Cube

Got a good view of the Northern Lights tonight.

NFL Blitz NA release: 12th September 1998 PAL release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Midway Publisher: Midway N64 Magazine Score: 87% Another American Football game, but this is a much more arcade style instead of the very slow tactical game of the previous games. While this was also out in arcades, it wasn’t quite as arcadey as something like NBA Hangtime, but instead feels more on the level of FIFA. It’s much faster paced than other American Football games, and also felt easier to understand. There’s very little waiting around, although you still select tactics. I still don’t quite fully understand American Football, but I had fun with this. Remake or remaster? I don’t know enough about American Football games to comment. Official ways to get the game. The Arcade version of NFL Blitz can be purchased as part of an arcade cabinet from Arcade1Up.

Nintendo could link theirs to the Mii avatars, like some kind of Mii universe. It does baffle me that Xbox allows you to upload screenshots into cloud storage, but sharing images from it is a pain and you can't access them via a browser.

There's an unofficial Switch Transfer Tool on Android that makes the QR sharing method a lot easier to do. There's probably something similar for other phones.

NASCAR ’99 NA release: 10th September 1998 PAL release: November 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Stromfront Studios Publisher: EA Sports N64 Magazine Score: 59% NASCAR is about a large amount of cars doing a ton of races around a track a massive amount of games. NASCAR ’99 lets you do that in the comfort of you own home. The game features a lot of cars (which have a ton of advertisements on them) and quite a lot of different tracks (even though most feel the same). The game functions just fine and there’s nothing terribly broken about it, but it’s just really boring. The handling isn’t enjoyable and the tracks are incredibly dull – I can’t see anyone managing 200+ laps. The opponents also just drive along the racing line as though you don’t exist. I have heard that people enjoy NASCAR for the potential crashes, so I figured I’d test that out. Going backwards along the track at full pelt, I was able to be a mild inconvenience at most to other cars. They don’t really react to you and once they wiggle past you, they carry on as though nothing happened. This is just a fairly boring game. Remake or remaster? These games are still being made. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get NASCAR ’99

Multiplayer is great, but it for the most part it looks like a less interesting NES Remix. It's also amusing how the replica gold cartridge doesn't look like either version of the original NES Nintendo World Championships cartridges. At the very least they could have added some fake switches.

Gex 64: Enter the Gecko NA release: 25th August 1998 PAL release: 26th February 1999 JP release: N/A Developer: Crystal Dynamics, Realtime Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 59% Gex is a series of platformers that started out in 2D on the 3DO before moving over to the PlayStation with Gex 2 in 3D (which was then ported to the N64). While the series is seen as an alright platformer, it’s mainly known for its humour. So how well does the humour hold up? I think the bigger question is “was the game ever funny in the first place?”. The attempts at humour seems almost entirely disjointed with the game itself, with almost all of it being a random selection of quotes from Gex himself, spoken at random intervals – they have nothing to do with what’s happening on screen and they repeat very quickly. It’s like making a pun when there’s no thyme or plaice for it – it doesn’t work without context. Most of the rest is in the level names, with the levels themselves being generic themes. There are a few moments, such as Gex in a bunny outfit fighting Elmer Fudd, where the parody creeps in to the actual level, but definitely not enough to be a focus of the game. There’s also a few musical rip-offs, most notably the Indiana Jones and James Bond themes. For the most part, Gex is a very generic platform game that doesn’t do anything special with its levels. It also has a few crippling issues. It’s extremely difficult to judge where objects are in relation to each other, so you’ll end up missing a lot of jumps because you thought a platform (or Gex) was somewhere else. The camera is also atrocious – even on manual mode, it likes to try to “correct” itself. This means that when you’re running on a narrow platform, at some point the camera will decide to quickly turn around to be behind you. This may sound good, but it also affects your controls, so before you’ve had time to react to the camera change, you’ve already ran off the side of the platform due to Gex turning in relation to the camera. Gex doesn’t have enough moves to keep the game interesting. You have a jump and tail attack, along with an awkward to use high jump and a running kick, both not really needed. Sometimes a collectable will be slightly out of reach, but there’s enough in the level to just ignore those ones He can also climb up walls, but this is only possible on a very small number of walls and the feature is never used for anything interesting. Enter the Gecko is a surprisingly unimaginative game that is quite annoying to play. Remake or remaster? There a semi-emulated remaster in the works of the PlayStation version. At the time of writing, it’s unknown if this will include any of the N64 specific levels. Official ways to get the game. There is currently no official way to get Gex 64 (or a version of the game), but that will change shortly.

WWF War Zone NA release: 11th August 1998 PAL release: 21st August 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 85% The first N64 Wrestling game with the WWF licence, containing classic wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Triple H and Star Trek: Voyager star “The Rock”. It also featured a decent create-a-wrestler mode (although, oddly, the female options need to be unlocked), and even an unlockable Turok. It was a good selection for fans of WWF at the time due to having big names, even if it lacked in terms of quantity. The game itself is decent, although quite dated. While there are different modes, the fighting itself doesn’t feel particularly different and the simpler moves work just as well the ones that are a faff to perform, so it’s easy to get into the habit of just doing the same thing over and over. I definitely believe that this was pretty significant when it came out, especially due to some of the wrestlers in the game and the fun create-a-wrestler, but all aspects have been improved upon in later games. Remake or remaster? Later games have done more. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get WWF War Zone

Bad editing from a rewrite, not sure where the last sentence was originally from.

Alice in Cardland 64 JP release: 7th August 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Bottom Up Publisher: Bottom Up Original Name: 64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World N64 Magazine Score: 21% The name “Alice in Cardland” is my attempt at a localised name for this game, the more literal translation is “64 Playng Collection: Alice’s Exciting Playing Card World”. The game is listed online as “64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World”, however “Trump” is essentially a Japanese slang term for playing card games (presumably based on “trump card”, used in some trick-taking games). Alice in Cardland is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland where Alice has to win a card game to progress. The first one is Old Maid (played with a joker instead of a queen). The problem with card games like this: you are literally drawing random cards from opponents. There’s no skill. You can protect a card three times in a round, but that’s only useful if you’re losing and the CPU can do the same to you. You have to have the highest store in three rounds, so you just have to keep trying until you randomly win. I decided to let Alice spend the rest of her life with the living furniture as you can just play the games separately. The regular card games consist of: Pairs, Old Maid, Sevens, Speed, Cheat/Doubt, Page One (a version of Uno using just playing cards), Daifugō (a Japanese card game where you have to get rid of your cards, a bit like a trick taking game) and Seven Bridge, although there are a few extra games as well. I was intrigued when I saw poker, but it’s just a very basic Video Poker. Blackjack is also played in the same interface – it all seems like it was taken from another game and thrown into this for more content. The same is also true of solitaire (Klondike and Freecell variants), which again seems like they’re from a completely different game. Rounding out all the games are a few “fortune telling” events and another Uno variant with slightly different rules. Alice in Cardland isn’t terribly made, it all works and has a cute style. It’s more the concept of the game that fails. In multiplayer, it’s far less cumbersome to play all these games with a £1 pack of cards. The only advantage is you can play against the computer, but these games are just dull without the conversation and banter – not to mention how you facial expressions and bluffing turn games like Old Maid into an actual game and not just picking random cards. Remake or remaster? A pack of playing cards is the only “remake” needed. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Alice in Cardland

Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls PAL release: 1st August 1998 NA release: 27th August 1998 JP release: 28th August 1998 Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 56% Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls is a very hideous game. It’s not that it’s low quality, there’s just something ugly about the entire design from it, from the design of the ball characters, the platforms of the world, the dirty-looking water and the blurry background. It’s all very unappealing, especially for a kind of game that would excel from a more adorable design. The game is a 2D platformer racing game taking place on circular platform. you use a grappling hook to bring yourself up platforms, or perform large swinging moves. Sadly, the controls feels far too stiff and imprecise for a game like this, and the CPU opponents often don’t have the same issues (although every now and than, they’re extremely incompetent), so quite often you need a perfect run to win. This is particularly evident in world 3 – which is too dark to see important details, such as metal portions of platforms (which you can’t jump or grapple through) – the CPU has zero problem with visibility here. The grapple can also be used to attack enemies and there are items you can collect – which also means these can be used against you, adding to the frustration. The concept of Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls is a sound one, even if the rest of it isn’t. N+ took a similar concept of multiplayer 2D platforming and made it incredibly fun, and this can sometimes be fun in multiplayer as everyone has similar control issues, but the whole game is just so unattractive from a design standpoint that it detracts even more. Remake or remaster? A new game with a similar concept would be good, but it needs to be designed from the ground up. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to buy Iggys’ Reckin’ Balls, but it available to rent via Nintendo Switch Online.

Pokémon Stadium Zero JP release: 1st August 1998 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Original name: Pocket Monsters Stadium N64 Magazine Score: 85% Pokémon Stadium Zero? No, that’s not the official name of the game, but I thought calling it that was the easiest way to differentiate from the Pokémon Stadium the rest of the world knows. The first Pokémon Stadium was exclusive to Japan, so when Pokémon Stadium 2 was localised, it became Pokémon Stadium. One thing I do need to point out is that emulation is limited. On top of trying to sort out a compatible Japanese save file, emulators currently can’t fully emulate the Transfer Pak – the game can get data from it, but the portion of Pokémon Stadium that lets you play the Game Boy game within the N64 game doesn’t work. This isn’t an issue for the later Pokémon Stadium games, but in Zero, you need to “Report” using an additional menu added by the emulator to fully access the game. However, without doing this, you can still access the Pokédex, which gives you all of the information and lets you view every single Pokémon in 3D (although, despite this, only 40 available in the battle mode). Other options lets you see lots of statistics on the Pokémon you have in the game, so it’s a great way of seeing your progress. One other nice touch is that you can view where you can find Pokémon on a nice 3D map of Kanto. If you’re struggling to see the locations properly, you can bring up an overlay with the Game Boy map. In the battle mode – which has free battle and tournament options, you get to choose your Pokémon (out of the 40 in the game) to battle. You can pick from compatible Pokémon in your current Game Boy party (I think you can select others after registering) or loan Pokémon from the game out of all the Pokémon available. The battling works exactly the same as the Game Boy, although at the start of each fight, you select three Pokémon from your party to take part in that fight. It would have been great seeing your Pokémon not just on the big screen, but in 3D for the first time. That said, this version of Pokémon Stadium is definitely more cumbersome and a bit more basic than what would later come, so I think the first experience of Pokémon Stadium outside of Japan was definitely better. Remake or remaster? A Pokémon Stadium that links to all the various Pokémon games playable on Switch would be a neat idea. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Pokémon Stadium Zero

Thanks to @Dcubed for letting me know this game exists, I can get them all in their right release months. Eleven Beat World Tournament JP release: July 1998 (Arcade) PAL release: N/A N/A release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Seta N64 Magazine Score: N/A In July 1998, the first arcade game on the Aleck 64 arcade cabinet. This cabinet was built by Seta using the Nintendo 64 as a basis – the only hardware difference is a bit of extra RAM. Technically, these games will boot up on a regular N64 (with a bit of soldering the ROM chip into a standard cartridge), but they won’t recognise a controller – a clever hacker, however, has alerted the games to run on N64 hardware, so I’ll be including these as these are official games running on N64-based hardware. There were 11 games made using the Aleck 64 arcade cabinet, with a few more planned (a few prototypes have cropped up, but not being made publicly available), with two games (such as Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth) being ported to the N64 itself. One of the first games was Eleven Beat World Tournament. This is an updated version of J.League Eleven Beat, featuring international teams. The gameplay is similar, but feels more refined, feeling smoother and more accurate. It’s a decent football game, if nothing special. You can either enter a tournament where you’ll play against a few (rather difficult) CPU opponents using a credit each time you lose, or play a friendly match with a friend. Quite simple options, but exactly what is needed for an arcade game. Remake or remaster? Nothing special for this. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Eleven Beat World Tournament

I made a roast using of a pack of 2.5kg potatoes (roasties and mash) and found I had none left over. I then realised that the pack had changed size to 2kg. Same price.