouya, PS3, and X360.

Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin – One player. This game is an enhanced port of Sega’s Spider-Man game for the Genesis. It’s a fairly popular title, but just doesn’t interest me much at all, and I can’t give a fair review of the game — I’ve never managed to stick with this long enough to get more than a level or two into it. The game has average at best controls, mediocre level layouts from what I’ve seen, and I just don’t find it particularly interesting at all. I’m not a big superhero-games fan, which doesn’t help, but if the games are good, I’ll play them anyway. This one… it’s mediocre. Spider-Man isn’t actively bad, but it’s not good either. For one thing, this game is somewhat open-world. Instead of just following a linear quest, yhou have to find these bombs which The Kingpin has planted around the city (in the process of falsely accusing Spiderman of being the villain; the intro cutscene’s decent), and you can got to various different areas around the city, choosing from a map. Many will be pointless excursions, though, while only a few will have your actual goals in them. Having to search around a bunch of empty levels looking for the ones that matter isn’t really my idea of fun. So yeah, in the rare case that I actually play it, I always end up just turning this off. I know that this is a quite popular game, but I’m not entirely sure why. Other versions of the game are on Genesis and Game Gear.

Star Wars Chess, The Software Toolworks Presents – Two player simultaneous, saves (to system only). Star Wars Chess is essentially a Battle Chess clone that uses Star Wars characters on the board. So, just like Battle Chess, it’s a chess game which plays “fight” animations when pieces are taken. The attacking piece always wins, of course, since this is Chess and not Archon or something, but the animations are fun to see, the first time at least. However, much like Battle Chess, after a while it could get old, so this probably doesn’t have the longevity of a Chessmaster. The AI is decent and can beat me, but it’s no Chessmaster for sure. Also, this clearly isn’t the highest-budget production; it may be a Star Wars license, but the game is by Mindscape (Software Toolworks), not Lucasarts, and you can see the difference. Still though, Star Wars Chess is a decent to good game. It’s a perfectly decent chess game with Star Wars pieces and battle animations. Pick it up if you see it for cheap. Also on PC.

Star Wars: Rebel Assault – One player, saves (password only). Rebel Assault is a Star Wars CD action experience! So yes, it is a horrendously badly dated early CD title. Still though, for nostalgia value at least, I still like this game even if objectively it’s probably not that great. The PC version of Rebel Assault was one of the first CD games I ever owned, and this version is very similar to that one, so I have some strong nostalgia for the game. This Sega CD version cuts out one level and removes the option to play as a female pilot, so you’re male only here, but is otherwise intact. It’s also not a bad space shooting game, either. Not all game modes are equally good, but this game is decent fun. The games’ introduction is a video clip from the original Star Wars (episode IV), but past that, Rebel Assault has hand-drawn backgrounds, not live-action-video. There’s some animation, but also some stills; it’s a mix. The game is fully voice acted of course, and has that great Star Wars music playing in the background, so presentation-wise, it’s great. As for the actual gameplay, Rebel Assault has quite a variety of tasks. The game has rail-shooter levels, where you control a ship from behind, trying to avoid obstacles and perhaps also shoot enemies; first-person cockpit shooting levels, where you have to move a cursor around the screen, shoot targets, and maybe do some very basic avoidance (move cursor to side to shift ship very slightly out of the way of something, you can’t actually fly around); a few top-down areas where you do a basic vertical shooter; and a third-person on-foot shooting game, sort of pre-Time-Crisis-esque, as you can hide behind something, or pop out and shoot. The original PC version had two of these levels, but they cut the second one from this version. Too bad; these levels are frustrating, but this game is a bit short, so it’s too bad that they made it shorter. They pretended tyhat it has the same number of levels by splitting up one other level into two parts, but yes, this version is missing a level from the PC game, and doesn’t add any new content. Now, Rebel Assault is a hard game. The rail-shooter levels particularly can be quite tricky, but some of the space shooting sections can be tough as well. When I was a kid I never managed to beat the third level, which is a rail-shooting stage in a canyon full of rock pillars you have to avoid, so I only got farther by looking up some passwords. With this version I did actually finish the game, but it does have some tricky moments for sure. Rebel Assault is short, but challenging. Overall, I would say that Star Wars fans should try Rebel Assault. It’s badly dated, and most people today likely won’t like it, but darnit, it’s got charm… I still kind of like this game. It’s flawed certainly, but give it a chance. Also on PC and 3DO. All three versions look quite similar visually, unfortunately (so yes, the [DOS] PC version is horribly blocky, just like Sega CD FMV), but the Sega CD version probably is worst thanks to the cut content. It’s still decent though.

StarBlade – One player, supports Sega/Mega Mouse, supports XE-1AP analog controller. Starblade is a light-gun-style shooter that many people call a “rail shooter” because it’s set in space and you’re in a spaceship. You have no control over your ship in this game, though. It’s a first-person title, and you fly along a preset path through the game, trying to shoot as many of the enemies as you can before they stay on the screen long enough to hit you. I’d call that a light-gun-style game myself, even though you can’t use a gun here; to be a rail shooter you need some control over the ship! In Starblade, you have none, not even speed controls like After Burner. Starblade is extremely challenging on the Sega CD, because unlike other ports of the game you only have two continues in this version, so I have not finished it yet, but it is a good, and good-looking, game. The game uses a unique mechanism for displaying its graphics — instead of being all rendred by the system (the Sega CD could not do that, too many polygons), or all FMV for the background like Silpheed, Starblade seems to use a unique system where it sends preset vertexes to the system, which then renders the polygons. It’s not exactly video, but this only works because the game plays exactly the same way every time, like a video would — the Sega CD could never render this in any situation where things could change. You can tell interactive parts because all enemy ships are wireframes, while background objects have flat-shaded textures filling their frames. It’s a kind of weird look, but you get used to it, and I think the game actually looks pretty good for the Sega CD. Starblade is a very simple game which clearly shows the limitations of early CD- game technology, but still, it’s a fun one to play for a few minutes here and there. The graphics are good, the action fast and furious, and the game well designed, in its simple way. Starblade is an arcade port, and also is on the 3DO and Playstation. Those versions are fully polygonal and give you infinite continues, so they’d be much easier to finish, but I haven’t played them myself.

Stellar Fire – One player. Stellar Fire is another Sega CD game from Dynamix. This one isn’t an adventure game, though; instead, it’s a Battlezone-style vehicular combat game. And Battlezone is definitely the title to mention here. Much like the contemporary PC/Mac/SNES game Spectre, Stellar Fire looks very much like an enhanced version of Battlezone, so you control a tank in a world of plain ground and flat-shaded objects, shooting enemies. Yes, the game uses hardware scaling, which is nice. While Spectre is a multiplayer-focused arena combat game, though, Stellar Fire is a single player only experience. The game has a nice voiced story introduction, with live-action-video and prerendered CG elements and voice acting by Star Trek (TNG/DS9)’s Michael Dorn, telling you why you’re here on your quest to stop the evil alien threat, and then you’re off. Stellar Fire is a decent to good game, but it’s got a problem — it’s very hard! I’ve never gotten past the first or second level of this game, in fact; it’s that tough. Levels in Stellar Fire are very large, and there are bosses at the end, as well. In each stage, you have some crystals that you have to collect, while seemingly endless waves of enemy tanks try to take you down. Once you collect all the stuff, you go to the boss and try to defeat it, but this can take a while because of the distances you have to travel, and because everything in each level looks the same, so it gets very repetitive very fast. The radar on the bottom shows you where enemies, obstacles, and objectives are, and the game points you to your next goal, but getting there without taking too much damage is difficult, and the bosses at the end of each level are hard. I want to like Stellar Fire, but it’s just so frustrating that I can’t quite… dying at the boss, and getting sent back all the way to the beginning of the level yet again, is not fun. I would recommend getting this game for cheap for anyone who likes Battlezone or Spectre, or wants to play a first-person [vehicular] shooting game on the Sega CD, but be prepared for a challenge. Saving would have been nice, here. Oh well. The game is reasonably well designed, though; the challenge isn’t entirely unfair. Decent game overall, I think, but it could be better. This game is a part of the Stellar 7 series of Battlezone-inspired titles from Dynamix. The first game, Stellar 7, was on Apple II and Commodore 64, the second (also Stellar 7) was for PC/Mac/Amiga, the third (Nova 9) for PC/Amiga, then this game, and last was Stellar 7: Draxon’s Revenge for the 3DO.

Surgical Strike – One player, saves (to system only). Surgical Strike is a FMV sci-fi vehicular shooting game, and it was the last game released in the US for the Sega CD. The story is basic and cheesy, as you’d expect. The gameplay is maybe a little bit like the first level of Midnight Raiders, but it’s far, far better than that game, and it uses some interesting design, too. Even though this is an FMV game, it’s not entirely on rails! Instead, the game plays out on a large city map. You can choose which street to drive down, and can turn at intersections too. Now, since the game is FMV, sort of like a Sewer Shark or Lodestar, you see the same video clips over and over reused in different areas in order to turn a limited amount of video backgrounds into a large world. This means repetition, but unlike those games you won’t get lost, because there is a map screen you can access with a button press. Very nice! It really makes the game much, much more playable than those others, and having choices in where you can go makes this more replayable than linear games like Midnight Raiders, too. The graphics are about as good as you’ll see in a Sega CD FMV game. Sure, color is lacking as always (lots of grey…), but that’s unavoidable. The story and acting is cheesy and silly as usual on the Sega CD. It’s the future, and you’re going in with your hover-tank to take down the badguys before they can destroy your nation with their missiles. So, destroy everything they’ve got, tanks, soldiers, missile launchers, etc. You’ve got a couple of different weapons, and have to be paying attention in order to hit all the targets, which appear with yellow boxes around them. You do a lot of blowing things up in this game, but it’s not easy; you have a health bar, unlike Midnight Raiders, but will take plenty of damage. The game gets frustrating because if you die, or let the missiles launch, you have to start the whole thing over, and watching those same “weapon firing” and explosion videos again and again and again gets repetitive. Still, for a Sega CD FMV game, this is one of the better, and more playable, ones. It’s got issues, and isn’t as good as a normal (non-FMV) vehicular shooter for sure, but it is an interesting product of its time maybe worth a look. There’s also a 32X CD version of the game, but it was cancelled in the US, unfortunately, and ended up only getting released in Brazil. That release is incredibly rare and nearly impossible to find even there, so just stick with the Sega CD version.

Third World War – One player, saves (to system or Backup RAM Cart). Third World War is a hybrid turn-based and real-time Cold War strategy game, of a what-if if the Cold War had turned hot, and was fought on battlefields, not just with nukes. You can use nukes, but also conventional arms. The game is complex and dated and is hard to get into; I find ’80s and early ’90s strategy games can be very hard to enjoy today, interfaces then were often horribly obtuse and frustrating. I love strategy games, but games like this… it’ll have a sizable learning curve, let’s just put it that way. At the start of the game, you choose a nation to control. There are sixteen countries in the game, all major nations; most of the Third World is just grey space here. After you choose one, then you go to the world map, and here you can control your nation. There are quite a few menus and options, so take your time learning everything. You can look at nations’ military and economic power, try to influence other nations to extend your nation’s power, etc. Eventually, after you send troops to a nation where your enemies also have troops, you’ll end up in a battle. There, the game goes to a close-in isometric RTS-style battle. You can move around your various types of vehicles, or call in air and sea support fire types as well. While the strategy map graphics are quite basic, consisting of menus, graphs, and a basic map, the battles look much better. Graphics in the battles look fairly nice. The graphics are pixelated and battles are slow and somewhat time-consuming, but still, it looks good and plays well. Give your orders, and try to destroy the enemy! Overall, Third World war is a dated, but interesting, game. The battles really save it; the strategic view is a very badly dated early ’90s menu-based strategy game, but the battles are more interesting to look at and play. Definitely pick this game up if you’re a strategy game fan, it’s an interesting game. On one final note, I have the US version, but the Japanese cover is pretty silly stuff — it’s got Bill Clinton and Saddam Hussein shaking hands! Hah. Please note that the Backup RAM Cart is VERY highly recommended with this game — it uses up the entire Sega CD internal memory for a single save file. Get the Backup RAM Cart if you want multiple files, or want to save any other game.

Time Gal – One player, password save. Time Gal is a Japanese Dragon’s Lair-style QTE FMV animation game. The game was originally an arcade game, but this Sega CD release is the only version of the game available in English. Unlike Dragon’s Lair, Time Gal does have indicators telling you what you should be pressing, and also has passwords to save your progress. Those are both very nice features that make this game easier to play than Dragon’s Lair is. Of course, though, the gameplay is the same — the game is a video, and you have to press the right buttons at the right times or you lose a life. This game sometimes reverses the inputs, so just memorizing won’t get you through, you have to pay attention to the inputs shown. That makes it trickier. In the game you play as the Time Gal, Reiko, and travel through time, chasing time-travelling criminals. The game has anime-style art, and Reiko turns into a cute little chibi character during the many death animations, so this isn’t the most serious of games. That’s fine with me. I think that Time Gal Reiko isn’t quite as hopeless as the version of her in Castle of Shikigami III (Wii) is, but yes, she isn’t the most competent protagonist, though I guess that fits with the genre; nor was Dirk the Daring, after all. I never liked Dragon’s Lair much, but this is one of the better games in the genre. It’s still extremely basic and frustrating, but at least you can continue if you beat a level, and it does hint at what you should be doing, which is good. Time Gal’s an amusing game, and it’s worth a try if you can find it and have any interest in the genre. The game is also in arcades, Laseractive (Sega PAC), and more, but all other versions of it are Japan-only and are not in English.

Tomcat Alley – One player, saves (to system only). Tomcat Alley is a complete disaster of a live-action-video FMV game. In the game you’re the pilot of a Tomcat fighter plane, Top Gun-style, and are out to save the day from a Russian madman in Mexico with a store of chemical weapons. How original. The acting is bad as expected, but the video quality is good for the system. The “gameplay”, though, is irredeemably bad. Some people seem to actually like this game, but I am most definitely not one of them! While you may be a pilot of a fighter plane here, make no mistake, this is NOT an action game, or a flight simulator either. Instead, it’s a button-pushing game, sort of like Panic! but harder and worse. Make sure to read the manual before you play, because if you want to get anywhere in this game, you must know what the various commands do. Once the game starts, you control a cursor over the screen. Various icons appear on screen, each for one different action you can take, and you’ve got to do the right thing each time, following the instructions you are told. They won’t tell you what button to push, though, just what end-result you need, so read that manual. Timings are quite strict, so memorization is key here; the game will not tolerate many mistakes. In the background your plane is flying around, you might shoot at badguys, etc., but all you ever have to actually DO in this game is press the correct buttons before you run out of time and lose a life. It’s miserably unfun, and is one of the worst games I have played for the Sega CD, in my opinion. Also on PC.

Which way to go? One way you escape, two ways you get caught!

WireHead – One player. Wirehead is a Dragon’s Lair-style live-action-video FMV game. That’s a bad sign, right? I have not been kind to most of the Sega CD’s live action video titles. This one is one of the few I like, though. Wirehead is a completely silly and utterly over-the-top game that’s great fun to watch, regardless of if the gameplay itself is so limited. Unlike Dragon’s Lair, in this game, the game pauses at each input point until you choose something. So, the challenge isn’t in pressing inputs with precise timing, as it is sometimes in Dragon’s Lair, but is just about figuring out what is the right choice at each point. The game has limited continues and no saving, so write stuff down, or print out the walkthrough on GameFAQs, if you want to get through the whole thing, probably; you could perhaps memorize it all, but it’s a decent-length game and that would be a lot of memorizing. Wirehead is fun enough to be worth playing regardless, though. As the name suggests, in the game you play as a guy, Ned, who has a remote installed into his brain, so someone with a remote control — you — can control him from afar. Evil people want to kidnap him (for science!), though, so you need to protect him and get him out of there. That will be a challenging task, as these guys after him just won’t give up! You start in Ned’s house, but as this is essentially a ridiculous action movie, the game moves through a variety of settings, including the street, an airplane, a Western town, and more. The real star here is the acting, script, and scenarios; this game knows it’s ridiculous, and goes with it full-force. So, Ned doesn’t just take a plane, he’s forced to jump out of the plane midair without a parachute. Holding on to a raft from the plane, he flips it over, uses it to slow his descent, lands in a conveniently placed river, and off you go towards the rapids! Yes, really. The game is full of comically silly stuff. It’s obviously intentionally silly, and it’s good stuff. You generally have three choices at each choice point. Sometimes there is only one correct answer, but sometimes you can choose multiple paths. As the example above shows, the correct option is not always obvious — who’d think that the correct thing to do in a plane is … jump out of it? Experiment, or use the walkthrough, to find all the alternate options. The video quality is on the better tier for Sega CD games, too. Unfortunately the 32X CD port of the game that was in development was cancelled (should have released it, Sega!), but still, definitely get Wirehead. It’s fun, entertaining, and quite enjoyable to play or watch.

WWF: Rage in the Cage – Two player simultaneous, 6 Button Controller supported. This is a wrestling game. It’s from the same developers as the Royal Rumble, WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game home port, and WWF Raw games on the SNES, Genesis, and 32X, this version is Sega CD-exclusive. Apparently it’s quite similar in gameplay to those other titles, just with more wrestlers to choose from, and video clips of the actual wrestlers, of course. There are 20 wrestlers in this game, which is far more than you’ll find in the Genesis or SNES wWF games. The Cage Match mode is also apparently the only one in a 16-bit WWF game. I do not like wrestling games at all and never play them, but the game seems to control reasonably well (it’s a button-mashing-heavy wrestling game, as usual), and it’s got plenty of content too. Pick it up if you’re a wrestling fan, or if you see the disc for a dollar or so like I did. Do use the six button controller with this game though, the controls are much better that way.

Yumimi Mix (J) (Japan only release) – One player. Yumimi Mix is an animated FMV-style adventure game. The game is in Japanese, so it’s not the easiest game to play, but even though there are some issues, it’s amusing anyway. So, the game starts out normally. The main character is Yumimi, a Japanese schoolgirl. Things seem normal at first, but they get weird later, as eventually aliens show up. Well, why not? The animation and stills are good, and the game is voice acted. The problem is that instead of being like Dragon’s Lair where you hit a direction, in this game, you’re given a popup box of Japanese text options to choose from at each decision point. So, unless you can read Japanese, what you choose at each choice point will be random. You can sort of get some understanding from the voice parts (tone, inflection, what’s happening on screen, etc.), but from text? Sorry. Ah well. That aside though, this is an amusing little game. The interaction is limited, but know that going in and it’s not too bad for what it is. The game has solid art design, and the animation is fairly good too; the game often uses moving static images or only animating facial expressions instead of full animation, but does have actual animation too when it’s needed. It’s not quite as animated as an actual anime would be, but it’s close enough. The music is catchy, and the voice acting good. Also released on FM Towns (Japanese computer) and remade on Saturn as Yumimi Mix Remix, all Japan-only of course. It’s too bad that this didn’t become an actual anime… ah well. Even just as is, without knowing what I’m choosing, this game is entertaining and silly. The concept may have been slightly influenced by Project A-Ko, but this is a much more normal school, and cast… with aliens that show up. Good stuff.

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32X CD (3 games) (note: these summaries are also in the 32X list as well.)
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Fahrenheit (32XCD) – One player, has saving (to system only). Fahrenheit is a live-action video FMV game which includes both Sega Cd and 32XCD versions in the box. The 32XCD version has much better video quality and many more colors in the video, as you’d expect. The five 32XCD games are all FMV titles that use the 32X for better video, and it makes a real difference — the Sega CD’s tight color limit was a big problem, and the difference is huge. As for the games though, they’re still live-action-video FMV games, so don’t expect much… this one is probably one of the better ones, but it’s frustrating. In Fahrenheit you are a firefighter going into burning buildings, trying to find people to rescue and dangerous objects to remove. You have a time limit based on your air supply, and lose air when you trigger dangers or gain it when you rescue people. So yes, the game takes skill and some trial and error to get right, you will need to learn the helpful things and the hazards. The game is first person, and you go between screens with the arrows then look around and choose what to interact with. Some things will damage you, others help you. It’s kind of frustrating and random, the game involves a lot of memorization. The levels are mazes which are pretty confusing to navigate. The later levels are huge and extremely complex, but even the first, simple level can be a little confusing because of the first-person perspective and how it can be hard to remember exactly what is in each direction at all times. If you just look at the maps in the manual navigating the levels may seem easy, but it is much more challenging in the video, with the camera moving around, as you try to remember which other rooms are where and which direction will send you towards what. I guess being in a real burning building could be confusing, but not as bad as this I would hope! The second and third levels increase in size on the higher difficulty settings, so at least they do make it a little easier to deal with if you play on Easy. Despite the frustration though, for an FMV game, Fahrenheit’s not bad. Hard, but not bad. Also on Sega CD; uniquely, both versions are included in the case.

Slam City with Scottie Pippen – One player, has saving (to system only). Slam City is an FMV basketball game from Digital Pictures. This game comes on four CDs, but it’s four CDs of awful gameplay. While Slam City is more playable than Supreme Warrior (below), it’s also a bad game and is not worth your time unless you’re looking for some great examples of how unplayable and lacking in fun FMV games really were. In the game, you can move your player, who you see in a third-person-behind view on the screen, around the court. Unlike Supreme Warrior, you do actually have control over where you go, which is great. Actions are somewhat limited by the FMV, though — you can’t just play, of course, and your opponent is running in a video clip in the background. It is very hard to figure out when you can do what — you need to memorize what buttons work with the opponent in each state, pretty much. When the opponent is doing a specific thing, you need to do the right thing in response in order to get past them or score. It’s frustrating and not any fun. A few minutes of this FMV “basketball” and I pretty much had enough. Scottie Pippen is the games’ final boss, but good luck tolerating it long enough to get to him… Also on Sega CD.

Supreme Warrior – One player, has saving (to system only), 6 Button Controller supported. Supreme Warrior is an utterly abysmal, atrocious two-CD FMV fighting game from Digital Pictures that’s so bad that even by the incredibly low standards of Sega CD FMV games, it’s a very bad game. The good-quality video of the 32X CD gives it a good first impression, but as soon as the actual gameplay starts and what the game actually is is revealed, that quickly fades away. Supreme Warrior is, as the name might suggest, a fighting game. You are a martial artist, and have to defeat an evil martial artist, but first you have to defeat his underlings of course. The story is mediocre. Oddly, you can play the game with either English or Chinese voice acting, since the game was filmed in Hong Kong I believe… but there are no English subtitles for the Chinese voice acting, so you’re stuck with the much worse English dub unless you know Chinese. Stupid! As for the gameplay, the game is a first person fighting game where your opponent moves around in front of you while you try to use your attacks (have a six button controller, the game is even less playable without it) to hit them. You’ve got a block and various different kinds of attacks. Read the manual, the moves are not listed in the game and you must know them well, and practice them, to get anywhere, because the enemies are brutal. Honestly, I haven’t beaten the first fight yet, and I don’t know if I ever will. The learning curve to figuring out how to not lose is high, and the game is so incredibly unfun that it doesn’t give me any kind of a reason to want to even consider spending that time. It’s a very frustrating game where the enemy moves around in front of you doing stuff while you press buttons trying to figure out what in the world you’re supposed to be doing… and supposedly, even if you do figure it out, it’s still not fun. Don’t bother with this game, it’s very, very bad. Also on Sega CD, PC, and 3DO.

Posted in Classic Games, Game Opinion Summaries, Genesis, Sega CD | Tagged dark wizard, game opinion summaries, Genesis, reviews, robo aleste, Sega, sega cd, short reviews, sonic, xe-1ap | Leave a comment

Game Opinion Summaries: Nintendo 64

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Brian

The Nintendo 64 is my favorite console ever, and has an incredible library of great games. I got my first N64 back in September 1999, and quickly came to love it. The system is one of the best-looking consoles ever, and has one of the best gamepads ever as well. I know some critics dislike the N64 controller, but I couldn’t disagree any more strongly — it’s incredibly well designed! It does have one weakness, in the way the analog sticks break down, but that takes a while, and those can be replaced. Otherwise, they’re near-perfect, as is the console as a whole.

I bought 24 or 25 N64 games during its active life, between Sept. 1999 and January 2002. I never entirely stopped playing the games I had for the system, most notably Rush 2049, but did stop buying games for it for several years, in favor of the Gamecube and PC. I did get one game game in early ’03, but otherwise, I got the rest of the games below over time since I started getting games for the system again in 2004. Most recently, just this year (2013) I got some Japanese import games, including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sin & Punishment.

The reviews or summaries below are complete in that all games have a summary, but eventually I will rewrite some to make them longer — some of these games deserve many more words than I’ve given them! Still though, there’s something here for everything. I wrote most of this list last year, but added 16 more reviews to the list, and posted it here, this month.

Notes – I mention when games are available on other platforms. If I say nothing, the game is N64 exclusive as far as physical releases go. That is, I mention any PC, PS1, DC, etc. versions, but don’t always mention Wii Virtual Console or other digital re-releases of games. Most of the games that I have are exclusives because the N64 had a lot of exclusive games. The list is largely in alphabetical order, but I ignore that for series, so I have the three Rush games together and in order, for instance, and the Cruis’n games listed in release order.

I will list whether games save to cartridge or controller pak (memory card) because N64 controller paks don’t hold much, and I think that it’s important to know whether you’ll need one for your game because of how much of a pain it can be. I do not list whether games have a password save option unless the game ONLY lets you save via passwords, though; I expect most people would only ever be saving to a memory card. As a result I will also list how many pages each controller pak save game uses to save. Remember that each controller pak has 123 pages (blocks), and can have a maximum of 16 notes (files) saved to it. I also list if games have Expansion Pak support or not. I won’t bother listing everything with Rumble Pak support, because most games from mid ’97 on support it, and it’s not that big of a deal either way.

Finally, review length and game quality have no relations, here. Don’t assume that I think games are better just because I say more about them, it’s rarely true. I say more about games that I have more to say about, or ones I think are lesser-known, mostly; it’s nothing to do with quality.

Table of Contents

007: The World Is Not Enough
1080° Snowboarding (aka 1080 Degrees Snowboarding)
A Bug’s Life
Aero Fighters Assault
Aero Gauge
Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage
All-Star Baseball ’99
Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.
Army Men: Air Combat
Automobili Lamborghini
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
BattleTanx
BattleTanx: Global Assault
Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs
Beetle Adventure Racing
Big Mountain 2000
Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. (aka Bio Freaks)
Blast Corps
Body Harvest
Bomberman 64 (US) (JP title: Baku Bomberman)
Bomberman Hero
Buck Bumble
Bust-A-Move ’99
California Speed
Carmageddon 64
Castlevania
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Chameleon Twist
Chameleon Twist 2
Charlie Blast’s Territory
Chopper Attack
ClayFighter 63 1/3
ClayFighter 63 1/3: Sculptor’s Cut
Command & Conquer
Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Cruis’n USA
Cruis’n World
Cruis’n Exotica
Custom Robo (J)
Dark Rift
Destruction Derby 64
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong 64
Doom 64
Doraemon: Nobita & the 3 Fairy Spirit Stones (J)
Dr. Mario 64
Dual Heroes
Duck Dodgers starring Daffy Duck
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
Excitebike 64
Extreme-G
Extreme-G 2: XG2
F-1 World Grand Prix
F-Zero X
Fighter’s Destiny
Fighter Destiny 2
Flying Dragon
Forsaken 64
Gauntlet Legends
Glover
Goemon’s Great Adventure
GT64 Championship Racing
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Hexen 64
Hot Wheels Turbo Racing
Hybrid Heaven
Hydro Thunder
Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
Indy Racing 2000
Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000
Jet Force Gemini
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Knife Edge: Nose Gunner
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Lego Racers
Lode Runner 3D
Mace: The Dark Age
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3 (J)
Mario Tennis
Mickey’s Racing USA
Mega Man 64
Micro Machines 64 Turbo
Milo’s Astro Lanes
Mischief Makers
Mission: Impossible
Monaco Grand Prix
Monster Truck Madness 64
MRC – Multi Racing Championship
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
NBA Hang Time (aka NBA Hangtime)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (J)
The New Tetris
Nightmare Creatures
NFL Blitz 2000
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
Paper Mario
Penny Racers
Perfect Dark
Pilotwings 64
Pokemon Puzzle League
Polaris SnoCross
The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction
Quake II
Rally Challenge 2000
Rampage: World Tour
Re-Volt
Resident Evil 2
Ridge Racer 64
Road Rash 64
Roadsters
Robotron 64
Rocket: Robot on Wheels
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA
San Francisco Rush 2049
S.C.A.R.S. (Super Computer Animal Racing Simulation)
Scooby-Doo: Classic Creep Capers
SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu (J) [SD Flying Dragon Legend]
Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers
Shadow Man
Snowboard Kids 2
Space Invaders
Space Station Silicon Valley
Star Fox 64
Starshot: Space Circus Fever
Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Episode I Racer
Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros.
Supercross 2000 (EA Sports)
Tarzan (Disney’s)
Tetrisphere
Tigger’s Honey Hunt
Tonic Trouble
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
Top Gear Rally
Top Gear Overdrive
Top Gear Rally 2
Top Gear Hyper-Bike
Tsumi to Batsu: Hoshi no Keishousha – Sin and Punishment (J) [Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth]
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Turok: Rage Wars
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding
Vigilante 8
V-Rally Edition ’99
War Gods
Wave Race 64
Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey
Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98
WCW/NWO Revenge
Wetrix
WipEout 64
Worms Armageddon
Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate
Yoshi’s Story

The Summaries – total 163 games covered (I think, if I counted right)
—

007: The World Is Not Enough – Good FPS from later in the N64’s life. Good graphics, good gameplay, fun levels. The game is a blatant Goldeneye clone from Eurocom, but they did a fairly good job of it and the game’s a pretty fun one. In high res this game really does look quite nice, this game probably has some of the best graphics in an N64 FPS. You have a nice variety of weapons and items to use too. This is a good game, recommended for N64 FPS fans and anyone who liked Goldeneye, particularly Goldeneye’s single player mode (I haven’t played this in multiplayer, so I don’t know how it compares.). The game has great level designs as well, and every mission has the multiple objectives, gadgets, enemies, and trickery you expect from a Goldeneye sequel. The game plays even better than it looks, I would say. Note that the PSX title of the same name is from a different developer and is completely different, and worse. Four player multiplayer. Expansion Pak support. Controller Pak saving (2 pages).

1080° Snowboarding – I like this game less than many people, but it is okay. I don’t know, I just find it a little boring… I’ve never stuck with it long enough to finish the game, and it’s a pretty short game. It is a quality game though. The graphics are reasonably good. I wish that it was more of a racing game, though — while there is one-on-one racing, 1080 has a strong focus on stunts, and I don’t find stunts as fun as I do racing, in snowboarding games. Also, as I said, this game is short, probably even shorter than something like Wave Race 64. People who love it will find plenty of replay value I’m sure, but still, it won’t take long until you see everything. Oh, even if I don’t love this game nearly as much as many people did at the time, it’s still better than most any Playstation or Saturn snowboarding game. Two player multiplayer. Oncart saving.

A Bug’s Life – A Bug’s Life, from Traveller’s Tales, is the first of two games from the longtime licensed-game developer for the N64. Unfortunately, while TT (now TT Games of Lego ____ fame) could sometimes make good games, their N64 ports were badly botched and subpar. Whether this game or Toy Story 2, both games have worse presentation, closer draw distances, lower framerates, and worse graphics on the N64 than they have on PS1. It’s really, really sad. A Bug’s Life is a 3d platform/action game based on the decent Pixar movie. The game is quite linear, and plays from a behind-and-above angle. It’s not well thought through, and making jumps is much harder than it should be because of the horrible camera angles. If you had a problem with something like Croc, don’t even think about trying this, because it’s much, MUCH worse. The game is very linear, too; branching paths exist, but always dead-end. You throw stuff at enemies to fight, while wrestling with the bad camera of course. Very basic. There are some puzzle elements though, and they do add a bit to the game. Generally the puzzles are simple, as you figure out which things to use where in order to get to a higher area for instance, but I did like that element. In addition to the main story mode, there is also a Challenge mode where you have to do specific goals within a strict, and tight, time limit. Challenge mode is actually quite challenging, surprisingly enough, but mostly not for good reasons — the objectives are not always clearly explained, the time limits are tight, and the bad camera makes success difficult. One other major problem is, as I said earlier, how bad the porting job was from the PS1. I imagine that this game isn’t that great on the PS1 either, but this version is, unfortunately, worse. The FMV cutscenes are of course gone, replaced with still images. The framerate is bad, and I just couldn’t adjust. Normally I have no problem with N64 framerates, but somehow this games’ choppyness was just a little bit too bad. It’s like the worse moments in Banjo-Tooie or Conker, except the whole game’s framerate is like that, and there are no good graphics to explain the awful framerate away, either. Just bad programmers, sadly. Making this worse is a horrendous camera. It’s really bad, and makes the whole game harder and much less fun. Play this game and then something like Mario 64 or Jet Force Gemini and you’ll appreciate all over again how competent those sometimes-tricky camera systems are in comparison to this one! So yeah, this game is bad. Don’t get it. One player, Controller Pak saving (12 pages). Also on PS1.

Aero Fighters Assault – This is the closest thing the N64 has to a flight sim, and it’s thoroughly mediocre and disappointing. It’s an arcadey flight combat game probably closer to Rogue Squadron than a flight sim, which would be fine if the game was actually fun. Unfortunately, it’s not. The graphics are average, and the game simply isn’t much fun. It’s a fairly short game, but it gets frustrating later on and probably isn’t worth the time. This is a sequel of sorts to the great early to mid ’90s shmup series Aero Fighters, but unfortunately this game is nowhere near as good as those, genre shift aside. At least the two player versus mode is okay. Two player multiplayer. Oncart saving.

Aero Gauge – Aero Gauge is a futuristic racing game where you fly through the air, instead of just hovering or driving on the ground as you do in most racing games. The graphics aren’t very good, and look pretty outdated for a 1998 release. It has a lot of pixeley textures, the N64 can do much better than this. There’s a lot of fog, too. The game has some good sized areas, but with all that fog around you really can only see what’s close to you. They could have done better than this. The menus and interface are stylish and cool looking, though, and the music’s fairly good, so some elements of the presentation are done well. This game got mostly poor reviews, and I can understand why, it is a flawed game. One thing to know is how to boost start; the game doesn’t tell you how, you need the manual or internet, and you will never win a single race if you don’t boost start every single time. You hold down A+B before the race begins, then let go of B after the announcer says ‘set’. Turbo around corners to get ahead, as well, by pressing A+Z with left or right to powerslide; after powersliding let go of A and Z and then press A again to hopefully boost, if you did it right. These two techniques are important. There are no weapons or items in this game, and the six tracks are on the short side. The game mostly tries to make up for that with its very high difficulty level, which somewhat succeeds — this is not an easy game. Unfortunately, the main result is just that it gets quite frustrating. I kind of like the game anyway, because flying racing games aren’t very common and the game does some things right and is some fun to play, but I am a huge futuristic racing game fan. Non fans of the genre are unlikely to like the game, I think. Two player multiplayer. Oncart saving, with controller pak support for ghost saves (93 pages per ghost; like Mario Kart 64 the cart can’t save any ghosts, only controller paks, and it takes most of a controller pak to save one.). Do not have a controller pak plugged into controller 1 unless you’re using it to save replays.

Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage – This epic RPG was a late N64 release in 2001, got poor reviews, and was forgotten. Unfortunately this game will never get the sequel that the title suggests there should be. Admittedly, Aidyn Chronicles has some serious bugs (it can corrupt your save files, for instance! ALWAYS keep backups!) and is in some ways a deeply flawed game — for example, if a character dies they’re dead forever; make use of the save anywhere feature and save often, loading if anyone dies. Apparently they were going to have resurrection, but it was too buggy so it was removed late in development. Also, the character art is pretty bad. Despite these issues though, once you get used to it, Aidyn Chronicles is a great game unlike anything else on the N64. It is a complex, deep Western RPG, and it is a slow paced game as well, so it will take a long time to get used to the game and even longer to finish. The world is large and fun to explore — I love the big overworld, the N64 does fairly large worlds well and the system is being used well here. There’s a lot to explore, and finding your way around and finding the secrets is great. The controls are great. I particularly like the use of the analog stick and C-buttons in the menus, it works very well. The detail put into the game really is impressive, from the magic system to the world to the game design. The combat engine was inspired by Quest 64’s, except it’s improved here. The battle system is a good, strategic system where all characters appear on a map, with movement circles. You move your characters around, attacking the enemies with weapons or magic when in range. You do more damage attacking enemies from behind. Magic requires reagents, so you can’t just cast spells as much as you want — you have to be judicious about your use of magic. Spells early on aren’t just fireballs and stuff too, you’ll need to think more in this game. Your starting spells are things like shield, vs. necromancy, weakness, and strength — useful spells, but subtle compared to fireballs or even Magic Missile. It works though. Enemies are visible in the overworld, so there are no random battles, which is fantastic. The story isn’t incredibly original, but it’s a good epic story of your hero’s rise. And for once, no burning village; the hero sets off on his journey for a reason that is just as good, but is a little more unique. Yeah, despite its big problems, I really like this game. Just be warned, it is long and slow. Oh, and the framerate is pretty slow, though steady, particularly in High Res mode. This bothers some people, but not me; at least it’s steady and doesn’t jump up and down. The slow pace of gameplay also helps make the framerate matter less. Overall, Aidyn Chronicles is an incredibly ambitious games, in some ways one of the system’s most ambitious games in fact. It fails as much as it succeeds, and is very much a love or hate game, but if you can get into it you might get hooked for a long time. I think it’s good to great. Expansion Pak support (use High Res mode!). Controller Pak required to save (28 pages per save file). One player.

All-Star Baseball ’99 – This is a decent baseball game from Acclaim from 1998. With dDecent gameplay and graphics, it’s a fine baseball game for its generation. This was the first of three N64 All-Star Baseball games. I’d like to play this more, but don’t have enough memory cards to have one dedicated just to this game… Controller Pak required to save (107 pages).

Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. – An FPS from Acclaim. It got mediocre reviews, unlike Acclaim’s other N64 FPSes, the Turok series. This is Acclaim’s only N64 FPS that also was released on the Playstation (the first two Turok games had PC ports, but not PSX), but reviews of that port say that it’s quite a bit worse than the N64 version. I believe it, the game, clearly running on the Turok engine, uses the power of the system and wouldn’t downgrade well. I actually think this game is decent, despite the reviews. I love N64 FPS controls, Turok-style FPS controls are the best console FPS controls ever, in my sure to be lonely opinion. Armorines is a straightforward, linear FPS running in the Turok engine, where you shoot lots of bug alien invaders, solve some simple puzzles as you explore each area trying to figure out how to progress to the next one, and then shoot more bugs and move on. It’s simple, but fun enough that I can definitely enjoy myself, and the graphics are reasonably nice though not the greatest. You can play as a male or female character, which is cool. The game has four player versus mode multiplayer, and a two player co-op option in the campaign, which is awesome. Expansion Pak support. Controller Pak required to save (1 page).

Army Men: Air Combat – Army Men Air Combat is a port of the Playstation game Army Men Air Attack. It is improved over the original version, with four player multiplayer, better graphics, and more. This series was 3DO’s attempt to take on EA’s Strike series, and I think it worked pretty well. This is probably one of the best Army Men games, and I like the game. You fly around, in a top-down perspective where you do not have actual 3d control — that is, you have no control over height you’re flying but the game used 3d graphics. You spend your time shooting enemies and turrets, picking up powerups, etc. The graphics are nice enough, and the game is a lot of fun. The only real negatives are that it’s a bit easy and too short — Army Men Air Combat strips out most of the Strike series’ high difficulty level, to be much more accessible for young audiences — but it’s fun while it lasts. I like this game more than the 4th gen Strike games, in fact, though it’s a closer fight versus the 5th gen ones. Do you prefer simple and fun, or complex and challenging? None of those have a four player mode though… Four player multiplayer. Controller Pak required to save (1 page).

Automobili Lamborghini – Titus’s first N64 racing game, Automobili Lamborghini is their second Lamborghini game, after Lamborghini American Challenge on the Super Nintendo. The game has nice graphics for a 1997 N64 game, but bland, generic gameplay that probably won’t hold most people’s interest for particularly long. The game has six or so tracks, a decent number for the time, and four player splitscreen, which is nice. There’s only a somewhat barebones single-player game — choose difficulty and tracks and go — but while somewhat weak, it could be worse. Overall, the game is fun for a little while, but unfortunately it gets dull fast. There’s not much variety here, average, mostly-arcadey controls and handling, and no special gimmicks to hold your attention. Still, it’s not actually bad, just bland. I find the game fun for a while. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (7 pages).

Banjo-Kazooie – This game is one of the all-time classic 3d platformers, and it is indeed a great game. It isn’t my favorite Rare 3d platformer, but it is a great one that deserves most of the praise it has received. The graphics are quite good, the game is well designed in both general game design and levels, and there’s a lot to do. I do dislike how you have to re-collect notes and such each time you go into a level unless you get all of them, though. You can be in a level without a power you’ll need to get all 100 notes, but you don’t know it and start collecting them… only to realize some time later you wasted your time and will need to do it again later. It’s quite annoying. Other than that though, this game is pretty good. Rare’s first 3d platformer is still a great game. Like all of Rare’s 3d platformers, BK has a lot of content and will take a good while to finish. It is also on XBox 360 Live Arcade, but I haven’t played that version so I can’t compare them. One player, on cart saving.

Banjo-Tooie – The sequel to the previous game, bigger and better than the first one in most respects. Tooie is a pretty good game. It doesn’t repeat the first game’s problems, and has some pretty cool levels too. It’s not as original as the first game, though, and some people dislike the multiple characters you now have. I don’t mind that, but I did find it kind of annoying at some points and haven’t finished the game, despite owning it for many years (since 2002, precisely). The game has some framerate problems — they simply tried too much for the un-enhanced N64, I really wish that this game had had Expansion Pak support, I think it needed it. Some parts have some bad framerate drops. Still, the game is great overall. Like the first game it is also on XBox 360 Live Arcade, but I haven’t played those versions so I can’t compare them. Four player (battle mode and minigames for multiplayer), oncart saving.

BattleTanx – I did a thread about this game once. It’s great fun, the first of 3DO’s tank action games and is still well worth playing. While it’s great overall, it does have some issues, most prominently the quite mediocre graphics. The game is short too, just like its sequel – this game won’t take long to finish. There are only three kinds of tanks in the game, so there’s not too much variety. The post-apocalyptic story is simple but effective, and it works as a setup. Multiplayer was the focus here, and it shows — even the single player missions are all fought in the same levels as the multiplayer, large, square cities full of stuff to destroy and players starting at different points. The sequel would add much more level variety. Fortunately, it’s still incredibly fun to drive around and shoot stuff. That’s the core of Battletanx, and that’s why it’s great. Buildings crumble as you shoot them. Levels are large and a lot of fun to navigate and are full of enemies, obstacles, and buildings, many of which you can level. This game’s good and well worth playing. Four player multiplayer (various versus modes). Controller Pak to save (1 page).

BattleTanx: Global Assault – The sequel to the above game, and better than it in every way. The story is better, there are a lot more tanks to control, the campaign is longer (though still short and easy), there are more maps, there is a much greater variety of level designs, there are more multiplayer modes and mission types in single player, there are more control options, and more. I really loved this game, it’s one of the best multiplayer games on the N64, and yes, I know that’s saying a lot. My only complaint is that I wish there was a sequel, because this game ends with a cliffhanger that was never resolved. Bah! 3DO did make some more vehicular action games after this, the two WDL games from 2000-2001 (both PS1 and PS2 exclusives, quite sadly), but they are entirely separate story-wise and do not continue this plot. Still though, BTGA is fantastic. It would have been nice to see actual height differences in the levels — there are tunnels you can go down, and little hills, but no real rolling terrain — but really, this game’s very good and extremely fun to play. Of the multiplayer modes, the two player co-op campaign is really cool, and for versus play BattleLord mode (it’s Capture the Flag, essentially) steals the show. That mode’s so great I rarely even touch the others. You can play against any mixture of four human and computer players, can play 2v2 with one human and one computer on each team, and more. There was a later Playstation version of the game, but it’s got new, worse prerendered FMV CG story scenes, entirely redesigned, smaller and less interesting (but more numerous, though it doesn’t make up for the problems) levels with completely different level maps, and more. It’s nowhere near as good as the N64 version and is two player only. N64 BTGA has a two player co-op campaign, and four player versus modes. Play the better BTGA game, this N64 version. Controller Pak to save (1 page).

Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs – This isn’t like the ’80s arcade classic, but instead is the only console game based off of the late ’90s PC strategy/action series of the same title. The concept is that it is the Cold War, and the US and USSR are fighting a secret war on the moon between forces they have landed there. Yeah, it’s a cool concept. Activision tried to bring back Battlezone, but as a strategy/FPS/RTS hybrid, like some titles from 3DO and Microsoft such as Uprising. There were two games in this series on the PC, but only this one on consoles, which is an original title and not a port. The game is simplified from the PC original, understandably, given that it is on a console and needs to use a gamepad instead of keyboard and mouse — the PC games had complex controls, using lots of keyboard keys for various stuff. You can drive around and shoot enemies, but you also have to build a base, build units, and give them orders in your efforts to defeat the enemy. The controls work on the N64, but are complex and they will take a while to get used to. Once you do though it’s a pretty good game. The graphics are just average, and there is ever-present fog in the not-far-enough-away distance, but they do the job just well enough to do. There is also a shooting-only arcade mode, but the strategy mode is the core of the game. Four player multiplayer. Controller Pak required to save (1 page).

Beetle Adventure Racing – This is a very popular classic racing game from Paradigm and EA. The game plays like a hybrid between San Francisco Rush and Need for Speed, and is about as great as that sounds. I think that the Rush series is better than BAR, no question, but BAR is pretty good too. The tracks, while few, are huge and lots of fun to drive around and explore. The tracks in this game are absolutely full of shortcuts, so it will take a good amount of time to learn each one. The games’ visuals are good as well. The game has plenty of replay value due to its high difficulty level, point boxes to find hidden all over the stages, and more. The multiplayer mode is disappointing, though. Race mode is two player only; only the not-that-great battle mode supports three or four players. Too bad. Also, the tracks sometimes feel like they are too long for their own good. The game’s great fun at first, but by the later tracks, the long race times make failures frustrating — at times one mistake can force you to restart the race or more. I never finished this game because, as good as it is, I got tired of it after a few tracks. Still, with good graphics, good controls, and lots to do, BAR is a great racing game. Controller Pak required to save (4 pages). Two player only in multiplayer race mode, four players in battle mode.

Big Mountain 2000 – This little-known skiing/snowboarding game is actually my favorite winter sports game on the N64. The developer, Imagineer, made some of the N64’s more mediocre racing games — MRC, GT64, Rally Challenge 2000 — but this one is genuinely good. All four games are somewhat lacking in content, but this one’s more fun while it lasts than the others. Big Mountain 2000 is a port of a Japanese release from 1998, so the graphics are not exactly the equal of other N64 games from 2000, but I think that the great gameplay makes up for it. BM2k is a simple, straightforward, and racing-centric skiing and snowboarding game — this is not an SSX or even 1080 style trick-centric game, but a game that really is about the racing, and that’s how I like it. The controls are just about perfect, and are exactly the way I would want them to be for a game of this kind. There is a very minimal trick component, where you can do tricks off of specific jumps if you want, but it doesn’t get you anything of note and there is no stunt mode. I am entirely fine with this; I always prefer race to stunt mode in 1080 and SSX games. Indeed, the half pipes are usually my most hated “tracks” in those games. The game is somewhat short, with just four mountains, but that’s still one more course than Imagineer’s first two N64 racing games have, and there are three races on each mountain, so the game’s not TOO short. You have a normal race down the mountain, Downhill, and two different races where you need to go between the flags, Slalom and Giant Slalom. The two have different flag and path layouts for each of the races of course. There is also a reverse mode, after you beat the normal, and you can choose a character and skiis or snowboards, though I didn’t notice much of a difference between the two. I got hooked by this game and played it quite a bit until finishing it. It’s fun to just race down the mountain. Two player multiplayer. On-cart saving. (Yes, it’s one of those rare third-party N64 games with on-cart saving! Imagineer’s other three N64 racing games don’t have it, for sure.)

Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. – Arcade port fighting game from Midway, also ported to Playstation. This game, released in 1998, was Midway’s one of Midway’s later 3d fighting games, and unlike most other Midway fighters that generation, this one actually supports saving, which is great. Only this and MK4 do (and the DC version of MK4, MK Gold, doesn’t either!). Anyway, in Bio Freaks, you’ve got everything you expect from a Midway fighting game, plus more — it has ridiculous character designs, decent graphics for the system, multi-tiered arenas, fatalities, etc. The characters can fly too, so uniquely, it’s got both air and ground combat. All characters have both projectile and melee attacks as well. It is a 5th gen 3d fighting game, though, so it’s not exactly anywhere near the mark 6th gen 3d fighters hit. It’s a bit slow for instance, like so many N64 games. Still, for an N64 3d fighter, not bad. There is also an in-game moves list, which makes this game one of the only N64 fighting games with that awesome feature! The gameplay’s only above average — it definitely is not exactly balanced, which hurts, and it’s a bit slow — but the feature set in the game is pretty good, and it is unique and at least somewhat fun. Two player. Controller pak to save (3 pages).

Blast Corps – Blast Corps is an early N64 Rare game. The game is both original and brilliant, and, despite the many incredible games that Rare made for the system, still stands as one of their best. The graphics are poor, first gen work, but the incredibly fun gameplay makes up for it. In Blast Corps, you have to destroy all the buildings that are in the way of a runaway nuclear missile carrier which cannot stop. If it hits anything, it explodes. You control a variety of different vehicles in your destructive work. The game is essentially an action/puzzle game, and figuring out the fastest and best way to beat each level is both a lot of fun and very challenging. There are medals, and you unlock bonus stages, and the ability to try for platinum medals, if you manage to get all the gold medals. Good luck there, the difficulty is crazy. In addition to the destroying, there are also occasional bonus stages where you do other stuff such as flying around with a jetpack-like thing, and some racing levels where you do some top down racing. It’s a great, great game. Controller pak or internal save. One player. Note that the game will give an error message (“foreign object detected in controller pak port” or something) if you have a rumble pak plugged in, and you cannot access the internal save unless you do NOT have a controller pak plugged into controller one. Also, if the space is available, the game will automatically make four 10-14 page notes on your memory card to save onto. How nice. So, before playing Blast Corps, make sure to remove anything from your controller’s accessory port! One player.

Body Harvest – Body Harvest is an interesting N64 on foot and vehicular combat game from the same studio as Grand Theft Auto. The game suffered years of delays, originally being planned as an early N64 game but not coming out until 1998. It also saw a publisher change, as Nintendo dropped the game during development and it was picked up by Midway. Fortunately they kept the on-cart saving. In the game, you, a time traveling soldier, have to fight off a bug alien invasion. What it it about N64 alien invasions so often being bugs… Starship Troopers influence I guess? Anyway, these bugs aren’t just attacking, they’re attacking throughout time! So, use your time machine and save all of the affected eras from the bugs, one after another. The graphics are first-generation poor, and the controls are just okay. The main hook is that you can control many different kinds of vehicles during the game, different ones during each time period. Like in GTA (except before any 3d GTA games), you can jump in and out of the vehicles at will. It’s a good game, but I don’t love it and always lose interest after a while. I haven’t actually gotten too far in this game as a result. One player, on-cart saving.

Bomberman 64 – Bomberman 64 is the first Bomberman game of four on the N64, and it is to this day still the only full, Mario 64-inspired open 3d world Bomberman 3d platformer. All Bomberman 3d platformers after it followed much more linear designs, and the Gamecube ones don’t even have 3d multiplayer, just the usual 2d grid stuff. Bomberman 64 was different. The game is very, very difficult, too difficult I would say, but it’s a very good game. I do need to say though, the graphics are mediocre at best. Don’t expect a lot from this game. It’s just good enough to get by, but nothing above that. It’s clearly first gen work. My other main complaint is that there is an entire sixth world in the main game that you can only access by getting ALL of the golden tickets (this game’s equivalent to Mario 64’s stars). ARGH! Some of those tickets are very hard to get… I’ve never seen world six. It’s pretty annoying, I’ve heard it’s cool. Even so though, I like the game a lot. The levels are fun to explore and well designed, and there’s a lot to do in the game. This game is pretty good. The bossfights are a challenge too, but often fun. The multiplayer is great, too. The maps are actually 3d, and instead of cross explosions like classic Bomberman, are circular like in the single player game. This is the only 3d Bomberman game where normal bombs explode in circular blasts in multiplayer mode; The 2nd Attack also has 3d arenas, but cross bombs (super bombs excepted, those have round blasts), and the two GC/PS2 games have, as I said, the classic 2d style of gameplay only for their multiplayer, though their single players are (poor, subpar) linear-path 3d platformers. Thus in both single and multi player, Bomberman 64 is an original game unlike anything else in the series. 3d platformer and Bomberman fans who haven’t played it should try it. Four players. On-cart saving, though if you want to save a custom multiplayer character (a unique look for your multiplayer character, made up of parts you unlock in the main game), you’ll need to save that character to a memory card, so you can bring it to a friends’ and use it there, I assume. Each of those character files are one page.

Bomberman Hero – Bomberman Hero actually started out as a Bonk game. When I learned this suddenly this game made a lot more sense to me, because at the time I thought that Bomberman Hero was pretty strange for a Bomberman game. It has no multiplayer, it’s linear and you just follow a path instead of wandering around larger worlds like in Bomberman 64, and you mostly throw bombs instead of just dropping them. Well, it didn’t start out as Bomberman. The game’s alright, with some fun linear-corridor 3d platforming challenge and Bomberman 64-esque boss battles. The graphics aren’t much improved over Bomberman 64, but oh well. It’s not the game people expected it to be, but it’s an okay to good game even so. Oh, this is the only N64 Bomberman game to be released on the Wii Virtual Console, for whatever reason. It’s too bad the two Bomberman 64 games weren’t. One player, on-cart saving.

Buck Bumble – Buck Bumble is a 3d flight combat game where you control a heavily armed bee. You fly around, killing enemies and doing missions. The graphics are okay at best, nothing special, and the gameplay’s no competition for Factor 5’s Star Wars games. It’s a good game I guess, though not great. This game has lots of fog. Way too much of it really, given the only average graphics. The N64 can do a lot better than this. Even so, for anyone who likes flight combat games, Buck Bumble is probably worth a look — there aren’t too many games like this on the N64, and even if it could be a better, the game is okay and definitely will provide plenty of challenge. Indeed, this game isn’t easy. It’s also got multiplayer, something Factor 5 didn’t attempt. Four players, controller pak to save (3 pages).

Bust-A-Move ’99 – BAM ’99 is a port of the arcade game Bust-A-Move 3. It was also on PSX and Saturn. Compared to the other versions, the N64 has a plus and a minus. On the good side, the game has an N64-exclusive four player splitscreen multiplayer mode. There’s no music in 3 or 4 player mode, but still it’s and awesome feature to have, and this is still one of only a very few BAM games with a 4 player splitscreen mode. On the downside, some people will like the cart remixes of the music less than the CD audio on other versions. I think the music’s fine, though, and love this game. It’s easily one of the N64’s best puzzle games. I love the characters in BAM2, it’s my favorite BAM cast. I like the music and graphics. I love that BAM3 has more modes and options than most other BAM games — there isn’t just a puzzle mode, a versus mode, and an infinite mode or something, like BAM1, but a total of eight different modes — in Arcade Puzzle, Arcade Vs. CPU, Arcade 2-P Versus, 4-P Versus (separate because in this mode the windows are much smaller and there’s no music; with just two people play in arcade mode, not here.), Win Contest (another versus mode where you see how many CPUs you can beat), Challenge (another puzzle mode, try to meet some specific conditions to finish the stages. You are graded, see how well you can do!), a collection of 1024 puzzles made by Japanese fans that are included on the cart, and puzzle edit mode where you can make your own. In the series, only BAM4 (PC/PS1/DC) comes close to this game in features, and it doesn’t have a four player mode. There are multiple graphic sets in this game for the bubbles too — the game as at least three different looks in different modes and stages. This game has a lot of content, for sure, and will consume you for many hours. My only real complaint is that the save file is insanely large. What in the world HAPPENED here? Why is it 64 pages? BAM2 for Saturn’s file is about 64 blocks, and that’s out of 500… in a 32KB memory space. This game uses 64 pages of 123 on a 256KB space. Featurewise the games are very similar — both have a puzzle edit mode with 16 user-creatable puzzles (Saturn exclusive in BAM2, but present in all versions I think of BAM3; N64 certainly has it at least), etc. The N64 game does have more modes and unlockables, but that should only account for a little more space, not the exponential increase in comparison it has. This is really the only blemish on an otherwise exceptional, incredibly addictive game. It’s annoying, but doesn’t ruin the game. This is one of my favorite puzzle games of all time. Four player multiplayer, controller pak to save (64 pages).

California Speed – California Speed is a port of the Midway/Atari Games arcade game of the same name. The game is essentially Atari Games’ take on the Cruis’n USA concept, and repurposes the San Francisco Rush engine to run a Cruis’n-ish point-to-point racer with more Rush-like handling. While only moderately popular, I liked California Speed quite a bit in the arcades back when it came out. It’s a somewhat easy game, but being a cross of Cruis’n, which are fun games, and San Francisco Rush, which is my favorite racing game series, I thought it was pretty good. On that note, the controls do feel a lot like a Rush game. The cars handle a lot like Rush cars, so don’t expect to be able to turn on a dime. You’ll need to learn the courses and prepare. I really like the Rush series’ handling, so I think this is great. Fortunately, as I said, this game isn’t that hard, and the courses are mostly straightforward. The graphics are okay too. There is fog in the distance, unfortunately, but it’s far enough away to not be too bothersome, and I love many of the environments you race through. There really are some great tracks in California Speed. Some of my favorites are the roller coaster section of one track (it’s really one of the more distinctive things in the game, in my opinion), the mall you go through in another track (straight from the country to a giant mall…), the part where you seem to be driving inside a giant computer circuitboard, or the alien ship. Yeah, I love the track designs here, the designers did a good job. The graphics are about the same as Rush 1 or 2 on the N64, or perhaps slightly improved over those, so they aren’t great, but once you get used to the style it looks okay. Easy or no I like this game a lot, it’s just so much fun to drive through the levels. There is some challenge later on, too — the game’s got a solidly lengthy single player mode to race though, with multiple circuits and modes, and three different sets of vehicles too. There are three or four different championships and several difficulty levels, so there’s plenty of content if you like the game like I do. I just wish it had on-cart saving like the Cruis’n games do. Two player multiplayer, controller pak to save (35 pages).

Carmageddon 64 – Carmageddon 64 is widely hated, and indeed loathed, but I actually like this game. I can understand why people hate it, but I think it is actually a decent game in some respects, and it definitely can be fun. Based on one of the later Carmageddon games for the PC, Carmageddon 64 may not be as good as the original PC Carmageddon game — and it isn’t — but neither were Carmagedodon’s sequels, and Carmageddon 64 is not anywhere near as awful as reported. Really, in plenty of ways it’s a decent game. As usual with Carmageddon, there are three ways to complete each level — either finish three laps of the race by going through the checkpoints enough time (as always in the series there are no finishing places, or positions recorded. If you finish at all you win.), crush all zombies in the level (harder than it sounds), or destroy the other three cars and be the last car standing (yeah, only four cars in the race). This last one is often the easiest way to win, and the computers are aggressive and attack eachother constantly, so that’s their tactic too. If you’re following the checkpoints, though, do know that the checkpoints are VERY touchy — pay attention, it’s easy to miss a checkpoint if you were too far from the marker. I’ve had multiple times where I reach the next checkpoint, only to be told to go back because I missed the last one. The game has only three environments, but all three are huge, and contain a variety of different courses. Each level brings you through different areas of the environment, through different routes, and more, so they do feel different. Each layout is marked with arrow signs that you must follow. I find it easy enough to stay on course, but there are no rails, so you do have to pay attention. The handling is pretty much standard Carmageddon handling, so it feels somewhat Rush-ish, but not quite as well done. Handling is tricky, and I find myself regularly running into walls, but I think the controls are solid, overall; I don’t have a problem with them. In narrow paths like you’re often driving through in this game, it’s understandable that it’d be tricky to stay on the track. It can be done, just drive more carefully and get used to the controls. The button combination to heal up your car some — hold Z and then press R to heal a little, or hold Z and then double-tap R to fully heal — is quite important, you take damage easily and will need to heal frequently. Fortunately, though healing costs money, you usually have plenty. The graphics are decent, and there are a fair number of “zombies” to run over. Silly console censorship, they’re supposed to be people… it’s more fun running over humans, but oh well. Sometimes you can complete whole races without seeing the zombies, but they are out there, 80-160 of them per course. Often they’re hiding, though in some courses you’ll run across plenty of them to easily squish. Fun stuff. Carmageddon 64 is clearly a somewhat low budget game, and needed some more bug testing for sure, so I can see why so many people hate it, but no, this is NOT the worst game on the N64, not by a longshot. I’m not sure what kind of score to give it, I could almost see anything from a B to a D, but I do know I’m entertained and will be playing this game more. Two player, controller pak saving (1 page).

Castlevania – The first 3d Castlevania game, this game has a pretty bad reputation. While I will agree that the early N64 graphics don’t look that good (the graphics definitely are the worst thing about this game), the gameplay is better than the graphics. However, the improved version below makes this game outdated for all but its most hardcore fans. I will describe the game, but considering that LoD is pretty much the same thing but better, there’s not much reason to get this. On its own though, Castlevania is a fairly impressive achievement in some ways. First, as should be expected from Konami, the music is fantastic. In addition, the levels are large and well designed. Castlevania for the N64 has elements of 3d platforming, 3d action, and adventure gaming in it, and the platforming and adventure elements are done especially well. As an action game it’s probably not above average, but the game’s focus is elsewhere so that’s fine, in my opinion. I love the adventure game elements, this game has a great sense of suspense sometimes and the puzzles in the game are often challenging and fun. The game follows multiple routes with the two characters, who share some levels but each play some the other character doesn’t. The little girl (mage) character is way better than the guy with the whip, because his weapon is short range while she can shoot far, which is a huge help in a 3d game. There are multiple endings too, depending on how long you took to finish it. The platforming controls are pretty good — your character will grab onto any platform edge you get anywhere near while jumping, so absolute precision is, thankfully, not necessary. Overall, flawed but good. One player, controller pak (9 pages) to save. The Japanese version has on-cart saving, but like all Konami N64 games it was removed from the Western releases because Konami are cheap and annoying, apparently.

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness – I got this game in the mid ’00s not expecting much, because of how much bad things I’d heard over the years about the N64 Castlevanias, but I was very pleasantly surprised, and I think this is a pretty good game. LoD is an improved version of the above title. Essentially, it is everything Castlevania for the N64 is, and more. It has better graphics, more stages, more playable characters, some level design changes, and more. The expansion pak support is an optional Hi Res mode; the framerate is lower, but the graphics look great. The graphics are improved over the first version even in low res mode, but high res is particularly good looking. Many people dislike the slow framerate of hi res mode, but I think it’s fine and always play LoD in high res. The new stages are great too. I love the new first level, on the ships; it’s a better intro stage than that dark forest the original starts with (and that is level 2 this time), I think. Great boss too. The new characters change the game’s progression. In LoD, first you play as Cornell. Cornell is a werewolf and is incredibly powerful; few bosses will be much of a challenge for wolf mode Cornell, so save your red gems for boss battles and then just destroy the bosses. This lets you focus on what’s best about the game, the platforming and puzzles. Cornell is pretty cool, he’s my favorite character in this game. This mode has only one ending and no time limit, and you go through all of the stages in the game. After you beat the game with Cornell, you unlock a second character. This guy has a time limit and has to find five children hiding in a certain set of stages you play through before time runs out. Do that and you unlock the original two characters from the first version, and can play through their two modes, much like the first game but with some minor changes here and there, so it won’t be exactly the same experience, just similar. One player only, controller pak (17 pages) to save. Expansion Pak supported for a high-res mode. I always play with high res on, but people bothered by the framerate might want to disable it. The Japanese version has on-cart saving, but like all Konami N64 games it was removed from the Western releases because Konami are cheap and annoying.

Chameleon Twist – Chameleon Twist is a fun, but somewhat short and easy, 3d platformer. In this earlier N64 game (it’s from 1997), you control a chameleon. Your character is a pretty cute big-head creature that only looks vaguely like a chameleon, but oh well. The main feature here is that your chameleon has a very long tongue, which you can use to grab onto things to swing yourself around, to attack, and more. The tongue mechanic is somewhat original and leads to some fun gameplay challenges, as you swing yourself around to figure out what to do. It’s nothing deep and epic, but it is a fun little 3d platformer that I enjoy. Sure, the graphics are mediocre and it could be harder, but what’s here is solid fun. Four player (multiplayer battle mode). On-cart saving (note that Chameleon Twist 2 does not have multiplayer or on-cart saving, and requires controller pak save instead; reasons to prefer the first one!).

Chameleon Twist 2 – The second Chameleon Twist game is similar to the first one, but with slightly better graphics and new levels. This game feels a little more cheaply made than the first game, since the multiplayer versus mode was removed — this is a single player only game, though you can choose to play as any of the chameleons from the first game during play — and the internal save was replaced with controller pak only saving, but the base gameplay is the same, and it’s still good. The graphics are still average at best, though. They may have improved a bit, but they’re still second or third rate. This time the player characters look much more like chameleons, though. In the first game the “chameleons” are very cartoony figures that look little like their supposed form, but in this game they do look like chameleons, albeit cartoony ones. I like the new character designs. Chameleon Twist 2 feels something like a 4th gen third-party platformer, in that it has six big levels but is much more linear than platformers from Nintendo and won’t last you nearly as long. Each of the six levels are long, with multiple sections followed by a boss fight, and the game has some challenging parts for sure. You do get a lot of health though, so you can make many mistakes before losing a life. Unless you care about how well you are doing (as you are rated at the end of each level) or whether you’re finding the collectables along the way, beating the game probably won’t take long. There is a little replay value in going back and trying to find everything, but it’s limited. As before, levels are completely linear areas, often on platforms floating in space. This is a 3d platformer, but your path is mostly linear. Some areas may have multiple routes, but often those are just hiding places for collectables. I do like the level designs, though. The controls work similarly to the first game, so once again, the central focus is on your chameleon’s long tongue. You can attach to things with the tongue, swing around, and more. Getting used to it is tricky, so practice — you’ll need it! Swinging with precision is central to the game. The training rooms can be tough, but you will need to have mastered the moves, with the tongue particularly, in order to get through the levels. As with the first game, you get used to it with practice. Overall, Chameleon Twist 2’s structure, with the small number of big long levels, is dated, but the gameplay is fun. This is a classic, simple platformer. There aren’t all that many 5th gen 3d platformers developed in Japan, but this series is. They are no match for the top N64 3d platformers, but are simple, fun games that 3d platformer fans should try. Expect a short game though — there’s not much to this one. Fortunately it’s fun while it lasts. One player, Controller Pak saving (5 pages).

Charlie Blast’s Territory – Charlie Blast’s Territory is a small, low budget N64 puzzle game. It’s a puzzle game of the “figure out how to solve it” variety, not the block dropping variety, and you have to figure out in each level how to destroy all the bombs, and thus the stage, in the 3d, tile grid design levels. You move Charlie around, pushing bombs to get them arranged correctly to blow up the stage with a single blow. The game is okay, but has a very simple look and you can tell that the cart size is small. The game’s by Kemco, and is basically and N64 version of what was released on Playstation as “The Bombing Islands”, except with the new character Charlie Blast as your character instead of Kid Klown and perhaps some different puzzles. One player. Saving is by password only. This is the only N64 game I know of with password-only saving. All others with password options also have controller pak support.

Chopper Attack – This is game is another Strike series clone on the N64, except this one is played from a behind-the-helicopter view instead of the 3/4ths overhead view of the Strike games and Army Men Air Attack. Despite the change in viewpoint, you have no more vertical control in this game than you do in those. That is, you have no control over vertical flying height. Once you accept that, this game’s actually somewhat fun. You fly around, shooting enemies and turrets and buildings and such and accomplishing your objectives. Not bad. The graphics and sound are nothing special — there are lots of big blurry textures here — and nor is the gameplay really. Oh, and the game is short, it won’t take long to finish. This game is average, but it’s fun anyway. Despite the problems, it’s an okay game overall. I never liked the 16-bit Strike games, but do like most of the 5th gen games of this style. One player, on-cart saving.

ClayFighter 63 1/3 – This is a fighting game, and the first of two N64 ClayFighter games. The game is okay, but not great. The graphics are amusing, in that ClayFighter style, and the 3d arenas are cool. There is 3d movement, so this isn’t just a 2.5d game. I like that. There are combos, KI style, as well as special moves. There are several hidden characters too, accessible by cheat codes. In addition to the ClayFighter characters, the other Interplay characters Earthworm Jim and Boogerman are also playable, which is cool. I don’t like KI-style combo systems, but you don’t need to know it to play this game. This isn’t a great game, but it is stupidly amusing, which is about all you should hope for from something like this. Two player, no saving.

ClayFighter 63 1/3: Sculptor’s Cut – This rental-only N64 game is somewhat rare and pricey as a result of its limited release, but I lucked into a cheap copy. Sculptor’s Cut is a somewhat interesting modified version of the first Clayfighter 63 1/3 game. While the environments and characters are similar (all of the stages and characters from the first version return, and the story, such as it is, is not different), there are many changes, both minor and major. First, the game’s now entirely 2.5d — 3d movement has been removed, so gameplay is now on a 2d plane. That’s disappointing, I liked the 3d movement of the first version. Now instead of having to maneuver people towards areas where stages change, you just push your opponent to the edge and you’ll move in to them naturally. It makes stage changes easier, but overall wasn’t a good change. On the other hand, four new characters have been added, which is great — more characters is very nice, in a game like this, and the new characters are all great to see. But again on the other hand, there were yet more changes made in order to save space and simplify gameplay — the KI-style combo system was mostly removed, leaving just moves, special moves, and super moves in place. Some returning characters have fewer moves, too. I never liked KI-style combo/combo breaker systems at all, so I think this was probably a good change (apart from the removed special moves), but I’m sure some people disagree. Overall, I don’t know that this is worth the money — there are as many negative changes as positive, and this is one of the pricier US releases. Still, it IS still to date the most recent Clayfighter game, and it does have four characters exclusive to this version, so series fans at least should certainly check it out. Fighting game fans who prefer 2d gameplay to 3d in their polygonal fighting games also might like this version more. Two player, no saving.

Command & Conquer – C&C for the N64 is a remake of the PC original, except with 3d graphics. The live action FMV cutscenes have been removed, of course, in favor of static images, text, and some speech. That is too bad, C&C series FMV is always entertaining stuff. There’s also no multiplayer, and the game only includes the original campaign, not either of the expansions, which were never released for N64. There are four additional N64-exclusive levels, though. The actual game’s the same, though, except in 3d instead of drawn 2d. The visuals actually look pretty good, particularly in high res mode. The game looks and plays better than I expected, I wasn’t expecting it to be good at all but it’s actually fun and works reasonably decently. You can zoom in and out, so you can hopefully get it to the size you want. Small units are always an issue in C&C games, with all that tiny infantry, but they do what they can here. The 3d graphical redo is interesting and makes the game different enough to be worth a look, even if the gameplay is the same, and that gameplay functions about as well as can be hoped for on a console controller with analog stick. C&C for the N64 may or may not be worth playing, but at least they tried something a little different. One player, on-cart saving, Expansion Pak support.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day – Rare’s last N64 3d platformer, Conker’s Bad Fur Day was long in development but worth the wait. Conker has impressive graphics, though it does have some framerate issues like Banjo-Tooie likely because it doesn’t use the expansion pak. It also has great platformer gameplay, with the usual good Rare level design. This game is less about collecting than Rare’s other 3d platformers; the game does have some, you are collecting items, but it’s more straightforward than Rare’s other 3d platformers. This game is streamlined versus the previous ones. I’m not so sure the change was a good one, I like the other three more overall, but it does make for something different and is a pretty good game as well. What Conker is best known for, however, of course, is its mature theme. This game’s M rating is well earned. The game has a later Xbox remake, but while the graphics on the Xbox are better, the game is actually censored more on that platform — many swears that are unbeeped on the N64 (the game is fully voiced) are censored on the Xbox. The game is full of dark, British humor and just crazy situations, perhaps most famously the Great Mighty Poo. Normally I am not one for poop jokes, but that whole bossfight, with an opera-singing giant poo monster fighting against Conker, who you defeat by throwing giant toilet paper rolls at it, was pretty awesome stuff. Not everyone is going to like the adult nature of the game, and this is not a game for kids, but it’s a very good game all 3d platformer fans should try. Thanks to the lesser censorship the N64 probably has the better version, though it won’t be cheap. Four player multiplayer (various modes, many of them shooter-style; the Xbox version has different multiplayer content, so the two are not the same in that regard), on-cart saving.

Cruis’n USA – Cruis’n USA is a port of the 1994 arcade classic and one of the most successful arcade racing games ever. While the home ports have been hated almost since the release of the first one, this game for the N64, the arcade machines always have been very popular, both in the Cruis’n and followup (from the same people) The Fast & The Furious arcade games. Cruis’n USA is a simple racing game where you drive along long, often wide roads, tearing across America in your quest to become the first racer to go from San Francisco to Washington D.C.. The game clearly has a strong Outrun influence, except newer and American-made instead of Japanese. The arcade game was fun, but there are flaws in this home port. The N64 version is a straight arcade port, with absolutely no added features. This means that you simply access the hidden cars via cheat codes, not unlocking, and once you’ve beaten the main race mode there isn’t much reason to revisit this game except to try to improve your times in the courses. That’s disappointing, because while fun this game won’t last long. Also, the multiplayer is two player only. At the time though, the biggest letdown was the graphics, people were expecting it to be arcade perfect but it’s definitely not. There’s fog and popup too. Still, there’s enough fun here to make it worth a few bucks, and this was a very early N64 release. Two player, on-cart saving.

Cruis’n World – Cruis’n World is the second of the three N64 Cruis’n games. The gameplay is the same as ever, as you race along roads all over the world this time looking at the scenery, avoiding traffic, and winning races. All Cruis’n games were better in the arcades, but if you like simple racing games from the Outrun school, the Cruis’n games really aren’t that bad. I at least find them fun. Though it is true that they’re simplistic and boring after a little while, they’re fun while they last and good for plenty of return plays later. It’s the best reviewed game of the series and probably is the fans’ favorite Cruis’n game. This N64 version can’t match the graphics of the arcade, but it does add a lot of great features when compared to Cruis’n USA for the N64. First, the single player mode was significantly expanded in this game. Instead of just racing through all the tracks and that’s it, multiple variants of each track have been added. In arcade mode you just play through the arcade game, but in the new mode you play several different variants of each track. You have to unlock the hidden cars, which there are a few of, as well, which is a nice improvement versus the original. It’s great to see Cruis’n with more content. The new four player multiplayer mode is great too, and the visuals have been improved. However, there still is fog in the distance. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Cruis’n Exotica – Cruis’n Exotica is the last of the N64 Cruis’n games, and it has the most features, content, and options of the trilogy. It’s a little less popular than World, though, for some reason. I think that Exotica is the best of the three, myself. I like some of the new options. It’s good to have a Cruis’n game that will take longer to finish, if World greatly expanded versus USA Exotica greatly expands again. This time you have even more variants on each track, including drag races, which, if you do right, will earn you boosts you can use in the other tracks. In the Exotica mode, you race a drag race, circuit lap race, short race, and two part long race in each environment. You unlock hidden cars based on miles driven, too. It will take quite a while to unlock all of the cars. There are also several alternate graphics modes that can be unlocked, including one where everything uses negative colors and looks squished, and another one where everything is stretched out and crazy warped. It’s hard to play in these graphics modes, but they’re pretty amusing options. However, of course, the basic gameplay is as simple as ever. All Cruis’n games are simply about driving forward along the endless road, going as fast as you can, avoiding traffic, and trying to finish in first. They are very simple and straightforward racing games. Also, even in this third game there is still fog. I guess the system simply can’t render farther out. Your vision goes far enough out for you to be able to see well, but things do appear in the distance and it is a little distracting. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Custom Robo (J) – Custom Robo is an outstanding game which started a great and highly under-rated series. For anyone who has played the (US-released) Gamecube or Nintendo DS Custom Robo games, this N64 original is very similar, just in Japanese. The series’ basic gameplay has been the same from the start, and it start off great. The Gamecube game is the best one in the series, since it is the only Custom Robo game with a simultaneous four player battle mode and those three and four player battles are really, REALLY fun, but otherwise, this game holds up very well. Custom Robo is a fighting game RPG, essentially. Each fight happens in a small arena. You move around the arena, and try to defeat your opponent with your weapons. You have three weapon types to use, a main gun, a missile weapon, and a bomb, each mapped to a different button. There are many types of each to unlock. You can also jump up, or dash forward. The games’ graphics are average at best, but the game is extremely fast and fluid. If they compromised the graphics here to keep the framerate up, it worked! I was worried that this would be yet another slow-paced N64 fighting game, but it isn’t at all. Fights in Custom Robo are just as fast and fun as they are in the Gamecube or DS games, and controls are better than the DS game too, since you have an analog stick. Normally I would talk about graphics after game modes, but it’s very important to say how well the game plays. It makes the game great. Once you learn the moves, you can run around, jump and dodge attacks, charge enemies, use your three weapon types judiciously in order to leat the enemies into your fire (as the guns, missiles, and bombs each have different firing patterns and uses), and more. It’s a great fighting-action game, one of the better ones around. Fighting is simple but great fun, and there is depth.

Custom Robo has three main modes, a battle tournament mode where you fight through eight or so opponents in your usual tournament game, a two player versus mode, and a story mode where you play through the RPG-ish main game. All Custom Robo games have an “RPG” mode like this one. Here you play as a young boy who is just getting into Custom Robo battles, battles fought between mini robots which you can customize with various parts. As you progress you unlock more and more parts for your robot, which with to make it better and try out new weapons. You don’t really gain levels, but instead unlock parts. It is very unfortunate that this game wasn’t released here, because it really is a great game and I’d like to know what the story is, too. Fortunately, Custom Robo is a fairly simple game, so even not knowing the language it is not hard to figure out how to play. As with the later games, the game mostly plays out in a city, and has a basic overworld map with the various places you can go, connected by paths, and the various areas (buildings, usually) once you go to them. As I said earlier the battles are entirely polygonal, but the environments you explore as a person have sprite-based characters in polygonal worlds. They look okay, not great, but do use that Custom Robo style you also see in the later games. Occasionally you will need to wander around to figure out where to go, but none of the Custom Robo games have all that many areas, so it’s not hard. The game doesn’t even have a guide online worth mentioning, but it’s entirely playable. The main language-barrier issue with the game is the part names. Instead of being able to figure them out by name, you’ll have to try the parts out. That’s alright, though, it’s not too bad.

Overall, Custom Robo is a fantastic game. I was hoping that it’d be alright, considering how much I like the GC and DS games, but it exceeded my expectations, and I’m very happy to have gotten it. The game also has a Japan-only sequel on the N64, Custom Robo V2. I’ll need to get it eventually. There’s also a GBA game only released in Japan as well, though it’s entirely 2d (side-scrolling battles and everything) and doesn’t look quite as interesting as the other games. Regardless, the Custom Robo series is a great fighting/action/RPG game series, and I highly recommend it, and this game. The US-released ones will probably be easier to find, but this N64 game is fantastic as well and is well worth tracking down! I actually got this game complete with the box, and it was worth it. It’s not too expensive either. Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Dark Rift – Dark Rift is a terrible 3d fighting game for the PC and N64 made by the same developer who had previously done Criticom on Playstation and Saturn. Trying to sell games by releasing your next game on different platforms which won’t know of the kind of “quality” your games are, huh? I wonder if it worked… anyway, yeah, Dark Rift is bad. The game has okay graphics for its time, and it IS 3d and not 2.5d or something, but the gameplay is poor, the game is no fun, and the computer opponents are insanely hard. Seriously, beating this game once was a very, very stiff challenge, and not for any of the right reasons. The controls are mediocre, the enemy unfair, and you don’t have much of a chance at victory. As far as N64 fighting games go, this is right at the bottom of the list, along with, or maybe even below (because that game might be even worse, but has more humor value) War Gods. Two player, no saving.

Destruction Derby 64 – DD64, the only racing game published and actually released by Looking Glass Seattle, is a somewhat interesting and fun, but flawed, N64 spinoff of Psygnosis’ Destruction Derby series. This game shares the name and concept of the Playstation series, but has some important differences in gameplay and execution, some good and some bad. DD64 has eight tracks, four crash arenas, and a capture the flag arena, so there are a decent number of tracks. Graphically the game looks okay to good. The graphics are somewhat pixelated and grainy, but they look decently nice most of the time even so. The framerate feels a little low, too, but I did get used to it in not too long; still, I wish it was smoother. There is vehicle damage, which is fun to see. There could be even more (the doors don’t seem to come off…), but there’s at least some. The most unique feature about this game is that instead of starting all the cars in a grid, the cars are started in three groups of four (or in one track two groups of six), at different points in the track and driving in different directions. In tracks with three groups, the player’s group goes one way while the other two go the other. This concept is pretty cool, because it makes for a lot more crashing and banging than there would be if everyone was driving the same direction. However, having two groups going one way and you going the other unfairly breaks the game in your favor — it’s much harder for the cars in the two groups to compete, having only one group of cars to crash into instead of two. This design decision made a lot of the game pretty easy. In addition, once you die, the race ends in seconds — no matter if you crashed out with 9 cars still going in the race and after only two checkpoints reached of the seven maximum allowed, it’ll be done in instants and you’ll do fine and maybe even win overall. It’s kind of stupid, and makes most of the races FAR too easy through the first three of four circuits. Fortunately, the crash arenas, the one track with 6 cars in each direction, and the top difficulty level are more challenging, and the game is fun enough to be entertaining even if it’s flawed. Driving around crashing into other cars is quite entertaining. I don’t know if it’s better than Destruction Derby 1 or 2 (far better graphics, but maybe not quite as good gameplay overall, and not nearly as hard), or the Dreamcast (but not PS1!) version of Demolition Racer — it certainly can’t match that great crash-racing game — but even so it is a fun game. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Diddy Kong Racing – Rare’s first attempt at a Mario Kart clone, DKR is a great game in its own right. The game’s fully polygonal, unlike MK64, and has an extensive, challenging single player mode. Indeed, when I played this game back in 1999-2000, I found it TOO challenging — I could never beat the first Wizpig battle at the end of the game, it’s just insanely, insanely hard. There are a lot of tracks, a battle mode, decently good multiplayer, three vehicle types, and more. I love the planes, they’re a lot of fun to fly around with. Overall, I think that Mario Kart 64, though much shorter, is a little bit better game. Even so, DKR is a fantastic, must-play title. There is a DS version, though it has a few changes; I haven’t played it myself though. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Donkey Kong 64 – Unlike many people, I love this game. Indeed, DK64 is my favorite of the Rare 3d platformers on the N64. I got this game shortly after it came out in late 1999, and absolutely loved it. I played the game steadily through until I beat the game with every single golden banana and got the best ending. DK64 has fantastic graphics, great level designs, a lot of variety, a huge number of things to do, a bunch of different fun minigames, unlockable versions of two classic games (Rare’s Jetpack and Nintendo’s Donkey Kong), and more. There are five playable characters, and you do have to revisit each of the eight levels with each character, but you do different things with each one, so it works — you’re not just doing the same thing over and over, you’re exploring new areas and doing new things with each character. Everything you collect with each character saves, so there’s no repeat play required, unlike BK. The levels, characters, gameplay, graphics, music, bosses… everything about this game is just fantastic and among the best on the system. Four player multiplayer (battle mode; it’s okay but kind of average), on-cart saving. Expansion Pak required.

Doom 64 – Doom 64 is an N64-exclusive Doom game. It is not a port of the original Doom, but instead is a new game with an all-new set of 32 levels done by Midway. The graphics are great — this game really looks quite good. The game’s actually polygonal 3d, not raycasted fake 3d, so the environments actually look 3d, and can do things that Doom couldn’t before like have a path you can walk on above another one, something impossible in the original Doom engine. The new levels have some challenging puzzles, lots of enemies, and impressive graphical enhancements versus the PC original. It’s a challenging game, but rewarding. The game uses an atmospheric soundtrack, instead of the musical style of the original game, and while I do miss Doom’s great soundtrack, the atmospheric sound does work well and fits the tense, dangerous world of Doom very well. Doom 64’s biggest problem is the lack of multiplayer, which is quite unfortunate but isn’t a deal-breaker. This game is definitely worth playing anyway. One player, password or controller pak saving (1 or 2 pages; if two or more pages are free it will create a 2 page file with 16 save slots, but if you have only 1 page free on a cart it will create a 1 page file with 8 save slots.)

Doraemon: Nobita & The 3 Fairy Spirit Stones (J) – This is the first of three 3d platformer Doraemon games on the N64. All three were only released in Japan, of course. With average graphics, not the best controls, and no really special gameplay elements, we didn’t miss all that much here, but this game is moderately amusing if you like 3d platformers. The game does have a language barrier at first, but there is a good GameFAQs guide which can help with that. I recommend reading it if you don’t know the language. Doraemon is not a complex game, as expected from a game based on a childrens’ cartoon, but you do need to go from place to place and need to know what the menu options do. Doraemon and friends have to collect the pieces of the titular three spirit stones, which have been broken. The intro is far too long, for how simple the story is. In the game, you start out as Doraemon, but as you progress you can switch to Doraemon’s human friends as you save (and unlock) them. Doraemon also gets a few new abilities as well. It’s the usual stuff — items to swim, fly, and such. The game has an overworld, from where you go into missions in the levels. You have to talk to a person then get the right item and go to the right place to reach each level, so a guide is helpful if you can’t read Japanese, though the areas are not that large, so you’d probably figure it out eventually anyway. The levels themselves are each a linear sequence of rooms to get through. Each area has some jumps, enemies, collectables, invisible walls (argh), etc. This game is probably too simple and predictable; it’s got nothing original about it, and the levels aren’t large or complex enough to really grab me, either. The graphics are okay, but bland. It’s quite average visually, just like the gameplay. It looks alright, but doesn’t have the size, scope, or graphical quality of the systems’ better 3d platformers. I was interested to try this, but the mediocre reviews I see of it online are, unfortunately, accurate. Still, I don’t regret getting it; it’s interesting to see one of the only N64 3d platformers not released in the US (there are these three and that’s about it, the Taz game aside…). And even if the game is probably below average for an N64 3d platformer, it’s still playable. I wonder if the sequels are any better. I’m not sure. At least it does have on-cart saving. One player, on-cart saving..

Dr. Mario 64 – A late N64 release, one of Nintendo’s last first party N64 games and a US-exclusive release on the N64, Dr. Mario 64 is a game many people never played. It wasn’t released in Japan at all on the N64, though they did get a port of it in the Japan-only, but American (NST)-developed, Nintendo Puzzle Collection on the Gamecube, along with Panel de Pon 64 (the unreleased on the N64 Japanese version of Pokemon Puzzle League) and a new version of Yoshi’s Cookie. As for the N64 version though, it’s a great version of Dr. Mario that I think more people would love if they’d played it. This game’s fantastic fun. The visuals remind me of Paper Mario — the characters all look “flat” in the 3d map as they move around between stages. The game has a simple but good visual look, with plenty of style and good design. Actual gameplay is entirely 2d, and plays like Dr. Mario but with saving this time, finally. There are six gameplay modes, including Story (a fairly difficult versus mode with story scenes between levels), Original (clear the stages), infinite, vs. CPU, and Flash (like the Columns mode, destroy the flashing virus to win). There are also 2 player and 1-4 player multiplayer modes, and you can have computers fill in in the 4-player mode, so you can play a 1 player game against three opponents there, which is awesome. I wish that the single player game modes had some four player matches, but at least there’s this, and it’s pretty cool. This, The New Tetris, and Bust-A-Move ’99 were the N64’s main three 4-player puzzle games, and all are fantastic. BAM’99 is incredible otherwise but the 4-p mode isn’t quite as good as the rest of the game, while aside from the slight shrinking of the graphics this is (plus there’s music in 4p mode in Dr. Mario 64 too, unlike BAM’99); it’s closer between The New Tetris and this, but I think that was humans only so this might be the best of the bunch… either way though it’s great to have. The game’s simple but complex, with a high difficulty level and a good amount of strategy to use once you get into the game and start learning how to play. The three color system seems very simple, but in fact the game’s difficult and requires a lot of thought about where you’re going to put the pills, and you don’t have much time to make the decisions in either. No infinite spin here, that’s for sure. This is a quite good game, it’s too bad it recieved so little notice, likely because of its late release date. Oh, the game’s d-pad only, no analog control. I know this game is going to be better with the dpad, but I wish they let you use it anyway if you wanted to. Oh well, not a big deal. I do have one complaint though, I kind of wish that they’d added a “3d” mode of some kind like Pokemon Puzzle League did. That game’s tube-style 3d mode was pretty awesome, it’d be really cool if some other puzzle games had copied the idea and done something similar, but I don’t know of any for anything. Oh well, this clearly wasn’t the largest budget game. Anyway though, game’s very good, with great gameplay with a bunch of modes, good enough graphics, and good music. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Dual Heroes – This fighting game, developed by Produce and published by Hudson in Japan and Europe and Culture Brain in the US, is okay. First, one oddity — the game requires you to use the analog stick to move, strangely for a 3d fighting game. Apart from that it’s standard stuff, with three action buttons, Punch, Kick, and Block. The game is nothing great, to be sure, but it does a couple of slightly interesting things for its generation, and does at least have decently fast paced action for a 5th gen 3d fighter. That should be taken to be the quite lukewarm praise it is, but still, I think this game is better than the 2.8 and 3.7 out of 10 that IGN and Gamespot gave it. Dual Heroes is a sentai-style fighting game, where you control one of eight different Japanese superhero show-inspired (think Power Rangers) characters, fighting to stop an evil invading alien force in a future destroyed Earth. The game has average graphics, with blurry textures and minimal environments. The framerate is decent, though, and the action moves at a good clip for its time. The game’s a 3d fighting game with an emphasis on 3d — you can’t jump unless you press jump+direction together, up alone does nothing. Still, you do need to hold a button (Z by default) to move in 3d, like with most 3d fighting games that generation; there is a duck move when not holding it, so there is something you can’t do with Z held. Because holding Z does give you true 3d movement though, not a static “shift into/out of screen” motion like you see in, say, Mace, the game does have a nice 3d fighter feel to it. As for moves, you don’t have too many; there’s a super mode, where your character gets stronger, and some basic specials, but mostly you’ll just be doing various punches and kicks. It’s somewhat bland in that respect, but tolerable. Arenas either have edges — and do try to not fall off, unlike Soulcalibur if both people go off it’s a draw, and a draw here means the round is void and needs to be refought — or in a glass-walled arena. The two types have different gameplay, as you’d expect. You don’t fight your own character in this game, but do fight three bosses at the end, so there are ten matches. There’s no flavor text between the rounds, or insults, or anything — it just goes straight from match to match. There is a story text block at the beginning of the game, and each character has their own backstory, but the endings are all largely the same, and are very inconclusive — this game’s “ending” seems like a setup for a sequel that never happened, and the stories set up in the characters’ bios largely go nowhere. Pretty annoying. The game does save your settings, your best times for getting through the story mode, etc. Still, I went into this expecting it to be awful, but instead it’s just bland, generic, and a bit dull, particularly in retrospect, so I was a little bit positively surprised by Dual Heroes. I found it just entertaining enough to play through a couple of times, though I don’t expect to return to this one very often. Two players, controller pak saving (20 pages).

Duck Dodgers starring Daffy Duck – Duck Dodgers is a 3d platformer from Paradigm, and it’s their only attempt at the genre — their other N64 games were all flight or racing games. The game makes me think a bit of games like Croc or Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time (both on PC/PS1) — it’s a fun, but somewhat unpolished, game with a very Looney Tunes graphical style. Now, I love the Looney Tunes — it’s my favorite cartoon series by far. Duck Dodgers is a fantastic character, too. In this game you play as Duck Dodgers, of course, and have to collect fuel and such and defeat badguys helping out in Marvin the Martian’s latest plot to destroy the earth. This game is inspired by the original Duck Dodgers cartoons, and predates the newer Cartoon Network show, so unfortunately characters that series added, such as the Martian Queen, don’t appear here. That’s too bad, but the classic cartoons are great too. The characters that are here are all fully voiced, which is nice; all of the voice acting is well done, and it’s great that Daffy has a voice. It really does add to the game. The game is somewhat linear, as in each world, you’ll go through a succession of areas. Each area is somewhat small, so this game doesn’t have the scale of the system’s top 3d platformers. Still, while small, the areas do have some good design elements and nice visual touches; as I said, this looks like a classic Looney Tunes cartoon gone 5th-gen 3d. It would have been nice if they were larger, though; these areas really are Croc-small. That’s okay though I guess, and I do love Croc. Anyway, the areas are connected together with doors. When you enter an area, the game will show on screen how many fuel items there are left in the area. These serve as the game’s stars or such. The other pickup are some blue crystal things. These respawn when you enter an area, and collecting fifty will get you an extra life. Run out of lives and it’s game over, of course. The game over cutscene is quite amusing. The game starts out simple, but quickly gets more challenging. The controls here are somewhat flawed — you don’t have perfect control over Dodgers like you do Mario, or a Rare 3d platformer character. Jumps can be hard to make, and I found myself frequently missing them. Distance can be hard to judge, and the camera is mediocre at best. You can move it around, but good luck getting a perfect angle while zipping along on a moving mine car. However, the underwater controls are fantastic — swimming with Daffy feels natural, and it’s much easier to control him underwater than it is above. There’s also a tiptoe button while on land, with the matching Looney Tunes sound effects. Still, most of the game is on land and you don’t need to tiptoe very often. The controls are another reason why I compared Duck Dodgers to the games I did earlier, in addition to the visual style and mostly-linear-sequence-of-areas game design. Managing to get where you want, or WHAT you want, in trickier jetpack sections can be frustrating too. It’s unfortunate that the controls aren’t better; this game’s good, but because of the controls, and somewhat simple level designs, isn’t a match for Rare’s great classics on the system. Still, Duck Dodgers is certainly worth a look. It’s a decent game that many 3d platformer fans probably haven’t played, and even if it has some problems, it does some things right too. And of course, it’s a voiced Looney Tunes game on the N64, which is great. This game’s better than most of the 16-bit Looney Tunes games too, I would say. If the controls were better this game would be a definite recommendation, but as-is, I would say that it’s probably mostly for genre, or series, fans. I am a big fan of both 3d platformers and Looney Tunes, so I do enjoy the game for sure, but if you’re not, the frustrating controls might well drive you away. Oh, and it’s not the longest game either, certainly; Duck Dodgers is a bit on the short side. One player, on-cart saving.

Duke Nukem: Zero Hour – One of three console-only third-person Duke Nukem action-shooting games, this one’s the N64 one; the other two are on Playstation. I haven’t played those, but this one, from accomplished developer Eurocom, is a pretty good game. The controls do take some getting used to, as the game uses a lot of buttons and combinations, but once you figure them out, the game plays well and you have good control over Duke. This game’s good — the levels are huge and challenging, and there’s a lot to do and find in the game too. I do find the game pretty tough, but I’m not that good at this kind of thing. Even so, this game’s quality clearly shows. This isn’t the best third person action-shooting game ever, but it is a good one. I’m not a big fan of third person shooting games, but this one’s good. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (17 pages).

Excitebike 64 – Excitebike 64 is one of the best motorcycle racing games ever made, and is one of the N64’s top tier of racing games without question. Excitebike 64 is a beautiful, ridiculously feature-rich extravaganza full of many tracks, numerous modes and unlockables, fantastic graphics, perfectly balanced gameplay, and one of the best overall packages on the system. The N64 does have a lot of great racing games, and I wouldn’t call this one the very best, but it’s right up there. I particularly love the outdoor tracks, and the bonus modes; the indoor courses aren’t nearly as interesting as the outdoor ones. Unfortunately, while the game does have a track editor, like many motocross games that generation, it’s for making arena-style tracks only. Kind of disappointing. Also, the music’s only okay, but that’s largely because I don’t like rock very much, and this game has a rock music soundtrack. It fits the sport, but it’s not my thing. This game’s tough and challenging, but once you finally do complete something, there’s a great feeling of accomplishment. Each circuit consists of five races, with a standard points system used. As for the bonus modes, there’s a multiplayer-only soccer game, a pretty great, and tough, Hill Climb course, an endless (single player only) desert course where you drive from checkpoint to checkpoint in an infinite, generated-on-the-fly desert, an unlockable version of the original NES Excitebike (only with saving now for your custom track!), and finally a 3d version of the original Excitebike’s first track, which is cool. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving. The cart has three slots for saving tracks you make in the track editor, but any beyond that can be saved to controller paks (4 pages per track). Expansion Pak supported, but this is the one case where I rarely use the high- res mode — high res is letterboxed only, which I don’t like, and has a lower framerate, so I play this in normal res. It still looks beautiful.

Extreme-G – The first game in this classic futuristic racing game series set the franchise off to a great start. Extreme-G may have been surpassed graphically by later N64 games, but its gameplay and creativity hold up well. Extreme-G has twelve tracks, each quite different from the last, and a good number of bikes to choose from as well. The graphics, (techno) music, and gameplay all are about average for the time, which means dated, but give this game a chance — there is a very good racing game here, if you stick with it. The later tracks are particularly cool and interesting in design, and I love the gameplay. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (9 pages).

Extreme-G 2: XG2 – XG2 improves over the first game in every way. It’s got more course layouts, more bikes, better graphics, more modes (multiplayer battle mode’s in!), and an outstanding overall package that I absolutely love. I do think that the PC version of the game is even better, with CD audio and no slowdown, but this N64 version’s great too. I think that the framerate’s high enough to be entirely playable, at least, even if it’s not completely smooth like it is on the PC, and the graphics really are nice. The course designs in this game are just fantastic. Each of the twelve environments (and 36 layouts, because there are three course variants in each setting) looks great, and the tracks are complex circuits full of twists, turns, branches, and more. The variants are not completely different — instead, some section(s) of each variant are different, while a part of the track, sometimes a large part, is shared between the three variants — but still, the game has a lot of courses to explore. XG2 has some of my favorite track designs in the futuristic racing genre, and the rest of the game’s just as great too. The game has a succession of circuits, each harder than the last, and up to 12 races long each. You can only save after every four races, or three races for a 6-race circuit, so the challenge is high. Just get that PC version too if you can find it… the CD audio alone makes it worth it! Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (36 pages).

F-1 World Grand Prix – The first of Paradigm’s two F1 games on the N64, F-1 World Grand Prix is a very good game for its genre and time that I personally have only a very low interest in playing. I’ve never liked racing sims nearly as much as I do arcadey racing games, and this is a sim for sure. I just don’t find racing on these kinds of realistic tracks that fun… still though, for an N64 F1 sim, this game’s good — it’s got tough controls, accurate courses, good graphics, and more. This is probably the best F1 game released in the US on the N64 — this game’s sequel was Europe-only on the N64 and only saw a US release on Dreamcast. This game was on the N64 first, but did later see ports to the PS1 and DC, though I don’t think Paradigm made the ports. Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

F-Zero X – F-Zero X, the long-awaited sequel to the great SNES classic F-Zero, is a truly exceptional game and another one of my favorite racing games ever. I generally find it very hard to decide between F-Zero, F-Zero X, and F-Zero GX, but all three games are so outstanding that it doesn’t really matter. F-Zero X does have a very simple visual style — unlike most racing games that generation this game has a 100% smooth 60fps framerate, so the visuals are simple — but the style does work, and the smooth gameplay means that any mistakes are your fault, not the game’s. The game has a lot of tracks, even more cars, a random track mode that sets you up against randomly designed courses, and a stiff but beatable difficulty level. It’s really exceptionally designed all around — it’s hard, but not F-Zero GX hard. I think X has the best difficulty balance of the three games, though while losing again and again to one of those racers that love to always stay just ahead of you you might not think so. But yeah, overall, fantastic. The music’s okay to good too, though the machine-like “3-2-1-Go” voice is kind of weird. There’s also a roulette option, in multiplayer, to let dead players mess with the ones still living… I think it adds a fun challenge to the game, I’d like to see more things like it in racing games. It is unfortunate that even two player multiplayer mode has only four total vehicles though — Wipeout 64 for instance has a full field in 2-player mode, and only cuts it to four with 3 or 4 players. It hurts the 2 player mode, versus Wipeout. Still, overall, this is a fantastic game. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Fighter’s Destiny – Fighter’s Destiny is an interesting and unique 3d fighting game. The game has unique design and concept, and apart from its sequel isn’t exactly like any other fighting games out there. The game’s true 3d, so you don’t need to hold a button to move in 3d, you move in 3d by default. Matches are fought on a raised platform (size variable), and the game’s most unique feature is the points system. You don’t just win in Fighter’s Destiny by winning two out of three matches, you see. Instead, there are five ways to score points, including a ring out, knockout, throw, draining out their health bar, etc. Each method gets you a different number of points, and if you dislike the defaults, you can change all of the point values in the options menu. The first to seven points wins. It’s a very unique system, only seen in this game and its sequel, and it makes these games still worth playing. Fighter’s Destiny and its sequel are some of the best fighting games on the N64, no question. Oh, the graphics are okay, but nothing amazing. Music is okay but nothing special. Don’t expect too much story either — the main draw here is the unique scoring system. Fortunately, it’s a good one. Two player multiplayer, on-cart and controller pak (2 pages) saving. I’m not entirely sure whether the controller pak file is a backup or required, and what is saved on the cart. It may be unlocked characters, and I believe the file is required.

Fighter Destiny 2 – This game is similar to the first game, but with some more characters and features, essentially. So yeah, it’s still a 3d fighting game with a points system where you get different amounts of points depending on how you defeat your opponent in each round. The most important new feature is a boardgame-style mode where you choose a character and them move them around a board, fighitng enemies as you land on tiles or run across some bosses. It’s an interesting mode and is a nice diversion from the main game. Still, if you have the first game, this game isn’t necessarily a must-buy — it IS very similar overall, without dramatic changes. For anyone who did like the first game, though, it’s probably worth it to consider picking up a copy of this sequel. It’s the only other game like Fighter’s Destiny, and it is every bit as good as the first version. Two player multiplayer, on-cart and controller pak (2 pages) saving. Both files required, same as the first game.

Flying Dragon – This is a 2.5d and 3d fighting game by Hudson. There are two modes here, SD and VR. The VR mode, clearly inspired by Virtua Fighter, is a 2.5d (no 3d movement) fighting game with adult characters. Choose a character and go — this game’s a basic arcade-style game. It’s fun, but isn’t as good as Virtua Fighter. The larger mode is SD mode. As the name suggests, here the characters are all super-deformed. In addition, there’s also something more than just the arcade-style mode — there’s also an RPG-ish mode, where you get items and such for winning matches that you can then equip on your character. This adds a lot to the game and will take a while to master. SD mode is 3d, too — you do have 3d movement. The gameplay’s a bit slow, as was often true that generation and on the N64, but it is a decent, though not great, fighting game. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (47 pages). Yeah, it’s a big file. Kind of annoying.

Forsaken 64 – Forsaken 64 is a pretty good Descent clone. This is not a port, either — unlike Playstation Forsaken, which is a straight, downgraded port of the PC Forsaken title, Forsaken 64 is an entirely different game from the PC title, and was made by a different developer as well. I need to mention the game’s biggest flaw first, though — there’s no map, unlike in Descent. You’ll just have to figure out the stage layouts on your own, with no help from a map. This makes the game confusing for sure at times, but the quality’s high enough that it’s a great game anyway, and the level designs are pretty good and well thought out — this game has good graphics and varied stage designs for sure. Forsaken 64 is an action-focused game, with only a bare minimum of text-box story to get you going before you’re sent out to the action. That’s fine with me, that’s all you need here. The frantic action, shooting, and flying more than carry the game on their own. This game is HARD, too — you can only save after every four levels, and good luck getting through four levels without dying much. You have limited lives, so if you want to have much left to challenge the next four levels with, you’ll have to play very well. I find it tough to make much progress in this game, as much as I love it… Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (1 page).

Gauntlet Legends – I absolutely loved Gauntlet Legends in the arcade and N64 back in the late ’90s. It’s a fantastic game, and is one of the few games in its genre that generation — while the 6th gen saw a proliferation of multiplayer action-RPGs, there were only a few in the 5th gen, and this is the most prominent of them. However, this game’s value is somewhat hurt because all but one level in this game were also included in Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for the GC/Xbox (and PS2, but that version’s worse and not worth getting compared to the GC or Xbox ones). Dark Legacy has better graphics, nearly twice as many stages in total, twice as many characters (though based on the same four base types), and more. Even so, Legends is still a good game, and the N64 does have the best home version — the Dreamcast version’s not really Legends, it’s actually the first half of Dark Legacy with the second half removed. If you want a home version of Legends, this is the version to get. It’s the only version of Legends where you an save the items you have picked up in a permanent inventory. It’s bug free, something not true about any of the home ports of Dark Legacy (all have crash bugs and more). It’s got a great inventory system, the best in the franchise in fact, that lets you view your character stats, experience, XP to next level (no way to view any of this in Dark Legacy!), how many gems you have towards each of the five bonus characters, etc. This is also the only version where you can sell every item — in DL, there are some items which can’t be sold. Also, only N64 Legends, and GC and Xbox DL, allow you to buy health in the shop. Seriously, these games are no fun at all without this feature… and being able to sell all items makes getting more health easier. DL rebalanced things too, to reduce XP from lower-level enemies (slowing levelling) and to make items time out faster against bosses. DL also versus this game), doesn’t have a specific number for how long items will last, unlike th N64 version where you can see a specific number. Also, in this game bonus coins are saved, which makes it easy to get the bonus characters — if you fail to get all the coins, just come back later and try again. In Dark Legacy, if you fail the stage is reset your next time, so you must get every coin in order to get the character — obviously a much higher challenge. Also, the unlocking systems are different between the games, so some things will be different between Legends and Dark Legacy. And there is that one level not brought over to DL — it’s in the Airship world, and it’s a great level. So yeah, while the casual player probably won’t want to bother with this, the real fan, like me, should consider the N64 version of Legends still a must-own title. Despite all its flaws DL is the better overall game thanks to all that added content, but I still love Gauntlet Legends. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (4 pages per character file). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Glover – Glover is a fairly unique, but extremely difficult, 3d platformer. Initially an N64 exclusive, the game later had PC and Playstation ports. The PS1 port is pretty bad, however. Is the N64 version worth playing, though? Well… that depends. The graphics are mediocre for the system, and the fog is not just present, but too close. It’s no visual standout, that’s for sure. The gameplay’s the main potential draw, though, and it’s polarizing. Are you prepared for a difficult, frustrating 3d platformer that will test your patience again and again and again? If so, then maybe give it a try. The key to Glover’s gameplay, and uniqueness, is the ball. Your character, Glover, is a disembodied hand, and he fights, or operates puzzles, with a ball. The ball can take several different forms, including a bowling ball, marble, and crystal, and each is useful in different situations. You’ll need to roll it around the levels, keeping it away from hazards, hitting switches by throwing the ball at them, defeating enemies by slapping or bouncing the ball at them, and more. COntrolling the ball can be a pain at times, and you’ll often die by accident. Howver, the ball mechanic is unique, and if you can get used to it, there’s a lot to this game — it’ll take a good while to finish, and the challenge, and reward, are certainly there. I could see some people really getting hooked by this game, but others hate it for sure, and both reactions are reasonable depending on the player. Myself, I think it’s okay. Frustrating, but a decently good game. One player, on-cart saving.

Goemon’s Great Adventure – One of my favorite N64 games, Goemon’s Great Adventure is a fantastic, fantastic 2.5d sidescrolling platformer with isometric towns. The game is very, very Japanese, but that’s part of what makes it so much fun — it’s got a very strong style and great world that is a lot of fun to explore. This 2d-gameplay, isometric-towns style is one taken from several of the (Japan-only) SNES Goemon games, and it works very well. GGA has good graphics, great level designs, almost endless fun, lots of secrets to find, a substantial quest for the genre, a funny, weird plot, and more. It is unfortunate that the Impact song sections were removed from the US release, even though they’d been left into the first N64 Goemon game (Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon), and that the vocal song that plays on the main menu was removed as well, but those are minor changes — neither cut affects the plot (unlike MNSG, neither song is plot-relevant), and they did keep the fully Japanese voiced intro and ending to the game, which is cool. GGA has four playable characters, the four characters from Goemon’s gang, and though it’s normally a two player co-op game, it does have a hidden, unlockable four player mode (see below). This game’s main collectable are Tickets, and you get them through a wide variety of ways. Some come from beating stages, but many require you to do missions for people in the towns. Search the towns high and low, and do all the missions! Many send you through a platformer stage, but some are crazy fun stuff, and some are just absurd, like the one where one of the characters has to do a phone support line… :lol This is my favorite 2d or 2.5d platformer on the N64. Four player multiplayer (two player only by default, but a hidden 3-4 player mode can be accessed after beating the game, look up the code on GameFAQs), controller pak saving (7 pages). Like with some other Konami N64 games the game has has on-cart saving in Japan, controller pak only elsewhere because Konami are mean.

GT64 Championship Racing – Imagineer’s second N64 racing game, GT64 is a very bland and generic GT racing game. It’s got average arcadey-with-a-hint-of-sim handling, three not-too long tracks, and little else. There is a championship circuit, at least, but still, this game really doesn’t have much to it. This is really for fans of those early PS1 and Saturn racing games that are much like this, the ones with only 1 to 3 tracks, few options, and often somewhat bland gameplay. That doesn’t mean it’s a completely terrible game — actually, I find it kind of fun to play for a while. It’s just as bland, generic, and subpar for the N64 as they come. Also, two of the three tracks are too easy and rail you on the course pretty much the whole time, keeping you going forward at a fast clip. Only one has shoulders, which makes that track much more challenging than the others as you need to pay much more attention to the turns. There are some branching paths at times, but still, this game’s simplistic stuff. Two player, controller pak saving (3 pages ea.).

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys – Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is one of only two games based on Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules TV show; the other one is a GBC game. So, it’s a licensed game based on a TV show set in a fantasy version of ancient Greece. As it apparently is in the show this doesn’t feel much at all like Greece, and has lots of medieval fantasy elements in it, but it’s always that way, unfortunately. The game was also published by Titus, another bad sign. However, the game is actually okay! Yeah, I was surprised too. That’s nice; I haven’t watched the show before, myself, but did love Sorbo’s next TV show, the sci-fi series Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda (which sadly never had a videogame; it should have). Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, though, is a 3d action-adventure game with beat ’em up-style combat and Zelda-inspired towns and adventure elements. The game has decent graphics, too. They aren’t the best, and you can clearly see the Ocarina of Time influence in the games’ graphical design, but they did a good job of making something that looks somewhat similar. The game does have fog, and I wish the draw distance was farther back, but it is enough to see where you are going, and the graphics are reasonably good. Just remember to center the camera behind you frequently. You play as Hercules at first, but eventually unlock two more characters you can switch between, or use in areas that the others cannot reach. This gives the game some nice variety. Hercules is slow and strong, Iolaus fast and agile, and Serena is better at ranged attacks (and is a centaur). The game feels different with each character, which is good. Enemies are definitely tougher with Iolaus than Hercules. The battle system does get repetitive, though; don’t expect greatness here, just average stuff.

The game is linear in that you have to do things in order, but has puzzles and exploration along the way, as you would expect. You’ll have to talk to people in the towns, solve some puzzles, and the like, in addition to going around fighting enemies and exploring. Talk to everyone! This is often necessary to progress. This game is not nearly as great as a Zelda game, but still, it’s a fun little game. The game does have some parts where you have to find specific objects or people but aren’t told specifically where to go, but just explore and talk to everyone again, that will usually help. Or use a guide, if you’re really stuck; the game does have them. As I said earlier, though, the combat is nothing like a Zelda game. With Hercules, it plays much more like a beat ’em up. Hit the buttons to punch and kick the enemies (or hit them with your weapons), use basic combos to keep the hits going. Enemies all have health bars on them. You can ignore some enemies, but some you will have to fight, either to progress or in order to get drops (health, money, and such) you need. There are also bosses occasionally. Overall, this game is unoriginal, but it’s alright. It’s a decently average game (or maybe slightly above average? It’s in that range, anyway), which is pretty good considering we’re talking about a licensed game published by Titus. One player, Controller Pak saving (16 pages per save).

Hexen 64 – Hexen 64 is a port of the original PC game Hexen. I had Hexen for the PC back in the ’90s and liked it quite a bit, so this game isn’t new to me, but it is a good port. Hexen was ported to the N64, Playstation, and Saturn, and isn’t too different on all three platforms, but the N64 version does have one thing going for it the other versions don’t — four player split-screen multiplayer. The other ports are one player only. I believe this was the N64’s first four player FPS, and it’s a decent start — the game has solid visuals, which do a nice job of updating the Doom-engine classic with N64 effects, and the level designs and gameplay is just as you expect from the original. It is unfortunate that none of the console ports include the expansion pack’s content, but oh well… Hexen’s a pretty good game, and this is a fine port of it, though there isn’t too much of a reason to play it over the PC original of course. Oh, and all three versions have VERY large save files; indeed, on Saturn it requires a memory card (and not Action Replay) to properly save. This is because the game has save anywhere, just like on the PC. I don’t believe any other N64 FPSes have true save anywhere, but Hexen does… and has the huge save file that that requires. Oh well. Four player, controller pak saving (90 pages).

Hot Wheels Turbo Racing – Hot Wheels Turbo Racing is an okay futuristic racing game. The game is a Playstation port and looks it, unfortunately. This game also has some very narrow tracks. Perhaps that’s being accurate to the license, but the best Hot Wheels games, such as Stunt Track Challenge, aren’t like that. That is a newer game than this one, though. This game looks dated. As with many earlier polygonal racing games, environments feel small, too many tracks have walls cloose by on both sides as if this game was from years before it released, and the graphics are mediocre at best — the N64 can do much better than this. But of course, this is only a PS1 port. Still, the graphics are below average for the N64. There aren’t all that many tracks, either, and the game isn’t fun enough to make me want to master them and unlock the hidden ones. The game does have some nice track elements, such as loops, curving walls, traps to avoid, and the like, though, so there is something interesting here. Each track will take a bit of practice to master, but even so this isn’t that long of a game. The stunt system is another disappointment, though. It’s kind of like Rush 2 or Rush 2049’s, except without a dedicated stunt mode and with far fewer ways to get points; instead, you just get points for spins and flips and the like that you make during jumps during races. Spinning a bit during jumps is vitally important because it can get you turbos, but it’s nowhere near as fun, varied, or interesting to look at as Rush 2049’s, or even Rush 2’s. As for modes, you’ve got circuit championships in several difficulties, a single-race mode, and two player splitscreen. That’s about it. Futuristic and arcade style racing games are one of my favorite kinds of games, but this one isn’t particularly good at either. This game isn’t really worth playing. Two player multiplayer, Controller Pak saving (28 pages). Also on PS1.

Hybrid Heaven – Hybrid Heaven is a sci-fi Action-RPG from Konami, released in 1999. The game clearly was a high-quality effort — it’s got a fully English voice acted introduction, for instance, and pretty good character graphics as well. The story tells a complex and interesting sci-fi story involving many classic sci-fi themes. The gameplay’s unique too, with an original mix of traditional RPG elements and action-RPG or action-adventure elements. There isn’t anything else that plays exactly like Hybrid Heaven. The game is slow, with a somewhat low framerate and often slow-paced gameplay, and isn’t as long as many people would like, but it’s pretty good while it lasts, and the gameplay and are as good as they are original. Your character’s a pretty tough guy, and you have a lot of martial arts style moves to beat the enemies up with. One player, controller pak to save (53 pages). This one did require controller paks in Japan too. The game has Expansion Pak support, which enables an optional High Res mode. High Res mode has a lower framerate, but better graphics.

Hydro Thunder – The N64 version of Hydro Thunder released in early 2000, some months after the Dreamcast release at that system’s launch the previous year, but Eurocom’s time was not wasted — the N64 version of Hydro Thunder is fantastic, and has one exclusive mode you still can’t get anywhere else, a three or four player mode. Yeah, if you want a home version of Hydro Thunder with 3 or 4 player splitscreen, this is your only option. Apart from that though, the N64 version is largely the same thing you’ll find on the Dreamcast, PS1, or arcades. The tracks are all the same, and the unlock system is identical to the Dreamcast version’s — as you beat groups of tracks, you unlock the harder groups. This means that there are only about 15 races in the whole game, but the very high difficulty level will keep you coming back for a long time before you beat it. Hydro Thunder has beautiful graphics, and really shows what the N64 can do visually. It looks about as close to the arcade game as you could get on the system, I think. I know that the Dreamcast version, or its ports in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 (Gc/Xbox/PS2) have better graphics and a faster overall speed, but I think the N64 version of Hydro Thunder holds up pretty well, and is still a great, very fun game. Of the six point-to-point racing games Midway made on the N64, this is one of the best (only California Speed is close, but I think Hydro Thunder might edge it out). I have the DC and GC versions of this game, and they do have even better graphics, but but I still return to the N64 version sometimes anyway… it’s also the only version I’ve actually beaten, too. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (6 pages). Expansion Pak enhanced. Three or four player modes require an Expansion Pak, and in 3 or 4 player mode you cannot switch out of the first-person camera, which is kind of annoying, but helps keep the framerate up.

Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls – Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls is a 2.5d sidescrolling platform racing game. Yeah, it’s pretty original stuff. In this game, four different ball-shaped characters race through a stage, sidescrolling platformer style, trying to complete three laps before the other characters do. The graphics are simple, but plenty good enough — you have your ball characters, your platforms, your lengthy levels… what more do you need? The platforms are thin and stacked high, so though the gameplay is 2d, the game has a strong 3d look. The game quickly reaches a frenetic pace, as you frantically run, jump, and grab your way through the stages, trying to find new routes that get you through the course faster. There are a variety of different special tiles and effects, attacks with the grabber arm to push back your opponents, stage elements that force you to memorize the best route through trickier areas, and more. The computer’s a stiff competitor, but you can win once you get good enough. This game’s something that both platformer and racing game fans should try for sure. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (3 pages).

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine – This game is a port of the PC original, and is the only console port of the game. Factor 5 did a great job with the port, and the graphics and textures are among the system’s best, as expected from Factor 5. The audio is of course also fantastic, and the controls are somewhat improved versus the PC original too. This game’s not too common, but if you can find a copy of it, pick it up! This is the closest thing the N64 has to a Tomb Raider game, and fortunately, it’s reasonably good. I don’t think it’s as good as the classic Indy adventure games — none of the actioney 3d Indy games match Fate of Atlantis’ level of greatness — but it is a good game full of plenty of challenges, good puzzles, solid level design, and fun. This was a rental-only game, so copies of this game are somewhat scarce. One player, on-cart saving.

Indy Racing 2000 – Indy Racing 2000 is one of Paradigm’s later N64 games, and is not the sim that its name and developer might make you think it is. While you are racing IndyCar cars, on IndyCar tracks, the gameplay here is fast, fun, and somewhat arcadey. This is a pretty good, fun game with fast gameplay and plenty of options. Paradigm always made very good games on the N64, and this one is no exception. Don’t ignore this game because based on its title you think it’s a sim, or because you want to play F1 sims and not IndyCar — this game’s something anyone who likes fast, fun, somewhat arcadey N64 racing games should try. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 – Acclaim’s attempt at a motorcycle racing game, Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 (for both N64 and Playstation) is an okay game. It’s nothing above okay to decent, though — it’s got decent but not amazing visuals, playable and sometimes fun but not great gameplay, the expected track editor, four player splitscreen, etc. It’s about what you’d expect, though at least they did put in 4-player splitscreen, versus the PSX version. This game’s not quite as simmish as EA’s Supercross 2000 game, but isn’t as arcadey as Excitebike 64 or Top Gear Hyper-Bike, either. Instead, it’s sort of in between, and as usual for such titles it somewhat suffers because of it. I can’t think of too many reasons to be excited about playing this game. Still, it’s not actually bad, just solidly average stuff for its generation and genre. It might be some fun, particularly for people who like motocross games from this era. Four player, controller pak saving (2 pages for options, plus 2 pages per season save).

Jet Force Gemini – Jet Force Gemini is another Rare classic for the N64. Most people probably already know it, but it’s a third person platform/shooter, with three playable characters, different routes for each character, and a good mix of shooting and platform action. The graphics are good as you expect from Rare, and the game’s fantastic. About the only negative of note is that the game gets quite tough later on, and the final collection quest is unreasonably broad and annoying — imagine if you had to get every single star before you could fight the final Bowser in Mario 64, for example. That’s basically what JFG does. Yeah, it was Rare’s love for collection quests going a little too far… apart from that, though JFG is an outstanding, must-play game. One of the system’s best! Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards – Kirby 64 is Nintendo’s second try at a sidescrolling platformer on the N64, and it’s a good one. I do think the game is somewhat disappointing — I was hoping that this game would be as great as Kirby 2 for the Game Boy, but it just isn’t — but still, it is a good, nice-looking game with some nice features. Kirby 64’s best feature, expanded on from the “powers plus friends” combinations of Kirbies 2 and 3, is power combination. Kirby doesn’t use friends for power combinations here; instead, Kirby can have two powers at once, and your ability will change depending on which two you possess. You have more than twice the number of combinations you did in Kirby 2, as a result. It works well and really adds something to the game. The game looks like a Kirby game, and plays a lot like Kirby 3, except with polygonal graphics. It’s that Kirby 3-style gameplay that is the problem, though — much like that previous game, Kirby 64 is a slow paced game. Kirby really seems to trudge along, and the good pacing of the three 8-bit Kirby platformers, or Super Star, is missing here. That hurts the game. An even bigger problem is that like in Smash Bros., Kirby has limited flight here. Really, this is a borderline unforgiveable mistake. I think that HAL had been playing too much Smash Bros., and not enough Kirby, when they made this game, but limited flight should never, ever have happened. Sure, it keeps you from flying over the stages, and you get used to it eventually, but it’s antithetical to the concept of Kirby games! I can understand putting it into SSB as a balancing mechanism, but there’s no excuse here. I also disliked how most minibosses don’t move — they just stand still and attack you with something, which is kind of boring. It was fun that Kirby teams up with some other characters in this game, though, including Dedede, but unfortunately, the two player co-op modes that both of the SNES Kirby platformers had are missing here — this is one player only in the main game. In addition, the amount of collecting has been substantially ramped up. Instead of six or so shards to find, like in Kirby 2. this game has over a hundred. As usual in Kirby platformers finishing the game is easy, but this collection quest is much more difficult — some shards require specific power combinations not available in the stages they are in, so you’ll need to get through several levels with the right power, without losing it, to get those. It adds challenge, but is annoying at times as well. The game’s multiplayer mode consists of three somewhat Mario Party-esque minigames. One, the apple collection one, is somewhat boring, but the other two are fantastic. Hundred Yard Hop is very simple but ridiculously addictive fun in multiplayer, and the tile-dropping game is good as well. Overall, Kirby 64 is a decently fun game, but the slow gameplay, dpad-only controls (I know it’s a sidescroller, but I wanted analog controls, like Goemon’s Great Adventure has), and shard-collection frustration dragged it down. GGA is the better game overall, though I do love two of the minigames, and like the game. Four player multiplayer (three minigames only, main game is single player), on-cart saving.

Knife Edge: Nose Gunner – Knife Edge is the N64’s only lightgun-style shooting game. That is, you move a cursor around the screen and shoot enemies without any control over your movement. The game’s okay, but not great. Really, this game could be a lot better. If you do like rail shooters or lightgun games it’s probably worth a try — the game’s not entirely without its good moments, and some of the areas, and enemies, are fun to fight — but this game’s definitely a C-grade effort. It’s got no saving, for instance — you start from the beginning again each time, and there’s no savying of scores or anythign else either. This isn’t the SNES anymore, people… I know, a bunch of N64 fighting games don’t save either, but it’s stupid there too. Also, while through most of the game you can choose your route, on the final level the route is chosen randomly each time, and because the level is of course quite difficult, this means that you have no control over if you’ll be on an easier or harder path every time, and just have to try to memorize them all. It’s kind of frustrating. Oh well… I kind of enjoyed this game anyway, though I did give up after many tries at the final stage. But yeah, despite its mediocrity, lightgun and rail shooter fans probably should try this. The four player co-op mode’s a nice feature too, you won’t find that in most lightgun games or rail shooters from before the Wii, and even many of the ones on it! Four player multiplayer, no saving.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time is generally regarded as one of the greatest games ever made, and it is. OoT is the best console game ever made. I have loved the Zelda series for a long time, and OoT is one of the best of them. Zelda has a formula that few other games try to entirely emulate, and even fewer do well. This game does it right, with a great balance of action and adventure. Zelda has always been about exploration, puzzle solving, action, and bossfights, and this game has all of that, but with a new reformulation of the formula, and a move to 3d that worked better than almost anything. Of course, as with all games it is not flawless, but the overall package just can’t be beat. The controls were revolutionary at the time, and for good reason — the game’s “Z-targeting” system became the genre standard for 3d combat systems. The lockon range here might not be quite as long as in some later titles, but still, it works great. C-buttons are perfect for inventory items, too. Unfortunately this game has no item combinations like LA does, but oh well, it does have stuff that game didn’t, like magic, many more playable songs on your instrument, and a horse to ride. The game has a classic Zelda story, but it’s well told, and overall is one of the best stories in the franchise; of the “traditional” Zelda stories, where you have to save Zelda at some point and defeat Ganon, it’s the best one. Zelda is also a stronger character in this game than she usually is, and plays a relevant role in the story. That was good to see. All of the Sages’ stories are well done too. So yeah, the characters are good, the story is interesting, and the cutscenes look nice. The music, of course, is outstanding at all times, and is easily among the system’s best. The graphics are quite good as well. They show the usual limitations of their generation — for instance I have always thought that the “tree-walls” that block off your path look kind of silly — but there’s not much that could be done about that, I think. The overworld’s big enough. It is somewhat unfortunate that the overworld has less to do in it than in LA or MM, though; it’s fun to explore, but with so little to do there, and with an overworld that’s only so large, the gameworld may feel small and lacking in content compared to later 3d Zelda games. However, what is there is beautifully designed, and I’ve never lost my appreciation for how nice this game looks, as you’re riding Epona, or visiting the lake, or what have you. Also, importantly, OoT has far more to do in the towns than had ever been present in the series before; indeed, while previously towns were things you spent only relatively small amounts of time in, overall, in OoT they’re quite important, and are full of minigames, challenges, and more. LA may have been moving towards this, but OoT is well beyond it. The characters inhabiting the towns all have amusing, unique characteristics, too. It’s good stuff. The biggest star are the dungeons, though. The game’s nine dungeons are all huge, usually epic in scope and stunning in design. The dungeons start shorter, but by the fourth dungeon, they are long, complex affairs. My favorite dungeon was the Spirit Temple. Also, while many people complain about the Water Temple, it was always one of my favorites; the design is pretty cool, and I love the execution and challenge as well. The dungeon was hard, but not TOO hard. My least favorite dungeons are the third and fourth ones, Jabu-Jabu’s Belly and the Forest Temple. The Forest Temple has great atmosphere, but somehow I’ve just never liked it that much… even so though, all nine dungeons are very, very good. OoT set new standards when it released, and it’s still the very best of its series. One player, on-cart saving.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – Majora’s Mask, the sequel to OoT, is a somewhat controversial game, and rightfully so. While on the one hand it’s regarded as one of the most original Zelda games, which it is, it also has some design decisions which can be hard to like. Back when I got this after it came out, I wasn’t sure what kind of score it deserved, it’s so good in some ways but so annoying in others. The problem is, the core of its uniqueness is also its biggest problem. The game runs on a time system, so you only have a certain amount of time before the moon crashes and it’s game over. So, all of your actions are on the clock. No time to take your time and explore here. You do eventually find a song that doubles the amount of time you have, and it’s absolutely vital, but still, time is an everpresent issue. For instance, if you run out of time in a dungeon, you’ll have to go back to the start and start the whole thing over. I don’t think I should even have to say how awful that is. Also, after you beat each dungeon, it changes the world — so beating the ice dungeon melts a lot of the snow in that area, etc. The problem is, these changes reset when you go back in time, so if you want to see it without snow, you’ll have go to through the dungeon AGAIN and beat the boss again too! Why would they do it that way? It’s annoying! Similarly, when you reset time you lose all consumable items, so you’ll need to get arrows, sticks, etc. all over again. Some stuff can be stored in the bank in town, but you can’t always get back there, and you can’t store everything. All of the repeat elements that I had to redo over and over got annoying. In addition, there are only four dungeons, an extremely small number for a Zelda game. Some are good, like the Stone Tower temple, but others are mediocre, like the water temple, and there are far too few of them. The combat in this game is easier overall than OoT, too, and you can get white-rimmed hearts (halves damage) midgame, instead of only at the very end like in OoT. So yeah, combat-wise this game is easier, and dungeon-wise it is half as long. The main balancing factor against those is that the game has many sidequests, which are kept track of in your quest book, and many of these are pretty difficult. This is where much of the challenge in the game comes from, and plenty of the fun as well. Also, it is pretty cool that each character follows a path through the three days you keep repeating, so stores are only open during the day, the postman makes his rounds, etc. It’s cool stuff for a Zelda game. In addition, while the overworld is smaller than OoT’s (which I did find disappointing), there is a LOT more stuff in it, so you’ll probably spend more time in the overworld overall — there’s more to do. That’s great. So, overall, MM is a mixed bag, with some great elements, like the living town and more detailed world, and some beautiful areas, like Ikana Canyon, but also a lot of frustration and questionable design elements. SOme people consider this one of their favorite Zelda games, but I’ve always had a much more mixed view of the game. One player, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak required.

Lego Racers – Lego Racers is a Lego-themed kart racing game. It’s got okay graphics and gameplay, but isn’t incredible. The game’s a bit easy,the graphics aren’t amazing, the kart customization (you can build your kart up with Lego bricks), while cool, is somewhat limited… still, if you want another kart racer to play but have already played the Nintendo and Rare ones, it’s a decent choice. There aren’t many others on the N64, and the game’s certainly competent, even if it’s not excitingly great. Also on PC and Playstation. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (62 pages).

Lode Runner 3D – Lode Runner 3D is a sort of 2.5d, sort of 3d platform/puzzle game. It’s an N64-exclusive entry in this long-running series. In the game, you move along sidescrolling paths that curve through a 3d space, sort of like Iggy’s Reckin Balls. However, here the paths branch, so the game has a 3d movement element when you switch from one path to another. The goal, as always in Lode Runnner games, is to collect all of the gold and then reach the exit. Blocking your way are the Mad Monks, out to kill you like usual. You can dig holes to your left or right, to trap the monks or to cut through the ground to reach areas below. Each level generally has a specific solution, so it’s as much more more puzzle game as it is platformer. The 3d element is really cool and gives this game an original feel — even today, there aren’t too many games that play like this. Lode Runner 3D’s something of a hidden gem and is well worth playing. It’ll provide plenty of challenge, has good gameplay and design, and even has oncart saving. The graphics are average stuff, but the gameplay more than makes up for that. Overall though, play this game! It’s pretty good. One player, on-cart saving.

Mace: The Dark Age – Mace: The Dark Age is a 3d fighting game from Midway. An arcade and N64 exclusive, Mace is Midway’s only fighting game that was console-exclusive on the N64. Fortunately, they chose a good one to make exclusive — Mace is one of Midway’s better fighting games. Mace is a dark fantasy fighting game set in a medieval world, where a varied cast of characters fight over the great power of the Mace. While most Midway fighting games either are Mortal Kombat games or play like Mortal Kombat (see War Gods), Mace is its own thing. Mace has slower paced gameplay than MK, and is a weapon-based fighter too, from before MK added weapons. The slower pace makes me think some of Street Fighter; Mace doesn’t have the balanace an SF game would and is breakable, but still, it’s about as close to an SF-paced game as you’ll find from Midway. I like that; I always preferred SF to MK. The game has the fatalities you expect from Midway fighting games, and hidden characters too. The character designs in this game are pretty good, with a nice variety of fantasy medieval warriors, demonic soldiers, and comic figures. I like this game’s cast, it’s one of Midway’s better ones. As for the gameplay, this is one of the 3d fighting games where you do have 3d movement, but the 3d move is done with a separate button. R moves you into the screen, R+Down moves you towards. Yeah, it’s kind of limited, but it works well enough for the game. The characters all have standard special moves, combos, etc. as well. The arenas are pretty innovative for their time, or for the genre in general, as well — Mace arenas aren’t flat! Yes, Mace arenas can have multiple levels, steps, raised platforms, and more. They also have traps in them, for you to try to knock your opponent into. Stage edges either are walls ore damage areas that hurt you if you land in them (sort of like DoA1, I guess, in that respect); which it is depends on the stage and layout. The stages in this game are pretty cool and definitely make the game more interesting. Overall, the game is flawed — not all characters, or moves, are equal, and button mashing with certain characters can bring you a long way — but it’s a pretty good game even so, for its time, and is one of the N64’s best 3d fighting games. It is kind of lame it doesn’t save anything, but it’s good overall apart from that. Two player multiplayer, no saving. (You unlock the hidden characters with a cheatcode — look it up, and use it when you turn the game on each time!)

Mario Kart 64 – Mario Kart 64 is, in my opinion, still the game that all other kart racing games should be compared to. A substantial improvement over the SNES Mario Kart game, Mario Kart 64 is an exceptional masterpiece of game design. The tracks are all fantastic, the graphics are good enough, and the fun, particularly in multiplayer, is about as good as it gets. About the only flaw here is that the single player game won’t take all that long to finish. Even so, it is a lot of fun while it lasts. Only the DS and Wii Mario Kart games rival this title’s greatness, within the series. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving. Ghost saves are controller pak only, 121 pages per ghost.

Mario Party 2 – This is the only one of the three N64 Mario Party games I’ve played for any length of time, and while it is a fun multiplayer game, it does suffer in single player. Some multiplayer-focused games I do enjoy a lot in single player, like Gauntlet Legends or Rush 2049’s stunt mode, but this one… it’s okay (a lot better than Sonic Shuffle at least!), but it does get boring. Anyway, Mario Party 2 is the second Mario Party game, and it’s much improved over the first game — the controller, and thumb, destroying “spin the stick fast” minigames from the first game are gone here, thankfully. In their place are a wide variety of new minigames, some fun and others not so much, of course, but good overall. This is a good game for sure. I think it’s worth having at least one of the Mario Party games, and 2 or 3 are the better ones, on the N64. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Mario Party 3 (J) – Mario Party 3 is the third Mario Party game, and it’s pretty much the same basic thing as the second game, except with new minigames, new boards, and a few minor new modes. Unfortunately, since the US version of this game was the last game Nintendo released for the N64 before abandoning the system before its time, the US version is not cheap. I ended up getting this Japanese version in a lot with several other games (Doraemon, Flying Dragon SD). And… yeah, it’s pretty much more Mario Party, just with a language barrier that makes figuring out how to play it a little harder. Once you do figure out how to get into the main game, though, it’s the same Mario Party as ever. Well, minigame instructions are also in Japanese, but most games are simple enough to easily figure out. The new mode is a mode with very few minigames; instead, you go around and try to take as many of the board spaces as you can. Honestly though, it’s kind of boring, since the minigames are the best part about Mario Party games. The main tables and minigames are fine, but I don’t think this game is quite as good as Mario Party 2, language barrier aside. That game was quite an improvement over the first game, but this is pretty much more of the same. Also, as always, the game isn’t very fun in single player mode. Mario Party and Wii Party games just aren’t remotely the same when played single player, and Nintendo, Hudson, or the current series developers have never figured out how to solve that problem. This game certainly doesn’t do that. So yeah, probably just stick with Mario Party 2, for your N64 Mario Party needs — that game is cheaper. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Mario Tennis – Mario’s Tennis is, surprisingly or not, a very good tennis game. Free of the overdone super-smash things of Mario Power Tennis (GC) and beyond, this is a more solid game of tennis than that title; I do think the N64 title is the better, here. Choose a character, start a tournament, and play tennis… this is a great Mario-themed tennis game, definitely better than I was expecting it to be. The game has a similar character roster to the N64 Mario Party, Kart, and Golf titles, so there are eight characters to choose from. The game is for the most part a classic tennis game, just with Mario characters and a simple, arcadey style. Mario Power Tennis adds in super moves which completely change the game, for the worse in my opinion, but you don’t have those here; instead, you’ve got to actually play well to win. It’s great. The graphics are reasonably good as well. It’s not the system’s best, but the characters look like they should. There are various tournaments to play through, so the game has some single player life to it, but multi probably the biggest draw. Either way though, this is a great tennis game that’s well worth playing. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Mickey’s Racing USA – I reviewed this game once, but this later Rare title is an under-appreciated, but quite good, game. Mickey’s Racing USA is a good kart racing game with a solid cast of Disney characters, a lot of different tracks to race on, and fun, high speed gameplay. I do wish that it’d used the expansion pack and that they could have pushed the fog back more — it is somewhat noticeably present — but still, the game has good graphics and very solid kart racing gameplay. The game gets faster on each difficulty, and by the time you get to hard, it’s a quite fast, challenging game. This is a pretty good game, I definitely like the tracks, challenge, and design. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Mega Man 64 – This is a very, very (three years later) late port of Mega Man Legends from the PS1. It’s a solid, but unenhanced, port. All of the voice acting is still here, which is nice, but the failure to give the game true analog controls — instead, the analog stick controls Mega Man as if it was a d-pad — is a pretty serious letdown. This game released in 2001, over 3 years after the PS1 release… there’s NO excuse for not giving the game analog controls, none! Apart from that though, the graphics at least do benefit from the N64’s hardware features, and the game’s the same. It’s not very Mega Man like, and has little in common with the great platformer games, but on its own it’s a decently fun game. I didn’t go into this expecting very much, but while it definitely has its issues — the controls, not being very Mega Man like in gameplay, not getting powers from bosses, etc — as a standalone title it was more fun than I expected. One player, on-cart saving.

Micro Machines 64 Turbo – This is a port of Micro Machines V3, also on PC, PSX, and GBC. It’s a pretty good port of the game, and has good graphics and all the content of the other versions. Micro Machines is a great, classic racing game series, and this was the first effort at the game in 3d. It’s classic Micro Machines all right, with top-down gameplay, lots of tracks, and a high challenge level. However, the game is in 3d, and this comes into play with the camera. The camera moves around constantly, and it can make the game harder at times. This would also be an issue in MMV4 (PC/PS2/DS/PSP), and it is a real problem — until you memorize the courses, the shifting camera definitely can make them tougher than they are. I almost would rather play the GBC version; sure it needs passwords to save and doesn’t look nearly as good, but the camera’s static… Still, despite the camera this is a great game, well worth getting if you don’t have MMV3 for another system already. Oh, and as always in the Micro Machines series, it’s a fantastic multiplayer game. The MM series has a great, and unique, multiplayer system where all players race on the same screen, and the first player to hit the top of the screen gets a point. Over the course of the race the players fight over the points, trying to max out their gauge, or have the most points at the end. It’s crazy and fun stuff, and is always a major draw in the franchise. Eight player multiplayer (via controller sharing — two people on each controller, one with dpad and other with c-buttons), controller pak saving (8 pages per character file).

Milo’s Astro Lanes – Milo’s Astro Lanes is a bowling game, as the title suggests. However, instead of being earthbound, this is a futuristic bowling game in space. Each lane has a different design, with obstacles and tricks to learn on the course. So yeah, the game has a decent concept to make things a bit more interesting than average. The graphics are basic, with lanes floating in space and very simple, small hub areas to choose levels in. The game looks okay, but it’s quite simple for the platform. There are powerup icons on the courses too, and part of the strategy of the game is learning the powerups and deciding when to use each one. The bowling action itself is done well too, though. The ball and pin physics all work as they should. However, this is a very difficult game — even the very first matches will require very high scores to complete. The game may seem simple at first, but you’ll need to be very good to get beyond the second match. I find it maybe a bit too hard, actually… it’s frustrating to score well but still lose. Apart from that though, it’s good. I imagine that people good at bowling will have a much easier time with this game; I’m not all that good at it, clearly. The computer cheats, too — it adjusts its play to match, and slightly exceed, yours, during matches. This makes winning frustratingly difficult. I can’t compare this to the other bowling games on the N64, though, because I haven’t played the other two for the system. Four player multiplayer, Controller Pak saving.

Mischief Makers – Mischief Makers is a sidescrolling, 2.5d platformer from Treasure. The game is largely 2d, but there are some polygonal elements here and there, so it is a 2.5d game. The game centers around one thing, a grab-and-shake mechanic. Your character, Marina the robot, defeats enemies and interacts with objects in the world by grabbing onto them and shaking them with a voiced “shake-shake”. Yeah, it’s silly stuff, as is the anime-style plot in this game. Whether you like the game or not will basically depend on whether you like the shake-shake mechanic, because you will be doing a whole lot of it in this game. Yeah, the game does have somewhat lacking variety. Even so, it’s a pretty good game that any platformer fan should play — the unique mechanics aren’t like other games, and the game’s a lot of fun to play most of the time. One player, on-cart saving.

Mission: Impossible – This stealth action game, also on Playstation, was heavily hyped on the N64 before its release, but when it finally did come out, it was considered disappointing, or at least only average and not great like people were hoping. I’ve always had mixed opinions about stealth games — on the one hand, I like the concept, but on the other hand, I often have trouble being patient enough, or get frustrated after failing something repeatedly. This game’s like that sometimes. It is alright, though, with some okay puzzles, average graphics, and decent action, but yeah, it’s nothing outstanding. I haven’t gotten too far into the game, but it’s not really bad, just more average. One player, on-cart saving.

Monaco Grand Prix – Monaco Grand Prix is another F1 sim. This one isn’t licensed, though, so it doesn’t have the real cars and teams. As a game, it probably doesn’t quite match up to Paradigm’s F-1 World Grand Prix series, but it is pretty solid too, and is a good game for its genre. That is, I quickly get bored, but for what it is — a F1 sim on the N64 — it does a fine job. The graphics are good, the tracks are all here, and the game plays fairly well. I’d just rather play a different kind of racing game, though I have given this one a few plays here and there. Two player multiplayer, on-cart and controller pak to save (on-cart saves settings, driver names, and options, but seasons require an ~8 page controller pak file.)

Monster Truck Madness 64 – Based on Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness 2 for the PC, I found MTM64 fairly underwhelming despite some good reviews. The fog in this game is pretty close, and the graphics mediocre at best, first. Sure, it has four player play and a good number of tracks and monster trucks, but I wish I could see farther, and it’s just not as fun as many other N64 racing games are. I did enjoy the first MTM game on the PC back in 1997, but looking back it probably was because it was one of my first racing games for the new computer we’d gotten as much as anything… it’s not a terrible game, but it gets boring fast. This game is similar, except with weaker graphics because of the hardware. Of course, it also doesn’t help that I don’t care much about monster trucks. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

MRC – Multi Racing Championship – Another racing game from Imagineer, MRC was one of their first N64 games, and it’s pretty mediocre. The game has three tracks, and not a lot of options or modes either. The graphics are pretty poor for and N64 game as well; it looks far too close to a PSX or Saturn game for comfort. However, I do know a few people like this game, probably because it plays more like a ~1995-1997 PSX or Saturn racer too, much more so than most N64 racing games do. Also, the game is a little bit simmish, so you will need to learn the tracks if you don’t want to fail — it’s not an easy game. For me though, I consider this one of the weakest of the N64’s racing games. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (45 pages).

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon – The first N64 Goemon game was also the first Goemeon game Konami released in the West in years. Yes, after skipping the last three SNES games, and the PSX ones, Konami finally bought the series here again on the N64. MNSG is a 3d action-RPG-platform game with a large open world, and it’s a lot of fun. The graphics are simple and it looks very first gen, but then again it is from 1997, so it is first gen. The game also has some control issues — this is a 3d game, but doesn’t has OoT style lockon because that hadn’t been invented yet (this is a year before OoT after all), so you’re stuck with difficulty actually hitting your enemies, far too often. Hitting them in 3d can be tricky sometimes. However, the game is great even so. The large world is fun to explore, and there’s plenty to find as well. It makes the game feel somewhat Zelda-ish, and this is before OoT, too! If you can look past the visuals and get used to the controls, MNSG reveals itself to be a great adventure, lots of fun from beginning to end. I do wish the game lasted a bit longer, but still, it’s fantastic fun while it lasts. The overworlds, dungeons, Impact sections (complete with Japanese-language intro song!), bosses, and everything else have lots of character and are fun to explore through. So yeah, overall the game has a few issues, but it’s a good game on the whole. One player, controller pak saving (16 pages). This one also did require controller paks in Japan, I believe.

NBA Hang Time – NBA Hangtime is a home port of Midway’s third arcade basketball title. While Midway lost the NBA Jam name to Acclaim, they kept making games in the series, just under new names. The first of those was NBA Hangtime, and the second NBA Showtime (which I have for Dreamcast). Originally an arcade game, Hangtime was ported to multiple platforms (SNES, Genesis, GB, PS1, N64), but the N64 has one of the best versions. The game is classic NBA Jam, and has 2-on-2 arcade basketball, with that great NBA Jam gameplay that holds up so well. The graphics are quite good, too — this game is sprite-based, and looks quite nice on the N64. Of course it has real sprite scaling, as you’d expect for a 5th gen platform. As a result, the game looks and plays great. However, some of NBA Jam T.E.’s innovations are sadly cut out of this version, however, which is a real disappointment; overall, I like T.E. more than I do Hangtime as a result. Most notably, turbo mode (2x, 3x, and 4x speeds), Hot Spots, and Power Ups are all gone. Also, T.E.’s quarter-based player replacement system is gone. Instead, you can only switch players at halftime, instead of each quarter. This completely gets rid of the slight strategy element T.E. had in having to manage your players’ injury ratings (since the player on the bench healed up; remember that in T.E. there were only three players on most teams). Those first three mode removals are unfortunate, but that last change really is bad. I thought that the addition of injury ratings and quarter-based player replacement were probably the best thing about T.E. compared to the original NBA Jam. Why in the world did Midway remove it from their next game? That was a big mistake. There is one new feature, though, apart from the better graphics and the roster update: there is a player creation feature now. If you create players it’ll take up some memory card space of course, but it’s a nice feature to have. Midway’s later basketball games would bring this feature back, though; it’s not only in this game. Still though, despite its flaws, NBA Hangtime is a good game that is great fun to play, and I’d absolutely recommend it. It is a good arcade basketball game with some nice scaling 2d graphics and great gameplay. Unfortunately some feature cuts place it slightly below its predecessor in my opinion, but still, it’s a very good game. Four player multiplayer, Controller Pak saving (7 pages per player file, more for create-a-player files). Also on Arcade, PS1, SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (J) – Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most popular anime series of the last couple of decades, or at least it’s one of the best known in the West. It is a series about teenagers who fight in giant robot suits called EVAs, defending the Earth from monsters called Angels which are trying to destroy it. Well, that’s just the story on the surface; below that there’s a very complex story going on about the characters and Shinji (the main character)’s psychology that I won’t get into. Evangelion was an interesting anime, I liked it. In Japan there have been many Evangelion games, but most were adventure or board/card games; only a few are action games, and this was the first of those (there have since been PS2 and PSP Evangelion action games). As such, back during the N64’s life, this game became known as the “good Evangelion game”, because it’s the one that Western gamers could actually play. Is it actually a good game, though? Well… not really; it’s a below average collection of minigames of sorts, sadly. The GRAPHICS, however, are absolutely incredible! Seriously, Evangelion is one of the very best looking games on the N64, and should be on any list of the best-looking N64 games. This game looks fantastic, the EVAs look extremely impressive. They even get the animations and expressions down perfectly. The games’ presentation is also spot-on. The menus and cutscenes look like something straight out of Evangelion, and there are plenty of speech samples in this game, too. The music is also fantastic, and sounds just like the music from the show. The music is MIDI, so there aren’t voices in the ending theme (which is used in the end-level screen, cleverly enough), but still, the graphics and music in this game are outstanding.

But that gameplay? Yeah, that is the weak link here. The many cutscenes during missions are flashy, and the ingame graphics good as well, but the actual gameplay isn’t as good. The Story mode starts with several battles against Angels, 2.5d fighting game-style. You control your EVA, and can walk forward and back, do a weak attack with A, do a strong attack/grab with A+B plus a direction, block with B, or use your shield (AT Field) with C-down. The EVAs are huge, so the long delay between when you press a button and when something happens actually makes sense, sort of. I hope it was intentional, anyway. It is annoying and frustrating, but you’ll have to get used to it. Timing is key in this game, both in the fighting missions and later. Attacks, blocks, etc. must be done at the right time to succeed, and the game is not forgiving. AT Fields are great, but you can only use it occasionally; the bar on the center-left of the screen tells you if you can use it or not. When trying to break through an Angel’s AT Field with your own, alternate button presses on C-down and A if you want to succeed. The gameplay is simple, but hard at times. The first level isn’t too bad, but the second one is quite challenging, even on “Easy”. In addition to your and the Angel’s health (on the upper left and right corners), you also have a sync ratio between your pilot and EVA. There’s an extremely useful guide on GameFAQs that tells you which moves you can do depending on your sync ratio — the lower it goes, the fewer moves you can use. Fortunately the game saves your progress at each match, but still, I’m sure some people have just given up at level two. I sure was tempted to. If you get past match two, the game starts varying what you do in each mission. You play as Shinji in most of the 13 (13.5 really) missions, but Asuka has two (2.5 really, since one is split into two parts) missions, and Rei one. There is a sniping level (very short), a rhythm-style level where Shinji has to synchronize with Asuka (I hate this stuff…), some levels entirely about timed button pressing, and more, though it does return to some fighting-style levels later as well.

However, regardless of mission type the gameplay is never better than average, and that’s probably being kind. You don’t fight all the Angels from the TV show, either. Since there are only 13 full missions, some are skipped over, unfortunately, probably for cartridge space reasons. There are multiple difficulty levels to complete, though, and the second and third difficulties do each have one more level on the end, versus Normal, to encourage you to replay the game a few times. You also unlock a mission-select option after beating the game on Hard. Given the mediocre gameplay, though, you may or may not want to do that. There is also Simulation mode, which basically is just a series of target-shooting tests. You choose any one of the five Children — yes, here you can play as any of the five, including Kawada, Toji, and Rei, as well as the two from the Story mode. However, it really is just a shooting gallery, so that’s a minor bonus unfortunately. These Angel target-shooting tests are pretty hard to get a good rating in, though, despite their simplicity. Try to hit the weak points if you want to do well — it’s not easy. Overall, whether NGE is worth getting or not depends almost entirely on what you think of the anime. The game is easily playable for non-Japanese speakers who know the series, since menus are in English, the story is the same as in the anime, and the controls are easy to figure out, but the lacking gameplay is a problem. I highly doubt that people who don’t know, or don’t like, the anime would have much interest in this game, apart from looking at the quite impressive graphics, but I do like the anime, so yeah, I do think this game was worth getting. This game could have been a lot better, but fans of the series, or those who want to see some of the systems’ best graphics, might want to check this game out. It’s not the cheapest import, but isn’t one of the most expensive either, fortunately. I wouldn’t want to pay the cost for a boxed copy, though; as cool as that box looks in pictures it probably isn’t worth it. One player, on-cart saving.

The New Tetris – The New Tetris is an N64-exclusive version of Tetris. One of the premiere four player N64 puzzle games, along with BAM ’99 and Dr. Mario 64, The New Tetris is a very good game. The game has a techno-style soundtrack that sounds good, and it plays like a Tetris game should. The visuals are good, with solid 2d ingame graphics and menus. There is some 3d, in these monuments that you can build by getting enough points in the game, but the game’s mostly 2d, which is just fine for a puzzle game. As expected for a newer Tetris game, there are various different gameplay modes. Long-term play of course relies on your wanting to play again and again, but a lot of people love Tetris, so that shouldn’t be too hard. I don’t love Tetris as much as some people — I do get bored with this game after a while — but it is a pretty good Tetris game, and maybe the best Tetris game of its generation. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Nightmare Creatures – Nightmare Creatures is a port of the PC and Playstation game of the same name. It’s a third person, 3d action/adventure game from the early days of 3d, and the graphics and gameplay are both on the mediocre side. I know some people like this game, but I never have much at all… the controls aren’t good, I only occasionally like these third-person action-adventure games, and the gameplay certainly doesn’t make this one of the good ones. First, the controls. They’re not the worst, and you can run forwards, jump back, turn, jump, and strafe, but your motions can be tricky to get right, particularly with the even bigger problems — the camera and draw distance. This game has close, close fog — anything more than a few feet away is a black wall. Of course, it’s the same on the other platforms too, and that’s how it keeps the game tense, by having the enemies constantly jump out and surprise you, but it’s frustrating. I want to be able to see! The camera does the game no favors either; while it’s often behind-the-character, on occasion it takes some more … cinematic … angles, and you can be in trouble sometimes when the camera won’t show you where you’re going, or an enemy coming at you. Camera controls are limited, too. As for the combat, basically, the idea here is to hold down block until you see an opening, at which point you should start mashing the attack buttons until the enemy dies. It’s important to block before this, though — enemies do a lot of damage, and you die easily and can’t save very often. This is a pretty challenging game. I do like that there are two playable characters, male or female, and the graphics are okay with some decent art design and appropriate settings, but overall, this game isn’t very good. One player, controller pak (2 pages) to save.

NFL Blitz 2000 – A port of the arcade game, this is also on PSX and DC. I greatly dislike football as a sport, but have this because I got it for free. The game’s a solid version of NFL Blitz, with all of the arcade action you expect from a good Midway sports game — this game isn’t as sim-ized as Gretzky ’98 is, I believe, it’s still very arcadish.That’s good, Midway was great at making arcade style sports games, but not very good at sims. I played one match of this and kind of enjoyed myself, even though it’s football. Do know it’ll take a whole memory card to save though. I’d probably play a little more of it otherwise. Four player multiplayer, controller pak (123 pages, full card) to save.

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber – Ogre Battle 64 is the N64’s biggest epic Japanese strategy game. A sequel to the SNES classic, Ogre Battle 64 is a strategy game with RPG elements, and it’s a very, very good one. The game uses a mixture of 2d and 3d elements. The characters are sprites, and battles and town scenes are drawn, but the overworld maps are done in 3d. The graphics look good, and it shows what the N64 can do. The music’s great and fits the game perfectly. It’s catchy stuff. The story, about a rebellion against an evil empire, essentially, isn’t the most amazingly original thing, but it is good, and the game’s both long and challenging as well. The game has the story depth, layers, and good and evil paths you expect from Ogre Battle games. As usual in Japanese games you can’t customize your main character, and are given certain preset commanders to lead some of your forces, but otherwise you can entirely customize your army, choosing commanders and troops for your units, so everyone will probably play this game somewhat differently. In each map, first you listen to the story setting things up for the map to come, as the drama of Ogre Battle moves forward, and then you move to the action. In the main map in each mission, you move your various troops around, exploring the world, siezing towns, fighting enemies, and uncovering secrets. Battles are fought on the battle screen once two troops bump into eachother, and like in the original Ogre Battle, each fight goes for just two rounds only per combat — they don’t fight until one side loses, only a few times each. This means that you’ll have to use your forces wisely, and can’t just flatten everything with one group. The game rewards strategic thinking and good planning. Remember to explore towns too, it’s always fun to talk to the townsfolk. For negatives, as usual for epic Japanese games, some game systems are hidden, and there are a lot of secrets. Don’t expect to get the most out of this game without a guide. Still, it’s a great game, and the game does give you enough information to have a lot of fun, certainly. The game is a bit pricey today, but it’s expensive for a reason. I was lucky enough to find a cheap, complete copy, but I doubt everyone else will be too. Still, it’s worth it, Ogre Battle 64 is a fantastic, addictive epic strategy game. One player, on-cart or controller pak saving. The game also allows you to back up your save files to controller pak, or even use a save file on the controller pak, if you hold Start when you turn the system on.

Paper Mario – Paper Mario is one of Nintendo’s later N64 games, but it shouldn’t be forgotten because it’s outstanding. Paper Mario is an RPG, and is a sequel (from a different developer) to 1996’s Mario RPG on the SNES. The game’s fantastic, and a nice improvement over Mario RPG in my opinion. Intelligent Systems really did a fantastic job with this game; it’s my favorite RPG Mario game, and it’s really just a great experience beginning to end. The game’s not too long for an RPG, at only 30 hours or so, but it’s so much fun along the way that that doesn’t really matter. The game uses a unique “paper characters in a 3d world” visual style that looks fantastic. They really are paper, too — they float down like paper when falling, turn on edge, etc. The sequel made even more use out of this, but it’s in the first game too, and it’s amusing stuff. The battle system is inspired by Mario RPG, but it’s improved over that game, with even more fun action elements to the combat. Yeah, this game isn’t just selecting things from menus, you also have to do timing minigames of sorts in order to increase your damage, do timed button-presses to reduce damage when attacked, etc. These are all fun elements of the game. Mario is the main character here, but he does have party members, all coming from the Mario enemy library — a Bob-omb, a Koopa, a Koopa Paratroopa, a ghost, and plenty more join Mario. You can have one teammate fighting at a time along with Mario, and can switch at will. Each has their own special ability, so you need to choose the right one for each situation. The system works quite well. The story’s nothing special — Bowser has kidnapped the princess yet again — but the game has fun with it, and it is soemwhat self-aware of how many times that story has been done. There are also some short segments where you play as the kidnapped Princess, in between the main chapters where you play as Mario and his allies. These segments, and the silliness of the plot, are quite entertaining. So, overall, this game is fantastic. There aren’t many RPGs on the N64, but this one at least is great. One player, on-cart saving.

Penny Racers – Penny Racers is based on the Japanese Choro-Q toy line. These toys are, as the name suggests, small little cars that will drive forward when you put a penny on the back of them, or something; I’ve never used one myself. There are many Choro-Q games, some of which have gotten US releases (of other US releases there are several on the PS2 and one on the Wii, in addition to this game, for instance), but they’re very much of mixed quality. This game is no exception. While on the one hand it can be a fun multiplayer title, as a single player game the game has some serious issues. First, the handling takes a LOT of getting used to. The cars are very touchy, and you flip over and roll sideways very easily. Flipping is really the bane of this game… while there are certain situations where it’s actually good and you’ll want to do this, more often you’ll find yourself flipping out in the middle of a turn, and falling behind. It gets quite annoying. In addition, the graphics are fairly average. They’re fine, nothing bad, but nothing great either for sure. There is plenty to do if you can tolerate the controls, though — as you play you can wager parts for your car, and winning new parts gives you more options to upgrade your car with. There are a lot of different parts in multiple categories. There are also a bunch of cars to choose from, and a decent selection of tracks as well. But those controls… gah! This game does have a sequel that was only released in Japan, but I haven’t played it so I don’t know how it compares. Four player multiplayer, on-cart and controller pak saving (68 pages, and it is required). The on-cart EEPROM chip saves your races completed and lap times, but if you want a full single player game you need a custom car with parts you collect from winning, and that requires one of these gigantic controller pak files that also includes multiple custom track files; I wish the custom tracks were saved individually, if you wanted to make them, and the car file was just a small little thing, but no, one stupidly large file is the way they went with…

Perfect Dark – Perfect Dark is Rare’s second FPS on the N64, and it’s an exceptional game. Goldeneye versus PD is a frequent issue of debate, among N64 and Rare fans, and I’m squarely on the PD side — I think it’s a better game all around than Goldeneye (I don’t own Goldeneye, but have beaten it before.). Perfect Dark is a sci-fi FPS starring the British secret agent Joanna Dark. The game has great graphics, lots of options and modes, incredible attention to detail for the platform, lots of content, and more. The main game is of good length, and has three difficulties, like Goldeneye, to make it even longer. Higher difficulties add more objectives, not just harder enemies. The game also has an arena challenge mode, where you fight against bots in a series of challenging stages, a standard multiplayer mode with bots (you can have up to eight!), a co-op mode, a counter-op mode where one person is Joanna and the other controls the regular enemies in the stage, and more. The game’s challening but beatable — if even I can finish this game on Agent, and get to the last mission on Secret Agent, anyone can. The story is good and well told for the genre, and the cast of characters are reasonably interesting and at times amusing (Elvis the alien… ). Perfect Dark really has it all, and is the N64’s most full-featured FPS. I don’t know if it’s my favorite N64 FPS or not — it quite likely is, but it does have some tough competition — but it’s a very, very good game. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak enhanced, and required for the main game.

Pilotwings 64 – The sequel to the Mode 7 SNES launch title, Pilotwings 64 was again a launch title, this time for the N64. Pilotwings 64 is the N64’s only civilian aviation game, but while it is a bit short, fortunately it is a good game. The game was made by Paradigm, so it’s Western-developed, and they do a good job with the franchise. There are multiple islands to explore and several different events, so it’s got more locations than the one island in Pilotwings for the 3DS. Each event controls differently, of course, and the three main events vary in difficulty. The islands are fairly small, but still, the variety is nice. As for the graphics, the game is clearly a launch title, and there is a definite draw distance, but I think the game looks reasonably good. It’s got that clean, nice Nintendo look. I wasn’t sure if this game would hold up or not, but it ended up being good. It’s too bad it has no multiplayer and isn’t longer, but what’s here is good. One player, on-cart saving.

Pokemon Puzzle League – Pokemon Puzzle League is a Westernized port of the never-released Japanese title Panel de Pon 64, or, alternately, it’s the sequel to Tetris Attack and prequel to Planet Puzzle League. Whatever you call it though, Pokemon Puzzle League is a great game. I do kind of wish that it had the original Panel de Pon theme instead of Pokemon, because I didn’t like Pokemon at all back in the ’90s (I know, Nintendo fan but I couldn’t stand Pokemon), but apart from that this game is great. NST made the port, and I must admit that they did a good job of making the game feel a lot like the Pokemon TV show. The game has a story mode, endless modes, puzzle mode, and more — there’s a lot of content here. It doesn’t have a three or four player mode, unfortunately, but it as just about everything else you expect from Tetris Attack/Puzzle League. There’s one unique mode you won’t find in Planet Puzzle League, too — 3d stages, where the field is a rotating 3d ring of tiles. 3d mode is pretty awesome, it’s too bad that they dropped it from the most recent Puzzle League game. Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Polaris SnoCross – Polaris SnoCross, from late 2000, is one of the N64’s last racing games, and it’s a pretty much unaltered Playstation port. Both versions got awful reviews, so set your expectations low. This is the N64’s only snowmobileing game, but that doesn’t mean it’s really worth playing. However, for a snowmobile game, this actually isn’t too bad. The graphics are decent, with a nice sharp look, first. The game clearly has visually benefitted from the move to the N64. The audio is incredibly horrible, though — the songs are literally around ten seconds long and looping. It’s painful. Fortunately, gameplay is a bit better. This game is bland and generic, but I found myself having fun, actually. The game’s simple — race against three other snowmobiles and try to finish in first. The game’s got lots of catchup, so you’ll catch up without too much difficulty unless you fall far back, but can’t build up a big lead without some luck. The tracks, of which there are about ten, are decently designed, and do have some minor alternate routes to keep things a bit more interesting. The physics are somewhat iffy, though — some hits that look like they should knock you down won’t, while some minor taps will send you flying. The best solution is to try to avoid hitting walls, ever. The game’s also somewaht easy — there are a fair number of circuits, but each is only three races, and because you can upgrade your snowmobile as you go, as you win the game gets easier and easier. It’ll be over in a matter of hours. Overall, this game is certainly not as good as Sled Storm on the PS1, but it is better than some other snowmobile racing games from that era, so it’s not a total loss. Polaris SnoCross isn’t quite as bad as reviews say — I think it’s okay. Generic, too short, and kind of disappointing, but not completely awful. This game has a sequel of sorts, Sea-Doo HydroCross, but that was only released on Playstation; the N64 version was one of the many casualties of the fading final year of the N64. I’m not sure if I’m sad about that or not… maybe? I’d have to play the PS1 version to see. Anyway though, don’t spend much, but this one’s nothing great, but is a decent diversion for a few hours. Four player, controller pak saving (21 pages).

The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction – Based on the popular, and amusing, cartoon, this game was released in late 2001, and is one of the later N64 releases. However, the game is abysmal. Seriously, don’t buy this, it’s the worst game I own for the Nintendo 64 — yes, it somehow manages to dethrone War Gods for that “honor!” This is a 3d fighting game perhaps somewhat inspired by Power Stone, but the designers were either incompetent or had no time to actually make a half-decent game, and the results are horrible. This game was also released on the Playstation, and this game feels like a down-port of that version, but oddly it seems to have released on N64 a month before PS1. On PS1 probably this game doesn’t stand out nearly as much in its badness, since there are so many bad PS1 games, but games this awful almost never also released on the N64… but this one, somehow, did. This is a 3d fighting game where you fight in tiny little arenas. The game has six arenas and nine characters (the three Powerpuff Girls and six villains), but extends its single player game by not giving you the ending until you beat all 6 rounds with each PPG member. When it comes to gameplay, though, the game has very little in terms of move variety. You can punch, kick, block (C-left/right), punch or kick repeatedly to do a very basic “combo”, jump plus punch or kick, and that’s about it. You can also block, but it’s hard to use, since it only blocks one hit, no more. This means that a block must be followed immediately with an attempted attack, or at least a jump, and you cannot block continuing enemy attacks — you’ve got to try to get out of the way. What a bizarre design decision, and it’s a bad one for sure. In a game where skill mattered that could potentially be interesting, but in this it’s just frustrating. On that note, jumping is the only good way to get out of a “combo”, when you are being hit by one. And by “combo” I mean “mashing one of the attack buttons repeatedly”, because that’s all you have to do to keep an attack going that only a well-timed jump or block plus jump or attack can get the victim out of. The AI will combo you a lot, so learn how to get out of them. This system gets very annoying, very fast, and is quite awful game design. Regardless, it’s stupid and horribly designed. Why is blocking so hard in a game that otherwise involves almost no skill? It’s bizarre! Also, you can try to throw objects in the arena at your enem (to stun them), but actually hitting them is hard, while they will hit you almost every time with the objects they throw. Argh.

The controls are also bad, because jump is mapped ONLY to the Z button, while L does nothing. So, if you want to use the D-pad, somehow you have to use it with Z, which is not going to be comfortable. Horrible design! The controls are not particularly responsive, either, I don’t think. However, the graphics are reasonably nice, honestly. The arenas are very small, but somewhat detailed, and character graphics are okay. The music, however, is another story. On the N64, this game has only one music track, the Powerpuff Girls theme, which plays in the menu and during every match. Yes, really. The rendition of the song isn’t that great, either. Unacceptable. Also, compared to the PS1 version, that version has a CGI intro video, while the N64 has a plain-text-only intro, without even any stills or something, like competent games would. And the text’s font is so bad that I honestly couldn’t read some of the words. Really. Also, there’s more speech on the PS1 version — on PS1, but not on N64 (in text or speech), there are silly little stage intro lines and it says the characters’ names before the fight. Characters do speak furing fights though on the N64, for their moves and such. Also, the PS1 version supports memory-card saving. On N64, bizarrely, saving is password only, making this one of only two N64 games I know of with password-only saving (the other is Charlie Blast’s Territory). However, the N64 version does have better in-fight graphics, thanks to its much cleaner graphics, so there is that. Overall, PPG:Chemical X-Traction is shamefully incompetent, horrible game for the N64. It may or may not be the overall worst game on the N64, but either way, it is definitely near the bottom of the list. Two player multiplayer, password save. Also on PS1 and PC.

Quake II – Quake II for the N64 was Activision’s first and only N64 FPS, and it’s not the port many people may have been expecting. Instead of being a port, like Quake 1 is for the N64, Quake II is more like Forsaken 64 and Doom 64, and has all-new level maps and some gameplay changes. Quake II isn’t one of my favorite FPSes on the N64, with a somewhat bland visual style and gameplay I just don’t like quite as much as the Rare or Acclaim FPSes on the system (or Doom 64), but it is a solid effort, and it was great to finally see an id-based N64 FPS with a four player mode. The levels do have some minor puzzle elements, in addition to lots of shooting, which is nice, and the game isn’t as unfairly hard as the earlier Acclaim N64 FPSes are, either. So yeah, it’s a good game with some good gameplay and all-new levels. I’d just rather play PD or Turok. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (3 pages). Expansion Pak supported.

Rally Challenge 2000 – Rally Challenge 2000 is Imagineer’s fourth and last N64 racing game. Released in Japan in 1999 and the US in 2000, this game has the best graphics and most content of the four. Yes, it’s an Imagineer racing game which actually looks decently good! Nice work. I like the graphics in this game; they’re not amazing, but they’re quite solid for the system. Each track looks different, and the car models are done well too. Rally Challenge 2000 has nine cars and nine tracks as well, so there’s more content here than in their previous games. The tracks have no shortcuts, as you’d expect from a rally game, but they’re all fairly well designed. There are no tracks anywhere near as bad as most of GT64’s tracks, for instance, thankfully. I came into Rally Challenge 2000 with low expectations, because the game has average review scores of around 6/10, or maybe 6.5 on the high end, but it surprised me — this game may not be great, but it certainly is fun! The racing is done well, controls are good, graphics are solid, and the track designs are good, too. The game does have some flaws that do hurt the game, but it is good overall. For modes, there are three — Arcade, Championship, and Versus. Arcade mode was inspired by Sega Rally. Here, you choose one of three sets of tracks. In each set, you’ll go through three tracks, doing one lap on each course, just like Sega Rally. Try to catch up to the computers and win — and yes, like Sega Rally, it’ll be quite tough. There are nine cars in each race, one of each of the nine in the game. The game will save your best lap time on each track. Arcade mode is fun. Versus mode works as you expect — choose a track and go. The game does have four player support, unlike the other Imagineer games. Championship mode has more problems, though. The basic concept is your standard points-based championship that goes through all nine tracks and allows saving between races, so this mode is more involved than the others. You do three laps per race in this mode too, not just one. There’s more added than just that, though — this mode also adds car customization and car damage. Customization allows you to adjust four different sliders, for the gear ratios, tire type, etc. I have no idea what to do with these, I know nothing about such things (though there is a guide on GameFAQs with some good suggestions for what settings to use in the game; quite helpful). You can save three car customization settings. The car damage element is probably the toughest thing about Championship mode, though — your car will wear down as you drive, so by the third lap your car will be harder to drive. Tire type does affect this, but it’ll be there at least somewhat with any of them. Championship mode is, as a result, MUCH more difficult than Arcade mode — while I’ve finished in the top three in all three Arcade mode championships, I can’t get above seventh in Championship mode races. It’s just brutal. Still though, this game is at least average, and is a fun game. Four player multiplayer, on-cart and Controller Pak (2 blocks) saving, both required. The on-cart part will save the options, car customization settings, and your best time in each track, but you’ll need to make a 2-block file to save your progress in the 9-race championship mode.

Rampage: World Tour – Rampage: World Tour started Midway’s rebirth of the Rampage series. The first Rampage, a popular ’80s arcade game that was ported to the NES and other systems, didn’t immediately get a sequel, but with this game, it finally got one. As in the original, you play as three monsters, and go around destroying cities. The monsters are humans who were transformed into monsters in science experiments gone wrong, and now you’re getting your revenge on humanity by levelling all of its cities, from a 2d side-scrolling view. Yes, this game is entirely 2d. The graphics are okay, but aren’t anything great, and use a pre-rendered style popular in the ’90s. The game has a simple concept, but it’s a simple series. You walk left or right, jump onto buildings to grab onto them and climb them King Kong style, and punch and kick them into rubble. There are human tanks, helicopters, soldiers, etc. shooting at you. Lots of hits cannot be avoided, as always in Rampage games; the series requires a little skill, but luck and endurance are more important. Rampage is a series which is fun for a little while, but gets old fast since there is never any variety whatsoever. World Tour tries to help that a bit with several different city environments, but the base gameplay never changes and does not require enough skill or strategy to not get tedious. It’s always been that way in Rampage games, and it is here. However, it is a fun game for a while, and unlike in the arcade version of World Tour, or any version of the first Rampage, the console versions of World Tour do let you save your progress. That is great, and that’s one reason to get this game for the N64 instead of just playing the emulated arcade version that was included in various Midway games and collections; there you’d have to play the entire long game in one sitting, which just is too boring to endure. As a result of that, the N64 version of Rampage: World Tour is still the best version — it’s the only one with both three player support AND saving. On that note, unlike the two-players-only PS1 or Saturn ports, N64 World Tour supports three player simultaneous play, which is great. The first Rampage was always a two player only game, but World Tour’s arcade version had three player support, and this does as well. Overall though, Rampage: World Tour is a somewhat average game. The game is a good port of an average game. The game has a sequel released in the arcades, PS1, and N64 called Rampage: Universal Tour, but I don’t have that one. There’s also a final PS1-exclusive one, Rampage Through Time. Both games are basically rehashes of this game though, with the same gameplay but some new environments and monsters to play as. Finally, there’s Rampage: Total Destruction for the GC/PS2/Xbox/Wii. It adds some new things to the series, such as isometric 3d gameplay (side-view-with-depth stuff, not full-roaming 3d); it’s alright. It’s still Rampage though, for good and bad. Rampage: World Tour is, ultimately, repetive, simplistic, and gets boring after a while. However, it’s fun to wreck cities for a while, and the game does save, so sure, pick it up if you like this kind of thing and it’s pretty cheap. Three player multiplayer, Controller Pak saving (7 pages). Arcade port, also on PS1 and Saturn. The arcade version is also included in Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and Rampage: Total Destruction.

Re-Volt – Re-Volt is a simmish RC car racing game from Acclaim. Released on the PC, Dreamcast, N64, and Playstation, the game is far better on the former two platforms than on the latter two. Indeed, I can’t recommend that anyone with a Dreamcast should consider buying this game. Stick to the far superior DC version. For those who do want to play it, however, Re-Volt for the N64 has some good graphics for the system, and has all of the content too including all the tracks and cars, the track editor, four player splitscreen, and more, but they had to make some significant compromises here, versus the DC and PC. First, the framerate is worse. Smooth on the Dreamcast, the framerate’s quite choppy here and it does affect gameplay. I wouldn’t complain, because I can normally tolerate somewhat low framerates, but here it actually makes the game harder versus other versions. In addition, some moving track elements are gone — the opening and closing doors on the supermarket tracks are MIA here, for example, and many other things. It makes the tracks a little less fun to race on. Also, while the graphics are good, there is fog, and it’s a bit close for comfort, too. Acclaim kept pushing the N64 about as far as it could go, visually, but the results were many games with iffy framerates. THis is one of the worst of them, honestly. It’d be tolerable if this was the only version of the game, because the core gameplay IS fun — Re-Volt is a hard, hard game, with tough, realistic handling, interesting course layouts, and plenty of game to get through once you master the controls — but… play it on Dreamcast, or PC if it works on your system. Don’t play it on N64 unless you’re desperate. Oh, Re-Volt has a sequel of sorts, RC Revenge for the PS1 and PS2 only. It drops most of the sim elements in favor of arcade action. I doubt very much it’s as good as Re-Volt, and got worse reviews, but haven’t actually played it. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (16 pages for the main game file, 28 pages per track made in the track editor.). Expansion Pak enhanced (Hi Res mode, lower framerate but better graphics)

Resident Evil 2 – Resident Evil 2 is a very good, impressive port of the Playstation original. The port was done by teh US studio Angel Studios, and they did a great job cramming the whole two CD game onto one 64MB cartridge. Very few sacrifices were made — the only cuts are that video quality (in the FMVs) isn’t quite as good, and some videos are shared by both players instead of being slightly different for each. Apart from that, it’s the exact same game that took two discs on the PS1, except with better ingame graphics, an optional better control scheme never to be repeated in the series, and some exclusive bonus content. I have always had less interest in actually playing RE games than I have in thinking that I should like them because I like graphic adventure games, so I haven’t gotten anywhere near the end of this or any other RE game I own, but it is a very good version of the game, certainly. The higher-detail polygon models look great, and I love the real analog movement option — tank controls aren’t the worst, but when you’ve got real analog controls as an option too, it’s not a hard decision. It’s too bad Capcom itself never has allowed this as an option in the series. The game doesn’t have the Battle mode that the PC/DC/etc. versions add, but it does have some remixed modes with different item locations, and added info messages telling more of the story. It also has optional content locks, for reduced gore and green blood, if anyone wants them. By default they are off. Overall, this is one of the better versions of RE2 out there. One player, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak enhanced.

Ridge Racer 64 – Ridge Racer 64 may be based on the Namco series that had been Playstation exclusive, but the N64 game was made by Nintendo’s then-new American studio NST. RR64 released after all three PS1 RR games, but isn’t a straight port of any of them — the game is N64 and DS exclusive (released on the DS as RR DS, but it’s the same game). For courses, RR64 includes both variations on the track from the first Ridge Racer, one new variant based on the RR1 track, the three variants of the track from Ridge Racer Revolution, and three variants based on a new course, for a total of five old and four new variants. This game doesn’t have as many tracks as R4, much less most of the newer RR games (Vita version excepted, of course ), but still, while more tracks would be great, it’s enough to have some decent variety. It’s certainly worlds better than those first two PS1 games. It’s got a lot more to do than those games, too, though again R4 does have a longer campaign. As opposed to the team season championship mode from that game, it’s much simpler in RR64 — you simply have to win a series of individual races. The game’s a couple of dozen races long I believe, beginning to end, so it’s not short, but not as long as R4, or other newer Ridge Racer games, either. The game does try to make up for it with a fairly high difficulty level, and it somewhat succeeds. The game has good production values, too — it looks quite slick. The graphics are at least as good as well, and look quite nice. The game clearly has better visuals than any of the PS1 games. The game also has four player splitscreen (don’t bother looking for that on any other Ridge Racer game! This is the only one with it, I’m pretty sure.), a good number of cars, and more. There are two handling options, but both are classic, drift-heavy Ridge Racer stuff. So, overall, it’s a pretty good classic-style Ridge Racer game. The question is, how much do you like Ridge Racer? I’ve never been much of a fan, myself. Maybe part of it was that I identified it so much with the Playstation, but just looking at this game on its own — and RR64 was my first serious exposure to Ridge Racer — the game’s tough, frustrating, and overly hard. You must win races to progress, and you start far, FAR behind the lead car, so you basically have to race catchup through the whole race, with the hopes of catching the leader late in the race. I prefer racing games where you all start together and have to outrace your competition, as opposed to this stuff… this game’s frustrating. I don’t entirely like the handling, either; the auto-drifts are odd, I don’t really like the style. RR64 may have good graphics, style, and a decent amount of content, but there are plenty of other N64 racing games I’d rather play. Still, overall it’s an okay to good game worth a look. I’ve just always had some issues with the series’ design. It’s better than the DS version for sure — the analog controls make a difference. However, in the end I’d rather play almost any of Midway’s N64 racing games than this… Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Road Rash 64 – Road Rash 64 may be based on an EA property, but sort of like Ridge Racer 64, the game’s actually developed and published by a different studio. The game is okay, but not great, and I find it gets boring after not too long. Road Rash 64 was developed by Pacific Power & Light and published by THQ. The game started out as a port of Road Rash 3D on the Playstation, but it ended up as an entirely different game. Like Road Rash 3D the game has polygonal graphics, but this N64 game has much better graphics than the PS1 game, for sure. The game has decently good 3d. There is fog in the distance, which can be a little distracting, but it’s far enough back that it doesn’t affect gameplay, and the environments are large — you won’t find any rails holding you on the course here, the tracks are surrounded by wide expanses of grass and hills. Many people probably will prefer the 3DO/etc. Road Rash game’s sprites-and-polygons mix, overall, and I probably would agree with that, but this game doesn’t look too bad. The music’s rock music with vocals, which of course fits the motorcycle racing theme well. As for the gameplay, it’s fairly standard Road Rash stuff — you drive through long, one-way courses on a motorcycle, trying to finish first and beating up the other racers along the way. Of course, there are cars and pedestrians to avoid (and run over) as well. The tracks in this game are wide and not always exciting, so the focus really is on fighting over challenging driving. I find driving more interesting than fighting, in this kind of game, so I think I might actually prefer Road Rash 3D to this game, oddly enough. That game’s hideously ugly, but is much more about driving than this. Road Rash 64 enhances the fighting element even more by keeping the field in a tight pack most of the time — there’s usually a lot of bikes all mashed up together whacking on eachother. It’s a decent game. Still though, after a few races I get bored with this game. it’s not bad, but I would have liked it more with harder, more interesting tracks and more emphasis on the racing. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (1 page per player file). Expansion Pak enhanced — it adds an optional High Res mode. High Res mode still has a good, solid framerate, so turn it on.

Roadsters – Roadsters is Titus’s second racing game for the N64, after Automobili Lamborghini. Unlike that game, this one’s multiplatform and can also be found on Dreamcast and Playstation. Expect it to be worse on PSX, and very similar to maybe slightly better on DC, though apparently the DC version is actually missing some graphical elements from the N64 game. The N64 version came first, though, with the other two releasing months later. Titus clearly put some effort into this game, and it’s perhaps their best game on the N64 — yes, it’s an actual quality Titus game! The game does have some signs of being a Titus racing game, though. It’s entirely focused on driving with normal cars, with few gimmicks or frills beyond the nice graphics and car customization. There’s no limited use of turbo, and no realistic handling, weapons, crazy drifting, or anything of the sort here, like with all of their racing games. It’s just standard, generic arcadey racing. They tried to make it sort of a sim, but it really isn’t, many cars have very easy controls. However, even if that’s all it is, it’s somewhat good at it. First, the graphics are quite good — this is a visually impressive game with a good sense of speed and a solid framerate. The graphics might be the best thing about this game, in fact, as each track is full of pretty nice looking environments and scenery. The cars, all licensed, open-roofed roadsters as the title suggests, look great as well. Because all cars are open-roofed, you can see your driver too, so you’ve got a decent selection of drivers to choose from. The game has no fog, too — you can see to the horizon. It’s just too bad that the gameplay’s so much blander than the graphics… Titus almost had something here. However, even if the gameplay’s nothing special, the game’s fun enough that arcadey racing game fans should try it out. It’s worth seeing for sure, and the gameplay’s not bad, just bland. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (13 pages). Expansion Pak enhanced. It doesn’t give you an optional hi-res mode; instead, whatever it does is enabled by default.

Robotron 64 – Robotron 64 is a significantly improved port of Robotron 3D from the Playstation. The most important improvement on the N64 is the camera — instead of being stuck far too close in to the field, on the N64 you can zoom it out and get a good view of the whole field. Very important fix, always use the Arena camera angle! As for the game, it’s a good, but not amazing, update of the all-time classic Robotron 2084. The game has a solid, up-tempo techno soundtrack that fits well with the action. The polygon graphics are just okay, with some somewhat odd art (your character’s a strange-looking guy) and aren’t as timeless as the sprites of the early ’80s classic, but still, it’s a fun game. The game plays like Robotron, as you move around with the analog stick, and fire with the C-buttons. Naturally the N64 controller works well for this; it’s not dual analog, but it’s the next best thing. The game is too easy for too long, and it lets you save after levels too, something that makes it even easier, but even so, it’s fun to just run around and blast robots. Fortunately, the game does finally start to get challenging after level 50, so it eventually puts up a fight. It just takes a while to get there. If you save, of course, you can just keep trying and quickly get through the whole game, so I’d recommend that anyone decent at arena shooters not save except unless you want to stop playing, because otherwise the game’s not challenging enough. Once you get to the tougher parts though, it’s fun. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (16 pages).

Rocket: Robot on Wheels – Rocket: Robot on Wheels is a 3d platformer from Sucker Punch, the team that would go on to make Sly Cooper and be bought by Sony. Their first game was an N64 exclusive, however, and it’s a great one. Rocket is a physics-based 3d platformer. IN the game, you play as a robot who needs to save the futuristic theme park you work in. Each level is themed after something that could be in a theme park, and it’s got good variety. The graphics are somewhat bland, with only average models and a definite draw distance, but the physics modeling and variety make this game much more interesting than just looking at the graphics would suggest. I wasn’t too impressed by this game’s graphics when I got it back in 2000 or so, but I was quite impressed by the gameplay. Your robot has real physics when he jumps, for instance, so you’ll bounce off of things appropriately. You can also use grappling arms, beams to throw balls with, etc, and all of the stuff you interact with bounces and moves as it realistically should. Some pretty cool puzzles result. This game’s usual 3d platformer minigames are as likely to involve something with physics (throwing, or what have you) as anything else, though of course it’s also got plenty of enemies to fight and large worlds to explore. Overall, Rocket’s really a must-play for 3d platformer fans. Sucker Punch made a pretty original game here, and it’s still one of their best works; I like this more than the Sly trilogy, those games are quite good but feel more generic than Rocket does. Rocket’s got more originality, and those original ideas work. One player, on-cart saving.

San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing – San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing is a significantly feature-enhanced conversion of the arcade games San Francisco Rush and SF Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition. There’s also a bad Playstation version of the original Rush arcade game, but ignore it — it’s bad, and has none of the N64 version’s added content, so it has less than half the number of tracks and cars, and no coins to find, to name just a few issues. Midway Arcade Treasures 2 does have a straight port of the arcade game, so it has better graphics, but that doesn’t have the coins to find, or multiplayer. As for this version though, it’s great. SF Rush is my favorite racing game series, and the series got off to a very good start on the N64. SF Rush really is one of the N64’s best 1997 racing games; there’s some tough competition that year, but it’s a fantastic game. The game is very, very difficult, with a strict time limit and tough AI that will blow right past you if (when) you mess up, but if you can learn the tracks and actually get good at this game, it’s amazing. I do wish the AI was more dynamic — they mostly just follow a line, and stay fairly close together (and mostly ahead of you until you get good). Oh well. The graphics are okay, but not great; the system would do better later on. Similarly, the music’s alright, but not the best. Still, the environments are large at least, so it is doing a decent amount. The game has a total of seven tracks: the three from the original arcade game, three new tracks designed for this home version, and, hidden away behind an unguessable cheat code, a slightly stripped version of the The Rock track. Yes, the second arcade version Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition, was originally planned to have only one new track, Alcatraz. However, they saw the three tracks the N64 team were making, and decided to add those to the arcade game too, so Rush the Rock has seven total tracks. Graphics aside they’re the same here, all long, complex, and full of challenging turns, jumps, and more. The handling is tough and somewhat realistic — you’ll have to learn the courses, these cars won’t turn on a dime. Of course, as is Rush-standard, they also go flying in the air when they hit a jump, and the tracks have plenty of shortcuts, often with jumps on them, to find. All seven tracks are great, and I like Rush handling. The version of Alcatraz was not supposed to be available in a home game yet when this released (they wanted people to go to the arcdes to play that track), so it’s hidden behind a crazy password, but you can find the code on the net now of course. It has some stuff removed, in order to squeeze it into the tiny amount of remaining space on the cartridge, but it’s pretty cool that it’s there. The game also has coins to get in each track, in order to have something to do beyond just trying to get good at this quite challenging game. The coins aren’t available in any other versions, of course. Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition is one of my favorite arcade racing games ever, and while the N64 version can’t match its 3DFX-powered graphics, it does play just as well. This is a fantastic game, one of the best. Two players, controller pak saving (16 pages).

Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA – Rush 2 is an N64-exclusive sequel to the first Rush game for the N64. It runs in the same engine as the original game, so expect only a minimal graphical improvement if any. That’s too bad, as Rush 2049 shows, the N64 can do better than tis. The tracks also aren’t as interesting as the first game’s tracks are, either — these tracks are even longer, with fewer shortcuts and more cruel track elements to memorize (stupid walls in the road, where you have to know to turn to a side path!). Car control works pretty much the same as the first game as well, which is great. The game does have some AI improvements over the original game, so it’s not quite as brutally hard, which is nice. Rush 2’s still tough, but not quite AS tough. I like that. Also, as the name suggests, this game’s tracks are set across the USA. San Francisco is a fantastic racing game setting and overall probably can’t be beat as a place to put a racing game, but it’s cool to see some other locations too. The game has quite a few tracks, too — more than the first game had for sure. There are some fun unlockable ones as well, such as one where you drive through a giant version of the Midway offices. This was also the first Rush game to have a Stunt mode, set on its own Stunt course. There’s only one Stunt course, but it’s a big arena full of jumps. You get points based on the types of spins and flips your car does in the air after you launch yourself off of the jumps. The music’s okay, and is similar to the first game’s. There are coins to find again too, to unlock stuff and for additional stuff to do. Some are quite hard to get. It’s outstanding fun, but Rush 2049’s addition of wings makes Rush 2 stunt mode seem somewhat frustrating in comparison… there’s no way to readjust yourself in the air, so you’re just at the mercy of where you go, and that means even more explosions on impact than in Rush 2049. Still, it was a great start. A friend of mine in college loved this game the most of the N64 Rush games, but it’s always been my least favorite… still, it is Rush, so it is a very good game, one of the best. It’s also N64 exclusive, you can’t play this elsewhere! Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (34 pages).

San Francisco Rush 2049 – Before I begin, this is my favorite racing game ever, my favorite third party N64 game, and my most played console game ever. This is a game I still play on a regular basis to this day, and rarely has it not been in my N64 at least once every month or two since I got it in early 2001. Yes, I love this game more than almost any other. As for the game, it is a vastly enhanced arcade port (provided that you’re using an Expansion Pak; you are, right? Use one for this game!). There was another version of this game on Dreamcast, and that version was later ported to the PC, GC, XBox, and PS2 in the Midway Arcade Treasures 3 collection, but while they are similar, there are some differences of note between the N64 and DC versions of the game — the DC version has polygon-wise nearly identical, but sharper, graphics (I will note the differences later), and allows 3-4 players in race mode, while the N64 version is 1-2 only there. It also doesn’t have the slight framerate issues the N64 ver. does in a few places (track 6, most notably). Also, the games have different soundtracks. And lastly, the N64 version allows you to choose the exact colors you want for the three color areas on each car, so you can customize the car’s color scheme to a great extent. On Dreamcast, all you can do is select from one of eight car-wide presets — no direct color customization is available, unfortunately. Anyway, SF Rush 2049 is an exceptional futuristic racing game all around, brilliantly designed, feature-rich, beautiful, and with some of my favorite music ever in videogames, too. There are three major gameplay modes in Rush 2049, plus an unlockable bonus mode. The first mode, from the arcade game, is Race mode (for 1 to 2 players). Second is Stunt mode, for 1 to 4 players; there are no computer opponents, but I have always found it very fun alone anyway. Third is the 2 to 4 player only Battle mode. Last is the unlockable, 1 player only Obstacle Course. In addition to the latter three modes, coins, and different shortcuts, the other major addition versus the arcade version is that the cars have wings now. The wings, extendable by pressing a button, don’t let you fly, but let you control your car in the air, spinning it around or helping level it. Even with wings these cars still blow up on impact all the time (they have quite a propensity to land on their rooves, which of course makes the cars immediately explode, just like in Rush 1 or 2), but the wings help you make things a little easier, or do more exciting stunts. The game’s graphics are outstanding, as good as they get on the N64, pretty much. There are multiple handling options too, but I always use Extreme handling. The game looks incredibly close to the Dreamcast and arcade versions as well. Apart from some missing lighting effects (no projecting headlights on the night races, no car reflection on the car selection disc, no cone of light emanating from a building on track 3), it’s otherwise identical apart from the lower resolution and texture detail (things I find easy to ignore, it looks plenty good). There’s no fog either of course, except as a weather effect. The game’s a futuristic racing game of course (see the title), and has the great techno soundtrack you expect from the genre. The music in the N64 game is similar to the arcade and Dreamcast music, but it is not the same, and, while the N64 game has fewer total music tracks, in my opinion it has the best soundtrack. This music is just so insanely addictive and brilliant, I can listen to it forever. I got kind of hooked to this game back in 2001 when I first played it, I actually broke a TV remote or two tossing them in the air like Rush 2049 cars… So, the music and graphics are about as good as it gets on the N64. There are six tracks available in race mode. Five of the six tracks are significantly shorter than Rush 1 or Rush 2 courses; instead of the long courses of those games, Rush 2049’s tracks are mostly average length. Only one is longer. I think that works fine, though; the tracks in the first two games WERE quite long, I think the game has better pacing here with shorter, but more exciting, tracks. So yes, the game has fewer and shorter tracks than either Rush 1 or Rush 2 have, but the other modes, and great designs of the six that there are, make up for that. All six tracks are just brilliantly designed, and are absolutely jam-packed with shortcuts. The tracks in Rush 1 or Rush 2 had a shortcut here and there, but in Rush 2049, in many tracks you can actually spend a majority of the time off of the main course, provided you’re good enough to handle the shortcuts. The shortcuts are often more challenging than the main track, so it’s very much a risk/reward decision, but they’re lots of fun to find and explore. The tracks are complex and detailed, with buttons to press that change things, moving subways, planes, trolley cars, and trains, ramps, crazy shortcuts, and more. There’s a huge amount to find on each course, and I have more fun driving the tracks in this game than any other racing game. On the note of exploration, there are 16 coins in each Race and Stunt track this time — 8 usually easier to find Silver ones, and 8 harder Gold ones. You’ll unlock bonus cars by getting coins, and the race and stunt coins are separate, so there are a total of six cars to unlock. You’ll get one car in each mode for getting all silvers, half of the golds, and all of the golds. As much as I’ve played the game, I’ve only managed to unlock the two half of the golds cars; I’m close with all silvers, but a few stubbornly difficult ones have always eluded me. It’s really annoying, hopefully I’ll get them sometime. There are four championships in the game, starting with an eight track championship, and ending with a 24 track one (all tracks regular, mirror, reverse, and reverse mirror, that time.). As with the first two games, there’s also a Deaths Mode, where one explosion and you’re done for the race and move on to the next one. I never play with Deaths on in Rush 1 or 2, which is why I didn’t mention it there — with races that long, and without wings, it just makes those games too hard — but I do often play in Rush 2049 with Deaths on. It makes the game harder and more exciting, I think. As for Stunt mode, there are four stunt arenas. Arenas two and four are the best ones by far; 3’s not nearly as good, and 1’s too simplistic. I’ve played dozens of hours of Rush 2049 Stunt mode over the years, racking up millions of stunt points. It’s my favorite stunt mode ever. The last main mode, Battle mode, is multiplayer only and has no bots, unfortunately, so I’ve used it less. It’s too bad they didn’t do bots and make this a whole game, because it’s outstanding! I’d rather play this than any Mario Kart Battle mode, it’s got more arenas (there are eight, four to unlock and four at the start), a bunch of great weapons, and more. It’s just fantastic. Last, the Obstacle Course is a very difficult track you unlock by getting a million stunt points. It’s quite tough to get through, but is a lot of fun. Overall, this game has depth, variety, and overall quality like nothing else. Four player multiplayer (two player only in race mode, four player in stunt and battle modes), controller pak saving (9 pages). Expansion Pak enhanced, and required for some features — without the expansion pak, you’ll have no ingame music (!!!), can’t race on race mode tracks 5 or 6, won’t be able to play the third or fourth circuits as a result, and won’t see the moving objects ingame, such as the planes in track 3 or the cable cars in tracks 1 and 4. Yeah, don’t play this without the expansion pak!

S.C.A.R.S. (Super Computer Animal Racing Simulation) – Also on PC and Playstation, S.C.A.R.S. is essentially a hybrid kart racer and futuristic racing game. The game’s set in the future, and looks like a futuristic racing game, but the heavy weapons focus is more like a kart racer than most futuristic racing games. The game was supposed to have elements of both, and it does. The mix works — S.C.A.R.S. is a good game. The game has good graphics and sound; they’re not the best on the N64, but they’re more tha ngood enough, and it’s a better looking game than a whole lot of N64 racing games for sure. As the full title suggets, the cars all are designed to sort of look like specific animals. The plot here is that the cars are being controlled by supercomputers in the future which entertain themselves by racing against eachother in animal-shaped “cars” in digital environments, so basically you’re playing a videogame in a videogame. Heh… why not. The game’s got a solid amount of content, and is a pretty fun game. S.C.A.R.S. is pretty good, overall. Of course the game can be frustrating sometimes, when you get blown up and lose a race you were going to win, but that’s weapon-based racing… hopefully you’ll have better luck next time. Four player, controller pak saving (32 pages).

Scooby-Doo: Classic Creep Capers – Scooby-Doo: Classic Creep Capers is an N64-exclusive graphic adventure game. Yes, it’s an adventure game. There are a few other Scooby-Doo graphic adventures, including the Genesis game and the GBC game, and this is the other one I know of. In the game, you control Scooby and Shaggy, and have to solve some of the gang’s most classic monster mysteries, as the title suggests. At each site, you explore around looking for clues and items, get help from Fred, Daphne, and Velma in their usual areas of expertise, solve puzzles (mostly involving items), and eventually unmask the crook. Yeah, it’s a classic adventure game. The graphics are only okay, but each location does look like the place it’s supposed to, and it was cool to see these classic Scooby-Doo mysteries turn into a game. It’s not the longest or most challenging adventure game, which is understandable given the audience it’s probably aimed at, but it’s a good game, and anyone who likes console adventure games, or Scooby-Doo, should give it a try. The game will put up some challenge, at times, too; it’s not all easy. It is a pretty simple adventure game overall, but I always have liked the show, so I had some fun with this game anyway. One player, controller pak saving (3 pages).

SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu (J) [SD Flying Dragon Legend] – SD Hiryu no Ken is Flying Dragon’s sequel. This game is another Japan-only game, and it’s got a big language barrier, because there is absolutely no English text in the game anywhere; it’s 100% Japanese, with some Arabic numerals for numbers. Fortunately there is a guide for the game on GameFAQs. Use it! Otherwise figuring out what to do in the menus will be quite tricky. The game is fun enough to perhaps make it worth the effort, though, though it is unfortunately very easy. As the name suggests, though, this time there is only one gameplay mode, the cute-looking “SD” (super-deformed) mode from the first game; the “Virtual Hiryu” mode, with more realistic, Virtua Fighter-esque, graphics, is gone. In the first game, SD mode had 3d-dodge buttons, while Virtual mode did not, as in VF 1 or 2. This time, you can choose whether you want to be able to enable the 3d-dodge buttons or not. The feature is disabled by default, but I much prefer it on, and that’s how I’ve mostly played the game. SD Hiryu has slightly better graphics and a better framerate than the first game, as well. For the most part it looks similar, but it runs a bit better, which is great; Flying Dragon does have some framerate issues. This game is not as smooth and well-playing as the best 5th gen 3d fighting games, but it is an improvement over the first game, which is good. The game plays alright, though even in “Hard” AI opponents are easy to beat, and in “Normal” I found myself winning almost every single round even on my first time playing the game. As far as modes go, there is a story mode which has you play as the series’ main character guy only. The story is all in Japanese of course, and there isn’t voice acting, but you can at least do the fights and maybe figure a few things out by what’s going on. The GameFAQs guide gives you some story details as well. There is also a tournament mode where you fight the usual eight or so enemies, versus mode, options, training mode, and the like. As in the SD mode in the previous game, you can buy items with the money you win in the various modes. This adds an “RPG” element to the game, as you try to get the better items. Of course, all item descriptions are netirely in Japanese, but the FAQ does have an item list with descriptions, which is nice. The other main unlockable are alternate tournaments for tournament mode. In addition to the basic one, there are seven more unlockable themed tournaments you can get if you do specific things and have certain items. Not bad. There are more characters to play as in this game than the last one as well, and the Virtual-only characters have been brought over into this game, in new superdeformed forms of course. Overall, SD Hiryu no Ken is an okay to good game. It’s slightly better than the first Flying Dragon overall, thanks to the improved framerate most notably. If you like Flying Dragon, definitely check this game out. However, it is easy, and do use that FAQ if you can’t read Japanese. Two player multiplayer, Controller Pak saving.

Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers – Shadowgate 64 is another adventure game, but this one is first-person. The idea of a 3d, first-person graphic adventure is not a common one, but Shadowgate 64 tries it. This game is somewhat controversial among Shadowgate fans, as some like it, but many others definitely do not. I think that it’s a very good, under-rated game. I will admit that the graphics aren’t the best — there’s a lot of fog, for one. I know that some of it’s done to increase the sense of atmosphere, but it IS quite foggy. The art and level design is good, though. But really, the most important thing to realize about Shadowgate 64 is that that this is not a shooter, and that you won’t be killing anything with weapons. Instead, you explore a castle and solve puzzles. Accept that, and it all falls into place. The game’s a definite challenge at times, with some pretty tricky puzzles. Shadowgate 64 has a fantastic sense of atmosphere, as well; the castle can be a creepy place. There aren’t as many ways to die in this game as there are in the original Shadowgate, but there are a decent number, and most players will probably find many of them. Yes, make sure to save. The story of the game is that you play as a halfling who, after a carriage wreck, has ended up in the creepy and dangerous Castle Shadowgate. You have to explore through the place and uncover its mysteries. The plot’s not amazing, but it’s good enough. The castle is of course the real star, though, and I think they did pretty well with it. One player, controller pak saving (30 pages per file).

Shadow Man – Also on PC, Playstation, and Dreamcast, Shadow Man was clearly a massive undertaking. This game is another impressive N64 game from Acclaim, that’s for sure. The game has voiced dialog, a large world, good graphics (with a high res mode), a dark, serious story, and more. Yes, this is a quite mature game, that’s for sure. Shadow Man is based on the comic book of the same name, and stars a black guy in Louisiana who uses the power of a special mask to travel between the land of the living and the land of the dead, with some voodoo powers. The voice actors fit perfectly with the characters, and the story and characters are far more interesting than you might expect; this game’s good. I would recommend using either the paper map that came with the game, or an online map, though — there isn’t a good ingame map, and the world is huge and confusing. You will get lost unless you use one, and the box did come with a map in it. As for the gameplay, it’s part 3d platformer, part 3d action-adventure game. There’s exploration through two different worlds, puzzles to solve, platforms to jump, enemies to fight, story sequences to listen to, and more. This is a big game, and it’ll take some time to get used to and play, but it’s worth it if you take the time. Versus the other versions, the N64 version doesn’t have graphics quite as good as the PC or Dreamcast, and does have too-large save files, but it does have no load times, which is great in a game like this, and really helps make it more fun. One player, controller pak saving (73 pages per file). Note that compared to the size of the cards, these files are much larger than the PSX or DC versions’ save files, for some reason or other. Bad programming? Also, the game lets you choose which file on the card to load, even though the files are too large to fit more than one on a card… Expansion Pak enhanced.

Snowboard Kids 2 – Snowboard Kids 2 is Atlus’s second of the Snowboard Kids games, and like the first, it’s basically a kart racer on snow. Yeah, Snowboard Kids doesn’t play like a traditional snowboarding game at all, but instead is essentially a kart racing game in terms of gameplay. There are fun, crazy courses, a bunch of different weapons to use, a cast of silly, superdeformed (but human) characters, and more. The track designs in this game are pretty good. The graphics are solid too; some tracks look pretty cool, and there’s nice variety. Do quickly learn where the lift is at the bottom of each hill, though — you finish each lap by going into the lift gate to be brought back to the top, and the bottom may be wide, but the gate is small. Aim right for it! This is a very good, recommended game. Years later Atlus made a third Snowboard Kids game, for the DS, and I do like it, but this game’s probably a little better overall, and of course the splitscreen multiplayer is great. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving. (Note that Snowboard Kids 1 requires a controller pak to save, and uses 100+ pages of one for its file, too. The first game also has an awful, Japan-only PS1 port, but the second is N64 only.)

Space Invaders – Also on Playstation and PC, this Activision Space Invaders remake is a good game. While it’s made by Activision and not Taito, the game’s clearly Space Invaders, and has some elements you’ll also find in newer Taito Space Invaders games like Revolution or Extreme. For instance, one of the key new mechanics in this game is one where if you kill several enemies of the same type in a row, you get a powerup. You’ll find that exact same system in both of those newer Space Invaders games, and it’s a good one in all of them. The 2.5d graphics are unique to this game, but Activision did a pretty good job with this one. It plays like Space Invaders should, and is quite fun. The N64 version’s basically the same as the others, so don’t expect major changes. Like all of the late ’90s classic remakes, this Space I don’t have the other one, Invaders game does eventually end, so you can actually win this time. I like that a lot, I much prefer being able to beat games. On any platform though, it’s a good game. Also, it’s great that this game was released on the N64 — most of the other 5th gen classic remakes are from Hasbro, though, who sadly only minimally supported the N64, only releasing Glover and Monopoly. Of the classic remakes during that era, only the two Activision ones (Asteroids Hyper 64 is the other) and one Namco one (Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness) came to this system. Two player multiplayer, controller pak (2 pages) to save. The game supports cards in any controller port, but only will read the first port with a card in it when you turn the system on during play — so have your card with the save file in the lowest-numbered controller with a controller pak in it when you turn the system on.

Space Station Silicon Valley – First for the N64, there’s also a worse, Europe-only Playstation version. This game was one of DMA Design’s two N64 games, along with Body Harvest. Neither one looks as good as the average N64 game did by the time of their releases in 1998, but both are pretty good games well worth playing. This one is a 3d platformer with some somewhat unique game design. SSSV has a silly, entertaining story with an amusing intro cutscene. The idea here is that you’re on a spaceship full of robotic animals, and control a small computer chip which can take over and control any of the animals. Each one has different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, so you use each as they are needed, and then switch to another one when it dies or when you want to use something else. The different creatures are fun to play as, and the game’s good. The game has a good number of puzzles, too, as you often have to figure out what to do next, what animal to use, where, and how. You can also go around as the chip itself, but don’t do that for long… it dies easily. Oh, due to a bug, the game is impossible to complete 100%. Oops. It’s still a good game overall, worth a try. One player, on-cart saving. Note that some people have problems with this game with an Expansion Pak in your system, though I haven’t had any myself.

Star Fox 64 – Star Fox 64 is the N64’s premiere rail shooter, and also one of Nintendo of Japan’s few attempts at the genre. Fortunately, they did the genre right. No, it would be better to say that they just about mastered it. Star Fox 64 is one of the all-time greatest rail shooters. It was brilliant back in 1997, and it still is. The game has it all — good gameplay, graphics, sound, controls, and everything else. It’s the total package. As the space mercenary Fox McCloud, you need to lead your group of humanoid animals to save the day from the evil Andross. Fully voiced and complete with an epic soundtrack, the game has a suitably space-epic feel that adds to the presentation. First, the controls are pretty much perfect. They got them right, and htey’re quite a bit better than the original SNES Star Fox, too (having a targeting cursor all the time makes a huge difference, for one thing!). The game’s a traditional-style arcade game, so there’s no saving a game in progress, or unlimited continues — you’ll need to play all seven or so missions through. I think this works well enough, and the game’s not too long to play through in one sitting. As for difficulty, the game is challenging, but doable; it’s hard, but not so hard that having to start over if you fail makes you want to quit. Instead, it just makes you want to try again, and get it right this time. The game does save things like scores and stuff you’ve unlocked. The game has two main modes. The first are standard rail-shooter levels, on railed paths. The second are free-flight arenas, where you have full control of your movements as you fight a boss or dogfight in a limited space. The mixture of styles works well, and both types hold up. Also, the game has branching paths, so that your path through the game depends on your play. Play better, and figure out how to get “Mission Accomplished” intead of “Mission Complete” on each mission, and you’ll be rewarded with the option of turning to the harder level path. There are two different final missions, depending on which path you take to it, and two endings. I love this dynamic branching system, it works very well and is a real advance over the preset paths of the original Star Fox. Also adding to the replay value of this otherwise short game is that if you get enough kills in each mission you’ll earn a medal on the mission. Get all the medals to unlock a harder mode and some extra stuff in multiplayer, and get THOSE medals for the final unlockables, if you can! As for flaws, the graphics are fine for 1997, but the system would do better later. However, the good art design still holds up very well. Also, I never liked this game’s multiplayer battle mode much at all; it’s as much frustrating as it is fun, and overall I’d rather play other games instead of this. Finally, you do need a fair amount of time to play each game, given that there is no saving your progress. But apart from that, Star Fox 64 is truly exceptional, and is right up there with Sega’s best rail shooters (and the Sin & Punishment games) at the peak of the genre. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Starshot: Space Circus Fever – This is an N64 and PC only 3d platformer. The game is generally disliked, with mediocre to poor reviews, but while I would agree that the game clearly has some design and budget problems, Starshot is also a pretty original, unique game. You simply don’t see things like Starshot anymore, unfortunately. Anyone who likes interesting, unique 5th gen 3d platformers like Rocket or Glover should definitely give Starshot a try. The game’s definitely on the short side, but it’s interesting enough while it lasts to make it worth a play. In Starshot, you play as a member of a futuristic space circus who has to, of course, save the day. You’ll be given a series of missions, across several different planets (with each planet serving as a stage), as you attempt to save the circus and stop the people trying to put you out of business. You don’t just run and jump in this game, missions are more varied than that. The graphics and sound here are average, but decent; they’re good enough, but won’t really impress either. At least the art design’s somewhat interesting. Level designs in Starshot are pretty good. They’re large and spread out, with plenty of floating platforms, tricky jumps, and areas to explore. Levels are big (for the time) and not entirely linear, so on occasion it can be a little hard figuring out where to go next, but it’s not too bad; just explore around, and you’ll figure it out. I think that Starshot’s flaws, like the short length, minor bugs (a few times I had to restart levels because of bugs. Kind of annoying.), occasionally annoying platforming, and sometimes confusing objectives caused many people to write this game off, but I found myself liking this quite a bit. It’s flawed, sure, but it’s interesting and unique, and I like the character, gameplay, and level designs. Starshot’s a better game than its mediocre reviews or forgotten reputation would suggest. One player, on-cart saving.

Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth – One of the only traditonal scrolling shmups on the N64, Star Soldier Vanishing Earth may not have a lot of competition in its field, but even so, it is a pretty good game. A sequel to the classic NES and TG16 Star Soldier games, Vanishing Earth is the final Star Soldier game with a full single player game. The game has a main arcade/story mode, Two and Five minute modes (commonly seen features in Hudson shmups), and some hidden stuff to find too. The game’s a 2.5d shmup with average at best graphics (as in most all of Hudson’s titles), but good gameplay. The voice acting’s cheesy electronic-computer-voice stuff, and can be amusing. As for the gameplay, each level is solidly long and varied. There are three hidden levels to find, too, scattered through the game, if you can figure out how to alter your route to end up at them. The game’s mostly a conventional shmup, though you don’t have multiple weapons here — you choose one of three ships at the start, and each has one weapon. One ship has a laser, another a spread shot, etc. The three have different speeds, too. The game’s fun to play. The gameplay’s a bit more original than the presentation is, though, and has two original gameplay twists that make Vanishing Earth feel unlike most other shmups. First, the game has a timer-based combo system. That is, as long as you keep shooting enemies before the bar empties, your combo will increase. Once you fail to hit anything for a second, you’ll get the bonus and it resets. You don’t have much time to keep the combo going, so high combo scores will need practice and memorization. It’s a pretty cool system, and definitely adds something to the game. Second, the game has a deflection system called Rolling. There are two options here — either you can bounce back bullets for a moment automatically, when you press a button (but there’s a delay, so you can only use this once every few seconds), or you can set a mode where you activate the Rolling shield by quickly turning from right to left (that is, the shield activates when you switch direction while moving). This one has no delay, but will take more practice to get good with. I also find it easier to use with the analog stick than the d-pad, so I usually play this game with the stick, because I prefer the second Rolling option. Oh, you have two different super-shot variants, too, one that shoots forward, and another that shoots everything on screen. Use each as appropriate. Overall, Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth is a good game. Sure, it’s not the best shmup ever, but it is a good game. Hudson was known for consistently making good shmups, and this one is no exception. One player, on-cart saving.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire – Shadows of the Empire was an early N64 game, and was one that Nintendo hyped up before the system’s release. It was also on PC, but not other consoles. Shadows of the Empire has several different gameplay styles, from level to level, but it’s essentially one half third person shooter, one half miscelaneous vehicular stages. The vehicular stages include one where you fly a snowspeeder on Hoth, which helped inspire the better Rogue Squadron series, one where you drive through Tatooine on a speeder bike, and some rail-shooter or cockpit-gunner style levels. The vehicular levels are all at least moderately fun, and sometimes are pretty good, but the third person shooter side of the game struggles more. SotE simply is a very early game, and it shows. The controls aren’t very good, first — this is far from Turok’s level of great controls, that’s for sure, and there’s not much that can be done to improve them. The graphics are repetitive, too — most of that first snow base level looks pretty similar. Sure, I’m not a FPS/TPS fan, but I like some of these games for sure… this isn’t one of the better ones. I like it because it’s Star Wars, and for the vehicular stages, but this is the weakest of the N64 Star Wars games for sure (It’s still better than several of the PS1 ones, though!). One player, on-cart saving.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron was Factor 5’s first Nintendo-platform game since 1995’s Super Turrican 2 on the SNES, and it’s a great one. Also on PC, Rogue Squadron was a big hit when it released in late 1998, and it’s easy to see why. First, the game has pretty good graphics which are even better with an Expansion Pak in. The game looks great. Second, the gameplay is great as well. Rogue Squadron is an arcadey flight combat game, and you fly vehicles throughout. Don’t expect PC Star Wars sim controls here — this is pure arcade handling as you fly around and blast the enemies. Expect challenge, but not complex controls, as always with Factor 5’s flight action games. I like Star Wars sims a lot, even more than I do Rogue Squadron, but still, it’s a good formula that worked well. The story’s pretty simplistic too, basic Star Wars stuff that takes you through some of Luke Skywalker’s missions with Rogue Squadron during the war against the Empire, but it’s good enough to do; this kind of game doesn’t need much plot. What plot there is fully voiced with high quality voice acting, as always with Factor 5’s N64 games. Every mission in the game is well designed, challenging, and fun, with plenty of replay value as you go back and try to get better medals. You will only get a medal once you meet the requirements in every category, so while the main game isn’t too long, trying to get all of the medals as high as you can, and unlocking the hidden levels that will result once you get bronze, silver, or gold medals on all the levels, is quite a steep challenge. Rogue Squadron does have better graphics on the PC than it does here on N64, and also is graphically exceeded by its quasi-sequel Battle for Naboo, but even so, it’s still a pretty good game, and certainly highly recommended. One player, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak enhanced. This was one of the first wave of Expansion Pak enhanced titles to release in late 1998, along with NFL QB Club ’99, Top Gear Overdrive, and Turok 2.

Star Wars: Episode I Racer – Also on PC and Dreamcast, Episode I Racer is probably the most popular and successful game based on the Episode I universe (unless Lego Star Wars beat it out, that is). The game deserves its success, but there are a few issues holding it back from being quite as great as it could have been, and sometimes is. But first, the good. Episode I Racer may not look quite as good as the PC or DC versions, but it’s an absolutely beautiful game, particularly with an expansion pak — this game really is a visual stunner. Some tracks, such as the oens going through an asteroid, complete with zero-g segments, are particularly impressive. There aren’t too many N64 racing games that look much better than this. In addition, the gameplay is well thought out, challenging, and technical. You have good, somewhat realistic control over your pod, and will gain altitude off jumps, need to manage the heat on both engines, and more. There’s even a dual-controller mode where you control one engine with each analog stick, if you want to control it tank-style. Pretty cool. The game’s also solidly long, with plenty of races to try to win, a lot of different podracers to choose from and unlock, and many upgrade parts to buy for your pods. You win money by winning races, and can upgrade pods with those proceeds. All of the racers from the film are here and more, and there are 24-25 tracks, too! And they’re not short, either — Episode I Racer tracks are often as long as several minutes long per lap, in fact, so races often will take a while. That leads to the negatives of the game, however. First and foremost, Episode I Racer is a very hard game. The game is unforgiving, cruel, and brutally tough, with unfair AI that will leave you behind with no hope of catching up if you mess up at all, by later points in the game. With races this long, that’s a lot of chances to mess up, and yes, in many cases one single mistake can doom the entire race. There are no blue shells here to get you out of trouble. I’ve never managed to get past the middle of the third circuit; Grabvine Gateway is my nemesis, or something. This makes the game quite frustrating. Even worse is the second track of the fourth circuit, Abyss… that track is simply insane. The first turn is a twin-layer track. If you fall, or are pushed, off, in this part, on any of the three laps, that’s it — you’re on a much longer course, and have no chance of finishing above 9th or 10th (because there are two or three computers who always hang around you, no matter where you are; I did mention that the AI’s cheating stuff, didn’t I?). Yeah, it’s frustrating to say the least. It’s also kind of too bad that the game is just two player only, not four. Still, this game is probably worth playing despite the occasionally questionable track designs, the AI, and the sometimes too-long laps in some tracks. Ep. I Racer has both good and bad elements, and I both love its good elements, and hate its bad ones. Overall it is a pretty good, and impressive, game, but I do have some qualifications on that. Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak enhanced.

Star Wars: Battle for Naboo – Also on PC. Battle for Naboo is Factor 5’s second and last Star Wars flight combat game on the N64, and essentially is the second “Rogue Squadron” game. The game was popular but not quite as successful as the first Rogue Squadron, but Factor 5 showed off all of their ability in N64 graphics and sound here. Indeed, this game makes the first Rogue Squadron look kind of ugly in comparison — the texture work’s among the system’s best, and there’s even more voice acting too. There are even hidden developer commentary tracks on each level, unlockable with a cheatcode! Impressive stuff for sure. The gameplay’s just as good, or better, than the first Rogue Squadron’s is, as well. Once again you fly around in Star Wars vehicles, blowing up enemies and protecting convoys, but this time, in addition to the Episode I setting, you also have a lot of ground missions, where you’re controlling hover-tanks and the like. Some people don’t like these ground vehicle missions, but I think they’re plenty fun, and don’t mind them at all. The game’s similar in length to the first Rogue Squadron, and has just as much replay value as well, as you attempt to get better medals in the missions in order to unlock the hidden levels. As always, beating the game once may not take very long, but mastering the missions and getting good medals will be a serious task. Perhaps because it’s an Episode I game, doesn’t say “Rogue Squadron” in the name, and came out in late 2000 the game was overlooked by some people, but BfN is one worth going back to! Even better than the first Rogue Squadron game, BfN is perhaps the N64’s best flight combat game. One player, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak enhanced.

Super Mario 64 – Super Mario 64 is one of the most imporatant, and best, games of its generation. A true revelation when it released in 1996, Nintendo has made some more great 3d Mario games in more recent years, most notably the Super Mario Galaxy series, but despite that, Super Mario 64 is still a great game, and one of the great 3d platformers. For a long time this was my favorite 3d platformer ever. It may still be, but I do have to admit that Mario Galaxy’s tough competition… I’m not sure which one I like more overall, honestly. Also, while Mario 64 looked absolutely amazing in 1996, and still does hold up well visually, in some ways the game does show its age, for the platform. For instance, something like DK64 has polygonal trees, not sprite-based ones like Mario 64. The game has larger levels, too, as do many later N64 3d platformers (much less newer ones). Even so, don’t under-estimate Mario 64 — the game’s still absolutely brilliant, and a surprisingly solid challenge as well. Mario 64 set many 3d platformer standards, including in game design (such as the star-collecting concept), level design (such as having larger, open level, instead of linear paths), and more, and the game’s still incredibly fun to play throughout. Like most 3d platformers that generation enemies are less common than they were in 2d games in the genre, but while that is kind of too bad, Mario 64 tries to make up for that with great level designs and lots to do, and it succeeds. As with all Mario 3d platformers, and unlike many others, Mario 64 has strict missions — once you go into a stage, you’ve got one specific task to do in order to get that star. You can’t just wander around and get the stars in any order, as you could in, say, a Rare 3d platformer. This focuses you, and I think works well. And as I said, the game is a good challenge, too. All of the 3d Mario games have a solid challenge level to them, but it started off here for sure. With some work it’s not too hard to beat the final boss, but if you want every star, expect to spend quite a bit of time with this one. I never actually did that, I must admit, I’ve never gotten all of them… oh well. Overall though, it’s kind of hard to judge Mario 64 objectively, for me; this game is one that completely blew my mind when I first heard of, and played, it in 1995-1996. Whomp’s Fortress was the first level of the game I ever played, in a store demo, and it’s probably still my favorite. However, while when I finally got my N64 and this game in 1999 I could tell that it’d aged a bit compared to how amazing I’d thought it was a few years earlier (I definitely liked OoT more than Mario 64, and I got both with the system), it’s hard to forget that first impression… and it really is an exceptional game, too; it’s not just nostalgia, it’s still one of the best in the genre. One player, on-cart saving.

Super Smash Bros. – Super Smash Bros. was Nintendo’s first fighting game using its mascot characters, and spawned an ongoing, very successful series, too. Well, the series got off to a great start: SSB is an outstanding 2.5d fighting game. The main problem it has is that compared to SSB Melee, it’s clearly dated and much slower paced… not everyone will want to go back to this, after playing the newer ones. The character selection is also a lot more limited than in either of the later games, too. Still, even if it’s somewhat dated in comparison to its sequels, the first SSB is not without merit. Taken on its own, it’s an outstanding game, with fantastic gameplay, a clever concept, and brilliant design. The idea of making a fighting game that is both accessible to anyone, and also deep for those that wish to spend the time to learn it, was a good idea, and they really pulled it off. Concepts like only reducing enemy lives by ring-outing them, instead of just by draining a health bar, and in not having traditional special moves to memorize, but instead moves that just involve a single direction and button press, give the game unique, fun, and yet deep gameplay. For there is depth here, both in learning the moves, and in learning to use Smashes effectively, and in learning the shield as well. But how much worth playing is this compared to Melee or Brawl? I do think that it’s fun to return to once in a while, because of the very different pacing, but yes, the sequels are overall better games. Even so, this first one’s great too. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Supercross 2000 (EA Sports) – Note – there is a PSX game with this same name, but the two are different games, and this one got better reviews. Anyway, Supercross 2000 from EA Sports is the N64’s most realistic motorcycle racing game. It’s a supercross game, as the name suggests, so expect to drive around large dirt arenas. The game’s okay, but I find the graphics and gameplay both fairly bland. I much prefer a more “fun” experience, to this more realistic one, and like open-course designs a lot more than motocross or supercross arenas, so I’d rank Excitebike 64 and Top Gear Hyper-Bike well above this game. Still, it is an okay to good game and as good a supercross game as you’ll find on a 5th gen system, I think. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (6 pages for the setup file, 23 pages per season).

Tarzan (Disney’s) – Playstation port. This N64 version loses the video clips from the movie, as you’d expect, but otherwise it’s a quite good game. This is a solid, fun 2.5d platformer, with good level designs and plenty of fun. The difficulty level’s probably on the low side, but it’s a good game. This game’s not as well known as it should be; it’s one of the N64’s relatively few sidescrollers, and it’s a solid, fun one. One player, controller pak saving (2 pages).

Tetrisphere – Tetrisphere started out as an Atari Jaguar game, but Nintendo saw the project and decided to buy the rights as an N64 exclusive, and then pasted the Tetris name onto it in order to sell more copies, I assume. Well, I think it worked, because Tetrisphere’s one of the N64’s more popular puzzle games. It deserves to be, as this is a great game. Tetrisphere isn’t much at all like Tetris, but it is original and really fun. In Tetrisphere, your goal is to break through a “sphere” made of blocks in order to reveal the core inside. You play by spinning around the sphere and dropping blocks, which will be destroyed when they’re touching enough of the same shape. Yeah, not much like Tetris at all. What it is, however, is frenetic, sometimes crazy fun. Tetrisphere’s a very good game. The game has a solid number of modes and options, too, so it’ll last a decently long time. (Oh, I put “sphere” in quotes because it’s far from clear the thing’s actually a sphere… it could be something else, just distorted to look like one thanks to the camera.) Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Tigger’s Honey Hunt – Tigger’s Honey Hunt is a 2.5d platformer, and while it is quite easy, it’s actually kind of fun. As the name suggests, in this game you play Tigger, the tiger from Winnie the Pooh. While most Winnie the Pooh games are basic educational games for little kids, though, this one is a real platformer, and yes, it’s alright. The main game is, that is; the minigames are unfortunately horrible. Yeah, do NOT play this for multiplayer. In the main game, Tigger’s Honey Hunt has you bouncing through a somewhat short quest as you, as Tigger, have to find Pooh’s honey (sorry, hunney), since, as always, he messed up and spilled Pooh’s honey. Your goal in each level is collecting enough of the honey to unlock the next stage. Tigger can jump, but also can bounce high on his coil tail. You’ll have to explore each level reasonably well in order to get everything, though this is at its core a linear platformer. There are only nine levels, though, so this is a short game. Still, there’s a little replay value if you don’t manage to find all of the honey on the first try; this generally isn’t that hard, but for the target audience here it’s probably perfect. You also do get a few more abilities during the game that will have you going back to the earlier levels if you want to get all the honey. But even for adults, even if the game is far too short and easy, I found it a fun game. Tigger’s Honey Hunt has decent to good graphics, too. You can tell that this is a multiplatform title and that it doesn’t really push the N64, but still, it looks good. I like the graphics, you couldn’t do 5th gen 3d Pooh characters much better than this. There aren’t many 2d or 2.5d platformers on the N64, so it’s great that this one was released. Unfortunately, the sound is weak. There is no voice acting in the cutscenes, so children will have to be able to read for this one (or have someone read it for them). On PS1 there are voices, but they didn’t want to pay for a larger cartridge to fit them in this release, I presume. Too bad. Also the game is only a few hours long, with somewhat limited replay value. And last, those minigames really are bad. There are only three of them, and they are Simon Says, Rock Paper Scissors, and a really tedious “watch sticks float down a river” game. That’s it — pretty bad! Still, overall, Tigger’s Honey Hunt is a fun little game. If it’s cheap, it’s worth checking out, I think. It won’t take long to play through, and it’s a simple, fun game while it lasts. Four player multiplayer (minigames only; main game is single player only), on-cart saving. Also on PS1.

Tonic Trouble – Also on PC, Tonic Trouble was delayed a bit too long to be popular. That is, the game was originally supposed to come out first, but instead released after Rayman 2. The two games are similar, both 3d platformers with linear-path stage designs and limbless heroes, but Rayman 2 is quite simply the better game. Of course, Rayman 2 is also one of the greatest 3d platformers ever, so being worse than Rayman 2 isn’t TOO much of an insult. And indeed, Tonic Trouble is a good, fun game. The game’s got some definite similarities to Rayman 2, but it’s its own game too, with its own style and gameplay. In the game you play as a robot who needs to recover the parts to his ship, which were lost on the Earth. Unfortunately, it won’t be so simple… you’ll face plenty of opposition as you try to collect them all. The level designss are solid, with a good amount of variety and challenges for your robot to face. I think this game would have been fairly successful had it released before Rayman 2, instead of after it. One player, controller pak saving (15 pages).

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 – A port of the Playstation version of this multiplatform title, Tony Hawk 3 released nine months after the previous N64 release and is the system’s last game. However, that doesn’t make it one of its best; this is a pretty straight Playstation port, much like the first two N64 Tony Hawk games. It does have voiced rock music for a soundtrack, like only a handful of other N64 games, but yeah, this is a port for sure. The graphics are average at best, and the gameplay’s standard original Tony Hawk stuff — you have a couple of minutes in each stage to do as many tricks as you can. I may love Rush 2049’s stunt mode, but I never got into these skateboarding games when I was younger, so I’m not very good at them at all. As a result, I can’t really get far into these games… Two player, controller pak saving (24 pages per player file, 96 pages per replay). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Top Gear Rally – Top Gear Rally was the first N64 Top Gear game, and it’s probably the most popular one, too. I think that all four games deserve to be pretty popular, because they’re all great games that are among teh N64’s best racing games, but with this first release, teh series certainly was off to a great start. Top Gear Rally is from Boss Games, and it was their first of four N64 racing games. The game’s a lap-based rally racing game. There are about six tracks, and you go through them in many seasons as you progress through the main championship mode. The game gives you a new set of three or so cars each season, each with better stats until you get the best ones late in the game. The game has pretty good graphics, good track designs, and very well thought out controls and handling. The game’s not a sim, and is a fast-paced, fun driving game, but it’s not entirely arcadey either; Boss Games liked having at least somewhat realistic controls in most of their games, and this one does have that. This is one of the generation’s better rally-car games. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (The required notes are 1 pages for Options and 2 pages for the Season file. Other optional notes will fill up a card with things such as custom car painting skins. Yes, you can entirely customize your car’s entire skin, if you want to dedicate a memory card to the design.).

Top Gear Overdrive – From Snowblind Studios, Top Gear Overdrive wasn’t as successful or high-prominence as its predecessor, but it’s also a very good game. This is a quite different kind of game from Rally, though. First, you are driving normal cars, on pavement mostly, not rally cars on dirt. The game’s very fast too, with a quick pace and classic Top Gear gameplay. Indeed, of the four N64 Top Gear games, this one is the most like the great SNES games. It is clearly its own thing, but Snowblind took inspiration from those classics, and it worked out very well. The game looks great, too, particularly in the expansion pak required full screen high res mode. Beautiful graphics. All six or so tracks are well designed and have shortcuts. This game has rock music with vocals, too, a rarity in 1998 for this system. The game’s only real downside is that it’s not very long; this game doesn’t have a campaign that’ll last nearly as long as Rally does. Indeed, the game’s over all too soon… but while it lasts it’s great fun. It’s a classic driving game, and it’s a good one. Overdrive is something of a hidden gem, and is one of the best of the N64 Top Gear games. Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving. Expansion Pak enhanced.

Top Gear Rally 2 – The third Top Gear Rally game is from yet another developer; this time it’s from Saffire. Saffire set out to make a rally sim here, and they succeeded. Top Gear Rally 2 is a much more realistic simulation of rally driving than the first Top Gear Rally was. It’s got long, one-way courses, instead of lap tracks like Rally 1; it’s got more realistic handling and car customization options (including parts to buy and such, too); and it’s got some car damage and repair systems, too. Your car really can break and become barely functional, so watch out for rocks! The game controls well, and it’s pretty fun to play. The tracks are interesting, and feel like they’re all pieced together from a bunch of different parts, so every track in each environment is different, but they share many chunks, just in different orders. Obviously that system was done in order to give the game more variety of courses without individually desigining dozens of tracks, and it does work reasonably well, even if it means slightly repetitious graphics. This system is very much like the one used in Cruis’n World and Exotica in their lap, and extended, versions of the tracks. Oh, this game has license tests of a sort, too. Fortunately, they’re not TOO hard and frustrating, and only some are required; the rest are there for if you want to challenge yourself. The game has pretty good graphics as well; it’s definitely a nice looking game for its generation. Overall, a good game worth playing. It’s different from the first Top Gear Rally game, and it’s probably not quite as good on the whole, but even so it is a good game in its own right. Four player multiplayer. controller pak saving (6 pages). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Top Gear Hyper-Bike – Snowblind’s second Top Gear game, Hyper-Bike was somewhat rushed, and had some features cut during development. Originally the game was supposed to have four player support and on-cart saving, but sadly both were axed. Kemco apparently wanted to get the game out as early in 2000 as they could, unfortunately — the first three N64 Top Gear games released late in their years, but Hyper-Bike was a spring title. Even so, despite the cuts, Snowblind did manage to put together a pretty good game here. I came into this game with the lowest expectations I had for any of the four N64 Top Gear games, because of its not quite as good reviews, but this game surprised me — it’s actually a lot of fun! Top Gear Hyper-Bike is a fun motorcycle racing game, where you drive through outdoor environments, and not traditional, less interesting in my opinion, motocross or supercross courses. The game has good graphics, and good, long track designs as well. There’s also a stunt system, as you’d expect, and in some modes you do get points for stunts. The tracks have plenty of shortcuts, some with jumps on them, so you can get some air and try some tricks. Hyper-Bike isn’t quite as good, or as varied, as Excitebike 64, certainly, but it is a pretty good game even so, and is worth playing for sure. Play Excitebike 64 first, but don’t pass on at least trying this one. Two player, controller pak saving (35 pages). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Tsumi to Batsu: Hoshi no Keishousha – Sin and Punishment [Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth] (J) – Sin and Punishment is surely the best-known and most popular N64 game that was not released outside of Japan. The game is a rail shooter (of sorts) by Treasure, and it’s a quite good game as well. The game even is fully voice acted in English. The anime-esque story is confusing, and the ending in this N64 version has some text-only Japanese in it, but still, it IS mostly in English. However, some idiots at Nintendo decided that they wouldn’t release the game outside of Japan, despite how badly me and so many other people wanted the game, and that was that. This was the N64 import game I really wanted, but could not have gotten, or afforded, back then; I wouldn’t even have a credit/debit card until the mid ’00s, never mind a way to import games from Japan. So yeah, Nintendo was stupid. I ended up looking up how to play N64 games emulated just to play this game, but always wanted to own the real thing too. Even after I got a Wii, and picked up the US Wii Virtual Console release of the game, I still wanted the actual cartridge. Well, I finally got it, complete in box. It cost about $40 shipped, but that’s what it costs now. I do think that VC release cut the price of the game in half, though, which is good; it used to cost even more. It’s easy to see why when you play the game, though. Sin & Punishment is not a perfect game, though, Most importantly, it’s way too short — there are only three levels, each made up of three stages. That’s not many, and not all of the levels are equally great, either. However, when it’s good it’s very, very good, and that makes up for the flaws. The game also keeps me coming back to try to get better scores. This is a Treasure game, and it’s got some depth to it to make players want to keep playing it, try harder difficulty levels, and get better scores. That’s good, when a game is as short as this one is. Still, the game needed more stages. Only nine, and one of the last ones is a random side-scrolling stage which isn’t quite as great as the rail-shooter levels are? Plus the last stage is just the final boss fight, no more. It’s a long boss fight, but still, all in all the games’ length is disappointing. As for modes, the game has a main story mode (with saving), difficulty selection, some minor hidden options to unlock depending on which difficulty level you beat the game on, a training mode to help you through the controls, and high-score tables for each stage and difficulty. There is multiplayer, if someone hits start on controller two, but it just lets controller two control the cursor and fire, nothing more. Pretty disappointing.

Sin and Punishment is a rail shooter, but it is not a conventional one. Instead of flying a spaceship forward, Star Fox style, instead this is more like Jet Force Gemini bossfights, or perhaps Wild Guns and such on the SNES — you move a character on a 2d plane in front and can run or jump to avoid projectiles, while also moving a cursor around the screen to shoot at enemies. This game isn’t a static-screen game, though; instead, you’re usually moving forward. Sometimes the screen will stick for a while while you fight some tougher enemy, or a boss of course, but usually you’re moving forward, either on the ground somewhere or on some flying platform. So, it is indeed a rail shooter. You use the analog stick to aim, and the C-buttons to move. R jumps, and A switches between lock-on fire (with lower damage) or aimed fire (with higher damage). The controls take getting used to — learning how to use R with the C-buttons and analog stick all at the same time isn’t easy. I honestly find the controls even harder to use on the Gamecube controller (with the Wii VC release), though. X or Y to move left and right, plus R to jump? Argh! Not comfortable. And I like the C-stick even less. So, even though the controls are kind of odd, I do think that the N64 version has the better control setup. It’s easier to use the C-buttons plus R than the various GC or CC options. And yes, jumping is very important. Once you get used to it, the controls do work well, and the gameplay is somewhat unique and plays great. Indeed, the great gameplay is why this game is so good, despite the various issues the game has. As for graphics and sound, the graphics are good, but not really great. This game looks good, but the N64 can do better. Some stages, most notably 2-2, the flying battle against an enemy fleet, look great, but others are less impressive. I’d have liked to see more stages like 2-2. Still, overall the graphics are decently good. The art design is great, as well. I like the box-art quite a bit. Enemy and boss designs also are often pretty good. The music is reasonably good, and it’s cool that the voice acting is in English. You probably won’t remember the music after playing, though.

Returning to the story, in Sin and Punishment you play as two teenage resistance fighters, Saki (a boy) and Airan (a girl). They are led by Achi, a girl with mysterious powers and an unknown agenda. Monsters called “Ruffians” are attacking the Earth, and yet again things are not looking good for Japan. The resistance is fighting Ruffians, while other enemy forces are using Ruffian powers instead. They are a private military corporation here to crush resistance, I believe; I’m not entirely sure. At the beginning of the game, their troops wipe out some other resistance bases, leaving only the three characters to continue their fight. Achi has her own secrets, which you learn later in the game, but the story isn’t really the main draw here; it’s okay, if you like dark anime-esque plots, and when you when you can actually figure out what’s going on, but it’s not great. It would be nice if it made more sense without having to go read online about what was happening, though. Ah well. You play the first and third levels as Saki, and only the second as Airan. No, you cannot choose who you play as, it’s all preset according to the story. That’s too bad; the sequel (Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for Wii) lets you choose either of that games’ two characters during the game. Better. That game has a LOT more content than this one, too, and probably is the better game overall. Still, the first Sin & Punishment is a great game. The game has some flaws, most importantly the short length but also the learning curve on the controls, the lack of good multiplayer, no character selection allowed, etc., but the action is fast and furious, the game design somewhat original, and the game fun and high quality overall. This is a good game, and I don’t regret getting the N64 version. I’ve always wanted it, and now I finally have it. The game definitely is not perfect, but it is good. Two player multiplayer (limited), on-cart saving.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter – Also on PC. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was one of the more successful third party N64 games early in its life. The game’s a very high quality, innovative (for consoles, particularly) first person shooter. Turok set the standard in N64 FPSes in many respects, the first being controls. The game uses the analog stick for aiming, and the C-buttons for moving. This system works fantastically well, and in my opinion is one of the best FPS control schemes. I think digital movement works really well, myself, and it’s easy to get used to moving with the left side and moving with the right. Beyond the controls, Turok also had good graphics. The game does have a relatively close draw distance with a lot of fog, as with many games at that point in time on any console, but you can see far enough to see enemies coming at you, and the game has good visuals with huge, detailed levels, lots of dinosaurs and humans to kill, and a lot of different weapons to use too. The game’s a challenge, and the save points are pretty far apart, and you do have limited lives, but it’s a pretty good game. The challenge serves more to make you want to keep trying, instead of to just give up. The levels are mostly set in the jungle or in caves, but there’s enough variety that the game keeps looking interesting. There are jumping puzzles in this game, too — get used to jumping in first person, you’re going to need to be good at it. Failure is punished harshly in this game. It’s not too bad, but it does take some getting used to. Turok was quite a game in 1997, and while it has many sequels, and FPSes have changed a lot since then, the game’s still a great game. One player, controller pak saving (16 pages).

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil – Also on PC. Turok 2 was highly anticipated at the time, and it’s a huge, epic game that goes beyond the scope of the first game. Turok 2 has better graphics, more content, more variety, futuristic and alien settings, a four player multiplayer mode, and more. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a better game than the first one. Turok 2 has a few issues that hold it back. This is a very, very good game, but it does have flaws. So, the game has huge, huge levels, with somewhat less fog than the first game, too. This is good. The weapons are even crazier too, and some are fairly gory (Cerebral Bore…). However, the game still has save-point-only saving, and limited lives, so it’s a very steep challenge. The save points are far apart, and the sheer number of enemies, puzzles, areas to explore, and jumping puzzles in between one and the next makes the game probably too hard for me. Essentially, in this category, the game’s high points are also its weak points, depending on who you ask. The huge, expansive levels heavy on exploration are great… but it can be frustrating if you don’t know where to go next or how to solve the puzzles in the area, or if you’re very low on health and have far too far to go to get more, or to find the next checkpoint. Turok 2 is not forgiving. I like the exploration and puzzle elements of the game for sure, but wish it had a more forgiving save system, essentially. In addition, while the graphics are fantastic, particularly in high res mode, the framerate does suffer. Turok 2 in high res doesn’t have that good of a framerate. You do get used to it, but it is an issue. Also, many people disliked that the game changed from a “fighting dinosaurs in the jungle” theme to fighting cyber-dinos in futuristic bases; the setting’s not quite as original. Still, despite the problems, Turok 2 is a great game… just be prepared for a challenge. Oh, and you’ll need a lot of controller pak space for this one, too. As for the multiplayer, it’s okay to good, but not the game’s high point, the single player is. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (90 pages!!! What in the world, Acclaim… There is NO excuse for this!). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Turok: Rage Wars – Turok: Rage Wars is Acclaim’s attempt at an answer to games like Quake III and Unreal Tournament. Like those PC games, Rage Wars is an arena combat only multiplayer-focused game. The single player game is a tournament mode, where you play through a succession of arenas with your chosen character. Many characters have somewhat different paths, so while each character’s game isn’t too long, the game encourages replay in order to see everything. There’s a decent amount of single player content here, I think. The levels are solidly designed multiplayer FPS stages, as well. This is the best N64 Turok game for multiplayer play, so if you want to play some multiplayer Turok, or a good multiplayer-focused N64 FPS, get Rage Wars. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (7 pages). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion – Turok 3, from fall 2000, was Acclaim’s last N64 game. Well, they went out with a bang — Turok 3 is a fantastic game, easily one of the best in the franchise. First, the graphics are great, of course, and probably with a bit better framerate in high res mode than you’ll find in Turok 2, too. Indeed, when designing this game, Acclaim was apparently listening to complaints like the ones I had above about Turok 2, because this game gets rid of almost all of the worst elements of that game (setting excepted; this one’s mostly in a slightly futuristic city). It’s also clear that the designers had been playing Half-Life, because that game’s influence shows strongly here. Turok 3 is an FPS of course, but the game’s more linear than Turok 2 for sure. Instead of Turok 2’s huge, expansive levels and endless expanses between save points (and remember those limited lives!), Turok 3 has a stage-based design, where you can save at any point, and if you die, or load, will start from the beginning of the stage. The stages are reasonable lengths each, so you won’t have to replay too much if you lose. Stages are large, and often open, enough to have a good amount of exploration, and there are still puzzles and some jumping, but this is a different game from Turoks 1 or 2. That’s both good and bad, really; on the one hand, it’s a great game, but on the other, it is fairly different from the original. Taking it on its own though, this is a quite good Half Life-inspired FPS, that keeps you moving through a story through many different areas. The game has some cool level designs and set-pieces along the way, too. From skyscapers to sewers to subway trains, there’s a lot of variety here, and it’s fun to go through. There’s plenty of good stuff here to find. There is some exploration as well, in many of the stages, so you’re not just running through cooridors like you would in a modern FPS. Also, you start each stage with the health and ammo you started it with, you don’t get reset. It works well. This game has two playable characters, too, each with an ability the other doesn’t — the female character is larger and stronger, while the male character (a younger boy) can fit into small spaces. This time, you need to get revenge for your father’s death and save the world at the same time. It has another okay multiplayer mode too. Any N64 FPS fan should definitely play Turok 3. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (16 pages per save file). Expansion Pak enhanced.

Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding – Boss Games’ attempt at a snowboarding game unfortunately didn’t work out quite as well as their three N64 racing games all did. This isn’t actually a bad game, but it’s just not as good as other snowboarding games on the system like 1080 or Big Mountain, either. Boss was trying to make a fairly realistic snowboarding game here, and it is for its time, but it isn’t that fun. The graphics are decently good, and there’s a fair amount of content here, but it’s just not compelling enough to get me to come back and keep playing. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (5 pages for main game file, 75 pages per ghost if you wish to save one.).

Vigilante 8 – A Playstation port, but it’s a good one (note the sequel’s also on Dreamcast, but not this one). Vigilante 8 is a vehicular combat game, where you drive around a somewhat arena-like stage blowing up other cars for fun. This means it has a heavy multiplayer focus, of course, but there is a decent single player campaign as well. The graphics are alright, but not great; the N64 can certainly do better. I never loved these car combat games, like Twisted Metal, Interstate ’66, etc., and this is no exception. I don’t know, somehow the theme just doesn’t grab me much at all. I like larger stages more than these glorified arenas, too. Still, for its genre, this is a fine game. I know there’s a sequel, but I haven’t played that one. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (1 page). Expansion Pak enhanced.

V-Rally Edition ’99 – V-Rally is a European rally racing game that started on the PS1. While the PS1 game had the Need for Speed license put on it in the US, it wasn’t originally a NFS game, and this N64 port doesn’t have the license either. V-Rally Edition ’99 is a late N64 port of the first V-Rally game. This port released not far off from when V-Rally 2, the much-improved sequel, released on PS1, but this has none of the second games’ features, sadly. Instead, players will have to make do with all of the signs of a shoddy port; this may have released long after the PS1 version, but it sure doesn’t look like the developers knew how to get much out of the system. V-Rally has some of the most “Playstation-like” graphics I’ve seen on the N64, with some pretty ugly polygon models and even attempts at PS1 pixelization; this game has some of the most pixelated N64 graphics I’ve ever seen, I don’t know how they managed to make it look so bad. Impressive work there, I guess. There is also heavy fogging, since apparently these poor graphics somehow were all they could manage. Really, this game looks bad visually. As for music, there is none during races, something “simmish” rally racers do sometimes, to their detriment. The menu music isn’t very good, but something would have been better than nothing, in-race. The gameplay is only slightly better. The game has 50 tracks, all one-way courses, just like the original had, but the gameplay is bland and unexciting, and as there are only seven actual environments for those tracks, the tracks blend together and feel similar. Great fun gameplay could make up for that, but this game doesn’t have that, for sure. This is a common problem in more “realistic” rally racing games, but it does get repetitive. Car controls and physics are even worse, unsurprisingly. At first you’ll skid on every turn, and the AI opponents are tough and those crash physics frustratingly floaty and definitely nothing approaching realistic. That’s okay, since I prefer arcade racing games to sims, so I probably like this game more than I would a hardcore sim on a subjective level, but objectively it’s no good, for sure. Try not to hit things or spin out on turns. It’s not easy to learn how to control the cars in this game well, and it’s absolutely not worth the effort either. If you want to play a great N64 rally racing game, play Rally Challenge 2000 or the two Top Gear Rally games; this one probably isn’t worth it. You can do worse, but you can also do a lot better. Test Drive V-Rally (aka V-Rally 2 in Europe; this is no more Test Drive game than it is NFS), the Dreamcast port of V-Rally 2, is much better, for example; play that one. This game, however, has awful graphics and plays poorly too. There are worse N64 racing games than this, and it’s arcadey enough that it can be okay once in a while, but there aren’t really any good reasons to get this game for people who aren’t trying to own every N64 racing game, as I am. Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving. Also on PS1.

War Gods – War Gods is probably one of the worst N64 games I own. The game’s an early attempt at a 3d fighting game, and clearly looks like Midway trying out some of the tactics they’d use later on in MK4, just in something not with that license so people wouldn’t care quite as much if it wasn’t good. Well, this isn’t good. First, the characters are just awful. They’re a pitiful assortment of terribly designed characters. Like the 2d MK games this game uses live actors in costumes, but these costumes sure are silly, even by Midway standards. The gameplay’s no better than the costumes are, either. The game is 3d, so you can move around the arena, and it is pretty fast-paced too — this clearly was designed as 2d Mortal Kombat gone 3d. I was never more than a pretty casual Mortal Kombat fan, though, and prefer a somewhat slower paced fighting game, so I at least don’t think that makes it better. And this isn’t as good as 2d MK games, either, that’s for sure. It’s uglier, doesn’t play as well, and isn’t as fun. About the only thing this is good for is entertainment value; this can be amusingly bad in multiplayer mode, as you laugh at how ridiculous it is. Two players, no saving.

Wave Race 64 – Wave Race 64 is one of the N64’s early releases from Nintendo, and like some others like Mario 64, it stands out as one of the system’s best. There are a lot of racing games on the N64, and I don’t think Wave Race 64 is the system’s very best racing game, but it is an extremely, extremely good game, the best water racing game of its generation, and still one of the greats of the field. While the character models are only average, the environments are top class. Indeed, Wave Race 64 has beautiful environments to race through on your jetskis, and the waves, wave effects, and changing water (and in some tracks even water level) from lap to lap is extremely impressive for the time; indeed, even many much newer jetski games don’t compare in water effects or wave physics. Every track in this game is memorable and so well thought through compared to most other racing games of the time. The game’s music is good, fitting stuff as well, and each track has audio that fits its nature well. The game is somewhat short, but what it lacks in length it makes up for with great gameplay and fun. This is one you’ll return to, and is not just the generation’s best jetski racing game, it’s arguably the best one ever. Two player multiplayer, on-cart saving. Can back up your save file to a controller pak.

Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey – Arcade port. This was one of the N64’s first sports games, and it got things off to a good start. As with all Midway sports games of the time, Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey is a very arcadey game with almost no rules and constant action. The graphics are very rough early N64 stuff, but if you can ignore that and look at the gameplay, this game still shines. Indeed, this game is one of Midway’s best ever hockey games, as far as the gameplay is concerned. The hockey action is fast and furious, as your small teams skate back and forth on the ice and score goal after goal. You can beat the other players up too, of course, and it has a turbo meter as usual as well. I don’t like this game quite as much as my favorite Midway sports title, NBA Jam T.E., but it’s one of Midway’s better sports games for sure. Oh, and yes, it does have all the real teams and real players. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (7 pages).

Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98 – Also on Playstation. Unfortunately, with this sequel, Midway decided to make things a bit more simmish. It was a bad decision, and the result is a weaker game than its predecessor; I’d recommend the first Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey to anyone who likes arcade-style sports games, but this one’s a much tougher sell. First and foremost, this sequel makes scoring goals much more difficult than it was in the first game. That means you’ll have to work a lot harder for your points, and winning games will be more challenging as well. It’s just not nearly as fun as the first game. I guess the graphics have been slightly improved, and the game does save a lot more stats than the first version (as you can tell from the increased file size), but Midway sports games are at their best when they’re arcadey fun, not when they’re arcade/sim hybrids like this one is. Stick with the first Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey game. Oh, there is a third Midway hockey game on the N64, Olympic Hockey ’98. Apparently it’s essentially this game, reskinned with the Olympic teams instead of the NHL, and with virtually no other changes. I don’t have it. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (61 pages).

WCW/NWO Revenge – I never liked wrestling at all, either on TV or in videogames, and only have this because I got it for free. I remember playing one N64 wrestling game once, one of the better ones like this one (I mean, better as in wrestling game fans like these Aki ones the best, not that I have an opinion on the matter), but I don’t know if it was this or another game. I guess it’s good for its genre, but I don’t want to play this kind of game. It’s just not fun. The closest I want to get to a wrestling game is probably King of the Monsters… Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Wetrix – Later had upgraded ports/sequels on Dreamcast and PS2, as Wetrix+ on DC and AquaAqua on PS2. They’re both just enhanced versions of this game, though. Wetrix is an intresting and original Tetris-inspired puzzle game. In the game, you have to keep water from leaking out of a board. You keep the water in by building walls out of Tetris-style blocks to form lakes. The challenge is to build up good lakes with the selection of wall pieces you’re given, as the water keeps coming down. It’s a fun, challenging puzzle game, and is well worth a try. Two player multiplayer, controller pak saving (5 pages).

WipEout 64 – Wipeout 64, Psygnosis’ one and only N64 game, is an interesting game — I mean, this is an N64 game from a studio owned by Sony. Sony killed Psygnosis’ independence, and their N64, Saturn, and PC releases, shortly after this game was released, but at least they got this one out, and later two last PC games before the final end. Wipeout 64 is an outstanding, outstanding game, and one of the system’s best racing games as well. Based on the first two PS1 Wipeout games, Wipeout 64 mixes and matches elements from tracks from both previous games to create a new, better set of circuits. Indeed, these are the best designed tracks in the series that generation. The game system around them is perfected, as well. The game’s as technical and challenging as ever — using your hovercars, you need to race through futuristic courses, trying to master them and figure out the best way to get through each track. You have two airbrakes as always, for sharp turns. First, you have very good analog controls, better than the various analog options in the PS1 games. Annoyances from the first Wipeout game like the height ceiling (that reset you down to the track, causing you to lose a LOT of time, if you flew up too high) are of course gone. The circuit setup from the first two games, the cause of so much of the frustration, is gone too — this time you can save after every race, instead of having to play five or six or seven tracks with limited continues and no saving, as with both of the first two PS1 games. That works in Mario Kart, but Wipeout is harder than that. At least the third PS1 game did continue with this, but though it’s good, it made some other questionable decisions. It’s also far more difficult than this game. Now, Wipeout 64 is a pretty hard game. It’s a serious challenge for sure, and some parts of the game, the timetrial challenges particularly, are really hard. But… it’s not quite as brutal as Wipeout 3, and I think that’s a good thing. They got the difficulty balance just right, here. I do kind of wish it had some kind of circuit mode (with saving, preferably, like in Wipeout 3), and I also wish that there were some single player mode races that use the seventh, unlockable track; it’s quite odd that it’s unused outside of single race mode, once you unlock it. Apart from that though, this is a fantastic game. It’s also the one and only Wipeout game with a single-screen four player splitscreen mode. The three and four player modes do remove trackside graphics, so they are limited, but the two player game is great, with a full 16-car field. Cool. Four player multiplayer, controller pak saving (6 pages).

Worms Armageddon – Worms Armageddon is the only N64 Worms game, and it’s a somewhat rare game too. It’s unfortunate that this game is as expensive as it is, though, because as usual in the Worms series, Worms Armageddon is a great game. This game has most of the content from the original PC Worms Armageddon game, downsized to the N64. Obviously a gamepad doesn’t give you quite as good control as keyboard and mouse have, but actually it works pretty well, overall — the controls are pretty good, as good as they could be. The game’s fantastic fun in multiplayer too, of course. Naturally it’s missing the online play you’ll find on the PC, but if you have some people to play with, this game’s great. The single player mode’s good too of course, but Worms always shines in multiplayer. That classic Worms gameplay, of side-scrolling 2d turn-based strategy with cute worms blowing eachother up with various over-the-top weapons, is here strong. There wouldn’t be another 2d Worms game on a Nintendo home console until the Wii, but at least this one is great! Four player multiplayer, on-cart saving.

Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate – Xena for the N64 is a somewhat beat ’em up-inspired 3d fighting game based on the popular Xena TV show. The show was initially a spinoff of Hercules, except with a female lead, and like Hercules it’s got very little to do with its supposed Greek/Roman-era setting, design-wise. Sorry, but as a history major, this stuff bugs me. But yes, as with Hercules, I barely ever watched this show, so I’m not really familiar with the source material outside of what I’ve heard about it. In the game you can play as eleven different characters from the series, including Xena, Gabrielle, and various others (no, not Hercules). This game is a full 3d fighting game, and you move around the arena with the stick (or dpad, but the stick probably gives better control). The four C buttons are your attacks, two punch/kick and two weapon attacks. Each character has a couple of baisc combos (two to four hits) and a few special moves, though not many. R and Z jump and crouch, which are useful since most distance attacks cannot hit crouching characters. Fire breath can, but not stuff like thrown weapons. You can also block while standing or moving backwards. A changes targets in multiplayer matches with three or four players. The game is simplistic, but winning in the later fights, or Hard difficulty, will require a bit of thought — enemies will block, and you’ll have to time your attacks well in order to get through the block. This can be frustrating at times, as the AI blocks constantly and then hits you the moment you try to attack sometimes, but I did get used to it after a little while. The game also has balance issues, and the moves and characters are not at all evenly balanced, unfortunately. It also can be difficult to tell exactly whether you can hit someone before you swing, because of the 3d arenas and how the characters are constantly circling around eachother, while the camera always stays in one static position in front of the arena. When the enemy is between you and the camera, it can get annoying. So yeah, the gameplay here is definitely nothing better than average, and probably is below average. Run around, whack at the enemy, try to time your hits right, hit the button a few times to do a short combo, rinse, and repeat. That’s about all there is to the game.

The graphics and sound are okay, though. The characters are okay looking and do look like the characters from the show, and the audio is alright. The arenas are bland looking, though; there aren’t any obstacles in them, and they aren’t very large either since each one has to fit on a single screen. However, yes, this game has four player matches! It’s pretty cool… except for the critical design flaw that the game only allows one AI opponent in any match, so it’s impossible to play with more than two characters on screen in single player. That’s very disappointing and is a real problem with the game. The game would be more fun with four-player single player matches. That is only one of the signs that this game was made on a tight budget. Another one is that after you win matches in the main tournament (“Quest”) mode, there isn’t any kind of victory screen, score screen, or anything. The announcer says that you win, and then it’s straight to the next match with no interruption. It’s kind of odd, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a fighting game quite like that. Also, in the tournament you fight all 11 characters, so it takes longer to get through than most fighting games, since in these games you usually only have 7 or 8 characters per tournament. Once you’re done, though, replay value isn’t that high, as far as the single player goes; this isn’t a fighting game many people will keep returning to on their own. At least each character does have a (very short) custom ending, so there is that at least. Other than Quest mode, your only other options are single match (vs. 1 CPU or up to three humans), training mode, and options. On normal the game isn’t that hard, but it’s not a complete pushover either, which is good. You also unlock the ability to play as the boss after beating the game once, and there are a bunch of entertaining cheat codes too, such as a big-head mode for instance. Overall though, Xena: The Talisman of Fate is a very mediocre game, and is below average overall. It’s somewhere between bad and mediocre, I think. It’s probably much more fun in multiplayer (with three or four people particularly!) than it is in single player, though, so keep that in mind. Four player multiplayer, Controller Pak saving (1 block).

Yoshi’s Story – Yoshi’s story is a 2d platformer. The game’s super, ultra cute graphics and collection-themed gameplay have made this game controversial ever since its release — many people were expecting something like Yoshi’s Island, which this game simply is not. And yes, Yoshi’s Island is the better game. Even so, Yoshi’s Story isn’t actually a bad game. It has several things going for it, actually. First, the graphics are great. This game really shows off how beautiful you can make a 2d game look on the N64. The game really looks like a storybook come to life. People who dislike cute graphics will certainly hate this game, but I think it looks and plays great. The game has a pretty good variety of stages, too. The game is structured like a storybook, and you go through six pages (levels) from the beginning to end. That may sound short, and it is, but there are four different stages to choose from on each page, and they’re all entirely different, so there are actually 24 stages. In addition, you can’t just choose any at will, but some will be unlocked based on prior stage choices and your performance in the game. Also, while it may seem like you can’t save a game in progress, you actually can — if you turn off the system while playing, you’ll be given the choice to restart the level you are currently on. In addition to saving your progress for later, this is an invaluable feature for anyone wanting to collect everything in each stage but has messed up; you don’t need to restart the whole game, just the stage through a restart. That said though, the game’s almost exclusive focus on collecting is an issue for sure. Instead of trying to get to the end of the stage, your goal in each level is to collect 20 fruits. Once you have twenty, you’ll win and move on. You cannot die, either, not really. That doesn’t mean that the game is easy, though; many fruits are well hidden, particularly if you want to get the best path by getting 20 melons, and melons only, in each level. If you want all the melons, this game becomes a frustratingly hard game only fun if you use a walkthrough, I’d say — melons are often very well hidden, including in random places on the ground you’ll probably never guess. I at least don’t find trying for all the melons too fun. Overall though, the game’s okay. The graphics and gameplay are good, but the collecting focus is as much of a downside as it is a strength. One player, on-cart saving.

Posted in Classic Games, Game Opinion Summaries, Nintendo 64, Reviews | Tagged game opinion summaries, N64, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Review | Leave a comment

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