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The official Nintendo magazine was the highlight of the month for me. I would read that thing cover to cover just being amazed at all the screenshots.  I entered that competition for Fighter's Destiny. Didn't win but my dad ended up buying it for my birthday anyway.
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Mar 16, 2014 14:26
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Frankston posted:The official Nintendo magazine was the highlight of the month for me. I would read that thing cover to cover just being amazed at all the screenshots. Was that in Europe only or something? I've never even heard of that but it looks like it wants to be Nintendo Power when it grows up. EDIT: Secrets Sussed!  Synthetic Hermit posted:Banjo-Tooie I preferred Banjo-Kazooie to Banjo-Tooie for a couple reasons. The fact that it was first was definitely a factor. BK was great, and while I usually prefer sequels of games to be "more of this, please" which BT certainly was, a game won't have the same impact if that's the route the developers choose. The other reason is that BK has a certain, I don't know...mystique?...that BT doesn't. There's the Stop-n-Swap, Ice Key, all those weird hidden eggs, and even a video once you beat the game that teases all of these things...and on top of all that it came out several months later in Nintendo Power that there were a poo poo ton of codes you could enter in the sandcastle of Treasure Trove Cove to do all sorts of fun stuff. In Banjo Tooie they were just like "here's that stuff we referenced in Banjo-Kazooie.  " And there were no extra secrets added on top of that. I remember trying to jump onto some train tracks in one of the areas hoping there'd be some cool secret there only to realize it was impossible, and there was nothing up there anyways. I admit the prevalence of the internet is also to blame for the lack of secrets, but Banjo-Tooie seemed so much less magical than its predecessor.
timp fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Mar 17, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 17:05
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I thought Banjo-Tooie was just way too large for its own good. The levels are gigantic so it takes forever to get anywhere, and everything within a level looks the same so it's easy to get lost. The worlds in Kazooie were small enough to memorize so the lack of visual variation wasn't really a problem, whereas in worlds like Terrydactyl Land there aren't any specific spots you can use as a frame of reference for where you are in relation to everything else. Mayahem Temple and Witchyworld are the only two levels I can easily navigate, the rest of the game is a confusing mess. Grunty Industries is probably the worst level I've played in a 3D platformer. Even as a kid I didn't really like Banjo-Tooie, which is especially odd since Banjo-Kazooie was one of my favorite games and a huge factor in why I wanted an N64. I tried revisiting it when it came out on XBLA but I couldn't force myself to play past the half-way point. It's just... boring.
TechnoSyndrome fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Mar 16, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 21:50
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blackguy32 posted:Bomberman Hero was sort of like this. It also had some weird rear end music. Bomberman Hero had some BOMB rear end music
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Mar 17, 2014 01:58
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Synthetic Hermit posted:Heh...this page I've managed to go through GE, PD, DK64, and BT! Consider page 10 the Rareware page! Oh man if you could do Jet Force Gemini next, these have all been superb so far!
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Apr 3, 2014 21:40
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TechnoSyndrome posted:I thought Banjo-Tooie was just way too large for its own good. The levels are gigantic so it takes forever to get anywhere, and everything within a level looks the same so it's easy to get lost. The worlds in Kazooie were small enough to memorize so the lack of visual variation wasn't really a problem, whereas in worlds like Terrydactyl Land there aren't any specific spots you can use as a frame of reference for where you are in relation to everything else. Mayahem Temple and Witchyworld are the only two levels I can easily navigate, the rest of the game is a confusing mess. Grunty Industries is probably the worst level I've played in a 3D platformer. Even as a kid I didn't really like Banjo-Tooie, which is especially odd since Banjo-Kazooie was one of my favorite games and a huge factor in why I wanted an N64. I tried revisiting it when it came out on XBLA but I couldn't force myself to play past the half-way point. It's just... boring. It's really indicative of the problem Rare's latter platformers were suffering from: too drat big and too drat excessive. I've bitched about Donkey Kong 64 before but holy drat was replaying that one painful by the third subworld. I rented Banjo-Tooie once, way back when it first came out, and I had the exact same complaints. It was just boring, too big and nowhere near as charming or playful as BK was and even though I got it on XBLA I haven't played it nearly as much as BK because I'm never in the mood to revisit it.
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Apr 4, 2014 00:11
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Cart posted:Oh man if you could do Jet Force Gemini next, these have all been superb so far! It wasn't my cup of tea, unfortunately. Unique style, but with a choppy frame rate, imprecise controls, way too much backtracking...and it just wasn't fun, IMO. But JFG does have a fanbase...any of them care to chime in?  What I CAN offer, however, is more GE & PD!  So,  !  I just came across an INCREDIBLE blog: http://goldeneyedecoded.blogspot.ca/ High-res promo material, design documents, uncompressed game assets...it's freakin' Goldeneye heaven!!  Oh, and if you want know just how crappy you are at GE & PD, go here.  Hm...how can I make this post beefier... Well, here's a pretty well known vid, but still awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t70l-9n1rCQ Not to mention a silly animated excerpt.  As for PD, Grant's HQ version of the Credits theme can be found here. Man, do I love PD's art style! http://goo.gl/FRqGky http://goo.gl/cMR9us http://goo.gl/OHRAap http://goo.gl/TvFRo8 Especially those details!  The PD Wiki P.S. - A cool little site dedicated to PD's multiplayer. P.P.S. - PD's multiplayer!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WSUiq96TWg
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Apr 4, 2014 01:33
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Shooters not your thing? Here's a genre that might tickle your fancy - BLOW UP EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!! This is one of the best concepts for a puzzle game ever. Figure out the most efficient method of clearing a path for a moving bomb. Picking the right vehicle for the job is the most important factor, but you also have to move trains, cranes, and crates around to get it all lined up for destruction. Aside from blowing s*** up, the best part of BC is the variety of vehicles: Backlash  Probably the trickiest vehicle to handle, the dump truck does damage by swinging the back end around, of all things. Ramdozer  The bulldozer is much easier to control. Just go forward. Doesn't do a ton of damage, though. It's put to better use moving certain objects around, such as explosive crates. Sideswipe  I love this one. It destroys stuff when you pass beside it. Great for knocking down rows of buildings. Skyfall  This one is sent to test you. You can only destroy stuff by going off of jumps and coming down on TOP of it. An interesting concept, certainly, but irritating. J-Bomb  One of the greatest vehicles in all of gaming. Launch up into the sky, and come crashing down with the force of an asteroid!!!  Thunderfist  This one's got to be the weirdest. A giant, awkwardly-moving silver robot with one arm, which demolishes stuff by rolling into it!  Ballista  A motorcycle that fires rockets. Sensitive controls, but serious firepower.  Car  Used in racing stages and to enter small gaps. The trick is to find it... BC also features a great physics engine, and an incredible soundtrack.   Let's get movin'! It's time to save the world!
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Apr 5, 2014 10:12
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Did you know: Perfect Dark is the only Nintendo published game to contain the word "orgasms". 
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Apr 8, 2014 14:22
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I remember there was one level in Blast Corps where you had to push tnt crates with the bulldozer to destroy these metal blocks. I could never do it in time, so I cheated and used the trick where you park by something and keep trying to get out and it eventually destroys it. Also, I used to always pronounce it as Blast Corpse.
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Apr 8, 2014 14:32
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blackguy32 posted:I remember there was one level in Blast Corps where you had to push tnt crates with the bulldozer to destroy these metal blocks. I could never do it in time, so I cheated and used the trick where you park by something and keep trying to get out and it eventually destroys it. I refuse to believe that it's possible to beat Oyster Harbor without that glitch DOH! DOH DOH! DOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOH*building is demolished*
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Apr 8, 2014 15:01
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timp posted:I refuse to believe that it's possible to beat Oyster Harbor without that glitch I feel loving stupid now. I never knew you could do this. I kept trying to push each individual tnt crate into those metal boxes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_L4w0hh0M
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Apr 8, 2014 15:16
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AngryCaterpillar posted:Did you know: Perfect Dark is the only Nintendo published game to contain the word "orgasms". Not unless you enter that as Link's name.
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Apr 8, 2014 16:07
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That loving Sned posted:Not unless you enter that as Link's name. BOOSTER: Here's the password! Orgasms
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Apr 8, 2014 17:16
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AngryCaterpillar posted:Did you know: Perfect Dark is the only Nintendo published game to contain the word "orgasms". Hah! Where is it said/written? I don't remember this at all.
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Apr 8, 2014 17:49
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Mak0rz posted:Hah! Where is it said/written? I don't remember this at all. It's only used metaphorically. One of the staff in the credits is listed as being in charge of "visual orgasms". Still somewhat surprising it made it in though.
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Apr 8, 2014 21:30
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I still play through Banjo-Kazooie once every year or so, because I love the game so much. Whenever I finish it, I always think "Man, I should play Banjo Tooie now" and I get about 25 minutes into it and give up because even the loving overworld is too big and convoluted. Also, Diddy Kong Racing was a fine racing game and the music was great and memorable, unlike DK64. EDIT: Upon looking it up, the soundtrack for DK Racing was done by David Wise, who also did the soundtracks for the first two Donkey Kong Country games. Makes sense that those three have the best music out of all the DK games. Cromulent fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 21:42
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DK 64 had some pretty ballin music though. That game suffered pretty badly from the 3D collectathon overpopulation, but I enjoy it just as much as an adult as I did when it was a kid. Maybe that's just the rose tinted glasses though. 
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Apr 10, 2014 22:56
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I wanted to write a little about how mindblowing the N64, the Playstation, and the Saturn were, because it's easy to forget in a world that's had 3D videogames for nearly 20 years now. In 1994, 'virtual reality' was the buzz word. VR was the future, though nobody knew exactly why - it was an experience, a novelty, a treatment for phobias. Your only exposure to this bright future would be a 5 minute segment on Tomorrow's World. What VR wasn't was a videogame. Whether this was because publishers simply hadn't clicked, or because the technology was too expensive, I don't know. Eventually though, Virtua Racing hit arcades. I remember thinking at the time how different it was to have 'VR' graphics on a 2D screen, without the associated helmet (and the helmet that that helmet was wearing  ). This was still 'virtual' though, in that you sat in a full size mock-formula 1 car - the emphasis was on recreating reality. When Virtua Fighter followed in a standard stand-up cabinet, it was really different. It was a huge gamble, given that fighting games at the time tried to attract with detailed and well-animated sprites - and here was this game with fighters made of Lego. But my god when you saw it move for the first time - I, and I'm sure many others, had literally never even seen a 3D animated human being before. And it played (and still does) like a dream.Arcades soon became swamped with 3D games, as it became clear what a draw they were. Arcade hardware rocketed ahead of consoles, as publishers jizzed money at creating the most impressive hardware. Suddenly there was a massive gulf between console and arcade. It's worth mentioning, because the PS1 generation was the last to be tied to the arcade. The whole point of consoles up until then was to recreate the arcade experience in the home. The cost of the arcade hardware created a convenient gap between console home, that still drew people to the arcades. The gap created by 3D graphics though was pretty huge. Here's the arcade version of Daytona USA  And here's a typical Genesis racing game  This was the stage for the top two console manufacturers (and Sony) to build a 3D console. They all took very different approaches, based on where they thought this 3D revolution was going. Sony's design, the Playstation, was incredibly forward thinking in including built-in libraries to make developing 3D a piece of cake. Sega started off the Saturn as a beast of 2D graphics, which is bizarre considering their dominance of 3D in the arcade. They ended up throwing in some extra processors which approximated their model 1 and 2 arcade hardware (both used squares rather than triangles for 3D objects - great for Sega conversions but not a lot else). And the N64 - the impression I got at the time was that they were going for the 'VR' look - un-textured, or heavily filtered, goraud shaded polygons. Mario 64 looks a hell of a lot like early virtual reality demos. This was at a time when those Tomorrow's World features on VR were still imprinted on peoples mind, so it looked like the future at the time. For further evidence of Nintendo's flirting with VR, see the Virtual Boy. This is where their heads were when designing the N64, so I think they underestimated how much designers would come to rely on texture mapping and gave the N64 bugger all texture memory as a result (or they thought the filtering would make up for it). This is how I remember it, and I hope it gives some context to what was probably the greatest console generation ever. It was a time of innovation, when games were still meant to be just fun - reviews still scored on 'playability', and the shackles of 2D had finally been broken. Console history had never seen a leap as big the one from 16 bit to 32, and I don't think it ever will again. Bonus pic - remember this is between a single generation of consoles: Mario Kart  Mario Kart 64 
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Apr 13, 2014 16:06
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^ Good post.  I personally have no interest in 2D gaming or low-detail 3D gaming. For me, the bare minimum for visuals is Star Fox 64. The jump up to 32/64 bit truly began a new era of gaming. My top 5 N64 games for visuals (art style & technicals both factored in): 1. Majora's Mask  2. Perfect Dark  3. Conker's Bad Fur Day  4. Star Wars: Episode I Racer  5. Star Fox 64  Honorable mention - Star Wars Episode I: Battle For Naboo  Also, here's a silly little test that claims to pick the perfect N64 game for you: http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/what-classic-n64-game-are-you
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Apr 14, 2014 07:14
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Synthetic Hermit posted:^ Good post. I don't really get the requirement for a minimum level of graphics. Some old 3D games look pretty awful but still play identically to modern 3D games. That's a good list there though. A TV advert for Star Fox 64 was what convinced me I needed an N64, after years as a Sega fan boy who hated Nintendo. I missed Conkers the first time round and got it on an emulator. The art direction is brilliant. I've always been an admirer of creativity within constraint, and the characterisation Rare managed to achieve with a handful of triangles and such limited textures was amazing. This was probably the only step backwards in that generation. 3D Characters were less expressive than hand drawn sprites. This was a time when CG movies and cartoons hadn't really taken off yet, so 3D characterisation was still funding its feet.
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Apr 15, 2014 16:41
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxHd91YvdDE My top 5 third-party exclusives: Harvest Moon 64 Robotron 64 Top Gear Rally Beetle Adventure Racing AeroGauge My top 5 least favorite titles: Starshot: Space Circus Fever Toy Story 2 Monopoly F1 Pole Position 64 Doom 64 Epic nerd thread - comparing the tech of the N64 & PS1 And (if I haven't already mentioned it...) here's a great YT N64 review channel! 
Synthetic Hermit fucked around with this message at 23:54 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 10:47
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Synthetic Hermit posted:My top 4 least favorite titles: What.
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May 27, 2014 10:54
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Yeah Doom 64 is basically the best. You are crazy.
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May 27, 2014 13:19
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I can understand why you might be dissatisfied with Doom 64 compared to the original, or why you just might not be interested in Doom generally, but there were so many N64 games that were genuinely terrible and Doom 64 ain't one of 'em, and it holds up a lot better than many of the good games, too.
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May 27, 2014 13:36
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AngryCaterpillar posted:It's only used metaphorically. One of the staff in the credits is listed as being in charge of "visual orgasms". Still somewhat surprising it made it in though. I vaguely remember this. But moreso I remember the PD credits being hilariously masturbatory. So it's appropriate.
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May 27, 2014 14:08
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Synthetic Hermit posted:Also, here's a silly little test that claims to pick the perfect N64 game for you: This test is dumb. I picked all the poo poo I would pick and got Goldeneye. I picked all the poo poo I would never pick and got Kobe Bryant NBA Courtside. Those were my first two games for the N64 and I loved them both. Test is bullshit.
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May 27, 2014 17:39
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codenameFANGIO posted:Yeah Doom 64 is basically the best. You are crazy. Played it once. Graphics were dark and muddy, sound was muddy, controls were weird, and the whole thing didn't feel well built. Didn't feel like playing it again. I have nothing against Doom as a franchise. I love Doom II on PC. Note: I just remembered that Turok 2 was also on PC, so it's off of my third-party list. I've added F1 Pole Position 64 to my hate list to compensate.
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May 28, 2014 00:07
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Doom64 was pretty great, I can't remember how well it controlled but it was basically Doom III before Doom III came out. Turok was the poo poo too, I was thinking about Turok3 the other day, mainly about how amazing the facial animation was in the cutscenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DZ63zuQsi4&t=94s A bit janky by todays standards, but amazing back in their time and I don't think any other N64 game even tried half as hard as Turok3 It would be awesome to get all 3 Turoks ported to 3DS...
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May 28, 2014 04:51
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The dude who ported Doom 64 to PC is working on a Turok port/remake now, too, come to think of it.
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May 28, 2014 04:54
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.TakaM posted:Doom64 was pretty great, I can't remember how well it controlled but it was basically Doom III before Doom III came out.
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May 28, 2014 05:46
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Yeah, playing Turok 3 when I was young blew my loving mind. After all, this was a console in which even beautiful, high-production games with lots of cutscenes like Perfect Dark had entirely static faces. I don't think the gameplay is quite up with its predecessors, but it's still very much worth playing if you enjoy Turok or N64 FPSes.
Gobblecoque fucked around with this message at 11:20 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 11:18
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All I really remember about the turok games is all the guns you need to collect the pieces of. Though the third game had the best one. The annihilatior or something? All I know is it fired a black hole that actually distorted the level you were in (not permanently of course)
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May 28, 2014 17:20
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Your posts are great Synthetic Hermit, love the enthusiasm, I just wish they weren't on such well known games! If you have any more obscure games you love and want to do a write up on that'd be a good read I reckon. I'm definitely in the Kazooie over Tooie camp, enjoyed the levels more in the former and I think Tooie tried for too large a scope but I can dig your reasoning. On Majora's Mask and time limits in games, I usually hate them but it's so well done in MM. I didn't feel too rushed at any point that I can remember and the NPC dynamic and the way it interacted with the gameplay was excellent. I think the last action/adventure game I played with a time limit was Dead Rising 2 and it killed it for me within a few hours, so MM did something pretty special there. It's bizarre, I never actually owned an N64 when I was younger (like WebDog said on the previous page the prices were ridiculous for a young person in Australia), but one of my best friends had it and I played it so much there that it basically feels more like my childhood console than the PSX I owned. I did pick a US one up semi-recently to play Majora's Mask and Ogre Battle so I wouldn't mind building up a little collection now (although if OB is anything to go by it might not be cheap). Objectively the N64 port of Starcraft was horribly done but I have so many fond memories of the split-screen multiplayer that I can't hate it. In general I always appreciated the efforts of PSX/N64 devs whenever they rarely tried to make an RTS work on a console. I always thought Turok was pretty awful even back then, but the weapons were great and the multiplayer was a good bit of fun. Doom 64 was definitely a winner for mine. I haven't played a Nintendo console since the Gamecube really but I wanted to ask, is Mario Golf/Mario Tennis still a thing or are they just incorporated into Wii Sports? I always loved them, the N64 had an excellent sports game library in general. Just so this isn't a total ramble, what were some of the games that let you down the most during the N64's life? I remember Aidyn Chronicles being such a big disappointment after having to wait so long between drinks in the genre. I remember the Hexen port being a big let down for me as well, but I can't remember why.
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May 29, 2014 22:00
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Mario Tennis and Golf took a break during the Wii era but they released Mario Tennis Open and Mario Golf World Tour for the 3DS.
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May 29, 2014 22:09
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Here's an interesting article about Perfect Dark from a few weeks ago: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/what-if-perfect-dark-had-come-out-on-the-gamecube/1100-6419791/ This thread's big PD post for those who missed it. EDIT: Here's a NeoGAF post that explains PD XBLA's problems better than I ever could... Also, I'm working on a post about the system's crazy third-party controllers...don't miss it!
Synthetic Hermit fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 18, 2014 08:34
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I've got a bad cold (haven't been able to eat solid food for 2 days), so the controller post is delayed. In the meantime, here's some more classic NP covers:            
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Jun 21, 2014 02:20
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=703cFwkIWa8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRwjpUpO0vA EDIT: Here's a swell old advertising poster! 
Synthetic Hermit fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 01:53
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Fashionably late: Ascii Pad 64 by Ascii  Ascii Wheel 64 by Ascii  Blaze Pad by Blaze  Arcade Shark by Interact  Flight Force Pro 64 by InterAct  MakoPad by InterAct  SharkPad Pro 642 by InterAct  Vortex by InterAct  Controller Plus 64 by Joytech  Trident Pad by Logic 3  Trident Pro Pad by Logic 3  Advanced Control Pad by Mad Catz  Analog Steering Wheel by Mad Catz  Analog and Digital Dual Arcade Joystick by Mad Catz  Rumble Rod by Mad Catz  Boomerang 64 by Nuby  The Rock by Nuby  Alpha 64 by Nyko  Super 64X by Pelican  SuperPad 64 by Performance  SuperPad 64 Plus by Performance  UltraRacer 64 by Performance  Competition Pro by Powerplay  The Glove by Reality Quest  StingRay 64 by Thrustmaster  dreamGEAR  Gamester  Gamester LMP  Gamester Steering Wheel  Logic 3 Turbo  Yikes! There's even more where those came from, but most are duplicates/boring. Bonus! - this aired on Tuesday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMf6Rh4iJWY https://twitter.com/FallonTonight/status/501944550731288576  Double bonus! Kirby Bowl 64??? (via Nintendo Life)
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Aug 21, 2014 06:11
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Synthetic Hermit posted:SharkPad Pro 642 by InterAct This piece of poo poo literally fell apart in my hands while I was playing a game.
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Aug 21, 2014 06:20
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