40 Winks is fascinating more for its cancellation than the game itself. I remember being really interested in it when reading about it in N64 Magazine, and I was excited when I read the review, even though it wasn’t an astounding one. Then the game never came. The PlayStation version came out first, and the initial sales were so low, that they cancelled production on the N64 version right before release.

As review copies were quite timely (I do wonder what happened to those cartridges), this led to something interesting about the box art for the PlayStation version. Instead of choosing a quote from a review of the PlayStation version, it had a quote from a preview of the N64 version: “Move Over Mario…” from Nintendo Official Magazine. Very clever (but obviously didn’t help).

40 Winks is a 3D platformer that, unlike quite a few on the N64, gets the basics right. Movement and jumping feel good, and the camera allows for a good degree of movement, while also doing a good job at showing where you’re going. It’s a very solid starting point, but unfortunately 40 Winks doesn’t do a lot with it, keeping things very simple throughout the game. That said, it does have a lot of charm.

You play as either Ruff or Tumble, as you have to save the dreamworld from the HoodWinks, who have captured all forty of the Winks and made Dreamland unsafe. You’ll need to get through the six worlds, each with its own hub and three levels, in order to make dreaming safe for everyone.

This is achieved through three main collectables. The 40 Winks are the main ones, but are generally on the route along the linear levels. Along the way, you’ll need to collect cogs to unlock doors, which are the main way of progressing through the levels. The hardest things to find are the Dreamkeys, with four hidden in each levels. These unlock the boss fight, which you need to beat to get to the next area.

The levels have some generic themes, but they’re also charming at the same time: spooky, underwater, alien, prehistoric, castle, and pirates. The levels are fairly straightforward, but keep things constrained, so platforming segments and enemies are all close together – no long walks across empty areas. So while the game is simple, it also isn’t frustrating, and is enjoyable the whole way through, there’s just nothing groundbreaking.

You have a few attacks at your disposal. There’s a basic punch, a roll attack, a ground pound, and a “scream” attack which sends some light slightly forward. This special scream attack uses ammo but is absolutely useless, which is surprising considering the game makes a big deal (and its own type of collectable ) about it.

Throughout the game you’ll find jack-in-the-boxes that give you time-limited costumes, such as a ninja, superhero, fairy, and caveman. These provide additional powers, and have switches with their icons on them. Quickly navigating levels to get to a switch or obstacle before your costume runs out is the main type of “puzzle” throughout the game.

The N64 version did have a few exclusive features. The biggest one being 2-player co-op, which lets you play the full main game with another person (which makes a lot of sense for a game about a brother and sister – the one you don’t pick just doesn’t appear in singleplayer). It works really well, but has the downside of massive black bars.

Another feature is anamorphic widescreen, although this is strangely only toggled via a cheat code. It works really well, and gives you a bit more of a view in co-op. The N64 version also supports the Expansion Pak for higher resolution and better lighting effects. It does lack a few small things, such as the opening FMV replaced with an in-game cinematic.

40 Winks isn’t really anything special outside of its cancellation, but it’s still a simple but enjoyable platformer, and doesn’t have major issues like a lot of platformers had at the time.

Fun

40 Winks is more than competent – in fact it’s towards the upper end of the 3D platform game evolutionary scale, in which Gex represents a Cro-Magon knuckle-dragger, Banjo is a 20th century man (Forrest Gump), and Mario is a kind of telepathic superbeing from the distant future. It’s alright, but in that kind of company you might be better off sticking with what you know.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #35. Review Score: 71%

Remake or remaster?

A proper re-release based on the N64 version with the FMV from the PlayStation version would be nice, with widescreen as an actual option.

Official ways to get the game.

The N64 version is available with the purchase of an Everdrive from Stone Age Gamer. The game is also available on Steam, except that it’s just the PS1 version in a badly configured emulator, one that doesn’t have memory cards set up so you need to use save states. But that’s what you get from games being held hostage by Piko.